CH25: Sleeping Beast

When Syaoran awoke, Sakura was exactly as he had left her, still staring at him with the dull, lifeless look. She looked much more tired though. Li closed Sakura's eyes. They remained closed. After a few seconds, her breathing pattern changed, becoming deeper and more irregular. She was asleep. At least he thought she was. With her acting like this, it was hard to tell.

Syaoran opened the window to let the cold morning air freshen up the room. He could clearly remember the haunting look of death on Numaru's face as Sakura's foot had collided with it. It hadn't been a particularly hard kick, but it had hit solidly. From what he had heard, the boy's brain had haemorrhaged; possibly in multiple places. There had been no doubt what had caused the damage, and Sakura had taken it badly. It was like she had turned herself off.

Syaoran had hoped that she would come to her senses overnight, but now it was apparent that she would not even sleep on her own. He partially blamed himself for the state she was in. He should have been the one fighting. He was the heir, it was his responsibility to fight, not hers. They had insisted that she fight. They had expected her to be weak, and she was, just not in the way the representatives of Shiza Corporation had wanted. Her skills in the arena had done more damage to her opponent than anyone had expected. Her magic and body were strong… but her emotions had taken her down.

Someone entered the room, Li didn't care to look. "I have brought your breakfast. Your mother has called the school and informed them that you will be taking the day off," The nameless servant said before exiting once again.

"How could she not know?" Syaoran asked, to no one in particular. "Usually she knows almost everything before it happens. Why didn't mother predict this?" He continued staring out the window, running events over and over through his mind. He wondered what, if anything, could have been done to change the outcome.

He heard a rustle in the sheets of the bed. He turned to look, but the only movement he saw what the yellow fur of the stuffed animal eyeing his breakfast hungrily. "Take it. I'm not hungry," Li ordered. Kero happily obliged, though he was less perky than usual. The annoying creature had been taking a nap in Sakura's bed when the events of the previous evening occurred. It had woken him up in the middle of the night because it was worried about Sakura. When Li explained what had happened, Kero had taken it badly. Syaoran had had to restrain Kero for a time, afraid that his attempts to get a reaction Sakura would harm her.

Kero's reaction was calm compared to Touya's when he had seen the state his sister was in. Syaoran could still hear the faint banging of Touya's fists on the door of the room he had been locked in for everyone else's safety.

When Syaoran thought that she was awake again, he opened her eyes. Though they looked rested, they stared off into space, unfocused and unmoving. He tried everything he could think of to get her to respond, as did Kero, but it was to no avail. This left Li with only one person to turn to. He unlocked the door and it slammed open. Touya looked fierce.

"Where's my sister?" Sakura's brother asked threateningly as he grabbed Syaoran and slammed him against the wall.

"Calm down." Yukito cautioned the enraged man, following him out of the room. He had voluntarily interned himself with Touya, in order to prevent him from causing too much damage to the house. "Killing Li will not get you the information any faster."

"But it will make me feel a lot better."

"Jealous that someone else gets to take care of your sister?"

"No, I just don't want this gaki anywhere near her."

"If you don't put this 'gaki' down, he may decide to change his mind about bringing you to your sister." Syaoran interjected.

"Where is she?" Touya asked, reluctantly releasing Syaoran from his grip.

"Is the kajyuu sick? Eat too many lawyers last night and give her a stomach ache," Touya joked weakly. To Syaoran's surprise, Touya's taunt actually had an effect, though not the one that it usually did. Sakura rolled over and covered her head with the blankets.

"She moved…" Syaoran whispered.

"You shouldn't hide, how else will people know they should run from the kaijyuu?"

"Shut up and leave me alone," The voice came from under the covers.

"Li, you had better run, the kaijyuu is getting angry."

"I told you to shut the hell up!" Sakura yelled, shocking Touya who had never heard her speak like that before. "I know what I am! I don't need you reminding me! Now leave." She chased them out of her room. She then locked them out and blocked the door with a chair.

Li smirked. Sure, he had been thrown out of a very angry Sakura's room, but at least she was moving on her own now and he now knew a little more about how she was feeling. Touya, however, was still very upset. No one would tell him what had happened to Sakura to cause this situation. As far as he knew, this was just as bad, if not worse than the condition she had been in before he had interfered.

"I'm going out," Li said.

"Where?" Touya asked suspiciously.

"To get something that will make your sister happy. I might not be back for a long time."

