Alright! So, I was working on this chapter all day yesterday, and I just found out that I can write real quick if I put my mind to it. But that doesn't mean you all can expect the next chapter by tomorrow, but then again, maybe you can! This chapter is pretty much the same as in the book, except with Izumi's little parts. It's going to get more interesting in the next chapter; don't worry. Oh, and REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!! please, I'm begging here!

Sakura

Disclaimer: I do not own Tsubasa Chronicles. All rights belong to CLAMP. Jayjaylemony does not own any of its characters other than Izumi.

"Yo!" A man's voice said. "So you're all awake now!" I looked up, and found that the man was an ordinary human being, who seemed friendly enough. Ok, so maybe I exaggerated a bit on the whole, "word of pure evil" thing, but I have to admit, I was rather afraid at the time. The man carried a bowl in his hand, and wore a smile that was rather too large for his face. The only threat that was posed was the woman who trailed behind him, who possessed the powers of a Shinto priestess, but still, the chances were very slim that she would harm us. "Woah! No need to get all tense! You came from Yuko-san, right?"

"Yuko-san?" Though Syaoran was who asked the question, he seemed to ask for all of us, since none of us knew who she was.

"You know," The man replied, "The girl witch. The dimension witch… The far east witch… She has a lot of names." We all nodded in understanding now. She had told me her name, but had I really forgotten it? That's weird… what could have happened to cause me to forget what her name was? I wondered. Then again, I know I gave up my name, but I don't even remember what it is anymore.

"Here." Came the gentle voice of the woman, as she handed Syaoran-kun a mat.

"Oh! Thank you!" Syaoran-kun bowed gratefully, as he laid Sakura-san on the mat.

The man introduced himself. "I'm Sorata Arisugawa." He gestured to himself, as if we didn't already know who he was talking about. Mortals really bothered me at times.

"I'm Arashi." The woman said, bowing her head respectfully.

"Just to let you know," Sorata-san stated, "She's my wife and the woman I love." Arashi rolled her eyes and turned away in a mortified manner. Still, Sorata-san continued with his extremely boring speech. "I call her my 'honey'! Just make sure you've burned that into your hearts." He grinned at all of us. Hah. As if it applies to me. Arashi ignored him and handed out bowls of soup as each of us introduced ourselves. Sorata-san walked straight up to Kurogane and warned, "By which I mean that if you lay a finger on her, you'll die horribly."

Kurogane looked around the room nervously then exclaimed, "Why do you say that only to me?!" when he realized that the comment was directed to nobody else. Sorata-san only skipped away merrily. I stifled a laugh.

"Now…" Sorata-san looked more serious now, thankfully. He picked up Mokona and held him in his hands. "I figured you went to the witch-lady and got this from her to get here, right?" he asked, pointing to Mokona.

Mokona giggled playfully, "Mokona Modoki!" The two of them agreed that Sorata-San would just call him Mokona.

"I heard the whole story from the man over there." He said, pointing to Fai. "The blonde guy, of course. Mr. Black over there is too mean to ask." Fai chuckled as Kurogane boiled. I realized that Fai must have woken up long before I had. "Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, this is your lucky day." I didn't exactly see why it was our lucky day. A different day, sure, but I wasn't so sure about the word 'lucky'. "Mokona has no idea which is the next world, right? Well, it's a happy chance that brought you to this world first of all."

"Umm…" Fai smiled nervously, "Why is that?"

"Because this…" Sorata-san beamed, "Is the Hanshin Republic!" He opened the sliding door to reveal a bustling city. I had never seen so many buildings in my life! There were many large signs and symbols plastered on the walls of the buildings. It was incredible! I realized that one of the recurring symbols on the buildings was the head of a tiger. Now I understood why we were so lucky! The city was one of the most amazing I had ever seen.

I oogled as Sorata-San pulled out a hand-puppet. A puppet? I laughed out loud, but quickly shut up when I realized nobody else was laughing. "This is the Hanshin Republic. The best of the island nations." Sorata-San was using the puppet to interact with us. I sniggered, but had to make sure nobody could hear me.

I suppose I can understand why he used the puppet now that I think about it. I can't imagine his extremely long speech without any humor in it. If he'd spoken like a regular old boring history teacher, I probably would not be alive. In fact, I would have been dead in an instant, since I've always hated anything ordinary or mundane. As a matter of fact, yes, I am grateful he used the puppet.

Sorata-San continued, and was quite absorbed in teaching this one particular lesson. "We are surrounded by seas on all sides. We get the odd hurricane, but we hardly ever have earthquakes… We have several trading partners across the seas, and we export like crazy!" I wanted to laugh again. What's wrong with me? Am I hysterical? "We have four seasons. Right now, we're in fall, the season where rice tastes its best. The main staple is wheat flour, and our sauce is famous! We have the Hanshin Republic and rule of law, and by law, we never make war with other countries.

