Broken Toy - Chapter 8
Series: CardCaptor Sakura
Main Characters: Yue, Touya
Summary: Post-Series Continuation. Yue and Yukito are starting to merge and have made a decisión. Fate however, has something else in store for them. They should have know better than to play cards with Fate. Will they bet it all in, or drop the bet?
Notes: Remember that Italics are for Yue/Yukito thoughts, and in this time, the bolded italics are memories. And things spoken are always in "quotation marks"
Broken Toy
Chapter 8: The Yin Yang Effect
Some more weeks passed in the same routine as before. However, he had managed to spend more time with Touya. Thankfully, they were still very busy, with college and work, so they had almost no time for deep conversations. The training with Sakura had been put on hold momentarily, since her school was working a lot for the local Nadeshiko festival. Her class was doing another play, but she got the role of the princess this time around. Tomoyo had been ecstatic about it, and even though Touya made a face when he was told, Yukito knew he was happy about it too.
Today, they were coming back to the Kinomoto household from college, just a couple of blocks away, when Yukito felt something strange.It was like that other time at the city; he was slowly getting accustomed to feel the ‘energies’ around him now, but something about this particular energy caught his attention immediately.
That’s Li’s aura…there on the house. He is with Sakura-sama.
Yukito considered his options then: go to the house and have Touya ruin poor Sakura-chan’s moments with Li, or divert him. She hadn’t really told him who her ‘most special person’ was, but Yue told him of the time when he confronted Li about his feelings. He took a decision then, and when he turned to look at Touya, his friend was frowning in deep thought.
“Hey Toya, why don’t we go back to my place instead? I have this great new rice cooker and we can make a great meal there.”
“I don’t know,” Touya was more serious than usual, and Yukito couldn’t help but notice that he really hadn’t been mad or serious for a long time. “I think I need to get home, Sakura is alone”
“She has Kero-chan, she can take care of herself”
The taller boy turned to look at Yukito very seriously, “I’m sorry, but I really feel like I should get home”
Yukito raised an eyebrow at that, it sounded just like when Touya had his powers. Of course, back then he would just say something like ‘Sakura needs me’ or ‘I have to go and stop Sakura from doing something stupid’. Whatever it was he was ‘feeling’ he probably wasn’t sure of what it was.
Following Touya’s increasing pace, they soon got home. His friend quickly opened the door and entered, not even taking off his shoes, as he walked past the living room to the kitchen. There, Sakura-chan and Li-kun were finishing eating. Surprised by her brother’s unexpected arrival, the girl could only say “Hoee”
She quickly dismissed the Chinese boy, though. She knew very well not to leave her brother and the boy together, or near for some time. Touya was seething mad, as he served the dinner for them both.
“You are in a bad mood”, way to understate the obvious, but it didn’t matter, because he just loved to bother him about his sister complex.
“That Gaki came back, after all”
Yukito kept eating, smiling more to himself than at Touya’s face, “But Sakura-chan seemed very happy about it.” The dark-haired boy growled in mad despair, turning to Yukito, “That’s why I’m so pissed off!!”
He couldn’t help it this time and laughed at his friend, “Toya, you can’t help but think that Sakura is really, really cute!” Touya glared at him one last time, “Shut up and eat!”
oOo
The festival was drawing closer, and Touya found himself a job handing down balloons at the park. Seeing as he was the only one who could get a job, Yukito tagged along for moral support. Touya could really work at anything, but when jobs like this came around, he needed someone to convince him that it actually was a good idea to take the job. Yukito knew that if he wasn’t there, Touya would just give up on it before he even started. And then the manager would be in desperate need of someone to fill in. Touya just couldn’t do that to someone, so he had to make sure he didn’t.
Right now he was ranting about the fact that he had to wear a bunny costume to hand down the balloons. The fact that three girls where arranging the costume on him didn’t really mattered as he kept on rambling, “Gosh, I don’t know which one of us is more stupid: You for getting me these kinds of embarrassing jobs, or me for actually signing up for them!”
