The Feat of the Sorceress and the Gaijin.
Prologue.
Tomoeda District, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan. Late Autumn, present time.
Getting to the point where they were, made them ask themselves the question: Was this confrontation really necessary?
Being in the face of uncertainty, not necessarily death or the loss of a loved one, made her, at least, rethink her role and the need to be in the midst of all that conflict in the first place. It wasn't as if she could simply turn her back on everything, as if refusing the commitment she made with the cards was an alternative, so for the moment, the die was cast.
He, on the other hand, felt that his responsibility was increasing every second as the situation became more and more out of his control, and he cursed his own weakness and how bad the choice not to trust it had been.
Amidst the swirl of random colors and meaningless sounds, she can see her best friend clinging in terror to her inseparable video camera, and her guardian, the majestic beast, screaming her name helplessly.
He looks with disdain at the cause of his misfortune, who keeps a stoic gesture while his inseparable pocket watch is pulverized; and at his mentor and friend spending in vain the knowledge of his two lives in trying to stop the inevitable.
At the end they look at each other. The emerald and the opal meet each other, and somehow they know that their only hope is to remain together to that special and beloved one, who even today, after so much time, they have not managed to realize that they are each other.
She holds her scepter in one hand and extends the other towards him. He increases the strength of the hand that holds his sword and extends the other towards her.
The gale threatens to separate them for good and only a war cry could make it possible for them to stay together in spite of everything, so without hesitation, they both utter it in unison:
"Sakura!"
"Xiao-Lang!"
The miracle happens. At least partially. Against all odds, they manage to hold hands, which relieves them, but dismays their friends, who incredulously watch them disappear without a trace along with the light show in which they were immersed.
The British one, exhausted, is the first to react. He angrily points his sun staff at the person responsible for his tragedy. The fire consumes the asphalt, the trees and the lampposts, but it's too late now. Kaito has left. Like in a movie, Eriol yells his name, angry. Tomoyo takes him by the arm, trying to calm him down.
They're gone, no matter how much their friends look for them. The time magic is very powerful, but it is also unpredictable and temperamental. The final spell may have left them in an eternal time loop, it may have made them grow old until they disappeared, it may have taken them to another time... it's hard to know.
The englishman trembles with anger, but more with fear. No challenge he would have given them would have put them in real danger, they were always calculated risks, to such an extent that he did not have to worry about hurting them physically or emotionally. It was different now, because he didn't know if they had been taken somewhere else or if they had simply ceased to exist right there in front of his eyes. The fear was for them, but the anger was mainly against himself. He should have trained them better, he should have warned them and not just assumed they could take over, challenged them to know the real fear, but at least for now it was too late.
"Hiiragizawa…? What has happened to them…?" The other young girl asks after a few seconds of silence, lowering her video camera like someone that knows that she has recorded such an infamous event that nobody should ever watch it again.
"Eriol! Say something! Explain what has happened!" Cerberus rebukes, which suddenly looked bigger and more threatening than ever to him.
"I don't know." The wizard finally answers, defeated, gesticulating dubiously. Anyone who had known him in this life or the one before knew he was a person who never doubted. "But although weakly, I can still feel the presence of both…"
After that, silence buries the Tsukimine Temple, where the battle took place and its current conclusion, in the light of the autumn moon.
When it's all over, he hears his name in the distance, as if in a dream, while the darkness slowly begins to give way. He feels a couple of light pats on his cheeks, and when he opens his eyes, he feels that he couldn't have asked for something better as the first image when waking up.
Sakura gives a sigh of relief when seeing him react, she herself did not have more than a few seconds of having woken up, she was in pain and her head was spinning. She smiles cautiously as she was terrified of facing that strange situation alone. On an impulse, she holds him in her arms, he lets himself go and corresponds to the delicate show of affection with an equal.
"Are you hurt? Did you get any damage?" He asks in a whisper, while searching for a hypothetical wound serves him as an excuse to caress her back.
"I don't think so. What about you?"
"Me neither… what happened?"
