Sakura Kinomoto clenched her teeth to prevent the splitting pain of her headache from getting to her. The current demon was too fast; a split moment of hesitation would certainly mean death.
With a cry she jumped and swiped to the left. The inhuman roar of pain was the only sign that she had hit something in the torrential rain that had accompanied its visit for the past day.
A fresh wave of pain surged through her head, and the pressure in her jaw was forcing her to relieve her bite. The new throbbing in her temples was accompanied by a cry of pain and the clang of a dropped sword.
The blackness was threatening to take over, and her body was so numb that she could not jolt herself back to her senses. She slumped down, feeling the monster's massive chi unleash itself near nearby; its prey was weak, and it going for the kill. Sakura closed her eyes and prayed that it would be quick. Tears began to flow down her face as she thought about little Ying Fa and Kozue…and Syaoran…
A clang sound from above her caused her to open her eyes a hair, but before she could warm, green magic had picked her up and placed her beneath a tree. Propped against a cushion of air, Sakura's eyes opened wide at the sight of her husband dodging the monster's attacks with relative ease.
Syaoran swung left and right, smirking at the demon's roars of frustration. The chi blast had unmasked the demon's cover, and that would mean that the Guard was all alerted.
With a special ofuda strapped to his sword, he swiped directly at the demon's centre and vanquished it. He slumped down, breathing heavily. Something was wrong; no way a demon that small could have had so much energy. Mentally recalling the Book of Darkness, he started flipping the pages, immersed in finding out which demon that had been. Sakura started to get up, to go to him, when she felt another chi hurtling towards them. Her eyes opened wide as the energy reading overloaded her senses; she bit her tongue hard. She had to get to him, he wasn't focused, and this was no ordinary demon…
Sakura choked back a scream when the demon hurtled a massive ball of chi at her husband. The scream quickly turned to sobs; no-one could survive that blast…
Syaoran sat up, mind wandering quickly. This demon…this demon…
~*flashback*~
"Shô – prefix describing the strongest of the demons."
"Hai."
"Shôrin- the demon of fear."
"Hai."
"Shômu – demon of fire."
"Hai."
"Shôqui – demon of water."
"Hai."
"Shô-shô – master of demons. Sealed by Honourable Master Li the first."
"Very good, Syaoran-sama."
~*end flashback*~
Syaoran swore violently as he masked his own chi. This was not good by any stretch of imagination. If Shô-shô had escaped from his ancestor's seal, that could only mean it had gotten stronger. There was only one thing left to do – there was no way that he could alone vanquish the demon which had claimed the life of the most powerful magician this world had ever seen. Taking a deep breath, he unhinged his sword from the hilt and blew into the resulting hole.
A long, low note resounded throughout the air, time seemed to freeze, and it went on, and on, and on… Sakura let out a gasp that went unheard as what looked like shooting stars slammed into the ground around Syaoran, who continued to stand there. When the flash had dissipated enough to see, Sakura glanced around. But…these were…just…
"The Guard comes at the call!" they said together. Sakura started naming names. Yueh, her onii-chan, her otou-san, Mizuki-sensei, Li-sama, the four Li sisters, the ghost of her okaa-san, Eriol, Kerberos, Ruby Moon, and Spinel Sun.
A piercing cry filled the air, and Sakura felt what remained of her power divide itself and send one part towards the gathering. When the light faded for the second time, Sakura had to brace herself against the power that the group now controlled. It was…magnificent, and words could not do justice to the grace that flowed around the individuals.
As on, they lifted and pointed towards the black mass that was the master demon. Time seemed to freeze again, and Sakura could swear she saw the beam burst from the formation, arcing its way through the night sky, towards the demon, slamming with full force against it, and the roar of pain and anguish and defeat that echoed throughout the park and seemed to never end. As soon as every last trace of the demon had vanished, the glowing sensation of the group seemed to diminish, and they were once again the people that Sakura knew. Fujitaka was the first to speak.
"As I'm the only one here without long sight, does anyone care to tell me what happened to my daughter?" The group divided as Syaoran came towards the tree Sakura was sitting under.
