Heheh… I just realized that I never did a disclaimer for this story…oops? At any rate, it should be obvious that I don't have any connection to either Card Captor Sakura, I simply have an active imagination.
Also, I want to apologize to anyone who may have been reading this story for the incredibly long time between updates. I handwrite all my stories before I type them and I misplaced the notebook I was writing this one in when I cleaned my apartment around Christmas time apparently. I just found it yesterday when I posted Chapter 3. I was so excited about finding my notebook—this is my favorite or my current fanfics—that I forgot to explain why there's been such a delay.
Just so you know, right now I have less than one more chapter already written. I will try to spend time this week writing so that I can post it, but I only have two more weeks of school left this semester (hallelujah!) which means that I have presentations to do, papers to write, and finals to study for. Also, I have another fanfic that got neglected around the same time as this story because I couldn't find it's notebook either and I should catch up on it as well, and I've started a new fanfic and I don't want it to be ignored either. So I've got a lot on my plate right now. I'll do my best, and I should be able to do better when summer break starts.
On with the story!
SPRING BREAK IN AMERICA
Chapter 4
The group from Japan were exhausted by their trip and all the shocks and revelations they had received in the last few hours. Meredith and her family seemed to understand this and chose not to say anything although Nathaniel's eyes were frequently on Meiling and Perrin kept glancing at Feimei; both girls blushed whenever they noticed the attention they were getting.
At last the table was cleared, and even Kero had eaten his fill of the mix of American, Chinese, and Japanese foods. Micha and Celene stood; Micha put his arm around his wife's waist, "Boys, Meredith, will you show our guests to their rooms? I'm sure they would all like a bath and some sleep." With that, the couple left. Everyone stood up, Meredith, Nathanial, and Perrin leading the way.
They walked back down the hallway to the foyer, up the spiral staircase, down a short passage way, and up another flight of stairs. They were in a small room that they could see was connected to two long hallways to either side. Meredith walked down the hallway to the left first.
She stopped at the first quartet of doors. "This is my room," she said, pointing to the first door on the right, everyone could see her name on a silver plaque on the door. She touched the blank plaque on the door next to hers, "This shall be Fanrei's room." Fanrei's name appeared on the blank plaque. Meredith moved across the hall and touched the first door, "This room shall be Hatori's," and his name appeared on the blank silver plaque. Next to Hatori was Ayame.
The group moved down the hallway assigning rooms so that Fuutie was across the hall from Shigure, Nakuru was across from Ritsu, Kagura was across from Yukito, and Sheifa was across from Touya. At the end of the hallway was a room for Momo and Kisa to share. Across the hall from them was a room for Kero and Spinnel. When they looked in, they were amazed. There were two large screen TVs hooked to several different game consoles. There was also a microwave, a large refrigerator, and cabinets full of sweets. Eriol and Sakura looked uneasily at Meredith when they saw the sweets. Perrin laughed and said, "Don't worry. It's all sugar free, even the juices and sodas. There should be no chaos from anything eaten in this room." Eriol, Syaoran, Tomoyo, and Sakura all sighed with relief.
The group moved back to the other hallway. Perrin had the room across from Feimei and Nathaniel was across from Meiling. Syaoran was across from Sakura, and Yuki had the room across from Tomoyo. The next quartet was Eriol and Hana, and Tohru and Hatsuharu. Arisa and Kyo, and Rika and Momiji were the next group. The final quartet was Duo and Naoko, and Yamazaki and Chiharu.
And yes, the rooms were arranged by couples on purpose; Celene Summer had arranged it.
Once everyone had seen where everyone else was staying, they all said goodnight and went into their own rooms. If it had been possible to see everyone's reactions at the same time, it would have been amusing to watch for the next few minutes.
Everyone from Japan reacted in one of two ways. The girls had stars in their wyes; the boys were stunned.
In layout, the rooms were the identical. This hallway took up two entire floors. Just inside each door was a large sitting room with TV., two sofas, several armchairs, lamps, end tables, and a kitchenette area. The back walls were made entirely of frosted glass with arched doorways. Through each doorway was a large breakfast nook area. The walls were bay windows; the center panels were clear. The outside panels were colored frosted glass. The colors matched the colors of the decorations and each person had a different color scheme. Sakura's were, of course, cherry pink. Likewise, Sayoran's color was obviously forest green. Tomoyo's rooms were lavender, Yuki's royal purple. Kyo's room was colored in burnt umber. Across the hall, Arisa's rooms were decorated in bronze. Rika's rooms were magenta; Momiji's rooms were raspberry colored. Naoko's rooms were colored golden yellow; Duo's rooms were amber colored. Tohru's color was teal and Hatsuharu's rooms were black (duh) and silver. Hana's rooms were in royal blue; Eriol's rooms were colored in navy blue. Meiling's rooms were in scarlet; Nathaniel's rooms were burgundy. Meredith's rooms were jade green, and Hatori's rooms were slate grey. Nakuru's rooms were maroon colored; Ritsu's rooms were flame colored. Kagura's rooms were blue green; Yukito's rooms were light blue. Sheifa's rooms were in mahogany and Touya's rooms were colored in tan and light brown. Feimei's decorations were in turquoise; Perrin's rooms were sky blue. Fanrei's rooms were in peach and Ayame's decorations were a yellow orange. Fuutie's rooms were salmon colored. Shigure's rooms were red-orange. Chiharu's rooms were in sea foam green and Yamazaki's rooms were in mauve.
