Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Shadow of the Dragon ❯ Sakura Fights Alone ( Chapter 10 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Lord Archive 
With Syaoran still in Hong Kong, Sakura has to face her next challenge all by herself.
Anime/Manga: Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Romance / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 08.03.2007 | Pages: 5 | Words: 6.2K | Visits: 645 | Status: Completed
With Syaoran still in Hong Kong, Sakura has to face her next challenge all by herself.
Anime/Manga: Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Romance / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 08.03.2007 | Pages: 5 | Words: 6.2K | Visits: 645 | Status: Completed
A chilled wind blew over Tomoeda, causing Sakura to shudder as she walked past Penguin Park. She was tempted to walk over and sit on the swings, but it was already getting late and she should've been home hours ago. Her mind was still replaying the funerals, Reiko's especially with the sad revelations of the poor girl's short life.
Sakura turned as she felt someone approach her and found herself bodily picked up and thrown hard at the sidewalk. She dizzily looked up to see Satome looming above her.
"You don't have that foreign trash here to protect you this time," the bully sneered. "I'm going to take out all the pain and humiliation he and that stupid cunt of his cousin has done to me out on you." He reared his foot back and kicked her in the gut. "You might not survive it." He then chuckled evilly. "At least you won't want to live after I'm done with you."
Sakura felt like a rag doll as the burly teen grabbed her by the throat and pulled her off the ground. She struggled to breathe as he pulled her inside the park, dropping her behind a set of bushes. The voices of her cards called out to her, but they seemed to be out of reach. She wanted to grab hold of at least The Fight to get out of Satome's hold, but her ability to use magic suddenly eluded her.
Satome pulled out a dirty cloth and shoved it into the girl's mouth, making her want to throw up from the awful taste. She didn't even want to know what was on it.
Sakura's eyes widened in fright as the teen sat down on her, one knee pinning down her right arm. She flailed weakly with her left arm, trying to push him away as his hand painfully groped her left breast through her clothes.
"By the time I've finished fucking you, not even that foreign piece of shit will want you. Because of you and your stupid friends, I've lost what little I had. And I'm gonna take it from your whorish body," Satome's voice oozed venom as he said it. His hand slid between the buttons on her shirt and ripped it open, exposing her bra-clad chest. "Maybe not so 'whorish' with those little tits."
Sakura wanted to scream as he reached to push her bra away, but the nasty cloth in her mouth prevented her from making any loud noise. Suddenly her magic roared back, but before she could do anything with it, Satome went flying away from her as a cloaked man now stood above her, leg extended from a kick.
"What the fuck?!" Satome spat. "Why can't I put that stupid bitch in her place without someone interfering?"
"Only the worst of scum uses sex as a weapon against women," the cloaked man's voice graveled out. "If she has wronged you, kill her."
Sakura blinked, wondering if she had truly been saved.
"Killing a girl is a waste of a perfectly good cunt. All girls are good for is making babies. So why not try to knock up whatever girl I care to?" Satome retorted angrily. "It was what my sperm donor did to my incubator."
Sakura blinked in utter confusion, while the man above her seemed to pause. "Repeating the cycle of hate and violence destroyed my clan. You do not have to follow in the footsteps of your father just because you were born out of rape," the cloaked man finally returned, causing Sakura's eyes to widen in realization of what the boy had meant.
"Girls are worthless and should know their fucking place!" Satome charged the cloaked man, fist raised to attack.
Sakura realized her precarious position lying on the ground in front of the man almost too late. She rolled over just before Satome would've stepped on her. She took a moment to pull the gag out of her mouth and coughed a bit before looking up to see a somewhat familiar scene.
Satome was only standing by virtue of the force of the blows the cloaked man was raining upon the teenager. With a final uppercut, Satome was launched into the air and was then struck by a devastating kick before he landed, sending him meters away.
The cloaked man strode purposefully toward the prone teenage boy. "Just so you remember not to violate girls with your touch." He grabbed the boy's right hand that had molested the girl.
Sakura looked away as Satome screamed in pain as the cloaked man cruelly broke the boy's hand. The boy's cries were then silenced as he was knocked unconscious.
"Kinomoto Sakura, do not thank me for your rescue," the cloaked man intoned. "Had this garbage merely intended to kill you, I would have continued to aid him. Now I am afraid that I must fulfill the job I was paid to do. Though I shall do it my way, and not the way... my employer requested. Meet me here in four days at midnight. We will fight to the death. If you do not show up then, I will simply murder you and your entire family, your mother's cousin and her daughter included."
Sakura's eyes teared up. "Why do you want to fight me?"
"I am an assassin. It was what I was paid to do." The cloaked man pulled down his hood showing a horribly scarred face. "And my clan has been fighting the mage clans for countless generations. While our fight has nearly annihilated my family, I cannot escape the blood oath sworn to fight those with magic." The man turned away. "Say goodbye to those you love and prepare for your funeral."
Sakura could only watch as the man walked away and disappeared in the shadows of the approaching night.
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Card Captors Sakura: Shadow of the Dragon
Chapter 10: Sakura Fights Alone
Card Captor Sakura belongs to the fine ladies of CLAMP. Used without consent, all rights reserved.
By: Lord Archive
Author's Warnings:
In accordance to movie rating system this series would be rated PG-13, and as for television would rate TV M for mature audience, but would be viewable with no edits save for some incidents of vulgar language. Due to subjective nature of the ratings, for FFnet this series has been labeled with a mature rating for those who have poor views of some of the subject matter contained within.
This series contains:
Adult situations.
Sexual situations withOUT detailed description of sex nor the naked human body.
Brief moments of violence, some cases involving people getting severely injured and possibly death.
Occasional use of vulgar language.
Japanese humor: which include bathroom jokes, panty fetish and shocking situations.
Depictions of criminal activity committed by fictional characters.
References of homosexuality.
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Cerberus and Yue flew towards Penguin Park, and stopped as they saw Sakura shambling her way towards home with one hand clutching her shirt.
"Sakura, what happened?!" Cerberus cried out. "Who did this to you?!" He growled dangerously, seeing bruises at her throat and suspecting more under her clothes.
Sakura shook her head. "I've got a problem... I've been challenged to a fight."
"This person who challenged you was the one who hurt you?" Yue demanded.
"No. But he's been... punished. He's not important." Sakura's unfocused eyes began to look clearer. "I was challenged to fight an assassin. If I don't fight him, he promised to kill my entire family, Tomoyo-chan and her mother included."
"Will you fight him?" Yue questioned, stressing the word 'fight.'
"I'll have to face him. I won't let anyone else die," Sakura returned.
"Including yourself?" Cerberus hissed.
