Chapter 3
"Ok, you guys and girl won't get anything done sitting in your rooms. You have to start searching for Sakura's feather so go out into the neighborhood and look" Sorata chimed the next morning.
"Okay!" Fai sang as Mokona perched on his shoulder, Cheresa and Syaoran both said a quick "fine" where as Kurogane said nothing.
"Oh no!" Sorata exclaimed looking at his watch, "it's about time for my lesson to start! If you walk around, I think you'll begin to figure out what this kudan talk is about"
"Kudan's are beings that come from inside us I think" Cheresa said "Timmy would be able to explain it better then me though" she added.
Arashi walked up to Syaoran who was staring at the window of Sakura's room "I'll stay by Sakura-san's side for you"
"Thank you" Syaoran said, Cheresa walked over to them "what about my lazy ass friend?" she asked, she heard a growl come from inside the house and saw Tamara step out "Cheresa, if I didn't need this ice pack, you would be wearing it" she growled motioning to the ice pack she held against her head.
"Right, I'll keep that in mind" Cheresa said before sidestepping away from her friend.
"Is that white thing coming too?" Kurogane asked, speaking for the first time that morning, Cheresa gasped "holy shit, I thought he turned into a mute!" she exclaimed, Tamara snickered "a what?" Kurogane growled "never mind" Cheresa waved it off.
"Mokona isn't a white thing! Mokona is Mokona!" Mokona shouted jumping onto Kurogane's shoulder.
"You have to take Mokona Kurogane, otherwise you won't find the feather" Tamara commented, Sorata nodded "that's right, oh here buy some lunch while you're out too" he said handing Syaoran a wallet.
"Wait! Why are you giving it to the kid?!" Kurogane growled "because he's the most trustworthy" Sorata replied, as Kurogane snapped at him Tamara felt like her head was splitting in two.
She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder "are you okay?" Tamara turned around to find Fai looking at her with one of his fake smiles, Tamara frowned "I'm fine, just a headache and please don't smile those fake smiles at me" she replied, Fai's smile faltered "don't worry, I'm not the only one to notice they're fake, Fai I told you all that I knew your pasts, I wasn't kidding, I know the real reason you're here besides Ashura, all the lies you've already told and wish for you to stop but don't worry I won't tell" she added, turning around she sighed "alright have fun guys, be careful and I'll see you later" Tamara said louder with a fake smile of her own, she waved then went inside to grab some more ice for her head uhh I'm a hipocrite.
Fai stood there looking at the spot Tamara was standing at until he heard Kurogane's voice "Oi Mage! You coming?" he asked, Fai snapped out of his daze "coming Kuro-puu" he sang running over to them.
~^(*)^~
Cheresa lent against the bridge railing as the boys argued over what fruit was what at the apple stall "are you going to by the damned fruit or not?" she called out and Mokona piped up "buy 'em"
Cheresa sighed "about time" she said as the others walked towards her, Syaoran handed her an apple "thanks Syaoran-kun" she bit into the apple and noticed something "hey Syaoran-kun can I check something?" she asked, he looked at her confused but nodded, Cheresa walked up to him and hugged him.
After a while she let go "the chain didn't appear like it usually does" she said not noticing the blush on Syaoran's cheeks "I wonder why" Fai wondered biting into his apple "these apples are pretty tasty huh?"
"yes/yep" Syaoran and Cheresa said at the same time.
"I guess it's really true that all of us come from different dimensions" Fai said "come to think of it, I never asked… how did you get to the dimension witch, Syaoran-kun? You said there was no magic in your land"
"There's a high priest in my land, he sent me" Syaoran replied.
"That's impressive, it's hard enough to send one person across dimensions but he sent two, how about you Kuro-rin?" Fai asked looking over at Kurogane as Cheresa snickered.
"The princess of my country sent me away by force" he replied "you did something bad and she did it to scold you!" Fai teased as he and Mokona laughed "will you shut up!" Kurogane shouted "actually…" Cheresa said getting everyone's attention "Timmy said that she sent him away for a reason he needs, but that's all I remember" she explained.
