Sparring with the Blade of Fate
AU Drama—a twist on the CCS series.
The swords of two enemies clash for the power of the Clow Cards; Syaoran and Sakura's hatred for each other is fuelled by the long-standing rivalry between the Lis and the Kinomotos. They're an even match when it comes to sparring with their swords, but does either of them stand a chance against the blade of fate? Especially when its intent is not to force them apart, but bring them together?
Disclaimer: Cardcaptor Sakura and the characters belong to CLAMP... and I don't think I will ever be able to cough up the money to buy it from them either...
Dedicated to: All my CCS obsessive friends... u know who u are! XP
Note: ...hehehe. No, this is NOT a crossover with pokemon or yugioh, k? It's an AU with some really strange twists when it comes to being a Cardcaptor...
Chapter I: Danger and Sin, a Cardcaptor's Life
"To the final, bitter end we clash against each other, the dance of life and death unfolding as the battle we are about to fight. We do not fear the fates or each other, for we are all magicians in pursuit of the same power. We battle for the right to keep the cards we have, and fight for the chance to steal another's. In our world of magic, to lose means to die and to be victorious means we must take the life of another. Our entire existence is filled with danger and sin."
Two pairs of magic-born eyes stood facing across a deep ravine, from where the power of their ancestries resonated like the echoes of a raging storm. Neither moved nor spoke the first word, for both knew what quarrel lay between them. And so the storm blew on; the rain-drenched landscape remained the feral grounds, but the two magicians took no heed of element. Hell rose and crumbled around them and yet they gave no regard, for a battle was beginning.
"Your cards," the first one muttered, as though this plight for power was merely a childish game, and this opponent merely a child.
"And yours," the other answered in no different tone, for he, too, had the pride and confidence of a dark magician... a match they made in Hades. "Tatakainuku!" It was the fearless voice of their determination which declared to the final, bitter end that they would clash, the dance of life and death unfolding as the battle they were about to fight. One soul of these two would die tonight, and yet neither feared the deceitful fates.
The path of a Cardcaptor was a dangerous one indeed.
From beneath his hood, a pair of amber eyes flashed with the fury, the resolve, and the lust for power of a dark magician. He was a descendant of Clow Reed himself; his name none other than the feared Li Xiao Lang, and of course, he was beholden the first move. The air fell silent, and even the gods held their breath. "I, Xiao Lang, command thee under contract, release! Freeze!" His voice resounded as the tip of his blade met the card and the magic dispelled into the winds. The true form of the card held the body of a creature much like a whale in the deep oceans, and it dove down into the ravine, disappearing into the darkness to await its opponent.
The other magician smirked, his fingers releasing a card of his own. The spirit trapped in tarot form floated before him, and his staff swung around to meet the card in a ripple of powerful magic. He too, exclaimed the enchantment, bringing the spirit from its other realm. "Release, Arrow!" The pale blue figure spun around in human form, its bow drawn to fight what lay below it. A loud shriek was heard, and Xiao Lang's magic tore from the depths.
Freeze's power brought a new landscape upon them; the water-logged surroundings turned to sculptures of ice, and the ceaseless rain became a thick curtain of snow. Xiao Lang stood untouched as his opponent cringed in unforgiving winds. The Arrow, though, held its stance in the centre of it all, drawing its bow back and taking aim. The card fired to shatter the icy landscape piece by piece, but it could not reach its enemy.
"I command thee under contract, release! Twin!" Xiao Lang's opponent released a second card without warning. The aura from this spirit blinded his adversary for a near second. Suddenly, with a thunderous roar of magical energy, the power of two cards merged, and Arrow became two separate beings with the same purpose: hunt down the Freeze to protect their master. And then the battle raged on, the bright spectacle illuminating the darkness that had descended as night.
Through the snow and ice, the two pairs of hollow blue eyes watched for the silhouette of a great whale. They dodged the peaks of ice and avoided defeat in a fury of agility and premonition, keeping their bows drawn and poised for the strike. When Freeze finally appeared, it fired the arrows that would shatter it. This was the weakness of Xiao Lang's card. Its power was devastating, yet its body was as frail as glass. When the amber eyed magician saw, he screamed out. "Release, Time!"
And time stood still.
The spears of Freeze's destruction suddenly stopped in mid-flight towards the less agile beast of ice. "Change!" The arrows remained, but the souls of the two fighting spirits switched between their possessors. The result was no change in the body of the battle, but in the soul. And since there was no difference to the eye, the other magician did not notice the quiet strike.
Xiao Lang called back the Time and Change, and as the spell broke, the being of Freeze's entity was struck to the ground in a flash of fiery blue... and yet Freeze was not marred by the attack. The Change card's effect revealed itself. The soul of Freeze rose unharmed from its surrogate body and reformed itself, and the being of the Arrow and Twin's merged power failed. The amber eyes narrowed as he saw the opening. Before his opponent could realize the deception that had become of the strike, and before he could summon another card to his hand, Xiao Lang bade Freeze out into the open above the other magician, shrouding him in a sheet of ice and sending him down into the depths of the ravine.
