Hel-oo-oo. Welcome to the fourth chapter of A New Riddle. Okay, that was a little to the left of good.
Stupid HERE Good GREAT
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That was stupid, too. Okay, here I go with the story.
Disclaimer: Would someone with the name Jinko Kawaii be able to make up a book/manga? I don't think so. Therefore I don't own them.
A New Riddle
Chapter Four.
The Past.
"Eriol! Nakuru!" Sakura said, hugging them both tightly. "What are you guys doing here?"
"We're attending Hogwarts this year." Nakuru said as Sakura hugged her.
"So are we." Tomoyo said.
"Oh, and by the way, I think this belongs to you." Nakuru said, handing Sakura Kero. "But this green fella, I don't know. He seems a bit odd." Nakuru picked up Mana by the tail and held him up in the air in front of her face.
"Yes, and you aren't the best lookin' thing around in town, either." Mana snapped, making Nakuru put him back down in her arms.
"Hahahahaha, I like h-him." Suppi hiccupped.
"Oh no, what happened to Spinnel?" Sakura asked.
"Keroberos fed him chocolate. A huge piece, too." Eriol explained.
"Ke-ro." Sakura droned.
"K-Ke-ro! Kero! Ha he ha! Kero got in trouble!" Suppi laughed, but got a bit on the head from Kero.
"I'm guessing you know each other quite well. Friends?" Mana asked.
"No…we're rivals." Kero said. "Talking about that, I got a new high score, Suppi."
"G-good for you. *Hiccup* Do you have any *hiccup* chocolate left? I need *hiccup* sweets!"
"Hiiragizawa, my mother will not be too happy about you bringing a high guardian into the castle." Syaoran snarled.
"And it's good to see you again, too, my cute little descendant." Eriol chuckled. "Besides, it was Keroberos who did it, not me."
"Ah, Eriol, Nakuru, how are you this fine morning?" asked Wei who joined them.
"We are fine, Wei." Eriol answered.
"I shall take you all to your rooms, now, if you'll follow me. And Mana, you know where yours is."
After a long walk of six flights of stairs, Wei had brought them up to their rooms.
He led them first to Naoko's room, which was about the same size as Sara's. The walls were all a pail blue and the double bed had spreads the same colour. She put her stuff down by the door and followed Wei to Tomoyo's room, which was next to hers.
Again, it was large, but this time was a pail heliotrope. She, too, put her stuff down and followed them to Eriol's room. His room was next to hers. (Imagine it in a wing. It's like a circle with Naoko's room closest to the door that leads them to the hall. That's the hall that Yelan's study is in.)
Eriol always borrowed this room when he stayed at the Li residence. His was dark blue and slightly larger. Then they went to Nakuru's. (Yes, hers is next. ^_^)
It was red in colour and was about the same size as Eriol's. It wasn't visibly larger then the others, but it just seemed like it was.
Next to hers was Syaoran's. Yelan had insisted that he was to stay in this room because his real room was bigger then Eriol and Nakuru's put together. It was being used as the Divination class with Professor Trelawney.
Syaoran's new room was a forest green and all his stuff had already been moved in.
"You're mother got us to put everything in here." Wei said, disgracefully when he saw the look of shock on Syaoran's face.
The then moved to the next room, which was Sakura's. The walls were painted pink, the same colour as her bedspread. Sakura put her stuff on her bed and then they moved to the next room, Meilin's.
Meilin all ready had her stuff in this room. She had a little help from her four cousins getting it in. Wei then took them to the next room, which was the only one there with a closed door.
"Miss Riddle. Do you mind if we come in? I have something that Mrs. Li says you should have." Wei asked, tapping on the door. The door opened quickly to reveal an angry looking Sara. "What's wrong, miss?"
"Nothing." Sara mumbled. "So what did she want to give me?" Just at that moment, Mana rose up from Nakuru's grasp and flew onto Sara's shoulder. Sara quickly shrugged him off. "Where were you?"
"I was talking to Kero."
