Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Shadow of the Dragon ❯ Sakura and Syaoran's Duet ( Chapter 14 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Card Captors Sakura: Shadow of the Dragon

Chapter 14: Sakura and Syaoran's Duet

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.

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Sakura yawned and stretched, happily waking up in her own bed. While she certainly liked having Syaoran sleeping next to her, they had, perhaps, been a tad too close. She hadn't noticed it when she first woke up from her coma, but she had only been wearing an oversized T-shirt and a diaper. While she certainly understood the necessity of it considering she had been asleep for a full week, it was still mortifying having worn a diaper at her age. To make matters worse, becoming upset at how Syaoran made one of his cards caused him to use some of his depleted magic. After eating, he collapsed and she had to resume feeding him her energy, making her fall unconscious as well. When she woke up again the following day, she was being bathed with Syaoran by his mother.

Sakura's face took an intense red glow. Memories of Syaoran in the bath with her overrode the fact that his mother had bathed her and had changed her diaper as if she had been a little girl.

"Thinking about the brat again?" Kero-chan groused.

"Syaoran is not a brat," Sakura quickly retorted.

"But you were thinking of him," Kero-chan pressed.

Sakura nodded, her flushed face still bright red. The memory of Syaoran sitting next to her in the bath would never leave her mind. She had seen more of the boy than she would admit to anyone. She was embarrassed enough for the both of them. She even had to change Syaoran's adult diaper late one night. Thankfully, he was never awake when she was naked. At least she hoped so, considering he might have woken up while her diaper was being changed.

"If you keep day dreaming, you'll be late for school... again," Kero-chan reminded strongly.

Sakura glanced at the time and cried out. "I don't have much time!"

Kero-chan folded his arms as he watched the girl rush in getting ready for the day. One of these days he was going to set the girl's alarm clock fifteen minutes ahead and never tell her.

------------------------

Sakura stared in disbelief when she arrived at the school. Windows had holes in them. Graffiti was sprayed on the walls. Chairs decorated a tree like Christmas ornaments. And that was just her first glance.

"Ichimai has been busy," Syaoran muttered.

Sakura could only nod. All of this was caused by a girl venting impotent rage at having died before her time. "How is Reiko-chan able to do so much?"

"Honestly, I think she was brought over by whoever is out to get you, hoping that she would kill you," Syaoran reluctantly told her. "She received more power that allows her to do more than she could have otherwise."

Sakura pouted. "And if that person had nothing to do with this?"

"The more Ichimai gives into her anger, the more she can do..." Syaoran looked away. "And if she loses herself completely to her anger... she'll be dragged into hell for all eternity."

Sakura's eyes went wide. "We've got to save her!" She then let out a squeak of surprise when Syaoran roughly shoved her away from him a split second before a desk landed where she had been standing.

Syaoran growled threateningly as he glared at a destroyed window to his classroom. Words dying on his lips as he knew uttering them would only make Sakura upset at him. "Let's go inside."

Sakura pouted as she stood up and grabbed the desk.

Syaoran had almost forgotten that it was the responsibility of students to maintain the school. "Let me take that."

Sakura shook her head. "It's okay. It's my desk."

Syaoran scowled deeply as he noticed the now-damaged desk had 'murderer' scratched deeply into it. He still yanked the desk from her hands and proceeded to carry it into the school.

Sakura pouted, but followed him without another word.

Arriving at their classroom, Sakura and Syaoran found Tomoyo putting tablecloths over each of the desks. The ones that were not yet covered held similar scratches as Sakura's desk.

Sakura blinked at one. "Why would Yoshikawa-kun's desk have 'tiny' on it? He's the tallest guy in the class."

Syaoran's face immediately went bright red while Tomoyo began laughing.

Sakura pursed her lips as neither gave her an answer yet both seemed to know why. What could possibly be 'tiny' in regards to the basketball player that would make Reiko...? She then blinked and her face went red. "Oh... never mind. Didn't need to know that."

Syaoran coughed. "Right."

"It's the reason why I'm covering the desks. Thankfully many will deny what the scratches say, making it unlikely for anyone to probe into certain ones," Tomoyo informed. "I'm just thankful I had classroom duty today so I could cover them up."

