Author's notes: It's pure coincidence that this chapter comes within a day of Christmas. It's not even that great of a chapter... Well, anyway, here's chapter 13. Wow, 13, an unlucky number. Hopefully that won't reflect in the chapter. Anyway, I just hope that this chapter makes it a little more clear who the guy at the end of the last chapter was.
There's also a cool new feature on the site: forums. I think it would be pretty neat to have a forum for this story. It would be a place where the readers could talk about advancements in the story, and also ask me questions. So, if enough reviewers say that they would like to see a forum set up for the this story, I'll go and do that, but I don't want it to be a waste of time. Just be sure to think about it and make sure that you'd actually post in it before you say you'd like to see one. I'm glad to create a forum, but if a grand total of two people (including myself) are the only people that post, then I'd rather not.
A forum would also mean I wouldn't have to put so much drabble here.
Thanks to Chibi Ame, nb, youkaigirl, KawaiiQuerida-chan and queen of darkness for reviewing!
Disclaimer: don't own Card Captor Sakura or Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon.
Chapter 13"A fever?"
"Yes, that's what they said," Ami replied. "At least this lessens the amount of possible poisons that could have caused this."
"Yeah," Minako said absently, staring out the window.
"Did you want to get up and go anywhere? I'll help," Ami offered. Minako smiled at her and shook her head.
"No, that's okay Ami-chan. I don't need any help," she said, turning back to the window. She sighed and pulled at the collar of her uniform.
"Hello Mina-chan!" Yasuto sang happily as he walked into the room.
"Hi Yasuto-kun," Minako replied, smiling up at him. Ami blatantly ignored him and started going through her bag.
"Is Yojiro-san still sick?" Minako asked, trying to take her own attention off of her own useless leg and the heat that seemed to be filling the room.
"Huh?" Yasuto looked confused for a moment. "Oh, yeah, he is."
"That's too bad," Minako said with a sigh as she began to fan herself with her hand. Ami gave her a suspicious look out of the corner of her eye. "I hope he gets better soon."
"Yeah. I haven't seen him come out of his room for a while," Yasuto said, almost nervously.
"It's getting really hot in here..." Minako said, fanning with both hands now. Ami and Yasuto both watched her worriedly.
"Minako-chan, are you okay?" Ami asked.
"I'm fine," Minako said, "it's just..." Her voice became faint and she trailed off. "So hot..." She passed out and her two companions immediately moved toward her in panic.
"Mina-chan!" Yasuto exclaimed, taking hold of her shoulders. Her eyelids flickered open for a moment, as her breathing became heavy.
Ami frowned and stared down at her friend. Minako was just the last of all of the others that had fallen into the clutches of an aggressive fever. Only she and Michiru remained to help them all.
"We've got to get her home," Yasuto said as he picked up Minako almost effortlessly. Ami nodded and they set off.
/MoOn/
/AnD/
/StArS/
"Chiharu-chan!" Sakura called as he ran down the steps of their school. Chiharu yelped and jumped to cling on to Takashi's arm, who tried to calm her down.
"Sorry Chiharu-chan," Sakura said. Her friends were still slightly jumpy from their trip to the haunted house, but she kept forgetting.
"It's okay Sakura-chan," Chiharu replied, blushing. She let go of Takashi and smiled.
"So, are you guys walking today?"
"Yes," Chiharu said cautiously, "but we're going to Takashi's," she told Sakura as her blush grew. Sakura sighed. Takashi's house was in the opposite direction than her house. "Sorry."
"That's okay, I'll just go ask Tomoyo-chan," Sakura replied happily. She turned and walked away from them to find Tomoyo.
The girl was coming out of the school, chatting with Naoko and Rika excitedly. Sakura smiled and ran up to them.
"Hey, what are you talking about?" she asked. Tomoyo giggled and looked up at her.
"Chiharu-chan's birthday is at the end of the month!" the starry-eyed girl replied. "We were talking about giving her a surprise party, but Takashi said that he was going to take her out on a date that night!"
Sakura giggled as Tomoyo sang 'kawaii!' over and over.
"That's not exactly what he said," Naoko corrected good-naturedly. "He said that he had something else planned."
"You know what he meant," Tomoyo said. "So kawaii!"
Rika suddenly gasped. "Oh, I forgot. I've got to go do something for Terada-sensei."
"See you tomorrow, Rika-chan!" Sakura said as Rika turned to go back into the school. Rika waved as she disappeared through the doors.
"There's my car. By you two!" Naoko said.
"Bye!" Tomoyo and Sakura called in unison.
"Do you want a drive home, Sakura-chan?" Tomoyo asked, smiling.
Sakura returned the smile. "Sure!"
They made their way to where Tomoyo's limousine waited and got in.
