card.captor.sakura
Purachina
part.two: heroes.have.gone
*~Charisma~*
_____________________________________
Pieces of us die everyday
As though our flesh were hell
Where are my angels?
Where's my golden one?
Where's my hope now that my heros have gone?
Jewel "Amen"
"Windy! Release and dispel! Release!" The card
did as told, perhaps the card that listened to Sakura the best, and engulfed the orb of
shinning gold light. The auburn haired girl released a sigh of relief. It had looked as if
it might have been harder than that. "Windy return to your power confine!" Like
normal, the gold sphere would come back with Windy and create a card of it's own.
"Uhm Sakura I don't think that's
working." Meiling said worriedly, coming up to stand beside her. Her red eyes were
darting over the landscape and she glanced at Sakura's trembling hands holding the
Sealing Wand. Obviously, Sakura thought the same.
Suddenly, fine cracks appeared along the balled up Windy
and she shattered, pieces that felt like glass pummeled the group of three and the trio
shielded themselves from it. Under the noise of Windy's screaming and bursting,
Meiling could hear Sakura crying. Windy had been her favorite card, her best and first
card.
A thin line, like a snake, slithered from the orb of gold
and it moved to touch Sakura, wrapping around her. Meiling jumped forward and grabbed
Sakura's hands, trying to pull her from the gold's grasp. But while she was
doing this, the front of Sakura's shirt began to glow and cards flew from her breast
pocket.
"NO!" Sakura screamed, letting go of
Meiling's hands and reaching futilely for the cards, each floated from her grasp
except for one that she hugged tightly to her chest. The gold orb let go of the Card
Captor and all the cards hovered around the sphere until they too, like Windy, cracked and
shattered. Sakura wailed with each breaking noise.
"Element: Fire." Meiling visibly stiffened as the
soft tenor voice rang loud through and the orb was engulfed with fire. As with Windy, the
Fire was shattered and a boy, with a sword that looked as if it was another appendage and
not a weapon clutched in his hand, dropped down in a crouch beside Meiling.
He reached into his jacket and was about to bring out
another card when the sphere doubled and then shrank, exploding into tiny golden fibers.
Nothing except the dark city remained as if nothing had ever happened. Sakura stood,
dusting herself off and trying to look as the city did but failed with the sharp lines in
her forehead. Her bright green eyes focused on the boy between her and Meiling.
Stiffly and with his mouth clenched, the boy endured her
scrutiny of him: the brown hair that was so light, it couldn't be brown anymore and
his determined bronze eyes that glittered gold in the right light. He was taller than
either Meiling or Sakura; lean body well muscled from too many years of training and the
sword in his hands moved in a way that was familiar. And although Sakura was looking at
him with confusion burning through her eyes like green fire, Meiling was desperately not
looking at him.
"Who are you?" Sakura asked, tempted to touch
him. He didn't seem real and she wanted to make sure he was. Her brain thought him
familiar but she couldn't place a name on him.
Meiling smirked and fiddled with the tip of one of her
pigtails before opening her mouth to name the boy before them with heavy sarcasm.
"Sakura, it's the wonderful Syaoran Li."
A little while later, Sakura was showing Syaoran her little
apartment, ending on her bedroom and explaining to him that he would have to sleep in the
living room. But he didn't really seem to be listening and Sakura noticed, making her
feel uncomfortable. His eyes were staring off at the picture on her wall of a garden with
tiny specks of color for butterflies, but then, he didn't seem to be looking at
it.
"Syaoran?" He glanced back at her, tilting his
head.
"Sakura I've missed you." It was so
quiet and soft that Sakura was almost sure she had dreamt it up. That familiar feeling
welled up in her chest and Sakura was so happy he was back. Her Syaoran was back and he
had missed her.
"Oh Syaoran." She hugged him, squeezing her eyes
shut and relishing the feel. How many times had she thought of him like this during the
years? And although she didn't want to ruin the moment, she had to know. "Why
did you leave?"