"Modes of transport: car, bicycle, motorcycle, train, boat, plane, and one can consider a baby carriage to be a form of transport, right, honey?" Sorata-san's puppet looked lovingly at his wife's. I laughed when I finally figured out what it implied, and was glad that for once, I was not the only one laughing. "The shape of the island is thus." Sorata-san's puppet pointed to a land mass on his map. "Because of the similarity to a tiger, people call us the tiger country. Of course, the Hanshin Republic uses the image of a tiger quite a bit. Our currency is the Koko (tiger)." Wow, this country really lives up to its nickname. I thought. "There are one Koko coins, 100,000 Koko bills, and the tiger head is the symbol of the country."

"Sir!" A hand shot up in the air, missing my face by millimeters. I scooted away from Fai. "I have a question."

"Yes, Fai-Kun?" Sorata-san said.

"Does everyone in this country have an accent like yours, Sorata-san?" Fai asked. Kiss up. I fumed angrily.

"Aw! Don't be so formal! Call me Sora-chan!" Sora-chan (formerly Sorata-San) said. "My accent is unique to me. It's an older version of our language." From the way he spoke of it, I could tell he was quite proud.

"Yours is a language people used in the past?" Syaoran-Kun asked curiously.

"That's right!" Sora-chan exclaimed, only reinforcing the fact that he was proud of his accent. "Nowadays, hardly anyone uses this language. I'm a history teacher, and I'm firmly against allowing all the old ways to fade away." He leaned in, and pointed to Syaoran. "I take it you have an interest in history?"

"Yes! In my world, I used to work on archaeological digs!" Syaoran-kun explained intently.

"Then I say we have something in common!"

Fai's hand rose again, nearly poking my eye out this time. I backed up into Syaoran, and apologized to him. "And I have another question." Fai said. "Where exactly are we? Who owns this room?" He asked. I was wondering the same thing, but then again, who wouldn't be?

Sora-chan smiled. "This is an empty room in a traditional apartment building that my honey and I manage. Isn't it great? A beautiful apartment manager that's also a great cook!" Kurogane leaned back and closed his eyes, as if to say, 'this guy's really lost it.' Sora-chan shouted, "You! Wake up!"

Something hit Kurogane's head, and he shot upright. All of us travelers became very defensive, and put ourselves in a protective stance. "What was that?!" He yelled, looking around the room angrily. "I didn't feel an enemy, who did that?!" Kurogane examined each of us, and abruptly turned to face Sora-chan. "Bastard! You threw that, didn't you?!"

"You were in a corner." Fai stated matter-of-factly. "If anything hit you, it came from above."

"What?" Sora-chan looked utterly surprised, as if we were idiots not to know something. "It was my Kudan. What else?" He shrugged.

The word was not familiar to me. In fact, I had never heard it spoken in my life. Apparently, it was likewise with the others as well. "Kudan?" We all asked in bewilderment.

"You don't know?" Sora-chan gasped. "Of course you don't! You all come from different worlds! You wouldn't know!" He was genuinely puzzled. "Everyone in this world has a kudan attached." He took out a marker and began writing on the board. "Here's how it's written in Kanji."

"Ah…" Kurogane nodded. "I see."

"I don't see at all!" Fai piped cheerily.

"Then I guess that makes two of us." I grumbled. Even if I did read Japanese, I still wouldn't know what it meant, anyways, since the Japanese writing in my dimension was far different.

"Mokona can read!" Mokona jumped up in the air excitedly.

"That's great, Mokona!" Fai laughed, picking up the white think and stroking it gently.

"Can you read, Syaoran?" Mokona asked.

Syaoran shrugged. "Yeah. More or less."

"Kurogane and Syaoran's worlds both use Kanjji, but Fai's and Izumi's probably doesn't. But you can understand what I say, and I can understand you." Sora-chan nodded curiously. That was strange. Why can we all understand each other? I wondered.

"Now…" Kurogane began, his face getting completely serious and deathly. "What kind of technique is this kudan? And you used the word 'attatched'. What's that supposed to mean?"

Arashi spoke for the first time in a while. "Even if you come from another world, once you entered this one, a kudan will automatically be attached." The whole room grew silent. None of us had Kudan. Was it possible that we would each get one? Arashi kneeled beside Sakura-san. She turned to Syaoran. "Do you mind if I call her Sakura-san?" She asked. Syaoran nodded. "I cannot say where Sakura-san's memory went, however, if someone has picked it up, it will be the cause of a fight." Syaoran-kun's face fell.

Arashi addressed Fai and Kurogane. "You have lost your method of battle."

Fai asked, "How did you know?"

Sora-chan stepped in. "My honey used to be a Shinto religion miko. She possesses spiritual powers. She's retired ever since she married me." He smiled dreamily. "Her beauty when she was dressed as a Miko was a god-send!" Arashi ignored him.

"Actually," Fai coughed. "I did give my magical powers to the dimension witch."

"And I handed my sword to that bitch." Kurogane snapped.

