Chapter 6
"Good morning!" Quistis yelled out, joyfully. "Lilka, wake up! Tim is leaving today!"
Lilka grumbled under her breath. "I'll wake up in ten minutes. Give me a break. It's Saturday, for goodness' sake."
Tim yawned, coming out of the kitchen. He looked around and saw Lilka asleep in the living room couch. Quistis was up, trying to wake the Crest Sorceress up. "Come on, Lilka! It's no good staying like that! Look, Tim wants to go back to sleep. Do you want him to sleep on your bed?"
"I'm up! I'm up!" Lilka said, head shooting straight up. "What a trick to wake me up, Quistis. I don't appreciate that."
Tim chuckled at this event and went back in the kitchen. He zapped himself some toast and came back out, carrying three cups of coffee and breakfast for the two women. "Here, I thought you guys might be hungry."
"At least you could be of some use here," Lilka said, brightening. "Thanks, Tim. When are you leaving for Marina's place?"
"In a few hours, I think," Tim said. "I just wanted to make sure you got some breakfast. That's to thank you for the roof over my head last night, and the dinner."
Quistis smiled. "No problem, Tim. You did help Heero and the gundam pilots in their crisis. We appreciate that."
"No problem. Glad to be of some assistance," Tim said. "Hey, Lilka, do you think I should call Irving and tell him I'm okay?"
Lilka nodded. "Tell him I give my regards and will come back as soon as possible. Oh, and Tim, can you go to Sielje Region and say hello to my sister?"
"Sister?" Tim asked. "I though you said she was stuck in the Millennium Puzzles."
Lilka explained the story of her sister's freedom and Tim smiled. "Well, the Eleniak sisters are going to be a great asset to ARMS."
"Thanks, Tim," Lilka blushed at the compliment. "Shouldn't you contact them now?"
Tim shrugged. "How can I? Usually, it was I who used the contact spell. I think only Marivel can talk to us now. I wouldn't want to bother her, though. I'll leave now and I'll talk to you later, Lilka. Bye."
The young man walked out the door waving good-bye to them. Lilka waved back and sank back into the couch. "Now I could return to my normal but crazy life with you. Why couldn't Tim stay a little bit longer?"
"You were the one who objected the stay in the first place," Quistis remarked. "Now you want him to stay longer?"
A knock came from the door. Quistis went to answer it, only to be greeted by Quatre and Heero. Quatre smiled. "Hello, is Tim still here?"
"I'm afraid he left a few minutes ago," Quistis said, curious to find the two gundam pilots looking for Tim. "Why do you want to know if he is still here?"
Heero shook his head. "We wanted to gratefully thank him for getting rid of Releana for us. It was great help. I just hope she doesn't come back."
Quistis thought about what Heero said and thought of something. "How did she get here?"
"Somehow, a portal opened up and brought Releana here. The same thing brought Lady Une here as well," Quatre answered.
Lilka joined the conversation. "My question is why these magical portals are suddenly appearing out of nowhere. I mean, even Quistis' friend Squall was a surprise."
The blonde sorceress agreed. "I asked Squall how he got to Tokyo and he couldn't answer. He said something about finding a portal that opened up."
"What is even more weird is that the portal leads back in Tokyo," Heero added. "Do you think Sakura or Syaoran would know about it?"
"I don't know, but let's go find out," Lilka said, rushing back in and changing. "Wait inside while I get myself ready."
Quistis let Quatre and Heero in then left them to change herself. Quatre looked around the house and smiled. "This place looks like my summer house in Europe. Doesn't it?"
"Why would I care, Quatre?" Heero implied. "You hardly stay there anyway. Why would you care how it looks like?"
The other pilot shrugged. "Just trying to start a conversation. It's kind of too awkward to stay silent. How long does it take those two to change anyway?"
Heero smiled a little. "As long as you take to change."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Quatre asked crossly, "I don't take this long. I just want to look neat, that's all."
"Sure, Quatre, whatever you say."
"Take that back, Heero!"
"Take what back?"
"Now you're irritating me."
"You wanted to start a conversation."
Quistis peeked to see the two men arguing and interrupted. "So, have you guys eaten breakfast yet?"