“Now Toya, you are scaring the lovely ladies with your incessant ravings. Do they really need to know your excellent job disposition?” The girls laughed at the statement. Touya was unaware of anything but the stupid suit he was wearing, “I don’t care Yuki, I just want to get out of- Woah! What do you think you are doing down there, woman?!?!”
The girl gave him a mischievous look as her friends laughed even more loudly, and even Yukito couldn’t help but chuckle. “At least you will be wearing a mask, no one will know about it.”
“I’ll know about it and that’s more than enough for me.” His friend growled, rushing a hand through his hair. Yukito turned to their audience, “I still don’t think it’s as bad as you are making it, am I right ladies?”
“Sure!” one of them replied, “As a matter of fact, most guys enjoy it because they end up getting lots of tips and phone numbers from girl admirers”
“Ouch!!” He yelled, as one of the girls ran a pin badly, pinching his arm, “That’s it, you three, out of here, I don't care if the suit doesn't fit, just leave me alone! Now out!!”
The girls scurried out, scared by him, but one of them stopped to hand something to Yukito. When they finally left, Touya sighed with relief. Yukito had a weird expression on his face, though, “what’s the matter? What did she give you?”
Yukito opened his hand and there was a folded paper there, “She..gave me her phone number…” The confused expression on his face was priceless, but Touya couldn’t enjoy it well, because he then noticed that which he had not before, “Well, that happens when you flirt with girls”
Touya’s tone was…weird. If he didn’t know better, he would have sworn that was the tone he used when talking about Li-kun. “I was just being nice to them…”
“No, you were flirting with them. Now help me zip this thing up”
He was being nice to them, he was nice with everyone. Since when being nice constitutes as flirting? Yukito shrugged as he walked behind Touya, standing on a stool one of the girls was using to fit the costume. He lifted the costume zipper, brushing some lints of the shoulders, and stared up at Touya, placing both his hands on the other’s shoulders. Touya was looking at him through the looking glass in front, meeting with his friends eyes. They stood there, staring at each other, as Touya’s gaze softened considerably. Yukito let his right hand linger down his right arm, and Touya took the opportunity to grab the other’s hand with his left costumed hand.
Yukito had gazed down to the path his hand had traveled, but at the sudden grasp, he stared back at the mirror. Touya was not looking at him anymore, and swiftly he turned around to face him. Standing on the stool, Yukito for once, was on a higher ground than Touya. Still, he felt a sense of déjà vu, as if they had been standing like this, once before.
Touya's fixated look was not on the other’s hand anymore, but on his eyes. He looked at him, as if he had never done that before, and Yukito had to cough, since a knot had made its way known in his throat. They were so close now, but it didn’t matter, because the world had reduced itself to the two of them. For what it seemed ages, they stood there, and when Touya finally moved forward, Yukito had to draw his breath. But, he hesitated then, closing his eyes, and scowling at something Yukito had no clue about. He then let go of his hand, and quickly moved away, grunting about something, while he grabbed the costume’s bunny head and a giant flower he was supposed to carry around. As he walked out of the room, he screwed the head of the costume in.
For a second or two he stood there, not knowing what to do. If it hadn’t been for a familiar presence nearby, he probably wouldn’t have moved. Yue groaned in his head as he rushed outside, following Touya, because it couldn’t simply be what he was thinking about. He couldn’t possibly know she was here, and yet, he watched as his friend appeared in front of the children, scaring his younger sister.
“Don’t do that Toya!” he admonished once he caught on to him, looking more annoyed at Touya than at the people around them. “Yukito!” Sakura stammered, blushing deep red. He sighed, Touya had ruined the kid’s alone moment. He unscrewed the costume head, glaring at Li-kun as he did, and at Sakura.
“Oniichan!!! You surprised me!!!”
“It’s because you were standing there dazed and looking stupid”
“What’s with all the yelling?”, now both Tomoyo and Li-chan had returned from wherever they had run off to, probably to give the two some time alone. Sakura-chan sighed as she replied to her Chinese friend, "I was just a little bit surprised, that’s all."
