Konnichi wa minna-san! I'm glad that you guys are all back to read ch 9 of this not very successful fic. For now I've got to write the usual, but I hope the fic will turn out satisfying.
Oh yeah also note that my proofreading is becoming very, very poor so please deal with the bad stuff because I'm working real hard to get this fic done once and for all! Which hopefully will be soon
Disclaimer: All characters of CCS are the property of CLAMP, not mine. So please don't sue me. This is only written for entertainment purposes, not for profit. You won't get any money anyway; since I only have six American dollars at the moment, and I'm not going to get any profit whatsoever for writing this.
Claimer: Rikou, Ichiro, Kiku, and Tseng are all my characters in which I developed and cannot be used without my consent.
-Psychic720
Symbols:
" " Dialogue
Sound FX
[ ] My side-notes when necessary.
(Lang) language use in dialogue. [I.e. (Eng)- English, (Jap) Japanese, etc. Japanese is the default in the dialogue.]
Italic sentence
· A character is speaking in the first person (will be specified)
· A letter or written article/document.
· A quote that was said by a character in the past (usually when a characters is looking back.
· When a character emphasizes a word during speech.
Ok, with all the formalities, done, let's go!
Li Syaoran's Story
Chapter 8
By psychic720
Meiling recognized it immediately. "That was that one folder that you had when you were helping me with the groceries. The one you were all apprehensive about, ne?"
Silence. Sakura turned the front page of the folder to view the contents inside.
"NANI!!!" Sakura, Li, Meiling, and Tomoyo exclaimed at once.
"Yep that's right," Rikou said, enthusiastically. Rikou went on yelling at some inanimate presence. "Those are medical records. They're not false either… I've only one more year, one more friggin year, Eng One more beepin year, You hear that! One more year! %@#$%@$$@#$%!"
Rikou went off using obscenities on English that no one in the room could understand clearly.
"You're… going to… die…?" Li asked, although the idea was quite simple, he was dumbfounded.
"How did it happen?" Tomoyo asked shocked at what she just seen.
"How?" Rikou thought for a few seconds. "You'd never believe it."
Tomoyo took her brother's hand quietly giving him what most males call "the look".
Rikou turned and took some of his various medications from his drawer. "If you were to take too many of these pills you'd die, or at least you'd get really sick. It goes the same with Magic."
Sakura looked at him confusingly. "You are going to die due to an overdose of magic?"
"Well that's just part of it." Rikou smiled to himself almost humorously. "Well this story also explains why I hate heights." The boy glanced at Meiling. "As well as why Li was all weird when he looked at that book which was supposedly supposed to relax him."
"Nani!?!" Li couldn't even remember what happened during the night before.
Meiling looked down at the floor for a second. "You were practicing magic from that one wordless book. And then you just seemed to pass out while acting like you were having a heart attack."
Sakura eyes filled with worry, which Li didn't know if he was supposed to be happy or depressed. Sakura was worried that meant something right? Then again, she was worried about a situation involving Li's life, so that wasn't so good for Li's part.
"Well dude you weren't paying attention!" Rikou said humorously. Everyone remember the actual seriousness of the conversation so Rikou began again. "Well it all began sometime ago," Rikou smiled at his sister. "Well let me say Onei-chan, you got to go with the lucky parent." Rikou gave a slight sigh. "Dad got a patient who wasn't going to live unless he got some sort of brain surgery. Well anyway, that wasn't relatively safe either. The patient agreed, its family didn't,"
"Its?" Meiling commented on the boy's grammar use.
"Well I was like three back then, so I didn't know the gender." The boy replied. "Anyway, the family sued dad when the surgery didn't work. Dad said that the patient signed the papers agreeing that he was willing to undergo the surgery. But the family said that the patient had brain problems and wasn't fit enough to make these type of decisions. So Dad went on to lose the case and he was sued quite a lot as well as his medical practice papers. For awhile we all lived on the streets."
Rikou noticed the sudden stare of his friends. "Yep that's right, I was a bum on the streets of New York for awhile."
Sakura wasn't getting that much. "But what does this have to do with you dying?"
"We were putting our meager money into stocks, so I began pounding away hours practicing Psychic predictions. I practiced Tai Chi like hell to quickly widen my chi meridians for my psychic energy to flow through. We gained a lot of money with my psychic readings as well as Dad's we were able to make significant amount of money by finding growing companies, we bought out of Intel and Microsoft when they were still small companies inside car garages. So after we were able to rebuild ourselves, Dad started a martial arts school, and the school was successful. So after perfecting psychic readings and prediction, I went on to Telekinesis to begin studying Chang's psychic attacks. And that was when I decided to experiment with flight. Well, that's when I discovered that someone before had messed with Chang's copy of the Art of the Realms of Wisdom. So I was seriously poisoned with something. That poison was inside Li's book as well, which I luckily got out of him before it got serious, unlike other people. Anyway, Li appeared to have problems with his heart, but me, I got problems with my brain."
