The Key Chapter 7, a card captor sakura fanfic

The Key

Chapter 7

Sakura headed straight to work.

The cards found her intended subject. She used the Dream Card instantly. At her abode, Lady Aileen dropped to the ground under the remote spell, alarming her guardians. Sakura had waited for Syaoran to go to bed as Yukito did not feel good about letting him see what she was about to do.

" Lady Aileen." Sakura said out loud when the spell was successfully cast. She did not need to speak out loud, but speaking out loud made her think coherently. She could see the woman behind her eyelids (her eyes were closed), and feel her presence, her magical aura struggling to fight against Sakura's spell which Sakura squashed with ease. Eriol was not kidding when he said she was weak. " You should have known better than to toy with me and those I care about."

Lady Aileen stopped struggling at this, realizing it was useless anyway. " What is he to you?" She inquired, and Sakura noted suddenly that while they spoke different languages, they both seemed to understand each other. " He is a stranger. A person of no consequence to you. Unless you wish to use the Key for yourself, as everyone else."

Sakura frowned, still not opening her eyes. " What do you intend to use him for?" She asked. " Something barbaric, perhaps. What ambitions do you have, that you would trespass my territory?"

" Ah yes, Tomoeda is your territory, I suppose." Aileen replied. " And as for how I intend to use him, you should know better, Card Mistress. We are all in a dangerous game. Not all of us have ambitions, but we are wary of those who do. I simply wish to claim him so others like you would not."

Sakura frowned deeper. " Others like me? What is that supposed to mean?"

" You mean you have not tried to use him yet?"

" Use him?" Sakura sneered. In the real world Yukito frowned. He had no idea what was going on, hearing only Sakura's side of the conversation. " Iie, I do not intend to use him. He is a free human being."

Aileen sneered, or did something like it, for Sakura felt the contempt through the bond the Dream Card generated. " Your good morals are commendable, Card Mistress." She replied. " But a free human being, he is not. His soul is not of natural creation. It was made, by those like you and me, such that what should not be unlocked will not be. A Key, an item. Something to be used, or in this case, destroyed as often as possible."

Anger flared in Sakura's mind at these words. " Your morals are not so commendable, Lady Aileen. There are ways around everything. It merely takes someone smart enough to do it."

Hai. Yukito thought when he heard this. That would be why Sakura's getting a little less popular these days. She's starting to get a little too smart.

" And you believe yourself to be capable of coming up with alternatives?" Aileen laughed. " You may be strong, little girl, but you fight against the world."

" The world is not always right." Sakura replied. " You have two choices. You can either try, along with the rest of the world. I can dispose of you easily. Or, you can free yourself from the folly of others. The decision is yours. He came to Japan to seek my protection. If you choose to fight against me, you will not end well." She broke off the connection.

Kami-sama! Yukito thought. Is she only eleven years old?

" Oh boy." Sakura said when she opened her eyes. " Did I even use half the vocabulary correctly? I felt almost like someone else was talking through my mouth. Did you ever get that feeling? Well…I guess you're kind of the wrong person to ask."

" Lady Aileen! Lady Aileen?"

Aileen woke, feeling very weak. She was unable to see the Card Mistress, but she sensed her power. She ignored the cries of her guardians as they helped her to her feet.

" I'm alright." She said, waving them off. She wanted to think. Li Zhineng had found himself a formidable protector. She herself stood no chance. Others, though, may.

She did have two choices. She could fight the Card Mistress, essentially, or help her. If she fought the Card Mistress she would surely lose, and there is no one trustworthy enough to form any sort of alliance. On the other hand, the Card Mistress would hardly dispose to be trusting of the sister of a sorceress who tried to kill her charge and his late sister.

She needed time.

Sakura's bet with Fate, while it did not lead to any dire consequences they could see, worried Syaoran so much that his fears bloomed to life in his dreams that night. The boy woke up in tears.

