Seven Deadly Jewels

Chapter 37

Tomoko stared at Li with her cold blue eyes with a strange mixture of hate, and confusion. In their last verbal outburst, Li reveled that four years ago he couldn't pick up a sword, but this only served to make things worse. She was confused, was it possible for him to become so good with a sword in only four years? That was impossible. It was impossible for someone to be such a good swordsman with only four years worth of training. He had to be lying, that was the only explanation. He would say anything to stop her from killing him. The blue haired girl's gaze intensified as she stared at him.

"You lie," she growled. "What do you mean you couldn't pick up a sword four years ago!"

"Just what I said. What are you deaf?"

"It's just another one of your useless lies! There's no way you could become such a good swordsman with only four years of training!" Li just smirked.

"Did you just give me a compliment?"

"Shut up! I don't care what you say; there is nothing in this world that can stop me from killing you Syaoran! Nothing!" Li's smirked dropped as he sighed.

"Fine. I won't say anymore, but I will say this. Do you really trust the one you and your sisters are working for? What makes you think they aren't lying to you? And what's stopping them from killing all three of you when you're finished with me? Or what if you fail? What then?" The intense glare in Tomoko's eyes dropped as she absorbed Li's words, but the same glare returned only a few seconds later.

"You're only trying to twist things around!" Then the blue haired girl smirked. "Besides, I have no intention of failing, neither do my sisters. We won't stop until you're head is on a platter! Now enough talk! If you have anything else to say, then say it with your sword!"

"Yeah you're right," Li replied crouching into a defensive position. "I've had enough of talking to someone who won't listen to reason anyway."

All was still for a moment. The animals had long ago stopped moving about and making noise, and the wind was nothing but a very light breeze. Li's eyes narrowed when he noticed Tomoko make a small step forward, and he instantly tightened his grip on his sword. The second the wind blew a leaf off a tree, the two off. Their swords met with a loud, but brief clang, before they separated for a nanosecond.

Li parried a fast thrust, and pivoted on his right foot into a 180 slash that Tomoko quickly jumped away from. The blue haired girl charged in with a loud cry and slammed her sword on the ground, unleashing a wave of rock and dirt. The amber haired boy leaped into a tree, and pulled out one of his talismans.

"Element Lighting!"

"Child's play!" Tomoko exclaimed as she slashed the lighting attack away while she charged towards the tree. Li flipped out of the tree as the enraged girl threw a punch that brought down the mighty piece of nature. The young man landed behind her, and quickly ducked under a strong horizontal slash. When he turned around to thrust forward he was met with a strong punch from Tomoko in his stomach. Blood trailed down Li's mouth as he gasped for air, and stepped back. He wasn't even close to fully recovering when Tomoko fist slammed against his face. The amber-eyed fighter dug his foot in the ground to keep himself from going flying. Before he could even look up the blue haired girl sent a kick that made him slam against a tree against his back.

Li bounced against the tree like a ball, and was heading straight into the path of another one of Tomoko's punches. He just smirked as the leathered fist came closer to him. Suddenly for Tomoko, Li grabbed her arm, and hurled her over his shoulder. The blue haired girl swung her leg outwards into a trip position only to be met with air as Li leaped. The young man brought down his sword with a loud cry as he came down. Tomoko rolled backwards avoiding the blow, and jumped to her feet in an instant.

The two came together in a deadly dance of parries, thrusts, and slashes. Li thrust forward, Tomoko quickly parried the blow, and pushed the young man's sword upwards. Li barely dodged a jab to his face, and managed to counter with a quick slash across her stomach. Tomoko slammed her sword on the ground releasing another wave of rock towards the young man who quickly jumped into the air, only to be met by his opponent.

"Hi!" she said simply, and slammed him to the ground with a strong punch.

"Element Wind!" he called out. A wave of wind appeared below him, and caught him before he hit the ground.

"Nice try! But you'll need to do better than that!" Tomoko exclaimed as she came down towards the amber-eyed fighter with a punch ready. Li jumped off of the wind cloud and into the branches of the trees. "Get back here!" The amber-eyed fighter was a blur as he dodged Tomoko's attacks as he moved through the trees. The blue haired girl attacked with a strong swing that Li managed to block. Their swords were locked together as they moved from tree to tree struggling to gain the upper hand. As they jumped out from another tree, they separated, and landed on separate branches.

