The Birth of the Phoenix
Chapter 2
Sakura beamed as she sat down. " Right on time." Just then, there was a bell, and the sensei, who
had been sitting at his desk to wait, stood up to take attendance.
" Good job." Syaoran muttered half-heartedly; he was searching through his bookbag in such a
way that his head was nearly buried in it. Sakura and Tomoyo stared at him with cocked eyebrows
and then looked at each other.
" Ano...Syaoran-kun," Sakura hesitated, " What are you doing?"
" I'm trying to figure out what made my bag so heavy all of the sudden." Having said this, the other
boy proceeded to just take all his books out and lay them on the table, only shouting a muffled "
Here" when the sensei called his name. Terada cocked an eyebrow with the same expression as
Sakura and Tomoyo, then proceeded to ignore it.
Syaoran suddenly stopped moving, staring at his bag, and this lasted for about fifteen seconds before he started to load up his bag all over again. Sakura and Tomoyo watched him with ill-concealed interest but neither spoke a word. Syaoran sat up straight, having finished everything, and acted as if nothing had happened.
Taking the hint, both Tomoyo and Sakura turned around. If Syaoran isn't saying anything, they won't ask questions. After all, it had nothing to do with magic.
Right?
" Good job," Touya smiled, as Yukito lost his lunchbag in the garbage can. Yukito made a
sorrowful expression before picking it back out-it was his lunch after all, and wasn't that deep
either. Touya started laughing at Yukito as they walked.
" A little bit of butterfingery, are we today Yuki-san?"
" Not helping To-ya."
" Gee, why are you so downhearted today?" Touya asked.
" Because I've been getting pictures of the kid wearing robes."
" The gaki?"
" Hai."
" Wait, the green robes?"
" Not really. Golden ones."
" Weird." Touya looked sympathetically at him. " Must be sick or something.""
Yukito did not answer.
The Han Dynasty had to have existed at least two thousand years ago. More, even, because it lasted
nine hundred years, and at the end it ended at around 204 or so A.D. Yue wasn't sure if Japan
existed then. It probably did, because as the Crowned Prince had muttered when others laughed in
delight, " those wretched Japanese stole our servant's clothing and customs".
Xiao Lang could have been wrong, but the Japanese had to have gotten their clothing and code of courtesy from somewhere, and in those years China was the idol of all other smaller countries that were about. There was an uncanny resemblance of female Japanese clothing to that of servants in the royal palaces, and the new form of bowing had indeed come from servants. It really should have flattered the Chinese. Yue briefly wondered why the prince was so annoyed. It wasn't as if the Japanese wanted to insult the Chinese and claim those things for their own-they didn't. They modified it, then they claimed it for their own.
But the prince was always good at arguing. Yue could imagine it now. The young child would say, " When you write an essay, even when you paraphrase, you still give credit to the original author. How is it different with culture?"
The prince was quite a figure.
Yue half stared at the painting on the wall in art class. It showed a Japanese noble with his wife in a garden. The Crowned Prince Xiao Lang was a great artist and composer. He even personally gave Yue one of his artwork and wrote a song for him. Yue lost both.
However, there was one thing Yue did not lose. He remembered that the child always had a pair of orange and golden feathers with him-long, beautiful and glittering. One the day of his death Xiao Lang had given him one of the feathers and gasped out the story.
" I am the son of a Phoenix, for the Emperor is the Dragon, and his Empress is the Phoenix. I am the son of both Phoenix and Dragon, and so was my father, my grandfather, the fathers before him. But there was one thing-upon my birth, they said a phoenix landed near my mother's window and watched as she labored. The servants, awed, bowed before it to plead for my mother's health as well as the hope of the Han. When I was born the servants turned their back-all but one, to it, and that one servant saw the phoenix flutter its wings and take off. Hours later, after they bathed me and clothed me, they found these two feathers on a slip of paper that wrote,
' To the one the Phoenix will protect, and to the one the one would deliver from darkness.'
Alas, my time is over, but these feathers one shall be mine. But you, let this be the day when you are delivered from the darkness of sorrow. I pray you will find the rightful master, but until then, let this feather protect you from harm. Let this..."
Lunch time went by quietly. The boys went on their side to play catch with a volleyball and the girls
ran around playing tag. Syaoran sat at the roots of a tree twirling the orange-gold feather in his
fingers. He found the thing lying neatly at the bottom of his bookbag. It didn't solve the mystery of
how his bookbag got so heavy, but it didn't seem to matter really. He felt at ease with the feather, as
if it were a lost treasure.