Yukito burst into the room as he woke. " Li-san?" He cried, " Li—Whoa!"

He grabbed the boy's shoulders as the child continued screaming. " Whoa there!" Yukito called again. " Easy! It's me! It's me, Yukito!"

Syaoran stared up at him, shaking so much he looked like he was having a seizure. He was still trapped in the visions in his nightmare. " Yue," He wailed in Chinese, " Yue I'm sorry, Yue—"

" Easy!" Yukito sat down on the bed. " It was only a nightmare, Syaoran. It was only a nightmare."

Syaoran continued weeping. " I don't want her to die! I don't want more to die!" He choked, tears gushing out as his face contorted in wretched misery so that they splashed on Yukito's hand. Without even realizing, Yukito had the boy in a tight embrace, trying to calm the shivering.

" It's okay," Yukito whispered, while Yue worried that Syaoran's dream might have been a premonition. " I'm here."

" I don't want to lose you," Syaoran had not come to his senses yet, " Only people I have, I won't lose you!"

" No, you won't." Yukito stroked Syaoran's sweat-soaked hair, feeling a pain in his heart he could not describe. " We'll be here. We will take care of you."

" I don't want anything to happen to you." Syaoran was still sobbing.

" Nothing will happen to us." Yukito sighed. Syaoran clung to Yukito as he tried to calm down. Yukito continued to stroke his hair. " Hush now, everything is okay. It was just a dream."

It was a long while before Syaoran was able to calm down. Between shuddering, he managed to gasp out, " Where am I?"

" You're safe." Yukito replied after a slight hesitation.

" Where?" Syaoran looked up, tremors still breaking through his form. He stared at Yukito like he did not recognize him for a moment. " Father?"

It was the darkness, Yue decided. There was no other way the boy would mistake him. Although, considering the last time Syaoran had seen his father had been when he was three years old, anything could happen.

" It's me, Yukito." He told the boy. He said no more.

Looking as lost as ever, Syaoran withdrew from Yukito's embrace, as if sensing something inappropriate about it. Outside it was still raining, as it had been since that morning, and when lightning flashed Syaoran's cheeks glimmered from his tears.

What kind of nightmare was it? Yue wondered, pitying the boy despite himself.

He was dreaming about us. Yukito answered quietly. Didn't you hear what he had been screaming? He was afraid of losing us. He probably thinks he'll cause our deaths.

That was something Yue actually worried about as well, but seeing the boy so distressed over the same thing made his heart secretly melt.

" I didn't mean to wake you." Syaoran mumbled at last, after sitting there staring at nothing for a while.

" Hey," Yukito reached out to pat the back of the boy's head, " That was one hell of a nightmare eh?" He did not ask what it was about, since it was obvious. " You're going to be fine."

" I'm not worried about me." Syaoran replied, and Yue knew he was telling the truth. Yukito reached out and gently wiped the tears away. He's still so thin.

Syaoran reclined back. Yukito waited for a moment, wondering if he should stay or go, but then Syaoran laughed. It was a strange laugh, very unnerving, like Syaoran had meant to cry but did the opposite with the same effect.

" I thought life sucked." The boy said, rather loudly. His voice was hoarse from his earlier screams, but it was strong, and flat, like sarcasm. He was so exhausted from those restless nights and constant hiding emotions inside him that he did not even care that Yukito was listening, or that Yue, who did not seem to like him and never came out, was listening as well. " I thought life sucked before. Everything was about magic, and I had none of it. They used to call me Little Wolf, just because my nickname was Syaoran, and trail after me until they reach within the range of my Niang and they'd run away. Mom believed me, but all the other parents called me a liar. Their kids would never be so mean—but they were. They even started trying all sorts of spells on me. The first time they sent ice shards at me. The elders found out and punished them. I was not to be target practice. But then they tried mind spells, and all sorts of spells, really. They wanted to see what kind of spells they could get me with. No way to defend myself, you know? I guess the immunity was lucky in itself. And when they ran out of spells to throw at me without people noticing, they acted like I didn't exist. I often wished magic wasn't so important to the clan. They wouldn't talk to me. Thought I was beneath them." He laughed again and burst into tears anew. " There was only Niang, and my other sisters. They were my whole world. They even got in tons of trouble because they wanted to protect me. I'm always getting protected." He sobbed convulsively. " I can never protect anyone!"

