I do not own Tsubasa or any of their wonderful characters, although Sammy Featherstone is my own creation.

~Featherstone

Chapter 9

'Why. Do I. Have. To fix. Somebody's. House?'

Kurogane was crouching opposite me, furiously attempting to repair the problem which was the hole in the roof. I had taken to the job of removing any old timber which was in danger of falling through and throwing it off to the side, enjoying the noise the building material made when it collided with the floor. I couldn't understand why he was complaining, a girl had allowed us to stay for the night, so in return we fix the roof. However, Chunhyang's naivety in allowing total strangers to stay in her house was laughable.

'Because she offered us shelter for a night!'

Fai was inside the house, talking to Kurogane via the new sunroof whilst passing timber upwards. He had managed to get out of doing anything too strenuous, again. I couldn't waste my energy on caring anymore, I was just thankful that I managed to get out of a trip into the market. Syaoran, Sakura, Mokona and Chunhyang had gone out to search for the feather and buy some supplies just after they had their breakfast. I managed to get too lost in my thoughts and had stayed on the roof, even when the sun graced me with its presence in the morning. They didn't question why I was up on the roof whilst they went about their morning routines, didn't ask if I wanted to go into the town and I remained on the roof, listening to their conversations. I find the way they ignore me perfectly acceptable, perhaps I even take pleasure in being a silent witness to their proceedings, it's like I'm not even in their group, detached from events, remaining in my own. Kurogane temporarily halted his repair work to take a plank from Fai and then resumed the conversation.

'It's amazing that she lives alone in this house.'

I pulled out another splintered chunk of the roof and threw it to the floor, timing how long it took for it to fall.

'Yeah, she said her mother had died.'

The mood became slightly sombre, although, as I don't care much for reminiscing in memories which aren't your own, I completely ignored it and carried on working. If it's not your problem, why get concerned? The 'moment' lasted for only that, when Kurogane leaned down into the room.

'Hey, how long are we going to stay here?'

'That depends on Mokona Kuro-tan!'

I took a sharp intake of air and then sighed, why the idiot in the room below us couldn't refrain from constantly adding abbreviations to the easily agitated ninja's name was a mystery to me. As far as I was concerned, the joke, if there was one, had failed to be amusing and the constant use of it was getting old. Kurogane seemed to agree, although the main reason for his sudden and frantic pounding of the roof may have been due to the equally annoying rabbit thing.

'Why does the white Manjuu always side with that brat?'

'Because Syaoran, Mokona and Sakura went outside to spy with Chunhyang. I hope we get some sort of information.'

I looked around the roof, trying to find more debris, which was no longer there, so I made my way around the gap, more importantly the crazed man, and climbed down to the ground using the ladder before starting towards the door back into the house. Kurogane had stopped hammering again, the change of focus in the conversation returning him back to 'normality'.

'But is it ok? That princess is always eating or dizzy.'

He shouldn't forget sleeping. I opened the door and stepped into the room, finding the fruit bowl and taking out a piece of fruit which looked like an apple. Fai had returned into his nostalgic state, not acknowledging my entrance. I don't know how to react to their constant mood swings, serious, annoying, serious, and annoying again. It's like a never ending circle of emotion. I moved towards the window, eating the apple, which tasted extremely sweet, and examined the different ornaments on display whilst Fai continued his waterfall of emotion.

'It's not enough, the feather. She has only got two back and in order to get back all of her memories she will need more. She doesn't have the thought of herself, that's why she came with us without asking why. Even if all the feathers return, the memories she had with Syaoran won't return.'

How the prices varied among us to travel on this bizarre journey still didn't make sense to me, after all, all I gave was some blood whilst another price is a relationship. Maybe the price was based on the need for the wish individually? Despite that, the way in which the witch could erase Syaoran completely from Sakura's memory was interesting; after all, wouldn't she wonder why he was always with her or why she would be having conversations with herself in her memories? Either way, it's none of my concern. I ran my finger over a dusty book, trying to make out the symbols when Fai broke the silence.

'He will still look for them, Syaoran will. To find the feathers and go to different worlds even though there are many challenges ahead… At least, let's wait for people while repairing the house, they might bring presents!'

