Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Rite of Passage ❯ A Snowflake, Bonds, and Honour ( Chapter 6 )

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Card Captor Sakura Fanfiction
March 9, 2001
Disclaimer: Card Captor Sakura and all its characters are owned by CLAMP, Kodansha, Mixx. No money made, all for fun. Reminder: though this fic borrows aspects from both the anime and manga versions, it will primarily follow the manga plotline. The Li Family characterizations and non-canonical characters are figments of my imagination.

Rite of Passage
Chapter Six: A Snowflake, Bonds and Honour
By Ina-chan

Did anything like this ever happen to you? Sitting bolt upright from a dream... confused... not knowing where you are... not even remembering what your nightmare was all about... the fast pounding of your heart... the desperate pants to catch your breath... the coldness of the film of sweat all over your body... and an inexplicable titanic wave of dread drowning you... were the only realities you are truly certain of?

When nightmares struck me back when I was little, I used to through the darkness of the house's great halls to seek refuge in Old Grandmother's room. She always knew when I would be coming. She would always sit expectantly on her favourite rocking chair. I would always crawl on her lap and in her comforting embrace. She would chase away the horrible lingering feelings as she sang and rocked me back to sleep. When Old Grandmother died, it was Hahaue would come. I don't know how she knew, but she always came. She would sit by my bed and hold a comforting silent vigil until I fell back asleep.

But tonight, I was simply greeted by the silent darkness of the night. Its almost three days since that incident with the fire spell. Almost three days since Hahaue locked herself in the family shrine without food, water, or even a word to anyone. Almost three days since these damned dreams that I can't remember started haunting me... no... its not really the dreams that bothered me... its the sense of urgency that came along with it. And it was getting annoyingly stronger and unbearable each time. It was suddenly hot and stifling in my room as the walls threatened to close in and smother me. One doesn't need to be a seasoned warrior to know when to retreat from a loosing battle.

It was the quest for fresh air and something warm to drink that beckoned me to the smaller kitchen. And there I found Da-jie bent over her favourite laptop and a monstrous mess of papers on the housekeeper's worktable, in deep concentration. When Da-jie's anxious or worrying about something, these disorganized manic obsessions over the littlest things tend to be her outlet... Nevertheless, if there is one thing I hated more than my sisters' over-energetic nosiness, was the sight of disorganization.

"I'm heating milk for some hot chocolate," Xue-hua* said without looking up from her work, "Do you want me to make you some?"

"Do whatever you like," I replied absent-mindedly, trying to fight the compulsive urge to clean up the mess that made its way to the floor

"Don't touch anything!" Xue-hua said firmly with a knowing smirk as she looked up to face me, "If you move anything around, I'll never find it."

"And you can find things like this?" Came my automatic rebuttal

"I know it looks unorthodox to your insane meticulous orderliness, but I know exactly where everything is," Xue-hua retorted as she made her way to the stove, "Really, Xiao-lang. You're almost as bad as Uncle Chung."

Now that was insultingly extreme. "I DO NOT color code my underwear," I glared at her defensively.

Xue-hua simply threw back her head and laughed as she lifted the saucepan and poured its contents in a mug, "I put in some peanut butter in mine, do you want some in yours too?"

"Doesn't matter," I replied as I stiffly tried to find a spot on the table

Xue-hua sighed as she walked back with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate, "All right, you can move some stuff on the table to make room. But don't separate anything!"

It seemed weird actually. Doing some sort of activity that needed a call for order has always relaxed me. Whether it be solving a math problem or practicing my kata* or even simply cleaning up an unsightly mess, it somehow manages to slow down my racing thoughts and put about a semblance of calm and order.

"What is this for, anyway?" I asked curiously as I brushed a now neat stack to one side, "I thought you finished your term paper last week."

"Hmmm," Xue-hua started through a sipful of hot chocolate, "I was just looking through some things and I stumbled upon one of Baba's logbooks. This one has a list of his old friends and business colleagues whom he helped and vice versa when he was in charge of the business. And I thought it would be a good idea to do some research if we want to reconnect with them."

"Is that a good I idea? Hahaue..."

"Hahaue and Uncle Wei needs to understand that I'm just as capable of running the family business as Cousin Xiao-yuan*. I'm NOT going to loose to that scheming little monkey!"

