Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Shadow of the Dragon ❯ Nadeshiko's Past, Sakura's Present ( Chapter 13 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Lord Archive 
Chiharu finds a picture at her house and learns that the unspoken past is being repeated in the present.
Anime/Manga: Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Romance / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 04.06.2008 | Pages: 5 | Words: 5.0K | Visits: 684 | Status: Completed
Chiharu finds a picture at her house and learns that the unspoken past is being repeated in the present.
Anime/Manga: Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Romance / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 04.06.2008 | Pages: 5 | Words: 5.0K | Visits: 684 | Status: Completed
Chiharu wasn't sure how much help she was being, going through household items and sorting through things her mother might want to take with her to her new apartment. She was more cleaning the closet than helping her mother pack.
She briefly flipped through a photo album and initially put it in the pile of items that would stay at the house, but something didn't feel entirely right. She grabbed the album and looked at the picture that was on the first page. She had thought it was a picture of herself, Rika, Naoko, Tomoyo and Sakura. There were too many differences, namely the boys depicted in it were not Syaoran or Takashi and that 'Tomoyo' had short hair and 'Sakura' had long hair.
Chiharu got off the floor and rushed to her mother's bedroom. "Mom, what's with this picture?!"
"Oh, my! That brings back some memories of when I was your age." Mrs. Mihara took the photo album from her daughter.
Chiharu pointed at the image. "I can understand that I look like you did, but the other girls all look like my friends!"
"They should, considering that they ARE your friends' mothers. At least most of them. I can't be sure Sonomi-chan ever had a baby considering she stopped talking to me and my friends because we supported Sakura-chan's mother, Nadeshiko-chan, getting married," Mrs. Mihara explained, but seemed to want to say more about it.
Chiharu quizzically looked at the photo. "These really are my friends' mothers? Why didn't you tell us?"
"Have you forgotten when you were little and you would be babysat by your friends' mothers?" Mrs. Mihara pointed out.
Chiharu blinked. "Oh, right. But why haven't you, you know, talked to any of them lately?"
"What makes you think I don't talk to them?" Mrs. Mihara laughed. "I've probably talked more to them in the past year than you, considering you spent more time with your in-laws than me. Because of the situation with your father, I haven't had much chance to actually see them in far too long. Perhaps when I finish settling into my new home, I'll set up a get together or something."
Chiharu pouted. "I see..."
"Dear, don't think we've drifted apart. The only one to do that was Sonomi-chan." Mrs. Mihara sighed. "I'm sure you'll still be friends with Rika-chan and the others long after you've all become mothers."
Chiharu let out a sad chuckle. "I'm not sure about that. Sakura-chan will likely end up living in Hong Kong with her boyfriend. Tomoyo-chan will end up inheriting her mother's businesses and she'll certainly have no time for us. And I can easily see Rika-chan and Naoko-chan moving away as well."
Mrs. Mihara shook her head lightly. "Of course there'll be times when you'll all be apart. Except for Nadeshiko-chan, at one time or another each of my childhood friends weren't in Tokyo because of work or love, but we always found a way to keep in touch. It should be easier for you, considering the Internet and all."
"I see." Chiharu looked away. "That still doesn't exactly make me feel better."
Mrs. Mihara grabbed her daughter by the shoulder. "True friendship never dies. Even if you're hundreds of kilometers apart, a simple phone call can show how much you still care." She frowned as the pout didn't leave her daughter's face.
Mrs. Mihara sat down on her bed and patted the spot next to her. "Chiharu-chan, why don't you sit down and I'll tell you the story behind this photo? We were all friends before this, but the events leading up to this picture isn't something that could easily be thrown away."
"Didn't you tell me that your friend, Sonomi-san, did just that?" Chiharu pointed out.
Mrs. Mihara poked her daughter's nose. "I also said that it couldn't be easily done. The situation with Sonomi-chan and Nadeshiko-chan was... extremely complicated. I was literally forced to choose which one to side with, and I picked Nadeshiko-chan because I knew that she really loved Kinomoto-sensei. I had to lie to protect Nadeshiko-chan, but doing so cost me Sonomi-chan's friendship. But that's a different story than what I want to tell you about. It all began at the end of our third year of junior high, before any of us met Kinomoto-sensei..."
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Card Captors Sakura: Shadow of the Dragon
Chapter 13: Nadeshiko's Past, Sakura's Present
Card Captor Sakura belongs to the fine ladies of CLAMP. Used without consent, all rights reserved.
By: Lord Archive
Author's Warnings:
This contains mature themes not intended for children under thirteen.
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.
Author's Note: Descriptions of the characters have intentionally been left out as Mrs. Mihara did not give any to Chiharu, since Chiharu already knows who is who, and to be a little game to figure which girl is the mother of the girls of CCS.
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"So long, Tomoeda Junior High! You will not be missed!" Katsuhara proclaimed.
"Sure, but we'll only be going next door in a month for senior high," Masumi teased.
"Must you always dampen my good mood?" Katsuhara retorted.
Masumi folded her arms. "Oh, and I suppose you don't want to spend the weekend with me?"
Katsuhara pulled at his collar. "Oh, right... the manga convention. You've got the rooms?"
"Room, Dear. It'll just be you and me going, so we'll only need the one bed," Masumi corrected.
Katsuhara had a goofy grin. "Right. It'll be fun." His mind was obviously not on the convention, but on the sleeping arrangements. "Your parents are okay... with us going alone?"
Masumi smirked. "I'm sure they're not 'okay' with it. It's just that they know we're lovers already and want us to be married some day. They just aren't happy that it could be tomorrow if you've knocked me up."
