Chapter 15: Preparations of War
"Syaoran!" Sakura cried out as she entered the castle, "Syaoran!" Sakura was beginning to get desperate; she searched for hours and hours. "Syaoran, where are you?" Syaoran heard her screaming and responded with his yell echoing across the corridors. "Sakura, help me…" Sakura shot her eyes open at the weak voice. She ran and ran and ran and finally heard his light moans of pain. Syaoran was nowhere to be found. "Where are you Syaoran?" Sakura asked. "In here!" Syaoran replied. Sakura slowly took the first footsteps into a grand room. The bed was elaborately detailed with veils and silk. Sakura looked around for Syaoran, and she finally saw him, being hung on a gong, tied up with each arm and leg spread out. "Syaoran!" Sakura yelled as she rushed to Syaoran.
Sakura sprinted across, trying to rescue Syaoran, but every time she got closer, she was in danger. Finally, right before she could reach for Syaoran, she was attacked in the back of the head. Sakura kneeled down rubbing the injured spot on the back of her head. "What have we here?" Wuji laughed. "No Sakura!" Syaoran yelled out all helpless as Wuji picked her up and arm locked her neck in his tight arm. "Sakura…" Syaoran began to feel weak as Wuji pulled off her skirt and began ravaging her in front of Syaoran's eyes. "Sakura, I've failed you…" Sakura moaned in pain, every second of ravaging Sakura brought Syaoran to near fatal heartbreak.
End Dream
"Ahhh!" Syaoran screamed as he bolted out of his blanket. Syaoran, all hot and sweaty from the dream, feeling his forehead, wiping off the head drenched sweat off of his body. "Sakura, I'll never let Wuji do that…ever!" Syaoran saw the pile of rocks and twigs, the fire had been out for hours. Syaoran slowly jolted his head to look at the first sign of morning. "I have to do this before morning, before Wuji awakes." Syaoran grabbed his stuff and got all ready to proceed to his plan. Syaoran took Sakura's flower necklace and placed it over his neck. "This is for you Sakura!"
The Rebel's Base:
Sakura laid her head in a dark tent, crying herself to sleep the night before. Slowly, she dreamt of Syaoran and her, one day actually having a family, having harmony for once. Sakura only wished for Syaoran, she didn't want him to get involved in her people's cause; she only wanted him to be by himself, never worrying about her. Now she had led him to harm, to death, and she led herself to a life of solitude.
Sakura Narration
It's all my fault, why did I bring Syaoran into this. He didn't deserve this fate; he didn't deserve to get involved with me. Because of me, it is this reason that he has lost his reputation, it's because of me that he goes out by himself in a suicide mission to get revenge on Wuji, and it's because of me. Syaoran, I don't want this life anymore, I only want to see you alive again, I don't want to haul your body to the burial grounds like we did to Lung. Please Syaoran, don't make me like Vung.
"Miss Sakura?" Who is it this time? (a bald monk walked in) "We've searched hours for Syaoran, and there is still no sign of him." "Impossible!" I know Syaoran's out there; they haven't searched long enough for him. "I won't accept that look again!" (In fear, the man went out to search again) I don't care how long it takes, Syaoran is coming back, I'm not letting him go too soon. "Sakura…" "Onni-chan?" What is big brother doing here? Shouldn't he be out looking for Syaoran? "Listen Sakura, I have to tell you something and I know you're not going to like it."
Oh no, what's happened to Syaoran? "Sakura, I know how much Syaoran means to you, but, it's over, he's as good as dead now!" (Sakura fills up with tears and slaps Touya across the face) LIAR! "Onni-chan, there is still hope, I know he's alive!" "Even so, Wuji will probably kill him if he fights, Syaoran is doomed for sure." Oh no, he's not! I've got an idea! "Syaoran, he's going to be alright, because now is the time to strike onni-chan!"
End Sakura Narration
"Are you crazy?" Touya yelled, "Our army is still unprepared, we need to have a full army in order to do this, there are still some left behind that are on the way." Sakura was frantic, she put both her hands on the table to hold herself up, "I don't care!" she yelled, "We must attack Wuji now, before Syaoran is hurt!" Touya, seeing her sister so selfish scolded at her with anger, "Stop thinking about yourself Sakura, this is for the good of the people, the good of the rebels, Syaoran knew what he had gotten himself into and he knows the sacrifices required to do it." Sakura began to cry, "Syaoran," she cried, "It's all my fault, I shouldn't have gotten you into this."