"Child's play," was all that Xiao Lang whispered.
A scream resonated for a brief second before Li Xiao Lang's aura became the only one, standing above the ravine and staring into the darkness that lie below. His opponent had not turned over his cards willingly, and thus he had sent himself plummeting to his own icy grave. The Freeze returned to the living magician's hand.
"In thy form which thou should be, return to your new master," Xiao Lang commanded to the unseen spirits.
The winds were silent as he waited for the spoils of a victorious battle, and then three pillars of light shot up from the lifeless ravine. The magician pulled back the hood of his cloak and caught the three defeated cards in his hand. "Arrow, Twin, and Erase." He enunciated their names to claim them as his, and sure enough he watched as the fallen magician's name disappeared from the cards to be replaced by his own.
"So you were Yuushi?" he asked the blackness of the ravine and the soul of the man now residing at the very bottom. There was no answer, and he tucked the three cards into the jewelled pouch beneath the hilt of his sword. "You were brave, as your name speaks true, to face me for your cards and mine... but you need more than courage to be a strong warrior. Perhaps, in the next life, you will have learned this lesson." He clapped his hands twice in prayer as was the honourable custom to bless the valour of one's fallen opponent.
And then in a whisper is his dark green cape, Li Xiao Lang disappeared into the night, three Clow Cards stronger than he'd arrived.
The path of a Cardcaptor was a dangerous one indeed.
Two auras, one pink and the other grey-blue, circled each other in the clearing beneath an ivory moon, waiting for the chance to strike. A pair of ruby eyes studied her opponent, meeting a fierce emerald gaze. "So you are the little cherry blossom?" she asked, sneering. The emerald eyes narrowed.
"I am Kinomoto Sakura." Her reply was cold and distant. "And I am only after your cards."
"Then I shall fight you for mine and yours, Kinomoto, because I am Su Ling, a descendant of Clow Reed, and no blood of his do you have!"
The flames of determination scorched the skies, and against the cunning fates both magicians would play. They fought for the right to keep the cards they carried and the chance to steal the cards of their fallen adversary. These were bloody battles, as both ruby and emerald eyes had seen before—for to fail, to lose, meant to die... And to win, it meant one had to kill another.
The life of a Cardcaptor was full of sin and bloodstained triumphs.
"I, Sakura, command thee under contract, release! Shadow!" She bore the name of Cherry Blossom, yet she was not fragile; she was beautiful, and yet it was a deception to all who laid eyes upon her. Beneath the petals of this flower lay its poisonous thorns. Sakura Kinomoto was a blood magician... a deadly one. She was a woman, but the elders of her clan had trained her as a warrior. The card she summoned floated before her as she struck it with her star staff, the light pink entity resounding with a power that the ruby-eyed woman had never seen. Shadow unfurled itself, reaching out and engulfing the light. The ivory moon disappeared.
The other magician flinched for a moment, and then smiled to herself. She drew a card from her cloak and laid it in front of her, the tip of her blade just touching the magical tarot. "I, Su Ling, command thee under contract, release! Thunder!" But overconfidence would always have the downfall. The lightning beast leapt forth, illuminating the Shadow's darkness. Sparks of electricity carried far across the clearing, but they never reached Sakura.
Emerald eyes met ruby, and the dance of battle began its final song. "Tatakainuku!" To the bitter end.
Shadow constricted, but failed to ensnare the silver-blue beast in its haunting claws. Lightning whipped against the empty sky, breaking through the dark binds of Shadow and sending its power across the field and deep into the enemy's realm. And so the beats of battle repeated, as Shadow struck and lightning broke the wild beast free, and Thunder sent its fury out but failed to hit the elusive Shadow. Neither card was winning... and so Sakura took the chance she saw.
"Release, Power!" The spirit's strength emanated from the card and when it was released, the scales dipped towards the blood magician's emerald eyes. And all that happened after was too fast to be stopped by either party. Shadow wrapped itself around the Power and when its dark cloak reopened, the pink spirit no longer could be seen. The thunder beast jumped to attack the darkness, unknowing of the change in its opponent's prowess.
"Stop, Thunder!" Su Ling screamed, desperate, but the silver beast fell into Shadow's binds, whose strength now reigned over the magic of the Thunder. The creature could not break free to save its stunned mistress, and it howled in defeat as the dark cloak around it continued to constrict.
"It's over, Su Ling," Sakura hissed, and the Shadow did as bade once more and swallowed the ruby-eyed woman, rising into the skies to celebrate a wicked glory. The Shadow's magic energy, too strong to be fought by the human form, bound ever tighter against her, and finally, the darkness ripped through her flesh. The blood fell like rain above Sakura, and those emerald eyes were intent on watching her will as it was carried out. Defeated, Su Ling screamed once before the silence descended, and the curtains of this final dance were closed. Alas, for this there came no applause, only the silence of death.
