A/N: Once again thank you to all those who reviewed and read this story. You guys inspire me to keep writing.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Card Captor Sakura and I most likely never will so this is as close as I'm ever gonna get to thinking that I can do what I want with the franchise.
Well, on with the story!
Syaoran walked the long pathway toward the ornate doors of the grand mansion before him. He couldn't help but grin a little as he remembered what brought him back here. Sakura had fervently attempted to persuade him to go make peace with his cousin for whatever it was he had done. So, here he was on his porch opening the door with the key in his pocket. He walked through the threshold, briefly wiping his feet on the mat behind the doorway, before making his way across the room to the kitchen. His shoes clicked against the salt and pepper tiles as he prepared himself a sandwich before moving to the dining room to eat it. His mother had always told him that he shouldn't eat in the kitchen and although he thought that rule was stupid, he was programmed to obey her even though she wasn't there.
"Welcome back Master Li, shall I inform the mistress of your return?" A silver haired man asked as Syaoran sat at the table with his sandwich.
"Thanks Wei." The younger man confirmed before biting into his ham and cheese. Wei bowed and exited the room returning only a few minutes after with a young woman with ruby red eyes and jet black hair partly held up in two buns. The woman sat to the right of Syaoran and watched as he ate the food.
As he was about to take another bite, she narrowed her eyes and said, "You need to stop."
Syaoran stopped in mid bite and responded, "I can't help it if I'm hungry Meiling."
"You know what I mean Syaoran," she said sternly, "Stop giving her clues, that's Eriol's job."
Syaoran placed the remaining piece of his sandwich on the plate infront of him and turned to face Meiling, "But it's so fun, plus at this rate she won't ever figure it out, and might I add that Eriol isn't doing his job either, he's involving another person to finish what he started." he said, staring meaningfully at Meiling.
The girl's eyes widened with realisation and she mumbled, "He didn't...no, this isn't supposed to happen yet. She's not supposed to... not until the next phase..."
Syaoran inhaled deeply before replying, "Eriol obviously wants to move things along. We have no choice right now but to adjust our actions to fit his. He has control for the moment and I know he won't stray from the original plan but we'll need to get back control as quickly as possible. Who knows what he'll do if he gets to her first."
"Hey Sakura-chan, where's your bathroom?" Tomoyo asked as they sat on the couch going through the articles and pictures from the robbery.
"Oh, it's just through that door." Sakura replied pointing to the teak door. Tomoyo made her way across the room and entered the smaller room, closing the door behind her. Sakura heard the telltale click that said the door was locked and slowly relaxed her tense shoulders. She hadn't even imagined what it would have been like to have a partner again, or if she did she never thought that she'd feel nervous. She had to constantly remind herself that this was Tomoyo not Shimura. Her jaw tightened at the thought of him, but untightened just as quickly. She will get her revenge some day, she was stronger now than back then.
Sakura shook her head to clear her mind and decided to stretch her legs a little by walking around the room, she and Tomoyo had been critiquing all the photos since lunch, it was now four o'clock. Namikawa had suggested, when she called, that she stayed out of the office and get to know her new partner but Sakura was finding that easier said than done. Sure, Tomoyo was a nice person and seemed really genuine but she couldn't shake the thought of her past near-death experience with her last partner.
As she walked, the phone rang and she sighed exasperatedly thinking it was Syaoran, he was the only person who had called her on her landline, except for the wrong number a week or so before. She picked up the receiver, held it to her ear and muttered a greeting. "Hello, Ms. Kinomoto, my name is Meiling Raye, I'm Syaoran's cousin, I'm sure he's told you about me." The voice on the other end said.
"Oh, hello Ms. Raye, how can I help you?" Sakura replied.
