Chapter 37: Challenge of Friendship
******
What more can I want in life? Somehow, I don't know why, I was chosen to be a girl different from any other girl. I have special powers, face hardships that no one else has to face, dream nightmares, which turn into reality. Still, I need to be strong, even if the world turns upside down. Yet, I am just a fifteen-year-old girl who is uncertain and only desires the rainbow's end, like any other person. In the night, I sometimes feel lonely and lost. It is like running through a maze, searching for someone, holding back tears. Each day is an adventure, an obstacle, a new sunrise. Still, even if I am not perfect, I will always strive. Because I am Kinomoto Sakura, Mistress of the Sakura Cards and a Card Captor in the new era of the Chosen Ones.
******
Towards the end of summer vacation...
"Sakura! I can't believe you didn't win the Best Couple Contest! After all you went through! And you were in the finalists! I can't believe-" Meirin ranted into the telephone from Hong Kong.
Stuffing her fingers into her ears, Sakura handed the phone to Syaoran. "She's still ranting about it."
"Still?" Syaoran asked in disbelief, reluctantly taking the phone, bracing himself to Meirin's angry chatter.
Sakura's handphone rang. Her second instinct told her to brace herself. "Hello?"
"Sakura?" Touya asked, the line slightly crackling from the long distance phone call from England.
"Onii-chan! It's so good to hear from you! How are you these days? Is the work hard there?" Sakura exclaimed, overjoyed to hear from her brother.
"I'm fine, kaijou. Well, seems like you're fine. I can't talk for long because I have an exam to study for. My semester here is almost complete. I think Yukito and I'll be back before next month," Touya said.
"Really? That's great! Otou-san said that his seminar tour was really successful and after his final seminar held in New York, he will be able to come home again also."
"Sorry squirt. You've been alone for months! I hope it was okay all by yourself," Touya said softly.
"I'm fine. You know me. And it was a good experience," Sakura informed him brightly.
"Uh! I know this is random! But by any chance, were you on TV over vacation?" Touya asked hesitantly.
"Hoe? Ah ha ha! Noooo! Why should I?" Sakura asked innocently, sweat-dropping heavily
"Ah, I must have been mistaken. I was switching through the channels in cable TV and I thought I saw a girl who looked like you. Of course! Haha. Why would little monster be one TV? But I swear, she looked exactly like you. And there was a boy that had brown hair that looked exactly like the Brat"
"Hehe! You must have been mistaken."
"Yeah. And, I'm just wondering, why don't you ever get the house phone?" Touya questioned after a second thought.
"Hoe?" Sakura panicked. Then, holding a plastic bag to the phone receiver, she began to rustle it. "Oh dear! I think the phone connection's bad. There's static! I can't hear you anymore! Ahh! The line got disconnected!" She placed switched off the phone, sighing in relief.
"Nice," Syaoran commented, staring at her since he had finished his phone call with Meirin.
"Well, she can't exactly tell him, 'Sorry, I didn't get the phone because I'm staying over at the apartment of the person you hate the most because of some complicated affairs involving the Dark Ones and our ancestors,' can I?" Kero-chan protested in Sakura's defense.
"No! I guess not." Syaoran dropped his head.
Summer vacation had flown by quickly, and now, there were only a two days left before school started again. Ever since they returned to Tomoeda from the seaside town of Kusakou, days passed by smoothly with the greatest obstacle being finishing the summer assignments.
"You better start on you summer homework, instead of sitting around and watching TV and reading mangas the whole vacation. You're wasting the Saturday morning," Syaoran commented to Sakura, who sat on the floor with a bowl of ripe, juicy crimson cherries and a volume of Fushigi Yuugi manga in her hand.
Tossing the cherry stem into another bowl, Sakura commented, "You're beginning to sound like onii-chan. And you didn't start in you homework either."
"I can finish it easily in one day. You can't," Syaoran replied in what Sakura would call a smug tone.
In return, the puppy, which originally had been the Wolf card, jumped onto Syaoran and barked at him. Syaoran groaned.
"I'll help you with your homework again!" Kero-chan suggested, emerging from the refrigerator with the last slice of Syaoran's special homemade chocolate cake.
"No thank you," Sakura replied politely. The last time she had trusted Kero with her math problem, she found out that Kero knew less about math than herself. A lot less.
The difference from before and after the summer vacation was the addition of two new members to the Li apartment. First was Kero-chan, back from the England trip (more likely sent back because of his uselessness.) Technically, he was to watch over Tanaka Miho, who came back to Japan for the first time since her house burned down and Mizuki Kaho took her to England. However, Miho was staying over at Tomoyo's big house until Eriol returned to Japan. The second new member was the new puppy, which Sakura often lapsed into calling 'Wolfie-chan,' or worse, 'Syao-chan.' Syaoran, on good days would call the puppy 'Eagle', or 'Vega,' its given name (named after his former dog.) But usually, he stuck to calling the puppy "It" or "The Dog." Though technically, Wolfie-chan was a card, it grew so used to being around all the time, that everyone forgot that it was indeed a Sakura Card, not a real dog.
"I remember Touya onii-chan and the Snow Bunny (Yukito) used to help you with your summer homework," Kero-chan said, hovering over the manga Sakura was reading. Over the summer, he had found a new hobby of reading shoujo manga due to the fact that Syaoran didn't have any video games in his house.
"Yukito-san?" Syaoran asked, ears perking. He furrowed his eyebrows together. He blurted out loud, "If you need help with the math packet, you can ask me. I'll help."
