Torture Eight – Sakura
"Where in the world did THIS one come from?" asked a guard as they looked down at the shivering racer.
"Hmmm, Minty Sakura. She's been here since we were plugged in…." said the other, looking at the stat sheets "But for the life of me, I can't recall ever seeing her anywhere before…"
A nervous smile crept on the girl's face, holding out her chained hand "D-Does that mean I can get outta this? I-I mean, if ya never saw me around then-!"
"Pipe down, Sack-Ra!" another guards said, forcing Sakura back into her seat "The Princess seems to recall you very well!"
"Th-then how come you guys don't?"
"Maybe ya just didn't stand out well enough in the crowds…." Shrugged the first "Or maybe your racin' is just that bad."
Sakura's eyes widened as the insult bore into her; her racing was so poor THAT was the reason that citizens and gamers alike never noticed her?
Could it have been true? Was that really it?
The other racers could spot her, the other racers knew her name, knew her likes….
But no one else did.
Such a fate for a showy racer like herself.
"Okay, I'm getting bored just watching this kid stew around. Let's start the FUN!"
The small girl gulped back, knowing that a cornucopia of torture was headed her way though she didn't know what exactly WHAT was in store.
All she knew was it was going to be PAINFUL.
"Get the cage ready!"
The cage?
Sakura looked along the wall, seeing various face cages hanging about. King Candy must have made them; what other reason would there be for them to be there? It wasn't as if Sugar Rush was programmed with such devices originally. In all his madness and paranoia to ensure that the game stayed in his hands, Candy MUST have constructed these things behind the other's backs.
And now Vanellope was putting them to good use on her 'fellow' racers.
"This one looks good…" said the cookie guard, lifting up a rather large silver cage and putting it next to Sakura's head.
Too big.
"Nah, her entire body can fit into that one!"
"What about this one?"
A copper, RUSTY cage, spikes jutting out from all directions.
"Nope, too small. I think this is more suited for one of those fans or something."
Well, THAT was a lucky break!
"Wait, wait, wait…." Said the guard "I think I have the PERFECT one!"
Sakura shrank back into the arms of her captures as she was terrified too look at what was chosen for her.
But then she saw it.
A simple white porcelain mask?
The girl looked at it more diligently. It looked familiar, as if she had seen something similar before.
The way that the cheeks were painted, the way the eyes were molded.
It was like….a kabuki mask?
"Oh, YEAH RIGHT." The girl thought to herself "Of COURSE they would pick that. Jerks."
"Heat it up!"
The little racer felt as if something within her snapped in two.
Heat the mask?
As in the mask that they would soon place on her FACE?
It became all too clear where this was going….and Sakura didn't like it.
A pot of molten hot caramel sat in the corner of the cell, its contents smoking and bubbling over. The small bits that landed on the ground sizzled so loudly that the racer could feel her hair curling at the ends, the white-hot drops of goo burning a few holes into the ground.
And soon, that heat would be placed on her face.
"NO!" the girl cried but she was still held in the clutches of the guards "I'll do ANYTHING! Just don't put that…that THING on my face!"
"But Sakura…." Came a voice "It's so BEAUTIFUL. Just like you…."
The racer blanched as she looked about, her mind focused on both keeping her face away from the piping hot mask but also to discover where the taunting voice was coming from.
"Please, there has to be something else we can do! Something else that doesn't involve me becoming faceless!"
"Well, it's as you have often said yourself….you seem to become faceless in the crowd, Sakura."
"I NEVER SAID THAT!"
"Always disappearing and reappearing. Though I must say, your face was quite easy to pick out when you were wrecking my kart!"
The girl turned red, a bit of anger flushing through her "You're the freakin' princess here!"
"Thank you for remindin' me…."
"But you treat me no better than a pallet swap now?!" the racer continued to roar, her legs kicking as she was being held "Y-You know something PRINCESS! Even if TURBO was a monster, he at least had the MEMORY to remember us and WITHOUT some stupid memories to do so!"
Silence befell the room, the large guards looking in shock at the words that came from Sakura's mouth. She panted, hoping that the invisible princess could hear each and every word.
"Yeaaaah…." She hissed, her eyes narrowing "You heard me. You heard me REAL good didn't you?"
Again, there was no reply. Sakura knew she had hit a very sore spot with Vanellope and being in the position she was in, she no longer cared HOW the monarch felt.