"I understand that my cousin was staying at your home for the short while that he was away and I called to inform you that it is impossible for him to return to his house at the moment. You see, his mother is suffering from a rare disease and is bed-ridden at her home in Hong Kong and Syaoran was sent to Japan to acquire the herb for her cure since it doesn't grow in China. However, when he came here he forgot completely about his poor mother, so my husband and I came to remind him of his mission, but his response was less than pleasing to me, so I kicked him out of the house because of his attitude to the whole situation until he found that life-saving plant." The girl explained, taking great lengths to fully describe her feelings at each point in the story. Sakura was shocked to hear that Syaoran would ever neglect his mother, but was even more shocked that he never even mentioned her. She opened her mouth to respond but the other woman beat her to it, "I understand if you don't want him living with you either after hearing about his actions, but please realise that though I took rash actions, I still love him a lot and he currently has no where else to stay and you seem like a nice enough person so I wouldn't have it any other way."
There was a sense of finality in her voice, and Sakura knew that she couldn't argue. It made no sense to do so, and it made far less sense to tell Meiling, his cousin of all people, that she didn't want him to stay because his smirk annoyed her to no end. So she nodded, completely forgetting that she was on the phone and the speaker on the other end wouldn't see her. "Great!" Mealing replied as though seeing her nod, "I'll send him right back over! Thanks so much for understanding! You are such a nice person and I'm sure we'll speak again some day!" The phone clicked signalling the end of their conversation and Sakura sighed heavily as she replaced the receiver. She would just have to bear with his seeming to know everything until he found the herb. Or, better yet, she'd help him find it just so that things moved a little faster. Her face brightened a little at this thought and she returned to her seat to wait for Tomoyo.
The old mansion stood on top of a barren hill but was strangely invisible to those who may have passed by it. The rooms were filled with antique wooden furnitures standing on rich burgundy carpeted floors and against deep sapphire walls. In this particular room however, there stood a solitary chair with a lone figure seated on it and a large mahogany table in front. "Hm, a little while longer, eh?" The figure said softly to himself and propped his arms on the table. His spectacles shining against the glare from the large window to the side of him. "Ah, Li, catching on I see, but oh so predictable. Sadly my friend, I cannot permit this operation to move any slower than at my pace." With that he passed his hand through his navy hair and rose from the seat. He walked toward the window and looked out over the garden. He closed his eyes and after a quick wave of his hand, a small bush appeared at the edge of the fence near the road. The man grinned sardonically and walked away from the window and out of the room. 'Prepare yourself Li.'
"I'm going back to Hong Kong," the jet black haired woman said while packing the last of her belongings into the big mauve suitcase she had brought, "I need to ensure that everything up there is going according to plan. I've done my part in getting you to stay for a while longer but you would do best to hurry along whatever plan you may be plotting before Eriol does something drastic." She chided the chestnut haired man standing just outside the doorway.
"Yes I know I need to hurry. I have a feeling that Eriol is already planning something, so I need to get back with Sakura." Syaoran responded and hugged the girl. "Have a safe flight, say hello to mother for me and make sure everything is ready, I'm sure I'll be returning soon." He added as he released her. She merely nodded in response and walked out of the house toward the black limo waiting there.
Syaoran watched the limo until it was out of sight and finally decided to return to Sakura's house to start phase one of his newly formed 'Plan B'.
The Aquarium in Tomoeda was aptly named since it was the only aquarium in the town. It occupied a large lot of land and contained over forty different species of fish ranging from pond guppies to huge Koi fish to Nurse and Zebra sharks. The site was very popular among tourists and children, as most aquariums were. A child in Tomoeda wasn't considered a child if he hadn't gone to the aquarium. This quaint little marine zoo was, in fact, the current location of Sakura Kinomoto and her new partner Tomoyo Daidouji. They stood among the one hundred or so other visitors who stared raptly at the dolphins that were performing before them.
"I love the aquarium," Sakura whispered to her partner while entranced by the mammals in front of her.
Tomoyo glanced at Sakura and smiled gently, "Then aren't you glad I chose this place to go?"
Sakura grinned and nodded vigorously. She could still remember her days as a child coming here with her brother and father and staying for hours just staring at the fish. Her mother wasn't there, she passed away when Sakura was three, but Sakura always believed she was there in spirit.
