Eriol-kun has a rather out-of-character moment in this part, or at least an OOC thought, but he’s really mad, so it’s allowed.
Part Five
I sense danger a few seconds too late to get out of the way, so I’m pretty grateful to Yue-san for swooping in, literally, and pulling me out of the way of a rather nasty lightning bolt. I find myself wondering who this is, and why he’s shooting flames at me.
Yue-san hovers for a second, then gently sets me on the ground. I look around quickly. Oniichan, Yukito-san, and Tomoyo-chan have intelligently taken cover in a nearby bush. Thank God. I see an enraptured look on Tomoyo-chan’s face behind her video camera. She’ll never change. Later on I’m sure I’ll hear her lamenting my lack of costume. Not that I mind, most of the time. Tomoyo-chan is a good friend to me, and --
More lightning. Lost my train of thought. Jump card.
“O Key which hides the power of the stars . . .” Why do I have to say this every time? Isn’t just ‘release’ good enough for it?
“Jump!” I spring out of the way of the next bolt. Where is everybody else? Eriol-kun is still sitting on the bench, but Spinel (in big form) is standing over him protectively. Akizuki-san looks like she’s ready to kill somebody. She hasn’t transformed, probably because she doesn’t want to drain her energy like that. Kero-chan has also gone Big, and is standing over Oniichan and the others. Yue-san is still hovering in midair, definitely on the offensive. (Which looks kinda funny with his sweatshirt and cordorouys, but he’s so cute in normal clothes.) Syaoran-kun runs over to me.
“Daijoubu?”
I nod quickly. “Hai!”
“Where is he?” he asks, looking around. He’s pulled out his sword and is looking quite fierce. Fierce suits him, really . . . He’s so cute when he’s mad.
Oops, more lightning. I grab Syaoran-kun by the back of the shirt and haul him upwards.
There he is! Standing on top of the King Penguin!
And . . . he’s a she.
No time to question! (Though I’d like to know who she is and what she wants, but we can deal with that later. After I’ve trapped her. Syaoran-kun said after a fight once ‘Zap now, ask later.’ I laughed a lot, but I think he’s right.) “Wood!”
She jumps out of the way in time, which is pretty impressive because those vines move pretty fast. She alights on top of a tree and sends something big and fiery at me. I could really use Shield right now, but I’m still using it on Eriol-kun . . .
So I bounce out of the way and over to him. “Eriol-kun!”
He blinks up at me. “Sorry I can’t help,” he says faintly. He looks . . . angry. I’ve never really seen Eriol-kun mad before.
“It’s okay! But will you be okay without the Shield for a few minutes?”
He gives me a vague smile. “Of course, I’ll be fine.”
“’Kay!” I lift the Shield off him. I’ll save it for when I need it. Now where did that woman go?
I hear Syaoran-kun calling for his lightning behind me and turn in time to see a very startled woman go flying over my head. Ah, there she is. “Arigatou, Syaoran-kun!”
He nods at me.
I can’t quite seem to figure out where she went, and I don’t like that. But then I’m distracted, because right about then is when Akizuki-san starts shrieking.
“What’s wrong?” I run over to see what’s happening. Syaoran-kun stands behind me protectively.
“Eriol!!” Akizuki-san is shaking him. “Eriol, wake up!”
“What happened?” Yue-san demands, landing beside us.
“He just . . . went all limp like that . . .” I think Akizuki-san is trembling on the edge of hysteria, which I’ve never seen her do before. “He looked all surprised for a second and then he passed out . . .”
I don’t know what’s going on, so I cast Shield around Eriol-kun before whatever is going on can cause more damage. That’ll have to do for now, because I have to find that woman.
“Sakura!”
I whirl. “Oniichan?”
He’s half-standing, trying not to make a target out of himself. “Did you see the pendant she’s wearing?”
I shake my head. I was a bit too busy to notice her jewelry.
“Get it!” Oniichan yells. “Don’t ask questions!”
