Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Chaos Card Captor Sakura ❯ A Duality of Despair (Part I) ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6: A Duality of Despair (Part I)

 

Lycan struts about quickly in his dark, infinite abode of nothingness, almost in a gallop.

 

“No one knows how powerful you are, Lycan. There will always be Guardians. Keroberos. Yue. Damien. No… you, Lycan… you are a special Guardian. There is none with your power…” a whisper emanates out from the cavernous emptiness itself.

 

Lycan stops his pacing, looking around in an unusual perplexity for him. “It's you again…” Lycan responds with familiarity, for once being dwarfed in comparison of the void about him. “You spoke to me before, when I counseled Kinomoto Sakura. Cease your hiding and show yourself to me.”

 

“The tables have turned, my pet…” the darkness replies.

 

Lycan scoffs, staring down at his paws. “Hmph! None can cause despair to me. And for the last time, I am no one's pet…” Lycan's gaze rises up to the dark sky in reverence. “You should know better. After all… you created me.”

 

The darkness grows silent. Lycan squints suspiciously after several moments of this silence.

 

“If you appear out of nowhere and say `gotcha', I'll rip you six ways from Sunday… literally,” Lycan threatens sternly.

 

The darkness chuckles in a deep, somewhat amused tone at Lycan's comment. “I assure you, that won't be necessary, Guardian of Despair… Now follow through with your mission. Finish what you started with the Kinomoto girl.”

 

Lycan droops his head in humility to his unseen master. “Understood, Lord Kaos…”

 

*-*-*

 

(Penguin Park; shortly after 9 AM)

 

A couple of very young boys stand in an open, paved area of the Penguin Park, standing several feet apart from each other and tossing a sizable red rubber ball back and forth between themselves. A middle-aged woman, presumably their mother, sits on a nearby bench, reading over a newspaper while simultaneously keeping a close eye on the two boys.

 

After catching the ball, one of the boys takes several steps backwards, heading towards the wooded areas around the park, preparing for a long throw. The other boy backs up as well, closing in on the King Penguin slide / statue. The first boy hurls the red ball high into the air, soaring right over the other boy's head despite his valiant attempt to jump and catch the ball. The ball bounces a few times before rolling right under the archways of the King Penguin slide, but fails to roll out the other side.

 

The boy closest to the slide heads curiously close to the slide's archways, followed in hot pursuit by the second boy. The closer they get to the King Penguin, the slower and more cautiously they approach. This causes their mother to look on with more caution.

 

All of a sudden, like a bullet, the red ball shoots out from the archway, zipping right past the two boys and heading straight into the woods. The ball smashes into a tree with a loud crash, snapping the foot-thick tree trunk in half and sending the tree plummeting down. The mother jumps right out of her seat as the tree lands right beside the bench. The two boys look on in awe, but in different directions. One of the boys runs over to the tree. The other boy ducks under the penguin slide to see what could propel the ball quite like that.

 

The boy ducks his head under the shade of the giant slide in the center of the park and turns his head to the immediate left. Right on his left, he sees a short-haired girl sitting right in the corner, her head buried in her knees. Her auburn hair appears jet black in the shade under the slide. She wears long blue jeans and a light blue wool sweater with sleeves that run all the way up to her palms. The boy can only stare at the kneeling girl, trying to figure out why she appears so sad.

 

The girl raises her head, smiling coyly at the boy. Her hair sticks to her dried cheeks as her eyes stare back at the boy vacantly. As the boy begins to back away uncertainly, she begins to sing softly. “Hush, little baby… don't say a word…” she begins, holding up her closed right hand. She opens it slowly to reveal an empty, clear glass bottle shaped like a bird's skull. “…Momma's gonna'… buy you… a mocking… bird…” she continues eerily.

 

The boy stares closer and closer at the bird-shaped bottle in the girl's hand before it suddenly springs to life and shrieks out with a shrill voice. The boy screams loudly as he backs out from under the slide.

 

“AAAAAAAAGH! A ghost!!!” he cries out, stumbling away from the archway faster than he can get traction on the ground. He makes a beeline for the other boy and the mother over by the fallen tree, shouting the whole way.

 

“Mommy, there's a ghost under the slide! A ghost under the slide!” he screams, desperately clutching hold of his mother's dress, much to her surprise.

 

“Are you trying to go on with another one of your lies?” the other boy accuses, beginning to walk towards the archway that his apparent brother ran from so fervently. “There's no such thing as ghosts,” he claims, marching towards the King Penguin slide. Arriving at his destination, he pokes his head under the archway and finds nothing of any peculiarity, the girl that the other boy had seen not appearing under the slide at all. “I told you there wasn't a ghost there!” he shouts back at his brother.

 

The other boy stutters fearfully, pointing at the downed tree while clutching his mother's legs for dear life. “T-th-th-th… then what threw the ball?”

 

“Who cares?” his brother argues.

 

The second, more courageous brother heads into the woods to retrieve the ball he had been tossing around with his brother. The three leave the park as a small, flickering ember floats through the air behind them.

 

*-*-*

 

(Syaoran's room)

 

Syaoran wearily opens his eyes to feel a sharp ache in his side. As he opens his eyes wider, he notices his vision parallel to the floor. He lifts his head up off the floor and looks around himself, noticing that he is in his own room. As he picks himself up onto his knees, he places a hand on his sore left ribs, the ones he had been laying on. He winces slightly as the feeling of needles punching into his side.

 

“How long have I been asleep?” he mutters softly to himself, not noticing the door behind him wide open, and his caretaker right behind him.

 

“Syaoran-sama-” Wei begins, startling Syaoran right to his feet.

 

Syaoran shoots an indignant glare up at Wei. “What ever happened to knocking?”

 

Wei bows in polite apology. “My humble apologies, Syaoran-sama. It's One O'clock in the afternoon, and I thought it would be a good time to wake you up.”

