Chapter 10: Consolidating Our Forces

            Touya sat inside his father's tent, little by little, he was picking up his belonging that once belonged to father and placed them in a burlap sack. "Father might need this," he said as he put each item in the bag. Just then, Sakura had walked into the tent seeing Touya clear his desk, put away his pipe, and clean his shelves off. "Onni-chan?" Sakura held her hands to her chest, "Father is dead because of me." Touya turned around looking at his sister, "Don't say that!" Touya said, "Father's death wasn't any of our faults, it was those damn Chinese."

            Sakura, once being a part of the Chinese herself, was very sad after hearing his statement. "Touya!" she said, "Not all Chinese are like that." Touya nodded, "You're right Sakura, but unfortunately, they are like this when it comes to us." Sakura was alarmed, "You can't be serious Touya!" Sakura yelled, "Didn't father always tell you that one race of people would never hate another race, it's our job to change what happens after that." Touya thought about the conversation he had with Fujitaka right before he died.

Flashback

            "Father, this is not right! Sakura can never fell in love with a dreaded Chinese," Touya worried for his sister, "The Chinese hate us, what's so different about him, he is one of them, one of the Chinese." Fujitaka took out his pipe and began to smoke it. "Touya, a race, to be a race, we must tolerate those who are different from us." Fujitaka got up and patted Touya on the shoulder. "I appreciate you trying to act like a brother, but you know if Sakura and Syaoran are that much in love, I doubt that Syaoran would hurt her."

            "That's where you are wrong father?" Touya snapped, "He's only pretending so he can cripple our forces through your daughter." Fujitaka frowned, "That's enough Touya! I tell you now so you must heed my words. Touya, if you think that way, the way of hatred and betrayal, then you will definitely become just like an enemy, because they have already said that about us, let's show them that we are not." Touya nodded obediently.

End Flashback

            "Screw what father said!" Touya snapped, "I have had enough of you Sakura." Touya began to pack in items in the sack faster. "It's your fault you had to bring that brat over! If he didn't come, maybe we still would be surviving out here." Touya turned around seeing Sakura with a wet face. Sakura immediately slapped him in the face. "SYAORAN TRIED TO HELP US AND YOU BLAME HIM FOR ALL YOUR MISFORTUNE!?"  Sakura yelled out with passion defending her love, "Touya, I can't believe what you're saying, you're not sounding like my brother."

            Touya was confused, "Why did you slap me?" Touya barked, "I don't know why you're always Syaoran this and Syaoran that. For the past week, I've heard nothing from you but Syaoran!" Touya threw the bag of Fujitaka's stuff behind his back. "You had to pick a Chinese, he couldn't have been Japanese. Oh well, it doesn't matter, we're going back to Japan soon, that way you won't have to see him again."

            Sakura was heart struck. "What did you say?" she asked, "We're not going back to Japan, I can't go back, Syaoran and I are in love." Touya ran out the tent with the bag full of stuff. "So what!?" he said with his back turned, "It's not like he knows you already." Sakura ran out the tent, following Touya, "He does!" she shouted. Touya dropped his bag, in disbelief he slowly turned around. "Oops," Sakura held her hand over her mouth. "He knows you?" Touya began to fume and slowly tilted his head towards Sakura's. "Sakura, you are joking aren't you?"

            "She tells the truth!" a voice called, "I knew her, and I don't care who knows it, not even you!" Syaoran limped outside with bandages all over his face, chest, and stomach. Sakura ran by Syaoran's side and caught him before he could fall down. "You sick Chinese pig." Touya pulled out his dagger and started advancing towards Syaoran. "Stop it brother!" Sakura removed herself off of Syaoran and clutched her brother by the legs, not letting him move anywhere, "Get away Sakura!" Touya struggled to get Sakura off his feet; he managed to kick her off after sometime.

            Sakura began to lightly cry and Touya turned around seeing Sakura's face all crying and about to break out in emotional distress. "Is this what you want?" Syaoran asked Touya, "You made your sister cry and you want to kill me. So why don't you go ahead and kill me, maybe that'll make your sister happy." Touya advanced further, "What would you know about my sister being happy? Her happiness is the rebels' happiness, not yours, not the offers you give her with riches and gold and Chinese trash."

