More than Meets the Eye
Story by Shimmerdream, CSS owned by Clamp, not me
Author Notes:
Sorry for the wait, it is exam time like I said
(And the end of the school year for me so it's naturally busy).
Thank you to all reviewers, this chapter is dedicated to Stardust 16 and Sarah the Original for reviewing twice; I find it very heart warming!
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Chapter 5: A Goddess's Blessing
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Tomoeda. Nearly 14 years ago.
Nadeshiko was from the prestigious Amamiya family, and was now a recent newly wed to Fujitaka Kinomoto, she had her first child some years ago and was now on with her second.
She sat at her desk painting a rainbow on her mini-canvas, curtains drawn welcoming the sun's magnificence to pour into the room. Nadeshiko continued to work on, humming as she went along of an enchanting song that would reach only the ears of others with a magical sense of hearing. Which meant a little baby girl in her tummy was listening in intently.
After a few more moments she cast her painting aside to dry, looked at the photo of her new formed family and then reached for her golden rimmed, emerald-crested necklace draped around her neck. She held it out to her palm, observing it half-heartedly with a small sad smile etched clearly on her porcelain face. She seemed to be contemplating something very serious over in her mind. She would've delayed it further but no, time would not give that to her so easily.
'I have to do this before it would be too late'.
So she went and opened the second drawer within her desk and laid out an antique box in front of her, put in a letter addressed to someone inside it, along with the painting which had dried up rather quickly than anticipated. She closed it and placed it delicately back in the drawer. Then proceeded to walk over to the centre of her room whilst closing her eyes, necklace grasped in hand, searching for something hidden deep within her.
The curtains which were opened now bellowed from an oncoming wind outside, rain seemed to come down heavily on the roof within mere seconds with a roll of thunder following.
Nadeshiko Amamiya was now levitating a feet off the ground, her amethyst hair dancing with the flow of the wind - A symbolic circle emblazed an unearthly color underneath her hovering figure. Lighting then clashed a blinding color all over Tomoeda, her eyes widened that moment revealing a layer of white light over her jaded eyes.
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White Goddess of all things beautiful and pure
Give life energy to me, powerful but raw
Upon release of your golden ray of light
Have it guide my daughter through each day and night.
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As soon as she finished her chant, she snapped out of her reverie like trance and took a deep breath, trying to ignore her body which was shaking under pressure of immense power slowly seeping into her body, or more precisely, to the 3 month old baby growing inside her.
Kinomoto Residence at present, 8am.
Sakura turned over in her bed, slowly waking up. She just remembered Tomoyo coming over what only felt like minutes ago, but didn't want to get out of bed quite yet. Instead she was staring at her white ceiling while snuggling in her blankets, pondering silent thoughts.
Kero, also just waking up, flew over to Sakura's figure whilst rubbing his eyes, his PJ cap he had on that resembles one of Santa's was sliding off his head.
He inched over to her face "Sakura, get up."
She closed her eyes tight "I dun' want to..."
"You know what time it is?"
"...n-nooo....." She was dreading the answer.
"Its school time, so hurry up. It's already past 8 o'clock already!"
"HHHOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!"
And off she went and shot out of her bed, doing her daily routine consisting of getting into her uniform, scrubbing her teeth and hastily brushing her hair. She went down ten minutes afterwards to meet Tomoyo who was finishing washing the dishes in the kitchen. But Tomoyo was wearing her P.E gear instead of her daily school uniform.
"Huh? Why are you dressed in that Tomo?" The auburn haired girl asked while walking over to her best friend.
"Don't tell me you forgot about the track trials today..." Her friend replied with a small smile, she knew Sakura had a tendency of being a bit slow in the morning.
Realization then hit her "Oh right! I forgot all about that, I didn't know you were trialing out for it as well."
"Silly - told you a month ago that I wanted to join this with you, you remember my Okaasan telling you she was a sprinter when she was at high school?"
Sakura then recalled her father telling her that "Yeah I remember, she and dad had been competing against each other in that event some time ago."
