A/N: Oh ho! Back for more, are we! Good because otherwise I would cry. Some of you may be able to guess which video game I borrowed the scenery for the rest of our story from. If you liked that game, you can have fun playing "draw the parallels" between this fic and the original material. If you didn't like that game, you can drop dead because it was freakin' awesome. But I changed enough stuff that it shouldn't be too agonizing for you. If you've never played that game, then… I have nothing to say to you, I guess.

Ok, now READ or I shall bite you.

Chapter 2

For Whom the Clock Chimes

Kuronyaaaa

Hnnn?

Kuronyaaa

What?

Wakey wakeeeeeeey!

No, dammit. Lemme alone…

PokePoke

Go away…

Kuronyaaaaa

Wait a minute… it smells like… "MAGICIAN!"

Kurogane did a back handspring over Fai's head, drawing the dagger he always kept on his person and landing, cat-like, behind the wizard, poised to attack. Fai watched his stunt with an expression of mild amazement. Ignoring the ninja's snarling face, the blond clapped.

"Hyuuu! That was way cool!" he cheered.

"WHAT—WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!" Kurogane spat. Then he lowered his dagger and blinked.

A big smile was spreading across Fai's face as he watched the ninja take in his surroundings. "Something wrong, Kurowanko?"

"What the hell…?" Kurogane muttered, his eyes darting around suspiciously. "…Did we change worlds?"

Fai took on an expression of slight surprise and looked around the room as if he were just now noticing it. "Hmm…so we have…"

Kurogane's shoulders slumped. "Are you telling me that you're just now noticing?" he asked in exasperation.

Fai shrugged. "Well, not everyone is as observant as you, Kurotan."

"You dumb ass!" the ninja shouted. "It looks nothing like the world we were in before!"

He had a point; the room they found themselves in now was dark and dreary, lit by candles that sat in various places around the premises. The walls and floor were made of plain, unpainted wood and furniture was sparse: a small bed with a wooden frame and a single, worn green blanket, a battered night stand with a drawer and a candle sitting on top, a rickety, two-shelved wooden bookcase in the corner and a green mat on the floor in front of the entrance. Oh, and there was a…

"Huh?" Kurogane grunted, crossing the room in only a few strides to examine the object more closely. "What is this thing?"

Fai joined his companion in examining the thing. "It appears to be a large, plush, bear face-shaped pillow."

"Well what the hell is it doing here?"

"I don't know," the wizard grinned, "but look, isn't it cute?"

Kurogane's eye twitched. He hated cutesy girl things. Just looking at it made him angry.

"It looks like it wants to die," Kurogane snarled, taking out his dagger once more.

The bear-face pillow's expression contorted into a scowl as it hopped up in the air and swallowed him whole. There was a muffled sound of surprise from the pillow's downy depths and the plushy animal sat back in its corner, looking rather pleased with itself.

"Aww, I think it likes you, Kuronro!" Fai called cheerfully.

The ninja struggled violently to free himself from the carnivorous pillow as the bedroom door opened. Fai turned to face the visitor, ignoring his thrashing companion on the floor.

"Oh! I thought I heard something up here!" a young black-haired boy with a cheerful round face chirped, clapping his hands together in delight.

"Sorry if we're intruding," the wizard bowed slightly.

"Don't worry about it," the boy said, waving the apology away. "Your friends already explained the situation to me."

"You've met Syaoran and Sakura, then?" Fai asked happily. Kurogane was still kicking and punching violently on the floor. "I'm Fai D. Flowrite, by the way."

"Takeshi Yamazaki," the boy trilled. Then a slight frown crossed his face. "Who's that?"

He pointed to the ninja that was buried in the bear pillow.

"Oh, that's our cute little Kurowanko!" Fai beamed.

"IT'S KUROGANE, DAMMIT! AND I'M NOT CUTE, YOU SCRAWNY BASTARD!"

"I see your friend has already insulted Kuma san!" Yamazaki grinned. "Excellent! Well, now that we're all acquainted, why don't you come on down stairs? There's a little predicament we could use your help with."

"Sure thing," Fai agreed. "Come on, Kurowanko!"

The bear pillow spit the ninja out and resumed its spot the corner, smiling innocently. Kurogane shot the thing a look of horror as he dashed out of the room.

