One of the latest fics that has come to mind. This one has been floating around in my head for months and I've finally managed to get a decent chapter written. Most of the other chapters that I wrote, I felt were very cliché. ^^;;
Also- the song used in here is written by me also. I don't exactly have a name for it now, but I think I'll call it 'Heartbreak'.
Disclaimer: I hate this thing. I hate the disclaimer so much I call it a thing. Anyway- to be short. I don't own CCS. I own the song, but that's it. Plus the $2 slippers I'm wearing now, but that's about the extent of it. ^^;;
Summary: If saving her life meant breaking her heart... would you be willing to do it? Yet, if she still came chasing after you, would you still run away? Taking refuge in the Spirit World, Syaoran's convinced he's doing the right thing. CCS/Spirited Away x-over.
~ A World Away ~ Chapter One ~ Breaker ~
"Come, come, the only way to see him again..." a voice said and a figure swam into view. Her face was in shadow, her long black hair swinging gently against her shoulders, the darkness surrounding her. Her face held a pleading look, her eyes a certain type of mystery.
"Can... I...?" the words tumbled out from the girl's lips, sounding a little stretched and slightly incoherent. Then her voice strengthened and she said more clearly, "Can I?"
"Yes you can, young one, but we have to hurry, otherwise we will miss our opportunity," the voice sounded hurried, as if the girl did not have much time. Her arm was extended, her hand reaching out to take that of the other.
The other started reaching out her hand towards the shadowed girl, but then found herself totally submerged in light, the shadowed one gone. "Where did you go?" the other called out, her voice ringing around the void of light. She was not answered.
* * * * * Back to REALITY! More like... Sakura's bedroom... ^^;; * * * * *
The girl woke up to find herself awake. Her immediate reaction was to sit up and look around. Hence, she did. Her green eyes were searching, her senses open and alert. Nothing. Well, nothing in her room except for a certain toy snoozing away in his bed which was situated in the drawer of her desk along with the book of Star Cards.
This girl's name was Kinomoto Sakura. Folding the bed covers over, she swung her legs over the side of her bed, placed her feet on the ground and shivered. The floor was absolutely freezing.
Sakura stood and walked over to her window, her hand reaching out and opening the curtains partially. Her eyes scanned the surroundings, but she found nothing wrong or amiss. Her hand fell from the curtain and she walked over to the sleeping guardian. Prodding him gently she whispered, "Kero, hey, Kero, wake up."
There was a stir.
"Sakura, what is it? Do you have any idea what the time is?" Kero groaned. Tears were dripping out of his eyes from pure exhaustion. "I wanna sleep..." Kero began rubbing his eyes. "God, I'm all wet..."
Sakura's gaze was quietly observant and she snapped out of her trance just in time to hear what Kero said and notice that he was awake now. "Kero, I had a dream," she said simply.
"A dream?" Kero asked, his eyebrows raising slightly so that he had a faintly surprised look on his face. "Was this a dream dream or a premonition dream?"
"I'm not exactly sure, it kind of felt like both. I didn't know what was going on. I mean I had no idea of who the person in the dream was at all. They just stood there telling me that there was a way to see this person that somehow I wanted to see. I had been feeling helpless until she had come along." Sakura was musing over what she could remember. She moved to the window and opened the curtains, letting the morning sunlight shine in.
"Did she have a familiar voice? I mean, did you get any vibes or anything from her aura?" Kero asked. He was a little confused about this one.
"The thing is, Kero," Sakura said, turning from where she was standing at the window, "I couldn't sense anything. It was as if all my senses were in a block. I didn't know what to do at all."
Kero's face was set in a thoughtful expression. "You know, this one stumps me a little. Can you let me mull it over for a while? I'll tell you what I think of it in a couple of hours, ok?"
Sakura nodded, her serious face breaking into a smile and her features lightening. "Kero, it might pay just to change out of your pyjamas." Sakura put a hand over her mouth to hide the smile, but it escaped and the corners of her mouth twitched, easily showing Kero that she was laughing. Kero's pyjamas consisted of a two piece set of flannelette. The sweater like top had holes for Kero's wings and there was a hole in the bottom of his pants for his tail. The pyjamas had been custom made by Tomoyo and Kero had picked out the material.