"Yip thats right! And now I'd like to become a lot more active like she was, god knows I need it. So now we can be running partners Sakura -run each morning before school- it would be so fun!!" Tomoyo stated starry-eyed, probably thinking how to run and film together at the same time Sakura thought. 'It would seem impossible, but with Tomoyo she'd find a way no doubt."
"Ehehheheh... fun... right..." Sakura mumbled as she sweat dropped.
"Oh and that reminds me, Meiling called last night but i missed it and only just got her message this morning."
"She called?"
"Yeah and you wont believe what she said!!"
"Yeah, what?" She asked, daring not to breathe.
"She's on a flight here; turns out she's doing some training here for the rest of the year, Isn't that cool? She's going to ask her Aunt Yelan if she could go to Seijou High with us as well."
Sakura squealed. "Oh my god! You're kidding?? YAY!!!! Meiling is coming!!!"
At this she grabbed Tomoyo's hands and both girls began dancing around the kitchen giggling happily. Touya made his way down the stairs looking amused.
"What's all the commotion Kaijuu?... and friend." He glared at Tomoyo at this.
"Oh hey Touya, Meiling is coming here!!!" Sakura let the Kaijuu remark go; clearly she was too happy to be bothered. Tomoyo just shrugged off the remark intended for her.
"Eh? The girl chinese gaki?"
Touya could hear her say "Arggh Touya!!! Meiling is not a brat!" while she and her cousin were still prancing around and revolving in circles for the fact that their friend Meiling was coming!!!
Tomoyo said dizzily "Hey guys... enough with the... squabbling. By the way Saku, she also mentioned – surprise... for both us n Touya..."
"Eh. Touya as well?" Sakura stopped both of them twirling and bouncing around the kitchen like fairies, mainly because Tomoyo started to turn a bit whiter than usual.
"Yeah..." the amethyst eyed beauty said amusedly with a sly smile.
"Wait, do you know anything about the surprise Tomoyo?..." Sakura asked brightly.
(A/N: GASP!!!)
"Nope don't have a clue! - don't know what you're talking about... eh heh..." She said really fast. 'Oh yeah, what a smooth move, even Sakura would've seen through that one."
But Sakura seemed to have bought it, Tomoyo fell over. Touya shook his head in disbelief and went back up the stairs to his room.
Tomoyo just remembered what the time was. "Oh no we're really late now, Sakura you ready? You'll just have to change there into your P.E uniform."
Sakura mentally thought in her head if she had everything. "Yeah I think I'm ready, just let me check to see if my P.E gear is in my bag... ZIP:: - yip, they're there, okay lets go!"
Sakura went to the door and kitted herself in her new pink rollerblades, Tomoyo following suit with her violet-purple ones her mum recently gave the both of them from the Daidouji Toy Company. Soon both cousins were seen darting down the footpaths to get to Seijou High in record time.
"I thought you said we were going to walk to school Tomoyo." Sakura asked five minutes down the track through tiny puffs of breath, they were near sprinting on their blades.
"Not much time for that is there?" Sakura smiled, Tomoyo was referring to her sleeping-in habit.
Sakura looked up. "Kirei... Cherry Blossoms, look Tomoyo the whole street here has them in full bloom! They're so pretty!" At this she then started to rollerblade backwards enthralled by the beauty of the flowers who so happened to share the same name as her.
"Hai, they're very pretty Sakura." She replied with a soft serene smile, at the same time reluctantly tugging at the back of her cousin's shirt indicating that they had to get a move on. Both blissfully unaware of a certain jade-eyed girl, looking on sweetly at them from a corner hidden from view.
Tomoeda Airport 8:15 am
"We're finally here Syaoran; we're at Tomoeda at last!" As to show how happy she was, Meiling got to the carpet and kissed it.
Syaoran merely rolled his eyes in disdain. "Yes we all know how glad you are to get off the plane, we all are. Hope you liked snogging that gum on the floor by the way."
