"Tomoyo-chan," Sakura cried, "It's fantastic!"
Sakura tried on her new costume for the show. The colors were exactly what Joushin wanted: light blue, red and black. But the costume itself looked very much like the costume she had worn for the final judgment.
"I've seen this design before. Isn't this just like," she paused to think.
"Yes," Tomoyo said with her usual enthusiasm, "I started with that design, because it was one of your best moments ever, so it makes sense you would wear a costume like it for your next best moment."
"It's wonderful," Sakura told her, "I love it. Thank you." Sakura continued to look at herself in the mirror.
"I also made up a bathing suit for when you're in the tank." Tomoyo held up two costumes, one a one-piece suit, made in blue, red and black satin, with sequins along the shoulder straps and neckline. The two piece was the same colors, but with extra sequins along the waistband.
"Hooooooieeee!" Sakura called out with excitement. "But why two?"
"Well," Tomoyo answered, "you'll probably want to wear the bathing suit under your costume, and it might get hot under the lights. So I made a two piece too, it might not be as hot."
"Good thinking," Sakura said, "can I try on the two piece?" Tomoyo nodded and Sakura grabbed it and went into Tomoyo's dressing room. Tomoyo's living space (as apposed to bedroom) was made up of a bathroom, a bedroom, a sort of living room (with big screen TV) and a dressing room. Inside the dressing room were three large mirrors, so Sakura could easily model whatever she was trying on. Once she had changed into the bathing suit she stood there, looking at herself, Tomoyo walked up behind her. This was the first bathing suit Tomoyo had ever made for her, and it showed off Tomoyo's signature style.
"It's wonderful," was all Sakura could say. Tomoyo walked up behind her, holding her hands clasped together in front of her.
"If you check the back of the suit," Tomoyo said, "near the top of the elastic band, is where I put the pocket for you to hide the key to the handcuffs. That's what the sequins are for. They hide the pocket." Sakura reached around and felt for the pocket. Sure enough, it was there, and the perfect size too. She turned around so that she could see it, but it was invisible with all the fancy sequins around it.
"Wow," she said, "I never would have known it was there." She turned back around to look at herself in the mirror again.
"You look so cute," Tomoyo said, "I can't wait to capture your bravery on video. I'm sure this is one time you do magic that even you will be proud for the world to see." As Sakura still looked into the mirrors, Tomoyo reached out with her fingertips and started to tickle Sakura's ribs.
Sakura started to giggle, then spinning around in mock anger, she reached to the chain around her neck that held her star key.
"Tomoyo-chan," she half cried out, trying not to laugh, but to act like she was mad. "I'll have wood grab you again. You know I can do that any time I want." At that, Tomoyo looked at Sakura, tilted her head sideways and smiled.
"I know," was all she said.
"Hoe?" Sakura said as she smiled at Tomoyo. The two of them looked at each other only for a second before…
"BAM!" A sound ripped out at them from outside Tomoyo's bedroom window.
"BAM!" Came another. Startled, both Tomoyo and Sakura sank to their knees, wondering if maybe something had exploded.
"What was that?" Sakura said, as another loud crash came, somewhat quieter.
"I don't know," Tomoyo said. Sakura got back up and ran back to Tomoyo's bedroom and stared out the window. At first, she couldn't see a thing in the twilight, but out in the yard, not too far from the window, a dark silhouette could be seen moving along the outer wall.
"Sakura-chan, what do you see?"
"I don't know," Sakura said, holding the star key ready, "but I'm going to find out. Release!"
With the staff in hand Sakura called the jump, opened the window and practically flew out of the house, landing on the lawn. Servants inside the house could see the strange figure that was Sakura, still in her sequined bathing suit, running across the lawn toward the outer wall. She slowed down as she drew near the dark shadow, and caught her breath. It stopped, and what appeared to be two glowing blue eyes turned to stare at her.
Sakura began to back away a little, unsure of what to do. What is this thing? She asked herself, what could it want? She decided to try and talk to it.
"You there," she said in as strong a voice as she could, "What do you want?" The shadow didn't answer her, but only hovered for a second before it moved up the wall and disappeared over the top. Sakura jumped high, landed on top, and caught a glimpse of it as it quickly continued along the street. In that instant, it seemed to disappear.
Sakura returned to Tomoyo's bedroom window, where her friend was still waiting, worried.
"Sakura-chan," she cried, "what did you find?"
"I," Sakura said as she climbed in the window, "I don't know. It was a dark," she paused, "thing!"
"What?" Tomoyo looked like she might be terrified, although she really was only just still worried.
"Yeah," Sakura said as she realized that her heart was going a thousand beats per minute. "Whatever it was, it had to have been looking in at us. But why would anybody or anything do that?"
Both of them were quiet. What indeed.
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When Sakura got home that night, she immediately asked Kero if he had seen anything strange since she had been gone. Kero hadn't seen or sensed anything.
"It is weird though," She told him, "I didn't sense anything either. You would have thought that if it was a magical creature, I would have sensed something."