I instinctively inched my seat away out of the splash radius of her drink. Da-jie, being the gentlest and most reasonable of my sisters, has the tendency to go into an uncharacteristic insane rage whenever our second cousin was involved. Most specially when word came out that the family was more in favour of training him to take over the family's merchandizing business someday over my sister. I had to agree that it was very unfair of them to assume that. Da-jie did inherit our father's legendary negotiating skills and business sense... to the point of it becoming a frightening obsession...

"A good business person knows which person to connect with in her network to attain her goal. Knowing all the persons whom you did or owe favours with," Xue-hua began as she picked up the logbook and pointed to a name, "Take this person for example. Baba helped this man raise capital to support his fledging hotel and lodging business almost twenty years ago. Now, he owns a chain of hotels all over Hong Kong... and he even owns several apartment buildings in Japan. Here's even a funnier coincidence. His nephew who is the landlord of one of his buildings in a fairly posh residential district outside of Tokyo was even an old college friend of Baba! Tell me, do you think that stupid monkey can even come close to that?"

"Da-jie... isn't that illegal?" I started nervously, "Besides... why do you need to know things like apartments in other countries?"

Xue-hua blinked, suddenly caught off-guard, "Well... you never know... when you'll need an apartment..."

I simply gave her a skeptical look, "In Japan?"

"Well then... Hypothetically speaking," Xue-hua leaned forward to meet me in the eye as she recovered her second wind," Let's say, I'm going to stay in Japan for a couple of years. Of course I'll need a place to stay. Everyone knows that its pretty much hell to find a decent place to live near Tokyo in a reasonable price. And being a delicate flower that I am in a strange foreign land, it would be only logical that I would stay in a place that I have the utmost confidence with. Every good businessperson always has the good sense to repay a debt of gratitude to retain honour. And in having that edge on my side pretty much guarantees that I have a decent place to live."

"So what you're saying is that to get ahead you need to exploit a person's sense of debt of gratitude," I stated while absent-mindedly stirring the contents of my mug

Xue-hua sighed, "You really do have a cruel way of stating things, Didi."

"But essentially, that is what you're saying."

My eldest sister simply shook her head, "Its actually more complicated than that. It's like... let's say... someone saved you from getting run over by a car, its only natural to feel some sort of debt to that person who saved your life, right? A debt of gratitude is an honourable bond."

"Sooo... that glosses over the fact that you're taking advantage of that person..."

Xue-hua smirked and simply reached over and flicked me on the nose, "It's three in the morning. Go back to bed."

"Nee, Da-jie," I started as I got on my feet, "If these bonds are so strong... why don't you just create one with Cousin Yuan?"

My sister's knuckles turned white as her mug shook violently and threatened to shatter under the pressure of her grasp. She then calmly put the mug down and let out a dainty cough, "It doesn't work that way, Didi."

"Meaning?"

"I'd rather die than do something nice to that monkey," Xue-hua spat furiously as her gentle eyes narrowed into angry little slits, "Never, never, NEVER!"

***

NEVER!

Not now, or ever again will you get the upper hand on me. So what if you got a haircut from him. So what if we ran out of time before we can settle our badminton match during gym. This time, for sure, I'll win. This Clow Card is somewhere in the woods. There were a lot of other presences here, clouding its actual location. But its aura was strong. As I run deeper into the woods, I could feel its presence grow stronger like a beacon. I was certain that this time, I'll be able to get to it before you do.

"What, you again? What the hell are you doing here!"

"I was chasing a Clow Card's aura!" Hmph. The flying stuffed animal. If that thing is here, then for sure you would be on the move too. I should have known that there was going to be a snag along the way. But you simply sat on the ground, unmoving.

I don't care. I didn't care. I shouldn't care. You were my sworn rival after all. Why should I care if you were sitting in the middle of the woods with a lost and hopeless expression in your face... and tears in your eyes... Arrrgh! "Wh-what happened?"

You lifted your head up at the sound of my voice. The downcast look on your face disappeared to make way for a hopeful expression as you turned around to face me, "That thing!"

Eh?

"That thing for finding Clow Cards!" You hold on to me desperately, through your optimistic tear streaked eyes, "Please! Help me find Onnichan!"

