-1Song of Thunder
Chapter 13
It was the foreign firespeakers who found Lady Jin and Hiko. Save for a dozen or so other firespeakers, everyone had perished, either from the elementals, or Chul's…comet.
Even Hiko had to take his hat off for that one. He had never imagined, for all his cunning and craft, that the bastard Korean would be willing to go to such lengths as that. It was disastrous, certainly, but Hiko had already set all of Japan on fire so he was hardly going to blame Chul for that. What he must admit, however, was that the comet, all other offenses aside, was a very effective means of stopping the firespeakers in their tracks.
The first thing that had outwitted him was he did not calculate the elementals would remove the thunderspeaker from the country. With the child wounded as Hiko knew he was, he did not think even the waterspeakers would be able to fully heal the boy.
But the elementals had moved the boy, albeit not too far, but far enough, just out of range of the fire, and undoubtedly the Card Mistress had settled the fire. Hiko has heard of her Thunder Card, how Clow Reed had harnessed all the essential elements of magic into fifty-two cards.
Clever, all extraordinarily clever. He had no idea the Card Mistress was so formidable, able to have the card encompass almost all of Asia. However, though the plan failed to destroy the child, it must have hurt the child somehow, for someone had to have extinguished the fire.
No doubt the boy is as helpless as a newborn rat.
Indeed, had Hiko been in better condition, now would be the ideal time to attack. However, he had been wounded by that…comet, as was Lady Jin. They would have to wait.
He doubted that the boy could recover from that one faster than he.
oO
" Are you out of your mind?" Matt hollered. " What the hell were you thinking? Do you have any idea what kind of disaster you could bring with that stunt? If you lost control for one second, that comet could not only kill all of us, it could destroy whole ecosystems! Have you lost it?"
Chul was wearing the face of one who was ignoring everything that was said. He was rapidly moving through the streets in the rain, intent on one house. The other elementals followed, listening rather grimly while Matt screamed at Chul.
" Oh be quiet!" Chul finally had enough and whirled around. " I did what I felt was best! Would you stop screaming at me? What more do you want?"
" I expected you to be responsible!" Matt folded his arms, but apparently he had yelled at Chul because he, too, felt it was best, because the next thing he muttered was " Dude, that comet was brilliant."
Ritsuko barked out a laugh in disbelief. Chul was in no mood to appreciate that reprieve. Amidst the destruction the yellow house stood completely unharmed.
" Hey!" Ritsuko yelled after him as he burst through the gates, " Hey, what are you doing? How do you know this is where he is?"
Chul did not answer her. He pounded loudly on the door.
" Chul, you better not get the wrong house," Matt looked around. " Just because it is the only one standing doesn't mean it's the Card Mistress's, you know."
The door opened. It was Touya.
Chul brushed past him without a word, ignoring Touya even as the teenager yelled out in protest. His eyes scanned around the room and landed on Syaoran, who was lying unconscious on Yue's lap.
Chul inhaled sharply, then exhaled. He visibly relaxed.
" Alright." Matt threw his hands up. " You're going to tell me later on how you knew where the house was, but now that we know the kid is safe," He paused, then cursed. " What are we going to do about the mess out here."
" You better set up an illusion or something. I think the cards can do that, right? Otherwise this house is going to stand out. There's nothing else left standing. Where's Clow?" Ritsuko demanded.
" He just left." Sakura said tiredly. " I hope Chiharu and the others are okay…" She was too exhausted to sound frightened.
" Where did he go?" Ritsuko asked.
A long silence. No one knew.
Chul finally gave up his inner struggle and half-marched over to where Yue was. Yue gave him a glare of warning, which the waterspeaker ignored. As he approached the guardian drew the boy up, closer to him and further from Chul.
The Korean rolled his eyes. " I'm not going to hurt him. I just want to make sure he's alright."
Yue actually tensed up and cringed back, looking almost like he was about to hiss at the Korean. Touya cut in, very confused by the guardian's behavior. " Hey, back off." He told Chul.
Chul frowned, but obliged, more curious than insulted. Yue cradled Syaoran's head against him.
" Hey," Kero looked at Yue, " What's wrong with you?"
" Nothing," Yue relinquished Syaoran almost immediately. Chul used this opportunity to bend down and inspect the young elemental.