"Whatever." Sara snarled. Wei then took a book from his pocket and handed it to Sara, whose eyes bulged.
"It was one of the books that Clow Reed left behind." Eriol looked over Wei's shoulder to see the book.
"Ah, yes. Ayane's diary. That hasn't been opened in many years." He chuckled. Sara glared at him and then slammed the door shut. "What's up with her?"
"Oh, she's always like that." Tomoyo laughed.
"I see."
"Um, Miss Riddle?" Wei called out again, rapping on the door.
"What now?" Sara snapped from behind the closed door.
"We are to be at the dinning room now to have lunch. I take it you do not know where that is. Might you join us? We're going down now." The door opened and a huffy Sara walked out, Mana close behind her. Then she glimpsed around the hall to see everyone's luggage by his or her door.
"Great, I have to stay here with everyone else."
"It's worse at Hogwarts. You have to share a room with at least two other people." Eriol chuckled again. "Hi, I'm Eriol, and you are?"
"Sara."
"I see you don't like to talk to people."
"How smart of you."
"This your first year here?"
"Yes." Sara said.
Everyone watched as Eriol talked away with her for some time before she turned around to him and told him to shut up.
"Don't you ever get tired of hearing yourself speak?!"
"Well I thought you were listening, so no." Eriol said honestly. Sara sped up her pace until she was well ahead of the group.
"Miss Riddle! You don't know where you're going." Wei called down to her.
She knew where she was. She was in the main hall. All she had to do now was follow her nose to the dinning room. Surprisingly enough, she found it.
"Mother, you never told us about another one." Sheifa cooed as she saw Sara.
"Oh, Sara. Please take a seat, but not the head of the table. Xiao-lang insists that he sits there." Yelan laughed. Sara nodded curtly and took a seat closer to Yelan, on her left while the four sisters sat to Yelan's right.
"Thankyou for the book. I do believe that I shall find it quite interesting." Sara said.
"You're welcome. Where is everyone else?"
"They were some metres behind me."
"That's not like Wei to leave people to themselves."
"I walked in front of them." Then the doors to the room opened up and everyone came in.
"Why don't you guys take a seat?" Yelan asked. Syaoran took his seat at the head of the table, opposite his mother, just like she said he would. Sakura took a seat next to him, and then Tomoyo, Eriol, Nakuru and then a seat for the three chibi guardians sat next to Sara.
On the other side, Meilin sat next to Syaoran and then Naoko, Fenren, Fuutie, Feimei, and Sheifa.
The table erupted with conversations about the times they had in Tomoeda, but Sara still took no notice. A row of about five tables behind Yelan took her interest.
"What's the matter?" Yelan asked Sara when she realised something was wrong.
"Who's to sit up there?"
"The Hogwarts teachers."
"When are they coming?"
"Soon. You'll be meeting all of them. I do believe you have already run into Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore."
"Yeah. They don't exactly like me."
"Then again, not many people do." Mana laughed, listening in to their conversation. Sara grabbed his head and flung him across the room into Professor Snape, who had just walked into the room, following Madam Hooch. It got him square in the face.
Serverus grabbed his wand from his pocket and started to curse him with a 'Knock Back Jinx'. Mana got the full force but sat there like nothing happened.
"Is it finished, Sara?" he asked, looking over to Sara.
"Serverus, I apologise for Sara's behaviour with throwing the Guardian at you like that. Are you okay?" Yelan asked, rushing over to see if he was all right. He stood there, looking as stunned as some guy who just witnessed a murder.
"It…it's? What is it?" he asked stumbling on his words. (I know. That's really OOC, but anyway.)
"It is a Guardian, sent to protect me. It just does the best job." Sara said sarcastically, picking up Mana. She then walked back to her seat and placed Mana back down on his seat.
"Okay, let's have lunch." Professor Dumbledore suggested. He clapped his hands once and a huge meal appeared on the tables.
Sara couldn't help but stare. Never before had she even seen half of the amount of food in front of her.
Well, there was this one time at a foster home…
"So, Sakura, how are things at home?" Yelan asked Sakura from across the table.
