Chapter 14

'This is becoming a bad habit of ours,' I panted after dodging another attack and jumping backwards to get some distance between me and the woman.

I quite enjoy this, don't you? she replied, not even the tiniest bit out of breath as she lunged for me again. Taking one step back I dashed forward to attack this time, lashing out with a blast of wind. She stumbled back for a bit, but regained her stance sooner than I would have liked. You are fighting back more and more now. That ninja is teaching you good.

My eyes widened. 'How do you know?'

I know everything. And you... A sword materialised in her right hand - one that she occasionally used and where I felt the weakest. You are completely clueless. Grimacing I barely managed to dodge her attack, still receiving a cut on my stomach though. I fell onto the ground, my head hitting the stone and triggering something in my mind...

I was suddenly standing in a room with walls made of shelves that were filled with an uncountable amount of books. In front of me was a chimney and two leather armchairs; I had always wished for a room like this. What caught my attention was the moving portrait of a man with long black hair and glasses looking down at me from the projection.

My fists clenched. "You just gave me away. Abandoned me."

"That is not true, my child. I had to put you away from danger," he tried to explain.

"It's not like you are one of the greatest magicians out there and could have easily protected me," I said, sarcasm dripping from every letter and his eyes practically oozed sadness.

"I could not risk burdening you with this."

I scoffed. "Instead someone else is burdened with this, someone innocent!"

"You are innocent, too."

"No," I breathed, tears stinging in my eyes, "I know exactly why you did that. You and I both know the truth." A tear went down my cheek. "You thought I would choose his side. Because I'm a bad person."

"My child," he leaned forward, but since he was just a mere projection on the wall over the chimney he couldn't really do much but watch, "You are anything but a bad person. Your condition is something a lot of people suffer from."

"So you didn't trust me enough with this task because of something I was born with?! And you were so ashamed of me and my condition that you gave me away!" I yelled, a sob building up in my throat. I pressed the back of my hand hard against my mouth to prevent the sound from coming out before I wiped my eyes, roughly.

"I'm not ashamed of you, Aya-"

"I won't let you do this," I cut him off, raising my eyes to meet his with determination, "I won't let someone else suffer because of my bipolar disorder." He sighed, taking off his glasses and looking down, sadly.

"Everything is set in motion already. You can't change fate."

I placed a hand on the projector, which was a small beautiful music box that played my favorite tune - something I had ever since I was born and never knew about its ability. I had been clueless about so many things for so long. "I can. And not even you will be able to stop me," was the last thing I said before I closed the lid of the box, causing the man - the man, who was my father but a foreigner to me at the same time - to disappear...

A foot pressing against my arm broke me out of the memory and I winced at the pressure.

Finally back. Let's continue then. Get up!

I gritted my teeth. This had been going on for so long, longer than ever before. I was starting to wonder what the others were doing as I was suddenly picked up and slammed against a wall. "Ouch, woman. Give me a second."

No enemy would give you a 'second', you dumb idiot. Now focus before I get bored. She backed away and I stood on my feet, wobbling slightly without her hold on me. A kick against my arm made me stagger to the side and I yelped, feeling weaker than ever before. I tried blocking her next attack with a wind shield, which thankfully worked in my despair. Feeling encouraged I used her moment of distraction to attack, slashing at her with both arms. Gusts of winds as sharp as knife dashed at her and I actually succeeded in scratching her neck, even if it was just a slight grazing when she didn't manage to dodge fast enough. "Take that!" I exclaimed in triumph, but that was short lived when she rushed forward, catching my arm and pulling me over her and onto the ground, a loud groan erupting from my throat as the pain shot through my entire body...

I felt the magic of travelling dimensions as the circle appeared beneath me. Silently scrutinising the linings and written incantations I gripped my green cloak tightly. It was my favourite cloak, the colour reminding me of the green eyes of...someone I knew.

"Please come back soon." I heard a female voice say and looked up to see Yuuki not standing far away with tears in her eyes, our - her - parents right behind her. I gave her a small smile and nodded. "I will try." Strays of light cut off my sight from them slightly as they swirled around me and I barely made out the voice of the man I had thought to be my father for so long.

"No matter who your biological parents are...we will always love you as our daughter..." I closed my eyes to prevent the tears from falling and pulled the hood of my cloak over my head as I was pulled out of this dimension to my destination.

Upon arriving I immediately noticed I was in some kind of cave, very spacious with a little lake not far away. Walking around a big stone I stepped closer to the lake only to see a small boy around ten or younger kneeling at its edge and touching the surface, deep in thought.

