Settling of Scores by firestar385. A Cardcaptor Sakura story.
Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing the Cardcaptor Sakura characters, who belong to CLAMP. Plot and original characters belong to me. None of this is making me any money. Any similarities to other works is strictly a coincidence. All mistakes are mine.
As always, thank you reviewers!
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Fujitaka was used to waking early. At seven in the morning, he found himself unable to sleep anymore so he slipped out of bed and found his slippers. Before preparing for the day, he decided to check on his daughter. Rationally, he knew that she had to be fine, but all this mess with Clow Reed recently made him want to look in on her, anyway. Something within him seemed uneasy but when he focused on it, it didn't have anything to do with Sakura or Touya. Still, he exited his room and went to the next one. He silently peeked his head in.
Both Sakura and Tomoyo were still sleeping soundly. Neither looked distressed in any way so Fujitaka told himself that they were fine. He watched his daughter sleep for a minute longer before pulling out of the room and closing the door carefully. He was about to return to his own room to change into day clothes when he noticed Nakuru running towards him.
"Kinomoto-san!" she exclaimed upon seeing him.
"What is it?" he asked, instantly concerned.
"You must come quickly!" she urged. "Hurry, this way!" She didn't give him another chance to question her as she turned and ran back the way she came. He didn't know where they were going until the guardian lead him to a room outside of which Li Yelan was calmly standing.
"What is going on?" Fujitaka questioned his hostess after Nakuru had darted through the door behind Yelan.
"You did not tell me that the boy you brought with you from England was also a reincarnation of the great Clow Reed," she stated instead of answering his question. Fujitaka wondered how to respond to that. It was true that he had purposefully withheld that information from her. Eriol hadn't wanted to alert the whole Clan to who he was and when even Syaoran had agreed to keep the subject quiet, Fujitaka had figured there was some merit to Eriol's want for secrecy. It seemed that Yelan had figured it out anyway.
Yelan saved him from answering. "It makes much sense. You never seemed complete as a reincarnation, Kinomoto-san. Hardly any of Clow's memories and only half of his magic… Clow was powerful indeed to be able to split his soul and magic into two."
"No, Sakura split his magic between us once she became Mistress of the Sakura Cards," Fujitaka corrected absently. "I apologize for our duplicity, Li-san, but please tell me, how did you discover his identity?"
"I am tempted to deny you answers until my own questions are answered," she said evenly. "However, currently the boy reincarnation sleeps within my library, on top of a rather precious book that I would like to not see damaged," she explained. She turned and entered the room Nakuru had run into. Fujitaka followed her curiously. Why was he needed? Surely Ruby Moon and the much more powerful Li Yelan could awaken the boy.
Inside, Ruby Moon stood a few feet away from a wooden table. She had assumed her true form after finding the older man. Spinel Sun was also there, though still in his small form. Ruby Moon had her hands held up in front of her like she was miming a wall, though there was nothing before her.
Syaoran, having discovered the situation taking place in the library, slipped into the room and came to stand next to his mother. "What's going on?" he asked, his sharp eyes immediately noticing everyone's strange behavior.
"Look closer," Yelan prompted Fujitaka, ignoring her son for the moment. Fujitaka glanced sideways at her before looking towards the frustrated guardian again. He peered into the empty space between where he stood and where he could see Eriol slumped over the table. His vision shifted like it did when he was looking at other people's auras. He made a small sound of surprise when he could see that Ruby Moon was no longer pressing against air, but a translucent red wall made up of the essence of Clow's magic. "This is how I found out that he also uses Clow's magic," Yelan said softly.
"He set up wards?" Fujitaka guessed. "Why?"
"It is you who shares half of the same soul, Kinomoto-san. We were hoping you could tell us," she replied with a mysterious smile.
"I don't know anything about magic," Fujitaka told her. "I… I haven't really used it since gaining it. I can see auras, but I've never been able to use the magic like Hiiragizawa can."
"A pity, since you have much magic," Yelan tsked. "He came here looking for answers, though to what I do not know. That book he sleeps over is a journal of Clow Reed. Xiaolang told me about the memory card of your colleague. Evidently Clow had some memories he did not want to pass down, even to his reincarnations. Since it was the boy's goal to keep his identity a secret, he set the wards to shield any other spell he would cast within their confines. These wards prevent anyone from crossing their boundaries or from sensing what is going on inside." Fujitaka realized that was why the clearly upset Ruby Moon was keeping her distance - she could not reach Eriol even if she wanted to.