Syaoran set Sakura's desk down and frowned at how the now damaged legs gave the desk a rather drastic lean. He tried to bend the legs back, but wasn't able to budge them until Sakura quietly muttered two words, 'Power, release.' Then it became a matter of being careful with his strength in order to not rip the legs off.

Meiling arrived with fresh flowers, being the other student with classroom duty for the week. She set one of them carefully down on the center of Reiko's desk.

Tomoyo scowled at the sign of respect, mostly because of what was etched in a few of the desks. Particularly 'lesbian' on her own and the rather vulgar reference on Rika's, inferring the girl's relationship with a teacher.

Several of the school's sports players arrived and immediately went to Reiko's desk and placed offerings to her and began to pray in either Christian or Shinto manners.

"Hoe?" Sakura emitted, looking at her friends.

Meiling smirked. "Some students, particularly the jocks, are starting to believe the ghost of Ichimai is the one behind these pranks. Some of the things done used knowledge only she had."

Sakura frowned deeply.

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Sakura pouted at her boyfriend as he seemed to still be in a case of nervous shock.

"What's wrong with Li-kun?" Takashi asked, moving to sit with his wife and their friends during lunch.

Sakura turned away. "Syaoran-kun... doesn't sing very well."

Tomoyo blinked. "Coming from you, that must mean he's rather... bad."

Meiling laughed. "Oh, he's hideous at singing. Like a strangled cat. He could try blaming stage fright when he sang for school back in Hong Kong, but that'd be a lie. He can't hold a tune at all."

"At least we're not being graded for how well we sing," Chiharu commented. "We just have to get the lyrics out in English."

"That part should at least be easy for Li-kun," Rika tried to cheer.

"Any idea on what you all want to sing?" Naoko wondered.

"I was thinking 'My Heart Will Go On' by Celine Dion," Tomoyo mentioned.

"'Butterfly' for me," Meiling added.

"I'm really not sure what I could do," Sakura muttered out.

Tomoyo's eyes sparkled. "I've got a brilliant idea! Why don't you duet with Li-kun?"

"Absolutely not!" Syaoran barked out. "I cannot let her suffer because of me."

"Let me finish," Tomoyo admonished. "A duet would work well for you. With Sakura-chan taking the lead and setting the tempo, it would be easier for you to follow. And I have the perfect song for you. It can be sung with less melody and more like you're talking."

"Which song would that be?" Sakura wondered.

"'Somewhere Out There,'" Tomoyo replied. "It's a rather sweet song. I had thought of it as being a kind of theme for you when Li-kun was in Hong Kong. After all, one of the lines refers to you both being under the same bright star."

Sakura and Syaoran blushed, though both of them were still worried about singing in front of the class.

"At least you're decided. I have no clue what I want to sing," Chiharu grumbled.

"I'm sure Daidouji and I can help," Meiling offered. "Half the radio stations in Hong Kong are English only and music is second only to Daidouji's love for videotaping Kinomoto."

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Sakura was rather surprised at herself as she arrived at her school at midnight. When she was ten, even the idea of coming to school in the middle of the night scared her to death. She had been afraid that there were ghosts walking the hallways, but there had only been Clow Cards then. Now, here she was about to face a ghost she knew to be there.

Kero-chan floated behind her, unsure whether he should be cheering on her bravery or denouncing her use of magic in the way the girl planned. Course, there was no going back now with Tomoyo videotaping this and Sakura wearing what looked more like a French Maid's outfit than a battle costume. Black lace and with white accents, and a short frilly skirt that couldn't get much shorter. There was quite a bit of cleavage shown as well.

"So, how do you plan to send Reiko-chan to heaven?" Tomoyo wondered.

"I don't have a clue," Sakura replied. "I'm just trying to undo some of what she has done." She pulled off her necklace and held her magical charm before her. "O Key which hides the power of the stars, reveal thy true form before me. I, Sakura, command thee under contract... RELEASE!" The small charm was now a meter-long wand with a star at it's top which she held up as she threw two into the air. "Erase and Shadow... undo what Reiko-chan has done... RELEASE!"

From the two cards that had been spinning over Sakura's wand, a living shadow and a woman dressed like a court jester exploded from them. Immediately the graffiti painted on the walls began to vanish as the female jester passed them and the shadows came to life picking up the chairs and desks and moving them back into the school.

