The Missing Worlds - Firelands III
Rating: PG-13

Summary: The travelers come home.

Author's Notes: And... it's a wrap!

Kurogane had absolutely no intention of doing any chores for the Witch. It infuriated him how the Time-Space Witch never passed up an opportunity to worm further payment out of them, since as far as Kurogane was concerned he'd already paid his due (and unlike the other three nuts, he'd never asked to come on this journey in the first place.) So, he figured, since she wasn't providing any additional service or gift for them, there was absolutely no reason he should submit to sweeping rocks and chopping firewood like a first-year student. He meant to spend the time tending to his equipment, practicing his swordsmanship, and training.

His schedule hit a hitch in the evening of the first day around dinner-time, when he realized he had no way of providing food for himself except for the Witch's so-called hospitality. Her smug attitude versus Kurogane's grouchiness resulted in a roof-raising squabble that was only ended when the Witch's apprentice, Watanuki, stormed out onto the front porch, yanked Yuuko's glass of iced tea away from her and upended it on Kurogane instead, yelling that if they were going to act like two-year-olds they'd get treated like it. Kurogane retreated to the empty part of the shop in a high sulk, listening to Yuuko complain loudly about her lost tea.

All of that night and the next day Kurogane still refused to cave. Stubbornness might have compelled Kurogane to hold out for the rest of his companions' absence - he'd gone hungry for days at a time before, after all, while on hunting missions in the border province - but by nightfall of the following day Kurogane realized that Yuuko controlled the only supply not only of food, but of booze.

A second confrontation, slightly less heated, finally ended with the two parties hammering out terms: Kurogane refused to do menial chores like washing dishes or scrubbing clothes, but he would condescend to help out with any structural repairs that needed doing around the place - slipped roof tiles, broken doorframes, and the like.

Of course, no sooner had Kurogane made this agreement than the entire shop seemed to age a hundred years in the space of an hour; screens tore, faucets sprung leaks, cold wind began blowing in around uncaulked window frames and moaning through holes in the roof.

Kurogane spent the rest of the next day on his hands and knees on the roof, quietly cursing the Witch with every pound of his hammer. But at least it kept his mind off his missing friends.

The others were gone for five days. Not that Kurogane was keeping count or anything. He knew better, after the Shara country debacle, than to think that time passed at the same rate in every world - and the Witch had said that this shop was in its own world, too. There was simply no way to know, until they returned, how much time had really passed for them; they could be gone a day, a week, or a month.

Not that it mattered whether they were gone for two days or a fortnight. There was nothing he could do from here to help them, no matter what kind of trouble they got into. He didn't even have any way of knowing what was going on with them, let alone reaching them - even the Time-Space Witch required Mokona to travel. And there was simply no way that he was going to beg additional favors, or pay additional prices - from her.

There was nothing to do now but wait. He would just have to trust in them; trust the kid to remember his training, trust the wizard to weasel their way out of any sticky situations involving magic, and trust the princess and the pork bun to hold their hearts together in the meantime. There was no reason to worry.

There was no reason to worry.

No reason at all.

So Kurogane didn't count the days as they passed by in the shop, didn't mark each hour as it struck a deep gong on the huge garishly decorated clock in the storeroom. He passed the time by meditating, or maintaining his equipment, or training in the back yard by the koi pond. And if that just happened to be the closest place to where they would come back, well, it was the only open space that was suitable, that was all.

So it wasn't really luck that Kurogane was out in the courtyard when his companions returned - there was more planning to it than that. But it was certainly fortuitous.

He had his eyes closed when it began, a wash of colored sparks across the darkness of his eyelids, and he halted in the middle of his drill and turned to watch as the air warped and twisted and the sky bulged downwards to touch the earth. Kurogane tensed with his hands on the hilt of his sword as dust and smoke were blown away from the point of impact, unconsciously prepared to fight off any assailant who might be pursuing them. A ridiculous thought, since he knew perfectly well that no one had ever been able to follow them across worlds before, but it was a habit from his ninja days that he'd never quite been able to shake when one of his men had been coming in hot.

