Second Generation Cardcaptors 36
Meeko: Last time, Shinji-kun was going crazy trying to find the perfect gift for me, and ask for my brother's and Akiko's help! Shinji: We found the prefect gift all right, but it was being controlled by the Move card and getting our hands on it proved harder than first thought. Meeko: Then I sensed it and came to help! It turns out it was both the Move and the Erase! By the way, you never did say how you paid for the elaborate music box. Shinji: Well, since the Move left the store, I didn't really steal it… Meeko: *glares at him* Shinji: …but on good conscience, I left the exact amount the gift cost on the door step and made sure the fellow found it. Meeko: *eyes light up* Aww!! That's my baby! *hugs Shinji* Akiko: *giggles off to the side, recording Shinji's blush* Makoto: *sweat drops*
"Congratulations mother!" Akiko squealed, giving her mother a big hug.
Hiragizowa Tomoyo had been invited to sing at a national play as the opening number. It was being held in Tokyo, which was a quite a ways away from their hometown. So, Tomoyo was offered a hotel stay for a couple weeks, in order to also attend a few conventions and things either related to the play, or her mother's toy company, which she was now in charge of as well.
"I'll miss both of you so much!" Tomoyo replied, hugging her daughter and giving her husband a kiss.
Eriol smiled. "You won't need to miss us cause you won't be going anywhere if you don't leave now." He warned.
Tomoyo smiled sheepishly, and turned towards the limo parked outside the mansion. "Hai, hai. Don't worry! I'll call and be back as soon as I can!"
"Ja ne!" Akiko waved.
"Stay safe." Eriol said.
Tomoyo paused for a moment and turned around to smile. "Always." Then she got in the limo and left.
Why was
it so dark? Where was the sun? And the people? Where was everyone?
It was hazy too. The air seemed so think and full of moisture. It never got like this in Tomoeda. Then, atop the large clock tower stood a shadowed figure. It held a large yellow staff with a sun on the end. She recognized that staff! It was her fathers!
"Father!?"
Just then, Akiko woke up. What was that all about? Was it another prophetic dream? She quickly got out of bed and checked through her cards. The Dream was still safely in its card form. So why did she have such a strange dream? And what did it mean?
Shinji and the rest of the gang were in school, listening to Mizuki Sensei teach math. Meeko wasn't really paying attention. She was more focused on capturing the last of the Clow Cards and going after Abbadon and getting Hitori back. Would her and her friends have what it takes to defeat the holding of the keys to the abyss? She hoped so. Then things could go back to normal. And she could put her full attention to Shinji.
Speaking of Shinji, she looked over at him ands aw he was focused outside, instead of on the lesson. True, his senses were more powerful, but Meeko and the others should have sensed something too.
Does he sense something we don't? Makoto's question came to her mind.
I'm not
sure. Meeko stretched out her
senses, but couldn't feel anything. I
don't sense anything.
Me
neither, but keep them open in case something comes up.
Right.
Shinji kept his gaze on the cherry blossom tree outside. The one he had sat under with Meeko so many times and eaten lunch together. He would…miss those days.
With most of the cards captured, Yue and Ruby Moon would return to their other home, back in China. Shinji would have to go with them, and that meant leaving Meeko behind for a second painful time in his life.
He had grown to love Meeko so much, but in this world, that didn't seem to stand for much anymore. What was he going to do? He didn't want to go back to China. If anything, he wasn't to live here, in Tomoeda, for as long as Meeko needed him. He was her guardian after all. He had past Yue and Ruby Moon's test and everything to prove himself. Even if he had to pass a hundred tests like that, he would do it all for her.
Sighing again, he turned his attention back to the math lesson. Everyone was told to study and practice their homework math problems on pages 46-48.
Mizuki Sensei walked up to Shinji and bent down to his level. "It looks like it might rain later today…" Then she immediately stood up and moved back to the front of the class.
"Huh?" Shinji looked outside. Where once the sun had shined, it was now cloudy with strange black,
maroon, and purple clouds. A Clow
Card!
"So you did sense a Clow Card!" Makoto accused.
"Not really… Mizuki Sensei was actually the one who pointed it out. I was…thinking about other things." Shinji replied, taking a sideways glance at Meeko.