After a quick mutual glare, the two leapt from their branches, and collided in midair. Li pushed Tomoko's sword upwards, and sent her to the ground with a quick punch to her face.

"You dare strike a woman?" Tomoko said as the young man flipped to the ground. Li just scoffed.

"When you're the mists of battle you can't afford to discriminate. Besides," he added with a smirk. "You're anything but lady like." If her eyes weren't already filled with malice, his latest comment defiantly made it worse. At that moment Tomoko sprinted towards her target with a loud cry. The amber-eyed fighter jumped back from a downward strike, and quickly thrust forward. Tomoko brought her sword into an upward block, and kicked Li through two trees with a swift and sudden front kick. As she examined the damage, Li leapt out from the rubble and brought up his index, middle, and thumb.

"This is…!" the girl muttered out loud.

"Lighting!" A blast of lighting suddenly rained down from the sky, but Tomoko dodged it with ease.

"That might be one of your strongest attacks, but you'll need to do better to kill me Syaoran!" With this Li just smirked as he put his sword in between his teeth.

'Then let's see how you like multiple blasts!' His hands went though three more seals before returning to the original seal. At that very moment four more bolts of lighting came down upon the young woman, who looked upon them in shock.

"What the-!" she exclaimed as she just barely managed to dodge one. The next three hit her square in her chest, making her fill the forest with her screams. Li spat out his sword and raised it just as his last bolt of lighting came down the Earth.

"Now to finish this!" he exclaimed. "Lighting Sword!" With those words he swung his sword, releasing the energy of the lighting to the already weakened young girl. After a loud, but brief explosion at contact, smoke covered the area. The young man smirked as he looked over his handy work from the tree, but it dropped the second the brown smoke cleared. There was Tomoko with her arms crossed over her body with no even a burn mark on her skin. "What-the!"

"Ha. You'll have to do better than that Syaoran. You see these gloves? They're made of a special material that cancels out any and all forms of lighting. And that's not all they can do," Tomoko said with a dark smirk on her face. Li was getting a bad feeling from that smirk. The blue haired girl clapped her gloved hands together and at that moment released the same blast of lighting Li shot at her.

"Shit!" he growled as he quickly dodged the blast, but then came another, and another. Tomoko laughed wickedly as she watched Li barely evade his own attacks, she could do this all day if she wanted. Li jumped out from his tree branch, and slapped an incoming blast away with his sword. "To beat me, you'll need to do more than just shot back my attacks Tomoko!"

"I intend to Syaoran!" Tomoko exclaimed as their swords met again. The two quickly jumped back before rushing towards each again. When their swords crossed, Tomoko pushed the straight sword to the side, and swung out her leg in a sudden roundhouse kick that could topple two trees. Li swiftly jumped out of the path of the incoming attack, and twisted his body around Tomoko so that he was behind her. Once she sensed him behind her, Tomoko thrust out her elbow, nailing the fighter square in his stomach. As soon as Li let out a loud cry and gasp for air, Tomoko grabbed him by the collar, and hurled him through four trees with no trouble at all.

'Well this is going well,' he muttered as he got to his feet. 'I wonder how that stupid girl, and that damn stuffed animal are doing. Those other two aren't cakewalk either.' His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of trees slamming to the ground, which meant Tomoko was on her way.

"Come out, come out wherever you are Syaoran!" she exclaimed as she punched through another tree.

'Looks like it's time for my grand reentrance,' he thought with a smirk, and jumped out from his hiding place, restarting the fight.

OOOOO

"Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo cried as she witnessed her best friend being consumed by six powerful blasts sent by six Yumis. Exactly how they came into being, Tomoyo couldn't say, something to do with her Pollen Powder that was in the air. But at that moment Tomoyo only cared about the well being of her fried. "Sakura-chan! Are you alright!"

"Humph, well that was boring," one of the six scoffed. "Barely put a fight."

"You are aware by destroying her we just destroyed the jewel she was carrying," another copy pointed out.