When the smoke cleared, Kurogane relaxed to see that the way was clear behind them; he did a quick head-count and saw that all was well. One tall and blond, two short, one red and one brown, and the little white bobble of the meat-bun nestled in Sakura's arms. The next moment, Sakura had thrown herself on Fai with a shriek of joy.

"Oh Fai-san, thank you, thank you!" she babbled, hugging the blond man tightly. It was almost comic the way she barely came up to his shoulder, hair included, and yet even such a tiny slip of a girl was able to pin Fai with a grip like an anaconda. "You did it! You saved him, you really did it!"

Fai attempted to detangle himself from Sakura's arms, with limited success. "Now, Sakura-chan, I didn't really do all that much - " he began.

"But you did!" Sakura turned wide, shining green eyes on on Fai, and gave him another squeeze for good measure. "I don't care what you call it, you did break the curse that was on him and now he has another chance, he can leave that horrible place and not be so alone anymore and -"

Fai shot a guilty, fleeting glance at Kurogane over Sakura's head, and Kurogane stiffened in response as though that quick glance had been a dart. He didn't have to ask who 'he' was in this context or why it should make Fai and Syaoran look at him so strangely - he wasn't an idiot. Honestly, after all three of the previous worlds had resulted in them running into doubles of themselves within a few hours of their arrival, he could venture a pretty confident guess.

But that was much less important than the other thing Sakura had let slip. "You did what? "

"Syaoran-kun," Fai said loudly, interrupting Sakura's happy stream of babble before she could say anything more. "You still have Sakura-chan's feather, don't you? Perhaps you should return it to her before anything else goes wrong?"

"Oh, yes!" Syaoran exclaimed, immediately and effectively diverted from whatever he'd been about to say.

This tactic was a more than effective diversion - a little too effective, in fact, since in less than a minute's time the two teenagers were wrapped up in their own little world. Sakura, as usual when a feather was returned, swayed and closed her eyes as sleepiness overtook her, and Syaoran had eyes only for her as he caught her and lowered her gently in his arms to the ground. Neither of them objected - or, indeed noticed - when Kurogane caught Fai by the arm in a practiced come-along hold that was much more effective than it looked, and propelled him into a nearby alcove where they could speak in private.

He'd had this little speech planned out for days (if not weeks) for the next time he got the mage alone. He wouldn't grill him in front of the kids - it would distress them unnecessarily, and Fai was even less likely than usual to answer if he had an audience. But sooner or later, Fai wouldn't be able to dodge him anymore, and Kurogane would have an opportunity to pin him with all the questions that had been piling up since this adventure began. Who was Fai running from? Why, really why, did Fai refuse to work magic even under dire circumstances? Who was it they had met, in the world with the trickster kid, who looked and sounded just like Fai and yet could not possibly have been his double? Who are you, really?

He meant to get answers. He needed to get answers for all of their sakes; they were up against a big blank of nothing where Fai's past was concerned and the last thing he wanted was for it to ambush them at an inconvenient time. Without proper knowledge, they could not plan proper action; this time it was Fai's look-a-like who had surprised them on that world, and nothing too bad had come of it, but what about next time?

He meant to get answers if only so he could tell Fai how much he didn't care - that he'd meant it when he told Fai that whatever business was in his past had nothing to do with the rest of them. Whatever Fai had done - whoever he'd been - if he'd killed someone or stolen someone else's face and name and magic (as was Kurogane's leading theory) Kurogane didn't care. If the last four worlds had taught Kurogane anything, it was that whatever you could have been in some other life, some other time didn't change a thing. All that mattered was the person you were here and now, and here and now Fai was their companion, protector and friend.

He'd planned to say all that, so it was completely Sakura's fault - and as much of a surprise to himself as it was to Fai - when his mouth opened and what actually came out was "You can break curses?"

