Disclaimer: I own a bunch of CCS, Love Hina, Inu Yasha and You're Under Arrest CDs. Oh, and also the Harry Potter books and movie DVDs. I've got the Battle Athletes Victory DVDs too. But if you think I actually own these series, then it's your problem. I'm not CLAMP or Akamatsu Ken or Takahashi Rumiko or Fujishima Kousuke or J.K. Rowling or Whoever Created BAV, and I'll never be these great people.
"Oh! The good old ground." Said Meiling as she got off the ship which brought them from Tomoeda to the Mahora Island. "The ship is very, very nice. But it's better for us mortals to be on the solid ground."
"I couldn't agree more." Tomoyo followed. "I'm starting to get a bit dizzy."
"Now where are we supposed to go?" Asked a very curious Sakura, who did not stop looking around the wizard community as soon as she stepped out onto the island.
"The Li's summer house, of course." The Chinese girl replied. "Do you want to go shopping with all these luggage around?" Syaoran chuckled at that and the rest of them burst out laughing.
"Like Meiling had said, we'll leave our luggage at the house. Then we can go to the Nirvana Lane for our school supply and more important, our wands." Syaoran explained and got 4 nods from the others.
---------------------------------
The Continuing Legend
Chapter 2
---------------------------------
Contrary to Sakura's, Tomoyo's and Eriol's belief, the Li Clan's summer house on the Mahora Island was rather modest, very unlike the large mansion they had visited (or in Eriol's case, saw in his visions) in Hong Kong. The gang arrived at the villa via a limo as villa was located in a small wood which was quite far away from the pier and the city. It was a large, 3-story villa with a blue roof and white walls. On the front gate, there was a sign with the words "58 Melanus Drive, Li Summer House". There were trees all around them. But they can also see a small trail behind to house, leading to somewhere else that they could not see at that moment.
"Nice, isn't it?" Meiling said as she caught Sakura and Tomoyo admiring the villa. "It's been a while since I've came here too! Why don't we go in, choose our rooms, dump our bags and go exploring? You two," she looked pointedly at the Japanese girls, "should be very interested in a wizard city, right?"
The speed of Sakura and Tomoyo rushing into the house could have broken the Olympus 100m dash record.
---------------------------------
The interior of the villa was quite simple. It had a polished wooden floor and the decoration was done in mostly a monochrome theme. The walls were white, like the exterior. The lamp bathed the house in a pale golden light. From the door, they saw the parlor where most furniture--the tables, the chairs, cupboard, and many other things--were black or grey, except for the sofa, which was in a light chocolate brown color. In front of them, a few steps of staircase led them to the equivalent of a dining room--a large round table was placed in the middle with 8 chairs around it. A door not far away from the table led to the kitchen. To the left of the staircase, they found another set of longer stairs, leading to the second floor. The second floor, to Sakura's and Tomoyo's surprise, was like the ship--much larger than they saw from the outside. It was a very long corridor with many doors to the guest rooms on the two sides.
"What's with the wizard's building anyway? Everything is much larger and/or wider than the outside?!" Sakura exclaimed.
"Don't know about this magic stuff. We can choose any room in this floor. The 3rd floor is forbidden unless there's emergency, by the way. It was the master bedrooms and there're many dangerous gadgets." Meiling added.
"Choose our own room, you say?" Eriol grinned and randomly selected a room. "How about giving ourselves 20 minutes to explore these luxurious guest rooms before meeting at downstairs?"
"No problem with me." Tomoyo replied and opened the door which was directly opposite to Eriol's room.
"I don't need any exploring, but oh well!" Meiling rolled her eyes and went into the room which was on the right of Tomoyo's.
Syaoran didn't say a word. But he entered the room which was closest to the staircases. That left Sakura alone in the corridor...Before she went into the room which was between Tomoyo's and Syaoran's. She peeked into the room. Unlike other parts of the house, only the walls were white in color. Light brown carpet was covering the floor. A four-poster bed was in the middle, against the wall on the right. The curtains around the bed and the windows, which were directly opposite to the door, were about the same shade of the carpet. And they were made of some smooth, translucent fabric. At the window, there was a wooden perch ("Probably for the owls." Sakura thought). The Card Mistress looked to her left and a bit surprised to find a fireplace was embedded to the middle of the left wall. Left to the fireplace, there was a door, undoubtedly connected to the toilet. Right to the fireplace, there was a small cupboard. She also noted that there was a small bedside table. But her thought and gazes always returned to the fireplace.