 

“One?!” Syaoran shouts out of surprise. “Why didn't you wake me sooner? Why'd you let me fall asleep in the first place?”

 

Wei kneels down to eye-level with Syaoran. “I wanted to give you some time for yourself today. Nothing else of significance was happening until recently.”

 

Syaoran leans in closer towards Wei. “What happened?” he interrogates boldly.

 

Wei shows Syaoran the phone that he had put back on the counter after Syaoran had taken it into his room. “A friend from school called and asked to talk to you.”

 

Syaoran freezes stiffly at the thought of who Wei might have been referring to.

 

Wei places a finger on his chin as he stares up. “I don't know who it was off the top of my head. I know it wasn't Sakura-sama or Tomoyo-sama because I remembered not recognizing her voice off the top of my head. I want to say something like… Mihara-san?”

 

“Huh?” Syaoran asks, scratching his head at first. “Mihara Chiharu-san?”

 

Wei nods immediately. “Yes, that was it. She called just a few minutes ago and wanted to speak to you about something.”

 

Syaoran breathes a deep sigh of relief. “Finally, something normal is going on…”

 

*-*-*

 

(a moment later, at the phone)

Syaoran had pulled up a chair to the phone as he holds the receiver up to the end. He hears a beep in the speaker as he taps his feet against the ground impatiently.

“Pick up…” he mutters into the receiver.

 

“Hello? Mihara Chiharu here,” a young girl's voice responds.

 

“Mihara-san!” Syaoran greets sternly.

 

“Li-kun? Hey, Li-kun! Yamazaki-kun and I haven't heard from you all vacation. So how has your summer been? Done anything interesting lately?” Chiharu asks energetically.

 

Syaoran hangs his head and sighs. “You don't want to know…” he warns. “My caretaker tells me that you called earlier. Well, what do you want?” he asks bluntly.

 

“Li-kun, I don't want to startle you or anything, but… Have you seen Sakura-chan lately?” Chiharu asks ominously, sending Syaoran's eyes soaring wide open.

 

Syaoran's shock appears permanently affixed to his face as he holds up the phone again. “Possibly. Why? Did something happen to her?” he asks with a calmness that betrays his facial expression.

 

“I'm not really sure… Yamazaki-kun told me that his cousins were playing in the park, near the King Penguin, and one of them saw her there, under the King Penguin slide. But, from what I heard, Sakura didn't sound like she was feeling very well. Have you heard from her? Because I haven't heard anything from her lately at all...”

 

Syaoran stares off into space as Chiharu retells the story as far as she had been told. Syaoran holds up the phone for a long moment, thinking of what to say.

 

“Li-kun, are you still there? Did you hear all that?” Chiharu asks.

 

Syaoran holds the receiver up to his mouth. “I'll talk to her. Thanks,” he says before slowly hanging the phone up.

 

`So much for something normal going on…' Syaoran thinks to himself.

 

*-*-*

 

(Penguin Park)

 

Syaoran stands near the fallen tree that still lay over the sidewalk of Penguin Park. Beside him, Tomoyo holds up her camcorder, studying the fallen tree trunk curiously while taking still shots with her camera. Syaoran and Tomoyo are dressed the same way that they were earlier that day, only Syaoran had swapped out the huge, bulky jacket for a blue, long-sleeved jean jacket.

 

“And you think Sakura-chan did this?” Tomoyo asks, kneeling down to get some up-close shots of the shattered tree trunk.

 

Syaoran surveys the area and nods his head. “Yeah. A tree with this thickness doesn't just fall over on its own. Something hit this tree. Hard.”

 

Tomoyo lowers her camera and looks up towards Syaoran's direction. “But why would Sakura-chan knock over a tree? What could she possibly get so mad about?” she asks, utterly perplexed.

 

Syaoran stares down at the ground, as his guilty memories return to him in full, causing his stomach to churn. “Uh… remember earlier this morning when you told me to tell Sakura how I felt… if I could?”

 

Tomoyo lowers her jaw as she stands to her feet. “Li-kun… oh dear, you didn't… did you?” she begins, nodding her head back and forth in denial.

 

“Hey, it was an accident!” Syaoran insists fiercely.

 

“An accident?!” Tomoyo asks skeptically. “And how, might I ask, did you accidentally crush Sakura-chan's precious, fragile soul? Did you happen to give the slightest forethought that you mean the world to her?!”

 

“You think I don't know that?!” Syaoran shoots back. He runs his fingers through his hair with frustration, grabbing at locks of his hair to tear at them. “What did I even call you out here for, anyway?”

 

“Because someone has to care about what happens to Sakura-chan,” Tomoyo snipes.

 

In the midst of mounting a comeback, Syaoran stares down Tomoyo with a furious, appalled look in his eye, poorly masking a hidden wound that Tomoyo had ripped open. All of a sudden, he finds himself short of words.

 

Tomoyo's mind catches up with her speech as she begins to realize how badly she had burned Syaoran. She regretfully places a hand over her mouth. “Li-kun, I'm sorry I said that…” she says, reaching cautiously out to place a hand on Syaoran's shoulder, only to have him slap her hand away.

 

“When I told her…” Syaoran begins meekly. “…i-it just slipped out. I called her on the phone… I was gonna' set up a meeting place so that I could talk to her in private… to tell her that I like her… but I got her brother on the other end instead. He… he just pushed my buttons. So I fired back off at him. What I didn't know was that… that he must've handed Sakura the phone at some point. …I thought I was yelling at her brother when I mentioned… y'know…” Syaoran places a hand on his jaw, allowing the sleeve of his jacket to slip down, revealing the tip of the Inferno Crossbow on his barely exposed wrist. “When I figured out what I said to her… I-I… I cried. I cried myself to sleep. I must've cried for hours, because the next thing I knew, it was the early afternoon.”