Meiling opened her eyes to find some treaded on bubblegum mere centimeters by her lips. "Eeeewwwww......" She stood up from the ground.
"Be thankful that mother wasn't here to witness you doing that."
"Yeah yeah..." Meiling replied somewhat exasperatedly.
Syaoran looked around, they were at the Airport checking in and going through customs and the like. They had to do a couple of stopovers a few hours ago somewhere else in Japan before reaching Tomoeda soil. Now that he was finally here he couldn't help but feel... different than he originally thought he'd be. Sure he was happy that he was within a city's distance of the love of his life, but he couldn't help but feel an ominous, foreboding presence – like a lifeless aura that's drifting around like a pestering thought at the back of his mind. Meiling, although without power could sense a similar feel in the proximity as well. She looked around at the small crowd of people feeling uneasy.
Yelan Li came into view; she was walking smartly towards them with a butler alongside her otherwise known as Wei. He had came onboard the plane to Tomoeda on the same flight after dealing with the three Li's luggage.
"Okay we need to get going, Wei has requested a Limousine out in the front of the airport and it should arrive any minute, we don't want to be late." The cousins had no reason to argue, both happier to get out of that nerving place. All four of them then walked on stationary to the Airport's entrance to find that the Limo was indeed there.
"After you Mrs Li." Wei held out the door for her to graciously step into the Limo. After all of them were in they took off in the direction of a Mansion in the heart of the Tomoeda district. The two teenagers were surprisingly quiet for the whole car ride there, mainly out of exhaustion and being worn out from before from the excitement on the plane. When they hopped out they were greeted by an incredible sight before their very eyes.
The mansion was to put it plainly -- Huge!! Almost rivaling the size of their one back in Hong Kong, yet that housed alot of the Li Clan, while this one was supposed to house just the three of them, four if you include Wei.
The garden view was just absolutely stunning, many Japanese native trees and flowers were arranged around in an effective eye-catching display.
Beautiful Sakura trees lined the sideline of the pathway which ended up in a ring before the mansion with a magnificent fountain in the center. The cherry blossom petals floating off to every corner making the scene all the more perfect – in Syaoran's opinion.
It is so captivating, that one couldn't help but have their eyes dart from place to place as if trying to absorb all of the beauty for themselves. Meiling was one of these people who did so openly.
"Kirei..." Meiling said in a trance like state, she went over to pick a peony flower over by a bush beside the grand steps to observe its beautiful features with admiration.
Syaoran grinned inwardly; he knew Sakura would've done the same as Meiling if she were here. 'Perhaps I'll get to see you today." He thought longingly of the emerald eyed cherry blossom.
He didn't know that his mother was observing his expressions up close at this moment, another person wouldn't notice the emotions on his face so easily let alone decipher it, but Yelan knew better. Syaoran was smiling; a flicker of amusement dancing in his eyes was evident to see for her.
'One of my better decisions for him', Yelan thought privately.
She turned to get his attention.
"Now Syaoran, you do understand that you have a task here in Tomoeda?" she asked testily.
His eyes bored icily into hers trying to understand what kind of trip up she was trying to make on him.
"Yes I do, I'm to do the request the Li Elders have asked me to do. I also understand that Im to keep up my tutoring and training, so yes I know what I have to do here mother."
She met his dangerous eyes and challenged it back with an equally forceful glare he was sending out to her.
"Good, you remember just that and there will be no problem. However, if you do wish to see the Clow Mistress, like Im sure you will, you'll get to she her when she arrives here of her own accord."
His eyed widened, shattering his cold eye contact with her.
"What do you mean by tha-"
"I mean Xiao Lang – that she will arrive here soon I expect, I thought Meiling had told you about it earlier on the plane, no?"
He snapped his head in the direction of Meilin, who was now rolling in the grass and picking petals from a rose. He strode over to her.
"Meiling!" her head turned lazily over to her cousin, annoyed that he ruined her little happy moment.
"What? Can your voice get any more irritable?"
