A/N: Oh my, thanks SO MUCH to everyone who gave me feedback as well as encouragement and also thanks to those who are merely reading this story. It's good to know that my writing is being read in the first place. Anyways, I'm back finally. Sorry about the long wait, but lots of things came up. That's also why the chapter is so short. I decided I'd rather give you a short chapter before I leave for vacation than no chapter. I promise I'll have two chapters ready by August 21st (which is when I'm coming back).
DISCLAIMER: Card Captor Sakura is under the ownership of CLAMP and I have no claims to it whatsoever. This storyline however as well as other characters not pertaining to the series, are of my own imagination and are purely fictional.
Ten minutes later Adachi stopped his motorcycle in front of an old dilapidated building about twelve blocks from where they had been. The building seemed to have once been a bar, judging from the keg painted on the faded sign and the long counter that Sakura encountered once she stepped inside.
Adachi walked confidently, weaving through the broken chairs and tables that lined the floor, until he stood behind the counter. "Watch your step, this place was closed after a huge fight and they never bothered to clean it up." Huge fight indeed, Sakura thought as she tentatively stepped around the pieces of wood jutting out of the ground. She whimpered a little as two pieces poked into her leg, however the pain was duller in one area than the next. Her hand instantly went to the dulled area and she felt a flexible rectangular object and a small oval shaped object in that pocket. She didn't remember putting anything there. She decided to take a look later and made her way over to Adachi.
He was stooping down, facing the wall, and studying the pattern of the bricks. "Okay Kura, lesson number one; in order to enter our base you merely have to slide your finger along the grooves of this brick, and the door opens." He pointed at a brick that was six widths above the floor and three lengths away from the corner. He slid his finger around the perimeter of the brick and the small extent of wall between the counter and the back wall slid backward and across revealing a small spiral staircase. Without hesitation, Adachi stood up and stepped onto the staircase. "Come along Kura," he said and began his decent of the seemingly unstable metallic structure.
Sakura eyed it warily. Did she really want to risk her life by stepping onto that thing? She glanced down to the bottom and noticed that the entire staircase swung as Adachi jumped off the last stair. She gulped, there was no other choice was there? Her foot hovered above the first step for a full 30 seconds before she decided to make contact. Surprisingly the staircase was steady as she made her way down. It didn't swing or creak once. But she still released a sigh of relief when she finally stood on firm ground.
"Scared of heights?"
Her eyes shot up when she heard the scratchy voice and her vision landed on a cloaked figure standing a few feet away. The man – she presumed it was a man – was shorter than her by a few inches and was completely shadowed by the black cloak he was wearing. Not even his hands were visible under the long sleeves. His being gave her chills. His presence disturbed her. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Everything told her that he was bad news.
"No need to be nervous dear. Perhaps you would like to freshen up before we are properly introduced." His voice was slow and condescending and Sakura didn't appreciate it. But she forced herself to bite her tongue, this would be the perfect time to check her pocket. "Adachi, take Miss Kinomoto to her quarters and see to it that she is in quadrant three in an hour's time." With that said he walked off.
Adachi then took Sakura's hand and headed in the opposite direction. He led her down a few corridors before they stopped in front of a door. "This is your room, I'll be back in forty five minutes to get you."
After he took off down the hallway, Sakura entered her room and locked the door before turning to inspect it. She checked every inch of the small room and was pleased to find that there were no cameras or microphones. It was a dreary room with only a lamp, table and bed. But it would do. Sakura was accustomed to less than comfortable living conditions.
She stood at the side of the bed, pulled out the rectangular object from her pocket and found it to be a piece of paper. She unfolded it and what she read made her eyes widen.
"I can't believe it..." Tomoyo's voice was full of disbelief. She, Eriol, Syaoran and Meiling were still standing in the road in which they had just seen Sakura ride off with Adachi.
Meiling turned away from the settling dust to face the others, "I thought Shimura was her enemy."
Eriol turned to her with a distant expression on his face, "We thought so too."
