Disclaimer: I don't own CCS, or anything in here except my made-up
characters and the story line.
Chapter 3- Fear of Death
"Wait up!" Sakura shouted to Syaoran. She caught up with him at the park.
"Here." He called down from above a tall, tall, TALL tree.
"Hoe!" Sakura said, as she got starry-eyed from just looking at it.
"It's a good thing that it's night, so just use your Fly card to get up here," Syaoran yelled to her. Sakura whipped out her card and staff.
"OK, I'm coming up." She said.
As she landed on the branch with Syaoran, she asked him, "So, what's going on?"
"Close your eyes, and just reach out with your senses," He told her.
She took a deep breath and did just that. She gasped as she sensed the disruption and chaos in the surrounding world.
"Wow," she said to Syaoran. "Yeah, and I could feel weird auras around the two Huangs, so I think that we should be careful around them."
"OK." Sakura said. I'll try to listen to him, but I don't know if it's going to work. I didn't feel anything, and they just got here. What if he's wrong? Sakura conveniently forgot that he had almost never been proven wrong about magic yet.
~*~*~*~
"Meilin!" Sakura shouted as she spotted her old friend. She ran up to the gate excitedly. Syaoran and Tomoyo weren't far behind. Tomoyo, as always, had her Sony V8 out. Eriol was there too.
"Hey Meilin!" Syaoran coolly greeted her. He shyly handed her a bouquet of flowers. "Here."
"Welcome back to Japan!" Tomoyo greeted her.
"Thanks ya guys! I'm really glad that I could come. I missed Japan a lot, and all of ya guys!" She gave Sakura and Tomoyo both a warm hug.
Sakura and Tomoyo moved off with Meilin, filling her in on all the events that Meilin had missed, leaving Syaoran Eriol with all of Merlin's bags.
"Well, this shouldn't be too hard." Syaoran said to himself. Eriol grinned. He picked up three of Meilin's bags in his hands. Syaoran grinned as he spotted Meilin's single light bag.
"Whoa!" he shouted again as the bag weighed him down. It weighed a ton! Eriol smiled slightly.
"Too heavy for you?" He asked mockingly.
"No!" Syaoran said defiantly, though he struggled with the bag all the way to the car.
"What do you have in your bag?" he asked Meilin the moment they arrived home.
"Oh, just some stuff that Aunt Ieran made me bring." Meilin flipped open the suitcase and out popped an enormous amount of Chinese things. Syaoran's eyes bulged out.
"What! Mom made you bring out all this stuff? What for? Oh my gosh! How did you ever get it in that little suitcase?" He sighed. "Well, I should've expected it. Mother is always making me work."
*~*~*~*
"Class, I'm sure that you have all noticed the two new members in our class, Huang Kentaro and Huang Leisa. They have transferred here from..."
"Taiwan." Leisa said in a firm voice.
"Taiwan." The sensei repeated. "I haven't had enough time to fully introduce them, but here they are. Also, many of you may remember Li Meilin, who had joined us again from Hong Kong."
Kent gave Sakura a wink as he returned to his seat. Behind Sakura, Syaoran fumed as he saw Sakura smile back at Kent.
Sakura wondered what drew every new student's attention to her. She flashed a grin back. Syaoran had felt her powers, and Eriol had known that she was the Card Captor Mistress. Meilin had been obviously jealous of her, and Michael was being too nice to her too. Leisa had also suddenly developed an interest in her when they had first met. That was a funny one. Sakura had no idea why of course. Kent was also being really nice to her.
"Now, our annual sophomore camping trip of Seijou High to Camp Kerala is coming up soon." The teacher announced to the class. "All of your permission slips need to be handed in by tomorrow. The trip starts next Monday. So hurry up and don't delay to hand in your slips."
Sakura was decidedly bored again. She stared out the window as the teacher droned on and on about the camping trip. She could hardly wait until the camping trip. The one that she had gone on last year had been really fun. Plus, this year Meilin and Eriol were here. It was the first week of October. Suddenly, she noticed something moving against the fence. As she watched, the shadow burned a hole in the fence. As it grew larger, Sakura gasped. The shadow slipped through it and she could see it race away. Then the hole magically mended itself. What in the world was that? She wondered to herself.
"Sakura-chan," she heard Tomoyo whisper loudly. It was her turn to read. Class had started again.
"Where are we?" She asked Tomoyo softly as she scanned her book.
"Top of page 16." Tomoyo answered.
"And the girl ran quickly up to the top of the hill." Sakura continued.
*~*~*~*
"So, you, me, Chiharu-chan, Rika-chan, Meilin-chan, and Naoko-chan are all going to share a room together?" Sakura asked Tomoyo after school. "No, of course not!" Tomoyo said exasperatedly. "That's way too many people in one tent. So Rika-chan, Naoko-chan, and Leisa-chan will share a tent together. And then you, Chiharu-chan, and me will share a tent together. And also Meilin-chan. Unless of course we get cabins, which will make it a lot easier on us because then we can all bunk together."
"Oh, I get it now." Sakura mumbled cluelessly. "And should I bring Kero- chan along? He really want to go with us, but I'm not sure if bringing him is a good idea."
"Of course you should bring him along. He'll be really helpful.
"Especially if this camping trip turned out like the last one." They heard a voice behind them say.
"Syaoran-kun!" Sakura exclaimed in surprise. "Hey!" He replied.
"Meilin! I can't wait to go to camp with you!" Sakura exclaimed happily. "It'll be so fun together!"
"Yeah, last year was so much fun!" Tomoyo added.
"I can't believe I missed it!" Meilin wailed. "So what happened?" She asked.
"Umm." Sakura and Tomoyo both sweat-dropped. They couldn't remember exactly what had happened.
"Duh, there was a huge snowstorm, and we got stuck in the cabins for ages. But we caught the Snow card and the Warmth card. We really needed the Warmth card. It was freezing there." Syaoran helped Sakura and Tomoyo out a bit in memory.
"Oh yeah." Sakura said as she remembered.
"But it was a great experience!" Rika jumped in. "Rika-chan!" Sakura screamed. No one had noticed Rika, Chiharu, and Yamazaki coming up behind them. "
Yeah, you know what else happened, a huge ice monster appeared, and trashed two cabins, and a there was a huge ice storm, and we couldn't go anywhere, and we." Yamazaki was cut off because Chiharu crammed an apple into his mouth full force.
"Now, where were we?" Chiharu asked calmly.
"Whoa, someone's mad." Syaoran commented slyly. Then he dodged behind Meilin as Chiharu's face grew an angry red.
*~*~*~*
"So. Kero-chan, I've decided to take you with me to camp." Sakura told Kero when she arrived home. Her father was out, and Touya was at a basketball game.
"Yay!" Kero cheered. "Now, I'm gonna need lots of food, video games to keep me entertained, plus a comfy bed, and a warm place to sleep. Oh yeah, don't forget that I also want a new cell phone, and a pair of sunglasses."
