The Silver Radiance

Chapter 7: Sakura

I have been out at nights before for various reasons, and despite Tomoyo-chan's relative cheer when it came to card capturing, being out at night is not the most relaxing way to spend one's hours, and I'm not just talking about ghosts. (I really must get over that…) Sure, it's relatively safe in Tomoeda; you run into a few drunk people who are usually harmless (though still creepy so I stay away from them) but being out at night is still not a good idea, even here. Thankfully, this time around I was hardly alone; there was Eriol-kun, and Nakuru-chan, Kero-chan, Yue, Spinel—Tomoyo-chan and Oni-chan remained behind to take care of Syaoran-kun until we get back, which had me feeling a little bit easier because basilisk eyes aren't the easiest things to get, and I wanted all the help there is.

Basilisk eyes! Basilisk eyes? How does one go about getting basilisk eyes? Those are the very things you try to avoid, aren't they? Basilisk eyes. Whoever came up with this recipe sure knows how to give us trouble.

" There are usually hunters for this kind of thing." Kero explained to me. " It's possible to get them."

" How?" I asked dryly. " Staring at the mirror all the way?"

" They lose the power to kill on sight when the basilisk dies, for one." Kero replied. " What we're trying to do now is get a baby basilisk."

" They have babies." I think I should have assumed as much, but it was a bit strange to actually hear such a thing.

" Hai." Eriol replied. Probably, in any other situation, he would have been chuckling at this point, but right now he was anything but amused. " They tend to crawl underground."

" Underground." As powerful as Earthy is, using it on any land in Japan just was not a wise idea.

" We have to, Sakura-san."

" Shouldn't we track it first?" I asked. " I mean, " I can't go around digging up every inch, can I?"

" Earthy can find it for you." Eriol looked at me, as if somewhat disbelieving that I did not think of this myself.

" Oh." Feeling stupid, I unleashed the card. " Go find…baby basilisks." I still can't believe I'm doing this.

Earthy at first darted out in its spirit form and sailed into the sky. Everyone was a little taken aback; it was not supposed to do that, or at least, it should not have to do that. Then Earthy slammed headfirst into the ground and went down—the force knocked everyone off their feet, and shook some of the houses.

Eriol-kun knew better than to comment on my control. In fact, everyone at that point knew better than to comment on my control—my control of Earthy was not the problem here.

" Calm down," Kero suggested, " The Gold Radiance, oddly enough, seems like the chill type. Maybe calming down would work."

Right, like calming down would work when he pretty much changed the way magic worked.

Thunk, thunk, bumps appeared on the pavement. Thankfully, they disappear after a while, as did the hole Earthy created when it first went into the ground. But the thunking was seriously enough to startle anyone, and I had to use the Silent to keep everything down. That wore me out considerably. Fortunately, Earthy emerged seconds later, carrying…an egg.

It was about the size of a bowling pin. It was leathery, long, thin at both ends, and moving.

" Oh good." Eriol exclaimed, heading over to Earthy, who shrunk back with a snarl. Huh. That wasn't supposed to happen either.

" Be good," I called to it, allowing Eriol to take the egg.

" Certainly looks like there's a snake in there," He was having a hard time carrying it, " You think the anaconda has eggs like these?" He asked Spinel.

" Are you kidding me?" Spinel cried, " That's huge!"

" Well that was much easier than it usually is." He remarked. " Let's hurry back before it hatches. I'm putting a stasis spell on it, but basilisks are annoyingly resistant." He tapped the egg at several places with his fingers and it stopped wriggling. " Let's go. Now."

oO

I did not stay to watch Eriol open the egg or carve out the baby's eyes. There are two things I definitely want nothing to do with: ghosts and butchering of animals. Even when it came to crabs, which I enjoy eating, I hated seeing them killed. If you think that doesn't make sense, either you've done the killing of animals yourself, or you've never met the cow your beef came from.

I was there to make the potion, to bleed Yue (his blood was blue, like, sapphire) and once we got dandelions (plenty on the sidewalks) and all the other stuff, (Fing Ding and Wiwi ended up looking like organs from some animal, once I wrote them in the Create book,) the potion was ready.

" Does Syaoran-kun have to drink this?" I asked. It smelled downright foul, and was an ugly, sickly brown color.

" What does it say?" Eriol asked, referring to the webpage.

I looked. " Blood of the querrent. Hoe?"