 

Tomoyo notices the exposed tip of the Inferno Crossbow latched to his wrist. She hangs her head in understanding. “These Kaos Cards bring out the worst in all of us, don't they, Li-kun?” she asks gently.

 

Syaoran punches his palm amidst his shivering. “All the more reason to destroy them as soon as possible,” he vows solemnly.

 

“It's okay…” a voice whispers in the wind, catching Syaoran's and Tomoyo's attentions.

 

“It's alright…” the voice adds.

 

Syaoran looks around, trying to find the source of the voice. He strikes a fighting stance as he looks around. “Did you hear that too, or was it just me?” he asks nervously, tensing up and preparing for something.

 

Tomoyo aims her camera all around her, hoping to use it as some sort of telescope to find the source of the voice. “I heard it too. The `it's okay, it's alright' voice.”

 

“Where's it coming from?” Syaoran asks, turning his back to the woods.

 

Tomoyo turns her camera towards the forest. “I don't know…” she answers uncertainly before lowering her camera and shrieking loudly at the sight before her. Syaoran also turns about quickly to see the source of the voice.

 

It was Sakura. She stands in a deep area of the woods. Her hair appears much darker than its usually rich auburn, presumably because of the low light in the woods. She wears a light blue wool turtleneck sweater with the collar pulled up past her upper lip. She also wears a pair of blue jeans. Her footwear cannot be determined from their current position.

 

“Sakura-chan!” Tomoyo calls out, running into the woods before feeling a tug at her arm.

 

Syaoran holds Tomoyo back from storming into the woods. “Be careful.”

 

Tomoyo stares over at Sakura, examining her unorthodox wardrobe choice. “Interesting choice of clothes. Personally I think I could've done something better with the whole blue theme-” she examines with her fashion designer's mind before Syaoran shushes her.

“Not now,” Syaoran warns.

 

Sakura stares at the two and raises a hand to pull down the collar of the turtleneck. “It's okay… she says to the two, reaching out towards them. “Come closer…” she asks.

 

Syaoran stares at Sakura skeptically. “No. How about you come out here instead?” he asks.

 

Sakura raises both her arms. “Come here. I want to show you something. In the woods,” she requests calmly. “Something amazing…” she drones on.

 

Syaoran puts out one arm protectively in front of Tomoyo, but holds this arm up weakly. “What? What is it?” he asks.

 

“Come here…” Sakura beckons. “I'll show you.”

 

Syaoran looks back at Tomoyo. “Stay behind me. If anything happens, get back to the King Penguin and I'll meet you there. Whatever you do, don't look back, and don't wait for me.”

 

Tomoyo nods nervously as she follows Syaoran into the woods.

 

Sakura holds her arms open and paces towards Syaoran and Tomoyo. At seeing this, Syaoran puts his arm up and stops walking forward, holding Tomoyo back. Sakura also stops advancing forward.

 

Sakura's expression turns even sadder as she lets her arms fall to her sides. “Li-kun, Tomoyo-chan, what's wrong? Don't you want to see my surprise?”

 

“What is this surprise anyway?” Syaoran calls out towards Sakura.

 

Sakura pulls her arms close to her body and hops up and down giddily. “It's great, Li-kun, just great! I know you'll love it! Won't you come see? Pretty please, Li-kun?” she asks with a sugary sweetness.

 

Syaoran and Tomoyo stare at each other and shrug simultaneously.

 

“Well…” Syaoran begins. “…if that doesn't prove it, I don't know what will.” He lowers his arm and paces towards Sakura. Sakura, in turn, paces towards him. Their pace proceeds into a jog, then a run. As they come right in front of each other, they both come to a screeching halt as they are both a few inches from each other's faces.

 

Sakura stares into Syaoran's widely open, slightly watery eyes. He wears a mask of red over his cheeks, completely overpowering the paleness of his skin.

 

Syaoran stares into Sakura's eyes as well, seeing an eager perkiness more at home on her face than the demented looks that his mind had been haunted with when considering the effects the Elixir of Fire had on her. The dark tone of her hair persists in the thick shades of the trees, but otherwise she appears normal. Syaoran reaches out towards Sakura and places his hands on her shoulders, causing Sakura to look down and blush. Syaoran quickly pulls Sakura close in a tight hug, intensifying both their blushes.

 

“Sakura, I'm so glad you're okay…” Syaoran whispers into Sakura's ear.

 

“Don't worry, Li-kun, I'm better than okay…” Sakura responds.

 

Tomoyo stands at the side, having finally caught up with Syaoran, and witnesses the heart-warming reunion of the young couple. She quickly whips out her camera and aims it at Sakura and Syaoran, but she almost immediately lowers it, rubbing her eyes sorely and wearing a confused expression.

 

Syaoran gently pets Sakura's hair. “Sakura, I'm sorry about all those things I said to you. I didn't-”

 

“Shhhh…” Sakura shushes, hugging Syaoran back and resting her head on his shoulder. “You don't have to say anything, Li-kun. None of that stuff matters anymore. Everything is alright now.”

 

Tomoyo pulls Syaoran right out of his warm hug with Sakura, yanking him by the arm and dragging him urgently behind a tree. Sakura's eyes widen as Syaoran is pulled right out of her grip.

 

“Li-kun, what's wrong?” Sakura asks, holding her arms open wide.

 

Syaoran's eyes open wide in outrage as Tomoyo pulls him behind a thick tree trunk. “What? What is it?!” Syaoran whispers forcefully.

 

Tomoyo cups her hands over Syaoran's ear. “Something is wrong with Sakura-chan. She doesn't photograph!”

 

Syaoran raises an eyebrow at Tomoyo's observation before returning his gaze to Sakura, who eagerly stares back.

“Li-kun, what's wrong?” Sakura asks peculiarly.

 

Syaoran shakes his head. “What do you mean by `doesn't photograph'?” he whispers. “You're not gonna' go on a rant about how she's not dressed like some kind of exuberant harlequin when on film, are you?”

