Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Rising at Dawn ❯ A Card's Warning ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Rising at Dawn


A/N: Alright! Time to dive into a tunnel of cliffhangers. Watch your step and get ready for some really big surprises.


Disclaimer - Well, of course I don't own CCS. Who did you think I was, CLAMP?


Rising at Dawn
Chapter 8: A Card's Warning


Previously:
"Well, it looks like our young couple is shy. Maybe the music will help them to move about." The musicians started to play as Syaoran and Kinai still stood staring at each other uncomfortably. Just as Syaoran and Kinai caught each others gaze, the room blacked out for a split second and turned on again. Everyone looked around in a panic as they realized in terror that... Kinai was gone.


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*~*

"Kinai!" The whole family shrieked in terror as they either panicked or searched for any other missing faces. "Kinai!" Syaoran went running about trying to pick up where she was, but his efforts were in vain. There was not a single trace of where she was. Suddenly, there was a clanging noise in the background that caught everyone's attention. The clock stroke 12 o' clock midnight. As the loud noise crept into the ballroom, Sakura clasped her hands over her head and her knees fell to the floor. "Sakura!" Everyone rushed to her as Syaoran tried to find out what was wrong. "Sakura, what is it!" "Li-kun, it's the same vision, but... it's... different." "How is it different from last time?" "Now, she said 'By the moonlight and across the sky, as the star's light fades, there will be a new. The days will be numbered as the shadows arise by nightfall and the power will be released once more,' but I don't know what it means." "So it didn't have anything to do with Yue after all." Kero didn't know what assumption to make anymore. Syaoran didn't know what to do but to recite the verse to himself. "Now the days will be numbered as the shadows arise by nightfall..." "... and the power will be released once more." Tomoyo finished for him. "You guys, there's no time to ponder over that. We've got to find Kinai." Sakura reminded them. Syaoran, Keroberos, and Eriol went to find her as Tomoyo took Sakura to their room to rest.

*~*

<whack!> "It's not my time yet!" Kinai kicked a strange looking man to the floor. "I told you. I can't go yet! When it's my time to die, it would be a little more obvious!" Kinai stormed away from the man who continued to follow her. Kinai whirled around. "Blinding Flash!" The bright light blinded the young man and Kinai disappeared. "Not your time? We'll see about that." His silvery hair gleamed in the remaining light from the spell as he faded away into the dark night.

*~*

A sudden flash of light attracted the three searching crew mates to come and find nothing. Syaoran kicked the floor. "Damn it!" Eriol walked beside him. "What if Kinai is back in the house?" Syaoran looked at him half skeptically, half angrily. "Kinai doesn't know any teleportation spells!" "But what if she knew a certain spell that consists of a flash of light? Wouldn't that help her to escape?" Syaoran thought for a moment.

*~*
Flashback

"So you think you're getting away that easily?" Kinai ran and turned around suddenly to face her trainer, Syaoran. She put her hands together so as to have her right fist meet horizontally at her vertical left wrist. "Blinding Flash!" After what consisted of a blinding light, Kinai disappeared and reappeared behind Syaoran and caught him off guard, causing him to trip. The two laughed as Syaoran pondered over that manuever.

End of Flashback
*~*

"I guess we can give it a try." Eriol helped him up. "You go back to the house. Keroberos and I'll keep looking just in case." Syaoran nodded and ran back to the house.

*~*

Kinai burst into the house as the family gasped in surprise to see her again. "Miss Kinai!" "Oh we were so worried about our future mistress." Kinai knew in the back of her mind that they only dreamed about her disappearing completely so that Syaoran could choose one of them to be her replacement. Sanori ran up to Kinai. "Kinai where were you?" Kinai hadn't thought of an excuse so she panicked slightly. "Oh, I was um... just checking out the fuse... in case something went wrong." Sanori hit her arm slightly. "Next time don't scare us like that. We thought we lost you." The sisters rolled their eyes over how protective their mother could be about Syaoran's future wife. "I wonder why the lights went off in the first place." The sisters pondered. "Kinai." Sakura came back down stairs and hugged her tightly. "Are you okay?" Kinai nodded and smiled at Sakura. Suddenly, the doors opened. "Kinai!" Syaoran came rushing in as fast as he could. "Are you alright?" "I'm just fine. I'm sorry for worrying you." Syaoran reached out and patted her shoulders. "Thank goodness!" Sakura didn't feel too happy about Syaoran being so concerned about another girl, but she thought that it would be alright, considering that they were related.

*~*

The ceremony continued as laughter and merryment returned to their throne. Unfortunately for Sakura, sleepiness was there to catch its victims as well. <yawn> "I don't know if I can stay up much longer." Syaoran eventally caught her yawning and offered her to take her back to her room. "No really, I'm fine." "At that rate, you'll fall asleep before you know it. Come on. It's better to get a quick nap then to trouble yourself." "But Li-kun..." Kinai stepped out of the kitchen and joined up with them. "Sakura!" Kinai reached for Sakura's forehead before pulling her hand away. "Sakura, do you have a throbbing headache or a really dizziness?" "Uhuh..." Sakura nodded sleepily. "Come on, let's go." Sakura reluctantly left with Kinai to go to her room. Meilin went over to help with Kinai's kitchen chores as Tomoyo followed Kinai and Sakura to their room.