" That just means it needs his blood." Eriol replied. Ugh, there's so much blood required! But at least he doesn't have to drink this thing.

We went upstairs. Syaoran was asleep.

" Kid's exhausted." Oni-chan remarked, looking like he empathized. A lot.

" We can probably get away with cutting him without waking him up." But then Eriol took his words back. " That wouldn't go over so well."

Not to mention, despite having carved out the eyes of a newborn baby basilisk, Eriol looked a little squeamish at doing any bleeding on Syaoran without telling him.

We settled for waking him.

" Hey," Eriol shook his shoulder, " Please do not go comatose on us. We are in the middle of a crisis here, involving you. Li-san?"

Syaoran did wake up, but he wore such a sleepy expression that I yawned just looking at him.

" We need a bit of your blood." Eriol said to him.

" Umph." Syaoran groaned, and fell asleep again.

Eriol woke him the second time.

" Stay with me here," He urged.

Syaoran did stay awake this time, and we bled him into the potion.

" Now what?" I asked.

The potion began frothing all of the sudden, and smoking. It was actually scary enough that Eriol had to set it on the floor.

The potion glowed, and then from the cup the smoke merged to form a spirit that looked…just like Syaoran, actually, with grayish white robes and eyes closed. Syaoran was lucid enough to look puzzled at that.

" How on earth does this work?" I asked.

" This is a manifestation of his spirit." Eriol replied, hushing me. " We ask it questions, it answers."

" Oh." I blinked, looking at Syaoran and thinking this definitely makes no sense.

" What is your name?" Eriol called out.

The Syaoran look-alike opened its eyes. It had no eyes, which was creepy. " Li Syaoran." It said, in Syaoran's voice.

Eriol was frowning—I don't know why, it seemed like this was how it should work. " What was your name one lifetime ago?"

The spirit made no answer.

" He doesn't know." Eriol frowned even deeper. " Revert your shape to one lifetime ago."

That one worked; the spirit changed from Syaoran into that of a taller, older, young man. It actually still kind of looked like Syaoran, though it's hard to say; Sakura had no idea what Syaoran would look like when he gets older.

Eriol looked very dumbfounded. " What is your name?" He asked the spirit.

" Zhang Deran." It replied, after it opened its eyeless sockets. Its voice had gone deeper and lower, which made sense, considering.

Alright, I thought. This is getting very creepy. I don't think I want to stay here anymore.

Eriol muttered something English, something like ' What the bloody farce?' Or something of that nature.

" What is your title?" Eriol asked.

" The Silver Radiance."

NANI?!

Everyone else was shocked—Eriol less so because he was the one asking the questions and had to keep his composure, but I could tell he was as flabbergasted as the rest of us.

" Who killed you?" Eriol asked.

" Medilithian." Said the spirit, a little monotonously.

" Is Medilithian human?"

" No."

" Is it a beast?"

" No."

Eriol looked stumped. " Revert to the form of Medilithian."

The spirit complied—huh, this tall figure looked even more like Syaoran-kun than the original.

" I am so confused!" I exclaimed.

Medlithian looked human alright—I guess he just was not a real human, kind of like the Gold Radiance. Well, now I am completely stumped. So Syaoran is Medlithian? Wait, but Syaoran is the Silver Radiance! Wait—but what?

" Return to your true form." Eriol commanded, and we got Syaoran again.

" Revert to your form one lifetime ago." Eriol commanded again, and we got the Silver Radiance.

" I think Syaoran is the Silver Radiance." Oni-chan dared to venture.

Eriol shook his head. " That makes no sense! Return to your true form."

Syaoran.

" List your sisters."

The Li sisters were named, by order of age.

" So he is Li…" Eriol frowned. " Li-san doesn't happen to have any brothers does he?"

" Iie." Syaoran himself answered. We had completely forgotten that he was watching as well. Strangely enough, he was very alert. Probably the Silver Radiance affected him as much as it affected us. " I have no brothers."

" Well, we'll see if your spirit says otherwise." Eriol replied. " List your brothers."

Nothing. Li Syaoran didn't have any brothers.

" But his past life is the Silver Radiance?" Kero asked.

" Well he should be one in this lifetime too." Saying that, Eriol quickly called out, " What is your title?"

" The Silver Radiance."

No matter that this didn't make any sense to me or to Eriol-kun. There was no denying that Syaoran-kun was the Silver Radiance.