Practice went well for Sakura, because by the next day, she was able to show Elainu how quickly she could get out of the handcuffs.  She'd even learned to make it look like she was having a hard time getting free.

"Very good," came the voice of Joushin.  He had just then came up on the stage.  "I see you can't resist the temptation to tempt fate."

"Hoe?"  Sakura said, looking at him funny.

"The water escape," he added, "most people who become my assistant cant resist at least trying on the handcuffs.  How does all this make you feel, Sakura-san?"

Sakura thought about it a few seconds.  How did she feel about all this?  She knew that it didn't seem like it would be very hard to do the trick.   The only thing that she wasn't sure about was…

"Um," she said, "is it hard to be upside down under water?"  Joushin smiled quickly, and then motioned to her and Elainu to come to him.

"Actually," he said, "sit down."  He motioned for them to sit on the floor as he seated himself on a crate.  "The trick to that is to ignore what you see in through the glass.  That does kind of throw you.  But if you can do that, it's just like being right side up.  Except, of course, that you're restrained and can't move."

Sakura looked up at him, then at the tank.  It looked kind of foreboding, filled with water, but strangely calm looking as well.  It couldn't be that bad, I'd think, she thought.

"Is," she started, nervous about what she was about to ask, "Is there a way I could try it, without being locked in?"

"Of course, silly," Elainu chided, "that's how you do it the first time.  You have to learn the trick in pieces."

"Yes," Joushin continued, "first you learn the cuffs, they are more important than anything.  Then you learn the stocks.  Come and see them."  He got up and went to where the foot stocks rested on the ground and got down on his knees.  Sakura and Elainu followed.  The stocks were a simple device with two holes for a person's feet.

"Your feet do inside these," Joushin began, "it's made in two halves.  One slides away from the other, like this."  He pulled one half away from the other.  Each half had half of a hole for someone's feet to go into, and each half was connected to the other by six metal bars.  "Feet go in the holes, the halves come together, and BOOM," he shoved the two halves together,  "you're trapped.  However, what's not known about these is there is a special trick to them.  You see this?"  On the bottom, and on the side that would point down while someone hung from them, was what looked like a series of decorations carved into the wood.

"I you push the third decoration, the metal bars that hold the two halves together go POP."  He pushed the decoration, and a popping noise happened.  "The bars are spring loaded, so that they pop back out of the way, and now one half of the stocks swings down, allowing the feet to fall out and the 'victim' to escape."  Sakura stared in wonder at the ingenious way it worked.  She desperately wanted to try it.

"So," Elainu said, "ready to take a swim?"

Sakura said yes.

"Kero-chan!"  Sakura called out as she opened the door to her bedroom.  He was taking a nap, so her loud voice of course startled him to no end.

"Whaaaa," he said, bleary eyed and staring, "what, oh, your back.  That's nice."  He slumped back down on Sakura's pillow.

"Come on, Kero-chan, wake up.  I have something great to tell you."

"Something great?"  He said, opening one eye.

"Yup!"  Sakura said.  "A surprise."

"A surprise?"  Kero said, now with both eyes open.

Sakura nodded and sounded a yes.

"A SWEET surprise?"  He said, now floating up from the pillow to look her in the face.

"No, but," she stopped short of telling him, "it's kind of a secret."  Kero nearly passed out in midair.

"Why do you do this to me?"  He whined.

"I'm going to do something really neat at the magic show.  Tomoyo's going to bring you with her to see."  Kero was overjoyed at hearing this.

"Alright!" He said with excitement, "I've been wanting to see this Jouhsin the great.  Now I don't have to just watch some video that Tomoyo took of the show.  What are you going to be doing?  Not some card magic, I hope."  He said, referring to Sakura's cards.

"Oh, no," she replied, "nothing like that.  It's one of the best tricks.  But I want it to be a surprise, so I can't really tell you.  I hope you don't mind."

"Nah," Kero said, "I don't mind.  At least I do get to go see it.  I'll be good, so you don't have to tell me."

Every night over the next five days, Sakura would practice holding her breath.  Joushin had given her some breathing exercises to do, and she would lie in bed and quietly do them.  First, she would breath really deep and slow, quickly in and taking a long time to breath out.  After several minutes of getting as relaxed as she could, she would blow as much air out of her lungs as she could, then take the deepest breath she could and hold it.  She remembered the time, so long ago it seemed, when a Sorceress in Hong Kong had tried to drown her, and how scary it had seemed.  But right then, with the escape just a few days away, she felt like she was in complete control of everything.  Joushin had told her that they would plan to have her do the escape unannounced, that way if for any reason she decided not to do it, she didn't have to feel like such a failure in front of all those people.  But she was determined to do it.  She had no fear about it all.

When she had tried getting in the tank, they had put her feet in the stocks and gently lowered her in, without handcuffs on.  The anchor was attached to a rope that went under her armpits around her chest, holding her down so that her body didn't float up.  She had held her breath, stared out of the tank at Joushin and Elainu, and she couldn't help but smile.  She had pulled the slipknot and the anchor came loose and fell to the bottom of the tank.  She had grabbed the bars inside the tank, pulled herself up to reach the decorated switch, and the stocks opened just like they were supposed to.  Sakura had felt so alive then, so free.  She just couldn't describe it at all.

She timed her breath holds, and eventually she got to where she could hold her breath for almost 3 and a half minutes.  More than enough time, she thought.

 There was one little detail that Sakura had trouble with.  She needed to get her father to sign a release form so that she could do the water escape, but at the same time, she didn't want to tell him about the surprise.  She spent much time thinking what the right thing go do would be.  She so wanted to do the trick, and she wanted to surprise everyone, but she was afraid her father might say no, that it's too dangerous.