*~*

"Here, Sakura. Lie down." Sakura groaned as she layed down. "What's wrong with me, Kinai?" "I'm not sure. It looks like you have a fever." "How could I have gotten a fever?" "You probably weren't used to the weather here." "But, Kinai, what about the party? I probably worried everyone, and what if I disgraced Tomoyo and the others?" "I'll explain to everyone about what happened, so don't worry about it." "Thanks. Can I ask you one more question?" "What did you suppose you were just doing?" "Well... I just wanted to know... how did you know how to speak Japanese?" Kinai felt as if she were going to facefall.>.< "Well, know that you mention it, I didn't really explain, did I." ^^; "Well, along with Li-kun's training, he taught me Japanese. I don't know why, but he said that I might need to know, so I learned. Does that answer your question?" Sakura nodded. "Get some sleep. When the big events start, I'll come and bring you down, okay." After her comforting words, Kinai left the room with Tomoyo in charge of Sakura and resumed her kitchen duties.

*~*

<tick tock ding ding>
The clock stroke three in the morning and the ceremony had only half an hour more to go. Sweets were being passed around the room to get everyone up again. Many gave up the idea of dancing and moved towards the tables to grab a snack or two. Just then, Syaoran caught sight of Kinai going upstairs with a tray with some items he had never seen before. He decided to follow her in case she was up to something.

*~*

<knock knock>
"Tomoyo, it's me, Kinai." Tomoyo opened the door, and Kinai came in. Because the door was ajar, Syaoran was able to see what was going on. Kinai took some strange jewel-like stones out of a bag and crushed it into powder. She took this mysterious powder and poured it into Sakura's tea. She also sprinkled some on top of the cookies she brought her. After helping Sakura up, the tea was swallowed, and the cookies were being nibbled on as Syaoran prepared for anything mysterious to happen. Sure enough a mysterious blue cloud enshrouded our heroine. Kinai opened her other bag and pulled out a glowing marble-like substance and dropped it into the blue cloud that surrounded Sakura. After a blinding light, Sakura was gently dropped back on her bed. Syaoran was too much in shock to move from his position. Soon enough, Sakura's eyes twitched open. "Thanks, Kinai. I never felt better. Can you make this again before all my races so that I won't be too tired?" Kinai laughed as Syaoran felt a little more secure. "What are you doing here?" Everyone whirled around to find that our "little wolf" was caught by Meilin. "Mind if I come in?" Meilin entered the room. "None of you had to worry. Kinai used this maneuver on me whenever I needed the boost." Everyone sighed in relief as Kinai placed everything back on the tray. "You'd better go down. Everyone will be expecting you soon."

*~*

The music faded as the Li family traditional dance ended. (A/N: I can't tell you how they did it. It's a secret! ^^a) Sakura was surprised to see that she was not the only one on the sidelines. There were still quite a few people that were distant relatives of great respect to the Li family. However, the majority of them were very curious to know why Syaoran was dancing with Meilin instead of Kinai. After seeing that she was setting up the tables again, they knew why Syaoran had made this decision. Of course, Sakura did not suspect a thing. "Now that the Li family traditional dance has ended, we will conclude this ceremony by paying our respects to our ancestors who have guided us to this position." Flowers were being passed around for everyone. "What are the flowers for, Li-kun?" "It's to represent that we all stand equally before our ancestors, Sakura. Everyone brings their flower to the ancestors, and the elders and the leader takes their flower petals and sprinkles them over the table to represent that they will lead a multitude of the Li family to their best of their ability." After the flower ceremony was over, the Li family said their goodbyes and left for their own homes.

*~*

"...as the star's light fades, there will be a new... What is that suppose to mean?" Sakura kept pondering over parts of the quote. "Star's light... Could it be my star's power? And what about that other part, 'The days will be numbered?' I don't like the sound of this Kero." Kero was barely drifting and crossing his legs to think for a moment. "Me neither, Sakura, but it definitely sounds like there's more to this puzzle than just that." "What do you mean?" "Well, don't you think there's a little bit more behind all of this?" "Yeah. I guess so." "And everytime they repeated that one phrase, something got closer and closer to happening." "That means that... 'By the moonlight and across the sky' already happened." "but what could it be..." "The airplane flight!" Sakura and Kero shouted at the same time. "Then what's all this star's light stuff about?" "I don't know, Kero, but I don't like the sound of the next phrase." "Does that mean that all three things will happen at the same time?" "I have a feeling that the star's light fading has something to do with my cards." Sakura ran to her dresser and pulled them out. "Kero! They're fading!" "What!" Inside the book, the cards seemed just fine, but the two stars of the back were fading away. "What should I do?!" "I don't know. I've never seen this before. I'll bring Eriol." Kero flew out and brought Eriol as fast as speeding light. "Eriol, what should I do?" Eriol examined the cards one by one. "Time is black, Dash is not responding, all the other cards are fading... this could only mean one thing. Sakura, there's something evil coming. Time is black because it means that it has something to do with our past or future, but we can't go back to fix it. Instead we have to face it here in present day time. Dash isn't responding because it's warning us that..." "What is it warning us about, Eriol?" "It's saying that... this time... we won't be able to run away no matter how bad the battle is."

to be continued...


A/N: Whew! I thought I'd never finish. Alright, now to take a good long rest. What? I thought I heard someone saying they wanted more. Hm... maybe I'm just loosing it, but if someone out there wants more to read, please review it for some evidence that I'm not going crazy. Arigato. ^__^