 

“I prefer the term `fashionable harlequin', thank you very much,” Tomoyo whispers back. “But that's not the point. It's not like she doesn't photograph well, but she literally doesn't photograph at all! I point the camera at her and I can't see her!” Tomoyo whispers urgently.

 

“What? You mean like a ghost or something?” Syaoran asks quietly.

 

“Li-kun?” Sakura asks suddenly, popping right around the corner and causing Syaoran and Tomoyo to nearly jump right out of their shoes.

 

“Li-kun, what's the matter? Don't you want to see my surprise?” Sakura asks, a sadness returning to her voice.

 

Syaoran puts his forearm back up again to shield Tomoyo. “What was it that you said you wanted to show us?”

 

Sakura shakes her head. “I didn't say.” She proceeds to pace backwards into the woods, motioning Syaoran and Tomoyo to follow her. “C'mon, Li-kun, Tomoyo-chan, I want you both to see this! You'll love it!” Sakura beckons.

 

Syaoran looks back at Tomoyo and nods before proceeding through the woods after Sakura.

 

Tomoyo places a hand on Syaoran's shoulder. “Li-kun, don't you see what's going on?” she asks fearfully. She leans in over Syaoran's ear and cups her hand to his ear. “This has all the markings of a trap!” she whispers urgently.

 

Syaoran looks back at Tomoyo out the corner of his eye. “I know that. Just play along for now. You're not the Card Captor of Kaos, I am. Whatever she wants, it probably doesn't have anything to do with you, so if something goes wrong, run back to the King Penguin and I'll meet you there.”

 

“You're going to deliberately walk into a trap?!” Tomoyo asks desperately.

 

Syaoran's eyes remain glued on Sakura's form as she runs off into the dense woods. “It may be a trap, but she doesn't yet know that I know, so the element of surprise is still ours.” Syaoran proceeds slowly through the forest, being followed closely by Tomoyo.

 

Sakura continues to skip merrily through the woods until the thickness of the trees renders even the bright afternoon sun to a bleak few streams of light penetrating through the thick canopy. Sakura stops running and comes to a stop, allowing Syaoran and Tomoyo to catch up.

 

Syaoran and Tomoyo scan the area around them, with Sakura still turned away.

 

“We're here,” Sakura announces, turning to face Syaoran and Tomoyo while wearing an enormous smile.

 

“Where's `here'?” Syaoran asks skeptically, continuing to hold his arm up in front of Tomoyo.

 

Sakura looks up into the large tree above her. “This is what I wanted to show you…” she begins.

 

Syaoran and Tomoyo slowly turn their gazes upwards until something they see causes them to balk in horror. Tomoyo clasps her hands over her mouth and buries her face into Syaoran's chest, while Syaoran throws his arms around her defensively.

 

“What's the meaning of this?” Syaoran asks.

 

Sakura innocently folds her arms behind her back. “What's the matter? Can't you see it in the tree?”

 

Syaoran fixes his eyes to the sight in the tree. “I can see it just fine…” he answers sternly.

 

Upon a high tree branch, a wool long-sleeved turtleneck sweater, much like Sakura's, had been tied to the limb of a tree. It dangles down, having been stretched some distance, and forming a slipknot at the end. In the slipknot hangs a head with a stunningly familiar face. The body hanging in this makeshift noose was Sakura's. Her body turns and sways lifelessly in the wind, her pale, bare feet suspended no less than a full meter above the ground, possibly even two.

 

Syaoran continues to hold onto a sobbing Tomoyo while he himself holds back a violent torrential river behind his eyes, as well as a repulsed urge to vomit at the sight.

 

The Sakura standing in the middle of the woods paces towards Syaoran. “Can't you see, Li-kun? I'm dead now.” She holds her arms open invitingly before grinning carelessly. “Y'know, it's kinda' funny because I've been afraid of ghosts all my life. But now that I am one, I feel so… so care-free…” she comments childishly. “And I owe it all to you, Li-kun,” she concludes.

 

“Don't blame this on me, specter!” Syaoran threatens the approaching figure.

 

“Who's blaming?” Sakura asks. “After those things you said, I felt so sad at first. It was like I lost the will to live. After that, I-”

 

“You killed yourself?!” Syaoran interrupts. “Why would you do that? You had so much to live for. Didn't it occur to you that there were people who cared about you?”

 

Sakura shakes her head. “Li-kun, you don't understand. I was scared at first because I didn't know what was left for me. But after I took my life, I felt freed. Released from all my troubles. As a spirit, I can live forever. All those people that care about me can know that, from now on, I'll always be safe. I'll always be okay. Now, I can be sure that… zettai-”

 

“Shut up!” Syaoran fires back as Tomoyo turns around in Syaoran's arms and looks back at the spirit with watery eyes.

 

“Li-kun-” Sakura reaches out.

 

“I said shut up!” Syaoran interrupts, letting Tomoyo go and marching towards Sakura, confronting her face to face.

 

Sakura folds her hands and looks down at the ground with guilt. “I don't get it, Li-kun, I thought you'd be happy that you didn't have to protect me from all the bad things anymore.”

 

Syaoran shakes his head. “Y'know, you're absolutely right. You don't get it. You don't understand how precious your life was…” Syaoran lowers his own gaze. “…to me…” he adds in a whisper.

 

Sakura reaches over Syaoran's shoulders, lacing her fingers behind Syaoran's neck. “And my new life can be just as precious…” she responds, closing her eyes and pulling Syaoran closer. She plants a soft, brief kiss on Syaoran's cheek, causing him to light up bright red in the face. Sakura opens her eyes and stares affectionately at Syaoran.

 

“S-sa-sa… Sakura… this is wrong,” Syaoran stutters.

 

“Says who?” Sakura asks.

 

“Li-kun, the cadaver!” Tomoyo shouts in the background, causing Syaoran to turn around sharply and throw off Sakura's embrace.

