Chapter Seven: The Darkest Prison
Although too weak to get up, Haku opened his eyes. He had been having nightmares about Chihiro and the Evil One. He strained to pull himself to a sitting position. "Don't move Haku," Keiko muttered, "you're too badly injured, stay still." He winced at the pain that was caused by his efforts and quickly stopped moving.
He looked around him and saw that he was alone in some sort of dungeon cell, Keiko happened to be in the cell directly across from him. Her face was bleeding and there were marks on her hand, he starred at her in horror. She shook her head and weakly whispered, "Their interrogations are pretty harsh if you ask me, they're currently interrogating Yoshiro, your brother." There was a scream and Haku winced. Guards soon arrived dragging a limp Yoshiro between them.
"It's your turn," one of them sneered at Haku. They opened the metal doors and Haku struggled to a standing position. The guards laughed as he limped through the dimly lit hallways towards a wooden door, he winced at the pain that every movement caused him, but he managed to walk into the room. Guards stood on ether side of him to make sure that he did not escape, a dark hooded figure stood in the room.
"I am glad to see that you could make it Kohaku," the figure told him, "it is a pleasure to finally meet you for the first time face-to-face. There are a few questions I would like to ask you about and all of them deal with your friend Chihiro. Don't pretend that you don't know her, your friend Keiko tried that and you can see for yourself what happened to her, don't pretend to play dumb ether your brother Yoshiro tried that and he is currently in his little cell, lying on the ground unconscious."
"I will tell you nothing!" Haku roared.
"Oh, but I have not even started to ask the questions. Why don't you listen to them first and decide for yourself. Are Rin and Zeniba with Chihiro?" Haku glanced at him, wishing that he was in his dragon form so that he could lash out with his tail.
"I said that I will say nothing."
"Wrong answer, guards whip him until he cries out for mercy." The guards sneer and obeyed; although Haku could not bleed he could still feel the stinging pain of the whips. His very essence seemed to falter from the pain and he could feel himself weakening.
Still determined to protect Chihiro he replied, "I will say nothing about the matter." The guards continued to whip him, until the figure told them to stop.
"We shall now move on the next question, has Chihiro started her training yet?"
"I won't say." The guards whipped Haku again, but this time the tip of the whips had a metal sliver that would drain his powers whenever it came into contact with him. He winced at the pain caused by the slivers but would not say anything.
"A determined little fellow aren't we? Well you shall pay dearly for that, guards you know what to do." Tall spirits appeared and sneered at Haku, they started to chant and Haku became very drowsy. He felt like he had been teleported somewhere, but when he looked around nothing seemed familiar. Then he spotted her, she was weak and bleeding badly, he wanted to run towards her and comfort her but he could not move.
"I told you that you were weak and useless, now all your powers will be mine!" The Evil One shouted at her, laughing.
"Never," she whispered weakly, "I shall never relinquish my powers to you! You do not deserve them and you will never have them, you can not take them from me."
"Oh, we shall see about that dragon." Finding that he could now run Haku ran towards her and stopped the Evil One from completing his spell.
"Don't Haku, I can handle this. I don't want you to suffer because of me."
"No," he replied, "I will protect you." The Evil One laughed loudly and Haku eyed him carefully. Smoke and flames were present all around them burning the earth and everything in its path, rising to the heavens the smoke turned the color of blood.
"I see that your little boyfriend has decided to join us," the Evil One sneered, "I am glad to see that you could make it to our little gathering Haku, I am sure you will enjoy seeing me killing your little dragon and then absorbing her powers."
"Well then you'll have to get past me first." Haku hissed at him. He tried to change into his dragon form, but he was too tired and weak. The Evil One laughed at him as he struggled to transform, finally giving up he started to chant. He tried to summon water, but it was no use he was still weak from the whippings he had received earlier.
"Such foolishness, you are doomed Haku, much as she already is." Lighting surrounded them creating a giant chamber from which escape was impossible. It started to rain, and the fires were quickly gone though the smoke and foul-smelling mist lingered. The Evil One looked at Haku menacingly and used his magic to summon fire and lighting. The combination of both reached him at exactly the same time, pain spread throughout his body. He felt himself weakening even more and finally he collapsed onto the ground from the harsh pain. Lighting continued to strike him and the fires surrounded him burning him. He could bear it no longer, the pain was too much. Tears fell out of his emerald eyes; they stung as they rolled down his face.
"Chihiro!" He finally shouted into the air. His vision blurred, his senses numbed. Every movement caused pain, but he managed to face the Evil One and his beloved. She had managed to pull herself into a standing position; weakly she took a step towards the Evil One and almost fell.
She snarled angrily at the Evil One, "You will pay dearly for what you have done to Haku!"
"Is that so," the Evil One said, clearly amused, "then try to defeat me, you shall never succeed."
"We'll see about that." She summoned fire and water, wind and earth. The elements swirled around her; a golden aura surrounded her mortal form. Her eyes glistened angrily and occasionally gave off a spiteful maroon light. Lighting flashed through the skies and joined with the elements present as did the other aspects of nature. She aimed it at the Evil One and Haku watched as it surrounded the Evil One, the Evil One greedily looked at the powerful golden aura that surrounded her mortal form. He wanted it for himself, and he was willing to do many terrible things to get it. Haku tried to warn her to protect her, but alas he was too weak to speak let alone move.