            Syaoran stood face to face with Touya. "I want you out of here, and I don't want you seeing my sister again. Otherwise, I will kill you the next time you come around."
Syaoran accepted and slowly limped back to the tent. Sakura heard him picking up his stuff and getting out of the tent all dressed up. "Very well then!" Syaoran got back on the horse Tomoyo brought back, and held his hand out. "Sakura, are you coming?" Sakura nodded and walked up to the horse, but Touya pulled her back in. "You're not going to see him anymore Sakura!" Sakura banged on her brother's chest, trying to escape, but Syaoran only gave a sad frown and turned away. "I'm sorry Sakura, looks like your brother will not allow for you to come; therefore, I must keep my promise and leave here."

            Syaoran hit the side of the horse and it galloped away into the mountains. "SYAORAN!!!" Sakura broke out crying, "Where will you go? What will you do?" Sakura worried for dear life about what would happen to Syaoran, but more or less, she was worried about if she would see him again. She wanted to run after him, but she knew rules were rules, and she couldn't go against the authority of the new leader, Touya.

Sakura Narration

            No! Syaoran can't leave, he just can't. But I can't leave with him. But didn't we say we would always be together no matter what? I don't know what to do. (Sakura starts to remember something) "We love each other yes?" "Yes!" "Then if we love each other so much, we must agree that we don't care what other people think about it." "Yes!" Yes, I don't care what anybody thinks, I do love Syaoran. And I will be with him!

            "Syaoran!!!" (Sakura runs desperately) "Syaoran!!!" (Sakura runs calling Syaoran's name) "Don't leave me Syaoran you always said we'd be together no matter what!"

End Sakura Narration

            Sakura ran miles and miles trying to reach Syaoran's horse. "Stop Syaoran!" Syaoran's bangs covered his eyes, he didn't want to look back, he had to keep going. Suddenly, he heard something which changed his mind, "Syaoran, I don't care what other people think, and you shouldn't either." Syaoran had a tear drop out of his eye, "She's right!" Syaoran jumped off his horse as the horse galloped away alone without a rider. He landed hard on the rocky terrain which scraped a part of his arm.

            Sakura ran and ran, and finally, she met Syaoran's arms and they gave each other a very heartfelt embrace. "Sakura," he whispered with a choked voice, "I promise I won't leave you, and I don't care what other people think. I love you Sakura, I'm not going to let you outta my sight!" Syaoran and Sakura both cried like happy little babies receiving something they wanted for a long time. "Ow!" Syaoran winced as he broke the hug. Sakura checked on his arm. "Are you okay Syaoran?" Sakura asked, "I would take you back to the village, but I am unsure what Touya would say."

           "I would say," Touya brought out a cloth and a serious face on him, "Bring him back, he's still injured." He said flatly, handing a cloth and tying it around Syaoran's arm. "Brother!" Sakura exclaimed.

            "You want me to what?" Touya yelled, "No no no no! You cannot be serious; we cannot fight against 13,000 men even with another side of rebels joining us." Syaoran was being bandaged up further as he was talking to Touya, "Listen, the Rebel Wolves are only down to a population of 36," Syaoran said, "We need more men, and we need them fast, so what other way to get them then going to another rebel force?" "Who has out cause?" Touya asked, "Nobody would like to help out a bunch of Japanese rebels who want to get equal opportunity for all foreigners, we're the only ones who want to do that."

            Tomoyo tightened up the bandage around Syaoran's arm, "Is it tight enough?" Tomoyo asked, "Yes!" Syaoran answered. Sakura was standing by her brother's side, "Syaoran may have a point, we are totally outnumbered, we need more rebels to help us." Touya was unsure whether or not to do this. "We need to win this war!" Touya said, "But we can't win it without help, that just proves how weak we are." Syaoran took his good hand and tapped Touya on the head hard, "Don't think that!" Syaoran defended him, "We will win, trust me!" Touya rubbed his head, "Just who is powerful enough to help us anyways?"

