Chapter Three: Homeless
Like the Sorata in the Hanshin Republic, the Sorata here was a history teacher. He used a hand puppet to explain to them how the battle system worked, including a brief background on the Seven Voices Academy, where fighters and sacrifices went to study.
"Any questions?" asked Sorata, laying the puppet down. The others shook their heads, but Syaoran raised his hand.
"Arisugawa-san," began Syaoran, but Sorata shook his head.
"Just Sorata," he said. "Or Sora-chan."
"Uhm, then, Sorata-san - Sorata - you speak differently than the other people here. Is it an older form of your language?"
Sorata laughed. "It's just an Osaka accent, Syaoran-kun."
Syaoran blushed and looked away. "I-I'm sorry, then."
"The other Sorata used an older version of his language?" asked Sorata, leaning back against the wall, feet still under the kotatsu. "I'm interested in the other worlds you've been to. Maybe you can tell me over dinner tonight, but in the meantime I'd recommend that you go start looking for that feather, now that you know how to fight it. You should have a few hours before it starts to get dark. It's not too dangerous around here at night, just don't get lost."
*
They set off again together, this time with some money from Sorata and a map from the train station nearby. With Mokona's help, they were able to navigate the train system.
"Mokona knows it's in the city, but Mokona's not sure where." Mokona spoke in a whisper. Sakura was carrying it in her arms like a toy, so as not to attract too much attention. They took the train in the opposite direction of the park they had been to the day before, intending to walk back to Sorata and Arashi's apartment.
Fay rubbed his hand. He felt that there was an itch he somehow could not scratch on his left ring finger and wondered if it was related to the concentration of magic he felt there.
A few times as they wandered they heard the eery, high pitched noise of another unit's radius colliding with their own. Kurogane was tense. He didn't want the kid and the princess to have to fight. He realized as they walked together that he didn't want the princess to get hurt, and as the sacrifice, it was her duty during battle to do just that. Despite his earlier relief, he was starting to hope he would have a name so that he could fight for them. He wondered when he had begun to care so much.
"Any luck, Mokona?" whispered Sakura. Mokona wiggled no.
The feather's vibrations came and went like waves, sometimes a little stronger, sometimes a little weaker, but always just barely on the edge of Mokona's ability to sense it. All that it knew was that the feather was somewhere in this country.
Syaoran paused a they walked, nearly causing Sakura to walk into him. He caught her gently.
"A jinja," said Kurogane, looking up at the gates. "They have them in my world."
"They're a type of shrine, right?" asked Syaoran. Kurogane nodded. Syaoran looked longingly at the big old pillars and the gardens beyond.
"Oh, why don't we go look?" asked Sakura, sensing Syaoran's curiosity. She took his hand and skipped under the tall gates, pulling him along behind her. He did not go unwillingly.
Kurogane lead Syaoran around the shrine, explaining the parts that were the same as his world and what they were for. Syaoran was fascinated. Sakura and Fay ambled leisurely around the grounds, looking with a much more casual eye.
They bought their fortunes for 50¥ a piece. Fay asked the miko to read it to him while Sakura puzzled out her own. Noticing his frown, the priestess told him that if he didn't like it, he could tie it with the other bad ones and it wouldn't come true. Fay hoped so. He tied the knot as securely as he could.
"You didn't get a good fortune, Fay-san?" asked Sakura, placing her hands over Fay's. She furrowed her brow and looked up at him, indicating the red skin on his finger.
Fay shook his head. "What did Sakura-chan's say?"
She carefully unfolded hers and showed it to Fay, who frowned at the complicated-looking letters. "I think it says that I will find what I'm looking for. Syaoran-kun taught me how to read some of the language when we were in Shura, and it looks a lot like this."
"Hold onto that one," said Fay, almost wistfully. "I hope that comes true for Sakura-chan." She smiled and tucked the fortune carefully in the little wallet Arashi had gave her. It looked suspiciously like Mokona.
They sat together on a bench, Sakura feeding the birds crumbs from her snack, some kind of candied fruit on a cracker. She'd called it a strawberry, but Fay was fairly sure it was called a cherry in his world.
Kurogane and Syaoran found them not long after that. Syaoran was blushing furiously. Fay was starting to worry about the constant blood rush to the poor kid's head. When they made it over to where Fay and Sakura were sitting, Syaoran's blush deepened and he held out his hands. He was holding what looked like a small, pink silken purse with exquisite embroidery.
"F-for you, princess."
Sakura accepted the gift with a lot of blushing and stammering of her own. She smiled at Syaoran, and Fay noticed Kurogane hold a hand out behind the kid, in case he fainted.
"It's for finding lost objects," explained Syaoran. "I mean, uhm, not that you need - I'll do anything to find -"
"I love it, thank you." Sakura held the charm against her chest, stood, and placed a quick kiss on Syaoran's cheek. Syaoran almost did fall over that time.
"Th-this is where it said what it's for," explained Syaoran, pointing to some golden characters embroidered onto the silk. "And Kurogane-san said that this is the name of the shrine. It means 'bright reign temple.'"
