"Sakura's Peace"
A Card Captor Fanfiction
By: Bekah-chan
Rated: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own Card Captors or the characters therein.
Author's Notes: Someone asked if I could have more 'the-Cards-in-Sakura's-head' stuff in this fic. Well, I don't really know how I could fit it in this particular story. But I was thinking about writing some short stories that take place between "What the Cards Were For" and "Sakura's Peace" Would you guys be interested in that? The short stories would deal with Sakura's 'training' with the Cards, and her attempts to date Syaoran. Let me know.
Thanks for the Reviews :)
Chapter 8, Lavender:
Kero wrung his little paws together in worry as he looked at Madison. Sakura had been right; the Spirit-hooks were black- shockingly so. As if the night had taken on a solid form of inky darkness.
This was very bad. When first placed, Spirit-hooks were the color of the victim's aura. Then they slowly grew darker as they sucked-up life-energy. This black color was indicative of the final stage, when it got this far the victim only had moments to live.
Kero thought sadly of Madison's beautiful aura, which he knew was a pale lavender color. The fact that her aura was gone, meaning that her soul was no longer in residence, was not lost on the Sun Guardian. But he also knew that if he didn't get those hooks out of her now- the exact location of her soul wouldn't matter much. She'd be dead anyway.
Pitch Black was a long way from Pale Lavender.
From beside him Kero heard the Li kid gasp in shock. This was the first close-up look he'd had of the hooks in solid form, "How do we get them out?" he asked.
"'We' don't," Kero told him, "I do. You're just here to hold her up while I work."
Syaoran looked at how Madison was slumped against the side of the Float bubble. That made sense, the minute the bubble was gone, she would fall to the ground- and one of the hooks was in the middle of her back, "Won't it go faster in I help you get them out?"
"No. You so much as brush one of those Spirit-hooks- and you'll die instantly."
"Oh," Was that what they were called? Apt name, "Won't they kill you too?"
"No, I'm immortal."
Syaoran's eyebrows went up as he thought about that. Made sense- Kero *was* a 'Magical Beast' after all. It suddenly occurred to Syaoran that many of the things Kero had said in the last few minutes made a lot of sense. Odd.
"Master Clow taught me how to remove Spirit-hooks a long time ago. Probably in case something like this happened."
"Right," Syaoran nodded, sheathing his sword. He spared a glance for Sakura, fighting Alise with Yue outside the shield, and hoped she was alright. Then turned back to Kero, "Let's do it."
Battle Actions:
Sakura, with a brand-new pair of wings, flew side-by-side with Yue as they threw various destructive spells at Alise. Then dodged her return volleys. Sakura was using Arrow Card-magic, without the bow. Just willing arrow, after light azure arrow into existence, zooming at the enemy. Her arrows were smaller than Yue's fire ones, but there were more of them, and she was giving each a little kick with Thunder.
"How long do we need to do this again?" she shouted to her fellow archer. She was getting *very* tired, holding up the shield, flying, and throwing offensive strikes. And Alise still looked fresh as a daisy-- if a few petals short.
"Until Kero gets the Spirit-hooks out and it's safe to move Madison." Yue, for his part, was trying to ignore the many screamed curses and insults coming from Alise's general direction. She was using at least five languages, two of which Yue knew- and wished he didn't.
"Yes, but *how long*?" Sakura gave up on the arrows, and started using fire-balls herself. It took a moment to figure out how. But she had *such* a good teacher.
"I don't know, I'm sorry Mistress," he knew she was tired. Heck, he was tired! He hadn't used this much magical energy since the Judgment, "Kero just said that he needed to get those hooks out *now* or we would lose her anyway."
That's why they were out here: to distract Alise, and give Kero and Syaoran the time they needed to help Madison. When Kero appeared, seconds behind Yue, he had swiftly given orders to them all. Resulting in Sakura dropping the outer shield, extending the shield on Madison to include Kero and Syaoran, and passing the Float bubble spell-controls to Kero, so he could turn it off. All under cover fire provided by Yue. More than half of Sakura's power-reserves were being drained by the shield around her friends, and she was wearing down quickly. Kero had better hurry.
"Ow!" Sakura winced as yet another Alise driven fire-ball hit her injured ankle, "Does she *have to* keep aiming for my ankle!!" she yelled.
Evidently her protest was loud enough for Alise to hear, for there came evil laughter in return. ~Great~ Sakura thought, ~the demon thinks she has a sense of humor.~
Sakura stopped throwing fire-balls when they became weak, and started sending waves of Water (the easiest element for her to conjure) at Alise. This had the happy side-effect of dosing most of the incoming fire-balls.