“Okay!” I yell back. He is, after all, Oniichan. But now I have a difficult problem. “How do I do that?”
Kero-chan sticks his head out. “Use the Dash!”
“Right!” I still want to know why they want the pendant, but I’ll worry about it later. “Dash!”
The Dash -- which has to be among the cutest cards in the deck -- hops out. “Can you go get her pendant for me?” I ask, motioning to the woman, who’s having a lightning fight with Syaoran-kun, and losing. I think he’s just better at it.
The Dash nods, and, well, dashes off.
I hurry to Syaoran-kun’s side to see if he needs a hand. He looks rather like he’s enjoying himself. I wonder if I can get her while Syaoran-kun has her distracted. “Wood!”
Hm, I hope Dash doesn’t get tangled in the vines . . .
No, here he is! He jumps up onto my shoulder with a chain in his mouth. On the end of it is a large crystal. For lack of a better option, I slide it over my head. Now what I was doing? Right, wood! I turn around to see . . .
Nothing.
“Where’d she go?” I ask.
Syaoran-kun sheaths his sword. “She ran off.”
I can’t help but make a frustrated noise. Then again, I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of her, and right now I’d rather help Eriol-kun.
“Is he okay?” I run back over to the others.
“No!” Akizuki-san is actually in tears. It’s very strange.
Poor Eriol-kun looks terrible. He’s slumped over onto Spinel’s back, completely white and unconscious. I take his hand and flinch away from how cold it is. “Oh no . . .”
Oniichan, practical as ever, checks to make sure Eriol-kun is still breathing, which I’m glad he did because I wouldn’t have wanted to have to. “He’s still alive,” he reports, and we breathe a collective sigh of relief.
“We’d better get him home,” Yukito-san says worriedly.
“Actually, he’d better come back to our house,” I say. “I need to keep the shield around him.”
Oniichan nods, then picks him up with a slightly long-suffering look, muttering something about how heavy he is. Spinel and Kero-chan both go back into small form, the former hovering nervously over Eriol-kun and the latter alighting on my shoulder.
“Ano, Oniichan?” I hold the pendant out to him. “Why did you want this?”
“Because it glows,” he answers succinctly.
I blink. “Hoe?”
“It glows red,” Oniichan continues, and I get the feeling he thinks I should know what he means. Sometimes I feel kinda slow. “Red like Hiiragizawa.”
“Oh.” I pause. “Oh!” It sinks in. “HOOOEEE????”
“You mean that she’s the one taking Eriol’s magic?” Akizuki-san looks ready to turn around and hunt for the woman.
“That’s my guess,” Oniichan says complacently. “And the stuffed doll agrees with me.”
“Who’re you calling a stuffed doll?” Kero-chan puffs up indignantly.
Oniichan doesn’t even dignify that with an answer.
“But how does that work?” I ask. “And what does it have to do with the pendant? And why was she attacking us?”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” Oniichan says.
“Well,” Spinel says, “she was probably using the pendant as a filter. Though I can’t answer your other two questions.”
“A filter?” I feel terribly dumb. Fortunately, no one else seems to know what’s going on either.
“If she just takes Eriol’s magic, she could still use it, but it would be a lot harder,” Spinel explains. “If she stores it in a pendant temporarily, she can filter it and assimilate it into herself so it’s her magic.”
“Oh.” I pause. “But that’s awful!”
Spinel gives me a rather pained look, and I feel extremely silly.
“Well, how do we stop her?” Yukito-san asks. Yue-san has been oddly quiet . . . I think he’s moping again.
There’s a long silence.
“We could kill her,” Akizuki-san offers.
“Actually, that’s a bad idea,” Kero-chan steps in before I have to object. “Because if she dies, all the magic she’s collected from him will just die with her. If we want to get it back, we have to do that while she’s alive.”
“Can we kill her after?”
I think Akizuki-san’s mad . . .
“We’ll think about it,” Kero-chan replies.
“We will not!” I protest.
Yue-san gives me a sideways glance. “She tried to cause you harm.”