"What are you doing?" I spoke up and he squeaked, jumping enough in fright to fall into the lake. He quickly scrambled to get back onto the ground and looked at me with big brown eyes.

"Wh-what?"

"I asked what you are doing?" I repeated, deadpanned.

"Wha-Where- who are you? Where did you come from!?" he spluttered, obviously confused and not answering my question. 'How rude,' I thought, dryly, 'The youth in this day and age...'

"My name is Aya. I'm looking for a girl. She must be around your age. Where I come from is none of your business."

"Eh-h...I don't know what you mean," the boy said, suddenly getting defensive as he stood up but immediately slipped and fell back on his knees. Sighing annoyed, I walked towards him, undoing the cloak and draping it over his shoulders. He got wet because of my abrupt arrival after all. His eyes widened in surprise but he gladly accepted the warmth the material provided as it was quite cool here. I was suspecting we were quite a good meters underground.

"What's your name boy?"

"Tsubasa," he replied and I could see his surprise by his own answer for whatever reason.

"Well, Tsubasa-kun. This girl I'm looking for is in great danger. And I wish to help her. Do you think you could assist me in finding her?"

He stayed silent for minute, observing me with perceptive eyes that shone with more knowledge than young boys like him usually possess. "You mean the princess. She has the seal of death on her. I need to remove it before...," he trailed off, a pained expression on his face. I realised that he was quite close to the person I was looking for. Placing a hand on his shoulder I made him look up. "I promise, I will find a cure. I paid a price to be able to travel dimensions to find it. But first I need to see the seal." Tsubasa looked at me, a newfound hope lightening his face as he eagerly led me out of the cave...

My eyes snapped open. 'Syaoran...?'

"Ah Aya-chan is finally awake!" a male voice exclaimed and I squinted my eyes at the light to see the blurry image of the blonde mage grinning down at me. "You gave us quite the surprise when we arrived here and you were unconscious. Kuro-sama nearly had a heart attack!"

"Fai...-san...," I mumbled, feeling extremely weak. Even my voice sounded broken. The smile on Fai's face slipped. Placing a hand on my cheek I flinched in surprise as it stung. "Wha-wh-?!"

"You are hurt," he stated quite bluntly, observing me from head to toe. I then remembered the seemingly endless fight I had with the mysterious woman and groaned inwardly. Trying to lift myself up in a sitting I winced at the pain coming from my aching limbs and...actually everywhere else, too. Fai helped me with a hand on my back and I thanked him quietly. "I wonder how you got these injuries. We haven't fought with anyone. It was like you were getting hurt in your sleep," Fai pondered.

I grimaced. "Yeah, it's a weird story." The mage tilted his head, his attentive look making me sigh. Of course he wouldn't drop it. "Where are the others anyway?" 'Moreover where is Syaoran?' I thought, needing to see him to confirm who I saw in that dream. That small boy, that called himself Tsubasa, looked like a child version of Syaoran, an adorable child version like I had actually imagined him to be. 'But that must mean we met before. Why didn't he say anything? I was obviously not like Sakura if I remembered him. He could have told me!' Rubbing my temple I noticed Fai talking. "Huh? What?"

He smiled, gently. "Were you off in your own world again? I said, the others went to investigate the demon that resides here." Confused I looked around for the first time, realising we were in another dimension. It was sickly warm here with high trees and rich green leaves I had never seen before. It looked like we were in a jungle or something similar, which would explain the tropical temperature and humidity. What couldn't be explained though were the rabbit like creatures that surrounded us. Yelping in surprise I unconsciously pressed myself against the closest thing that was familiar to me. Which was the blond mage. "Wh-what are these things?"

"H-hm? Oh, those are our friends...kind of. Don't worry about it," Fai said, waving the strange creatures off who had been staring at us, unblinkingly. Upon hearing his words they quickly dispersed to do whatever they needed to do. "I was to stay behind and watch over you since you were unconscious."

"I see...," I mumbled, rubbing my bruised arm as it hurt when I noticed the bandages that surrounded every wound. "Who...?"

"That was me," Fai said cheerfully, "I bandaged you up while you were sleeping. But there kept coming more and more wounds out of nowhere!" He was silently asking for an explanation again and I looked up to him, suddenly becoming aware of our close proximity when I had to crane my neck to see his face. My eyes widened slightly. I was practically resting against his chest whilst he was almost caging me with an arm resting on the ground behind me. I shuffled away a little, suddenly feeling shy for the first time ever around the easy-going man.

