Part Eleven
I can’t believe I’m so lucky to actually have adventures while on such a simple excursion. I’m glad I brought my video camera. Alas, I didn’t bring any costumes for Sakura-chan. Though I’m really not as obsessive about it anymore. That passed at around fifteen. I’ll admit I was a strange child, but it was completely worth it for the looks on Sakura-chan’s face.
Robert-san is over again. He and Sakura-chan are trying to figure out if there’s any spell they can put on the pendant. They’re batting around ideas with the Mirror Card and the Loop. I’m sure they’ll come up with something. The rest of us are trying to figure out a way to rescue them. That’s the first priority.
“Okay.” Touya has taken charge. “Sakura, you said you could make a copy of the pendant, right?”
Sakura-chan nods seriously. “I can use Mirror or Twin. Either would work.”
Touya considers this. “Use Twin. Safer for the card, that way, since Twin just creates a double, rather than mimicking the pendant itself.”
And Sakura-chan wonders why the Mirror card has a crush on Touya. She confided in me once that a lot of the cards like her brother. He’s very nice to them. Treats them like real people. They really like that.
“But if we use the Twin card, wouldn’t the pendant work?” Kero-chan points out. “I mean, it would be an exact copy. It wouldn’t last forever, but she would be able to use it while she had it.”
There’s a collective moment of silence.
“Mirror Card it is, then,” Touya says, sounding slightly less than pleased.
Sakura-chan nods. “Then what?”
“Well, a few of us should go to the drop. Someone has to stay with the real pendant, some people have to go to the drop, and Tomoyo is going to go rescue Eriol and Yue.” Touya looks around the room. “How is Tomoyo going to find them?”
“Well, I can trace their aura,” Sakura-chan says. “But it would be more of a hot-cold thing. I couldn’t write directions or anything.”
Robert-san speaks up. “Let me teach you a little Western magic.”
A few minutes later, Sakura-chan is sitting with a map of the surrounding countryside and one of Yue’s feathers on a string. They were scattered all over the house, something that made all of us very nervous.
Sakura-chan dangles the string over the map and closes her eyes. According to Robert-san, all she has to do is concentrate on finding Yue, and the feather will swing to the proper place.
Much to my surprise, it does. I suppose I’m too accustomed to complicated magic.
Robert-san takes out a highlighter and traces the path on the map. “Here you go,” he says, handing the map to me.
“So, uh, what are you going to do once you get there?” Li-kun asks me.
Hm. Good question.
“Anyone know how to pick locks?” I ask.
There’s a moment of silence. “Dad does,” Touya volunteers. “He sometimes has to on digs and stuff. We could call him.”
“I want to see how you’re going to explain this, To-ya,” Yukito-san says with an amused smile.
“It’s Dad. He’s grown used to these things.” Touya picks up the phone and calls home. “Hi, Dad . . . oh, we’re fine . . . having a wonderful time . . . can you explain how to pick locks to me? . . . oh, just curious . . . yes, I know I’m not fooling you for a second. Tell me anyway? . . . it’s not illegal, I swear . . . I’m still not fooling you, am I . . . okay, it’s not immoral . . . thank you. Let me get a piece of paper.”
Ten minutes later, I have written instructions on how to pick the lock.
“Do you know how to drive?” Touya asks me.
I nod. “I don’t have my license, though.”
“Then don’t get pulled over.”
Robert-san looks nervous, but volunteers his car for our purposes, which is good because none of the rest of us have one. I tell him I’ll buy him a new car if I wreck it, and he looks slightly more at ease, though a little confused. Maybe I’ll buy him a new one anyway, just for being so nice.
Touya looks around again. “Brat, why don’t you stay here with the pendant.”
Li-kun objects to this. Loudly. Probably more to being called Brat than the obvious request. But he doesn’t want to be separated from Sakura-chan. Which I suppose I can see.
“Fine, fine,” Touya says, sounding irritable. He looks around again. “Kaho, will you stay and guard the pendant?”
She nods.
“Akizuki, you stay too,” Touya says firmly, and talks right over her protest. “We’ll need you here to help Eriol when he gets back.”