"Don't worry, those things can't be destroyed by a simple attack like that," another one replied.

"Well come on let's search what's left of her." At that very moment, water seemed to burst out of nowhere, and in seconds, the entire area from the ground, to the air, was filled with water. The Yumis were shocked at this development, but not nearly as shocked when they realized they were fading away.

"What the hell!" one of them exclaimed once she noticed that her hands were fading away. Tomoyo watched in amazement as the Yumi copies screamed and yelled, until they completely faded away, soon only the original remained. "What the hell just happened! Who did that!" The wind in the air suddenly became so powerful that it blew Yumi six feet back, and the smoke cleared up instantly, reveling Sakura with her staff in front of her in a defensive position.

"Hi," she said simply.

"You!" Yumi exclaimed.

"Sakura-chan!" Yumi just smirked after a while.

"I see, so you used a water spell to clear the air of my Pollen Powder right?" she figured.

"More like the Water Sprit," Sakura corrected.

"No matter. I'll still kill you no matter what spells you use!" With a wave of her fan another strong blast of flowers shot towards Sakura, who sent it back to its sender with a gust of wind from her staff. Yumi quickly dodged her own blast, only to be caught in the path of one of Sakura's windblasts. The fan user quickly redirected the attack with another fan wave, and countered with an even stronger blast of flower petals. The emerald-eyed girl knew she wouldn't be able to stop this one on her own, so she quickly reached into her pocket and drew out Watery.

"Watery clear the air of these petals!" With the command in place, water burst out from the confided space and completely filled the air with water again, dissipating the incoming flower attack, and shot straight towards Yumi. The fan user was caught completely off guard by the powerful outburst of water, and was blasted back eight feet as a result. Seeing her chance, Sakura dashed towards the weakened fan user with her wand in a position ready to swing. Yumi quickly regained her balance, and spotted Sakura charging towards her with her wand ready. Yumi smirked at this.

"Don't think that it's this easy!" she exclaimed, and waved the fan upwards, making all the flower petals around Sakura shoot her up into the air like a balloon. She then waved it again making the remaining flower petals circle around her while Sakura was still in the air.

"What in the world!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Take this, Petal Blades!" The amber haired girl cried out in pain as the petals cut her like small knives, and just after they passed her, the petals turned around and began slashing her again. Yumi laughed as she waved her fan making the petals make another U-turn, and slash Sakura all over her body. Sakura wanted to fall to the ground, fall in the water, anything to make this stop, but the petals from Yumi's last attack were holding her up, and keeping her as a prime target.

"Hang in there Sakura!" Tomoyo yelled.

"Ha! I could do this all day if I wanted, but since we're on a tight schedule, I'll have to cut down on the fun." Yumi then released the petals that were holding Sakura up, and the young girl fell face first into the ground like a rock. Before she could even recover, she was up in the air again. The pink haired fan user had a dark smirk on her face as she released the petals again, and attacked with another round of Petal Blades that cut her all over her body as she fell. Sakura closed her eyes and braced herself for the impact, but it never came, when she opened them she was one inch from the ground with the petals holding her in place.

"What…!" she muttered as Yumi began to approach her.

"Well that game was getting boring, how about we play another?" With those words, Sakura was flung across the ground and into the lake where she sank as if she had weights all over her. After only a minute she was running out of oxygen. She opened her mouth to let out a cry for help but only bubbles and some muffled words came out. After another minute, her lungs felt as if they were on fire, her throat tightened so much it felt like not even a worm could slide through. She flung her arms out all over her trying to find some way out of this, she squeezed her eyes shut not being able to stand the blue and black around her anymore. Just as she was about to give up, her body suddenly shot to the surface, and she took the deepest breath she had taken before. Sakura was about to attack the fan user, only to realize she was still trapped in Yumi's petals.

"Let…me…go!" she panted. She was still trying to fill her lungs with air. The pink haired girl just smirked at her plea.

"Let you go? And when we're having so much fun? Why deprive yourself?" With this Sakura was in the lake faster than she could blink. Two minutes passed faster than seconds and her bubbles gave away that her need for air had resurfaced. Before her face could turn completely blue, she was flung out of the water for a few seconds worth of air.