"Yes, she was fighting the largest of Shô-shô's spawn when she fell unconsci-" he froze, and everyone knew exactly why.
Staring back at the entire group were two glassy emerald orbs. There was a collective gasp from the group, and they all were thinking the same thing. The thing that Syaoran wanted the least had manifested.
Sakura had seen the extent of Syaoran's power.
~*~
Syaoran walked into their bedroom late at night and turned on the nightlight. He jumped when he saw his wife sitting on the edge of the bed. Recovering, he said lightly,
"How long have you been sitting there?"
"Since I came home."
"Ah." There was silence for a while, and then Sakura spoke up.
"Today, for the first time, I looked at the cards," her voice was shaky, probably from a good hour of crying, "and I realized that…that these cards hold the spirits of the most powerful forces on earth. And when I examined them further, I realized that I should have never been able to catch them with the power level I had when I began. You did that too, did you not?" Syaoran couldn't meet her eyes, and merely nodded. Sakura took a deep, shuddering breath.
"And when I was changing Void…there was never any doubt that you would be chosen?" Syaoran nodded again, "And the demons I've fought all this time…you were helping." Syaoran bowed his head.
"So, basically, I'm useless." Syaoran shot up.
"No. Sakura, look at me," he shook her, "Look. At. Me." He faltered the moment she did, her emerald eyes filled with tears. He had never been a good improv speaker.
"Sakura…I've been trained to fight these things. I know how to defeat these demons, and my magic has been honed from the moment I was conceived. It's only, well, natural, that my magic exceeds yours. It's only natural that the rest of the Guard is so powerful. My mother has trained, non-stop, for all sixty-four and a half of her years. Your brother is what is known as the Gate Keeper. He chooses the fate of spirits. Eriol is the incarnation of a sorcerer who managed to tap fifty-three spirits in raw form. You were thrown into your power late, and were never trained. Your total magical experience is around twenty years, so you could never compare.
"Do you know why, then, you are known as the most powerful sorceress? Look around you, look at your cards. They are all circling around you, not me, because they love you and are trying to tell you that they care. Do you know how much energy it is taking me, right now, to prevent all fifty-three of these spirits from flying at me in a rage for making you cry? If you were angry at me, and wanted these cards to hurt me, I would be dead by now. Even as it is, you aren't, but they still are furious at me.
"Do you see now? You're just so…nice, and loving, and you might not know it, but you control every one of these spirits. These cards, despite their fancy clothing and compact form, are the embodiment of raw, unadulterated power that is fire, water, wind, trees, and all others. Did you know that Clow killed a number of demons using Sweet? You've won over the fire, the water, the wind. You have every single one of these elements under your control.
"Believe me when I say that, in theory, I am the most powerful magician on earth at this moment. And believe me when I say that I don't hold a candle against you in the amount of power you can control." Syaoran finished, his throat a little bit raspy. It came down to whether she believed him or not; whether she could forgive him or not. She explicitly told him, in their first encounter, to leave her to her business. He solemnly swore in their wedding vows to leave her alone. Many times over, he broke her trust in the one thing that she had requested him not to.
When she didn't stir, he closed his eyes and stood up. If she wasn't forgiving him, she was angry. He would be dead any moment now if he didn't leave.
He turned to the door and came face to face with a cage of ice he knew was spiked with lightning. Well, that was settled. She wanted him dead, and he deserved it. If anything, however, he would like it to be painless, so he pulled out an ofuda of ice to numb his body.
"Syaoran no baka…" he turned around to see his wife wiping away her tears.
"H-hai?"
"Syaoran no baka…of course you're forgiven. I asked you not to help me, but I asked you to protect me. Come to think of it," she added, "onii-chan did too, so you actually saved yourself a bloody death from not letting me die at the hands of all those demons, especially the one that scared me with all the ghosts."
"Shôrin," he said quietly.
"Yes, him. And," she turned on him, "you could have told me you were so powerful, then I might not have been so convinced that Shôgun had killed you."
"Shôrin."
