Chapter 5
'the photo'
Li was gasping for breath by the time the ordeal was over, and he had to pull himself to a standing position by holding onto the bookshelves. He sneezed again; everything was covered in dust down here.
Oh my god. That was excruciating.
He let out a shuddering breath.
Please don't let it come at me like that again. I want to know what happened, but I could barely understand what was going on that time. She did meet me though. She was with me after all. Whatever got her knocked me out and left me for dead, right there in the park.
There didn't seem to be anything down here that could help him now. He was no closer to understanding what had come for her, and he felt traumatized at having witnessed the act itself. He had to get out of here; there were too many unpleasant feelings in this basement. Wearily he plodded up the steps, then pushed aside the desk and shut the door behind him.
A crash made him look up. Down the hallway, by the kitchen, Touya was staring at him in shock, a dish in pieces at his feet.
Uh-oh, thought Li.
"You!" spat Touya, and crossed the length of the hallway in just two strides.
"Now, Kinomoto, calm down - "
"What are you doing in our house?" Li saw the fist coming and ducked, rolling past Touya and then springing to his feet.
"Wait, Touya, please wait. I need to - "
"You need to get out, is what you need to do. Who are you? Why are you coming around and stirring things up? Doesn't it look like we've been through enough?"
Li backed away as Touya advanced on him, full of righteous wrath.
"Yes, yes, you do look it. That's why I'm here, I want to help - "
"No, you want to get out, is what you want. You want to get out and leave us alone, and never come back."
Li caught his fist and threw Touya over his shoulder, gently, so the young man would roll across the wooden floor. He'd obviously kept up with his martial arts training, and he sprang to his feet with his fists up.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't want to fight you, Touya. I need you."
"Don't call me that!" Touya shouted. "Who are you? Why are you here?"
"I'm a friend," Li pleaded. "I mean, you don't like me, in fact you hate me, but I swear I'm a friend!"
"I'm starting to hate you, anyway," Touya grunted as he threw another punch. Li evaded it and resisted throwing one of his own. They couldn't afford to be wasting time like this.
"Touya, please, I want to help! I can help find your sister!"
"My sister is dead," he snarled, and grabbed Li by the collar of his shirt. Li didn't have a chance to wriggle free before he was flying gracefully through the air, and he landed with a crash on the carpet by the armchair. Li gasped, not in pain, but revelation. The memories were flying much faster now, loosened by his experience in the basement. The impact had set something free.
"Thanks for meeting me here, Syaoran. I wanted to show you something."
"Yeah? What?"
She giggled.
"So impatient as always, Syaoran. I wanted you to be the first to see it. You were the one that convinced me I should go for it."
"Go for what?"
"For this."
Proudly she handed him the photo, and his expression softened as he looked at the beautiful girl posing on the studio stool.
"You're the one that convinced me to try out for the modeling agency, and this is my first professional photo. I want you to have it. As a thank you."
There was a soundless explosion, a bright flash that seared his eyes and burned into his brain.
And there was darkness.
Li jerked back to reality just in time to see Touya's knuckles headed for his face, and he ducked.
"Damn it, hold still. You're only delaying the bloody beating that I'm going to give you, kid."
Li slithered around Touya, heading for the table where the family ate.
"Hey, get back here!"
"No! I can help you, Touya! But I've got to make you listen to me first." Touya gasped as Li snatched a framed photo from the table, the one of his mother.
"You put that back right now or I will kill you."
"No! You've got to give me a chance, Touya."
"Stop calling me that! How do you know my name?"
Touya was marching up to Li now, who wasn't running anymore. Instead he was going through his pockets, one by one. He knew there was a reason he hadn't wanted his clothes washed. But which pocket was it? Where had he put it?
"I don't know who you are or how you know so much. But I want you gone."
"Wait," gasped Li. "Wait, hold on!" Touya grabbed his collar again with one hand and raised his fist, prepared to strike a hard blow. "Stop, stop!" At last Li had it, and he held it up alongside the framed photo trying to block his face. "Look at it, Touya! Look at the photo! See how much she looks like your mother? This is Sakura, damn it!"
Tory's fist came to a screeching halt, and his eyes widened. Tentatively he took his mother's photo in one hand, and then released Li so he could take the other.
It was her. There could be no doubt about it. She had the same facial structure as their mother, the exact same eyes. It could have very well been Nadeshiko, but her hair was short and straight, just barely brushing the tops of her shoulders, and she was wearing contemporary clothing.