His mood change was so swift that it seemed like a deliberate attempt to escape the atmosphere which was building. Kurogane's vexation at the sudden change of topic caused him to snap and shout down at the blonde.

'Why are you relaxed and drinking tea? Do something too!'

I turned around, and sure enough, Fai was sitting on the floor, with a hot drink in his hand, doing absolutely nothing.

'Well, I wanted to see blacky working.'

Kurogane was about to throw his hammer in an attempt to inflict some pain on the idiot, which as much as I would have enjoyed watching, it would cause the repair time of the roof to increase. I walked towards where Fai was sitting and pointed at him.

'Kurogane, he isn't worth your time, he never does any work and you are just amusing him with your outbursts.'

Kurogane narrowed his eyes and then started hammering on the roof again whilst I picked up the planks resting on the wall and began to pass them to him. This was Fai's job, but he was too busy enjoying tea and watching the world pass by. There were only a few planks left so I passed them up relatively quickly and then walked towards the back of the room to sit in the corner. Fai had remained silent after I had spoken which I didn't expect, but was grateful for none the less. Although, my brief spell of content was erased when he decided to get up and bring me a cup of tea, which I ignored.

'Don't you like tea?'

It's not the tea I have a problem with, idiot. He then sat down about a meter away from me, placed the tea in front of me and the adopted a thoughtful look.

'Hmmm, I wonder if you might be angry.'

I rested my head against the wall and focused on watching the gap in the ceiling slowly close.

'Maybe you are concerned by something? Someone?'

You, I am annoyed with you. For someone to come out with wise words and then revert into, well an annoying and irritating waste of space is nothing short of bipolar disorder. Fai started to hum and then began tapping his fingers against the floor. Just ignore it, just ignore it, just –tap- ignore –tap- it –tap-… I bought my gaze away from the roof and just raised my eyebrows at him. He stopped tapping and then faked an apologetic face.

'Oh, sorry was I annoying you?'

He grinned and then carried on tapping, and combined with the hammering on the roof, a headache was threatening existence. This guy, he seems to survive on the reaction that he can get from others.

xXx

Kurogane came down from the roof not long after Fai had got bored of tapping. The roof was completely fixed now, so all they could do was wait around for the others to get back from their little mission. It can't have been more than ten, twenty minutes when they came back, by which time I had gone through the store and organised items so it would be more practical for the girl. After all, I had stayed the night in her house and eaten some of her food and I didn't really help that much with the roof, it's a fair exchange. Fai was the first person to acknowledge their return.

'Welcome back! How was it? Since I didn't talk to Kuro-tan or Sammy a lot you didn't go far away, right?'

I walked out of the storage room and saw the three adventurers return, although Syaoran looked slightly damaged and Sakura and Chunhyang didn't seem to be in good spirits either. Fai paused in his welcome back speech, his usual smile faltering slightly at the edges.

'Something happened… I guess…'

Syaoran placed down the basket which seemed to contain clothes and walked in, trailed by Sakura. Chunhyang just stood at the doorway, before clenching her fists and punching the frame, I should take note of her anger management. Maybe if I had punched the desk…

'That bastard!

I assumed she meant pig face. Sakura pulled Syaoran to the centre of the room and made him sit down, blood was running slowly his face and the princess was obviously unsure of what to do, she just kept looking at the wound and then looking around. I decided that I could repay my debt to Syaoran from earlier by sorting his head out, then I would only have to do something for Kurogane and I wouldn't have to owe anyone anything. I walked back inside the store cupboard and picked up a cloth which could be used to stem the bleeding, and then I could see if it would need anything more. I'm not a medical student; I just have common sense, although how common it is might be debatable.

'Sakura, I need you to move so I can mop up this mess.'

I had exited the storage room and made my way over to the pair sitting on the floor. Chunhyang had come inside and sat down, explaining what had happened. I listened whilst I cleaned the blood off from Syaoran's face, the cut was not that bad, and it would probably just close itself up. The group had been returning from the market, when Ryanban's tax collectors and his son were out to get taxes, and an elderly man couldn't pay up. They managed to get in-between a fight and the Ryanban used the same power that he used before, the wind, to injure Syaoran. Sakura was sitting next to Syaoran, every so often asking if his head hurt and looked distressed. It annoyed me, so I stood up and handed the cloth to Sakura. She took it and then looked at me for help.