"Things are great."
"Fame hasn't gotten to your head?"
"No. Everything's the same at home but
I get less homework because the teachers know that I don't have much time to do
it."
"Yeah. Same with me." Naoko said happily.
"Talking about teachers…" Eriol started.
"He and Kaho broke up!" Nakuru blabbed loudly.
"HOE!!!" Sakura screamed in surprise. "What happened?" Meanwhile Naoko just stared in shock.
"She wanted someone who was older."
"Eriol is older. At least five hundred years old." Yelan said, the last sentence in a mumble so the professors couldn't hear.
"But she wanted someone who looked older because people kept telling her that she had such a cute son." Eriol groaned. "I am going to stay in China from now on."
"You are welcome to stay here, Chibi Clow. We won't mind." Fenren offered.
"Is it okay, Yelan?" Eriol asked. Yelan nodded her head and then tended to her soup in front of her. She noticed that Sara was sitting quite still, just looking at her food. "Is everything all right? Do you like your lunch? I've only seen you eat a little bit."
"The orphanage had rations and I got used to them. I'm already full." Sara said quietly.
"In that case…" Mana said, reaching for Sara's plate, only to have his hand smacked away by Yelan. Everyone stared at her for a while in shock.
"Manaturs. You know very well that Sara should eat."
"But if she is used to small meals, she will not take too well to a larger meal."
"If you increase the meal little by little, she will get used to it."
"And she has eaten more than usual."
"Um, Mana's right. I have eaten a lot more then usual." Sara said as she passed the plate over to the little green lizard. "I think I might go back to my room and study."
"No, Sara. Stay. We should talk a bit more." Sakura said from the other side of the table.
"Yes, please stay. We all want to know heaps about you." Fuutie said and the other sisters nodded in agreement.
"My mum is dead, my dad doesn't give a damn, I am the Card Keeper and a sane man would go insane if he were to be in my mind for five minutes." Sara said and then stood up and left.
"Excuse me." Dumbledore said from behind Yelan. "I think it is best if no one asks her about her family or life."
"I agree. Sara has certainly been through a lot." Mana said quietly. "But I must congratulate you. She didn't try to kill you when you asked."
"So how many people has she had a shot at?" Tomoyo asked.
"Lost count at the twenty-third foster home."
"Twenty-three?" Naoko asked. "Wow. No wonder her life's so screwed."
"Every single place was the same. She'd be
sent there, give a room to sleep in and be forgotten once she had been with her
for three days. Except this one place, the Grangers. Sara really liked their
daughter…"
"Hermione?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Miss Granger is one of our top students. She's in Gryffindor." She said as if she was boasting, leaving Snape to sneer.
"Mr. Malfoy is a pretty good student, too." He said.
"I wouldn't mention him around Sara, either." Sakura recommended. "They met in Diagon Alley and she tried to kill him, too. She had the Fiery Card out and all."
"What is this Fiery Card?" Snape asked.
"Yelan, may I?" Sakura asked. Yelan nodded with a warning of don't burn anything and Sakura stood up and called out her wand. "Fiery!"
A large female like orange and yellow creature appeared and spread its wings around itself. It then smiled at Sakura and bowed at the waist. Its eyes then darted over to Eriol and then bowed again.
"Fiery can tell it's me." Eriol chuckled. "She always was one of the sharper ones."
"This is the Fiery Card. Sara has something a lot like it, but because it is under her influence, it isn't so tame." Sakura explained.
"So were there any fatalities?" Professor Flitwick asked Mana.
"I'm not too sure Sara would appreciate me telling you." Mana said. There was a sudden silence over the tables.
"We are letting a murderer in this school? What's to happen if she does it again?" Professor Sprout asked. "I don't think any of the students have gotten over Cedric's death."
"What happened?" Naoko questioned Mana.
"A boy at the orphanage teased her when he found out how long she had been there and no one had adopted her. It was scary. When it happened-she just couldn't remember doing it-she looked like she was in a trance. It was like the first time a card transformed her. Everything, her wand, her eyes, turned black. She used a card that she had created…" Mana started, quite seriously.