 

“What?” Syaoran asks, getting highly irritated and turning away from Sakura.

 

Tomoyo points her camera fearfully up into the tree. “The cadaver doesn't photograph either!” Tomoyo shouts over at Syaoran.

 

“What's a cadaver?” Syaoran asks.

 

“A body!” Tomoyo answers.

 

Syaoran turns his attention to the hanging Sakura in the tree, turning his head in perplexity, as the Sakura standing behind him allows a nervous look to cross her face.

 

Syaoran reaches towards his right wrist as he feels a shockingly familiar tickle on his arm. With his eyes still affixed to the body, a realization comes to his mind that causes him to angrily wrinkle the skin on his forehead. “Sakura…” he begins to fume angrily.

 

Sakura begins to turn around and escape backwards, but is caught by Syaoran, who kicks her swiftly in the stomach, knocking her into a tree and laying her out limply. At this assault, the Sakura corpse hanging in the tree rapidly vaporizes, burning away in a split second.

 

Syaoran quickly tosses his jean jacket into the air. Under his coat, he wears a short-sleeved white t-shirt. He also wears a retracted bone-like device on his arm. “Key hiding the Powers of the Inferno, Release!” Syaoran declares, causing a glowing orange circle with a seven-pointed star drawn within it to appear in the ground below his feet. The Inferno Crossbow reacts quickly at Syaoran's command, whipping out its wings and materializing an orange beak on the nose. The skull of the crossbow wraps over his right knuckles and a small, glowing orange circle appears on the face of the skull.

 

Sakura carefully picks herself up, grunting in pain, and stands to her feet, but Syaoran quickly wraps his hand around her throat and pins her to the tree.

 

“That was a dirty trick, you scum…” Syaoran utters furiously.

 

Sakura's eyes begin to glass over as she runs short of breath. She claws desperately at Syaoran's grip with her short, stubby fingernails. “…stop…” she mutters just barely before her eyes roll back into her head.

 

Syaoran quickly releases Sakura from his grip, throwing her to the forest floor. Sakura quickly drinks in huge gulps of sweet air amongst heavy hacking coughs. She looks up at Syaoran, her eyes focusing on Syaoran's right arm.

 

“That key-” Sakura says before coughing loudly, gulping in the air too quickly. “I didn't know that Li Syaoran was a Card Captor of Kaos, too. Why would Lycan-sama send me after him?” she asks herself.

 

“Lycan-sama?” Syaoran asks with a curious intrigue. He swiftly grabs Sakura by the shoulders and hoists her to her feet, throwing her back against the tree he had kicked her into, and he points the ready-to-fire tip of the Inferno Crossbow at her throat. “You are a Kaos Card!” Syaoran exclaims, shaking the Sakura-looking doppelganger around furiously. “Fess up! What does Lycan want with me?!” he asks angrily, despite the Sakura-looking spirit's attempts to put up her arms defensively.

 

Tomoyo vainly tries to wedge her arms between Syaoran and the Sakura look-alike. “Li-kun, cut it out! Don't do something you'll regret! Don't turn into a monster!” Tomoyo begs, but Syaoran shoves Tomoyo aside.

 

Syaoran returns his attention to the ghost Sakura imposter. “Can you shape-shift?” he asks, pressing the tip of the Inferno Crossbow against the spirit's throat.

 

The spirit shakes her head, fearful for her life, with her eyes fixed as closely as possible to the tip of the Inferno Crossbow pointed to her neck. “N-n-n-no, no I can't, not unless my master orders me to,” she answers fearfully.

 

Syaoran imposes himself even closer to the spirit. “Then you'd better cooperate or I'll blast your head clean off, got it?” Syaoran threatens.

 

The spirit begins to sweat and cry in a frantic panic. “Please, stop! Have mercy! If you pity me at all, I'm begging you, seal me, please!” she pleads.

 

Syaoran backs away, considering the spirit's plea in his mind and staring back with a confused expression. “You want me to seal you away? What kind of pathetic Kaos Card are you?”

 

“Just seal me, please!” the spirit continues to beg. “You're Damien-san's Card Captor. If you seal me away, Lycan-sama won't be able to find me, but if the other Card Captor seals me, he'll know I failed in my mission!” she explains.

 

“What mission?!” Syaoran barks, twisting the spirit's turtleneck sweater like a garrote and lifting her off the ground. “Answer me!”

 

The spirit paws uselessly at Syaoran's grip as she cries out her pleas to the unsympathetic warden before her. “Please, seal me, and hurry! If Lycan-sama finds out that I failed, h-h-h-he'll kill my sister!” she explains dubiously.

 

Syaoran stares at the spirit's emotionally shattered form with a look of utter dumbfounded contempt. “Your sister? How stupid do you think I am? Mission. Now. Then sealing, and no sooner. If it comes to it, I'll feed you to Lycan myself.”

 

The spirit struggles back with short, flailing kicks. “You don't have the nerve!” she dares.

 

Syaoran slams the spirit back-first into the tree again, knocking the wind out of her before lowering her to her feet and staring her right in the eye. “The nerve?! I told the love of my life that she means absolutely nothing to me. How little do you think I'm capable of?”

 

“Li-kun, stop!” Tomoyo shouts, plowing straight between Syaoran and the Kaos Card spirit that he had been interrogating. Tomoyo pushes the two apart and stands between them with her arms extended and her elbows locked.

 

On one side of Tomoyo, Syaoran fumes violently, waiting for another opportunity to shove Tomoyo aside. On the other side, the Sakura-looking Kaos Card spirit rubs her sore throat and gulps in several deep breaths among a hacking cough. She grabs hold of her rapidly pounding chest as she glances at Syaoran opposite her with a look of fear and hurt.

 

“You're a heartless maniac, y'know that?” the spirit girl says to Syaoran.

 

Syaoran attempts to shove past Tomoyo, but Tomoyo holds him back. “Zombie freak…” he shoots back.

