DM: Hey guys, sorry I haven't updated in a while. I have to get my early apps in order. Here is the latest installment of Curses!
Disclaimer: I don't own CCS.
Curses!
Arc One: Clow Land
Chapter Eight
I'm Not Useless!
"Return to the form you were meant to be in, Clow Card!" Sakura shouted.
The Sand twisted and writhed to form the small card in her hand. Sakura fell to her knees on the hot earth, and felt…itchy?
"Wow…" James whispered.
The entire expanse of the desert was now a rolling plain of long grass. A little stream ran through it, even. The hot wind had lessened to a light breeze, and clouds rolled in from the south.
"Who knew?" Kero shrugged.
"Mommy…" James whimpered, looking downcast. Nicole took his hand.
"I'll stay with you," she said smiling.
"But wait, we can't take another kid with us on our quest!" Kero shouted.
"It's ok. You guys can have my bag. James and I will look for a way to get out of here."
She smiled. Sakura looked sad. Syaoran said nothing.
"It was great to meet you, Nicole!" Sakura said earnestly. She took Nicole by the hand and blinked tears out of her eyes.
"I'm sure we'll meet again! Good luck! Oh and Syaoran—"
Puzzled, Sakura and Kero watched as Nicole whispered something in Syaoran's ear. He looked nonplussed.
"Bye guys! Thank you!" James said, waving.
And just like that, they were gone.
"Oh, how awkward…" Sakura said to herself, letting the awkward yet comfortable silence engulf them. It was just her and Syaoran all by themselves…both staring at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing in the world, desperate to avoid the other's gaze.
"I'm here too, ya know!" Kero shouted, getting up in her face and successfully shattering the intimate atmosphere. Strangely, Sakura and Syaoran found themselves irritated by his presence.
"Oh, sorry, sorry…" Sakura said as she snapped out of her dazed state of mind.
"Well you should be!" Kero said righteously, "Ignoring the great guardi—"
As the two fought Syaoran stared off into the distance.
"Don't be afraid to go after what you want…"
"What did she mean by that?" he asked himself aloud.
Sakura and Kero stopped bickering and came over.
"Oh yea, so what did she say, Li?" Sakura asked mischievously.
"Yea, useless kid, what'd she say?" Kero repeated.
I want to go home…what else do I want? He puzzled to himself. He felt a twinge of irritation as he realized what she was probably implying.
He turned around and walked away from them. They followed him for a bit as he picked up Nicole's infinite bag and walked towards the setting sun. Suddenly, Sakura fell, clutching her leg.
"Ow…"
In the blink of an eye Syaoran had turned around and knelt at her side.
"You're bleeding. You idiot, why didn't you tell me sooner?" he asked, examining the large cut on her knee.
"Yo, useless kid! Try not to infect her with your uselessness! You're such a burden—"
Syaoran shut him up by throwing a handkerchief on him. Kero struggled desperately to stay in flight.
"Go wet that in the stream, you stupid stuffed animal!" Syaoran half yelled. He then tried to calm down so that he and Sakura would not switch bodies.
Kero flew off, dragging the kerchief behind him, whining about how unfair life was to him, the great guardian beast of Clow Land.
"I'm really ok, Li, it's not a big deal…"
"It is a big deal, everyone is depending on you to save Clow Land," he said simply as he narrowed his eyes in Kero's direction.
"It's no good, he's getting it all dirty…" he muttered and then began to take his shirt off.
"H-hey, what are you doing?" Sakura asked, scooting nervously away.
"Take it easy, pervert girl. You need a compress," he stated calmly, tying it around her knee and pressing on it.
Sakura felt a wonderful swooping sensation in her stomach, seeing him like that. Shirtless, a little sweaty, with his toned abs and firm chest and a very determined look in his eyes…he looked absolutely stunning and her breath caught in her throat as she thought about touching him like she did in Egypt. She reached out a hand, wanting desperately to feel his smooth skin…
"May I help you, pervert girl?" he asked without looking up at her, smirking.