Sakura pouted as she noticed Erase couldn't do everything she wanted. The card worked well for taking off the paint, but it could do nothing for broken windows beyond removing the broken shards. And at the rate things were going, it'd take them all night to correct the school's vandalism. "Fix as much as you can, Earthy, Fiery, Sand, and Wood... RELEASE!"

"SAKURA!" Kero-chan cried out. "That's waaaaay too much. What happens if you're attacked tomorrow?"

"I'll just be sure to stick close to Syaoran-kun and Meiling-chan," Sakura replied.

Tomoyo let out a surprised gasp that went unnoticed by the others. Was Sakura starting to figure out who might be behind the attacks? Or at least noticing the aversion to putting those two in danger?

"Like that would be good enough!" Kero-chan shot back. "They're nowhere near as powerful as you."

"Syaoran-kun does have two cards of his own now, and Meiling-chan would've been a great help against the assassin, so I'm sure she can be of help in the future," Sakura reminded.

Then again, maybe it was all just a matter of trust, Tomoyo mused. Her camera was now focus on The Sand card filling in the broken windows and The Fiery blasting the sand into glass. She then saw how The Earthy was fixing holes in the ground and walls. The Wood was erasing the scratches on desks and The Shadow continued to put things back where they belonged.

"Holy fucking shit!"

Sakura turned her head and sighed at the startled look of the ghost. "Reiko-chan, you've got to stop with these awful pranks."

"You've had this much fucking power and you're doing NOTHING with it? What the hell is with you, you stupid airhead? I bet you can even revive the dead!" Reiko yelled.

Sakura pouted at her. "No one can bring back the dead. If I could, I would've done that already. And what could I possibly be using my magic for?"

"Oh, I don't know... saving people from burning buildings, maybe? Or rescuing people from earthquakes? How about the tsunami? Did you go out and try to stop it?" Reiko taunted.

Giant wings sprouted around Kero-chan, which parted to reveal Cerberus. "Those things are easier said than done! Sakura had to learn the hard way from YOUR death that there are things she can't change. Natural disasters happen, and there's nothing even people with power can do to prevent them. Trying to save lives of people who were meant to die just dooms others who were supposed to live. Just as saving Daidouji-san meant your death, saving one victim of a disaster means causing a person who would have lived to die."

"Kero-chan... is that really true?" Sakura demanded. "Couldn't I... Shouldn't I have done something then?"

Cerberus hated it when Sakura pressed him to tell the truth, even when it wasn't something she wanted to hear. "There wasn't much you could've done. Made it easier for the survivors, maybe. Been able to save a few meaningless lives of people who would change nothing of the future, possibly. Have any real, long-term impact? Only if your actions made magic public knowledge, which could end up being a far worse disaster for you."

Reiko growled angrily and rushed forward. Her hands wrapped around Sakura's neck and began to squeeze. "You have the powers of a fucking god and yet you do nothing! You could help so many people! Do things to help the world! Why don't you use your powers?"

Reiko shrieked in pain as Cerberus struck her with his claws, pushing her away from Sakura. "You know nothing! What you ask isn't as easy as you think it is! If it was, Sakura would've been able to save your life, but she couldn't without someone else dying!"

Tomoyo cleared her voice. "While I can't hear you, Reiko-chan, I know you can hear me. I can guess you're asking why Sakura-chan doesn't use her powers to help others. What a hypocritical thing for you to say. Would you really use her powers to help others if you had them or just help yourself? You who avoided becoming friends with others? You who whored out her body in order to get brief companionship and popularity? You're even currently in possession of powers beyond any normal person and yet you have only brought pain and suffering to others."

"Tomoyo-chan watch out!" Sakura cried out.

There was no way Tomoyo could do such a thing, being unable to see the ghost. She felt a wave cold wash over her and unnatural fear gripped her. However, the feelings passed, and she stood there unharmed. Though one would think Sakura had been the one attacked as the girl was pale and throwing up all over the ground. Tomoyo let out a small sigh. "I guess I should be thankful I have no magic."

Cerberus nodded with a disgusted look. "She's gone for now, but she'll be back."

Tomoyo nodded and let out a relieved sigh. "Let's finish this up quickly and go home."