"There's connections with Chang's various arts and body organs ne?" Sakura asked catching on a little.
Rikou nodded. "The Three Realms are based off of three qualities. Wisdom, Power, and Courage each of these qualities correspond with a body organ. Courage corresponds to the heart, Wisdom the Brain, and Power the Diaphragm."
[The Diaphragm is called the "Dan Tian" in Chinese, which is considered the storage center of "Chi", the Universal Life Energy.]
"So when I thought I mastered Telekinesis, I decided to experiment with a little flight." Rikou smirked, "didn't work and I fell thousands of feet. Only my practice in raising quick Psychic barriers muffled the impact, but I hit my head pretty bad. So that and the poison gave me a huge brain tumor that the doctors couldn't get out. Grin Now I'm screwed." Rikou didn't really find amusement about being "screwed", but just the unexpectedness between his friends. "Well that's that." Rikou sighed. "If you guys don't mind, I'd like to be alone for awhile…" Rikou resumed packing things from his room.
"You're leaving?" Tomoyo asked.
Rikou gave a mere nod.
"When?" Li added.
"Few weeks, end of the semester, possibly, supposing I don't die before then."
Sakura, Li, Meiling, and Tomoyo left Rikou's house late that night. They merely observed him pack his various belongings. The boy had tried to clear the tension by telling some dumb jokes, but no one was amused.
"It was impossible to expect that he was slowly decaying inside," Meiling said quietly.
"It must have hurt him very bad knowing that his days were limited," Sakura agreed. The girl herself hadn't thought about death. She never understood it in her life. It was as if Rikou was leaving on a long trip, a trip he'd never return from.
Li contemplated quietly by himself. Rikou had pulled him back before he left with the others.
(Flashback.)
Rikou was smiling. He gave Li a hard pat on the shoulder. "Well Li, you never know how much time you actually have left."
"Syaoran-kun, are you coming?" Sakura called from outside of the house.
"Ah, I'll be right there." Li replied to the girl outside. "Nani?"
"Time doesn't wait for you man." Rikou smiled looking outside at the girls. "Time decided to like you and hate me. You've got three cute gals who worry about you like hell. Some a lot others little, still same thing. You know I envy you. You've got life; I've got limited moments. When I leave, you better use your time efficiently or Time will just give up on ya." Rikou sighed. "Well it's been one hell of a year, magic, martial arts, romance… Better than Hollywood ne?" Rikou glanced outside. He looked back at Li. "There's a saying, 'The end is at the beginning, yet we still move on.' grinIf I've actually learned anything in my life, it's that. Well you can't leave 'em waiting out there Li, Sayonara…"
(End of Flashback)
Li kicked a rock down the sidewalk. Although Rikou was decaying, he was still taking life lightly. Then why can't I? Li demanded at himself. He glanced up at Sakura who walked next to Tomoyo, silently. I'll tell her before Rikou-kun leaves, he's expecting something before he departs the Earth.
Sakura walked up to the steps of her home. Houselights beamed through the evening sky indicating someone was home. Tomoyo had already left the group at the last bend in the road, but Li was still trailing in back of her. She gave a quick wave of her hand to indicate their separation for the moment. "O-Yasumi-Nasai, (Good night) Syaoran-kun."
Li opened his mouth, trying to say something, but all that came out was blank air.
"Nani?" Sakura asked noticing Li's blank but not apparent words.
"Iie, Nani mo, O-yasumi nasai. (No, it's nothing, Good night.)"
Sakura went through her door. Li stood outside the doorway for a few minutes. "So much for that…"
Sakura had expected to see Touya ready to ambush her with another "monster" insult, or her father preparing the night's meal. However, she saw neither. To her surprise, a girl, about Sakura's age, possibly older, was sitting on a living room couch looking up at her. She had long, waist-length red hair. The girl was slightly taller than Sakura herself, and had brown eyes.
The girl smiled up at Sakura. She stood up and bowed her head slightly. "Koban wa, Watashi wa Yokoyama Kiku desu, Hajimemashite. Anata wa?" (Good evening, I'm Kiku Yokoyama, nice to meet you. And you?)
