Partners

By Tenshi no Kijutsu/Carrie

Chapter Three: My Mother's Daughter

Author's notes: Just so you people know, this story is not intended to be very long. I'm thinking around seven chapters, ten at the most. The fact is that I don't want to have this story around for so long that I just can't write it anymore. This chapter will probably sound a little rushed because I'm trying to get to the plot. And by the way, the PG-13 rating is entirely because of violence. If you're reading this because it's S+S and E+T, none of that will really develop until the end. This isn't meant to be a romance story. I think there might be some E+T mush before S+S comes around. It's just easier for me to write about E+T because I guess I can understand their personalities better. I'm a lot like Tomoyo. For instance, I am a hyper camera freak that likes to sew. The only difference is that I don't tape everything and my mom rarely lets me near a sewing machine. Oh yeah, and I'm not in love and never have been in love with members of the same sex. I like guys, thank you very much. Also, I am aware that I made it quite clear in the first chapter that the school lets them 'fool around'. That may have come off as suggestive. It wasn't. It was to build the atmosphere of the school. Neither this fic, nor the sequel/part 2 will have lemon in it. I'm only 15 here, I do not write that kind of stuff. And on another note, this story IS alternate universe (AU). So, think of it this way: there's no guns, but the majority of military defense groups (like army, navy, air force, etc.) consist of people with magic or with magical items. I know this is a really long note, but this is mostly stuff that should have been said in the beginning. If I had known how much I'd come to love this story, I probably would have paid more attention to these details.

Also, in this story Toya is not Sakura's brother, he is Nadeshiko's brother. This is for purposes that will become evident in this chapter. If you don't like adding Mosquito/Kawayui to the story, I will put her story in a separate fic at some point in time.

Preview of this chapter:

With a sudden flash of blackness, everybody's heart missed a beat and they stumbled a bit as their minds retracted from Sakura's and the trance ended. Sakura woke slowly, a little disoriented from having ten human minds tuning in as she relived the dream.

----

The day began badly. There is no other way to put it. For some reason, the founders seemed to be on edge and this made the students uncomfortable. They practiced hard in the morning, but most of them made stupid mistakes. Luckily, the founders were also distracted and didn't bother to reprimand them. By lunch, everyone had a few bruises and was relieved to hear that afternoon academics were cancelled. However, before Sakura, Syaoran, Eriol, Tomoyo, Meilin, Josh, and Takashi could go back to bed and take naps, the founders pulled them aside and led them to a conference room. Already in the room were four students from their class that they didn't really know very well. They were told their names were Mizuki Chiharu, Mizuki Rika, Hiiragizawa Naoko, and Hiiragizawa Yoshiyuki. (Yoshiyuki is Terada-sensei's first name! I made him the same age as Rika so the relationship is less wrong if I end up putting it in. Don't get your hopes up, though.)
"Everyone, these four students will help you out. The reason we have you all here and not just Sakura is that we fear that the rest of you may develop similar dreams in the near future," Hiiragizawa-sama said. "Kaho, please explain the abilities of these four."
"Well, Naoko is capable of predicting the future and the past. She is also excellent at interpreting dreams. Chiharu excels at casting complicated spells, including projecting dreams and thoughts from one person's mind into those of others. Yoshiyuki is very good at transporting himself and others into other places and into dreams. And Rika is a Peacemaker. She casts protective spells that guard against many things. This includes the spells used in Native American dream-catchers to ward off nightmares," Kaho explained.
The seven teenagers smiled at their four classmates. "Li-sama, if I may ask, when are we to work with them?" Tomoyo asked.
"Ah, I almost forgot that part. As I have noticed, your magical skills have greatly increased, Syaoran. And because all eleven of you are excellent students, we will allow you to work together every morning that you think is necessary. However, we do expect your fighting skills to continue to improve.
"Yes, Li-sama," they all chorused. The eleven teens left the room and went outside the main building to get acquainted with each other, despite their weariness from their combat training. (Okay, I've been playing WAY too much Materia Magica. I've actually started calling it combat training. *sigh* No wonder I practically forgot that I write fanfics. *whaps forehead*)
"So, I suppose we should start off telling you about my dream?" Sakura asked the four new members of their not-so-little group.