They were no closer to finding the feather, but Sakura seemed so happy with the charm that it almost didn't matter. Their detour had been an enjoyable one, though it was starting to get dark. They walked quickly, Mokona silently straining for any increase in the feather's waves, but to no avail.
"Puu," it said, flopping out of Sakura's arms as soon as they arrived back in Sorata and Arashi's apartment. "We're back."
"Welcome home," said Arashi, bowing. "Did you have any luck with your search?"
"No," said Sakura, shaking her head sadly, "but Syaoran-kun bought me a charm to find lost objects, and I'm sure that we will soon."
"That was so nice of Syaoran," cried Mokona, springing up into his arms, "but we'll find the feather anyway!"
"With Mokona's help, we're sure to." Mokona beamed at Syaoran.
"You didn't get in any fights?" asked Sorata.
"We heard a few of those sounds, but we didn't fight anyone," said Syaoran. "We weren't close enough, and Mokona didn't sense the feather any more strongly when they were there, so it wasn't good to risk it."
Kurogane smiled proudly.
*
The six of them crowded around the little kotatsu again. It was warm during the day, but the nights were still cold. Arashi made a pot of green tea for them, which they drank as Sakura did her best to tell Sorata about the worlds they had been to, with help from her traveling companions and voice acting from Mokona.
"I hope that's good," said Sakura, lowering her eyes. "I never got to pay back the kindness the Sorata and Arashi in the Hanshin Republic showed us, so ..."
"It was very interesting," said Sorata. "Especially Shura. It sounds a lot like parts of our history here in Japan. We have jinja like that, too - like theone you went to today - and the floating world, but that's disappearing these days." He sounded a little sad, and Syaoran was reminded very strongly of the other Sorata.
"Thank you for the tale." Arashi rose gracefully and gathered the teacups. "You should rest now, if you're going to continue your search in the morning."
*
That night, there was another blanket folded up on the floor where Syaoran had slept.
"Stay on your own futon this time," muttered Kurogane, after he was sure that Syaoran and Sakura were sleeping.
Fay frowned at him in the dark and pulled his blanket up over himself. He found he had a hard time sleeping, his hand was so distractingly itchy. As a child, Fay had once found himself with a rash all over his hands when he picked poison ivy leaves instead of raspberry leaves because he was afraid of the thorns. The thorns were better then the resulting rash. Fay rolled over, away from Kurogane, and tried not to think about Celes.
As soon as he heard Arashi and Sorata moving around the house, Fay rose and tiptoed out to greet them.
"If it's no intrusion, I will prepare breakfast." Fay spoke quietly, so he wouldn't disturb his sleeping traveling companions. "I would also like to repay you for your kindness in allowing us to stay with you."
"Sorata told you, we owed a favor to the Time-Space Witch." Arashi continued with her preparations without turning to face him.
"But you didn't have to give us your bedroom," pointed out Fay. Arashi looked over her shoulder at him this time, and moved over to give him room to wash his hands. "I noticed yesterday," he explained.
He ran his hands under the water. He scalded himself and hissed, pulling his hands away. Arashi reached over and pushed the faucet handle to the other side. Tentatively, Fay stuck stuck his hands back under the water. It was cold, but it felt nice after burning himself.
He noticed a marking on his hand, were he had been rubbing all of the previous day. He went to wash it off, but on closer inspection it proved to be another word, like Arashi and Sorata's FATELESS and Syaoran and Sakura's MEMORYLESS. He frowned at it for a moment, holding his hand up and peering curiously. He could make neither heads nor tails of what it said. Arashi noticed what he was doing.
"It says 'homeless,'" she said.
Fay smiled a little bit. That wasn't a bad name to have, at least not for him. Arashi wouldn't let him near the bento, which Sorata cooed was the best bento in all of Japan, but she did allow him to make breakfast.
It was a little crowded in the tiny kitchen with the two of them cooking, but they managed. Fay rummaged up ingredients for crepes.
"More sweets," said Kurogane. "I don't know how you eat that stuff in the morning."
"Good morning, Kuro-puu," chirped Fay.
"Good morning, Arashi-san," said Kurogane. Fay wrinkled his nose.
Sorata and Arashi both took their crepes with them as they headed out the door, apologizing profusely. "If the teacher's late, the class will be in an uproar," explained Sorata as he dashed out the door.
"Good luck with your search," said Arashi, following her husband out.
"Thank you," said Sakura, trying to stifle a yawn.
Fay and Kurogane sat at the table together with Syaoran and a sleepy-headed Sakura. Despite Kurogane's complaints, he at least ate the fruit, if only to stop Fay's badgering about the importance of breakfast.
Fay noticed on Kurogane's hand a series of nearly indecipherable letters.
"You got one, too?" he asked, gesturing.
"Sometime last night," said Kurogane. "I don't know what it says, though."
"Let me see." Fay caught Kurogane's hand and compared the letters on it to his own. "It says 'homeless.' That's what Arashi-san told me."
Kurogane frowned. Homeless might be a good name for Fay, who wanted to stay as far away from his world as he could, but it upset Kurogane, whose wish was to return to his world as soon as he could. Opposites attract.
*