"The fireplace was for communication purpose. You can travel to different places via Floo Network, or you can firewall your friends and relatives." Sakura let out a small shriek at Syaoran's voice. She quickly whirled around and saw him leaning against the door frame. He could not help but smiled at her antics. "Did I scare you?"
Sakura relaxed at the familiar and gentle voice. "Just startled me a little. Is the 20 minutes up already?" She flashed him one of her sweetest smile and Syaoran shook his head.
"Not yet, but I just want to see how you think about this room."
"It's lovely." Sakura breathed. And she was finally willing to drag her luggage into the room after staring at it for a whole 5 minutes. Syaoran helped, of course. Just then, Meiling poked her head into the room.
"Hey, are you done? Hiiragizawa-kun and Daidouji-san are already at downstairs!" She said and left for the parlor as well. A minute later, the couple followed.
---------------------------------
For the rest of the day, the gang spent their time in looking through the cupboards and invading the kitchen. They had decided that they would charge up themselves before letting all the hell break loose and shop the day away. Basically, they spent the day watching movies and went to sleep after having a delicious meal of spaghetti.
On the next morning, the Sakura Card Mistress was more than excited. She woke up at 8 in the morning, but they were supposed to go at 10am. During breakfast, she kept bombing Syaoran and Meiling, who had come to this island before, with different questions, all concerning about the island in one way or another. Them finally when it was time for them start their one-hour car trip, Sakura bolted all they way from her room to the miniature car park and urging the others to come faster all the way.
"We're finally going to the Nirvana Lane!" Sakura was practically bouncing up and down in excitement.
The whole gang was riding in a modest-looking van instead of a limo ("We don't need unwanted attention." was Syaoran's short and simple reason for the decision on their mode of transport). After getting out of the woods, the driver was guiding the van through various streets and alleys. The girls and Eriol were talking actively about what they were going to do. Syaoran only added one or two occasional comment every now and then.
"Let's go over again." Tomoyo said with her camcorder watching over the group. "We'll first take care of the uniforms, then the potions ingredients, after that we'll go for our wands. School books will be left for the last because we don't want to drag, like, 30 pounds of books around the streets."
"After dumping all the school stuff back into this van," Meiling spoke, looking into the digital recorder. "We can wander around and buy anything we want, as long as it's within our budget..." Sakura, Tomoyo and Eriol groaned jokingly at the last part. But they quickly "recovered".
"I can finally get my owl!" Sakura chirped cheerfully.
"I can look at all the dress robes and wizard accessories!" Tomoyo exclaimed with her eyes turning all "starry". Sakura gulped, Meiling and Eriol snickered.
"I can buy fake wands and dung bombs that could last for a whole year!" Eriol announced in a twelve-year-old tone, which was highly un-Eriol-like. The others all looked at him with a highly sarcastic "I wonder what you would do with them" expression.
"But Sakura," Syaoran inquired. "You want an owl?"
"I guess I fell in love with them since I saw the eagle owl on our ship ride. Plus they are good at delivering letters, right? Last time I asked Kero-chan to help me with the reply letter, he asked for home-made cookies that would be enough for him to last for a week." Sakura winced at the memory. "I would not have met the quotas without Tomoyo-chan's help."
Syaoran had grown tense for a millisecond at the "fell in love" comment. But only Eriol and Tomoyo noticed that. They almost failed to suppress their snickers at the "Wolf Boy's" actions--"Almost" being the keyword. The duo kept this perfect blackmail material to themselves and resumed their conversion with the two other girls.
"Eriol-kun, you've attended another wizardry school, right? Since we still have at least 30 minutes before we hit the market, care to share any stories?" Tomoyo addressed him in a reporter voice and kept her infamous camcorder focusing on him.
