Disclaimer:
I have no affiliation with Cardcaptor Sakura or any other of CLAMP's works. Also any similarities to real life events or people are unintentional unless explicitly stated.
Why didn't he kiss Sakura on the lips? They had a great three months and post exam celebration date with just the two of them, and since her brother was still at the restaurant when they left, he wouldn't be at their place when Syaoran saw her safely home. He could've kissed her without anyone watching; she no longer told her friends when they went on dates after the third one they interrupted. And he'd have to go back to Heung Gong for the summer in one week when class ended, and Syaoran only kissed Sakura on the cheek.
When Syaoran walked into his uncle's place he was ready to collapse onto the sofa in the parlour, but there was a man already lying there. He was a traveller judging from the worn out and foreign clothes. Meiling was next to this stranger pouring a viscous red liquid to a mortar filled with crushed herbs.
"Welcome back," she said, not looking up from her patient.
"Who-?"
"Don't know." She added a few more drops then started crushing the mixture with her pestle. "My mother and I came across them not too far from here. They appeared from nowhere and then this man collapsed."
Syaoran sensed that there was another stranger in the house in the library. His mother, uncle and uncle's wife were there too. "So you took them home?"
"They had a letter addressed for your mother from the Witch of Dimensions," said Meiling. She shook her patient awake and gently helped him drink the potion slowly before letting him lie down again.
The doorbell rang.
"Ah, it must be the professor," she said, standing up. "Aunty called him over. Stay here, make sure he rests."
Meiling left him in the room with the stranger to open the door for Fujitaka Kinomoto. He nodded to Syaoran as they passed on the way to the library.
Syaoran sat on the chair opposite the resting man. A chronometer ticked in the background.
The stranger gave him a strange look. "You've grown, Syaoran," he said.
Syaoran narrowed his eyes. Surely Meiling wasn't careless enough to reveal his name to someone he had never met. "Who are you?"
The stranger let out a low laugh. "Ah, I see. You must be this world's "Syaoran." I must say, the resemblance is uncanny."
Syaoran had researched the theory of multiple worlds and their effects, but still the concept of there being other people living in alternate universes with the same soul as him was difficult to believe.
"Hey," said Syaoran, "you shouldn't stand up."
"Seishiro," said the stranger. "My name is Seishiro." He was stretching in the middle of the living room.
"You shouldn't do that."
"I'm haven't felt this good in a while now thanks to that girl," said Seishiro, licking his lips. "Although, I'm still thirsty."
Syaoran began to protest when Seishiro stood up.
"I'm just going outside. You can follow me or call her if you want."
Syaoran rather follow him instead of facing Meiling's wrath. He watched Seishiro stretch and throw a few kicks. The man didn't limp and his movements were fluid. Whatever Meiling gave him seemed to do the job.
"Do you know how to fight?" Seishiro asked.
"I don't think that it's a good idea." Syaoran blocked a head kick from the right.
"Not bad. You saw that coming."
Seishiro kept attacking. He almost exclusively used kicks and always returned to a stance with his left foot in front. For someone who was recently invalid on the couch, his kicks were heavy. Syaoran feinted, drawing his opponent closer and landed a kick on Seishiro's right side as expected.
"So you figured out that I have an artificial right eye," said Seishiro, stretching his neck side to side.
Syaoran had noticed that his opponent's reactions were slightly slower when he was attacked from the right. He theorized that his opponent used kicks because he would be less likely to misjudge the distance.
Seishiro charged again. Syaoran stood ready to block and counter but was blown back by a tremendous wind and waves of energy.
Meiling bowed and turned to leave after letting Professor Kinomoto into the library, but her aunt motioned for her to stay.
"Professor, this is Fuma our guest," said Aunt Yelan. She handed him piece of parchment with writing. "He and his brother have been sent to us with a message from the Witch of Dimensions herself. What do you make of it?"
He read its contents quickly. "So it was him behind the parasites." He returned the letter. "We should have predicted that he would target other dimensions besides our on. But what about her other claim?"
Who was he and what did he have to do with the Ko attacks? Meiling wanted to know what was written on the letter from the Witch of Dimensions.