"Things happened Sakura." He said simply,
pressing her closer to him. Oh like that's an answer, she thought almost
angrily. She tried not to stiffen but pulled back, suddenly mad that he hadn't
thought up a better excuse than that.
Refusing to look into his eyes, Sakura grabbed items from
the shelf behind him. "I'm going to take a shower now Syaoran."
Meiling paced the living room, trying to determine if the
amount of money she needed for a ticket to the United States could be bought with her
necklace. The person who gave it to her always told her how precious it was and she knew
it to be true. It was most likely her most treasured possession. But now, now that he was
back it didn't seem to matter all that much.
"Are you leaving again?" The grey-haired
girl stopped so abruptly that she tripped over her own feet and sprawled over the floor.
Syaoran could hear her curse under her breath as she pushed her self to her feet. Crimson
eyes narrowed at him and she brushed off her clothes delicately, like she hadn't
fallen and was showing him her boredness with the conversation.
"I might. I've learned to leave where I'm
not wanted. You taught me that Syaoran-san." Deliberately, she kept the formal suffix
to separate the emotion that flooded her body from the sight of him. His emotions were
bubbling to the surface. As much as he tried, Syaoran had never been able to hide anything
from his cousin. She watched him stalk towards her and get close.
"I don't see why you have to make everything so
difficult Meiling. What happened that wasn't my fault. You can't keep
blaming me for it." His tone bit into her but Meiling stood her ground, trying to
back away and look graceful at the same time.
"You were angry that I destroyed the Lasin Board. You
know I didn't mean to do it but it wasn't enough. And I don't blame
you Syaoran-san, I blame myself." It was a long moment that they stared, golden brown
eyes and red locked together before Meiling withdrew. "Everyone is finding excuses to
leave you Syaoran, maybe you're the one not wanted."
Before he had drawn his sword to hit Meiling for the low
blow, she was gone. He wouldn't hurt her, just tap her to make her know he meant
business. She didn't have to get that angry at him.
A long while later, after all the rapid emotions and wild
feelings racing between the trio settled a bit, they sat down together at Kero's
request. Well, Sakura and Syaoran did, Meiling sat on the windowsill again, legs hanging
outside and staring off into the night. Kero had given a piece of paper to Sakura, telling
her to write down the cards she hadn't captured yet.
"The problem is, I've never seen a card like this
before." Kero sounded thoroughly worried, hovering over Sakura's shoulder. The
air in the room was tense due to matters other than the one at hand and the little Seal
Guardian was clueless.
"I can only think of The Light, but I've captured
it and it shouldn't be able to to break the other cards." Sakura's
voice was still shaky as her penmanship. In a more characteristic manner than when they
were alone, Syaoran said nothing, arms folded and a grim frown on his face. The
auburn-haired girl turned the only card she had over in her fingers, spinning it and
hoping for dear life that it wouldn't be taken.
"The Fiery is very powerful too Sakura, but I'm
almost certain it couldn't do anything like that." Kero settled on Sakura's
shoulder and peered at the card, cringing at it. "I don't think any card can do
that."
Syaoran spoke finally, a low mutter from him like usual.
"Clow Reed did many different things to his cards, maybe he allowed one to transform
into others."
"But the Seal Guardians were told all the cards and
their powers so why would one elude them?"
"I've never heard of any type of card that did
something like that."
"Well it was only a suggestion, you weren't
getting that far." Syaoran was on his feet now and all three were bickering in close
quarters. Meiling turned her head and spoke rather loudly.
"It's called The Galaxy." Three heads
simultaneously looked at the grey-haired girl who was fingering the fringe at the bottom
of her orange sweater. She swung her legs inside and under her body, so that the gentlest
push would have sent her flailing backwards. Needless to say, Syaoran was getting very
nervous, his palms itching. He hated heights.
"And how would you know this?" Sakura asked, her
emerald eyes regaining their spark of hope. If maybe, there was a weakness
"When I studied as much as I could about the cards,
when I didn't have any magic and thought that they only way to prove myself was to
know more and fight better than anyone with magic, one thing included was mythology."