Fai, unsurprisingly, immediately began to hedge. "Now, Kuro-tan, it's not what you think. It wasn't a counter-spell or anything like that. I didn't actually use any magic; it's completely different if you just happen to sense some weak points in the spell and push them, just like when you broke through the wall in Koryo -"

Kurogane brushed all this aside impatiently. Whatever tricky semantics Fai used to justify to himself that he wasn't really breaking his promise, it didn't matter to anyone but him. "That's not what's important here! What's important is you can break curses. So break mine!"

Fai opened his mouth to start to speak, then closed it again and stared at Kurogane. "Wait, what? Yours? You have a curse on you, Kuro-sama?"

"Yes!" Kurogane reached up and swept the headband off his forehead, baring the seal to the air for the first time in all the time they'd been traveling. "The Tsukuyomi put a curse on me right before she sent me away from Nihon. I can't kill anyone or it will lessen my strength. What kind of wizard are you that you haven't noticed it in all this time?"

Fai only stared harder, looking at Kurogane as though Mokona had gone out of their range and they were speaking gibberish to each other again. "A curse?" he repeated, sounding disbelieving? "She told you it was a curse?"

"Yes!" Kurogane snarled. "Why d'you think I was so careful not to kill anyone in Yama country? It was a pain in the fucking ass, too. It's a huge liability if I can't use my full strength in a fight. We're just lucky we haven't been in a situation where it was necessary before, or else we'd really be in trouble, so take it off already!"

"And she told you it was a curse?" Fai repeated again, and Kurogane began to lose his temper.

"Are you deaf?" he roared. "Changing the emphasis on the question isn't going to change the answer, dammit! Yes, she told me when she put it on me that it was a curse, to teach me to control my strength! Now break it already!"

Fai hadn't stopped staring at him in astonishment the whole time, and it seemed to take him a couple tries to find his voice. "Well," he said, and cleared his throat. "...I really don't think I should interfere with another sorcerer's work that way. Tomoyo-chan might get upset with me, and I'd hate to get off on the wrong foot with her if we were ever to meet."

"Gah!" Letting out a noise of utter disgust, Kurogane whirled around and stomped off down the corridor. Stupid fucking useless wizards, always banding together!

That was a shallow excuse, of course, like all of Fai's were - but that didn't mean Fai was going to be any less recalcitrant about it. In his own twisty, slippery way, Fai could be as stubborn as a mule - chasing him through one flimsy pretext after another was just as exhausting as slamming your head against one single brick wall. Fai must have some reasons for not wanting to remove the curse, as incomprehensible to Kurogane as they might be. Was he afraid that if Kurogane were unfettered, he would immediately go on a killing rampage at the first opportunity? Let the kid and the princess see him as a murdering beast? Did Fai really think that little of him?

A faint, rhythmic noise from somewhere deeper in the shop caught his attention. Kurogane's hearing, like his other senses, was unnaturally sharp - he could usually pick out details of sounds from quite a distance away, even with walls or other obstacles in the way. Normally, he was able to filter out the mundane background noises of most of the locations they came to: people talking, animals such as dogs or horses snuffling and panting, the mechanical growl of the autocars in 'techno' worlds they came to. In the past few days at the Witch's shop he'd become attuned to and thus filtered out the creaks and squeaks and occasional faint unsettling humming.

This noise was a new one, a sort of rhythmic tapping or hammering like the busy noise of a distant forge. It was too regular to be caused by the wind, or a tree limb banging against a window, and too faint (and persistent) to be someone knocking on the front door for entry. It was not a particularly threatening noise, but it was enough to nag at him, leaving him increasingly annoyed and restless. He set off to find the source of the tapping noise, trying to trace it to the source.