"I still do not know how I can help," Fujitaka sighed. He was starting to think that he should learn more about his magic and how to use it. Until now he had been happy with simply being able to see people's auras and his beautiful wife's spirit.
"A magician, no matter how powerful, cannot cast a spell against his own magic. That is probably why Ying Fa had to halve the magic for you. Therefore, you should be able to cross the boundary and bring him out of there. Once that which the wards are protecting leaves their confines, the spell is broken. Then we will be able to determine what holds him down in sleep."
"Please," Ruby Moon beseeched him. "Break this spell."
"I… I will try," Fujitaka promised. Even though Yelan's knowledge of magic seemed to make sense, he still doubted that he would be able to do anything against a spell set by the powerful boy. He walked up to the wall and peered through the redness to where Eriol's still form was hunched over the table. This close, he could see why Ruby Moon, Spinel Sun, and Yelan seemed so concerned. Eriol's face was pale and his lips tinged with blue. For a moment, Fujitaka feared that the boy wasn't even breathing, but of course that would have also canceled the spell.
After taking a deep breath, Fujitaka stepped forward and entered the protected area of the wards. He could hear Ruby Moon give a strangled cry of relief. "Bring him out," he saw her say, but he could not hear the words.
Fujitaka approached the teenager slowly and leaned over him. He was breathing. Fujitaka reached down to take Eriol's right hand in his own when he noticed that despite the limpness of the appendage, Eriol's index finger was still covering part of a name written in English. "You're looking for the name of your tormentor, aren't you?" he questioned softly, his heart aching for the English boy. Carefully, he pulled Eriol's hand off the page. As soon as his finger lost contact with the inked name, color flooded back into Eriol's face and lips and he shuddered, though his eyes remained closed.
Eriol's state reminded him much of what had happened to Syaoran when he held the memory card. He glanced through the translucent red wall to where Syaoran was waiting next to his mother. Would it also take Eriol hours to awake? Had he known this would happen? Gently Fujitaka shifted Eriol out of his chair so he could lift the limp form. Despite being slightly taller than Syaoran, the English boy didn't weigh any more. Fujitaka cradled the other half of his soul against his chest and confidently stepped through the perimeter again. Eriol let out small sigh as that spell was broken and his eyes fluttered open. Ruby Moon was instantly at his side, checking on her master for herself.
"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Ruby Moon demanded, as if it was possible for her to suffer from that mortal ailment.
"Ah, no," Eriol replied hesitantly. He glanced around the room, trying to get his bearings. Quickly, he remembered where he was and what he had been doing. He also realized that he was being held by Sakura's father. "You can put me down, Kinomoto-san," he said. The older man complied, setting the English boy on his feet.
"Hiiragizawa Eriol," Li Yelan said, eying the boy critically. "You are the other half of Clow Reed's reincarnation. There is much-"
"Perhaps you should allow him to recover, Mother," Syaoran spoke up, earning himself a grateful look from the other teenager. Syaoran was surprised at himself. Usually the idea of Eriol being interrogated to death by his mother helped keep the Chinese boy sane when Eriol was annoying him.
"I am hungry," Eriol lied effortlessly. Truthfully, the thought of food made his stomach turn but even more than that the idea of being grilled by Li Yelan made his stomach and head ache.
"I suppose we should have breakfast, then," Yelan conceded though her displeasure at being denied was evident. She lead the way out of the room.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" Fujitaka asked quietly as they walked down the narrow hallway. On Eriol's other side, Syaoran leaned in curiously to hear the answer.
"Yes," Eriol answered. "I need to talk to Yue-san and Kerberos-san."
"What about Yue?" The three males turned to see Yukito smiling widely at them. "Where are you all headed to?"
"Breakfast," Syaoran responded eagerly. He knew that Yukito would like that.
"Perfect," the college student said with a wide grin. "I will get Touya-kun up and we'll join you." He paused as he looked between the two teenagers and in a rare moment of insight, he asked, "Are you okay, Eriol-kun?"
"Yes," Eriol replied defensively, giving the false guardian a funny look.
"Oh. I guess… never mind." He shrugged and then smiled. "We'll see you in a few minutes." He slipped back into the room he was sharing with Touya.
