How does one continue after a breakdown inducing chapter?

The answer is...

...MORE BREAKDOWN INDUCING BUT FLUFFY CHAPTERS WITH KINGS THAT LOOK LIKE SCARY BUT HANDSOME RAPISTS! HOORAH HOORAH!

Okay guys...it's time to get serious here. Fai hasn't woken up yet, of course. This will be the first dream sequence you see. I have a very very veryyyyyyyyyy big hatred (to the core) for Ashura. Yup. Down with the ol' King of Psychotic Cuckoos! Well, ya know what...maybe just a glimpse. Or a touch. Or maybe the whole thing. Your call. This part won't be as accurate, so please, don't hate me on this.

Onward to the breakdown inducing fluffy chapter!

Question of the Chapter: If someone you cared about was going to move away soon, how would you deal with it?

~I DO NOT OWN TSUBASA CHRONICLE. CLAMP DOES. I ALSO DO NOT OWN THESE MEMORIES. FAI D FLOURITE AND CLAMP DO. KUROGANE ALSO BELONGS TO CLAMP, BUT HE'S PAYING A VISIT IN FAI'S PAST.~


He's getting closer...

...Can you feel his presence?

The sakura petals can feel it, the ripples in the water are finally forming.

Will you dream with him?

Will you finally spread you wings and be free of this sleep?

How can you awaken...

...When you are stuck in your past?


Kurogane was transported into Celes country immediately, and time was shifted just as fast. The sight that his eyes beheld before him refreshed his mind like a glass of pure water. The idiot was cleaner, healthier, and as much as the ninja hated to say it, cuter. His blonde hair was cut short so that it just reached his shoulders. An eight year old Fai was clad in the clothes that the ninja had first seen him in; smaller, but still the same.

"I have just returned."

"Welcome. It seems like you've subdued the avalanche in the western valley, Fai." King Ashura's voice was soft and warm, a deep rumble that Fai seemed to grow comforted to, as far as Kurogane could tell.

"How can you tell?"

"I can." Ashura smiled thoughtfully. "Even if you're far away, even if you're in another world, I can tell.

Your magic is...

...the real thing, Fai.

Should you become lost in some world, I'll go pick you up."

Fai looked up into Ashura's wise eyes. "...What should I do? I mean, about what you wanted to request from me?"

The king closed his eyes. "...I wonder, do you love Celes?"

"Ashura-ou..." Fai's face was a portrait of concern.

"Do you love this country?"

It took no time for Fai to reach an answer. "Yes. Everyone is kind. Besides, I'm allowed to stay here."

"Then...Should something happen, will you use your power for the sake of this country?"

"But...if someone with stronger magic powers than mine enters this country..." Fai trailed off.

"You're cursed to kill that person, right?" Ashura spoke grimly. "I can't remove that, but I can suppress it. Your magic power is something that grows stronger the more you use it." The king outstretched his arm, revealing his bare palm. A burst of magic blossomed from his hand, forming a curved and geometric image, resembling that of a phoenix. "If this is traced on your body, further growth of your magic powers will be restrained until this pattern disappears.

Though if I die...

...It will lose its effect."

Fai cried out in horror. "Die, you?"

"People die, all the time."

"...Majesty?"

"I would like you to destroy those who bring harm to the people of this country." Ashura's face darkened. "No matter who the person may be. That is my wish." The king returned back to that calm and collected visage of his.

Fai furrowed his brows in determination. "If...it's all right for the time I stay in this world."

"Thank you, Fai." The king ended with that.


"It looks like you've already memorized the spell in these magic writings, Fai." Ashura's voice was laced with amusement.

"...Yes." Thirteen year old Fai replied without much enthusiasm.

"You've ended up learning most of the magic writings in the castle." Upon realizing the tone of Fai's voice, the king turned his attention from a spell book to the adolescent blonde. "What's wrong, Fai? If there's anything you're worried about, I'd like you to tell me, okay?"

Fai reluctantly nodded. "...No matter how much I try, restoration and healing magic...I can't learn them. All I can remember is attack spells...

...Only things that hurt people..."

Silenced leaked into the room, Fai staring down to the floor, saddened.

"Try...smiling." King Ashura demonstrated, a small curve gracing his lips.

Immediately, Fai's head shot up. "...Eh?"

"Smile." Ashura nodded encouragingly towards Fai.

