Song of Thunder

Chapter 4

Chul headed over to Penguin Park through mist, because he planned to take the Card Mistress to the house through mist, and he had to show them the house with magic anyway or else they would not be able to find it. Sensing for the Card Mistress should be no problem, except he could not find her there.

He made his way to the Penguin Slide, still sensing. He did not know the Card Mistress's aura, nor did he know Clow, but he assumed it should be pretty formidable. So far, he felt nothing.

Ten minutes later, a feeling washed over him. He turned.

Card Mistress, not man. And that man is wearing red…

Chul's phone rang just as a fireball headed his way. He ducked, choosing to ignore the phone for the moment. In broad daylight? Is he mad? He darted under the Penguin Slide. When both are weak water hurts fire more easily, but when both are strong, especially offensively, fire hurts water more because it could change water into something else entirely. Chul did not want to take his chances, especially if this man survived what happened at the temple.

Screw the Card Mistress. I am getting out of here. Chul was a powerful enough waterspeaker, but after a certain range it really did not matter. The Penguin Slide lit on fire.

" Call the fire department!" He heard people outside shout. He opened his palm and shot a huge block of ice at the firespeaker.

" Who are you?" He demanded, as the firespeaker melted the ice with some difficulty. That is good, though the fact that the ice did not kill him instantly did not bode well. " What the hell are you doing?"

" My name is Hiko. Hand over the boy, Park."

Chul growled. " I hate the Japanese." Following that, he shot a torrent of ice at the firespeaker.

The pressure of Hiko's fire kept the ice at bay, but the solid melted slowly, which encouraged Chul.

" I've heard of you, Hiko. The so-called Firechild. You're not so impressive."

" I've heard of you as well, Park. The bastard son of Terauchi Hisaichi, and not even proud enough to admit it!"

Dark black anger washed through Chul, cold and piercing like his element. He rose out of the Penguin Slide and attacked the firespeaker with new vengeance. " I am no son of that beast!"

The earth shook under the force of their conflict, neither caring about exposure any longer. The cell phone rang but Chul could not hear it, deafened by his hate. His world narrowed down to the firespeaker and those black eyes, and the feeling of welcome cold of ice and death.

My name is Park Chul…I am no son of Terauchi!

oO

" What the—" Spinel was at loss for words.

Eriol already summoned his staff and was casting a spell over the area. He scanned the park for Sakura.

" I guess she did not get my message. She is not here." Eriol moved in.

" Eriol-sama! Be careful!" Ruby Moon warned.

" A firespeaker and a waterspeaker? Together?" Spinel Sun was in the air already, as people panicked and various trees were on fire. Ice accumulated on the ground. " How are we going to get out of this mess?"

That was not Eriol's primary concern. He wanted to make sure that Sakura was not heading here. " Ruby Moon, head over to the apartment. I'm guessing that Sakura is there. Tell her to stay in the apartment and not come to where the commotion is. I am dealing with this."

" You sure that's a wise idea?" Ruby Moon asked. " You might need her help."

" She will not be of much aid." Eriol replied. " We do not have enough brute power. This can only be settled through words, and Sakura, innocent as she is, may not fully comprehend the natural hate between firespeakers and waterspeakers. She might get hurt in the crossfire. Hurry, Ruby Moon!"

Running in with Spinel, Eriol called out to the two elementals. " Halt! What is the meaning of this?" He demanded in an imperious voice.

The firespeaker turned, eyes blazing. " Ah…young Hiiragizawa. 'Tis an honor."

" Hiiragizawa?" Chul turned. " Japanese as well?"

Eriol sighed mentally at seeing the crazed light spark in those blue eyes. Park looked young, like someone in his mid-twenties. To experience such a dark emotion already… Nope. Telling him my last name instead would not improve matters. And he's probably not twenty either, got to remember that about elementals...

" Well well well, I see one guardian. What happened to your other one?" The firespeaker sneered. " Or is she sleeping with another mortal?"

Spinel growled in rage, while Eriol was slightly taken aback. " I do not comprehend. I did not come here to fight with either one of you."

" Iie, I thought you were supposed to be packing up and leaving." Chul narrowed his eyes. " You were supposed to send that little heir of yours."

" He has an heir already," The firespeaker's eyes gleamed. " How fortunate."

" You are disrupting the peace in this neighborhood." Eriol replied. " Either stop this at once or take this elsewhere."

" Still adopting that haughty tone, Reed." The firespeaker sneered. " Why should we listen to you?"

" I am the voice of reason here." Eriol replied. " Look around you. You have endangered others and exposed magic. I do not care for your rivalry. That is none of my business. The welfare of this community is."

" It is not mine." The firespeaker replied. " I come here for the child. The Fire Demon will be summoned."

" You will not have him." Chul replied back angrily. " He is in a place you can never reach, you fire scum."