"Hoe! There's no way I'm gonna do that for you!" Sakura exclaimed. "I'm only bringing you because Syaoran-kun said that you were going to be helpful."
"The Brat said that?" Kero said surprised. "Maybe he's better than I thought he was."
"He does have a name." Sakura complained.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. Anyway, the Brat looks a lot better now. I think that he's matured. Kero said.
"Oh yeah. I noticed a weird thing this afternoon." Sakura told Kero about the fence incident with the shadow.
"That doesn't sound familiar to me at all. Well, I'm not supposed to know what the other cards are anyway because I'm only the keeper of the Clow cards, and they've all been collected now. It does sound dangerous though. We don't even know what it is yet. So I'm advising you to be careful now. It might be another card, or even another force. But even if it is, don't catch it. You should keep it under force until Hiyoshi arrives on the scene. " Kero ended because his video game started up.
Sakura sighed. She was still uneasy about the entire thing. It was a relief that Syaoran would be coming along. He could do his whole heroic thing and save her if anything happened. Sakura sighed again as she remembered the many times that Syaoran had saved her back when they had been collecting the cards. And what had she done to repay him? Absolutely nothing. So, what should she do? She thought to herself.
*~*~*~*
Syaoran was in a very bad mood. Meilin had just dragged him around the mall shopping for clothes. Syaoran felt very degraded as he hauled clothes around the mall after Meilin.
"Hey, where exactly did you get all of the money to buy this stuff?" Syaoran asked Meilin suspiciously after she had bought her sixth outfit from Ikasan.
"Well." Meilin sweat-dropped. "Umm. I'm maxing your credit card."
"What!" Syaoran yelled out.
"Well, you did steal it from Aunt Ieran. And she said that I could do whatever I wanted here to keep you in check. And of course I don't think that you need a credit card at all. So I'm going to use it."
Syaoran grabbed his credit card back from Meilin and marched straight out of the store.
"Wait!" Meilin cried out after him. "Hey, I was just kidding! Please, please let me use your credit card. Please, I really want to buy this dress. It'll look great on me for the prom."
"We don't have a prom until our junior year." Syaoran told Meilin curtly. She clutched the white gown firmly. It had silver sequins down the sides and was really beautiful. Syaoran sighed in defeat. Meilin noticed, but took it as a sigh of disgust and tried a different tact.
"But, you know, a fancy party or something. Plus, we have a new tradition at our school, we're having a sophomore prom too."
"We do?" Syaoran asked surprised.
"Yeah!" Meilin said excitedly. "How could you not know? I just arrived here and I already know about it."
"Hey, who keeps me in touch with school events?" Syaoran muttered angrily. "And the answer is still no."
"Hey, you could give it as a present for Sakura to wear to Homecoming. It's coming up. November is next month." Meilin said slyly.
"What?" Syaoran shouted in disbelief. November was next month, "That means that it's October." He said slowly.
"Yeah genius. Time to start prepping for soccer?" Meilin grabbed the credit card back from the stunned Syaoran and headed back to the store.
"Wait up!" Syaoran yelled as he ran after Meilin. Then, "Soccer? Yeah, I think that I will go to the tryouts."
Meilin walked out of the store humming happily to herself. "Now what?" Syaoran asked her. "Oh, I just bought the most adorable dress, it was so beautiful, and I just couldn't leave it. And it was on sale!" Meilin held up a pastel blue dress that had tiny white flowers all over it. "My silver flower necklace's going to go great with this." She exclaimed.
Syaoran groaned. "C'mon, let's go. Girls!" he muttered under his breath.
"What?" Meilin asked him accusingly. "Nothing!" He denied quickly. She eyed him suspiciously but dropped her gaze. Syaoran sighed in relief.
*~*~*~*
"So, cous, we gonna do anything to them over camp?"
"Maybe. I'll think about it," A female voice answered.
"Leisa, why do you get to do all of the decisions?" The other voice whined.
"Because you are a stupid imbecile who can't do anything right." Leisa snapped.
"Hey, I'm smarter than you." A retort came at her.
"Yeah whatever." Leisa said casually. She sighed. "None of the other guys in this town are good enough for me. There are all such imbeciles."
"You know what your problem is, you are way too self-centered. I mean, what do you mean you haven't fallen in love with any of them. I see you drooling over that Syaoran-kun guy all the time. And he's so in love with Sakura- chan."
Grey eyes mocked Leisa. Leisa's face reddened.
"No, I think that it is better if we destroy them by each other. If I can make Syaoran-kun fall in love with me, Sakura- chan will be torn apart. Then we'll gain control of all of the cards. He comes in real handy when I want to torture Sakura-chan." She smiled evilly. "Maybe I will do something to them over camp. We need to get closer to them. Know your enemies well enough, and we'll be able to crush them like that!" Leisa snapped her fingers.
"Yeah, Leisa, have you ever thought about giving this whole idea up? I mean I still don't understand why you are so into it. I mean, why are we still doing this?"
"Because those Clow cards were destined to be ours. And that Sakura girl stole them form us with Syaoran-kun. Who I'm sure was forced to. But, our ancestral lines call on us to retrieve the stolen cards. They are ours!" Leisa's eyes flashed.
"Whoa! Nice little speech there cous. Getting ready to become to become president?"
"This is a serious matter. Pay attention. Don't joke about it, those are our cords, and I want them back,"
"But we've already got this other deck of Reed cards. Can't you be satisfied with those?"
"No. When we join the two decks together into one, it will form the ultimate deck- the Màng deck. With it we can be unstoppable. We can send all our cards from the Reed deck after Sakura-chan. Then when she collects them all, we can overpower her and take the deck from her and we will win."
"Wait, cous, I thought that you said that when the two decks are joined together, the mistress will be unstoppable." Kent interrupted Leisa as he pointed out a very important fact.
"OK, so we'll keep a few cards at home and send the rest out to torment her." Leisa retorted angrily. Then her eyes lit up.
"You're wrong. Didn't you feel the new force entering Japan? Eriol-sama, he brought a new force along, a boy named. Kimi Hiyoshi." She said as she concentrated. Her eyes were closed and her eyebrows furrowed in deep perseverance.
"Fine. So what cards are you going to torment Sakura-chan and the rest of them with?" "This one." Leisa said with a glint of evil in her gray eyes as she picked one up.
"Ooh! That's evil."
"I know."
*~*~*~*
Sakura was busy browsing through mall stores hopelessly. She still hadn't found a present for Syaoran yet. And she wanted to give it to him before something bad happened. She could sense it somewhere. Dark power was growing stronger, but it was an even stronger blow than that that was coming soon. She sighed as she ended her search and headed home. Camp was tomorrow and she was anxious to go. School had been everlasting.
Maybe I could ask Meilin. Sakura thought. She knows him best. She'd know exactly what to get him. Just like she helped me in fourth grade. Sakura grinned. I'd better give him a present fast though. Even though nothing can ever repay him on how many times he's saved my life. Sakura smiled in remembrance. Suddenly, she saw a flashing blade coming down on her.