"Huh? Thanks." Sakura grinned. "I'll help you with the Japanese stuff, if you need it. Hey, do you want to start on it now? We can start on homework early for a change."
On a side note Kero-chan mumbled, "If you call two days before school starts early."
//RING//RING//
"°What's with the telephone today?" Sakura asked, rolling over to reach for the house phone. "°'lo?"
"°Is Li Syaoran there?" came a girl's voice, a voice Sakura had grown very wary of.
Erika?! "Eek! No! Wrong phone number!" Sakura slammed the phone down. She had almost been caught answering Syaoran's phone for the second time! If Erika, the biggest blabbermouth found out, it would be all over the school in no time and her reputation would be ruined.
The phone rang a second time. She handed it to Syaoran. "°You get it."
"°Hello? Li Syaoran speaking," Syaoran said, picking up the phone.
"°Syaoran? It's me, Erika. Strange. I swear, I called the same number a moment ago and a strange girl answered it. This isn't the first time either."
"°Yeah, it's strange," Syaoran replied. "°Wait, how do you know my phone number, anyway?"
"°You told me, remember? Last winter," Erika told him. "°Anyway, I called up some other people in Star-Crossed. And we all agreed that we should meet up and have another practice before school starts again. After all, the production date is coming up and the teachers expect us to be near perfect. We want to hold it at your house."
"°What?" Syaoran exclaimed, glancing sideways at Sakura. "°Ah, I don't think it's a good idea. Can't we hold it somewhere else?"
"°No! We held it at my house, Tomoyo's before and Aki's house before. And Sakura's not answering the phone, so, it has to be your house," Erika stated.
"°But—"°
"°Okay, Eron, me, Tomoyo, Takashi, Aki and I'll be over at your apartment by 11 AM, okay? It's 10 right now." Without further ado, Erika hung up the phone.
"°WHAT!?" Groaning, Syaoran informed Sakura, "°They're all coming over. In one hour for the musical practice."
"°HOE-E!" Sakura stared around the apartment in horror. It was a mess. Her stuff—girl's stuff lay around everywhere, from her sandals by the doorway, Japanese teen magazines scattered on the kitchen table, shoujo manga on the floor, teen flick videos stacked up next to the VCR, stuffed dolls and the remnants of sewing kits, her clothes hanging on the chairs, not to mention Kero-chan and Wolfie-chan running about everywhere.
"°We have to get rid of your stuff in one hour and clean up the house and make it look like only I live here," Syaoran stated, crossing his arms. "°We will not have anyone suspect that you're living here with me. Not with the biggest blabbermouths, Aki and Erika coming over."
******
"°C'mon. We're going to Syaoran's house," Erika whined, trying to drag Eron out of bed.
"°Go," Eron mumbled, turning over on his bed. "°Stop bothering me."
"°It's a practice for the musical. All the main characters are meeting up. Onii-chaaaan! Wake up! Please?" Erika begged, blinking with round eyes. She walked up to the window and drew the curtains, letting sunshine pour into the dark room.
Unlike one would expect, Chang Eron's room was quite simple and toned down, probably the plainest in the house. Erika fingered the mahogany wood desk by the wall, in which Eron rarely studied in. There were many nifty things kept in the drawers however. Tentatively, she opened the top drawer. When Eron and Erika had came to the neighborhood a little less than a year go, one of the first dark forces they had called upon was the Veil. It was used to keep them protected from Sakura and Syaoran's knowledge, to keep them. A strand of hair from each of them was used as a focus. "°It's not here!" she exclaimed.
"°What's not there?" Eron mumbled.
"°The Veil," Erika replied, frantically searching in the drawers. "°What are we supposed to do? We're not supposed to let that dark force out! What if! what if Syaoran and Sakura find out about us?" Laughing, she shrugged. "°Well, Sakura-chan is so dense, I'm pretty sure she won't be a problem, but"
"°Those two are a lot smarter than you think they are," Eron murmured softly, as if remembering the conversation he overhead at the sea trip.
"°What?" Erika bent over.
"°Never mind."
"°Well, if you don't have anything sensible to say, get out of bed," Erika said, hands on hips.
"°Oh fine." Eron rolled out of bed, grumbling. He stared at the mirror. Great, for the first time he could admit he wasn't looking his best. Ever since that incident at the beach side, when his power backfired on him, he had been considerably weaker and unmotivated. The Wave had broken free of him and he couldn't locate it for the moment. With shaking fingers, he pointed at the full mirror. After a moment of hesitation, the glass trembled then shattered into pieces. Carefully, he stepped back to avoid being cut.
"°You're in a destructive mood today," Erika commented.
"°Not particularly,"° Eron replied, reflecting back to the dozens of wine glasses he had broken in the past. Their housekeeper had given up in despair. "°Who's coming again?"
"°Let's see. Aki. Tomoyo. Oh, and I think Miho's coming too because she wants to watch"
"°Tanaka Miho," Eron murmured, stroking his chin. "°Daughter of Mizuki Miara." Some fire came back to his luminous gold flecked eyes and his lips curved into a smile for the first time in days.
Emerging from her closet with a pile of clothes, Erika commented "°Do you think I should wear this white skirt or this blue one?"
Laughing, Eron replied, "°Well, I look good in everything, and you're my twin so anything will do."
"°Full of narcissism, aren't you? Well, good to see you motivated again," Erika said, half in relief. It ruined her mood when Eron was in bad temper.
"°Of course. Was I ever unmotivated?" Then, Eron snapped his fingers and the broken glass fit back into place and the mirror was as good as new. Grinning at his reflection, he replied, "°I'm back to normal."
