Chapter 13-Yami
I didn't know of Syaoran's visit to Pegasus until several months later. But what I do know is, when Seto and Syaoran came back, the poor boys started acting really weird. Syaoran seems suddenly very interested in the Xiao Lang book, and Seto suddenly became very interested in Syaoran. As for Mokuba, he seemed to be left out of the picture for the moment, although he wasn't really jealous.
One time Ryou offered to take Syaoran off his hands for a brief while. Seto
wouldn't let him. Ryou came to me, more surprised than hurt.
" What's gotten into him?" He asked. " He seems very-overprotective. What do you
think happened?"
Ryou, of course, knew nothing about Seto and Pegasus's other acquaintance, so he did not know about how Pegasus had played with him.
Now we all knew Pegasus as a sick minded psycho, but we didn't know that Syaoran would actually like him. Nor could we accept the idea that one of Syaoran's known friends is actually Pegasus' friend, so it took a lot of getting use to, I suppose. It was hard for Seto, because he probably made an even bigger enemy of Pegasus than the rest of us. What can we do though?
" Maybe he knows something we didn't." I answered Ryou. Or rather, Yugi did. "
After all, he did disappear for a few days, and we couldn't contact him."
" Not with Mokuba, that's strange." Ryou observed. " Seto always hangs around
Mokuba in his spare time. As brief and rare as they are."
" I know." Yugi nodded. " But now he concentrated more on Syaoran. I wonder
what happened that weekend."
Syaoran came into the game shop one morning without Seto for some reason. He
was holding the magic book in his arms and simply sat down at one of the counters.
" Hey Syao." Jou called. " Watcha doin so early in here? Where's Seto?"
" Off with Mokuba, for once." Syaoran didn't seem too happy. " I told him I was
coming here."
" What's wrong with that guy anyway?" Anzu asked. " He seems totally out of it
the last few days."
" Of course he is. Thanks to our famous nightmare of our lives." Syaoran sniffed
grumpily. " Apparently when I was talking with Kaho-san, Pegasus said something
to Seto-chan."
" Oh, like what?" Yugi was curious.
" How am I supposed to know?" Syaoran snapped. It was the first time he was
cranky, so we let it go for that day. " I'm not a psychic."
" Sure." Jou flipped through the cards. " Hey Syao, check out this new card. It's
called Wizard's Dream. Funny, eh?"
We didn't really expect Syaoran to be interested in it. And he wasn't, but he did
look at it.
" He looks too much like Gandalf." Syaoran muttered. Yugi told me it was from
The Lord of the Rings.
" Hey, Gandalf's a wizard too, ye know?" Jou cocked his head. " It's cool, ne? Of
course, it doesn't work on beasts, but on things like the Mystic Elf and the Celtic
Guardan." He pronounced it strangely.
Syaoran glared at him. Not a fierce one, just one of annoyance. " I wish you could
talk properly for once." He muttered. Jou blinked, a little hurt.
" Syaoran, did something happen?" Anzu asked. " You're not acting like yourself."
" Something did." Syaoran jumped off the counter and placed his book on the top.
" Seto and I had a brief argument."
" Oh..." Anzu didn't know what to make of it.
" I guess I made him angry." Syaoran didn't elaborate. " It's something with
Mokuba.. I didn't know why he got so mad. I only said that I thought Mokuba
needed a little independence to grow stronger. And then he just snapped."
" That doesn't sound like Seto Kaiba to me." Jou was confused.
" You bet it didn't." Syaoran looked at Jou. " There you go. For once. Now to drop
that accent of yours."
Jou looked at him weirdly.
" I'm guessing Pegasus threatened him. I don't know." Syaoran held his head in his
hands. " Something about me. I know that Seto cares about me. I guess he thought
I didn't care about him." He slid back onto the counter. Yugi's grandfather listened
without speaking.
" I just said to him that when I came here," Syaoran sighed. " I mean, before I came
here I thought that everyone was living in some kind of utopia except me. That I
was the only one who was lonely and all. And then when I went to Tomoeda, I
thought I just joined the other people's Utopia. I mean, in Tomoeda, everything's
just, well, almost perfect. Very little crime, no bullies in school, clean air and a good
environment."
We listened without interrupting. I had an idea of where he was going.
" And then when I came here," Syaoran sighed. " I realized that there are places that are not perfect. Like that one time when I nearly got beaten up if it hadn't been for my training in martial arts, and Seto had come by. I never seen so many bullies in one area." He smiled bitterly. " And gang members. People walking around with guns. It made me wonder how can morality and goodwill exist in such a corrupted world.