"Er, maybe Yue-san noticed something," Syaoran suggested.
"What is there to notice?" Eriol questioned. He turned his head to look over his shoulder. "Nakuru-chan, do I look like something is wrong?"
"You just look a little pale," Fujitaka stated to calm the teenager. He prodded the English boy to get him moving towards the dining room again.
"What are you doing?" Syaoran asked in Cantonese. He kept his voice low so his mother wouldn't overhear, but the others in their group didn't understand the language well enough to listen to their conversation.
"What?" Eriol questioned in the same language, glancing sideways at his descendent.
Syaoran narrowed his eyes to give Eriol dark look. "I know you better than I would ever want to, Hiiragizawa. Why are you acting so weird about people asking you if you're okay?"
"You don't know me very well at all, Li," Eriol argued.
"That reminds me," Syaoran changed the subject, since Eriol was avoiding it anyway. "Why are you suddenly so upset about being referred to as Clow?"
"I'm not suddenly upset about it," Eriol informed him. He glared at the ground in front of his feet so he wouldn't have to look at his descendent. Syaoran was alarmingly good at reading people.
"For how long then? You seemed pretty smug about it the last time you were in Japan."
Damn it, Eriol mentally cursed. Anyone else would have focused on the "not upset" part and totally missed the suddenly adverb. Not Syaoran, though. "Since everything," Eriol replied evasively.
"What? The changing of the Sakura Cards or the crazy Clow nemesis?"
"You don't even care," Eriol accused him. Syaoran caught his arm and swung him around so Eriol had to meet his gaze.
"I do care," Syaoran said forcefully.
"Hey, what's going on?" Fujitaka asked, stepping up to separate the two boys in case their discussion became more heated. Nakuru hovered protectively behind her master.
"Nothing," Eriol replied, not taking his eyes off the other teenager. Neither Fujitaka nor Nakuru looked convinced. They reached the dining room at that point so the subject was dropped. Nakuru decided that she needed to learn Cantonese as soon as possible so that bratty Li heir couldn't pester her master anymore without her knowledge. She'd ask Suppi to help her when they had a free moment.
Syaoran left Eriol alone after that, though he kept shooting distrustful looks at the reincarnation throughout the meal. Eriol was eternally grateful when Yukito, Touya, Sakura, Tomoyo, and Syaoran's four sisters showed up to eat the first meal of the day as well. Sakura did a good job distracting her boyfriend and Tomoyo was kind enough to not bother him, even after noticing that he was still in his pajamas.
"Are you worried to face the elders?" Sakura asked the Chinese boy. Her emerald eyes were wide with nervousness for her most precious person.
"Um, not really," Syaoran answered. His ears turned red.
"I'm sure you'll be able to convince them to give you your magic back!" she insisted. "Everything will be all right."
"Yeah," he agreed, looking fondly at her.
"Sakura-san," Yelan spoke up from the head of the table. "Would you attend the hearing as well? Your input would be valuable as the Mistress of the once-Clow Cards."
"What?" the couple exclaimed together.
"I don't know much about this sort of thing," Sakura said anxiously. She didn't want to say something that would cause her boyfriend to lose his inheritance and magic permanently.
"You will be fine," Yelan assured her. "This is a closed session, but as reincarnations of our greatest ancestor, you may attend as well," she offered to Fujitaka and Eriol.
"Thank you, but I will decline," Eriol responded immediately. "I would like to do more research, if you do not mind."
"You cannot avoid me forever, Hiiragizawa Eriol," Yelan said gravely. Eriol was not intimidated and returned a stare that clearly read, I'm going to try.
"Hoe? Are you in trouble, Eriol-kun?" Sakura asked fearfully. She was certainly intimidated by the older woman, even though Yelan had made it clear that she approved of the young Japanese girl.
"No," Eriol said kindly, smiling at his successor.
"As the reincarnation of Clow Reed, our greatest ancestor, I do not think it too much to ask that you speak with the current head of your family," Yelan scolded.
"I cannot imagine what I could possibly tell you that you don't already know," Eriol countered.
"Why did you desert your responsibilities and hide in Japan until the end of your days?" she said as an example. "Why did you decide to reincarnate into two separate people? What was my son's role in all of your plotting?" Her last question definitely had a sharp edge to it.
"Excuse me," Eriol said, standing from his seat quickly. The legs of the chair scraped over the wood flooring. "Thank you for the fine meal." He stormed from the room, his plate of breakfast food untouched.