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Teikei couldn't believe his eyes. He had made a request from people who lived in the area to let him know if they saw anyone entering the school at night. And last night someone did report two girls doing just that. The girls were described to look a lot like Kinomoto Sakura and Daidouji Tomoyo. However, from the looks of it, there had to be more than just those two.

The graffiti was gone, the broken windows were replaced, the floors scrubbed clean, the desks held no scratches and all were where they should be. He just couldn't believe it. Even if he set the entire school to task, it'd take days to repair all the damage, yet somehow it had been done over night.

Making his way through the school Teikei searched for any sign of vandalism, wanting proof that he wasn't going mad and that the damages that had been at the school weren't just his imagination. All he found was Kinomoto and Daidouji, dressed in their school uniforms, sleeping at their desks looking completely innocent, especially with the former clutching onto a stuffed animal.

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"Why can't I sing 'Butterfly?'" Meiling demanded loudly.

The American-born English teacher didn't know whether he should be upset at the way she was speaking to him or thankful that not everyone at this school was bound to rigid discipline. "Because as I specified when I presented the assignment, the song has to be entirely in English. 'Samurai' is a word of Japanese origin."

"So? English is the bastard child of Romantic and Germanic languages. Everything in English has roots in other languages. The English word for samurai IS samurai!" Meiling protested.

The teacher shook his head. "The song is still not allowed."

"How about 'Bumble Bee?'" Meiling growled.

The teacher shook his head. "Already taken."

"'Kung-Fu Fighting?'" Meiling hissed.

"'Kung-Fu' isn't English," the teacher retorted.

"And 'konpyuuta' is so Japanese," Meiling grossed. "Kung-Fu is both an English word, encompassing more martial arts styles than it does in China, and is NOT of Japanese origin."

"Look, just find a song that doesn't have any obvious non-English origin words in it. You're the only person in class to have trouble with this," the teacher explained.

Meiling seethed and stomped off towards her seat.

The teacher then looked over the class. "We'll start off with Yamazaki Takashi."

Takashi immediately stood up and went to the front of the room without hesitation. He suspected his song choice on top of being classroom representative was the reason why he was going first. He had very much expected it.

The teacher set the karaoke machine to the song the boy had requested and pressed play. He did not focus his attention on the boy, but on the class. What the boy had requested would give him a good idea on how much comprehension his class had. The song started normally enough, sounding a lot like any generic love song, but when he sang the song's name, 'You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman,' three heads in the back of the class crashed against their desks.

The immediate reaction from the Li cousins and Kinomoto came as a bit of a surprise to the teacher, but it was satisfying to see they had enough knowledge to figure out what was being sung. The looks of confusion going into realization from a few students was more what he expected to see, though he would not want to be in the boy's shoes as his wife was looking increasingly upset. Though the reactions from Yamazaki's friends, particularly Daidouji's attempting to stifle her own laughter, suggested the boy knew what the song was and that he was singing it as part of some sort of inside joke. He fought the urge to frown at the number of students in class who just listened and didn't seem to understand a word of what the boy was singing.

The teacher debated asking the class to guess what the song meant, but decided against embarrassing the Yamazaki couple, if the boy could be embarrassed. Instead he went to the next person on his list. This time not to gauge the class's reaction but to get an unbearable song out of way. He hated Celine Dion, and doubted anyone could pull off a song that she had trouble singing.

"Daidouji Tomoyo, you're next," the teacher announced.

What followed was the voice of an angel. He watched her with rapt attention as the girl sang 'My Heart Will Go On' better than the artist who made it 'popular.'

He did not notice that Tomoyo seemed to be singing to a specific person, in fact only one person did.

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"Who's strangling a cat?" Touya asked as he walked into his father's home.

"Be nice, Niichan!" Sakura cried out and cast a glare at him as he entered the dining room.

Touya scowled at the boy with her. "What's the brat doing here?"

Syaoran returned the gaze with equal hostility.

"We're practicing for our English assignment. We have to sing an English song in front of the class," Sakura muttered out.

Yukito followed Touya in and took in the scene. "I remember having that assignment in senior high. Though I wonder why you're doing it in junior high. You don't have to write a report about it, do you?"

"I hope not! Getting him to sing on key is hard enough!" Sakura blurted out. She then blushed and looked at her boyfriend with frightened embarrassment. "Ah, Syaoran-kun I, ah, didn't mean..."