'Oh, uh, what should I do?'

'Just lightly dab it on the wound, until the bleeding stops.'

She pressed the cloth on his head and she did exactly what I said.

'So, like this?'

I nodded and then walked to the back of the room and sat down, away from any doors which might swing open due to unnatural circumstances. Chunhyang had gone quite, which meant she had finished explaining.

'Oh, you got beaten up by the Ryanban's winds again.' Fai added.

Kurogane had been sitting against the wall playing with a chip from a game, unusually quiet considering fighting seems to be his speciality, and he asked a pretty blunt and ignorant question.

'But, after getting beaten up that bad, why won't she beat up the Ryanban right now?'

Chunhyang clenched her fists again and raised her voice.

'I tried to! Lots of times! But you can't lay a finger on the Ryanban! The palace that Ryanban lives in has secret spells that nobody can penetrate.'

'So,' Fai stated as he leaned over to where Mokona was sitting 'that's the mysterious power that Mokona felt.'

Mokona franticly nodded.

'There's a lot of that mysterious power, and I can't figure out if any of it is from the feathers.'

Fai grinned and a slight glint in his eye suggested a bad idea was about to pop up.

'How about the son? Take him as a hostage or something?'

Syaoran seemed shocked, Mokona thought Fai was cool and Kurogane and I took the correct response of finding his words slightly disturbing.

'…You just said a really bad thing happily.'

Fai descended from his crazy ideas and simply said 'huh?'

Chunhyang shock her head and objected to the idea.

'No! The Ryanban uses the secret weapon to defend the palace, if we did something to his son…'

We would probably be injured severely or killed, probably the latter.

'Yesterday and today, Syaoran received attacks from the secret weapon.' Fai had returned to his psychological and deep side… again. 'From what I heard, a year ago, the Ryanban suddenly got a lot of power.' I can see where this is going… 'Does it have to do with Sakura's feathers?'

Syaoran stood up, suddenly in action, desperate to find the feathers, although Kurogane looked perplexed.

'It does not match, the feathers of the memories were scattered recently, right?'

So if this power was realised a year ago, it couldn't be Sakura's feather. Fai had other ideas, and slowly turned his head away from looking at Syaoran and focused on Kurogane instead.

'The dimensions are different, so maybe time passes differently too.'

Which would mean the feather could have landed here at the same time that all the other feathers were scattered, yet as time moves quicker and slower in different dimensions, the time period of the feather being in a dimension could be any amount. Syaoran turned towards the door and started to make his way out.

'I'll go check if the feather is at the Ryanban's.'

Sakura quickly grabbed onto his sleeve and shouted.

'Wait! Syaoran, you're hurt…'

I actually agreed with Sakura for once, the bleeding still hadn't stopped and he may have a concussion, which would mean he would be useless in a fight. I took too long debating about saying something, and Syaoran had already turned and smiled at the princess.

'I'm fine.'

This just caused Sakura to hold onto his arm tighter. 'But…' He smiled again. 'Don't worry! If the feather is really there, I will go get it for you.'

Sakura mumbled his name, but she could see her case was lost. I have seen people like Syaoran before, no matter what you say to them, if they have a goal, nothing will stop them. Although, most of these people didn't have goals like his, they were more focused on causing disruptions or perusing their goal of becoming famous so they could have happiness, idiots.

'Wait a bit.' Fai held up his hand to stop syaoran progressing any further. 'Do not worry, I am not going to stop you, but, Ryanban's secret powers are very strong, so just going there won't work. You need to at least break the spell at the entrance.'

Considering Fai seems to know so much, he must be able to do something. After all, he can use magic.

'You can use magic Fai, right?'

'Can you do anything?' Kurogane asked, finishing off my point.

'Nope, not at all!'

So, he can talk and give great theories, but he can't do anything, because that's useful. But now the word hypocrite is swirling around in my head. Mokona jumped around and shouted.