“But that doesn’t matter! She shouldn’t have to die for that!”
“It matters to us,” Yue-san replies.
I’m touched, I really am. But still . . . “But we can’t kill her.”
Yue-san looks like he’s going to object, so Yukito-san steps in. “Let’s not worry about it right now,” he advises. “Let’s just get Eriol-kun home and into bed.”
I droop. As much as I don’t want to kill her, I have to admit that I’m angry. I don’t get angry very often.
First I’ll make sure Eriol-kun is okay.
Then I’m going to find out who’s doing this.
And give her several good reasons to stop.
****
I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. So much so that I find myself wondering if it could have actually happened. That and I feel like all the liquids in my body have been drained out.
Stop. Think. Analyze.
Question one -- where am I?
Opening my eyes seems a little too hard right now, so I listen for a minute and try to analyze my surroundings. Bed. Blankets. But I’m still cold. Very, very cold, in fact. And very hungry. But the thought of food makes me feel ill. Especially soup. The room . . . is not my own. Smells too nice. Smells like . . . sakura.
All right. I’m at Sakura’s.
Question two -- what happened and how did I get here?
The second part is more easily answered; I’m willing to bet Touya-san carried me. But before that . . .
Ice cream. The Penguin Park. Sitting on a bench to rest and then . . . lightning.
That’s right. We were attacked.
That bitch had my magic!
My eyes fly open, which is a mistake, because the world is way too bright. And blurry. And also spinning at about 45 rpm.
Ouch.
I close my eyes.
“Eriol?” Nakuru. I keep waking to her anxious voice. It makes me feel terribly guilty somehow. I feel even more guilty when I realize how tired her voice sounds. Completely . . . lackluster. Which is very odd for Nakuru. And I’m willing to bet it’s not all from being worried.
I try to talk. My mouth does not want to work, so I settle for a little moan which must make me sound terribly pathetic. I hate being pathetic. Did I mention that my head aches? It does, terribly. Little hammers at my temples. And at my forehead. And, well, the back of my skull. Everywhere. Termites, maybe.
Never mind.
“Eriol, are you awake?”
“No,” I manage.
This gives Nakuru pause, but she eventually says, “Wait a minute, if you answered, you’re awake!”
“No,” I say again.
I feel a little movement in my pillow as Spinel sits down beside my head. “How are you feeling?”
I give this serious thought for a minute, and eventually come up with, “Ow.” Pause. “Ugh.” No. Have to give them something useful. “Cold. Very cold.”
“I’ll get you some more blankets,” Nakuru offers. I hear her footsteps as she stands up and leaves the room.
I try again to speak, wondering why it’s so difficult. “What happened?”
“We were attacked by the woman who’s been draining your magic,” Spinel says. “She attacked Sakura, specifically, then apparently realized who you were and decided, while she was close, to get as much as she could from you. This may have something to do with the fact that she was losing. Sakura put the Shield Card over you again, which is probably the only reason you’re alive, then she and Li collectively chased off the woman.”
Spinel’s explanation is quite welcome, but he never was good at being comforting. “Oh,” I manage.
“We got some of your magic back, though,” Spinel offers in compensation.
At this, my eyes manage to open again. “How?”
“She was storing it in a pendant to filter through,” Spinel explains. “Touya-san noticed that it was glowing and had Sakura use the Dash to steal it.”
“Ah.” I wish I could be happy about this. “Filtering?”
Spinel nods.
“So she isn’t just stealing my magic. She’s making it her own.”
Another nod. I think he doesn’t dare speak.
“I think my head is going to explode.” I should be happy; I managed a full sentence. I’m closing my eyes again.
“Well, you can at least get back what she took yesterday,” Spinel says.
A cold comfort, to be sure.
Wait.
“Yesterday?”
“Yes. You’ve been asleep for nearly twenty hours.” He pauses. “We were all quite worried.”
I think I’m worried too. I’ll have to wait until I’ve recovered a little to use the pendant. Right now I think my skull would cave in if I tried to do anything even slightly magical.