That shuts her up. Though I have a feeling that Touya wants Akizuki-san to stay here so she doesn’t . . . interfere with the pseudo-trade. If this woman can defeat Yue, she can most certainly defeat Akizuki-san. We keep forgetting that her energy is also diminished, because she’s so bouncy, but I doubt she could do any grand magic in the shape she’s in.
“I’ll stay too,” Yukito-san volunteers. He probably wants to be here because Mizuki-sensei is not exactly comforting, and Akizuki-san is not exactly level-headed. Yukito-san is both.
Touya looks around. “So, the Brat, Sakura, Spinel, and Kero and I can go to the trade. That should work.”
“Do you think she’ll realize the pendant is fake?” Sakura-chan asks anxiously.
“Hopefully not until she’s far away,” Touya replies.
****
There’s this vaguely horrified feeling in the pit of my stomach. I think I just told Yue that I’m in love with him. I think I’m about to pass out from my own stupidity. Or maybe just go dash my brains out against a handy wall.
I can’t get up. I just start banging my head against the floor.
“What are you doing?” Yue asks, apparently startled out of his shock. How do you startle someone out of shock? I have a headache. I’m not hitting myself hard enough.
“Trying to dash my brains out on the floor,” I say.
Yue waits until I pick my head up, then slides the pillow between my head and the floor. Sneaky little twit. “Why?”
“Because. I’m an idiot.”
Yue blinks. And blinks some more. “Did you not mean it?”
“No! I mean -- that’s not the point!” Oh Lord. Just kill me now. “I meant it, I just didn’t mean to say it!” I roll over and bury my face in the pillow.
He’s not saying anything, damn it. I’m not sure what I want him to say, but sitting there in silence isn’t it.
“You’re not going to die.”
Out of all this, he picks that. “I might. I will eventually.”
“Yes, but that’s not how you were phrasing it,” he says. “You meant immediate death.”
“If she gets her pendant back, it’s going to be immediate,” I snap. Great. Now I’m snapping at him.
“The Mistress wouldn’t let you die,” Yue says, utmost confidence in his voice.
“She will if you’re the sacrifice,” I say. My voice is muffled by the pillow. I feel really terrible. Sakura-san always wants to save everyone. But sometimes it just isn’t possible.
“She wouldn’t let you die,” Yue repeats.
I wave my hand vaguely in the air. “And that, Yue, is why she’s such a better master for you than Clow was. She inspires confidence. I don’t inspire anything.”
“You inspire love.”
Did he just say that? I look up. He’s blushing again. And staring at the floor. He definitely said it. What the hell did he mean by it?
I manage to sit up. Go, me. Where the hell are my glasses now? I find them and put them on. Try to think of something to say. Can’t think of anything. Try harder, damn it. “Do I? Or did Clow?”
“Both,” Yue says. “But we’re talking about you. Not him.”
Did he just say that? I think my brain is going to cave in. “He didn’t love you as anything but a son. You know that, right?”
“Yes.”
I wish Yue would just come out and say what he’s thinking. He’s making me guess, and not only is it difficult, but I have this vague feeling he finds my floundering amusing. I don’t know what to say, other than to just tell him everything, and I’m still debating over whether or not that’s a good idea. Despite his confidence in Sakura-san, I could very well die before all this is over.
“You . . . you know that’s not how I love you, right?”
Yue blinks. “No. I don’t know.”
I take a deep breath. Deathbed confessions are better than no confessions at all. “Well. It isn’t.” Oh, that was wonderful. Next time someone compliments my way with words, I’m going to laugh at them.
“That’s good,” Yue says. “I don’t love you like a father.”
I’m not sure I like the sound of that. “Do you love me at all?”
Yue gives me a look. “I thought that was obvious.”
I can’t help but be skeptical. But asking whether he loves me or Clow is just a bad idea. He’s already shown he differentiates between the two of us. I shouldn’t push my luck. But I still don’t know what to think. He seems to have completely come to terms with this, but he isn’t acting any different. But there’s someone else that Yue loved.
“What about Touya?”
“What about him?” Yue asks. Damn him.
“You were in love with him. Don’t deny it.”
“Why would I?”
I’m going to throttle him. As soon as I can move. He’s definitely laughing at me. “You just have a propensity to do things like that. Now answer my question. And don’t ask what my question was. You know what I mean.”
“Yes, I loved him. I still love him. But he belongs to Yukito. And I’d rather be with you.”