A growl from Sonomi caused them to look at her. "Don't talk about such things!"
"Why I think it's sweet of them to be so close. First grade sweethearts being together forever," Nadeshiko commented with a bubbly smile. "If only I had my own number one person to love and hold me."
Yuuka laughed. "Nadeshiko isn't as naive as she appears."
Jyou, the strangely blond haired part-Japanese boy behind Yuuka, groaned. "If only you were naive."
Yuuka whirled on her boyfriend. "That's a thing to say to me after you left me alone for a year! I waited for you! You didn't meet some girl in California, did you?"
Jyou let out a sigh. "No. There is only one girl for me, and that's you. I certainly appreciate that you waited for me, but can't you still wait?"
"Why?" Yuuka demanded. "You know we could be married right now."
"And with what income?" Jyou retorted. "I want to be able to support you. I can't do that yet."
"You know, we don't HAVE to be married first...," Yuuka cooed.
"YUUKA-CHAN?!" cried out Jyou and Sonomi, for completely different reasons. The others laughed at them.
Yukiko smiled at them, wishing her boyfriend was part of her circle of friends. Her handsome jock preferred being with his sports bodies to being with 'taken girls,' 'girls with violent bodyguards,' and 'nerds.' She attempted to strangle him for the comment, but she did understand him to a point. She didn't particularly want to feel like a little girl around his big and tall friends.
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The calls began after dinner. Sonomi was frantic as she phoned all of Nadeshiko's friends. Sonomi hoped the girl had found her way to someone she knew. In all cases, the reply was the same, the last they had seen of Nadeshiko was when the girl left for home with Sonomi.
Still, Sonomi and Nadeshiko's friends went to where Sonomi had last seen her cousin. The police were there, as an heiress to a large company precluded the normal wait on missing persons. After a blizzard of questions, some stilted into suggesting Sonomi had something to do with Nadeshiko's disappearance, the officers left to process what they had found.
"How inept can these people be?!" Sonomi cried out in frustration. "I saw Nadeshiko HERE, she wasn't taken HERE but somewhere between here and her home!"
Yukiko folded her arms irritably. "Normally I'd say you're exaggerating, but right now they think you're the leading suspect."
"WHAT?! I'd never hurt Nadeshiko-chan!" Sonomi protested.
Yuuka scowled darkly. "You'd rather get into her panties. But I'm afraid that's why they think you had something to do with it. You tried something with her, she rejected you, and you got angry."
"I don't get angry! Especially not at Nadeshiko-chan!" Sonomi yelled in rage. "And where did they get the idea that I liked Nadeshiko-chan that way?!"
Yuuka flushed. "I was trying to help by pointing out that you love her too much to do such a thing."
Masumi laughed hollowly. "You getting angry, sure. But you hurting Nadeshiko-chan? You'd rather slit your own wrists. We know you couldn't live with yourself if you did anything to her. Hell, you were a basket case when she broke her leg on that skiing trip you took with her."
Yukiko put her arm around her upset friend. "We know you had nothing to do with this, and we're going to help you."
The girls started to search between where Sonomi last saw her cousin and Nadeshiko's home. As night fell, they reluctantly returned home.
Sonomi had only briefly gone to her house, and returned with flashlights and six burly, male bodyguards her parents employed. Nadeshiko's other friends also returned, including Jyou and Katsuhara, to help with the search for any clue or sign of the lost girl. As the night wore on, all of the girls refused any suggestion from the guards to take a break and go home to get some sleep.
The limited light and growing weariness made the search difficult, but they pressed on for any clue, no matter how small.
"I think I found something," Jyou called out.
"Really?!" Sonomi was next to him in a second, but then scowled at what he was pointing at. "What's so important about a matchbook?"
"It rained yesterday, yet this is completely dry. So it could've only been dropped today. And I don't know about you, but how many people in this neighborhood would go to a bar in Shibuya?"
"Shibuya?" one of the guards growled. "This is not good at all. Nadeshiko-hime might be in more danger than we thought."
"What do you mean by that?!" Sonomi demanded.
"That does not concern you just yet," the guard replied. "We certainly have to let the police know of this."
"Why should we tell those idiots anything!" Sonomi cried out. "They think I'm the one who took Nadeshiko away!"
"More reason for us tell them, to clear your name," the guard replied neutrally.
"We don't have time!" Sonomi persisted. "We should go rescue her now! Who knows what awful things they're doing to her. We have to rescue her!"
"Bringing Nadeshiko-hime home safely is out top priority." The bodyguard pointed his finger at Sonomi's face. "It's also our responsibility to make sure YOU remain safe as well."
"I don't matter! I'm not the heir! Nadeshiko IS! We have to save her!" Sonomi demanded.
"And WE will. YOU need to go home," the bodyguard told her in a tone that would take no objection.
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Hours later, Sonomi stood with her friend across the street from the bar the matchbook named, but her bodyguards were no where to be found.
"You know, I really don't like the name of this bar," Masumi commented.
"What's wrong with Aka Hikari? It sounds nice. Maybe they use cute red light bulbs like their name suggests," Yuuka commented.
Masumi folded her arms. "You do know that 'red light districts' is the term for an area of prostitution, don't you?"
"Well if they're out for virgins, you're safe, Masumi-chan," Yukiko teased to cover up her anxiety.
"This is hardly the time for that!" Masumi shot back.
Sonomi nearly tore the white handkerchief she was chewing on into little pieces. "Why would they take Nadeshiko-chan to a horrid place like this?!"
