DM: Hey guys! Sorry that I haven't updated in a long time, but this chapter is really really long so I think that makes up for it. Thank you for your reviews!
Disclaimer: I don't own CCS.
Curses!
Arc One: Clow Land
Chapter Fifteen
What a Story
Clow land was unraveling.
The travelers watched as the generic landscape they had been traveling vanished behind them and took on a gray formlessness that allowed them to see the real world.
"I feel like a ghost," Nakatsu said one day while they were walking towards a card. It was an extremely powerful card, because the area was really foggy and they kept bumping people who recoiled, not knowing who was there.
Ruu was sleeping in his little papoose and Syaoran was carrying the bag. Kero flew alongside Sakura, who was trying to use her key as a directional guide in the fog.
"Maybe we are real, but all these other people are ghosts," Syaoran said, smirking at the stiffness of Sakura's back at those words.
"M-maybe," she said in a very high-pitched voice. Kero shot Syaoran a dirty look.
"Here it is," Sakura said. She still hadn't looked at Syaoran, who was slightly miffed. For some reason, he liked to tease her to provoke her, to get her attention.
They had come to a gigantic cherry blossom tree. They couldn't tell if it was in the real world or not, because everything around it was just shapeless gray.
"Which card is it, guys?' Nakatsu asked, looking puzzled, "Sakura already has Woody."
Kero nodded and Sakura reached out a hand to touch the tree.
"Don't!" Syaoran said suddenly, grabbing her hand and pulling it back. She looked confused. Syaoran shook his head.
"I have a bad feeling about this tree. Don't touch it, or something bad might happen to you and I…" he trailed off, not sure what to say next, his hand still gripping hers tightly.
Sakura smiled and squeezed his hand back. They looked into each other's eyes.
"Don't worry, Syaoran. I will be all right. I have to do this so that you and I can be normal again, and so that we can all go home," Sakura said resolutely. She dropped his hand and stepped towards the tree to place her hand on it.
Her hand passed through the tree, and the rest of her with it, and then she was gone. Inside the tree.
At that moment, Clow land decided to eject everyone out.
First, Ruu disappeared, then Nakatsu. The gray covered them and then POOF, just like all the other random friends they made, they were gone. The question was where.
"Apparently, Sakura doesn't need us anymore…" Syaoran said softly as the gray surrounded him, Kero and the tree as well.
When Tomoyo arrived at the Chinese high school in Hong Kong, she was extremely tired and irritable. This was mostly due to the fact that the night before had been spent tracking Sakura down only to find she'd run off to Egypt with some guy, and transferring schools along with her for her sake.
Sakura would never understand why Tomoyo went to such great trouble for her, and that was fine with Tomoyo. Now some boy had decided to take her away and they had left her here to clean up the mess with the professors etc, etc.
Nothing would have improved her mood except the immediate and expeditious return of Sakura. Tomoyo sighed, not really wanting to think about it anymore.
Tomoyo arrived at the Chinese high school in Hong Kong approximately one hour earlier than necessary in order to check in properly with the office and all that other stuff. However, she was crippled by a terrible sense of direction and could not find the office.
After wandering around in the hallways with the same cheap linoleum floors as in her old high school, Tomoyo heard voices.
Intriguing.
Perhaps this was the way to the office.
Tomoyo quickened her pace and came upon a corner. The vague voices seemed to be whispering around it. She poked her head around and immediately hid back behind the first wall.
A couple was locked in a passionate kiss in a little corridor branching from the main hallway. Disgusted yet further intrigued, Tomoyo peeked once again.
The couple hadn't noticed her. The boy had blue hair and glasses that were awkwardly (and painfully) pressed up against his face by the woman. She was a little taller than him and had long brown hair. Tomoyo was about to turn away and walk in the other direction, assuming that it was merely two teachers, but then noted with some alarm that the boy was wearing a school uniform and the woman wasn't.
Tomoyo felt as though she was going to gag. She could sort of understand why a man would demean himself and enter a romantic relationship with a female student, because in her mind men were creatures that lived off sex.
That a woman would allow herself to be used in such a way was completely ridiculous.
She then looked at her watch and noticed that she had only a half hour left and that people were coming down the hallway. When she looked up again, the teacher and the boy were walking nonchalantly together down the main hall in front of her, amidst the arriving students.
"Thanks so much, Ms. Mizuki. I understand logarithms a lot better now," the blue haired guy said smugly. He looked over his shoulder and saw Tomoyo staring at him, appalled. He smirked and winked.
