OK, here's chap 2 minna! Be prepared because it's a tad different from chap 1 (*smirk* what an understatement). As I mentioned before: "Each chapter, a new story. Each chapter, a new person". You can also blame it on… mycurrentcrazeofsaiyukiwhichhasalotofcursingwordspervertedyoukaisviolenceandsoon (did I talk too fast?)

Oh, & ultima-san, I don't play xenogears ^^; my guess is xenogears got the name from the same source as I did: Norse mythology. Yggdrasil is the tree of life guarded by the 3 goddesses who determine the length of mortals' lives: Urd (past), Verdandi (present) & Skuld (future). Hmm… now why does that sound so familiar… =^+^=

Thanks to all who reviewed! This was only supposed to be a 1 chap fic for my bud, seiyumi, but you guys are too persistent ^_^ Hmm… I can't believe I'm still working on this… considering my limited knowledge of CCS & its my first CCS fic ^.^~

Disclaimers: I said I won't repeat it again. Tough. Oh! But there's a certain character here that's mine ^_^ Read on to find that out!

* * *

"Sakura? Sakura???"

There was a vein popping on Terada-sensei's forehead, caused by a certain redheaded girl who had fallen asleep in his Algebra lecture.

"Mrrm…"

"SAKUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

The girl woke up, emerald eyes recovering from sleep. "Hoe? I fell asleep?!"

The teacher decided to let it pass, oblivious to the fact that his student had been tired out chasing another unsealed card. Sakura turned her head to the back, blushed, then turned her attention back to the lecture.

"Syaoran...Onii-chan had called him a bratty priest before." She muttered to herself. "A goddess? Hmm…" and she giggled softly, much to the curiosity of the boy whose name she had mentioned.

Syaoran was heading to his next class when he encountered Eriol in the corridors. After the usual greetings, he realized that the other was thinking about something. Hard.

"What's on your mind?"

Eriol coughed a bit, and explained his situation to Syaoran. He had passed his story to the critics, and they had liked it (k3: well, you guys did say so) but it had been too extremist to act out. "I need something simpler."

The bell rang, and they gave each other a short wave, Eriol not neglecting to give Syaoran something to think about for the rest of the day: "If you get any ideas for our play, anything at all, please inform me."

* * *

Chapter 2: ~Kanashimi no Chikara de~ (With the Strength of Sorrow…)

"TAKE COVER!"

The words came in a muffled scream, and it took me a while to digest the meaning. Shoot. Luckily, she had already dodged the enemy's first frontal attack.

"Thunder!" I called out. There was a crackle of lightning, and the enemy took a step back. I thought that was the end of him. Crud. I had thought wrong. Amidst the noise, I heard him call out his one of his more powerful cards. Amidst the fire and smoke, her lithe form darted in sidesteps towards the enemy, weary of his power.

I squinted my eyes and pushed the hair out of my face. Things are starting to get rough. I mentally cursed my eyes for getting watery in the icy wind. Heck, I caused that. I should be cursing myself.

She screamed.

There was a shadow around a hundred meters before me. He was gathering his prowess for a strong final blow, one that neither of us would be able to counter. I pulled out my sword, swearing in the worst case and praying for the best, knowing it was HIM before me.

He staggered. She fell.

I heard an initial gasp of alarm, followed by a cackle of evil laughter.

Her body gave way to gravity as her hands stretched out to welcome fatality. Time slowed down as I ran to catch her- flames, blaring noises, and sanity fading into the background.

She's gone.

* * *

That had been a year ago.

I was staring at the alley of the crime--no, murder. Just remembering it gave me cold sweat. My body wracked with dry sobs. I wasn't the only one who had taken the news heavy-hearted. No, far from that. Her father had not been able to control his tears, but he had kept this smile on his face saying, "At least she'll be with her mother now." Sometimes, I think about it again and wonder if that smile actually meant something else- I loathe the world.

The monster broke down too. I would have never made a bet on seeing the day her brother would mourn for countless hours in his sister's room, drinking down the pain with sake. But he did. Yukito would sometimes join him, hoping his presence would help console. Some people are just too naïve for their own good. She was.

Countless friends and family had arrived, dressed in black and tears. Tomoyo lost her voice that day. The songbird never found her timbre again. No one had spoken. All you could hear was the priest droning words of spirit and heaven. Everyone had taken a turn to singly gaze at her a final time. Each of their eyes had carried something different- memories slipping away, pain, regret… but all were entangled in the string of one emotion: sorrow.

