Chapter 2
" So it's all true then?"
Mariko nodded. " It's all true. However, the book was lost some time ago."
Her twin brother, Jun, came back into the room. Okawa accepted the tea and
thanked him. The siblings sat down again.
" Where do you think I might find this book?" Okawa asked.
" Around Jingxi's apartment, which, strangely, no one ever lived in ever since he
left." Jun answered. " It's odd. Everything he touched or had any connection to was
forbidden to be tainted by the hand of any other. But then again, it's to be expected.
Syaoran was a half mortal; his mother was a mortal sorceress and his father was
Yue. He was also protected by the Great Dragon as well as the spirits of the dead.
Doubtless they will protect him after he died."
Okawa began to like this less and less. They talked a little more, this time of small matters, and he thanked them for their time before leaving, first taking the address of Li Syaoran.
When he got there, his stomach did a double take.
Li Syaoran's apartment was the exact same apartment his kind host had dwelled in.
Li knocked at the door. " Open the door! Open the door! In the name of the
Emperor!"
The door opened to reveal a rather old man. " Are you mad?" He asked, wiping his mouth. " The talk of Emperors! In these times!"
Li rolled his eyes. " Just let me in."
The old man stepped aside, leaning on his staff. Li went in and sat down heavily on
the couch without even saying " By your leave" to his host.
" Something troubling you, my boy?" The man had calmed down and was looking
at Li sympathetically. " You look agitated."
" I am agitated." Li answered. " The next card captor is here. And we have no
judge."
" Ah, Yue, then." The old wizard nodded. " That will explain why you came here so
suddenly. Sarah?"
No answer.
" Hm." The old wizard nodded. " She must be with the students. Here, I'll fetch the artifacts, and we'll see what we can do about this matter."
Li gave no indication that he heard what the wizard said, but nevertheless the wizard exited the room and did not come back for a long time.
When the old man entered Li stood up suddenly. " One way is to destroy the cards." He said. " But I won't do it without Yue's consent as well as Kero's, since the end will come, so the matter remains. I must find Yue. And then I'll find a way to speak with Sakura and Eriol. This is so exasperating!"
The old man set the carved ivory cylinder down on the middle of the table.
" Curse Clow for making him immortal," Li muttered, " If he had allowed Yue to die, we wouldn't be tormented with the stupid cards now, nor will Syaoran have died. Iie! Syaoran would have lived happily, perhaps not as Li Syaoran, but Syaoran all the same. He would be a great cellist, and have a small family, or large, if Fate willed. But iie, Clow had to awaken Yue at that moment, cut off his aura to mingle with Yelan's, and create a half mortal doomed to die! Many that time call him a madman, a powerful and wise madman, but madman all the same. Now I do too."
The old man looked up. " It matters not what you think of that subject." He said calmly. " As for Yue's immortality, it may be better off for him. We will have to find out where he is."
Li sighed, sitting down with the old wizard. The wizard circled his staff across the small cylinder and it began to glow. He murmured in a strange language, and suddenly the cylinder split, revealing bright light.
" Now, think of Syaoran." The wizard said, " If you still remember his face."
" As if it was yesterday." Li answered softly, closing his eyes. There was a bright
flash.
" Well! Isn't that jolly!" Li stood up, after the brief ritual was done. " Yue is with his
son on some other Paradise Realm that I have no key to!"
" At least, now we know that Yue is no longer concerned with the matter." The
wizard answered.
Li sighed. " For that we can be grateful." He agreed.
Okawa waited patiently for his host in the living room. He didn't feel like doing
anything as of yet, so he only opened a bottle of soda and sipped occasionally.
After a long time the door opened and Li walked in, looking very tired. He blinked in surprise at Okawa, and did his best to force a smile on his face.
" Ah, back so soon? I was expecting you would be at the library for hours.
Otherwise, I would have been here earlier."
" No need." Okawa smiled. " In truth the library offered very little information. I
went to other sources, such as Kekori, and Mariko."