Tomoyo sighed and asked a student passing by where the main office was. The boy looked very happy at being spoken to by a pretty girl and even walked her there himself.
"Hello," she said softly to the busy receptionist, "I'm here to register for this school. I'm Tomoyo Daidouji and I just transferred here from Japan."
Her Chinese was pretty much fluent since her mother had had her tutored in seven different languages. Why? Because she felt like it.
As the mundane paperwork was taken care of, Tomoyo looked around the walls of the neat, clean office. A large poster caught her eye that had, in big bold writing: "STUDENT-TEACHER RELATIONSHIPS WILL RESULT IN EXPULSION OF BOTH PARTIES INVOLVED. NO EXCEPTIONS" across the top.
Nice. Tomoyo decided to keep her mouth shut about what she had seen earlier for the time being.
There were other posters as well, no smoking, no leaving campus in the middle of the day without permission, etc, etc. She sighed.
This was the start of the newest phase of her life.
Sakura was not quite sure where she was or how she got there. She was in what looked like an apartment. Outside was the hustle and bustle of the Egyptian marketplace from which she had begun her journey.
"Hello?" she said cautiously, "Is anyone home?"
She heard a rustling of robes as a tall man with dark hair in a braid entered the room.
"Ah," he said, just noticing Sakura, "You're a little early. You weren't supposed to find me this quickly…" he trailed off and began pacing in front of her.
"Uh, sir?" Sakura asked, confused. The man stopped pacing and took her hand.
"I'm sorry, how very rude of me. Let me introduce myself. I am Clow Reed," he said smiling, "And you are Sakura Kinomoto, who will inherit my cards."
Sakura gulped. This was quite a surprise.
"I'm sure you have lots of questions," he said, leading her into a sitting room, "so let's begin."
"How did I get here? Where is here? I thought you were dead, sir," Sakura blurted out all at once.
"Take it easy. You are in the past in Egypt. You got here by using the Return card, most likely. I am indeed dead, but not yet," he said all this with a warm smile.
"Clow land is unraveling, Mr. Clow, and there's nothing I can do. I failed you," she said softly.
"Now now," he said gently, taking her hand in a fatherly sort of gesture, "You haven't failed at all. I knew all along that I didn't make that dimension sturdy enough. I needed to allow travel between the two worlds to help you on your journey. I trust you met some interesting characters."
Sakura nodded. Out of nowhere, teacups and a teapot materialized in front of them, and Clow began pouring tea. As Sakura thought carefully about her next question, she glanced around at her surroundings. The walls were stucco and whitewashed, but hung with many red and gold tapestries. She was sitting on an ottoman, while he was in a large armchair of reddish brown leather. The room smelled of incense and was filled with little gold gizmos and what looked like archaeology equipment.
"If I was your Chosen One, why did you curse me and Syaoran?" she asked, getting a little annoyed at the memory.
"Hm? I don't know who this Syaoran is. Did you like my curse? Clever, wasn't it?" Clow asked, smiling.
Sakura was confused. Syaoran was part of the curse, too.
"To answer your question as to why, several things in Clow land would require male strength, so I figured, why not make it so that she turns into a boy when splashed with cold water, and turn back into a girl with hot water? Great idea, huh?" Clow said. Sakura paused.
"But that's not what happened," she said softly, tilting her head to one side. Clow's smile faltered.
"The curse from your fountain made it so that I switch bodies with Syaoran whenever one of us gets mad…" she continued, looking down. Clow laughed.
"Well that's not so bad, is it? It could have been much worse, what with pollution and things nowadays," he said, brushing it off lightly. Sakura's eyebrow twitched.
"But how do we return to normal?" she asked, getting irritated with his nonchalant manner.
"Oh I have no idea," he said cheerily, "I suppose you'll have to ask the other me for that. I set up some clever tricks for people who fall into that fountain to help them find him."
Sakura could not ask what he meant by that because the room began to go gray like Clow land.
"Ah, time's up I guess. You should seal the card now, Sakura. Don't worry, you're doing a great job, and I'm sure you'll catch the rest of the cards," he said, waving at her.
Sakura released her wand and raised it to strike the gray matter around her. Clow's apartment had disappeared.
"Return to the form you were destined to be in, Clow card!" she shouted. The Return formed itself in ribbons of smoke in front of her. Then everything went black.