I hear footsteps again, then Nakuru is putting more blankets over me.
“Eriol-kun?” Sakura-san’s voice. “I brought you some tea. It’ll warm you up. Can you try to drink it?”
“I’ll try.” I lift myself up a little, opening my eyes. All I see is one big blur, and then my eyes involuntarily close as I fall backwards. I can’t even lift myself off the pillow. This is sad.
“Here.” Nakuru sits behind me and lifts me upwards. She has to hold me in a sitting position, because I can’t manage it on my own. And who on earth changed me into pajamas? This just keeps getting worse. Maybe Sakura-san used the Change card . . .
What on earth is wrong with me?
Tired. Need more sleep.
I’m still cold, though, even though the tea Nakuru is helping me drink is nearly burning my tongue.
“You should eat something . . .” Sakura-san is hovering.
The thought of food is still making me ill.
“Some juice, at least?” Sakura-san asks, apparently reading the look on my face. This is also horrifying. People can never read the expressions on my face. That’s the whole point of being inscrutable!
I’m just getting silly now.
“Okay,” I say, remembering that Sakura-san was waiting for an answer. Nakuru helps me finish the tea, then pours some juice down my throat. I’m so tired, I can’t even identify what kind of juice it is.
“You should get some more sleep now,” Sakura-san says, and I agree whole-heartedly, but I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep, because it’s too cold.
“Do you need anything else?” Nakuru asks.
“Cold,” I say, feeling like I’m whining.
Sakura-san blinks; she missed the earlier conversation. “You need cold?”
“I am cold.” Under normal circumstances, I might have laughed at that.
There’s a brief pause, and I look down to see I’m under a mountain of blankets.
Great.
There’s a brief red glow, then Spinel transforms and curls up next to me. I feel even more pathetic, but he’s warm and furry and I snuggle up to him anyway.
“Kawaii . . .” Sakura-san giggles.
Oh God, just let me die now.
****
Syaoran-kun is attempting to make me feel better by snuggling with me, and I admit it’s helping a little, but basically I’m still not very happy. Eriol-kun is really sick and I can’t do anything to help, and Yue-san is worrying himself to death (if that’s possible) and even Akizuki-san looks terrible.
“Hold on a second,” Syaoran-kun says as his phone rings. He looks loathe to get off the sofa, but manages it. “Hai, Li residence. . . Hahaue . . . yes, it’s lovely to hear your voice . . . no, I’m not being sarcastic . . . no, I’m not just buttering you up for information.” A guilty pause. “Okay, that is part of it . . . well, at least you raised an honest son, ne? . . . hai . . . okay . . . hold on while I get some paper.”
Syaoran-kun turns to me. I hand him my pen; that’s all I have. He grabs some notebook paper and turns back to the phone. “Okay . . . yes . . .” He’s silent for a long time, scribbling. “Really? . . . yeah . . . I think we might know why . . . is there any chance we could meet with the Head of the family? . . . England. Really. . . okay . . . Sakura and I are fine. Well, we’re fine together, but our circumstances at the moment could use some improvement . . . yes, Hiiragizawa is a very nice young man . . . he’s not interested in dating Sakura . . . I’m sure Mingyue is a very nice girl and I’d be happy to have dinner with her, but it’s just going to be dinner . . . no relationships, engagements, marriages . . . okay, fine, I’ll wear a suit if that makes you happy . . . I don’t care if marrying her would make you even more happy, Hahaue . . . I’m very grateful that you gave me the information . . . yes. Really. I’ll talk to you later.”
He hangs up the phone and plops back onto the couch. “She drives me insane,” he mumbles.
I give him a hug. It’s about all I can do.
“Anyway,” he says, apparently recovered, “Hiiragizawa-kun isn’t the first member of his family to be targeted like this. Just no one had realized it yet. Hahaue says that a lot of children in his family have had their magic taken. They were apparently too young to realize what had happened, though. It was looked upon more as ‘well, we thought they had magic, but I guess we were wrong.’ And it’s been happening to some of their elders, too, but there it’s just written off as age setting in. She’s been very smart about this.”
