Summary: There is a plague in this world, a terrible one. Once contracted, it is most certainly fatal. With his companions all dead and dying, will Kurogane be able to keep Fai alive?
Warnings: Plague, Death, Character death, Shounenai, Suicide, Graphic ~ish descriptions of plague, inaccurate descriptions of plague, OOC Syaoran. *Just as an Extra Warning, I will kill ALL of the main Tsubasa characters.*
This is 2 weeks late, sorry. Procrastination, am I right? -_- So I'm gonna do this as a long oneshot. Don't hold your breath for anything next time, either, cause I want to apply to these schools and stuff.
I don't own Tsubasa or CLAMP. Reviews would be amazing. Enjoy the story! - Bella-chan
Leaves crumbled to dust as they touched down in a deserted town square reminiscent of some old European village. There was absolute silence save for the crackling of leaves. It was clear that something terrible had happened here. Fai broke the silence first.
"We should search the homes for signs of life. If there is nothing, look for a house we can spend the night in." The mage was uncharacteristically quiet as they split up to cover more ground. After about ten minutes, there were still no signs of life. As Kurogane searched a house, finding nothing save for some tattered blankets and dusty mouse skeletons, Sakura screamed from across the street. Rushing across the cobblestone street, he found Syaoran racing to her as well. She was standing precariously on the second floor of a house with rotten through beams. There was mold on the walls, but that was not why she was screaming. Most terrifying of all was the body sprawled on the straw covered pallet in the corner of the room. It's skin was yellowed and sagging, covered in black lumps that oozed pus and blackened blood. As Kurogane and Syaoran (and Fai now, too) entered the room, it shifted, decomposing. But Sakura ran to it, crying,
"She's not dead!", and she gathered the corpse up In her arms. It (she) blinked open eyes encrusted with sweat and tears. She reached up toward Sakura's face, as if to stroke it, but suddenly coughed, blood spurting from her gaping, dried up hole of a mouth, and died. Sakura he'd the woman's body to her chest as the bloody sun set. Then she rose, wordlessly, and left the room, the others trailing after her.
Fai had found an abandoned house a few miles from the town, which was where they decided to spend the night. On the uphill trek to the house, Sakura began coughing, then grew dizzy. Syaoran carried her the rest of the way. Mokona sat on his shoulder, silent. Syaoran slept in the same room as them, watching her labored breaths, growing shallower as snow fell softly outside.
The next morning, Sakura was no better, and he decided to search for a doctor. Kurogane couldn't help but think that Syaoran couldn't bear to see Sakura die again. He gave Syaoran an awkward, rough hug as the boy prepared to leave, Syaoran just having been showered with well-wishing from the mage. Once he left, Kurogane took it upon himself to search for a food source, as Fai tended to Sakura. The ninja returned as night fell once more, with a pair of frozen squirrels, found dead in a snowbank. Fai accepted them happily and began to make a fire. Kurogane noticed that the thinner man was shivering, and every once in a while, he coughed. The tall warrior added another log to the fire.
In the early hours of the next day, Fai found Mokona, solid as a rock and dead as a doornail. The small white creature had gotten sick and died overnight. Fai's tears froze to his cheeks as he watched Kurogane bury their cheerful traveling companion. Kurogane realized he would miss the tiny annoyance. And their only way home. As they trudged through the thickening snow, he put an arm around Fai, wishing he knew what to say.
They didn't tell Sakura. She was rarely conscious.
That night, Kurogane's awoke to being shaken roughly. He coughed, choking on smoke. Fai was shouting, calling his name.
"Kurogane! Fire! Help me get Sakura!" Kurogane sat up, blinking smoke out of his eyes. As he registered what was happening, he jumped up, grabbing the princess' cold, sleeping form. He stumbled through the smoke, Fai dragging him from ahead. They reached the frozen outside, collapsing into the snow as they coughed. Kurogane was sweating, but Fai's teeth were chattering and his fingertips were blue. Could Fai be sick as well?
"Kurogane. Need...shelter." Fai could barely speak for all his wheezing. Kurogane too struggled to regain his breath.
"Back...to the town?", he managed, lurching to his feet. Over the course of an hour, they traveled the two miles downhill, Kurogane barely managing to carry the too-thin Sakura. They found a moderately clean house and immediately fell asleep there. It was dusty, and Kurogane found himself sneezing constantly.
The next couple days were without event, and Fai found some moldy bread for them to share. Sakura couldn't even drink melted snow now, it just dribbled out of her mouth. Kurogane worried frequently, now. Where had Syaoran gone? Without Mokona, how would they leave? Would Sakura survive? And most of all, did Fai have the strange sickness? He spent all of his time with Sakura, getting little to no sleep. Most of all, he was constantly shivering, while Kurogane knew it wasn't that cold outside.
On their eighth day in this death trap of a world, Sakura slipped away. She awoke, screaming in the night for Syaoran. Her skin was hot to the touch and black boils covered her from head to toe. Her hair fell out, and her fingernails shriveled as her jade green eyes covered in thick white film. When it was over, and Sakura was buried alone in the woods, Fai sat on the steps and cried. Kurogane joined him.
"You should get some rest."
"Kurogane, do you really think a little sleep is going to change anything?" His voice rose in pitch, and he stood. "They're all dead, and I couldn't change anything about it! Don't you see it's all my fault? I might as well just join them now!" He drew a knife from his cloak and pointed it at his chest. Kurogane's body reacted faster than his mind. He reached out and grabbed the knife handle, at the same time blurting,
"No! Fai! If you died, I couldn't stand it. You're the only hope I have left here. Fai... I think I'm in love with you." He sat down, dizzy suddenly from his confession and the world dimmed, and he fell to his side and began hacking up blood and there was blood everywhere and he was choking it was coming from his mouth, his nose, his ears. Right before he lost consciousness, the last thing he ever saw was Fai, his eyes beautiful deep pools of sorrow.
Fai sat on the stairs, numb. Just a few hours ago, Kurogane had died of the plague on that very same staircase, the knife still in his hand. The knife. Fai stood. He knew what he would do. The magic crackles at his fingertips, sweeping whole buildings away, until only the cobblestones remained. Mokona, Sakura and Kurogane had all been buried, and Syaoran was missing, probably dead. It didn't matter to Fai. There would still be a funeral. Five black coffins floated into a hole opened in the ground by the magic. They were covered with a cascade of dirt, appearing from nowhere and a dozen black roses. Fai topped the gravesite with a tall novelist of black stone, words inscribed in with magic so strong that the ghostly white writing would never fade. The mage turned now, clothed in funerary formal black. He walked away.
"Goodbye, Kurogane. We'll meet again in Gehenna."
The man in the beaked mask walked slowly into the void where the nameless town once stood. With his last breath, the brown haired boy had begged him to save a princess, sick with the plague, waiting for him in this town. It was all the man could do to help in this time. He reached the tall bookish and took off his mask so he could read it.
In memory of
Mokona Modoki presumably of Japan, Sakura, Princess of Clow, Kurogane of Suwa, all dead of plague.
Syaoran of Clow, missing, thought dead.
Fai D. Fluorite, by his own cursed hand.
All dead within eight days of entering this accursed death trap.
The man, this world's Ashura, replaced his mask and walked off, leaving nothing but dust to remember the dead.
The end. Please review!