76. Sticks and Stones
"It's him!" one of the children yelled, snatching a stone from the dirt and flinging it. Syaoran dodged the projectile.
"It's the one who stole the feather and ran away!" the boy yelled, crouching down to find another rock.
"You left our country in ruins!"
Understanding hit hard. They didn't mean him. They just didn't understand that he wore the same face as the one they feared.
They were children. Cruel, perhaps, but innocent. They didn't know.
Rocks flew from multiple directions now. One rock collided with his cheek, hard enough to bruise it.
Syaoran closed his eyes in surrender.
77. Blood
The sword pierced her dress, burying itself six inches into her heart.
Fai returned to himself, the last moments flickering through his mind. The compulsion, the need to destroy. Not real, this isn't real . . .
But it was. Sakura's blood flowed down the hilt. My hands . . . Fai thought. My hands have always been stained red.
Sakura's head tilted forward, her face contorted in pain.
"Don't pull the sword out!" Kurogane shrieked. But Fai's arm kept moving, sliding the blade free. Blood gushed from Sakura's heart.
Blood . . . My hands are covered in blood.
78. Tomorrow
Syaoran stared at the shingles, arms curled in to stave off the evening chill.
Tomorrow, they would leave Nihon and go to Clow Country. Tomorrow, they would defeat Fei Wong Reed and get the real Sakura back.
Or tomorrow, they would die.
Syaoran closed his eyes. His Sakura was waiting for him, in that world. The Sakura he loved. It's worth it, he told himself, images of her face flickering through his mind. Whatever happens, I will keep her safe.
He tilted his head back. In the darkness, the clouds moved like shadows across the sky, smothering all starlight.
Tomorrow.