CH14: Enter The Dragon

Nothing happened. Sakura was sure that she had done everything right, but not even a drop of water had appeared. She and Li tried again. Li managed a trickle of water, but it was not nearly strong enough to reach her. Sakura concentrated with all of her might, focusing on doing the spell right. "Lord of the depths, lend me your power!" She struck the ofuda with her staff. There were some sparks, then the ofuda ignited and turned into a pile of ashes.

"Oops, that wasn't supposed to happen."

The elder produced another identical ofuda and handed it to her. He also replaced Li's ofuda which was now a soggy mess. 'In order to win, I have to get Li wet. The elder didn't say how.' Sakura grinned mischievously. "Li…"

"What?"

"RAINY!" Li scowled as the rain card let loose a downpour over his head.

"Congratulations, Sakura." Li Xiao Fang smirked, "You seemed to have won. Xiao Lang is quite wet." Sakura smiled. "You still have a lot of practice before you master the ofuda magic, though."

"No…!" Sakura backed away as Xiao Lang approached holding the emergency fire bucket filled with water. "Li, don't!" Sakura begged as Syaoran chased her around the room."

"TIDUS!" Xiao Fang chanted, holding one of the ofudas. A powerful jet of water blasted towards them both. After it hit them once, it travelled in a loop, returning to hit them from another angle. Then it went up and finally dropped on top of their heads. "Xiao Lang, perhaps you should clean this room up, before Kinomoto-san arrives to join you two for martial arts training. Sakura, for winning, you are forbidden from helping him in this task."

"I hate losing!" Li growled.

"You may also wish to change into some dry clothes." Xiao Fange told her. Li Looked at her and turned red. The water had caused the white training outfit she was wearing to become slightly transparent and made it cling to her body.

"HENTAI!" Sakura slapped Li when she realized what he was looking at and then turned to leave.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY SYAORAN!" A black-haired girl said from the entrance. She had red eyes that burned with anger as she glared at Sakura. Not even waiting for an answer, the girl shoved Sakura out of the way and raced over to Syaoran, wrapping her arms around his neck in a great big hug. "That slut didn't hurt you did she? Did you miss me?" She finally released her hold on Syaoran, enabling him to gasp for breath.

"No." Li replied.

"Umm, excuse me…" Sakura said, "Who are you?"

"Li Meiling. I'm Syaoran's fiancée!" The girl replied.

"Really? That's an interesting coincidence." Sakura said, then turned and left. Li Meiling… That was the name of the girl who had been sent to Russia from here for the exchange program. Sakura wondered what she was doing back. That girl's glare made her nervous, and gave her another reason to hate Syaoran. She couldn't think of anyone she hated more than that arrogant, perverted, two-timing, jerk. Even if they did hate each other, the least that guy could have done is not be engaged to someone else at the same time he was engaged to her. She wondered why she even had a problem with it. If anything, this was perfect. If Li married someone else, then their engagement would have to be cancelled, but then, no woman ever wants to be cheated on, no matter how much she hates the other person. This made things a lot more difficult. She had to not only get the wolf-boy to fall in love with her, but also get Syaoran to break off his engagement with Meiling.

"Li's cheating on you?" Tomoyo asked incredulously as she and Sakura were being driven to school in Tomoyo's limo.

"And she wasn't too happy when she found out that Syaoran and I were engaged as well." Sakura replied, "Even worse than that, is the fact that she is back because she beat up a whole squad of men from a nearby military base because one of them tried to grope her. Then I was paired with her for martial arts training." Sakura rubbed the foot shaped bruise on her stomach. "She is at least as good as Li, if not better, and she didn't go easy on me like Li does."

Tomoyo gasped, "How can someone cheat on someone as kawaii as Sakura! Meiling should just give up now, because Syaoran could choose no one other than you!"

"Since I was partnered with Meiling, Touya was partnered with Li, and when he learned about Meiling, he wasn't too happy with Li so he got quite a few bruises too. Then Meiling attacked Touya for hurting Li. Then the Elders had to step in…" Sakura sighed.