Sakura, although she wasn't sure who exactly the girl was, smiled back. She gave the girl the formal Japanese greeting bow. "Kinomoto, Sakura desu." Sakura examined Kiku for a few brief seconds. She has an Aura quite Similar to Rikou-kun's Psychic magic, and Syaoran-kun's New Lightning magic, could she be… Still not sure Sakura decided not to force the girl with any questions. "Ano, would you like some tea?"
The girl laughed quietly. "Domo Arigato. Grandfather was wrong about you!"
"Hoe? Your grandfather knows me?" Sakura searched through her memories trying to remember in old face that could possibly be related to this mysterious girl, who was definitely not a robber.
Kiku, thought to herself for a few moments. "Well sort of, no, not really. He's seen you though."
"Who is he?"
"Well…" Kiku said sipping the tea that was given to her after Sakura poured it in. "You'd probably know him as Tseng."
Tseng!?! Sakura's mind jolted. Kero shuttered inside Sakura's backpack, not wanting to expose himself to Kiku. Wasn't he the guy who killed Chang, San-Feng!
"Tseng-san?" Sakura looked at the girl skeptically. Though Sakura felt a little uneasy, she still trusted the girl.
"He's not a bad person!" Kiku bit in at once noticing the tone of disbelief inside Sakura's voice. "He's just a bit unsettled." The girl brushed a tear forming on her eye quickly. "He didn't kill Master Chang on purpose… He doesn't even want the dumb cards! He just needs them!"
"Hoe?" Sakura was pretty sure that Tseng was behind all the "evil" that was happening lately. "What do you mean?"
"Perhaps if you heard from the beginning, it'd be easier to understand. Some time ago Master Chang, San Feng accepted four disciples. Clow Reed, Yang Wong, Liu Fei, and my grandfather Tseng Kai…"
Li slowly pulled out his blade from the scabbard. His mind was in flux. Too many things were confusing him. The magic that he learned from his family was scrambling with the magic he had learned from reading the scroll from Chang. He decided to ease himself with a few sword forms. Li's world went away through the movements. This is how Rikou practices Tai Chi, nothing matter except your form. He felt a distinct sound in his head. Must be Meiling or Wei. Li continued to practice quietly. Memories flooded through his mind. Some that were present, others from the past. Sakura appeared in most of them, but he couldn't figure out what they all meant. I rock collided with the side of his head.
"Finally!" Rikou said annoyed from Li apartment balcony.
"Why'd you do that!?!" Li rubbed his temple hard.
"You didn't pay attention before and my decaying mind can't think of anything better." Rikou hopped down from the balcony. "Anyway, enough of the chit-chat. There's only a few things that I can do with the rest of my life, and I want to resolve this crap now or never."
"What do you want?" Li thought looking at the boy curiously, He's in his serious mode again, at least he has a hint of sarcasm with it.
"I'm going to seek out this Tseng guy and end his miserable carcass, now, while I can still stand on two feet without the aide of crutches. Well are you with me?" Rikou said.
Li stared at the boy. Rikou rarely asks for help, he obviously needs it. Li was about to say yes. But Rikou went on.
"Listen, you don't hafta do this," Rikou let out a sigh. "I've got nothing left, and I want to gather all I have left to finish the 'duty' that I've been sent to do instead of hiding in my house in fear of getting hit by a car, something I can't prevent. You on the other hand still have decades of life, more than I can imagine, you've got stuff to live for. Think about it."
Rikou leapt off the other side of the balcony.
Li looked around in all directions in search of Meiling and Wei, who were probably in their bedrooms and didn't catch the entire thing. Li took out a small notepad:
I've got something to do, be back later
-Syaoran
"During one of his treks on Wudanng Mountain, Master Chang bumped into a young maiden. People called her Madoushi. Madoushi was renowned as a water fortune teller as well as her other accomplishments with the Water Element at such a young age. She was quite a prodigy back then" Kiku said quietly, over the fifth cup of tea Sakura had offered her. Kiku drank the tea down quietly. She raised her chin to speak some more but stopped.
Sakura who was completely dazed by the story noticed her sudden pause. "Nani? Is something wrong?"
"Someone's here…" Kiku looked in the direction of the door
"I'm home!" Touya's voice could be heard echoing down the hall followed by the door shutting.
Kiku was about to hurl herself through a window, as if she was trying to escape a pursuer, but that would just make me more suspicious. Kiku thought to herself. There was no way for her to go through the window without making a sound, and her magic would easily get detected. The Sage of Wisdom is the one Chang built to be a stealth warrior, not me.
Touya entered the room. He glanced at his sister, but then his attention was averted at the stranger. "Who?"