Sakura nodded lightly. "Funerals are too sad."
"THAT'S an understatement," Cerberus chuckled softly.
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Two junior high school girls applying make-up in the girls' bathroom before the start of school was not an uncommon event. Though Tomoyo wished this had been the first time with Sakura, her adventures, particularly Yue's judgement, had left Sakura with some noticeable bruises. She also wondered if this situation was rare or not for other girls, applying flesh toned cream to a girl's throat to hide bruises. All caused by a brutish thug who had better not cross the path of her bodyguards. Still, what her friend had said of the situation that caused these bruises left her commenting, "Sakura-chan, you're entirely too nice. You know you could've at least have reported Satome to the teachers."
"What would that have done? We weren't on school grounds. It'd be my word against his. And they might think I was the one who broke his hand," Sakura returned weakly.
Tomoyo sighed. Her friend was right. There really wasn't much that could be done to Satome about what he had tried to do. The school knew of his threats against them thanks to Meiling and they had done nothing about it. The police avoided dealing with minors committing crimes and with his mother being the prosecuting attorney for Tomoeda, it was unlikely anything would come from reporting the situation to a cop. She decided to change her topics. "What are you going to do about your challenge?"
"I'm going to have to train myself so I can defeat him," Sakura said firmly. "I don't want to make you or anyone else sad by failing."
Tomoyo smiled deeply. "It's good to hear you say that. We were afraid that you wouldn't fight if a challenge presented itself."
Sakura glared at the mirror in front of her. "I know I can never forgive myself for what I did to Reiko-chan, but I can't let that hold me down. I know I'm not alone when I fight, as whatever happens doesn't just affect me."
Tomoyo nodded with a tear in one of her eyes. "Yes, Sakura-chan. We're all with you. Everyone wants you to come out of this whole and healthy."
Sakura glanced at her friend. "I can't promise you I won't be injured. The guy is at least as good as Syaoran-kun and Meiling-chan."
"Yes, but does he have your amazing magic?" Tomoyo questioned.
Sakura pouted. "I'm not sure if _I_ will have my magic. Kero-chan thinks he's a Null-Mage."
"Null-Mage?" Tomoyo questioned.
Sakura nodded. "A person who is incapable of casting spells, but is able to negate the abilities of those who use magic."
Tomoyo's eyes widened in fright. "How do you beat such a person?"
Sakura shrugged. "That's why I'm training."
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Sakura scrunched her eyes and prepared as her cloaked opponent's fist rocketed towards her prone position on the ground. The blow never came.
"That was pathetic!" Kero-chan cried out.
Sakura opened her eyes and saw The Create floating before her.
"She lasted two minutes thirteen seconds this time," Naoko noted while looking at her stopwatch. "It's an improvement, even if she still lost."
"Losing is not an option!" Kero-chan howled.
"I know that, Kero-chan." Sakura sighed. "I know I have to defeat him."
"Look, I know this is hard for you to do, but you have to go at him like you're trying to kill him," Kero-chan ordered.
"I won't kill him!" Sakura protested.
"You ain't going to kill him. He's going to block or dodge. If you don't attack as if you're going to kill him, he'll won't bother protecting himself and he will beat you to death! You need to wear him down, bruise his arms and legs, and make him tired. Then, and only then, will you get a chance to defeat him without inflicting serious injury or death," Kero-chan explained irritably.
Naoko nodded. "Remember that this opponent is fake. He's not real. And remember what the real one threatened to do. See how far your attempts at 'killing' him take you."
Sakura got to her feet and brushed off the dirt on her body. "Fine." She mustered her magic once again. "Create! Fight!"
Once again the cloaked figure of her challenger appeared before her, and she glowed softly with the power of The Fight card coursing through her body. Without a word the cloaked figure attacked, and the battle began once again.
"I'm surprised Tomoyo-chan isn't here to watch Sakura-chan practice," Naoko commented as she observed the battle closely.
"She said she had some business to attend to," Kero-chan replied without taking his eyes off the fight.
"Sakura-chan is starting to get a hang of the fight," Naoko pointed out.
"But her heart is still not into it," Kero-chan added. "She might do well if he's unarmed, but we don't know if the assassin has any weapons. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I wish that brat and the wench were here to help her with this. A Null-Mage would be right up Meiling's alley."
"Will Sakura-chan really be able to learn enough martial arts to help her against him?" Naoko wondered.
Kero-chan laughed hollowly. "This is less about learning martial arts and more about how to fight a determined opponent. This isn't a guy we can talk out of fighting her."
"But if she has no magic, how can she win?" Naoko pressed.
"She won't be without magic completely, it'll just be diminished based on how much power he has." Kero-chan paused in thought. "It's a lot like having two radios on. One is playing a music station and another is between channels with nothing but static. If the volume for the music is the same or less than the static, you won't hear it."
"But if the music station is louder, it can go over the white noise of the static and still be heard, but at a lesser volume that it's actually being played at," Naoko concluded. She then smiled. "And since Sakura-chan has the greatest amount of magic, she should be able to over power the static of the Null-Mage."
Kero-chan nodded gravely. "That is true, but we don't know how strong his powers are. He managed to sever Sakura-chan's connection to her cards when she wasn't ready for him. If his nullification powers are strong enough, she might not even be able to summon the elemental cards. Limiting her to only her base level cards like The Fight and The Jump, would make it impossible for her to win if she fights him like she has all her other challenges. She will have to hurt him."
"That may be the hardest thing for her to do." Naoko then grimaced before checking her watch. "Three minutes and twelve seconds."
"Moron! Don't just sit on your ass!" Kero-chan cursed. "Attack him like he's about to kill Tomoyo-chan in front of you! He already threatened to kill her!"
"I know! I know!" Sakura shot back.
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Dinner passed at the Tsukishiro household without a word being said. Yukito tried to smile, but the scowl on his boyfriend's face made it difficult.
Setting his dish down roughly, Touya barked, "Are you going to tell me what's going on with Sakura or not? Where did all her bruises come from?"
Yukito bowed his head. "She is training to defeat an assassin that has the power to block magic."
Touya gritted his teeth. "So that's why I didn't feel her when she got injured."
Yukito nodded briefly, wishing Yue would take over this talk. "A Null-Mage is a difficult opponent for any magic-user, especially ones who rely heavily on magic to solve their problems."
Touya thought for a moment. "Was he the one who hurt Sakura?"
Yukito looked away and frowned deeply. "From what I understand, the Null-Mage actually saved Sakura from the one that hurt her. However, Sakura has not told us who did it, let alone what he was trying to do. Just that he was 'punished enough.'"