"I think that was a little much, mother," Syaoran said softly, standing from his seat as well. He left the room as well, leaving through the same door that Eriol had. Nakuru made to follow them as well, but Fujitaka caught her arm.
"Give them a few minutes," he whispered.
Yelan seemed unfazed by the result of her questioning. She turned to Fujitaka. "Will you join us, Kinomoto-san?" The Japanese man swallowed nervously under her intense stare.
"Eriol, wait!" Syaoran called in Cantonese after the fleeing teenager. Eriol ignored him. "Listen to me!" Syaoran pleaded, taking a few steps at a run so he could be at the other's side instead of behind him. "I'm sorry for my mother."
"That's exactly why I didn't want anyone here to know that I'm a reincarnation," Eriol snapped.
"I didn't tell her. You let that one slip yourself," Syaoran answered defensively.
"I know! That's what is even more irritating about it," Eriol said through clenched teeth. "Please leave me alone."
"No. I want to finish our earlier conversation."
"Don't you have to get ready for your hearing?" Eriol reminded him.
"I have time," the slightly shorter boy dismissed the excuse. "Speaking of that, will you come?"
"No."
"Eriol!"
"If you're only calling me by my first name because you want something, I'd rather you just called me Hiiragizawa," Eriol rejoined angrily.
Syaoran growled. "You are impossible. I don't get you."
"Well, no one does," Eriol replied harshly. He opened the door to his room, entered, and slammed the door behind him, nearly taking Syaoran's nose off in the process. Syaoran, knowing he had to act quickly, forced the door back open before Eriol could cast a locking spell on it. He closed the door more calmly.
"I'll leave you alone right now if you promise to come to my hearing," Syaoran offered, warily approaching the bed that Eriol had flopped down on. He was well aware of the fact that the boy in front of him had a lot of magical power and he had none.
"I don't ever want to see anyone from your horrible family again," Eriol informed him. Syaoran decided not to be offended, since he knew personally how difficult certain members could be, especially the older ones. "In fact," he said with resolution, "I'm leaving, now." He slid off the bed and found his small carry-on suitcase. He tossed it onto the bed. "Excuse me, I'd like to change."
"Go ahead," Syaoran offered sarcastically. Eriol rolled his eyes before pulling his night shirt over his head and tossing it on the floor. He put on his only remaining clean shirt and starting searching for his jeans. "Where are you going to go? This is the only safe place in the city."
"I'm not going to hide forever," Eriol retorted. "Today is as good of a day as any to make my stand."
"Are you insane?" Syaoran demanded. "You don't know who or what you're up against and you're not really at your peak right now."
"I have a pretty good idea who I'm up against," Eriol muttered to himself in English. He forcefully shoved his belongings into his bag and zipped it shut.
"Please, listen to reason," Syaoran begged, ignoring Eriol's last comment since he couldn't understand it anyway. "You can't just waltz out into Hong Kong by yourself with that madman out there! Yes, you should fight back, but don't be stupid about it! What happened to all that rational advice you used to give me when we were in elementary?"
"I just want this to be over."
"I know. But we don't want you getting yourself killed in the process." Syaoran hoped that the English boy was starting to calm down. He glanced at the clock and realized that he was running out of time. "Look, Eriol, I know that even though you're mad at me right now, deep down inside you really do like me. It would mean a lot to me if you would come to the hearing."
"Did your mother put you up to this?" Eriol asked suspiciously. Syaoran mentally cheered. He was in the clear now. As long as Eriol was considering the idea, Syaoran knew he could talk him into it.
"No!" the Chinese boy insisted. "She can be surprised when you show up. Come because I want you there. Even though you currently have some thing against Clow Reed - you're going to explain that to me later - you have his memories and therefore you know a lot about the Li family. Probably more than even my mother does. So, it would make me feel a lot better to have someone there who knew what was going on and was on my side," Syaoran explained.
"Your mother is on your side," Eriol pointed out.
"Fine, then I want an uninterested third-party."
"I am uninterested."
Syaoran mentally cursed his poor word choice. "That's not what I meant. Please come. It would mean a lot to me to have someone like you there." He could see that Eriol still wasn't one hundred percent convinced yet. He had to add more to the bargain. "While we're there, I'll make sure that no one bothers you and afterwards, I'll take you to visit that professor with the memory card."