The two gundam pilots turned to see Quistis and they stopped arguing. Quatre answered that they were fine and took a bite to eat on the way to their house. Duo was still asleep and they didn't want to wake him, fearing his wrath.
Lilka came out and ran to the door. "Okay! Let's go!"
"Go where?" Quatre asked, absentmindedly.
Heero looked strangely at Quatre and shouldered him. "We're going to go see Sakura and Syaoran. They might know what's happening. Or at least, we could ask Sakura to bring Yukito with her."
"That's an even better idea than what I had in mind," Quistis said. "If Sakura doesn't know, then Yue must."
The four people left the house and started walking to Sakura's house. Syaoran, walking in the same direction, saw the party and waved at them. He approached them "What brings you here in a Saturday morning?"
"And what brings you?" Heero retorted back, as though he was expecting a much better greeting from Syaoran. "Don't you have soccer today or something?"
Syaoran blushed and shook his head. "I started to think about the mysterious incidents that were happening all this week and so I wanted to clarify things with Sakura-san."
Lilka glared at Heero's cold answer and smiled warmly at Syaoran. "Of course, that's what we thought too. Quistis and I wanted to know why these portals were appearing and people are getting transported in Tokyo."
Sakura, hearing her friends' voices from her window, opened it. She looked out to see the five people still talking about the problem. She sighed at their talkativeness and waved to them. "Are you guys coming in or are you going to stay there talking? Let me get the door."
The five people turned to Sakura and waved back. As the Card Mistress went about her way downstairs, she could hear Kero-chan coming down as well. It seems that the Appointer has been silent for quite a while. Even Sakura couldn't get him to talk about his quiet mood. The strangest thing of Kero-chan was that when Sakura tried to offer him dessert, he wouldn't take it.
As Sakura opened the door, the group bustled in, trying to get in the house first. It ended up with Lilka and Quatre stuck in the door, while Quistis was the only one who was inside. Heero and Syaoran looked impatiently at Lilka and Quatre. "How are we supposed to get in when those two are blocking our way?" Heero asked.
Syaoran shrugged. "Sakura-san can use her Little card and shrink them. Then she can turn them back to normal."
"Oh, no," Lilka stammered. "You are not going to shrink me. I'm out of here."
And with that, the Crest Sorceress jumped out and got in the house, leaving Quatre free of walking in. Syaoran smiled at his psychological work and also went in. Sakura shook her head. "If you came to my house as a group every morning, then I should go and buy a house with a bigger door."
Yukito came by and smiled. "Konnichiwa, Sakura-san! Minna, konnichiwa!"
"Yukito-san!" Sakura waved, brightening. "We need you right now!"
The fake form of Yue looked puzzled and so he walked up to them. Kero-chan looked at Yukito and transformed into Kerberos. Yukito, finding out what they needed him for, turned himself into Yue. The Moon Guardian looked at the group of people with his silver eyes.
"Is this about those mysterious portals appearing in Tokyo?" Yue asked.
Syaoran nodded and closed the door so passersby don't see the wonderful spectacle of the two guardians. However, a cloaked figure was standing behind a dark alley. His eyes glowed bright yellow, as if he was an assassin. As the wind blew, the figure's cloak blew to cover him and then the alley was empty.
While the others were talking, Tomoyo quickly looked up from her sewing. She looked puzzled, because she felt some kind of presence that just passed her mansion. Sighing and thinking that it probably was just her imagination, the girl went back to sewing a costume for Sakura. Surprisingly for her, the idea for this costume came to her the night before, when Tim was with them. The strange knocking at her door startled her.
Walking cautiously, she looked out at the windows to see who it had been. No one was there. "Strange, I thought I heard knocking. Maybe it was the trees."
The door crashed behind her and she turned around. There she saw a man with yellow eyes and red hair. Tomoyo stepped back in alarm and let the man go forward into her house. Oh dear, help me, she said to herself. Surprisingly, the man didn't turn towards Tomoyo and he kept walking towards the center of her house. It was as if he didn't even know she was there, like a great power has control over him.
Reaching for her cellular phone, Tomoyo quickly dialed Duo's number. "Come on, pick up. Hello, Duo? Please help!"