 

The spirit grits her teeth in frustration. “If you would've just sealed me away the moment you realized I was a Kaos Card, this wouldn't be a problem. But every second that I stay in this form, Lycan-sama could find me. He said that…” She turns away from Syaoran and Tomoyo and squats down low before curling up into a ball. “He said… that if I failed… he'd have my sister killed…” she begins to pout.

 

“Again with this sister garbage?!” Syaoran snaps. “You're a Kaos Card! You can't have a sister!”

 

The spirit looks up at Syaoran and shakes her head. “There's a lot you don't know about being a Kaos Card…”

 

“Enlighten me…” Syaoran offers grimly.

 

The spirit stands to her feet slowly, dusting the dirt off her knees. “My name is Mirage. I'm sort of the special child as far as Kaos Cards go. All other Kaos Cards are bound together by the fact that their magical powers are combinations of the magical sources that each became or already were Clow Cards, which is why Kaos Cards are so superior in power. But by some kind of freaky coincidence, one of Gin-sama's original Kaos Cards ended up an exact duplicate of one of the Clow Cards that Reed had already created, no more or less powerful. I am that card. My counterpart's name is Mirror. But the Card Captor in charge of Mirror-chan is also the Card Captor of the Kaos Cards, and she's working for Lycan-sama. And Lycan-sama told me to kill you. He said that if I failed-”

 

“Bull.” Syaoran replies nonchalantly. “I don't buy your little fairy tale. And besides, I'm not Lycan's problem. Why would he take interest in me anyway?”

 

Mirage shakes her head back and forth. “I don't know, I don't know! Lycan-sama keeps me on a short leash! He doesn't tell me anything!”

 

Syaoran finally shoves past Tomoyo. “How convenient…” Syaoran mutters.

 

“Please!” Mirage begs desperately, defensively putting her hands up. “Please believe me! I don't know what Lycan-sama is planning! But you have to seal me away. If Lycan-sama's Card Captor finds me and seals me to her name, Lycan-sama will know that I blew it and Mirror-chan will be dead meat.”

 

Syaoran pins Mirage against the tree again by grabbing her shoulder and throwing her back into the tree trunk. “I don't know what's fishier: the fact that you're so forgetful or the fact that you care what happens to a Clow Card.”

 

Mirage shakes her head with disgust. “Please. If it were any other card in Reed's deck of sideshow weirdoes, I could care less. But…” She lowers her gaze and tone. “…but not Mirror-chan. Not her. Reed and Gin-sama didn't know about it, but Mirror-chan and I go way back. We were good friends. We thought the same, acted the same, and even had the same powers. We were like clones. Twin sisters. But not even the other cards knew about it.” Mirage stares down with tears welling in her eyes. “No one else was supposed to know. How did Lycan-sama figure it out? About us? …Who told him?”

 

“Who?!” Syaoran snaps with intrigue. “What do you mean `who'?”

 

Mirage panics under Syaoran's interrogation. “I don't know! I'm just saying that Lycan-sama probably figured out about Mirror-chan from somebody else, but I can't imagine for the life of me who else would've known…” Mirage stares at the ground again, this time in deep thought. She begins to space out as her mind detaches from the world around her.

 

Syaoran attempts to hold himself back, regulating his anger against the wayward Kaos Card before him. But all of a sudden, a faint flicker of light behind Mirage catches Syaoran's attention. Syaoran stands in place as he stares deeply into the forest, squinting at the source of the brief flash. Again, the glittery flicker flashes through the forest, though the source is too deep and dark for Syaoran to gauge with his eyes.

 

The flicker appears again, but closer. Syaoran sees the glimmering light appear in a curving, golden arc as his eyes open wider and wider.

 

“GET DOWN!” Syaoran shouts, grabbing Mirage by the collar of her turtleneck and yanking her off her feet and right on the ground. Syaoran kneels down low to the ground and wraps his arms protectively over his head. Tomoyo hears Syaoran's warning just in time to turn her head in his direction, but not quickly enough to dive down before the tree trunk behind Mirage shatters right at the midsection. Chips of wood and bark launch outwards in an explosive arc of wooden shrapnel.

 

Tomoyo quickly dives down onto her stomach and throws her arms over her head. Many of the wood chip fragments fly right over her low position, but many more rain lightly down, covering her, Syaoran, and Mirage under a fine blanket of splinters.

 

Mirage opens her eyes slowly, just having comprehended what happened, and she notices Syaoran's hand still clasped tightly to her collar.

 

Syaoran himself had been covered in the debris, but he shakes his head back and forth, shaking off the larger pieces of the imploded foliage. He then turns his head to stare stoically at Mirage.

Mirage places a hand over her mouth, noticing Syaoran's hand grasped tightly to her collar. “Y-yo-you… You saved me…” she whispers softly.

 

Syaoran returns a mean glare in Mirage's direction. “I didn't save you…” Syaoran mutters in a low tone of voice. “…I stopped her…” he adds, raising his gaze to peek around the stump of a tree.

 

“Come out, come out, wherever you are…” an eerily familiar girl's voice taunts from further within the forest.

 

Mirage's eyes shoot open wide as she recognizes the voice. She rises to her knees and turns her head in the direction of the approaching voice. “It's Lycan-sama's Card Captor!” she whispers urgently. “Whatdowedo? Whatdowedo? Whatdowedo? Whatdowedo? Whatdowedo?” she pleads quietly and frantically, her big, green, watery eyes endearingly fixed on Syaoran.

 

“C'mon, Kaos Card, I don't have all day!” Sakura's quickly-angering voice calls out, louder than before.

 

Mirage's frantic panicking turns to terrified bawling as she curls up into a ball behind the tree stump and throws her arms over her head. “Oh, Kami-sama, please don't let her get me…” she begs in vain.