            Syaoran was at a loss for words, but he quickly thought of some rebels who lived to the South, somewhere around the Tianjin area. "What!?" Touya snapped, "Just who is so powerful over there that they might be able to help us?" Syaoran gave Touya a powerful stare, one that would make Touya believe Syaoran. "Have you ever heard of a man named, Lung Da?" Touya, Sakura, and Tomoyo all in unison acted surprised. "Who hasn't heard of Lung Da?" Tomoyo added. "He's the greatest all time junior kung fu champion." Sakura added. "The infamous Lung Da, son of Lo Da, the unbelievable dragon of Canton?" Touya was amazed just saying his name, "He leads a rebel force?"

            Syaoran shook his head, "Well, not exactly!" Touya got mad and jumped up and down in fury. "Then why did you say his name?" Sakura tried to calm Touya down before ripping Syaoran's head off. "Let me explain," Syaoran said, "Lung Da owns a tavern that takes care of all refugees and it is protected under his name. Lung Da is a freedom fighter for the foreigners, not a rebel to the empire." Touya shouted, "Well that's just as good, but wait a second! Tianjin is a day's walk, how will we get there like now?"

            "With these!" Tomoyo shouted holding up pink cards in the air. Sakura rushed over to Tomoyo to take them from her hand. "Tomoyo, where did you find these?" Sakura asked frantically, "You couldn't have gotten these, these are Clow cards!" Sakura sea5rched Tomoyo's eyes for an answer, "Tell me, where did you get these?" Tomoyo saw Sakura's frantic face, "Ummm, Clow gave them to me right before he-" Tomoyo saw Syaoran give her a sign by cutting his throat with his thumb. "Umm, Clow told me to give these to you before he said goodbye!" Tomoyo lied.

            Sakura felt relieved, "Oh that's good, for a second there I thought Clow-sifu had died, you scared me Tomoyo." Tomoyo smiled, but she felt so lousy inside. Touya looked at the cards strangely, "Clow cards?" he said looking at the pictures and flipping the around. "How do these contraptions work?" Touya held them up in light, banged them on the table, he even rubbed them. "Stop it!" Sakura ripped it out of Touya's hand, "This is not a toy!"

            Sakura held the card to her chest. "With these Clow cards, I can get all of us over to Tianjin in less than 1 hour." Sakura called out the card she had in her hand. "Fly!" Suddenly, Sakura, Syaoran, and Touya had all grown wings. "We'll be back Tomoyo!" Sakura said as she waved good bye to Tomoyo and flew out the roof. "Syaoran, Onni-chan, come on!" Syaoran was getting used to flying with the wings, Touya absolutely had no idea what he was doing and was flying upside down. Sakura snickered as she flew in the sky towards Tianjin.

Tianjin about 45 minutes later:

            Sakura had landed perfectly on her feet on top of a souvenir stand. The cloth roof broke her fall, but the souvenir vendor, an old man with glasses, was sleeping. "Whew!" Sakura wiped her forehead. "Ahhhhh!" Touya screamed falling into a tree and getting stuck there. Syaoran was stuck on top of a roof dentil which stuck out and hooked him on the roof by the bandage. "Uhhhh, little help here?" Syaoran called, as people were pointing and laughing at him on the building. "Here too!" Touya shouted in the tree while he was being scratched by cats and pecked by birds. Sakura looked at them both and sweat dropped with embarrassment.

Later:

            Sakura, Syaoran, and Touya walked along the busy streets of Tianjin, everywhere they went, and it was crowded with people. "Ok listen, our main objective is to only find Lung Da and convince him to join us, then we will go from there." Syaoran looked around to see if Lung Da was anywhere. "Ummm…first of all, does anybody know how Lung Da looks like?" Touya looked up as a cloud formed over his head. Touya imagined a strong wide shouldered ponytail man with a sword behind his back. Syaoran imagined an old noble man with a headband. Sakura imagined a duck, roasting on the open fire as her stomach growled. "Ehhhh!" Sakura tried to cover her stomach from the growling noise. "Are you hungry Sakura?" Syaoran asked, "Let's go get something to eat then we can continue our search."