"I knew it! I knew we shouldn't have trusted her. She never trusted us, we should have followed her example." Syaoran shouted to the relatively empty street.
Eriol sighed, "Calm down Syaoran, we all know you're only upset because you think Toshihiro favours her."
Syaoran's face contorted in anger, "That's not true! I figured if she didn't trust me why should I trust her."
Tomoyo groaned in exasperation, "You two are so much alike it's not even funny."
"Hello, we have a crisis on our hands here people!" Meiling said, gesticulating to get everyone's attention. "Sakura willingly went with Adachi! This means that she's now on Fushin's side. She knows everything about our investigation and probably won't hesitate to tell him either. We've lost all chances of capturing him now. Especially since Sakura is so skilled."
The others instantly quieted. They stood still and glanced solemnly at each other. "We need to inform Toshihiro." Eriol said breaking the silence. With that fateful statement they all turned and began to head back to their headquarters.
Sakura was sitting idly on the bed for fifteen minutes before she heard the knock on her door signalling that Adachi had returned to take her to 'quadrant three'. She stood after the third knock and opened the now unlocked door to see Adachi in a new outfit. He was previously dressed in a dark gray suit with a black dress shirt beneath but now he was in navy blue slacks with a matching t-shirt. To Sakura, he looked as if he was about to take a jog. She bit back her laughter as she followed him down the halls.
"It's really great to be working with you again Kura." He flashed her a grin before turning back to face the direction they were walking in.
Sakura smiled in reply. She wasn't sure if 'great' was the word she would have used. The fact was she hated him. Although there was a part of her that couldn't let go of her previous attraction to him, the horrible things he did far outweighed the good things. But, she just happened to hate the investigation team more at the moment and wanted to be anywhere but around them, even if it meant having to be around Adachi. She had self control, she wouldn't randomly kill him yet.
After another few minutes of walking, Adachi stopped in front of a large metallic door. He took a card out of his pocket and slid it into a groove on the side of the door which then opened to reveal a large rectangular room. The ceiling was high and the walls painted a deep burgundy colour.
"Ah, Sakura, it has been a while, yes?" The cloaked figure began as he stood with his back to Sakura in one of the only carpeted rooms in this base.
"We've met before...? Before today I mean." Sakura asked unsurely.
He emitted a low chuckle before continuing, "Oh yes, of course we have." He turned around and Sakura could partially see his face as the hood didn't shroud it as much as before. "But you were quite young then, so I should not expect you to remember such a frivolous thing." His lips looked chapped and his skin was unusually pale. His eyes shone from within the shadow of the hood but Sakura could not see the exact colour of them.
"Before we continue though," He spoke again and walked toward her. When he reached a foot in front of her he extended his hand, clasped the locket that was around her neck and yanked it off. In one quick movement he crushed it and scattered the tiny pieces on the floor between them. "that needed to be destroyed."
Sakura reached around her neck, a shocked expression on her face, "W-what? Why? That was the only thing I had left of my family!" She shouted.
He shrugged slightly and took up his previous position a few feet in front of her. "It was also a tracking device my dear."
Sakura gasped, "A tracking device? Who...?" Sakura's eyes were wide with disbelief.
There was another low chuckle and Fushin continued, "No need to concern yourself with that now. It may be better if you didn't know. But I digress, we've more important things to discuss. As you may know, I am Kyou Fushin. And as of now you are my subordinate."
"Where is she?"
The whole group spun at the foreign voice. After meeting up with Namikawa in the lobby and informing him of their meeting with Sakura, they had decided to return to their normal headquarters, so they headed back to the temporary base intent on packing up their stuff. However, there sitting in one of the chairs was a man with spiky dark brown hair and matching coloured eyes.
Syaoran stepped forward, "Who are you and what makes you think you have permission to be here?"
"Listen kid, if it concerns Sakura, I have permission to be anywhere. Where's the old man? He'll know who I am." The man stood from the chair, his frame taller than Syaoran's by a few inches.
"Who are you calling a kid?!"