"To make it up, we’ll treat you all to some ice cream" Yukito smiled sweetly at them all, and turned to look at Touya. He thought he saw an extra glint on the others eyes, and then he realized what he had meant, "Hey, why should I...?" he tried to reply, but then Yukito leaned over, so very close to him and whispered, "because you interrupted Sakura-chan"
Us, he interrupted us, Yukito
Yukito decided not to comment on what the other had said. After buying everyone some ice cream, Touya found himself surrounded by the costume-fitting girls once more, so he sat down and let them do as they pleased, “I still don’t know why I had to invite him too; if he wants Ice Cream, he should work for it.” Yukito took advantage of the situation to talk privately to Sakura. They were both sitting on a bench in the park, happily eating their ice creams.
"Thank you for the ice cream!" Sakura beamed at him, but she wasn’t as happy as he was used to. "Half of it is thanks to Toya", he liked to remind her how often her brother did small things for her, as to why exactly, he wasn’t really sure himself. She was thoughtful today, but it wasn’t rare; she'd been like that a lot lately, and vaguely Yukito figured it was because of Li. He let her to her thoughts for a while, before prodding, "Have you found him? The person you love the most..."
She blushed instantly, and Yukito knew she had made a decision, "Yes," was the only thing she said. He smiled at her, looking back to see Touya still scowling away, "I’m so glad, have you told that person yet?"
She looked crestfallen as she replied to him, “not yet.” Yukito looked away, it had taken Li so much to come up with the courage to tell her, and now, she was having an equally hard time answering him. It really shouldn’t be that hard, not for them, “I see,” and that was the only thing he could say to her.
“But,” and now she had that determined look on her face which told him nothing could ever go wrong for the two of them, “I’m going to try my best to tell him!” He couldn’t help but smile at her, “I am cheering for you, and I’m sure Yue is too.”
You should stop saying things in my behalf
Yukito was enjoying his ice cream, and he would have loved to reply to his other self that he knew it was true, anyways.
Just because it’s true it doesn’t mean you can go on and say it
He was about to laugh out loud when Sakura turned startled to look at her bag, “What’s wrong?” She just shuffled some things in her bag, “Nothing, I just thought something moved inside my bag.” But after that she didn’t seem worried, so he let it go. They had a great day afterwards.
oOo
The day of the Nadeshiko festival had finally arrived. He worked all afternoon with Touya on the college vendor stand. Yue was rather intent on not leaving Sakura alone with the revelations of the sealed card, but it couldn’t be helped. So he settled with staying very close to Touya. His friend was rather calm for someone who was supposed to know there was a threat looming over all of them. He really doubted Sakura had told Fujitaka-sensei or Touya about it, though.
He knew he should say something about it, maybe hint it to them; she is just a girl, and he’s older, he’s supposed to know better, for her sake. And there it was, another thing that had been bothering him lately: the line where she stops being his mistress and where he starts being her friend. Telling Touya would be definitely disobeying her, but Touya was also his friend and friends should be able to tell each other things. Yue’s opinion was rather moot, though, he stuck with the opinion that whatever she says goes.
Stop being a hypocrite
And that came out of nowhere. He had to stop walking just to do a double take, had he really said that?
Yes I did
Touya was walking fast ahead of him; they were already late for the play. His friend turned around, not even stopping, “Come on Yuki!” He started walking again, albeit slowly, “What do you mean?”
Here you are trying to convince yourself that telling him about the card is a good idea, when you were the one that decided not to tell him about us.
“It’s not the same…” he muttered to himself as Touya turned down the street.
Of course it isn’t. One is more serious than the other, but they are both as important, don’t you think?
“Hmmph”
I really don’t care what you think about it all, but it is the same. I don’t care whether you tell him or not, that’s not what matters. But I think that you should at least stop lying to yourself. It would make things easier.