"No punishment is enough for hurting her," Touya grumbled under his breath. "Is there anything I can do for her? I can fight the guy for her."
Yukito sighed. "Toya, he's a Null-Mage. He would take away your extra perception, making you weaker in martial arts. There's no way you could stand up to him."
"I'm not going to sit around and do nothing!" Touya complained.
Wings sprouted from Yukito's back and engulfed his form. With a flash of light, the wings parted to reveal the angelic-looking Yue. "There is something you can do to help Sakura fight her challenge, unfortunately it'll mean you must sit out the actual fight. It should give her the best chance at victory."
"What is it?" Touya demanded, not liking the idea of not being there to help Sakura fight at all. What Yue suggested did not sit well with him, but he would do it for his little sister.
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His employer thought him a fool for demanding the battle to be a formal challenge to the death. He held a different view. Too many of his clan embraced the hatred of magic so deep, they were consumed by it. Killed by rushing at their targets and forgetting that mages rarely relied on magic alone. Had he attempted to kill this girl in her sleep as his employer wanted, the girl's dreams would likely warn her and he'd find himself at the wrong end of a trap-- quite possibly with her boyfriend's sword in his heart. By making it a formal challenge, the girl knew of the fight and her precognition would be less likely to activate against him. Precognition, after-all, informed the mages of the unknown, not the potential of what was known.
His employer did have a few requests that he did follow, primarily when to have the fight. With the girl's boyfriend away, she was much easier prey.
The man blinked as three girls and a boy entered the park and sat down at the swings. It wasn't their presence that was surprising but the fact the girls brought snacks with them and the boy carried some drinks as if they were about to watch a show. Then a man arrived, hiding behind some trees. And to make things even stranger, a limousine pulled up and his target's cousin exited with a half-dozen women, all dressed in business suits and wearing sunglasses, each holding a video camera.
Stealthfully, the man approached the girl with long, dark hair and wearing a blue sundress. His voice hissed, "What is the meaning of this?"
"You must be the Null-Mage," Tomoyo replied seemingly unconcerned. "Sakura-chan doesn't get a chance to fight like this often, so I'm taking full opportunity to film her in all her glory."
He pulled out a long dagger, with the blade starting at the top of his fist and continuing dozens of centimeters past the bottom of his hand. "She will meet a gory end, and I cannot allow images of me killing her."
"I would think I'd have more to worry from the mage clans if I suddenly produce proof of magic being real. At least with you, it'd be quick," Tomoyo countered in a strangely calm voice. "Of course, if you wish to use that knife on me now, you won't live long enough to face Sakura-chan."
A click from behind the man told him the girl's bodyguards weren't armed with just cameras. He scowled at the girl as he put the knife away. "Do not interfere in the challenge. If you or anyone else does, Tomoeda will be painted red with blood."
Tomoyo nodded. "Do make it a good battle. I want this to be her greatest fight yet!"
"You are a strange girl," the man observed before fading into the shadows.
It wasn't long before the target made her appearance. She was strangely dressed in what looked like a cross between a martial arts dougi and a school uniform. The cotton pants looked ordinary enough if you didn't count the stars embroidered on them. The gi top, however looked more like a blouse that flared out into a skirt below the waist. The giant red bow on her chest seemed entirely pointless. Her magical staff was ridiculously long, standing twice her height. However, the only concern to him was that the girl wore cloth and metal gauntlets along with painted combat boots. The entire image made the Null-Mage wonder if she was taking this fight seriously.
Sakura pouted as she saw the numerous people at the park. "This isn't a show!" she whined.
"There's no way we're going to pass up watching a full challenge," Naoko retorted from the swings.
"Did you know that challenging people to duels first started in Egypt using stone playing cards?" Takashi asked.
"This isn't the time or place for that!" Chiharu chastised her husband.
"Let's just make sure no one else shows up." Sakura held out her staff and used it like a pen writing in the air before her. "Repel those who don't know of my magic!"
"If only you had arrived before your friends and included them," the assassin growled as he strode towards the open play area of Penguin Park. "Let's begin, shall we?" He pulled out a pair of knives.
Sakura didn't move away from him so much as float away, riding the edge of his nullification presence. "The Freeze!" she cried out, sending coiling pillars of ice towards the man. Near Sakura the ice serpentine columns were meters thick, but the closer they got to the assassin the thinner it got. Some of the ice managed to touch the man as he dodge his way around the ice trying to catch him, but it was too thin to do more than make him feel colder. The futility of the act was obvious, and the girl returned the power into a card.
The assassin was not pleased with this development. The girl's magic shouldn't have come close to hitting him nor be nearly this powerful. He had faced adult sorcerers in their prime and ancient magicians that were nothing more than magic, yet their spells never came close to hurting him. He scowled, suspecting his employer left out some important information on this girl.
The assassin then grinned as the girl called back another card and her feet finally touched the ground. He lunged at her, daggers ready to rend away her flesh.
"Sword!" Sakura called out, and looked quite surprised that the middle or the staff broke into two. In her left hand was now a fiery sword with sun emblem on the hilt, while her right hand wielded an ice-blue blade the bore the image of the moon. "I should've seen that happening," she muttered to herself as she blocked the daggers with the swords.
"You're using magic to know how to fight with your swords?" the assassin asked in surprise.
"Kind of," Sakura replied. Her use of the swords was completely defensive. Only using them to block the daggers, and trying to disarm him.
"You are a fool if you don't try to kill me as I won't stop until you are dead," the assassin promised.
"Isn't there someway we can both walk away from this?" Sakura pleaded.
"You are a mage and I was paid to kill you. There is nothing you could offer me that would make me stop," the assassin vowed, swinging his blades towards her neck.
Sakura blocked with her weapons. "Kero-chan! Yue!"
The assassin yelped in surprise as one sword erupted in flames while the other sprouted crystals. He dropped his now melted dagger and threw the crystal encased one at the girl. The mass of crystals hit her face, but left no obvious damage. He then blinked in surprise. "What happened to your bruises?"
Sakura pouted as she moved away from the Null-Mage, the swords connecting and returning into her long staff. "My brother made me transfer my injuries into him."
The assassin was increasingly not pleased with this. This was beginning to look like he had been set up. Fighting a girl with more magic than any mage he faced before who even had a limited healing power. He had seen mage-healers before, but they had little in the way of offense. That this girl could fight and heal put her far above any mage he had even heard of. Still the girl was a mage, and he would kill her. Falling back on his martial arts, he attacked her with his bare hands.
"Fight!" Sakura called out, and began to use her staff as a giant quarterstaff. She used its reach to keep him away from her, often attacking his legs in attempts to make him fall.