She turned to me questioningly. I nodded. "I gave her my name. And my time…I guess. My job is to protect these travelers."

Kurogane huffed quietly, "And who said we needed any of your help? We have me!"

Arashi thought for a few moments. "Interesting. So Yuko-san asked for your name, did she? That's an interesting one. I am quite sure she had a reason for it, too. Can you tell me what you wished for?" She asked. I didn't really want to tell her; I was afraid she'd think I was weird for giving up my 'gift'. And I certainly didn't wish to tell her the whole story about how my magic was my curse. But I figured it would be the polite thing to do.

"I wished away my magical abilities." I said.

She nodded at me, but eyed me closely. "Are you sure it was you magical abilities you wished away? Or did your name act as a controlling device for your magic?" She asked me.

"No, I wished away my magic…" I tried to sound confident, but uncertainty leaked into my voice. "Why do you ask?"

"Here's the problem. I sense an enormous amount of magic in you. Unless my senses are deceiving me, I must say that it is quite possible you've been cheated…" Arashi sighed apologetically. I didn't want to believe it. "…or… you've been helped."

"Helped?" I asked. "How can it be helpful that my magic isn't gone?" My voice cracked, and I looked away embarrassedly.

"Certain names are more uncontrollable than others, if you are born a magician. If your parents did not know you were a sorceress at birth, then they may not have known how to name you properly." She said. I nodded, even though I couldn't make sense out of a single word she said. "If you told Yuko that your magical abilities caused nothing but despair to you, she would try to fix it, without getting rid of your magic. Yuko is a witch that is against the loss of such a gift."

I didn't want to believe anything anymore. What was there to believe? Who was there to trust?

Arashi looked at Syaoran, who told her, "It wasn't any sort of power that I gave her. I never had magic or weapons or anything like that from the start." He looked down sadly. I felt sorry for him, though I still had no idea of what he gave up.

Shockingly, Arashi said, "That may have been your good luck." Syaoran looked up in hope. "There are kudan in this world. When it comes time to fight, that kudan should be able to help."

"Then this kudan was originally meant for battle?!" Syaoran asked hurriedly.

Sora-chan smiled. "What you use it for…or how you use it is all up to you. One look can answer a hundred questions." Each of us looked up. "If you want to see what your kudan is, the only thing to do is see it with you own eyes." Sora-chan smiled playfully again, holding up his puppet. "Well, I've pretty much explained everything there is to know about this country. He leaned closer to Mokona. "Well? Do you think that Sakura-Chan would have a feather on this world?"

Mokona took a few seconds to think, but responded, "Sure does! It's still a long way away, but this country has one."

Sora-chan said, "Shall we find this feather of yours?"

"Yes!" Syaoran shouted firmly. I smiled at the sound of his voice. He was so strong and willing to do anything for the unconscious princess.

"And you, do you feel the same?" Sora-chan addressed us.

I bowed. "It is my honor."

Fai shrugged. "I might as well." His face never lost that smile, even though there was a hint of sadness to it.

Kurogane looked very reluctant to agree, so he asked Mokona, "If I said I wanted to leave, would you do it, white thing?"

"No!" Mokona giggled. "Mokona will not leave this country until Mokona finds the feather!"

"Fine." Snarled Kurogane. "Whlie you're on this world, I'll vouch for you.

Syaoran smiled gratefully. "Thank you… Mokona."

Sorata-san said, "I owe Yuko-san a favor. This is an apartment building. We have room. You can use these rooms until you go to your next world."

"Thank you very much!" Syaoran-kun and I said in unison.

Arashi yawned. "It's after midnight already. It's time to sleep. I'll show you to your rooms." She pushed the door open and led us all into the hallway. "Fai and Kurogane, you don't mind sharing, do you?"

"Not at all!" Fai chirped.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Kurogane yelled. I snorted, and tried my best to refrain from laughing. I didn't succeed.

"You can use this room." She said to Syaoran. "And Sakura-chan…"

"It's okay." Syaoran-kun stopped her. "I…I want to stay by her side."

Arashi turned to me. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we don't have any other rooms. You're welcome to stay in one of the already occupied ones, though. You may stay in Fai and Kurogane's, although…"

I smiled. "It's okay. I'll keep Syaoran-kun and Sakura-chan company. I have the feeling Syaoran-kun really needs some cheering up." Arashi nodded and whispered a gentle 'goodnight' before I opened the door and went into the room. I sat down beside Syaoran-kun, and placed a hand on his head. He looked up at me. "Syaoran-kun… She'll be fine. I promise you that I won't stop until I find her feather, but only if you promise to do the same."

Syaoran nodded. "I promise." I got up, and laid a mat on the floor. "Oh…" I turned around to face him. "You're a good person, Izumi-san. You may not know it, but whatever bad you have in you doesn't show."

"Thank you, Syaoran-kun." I kept my voice level, but as I closed my eyes later on that night, I knew that his one little comment was enough to make my day.