The blonde stared down at the tiled floor again, his feet shuffling side to side nervously. An embarrassed flush worked its way up into Fai's shy and pale face, his hair covering his eyes. Determined to follow through on the king's orders, the preteen looked up into his king's eyes and smiled.

A bright and warm smile.

An open smile that brought chills and heat running down Kurogane's spine all at once.

"You were able to use it...the magic."

"...Eh?" Fai's head shot up once again, confusion wiping the smile off his face, leaving the small evidence of smile lines.

Ashura curved his lips thoughtfully. "With your smile, Fai, my heart was healed enough. This is also magic."

The blonde was silent for a long time, his hair once again secreting his eyes from view. A bright flush tainted his milky face, and Fai continued to shift from side to side shyly.

The king ruffled the blonde's hair and held him close.

"Thank you..." Fai finally answered.


Time shifted again, making Kurogane feel like he was beginning to develop time-traveling-whiplash. He barely had time to recover from the previous memory, and the ninja was still caught up in the young Fai's rare and genuine smile.

"So it was here, huh?"

"Ashura-ou." Fai's voice was a pleasant, silky ring that reminded Kurogane of the present, the real and grown Fai. The blonde was sitting in front of a pool that a young woman with floppy cat-like ears was sitting it.

"The people from the castle area sent a rare wine, as a token of gratitude for you melting the frozen lake."

Fai's face twisted into an ecstatic expression, a goofy grin etching its place onto his lips. "Alcohol!~" The young man sang this happily.

"It's good that you've become able to smile like that, Fai. But I wonder...how is it that you prefer liquor over food?" Ashura joked.

Fai laughed, a bright and happy sound that echoed around the large room they were in. "It's because Celes' alcohol is delicious!" The young man sang once again.

Suddenly, the mage jumped back, outstretching his arms in surprise, scaring the woman in the process. Kurogane didn't notice what Fai had flinched from until he stared at the King's hands.

A ruby river was trickling down his hand, and his hand was thickly blanketed in the substance.

Blood.

"Your Majesty...did you get hurt?" Fai stepped forward, about to tend to his "wounds."

Ashura looked at his blood-covered hand and examined it. "It's not that..."

Upon closer inspection, Kurogane noticed that the king's eyes were glazed over as he stared at his hand.

Blood.


Kurogane groaned. Another time lapse? How many memories had he witnessed?

He saw Fai burst into the castle, the doors barged open. "I will go suppress the beast! However many days it takes, I will make sure to defeat it. For the people of Celes to be sacrificed any further..."

Ashura's back was turned to Fai, a strange thing, Kurogane noted. "In that case..." The king turned around, his hands once again covered in blood. His face was splashed in the crimson substance, a strange glint in his eyes. Ashura repeated himself. "In that case...

...You must defeat me, right?" The king sounded calm and collected, yet something wasn't quite right about him. Dead bodies laid at his feet, covering the floor like dirty carpet.

Simultaneously, Fai and Kurogane let out a sound of shock. "W-wh-what?!"


"Enough with the goddamned time shifting!" Kurogane yelled, his hands covering his eyes tightly.

"This isn't a memory, Kurogane." A familiar soft ringing whispered from around him, somewhere, he couldn't quite place his finger on it since his hands were currently covering his face.

The ninja let go of his visage. "What-where are we?!"

Cherry blossom trees were planted on either side of him, the scenery around him vibrant and bright. The sky was a startling white, the blue sky invisible. The path beneath his feet was unfinished, the trail ending not too far away from him, more like a couple feet.

Fai's voice echoed somewhere far away. "A dream. You're dreaming..."

"But...I saw your past... I...I saw that King Ashura guy and the real-"

Before Kurogane could finish his sentence, the sakura trees began to tremble and shake, raining petals and blossoms from their flowery masses. He could hear Fai suck in an audible breath and release it shakily, the sky graying.

"I...I know..."

A cloying silence enveloped the room into an uncomfortable pause.

"Your past doesn't define you, you know that, idiot?" Kurogane huffed gruffly.

"My life is my past, Kurogane. This life that I'm still living revolves around my history."

Kurogane squeezed his eyes shut and willed the fool to reveal himself. "Reveal yourself. Come out so I can punch the wits out of you..."

"I cannot...I...I...I ca-ca-cannot...I am not...not strong...enough...yet...They said...the petals say...I'm...not...ready...yet..." Fai's voice had already started to fade out.

