AUTHOR'S NOTE: If anyone's reading this, I'd like to apologize for the shitty ending from the last story 'Tokyo Knights'. I know. It sucked… hard. Now I'm assuming that almost all of my readers have abandoned me and hate me because of it and in retrospect, it probably wasn't such a good idea in the first place. But damn it! I will not go quietly into the night! I will not vanish without a fight! I'm going to keep on writing and if you have any little bit of faith in me still, I will make you BELIEVE things will get better! So for those of you just tuning in, you might wanna check out 'The Next Crusade' or 'Tokyo Knights' before starting this story. If you've already read the other two, please proceed…
DISCLAIMER: Let me see… I have two Canadian pennies, a rubber ball, a Styrofoam Abraham Lincoln, a document indicating CCS isn't mine nor do its characters belong to me, a T-shirt with Jesus giving the finger and a copy of Richard Simmons' Workout to the Music of Laurie Anderson. Yeah, that's about it…
TOKYO KNIGHTS
N E M E S I S
The sun was setting on a grassy field somewhere in Tomoeda. The sky was now lit with an orangey haze as its violet clouds drifted off into the indigo sky. The wind was blowing gently against the young couple's face as they sat under the cherry tree and watched the sun slowly go down.
"The last time I sat under this tree, watching the sun go down…" Sakura started as she tucked herself tighter beneath Li's embrace. "… I never imagined I'd be doing it again one day in your arms."
"That's good… right?" Li asked as he rested his head over hers.
"Very good." She smiled.
They looked at each other for a brief moment then had a long, passionate kiss as the wind blew against them some more. When they parted lips, their faces were bright red and their hearts were beating in tune with each other's.
"I love you, Sakura." He told her.
"I love you too, Li." She replied back.
"I bet you don't even know how far I'd be willing to prove my love for you."
"There's no need."
"I know there's not. Because I know you would never ask me to do such a thing."
"You're right." She then thought for a moment. "But just out of curiosity…"
He grinned. "Well, for one thing… I'd face your brother in a no-holds-barred cage match."
"Wow. That's really brave of you."
"Or really crazy." He chuckled.
"He'd kill you, y'know."
"And?"
She suddenly looked confused. "What do you mean by that?"
"I think it's worth it."
"To die?"
"For you, Sakura."
"That's something I would definitely never ask you to do."
"I know. But that's how I feel. I would die for you, Sakura. If it meant saving your life, saving your family or just telling you how much you mean to me. I would gladly give my life for you."
"I promise that'll never have to happen."
They embraced each other tighter and met for another kiss as the sun finally descended. It was at that moment when the winds started to pick up as the skies darkened and the clouds huddled together.
"What's happening?" Sakura looked up as she and Li broke apart.
"A storm's coming!" Li said as he helped Sakura up. "We better get out of here."
As they began to leave, a cloud of black mist appeared from thin air and wrapped itself over Sakura much to Li's horror.
"Sakura!" He called.
"Li! Help me!" She screamed as the cloud continued to suck her in.
Li grabbed hold of the girl's hand and pulled with all his might but the mist proved to be too strong for him. Once Sakura had been completely taken away, a pair of demonic red eyes gazed at the young boy.
"Who are you!?" He shouted.
"That which you fear the most…" The cloud hissed as it shot a bolt of lightning towards him.
Li awoke from his slumber, drenched with sweat and started to breathe heavily as his hands ran along his hair. The nightmare was over but the dream was now lost.
"Sakura…" He sighed. "…Dead."
Out in the courtyard of his childhood home, Li wandered about and noticed the reparations that had been done. No one could ever tell the evil Blue Demon Knight had attacked the home in a furious assault.
"You couldn't sleep?" Yelan asked her son as she approached him in her gown.
"Mother…" He quickly turned around.
"I could hear you tossing and turning. You were practically muttering to yourself. You haven't done that since…" She looked down for a bit. "…You know."
"Since Sakura died." He finished the sentence despondently.
"You had the nightmare again, didn't you?"
"Yes." He nodded.
"You can't keep going on like this. I know it was hard and it still is. But you must learn to move on and--"
"I'm going back to Tomoeda." He interrupted her, trying to change the subject.
"I thought you were going to stay here for good."
"So did I." He rubbed his forehead as he paced around the court. "But something tells me I need to go back and help them."
"Your teammates?"
"My friends."
"Why? What has happened?"
"Nothing… yet."