Sakura had yet to return from Egypt with Syaoran, so Tomoyo had to deal with her first day of school on her own. Things were pretty bad, to be honest.
Firstly, she had found that the teacher she had seen that morning was her homeroom teacher, and the boy her classmate. Nice.
When she got up to introduce herself, the blue haired boy was making kissy faces in her direction, though she knew very well to whom they were directed. She ended up having to sit next to him, and learned that his name was Eriol Hiiragizawa.
Eriol gave a sideways glance at the new girl in school seated next to him. He recognized her to be Sakura's friend, but did not understand why she would transfer and follow her friend all the way to Hong Kong.
Sakura had had to transfer because she and Syaoran couldn't be separated, and besides, as Eriol knew very well, Clow cards would be waiting for them here.
He didn't like this girl at all. He could sense an interfering, overprotective nature in her that repelled him instantly. She was going to mess up his plans as the reincarnation of Clow Reed. He had to make sure that she was separated from Sakura and Syaoran as much as possible when they returned from Clow land, which would be in approximately seventeen more hours. They would have only been gone for two days, real world time, but with several months of magical experience under their belts.
The girl noticed him looking and looked back with equal hostility. The way her eyes slid to the teacher and back to him again confirmed his suspicions. Her look told him this: "I know what you do. I know that you're a bad person, a dirty person and that you will be expelled."
However, Eriol was not worried at all, and used his magic to open a window and make the wind blow Kaho Mizuki's skirt up a little. He smirked and looked at her frankly while the rest of the class blushed with embarrassment.
Tomoyo looked disgusted.
Sakura woke up back on the bed in Egypt, with Syaoran's face just above hers. He jerked back quickly as she opened her eyes and smiled at her, attempting to be casual.
"Good, you're awake. You should sign your name on that card," he said, turning to prod Kero and wake him up as well.
After Sakura had gone inside the tree Syaoran appeared back in the hotel room with Kero next to him. He looked around, and it appeared that they were back to the exact time that they had left, only Syaoran looked like he had been living outdoors for several months. Had he always been this tall? She wondered. Her eyes scanned over his now-tanned face. He seemed different…what was it?
Sakura had appeared a moment later, clutching the Return card in her right hand and sound asleep. Syaoran had watched her for the hour it took to get her awake.
"Where are we?" she asked, sitting up and looking around. It was a white stucco room like Clow's, but drawings hung on the walls and there was a TV in front of the bed. Syaoran was sitting at a little table. He handed her a pen and she set to signing the card. Kero snored loudly.
"We came back to just before we left," Syaoran said, looking away because he'd realized for the first time that Sakura's clothes were so torn that they had become very revealing. A warm blush spread across his nose from cheek to cheek.
"When your mom gets back, we should probably go home. We need to start school," Sakura said, poking Kero stiffly with the pen. At last he woke up.
"Oh, Sakura, did you get the card?" he asked, flying up to her and then noticing that they were not in Clow land anymore.
"I did. It seems Clow land is gone," she said.
"So this is the real world, eh?" Kero said, strutting about on the table, "cute. I like it."
Sakura laughed and Syaoran rolled his eyes.
"Kero, how many cards are left?" Sakura asked, her laugh dying in her throat as she realized that, without Clow land to contain them, the cards could be anywhere.
"There are sixteen left," he said, examining the embroidery on a pillow, "And don't worry, they'll go to wherever the magic is the strongest, and right now, it's Hong Kong."
At that moment they heard the key click in the room as Syaoran's mother came in. Sakura whispered for Kero to pretend to be a plushy, which he did immediately.
"Sorry, kids, I—Syaoran! I'm gone for five minutes and the two of you are a mess!" she shouted.
Sakura and Syaoran looked at each other and sighed.
As Yelan carried on for a bit, Sakura looked down at herself. She too sported a deep tan. She felt her calves…were they always so hard and muscular? She was athletic, but…
Syaoran watched her, also ignoring his mother's lecture. He felt a strange twinge of disappointment that they were no longer alone, yet at the same time he was relieved that she had made it safely. She had really given him a scare…
Yelan left the room in a huff, realizing that no one was listening to her. Sakura sat back down on the bed. It felt like it had been ages since she last slept in a proper bed. She clenched a fist.
There were still so many cards left.
DM: Whew, that was super long! I hope that that filled in some of the blanks and stuff. If you found something confusing about this chapter, please ask me and I will edit this chapter until it is perfect. Think of it as a season one finale type of thing. Please review!