******
Meanwhile, Sakura and Syaoran frantically ran around the house, trying to put things in order. Wolfie-chan was not helping, running all over the place. Kero-chan's idea of helping was flying around, shouting ridiculous things like, "°You forgot Sakura's cheerleading pompoms! No, the magazines on the floor. Oh! The laundry basket, the laundry basket! Wait, you dropped Sakura's manga! Ooh! It's Peach Girl! Kairi's cool man!"
"°What should I do with your stuff?" Syaoran asked, holding an armful of Sakura's various utensils.
"°Just dump it into my room and remember to lock the door when the others come," Sakura replied, running back from the shoe cabinet, removing all her shoes and throwing them into her room without a second thought. "°Wait, I forgot! The bathroom!"
//Ding Dong/
"°Oh no, they're here!" Sakura, Syaoran, and Kero-chan exclaimed in unison.
"°Quick, Kero-chan, go into my room and don't come out—don't make a sound."
"°But—"° Kero-chan protested.
"°Here!" Sakura handed him a handful of snacks. "°Now, go in."
"°We're coming in!" Came a voice from outside. "°The door's unlocked.
Tomoyo, Miho, Eron, Erika, Aki, and Takashi filed into the house. "°Hello Li-kun!"
"°Uh! Hi" Syaoran said, sweat-dropping. He was still wearing his basketball jersey and an oversized pair of shorts that he had slept in. Nonetheless, in the girl's opinion, he looked cute with his slightly tousled hair.
"°Sakura! You're here too, already? I couldn't contact you a while ago. I thought you were busy and couldn't come!" Erika exclaimed.
"°I called Sakura-chan a while ago through her handphone! She was just out grocery shopping and she wasn't busy, so I told her about the practice," Tomoyo explained quickly, coming to Sakura's rescue. Sakura shot her an appreciative look. Who could ask for a better friend
"Uh! I love your outfit, Sakura," Erika commented, holding back a snicker.
"°Hoe-e." Sakura stared at herself in the hallway mirror. Because of the hectic state of cleaning up the house, she had forgotten to change also. She was wearing Syaoran's oversized white t-shirt, which had somehow found its way into her closet over an unmatching long summer skirt which she had knotted up to one side to form some sort of a short skirt for easier movement around the house. Her hair was merely a messily tied ponytail at the top of her head.
Remembering his manners, Syaoran said, "°You guys can sit on the couch in the living room. Do you want tea? Or icy lemonade? Sorry. My air-conditioner broke down ages ago, so it's rather hot and stuffy in here."
Syaoran and Sakura sweat-dropped. Nobody was listening to them.
"°Wow, I've never been to a guy's apartment before, someone who lives all by himself," Miho commented, wandering into other sections of the house.
"°Syaoran's so neat," Erika commented. "°Not that I'm surprised. This apartment is pretty big for someone to live by themselves."
"°Don't you get lonely?" Takashi asked.
Sniffing the house, Aki commented, "°Mmm! it smells nice here! Like girl's perfume."
Everyone eyed Syaoran suspiciously at this.
"°Ah! It's just the new air-freshener I used," Syaoran explained. He glared at Sakura sideways. Yesterday, she had smashed a bottle of perfume on the living room floor and the smell still hadn't faded away.
"°Arf! Arf!" Wolfie-chan jumped up from underneath the couch onto Syaoran's lap.
"°You have a dog?" Miho asked, squealing. "°How adorable!"
Syaoran was about to retort that it was Sakura's, but he caught himself in time. "°I have a dog? Ah, yes! Yes I have a dog."
"°I thought you hated dogs," Eron commented dryly.
"°No, I absolutely adore dogs," Syaoran said, forcing a smile and petting the puppy. "°Eagle is a great pet!" The puppy snapped at his finger with its teeth.
"°It looks awfully like Sakura's Wolfie-chan," Miho commented. "°And you hated Wolfie-chan."
"°What are you talking about? Look at Eagle's eyes, nose, ears, color! It's all different!" Syaoran protested.
"It's the same," everyone replied.
"°Ah, why don't we start practice?" Sakura suggested, before Syaoran was completely cornered.
"°I have to go to the bathroom," Miho stated.
"°You're not even in the production," Erika remarked. "°Why are you here, anyway?"
"°I want to watch. I've never been in a school production before. I think it's awfully interesting. Romeo and Juliet! How romantic!" Miho sighed. Then she headed off towards the bathroom.
"°Wait! Not that room!" Syaoran exclaimed, as Miho tried to open Sakura's closed room door.
"°Why?" Miho peered over Syaroan's shoulders as he tried to block the room.
"°The bathroom's over there!"
"°I know, but why can't I go in here?" Miho insisted. "°Is that room special?"
"°Ah, you really don't want to go in there" Syaoran said. "°It's a mess. It's just a storage room."
Unconvinced, Miho headed to the bathroom. After fifteen minutes, she came out again. "°You know, there's two of everything in the bathroom. Two toothbrushes, two toothpastes, two brushes"
"°Oops!" Oh no! Because things were so chaotic, Sakura had forgotten to clean the bathroom! She couldn't meet Syaoran's eyes.
"°Oh, I just like to keep an extra thing handy," Syaoran replied, calmly sipping his tea.
"°There's a hair dryer and curling iron, also. Are they yours?" Miho continued.
"°Why! Yes," Syaoran replied forcedly. "°For my—hair."
"°Ooh, that's why you have such nice glossy hair," Erika concluded.
"°But I didn't know you used peaches and cream bubble bath, Syaoran," Miho continued.