At first she walked down the stairs with the paper, then went back up, having lost her nerve.  She stood at the top of the stairs, looking down, holding the sheet of paper near her ever-pounding heart.  Then she started down the stairs again, and then came back up again. 

Oooooo, she thought, I can't keep doing this.  I can't do the escape without O-tousan's permission.  I just have to calm down and go down there and tell him.  He'll understand how important it is to me.

She went downstairs as quietly as possible.  Fujitake was in his study, working on lessons he would be teaching in college the next day.  Sakura went in, taking a quiet deep breath.

"O-tousan?"  She said.

"Hm," Fujitake said as he recognized his daughter's voice, "oh, hi there."

"Um," Sakura said as she looked down at the floor.  "I have to ask you something."  Fujitake turned to her and gave his full attention to her.

"What is it, Sakura-San?"  He asked pleasantly.

"I…"  Sakura took another nervous deep breath.  "I need you to sign this."  Fujitake took that piece of paper and started to read it.

"Is this from school?"  He asked.

"NO!"  Sakura blurted out, then changed her tone, "no, it's a paper that Joushin needs you to sign.  It's gives me permission to do a special magic trick in the show, but…"  Fujitake could tell from the sound of her voice that she was struggling with something, but he stayed quiet, giving her a chance to say what she was trying to stay.

"I'm going to do this special trick…"  She was struggling to say it, "If I was going to do something…  Something that looks like it's really dangerous, but really isn't, and I didn't tell you about it till you got there and saw it, would you be mad at me?"  Fujitake took a quick breath before answering her.

"Tell me what kind of trick it is.  Not what the trick is, but what kind.  Is it disappearing trick, a mind reading trick?"  He trailed off.  He was giving her a way out of her nervousness.

"Um," she answered, "it's an escape trick."  She put her hands to her chin, and held really still while waiting to hear what her father had to say.

"Oh!"  His face lit up, "sounds like it's really exciting.  You know, lots of those tricks are very safe.  I had heard that his apprentice had died doing a trick like that, but I checked with the city and there were no reports of deaths like that at all.  I'll tell you a secret, Sakura-san."

"OK," Sakura said, instinctively leaning a little closer to him.

"When you told me you were going to be his assistant in the show, I checked him out.  He's been touring Japan doing his magic shows for over 11 years, and he has never had any kind of accident that resulted in anyone getting hurt."  Sakura just stared at him, wondering if what he said was a good thing or a bad thing.

"I believe he's safe, Sakura-san," he said as he took up a pen, "and I believe you'll be safe.  But remember," he signed the paper, "I get a front row seat."

Sakura thanked him repeatedly.  But as she went upstairs she thought that maybe there was one other person she needed to talk to.

Sakura walked up to the door of Yukito's house.  She wanted to talk to Yue, but she also wanted to talk to both of them.  She had thought about it, how even though the Escape was a safe trick that she maybe needed to talk to someone about it.  She needed to make sure, after talking to her father, that she wasn't doing something stupid.  She knocked on the door, and after a few seconds Yukito opened the door.

"Sakura-san," he said, smiling at her, "it's good to see you."

"Um, Hi, Yukito-san," she said, "Can I come in and talk?"  Yukito nodded and smiled.  He moved aside as Sakura stepped in.  Yukito lived with his grandparents, but they were almost never at home. 

"Um, Yukito," Sakura said, "I need to talk to you, but first I need to talk to Yue.  Could I do that?"

"Of course, Sakura-san.  Is there something wrong?"

"No, no, I just need some advice.  Both of you."

"OK, Sakura-san."  Yukito closed his eyes, took off his glasses and stood very still.  Sakura reached out and took the glasses from him as he gently lifted into the air.  He floated there about one foot off the ground, and then a yellow glow enveloped him.  A pair of wings emerged from his back, and they wrapped around him.  After a few seconds, the wings parted to reveal the taller, more imperious Yue.

"Yue-san," Sakura said, "I…  I need to talk to you."

Sakura explained about everything that had happened so far, about the Water escape, Joushin, Elainu, and her decision to do the trick.  Yue listened closely, not saying a word until he felt she was done.

"Sakura-san," he finally began, "When I first laid eyes on you, I didn't think much of you.  You looked like a poor choice to be mistress of the cards.  But as time has gone by, I realize more and more what it is that Clow was looking for in a card captor and Mistress.  It's hard to describe, but you have many of the same qualities he possessed.  He was kind, gentle, caring…  He loved everything, as well as everybody, and me.  He must have known you were the one to take his place."

"As to whether you can ever fill his shoes, only time will tell.  But I don't think he needed you to replace him.  He needed someone who could care for us.  That's all.  I believe he needed that for us more than anything."  He stopped and stared at her like Yue always did.

Sakura understood what he was saying.  But she still wanted to ask Yukito.  When he appeared, she had to go through the whole story again, since Yukito cant remember what Yue does.

"Um, well," he said, "if the trick isn't dangerous, then I guess it would be ok.  I would be worried about you though.  But then, that's what makes it exciting."

"Oh," she said, "I wouldn't want you to worry.  I'll be fine.  I mean, I can't tell you how it's done, but it's really safe.  And, if I feel like I can't do it, I wont.  I hope you'll come, all the same."

"Oh, Sakura-chan," he said and smiled, "I wouldn't miss it for the world.  Even if it will be scary."

"So, You'll keep my secret then?"

"Yes, I will."  He promised.