"He did what he had to," Touya said dignified, "He was a rebel too." Sakura finally stopped crying, determined as ever to find Syaoran now, she knew he was alive, somewhere, she had to find him. "Syaoran, he has led the attack, now, it is time to bring in the reinforcements." Touya was alarmed at how adamant Sakura was, "Stupid! You heard what I said, there's still more soldiers coming."
"Actually," a man stepped in the tent, "Now would be the best time to attack." Touya and Sakura turned around to see who the man was. Sakura froze when she saw him. He looked the same with his stern eyes, strong face, and mustache. "Papa…" she lightly said in happiness and shock, "PAPA!" she repeated running to her father. Min, with a grand smile on his face accepted Sakura's hug as an open invitation. Sakura and Min held each other for what seemed like forever. "Papa…" Sakura said as her voice began to crack with tears of happiness, "I've missed you."
Min, smiling, scratched the back of Sakura's head playfully. "Fwan," he called out, "How you've grown…" Touya, reminiscing as he saw this remembered that this is how it used to be before all this started. Before the war, before the rebellion, before the move, it was once like this before. He had remembered his mother and him did the same thing when she was alive. After some time, Sakura, in tears, broke away from her father to get a good look at his face to make sure it was him. "Papa…" she lightly cried, "What are you doing here?" Min looked at both Sakura and Touya with his stern face and told them to sit down.
"I'm now a hermit," he said, "I have no purpose or no job, my only purpose is to wander and find knowledge from lands afar. After some time, the knowledge which I have acquired to help you is here, I would like to give you information of attack and strategy." Touya was listening, almost interested, but he knew that Min once was his enemy, so how could he trust him? "I know that now, you should prepare your forces for a means of attack tomorrow, because tomorrow is your best time to strike Wuji's forces." Sakura intensively looked at her father.
"Wuji has 13,000 men under his control; we need to wait for the other men to arrive before we can attack." Touya notified Min, like Min was stupid and didn't know of the situation. "The count has dropped; it's now 6,500 men at the Forbidden City." Touya shot his eyes open in surprise, "But that's half," Touya confirmed, "Where did the other half go?" Just before Min was about to tell Touya, Sakura silently though about it, the first thing that popped out of her head came out to be true. "Tianjin!!!" she cried out. Min nodded with approval. Touya was shocked to hear that, "Tianjin? Why?" Instead of letting Min explain, Sakura, got out of her seat and explained the whole thing to Touya be her surprising powers of deduction. "You took most of the rebel force in Tianjin, without a solid foundation of protection; Wuji probably wants to kill any other forms of resistance from any type of rebels." Min nodded and added on, "Since Tianjin is the place where most foreigners are harbored, and Wuji wishes to kill them all where they stand."
Touya shook his head in disapproval, "That's not possible though, if he wants to decimate Tianjin, he must get a direct order from the emperor, something the emperor would never do because all of China would rebel." Looking at Touya, Min felt his heart sink when he had to say this sickening news to them who seemed to not know. "Wuji has become emperor through supposedly the emperor running away." Both Touya and Sakura were surprised and shocked. "We have to do something to help Vung!" Sakura shouted, "But we also have to help Syaoran…" Sakura was stuck between two people whom she had to help. Suddenly, Touya thought quickly of a way to kill two birds with one stone, "The other rebels," he said as Sakura's hanging head shot up at him, "The other rebels who haven't arrived yet, they are still at Tianjin, or probably leaving now, if we had someone to go lead them, then maybe we could help both Syaoran and Tianjin."
Min immediately stood up and volunteered raising his hand. "You get the big fish, I will get the small fries," Min held out his hand in front of Touya, Touya saw his determination, his spirit; he knew he wouldn't betray them. Touya placed his hand on top of Min's, "We'll do it together!" Touya cheered with anticipation.
Back at the Kingdom:
Snoring in his bed, like a little baby, Wuji spun around his imperial bed. The silk bed sheets and the comfortable pillows really defined what Wuji had to do to get it. Suddenly, shadow overcast on his bed sheets, Wuji slowly opened his eyes. "Now you die Wuji!" Syaoran shouted as he ran his sword down right in the middle of the bed. Wuji quickly rolled away. "Wuji!" Syaoran shouted as he began to chase Wuji around the room. In fear, Wuji ran for his life knocking precious vases and furniture down to get Syaoran out of his way. "No stop!" Wuji shouted cowardly, "Guards, guards help me!" Syaoran chuckled, "They can't hear you, I took them out before I could get here."