¬¬¬¬¬
In a small engineering facility in Tomoeda, several scientists gathered around a protective wall as a man stepped inside the testing ground. The man wore a skintight suit of white and covered his face with a metallic shielding then gave the thumbs up to his analyzers.
"All right." Said one of the men. "Switch it on."
One of the scientists flipped a switch that released a set of high tech weaponry aimed towards the man in white. After pressing a few buttons, the machines were whirring and a flurry of bullets shot straight for the test subject. After the guns had depleted their rounds, the man in white was then subjected to a massive blaze coming from a suspended flamethrower. One minute had passed when the flames died out and still the test subject remained standing, his suit now charred black.
The vacuums sucked up all the smoke and cleared the way for the scientist as he stepped out of the booth and removed his facemask. He was greeted with praise for the success of the trial as the other scientists jotted down their notes.
"Very good, Mr. Sakai." One of the scientists said. "The suit's damage intake surpassed our standards."
"That's excellent news." The man in the suit said. "We can now start negotiations with the military and hopefully get our company back on track."
As the men started to shut down the lab for the night, a shadowy figure crept along the railing of the building and glared at the information displayed on the computer. After a few moments, the mysterious visitor dropped to the floor and startled the men in white coats.
"Call security!" Shouted the man known as Sakai. "Tell them we have a--"
The man was cut short as the figure in the black and gray cape and cowl grabbed him by the face and hurled him against several glass cases of testing matter. The other scientists attempted to flee but the assailant unleashed a binding net from one of its metallic gauntlets, holding the men in place and slowly crushing them.
The stranger then lifted his hood and revealed a metallic skull mask with sharp black eyes and a mouth vent. He then walked over to the main computer and lifted a flap from one of his gloves, revealing a memory port. With the use of a downloading circuit, the assailant connected his glove to the computer and began downloading every bit of information concerning the suit and all its features.
Once the download was complete, the masked stranger pulled his hood over and simply walked out of the building while the scientists remained scattered throughout the floor. Once the attacker reached the back alley of the building, the place itself started to explode with the men still inside. With all of the information stolen and no witnesses alive, the hooded phantasm simply walked away into the night without a single worry.
For two months, occurrences like this had been happening throughout all of Tomoeda's major science production facilities. Masuyo Industries, Hikaru Tech, Katsu Labs and now Sakai Inc. were amongst those terrorized. Reports of stolen technology and information, murdered workers and the destruction of testing labs were all acknowledged by the public as signs that a new menace was on the rise.
And without Sakura Kinomoto, who had been dead now for six months, the people feared it would only be a matter of time until this so-called "Shadow Reaper" would haunt the city itself next. The Tokyo Knights, however, vowed to prevent that from happening.
¬¬¬¬¬
Another night had fallen on the city of Tomoeda as a heavily armed man shot back at his pursuers as he drove hastily and carelessly along the city streets. With Yue hot on his trail, the man swerved to the right and took a shortcut through the park.
"He's heading for the park." Yue spoke through an earpiece. "Ruby, are you in position?"
"You know I am!" Ruby responded as she swooped down and sliced off the roof of the car with a magic shard.
"Oh shit…" The man said as he continued speeding.
"He's all yours, Eriol." Ruby spoke through her piece.
Suddenly, a small cloud of rain formed above the roofless vehicle and started to drench the man in an attempt to impair his view. Eriol stood in the middle of the road, his staff glowing bright yellow but the criminal ignored him and attempted to run him over.
With a wall of fire rising from the ground, the man panicked and hit the brakes too soon which caused him to crash through the windshield. Cerberus chuckled as he and Spinel watched the man roll over the broken glass in pain.
"You know…" Eriol started as he kneeled over the man. "…That's why they invented seatbelts."
Before the team could apprehend the criminal, another speeding vehicle pulled up and revealed two other armed men with masks. They started to shoot at the team but Yue's and Ruby's magic shields protected them all in time as the first suspect easily escaped Eriol's grip and headed straight for the getaway car.
"They're getting away!" Spinel shouted as he and Cerberus went after them.
The vehicle anticipated the two beasts to raise another wall of fire as it made a hard U-turn and headed towards the downtown region. With all four guardians hot on their trail now, the driver picked up the speed as another one of the men held a remote in his hand.
"Focus your attacks on the tires. We don't want to kill them." Yue commanded as Ruby, Spinel and Cerberus flew in a line.
As the car drove right through a red light, the entire stoplight itself exploded and caught the guardians by surprise. The four of them were pushed back by the impact of the explosion and now had to focus on putting the flames out as the men now got away.