"A...aa*," It was the tears. Those were the only thoughts that ran through my mind as I reached into my pocket in search of that disc. I felt it through a soft fabric also hidden in my pocket. But I still firmly believe it was definitely the tears. They're the worst form of blackmail.

"Hurry up and move it!" The stuffed animal demanded angrily

Grrrr. I picked up my pace to match it and gave it the most indignant glare I could muster, "You could fly! And you're not carrying her backpack!" What do girls put in these things anyway?

"This is an emergency," The stuffed animal retorted, " If the trees aren't so big, you could easily use fly magic! So you better move it!"

The rashinban's light continued on and dived at the edge of the cliff.

"Onnichan!"

It could have been from all the running, but the sight of it definitely caused a twinge of fear within me. As much as I hated your brother, I never really wished anything bad to happen to him.

"RELEASE! FLY!"

Without another word, we flew down the cliff to be greeted by the sight of your brother... and you?

"ONNICHAN!"

It was an unusual card. It copied your form to lure your brother here and none of the attack cards worked on it. This card was definitely a dangerous one. My mind raced as I tried to remember Clow Read's notes that mentioned it, but your movements toward it seemed to erase any form of logical thought in my head. Geez! You really had a death wish, "Stupid! Don't go near it!"

"Stupid, who are you calling stupid?! Calling her things like that only makes me angry!" The stuffed animal growled indignantly at my face

"What did you say?"

But you had that unstoppable determined look on your face that I was starting to get used to. Somehow, seeing that expression... was somewhat a soothing balm to the tension. Once again, you succeeded in sealing another Clow Card from right under my nose.

Normally I would be upset. I should be upset. Strangely enough... I wasn't. I shoved my hands back into my pocket and pulled out that soft unfamiliar fabric I felt. It was a replacement I got for that handkerchief from that night. I couldn't get the blood off completely from the other one. Somehow, there was never an appropriate moment to give it to you as pay back.

But... Seeing your tears of relief being re-united with your brother now... I guess that makes us even.

***

"Xiao-lang," Xue-hua called after me before I took another step out of the room. Her voice changing back into her wise and serious normal self, "I know it sounds awfully opportunistic against an honourable warrior's code. Nevertheless, a debt of gratitude is a first step in forming bonds between unbreakable allies. Our own strength may depend on the strength of those bonds. And that doesn't just apply to business."

"Xie xie."

End of Part 6
Continue on Part 7: The Value of A Warrior
Return to Part 5: Reclaiming a Cherry Blossom

Ina-chan's Squawk:

*Xue-hua - After a few hours of painful searching, I finally deciphered the meaning of the Japanese kanji of Shie-fua (its so much harder if you have katakana instead of hiragana to go by with the pronounciation... of course the fact that its pronounciation is "bastardized" Chinese makes it worse...^_^.)! It means "snowflake". And Xue-hua is the actual Chinese romanization of her name! WAI! I'm so proud of myself!

*kata - I dunno the Chinese equivalent. A kata is a series of martial arts moves for practice. It varies depending on your belt.

*Xiao-yuan - I just made him up too. ^_^. If you haven't guessed, his name means "Little Monkey".

*Aa - depends on how it is used to answer a sentence, but usually its a guy's way of casually saying "yes" (synonymous to a girl saying "Un").

As for the Li Clan's family business... I made that up. I mean, sure they have a long standing history of being powerful sorcerors and warriors and all... but I very much doubt if that has any relevance to the modern world. Seeing the apartment that Syaoran was staying in the manga... and their house in the 1st movie... GEEZ! The danged family is LOADED! Since Hong Kong is one of the world's main trading centres, I just stuck in the most logical business the family is involved in... without getting into the common "Li Clan is power-hungry mad evil" concept that a lot of fics geared toward to. And having all that spiritual insight is also mighty handy in trying to forsee what will happen in... let's say... stocks? ^_^. I can also see various business people going to the more "gifted" members of the Li family for advice regarding big deals and stuff.

As usual, reviews, comments and criticisms will be very much appreciated. If you have a fanfiction.net account, please don't hesitate to review my fics on http://www.fanfiction.net. The genre is under Anime-CCS-Drama. I would love some constructive criticisms for the improvement of this fic series. ^_^. I'm also open for private mail CCS discussion. You can reach me via ina_chan@yahoo.com!

Ja!
Ina-chan

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