After several minutes of searching (and several more of backtracking - the acoustics of this shop were confusing as hell sometimes) Kurogane heard the tapping sound grow louder as he approached a cross-corridor up ahead. He recognized this area of the shop from his restless patrols over the past few days; it was a mostly-empty, little-used set of storage rooms beyond the wall ahead, and the hallway to the left dead-ended after only a few yards. In a real, traditional Japanese house in a real, non-ridiculous dimension it would have lead out into a back alley behind the mansion, suitable for servants to accept deliveries or take out trash. This being a magical unreal sham of a house, of course, it ended in a blank wall. Large panels of mirrored glass created the illusion of a deeper space (as well as confusing any residents; no doubt Yuuko thought it was absolutely hilarious when some unsuspecting guest walked smack into it and was knocked on their ass. )

Kurogane turned left at the intersection, then ground to a halt and stared; standing in the dimly-lit cul-de-sac and waving amiably at him was Fai.

Except -

He was standing behind the glass.

Kurogane saw his own reflection on the mirrored wall and did a double-take, checking behind him even though he knew damn well there was nothing there; he would have felt Fai's presence long before he came up behind him. The space behind him was empty; Fai only appeared in the mirror.

And he wasn't in shadow, either. The color of his eyes was a little bit too deep a blue, his hair a little too bright a gold. His traveling outfit of lavender and grey was one that Kurogane had never seen before. And when he turned his head a little bit to smile at Kurogane, a long blond braid swung behind him, nearly brushing the floor.

The Wizard Fane completed his happy wave, then returned to tapping his long fingers on the glass, producing the rhythmic noise that had brought Kurogane here. All at once he reared back, his hand bunching into a fist, and slammed his fist into the wall of glass hard enough to leave a spiderweb of cracks.

Kurogane didn't mean to shout, but a startled yell echoed in his ears as he leapt backwards into a crouch, hand flying to the hilt of his sword - even though he had no idea what he was supposed to do with it. Fane slammed against the mirror again, spreading the cracks even further, and for a moment Kurogane was certain that the glass was going to shatter, letting Fane into this world.

The glass held, though, and Fane apparently decided to switch tactics; he raised one hand over his head and traced his forefinger against the glass, a white glowing line following the motion as he swept it out and down in a wide, smooth circle. Once the circle was complete, a brilliant ring of white against the back of the mirror, Fane began to quickly and efficiently inscribe runes along the inside of the circumference. Kurogane was no magician himself, but he'd seen those runes and that circle enough times by now to recognize them - it was Mokona's magical world-traveling circle.

He followed us! The incredibly obvious realization kept racing through Kurogane's head over and over, replaying on a loop of paralyzed stupidity. He should have guessed, he should have known something like this would happen - someday - they'd gotten too used to the idea that the dimensional barriers were unbreachable, inviolable except by themselves. That all they had to do to run away from trouble, to evade any pursuer, was step away from that world, and they could follow them no more.

But not this one. Fane was too damn strong, too powerful a wizard to be left behind so easily. Kurogane ought to have remembered - at the beginning of their journey, Fai had been the only one with enough magic to transport himself to the Witch's world, instead of being sent by another. Of course if anyone could follow them across the boundaries of the universe, it would be another Fai.

Before the travelers had come to his world Fane hadn't realized that there were other worlds - they'd been the ones to teach him that, to let him loose. He could have only seen Mokona's circle for a brief, agonized moment while they fell from the castle in the air, but apparently that one look had been all he'd needed.

What could Kurogane do? He'd stabbed Fane through the chest once and it hadn't even fazed him. If he swung his sword now, all he'd accomplish would be to make Fane's job easier as he shattered the glass keeping him out. But if he did nothing, the Fane would finish the circle and come through anyway - he was already one-quarter done drawing the circle and continuing with astonishing speed. And once Fane came through the mirror into this world...

The Witch's warning echoed in his ears, cool and dire: "It is impossible for two people with the same soul to be in a world at the same time. If you were to try to enter that world, both of you would instantly die."

"Kurogane-san? What's happening?" a familiar breathless voice called out, followed by the light patter of footsteps. Kurogane didn't alter his stance or take his gaze from Fane, but he saw them in the mirror as Syaoran rushed into the hallway holding Mokona in his arms, and then stopped with his mouth hanging open in an O of dismay.

