Chapter 3
Julius smiled at the expression on their faces, they obviously hadn't sensed anything from him, the ability to hide his humungous magical power had been something he had been born with. He laughed, his eyes seeing the twins again, it look like the twin with the bell was about to ring it, that would start the trouble.
Julius hopped over the waist high stone wall that followed the path, separating it from the grassy area and making everything look neater. He walked up to them; the grassy area was slightly sloped down to the stone wall. A wind blew from the right, leaves fell from the trees and his blazer flapped slightly. The wind died down and then a bell rang, not a school bell.
"What was that sound?" Tomoyo asked, Julius glanced at the bushes, the twins were gone, he could faintly hear the sound of a flute playing, it was simple tune but he knew every single note, he had heard it before. He felt a magical presence, seconds after him Sakura and Syaoran felt it too.
"I can feel some kind of presence." Sakura said, looking around, Syaoran stood up and glanced at Julius.
"Can you feel it too?" he asked, Julius nodded.
"Ah, I do possess magical powers, like you and Kinomoto-san, however they are neither of the moon or the sun." Syaoran glanced at him sharply; Sakura heard him and turned her head.
"What kind of magic do you have then?" she asked, remembering that her own magic was neither of the sun or moon. Julius smiled; he could sense the magic building up as the feint tune got further into the piece. Syaoran and Sakura both noticed it building up as well.
"I have my own kind of magic, as well as several other magics and powers. I even know a little bit about how your own magic of the Stars works, Kinomoto-san." He said, smiling.
"How my own magic works?" Sakura asked, a little confused. Julius nodded.
"You can study all kinds of magic and find out their secrets, but only some can actually use them to their full extent, in this case, only you know how to use your own magic of the Stars to its fullest extent, even though you know nothing of how it works, its instinctive to you, as it will be to your children and their children, like Clow's magic. I can only use some of the magic of the Stars, enough to use the cards you made from the Clow Cards, or as I've been told, Sakura Cards." He said, looking at Tomoyo and smiled, who smiled back.
He held out a hand to her, bowing slightly, she took it and he helped her to her feet. He turned to Sakura and Syaoran. His face was serious, the laughter in his eyes was feint, still there, ever present but it had retreated back to let seriousness show.
"It's here." He said. There was an explosion of grass and dirt, one of the trees began to fall towards them. It crashed between them, separating Sakura and Syaoran from Julius and Tomoyo. They all looked towards the source of the explosion, Tomoyo had her video camera out, Julius sighed, her devotion to Sakura was unbelievable.
There was another explosion, nearer to them. Syaoran placed himself in front of Sakura, Julius did likewise for Tomoyo, although for some reason he sub consciously allowed her to get a good camera view of what was happening. Then an explosion shattered the tree, splinters flew everywhere and the shockwave sent them back. Syaoran managed to grab Sakura and held her close to him, hitting the ground and absorbing the impact while shielding her from the flying splinters. One of these hit his leg, slicing through the flesh and muscle, then his flesh closed in to fill the gap and it was stuck in his leg. He cried out in pain, letting go of Sakura. She rolled away and looked at Syaoran, he was holding his left leg tightly, his face a mask of pain.
"Syaoran!" she almost screamed, scrambling back over to him. He gritted his teeth and looked up at her.
"Be careful." He said, his face pale with shock from the pain. A small pool of blood was collecting around his leg. Tears welled up in Sakura's eyes and she held Syaoran tightly.
"Syaoran!" she said again, her voice wavering as the tears rolled down her cheeks. He didn't say anything, his vision was going black, he was losing blood quickly even though the flow was slowing down he would still lose a lot, not enough to be life threatening but still enough to be dangerous to his health.
Julius on the other side of the tree managed to grab Tomoyo's hand as they were thrown through the air and he held on, managing to tilt himself so that he was behind Tomoyo, he hit the school building wall, hard, he winced in pain and then she hit him but with less force. They began to fall to the ground but he managed to grab hold of a window ledge with his spare hand, still holding on Tomoyo's hand with his other hand. He managed to lower Tomoyo to the ground safely and then let go of the window ledge himself, dropping to the ground beside her in a crouch, his knees absorbing the impact.