In one corner of each sitting room was a spiral staircase with banisters made of either bronze, copper, or silver. Each person stood stunned just inside the doorway. Each person wandered to the doorway to look in the next room. The girls sighed; the boys felt peaceful.
Next, they all climbed their staircases. At the top of the stairs there were a series of three rooms. The room to the inside of the house was a huge bathing room. All four walls were mirrored. There were sinks off to one side and a large shower stall with two showerheads off to the other side. In the center room was a large spa-type bathtub with stairs leading up to it. Each tub was big enough to hold 30 or more people. The last room was the bedroom. The beds were king-sized with thick, comfy mattresses. The furniture was made of cherry hardwood. The walls on the outside were made of the same wood as the furniture to about waist height. Above that, the walls were glass, with curtains in various shades of the many color schemes.
Sakura had the irrelevant thought that the Summers must have used some magic in building their house; otherwise the bathtub would never have been able to be so big in that room.
In the morning, everyone woke up slowly, nearly at the same time. The Sohmas and the non-magical friends all woke up feeling as if the day before had been a dream—until they noticed their surroundings anyway.
Suddenly the ENTIRE mansion (and it is BIG, let me tell you) was rocked by a shriek of terror that was quite unlike her normal panicked morning scream. Syaoran was out of his room and across the hall into Sakura's almost without conscious thought. Kero and Spinnel were roaring down the hallway in their true forms before the echoes had died away. Touya arrived in his sister's room nearly as quickly as Syaoran. Tomoyo, Meiling, Rika, Naoko, Chiharu, Yamazaki, Eriol, and Yukito weren't far behind. The FB gang clustered in the hallway looking worried. The sight that greeted those who rushed to Sakura's defense was an astonishing one. On the bed was Sakura, tangled in the sheets and fainted dead away. Sitting on top of the dresser was a young girl who looked vaguely like a cat. She was laughing hysterically…and she was as transparent as a ghost.
"Sakura!" cried Tomoyo as she rushed to her friend. As she untangled her friend from the sheets, the strap of Sakura's nightgown slipped exposing one perfectly shaped breast.
Both Syaoran and Touya blushed bright red, although for QUITE different reasons, before turning to take defensive stances between Sakura and the girl on the dresser.
Rika rushed forward to cover Sakura as Syaoran growled, "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" the cat-girl only giggled. Kero and Spinnel began to pace forward, growling.
Suddenly a feminine voice bellowed, "That is ENOUGH Fifine! How DARE you?!"
Startled, everyone turned to see who had such a bellow that it rocked the house nearly as much as Sakura's shriek had. The girl stopped giggling and fell off the dresser to cower behind the curtains.
Meredith was standing in the doorway literally glowing with rage. Her hair floated out from her head as her eyes bled a blue flame that spread out to surround her entire body. As she stalked forward, Eriol whispered to Yamazaki, "Now I feel her aura, it's unbelievable!" Yamazaki nodded; he might not have magic, but you'd have to be dead to not sense Meredith's power at this moment, even if evidence of it wasn't as visible as it was. Dumbly, Syaoran and Touya moved out of her way.
Meredith stopped when she towered over the strange girl. She stood, glaring silently, for a few moments. When she spoke, her voice was deadly quiet and far scarier than the bellow had been, "I warned you Fifine. I warned you to be on your best behavior."
Suddenly Sakura was standing between Meredith and the whimpering Fifine. "Your magic may be strong Meredith-san," she said, her voice icy and even scarier than Meredith's had been. None of her friends had ever heard her use that tone; they shivered. "But you need to work on controlling your temper," she continued, "If you aren't careful, you commit an unforgivable sin. I can strip you of your magic if I have to."
There was silence in the room. Quietly, Touya whispered to Sayoran, "Can she really erase Meredith-san's magic even though her power is so strong and different from Sakura's"
Syaoran nodded, "Sakura is a lot stronger than Meredith-san. Also, she has better control over her emotions. Ultimately, letting her anger control her like this will weaken Meredith-san."