I think my brain just froze. Somehow, all I can manage to say is, “Really?”
Yue gives me a strange look. Probably because I’m acting like an idiot. “Yes.”
I try to assimilate that. And don’t do a very good job. “Are you mad at me?” Why am I asking that?
Yue ponders this for a minute. “I don’t think so.”
“I’m sorry I never said anything. I didn’t . . . I guess I didn’t want to believe it.” That sounds wrong. Completely wrong. “Let me rephrase that. It’s not that I didn’t want to believe it, there’s no reason why I don’t want to be in love with you, it’s just that I was trying so hard to be someone different from Clow, that I didn’t want to get attached to you in any way.” I pause. “Does that make sense?”
“He was more conceited than you.” Yue thinks about this for a minute. “And you’re cuter.”
“Nah, just younger.” I can’t believe we’re having this conversation. This is surreal. I think I must be dreaming.
“Are you coming back around again?” Yue suddenly asks.
I blink. “Huh?” Oh, how remarkably intelligent of me.
“Reincarnated.”
“Oh, that.” I ponder. “I’m not really sure. I don’t know how it works.”
“Hm. Maybe we should try to figure it out.”
“Okay.” I can see that. I wouldn’t want to settle anything and then get abandoned again if I were him.
There’s silence for a minute. I want to ask ‘now what’, but I’m not sure Yue would appreciate that.
I also want to kiss him, but I’m not sure he’d appreciate that, either. Also, I can’t sit up, which definitely hinders that plan.
“I wish we could get out of here,” Yue says. Ah, Yue, master of the total non sequitir.
“Yeah, me too.” Preferably not with my death.
Fortunately for both of us, there’s a knock on the door.
****
I’m looking at these directions that Touya wrote down for me, but they’re not working. They worked on the front door, but not on this one. I think it might have a magic lock. But I don’t know how these things work. So I knock.
There’s a brief pause. “Um, hello?” Hiiragizawa-kun calls out.
“It’s me,” I call back. “I’ve come to get you, because she’s watching everyone with magic. But I can’t pick the lock on the door.”
“It’s probably magic,” Hiiragizawa-kun calls back. “You won’t be able to pick it the way you normally could.” Pause. “Since when can you pick locks?”
“Since Sakura-chan’s dad taught me how over the phone,” I explain.
“That family is so strange,” I hear Hiiragizawa-kun say. Technically, he’s related to them, but now is not the time to quibble.
“Can you open the door?” I ask.
“No, he can’t,” Yue answers. “He can barely stand up.”
“I’ll try,” Hiiragizawa-kun says.
“Can you do it, Yue?” I interrupt.
“I could maybe break down the door,” Yue says, sounding doubtful.
“Let’s try to be inconspicuous,” I say. “She could come back at any moment.”
“Where is she?” Hiiragizawa-kun asks. There’s noise inside. I think they’re probably trying to stand up or something.
“They went to trade the pendant,” I explain. “But it’s not the real pendant. Sakura-chan used the Twin card to make a double of it. And I came to get you.”
“How are we leaving?” Hiiragizawa-kun asks.
“I have a car.”
“Yue can’t retract his wings. One of them is broken.”
That’s definitely a problem. We can’t just walk out in the open with Yue having wings, but he won’t fit in the car. “Is there any way you can keep people from seeing him?”
“Even under normal circumstances, it would be tricky, and right now, definitely not,” Hiiragizawa-kun replies.
“Let me try to make them retract again,” Yue says.
There’s a long pause.
“It hurts,” Yue finally says, so quietly that I can barely hear him. “I’ll keep trying, but maybe you should bring Eriol out to the car.”
I nod, then remember they can’t see me. “Yes. Good idea. Hiiragizawa-kun, open the door.”
“Right.”
Another pause. Then the lock clicks, the door opens, and Hiiragizawa-kun practically collapses into my arms. This is not good. Yue is leaning over, concerned. “I think he’s passed out again,” he says.
He looks awful. His clothes are torn and he’s all bruised. One of his wings is definitely bent. “Keep trying to transform,” I say. “I’ll be right back.”
I get my arm around Eriol’s shoulders and start to haul him out to the car. He’s definitely out cold. Such a simple spell, too . . . he’s in bad shape. He’s also heavy. It takes me a few minutes to drag him out to the car and get him into it, and then I hear someone shrieking.