"°Eh?" Syaoran sputtered out the green tea that he had been drinking. Gaining composure, he said, "°Haha! It's good for your skin, I heard. And it smells really nice," Syaoran said. What had he just said right now? Yes, that's what Sakura had told him when he complained about the fruity smell in the bathroom. But now, his image was completely ruined.
"°Ho ho ho!" Tomoyo laughed. "°I recorded your words on video-camera!"
"°What a scream," Aki commented. "°I'll make sure to put that in the school newspaper. Li-san's beauty advice: Peaches and cream bubble bath is good for your skin and smells re-al nice."
Slamming the tea cup down on the table, Syaoran announced, "°Let's get to work."
"°Hey, look! Why are there girl's clothes in the laundry basket?" Aki asked, as he sauntered over to the corner.
"°I told you to check the laundry basket," Sakura hissed through her teeth.
"°There are?" Syaoran asked, trying to sound surprised. He racked his brains for another excuse. Let's see! that manga that Sakura had been reading! There was a cross-dresser in it. Nuriko. No way! He could never say he was a cross-dresser! How humiliating.
"°Not only that, but girl's underclothes, too," Aki added, peering into the basket. He whistled, "°Li-kun, I never knew"
"°Shut up. My neighbor's laundry machine broke down, so she asked if I could so some laundry for her while it gets fixed," Syaoran said in a final tone, ending the conversation before Takashi could come up with one of his wild stories again.
"°Aw" Aki and Takashi both seemed disappointed at the boring explanation.
"°I'm hungry," Miho stated.
"°Yeah, I can't do anything more without having lunch," Erika added.
"°Okay, let's order pizza then," Syaoran said, reaching for the phone. "°I'll pay."
"°Not pizza," Aki groaned. "°It's so low-class."
"°Fine. Let's go out and I'll treat you to a restaurant of your choice," Syaoran said generously.
"°No. Let's stay home and you show us your famous cooking skills," Erika said.
"°Yeah! I want Chinese dishes!" Miho exclaimed.
"°I want pasta," Aki stated.
"°I want cake," Takashi added.
"°I don't feel liking cooking," Syaoran said, his patience at its end.
"°Please!" Everyone stared at him with big round eyes.
"°Oh fine. Don't look at me like that." Standing up, Syaoran walked to the kitchen. "°It'll take a while, so just rest and make yourself at home. But not too much at home."
He fumbled around for his apron.
"°Are you looking for this?" Miho asked, holding up a lacy pink apron with a teddy bear on front
"°Aww! how cute~" Erika said, clasping her hands together.
"°Eh?" Syaoran gawked at it. The apron Sakura made in home economics. "°No! I was just finding the frying pan, which should be! here." No, the frying pan wasn't there. Sakura had kitchen duty that morning and she had placed everything out of their usual places.
Jumping up, Sakura exclaimed, "°Ah, I think the fry pan is here!" She slipped the frying pan out of the cabinet.
"°Oh! Of course!" Syaoran mentally knocked himself in the head for not looking there.
Soon, he was enwrapped in cooking. Oftentimes, however, Sakura had to "°come to the rescue" when he couldn't find various utensils in his own kitchen.
"°Sakura knows your kitchen better than yourself," Erika commented.
"°Ah, it's just because that's where I keep them back at home, and most kitchens are similar," Sakura tried to explain
"°Now, where's the spoons?" Syaoran mumbled, fumbling through various drawers.
"°The third drawer," Sakura told him. "°I mean, I think. That's where I keep it at home."
"°Found it!" Syaoran was busy checking various steaming pots and dishes.
"°Drat, we're out of eggs," Syaoran said, sticking his head into the refrigerator. "°Comes from baking so many cakes for stuffed animal.
"°I got eggs yesterday. They're in the way top," Sakura pointed out, before she thought about it and saw the strange glances everyone was giving at each other.
"°Oh yeah, thanks" Syaoran said, retrieving the eggs and not noticing the slip.
"°Sakura, where'd'you put the extra dishes?" Syaoran asked, as he busily stir-fried beef and vegetables in the huge frying pan.
"°How should I know?" Sakura asked, trying to warn Syaoran with eye signals. He was too busy cooking.
"°You did the dishes last night—oh!" Syaoran finally caught on. "°Oh, yeah. How can you know? Ha ha! Stupid of me to ask.
Sniffing the air, Aki commented, "°You know, I smell something burning."
"°Syaoran! You forgot the cake!" Sakura exclaimed, running up to the oven and turning it off. With a cooking glove, she opened the smoking oven and took out a cake. "°Thank goodness. It's just browned a little and still edible."
"°Don't they seem like a married couple?" Miho commented.
"°Ho ho! They do, don't they?" Tomoyo asked. She alone knew the secret and was enjoying the comedy immensely.
"°Shut up!" Syaoran and Sakura said together.
Finally, lunch was ready and everyone was amazed by the steaming dishes set on the table, ranging from a scrumptious beef and crispy vegetable stir fry, seafood chow mien with savory noodles, little dumplings, steaming crab meat soup, fried rice, fettucine ala Carbonara (pasta in Aki's request,) and a moist, light pound cake for desert (Takashi's request.) A strange combination, but everything was delicious.
"°You're amazing, Syaoran!" Erika exclaimed, after they'd all eaten everything to the last scrap up.
"°You know, you seem to really enjoy cooking though," Sakura commented.
