Second Generation Cardcaptors 41
Akiko: Last time, Meeko, Makoto and myself were sent to this weird place where it was pitch black and we couldn't find our way out! While we're lost, Hitori faces her judgment, by order or Mirror and Libra, two Clow Cards and one nasty combination. She made it through two questions but one is still left to go! Meeko and Makoto met up with their parents in a dangerous battle that left Sakura and Syaoran dead! How could things get worse!?
When Akiko awoke, she found herself at the front of Mizuki Sensei's house, the shrine that had held so many mysteries for the cardcaptors before their time.
Cardcaptors…
Remembering what had happened, Akiko tightened her grip on her staff and looked around frantically. She noticed it was dark and there was an evil sense engulfing the air.
When she got no answer she analyzed her present situation. This all looked very familiar…
The shrine…
The darkness…
It was from her dream!
Only one thing remained and as if on signal, Eriol appeared at the top of the shrine entrance.
"Daddy!" Akiko shouted. "Give Makoto and Meeko back! And Aunt Sakura and Uncle Syaoran too! I know you have them!"
"But it must be you who saves them." He replied.
His voice. It was much deeper than she was used to hearing. As if it was a different voice entirely.
"Defeat me and receive your friends in return." He replied. Then without warning, red crystals came blasting from the side.
Akiko sensed them before she saw them and rolled out of the way. "What's going on!?"
In response to her question, Ruby Moon materialized where the crystals had came from, a smirk on her face. "You may be strong, but you'll have to be stronger to defeat us."
"Us?"
Again, as if on cue, a might blast of wind uprooted trees and heavy tile, aimed right towards Akiko.
Her eyes widened in surprise, but her body couldn't move fast enough. When the blast reached her, though, the ground around her lifted in large slates, blocking any debris and breaking the attack on all sides!
This caused Eriol and Ruby Moon to gasped in surprise. Spinel Sun appeared from his vantage point and watched keenly with his yellow panther eyes. "Well that was unexpected." He stated.
Akiko, who had crouched at the last moment, slowly opened her eyes and glanced up to look at the glowing card in front of her. It was Earthy! It floated down in front of her, where she caught it with shaky hands. Don't give up yet, cardcaptor. You are stronger than you realize and if you keep your strong will, you'll do just fine. Never give up on yourself.
"I've heard of Light and Dark speaking truth to those tested, but Earthy?" Ruby Moon whispered to Eriol, taking her place on his left side, while Spinel Sun landed on his right.
"Yes, it seems very intriguing indeed." Eriol narrowed his eyes. But it's not over yet.
This isn't over yet, one more question and I can seal these cards once and for all! Hitori thought as time seemed to stand still before the cards asked their last question.
Shinji took this moment to still his breathing. On one end he felt Meeko in deep agony over sleighing her own mother and on the other end, he had Hitori with only one question to go. And it would be the hardest one of all…
"Cardcaptor!" Libra said after what felt like an eternity. "Your last question is this…"
Hitori held her breath and she waited for the question.
"Are you truly a human being?"
Shinji gasped. "That's it? Of course she is! What kind of question is that coming from a card like you?" He shouted.
"Hush, guardian! She must answer the question herself!" Libra turned to Hitori. "Well? What do you plead?"
Shinji smiled and turned to look at Hitori with a confident tone. "Tell her. It's simple, right? Of course you are!" He knew he wasn't supposed to be telling her what to say, but with a question like this, the card might well have asked her what 2+2 is!
But then he saw Hitori's head down, her eyes closed with tears threatening to fall from her lashes. "No." She said quietly.
"Nani!?" Shinji exclaimed.
"I'm not human!" She shouted, the tears already falling down her face as she turned to face him. "I was something created by my mother! My creator! I was never human, nor will I ever be! That is my fate and I have accepted it!"
Shinji's sense went off the charts and he instinctively grabbed Hitori and dove down, avoiding a yellow blast from the Clow Card.
"What's going on!?" Hitori exclaimed, getting to her feet. "I answered your questions! And I answered them truthfully! Now I get to seal you and save my friends!"
"You lied!" Was all the card said, before its eyes lit up the same horrifying yellow and a blast came shooting towards them again.
Shinji jumped to one side, this time, and Hitori jumped to the other. "What are you saying!?" Hitori demanded.
"One can't lie to themselves and expect others to tell them the truth for them!" Hitori's double jumped up high and made a fist, then came down aiming at Hitori down below.
Hitori gasped and would've been hit had Shinji not flown across and moved her out of the way, barely in time.
When they were off to the side, Shinji's wings went back into his back and he fell to his knees. "Shinji-san!"