            Syaoran held Sakura's hand and began to walk away. "I challenge anyone!" Touya tugged on Syaoran's hair. "Could that be Lung Da?" Touya pointed at a man with a no shirt and a muscular build, he was bald and wore sweatpants. "I challenge anyone, whoever can beat me will receive this bucket of cash!" The man pulled out a bucket of cash and coins and scattered it all over the ground. "Who wishes to challenge me?" Touya and Syaoran both backed away. "That's Lung Da, of course I'm not challenging." Touya cowardly backed away with Syaoran not too far behind.

            "I'll challenge you!" a person called from the crowd. The muscular man looked around to see who had said that, then, a man came out of the crowd. "He has no chance!" Touya laughed as he saw the man. The man had a red headband with black hair to his shoulders. "I said I challenge you!" The man took a glug of alcohol, "Woohoo!" he yelled out excitedly as he hiccupped. "Alright time to beat your ass!"

Everybody on the street began to look shocked at this man, who was much smaller and looked very poor. "What?" he asked, "Don't think I can beat you? Why don't we make a bet?" The muscular man laughed and pointed at the smaller man. "Me, fight you?" the muscleman chuckled, "This man really wants to die let me get him outta here." The muscular man cracked his knuckles and tried to grab the drunk, but the drunk outsmarted him and slipped between his legs and kicked him in the butt.

"Why you little!" the man ran up and tried to kick the drunk, but the drunk circled around his kick and hit him around his body 5 times while spinning around the man. The muscle man was obviously un-phased and grabbed the drunk's headband. "I got you now!" he said pulling it off of his head. "No you don't!" the drunk slipped under his side leg and swept him down. All of the sudden, the big man was brought down to his knees, and this is when the drunk took control of him.

"Unbelievable!" Syaoran looked at the drunk amazed at all the moves he was doing. He fought very sluggish; however, it was very effective against the muscle man. After a few more kicks to the face, the muscle man fell flat on his face. "I won!" the drunk shouted gulping down his bottle once again. The audience, not surprised, walked away. "What a waste of time, no one will ever beat him."

All of the sudden, the drunk fell asleep right in front of the street. "That man! Beat Lung Da!?" Touya asked in disappointment. Syaoran chuckled as he looked at the drunk, "I don't think you see," Syaoran pointed and yelled, "HE IS LUNG DA!" Touya and Sakura with shocked faces looked at the drunk. "Our lives are in his hands?" Touya asked, "Uh uh, I am not allowing a drunken hobo to join our rebel force." "Who you calling a hobo!?" the drunk popped up in Touya's face. Touya startled backed away a bit. "Are you really Lung Da?" Sakura asked politely. "Last time I checked little lady." Lung hiccupped, "As a matter of fact, last time I checked, I also don't remember you people, who are you all?"

All of the sudden, Lung Da became sober as he spoke. "Listen, I know you travelers seem to be hungry, so why not come and eat at my diner?" Sakura nodded with delight and everyone seemed to agree as they followed closely behind Lung Da to his diner. "Lung Da," Touya said while walking with him, "I know you mean good to feed us and all but we have important matters I must discuss with you now." Lung Da gave a smile, "Not now, when we eat okay?" Sakura patted her brother's shoulder on the back, "Be patient!" she said, "You don't want to upset Lung Da." Touya laughed at her remark, "If this is Lung Da, then I'm thinking we got ourselves into a big waste of time."

Distrusting the man, Touya rudely tugged on his shirt. "Listen!" he stamped his foot, "I didn't come to eat or make buddies with you." Lung turned around and Touya grabbed him by the collar. "I want your rebel force to join mine so we can get rid of that fatuous empire that bothers me and my kind so much." With simplicity, Lung simply brushed Touya's hands aside. Touya was amazed how swiftly and gently he did it. "Hmm…" Lung hummed, "So you're the Japanese rebels who drive them crazy?" Touya nodded. "Well in that case, I cannot help you!" Lung walked away entirely ignoring Touya's pleas. "Please Lung," Touya got on his knees and begged, "My kind, we can no longer live without some type of help, I need yours, I know you fight the empire as well, so we have a common enemy, let us join forces."