The tableau held for several more tense moments. Suddenly the glow left Meredith and she collapsed in a half faint. By now, the FB gang and Meredith's brothers had crowded into the room.
Perrin spoke to his sister, "She's right Mer. You know that's why you're still not the strongest sorceress in America. The council has talked about curbing you in some way, and I suspect they would ask Miss Kinomoto to do it since she's stronger than you and I doubt you'd be able to break her magic."
Kyo mumbled, "Someone tell me that the last 36 hours have been just a dream. I can't take this anymore."
Nathaniel picked up his sister and Perrin took the ghostly cat-girl by the hand, and they left Sakura's room.
The visitors from Japan stood stunned. Syaoran was now holding Sakura, who still trembled—both from fear and from controlling her anger. Slowly everyone left to get ready for the day until only Syaoran and Tomoyo were left with Sakura.
"I'm okay now," Sakura assured her friends. "You can go get dressed too." Tomoyo nodded and reluctantly left.
Sayoran didn't move. "What happened? Why did you scream?" he asked when they were alone. For a moment he thought Sakura wouldn't answer, but then she spoke softly.
"I had this aweful dream, and that girl—Fifine—was in it. And then I woke up and she was there! It was a bit as if I couldn't wake up from a nightmare. I'm glad, though, that she thought it was funny."
Syaoran looked surprised at this. Sakura giggled a little, "Well, it's certainly better than Fifine being offended that I was terrified of her!"
Syaoran laughed with her for a moment, and then looked serious again, "But what was the dream about and why was a girl you've never met before in it?"
Sakura looked equally serious, "I think I should wait until we can all talk about it with Meredith-san and her family. I think it was a true dream, and I think it has something to do with the Sohmas."
About half an hour later, everyone were seated around the dining room table eating breakfast. The only sounds were that of silverware against the tableware. Even Fifine was there.
Sakura had managed to corner all five of the Summers and Fifine after everyone had left her room. What she told them stunned all six of them; they agreed that everyone should eat breakfast together that morning, and that they would talk after everyone had eaten.
Finally only Kero was still eating, but when Sakura cleared her throat, he quickly put his fork down.
"I'm sure that everyone is wondering exactly what happened this morning. Also, our hosts have a secret they've been keeping from us and they'll want to explain why they've been keeping it. You see, I screamed this morning like that because when I woke up and saw Fifine-san, I thought I was still in the nightmare I'd been having."
As she continued to speak, it was as if everyone could see what she'd seen in her nightmare:
"Mommy! Daddy! Where are you? I can't find you!" a little girl with golden brown hair and green eyes was running down a long hallway, stumbling as she cried so hard she couldn't see. Suddenly, she burst into a room at the end of the hallway and halted, stunned. Her father, her uncle, and her two older brothers stood in front of her mother, her aunt, and her older sister. Her mother was huddled protectively over the twins: one boy, one girl. Her aunt held her two sons the same way. Her baby sister and her youngest cousin were clinging to her older sister's skirts. A mob stood facing them with one man standing off to the side as if he didn't want to be a part of either group. A man was shouting angrily at her family, "You've been endangering our town for too long shape-changers! We no longer want you here! We—"
He was cut off by Nadine, her older sister, who had just seen her. "Run Fifine! Change shape and run!" she screamed.
The whole mob turned to look at her. A woman's face contorted with rage. "You!" she shouted. "You're the brat my son says he wants to marry!" the man who had been speaking pointed at her, "You'll be the first to die!"
The girl tried to run to her mother as blue flame shot from the man's finger.
Suddenly, the other man, the one who'd been standing apart spoke a single, powerful word, "Ceasendium!" The blue flame turned into a circlet of blue, black, and white beads. By the time the circlet reached the girl, most of the blue beads disappeared, but one blue bead remained as the beads settled around the girl's wrist like a bracelet.
The man spoke again, "I am sorry my child. I wasn't fast enough. You won't die, but you and your family may think the curse is worse than your having died." He turned to the mob, "Leave now. These people will no longer bother you."
There must have been power behind his words because the anger faded from the mob and they began leaving immediately.
The man walked over to her and took her by the hand. "Come," he said to her family. "I must tell you what I've done, and then you must be ready to leave before nightfall when my spell on the townspeople wears off."
The whole family followed him back through the door the girl had come through as the vision slowly faded.
All eyes turned to Sakura, Fifine, and the Summers. Yuki was the first to speak, "What was that all about?" Eriol said, "That man was Clow Reed, but I don't have any memory of that event."
Celene and Fifine traded looks. At last Fifine sighed and stood up. "I don't believe I've properly introduced myself," she said softly, but clearly. "My name is Fifine Sohma and I am the first cat of the Zodiac."