Sakura jumped into immediate action. "Oh! Oni-chan! She's… a…. friend at school… We're… discussing a project!"
Kiku stood up. "Koban wa, I'm Kiku Yamamoto,"
A sharp flicker hit Touya's senses. "Koban wa."
"Jya!" Sakura sat up. "We'll just be in my room!"
Touya nodded. Sakura and Kiku quickly ran up the stairs. Touya rubbed his temples slightly as if a sharp pain had entered his mind.
"Your brother can sense magic can't he?" Kiku asked looking behind them as if Touya was going to ambush them.
"Uun!" Sakura replied. "Actually not anymore, he gave his powers away when Yue-san was slowly disappearing."
Kiku nodded. "He could probably redevelop them…"
"Nani?" Sakura looked at the girl curiously, but Kiku didn't say anything. Sakura sighed slightly. "Ne, you were talking about that woman named Madoushi."
"You've actually met her before."
"Honto? Oh you mean that one lady we meant at Hong Kong?" Sakura smiled. The trip to Hong Kong was rather memorable for her. After all it was her first trip abroad. However there was something that troubled her. "How would you know that we met her? I barely even know you?"
"Tseng has—" Kiku stopped. "Never mind. Madoushi was a pretty attractive woman. She attracted all four of Chang's disciples." Kiku laughed. "Grandfather said that Yang Wong, who was a Buddhist Monk, bathed every day in freezing ice water fearing that he may get physical desires from the woman and walk away from the path of enlightenment." Kiku giggled a little more. "Yang eventually stirred away from his path a decade later when he married a villager. Had he stayed on that path, Your psychic friend would've never saw the light of day."
"You mean, Rikou-kun is a descendant of one of Chang's Disciples?" Sakura asked. No wonder Rikou contained all those manuscripts.
Kiku nodded. "Anyway, Madoushi went to challenge Master Chang. Chang was about to agree, but Clow said that the master was too old for such confrontations and Clow, who really didn't have much fame yet, would take the challenge instead of his master. This was the first time Clow ever used his new Clow Cards and well Madoushi sorta lost, and lost pretty bad. And that was the rise of Clow Reed…"
Li stood next to Rikou in the Subway. The underground train was much more empty now that it was getting late in the night. He carefully glanced at his friend who fingered a piece of ripped cloth in his hand.
"What is that?" Li asked quietly, noticing Rikou's intense expression on Rikou's face.
"This will lead us to whoever this Tseng guy is." Rikou replied. "I ripped it off the sleeve of that Ichiro dude a few weeks ago when he showed up. He said he was the right hand of Tseng, and if he isn't lying, this should lead us to Tseng's crib."
The subway slowed to a stop. Rikou continued to concentrate on the piece of fabric as Li noticed one of the passengers. He was much paler than most of the other passengers, and at least a year younger.
The boy smiled at them. "Koban wa."
Li just gaped in shock. "Hirigsawa-kun."
"Hiri-who?" Rikou asked, still not averting his gaze.
"He's that English friend Sakura was talking about yesterday." Li replied.
"Oh," Rikou lifted his head up. "(Eng) 'Zup?"
Eriol smiled at the "informal" American accent. "(Jap) Koban wa."
Rikou looked at Eriol skeptically. "(Eng) Right…" the boy tucked the ripped sleeve into his pocket. "Ne, Li-kun, what did I miss at school?"
Li was taken by surprise by the sudden change of topics. "Nothing much, we've got a skit project we're going to do for the Literacy Fest before our trip to Kyoto. "
"Isn't that going to be fun…" Rikou rolled his eyes and sulked in his seat. The boy gave a casual glance at Eriol, "Won't it, Clow Reed…?"
"Skit projects were always rather interesting." Eriol replied in agreement. A smile appeared on Eriol's face in response to the mischievous smirk on Rikou's. Eriol turned his attention to Li. "Isn't that right my little Descendant."
Li grimaced at the sudden remark. Rikou was calm for two seconds, but burst out laughing afterwards. Rikou gave a hard slap on Eriol's shoulder. "(American Eng) Ingles you're not that bad!" Rikou exclaimed.
"(English Accent) Thanks," Eriol smiled at the sudden burst of 'friendliness'. But still, he's smart enough not to trust me so easily, Strong enough to discover my identity. The slap was a clever, if informal, test…
Rikou noted the eyes of the Englishman. Yeah that's right, I'm watching you…
Dozens of stops passed by none of the boys got off at any. Li noted that Eriol was watching them, particularly Rikou.
Ichiro was perched on top of a tree staring through Sakura's window as Kiku resumed to tell her story.