"I don't really have much to tell, since I only attended for one year." Eriol grinned. "I've met the one who defeated the Dark Lord, a.k.a. the Boy Who Live, a.k.a. Harry Potter. I've dyed Prof. Dumbledore's, the headmaster of Hogwarts, long white beard black. I've also failed Potions and sent the Potions Master, Prof. Snape, into a rabid rage."
By the end of the description, the girls were already in a fit of uncontrollable laughter. Syaoran was smirking at his "supposedly" ancestor.
"You mean the Great Hiiragizawa Eriol, a.k.a. Clow Reed's half reincarnation, had actually failed a subject in a wizardry school? Impossible!" The gang's camera girl (i.e. Tomoyo) choked out between her laughers, somehow she still managed to hang onto her reporter's tone.
"Only by 1%. And Ms. Daidouji, you can't tell I'm doing that on purpose? How disappointing! Snape is a very good target to piss, you know." Eriol was saying all these in an over-dramatic manner. This only made the girls laughed harder. They didn't stop their giggle fits until Sakura pointed at a sign which read "Nirvana Lane, 1/2km".
---------------------------------
"We're here! We're here! We're here!!" Sakura jumped as she got off the van. Meiling rolled her eyes at the Japanese girl, but she was smiling nonetheless.
"We know, we know, and we know. Calm down, Kinomoto-san. We'll have a whole day to have fun!" Meiling reminded Sakura, who gave her a sheepish look. Tomoyo stepped forward without stopping her taping and narrating.
"And here we are, at the Nirvana Lane!" She announced.
Sakura soon found out that, instead of calling this place a "lane", it might be better to call it a "town". For it was not a straight road, but one with many twists, turns and alleys. Shops and shoppers were everywhere. They could only get a glimpse of the Lane: shops which sold magical apparatuses ("Cauldrons - Every Size & Material You Want!"), books ("Best Sellers of the Month (English, Non-fiction): The Truth of The Boy Who Lived by Hermione Granger"), animals ("Owls, cats, toads, rats, spiders, snakes...You name what, we have what") and food ("One Free Fresh Pumpkin Juice Per Meal!"). Syaoran, Eriol and Tomoyo almost had to hold back Sakura and Meiling to prevent them from buying everything in the stores.
"Remember, Ms. Kinomoto and Ms. Li," Eriol put on a deep voice like he was addressing two little kids, "uniform first."
The gang walked over to a small, almost unnoticeable shop almost right next to the entrance of the Lane. The shop window was showing two very bright and fancy dress robes. There was a banner above which read "Robes From Hinata". Eriol smiled calmly and the other four gave each other a brief glance before they went into it.
Upon entry, they can see rows and rows of robes filled up the shop. All the robes were put orderly according to their purpose: casual wear, Quidditch wear, formal robes as well as the fanciest dress robes. To the right there were two large shelves: one of them contained different colors and sizes of pointed hats, the other was filled with shoes and boots of various designs and material. To the left, a short-hair woman in her early thirties sitting behind a counter, reading a newspaper. She lowered the newspaper, which revealed the cigarette she had been smoking, and addresses the group coolly. "Mahora student uniform? All the five of you?"
"Yes, ma'am..." Sakura answered timidly. The woman raised an eyebrow and put down the cigarette.
"First time to this island?" She asked and Sakura nodded in reply. "That explains why. Just call me Ms. Haruka. I don't mess around formalities too much. It makes me feel old." She said and the group relaxed. "Keitarou, Naru, Kitsune and Mutsumi! Break time's over!" She called over to a small door near the counter. A moment later, one boy and three girls in their early 20s came out.
"What is it, Haruka-san?" One girl who had long light brown hair asked before noticing the Card Captors Gang. "Oh, all are Mahora order?"