“But why Eriol-kun?” I frown. “If she’s been sticking entirely to old people and young people . . .”
“Hiiragizawa-kun still seems pretty young,” I remind her. “And anyway, think about how much magic he has. She probably just thought it was too tempting to pass up.”
“But what is she doing?” I can’t keep the frustration out of my voice. “Why does she need everyone’s magic?”
“Well, the fact that she attacked you means she’s probably after the Cards,” Syaoran-kun says, reasonably enough, I suppose.
I wilt. I hate it when people try to take my Cards. “She can’t just take them from me,” I protest. “They wouldn’t work!”
“Yeah,” Syaoran-kun says, and I can tell what he’s thinking.
“She’s going to try to kill me, isn’t she.”
Syaoran-kun winces.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let her.” I kiss his cheek. “Besides, I’ve got you and Kero-chan and Yue-san to protect me, ne?”
He blushes and nods.
“So we need to catch her so we can get Eriol-kun’s magic back.” I pause. “How do we do that?”
Syaoran-kun looks thoughtful for a minute. “I don’t know.”
I think hard. “And once we have her, how do we get his magic back?”
Syaoran-kun shrugs.
“I wonder if we talked to his family, if they’d know,” I say.
“I asked Hahaue about their family Head,” he says. “But she says that English families work different and so there isn’t really one, and anyway three quarters of his family is in England.”
“But obviously some of it’s here,” I say. “Maybe we can find them.”
“Have Tomoyo look into it,” Syaoran-kun suggests it.
I nod. “Good idea. I’ll call her tonight. We should go check on Eriol-kun. I’ve been away from him a little too long.”
Syaoran-kun agrees, and we set off.
“I was thinking, though,” I say. “If she took all of his magic . . .” My voice trails off. I can’t really bring myself to say it.
Syaoran-kun nods a little. “I thought it would . . . um . . . kill him, but . . . he’s not dead, so . . . obviously it didn’t.”
I think again. “I remember!” I cheer after a minute.
Syaoran-kun falls over. “What?”
“The Shield card!” I say, tugging on his arm. “It protects what’s precious! His life is way more precious than his magic, right?”
“I think Hiiragizawa-kun might beg to differ,” Syaoran-kun says.
“Okay, but still,” I say. “It probably couldn’t protect his magic, but it kept the loss of it from killing him.”
Syaoran-kun gives me a serious look. “Then you’d better not let the Shield drop until he’s gotten some of it back.”
My eyes widen. “Uh oh. That means I can’t sleep.” I frown. “But wait, I already slept. That first night.”
Syaoran-kun frowns. “I guess he must have just enough to keep breathing. That’s probably what the Shield card did. Rather than just protecting his life, it’s protecting the magic that keeps him alive.”
“So why didn’t she take it while I was asleep?” I’m so confused.
“She probably can’t without the pendant,” Syaoran-kun replies.
Oh! Right! Syaoran-kun is so smart. I look down at the pendant. Kero-chan told me to keep it, because it would be safest with me.
“How long before Eriol-kun can take his magic back from this?” I wonder.
“I don’t know,” Syaoran-kun says. “He’s in pretty bad shape. It’s really not good . . . he needs his strength back before he can take the magic back, but he needs the magic in order to have his strength.”
“Do you think I could do it for him?”
“If you knew the spell,” Syaoran-kun says uncertainly. “But you don’t, do you?”
I shake my head. “Think anyone in his family might?”
“They might,” Syaoran-kun replies. “She had to learn it somewhere.”
I nod. “Maybe we should go to England!”
Syaoran-kun falls over again. I wish he’d stop doing that.
“Hoe?”
“How are we going to get to England?” he asks, getting to his feet.
I blink. “Plane?”
“How are we going to afford that?”
“Well, you could afford it. I know you could. And so could Tomoyo-chan, and I think Daddy has money stored away for emergencies, and this definitely qualifies as that. I’m sure Eriol-kun has money for him and Akizuki-san, and Kero-chan and Spinel both fit into a handbag.”