Maybe it was.
Syaoran glanced up. That bastard Hiriingaziwa again. In his mind he suddenly stormed into the court of the main hall, towards the stuttering lord.
" Do you take me for a fool?!?!"
" Li-san?"
Syaoran blinked, looking up at Hiriingaziwa. He was no longer in the court of Chang'an. He was not yelling at the stuttering lord dressed in robes bowing and pleading for mercy from a young child. This was Hiriingaziwa. This was Tomoeda. Syaoran shut his eyes.
" That's an interesting feather you found yourself there." Hiriingaziwa smiled.
Syaoran looked at the feather. He put it in his backpack. He didn't want anyone else to see it all of the sudden. Hiriingaziwa looked puzzled, something very unusual for the new student. Syaoran was a quick judge of character. Most of the time he's right.
Most, anyway.
" Is there something you need?" Syaoran's tone clearly stated he did not want anything to do with
him. Hiriingaziwa didn't seem to take the hint, and instead sat down beside Syaoran while saying
" Oh, nothing really. Just wanted to talk. I'm still unuse to Japan."
Figures. Syaoran thought to himself. Took me a month to get use to Japan, with all the ridiculous bowings and -sans, -chans, -kuns, card capturing while trying to act like everyone else because this is what Japanese are-
It was odd, because Syaoran never disliked Japan. He was definetely afraid when he first came here, but hated? So why was he so bitter all of the sudden?
" I heard you were a transfer student yourself. Li doesn't sound Japanese, it sounded either Korean or Chinese. Are you Korean?"
Lee. Right. Syaoran shook his head. " Chinese." He answered.
" Let us defend our country, the great Han!"
" Li-san?"
Syaoran snapped out of his daze. There was a cold fear etched in his heart. He stood up nervously,
swinging on his bookbag.
" I have to go inside." He said, then, without turning back, headed into the building.
Eriol remained sitting at the trunk watching the boy leave. When Syaoran was out of sight he let his face fall into a frown. A most perplexing mystery indeed.
" Bixia, tian xia da luan. Chen, fashi jie Taizi de feng yu, zuo wei huang yin."
" Fang si! Bu cheng! Feng yu shi wo de. Zen ma neng sui bian jiao chu wei yin?!"
The voice of the prince was always commanding. Even as the heir Xiao Lang had won the respect of all the lords. Pity the child never knew it. Yue sighed, taking the feather and twirling it between his fingers.
The sky darkened suddenly. Yue looked up, unalarmed because he did not sense any magic. It began to rain, a sudden downpour without any warnings. The rain beat harshly against the ground and suddenly the air became cold.
Outside there was a figure running. It stopped by a tree. Yue leaned over. It was the boy.
Ah, my lord, I always wondered what you would look like when caught in the rain with no one to help you. Yue thought grimly. Though at first it was out of malice.
The child stood there, hesitating, looking at the front door. Yue sighed, standing up, and then opened the door.
" Aren't you going to come in?" Yue asked a little harshly, focusing on Syaoran while observing from the corners of his eyes the flooded streets that were now impossible to cross. " You use to come all the time."
Syaoran looked confused. He looked around on the streets and gingerly came inside. Yue closed the door and took off Syaoran's wet jacket.
" Why are you in your true form?" Syaoran asked very quietly as he stared at Yue.
" I was uneasy." Yue answered.
Syaoran stood there for a moment. He was completely soaked, and didn't know if he should sit
down. Yue paused.
" Wait here."
Syaoran looked about him and noticed the yellowish feather on the coffee table. He stared at it for a long while, not picking it up. Outside the wind knocked one of the tree branches down on the window, creating a banging sound. Syaoran did not even flinch. There was a flash of lightning, followed by a roar and a crack in the sky. Yue came down.
" Here." Yue handed him a cotton shirt and pants. Syaoran looked at the shirt. Something clicked in his mind, a slight reminder that he was vulnerable inside a house that was not his own. But he nodded gingerly and started walking towards the nearby bathroom to change.
The Chinese also had a Phoenix, Yue recalled, though it was different from the European one. Their
stories say that fire makes the Phoenix stronger, but didn't exactly bring it back to life not as he
remembered. The Phoenix was the King of all birds, and was the most beautiful, most powerful bird
of all.
But the Phoenix never played a major part in Chinese legends, not as Yue remembered. The real beast was the Dragon, and there were stories such as the Journey to the West that said the dragon was of air and water. The Four Great Dragons of the Sea were a common folktale. Unlike the rest of the Chinese gods, the Dragon was an unruly beast that does not follow the normal rules of Heaven. It's just as powerful, but there was no one to control it.