He didn't answer; he didn't like stating the obvious and there was no need, anyway, when the answer was staring them right in the face. Besides, he didn't want to announce to the whole shop and a certain blond magician that his evil twin was -

"Is there a problem?" All Kurogane's attempt at discretion was ruined a moment later when Fai himself rounded the corner and stopped dead.

His blue eyes grew wide as he took in the sight beyond the mirror - the man in the dove-gray traveling suit, so different from his, busily copying Mokona's runes into a glowing circle. He gulped for a breath of air, and let it out in a weak, anticlimactic little "oh."

"That's Mokona's circle!" Mokona chirped, not sharing Kurogane's dislike for stating the obvious. "And Wizard Fane, from the world with the flying castle!"

"But what is he doing here?" Syaoran exclaimed in dismay.

"Apparently he didn't much feel like staying put in his own world," Kurogane growled. "I don't know how he got our scent but he must have been following us from the last world."

"But he can't!" Mokona wailed, wringing her paws. "If Fane comes through, Fai will die!"

"Yuuko-san!" Syaoran called out, wheeling around and looking everywhere as though the Witch might be lurking behind one of the paneled walls. "Please! Can't you stop him from coming through? It's your world, isn't it?"

The Witch's image appeared in the mirror, hazily, beside Fane's. It was obviously only an image, flat and off-colored, unlike Fane's all-too real and solid body. "This world is indeed mine, but that means that it is bound by certain rules, as I am," she said solemnly. "I am sorry, but I cannot stand against a wish so powerful."

"What good are you, then?" Kurogane demanded. He didn't get why she was projecting an image instead of just coming to see them in person. She'd not bothered to avoid him for all the five days that he'd been staying here, so why did she pick now of all times to refuse to show her face?

The Witch's face grew masked, withdrawn. "Sometimes I wonder," she murmured, so low that Kurogane didn't think they'd been meant to hear. After a moment she added, "Either way, there can be no price for something you already own."

"What do you mean?" Syaoran said anxiously.

Yuuko glanced knowingly towards Fai, who avoided her gaze. "There is one among you who already has the ability that you need." With that, her visage vanished from the mirror.

"Fai," Syaoran exclaimed, then bounded over to the older man's side, as excited as a puppy. "Fai, you can stop him, can't you?"

"Yes!" Mokona cried. "Just like the feather, just like with the Beast! All you have to do is unravel the spell!"

Fai didn't answer, his eyes still tracking his double's. The spell-circle was more than three-fourths complete now.

"Wizard?" Kurogane growled, every muscle taut.

"Fai, you have to," Syaoran exclaimed. "If the other you comes into this world, both of you will die. He'll die too! Isn't he a wizard too, doesn't he realize? Can't we make him understand that?"

"The question isn't whether he understands," Fai said unexpectedly. He walked forward like one in a dream, keeping his eyes fixed on Fane, and stopped before his reflection in the mirror. "The question is, does he care."

"What do you mean by that?" Kurogane demanded. How Fai could speak with such certainty about the thought process of someone he hadn't even known existed until five minutes ago, Kurogane didn't even want to know.

"He'd rather die than be alone again," Fai said simply. Quietly he added, "I know what that's like."

"Then he'll be alone in death," Kurogane snarled. "How's that better?"

"Not necessarily," Fai murmured. His eyes were sad, and thousands of miles away.

"Well, if he wants to die, he can damn well go fall on his sword somewhere!" Kurogane said furiously. "Doesn't give him the right to take anyone else with him!"