Yue was completely at a loss, and Yukito, who usually knew what to do with this sort of thing—he had rejected Sakura's love more gently than Yue could ever do—but here both were lost. The despair in the child's words were deep beyond words, and the truth of the boy's past, though not surprising given the circumstances, were painful to hear.

" I kept wanting to leave." Syaoran whispered. " Kept wanting to leave. Leave the Li clan, leave Hong Kong, go somewhere where magic isn't the only thing worth living for. I guess I wished for it the wrong way because…" He turned his face away from Yukito, facing the window, where the lightning flashed again, followed by a boom of thunder a whole five seconds later.

Yukito rose, grabbing some tissues, and wiped away the new tears on the boy's face. When the boy sniffled, he handed more tissues over.

" Li-san," Yukito said softly, " I don't know if you know this, but the reincarnation of Clow Reed, Hiirigaziwa Eriol, is in England right now."

Syaoran did not respond, but he paused, showing that he in fact did not know that was where Sakura found out all her information.

" He's going to come for you in a year. Meanwhile, he's working on a way to settle everything. It will be alright, Li-san. No one is going to die. You should know, Sakura is very good at what she does. When she sets her mind to something, she will make it work. And she has her mind set on protecting you." Yukito leaned forward, and, despite Yue's protestation, added, " As do I.'

" Calls to Hong Kong, and calls to Tomoeda. My my, have you been busy lately, Hiirigaziwa."

With half his powers given to Kinomoto Fujitaka, Eriol was formidable but no longer as dangerous as he used to be. Fortunately, Ruby Moon and Spinel Sun were not weaklings and their power was not halved. They currently stood before him to guard him against any attack.

" I have a new successor, as I am sure you know." Eriol replied calmly. It was dark, as it was early in the morning, and he was in his pajamas still, as the sorcerers had intruded into his bedroom. " I also happen to have five descendants who were murdered, and one missing. Do you happen to know what happened?"

The sorcerer, who Eriol could not see but could sense, laughed scornfully. " Very nice. As composed and collected as every, Hiirigaziwa. Tell us then: if we tear this place apart, will we find the Key?"

" I think you're getting way ahead of yourselves." Ruby replied. " For one thing: you're not tearing anything apart. We're doing the tearing!"

There were about five sorcerers in Eriol's bedroom, versus the guardians and Eriol. But Eriol had the mansion on his side, even if the shields somehow failed. As the guardians lunged forward, Eriol swung his staff and ordered the mansion to protect him and his guardians. Within minutes the sorcerers were taken care of.

Eriol sighed, withdrawing his staff. " This is not going as planned at all."

" Nope." Spinel agreed. " What now?"

Eriol knelt by one of the sorcerers that was still conscious. " I want you to tell me everything."

The woman glared up at him.

" This will not help you." Eriol replied. " How did you break in?"

" Like hell I'll tell you."

" You can tell me or I can break into your head and dig it out of you."

" I would like to see you try." She spat back.

Eriol released a breath, and did exactly as he threatened. He ignored her screams of agony and took his time in understanding everything she knew. He broke out, and the sorceress fell unconscious.

" Could you take just a bit longer, please?" Ruby exclaimed sarcastically, when he was done.

Eriol stood, running his fingers through his hair. " If only I can see the kid." He lamented quietly.

Suddenly, the ground tremored.

" We will not be getting any peace until they find him." Eriol sighed. " Come on, we better defend best we can, but make sure you keep Zhineng's real location as ambiguous as possible."

" How do you plan on doing that?"

