Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Yami no Yume ❯ but yield those who will to their seperation ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Author: Kei-chan Fushigu (kimiko)
Email: samianime@hotmail.com
angelicsorceress@hotmail.com
eriolnomiko@hotm ail.com
Series: CCS
Rating: PG-13
Notes: If someone can tell me where Naoko's quote comes from, I'll ...
uhhh ... do something REALLY cool. ^^ (hint: it's something she'd
know, and it's nrelated to manga or anime) Email me at any one of the
addresses above!


FIC NOTES PART ONE: The Title

Now, I'm trying to get out of my nasty little habit of titling my fics
in pidgeon Japanese. Unfortuentely, this time I really wanted the
vagueness that only Japanese could give me. Plus I think I've studied
enough Japanese to get it right, or at least to not make a completely
fool of myself. (visions of kanji dancing in my head ...)

To be more specific: "Yami no Yume" can have many meanings. "Yami"
loosely means "darkness" and "yume" loosely means "dream". So it
could be "Dreams of Darkness" or "Darkness of Dreams".

Or "Darkness of the Dream" or "Darkness of the Dreams" or "The Dream
of Darkness" ... you get my point. The thing is, every way you
translate it gives it a specific meaning. Think about it: "The Dream
of Darkness" implies ONE specific dream. "Darkness of Dreams" on the
other hand, puts the emphasis on the darkness.

"Yami no Yume" has no spoken plurality or singularity. One thing that
enthralls me about the Japanese language is the way a simple phrase
can have so many meanings ... and they could all be true.

I leave you, on that note, to my fic.



***********************
***** Yami no Yume ***** ('darkness of dream'/'dream of darkness')
***********************



"Really? I thought the English exam was the worst of all, it's such a
strange language and impossible to write ..."

Their voices carried clearly down the street, unblurred by the heat of
the summer. Which was more than one could say for the cars that are
eternally present on the streets of Tokyo, their images distorted and
blurred to look farther away than they really were.

One of the girls murmered quietly to herself with a half-smile.

Another girl looked at her, bemused. "What language WAS that,
Naoko-chan?"

She giggled and pushed her glasses farther up her nose. "It's English,
silly! Can't you recognize it after weeks and weeks of that yucky
class?" She sniffed. "Such a strange language ..."

"Well, it's not MY fault I can't recognize it!" She flipped one of her
two braids out of her face. "After exams," she confided in the rest,
"Everything I learned dribbles out of my head."

"Chiharu-chan," said another girl quietly, with a kind smile, "You'll
have quite a bit of trouble when we come back to school."

"Well, you can tutor me, Rika-chan!" All three of them laughed at
that. "Or you, Naoko-chan! Fo all your grumbling about the hard
classes, you've been to America! You can speak it!"

"Not really, I only know some." Naoko lied. "And I never learned how
to write it, which is the hard part with all those silly spellings..."

The fourth girl merely stared straight ahead, a strange expression on
her face. It was as if she could see the street and the sidewalk and
the heat, but her mind was elsewhere. Her green eyes held a look of
longing ...

Naoko waved a hand in front of her face. "Sakura-chan, are you still
in there?"

She came back to Earth with a start. "Ho~e! Naoko-chan, I'm sorry! Did
I miss anything?" she asked, confused.

Chiharu shook her head with a smile. "No, don't worry. You've just
been a bit distant lately. Are you worried about something?" She asked
concernedly.

"Ah, so sorry! I've just been thinking about so many things ..." Her
voice trailed off.

Rika spoke up again, with a slight smle on her face. "I believe that
Sakura-chan may be missing Tomoyo-chan, ne?"

Sakura nodded. "It's so strange with her gone, I mean, she's always
with me and all." Tomoyo had gone to Europe with her mother, who was
attending a series of conferences there. Sakura had politely refused
an invitation, sensing that Tomoyo needed some quality time with her
mother that she so often missed at home. But it was strange without
her best friend beside her ...

The others shared a signifigant look. "And perhaps missing Li-kun as
well?"

Sakura immediatly turned bright red. "Hoeee!"

Sakura immediatly turned bright red. "Hoe~~~~!"

They all had a good laugh at that. "Well, Sakura-chan, it's not like
we didn't notice! Last summer, when he came back and helped us with
the play, we could tell that he liked you! You were always smiling at
each other ..." Chiharu winked. "I wish Takashi-kun was that sweet!"

Sakura's blush deepened. "Well ..."

Naoko grinned and elbowed her. "I can't believe it - you fell for an
exchange student! It was just like something out of a shoujo manga..."
Her gaze grew distant.

Sakura sighed. If only life was as simple as shoujo manga. But, after
two glorious weeks with Syaoran, he had to return to Hong Kong and she
to school. They constantly wrote letters back and forth, and they
talked on the phone a lot, but it just wasn't the same as having him
there with her. Anyways, they hadn't spoken in a few weeks. His exams
had come more quickly than he expected, and being in Japan for years
had put him way behind in his Chinese studies. He didn't have time to
sleep, let alone talk to her on the phone.

However, Syaoran's exams would be done with in just two weeks ...
maybe they could see each other again for summer vacation ...