She crossed her arms and clenched her fingers. "There's many references to lost
cards, usually none of them with any basis in reality but they always thought that
Reed had made a special reserve card if anything had happened to him. It was the ultimate.
Many scientists refused to believe in it since it was so powerful. The only thing that
could mildly damage it and be the only card to help win it over was The Erase. Other than
that"
Sakura held the only card she had tightly to her chest, a
sinking feeling spreading through her stomach. If The Erase was the only card that could
help, then things weren't looking very good. Meiling knew what card she had, her head
bowed and feet lightly kicking the wood paneling. "It's The Return. And I know
that won't help us at all. I hardly even trust this card How are we going to do
this?"
"Actually Sakura, if we-" But Syaoran was
interrupted by the phone. Each member of the tiny group exchanged glances and frantically
searched the messy apartment for the cordless phone notorious for being lost. After three
rings, the answering machine picked up. Sure, Sakura didn't get many calls but she
was never there for the ones she did get. The machine did pick up, and they all froze,
listening to the voice.
"For Kami's sake Sakura I have no idea where you
are, but once you hear this you have to come over. I I don't know what's
happening. It just he just Shimatta Sakura I think he's
dying." With that, Touya's voice clicked off. Silence permeated the room.
"Oh no."
***
"Well at least The Galaxy is gone." Sakura said
brightly, trying to convince herself that things would turn out fine. She sure didn't
need the most powerful card ever made setting its sites on her. Meiling and Syaoran, even
Kero didn't look too happy and the black cloud circling their heads darkened at her
comment.
"For now." Syaoran said softly, his bronze eyes
flashing dark gold. He was extremely depressing to have around. Sakura crossed her arms
and tried not to focus on where they were going, to see poor Yukito, or the formidable
Galaxy card, but instead on that new yellow dress hanging up in her closet. It would go
very nice with that handbag she'd gotten at her last birthday and those clips
she'd thought were so cute in the store the other day.
Before she even thought of shoes to wear, Meiling was
ringing the doorbell to her old house. It was perhaps the oddest thing, ringing the
doorbell to what had been her home for seventeen years. Touya opened the door, his deep
blue eyes set in red and not really looking at any of them.
Ever since she found out that Yukito wasn't really a
human and in fact was the being who was going to test her when she finally captured all
the cards to see if she was a true card captor, she'd been nervous. Nervous that
she'd mess up and he'd take off points or something. But they hadn't been
as close as when he had just been her older brother's best friend for a very long
time. Right around Tomoyo's-
"He's in there. I Sakura he's been asking for you." Touya
looked horrible, like he hadn't slept in ten years and just found out that someone
ran over his brand new puppy that he sold his ears for. She patted his arm and looked into
his eyes. He was so much shorter now, or was she taller? It was most likely the latter,
but he wasn't as menacing as before and Sakura felt her stomach sink. Things were
going so horrible ever since the accident.
The figure on the bed was motionless. Yukito was the
whitest person Sakura had ever seen, and not just his skin. It was as if he had a light
coming from the inside that made his entire being a glowing ethereal white. He was in
startling contrast to the rich navy blue of the sheets. Sakura knelt beside the bed and
was surprised to see that Yukito had his head facing her, liquid gold eyes dull, as if the
gold was tarnished somehow and nothing would ever make it shine again. When Touya had
called earlier, she hadn't believed his paranoid claims of Yukito dying but now
now she could see why he had thought so. A delicate long-fingered hand reached forward to
brush the spiderweb colored hair from the eyes that looked as if a grey film had covered
it, like those dead fish in the supermarket.
"Sakura," His voice, usually perky and the kind
to spark a happiness deep in your belly, was scratchy and hollow, like his eyes. "You
came."
"Of course." His form was stretched out across
the dark sheets, like he was flaming hot but to the touch, he was cold, colder than she
thought someone could ever be. "Do you know what's wrong? I mean is this
normal?"
