Disclaimer: I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura
Chapter 5
Off to a bad start
"YOU PEOPLE IN THE STRANGE CLOTHES, STOP WHERE YOU ARE"
Everyone in the group froze.
Slowly, everyone turned around to find the owner of the voice. They were shocked to see ten men in silver plated armour marching towards them.
"Royal guards…" Stranger mumbled
Syaoran looked to Stranger with an accusing glance
"When you said you've been to this world before, you didn't do anything incriminating while you were here did you?"
"No, of course not" Stranger defended himself
One of the men stepped forward, with his hand grasping the hilt of his sheathed sword. His eyes swept over the group, mentally noting the weapon Syaoran carried, the unconscious girl being carried about and two flying creatures.
"You're all from another dimension, right? State your business here" the man spoke in a very low voice, with his eyes narrowing
"We are here to speak with Regent Chen. We have something important to discuss with him" Stranger spoke up
The man looked back at him, his expression changed into a scowl
"What exactly do you wish to see the Regent about?"
"It's something we can only talk about with him. Now if you don't mind, we'll be going now…"
Before his sentence was finished, the other men had surrounded them with their weapons drawn.
"You are going nowhere. You're all now under arrest"
Everyone held a look of shock and confusion
"What? What for?" Nakuru questioned
"Due to recent events, it is now part of our law that anyone from outside of this world must be detained without question. Drop all of your belongings, place your hands on your heads and get down on the ground" the man demanded
'Recent events?' Syaoran thought
"This isn't good" Yukito worriedly looked around
"Hey listen, we're not here to cause any trouble. We're friends of the Regent, if you just let us see him, we can have this all sorted out" Stranger tried to reason with the men, but they wouldn't listen. For some reason, the mention of the Regent made them angrier
"Shut up and drop the girl" they spat back at him
Frowning, Stranger kneeled down and carefully placed Raine on the ground. Tomoyo and Meilin stepped back next to Eriol and Syaoran stood protectively in front of Sakura, as two guys tried to push them about.
"Get down, NOW" One of them ordered, but Syaoran just looked back at him with a cold glare
"What's your problem kid? Hand over your sword and get down on the ground" the other man growled, holding out his hand
Syaoran noticed that Strangers right foot was shifting in an odd manner. He then realised that he was preparing for an attack. Eriol and Meilin also noticed this.
"I don't think that's a good idea" Eriol whispered to him
"Do you have any bright ideas?" he quickly shot back at Eriol
"I think we should do as they say, and get down"
"Hmm…I like my idea better" Stranger grinned
"So do I" Meilin said, clenching her fists
Syaoran listened into their conversation and unfortunately let his guard down.
"I ordered you to hand over your weapon!" one of the guys hit Syaoran in the chest with the butt of their sword, causing him to drop to the floor. The man hit his chest wound directly.
"Syaoran!" Sakura quickly dropped to his side and wrapped her arms around him as he coughed and choked.
"Why did you hurt him? We didn't do anything wrong!" Sakura shouted angrily at the man
"We'll be the judges of that"
"Okay then, I think your plan is better" Eriol quickly said to Stranger, who then gave another grin.
"Good" he replied, giving a signal with his eyebrow to the others.
In a split second, he raised his foot and snap kicked the closest man to him under the chin, causing them to fly across the road. Meilin quickly followed this up as she caught one of them in a wristlock and threw them to the ground.
"What?"
The men jumped in shock at these actions and quickly raised their swords, but they were not fast enough to defend against the attacks from Meilin and Stranger who had already knocked down four of them with lightning fast kicks and punches.
"Quick! Call for reinforcements and get the captain!"
The leader of the group charged forward, aiming his attack towards Sakura and Syaoran. Acting on instinct Syaoran drew his own sword and moved in front of Sakura, deflecting the oncoming attack.
"Bastard!" the man cried, and then went straight in for another attack.