"Niece," said Aunt Yelan. Her parents, Professor and her parents focused their attention to her. "On the first day of the fourth month, do you recall anything strange that day?"
The first day of the fourth month was Miss Kinomoto's birthday. "The false healer tried to kidnap my friend disappeared into thin air," said Meiling.
"What about the weather?"
Meiling bit her questions down. "It mostly fine, but there were incidents of strong wind accompanied by a powerful aura."
"Did you see anything in the wind?"
"The second gale came took quickly to notice anything," recalled Meiling, "but just before the first one in the park, in the wind I saw some petals and feathers." The adults all looked at each another.
"So there is more than in this world other than the piece sealed in that book," said Professor Kinomoto, "one that had found its way to my daughter giving her powers."
Meiling couldn't keep silent for longer. "What does this have to do with my friend?"
"Where is the book now?" Aunt Yelan asked Professor Kinomoto.
"In my home library."
"Hey!" Meiling barged in between them ignoring her parents' protests. "I asked you a question! What does this have to do about my friend?! What is this about feathers!? And that phony healer? How does this have to do with the Ko? What is so disastrous that the Witch of Dimensions herself has decided to interfere and send messengers?!"
Her Aunt's eyes did not even flicker from Mr Kinomoto's face. "You are dismissed," she said, coolly.
"I have a right to know!"
Aunt Yelan looked at her with terrifying pressure. "That was an order."
Meiling grit her teeth, bowed and opened the door only to be driven back by a gust of wind and wave of magical power.
The flow was redirected by Aunt Yelan's magic. She glided out the room. Meiling and the adults followed.
Outside they found Syaoran and Meiling's patient, fighting the phony healer himself. There was a large white feather with red markings in the patient's hand. The feather was the source of the radiating pulses of energy.
The phony healer noticed the newcomers. "It seems that I am outnumbered," he said. He then, to Meiling's disbelief, tore a hole in the air. He jumped in and it started closing.
Meiling's patient cursed and ran towards the rip, the feather still in his clutches. The tear disappeared, the winds and the feather's presence with it.
"Seishiro's not thinking again," said Fuma, the patient's brother. An elaborate magic circle expanded below his feet. "I better see if I can find him again. Good luck."
He disappeared as well.
Meiling ran to check Syaoran's injuries. There were only a few scratches.
"What's happening?" he asked.
"Shh." She hoped that the adults would let something slip.
"What should we do about the other feathers?" asked Meiling's father.
The telephone rang inside the house. Meiling's mother ran inside to go answer it.
"The Witch of the Dimensions only said to keep them safe," said Aunt Yelan. She addressed the Professor Kinomoto. "You mentioned once before that the Central Library in Biblio City has the strongest security in the country. Maybe we can store it there."
"There's trouble!" Meiling's mother ran out, distressed. "It's Sonomi Amamiya. She says that that Miss Sakura Kinomoto is in danger!"
Tomoyo woke up crying. Her mother held her close and Aunt Nadeshiko was kneeling at the side of the bed clutching her hand, sweating and breathing heavily.
"I was so worried," whispered her mother. "I thought you were going to be stuck in that dream forever."
It was only a dream. It was so vivid. But it was just a dream, but she saw it again, she saw-
"Sakura!" Tomoyo cried. She struggled to leave the bed but her mother's grip was strong.
"What's wrong, my dear?" she said. "What is this about Sakura?"
"The feather, t-the other Sakura, I n-need to-"
Her mother forced her to take a sip of camomile tea. Tomoyo's hands were shaking too much to do it herself. She coughed and spluttered.
"What did you see, Tomoyo," said Aunt Nadeshiko, calmly. Her eyes were the same emerald colour as Sakura's.
"S-Sakura is in danger," Tomoyo managed, teeth still chattering despite the late spring air. "Sakura, another Sakura, she said that our Sakura absorbed a piece of a soul from another. And I saw-," she gasped. "I saw that if the soul fragment is not taken out, someone will take that power by eating Sakura's eyes!"
