Disclaimer: See Chapitre 1
Notes: Italics are used for flashbacks
Chapitre 3: The First Feather of Memory
"How long do you think they'll be out," a soft voice whispered over me.
No one responded at first and then I felt a soft, plushy object land on my chest, "Mokona will do the wakey-wakey dance!"
Sighing, I slowly opened my eyes and sat up; the white manju-bun looking thing tumbling off of my chest. My eyes drifted around the sparsely furnished room and the occupants there in. It was the same group as before: the blonde haired "wizard," the black ninja, and the white stuffed animal…thing were all awake and stretched out on the floor. In a small corner of the room the boy in the green tattered cloak lay unconscious and his princess was held tightly in his arms. I stood up and stretched; still adapting myself back to the good ole' automail arm and leg I had acquired, "How long have I been out?"
"Only a few minutes…when we landed you and the other boy bumped your heads pretty hard on the ground so we carried your head," the wizard explained.
"What do you mean we," the ninja growled in response from his corner.
I rubbed my head, now that he had mentioned it, it did kind of sting…of course thanks to sensei I was used to head trauma.
"IT LOOKS LIKE PUU," the stuffed animal exclaimed from near the other members of our group.
We turned to see the boy's eyes opening and the wizard lifted a weeping Mokona off of him, "Oh! It looks like he's up,"
Suddenly he shot up, his eyes wide with panic, "SAKURA!" He stopped when he realized the girl was safe in his arms.
"It's alright…she's safe," I reassured him.
The boy shared a small smile with me and the wizard continued to speak, "We tried to dry her off. She got pretty wet in the rain. Even while you slept you wouldn't let the girl go. So you…err…" he paused, searching for a name.
"Call me Syaoran," the boy replied calmly.
"My name is pretty long. You can just call me Fai," the blonde haired man said with a Cheshire grin.
I pushed some of my long bangs back with my automail hand, I really should have brought my gloves with me…but it was too late for that now, "Edward Elric."
Fai winked at me and then turned to the ninja who was brooding in the back, "And…Mr. Black over there. What'll we call you?"
The ninja clenched his fists in anger, "I am NOT Mr. Black! I am Kurogane!"
"Kurogane, huh? So what works? Kuro-chan? Kurorin?" Fai asked in a casual tone.
I drifted away from my two older companion's banter and turned my attention back to Syaoran and his girl companion. He had to be close to my age and I could tell by looking at his eyes that he had seen his own share of hardships. He brushed a hand over her face and frowned.
"What's wrong," I asked, crawling over.
"Her body…it's as cold as ice," he responded.
I scowled, knowing what this might mean, "We need to warm her body…too bad we don't have any hot water at the moment."
Suddenly Fai appeared next to Syaoran and wrapped an arm around him in an embrace. Syaoran jumped in surprise and Kurogane raised an eyebrow, "What do you think you're doing!"
Fai drew his hand back and in it was a large white feather, "Is this what a piece of memory looks like for this child," he asked.
The feather he held, as I said, was snow white and it bore a pink design reminiscent of a heart. It seemed to twinkle like a small star against his black gloves. Syaoran's eyes widened in shock at the sight of it; recognizing it for what it was, "Eh?"
"It was stuck to you. Only one, though," Fai said, gently twirling the feather in his hand.
"How'd that happen," I asked, the feather was so small…Syaoran couldn't have possibly snatched it out of thin air.
"It must have been when the Princess's wings burst apart and the feathers initially flew away," Syaoran muttered, "This is one piece of Sakura's memories!" He held her closer to him and a smile graced his face, "Her body is a little warmer now."
I sighed, "Only one and you say there was a whole wing span full?" I ruffled my hair in agitation, "This is going to be worse than searching for the Philosopher's stone!"
"However if he hadn't had that one it would have been a bigger problem," Fai replied with a laugh.
Syaoran nodded, "By coincidence, one stuck to my clothes."
Fai shook his head, "There is no coincidence in the world. That's what the witch said, wasn't it? My guess is that without thinking, you grabbed it yourself."
"Or it could have just stuck to his cloak…I really doubt he could have just reached out and grabbed it like that," I protested.
Fai chuckled, "You'd be surprised what you do on pure instinct. He did it in order to save the girl"
An image flashed through my mind…an image from the time I lost Al for the first time…
The armor fell to the floor with a large clang and it splashed in the pool of blood that was forming around me. Through tears of immense pain I somehow drew a circle into the cold metal. Without thinking I traced similar circles on my arms and forehead all the while crying Al's name. All I could see was the blood and the metal. I clapped my hands and the darkness took me back to—
The image pulsed and disappeared from my memory…what happened next was gone and I couldn't, no matter what I thought, bring it back. 'Damn that woman,' I thought.