"Ashes to ashes…dust to dust"

They had tried to calm me down as I screamed and howled like a mad man as the bed of death was slowly lowered down to the earth. My body tried to break free of the hands and arms holding me down, my mind of the unearthly pain of the memory, my heart the chains that had wrought so well around it, stopping my lips from telling her the words I would now regret I had never told her.

I tried to step away from the alley, struggling to chose another path to take. The grief of seeing it all again was too much torture, but I couldn't order my body to budge. It remembers all of the nostalgia too well. My senses had it imprinted in them. The smell of the air that day, her voice screaming, her lissome form painstakingly making contact with the ground. Crud. I was living that day again.

I let my body take control of me for a moment. There was a light sensation, slowly inching up from my toes to the tips of my hair. How it defied gravity, no one would probably ever understand. It wasn't like I was going to let them know in the first place. Who… who are the 'them' I'm talking about? I stood there, staring questioningly at the clouds who had hidden the radiant golden ball for ransom. The feeling seemed to have found its way to somewhere in my chest. It was getting to hard to breathe, but I could somehow not let it go.

"Hey, there."

A hand clasped over my left shoulder. The voice came in groggy, but soothing. I turned to see who it was, and was greeted by familiar silver hair and reflections of myself on his glasses. This was the man I had misfallen for at first, but had guided me into listening to the true musings of my heart. Too bad it would never be able to speak of her again. His eyes had this thing about them, and they somehow told of where he went that day. There was an invisible red fleck in there somewhere, triggered by his best friend's new way of life.

We just stared at each other for a few moments, exchanging messages of sorrow and console silently. He finally decided to break the ice, "Its been a year. Please let it go." His voice cracked, undertone expressing a plead. He must be suffering from this too. This loss. But he's trying to go on with his life, and he's determined to bring us along with him. Maybe he'll be able to do that for Touya. Yes, I'm sure he will. But me… no. No words of comfort will be able to erase the fact of her ceased existence. None… no one.

"Good try."

His shoulders fell, the whole mood of the area accompanying him as well. He knew there was nothing he could do, though he tries. He was a free man now, but freedom came in a horrible price. One that I could never muster up to speak of. He let out a sigh of defeat, turned around, and went on his way.

I was back to square one. I stood there by the alley again. Staring blankly, half-expecting her to rise from the rocky earth or through the cracks in the pavement. A shadow passed by the other side, but I did not care to trace who owned it. It passed again, quite closer this time. Still, I chose to ignore it. Finally, if shadows had emotions then certainly this one was fumed for it practically hissed at me as it chose to brush off right in front of my eyes.

I shook my head, and there was nothing there. Not a shadow of evidence. My feet finally seemed to have recharged its batteries and went on its way. I was going home now. Or at least, my body was. My heart and mind were still frozen on that day. That day she left the world, without a mention of goodbye.

* * *

I just sat there, waiting for the food to feed on itself. Silence had been served on our table since Meiling had left, looking for reconciliation in Hong Kong after her rival chose to forfeit their battle. It seemed to have lost its appetite as well. Wei sat there across the table. Even if I did not raise my head I knew his eyes were on me, studying my odd behavior.

"Li-sama, I believe that the food will not eat itself. Rot, perhaps. But not in one serving."

Syaoran would have laughed at this, at the thought of how Wei would have reacted to his thoughts. Yes, Syaoran. The one who was still there, running to catch her as she fell. The one who had lost track of the rest of the world when he lost the one person. The one who had lost himself to grief. If he was still there, then who was this? The one talking to an unseen audience, ranting of his non-life from where she had left off? The one standing here, as his custodian slowly pales in worry?

I had to stop. I cannot let my thoughts overpower me, not let my emotions drive me to madness. Though Wei said not a single word, I knew he agreed. His silence can tell so much. I felt something was in the air, accompanying the eerie tranquility of the night. I closed my eyes on my meal, and felt someone tugging softly on my sleeve. The feel of the cloth scratching back and forth was intoxicating, a poison nonetheless incomparable to the tearing inside of me. I realized my nonsense, and at the same time the reality of it all: Wei had been trying to tell me I had a visitor.