Wuji ran somewhere, though it was too dark to see, he stumbled around feeling the walls. "My armor," he cried out, "Where is my armor?" Wuji searched around a corner, little did he know, he had trapped himself in that corner, where Syaoran perfectly pointed his sword at him. "There's nowhere else to go, I have got you Wuji!" Syaoran looked at the cowering Wuji crouch down in the corner, "No please Syaoran I beg you don't kill me!" Syaoran looked at Wuji pitifully. "Why shouldn't I, how many people have you killed?" Wuji began to cry, "Please Syaoran, if you let me live, I can make you my general." Syaoran was disgusted at Wuji's pitiful attempts. "I can get you many women; you could have fun every night with a different one instead of that same girl."
Syaoran sighed at how cowardly Wuji was, "Why would I need that?" Syaoran flatly rejected, "The thing I want now is for your terror to end, and it ends now!" Syaoran held his sword up, ready to thrust it down. Wuji smiled at Syaoran, "Stupid boy, you think I would give up that easy?" "Thunder…" a monotone voice called. Syaoran turned around and saw a huge streak of thunder come right towards him. Syaoran quickly rolled out of the way. It was too dark, Syaoran could not see who he was, he only saw his familiar silhouette. "Who are you?" Syaoran shouted, "Why did you save Wuji, he is a murderer?" The mysterious figure didn't answer. "Thunder…" he mumbled again shooting off another bolt of lighting at Syaoran.
"Ok you wanna play that way?" Syaoran pulled out a Chinese paper, "Thunder god, come forth!" Syaoran shot his bolts of lightning to nullify the ones sent at him. However, as soon as his bolts of lighting tried to nullify the shadows' bolts, the mightier force of the shadow's magic ate up Syaoran's thunder bolts. Syaoran surprisedly stared at this display, "No way!" he said as the thunder bolts were aimed at him. Syaoran tried to run away from the thunder, but when the thunder got stronger, it lit up the whole room and Syaoran saw who he was fighting. "Clow Reed!"
Immediately after Syaoran saw his face, he was hit by the thunder and shocked. Syaoran shook like crazy, his hair even stuck up like he was shocked so incredibly badly. Syaoran collapsed, feeling weak and tender, and the smoke emitted from his body sprayed out like a gas canister. "Clow Reed…" he said weakly, "Why?" Wuji laughed hysterically as he turned on the lights to the room. Clow Reed stood above Syaoran's fried body, with no emotion at all. His eyes were bloodshot and sore and his well kept hair was messy and not tied up. He looked at Syaoran's fuming body with merciless eyes, like he didn't know what Syaoran was and didn't care about anything in the world. "Good job Clow!" Wuji thanked, "Oh I'm sorry, good job, my slave!" Clow turned his head to Wuji like a robot. "Listen Clow, you are going to take this boy, and bring him to the dungeon so they can brainwash him like they did to you, got it?" Clow didn't move a muscle; instead, he stared emotionlessly at Syaoran's body. With his last strength, Syaoran managed to mutter out beneath his breath.
"What about…Sakura?" Syaoran then shut his eyes as he could no longer stand the pain. Clow shot his eyes open and clutched his head. "Ahhhhhh!!!!" Clow shouted with Wuji looking strangely at him. "What's the matter with you slave? Do as I told you!" Wuji commanded as he slapped Wuji across the face. "Nooooooooooo!" Clow held out his hand and started to spontaneously combust items in the room. "What are you doing? Stop this at once!" Wuji tried to hold the crazy Clow down, but Clow was blasting off random things, and Wuji certainly did not wish to tick Clow off. "Go…back…tell…Sakura!!!" Clow held out his hand at Syaoran and made him disappear as Clow continued screaming and blowing stuff up.
