Part Four
“Yue-san?” There’s a light knock on my door. I don’t want to see anyone, including her. “Yue-san, I brought you some tea. Oniichan said you like green tea . . .”
Why must Touya be so observant? It’s really annoying at times. Though very handy at others.
“Please let me in,” Sakura tries again.
“Go ahead,” I finally say. I suppose I can’t really refuse to let her in. She’s the Mistress, after all.
Sakura pokes her head in. True to her word, she’s carrying a tray with a mug of tea and some cookies. “Ano,” she says, scuffing the floor with one shoe, “you seemed a little upset earlier . . .”
Apparently Touya isn’t the only observant one in this family. I look into my tea mug, avoiding looking at her.
“But Eriol-kun’s just fine, really,” she says in a rush. “He was just tired, that’s all . . .”
Even she can’t be that oblivious. There’s more wrong with Eriol than mere weariness.
“You don’t need to lie,” I say.
She flinches a little. “Okay, so he’s not just tired, but I’m still sure he’s going to be okay!”
That’s Sakura. Zettai daijoubu. Her magic spell.
“What makes you so sure?”
She shrugs. “My magic would be pretty useless if I wasn’t willing to help my friends, ne? We’ll figure out what’s wrong with him and then we’ll fix it and it’ll all be good!”
I can’t even reply to that. I’d like to argue with her, but Sakura has proved before that she can be incredibly stubborn when the occasion calls for it.
She takes one of the cookies and nibbles on it. “What’s wrong, anyway? You’re not the panicking type.”
I wish she hadn’t noticed that. I hate panicking. More than that, I hate having to explain my panic. So I shrug and continue to stare into my tea mug.
“You know, sometimes it helps to talk about it,” Sakura says earnestly.
I want to laugh, but I can’t quite manage it.
“Clow never got sick, did he?” Sakura asks suddenly.
I blink at her. Of course Clow got sick. He died from a disease; she knows that.
“Before he died, I mean. It was just . . . that one time.”
She’s hitting uncomfortably close to home. Time to stare in my mug again.
She leans over and gives me a hug. I try to not look poleaxed. “It’s okay, Yue-san. I won’t let Eriol-kun die.”
I open my mouth to reply, then realize there’s not much I can say. “Thank you,” I finally manage.
“Zettai daijoubu!” she declares. Naturally. Then she looks serious again. “By the way, we’re not taking you to all these places because we’re trying to make you miserable. We want you to have fun, Yue-san.”
“I’m trying.”
“You don’t try to have fun, you just do,” Sakura says. “Start with things like, if you like tea, make tea and drink it. Just because you want to.”
I look at the tea.
“You’ll get it,” she says, confident. “I’ll get you some chocolate. Chocolate makes everything better.” She pauses. “Except Spinel, but that’s something else again. Come on, we can make chocolate chip cookies!”
She’s tugging on my arm. “Please tell me you’re not letting Kerberos help.”
She giggles. “You do have a sense of humor! No, he’ll stay in my room.”
“Good.”
****
I woke up with a headache, ignored it, and ended up on the floor when I tried to get out of bed. For some reason, my knees are refusing to support me. It’s an odd feeling and I don’t like it. I have new respect for Yukito-san; he went through months like this. How he managed to drag himself to school every day is totally beyond me. I just want to curl into a ball and sleep, and I can’t allow myself to. I have to figure out what’s going on. Touya-san is right; now that I’ve stopped to think about it, I can almost feel the drain on my magic.
This is bad.
I tried to shield myself, and accomplished absolutely nothing other than giving myself a screaming headache and falling asleep again. Nakuru and Spinel have both been hovering all day; I can tell they’re worried. Nakuru has brought me soup four times now. I need to tell her that the nurse idea is cute, but she’s overdoing it a little.
She has, however, refrained from feeding Spinel sugar the entire day, which is impressive for Nakuru. She doesn’t have much in the way of self-restraint. Then again, when I knocked myself out this afternoon by accident, she ended up feeling the effects too. Spinel said he’s never seen her so quiet before. She actually stopped moving enough to watch a full hour of television.
