Chapter Sixteen

Card Captor Sakura

Jagged Amber

starjade

Discoveries

" Li Syaoran from Hong Kong!"

His name was announced, piercing and clear, he could hear the cheers among the crowd. His eyes gained an icy amber look as he steeled himself and felt the years of meditation come over his body as his senses fell into position.

He was aware of everything and anything. He needed to keep himself this way and not think of anything that would jar his senses completely.

Like the girl from Japan.

Shaking his head, he walked out into the arena, feeling the hot sun blare down on him as the applause grew louder. He walked into the middle of the arena and looked around himself, trying to pinpoint where his opponent was.

His opponent hadn't come out yet. Soon the announcer blared out, " And Tsukisho Jiro from Bengbu, China!"

He could feel somebody walking towards him and he turned around, facing his opponent.

He could feel the Jiro guy studying him. And then he felt the surprise rolling off his opponent like waves as he stepped back.

" You're blind??" Jiro cried out.

" Yes." Syaoran answered back simply. He was used to this.

Jiro began to laugh. " Now that's an advantage for me. How am I supposed to fight a guy properly if he can't even see me?"

" Don't. Underestimate. Me," Syaoran growled, Jiro's words angering him.

" BEGIN!" The announcer cried and the bell rung for the fight to start. Syaoran circled his rival and tried to calm his nerves.

Then Jiro launched out at him, raining down in fast punches which Syaoran narrowly avoided. Syaoran then ducked down low, sweeping the ground with his feet but Jiro jumped over them, his fists coming out to punch Syaoran from above. Syaoran ducked and rolled, eluding the blow, before coming out in an air kick to the back of Jiro's head.
It hit and Jiro fell to the ground.

" How...the hell.." He heard his opponent stutter as he got up slowly. Syaoran looked at Jiro with the same cold amber look.

" I've said this once and I'll repeat it. Don't underestimate me," Syaoran whispered, his tone cold.

" We'll see about that, you blind little punk," Jiro growled before running at Syaoran again. Jiro's speed was faster then Syaoran's ability to avoid them and a punch landed on his cheek and Syaoran flew backwards, falling to the ground. Jiro didn't waste the opportunity and came at Syaoran, kicking and punching him as Syaoran fought to regain his senses.

He had to remember that this fight was important. He had to win to gain any recognition. He had to show the world that even "disabled" people were equal to those perfectly healthy. He would show them all.

Grabbing the necklace around his neck, he breathed in. He would do this for everyone. His family...his father...even Sakura Kinomoto...

She was expecting him to win. And by all gods, he'd win.

And he flipped up once more, his body battered but his eyes containing the passion that he didn't show at the beginning of the fight. And with a cry, he launched himself at Jiro.

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Sakura gasped, her eyes widening at the scene unfolding before her. The fight was intense and the crowd was very involved in the competition between Bengbu's greatest fighter and Syaoran, the legendary blind martial artist.

In the beginning, Syaoran had the advantage of surprise.....but Jiro was catching up with his speed that seemed to escape Syaoran's heightened senses.

" No...Syaoran," She whispered under her breath as Syaoran fell to the ground.

" BEAT THEM ALL, XIAO-LANG WHO IS MY FIANCÉE!" Meiling screamed at the top of her lungs, smirking pointedly at Sakura.

Sakura glared back. She was getting quite tired of this. Through the whole competition, Meiling never failed to mention that Syaoran was her fiancée. It was grating on her nerves and she really wanted to punch Meiling in the face so she would shut up.

" What's wrong with you, Kinomoto? Are you worried about Xiao-Lang? Or are you jealous of the relationship Syaoran and I have....and that you wish you had?" Meiling asked, her tone syrupy.

Sakura whipped around with appalled eyes. " Wish I had? Yeah right! The only relationship I want with Syaoran is friendship-"

" HA!" Meiling let out a squawk of laughter. " I don't believe that for a second. Sakura Kinomoto, you like my fiancée. I would even go as far as to say that you've fallen in love with him."

All the blood drained out of Sakura's face and she hissed, " I am not in love with your fiancée!"

Meiling just smirked. " We'll see."

Sakura just stared at Meiling and then turned back to the fight, hardly able to concentrate. I would even go as far as to say that you've fallen in love with him....She was NOT in love with Syaoran! What was Meiling talking about??

