Never Mess With What You Know

Today started normal. At least STARTED. But, you see, for me, Raven C., 'normal-ness' never lasts. Guaranteed.

Well, I should start from the beginning, so you don't get too confused with the ending.

It started as a cold day in march, on Friday the thirteenth. I should know better than to actually go outside on that day. Magic is always out to get me, so I had ALL my charms. You know, the one that deflects minor spells, and the one that tells me what level mage a person is, and the one that tells me wither or not you're a human, or a magical creature, and all that good crap.

The BIG mistake was after school, I was driving my moped home, and two of my charms that should never touch, (the one that deflects magic, and the one that lets me make ki balls fast) touched. Now, this might seem like nothing to you, but let me tell you. I made all my charms, and the spell components for each crystal to have it's power never should mix, and having them touch worked.

The only reason why I noticed was the blinding flash that came from my breast pocket, that made me swerve into a ditch. I took off my goggles and helmet, and then wondered what hell I had broke loose.

The answer was a few feet away from me. A little thing was moving in the grass. I couldn't see what it was, but I had a good guess, and I walked over to it.

My presumption was close, but I got no cigar. Yes, it was a paranormal object, but it was not what I expected.

It was a little person. Eight inches tall, struggling to stand up.

"Yo." I said.

The little boy stared at me, and as I dreaded, passed out. Great. Now I have a little boy, who probably doesn't speak English, unconscious, because of me. Since I brought him here, might as well take him home. I lifted him gently, and made sure that he was breathing, and looked carefully at him. He was wearing a Sailor fuku, and he was heavy for his size. I recognized him from some thing. . .

I didn't have long to wait for him to wake up. He moaned, then opened his eyes.

"morning." I said. The boy stared at me, then realized he was laying on a hand.

"Where am I?" He said in a little voice that took me a minute to understand.

"In my hand," I said "And in Pittsburgh, New York, America." He looked like he was going to faint again so I added "put your head between your knees, so you don't conk out again."

He didn't follow my orders, or faint. He stared at me.

"Who are you?" He said, loudly.

"You don't need to shout. I'm Raven C." I replied. "And you are. . .?"

"Syaoran Li." then I knew. He was from the Manga, or Anime, Card Captors Sakura. Great. Just to add to my mood, it started to rain.

"Ok. Li, I'm going to put you into my pocket, and then I'll take you home."

"Home? Mine or yours?"

"mine." I set him in the breast pocket of my leather jacket. He crouched so only his head showed in the top.

"I had a backpack. Is it here too?" He asked.

"I'll check." I looked where he was, to no avail. "It's not there. Prolly it's where you left."

"that would be at Tomoeda Elementary school." He said, quietly.

"No worries kid," I said, "I'll get you back, Promise."

He didn't seem reassured.

"Do you know HOW I got here?" he asked.

"Yep. See that charm next to you?" I said

"Yeah, it. . . Has a presence?

"Yep. Magic pendant. That touched another charm (which has been moved to another pocket) and they brought you here."

"Wow. It's really strong, Who made it?"

"I did." I grabbed my Moped, and set it upright. "now, you need to hide in my pocket. Completely. Or you'll get wind burns." I put my helmet and goggles back on as he curled up in my pocket. I closed the flap, and started up the moped, named "Haruko" for stupid reasons. . As always, it started perfectly, even though that was the third crash I had that week. Almost like an anime tool.

I drove the last mile or so home, and put away Haruko, and opened the flap again. I felt him move to stand as I pulled off my head gear.

"Yo. Welcome to my house." I said. Syaoran sat up, and looked around, he didn't say anything. "you hungry?"

"No." He replied, demoralized.

"Well, I am." I got some bread, and made myself a small sandwich, then went to my room.

Inside, I held my hand for Syaoran to climb onto, so I could put him on the table. He climbed on, and I set him on my desk. I pulled off my soaking jacket, (it was a really bad rain) then realized that he was wet, and freezing too.

"You want something to change into?" I asked.

He nodded, or maybe it was him shaking so much, but whatever. I opened my drawer, and pulled out a Li Syaoran Fashion doll, and pulled off the hat, and the white clothing, and handed them to him. He stared at me for a few seconds, before I realized he wanted me to look away. I did so, as I looked for warmer cloths in the rare few doll clothing I had. I had a few skirts, a shoe, and a ripped shirt.

So much for that idea. I went to my Rag bag, and pulled out a sweater that had gotten too small for me.

"you done Syaoran?" I asked

"Yeah." I heard as his reply. I walked back to him. He was wearing everything I had given him, and the wet clothes he had laid out flat on the table. I took the shirt, and put it on the sweater, and measured out the outline of the shirt, plus about a centimeter. I cut two of those, and dragged out my sewing kit. I also cut a square of sweater, and gave him a blanket. A large blanket, but a warm one. As I sewed the mini sweater, I thought of how to send him back. Soon as I finished, I handed it to him, and then pulled out my Magic text books, and started looking through them.

"what are you doing?" he asked.

"Well, I'm trying to find the formula I made which brought you here, so I could reverse it so you could get back." I replied, as I looked for the "Charms" part of the book. I pulled out a note book, and started taking notes.