Much to Sakura and Tomoyo's amusement, Kero had picked the material that had pudding printed all over it. Needless to say, Kero's obsession with pudding had probably gone just a little too far.
"OK, OK," Kero said restlessly and there was a bang as Kero's "bedroom door" (the drawer) slammed shut.
"Be careful there Kero! I don't want my guardian to get lost!" Sakura called through the tiny keyhole gap. Her response was a round black eye peeking out at her from the keyhole. She got a little bit of a fright and jumped back with a start.
"Stay out while I'm changing!" Kero called to Sakura. "I'm almost done. What are you planning on doing today anyway?"
Sakura was at her mirror, brushing her long hair, occasionally blowing puffs of breath upward at her fringe to get it out of the day. "I don't actually know. No plans I guess. I was thinking of finishing up my chores. Me and Touya swapped days."
"Why?" Kero asked. "I thought your brother wasn't working today."
"So did I," Sakura answered. "But a shift came up at the last minute last night and he asked if he could swap days with me. I don't mind really, it gives me something to do." Sakura smiled, tying her hair up in a ponytail, trying to get her bangs in as well, but they refused and just flopped back to their original position, framing her face. Sakura gave a sigh of defeat and went to open the door. Stepping through, she said to Kero, "Come down when you want breakfast. I don't think anyone's home."
"Okay," was Kero's answer and there was a loud thud from his drawer. "Damn! I hate ceilings!" he yelled in frustration, rubbing the bump that had now formed on the back of his head.
* * * * * Downstairs * * * * *
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
These coming from two human beings that were standing in Sakura's kitchen arguing.
"Oh come on, Jomei, I know you better than that, it was your fault!"
"Was not!"
"Was TOO!"
"Sachi, YOU were the idiot that got us here, so now get us out!!!!"
Sakura heard these voices from downstairs and was wondering what was going on. She picked up her baton from beside her door and began walking slowly and quietly down the stairs.
CREAK.
Uh oh, bad, very very bad.
CREAK!
Even worse! No!
"Jomei?"
"... You're only saying that because..."
"Oh shut up for a minute, I think someone's coming downstairs."
"What?! Oh, Sachi, Ma is gonna kill you!"
"I don't need to hear that. Hang on, I'm gonna go check! Shut up for a second, ok?"
"What...ever girlfriend."
"Eww... don't make me hurl." Someone made a gagging sound. "Be right back."
Sakura heard some steps coming towards the arch in the doorway. The person was only metres from where Sakura was standing, frozen. Don't see me, don't see me, Sakura was thinking, cowering up against the banister. Crap! Crap! Crap! She was mentally scolding herself.
"Hey... Sachi? What if it's that Kinomoto girl? You know, the one that you were coming to see in the first place?"
"Jomei, how many times do I have to tell you, she also has a brother and father that could be here and we can't risk being seen by them. Think of what Ma would say."
"She's gonna kill you as it is for even coming here, so I don't really see much of a risk."
"Oh yay." Sarcasm was poured on. "That makes me feel a hell of a lot better."
"Good. It was meant to."
Someone sighed.
Sakura was about to go back upstairs to Kero when a girl emerged from around the corner. Sakura bit back a shriek and cowered back even more.
The girl turned to talk to the other person in the kitchen.
"Hey! Jomei, I think I found her. I think she's the Kinomoto girl anyway."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Are you the Kinomoto girl?" the strange girl directed at Sakura.
"Kinomoto... girl?" Sakura asked. "My name's Kinomoto Sakura, so it might be me... what do you want?"
"Oh, don't worry honey, we're not gonna harm you, at least, I won't anyway." The girl directed a glare at the other person. "And Jomei, if you lay a hand on her, I'll dispose of you personally. You may be my brother, but you know I don't put up with crap."
"Uh huh. Whatever sister."
Sachi groaned. "You see what I have to put up with?" she said, indicating her brother.
Sakura smiled a little, dropping her guard and her baton. "My brother's just as bad."
Sachi smiled at this new girl named Sakura. There was no doubt in her mind that this girl was the one. The one that... NO! She couldn't think like that. Sachi shook the thought from her mind and instead crouched down to Sakura's level. Sachi was much much taller than Sakura. She was probably about 6'1" and she had the look to boot. Sachi looked about twenty five years of age, no lines in her face and a cool 'do. Dark denim flare jeans clad her legs, and a purple top that came to about her midriff.