Then it hit her. Sakura smiled widely. "Chiharu-chan ... 'Takashi'?"

Naoko added, "I didn't know you and Yamazaki-kun were on first-name
terms!"

She and Sakura went "Ooooo", and Chiharu blushed as furiously as
Sakura just had. "Well ... we've known each other forever ... and now
that we're in junior high ... we figured it was time to get ... well,
a little ..." She smiled nerviously.

Noticing her discomfort, Rika changed the subject quickly. "Isn't this
weather horrible?"

Sakura wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Nnn, it's so hot!"

Chiharu nodded in agreement. "If it gets any hotter, my brain is going
to melt right out of my head! And THEN where would I be for next
semester's classes?"

"Ah, but this year isn't the important year!" Naoko said with an
all-knowing air. "This year we're only first-year Junior High
students! The fun year is third year!"

Rika shook her head in amusement. "Naoko-chan, I never knew you to be
so diligent about your studies. Are you looking forward to the exams?"

"No!" Naoko shook her head, her eyes sparkling with amusement. "Don't
you read mangas? EVERYTHING happens to third-year Junior High girls!
If any of us are destined to save the world, or be granted magical
powers, or pulled into the past through a book or a well, that would
be it! Preferably right before exams." She added.

Chiharu shrugged. "That kind of stuff only happens in mangas,
Naoko-chan."

Naoko's eyes still shined. "It could be real! Just you see."

Sakura grinned. If only they knew ... but being a magical girl wasn't
much different from being a regular girl, now. She used the Cards
occasionally because she knew it made them happy, but only for trivial
things like washing dishes and watering the yard.

Chiharu cleared her throat. "But anyways, if I don't live to make it
to third year, I won't be granted magical powers or whatever." She
said. "And if I don't get into shade soon, the heat's liable to kill
me here and now ..."

Naoko gave her a disaproving look. "'Magic doesn't live in the
unwilling heart'" She quoted drily.

Sakura spotted a nice-looking cafe right across the street. "Look! The
sign says 'Fresh Lemonade'!"

Chiharu cheered in joy. "Let's go, Rika-chan!" And with that, she
grabbed Rika's hand, and the two of then dashed across the street in a
diagonal line towards the shop. Rika dragged Chiharu back to a more
sedate pace, and it looked as though they were having a tug-of-war.

Naoko pulled Sakura back before she could follow them. "Sakura-chan,
I've been meaning to tell you ..." She looked uncertain.

Concerned, Sakura asked. "What?" The two of them started across the
street slowly.

Naoko looked really unsure of herself. "Well, at the play last summer
... I --"




Sakura can remember that chain of events now, in clear detail. How the
street was rippling with heat. How the smell of the fried okonamiyaki
from the resturant next door permiated the air. How Chiharu and Rika
were still holding hands, walking next to each other now, in the
middle of the far lane. How they were laughing at something down the
street, Rika's face brightning with the joy that came with her rare
smiles. How Chiharu's braids swang widly as she almost skipped. How
Sakura and Naoko had hardly made it to the middle of the first lane
when the car took the turn, careened wildly, and rushed down the
street at over 70 miles per hour towards Chiharu and Rika's
unprotected and unknowing backs.

Naoko saw the car first since her face was turned towards Sakura, a
blur of motion out of the corner of her eye where her glasses didn't
quite reach. Her face twisted into a mask of horror, and she screamed
and ran for Chiharu and Rika. Sakura, however, didn't see the car and
didn't understand until it roared down on them.

Chiharu and Rika were caught in shock, helpless for those crucial
milliseconds as Naoko raced towards them and the car, a desperate race
against time. Sakura began running too, but she was nowhere near as
fast as Naoko. The terrified girl put on a final burst of speed and
threw herself desperately at Chiharu as the car was upon them.

In that moment, everything went still.

Sakura recognized this moment. They were friends, it and she. It was
the silence that covers the world right when all the streetlights go
out, the moment of anticipation before a match strikes. It was the
otherworldly pressing feeling of the power right before a spell is
turned loose. The lack of sound rang in her ear like a bell.

Then, time resumed again.

The car zoomed by, it's side mirror slamming into Sakura's outstreched
hand, and she felt something in her wrist crack. It immediatly crashed
into a telephone pole, it's speed making the pole go most of the way
through the front of the car. But her attension was focused on her
friends.

Rika was prostrate on the ground, her eyes open and unseeing and the
back of her head was a mass of red tangled with her dark, soft hair.
Her red sweater seemed a much darker red than before, and it was
strangely, wrongly flat. Chiharu was recovering from the shock of
being thrown back against the curb, and she looked down at Naoko in
unseeing shock, at Naoko's legs, one bent in a place where there was
no joint, red with blood and things thicker ...

"Somebody call an ambulence!"

"Kami above us, they're no older than twelve!"

"Those children, are they all right?"

"Call 911!"

The shouts were oddly distant to Sakura. Everything was distant.
Everything except the street right in front of her, and Chiharu
staring at her, and her staring at Chiharu, and then they both looked
at each other and began to cry ...