He growled lowly. "What's this about Sakura coming over?" Though, he had said Sakura's name rather softly.
"Oh, Tomoyo is bringing her over here soon. She was going to surprise her with my overall presence! But I'm sure she'd be happy with seeing you as well i suppose..." She said matter-of-factly.
Syaoran's heart felt like it dropped a few feet from it feeling rather heavy because of the increased heart rate. Meiling sniggered.
"Sheesh Syaoran, you're very obvious when it comes to Sakura. Might want to tone down the heart beats your emitting off from your chest?"
"Arggh, just shuddup Meiling!" He stormed off up the stone staircase leading into the Mansion, where his mother was watching from in the doorway. She was laughing inwardly seeing that classic look and crimson hue on her son's usually stone-like face.
He met her gaze and brushed past her, off to explore the different rooms that the mansion held.
"Welcome to your new home Xiao Lang." His mother said out of ear shot.
Seijou High School, 10:30am – Track and field try outs.
-Gasp- Pant -Wheeze-
Sakura was on her fifth lap around the 200m track, still going strong. Tomoyo was half a lap behind and slowly losing speed steadily, trying to keep an ideal breathing rate and pace. Chiharu and Yamazaki managed to catch up to her and the three of them started running together, when they reached the starting line to begin another lap, Sakura passed them, looking like a blur compared to the speed they maintained.
"See... you... guys, catch... you... up... next... lap!" Her voice fading out from the distance she covered between them.
Tomoyo had a sudden burst of speed; she would keep up with her for another round yet!
She managed to catch up within a minute, striding alongside her, Sakura smiled to Tomoyo and they both ran together.
Sakura ran an extra lap, doing 9 laps instead of 8 as they were instructed to do, just so she could finish with Tomoyo at the same time – it didn't bother her as she wasn't tiring out.
"Impressive Kinomoto - Good job Tomoyo, both you girls did great! You can sit down over here now." At this the P.E sensei Mr. Fujiwara pointed over to a small nearby podium which was in-built into a hill, it had at least ten rows of wooden benches and down underneath it you can walk under to where separate Toilets were for Girls and Boys. Other than this it just looked rather plain, it was a wonder for the school to pay for something like this, especially for sport, whereas they wouldn't spend a cent for heating in their school classrooms.
Tomoyo gladly sat down at one of the seats, still panting and a tad red in the face. Sakura's breathing was a bit heavy but turned pretty much to normal when she went to sit down as well.
"That... was SO hard!" Tomoyo managed to say.
"Would you do it again though, that is the question..." Came Sakura's witty remark.
"Yes, I still plan to do this so it'll be a piece of cake to keep up and film you if ever you start running around for something like the Clow cards again."
"Ehhehheh... never you mind Tomo..."
Tomoyo squealed, and ran over to get her bag not far away only to whip out...
"Another camcorder?... How many do you keep?" Sakura asked jaw dropped.
"Lets see... around thirty, thirty-five? I don't know, I keep getting a new one once my recent one goes out of date and there's another new model out that's better than the last."
"Hoe..."
"Ohohohoho! I found this one still in my locker when we got to school. Touya can't deny me filming you Sakura, it's just a crime."
"D'you know that stalking is a crime?" asked Sakura, sweat dropping profusely.
"Touché."
Sakura and Tomoyo were yakking to each other, waiting for the rest of the people to finish the field event; they had already done the track sprints and naturally Sakura won in the female division, Tomoyo not doing too bad for herself as well.
Chiharu and Yamazaki finished and started walking over, puffing much like Tomoyo did. Another three people came behind them a minute afterwards in a right state, a couple of others five minutes after that. About another eight or nine people were still running, others had already given up and were watching the rest of them.
Yamazaki went and sat by Sakura and Chiharu over by Tomoyo. They knew those two had a bit of a fight lately, naturally they would feel awkward but it has come somewhat of a ritual these days when they would fight then make up for it afterwards.
