June
20, 2001
Disclaimer: Card
Captor Sakura and all its characters are owned by CLAMP, Kodansha, Mixx. No
money made, all for fun. Reminder: though this fic borrows aspects from both the
anime and manga versions, it will primarily follow the manga plotline. The Li
Family characterizations and non-canonical characters are figments of my
imagination.
Rite of
Passage
Chapter Seven: The Value of a Warrior
By Ina-chan
"Tomoyo-chan,
your mother must really be worried."
"My mother is working late today. But the maid will make me supper if I ask
her..."
"Li-kun?" You suddenly turn around to me
"I live by myself," I replied with a shrug
"EEEEEH?! Li-kun lives all by himself?" You cried out in a loud
disbelieving tone that I couldn't help but shrink back nervously...
"Y-yeah."
"Then your family all live in Hong Kong?" The Camera Girl asked,
though calmer, her voice was also laced with disbelief.
"What is your family like?" You asked curiously
"My mother and four older sisters."
"FOUR!?" You cry out again in astonishment
"What a feminine family," The Camera Girl comments almost silently
"Then you cook and clean and do the laundry all by yourself?" You
continue with your interrogation
Well, isn't that obvious when you live alone? "I guess, so."
"AMAZING!"
I really don't understand why you were
making a big deal out of this. Its not like its difficult to do all those things
for yourself, by yourself. I hate the sight of a mess. A washing machine isn't
that hard to operate. And its not like I hate cooking...
"But don't you get lonely just living all by yourself?"
"Not really," came my automatic reply. Then again, the thought never
really crossed my mind. I was so preoccupied with the cards and thinking of ways
to defeat you that I haven't really had time to think of such things. Besides...
my sisters are all too annoying and unpredictable than what they're really
worth. Its really much more like a relaxing vacation to be away from them for a
while...
***
"Cook gave us permission to use the small kitchen while the rest of the
staff will be using the main kitchen. She said that we can prepare one course
and one dessert for Hahaue's table. Wei promised to keep Hahaue away from this
room while we work. So is everyone ready?" Da-jie's firm authoritative tone
echoed through walls as she looked at her younger siblings in front of
her.
At
age 14, Da-jie has long mastered her leadership skills. To the point that even
Ra-jie, the most rebellious and strong minded of all my sisters, accepted her
orders with compliant respect. Nevertheless, Shan-jie was always around to
maintain the peace and Si-jie... well... Si-jie is Si-jie. They've always been
close for as far as I can remember. With each of them born one year apart one
after the other, they always acted a lot more like a set of quadruplets. As for
me... I was always the tag-along in their plans. Not because I wanted to...
remembering my sisters' dressmaking projects still causes me to shudder... but
because they can be very intimidating if they wanted to. All because they were
all so much older and bigger than me. Then again... if you're six years old,
everything else looks so much bigger and intimidating.
"Alright then, Huang-yun and I will handle everything that has to do
with the stove. Fei-mei, you start washing and cutting the vegetables. Fu-die
and Xiao-lang will work on the cake. Let's make this the best Birthday dinner
Hahaue ever tasted!"
"How come I don't get to work on the stove?" Si-jie whined
"Because of your clumsiness, its a lesser evil to have you cut off your
fingers and bleed to death than set the whole house on fire," Ra-jie
replied in annoyance
Da-jie
and Shan-jie let out a low moan as tears started to shimmer in my fourth
sister's eyes.
"WAAAAAAH!
Ra-jie, why are you so mean to me?"
"Because
you are so annoying!"
"Now stop of it both of you," Shan-jie began
"Even Xiao-lang gets to have a more important job than me!" Si-jie
continued on
"Because a six-year-old is more dependable than you!"
"WAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!"
"Ra-jie, now even that was too cruel to say."
"Eventhough its the truth?"
"..."
What a mess. Si-jie started to wail louder. Ra-jie was now arguing with Shan-jie.
And it was only a matter of time before the kitchen doors open to reveal
Hahaue's stern expression, demanding to know what the noise was all about.
Everyone could feel how important this was to all of us. But we haven't even
started yet and things are starting to fall apart. All because of a dispute over
some silly cooking assignment. Why do girls have to be so emotional in the first
place? Haaaaa!
"So you're saying that Xiao-lang is better than me?"
"That's not true," I yelled out as loudly as my voice would allow me
over the noise, "Cousin Xiao-yuan said that a woman's place is better in
the kitchen."
Suddenly, the room is filled deafening silence. Even Si-jie stopped in mid-wail
to join my other sisters in giving me identical looks of utter shock.
"What did you say, Xiao-lang?" Da-jie asked calmly, as if she couldn't
believe she heard what I uttered
"Cousin Yuan said... that... that a woman's place... is... is... in the...
kitch...." I repeated almost in an inaudible whisper as I shrank back, my
voice starting to fail from under their glares
"FIVE MINUTES!" Da-jie exploded as she glared at my sisters, "I
was gone for five minutes. All I asked you was to watch Xiao-lang for FIVE
MINUTES while that idiotic monkey was here. FIVE MINUTES and he already managed
to poison his mind!"