Once again Syaoran deflected the sword attack, then countered this by striking his palm directly into the man's chest. It wasn't any old palm strike though; the force of the attack sent him flying backwards, his armour completely shattered and the ground that Syaoran stood on cracked within a five-meter radius. Not only that, nearly everyone who stood around him felt the ground tremor, shocking them all to no extent.
'What was that? Were did he learn that move?' Meilin pondered. They both learnt the same martial arts style, but she had never seen that before.
As more of the Royal guards started turning up to the scene, Kero, Spinel, Nakuru and Yukito transformed into their true forms and summoned a large shield to protect the group.
"Everyone, stay inside the shield! This should hold them back" Keroberos called out
The guards were slashing furiously at the shields trying to break them, but it was no use.
"Captain! There they are!"
This time, along came a tall man in gold plated armour. He stopped before the group, who stared at the tall man in shock.
"Terada-sensei!" Everyone cried in amazement.
Everyone stopped attacking the shield after the sudden outburst from the travellers. The man was indeed Mr Terada, but not the one they knew…
"Who are you people? Why are you attacking my men?" He replied with a very angry look on his face.
"We didn't start this fight, we are defending ourselves! And what are you doing here, Terada-sensei?" Syaoran asked, both shocked and confused like everyone else
"What are you talking about? How do you know my name, outsider?"
For a few seconds, there was silence. Then, Stranger stepped in front of everyone
"There must be a Terada that they know in their world too. There are many variations of different people out there"
Terada himself now stood in complete shock at the sight of the person who had just stepped forward.
"Stranger, it's you! Oh my… I am so sorry for this misunderstanding!" Terada turned to the other men
"What the hell did you think you were all doing? Do you even know who you are attacking? These are friends of the Regent! I told you to get me before you engage any outsiders! You must apologise to these people immediately" he bellowed, but he then noticed Raine, who was asleep on the floor "Miss Raine! Oh my god, is she alright?"
"She's fine. Listen, we have some very important business to discuss with Regent Chen. Can you please take us to him?" Stranger asked
He was silent at first, and then he began to nod his head
"Yes, yes of course. Please, follow me" Terada turned and ordered the men to cleanup the area, whilst the others began to pick up their belongings.
Syaoran held out his hand to help Sakura off of the ground
"Are you okay?"
"I'm alright, but what about you, Syaoran?" She placed her hand on his chest, were he was struck
"Don't worry, I'm fine"
She gave a relieved smile, and then she hooked onto his arm.
"Hey Syaoran" Meilin walked over to the couple "That move you did…what was that? I've never seen anything like that before"
Giving a slight grin, Syaoran reached into his bag and pulled out a notebook.
"It was a special move that my father developed. I was studying a few of them before we left"
"Amazing!" Sakura exclaimed
"I even caught it on my camera! It was such a wonderful shot, Li-kun protecting his precious Sakura-chan…" Tomoyo smiled as she replayed the footage on her camera whilst everyone else gave a nervous smile
Just then, Kero flew by giving Syaoran a strange look
"I'll admit it kid, that was a pretty cool move. But you still have a long way to go before you'll be as cool as ME"
"Enough chattering. Time to get going" Stranger called to the others as he lifted Raine onto his back.
The group now began to follow the Terada look-alike as he lead them to the Regents estate.
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Regent Chen's estate
After a half-hour walk through the city, they finally made it to the Regents house. It was a large mansion that resided at the far end of the city. A dozen royal guards patrolled the grounds, who each saluted the captain as the group walked up to the front door.
"Captain Terada" a doorman greeted him
"These people wish to speak with the Regent. Please show them inside" Terada requested, but the doorman seemed a little cautious
"Are you sure sir?" he questioned, eyeing the group suspiciously
"Don't worry. You can trust them" Terada assured him
"Very well. Follow me then"
They were all lead into a large room near the front of the house. Large paintings hung on every wall, antique vases sat in each corner and an enormous marble fireplace stood against the far wall.
