Blood and Duty
Chapter Ten
Yue had never been to Hiiragizawa's house. There was one occasion when he almost went, but when he learned that Akizuki was going to be there, he refused to go and refused to allow Syaoran to go. Syaoran had gone with friends without him, but Yue himself had never seen it, nor felt curious enough to investigate it. He was protective of Syaoran, but not to the point where he checked the homes of every classmate.
Now, standing in front of the familiar steps and the familiar walls, Yue wished vehemently that they had followed their initial instincts. There had been a whole variety of ways they could have connected the dots. Hiiragizawa's obsession with Sakura. The magical disturbances that began right after he arrived in Tomoeda to join them. Syaoran's own unease. So many hints, and they had figured out nothing.
The sky was dark. Spinel's panther outline was hard to discern, even for Yue. The blue jewel on his chest gleamed with a deep glow. He looked at Kero with a smug look. Kero growled.
"You have passed many tests," Hiiragizawa murmured, "But whether you will pass this one, remains to be seen."
Pale skin against dark robes, the sun-staff flashing gold. Sakura's petite form whisked through the sky on bright wings. Something like adrenaline boosted Yue's faltering reserves and he dove after her to guard her from Hiiragizawa's spells.
A blur of red whipped by. Ruby Moon fluttered like a butterfly, a familiar, coy smirk twitching at her lips.
"Yue-chan!" She giggled, "I brought something for you!"
Mind still whirling from the turn of events—Clow Reed is here, he is Hiiragizawa Eriol, they are attacking us, Spinel Sun—it took a moment for Yue to recognize the struggling form in her hold. One hand wrapped around his neck, choking him, while the other gripped his wrists together. Syaoran kicked, but Ruby held him out so his feet made only glancing blows; laughable on a guardian.
Rage blackened Yue's vision; fury as he had never felt. Years of childhood wiped away as if they never were.
"Careful, darling," Ruby sneered, "His neck is so easily snappable."
"Let him go." Cold, like ice. Ice in his veins, curling to his heart. If Ruby Moon so much as removed a hair on his head, Yue was going to end her. He was going to rip those butterfly wings from her back, tear them to shreds before her very eyes.
"Awww, Yue-chan is angry, how kawaii. Kawaii no Yue-chan! You two make such a pair."
Akizuki, some part of his brain recognized. Fitting.
Ruby Moon glanced over his shoulder. "Some guardian you are," She taunted, "Aren't you supposed to be helping your master?"
Sakura can wait. Yue's senses did not pick up on immediate danger; she was handling her own, and Syaoran was the one who was more vulnerable right now. The boy was completely trapped, and unlike Sakura he had no cards to help him.
"Ruby Moon," He released the full extent of his authority, "You and I shared common origins. We both look to the moon as our patron, and over the centuries I thought of you often. But if you harm my son, I assure you, all of that will mean nothing."
Ruby laughed; she had always been that annoying younger sibling that scoffed at Yue's seniority. "Yue-chan! You are so cute when you're mad. You really think you have any say as to how you relate to me? We are both Clow's legacy, and we are forever tied. Nothing else matters. So for example, if Eriol-sama were to fire a spell right now—"
Yue's instincts blared in alarm. He turned just enough to see Hiiragizawa cancel out one of Sakura's spells before firing one of his own at her defenseless form—
"And I were to drop little Syao-chan here—"
He did not even think. The wind streaked across his eyes. Magic curled around him, and he reached out with both hands. One arm curled around the small body, while the other summoned a barrier—
Just in time to block Hiiragizawa's spell.
Cold of another kind. His senses returned. He whirled around, but Syaoran was already on the ground. The drop—it's too high, it's impossible—Yue nearly released Sakura. He thought he was going to die right there.
But there was no blood—usually there ought to be blood, from a fall like that. Blood and viscera. Syaoran was moving, sitting up on unsteady arms. Magic pooled away from under him. Something had softened his fall.
"Syaoran-kun!" Sakura gasped.
Yue let go of her. He could not handle this.
The guardian burst into tears.
The house was...familiar, and yet not.
He could remember everything, once he saw them. Old antiques, every one. If they sold all of this, they would be rich for life. He held Syaoran's hand tightly and firmly. The boy was nervous, head bowed. The bruise was still dark on his cheek, and the sight of it pierced through the fog of his rage like an arrow.
"I should apologize for many things," Eriol began.