"I suck at singing," Syaoran said bluntly.

"That's not true! You just need... practice. Lots of practice," Sakura tried to encourage.

Touya smirked. "Some things can't be fixed with practice."

"Now be nice Toya," Yukito chastised lightly. "You know very well not everyone can sing well. With Sakura-chan's help I sure he'll be far from the worst singer in their class."

Sakura really wanted to get off of the topic of her boyfriend's lack of singing ability. "What did you sing for English class?"

Yukito grinned broadly. "'Fly Me to the Moon,' of course."

Sakura and Syaoran laughed sheepishly and said in unison, "Of course."

Yukito's smile grew even bigger. "And Toya sang 'White Wedding.'"

Syaoran made a strangled noise while Sakura looked a tad confused. "Never heard of that song. Was Niichan singing it for you?"

"No, not for me." Yukito cast a teasing gaze towards his lover. "Though he may yet sing it because of you."

"Hoe? 'Because of me?'" Sakura asked in confusion.

Between Touya glaring at both of the guys in the room, Yukito becoming suddenly tight lipped, and Syaoran looking like his body was trying to commit suicide out of sheer embarrassment, there was no answer to Sakura's question.

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"'Do You Really Want Me?'" Meiling asked her English teacher.

The teacher sighed. "I'm afraid that was already taken."

Meiling growled. "'Mortal Kombat?'"

The teacher answered her with a withering gaze, and the girl stomped back to her seat.

"Yamada Natsume, you're up," the teacher announced.

Meiling fought the urge to moan as the girl butchered 'Do You Really Want Me' with mispronounced words and bad timing.

As the song ended, the teacher asked the class, "If anyone has an idea what the song is about, please raise your hand." He pointed at one of the students to answer.

"Ah, it's asking if a girl is good enough for a guy," the boy nervously stated.

"Close, it's more about asking the guy to not take the girl for granted. It's less about the girl not being worthy and more about the boy not giving enough attention to the girl," the teacher explained. "And, by the way, Yoshikawa Hitoshi, you're next."

The boy nodded and fidgeted as he went to the front of the class. As the song began Meiling wanted to throw her desk at either the singer or the teacher. The boy was singing 'Bumble Bee!' by Aqua, NOT the DDR version, which was why she wanted to hit the teacher. The lyrics including 'wham bam, thank you mam' was why she wanted to maim the boy.

Meiling briefly considered asking to do DDR's 'Butterfly' again, but decided against bothering. There were 'non-English words' in it, if you count gibberish as being words. And requesting a song of the same name that Yoshikawa used was not something she wanted to do. Both in regards to his song's rather poor view of sex and because of Reiko's pronouncement of his lack of endowment.

The teacher didn't ask the class what they thought the lyrics meant, likely because he was afraid they'd guess right. The teacher went straight to the next student to sing, who sang 'I Believe I Can Fly.' It wasn't horribly done in Meiling's opinion, but certainly could've been better. However, when the teacher asked for what this song might mean, Yamazaki's grin and waving hand set the Chinese girl on edge. He couldn't possibly have some story for this, could he? The dread only increased as the boy was indeed called on to answer.

Takashi stood up proudly. "It's a song R Kelly wrote about the joys of having sex with underage girls."

Meiling grabbed her forehead while most of the class started laughing. Not a story, but just as bad. At least the teacher was pale and in utter shock. Though she had to wonder why Yamazaki did stuff that he knew would make his wife exact physical pain against him. Her mind dipped into the gutter, and tried to shake a rather unpleasant sexual image of Chiharu whipping her husband and him begging for more.

The teacher finally coughed. "Ah, erm, well... next song, ah, Yanagisawa Naoko."

Meiling was quite thankful that Yamazaki's explanation of the R Kelly song's meaning had brought laughter to the class that had not fully waned. As a new joke was now presented that would be bad if certain individuals learned why it was a joke. Naoko was singing the Beetle's song, 'Paperback Writer.'

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Tomoyo hummed the song Naoko had sung as she went to wash her hands after using the bathroom. After making sure her hands were clean, she looked up and jumped in surprise. Behind her image was Reiko glaring at her. Tomoyo fought the urge to turn around, knowing that Reiko would only disappear. Whether the dead girl was inside the mirror or was floating behind her, Tomoyo didn't know nor cared. Reiko began to talk, but she couldn't hear a word.