Fai said nothing. The wizard Fane kept on with his deadly work tirelessly, without remorse. Kurogane knew the sigil well - he'd seen it enough times by now, after all - and he could tell that it was nearly three-fourths complete. He ground his teeth, hand flexing on his useless sword. If he struck as soon as Fane moved, could he kill him fast enough to save Fai? But no - 'Instantly,' the Witch had said, and he doubted she was exaggerating. He hadn't felt so helpless in years - not since he'd watched an arm with a bat motif stretch out from a hole in the universe. This wasn't a problem that could be solved by hitting things, unless there was some way to hit some sense into Fai's fat head -

"And you!" Kurogane said. He reached out as if to grab Fai's arm, drag him around and force him to look Kurogane in the eye, but his hand hesitated and then fell away. "Come on! You still have something that you need to do, don't you?"

"Fai-san," Syaoran said, hesitant and unsure. "You said you know what he feels like, to be so alone you want to die. But you - you're not alone."

He reached out and took hold of Fai's hand, holding Mokona cradled in his other arm. "You have us - me and Kurogane-san and Mokona and the Princess." He reached out and took hold of Kurogane's sleeve with his other hand, linking them together - and Kurogane allowed it, even though it blocked his sword arm. "And we need you."

"Fai..." Mokona said pitifully, creeping out along Syaoran's arm like a bridge to tug on the edge of Fai's sleeve. "Please, if there's something you can do, then do it!"

Fai looked down at Mokona, and a wry smile quirked his mouth. "Well, maybe you have a point," he murmured, although it was unclear who he was addressing - Mokona or Syaoran or Kurogane himself. Without releasing Syaoran's hand he took a step forward, eyes locking with his double's, and reached out to touch the glass.

As if mesmerized, on the other side of the glass, Fane did the same. For a moment they truly mirrored each other, palms flat against each other with only the glass between them. Then Fai shifted his weight, his hand moving momentarily into the glass -

There was a bright flash, a sound like cracking ice, and a high-pitched cry of desolation. For a moment Kurogane was blinded, his eyes dazzled even behind his tight-shut lids - when he opened his eyes again, the mirror was an empty sheet of blackness. Fane was gone.

Kurogane sucked in his breath. "What'd you do?" he said. For a moment he feared - or hoped, he wasn't sure - that Fane was dead, that Fai had killed him and removed him as a menace once and for all.

"I turned the spell back on him," Fai said, his voice flat. "He won't be able to use it again. Now he's sealed in there - the last world he came through. Forever."

Syaoran's face was pale as a sheet, but he didn't hesitate - he crowded close to Fai and tugged on Kurogane's sleeve to pull him closer, until he could throw his arms around both of them at once. Fai returned the embrace, ducking his head and hiding his eyes, and Kurogane decided to hell with it; he left Souhi back in her sheath and wrapped his strong arms around both of them.

After a long moment, Syaoran gave Fai an encouraging squeeze. "It was the right thing to do, Fai-san," he said firmly, although his voice lacked a certain conviction. "Where there's life there's hope, they say. So long as he lives, he still has a chance."

"You're too kind, Syaoran-kun. Thank you for trying," Fai said. His smile was crimped around the edges, and his voice was thick with bitterness. "But we all know that I didn't do it for his sake. When it comes down to it, I'm just selfish."

"Selfishness is the human condition," a deep, rich voice rolled out from the walls. Instantly Kurogane recognized the voice of the Space-Time Witch, but for once neither she nor her image were anywhere in sight. The words seem to come from nowhere, from everywhere, echoing down through the vaults of time as though the voice itself were a treasure to be stored in the deep recesses of the shop. "But selfishness is not always evil. When you love another person, your selfishness is not only for your own needs and wants, but also for theirs. You can be greedy for their happiness, jealous of things that would harm them. That is nothing to be ashamed of.

"So long as humans live, they will hurt each other," Yuuko's voice continued. "That is inevitable, when so many different wills and wishes collide in the chaos of everyday living. There must always be a balance. The wants of one must always be balanced against the needs of another. The idea that you can go through life without ever causing pain to another is folly. There are some people that, no matter how much your heart breaks for them, it is simply not in your power to save. Look instead to those who love you, and focus your mind on the ways to help them, instead. And by helping yourself, help them."