"Hey Sakura, did you know that a while back witches and warlocks roamed the city after dark, and would often come to play and do crafty tricks over at Penguin park? It's true; there have been reports of things such as little magical kids running around having sword fights with each other, and when there was tree roots sprawling out of their own accord trying to trip people up! I bet you next we could expect dragons and fairies' roaming around, if there hasn't been already that is."
Sakura paled and laughed nervously, Tomoyo joining in as well, 'How close that tale sounded to what Syaoran and I had to face countless of times at the park!'
Chiharu did a kind of "Humph." And walked away huffily. Earning a "Was it something I said?" from Yamazaki. He too walked away, trying to catch up with her.
Sakura and Tomoyo looked at each other, boy those friend's of theirs...
"Hopefully Yamazaki will realize what he's doing sooner or later, I mean we all like his tales and everything but he has to learn to stop sometimes." Tomoyo stated sadly.
"I know, thing's will work out, or so I hope so." Sakura said with an equal tone of sadness.
Li Estate, Hong Kong
Eriol was currently in the Li library, pouring over countless amount of books doing a little research into ancient life magic. So far he found a few facts, indeed very few, but all had the same to tell that he had already known about anyway. He closed the book, and put his glasses away, rubbing his eyes wearily. He has spent most of the night wasting away over history books...
Oh the agony...
He got back up on his two feet, glasses still unattended and by the book. He went blindly through the library with his eyes closed concentrating. He outstretched his hand and walked across the many book aisles, his hand resting on a particular book that had quaked beneath his grip. He brought it closer to his attention, his fingers traced over the letters reading them like braille.
"The Legend of the White Goddess" He murmured out loud...
Tomoeda, Thirteen and little years ago.
"Look Nadeshiko, it's a girl! Isn't she beautiful?..." Exclaimed Fujitaka, a tear of happiness in his eye. Her husband looking never so prouder of her than in all his life.
"Yes she is, We've waited for what seems like forever to see her." Nadeshiko said softly, smiling ever so gently and peacefully.
The two -once again- made parents, held their baby daughter in their arms for a long time both contentedly happy for the moment.
After news of her giving birth, a rather round bellied Sonomi stepped in with Touya holding onto her hand, Touya had then ran to his mom who was holding Sakura.
"Is that my sister, mommy?" he asked quite politely.
"Yes it is Touya." She smiled largely, patting the side of her hospital bed indicating for him to perch himself on.
"What's her name?" he asked once he was on the bed beside her.
"Her name is Sakura." She said carefully, tenderness etched on every word.
"Like the Cherry Blossoms in spring?" He wondered fondly.
"Yes, quite like the blossoms in spring." His father then said for his wife rather happily, for she looked tired and in no time had soon drifted off to sleep.
Touya looked carefully down at his bright emerald eyed sister who had just entered the world and was now looking straight at him rather cutely. He carefully placed his little finger to where his sister's own hand was, and she grasped it - Tugging gently at his hand, as if to say 'Hi Touya!'
His own eyes began to swell up, his own little sister was finally here, someone who he could talk to, someone who he could play with over time.
'I'll protect you Sakura, I'll always watch out for you like an oniichan should. Never forget that.'
------------------------- Kero's Corner -------------------------
Chapter Notes: Okay no humor this chapter, gomen for that. But it's something a little different, good thing too because now I'm really starting to get into the story now. (Introductions take a bit of time sometimes ne?)
I cannot stress this enough, please review if you have just read this. I LOVE COMMENTS!! Not a major fan of flames but then again what normal person is?
Next Chapter I'll add more humor. If you really want me to make Sakura and Syaoran meet next chapter then review, otherwise I'll make 'em meet the one after that :P
So the deal is:
(Zero Reviews: A late chapter and a very distressed author!)
(1-3 more Reviews: An extra humor scene.)
(5-7 more Reviews: Syaoran and Sakura meets up with each other next Chapter.)
(10 more Reviews: Next Chapter is lengthened by at LEAST a half, maybe three quarters.)