Li looked over my wrist at the book.

"What will that book tell you?" He inquired.

"this particular book, not what I need." I closed it and found my rarely used, but most important book, called 'Fixing Magic's Royal Botch Ups' and opened to the table of contents.

"Fixing Magical botches of the human body. . . Fixing Magical botches of the animal body. . . Fixing Magical botches of inanimate object destruction. . .Fixing Magical teleportation of unreal human or creatures! Here it is!" I opened to the page, and found multiple sub chapters.

"You're gonna find how to send me back, with a book." Syaoran said, sounding mad, and unbelieving.

"you betcha. You know what you can do, just so you don't get too sick. Sit down by that box." I motioned towards a semi-transparent box. Syaoran did so, and then I turned it on. It was a lamp.

"You sit there, and you'll warm up fast. That's a one hundred watt Light bulb." I got back to work, munching on my sandwich, once in a while. I mostly took notes, and half an hour later, I figured it out.

"done." I said to myself, since Syaoran fell asleep half way in. I poked him awake. "Yo. I know how to send you back."

"You do?" He was still a blurry eyed with sleep. "how?"

"well, first I need to make another pendant. I have one part of the mix, but the other crystal needs to get made." I out away my book, and pulled out another one, called
'Making Magical Talismans for Daft Spell Makers.' HEY! Don't laugh at the title, it's a good book!

Anyway, I looked up the talisman I'd need, and discovered that making it was the half of my worries.

"Great. I have to get this stuff now." I got another sheet of paper, and started writing down what I'd need. That's about when Syaoran noticed what I was wearing.

"Hey. . . Are those guns?" He asked

"Yeah. Revolver" I pulled out one gun, "and a 45." I pulled out the other. I put them back, and kept writing down the ingredients, "one pound Aphrodisiac plant, one cup chopped earth fruit, a teaspoon adoptive child of man-"

"Wait, what is all that stuff?" Syaoran interrupted.

"The Aphrodisiac plant is plants that people believe increases love lives. This is a large number of things, but I usually use Celery(1), and one cup earth fruit is a plant that grows underground. Roots. And adoptive child of man is something humans made that's not organic, like plastic. I generally use the packing peanuts, since they're cheap."

"Oh." Syaoran silenced, and let me work. He was no longer shivering, but he still seemed overwhelmed by everything. I reached over and petted him with one finger.

"It'll be alright. I promise. This isn't hard, it's just going to take three days. You can get back to the serious stuff soon." Li sighed.

"Yeah." He said, and sat by the lamp again, and laid down. I kept working, and soon I was disrupted by a quiet, growling sound.

"You can eat the rest of my sandwich." I said, not looking up. Syaoran muttered a thanks, and went over and munched at it.

As I finished the list, He had finished his lunch, and was starting to drop off again.

"do you want to come with me?" I asked Syaoran.

"Yeah." He sat up. "did it stop raining?" He asked

"Nope, but I'll wear a rain jacket this time." And I pulled off my guns, put a flannel shirt on, then put the guns on, and then my blood red raincoat.

I started singing as I went to the garage to get Haruko.

"What is that song?" I heard a voice from my chest say.

"It's called 'Butterfly'. It's a song from a game, called Dance Dance Revolution.

I've been searching for a man

All across Japan

Just to find, to find my samurai

Someone who is strong

But still a little shy

Yes I need, I need my samurai"

Li was quiet, just listening to the song, I could almost hear his appall, so I stopped singing.

"Sorry, I'll sing a better one." I said. Li kept quiet, as I pulled Haruko into the drive way, and started her up.

When we got to my favorite mall, I greeted the shopkeeper, and handed him my list of ingredients.

"I don't recognize this one, Rave'." He said, skeptically.

"It's in the book you gave me." I retorted.

"What does this one do?" He asked. "Aphrodisiac plants and Essence of Masticated Herbal Hours don't mix that well."

"this one is hard to do. It's one that'll tell me what kind of magical creature something is."

"WHY do you need that? You can always tell, if you know that it is a creature."

"this one's a cure for a mistake."

"Mistake?"

"Two charms connected."

"What happened?"

"This." I opened my jacket, and opened my pocket. "come on out Li." Li did so.

"Oh god." He said. "Who is this?"

"This is Syaoran Li." I said, brusquely.

". . . Hi" Li said, as I put him down on the counter.

"So, Rave', you go get your stuff. I want to make sure he's unharmed from his little trip."

"Righty-o" I walked off, and started the great expedition of the ingredients. Most everything was here, accept for some "Poison dirt" which could be got at 'Argh Whey'(2).

When I got back to the table, Li was sitting on the cash register. The shopkeeper rang up my order as I set Li back in my pocket.

"it all comes to $60.34." He said.

"Alright. Put it on the usual charge" I replied, and put the 'groceries' in plastic bags, then I held my hand out for Li. He climbed on, and set him in my pocket.

I walked back to my moped, wondering what hells would await me with this near impossible spell to make, without realizing what a total idiot it was gonna take to finish this.

Author Notes
(1) Yes, I looked it up. Kill me. It is.

(2) Argh whey = Agway