Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Shinku no Tsuki ❯ Balance ( Chapter 4 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

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Part Four
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Touya opened his eyes as he felt something brush his cheek. He blinked as he sat up, looking around him. There was no one near by, looking down he saw a small sakura petal laying against the sleeve of his jacket. He brushed it off with a sigh and then stood up, looking at his watch. Time to return it seemed, he had a half hour to his next class. He left the trees, returning back the path silently. As he entered the campus again, it seemed to him that everyone seemed to be paired up with someone else. He shoved his hands in his pockets and continued on towards the building the next class was in.

Opening the door to it, he noted a couple over in the corner and sighed as he turned his attention towards finding the room he needed. Whoever had said ' It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. ' needed to have their head examined he decided. He found the door to the classroom and went inside.

*
Yue reached the outer grounds of Eriol's estate, and hesitated for a moment before continuing on towards the large house. As he crossed the lands he sighed softly, recalling other times when he had walked across these grounds. That had been long ago though.

Shaking himself out of the downward turn that his thoughts had started to take, he looked up to find himself in front of Eriol's front door. He readied himself and stepped up to it, raising a hand to knock when the door opened moments before his hand met it.

He looked down slightly and his carefully planned response to the message that had been contained within the feather died in his throat as the color drained from his face. His lavender eyes widened slightly at the sight of the figure in front of him. He had been prepared to face the young reincarnation, but he had expected, perhaps foolishly, to see him as he had appeared last. Hair shorn short and dressed in normal clothing. The one before him was not what he had expected, the dark black-blue hair was longer, gathered in a small ponytail that rested against one shoulder. The dark blue and ebony robes that hung from the tall frame only enhanced the image that had seized his mind the moment he had seen it. A soft whisper escaped him before he could check himself. "Clow-sama…"

The dark eyes closed silently in response to the name and Eriol moved to one side of the doorway to allow him to enter. Still caught mostly within a daze, Yue stepped within the house and then turned to look back at him. Eriol remained silent as he closed the door and turned towards him walking down the hallway, pass Yue, to a set of large wooden doors that led to the large living room. "Please.. come with me Yue-san." he said quietly as he opened one of them and slipped within.

Yue shook himself out of his daze, turning to walk down towards the doors and enter the room. Scanning the room silently, he saw Eriol standing in front of a burning fire, which seemed to be the only light within the room. He walked towards him until he stood a couple feet away. "I was going to speak with you, about this.. deal with Ruby Moon's false form, but you said you had something to tell me..?" he asked quietly.

Eriol turned his head to look back over his shoulder at Yue, the firelight reflected off his glasses and hid his eyes from view. "Yes.. it could effect your .. deal. I have discovered something in the future that has become imbalanced and twisted now due to the .. Snow bunny's death." Eriol looked back at the fire and sighed faintly. "I hate to have to say this.. but if you wish to get your judgment on Akizuki-san, you will have to act quickly.."

Yue blinked and then nodded. "I had assumed that much, Eriol-sama." he said quietly, sensing vaguely that there was something more to what Eriol was saying.

Eriol laughed softly, still facing the fire. "Yes, you would. I had planned on giving you all the time you wished, but things are getting, how should I say, rather more interesting."

"What do you mean?"

Eriol sighed softly before turning away from the fire and walking pass Yue towards the chair that sat next to one of the large ceiling to floor windows in the room. "Well, put one way.. if you do not act soon.. the choice may be taken out of your hands." Yue turned looking down at him in confusion as Eriol sat down in the chair.

Eriol glanced up at him and then slipped a hand within his robes to draw out a small key that was shaped a little like a combined sun and moon. "Shall I show you? It might hasten what's already begun, but then you would know what has happened."

Yue felt a sudden unexplainable dread as Eriol released the staff from the key and wanted to tell him that it wasn't necessary, but he couldn't make his throat produce the words. The head of the staff brightened and the fire flared once, drawing Yue's attention away from Eriol. Within the flames an image was forming, and he stepped towards it silently. A single card spun on one corner within the fire.. on its face was a set of scales with the word balance written on the ribbon below the scales. He turned to look sharply at Eriol. "There is no such card." he said.