The assassin focused his nullification on the girl, dimming the benefits of magically induced martial arts knowledge. Years of experience and fighting proved more useful than raw knowledge. While the staff did hit and bruise him, he was not going to fall to her.
After a minute of trying to get pass the staff, the girl did a surprising move. She retreated and used the staff to pole-vault herself to the top of the giant penguin slide. Her marital arts skills returned to being a card, she then called out, "Dash!"
The assassin growled angrily. The girl somehow knew where his nullification powers extended to. She would get far enough away to use her magic on herself, where it was harder for him to negate. And if her staff wielded with martial arts knowledge had been annoying before, now she was a moving blur. Her accuracy with hitting him was much reduced, but he had little ability to dodge or block her speeding attacks. All he could do was whether her attacks while keeping his negation ability on her as best he could.
After a minute of the speeding assault, Sakura returned to her perch on top of the penguin slide. She was panting heavily, but so was the assassin. She then pointed her staff at him. "Ensnare my foe in rock, Earthy!"
The assassin paused waiting to see where the attack would come from, which left him open as the ground beneath him surged up and grabbed hold of his arms and legs. He struggled in his rocky snare to no avail. He focused his nullification around him, but the rock didn't budge.
"I'm not using magic to maintain the rocks, so you can save your strength," Sakura informed him.
"I've been set up, haven't I? This isn't your magic alone, is it? You've got mages helping you, don't you?" the assassin spat out like a curse.
"Oh, I'd say you were set up, but not by Sakura-chan," Tomoyo intoned. "She's not even of a mage clan."
The assassin laughed harshly. "Don't play me for a fool. The Amamiya clan of her mother's birth originally came to power when a Shinto priest inherited his shogun's lands under questionable circumstances. Not to mention the girl's grandmother was from the Aotsuki clan, famed for having some of the strongest Shinto priestesses and demon slayers ever known in Japan. And who is to say about her father, left orphaned and without a name?"
Sakura was blinking dumbly at the assassin, while her cousin looked a bit startled. "You've certainly done your homework."
"Not enough, obviously," the assassin growled. "What sort of magic are you using? I've never seen reusable prayer spells before, let alone ones of with that much power."
Sakura was about to speak when her cousin motioned for her to remain silent. The dark haired girl's gaze hardened. "That is unimportant. I'd think telling us about your employer who set you up would be more pressing."
"Never met the person. I was contacted through typed letters," the assassin retorted.
"Would you keep with that story after I tell you the one who employed you certainly has magic?" Tomoyo pressed. "I can show you proof of other attacks on Sakura-chan that were magical in nature. It's quite obvious that he wanted both of you to kill each other."
"I wish I did know who the bastard is now so I could kill him myself!" the assassin snarled.
"I was afraid you'd say that." Tomoyo nodded her head.
The assassin felt a sharp pain at his neck and the world faded to black.
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"Thank you, Yukito-san." Sakura bowed towards him at the doorstep of the Tsukishiro home. "I'm sorry for all the trouble."
Yukito smiled sweetly. "It was no trouble at all for me. I was more a spectator than anything else."
Sakura pouted. "But if I had lost while Yue was in the staff, you'd have...."
"I know. I'd have disappeared for good. You needed his power, and I fully agreed to lend our strength to you," Yukito reminded. "Being in your staff was the safest way we could've helped you."
"I know. And now my brother is being such a pain," Sakura muttered.
"Toya wants to protect you, but you've moved so far beyond his ability to aid you." Yukito sighed. "Let him protect you in the small ways he can."
"But those aren't his injuries to deal with," Sakura huffed. "And he better not 'protect' me from Syaoran-kun."
"Love can be quite frustrating, can't it?" Yukito observed. "You both want to help each other, not willing to see the other hurt even if it means taking pain onto yourself. You want to make sure he's healthy, and he doesn't want to lose you because you have found love."
"I guess. But oniichan really shouldn't keep my injuries. I'm the one who got hurt, so I should be the one to deal with them," Sakura complained.
"It's all right, Sakura-chan. It was just a few bruises and scrapes. He'll be perfectly fine in a few days," Yukito promised.
Sakura nodded reluctantly. "I should be getting home now. Good night."
"Good night." Yukito waved as the girl left.
"My brother can be so annoying!" Sakura huffed angrily as she stomped her way from the Tsukishiro household. "He won't let me take back my injuries."
Tomoyo shook her head. "He is just protecting you."
"I know, but those injuries were mine to deal with, not his!" Sakura protested.
"I say you should give those bruises to Satome," Tomoyo suggested.
"No way I can do that without revealing magic to him," Sakura returned.
"That is a problem." Tomoyo sighed. "Do keep your guard around him. I don't think he's given up at hurting us."
Sakura didn't want to pursue that line of thought, especially as she had not given her brother all her bruises as the ones on her breast still remained. "What happens to the assassin?"
Tomoyo smiled devilishly. "He's wanted for a few counts of murder. Mother has hired private investigators to dig up as much evidence they can to give to prosecutors so that they'll have all the information they need to keep him in prison for the rest of his life. He may be a Null-Mage, but there won't be any magic holding him there."
"Good," Sakura nodded, but still didn't seem entirely happy.
Tomoyo could guess that the assassin was the least of the things on her best friend's mind. "I do have some good news for you. Li-kun and Meiling-chan will be back tomorrow afternoon."
Sakura's eyes widened. "Really?"
Tomoyo nodded. "It's a shame they'll return while we're at school."
Sakura dazed off into space. "Syaoran-kun is coming back."
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Coming Next:
Chapter 11 - Sakura's and the Guilt of Living
Death still lingers over Sakura and her friends, despite their attempts to put it all behind them.
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"I want to play!" six-years-old Meiling whined at the boys who were setting up a soccer game.
"You can't play. You're a girl!" one of the boys protested as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I know the rules! And I bet I'm better than any of you!" Meiling shouted at them.
The boys began to laugh at her, and tears began to form in her eyes.
"Girls can't play sports! Everyone knows that!" the boy insisted.
"Prove it," Meiling's elderly grandfather demanded of the boy. "Give my granddaughter an appropriate physical challenge so she can show you being a girl means nothing."
Meiling began to grin, until the boy began to say, "Take a piss stand-"
Meiling's grandfather was suddenly next to the boy, slapping the kid's mouth. "An _appropriate_ _physical_ challenge. Proof of whether she can play sports, not a chance for you to be perverted."
"I could've won that challenge any way. I've done it before," Meiling huffed.
The girl's grandfather groaned before turning his attention back to the boy. "Now pick a challenge."
"Fine, one-on-one soccer. We each take turns trying to score a goal against the other," the boy announced.