"You have no idea," Yue growled. "If you think just because you carry Clow Reed's soul that I would not tear you to pieces with my bare hands—"
"Yue-san," Mizuki tried to soothe, but he was beyond speaking civilly to her either.
Syaoran had known. Eriol had come to Tomoeda to see the Card Mistress fully mature, but he had not counted on Syaoran. It still would not have been so bad, except Syaoran had been injured, and Eriol knew that if he did not reveal himself to the boy, the brat would have tried to help Sakura and gotten more hurt in the process. Eriol thus chose to reveal himself to Syaoran. At least the sorcerer had been considerate enough for that, but for the sake of his plans, he made Syaoran promise not to utter a word to anyone, going as far as to manipulate the child by playing on his worst fears. No wonder Syaoran had become so distant lately; he was hiding secrets from Yue for the first time, and it was all Hiiragizawa's fault.
"Iie, he has the right," Eriol told Mizuki, "I did not play fair, and may have overstepped my bounds."
"You forced my son to hide from me," Yue snarled, "You can bet you overstepped your bounds."
"He's not your son," Ruby Moon sniffed.
Yue whirled on her, pointing a finger at her face. "You stay out of this, or so help me—"
"Please," Eriol interrupted, "Let me explain, before we all lose our tempers at each other."
Yue turned away from her. He was so tired. He had gone from thinking he was dying to thinking Syaoran was dead and now Syaoran was alive but Clow Reed was here and Clow Reed had tried to hurt him and his son—he knelt and gathered the child into his arms. Syaoran allowed him, wrapping his arms around Yue's neck. His young aura had gone pale with guilt. Yue wanted to tell the little one that he was not to blame, that Yue was not angry at him—but he did not trust himself to speak.
"Clow Reed, as you know, could see the future," Eriol began, "But not all of it. He saw Kinomoto-san. He saw that she was young, that she would need help, but he saw that she had extraordinary potential. She will not be the only master of the cards, but she is the first after him, and the only one he saw.
"You might not remember this, Yue. I am going to tell you something that may seriously hurt the feelings of your fellow guardians, so listen well. Out of all of them, Clow Reed cared the most for you. Kero was his first creation. A trial-run, so to speak. You were to be his last. Out of the four of you, you were the one that took the most time, the most care. Everything he thought was beautiful, he put into you. You were his greatest work, and he was prouder of you than even the Clow Cards, even his own biological children."
Ruby Moon shifted slightly. Though Yue was not looking at her, he could sense her disquiet at these brutally candid words.
"However," Eriol went on, "You were not perfect, and it took a long time for him to understand why. He gave all of you personality, made you understand the concepts of compassion and honor. All of you guardians were made to be loyal to him and whatever master followed, but it was blind loyalty. Programmed. You had no soul, so no will to make that kind of choice. The love you felt for him was not true love. You did not have that kind of capacity."
At his words, Yue's embrace loosened. He had been a different person back then. Colder. Less prone to affection. Less accepting of affection. The turmoils of the world seemed petty to him, and he had not understood the pain of loss, had scorned the anguish mortals felt. Some things he still despised, but back then much of it had been borne from ignorance, taking things for granted. Believing, as Madoushi had, that someone like Clow Reed could not die. He was too powerful, too much of a man to suffer such a mortal curse.
Had Syaoran been born a few thousand years earlier, would Yue have been able to see the wonder in him, as he did now?
"Initially, he designed you and Kerberus so that the two of you could discover your own masters. This was before he saw Kinomoto-san, and before he realized the problem. He realized that because neither of you understood what love was, you could not possibly select a master who had both the magical competence and moral integrity to handle the responsibility of the cards. At least, not at first.
"So for the first candidate, he saw Kinomoto-san, knew that at the very least, for the first master, just to be safe, he had to choose for you. Give you another lifetime with another master, in which he hoped that you and Kinomoto-san might fall in love. Teach you that it is possible to love many in one lifetime. And most of all, train your capacity for love, so that after Kinomoto-san passes, you would be ready to select your own masters without further intervention."
Yue snarled. This resembled the situation with Terada and Sasaki Rika.
"However, there were two things he did not foresee. He did not realize that after he died, instead of sealing yourself away in the Clow Book, you would wander in the physical realm for all the years that you have. He did not know about Li Syaoran, or the Massacre of the Li Clan. It was not within his power to see, so he did not anticipate that between then and now, you would have found another means of learning to love, or that in the span of one inheritance, that you would have grown wiser than he can ever hope to be."