The Witch's voice dropped into a whisper, then silence - a silence so close to holy that none of the travelers wanted to be the first to break it.

Sakura slept the rest of the morning and afternoon, only to wake in the evening. Unsurprisingly, as she had missed both breakfast and lunch, she woke hungry. The travelers decided to eat one last meal in the shop and spend the night before they moved on.

Dinner was provided by Yuuko's apprentice Watanuki, who seized a portion of the meal in a bento box to carry away to his ladyfriend Himawari, leaving the travelers to themselves. The conversation was surprisingly awkward; they all wanted to talk about the things they had seen in the past few worlds, but none of them really wanted to say too much about the double selves of the others - and with all of them present, that severely limited the topics they could safely talk about. Syaoran had resorted to describing the fantastic underwater city to Sakura, while skillfully avoiding the subject of the mermaid princess Tideflower. Much more interesting to Kurogane was the description of the fiery mountain which had filled the sky with ash and smoke from the last world (Mokona was helpfully filling in the story with appropriate sound effects whenever the telling got dull.)

When the conversation hit a natural lull, Fai turned to Mokona. "Are there any more worlds like that, Mokona?" he asked. "Worlds that contain doubles of us, which we can't enter without leaving anybody behind?"

Mokona shook her head, sending her white ears flying. "Nope! Mokona kept track of all the worlds we tried to get into and couldn't," she said cheerfully. "That's all the missing worlds!"

"Everything's back to normal, I suppose," Syaoran said, with a slightly relieved expression. "It feels like a whole year's gone by in the past few weeks!"

Sakura sighed dreamily. "To me it feels like waking up from a dream - or a fairytale," she said.

"Strange..." Fai murmured, his blue eyes cloudy. "To me it felt like letting go of something."

Kurogane stabbed his chopsticks into a manjuu without comment. Personally, he was all too glad to see the back of all these evil twins; he was getting tired of running into versions of themselves that were animals. Or criminals. Or murderers.

"It's been restful to have a little vacation at the shop, though," Sakura said wistfully. "Don't you sometimes wish that we could stay here?"

It was half-jesting, half-serious, but the others all shook their heads solemnly. "No, Princess," Syaoran said. "If we wanted to stop there were many other places we could have stayed, but we must keep on going."

"I still have to get home," Kurogane reminded them. Tied up in the kids' problems he might be, but he definitely hadn't lost sight of his ultimate goal to the extent of actually wanting to settle down anywhere else.

"And I still must travel away from home," Fai said lightly.

"I made a promise to retrieve all of your memory feathers, and I mean to keep that promise," Syaoran told Sakura with a hint of fierceness. "How could I stop halfway? You are so much stronger, so much more full of life each time you get one."

Sakura sighed deeply, but nodded a little bit in agreement. "I guess you're right," she said. "There's still so much that I'm missing, that I don't even know is missing. And besides, it just wouldn't be right to leave powerful things like my feathers floating around in all the other worlds, where the wrong people could get hold of them and do so much harm."

Frankly, in Kurogane's opinion, people who meant to do great harm would find a way to do so whether they got a magical wish-granting feather or not. Still - she wasn't wrong.

"And I did miss it being the five of us," Sakura added after a moment, brightening up. "We're so much stronger when we're all together, aren't we?"

"Sure," Kurogane grunted without looking up, the most of his emotion that he would allow to show through.

"Of course!" Syaoran said. "If the past few weeks have taught us anything, it's that. We all have things that we bring that nobody else can offer - and when one of us is missing, everything is harder. I'm glad we won't have to put up with any more of that."

"We won't be together forever, you know," Fai reminded them gently. "Someday, whether we like it or not, the time will come when we'll have to go our separate ways."

"I suppose so," Syaoran said regretfully. "But then, that means that we should make the most of the time we have!"

"You got that right!" Mokona cheered, jumping into the middle of their table with a sake dish raised high. "To togetherness! Kanpai!"

Smiling at Mokona's exuberance, they drank.

~end.