" 'BTW'," Matt suddenly reminded Chul, " The others aren't going to be so happy about how you abandoned them for this kid."
" What the hell are you talking about."
" Well, it's kind of a mess here," Matt gestured, " And we have to clean up after them firespeakers, as annoying as it is."
" I'm just checking on the kid." Chul stood up. " He's the one that did it, right?"
" Are you her father?" Ritsuko asked Touya doubtfully.
" Iie! I'm her brother!"
" Hai," Sakura answered Chul, " He's the one."
" Where are your parents?" Matt asked.
" Otou-san is in South America." Sakura sighed tiredly, then jerked to alertness. " Did the fire reach there?"
" Oh, iie." Chul snorted. " Hiko might like to boast, but I'm afraid only our friend here has the power to encompass the entire continent, let alone half the world."
" Kami-sama," Sakura half-sobbed, half groaned, " I don't think I have the wits to worry about anyone else at the moment."
" Yeah yeah," Chul rose impatiently, " When Clow comes tell him to come over to his house. We're leaving to clean up the mess." He cursed colorfully. " And take care of the kid!"
oO
When the elementals left, Syaoran shifted and woke. A few concerned probes from the strangely agitated Yue confirmed that his magical core had burnt out.
" On the bright side," Syaoran surprised them all by saying, " I can see and hear again."
He was too tired to even care if the magic will come back. It certainly will, Yue assured him, since he was the thunderspeaker and elementals never burn out unless they die. Syaoran listened with only half of his attention, devoting only enough strength to look at Sakura and make sure she was alive and healthy, before shutting himself from the world. Stray thoughts flickered through his mind. What was to become of him now? Two bombshells had dropped in his life, one that he was an elemental, the other that he was alone. A Li was nothing without the Li clan. Their very magic bound them together, in addition to their pride and in reality, mutual love.
He could barely breathe. He was not sure what emotion was dominant; sorrow or fear. He had never been so terrified in his life. He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream and throw a tantrum. He wanted to find someone to hug him and kiss him and tell him everything was all right and to believe that. He wanted to feel loved. He was not sure what he wanted to do. Perhaps he wanted to do all of that.
But not in front of Sakura.
No, he will not lose face in front of Sakura. He stared at her a little coldly, because deep inside he was hurting and he could barely stand it.
Japan is in ruins. " That's great." What more did they want from him? And the firespeakers have disappeared. Perhaps Chul killed him. Matt had been talking about some comet. " That's great." He had no clue who Chul was. A Korean waterspeaker did not help. How was he supposed to tell the difference between a waterspeaker and a windspeaker? Or any other speaker for that matter? He had been blind.
" Hey, gaki!" Kero snapped angrily, " You can drop that attitude of yours! It's not like you're in the position to stuff that on us! You have any idea what we went through to get you back here?"
Not in the position…A new feeling of dread washed over Syaoran at that, so that it was visible to everyone. Sakura flinched as Syaoran's face lost what color was left, and mentally glared at Kero for his unfeeling words. Kero, as well, hovered back a little, realizing he should not have lost his temper at this time.
" Gomen nasai." Syaoran looked down, surprising everyone as he did it. Proud as he was, he had never apologized that way, not like one who had been intimidated into submission. He was well schooled in hiding his emotions, but everyone could see to what degree he had been frightened. I'm all alone. They were kind enough to help me, but if I don't behave what will happen to me? His terror made him almost ill.
Touya crouched down in front of the sofa so that he was at eye level with Syaoran, who refused to look up. " Hey, Li-san," He gently laid his hand on the boy's arm, " It's fine, we understand. Kero-chan is just being a jerk, that's all." Kero did not protest to this. " Hey, you don't have to be afraid. We're your friends here."
Too late–Kero's words have done all the damage necessary. Friends are not family. Syaoran was careful now. Syaoran will do what he could to avoid being any more trouble or aggravation. Syaoran had nothing.
