Chapter 4: Seek my Sister
Sakura and Clow Reed walked along the imperial gardens' stone path. Every time they passed a beautiful tree full of colorful flowers, Sakura felt even more depressed and hung her head down. "Clow-sifu," she mumbled, "Why do we have to go?" Clow looked at the path and continued to walk with Sakura, "Well, for one, it is a direct order from the emperor," Clow smiled "and two, your friend Li Syaoran is going to be there, he's going to be declared the new captain of the hand to hand combat forces."
Sakura no longer blushed when she heard Syaoran's name. Instead, she hung her head down in disgust. "I don't care about him anymore," Clow was taken back. Clow worried about his favorite student, got down on one knee while trying to look at Sakura's emerald eyes, "Sakura," he said worried, "You don't mean that do you?" Sakura tried to think hard if she did or didn't.
Flashback
Syaoran had the bloody hands in him. He was no longer one of innocent blood; he walked to the nearest fountain to go wash himself off. As he found a wooden tub full of water, he went to go to clean up. "Li-hing!" Sakura shouted chasing after him. She caught up with him after he had stopped to wash himself off. "Li-hing, why did you kill that man, he was innocent." Syaoran washed the blood off his face, "Because, he's a rebel," he stated, "Your father, he was right, last time when I let one of them get that close to you, you were scared. I felt helpless."
Unsure how to feel, Sakura rejected, "But he didn't do anything to me, and besides, knowing you, you wouldn't do that!" Syaoran looked at Sakura, Sakura finally felt relieved now that he had washed his face. "Well," Syaoran began to say, "Guess the bastard deserved it!" Sakura began to tear in her eyes, "This is not you Syaoran!" Syaoran looked at her with ambition, "You're right," he stated, "It's not me, the old me. I realize that in order to become stronger, in order to become powerful, I need to show no mercy." Sakura didn't want to hear anymore, she slapped Syaoran in the face and ran off crying.
Syaoran felt two things, guilt and loneliness. "Sorry Fwan," he whispered, "But this is me, and I'm doing this for your own good."
End Flashback
"Ahh, Clow Reed and Fwan Hung Na, it's an honor to have you as guests." The guard said bowing down to them both. "Speak nothing of it! Today we hear that Li Syaoran is finally being promoted to the position he deserves, is this so?" The guard nodded at Clow Reed. "Please enter!" The guard opened the grandiose door for both of them when they entered. Sakura and Clow walked along the shiny palace floors, and looking at each other, they decided to proceed to the main room where Syaoran's honor ceremony would take place.
Syaoran looked around; there were dozens of soldiers and people looking at the new captain. Syaoran however was not happy; he had the meanest look anyone ever saw in his face. "Syaoran," Li turned around to meet his beautiful mother, Yelan in the eyes. She bent down and hugged her son, giving him congratulations for being in charge of the hand to hand force. "Syaoran, please withhold family honor at all times." "I will mother!" Syaoran said coldly.
Suddenly, the general pulled the mother away from the son. A normal son, willing to love his mother would have brought her mother, or just held on a little longer. Syaoran didn't when she was pulled apart from him, he stared at her coldly. "Listen boy!" Min began to say, "I am putting you in charge of nearly 3,000 men, think you can handle it?" Syaoran nodded. "Good! And remember everything I said to you yesterday." Syaoran wanted to remember, but everything that Min said was so harsh.
Flashback
"You finally did the right thing Syaoran, you killed a rebel!" General Min and the men all sat around the banquet table and gave three cheers for the newly appointed captain. "As promised, I shall put you in charge of 3,000 hand to hand combat men, who shall assist us in the battlefield. Your hard work has persevered and made you what you are today, be proud." Syaoran gave a cold and serious look to everyone.
Syaoran would wish this stupid dinner party would end. "I killed someone!" he said, "I murdered someone!" The General saw his struggle and called off the dinner party. "You have all been greatly appreciated, now you may all leave." The people gathered their belongings and walked out the door in a single file line. Syaoran sat in his cushion alone, looking at his clenched hands on his knees.