"Quit it!" Tomoyo yelled. "That's unfair!" With a wave if Yumi's hand, Tomoyo was blown back.

"I'll handle you later. Right now I'm having fun, but since I have to hurry, I'll make this your last dip!" And Sakura was submerged with a simple wave. As the young girl sank, she knew it was hopeless to struggle, but she had to try. She refused to die here. But no matter what she thought, the situation seemed completely hopeless. She was just about to give up when she remembered the card in her pocket.

'Watery! That's right! This situation is prefect! I can't believe I forgot about it! Li was right, I am a stupid girl!' Sakura quickly wiped out the Watery card and held it close to her. 'Watery please, aid me.'

The water around seemed to come alive as the water sprit burst from the card and began to take form in the lake. All the water dissolved the petals around her, and they instantly began to raise her out of the water. Sakura couldn't help but let out a small smile. All of a sudden she had air in her lungs.

"Now that she out of the picture, I can take care of you, then Li," Yumi chuckled as she approached Tomoyo with her fan already in position.

"Sakura-chan," Tomoyo whispered worriedly as she stared at the lake.

"Don't worry, you'll be with her soon," Yumi giggled and was about to wave her fan when the water from the lake exploded upwards like a fountain with Sakura on the top.

"I'm not finished yet!" Yumi let out a frustrated growl.

"Looks like normal attacks and tricks won't work on you. So right now, you're forcing my hand," she said as she reached into her sleeve, and pulled out another fan.

"What's that?" Sakura wondered as she readied herself for anything.

"You force me to use an attack that was saving for Li, but I guess you'll do, seeing as you won't stay down."

"Whatever it is, I'm sure Watery can stop it!" Sakura said confidently. Yumi let out a confident smirk as well.

"This I highly doubt. The attack I'm about to use could take out an entire castle filled with heavily armed men. I doubt your precious Watery can stop it."

"We'll see."

"Yes we will." Yumi began to move her fans around as if she was in a dance, and closed her eyes. She slowly waved her first fan above her head, and passed the second fan across her face. The kimono girl made a slow spin around, and began to twirl her second fan around as made some flowing motions with her first. Sakura began to notice that as she moved, the petals around her began to react, slowly but surely. It was at this point that Yumi made circular motions with her two fans around her upper-body. The pink haired girl crossed her arms across her body, and then her moves became more robust. She extended her arms above her head and waved her first fan across her body, spun around and did the same with her second. This was followed by an upwards motions with the first then twirled her second as she moved it across her body. It was now that the petals around them started to circle around her, and the wind picked up so much it was hard to even keep her eyes open.

"What's she doing?" Sakura wondered out loud. "But I had better get Watery ready." The young girl jumped off of the fountain, and landed on the other side of the lake. She then bean to spin her wand around in front of the lake, which caused the water to react. A large cyclone of water burst out of the lake that stood next to the still bursting fountain. Sakura, seeing this as a good thing, quickly made another one, at this point, Yumi snapped her eyes open as she crossed her fans across her body.

"Now! Ultimate Serika Fan Style Technique: Petals of the Wind!" Yumi swung her arms and three large white cyclones with pink petals circling around it burst out of nowhere and shot towards Sakura on the other side of lake.

"Watery, attack!" With one wave of her wand, the three large water cyclones shot towards the approaching petal cyclones.

"TIME TO FINISH THIS BATTLE!" exclaimed the two girls as the cyclones collided with each other, with an extremely loud,

BANG!

OOOOO

Kero groaned as he struggled to flap his wings. But they were too weak from his fall from nearly 500 feet in the air. He felt as if he had broken every bone in his body, and to make things worse Ami was standing over the hole he made, twirling the weight end of her chain-scythe, and smiling a dark smile.

"Let's finish this," the blonde giggled and readied herself to slam the weight into Kero's body, when the beast let out a breath of fire that made Ami jump back. With as much strength as he could muster, Keroberos climbed out of the hole, but collapsed the second he was out.

"I'm not finished…. yet."