His voice snapped Sakura out of her, in fact, perverted fantasies and she blushed beet red.
"N-no… Y'know there's probably first aid stuff in the bag…" she said softly, averting her eyes and still blushing.
"But you like this, don't you?" he asked slyly, leaning forward towards her. She stared at him wide eyed and stammered an incoherent reply. His smile grew wider as he pinned her to the ground, all pain in her knee forgotten…
"Oi, you rapist! Get away from my Chosen!" Kero threw the sopping wet and mildly dirtied handkerchief, hitting Syaoran squarely in the face.
"Ugh, stupid stuffed animal…" Syaoran muttered, peeling it off. He sat back and Sakura sat up, breathing a sigh of relief.
Kero and Syaoran began to argue, yelling at each other about who was the more useless. Sakura clutched at her chest, shaking a little. Her heart was beating so fast…but why? She didn't really want him to continue, did she? Slowly, she removed his bloodied shirt from her knee and then gasped.
The cut on her knee was gone. It was as if it had never happened.
Immediately her heart began racing. What had just happened? Was she crazy? What was going on?
"For the last time, you stuffed animal, I'm not useless!" Syaoran shouted, and then felt the familiar dizzy feeling that meant he and Sakura had switched bodies.
"Oi…" Sakura said, rubbing her head. Syaoran's body sure was sweaty…
"Hey… Your knee is healed…" Syaoran said, bending over to look at his knee.
"Yea, I don't know what happened," Sakura said. Kero only stared.
"Ooooh I get it, you guys switched bodies!" with that, he started laughing.
"Kero, this isn't funny!" Sakura shouted in Syaoran's rough voice. This only caused him to laugh harder. She turned desperately to Syaoran, but he was lost in thought.
"This has happened once before," he said, his face completely serious, "I've healed you like this before."
Sakura's jaw dropped. Kero stopped laughing and stared hard at Syaoran, who was tapping his chin thoughtfully.
"Sakura looks cute doing that…" Kero said, smiling. Sakura and Syaoran both blushed for no apparent reason whatsoever.
"Still, how is it that I can heal your cuts? I thought I didn't have any magical power…" Syaoran said. Sakura looked irritated.
"Will you hurry up and apologize to Kero, or do you like being in my body, pervert?!"
Syaoran looked her up and down and smiled.
"I look so good."
Sakura sighed and then had a wonderfully brilliant idea. She proceeded to punch herself in the face.
"Woah woah woah! Watch it, that's my body you're dealing with!" Syaoran exclaimed rushing to stop her and causing her to barely glance her face.
"Geez, girl, you break it you buy it!" he shouted at her. She started laughing.
"Whatever…Sorry, stuffed animal."
With that, they both returned to their respective bodies. Kero appeared lost in thought.
"I see, so you're a healer, kid. Maybe you aren't useless after all," he said, stroking his round, yellow chin thoughtfully. Sakura and Syaoran looked nonplussed.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, looking a little irritated with Kero's mysterious choice of words.
"There are other types of magic, you know," Kero said, crossing his arms, "Not just Clow magic. And it looks like you have some of what's called 'Healing Magic.' This is very rare, powerful magic. I haven't met a healer since Clow was alive. What was his name again?" Kero trailed off, leaving our two heroes to ponder this new development.
From that day forward, Syaoran was in "Special Training to be a Healer for the Chosen".
Which meant, of course, that Sakura was left to herself while he and Kero practiced healing daily.
So,
She captured the pretty and spirited Flower as it attempted to bury her in her sleep with cherry blossoms (how ironic). Her dress was so big and billowy it whipped Syaoran in the face as she returned to her card form.
She captured the cloaked and mysterious Shadow lurking about in broad daylight.
The Silent teleported Kero and Syaoran away six times before they realized what was happening and saw the ninja-like woman with the finger over her lips.