Alise, screaming in rage, and soaked to the skin, started to toss jagged pieces of magical ice (sharp as knives) at the flying pair. ~This just gets better and better.~
Don't Touch!:
"Okay, ready?"
Syaoran looked up from where Kero had placed him, behind Madison, and nodded.
"Right then, on 'three'..... One....... Two.......... Three!!" Kero mentally yanked the Float spell-controls apart, ending the spell. The bubble disappeared and Syaoran swiftly dodged forward and grabbed Madison's upper arms (just below the Spirit-hooks in her shoulders) keeping her from falling to the ground.
Kero sighed in relief. He had been counting on Syaoran's warrior reflexes to insure that the young man caught Mad without touching any of the hooks. Looks like his faith was paid off.
"What next?" the boy asked the floating stuffed animal.
"Just hold her steady- Don't touch the hooks!! -and I'll get them out as quickly as I can." Kero closed his eyes and concentrated. First he thickened his own, golden, aura around his hands, as added protection. Then he imagined a large, empty, battery (back when he first learned this, from Clow, there hadn't been batteries, but Kero thought it might work better than envisioning an empty cup) in his mind and connected it, via gold cords, to the thickened aura on his little paws.
~There, ready,~ he opened his eyes and floated over to the Spirit-hook in Madison's right shoulder. ~Hope I remember how to do this~ he took a deep breath and placed both his paws lightly on the hook.
Lessons in History:
Every few years Master Clow would go on a trip. Traveling through China (or Europe, wherever he was living at the time) searching for dark magic to defeat, saving peoples lives. This was part of his job as a Guardian for Peace, but he also used it as an opportunity to teach things to Kero. This was how the Guardian of the Sun learned about Spirit-hooks.
Spirit-hooks were disturbingly common back then, they always found at least one case of such on each journey. The first time they found one, Master Clow took care of it himself, explaining everything to Kero as he went along. This first victim had only one hook, the next one had three. Clow took care of two of them- but then insisted Kero have a go at the third. Kero, much to his own surprise, managed it very well and the person was saved. After which Clow defeated the maker of the Spirit-hooks, and Master and student moved on.
After that, Kero would take care of any Spirit-hooks they found, with occasional coaching from Clow. They were lucky, they got to most of the victims in plenty of time, and none had more then four hooks. There was one exception when they got to the victim too late. That time, Clow himself had tried to get the hook out, but it was already black, and the person died.
This made Clow *very* angry, as the victim had been a little child. So he decided that the punishment should fit the crime, and put a Spirit-hook in the perpetrator before walking away without a backward glance. Kero assumed the bad guy had died, they never heard of him again.
All these memories came back to Kero as he put hands to Madison's first Spirit-hook. He had never seen hooks this black or this many in number (in the back of his mind he was a little shocked that Madison was still alive) but he would not give up. Madison was his friend, he would do his best to save her.
It's All in the Balance:
Syaoran had never inquired from Sakura or Madison their exact weight. This was because, while he was male, he was also smart and rather fond of living- he really didn't want to die. Besides, it really hadn't mattered much to him, until now. It seemed to him that Sakura's best friend had gained 20 pounds in the last 10 minutes. It was getting harder and harder to keep holding her up.
Luckily, for Syaoran's peace of mind, and his aching arms (not to mention his injured leg), Kero was over half done removing the Spirit-hooks. Starting with the hook it Mad's right shoulder, the little stuffed animal had moved on to the one on her left, then the one on her left leg, then her right.
It was a strange thing to watch, Syaoran decided. Kero would first put both his paws, which had gained a golden glow, on a hook. Then, a few seconds later, the hook would fade into the pale lavender that Syaoran remembered as the exact shade of Madison's non-present aura. Finally, the hook dissolved into sparkles of magic, which were absorbed into Kero's paws.
What happened to the energy after that, he didn't know. But he had noticed that, while the Sun Guardian had started out at a barely contained speed, he was going a little slower with each successive hook. It seemed like an eternity, but was probably about five minutes, before Kero was finally done with the hook in her right leg.
"Okay kid, time to change positions," Kero said, coming out of the semi-trance he had been working in. Soon Syaoran had, very carefully moved around Madison until he was standing in front of her, holding her up by the arms. This allowed Kero access to the Spirit-hook in her back.
Kero winced as his paws touched the last Spirit-hook. All the hooks had burned when he touched them, but this wasn't the reason he winced. For this final hook (the last obstacle, except for the black cord wrapped around her neck) was placed vertically between her shoulder blades, right into her spine. Kero knew that this hook, more than any of the others, would require extreme concentration, and magical skill, to remove. A slight shift of the hook in any direction, and Madison's body would be paralyzed.
To Be Continued ^_^
