Chapter Twenty: Planning for Escape
Haku absentmindedly toyed with his bracelet; all of his friends were sleeping. Something had waken him, yet he had little clue as to what it might be. It was a rich ruby, the color of Chihiro's blood. Your bracelet will be red because it is infused with Chihiro's blood and her blood is red. The voice of the witch Zeniba flowed smoothly through his mind. As he gazed upon the bracelet, he hoped never again to see the color anywhere except upon the bracelet.
Keiko stirred and groaned she looked around her and muttered angrily to herself, "It's almost impossible to tell what time of day it is, there's no windows and everything is so dark." She then noticed Haku staring at his bracelet as he had done many times within the past few weeks. She sympathetically looked at Haku, Chihiro and the others were their only hope at escaping the prison in which they were confined. She didn't want to accept the fact and constantly tried to prove the theory wrong, but she still had to admit that it was probably true. Keiko glanced at Yoshiro and Natsuko, they were sleeping as usual. Both had been considerably weakened by their interrogations.
"So you're awake, Keiko." Haku said. "I am glad to see that you have recovered from the questioning they gave you three days ago. You have slept for far too long in my opinion."
Keiko nodded, unable to speak. A slight groan emerged from Yoshiro's lips as he weakly pulled himself into a sitting position. "Where am I?" He asked, faintly aware of the pain that pulsed within his head. Groaning as a fresh wave of pain tore through his body, his eyes passed over his brother. Delusional, he was unable to identify anyone around him.
Haku looked at his brother with great apprehension, "You should rest Yoshiro; you're still very weak."
"How do you know me?" Yoshiro asked his brother still unable to recognize him. "Where am I and how did I get here?"
"None of us are sure?" Keiko hesitated before continuing. "I'm not sure if you remember, but we were teleported here during the battle at the school. It's been at least two weeks now, I can't tell because of the darkness."
"What….wait I remember you two." Yoshiro said suddenly as he quickly regained his memories. His eyes passed over the unconscious form of Natsuko as he stared in shock. "Is she okay?" he asked as tears welled within his eyes.
"We're not sure," Keiko said carefully, "you just woke up a few minutes ago, if I recall correctly you have been asleep for what seems like four days now." When she finished, Natsuko weakly opened her eyes.
"Uh I feel like I was drugged and then attacked mercilessly with a combination of magic and sword." Natsuko said as she sat up. Large cuts and bruises covered her face and skin, fresh blood and essence oozed out of a few of the cuts.
"Something like it, though you were still pretty accurate." Keiko muttered.
"I hope Chihiro and the others get here soon, I feel weaker each day I spend in this place."
"So do we all, but there is nothing that we can do about it. Unless one of Keiko's crazy schemes work, we'll never get out of here." Haku muttered sourly.
"Hey they're not crazy schemes; if one of you would be more corporative then I am sure one of them would actually work." Keiko quickly shot back.
"The torturing and the way they have treated us so far has made us all very irritable." Yoshiro sighed. "Just don't give up hope that Chihiro or one of the others will find this place, they're all very strong in magic so I am sure they will."
"As strong in magic as they are, are their powers stronger than the magic that protects this place?" Keiko retorted. "Oh sure Chihiro might be able to do it, but how do you know that one of the others will be able to penetrate the magic that surrounds this prison."
"We can always hope, we must always hope that there is a chance that we will escape. Keiko, please continue your planning I'll help you if you need it."
"I don't know how much help you'll be though; your powers are still quite weak."
Yoshiro shrugged, "I can try can't I?"
"Okay then if you're sure, I want to see if you can use magic to open the lock. Don't break open the lock, just open it. Breaking open the lock alert someone that you had escaped."
"This isn't going to work." Natsuko told them. "The lock is protected with some sort of special spell that prevents anyone from using magic to change its position."
Ignoring her, Yoshiro gathered the remainder of his power around him and uttered a few words. Silvery sparks flew out of his outstretched hand and into the lock; a silvery aura surrounded the lock as it began to vibrate. Suddenly the aura and sparks that had been surrounding it dispersed.
"I told you yet you wouldn't listen." Natsuko chided them.
"Hmm, we could just try to figure out what weakness this particular lock has and unlock it through those weaknesses." Keiko said thoughtfully.
"They spell would probably be strongest around those weak portions." Natsuko argued.
"Just like the lock, every spell has some weakness. If we can find what weakness this spell has perhaps we can defeat it."
"Hmm, I never thought of that. Its weakness will probably be something like fire though, an element that one of us can't summon." Haku quickly pointed out.
"That's why I'm not willing to try any more experiments until after Chihiro attempts to come here and rescue us, but fails." Keiko told him.