The Sleep card didn't work on any of them, because they all had magic, and so the tiny fairy blew a raspberry at them, revealing its location.
The Rain card, which looked like a little kid driving a cloud, followed Sakura around for half an hour before she realized that it wasn't, in fact, just her imagination.
She captured the Power card by offering it food. It looked like a little girl who had been wandering for days.
The Fight, who seemed like a violent girl, almost killed her, but she gave it a good whack in the head, with the help of Power.
But after a week of Syaoran and Kero being off by themselves, Sakura came across a card that was a little harder to catch, the Sword Card.
It happened like this:
Sakura was innocently preparing miso soup for breakfast while Kero attempted to wake up Syaoran. They had set up camp in a small wooded area the night before, when it had drizzled a little. The sky was clear this morning, though.
"Time for morning calisthenics, kiddo!" Kero said cheerfully as he whipped off Syaoran's blankets.
"Eh?" Kero looked around, puzzled.
For Syaoran was not in his bed.
"Li! Where are you?" Sakura called, as she and Kero looked in the surrounding area for him.
Suddenly, he came swooping down at them from the branch of a tree. He wielded a large and ornate silver sword with winged handles and a red jewel at the cross that glowed. Evil was written all over him, but we all know how dense Sakura is, now don't we.
"There you are! Where have you—"
"—Sakura watch out!" Kero shouted. Sakura dove out of range as Syaoran made a huge thrust with his blade.
"Syaoran what are you doing?" she asked angrily, feeling quite shaken at Syaoran's sudden change of behavior. But they didn't switch bodies. What was going on?
"Sakura, he's possessed by the sword card!" Kero yelled, and without further ado, Sakura released the seal.
"I can't get him to stand still!" she exclaimed, using Jump to dodge yet another attack. The poor innocent tree behind her was hacked to pieces.
"You have to attack him!"
Sakura's heart skipped a beat. Attack Syaoran? She couldn't do that. She looked in his eyes, but they were devoid of any recognition.
"Sakura, you have to fight!"
Sakura cringed as the Sword clanged against a boulder.
"Sakura—"
"—No! I can't hurt him!" she screamed. Why was she behaving this way?
She dodged him yet again. How could she get him to stop?
"Syaoran, it's me!" Sakura yelped as he attacked again, "It's me, Sakura, pervert girl, whatever you wanna call me! Can't you see?" she cried hopelessly.
He hesitated for a fraction of a second, but then was on her again.
"I guess I have to…Loop! Trap Syaoran!" she shouted.
Syaoran could no longer move, struggle as he might.
"Return to the form you were destined to be in, Sword Card!"
With that, the Sword was captured, and Syaoran fell to the ground. Sakura rushed to his side.
"Syaoran! Syaoran, speak to me!" she cried, tears welling up in her eyes.
Kero spread out the cards on the ground while Sakura cradled Syaoran's head in her lap. The miso soup had long since boiled away to nothing.
"Syaoran…"
"What are you doing, pervert girl? I'm not interested in A cups." Syaoran's smug voice came out muffled, due to the fact that his head was pressed in her chest.
"You stupid idiot!" Sakura shouted, and then pushed his head off her lap, his face hitting the ground with a dull (and painful) thud. She ran off, but they strangely didn't switch bodies.
"Sakura, wait!" he shouted, but she was already a good ways away. "She's really fast…"
"Ah. Mirror, Jump, Windy, Loop, Fly, Twin, Create, Illusion, Sand, Flower, Shadow, Sleep, Silent, Power, Fight, Rain, and now Sword. Well done, Sa—"
He turned around to notice a distinct lack of Sakura in the vicinity. Syaoran shrugged.
"I don't know what she's so upset about," Syaoran muttered confusedly to himself.
Kero sighed.
Boys…Sakura thought angrily, How dense can you get?
DM: Slight cliff hanger there, sorry. Look how many cards she has now! Yay! Thanks for reading, please review and I'll try to update sooner next time!