The Phoenix was probably a pet of some god. Yue remembered there was a god with a bird for a messenger. It was never as wondrous as the Dragon for some reason.
" Yue?"
Yue looked up. Syaoran looked rather boyish then, wearing Yukito's old clothing. He looked so frail and small.
" Do you want to eat something before you do your homework?" Yue asked quietly. " It doesn't look like the rain is going to end anytime soon. In fact, I believe they say it's going to rain until evening. I doubt water will do a phoenix much good."
Syaoran didn't seem too surprised by the last comment. He looked at the window.
" The Dragon controls the rain though." He answered.
" True." Yue sighed. " But even so, you are no longer the Dragon."
At this Syaoran seemed puzzled. " What do you mean? I'm born in the year of the dragon."
Yue smiled. " Do you really want to go back out again?"
Syaoran stared at him for a moment, perhaps surprised that Yue actually smiled at him.
" Come. I think Yukito has some cookies stored somewhere. Sit down and make yourself comfortable."
The guardian stood up and left for the kitchen.
Math isn't that hard. It's not the reason why Sakura hated math. Math requires concentration. One
hundred percent concentration. The hard problems-you can't solve. The easy problems, you get
wrong anyway because of careless mistakes. That's why Sakura hates math.
She sighed as she leaned back. In math class they don't just give you six or seven problems. They give you sixty. Seventy. And you have to write the question down. Even if they're easy, which most of the time they are, they still take half an hour simply because you need several seconds to write them down.
" Sakura, dinner's ready!" Her father called downstairs. Sakura looked up. " One second Otou san!"
Suddenly she was surrounded by fire. It was dark, but the fire was so bright her eyes burned. Beneath the crackle of the flames she could hear a child singing. That voice sounded so familiar. The flames parted and she could see a figure dressed in green and gold, dancing in the red, wielding a sword so bright it seemed to drown the light of the fire. The figure eventually turned and glanced at her. She gasped. It was Syaoran! Yet this Syaoran had long hair, dark brown, half of it tied up into a bun and the other half streaming down his shoulders. His eyes were bright gold in the firelight, and he smiled at her. With one wave of his hand, the fires closed around him.
Sakura blinked. She was in her room again. There was a knock on the door.
" Hey kaijuu." It was her brother. " Get down or there won't be any food for you."
Sakura hesitated. " Ano...coming!" She dropped her pen and darted to the door.
When Yue came back Syaoran hurriedly put back the feather he had been studying. Yue paused. He
placed the cookies on the coffee table and picked up the feather.
" Do you know what this feather is?" He asked Syaoran. Syaoran shook his head mutely. Yue wondered when Syaoran suddenly became so silent and quiet. " This is the feather of a phoenix." He lifted it to the sun so it would glitter more. " Thousands of years ago, after Clow Reed died, I went to China, or the Great Han, as they called it." He blinked. " There I met a young prince. He was the Crowned Prince, about your age, but he was more than that. He had two phoenix feathers. He gave one to me."
Syaoran looked at the feathers. " The prince...was he anything like me?" He asked.
Yue paused. " He's a lot like you. Even looks like you. Though perhaps he was more cheerful when I first met him."
Syaoran looked at his bag that was on the floor. " He must have treated you well if you kept it all this time."
Yue paused. " It wasn't really that." He answered truthfully, hoping beyond hope that Syaoran was the one. " Somehow I loved him." He stared at the window where the rain poured down. " Somehow I loved him."
Syaoran shifted to his bag. " I really should start doing my homework."
Yue smiled. Syaoran quickly looked away. It was unnerving to see Yue so open. Pleasant, yes, but unusual.
Yue watched Syaoran dig out his books. The feather stuck onto one as they came out and fell to the carpet. Yue's heart, formally tight, instantly relaxed and his hopes rose. He picked up the feather before Syaoran could hide it.
" Where did this come from?" Yue asked, keeping his face straight, hoping, hoping...
" It just appeared in my bookbag this morning," Syaoran's eyes darted from Yue to the feather on
the table.
He is. He is. He is. He is. It was all Yue could think of as he stared at Syaoran. The same eyes, the same nose, the same lips, cheek, chin. The same voice, even.
" Here." Yue handed the feather back. Syaoran took it uncertainly, before bending over the table to do his homework. Yue watched him from the stairs the entire time.