"Hopefully for ransom," Yukiko said dryly.
Yuuka hugged herself. "I wish we had your bodyguards with us."
"They would've never let us go to save Nadeshiko-chan!" Sonomi reminded. "Why are we standing here? Let's go get her!"
"Because Masumi at least thought of making sure you had some sort of back-up."
The girls turned and most of them smiled at seeing Katsuhara and Jyou walking towards them.
"Thanks, Dear," Masumi chirped at her boyfriend. "Now let's go save our friend."
Despite the girls' bravado, they were all rather scared entering the darken bar. All conversation stopped at their appearance. The eyes of twenty men were on them along with the lone female's eyes, a scantily clad waitress who didn't appear old enough to drink what she was serving.
"We don't have a kid's menu," the bar tender shot at the group.
Masumi slid closer to the bar. "Are you sure you don't have kids _on_ the menu? My friends and I could use a bit of extra cash."
"The front isn't the worker's entrance," the bar tender replied in a low voice. "You're rather plain, but you at least have a decent chest for a kid." He emphasized his point by grabbing her right breast.
Katsuhara grabbed the wrist of the offending hand and tried to squeeze it painfully.
The bar tender laughed. "You know merchandise has to be tested, don't you?"
"Is that what you're doing to my precious Nadeshiko-chan?! Testing her?! What have you done with her?!" Sonomi cried out, unable to remain silent any more.
"Looks like this may all be free merchandise." The bartender made a signal with his free hand and six of the patrons immediately got up.
"Are you the bastards that kidnapped my cousin?!" Sonomi demanded. "Are you the ones who took her to this dreadful place?!"
One of the men slapped Sonomi across the face. "You should be more concerned with yourself. By the time we're done training you, you won't remember you had a family."
"Training?" one of the patrons sitting at the table questioned. "Are you saying those girls aren't here because they want to be but because you broke them?"
"You have to break a girl to make her a good whore," was the laughing reply.
The patron got up and decked the man who said that. "I may have shit luck finding a girlfriend, but when I buy a girl's time it should be her fucking decision!"
"Bad mistake," the bar tender growled. "And you were such a good customer."
Katsuhara broke a nearby glass and stabbed the bartender's arm with its shards. With the cry of pain, all hell broke loose as the patrons began fighting either each other or the men who worked for the bar.
With the chaos of battle, the waitress opened the way to the back rooms, which the girls took the opportunity to search for their missing friend.
When the police arrived, the fighting only escalated.
The men up front weren't the only ones to work at the bar. The girls found themselves face to face with two burly men. If not for Jyou and Katsuhara following them, they would've been over powered easily. Even with the boys' help, overcoming the two men proved difficult. It was only after Masumi landed a kick on one of the guy's privates that the two men fell to the angry teenagers, with Yukiko choking the other one to unconsciousness.
"Where's Sonomi-chan?" Yuuka wondered.
The others shared confused looks. Sonomi had been with them. As if to answer their question, they heard a scream. But the voice was not Sonomi's but Nadeshiko's.
They took off running toward where they heard the scream. Going into the room, they saw Nadeshiko tied up and still wearing her junior high uniform in the corner of the room. Sonomi stood in the middle panting with unseeing eyes. The lead pipe dropping from her hand and clattering to the ground seemed to wake her as the girl rushed to see her cousin, unmindful the blood on her own face. Laid out on the floor was a man with a broken jaw, his rasping breaths showing he was still alive.
"Sonomi-chan... Why did you hurt him? Why?" Nadeshiko questioned with tears.
"Anyone who hurts you doesn't deserve mercy," Sonomi spat in an unemotional voice. "He deserves more than what I did."
"You mean 'what I did.'"
The group turned to look and saw the Amamiya family bodyguards. "You are all to leave out the back. We'll take responsibility for rescuing Nadeshiko-hime."
"Why would you need to?" Katsuhara asked. "We were saving a friend."
"The police may not be so kind to vigilantes that caused serious injuries to people, individuals who started a riot, and are too young to be deemed credible witnesses," the bodyguard pointed out. "Amamiya-sama will take care of the legal issues for us, but that is of no concern for you. Go before the police get back here."
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Katsuhara crumbled up the newspaper and tossed it at a trash bin at Tsukimine Shrine, but missed. "Not a word of Amamiya-chan's kidnapping or the riot at the bar."
"It's to be expected. We can't let people know that it was easy to take an heir to the Amamiya fortune," Sonomi retorted in a flat voice that had yet to get emotion back after her role in rescuing her cousin.
"You all really shouldn't have gone so far to help me," Nadeshiko told them barely over a whisper.
"You're our friend. Of course we'll go to help you when you're in trouble. I know you'd do the same for us," Yukiko retorted.
Nadeshiko barely nodded. She then glanced at her cousin, whom she stood further from than had been normal.
Masumi held up a camera. "We might not be able let everyone know, but we should at least have some momento of our adventure."
"Who's going to take the picture?" Yukiko asked.
Masumi briefly pouted. She looked around. "Hey, Kaho-chan!"
A young girl of five years ran up to the group. "You want me to take a group photo?"
Masumi nodded. "Do you know how one works?"
Kaho's eyes seemed to stare off for a moment. "Yeah. I can do it!" She grinned at the group as they moved to stand together. "On the count of three say, 'Sakura!' One, two, three..."
"Sakura!" the group chorused with a few giggles.
Kaho snapped the picture and handed the camera back to Masumi. She turned and looked at Nadeshiko with a warm look. "Believe in your heart, and don't let anyone stop you from being with your number one person."