"Anyway, what about you, mage? Who sent you?" Kurogane asked.
"Me?" Fai asked "no one, I sent myself there"
"Then you didn't have to ask the woman for anything! You could done this yourself!" Kurogane growled glaring at Mokona who jumped on his shoulder.
"Not even close, were I to muster all of my magical abilities, just getting myself from one dimension to the next world would take everything I can do.
The one who sent Syaoran-kun and the one who sent you, Kuro-chin…" Kurogane jerked forward in anger causing Mokona to fall off his shoulder, but Fai ignored him and continued "are people with a lot of magic power, but… I'll bet it took all they had.
I imagine anyone has the power to send someone to another world only once, that's the reason your high priest sent you to the witch's place.
It would take going to a lot of worlds to be able to collect all of Sakura-chan's feathers, and I think the only one who can send someone to many worlds is the dimension witch" Fai explained, Syaoran stared at his apple while Cheresa frowned feeling something off about what Fai just said and made a mental note to ask Tamara later.
"Aaaaaaah!"
"What was that?" Cheresa asked as they turned towards the noise.
~^(*)^~
Tamara put on the dress Arashi lent her and pulled her hair into a ponytail, sighing she walked out of her room and downstairs.
At the door she put her shoes on and was about to walk out when she heard Arashi "you're not going out are you?" she asked, Tamara turned to her and gave her a fake smile "I need some fresh air and sunlight, don't worry I feel fine" she said and left before Arashi could protest.
She walked over to the market place she knew the others walked through about 15minutes ago, seeing the apple vendor she went over and brought an apple with the change Sorata gave her earlier in case she went for a walk.
Snacking on her apple she watched Syaoran save Masayoshi and laughed at Syaoran's face when Masayoshi's kudan vanished and at Kurogane's face when he saw Mokona with the school girls.
Tamara was about to walk off when she was stopped by a roadblock "hey you're the girl from last night, aren't you?" a guy asked her, Tamara looked at him then gasped as she realized that it was the guy she insulted last night and his crew again "oh my god you look even worse during the day, how can you stand to walk around knowing that your blinding people at the sight of you" she cried quiet enough so the Cheresa and the others wouldn't hear her "why you-"
"Look, so your tiny brain doesn't have to come up with a simple comeback why don't we settle this with a battle" she suggested wanting to kick their asses so bad.
"A kudan battle?" the leader asked.
"No a monopoly battle, of course a kudan battle you dipshit" she growled "Shut up!" he yelled, Tamara smirked "I'd be quiet if I were you because the guy that kicked your ass last night is just over there and we don't want him hearing and coming over to kick your ass again, and this time he might use his kudan which is a special level kudan" she said pointing to Kurogane who was walking off with the group.
"Well let's go then" the leader said walking off, Tamara walked after him and the rest of his group walked behind her.
When they reached a deserted area Tamara looked around "where is this?" she asked, the leader laughed "it's a deserted kudan battle area and its too far for you too yell out to anyone" he said with an evil grin "oh you're the one going to be yelling" Tamara replied as the guy brought out his kudan.
Tamara closed her eyes and felt her kudan appear "I am ready" Asshina said, Tamara opened her eyes and saw Asshina sitting in front of her with water swirling around her "Asshina this fight is for me this time, is that okay?" Tamara asked, Asshina turned to her "when I chose you I knew there would be some times where you had to fight for yourself and not your friends so its okay" she said, Tamara smiled "then let's fight" she said feeling confident.
The leader laughed "well I'd say you're out numbered" he said with a grin "and I'd say you obviously still haven't tried a tic tac cause your breath is worse then poison gas" Tamara teased waving her hand in front of her face
The leader looked like steam could come out of his ears "that's it no mercy what so ever, guys come on out" he growled, Tamara looked in disbelief as about 15 other guys came out "now that's not fair, 19 onto 1 how cruel, I can't believe you want to be even more embarrassed by losing more people to one little girl" she smirked at the look on the leaders face "look I'll give you until I say 5 to leave 1… 2… 5" Asshina let a huge tidal wave loose taking out 7 of the guys "hmm 12 left" Tamara counted smiling sweetly "you said 5 seconds not 3" the leader shouted "no I never said anything about counting to five I just said until I say five silly" Tamara said innocently.