"That's actually a very good plan." Natsuko muttered. "Though there is a flaw in your plans, as none of us have successfully managed to break out of our cells, we don't know where the exit is located. If it is our wish to escape, we will have to be able to map this entire area."
"Well that's one of the first things I plan on doing after getting out of these cells, map this prison."
"True, but first we're going to have to get out of these cells."
"Yes we do, and I plan on using every resource we have on breaking free of these cells. That's the first step in our plan to escape, the second is mapping the prison in which we dwell, and the final step is to plan an escape route and actually escape."
"Good plan, but you may want to explain each step of the process a bit more." Natsuko said scornfully.
Keiko winked, "I'll explain each step when we get to it."
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Yoshiro whispered. "I find it hard to believe that the Evil One would let us converse freely, I'm sure he's planning something."
"The feeling is mutual Yoshiro," Haku frowned, "we are his only connection to Chihiro. Why else would he have gone through all the trouble in capturing us? Knowing him, he obviously didn't want to gloat; he's a mastermind not a glory-seeker. He also would be very careful in making sure that his prisoners don't escape by accident or otherwise. For these reasons I am certain he has some sort of informant, may it be an object or a spirit, that he has cleverly placed somewhere so that he can spy on our conversations."
"That means that we could be overheard right now." Keiko gasped. "Thanks for stopping me from putting my plan into more detail; I am sure that events would be more catastrophic if I had done so. The more I think about it the more it makes sense to me; the Evil One must believe that we will converse about things that he deems important among ourselves. He then gathers this information and uses it to plan his attacks on Chihiro in the others. We'll have to be more careful about what we say after this." The others quickly agreed.
"If that is true than how will we be able to share important information and hold other such conversations?" Natsuko asked despairingly. "We write notes to each other, they could be easily flinched and besides we have no paper."
Haku pondered Natsuko's question thoroughly, but came up with no answer for the dilemma. As he stared at his bracelet, an idea came to him. What if they communicated to each other mentally? He hesitated at the thought, telepathic abilities were very hard to control even among spirits. It took extreme concentration to send even the simplest message and it required the mental strength needed to send a message through the boundaries of one's own mind and into another. Then they had to direct their energies at one specific mind. It would be hard for Keiko as he was sure she didn't posses the necessary mental strength to reach beyond the barriers of her mind.
Haku held up his bracelet and looked at it thinking. That's why they create objects such as this bracelet used to help direct where the thoughts are to be sent. The bracelet glittered brilliantly as the dancing flames cast its warm angry light over it. For a second it looked to be made of the purest ruby, it pained him to be reminded that the color of it was caused partially by the fact that the bracelet had been infused with Chihiro's own blood. Memories gracefully passed through his mind, like the silvery waters of his river. Memories of when Chihiro had first arrived at the Spirit World to the events that led to the capture of himself, Yoshiro, Natsuko, and Keiko. Her smile, not matter how small had always seem to capture his heart; her laughter was the sound of sweet bells ringing merrily. It had always puzzled him how he had still been able to love after all that had troubles that he had faced within his lifetime.
Hundreds of years had passed since his birth, he had seen many destructions wrought at hands of humans. His own river a fine example of the things that they could do, yet still he loved this girl. He couldn't explain what it was about her that made him love her. Perhaps it was her smile and kindness towards all creatures, or perhaps it was another one of her numerous qualities. It could have been all of them, or it could have been none. Their bond may have been created by the memories they shared and the destruction that they had seen. The more he thought about it, the more that he had to admit that there were many characteristics they shared, many of which he had hidden from her and others.
Yoshiro noticed his brother's silence, and wisely chose to ignore it. By the expression upon his face it was simple to tell that he was thinking about things that he did not wish to discuss. Haku's hands closed tightly around the bracelet, and then released the tension he had suddenly applied.
"Something wrong Haku?" Natsuko inquired thoughtfully, "You seem really quiet. Not that that's a bad thing."
"No nothing's wrong I was just thinking." He carefully laid that bracelet on the ground, shimmering brilliantly like a tiny star. Within its core lies the key to my heart's desire, my last link to Chihiro. He thought to himself. Haku stared at the flames crackling merrily on the torch, for they seemed to be laughing at him and his friends.
Keiko watched Haku with great interest, he was hiding something. She quickly chose not to inquire about when she saw him toying with the bracelet, he was probably just thinking about Chihiro. I wish she and the others were here to rescue us. I hope they'll come soon. She thought to herself. Haku watched the crackling flames; they no longer seemed to be laughing. There he sat watching the torch, within the dungeon of the palace of the Evil One located in a vast plain that stretched for hundreds of miles before it reached silvery forests bathed in light and surrounded by tranquil streams and rivers. Hundreds of miles away from the palace of the Dragon King and the presence of his beloved, he silently sat and wept for his loss.