Nadeshiko blinked in confusion as the girl ran off. "What did she mean by that? I haven't found my special person yet."
The others shrugged cluelessly.
They had the picture developed and copied for each of them.
Nadeshiko was in the center of the photo, smiling brightly. In May of the following year, she married Kinomoto-sensei against the wishes of her family.
Sonomi stood to the left of her cousin, but a sense of innocence had been lost on her. She held a strong look of an adult that seemed to make her appear more distant from Nadeshiko than she was in the photo.
Yuuka was draped over Jyou. He would keep bouncing between Tokyo and California, where he was born, for the next few years because of his father's work. When it was time for him to go to college, Yuuka finally had cornered him and went with him as Mrs. Sasaki Yuuka.
To Nadeshiko's right was Yukiko. The lack of her boyfriend in the photo should've been warning enough, but she didn't heed that. She believed she was in love with her handsome jock, even if she throttled his neck every time he got lost in some sports story. Losing her virginity to him was one of her great regrets in life, starting when she learned that he had slept with another girl just weeks later. Not noticing Mihara attending school with her, but in the grade above her, was another regret. Despite having been near each other throughout life, it was not until college that they got to know each other and fall in love.
Masumi and Katsuhara held each other next to Yukiko. The surprise with those two was not that they married immediately after graduating high school, but that they didn't have a baby until after starting business careers. For being the first of the group to become sexually active, becoming parents proved a difficult task for Yanagisawa Katsuhara and Masumi.
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Chiharu's eyes were wide and staring at her mother.
Yukiko smirked. "Bet you didn't think we had such relationships at your age. We certainly made things more complicated for ourselves than it needed to be. At least your friends don't have to worry about that stuff."
Chiharu laughed nervously.
Yukiko blinked. "Don't tell me...?"
"Repeating history... just with different pairings. Sakura-chan is the one with the foreign boyfriend...," Chiharu trailed off.
"So which one has it bad for a teacher? Tomoyo-chan, Naoko-chan or Rika-chan?" Yukiko asked in a half-joking tone that hoped it was just a joke.
"Mom..." Chiharu looked away.
"You won't say, will you?" Yukiko pressed with concern.
"I don't want them to be hurt," Chiharu insisted.
Yukiko sighed, knowing the trouble that Nadeshiko had with her family and hoping it would not be repeated this generation. "I understand. I did much the same for Nadeshiko-chan. I can only hope your friend doesn't have to deal with the same hardships she had to go through and that the other two aren't like Sonomi-chan and me."
Chiharu let out a forced laugh. "I doubt it." Though she wasn't completely sure. Tomoyo couldn't like Sakura that way, could she? And Naoko should be 'safe' with Asaba, considering it was highly unlikely he could attract the attention of another girl. As for Sakura... "Didn't you say Sakura-chan's mother was some sort of heir?"
Yukiko nodded. "Nadeshiko-chan was supposed to inherit her family's businesses, but because she married someone her grandfather didn't approve of... she was disowned. Despite how happy Kinomoto-sensei made Nadeshiko-chan, it was a horrible time for her having her beloved grandfather turn his back on her and losing the sisterly friendship she had with Sonomi-chan as well. Getting pregnant and being expelled from school didn't help her, but she found a way to stay cheerful with the man she loved."
Chiharu swallowed hard. With the rocky relationship Rika had with her mother, the situation might be even worse for her friend. Especially if Rika somehow managed to pin Terada-sensei down and make him 'guilty' of statutory rape, even though the girl would have been the rapist. At least Sakura had it comparatively easier with her relationship, as everyone, including her father and Li's mother, supported them being together. Too bad her own situation wasn't as easy as Naoko's parents, considering they had not gotten into any trouble for having sex as children and engaged in it of their own free will. If Naoko was to become sexually active, her parents would be rather hypocritical if they got upset over it.
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Author's Notes:
Chapter 14 - Sakura and Syaoran's Duet
Sakura returns to school and learns of the latest English project, sing a song in English. Reiko is not about to let it be easy for her.
This Omake is a scene that is going on roughly at the same time as this chapter but does not fit into the other chapters.
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Sakura sighed with a touch of boredom. Being stuck at the Daidouji mansion while recovering from the last attack left her with little to do besides homework. She was almost back to full health and magic, but Syaoran was still weak from over using his magic and dipping into his life energy.
As Sakura played with her boyfriend's hair while he slept, her mind wandered to many different places. Even the things she didn't want to think about, including who might be behind these attacks and Reiko.
The door opening a crack brought a welcome distraction to Sakura's boredom. "Hi, Tomoyo-chan. How was your day?" Sakura whispered in order to not wake her boyfriend.
Tomoyo glided quietly across the room and took the chair next to her best friend's side of the bed. "It was okay."
"Has Reiko-chan been picking on you?" Sakura asked seriously.
"Reiko-chan has been bothering everybody." Tomoyo smirked slightly. "Though she's doing us a favor. With you and Syaoran away from school, and her pranks on me and others, it's taking suspicion off of us for doing such things."
Sakura pouted. "Still doesn't make it right."
"You'll figure some way to send her on to heaven, I'm sure of it," Tomoyo cheered softly.
"Wish I could be so sure," Sakura replied.
Both girls looked at the door as one of the Daidouji guards looked in, nodded at them, and then left.
The ever-present guards led to another question for Sakura. "Since when did they know I had magic?"
"Since you captured The Shadow," Tomoyo chirped.
"Wheeeee?!" Sakura cried out in surprise. "Why didn't you tell me they knew all this time?"