"Oh, about that, Sakura-san. We've already been told all the details of what the Ladies know. Chiharu-chan wants to project your dream for us all, though. It will make it easier for us to help each other out," Naoko said. Sakura nodded.
"What do I have to do?" she asked.

"Nothing, really. Just relax and open your mind. Don't block anything from me," Chiharu replied. She went over to Sakura, and they both sat down. They both closed their eyes as Chiharu knelt behind Sakura, putting her fingertips on the other girl's temples. She silently mouthed the words of the spell and then caught Sakura as she passed out, falling backwards into Chiharu's ready arms. In everyone's mind, the dream played itself out and so did Sakura's emotions. Her head was resting in Chiharu's lap as the spell-caster waited for the spell to end and for the girl to wake.
With a sudden flash of blackness, everybody's heart missed a beat and they stumbled a bit as their minds retracted from Sakura's and the trance ended. Sakura woke slowly, a little disoriented from having ten human minds tuning in as she relived the dream.
"I can see why you tore apart the sheets," Syaoran said to break the silence. Everyone smiled nervously. They were all shaken by the experience.
"I sure hope there's a reason for all this. I'd hate for this weird experience to just be an odd coincidence or something. And I sure hope that we don't all have dreams like this," Meilin said.
"Well, let's analyze," Naoko suggested. The others agreed and they sat in a circle to go over the details and try to decide what to do next.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Ma'am, where is your daughter Shizuko? We haven't seen her in a very long time and if she has run away or died we need the information for our records," the school official told Amamiya Miruka.
"I'm sorry, sir, but I don't know where she is at the moment. She likes to play around the village. And I don't think it should matter since you won't admit her to the school anyway," Miruka replied, her annoyance showing.
"We need the information for our records. If your child is not right in the head, we will have to add the information to our genealogical records for future reference when making pairs, ma'am," the official replied.
"My daughter is not crazy! She is perfectly sane, she is just a normal child, playing around town as she should! To even think that you would suggest that my Shizuko is insane is a disrespect to myself, my husband, and most of all my daughter!"
"Amamiya-san, you and your husband are not genealogically correct for each other. That in itself is the greatest shame you could suffer!" the officer shot back menacingly.
"What's going on out here? Miru-chan, what's wrong?" Amamiya Touya came out and wrapped his arms around his wife to hopefully calm her.
"What's wrong?! This sad excuse for an official is saying that Shizuko is mentally unstable, that's what's wrong!" Miruka shouted, pointing at the official. The official simply turned to leave.
"I will find your daughter, or I will report that insanity runs in her blood from her mother's side. Good bye," he said sternly.

The official and his teammates spent most of the day searching for Amamiya Shizuko. They eventually did find her, in the woods. But they were in for a huge surprise.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Okay, so we've decided it was all crap or it's a premonition," Rika concluded. It was already late in the day and the large group had spent hours trying to figure out the dream.
"Yup," they all chorused. Tomoyo stifled a yawn.
"Time for dinner, then bed," Syaoran said. The others agreed quietly, too sleepy to further their conversations. Everyone headed off to the dining hall, which was so big that it needed it's own building.
Dinner was uneventful. Almost everybody had slept through the afternoon and they were still drowsy. Everyone that hadn't was just as tired. The hall was unusually silent.
Then it was time for bed. The entire seventeen-year-old class trickled into their dormitory building. The other students went into their own buildings. Sakura brushed her hair and teeth, changed into her pajamas, and went to sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Who are you?" the officials asked the little blond girl.
"I'm Mosquito. Who are you?"
"We're school officials. Where are your parents and who are they?"

"Mommy and Daddy said I'm not s'posed to talk to people I don't know."