"Yeah, Keitarou and Mutsumi, you two go get the hats, gloves and cloaks. I don't want any of my customers complain about them being pined instead of their robes. Naru and Kitsune, you two can help with fitting." Haruka ordered. The bespectacled boy and a girl with a happy-go-lucky attitude walked away from the group. The first girl and another slightly older female with short hair and...Let say, fox-like eyes gestured the group to three stools and Sakura, Tomoyo and Syaoran went up to the stools. The shop owner and the assistants (at least, they assumed the two girls were assistants) took some measurements--their height, the waist, just the basic stuff--before slipping a long black robes over their heads. All the five students-to-be were looking around the shops and saw the other two assistants were running around, grabbing this and that. After the three were done, Eriol and Meiling stepped onto the stools and the process repeated.
But there was a little problem when it came down to payment. Luckily, Haruka accepted both Muggle and Wizard money. She did suggest them to exchange their money at an exchange center though. "Just a few stores away, anyway."
So, the gang changed their schedule a little: they decided to take the shopkeeper's advice and went to change their money. They exited the shop with their new robes and the group of five looked around until Tomoyo pointed out a sign which read "Muggle-Wizard Money Exchange Point". It was actually a place which resembled greatly to the Japanese cigarette stores. A list was posted on the glass window, listing all the exchange rate between every nameable Muggle currency and the common wizard money (Knuts, Sickles and Galleons). A girl, around 16 or 17, was sitting behind the counter, reading a magazine with the cover "Teen Witch". She had short, dark grey hair with a part of her bangs dyed electric pink. She threw her magazine carelessly across the room when she saw the Card Captor Gang.
"Hullo, kiddos. Can I help you?" The girl said like she didn't care one bit about the world and they all sweat-dropped.
"Umm...We would like to exchange some wizard money..." Tomoyo asked politely. The girl quirked an eyebrow and started up a small machine on the counter.
"Which currency and how much?" She said in a half-annoyed voice. Eriol had to use half of his willpower to stop himself from dropping a dung bomb at her face. He didn't say anything but throwing in five 10000 yen paper money.
"Huh...One little kid carrying ¥50000 in his pocket?" She counted the money with an amused grin. "¥50000, here we go!"
She inserted the money into the machine and put a leather pouch underneath somewhere they could not see clearly. Then in less than a second, the machine grunted and they started to hear the sound of coin crinkling! A whole minute later, she heaved the pouch back onto the counter and announced, "Here, 93 galleons, 6 sickles and 19 knuts!"
Despite the attitude of the girl towards the customers, the gang (except maybe Syaoran and Eriol) could no help but being impressed by the process. The Li cousins also exchanged ¥50000 of their cash, Sakura and Tomoyo only exchanged ¥30000, where they got 55 galleons, 17 sickles and 29 knuts in return. When they left, they heard the girl grumbling about "stupid family who can't even spare a galleon to their daughter."
"Now we can carry on with our trip!" Meiling exclaimed.
Continuing their shopping trip, they went to the "Urasue Apothecary" for their required "student supply of basic potions ingredients". The shop was filled of shelves upon shelves, each labeled with the name of the...ehhhhh, many unpleasantly-named "ingredients". The shop was run by a scary (from the point of view of the Card Captors, even Eriol failed to suppress an "eep" when she sneaked up on them from behind) "Lady Urasue" with abnormally big eyes, long pale grey hair and a wrinkled face with too much cosmetics on it (but whether the title was real or not, only she would know). They quickly grabbed the package, paid the exact amount and hightailed from the store like You-Know-Who was chasing them.
Next stop: the wand shop.
At least that was what the gang intended. But they walked around the place for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, half an hour, a whole hour......And they could not find a wand shop. It was way passed the noon, and the tropical summer heat was starting to get them. Especially after seeing Meiling was showing signs of heatstroke, Syaoran quickly suggested they should head for somewhere to rest, and have lunch.
They entered a nice little inn near the edge of the Nirvana Lane named Zapper. The lunch hour had just started so it was not very crowded yet. So group had easily found a corner for themselves. A young girl, no older than 20 they guessed, come to them with a notepad. Her greenish-blue eyes sparkled and she seemed not to be affected by the stifling heat even with the thick brown hair covering the whole of her back.
"Welcome!" She said cheerfully. "Would you like to place your order now?"
"A simple Shepherd Pie will be nice, and a pumpkin juice, please." Eriol answered politely.