"°I do," Syaoran replied. "°I rarely had spare time, but the times I did, I liked watching Wei, our house butler, cook. My mother used to tell me how my father used to be a master at cooking Chinese dishes and no one could produce the same unique taste as him. Ever since then, when I did have spare time, I tried to learn from Wei. And cooking became one of my hobbies."
"°I think guys who are good at cooking are just so romantic!" Erika sighed.
"°Maybe because you can't cook for life, yourself, so your future husband will have to do all the cooking," Eron said dryly.
Overall, they didn't do much practicing for the musical at all, even after lunch.
"°I'm dead. I don't know a single line," Aki groaned, staring at his script.
"°I haven't even read the script until the end," Erika stated. "°It doesn't matter, though. My character, Rosaline, comes out in the first few acts more frequently."
"°The teacher told us to have everything memorized when school starts again," Takashi sighed. "°Romeo and Juliet have the most lines to memorize though. How's things coming?"
Sakura stammered, "°Ah, just so and so." Actually, though she tried to sound nonchalant, she slaved for hours memorizing her lines and comprehending her part. She knew that the only way she made the re-auditions for Juliet was through her endless determination and effort. And she had to keep it up to meet up with everyone's standards, and especially not disappoint herself. It was the same for Syaoran, though she did not know. This was the first time since elementary that he participated in such a thing.
"°Hmm! That's strange," Miho commented. "°This script is really weird! It's more different from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet than I expected."
"°Really?" Sakura asked. "°I didn't notice a difference." The others agreed.
"°Have you guys ever read Shakespeare?" Miho asked.
They all shook their heads except Tomoyo.
"°I read only parts of it," Sakura replied.
"°Well, I know what I'm talking about since we studied Shakespeare back when I was in England, and the whole play is weird and the ending is weird too," Miho stated. "°Completely different from Shakespeare's version."
"°That's on purpose, I think. Star-Crossed is an adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy, Romeo and Juliet," Tomoyo said. "°And it was actually written by students from our school, years ago."
"°Really?" they exclaimed. "°Who?"
"°I mean to say this before but never got the chance. I did some background research and I found out. It was written years ago by Mizuki Miara, your mother, Miho, when she was a student. With the help of Tanaka-san, your father," Tomoyo said.
Miho was startled.
Tomoyo continued, "°And the music scores to this musical was written by Li Ryuuren and Amamiya Nadeshiko."
"°What?" Her mother and Syaoran's father wrote the music to the musical? Sakura stared at the music scores fondly. There had been something haunting about the songs.
"°It was a major masterpiece and the four creators of this musical were awarded many honors. It was one of the school's goals to be able to produce it someday. However, years passed and there was little motivation and potential shown from the student body. And years passed and the legend was gradually forgotten. Last winter, I was searching through my house attic and I found the musical script and scores. And I brought it the music teacher, who thought it was a great idea and saw plenty of skill and potential from the students. So, we are going to produce now the best production ever in the town of Tomoeda!" Tomoyo stated.
"°Hey, what is this?" Aki asked, holding up a baton. He was the only one who had not been uninterested in the story.
"°Isn't that a cheerleading baton?" Erika said. "°What's that doing in Syaoran's house."
Sakura's face flamed red.
"°No, of course it's not a cheerleading baton!" Syaoran stated. "°It's a staff. Used for martial arts. See?" He did a series of complex staff moves using the ridiculous cheerleading baton and everyone clapped in the end.
"°Wow, Syaoran's room is so neat and tidy!" Miho exclaimed from the other side of the house. "°Hey what's that funny thing on the wall?"
"°Are girls this nosy?" Syaoran mumbled, quickly dropping the baton and running to his room.
The "°funny thing" was the embroidery of the wolf that Sakura had made for him for Christmas. And the Dark Ones had stolen it to create the dark force, the Wolf. After the Wolf had been sealed into a card, the embroidery returned to its original state, except that it was torn, dirtied, and ripped in several places.
The day
after they returned from the Best Couple Contest and the beach, Sakura had
found Syaoran intently sewing something. "°What are you doing?" she asked
Quickly, he jumped, hiding something behind his back. Slyly, she slipped it out
of his hands. It touched her to find that it was the wolf embroidery that she
made him for Christmas. It had been practically ruined during the battle with
the Wolf, but Syaoran had washed it clean of mud and dirt, and patiently tried
to mend the tears. It was impossible to improve it, yet Sakura warmed to
Syaoran's sweet gesture. "°You're trying to mend this? Just throw it away; it's
ripped beyond repair. I'll make you another one if you like it that much,
though I doubt you do."
"°But I like this one," Syaoran replied, stubbornly working at mending the tear right across the center of the piece with a needle and white thread.
After mending it, Syaoran had hung it back on his bedroom wall, heedless of its sorry state.
"°So, why do you have this strange embroidery up on your wall, anyway?" Miho asked. "°I can give you a better thing to hang up."
"°No thank you. That embroidery is special. I don't know how to put it but it gives me a sense of protection," Syaoran said.
"°Is it because Sakura made it for you?" Tomoyo asked blinking her violet eyes innocently.
"°You know, it's already evening. You guys should be going on home now," Syaoran stated abruptly, practically kicking everyone out of the house. "°Hope you had a good time. Come visit again!" Secretly, he hoped none of them would return.
After slamming the door shut after them, Syaoran plopped down on the couch, sighing in relief. Sakura had already toppled flat back on the floor.
******
The next day!
"°Finished!" Sakura exclaimed, setting down her pencil. She had finished the last journal entry, and finished all her summer homework at exactly 10:00 PM, Sunday evening. "°School's tomorrow. Too bad vacation ended so quickly."