Meiling's grandfather nodded. He watched with pride as the one-sided contest began and ended quickly, three points to none. An easy victory for one born to the Li clan.
"Boys should never underestimate girls. I have the blood of the greatest female warrior, Mulan, in me!" Meiling announced happily.
Some of the boys laughed, some wondered if it was true, while Meiling's grandfather frowned.
Sakura turned as she felt someone approach her and found herself bodily picked up and thrown hard at the sidewalk. She dizzily looked up to see Satome looming above her.
"You don't have that foreign trash here to protect you this time," the bully sneered. "I'm going to take out all the pain and humiliation he and that stupid cunt of his cousin has done to me out on you." He reared his foot back and kicked her in the gut. "You might not survive it." He then chuckled evilly. "At least you won't want to live after I'm done with you."
Sakura felt like a rag doll as the burly teen grabbed her by the throat and pulled her off the ground. She struggled to breathe as he pulled her inside the park, dropping her behind a set of bushes. The voices of her cards called out to her, but they seemed to be out of reach. She wanted to grab hold of at least The Fight to get out of Satome's hold, but her ability to use magic suddenly eluded her.
Satome pulled out a dirty cloth and shoved it into the girl's mouth, making her want to throw up from the awful taste. She didn't even want to know what was on it.
Sakura's eyes widened in fright as the teen sat down on her, one knee pinning down her right arm. She flailed weakly with her left arm, trying to push him away as his hand painfully groped her left breast through her clothes.
"By the time I've finished fucking you, not even that foreign piece of shit will want you. Because of you and your stupid friends, I've lost what little I had. And I'm gonna take it from your whorish body," Satome's voice oozed venom as he said it. His hand slid between the buttons on her shirt and ripped it open, exposing her bra-clad chest. "Maybe not so 'whorish' with those little tits."
Sakura wanted to scream as he reached to push her bra away, but the nasty cloth in her mouth prevented her from making any loud noise. Suddenly her magic roared back, but before she could do anything with it, Satome went flying away from her as a cloaked man now stood above her, leg extended from a kick.
"What the fuck?!" Satome spat. "Why can't I put that stupid bitch in her place without someone interfering?"
"Only the worst of scum uses sex as a weapon against women," the cloaked man's voice graveled out. "If she has wronged you, kill her."
Sakura blinked, wondering if she had truly been saved.
"Killing a girl is a waste of a perfectly good cunt. All girls are good for is making babies. So why not try to knock up whatever girl I care to?" Satome retorted angrily. "It was what my sperm donor did to my incubator."
Sakura blinked in utter confusion, while the man above her seemed to pause. "Repeating the cycle of hate and violence destroyed my clan. You do not have to follow in the footsteps of your father just because you were born out of rape," the cloaked man finally returned, causing Sakura's eyes to widen in realization of what the boy had meant.
"Girls are worthless and should know their fucking place!" Satome charged the cloaked man, fist raised to attack.
Sakura realized her precarious position lying on the ground in front of the man almost too late. She rolled over just before Satome would've stepped on her. She took a moment to pull the gag out of her mouth and coughed a bit before looking up to see a somewhat familiar scene.
Satome was only standing by virtue of the force of the blows the cloaked man was raining upon the teenager. With a final uppercut, Satome was launched into the air and was then struck by a devastating kick before he landed, sending him meters away.
The cloaked man strode purposefully toward the prone teenage boy. "Just so you remember not to violate girls with your touch." He grabbed the boy's right hand that had molested the girl.
Sakura looked away as Satome screamed in pain as the cloaked man cruelly broke the boy's hand. The boy's cries were then silenced as he was knocked unconscious.
"Kinomoto Sakura, do not thank me for your rescue," the cloaked man intoned. "Had this garbage merely intended to kill you, I would have continued to aid him. Now I am afraid that I must fulfill the job I was paid to do. Though I shall do it my way, and not the way... my employer requested. Meet me here in four days at midnight. We will fight to the death. If you do not show up then, I will simply murder you and your entire family, your mother's cousin and her daughter included."
Sakura's eyes teared up. "Why do you want to fight me?"
"I am an assassin. It was what I was paid to do." The cloaked man pulled down his hood showing a horribly scarred face. "And my clan has been fighting the mage clans for countless generations. While our fight has nearly annihilated my family, I cannot escape the blood oath sworn to fight those with magic." The man turned away. "Say goodbye to those you love and prepare for your funeral."
Sakura could only watch as the man walked away and disappeared in the shadows of the approaching night.
-----------------------
Card Captors Sakura: Shadow of the Dragon
Chapter 10: Sakura Fights Alone
Card Captor Sakura belongs to the fine ladies of CLAMP. Used without consent, all rights reserved.
By: Lord Archive
Author's Warnings:
In accordance to movie rating system this series would be rated PG-13, and as for television would rate TV M for mature audience, but would be viewable with no edits save for some incidents of vulgar language. Due to subjective nature of the ratings, for FFnet this series has been labeled with a mature rating for those who have poor views of some of the subject matter contained within.
This series contains:
Adult situations.
Sexual situations withOUT detailed description of sex nor the naked human body.
Brief moments of violence, some cases involving people getting severely injured and possibly death.
Occasional use of vulgar language.
Japanese humor: which include bathroom jokes, panty fetish and shocking situations.
Depictions of criminal activity committed by fictional characters.
References of homosexuality.
-----------------------
Cerberus and Yue flew towards Penguin Park, and stopped as they saw Sakura shambling her way towards home with one hand clutching her shirt.
"Sakura, what happened?!" Cerberus cried out. "Who did this to you?!" He growled dangerously, seeing bruises at her throat and suspecting more under her clothes.
Sakura shook her head. "I've got a problem... I've been challenged to a fight."
"This person who challenged you was the one who hurt you?" Yue demanded.
"No. But he's been... punished. He's not important." Sakura's unfocused eyes began to look clearer. "I was challenged to fight an assassin. If I don't fight him, he promised to kill my entire family, Tomoyo-chan and her mother included."
"Will you fight him?" Yue questioned, stressing the word 'fight.'
"I'll have to face him. I won't let anyone else die," Sakura returned.
"Including yourself?" Cerberus hissed.
Sakura nodded lightly. "Funerals are too sad."
"THAT'S an understatement," Cerberus chuckled softly.
-----------------------
Two junior high school girls applying make-up in the girls' bathroom before the start of school was not an uncommon event. Though Tomoyo wished this had been the first time with Sakura, her adventures, particularly Yue's judgement, had left Sakura with some noticeable bruises. She also wondered if this situation was rare or not for other girls, applying flesh toned cream to a girl's throat to hide bruises. All caused by a brutish thug who had better not cross the path of her bodyguards. Still, what her friend had said of the situation that caused these bruises left her commenting, "Sakura-chan, you're entirely too nice. You know you could've at least have reported Satome to the teachers."