'Let's ask Yuuko!'

As Mokona spoke, a beam of light emerged from the red crystal on her head and an image of the witch formed.

'Oh, Mokona, what is it?'

'She spoke!' The sudden appearance of the witch caused most of the group to freak out, I couldn't understand why, surely they would have realised by now that anything can and will happen?

'Mokona is really useful, right Kuro-tan! We can speak to people from other worlds!'

Kurogane didn't seem to happy to see the witch again. 'Agh! Useful has its limits too!'

Whilst the others argued amongst themselves, I focused my attention on Yuuko.

'They need a way into a palace that is protected by strong magic spells.'

Yuuko shut her eyes and smiled, although it wasn't a smile which you could call "friendly and reassuring". 'I see. So you want to break the spell and go into the castle.'

Fai halted his argument and beamed. 'Yes!'

'But you don't have to ask me. Can't you use spells Fai?'

He shrugged. 'I gave you the core of my powers.'

'The tattoo that I got is "the core to keep in the powers". Your powers, it's not it.'

'But still, I have a rule not to use spells without it.' Fai's smile faltered again, and his reason for not using his power didn't make much sense. But, whatever the real reason is, it's not my problem to worry about.

'Fine, I'll send you something that can break the spell of the palace, but I must get something of value.'

Syaoran quickly started to get up. 'Is there anything I can give…'

'How about this?' Fai walked over to the storage room and bought out his staff. 'It's used for spells but I don't use it.'

The witch nodded. 'Fine, give it to Mokona.'

I looked at Mokona, and then the staff, trying to figure out how Mokona would get the staff to Yuuko. Maybe some sort of transportation spell, if it exists, or maybe-

'Paku!'

Well, expect the unexpected. Mokona swallowed the staff whole, whilst Chunhyang and Sakura carried on with their freak out session.

'Is it really ok Fai?' Syaoran seemed to be concerned that he hadn't paid the price.

'Oh, no problem.'

Mokona blinked and then spat out a ball which was swiftly caught by Syaoran. It was black and had swirls which were constantly moving.

'This' Syaoran stated. 'Is the thing that breaks the secret power…'

'Yes, now I must be off, I have… Business to attend to.'

With that the image flickered out of existence and the group started to get ready to leave for the castle.

xXx

I tugged at the clothes which I was wearing, they were not the type clothing which I was used to wearing. I had a pair of trousers and an under top which was covered by a robe which had to be folded around and then held together with a band around the waist. Apparently, Sakura had won the clothes in the market when she played a game rolling dice and she scored the highest score possible on every single throw. The probability of that happening is extremely unlikely, but it can happen. They keep saying its luck; I don't think there is such a thing called luck. I had just walked out after getting changed and Fai looked up from gazing at some of the ornaments.

'Good, so you ready to go?'

'What?' I thought I was going to be staying back with Sakura and Chunhyang.

'Are you ready to go?' He repeated himself; he must have thought I had not heard him.

'No, I didn't think I would be going as I can't find a logical reason as to why I should go. I can't fight so I would just be a liability.'

He shrugged. 'You're coming.'

'And your reasoning for this?' "You're coming" is hardly a reason which would win an argument.

'We need someone that can talk their way out of things and you're part of the group.' That seemed rehearsed.

So I'm part of the "group"? To be honest, they didn't need anyone who could talk their way out of things, Fai could do that. For that reason alone, I didn't bother getting out of going; the conversation would have gone full circle.

'Fine, but don't blame me if I get in the way.'

He smiled and then started to walk out of the house. 'Ok, sure thing!'

I followed him out and everyone else was outside waiting.

Chunhyang punched the air, I had kept them waiting too long whilst I tried to work out how to put the clothes on. 'Great, let's go!'

'You're not coming.' In what seemed to be an opposite parallel, Fai was the one to speak. How his logic worked was beyond me, the girl could fight and had a reason to.

'No! I want to go to Ryanban's palace too!' Chunhyang pointed at me. 'She's going, and she can't fight!' If she yelled any louder my ears would bleed, although I couldn't help but nod.