"Well, Sakura. I guess you're wondering why there's two people standing in your kitchen arguing, right?"
"Well, yeah," Sakura said hesitantly. She was still shocked at seeing the two people so... collected. They seemed to act as if nothing had happened. "Who are you two?"
Sachi looked nervously at Jomei and then back at Sakura. "Um... well, I'm Sachi, and this is my brother, Jomei. You're gonna find this hard to believe but..."
"SACHI!" Jomei hissed under his breath. "SHE DOESN'T NEED TO KNOW!!!!"
Sachi drew up to her full height again and led Sakura through to the kitchen where Jomei was standing, his elbows leaning against the counter, a bored expression on his face. His hands were nestled under his chin. He didn't seem to care less, but as Sachi went to stand beside him, Sakura could start to see the resemblance between the two.
Brown hair, the same colour as milk chocolate, went down to Sachi's shoulder blades except that her hair now had been braided, a dark brown weaved through the chocolate coloured strands. It was her eyes though that were the most startling, a hue of grey that was neither dark nor light, but seemed to hover between, constantly changing. They were a darkish silver at the moment.
The only differences between Sachi and Jomei were that Jomei's eyes were a blue-grey and his hair was shorter, bangs in the front and in back, hair down to his neck. Jomei was also a bit shorter than his sister, probably about 5'11", not that that was very short anyway.
Sakura was getting a crick in the back of her neck from looking up so much. "Sachi, where did you come from?"
Just as Sachi was about to open her mouth to answer, the phone rang.
"Hold that thought," Sakura said, smiling a little as she rushed to grab the phone. Picking it up, she clicked the 'Talk' button.
"Hello!" she said cheerfully.
"Sakura-chan?" the voice sounded a little hesitant.
"Syaoran? Is that you?"
"Yeah, listen, I need to talk to you about something, can you meet me at the shrine?"
"Tsukimine shrine?" Sakura asked.
Syaoran confirmed, "Yes, Tsukimine shrine. See you soon, Sakura."
"Syaoran, wait -" but she was cut off by the abrupt monotone of the phone dial. "Bye."
Sakura clicked the phone off and placed it back on the receiver, a worried look on her face.
"What's wrong?" Sachi asked.
Sakura's eyebrows furrowed. She was about to tell Sachi about her very short phone call, but decided against it. "It's nothing." She stayed thinking.
Jomei checked out Sakura's facial expression and muttered to Sachi, "She's in lalaland. She could be a while, I suggest we snap her out of it."
"Agreed," Sachi replied and she walked the couple of steps forward to be level with Sakura. "Sakura, hey, earth to Sakura," she said, prodding the girl's arm gently.
Sakura snapped out of her trance and looked a little guilty. "Sorry," she apologised. "I was staring into space for a little bit there."
"No problem," Sachi said, speaking for both her and her brother. "Listen, Sakura, I think you better go and get off to whatever you're meant to. It sounded important."
"Yeah..." Sakura trailed off, still absent a little. She picked up her key, hung it around her neck and went out the door, but not before adding to Sachi and Jomei, "Feel free to have something to eat if you want to. Kero might be down soon and he'll probably be hungry. He looks a little like a teddy bear with wings, but please don't hassle him."
"Don't worry, we won't," Sachi said with an evil grin. She already knew what she was going to do...
* * * * * On the way to the Tsukimine Shrine * * * * *
A cool wind blew through the trees and the dew on the grass sparkled as the early morning sun rose over the hills and sent a warm welcome. The wind blew in Sakura's face as she walked down to the shrine. Her mind was still going over those last few events that had happened as soon as she had woken up that morning, but the one that was most disturbing her was that abrupt phone call with Syaoran. He had seemed in such a hurry. What was going on? She had absolutely no idea.
Going past the school, Sakura looked in to see a figure at the window. Sakura squinted a little to see if she could get a better view of who it was but her instincts told her that she shouldn't worry about it. There were more troubling things at hand, for instance, how in the world Sachi and Jomei had come in her kitchen when she knew that both her father and brother would have made sure that all the windows and doors in the house were locked before they left.