"Hoe!" She screamed as she fell backward to escape. The blade narrowly missed her. It sliced through her jacket. A figure clad in black wielded the sword. "Who are you?" Sakura gasped as she nervously backed away. Her heart pounded loudly as she ran into a wall. Great! Just my luck to run into a huge problem the one night I don't walk home with anyone.
Silently the figure advanced without a word. Crimson red eyes burned into Sakura's green eyes. Sakura grabbed her key.
"Duh, I should've thought of this first. Fly, release!" She yelled. The figure stepped back and faded away into the shadows as Sakura flew away. Sakura shivered as she looked back. She was mad at herself for not knowing how to defend herself and for running away. If Syaoran had been here, he wouldn't have run away. He would immediately have fought. He knew how to defend himself. How could she have run away?
Sakura resolved to herself to ask Syaoran if he could teach her the martial arts. That way, she would be able to defend herself next time. But of course he would probably laugh at her for running away. Sakura sighed. Well, she'd have to live through it.
*~*~*~*
"What?!" Kero exploded when Sakura told him what had happened. "That's so freaky! Do you think that it has anything to do with the shadow you saw the other day?"
"Maybe." Sakura replied.
"And are you sure that you want to learn form the Brat? I mean, he will make a good coach, but I still don't trust him. He's way too spoiled." Kero cautioned Sakura.
"Hey, I can make my own decisions now." Sakura retorted to Kero. "And he's spoiled? Not as much as you are."
"Hey, and that reminds me, where is my pudding?"
"Mmm." Sakura said subconsciously. She was busy thinking about the camp. She could hardly wait, and it was just tomorrow.
"Sakura-chan, go get me something to eat." Kero ordered her just as she heard her father call her down for dinner.
She ran down the stairs and slid into her seat at the table. Sakura immediately began eating. She was starving.
"Mm this is really good otou- san." She complimented her father.
"Arigato Sakura-chan. I'm glad someone likes my food." Her father told her as he gave a hard glance at Touya who was playing a game on his cell phone while half eating his food. "So, otou-san, Sakura, I've got a college application interview coming up in a month, January. You know, for our graduate school. Yukito and I plan to go out of the country. Not that we don't like it here in Japan." Touya added quickly. But Yuki and I are going together and we just wanted to get a scene change. It's in England, remember, for Oxford University. We might try out Cambridge too."
"Ina month? OK." Sakura said. "Whatever."
"Touya, you need to ask me before you decide things like this." Fujitaka reprimanded him. "But it's ok with me. How long will you be gone?"
"Oh, I don't know. Yuki and I want to tour around England too. Look at all the famous places. So maybe all of February and some of March." Touya said as he nervously looked at his father for approval.
"Two months! That's a long time!" Sakura said in disbelief.
"Yeah, I know that." Touya said dryly,
"Two months is quite a long time. I might have to reconsider my decision about letting you go."
"But otou-san, I really want to go. Plus, I am an adult now. So you can't stop me."
Fujitaka sighed. He glanced at the picture of his late wife, Nadeshiko. Help me decide. It's been so hard bringing up Touya and Sakura without you. They really needed a mother. I hope that I've been a good father to them. I miss you Nadeshiko. He pleaded to her.
Amazingly, he felt a slight stir in his soul. Let him go. I'll watch over him.
"Alright, you can go." He said to Touya,
"Sweet!" Touya cheered.
I'll always be with you. Nadeshiko's voice seemed to whisper to Fujitaka. He smiled.
Sakura looked on in surprise. A few seconds ago, her brother had been a whiny little boy. And now he was acting more mature. Guys, they're so immature. I guess the sayings true that they mature a lot slower than girls do. Except Syaoran-kun of course. And Eriol-kun. Now what's up with otou- san. He seems so happy.
*~*~*~*
"Kero-chan, I can't find my camera!" It was the morning of camp and Sakura was frantic.
"Well, I don't know where it is." Kero said absorbed in his video game. "You should've put everything away last night."
"Oh, here it is." Sakura pulled out her camera from underneath her chair.
"OK, C'mon. We're going." She grabbed Kero up from his game, and stuffed him inside her bag. Sakura ran downstairs and grabbed a roll out from the basket. She dropped her stuff by the table. Eating quickly, she gulped down her milk as she nodded a greeting to her dad.
"Where's onii-chan?" She asked him.
"Oh, he just left to meet up with his friend Tsukishiro Yukito to go biking or something." Her father replied. He held out a bag to her.
"What's it for?" Sakura asked curiously.
"Oh, just some snacks for my little girl in case she needs something at camp."
"Thanks otou-san." Sakura said as she gave her dad a quick hug. "Well, you'd better hurry. School's gonna start in 10 minutes." Her father warned Sakura. She dashed out the door, and then came running back in.
"I forgot my stuff." She told her dad humiliatedly as she grabbed her junk and slipped on her roller blades quickly. Another quick hug and she was on her way to school. Catching up to her brother, she gave him a mean glare.
"Hey Sakura-chan." She heard Yuki say.
"Good morning Yukito-san." She replied. Yuki smiled at her brightly.
"Are you excited about camp?" He asked her as he slowly coasted on his bike.
"Yeah! It's going to be really fun. It was great last year, and I want to see how it turns out this year." Sakura replied excitedly.
"I hope you have fun." He told her.
"Thanks." Sakura said. They reached Seijou High.
"Bye." Sakura waved at Yuki and Touya. Touya gave a half-wave back, and Yuki grinned.
"Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo yelled out. "C'mon, the buses are loading already. I've saved you a seat with us. Everyone's there already." Sakura ran to the bus with Tomoyo right behind her. Meilin gave Sakura a warm smile. Syaoran stared outside the window as Sakura passed, but stared at her after she had passed until Meilin poked him in the ribs.
"What?" He asked her angrily.
"Don't stare like that at Sakura-chan. You're practically drooling over her." Meilin giggled.
"No I'm not!" Syaoran said defiantly.
"Sakura-chan! Late again!" Chiharu scolded. Everyone smiled good- naturedly. Rika and Naoko started up a conversation about camp.
"I can't wait till the campfire. We can tell all these ghost stories!" Naoko said gleefully.
"Ahh!" Sakura said. "Ghost stories, I hate them!"
"Yeah, and you know what else?" Yamazaki started.
"Just shut up already." Chiharu said as she bonked Yamazaki on the head.
"The stories come true if they are scary enough and the monsters come out to haunt the camp kids." Yamazaki continued.
"Ahh!" Sakura screamed. Tomoyo calmed her down. "It's not really true, he's just teasing you." She told Sakura.
"Anyway, if you're scared, you can hang onto me." Kent said to Sakura. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and she snuggled under him.
"Thanks Kent-kun." She said. Syaoran's face got redder and redder, until Tomoyo and Meilin thought he would explode. They giggled to each other. Eriol, Meilin, and Tomoyo had already made up many plans on how to get the two of them together, although having Leisa and Kent there would complicate their plans.
