Author's Note: Here's another chapitre! The Lotus story arc is almost over, and soon we'll get moving with the story. Please bear with me!

Chapitre 10: Explosion

Chu'nyan cursed. "I hate sitting around and waiting!" she grumbled. "What's taking those two so long?"

Sakura shrugged.

A few more minutes passed. Then, abruptly, Chu'nyan got up and opened the chest of drawers again. She took out a plate-sized round mirror and headed for the door.

"You coming?" she asked. "I'm tired of waiting."

Sakura nodded and followed her.

Kurogane cursed as another bo staff narrowly missed knocking him in the head.

Fai, meanwhile, seemed almost air-light, jumping out of the way of blow after blow. "How's it going, Kurgs?" he asked cheerfully.

"How do you think?" Kurogane growled.

"Fine, I'm su-" Fai began, but was cut off by a villager's bo staff, which hit him squarely in the stomach. His eyes widened as he was thrown against the castle wall. With a small gasp, he slid to the ground.

"Hey?" Kurogane asked, picking him up by the arm and ignoring the three or four villagers pounding their staffs against his back.

Fai dusted himself off. "I'm fine," he said. "But we seem to be in a bit of a tight spot."

Kurogane looked around. The mind-controlled villagers formed a semicircular human wall around them. Their backs were to the castle wall.

Kurogane cursed again.

"Now, now, Kuro-pii," Fai chided.

"What's that mirror for?" Sakura asked as she ran through Lotus, close behind Chu'nyan.

"It breaks mind-control seals," Chu'nyan said. "My mom gave it to me a long time ago. I didn't want to come completely unarmed."

"Can you do magic?" Sakura asked.

"Only a little, but I'm still learning. What about you?" Chu'nyan asked.

"I…I don't know," Sakura said.

"Oh, your memories, right," Chu'nyan said. "Sorry."

Come to think of it, Sakura wondered if she did have any magical power. After all, why else would someone use a spell on her instead of a normal weapon?

Her wondering was cut short when they reached the castle. She and Chu'nyan ducked behind a broken-down shack and looked around.

Fai and Kurogane were both right in front of the door of the palace, breathing hard. They were surrounded by villagers with seals on their foreheads. Both of them were covered in dust and scratches, and breathing hard.

Chu'nyan held the mirror so it would catch the sunlight, then thrust it towards the villagers. "Wake up!" she shouted

The seals disappeared, and the villagers began looking around in confusion, apparently wondering how they had gotten there.

"What- Chu'nyan! Brat! It was a mistake to allow you to outlive your mother!" An unfamiliar, loud voice boomed.

The villagers scattered, the sounds of their bo staffs hitting the dust echoing in the street.

"Shut your mouth, you stupid lord," Chu'nyan shouted back. "Still can't fight your own battles, huh?"

"Silence!" the lord shouted in a voice loud enough to shake the ground. "You will die for your insolence, brat! But first, I will deal with those who you dared to ask for help."

"You were right," he continued. "It was foolish of me to use others to do what I should have done myself. The men of this town are incompetent. It's no wonder these two could withstand them."

"What the-" Kurogane breathed.

Sakura gasped. The air above Fai and Kurogane was glowing and rippling. She could feel raw power coming off of it, like waves of heat from an oven.

"I will crush you with my own magic!" the lord yelled in triumph. A gigantic purple seal in the shape of a dagger in the middle of a circle took shape in the rippling air.

"Can't you use magic now?" Kurogane asked desperately.

"Nope," Fai answered.

Sakura nearly stopped breathing. Fai and Kurogane…they were going to be killed! And, it was all because she'd insisted on staying in Lotus. Fai and Kurogane had been so kind to her. They had protected her and traveled with her. Beyond a boy she couldn't remember, they were all she had. She would not let them be hurt!

Deep inside of herself, something was building. Heat spread through her body. Almost involuntarily, she leaned forward, clasped her hands in front of her chest and shut her eyes. The feeling of heat continued to build until she could barely contain it. She felt like she was being split in two. Then, suddenly, she felt all the power explode out of her.

She let out a single gasp and collapsed.

Pink light flooded Fai's vision. It engulfed everything- the castle, Kurogane, himself, even the lord's seal. Then, suddenly, the light was gone, except for a seal right below the lord's, in the shape of a shield made of wings.

The lord's shield shattered into countless sickly purple shards as the pink shield shivered with power, then dissolved.

A gasp, followed by a soft thud, broke the silence.

"Sakura-chan!" Chu'nyan cried, trying to pick up the unconscious girl.

Traces of magic drifted through the air. Fai extended an arm and tried to sense the source of the power. After a few minutes, he was sure of who had saved them. There could be no doubt of who this magic belonged to.

"What the-" Kurogane demanded. "You just said that you weren't going to use magic…"

"It wasn't my magic," Fai said shortly as they ran over to Sakura.

"Then whose-" Kurogane demanded.

"That magic was Sakura's," Fai said.

NinthFeather: Arigatou for reading the new chapter! I hope you liked it!

Chu'nyan: Thank you for finally letting me do something this chapter. I've been stuck doing the exposition for, like, three chapters, and let me tell you, I was bored!

NinthFeather: Gome ne. Of course, you weren't the only one who finally got to do something. *looks at Sakura*

Sakura: Zzzzzzz….

NinthFeather: One thing I never liked about TRC, especially in the part before Acid Tokyo, was how Sakura never got to do anything. She just passed out a lot.

Fai: Isn't that what she just did?

NinthFeather: Yeah, but this time, she used really powerful magic first.

Sakura: Zzzzzzzz….

NinthFeather: And on that note, we'll see you next chapitre. Please review! Please! I am begging here…please!

Fai: See you later!