" Kill." Eriol said simply.

Yukito woke to a severe headache. He grimaced as he sat up, wondering for a moment why his neck was so stiff. Remembering in a rush, he climbed out of bed. He had stayed with Syaoran until he fell asleep, but he had been so tired he was not sure if he would have heard him if the child screamed.

Syaoran was not in his room. " Li-san?"

Kero suddenly popped up at the window. " He's out here."

Yukito paused. " Why is he out there, exactly?"

" Yukito-san!" Sakura's voice called out from the back yard. Yukito headed to the window. " Check these out!"

It was then that Yukito heard a whirring noise, then the sound of something hitting a tree. He looked down to find Sakura and Syaoran in the yard, both holding sticks, and Syaoran was getting something from the tree.

" Otou-san got me Chinese yo-yos!" Sakura called up. " Li-kun is teaching me how to use them! Come join!"

Syaoran actually knew a few tricks with the Chinese yo-yo.

" This one's a hard one." He was telling Sakura when Yukito joined them. " You bend your right arm this way, then you throw it up, and then you hook the string around and you swing it like so," He demonstrated, " I don't get it each time," He admitted, as the yo-yo started twirling around and knotting the string.

" I've gotten it to at least start," Sakura looked up at Yukito when she saw him. " Check this out." The whirring noise began again, rivalling the cicada calls.

" That's pretty neat." Yukito studied Syaoran. The boy looked much better than he expected. Perhaps Sakura was providing a good enough diversion.

Sakura was a quick learner, even if she was not completely comfortable with it, and the string kept fraying so the yo-yo would get stuck. Eventually she was brave enough to try a few throws, though she did not understand how to catch it.

" Lift your stick up." Syaoran told her. " Your right stick, and aim for it. Let it travel down the string."

Yukito left the two children to their devices, heading inside the house. After a while, Kero entered as well.

" Interesting Chinese gaki." He said good-naturedly. " I like this kid."

" Hm."

" Hanging around for a whole year." Kero muttered. " Eriol sure knows how to demand things. What are you going to do about college?"

" Probably leave the house to him." Yukito replied. Leaving Syaoran in Tomoeda, stranded, for a year was proving to be a headache for all of them, made more difficult by the fact that all of them decided not to let Syaoran know about the plan until they worked all the problems out. First of all, Yukito was going to a college far away from Tomoeda, along with Touya. This meant at the very least, Fujitaka had to pay for his son's far-off expenses, therefore Syaoran could not live with the Kinomotos. Leaving the house to the youngster was not a big problem; Yukito had apparently lived by himself in that house ever since he was ten years old, but what was Syaoran going to do in the meantime?

" He can enroll."

" Enroll in Tomoeda Elementary?"

" Why not?" Kero shrugged. " Your distant cousin, maybe."

" He speaks fluent enough Japanese. It might work," Yukito agreed. " Although, probably not distant cousin. It is suspicious enough no one has heard of him for seven years."

" Where does he come from then?"

" Tokyo? He has the accent. And Tokyo's big enough that all sorts of weirdos pop up there. It could account for him not applying traditional customs if he ever slips. Hong Kong's a big city, Tokyo's a big city. And there are so many people there, it wouldn't be too surprising if he popped out of nowhere."

" Well if he's not a cousin of yours what is he then?"

" I don't know."

" Come on, we have to make a thorough alias for this kid. First of all he can't be a Li."

" Iie. What's a very common Chinese name?"

" Li."

" What's the second most common name?"

" You realize he's from Tokyo, not Hong Kong."

" Ah, right. What's a common Japanese surname? Sato?"

" You're asking for it. Sato means 'assistance'."

" Right, going for something that wouldn't clue them in. What next?"

" Suzuki?"

" Bell tree?" Yukito frowned. " Doesn't seem like Li."

" Oh please. Fine time to be picky!"

" Fine. Suzuki. Real name?"

