Author's Note: The last of the CCS chappies! After this, we gently fold in some YYH and then wait for the dough to rise until we bake it. My deepest thanks to readers and reviewers alike!
Yelan looked over the grounds and sighed. It would take days to heal the damage done to the garden and house, but none of the attack force had gotten through. The whole family was walking around, cleaning up and shaking their heads. Some of the beds would have to be dug up and replanted, others just trimmed and neatened up. She looked around and noticed Neko walking off towards the area where the Kurai had broken through.
Quietly, the woman followed. Neko stopped at the trunk of one of the broken trees and set her cat down. Kiri sat quietly where Neko had left her as the girl walked forward and set her hands on the fallen trunk. Yelan blinked as the tree glowed and then lifted back up and sprouted branches to replace those damaged by the fight. "The Cards are useful, Kiri," Neko said. Yelan smiled. The child had discovered an aspect of magic she could stomach. Perhaps she'd warm up to her lessons now.
Neko did attend more of her lessons. Her grandmother was pleased to hear she was beginning to improve in her marital arts and fighting skills and had gotten past meditation in her magic studies and was beginning on history and theory. Yelan didn't spend much time with the children, or she would have noticed that Neko had become strangely silent. Her answers would be short and blunt and quiet. She no longer moved with the energy of a youngster, but with the slow and deliberate actions of the elderly and wise. No matter what injustice happened to her, false accusation or otherwise, she didn't anger. She didn't smile much either.
For Neko, absorbing the Cards had had two side effects she hadn't counted on. The first had been the loss of the book. It had vanished from her room, supposedly because the cards no longer existed. The second had been the loss of her childhood innocence. Neko now knew each of her cards inside and out, and had merged with them in mind as well as power. Anything that had stayed with them from their past masters had come to her.
This wasn't all bad, because she now could understand things that had once been beyond her. Her skills with magic were far greater than her teachers could grasp. She didn't hesitate to compare herself to Eriol, the reincarnation of Clow Reed and the most powerful magician on Earth. The patio in the garden was a place of power, where the family commonly practiced magic, and it was a good location to relax and read. She still read in her tree, but that was for her secret books. Neko was now fluent in Chinese and English, and her Latin studies had picked up speed. Currently, she was working on reading an English novel, The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.
The more she turned the idea of seeking Hiiragazawa Eriol out in her head, the more it appealed to her. The question was, how to go about it? She could try locating him the old fashioned way, or with magic, or just by send him a request. Neko closed her book and smiled. Yes, she'd send him a personal message asking for an audience. From what she'd heard, he was above the feud between the Li's and the Kurai. Talking to him would be a nice change, might make her feel young again.
Neko went upstairs and started to write her message. "Mr. Hiiragazawa, I would feel honored to have an opportunity to speak with you on various matters of interest and perhaps disinterest. Sincerely, Neko Li." She still signed everything the way she always had, with her family name last. It was a matter of irritation to the rest of the household, but her grandmother had yet to comment on it.
With a quick search of her desk drawers, Neko found an unmarked envelope and slipped the letter in. She then opened the window and breathed in the cold air. Winter was almost there, and it would be time soon to send gifts to her friend Aki for her birthday. Neko left the window open to the cold outside air and knelt in front of it and laid the letter on the floor. She closed her eyes and called to her inner spirits, the Cards. "I call upon The Move to send this letter to the magician Eriol, whose magic you remember well." The letter sprouted a pair of wings and flew out the window. Neko opened her eyes and rose to shut the window pains.
A scratching noise at the door was Kiri asking to be let in. Neko opened the door and Kiri raced past to jump up onto the bed. Neko closed the door and Kiri gave her mistress a calculating look. "I guess you're ready."
Neko sat on the floor facing her pet. "Ready for what?"
Kiri's tail swished. "Your Grandmother was talking about putting you through the ceremony to receive your adult powers and take up advanced studies and adult responsibilities. You should be proud of your progress."