"And if I get scared, can I snuggle under you Syaoran-kun?" Leisa said to him. Catching Sakura's bright green eyes, Syaoran grinned. Two can play at this.
"Of course." He said as he wrapped his arm around her.
"Sakura-chan?" Kent asked softly. She turned back to him, and was soon engaged in an interesting conversation about music bands. Halfway through the trip, Sakura noticed Syaoran sitting all by himself. Everyone else was absorbed in conversations. Sakura slipped over to Syaoran's seat quietly. Of course, the one person who noticed this was Tomoyo. She immediately turned on her Sony V8.
"I definitely can't miss this opportunity when they are so close together." She murmured to herself. Syaoran looked up when he saw Sakura arrive.
"What do you want?" He asked her gruffly as he resumed staring outside the window.
"Well." Sakura was hurt by his coldness. She took a breath and then told him all about last night's experience with the figure and the sword. Just as she had expected, he criticized her.
"You ran away? How could you? I guess you were scared. You are going to need some serious training." He told Sakura.
"Exactly, and I was thinking of asking you to help me." Sakura told him shyly. "I know that this is a really hard thing to do, but I do really need some training. And I really want to learn how to fight so next time I can beat that guy up." Sakura declared. "So can you teach me?"
"Of course. But you're gonna have to get up at four every morning and meet me in the park to train." He told Sakura.
"Hoe! Four in the morning! That's so early." Sakura complained. But as Syaoran opened his mouth, she nodded quickly.
"Yes, I can do that."
"OK. Then we'll start next Monday after we get back from camp."
"Whatever you say." Sakura sighed thinking of what she was going to get him now.
"What is it?" Syaoran asked quickly.
"Nothing." Sakura replied surprised that he had noticed that something was wrong. "Sakura." Syaoran stated simply. He paused. "What?"
"Never mind." Syaoran replied as he lost his nerve. Sakura stared deeply into his amber eyes trying to see if anything was hidden in there, but Syaoran did too well of a job of hiding his emotions. She moved out of her seat and returned to the group. Tomoyo just managed to put her video camera away before Sakura saw it.
*~*~*~*
Syaoran stared after Sakura. True, he had agreed to help her train, but he had not thought that she would agree to it. Four was really early in the morning. Of course he woke up at three every morning to train, but he was used to it. He couldn't imagine Sakura doing that. Plus, if he didn't train, he would get out of touch with his skills. He wondered how long it would take for Sakura to give up. It wasn't that he doubted her, but the martial arts were a very hard art to learn, especially at an older age like theirs. It had taken a lot of perseverance for Syaoran to succeed, and he had had a very, very patient teacher. Chensen. Would he ever be as patient to Sakura?
Could he? Meilin of course had just finished her training, but no one here knew about that. They had just figured that she went home and returned because she had been ordered to. Syaoran had given up so many times to be steered on track by Chensen again. Syaoran had been totally devastated when his father had suddenly died. Chensen and Meilin had turned him around though. The Elders had wanted to send Syaoran to a psychiatric ward because of his unstable behavior. The loss of his father had been a big blow. His mother had been so busy with his other four sisters that she hardly had any time for Syaoran. She gave possession of him over to Chensen with only a moment of hesitation. True, Meilin had been the same age as him, but she was very mature. The arrangement for her to marry Syaoran was a surprise to both of them, even though she had never acted that way.
She had always been like an older sister to Syaoran while they were growing up. She had finally had the engagement removed while Syaoran was in Hong Kong 6 years ago. She knew about Syaoran's love for Sakura, and supported them a lot. She was now engaged to another cousin. His name was Li Senjin. Syaoran didn't really like the arrangement, since he knew that Senjin was a really stupid and crappy guy, , but he also he knew that Meilin deserved a lot better than that knew Meilin could have the marriage broken off easily though. All he had to do was make sure that Meilin didn't get too depressed or do something crazy, like marry him. Even though she hadn't shown that when she had first arrived in Japan and had to compete with Sakura, she had gotten over Syaoran fast. She knew that they really didn't belong together. Chensen and Meilin were sister and brother.
They had helped Syaoran through many hard times. Chensen was only twelve years older than Meilin and Syaoran. Syaoran could remember the many times when Chensen had stood patiently over him, perfecting every move that Syaoran made, fixing every wrong stance. How Chensen had persuaded the Elders to let Syaoran take the test, how Chensen had smiled when Syaoran had passed. Syaoran was suddenly filed with a desire to go home. But then Chensen had deserted him and died of an illness. Syaoran's eyes filled with unshed tears, and they were about to all come spilling out when Sakura yelled out excitedly,
"We're there!" All of the girls, Sakura, Meilin, Tomoyo, Chiharu, Rika, Naoko, and Leisa picked out a cabin together. It turned out that no tents were to be used, and it was a lot easier. Syaoran, Yamazaki, Michael, Kent, Eriol, and some other classmates shared another cabin. As Sakura unpacked, out flew Kero. He gasped for air as Sakura apologized. Sakura then filled him in on what had happened, which wasn't a lot.
*~*~*~*
Later that night, there was a small dance at the main cabin.
"C'mon Syaoran, dance with me!" Leisa pulled him onto the dance floor with amazing strength. Sakura watched Syaoran resisting her, and then giving in. He saw him watching her, and she turned her face away quickly.
"Hey, Sakura, want to dance?" Michael asked her. Kent was just steps away, wanting a turn too. She turned down Michael, seeing the looks that Naoko was giving him. She knew that she wasn't the one for him. They were just good friends. Kent stood next to her, eagerly waiting her answer to his question.
"Nah." Sakura broke off. Was that Leisa's face that she saw buried in Syaoran's chest?
"Sure Kent." She replied. Waltzing onto the floor, she suddenly felt Kent trip and fall. He hit a table with some food on it. WHOOSH! All of the food fell off and splattered on his shirt.
"Baka!" He muttered as he excused himself. Sakura caught Syaoran's amber eyes. They were still looking serious, though they had a mischievous glint to them. She glared at him angrily, then excused herself and ran off to the cabin.
*~*~*~*
"Little Wolf. HA! You've got such false hopes. Chensen is dead, and you know Meilin is soon to follow. Plus now you've pushed your precious Cherry Blossom too far away. She's gone. She will never be yours." A taunting voice told Syaoran.
"NO!" Syaoran screamed. "Sakura, come back!" She moved further and further away from him. Her emerald eyes overflowed with sadness. She looked at Syaoran longingly once more before she turned her back on him and floated away.
"How could you do this to me?" He heard her voice whisper softly to him, her voice drifting back to him on the wind. "What did I ever do to deserve this?"
"NO, Sakura, come back!" Paying no attention to him, Sakura disappeared. Running after her, Syaoran found himself stranded on a cliff. A gentle push was from behind was all that was needed for Syaoran to go tumbling down onto the rocky surf.
OK, third chapter is done. Now what? Anyone miss Hiyoshi? He hasn't enrolled in school yet, but he'll appear next chapter. Anything else that you're confused about, or want me to change or whatever, email me at rowzezqueen@yahoo.com ~Ruby
Chapter 3- Fear of Death
"Wait up!" Sakura shouted to Syaoran. She caught up with him at the park.
