Kuki Shinobu knew that ninjas were supposed to be good at escaping, and she cursed herself for not practicing that more. More importantly, ninjas were supposed to be good at remaining undetected, and that was where she had made her mistake.

She’d been given a simple task by Kujou Sara to compensate for the damages caused by the Arataki Gang in a freak firework incident: investigate Jinren Island and report any suspicious activity or misdoings. Considering the incident’s severity, the offer was frankly generous, and Kuki saw little choice but to accept it.

The island, just off the northmost coast of Inazuma, happened to be home to a group of Nobushi: the vagrant samurai who often resorted to banditry or other illegal activities. In the dead of night, she’d taken a small rowboat to the island, carefully and quietly landing after paddling the short distance to it.

It didn’t take long for Kuki to understand why Sara had wanted her to investigate this, when the sound of a high-pitched scream was quickly and suddenly cut-off. Hiding behind trees and shrubs, she inched closer to their campfire, which lit up the site well enough that Kuki could clearly see a pair of women being manhandled by the men. Ropes were lashed around their arms and ankles, and in the case of one of them, the Nobushi who held the woman in his lap just finished tying a cloth off over her lips.

This was a new low for the Nobushi. Kidnapping women for… what? Turning a profit by selling them, or keeping them around for their own sick pleasure. Eyes narrowed on the vagrants, she was almost ready to step in and deal with them herself–

The sheen of a sword from behind Kuki alerted her of the danger. She turned her body immediately in response – and found her neck at the other end of a very sharp blade, inches away from connecting. She didn’t panic nor scream, instead just taking the time to think through the situation rationally. Her hands were by her sides, and when the man pushed his blade at her all the closer, they instinctively rose to the air to give him reason to stop. That was much too far away from the dagger at her hips, and even if she was somehow quicker than him, it was far likelier that his sword would incapacitate her before her smaller blade had a chance to do the same.

“Keep those hands up, turn around, and walk. Into the camp.” His instruction was clear, and Kuki only had a few seconds to consider it before he would surely force her to make a decision. Even in the disadvantageous position against this man, it was surely better odds than trying to take on the four or five in that camp. But the risk of fighting was quite high – and Kuki knew she had an out. Sara would know that something had gone wrong when the ninja didn’t return in the morning with a report, and would likely mobilize a small force to rescue her.

It would be a needless risk to try and fight… but she had a feeling she was in for a very uncomfortable night. Obeying the man’s commands, she stepped out of the bushes and began walking towards the Nobushi’s encampment. The man followed closely behind her, with his blade pointed at the back of her neck. Eyes darted to her one at a time as her footsteps became audible to the others, and smiles formed on their faces once they realized the nature of this “visit”.

“A stray? Surrendering herself to us?”

“Look – she’s even got a Vision..!”

She didn’t respond to any of their comments, given that it wouldn’t help her situation in the slightest. The men rose regardless, swords drawn and pointed at her to ensure that she didn’t try anything. When it was clear that she really wasn’t going to try anything, the blades were dropped and replaced with their bare hands, grabbing the ninja’s arms and taking away her weapons to truly subdue her.

Her Vision was plucked off her shoulder, and the Nobushi who took it held it up into the air and squinted at it. It glowed softly, reacting to something, and the vagrant chuckled.

“That’s the real deal, alright. But what’s someone like you doing around here?”

She wasn’t planning on responding, but the man who discovered her did it for her.

“The lass was stalking around our camp – I doubt she intended on fighting us.” He held up her dagger next to one of their swords for effect. “But she obviously didn’t come out all this way for no reason…”

Looking up and down Kuki, her outfit certainly gave the impression of a ninja. That was a good enough excuse to check her out – and if she was going to wear shorts that tight and a top that’d look downright lecherous without her jacket, then she was basically asking for it, wasn’t she?

Kuki Shinobu’s eyes widened when she felt a hand clamp down on her ass, squeezing it roughly through her shorts. Her body squirmed slightly in response, resulting in the men tightening their grips on her a little harder, before she finally spoke to them.

“Hands off.” The way she phrased it as a demand only elicited laughter in response from the Nobushi. One of them leaned in, popping off her mask to fully reveal her face before gripping her cheeks and pulling her up to his eye-level.

“I think we should be very hands-on with a ninja like you. You’re obviously not a helpless damsel-in-distress like the other two. Make sure it’s tight.”

The man tossed a rope to his allies, and Kuki let out a quiet moan of discomfort as her arms were wrenched behind her back – wrists pinned together before the coil was woven around them. She shifted her arms as they were being tied, hoping to create a little bit of leverage for herself by subtly separating them no more than an inch.

Clearly, these vagrants had practice the art of shibari – not giving her any wiggle room by pressing down on her arms while the ropes were tied. They ensured the knot was pulled up to the top of the rope’s column, keeping it well out of reach of her slippery fingers. With one of the men leaning down to bind her ankles as well, that was the extent to which Kuki Shinobu expected to be bound. It was all they’d done to the other women, after all.