To be in love with someone meant that you're willing to give up anything for the one you love...even your own happiness....you'd want to be with them, you wouldn't be interested in anyone else-

" No! Xiao-Lang!" She heard Yelan cry out and she was jerked out of her thoughts as her attention went back to the fight in the arena.

Syaoran was cut and bruised, looking more beat then he ever had before. Sakura felt her heart thump and she slowly rose out of her seat, leaning against the steel handrails separating her from the arena. Her eyes focused on Syaoran and she felt worry and fear pump through her blood.

" Syaoran..." She whispered, as he struggled to punch back but Jiro had come out with a hook that sent Syaoran crashing to the ground once more.

" No!! Syaoran!!" She yelled, terror crashing through her body. She couldn't stay aloof anymore, she couldn't sit down and watch Syaoran lying there hurt! She wanted to run out there in the arena, but she knew he would be disqualified if she did..

Meiling whispered, fearfully, " I think he's going to have to give up. If he doesn't, he'll be killed."

" No!" Sakura said forcefully. " He can still win! He still has to prove to the world that...he can do it...he can!"

Meiling shook her head, looking at Sakura with distraught eyes. " Look at him! He can hardly stand up! Do you want him to die??"

" SYAORAN, GET UP! PLEASE! DON'T LET HIM WIN!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. He was bleeding and a well aimed kick by Jiro at his stomach made him bend over in pain and Sakura knew he must've broken a rib.

Tears filled her eyes and she turned to Meiling. " I think he would rather die then give up," She said, solemnly.

And shockingly, Syaoran did get up. Beaten and bruised, he got up. Dust covered his ripped clothes but with surprising speed, he launched out at Jiro. Kicks and punches, all done with precise calculations of the exact position Jiro was in and the exact weak points that left Jiro falling to the ground. With one last punch, Jiro was unconscious.

And after that, Syaoran fell as well, right beside him.

The crowd leapt to their feet, applause ringing through the stadium like thunder. Sakura couldn't take it anymore and she ran through the crowd until she got to the arena gates. She pushed through them and ran as fast as she could to Syaoran's limp form.

" Syaoran! You won!" She breathed, collapsing to her knees. Never had she felt so many emotions then she had at that one point, watching Syaoran fight. She touched his dirty, bloodied cheek and whispered, " You made it, Syaoran. You won."

Syaoran was unconscious and couldn't hear her words....but she felt the need to say it, to show the whole world. He was a miracle. A blind martial artist. It had to be magic. It had to be some kind of magic that kept this remarkable boy going.....and surprising everybody, over and over again.

The doctors came running up to them but Sakura could hardly pay attention to any of them. She was trying to figure out this feeling in her chest....and was too scared to come to terms with it.

They picked up Syaoran and Jiro, putting them on stretchers. One of them checked their blood pressure, the other checking for major wounds.

Sakura's eyes widened and her breath caught. Syaoran was holding onto something around his neck. The doctor pried his fingers off of it and Sakura's heart thumped in her chest, hard and painful.

It was the key necklace she had given to him.

And then they carried him away, Syaoran and Jiro, away from the cheering audience and the arena...and away from her.

She looked down and tried to breath. What was happening to her? To him? Somehow, this tutoring job wasn't just a tutoring job anymore. Somehow, it wasn't just a good mark anymore.

It was something else. Something she was too afraid to delve into...

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She waited at the doorway impatiently. It had to come soon...it had to! Her plan wouldn't work without them...

Then she saw another brown haired girl running up the marble stairs. She nearly jumped for joy at the package in the brunette's hands.

" Give it to me!" She demanded as soon as the brunette got to the top of the stairs. She snatched the package away from the girl and ran to her room where she dumped the contents out onto her bed.

Pictures fluttered onto her bed, colourful and detailed. All of them close-ups. All of them reflecting scenes that could be interpreted the wrong way. And that's what she was looking for.

" That Kinomoto bitch is going to pay," She smiled to herself. Inwardly, she did feel a pang of guilt for doing such a thing to a girl she hardly knew. But then she reminded herself that Sakura had taken away her most precious thing in the world.

Syaoran.

It was all about survival. Survival meant sacrifices. And if Sakura had to be sacrificed, so be it.

" Yen...I still don't understand what you're going to do with these pictures-" Sairah began to say, but Yen just held a hand up.

" You'll see, Sairah," Yen said softly, holding one picture up. It was of Syaoran, face wild with emotion , carrying a drunk Sakura in his arms.

" You'll see."