"Now Da-jie..." Shan-jie began again
"Da-jie, you're over-reacting," Ra-jie rubbed her forehead before
turning back to me, "Oi, Xiao-hai! Never EVER listen to what garbage spews
out of Xiao-yuan's mouth. He's just a big fat stupid idiot."
"He's the incarnation of EVIL!" Da-jie muttered
"Besides, Xiao-lang. If you don't learn to cook..." Si-jie added,
"...you'll never become a bride!"
With that, the room suddenly exploded with peals of laughter.
"What?" Si-jie chirped in total confusion
"Baichi!" Ra-jie countered, "No matter how hard Xiao-lang tries,
he will never become a bride."
I didn't know what a bride is. But I knew for sure that I don't like being told
in front of my face of things that I could and couldn't do, "Why not?"
Shan-jie giggled and playfully ruffled my hair, "Because you're a
boy."
"Okay, lets get started!" Da-jie clapped her hands, returning to her
calm businesslike self, "We're already fifteen minutes behind schedule and
there is no more time to waste!"
"I'll show you, I'll cut those vegetables so beautifully and delicately,
Hahaue will weep at the sight of them!" Si-jie challenged
"I'll believe it when I see it," Ra-jie replied blandly as she handed
out a small paring knife
Sisters are really annoying and unpredictable than what they're really worth.
They're ready to rip each other's throats on moment, then they're best friends
again the next.
"Xiao-lang, why don't we make chocolate cake for dessert? Since you're good
in math, I'll leave the measurements to you. But make the measurements for the
frosting a little bigger. It's better to have leftovers than be short,
right?" Shan-jie suggested with a knowing wink
Then again, sisters are good for something, sometimes.
I do admit that cooking with my sisters was one of the few fun memories I have
of home. Cooking was simple. Just mixing together proportions or raw ingredients
to create something else. However... there's more to cooking than preparing and
making food...
I
remember that night during our family celebration. Everyone in the family was
present that night to celebrate the new Clan Mother's birthday. I remember the
delighted expressions of our aunts and uncles as they saw and sampled our
creations. The proud look on Wei's face as he told my aunts, asking for the
recipe, that it was made by the Li children. The expression that appeared
on my mother's face when she took her first bite. And how she turned to us...
turned to me... and for the rarest moments in my memory... she smiled.
That's why I never minded cooking. If something that simple can give her a bit
of happiness, I wouldn't mind doing it. That's also the reason why I can't
loose. I have to finish what I was sent to do, as the Li Clan's stronget
magician. To carry the Li Clan's family honour. To become stronger. To
make her smile again.
That's the reason why I refuse to let anyone get in my way. Most specially you.
How can I leave something as serious as the fate of the world in your hands.
That teacher. You can't even sense it. I admit that if it weren't for her, we
would still have been trapped. But that doesn't change the fact that there is
something strange about her.
This is another thing I hate about girls. How you stick with your
"feelings" and refuse to see things and facts as they are, even
though its staring at you in the face. I could sense it so strongly, even
someone with your level of magic should be able to tell. She strong. And she has
a hidden motive. But all you do is look up at her with a dreamlike expression on
your face. You're too trusting and too naive. You take everything
out of kindness. How can anyone expect me to leave all this into your hands. How
can I expect you to protect the world
from this impending disaster? When you can barely even protect yourself?
"When
the seal is broken, a disaster will befall on this world."
"Be careful. I
always knew that teacher isn't what she seemed."
"Li-kun..."
"Xiao-lang,
Do you know what made our clan so strong throughout these many
centuries?"
And still... I can't
abandon you either, can I?
"We always
had something to protect."
End of Part 7
To be continued
Return to Part 6: A Snowflake, Bonds, and Honour
Ina-chan's Squawk:
Whew! This one took longer than expected. But
here it is! The next chapter is already halfway done... hopefully it would be
done soon... Thanks to all of you guys who continue to read this series!
Once again, here is
Syaoran's sisters reference guide. The
birth order is my invention based on how "old" the look in the
character designs. In the anime, Meiling mentioned that Syaoran calls his
sisters by their first names. But a friend of mine said that in accordance to
respect towards elders, you don't call your older siblings by their names. You
call them according to their birth order number. So you basically add the number
to "Jie" (from "jie jie", the Chinese word for sister).
Their personalities are also my invention. How much older they were than Syoaran
was never determined, but I thought having Fei-mei being at least 5 years older
than him was reasonable enough. Here are the guide legends and the guide:
Japanese Name = Chinese Name =
Meaning = Birth order
1. Shiefua = Xue-hua = snowflake = Da-jie
(1st sister)
2. Fuanren = Huang-yun = golden fortune = Ra-jie (2nd
sister)
3. Futeie = Fu-die = water lily butterfly = Shan-jie (3rd
sister)
4. Fuiemei = Fei-mei = red plum = Si-jie (4th
sister)
As usual, reviews, comments
and criticisms will be very much appreciated. If you have a fanfiction.net
account, please don't hesitate to review my
fics on http://www.fanfiction.net. The
genre is under Anime-CCS-Drama. I would love some constructive criticisms for
the improvement of this fic series. ^_^. I'm also open for private mail CCS
discussion. You can reach me via ina_chan@yahoo.com!
Ja!
Ina-chan
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