This is my first TRC fanfiction and I don't own anything except my OC. I can't really see the point of a disclaimer when the website itself is called hahaha but nonetheless... enjoy!
~oOo~
The night before the end of my ordinary days, I received my university acceptance letter in the mail. I remember so clearly the feeling of my heart beating in my ears, the way my hands were shaking and the way my knees had locked so stiffly I could not walk one step if my life depended on it as I ripped open the envelope and unfolded my letter. Dear Miss Clarissa Koizumi, we are pleased to inform you . . . those six words caused such a rush of dizzy relief.
The four of us met up to celebrate the very next day, beginning with the café my mother ran with my older sister to catch up and compare results before going into town to catch a movie with the boys.
I remember choosing my clothes so carefully that morning, as if clothes were the current issue of humanity. After several attempts at trial and error, I finally settled on a turquoise long-sleeved top with a frill neckline and my favourite black pants. I put on heeled boots that ended just before my knee and tied my dark hair in a loose ponytail. I remember applying rosy lip gloss and mascara, slipping the tubes into my bag to touch up later. I remember filling a water bottle, finding my wallet and keys. Out of habit I also slid my dairy and a pen into my backpack and on second thoughts, a jacket. I remember every detail with such clockwork clarity.
If I knew what fate was about to befall us all I would have packed clothes and shoes as well.
I remember it all so clearly. It was warm and sunny, a couple kissed by the fountain spraying glistening water. I remember the way my ring caught the light and reflected it back in a pailful flash. A breeze swept my hair from my face as I tilted my head back to face the sun. I remember the bright smiles on my friend's faces, the happy, excited hugs we shared and the delirious chatter. My sister snapped her gum impatiently when we placed our orders. "Hurry up, people are waiting." I had ordered a banana split, everyone shook their heads and laughed at my early sugar fix.
Everything had just taken a dramatic turn for the better. We had spent two long years in the tunnel of high school studying furiously and finally burst into the light. Everyone was laughing.
Then, boom!
It started with a low rumbling sound followed by a slight vibration. Soon, our plates and cups were clattering, the salt and pepper shakers toppled, spraying the table with white and black. I saw my confusion reflected in my friend's faces, worried murmurs rippled through the shop. Something crashed in the kitchen, followed by many. I heard my sister screaming and my mum shouting. "Get out!" I ordered my friends, then I dashed to the kitchen.
My sister was trying to keep a shelf from toppling over even though the building was practically shaking. She clung so desperately to one thing she could control. I grabbed my sister and mother and sprinted out of the café, dodging our tables and chairs, my backpack thumping on my back. Behind us, the shelf fell over, shattering glass over the tiles.
Chaos. Things were on fire, the water mains had burst, and buildings were collapsing on people before our eyes. We turned and ran. There were already severe casualties. A woman was lying with her lower half trapped under an upturned delivery truck, 5 year old Rick was lying unmoving in a puddle. I kicked his face out of the water as I ran by. Parents were screaming their children's names and god, there was so, so much blood.
Yet, no one knew where to go, or how to get there. There was only one thought. Run.
I remember the burning in my lungs, the confusion that clouded my mind and the sound of our collective panting. Adrenaline flooded my veins and I ran faster than I'd ever had, pulling my mother behind me.
A strangled cry erupted from my sister. She went down, just like that. "Sammy!" I screamed. I ran back and tried to pull her up, but her leg buckled and gave way. I remember the sickening way her knee was jutting out.
I hear my mother utter a surprised 'oh!' I whirled around in time to see her crumple face-first onto the broken road. I dashed to her. The blood flowed freely from a wound in the back of her head. A scream ripped itself from my throat.
A stray block of metal hit the back of my shoulder, sending a searing pain through my arm and neck. I slumped forward. I made out the sound of Sammy crying over the ringing in my ears.
Just then, my mother lifted her head. Her eyes were cloudy and her smile threatened to slip off her face. "We're done," she said, "we can no longer run." A heavy thickness settled into my legs – dread. There as a muffled cry as a car tipped over where my sister was and burst into flames. Her screams carved at my heart. I felt light-headed with disbelief.