I have to think. Have to be logical about this.
It’s hard, because the world is spinning and I think I’m going to fall asleep again. Yukito-san at least got patches of clarity while Sakura-san wasn’t doing anything.
Someone must have a tie to me that I’m not aware of, or else my shields would be working. And they’re not.
Shields . . . Sakura-san . . .
I know there’s a connection here I’m missing. My brain has turned to jelly. Think, Eriol.
The Shield Card! That’s what I was missing.
So I get out of bed.
This, naturally, is a bad idea. Nakuru comes running when she hears the thump I make as I hit the ground.
“What! Are you doing! Out of bed?!” she half-shrieks.
“Sitting on the floor,” I reply, blinking up at her.
She pouts. “It’s not funny. You fell down again.”
“You should always try to find the humor in life, Nakuru.”
“It’s not funny!” she repeats.
I sigh and use the bed to push myself into a standing position. “Come on. We’re going to Sakura-san’s.”
“What?! Why?!”
“Because I want to ask her something.” Nakuru is obviously not pleased with this idea. “Don’t you want to see Touya-kun?”
“That’s not fair,” she protests.
“I know.” At least I’m still dressed. I never bothered to change. Shoes. Must wear shoes. Bad example for Yue if I don’t wear shoes.
Then again, if I sit down again, I may not be able to get up. “Nakuru, where are my shoes?”
“We hid them.”
“What?”
“We didn’t want you going anywhere, so we hid them.”
I sigh. “Nakuru, go get my shoes.”
“Butbut!”
“Now, please.” I don’t like ordering her around, especially when I have a vague suspicion that she’s right. But she hid my shoes. This is simply unacceptable.
She flounces out of the room and returns a few seconds later with my shoes. I sit on the bed and pull them on. Now, must get up. Must walk.
“I called Touya-kun and told him that you were being stubborn and he had to come pick you up.”
“What?”
“You can’t walk all the way there! You can’t even walk to get your shoes! And if I tried to carry you . . . bad things would happen. So that leaves Spinel, and somehow I don’t think we could get away with that unnoticed. So I called Touya-kun and he said he’d be right over.”
I don’t know if I’m grateful or embarrassed. A combination of both, I think.
Touya-san arrives a few minutes later and, despite my voluble protests, carries me down to his car. I’m annoyed with this, but I suppose I can’t argue, seeing as I couldn’t even get off the bed without help. I suppose I’m more annoyed that he’s right.
But at least I have my shoes.
Too bad my dignity has been abandoned.
***
I can’t even bother to be jealous of the way Hiirigizawa-kun is leaning on Sakura as she carefully walks him into the living room and settles him into a chair. He looks like he’d fall over if she didn’t support him. I mean, he really looks awful. His face is all pale and he has dark circles under his eyes, which keep closing and then snapping back open. He explains, in a very vague voice, what Kinomoto told him in the car the other day. About his aura.
“Oh, by the way,” he says at the end, turning to me. “Thank you. For saving me.”
“Just returning the favor,” I say with a shrug. “If you got hurt, Sakura would cry.”
Hiiragizawa-kun blinks for a second, as if he’s not completely sure of how to take this. He clears his throat and looks up, surprised, as Yue hands him a mug of tea. “Thanks.”
Yue mumbles something and sits on the couch next to Kinomoto and Yukito-san. The rest of us are settled on the floor, except for Hiiragizawa-kun, who has the armchair, and Akizuki-san, who is bouncing around the room. No impact on her energy yet.
“I’ve tried to shield myself against this,” Hiiragizawa-kun continues. “But whoever it was just ate my shields somehow. I was going to ask a favor . . .” He looks at Sakura. “Can you use the Shield Card? I’d like to see if that has any effect.”
“Of course!” Sakura says, fishing out her key. She does her cute little magical girl routine (no signature pose, as Tomoyo isn’t here), and casts Shield.