"Aya-san?" he started quietly, the solemn tone catching my attention and I looked up at him, "What is going? Why are you getting hurt in your sleep?" I sighed, too tired to resist him anymore and I spilled. How I wasn't only having those strange memories anymore but a woman kept appearing in my dreams and attacking me. 'Not to mention my apparent strange bipolar disorder. I don't have a bipolar disorder!' But I kept quiet about that. "And those wounds she is giving you actually reach your physical body," Fai stated more than he asked, his eyebrows slightly drawn together, "That is really dangerous. She could actually kill you. And I can't protect you..."

"You?" I asked, wondering why he didn't mention the others and he quickly composed himself with a wide smile. "I meant all of us of course. We all care about Aya-chan!" he exclaimed, glomping me and I sighed when I got back close to him, not knowing whether I should feel uneasy about it or not. It wasn't like he hadn't done it before, so why did it suddenly feel so weird? "That's nice. But I don't think that woman is going to kill me," I said, quite confidently and he leaned down to look at my eyes with a questioning glance, "Otherwise she would have done so already. There has been nothing to stop her all this time. She actually seems to enjoy that I'm starting to fight back..."

"I see. That's good then." But he didn't seem convinced. However, our attention turned to the rabbits as they started up a big fire out of nowhere and took their drums out. It was safe to say that I had never witnessed something like this before. They started dancing around the fire, playing music with their drums and rambled about some ceremony. I was about to question my sanity when I became aware of the strong waves of magic emitting from somewhere. 'It's the feeling of Sakura's feathers. There must be one close by!' Unlike Mokona I usually couldn't feel the magic of a feather unless it was really, really close.

"Do you feel that power, too?" I asked out loud and Fai looked at me with a smile.

"You mean Sakura's feather, right?" He reached out behind him and I glanced at him curiously before my jaw dropped in surprise. "You-you have the feather?!"

"Yes. These rabbits had it and they gave it to me," Fai explained cheerfully as he twirled the light object between his fingers, "Apparently it had fallen from the sky and they picked it up."

"Eh? But if they had it, why are the others investigating elsewhere? Aren't they looking for the feather there?"

"They are. Mokona seemed to have not realised how close the feather was," Fai said and I looked at him, confused. That cute manju bun was usually more precise in this. "I'm as confused as you are!" Fai said, his happy tone not fitting in this situation at all. Smiling slightly I thought, 'That's just Fai...' I was surprised at the fondness of my own thought and quickly shook my head.

"So what is this ceremony about?"

"Ah, it's about a sacrifice for the demon that keeps destroying their homes!"

"Wh-what?! What are they sacrificing?"

"Right now...us." I stared at him, wide-eyed. "Why are you so relaxed then? We should escape!"

Fai waved me off, before turning to the rabbits slightly, "Could you repeat the story of this ceremony, please?"

As if on cue they started, "That terrible thing is strong!" "Really strong!" "It blew our homes away, destroyed everything!" "We couldn't win even if we fought it." "If we can't beat it, what about giving it a sacrifice?" "That might work." "If we give it something tasty, then we might be alright." "We'll surely be alright!" "Alright!" "They said it's alright!" Who?" "Who?" "That terrible thing maybe?" "That terrible thing!" "THE DEMON SAID THAT IF WE GIVE IT A TASTY SACRIFICE IT WILL STOP ITS DESTRUCTION!"

I stared at them in disbelief. "Is that how myths are created?" Fai laughed lightly. "Sometimes..." The creatures started to pick up their dance again, continuing with the ceremony.

"Well, hopefully the others will arrive before they start roasting us for their sacrifice," I remarked, dryly.

"If not, Aya-chan will save us!" Fai decided on his own, cheering and I looked at him blankly before a thought suddenly struck me.

"How come you never use your magic, Fai-san?" I asked him and he stilled. I felt his body stiffen from our closeness and I glanced up in his eyes, trying to find the answer in them because I was almost hundred percent sure that he wouldn't give me an explanation. He never did. 'He probably doesn't trust me...,' I thought, feeling more glum about it than expected.

"I said before that I vowed to never use my magic without my marks," Fai explained in a light tone.

I scrunched my face in confusion, "Not even when you are in danger?" His nod didn't surprise me much, all his previous actions told me that already. He didn't use it back in Koryo nor did he against the kijis in the last world. "Not even when the others are in danger?" I pressed though, wondering what he would reply. Fai's eyes widened in surprise and for a second I felt myself get lost in his clear blue eyes that held so much mystery and magical power in them...'Wait. Does his power come from his eyes?'

"I'm sure, Kuro-sama and Aya-chan can handle any dangerous situation without my interference!" Fai replied after a minute and my heart sunk slightly. 'Don't be stupid. Of course he wouldn't break his vow for us. We are only travel companions because we are forced to...'