Life couldn't be so fragile.
What is going on?!
"Clary," my mother murmured.
"Mum!" my voice was strangled, but there were no tears. Something hit the side of my head. A thousand little jackhammers worked at my brain. The left side of my world was cracked and splintered, showing the world in a kaleidoscope. My glasses. Something warm and red trickled down my face. Blood. Oh god, so much blood.
"You were always special, did you know that?" she smiled through half lidded eyes. "You didn't always live in Kiseki. Clarissa, but you will be a great doctor. You have a power, you know that? Never lose faith in yourself. Live according to your beliefs but never be afraid of change." She was panting and speaking as if to cram a lifetime's advice into several sentences.
A wind picked up and whirled around me. I'm not sure how I was even able to see the wind, but it was thick and white. The finality in my mother's words chilled me to the bone.
"Remember to not let the dishes pile up. There will be somebody to help you. You'll meet new friends, new family. Clary, I love you." I remember the way her voice broke on the last sentence. Her hands wrapped around mine and suddenly the wind became vicious wrapping around my body – and lifting me higher.
A sob was wrenched from my lungs. "NO!" I screamed through my blurry tears. "Mum!" I was lifted higher and higher regardless of how hard I struggled to be put down. I desperately reached a hand out to touch my mother, so many metres below me, but she just smiled at me through her own tears and the blood from her cut.
My world was quickly becoming an enclosed ball of white. I screamed and screamed. My voice was wild, hoarse and animal.
When the whirlwind finally dispersed I was sprawled unceremoniously on the street of somewhere foreign. A small temple-like house surrounded by tall buildings. There was a woman with long black hair holding council with two men, a boy and a sleeping girl. I struggled to my feet and tried to get my breathing under control.
What was going on? That earthquake was so sudden, there were not even slight suspicions of one occurring but yet it ripped through. How many people survived? Is this heaven and the woman god? Where did my mother send me? And how? Why only me? What about Sammy?
Now, I sway on my feet and stumble to catch myself. Light rain sprinkles from the sky. I touch my head and my fingers come away red and dripping. "Get it off!" I scream. "Get it off, all this blood, off!" My fingers tremble as my vision narrows and my breathing grows heavy. All this life dripping out of me.
A fluffy sleeve wipes around the wound on my head, then my fingers. "Here, all done." A tall blonde guy smiles down at me.
"T-thanks." I say, shakily. "Sorry."
A cold female voice speaks. "What is your name, girl?" The regal woman with black hair. The rain doesn't touch her. Why?
"Clarissa." I say. "What is this place?" The rain simply bounces off a barrier against her regal robes. Is she repelling it?
"You are in Japan." She answers. I shake my head. Japan? Never heard of it. "It's a place where any wish can be granted," she continues, "provided a suitable price can be paid."
That's great. A psychic. Like this day isn't already crazy enough. Maybe she can fix my glasses, but even I know Mother and Sammy cannot be brought back. Maybe it didn't really happen.
"And so, the reason why all of you are here, is because each of you has a wish." She concludes.
"My home world," the blonde guy and the black haired guy starts together.
"- Is the place I do not want to be." The guy in the fluffy white coat finished.
"- Is where I want to be." The guy in black armour says. They spoke over each other but White does not seem half as bothered by it as Black, who is glaring.
The woman turns to me. "What about you, Clarissa?" she asks.
"Uhh," I stammer, "my mother sent me here, not me. But I want to go home." She raises her eyebrows.
"You no longer have a home." Her voice is flat and cold.
"What are you talking about, I just came from there!" I'm so confused.
"There are many worlds out there. They all share the same space but time flows differently in each." She said, coolly. "Time flows much quicker here than in Kiseki."
"Yeah, so?'
"Did you think that earthquake was natural?" she demands to know. My heart grows cold.
"Uhh, yeah. What, it's not like someone can make an earthquake." The scientific side of my brain argues, but my voice sounds hollow even to me. No prediction, not even the cat was acting any different.
The woman looks at me with pitying eyes. "It is not in your best interest to return home, given the dangerous turn of events." What? That's my home, where else would I go! I stare at her.