A couple years ago though, her brother had taken off without telling her or her father where he was going. Her goal back then had been to find him, so she joined the JTPS at the age of eighteen but after two years her hope that he would come back dimmed and she gave up searching. Then Adachi Shimura walked into her life. She was merely an apprentice at the JTPS at the time but a case had come up that had the entire staff working on it. Sakura, because of her youth, was asked to go undercover to protect the fledgling witness, a famous actress, and this assignment placed Sakura in the professional care and know-how of then twenty five year old Adachi Shimura, the greatest cryptologist the JTPS had seen until then. He had solved several top priority cases in his career but this one, even with the help of the witness, seemed to elude even his great experience. Sakura, however, had some fresh perspective and soon enough, thanks to Sakura, the case was solved.
She gained great praise and respect from her colleagues and even, to her surprise, Adachi. She grew fond of him and soon began to think of him as more than a friend. However, on the night she was about to confess her feelings to him, she overheard an agreement. An accord that sickened her to her core. Her trusted partner had consented to exchanging information about the JTPS for power. Sakura couldn't believe it, not only that Adachi would betray the JTPS, but also that in return he received the ability to control the world. Who could possibly give him that? However, before she could find out, she was discovered from behind the wall where she had been hiding. A brief brawl ensued during which she was stabbed with Adachi's trademark dagger that he had always kept with him and he and his accomplice escaped. Her stab wound stuck her in the hospital for almost a month from which the scar of her operation still remained, but her determination to return Adachi to his normal self burned even more within her.
That was until she went home and found her father's lifeless body on the floor of the kitchen with a note saying, 'So sorry it has to be this way, you would have made a good partner'. She completely lost her nerve but she never told anyone that she knew who killed him far less about a note that was left behind. The post mortem revealed that he had been poisoned and from that day onward Sakura had vowed that she would find Adachi and execute her revenge. She wasn't quite sure, however, what her revenge would entail. Even at age twenty-two, two years after, she still sought after him in between assignments, always thinking of ways to make him hurt a hundred times more than she did.
Syaoran let out a frustrated groan. She wasn't home. He paced in front of the entrance muttering to himself all the possibilities of where she could be and none of them looked good in his mind. Not that he was worried about her or anything. He was merely worried about where she was and who she was with. He didn't even want to begin to imagine what would happen if Eriol had already gotten to her, far less what kind of trouble he'd be in for letting her slip through his grasp. He grunted and sat down. 'She probably just went to work.' He thought, but he still couldn't shake the foreboding feeling that he had. His instincts were usually right, so he decided to follow them and got up immediately and ran toward Eriol's mansion.
When he reached the rusty iron gate, he burst through, tired from running but determined to ensure that Sakura was not anywhere near this closet maniac. He stood in front of the door and was about to bang on it when he heard a lock click and the large rosewood door swung open with a loud creak. His breathing was hard but he didn't care. His mind was focussed on one thing, well person, and one person only.
"Looking for Sakura?" came a melodic voice that Syaoran knew all too well.
"Yes actually," Syaoran replied with an obvious strain in his voice, "You wouldn't happened to have seen her would you?"
"Last I heard from the elders, weren't you supposed to be with her? That was the plan right?" Eriol's ominous tone rang throughout the entrance hall.
"Don't play with me Hiiragizawa. I know you're up to something." Syaoran responded showing only half the extent of his hatred of the man before him at the moment.
"Who's playing? The plan was, Li, that you'd find a way to get her to Hong Kong within the two weeks we were alotted. At your pace she wasn't even going to reach Tokyo. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands." Eriol's voice became serious and Syaoran fidgeted a little under the sharp gaze now being thrown at him.
"You talk about me not following the plan but you're the one that's deviating." Syaoran spat out to the other man.
"Well, I've made my own plan now." Suddenly the atmosphere lifted, "As long as the job gets done right?" Eriol's face broke into one of his trademark smiles. "Just remember," Eriol's face became serious once again, "You're not the only one that's lost something."
Syaoran made no attempt to respond or even fight back as he felt himself being teleported somewhere else. His eyes were solemn and unfocussed. His jaw tightened. His insides swirled as he felt the weightlessness of teleportation that he hadn't felt since he was a child training with the elders. In the blink of an eye, his former position on the carpet in the entrance room of Eriol's mansion was now empty and Sakura's previously vacant couch was occupied by the Li heir.