“What about your brother?” Syaoran-kun asks. “Not that I’m anxious to spend fifteen hours on a plane with him, but if he hadn’t noticed that pendant, Eriol-kun would be in even more trouble.”
“And if he goes, Yukito-san will want to go, and we can’t leave Yue-san here all alone . . .” I frown. “But we have to go! We have to make Eriol-kun better!”
“Use Fly,” Syaoran-kun suggests dryly, and then ducks as I swat him.
****
I have to squint to see Hiiragizawa’s aura, it’s gotten so dim. Akizuki’s has faded quite a bit as well. I, naturally, have been nominated to carry Hiiragizawa down to the living room so we can have a conference. It seems like he weighs less, but that just might be my imagination.
I settle him on the sofa. He’s still wrapped in a blanket. Akizuki, who’s leaning on Yuki, sits next to him and leans backward with her eyes closed. Sakura bustles in with a tray full of tea mugs and gives some to all of us. Tomoyo, apparently seeing that no one else is going to, sits next to Hiiragizawa and helps him drink his. He looks like he wants to sink into the floor. I don’t blame him.
The Brat explains what his mother told us and the conclusions he and Sakura came to.
“So what we thought,” Sakura says, “is that we should go to England.” She nods earnestly.
“What?” half the room asks.
“Well, it makes sense,” she says. “We can talk to Eriol-kun’s family and find out what’s going on, and at the same time, get away from . . . that . . . woman. For a while, anyway.”
I tackle logical arguments first. “You’re in school.”
“We have a week’s vacation next week, and so do you, and you know it,” Sakura replies.
“And we don’t have the money.”
“Well, I know Eriol-kun does, and Tomoyo-chan does, and Syaoran-kun said he could afford it, and I know Daddy keeps money for emergencies and I could get a job to pay him back . . .”
“And what about me?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t think you’re leaving me behind. I’m not letting my monster of a little sister rampage around England unsupervised.”
Her eyes narrow. My toes cringe in apprehension. When did she learn patience and cunning? This is horrible.
“Oniichan!” she begins warningly.
“I’d like to go, too,” Yuki interrupts, and Yue nods agreement.
Hiiragizawa coughs a little, I assume to draw attention to himself since he can barely speak above a whisper. “I can pay for some of you,” he says. “It’s very kind of you to do this for me.” He looks around for a minute, apparently giving himself a headache by doing mental math. “I can certainly pay for myself and Akizuki, and I can most likely pay for Sakura-san, Touya-san, and Yukito-san.” He gives the other three an apologetic look. “I’m sorry . . . you don’t have to come if you don’t want.” He frowns.
As if either the Brat, Yue, or Tomoyo would let Sakura go without them.
“Well,” Tomoyo interrupts, “if you could pay for Yue-san, my mother could pay for myself and Sakura-chan.” She gives us all a charming smile. “For Sakura-chan to go to England, and for me to get videos of Sakura-chan . . .” Her eyes go all sparkly. This is rather disturbing. “I’m sure she would be willing to help.”
Hiiragizawa, good Lord, looks nervous. I guess he hasn’t often seen Tomoyo in full gear. “You do realize that I don’t know any of my family.”
“Oh, we know,” Sakura says. “We’ll figure it all out once we’re there.” She nods enthusiastically.
Hiiragizawa looks at Yuki and I. “And you realize that Mizuki-sensei is there?”
I blink. Truth told, I had forgotten about that, but I don’t care that much. “Yuki and I are fine,” I say firmly, and Yuki smiles at me.
“Then I guess it’s okay,” Hiiragizawa says, sounding bewildered. I can’t even picture him on a plane right now. We’re going to need to get him a wheelchair. He won’t put up with that, but I don’t think they’ll let me just carry him onto the plane. So we’ll just have to keep him standing.
Hopefully we can wait a day or two.
****
Part Six
CCS Fics