Back at the camp:
Sakura readied herself, grabbing her cards and her Chinese papers; she stuffed them down her clothes. "Tomorrow, we save Syaoran…" Sakura hopefully wished with her hands praying, "Syaoran, please be okay, please don't die…Li-hing…" Just then, Tomoyo had walked into the room. Silence filled the room as she entered. "Tomoyo," Sakura worriedly called out, "Tomoyo, are you alright?" Tomoyo didn't speak to her; she softly touched Sakura's hair and gave her something. "For me?" Sakura asked politely at an oddly wrapped present. Tomoyo nodded with a smile that was forced on her. Sakura with anticipation ripped open the wrapping paper, slowly feeling the soft fabric and finally spreading open the clothes that Tomoyo gave her. "Tomoyo…" Sakura was speechless as she saw the elaborate designs and surprising amount of time she spent on this piece.
"When you march into battle tomorrow Sakura, I want you to do two things for me," Tomoyo demanded as Sakura listened to her, "One, please get Syaoran back, and two, make sure you make Wuji pay for what he did not only to me, but to everyone else he's hurt." Sakura nodded giving Tomoyo a hug, "I will Tomoyo, I'll always help you out. You're not my maid Tomoyo, you're my friend, I could never let anyone get away with something like that." Tomoyo smiled cutely at Sakura, "Make sure that when you come back, you wear those same clothes that I made, because if not, I will be heartbroken." Sakura nodded.
"I'll make it back," Sakura put her hands on Tomoyo's shoulders, "I vow to you Tomoyo, I'll make it back." Sakura looked lovingly into her friends eyes and gave her trademark cheerful smile. Tomoyo, though distraught and still depressed, gave her best smile that she could give to Sakura. Suddenly, Sakura heard a familiar jingling. Sakura looked perplexed around the room, trying to follow that sound. Tomoyo looked at her and had a blatant question mark on the top of her head. "Sakura?" Tomoyo asked, "What's wrong?" Sakura turned to Tomoyo, frowning, "This sound, it sounds so familiar, could it be coming from outside?" Sakura opened the curtain to check outside, she was right; the sound did indeed come from the outside.
"It's just a horse," Tomoyo confirmed, "Let's go Sakura, we have to prepare for tomorrow." Tomoyo was just about to get back in until Sakura grabbed her arm to keep on looking. "If that's a horse, where is the rider?" Tomoyo wondered, she squinted, increasing her vision as she tried to look for an arm, or a leg, or something that gave an intimation of a rider being there. "Hair?" she wondered, Tomoyo looked of the side of the horse, the horse was dark and black, like those raised specially on imperial grounds. But something was different about this horse, it was completely black, but at the side it had dark hazel hair. Tomoyo wondered what that was, how could a horse have brown hair.
Suddenly, the rocking from the horse kept on shaking the hair, and eventually, Syaoran fell off the horse and onto the hard rocky ground. Like he was not moving, he was lifeless in a way. Sakura finally realized it was Syaoran and quickly rushed by his side. "Syaoran!" she cried as she knelt down to check if Syaoran had wounds, "Syaoran, are you alive? Speak to me!" Syaoran opened his eyes half way, indicating he was still alive, Sakura sighed with relief. "It was Clow…" he muttered as he passed out. "What?" Sakura and Tomoyo said in disbelief. "Are you sure Li?" Tomoyo asked, "It's not possible, we saw him, we saw Wuji…" Sakura stared at Tomoyo waiting for her to finish the sentence, her eyes were filled with ready to flow tears, and she wouldn't forgive herself if anything happened to Clow. "What happened Tomoyo?" Sakura shook Tomoyo, "What happened?"
"Clow…Wuji killed Clow when he rescued me the first time," Syaoran said weakly. Sakura turned to Tomoyo, "Is this true Tomoyo?" Tomoyo didn't nod; she only looked down to the ground, worried if it was possible. "Clow is dead!" she confirmed as Sakura broke into tears, "But that's impossible, because Li said he did this to him." Syaoran was too weak; he couldn't say anymore, he would have to recover until he could once again talk tomorrow.
Quote of the Chapter:
"In the battlefield, all the ones you love are forgotten. You must concentrate at the task at hand and fight to live, and not to fight and die unjustly for those you love." –General Min
Meaning of the quote: True among many war veterans even today. This quote was inspired by one customer I talked to who happened to be a war veteran. He said that he had a girlfriend at the time of the Gulf War. He told me that the only reason why he lived through that was not because he knew he had to protect his girlfriend and his country, but to live. Because some people die for love and they forget about living in the first place, they think they died for a just cause. If you fight to live in the first place, forgetting all you love, then you would also fight for the ones you love because at least you live. So Min's interpretation is pretty much identical, he's basically saying, live first, that way, you can love later.