"Yeah, so why don't you leave Mosquito alone? You found me, and that's what you were looking for. You don't want to know anything about Mosquito. She's boring," the black-haired girl said.
"Now listen Shizuko, we need to keep track of everyone living in Tomoeda and the surrounding villages. Do you know who her parents are?"
"Yeah, but I ain't telling. I ain't telling you nothing. You don't want me in your school, so go 'way. You ain't got nothing to do with me or Mosquito," Shizuko replied.
"Well, if neither of you will tell us, we'll have to find out the hard way." One of the officials, a woman, picked up Mosquito and another woman picked up Shizuko. They began walking towards town.
"PUT ME DOWN!" both girls shouted. They began kicking and beating their hands on the officials that held them. Mosquito, who was younger, began to cry loudly. As soon as they reached the town, four people came running at them. "Kawayui? What's wrong, baby?" a blond woman cried out, closely followed by her husband.
"Shizuko!" Miruka shouted, pulling her daughter from the arms of the school official.
"Hold it right there, all of you! Who are you?"
"I'm Andriandi Liam and this is my wife, Amamiya Ayame. Can we have our daughter Kawayui back now?" the man with the blond woman said. The official handed the wailing girl to her mother.
"Okay, well, get her things packed. We have to take her to the school with us."
"What? But.she's too old! She's five already!" Shizuko shouted.
"Good. She'll have a year to get used to the place then start her schooling with the other six-year-olds in January. Let's go, now. Hurry up, will you?"
Ayame, Liam, and Kawayui went inside their house, shortly followed by Shizuko's family. They packed Kawayui's few belongings in a trunk, with lots of room left over. Miruka snuck over to her house, grabbed Shizuko's things, shoved them in the trunk, and then put her daughter on top.
"I don't care if you take classes or not, you're going to that school."
"Yes, Mama. I want to go! It's not fair that I can't! I can pass as Mosquito's age! I look like I'm six, not eight!" Shizuko said before her mother shushed her and locked the trunk
The two fathers dragged the trunk out and Kawayui followed reluctantly. At least she would have her friend there. The woman that had picked her up smiled and took her hand, while one of the men put the trunk in their cart. Suddenly, she broke away from the official and ran towards a gray striped cat followed by three kittens. She gathered them all up and put them in a covered basket her mother quickly brought to her. As she returned to the officials, the one in charge looked ready to protest, but one of the women put her hand on his arm firmly and kept him from speaking. They all got on the cart as well and headed to the school.
When they got there, it was pitch black and Kawayui had already fallen asleep. They put her in a room in the dormitory for her age. The first thing she remembered when she woke up was her friend in her trunk. She let the other girl out, although Shizuko was still sleeping. They unpacked and Shizuko checked out the extra bed in the room. "Guess they usually share," she said. The girls noticed immediately that there were two sets of school-issued clothing, one for each of them. Apparently someone had known about Shizuko.