Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction / Tokyo Babylon Fan Fiction ❯ The Bet ❯ Death at Tsukimine ( Prologue )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

The Bet: Prologue Disclaimer: Both Tokyo Babylon and Card Captor Sakura belong to CLAMP and NOT to me. I do NOT make any money from this work of fan fiction, which was written for my own twisted reasons.

The moonlight was unusually strong that night, almost as bright as dawn. It lit the serene beauty of Tsukimine Shrine, washing out the usually vibrant coloring of it’s miko.

“I’m here,” she called. She spoke hesitantly- the noise seemed vulgar in this perfect silence. “What did you wish to speak about?”

No answer.

“Where are you?”

She was becoming frustrated, going deeper and deeper into the shrine’s grounds, before clenching her fists. Wind make the branches of the trees surrounding her thrash- and the shadows writhed. A chill crawled up her spine.

“Here,” a familiar voice breathed into her ear.

Kaho jumped.

“How-” the woman’s eyes widened. “What is the meaning of this? Calling me here in the middle of the night?” Kaho tried to sound angry even as her voice shook.

“I always wondered,” the same voice continued, coming from the twisting shadows around her. “How much do you know about me?”

“Know?” Even in the midst of her fright, Kaho frowned. She had missed something; something very wrong. Her instincts screamed for flight.

“You could never see what I was?” the voice was amused.

“I saw that you were destined for someone else,” she tried to edge back towards the shrine. “That you were the elder brother of Sakura, the Chosen to receive Clow’s Cards. You would give your gift to Yue.” She could not help it; there was the unspoken implication that this was ALL he was for.

Her tormentor laughed. Kaho had never been more terrified.

“I wasted a year then. Ah, oh well¼”

Crunch. Shock. Pain. Blood spattered across the moonlit clearing, and Kaho futilely clawed at the arm sprouting from her chest. Light fell across the face of her murderer.

“Goodbye, Kaho,” Touya said casually.

“I did have fun with you.” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Yukito wanted his To-ya.

It was a long standing habit of his, to seek Touya out when he felt bad, even if he never said a why. His instincts always lead him to To-ya- and this time, they led him to Tsukimine Shrine-

-in time to see Kaho fall to her knees, blood foaming on her lips, revealing To-ya’s impassive face.

“What?” Yukito whispered, breathless. He didn’t believe he was seeing his To-ya, his brooding, selfless, sensible To-ya, wrench his arm from her body. There wasn’t blood dripping to the ground, pooling beneath the school teacher. Her body was not- it couldn’t possibly be turning into sakura petals, and flitting away in the wind.

It was not To-ya, strolling towards him, arm drenched to the elbow and blood splattered across his face. It was a dream.

Had to be.

His feet were rooted as To-ya appeared suddenly before his eyes- he hadn’t seen To-ya move, and he couldn’t make himself jump.

“I should kill you now.”

Yukito couldn’t bring himself to blink, transfixed by the predator before him.

“But you were so much fun to play with,” there was an odd note of contemplation in his voice. To-ya regarded Yukito as if he was a fine piece of porcelain.

“You know¼ I want this game of ours to go on for a little while longer. So- let’s make a bet.”

Silence. Finally-

“A bet?” the snow bunny croaked.

“Yes! A bet!” the smile never met To-ya’s eyes. “When we meet again, you’ll have a year to make me feel you are something more than a magician’s toy. You win; you live. I win... and you will take your place underneath my Tree.”

The wind picked up, and a blizzard of sakura surrounded them as Touya took both of Yukito’s hands, and kissed them. The shorter boy hissed, as those kisses branded his palms with an inverted five-pointed black star.

“You are mine now...” ~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Eriol paused, as the destiny he‘d awaited plodded past him. Inevitability swept by.

It didn’t stop the pain as the presence in his heart was suddenly, inexplicably gone for the first time in two years. He dropped to his knees, eyes unseeing.

“Eriol-sama?” Ruby Moon blinked dumbly at her master, before shaking his shoulder. There was no response. She waved her hand in front of his face- and bit her lip at the expression of pure horror there.