I left my untouched victuals and walked in all earnest to the front door. Anything was better than this awkwardness. The door creaked the whole time it opened, the perfect overture as I was surprised to find the silent songbird at my door, a queer golden creature perched on her shoulder. How our conversation will carry on I wonder, but my query was instantly answered by an unwelcome pipe from the stuffed toy-like beast.

"Help."

I was taken aback, surprised at the plead of Kereberos. The deity that had kept me from confessing, and the one that I was in constant dispute with. But there was no reason to argue with him now, now that she's gone. I felt myself drifting off again, my mind traveling to the distant shores of yesteryears when life seemed so carefree as we bickered and she would try to calm us down. I was so lost in thought, that it had taken a tap from Tomoyo to bring me back to earth.

I stared at the two of them accusingly. They knew very well how abusive they were being, knowing that I was still blanketed in the sheets of her memories unable to wake up. I could not obtain anything from Kereberos' black beady eyes, but the amethyst pair beside his told another story. One of pain and pure misery, having lost the one she had been with all her life. I felt myself step out of myself and climb into her own shoes, the in-depth of untamed serenity. She had been with Sa-- with her best friend for as long as she could remember. She was aware of the loss better than anyone else, even me. If Sa-- if she were here now, she would have wanted me to let her friendship with Tomoyo live on. I was the only one she could have counted on this wish. I looked at her best friend's lips, drying from its shunned state since the tragedy. I had been a terrible comrade, but I was not going to be a bad friend.

"What do you need?"

The thin line on Kereberos' face that served as his lips grew wide as he leaped and let his tiny wings take flight. Tomoyo stayed still, but her eyes lighted up as well. Much brighter than it had been for the past year. She grabbed my hand and started running, giving me little time to wave a short I'll be back! to my patron I had left alone on the table.

We were crossing familiar streets, and my feet seemed to run along effortlessly as it knew the way by instinct. A gold blur was to my side, trying to catch up with our undoubted speed. No, my speed. I hadn't been aware that I had let go of Tomoyo's hand from the time my feet realized where it was taking me. I took a moment to look behind my back and caught a glimpse of a gray-haired angel who had lost her wings and was now on a last effort to revive them. She looked desperate, but there was no doubt that there was still hope within her. Hope, that came in the form of somebody else. Me… the realization broke in gently as it stalled my running.

I stopped right in the middle of crossing the street, surprising my two companions. The small floating one was puzzled, but the other one looked at me with eyes of understanding and warmth. Finally, the songbird was let free of her cage-

"Hurry along now. She needs you."

* * *

We found ourselves at the place where everything had began. The room was quaint, with rows of books adorning the shelves. I found myself wondering how she could have possibly chanced upon the clowbook in this mess. Maybe it would have been best if she hadn't found it at all, then maybe she wouldn't have… no. One way or another Clow Reed would have trailed her and given the same mission. It was the inevitable fate. It was destiny. But could it have been destiny as well that carved her burial post?

Kereberos was sitting atop a table, letting the moon by chance put a small spotlight on him. Tomoyo had gone upstairs to get something, what it was I had no idea. I was left as a single audience.

"Syaoran, I know this is hard for you but…"

He changed his tone. I wasn't liking the turn the stage had taken, but there would be no end if there be no climax.

"…the cards. The unsealed ones. They…they--"

Whatever the little guy was suppose to say was getting the best of him. He was starting to choke. I tried to approach him to assist but he wade his yellow arm at me.

"They know what happened to--to the Card Captor. Now they feel free to prowl and make havoc in the city. You might have already encountered some of them."

I felt a flashback scene slash slyly into my brain. It was that afternoon, a curious shadow was trying to grab my attention. But when I tried to trace the owner, he was nowhere to be found.

"Yes, I'm aware. They've let their presence be known." I paused for a while, unsure of what I was to say next, "But what am I to do?"

A voice from the open doorway answered my question, "Do as she would have wanted you to do." Tomoyo was standing there, her pale fragile face seemingly floating in midair as the dimness of the hallway consumed the rest of her body. But I could still see her hands, trembling by her chest enclosed around an object that was obviously of most importance.

"Here." Her hands shook as it reached for my open palm, and then felt something light fall on it.

I directed my eyes unwillingly to my hands and saw it. The clow key. There was a sudden rush of memoirs of card-capturing days, from our discovery of the guardians' true forms down to the quirky costumes Tomoyo made. Each one was so vividly captured and locked within the key, and now it shared those treasures with me. I didn't know what I felt at that time, but Kereberos must have read curiosity.