"Well, I didn't want to worry you about them. Besides if you knew they were watching and recording you using magic, you would've been more cautious in your use of magic and less likely to try some of my more fanciful dresses." Tomoyo began to laugh in her own demented style.
"Daidouji is being evil again," Syaoran muttered sleepily.
Sakura wanted to refute her boyfriend's statement, but he was right.
She briefly flipped through a photo album and initially put it in the pile of items that would stay at the house, but something didn't feel entirely right. She grabbed the album and looked at the picture that was on the first page. She had thought it was a picture of herself, Rika, Naoko, Tomoyo and Sakura. There were too many differences, namely the boys depicted in it were not Syaoran or Takashi and that 'Tomoyo' had short hair and 'Sakura' had long hair.
Chiharu got off the floor and rushed to her mother's bedroom. "Mom, what's with this picture?!"
"Oh, my! That brings back some memories of when I was your age." Mrs. Mihara took the photo album from her daughter.
Chiharu pointed at the image. "I can understand that I look like you did, but the other girls all look like my friends!"
"They should, considering that they ARE your friends' mothers. At least most of them. I can't be sure Sonomi-chan ever had a baby considering she stopped talking to me and my friends because we supported Sakura-chan's mother, Nadeshiko-chan, getting married," Mrs. Mihara explained, but seemed to want to say more about it.
Chiharu quizzically looked at the photo. "These really are my friends' mothers? Why didn't you tell us?"
"Have you forgotten when you were little and you would be babysat by your friends' mothers?" Mrs. Mihara pointed out.
Chiharu blinked. "Oh, right. But why haven't you, you know, talked to any of them lately?"
"What makes you think I don't talk to them?" Mrs. Mihara laughed. "I've probably talked more to them in the past year than you, considering you spent more time with your in-laws than me. Because of the situation with your father, I haven't had much chance to actually see them in far too long. Perhaps when I finish settling into my new home, I'll set up a get together or something."
Chiharu pouted. "I see..."
"Dear, don't think we've drifted apart. The only one to do that was Sonomi-chan." Mrs. Mihara sighed. "I'm sure you'll still be friends with Rika-chan and the others long after you've all become mothers."
Chiharu let out a sad chuckle. "I'm not sure about that. Sakura-chan will likely end up living in Hong Kong with her boyfriend. Tomoyo-chan will end up inheriting her mother's businesses and she'll certainly have no time for us. And I can easily see Rika-chan and Naoko-chan moving away as well."
Mrs. Mihara shook her head lightly. "Of course there'll be times when you'll all be apart. Except for Nadeshiko-chan, at one time or another each of my childhood friends weren't in Tokyo because of work or love, but we always found a way to keep in touch. It should be easier for you, considering the Internet and all."
"I see." Chiharu looked away. "That still doesn't exactly make me feel better."
Mrs. Mihara grabbed her daughter by the shoulder. "True friendship never dies. Even if you're hundreds of kilometers apart, a simple phone call can show how much you still care." She frowned as the pout didn't leave her daughter's face.
Mrs. Mihara sat down on her bed and patted the spot next to her. "Chiharu-chan, why don't you sit down and I'll tell you the story behind this photo? We were all friends before this, but the events leading up to this picture isn't something that could easily be thrown away."
"Didn't you tell me that your friend, Sonomi-san, did just that?" Chiharu pointed out.
Mrs. Mihara poked her daughter's nose. "I also said that it couldn't be easily done. The situation with Sonomi-chan and Nadeshiko-chan was... extremely complicated. I was literally forced to choose which one to side with, and I picked Nadeshiko-chan because I knew that she really loved Kinomoto-sensei. I had to lie to protect Nadeshiko-chan, but doing so cost me Sonomi-chan's friendship. But that's a different story than what I want to tell you about. It all began at the end of our third year of junior high, before any of us met Kinomoto-sensei..."
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Card Captors Sakura: Shadow of the Dragon
Chapter 13: Nadeshiko's Past, Sakura's Present
Card Captor Sakura belongs to the fine ladies of CLAMP. Used without consent, all rights reserved.
By: Lord Archive
Author's Warnings:
This contains mature themes not intended for children under thirteen.
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.
Author's Note: Descriptions of the characters have intentionally been left out as Mrs. Mihara did not give any to Chiharu, since Chiharu already knows who is who, and to be a little game to figure which girl is the mother of the girls of CCS.
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"So long, Tomoeda Junior High! You will not be missed!" Katsuhara proclaimed.
"Sure, but we'll only be going next door in a month for senior high," Masumi teased.
"Must you always dampen my good mood?" Katsuhara retorted.
Masumi folded her arms. "Oh, and I suppose you don't want to spend the weekend with me?"
Katsuhara pulled at his collar. "Oh, right... the manga convention. You've got the rooms?"
"Room, Dear. It'll just be you and me going, so we'll only need the one bed," Masumi corrected.
Katsuhara had a goofy grin. "Right. It'll be fun." His mind was obviously not on the convention, but on the sleeping arrangements. "Your parents are okay... with us going alone?"
Masumi smirked. "I'm sure they're not 'okay' with it. It's just that they know we're lovers already and want us to be married some day. They just aren't happy that it could be tomorrow if you've knocked me up."
A growl from Sonomi caused them to look at her. "Don't talk about such things!"
"Why I think it's sweet of them to be so close. First grade sweethearts being together forever," Nadeshiko commented with a bubbly smile. "If only I had my own number one person to love and hold me."
Yuuka laughed. "Nadeshiko isn't as naive as she appears."