"I'm not sure…" While saying that, she makes a visual sweep around where they are. In her mind she recounts: The Tsukimine Temple, Eriol finally arrives from Europe, Yuna D. Kaito reveals himself as an antagonist showing a power up until then unknown to them, Tomoyo makes her a beautiful kimono, since it was festival night, Xiao-Lang wears one too, courtesy of her, and not the new suit.
The boy does a different kind of analysis. The air feels strange, the smell was different, partly because their battle took place on a cold late autumn night, and the color of the sky and the current weather are more like a very warm early summer morning.
Xiao-Lang had led a dedicated life surrounded by magic. His then fourteen years of life had been full of spells and martial arts, plus additional education and an agenda too rigorous even for an adult. It was only a few years ago that he discovered that life was more than that, as he found guidance in green eyes full of life, a contagious smile, and a kindness that seemed to know no limits, qualities unknown to him that rivaled only the immense magical potential of its owner.
Sakura had a childhood of happiness in spite of the tragedy. Orphaned of mother in her early childhood, she had the fortune of a good and loving family in spite of the absence, and a calm life without many shocks. Later she discovered her magical abilities, however it was not magic in itself that changed her life, but the serious attitude of a rival in whom she could admire the determination and discipline, the captivating contrasts of a shy and sullen, but brave and reliable personality, and the courtesy of a gentleman whose charms she could not resist.
He was the first to admit that his heart no longer belonged to him, that it was hers. She did not admit it before, not out of pride or vanity, but because she was clueless, and could not realize it in the first place.
And despite these fourteen years in the life of both of them, a long absence that they could joyfully remedy, adventures and misfortunes together, sincere and dramatic confessions, yet they are only two teenagers... there is no experience in romantic love that leads them on a clear path of how to act. Pure and innocent love, gigantic but clumsy, wonderful and causing great happiness, but overwhelming.
Sakura was looking for some clue in her mobile, but there was no signal, the digital clock on the screen was still ticking a few minutes before midnight.
"This is wrong…" The boy whispers after taking a few steps and abruptly stopping. The Tori Arch in front of him was as revealing as it was confusing.
"What's going on?" She asks, next to him.
Almost everything around the arch is different from how they remembered it, the paved road behind them was gone, in its place there was a long dirt road and rustic cobblestones, and the unevenness previously covered with concrete was a bare hill full of vegetation. In the background, the temple was barely recognizable.
"This place…"
"It's the Tsukimine Temple... but... how…?"
The question was based on simple logic: Tomoeda is a suburb very close to the capital, at night you can see in the distance the Tokyo Tower always illuminated, however, looking towards where this building should be, only Venus was observable, confirming that the dawn would come at any moment.
They didn't have a chance to think about it any more. The deep blue began to give way to indigo that in a few seconds would become the dawn, beyond that, something really worrying happened. The earth shook for only a moment, but with enough force to make them duck while holding hands, scared. Not far away, the warrior's cry made the picture even more disconcerting, and a cloud of smoke illuminated by what appeared to be a great fire became visible over the treetops not far away, obscuring the sunrise.
Unable to recover from the surprise, the atmosphere was filled with the sound of metal clanging and the whistle of arrows cutting through the air, horse hooves and the smell of burning. There was an armed conflict, very close to them, and whatever had happened had led them to one of the worst possible places: a battlefield.
Sakura remained nailed to the floor, she clung to her staff looking towards where the sound indicated to her that it was the origin of the fight, she irremediably began to tremble and her eyes became wet.
Xiao-Lang felt something similar, but added to that was the anger of seeing her afraid and not being able to at least give her the comfort of making her feel safe. With all the poise his uncertainty allowed, he stood before her and held his blade in anticipation.
Prologue.
The end.
Notes: Hey, there! This work was originally released in Spanish, is already finished and is the first part of "The Soreceress and the Gaijin Saga". I really hope you enjoy this work, and let me know if that's the case, and even if not, there's always oportunities for improve. And of course, my thanks to Luf5, the translator that make this possible. I'll update soon, so see you then!
Disclaimer: Card Captor Sakura, their characters and story are property of CLAMP (1996-2018). The story is mine, and only have entertainment porpuses.