"Sakura-chan? Is there something wrong?" Tomoyo asked. Her grin still stretched from ear to ear, she was still thinking about how cute Chiharu and Takashi were together.
Sakura sighed. "It's just that... I haven't heard from them in a long time," she said worriedly.
Tomoyo smiled knowingly. "Sakura-chan, I'm sure that they're just wrapped up in their own affairs," she said. "Besides, wouldn't you sense something if there was an attack?"
"Well, I don't know..." Sakura mumbled.
"Oh Sakura-chan, don't be so unsure of yourse-," Tomoyo started reassuringly. She was cut off as Sakura gasped and froze. "What is it?"
"I could have sworn..." Sakura said quietly before shaking her head. "It's impossible."
Tomoyo didn't question further, she knew that Sakura would only brush it off. "Well, here's your house, Sakura-chan, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Goodbye, Tomoyo-chan," Sakura said, smiling. She got out of the car and walked up to her house, forgetting completely about sensing anything.
/MoOn/
/AnD/
/StArS/
"Will you be going back to school?"
"No, that would be a waste of time, and besides, staying home fits my purpose much better," the young man said, sitting in his armchair. Even if he had been away from it for a few years, he sat in it like he had been sitting in it for centuries.
"Your purpose..." the woman repeated. "Don't you think that a normal boy going to school like he should draws less attention than a few mysterious sounds coming from a creepy old mansion?"
"He's even afraid to go outside," a voice said from the couch.
"Stay out of it." The young man cast the catlike creature a slight glare before turning back to the woman. "It would be a waste of time," he said. "And I do not see reason for any 'mysterious sounds' to be coming from our house. Do you?"
The woman glanced at the small creature on the couch, and the look in its eyes told ehr that they both knew what it meant. The young man was giving them a warning, and he expected them both to be just as careful, if not even more careful than he already was.
/MoOn/
/AnD/
/StArS/
Ami rubbed her eyes tiredly as she walked through the halls. Usagi, Makoto and Minako were home with fevers, and she had been up most of the night trying to narrow the possibilities for the poison that was on the daggers.
The halls were starting to clear out. Everyone was going home for the end of the day, and as the door closed, Ami found that she was the last person in the hallway. It was no surprise, she was moving incredibly slowly. After going through endless documents on the Internet, and then working her brains out on schoolwork, her exhaustion was almost unbearable.
She sighed and leaned against her locker, closing her eyes as if she could have fallen asleep right there. Finally, she gathered enough strength to take her weight off of the locker and opened it. Suddenly, she was fully awake and shocked at what she saw.
There sitting on top of her perfectly stacked books was a glass bottle filled with a dark green liquid. There was a small piece of paper stuck to it and Ami picked it up to see what it said.
'50 ml will help your friends.' Ami gasped and put a hand to her mouth. She didn't bother packing her bag, she rushed out of the school, the bottle in her hand.
/MoOn/
/AnD/
/StArS/
Rei looked up as she heard a knock. Her grandfather was watching over her while she was sick, and she had go a couple galls from her friends, they were worried about her, but they were also reassuring her that Ami would find her a cure, she would find them all a cure.
She went to move, but her grandfather pushed her back down and went to get the door. Ami followed him when he came back in, and then he left them alone.
"Hello, Ami-chan," Rei said. She smiled weakly as she sat up. It took most of her energy, but she continued smiling.
"Rei-chan, please, lie back down," Ami said worriedly. Rei waved her off.
"I'm fine," she reassured her. She caught sight of the bottle in Ami's hand and gave her an inquisitive look.
"Someone put this in my locker," Ami said, "with this note."
Rei looked tiredly down at the piece of paper that Ami handed her, and her expression quickly changed into one of concern. "Who could've...?"
"I don't know, I left my locker unlocked all day," Ami said, shaking her head. "I just wish there was some way to know if it'll actually help us or make things worse."
"Well, there's really only one way to find out," Rei said, looking solemnly down at the bottle.
Ami stared at her for a moment before realizing what she meant. "Oh no, Rei-chan, you can't! It could make it worse! I should go do some kind of test on it to see what's in it!"
"Ami-chan, we don't know what the next stage of this poison could be," Rei replied. "I think we can afford to take chances at this point."
Ami agreed reluctantly. Most of the poisons she had found had another common symptom; death. "Fine, but I'm staying here until...something happens."
Rei nodded, she was nervous herself, but it made her anxious to wait any longer. She directed Ami to where she could find a measuring cup to assure that she drank only fifty milliliters of the green liquid.
"Wait! I don't think..." Ami said as Rei brought the cup to her lips. Rei smiled softly at her.
"Ami-chan, I'm doing this," Rei told her. Ami sighed and backed off, sitting beside Rei and watching her drink.