"Kiku…!" He said to himself impatiently, "How long does it take just to tell this story, Master Tseng will be displeased if he ever found out!"
They deserve to know why things are happening. Kiku had told him calmly in her hypnotic but soothing voice. Ichiro leaned back on the trunk of the tree.
"Whatever you say Kiku-chan…" Ichiro glanced at the window again and began to wait again. Kiku never finished fast enough for the fate of Ichiro to be discovered. A palm, illuminated in a gray light came out of the tree and straight forward for Ichiro's skull. Fortunately, Ichiro was able to leap out of the tree before he could get hit. Drawing a curved Katana, he swung at fiery blast towards the tree. But the tree didn't go up in flame like he suspected. An orb of Green light appeared and destroyed his attack, blowing him backwards. The aura from the tree disappeared after the ambush. Ichiro gave a brief sigh of relief and lay limp on the ground.
Sakura jerked. "What was that?" The girl dashed to her bedroom window and peered out. "It's him!"
Kiku ran to Sakura's side. An aura of shock and fear shrouded Kiku's senses. "Ichiro-kun!"
Ichiro lay motionless on the ground. Kiku leapt out the window upon seeing the limp boy. "Ichiro-kun!"
Sakura followed her out through the window. "Yokoyama-san, matte!"
By the time the girls reached the limp body, it flinched. Ichiro sat back right up in a snap. Kiku almost screamed at the sudden jerk giving the boy a sudden smack in the face. "What were you thinking trying to scare us like that!?!"
Ichiro's mind was still spinning from the explosion "Who is this?" Ichiro mumbled, a mumble that almost represented a growl to Sakura's ears.
"Ano…" Sakura started hesitantly. Sakura would've recognized Ichiro had he not dressed up as an old man when he attacked her. The sudden change of tones between Kiku's friendly voice and the harshness within Ichiro's made her shudder. "Watashi wa, Kinomoto Sakura desu."
Kiku examined her friend's head. "You must've hit your head hard if you can't even remember the mistress of the cards."
Ichiro returned his Katana back into his scabbard as he reflected on that past brief moments. "I was ambushed by a hand that shot out from the tree, and then it nuked me with a ball of green light, but then it suddenly disappeared, which means… it was a mere diversion, and… TSENG-SAMA!" Ichiro quickly dusted himself off and hurriedly ran away from the two girls.
"Da-re desu ka?" (Who was that?) Sakura asked behind Kiku.
Sakura observed the other for a few moments. Sakura really never got the answer of her question. Kiku didn't even reply to Sakura; she was busy trying to interpret Ichiro's mumbling. Grabbing Sakura's arm, Kiku quickly followed Ichiro who had now vanished through the night sky.
"No time for that, follow me!" Kiku replied.
Li, Rikou, and Eriol got off the Subway after they reached the outskirts of Tomoeda, they cautiously approached a Shinto shrine.
"NE NE!" Rikou said irritably noting that Eriol was still following them. "You've followed us for the last hour, are done yet?"
Eriol smiled at the sudden outburst. "Iie."
"(Eng) One day, I'm going to bust that annoying attitude!" Rikou exclaimed.
The Dark side of Rikou-kun… Li thought to himself.
"Don't you have any better things to do?" Eriol asked sincerely. "Before time runs out?"
Rikou got angrier. "I'll 'run out a time' you!" Rikou stopped after his final sentence and took out the ripped cloth from his jacket.
Li watched as Rikou calmed down and the comical smile returned to Rikou's face. "You're going to regret ticking me off." The boy said with a humorous tone, but it was quite obvious that he meant it.
"I'll wait," Eriol replied with another smile.
Despite the show of smiling teeth, Li could obviously see tension between the two. "This is going to be a long mission…" Li sighed to himself viewing the two others insult the other indirectly.
Eriol took the ripped away from Rikou. He stared through the rag towards the Shrine. "This is it, the origin…"
"For once I agree," Rikou agreed quietly. He glanced back at Li. "Well 'Future Sage of Courage', Should we, or should we not?"
Li shivered when Rikou suddenly used Li's new title that was suddenly given to him. Although we supposedly the one of courage he had lost it when he saw how great the team reacted with each other. He gave a slight nod. "Hai…"
(End of ch 9) I guess this is a good place to stop. It'll shoot some ideas into my head. Well let's see, the usual, please write me back if you've read this far, I need as many suggestions as possible because I'm running outta ideas! Please reply to psychic720@yahoo.com or write a review if you're reading this from fanfiction.net.
Thanks a lot for reading my fics!
-Psychic720