"Yes, whatever. But seriously," she looked at him, "I'm not mad. Just a little…peeved that you didn't trust me enough to tell me. And in the future, could you teach me a bit about the demons I'm about to face, especially if no human being could survive sealing it?" Syaoran laughed.
"Well, with the vanquish of Shô-shô, and the sealing of the Shô in general, it'll take some time before some of the smarter dumb demons figure out how to cross planes into ours. So you need not worry about it for a while." Sakura looked at him, blank.
"In Japanese, please?"
"Uh…there aren't going to be demons until your next reincarnation." Sakura smiled.
"Thank you," she said, kissing him. He leant back, Sakura on his tummy, and relaxed, ready to get some sleep. That is, until she sat up and elbowed him in the stomach.
"Ow!"
"Sorry…what did you mean, my next reincarnation?" Syaoran winced.
"Well, as a bearer of strong magic and the cards, you – and I – will both eventually be reincarnated, and technically we both realize who we were at the age we came into our magic. So I get to ogle over you for around ten years before you realize who I am." Sakura bopped him on the nose.
"Hopefully you'll survive onii-chan before that…that will be something, two-year old chibi Syaoran fighting seven-year old onii-chan over me, and I won't even know you." Syaoran smiled and flipped to his side, pulling his wife closer to him. He smiled, burrowing his face in her hair as she snuggled close to him, warm and ready to just sleep.
"OHAYO-GOZAIMASUUUUUU!" Sakura opened one eye, cross, as her daughter Ying Fa came bounding into their room.
"I always wondered…why, if she looks like me and takes after me in every respect, why does she have to always get up early like her father?" she put out her arms and hugged her daughter tightly, as if she were a doll.
"Ying Fa! Get out! Okaa-san and Otou-san were out late and they're sleepy!" Sakura smiled in her sleep as her oldest son tried to be considerate. Opening one eye, Syaoran motioned for him to come over. It was quite scary, actually, how much like Yue he was.
"Oh, come here, Kozue. I take it you actually slept in the night for a change?" Kozue was one hundred percent Ying, drawing all his power from the moon. This meant, of course, that his power and energy grew during the waxing of the moon, and shrank during the waning. Of course, at both he was equally powerful, but as last night was the New Moon, he was knocked out. Nodded sleepily, he crawled over to his father's right.
"Went to bed at six. Noticed you were out." He yawned and closed his eyes. Ying Fa also yawned, her momentary energy spent.
"Kero-chan was playing Street Fighters, and I played too…it was really late when I slept…" she turned over, out like a light. Sakura shifted slightly so that she could see her husband.
"I'm going to have a word with that stupid stuffed animal (*a-choo*)…" Syaoran frowned as Sakura smiled.
"Oh, come on. This way we can sleep without – anyone caring…" she yawned in the middle, and turned over, asleep. Syaoran dragged her towards him, and she shifted a little bit.
He smiled, looking at his family and the beams of morning sunlight that were streaming in the room. Downstairs, the plushie was sitting, and it needed a lecture…again…but as of right now, he was content to fall asleep surrounded by the ones he loved best.
~* FINI *~
AN: Wow…it's finished…I finished it…it's not even that long, I'm losing my touch…oh, and I had to constrain myself from writing a ball of fluff in that ending. I just had so many WAFF ideas, and I wanted to use them, but I knew I shouldn't be…
On the other hand, I've now got time for other stories! Which is good! And I'm going to go finish Dear Koi-chan, which you should read! (*shameless plug*)
Now, to thank reviewers who have always reviewed:
Semmerie: She even put me on her favourite authors list! I was so touched! And she's a really good writer, with nice spacing and stuff!
Anime Queen: She actually said okay to my persistent asking to be her beta! Even after I forgot to check my email! She's got some great romance fics, and you should read them!
Water-Soter: Ne, thanks for reviewing! She writes X-men, and they're really good, if you know X-men! So go check it out!
tzuky: You aren't a ff.net person, but I'm thanking you for reviewing twice!
Until next time,
wicherwill ^_^