"Your right," Kero agreed, "but you never know. There are a few spells that could be used to hide a magic presence."
"There are?" Sakura said.
"Yeah, but," Kero continued, "I don't know if it means anything. It could have just been a ghost, or a poltergeist. I don't see why something that was magical and wanted to get to you wouldn't have at least tried to get to you right then and there. It had the opportunity to get you, if it wanted to."
"Ghost?" Sakura said, "Do you think it was a ghost?" Sakura was trembling. Although her fear of ghosts wasn't as bad as it had been, she still didn't care for the idea of dead things floating around.
"It must have been, and if it was, I wouldn't worry about it. Unless it was trying to tell you something. Sometimes a spirit is trying to communicate with the living."
"Why would it do that?" Sakura blurted out.
"Because it's lonely." Kero looked at her with a kind of indignation. "How am I supposed to know what ghosts want. All I know is that most real ghosts are harmless, so don't worry about it."
Sakura didn't sleep right at all that night. Although she had the breathing exorcises that calmed her before she went to sleep, she couldn't help thinking about the ghost. By the time she really fell asleep, it was almost sunup.
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"I think that we should tell Shaoran about the ghost, Sakura-chan," Tomoyo said as she and Sakura were walking into the theatre. She was carrying Sakura's costume with her. "He'd want to know about it, I'm sure."
"Nah," Sakura said to her friend, "at least not right now. I got today's rehearsal to do."
"Is that why you wanted me to come with you?" Tomoyo asked. Sakura nodded, but the real reason she wanted Tomoyo with her was so that she could have some moral support. This was the day they were going to put Sakura in the tank, hands fully cuffed, and lock her in for a full run through of the escape. Sakura's heart was already pounding as she caught site of Joushin and Elainu.
"Good afternoon, Sakura-san," Joushin called out, "how are you today?"
"Fine," Sakura said, half excited and half in fear. "Are we going to do a full dress rehearsal today?"
"Yes, we are," he said, "is that the costume? May we see it?" Tomoyo held up the costume for everyone in the theatre to see, and everyone was pleased.
"Young lady," Joushin said, talking to Tomoyo, "if you aren't going to grow up to be a costume designer, it will be a loss to the world. It's wonderful." Tomoyo just smiled. But while they talked, Sakura was staring at the tank. She wasn't afraid, she new that she was in good hands with Joushin and Elainu, but it was still intense.
"Sakura-chan," Tomoyo said, rousting her out of her reverie, "are you OK? You look like you have something big on your mind." Sakura only nodded.
"Well," Joushin said, "we might as well get started. You can go get ready." Sakura disappeared into a dressing room and came out in her new bathing suit. She looked a little worried, but she still managed to smile at everyone as she walked out to Joushin on the stage.
"You look wonderful!" Was the general thought of everyone there. Joushin walked over to Sakura and got to one knee in front of her.
"Now, let's go over this. First thing we have to do is put the key where it needs to be." He handed her the key for the handcuffs. "Fix it so that it's comfortable and easy to get to." Sakura put it in the secret pocket.
"Ok," she said, trembling a little, "got it."
"Relax," he said to her in a reassuring way. "When we put you in today, your not going to be in any more than one minute. If you haven't freed yourself in that time, then the trick wont work anyway. I don't want anything to happen to you." Sakura smiled at him, feeling a little better.
"Now, after you've made an announcement of your attempt, you'll come over to this side, where we will have laid out the stocks. We'll have at least three people from the audience come up and inspect the stock, the tank, the locks, the handcuffs… The only thing we don't let them do is search you. That's not something that most people will do to someone your age anyway."
"Joushin-kun," Sakura started to say, "I was wondering. Those bars inside the tank. I know you use them to pull yourself up, but what do you say if one of the people from the audience asks what they are for?"
"Well," he replied, "they have a duel purpose. If anything really did go wrong, we can smash the glass, and these bars keep the tank from falling apart. So they're there as a safety measure. Plus, the glass is safety glass, which means it breaks into little tiny pieces instead of long, sharp pieces." Sakura listened to him closely. It was good to hear him sound so confident.
"Now," he continued, "we'll put your feet in the stocks." He motioned to Sakura to come and sit down in front of them. She walked over slowly, still a little apprehensive. As she sat down, he continued talking her through it.
"I made an adjustment to the size of the holes for you, so that it's a more snug fit. I don't want it to seem like you might be able to slip out." He opened the stocks and gently set her ankles in them, then gently closed them. The locks shut with click. Sakura's heart began to pound harder.
"We'll put the anchor rope on once your up and hanging over the tank." Elainu came over and handed Joushin the pair of handcuffs. He held them up so that Sakura could see.
"It's important for you," he told her, "to only open one side of the cuffs. Don't bother to undo both hands. That takes up precious time in the tank. The less time you spend in there, the better. Now, I'm going to lock them on you."