"We need you to capture those unsealed cards. There's no one else who could do it."

I looked down at the key, trying to shy away from the debate Kereberos' request had initiated within me. It seemed to found its way to around my neck. Was it my subconscious hands' doing? Or Tomoyo's? Whichever it was, I found myself lifting my face head on to Kereberos'.

I nodded, and the show ended.

* * *

"Storm!" A whirlwind scooped the clow card up like a bit of melting ice cream. I ran forward while calling out my sword. Kereberos was already by the card's side shouting out instructions as he was trying to keep up. Tomoyo was on the roof of the building beside us, filming all that was happening.

"Isn't that a bit…sad?" I had asked her several weeks before, after I spotted her pulling out her camera amidst a dusty pile of other things she would have preferred forgetting.

"It is. But I'd only like to let go of the pain, not her memoirs." Was her reply, gently carrying the camera to a table and dusting it off.

I didn't understand then, and I still don't understand now. But I'll still get that clow card anyhow.

"Gyoku tei yuu choku shin ken shi hou

Kin moku sui ka do rai fuu

Rai den shin choku

Kei ma heki reki

Den kou ten

KYOU KYOU NYO RITSU RYOU!"

There was a whirl of light and the huge mass of strayed energy transformed into a card flimsily falling onto my open palm. My hand clasped around it as my eyes closed in thought. "Sakura, this is for you."

It was later that afternoon and the three of us were in Tomoyo's audio-visual room as she was editing today's successful card capture.

"Stooooooooorrrrrm!" came a screech from the tape's direction. Kereberos tried to hide it at first, but ended up falling off his chair laughing. I just gave off a disgruntled "Ch." Tomoyo started to work her wonders and the horrid screech turned into the low tenor voice I proudly called my own. She was starting to omit some of the extra footage when the camera suddenly had a good view of Kereberos' golden back. Only Kereberos' back.

"Erase that!" I instructed Tomoyo, annoyed with the unsightly view of the behind of the pig who ate my slice of cake. "You're just jealous! *sticks tongue out*" We ended up brawling again, my purposely aiming at the spot he would have just been and him darting away safely out of harm's way. Tomoyo took no notice of us as she started to divide the scene into several frames and selecting which ones to keep. I couldn't understand how she does her assorting since all the frames were very similar. Well, maybe except for a few differences. Like how the fourth one has a view of my sword's tip, or the sixth one with Tomoyo's thumb accidentally getting in the way, or the third one with that small shadow to the far right--

"STOP!" Tomoyo jerked her finger away from the delete button.

"That shadow!" I pointed to the third frame which was missing in the next. "Its…its…"

The editor looked at me questioningly as Kereberos took his place at my shoulder. "What is it?"

"Its…him."

Tomoyo paled, wavered, then leaned on the screen for support. Kereberos seemingly was pulled backwards and hit himself on the wall.

"He's been observing us all this time."

* * *

The next afternoon we were on double duty. Tomoyo brought two cameras that day: One for filming the card capturing, the other as security and possible reference for him. Kereberos flew around the second camera impatiently, struggling with a megaphone twice his size. He was going to be barking instructions from only one point since he was going to be on the lookout for him. I was beginning to understand the nature of having two eyes: One for seeking, the other for spotting. My mind wasn't on the clow card who reportedly had been showing up in this alley I've been patrolling, but rather on finding him.

I lifted my head and squinted at the setting sun's direction. I was trying to remember the enemy's appearance, but all I could recall was a shadow figure with an eerie laugh. He was a card captor too, I believe. And a rather experienced one at that. But why did he have to go around taking the lives of other card captors? I never thought of such a thing when I first met Sa--hmm. Does being a superior card captor mean playing the game of 'survival of the fittest'? Sakura was exceptional, but she wasn't quite as…tough.

A barking command from the direction of the vantage point dissolved the rest of my reverie. "Idiot! The clow card just passed you! CHASE IT!" I began to run after what seemed like a cross between an elf and a horse. I could hear a faint rationalization of what clow card it was from Kereberos, but I was too concentrated on the figure in front of me to take notice. It kept turning left and right, to whatever direction the next alley would be. I was getting confused where we were heading, but I knew that this would have been its objective. I tried gaining speed until the broken lines on the middle of the road blurred into a single solid running line. At the back of my head a tiny voice was whispering something, something about familiarity, but I could not take time to listen to it while the card was now only a few feet away.