The rest of the day was spent using the Illusion Card to cloak the house so that it looked like ruins, using Sakura's cell phone to call Fujitaka and tell him that a lion with wings will bring him back home since the airport was burnt down and iie, everyone is fine because there was something they must tell him and it is too long of a story to explain over the phone although they cannot say the same for anyone else in the rest of Japan. Sakura kept lamenting about Eriol and why he did not return. Touya cooked what he had in the refrigerator, asking Syaoran what he wanted, but the boy did not cooperate, claiming he really was not that hungry and Touya could just ask the others what they wanted and leave his portion out. The day passed in that vein, with the child obviously trodding carefully around everyone, even Sakura, who was hurt by this. Still young and naïve, she did not understand what exactly had made him distrust her so.
Syaoran wanted to leave that night, but he had nowhere to go. As everyone prepared for bed, Touya offered his room to Syaoran again. This time Syaoran refused, very timidly, but firmly. He was not sleepy. He had slept enough. He could take care of himself. He wanted to stay downstairs.
" He's probably just out of it." Touya whispered to his sister as they relented. Yue stayed downstairs with Syaoran as the rest of them went up to bed. " Who knows what the recent trials did to him. Just go by him for now."
Sakura glanced back worriedly but decided to trust her brother's wisdom.
Lights were off, except in the main room downstairs. Yue sat next to Syaoran, making the child very nervous. He had no way of knowing that Yue had held him before, and would never guess that the guardian longed to do so again. But Yue was never sentimental, and his own desires alarmed him a little. They stayed at opposite ends of the couch.
Syaoran stared ahead of him, mind numb and heart cold. Yue looked at him and noted this change in the boy's demeanor. He knew Touya's earlier words of comfort did not reassure the thunderspeaker, and unwillingly his heart ached for the child's sake. As midnight passed and the child fell asleep despite his attempts to keep awake, Yue turned off the lights and gently rearranged Syaoran on the sofa. Despite his best efforts two tears dropped from the guardian's eyes.
oO
Deities hate being disturbed, especially by mortals, but Clow had come across them before and this was a matter of decent importance, so Eriol took the liberty of visiting his good friend Prince Nezha.
Out of all the deities, whether Korean, Chinese, or Japanese, Nezha or Nataku, as the Japanese called him, was the most approachable out of all of them if only because he loved bending rules, if not outright breaking them. He was obsessed with questioning authority, something that made him a bit of a renegade deity except he had royal blood and followed orders when lives of mortals were at stake. Best recognized by his hair, actually, since he wore his long hair in the style of the Song dynasty, his delicate, almost girlish features, and his four weapons, the cosmic ring, the fire 'chou' (which is a long cloth that is not really that firey but was red in color), a fire spear (again, not that firey but it had red tufts on it) and firewheels (which actually do burn, especially while spinning). In the old days Clow had joked that Nezha's mode of transportation could be brought down to the mortals as a sport. Never did the ancient sorcerer realize that one day some genius would actually invent rollerblades. And that was how he greeted the great prince.
The boy-god laughed. " You are hilarious. I like you a lot. Come, I suppose you have some kind of request to make."
" I wish I could say otherwise, however, you deities do not exactly welcome friendly social calls."
" Not from mortals, no." Nezha laughed again.
" You seem rather light-hearted. I suppose then that what happened down there was not as devastating as you feared."
" Oh," Nezha instantly grew grim, " I hate firespeakers."
Eriol burst out laughing again. " Indeed. You do realize we need a bit of help here. Even if we could right the damage, we cannot possibly clear all the memories. Not just Japan had been affected."
" Yes, we have that problem with satellites," Nezha mused. " I do not suppose we could get rid of a few of them."
" Too late. Probably the Americans already saw the galloping horses."
" Hm." Nezha mused again. " This I might have to ask the others. Too bad I cannot order Hiko. He seems to have disappeared."
" He is dead?" Eriol blinked, not daring to hope.
" He might be, I cannot say for certain." Nezha looked at the disappointed sorcerer apologetically. " At the very least, if he is still alive he should be out of commission for quite a while. As for our dilemma here, I have very few powers of brainwashing, since most of my abilities are attack-based. I can call upon the others to help but I cannot make any promises. And you better get down there quickly because you know well enough–time here passes much more slowly than below. One day here is equal to a whole year down there, so if you do not watch your time a whole month might pass."
" Thank you." Eriol nodded.
" Oh, before you leave," Nezha did something strange then. He disappeared in a flurry of flames for a moment, before reappearing with a thickly folded white chou, not unlike his own red one, " Do me a favor? Give this to the thunderspeaker. Tell him I am looking out for him, but the white chou is from my mother and she wove this up herself. Should help him, with him being all light and energy and all."