Li tried to get his breath back as he watched Touya's face. There was a struggle going on in those dark eyes; a fight between what he knew and what he wanted to believe.
"Do you see?" he asked quietly. Touya felt sandbagged, and he had to back up to sit in one of the chairs.
"Where," he choked, "where did you get this?"
"She gave it to me, Touya. Sakura gave it to me on Saturday. She said she wanted me to have it."
"Saturday?"
"Yes. Day before yesterday. That's when she really disappeared, Touya. I know it's hard to believe, but this past six years never really happened. She's been here, this whole time."
Li wasn't really sure how much the other man was listening to him. He was still staring at the photo, looking as though he'd seen a ghost.
"I know you never really believed she was dead," he continued. "Maybe that's what you told everybody else, maybe that's what you told yourself even, but you never really believed it. Because you never saw her, like you saw your mother."
"How – how do you know about that?"
"I know a lot of things, Touya. You can see things that nobody else can. It's been that way for as long as you can remember. Where I come from - " He stopped himself. It was too complicated to explain about Yue and everything else. All that mattered was that Touya seemed ready to listen.
"Well, I know you can see dead people. And magic. And I can't feel magic here, it's all the same color to me. But I think you can see, if you concentrate and look for it. And maybe you can help me find where she is."
"Magic?"
"Yes. Something magical took her, only I don't know what. It was too bright to see. The same thing gave me this injury. I want to find it, and fight it, and rescue Sakura."
Touya looked up from the photo with a glazed look in his eyes.
"The hardest thing was the not knowing," he said softly. "All the years of wondering, imagining the worst and hoping for an impossible miracle, forcing myself to say she was dead just so I could feel some kind of closure. And now you come here, saying that she only vanished on Saturday, and you think you can rescue her?"
Li nodded, and Touya had to gulp a little.
"It's a lot to take in."
"I know. But I know that you believe me. You know that that's Sakura in that photo, and you can see how new it is. She gave it to me, and then someone attacked us and took her away. I want to go get her back. Will you help me?"
For a second Li was seized with misgiving. It was all too much; it might be too much for Touya to assimilate. His mind might even crack. But instead the tall man just nodded, and stood.
"Where do we start?"
*****
Touya tapped his hands irritably on the steering wheel as they paused at a red light. He couldn't believe he was doing this, and he cast another sideways glance at the teenager in the passenger seat.
"Do you really think this is going to work? After six years, I think we'd know if she was somewhere still in town."
"I keep telling you, she hasn't been missing for six years. And I think she'll still be close by. Just drive."
The light turned green, and Touya forced down his vexation at being ordered around by this bratty kid. The day was becoming a little surreal, and he had to glance at the photo again to harden his resolve.
Li leaned his head against the window and watched the beautiful pink clouds of cherry trees on the side of the road. A slight breeze was stirring the branches, and petals flew everywhere.
"Spring is always the worst," Touya commented. "Every year we have to look at those damn trees and be reminded of it all over again. Sometimes I hated my mother for choosing the name Sakura for her daughter."
"I'm sorry," Li muttered, not really sure what to say. "It must have been awful."
"It was."
There was an awkward pause in the conversation as Touya stopped at another red light. Li was still looking out the window when he heard the soft metallic clicks, and glanced over to see Touya lighting a cigarette.
"Since when do you smoke?"
Touya inhaled lovingly and then blew the smoke out of the open window, feeling more relaxed than he had since he'd gotten behind the wheel.
"When do you think?"
Li flushed a little, and Touya pressed on the gas again as the light turned green.
"Tell me about it."
"About what?" The driver tapped his cigarette on the edge of the car ashtray and inhaled again.
"About the life that you know. Where she's still here."
"Oh. Um." Li cleared his throat. Where to start? "Well, she's sixteen, obviously. She and I and Tomoyo are all in the same class at high school. Everybody loves her; she's the most popular girl in school. She's always smiling, no matter what." Li started to warm to his topic. "She's not even a senior, but she's captain of the cheerleading squad, and she got elected Homecoming Queen last fall."
"Boyfriend?"
Li blushed slightly and looked back out at the cherry trees.
"No. I think a lot of guys would like to ask her out, but they're too afraid of – of you." He'd been about to say that they were nervous about him as well, but that was best kept quiet. Touya exhaled another cloud of smoke and allowed himself a small smile. "Really?"