"Sure we can," I said with a smile, but it dropped as soon as I turned away from him to watch the creatures. They were still merrily dancing around the fire, too cheerful for my taste given the fact they were doing this to kill us.

"Fai-san!"

"Aya-chan!" My ears perked up at the shouts and I looked over to see the other four travelers of my squad burst through the many leaves, eyes wide in panic.

"Woohooo!" Fai called out to them, waving madly. "We are here!" They slumped in relief as soon as they saw us and quickly rushed over. "Are you alright?" Sakura asked, worriedly and Mokona clung on my neck like a koala. "Yes, we are. Welcome back!" Fai said, grinning widely.

"You have a cut on your cheek, Aya-chan! What happened?" Mokona asked, whining slightly as she patted the wound lightly with her tiny paw. I smiled at her cuteness and decided for the easy way; lying. "I walked around the area after I woke up and got scratched by a branch. It's nothing to worry about," I dismissed lightly, ignoring Fai's gaze on me. "Aya-chan should be more careful!" Mokona complained and I promised her I would from now on.

A heavy hand on my head caused me to look up and see none other than Kurogane. He stared at me inquisitively as if he couldn't believe I was there and I realised he was trying to confirm I was alive and well after he had witnessed my death in the last world's virtual reality. I gave him a bright smile. "How you doing, Kuro-sama?" For once, he silently smirked and merely bonked my head gently before his eyes fell on the mage next to me. I noticed how little space there was between Fai and me when the ninja started to look back and forth at us, a knowing look in his eyes that confused me.

"We got this by the way," Fai casually diverted the attention to the feather in his hand as he held it up to Syaoran. 'Syaoran...' My eyes widened as I automatically scanned the boys features. They looked the same as the boy in my dreams, only a little more defined. 'It must be him. The child is Syaoran. But why...maybe it was another Syaoran.' I stayed silent as the feather floated into Sakura's chest, watching her collapse by the sheer intake of the power.

I decided to not say anything to the boy yet as he caught the princess with a fond look in his eyes and turned to Kurogane instead, who sat down next to me. "So, did you get to fight the demon, Kuro-sama?" I asked, grinning since I knew he was always craving a good battle.

Kurogane 'tch'ed, his expression close to a pout. "No, it wasn't even a demon."

"Eh?" They explained their encounter with the so called demon which was nothing but a strong tornado that was stuck here due to the feather. The rabbits explained their theory about the sacrifice again, causing Kurogane and Syaoran to sweat-drop in exasperation. Suddenly a wind picked up around us even though there hadn't even been the slightest breeze around all this time and the tornado appeared. Strangely I was completely unaffected by it and I flinched as Fai clung to Kurogane and me along with the rabbits, who started screaming in fright. It vanished as soon as it came though, Sakura petals falling on us out of nowhere.

"What was this about?" Kurogane grumbled, annoyed at all of us close to him still, me rather involuntarily as I was squished between him and the blond mage. He pushed us all away from him and I landed back into Fai's chest yet again.

"Who knows?" Fai said, entirely unperturbed by the proximity and looked up at the petals with a relaxed smile as he leaned back on his arms. I made sure to get out of his private space and sat down properly, wincing slightly as my body protested against my hasty movements.

"We should get going soon," Syaoran announced after carefully laying down the princess on his cloak. I frowned, noticing how it looked similar to the one I had on in my dream and gave to Tsubasa. 'I need to know now.' Standing up with a bit of difficulty that unfortunately didn't go unnoticed by the keen eyes of the ninja I slowly walked up to the boy, who was still staring at Sakura.

"Syaoran-kun...," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder as I knelt down to get a closer look at him. He turned to me with a sweet smile and I gave him back an uneasy one.

"Yes, Aya-chan?"

"I...have we...met before?" I asked, cautiously and he blinked in surprise. Staring at me he seemed lost in thought for a second as his eyes glazed over before he shook his head slightly. "Um no. Why do you ask?" I frowned, slightly disappointed. Looking away I pondered, 'It must have been another Syaoran then. Who was strangely called Tsubasa...'

"No reason," I said, quickly standing up, "You just looked like someone I saw in one of my dreams. Only as a child." Syaoran's eyes widened, reminding me of the wide brown eyes of the small boy in my memory and I quickly looked away, only to have my eyes drop down on the now very familiar cloak Sakura was laying on. Somewhat frustrated I turned to the two men, who thankfully didn't notice the conversation as they were having one of their 'arguments' again. "Let's go then. We have nothing to stay here for anymore."

And with that we quickly left this world, getting sucked into Mokona's mouth.