 

Syaoran, noticing Mirage's frantic behavior, crouches down low and inches closer to the spirit. “Don't move. Don't say anything. Don't make a sound. Just keep quiet. I'll handle this,” Syaoran instructs sternly in tone, yet softly in volume. Syaoran is answered by a subtle, quick nod from Mirage.

 

Syaoran climbs to his knees and peeks around the tree stump. Before him, he sees Sakura emerge from the woods, wearing the exact same turtleneck sweater and blue jeans that Mirage was wearing. Most notably, Sakura carries a giant, grim scythe in her hands. The scythe is adorned with bat wings on the broad end of the blade, closest to the handle. The scythe itself appears to be permeated by a long, deep crack about halfway down the blade. The pole of the staff is a pitch black rod, around which the likeness of a golden snake coils all the way up the rod.

 

Sakura turns her head and stares around the forest. She whistles, as if calling out to a lost dog. “Here cardy, cardy, cardy… Come on out. It's okay, I won't hurt you… enough…” she beckons, an ominously sarcastic innocence pervading her tone.

 

Syaoran continues to peer around the tree stump. “Sakura…” he mutters very softly under his breath.

 

Sakura perks up at hearing Syaoran's whispering voice. She begins to approach Syaoran's position. “Hm? My ears are burning. Somebody said my name. My first name…” she says aloud.

 

Syaoran jumps out from behind the tree stump and quickly aims the Inferno Crossbow directly at Sakura, holding his wrist to further steady his aim. Sakura stands right at point-blank range from Syaoran, with the tip of the Inferno Crossbow practically touching her nose.

 

Syaoran looks at Sakura's chest to see the empty Elixir of Fire bottle hanging on the lanyard around Sakura's neck. He returns his gaze to Sakura's face, where a close observation reveals an orange flicker, like a fire, in Sakura's eyes.

 

“Looks like your ears aren't the only things that are burning,” Syaoran comments. “You used the Nightmare Card. Why?”

 

Sakura stares down at the giant scythe in her pitifully small hands. She also takes hold of the Elixir of Fire's bottle. “What can I say? A girl's gotta' have her accessories.”

 

“But not weapons,” Syaoran retorts.

 

Sakura shrugs arrogantly, turning her nose up at Syaoran. “Well you're not the boss of me, shounen,” Sakura responds pejoratively, sticking out her tongue at Syaoran.

 

Syaoran sneers at Sakura, keeping the Inferno Crossbow locked on-target. “Let the Elixir of Fire out. Now,” Syaoran orders sternly. “I told you that I'll handle the Kaos Cards from now on. I don't want you to get hurt.”

 

Sakura gently reaches towards Syaoran's wrist. “Well then, if you don't want me getting hurt…” she begins, placing a single left hand right on the head of the flaming arrow. The arrowhead sizzles with a sound like burning meat, but Sakura is unfazed by the intense heat of the arrow. She effortlessly bends the Inferno Crossbow up towards the sky, despite Syaoran's best attempts to fight against her supernaturally-augmented strength. Sakura leans in towards Syaoran, getting right in his face. “…then you shouldn't aim sharp objects at people's faces. You could put someone's eye out with that thing,” Sakura scolds Syaoran patronizingly, as she finally crushes the arrowhead in her iron grip, causing the rest of the arrow to magically dissipate, releasing Syaoran's tense arm.

 

Syaoran shakes out his sore wrist as the Inferno Crossbow automatically generates a new arrow along the spinal shaft. Syaoran then raises his gaze straight into Sakura's eyes. He can now easily see the ethereal flames burning behind Sakura's translucent emerald-like retinas. “The Elixir has you under its control. I can see its magic in your eyes,” Syaoran states. But suddenly, Syaoran feels a sharp, sore pain in his stomach as he hunches over. Sakura had jabbed the dull end of the Nightmare's staff into his stomach.

 

Sakura gazes off aloofly. “And quit staring into my eyes all the time. It's creepy, y'know.” She opens one eye to glance at a hunched over Syaoran, when something further in the forest catches her eye. “Well I'll be… you brought the Mouse with you, too.” Sakura notices with a pleasant surprise, hinting at Tomoyo.

 

Tomoyo had just crawled to her knees as she continues to shake the splinters and bark fragments out of her hair. She looks up at hearing Sakura's familiar, if not coy, voice. However, instead of jumping to her feet in childish exuberance when she usually meets up with Sakura, she merely exchanges stares with her. Tomoyo stands slowly to her feet, keeping her gaze fixed with Sakura's, while approaching Syaoran and placing a hand on his shoulder.

 

Syaoran recuperates from the clubbing stomach blow, using the tree stump to lean on and to pull himself to a standing position again.

 

Sakura takes a few steps backwards, observing Syaoran and Tomoyo. “It's the shounen and the field mouse. Y'know, maybe you two should start going out and stuff. It'd sure get your mind off little ol' me, wouldn't it… shounen?” Sakura taunts.

 

Syaoran comes to his full height as he puts an arm over Tomoyo's shoulder, apparently still winded from the stomach shot. “Don't tempt me,” Syaoran threatens weakly. “If the Sakura I know wasn't trapped in there somewhere, I might have considered your offer. But I'll get that Elixir of Fire out of you if it kills me.”

 

Sakura squints with intrigue. “That could be arranged very easily…” she begins, but she breaks her stare with Syaoran to turn her attention to surveying the forest around them. “…but not right now. I'm hunting at the moment. Did either of you see a Kaos Card run though these parts, about yea tall, looking like…” she begins to describe, looking down at her own attire. “…well, like me?” she asks.

 

Syaoran's gaze turns from Sakura to behind the tree stump, where Mirage was hiding. However, Mirage was not there, nor behind seemingly any nearby tree. “Mirage…” Syaoran mutters, staring deeper into the forest.