Jyou, the strangely blond haired part-Japanese boy behind Yuuka, groaned. "If only you were naive."
Yuuka whirled on her boyfriend. "That's a thing to say to me after you left me alone for a year! I waited for you! You didn't meet some girl in California, did you?"
Jyou let out a sigh. "No. There is only one girl for me, and that's you. I certainly appreciate that you waited for me, but can't you still wait?"
"Why?" Yuuka demanded. "You know we could be married right now."
"And with what income?" Jyou retorted. "I want to be able to support you. I can't do that yet."
"You know, we don't HAVE to be married first...," Yuuka cooed.
"YUUKA-CHAN?!" cried out Jyou and Sonomi, for completely different reasons. The others laughed at them.
Yukiko smiled at them, wishing her boyfriend was part of her circle of friends. Her handsome jock preferred being with his sports bodies to being with 'taken girls,' 'girls with violent bodyguards,' and 'nerds.' She attempted to strangle him for the comment, but she did understand him to a point. She didn't particularly want to feel like a little girl around his big and tall friends.
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The calls began after dinner. Sonomi was frantic as she phoned all of Nadeshiko's friends. Sonomi hoped the girl had found her way to someone she knew. In all cases, the reply was the same, the last they had seen of Nadeshiko was when the girl left for home with Sonomi.
Still, Sonomi and Nadeshiko's friends went to where Sonomi had last seen her cousin. The police were there, as an heiress to a large company precluded the normal wait on missing persons. After a blizzard of questions, some stilted into suggesting Sonomi had something to do with Nadeshiko's disappearance, the officers left to process what they had found.
"How inept can these people be?!" Sonomi cried out in frustration. "I saw Nadeshiko HERE, she wasn't taken HERE but somewhere between here and her home!"
Yukiko folded her arms irritably. "Normally I'd say you're exaggerating, but right now they think you're the leading suspect."
"WHAT?! I'd never hurt Nadeshiko-chan!" Sonomi protested.
Yuuka scowled darkly. "You'd rather get into her panties. But I'm afraid that's why they think you had something to do with it. You tried something with her, she rejected you, and you got angry."
"I don't get angry! Especially not at Nadeshiko-chan!" Sonomi yelled in rage. "And where did they get the idea that I liked Nadeshiko-chan that way?!"
Yuuka flushed. "I was trying to help by pointing out that you love her too much to do such a thing."
Masumi laughed hollowly. "You getting angry, sure. But you hurting Nadeshiko-chan? You'd rather slit your own wrists. We know you couldn't live with yourself if you did anything to her. Hell, you were a basket case when she broke her leg on that skiing trip you took with her."
Yukiko put her arm around her upset friend. "We know you had nothing to do with this, and we're going to help you."
The girls started to search between where Sonomi last saw her cousin and Nadeshiko's home. As night fell, they reluctantly returned home.
Sonomi had only briefly gone to her house, and returned with flashlights and six burly, male bodyguards her parents employed. Nadeshiko's other friends also returned, including Jyou and Katsuhara, to help with the search for any clue or sign of the lost girl. As the night wore on, all of the girls refused any suggestion from the guards to take a break and go home to get some sleep.
The limited light and growing weariness made the search difficult, but they pressed on for any clue, no matter how small.
"I think I found something," Jyou called out.
"Really?!" Sonomi was next to him in a second, but then scowled at what he was pointing at. "What's so important about a matchbook?"
"It rained yesterday, yet this is completely dry. So it could've only been dropped today. And I don't know about you, but how many people in this neighborhood would go to a bar in Shibuya?"
"Shibuya?" one of the guards growled. "This is not good at all. Nadeshiko-hime might be in more danger than we thought."
"What do you mean by that?!" Sonomi demanded.
"That does not concern you just yet," the guard replied. "We certainly have to let the police know of this."
"Why should we tell those idiots anything!" Sonomi cried out. "They think I'm the one who took Nadeshiko away!"
"More reason for us tell them, to clear your name," the guard replied neutrally.
"We don't have time!" Sonomi persisted. "We should go rescue her now! Who knows what awful things they're doing to her. We have to rescue her!"
"Bringing Nadeshiko-hime home safely is out top priority." The bodyguard pointed his finger at Sonomi's face. "It's also our responsibility to make sure YOU remain safe as well."
"I don't matter! I'm not the heir! Nadeshiko IS! We have to save her!" Sonomi demanded.
"And WE will. YOU need to go home," the bodyguard told her in a tone that would take no objection.
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Hours later, Sonomi stood with her friend across the street from the bar the matchbook named, but her bodyguards were no where to be found.
"You know, I really don't like the name of this bar," Masumi commented.
"What's wrong with Aka Hikari? It sounds nice. Maybe they use cute red light bulbs like their name suggests," Yuuka commented.
Masumi folded her arms. "You do know that 'red light districts' is the term for an area of prostitution, don't you?"
"Well if they're out for virgins, you're safe, Masumi-chan," Yukiko teased to cover up her anxiety.
"This is hardly the time for that!" Masumi shot back.
Sonomi nearly tore the white handkerchief she was chewing on into little pieces. "Why would they take Nadeshiko-chan to a horrid place like this?!"
"Hopefully for ransom," Yukiko said dryly.
Yuuka hugged herself. "I wish we had your bodyguards with us."
"They would've never let us go to save Nadeshiko-chan!" Sonomi reminded. "Why are we standing here? Let's go get her!"
"Because Masumi at least thought of making sure you had some sort of back-up."