" Kinomoto Mariko?"
" Hai."
" Did you get the information you needed?"
" Not enough, but there is one that was very suspicious. Mariko spoke of a Sakura
Book and said that I might find it in this address, since this was Li Jingxi's
apartment."
At this Li paused, as if something was troubling him. Then he brightened.
" Really? I had no idea. To think, this is the very apartment of one of my
ancestors!"
" Indeed," Okawa was not to be fooled. " I think you were perfectly aware of it. I
suppose the picture in the telephone was Li Jingxi and Kinomoto Sakura? And you
perhaps forgot to take it out along with the frame beside it?"
Li visibly paled. " Iie, that was not it." He said quietly. " I put the picture in the
telephone myself. I didn't have a picture big enough for the other frame though."
" And why would you put it in the guestroom?" Okawa asked.
Li shrugged. " In truth, I do not know."
" Well then." Okawa sat down. " I have reason to believe that you have the Sakura
Book if it really exists. Does it?"
" Hai, it does."
" Where is it then?"
" I don't know."
" Why?"
" It goes where it pleases. But you will find it, I assure you."
" Why?"
" Because you are the next holder of the cards, however briefly."
Okawa did not like the last part. " What do you mean?"
Li sighed. Then he began telling Okawa the first part of the story, before the gang had any notion of Syaoran's disease.
Kekori lied down on her bed, holding the phone to her ear.
" Are you sure?" She asked. " If Okawa is the one..."
" Apparently, the problem now is," Jun said on the other line, " First of all, Li-san
came back, definetely because of the Sakura Book, which isn't coming out for some
reason. I'm certain that it has something to do with Yue, wherever that guy is. So
now, in order to accomplish anything, whether it's destroying the book or giving
Okawa the cards, we have to find it somehow."
" But how?" Kekori asked. " Do you have any magic? I certainly don't."
" My sister does. I'm not sure if I do."
" I think you do. After all, you are born at almost the same time."
" True." Jun paused. " There are five places that the Sakura book might be found,
and one of them is at Syaoran's apartment. Since Okawa already went there and
there are no signs, well, we'll have to rule that one out. The next four are Penguin
Park-the cards seem to favor that place very much, Tomoeda Elementary, the radio
tower, and finally..."
" Yukito?"
" Hai."
" Well, I don't want to disturb anything there," Kekori blinked. " I think we ought to
check out Penguin Park first. It's the place with...well, it's easy to access."
Jun said something to his sister.
" When do you want to look for it?" He asked.
" I can look?"
" You have good eyes, Kekori, but you're usually busy."
" I'm free tonight. I'm not sure about the future..."
" Well, we'll meet you in fifteen minutes." Jun answered.
" Of course." Kekori agreed. They hung up.
The three cousins met in the park that night. The sky was clear and covered with
stars. The park was rather empty. They began their search.
Jun looked around the closed zoo. Mariko checked out the swings while Kekori looked around the Penguin slide.
Curiously enough, it was at the Penguin slide.
" Quiet. He's sleeping." Li blinked at Jun. " What are you doing here?"
Jun blinked his green eyes. Although he was not at all related to Kinomoto
Nadeshiko except by her marriage to Fujitaka, he still had the same eyes Sakura
once had. He sighed, handing the book over. Li swallowed his surprise.
" Where did you find this?" He asked. " It didn't even give off an aura."
" Of course it didn't. That's why it took us so long." Mariko whispered. " But put it
by Daidouji-san's bedside. Hopefully he won't make the same mistake. After all, the
Clow Dynasty is coming to an end. Everything is coming to an end. We must end it
quickly."
Li stared at the book that had brought so much pain and suffering to so many
people at once. Closing his eyes, his jaw set, he nodded at the twins.
" Go now. Before he wakes."
Sakura jumps up and down. " You guys were great! I'm so proud of you!"
Syaoran smiles at him and then at her. Then he turned pale.