Confused, Eriol accepted it hesitantly, and Nezha saluted him briefly. Eriol came down. A whole day had passed below. He saw the elementals had already begun the reconstruction, and suddenly remembered again how it was possible the Firechild was already dead. He was too eager to believe that to follow his old wisdom, and, elated, entered the Kinomoto residence.
" Eriol-kun!" Sakura was sleepy, but very happy to see him. " Where were you all day yesterday?"
" And all night," Kero added.
" I was visiting a friend. Syaoran-san," Eriol took the white chou out, " This is for you."
He did not expect the boy to respond, since he did not know the boy had recovered. Syaoran surprised him by taking the chou.
" You're putting me–" Syaoran stopped abruptly in the middle of what could have been an acerbic comment. Eriol blinked at this, and noted the relatively grim atmosphere.
" Arigatou." Syaoran said with meaning, lowering his eyes. Eriol blinked again in surprise.
" Syaoran-san, are you all right?" A stupid question, but one he had to ask.
" Hai." Syaoran nodded, almost emphatically. " I'm fine."
Eriol straightened, troubled by the young one's behavior. He decided to try to cheer the boy up.
" Think Hiko might be dead." Eriol told everyone. " If not, he's too wounded to be much harm. We can relax a bit now."
It was a welcome reprieve, but Syaoran was not as joyous as everyone else, something that besides Eriol, only Yue noticed.
oO
Ichiro joined the elementals in Tokyo. He had arrived by several sea nymphs and then a windspeaker went to escort him back. The place was just as bad as he imagined.
" What?" Matt had the heart to joke, " It's not worse?" It was humorless though.
The elementals had no power over the man-made structures, since reversing catastrophes was not really one of their talents. What they were able to do, however, was regrow the forests that had burnt down, and the plains, and raise the mountains a little as well as replenish some streams. The rest of the reconstruction would have to be done by sorcerers.
There were actually many Japanese sorcerers who had gathered from other burnt down islands. Some were rather young, no more than sixteen years old. Others were very elderly.
Ichiro went up to one of the elderly ones.
" We could use a bit of help." The elder sorceress commented.
" One of the lords came down," Said another sorcerer, " Prince Nataku. I'm not sure what he thinks of this."
" Nataku?" Ichiro blinked. " He came down? He must be furious."
" Nataku exists?" A young sorceress blinked, wide-eyed. " I thought he was just a folk tale."
" Most of us thought so as well." Said the first sorceress. " He came right over there. You did not see him?"
" We were kind of busy," The young girl looked at her indignantly.
" What did Nataku say?" Ichiro asked.
" Said a guy named Hiirigizawa came up to his lair." the elderly sorcerer told everyone. " We are to take care of the physical damage and he will see what he could do about the mental damage,"
" Large scale brainwashing?"
" He's seeing what he can do, I suppose."
" He's going to wash the Americas as well? We have the US satellite staring at us from up there. Doubtless if we still had computers or televisions left we would have seen it all over the news."
" China will be having a blast." One of the younger sorcerers grumbled. " Ugh, I need to take a break."
" Restoration takes energy." the elderly sorceress agreed sympathetically. " We need to take shifts if we're going to be efficient. What about that Hiirigizawa? I haven't met anyone of that name."
" He has certain things to worry about, such as the thunderspeaker."
" What thunderspeaker?"
" There's a thunderspeaker?"
" Hai, he's the heir of the Li clan. Ten years old and barely alive when I last saw him. Apparently he recovered quite a bit but he has no family left."
" Right, that fire,"
" Hiirigizawa is the reincarnation of Clow Reed, and apparently has taken the thunderspeaker under his wing for now so if we see him at all,"
" Reincarnation of Clow Reed?"
" That works. Well, what about the Card Mistress? Is she also taking care of the thunderspeaker?"
" Is it necessary anymore? The firespeakers are gone."
" I need to take a break, or else I'll burn out my magic."
" She probably is still taking care of Li Syaoran." Ichiro mused a bit. " Progress is too slow here."
" She's powerful though, one card and all this could be returned."
" That will probably put her in a coma though."
" True."
" What's a thunderspeaker again?"