"Cool, they even have pizza here!" Said a delightful Meiling. "One small Hawaiian pizza and errr...... Gillywater please."
"A seafood fried rice with butterbeer." Syaoran ordered shortly.
The girl scribed down all the order with her quill and looked at Sakura and Tomoyo. "Do you need some more time to decide?" She asked and caused the two girls to look up from their menus.
"No, it's all right." Sakura answered hurriedly. "I'll have a omelet set lunch with cream soda."
"I would like Spaghetti and ice coffee, please." Tomoyo decided at last.
"Spaghetti again?" Sakura asked.
"I just want to see if the wizard spaghetti will be any different from the muggle kind." Tomoyo answered as if it was the most logical thing.
"Like will it dance around the table?" Meiling added and the camera girl nodded. Then all the three of them started to giggle.
At time passed, the inn was slowly filled up with people. They could see that the girl who served them plus another girl, who they assumed was the other waitress in the whole inn, were overwhelmed by all the customers and orders. So they didn't complain when they had to wait for a good 20 minutes before they got their food. By the time they finished their meals, the crowd had more or less receded.
"Thanks! Please come again!" The girl chirped a little tiredly.
"Is it always like this? Only with the two of you..." Sakura asked out of curiosity.
"Three, plus the cook at the back. Summer was the worst. It was better during the school year. Good thing my stepson's fiancée and her friends said they will come and help later this week. Else Anna and I won't be able to handle the lunch crowd, especially all the tourists around." She answered and gestured to the other girl with bluish green hair which were done in pigtails, who was frantically cleaning up all the tables.
"Excuse me," Eriol cut in. "Is there a wand shop nearby? We've been searching for it for a whole hour and we can't find it."
"Figures. There's only one wand shop in the entire lane after all. It's not really hard to find. Go across the street, turn right and it's right there. It's just far away from the main road so it takes time for newbie to get it." She gave them a light wave. "I'm Sena, Nakajima Sena. Come round when you have the chance, okay?"
"We will. Thanks! The food was great." Meiling added the food comment as an afterthought. And everyone broke into a laugh.
Another goodie goodie chapter. I've decided to cut their shopping spree into two parts so that one chapter won't be too long. I have fun with the cameos. Favorite parts: Sakura and Tomoyo breaking the Olympics 100m dash record, Haruka ordering the other Love Hina casts around, Meiling's joke on the spaghetti and Sena mentioning her "stepson's fiancée". Guess who she is and the first to give the correct answer will receive a cookie. All You're Under Arrest fans should know or you'll have to face the wrath of that homicidal traffic officer.
Besides, Haruka-san & co. and Sena-san, we have Urasue the Evil Witch Who Made Psychopath Miko Came Back To Haunt Inu-chan from Inuyasha, sweet Anna Respigh (the waitress) from Battle Athletes Victory and the nameless worker who worked in the money exchange stand, a.k.a. Tachikawa Satoka, this unworthy one's favorite money-glutton/Invader Hunter from GateKeepers 21.
All the street names are spaceships/planet names from Vandread--Something that I only thought of when I actually had to make up the street names.
Imagine how surprised I was when I posted the chapter at night, then woke up in the next morning to find a review alert sitting in my mailbox! Lots of thanks to my first reviewer: Kasumi!! I know there's bound to be grammatical mistakes here and there since my English is not exactly to the international standard...So please do include some/all of the mistakes you can find next time, okay? I'm glad that you like the idea, except I don't really understand the "lots of explaining" part......?
And to green-aura, I won't delete the story unless, let's say, everyone reviewing the story said it's very bad. But progress will be slower for the first few chapters--at least until July when the blasted finals end. I'm trying to check for the grammatical mistakes and I'll revise the chapters every now and then. About the houses, not much will be revealed until school starts. But you'll see what I mean by the 'House of Chaos' when you see who belonged to the house...
Chapter 3, which is already completed but not spell-checked, will only be posted after chapter 4 is completed, which is going to take a while because the finals are going to start next week. Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcomed. Flames will be used to hatch a phoenix egg.