Author: m z . r a n d o m asked if Kaho is the leader of the Clan.
Kaho is not the leader of the Clan per se but because she is actually the one who houses the avatar, Goddess of Nature, everyone gathers around her. She is trying to clean up her own mess and employs the Li Clan as help. Since it is sort of modern times, the Clan doesn't function with just one leader, they usually have meetings to choose the wisest course of action with the oldest most experienced members leading and in this situation Kaho's visions give her a lead and so the Clan defers to her because she has the most information. Otherwise, someone like Clow Reed would help lead.
Author: I give up on Japanese suffixes! *throws it out a window * On another note, defenestration means the act of throwing someone out the window.
Chapter Four
Sakura slowly swung open the front door, she had been using the proper entrance for a while now, ever since she began coming home too exhausted to climb the tree to her window. A familiar light snoring rolled through the silence of the house, that's probably Toya, he stayed up again to wait for me... Sakura quietly shut the door on the early morning light spilling into the house. She found Toya sitting in the living room, his head resting on the top of the sofa, brown hair hanging over the edge, and mouth hanging open in the middle of a snore. Her jade eyes softened at the sight and she tip-toed over to the closet to grab a blanket for him. Leaving the blanket on him and after placing a soft kiss on his forehead, she whispered, "I'm sorry Toya." Sakura stood there for a moment, then padded silently upstairs where Kero was already waiting for her.
Behind her on the sofa, Toya stared up at the ceiling, relief spreading through him that Sakura made it home safe again. The wall clock ticked away the seconds and soon he drifted off to sleep.
"Sakura, you have to be careful now, they know who you are now. I wish you hadn't stopped me from tearing apart that brat. I could have taken him." Kero said for the third time. Sakura sighed, again."I know Kero, I'll keep an eye out, meanwhile I'm going to be late for class because my shower took too long and I promised Tomoyo I was going to meet her at the gate, I don't want to make her late too."
Sakura quickly ran her brush through her shoulder length hair in a practised manner. The mirror reflected the beginnings of dark circles under her eyes, oddly enough making her emerald eyes seem brighter. Throwing the brush on the bed, she snatched her bag off the back of the chair and blew out of the room, closing the door on the way out. Kero stared after her worriedly.
Tomoyo listened as the school bell tolled, sending deep reverberations to her ears.
Ding DONG Ding Dong
She smiled to herself, Sakura never changes does she? But, that's what we like about her, I better get my camera ready, ho ho ho ho, I see her skating at full speed toward me, OH! Watch out for that biker! Whew, she's really agile, why isn't she like that off the skates?
Adjusting the zoom on her camera, she followed Sakura as she got closer and closer. Wow I love my new Canon 5D Mark II, you can even see each of Sakura's individual long lashes.
Sakura skidded to a stop besides the still-filming Tomoyo and waited a beat to catch her breath. "Tomoyo, I'm so sorry, I'll make it up to you!" Sakura huffed out.
"You worry too much Sakura, I can see the dark circles under your eyes. Come on, let's get to class" Tomoyo replied while ushering Sakura through the gates and into the building.
The school day moved slowly, a boring contrast to her nightly activities but it presented a normality Sakura sometimes wished she had. As she sat in her desk near the window, she listened to the other students around her talk excitedly about end of the year activities for the graduation ceremony. Oh! Right, I probably have to prepare for college entrance exams soon...Her thoughts drifted to the last night's events, I think his name was Syaoran, the other girl called him that...he looks like he practices a lot of martial arts, he moves so fluidly and wow, did you see the way his muscles—Sakura shook her head, hard.
"What's up Sakura? You looked like you're thinking about a guy, could this be why you have dark circles under your eyes?" Tomoyo cut in with a knowing smile.
Whoa...sometimes Tomoyo is scary... Sakura laughed nervously, "No...." She didn't add more to her reply because trying to lie to Tomoyo was like withholding meat from a blood hound.
Math class rolled around, the teacher droned on and on in monotone and the rhythmic clicking of chalk on the black board created the perfect atmosphere for naps. Sleep deprivation caught up to Sakura as her head drooped, jerked upwards as she caught herself from slipping into unconsciousness, then thudded down on her arms. Her seat by the window provided a warm breeze, lulling her guard down. The sunlight feels so good...her thoughts trailed off into la la land.