"What would that have done? We weren't on school grounds. It'd be my word against his. And they might think I was the one who broke his hand," Sakura returned weakly.
Tomoyo sighed. Her friend was right. There really wasn't much that could be done to Satome about what he had tried to do. The school knew of his threats against them thanks to Meiling and they had done nothing about it. The police avoided dealing with minors committing crimes and with his mother being the prosecuting attorney for Tomoeda, it was unlikely anything would come from reporting the situation to a cop. She decided to change her topics. "What are you going to do about your challenge?"
"I'm going to have to train myself so I can defeat him," Sakura said firmly. "I don't want to make you or anyone else sad by failing."
Tomoyo smiled deeply. "It's good to hear you say that. We were afraid that you wouldn't fight if a challenge presented itself."
Sakura glared at the mirror in front of her. "I know I can never forgive myself for what I did to Reiko-chan, but I can't let that hold me down. I know I'm not alone when I fight, as whatever happens doesn't just affect me."
Tomoyo nodded with a tear in one of her eyes. "Yes, Sakura-chan. We're all with you. Everyone wants you to come out of this whole and healthy."
Sakura glanced at her friend. "I can't promise you I won't be injured. The guy is at least as good as Syaoran-kun and Meiling-chan."
"Yes, but does he have your amazing magic?" Tomoyo questioned.
Sakura pouted. "I'm not sure if _I_ will have my magic. Kero-chan thinks he's a Null-Mage."
"Null-Mage?" Tomoyo questioned.
Sakura nodded. "A person who is incapable of casting spells, but is able to negate the abilities of those who use magic."
Tomoyo's eyes widened in fright. "How do you beat such a person?"
Sakura shrugged. "That's why I'm training."
-----------------------
Sakura scrunched her eyes and prepared as her cloaked opponent's fist rocketed towards her prone position on the ground. The blow never came.
"That was pathetic!" Kero-chan cried out.
Sakura opened her eyes and saw The Create floating before her.
"She lasted two minutes thirteen seconds this time," Naoko noted while looking at her stopwatch. "It's an improvement, even if she still lost."
"Losing is not an option!" Kero-chan howled.
"I know that, Kero-chan." Sakura sighed. "I know I have to defeat him."
"Look, I know this is hard for you to do, but you have to go at him like you're trying to kill him," Kero-chan ordered.
"I won't kill him!" Sakura protested.
"You ain't going to kill him. He's going to block or dodge. If you don't attack as if you're going to kill him, he'll won't bother protecting himself and he will beat you to death! You need to wear him down, bruise his arms and legs, and make him tired. Then, and only then, will you get a chance to defeat him without inflicting serious injury or death," Kero-chan explained irritably.
Naoko nodded. "Remember that this opponent is fake. He's not real. And remember what the real one threatened to do. See how far your attempts at 'killing' him take you."
Sakura got to her feet and brushed off the dirt on her body. "Fine." She mustered her magic once again. "Create! Fight!"
Once again the cloaked figure of her challenger appeared before her, and she glowed softly with the power of The Fight card coursing through her body. Without a word the cloaked figure attacked, and the battle began once again.
"I'm surprised Tomoyo-chan isn't here to watch Sakura-chan practice," Naoko commented as she observed the battle closely.
"She said she had some business to attend to," Kero-chan replied without taking his eyes off the fight.
"Sakura-chan is starting to get a hang of the fight," Naoko pointed out.
"But her heart is still not into it," Kero-chan added. "She might do well if he's unarmed, but we don't know if the assassin has any weapons. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I wish that brat and the wench were here to help her with this. A Null-Mage would be right up Meiling's alley."
"Will Sakura-chan really be able to learn enough martial arts to help her against him?" Naoko wondered.
Kero-chan laughed hollowly. "This is less about learning martial arts and more about how to fight a determined opponent. This isn't a guy we can talk out of fighting her."
"But if she has no magic, how can she win?" Naoko pressed.
"She won't be without magic completely, it'll just be diminished based on how much power he has." Kero-chan paused in thought. "It's a lot like having two radios on. One is playing a music station and another is between channels with nothing but static. If the volume for the music is the same or less than the static, you won't hear it."
"But if the music station is louder, it can go over the white noise of the static and still be heard, but at a lesser volume that it's actually being played at," Naoko concluded. She then smiled. "And since Sakura-chan has the greatest amount of magic, she should be able to over power the static of the Null-Mage."
Kero-chan nodded gravely. "That is true, but we don't know how strong his powers are. He managed to sever Sakura-chan's connection to her cards when she wasn't ready for him. If his nullification powers are strong enough, she might not even be able to summon the elemental cards. Limiting her to only her base level cards like The Fight and The Jump, would make it impossible for her to win if she fights him like she has all her other challenges. She will have to hurt him."
"That may be the hardest thing for her to do." Naoko then grimaced before checking her watch. "Three minutes and twelve seconds."
"Moron! Don't just sit on your ass!" Kero-chan cursed. "Attack him like he's about to kill Tomoyo-chan in front of you! He already threatened to kill her!"
"I know! I know!" Sakura shot back.
-----------------------
Dinner passed at the Tsukishiro household without a word being said. Yukito tried to smile, but the scowl on his boyfriend's face made it difficult.
Setting his dish down roughly, Touya barked, "Are you going to tell me what's going on with Sakura or not? Where did all her bruises come from?"
Yukito bowed his head. "She is training to defeat an assassin that has the power to block magic."
Touya gritted his teeth. "So that's why I didn't feel her when she got injured."
Yukito nodded briefly, wishing Yue would take over this talk. "A Null-Mage is a difficult opponent for any magic-user, especially ones who rely heavily on magic to solve their problems."
Touya thought for a moment. "Was he the one who hurt Sakura?"
Yukito looked away and frowned deeply. "From what I understand, the Null-Mage actually saved Sakura from the one that hurt her. However, Sakura has not told us who did it, let alone what he was trying to do. Just that he was 'punished enough.'"
"No punishment is enough for hurting her," Touya grumbled under his breath. "Is there anything I can do for her? I can fight the guy for her."
Yukito sighed. "Toya, he's a Null-Mage. He would take away your extra perception, making you weaker in martial arts. There's no way you could stand up to him."
"I'm not going to sit around and do nothing!" Touya complained.