Yamazaki took a seat on a green couch in the living room and the five travelers gathered around him in a semi-circle like a group of eager children awaiting a bedtime story. Kurogane's eyes were darting around the room nervously and he was carefully avoiding contact with any furniture for fear that it might devour him again. The boy's face became solemn for the first time. He took a deep breath before beginning his tale.

"Once upon a time, there lived a little girl who always wore a blue hood and bright pink pants. Everyone laughed at her because they made her look stupid. One day, she decided to go to the wolf's house to eat his pie. Her mother said 'don't talk to any strangers and don't stray from the path or a big ugly guy will jump out of a tree and chew on your face'. As soon as she walked out of the house, she was flattened by a giant gingerbread man. The end."

Everyone stared at the boy. Syaoran looked confused. Kurogane looked exasperated and annoyed. Fai and Mokona looked amused. Sakura, however, looked horrified.

"Oh no, how terrible!" Sakura gasped, bringing her hand to her mouth. "That poor girl!"

Everyone turned to stare at her instead.

"A-ah, Princess Sakura…" Syaoran stammered. "I…I don't think…"

"He just made up a stupid story," Kurogane growled. "It's not true…jeez."

"But…but what happened to the girl?" Sakura demanded. "Was she hurt?"

"I'm afraid she died," Yamazaki said somberly. "And birds came from the heavens and feasted on her flesh."

Sakura's eyes widened and rapidly filled with tears.

"Ooh! Come here Sakura chan," Fai said sympathetically, letting the princess crawl into his lap and whispering comforting words to her as he stroked her hair. Kurogane and Syaoran, who had been watching this little display with wide eyes, simultaneously huffed and folded their arms as they turned their heads away, jealous.

"So," Kurogane growled, trying to dispel the awkwardness of the situation, "what's really going on here?"

"Joking aside," Yamazaki said, becoming seriously serious this time, "this town is in trouble. You all are, just by being here."

"Why?" Mokona asked.

"It's been happening for about three weeks now; every time the clock chimes, someone in this town turns into a chicken. There are hardly any people left in the town at all," Yamazaki explained.

"Eh? They turn into chickens?" Kurogane grunted. "You expect us to believe that?"

"You can always tell who the next target is because their eyes start doing this weird glimmering thing," Yamazaki continued, doing a flashing motion with his hands on either side of his head to illustrate his point.

"Can they still talk and stuff?" Mokona asked.

Yamazaki looked at the white creature as if it had just uttered the stupidest stream of nonsense he had ever heard. "Uhhh, no… they don't talk."

"Hmm, that's weird," Mokona said.

"Why, do chickens talk where you come from?" Yamazaki asked.

"No, but—"

"Well shut up then." The boy then picked up the rodent, took him to the door and drop kicked him outside.

The group watched through the window as Mokona went flying off into the distance and disappeared.

"Hey look, it flies," Fai giggled, pointing in the direction that Mokona had gone.

Kurogane gritted his teeth and pounded the floor with his fist. "Why didn't I think of doing that!"

"So do they remember stuff from when they were human, then?" Syaoran asked, as if nothing had happened.

"I don't know. I've never asked one of them," Yamazaki said thoughtfully. "But my mom turned into one and when I went near her she would either run away or try to peck my eyes out. She doesn't usually do that so I would guess that they don't retain their memories."

"Maybe she just doesn't like you," Kurogane grumbled.

"Yes she does!" Yamazaki shouted. "You're lying!"

"That's what I would do," the ninja shrugged. "Seems like turning into a chicken would be the perfect cover story for getting revenge on your kids for all the crap they've given you over the years. After all, you can't arrest a chicken for child abuse."

"Now now, Daddy," Fai scolded, though he had a large smile on his face as usual. "Be nice."

"SHUT UP! I'M NOT YOUR FREAKING DADDY!" Kurogane snapped.

"I wonder if this could have anything to do with Princess Sakura's feather…" Syaoran mused.

"I bet it does!" Sakura agreed. "We have to help!"

"You'll help us?" Yamazaki breathed, taking one of her hands between his and staring pleadingly into her eyes. "You mean it!"

"Of course we do," Syaoran said with an encouraging smile.