"Here." He called down from above a tall, tall, TALL tree.
"Hoe!" Sakura said, as she got starry-eyed from just looking at it.
"It's a good thing that it's night, so just use your Fly card to get up here," Syaoran yelled to her. Sakura whipped out her card and staff.
"OK, I'm coming up." She said.
As she landed on the branch with Syaoran, she asked him, "So, what's going on?"
"Close your eyes, and just reach out with your senses," He told her.
She took a deep breath and did just that. She gasped as she sensed the disruption and chaos in the surrounding world.
"Wow," she said to Syaoran. "Yeah, and I could feel weird auras around the two Huangs, so I think that we should be careful around them."
"OK." Sakura said. I'll try to listen to him, but I don't know if it's going to work. I didn't feel anything, and they just got here. What if he's wrong? Sakura conveniently forgot that he had almost never been proven wrong about magic yet.
~*~*~*~
"Meilin!" Sakura shouted as she spotted her old friend. She ran up to the gate excitedly. Syaoran and Tomoyo weren't far behind. Tomoyo, as always, had her Sony V8 out. Eriol was there too.
"Hey Meilin!" Syaoran coolly greeted her. He shyly handed her a bouquet of flowers. "Here."
"Welcome back to Japan!" Tomoyo greeted her.
"Thanks ya guys! I'm really glad that I could come. I missed Japan a lot, and all of ya guys!" She gave Sakura and Tomoyo both a warm hug.
Sakura and Tomoyo moved off with Meilin, filling her in on all the events that Meilin had missed, leaving Syaoran Eriol with all of Merlin's bags.
"Well, this shouldn't be too hard." Syaoran said to himself. Eriol grinned. He picked up three of Meilin's bags in his hands. Syaoran grinned as he spotted Meilin's single light bag.
"Whoa!" he shouted again as the bag weighed him down. It weighed a ton! Eriol smiled slightly.
"Too heavy for you?" He asked mockingly.
"No!" Syaoran said defiantly, though he struggled with the bag all the way to the car.
"What do you have in your bag?" he asked Meilin the moment they arrived home.
"Oh, just some stuff that Aunt Ieran made me bring." Meilin flipped open the suitcase and out popped an enormous amount of Chinese things. Syaoran's eyes bulged out.
"What! Mom made you bring out all this stuff? What for? Oh my gosh! How did you ever get it in that little suitcase?" He sighed. "Well, I should've expected it. Mother is always making me work."
*~*~*~*
"Class, I'm sure that you have all noticed the two new members in our class, Huang Kentaro and Huang Leisa. They have transferred here from..."
"Taiwan." Leisa said in a firm voice.
"Taiwan." The sensei repeated. "I haven't had enough time to fully introduce them, but here they are. Also, many of you may remember Li Meilin, who had joined us again from Hong Kong."
Kent gave Sakura a wink as he returned to his seat. Behind Sakura, Syaoran fumed as he saw Sakura smile back at Kent.
Sakura wondered what drew every new student's attention to her. She flashed a grin back. Syaoran had felt her powers, and Eriol had known that she was the Card Captor Mistress. Meilin had been obviously jealous of her, and Michael was being too nice to her too. Leisa had also suddenly developed an interest in her when they had first met. That was a funny one. Sakura had no idea why of course. Kent was also being really nice to her.
"Now, our annual sophomore camping trip of Seijou High to Camp Kerala is coming up soon." The teacher announced to the class. "All of your permission slips need to be handed in by tomorrow. The trip starts next Monday. So hurry up and don't delay to hand in your slips."
Sakura was decidedly bored again. She stared out the window as the teacher droned on and on about the camping trip. She could hardly wait until the camping trip. The one that she had gone on last year had been really fun. Plus, this year Meilin and Eriol were here. It was the first week of October. Suddenly, she noticed something moving against the fence. As she watched, the shadow burned a hole in the fence. As it grew larger, Sakura gasped. The shadow slipped through it and she could see it race away. Then the hole magically mended itself. What in the world was that? She wondered to herself.
"Sakura-chan," she heard Tomoyo whisper loudly. It was her turn to read. Class had started again.
"Where are we?" She asked Tomoyo softly as she scanned her book.
"Top of page 16." Tomoyo answered.
"And the girl ran quickly up to the top of the hill." Sakura continued.
*~*~*~*
"So, you, me, Chiharu-chan, Rika-chan, Meilin-chan, and Naoko-chan are all going to share a room together?" Sakura asked Tomoyo after school. "No, of course not!" Tomoyo said exasperatedly. "That's way too many people in one tent. So Rika-chan, Naoko-chan, and Leisa-chan will share a tent together. And then you, Chiharu-chan, and me will share a tent together. And also Meilin-chan. Unless of course we get cabins, which will make it a lot easier on us because then we can all bunk together."
"Oh, I get it now." Sakura mumbled cluelessly. "And should I bring Kero- chan along? He really want to go with us, but I'm not sure if bringing him is a good idea."
"Of course you should bring him along. He'll be really helpful.
"Especially if this camping trip turned out like the last one." They heard a voice behind them say.
"Syaoran-kun!" Sakura exclaimed in surprise. "Hey!" He replied.
"Meilin! I can't wait to go to camp with you!" Sakura exclaimed happily. "It'll be so fun together!"
"Yeah, last year was so much fun!" Tomoyo added.
"I can't believe I missed it!" Meilin wailed. "So what happened?" She asked.
"Umm." Sakura and Tomoyo both sweat-dropped. They couldn't remember exactly what had happened.
"Duh, there was a huge snowstorm, and we got stuck in the cabins for ages. But we caught the Snow card and the Warmth card. We really needed the Warmth card. It was freezing there." Syaoran helped Sakura and Tomoyo out a bit in memory.
"Oh yeah." Sakura said as she remembered.
"But it was a great experience!" Rika jumped in. "Rika-chan!" Sakura screamed. No one had noticed Rika, Chiharu, and Yamazaki coming up behind them. "
Yeah, you know what else happened, a huge ice monster appeared, and trashed two cabins, and a there was a huge ice storm, and we couldn't go anywhere, and we." Yamazaki was cut off because Chiharu crammed an apple into his mouth full force.
"Now, where were we?" Chiharu asked calmly.
"Whoa, someone's mad." Syaoran commented slyly. Then he dodged behind Meilin as Chiharu's face grew an angry red.
*~*~*~*
"So. Kero-chan, I've decided to take you with me to camp." Sakura told Kero when she arrived home. Her father was out, and Touya was at a basketball game.
"Yay!" Kero cheered. "Now, I'm gonna need lots of food, video games to keep me entertained, plus a comfy bed, and a warm place to sleep. Oh yeah, don't forget that I also want a new cell phone, and a pair of sunglasses."
"Hoe! There's no way I'm gonna do that for you!" Sakura exclaimed. "I'm only bringing you because Syaoran-kun said that you were going to be helpful."