" You are not pure yourself, half-blood. Son of a prostitute, and with a father of honorable status you still don't know better enough to accept your good fortune."

" Terauchi is no father of mine!" A torrent of ice followed.

Confused, Eriol tried to figure out what he just heard. Elementals age slowly, if at all. Park could very well be over a hundred years old, but Terauchi…Terauchi sounded familiar…

It was Spinel, the one that spent the most time with books recently, who answered Eriol's question.

" Good heavens," Spinel told Eriol in English, " That waterspeaker is a World War II victim."
" What?"

" Terauchi Hisaichi's that general that conquered South Korea. Or was it North?"

Oh. Eriol felt his hopes drop. That explains his hatred of the Japanese. Well, this battle is never going to end.

Still, he had to try, despite the situation being a lost cause. He had to find his descendant, and for the moment he and Park Chul were on the same side, if this firespeaker was after Li.

Swinging his staff, he caused an explosion between the two elementals.

" Enough!" He thundered.

" This is none of your business, Reed!" The firespeaker spat.

" You are after my descendant." Eriol replied vehemently. " This is more than just my business. You injured Li Syaoran, you face my wrath."

Chul and Eriol shared a glance. The firespeaker noticed. Without warning, he suddenly turned into flame, and before either of the other two could react, disappeared into smoke and drifted away. Chul began going after him, but Eriol swung his staff in a blocking motion and held up his hand. " Let him go," He said.

" I will get you later, Hiko." Chul hissed.

" Hiko?" Eriol's heart plummeted again. Is there no end to the bad news? " That was Hiko? Hayashi Hiko?"

" I don't care what his last name is." Chul folded his arms. " Where is your precious little heir?"

" She did not get my message." Eriol replied. " Good thing too."

" He was not as powerful as they claim."

" He was wounded." Eriol pointed out. " If he had been at the temple, doubtless he did not survive unscathed. We have to be careful."

Chul was silent. His phone suddenly rang.

Eriol listened as Chul answered the phone.

" Where were you?" Ritsuko yelled. " I've called you nine times!"

" Ran into Hiko, one of the firespeakers."

" Kuso! He was—"

" I am here with Eriol."

" Eriol? Hiiragizawa?"

" Hai."

There was a pause.

" What did you call me for?" Chul demanded.

" I was calling because I wanted you to turn on the television."

" Why did you call my cell and not the house phone?"

" Because you always have it in your pants. I don't care what you were doing in the bathroom."

Chul cocked an eyebrow. " You Japanese are freaks. Why should I turn on the television?"

" For the news, you baka! Hong Kong is having this big fire just now, and the entire Li territory is up in flames!"

Eriol and Spinel looked at each other. The former paled.

" Firespeakers?"

" Could be anything, really, but no one made it out yet! It doesn't look good!"

" They are targeting the Li's." Chul looked at Eriol. " I was wondering why they did not choose your precious heir as their powerful sacrifice."

" What are you talking about?"

" I was not talking to you!" Chul turned away from the phone. " Self-important twit. Why would they target the Li clan?"

" I…I do not know." Eriol was at loss for words.

" The kid!" Chul suddenly exclaimed. " Doubtless he would have felt it!" He pressed the button on the phone and evaporated into mist.

" Matte!" Eriol yelled. " You haven't shown the house…" But it was too late. Chul was gone.

Eriol and Spinel looked at each other.

" Great." Spinel quipped. " Is there no end to the bad news?"

" Come on," Eriol cast some last minute spells over the park, to erase the events earlier. " We have to get to Li's apartment."

oO

" I don't know," Kero rubbed his head. " I have a bad feeling about this."

" It's not like I'm going to look into the past ten years." Sakura insisted. " I'm only going to look into last night. Would it really take that much energy?"

Kero and Yue looked at each other.

" The Return Card is a bit iffy that way." Kero told her. " It kind of reacts to commands in weird ways."

" You would probably be better off using the Time Card, although since the boy is magical he would be somewhat immune to its effects right now." Yue said.
" It worked on me before, I mean, I got pulled back into the day before."

" That time the card was acting independently, from the remaining residues of Clow's magic." Kero said. " Your magic is still growing. And it's not like the more you exercise the faster it grows. It seems like it, but at a certain point if you overexert yourself you might actually stunt its growth."

" Then what do I do?" Sakura cried, dismayed. " I have to find Syaoran-kun!"

A wave of power washed through them.

" What was that?" Sakura hurried to the window. Tomoyo looked out, though she had no idea what she was looking for.

" Where did it come from?" Kero asked. " It felt like…"

" I think it came from Penguin Park!" Sakura looked at Yue. " What should I do?" She asked, feeling torn. " Do you think Syaoran-kun is there?"

The magic was still there, and growing in intensity. Yue suddenly had his doubts.