"Wait! Stop! Don't you leave on me, mage!" Kurogane tried to grab at the white sky above him, half expecting his fist to be enclosed around Fai's throat, but nothing happened.

Kurogane continued to run forward, as if running was the only way he was able to see the idiot. However, the path had not yet formed completely, and the ninja couldn't move but a couple strides. "Let...me...go..." But his attempts at pushing through were futile.

You shall wake now.

You shall regain your consciousness now, dark crimson.


Kurogane jumped out of his lying position, looking around him in a fervent manner. Where was he now? Was he time lapsing? Is this the real world? It had started to rain heavily in this world. He found Fai's still unconscious body below him, the mage's face revealing a blank expression.

Blank.

Like white canvas.

That's all that Kurogane could see in the man.

For now.

The ninja hauled the moron's body over his shoulder, completely ignoring the way Fai's right side seemed to immediately curl into Kurogane's neck, just to feel his warmth. No, Fai wasn't awake yet. Not yet.

Kurogane headed back to the apartment that the traveling group was staying at, and entered in their room key. He set Fai on the bed and tucked the covers over the blonde's body. Suddenly, a peculiar shaped object landed in the palm of the ninja's hand. Where it had come from, or why it was here, he had no idea. He examined the thing closely. It appeared to be a feather, but not like Sakura's memory feathers. No, these were distinctly different. These were Fai's feathers. But...they couldn't be memory feathers.

No, they aren't memory feathers.

It was the voice that had woken him up!

I am the Phoenix. The one that has cursed the personified phoenix into a powerless sleep.

Kurogane gripped his sword tightly. "Where are you, ya little Bird Brain? I'm going to chop you to bits!"

I have put this spell upon him so that he may realize his want and need. He can only cross your dreams. You also need to realize yours as well, but my magic only works one person at a time, so the blonde one will have to do. He must realize his want and need through the dependent action of regaining those feathers and giving them to him. Unlike the princess's feathers, these do not contain memories of the past, nor are they scattered from world to world. These feathers that you must retrieve for the blonde are feathers containing small bits of the realization that he must learn. The feathers you will collect for him will only help him understand, they will not fully show him what he should need or want. As for you, you are to realize on your own, for you are the only conscious one that is currently with the blonde right now. The voice began to fade. Give him the feather, place it on top of his heart.

Kurogane swore the bird out as the voice faded completely, the grip on the feather tightening ever so slightly. The ninja sighed heavily as he placed the feather upon Fai's chest, watching in earnest, waiting for the reaction to ignite. However, instead of rippling and sinking into the body, the phoenix feather emitted an intense blue color and a crest appeared on the mage's chest. The insignia was an image of an array of similar feathers arranged in a fan-like pattern, feathers curling in and out of each other and overlapping intricately. The feather that was recovered returned to its place on the crest, and sunk into Fai's body. Kurogane felt a sensation prodding his heart, as if it were warming it and holding it close. He slumped against Fai's bed and felt his eyes stare off into space, his mind taking him elsewhere.

The Recognition.

What will you discover in the Recognition?

What will you realize?

Is it time to awaken?

Fai's heart began to quicken in pace, and his breathing began to grow heavy. Warmth seemed to swamp over him, cracking the cold shell that encased him from awakening. His body felt suspended in a thick liquid, like candle wax, and his eyes were unable to open. He couldn't remember what had happened before, but he knew he was on a journey. He remembered Mokona, Syaoran, Princess Sakura. But his mind focused on the ninja. Kurogane. What happened? Why was he asleep? Why couldn't he wake up? Fai choked on the liquid slightly, then calmed himself before sinking deeper. He could sense something on the surface... What was on the surface? His arm and hand throbbed slightly. What was this pain? What was this warmth in his heart? Suddenly his eyes glazed over, and he heard someone, or something, speak to him through the liquid.

He has found the first feather to Recognition, Fai. It is time for you to meet him in the next dream. It's time for the first Recognition.


So that's Fai's past summed up in two chapters! YAY! But the story is not done yet! Fai has about seven more feathers to recover, and you'll soon find out what Recognition is! I'm going to make sure that the characters do not get OOC. I promise you that. I will try my best, I will do my best. Hai! I will do everything in my power to make sure the OOC effect does not plague them! Until next time! AIR HUGS!

~KiPanda Cutie