If she was so big and bad to dish out punishments, then she was big and bad enough to take what Sakura had to say.
"Admit it, Vanellope. There ARE some things Turbo was BETTER at during his rule, WASN'T there? I mean, he was GOOD enough to keep YOU off the tracks for fifteen years, RIGHT? RIGHT?"
Sakura could not believe what she was saying, her mind too full of rage to be held back. In one part of her mind, she didn't want to say such things to Vanellope, especially when she remembered how terrible she had treated her before but now that the ruler had shown her true colors, all candy-coating was off. She hated Turbo with a passion but seeing that the two were near spitting images of each other now?
"Dare I even say that King Candy was a better RULER, even in his insanity?" Sakura continued "Yes, he USURPED your butt of your throne but with what you're doing? You're playing out like the spoiled little pile of rotten bean paste that you are! Admit it Vanellope! The only reason you're doing this? Because ya wanna feel as BIG and as POWERFUL as that last loser that ruled us! But guess what?"
Sakura took a finger and arrogantly wiped her nose.
"YOU'RE the poor imitation of him. YOU'RE the one who's scared of fading into the crowd! What other reason would there be for you to do all this? Because you're SCARED. You're SCARED that one of these days….it's all gonna come back an' BITE CHA and you'll be buried again."
From whatever room she was locked up in, Vanellope sat in silence, a smile on her face but an eye twitching nonetheless. She grabbed tightly onto the microphone, a growl rumbling her voice.
"Toss out the mask…."
Sakura blinked "W-What?"
"PUT IN THE FULL BODY SUIT."
"Oh….CRUMBS."
From out of the storage room came a large body cast, constructed of the same material as the mask and just like the mask before it, it too was dipped into the molten hot caramel, its white surface turning red hot.
"MAKE SURE IT'S NICE AND HOT!" Vanellope laughed "Perfect for a hot tempered young lass like her!"
Sakura began to kick and wail as she brought forth to the monstrosity, the guards carefully laying the contraption out but making sure that THEY were alright in the process. Tears were streaming down the racer's face as she was inched closer and closer to it, her arms spread out and her legs straightened.
"There has to be another way!" she wailed, her face red but starting to blister due to the heat "You can't do this to us! You can't-!"
And then….
It closed.
Sakura's words were shut tight from within as her screams were muffled, the searing pain from the hot cast burning into her skin. Her brain went into overdrive as she attempted to escape but she was locked tight within.
"OHGOBSNOPLEASEMAKEITSTOPNONONONONOPLEASEITBURNSSTOPITSTOPITPLEASE!"
The voices of laughter could still be heard from outside the cast, the crowd enjoying hearing Sakura scream as she cooked from within her cast.
"She blends into a crowd!"
"I'm sure by the time this is over, she'll blend in quite well with that thing, or what's left of her!"
Sakura was still burning in pain as her mind went into a mad frenzy. Everything that had been said seemed to be lost to her and she was now trying with all her might to think of something else to distract herself from being burned but how could she when it was just so terribly painful?
Images of everything she had seen for the fifteen years she had been alive ran through her mind, everything becoming a blur but it was starting to mix and meld with the insults that had been thrown at her.
How she blended into a crowd, how she looked like everyone else?
People, items, things, stuff.
She could be anything to them and they would never know!
"OHGOBSITBURNSBUTISHOULDNTWORRYAHAHAHAHAHAISHOULDNTWORRYNOTEVERYTHINGBURNSHAHAHAHHANOTEVERYTHINGBURNSHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAH!"
The girl had gone fully into madness, her eyes wide but in the midst of the frying and smoking, she could feel it.
Something else.
"HAHHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHA!"
Something strange.
It felt like a tickle, it felt like a pop. Whatever it was, it was making her laugh more, her mind somehow humored by what was happening to her.
"AHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!" she laughed, her mouth wide but muffled from the mask "AHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I AM ANYTHING! I CAN BE ANYTHING!"
A great pressure began to well within Sakura's chest but she just kept laughing, even when it felt she was running out of breath to talk. The others joined in with the cackling, not even aware of what was truly going on. Sakura's laughter began to get deeper but also more desperate, her mind slowly coming to as she realized that something wasn't off, even in the midst of being burned alive.
"Ahahah..ahahaha….W-WHAT IS GOING ON?!"
