Chapter 6

Some time had passed since our original meeting, and as we talked (and I finally got Aijin to come back to her cell), Chikorai brought up as to what our escape plan should be; if it were possible.

I put my hand to my chin, as I peered through the small hole betwixt us. "Well, Aijin and I have been here for about a month.and oddly, we have yet to come up with a way to outwit the Crawgons."

Chikorai glanced at the floor in a most disappointed way; but then suddenly snapped his fingers, and perked up. "I've got it! I have the perfect plan!"

I felt slight envy towards the young fellow. I had been there a month and had yet to come up with anything useful, and yet this human came up with 'the perfect plan' instantaneously. "Well.", I said in a rather gruff tone, "Lets here it."

He smiled winningly. "Miss Aijin! May I borrow your ear for a minute?"

She poked her head out through the hole and glared at him cautiously. "Yeah, I'm lisi'n."

"No, no, cross over to my cell Miss. I wish to discuss the matter with you first."

Again, I felt a tad discriminated, however, by his wanting to discuss matters with her first, it would mean I'd be less likely to be put into peril. So, I aided Chikorai by.gently shoving the reluctant kitsune into his cell. She returned the favor by staring at me coldly, with a look that said, "You'll pay for this."

Aijin walked towards him with vigilance, then leaned close to him (which I don't think she minded), so he could whisper to her the plan.

The range of emotions that plagued her face, from confusion to anxiety, made it quite hard for me not to laugh. After all, she got me into this place, so it seemed only fitting that she should get me out as well.

Chikorai pulled away and grinned with enthusiasm. "So! What do you think of my plan? It'd be quite easy for us to pull off."

Aijin furrowed her brow. " 'Us?' No, I think you mean me!"

Switching her attention towards me, I could see Chikorai was rather discouraged by her words.

"Do you have any idea what he wants me to do?!", yelled Aijin.

My sense of contempt returned to me. "I wasn't invited into the conversation, how could I possibly know?"

"He wants me to..", she stammered, "to.make one of those filthy, nasty Crawgons fall helplessly in love with me.so I can 'persuade' him to gimme the keys to our cells."

I laughed aloud. "I congratulate you Chikorai, that's quite a bright idea! Its so simple, yet I believe it would work handsomely."

Aijin switched glances between us, expressing a temperament somewhere between panic and anger.

"B-but! It's a Crawgon! Do you have ANY idea what those things look and smell like?!"

By this time both I and Chikorai had begun to snicker.

Just as Aijin was close to releasing her fury on us, I saw a dramatic change in her expression. Her face suddenly went from angry, to something a tad impish, and her appearance was calm and collected. I concluded that she had an idea of her own that carried a very scary and most likely deceitful objective.

Aijin placed her arm around Chikorai in a rather assertive, yet seductive manner. "You know, I think you're right Chikorai. You're plan would work. And.", she paused to give an sympathetic sigh, "I suppose I can pretend to love that poor lowly prison guard, just as long as I myself don't fall for him I'll be alright."

Chikorai was slightly flustered. "I should hope not falling for him would be quite easy."

She smiled deviously, "Oh, don't worry.it'll be very easy."

I watched the kitsune skeptically, as I tried to catch what her true aim was. I'd known Aijin for quite some time; in fact since high school. It was at a top of the line boarding school, only for those of great intellect, or for those whose parents had enough money to send them there. Aijin was certainly the latter. Her parents were planning on letting their daughter succeed them as the Arch Kitsune, so they wanted to make sure she had a good education. However, for as long as I can remember she had some of the lowest grades ever recorded at that school.I used to often wonder how they ever let her graduate, but that is when I came to find out that the principal of the school had recently married a super model just before graduation. (I came to the conclusion that by pairing them up, it was the only way for her to pay off her bad grades in exchange for a diploma.) Its not that the girl is stupid, she is very ingenious actually, however, she just tends to use that genius in all the wrong ways. (sigh) But never the less, Aijin did ascend to Arch Kistune. (No wonder they're so unruly nowadays.)

But anyway, back to the story.