Wings sprouted from Yukito's back and engulfed his form. With a flash of light, the wings parted to reveal the angelic-looking Yue. "There is something you can do to help Sakura fight her challenge, unfortunately it'll mean you must sit out the actual fight. It should give her the best chance at victory."
"What is it?" Touya demanded, not liking the idea of not being there to help Sakura fight at all. What Yue suggested did not sit well with him, but he would do it for his little sister.
-----------------------
His employer thought him a fool for demanding the battle to be a formal challenge to the death. He held a different view. Too many of his clan embraced the hatred of magic so deep, they were consumed by it. Killed by rushing at their targets and forgetting that mages rarely relied on magic alone. Had he attempted to kill this girl in her sleep as his employer wanted, the girl's dreams would likely warn her and he'd find himself at the wrong end of a trap-- quite possibly with her boyfriend's sword in his heart. By making it a formal challenge, the girl knew of the fight and her precognition would be less likely to activate against him. Precognition, after-all, informed the mages of the unknown, not the potential of what was known.
His employer did have a few requests that he did follow, primarily when to have the fight. With the girl's boyfriend away, she was much easier prey.
The man blinked as three girls and a boy entered the park and sat down at the swings. It wasn't their presence that was surprising but the fact the girls brought snacks with them and the boy carried some drinks as if they were about to watch a show. Then a man arrived, hiding behind some trees. And to make things even stranger, a limousine pulled up and his target's cousin exited with a half-dozen women, all dressed in business suits and wearing sunglasses, each holding a video camera.
Stealthfully, the man approached the girl with long, dark hair and wearing a blue sundress. His voice hissed, "What is the meaning of this?"
"You must be the Null-Mage," Tomoyo replied seemingly unconcerned. "Sakura-chan doesn't get a chance to fight like this often, so I'm taking full opportunity to film her in all her glory."
He pulled out a long dagger, with the blade starting at the top of his fist and continuing dozens of centimeters past the bottom of his hand. "She will meet a gory end, and I cannot allow images of me killing her."
"I would think I'd have more to worry from the mage clans if I suddenly produce proof of magic being real. At least with you, it'd be quick," Tomoyo countered in a strangely calm voice. "Of course, if you wish to use that knife on me now, you won't live long enough to face Sakura-chan."
A click from behind the man told him the girl's bodyguards weren't armed with just cameras. He scowled at the girl as he put the knife away. "Do not interfere in the challenge. If you or anyone else does, Tomoeda will be painted red with blood."
Tomoyo nodded. "Do make it a good battle. I want this to be her greatest fight yet!"
"You are a strange girl," the man observed before fading into the shadows.
It wasn't long before the target made her appearance. She was strangely dressed in what looked like a cross between a martial arts dougi and a school uniform. The cotton pants looked ordinary enough if you didn't count the stars embroidered on them. The gi top, however looked more like a blouse that flared out into a skirt below the waist. The giant red bow on her chest seemed entirely pointless. Her magical staff was ridiculously long, standing twice her height. However, the only concern to him was that the girl wore cloth and metal gauntlets along with painted combat boots. The entire image made the Null-Mage wonder if she was taking this fight seriously.
Sakura pouted as she saw the numerous people at the park. "This isn't a show!" she whined.
"There's no way we're going to pass up watching a full challenge," Naoko retorted from the swings.
"Did you know that challenging people to duels first started in Egypt using stone playing cards?" Takashi asked.
"This isn't the time or place for that!" Chiharu chastised her husband.
"Let's just make sure no one else shows up." Sakura held out her staff and used it like a pen writing in the air before her. "Repel those who don't know of my magic!"
"If only you had arrived before your friends and included them," the assassin growled as he strode towards the open play area of Penguin Park. "Let's begin, shall we?" He pulled out a pair of knives.
Sakura didn't move away from him so much as float away, riding the edge of his nullification presence. "The Freeze!" she cried out, sending coiling pillars of ice towards the man. Near Sakura the ice serpentine columns were meters thick, but the closer they got to the assassin the thinner it got. Some of the ice managed to touch the man as he dodge his way around the ice trying to catch him, but it was too thin to do more than make him feel colder. The futility of the act was obvious, and the girl returned the power into a card.
The assassin was not pleased with this development. The girl's magic shouldn't have come close to hitting him nor be nearly this powerful. He had faced adult sorcerers in their prime and ancient magicians that were nothing more than magic, yet their spells never came close to hurting him. He scowled, suspecting his employer left out some important information on this girl.
The assassin then grinned as the girl called back another card and her feet finally touched the ground. He lunged at her, daggers ready to rend away her flesh.
"Sword!" Sakura called out, and looked quite surprised that the middle or the staff broke into two. In her left hand was now a fiery sword with sun emblem on the hilt, while her right hand wielded an ice-blue blade the bore the image of the moon. "I should've seen that happening," she muttered to herself as she blocked the daggers with the swords.
"You're using magic to know how to fight with your swords?" the assassin asked in surprise.
"Kind of," Sakura replied. Her use of the swords was completely defensive. Only using them to block the daggers, and trying to disarm him.
"You are a fool if you don't try to kill me as I won't stop until you are dead," the assassin promised.
"Isn't there someway we can both walk away from this?" Sakura pleaded.
"You are a mage and I was paid to kill you. There is nothing you could offer me that would make me stop," the assassin vowed, swinging his blades towards her neck.
Sakura blocked with her weapons. "Kero-chan! Yue!"
The assassin yelped in surprise as one sword erupted in flames while the other sprouted crystals. He dropped his now melted dagger and threw the crystal encased one at the girl. The mass of crystals hit her face, but left no obvious damage. He then blinked in surprise. "What happened to your bruises?"
Sakura pouted as she moved away from the Null-Mage, the swords connecting and returning into her long staff. "My brother made me transfer my injuries into him."
The assassin was increasingly not pleased with this. This was beginning to look like he had been set up. Fighting a girl with more magic than any mage he faced before who even had a limited healing power. He had seen mage-healers before, but they had little in the way of offense. That this girl could fight and heal put her far above any mage he had even heard of. Still the girl was a mage, and he would kill her. Falling back on his martial arts, he attacked her with his bare hands.
"Fight!" Sakura called out, and began to use her staff as a giant quarterstaff. She used its reach to keep him away from her, often attacking his legs in attempts to make him fall.
The assassin focused his nullification on the girl, dimming the benefits of magically induced martial arts knowledge. Years of experience and fighting proved more useful than raw knowledge. While the staff did hit and bruise him, he was not going to fall to her.
After a minute of trying to get pass the staff, the girl did a surprising move. She retreated and used the staff to pole-vault herself to the top of the giant penguin slide. Her marital arts skills returned to being a card, she then called out, "Dash!"