"Did you think your mother would send you away only for you to go back and get yourself killed?" she asks. Well, no. I rub my temples. But what is she saying? Does that mean Sammy and Mother are dead? Why didn't she send herself? Sammy needs help, she was on fire!
"How do you know who sent me?" I choose to ask. My voice is think and choked.
"No one else in Kiseki has any magical powers." She states, like it is common trivia. "So," she continues, "what is your wish, girl?"
I stand still. "I want to find the source of the earthquake." I say slowly. She nods for me to continue. "I want to . . . be a doctor?" The woman shakes her head. I try again. "I want information on the situation at home because I can't go back." The woman rubs at her chin thoughtfully.
"That is going to be pricy, girl," she says, "no, for all four of you." Not good, I have about twenty dollars on me. Maybe I can pawn something. My backpack was thrown up here with me so maybe she'd like my dairy or lip gloss or something.
As if that would happen.
"Even if you offered the most precious things you own, none of you have enough to pay." She continues. What? "But if all four paid together, you may just be able to afford it." She concludes. So . . . We share the price? How will that work?
"What kind of crap are you sprouting?" The man in black armour says.
"Mr Black, can you keep your insults down?" The man in fluffy white teases.
"I'm not 'Mr Black', I'm Kurogane!" the former roars.
"All four of your wishes are the same." The woman continues as if she was never interrupted. "You want to go to many worlds to restore the memory of this child." She says to the brunette boy cradling the unconscious girl. I gather she lost her memories and somehow they have a physical form that they can find and restore. Right. "You want to return to your own world." She says to Kurogane. She then turns to the blonde guy. "You want to go to different worlds to avoid returning to your own." She faces me last, her eyes piercing my every composure. "You want to discover the cause of your strange earthquake. You have different reasons but the method is the same: dimensional travel. Each of you individually cannot make that wish happen. However, if four of you combine your payment for one wish than you can afford it."
The only reason I can come up with is that out of all of us, some are able to pay to compensate for what the other cannot afford. Some things will always be more valuable than others.
"Then what would my payment be?" Kurogane asks, unhappily.
"Your sword."
"I will never sell way Ginryu!" the man bristles, holding Ginryu as far away from the woman as possible. How can it be that I still haven't learned her name?
"Fine!" the woman says, "Instead you will wander this world looking like a costume contest loser, and get picked up by the police for using an unlawful sword, and get plastered all over TV for being a freak! Is that what you want?" She playfully jabs at his chest with every point she makes, a maniac grin on her face.
"Huh? Polee? Tiivii?" He stutters, totally bamboozled.
"You realise you are stranded here and I'm the only person in the world who can get you out, right?" She smiles smugly.
"That has got to be a lie!" Kurogane screams. Yeah, it's not like we asked to be sent here, what a crummy way to find out.
"It's all true, you know!" The blonde guy chimes unhelpfully. I never caught his name either. Or anyone else's, for that matter which is slightly unnerving given that they know who I am and what just happened on my end.
"What will you do?" The woman asks. She knows she's won. Kurogane gnashes his teeth. He swears loudly.
"When I'm free from this curse, I'm coming back for it!" He bites out. He's cursed? Probably means this lousy situation. He thrusts his sword at her. She hardly looks fazed as she wraps the long sword in some sort of spell and sends it away. She turns to the thin blonde guy.
"Your price is your marking."
His face is serious and defeated as if he already know what would be expected of him. He recovers almost instantly, his mouth once again stretching into that silly grin. "I don't suppose this staff would do instead?" It didn't. His gentle smile was sad as the woman lured an intricate tattoo out through the back of his coat.
"Your locket, I see it's quite valuable." Her voice is cold. I clutch at the locket through my shirt. "Fourteen carat gold." She muses. She can't take this, she can't. Actually she can but I really don't want her to.
"Including the picture?" I ask, tentative and hardly daring to hope.
"Including the picture." Her voice is flat.
I undo the clasp reluctantly. I'm not the only one losing important things, I need to toughen up. Pictures are only a snapshot of the moment, it's not my lifeline. I drop my golden locket into the palm of the woman with raven hair. My heart clenches as I force the stinging behind my eyes to subside. I press a hand to my face as if that would stop the tears from spilling. I'm not the only one losing precious things. They're not crying, they're just toughing it out. I don't have the right to cry.