" That feels strong." Yue looked at Kero. " Do you know what that is?"

" Hey, feels like that guy in the living room…" Kero stared at Yue.

The two guardians looked at each other and the answer came to them both simultaneously.

" Firespeaker!"

" Nani?" Tomoyo blinked. " What is that?"

" It's a type of elemental." Kero explained. " They…they are complete masters over whatever they speak. More so than regular sorcerers. You brought home a firespeaker??" He glared at Yue.

" Are they bad?" Sakura asked nervously.

" Not always. Usually they are." Yue replied. " They used to be like other elementals but as time went on they became more offensive and violent."

Sakura did not understand. " Offensive?"

" Each element has an offensive side and a nurturing side." Kero replied. " Fire is no different. But by Clow Reed's time firespeakers veered toward the side of destruction, since it gives them some kind of bravado complex. . You brought home a firespeaker??" He repeated.

" I did not know he was a firespeaker, and neither did you." Yue pointed out. " Come, we have to be careful, but there seems to be some conflict there."

" Matte!" Ruby Moon sailed by the window. " Open up!"

" Hoe?" Sakura rushed to the window to let her in. Ruby Moon landed on the floor.

" Alright, no moving here, Eriol-sama's orders." Ruby Moon whirled around to look out. " We got a firespeaker and a waterspeaker going at each other in Penguin Park."

" Oh." The other two guardians commented, in an almost resigned fashion, though Kero was more so than Yue.

Sakura looked at them nervously. " That does not sound like a good thing."

" Fire and water don't mix." Ruby Moon replied. " Water can put out fire and fire can change water, if it's hot enough. Eriol-sama is going to mediate, I think. I hope."

" What if Syaoran-kun ran into them last night?" Sakura asked, fear building in her chest.

" Hai, he did." Ruby Moon paced a little. " He ran into a group of firespeakers and they wanted to use him as a sacrifice." She told them everything she could glean from Eriol's conversation with Ichiro. " Why didn't you answer your cell phone?"

" I never got a call!" Sakura reached down. " Oh…I left my phone back at home…to recharge…" Mind whirling over what she heard, she thought, frightened, of what Syaoran must have gone through the past night. Is it permanent? She wondered. Will Syaoran-kun never be able to see again? A dread she never experienced before tore through her. It was a despair she never thought she would feel. Syaoran-kun will pull through, she thought, he's strong.

" The man," Yue suddenly remembered. " Touya!"

" Go check!" Ruby Moon flung open the window. " Touya is no longer magical, so he might not be harmed."

Yue sailed through the window and headed to the Kinomoto residence.

" He must have listened to the voice message Eriol gave you and went to Penguin Park to meet the waterspeaker." Ruby Moon looked out after Yue. " Sneaky bastard."

" Then how do I find Syaoran-kun?" Sakura asked. All of the sudden she wanted nothing more than to see Syaoran with her own eyes. Perhaps Ruby Moon was wrong, perhaps Syaoran was fine, a little bruised up, but fine. She could take a little bruised up Syaoran. She could take Syaoran as long as he was okay. " Is the waterspeaker a friend?"

" Let's hope he is." Ruby Moon replied grimly. " From what Eriol said, he sounds like he's a racist. Though he is helping us. I don't see why we shouldn't trust him, for now."

The conflict apparently died down. The group held their breath.

" I think I'll go check on Eriol-sama." Ruby Moon moved toward the window.

" We'll come with you." Sakura ushered to Kero.

oO

Touya was awake when Yue got back. He was sitting up on the sofa, holding his head.

" Touya!" Yue cried, sliding a little on the floor as he approached the boy. " Touya, are you all right?"

" Ow, feels like something clubbed me on the head." Touya looked up at Yue. " What happened?"

" It's that firespeaker." Yue studied Touya's eyes and features. When he realized Touya seemed otherwise unharmed, he relaxed. " He did not hurt you that much after all."

" What firespeaker?" Touya asked. " Nani?"
" What is that smoke?" Yue felt a spell trying to take over him. He shook his head to clear it. " The firespeaker must have smoked the room to…" he shook his head again. He felt like a memory was threatening to disappear. " Touya-san, we have to get you out of the house."

" Nani? Doushite?" Touya was confused.

" Come on," Yue helped the boy up. " I should not have brought him to your house. I should have brought him to Yukito's."

" Brought who?" Touya asked.

Realizing what the spell must be doing, Yue doubled his efforts. " Come on, we have to get you out of here."

Touya stumbled a little as they went outside. " Where are we going?"

Yue paused, " I have no idea."

" Hm. Good thinking."

Yue ignored him. Touya was leaning heavily on him, making Yue nervous again. " What else did he do to you?"

" Who?" Touya asked.

Yue suppressed a sigh. It does not help that Touya did not remember. He sensed for Sakura.