Kinomoto looks at him. “It’s working a little,” he says. “Your aura isn’t getting any stronger, but it’s stopped flickering.”
Yukito-san is squinting. “I think I see it too,” he says, pulling his glasses down and peering over the rims.
Hiiragizawa is sitting up a little straighter. “When you separated from Yue, the little magical power you have was released for your own use,” he explains. “I do feel better. Marginally. Thank you, Sakura-san. You can stop now.”
“But if it’s helping!” Sakura protests. “It’s okay, Eriol-kun, I’ll leave it up.”
He half-smiles. “You can’t forever, you know.”
“I know, but . . . as long as I can, I will.”
Yue peers over at Hiiragizawa-kun. “Do you want more tea?”
Hiiragizawa-kun blinks at him. “If you don’t mind.”
Yue stands up, and Akizuki-san bounces into his path. “Why are you so concerned anyway?” she asks a long-suffering Yue. “He’s not your master.”
Yue blinks at her for a second, then puts a hand on her shoulder and gives her a very firm shove. I can tell it’s very firm, because she stumbles into the front hall, where he shoves her again and she goes out the front door.
I think Yue has finally snapped. Then again, I think he’s been waiting a long time to do this.
He shuts and locks the door.
We’re all staring at him. He goes into the kitchen and returns a few moments later with the pot of tea, trying not to look self-satisfied, which is an expression I’ve never seen on Yue’s face before. Akizuki-san is pounding on the front door. He’s pretending he doesn’t hear it.
“A-Ano . . .” Sakura begins, a large sweatdrop forming. “Yue-san, you can’t just lock Akizuki-san out.”
He blinks at her. “I just did.”
“But it’s not polite,” Sakura tries, shooting her brother a glare when he starts to snicker.
“Touya’s often told me I’m not polite.” Yue pours Hiiragizawa a cup of tea.
Kinomoto is outright laughing at this point. Yukito-san is trying his best to stifle his own laughter. Even Hiiragizawa is smiling.
Sakura turns to him, looking mortified. “Gomen! I’ll go let her in!”
“Don’t worry about it.” Hiiragizawa sips his tea. “I told her not to taunt them. Now she’s learned her lesson.”
Yue gives a pleased nod and sits on the couch again. I think he’s smiling, but maybe not. It’s hard to tell with Yue.
I cough a little, trying to bring the conversation back to the subject. “Anyway.”
“So if your shields aren’t working, what does that mean?” Yukito-san looks a little confused.
Hiiragizawa-kun shrugs. “It means whoever is taking my magic is someone who’s tied to me somehow. I just don’t know who, or how, or why. Or anything.”
He isn’t really one for earthly ties. But there’s one thing I know from experience. “What about family?”
He blinks at me. “I’m an orphan. I have been for . . . let’s not discuss how many years.”
“Yeah, but you must have family somewhere,” I persist. “I have a huge family. Half of them I don’t know how they’re related to me. Just because your parents have been gone for a long time, doesn’t mean they didn’t have siblings, and aunts and uncles and cousins and any other number of odd relations.” Hiiragizawa-kun looks a little startled. “Blood binds are among the strongest kind,” I remind him.
“We’re in a bind, all right,” he mumbles. “I suppose you’re right; I must have family somewhere.”
“That would explain why they’re, uh, biting off more than they can chew,” Yukito-san says. Trust him to make food references in a serious conversation.
Hiiragizawa-kun droops. “Because I can’t fight it off, I’ve tried.”
“Can you trace it back to where it’s coming from?” Kinomoto asks.
He concentrates for a second. “I could, but it would be more of a hot-cold thing than anything else. We would have to wander around the city. It could take days, or even weeks.”
And we have no idea how long he has. Though I can tell no one wants to say that. There’s another question, though; would this kill him? Or would he just end up with no magic? When Yukito-san didn’t have enough magic, it was killing him, but Kinomoto just slept for a few days and was fine. I suppose it depends on how much you’re bound up in the magic.