He gritted his teeth, fighting the pain in his head as blood dripped down from a cut on his head, splattering his white-gray clothes and his gray hair turned a deep brown. "Don't…give into them." He wheezed, struggling to stay conscious. "I…believe in you and when this is all over, Meeko, Makoto and Akiko…they're all gonna show what being a friend means, because you'll still be our friend and that's what friends do…" He closed his eyes with one last smile and passed out.
"Shinji-san…" Hitori whispered, tears falling once again from her eyes. "I won't let you down. I promise." She slowly laid him down to rest and got up to glare at the ever-confident Clow Cards. "He…got hurt protecting me. He was protecting me because he believed in me." She paused and called out her twin sai. "And he believed in me because he's my friend!" She shouted, and jumped in to battle the Clow Cards.
"Earthy! Lock!" Akiko released those two cards and together they combined to create circular cages of Earth that trapped Eriol's guardians, rendering them useless in the fight. "This is just you and me, Clow Reed!" She shouted.
"Very well." Eriol consulted, as he floated won to the ground in front of Akiko.
She growled and began the assault. "Power! Snow!" Akiko attacked with a snow blast, and powered by…well Power, it flew towards Eriol like a blizzard.
He simply raised his own sun staff and fired red fireballs to melt the snow. "You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to save your friends."
Akiko growled, then gasped as her father then attacked her with fast-propelled rocks. "Fight!" She blocked and punched and kicked as many as she could, but some still got through. Her legs and arms got cut up, then one his her head, making her miss more, until her punches and kicks got so sloppy, she wasn't blocking any, even with Fight's help. "Yamate!" She pleaded with her father.
The assault ceased and she fell to the ground in exhaustion. Blood flowed from the wound in her head and her arms shook to sustain herself.
Eriol walked up slowly, stopped just so Akiko was at his feet. "Do you yield?"
"If I do…will you let my friends go?" She asked, breathing heavily from the fight, but keeping her head up to look him in the face. She also felt her powers being sucked away from Lock and Earthy, which still held the guardians. But she knew, if he let them loss, she wouldn't stand a chance. Not that it matter at the moment anyway.
"I will." He stated.
She lowered her head in submission and answered quietly. "I yield." This is the only way. Live on in strength…Meeko…Makoto…Shinji…minna… Gomennasai…
Eriol raised his staff, which glowed a hellish red, and brought it down swiftly upon his daughter…
Hitori ran her sai this way and that, slashing like made at her double, hating it even more now that it had hurt Shinji. "I knew I should've never trusted a Clow Card!"
She flipped forward, landing a mark on the arm of her opponent. That only seemed to anger it more, and it roughly grabbed Hitori's hands and held them tight.
She let out a cry of pain as she felt the small bones in her wrists crack under the immense pressure. "You should've trusted yourself more!" The Clow Card said, twisting its hands to make Hitori finally drop her weapons. The Clow Card head butted her and followed up with a punch to the chest and a kick to her stomach.
She went flying and hit one of the boulders outside the cave. She went down and stayed down, the world around her spinning uncontrollably. She vaguely saw her twin's feet appear directly before her vision and closed her eyes. "Meeko…Makoto…Gomennasai. I tried my best, but I couldn't do it. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for being there for me. I only wish I could've been there for you when you really needed me."
Expecting the last blow to come swift and painless, Hitori readying herself. But when nothing happened, she opened her eyes and looked up…
To see Mirror smiling. "I knew you could do it."
"Huh?" Hitori was completely confused.
Mirror raised a hand, slowly, just above Hitori's head…and her wounds magically healed.
"Why?" Hitori asked.
"You passed. You passed the test." Mirror said happily. "I knew that you would."
"I…but…I'm not human…am I?" Hitori asked, getting to her feet.
"It doesn't take a naturally formed body or memories of a past childhood that make you human. It is the compassion, understanding, and devotion of the heart that makes one human. You showed that by saying goodbye to your friends. At your moment of death, you were being selfless by thinking of those who had shown you friendship in the past instead of yourself. That is a human trait." Mirror explained.
Hitori smiled and nodded in understanding. "So I was human all along."
Mirror nodded back. "You just never knew it." It winked and walked over to where the dropped sai still lay. It picked them up and handed them to the cardcaptor. "Will you not seal us now?"
Hitori nodded and held the sai over her head in a crossed formation. "Return to thy form you were meant to be. Clow Card!" During the last part, she threw her arms out to her sides where two cards formed at the end of each sai. Afterwards they flew over to Hitori and landed in her hands.
She smiled, then heard Shinji groan and ran to his side. She noticed his wounds were all gone too. Thanks Libra…
"Wha…?" Shinji wondered as he looked around. "Are you all right?"
Hitori nodded with a smile and handed him the sealed Libra card. "This is yours."