"Sakura! You alright?" Tomoyo asked worriedly as she waved a hand in front of Sakura's dazed face. The dolphin show was over and they were the only ones seated on the stands now. Sakura blinked her eyes and looked around as if forgetting where she was. realisation dawned on her and she looked to Tomoyo whose concerned face hadn't shifted. "Are you okay Sakura-chan?" She enquired once again.
"Um, yeah, sorry about that. I sort of zoned out," Sakura replied glancing around, trying desperately to avoid Tomoyo's gaze.
"It's fine! But we should really get going, it's almost half past five." Tomoyo's voice echoed in the empty room and she stood up offering a helping hand out to Sakura. Sakura nodded slightly and took Tomoyo's hand to stand and they walked out of the aquarium. As they walked along the pavement, Tomoyo's eyes lit up and she grabbed Sakura's arm, "Sakura!! Can we pass the long way to get to your house? The park there is always so pretty and the houses around there are really elegant!" she happily requested.
"I guess so, it won't be dark for another hour or so, and I haven't passed that way for a while so why not? Let's go!" Sakura's face lit up also remembering the days when she would spend all of her time in the park.
They practically ran down the road and into the park where they slowed to a stop near the swings. After reminiscing for a while, they decided to keep walking and admire the resplendent houses along the way. Once or twice along the way Tomoyo stopped walking in awe of the beautiful house she was looking at but this time it Sakura who stopped walking as she gaped at one of the opulent houses on the hills. The surrounding lawn was decorated with flowers of all colours and trees of all shapes and sizes. She slowly made her way to the fence and leaned over to pick one of the petunias growing just along it.
"Oh, hello Sakura, what a surprise seeing you here!" A male voice called out to her. She jumped and looked toward the voice.
Smiling in recognition, she replied, "Hello Eriol! Is this your property? It's so magnificent!"
"Thank you, you're too kind but I can't take all the credit, I do have a gardener." The man chuckled at his statement and walked toward the pair of ladies. "Who's your friend?" He asked as he appeared in front of them.
"Oh, this is Tomoyo." Sakura introduced them and watched as Tomoyo and Eriol exchanged greetings and shook hands.
"Well, I was just watering my Aloe Vera plant over there." Eriol explained pointing toward a small bush further along the fence. "Want to hear something interesting about the plant?" he asked and Sakura nodded in response, "Well, it's one of the most useful plants in the world. It's great as a skin treatment and it heals all kinds of ailments. I heard somewhere that it's called 'The Life-saving Plant' because it's so useful." Eriol recited with a grin, looking almost as if he admired the plant for it's hard work.
Sakura's face went blank. 'Life-saving plant?' she thought to herself, 'This is it! This is what Syaoran needs.' She grinned in return and asked if she could have a piece of the plant.
"Why, sure! You can have a whole plant if you want, I have more in the back garden." he replied. So Eriol dug up the plant and placed it in one of his many pots and handed it over to Sakura. She thanked him profusely and left soon after with Tomoyo, all the while thinking of how lucky she was to have relieved herself of having Syaoran around her house, for now he could go back to Hong Kong and maybe her life would return to normal.
Wow, long chapter! My longest yet! I'm so proud of myself because I also updated before a month was up! I had a whole week more before a month was done.
Anyway, about the whole Aloe Vera thing, it does grow in China but for the sake of my sanity I decided to alter that since I don't know/couldn't find another plant that is called 'the live-saving plant'. Also, I've decided not to break my story in two and I'll just continue with it under the name Puzzled because it really wouldn't make any sense since the 'sequel' isn't too long (I don't think). In other news, there are only two more chapters to go until this arc of the story is completed! Everything will be revealed! Oh, and sorry about just stating Sakura's past so blatantly in the middle, I really wasn't feeling to give flashbacks but I think since I did it this way it makes the chapter seemed rushed. Oh well, hopefully you guys think it's better than I do at the moment and you'll review!! Because reviewing saves lives!!
Til next time,
- INVU4URAQT