Neko looked at the painting on the back of her door, the one of her parents that she'd done herself from the Cards' memories. She then looked at her reflection in the room's floor to ceiling mirror. Same face as her mother, but her father's eyes and her own unique hair color. Her hair was a bit longer than her mother's had been, it reached just past her shoulders, and her eyes were uncomfortably aware.
There was a knock at the door. "Enter," Neko said. Her eldest cousin, Junko, came in. Junko was eighteen and tall and with long, black hair like their grandmother's. She looked grim.
"Neko, Grandmother has asked that you get dressed in your battle costume and come to the garden." Neko nodded and waited. Junko didn't leave. "I am to help."
Neko took the box out from underneath her bed. Junko shook them out and helped Neko in an almost ceremonial way. The final touch was the hat. Junko stood back. "Now take my hand and I will lead you outside." Neko took it and followed her cousin down the stairs, past the curious eyes of the other children, and out of the house.
The back yard was vacant except for the platform/patio area where all the adults stood. At their head was her grandmother. Junko let Neko's hand go and joined them. Now it was Neko facing her seniors. Yelan held out her fan. "Daughter of magic, you seek to become a master of the gifts tonight. Let the elements hear your plea." Yelan's fan snapped from a vertical to horizontal position. "Call forth your weapon!"
Neko held out an empty hand and summoned her key. The weight resting in her hand seemed to be too great for the staff her mother had wielded, so she looked down at it. The staff was now taller than she, and was a purple rod with a pink stone glowing at the opposite end with a golden star framed by two wings. She met her slightly surprised grandmother's eyes. Suddenly, a golden bolt came down between them. Everyone jumped back and blinked away the spots left on their vision to see a golden staff stuck in the ground.
"I'll take it from here, Mrs. Li," said a deep voice. Down floated a man with black hair and a strong presence. He wore black with a few exceptions of deep blue and gold scattered on his form. Behind him landed a giant cat and a woman with butterfly wings. Neko recognized the man immediately. She smiled.
"Mr. Hiiragazawa, it's an honor to finally meet you," she said with a bow.
He smiled at her. "It's been a while since I believed the Cards would ever meet an end. They were convenient if kept under control, but could become unruly or a threat if allowed free." He easily removed his staff from the ground and turned to face Yelan. "I believe I will need Neko for a time, she is beyond what you could teach her, and despite this, has much yet to learn." Neko felt arms around her and looked up. Ruby Moon picked her up and set her on Spinner Sun's back.
They flew over China for a long time. Neko felt herself grow tired and struggled to stay awake. Eventually, she succumbed and fell asleep.
Eriol sighed with relief. It had taken a lot of power to charm her into sleep. She was truly too strong for her age. Neko had figured out how to control the cards, but too soon. She had lost her youth to the power, and in the coming battle she would need the strengths of a girl, her loves and her hates. He knew the only way to make her ready for the final battle with the Kurai was to make her forget magic and her family and live like a normal child. To do this, she would have to go somewhere no one would recognize her.
They arrived at his mansion and he picked up her limp body and staff. He held out a hand and shrunk the staff back to its pendent form. As long as it wasn't with the Cards she wouldn't be able to call on their power. He made it smaller and enclosed it in a golden locket that hung from a gray ribbon around her neck. Admiring his handiwork, Eriol summoned the guardians he'd created for Neko.
Kiri and Sapphire appeared in their true forms. Kiri was a grey tiger with silver stripes and Sapphire had blue scaly wings like a dragon and glowing eyes of the same blue color. Eriol held his staff aloft. A light shined down on the three and Neko's battle costume dissolved into a blue school uniform and Kiri became a regular cat again and Sapphire became an older man wearing a dark blue suit and tie. Together, they vanished.
As Eriol sat, he appeared in his favorite chair in the next room, Ruby Moon and Spinner Sun on either side. Leaning back, he said, "She won't remember a thing, and hopefully I chose the right world to send her to."
"I have no doubt you did," Spinner assured his master. Eriol was concerned, because he wasn't so sure.