Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Partings ❯ Hope ( Chapter 5 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Partings 5: Hope
By: Starlight Rose
Email: starlighto_rose@hotmail.com

Disclaimer: The goddesses of Clamp own CCS, but I own my characters.

A.N. Chapter 5 was written before I wrote chapter 4 so if there are discrepencies that's why.

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I strode down a sterile hospital hallway following a power that pulled at me. Keroberus was sitting in a pocket of my jacket probably sound asleep since he hadn't said anything to me in a while. I don't blame him. I feel rather tired myself. Today has been an exhausting day and the two of us still had a lot left to do. We are here in this hospital to do perform our mistress's last request, not order but request. Sakura never ordered anyone to do something. She would merely request it. I miss her already. Tears start forming in my eyes as I think of her, but I brush them away. I had more important things to do than cry. Crying could be saved for later. I used to never cry, but now I feel like if I don't my chest will burst.

I wish it would. Then I could be in peace and be united with my loved ones eternally, but fate is cruel. I am doomed to live as long as I have a master to support me and I always have a master. I think both Clow and Sakura arranged that because they want me to live. They don't understand the pain of living without the ones you love, or at least they don't realize how much I love them.

Keroberus has the same curse upon him, but it doesn't seem to bother him as much. Not to say that it doesn't bother him. Today was the first day I've seen him cry. I think he loved Sakura as much as I did though in a different way. She was his first friend. She was my first friend. Clow loved us but not with the compassion that Sakura loved us. I still don't understand why she had to die, but I know why she no longer wanted to live. It was the same reason i no longer want to live. But she is allowed to die, for she is human and natural. I am not, for I am not human nor am I natural. I was created by magic and as long as magic exists I will live.

As I walked I saw a lot of people both men and women turn to stare at me. I was in a human form that Sakura helped me to create. It was similar to my normal form, but my hair was shorter and of course I had no wings. Other than that and a change of clothes I looked like myself mainly because Sakura thought I was beautiful as I was. I wore Chinese robes that probably were considered old fashioned in this time, but they were comfortable and Sakura made them for me. Anything that she gave me I treasured. I found this form more appealing to me than Yukito's form was, in part because it was easier for me to transform into my true form in this body than it had in Yukito's body and because I had full control of this body. My mind and this form's mind are the same. But I would be lying if I said that those were the only two reasons that I liked this body. The main reason though was because sakura gave me this form. She made this form for me soon after Touya died and Yukito retreated into my consciousness to sleep eternally.

I shivered as I thought about the last time I had visited a hospital. It is strange how despite it being several hundred years since the last time I was here, how little the place seem to change. True the surroundings were different but the atmosphere was still the same and the atmosphere is the important thing. It was several hundred years ago that I was here but the wound still hurts and the fact that similar circumstances are causing me to come back here did not alleviate my grief any.

Finally I traced the power to its source. I stood in front of the door trying to figure out how I would do this and if I wanted to do this. I knew I would because Sakura asked it of me and I could never refuse my mistress anything, but it hurt knowing that I would have to accept a new master now that she was gone. She left me, just like Touya, Yukito, and Clow. I knocked on the door and a strangely familiar voice answered me. Slowly I opened to door and stood there in shock. Before me in a bed sat Sakura's great-great-great-great-great-great grandaughter, Mikage. Mikage looked up at me and smiled before asking, "Yue-san, what brings you here? How is grandmama Sakura? As beautiful, young, and cheerful as always?"

The question was stabbed at my heart and I felt my chest aching again. I wondered why I was here. Sakura had told me I would find my mistess here, and I felt a strong power that was worthy of being the master of the Cards here, but surely it couldn't have been from Mikage. If it had I should have noticed it sooner. Unless she sent me here to inform her family of her death, but that would have been too cruel. I turned my head away and answered softly, "Sakura's passed away."