"That feather gave out really big waves! So when a feather is close, Mokona will feel the big waves!" Mokona exclaimed merrily, interrupting my thoughts. I looked up in time to see Mokona's slanted eyes pop open to reveal large purple eyes as she bounced around, "And Mokona will be like THIS!"
The blonde wizard laughed again and caught Mokona in his arms, "Well, it looks like we have a way. If we get close, Mokona will let us know."
Syaoran leaned towards Mokona, "Would you do that? Tell us when we're near a feather?"
Mokona saluted, "Leave it to me!"
"Thank you."
"Search or don't search. That's up to you," Kurogane interjected. We turned to him, I, for one, had forgotten he was there, "It's got nothing to do with me! I'm here to get to my own world. That's the only reason I'm here. Don't expect me to stick my neck out for you. Don't expect me to help you. I won't do it!"
'What an ass,' I thought, glancing at Syaoran to see his reaction.
"Right. That is my mission here. I'll do my best not to cause you any trouble," Syaoran said with a slight bow of his head.
The room was silent for a moment and the silence was broken by Fai laughing merrily, "Syaoran, you are so serious!"
"Well? What about you?" Kurogane growled.
"Mm," Fai asked, looking up.
"Are you going to help the brat out?"
"I suppose so. My most important mission is to not return to my world. So…if it doesn't threaten my life…sure I'll help out," he paused and chuckled, "I've got nothing better to do."
I opened my mouth to tell Syaoran I would help him as much as I could when the door opened and a man with choppy black hair and a woman with long black hair walked into the room. The man wore a black shirt with a bright yellow over-shirt open over it. His pants were blue and made of a material I had never seen but it looked rather comfy, "YO!" the man greeted, balancing a bowl of fruit in his hand.
The woman entered silently behind him. She wore a black skirt with a long, sleeved white shirt. Her eyes were cold and brown…she seemed the absolute, exact opposite of the man who was walking happily towards us.
"So you're all awake now," he said, slipping his shoes off. He noticed the tense expression on all of our features and smiled good-naturedly, "Hey! No need to get all tense! You came from Yuko-san, right?"
Syaoran blinked, "Yuko-san?"
The man nodded, "You know, The Girl Witch. The Dimension Witch…The Far East Witch…she has a lot of names."
The woman interrupted the man's ramblings with a soft smile; she knelt down to Syaoran and gave him a blanket, "Here."
Syaoran smiled, "Oh! Thank you." While the two cared for Sakura I turned my attention back to the man"
"I'm Sorata Arisugawa."
"I'm Arashi," the woman whispered.
The man grinned happily and I sighed; I recognized that face. That was the face Lt. Col...I mean Brigadier General Hughes used to make whenever he was about to start bragging about Elysia and whipping out pictures from God knows where. "I call her my Honey. Just to let you know, she's my wife and the woman I love. Just make sure you've burned that into your hearts," he said.
I sighed, 'Yep…another Hughes.'
Suddenly the man turned to Kurogane and, with a broad smile said, "By which I mean that if you lay a finger on her you'll die horribly."
Kurogane twitched, "WHY DO YOU SAY THAT ONLY TO ME?"
Sorata ignored him and danced away with the bowl. Suddenly he whipped around and gave Kurogane a thumb up, "But I wasn't kidding."
"I WON'T TOUCH HER!"
"Now," Sorata began after we had all settled down…well Kurogane had finally stopped fuming. "I figured you went to the witch lady and got this," he said, picking up Mokona, "from her to get here right?"
"Mokona Modoki," Mokona cheered, introducing herself.
"That's a long name, is it okay if I just say Mokona," Sorata asked.
"Sure, okay!"
"Can we just get on with this," I asked, slightly annoyed.
"Right. So I heard the whole story from the blonde guy. Mr. Black over there is too mean to ask."
"Shut up," Kurogane growled.
Sorata ignored him, "Anyway, Gentlemen…this is your lucky day."
"In what way," I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Mokona has no idea which is the next world, right? So…it's a happy7 chance that brought you to this world first of all," he explained as he walked over to a window. "Because this," he slid the window open and a huge city made of steel and glass stretched before us. It was huge…bigger than any city I'd seen in Europe or Amestris.
"…is the Hanshin Republic!"
Author's Note: Shorter than most...I know...I've been UBER busy...and I didn't know how to start it. You'd think inserting someone into a story would be easy...but it's hard to change it around him you know. Please forgive any grammatical/spelling errors...I have a headache and am very very busy...but I love you guys so I know you'll understand!
Anyways I hope you all enjoyed this chapter...next chapter should hold a bit more interaction between Syaoran and Edward! Ta and Review!