Klunk. Klink. Bam. The clow card had knocked down several trashcans and they were now tumbling my way. I dodged the first one. Leaped over the next. And sidestepped for the third. Whew~ I turned my back and watched as the last tumbling can stretched a farther distance, another moment more and I would have--BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMM.

Blink. Blur figures. Blink. Big to my right, small to my left. Blink. Its Tomoyo and Kereberos, looking… down at me. I sat up and found myself in an alley, a trashcan with a large dent on its side to my right. I felt my hand go up to the side of my forehead. Ouch! Crud. I stared accusingly at Kereberos about to demand why he hadn't warned me, but he returned an I-told-you-so­ look instead. Tomoyo gathered the two cameras in her hands and put them in front of me. She let me watch the footage so far, knowing her eyesight wasn't as keen. Kereberos almost immediately began pointing out the errors in my moves which I tried my best to ignore but instead…well, that large Band-Aid on his head should explain. My eyes went about scrutinizing every single pixel of the small screen that came with the camera, looking for the all-too-familiar shadow. After the nth rerun of the second clip, I smacked my hands down on the ground behind me. I give up. I stared at the sky. It was beginning to get dark. The buildings around me were hiding it, but I knew the sun was almost down.

A tingling sensation climbed up from the ground through my fingertips and made its way to my head. I heard that little voice again, and I slapped my face to get it out of my head. There was a question mark starting to grow on Kereberos' head, while Tomoyo shed a sweatdrop. But that didn't get the little voice out. It was too faint too understand anyway.

Tomoyo went back to her station and started putting the two cameras in position. Meanwhile, Kereberos explained what clow card I was up against and what I could do to defeat him. We were in the midst of discussing the clow card's weakness when--

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

One of Tomoyo's camera's exploded.

She screamed- the rail she was leaning on gave in.

I began to run down the long alley to catch her- Kereberos' cries, the camera, & the clow card fading into the background.

"Storm!" I called out. A sudden gust of wind formed under her and broke her fall. I thought that was the end of the danger. Crud. I had thought wrong.

"TAKE COVER!"

The words came in a muffled scream, and I digested the meaning a second too late. Whatever we were fighting had used a bright light to stall us. I squinted my eyes and pushed the hair out of my face. Things are starting to get rough. I mentally cursed my eyes for fearing the light. Heck, I was forewarned. I should be cursing myself.

The little voice was starting to get louder. But I can't take time to listen to it- not now.

Amidst the battle of inner and outer voices, I heard my foe call out a card. Amidst my confusion, I could see myself darting in sidesteps towards the enemy, weary of his power.

There was a shadow around a hundred meters before me. I pulled out my sword, swearing in the worst case and praying for the best, not knowing it was HIM before me.

An arrow was shot.

A cackle of evil laughter.

I stiffened. I staggered.

The ground left my feet, my eyes met the sky. The sky was going farther and farther away. It was beyond my reach. I stretched my arms out towards the stars of the new night, my hands in plain view. To welcome…

The little voice wasn't so little anymore. There was a burning sensation in my chest, around the clow key.

The sun had finally set.

I'll meet you again soon…Sa…ku…r--

~TSUDUKU~

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

§ Was that too different (Ooh, angsty… now THAT'S the k3 I know ^-^)? Or was it just the same for you? Do you like this or the former one better? Please, please- I want to know what you think! I'm no longer writing for myself here…

§ Hmm… I still don't know who killed Sakura here (Crap. I am such a bad writer) but whoever he is I OWN HIM ^_^;

§ Inspirations: Various Gensou Maden Saiyuki stuff, esca music (Again. Youko Kanno works wonders!) and the prowess of the night- yes, for my hand feels like a feather of writing when it senses the full moon braving the darkness (gosh. Could you tell I'm writing this at 12 in the morning?)

§ If you can't tell yet, I'm a nihongo illiterate. But nonetheless I am more aware of Li's chant in the raw version than its English counterpart. If you find this to your inconvenience, I sincerely apologize but I could not persuade Li-kun to make use of Eriol's catchy chant. (Li: You're darn right! I would never make use of anything from him *trembling pointing finger to Eriol*)

§ As early as now, I've done research for the next two chapters. They'll also be quite different- you'll see. I'm not too sure about the fourth chapter though, but the third one's on its way!