Whoops, it's a day late! It was meant to be a Christmas present… but it came late. Ah well, no use crying over split milk. Can't turn back time…

By the way, how was YOUR Christmas? Mine was filled with… Canadians. Don't ask. Canadians and reindeer hairbands. Wow, I think I had a good time, looking back.

All standard disclaimers apply.

Summary: AU Based on the premise that Shaoran did not go to Tomoeda, how might have the world changed? Where truths and half-lies, and a darker threat lurk, bonds form and break. Where no one understands, and no one tries to understand, hearts change and shatter. The famous saying: There is no coincidence, only the inevitability. That they meet only now – was it truly fate? Or is something breaking the logic of what was predicted and decided decades ago?

Black World's God

Chapter 1

The handphone sitting on her bed blared out the irritating ringtone. The 15-year old girl jolted out of her seat, throwing her pen and earpiece down onto the textbook she was studying.

Sakura swept back her shoulder-length auburn locks and reached for the handphone. She accepted the call with a small sigh and held it to her ear.

"Tomoyo-chan?"

"Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo squealed from the other end of the line.

"What is it, Tomoyo-chan?"

"I heard… from mother…"

"Ah…" Sakura's eyes dropped to her feet. "I'm sorry I haven't told you about it. I wanted a clean break-"

"It's alright. I understand, Sakura-chan," Tomoyo's melodious voice ran over Sakura's rant. "And frankly, I don't blame you for it."

"Really… Tomoyo-chan?" Sakura let the slightest hint of a smile creep over her lips.

"I don't." And she hung up.

Sakura sighed and dropped the phone back onto her bed, turning back to her table where the math textbook was currently lying open, pages filled with scribbles and attempted solutions.

"Sakura?"

"Yes?" Sakura opened the top drawer on her right, fingering the old leather cover of the book.

"Are you sure? It's still not too late to reconsider-"

"This is what I want," Sakura insisted in a firm, resolute, and above all, cold voice.

There was silence.

"If that's what you want, Sakura… But running away won't solve anything."

Sakura shut the drawer.

Two Weeks later…

Li Shaoran stepped out of the back seat of the Li family limousine, clad in the dark school uniform and carrying a small briefcase in the crook of his arm. He slipped on his pair of dark, branded sunglasses, and walked confidently on the pathway to school.

"XiaoLang!"

Shaoran ignored the girl's cry, continuing on his path. Meiling could be a bother sometimes. Even though he obviously was fine on his own, she still pestered him to no ends, trying to mother him like some toddler.

"XiaoLang! Bike!"

He knew that already! He stepped sided to the left, allowing the bike to speed past as if he wasn't there just seconds ago.

A hand grabbed his arm. Shaoran turned back, scowling at his cousin.

"Would you stop it, Meiling! I don't need your help!" Shaoran spat at her.

"XiaoLang… I'm your fiancé, damn it!" Meiling raised her hand to slap him.

Shaoran caught the hand smoothly, pinning it to her side. "That was a stupid childhood promise! It doesn't count!"

"It does to me!" Meiling shouted at his face.

"Why must you bring up this god damn conversation every day?" Shaoran pushed her away in exasperation, patience wearing thin. "I'm getting tired of your childish arguments, Meiling."

Meiling huffed and folded her arms. "And I'm tired of you thinking you can handle everything by yourself! What do you think you can do huh, with those eyes-"

"Shut. Up."

Meiling froze at the icy cold words.

Shaoran turned away and left without another word.

"Xi-xiaoLang!"

This time, he didn't turn back.

XxxX

Sakura walked up the long, wide, concrete path to the school, observing the students milling by from the corner of her eye. She brushed back the stray locks of auburn hair that had escaped from her bun at the nape of her neck. The uniform of Ming Dao High School was fairly simple – a white undershirt with a black blazer and skirt, along with ties. For Sakura's year, the colour of the tie was a dark red.

Blood red.

Sakura tore off the tie and shoved it into her pocket, ignoring the appalled looks by the students all around.

Here she was, in Shanghai.

All alone.

She had arrived in the Chinese city just 5 days ago. It took her 5 days to get her living arrangements sorted out. She was living in the dormitory of the school, which was fairly decent. It took a while for her to get used to the all-Chinese environment, but luckily due to her diligent studying, she had a grasp on the language already.

It's a new start. She wouldn't have to be bothered with… whatever it was in Tomoeda.

The bell rang. Sakura looked up at the sky, fingers curling around her Star Staff pendant in her pocket.