That was all well and good, but it did not soothe Yue's rage. He saw Syaoran's frightened gaze as he dangled high above the streets, and Ruby's sneer as she cruelly taunted them.
"This does not explain why you chose to do what you did," Yue spat. "You knew all of this. You knew about the massacre, and Mizuki would have told you that Li Syaoran was in my care. Are you all completely without your own decisions?"
Eriol raised a hand. "Patience. Let me explain. The Clow Cards can only be transformed into Sakura Cards through adversity. I came to Tomoeda to ensure that this adversity is friendly, rather than hostile. That is why I kept myself hidden, and directly after she was named master. It was so I could prod Kinomoto-san to transform her cards in a controlled environment. You were never in any danger, but I could not actually let you know. However, I felt that with Li-san in the picture, I could not render the situation safe for him as well. That is why I revealed myself to him, but told him to keep this from you."
"I'm sorry," Syaoran whimpered, "He told me you were all going to be alright, so I wasn't worried at first, I just tried my best not to make you suspicious, but then you started fading—"
Yue hushed him, running a finger along the bruise. Kami-sama, I did it for you. "This does not involve you. Let me handle this."
"The reason I had Ruby Moon take Li-san was because of the letter you wrote to Kaho-san. You mentioned a kind of trigger that pulled you away from your ward in favor of saving your master."
"Clow Reed designed that," The guardian blinked. "Don't tell me you were surprised."
"I was. Clow Reed planted that as a basic instinct. He did not intend for it to override your judgment. From your words to Kaho-san, it sounded like this reflex took control of you. I needed to know if this was actually what happened."
Yue was speechless for a moment. He always knew this reflex was in place. How could it be that Clow Reed did not understand its extent? But Clow Reed was not infallible; over the centuries, Yue had learned as much. He tried to force the fear back down. His ignorance could have been even more costly. "So you endangered my son, just to test out your theory?"
"He was never in any danger," Eriol sighed wearily, "I am sorry I frightened you, but I asked Ruby Moon to drop him at my signal, over the safety area."
Yue grabbed Syaoran and held him out. "Were you in on this?"
"Nani? No!"
"Syaoran did not cooperate," Eriol attested, "You blame wrongfully if you think he would agree to such a thing."
"I fought her," Syaoran said miserably, "At first I thought she was going to go after Touya-san, but then she snatched me and I couldn't do anything because we were suddenly in the air. I didn't know what she was doing."
"He's right," Touya said instantly, sounding like he was trying to calm a wild animal, "And even if he did, Akizuki is crazy as—"
Yue's temper cooled only a little bit. "I'm sorry," He said in a gentler tone, running his fingers through the boy's soft hair. He then glared at Eriol. "Don't think you are off the hook for risking my son's life."
"As I said, he was never in any danger. I ensured he would fall over the safety area."
"And if he had missed?"
"You underestimate your fellow guardian if you think she would mis-aim."
"I was never going to kill anyone," Ruby Moon sounded hurt, "I was just being a good actress."
"I don't care what you were going to do." It took more effort than Yue expected to control his temper. "You couldn't have just asked me about the directive?"
"And break my cover? Iie."
"You could have asked Mizuki to inquire for you. Ask me for details. I might have told her."
"That is true, but it would not have been clear whether you skewed the situation based on your perception, and I needed to know if I am to make my decision."
"About what?"
"About how to save you."
Syaoran turned at this.
"You told Syaoran not to give me his magic," Yue realized, remembering the phone call and various bits of memory over the last few months.
"I had a feeling you would not prefer that," Eriol admitted.
Yue's anger cooled further. Eriol was right about that much. He supposed he had him to thank for Syaoran's current health. Syaoran still had his magic. He touched the bruise gingerly. "You almost failed."
"Ruby told me as much. But hopefully, I can make this up to you. There's another reason I came to Tomoeda."
Yue waited.
"What is that?" Sakura asked, voice timid.
"I am not the only reincarnation of Clow Reed," Eriol explained. "Clow Reed's spirit was split into two. I came to divide my power in half and give one to the other."
Yue's mind reached the culprit before anyone else. "Fujitaka."
"Hai." Eriol went on over Sakura's soft 'Hoeee!' to continue, "My original plan was to hand over one half to Kinomoto Fujitaka, but given what I have learned over the last year, I have an alternate proposal to make."