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Sakura looked around. She was in a circle of fire, and outside the circle stood all of her friends, new and old. They stood in a circle holding hands around the fire. Their eyes were closed, but their faces were covered in tears. Each glowed in their own color, and the energy started flowing around the circle, faster and faster until the colors were all a white blur. The power stretched out and formed a dome around the fire and, Sakura was shocked to realize, what appeared to be her own half-conscious self. The dome pressed lower and lower until it was suffocating the flames. A hole in the center allowed Sakura to pull herself out and steps formed for her to quickly climb down. The spell faded and turned into a silvery liquid, extinguishing the fire. The teenagers in the circle all collapsed, and both Sakuras checked every one of them for life. All of them were alive but unconscious. Suddenly, ropes bound her ankles together and her wrists behind her back. Sakura watched herself thrashing on the ground with what energy she had left, kicking and digging with her feet in the soil until she had made a ditch and her feet were raw from the effect. Her face was red and her breathing was heavy as she finally gave up and fell asleep. She watched rough hands picking her up and taking her someplace - she didn't know who or where.
Sakura woke up screaming, with Syaoran shaking her shoulders. He dragged her out of the bed, carrying her to the small armchair in the room and putting her down. He held her wrists to the armrests to stop her frantically waving arms and looked at her face, waiting for her to talk. She looked at her bed. The sheets and blankets were torn and thrown off the bed, the mattress was ripped apart and feathers from the pillow were just settling. Syaoran reached up now that she'd calmed down and pulled a handful of feathers from her hair. She noticed four thin scratches on the side of his face and blushed, knowing she had put them there.
"I'm not sure how to explain it. Can we wait for morning? Chiharu can use that spell again," Sakura suggested.
"Where will you sleep? It's only one or two in the morning," Syaoran said. "You can have my bed, I'll take the chair, if you want."
"No, I couldn't do that to you. I'll take the chair. I'm the one that destroyed my bed, anyway."
"Fine, if that's what you want."
"That's what I want. But first, I'm taking a shower," Sakura said, grabbing a towel and heading to the bathroom. ---
"Syaoran."
"What is it, Sakura?"
"I can't sleep. It's like everywhere I look there's something in the shadows."
"Come here, Sakura." Sakura walked over to Syaoran's bed in the dark. He sat up. "Okay, sit."
"Now what?"
Syaoran put his arms around Sakura, her back against his chest. "Now, you stay here and know that I won't let anything hurt you, okay? And then when you fall asleep, I let you lay down and I go sleep on the chair."
"But..."
"No, just go to sleep. You need rest to prepare yourself for Chiharu's spell in the morning."
"Okay," Sakura finally said sleepily. She snuggled up to him and he felt his face get hot as he realized how close she was to him. But she fell asleep quickly and he gently set her down and moved to the chair to sit through a sleepless night. ---
In the morning, Syaoran woke Sakura and sent her into the bathroom so they could each change clothes privately. Morning practice proceeded as usual, Sakura teaching Syaoran how to cast shields without breaking his stride in a fight. Tomoyo and Eriol worked with balance. Eriol was getting better already. He could now do more complex fighting maneuvers because he could recover from them quickly and be prepared for the next movement.
They finished lunch early and had an hour left before their academic studies. So they all trooped out to the grassy field and stood in a circle around Chiharu and Sakura. Sakura relaxed and let Chiharu enter her mind. After a few moments of the trance-like state, they all collapsed to the ground as their hearts skipped a beat like they had the day before. Sakura woke to see everyone sitting on the ground around her instead of standing.
"Well? What do you think? Maybe if we find out what that spells is, it will help us figure out what happened in the dream," Sakura suggested.
"Sounds good to me," Syaoran replied.
"Well then it's decided," Naoko put in. "Off to the library. We've got forty-five minutes before classes from the looks of the Sun."