"Hold on a moment," Tomoyo insisted nervously. She reached for her book-bag, careful never to take her eyes off the ghost in the mirror. She stretched her arm almost painfully as she finally grabbed the handles and hefted the bag up and placed it on the sink. She groped blindly for the item she wanted in the bag, unwilling to lose sight of the ghost. She smiled as she found it and pulled out the cassette recorder. She hit the record button and said, "Okay, Ichimai, go ahead and talk."

Tomoyo watched as the dead girl said something. She stopped the tape, hit rewind and then play. There was something on the tape. She tried again, this time with the volume cranked up all the way and she distinctly heard, "...Lesbian whore..."

"I am a virgin, thank you very much," Tomoyo retorted. "And if you must blame someone for your death, blame me. If I would have been stronger in dealing with my mother's death, Sakura-chan wouldn't have chosen to save her over you."

The ghostly voice on the tape replied, "I blame you and... air-head."

Tomoyo paused in thought. "Why have you attacked everyone else?"

"No one... be my friend. No girl... called, and guys only... sex," was heard over the tape's static.

"Did you ever call anyone else?" Tomoyo frowned as there was no reply. "Being friends is a two-way street. When I first met Sakura-chan, Rika-chan was her best friend. Had I not persisted in trying to get to know Sakura-chan then, we wouldn't have become the good friends we are now. Whenever Sakura-chan wanted to do something, I would go with her. If I found something that Sakura-chan would find fun, I immediately called her. If you don't try to be friends with someone, why would they try to be friends with you?"

"Like you... had to work... anything," the ghost snarled.

"I work more than you can imagine. I don't have a business mind, yet I am the heir of a business that I have no plans of letting anyone take from my family. Mathematics isn't my strong suit and I have to study hard to have the grade I do in that class," Tomoyo retorted.

"...You have everything..."

"I don't have Sakura-chan's... or my own father's love," Tomoyo admitted, fighting the urge to look away.

The ghost smirked. "...Not... different. You still... more. I... take what... left."

Reiko launched herself at Tomoyo and the girl flinched involuntarily. Beyond a cold breeze, there was nothing but the tape to prove the ghost had ever been there.

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Meiling approached her English teacher before class and called out to him in the other native language of Hong Kong, "Teacher, I'd like a word with you."

"You've been practicing your English very well, I see," the teacher commented.

"Practicing it? I'm from Hong Kong. Of course I know English. We were only under British rule for over a century." Meiling folded her arms. "How is it that you know we speak Cantonese instead of Mandarin and yet don't know that?"

The teacher flushed in embarrassment. "Well, being under their rule doesn't mean learning their language."

"If you're going to do any business in Hong Kong, you had better know how to speak English." Meiling scowled darkly. "For your assignment I should be singing a song in Japanese as I still have issues with that language."

"Now Li Meiling..." the teacher trailed off as Meiling handed him a paper that held lyrics to a song.

"I'll sing that song." Meiling grinned and turned away from the teacher.

The teacher gazed at the lyrics and frowned. They were indeed all English, but this was worse that some of the other songs that had been used. He sighed as he entered the classroom. "We've still got half the class to go through, so let's get started. Yamazaki Chiharu, you're first today."

"I'm singing this song for my father," Chiharu announced before singing Within Temptation's 'Our Farewell.'

There was an unmistakable sadness to her voice that threatened to move the class to tears, even the students who didn't understand what the lyrics meant. For Sakura, tears did flow even with Reiko hovering off to the side of the class. Chiharu's song seemed to halt any plan the ghost had to mess with the class.

The next student up to sing was one of the baseball players, and his song was also a tribute, this time for Reiko. He sang Sugarcult's 'Pretty Girl,' which didn't move anyone to tears and it seemed to annoy the ghost who floated out of the room.

Asaba was next, and his song choice left Naoko wanting to do a 'Chiharu' on him. Those that understood what he was singing were laughing at him. She would've too if he wasn't her boyfriend. 'I'm Too Sexy' just did not fit him at all.

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"I think Ichimai is up to something," Syaoran muttered while sitting in the school's music room.