" I like Akira. Kid's real intelligent, so it's fitting."

" Akira?" Yukito blinked. " I like. Suzuki Akira." He turned to Kero. " He's going to kill us."

" Who, the kid?" Kero grinned. " He'll like it too, I'm sure. Suzuki Akira. Now, why is he hanging around you, if he's not related to you?"

" That's a problem, isn't it." Yukito frowned. " Unless we want to do a mass brainwash, we have to explain why we were as confused as everyone else about why he was suddenly hanging around Penguin Park and not talking to anyone."

" Good point. We didn't know who he was either, and people knew that."

" And there's that problem of people seeing him at his apartment building before."

" We could make a direct gateway. Say the front door. Since Li is so good at opening locks, we can have the Lock Card form a lock only he or Sakura opens. Then the door can open to here."

" Direct transport?"

" Why not? Mix Loop and Maze. Sakura is good at that. You create a portal from the apartment entrance to here. Sakura's influence spans enough that that little bit of magic wouldn't be sensed unless they knew what they were looking for."

" That is an idea. Then Suzuki doesn't need any relation with any of us, other than normal friends. Too bad he can't invite anyone home."

" You don't want him to invite anyone home. In his case, with people out for his blood, it's best to give up society a little bit."

" True. I can ask Sakura to help put up some wards around this house." Yukito frowned. " Assuming this house doesn't already have wards. I need to investigate a little bit."

Several hours later Sakura came inside to help Yue and Kero locate any hidden wards in the house. The three scattered over the house to scan wider, and Syaoran sat in the living room feeling rather useless. He did not complain, though, and the three were too absorbed in their work to really notice what he was doing.

While Sakura went up to the attic and Yue and Kero circled outside, a young woman sat down next to Syaoran on the living room couch. He started when she appeared.

" Konnichiwa." She greeted, as it was early in the afternoon. " You were pretty good with the yo-yo."

Syaoran studied her a little bit.

" Who are you?" He asked, a little surprised by her sudden appearance and her actual appearance. " Are you Sakura's mother? I never saw you around."

" Hai. I am Nadeshiko." She smiled warmly.

" I never saw you at the Kinomoto's."

" I was not there for a while. I have been out of touch with the living lately."

" Gomen ne." Syaoran replied uncomfortably. " I was a little absorbed, so I did not see you until just now." He finished awkwardly.

" I apologize if I startled you."

" Iie." Syaoran shrugged. " As long as you don't suddenly attack me." How did she get in the house?

" Yes you have had a lot of those."

Syaoran was silent for a while. Then he put his thought to words. " How did you get in here?"

Nadeshiko smiled. " I came when you and my daughter were out playing."

" Oh." Syaoran wondered why Yukito did not introduce him to her. Although once Sakura came inside everyone seemed very anxious to get to work. " Well, I am Li Zhineng. You can call me Syaoran."

" Soon to be Akira, I think." Nadeshiko replied. " They came up with an alias for you."

" Akira? What does that mean?"

" Suzuki Akira. For intelligent. You apparently earned the high opinion from Kero." Nadeshiko smiled.

" Suzuki Akira?" Syaoran blinked. It felt strange. " They're going to call me that?"

" You ought to get used to it." She smiled. " They haven't worked out everything yet. Besides where you came from, Tokyo, and your birthday, I believe it is June 9th."

" Oh." Syaoran blinked again. " I see."

The two talked for a moment before Nadeshiko rose, telling Syaoran she had to leave.

" I will tell Yukito-san that I am leaving." She said. " Why don't you watch some television? Do you like anime?"

" Not really." Syaoran replied truthfully. " I like manga better. Anime is so slow."

Nadeshiko smiled fondly at him. " Ah well, take your pick. I shall see you later, Suzuki-san." She headed upstairs.

None the wiser, Syaoran turned on the television. When Yue came down, Syaoran did not mention Nadeshiko, although he did wonder why Yue never asked about how their conversation went.