~*~*~*~*~*~

"I guess we should get dressed and look around. I wonder where all the other children are," Kawayui said to her friend. She stroked her cat Kusabukai and looked at the three playful kittens: Yamazakura, Hanahubuki, and Ouka. "Kusa-chan, do you want to go outside? Yama? Hana? Ouka? Shizuko- chan, I'm pretty sure they agree."
"Sure, Mosquito. Them cats are smart, they know what's good for us." So the two girls got dressed. Kawayui dressed in a brown cotton skirt and a white blouse with boots. Shizuko put on brown pants and a blouse that matched Kawayui's. She also put on boots. It was still January and it was cold. The two girls left the children's dormitories with their four feline companions. Unfortunately, they had no idea where anything was. Within ten minutes a bell rang and they noticed the sun was high in the sky. They were hungry and didn't know where they were supposed to eat. They eventually wandered into a small building with lots of big windows.
"Shizuko-chan, I don't think this is where we're supposed to eat."
"No, Mosquito, I'm pretty sure this is a library. Look at all the books. Hey, there's some grownups, let's ask them where we're supposed to go."
"Okay." The girls walked over to a large group of young men and women.
"E'cuse us, but we're new and nobody told us what that bell means or where we're supposed to go to eat or nothing."
"Oh, but aren't you old to be new?" a dark-haired boy with glasses asked them.
"Well, Mama and Papa had Shizuko-chan hide me from the school every year, and they never accepted her. So they found me and I snuck her in. I'm sorry, my name's Andriandi Kawayui. This is my friend Amamiya Shizuko. Ah, and this is my cat Kusa and her babies: Yama, Hana, and Ouka."
"Well it's nice to meet you Andriandi-chan, Amamiya-chan, kitties," a girl with honey-brown hair said.
"My name's Kinomoto Sakura. These are my friends Li Meilin, Li Syaoran, Daidouji Tomoyo, Hiiragizawa Eriol, Hiiragizawa Naoko, Hiiragizawa Yoshiyuki, Mizuki Yamazaki, Mizuki Josh, Mizuki Chiharu, and Mizuki Rika. Ah, I think that's everybody."
"It is a pleasure," the two small girls replied.
"Why are there so many Hiiragizawas and Mizukis?" Kawayui asked.
"Well, there's a system here. They'll teach you later on. What strange names the cats have though. Kusa, that's grass. Yama means mountain, Hana means flower, and Ouka means force, right?"
"Ah, that ain't it," Shizuko said. " It's Kusabukai, Yamazakura, Hanahubuki, and Ouka. Kusabukai means weeds 'cause Mosquito's mama found Kusa and her kits in a bunch of weeds. Yamazakura means a wild cherry blossom, Hanahubuki means falling cherry blossoms, and Ouka is another word for cherry blossom. My Papa named them that. I don't know why, though. My parents are Amamiya Toya and Olaina Miruka. Mosquito's parents are Andriandi Liam and Amamiya Ayame. Papa says that Ayame-sama is his sister. And that they have another sister, but he's not allowed to say who it is. But I ain't stupid, I listen carefully to Papa. Papa told Mama that a lady here, some lady named Nadeshiko is Papa's sister."
"Well I heard my Mama say that that Nadeshiko lady was married before and had a girl that went here. But they don't know what happened to her. Her nanny as a kid was Chinese and called her...um... Ying Ha or Ying Fa or something. I think-"
"Ying Fa?" Syaoran shouted suddenly, getting startled looks from everyone. Kawayui nodded slowly. "Li-sama taught some of the best students Chinese. Ying Fa means cherry blossom. Like Ouka. Or like Sakura," he said. All the stares turned from him to Sakura.
"You mean to tell me that Kinomoto-sama is my mother? Syaoran, that's just ridiculous. She's a founder. How could I be her daughter without being one of the first students here?"
"You don't listen well in History, do you, Sakura-san?" Naoko said with a laugh. "The five founders we have today aren't the original ones. There were five before them, and another five before that. Ours are the third group of founders."
"It would be so awesome if she was your mother. I can see the resemblance, really. I already was wondering if they we're going to try and keep you on as a teacher or something if you'd want to," Tomoyo commented.
"Well maybe I don't want her to be my mother!" Sakura said loudly and everyone was silent. It was unlike Sakura to have moods like this. "I'm sorry, but I don't want to be the daughter of a founder. Do you have any idea how much that would change everything? I'd be the only student other than these two children to know my parents. Promise that you won't try to find out. We've all grown up knowing that our parents would never see us again. Now that it's almost time to leave the school, I don't want to screw up my studies. I want to leave with the founders' blessings, whether I chose a military position, political position, or whether I give up that kind of life. And knowing my parents is not part of that plan."
"If you want that, Sakura," Syaoran replied gently, trying to calm her and keep everyone from disagreeing with her plea.
"I do want that. I really want that," Sakura said quietly. As if suddenly remembering the two little girls, she turned to them and offered to take them to the Dining Hall. It was almost time to head off for academics anyway. They walked off, all of them lost in their own thoughts about this development. ----------- Well the reason I made Chiharu and Rika Mizukis is that I'm doing that with just about every extra person. Naoko is a Hiiragizawa because she can be pretty creepy when she wants to be. Yoshiyuki is a Hiiragizawa because it just makes two Mizukis and two Hiiragizawas.

Wow, eight pages! That's more than the first two chapters put together. Hope it makes up for the wait you all had to endure before you got Chapter 2 and then this chapter. Please review. If you want me to notify you when I update, please leave your email address. I email everyone that left their email address in a review. Thanks for reading, hope to see you again for Chapter 4.