Chapter 7: Suan-lin

'My name is Kero, or Cerberus... Guardian of the Cards and their Master. Now... who are you?'

The man looked at Kero. Again. 'What do you mean... Guardian of the Cards and their Master?'

'TELL ME WHO YOU ARE FIRST!'

Both stopped as they heard Sakura turn over in her sleep. Then Kero turned back to the man. 'Answer me. Now.' he said in his deadliest voice which, this being Kero, was almost nothing more than a low squeak... hehe!.

'Fine. I am Suan-lin-kun funny, eh? Couldn't come up with nething else. Was gonna make his name Casun, but that would make this a CCS/ETC crossover, and I'm not sure if I wana do that with this story. Poor you who don't know what ETC is!. Good enough?'

'Your title too, and other things... like I love playing Video games, and eating pudding and pancakes and ice cream and...'

'Okay, I get the point.' Suan-lin snapped. lets just call him Suan, ne? 'I am ninja. Almost. We must go through, or complete a final task that is set out for us. This is mine... Get proof that other magic than ninja does exist. But only our elders have magic, so I must find something that they would not have... like you, maybe.' Another reason why this might have been a good CCS/ETC crossover, or maybe CCS/HP! Wait... oh yeah! I might turn this into a CCS/NTS crossover.. Oops! Too long!

Kero backed up suddenly. 'Nuh-uh. You ain't taking nothing from here. like my grammar? Okay? Not me, not Sakura, not the Cards... nothing. Understand?'

Suan sighed. 'Then I shall take whatever I choose from you by force. But not now. No one must know about the existence of ninja. Okay? Not even your little friend, who is sleeping.' With that he bounced out the window well? What else am I supposed to call it?

Kero eyed the window for a moment. 'Better get some sleep. With all these little charm-ish thingys to do, and keeping Sakura and the Cards safe, I'm gonna have a lot to do...'

Sakura stared into the darkness. em ninja... wonder if I could make something for him using CREATE? /em yes, I am making Sakura slightly smarter than she is supposed to be, but I really don't feel like doing all the extra work that comes with it, so ask some1 else, like Kay (hehe!) R summ1 to make you a story filled with little tiny details.

Something stuck in her mind, however.

em 'Then I shall take whatever I choose from you by force...' /em

Did he mean that he could, would, take the cards, Kero, even herself to finish a task? Or maybe... Sakura's mind was suddenly filed with all the people whom she had seen at the hospital, and then with the picture of Syaoran's face before she woke him up...

All those people with potential magic... he could go and take any of them... then they would think that having magic was bad... that it was a curse and not a gift....

Her eyes widened in the dark. But then another thought race through her mind. 'I shall find him, an give him something made with my magic, and the magic of others. He can take that back instead of living creatures, or the Cards... and we will all be safe....

A plan formed in her mind. She could carry it out at any second. And she would. Tomorrow, she had decided, she would make a gift for him, with her magic, and Kero's, and Syaoran's, and everyone's in the hospital who had magic... and she would give Suan the present of a lifetime....

The problem, however, was that by the morning, she had completely forgotten her plan. And Suan.

'SAKURA!'

'HOOOOOOEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

Sakura tumbled out of bed. She looked around, trying to find where her uniform was. Only to find that Kero was trying to drag it over to her.

'Kero, your soooo sweet!'

'Shut up Sakura, even if you just throw your uniform on and don't eat anything, you're still gonna be late!'

Sakura, at fist taken a-back by his words, suddenly heard them. 'Late?! What time is it?!'

Kero, finally being bale to talk properly after dropping the clothes at Sakura's feet, replied, 'how about your school starts in 5 minutes?'

'HHHOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

'Gomen, Liarto-sensei, I only woke up 10 minutes ago...'

'I DON'T CARE IF YOU'D WOKEN UP 30 SECONDS AGO! SAKURA, THIS IS YOUR 3RD CONSECUTIVE TIME BEING LATE! ANOTHER DETENTION, AFTER SCHOOL! NOW, WHAT MADE YOU SO LATE THIS MORNING?!' Sakura's teacher, Liarto Hunia-chan, shouted at her. 'AND DON'T SAY THAT YOUR ALARM WENT OFF LATE, OR THAT IT DIDN'T GO OFF AT ALL! I CHECKED WITH YOUR BROTHER WHEN HE CAME IN TO HELP WITH THE SOCCER TEAM! AND HE SAID THAT HE HEARD YOUR ALARM RING CONTINUOUSLY!'