I have to hand this one to you guys." He smiled again, also bitter. " I've never seen such close friends. Even in Tomoeda we didn't stick together often. I mean, family members, yes. But...we just didn't need each other that much. We didn't really realize that...we'll get separated." Syaoran held his head.
" I just wish that I had stuck with them more."
We didn't speak. I had no idea what Syaoran was getting to now, but I understood
his feelings.
" I guess when you guys leave each other it wouldn't be with regret, eh?" Syaoran
smiled. " This game actually brought you all together somehow. Funny, because it's
becoming more than just a game."
" What are you...talking about?" I asked. " Of course it's not just a game."
" Iie, you don't understand." Syaoran looked at me. " I realized something about
these cards. There was a reason why the immortals didn't just take me that night,
Yami-san.
One of the cards. One of the cards saved me from them."
You can imagine our surprise. I knew that monsters are capable of living in the real
world, but I thought that nowadays they no longer have the power. And especially
since Syaoran made it clear that he never knew anything about the monsters. So he
definetely didn't summon any of them.
Then Syaoran related a story even I never heard of.
" There's a reason why the Shadow Games are created in the first place." He continued. " Long ago, Egypt was under a threat of war. The first pharoah wished to settle it peacefully, so he prayed to the gods Anubis and Ra to somehow present another way. Whoever heard it answered. The following morning the pharoah woke up and wrote down the rules of the game, which he named, Shadow Games. Then he ordered some sorcerors to create five items, one of which was the Millenium Eye, the others I don't know their names. These five are the basis of the game. As long as they exist in the world, the game could be played. The only problem was," Syaoran smiled yet again. " The game got out of hand."
I thought briefly that Tarkot was the one who first realized that.
" Just like it is now." Syaoran pointed out, and I felt a shudder go through me.
Because Syaoran knew nothing of his past life. Seto never told him.
" I mean, it was never created to be a game." Syaoran hugged the book. " It was
created to settle disputes peacefully. The problem wasn't with the monsters
themselves but with the summoners. They were corrupted. And history tends to
repeat itself."
Everyone looked at him, then at me and Yugi. History tends to repeat itself. That
was exactly what was happening now. Syaoran went on, oblivious.
" Look at what's happening. Business owners are using the game to cause
bankruptcy among others. To create monopolies and trusts. People are using the
game to gamble and decide the other's fate." Syaoran hugged the book even tighter.
" I don't like this game."
Of course you don't. I thought to myself, bitterly. You never did. I didn't listen to
you before. But I won't make that mistake again. You will not leave us.
Yet still I wondered. Is Tarkot and Syaoran following the same path? Or is there some kind of fork in the road? Then I gasped suddenly. The others looked at me hopefully.
Before, Tarkot and Syaoran had followed the same fate with the same outcomes but different approaches. Perhaps if Syaoran and Tarkot follow the same approach, then the outcome would be different...
That was also the day when Syaoran first dared open the book. He took his time
doing it. A long time. After hesitating, he gingerly flicked open the seal. It opened
easily. There was a bright glow, and the cards were in there. But they were pink.
Out came a green staff, greenish blue actually, or perhaps bluish green. It was hard to tell. The staff was long, with a wide frame on the top. It was beautifully decorated with carvings on the silver metal. In the center and around the top there was one huge white pearl, and small pearls outlined the staff's head. On each said hung red laces. It was, as Syaoran had commented, a lot less simple than Sakura's.
After examining the staff, a little shakened and surprised, Syaoran turned his attention to the book.
I actually, personally, found the Sakura Cards, or Xiao Lang cards if you like, much more interesting then the Duel Monster cards, first because most of the figures were feminine, second, because I've seen the same cards so much that this deck was a new experience for me. They were much longer and bigger than the game cards, with a more mystical then technological feeling about them. Syaoran took a single card and read it silently. He flipped it so we can see.
It was...Windy, I believe. The one with large wings and looked like some kind of disheveled angel.
Now, I was not very happy with Syaoran nicknaming the game cards, although
Blue Fish-headed Dragon did seem very funny. So I made a show, along with Yugi
and Jou, to annoy Syaoran a bit as well as lighten the mood. I told him about the
disheveled angel comment and he smiled.
" Of course. It's Wind. What can you expect?" He snapped the book closed
suddenly.
" Oh. Shouldn't have said that." But nothing happened.
Cautiously Syaoran opened the book. Nothing happened.
The child laughed nervously. " Gomen. Last time, when Sakura said the name out loud, the card blew all the other cards away. I don't want them flying all over the place. This town is already unruly as it is."
Which was true, to some extent.