Shinji looked at it and frowned at her. "Why?"
Hitori looked at it carefully. "I wouldn't have figured it out if it hadn't been for you, so here." She handed it to him, which this time, he accepted.
All of a sudden, though, a white light surrounded them and they disappeared…
"Akiko. Akiko, wake up."
Akiko slowly opened her eyes and looked to see Makoto sitting besides her. "Makoto?" Then she remembered. "Makoto! You're alive!" She threw her arms around his neck in a sudden hug.
"Well, I won't be for long if you hold on to me like that any longer." Makoto managed through her chokehold.
She blushed and let go. "Gomen."
"Don't worry. I'm sure he would've done the same thing. Oh wait, he has!" Meeko's joking voice came from besides Akiko.
"Meeko! You too!?" Then she noticed all around her, in the white…somewhere…Hitori, Shinji, Sakura, Syaoran, Eriol and the guardians. "Minna! You're all here!"
"Hai, hai. And don't worry. It's over." Sakura said with a smile.
Akiko blinked. "What is?"
"Your judgment." Eriol stated.
"Let me explain." Sakura offered. "Earlier today, Eriol came by our house…"
Eriol raised his hand and a black energy ball formed, aimed right at Sakura.
"Eriol!"
But as the ball was released, it stopped before Sakura and grew until they saw the images of their children in the cave. It was as if the energy ball were a crystal ball/
"Their time has come. I will test them now. In order to do this, I'm going to need your assistance." Eriol's voice was that of Clow Reed. It was much deeper than that of Eriol's and his aura was much stronger as well. "You must battle them. And you must battle them at full strength…"
"So Syaoran and I took our role in this twist of destiny and fought you at full strength, until we fell by your hand." Sakura explained.
"So, you guys had to die, for Meeko and Makoto to pass their judgment?" Akiko asked.
Syaoran nodded, then held a hand to his heart. "Which wasn't fun at all." He winced in mock-pain, remembering how it did feel to die by his son's blade.
Sakura frowned. "Funny, cause I didn't feel a thing."
This brought a glare from Syaoran to Eriol, who smiled and withheld a giggle. "Sorry about that. Between glazing your eyes over as part of the illusion, I guess I forgot to block off the pain of the last attack."
Syaoran was ready to jump on the creator of the cards, but Sakura held him back.
Eriol still smiled and faced the cardcaptors.
"So, they were never under a spell from the beginning?" Meeko asked.
Eriol nodded.
"And you're still you?" Makoto asked.
Again, Eriol nodded.
"What about Hitori?" Meeko asked, turning towards their friend.
Hitori proudly held up the Mirror Card and Shinji held up the Libra. "They put up quiet a fight, but with friends like you in my heart, how could I lose?" She smiled.
Shinji nodded. "And she found out a little more about herself as an added bonus."
This got everyone to laugh.
Suddenly, though, Eriol got serious. "We still have a problem on our hands."
Shinji nodded. "Abbadon."
"He's going to release the Black Sun onto Earth and then we'll never be able to defeat him!"
"Black Sun…" Meeko said to herself.
Beware the Black Sun…That's what Light had told her before she'd sealed it away.
"What's Black Sun?" Meeko questioned.
"Black Sun is the name of Abbadon's legion in hell. If he has the Book of the Underworld, which I'm assuming by now he does, it holds the spell which will unlock the door and allow his minions to cross dimensions." Hitori explained. "We have to stop him!"
"The Li Cardcaptors will handle this!" Makoto stated boldly.
"The Li Cardcaptors and Friends, you mean." Akiko giggled.
"Right! Let's go!" On command, Eriol raised his staff and everyone was surrounded in a white light.
Abbadon grabbed his book and lifted Fushuku up by his collar. "Enough waiting. It is time I release my demons and send these brats and their parents to hell!"
Fushuku nodded as Abbadon made ready to leave his lair.
Suddenly, in front of him, thirteen forms appeared, all glaring at him and weapons out and ready.
Eriol standing besides Syaoran.
Sakura by her husband, her guardians close by to protect her.
Ruby Moon and Spinel Sun above their Master.
And the five chosen cardcaptors led the way, with Madoushi on the side her dragon stone in hand.
"Hold it right there, bug breath!" Makoto shouted.
"We've got a bone to pick with you!" Meeko followed up with.
Shinji nodded. "We're going to finally send you back to the hell that spawned you!"
"And make you pay for hurting our friends and family!" Akiko shouted towards the demon.
"By sealing you away forever more!" Hitori held her sais out and at the ready.
Abbadon smirked and set Fushuku down, and opened his mouth to bear his fangs. "We will see who goes to hell first…"
To Be Continued…