"°Well, at least we had a pretty…err…exciting summer," Syaoran replied.
Switching on the TV, Sakura sighed ruefully. Then, she frowned, turning up the volume. "°Now, why is Kaitou Magician on the news again? I hope he's not getting into anymore trouble."
The news reporter said, "°Over the past few weeks, the police have received several reports that the notorious thief, Kaitou Magician has returned the items that he has stolen in the past year to their respective owners. Earlier this summer, Kinomoto Fujishinto of the great Hoshi Enterprise had filed a high charge against this thief for stealing a priceless heirloom, the Mirror the Truth. Mysteriously, Kinomoto-san has dropped the charges few weeks ago. However, Kaitou Magician has still not returned the Mirror of Truth, nor the sapphire ring which has been stolen from the famous artist Shing-san, in New York, despite the fact that he returned all the other items. We are yet confused as to why this World Top 20 wanted thief has returned all the other priceless items he has stolen, including diamond necklaces, ruby earrings, expensive paintings, and sapphire rings. One thing for sure is that this is a thief who surpasses the skill and knowledge of the whole Tokyo police force and lives up to his name as a mysterious thief who conjured out of darkness like a magician."
"°Ha ha! Maybe he turned over a new leaf," Kero-chan commented.
"°You wish," Syaoran replied dryly. "°Kaitou Magician is a thief and always will remain a thief."
"°Let's sleep early; we have school tomorrow," Sakura said in a motherly way. "°You too, Kero-chan. Starting from tomorrow, you're going on a diet."
"°It's only a little past 10 though," Kero-chan protested.
"°See, look at Wolfie-chan. He's already asleep," Sakura stated, pointing at the puppy who had cuddled on a mat and fallen asleep.
"°I'm starting to really hate that puppy thing," Kero muttered.
"°You too?" Syaoran asked, holding out his hand. "°Hey friend, we finally agree on something!"
******
"°HOEEEEEE!!! First day of school and I'm going to be late again!" Sakura shrieked, running around the house frantically in search of her school uniform, collecting her bag and summer homework, and trying to find the other side of her knee socks.
"°Another typical day," Kero-chan murmured sleepily, wakened by Sakura's shriek
Meanwhile, Syaoran calmly flipped hotcakes in the kitchen. He was fully dressed in his uniform, his crisp white shirt neatly buttoned with the top two loose, and his pants freshly ironed. "°Here, have breakfast. Hotcakes, your favorite."
"°What are you talking about? We're late for the first day of school back from summer vacation!" Sakura said, unable to resist taking a bite of the hotcake, drizzling with syrup and melting in her mouth.
"°Oh. I set the clock thirty minutes early. So that we wouldn't be late for school."
"°What?" Sakura dropped all her things at once, groaning. "°I don't know whether to be relieved or angry at you. Well, I can have breakfast for a change."
"°Sakura-chan! How'd'you spend your summer!" Naoko greeted as they met at the school gates. "°I saw you on TV over the summer! Everyone else too. It was so cool!"
Soon, Sakura and her friends fell into girl's gossips, exchanging summer vacation stories, and catching up on all the news.
"°I think there's a new student," Naoko continued, as she was always the first one to find out.
"°Really?" Rika asked.
"°He seemed like some kind of gangster guy or something," Naoko added, trembling not from fear but from thrill. "°Straight out of the movies."
"°Ha ha! You always like to exaggerate," Sakura laughed. Then, she noticed that there was silence in the hallways, which was highly unusual, and everyone's head turned towards the other direction. Slowly, Sakura turned her head, following the direction of everyone's gaze.
A pair of black shoes could be seen. The lean person walked slowly, almost sauntered down the hall, towards Class 3-2. He wasn't dressed in the school uniform; instead, he was dressed in black from head to toe. On his head, he had plunked a black baseball cap, making his face hard to see. Some of the younger students cowered and bowed their heads. Many girls however, swooned. They had ridiculous notions about tough guys being romantic.
"°Oh no," Syaoran uttered.
"°Why, it's Sakura, isn't it? Sakura-chan!" the person called, waving his hand ridiculously, breaking his intimidating image. "°Wow, are you in Class 3-2, also? Cool, I'm in the same class as you!"
"… Kaitou Magician?" Sakura stated in disbelief.
"°Shh! That's my alias. Now, simply call me! Wait a second. "° Kaitou Magician, not in his mysterious thief mode but in his care-free teenage boy mode, fumbled in his bag for his student ID card. "°Oh, call me Mizuki Kai from now on. Mizuki is my sir name and Kai is my given name."
"°Mizuki Kai?" Syaoran asked, raising an eyebrow. Sakura dragged him and Kaitou Magician into a quiet corner.
"°I like that new name, don't you? I was trying to find a name close to "°Kaitou Magician" since I'm so used to being called that. Originally, I was trying to be Kai Magiki, but then the school administration secretary misheard it and registered me Mizuki, a far more common name. Well, it's the name I'm stuck with, and it's okay. Kai Mizuki. Kaitou Magician. Good enough, right?" Kai, as he will be called from now on, shrugged.
"°Hehe! Kaitou Magician, but" Sakura trailed off.
"°Uh uh uh." Kaitou shook his forefinger. "°From now on, I am Mizuki Kai. I don't like formalities so you don't have to call me Mizuki-san. You can simply call me Kai-kun. Or if you prefer to old traditions, Kaitou-kun."
"°And, what exactly are you doing here?" Syaoran demanded.
"°What do you think? Getting my education of course!" Kai said as if offended by the question.
"°You?!" Sakura and Syaoran guffawed.
