It was the next evening when Fai-san approached me with Syaoran's sword. He had refused to do it the previous night stating that I was still in a state of a mental shock and that I would not be able to bear the strain the spells were going to put my mind through.
"Are you sure about this?" he asked me, a look of sadness crossing his face.
"I am." Two words.
Two words was all it took.
A soft sigh escaped his lips as he looked at me with such sorrow, such melancholy that for a split second, I had half a mind to take it. Tell him that no, I didn't really want it. But then the moment was gone.
People changed.
So had I.
No matter what happened, I would never go back to being the sweet, innocent girl I once had been. I had to learn to adapt if I wanted to find Syaoran. And if I wanted to survive in this world.
"I'm really sorry Sakura-chan," Fai said as he pulled me into a tight hug, burying his face in my hair.
After a minute or so, he stepped back, taking my right hand into his own.
"It will be better if you sit down while I perform the spells," he instructed me gently, not letting go of my hand.
I complied, seating myself on the brown leather couch. He placed himself before me, still holding my right hand. He held out his index finger and the middle finger in the air in front of me. I felt the tingling sensation of magic being summoned as blue Celesian runes emerged from the tips of his fingers. Ribbons upon ribbons of those symbols materialized, snaking towards the sword he had earlier deposited in my right hand.
The characters danced across the metal's surface, making the sword glow bright silver. As the light faded away, I noticed that the runes themselves had turned gold. They slowly rose from the metal's surface, making way for new ciphers to take their place. The same procedure continued repeating itself over and over again for almost ten minutes, the air between me and Fai-san filled with those mysterious golden-colored letters.
Even in the dull light cast by the small energy saver on the roof the words glowed ethereally, presenting such a beautiful sight that I could have stared at them for hours and hours. However, I was quickly distracted from my admirations of those small magical runes when I felt a smarting sensation envelop my right hand. The feeling then began creeping upwards, towards my wrist, then elbow, then upper arm. Looking down, I realized that the runes had actually been absorbed into my skin.
Their bright gold contrasted sharply with my pale, only slightly tanned skin. The symbols slithered higher and higher till they disappeared underneath the sleeve of my shirt. They soon emerged again on my other arm and judging from the tingling sensation I could feel everywhere, they had probably covered my entire body.
Soon however, the tingling vanished; in its place there was the feeling of being pricked by thousands and thousands of microscopic needles. The sword in my hand began melting into my skin as a warm blue glow enveloped my arm. I felt it grow hotter and hotter, reaching an almost burning intensity before vanishing without a trace. By now the pinching feeling was gone as well.
I felt exhausted all of a sudden, exhausted and sluggish. As if I had been working non-stop for many days and now my brain had had enough and was forcing a shutdown.
"Sleep well Sakura-chan," I heard Fai-san say softly as darkness covered my eyes and I slumped forwards. Then, I knew no more.
Fai's POV:
I closed the door to her room as silently as I could, even though I knew that Sakura would most probably be out for the rest of the night.
The spells that I had used, they sort of cloned the information into a person's body, however this was a very tiring process.
I felt extremely tired myself but I had to get Sakura to bed since I couldn't have left her lying on the couch while I myself would go to sleep in a bed.
Funnily enough though, I never made it to the second bedroom, my body collapsing on the carpeted floor of the living room. I tried getting to my feet so I could go to my room or rather the room me and Syaoran had shared before, but it seemed as though my brain had other plans.
Like shutting down, for instance.
I passed out on the floor.
It was snowing; hundreds upon hundreds of soft, cold snowflakes fell from the sky.
I observed the scenery surrounding me. Tall snow-covered pine trees were the only thing that was visible for a mile to my right; to my left, however, were the crumbling ruins of an ancient castle.
"Fai…" My eyes widened in shock. I knew that voice.
It was…
"Fai!!" it screamed my name in fear.
Before I knew it, I was running towards the castle like a maniac. I had to get there. But for some reason, I kept tripping over the roots that seemed to materialize out of thin air.
"F-Fai…" the voice calling my name was sobbing now.
I was running pell-mell, not caring how many times I fell. I always got to my feet to continue dashing between the trees.
"Fai…" It was so faint. As if it was fading away.
"I'm coming!" I yelled but no sound escaped my mouth. My hands automatically flew to my throat. Why couldn't I speak? What was wrong with me? "Hold on!" I tried again, but the result was failure.
As I neared the ruins, a black glow began emanating from the structure.
"No!" I wanted to scream, but I was mute.
"You will be too late." A maniac female laughter filled the air around me.
"No!" I yelled, rushing inside the now crumbling castle, not caring if one of the falling rocks would end up crushing me. I had to get there.
"Too late Fai." That singsong voice and laughter was everywhere, drowning out everything else.
"Shut up!" I ran down the stairs that fell away behind my feet. "Shut up!!"
"There is still time," I told myself. "I can make it."
"No you can't," the invisible female taunted with another laugh as though she had heard me.
"Shut the F**K UP!"
"Not gonna happen." She continued taunting. There it was. That black steel door. The bright white light overhead showed me bloodstains covering the entire passageway.
I ran and ran but the distance between me and the door never shortened. It was always out of my reach.
"Fa..i…" Oh God! It was so weak.
"I'm coming!" I yelled but my voice was no longer there.
"Give up Fai."
"No!"
"You'll always be too late."
"NO!!"
In a flash, I was at the metal door. Without a second thought, I gripped the blood-coated handle and slid it open.