Sakura woke up to darkness. Did she oversleep again from exhaustion? When Syaoran dropped her home with a kiss on the cheek after their wonderful date (that was only marred by her brother's surprising appearance as their waiter), she got ready to go to sleep, goodnight to her mother (her father was working late at the university) and fell instantly to sleep once she lay in her bed.
Or did she merely dream the date?
No, the toy bear he had given her on their date sat next to Kero, the wing animal toy she was given by Maki on her birthday. The chronometer next to her bed said that she was only asleep for a couple of hours only, but why was she wide awake?
Sakura felt a shock.
Where was her brother? Normally when she had a nightmare or if anything was wrong, he would come; she'd never have to call him. That's right. He mentioned that his shift would end late.
She experienced the jolt again.
Sakura bundled herself under her covers. What could she do? Maybe her mother would let her sleep with her tonight. Her father was working late at the university again.
She got out of bed and tiptoed down the corridor to her parents' room. She knocked on the door and shocked by the energy wave, burst into the room with an apology.
But her mother wasn't in bed. As far as she knew, Sakura was alone in the house with some strong foreign presence in the house.
There was that sensation again. Sakura pulled on her the star gem on her necklace, breaking the seal that contained an emergency stash of magical power. It extended her staff past its normal length and formed a large five point star with an extra-long top point on one end. It resembled a halberd more than a staff now.
In her panic, she accidentally forgot that she can now extend the staff using her own magic.
She tiptoed down stairs passing by the chalkboard where the family members would write down where they went. It looked like her brother and father both were still at work and her mother had gone to the Tomoyo's place.
Why now? The pulse was a tremor now. She would check it out herself. If it was an intruder, she would call for the law enforcement.
She remembered that her pocket chronophone was left on her bedside table, but there was a telephone downstairs.
She turned on the lights as she descended the stairs, but the corners where the light didn't reach only made her more jumpy.
Sakura wiped away the tears. What did Syaoran always tell her? Nothing will come from crying. Think.
She closed her eyes trying to pinpoint the source of the presence. Now that she was calmer, she realized that the pulses seemed somewhat familiar. It was strongest from her father's library.
Sakura entered the room, and then carefully meandered through the shelves trying to distinguish the source from the other magical books. She felt the shockwave again and charged into the aisle. No one was there.
She turned around slowly searching for the source. A book on a shelf glowed. She approached it cautiously with her staff-halberd ready and reached for it with an outstretched hand. The pulsing stopped and the glow disappeared.
Curious, Sakura tucked her staff under her arm and pulled the book from the shelf. It was a plain book with a white feather with red markings on the cover under a sheet of glass.
She traced the feather with her fingers and the book's clasp opened. A surge of power radiated from the book, cracking the glass. Sakura dropped the book. It was hard to see beyond the wind and light, but she saw and felt the feather dissolve into her chest before her mind faded into darkness.
Author's Notes:
- Hey, thank you all for sticking with the story even until now. There's only two more chapters, so if you have any questions about what has happened anywhere in the story or noticed something, let me know!
- I think that this would be a good point to acknowledge some other stories that influenced this story since I was asked if I got the idea for "Walpurgis Night" from "Walpurgis Knights" the original name for the Death Eaters in Harry Potter Series. It's a good question. I actually got it from "Walpurgisnacht" the name of the head Witch in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, (which I think they got from the actual Germanic holiday just before May day which, according to Wikipedia, was when witches would meet on Brocken Mountain in the Harz mountain ranges, which I accidentally mispelled). But if it counts, I'll admit that I chose the type of trees I named in the story with the help of the Harry Potter Wikia based on the wand wood properties. Madoka also this trippy concept of fate which clarified CLAMP's concept of hitsuzen or inevitability for me. I also aimed to structure this story in 12-13 parts like Madoka and other quality works such as the Legend of Korra, Green Lantern: the Animated Series. Other non CLAMP stories that influenced this story include the His Dark Materials book series for Philip Pullman's approach to a multiverse, and the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus Series for the way Rick Riordan twists the Greek and Roman mythology into episodic events that linked together in an overarching story. And I really liked how there was a sense that the minor characters were going through their own arcs behind the scenes instead of being static background characters. I'd highly recommend any of the above works.