Rei fell asleep soon after. Ami sat and watched her. Throughout the whole ordeal, Ami had never felt that she had to worry about Rei, it was why she had chosen to come to Rei's when she found the bottle in her locker, but now she worried. Every so often, she would be on the verge of over-thinking the situation, but then she would look over to see that Rei was still breathing, and she would calm down for a while. After an hour or two, Rei's fever receded, and Ami knew that the antidote was doing its work when Rei moved her right arm to get more comfortable.
She let out a deep sigh of relief. She would sleep tonight.
/MoOn/
/AnD/
/StArS/
There were two tall figures in the distance, one closer than the other. The closer one seemed to be looking back at the other one, but they were both shrouded in fog and she couldn't make out either one of them. She called out to them, but in a moment, they were gone.
There was cement beneath her feet, and the next thing that she felt was a drop of water in her nose. More water came, and soon she was standing in a puddle, but all of that quickly disappeared to make way for a new image.
Her mother was there again. She reached for her; she would catch the older woman this time.
"Sakura-chan!"
Sakura awoke to Kero screaming at her to wake up. Letting out a loud groan, she turned over and pulled the covers up over her head.
Kero landed on the pillow beside her. "Sakura-chan, you were dreaming," he said. Sakura shifted away from him. "Sakura-chan, tell me about your dream, I know that you didn't last time."
"How?" Sakura asked.
"Nevermind that, tell me what happened in the dream," Kero said, giving her a serious look.
And so, Sakura explained about the two figures and the rain; until Kero seemed completely satisfied and let her go down to have breakfast, while attempting to analyze the story.
/MoOn/
/AnD/
/StArS/
Ami knocked on Minako's door, holding the bottle of dark green liquid in her hand.
"It's open, come in," came the weak reply from within. Ami opened the door and found Minako lying on her couch, looking ver sick.
"Usagi-chan called me and told me that..." Minako trailed off as though it was too much effort to finish the sentence.
Ami smiled as she filled the measuring cup that she had brought with her and gave it to Minako. "This stuff will make you feel a bit tired," she said as Minako drank it. Minako murmured a soft agreement, but at that moment, someone knocked on the door.
"I'll get it," Ami said, standing up. She made a quick dash to the kitchen to put the bottle on the counter and then went to open the door.
There, standing outside, were Hisano Yasuto and Hisano Yojiro, neither of who looked very surprised to see her answering Minako's door.
"Hello, Mizuno-san!" Yasuto said with his usual peppiness as he stepped in. "Mina-chan! I've come to see you!"
Ami heard Minako giggle before rolling her eyes and looking up at Yojiro. He looked very tired and worn out, but his usual manners were steadfast as he stood at the door, waiting to be let in. Ami didn't know what else to do, so she simply turned away, leaving the door open for him.
Yasuto was sitting on the edge of the couch and talking to Minako and the girl just smiled up at him, drifting off every once in a while. Ami suddenly remembered the bottle in the kitchen and went to put it in the refrigerator, if only to keep it away from prying eyes. As she closed the fridge, a voice behind her startled her and she jumped.
"Otoutu-kun said that Aino-san was very sick. I hope she gets better quickly."
Ami turned to look at him, and his worn look caught her off guard. "Yes, she's on the recovery," she said, watching him suspiciously. "I heard you were sick as well. What did you have?"
Yojiro looked slightly surprised by her question, and he paused before answering. "Just a case of the flu. Nothing too bad," he said. "I don't understand why you don't trust us Ami-san."
"I never said..." Ami trailed of shortly after her short protest. It sounded nicer, hearing her given name instead of 'Mizuno-san'. In his voice it sounded only natural.
"I'm sorry Mizuno-san, I shouldn't have been so impolite," Yojiro said. Ami sighed and nodded in acceptance.
"That's okay," she said, almost regretting her outburst.
"Mizuno-san, you have not answered my question," Yojiro said without hesitation. It almost sounded forceful.
Ami gave him a confused look. "I..." She had never figured out why it was that she didn't trust the Hisano brothers. "I don't know."
Yojiro smirked, a reaction that Ami did not expect. "I understand."
"Onii-san! We have to go!" Yasuto called. Yojiro smiled at Ami before turning to join his brother. Minako called her farewells from the couch, but Ami didn't bother. She had too much on her mind.
/MoOn/
/AnD/
/StArS/
And the plot thickens...
Okay, so, my theory for this poison stuff is that it makes it's way to your brain so that the fever can take effect. This would explain why Minako was the last, her dagger was the farthest away from her brain (her upper leg), and Haruka was first, because hers was the closest (her upper arm).
Oh, and after this chapter, you should be able to guess who the mystery dude and his female companion are without a problem. Some already know.
Don't forget to tell me in reviews whether you'd like to see a forum or not!
Word Count: 2,458