A bloody, broken figure lay in a heap on the floor, a pool of blood surrounding it. The face before me was hollow and sunken, cheekbones jutting sharply against a sickly pale skin with purple, green and yellowing bruises. There were deep gashes on one cheek and blackening burns on the other.
The chest was heaving weakly as if every single breath that was drawn was a huge effort and the person in front of me did not have the energy to continue the action for long.
A pair of dull amber eyes was staring unseeingly in my direction as a badly mangled hand tried to reach out for me.
"F..a..i…" They breathed out before those eyes rolled back in their head and the hand fell limp, midway.
"Too late Fai." The woman cackled next to my ear as I fell to my knees. "You were too late."
"Fai." Someone shook my shoulder, "Fai, wake up."
I opened my eyes slowly to find a pair of worried green eyes hovering inches from my face.
"Good morning Sakura." I did not force myself to smile like I normally would have; the horrible dream was still too fresh in my mind.
"Are you alright?" she asked helping me to my feet.
"I don't know Sakura." I replied.
"We'll find him Fai-san." She gave me an encouraging smile.
"I'm sure we will Sakura-chan." I averted my gaze, unable to look into those hopeful jade orbs. She lingered around me for a while.
"I'll make breakfast." She finally announced, understanding that I did not want to talk about it. It was something for which I was really grateful.
I needed some time with my thoughts, alone.
"I'll go freshen up." I told her, heading off towards the bathroom.
Sakura's POV:
I watched him walk away.
Worry gripped my heart.
He was extremely pale. And when he had woken up, his eyes had been gold.
Did Fai have a nightmare of some sort?
Fai. I was calling him by his name once again.
This world did not use the honorifics system. At first, we had all addressed each other the way we normally did, with honorifics and everything but as we kept searching and interacted with other people in this world, we had to stop.
The honorifics drew attention and Fai and Syaoran wanted as little attention as possible.
We had stopped using them outside but once back in our apartment, we would revert to using them. It had felt strange not to.
Obviously, I had already been calling Syaoran by his name and he had been doing the same for me but in Fai's case, we had always used the honorific.
But after a while, I guess, we just sort of grew used to calling each other by our first names.
"Sakura, are you feeling tired?" Fai asked as he entered the kitchen.
"No." I shook my head, quickly setting the plates on the table. I guess I had spaced out for a while.
"Are you sure? Because you can rest for a while and I'll go search by myself." He said, pulling the fridge open.
"Fai, I'm sure." I said, taking the eggs from him as I turned the stove on. I poured oil in the pan and cracked the eggs on top of it, turning the flame on low to retrieve the bread but Fai had already placed it in the toaster.
I caught him looking at me with a worried expression.
"I'm well-rested, Fai-san." I gave him a smile. "And I need to go look out for him too."
He gave me the same sad look he had given me last night before nodding in acceptance of my decision.
It was eleven a.m. by the time we finally left the apartment. I was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a pink t-shirt under a white jacket. My hair, which had grown long enough to reach just a little past my shoulders, was pulled back into a ponytail.
The reason for this choice of clothing was that they were a lot easier to fight in as compared to frocks or skirts. Not that I would know since I had never fought before but it seemed like the most sensible choice.
I accompanied Fai to the slightly shadier parts of the city since he had said he had some guy looking for information over there. In fact, we had been heading to meet that guy when those thugs had come after us two days ago.
"Sakura, I can't leave you out here since it won't be safe for you to stay alone," Fai told me in a low voice as we neared a rundown building. He cast a wary glance in the direction of the filth-covered man lying on the sidewalk. There were homeless people everywhere around there. The guy ignored Fai and gave me a very strange look but abruptly looked away when he caught sight of a glowering Fai.
I had never seen him so angry before; his eyes were golden with cat-like slits and his teeth were bared, his fangs visible in the sunlight. Ever since Fai had gotten his magic back, he had never let his vampire side show like that.
"But I need you to stay on your guard, alright?" he continued. If looks could kill, that man would have been dead a thousand times over.
"Alright."
A/N: There you have it. The next chapter.
I hope you found it enjoyable enough to leave a review or two.
Next time it will be Kuro's turn to tell the tale.
Oh and by the way guys, the poll is still a draw. But now it's just between two options instead of three. Half of you want him dead and half of you want him to live. Make up your mind already people, cuz I can't move past chapter fourteen until you guys do. (Um, yeah… I've actually written that much. *sweatdrops*)
So anyhow, I'll repeat the option for voting once more: Syaoran's fate
a) He gets saved before something really bad happens.
b) He get's saved but he's no longer what he used to be.
i) His spirit is broken
ii) He is maimed
iii) He ends up comatose
c) Sakura and Fai fail to get to him on time and he dies.
i) They find his dead body (kinda like what happened with Kurogane)
ii) He dies after they find him
Yeah, so now the options have sub options. I'm really sorry guys that I'm asking you to vote again and again but well, various scenarios are playing in my head and while I'm more inclined to doing a couple of things, I still want you guys to decide what should happen.
You can still vote on my profile or via review, whichever you prefer, is up to you. Just so you know by the way, if that if the tie doesn't break by the time the next chapter is posted, I'm gonna remove all other options and have a final tie-breaker poll and all previous votes will be ignored since there will only be two options for that, and all of you will be required to vote or… or… um, Mokona will pop out of you screen and devour all your cookies. *Shot*
Wow, I should really stop typing before this A/N get's any longer.
Ciao!