Even in Shanghai, the sky is still the same old blue… huh…

XxxX

Shaoran sat at the back of the class, on the far left of the classroom, right beside the window, legs propped up on the table and hands laced on his stomach. His eyes closed – like always, and he blocked out the noise and buzzing going about all around him with an annoyed frown on his face. It seemed to be much… livelier today, for whatever reasons he didn't want to know.

"XiaoLang?"

"What?" Shaoran grounded out through clenched teeth.

He heard the empty chair beside him slide back, and a person sat down on the chair.

"XiaoLang?"

"What is it, Meiling?"

"Um…" He could almost picture her twiddling her thumbs, blushing and fidgeting. The chair was rocking – she was fidgeting. The chair had a bad leg and rocked madly whenever one shifted their weight too much around. It riled him up so much that he had scared away all the girls that had attempted to sit beside him the past few weeks.

"Spit it out, Meiling." Shaoran, finally having enough, snapped.

"I'MSORRYABOUTTHISMORNING!" Meiling half yelled, bowing deeply. Great, now he could feel the entire class' eyes on them. That girl really gets on his nerves at times.

"…"

"XiaoLang…" Meiling touched his shoulder with a hesitant hand.

He pushed her away with a sudden jerk, causing her to yelp and nearly fall off her chair.

"Don't touch me!"Shaoran snarled.

Meiling hiccupped and gave a whimper, "Y-yes… XiaoLang…"

Shaoran huffed and folded his arms, turning away.

Meiling was still sniffing on his right. The noise was so annoying. He was almost tempted to forgive her to stop that annoying sniffle.

But he didn't. The Li family has pride, never mind the sole male heir to the family.

The sliding doors to the class slammed open. Shaoran sneered. Their homeroom teacher was always so loud and boisterous; he got on his nerves as well.

"Class Stand!" The Class Rep shouted out. Shaoran swung his legs down from the table and got up - just as a form of respect.

"Class Bow!" He gave a bow and sat back down heavily on the seat.

"Xu HuiFang, please give out this stack of newsletters!"

"Yes, Ling-laoshi!" The Class Rep responded promptly.

"Kang Ren! What's with your hair! Get it trimmed today or I'll do it for you! And wash out that disgusting silver dye! What were you doing? Cosplaying?"

"Eh… ah… got it…" The boy in front of him murmured sleepily.

"First Years, Class 17! The best class of the best in Ming Dao!" The teacher boomed, volume akin to using a microphone, "Be proud, because you have a new Hard Worker joining you in becoming one of the best!"

Hard Worker, the teacher's favourite phrase to describe the students of his class. Ling was a boisterous man with eccentric habits, but he was one of the best teachers in the school. And as expected, he was in charge of the best classes in the school.

"She's from Japan, so her name will be a handful to read!" The teacher coughed and read out, "Kinomoto Sakura! Urgh, that was a mouthful. Her Chinese name is… MuZhiBen Ying… Well, what do you know, Japanese names are really troublesome!" He looked at the door. "Well? Come in, MuZhiBen Ying!"

The door slid opened softly, and the girl stepped into the classroom, closing the door behind her gently. Shaoran's interest perked. She was quiet, unlike some students in his class. She may just prove to be tolerable.

"Good morning, I am Kinomoto Sakura, or MuZhiBen Ying. My Chinese name is a bit of a hassle to say, so you may call me Sakura," the girl said in a soft but clear voice.

"Right… So, *cough* Sakura… where should I put you…" the teacher tapped his pen against the teacher's desk, before slamming the plastic thing down hard on the desk. "Aha! Right there, the last seat on my right… Um, the one beside the bli- uh, Li XiaoLang. Li XiaoLang, raise your hand!"

"There's no need, Ling-laoshi. There's only one empty desk," one of the girls at front sniggered. "She must be blind not to see it."

Shaoran growled under his breath. As if his growl had lowered the temperature of the room by a few degrees, the class stiffened and turned their heads to look at the Li heir frightfully.

"Li… is it?" He heard the new girl's voice beside him, on his right. She pulled the chair back and sat on it with a swish of her skirt. The chair failed to rock on the back leg.

"Hn," Shaoran folded his arms and leaned back on the chair.

Softly, so that only he could make out the words, she said, "I'm in your care, Li-kun."

XxxX

The lunch time bell rang, and instantly the class exploded into noise. Sakura sighed and laid her head on the table, closing her eyes.