Heavy twitches began at her hands and feet, the girl choking a bit. She was no longer worried about the heat because she could no longer FEEL it but whatever had befallen her now felt much more concerning. She gasped again, letting out an agonizing cry.
"AAAURGH!"
"Keep cookin' good lookin'!" someone jeered from afar, making Sakura ANGRY this time.
"UUURGH! SH-SHUT UP!" she called back "W-why do you even CARE?! Y-You never noticed me before! I-I could have been-!"
The girl bit her lip hard, her body twitching horribly as the madness continue to well within her.
"I C-C-C-COULD HAV-HAV-HAVE BEEN A GIANT ROCK FOR ALL YOU CA-!"
The girl stopped in her words, feeling as if something POPPED from in her chest. She felt breathless but even with the unknown happening to her, THESE were the words that somehow came out.
"PON!"
There was a large POOF and a great BOOM as suddenly and strangely, A GIANT ROCK BUSTED through the cast, breaking it into pieces as the others in the rooms ducked.
A ROCK?
Just like Sakura had said.
A few guards looked up, bewildered at what they were looking at. One approached the large piece of stone and poked it with his stick.
"Um, there was a kid here, ri-?"
*PON!*
In another puff a smoke, Sakura appeared on the ground, trembling and burnt but somehow back to her normal self. She clutched her hands to her chest, her words lost to her.
"H-how did she-?"
How did she INDEED.
It was only moment ago the girl was ROASTING inside of a cast but without any sort of warning, she had become a ROCK? The girl looked down at her hands, her palms giving off a strange light.
"W-what is this?!"
"Hey!"
The girl gasped as she looked up, noticing the angered looks the guards were giving her. One reached down and picked her up roughly.
"Just because ya pulled some trick outta your sleeve doesn't mean ya can get one over on us!"
Sakura looked in fear into the eyes of the giant cookie guard, shaking and quaking in his holds.
"But I-!"
*PON!*
More smoke!
And with that, Sakura became…a COOKIE GUARD?
"WHOA!" one cried out, standing in disbelief "H-How did she do-?!"
*PON!*
In an instant, Sakura became Princess Vanellope!
"Y-Your majesty?!"
*PON!*
A pot!
*PON!*
Her own kart!
*PON!*
*PON!*
*PON!*
Much to Sakura's own shock, it seemed that for every thought that came to her head, she suddenly BECAME it! The guards all backed away, suddenly scared as they watched the girl flash and transform before them but suddenly, she stopped.
Laying on her back, the girl looked up at the ceiling, not sure herself what to make of her sudden new ability.
"Pon?" Sakura meeped to herself.
*PON!*
Again, she became a cookie guard.
And then it all became clear.
All the jokes about how she could be ANYONE, that she could fade into a crowd.
She now possessed such great powers.
A smile formed on her face as the realization came to her.
And with that realization….
A grin.
An evil grin.
What's the BEST way to make cookie guards crumble?
By bringing in something BIG and STRONG to break them.
Sakura hopped to her feet, her arms out and her teeth flashing.
"PON!"
*PON!*
The guards cried out in shock as they all looked up, the small girl now replaced by a Sakura-themed….
ELEPHANT?
"Yeah, this is gonna hurt isn't it?"
Sakura brought a foot down, reducing a cookie guard into crumbs in an instant but she wasn't done there! She blew a loud trumpet as she then swung her trunk, obliterating another set of guards but she didn't stop!
This was all too much fun!
Outside the cell, the only thing that could be heard were screams and the loud crunching of cookies, followed by the oddly placed sounds of VARIOUS animals and objects.
Whatever Sakura was doing, she was making sure her tormentors were finished off WELL.
And then….
It stopped.
The pitter-patter of tiny footsteps approached the door but it opened on its own, the only thing within it being a key. But where was the owner of said key?
*PON!*
Pink and green smoke blasted forth but as it cleared, the key was gone.
But there was Sakura, alive and well.
Her kimono was in terrible condition and her hair was a mess but she didn't seem to care. In her hands was the mask, the mask that was used to bring forth such pain to her. She looked at the thing, a smile on her face.
"It is quite beautiful…." She said "It would be a shame if this thing were to go to waste."
Using a hanging strap from her clothing, Sakura fixed a rope around the mask and placed it upon her face.
"I'm sure Vanellope won't know who I am with this…." The girl hummed "But that's okay. I have too many faces now to remember!"