" Original elemental." Ichiro explained it to them. " Apparently the gods or something see fit to give one to us at this era if only because of the firespeakers."
" Ichi!" Matt called. " How well do you think normal sorcerers can take elemental magic?"
" Easy." Ichiro replied. " Your magic is a bit raw though. And if you're going to channel than one of each element has to do the same. That sort of includes firespeakers."
" I can't sense the kid at all." Chul muttered. " If he could channel into that Card Mistress."
" Risky." Matt countered immediately, while cursing every other word, " It's weird that the kid hasn't fried anyone already, without a mentor,"
Ichiro sighed. Matt was a well respected elemental, with plenty of knowledge and wisdom, but apparently for all elementals any gains are coupled with losses. The other sorcerers winced and withdrew a little at his language.
" Well the original thunderspeaker couldn't have had a mentor," Chul was wincing as well. " And if it's that hard to control, do you think the kid could have hurt himself somehow?"
" Well, I didn't sense the boy when I was at that house. And you still have to tell me how you knew it was that house. You haven't gone there before, have you? I mean, you led Hiko on a wild goose chase but never in that direction."
" Iie, I never went to that part of the neighborhood."
" Hai. Well anyway, the kid was alive and well, if unconscious, but his magic levels were below my radar. I couldn't feel him at all. I think he burnt himself out."
Chul gritted his teeth. " I should go check on the kid."
" Oh no you're not!" Ritsuko hissed. " This is my country, my homeland, damn it, and you're helping me fix everything!"
" Kami-sama, woman, I did not create the fire, okay? I don't need to right any wrongs. And you know the gaki is protected by an eleven-year-old sorceress and an eleven-year-old version of Clow? You really expect him to be in good hands?"
" The firespeakers have disappeared."
" Doesn't mean they won't reappear. They have a nasty habit of doing that."
" I agree." Matt cut in, " But at the moment we risk the wrath of magical forces. Even Prince Nataku what's it has to worry about this kind of thing. Right now Li Syaoran is not in immediate danger. And if you go there all you might do is alarm the kid. He's lost his family. He doesn't need to deal with strangers."
Chul conceded that it was a good point, while mocking Ritsuko's country in very colorful ways. Since he was helping again, the Japanese waterspeaker said nothing to his comments, in fact it seemed she had once again slipped into that mental state of ignoring everything Chul said as long as it was not important to the situation at hand. The other magicians in the sky were awed by her patience.
" I want to sock that guy. I don't care if he's the Water Lord." One of the young sorcerers muttered. He was on break at the moment and was floating on one of the cloud platforms the waterspeakers offered everyone to rest on. " What gives him the right to insult my country? He's not even Japanese he's freaking Korean, and we're suffering a tragedy here." He muttered some curses.
" He has a problem." Ichiro explained while restoring one of the skyscrapers, which took quite a bit of energy. " He doesn't like Japan or America or China, that's true, but I think he feels the need to make fun of every country that's mentioned."
" This isn't making fun. This is downright insulting. You don't insult a country when you're in that country."
" It's kind of like Matthew," Ichiro sighed, " The swearing."
" Un, that Matthew Brightman. But he only curses, doesn't insult people. And Park never insults that guy either."
" Apparently he has before. Ritsuko told me that in the early days he used to jab at the fact that Matt's Jewish. He'd make Holocaust references."
" Oi!" One of the windspeakers shuddered. " What did Matt do with that?"
" Well…Matt socked him, I think. I'm not sure what happened next but they didn't get along that well at first."
" I can imagine." Said the windspeaker. " What the hell is Park's problem?"
" Mental." Ichiro shrugged. " I need to take a break." Just then the sorcerer who had been complaining about Chul got off the cloud to begin work again.
" Guys," Ritsuko came over to them, " We're done with the area around the city, we need to move further up ahead. If you guys are floating around anyway can we take the cloud with us?"
" How far along?"
" About two kilometers."
" Should be fine."
" Yeah, we'll put it on the side nearer to you guys. You have more work than we do,"
Ichiro stayed on the cloud to save energy. Several sorcerers close by also landed on the cloud to rest.
" Someone needs to give Park a beating then. Water Lord or not."
" He has gotten better, I think, according to Ritsuko." Ichiro replied. " Not splendid, but better. His comments are less aggravating. For one thing he used to make comments about World War II. He lived through it."