"Like how I created the Hope Card?" Sakura asked, taking the card out of her pocket.
"I guess, but this one was the Death Card. When she was teased, she cried, thinking that she would always be unwanted. This was the first and only time I had ever seen her cry. The tear turned to the card and she promised that she would never use it. And she did. The card killed the boy in an instant and when she came back to normal, she almost collapsed. She saw the boy-he had a terrified look on his face-and fell to her knees, and still didn't cry. Then she took out a different card, the Time Card and went back in time to stop the accident. She didn't kill him that time, just put him in a three-week coma. When she went back to her real time, she still had the card. We burnt it and left the ashes on the orphanage garden." Mana said quietly. Mana then heard quick footsteps go up the staircase and he realised that Sara hadn't gone back to her room, but stayed listening in to the conversation. "Oh no." Mana complained and he took off after her.
When he got into the room, an arrow heading straight for him welcomed him.
"I can't believe you told them! They're going to send me back to the orphanage before I could argue the point! First there was my father with his attitude and now there's me who is a murderer! I should just kill myself. People would be a lot better off and the Sara Cards would get a better master who doesn't use them as weapons." Sara yelled as she packed her trunk with her clothes. Then she just stopped in the middle of the room and pulled out her sealing wand and a card-the Shot Card.
"Sara, stop before you really do some damage,
kay? We'll talk it out with them and everything will be all right. They'll
understand everything. They've probably wanted to kill someone, but never had
the power to do it. You just had the power and did it."
"So now I'm one of those people who do
these sort of things because I know I can, huh?"
"No. You were angry and wanted to get revenge and you got it but then fixed everything up."
"Tell that to my conscience. You don't know what it's like to carry on the family tradition. Especially mine. My father killed and it was my turn then. I am exactly like him, wherever he is, the only difference is that I went back to the past and fixed it." Sara snapped, calling out the Shot. "I guess I'll go just like Ayane did."
"Sara, stop this now. It may be hard for you at the moment, but we'll help you." Eriol's voice rung around her head. "I will." Sara quickly ran out of room, downstairs and to the doorway to the dinning room where she could easily hide to hear the conversations.
"Eriol, when did you learn that?" Sakura asked in surprise.
"Kaho and I had been working on it for a while. She's right though, five minutes in that mind would drive anyone insane."
"I guess it worked. I heard you loud and clear." Sara said, stepping out from her spot. "And if I catch you in my mind one more time, I will kill you."
"You couldn't. I have powers beyond belief." Eriol chuckled as he took a sip of his tea that was in front of him. The Shot Card that was still behind her started to glow, as did she and she absorbed the card. Naoko, Sakura, Tomoyo and Kero all ducked behind their chairs, all knowing what was going to happen. Syaoran, his four sisters and Meilin followed this manner.
Sara put her hands out in front of her and little shots came out of them, each heading straight for Eriol, who simply put his hand out in front of him and deflected each shot. Sara stood at him in shock.
"Clow had no power over the Ayane Cards. You shouldn't be able to do that." She snarled.
"The Ayane Cards were far less powerful then the Clow Cards." Eriol explained.
"Then why did it take you so long to kill her?"
"We tried to reason with her and turn her back to good."
"Well, it didn't work." Sara snapped and walked back up to her room.
"She really needs to sort out her priorities." Naoko mumbled.
~*~*~
"So, Sakura, how has things been going?" Syaoran asked Sakura once they had finished lunch and had some time to themselves. They were just outside the castle, right next to the cherry blossom tree.
"Well, I got the part in those movies. The director saw the movie that Nakuru made and gave me the part. Then they saw Naoko and Tomoyo and everything just went uphill from there. Have you seen them?"
"Yeah. I liked them, a lot. I think I saw Tomoyo in a few parts, though." Sakura said.
"You probably did. Do you know that she does all the songs on the album?"
"Yes. Feimei is obsessed with the songs. She knows all of them without having to read the words." Syaoran chuckled.