"The Brat said that?" Kero said surprised. "Maybe he's better than I thought he was."
"He does have a name." Sakura complained.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. Anyway, the Brat looks a lot better now. I think that he's matured. Kero said.
"Oh yeah. I noticed a weird thing this afternoon." Sakura told Kero about the fence incident with the shadow.
"That doesn't sound familiar to me at all. Well, I'm not supposed to know what the other cards are anyway because I'm only the keeper of the Clow cards, and they've all been collected now. It does sound dangerous though. We don't even know what it is yet. So I'm advising you to be careful now. It might be another card, or even another force. But even if it is, don't catch it. You should keep it under force until Hiyoshi arrives on the scene. " Kero ended because his video game started up.
Sakura sighed. She was still uneasy about the entire thing. It was a relief that Syaoran would be coming along. He could do his whole heroic thing and save her if anything happened. Sakura sighed again as she remembered the many times that Syaoran had saved her back when they had been collecting the cards. And what had she done to repay him? Absolutely nothing. So, what should she do? She thought to herself.
*~*~*~*
Syaoran was in a very bad mood. Meilin had just dragged him around the mall shopping for clothes. Syaoran felt very degraded as he hauled clothes around the mall after Meilin.
"Hey, where exactly did you get all of the money to buy this stuff?" Syaoran asked Meilin suspiciously after she had bought her sixth outfit from Ikasan.
"Well." Meilin sweat-dropped. "Umm. I'm maxing your credit card."
"What!" Syaoran yelled out.
"Well, you did steal it from Aunt Ieran. And she said that I could do whatever I wanted here to keep you in check. And of course I don't think that you need a credit card at all. So I'm going to use it."
Syaoran grabbed his credit card back from Meilin and marched straight out of the store.
"Wait!" Meilin cried out after him. "Hey, I was just kidding! Please, please let me use your credit card. Please, I really want to buy this dress. It'll look great on me for the prom."
"We don't have a prom until our junior year." Syaoran told Meilin curtly. She clutched the white gown firmly. It had silver sequins down the sides and was really beautiful. Syaoran sighed in defeat. Meilin noticed, but took it as a sigh of disgust and tried a different tact.
"But, you know, a fancy party or something. Plus, we have a new tradition at our school, we're having a sophomore prom too."
"We do?" Syaoran asked surprised.
"Yeah!" Meilin said excitedly. "How could you not know? I just arrived here and I already know about it."
"Hey, who keeps me in touch with school events?" Syaoran muttered angrily. "And the answer is still no."
"Hey, you could give it as a present for Sakura to wear to Homecoming. It's coming up. November is next month." Meilin said slyly.
"What?" Syaoran shouted in disbelief. November was next month, "That means that it's October." He said slowly.
"Yeah genius. Time to start prepping for soccer?" Meilin grabbed the credit card back from the stunned Syaoran and headed back to the store.
"Wait up!" Syaoran yelled as he ran after Meilin. Then, "Soccer? Yeah, I think that I will go to the tryouts."
Meilin walked out of the store humming happily to herself. "Now what?" Syaoran asked her. "Oh, I just bought the most adorable dress, it was so beautiful, and I just couldn't leave it. And it was on sale!" Meilin held up a pastel blue dress that had tiny white flowers all over it. "My silver flower necklace's going to go great with this." She exclaimed.
Syaoran groaned. "C'mon, let's go. Girls!" he muttered under his breath.
"What?" Meilin asked him accusingly. "Nothing!" He denied quickly. She eyed him suspiciously but dropped her gaze. Syaoran sighed in relief.
*~*~*~*
"So, cous, we gonna do anything to them over camp?"
"Maybe. I'll think about it," A female voice answered.
"Leisa, why do you get to do all of the decisions?" The other voice whined.
"Because you are a stupid imbecile who can't do anything right." Leisa snapped.
"Hey, I'm smarter than you." A retort came at her.
"Yeah whatever." Leisa said casually. She sighed. "None of the other guys in this town are good enough for me. There are all such imbeciles."
"You know what your problem is, you are way too self-centered. I mean, what do you mean you haven't fallen in love with any of them. I see you drooling over that Syaoran-kun guy all the time. And he's so in love with Sakura- chan."
Grey eyes mocked Leisa. Leisa's face reddened.
"No, I think that it is better if we destroy them by each other. If I can make Syaoran-kun fall in love with me, Sakura- chan will be torn apart. Then we'll gain control of all of the cards. He comes in real handy when I want to torture Sakura-chan." She smiled evilly. "Maybe I will do something to them over camp. We need to get closer to them. Know your enemies well enough, and we'll be able to crush them like that!" Leisa snapped her fingers.
"Yeah, Leisa, have you ever thought about giving this whole idea up? I mean I still don't understand why you are so into it. I mean, why are we still doing this?"
"Because those Clow cards were destined to be ours. And that Sakura girl stole them form us with Syaoran-kun. Who I'm sure was forced to. But, our ancestral lines call on us to retrieve the stolen cards. They are ours!" Leisa's eyes flashed.
"Whoa! Nice little speech there cous. Getting ready to become to become president?"
"This is a serious matter. Pay attention. Don't joke about it, those are our cords, and I want them back,"
"But we've already got this other deck of Reed cards. Can't you be satisfied with those?"
"No. When we join the two decks together into one, it will form the ultimate deck- the Màng deck. With it we can be unstoppable. We can send all our cards from the Reed deck after Sakura-chan. Then when she collects them all, we can overpower her and take the deck from her and we will win."
"Wait, cous, I thought that you said that when the two decks are joined together, the mistress will be unstoppable." Kent interrupted Leisa as he pointed out a very important fact.
"OK, so we'll keep a few cards at home and send the rest out to torment her." Leisa retorted angrily. Then her eyes lit up.
"You're wrong. Didn't you feel the new force entering Japan? Eriol-sama, he brought a new force along, a boy named. Kimi Hiyoshi." She said as she concentrated. Her eyes were closed and her eyebrows furrowed in deep perseverance.
"Fine. So what cards are you going to torment Sakura-chan and the rest of them with?" "This one." Leisa said with a glint of evil in her gray eyes as she picked one up.
"Ooh! That's evil."
"I know."
*~*~*~*
Sakura was busy browsing through mall stores hopelessly. She still hadn't found a present for Syaoran yet. And she wanted to give it to him before something bad happened. She could sense it somewhere. Dark power was growing stronger, but it was an even stronger blow than that that was coming soon. She sighed as she ended her search and headed home. Camp was tomorrow and she was anxious to go. School had been everlasting.
Maybe I could ask Meilin. Sakura thought. She knows him best. She'd know exactly what to get him. Just like she helped me in fourth grade. Sakura grinned. I'd better give him a present fast though. Even though nothing can ever repay him on how many times he's saved my life. Sakura smiled in remembrance. Suddenly, she saw a flashing blade coming down on her.