"Something you want to talk about?" Min asked. Syaoran shook his head. "Then allow me to ask," Min looked at the depressed Syaoran, "How did it feel to kill a rebel?" Syaoran shot his head up, "It felt…" Syaoran didn't want to say this, but it was true, "All my life, I was brought to killing as being wrong and unjust." Min looked at him, with interest. "But when I first slid the dagger in that man's heart, BOY did it feel good!" Min never saw this side of Syaoran. "Not good though right, don't you mean, honorable, just?" Syaoran shook his head.
"It felt good! I was being suppressed by the enemy, they tortured me, called me names, hurt those I love, for that, when I killed him, his death was enjoyment for my suffering." Min shot up, "But that's not right!" Syaoran looked at him confused, "When you kill someone, you should not feel vengeful and spite, you should feel that you are honored for taking their life, but not rubbing it in." Syaoran hung his head down in guilt. "Besides, remember, when you are in the battlefield, those who you love are completely ignored." Syaoran shot his head up again. "Those who you love, those you fight for, they are no longer in consideration." Syaoran nodded.
"I will make you captain still Syaoran, but you may not kill unjust. Remember that women and children are always spared, and the men you kill, their death was in honor for having died by you."
End Flashback
"Regardless of that general," Syaoran said, "I have no remorse for killing that man!" The general stated, "You shouldn't," the general walked away, "but don't forget that man!" Syaoran saw all his loyal subjects bowing before him in unison, all the audience members witnessing this saw the birth of a new captain. Syaoran also had a new uniform to boot. He wore a black cape, red shoulder pads, and a black breastplate.
Syaoran then looked around to see who was among the audience, and then he saw one person leave. "Auburn hair," he thought, "There's only one person that could be."
Sakura stood outside the doors of the room Syaoran was in and started to cry. "Li-hing, how could you accept this mark of corruption?" Sakura felt a hand on her shoulder, "Fwan I…" Sakura heard a familiar voice and backed away and turned around to see who it was. "Listen Fwan," Syaoran said, "I may not be the same person you've known before, but nonetheless, I still am Syaoran." Sakura looked at him with teary eyes.
"You may be," she hesitated to say, "But you still killed someone!" Sakura tried to make a run for it but she was pulled back. "Sakura!" he called, "I'm still Syaoran, I'm not corrupt, I just…" "What did you call me?" Sakura interrupted with disbelief. Syaoran wondering what he said was wrong, then it hit him. "Oh, I called you Fwan! Sorry! I know I'm not allowed to." Sakura stopped crying, she wiped the tears away, "I know you called me by my name, but before you start calling me by that name, I wanna call you Syaoran, is that okay?" Syaoran nodded.
"Good!" Sakura gave her best cheerful smile ever. "Why aren't you mad anymore?" Syaoran asked. "I don't know," she stated, "But when I feel your presence, I don't feel you are scary anymore." Syaoran felt relieved, "Listen, I know I'm going to my first campaign today, and I wanna make it up to you. So would you want to maybe…" Syaoran began to blush. Sakura wondered what was up with him, "Never mind!" he said. Sakura smiled. Syaoran began to walk away until Sakura called him again.
"Syaoran!" she called, "If you're going to your first campaign, remember never to kill, and always remember how sad you made me." Syaoran agreed, "I promise!" Sakura pouted, "I don't believe you!" Syaoran started to get scared of her for a second. Sakura then held out her pinky like a hook. "Make me believe you!" she stated. Then Syaoran held out his pinky in the shape of a hook and pinky sweared with her. Sakura then took off her necklace and tied it over Syaoran's neck. Syaoran could only blush. "Remember, if you do kill anyone, I'm going to take that back!" Syaoran smiled and left.
Sakura looked at her departing friend, "I can't act mean to him," she said to herself, "Even though he may be stained with blood, I still am with him."
Syaoran's First Campaign:
Mission Briefing Orders
Syaoran, as you know, those Japanese rebels have been trying to kidnap my daughter Sakura. It is your job to dismantle them where they stand. Bring 10 combat men to scout the area at 2:00 P.M. Kill as many guards as you can to provoke them. If they choose to bring in their army to attack you, do not hesitate to kill them and let them die with honor. Remember, spare all women and children, and don't kill thoughtlessly.