Syaoran stood below an aging school building in the courtyard. He scanned the windows, finally homing in on a familiar magical signature, the one belonging to Sakura. Even as he watched, Sakura's head bobbed up and down, her eye lids drooping formed a crescent against her cheeks with lashes. She finally succumbed to sleep, putting her head down on her crossed arms. Her shoulders barely moved as she breathed gently in and out. The breeze through the open window played with her curls and the sun highlighted her auburn hair into dusted gold.
From his vintage point along with his improved eye sight, he could see the dark circles under her eyes. He frowned, wonder how long since she's had a good nights sleep, we should have noticed the increased traffic of rogue wolves in this area. Syaoran made a mental note to ask around with the others. He found himself worry over Sakura meeting a were-wolf from the wrong side before he could stop himself. She looks so delicate but she could hold her own...Syaoran was remembering the fire she had blasted at him.
Just then, Sakura's head jerked up along with her whole body, upsetting her chair and she blurted out, "Hoooeee! Syaoran!" The students near the windows all turned to look at her and giggle. Syaoran chuckled to himself as Sakura blushed a deep red and sat down fast. Well, at least I made an impression on her, although I wish I hadn't done it naked, there's always time for that later...
The teacher took one look at Sakura's blushing face, noticed how tired she was and dismissed Sakura from class with orders to get notes from Tomoyo. Sakura slowly packed up her pencil case, books and half-written notes with doodles on the sides of Kero. She turned briefly to her neighbor that Syaoran couldn't see from his angle and said apologetically, "Sorry Tomoyo, I did it again, I'm going to go home, I'm not feeling well, I'll call you." As Sakura disappeared from view, Syaoran decided to settle down outside the gates to wait for her.
Sakura clipped on her roller-blades and put the regular shoes into her locker. As she stepped out into the afternoon sun, she inhaled and sighed gustily, then skated out across the courtyard, heading for the gate. As she turned the corner, she shot out one arm to the gate to swing her around and smacked right into a solid warm wall that reached out to steady her before she stumbled back.
"Sorry! Are you oka--" She stopped rubbing her nose to look up into familiar amber eyes on a face that she knew, somehow, she could pick out from a crowd of people. She blushed at remembering what else she'd seen that had been burned into her memories.
Syaoran seem to tighten his grip on her before letting go. "Hello Sakura, we meet again." The corner of his mouth turned up in amusement. "I see you're still carving a path of destruction through town, first the park forest, now mowing down pedestrians on the sidewalk."
Sakura was speechless. Syaoran took advantage by adding with gravity, "I was waiting for you, we need to talk." She felt a warmth spread through her at the thought of him waiting for her until school ended. This is silly, Tomoyo waits for me too...but this just feels different. She caught up to his words and replied calmly, "Yes, we do, I have a lot of questions for you. I'm sure since you've tracked me here, you know where I live, let's talk there." She was about to start on her way when he stopped her.
Syaoran couldn't help grinning as he offered her a hand, "I'll walk with you, but I'll need to hold on to you for insurance, wouldn't want something to happen to you before you satisfy my curiosity." When Sakura hesitated, he added for good measure, "Don't worry, I only bite on certain occasions..." He smirked when her breathing hitched a little and to prove that she wasn't worried, she joined her hands with his. It was warm and had little calluses, and it wrapped around her smaller hand gently, almost protectively.
He began walking and she skated slowly besides him, neither saying a word.
Above, within the school building, Tomoyo clicked off her recording camcorder and smiled to herself. Oh ho ho ho ho, so I WAS right, Sakura found a guy, this marks a new chapter in her life, I can't wait to get home, better start planning out her dating outfits, maybe even some lingerie, for those unknown occasions. "Tomoyo, please answer question two." The teacher's voice cut through her scheming and without hesitation she answered, "8! is equal to 8 × 7 × 6 × 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1, which equals 40320. Anything else, Sensei?" The teacher was stopped by the glint in Tomoyo's eyes and stuttered out, "N-no, that's all..." He turned back to the board to add another problem and Tomoyo went back to her inner dilemma. Yes, that outfit would fit Sakura perfectly, so cute...