He managed to stand up, although it was an effort to do so, his legs hurt from the fall and his back hurt from the initial impact. He looked towards the impact, the flute had stopped, the bell rang once more, they had let the monster be free. He ran towards it, Tomoyo started to call out but stopped. Then Julius heard Sakura scream, not in pain though, it sounds more like grief. He scowled, when he had been told he was coming here he had gone to Eriol who had told him to look after them, they had both felt something coming, what was he doing right now? Nothing.
He vaulted the stone wall and rolled over the tree, an explosion hitting the ground where he had been, shattering that section of wall and throwing stone and mud everywhere. He rolled onto the ground and stood up, looking for Sakura and Syaoran. He saw them not far away, out in the open. Then he remembered Tomoyo and heard the explosion heading in the direction he had come from and cursed himself for leaving her undefended. He jumped over the fallen tree trunk and ran towards the monster he could see in front of him. It was a tangle of vines with a round green body, the vines attached to it like tentacles, it was moving by bouncing, its heavy weight causing the explosions. He jumped over its head and into its path, between it and Tomoyo who could now see it.
He braced himself as the vines whipped towards him. He grabbed one of them but it wrapped around his wrist, another wrapped around his ankle and lifted him up into the air, more vines wrapped around his body and then they all tightened, his arms were crushed against his sides as the vines continued tightening, the breath was forced out of his lungs and he grimaced, now it was time to use his magic.
He closed his eyes and gripped a vine, concentrating on the connection between him and the monster. A red fire began to glow around his hand and his eyes snapped open, the fire spread to his whole body until he was glowing red. He pushed against the vines with his entire body and then they snapped apart, the monster howled in pain as he broke free and dropped to the ground.
He stood up and turned around, still glowing red. He curled his right into a fist and ran forwards and leapt up at the monster which twisted and turned in pain as its broken vines fell to the ground. He slammed his fist into the monster, his hand burning with the red energy. It fell back, screaming in pain as the red energy turned into fire and transferred to it, setting it alight. It burnt into ashes, the wind feeding the magic fire. Julius fell to the ground, managing to land safely away from the monster as it burnt into ashes, screaming.
He stood up and brushed himself down, wincing as his hands touched his chest. He felt the painful area and sighed, a broken rib. Tomoyo was running towards where Sakura and Syaoran had been thrown, Julius followed, remembering how Syaoran had been lying on the ground at the time.
Tomoyo climbed over the tree trunk and hurried over to them, Syaoran was lying on the ground, a small red pool on the ground around his leg with Sakura sobbing on top of him. Julius vaulted the tree trunk and ran after Tomoyo to them. He skidded to a stop and looked down at the injury, a red splinter was sticking through Syaoran's leg, having pierced the trouser, then his leg and coming out the other side, the point going through the trouser leg before the suction of the flesh stopped it completely.
Sakura looked up, her cheeks wet with her own tears and her eyes red from crying. She looked at Julius pleadingly.
"Save Syaoran! Please, I can't use any magic that could heal him but maybe you could…." Her sobbing returned, breaking her sentence off. Julius smiled and gripped her shoulder comfortingly. She looked up at him with tearful eyes.
"Don't worry, he'll be okay." He said softly. Syaoran was vaguely conscious, dropping in and out of wakefulness. Julius spoke to him. "Brace yourself, this could be a little painful." He said, gripping Syaoran's injured leg further up, just below the knee, cutting off some of the blood flow with his firm grip. Syaoran nodded slightly that he was ready and Julius closed his eyes for a second and then yanked the splinter out of Syaoran's leg. He cried out in pain and Sakura looked at him in shock. He soothed her comfortably.
"I can't heal it if the splinter's still there, otherwise he wouldn't be able to use this leg ever again, and if he did it would be too painful to bear." He said, she calmed down a little, squeezing Syaoran's hand tightly. Julius place a hand over Syaoran's leg which was bleeding slowly, the blow flow still cut off by his firm grip. A green glow surrounded his palm as he pressed it against the wound, the glow spread to the wound and there was a bright green flash.