She paused when another rope came around her elbows. That… that kind of rope would be tricky to remove, even if she still had her knife or Vision. Then it simply felt excessive when they began weaving strands around her chest for a harness.

“Boss…” One of the men began talking to the seemingly leader of the group, speaking in a hushed enough tone that the average person panicking about their kidnapping wouldn’t hear. “T-The other targets… we knew they wouldn’t have anyone looking for them for a while, but her…”

He nodded in response. “Can’t assume anything about her. But she’s well worth the risk – even if she didn’t come with a Vision. We’ll get the ship ready and look to move out an hour before dawn.”

Kuki Shinobu’s heart skipped a beat for the first time in the night. She’d felt some kind of control – no, security in the fact that even if she got tied up, it wouldn’t be long before she got rescued.

The threat of being moved to another location was enough for her to start struggling now. Her odds had been better before, and while she cursed herself for having not considered this possibility, it would still be better to fight back now instead of when she was stashed away on the vagrants’ ship.

“Eaaasy there, lass.” One of the men wrapped his arms around her as Kuki shook her shoulders back and forth in defiance. “Or are you just that excited to get to know us better?”

“Get off of me, you–asmmpf!” Given that she was trying to look over her shoulder at the bastard with the audacity to hold her like this, Kuki didn’t notice the man with a wadded up cloth in his hands. With half of it shoved into her open mouth – it was impossible to keep the rest out, even as she tried to push it back with her tongue, bite down on it, or even just close her lips. Bit by bit it was shoved in – the thick wad bulging slightly out of her lips, and the man readied another white cloth to secure it.

This one was brought over the entire lower half of her face: large enough to cover her lips, nose, and chin as it was pulled back and knotted behind her hair. The grunts and moans she let out in discomfort were already far quieter than they were before…

And just for the finishing touch, the man slid Kuki’s mask back over it all. Only a hint of the cloth covering her face could be seen along the edges of the mask – though her silenced sounds were indication enough of the gag.

Pulling her up, the man had to practically drag Kuki over to the campsite. Kicking with her bound feet was much less effective than she’d hoped it’d be – barely causing the man to even stumble while he strengthened his grip on her in response. Just as he was about to take a seat with her in his lap…

“No having fun with that one.” The boss of the group immediately clamped down on his efforts, just before he could even get a measly grope in. “You get too distracted by a shinobi’s good looks, and you don’t watch her effectively. Next thing you know she’s untied, on top of you, and choking you out.”

The man gave a simple expression of disbelief in response – pointing to her tightly tied bindings that she was still struggling to make a dent in.

“You can have her for a night, or a lifetime. Which do you prefer?” The man’s hesitation to respond was enough of an answer. “Throw her into the cage.”

With one last sigh, the man was defeated – and Kuki wasn’t happy about the outcome, either. One night of humiliation was well worth the chance to escape. Glancing towards that cage mentioned, she saw its sturdy wooden bars, long enough that she could stand in it, accompanied by a metal lock. Even if she was flexible enough to have a shot at wiggling out of these ropes – no amount of flexibility could get her out of that..!

She struggled and squirmed in the man’s grip as he – reluctantly – brought her over to the cage. The vagrant stopped before pushing her into the cage – causing Kuki to look over her shoulder.

“If I can’t have you now…” He began in a hushed whisper “...then I might as well make sure you’re ready.”

Even if she could ask him, she hardly wanted to, but her eyes still darted down to see what he was fishing out of his pocket. It was… a small, pear-shaped thing with a… knob on its end..? It was wooden, but also shined softly against the little light on the island. What even–

She immediately thrashed her body and screamed into her gag when the man invaded the backside of her shorts with it in hand. He wrapped his left arm around her chest, while his right hand ran against her ass until it found the small opening it was looking for. Pressing the tip of the plug up, his left arm squeezed her body hard for leverage, before he gave one, nice, hard shove.

No one else even noticed – the muffled screams of the shinobi not being any cause for concern for them. Kuki took a few breaths, her instinctive squirms suddenly far more uncomfortable as t-that thing pressed up inside of her in response to her movements.I-It’d thankfully been polished a-and even lubricated, b-but…

The woman was pushed inside of the cage, and the door to it was slammed shut behind her. There was little she could do but watch as the latch was locked, beyond awkwardly stepping in place – wincing with every little movement as her backside burned from the added pressure.

Confined to such a small space, her chances of escaping felt slim. Her only hope was that someone came to rescue her – and soon. Just as she thought she’d finally get a chance to at least try working on these knots…

A pair of hands reached through the openings of the cage – grabbing her by her chest and pulling her as close to him as the cage would allow. She tried to pull forward – but his grip only tightened, and no doubt served as a perfect excuse for his hands to dig in deeper as they squeezed her chest relentlessly.

“Cage makes this such a tease, but I’ve got plenty of time to get to know you better. I’ll even be taking first watch.”



She let out a soft whimper, shutting her eyes for a moment – before looking out of her cage and out to the open ocean.

S-Someone would come to save her. Sara… the Commission… e-even the one thing the Arataki Gang was good at was starting fights! One of them had to arrive in time…

…Right?