It didn't go as badly as she thought it would be. Chinese wasn't that different from Japanese – just that the lack of hiragana and katakana stumped her for a while. She looked down at her notes. She had understood the entire lesson, but when it came to writing it down, she had unconsciously mixed Japanese into the Chinese notes, making it a weird and confusing mix of Japanese and Chinese. She sighed. The notes would have to be redone when she got back to the dorm.

She was jolted out of her musings when a fist rapped on her table. Sakura sat up straight, looking up at the clique of girls that had gathered around her table.

"Yes…?" Sakura looked at the one in the middle – obviously the leader of the group.

The girl was fairly pretty, with long, luscious black hair flowing over her shoulders and tumbling down to her waist. She was wearing a sequined pink hairband that practically sparkled even in the dark, with matching pink gemstone earrings. Her uniform was two sizes too small, skirt riding up her thighs and shirt stretched over her chest. The girl leaned in close to Sakura, leering at her with a sneer.

"Yes?" Sakura repeated, gripping the edge of her seat with her right hand.

"I'm Gong AnYan, daughter of the CEO of Gong Trading Company, one of the biggest and most successful trading companies in Shanghai," the girl said, so close to Sakura that their noses were almost touching.

"Really? For such a big and successful trader, I thought he would at least have the money to spare to get his daughter new uniforms," Sakura replied coolly.

AnYan's eyes bulged, slamming her hands on the table furiously. "Take that back!"

"Take what back? I was merely commenting on the size of your uniform," Sakura replied, leaning back into her chair.

"You-" AnYan snarled. "I'm going to give you a Red Card!"

"Oh? So I have to stand outside the classroom and not participate in the class activities?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Much worse than that!"

"Oh, joy," Sakura rolled her eyes.

AnYan pushed her table until it rammed in Sakura's stomach, eliciting a wince from the girl. She sneered, "You have until After School to get down on your knees and beg for forgiveness, MuZhiBen. If not, you'll have a Red Card for the rest of your life!"

Sakura pushed the table away, bumping it into AnYan's thighs.

"No thank you."

The look on the girl's face couldn't have been any more furious looking.

XxxX

Li Shaoran was of course, right in his seat, listening to the… fight… going on. Gong AnYan had been one of the girls after his hand in marriage, but he didn't even need to hear beyond the first sentence she had said to deny her straight away.

Needless to say, his mother had been quite disgruntled that they had lost the chance at forging good ties with Gong Tradings, but she too had been equally disgusted with the girl.

It wasn't that she wasn't good looking. That didn't matter to him. But he still got goosebumps by remembering even just roughly what she had meant in those words.

All he could bear to remember was that it involved sexual activity.

And now, the same girl was standing just half a meter away, picking on the new girl. Kinomoto Sakura had been tolerable. She didn't rock the chair – instead, for the entire of homeroom, she sat perfectly still. When the next period came, she had slipped a wedge of paper torn out from her notebook under the bad leg, thus ceasing all future rocking. She was quiet too, the only sound coming from her being the scratching of a pen on paper. He didn't pester him, or ask him questions, or bug him with pleas of help in regards to the class.

It was as if she wasn't there at all.

Shaoran couldn't have been happier. Finally, someone who valued peace and quiet.

But she had quite a cutting edge to her too. The small argument that had taken place right beside him shocked him slightly. He hadn't expected the new girl to go up against one of the most popular girl in school, much less one from such an influential background. But then again, she was new, and if she wasn't swayed by the riches the girl offered or by the threats made, she wasn't a pushover either.

Kinomoto Sakura… a new enigma.

He'd have to keep her in mind.

That is, if she survived the first week of the Red Card.

As much as he detested the practice of the Red Card, he was curious as to how she would react to it. If she broke, then she probably wouldn't be worth his time.

XxxX

The day had gone by okay, in Sakura' view. She managed to understand the lessons, even Biology with all the weird Chinese terms. Adjusting to the environment would take a bit more time, but that was only to be expected.

Currently, she was walking to the dormitory. She was living alone, and she was grateful for that. She didn't want anyone bothering her with their unnecessary chatter. She would also be able to do what she wants whenever she wanted. The freedom given was probably outweighing the potential loneliness by a ton.

Besides, even if she did get lonely, there were always the cards. Her Sakura Cards.

Sakura stopped outside a wooden door. She looked up, realizing that she had reached her room already. She opened the door to her room, sighing, and closed the door behind her. The dormitory room was plain and bare, with only a set of bunk beds, two desks and chairs, a cupboard and a small toilet. Sakura hung her bag on the chair, sitting down by the desk and opening the drawer. She took out the leather covered book and fingered the magic circle on it.