"Wait here please" the doorman then left the group standing in the centre of the room.
A few minutes later a short, middle-aged woman entered the room and stood in front of the fireplace.
"Mrs Chen" Stranger slightly bowed his head to the lady
"Hello again, Stranger…oh my, what has happened to Miss Raine?" She asked in concern
"She's only sleeping. Would you mind if I put her down somewhere?"
"Not at all. You can put her down in one of the rooms upstairs"
"Thanks. Back in a sec" Stranger said as he left the room
Now turning her attention to the others, she began to speak
"You wished to see my husband? I'm sorry, but he is unavailable at this time. Is there something I could help you with?"
"Uh, yeah. We're looking for a seal inside a temple, we were told you might know something about a it…" Syaoran began to halt his question as he noticed the woman's expression changing to sadness.
"I see…you're here about the great seal inside the hall of heroes. If you wish to enter it, I am afraid that is out of the question"
"Why?" Syaoran asked, sounding surprised
"We cannot allow anyone to enter the hall of heroes. Especially not now" Mrs Chen simply replied
"For what reason?" Nakuru asked
"Two months ago a group of four travellers forced their way inside killing many soldiers and destroyed the great seal. Because of that incident, we are unable to trust anyone from another world"
"Is that why those guards were so hostile towards us?" Eriol asked
"Yes. I'm sorry if they caused you any harm" she bowed as she spoke
"We are here to help, though. Surely you could let us inside…" Sakura spoke up, but was cut off by Mrs Chen
"I'm sorry, it is not up to me. Even if you are here to help, it is not that easy to get inside the hall"
There was silence for moment, until Syaoran asked
"Could you describe these travellers for us?"
"Let me see…" she rested her chin in her hand "according to the reports, there were three men and one woman. The woman wore a red dress and carried a fan, there was a large man in dark armour, another was dressed in some sought of dark cloak with chains…"
"That woman in the red dress…would that be the same one who was at Penguin Park?" Kero pondered
"Probably" Sakura thought back to the strange woman who they encountered the day before
"They must be the four leaders of the clan responsible for the revival of Jigoku" Stranger said as he wandered back into the room "According to some information from the Tamashii clans spy network, that woman's name is Kanashimi. The guy in chains must be Kyofu, while the man in dark armour…"
"Ginryu…" Syaoran finished the sentence, frowning in anger as he said that name.
"What about the fourth traveller?" Eriol asked.
"No-one saw his face…" she then turned to Syaoran "but he wore clothes very similar to yours"
As expected, everyone's eyes widened in surprise. Syaoran was wearing Li clan ceremonial robes; there really weren't many people who wore anything like those.
"When you say similar, how similar do you mean?" Sakura asked, seeing as Syaoran was too busy trying to get his head around the thought of someone from the Li clan being involved in all of this
"Practically identical. It even had that symbol on it" she pointed to the emblem on the front of Syaorans shirt.
Panicking slightly, Syaoran turned to Stranger
"Do you know the name of the fourth leader? Where he came from at all?" Syaoran was hoping for an answer, but Stranger was shaking his head.
"Nope"
There was an awkward silence for a couple of seconds, until Meilin spoke up
"In any case, what can we do to access the seal?"
"I could try talking to the Shenhua council, but I will need a lot to convince them that you will be able to help us"
"I'll go with you to see the council. Raine will also go when she wakes up and" Stranger turned his head to Eriol "Hiirigizawa seems to be the convincing type so he can come along as well"
"What makes you think I'm the convincing type?" Eriol asked with a curious smile
"You just have that look about you…"
"Very well, we can see the council first thing tomorrow morning. You are all welcome to stay here tonight as our guests"
A/n my grandmother has recovered and she is out of the hospital HURRAH! The next chapter I'm about halfway through so that should be up soon. I'll also be posting up more character sketches later