Sakura's gaze went back down to the ground, and she mulled over that dream again. The woman... what she had said struck Sakura more... "Come, come, the only way to see him again..." ...was that related to Syaoran somehow? To be honest, she had no idea.
A playful wind nipped at Sakura's hands and she pulled them further inside her sleeves to prevent her hands from going numb, they were pretty near that. It was a cold winter morning, she could say that much and she had been surprised when she had stepped out of the house that there had been only dew on the ground, not frost or snow.
A snowflake landed in Sakura's hair, but she didn't feel it. It settled gently, leaving no mark and it melted. Sakura looked up at the sky and saw little white puffs falling. It was snow, snowflakes. They were beautiful, but Sakura could not appreciate it, there was so much on her mind that she didn't even know where to start. She had to find a way to get all of this out of her head when she talked to Syaoran. He was able to read her so well. It had always been that way. Always.
Sakura raised her hands to feel the snowflakes building up on her palm. For a moment, she just stood there, absorbing the early morning air.
It's a beautiful morning
But you feel so down
Something's going wrong
You know, you can sense it now
A tear rolled down her cheek. Something was going to happen. Something that she was not going to be prepared for. She could sense that ahead already. Something was going to drastically change in her life within the next twenty minutes and she had a horrible feeling that it had to do with Syaoran.
There's a sad thing called 'love'
That can be the most suffocating thing
But when it's right
It makes your heart sing
But some things need to happen
That changes the course of life
Sometimes a path needs to be made
Even though it comes with its strife
Sakura was at the entrance of the shrine. She could see Syaoran waiting there. She could choose to turn back, run away and not listen to what he had to say. But then, she'd never get the chance to say goodbye...
It's gonna hurt, it always does
There are times when you have to say good bye
Though you don't want to
You don't want it to be the end
After all the heartache
Your heart might start beginning to mend...
Sakura took a step inside the shrine. She took a deep steadying breath and tried to calm her emotions, but to no avail. She was barely managing to contain what she was feeling as she began stepping meekly towards Syaoran. Tears threatened to spill out of her eyes.
There are times that you need to do this
And though it hurts like hell
You need to set them free
Even if it's to keep them alive
"Syaoran...?" Sakura's voice was breaking. She was still just managing to keep her emotions contained. Everything was going to come spilling out, she knew it.
It's gonna hurt, it always does
There are times when you have to say good bye
Though you don't want to
You don't want it to be the end
After all the heartache
Your heart might start beginning to mend...
His news. She could see everything etched within his face. The immense pain. As she came closer, tears became brimming in her eyes. She refused to wipe them away. She had to stay strong through this... for the both of them.
"Sakura," he whispered as she came closer. "I'm sorry..."
Sakura barely heard him, but gave a tiny nod to let him know that she understood.
"...I don't love you anymore."
There are times that you need to do this
And though it hurts like hell
You need to set them free
Even if it's to keep them alive...
Sakura felt her heart breaking. It started as a pain in her chest and it became almost unbearable within seconds. The tears that had been brimming in her eyes spilled over and Sakura fell to the ground on her hands and knees, burying her face in her hands. A soft whimpering were the only sounds that were coming from Sakura.
Syaoran felt his heart break too. He could not look Sakura in the eye after he had uttered those words and to see her in so much pain caused him great agony. He wanted to take everything back, if only he could, but he had to do this to save her. It was the only way to keep her alive, he had to separate himself from her and there was only one place where she would never be able to find him. He would neither be able to return.
After a terrifying dream the night before, Syaoran had decided that he had to do this. It was the only way that he would successfully be able to protect her.
"I'm sorry, Sakura... I have to do this." Syaoran drew his sword, muttered a spell and carved a circle in the air big enough for him to walk through. On the other side appeared a different plane of reality, a different world in all. "I'm sorry..." he whispered once again before stepping through.
When Sakura lifted her head from her hands, she saw that Syaoran was gone. "Syaoran..." she murmured before the world went black.
~~To Be Continued...~~
Well, there's the end of this chapter. What do you think of it? Leave a review if you want to. Remember that reviews are great inspiration. If you're going to flame, please make it constructive criticism, so I can improve. It's always a great help to know what I'm doing wrong. ^_^
Thanks.
Karisa Temura