Mikage's eyes widened in disbelief. "Masaka! How can grandmama Sakura die? She's lived for so long! Why couldn't she have lived a little longer. It's not fair!" Mikage cried. Tears overflowed her amber eyes as her face dropped into her hands.

It's not fair. How many times have I said that to myself today? I don't know, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that Sakura is gone and I must deal with the pain of her parting. But now is not the time for me to grieve. I have other things I must do. Right now I need to comfort someone though I know I need comforting myself. But who could comfort me? The only one that could is now gone.

"I'm sorry, Mikage, but as Clow once said, 'Every living thing must come to its end.' I think Sakura felt it was time for her life to come to its end. Keroberus and I tried to get her to change her mind but she refused. She but the rest of her life and her power into this rose that she told Keroberus and I to deliver to her succcessor for her."

"It's not fair! Why couldn't she wait one more day!" Mikage shouted.

"Mikage, why one more day? Why are you in a hospital?"

Mikage continued to cry. I wanted to comfort her but I didn't know how. Finally Mikage answered me, "I wanted to introduce her to someone special." She walked over to a hospital crib that I had not noticed sitting by the window. Picking up a bundle from the crib she carried it over to me. "I wanted to introduce her to her newest grandchild, Sakura."

"You named the baby after Sakura?"

"Yes. As soon as this child was born she reminded me so much of her that I had to name her Sakura. I wanted to show her to Sakura and was planning on doing it as soon as we could leave the hospital, but Sakura died! Now I can't show Sakura to her. I can't introduce her to her namesake and my child will grow up without having met a beautiful person like grandmama."

"I'm sure she knew. Sakura always knows these things." I said trying to comfort the distrat young woman. "I may I hold her?" I asked. I felt a strong attraction to this child and I knew that she was the one Sakura meant for Keroberus and I to guard. Even though I did not want to accept a new master, this baby girl called to me and I answered.

Mikage handed the child to me. I cradled the child carefully in my arms and peered at her closely. I tried to see her aura and saw that it was pink, just like the orginal Sakura. But the aura wasn't the only thing that was like Sakura. The child's presence was also the same presence that I felt when I was around my mistress. The blanket slipped off of the baby's head and revealed a tuft of auburn hair. I cradled the baby closer to my body wondering if this child was the reincarnation of my beloved mistress. I wondered if my mistress had returned to me. Suddenly I felt the child stir in my arms and I looked down at her to be greeted by a pair of emerald green eyes. The child stared at me, yawned, then smiled sleepily and fell back asleep.

I knew it then.

This child was my mistress. She was the reincarnation of Sakura. Never was I so sure of anything, but I knew that I would accept this child and protect her. I would do everything to ensure her happiness and I would make sure that she knew she was special and loved. This time I would make sure that my mistress understood just how much I loved her even if she did not love me back that way.

"Mikage," I whispered softly. Mikage's face lifted off out of her hands where they had fallen again while I was examining the child. "This child is special. She is Sakura. She is my mistress and I wish to watch over her always. If you would like you and your family may move into the mansion with Keroberus and I. That mansion is too big for the two of us anyway. I think living in such a big mansion with only Keroberus and I for company the last few years has made Sakura lonely and sad. Now with Sakura gone I would be sad living there with only Ketoberus. If you do not wish to then I would like to move in with your family or at least close to it so that I may watch over my mistress."

"My child is Sakura?" Mikage asked shocked. I nodded solemnly. Mikage smiled then and replied, "Then I think I will accept your offer Yue-san, but will Kero-chan mind?"

"Will I mind what?" Keroberus asked as he awoke from his nap and flew out of my pocket. He looked around apparently feeling Sakura's aura. Finally he looked down at the child sleeping in my arms and whispered softly, "This baby feels like Sakura. She is our new mistress."

"I know." I replied. "She will be living with us now and we will protect her from now on."

Keroberus looked at me in surprise, "You accept her that easily?"

"How can I not? She is Sakura." I replied.