Fai attempted to calm her down. 'The Ryanban's castle is under a spell, it will be very dangerous.'

'I know that already, I want to come!'

'Hmm, that's quite a headache.' Fai turned around to see if Kurogane had anything to add, but he just looked away. 'I'm no good with kids.'

Mokona and Fai laughed. 'That's because you're the type that is easily embarrassed.' Mokona echoed his words. 'Easily embarrassed!'

Chunhyang turned towards Syaoran after realising she wouldn't convince the other two.

'Please let me come with you! I want to defeat the Ryanban! I want avenge my mother!' She was now screaming in his face, not an effective method of persuasion. 'We'll go together! It's alright, right! Syaoran!'

He pushed her hand away and started walking out towards the path which would eventually lead to the palace. 'No. You will wait here with princess Sakura.'

I followed the three of them as we started our walk to the palace, leaving a crying girl behind us.

'It's all right if we go together.' Fai had a quick look back over his shoulder and then turned to Syaoran. 'You didn't want to bring Chunhyang with us because you didn't want to trouble her anymore. She lets foreigners stay in her house, and yet she can't come with us.'

'You could have left me back there too.' After all, Sakura has hardly any of her memories and she is looking after another girl. It doesn't seem to add up to logic.

Fai put his fingers in his ears and started humming. 'What was that Sammy, I can't hear you!'

Kurogane grinned. 'Who cares, all we have to do is defeat those Ryanban guys.'

Fai unblocked his ears. 'And then, if the Ryanban really has Sakura's feather…'

'I will take it back.' Syaoran quickened his pace and we continued on towards the palace.

xXx

After about half an hours worth of walking we arrived at the gates which protected the castle. A huge door looked to be the entrance of the stone fortress, and the palace was visible from where I was standing, it looked like a vast system of buildings. For somewhere which was supposed to have a lot of power, it didn't look protected, but what do I know about magic?

'This is it.' Syaoran looked around and began to walk towards the door, although he wasn't moving quick enough for Kurogane.

'Let's go then!'

He ran towards the doors and then managed to push them open, although he didn't hear Fai's warning. 'You shouldn't just push open the door…'

Just as he finished his sentence the doors opened to reveal clouds and the town above our heads, it was almost like I could have been flying.

'Huh?' Kurogane obviously didn't expect that to be behind the doors, whilst Mokona took delight to the situation. 'It's amazing! We are up in the sky!'

'The castle is being protected by spells, Kuro-pun is impatient don't you think?'

Fai was greeted by a "shut up", but he ignored it so he could explain the situation.

'Not just this entrance, I suppose the other entrances are like this as well. That's why, it's time for the present that the dimensional witch gave us to make an appearance!'

'It was hardly a present.' Fai gave his staff in exchange, if he hadn't already forgotten. Syaoran pulled out the ball and both he and Kurogane looked at it, completely clueless as to what they should do with it. I had no idea on how they would use it either.

Kurogane looked closer at it, as if it was going to give him an idea on how to use it. 'How are we supposed to use this, it looks like a ball to me.'

'Throw it!' Mokona exclaimed. 'Throw it with all your strength, throw it into the castle!'

Syaoran looked at the ball and then at the castle. 'But, Mokona if I throw this away…'

'It's ok!'

Syaoran took one last look at the ball and then threw it up into the air. At first, I thought he had thrown it wrong, because it just came back down towards him and it didn't reach the castle walls. Before I could question what he was doing, however, he kicked the ball when it came close enough and it smashed into the previously invisible barrier. I can only describe it as a glass dome which has been broken and it started to collapse, meaning the barrier was now gone and we could enter the castle.

xXx

'We got in ok, but how long are we supposed to walk around this hallway?'

Kurogane was getting bored from all the walking and no action by the sounds of it. I was surprised that nothing had attacked us yet, but the never ending corridor had something off about it. Fai was trying to find a door which would lead out of the corridor.

'I'm doing all I can, but I still can't figure out where it leads to. There isn't even a door.'

Mokona jumped from Fai's shoulder to Kurogane's head. 'Kurogane is so useless!' A bad move by the creature, as Kurogane just got even more wound up. 'Stop perching on people's heads!'