Duo, half asleep, lazily picked up the phone. When he heard the urgent voice of his beloved, his eyes snapped open. Quickly putting a new shirt on, he ran out of his apartment and into Tomoyo's yard. Duo slammed the door open and saw that Tomoyo was trying to walk as slowly as possible away from the mysterious stranger, who still looked entranced by something. He kept walking straight towards Tomoyo's wall and amazingly went right through it. Tomoyo turned to Duo, her face pale. "He just knocked the door down and came into the mansion. I don't know what he wants here."
"I think you should call someone who is likely to know about situations like this," Duo suggested, completely blank. "Did he hurt you?"
Tomoyo shook her head and reached for her phone. She dialed Sakura's number, and Sakura picked up. "Hello? Tomoyo? Hi! What is it? Listen, most of us are here, so, we'll be there in a flash. Bye."
Within a few minutes, Sakura and the people who visited her arrived in the front door. Lilka went in and looked around. "What's the problem? I don't see anything wrong."
Duo pointed to the wall. Tomoyo explained to the party what had happened and sat down. "I could tell you now, he gave me quite a scare. I almost screamed my lights out, but I didn't think he even saw me."
Yue examined the wall, and he was amazed to find that it produced a light glow. He beckoned to Lilka and the sorceress went to inspect the wall as well. She shook her head. "It looks like a warp point. Do you think we could warp through it?"
"Beats me," Duo said, examining the wall himself. He touched it, and was suddenly sucked in. Tomoyo cried out in surprise.
"Tomoyo, are you okay?" Sakura asked, concerned.
The singer shook her head. She suddenly stood up and raced towards her bedroom. Coming back a few seconds later, everyone saw her holding a suitcase. She smiled and opened it up. Out came a video camera, and everyone fell to the floor. Syaoran was eyeing her suspiciously. "You don't happen to have costumes with you, do you?"
Tomoyo laughed. "Of course I do! I have one for everyone! Come on! Put them on! I have the names on the costumes for each of you. This is great! (at this point, she is getting starry eyed and laughing to herself) Not only can I take a video of everyone, I can also tape Sakura-chan's adventures once again!"
Sakura looked like she was going to run out of the house, if not for Heero and Quatre restraining her. Tomoyo grinned evilly and handed the two remaining gundam pilots their costumes. Heero looked disgusted, but after seeing Quistis's glare, he left with Quatre to the dressing room and began to change. Everyone else received their costumes and grumbled, while walking to a secluded place where they could change.
As everyone came back, Tomoyo, turned her camera on and began to tape everyone. "Kawaii!! This is great! Come on! Let's go and save Duo-kun!"
"Don't tell me you're coming too!" Lilka exclaimed, a bit surprised.
The singer looked at Lilka. "Of course I'm coming! I have to go and get Duo-kun, you know! What are you guys waiting for? Let's go!"
As everyone grumbled again, one by one, they walked into the portal and were sucked in. Sakura and Tomoyo were the last ones to go in. The two held their breaths as they entered the portal. White light surrounded them and they were transported to a countryside where a small village could be seen from a distance.
Looking around, Sakura was puzzled. "I don't see anyone here. Where is everyone?"
"Oh no," Tomoyo cried out, a bit distressed, "Now I can't tape their every move! And I made them costumes!"
Sakura sweatdropped. "Tomoyo-san, we have bigger problems than that. We have to find them!"
Tomoyo nodded, turning her video camera off. "Oh, why not. Since there's no action, just yet, I'll just keep the camera idle for a while."
The Card Mistress sighed with relief. Finally, some peace from publicity.
The two sorcerers appeared in the front of Tomoyo's mansion. Thom turned to his friend. "Don't you think manipulating him was too much? You could've just had the portal open and Tomoyo would have gone and told her friends. But a swordsman?"
"Relax, Thom," the man smiled, "It's not like he was going to kill her. Don't worry. Besides, you haven't been doing your job as greatly as I am."
"Yes I have!" the sorcerer yelled, angered, "Why do you think they're thinking quickly now? And haven't you felt their growing powers together?"
Thom was answered with a nod, as well as a mischievous smile. "Yes, well, but how about having them separated?"