"Fine attack!" the leader shouted, the group attacked Asshina and Tamara dodged some of the attacks and Asshina blocked the rest.
One of the attacks got past Asshina and went straight for Tamara "Asshina!" Tamara yelled out, Asshina turned and sent her water towards Tamara which created a barrier that absorbed the attack "now!" the leader shouted and sent his kudan at Asshina, turned in time to fling her arm out to take the kudans bite "Asshina!" Tamara cried out in worry ignoring the bite mark appearing on her own arm "now you've done it" she said quietly looking down.
"Huh?" the leader said not hearing her, Tamara started emitting a murderous aura that made some of the members start to shake "wh-what's going on?" the leader asked taking a step back "what's going on you ask?" Tamara said lifting her head "you've pissed me off is what's going on!" she shouted, she lifted her arm and using Asshina's water shot a few water disks that took out 3 more kudan "I'm going to kill everyone of you" she stated clearly "shut up! Attack all around her!" the leader ordered getting a bit worried, the 9 people left spread out and started shooting energy bullets at her.
Tamara put the water shield around her as Asshina attacked one of the men from behind, Tamara let down the shield when the attacks stopped but on of the men had delayed his attack and had waited until she let down the shield before he attacked, his attack hit her in the leg "aah!" Tamara cried out as she fell to one knee.
"Oi! You're going to pay for hurting my best friend you asshole!" A voice shouted from behind Tamara, she turned around as best she could to see Cheresa walking towards them with a black wolf that was as big as the wolves in 'Twilight' "Ch-Cheresa?! What are you doing here?" Tamara asked "well I was about to leave with the others when I saw some cool dress at a stall and when I looked in the mirror I saw you rounding a corner with these thugs and I decided to follow so I ran to the others to tell them I had to do something and then raced after you but I got a bit lost so I had to ask Shadowfang here for help" she explained patting the wolfs side "I could have handled it" Tamara muttered "but your injured, from last night and now so Shadowfang, attack!" Cheresa ordered, Shadowfang jumped at the closest kudan and sunk his teeth into its back.
Cheresa came over to Tamara and helped her up "you know you shouldn't of came Cheresa, I wouldn't be able to keep control if you got hurt" Tamara said, Cheresa smirked "was that your murderous aura I felt before?" she asked, Tamara nodded "they hurt Asshina" she stated "Asshina?" Cheresa questioned, Tamara pointed to the mermaid who was holding water to her arm wound "Asshina what are you doing?" Tamara asked "I'm numbing my wound, would you like me to do yours?" Asshina replied "umm okay, thank you" Tamara said, Asshina came over to Tamara and held the water ball against Tamara's leg, Cheresa looked over at Shadowfang to see how she was going, to find out she had taken out 4 kudans.
Asshina moved to numb the arm wound Tamara had but Tamara grabbed Asshina's wrist and shook her head before looking at Cheresa who was concentrating on the battle at hand "thank you Asshina but no, I don't want Cheresa knowing about this wound, go back and rest" she said with a soft smile "alright" Asshina said before disappearing, Cheresa turned around and blinked a couple of times "where's Asshina?" she asked looking around "she went back" Tamara replied "oh okay well let's go" she said walking off towards the alleyway she came through earlier.
On the way Tamara started arguing with Cheresa about following her when she wasn't suppose to and about interrupting the fight, following Cheresa into a restaurant she argued more "you didn't have to follow me I had everything under control" she said.
"It didn't look like you did when I turned up" Cheresa countered walking off to the other side of the restaurant "I took out 12 of the 19 people I was up against before you came" Tamara growled "yes but you got your leg injured"
"My leg's fine! Asshina healed it" Tamara said loudly.
