Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Shinku no Tsuki ❯ Striking Back ( Chapter 7 )

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

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Part Seven
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The music began slowly with a number of starts and hesitations from the back room of the music store. A soft voice trying to correct the player of the instrument followed it catching his attention and making him weave his way back towards the room. He straightened his coat as he stepped through the door just as the voice began to sing softly. He halted in the doorway, staring at the young woman who was trying to get the young man at the piano to play the piece correctly. It seemed every time she would was able to get off to a good start, the youth would make a glaring mistake and she'd stop to correct him.

He watched her as she finally shooed the youth away, towards the door without looking at him or towards the doorway. The young man hurriedly picked up his coat and fled past him out of the room, causing him to smirk faintly. He slipped out of his own coat laying it to one side as he slid onto the bench of the piano and lightly caressed the keyboard in front of him as his blue-black eyes scanned the pages of notes before him. When he had read through them briefly, he glanced once at the young lady who hadn't seemed to notice his appearance, absorbed in making some adjustments to whatever was in front of her.

Returning his attention back to the keys, he begin the piece before him and ended up so into it, he didn't hear the startled gasp that followed his playing. He finished the piece and glanced up to see her staring at him, dark violet eyes wide. "Hiiragizawa-kun.. when did you come back?"

He smiled faintly at her. "Daidouji-san.. I've been here for a while, but I just came out of hiding you might say." He glanced back at the piece of music. "Does this have words to it? It's a very lovely piece, did you write it?"

Tomoyo lowered her eyes as her cheeks colored slightly. "Actually.." she began eyes glancing briefly up towards him and then away. "I found it half finished in a textbook.. I'm not surprised you don't recognize it, but I only finished what you started."

Eriol blinked and looked back at the notes in front of him. Thinking, he picked out the first few notes and then suddenly remembered. "Thank you then Daidouji-san, for finishing it. You've done a very beautiful job. May I hear the words?"

If anything it seemed as if the praise made the pink color become more of a rose color across her cheeks. "It's not finished yet.." she whispered softly looking down at something on the table next to the piano.

He stood up and walked over to look over the words beside her, though he ended up watching her more than looking down at the lyrics. A lock long ebony hair had fallen forwards into her face, obscuring part of it. Without thinking, he brushed it back behind her ear. She looked over at him, dark bluish black meeting and holding onto dark violet. "Would you sing what you have?" he asked quietly.

Breaking the eye contact she nodded and turned to shuffle the papers on the table nervously. He walked back to the bench and sat down, watching her for a moment quietly before speaking again softly. "It's alright, Daidouji-san. I'm sure everything will work out beautifully, you have a very lovely voice." She nodded, but the comments seemed only to fluster her more.

Finally she calmed herself and brushed the hair that had fallen over her shoulder back. Eriol begin the piece again when he thought she was ready and was rewarded with her voice slowly rising in song. Her eyes were closed as she sang and he was reminded of a nightingale singing on a branch. He watched her silently as he played.

The piece ended and he drew his hands back folding them in his lap. "It sounded good to me, Daidouji-san. Why do you say it's not finished?" he asked her as she looked over at him.

"I'm not sure, there's something I guess I didn't think ended right or something.." she murmured as she looked away back towards the papers.

"If you wouldn't mind, maybe we could look at the words over lunch? or Dinner?" he asked quietly, watching her intently. She lifted her head up and looked at him so sharply that at first he thought he had possibly offended her. He was about to offer his apologies, when she suddenly nodded and smiled faintly.

"Thank you, Hiiragizawa-kun. I would enjoy that. Perhaps dinner? I am supposed to meet my mother for lunch."

He stood up from the piano and nodded, smiling softly as he picked his coat back up from where he had laid it over a chair. "Dinner is fine, but would you wish to dine out.. or should I prepare a meal for us? It's no trouble to do so I assure you, besides.." he smiled again as he slipped into the coat. "We could use my piano to see how it sounds after dinner."

She blushed again faintly as she smiled back and nodded. "Alright."

Eriol walked towards the door and turned to look at her again as he reached it. "Shall I pick you up at your place say.. oh.. 8p.m.?" he asked.

"That will be fine. Do you remember where I live?"

"Yes, I will see you tonight then." he said and then preformed a small bow before turning and leaving the room and the store. He headed towards the market feeling better than he'd felt for a couple of years. Maybe there was something to having and visiting friends after all.

A tall figure was walking through the park, down the main path between the twin lines of sakura trees. Every eye was on him, the female ones staring in appreciation for what they were seeing, while the male ones were split between appreciation and resentment of the figure.

Yue was trying to ignore the eyes on him. He was failing it seemed to not attract attention, despite trying to blend in by wearing the shoes and actually walking on the ground. He couldn't see what it was they staring at. He wasn't wearing anything besides his pants and a normal high necked traditional white shirt. His hair was in the braid from this morning and hanging over his shoulder. He knew they couldn't possibly see his eyes not only because of the distance, but because he made sure to keep them downcast.

He was suddenly knocked back by something and was only saved from landing on the ground by a hand grabbing his wrist and pulling him back to his feet. He looked down at the one who had run him over and pulled his wrist from the woman's grasp. He was about to say something when he suddenly thought about his eyes, but as he watched the blonde woman he realized her own eyes weren't on his face, but lower.