"Oh yeah. Everybody knows that you'd never let anyone touch her. You don't live at home anymore, but she goes to your place all the time to hang out. You moved out last year when you graduated college and started on your chemistry masters. Yukito's in grad school too, like here, for psychology. The two of you live together."
"Uh-huh. And how did Dad take that?"
"Um, pretty well, I think. Sakura said that she thought he was coming to grips with it, slowly, but I know he still talked to you and everything. I think all that mattered to him was that his children were happy. And there was no doubt that Sakura was happy. She used to light up the room with her smile, wherever she went."
Something in Li's tone finally clicked with Touya, and he sent a suspicious glare in his direction.
"You like her, don't you?"
"Uhh…keep your eyes on the road, would you? You're supposed to be searching."
"Don't avoid the question, kid. You do like her." Touya knocked away some more ashes and shook his head. "I should have known. She's not even here and I still have to worry about protecting her from guys like you."
Li blushed even harder at that.
"Could we not focus on me, please? You're not concentrating. We'll never find her like this!"
"I'm trying, damn it! But I don't know what to look for. If you would tell me - "
"I can't, Touya. I don't know what it looks like to you; we all have different ways of sensing magic. Sakura and I feel it; you're the only one that can see it. You're just going to have to focus. Okay?"
"Fine," Touya snapped.
"Fine."
They rode on in silence for a little while. The sun was beginning to slide out of the sky, and Touya felt a touch of anxiety. He didn't like the thought of his father coming home that evening from therapy to an empty house, and no explanation of where he might be.
"Are you sure this is going to work?"
"No, I'm not. I only know that it's the best chance we have. I'm not going another day without her; I want to find her tonight."
Touya only grunted at that, and they fell into silence again. Li had forgotten how much he disliked spending time with this man, and mentally promised vengeance upon whatever it was that had put him in this position.
Then he leaned his head against the window again and closed his eyes. His head was starting to hurt again, and he'd felt a little run down since his trip to Sakura's basement. The car was calm and quiet, and the purr of the engine a soothing whisper in his mind.
"Thanks for meeting me here, Syaoran. I wanted to show you something."
"Yeah? What?"
She giggled.
"So impatient as always, Syaoran. I wanted you to be the first to see it. You were the one that convinced me I should go for it."
"Go for what?"
"For this."
Proudly she handed him the photo, and his expression softened as he looked at the beautiful girl posing on the studio stool.
"You're the one that convinced me to try out for the modeling agency, and this is my first professional photo. I want you to have it. As a thank you."
Li felt his cheeks flushing.
"You want me to have this? Really?" She nodded happily.
"Sure. I owe it all to you. You've always been there to back me up and support me, whether it was capturing and transforming Cards, or stuff like this. I don't know where I'd be without you."
She patted his arm and smiled.
"You're one of my best friends, and you always will be."
There was a soundless explosion, a bright flash that seared his eyes and burned into his brain.
And there was darkness.
Li jerked awake with a yelp that startled Touya so much they almost went off the road.
"Hey, watch it! I'm trying to drive here!" He glowered at the young man, who was panting hard. "What? What is it?"
"I'm getting closer," Li gasped. "So much closer. I've almost got the entire day back. If I could just concentrate a little harder - " He was almost thrown against the dashboard when Touya slammed on his brakes. "Hey, what's with you?"
Touya wasn't paying any attention to him. The cigarette was gone and he was gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles and scrunching up his nose as he stared out the windshield.
"You said I would just have to focus a little, and I would see it?"
"Yeah…"
"I think I see something. Now that I'm looking really, really hard." Touya nodded his head toward the building up the road, and Li followed the direction of his gaze.
"Oh no." Li felt his shoulders slump a little as he realized what Touya was looking at. "You've got to be kidding me."
"What?"
"I guess I should have expected this," Li muttered. "But it didn't even occur to me."
"What? What?"
"That building," Li explained in a resigned manner. "Is where a very powerful magician used to live. I guess Hiiragizawa never came to live in it." Touya looked a little puzzled at his rambling. "You're absolutely sure?"
"Positive. There's this red haze clinging to the house, like a mist. It's creepy looking."
"Then let's go." Li opened his door and got out, followed a second later by Touya.
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Disclaimer: I do not own these characters