Aijin backed away from Chikorai and returned to our cell. I could see the tricky smirk on her face, but I chose to ignore it, and proceeded to discuss what time we were going to try and escape. I proposed that tomorrow at nightfall, when we received our very small dinner rations from the guard, would be our best bet to put our plan into action. I took special note of Aijin's unusual agreeability about it all. I still couldn't figure out what she was planning, but I had a bad feeling I would very soon find out.

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Meanwhile, as the night went by slowly, and we had laid our heads to rest, Raiford Raleigh, and his accomplice went about discussing their own plans.

In the Crawgon castle there were five main rooms: the throne room, located near the entry-way, the master (or king's) bedroom, the dungeon, along with a torture chamber, and there was a huge room, with hundreds of beds for the Crawgon soldiers, then of course, we mustn't forget the dining area. There were other rooms throughout the castle too, but they were mainly guest rooms (or prison cells.)

Raiford stood in the throne room on the velvet red carpet leading up to the king's chair, whose spot, he desired to be his quite soon. The room was dark and musty, and the only thing to illuminate the place were the gentle rays of moonlight streaming through the windows. Raiford stared at the king's throne, as if by some means studying how powerful he would feel sitting there. Drearily, he glanced down at his watch and sighed.

"Ah..", he said in a lazy, yet observable tone, "I see he's late again."

Having said this, the room soon grew unusually cold, unusually fast. And a red glow had started to form behind Raiford.

The dark haired man noticed the strange, and sudden appearance of light. Immediately he knew who it was, and did not panic, as most would, but rather smiled in a rather voracious fashion.

The glowing light faded around the figure Jigoku, and he stepped past Raiford, as if oblivious to his presence, and studied with those sinister eyes the golden seat before them.

The demon's companion was in slight offence of going unnoticed; he took a step forward. "So.how long before I get to sit on that pretty little seat up there?", he asked, trying to with hold his impatience.

Jigoku grit his fangs. Oh, how I despise this fool., he thought to himself. But I suppose I will have to put up with his incessant whining a while longer.

He let loose an angry sigh, "You shall have your seat... I'll see to it. Perhaps,.tomorrow evening Ganko shall.how can I say this nicely? Ah, yes, he may suffer from an untimely death.", he snickered.

Raiford eyed him suspiciously, "And who is to be the one to carry out this, 'untimely death'?"

Jigoku turned to him with a monstrous grin, "Why, it shall be you of course."

"What? Me? You're insane, I have no such power as to kill the Crawgon King!", he retorted.

The demon patted at his black cloak, and replied offhandedly, " Don't worry, I can give you that power. After all,", he looked up, "if you wish to become a Crawgon king you must at the very least carry some kind of brute strength.if not also.some raw, wicked power, given to you by yours truly."

"Excellent.", replied Raiford, "Not only will I have dictating power, but also physical. I like it." He paused, to contemplate his next question; then he asked inquisitively, "Jigoku, I am not an idiot, nor do I wish to be treated as one, but I must know.what is all this leading up to? What shall become of me after my succession to the throne? And more importantly.what exactly is in this for you?", he accented the last question heavily.

Jigoku, caught off guard by the question, became rather alarmed. But, he being the father of lies, and deceit, quickly came up with an answer for his friend.

"Oh, well.", he started, "since you are no fool", he lied, "I shall tell you what is to come. You see, our ultimate goal here.is not world domination, but rather putting to rest all that is pure, righteous, and I say with disgust, godly. I ask you, have you heard the tale of the twin swords, sealed outside of the Shujin forest?"

Raiford gloated slightly, "Why, yes, of course.they tell the story to children as a fairy tale."

Jigoku hissed in contempt, "Fairy tale! Ha! The story seems far too sinister to tell as a child's story! After all, I was there."

"Too true, my friend.", said Raiford. "I've always heard the legend from a Doggon's perspective.and goodness knows they must've been wrong. Let me hear of it from your standpoint."