End
Syaoran read the papers and folded them in his pocket. "Okay this should be a cinch!" Syaoran had already sent all ten men to kill all the scouts. He stood at the top of the hill using his keen eyes to see if any trouble was coming, if so, he was the back up force. "AWWWOOOOOOO!!!!" he heard, "Dammit! It's another trap!"
Suddenly, all his ten men were being attacked by white head banded men who popped out from the sand next to them. "I gotta help them!" he shouted, "But my promise to Sakura, I can't-" Syaoran hesitated to unsheathe his sword, "I need to let them handle this by themselves, but I can't fail." Syaoran saw his men savagely attacked, and then he saw one getting killed. "No!" he cried. 'In the battlefield, forget about you loved ones!' Syaoran stared at Sakura's necklace, "Sorry Sakura!" He rushed in and began his attack.
Sakura was hard at work. "Sleeping are we!?" Clow Reed yelled which made Sakura wake up. "Please Clow, I'm tired, it's 4:00 in the morning!" Clow Reed pulled out his 'Sleep' card. "Remember this?" he asked, "This is how you got most of your sleeping in the daytime so you could help me now, no way you can be tired again!" Sakura yawned, "Sorry but I-" Sakura was interrupted when she and Clow heard light footsteps outside. "Is Syaoran back?" she asked. Sakura checked outside to see the gates to the city open and Syaoran hauled a large body with him.
"Syaoran!" she happily cheered, "You're back!" Syaoran hauled in the body and she stopped when she saw who it was. "Why did you bring him here?" Sakura stared at the man with black hair and a red head band all tied up and curled up and unconscious. "Sakura, I wanted to bring to justice the man who tried to kidnap you." Syaoran said bravely, "My other men have died for the cause of bringing this man to justice, and as my first act as captain, I want to show you that I didn't cause unnecessary bloodshed to get this man." "That's a damn lie and you know it!" The man woke with passion saying that. "Hey, I thought I knocked you out!?" Syaoran asked.
"Listen Sakura, this man tells lies, he killed all the scouts with rage and in order for him to stop, I had to give myself up to him!" Sakura looked at the man and Syaoran. She couldn't believe her ears. "That's enough from you!" Syaoran struck him in the neck making him unconscious again. Sakura stared at Syaoran, once beginning to water her eyes, "So you lied to me?" Syaoran shook his head in desperation, "No Sakura I-" "YOU LIED TO ME!" she yelled. "Syaoran, to have someone lie to you, especially about something this great, I just can't forgive." Sakura looked away from Syaoran. Syaoran felt guilt, but he tried to explain, "Sakura…I am a soldier, I couldn't keep your promise because it's my duty as a soldier. And my men…they were being brutally murdered, I had to save them." "And where are they now!?" Sakura snapped back. "They're dead." Syaoran mumbled. "You just sank as low as them!" Sakura said, "Syaoran, don't ever see me again!" Syaoran was taken aback, "I can't do that!" Sakura in rage took off Syaoran's lucky ring and threw it at his chest. "You need that," she stated with tears streaming down her eyes, "…if you die, then you will die with it."
Sakura ran away from Syaoran not wanting to see him anymore. "Sakura wait I-" "FIRE GOD, GET HIM AWAY FROM ME!" Sakura shot a fire spell at Syaoran and continued to run off. Syaoran feeling the burn winced, but at the same time, felt his heart crush into a million pieces.
"Damn you!" he yelled and turned his attention to his prisoner, "You ruined it all, I made Sakura a promise and she wasn't supposed to know I lied." The man opened his eyes partially, "Well, maybe you shouldn't make promises then." "I'll KILL YOU!" he shouted. "Go get it over with, I'm sure Sakura would like that, come on you killed my men, go ahead and kill me, I wanna join them." Syaoran brought his sword up ready to chop the man's head off, but he put it back down. "You'll be dead soon enough!" Syaoran put him down and just punched him in the face. "I don't need her to love me anyways!" Syaoran walked off with a cold smile and his cape flowing with the wind.