We couldn't come up with bad enough names for the rest of the cards. I called one Burning Mephistopheles, which was the Fire card, I think. Jou called one the pink bunny, which I think was the Jump card. Yugi called one the midget-which was the Little Card, quite appropriate. Then there was the cotton candy cabbage doll, although I think the Cloud Card looked much cuter than any dolls I've ever seen. Mermaid, which came from Yugi, which wasn't all that bad since Watery was, more or less, a mermaid. Wood witch, although Woody was, well, wood, and she was, more or less, a witch. Twin Fools, meaning the Twin card, and Jou didn't mean they were stupid, it's just that a King's Fool was kind of dressed like them. There's one named Gandalf-I think it was the Time Card, I'm not sure. The Power Card had us all laughing because she looked like a chibi. We couldn't make fun of the object cards, like the Shield or the lock or the sword, because there wasn't really any name to call them. I don't remember what we called the sweet. Gypsie, was the Sand card. Don't know where Jou got that idea from. We didn't know what to call the Dash Card, it sort of looked like...everything. Chameleon, was the Change card, and Syaoran related a story about Kero and him switching bodies, with Kero messing up on kung fu and Syaoran nearly eaten by a cat. That was funny. I don't know what we called the Glow or Sweet card really. I don't even remember what it looks like. Honda made a joke saying that Anzu looked like the Fight Card, so that card earned the nickname Anzu, slash Fighting woman. The Return Syaoran himself volunteered a nickname: Tree cutter, and when he was asked why Syaoran willingly told us of how Sakura got sucked into some kind of million year old tree, and Syaoran had to use the Time card to bring her back. There was the Erase card, who looked like a cross between a joker and a clown, and some kind of ballet dancer, so we didn't know what to call it. We couldn't give it the name of Sagi the Clown, partly because, as Syaoran pointed out, his face wasn't slanted.
Of course, we had a lot of fun, although we didn't really achieve our real goal-making Syaoran annoyed. So at first there was a little laughter, with Yugi's Grandpa participating. We compared some of them. Windy, for example, with Change of Heart, although we soon realized that none of them looked like anything from the other deck that we can name. So we gave that up.
When we came to actually using the cards, the laughter died immediately. At first Syaoran was reluctant. Then Jou beated, rather harshly ( he almost did it literally), into his head that those cards were no longer Sakura's; they're his now.
Syaoran was still reluctant. He tried to think up some excuse. No way, child. With someone like Honda and Jou, you can't back out. So Syaoran finally relented, using a less destructive card, namingly Cloud, to show us what the cards were capable of.
It didn't work.
" I don't know the spell." Syaoran explained. " They're not my cards. If they were mine they wouldn't be pink right now."
That made sense, but Jou encouraged him.
" Ah, c'mon kid. You can do it. Just search within your heart and find the words,
how hard can that be?"
Syaoran looked at him as if he was an idiot. And even if Jou wasn't really one, then he was talking like one.
" I don't know about this." Syaoran sighed. He closed his eyes, holding all of the cards, now out of the book, in his hand, while still holding the staff.
Then came a low murmur. I could barely catch it.
" Cards of Power...
Ancient forces, hear my call,
Spirits, know me by my name."
His voice slowly rose as the cards glowed brighter and brighter until our eyes were
blinded by it.
" Powers of the moon and star,
Sun of daylight, rays that aim.
I now order you obey,
Words of forces standing far,
Heed to what I now command,
From now on you shall obey!
Cards of Power! I now order you to my command!"
And I remember there was a huge flash that was so painful I thought I would be blinded forever, and I think the others felt the same.
But when our eyes finally cleared, when we could finally see again and the light has dimmed, for a brief moment it seemed that we were no longer in the game shop. We were at the Tokyo Tower, standing at the edge of a tall building. The moon shone fully, and we saw a girl, her cape flapping in the wind, petals of cherry blossoms fluttering down. Her pink staff was in hand, facing some unknown threat. She stepped off the building, fearless and confident. And from the Tokyo tower, where the moon shone, a dark figure with bright golden eyes that glowed in the night, advanced towards her in the same speed. His cape flapped also in the wind, as well as his sleeves and robes. He too, was holding a staff, but instead of pink, he was green, dressed green from top to bottom. His staff was green, with red laces dangling in the wind. And as they reached each other, each stuck out their left hand, held it for a brief moment, as if acknowledging each other. Then they continued, the girl towards the tower, the boy towards us. And just when he came to light, the girl vanished into darkness. When we finally saw his face, we were at the game shop. And Syaoran was standing in front of us, his eyes glowing bright gold, no longer was it amber or brown. He was holding the staff, but he wore no cape. We knew that the vision was real, though, because all of the sudden, the floor of the game shop was scattered with fresh, pink, fragrant smelling petals of cherry blossoms...