The wolf sat at the edge of the Li property, as if making a decision. Then, in a moment of decision, began to dig. A few inches down he found a magically glowing yellow thread. With a quick chomp of his powerful jaws, the string snapped and dissolved. The wolf bounded onto the property, straight up to the front door and began to scratch at it. A layer of paint came off of the door, and glowing yellow lines were revealed beneath. With another scratch, this also dissolved into thin air.

The wolf bounded around the side the house and leapt impossibly high up into a tree. Through a window, he could see the girl laying in bed and crying into a pillow. The yellow creature was trying to tempt the girl to cheer up by offering her some of its pudding. The wolf knew it wouldn't work. It would take something she truly cared about to fix this, not some useless sweets.

The wolf leapt silently through the window, landing with a quiet thud. Neither of the occupants of the rooms even noticed his entrance. He emitted a soft whine to alert them to his presence.

"Xiao Lang?" She asked, "What are you doing here?" The wolf approached and licked a salty tear off of her cheek. "You're here to cheer me up…" The wolf nodded. "You shouldn't…"

The wolf turned back towards the window.

"Wait!" Sakura said, "It's not that I don't want you here… I don't deserve it."

The wolf came back and rested his head on her lap and she began to scratch it behind the ears. The look of his bright amber eyes compelled Sakura to continue.

"I did something last night. It was something really bad." The wolf licked her hand reassuringly. "Ever since I got here, I have been trained in martial arts and magic. It's good in a realizing my potential and learning discipline way, but last night I had to use what I learned against someone else.

"It was not against some mystical power or anything, but against a real person. I fought him, and did my best. Even when it looked like I had lost, I continued fighting and didn't give up.

"He gave me the chance to give up, but I didn't take it. I fought back with everything I had… and now he's dead. I wasn't even fighting to protect myself or someone else. It was all for money. I killed someone because of greed.

"I should have known… My brother has called me a kaijyuu ever since I was little. He was always right before. Everyone tells me that I am going to be all right. What does that mean? Someone is dead because of me. Who knows who I will hurt next? They say that everything is okay, but with the way things are going more people are going to die, if not by my own hand then by some decision I make.

"I wouldn't blame you if you didn't like me anymore. You just look like a kaijyuu, I really am one."

The wolf didn't make a move to leave. Instead, he jumped up on to the bed and allowed her to move from scratching behind his ears to rubbing his belly. As a wolf, there weren't any words he could say to make her feel better, in fact he couldn't say anything at all. At least he could show her that he wasn't afraid of her, that he trusted her. Even if he had spoken, he doubted anything he could have said would do anything but make things worse. At least now she had talked about it with him. He knew how she felt about it and she had let everything out. It was a big step towards bringing back the cheerful girl he had come to know.

Suddenly, his leg began to twitch. It shook uncontrollably as Sakura scratched his ribs just behind his elbow. She began to scratch faster, and his leg accelerated to match. It felt strangely good where she was scratching, but it also felt as if as if his leg was going to fly right off if it lasted too long. Then he saw a faint smile creep onto Sakura's lips and decided that if losing a leg would make her return to the way she was before, he was willing to make that sacrifice. Luckily for him, it didn't come to that. She soon grew tired and fell asleep with her arms wrapped around his big furry neck. It was a nice feeling, and a comfortable position that soon put him to sleep as well.

He awoke in incredible pain. The first rays of light illuminated his body, causing him to revert to his normal shape. He clamped his jaw shut and attempted to avoid screaming with the pain as organs shifted and bones changed shape. He was afraid that the bone-popping and flesh-squishing sounds would awaken the girl next to him. She didn't stir. She was still fast asleep. The stuffed animal was snoring loudly in a stack of pillows. He risked a few moments to grab a pencil and a sheet of paper from her desk to scribble a note for her. He then jumped out the window thinking 'I hope I find some pants before someone sees me.'

Sakura picked up the note, which she had found on her desk. She had awakened to see the boy jump out of her window but did not recognize him because her vision was still blurred by sleep.

"Sakura,

It was an accident, you shouldn't blame yourself. You care so much about others, that mistakes like this do not make you a kaijyuu. You will learn from this and become a stronger person who can see the dangers and avoid them and use your abilities to protect people.

You may not think it now, but you are the opposite of a kaijyuu. That is why people like me, and your brother, and your friends will always be there for you, even when you think you don't want, or deserve our help. There is no one who deserves it more than you.

-your Xiao Lang"