Further on down the road, the men could see the team was still chasing after them with Eriol riding on Spinel's back and Tomoyo and Meiling riding on Cerberus. Yue and Ruby Moon attempted to cut them off from the front but the driver's proficiency allowed them to swerve away yet again.
"We can't keep this up!" Tomoyo shouted.
Just when the criminals thought they were home free, another wall of fire arose from the ground as a powerful gust of wind pushed the vehicle into it. This sudden occurrence gave Ruby and Yue the chance to swoop down and cut off the roof of the car as Cerberus and Spinel picked up all four of the men and lowered them to the ground.
"Thought you could get away, huh?" Meiling said as she tied them all up.
"That was good thinking, Eriol!" Tomoyo said as she wrapped her arms around him.
"Uhh…" The blue-eyed boy had a confused look on his face. "I didn't do that."
"You don't have to be modest."
"No, I mean I really didn't! That wasn't my spell!"
"No…" Said a familiar voice as it stepped from behind the fire. "…It was mine."
Everyone was surprised to see their old friend back home, armed with his sword and ofuda just like old times.
"Now, honestly…" He started. "Are you guys really that bad without me?"
"Li!" Tomoyo's face immediately lit up as she ran over to the boy and gave him a tight hug.
"Hi, Tomoyo." He smiled. "It's good to see you too."
"Hey, the kids back!" Kero said as he transformed back into doll form.
¬¬¬¬¬
After the police had taken the men away, the team in black suits walked along the city streets, reunited with their teammate.
"You still actually go outside in those suits?" Li asked.
"The old ones were nice but I thought I'd give the uniforms a little more protection." Tomoyo explained. "Especially around the elbow region."
"What about you, Li?" Eriol asked. "Are you going to be putting on a suit again anytime soon?"
"No." He slowly shook his head.
Everyone was surprised by his answer but decided it best to shrug it off and continue their way back home. As they walked, Tomoyo could sense in Li that he was still greatly troubled by something.
¬¬¬¬¬
Inside the living room of Tomoyo's house, Sonomi walked in on her daughter and Li as they were sitting on the couch and talking with each other.
"I've set up a room for you, Li." The woman said. "It's down the hall and to your left so when you're ready, you can turn in for the night."
"Thank you, Ms. Daidouji." The boy responded.
"It's good to see you again." She then turned to her daughter. "Good night, Tomoyo."
"Good night, mother." Tomoyo said as her mother left the room. She then turned to Li with a concerned look on her face. "How are you, Li? Really."
"I…" The boy was at a loss for words. "I don't know exactly. I'm glad to be back here amongst friends but… a part of me wishes I wasn't here."
"Because of… Sakura?"
Li nodded and leaned back on the sofa as Tomoyo sensed something indeed was troubling him. She moved in and put her hand on his in an attempt to figure out what was bothering him.
"Something's bothering you, isn't it?" She asked. "And it's not just Sakura's death."
Li gave her a surprised look and turned away. "No. Of course not."
"Please, Li. Don't lie to me."
With a heavy sigh, Li faced the girl and explained. "I've been having this dream lately."
"A dream?"
"It starts off as a fond memory I have of Sakura and I. We're in the fields beneath the cherry tree and we're just sitting down, talking. My arms are wrapped around her head is placed against my chest."
"I remember. You and Sakura always did that whenever one of you was feeling down."
"Yeah. But the dream suddenly fades away and a nightmare sets in."
"What kind of nightmare?"
"A sort of black cloud comes in and shrouds itself over Sakura, taking her away from me. Before I can fight back, I wake up. And I realize once again that she's gone and she's never coming back."
Tomoyo looked down and leaned back against her seat. "What could it mean? I doubt it's any kind of premonition now that Sakura's gone. There haven't been any magical disturbances since the Kibou Festival and if there were, Eriol would have picked up on it. Maybe it's just a dream, Li, and nothing more than that. Just a simple, no-strings attached… dream."
She looked up to see Li had already fallen asleep on the couch and gently smiled. She left the room for a minute then returned with a blanket to lay over her friend. Once he was covered, Tomoyo smiled again and placed a kiss on his forehead. She then walked off, stopping only to shut off the light but before doing so, she gave one last glance at the young boy and whispered softly.
"Welcome home, my friend."
ANOTHER NOTE: It's a rough start, I know. But expect things to get better in the following chapters. That is, if you're reading it at all… Crap. I'm in trouble, aren't I?