 

Sakura quickly focuses her attention into the depths of the forest, where Syaoran was looking. Deep in the woods, she sees a dark-haired girl's head pop out from behind a thick tree before slinking back into the shady forest. Sakura takes this cue and quickly takes off into the forest. Soon after, the girl hiding behind the tree in the distance also abandons her hiding place and bolts off.

 

Syaoran reaches to grab Sakura's wrist before she can get away, grabbing at the upper arm of Sakura's sweater and pulls her back. Sakura then quickly shakes Syaoran off before holding out the Nightmare in front of her. The Circle of Kaos appears below Sakura's feet as the wings on the broad end of the Nightmare swell up to several times their size, allowing the rod to fly under its own magic. Sakura takes a seat on the staff portion of the Nightmare as her feet lift off the ground. The Nightmare's wings flap with gusts powerful enough to hold Syaoran and Tomoyo back, nearly knocking them down, before the Nightmare quickly takes off, allowing Sakura to bolt through the forest at incredibly quick speeds. As she passes by trees, she tilts the scythe horizontally, using the blade of the scythe to chop down any trees in her path as she flies through the woods, disappearing from Syaoran's and Tomoyo's sights and leaving a trail of sloppy deforestation in her wake.

 

Syaoran lifts his posterior off the ground and climbs to his feet as he attempts to follow Sakura's fleeting figure through the woods with his eyes, but Sakura flies far too quick for him to focus. She soon disappears from Syaoran's sight. Syaoran attempts to chase after Sakura, but he soon collapses to his knees in fatigue and despair, his breathing heavy and his heart pounding fast. The magic arrow on the Inferno Crossbow vaporizes as the key itself deactivates and retracts at Syaoran's magical inability to maintain it.

 

Tomoyo catches up to Syaoran and kneels down to his level. However, Syaoran doesn't seem to notice Tomoyo's presence at all.

 

“She's hunting it,” Syaoran states matter-of-factly. “I should've seen right through Mirage's little game and sealed her on the spot. I shouldn't have tried to sway Sakura from collecting the Kaos Cards. I should've just done everything in secret. I shouldn't have gotten involved…” Syaoran drones, listing one ideal hypothetical after another.

 

Tomoyo places a hand on Syaoran's shoulder, causing Syaoran to turn his head in her direction.

“Li-kun, don't give up hope now,” Tomoyo urges. “Sakura-chan wouldn't be able to get as far as this without your help. And she still won't be able to capture all the Kaos Cards on her own. She's counting on your help. Not just to defeat the Kaos Cards, but to free her from the Elixir of Fire. You promised Sakura-chan that you'd keep her safe. Do you think you can still make good on that promise?” she challenges.

 

Syaoran stares into the forest, where Sakura had flown off into. “You don't get it. I've already failed her. Sakura is trapped in the Elixir of Fire, and she's pursuing her third Kaos Card. She's already one step ahead of me. If I can't prove myself a better Card Captor of Kaos than her-”

 

“Li-kun!” Tomoyo chastens, predicting the direction of Syaoran's logic.

 

“Just hear me out!” Syaoran yells back hoarsely, hushing Tomoyo down. “Sakura already has Mirage as good as caught. If she catches her fourth Kaos Card, there's no possible way I could capture more cards than her. If she ends up proving herself magically-superior to me, she'll be the permanent Card Captor of Kaos. But she'll be driven mad by the power, and the Sakura that we know will be lost forever, buried and incinerated by the Elixir of Fire. If she survives the Kaos Cards in body, but loses her soul in the process, she may as well be dead.” Syaoran looks Tomoyo in the eye and shakes his head. “I can't defeat her like this. It's over.” The next thing Syaoran knows, he feels a weak, right-handed slap on his cheek.

 

Tomoyo's slap doesn't make much of an impact against the rugged Syaoran and slides right off his face like a pat. She hyperventilates frantically after hearing Syaoran's effective surrender. “Li-kun, I've never known you to give up at anything, but if you're giving up on Sakura-chan that easily… then I guess you were right. You don't care about her!”

 

Though Syaoran had barely felt Tomoyo's slap, Tomoyo's outburst had left him speechless, as if Sakura had whacked him in the stomach with Nightmare again. He fights the urge to slap Tomoyo back or fire off back at her in some way, taking deep breaths to calm down and recognize the counter-productivity of arguing. After calming, he remains speechless for a short moment, allowing both himself and Tomoyo to calm down. “What do I do now?” Syaoran asks softly, breaking the silence.

 

Tomoyo puts on a hopeful smile and places her comforting hand back on Syaoran's shoulder. “You get up, dust yourself off, and you run like you've never run before. When you confront Sakura-chan, believe in yourself and you'll know what to do. On some level, beneath all that pomp and arrogance, Sakura-chan is in there somewhere, trapped, alone, and scared, and she's counting on you.”

 

Syaoran fights against his own exhausted body to climb to one knee. He finally climbs to his feet, leaning on his knees, before fully standing upright. He holds out his right forearm before him and a Kaos Card in his left hand. Tomoyo steps back as the Circle of Kaos appears below Syaoran's feet and Syaoran begins the incantation.

“Key hiding the Powers of the Inferno, show your true form before me. I, Xiaolang, command you under our contract…”

 

Tomoyo stands right outside the Kaos Circle and smiles as she sees Syaoran take up action again.

 

“Release!” Syaoran declares. The Inferno Crossbow whips back to life again, extending its bow-like wings, folding the skull over the back of Syaoran's hand, and materializing another orange arrow along the shaft. With a quick tap of the tip of the arrow to the Kaos Card in Syaoran's opposite hand, Syaoran is surrounded by an orange corona from the card itself. As quick as the card had overtaken Syaoran with its magical effects, Syaoran quickly bolts off into the woods with unnatural speed, kicking up a cloud of dust and grass behind him.

 

“Sakura-chan, you're in good hands…” Tomoyo says in her mind, after Syaoran had disappeared into the dark woods.

 

To Be Continued…