"I don't blame her. They are really good. Have you heard any of them?"
"Yeah. Fuutie begged mum to get a television just so we could watch them."
"Really?"
"Yep." Syaoran said.
~*~*~ (At Dinner.)
"Where's Miss Riddle?" Dumbledore asked, noticing that Sara was nowhere to be seen.
"I think she's still in her room." Mana said.
"Yeah, the last that I heard of her was when Eriol stopped the Shot Card." Naoko said.
"Really?" Sheifa asked.
"Yes. She didn't let me in her room." Tomoyo said.
"Well, she isn't too keen on anyone." Syaoran mentioned.
"Maybe she's reading Ayane's diary. That could get people interested for days on end." Eriol chuckled. "She lived an amazing life."
"She might be hurt or something." Sakura said.
"Nah. Not much could hurt Sara." Mana laughed. "She is very strong."
"So? Just because she's strong doesn't mean that she's invincible." McGonagall pointed out.
"So what do we do?" Yelan asked.
"Mana can go through walls." Kero suggested.
"Are you trying to get me killed?" Mana asked.
"It could be interesting."
"Kero." Sakura said from the other side of the table. "Please, Mana?"
"Fine then. Just stop your whining." Mana said, leaving the table. Her floated up to Sara's room, Eriol always inside his head so he could hear Mana's thoughts. "Sara?" he asked, tapping on the door. "Are you okay in there?" When he didn't get a response, he floated into the room to see her asleep on her bed.
She was tossing and turning strongly, but it wasn't the first time Mana had seen her in a deep, unmerciful sleep. She had been in one when killed the boy. Mana turned away and floated back downstairs to the dinning room.
"She's asleep. That's all." Mana said.
~*~*~ (Sara's P.O.V)
I was sitting by the front door, looking at the new jacket in front of me.
"Happy Thirteenth Anniversary!" Ms. Lain cried out. "You have been with us for thirteen years today."
"You've been here for thirteen years?" a punk called from behind me. "You must be really stupid and bad to have no one want you. I heard that your dad's still alive but doesn't want you. Is that the same with your mum?" he laughed and everyone joined in. I quickly grabbed the jacket and ran as fast as I could away from that stupid place.
Soon I was as far as the place that I found the Book Of Ayane. It was a dark forest that I was told to never go near.
Like I would obey a rule.
I sat under a tree on a rock and saw Mana next to me.
"I saw what happened."
"So?" I asked. My eyes were watering.
Never before could I remember this feeling. It hurt badly. I just wanted to die.
Actually, no. I wanted 'Punk' to die.
I got up and walked back, but I wasn't thinking. My head was pounding with odd thoughts. I couldn't tell if I was walking or sitting or even flying for that matter.
Then it happened. I cried. For the first time that I could remember, I cried.
From my tear, a black card formed. It has a red heart with white wings on the side of it and a yellow crown over it and a black dagger going through it. On the words below it was written Death.
This was the Death Card.
The Death Card.
It sounded so familiar.
Death.
It's that word. It's that five-letter word that brings fear in the heart of many.
But not me.
I walked to the orphanage and saw Punk sitting there. He was still laughing at me.
I grabbed the key of my star and began chanting my charm. Darkness surrounded me, just like it did when I fought against the Power Card. All I could see was Punk and black. Then I grabbed the Death Card and called it out and the boy's light died out. All I could see was black.
"Sara! Sara! Are you okay?" Mana's voice rung around me. Then I heard him gasp. My eyes shot open and I saw the dead boy by my feet. I fell to my knees, not allowing any tears. I didn't want to cry again, not if it would happen again. He was dead and everyone saw me do it.
Quickly, I grabbed the Time Card from my pocket and used it to go back in time.
"Happy Thirteenth Anniversary!" Ms. Lain cried out. "You have been with us for thirteen years today."
Before the boy could say anything, I grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall. Ms. Lain cried out in shock and told me to get off him. I squeezed my hand tighter, not giving him much breath and then I let go of him and backed off. Then I went back to my own time.