"Hoe!" She screamed as she fell backward to escape. The blade narrowly missed her. It sliced through her jacket. A figure clad in black wielded the sword. "Who are you?" Sakura gasped as she nervously backed away. Her heart pounded loudly as she ran into a wall. Great! Just my luck to run into a huge problem the one night I don't walk home with anyone.
Silently the figure advanced without a word. Crimson red eyes burned into Sakura's green eyes. Sakura grabbed her key.
"Duh, I should've thought of this first. Fly, release!" She yelled. The figure stepped back and faded away into the shadows as Sakura flew away. Sakura shivered as she looked back. She was mad at herself for not knowing how to defend herself and for running away. If Syaoran had been here, he wouldn't have run away. He would immediately have fought. He knew how to defend himself. How could she have run away?
Sakura resolved to herself to ask Syaoran if he could teach her the martial arts. That way, she would be able to defend herself next time. But of course he would probably laugh at her for running away. Sakura sighed. Well, she'd have to live through it.
*~*~*~*
"What?!" Kero exploded when Sakura told him what had happened. "That's so freaky! Do you think that it has anything to do with the shadow you saw the other day?"
"Maybe." Sakura replied.
"And are you sure that you want to learn form the Brat? I mean, he will make a good coach, but I still don't trust him. He's way too spoiled." Kero cautioned Sakura.
"Hey, I can make my own decisions now." Sakura retorted to Kero. "And he's spoiled? Not as much as you are."
"Hey, and that reminds me, where is my pudding?"
"Mmm." Sakura said subconsciously. She was busy thinking about the camp. She could hardly wait, and it was just tomorrow.
"Sakura-chan, go get me something to eat." Kero ordered her just as she heard her father call her down for dinner.
She ran down the stairs and slid into her seat at the table. Sakura immediately began eating. She was starving.
"Mm this is really good otou- san." She complimented her father.
"Arigato Sakura-chan. I'm glad someone likes my food." Her father told her as he gave a hard glance at Touya who was playing a game on his cell phone while half eating his food. "So, otou-san, Sakura, I've got a college application interview coming up in a month, January. You know, for our graduate school. Yukito and I plan to go out of the country. Not that we don't like it here in Japan." Touya added quickly. But Yuki and I are going together and we just wanted to get a scene change. It's in England, remember, for Oxford University. We might try out Cambridge too."
"Ina month? OK." Sakura said. "Whatever."
"Touya, you need to ask me before you decide things like this." Fujitaka reprimanded him. "But it's ok with me. How long will you be gone?"
"Oh, I don't know. Yuki and I want to tour around England too. Look at all the famous places. So maybe all of February and some of March." Touya said as he nervously looked at his father for approval.
"Two months! That's a long time!" Sakura said in disbelief.
"Yeah, I know that." Touya said dryly,
"Two months is quite a long time. I might have to reconsider my decision about letting you go."
"But otou-san, I really want to go. Plus, I am an adult now. So you can't stop me."
Fujitaka sighed. He glanced at the picture of his late wife, Nadeshiko. Help me decide. It's been so hard bringing up Touya and Sakura without you. They really needed a mother. I hope that I've been a good father to them. I miss you Nadeshiko. He pleaded to her.
Amazingly, he felt a slight stir in his soul. Let him go. I'll watch over him.
"Alright, you can go." He said to Touya,
"Sweet!" Touya cheered.
I'll always be with you. Nadeshiko's voice seemed to whisper to Fujitaka. He smiled.
Sakura looked on in surprise. A few seconds ago, her brother had been a whiny little boy. And now he was acting more mature. Guys, they're so immature. I guess the sayings true that they mature a lot slower than girls do. Except Syaoran-kun of course. And Eriol-kun. Now what's up with otou- san. He seems so happy.
*~*~*~*
"Kero-chan, I can't find my camera!" It was the morning of camp and Sakura was frantic.
"Well, I don't know where it is." Kero said absorbed in his video game. "You should've put everything away last night."
"Oh, here it is." Sakura pulled out her camera from underneath her chair.
"OK, C'mon. We're going." She grabbed Kero up from his game, and stuffed him inside her bag. Sakura ran downstairs and grabbed a roll out from the basket. She dropped her stuff by the table. Eating quickly, she gulped down her milk as she nodded a greeting to her dad.
"Where's onii-chan?" She asked him.
"Oh, he just left to meet up with his friend Tsukishiro Yukito to go biking or something." Her father replied. He held out a bag to her.
"What's it for?" Sakura asked curiously.
"Oh, just some snacks for my little girl in case she needs something at camp."
"Thanks otou-san." Sakura said as she gave her dad a quick hug. "Well, you'd better hurry. School's gonna start in 10 minutes." Her father warned Sakura. She dashed out the door, and then came running back in.
"I forgot my stuff." She told her dad humiliatedly as she grabbed her junk and slipped on her roller blades quickly. Another quick hug and she was on her way to school. Catching up to her brother, she gave him a mean glare.
"Hey Sakura-chan." She heard Yuki say.
"Good morning Yukito-san." She replied. Yuki smiled at her brightly.
"Are you excited about camp?" He asked her as he slowly coasted on his bike.
"Yeah! It's going to be really fun. It was great last year, and I want to see how it turns out this year." Sakura replied excitedly.
"I hope you have fun." He told her.
"Thanks." Sakura said. They reached Seijou High.
"Bye." Sakura waved at Yuki and Touya. Touya gave a half-wave back, and Yuki grinned.
"Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo yelled out. "C'mon, the buses are loading already. I've saved you a seat with us. Everyone's there already." Sakura ran to the bus with Tomoyo right behind her. Meilin gave Sakura a warm smile. Syaoran stared outside the window as Sakura passed, but stared at her after she had passed until Meilin poked him in the ribs.
"What?" He asked her angrily.
"Don't stare like that at Sakura-chan. You're practically drooling over her." Meilin giggled.
"No I'm not!" Syaoran said defiantly.
"Sakura-chan! Late again!" Chiharu scolded. Everyone smiled good- naturedly. Rika and Naoko started up a conversation about camp.
"I can't wait till the campfire. We can tell all these ghost stories!" Naoko said gleefully.
"Ahh!" Sakura said. "Ghost stories, I hate them!"
"Yeah, and you know what else?" Yamazaki started.
"Just shut up already." Chiharu said as she bonked Yamazaki on the head.
"The stories come true if they are scary enough and the monsters come out to haunt the camp kids." Yamazaki continued.
"Ahh!" Sakura screamed. Tomoyo calmed her down. "It's not really true, he's just teasing you." She told Sakura.
"Anyway, if you're scared, you can hang onto me." Kent said to Sakura. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and she snuggled under him.
"Thanks Kent-kun." She said. Syaoran's face got redder and redder, until Tomoyo and Meilin thought he would explode. They giggled to each other. Eriol, Meilin, and Tomoyo had already made up many plans on how to get the two of them together, although having Leisa and Kent there would complicate their plans.
"And if I get scared, can I snuggle under you Syaoran-kun?" Leisa said to him. Catching Sakura's bright green eyes, Syaoran grinned. Two can play at this.