"After everything I've been through… the cards… magic… is the only thing I have left, huh?" Sakura smiled bitterly, hugging the book tenderly.

"Mistress…"

XxxX

It was something that had happened many years ago.

"My son, whatever you do, don't make a sound."

"Father?"

"Hide! Now!"

Tiny legs scrambled on the floor. The boy tucked himself under the bed, stifling his whimpers of fear with a fist in his mouth.

"Son… I love you…"

The boy let out a silent scream, watching as another pair of legs entered the room. Two auras clashed, magic throwing sparks all around the room. The newcomer let out a concentrated blast of magic, and his father dropped to the floor, lifeless.

"Father!" The boy, forgetting all that his father had said, screamed.

The next thing he knew, he was dragged out from under the bed, being held up by his collar by an invisible force.

The boy looked fearfully at the man, the sorcerer who had killed his father, the murderer. He looked up in fear.

"Another boy? Ah, I sense strong magic. Accursed magic… of that ACCURSED MAN!"

He struggled desperately, wanting nothing more than to escape the cold, resentful glare of the man.

"Then I shall give you a fate… worse than what I have experienced!"

The man held out two fingers, magic charging up at the fingertips. The boy looked at the man fearfully, body paralyzed in fear.

"My name is ****. Remember that, Li Shaoran."

The boy never saw anything after that.

XxxX

Two teenagers shot out of bed, sweating cold sweat.

XxxX

Tomoyo sat beside the king-sized bed, holding the pale hand to her chest. The blue-haired boy was so pale, so deathly pale, that he seemed almost whiter than the chalk white bedsheets covering the bed.

"Eriol-kun…" she whispered, brushing dark blue locks away from the boy's eyes. "Eriol-kun… please, wake up…"

By the door, an older girl stood there impassively with folded arms.

"He's not going to wake up just yet, even with your pleas. He still needs time to recover," Nakuru said in a detached tone.

Tomoyo snorted bitterly. "It's been almost a year. He's never going to wake up."

"If he was going to die, I would have disappeared by now," Nakuru said. In a flash of light, she transformed into the Moon guardian.

Tomoyo winced at the sight of Ruby Moon, turning away to gaze only at Eriol. Only at Eriol and his silent and unmoving body. His body that gave no sign of ever possessing such a thing that Ruby Moon was.

"You can't avoid this any longer, Daidouji. This is part of who we are. This is what Eriol is." Ruby Moon took a step forward. "This is what Sakura-"

"This is what put him in this state!" Tomoyo yelled, standing up. "I know! I know! But it's ... magic that's making him stay this way! If it weren't for magic… if not for magic… then he wouldn't…"

Ruby Moon sighed and reverted to her sealed form.

"If it weren't for magic, he wouldn't be who he is."

Tomoyo narrowed her eyes.

"Don't forget, he is the half-reincarnation of Clow Reed."

With that, Nakuru left the room, leaving Tomoyo alone with the silent and unmoving body of Hiiragizawa Eriol.

You may have noticed that I have changed several aspects of the story. Just several points I'd like to point out:

1. Shaoran did not go to Tomoeda to do card capturing. As to the reason why… I'll explain in later chapters

2. YES this may be AU, BUT there's still magic involved. Period.

3. Majority of the fic will take place in Shanghai, China. Therefore expect to see Chinese names, Chinese dishes, Chinese whatevernot. For my sake, Chinese translations of the names will be based on the kanjis of the Japanese characters. These will be used only during dialogues (I.e when two Chinese are conversing) as it is … well… set in China, or in other cases, IF I'm used 1st person POV, when the person in question is Chinese. Other than that, the Japanese names are much nicer to read so they'll be used in 3rd person POV.

4. Chinese is my mother tongue, and I have a Chinese dictionary at hand, so please DO NOT flame me in whatever aspects of Chinese terms I have used in this fic. If many people review and complain that they don't like to see the PinYin of Chinese terms, fine, I shall change those terms into Chinese characters for you. Believe me, it's easier for me on the eyes.

5. This fic is going to revolve entirely on the premise that Shaoran did NOT go to Tomoeda, so certain scenes might change entirely and characters might have developed different personalities due to the presence or absence of … stuff. People change, ok?

6. Other than Point No.5, I have also added an alternate reason as to why people have changed (I.e Eriol's current condition). This is a Fanfiction. I repeat. This is a Fanfiction.

Ok, that should be it for now. Hope you enjoyed the story. Please do leave your comments in the review section (below)!