It’s her.
Oh dear.
She’s running toward me, top speed. There’s no way to get Yue out.
****
“ERIOL!!”
Akizuki-san leaps across the room and latches onto Hiiragizawa. Fortunately for him, he’s unconscious.
But where’s Yue? Yukito-san is practically wilting. He obviously expected Yue to be with Daidouji.
“What happened?” Kinomoto asks.
“You tell me,” Daidouji says. “You were supposed to keep her distracted. But no, she shows up just as I get Hiiragizawa-kun out, shrieking and running at me so I couldn’t get back in for Yue.”
Sakura looks like she’s about to cry. I give her a hug. Kinomoto has his arm around Yukito, to support him. “She realized the pendant was fake,” Kinomoto explains to Tomoyo. “She must have tried to use it immediately, because she looked like she was concentrating, then shrieked at us that she’d get us for this and took off.”
“Is Eriol okay?” Yukito asks.
“He’s unconscious,” Spinel reports from where he’s hovering above Hiiragizawa’s head and looking concerned.
“He passed out,” Daidouji says. “He had to unlock the door for me. There was a magic lock on it so I couldn’t just pick it. He keeled over right after that.”
“I’ll put him in bed,” Akizuki-san says, standing up and pulling Hiiragizawa up with her. Spinel transforms and she drapes Hiiragizawa over his back. The three of them leave the room.
“We can’t just leave Yue-san there . . .” Sakura whimpers.
I give her another comforting hug. “We’ll think of something.”
****
I start to worry when Tomoyo isn’t back after a minute, then the woman suddenly shows up in the doorway, shrieks something completely incoherent, and slams the door shut.
This is not good.
I’m stuck here. They just . . . left me here.
No. That’s not being fair to them. Obviously, Tomoyo planned to get me out as well. It just didn’t happen, that’s all. They’ll find some way to come get me.
. . . I hope.
****
The phone rings. I look around and see that no one else is going to get it. Akizuki-san is still upstairs with Eriol-kun, who is still passed out. To-ya is trying his best to discuss strategy with a distraught Sakura-chan, who is being calmed by her two friends as usual. So I picked up the phone, reminding myself firmly that I’m in England and the proper way to answer the phone is with the phone number. Of course, I don’t know Eriol-kun’s phone number off the top of my head, so I’ll go with the residence.
“Hiiragizawa residence.”
“Who is this?”
It’s her. She’s snapping at me. I resist the urge to say any number of inappropriate things which people would think I’m not capable of saying, and settle for “Tsukishiro Yukito.”
“I want my pendant back,” she says. I hate her. “And I want it right now! Your friend over here has a broken wing, you know; it seems to hurt an awful lot because he sure was whining.”
Yue? Whine? It’s hardly like him. If only I could get my hands on her, I would kill her. “Your point?” I ask coldly. Most people don’t think I’m capable of being cold, either.
“Don’t you want him back?” she asks sweetly.
“Of course, you cold-blooded bitch.” Oops, that one slipped out.
“Well, I sure hope you’re willing to do a hell of a lot for him,” she replies.
“What the hell do you want?” There can’t be much besides her pendant that she wants. Not from us, anyway.
“That pretty pink staff your little friend uses,” she says. “It’s obviously very powerful and I want it.”
She has got to be kidding me. “It won’t work for you.”
“Oh, right. Nice try.”
I start to tell her that really, it just channels Sakura-chan’s magic, it won’t work, but it’s pretty obvious that she won’t believe me. At this point I’m not sure Sakura-chan even needs the wand. I know I’ve seen her do magic without it. In all honesty, I think she just likes spinning it around.
“And how are we supposed to deliver these things?” I’ve given up on persuading her. I’ll just get all the information, then we can come up with some sort of plan.
“Let’s arrange another trade,” she says.
That makes me extremely nervous. To begin with, her voice is far too sweet. Secondly, she would only arrange a trade if she had some way of incapacitating Yue so we couldn’t rescue him while the trade was going on. This is not something I want to allow.
“Rather than meeting you somewhere, I’d prefer if you came to me,” she says, her voice dripping sugar. “But only yourself and the younger girl. Not the one with pink wand.”