Lastly, she turns to the boy. "What about you? Now is the time to hand over your item of highest value. And you will be able to travel the worlds." She sounds like some stupid brochure.
"Fine." his voice is firm. He clutches the girl to his chest.
"You realise that I haven't named the price yet." The woman is incredulous. That sort of conviction probably doesn't roll around often. "The only thing I can do is send you to other worlds, finding the child's memories is something you will have to do."
"Fine!" he repeats. His amber eyes burn with determination.
"I like your attitude." The woman says sadly. This boy must be barely out of junior high but he's sticking it out, he's not even doing this for himself. I look towards the ceiling, willing my eyes to subside. I won't cry. A boy in a black uniform runs out of the house towards us, carrying a pair of rabbit like things in his arms. They have some sort of gem set into their foreheads. The boy passes the white rabbit to the woman. "The name of this young one is Mokona Modoki. Mokona will lead you through the worlds." She says. The black rabbit waves energetically from the boy's arms. Kurogane peers at it.
"Hey, you got an extra one." He holds his hand out. "Give it to me, I'll go home with that."
"No, that's not we keep in contact." The woman says, gesturing from the white one to the black one. "See, how useful. The only power this one has is to stay in communication with Mokona." Kurogane clicks his tongue. "Mokona will take you to different dimensions but there is no way to control which one. For that reason, only fate will decide when your wishes when your wishes will be granted." The woman states the facts with a detached calm. "However, there is no coincidence in the world. There is only destiny." She continues. "And what brought you together . . . was also destiny. Syaoran," she turns to the boy cradling the pink haired girl, "your price is your relationship. The thing you value the most is your relationship with her." She gestures to the girl. "So that is your price."
"My price? But how?" Syaoran asks. Fear and confusion is etched in his features.
"Even if this child's memories are completely restored, your relationship with her will never be the same again. So, what is she to you?" The woman cold eyes never waver. Syaoran holds the girl to his chest, looking pained.
"A childhood friend, and the princess of a country and . . . and a girl who is precious to me!" His grip on the girl tightens as if holding their relationship together.
"I see. However, if you accept Mokona, that relationship will end. Even if you retrieve all her memories, the one memory that you will never retrieve will be her memory of you. That is my price. Will you still pay it?"
And I thought I had it bad. We all thought our payment was harsh but they were nothing in comparison to what Syaoran has to pay. A picture will never compare to their memory of me. Everyone is silent, only the patter of rain can be heard. The boy's head is bowed. When he lifts his head, his eyes are burning with steely determination.
"Let's go. I will never let Sakura die!"
"Travel between worlds is more difficult than you can imagine. There are a variety of worlds. For example – the worlds those three come from. You can tell just from their clothes, can't you? All three of them come from different worlds than you. People you know, people you've met in your world . . . they've developed under completely different conditions in other worlds. You may meet different versions of the same person time after time in different worlds. And just because that person is nice to you in one world doesn't mean you will find an ally in the next.
"You will find worlds where you can't communicate – where even common sense doesn't work. Scientific development, living standards, laws all change with the world. There are worlds full of criminals, worlds full of lairs, worlds locked in constant wars . . . and you just live through them all. It will be a journey in which you don't know where you are nor how close you are to collecting all the fractured pieces of memory." The woman whose voice has been flat the whole time, picks up with her smile. "That said, are you still determined to see it through?"
"Yes." Syaoran says.
"Sincerity and determination. No matter what a person wants to attempt those are needed. May those qualities serve you well." She lifts her palm, and Mokona, to the sky. The white rabbit jumps into the sky and forms and magic circle underneath it. Wings snap from its back, flapping in great strokes. "And so, you may go."
Mokona opens its mouth and fierce winds spill out, wrapping around us and pulling us in – Into its mouth to another world.
That's when I realised I didn't give the woman a picture, or even fourteen carats of gold. I gave her the only thing linking me to the world I left behind.
~oOo~
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