Meiling had managed to enrol in school already, and was in all the same classes as Sakura and Syaoran. She always sat across the aisle from Sakura who could constantly feel Meiling's eyes boring into her. When she asked for help as she usually did in the math and Chinese classes, Meiling immediately rebuked her saying that Syaoran was already helping her. In the English and Japanese classes, where Syaoran usually asked Sakura for help, Meiling offered to help him before he even asked. She practically sat on top of him at lunch, and fed him a bento she had made for him. Every time she was separated from him, even for a few seconds, she would latch onto him like a leech. Sakura never got a chance to talk to him without Meiling hanging onto him. Sakura began to notice a bit of a pattern. Meiling was trying really hard, but Syaoran wasn't responding to her affection in any way. When she hugged him, he didn't hug her back. He seemed to treat all their interactions completely formally. The only difference she saw in his behaviour towards Meiling was that he didn't constantly get irritated with her. He didn't even complain when she called him Syaoran as he usually did when anyone but his mother or sisters addressed him. After school, Sakura thought of an idea to get Syaoran away from Meiling. She caught up with him before he could leave the school grounds.

"I sensed a Clow Card." She whispered.

"Where?" Syaoran asked.

"Follow me." She said. She ran off to a secluded area to release her staff and call upon the jump card. Syaoran followed, and unfortunately so did Meiling. Sakura attempted to outrun Meiling, without losing Syaoran. Unfortunately, Meiling was keeping pace with Syaoran.

"Why are you following us?" Syaoran asked Meiling, "This is dangerous."

"I can help." Meiling replied. This wasn't working as well as Sakura had hoped. "Besides, who knows what she would try if I wasn't around." Meiling glared at Sakura.

"I'm not the one throwing myself at someone else's fiancée!" Sakura turned and shouted back, coming to a stop.

"What are you talking about?" Meiling shouted back, "The only man for me is Syaoran. He's been my fiancée since we were kids!"

"Then why do Yelan and the Elders agree that he is engaged to me?" Sakura gloated.

"I thought we were here for a Clow Card, not to argue who I am engaged to!"

"Shut up!" Sakura and Meiling roared at him before continuing their argument.

"This was all a ploy to get some time alone with my Syaoran, wasn't it?" Meiling yelled as she threw a punch at Sakura. Sakura jumped to avoid the punch. A whoosh and a thud were heard and an arrow appeared between Meiling's legs. Had Sakura not jumped to avoid the punch, she would have been skewered by that arrow.

"Fire, come to my aid!" Syaoran sent a barrage of flame from an ofuda, narrowly missing both girls, but incinerating more arrows that were headed their way. "Stop fighting each other or the Arrow Card will finish both of you!" Sakura wasn't sure whether to be relieved that her bluff hadn't been found out, despite Meiling's accusation, or to be scared that there was another card trying to kill them.

Hovering above them was a girl, with a hairstyle remarkably similar to Meiling's, who was holding a bow. She pulled back on the bowstring and an arrow appeared on it. She then released. The arrow split three times as it flew, resulting in a total of seven arrows coming at them. Sakura jumped out of the way and three of them passed through the spot where she had been standing. Syaoran deflected two with his sword. The others didn't come close enough to be a threat to any of them.

As the card launched another volley, Sakura shouted "Windy! Blow the arrows off course." The Windy Card caused a powerful gust of wind. This volley didn't come anywhere near them. "Now bind the arrow!" Windy trapped the arrow and brought it down. "Return to your true form! Arrow!" Sakura let out a sigh of relief as she added the dangerous card to the rest that she carried.

"What are you doing!" Meiling complained, "You should give that card to Syaoran!"

"I was the one who captured it!"

"He saved your life! If he hadn't been wasting his time protecting you, he would have captured it himself!"

"What could have been done doesn't make a difference! The card goes to the one who defeats it."

"That's a stupid rule. Now give Syaoran his card."

"No! It is my card, I defeated it, so it chose me!" At that Meiling leapt at Sakura, intent on fighting her again. Syaoran stepped between them and took the first punch Meiling threw."

"Stop it!" Li said, "She won the card fairly, so just drop it." Sakura was shocked, this was the first time that Syaoran had taken her side against Meiling. Meiling looked liked she had been slapped. She nodded. Her eyes were on the verge of shedding tears.

"Okay." She said, and then ran off.