"You're giving that to Yue," Syaoran guessed.
"Iie," Eriol shook his head. "My powers are balanced, veering with the sun. Yue is the guardian of the moon. He cannot accept my power."
"So you're giving it to Sakura?"
"Iie." Eriol looked slightly amused. "If you're amenable, I would like to give it to you, Li-san."
Syaoran stiffened. Yue's hold on him tightened.
"How will that help Yue?" Kero asked.
Eriol bowed his head for a moment, as if struggling to find words. "You had bonded with this boy," He told Yue. "You have grown far beyond Clow Reed's wildest dreams. He never anticipated that you would find a destiny beyond the cards, nor did he imagine you would want to. He never meant to lock you to a fate you did not want, however." Something like pride and admiration spread across his countenance. "You even overrode your instinct for blind loyalty."
Yue looked away, remembering his earlier threat. He was not quite contrite, but he wondered if he overstepped his bounds this time.
"I can give my power to Li Syaoran, and free your ties from the Book of Cards. You will no longer be bound to it, nor will you owe service to the Card Master. Instead, Li-san will be responsible for sustaining you, and perhaps one day even making you an autonomous entity, given time. You would be free to make your own choices and craft your own future, away from the designs of a well-intentioned, but ultimately flawed, mortal man."
Shock rippled through the rest of them. Syaoran's eyes were as wide as saucers. Across the room, Kero, Ruby, and Spinel stared at Eriol, looking stunned.
"There will be consequences, however," Eriol went on, "Because you will no longer be tied to an undying entity, you will fade when Li-san fades, unless he finds a way to truly set you free and make you self-sustaining. You will lose the influence you hold over the cards that fall under your jurisdiction. The Sakura Cards will now be able to affect you as long as they can affect Li-san, which they may or may not once he adds my power to his. It's hard to say. The main thing is you will lose the privileges that came with being a guardian of Clow. You will have to remake your identity and your role. That is not a simple matter."
Yue hardly needed a mortal reincarnation of Clow to tell him such. He had wandered the earth for two thousand years and saw more than Eriol and Clow combined. Perhaps he did not always retain the right perception to understand and interpret the world around him, but all that time was not for nothing. Eriol's proposal sent a wave of peace through him, in a way that he never imagined possible.
Syaoran was still nervous. "But—"
Yue hushed him. The child was young. This was where Yue could assert his authority as a parent. "Do it," he told Eriol, "But don't think that by giving him your magic, you have the right to override my directions. Syaoran is mine, not yours. You have no authority over him."
The other guardians choked at this. They could not believe that Yue would agree to abandon Clow's legacy. It occurred to Yue that he was well and truly separate from the other guardians now. They arose from a common origin, but their paths had diverged and can never cross the way they did before. Until the guardians found their own means of learning to love another person, they will never understand Yue. They will always be a puppet to a master, their destinies locked into a road not of their own making, because they are unable to make it.
It made him feel sorry for them.
Eriol smiled. "Of course, Yue. Clow Reed would have liked Li-san. He is a special child, to have given you such purpose."
Syaoran was still nervous. "But—"
"Xiaolang," Yue said gently, "Remember what your Mama told you."
The little one stared at him with wide eyes. Yue smiled reassuringly. His rage had completely calmed now. This was a good way to make up for the year's worth of scare. And this way, Syaoran was better equipped to deal with future threats, if any mad sorcerer were to come back and try to finish what happened to the Li clan. Really, this proposal was...generous, of Eriol. He looked at the sorcerer, feeling a little guilty for his harsh words.
"Ego sum paenitet." I am sorry. "Ego sum in debitum tuum." I am in your debt.
Eriol's smile softened. "Iie. I am the one who is sorry. I only hope this can make up, somewhat, the many centuries in which you had suffered. Yue, neither Clow nor I ever meant to hurt you. We only tried to do what was best for you, and you," He nodded at Sakura, "But circumstances change, and so we must change with it. I am glad that I can be here to witness this. It is an honor. And you," He turned to Syaoran, who had also turned to face him fully, "It is an honor knowing you as well. I know I did not land in your best graces, but I hope after this, we can still be friends."
Syaoran was still bewildered, and could only stare back in silence. Eriol looked at Yue.
"When you're ready," He told him, "I'll transfer you from Sakura-san to myself, and then transfer my power to Li-san, and this matter will be complete.