Sakura was hurled all over her bed crying. The pillow, the sheets, everything was wet with tears. She left her door open ajar with a little light from the halls shining into her room.
Sakura Narration
I hate him! I hate him! How could he lie to me? Why is he now so cold? Ever since he killed that man, many good things have been happening to him. First he gets that dinner banquet, and then he's promoted. Every time I passed him on the streets, his once serious self had now become sadistic with madness. He is not the same Syaoran as before. (Someone strokes the back of Sakura's head) Who is it? Leave me alone! "Sakura." A heavenly voice, is it an angel, hopefully she will put me out of my misery. (Sakura turns around to see Tomoyo) "Tomoyo…"
End Sakura Narration
Sakura looked at Tomoyo with exhaustion. "Sakura, are you alright?" Tomoyo worriedly put her hand over her face to wipe away her tears. "Please Sakura, don't cry, a smile always suits you best." Sakura hesitantly looked at Tomoyo. Tomoyo felt Sakura's soft body; she picked up Sakura and embraced her. "Sakura, I hate to see you sad," Sakura felt Tomoyo's soft skin, this feeling of embrace led her to believe for a while that she once had a mother before, who embraced her this same way.
"Tomoyo, I…" Sakura choked, "I don't belong here Tomoyo!" Sakura began to cry once again and Tomoyo caught her before she fell back into her bed. "Then where do you belong Sakura?" Sakura began to think as she told Tomoyo, "Back then, I knew I was different from everyone, everyone looked at me different everyone talked to me different. The only thing that made me belong here was my family and friends, but now they don't even belong. Now where do I belong?" Suddenly, Sakura got a quick thought of someone pop into her head.
"Tomoyo!" she said, "I must go, someone, I need to talk to someone." Sakura quickly put on her coat and left the door. Tomoyo tried to stop her, but she realized that maybe Sakura was going to be okay and left her to go.
The Prison:
Dank water dripped from the ceiling, rats infested the whole area, the bars were rusted-but strong, people in their cells began to get coughing diseases and began to die. The lone leader with his red headband sat on the straw floor, looking down at his misfortune. "Hey Japanese rebel!" the guard called, "Someone's here to see you!" The rebel leader stared and heard noises of a door clanking shut and footsteps approaching his cage.
Then, out of nowhere, a teenage girl bent down and stared at him with her emerald eyes. "What do you want?" he asked, "You came to see me be pathetic like this?" Sakura pulled out a canister, a piece of paper, and slipped it through the bars. "Water god! Help this man!" Sakura summoned from the piece of paper a light stream of water coming out from it that fell into the canister. "Here, drink this!" Sakura offered.
The man, both thirsty and tired, graciously took the water and began to drink the whole thing. Little tiny streams from his mouth dripped off and wet his shirt, but he didn't care, his shirt was dirty anyways. "Thank you!" he said giving her a smile. "Now that I have gave you water, you must answer my question." The man looked confused, "Which one?" Sakura thought about it for a second. "What is my name, and how do you know it?" The man smiled, "Sakura…your name is Sakura." Sakura, content waited for him to continue. "Who in our rebel force doesn't know Sakura?" he asked himself as the answer to her question. "What's that supposed to mean?" Sakura asked in a frantic tone.
The man stared at her, "Sakura is the name of the child that was missing, stolen, from us." Sakura looked at him quizzically, "Us?" "Yeah, the rebels, or back then we simply were Japanese refugees who wished to settle in the land of China." Sakura begged him to continue. "Anyways, I bet you're dying to know my name, cause you keep calling me nothing, so from now on, just call me Touya." Sakura greeted him, "It's nice to meet you Touya!" "Same here! After waiting for so long I've finally met my dear sister Sakura!" Sakura snapped and remembered something.