When the light had gone the wound was healed up, the wholes in Syaoran's trouser leg were also gone, along with any bloodstains that might have been left behind. Syaoran seemed to be recovering quickly, colour returning to his face. Sakura helped him to sit up. Julius smiled at them gently.
"...Thank you." Syaoran said after a moment.
"It was nothing, I've been charged with this job by Eriol-kun after all." He said, he had no need to hide it from them after all.
"I'm so glad." Sakura said, hugging Syaoran tightly. He tensed for a second and then wrapped his arms around Sakura, hugging her back. Julius smiled happily, along with Tomoyo, he turned his head and smiled at her. Then people came around the corner. Julius stood up and waved, it appeared to be Chiharu and the others.
They ran up the path, past the fallen tree and climbed up over the wall.
"What happened? We heard explosions and stuff." Chiharu said. Julius smiled.
"You would be right in hearing that then." He said, Chiharu looked around at the devastated area.
"Are you all alright? Did you get hit?" Rika asked, Julius shook his head.
"Not really, we're all alright." He said. Naoko frowned, picked up on the 'not really'.
"What do you mean 'not really'? Surely you either got hit or didn't?" she said. Julius smiled.
"I got hit a little bit but I'm fine, my back just hurts a bit." He said, looked up at the wall, there was a large crack and imprint there where he had hit it, he winced, he had hit it harder than he had thought. They followed his gaze and saw the imprint on the wall.
"Did you hit the wall?" Chiharu asked, almost incredulous that he was saying he was fine if he had left that imprint there. The crack stretched from one floor to the next. He nodded, smiling.
"Just a little, I managed to grab a windowsill, I'm fine, really." He said. She frowned at him and decided to let him go on the subject.
"I'm glad you're all safe, everybody in the school heard it, the teachers were calling the police and everything! Some of them looked really worried." Julius laughed.
"Perhaps they were scared their classrooms would get blown up or something." He said, laughing again. Then the bell rang for the end of break and he stood up. "I think we should go to the classroom now, the teachers will want to take another register to check everyone's alright." Chiharu's group began to leave but stopped when they realised they weren't getting up to follow.
"Aren't you coming?" Chiharu asked.
"We'll be there in a minute." Julius said, smiling reassuringly. The group left, leaving the others alone for the moment before others came to investigate. There was silence for a few seconds and then Julius stretched, his back clicked loudly and painfully and he winced.
"Actually, that did hurt." He said, more to himself than anyone else. He looked down at the others.
"We should probably get out of here before other people come here to find out what happened. I'd rather not be caught in a police investigation." He said, trying to hurry them into leaving.
"Matte! Where did those explosions come from?" Sakura asked, Julius turned his head and looked down at her.
"You didn't see it?" he asked curiously, she shook her head. He turned to Tomoyo.
"Daidouji-san, you saw it, didn't you?" he asked, she nodded her head.
"Yes. It had these vines like things for arms but they were more like tentacles, like on an octopus and the body was just a green…." She trailed off, looking for the right word.
"Blob?" Julius offered.
"Yes, that sounds right." She said, smiling gently at him, he smiled back.
"Now can we get going?" Julius asked, turning to Sakura and Syaoran, Sakura was still clinging to Syaoran.
"Where did it go then?" Syaoran demanded, Julius turned and looked at where the monster had died.
"Its ashes now, scattered by the wind. Now, please, we should get back to the classroom now." He insisted. Syaoran stood up, Sakura still holding onto him and rising with him. He comforted her until she finally let go of him, rather reluctantly. Julius offered his hand to Tomoyo again and smiled. She took it and he gently helped her up, both smiling. Through her daze Sakura vaguely saw a similar spirit in both Julius and Tomoyo, kinda and gently, even if they came from two different countries, their smile and voices were the same, soft and kind. It looked like they had both already realised this, another quality they both had, sharpness.
They all left for the classroom, getting off the scene before more people came, the scream of police sirens could be heard faintly across the school grounds, soon accompanied by the sound of fire engines and bomb disposal teams.