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Sakura sat, watching Syaoran sleep peacefully. His cuts were bandaged and the doctors had one arm in a cast which he had fractured during the fight. He looked innocent while he slept. A lot more innocent then he did in real life.

He looked like he had the ability to smile. Which in real life, seemed impossible.

" Sakura?"

Sakura jerked out of her thoughts and looked towards the doorway. Yelan stood there, smiling softly.

" Sakura...a phone call came for you at the household. Wei just informed me and gave me the number to call back. Take my cell and call whoever it was back. It sounded quite important," Yelan said, holding out a small, black cell phone.

Sakura nodded, looking back at Syaoran for a few seconds before taking the phone and the piece of paper where the phone number was listed. Before she could walk out of the room, Yelan put a hand on her shoulder.

" Thank you, Sakura," She said, softly. " Thank you for taking care of my son. Words cannot express my gratitude towards you."

Sakura smiled, weakly back. " It was nothing, Yelan."

She stepped out of the room and walked outside where she could have a bit of privacy. Then she looked at the number.

It was Touya's number! Her heart began to thump in her chest. Nothing had happened to her father...had it? She quickly dialled the number and impatiently waited as it began to ring.

" Hello?"

" Touya!! Touya, it's Sakura!" Sakura gasped into the phone.

" Sakura! Where have you been?"

" Oh....I was at the hospital. My....the boy I'm tutoring...he was in this competition thing and he got hurt..."

" Okay. But Sakura, listen to this! Our debts have been paid off! Fujitaka can have the operation he needed to have since the beginning!"

Sakura felt the phone begin to slip out of her hands as her mouth dropped open in shock. " Our debts? Paid off? Who-What-Where-" She began to question, surprise and anxiety coursing through her like a river.

" I don't know-but the letter we got-it said something about you and I wanted to ask-"

Then the phone died and Touya's words were cut off.

" No!!" Sakura yelled, looking at the phone desperately. The battery had died out. Running inside, she ran inside Syaoran's room, looking around for Yelan...

And met Syaoran's open eyes.

" Sy-Syaoran?" She stuttered out, shocked that he was awake.

His head tilted a bit and Sakura felt her heart pang at the lost look in his eyes. " Kinomoto?"

He hadn't sensed her. Well, it wasn't much of a surprise, after such a huge fight, of course his senses must have took a beating as well...

" Yeah....it's me," She said, calming down a bit. She moved to sit beside him, where she had sat since the morning.

He took a deep breath and shifted a bit and Sakura felt as if she was talking to a blind boy. Usually, Syaoran was so intelligent, that even the defocused look in his eyes didn't seem like much....sometimes, she felt that he could see...but now, she felt as if he was a small, vulnerable, blind boy.....

It was unnerving.

" Who-Who won?" He asked, his voice low and scratchy.

" You did!" Sakura said, knowing that this fact would make him happy. " You won, at the very end! He was good, really good....you almost lost, but then I don't know what made you win, but you won! But....you took quite a beating...you been unconscious for 12 hours..."

" 12 hours...." Syaoran repeated. He groaned a bit, and his head knocked back onto the pillow. " I feel like shit."

Sakura looked down at her hands. " Well, it's understandable-"

" What's understandable? I was beaten down, time and time again during that fight! Hell, I only won because I faked that I was down and I didn't have any strength left....and then when he thought he won, that was when I pounced on him. It was also because of-" He stopped and he got up, his amber eyes flashing with anger that made her actually feel more relieved. The old Syaoran was coming back..

" It was also because of what?" She asked gently.

He was silent. Then he whirled towards Sakura and hissed, " Why do you care so much? Why the hell did you help me? Why the hell did you come here, why did you have to give me that necklace, why do you have to be so-so-so-"

He stopped and Sakura sat, shocked at his outburst. She swallowed and answered back, " I do care, Syaoran. I care-I care a lot about you-"

" Why would you care about me when I don't give a shit about you?" Syaoran spat, cutting her off.

Sakura felt her chest constrict. Her eyes grew watery at his words and she tried to convince herself that he didn't mean it, that he just said these things when he was insecure and didn't know-

But it was too emotion filled. It was too....sincere. And Sakura felt as if her whole world was crashing down on her. She got up, and whispered, " Cuz...I just do." And then she left.

She had a week before she left. A week. And every time she thought Syaoran was getting better, he'd reverse everything, his anger would come back and all her work would unravel.

