Chapter 8

Trapped like a Rat

Naoko looked out of the hotel room window with nervous eyes.

'Where could Haru be?!' thought Naoko pacing the room madly.

'She should have been back hours ago!' thought Naoko looking at the clock, which read three o'clock a.m.

The last time Naoko saw her daughter, she was moping around on her bed, refusing to leave the room. But when Naoko came back from the convention, Haru was gone. Naoko assumed that Haru finally decided to do some more sightseeing and left for a time, but hours and hours passed and Haru still never came back.

Naoko sighed in fear, and hurried to the phone sitting on the night stand.

She picked up the phone and dialed in three digits. (A/N: 999?)

She paced as she held the phone to her ear.

"Hello? Yes! I need help! My daughter is missing! Please help!"

Haru groaned as she lifted herself from a cold surface she was laying on.

Her brown eyes opened and scanned her surroundings.

She found herself in a metal cage, with a watering tube on one side, the kind used for pet rodents. She was sitting on the cold surface of metal and a small woolen blanket to her side. The cage was not very clean. For one thing, it smelled like a rat and was covered in dust.

Haru looked beyond the cage bars to her surroundings.

Just like the cage she was in, the whole place was filthy and dusty.

It was very dark. The only light that lit up the room was the moonlight that came from a nearby window.

Haru's eyes trailed to a table in the room, that had a box that was half open, which contained piles of rocks.

Then Haru looked to the corner of the room and saw a small chair facing the corner of the wall.

Haru's eyes widened.

'This is my old house and everything is huge!' Haru finally noticed.

Quickly Haru put her hands to her face and felt a furry face and a pointed nose.

Still not believing what she felt, she ran her hands on the top of her head, only to feel her long brown hair and two big ears.

Haru brought her hands down and saw her hands also, were covered in brown fur and she knew for certain, that she had a tail trailing behind her.

Haru's round ears drooped slightly in sadness.

"So it wasn't a dream..." Haru said aloud, bringing her hands down in defeat.

'Was I turned into a mouse because I saved those three mice the other day? If that's so, then why is this 'Ratigan' involved?' thought Haru.

Haru thought back some more, on what happened to her before she blacked out.

'That Ratigan punk, acted like he knew me, but I don't know him! Unless...I did...once...but if that's so then-'

"UGHHH!" Haru groaned out loud.

'All these theories and questions only bring MORE questions and theories into my head...' Haru screamed in her head, in frustration.

Haru inhaled a deep sigh, to relax herself.

'I'm sorry mom...' Haru thought, thinking of her mother freaking out of her disappearance.

'Oh...what am I going to do?' Haru thought helplessly.

Haru sat on the cold cage floor in silence.

"So, you're awake..."

Haru turned abruptly to the unknown voice, to see a dark colored mouse scowling at her.

"Who are you?!" Haru said backing away further into the cage.

The dark colored mouse, sighed.

"That's not important right now, anyway, come. Ratigan wishes to speak with you." he said opening the cage door.

This only caused Haru to back further away.

This caused the mouse to growl slightly, and marched his way into the cage, towards Haru.

"Eeek!" Haru squealed, with her brown fur standing on end.

The mouse roughly grabbed Haru's arm and dragged her out of the cage.

"Let me go!" Haru yelled.

The dark mouse said nothing and continued to drag Haru out of the cage.

Once Haru and the mouse were out of the cage and on the brown dresser, Haru had a quick thought.

'Wait a minute... why am I not trying to run away? I mean, the only one holding me back is this guy. I could make a run for it, then escape-'

As if reading Haru's thoughts, the mouse began gripping her arm tighter and said,

"Just so you know...running away is futile...as you can see..."

Haru looked at him questioningly and looked in the same direction he was looking.

Haru saw that he was looking below them, at the bottom of the dresser.

Hesitantly, Haru peeked from where she was standing, and looked at the floor.

Right away, Haru knew she couldn't escape.

Below them, there was what seemed like thousands of mice, scattered all over the place.

It was like a city of mice!

Haru sighed in defeat, knowing she was not going anywhere.

Then, realization struck through Haru.

'This must be why the whole neighborhood is in ruins! The mice must have infested the whole block and claimed it as their own! Nasty things!' thought Haru in disgust.

The dark colored mouse, tugged on Haru, urging her to continue walking.

"Let's go. Ratigan wishes to speak with you..."

Haru gulped.

'I don't like the way that sounds...'

Haru and the mouse walked through the crowded house of mice and Haru didn't even dare to try to run away, she just kept following the mouse that was leading her.

Haru felt the eyes of other mice around them, on her.

Feeling extremely insecure, she let her head hang low and walked a little closer to the dark mouse.

Finally, Haru realized why they were all staring at her.

"Is that the human girl?"

"Not human anymore..."

"You know...she's kind of cute..."

"Yeah, besides the fact she was once human."

"I wonder why Ratigan turned her into a mouse..."

"Who knows, but we'll find out soon enough."

Haru frowned at the mice's comments.

Suddenly, the mouse that was leading the way came to a stop, which made Haru slam into his back. He didn't flinch when she did, he just stared up ahead.

"We're here" he said.

Haru found herself face to face with a wooden door.

Haru gulped, guessing who was waiting behind the door.

The dark mouse raised his furry hand to the door and knocked.