"Yet," Ami chuckled, still twirling the weight. Kero, seeing no other way, let out another breath of fire. "Oh please," she groaned as she twirled the weight in front of her, dispelling the fire.

"Damn," Kero growled.

"You finished?" the blonde asked. The beast let out a loud growl, got to his feet, and with the last of his strength charged towards Ami.

"I'm not going down!" he shouted. Ami just rolled her eyes.

"Stupid beast," she muttered. When Kero was within an inch of colliding his head with her stomach, the blonde jumped to the side and hurled the weight towards Keroberos' legs. In one split second Kero's legs were tied together with no hope of breaking them.

"Damn it!" Kero growled. Ami approached him, and punched him square in his face, knocking him out instantly.

"Shut up." The blonde reached into her gi, and pulled out a blue sphere that glowed blue once she began to talk into it. "Yumi, you there? I have one of Li's companions. What about you?" There was no response, so Ami tried again. "Yumi? You there? Answer you little brat! Yumi!" It was then she heard a very loud explosion on the other end. "Yumi!"

"Yeah I'm here! No need to worry!" Yumi replied from the other end. An image of Yumi appeared in the center of the sphere when she began to talk.

"Jeez what the hell took you so long?" Ami asked obviously irked.

"Sorry. That little girl gave me more trouble than I expected. I even had to use my best attack," Yumi replied.

"You okay?" the blonde asked. "That attack usually takes a lot out of you."

"Yeah I'm fine. I got her, and her little friend too."

"Good. Now all that remains is Tomoko. Come to where I am, and bring those two girls with you. Okay?" Yumi nodded.

"I'll be there in two minutes." With that the sphere stopped glowing.

"Good. This will certainly bring Syaoran to us," Ami muttered as she looked at the unconscious form of Kero.

OOOOO

Another tree fell with a loud crash as Li and Tomoko continued their fight. Li blocked a fast thrust from Tomoko, and pushed the sword upwards, leaving her open for a quick slash. Tomoko quickly sidestepped the slash jabbed Li in his ribs. The amber-eyed fighter slid back slightly, but dug his feet into the ground to stop himself from going too far. Tomoko dashed towards him attacking with wild swing that Li swiftly dodged, and thrust forward. The blue haired girl blocked with an upwards motion and countered with a fast jab. Li evaded the fist, and pulled the girl into a quick elbow to her stomach. Tomoko swung her leg into a sudden front kick that Li blocked, and countered with stab through her shoulder. The young man pulled it out, and slashed the girl across her stomach. Tomoko quickly punched Li into the ground and jumped back to examine the wound.

It was a rather deep slash, and plenty of blood was flowing out of it already. The girl growled at herself for being open at that moment, but she wouldn't allow this wound to kill her. No matter how deep it was it wouldn't stop her.

"What now Tomoko? Keep fighting? Just so you know, if you keep fighting, the blood flowing out will only triple, and you'll die of blood loss in two minutes. Staying still will give you ten full minutes of life. Plenty of time to tell me, just what the hell is going on!"

"This again? How dense can you be! I told you, you killed our father!"

"And I'm telling you I was still in training! My master took me into the mountains to train when I was six! I didn't come down until I was thirteen! I couldn't have done it!" Tomoko punched down a tree as she growled.

"I've…had…enough….!" She took a few deep breaths before going into an odd stance. "I want to refrain from using this, but you give me no choice!"

"What the hell is that?" Li asked.

"This is the ultimate technique of the Serika sword style. Did you know it originally began as a dance? My father saw my mother dancing as a Geisha, and added his weapons techniques to her graceful dances, forming the Serika style. It can be applied to almost any weapon. But the ones it works best with is, the sword, fans, and the chain-scythe."

"Thanks for the pointless history lesson."

"Yes. It's time I show you why we're Master Viga's most trusted servants." Tomoko closed her eyes and began to gather her aura. Li placed his sword in front of him as he prepared himself.

'What kind of attack could it be?' Li asked himself. Three minutes later, he got his answer. Tomoko snapped her eyes open and her blue aura was all around her.

"Ultimate Serika Sword Style Technique: Three Tiger Strike! One!" Tomoko swung her sword releasing a powerful blast that Li quickly dove away from. "Two!" Another blast shot towards him. The fighter quickly jumped above the trees to avoid it.