She looked at the Evil One in amazement when it was clear that he had survived his attack, "That's not possible; no one has ever survived that attack."
"Well I just did," the Evil One replied grinning, "and as I said, you will never succeed in your quest." He started to chant and an orb pulsing emerald light appeared out of his hands, it grew brighter and brighter. Skillfully, he threw it at her and hit her with an astonishing blast of lighting and water. It surrounded her; unable to escape she slowly drowned. Haku watched in horror as the Evil One walked over to her and used his sword to further torture her into giving him his powers. Blood dripped from the corners of her mouth as he cut into her neck, trying to force her to give him her powers. The pain was almost unbearable as he continued to cut her neck. A thick red line had been created from his efforts, blood dripped out of the corners of her mouth, which was filled with the dark red liquid. Her powers were slowly being drained from the sword, but she did not know it.
Haku watched as her body turned limp, a faint golden aura surrounding the dead body. Tears fell out of his sad emerald eyes, she was gone. "No," he whispered to himself, "it can't end like this, it won't end like this. Chihiro, I love you I can't bear to see you die." The scene in front of him seemed to flicker and he became dizzy, everything seemed to swirl in front of his eyes. Finally he found himself standing in the dark room, he almost fell, but luckily a guard was holding on to him and would not let him fall.
"You have seen what we could do to your precious Chihiro, now would you like to answer our questions." The hooded one asked him again. He shook his head, wanting to protect her for as long as he possibly could. A guard sneered and images of Chihiro being tortured passed through his head, he felt dizzy, tired, and very weak as the questioning continued. Still, he was not willing to tell.
Finally the hooded figure told him, "You may leave, but not before this." He touched the sword to Haku's body and watched as he fainted from the pain caused by the fiery sword. Totally weakened he was dragged back to his cell. Keiko watched in sympathy as Natusko was unwillingly dragged from her own cell, the multiple lighting bolts had severely weakened her.
Haku dreamed about Chihiro, dark nightmares in which his beloved was tortured and eventually killed. "Chihiro." He would whisper repetitively. Natusko was soon seen dragged back to her compartment, weaker than before, unable to nether speak or move. Keiko shook her head, and tears fell out of her eyes. Intense pain filled her body, unable to stay in a sitting position she fell and closed her eyes; she too had been weakened by the interrogation. The torches on the wall, which were the only sources of light, flickered and went out. Darkness cloaked the dungeon and there was mass confusion. The Evil One looked around and hissed in anger, someone had caused this and he was determined to figure it out. There was a faint glow of golden light and he froze.
Could it be Chihiro? How did she find out? No matter she will soon be dead like the rest of her friends.
He thought to himself. The golden light started to flicker and soon disappeared. The Evil One snarled at the place where he had last seen it, "I know you are here, now show yourself." A large serpent looked at him with cool calculating eyes. Its emerald eyes twinkled in the darkness, creating small flashes of emerald green light. The golden light had been a trick to allure the Evil One to come towards her; she smiled and waited as he crept closer and closer.
Haku, Yoshiro, I am coming. You two have helped me in the past and now it is my turn to repay the favor.
Her golden shield flared and she hissed at the Evil One. Her golden mane brightened in the darkness, giving the illusion of a golden aura. When the Evil One approached her he knew that he had been tricked, "Hikari, I see you have returned."
Hikari looked at the Evil One, and quickly flew past him. Changing back into her human form she whispered, "Yoshiro, Haku, Natsuko, I am coming to help you and your friend."
Haku recognized the voice immediately and weakly said, "Hikari what are you doing here? Get out before the Evil One finds you."
"Who's Hikari?" Keiko replied. She had just woken up when she heard a voice.
"My younger sister," Haku grumbled, "the one who is always getting into trouble with the Evil One. Still it is good to see you again Hikari, I do believe we last meet 267 years ago correct?"
"Actually 269, but you were close." Hikari patiently replied. "Who's your friend?"
"My name is Keiko," Keiko told Hikari, "I'm Chihiro's friend."
"Chihiro, isn't she the…" Haku nodded and Hikari sighed.
"Hikari, is that you?" Yoshiro asked he had heard the familiar voice.
"Yep, it's me." Hikari told her older brother.
"Hikari, Haku's right you should leave as soon as possible." Natsuko weakly chided her friend, when she realized who the mysterious intruder was.
"I know, but I want to help you guys. After all you did help me a number of times so I thought I would repay the favor."
"You can repay the favor by getting out of here before the Evil One finds you." Yoshiro grumbled. Hikari shook her head and using magic passed through the metal bars and into Yoshiro's cell.
"Great now you're getting me into trouble, I thought you said that you were repaying the favor." Yoshiro whispered.
"I am," Hikari hissed, "now don't say anything." The Evil One passed by their cells, his eyes were well adjusted to the darkness, looking for Hikari. When he couldn't find her he walked away. Hikari smiled and looked at her older brothers, who were trying to decide whether to let her stay or make her leave.
Finally Haku sighed, "Hikari you can stay, just don't make any noise or trouble okay?" Her emerald eyes sparkling she agreed.