"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: Yes, Light Blossom, I know I've been using names (and/or stuff) from both CCS and CC. I just use what I like best from each one :)
Thanks for the Reviews ^_~
Chapter 9, Hissy Fit:
It was a commonly known fact that Yue's hair (which was longer than he was when flying, but somehow never trailed on the ground) was a precious commodity to him. He often told, anyone who would listen, that it had taken him almost a century to grow it to it's current, luxurious, length. And he brushed and cared for it with magic. He made it very clear that No One could touch it but himself, except possibly Touya (with permission, and a signed affidavit proclaiming the absence of any malicious intent).
From this point of view, what happened next was completely understandable. And, slightly fortunate, if messy. In any case, it ended the current battle with Alise.
Since Sakura was already using up most of her energy, she was forced to stay with Water Card-magic (always the easiest for her to use), instead of changing to a more appropriate counter to Alise's ice-knives. But she did manage to make the Water warmer, so that it melted as many knives as it knocked out of the sky.
On the other hand, Yue's fire-arrows missed the little ice-knives more often than not. Alise, who (while definitely crazy) was not stupid, noticed this right away, and changed her attack accordingly. Seconds later, a large volley of blue/white ice-knives was speeding toward Yue, bypassing Sakura, and her waves of warm Water, completely.
"Eeep!" Yue quickly dodged to the right (away from Sakura). Thanks to his swift action, most of the knives missed him, but one knife lodged in his left thigh (before melting), and another one sliced his left arm. While these injuries were certainly painful, they were nothing compared to the mental anguish caused by the last three knives.
At first, Yue was sure they had missed him, but then he felt a slight tug on his scalp, and heard a strange whispery sound, like silk being parted by a razorblade. And in that shocking instant, he knew. He turned horrified eyes down to see a large handful of silvery strands, brutally torn from their brethren, fall softly through the air toward the ground. In slow motion Yue watched that severed hank of shining moonlight float downward, bounce once, and spread in a ghostly array on the battle scarred grass below, "Noooo!!"
It couldn't be! It wasn't possible!! His Hair!!!
"My HAIR!! NO!" Yue screeched in disbelief, still trying to deny it, to convince himself that it couldn't be possible, it hadn't happened. But, there was the proof, lying on the grass like broken pieces of his soul. Someone had stolen something beautiful from him; Someone had committed the ultimate travesty; SOMEONE HAD MESSED WITH HIS HAIR!!
"You," Yue growled in a dangerous voice, whipping his head around to stare straight at Alise, "You did this!" Alise took a startled step back at the murderously calm expression on Yue's pale face, "How could you?.......... I'LL KILL YOU FOR THIS!!!!!"
Delicate Operations (a few moments before):
By this time Kero had stopped wondering why Madison was still alive, despite the advanced stage of the Spirit-hooks. Once he started to drain the energy out of them he discovered an important fact:
Madison had a lot of energy.
Not that she was up to Sakura's level (or even Syaoran's for that matter) but she definitely had more life energy than the average human. This explained why she was still alive, and the number of Spirit-hooks Alise had used. At first all those hooks had seemed over-kill, now he could see Alise's necessity for them. One or two hooks just wouldn't have cut it.
How could Madison have had this power, all this time, and none of them had noticed? Kero had been forced to up the voltage/capacity, in his little mentally made battery, when he was only half way through the second hook; and again after the fourth.
Odd. But not something he had time to think about right now, as he floated behind Sakura's friend studying the fifth, and final, Spirit-hook. He considered his options.
Removing the hooks at this late stage had left holes in Madison's skin. They weren't physical wounds exactly, but the center point of the energy drain (where the Spirit-hooks had been) was corrosive. The cells touching the hooks tended to die first as their essence is leeched away. These wounds could be healed by putting the victim's life-energy back where it belonged. Their own energy, returned to them, could seal the blemishes and restore the person the health.
The problem was, if Kero tried to heal Madison's wounds while any of the hooks were still present, the hooks would just suck the energy up again, leaving them back were they had started. Kero knew that he couldn't take this hook out the same way, it could kill or paralyze her, even if only due to it's location. But, he couldn't heal her with that hook there, either.
He would have to remove the Spirit-hook while he healed her back.
It wouldn't be easy, but Kero could think of no other way to save her. He quickly got to work. First he, carefully, detached the power cords from his paws, and applied them to the hook itself. Making sure that the energy flow was definitely away from the hook, towards the battery. He left a kink in the cords so that they wouldn't start to draw out energy before he wanted them to.
Next, he made two more cords, attaching them to his paws again, but reversing the flow. These cords would help energy flow out of the battery, strictly within the Sun Guardian's control.
Kero took a deep breath, then let it out again. He was ready. He placed a paw on Madison's back to the right of the hook inflicted wound (wincing at how cold her skin was through her school blouse), put his remaining paw on the other side, and began.
He let some of Mad's life energy flow from his paws, through the skin, muscle, bone, and the cluster of nerves running through her spinal cord, directing it back to the point where the Spirit-hook corrosion began. The hook took the energy back immediately, and Kero unkinked the other cords to activate his little circuit. He delicately balanced the stream so that there was slightly more energy coming in, than was going out.
After a few moments, the cells slowly began to heal themselves, the energy gradually healing it's way to the surface as the hook got weaker and disintegrated into lavender sparks. When the final Spirit- hook was gone, Kero kept the life-energy flow going until all he could see through the ragged hole in Madison's school uniform was whole (if still grey) skin.
He had done it.
Kero swiftly dismissed the second set of cords, and floated up a few inches to quickly get rid of the Spirit-cord before it could undo all of his work. Finally he tucked the battery into a safe corner of his mind, deciding that it would be better to wait and give her energy back once they were somewhere safe. Now that the hooks were gone, they had a little time.
"Okay kid, we're done."
"Good." Kero got out of the way as Syaoran gently lowered Mad to the grass, then walked around to the side to pick her up in his arms, "What now?"
"Well," Kero began, "I'd suggest we get out of--"
Kero was cut off be a loud scream: ".... I'LL KILL YOU FOR THIS!!!!!"
Kero and Syaoran both whipped their heads around toward the noise. Through the golden haze of the, still active, Shield spell, they could see Yue with an absolutely chilling look of rage on his face. Something else about him looked different, but Kero couldn't quite put his paw on what that was.
"Take this!! You... You Evil POLLYANNA!!!!" Yue yelled.
Kero and Syaoran watched in wide-eyed amazement as Yue pulled back his (suddenly much larger) fire-bow, which now sported a ground-to-air sized arrow, and aimed it straight at Alise, who was still frozen in shock.
***** KABOOM!!! *****
Alise's monstrous scream could be heard from within the ball of blue spell-fire that now resided where Alise used-to-be. The demon had jumped straight up in the air, batting at the flames on her frilly dress, to land on the roof. The demon looked singed and decidedly worse for wear.
"This isn't over," she called down to the group, "I found that little Link first! And no one but me will have her energy!!" Then she was gone, for now.
The silence Alise left behind her was broken by a pitiful wail: "My Hair........"
To Be Continued ^_^