That’s not good for Hiiragizawa-kun. Especially since he’s so old, in such a young body. (Though I don’t think Sakura was supposed to tell me that.)
“Well, let’s drive around the city for a while and see if we can find it.” Kinomoto gets to his feet and offers Hiiragizawa-kun a hand up.
“I’m coming too!” Sakura bounces to her feet. Naturally, I get up and offer to join them, as does Yukito-san.
“You coming, Yue?” Kinomoto asks.
He shrugs, not looking up from where he is playing with his kitten and a piece of string. Now that has to be one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.
“You probably shouldn’t,” Hiiragizawa-kun remarks, “because I’m sure Nakuru is going to insist on going.”
Yue shudders.
Kinomoto rolls his eyes and opens the front door, then falls flat on his back as Akizuki-san glomps him with renewed energy. Then she bounces upward just as quickly. “Haha! I’m back inside!” She marches over to Yue, who is standing with the kitten in his arms, and points a finger at him. “How dare you lock me out, you sorry excuse for a moon angel with overgrown hair?!”
I don’t even want to know what Yue is going to reply, but Hiiragizawa-kun interrupts. “Nakuru, I told you not to taunt them.”
“Butbut!”
“Did we learn a little lesson today?” Hiiragizawa-kun is definitely returning to normal.
She doesn’t look contrite in the slightest. “Not to taunt him in his own house?”
Hiiragizawa-kun sighs. “Come on, we’re leaving.”
“But I wanna play with the kitten!”
Yue looks horrified. “You. Are not allowed. To touch. My. Kitten.”
With that, he turns his back on all of us and stalks away.
****
Much to To-ya’s relief, we drop Akizuki-san off after two hours of meaningless wandering around the city. Sakura-chan has offered to let Eriol-kun stay overnight so it’ll be easier for her to keep the Shield Card up around him. He’s going to stay on the spare mattress in Sakura-chan’s room.
I’ve never heard Syaoran-kun squawk like that before . . . or turn quite that shade of red.
Some soothing words and appropriate snuggling on Sakura-chan’s part got him calmed down, though.
Yue, still incredibly pleased with himself after what happened with Akizuki, retires early with a mug of tea, a book, and his kitten. I’m very proud of myself for getting him that kitten. Though seeing Yue half-cheerful is a decidedly odd experience. If we ever get him to be completely cheerful, I may have a heart attack.
Syaoran-kun reluctantly leaves a little later. Eriol-kun has already fallen asleep, so he’s fairly non-threatening at the moment. Touya carries him up to Sakura-chan’s bedroom, mumbling about how he weighs too much to be carried around. Sakura-chan follows soon after.
This gives To-ya and I some rare private time.
****
I peer through records. Hiiragizawa-kun’s family, surprisingly enough, is rather large. The others are lucky that I can use my mother’s influence to get this kind of information. Most of the important descendants are on the English side of his family. I suppose, if I wanted to, I could trace it all the way back to Clow Reed himself. Though I was never quite clear on whether Hiiragizawa-kun was a descendant or a reincarnation or some combination.
“No, Hahahue . . .” Li-kun is on the phone behind me, arguing with his mother. “I told you already, I’m not coming back to China right now.” Pause. “No, I don’t want to meet any nice Chinese girls. I have a perfectly nice Japanese girl. Yes, Sakura and I are doing just fine . . .”
Sakura-chan is watching this with wide eyes. I attempt to distract her with tea.
“I just had a question for you!” Li-kun sounds rather exasperated. “No . . . no . . . thank you. You remember that boy I was telling you about? Hiiragizawa Eriol. The reincarnation of Clow. Yes, him. No, mother, he should not have dated Sakura. I’m aware that they’re very good friends. Can we get back to the subject, please? Thank you. Do you know anything about his family?” Long pause. “Aside from the fact that they would make wonderful in-laws for Sakura!”