Sakura poked his nose. "And I think we need to practice more. Tomorrow is the last day of singing. You know we're going to be called."

"I thought Daidouji was going to help us," Syaoran returned. "Why don't we hold off on practicing until she gets here and work on other things while we wait?"

"Syaoran-kun, you practice your martial arts even without a teacher. Singing isn't that hard," Sakura persisted.

"A beginner has to have a teacher in order to learn anything." Syaoran folded his arms. "Besides, I'm serious about Ichimai. She's been laying low ever since you cleaned up the school. There's got to be something she's planning. We should be ready for it."

Sakura pouted at him. "I know she's still out to get me, but I can't live in fear of her. When she tries something, we'll just have to be ready to act."

"Perhaps you should research how to save a spirit," Tomoyo suggested, announcing her arrival. "Ichimai is hardly the first ghost to ever exist. You may find a means of sending her on."

Sakura frowned at her best friend. "I wish The Light would work the way I wanted. Unfortunately she would more likely destroy Reiko-chan's spirit rather than save it."

Tomoyo nodded. "That's certainly a last resort. However, Shinto, Buddhist and Christian priests have been called to deal with spirits before. You could find out how they deal with such things."

"I guess," Sakura muttered.

"I'll help you," Syaoran pledged.

"Not until we're done practicing, Li-kun." Tomoyo pulled out a metronome and set it for the base beat of 'Somewhere Out There.' "Now, you remember the drill, right?"

Syaoran sighed. With each tick of the music time piece, he performed a martial arts move and uttered 'Da.'

"I still don't get why you have him doing this," Sakura whispered.

Tomoyo smiled brightly. "Singing in tune is all about timing. Li-kun has it in his martial arts, but not in his voice. By combining both, it will train him to keep to beat with the words he sings."

Sakura shrugged and watched her boyfriend move through his forms. Watching him perform martial arts always sent a thrill down her spine, especially with the way his school pants clung to his tight ass.

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It was really like a plane crashing into a fireball. Syaoran wanted to look away, but he couldn't. It was Meiling's turn at singing for the class. She wasn't bad. In fact she was probably second only to Daidouji. It was the song that made him want to run away. At one time she would've sang this exclusively for him, and that knowledge was what set him on edge. The fact that most of the boys in class were drooling at her didn't help matters, but she was asking for that response.

Meiling accentuated her growing curves as she sang the song, 'Oh, me so horny!'

At least Syaoran wasn't the only one having issues with the song. The teacher seemed to be ready to pound his head against his desk. He held no sympathy, considering the trouble the teacher gave Meiling over choosing a song. Had the teacher let her go with her first choice, they wouldn't be in this mess now.

Thankfully the song came to an end, but Syaoran doubted this would be the last he heard of this. The boys in his class were bound to ask him about his relationship to his cousin and ex-fiance. They were likely to think that he had done things with her, especially considering that they now lived alone in the same apartment. Course he only had intentions of doing that sort of stuff with Sakura, but they would still ask.

The next girl called was the third student to sing a Michael Jackson song, however she held the worst choice. 'Billy Jean is Not My Lover,' hardly fit her both in singing voice and in meaning.

Rika's song followed, and her song was by far more accurate with 'Time After Time,' even if he didn't know who the girl's beloved was.

Syaoran swallowed nervously as he was called up with Sakura to sing their duet. Normally the guy would lead, but Sakura began the solo part.

The song was actually flowing well, and he sang better than expected. Unfortunately, Reiko decided to make an appearance. He barely noticed the spectral hands at Sakura's waist, and quickly shifted behind his girlfriend while knocking the ghost aside with his hip.

Reiko was undeterred and made a lunge for Sakura's skirt, but a swing of his hand made to look like part of the song sent the ghost flying into a desk, startling the student sitting at it.

Reiko's antics did not escape Sakura's attention. She brought Syaoran's arms around her into a loose hug with his hands at the hem of her skirt. With that option out of the way, the ghost went to grab Sakura's blouse. Syaoran's view was blocked by his girlfriend's body and he kept protecting her skirt.

Sakura slapped Reiko with enough force the class heard it over the music, though most of them took it as being a glitch in the music.

Being hit like that stunned the ghost, who held her cheek as she floated out of the classroom.