Jigoku nodded. "Very well, perhaps my telling of the story shall refresh your memory.and reveal to you my- er, um, our purpose." "Many eons ago, when Uisuki was created.by the one whom I despise, he assigned to it guardians. I , Jigoku, and my fellow angel, Tengoku, the white dragon. Each of us were given a sword of great might and power, so that we could slay evil in days to come. I did not know then what evil was.But; when Lucifer vowed to become greater than God, I had become one of his followers, and was thus.defeated, and sentenced to spend eternity in hell along with him. Satan, as he is now called, found that he was particular to my.special.sense of evil, and assigned me, from the position of guardian of Uisuki, to the latter, demon of Uisuki; a position I much prefer. As time went on, and the Doggons followed after God, I too gained my own followers.Doggons that had gone astray, and had the spirit of evil in their hearts; I gave them an offer; if they would just follow me I would make them into a great race, all their own, with all their lustful desires. That is when the Crawgons formed.they despised the usual Doggon colors, as well as the Doggons themselves, so I appointed it unto them to have coats of black, for it was a color unknown to the fur of Doggons, and so its darkness signified evil to them. Gradually, I aided in the building up of the Crawgon race, and the Doggons soon became afraid of them. I had given them strength beyond match, and a select few, the power to create fire and destruction with their own paws. I was soon to make my advance on the Doggons, when suddenly, they too seemed to yield hidden power.that unfortunately became greater than my own.

I discovered this power had been granted to them by God through Tengoku, and, as one might expect, I was furious, so I challenged Tengoku to a fight, to see who's power should prove greater. We each drew the mighty swords given to us long ago, though mine now sought to destroy good, rather than support it. The white dragon and I fought ferociously, to and fro, back and forth. It seemed that our strength was equal.but then, something happened, that I had not yet expected, nor caught word of. Back of Tengoku, an image appeared.it was a tree in the shape of a cross. Suddenly, I felt all my power drained from me. I knew not what the shape represented, only that it had made me feel all but dead. I then saw, through the blinding light, the blade of Tengoku's sword, glimmering with an iridescent blue, heading towards me. I later awoke.I thought I had been killed, slain by the White dragon, but then I remembered that angels, fallen or not, were immortal. I looked to the side with my four eyes, and found myself lying in something rather like a cave. Peering upwards I saw my master looming over me, anger manifested in his countenance. 'Master,' I said, 'What has happened? What was that cross-like shape that had such a lethal effect on me?' He answered, and explained to me, that much to our demise, God's son, Jesus, had conquered sin.and ratherly built a bridge to heaven for those who accepted him as Savior, and gave them the power to resist sin. It was at the moment I saw the shape of the cross, the very moment Jesus had died, risen from the dead, and defeated us. I discovered that my sword had been taken from me, because it was my main source of power, and it had been sealed within a cave outside of the Shujin forest. I was left with only half the power I had, had before.but I found out, that although sin had been conquered, it had not been destroyed.thus leaving me a window of opportunity to restore the Crawgon nation, and perhaps have victory this time about. Unfortunately, the Crawgons of the present have no where near the strength their ancestors possessed.but that is because my power is fading. As the Doggons grow stronger, and have faith in God, the less power I have to give and keep. My goal, with you, Raiford, is to help me to restore that power.the Crawgon army is large enough now to take on the Doggons.and if we can penetrate the barrier far enough.I can retrieve my sword."

"And have your full power back?", Raiford inquired.

"Precisely.And", he started," when I have my revenge on Tengoku, I may be willing to share that power; once acquired, by those that help me.namely you, Mr. Raleigh."

Raiford's heart over-flowed with greed, and pride. "In that case, I will do my best to serve you.", he smiled maliciously, having dove so deep into evil, that the thought of making others suffer in order for him to rise, gave him an adrenaline rush.

"Perfect.", said Jigoku with a maniacal air, "Now.lets give you that raw, wicked power we discussed earlier, shall we? After all.we do have a king to kill tomorrow.."

Jigoku and Raiford's mad laughter echoed eerily throughout the castle, as the pair went off to 'acquire' the power of evil. The chilling laughter awoke me from my sleep that night.and it is a sound I shall never forget; for it marked the beginning of the murderous days to ensue.