She was dressed with Akiko's latest creation: an interesting collage of clouds, suns, and moons, decorated a sturdy rubber dress with high rubber boots. Makoto's was similar, but with pants. Shinji was wearing his usual white and gray robes.
"So, what card do you think it is?" Meeko said, taking out her staff and getting into position besides Shinji.
"Well, but the design of colors in the clouds and the form, I'd say we're just dealing with the Cloud Card." He deduced.
"Duh, it took you that long to figure it out?" Makoto replied, still a little mad that Shinji had hidden the secret from him.
"I only said that because it might also be Storm, which we have yet to capture, and is much more difficult."
"Oh." Now Makoto felt guilty.
Akiko finished setting up the camera on a tripod off to the side of the impending battlefield. "There, that should capture all of your dashing moves."
"Including yours." Makoto said, smoothly, causing Akiko to blush.
Suddenly, Cloud got a lot more aggressive and began to make a bigger and bigger swirl. It soon took up the whole sky. Good thing it was nighttime.
"We have to stop it from forming!" Shinji declared, calling out his wings and taking to the sky. "Sword!" His staff transformed into a sword and Shinji swung down across Cloud's large mass.
"Fly!" Meeko wanted to help, and took to the sky after Shinji. She dodged Cloud's funnels of powerful clouds and winds, but the last one came pretty close and threw her off to the side. "Ahh!"
"Meeko!" Shinji shouted.
"Fuuka! Sho rai!" Makoto shouted, and released wind to cushion Meeko's fall.
Meeko landed safely and Shinji landed besides Makoto. "Where did you get that!?"
Makoto grinned nervously. "I uh…got it from dad's collection?"
"He's so going to flip you baka!" Meeko exclaimed.
"Hey, I just saved your neck! You should at least say thank you!" Makoto protested.
Meeko pouted. "Do itashimashite, demo that doesn't mean you won't get in trouble when we get home!"
"Ahh!!" Akiko screamed.
"Nani!?" Makoto looked towards Akiko and saw she was covered in…bubbles? Makoto couldn't help it and started laughing. "Did you think it was the best time for a bath?"
"I didn't do it and somebody get me out of here!" She gurgled.
"We got bigger problems!" Meeko shouted, pouting at the sky. Cloud had started to reform and aimed another funnel at the foursome.
"Makoto! Stay here with Akiko. Meeko and I will get Cloud." Shinji said, and flew into the air without hearing a response.
"Chotto matte!" Meeko said, flying after him. "How are we supposed to slow it down and shrink it to make it easy enough to capture?"
Shinji gritted his teeth. "Clouds are made up mostly of water, but we don't have enough fire to counter that."
"What about Makoto's Fiery?" Meeko asked.
Shinji shook his head. "It's too dangerous." Cloud attacked again and Meeko and Shinji went into defense mode.
Meanwhile, down on the ground. "Akiko, can you breathe?"
Akiko coughed a couple of times. "Not really well!"
"Don't worry! I'll get you out of there!" Makoto said, though didn't have a clue as to release Akiko from Bubbles' hold.
"Bubbles has water in it, ne?" Akiko mumbled from underneath the pink mass of bubbles.
"H-hai, doushite?" (Yes, why?) Then it hit him and he brought out his card. "Freeze!" Freeze froze Bubbles and Akiko together, then Makoto brought up his sword. "Return to the shape you were meant to be! Clow Card!"
Bubbles pulled away from Akiko in a series of cracks and formed into a card, rewarded to Makoto. When Akiko was released from Freeze's powers, Makoto handed her the card. "Here, you went through more with it and gave me the idea to use Freeze. It belongs to you."
"Don't know what use I'll have for it, demo, arigatou." She bowed her thanks.
Then Makoto wrapped his arms around her to keep her warm and turned his eyes to the sky. "Looks like we beat them."
Meeko and Shinji were still fighting Cloud, which was a lot harder for them than it had been for Sakura, Syaoran and Meilin, when they had gone after it. "We need to break it up in order to capture it!" Shinji called out.
Meeko nodded and pulled out a card. "Arrow!"