"Kinomoto won't let us go," Eriol sighed.
"If he doesn't know, how can he stop us?" Eriol cracked a light smile at this. Syaoran knew he had won. "So you'll come?"
"I don't have anything appropriate to wear," Eriol realized.
"I'm sure I can figure something out. Stay here. I'll come find you at eleven-thirty." Syaoran hurried to the door. With his hand on the knob, he turned back to the English boy. "Thank you."
"You owe me like a million times," Eriol informed him seriously. Syaoran just smirked and slipped out of the room. He nearly ran into Tomoyo and Sakura who were waiting outside the door.
"Are you two okay?" Sakura asked worriedly.
"Yeah. He still won't tell me everything that's going on, but he's going to come to my hearing this afternoon. Don't tell my mother."
"Sakura-chan, why don't you help Syaoran-kun prepare for the hearing. I would like to talk to Eriol-kun briefly."
"Will do," Sakura agreed.
"Good luck," Syaoran told her. "He's just as secretive as ever."
"Thank you, Li-kun," Tomoyo said sweetly. "You two better hurry!" The couple took off quickly down the hall towards Syaoran's room, making a short stop at Syaoran's oldest sister's room. Tomoyo knocked respectfully on Eriol's door. "May I come in, Eriol-kun?" she called through the wood.
"Fine," Eriol called back. Tomoyo was the only person who tried to understand him, so he thought he could tolerate her. Tomoyo entered to see the young sorcerer seated on the edge of his bed with his forehead resting in his palms.
"Syaoran told us that you decided to go to his hearing after all," she stated to open the conversation.
"Don't remind me," Eriol mumbled, still not looking up. Tomoyo walked up to the bed.
"Why is your suitcase packed?"
"I was going to leave but Syaoran managed to talk me into going to his stupid meeting instead."
"Eriol-kun," Tomoyo chided lightly. "What did we decide about throwing ourselves to the wolves?"
"Believe me, this magician is a kitten compared to some of the Li elders," Eriol mused. Tomoyo sat down next to him on the edge of the bed.
"I saw what you mean at breakfast. I was very surprised at how harshly Li-san spoke to you."
"I wasn't really. That is why I wanted to keep my identity a secret for as long as possible."
"How did she find out?"
"It was my own stupidity. I was trying to find any reference to this magician in Clow's journals, which are kept here and I must have fallen asleep in the middle of the spell. She found me in the library with the ward spell I had cast still intact. Of course, my magic is Clow's magic, so she realized who I was," he explained concisely.
"Now she wants to ask you a bunch of uncomfortable questions," Tomoyo added sympathetically. "You don't really need anything else to worry about."
"I really hate Clow Reed," Eriol claimed, his voice cracking slightly.
"No you don't," Tomoyo argued softly. She pulled his head down to her shoulder with one hand and wrapped her other arm around his back. Eriol hugged her in return, thinking idly that she smelled good. "Without Clow Reed, you wouldn't be Eriol-kun."
"I wouldn't miss me that much," Eriol objected.
"Don't be silly," Tomoyo reprimanded as she gently stroked his dark hair.
"I like you, Tomoyo-chan. You're the only one in the whole world who tries to understand me," Eriol confessed into the fabric of her shirt. She could barely hear him, but she did.
"I like you, too, Eriol-kun."
Eriol was sure that he could spend the rest of the day hiding in Tomoyo's comforting embrace but only a minute or two later there was another knock on the door. The two teenagers jumped apart just as the door opened to reveal a grinning Fuutie. Her arms were full of beautiful silk fabric.
"Are you ready to play dress-up, Hiiragizawa-kun?" she asked excitedly. "We have to get you ready for the hearing and Xiaolang told me that you didn't have anything appropriate to wear."
"Oh, what did you bring?" Tomoyo asked, instantly interested. She gripped Eriol's wrist tightly when he tried to bolt for the door.
"Tomoyo-chan, I'm not one of your dolls," Eriol whined, referring to Sakura and Syaoran.
"It's about time we changed that. There are just too many designs that don't match Syaoran-kun's build and complexion that would look so cute on you," she said with evil glee. Eriol gulped and tried to determine if she was serious or not. "Fuutie-san, where do we begin?"
The older girl eagerly joined the teenagers, mentally sizing the boy as she spread out her options on the bed.
tbc...
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