"Enter…" said someone behind the door.

Haru got shivers down her spine as the dark mouse opened the door, revealing Ratigan sitting at a desk.

"Ah, Clive… Thanks for bringing Haru, now you may leave."

The dark mouse nodded and looked over slightly at Haru, before leaving without another word.

As soon as Clive left, Ratigan stood up, making Haru flinch.

"So...you really don't remember me..." he said avoiding Haru's eyes and looking at a book on his desk.

Haru didn't answer.

Ratigan sighed and looked over to a bookshelf.

"So...you know of the Cat Eye of Miw...am I correct?" he said calmly.

Haru nodded, not trusting her voice.

"If that's so...then you know the power it possesses?" he asked with his back still to her.

Haru shook her head.

Ratigan turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

"Why Haru, I would expect you to know all about the Cat Eye."

"B-b-but I don't..." Haru said quietly.

Haru was very intimidated by this rat. For one thing, he's huge and towering over her, and another, is he is very dangerous according to all the information Baron had told her.

Ratigan smirked.

"Oh? Are you sure? Does this, ring a bell?"

Ratigan pulled something out from his dark cloak and held it up so Haru could see.

Haru looked at the turquoise object and realization hit.

'That's the shining stone he had when I turned into a mouse. But what does this have to do with anything?' thought Haru.

The turquoise stone glittered unnaturally in the light, and Haru was almost overwhelmed of its beauty.

Haru's eyes widen suddenly.

Looking at the stone closely, she could see its details; its shape, its color, and it's certain similarities to a picture she always sees in a journal of hers.

"The Amazonite of the Pássaro..." Haru breathed out unbelieving.

Ratigan smirked down at her.

"So you do know..."

Haru looked up abruptly at Ratigan.

"How...did you get this?" Haru asked slowly.

"I had to slit a ton of throats, but in the end...it wasn't at all hard to get" Ratigan said proudly.

Haru looked up in horror at Ratigan.

"B-b-but why?"

"Because I want my wishes to come true, love..." Ratigan said simply.

"W-w-what do you want?" Haru shuddered, afraid of his response and of the fact he called her 'love'.

"What every other evil genius wants... to take over the world!" he shrugged smiling.

Haru backed away from him, eyes wide with horror.

"Last time I tried to take over, I only wanted to rule the mouse empire. But ever since I found out about these stones, I figured...why not take over the whole world, while I'm at it."

Haru continued to stare at Ratigan, speechless. He continued on.

"You and I both know it's not impossible, after all... I did just turn you into a mouse using the power of the Amazonite, and now...it's a useless ordinary stone."

Ratigan let the turquoise stone fall from his hands, and land with a small thud onto the floor.

Haru looked down at the stone, which landed near her feet. When he let the stone fall, Haru saw her whole childhood falling down with it, as it landed with a thud.

Ratigan spoke some more.

"It's amazing how simple it is to use it. Just one wish, and the stone grants it, but sadly, since the stone has only enough power to grant one wish, it's now another ordinary rock. It can't grant anymore wishes after that, not for me, not from anyone else. That's why I want the Cat Eye of Miw, it still possesses power to grant another wish for me, because it's never been used. Those pussy cats have no clue how to use it. When most people look at it and they have no idea of the power it has. What fools..."

Finally Haru spoke.

"BUT WHY?! Why did you use one of your wishes to turn me into a mouse?!" Haru yelled.

Ratigan smirked.

"Once I have taken over the world, I want you at my side. And why I turned you into a mouse...it would be pretty awkward for me to have a five feet four tall human wife, so I turned you into a mouse..."

"But you're not even a mouse! You're a rat!" Haru yelled.

Ratigan twitched noticeably and unmistakable anger filled Ratigan's eyes.

"DON'T EVER CALL ME THAT AGAIN-!" Ratigan stopped in midsentence, noticing Haru's fear and sighed.

"That's unimportant...anyway, once I have The Cat Eye of Miw from the Cat Kingdom, you and I will become immortals and we will live on, and I rule earth, forever!"

"No! Lune and Yuki will never give you The Cat Eye of Miw! They won't allow it to fall into the evil dirty hands like yours!" Haru defended.

Ratigan raised an eyebrow at her, but before he could say anything, there was a knock on the door.

Ratigan sighed and picked up the stone he had just dropped a while ago.

"We will finish our conversation later..." he said reaching to grab Haru's hand.

Haru flinched as Ratigan grabbed her hand and placed the stone in Haru's trembling hand.

"Keep it. After all, it's useless now, and you probably would want it. It is one of the stones from your father's journal..." He said walking past her and towards the door.

Haru turned in shock at Ratigan, as he opened the door.

At the door was the dark mouse from earlier, which Haru had since discovered his name was Clive.

"Clive, take Haru to get something to eat, it's been a long night for her." said Ratigan.

Clive nodded and gestured for Haru.

Haru obediently walked towards Clive and they both walked away from Ratigan.

Haru was in the state of complete shock.

'He wants to marry me! Oh great! Not another crazy old guy wishing to marry me! Oh I wish Baron was here…' thought Haru, missing the gentlemen cat figurine terribly.

Many of her questions were answered and many more question clouded her mind. But one question continued ringing through her mind and that was the one Haru wanted the most answered.

'How does he know about father's journal...?'