The lunch time bell rang and the teacher closed his book with a snap. He looked up at his new students and smiled. He was their new teacher for history. He liked to teach and liked history, trying to make his lessons as enjoyable for his students to pass on his love for history onto them, his enthusiasm often infecting whole classes who listened to him as he told them mythological battles and explained the historical side of them, when the bell rang many students sighed, wanting to hear the end of the myth about Hercules. The teacher smiled.
"I guess that's the end for today. I'll finish the myth off next lesson; you can all look forward to it. Oh, since it's the first day there'll be no homework." He said, smiling and walking to the door with his textbook took under an arm.
"I'll see you all tomorrow!" he said as he left the classroom, shutting the door behind him. Julius sighed and opened up his school calendar, in the front was a timetable of their lessons. He traced down the Monday column with his finger until he reached the period after lunch and smiled. It looked like it was Physical Education after lunch, or Sports Education as they called it here, after translation of course.
He leaned back in his seat and looked up at the ceiling, how was he going to occupy himself on the first lunch time of the trimester? After all, it would be good to find something he could do regularly.
"Um…." Someone said, he blinked and stopped looking at the ceiling. Sakura was standing beside his desk, twiddling her fingers nervously. Syaoran was watching intently, ready to leap in if something happened. Julius smiled.
"Is something wrong?" he asked kindly, prompting her subtly, she shook her head nervously.
"No, um…." She trailed of again. Tomoyo appeared behind her, smiling.
"I think Sakura-chan was wondering whether you would like to eat with us?" she said. Sakura nodded. Julius smiled again.
"I'd be delighted to." He said truthfully. Sakura relaxed, now that she had gotten it over with. "Arigatou, Kinomoto-san." He said, smiling. He stood up and picked up his back and quickly packed away his school books into it and closed the bag. He lifted his bag off the table and shrugged on one strap, liking to have one of his hands free.
"Where should we eat then?" he asked, still smiling.
"We can't eat where we were before, the police have blocked off that area in case there's another explosion." Tomoyo said thoughtfully. Julius smiled.
"That's true." He said. She smiled back. Sakura glanced between them and Chiharu solved the problem, breaking through the conversation by calling to them not far away.
"Sakura-chan! Would you like to eat with us?" she called. They all looked up.
"Haiii!" Sakura said, smiling and waving. She and Tomoyo quickly gather up their things and joined Chiharu's group. Syaoran picked up his bag and followed with Julius beside him. The group set off after Chiharu and the others, Tomoyo and Sakura directly behind them with Julius and Syaoran a little further back.
"Kinomoto-san really is cute, isn't she?" Julius asked Syaoran quietly. Syaoran's faced turned red and then he shook his head violently to hide it. He managed to regain his composure and stared at Sakura.
"Ah." He said simply and glanced sideway in suspicion at Julius, who laughed, seemingly knowing what was going through his head.
"Don't worry, Li-san, I won't take her away for her. I must say personally that I find Daidouji-san more attractive." He said softly, looking at Tomoyo who laughing gently at something Sakura had said, obviously leaving Sakura a little perplexed. Syaoran glanced away, now knowing his relationship with Sakura wouldn't be intruded on by Julius.
"What will you do about it?" Syaoran asked. Julius smiled.
"I don't know yet, after all, I only met you all today. Everything else I know is from what Eriol has told me and what I've seen for myself. You and Kinomoto-san, you both like each other very much, don't you? Although I can see the reason in both cases I find Daidouji-san attractive in a different way. Obviously, she is beautiful, not cute like Kinomoto-san but in a more mature kind of way. I see in her a kind and gentle spirit, a spirit that I can sense is similar to mine. From the moment I met her I could feel my soul calling out to hers, like they were together, we call that kind of thing kindred spirits back in England." He stopped talking and turned to Syaoran.
"You would stay by Kinomoto-san's side no matter what, right?" he asked suddenly. Syaoran glanced at him.
"Of course, no matter what." He said seriously. Julius smiled happily.
"Then everything will be fine." He said, leaving Syaoran a little in the dark.
"Everyone, over here!" Chiharu said from up ahead.
"Haiiiiiiii!" Sakura said, waving. Syaoran was watching her, Julius smiled again, everything would be all right after all.