" Oh?"
" Hai, his mother was one of the village beauties in Korea. Was captive and his father was one of the generals." Ichiro muttered a little. " Kind of depressing. He has a reason to hate Japan, at the very least."
" China's the one that started World War II." Said one of the young sorceresses indignantly. " It's not our fault."
" Haha," the windspeakers around them laughed, " We totally believe that. China was so bogus that if they wanted to war with Thailand they would have been beaten to a pulp, let alone start a war with Japan. And it's really strange that China started the war but Japan ended up conquering half of Asia in order to get bombed by US nuclear weapons. We totally feel for you guys but denial isn't going to fly around here."
" Still, it's not our fault World War II occurred." An older sorcerer shrugged. " We didn't tell the Emperor to start it. Park's taking it out on the wrong group."
" That's true." the Mongolians dove down. The cloud dipped.
" Hey!" Ichiro yelled. " Watch it!"
" Gomen ne."
" Park should get a girlfriend. He could insult her instead of us."
" Who's going to want to be his girlfriend?"
" Maybe some Korean. It's the only nation he doesn't insult."
" Hey!" One of the sorcerers looked down, " Don't grow trees there!"
" Nani?" The elementals looked up.
" That's a reservoir over there! Kuso it's totally gone? Hey, leave that patch there bare."
Ichiro restored the area. Sure enough, there was a water reservoir, though it looked a bit worse for wear.
" How the blazing hells did it disappear?"
" Horses trampled, of course."
" Great." Ichiro huffed. " Now I have to sit on this cloud for a while longer."
" Have fun." Several sorcerers left the cloud while others arrived and landed on it.
oO
" Alright, so the firespeakers are gone, we need to do something about the demolition."
" The Return Card?" Sakura asked, a little dubiously. " I'll use it but…doesn't take a lot of energy?"
" No choice." Eriol looked over at Syaoran. " You stay here."
Syaoran just stared at him.
Kero arrived at the door, knocking with his huge paws. They let him in. Tomoyo was sitting on his back. She looked very pale and shaken. Surprisingly enough, Yamazaki was with her.
" Yamazaki-san!" Sakura blinked. " What are you doing here?"
" I headed over to Hiirigizawa's place after the fire." Yamazaki was shuddering and very grim. " I figured he might have known something about this. There I met Daidouji-san and these two," He glanced behind him. Sakura looked over to see Nakuru and Spinel, " And everyone's a bit whacked so I didn't ask anything. But you can fix this, right? I mean, I figured you were a bit weird from the start. Syaoran-san."
" Takashi-san." It was the first time Syaoran spoke for hours.
Yamazaki started trembling horribly.
" Is your family all right?" Sakura asked worriedly.
" Hai, we didn't really get burned." Yamazaki looked around wildly. " You have a lot of explaining to do, Syaoran-san."
" I need explaining too." Syaoran looked down.
" I'll explain." Touya sighed after a long uncomfortable pause. " But as long as you two are still alive and unharmed, suppose we owe you that much."
" Sakura and I need to go," Erol gestured at the scene, " We'll be back when we can."
" I need to go fetch Fujitaka." Kerberus transformed into his false form.
" Yeah, you need to explain that too," Yamazaki pointed. He was scared.
" I'll do that." Touya looked at Syaoran a little worriedly. The boy's expression had slipped back into that mask he had been wearing the entire day.
" Yue, you helping?" Nakuru asked gravely. She was following Sakura and Eriol out.
Yue looked at Syaoran, who did not notice. The guardian looked a bit torn.
" They need your help." Touya urged. " Kid will be fine, I'll take care of him, no problem."
Syaoran suddenly opened his mouth but shut it again.
Tomoyo reached forward and hugged him. Syaoran accepted the hug for her sake, but a few minutes later let his arms drop to his sides. He had his own demons to deal with. Understanding, Tomoyo followed Touya into the kitchen where the teenager explained everything to Yamazaki.
Yue gave Syaoran one last look of worry before following the other guardians out. When Syaoran was left alone in the living room he looked at the side of the sofa where Eriol's white chou was lying. He stared at it for a while, before reaching over slowly and taking it into his hands.
It felt of energy and magic. He hugged it to himself, silent.