Sakura tried to inch away from her teacher and the spit flying from her mouth, but Liarto-Sensei stopped her. 'Don't-you-walk-away-from-me-young-lady.' She said, breathing heavily, speaking low and dangerously or should I say hissing?. 'You-missed-school-yesterday-and-you-are-late-today. What-do-you-have-to-say-for-yourself?'

'I-I'm-I'm sorry?' Sakura asked hopefully.

'NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I WANT A 200 WORD ESSAY ON GOOD SLEEPING HABITS, AND ANOTHER 100-WORD ESSAY ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING PUNCTUAL! BOTH DUE TOMORROW! AND WHERE IS THAT ASSIGNMENT THAT I ASSIGNED YOU LAST WEEK? ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE ALWAYS DAYDREAMING ABOUT? IF YOU DON'T HAVE IT KINOMOTO SAKURA-CHAN, YOU'RE GOING TO STAND UP IN FRONT OF THIS WHOLE CLASS AND PRESENT IT VERBALLY! NOW, WHERE IS IT?!'

Sakura cringed, remembering that she had only done half a page, and that she had left it at home. 'I left it at home by accident, Liarto-senei. I-'

'You can do and say whatever you want, but I have decided that instead of embarrassing you in front of the whole class, you can embarrass yourself in front of the whole school! To the Principal's office, NOW!'

Sakura turned and walked out. Tomoyo, she saw at the corner pf her eye, was looking worriedly at Sakura. And Sakura knew exactly what she was thinking. em How am I gonna get outta this one? /em

Sakura waited outside the Principal's office, listening to the clanking of the secretary' s fingers against the keyboard as she typed. Inside the Principal's office, however, she could distinctly hear her teacher complaining loudly to the principal.

Sakura waited to be called in. She knew that she should be thinking about excuses that she could say to get herself out of trouble, but none came. Now I'm making her slow. Er. Very fun!.

Sakura dimly heard the door open and close, but didn't look up to see who it was. She had decided on a plausible excuse to get her out of trouble, although there were quite a few gaps, and it made her look like a wimp. Better to do and say that than revealing the whole fiasco with the Cards.

Suddenly, she heard the tapping of the secretary stop. Sakura looked up into the woman's face, wondering what had happened.

The Secretary was looking at a piece of paper. It had the mark of FedEx on it- Sakura assumed that a post man had just come in.

The other woman looked at Sakura, then jumped up of her chair. She ran into the 'meeting' with the Principal and Liarto-sensei, and, Sakura could see through the open door, thrust the paper into the Principal's face.

He read it through once, then again. After a few times reading it through, he beckoned Sakura into the office.

'Can you please, Kinomoto-chan, tell us what this is about.'

Sakura felt her knees go weak. She wanted to touch the paper, make sure it was real, but for some reason, her arms felt glued to her side. There was a strange feeling in her stomach, and Sakura recognized it as the one that she had last night. No wonder, she thought, This pretty much means that I'll have to say the truth.

To any and all concerned:

I have taken a Guonase Tardo hostage.

There is only one way to get him back.

There is only one person who can do it.

Ask a Kinomoto Sakura-chan about it.

She will know what I'm talking about.

Tell her to bring exactly what I want to King Penguin Park tonight by Sundown-

or else more will disappear, starting a small, furry creature that I know she cares dearly about.

I do hope she gets this message. Or else there will be a few less of her kind in the world- and that would throw the balance off, wouldn't it?

Sincerely, SL

Sakura felt numb, after reading it a second time. This man, SL--Suan-Lin! She realized– had taken the Mayor hostage. And he was threatening to take Kero away, too. And by the looks of it... he was threatening to destroyed everyone in the world that had magic.

Sakura gulped.

'Well Ms. Kinomoto? Am I to assume that you don't know anything about this? Or are you going to say something?' Liarto-sensei asked Sakura menacingly.

'I-I-I can do this on my own...' she whispered quietly. There was no way that she was going to go down without a fight! Or, if she could avoid it, not tell anyone who didn't need to know.