But now, it was more then just that. She had gotten too...emotionally involved in it. And now...she did care a lot about Syaoran. Now...it was on a whole different level.

She wanted to see him smile. She wanted to stroke his skin, run her hands through his hair and hold him tight....she wanted to see him happy...she wanted..

She wanted..

Sakura got out of the room and leaned her back against the cold, white wall. And she closed her eyes and felt the tears of pain and realization squeeze through her eyes and down her cheeks.

She wanted him.....

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Syaoran tried to close his eyes and go back to sleep. He felt as if he was a little kid again....his head hurt, his whole body ached, and he knew he must've looked like a mess. Jiro had broken one of his ribs and it killed every time Syaoran tried to shift into a better position.

He groaned in agitation. He hated being stuck in a hospital bed. He was always in the hospital when he was a kid. Getting operations, getting treated when he got into accidents...which he got into a lot....he had promised himself when he was a kid that he would be the son his father always wanted. A perfectly healthy son. And that was when he started developing his senses....with the help of martial arts, his heightened senses made up for his blindness..

But in this weakened state, he was a blind man in a bed and he was surrounded by darkness.

" Look at the blind little rich kid, he wants someone to play with!"

He kept his face to the ground, his cheeks streaked with dirt, his sunglasses strewn and broken on the ground. He held on tightly to the ball in his hands, trying to breath and remind himself of his martial arts lessons. He was hated enough because of his wealth and enough people in the city blamed him for his father's death. The fact that he survived caused him to be quite loathed....he thought that even the elders hated him too...

" Come with us, boy! Come play with us!" He raised his head, surprised and one boy grabbed onto his shirt sleeve, leading him with them. As he was blinded in his eyes, he was blinded in his heart too as he yearned for this acceptance.

" RUN!" He heard them cry and footsteps pounded through his ears as they ran away from him....and silence greeted him.

" Guys? Wh-where did you go?" He spoke, his voice loud with a desperate tone underneath. He was alone...again...

And in the distance, a train whistle and fear seeped through him as he began to run.

He gasped, opening his eyes. Then, feeling the coarse bed sheets underneath him and the white hospital bed that he lay on, he felt himself calm down.

Memories like that coursed through him everyday. His caretakers, physiologists, the elders, everyone thought of his blindness as a disability, everyone thought of him to be weak and insane....they all thought he would never be the leader his father was.

But he proved them all wrong. His blindness was no longer a disability, he was strong and intelligent and he could be...no he WOULD be the leader that his father was. He would be everything his father wanted him to be....and more..

His life was very organized. He had made sure of it. He never talked, he never had friends, everything was planned out. He would win the competition, he would prove to the world and the elders of who and what he was made of....and he would become the perfect leader...

Until that Kinomoto girl came and shook everything up. Now no longer was everything dark and black. He began to yearn to see colours...in his dreams, he saw them. He could feel the dark, lush green grass, the yellow, shining sun, the crystal blue water, and her-

He wanted to see her, he needed to see her....he wanted to hear her voice, he wanted to feel her skin...he wanted to fight with her, hear her snap at him and smile, because she was there and there was no limit and there was nothing holding him back...

But he couldn't trust her. He had trusted before and his trust was always broken, broken like the pieces of glass that caused his blindness.

There was no space for her in his life, he knew that. She was a weakness, proven to him over and over. His senses lost when he felt her touch, he no longer felt strong and in control..

It would be better with her gone.

" Dear Xiao-Lang, as intelligent as you were in your fight today, your not like that in reality, are you? Treating your tutor like that, it should shame you!"

Syaoran jerked. " Hiirigizawa?" He snarled. " What the hell are you doing here?"

" Well, I'm just here to tell you, that the girl is probably gone now. Leaving Hong Kong and gone without a trace. If I was in her place, I would be."

Syaoran froze. " Why would you care about me when I don't give a shit about you?"

Fuck it all, he did care.

a/n: hmmmmmmmmm.....yes, im dun anther chapter!! come on, i gave u ENUFF clues about wut yen and sairah are plannin! ya guys must've got it by now! u guys are an intelligent bunch of reviewers, that i can tell, so commonn! loll, aight, see ya latez, ppl gimme suggestions and comments, i have no idea wut im gonna write unless i hear wut ya guys want!

and yes i noe u guys all want it....the HOOK. UP. lol, its happenin...very soon...maybe the next chapter!! maybe not....hmmm...

see ya latez,

starjade