The battle, though enduring, was still mere child's play for the blood magician. Shadow and Power returned to her hand as summoned, and the body of a fallen magician lay unmoving before her. Another one had died for the Clow Cards. "You were too slow," Sakura whispered, those fierce eyes fading into pity. She shuddered to look upon the woman's face, frozen into a scream—a plea for mercy—as her hollow eyes stared at the stars, seeing nothing. Sakura turned away.
"In thy form which thou should be, return to your new master." Four soft lights glowed in the return of the ivory moon. She held her hand out to capture the cards that once belonged to Su Ling. That name, scribed onto each Clow Card, disappeared to be replaced by the name of their new mistress: Kinomoto Sakura. "Thunder, Rain, Dash, and Song." She placed them in a pouch she held beneath her cloak and looked over to the woman who lay dead. The sorrow, the remorse, which Sakura had once felt for the bloodshed of her victories had died along with the years. Now there was only a dull, empty ache. No longer did she shed tears for those who faced death by her hand. Twice Sakura clapped her hands in prayer for the soul of the other magician, pleading with the gods' forgiveness.
Then she disappeared into the haunting silence, with four more cards and one more death weighing on her soul.
The life of a Cardcaptor was full of sin and bloodstained triumphs.
"Sakura-san, you've returned," an older boy stated matter-of-factly as the girl returned, throwing off her cape and leaving it for the servants to retrieve. She stepped from the manor's marble foyer and into the main gallery, where the boy who spoke was seated at a table. This boy was of twenty-one summers, the older brother of the sixteen year old blood magician. She nodded to acknowledge him, and then rather unceremoniously took a seat across the lounge room table. The dark-haired boy looked at her with slight disapproval in his cherry-chocolate eyes.
"What is it Touya-kun?" she snapped, noticing his judgmental gaze.
"You should learn to act more ladylike," he replied, leaving his younger sister to glare with those fiery green eyes. And then too suddenly, she looked away, that fury fading into something of self-pity, and he only waited for her to speak what he knew she would say.
"I killed another this eve," she whispered, pulling the cards she carried from their pouch and laying them face-up across the table. Indeed, Touya saw four new tarots amongst his sister's collection. "I killed another to capture the Thunder, Rain, Dash, and Song. I left her dead in an empty clearing for the vultures; her ruby eyes will haunt me now, just like the rest." Sakura slumped down against the dark acajou wood. "It is my punishment for the life I chose to lead."
"It was not your choice to become a Cardcaptor, Sakura," Touya remarked to try and save his younger sister from her self-mutilation. It happened every time she returned; she condemned herself and believed that the torment of her nightmares was the penance she had to pay. "You were born with magic in your blood and I was not, therefore you had to become the Cardcaptor. If I could, I would have taken your place, if only to save your innocence from all this spilled magician blood."
"But then it would be you who would have to kill. It would be you who'd face the sin that weighs so heavily upon these shoulders. It would be your torment, not mine!" Tears were forming in Sakura's eyes, but her brother did not notice, for she had been the one trained to hide her emotion.
"And I would not care!" Touya shouted, exasperated with the girl. Sakura silenced from the shock, and his tone softened. "I would not care, Sakura. Both our mother and father are in the sky, and I promised them that I would take care of you. But when they were gone the elders took you because you had magic. They wanted you to be the next Kinomoto blood magician, a Cardcaptor, because with Father gone there was no other sorcerer to take up the quarrel with the Li Family. They wanted you to one day fight against the son of the Li Clan Leader and win, or at least die trying... And there was nothing I could do about it."
"Touya-kun..."
"Every time you disappear into the night to gather those cards, I fear for you. I am afraid, Sakura, truly afraid that one day, you will not be the victor." The boy fell quiet for a moment, not daring to look into Sakura's eyes. He assumed to see the worst if he did. "One day, you might not come home."
There was silence. Sakura kept her head bowed and Touya remained with his gaze averted. "I'm sorry that you must worry so much, Touya-san," was all that Sakura said before gathering her cards from the table. She stood to leave and then stopped, speaking softly. "Tell Mihara that I will not be eating dinner tonight."
"Sakura," Touya began to reject.
"It is not likely I will be allowed to escape the elders' chambers until breakfast." She shrugged absentmindedly. "I've only brought back four cards this time, and I am sure they will not be pleased." With that, she left the room the way she came, leaving her older brother to stare after her receding figure. There was a streak of sadness in his eyes.
Gak... that was... well... no comment. Hope you liked it
Yup, you guessed right—another random fanfiction author is back form the dead! I took quite the fall fanfiction-wise the past year or so... I've been concentrating more on original prose and poetry (yeah, curse that stuff)... Let's see if I can get back up on my feet and actually write something good... nah... :P
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