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"You SLAPPED Ichimai?" Meiling questioned disbelievingly as she walked Sakura home with her cousin.

"What was I supposed to do? She was going to flash me in front of the whole class!" Sakura whined. "I had to do something!"

Meiling let out an evil laugh as she turned toward her cousin. "You should've let Ichimai succeed."

Syaoran's blush intensified. "No way. That's only for me to see." He then blinked. "Er... ah... That is..."

Sakura's head looked like a ripe cherry, but she couldn't say anything. She managed a shallow nod, which made Meiling laugh harder.

After Meiling's amusement ended, she decided to change topics. "I didn't know that anyone could sing worse than Syaoran."

Sakura nodded and then seized up, realizing she just insulted her boyfriend. "Ah, Syaoran-kun isn't that bad. He just didn't know how to sing. Tomoyo-chan helped him a lot."

"He still won't win any singing contests, even with help," Meiling pressed. "At least he won't win any 'worst singer awards' now."

"Meiling..." Syaoran growled.

His cousin shrugged. "And what are we going to do about Ichimai? I doubt she's given up on embarrassing Kinomoto to death."

Sakura pouted. "I guess... hoping she just goes away won't help."

"If she did suddenly disappear, it would be because her soul had been pulled into hell," Syaoran said in a tone that indicated he wouldn't be upset if it happened.

Sakura frowned. "I know. Perhaps it's time we get serious about her. Find out how to save a spirit and send her to heaven."

"Good luck. She seems literally hell bent on hurting you," Meiling noted.

Sakura was rather thankful when they made it to her house, though she was reluctant to let Syaoran leave for his home. Unfortunately, they both had stuff to do.

Trudging up to her room, she quickly changed her clothes into more comfortable loose T-shirt and shorts before sitting down at her desk and turning on her computer. She still wanted to know who had sent her this one on her last birthday. Her father, Tomoyo, and Tomoyo's mother all denied giving it to her. She had been rather happy with the hand-me-down computer she had gotten before from Tomoyo, despite the fact the one she had now was a rather high-end personal computer.

With her thoughts still on Reiko, Sakura began to search the Internet for how to deal with ghosts. What she found in over an hour of searching were sites with either obviously bogus information or described how to destroy spirits. She wanted to save Reiko, not obliterate her.

With a frustrated sigh, she gave up that search. Then she thought about something she had wanted to check out, but kept forgetting to look into it. She searched for the song, 'White Wedding.' Managing to find a mp3 of it, she played the song while reading over the lyrics. It was a nice beat, but the full meaning eluded her. What did they mean by 'shotgun?' A search for 'shotgun' by itself certainly didn't help with thousand of pages on the firearm. She then searched 'shotgun wedding.'

Sakura stared at what Americans meant by that statement. A shotgun wedding is a marriage forced by the bride already being pregnant. Her brother had sung that in high school while thinking of her. Her brother had always seemed to dislike Syaoran for reasons he would not name. Her brother had enough magic he could see things. Did he see...?

"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?????????!!!! !!!!!!!!!!"

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Author's Notes:

Coming Next - Chapter 15: Sakura's Ghostly Problems
Sakura searches for a means to save Reiko's spirit.

EVP - Electronic Voice Phenomenon: the appearance of understandable words on recording medium when there is no physical source, which many believe to be from people who have died. EVP is something that occurs in real life, recorded by perfectly normal people.

Tomoyo's encounters with Reiko's ghost has all been done through a secondary medium that normal people have said to have seen ghosts in. As such, this chapter reiterates a point repeatedly brought up in the original series: Tomoyo has no magical ability.

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Sakura slumped at her desk and waited for her computer to boot up. Each time seemed to take longer and longer. She wondered what video games Kero-chan had loaded on it to make it lag so much.

Once it was loaded, she checked the hard drive space and found it nearly used up. Sakura scowled angrily and went into Kero-chan's files to see what she could remove to free up space on HER computer. Finding large video files, she clicked one to find out what Kero-chan was clogging the hard drive with.

Sakura blinked at the science show that was being played. Since when was Kero interested in animal life? She then blinked as the show started to talk about mountain lions... and how they mated. She stared as the bland narrator explained mating while two lions were doing just that. Why would Kero-chan have such things... he was... he was...

THIS WAS PORN TO KERO-CHAN?!