Sakura closed her eyes as she felt him clicking the cuffs closed around her wrists. She wasn't really thinking anymore. But now that she was locked up, and with Joushin talking her through each step calmly and with reassurance, her nerves were going away. She looked up from thinking and looked at Tomoyo, who was videotaping the whole thing and looking a little worried. Sakura smiled at her, and Tomoyo smiled back.
"Are you getting all of this?" Sakura called out to her.
"Oh, yes, Sakura-chan," Tomoyo replied, "can't miss this."
"OK," Joushin continued, "Now. Let's take her up." Elainu and another assistant pulled on a rope. A block and tackle system, designed to make it easy to lift heavy objects with just one rope, began lifting the stocks and Sakura up off the ground. Joushin held her steady until she was in the air. Blood rushed to Sakura's head, making her eyes hard to focus for a couple of seconds. Higher and higher until her head was as high up as the top of the tank, then they positioned her over the water.
"And then, we attach the anchor." Joushin climbed a ladder carrying the anchor. "It only weighs about 10 pounds, but it's enough to make it seem more dangerous." He looped the rope around Sakura's chest and under her arms. With her hands cuffed like the were, the rope couldn't come loose.
"You can either pull on the end of the slip knot and the rope will come loose, or you can let it slip around your arms when you get your hands free. Either one will do." He put the anchor in the water and gently lowered into the tank till it was hanging from around Sakura's chest. It wasn't really heavy at all. She looked around at the stage from her upside down position, realizing that this was it.
"Oh," Joushin said, "I almost forgot." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of nose clips. He put them on Sakura's nose. "So no water get's in while you're upside down." Sakura smiled at him.
"Now, look at me," Joushin told her. Her eyes met his, and they made her feel a little less nervous. "Now is where you breathe. In quickly, out slowly." Sakura nodded, and started taking quick, deep breaths, slowly letting them out. "When you feel you are ready, nod as you take your last big deep breath. Blow all your air out, then take the biggest breath you can."
Sakura breathed, in, then out. Then again. In and out. Come on, she thought, I can do this. She blew out hard, focusing her eyes on a spot way out in the theatre, then pulled in as much air as she could. In harder, then holding her breath, she nodded. Tomoyo, still taping, held her breath in sympathy.
"OK," Joushin called out, "Down she goes." Sakura closed her eyes. She could feel the water making it's way up the side of her head, past her mouth and over her neck and shoulders. The sounds of water sloshing against the sides of the tank seemed to move from side to side around her. It was a little colder than when she first tried it, but not that much. When she felt the water reach her hands, she opened her eyes and reached to see if she could still feel the key in it's pocket. It was still there. The world looked so strange through the glass of the tank, upside down. But she broke her train of thought as she realized that the blood was roaring in her ears. She felt the water pass her knees, and then she felt the stocks bump into the top of the tank.
"Ok, lock it up." Two of the other assistants padlocked the stocks in place as Elainu started the timer. Joushin jumped down from the ladder just in time to see Sakura start acting like she was struggling… Or, at least he hoped it was an act.
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It was just an act. Sakura was getting the key out of the secret pocket, but as she did, she felt her heart begin racing. She wasn't staying as calm as she should, so she stopped a second to focus. But her heart went from really fast to really slow and hard. That she wasn't ready for. But she had to do the trick, so there wasn't time to worry about it. With her lungs starting to feel heavy, she took the key in her fingers and began working it into the keyhole in the handcuffs. After a few seconds, with her head starting to ache a little, she finally got it loose, but the strain of concentrating and her heart beating hard was making it harder to hold her breath. She reached for the slipknot that held the anchor rope in place, and pulled it. The anchor rope fell away from her, and the anchor struck the bottom of the tank with a loud thunk.
Sakura hung there for just a second before reaching out and grabbing the bars. At that moment she understood why Joushin had told her that relaxing before a performance was important because her lungs felt like they were on fire. Slowly pulling herself up towards where her ankles were in the stocks, she felt around for the decorated switch, but the rushing sound in her ears and her lungs screaming out for air were beginning to make her panic.
I can do this, she screamed inside her mind as she struggled and strained with her fingers to reach the switch. She squeezed her eyes shut hard, clamping her mouth down so that she wouldn't open it, and… Finally found the switch.
Her feet dropped out from the stocks, and she was able to turn right side up in the tank. She poked her head up through the top, letting a huge gasp go and taking the deepest breath she had ever taken. She had done it!
"Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo cried out, "You did it!" Joushin was climbing the ladder again and Elainu was jumping up and down, more excited than she had been in a long time. Sakura herself, in between deep breaths, began to shout out repeatedly in celebration.
"I did it! Tomoyo! I did it! I did it!"
"Great job, Sakura-san," Joushin said as Sakura started pulling her self out and breathing hard. "How do you feel now?"
Sakura pulled up and sat on the edge of the top of the tank, think about it. She was breathing hard, but she felt like she'd just climbed the tallest mountain in the world.
"I feel great!" Was all she could say.
