Beloved Enemy

Witch-Mistress-Animaru

A/N: Here's the update on Beloved Enemy. I was struck with sheer ingenuity on the way home. Since I cannot be interested to retype the chapters of this fic, I decided to start from scratch.

Yep. I am revising this fic—with the same plot of course—and combining the two "books" to one story. So I am replacing the prologue—tweaking it a bit...

One-time disclaimer: CCS isn't mine. You ought to know that by now—it would have been a huge mess if it were mine.

Prologue

Yelan Li was a tough woman. She headed her family alone, disciplining her five children and teaching them the importance of strength.

…Not only physical strength, but strength which stems from the power of one's will, and the purity of one's heart.

So how was it that she was being lowered down to the ground in a casket that cold, cold November day?

Her youngest—and only son for that matter—Syaoran, could not fathom why it had to happen.

Yet he did not cry.

He understood that his mother was dead, but he did not cry.

For Yelan said he had to be strong, no matter what.

So even while his whole world shattered around him, Li Syaoran stood his ground. While his sisters wept, Syaoran balled his hands to fists and toughened his young heart.

"Poor child…"

"He's too young to ever understand such loss…"

Nobody understood that he, in fact, understood. Yet he could not care less.

As he remembered how Yelan had died…

For how long he stood there, he did not know. But everyone had come and gone, and still, he stood against the strong November wind.

"Mother..."

"I can't just believe that days ago I was arguing with you... about — about family matters. I wonder why..." He paused, silence greeting his words.

"Now I understand how important it is for me to learn to fight. I swear, Mother, I will do all I can to learn everything about our Clan..." He was beginning to choke on the words, but he stopped the tears from falling.

"I swear in your grave, mother. I will avenge your death," he said with much more calm than he felt.

"Are you ready to go, Syaoran?" a voice behind him startled Syaoran. It was Sheifa, his eldest sister. Her eyes were puffy and red, her voice a little hoarse.

"Onee-san," he acknowledged her presence, yet he made no move to approach her.

"You've been there for nearly three hours, Syaoran...You'd catch a cold if you aren't careful." She approached her, a jacket in hand, but Syaoran shook his head.

"No, onee-san. I am quite fine."

"But Syaoran, you…"

"Please don't treat me like a kid, onee-san…"

"But you are a kid!" Sheifa exclaimed.

"Yes…But I am a Li—and that makes all the difference. I'm not like those kids you seem to compare me to, onee-san. All these responsibilities as heir of the clan…can't you see? I was never a kid in its true sense…"

"Syaoran…" Before he could guess what she was about to do, Sheifa crossed the gap between them and hugged him, tears glistening in her eyes. "Oh, Syaoran…you are still a child, but I did not mean that you do not understand the enormity of your responsibilities. Can't you just…just let it go for a while?"

The tears threatened to fall, but Syaoran held them in check.

"Let's go, onee-san. The others are probably waiting for us anyway. I need to talk to the elders as soon as we get back."

"Syaoran…oh, what has Mother done to you?" Sheifa dried her eyes as she watched her youngest sibling walk away. "She has turned your heart to stone…"

"Tell me what you're thinking," the girl beside Syaoran said as he waited the elders to end their meeting.

He stared at her—Meiling Li—dispassionately. Like him, she was summoned by the elders a few days after his mother's death.

He never cared much for this cousin. And he didn't really want to talk so he pretended not to hear.

"Xiao Lang," she insisted. "You look so sad. Tell me what you're thinking…"

"It's none of your business," he said tersely.

"But Xiao Lang…it won't be so bad, you know—if you try and tell me about it."

"I do believe the elders are calling us," he answered, standing up abruptly to leave.

"Oh, Xiao Lang, wait for me!"

--

"Xiao Lang, wait for me," 20-year old Li Meiling whined as she tried to catch up with him.

"Do me a favor and quit whining, Meiling," he said dispassionately. Fifteen years had passed since they were summoned by the elders to tell them that they were to be engaged.

It wasn't so bad, he thought back then. He could live with such a pest for a wife, if it meant pleasing them.

It was all for her. For Mother.

And he had, in his own way, learned to like Meiling. Perhaps he'd never grow to love her, but he cared for her…he was fond of her, the way a brother would be fond of a sister.

That would have to suffice.

"But is it true? You are leaving Hong Kong to return to Japan?"

"Yes, I am, Meiling. What of it?"

"Take me with you, then."

"Why would I do that?" He asked, frowning.

"So I could be sure you'd look at no one else when you're in Japan."

"That's stupid and you know it. What of your studies? You're a sophomore now, aren't you?"

"Don't talk like that!"

"Like what?"

"Like you are way older than I am. I don't care much for your tone, Xiao Lang."

"And I don't care much for your possessive attitude, Meiling Li."

She gaped at him before glaring at him with tears in her eyes. "You're so mean, Li Xiao Lang," she said before turning away.

But Li Syaoran never did care for emotions.

--

"So, what have you found about them?" Syaoran asked impatiently over the phone.

"Everything's in the envelope I sent you." The man at the other end replied.

"Eriol, this hardly covers anything at all. What of Kinomoto's…involvement with unsavory characters?"

"Well, it's either he hides it well or there's nothing to hide. The man could've been at the wrong place, at the wrong time, man. Your mother's murder was long closed and he was declared innocent."

"I don't think…no, I know otherwise, Eriol."

"And, dare I ask, how can you be so sure?"

"Because…" I was there, damn it! I saw him cradle her when she fell; as if he expected that she would be shot! "Damn it, Eriol, I don't need to answer to you! Just do as I say and find out more about this man. You know I need all the help I can get."

"Xiao Lang, can no one stop you from this folly?"

"Folly, is it? You're not one to speak, let alone preach me, Eriol."

Eriol sighed. "Very well, I shall do as you ask. But I'd only give you information, nothing more."

"I never asked for anything else," was the terse reply.

"When do you leave?" Eriol asked, abruptly cutting their argument.

"The day after tomorrow," he answered. "Will it be ready by then?"

"God, I wish you'd change your mind, man. This man's not at all what you think he is…"

"Let me be the judge of that. I ask you again, will the information be ready by then?"

"I—yes, Syaoran. It will be ready before your departure."

"Excellent. I knew I could count on you. Just send it over so I could have a look, okay?"

"Syaoran…surely this revenge nonsense has gone on long enough?"

"You don't know what you're saying, Eriol. You never knew my mother."

"But we're friends and I just want to advise you! I think that you're being obtuse about this. I just don't know why."

"Enough talk and get to work, Eriol," he said with a dry chuckle before hanging up.

No one can stop me from taking my revenge. No one.

--

"This is all?" Eriol asked his subordinate as he gazed at the file. The man only nodded and left.

The Kinomotos were private people, it seemed. He gazed at Kinomoto Fujitaka and he knew the man was no killer, intended or otherwise. The children, meanwhile, were both normal individuals—he could not fathom how and why Syaoran would hurt them.

Especially the girl…

Syaoran was his best friend, and he was the best fellow around, in Eriol's opinion…

…save for that darkness which consumed his soul, that desperation to avenge his mother's death. That burning evil which clawed at the good man that he was, leaving him scarred and flawed.

And despite the dire circumstances, Eriol hoped.

He hoped that Syaoran would change in the course of executing his plans.

And if there was any chance he'd change, it might well stem from this girl.

The enemy's daughter—or so it would appear to Syaoran.

A forbidden fruit…

Nothing could be more tempting to him…

TBC