"A little too big of a jump, but who knows that the third one would be," Li muttered to himself. But his thoughts were broken the second he heard, a loud,

"Three!"

"What the-!" In front of him was a blue blur that was heading towards him with speed he couldn't avoid. He was about to try and block it when he just froze in mid-air. The young man coughed up a large portion blood. Below him, was Tomoko with her sword that entered in his stomach, and came out through his back. Tomoko smirked, and pulled out her sword. Then she punched the wounded young man into the ground. Li was curled up on the ground groaning in pain from both the wound and the fall. Tomoko laughed as she watched him.

"Oh how the mighty have fallen," she laughed as she stood on a tree branch above him. "You look so pathetic."

"Shit…" Suddenly a strong gust of wind burst out of nowhere, and on the tree branch along with Tomoko were Yumi, and Ami. But they weren't alone. In their arms were the unconscious forms of Sakura, Tomoyo, and Kero. "What the-! What hell are you bitches trying to do! I thought I was your target!"

"You are, but this girl has one of the three you carry on her. The jewels are, after all our prime target. It is the wish of our master," Ami replied. "The other two. Well just collateral."

"What are you going to do with them?" Li asked weakly clutching his major wound.

"Nothing, for now," Tomoko answered. "There's a fort about five miles from this spot. If you want them back, go there by dusk, and bring the two jewels you have with you. If you don't, well let's just say, you won't enjoy the outcome."

"That's only if you can survive the walk there," Yumi giggled. "With that wound, you probably won't survive the afternoon! Even if you do make it to dusk, there's no way you can survive the five mile walk!" The three girls let out evil giggles, and disappeared with a gust of petals.

"Damn it!" Li shouted. "I'm so stupid! I don't fight at my best like this! There's no way I can win. But if I leave it like this, then they'll just keep coming. Plus someone needs to set those stupid bitches straight. But I have to know, who really killed their father."

Li practically crawled towards a tree, and sat against it. He crossed his feet, and placed his hands in a hand seal. The young man closed his eyes, and took deep slow breaths. The necklace he always wore began to glow and his mind drifted to that day four years ago. He saw the three of them huddled together in a closet, and their father being cut into pieces by a tall dark figure with a fast sword hand, and amber eyes like his. Li's eyes widened when he saw the man step outside into the light. It then his vision stopped.

'The man who killed their father. It was…..'

AN: I'm evil I know, I know. But I just love cliffhangers! Well when I'm writing them, not when I'm reading. Don't worry I won't leave you guys hanging for too long. (Hopefully) Anyway sorry it took so long. It was a mixture of writer's block, and temporarily losing inspiration for this fic. Well it wasn't the whole story, just this arc. I came up with it without fully developing what would happen. I had their appearance all planned out, and the ending too, but everything in the middle I neglected to develop. I didn't know weather to have Sakura and Kero win, or Yumi and Ami win their fights. Then I had to think of what would happen after that. So then I settled on the whole kidnapping ploy. Don't worry Sakura and Tomoyo won't be kidnapped too often. I mean seriously, girl characters that get kidnapped all the time get pretty annoying after a while. (cough cough Kagome cough cough) Anyway, I hope this chapter makes up for the lack of action in the last chapter. I read through it again, and realized that they didn't do much besides talk and fight for a couple of paragraphs. Especially on Li and Tomoko's part. But I think this chapter makes up for it, since the fights are better, and not much talking. Well anyway, here's the preview for next chapter!

Sakura: Oh great, so now Tomoyo, Kero and I have been taken by Tomoko and her sisters! And we're presented to their master Erim, who seems to know Li as well.

Tomoyo: Don't worry Sakura, Li's coming I'm sure of it.

Kero: Yeah injured and hardly at 100 percent

Sakura: And to make things worse, the second Li arrives he's challenged by all the men there, not to mention Tomoko and her sisters! Can Li beat these vengeful sisters, and tell them who really killed their father? You'll just have to find out in "Assault on Fort Ryu!" Next time on Seven Deadly Jewels! See ya then!