The assassin growled angrily. The girl somehow knew where his nullification powers extended to. She would get far enough away to use her magic on herself, where it was harder for him to negate. And if her staff wielded with martial arts knowledge had been annoying before, now she was a moving blur. Her accuracy with hitting him was much reduced, but he had little ability to dodge or block her speeding attacks. All he could do was whether her attacks while keeping his negation ability on her as best he could.
After a minute of the speeding assault, Sakura returned to her perch on top of the penguin slide. She was panting heavily, but so was the assassin. She then pointed her staff at him. "Ensnare my foe in rock, Earthy!"
The assassin paused waiting to see where the attack would come from, which left him open as the ground beneath him surged up and grabbed hold of his arms and legs. He struggled in his rocky snare to no avail. He focused his nullification around him, but the rock didn't budge.
"I'm not using magic to maintain the rocks, so you can save your strength," Sakura informed him.
"I've been set up, haven't I? This isn't your magic alone, is it? You've got mages helping you, don't you?" the assassin spat out like a curse.
"Oh, I'd say you were set up, but not by Sakura-chan," Tomoyo intoned. "She's not even of a mage clan."
The assassin laughed harshly. "Don't play me for a fool. The Amamiya clan of her mother's birth originally came to power when a Shinto priest inherited his shogun's lands under questionable circumstances. Not to mention the girl's grandmother was from the Aotsuki clan, famed for having some of the strongest Shinto priestesses and demon slayers ever known in Japan. And who is to say about her father, left orphaned and without a name?"
Sakura was blinking dumbly at the assassin, while her cousin looked a bit startled. "You've certainly done your homework."
"Not enough, obviously," the assassin growled. "What sort of magic are you using? I've never seen reusable prayer spells before, let alone ones of with that much power."
Sakura was about to speak when her cousin motioned for her to remain silent. The dark haired girl's gaze hardened. "That is unimportant. I'd think telling us about your employer who set you up would be more pressing."
"Never met the person. I was contacted through typed letters," the assassin retorted.
"Would you keep with that story after I tell you the one who employed you certainly has magic?" Tomoyo pressed. "I can show you proof of other attacks on Sakura-chan that were magical in nature. It's quite obvious that he wanted both of you to kill each other."
"I wish I did know who the bastard is now so I could kill him myself!" the assassin snarled.
"I was afraid you'd say that." Tomoyo nodded her head.
The assassin felt a sharp pain at his neck and the world faded to black.
-----------------------
"Thank you, Yukito-san." Sakura bowed towards him at the doorstep of the Tsukishiro home. "I'm sorry for all the trouble."
Yukito smiled sweetly. "It was no trouble at all for me. I was more a spectator than anything else."
Sakura pouted. "But if I had lost while Yue was in the staff, you'd have...."
"I know. I'd have disappeared for good. You needed his power, and I fully agreed to lend our strength to you," Yukito reminded. "Being in your staff was the safest way we could've helped you."
"I know. And now my brother is being such a pain," Sakura muttered.
"Toya wants to protect you, but you've moved so far beyond his ability to aid you." Yukito sighed. "Let him protect you in the small ways he can."
"But those aren't his injuries to deal with," Sakura huffed. "And he better not 'protect' me from Syaoran-kun."
"Love can be quite frustrating, can't it?" Yukito observed. "You both want to help each other, not willing to see the other hurt even if it means taking pain onto yourself. You want to make sure he's healthy, and he doesn't want to lose you because you have found love."
"I guess. But oniichan really shouldn't keep my injuries. I'm the one who got hurt, so I should be the one to deal with them," Sakura complained.
"It's all right, Sakura-chan. It was just a few bruises and scrapes. He'll be perfectly fine in a few days," Yukito promised.
Sakura nodded reluctantly. "I should be getting home now. Good night."
"Good night." Yukito waved as the girl left.
"My brother can be so annoying!" Sakura huffed angrily as she stomped her way from the Tsukishiro household. "He won't let me take back my injuries."
Tomoyo shook her head. "He is just protecting you."
"I know, but those injuries were mine to deal with, not his!" Sakura protested.
"I say you should give those bruises to Satome," Tomoyo suggested.
"No way I can do that without revealing magic to him," Sakura returned.
"That is a problem." Tomoyo sighed. "Do keep your guard around him. I don't think he's given up at hurting us."
Sakura didn't want to pursue that line of thought, especially as she had not given her brother all her bruises as the ones on her breast still remained. "What happens to the assassin?"
Tomoyo smiled devilishly. "He's wanted for a few counts of murder. Mother has hired private investigators to dig up as much evidence they can to give to prosecutors so that they'll have all the information they need to keep him in prison for the rest of his life. He may be a Null-Mage, but there won't be any magic holding him there."
"Good," Sakura nodded, but still didn't seem entirely happy.
Tomoyo could guess that the assassin was the least of the things on her best friend's mind. "I do have some good news for you. Li-kun and Meiling-chan will be back tomorrow afternoon."
Sakura's eyes widened. "Really?"
Tomoyo nodded. "It's a shame they'll return while we're at school."
Sakura dazed off into space. "Syaoran-kun is coming back."
-----------------------
Coming Next:
Chapter 11 - Sakura's and the Guilt of Living
Death still lingers over Sakura and her friends, despite their attempts to put it all behind them.
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"I want to play!" six-years-old Meiling whined at the boys who were setting up a soccer game.
"You can't play. You're a girl!" one of the boys protested as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I know the rules! And I bet I'm better than any of you!" Meiling shouted at them.
The boys began to laugh at her, and tears began to form in her eyes.
"Girls can't play sports! Everyone knows that!" the boy insisted.
"Prove it," Meiling's elderly grandfather demanded of the boy. "Give my granddaughter an appropriate physical challenge so she can show you being a girl means nothing."
Meiling began to grin, until the boy began to say, "Take a piss stand-"
Meiling's grandfather was suddenly next to the boy, slapping the kid's mouth. "An _appropriate_ _physical_ challenge. Proof of whether she can play sports, not a chance for you to be perverted."
"I could've won that challenge any way. I've done it before," Meiling huffed.
The girl's grandfather groaned before turning his attention back to the boy. "Now pick a challenge."
"Fine, one-on-one soccer. We each take turns trying to score a goal against the other," the boy announced.
Meiling's grandfather nodded. He watched with pride as the one-sided contest began and ended quickly, three points to none. An easy victory for one born to the Li clan.
"Boys should never underestimate girls. I have the blood of the greatest female warrior, Mulan, in me!" Meiling announced happily.
Some of the boys laughed, some wondered if it was true, while Meiling's grandfather frowned.