" The commotion died down," He realized. " I want you to stick with me, so I am bringing you to Penguin Park. Do you think you can walk?"

" Sure." Touya straightened himself, but leaned on Yue again. " Argh, my legs feel like rubber."

" It must be the smoke." Yue caught the scent of a larger source burning. " Hai. I will fly you then."

oO

The house was completely damaged. Chul gaped for a moment in his solid form, before rushing in.

" Kid?" He yelled. " Kid? Xiaolang? Oh right, he was deaf."

Fortunately, the boy was still emitting sparks of electricity, and the flashing light could be seen within the rubble. With a spell Chul removed the smoldering wood with his hands, putting out the small fire that was burning. The child lay buried underneath, conscious but distressed, his entire body flashing and sobbing silently.

He reached down for the boy's hand, but a shock made him pull back.

" Argh!" He cried, jumping back. It felt like all the bones in his arm had shattered, all the nerves fried. He changed briefly into water and then reformed, but was reluctant to take his chances. Suddenly there was a huge blast. Chul covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut as the debris rained down on him.

" Would the brat stop that!" He yelled in Korean, changing into mist again to reform and heal the new injuries. He did not know how long he could keep this up before a blow kills him before he could transform.

Syaoran did not know what he was doing. He only knew that it hurt, and it felt like pieces were being ripped away from him and he could not stop it. In the darkness and silence he became even more desperate to find reassurance. He could not sense anything…he could not bear the pain any longer—

A burst of pain exploded in his skull.

Chul groaned in exasperation. " I have no clue what you are," He tossed the brick aside and heaved the boy up to him, " But you are getting on my nerves!"

As he hauled the child up to his arms, on the boy's face, smeared with dirt, two tears that had gathered in his eyes before he was knocked unconscious streamed down his face. The boy's head was bloodied again, and his face had contorted into such an expression of misery that Chul's heart ached in sympathy again.

Kid probably lost his entire family. He thought. He could not imagine how that would feel magically. When his mother died during the Korean War he had felt unbearable pain. The Li clan was not only large, the members were also very close, tightly knit with magic. It was why in the magical world the clan had been so formidable—it was not so much its individuals, in fact, there were plenty that were non-magical, but their strength contributed to the clan's power as a whole. To lose everyone like that would be traumatic, to say the least. And the child had just survived a horrifying ordeal with crazy firespeakers, and he was only what, ten, eleven years old?

He handled the boy a little more gently then. So far the boy had been remarkably brave. Chinese scum or not, Chul could bring himself to admire courage. Admiration did not mean he had to like the person, after all.

Climbing down from the rubble, he looked at the remains wistfully.

" Well, you destroyed the house. And I went to Penguin Park just to show them the house. No point in it now. Just be glad this wasn't my house. Then you'll be asking for it, Chinese brat."

Where to now? He had told the reincarnation of Clow that he could not move the boy, but that could hardly be considered now. With the house down the protections went along with it. The safest place would be at Reed's, though he had no clue where that is. He knew Clow Reed and his guardians once lived in Tomoeda, but that did not mean he recognized the guardians or the house. It was to his fortune that he met Eriol which meant he could locate the sorcerer again. He looked at the boy.

Broken arm, broken leg, fractured ribs, not to mention severe burns and wounds. This was going to be a fun journey, even by mist. And Chul had a feeling if the boy decided to spark electricity again, they both might enjoy a nice crashing on the ground from midair. Despite the fact that electricity cannot be conducted by pure water, all the debris plus the particles in the air, once mixed with the mist, might be enough to give Chul a shock that could take his life. Plus, if the firespeaker decided to show up again, while Chul might survive relatively unscathed by himself, he cannot say if he could protect the child effectively.

Well, he beat up Hiko badly enough with those lightning stuff. Chul thought wistfully. Maybe he could do it again.

It did not seem like it though. The child's aura had weakened to an alarmingly low level. All the adrenaline from the stress of losing family had dissipated with the blow to the head. The boy would not be creating electricity bursts anytime soon, which was not that much of a loss…yet.

He had better get going. The more time he wasted dawdling around staring at the remains of Watanabe's house, the higher the risks get. If the firespeaker did decide to come check out the child, if Chul did not leave soon he might actually find the boy. Chul looked at the boy and wondered if the child's aura was even strong enough to be detected. It probably was not, but Chul's was, and if the firespeaker realizes he has been standing in one spot for a time Hiko might deduce the Li was here.

Forming a secure hold on the child, he changed both of them into mist and headed toward Eriol's aura. Surely the reincarnation of Clow Reed could take care of the boy from there. He had that black cat with butterfly wings that could probably carry the child safely. Either way, Chul would rid his hands of the boy and go home, and this time he is not leaving even if Ritsuko storms up his house.