An abandoned warehouse sat forlornly at the edge of the industrial sector, scraps of metal and garbage littered the ground around it. Here and there, twisted branches of trees broke through concrete and their gnarled roots usurped the once carefully laid out stone path. The messenger sent to report to Eriol, shuddered, feeling a million eyes on him but when he looked, nothing was there. Somewhere to his left, the drip, drip, drip of a leaking faucet echoed in his ear like a grandfather clock, striking an hour. Without looking, his foot kicked a rusted iron rod, causing it to topple into a metal sheet, creating a deafening noise. He jumped and snarled in fear, backing away a few paces before he caught himself. A flock of crows burst out of the tree above him, startling him into a growl and he lashed out in retaliation, catching a crow in his hands.
The black feathered animal struggled in his hands, heart beating fast, and its chest rising and falling rapidly, kicking its legs in the air to try and turn over. The messenger crushed its chest then proceeded to dig nails into the neck, twisting and snapping the crow's head off in a quick motion until it hung on bloody sinews. He flung the still twitching crow aside and continued into the warehouse, the sudden darkness blinding him as his irises adjusted to the gloom.
He scanned the few feet in front of him that he could see, the floor covered in scattered pieces of the roof that was caved in a little. Directly ahead, an oily darkness seem to block his eye sight even though, his was better than most. Magic...it whispered and suddenly he was afraid.
Even as the messenger watched, two distant glints in the dark caught his eye. Cold gleaming turquoise was slowly revealed as black eye lids slide upwards, sharp pupils appeared and focused, unblinking, at him. He shuffled back a step at the malevolence leaking from the stare and the pair of eyes rose up and up without breaking eye contact as whatever creature it was stood. A deep rumbling growl rolled out of the darkness, vibrating the floor he stood on, white teeth emerged underneath turquoise and slide wider to show long curved fangs, well practised in crushing skulls.
"Speak!" A baritone voiced barked out. The teeth disappeared for a moment before appearing again, it only took a second for the messenger to match the voice to the action.
"I-I've come to report my pack has moved within range of Tomoeda, the town you instructed us to gather in." His voice broke a little in the middle.
"I gave no such instructions..." The voice waited a bit as the messenger squirmed, "My master did. I shall inform him, you may leave." The messenger did not need to be told twice and scrambled out of the place like his tail was on fire.
Spinel Sun, the creature, started purring at having accomplished his task before being interrupted by a melodious voice. "Suuuupppppppiiii! Oi! Suppi! Suuuuuppiiiii! Try this, I made a new batch of cookies earlier, you can be the lucky first to try a bite!" Ruby Moon skipped into his view, her long red hair swinging and started shoving a cookie sheet into his face. Spinel's panther-like face curled in disgust and carefully keeping his mouth shut, he padded back a few steps away from Ruby.
"Get my name right! And you know I can't eat sweets, why do you keep shoving them at me? Go away, you're supposed to be watching Eriol." Spinel grounded out and for the millionth time, he wished she feared him as much as everyone else does.
"Just a bite won't kill anyone...I worked so hard on them." Ruby pouted. Spinel gritted his teeth at remembering the last time she stuck some sweets into his roasted dinner. He had become drunk on sugar and proceeded to blast away sections of the roof, causing a slight cave-in. He fluttered his huge butterfly wings in irritation and ignoring her begging, went to find Eriol.
His master had shut himself up in an isolated room lately, brooding about what was to come but he was acting weirdly. Sometimes, Spinel felt another darker influence, as if this world was the stage and Eriol was a puppet, the dark threads all but invisible to another puppet. This latest order to move to Tomoeda was strange, it was a small town, nothing significant, and telling the were-wolves to keep a low profile was even more mysterious, only those do-gooders in the Li Clan resisted carnage, they cut off their blood-thirsty nature to pander to their conscience. Spinel shrugged his furry shoulders, moving his wings in the motion and stopped to knead his claws into the ground. Better not disturb Eriol, never know what might happen if I interrupted his planning. I'll wait for him to come out, for now.
End of Chapter Four
Author's Notes:
* I don't know if Tomoyo's camcorder is a good one, maybe.
* Oh ho ho ho ho is Tomoyo's special laugh
* Should I change the age rating for this story? I've never rated a story before and I don't know what is appropriate or not.
* Interesting fact, a spinel is in fact a diamond shaped gem, like the one on Spinel's forehead.