“Soupy! Eriol-sama is hurt! What should we do?”

Spinel Sun whizzed into the room, to see Ruby Moon hovering over their master who was on his knees by his Throne.

“Call Sakura-san.”

Kaho. Eriol could do nothing but mourn. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Sakura gasped, waking up, sure that something was wrong.

She just had no idea what it was.

Shaking her head, she flopped back down into her warm bed, rolling over, pulling her blankets to her chin, intent on going back to sleep, even if this sense of wrongness kept nagging her. That was when she noticed the clock- she had overslept.

Making a grumpy face, she waited for her brother to come wake her up, so she could yell at him for not waking her on time. Before she yelled, she paused and tilted her head. There was no sound.

His presence was no longer in the house.

Their father was off on a dig¼ Usually her brother wouldn’t leave until she was dressed, fed, and off to school, though he would never admit it. Maybe he had over slept?

Crossing her arms in annoyance, she monster-stomped to her brother’s room, fully intent on giving him a piece of her mind-

The door creaked open before her, and she stopped dead. The usually neat room was trashed, her brother’s possessions strewn about the room. Sakura’s eyes swept over the carnage- landing on puddles of dark red.

“Oniichan,” Sakura breathed, before blood rushed out of her face, and the world spun. Her knees buckled and she fainted.

It wasn’t more than a few moments before she felt smooth pads on her face, trying to slap her back to consciousness. Someone was calling her name.

She kept her eyes screwed shut, convincing herself that she was back in bed, and that everything was all right, and that Kero-chan was waking her up for school-

“Sakura, get up! Eriol needs your help!”

“No,” she tried to deny, rolling over on to her side, and curling up. Sakura couldn’t hide¼ There was no one left to protect her now. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Yue found himself holding his sobbing master; the only person left who could. Her special person was gone, Tomoyo was out of town¼ He tried not to show his own fears. Yue had awoken to find himself at Tsukimine Shrine, with a panicked Yukito fleeing somewhere deep inside his mind. The shrine was as beautiful as ever upon his awakening, but... Cold dread had washed down his spine. Then he’d looked at his palms.

The mark of the Sakurazukamori had been carved into his flesh. They still dripped blood, even hours later. It wasn’t a gush, but a slow seep, barely noticeable. When he’d received his master’s call, he’d flown there- but had stopped for gloves.

In the past, Clow Reed had encountered the Sakurazukamori, resulting in a near calamity for both parties. Clow was powerful and innovative. His opponent had been ruthless.

Yue had been badly injured, Kero had nearly died, and Clow had fought her to a standstill, forcing the assassin to retreat.

Yet they would occasionally see her shikigami, a two headed falcon, watching them in the distance.

He wondered if Touya’s disappearance was related. It looked like a robbery at first brush- money and small, valuable possessions were gone. Everything else was rifled through. Fujitaka was out of the country, with no way to contact him immediately.

The moon guardian could only speculate. Eriol was catatonic, Touya perhaps dead, and Kaho unaccounted for…

Yet somehow he was grateful for the distraction. It meant that he could hide his own fear. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Once upon a time, a young woman fell out of a Tree.

She had been trained well in the arts of dark onmyouji. She had been waiting until the day she could take her mother’s place as the Sakurazukamori… But in the meantime, she was bored.

This man was so much fun. So much fun to play with, so much fun to manipulate.

She didn’t know when she had fallen in love with him. She wasn’t the full Sakurazukamori yet, and was still bothered by those troublesome things call emotions.

So Nadeshiko had married Fujitaka Kinomoto.

Emotions, while bothersome things, were nonetheless powerful. She bore him two children. Those two children held immense potential.

She had begun training her eldest son, when destiny could no longer be avoided. Killing her own mother, she took her ancestral place as the Guardian of the Cherry Tree Barrow, faked her death and disappeared.

Yet those powerful emotions stayed with her, and she could no longer complete her task. Telling her dutiful son, he agreed to take her place as the Sakurazukamori, for the sake of his mother and sister.

The girl had her mother’s eyes and an auspicious name, it was natural to believe that she would have succeeded her mother- until Touya killed her.

To be continued.