"No she only numbed it, hey guys you finished yet?" Cheresa asked the group sitting at the table, Tamara mentally slapped herself she forgot the guys were in here and had been rambling out loud about fighting someone "yeah... uh is everything alright?" Syaoran asked "oh everything's fine Timmy here was just about to thank me for saving her butt" Cheresa said cheerfully, the guys looked over at Tamara to see her giving Cheresa an icy glare "she's going to give you something alright and my guess is its not a thank you" Kurogane said getting up "oh come on she has to thank me I saved her from getting killed" Tamara let off some of her murderous aura "Cheresa, by the time you had got there I had already taken out around ¾ of the group all you did was take out the last 7 remaining which I could have done myself" she growled.
"But you were injured!" Cheresa complained "and my leg is fine, see" Tamara said kicking her "ow!"
"See didn't hurt me at all" Tamara grinned "but it hurt me" Cheresa muttered "did you say something?" Tamara asked smiling sweetly, Cheresa shook her head "nope nothing"
"Okay let's go then" she said grinning like a cat.
They left the shop and started walking down the street "Masayoshi-kun, can you please be our guide today?" Tamara asked "sure I'll have to call home first" he replied "you go do that we will be here when you get back" Cheresa said and Masayoshi ran off.
"So brat what are you doing out here anyway?" Kurogane asked "well I got bored sitting on my ass, don't know how you can do it Chi, and decided to come find you guys, I found you before but the guys I met last night blocked my way and demanded battle so I had no choice but to go with them and then Chi here came and 'helped' me and my kudan and now that I'm with you I can watch the cool battle now" she explained "battle?" Fai wondered "yep, have fun!" she sang and walked off to the side.
"I wanna know who this 'Syaoran' is!" A guy shouted causing everyone to look at him.
"You have business with him?" Fai asked "are you the one Shogo said he 'liked your style'?!" the guy asked "and what if I am?" Fai asked.
"I'm Syaoran" Syaoran said stepping forward "a little kid? Are you serious?!" the guy shouted "no he's the guy! I'm sure of it!" one of his teammates shouted.
"And your plan is to join Shogo's team?" the guy asked "team?" Syaoran question "Oi fatso, get to the point" Tamara shouted "hey you girl, shut up!" fatso shouted "humph" Tamara glared at the fat guy.
"Shogo already has too many top-level people on his team! Any more will tip the balance-!"
"I think you will tip any balance by yourself!" Tamara shouted, when he looked at her she was already looking away whistling.
"Even Shogo admitted that you have a really strong kudan" the fat guy continued "if you intend to join Shogo's team, I'm gonna have to stop you!" he shouted pointing at Syaoran "I'm not joining" Syaoran stated "then you'll join my team?" the fat guy asked hopeful "I'm not joining you either" Syaoran stated again.
"He doesn't mince words does he?" Fai asked no one in particular.
"I have my own affairs so…"Syaoran started "then you're planning to start a team of you own!"
"No, you're not getting-"
"Well, I'm going to take you out right now!" Fatso shouted calling forth his crab like kudan "that's huge!" Fai, Mokona and Cheresa said in unison.
"I'm not doing any such thing!" Syaoran shouted barely dodging the crabs attack.
"Not a good listener is he?" Fai said stepping forward only to be stopped by Kurogane "I've been pretty bored here, I'll take you on!" Kurogane said taking the stage, so to speak.
"Kurogane's been looking forward to this" Mokona told Fai "the Hanshin Republic is just his style huh?" Fai replied "shut up, over there!" Kurogane shouted pointing to the two.
"But Kurogane-san! You gave your sword to that woman…" Syaoran started.
"That sword was magic. It was special. And in my Japan, I needed it to kill the monsters that lived there, but kudan aren't monsters" Kurogane told him "what level is your kudan?" fatso asked "I don't know and I don't care" Kurogane replied "what's all the talk for? Come and get me"
"Typical Kurogane reply" Tamara said and looked at Cheresa to find her crouched down and rummaging through her bag "what are you doing?" she asked "looking for something" Cheresa replied "what?"