"°Anyway, aren't you supposed to be in a higher grade? Supposedly, in Seijou High, not Seijou Junior High?" Syaoran continued.
"°Well, yeah. I'm supposed to be in one grader higher. But, I couldn't produce transcripts from my other school, because I haven't gone to school in a while, so they had to flunk me down one grade. How awful to be with little kids," Kai said, actually not sounding dismayed at all. In fact, Sakura and Syaoran suspected that Kai had made sure that he was put in the same grade as them even thought it meant being put one grade lower.
"°Hey, class is starting!" Naoko called out. She ogled Kaitou Magician, now his name being Kai. "°New friend, Sakura-chan?"
"°Well! I guess you can put it that way," Sakura said. At least there wasn't the danger of this new student glaring her down.
Soon, everybody was gathered in their usual seats in class. Their homeroom teacher announced, "°Well, students, hope you all enjoyed your summer holidays. It's good to see most of you turned in your summer assignments. Now, I am happy to introduce to you a new classmate, transferred from" The teacher squinted at the profile sheet. "°Well, never mind, we can ask him when he comes. Mizuki-san, you may enter."
Slowly, Kai entered the classroom. His hands were in his pockets, and he had forgotten to remove his hat and sunglasses.
"°This is our classes new transfer student, Mizuki Kai. I hope all of you make him feel welcome," the teacher continued, rather surprised by Kai's first appearance. "°Ah, Mizuki-san, you may write your name on the board."
Obediently, Kai took a chalk in his lean and graceful hand and in flourishing script, began to write, "°Kaitou Magi—"° Then he stopped mid-track, sweat-dropping.
"°Fool!" Syaoran bent over to whisper to Sakura, who sat in front of him. "°He was trying to write his Kaitou Magician signature out of habit."
Glancing around surreptitiously to check if no one saw what he wrote, Kai quickly wiped off the letters on the board with the palm of his hand. How careless! He almost wrote Kaitou Magician's key signature, the one he used in messages to the police and people he stole from. Quickly, he rewrote his name in clumsy Japanese on the board. 'Mizuki Kai.' Hmm! I rather like my new name, he thought. Hope I don't have trouble remembering it like my last one.
"°Well, Mizuki-san, welcome to Seijou Junior High. I'm sure you'll enjoy the courses here and work very hard. (Kai looked slightly pale at this.) You may sit in the empty chair beside Syaoran (the one Meirin sat in before she moved back to Hong Kong,," the teacher informed.
"°Yessir!" Kai replied, still smiling. The teacher wondered if this new young man was making fun of him or genuinely happy.
Clearing his throat, the teacher said, "°Now, class will begin. And Mizuki-san?"
"°Yessir?"
"°Please get yourself a school uniform. And the proper books and equipment."
"°Yessir." When Kai found out that there was gum stuck to the bottom of his desk, he cursed. As the class stared at him, shocked, he sweat-dropped. "°My bad!
Now that he was going to school again, he better watch out for his naughty mouth. And try to adapt to these little junior high students' ways.
******
"°I can't believe it, I just can't," Syaoran stated that evening, slamming down his pencil onto the table. It was Sakura and his daily routine to go to school in the morning, meet up together after their sports activities and sometimes after school rehearsals, return home, sometimes buy groceries, take turns to cook dinner and clean up, and finally sit down together in the living room and do their homework. That is, when there wasn't a dark force lurking around.
"°What?" Sakura asked, busily sewing a flowery dress for home economics. Syaoran didn't have a sewing machine, so she had to do it by hand.
"°Now, what is Kaitou Magician doing here in Tomoeda, not to mention, going to our school, our grade? There must be a reason. He must be plotting something," Syaoran concluded.
Shrugging, Sakura said, "°Or maybe his intent is pure and he just wants to live a normal life."
"°You think that everyone is good," Kero-chan muttered, munching on a bag of chips.
"°Not really. But, I think one can't just help trusting Kaitou-kun," Sakura replied.
"°That's what scares me more," Syaoran said. He tried to focus back to his essay, then demanded, "°Now, who is playing music so loudly at this time of the night?"
Heavy J-Rock music vibrated through the apartment walls.
"°Sounds like it's coming from next doors. I'll go an ask them to turn the volume down," Sakura suggested, standing up.
"°I don't have any neighbors, as far as I know of," Syaoran said. He stood up, too, walking out to the hallway. The music was even louder.
"°It's coming from next doors," Sakura said, staring at the door. Hesitantly, she rang the doorbell. No one answered. She rung it several times. Then, she began banging on the door.
//Creak//
The door automatically opened and Sakura toppled over right inside.
"°Intruder! Intruder!" a white parrot squawked, fluttering over Sakura's head.
"°Now, where have I seen this bird before?" Syaoran asked, holding the parrot still by its tail.
"°Let go! Let go!" the parrot protested, its voice drowned by the music blasting out from the background.
Sakura and Syaoran stared at each other. "°Of course! Kaitou Magician's bird!"
"°Good to see you two!" came a familiar voice. An elegantly shaped chair turned around to face the door. Kai sat in it, with a silver remote control made to fit in his hand. He pressed a button on it and the door closed behind them.
"°What are you doing here?" Sakura asked.
"°WHAT? I can't hear you!" Kai shouted over the music.
"°TURN DOWN THE VOLUME!" Sakura shouted back.
"°OH!" He pressed another button on his remote control and the volume decreased, slightly. Then he grinned. "°I guess you have many questions and accusations. Before jumping into any conclusions, I'll explain. First of all, yes, I am living here. This is my home from now on."