Eriol shook his head as he leveled himself up from the chair towards Yue and the fire. Reaching within his robe he took out a red and gold card and handed it towards Yue silently. Yue looked down at it, hands flexing at his sides for a moment, before he finally took it from Eriol. It was the same as the one in the fire. "What does this mean though? How did this.. come into being?"

Eriol was leaning on the staff now, one hand stretched out, passing over the fire, dissolving the image within. "I created it, before Sakura split my power between Fujitaka-san and myself.. I created it as a safe guard in a way.. at that point everything was balanced. Two guardians, for each the sun and moon, and each guardian had two forms. Now, in essence to rebalance everything, things must be .. rearranged.."

"Rearranged..?"

Eriol nodded once, turning away from the fire, still leaning on the staff at his side. A small wince crossed his features before he spoke. "Yes, one set of guardian's must, it seems, leave.. I will give you all the time I can, at the moment neither of my own guardians know of this.."

"Why did you keep this card secret.. why not give it to the Mistress?" he asked, his hand tightening slightly around the card.

"I did not wish to see her harmed.. if I gave her the card.. and she transformed it into a Star card. It would possibly go after you for not being balanced as you once were. I have no wish for that to happen."

"Why not destroy it? Surely if you created it and it's the cause of harm.."

Eriol sat down again in the chair, leaning back into it. "You're not thinking straight Yue-san. It was not the card's fault this happened.. it only reacted in the way it was created to.. I should have kept a closer eye on Ruby Moon. I grew careless.. forgive me Yue-san."

"There is nothing to forgive. It wasn't your fault this happened, and you couldn't have known what she would do and the effects of it.."

Eriol glanced at the fire-lit moon guardian silently for a moment before speaking. "True, not even I, even were I still fully Clow Reed, could have foreseen this.. I believe that is what you are saying yes?"

Yue stiffened slightly at the words and moved to stand in front of the chair and Eriol. " I didn't.."

Eriol waved him silent with a hand and then held it out for the card Yue still held. Yue glanced once more at the card before placing it into the hand, which slipped it back under the robe. "I know that's not what you said.." he halted another one of Yue's protests with a finger as he continued. "Or thought when you spoke, but it is plainly the truth. Nothing can be done about the past now, we must live with it and try to fix the problems that arise as they come. All I ask of you now, is to keep silent about the card you have seen, and act quickly if you plan to act at all."

Yue stared at him for a moment silently before nodding and sighing softly as he closed his eyes for a moment. "Very well, Eriol-sama, if that is your wish."

"It is."

"Then I accept it." Yue opened his eyes again and watched the man before him for a moment, the eyes were closed, and it took him a moment to realize that the sorcerer had fallen asleep in the chair. He frowned softly for a moment before he stepped forwards and gently picked him up from the chair. When he didn't wake to the movement he got a general idea of how much stress and pressure the young man was under.

Leaving the living room, he traced a route he had not traveled in a very long time, upstairs and finally into a room at the top floor that held only a bed, a desk and a large wardrobe. Carefully, he laid Eriol onto the bed and pulled the covers folded down by the foot of it up to his shoulders. Stepping back, he shivered slightly at the way the scene appeared and then broke himself out of the memory long enough to gently remove the glasses from his face and place them onto the desk. Then he forced himself to leave the room without a backward glance and walked back down towards the front door.

Once outside, he leaned back heavily against the front door and collected himself. It was time to face the here and now.. time to release the past so it seemed. On the other side of the door he was against was the past he had been clinging so tightly to, refusing to let it go, until now. He sighed faintly as he straightened up and walked away from the house, looking back at it only once before he left the same way he came. Now he needed time to think and a quiet place to do it in.

He glanced up at the sky, seeing the sun heading towards the west, but not yet there. There was possibly an hour or two of sunlight left.. he studied the sky again, looking at the cloud cover within it. If he walked to the place he held in mind, he would not have long to stay before he should return to his Mistress's home. But if he flew.. he could make it in easily half the time. Decided, he made his way into the woods around Eriol's estate and let his wings reappear, spreading them out and then lifting himself from the ground into the sky, to fly above the clouds, using them to shield him from sight.


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