Of course. Tomoyo-chan and I are the two least magically gifted people among the group. Therefore we’re least dangerous to her. Wonderful. “And when we deliver the pendant and the wand, you’ll give us Yue?”
“Exactly. Shall we say tomorrow, three o’clock sharp?”
“Oh, sure. Anything else?” I figure I’ll check this point before I hang up on her.
“Nope.” And the bitch hangs up on me.
****
My head is this big throbbing mass of misery. All from a stupid simple spell to break a lock. This is getting more and more ridiculous by the second. Where am I? My eyes don’t want to open. They’re all gummed together. Let’s see if I can coax my brain into some logical deduction here. Warm . . . soft underneath me . . . blankets over me . . . I think we must’ve gotten rescued.
“Eriol! Eriol, are you awake?”
I can never fool Nakuru. I think she senses my brain waves.
Right. Pull it together, Eriol. Pry those eyes open with a crowbar if need be.
Ah ha. Eyes are now open. I am indeed home, in my own bed, piled high with blankets. Spinel is resting on the pillow beside my face, holding my glasses between his paws. Nakuru is bending over me anxiously. Right. Make brain function.
“Are you okay?” Nakuru asks.
“. . . yeah . . .” Oh, that was stellar. “Tired . . .”
“Then why’d you wake up?” Nakuru asks.
Why, indeed. Oh, yes. “Yue . . .?”
Nakuru looks away.
No. This is not happening.
“Where’s Yue?” Oh, there’s some strength in me yet. Look at that, I just managed to sit up. Okay, I immediately fell backwards again, but I had it for a second.
“Well, the bitch came back before Tomoyo went in and got him . . . we’re going back for him tomorrow, once we have a plan . . .”
“No, we’re going for him right now.” I sit up again. And stay up. Excellent. Grab my glasses and put them on. Even better. Get out of bed. Eriol, meet floor. Floor, meet Eriol.
“Are you done being an idiot?” Spinel asks, peering down at me from the bed.
“No. I want to go get Yue back. He’ll freeze and his wing is broken and I can’t just leave him there feeling all abandoned, Yue always feels abandoned anyway, he doesn’t need this to make it worse, and . . . I’m babbling. I can tell.”
“Eriol, get back in bed,” Spinel says, in a no-nonsense sort of voice.
I try. And fail. Nakuru helps lift me and gets me to crawl into bed and under the covers. I feel sick. And cold again. She smooths the blankets on top of me. “What’s the plan for tomorrow?” I ask.
“Don’t know yet. The others are trying to come up with something. We volunteered to stay up here with you,” Spinel says.
My head is killing me. Nakuru takes my glasses off my face and puts them on the side table. “Do you need anything, Eriol?” she asks.
I try to wade through the ache that is my brain. “Tea and painkillers?” I say hopefully.
“You should probably eat something . . .” Nakuru says.
My stomach lurches. “Ugh. No. Just tea.”
“Okay . . .” Nakuru leaves the room. She doesn’t have anywhere near her usual bounce. I feel distinctly terrible. And not just physically. She comes back a minute later with a mug of tea, two aspirin, and Yukito. “Here,” she says, holding the tea out. She catches my look and says, “Oh.” Then she puts the tea on a side table, gets behind me, and props me up so I can drink. Then, even more embarrassing, she has to hold the tea mug for me. Why am I so weak? I suppose my night’s stay in the freezer must have done it.
“You feeling okay?” Yukito asks me, sitting on the edge of the bed. Ah, Yukito, ever helpful. Always asks the obvious questions that no one else will ask.
“No. I feel awful.”
“We’re going to go get Yue back tomorrow.”
“How?” I’m not going to accept this until they give me a plausible plan.
“We don’t know yet. But we’ll think of something. I promise.” He hesitates. “I’m not going to let Yue rot there. We’ll get him back.”
If only I could believe that. But he doesn’t need to hear my doubts; he probably has enough of his own. So I settle for, “Yeah. Thanks,” and finish my tea.
“You should get some more sleep,” Yukito says, standing up. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Nakuru helps me lie down again. It feels like it’ll take forever to get to sleep, because I’m so worried, but exhaustion takes precedence and I drop off fairly quickly.
****
Chapter Twelve
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