Flashback
Touya then turned his attention to Sakura, although she was a baby resting in the arms of her father, he looked at her shiny baby emerald eyes and smiled. "Little sis, when we grow up, we're gonna have so much fun in China, we're gonna learn kung fu, then we're gonna wear silk, and eventually, we'll learn to cook Chinese food." Sakura, though not understanding a word Touya had just said, cheered like a happy baby. "But before we go to China, to our new home, I want to give you this." Touya pulled from his pocket a preserved petal of a cherry blossom on a rope, a cherry blossom necklace if you will. Touya put a preserved peach flower petal necklace on himself, "Now we have a piece of old Japan, while we live in New China."
Sakura smiled for one last time, then hooves and footsteps are heard, the cavalry had arrived. In little Sakura's eyes, she saw nothing but white light.
End Flashback
"You were the little boy?" Sakura asked and Touya nodded, "Then please tell me what happened to mother and to father!" Touya laughed. "Well I don't know what happened to mother, you have to ask father about that." "Where is father?" Sakura asked desperately. "I can take you to him, but…" Touya said a condition, "But?" Sakura asked him to continue. "You gotta get me out of here" Sakura nodded.
She took out her hand and placed it on the wall where they would make their escape. "Oh element of the earth, let me pass your barriers." Sakura kept her hand there but nothing was happening. "Hey, what are you doing? I said let me out, not keep me in!" Sakura smiled at Touya, flicking the wall, the whole wall collapsed in a single flick. "Whoa!" Touya said, "That's cool, now get me outta these bars!" Sakura put a piece of Chinese paper on the bars. "Fire, melt!" The bars melted letting Touya getting an easy escape path. "Whoa, thanks, now let's make a run for it."
The next morning:
"Sakura's GONE MISSING!" shouted General Min, "That damned rebel took her!" Syaoran tried to calm his superior down, "General," Syaoran said, "If a simply go back to their base and get her, you can stop worrying." Syaoran tried to calm down the General, but his franticness got the best of him. "My poor daughter, by now, they are probably having fun with her." Syaoran inquisitively wondered what the general meant by, "Having fun?"
"Those rebels are all pigs, pigs I tell you! They would rape the first thing they saw!" Syaoran snapped his eyes open and bowed down to the general. "General!" he yelled, "I will go to the base and retrieve Sakura; I will not allow your daughter to face such pain."
"Ahhhhhhh!" Sakura shouted, "This food is sooo good!" Sakura grabbed her bowl of rice and in mouthfuls ate her rice. "Hmmm…what a monster!" Touya mumbled with his hand covering his mouth. "Huh?" Sakura asked. "Oh nothing!" Touya smiled seeing his sister so happy. "So I think father may be up, let me go check!" Sakura nodded with a cheerful smile.
Sakura Narration
These people, they aren't so mean. They are so nice. Especially brother Touya. And they are also more informal also, I don't have to call Touya- Touya-hing I can just call him Onni-chan. And Touya said that I can just call father Otou-san. And my real name is Sakura Kinomoto. I didn't know I had a last name!
Anyways, after rescuing my brother yesterday night, we went here and got some sleep. Then for breakfast he made me the best rice I've ever had. And when I was eating, I didn't have to eat with my mouth closed, or with my chopsticks in the right length. I could just eat, I love this freedom.
But what about all the people I left behind. What if I never see them again? Tomoyo, Clow-sifu, father, Syao-NO! I can't think about him! He got me into this trouble in the first place. I'm glad I got rid of his stupid ring!
End Sakura Narration
"Sakura-chan!" the tent guard called. Sakura was still eating, but she put down her chopsticks and bowl to see what the guard wanted. "Your father is here now."
Character Bio
Touya Kinomoto
Birthday: February 29
Zodiac most like: Tiger
Favorite Hobby: Leading the Rebel Wolves, his gang
Least Favorite Hobby: None
Special Talents: Excellent Leader and athletic
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite flower: Peach blossoms
Favorite Food: Steak
Least favorite food: Fried tofu
Something he can cook: Eggs
Wish lists: Shoes
My Comments: Touya is somewhat of a leader to his rag tag group, the Rebel Wolves. Though as you can see I implemented some brother figures in Touya (calling Sakura 'monster'), he is still not the complete brotherly figure. Instead, he is more of a person who will show Sakura who she truly is.