Lung shut his eyes thinking about the answer, he simply replied, "NO!" and walked away. "Wait!" Syaoran called out running up to Lung, "Listen, I gave up so much to help these rebels, you cannot simply turn them down just because they're Japanese." Lung stopped and gave a cold stare to Syaoran, "Who said I don't like Japanese?" Syaoran looked puzzled. "Why don't you help us then?" Lung took another glug of alcohol to his body, sounding as serious as possible. "I don't wish to fight anymore; I've lost all will to fight. I just want to settle down and take care of the foreigners that I harbor with my wife." "Foreigners?" Touya asked, "You harbor foreigners?"

"Of course!" Syaoran said finally realizing it, "Lung Da, I said he was a freedom fighter for the foreigners and refugees, but he won't help us. Something happened, right Lung? Is it true? Is your father…" Lung hung his head in disgust, "My father," Lung closed his eyes and tried to remember that name, "…my father, he was weak!" "HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT!?" Sakura snapped with a mad fury. Sakura walked up to Lung and looked at him face to face, he eyes just in a moment about to crack up and cry. "I truly don't know what a father is, and you know you have one but you still call him weak? How dare you?"

Lung looked silently at the teary eyed Sakura, "I didn't imagine the daughter of Min to be so weak as well." Lung stepped past Sakura, only to soon be stopped by Syaoran. "Listen!" Syaoran yelled, "I don't care who you are, but you do not talk to the general's daughter like that!" Lung smiled at Syaoran, "Don't you mean former general? Captain Li?" "How do you know who we are?" Touya asked. Lung silently looked back, "Let's just say, I may not fight for foreigners anymore, but surely, I still hear about what you guys do, and let me tell you, you make poor rebels!"

Sakura bolted up straight face to face with Lung, "Then help us!" she demanded, "They killed my father, they took away my home, the killed my mother, they tortured Syaoran, I cannot allow them these delights of torture any longer." Lung put his hand on top of Sakura's head, "You should all go home," he said coldly, "Go home so you may never suffer what I've suffered." Lung began to walk away.

"Your father!" Syaoran yelled, "Would your father like this?" Lung turned around with a mean face on him. "I know what happened Lung Da! Your father, he was, he was against you wasn't he? You killed him didn't you?" Everyone snapped their heads up, Lung winced hearing this. "If you ever talk about my father again," Lung gave Syaoran a cold stare, "I will kill you!"   

Lung Da began to walk away. "Let's go Sakura!" Syaoran said, "He's not the same as before." Just before Sakura, Syaoran, and Touya began to walk away, Lung turned his head to say something before they walked away, "I didn't say I couldn't help you…" Sakura, Syaoran, and Touya stopped in their tracks. "Follow me, and I shall test to see how great your cause is."

Character Bio:

Tien Lung Da

Birthday: May 13

Age: 25

Zodiac: Dragon

Occupation: Owner of the Tong An

Favorite Hobby: Drinking and studying the Tao

Least favorite Hobby: Cleaning up the house

Favorite Foods: Honey Garlic chicken, egg drop soup, and chocolate chip cookies

Least favorite Food: mushrooms, dried bean curd, rice stick

Favorite Colors: orange, yellow, red

Favorite flowers: lilies and orange glycines

Something he can cook: egg foo young, fried rice, and salads

Special Talent: master of the drunken form and tai chi style

Wish List: to fully master the Tao

Profile: Once a full fledged freedom fighter for the rebels and foreigners, now becoming a drunken hobo who disgraces himself in the fighting world. Lung Da was once respected by all people, until a certain incident which involved him killing his father. Lung Da hasn't been the same ever since and begins to drink, much to his wife's dismay. Though he may appear unstable and mean to everyone, he can control his alcohol very well and can stop his drunkenness at his command. Lung Da is a very nice person, with a love for freedom and acceptance of other cultures.