Everyone starts gathering around. " Are you alright? We knew you shouldn't have
been the goalie-"
" Iie, I'm fine." Syaoran answered, smiling. " I just-"
Li woke to the sound of birds. He sat up, shuddering. It was a pleasant memory, but it made reality more unbearable. He sighed.
He looked around the room. There was his cello, in the corner. At first it sounded bad. But now, age had weathered it so that it should sound even better than an Italian violin.
Wiping some of the dust off, gathered there over the years, Li opened the case and his breath caught in his throat. That cello. It looked almost brand new. He took it out carefully, as if it was brittle, and pulled the endpoint out. Taking a chair, he tightened the bow, which still had rosin on it, and drew it over the strings.
Suddenly, he was twelve years old again. Syaoran was laughing at him, while playing on his own cello, remarking how the cello sounded so squeaky. But Syaoran had the control, the greatest control, and he mastered it, creating the most lovely sound.
That's flat. The G was flat. Li began to tune it, biting his lip. He forgot Okawa was in the next room. Okawa was studying the cards. Okawa was studying his notes.
The Swan. Syaoran loved that piece. It was his favorite. Li closed his eyes and began to finger on the strings as his bow went by itself. He remembered that time when Syaoran was full of despair and Li had went and supported Syaoran, taking his cold, pale hand into his own and holding the bow, and they drew and played that piece as one, and he remembered Syaoran's tears, rolling down that pale ashen cheek, as if the end was so near they could see it coming, rolling like a dust storm.
In his mind, an invisible piano was playing in the background, accompanying him in the piece. Suddenly, there was a creak.
The music fell away in tatters as Li opened his eyes and glanced at the door, which was open. Okawa had gone out without closing it.
Sighing, Li stood up, and transformed into his robes. He knew where Okawa went.
Okawa wanted to curse himself. Sure, only ten or so cards escaped. But how could
he have been so...dumb?
Rushing out, he groaned. He looked up. There was a card, fluttering. Woody. He caught it. Another card. Rain. He caught that one.
Two down. Eight to go.
He had woken up to Li playing the cello. At first he wanted to go and listen, but the book beside his bed caught his attention. Especially since it said the words " Sakura" on it. So he opened it, quite carelessly.
And look what happened, you dolt. He thought to himself.
He was running down the street with the book in his arms, looking this way and that. Some people stared at him. Most ignored him. When he stopped, he was breathless, and he stood still, panting. Then he looked up, hoping to find some odd creature or human standing somewhere...
The house.
It stood among the ruins like a monument. Around it, workers were keeping their distance and trying to rebuild whatever was damaged. It seemed proud and magnificent compared to the demolished houses around it. But to Okawa's eyes, it shimmered, as if the day were hot and the sand was waving in the heat, and he saw a gray light illuminating from the house, as if it were made of it. He heard, with his keen ears, the gentle voice of a cello, lovely, deep, and sad. Slowly the music descended on his ears and he shuddered at the ghostly sound. But he couldn't move. He stood, transfixed, in front of that horrible house, and he could not hear anything except that soft cello, nor could he see anything except that horrible door, those black windows, that roof, gleaming as if it was new.
Li watched from the tree where Syaoran would have stood if Sakura were in the
same position. He stood on the branch, above everyone, watching the young man
stare at the house.
Now is not the time. He thought to himself. The door must remain closed.
He stretched his arm out, summoning his mysterious powers, and as if, touching the loom of Fate, Okawa snapped out of his trance as something hit him on the shoulder. He turned around. It was the Power Card. Li turned to that faithless card, and closed his eyes. Okawa thrust out his hand at the same time. The Power Card returned to its card form and flew towards him. Okawa grasped it.
Congratulations. Li thought, half to himself, half to Okawa. You've just awakened your magic. He didn't add that Li had wakened them himself. You've made your first capture. But soon, it wouldn't mean anything. You will not save the world.
Okawa backed away from the terrifying house and began running back to the apartment. Li watched him go. Then, lowering his head, if one viewed him from afar, it would seem that he had faded into nothingness.