"We'll all help," Fai sang. "Even this guy!"

He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at Kurogane.

"DON'T VOLUNTEER ME FOR STUFF, DUMB ASS!" the ninja shouted, jumping to his feet so that he could stomp on the offending wizard. "Besides, I still think the kid is full of it."

Yamazaki opened his mouth to reply when there was a loud "BONG!" that made everyone jump. The four travelers stared at Yamazaki, frozen.

"Ah! Yamazaki kun! Your eyes!" Sakura shouted, pointing at the boy's face.

His eyes were glimmering strangely as though they had lights behind them.

Yamazaki's face went pale as the clock chimed again and he ran to a mirror that hung on the wall to see for himself. He let out a shrill scream started clawing at his own face as if removing the offending eyeballs would keep him from transforming. The clock struck again. The hysteria that was going on in the house was nothing to what was happening outside; people were running back and forth, past their window, screaming senselessly, scaring a flock of chickens that had once been villagers, who clucked wildly, sending a whirlwind of dirt and feathers into the air. Those who weren't screaming or clucking were either sobbing and hugging each other or just standing there, looking terrified, their wide eyes moving ceaselessly as they tried to see who the next victim was.

Yamazaki thrashed wildly on the floor, pushing himself in circles on his side. Everyone else looked helplessly between each other and the writhing figure before them, not sure what they could do to aid him. Everyone except Kurogane, that is, who plopped down on the couch, pulled out a bag of popcorn and sat back to watch the show.

Once the clock had struck for the ninth and final time, there was a loud "POOF!" and a big cloud of smoke. All the noise outside stopped abruptly to be replaced with a terrible silence as the dust settled. The only noise outside Yamazaki's door was some maniac who burst out laughing. A three-year-old child took a pistol from the pocket of his overalls and shot said maniac in the shoulder, screaming "SHUT UP, YOU DUMB ASS!" The child's mother patted him proudly on the head and whispered "That's my boy!"

It took a little longer for the smoke inside the house to clear but the group could hear the tell-tale clucking even before they could see what was left of their friend. It finally thinned out, revealing a large, fluffy, white rooster which was fighting its way out of a pile of the clothes that Yamazaki had been wearing. Sakura gasped and clapped her hand to her mouth, her eyes filling with tears once more. Fai moved to comfort her but Syaoran "accidentally" stepped on the wizard's coat at the same time that Kurogane knocked over the table beside the couch which just "happened" to block the princess's way. Pretending not to noticed that he had trod of Fai's long robe, Syaoran darted forward to console Sakura while the ninja muttered "oops" and picked up the end table, shoving it roughly back into place. Fai gave Kurogane a shrewd smile to which the warrior returned a glare as if daring him to say something. The wizard said nothing but blew Kurogane a kiss.

"Bastard," Kurogane muttered under his breath without looking at Fai.

"P-poor Yamazaki kun," Princess Sakura sniffled, looking tearfully at the rooster who was scratching the floor unconcernedly, looking for seeds. "Wh-what can we d-do to change him back?"

"I think…" Syaoran began slowly, "…we'll have to go to the clock tower."

They all looked out the window. Beyond a large stretch of dark forest stood a tall clock tower, its face glowing menacingly in the night. None of them were really looking forward to making that journey; except Kurogane, whose face broke into a wolfish smile at the thought of all the monsters that could be waiting in there to be slaughtered by his sword

…and Fai, who smiled just as he always did but was secretly imagining the fun he could have with the ninja in a dark forest (not all of which was innocent)

… and Syaoran, who anticipated finding his princess's feather there, bringing him one step closer to completing his mission

…and Sakura, who could see herself clinging to Syaoran's arm under the excuse that she was afraid…But other than that, no one was looking forward to that journey at all.

A/N: Heh heh… Mokona got drop-kicked…heh… Yeah, alright, don't have a fit. The irritating little thing will be back. It's like a freakin' cockroach; you can't kill it!

So…You like? You no like? I wanna know so clicky clicky the review button. And by all means, come back later. I'm working on the next chappy right now. Seriously, I have my laptop (which I endearingly refer to as "lappy") on my legs while I type this author's note while simultaneously using the "big computer" to work on the next chapter. My point is it'll be up soon. Ta ta everyone!