"These" Cheresa said bringing out pompoms, Tamara sweat dropped "you've got to be kidding" she said "nope, here you go" Cheresa said holding out two pompoms "I'm not doing that" Tamara said flatly "yes you are because if you don't I'm going to burn your books and you know I'm the only person who can beat you in a real fight" Tamara's jaw dropped as she realized that Cheresa was right "crap" she said taking the pompoms.
"Eat this! Crab-pot revolution" Fatso shouted gaining the girls attention, they looked towards the others to see Kurogane dodge the attack "yay, go Kurogane!" Cheresa cheered, Tamara started going red in the face when she noticed people looking including Fai and Syaoran "I can't do this Chi" she said looking down "yes you can, you're one of the best cheerers I know" Cheresa stated "but that was ages ago" Tamara replied "oh well I guess the books are going in the fire"
"No, please Chi" Tamara begged "well cheer"
Tamara looked around noticing people still looking, she sigh "go Kurogane-san, I know you can win this! Trust me" she shouted muttering the last part to herself "there we go" Cheresa said and looked back over in time to see Kurogane get hit by the crabs attack "Kurogane/-san!" Cheresa and Syaoran shouted out "Cheresa look out!" Tamara shouted pushing her out of the way as a huge part of the pillar fell where she was standing "Timmy!" Cheresa shouted, Tamara looked up to see her own pillar part coming at her, she quickly moved her hands in a semi circle over the top of her head creating her water barrier that absorbed the lump of stone.
"Wow that was cool!" Cheresa said and Tamara swore she could see sparkles in her eyes.
"Hey what about Kurogane?" Cheresa wondered turning to see Kurogane emerge from the rubble "woohoo! Come on Kurogane!" Cheresa cheered "Show him how to kick someone's ass!" Tamara shouted, Cheresa looked at Tamara then burst out laughing "Cheresa look" Tamara said pointing to Kurogane where his kudan appeared right behind him "WOW!" she screamed and Tamara snickered before pulling a camera out of her pocket and taking a photo of the kudan and Kurogane "why did you do that?" Cheresa asked "because I want to make a scrapbook" Tamara replied "look Kurogane's final attack" Cheresa said jumping up and down "you mean his only attack" Tamara muttered to herself as Kurogane defeated the crab "yay you did it!" Cheresa cheered walking over to them "of course I did" Kurogane boasted.
"What'd I tell ya, you suck with out your sword" Tamara said wiping the grin off Kurogane's face "why you-"
"Well done anyway" Tamara said cutting Kurogane off, putting the pompoms in Cheresa's hands she walked over to Kurogane and made Asshina create her healing bubble in her hands "what are you doing?!" Kurogane asked, Tamara scowled "I'm numbing your wounds, so even if they don't hurt shut up and let me help" she told him before going back to work.
When she finished she stood back and let Kurogane move "all done" she said "good" Kurogane replied, Tamara's jaw dropped, frowning she walked up to him, stomped on his foot then turned and walked off "ow! What was that for?!" Kurogane shouted, Tamara just ignored him and kept walking
~^(*)^~
Tamara closed the door to the house and walked up stairs mumbling to herself "damn jerk, even if he doesn't want it he should still thank me for helping him, the bastard" she growled walking into her room. (Cheresa: sound familiar people?)
She lay down on her bed and fell into a light sleep.
{A few hours later}
Knock, knock
Tamara opened her eyes and slowly sat up "come in" she said yawning, the door opened and Fai stuck his head in "dinner's ready, you going to come down?" he asked, Tamara shook her head "no, I'm not hungry and this time if Cheresa asks you to bring me food, refuse because I won't eat it even if I wanted to, looking at food today makes me feel sick" Tamara said yawning again "okay, well if you change your mind we're all down stairs"
Fai told her before leaving, Tamara nodded even though he was gone and laid down again and was out like a light.