"Of course." He said as he wrapped his arm around her.
"Sakura-chan?" Kent asked softly. She turned back to him, and was soon engaged in an interesting conversation about music bands. Halfway through the trip, Sakura noticed Syaoran sitting all by himself. Everyone else was absorbed in conversations. Sakura slipped over to Syaoran's seat quietly. Of course, the one person who noticed this was Tomoyo. She immediately turned on her Sony V8.
"I definitely can't miss this opportunity when they are so close together." She murmured to herself. Syaoran looked up when he saw Sakura arrive.
"What do you want?" He asked her gruffly as he resumed staring outside the window.
"Well." Sakura was hurt by his coldness. She took a breath and then told him all about last night's experience with the figure and the sword. Just as she had expected, he criticized her.
"You ran away? How could you? I guess you were scared. You are going to need some serious training." He told Sakura.
"Exactly, and I was thinking of asking you to help me." Sakura told him shyly. "I know that this is a really hard thing to do, but I do really need some training. And I really want to learn how to fight so next time I can beat that guy up." Sakura declared. "So can you teach me?"
"Of course. But you're gonna have to get up at four every morning and meet me in the park to train." He told Sakura.
"Hoe! Four in the morning! That's so early." Sakura complained. But as Syaoran opened his mouth, she nodded quickly.
"Yes, I can do that."
"OK. Then we'll start next Monday after we get back from camp."
"Whatever you say." Sakura sighed thinking of what she was going to get him now.
"What is it?" Syaoran asked quickly.
"Nothing." Sakura replied surprised that he had noticed that something was wrong. "Sakura." Syaoran stated simply. He paused. "What?"
"Never mind." Syaoran replied as he lost his nerve. Sakura stared deeply into his amber eyes trying to see if anything was hidden in there, but Syaoran did too well of a job of hiding his emotions. She moved out of her seat and returned to the group. Tomoyo just managed to put her video camera away before Sakura saw it.
*~*~*~*
Syaoran stared after Sakura. True, he had agreed to help her train, but he had not thought that she would agree to it. Four was really early in the morning. Of course he woke up at three every morning to train, but he was used to it. He couldn't imagine Sakura doing that. Plus, if he didn't train, he would get out of touch with his skills. He wondered how long it would take for Sakura to give up. It wasn't that he doubted her, but the martial arts were a very hard art to learn, especially at an older age like theirs. It had taken a lot of perseverance for Syaoran to succeed, and he had had a very, very patient teacher. Chensen. Would he ever be as patient to Sakura?
Could he? Meilin of course had just finished her training, but no one here knew about that. They had just figured that she went home and returned because she had been ordered to. Syaoran had given up so many times to be steered on track by Chensen again. Syaoran had been totally devastated when his father had suddenly died. Chensen and Meilin had turned him around though. The Elders had wanted to send Syaoran to a psychiatric ward because of his unstable behavior. The loss of his father had been a big blow. His mother had been so busy with his other four sisters that she hardly had any time for Syaoran. She gave possession of him over to Chensen with only a moment of hesitation. True, Meilin had been the same age as him, but she was very mature. The arrangement for her to marry Syaoran was a surprise to both of them, even though she had never acted that way.
She had always been like an older sister to Syaoran while they were growing up. She had finally had the engagement removed while Syaoran was in Hong Kong 6 years ago. She knew about Syaoran's love for Sakura, and supported them a lot. She was now engaged to another cousin. His name was Li Senjin. Syaoran didn't really like the arrangement, since he knew that Senjin was a really stupid and crappy guy, , but he also he knew that Meilin deserved a lot better than that knew Meilin could have the marriage broken off easily though. All he had to do was make sure that Meilin didn't get too depressed or do something crazy, like marry him. Even though she hadn't shown that when she had first arrived in Japan and had to compete with Sakura, she had gotten over Syaoran fast. She knew that they really didn't belong together. Chensen and Meilin were sister and brother.
They had helped Syaoran through many hard times. Chensen was only twelve years older than Meilin and Syaoran. Syaoran could remember the many times when Chensen had stood patiently over him, perfecting every move that Syaoran made, fixing every wrong stance. How Chensen had persuaded the Elders to let Syaoran take the test, how Chensen had smiled when Syaoran had passed. Syaoran was suddenly filed with a desire to go home. But then Chensen had deserted him and died of an illness. Syaoran's eyes filled with unshed tears, and they were about to all come spilling out when Sakura yelled out excitedly,
"We're there!" All of the girls, Sakura, Meilin, Tomoyo, Chiharu, Rika, Naoko, and Leisa picked out a cabin together. It turned out that no tents were to be used, and it was a lot easier. Syaoran, Yamazaki, Michael, Kent, Eriol, and some other classmates shared another cabin. As Sakura unpacked, out flew Kero. He gasped for air as Sakura apologized. Sakura then filled him in on what had happened, which wasn't a lot.
*~*~*~*
Later that night, there was a small dance at the main cabin.
"C'mon Syaoran, dance with me!" Leisa pulled him onto the dance floor with amazing strength. Sakura watched Syaoran resisting her, and then giving in. He saw him watching her, and she turned her face away quickly.
"Hey, Sakura, want to dance?" Michael asked her. Kent was just steps away, wanting a turn too. She turned down Michael, seeing the looks that Naoko was giving him. She knew that she wasn't the one for him. They were just good friends. Kent stood next to her, eagerly waiting her answer to his question.
"Nah." Sakura broke off. Was that Leisa's face that she saw buried in Syaoran's chest?
"Sure Kent." She replied. Waltzing onto the floor, she suddenly felt Kent trip and fall. He hit a table with some food on it. WHOOSH! All of the food fell off and splattered on his shirt.
"Baka!" He muttered as he excused himself. Sakura caught Syaoran's amber eyes. They were still looking serious, though they had a mischievous glint to them. She glared at him angrily, then excused herself and ran off to the cabin.
*~*~*~*
"Little Wolf. HA! You've got such false hopes. Chensen is dead, and you know Meilin is soon to follow. Plus now you've pushed your precious Cherry Blossom too far away. She's gone. She will never be yours." A taunting voice told Syaoran.
"NO!" Syaoran screamed. "Sakura, come back!" She moved further and further away from him. Her emerald eyes overflowed with sadness. She looked at Syaoran longingly once more before she turned her back on him and floated away.
"How could you do this to me?" He heard her voice whisper softly to him, her voice drifting back to him on the wind. "What did I ever do to deserve this?"
"NO, Sakura, come back!" Paying no attention to him, Sakura disappeared. Running after her, Syaoran found himself stranded on a cliff. A gentle push was from behind was all that was needed for Syaoran to go tumbling down onto the rocky surf.
OK, third chapter is done. Now what? Anyone miss Hiyoshi? He hasn't enrolled in school yet, but he'll appear next chapter. Anything else that you're confused about, or want me to change or whatever, email me at rowzezqueen@yahoo.com ~Ruby