The night before that, in my dream I saw a girl crying, muttering something in a language that I don't know. She had brown hair and was about the same age as me. As she cried, a circle formed on the ground around her with a star inside it. From her tears formed a card, the Death Card without the dagger.
The Hope Card.
Why am I stuck with the scary sounded stuff?
~*~*~ (Normal P.O.V)
Sara awoke with a startled jump. It was about four in the morning.
She slept in. Sara went over to her suitcase that she didn't unpack from the night before and got out a green training suit. She quickly bathed and got dressed in the clothing.
It was lime green, much like her aura. The top was a sleeveless top that comes to her stomach, showing her belly button and she wore shorts that were the same colour. She also wore a coat with 'puffy' sleeves that only came up to her upper arm. Then her shoes were made of a soft fabric and were the same colour as the rest of the outfit. She put half of her brown shoulder length hair in a ponytail but made sure that her fringe was hanging out.
Sara took off down the stairs to the front of the castle, only to see Syaoran make his way to a ground further away with Wei. Sara followed them and saw that they had their own training area. It had a flat plain with swords and wooden dummies at the end.
Syaoran walked up to the swords and chose one that was perfect for his height, as did Wei and they started to fight against each other. Sara watched as the two professionally flipped around everywhere.
And then they stopped.
"Master Li, should I get Miss Riddle for you so you can train better?" Wei asked all of a sudden. "She is just behind the trees behind you."
"I know. Yes." Syaoran said, looking over at Sara's direction. Wei walked over to the trees, which took about two minutes and smiled at Sara.
"Would you like to join the Master and me? It looks as if you are in training uniform." He said, looking at the clothes that Sara was in.
"I usually train alone." Sara said.
"Well, why don't you use our equipment? We have enough. If you need swords or something to beat up you can use our stuff."
"I use the Sword, Fight and Power Card. I just need somewhere to train."
"You're welcome to train here."
"Okay." Sara said and walked back with him to an area where she could train. She then called out her wand, then Fight. They both got into fighting positions and then took off at each other.
At first, Fight was attacking Sara with plain punches and Sara blocked each of them. Fight fell back on her hands and kicked at Sara's feet but Sara did a one-handed cartwheel away to Fight's side and kicked her there, sending Fight over to Syaoran who ducked just in time. Fight came back at Sara with even more anger then before. She punched at Sara, but she caught her hand and Fight was pulled over to Sara's side and then was kneed in the stomach.
Syaoran watched in interest as Sara then pulled out the Power Card and commanded it to give its power to Fight to give her an extra boost.
Fight practically fazed out of sight and went behind Sara. She tripped her at her legs and then kicked her in the back so Sara basically flew over to Wei, who caught her, making him fall back. Sara ran back to Fight and kicked at her as hard as she could and only made contact once. Then it was Fight's turn. Fight got Sara five out of ten times which really angered Sara. She then quickly punched Fight in the head and then kicked her as hard as she could.
She was just about to go after Fight when she heard Sakura, Tomoyo and Naoko screaming at Sara as an encouragement. Then she realised the outfit that she was wearing and turned to Fight/Power to return it to its card form. She quickly turned to leave when she felt Sakura's hand on her arm.
"What do you want?" Sara snapped.
"Where'd you learn to fight like that?"
"I lived in a place where if you
weren't strong, you'd get no food. The rations were very small and some kids
would be beaten up so others could get more. And then I had to fight the Fight
Card to seal it and I decided to train everyday from then on."
"How long have you been out here?"
"Since five."
"How can you do that?"
"Easily. What time is it now?"
"Seven." (They had been fighting more. I just put in the larger details.)
"Really?"
"Yeah." Tomoyo said. "We were told to come out here to tell you guys to come in so we could have breakfast." Sara stormed in front of them so she could have a quick shower before that.
~*~*~
That's it. That's also a lot o' pages. In the next chapter, we skip time until the Hogwarts students arrive.
Goodbye, goodnight and good morning.
Jinko Kawaii.