The girls turned and most of them smiled at seeing Katsuhara and Jyou walking towards them.
"Thanks, Dear," Masumi chirped at her boyfriend. "Now let's go save our friend."
Despite the girls' bravado, they were all rather scared entering the darken bar. All conversation stopped at their appearance. The eyes of twenty men were on them along with the lone female's eyes, a scantily clad waitress who didn't appear old enough to drink what she was serving.
"We don't have a kid's menu," the bar tender shot at the group.
Masumi slid closer to the bar. "Are you sure you don't have kids _on_ the menu? My friends and I could use a bit of extra cash."
"The front isn't the worker's entrance," the bar tender replied in a low voice. "You're rather plain, but you at least have a decent chest for a kid." He emphasized his point by grabbing her right breast.
Katsuhara grabbed the wrist of the offending hand and tried to squeeze it painfully.
The bar tender laughed. "You know merchandise has to be tested, don't you?"
"Is that what you're doing to my precious Nadeshiko-chan?! Testing her?! What have you done with her?!" Sonomi cried out, unable to remain silent any more.
"Looks like this may all be free merchandise." The bartender made a signal with his free hand and six of the patrons immediately got up.
"Are you the bastards that kidnapped my cousin?!" Sonomi demanded. "Are you the ones who took her to this dreadful place?!"
One of the men slapped Sonomi across the face. "You should be more concerned with yourself. By the time we're done training you, you won't remember you had a family."
"Training?" one of the patrons sitting at the table questioned. "Are you saying those girls aren't here because they want to be but because you broke them?"
"You have to break a girl to make her a good whore," was the laughing reply.
The patron got up and decked the man who said that. "I may have shit luck finding a girlfriend, but when I buy a girl's time it should be her fucking decision!"
"Bad mistake," the bar tender growled. "And you were such a good customer."
Katsuhara broke a nearby glass and stabbed the bartender's arm with its shards. With the cry of pain, all hell broke loose as the patrons began fighting either each other or the men who worked for the bar.
With the chaos of battle, the waitress opened the way to the back rooms, which the girls took the opportunity to search for their missing friend.
When the police arrived, the fighting only escalated.
The men up front weren't the only ones to work at the bar. The girls found themselves face to face with two burly men. If not for Jyou and Katsuhara following them, they would've been over powered easily. Even with the boys' help, overcoming the two men proved difficult. It was only after Masumi landed a kick on one of the guy's privates that the two men fell to the angry teenagers, with Yukiko choking the other one to unconsciousness.
"Where's Sonomi-chan?" Yuuka wondered.
The others shared confused looks. Sonomi had been with them. As if to answer their question, they heard a scream. But the voice was not Sonomi's but Nadeshiko's.
They took off running toward where they heard the scream. Going into the room, they saw Nadeshiko tied up and still wearing her junior high uniform in the corner of the room. Sonomi stood in the middle panting with unseeing eyes. The lead pipe dropping from her hand and clattering to the ground seemed to wake her as the girl rushed to see her cousin, unmindful the blood on her own face. Laid out on the floor was a man with a broken jaw, his rasping breaths showing he was still alive.
"Sonomi-chan... Why did you hurt him? Why?" Nadeshiko questioned with tears.
"Anyone who hurts you doesn't deserve mercy," Sonomi spat in an unemotional voice. "He deserves more than what I did."
"You mean 'what I did.'"
The group turned to look and saw the Amamiya family bodyguards. "You are all to leave out the back. We'll take responsibility for rescuing Nadeshiko-hime."
"Why would you need to?" Katsuhara asked. "We were saving a friend."
"The police may not be so kind to vigilantes that caused serious injuries to people, individuals who started a riot, and are too young to be deemed credible witnesses," the bodyguard pointed out. "Amamiya-sama will take care of the legal issues for us, but that is of no concern for you. Go before the police get back here."
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Katsuhara crumbled up the newspaper and tossed it at a trash bin at Tsukimine Shrine, but missed. "Not a word of Amamiya-chan's kidnapping or the riot at the bar."
"It's to be expected. We can't let people know that it was easy to take an heir to the Amamiya fortune," Sonomi retorted in a flat voice that had yet to get emotion back after her role in rescuing her cousin.
"You all really shouldn't have gone so far to help me," Nadeshiko told them barely over a whisper.
"You're our friend. Of course we'll go to help you when you're in trouble. I know you'd do the same for us," Yukiko retorted.
Nadeshiko barely nodded. She then glanced at her cousin, whom she stood further from than had been normal.
Masumi held up a camera. "We might not be able let everyone know, but we should at least have some momento of our adventure."
"Who's going to take the picture?" Yukiko asked.
Masumi briefly pouted. She looked around. "Hey, Kaho-chan!"
A young girl of five years ran up to the group. "You want me to take a group photo?"
Masumi nodded. "Do you know how one works?"
Kaho's eyes seemed to stare off for a moment. "Yeah. I can do it!" She grinned at the group as they moved to stand together. "On the count of three say, 'Sakura!' One, two, three..."
"Sakura!" the group chorused with a few giggles.
Kaho snapped the picture and handed the camera back to Masumi. She turned and looked at Nadeshiko with a warm look. "Believe in your heart, and don't let anyone stop you from being with your number one person."
Nadeshiko blinked in confusion as the girl ran off. "What did she mean by that? I haven't found my special person yet."
The others shrugged cluelessly.
They had the picture developed and copied for each of them.
Nadeshiko was in the center of the photo, smiling brightly. In May of the following year, she married Kinomoto-sensei against the wishes of her family.