He scoffed, a sound not categorized in Yukito's range
of laughing, and shivered. "It's not normal, but not unheard of. The card
the card you haven't captured it's draining me. And Kiroberos, even though
it's not striking him as hard." He scoffed again, made a choking sound and then
brought a surprisingly ice cold hand to her face. "I'm going to die Sakura
even before I've tested you."
"No!" Sakura jumped to her feet, something
stinging at her eyes and the feeling in her stomach clenching. "I'll defeat it
Yuki-chan. I promise I'll"
"Do you?" She went to reply with a very
enthusiastic yes when her stomach tightened. Visions of her Windy card, screaming and that
eerie shattering that signaled the defeat of each of her cards raced through her mind. Her
legs turned to Jell-O and she collapsed on her knees.
"I can't it took all my cards and I
can't!" He turned away from her and shuddered, pulling the blankets around him
and curling up. She felt like the worse person in the whole world and picked the covers
Yukito had kicked off, pulling them over him. Her heart beat slowly, turning to ice and
she refused to cry or feel hurt. She couldn't do it. It wasn't her fault that
the stupid card had destroyed all hers and made her powerless. Sakura left the fallen snow
bunny curled up in darkness and motioned for her friends. "Come on. It's time to
go."
"But-" Meiling started, but was cut off by
Syaoran's hand over her mouth. The one who had let them into the house, with hurt
blue eyes and disheveled dark brown hair, was watching Sakura, his entire body clenched.
The other three hustled out into the cold, leaving the siblings to each other.
"Sakura" He said, reaching out to touch his
younger sister who had grown up so much too much in the years since she found out
she was a card captor. She pulled back; green eyes empty like the gold ones he'd been
staring in a few hours before. Her innocence was preserved in the two tiny pigtails on the
side of her head, but even those were becoming more and more like the rest of the soiled
world.
"I can't. Touya-chan I'm please
I'm sorry. Forgive me. I can't." She turned and left, leaving Touya to
wither away with his lover.
"So you just left him there to die? Sakura,
that's not you. That's nothing like you!" Meiling made a movement like she
was going to go on but Syaoran jerked her back. Sakura did nothing: she kept walking
towards her apartment, green eyes focused on her destination and lightly stroking
Kero's wings.
"Can't you just shut your mouth for one
minute?" He admonished, keeping the tight grip on her arm. Her red eyes blazed. Never
did she remember Syaoran like this; never had he been so tightly wound or paranoid.
Meiling shrugged him off, holding her arm to her and knowing that there would be a bruise
tomorrow. He was never violent either. Or never used to be.
"I'm sure I could. But the insults are just so
readily available that I have to fire them at you. Besides, I've never been known to
keep my mouth shut so why should I start now?" She did that smirk, the one he hated
and turned on her heel, jogging a bit to catch up with Sakura.
***
"He asked you to save the world?" Syaoran asked
incredulously. He was sitting on her bed, a comforter of delicate white cherry blossoms
stemming from cheery trees spread over it and the same pattern decorating the entire room.
Sakura was fidgeting and standing near her desk with unopened boxes on top.
"No. But he told me that he was going to die and
that's just the same." Her words sounded weak to her and she cringed, wishing to
tear out her own throat to stop the excuses. Why couldn't she just do it?
"Sakura you're strong enough that you could
do it. It's just the Galaxy card and-" Sakura literally stamped her foot,
looking up at Syaoran and grinding her teeth.
"No! It's not just the Galaxy
card'. It's the most powerful thing I've ever gone up against and I
can't do it Syaoran. I'm not strong enough." He stood up, to protest this
and she held up a hand. "Syaoran Nothing you can say is going to change my
mind."
He spread his hands, a motion of defeat. "Whatever you
say Sakura." Syaoran walked out the door into the hallway, shutting it behind him and
Sakura stared at her hands, wondering how they would get out of this one.
Syaoran, on the other hand, was dealt with a more present
problem. His cousin. She ran right into him, walking back from the little kitchen. Meiling
glared and brushed past. He sighed deeply and followed her. Damn him and his stupid
sensitivity.