"°Here? In this apartment?" Sakura squeaked. "°Our next door neighbor?"
"°Uh-huh. And it makes sense for next door neighbors to be good friends."
"°Great," Syaoran muttered. "°I'm living next to a thief. Not just a thief, a World Top 20 Most Wanted Criminal."
"°Which brings me to my second point," Kai stated. "°I came here pure of intent. I have reformed. Basically, I quit my occupation as a thief, the mysterious Kaitou Magician. He exists no longer, as far as I'm concerned. I want to continue on as a normal teen student and live out the rest of my adolescent years normally."
Sakura and Syaoran stared at each other sideways, smothering a smile. It just didn't sound right coming from Kaitou Magician. "°How can we believe you?" Kero-chan demanded.
"°Kero-chan! I told you never to come out!" Sakura scolded.
"°It's all right. It's not like we're strangers or anything," Kai shrugged. "°And I understand your suspicion of me. But, watch me, and you will have no reason to be wary. Plus, I have to return these." From his pocket, he drew out two objects, and handed it to them.
It was the diamond necklace and the sapphire ring, two of the Great Five Treasures. "°See, I promised I would return it," Kai said proudly.
"°Ah, thanks," Sakura said, slipping Syaoran's Christmas present around her neck. Her favorite necklace. She thought she would never see it again.
"°What did you do with these, anyway?" Syaoran asked cautiously examining the ring to ensure it wasn't fake.
"°Ah, my own things," Kai replied. "°Gosh, I'm hungry. Haven't had dinner yet. Do you guys some food, too?"
"°Actually, I'm kinda hungry again," Sakura admitted. It was midnight, and she had dinner at six.
Kai pressed another button on his slender remote control and the pot on the oven in the kitchen began boiling. "°I'm hot." He pressed a blue button, and immediately, cool air conditioning flowed into the room. "°Hey, do you want to watch TV? Gosh, it's been ages since I watched. A large screen on the wall turned on with a flick of his remote control. "°Cool, I'm on TV!" he said. "°Look! I've been removed from the World 20 Most Wanted Thieves list! I'm only in the Top 100 now! Well, I haven't stolen anything for months now, since that bastard Kinomoto, excuse me Sakura, forgot he was your grandfather."
Sakura noted that Kai's carefree manner seemed to reflect how little pressure and stress he had after much hardships. She was genuinely glad to see how Kai seemed! well, almost normal. She examined the boiling pot, then wrinkled her nose. "°What's this supposed to be?"
"°My dinner, what else?" Kai replied, offended.
"°Looks more like the remains of animal waste," Kero muttered, for the first time looking at food with detest.
"°Okay, I can't cook for life, got a problem with that, stuffed animal?" Kai demanded, pretending to be offended. "°Well, I eat anything, any chance I can. I've starved before and I take food as it comes, not for the taste or looks, but for the sake of living. Back in my thief days, I couldn't go to restaurants, even in disguise because I was scared I might be recognized it I went in public too often. I usually couldn't have food delivery because my living quarters were a secret, and I usually didn't have time to eat, anyway. The only thing I know how to cooks is ramen."
"°You can't call making ramen cooking. All you do is pour water in and boil," Sakura pointed out.
"°Exactly," Kai replied. Then, he blinked prettily, though everyone else couldn't see it because he was still wearing sunglasses. "°Of course, I have such kind, nice, talented neighbors who will feed a poor starving next door neighbor some delicious homemade food.
"°Of course. Come over any time," Sakura said simultaneously, while Syaoran replied, "°No way."
"°Good!" Kai pressed another button on his remote control and automatically, the pot tipped over and tipped its content into the trash can.
"°What is that remote control thing?" Sakura asked curiously.
"°Oh. It was just an idea I always wanted to try out before if I ever found a proper place to stay in. All the electronics in the house are connected and controlled by one remote control. It's really convenient you know." Kai examined the remote control proudly. "°Several companies want to buy my patent design for quite a lot of money, but I didn't sell it to them. It's not like they'll be able to reproduce it, even if I do given them the design layout and the program,"
"°Seems like laziness to me," Syaoran muttered.
"°I want that remote control," Kero-chan stated.
"°Well, I'm tired. We should go to sleep early since we have school tomorrow," Kai stated. "°Hmm! I didn't finish the interior design of my bedroom yet. I'll just sleep here." The back of his chair sank back a 180 degrees and Kai lay down comfortably. From a shelf, his parrot carried a light blanket in its beak and gently covered Kai with it. Fondly, Kai patted his pet.
"°Good night, master! Bonne nuit!" the parrot squawked, settling at the head of the chair/bed.
Next, Kai pressed his remote control three more times, and his personalized computer, designed by himself turned off along with the TV screen. Finally, the lights turned off except on lamp in the corner shaped like a dolphin and made out of platinum with sapphire eyes. However, he left the music on.
"°You know, Kai seems pretty talented enough. If he wanted to be rich, I think he had other options than stealing. I wonder why he became a thief," Sakura murmured, heading towards the door to return next doors to their house. "°I saw we give him a chance and trust him." She turned pale as she tried the doorknob. "°Hey, we're locked in!"
"°Shoot. Kai and his stupid remote control program," Syaoran said. "°Wake up! Let us out!"
"°Shut up! Can't you see master's sleeping?" the parrot asked.
"°I never liked that stupid feather ball," Syaoran muttered. "°That parrot makes the puppy look like a noble beast in comparison."
"°The question I wanted to ask Kai was 'why?' Why did he change all of a sudden?" Sakura murmured.
******