'No, you can't, Sakura,' the principal, Consuke-sensei responded. 'We are adults, and more learned in the ways of the world than you. Tell us about this, and we shall hel-'

'NO!' Sakura screamed. She was shaking all over. These people had no magic- they did not understand what was going on here, they could not help her. 'You don't know the first thing about this! Not about Ker-' sakura stopped herself just in time- she had almost told them about Kero. But really, she had.

'Who?' her teacher asked.

Sakura knew it was useless to pretend that she didn't know Kero, so she just said, after taking a few breaths and calming her self down a little, 'Kero. He's- my friend. We just hang out together. Sometimes.'

She turned to walk away, out of the office, out of the school, heck, she was prepared to walk out of her own life to get away from this mess.

But just then, 'Sakura? Please, you can tell us. We won't tell a soul- we promise.'

Sakura whipped around, startled by finally hearing the abnormally quiet secretary speak for once.

'But-but I can't...'

Sakura turned away agin, and started to move out of the office, before- 'Sakura? Tell us, no tell me... does it have to do with anything out of the ordinary? Anything- em magical? /em '

Sakura stopped in her tracks. Did this quiet, kind hearted secretary know?

However, she was about to respond, when- 'SAKURA! SAKURA!'

Sakura whipped around. Tomoyo came bursting through the door. 'Sakura! You have to come! It-it's... I don't know what to say...'

Sakura followed Tomoyo out the door of the office, up some stairs, and down the hall toward her own classroom. Tomoyo pushed open the door- the class was cowering against one wall, away from the windows. Looking towards the windows, she saw a small hole in the window pane, and beneath it, a small, bloodied yellowish lump with wings- 'Wings?' Sakura whispered to herself in a hoarse voice. She moved closer to the small mass, and saw, her eyes filling with tears,

'OMIGOD! KERO!'

She bent down to see if he was okay. She touched him lightly-he groaned. 'Kero. Kero! Can you hear me? Can you speak to me?!'

She picked him up gently.

'Sakura?'

'Oh, God, Kero- what happened?'

Groaning, he replied in a quiet voice 'S-Suan-Lin... came right after you left. Didn't touch anything... just started to beat me up... groan Sakura, be careful... I can't protect you now, ask Yue... Sakura...'

'Yes Kero?' She asked in a tiny voice. Recollections of the night before were coming back to her.

'Sakura... protect the Cards at all costs... I'm too weak now... give me a few days... Sakura...'

And with that he fainted.

Sakura knew that the eyes of the whole class was on her, trying to figure out the same question- what was going on?

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up into Tomoyo's eyes.

'I'm sorry Sakura... I wish there was something that I could do... but I'm not like you, right?'

Sakura held Kero's limp body closer to her, and managed a small grin. 'Yeah... but you can help in other ways, right?'

Sakura heard a gasp from the door. She looked over to see the Principal, Secretary and her Teacher standing there, gaping open-mouthed at the scene spread out before them.

Sakura gathered her things- Tomoyo followed suit. As the two girls made their way out the door, Sakura asked her friend, 'Tomoyo? Can you do me a favor?'

Tomoyo nodded.

'Listen, can you....?'

Sakura bent over to whisper in Tomoyo's ear. 'Sakura! I... I don't know... Kero said 'Protect the Cards at all costs' ne? So why...?'

Sakura just shook her head sadly. She looked down at the little body that she was carying.

Tomoyo sighed, in a defeated way, nodded, then brought out her phone, and dialed a number. 'Hey, mom? I really need to talk to you right now... can you come home? And on the way there, pick me and sakura up? Thanks. Love you too- bye.'

Tomoyo nodded at Sakura's questioning face. 'She's on her way. Sakura... are you sure you want to do this?'

Sakura nodded. 'Yeah... this is the only way. I just hope that no one else gets hurt...'

Tomoyo nodded again they seem to like doing that, ne? What's up with me and 'ne?' hehe!.

They waited in silence for Tomoyo's mom's car to come and pick them up. Tomoyo-out of respect for Sakura and Kero.

Sakura? She waited in quiet for another reason- she was preparing herself to do one of the hardest things that she had ever done in her life.