"Meiling." The grey-haired girl let out an
exasperated sigh and stood up, setting the cup of tea she had gotten on the makeshift
table of an overturned box. Obviously, he wasn't the person she wanted to talk to.
Well tough kuso.
"What Syaoran? What do you want? Can't you just
leave me alone until we can both leave and not see each other for another three years?
It's not that hard Syaoran-san." It would have been a curse word but the
dirtying of his hard bought name was good enough. He came closer, perhaps to not let
anyone hear their heated argument.
"I never wanted to be separated for three years
Meiling, that was all you." He crossed his arms to keep from doing anything drastic.
Her crimson eyes twinkled with the start of a good fight and she stepped closer, so that
he could feel the heat she gave off in the cold apartment.
"You never chased after me. But thenyou'd
never be that romantic." Nothing permanently damaging but stinging nonetheless. He
let his arms drop and clutched his fingers into fists. So easy to grab her and shake some
sense into her.
"Delusions Meiling. I wouldn't have gone after
you if you had stolen all my magic." She growled and they moved closer. Some body
parts were touching and he itched to do something to her. Meiling moved her head as she
talked, stray pieces of her pigtails bobbing in front of her face. Perhaps he could grab
those and rip them out of her head.
"Well that wouldn't have been a great
accomplishment." His stomach lurched with the jibe and their bodies touched, scents
mingling and he was about to reply when someone coughed. Both heads turned slowly to see a
familiar teddy bear shaped Seal Guardian watching them closely.
"You two play nicely. We may need one of you."
Kero said, watching the anger dart between them like silver fishes beneath a sunlit pool.
Syaoran backed down first, moving through the guest room door and slamming it shut.
Meiling grabbed her tea and went to the island in the kitchen sitting rather violently on
a stool.
The noise made Sakura wonder what in Kami's sake was
happening in her living room. All she saw was the rather ridged back of Meiling and a
bewildered Kero flying into her room. She rolled the kinks out of her shoulders and walked
up to the island, sitting across from Meiling.
"I'm not getting this." Sakura said finally,
having poured herself a cup of the green herbal tea that Meiling had made. She took a sip
and was surprised at how good it was. Tea making was not a skill she had associated with
Meiling.
"Not getting what?" The grey-haired girl said
finally, knowing full well that Sakura was going to try and solve her problems. She
stirred her tea again, looking at the tea leaves floating around, and hoping that she
wouldn't finish it so she wouldn't read the leaves.
"Syaoran and you you two used to be like the
best of friends and it wasn't even noticeable that you were cousins but now now
it's like you're mortal enemies." Sakura glanced up, seeing the shining of
her friend's eyes and what it meant. She reached across the table to hold her hand
but Meiling withdrew.
"The crest of the Li family is a traditional black and
white ying-yang. When we were betrothed, they had to make sure that I would remain chaste.
So they tattooed the crest on my thigh. I'm the white and Syaoran is the black."
Meiling walked over to Sakura's side, whose eyes were wide open with shock. The
grey-haired girl pulled up her grey skirt until it showed the pale flesh of her inner
thigh. Sakura gasped, horrified, when Meiling showed her the sign, the black half gone
under a ridged ugly scar. "When the engagement was broken, they released'
me from Syaoran."
Sakura opened her mouth to say something but nothing came
out. It opened and closed a few times before Meiling sat back down on the opposite side of
the island again. She sadly sipped her tea and rested her head on the countertop. Her pig
tailed head rose once more to say something but her eyes widened. She pointed to the
window behind Sakura.
"What?" She spun around, looking out the window
only to see not the glittering lights of Tokyo at night but the same golden brightness
that had attacked earlier that day. "No."
Both girls ran outside to see The Galaxy had completely
consumed the entire city, leaving only the chill of it's golden light to remind them
of the hopelessness of their situation.
Sakura closed her eyes and clenched her fists.
"No."
End Part 2: Heroes Have Gone
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