'We just came back to the same spot.' I turned around and saw Syaoran looking down at the floor.

Kurogane agreed. 'It does look like we are back in the same place.'

Fai didn't. 'Eh, but we have been walking along a straight hall.'

Syaoran bent down and picked up a stone, I had seen him put it down earlier but I didn't know why. This kid is pretty smart. 'I dropped this at the entrance of the hall.'

'Hyuu! Syaoran is good.' Did I hear that right, he just made up a word.

Kurogane heard it too. 'You just said hyuu with your mouth, that isn't whistling.'

'I don't know how to whistle!' How, how can you not know how to whistle?

Kurogane crossed his arms. 'Damn, we are wasting our time walking around in circles like this.'

Mokona sighed. 'I'm tired to death!' This wasn't met well with Kurogane. 'You haven't walked a single bit!'

My attention during their argument was more focused on Fai, who had his hand up against a wall and had his eyes shut and was floating slightly, I thought he wouldn't use his magic. At the end of their argument Fai opened his eyes. '…Is it here?'

We moved over to where Fai was standing and Syaoran asked the question we wanted to know the answer to. 'Did you find anything?'

He nodded. 'This kind of magic only exists in places where magical powers are the strongest.'

This seemed to lift Kurogane's mood. 'Oh? Perhaps the Ryanban is in here?'

'I'm not sure, but you can feel a strong power here as well, no?' I couldn't feel any kind of power at all, was I supposed to? 'Come on Kuro-puu its time to show off your strength and break the wall!'

Kurogane didn't look like he want to break the wall just yet. 'Shouldn't you be unable to use magic?'

Fai smiled and shut his eyes. 'This isn't magic, its intuition!'

Kurogane seemed to drop the interrogation and ran towards the wall before punching it. I didn't expect the wall to break, but it crumbled away like it was made out of sand. As we walked through the hole in the wall I tapped a part which was still standing and I was amazed to think that anyone could punch through something like that. A huge cavernous room appeared before us when we walked through, and in the centre, hidden behind a curtain of transparent fabric was an extremely bizarre woman dressed in a long black dress and a vast amount of jewellery.

'You have finally arrive, you nameless wanderers.'

Her voice resonated through the room and made one phrase go through my mind. This is bad.

'Who are you?' Kurogane was the first of us to speak, breaking the lingering remains of her voice.

'After one hundred years of history, humans are still so similar to insects. Be careful how you use that mouth. That is what I would like to say, but I have guests so I will tolerate it.'

Kurogane didn't seem to care, he was getting impatient. 'What are you saying? How annoying, just quickly spit out where the Ryanban is.' Fai and Mokona added their piece to his speech. 'Kuro-pin, you are too impatient!'

'Really cute little children.'

Being the idiots they are, Fai and Mokona seemed happy at the praise.

Syaoran stepped forward to talk to the woman. 'We are seeking something that may be in this castle, so could you please tell us where the Ryanban is?'

She bought her hand up to his face and Syaoran's eye was shown between her long fingernails.

'You do have very pleasant eyes… Very bright…' What was that supposed to mean? 'But, I can't answer your question. And I can not let you pass this place.'

Fai let out a small laugh, which didn't sound reassuring. 'Uh… why? I get the impression that you will be rough with us so we can't pass.'

'Right.'

Her eyes seemed to sparkle and then the scenery transformed. The ceiling moved further away, the ground became a purple lake and did I mention we were standing on pillars made of rock, extremely high up. If any of us fell, well, night night.

Kurogane seemed quite at home on his pillar, observing the scenery with disinterest. '...An illusion?'

'No! This is no illusion otherwise this would just be pretty, and I can assure you' She lifted her hand and flicked a ball of water towards Syaoran. 'it's not just pretty!'

The water made contact with Syaoran's sleeve and he gasped. 'It melted?'

This isn't just water, it has to be some sort of acid.

'Because the damage my secret art inflicts is real.'

Fai tried a small chuckle, and failed. 'So if we get badly hurt…'

'You die.'

And this is why I didn't want to come.