Sonomi stood to the left of her cousin, but a sense of innocence had been lost on her. She held a strong look of an adult that seemed to make her appear more distant from Nadeshiko than she was in the photo.
Yuuka was draped over Jyou. He would keep bouncing between Tokyo and California, where he was born, for the next few years because of his father's work. When it was time for him to go to college, Yuuka finally had cornered him and went with him as Mrs. Sasaki Yuuka.
To Nadeshiko's right was Yukiko. The lack of her boyfriend in the photo should've been warning enough, but she didn't heed that. She believed she was in love with her handsome jock, even if she throttled his neck every time he got lost in some sports story. Losing her virginity to him was one of her great regrets in life, starting when she learned that he had slept with another girl just weeks later. Not noticing Mihara attending school with her, but in the grade above her, was another regret. Despite having been near each other throughout life, it was not until college that they got to know each other and fall in love.
Masumi and Katsuhara held each other next to Yukiko. The surprise with those two was not that they married immediately after graduating high school, but that they didn't have a baby until after starting business careers. For being the first of the group to become sexually active, becoming parents proved a difficult task for Yanagisawa Katsuhara and Masumi.
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Chiharu's eyes were wide and staring at her mother.
Yukiko smirked. "Bet you didn't think we had such relationships at your age. We certainly made things more complicated for ourselves than it needed to be. At least your friends don't have to worry about that stuff."
Chiharu laughed nervously.
Yukiko blinked. "Don't tell me...?"
"Repeating history... just with different pairings. Sakura-chan is the one with the foreign boyfriend...," Chiharu trailed off.
"So which one has it bad for a teacher? Tomoyo-chan, Naoko-chan or Rika-chan?" Yukiko asked in a half-joking tone that hoped it was just a joke.
"Mom..." Chiharu looked away.
"You won't say, will you?" Yukiko pressed with concern.
"I don't want them to be hurt," Chiharu insisted.
Yukiko sighed, knowing the trouble that Nadeshiko had with her family and hoping it would not be repeated this generation. "I understand. I did much the same for Nadeshiko-chan. I can only hope your friend doesn't have to deal with the same hardships she had to go through and that the other two aren't like Sonomi-chan and me."
Chiharu let out a forced laugh. "I doubt it." Though she wasn't completely sure. Tomoyo couldn't like Sakura that way, could she? And Naoko should be 'safe' with Asaba, considering it was highly unlikely he could attract the attention of another girl. As for Sakura... "Didn't you say Sakura-chan's mother was some sort of heir?"
Yukiko nodded. "Nadeshiko-chan was supposed to inherit her family's businesses, but because she married someone her grandfather didn't approve of... she was disowned. Despite how happy Kinomoto-sensei made Nadeshiko-chan, it was a horrible time for her having her beloved grandfather turn his back on her and losing the sisterly friendship she had with Sonomi-chan as well. Getting pregnant and being expelled from school didn't help her, but she found a way to stay cheerful with the man she loved."
Chiharu swallowed hard. With the rocky relationship Rika had with her mother, the situation might be even worse for her friend. Especially if Rika somehow managed to pin Terada-sensei down and make him 'guilty' of statutory rape, even though the girl would have been the rapist. At least Sakura had it comparatively easier with her relationship, as everyone, including her father and Li's mother, supported them being together. Too bad her own situation wasn't as easy as Naoko's parents, considering they had not gotten into any trouble for having sex as children and engaged in it of their own free will. If Naoko was to become sexually active, her parents would be rather hypocritical if they got upset over it.
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Author's Notes:
Chapter 14 - Sakura and Syaoran's Duet
Sakura returns to school and learns of the latest English project, sing a song in English. Reiko is not about to let it be easy for her.
This Omake is a scene that is going on roughly at the same time as this chapter but does not fit into the other chapters.
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Sakura sighed with a touch of boredom. Being stuck at the Daidouji mansion while recovering from the last attack left her with little to do besides homework. She was almost back to full health and magic, but Syaoran was still weak from over using his magic and dipping into his life energy.
As Sakura played with her boyfriend's hair while he slept, her mind wandered to many different places. Even the things she didn't want to think about, including who might be behind these attacks and Reiko.
The door opening a crack brought a welcome distraction to Sakura's boredom. "Hi, Tomoyo-chan. How was your day?" Sakura whispered in order to not wake her boyfriend.
Tomoyo glided quietly across the room and took the chair next to her best friend's side of the bed. "It was okay."
"Has Reiko-chan been picking on you?" Sakura asked seriously.
"Reiko-chan has been bothering everybody." Tomoyo smirked slightly. "Though she's doing us a favor. With you and Syaoran away from school, and her pranks on me and others, it's taking suspicion off of us for doing such things."
Sakura pouted. "Still doesn't make it right."
"You'll figure some way to send her on to heaven, I'm sure of it," Tomoyo cheered softly.
"Wish I could be so sure," Sakura replied.
Both girls looked at the door as one of the Daidouji guards looked in, nodded at them, and then left.
The ever-present guards led to another question for Sakura. "Since when did they know I had magic?"
"Since you captured The Shadow," Tomoyo chirped.
"Wheeeee?!" Sakura cried out in surprise. "Why didn't you tell me they knew all this time?"
"Well, I didn't want to worry you about them. Besides if you knew they were watching and recording you using magic, you would've been more cautious in your use of magic and less likely to try some of my more fanciful dresses." Tomoyo began to laugh in her own demented style.
"Daidouji is being evil again," Syaoran muttered sleepily.
Sakura wanted to refute her boyfriend's statement, but he was right.