"Shot!" Shinji hit the card with his staff and both newly released cards attacked Cloud and broke it into several small clouds.
It began to reform and Makoto got an idea. He took out his own card. "Fiery!"
"Look out!" Shinji pulled Meeko off to the side to avoid Fiery flaming its way through to Cloud, then wrapping around it, turning it into the smaller visible Cloud Card.
"Return to the form you were meant to be! Clow Card!" Shinji called out and trapped Cloud into its card form. It went to him and Shinji and Meeko flew down to thank Makoto.
"That's two less cards to worry about. Thanks." Shinji shook Makoto's hand.
"Well, you know. I don't do that for everybody, so you own me." He said, then smirked, causing all to laugh.
Shinji laughed too, then looked
down at the Cloud Card seated nicely in his hand. Two less cards to capture and two more reasons why I can't
stay…
Meeko looked over at Shinji. What's bothering him?
He can't stand to be helped by us little people. Makoto replied.
Oh shut up!
Hitori sat quietly in her cell, as she had done for the past few weeks. It had been a while since she had sent that note to the cardcaptors, telling them to capture all the cards. She hadn't told them why, but she knew. They would need to capture all the cards, because only then would Earthy, the final Clow Card, reveal itself. And without Earthy, the cardcaptors wouldn't have all four elements, which were needed to seal Abbadon.
Hitori would help in what ways she could, but only once she could get her mother up and out of here. She couldn't leave her here, because Abbadon would certainly kill her. Hitori let out an exasperating sigh. How was she going to get out of this?
Just then, Madoushi, Hitori's creator, finally awoke from her induced sleep. She awakened with a groan of pain and whimpered as her joints refused to work properly.
"M-mother?" Hitori said carefully, trying to look around to the cell besides her, but knew she couldn't. "Are you alright?"
"H-hitori? W-where are we? The last thing I remember is reading through that spell book and then…nothing. What has happened?"
"I'm afraid the spell you read all that time ago, released Abbadon from the abyss in hell. He possessed your mind and reawakened himself in his true form. We've been trapped here for a couple months."
"And the cardcaptors? Have they discovered their destiny?" Madoushi asked.
"They have and have almost captured all the Clow Cards." Hitori told her. "They know of us and will help us send Abbadon back to his home in hell."
Madoushi laughed shortly. "They probably hate me by now. Though I fear I don't remember what happened in between."
"Don't think like that. I told them it wasn't your fault, and you weren't responsible for what you did while under Abbadon's control. They are kind hearted humans and will surely help us."
"Let us hope. What of you dear? Did you help them capture any Clow Cards?"
"Sadly, no. I was taken over by Abbadon as well and when Clow's descendants captured The Create Card, I stole it from them. I still have it, but will not attempt to use it for escape until you are ready."
"Hai, a good plan. I will begin healing myself and be ready for the final battle. How many cards do they have to capture?"
"From my calculations…seven." She replied.
"Ahh, so the time grows near."
"Yes it does." Came a new voice.
Hitori and Madoushi both gasped and turned towards the door to see Fushuku standing there. "The master has made new plans for your cardcaptor 'friends'."
"You leave them alone!" Hitori said angrily.
"Think again!" Fushuku blasted Hitori to the back of her cell with a lightning blast.
"Hitori!" Madoushi shouted.
Hitori groaned and sat up shaking. "Don't mind that old fart. I've been through worse." She said through gritted teeth.
"Like I was saying, the master will combine two Clow Cards to loose those cardcapting brats for good. They'll never get out of this one!" He laughed.
Hitori growled, then gasped as she felt the power from Abbadon's lair grow. Then it exited the cave, right towards where Makoto and the others were. "No! Makoto! Look out!!!"
As if hearing her plea, Makoto jumped up and looked around. "H-hitori?"
Meeko frowned. "Did you hear something?" There was a quiet rumbling and suddenly, vines and large trees surrounded the four cardcaptors, and a dense fog clouded their vision.
"Hey? Where's the way out!?" Akiko shouted, no longer seeing the exit…or her friends!
A/N: A nasty cliffhanger, huh? Oops. ^_^ Can you guess what cards will be next? Well you'll have to wait and find out. Ja ne!