Frowning slightly he stepped back and glanced down and then back at her before shaking his head in annoyance and walking around the woman. He hadn't seen anything on his clothes to warrant the stare she had been giving him.. finally he saw the one he had been looking for. He turned towards the auburn hair under the white pink of the sakura petals. "Akizuki Nakuru. I wish to speak with you for a moment."

She turned to look at him, and a number of emotions flickered across her eyes. Fear, anger, boredom, and finally amusement which didn't seemed directed at him, rather behind him. He turned to look to see the blond woman still in the path staring at him. He then felt Akizuki toss an arm across his shoulder and smirk down at the woman.

"Honey, I'd find something else to gawk at. Believe me, he's *not* your type." she yelled at the blonde, who blinked and then glared briefly at Akizuki before turning around and walking away. The yell also seemed to make the other stares leave them as well, thankfully.

Yue removed Akizuki's arm from his shoulder and then walked towards the trees, with her following him. Turning he looked down at her silently for a moment trying to find the words, that were civil enough to get what he wanted to say across. "Akizuki," he began slowly.

She sat down next to the trunk of the tree and looked up at him. "You can call me Nakuru if you want."

Ignoring the comment, he continued. "I have been thinking, about what your Master has told me about a deal concerning you." Her eyes lost the light amusement and became somewhat wary and a little fearful with a trace of anger behind the fear. "And I believe I have come to a decision concerning it."

"And what would that be?"

He heard the slight shake in the tone of the question and decided to set her at ease about one thing at least. It might help to clear her thinking, which she would need later on if this went though. "Do not worry that I will go so far as to sentence you to death by my hand, I have no intention of killing you." He watched her sag for a second against the tree in relief. While he let her think about that, he contacted a couple of the cards under his protection, asking them silently for their aid in his plan. 'Time' agreed, as did 'Dream' and 'Sleep'. He then requested Return's aid and gained it a moment later. Time to set his half-formed plan into motion and hope it worked the way he thought it might.

Turning his gaze back to Akizuki, he spoke again. "However, I wish to show you something I think you should see." He looked around them, frowning faintly before asking Sleep to cast the people inside the park asleep. After it was done, he reached down and lifted Akizuki, ignoring her questions as to what he wanted to show her and where he was going to take her. He lifted one of his hands and formed a single large ice crystal over it.

Her eyes widened slightly and he sighed. Apparently she didn't believe he wasn't going to kill her, well it wasn't his problem if she did or not. "I want you to look at the heart of this." he said presenting the crystal in front of her, still hovering over his palm. She glanced once suspiciously at him before looking down at the crystal and then into it.

As her awareness entered the crystal, he caught it and using Time to freeze the outside world so that they wouldn't be disturbed and then Dream and Return's aid to take her back to a week ago when the event he wish to show her happened. He unfurled his wings, spreading them out and then closing them around her as she suddenly slumped against him, eyes closed.

They stepped out onto silver sands, the ebony sky stretching out over them endlessly it seemed. The silver sands disappeared into ebony waves. Lavender and ruby eyes looked across the silver sands at the figure huddled in them several feet away. Yue sighed softly and looked over at Akizuki. This is a dream of Yukito-san's." He continued before she could ask how that was possible. "The cards under my protection aided me in this, and before you try anything, they won't answer to you, despite the fact you also draw power from the moon. This is the past, a week ago to be exact. Now simply watch and listen and see what your actions caused."

He then turned his attention back out to the waves and sand. Soon his past self walked towards the crying snow bunny and spoke with him. And though it hurt just as much now as it did then to watch he could not force Akizuki to watch what he would not. So he carried through the whole sequence until the other Yue had left the dream and it was over.

Glancing over at her, he frowned faintly as she showed no emotion over what had passed before her. His ire flared at her apathy towards it. He sent a call out towards Change and saw the small lizard like card appear within the dreamscape, followed by the elderly robed figure of Time who had overheard his question towards Change. They agreed to it and Change shimmered with white and rose color as Time reversed the dream back to the beginning.

Yue nodded once as the dream started again and Change caused the awareness of Akizuki to be placed within Yukito's form to experience the dream from there. He waited silently as it once more went through its paces and just before Yukito was completely gone, Change pulled Akizuki back out and replaced her beside Yue. Turning to look at her again, after thanking both Time and Change. He saw her eyes had widened and she shuddered visibly beside him. As he watched her she turned to look at him, fear visible in her red eyes.

"How could you do that to him?" she asked, her voice shaky.

Yue sighed softly. "I could not refuse, he was in pain. Surely you felt it."

"I felt it, but I also felt what he did during that last part too! As he was fading away.. that *hurt*.. it felt as if I was being torn apart in several hundred directions at once!"

Yue closed his eyes to kept a tight rein on himself. "I know that, I felt it. I survived it, but do you understand now why your Master was so upset?"

"Fuck you. I want out of here now." she snarled at him, eyes flashing.

He raised an eyebrow at her language and then nodded and asked Dream to take them back.

As he opened his eyes again inside the park, he unfolded his wings from around Akizuki and looked down at her as she cast herself violently away from him. He took one step towards her when she climbed back to her feet, but she placed the tree between them. "Just stay away from me, Yue. You're no angel.. you're a demon." she hissed vehemently and then spun and fled the park.

Yue stared after her for a moment, before dismissing his wings and then telling Time to release its hold, and Sleep to go back as well. Suddenly weary he sank to the ground beneath the sakura tree and leaned his head back against it. Drawing his legs up against his chest, he wrapped his arms around them as he stared up at the branches and the pale pink and white flowers above him. Her last comment running circles in his mind.

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