"Calm down Syaoran," Namikawa spoke now. He emerged from behind the others and now stood beside Syaoran staring at the young man before them. "Hello Touya."
"Old man, where is Sakura?" Touya asked rudely as he remained seated facing them.
"What makes you think we would know where she is?" Namikawa replied, his voice and gaze steady.
Touya emitted a sarcastic laugh, "Don't play with me old man. I know she was here with you, just tell me whether or not you know where she is now."
"Hold on a second! What's the meaning of this? Who are you?" Syaoran, who was writhing in anger at both being called a kid and being ignored, spoke now. The three other young people muttered their inquiries as well and Namikawa pinched the bridge of his nose.
"How about we talk about this over some tea?" the older man suggested, "I will explain who Touya is and he can explain why he's here now." Namikawa headed into the kitchenette area of the room while Syaoran and Eriol pulled some chairs for the girls, themselves and Namikawa. As they sat and waited for the tea to finish brew, a glaring competition ensued between Syaoran and Touya while the others merely stared curiously at the man before them.
Namikawa emerged a few minutes later with a pot of tea and six teacups. When everyone had fixed their own tea Namikawa spoke, "I would like to introduce you all to Touya Kinomoto, Sakura's brother."
Syaoran and Tomoyo stared in disbelief between Namikawa and Touya while Meiling openly stared at the newcomer and Eriol's usually collected composure was slightly bristled.
"Sakura's brother?" Meiling muttered more to herself than anyone else but everyone's thoughts seemed to revolve around the same question.
Touya grunted in annoyance at their gawking as well as an affirmation for Meiling's rhetorical question. "That's right, Sakura's brother. Now where is she? And give me a straight answer so I can stop wasting my time with you."
"First of all Touya, I want to know why you're here, or actually, how you knew she was here before." Namikawa sipped his tea and replaced the cup on a small saucer before returning his questioning gaze on the man across from him.
Touya grunted again before replying, "Actually, I've been tracking Sakura ever since I left all those years ago. I installed a tracking device on the locket she always wears and kept tabs on her whereabouts. Up until now that is. The tracking device isn't instantaneous as the newer ones are and needs at least two hours to send an accurate signal as to where she is. However, it appears the tracker went offline, if you get my meaning, before it was able to give her present location. The last place the tracker signalled was at an intersection near one of the street markets around here. I back tracked my information on her to here, as it was the last definite place she had been for longer than an hour. Now, care to tell me whether you know her current whereabouts?"
The others in the room stared silently long after Touya had finished speaking, none daring to speak a word despite the demand. Touya groaned exasperatedly, "Fine, I'll assume that the silence means you'd rather not tell me which in turn means you either don't know where Sakura is or you don't like where she is. Neither of which helps me in any way." He stood from the chair and made his way to the other end of the room, toward the windows. "Nice seeing you again, old man."
With that statement he opened the largest of the three windows along that wall and prepared to jump. However Namikawa stopped him, "Wait. You're right, we don't particularly like who she is with and we also don't know where she is with these people. But, maybe we can help each other."
Touya froze with one arm on the window frame and turned his head back, "I'm listening."
"I'm sure you're still working with Tsukishiro, and we're after the same thing, albeit indirectly, but nonetheless, if we pool our information, then I'm sure we can both get what we want." Namikawa stared unblinkingly at Touya, almost challenging him to decline the offer.
"Alright, I'll co-operate for now. I presume you're returning to your previous location? Well, Yuki and I will meet you there." He turned back to the window and after a few seconds pause, he jumped.
Syaoran ran to the window and looked out before turning to the others with mild disbelief in his eyes, "He's gone. He hardly had magical powers and yet he disappeared."
To be continued...
A/N: There you go. Short but kind of exciting right? So, Touya's appeared!! And he's working with them? More twists coming up in the next few chapters so stay tuned! I apologise once again for the shortness of this chapter and the long wait for the next one, but it couldn't be helped. So, tell me what you think!
-INVU4URAQT