I wince. His mother is really laying it on thick this time.
“Yes . . . yes . . .” Li-kun starts scratching notes down on the notepad I gave him. “Really? Okay . . . the English side, mostly. . . okay. That’s what I thought . . . I don’t suppose you could find out if anything strange has been happening with them? . . . Because we’re having some trouble, that’s all, and we think they might have something to do with it . . . thank you. But please be discreet . . . yes, I’ll stop lecturing you . . . no, I don’t want to hear about the prophetic dream you had about Sakura . . . okay. Next time I’m in China. Jaa.” He hangs up.
“Next time you’re in China what?” Sakura-chan asks, pretending she hadn’t heard the rest of it.
“My mother’s price for the information,” Li-kun says, “is that I have dinner with Mingyue Li. A very distant cousin, who is, I’m sure, a very nice young lady. And incredibly single. And dying to meet me.”
Sakura-chan just smiles. She’s well aware of the fact that she won’t be losing Li-kun to any distant Chinese cousins.
“Did you get any information?” I ask.
“She says that the English side of the family is fairly powerful,” he reports, “but that lately, their power seems to have been dwindling. Less children born with the magic and so forth. She said she’d check into it for me.”
Sakura-chan latches onto him. “Arigatou, Syaoran-kun!”
He blushes. Or maybe that’s from lack of oxygen.
“Did you find anything, Tomoyo-chan?” Sakura-chan asks me.
“Not much useful,” I say. “There haven’t been any suspicious deaths or anything outwardly unusual.”
“It probably wouldn’t cause death,” Li-kun points out. “Just the loss of their magic. Kinomoto gave his up without any repercussions other than a few days worth of sleepiness.”
“But Yukito-san . . .” Sakura-chan says. I hate to see her sad like this.
Li-kun hesitates. “That’s because the magic was supporting Yukito-san’s existence. Your brother wasn’t as bound to his magic. It was more like an interesting fringe benefit.”
“What about Hiiragizawa-kun?” I’m not sure I want to hear Li-kun’s answer.
He looks away, and that is answer enough.
***
Three days of wandering around the city (on my gas bill, no less) have yielded no results. Whoever -- or whatever -- is sapping Hiiragizawa’s energy is moving around too often for us to catch up with them. Especially with his magic so low. He says it’s getting harder to track them.
Sakura is shielding him whenever she can, which means he always wakes up feeling like hell and gets better over the course of the day. He has to come over to our house first thing every morning. This morning Akizuki was carrying him, something he would never have let her do if he’d been coherent at all.
She’s starting to look a little worse for the wear, too. Not that I’m concerned about her, but I am getting worried for Hiiragizawa. He’s getting much worse much faster than Yuki did.
Though he gave me a very odd look when I brought him some soup. Something about enough soup to drown a fish. And he never wanted soup ever again.
So we took him out for ice cream. He looks a little better today, though he’s leaning pretty heavily on Yuki. Sakura has him shielded right now, but his aura is still fading.
He asks to rest halfway there, so we stop at Penguin Park.
Someday I’m going to learn not to come here. This place attracts weird things.
Including us. We do make an odd looking group. Hiiragizawa is as pale as death and leaning on Yuki, who is looking more concerned than I would have thought possible. Akizuki is drooping considerably, and if she gets any worse, I might have to help her. (Perish the thought. She’s already asked me to carry her five times.) Spinel and Kero are sitting on Sakura’s shoulders, acting very hard like stuffed dolls when we pass other people. Stuffed dolls with incredible balance. Syaoran is glaring at the world in general. And then there’s Yue, who, even dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, looks surreal.
I think it’s the hair. And the complexion. At least Sakura had the foresight to get rid of his cat’s pupils.
And naturally, Tomoyo is filming Sakura’s every move.
Hiiragizawa plops on a bench and closes his eyes for a second, breathing slowly. Sakura and Akizuki both hover over him worriedly.
It’s right about then that all hell breaks loose.
****
Part Five
CCS Fics