“Huh, it’s already started” Yukito said for the lack of something better to say, hoping that Yue would leave it at that. They had arrived at the open stage and sure enough Sakura was already on stage, looking beautiful in her princess gown. Touya was glaring madly at the prince, and it was no wonder as to why,
“Why is she dancing with that Gaki?!?!” he was fuming, but there was hardly anything he could do about it now. Yukito looked about, searching for something amongst the crowd. Once he found it, he tugged him in the arm, “There, Fujitaka-sensei is sitting with Daidouji-san. Let’s find a seat nearby.”
He grunted in response, oh so very communicative he was, but it was times like this when Yukito mustered all the patience he could possibly have. As they moved forward, though, something sneaked up on him, making him stop. He didn’t exactly know what it was, and he glanced about. Touya stopped too, but he didn’t pay attention as he kept his eyes on the play.
It wasn’t exactly an energy wave or a presence, but more like a general tranquility, that had nothing to do with the fact that the people gathered where watching a play. There was absolutely no sound besides from the people around him; no crickets to be heard, nor fireflies to be seen, not even mosquitoes attracted to the night lamps. There wasn’t even wind rushing on leaves. Everything around them was…stale.
And suddenly, there it was: the presence of a Clow card. He heard as Sakura shouted telepathically at them, probably unconcious on her part. He saw as Fujitaka-sensei tried to help Daidouji-san out of there, but even if he had heard his daughter’s warning, the card had been too fast for them both. Out of instinct, he backed away, one second too soon, and saw as the card’s attack approached.
“Toya!”
“Sakura! Go!”
He had no time to save him, the card moved incredibly fast, and if Yue hadn’t jumped in the air while transforming, he probably would have been swallowed too. The place was completely destroyed, and no one had been spared. He flew up to where Keroberos and the Mistress had gathered. At least she and the others were safe…
“Is this the doing of the sealed card?” Yue asked as he landed next to the sun guardian, who replied, “looks like it.”
“I have to hurry and change it into a Sakura card, so everyone comes back!!” Sakura exclaimed, determined to beat this new card. Yue turned to look out to the city as he sent his own telepathic message to Keroberos, “Tell me about this card.”
They probably could have discussed this out loud, but the kids where busy, so he indulged Yue, “It counter-balances the cards’ powers, that’s all Eriol told us. Oh, and it’s as strong as the whole deck”
“What?!?”
“I’m not kidding”
“I never said you were”
“Then what’s with the incredulous tone?”
“Well, if it’s as strong as the whole deck then that means…”
“…yeah?”
“Nevermind, it just can’t be…” Yue interrupted his own thoughts as Sakura motioned to them that they should move to a higher ground. On top of some nearby buildings the guardians scanned visibly the city, for any trace of their contender. It did a good job of protecting its presence, and they couldn’t feel her at all, not unless she attacked.
“It looks bad, we have to hurry and find that card” Kero said after a while. “It can’t be that far away, I don’t think it’s out of the town.” Syaoran explained to Tomoyo and Meiling, who were standing on the edge of the roof.
“But where should you look,” Tomoyo filmed around them and gasped out loud as more cards flew out of her friend’s pocket. Sakura called the Windy to get the escaping cards, but they just flew through her. Unable to do anything else, Windy returned to her card form and she was taken with the rest of them. With more of the cards in her hands, the sealed card attacked them, erasing parts of the building and trapping the two girls with no magical powers.
Sakura leapt to them, but was stopped by Li. He managed to convince her to let them go, and to try the capture the card as fast as possible. Both of the guardians landed behind them, for they had been on a higher building as it all happened. “Sakura, I figured it out! I know where the card is!!”
“Where?” the card mistress asked as she moved towards Kero. Yue lifted his arm and pointed to the luminescent hill that stood in the darkness of the night, “Where the cards flew to.” She nodded, obviously not surprised, “of course, the amusement park.”
The two kids hopped onto Kero’s back, and they all flew to the amusement park. As they landed, Keroberos started scanning the surroundings. Of them all, he was the best at detecting presences and energies. Yue was walking behind Sakura as they approached the carrousel, right hand glowing ready to cast a spell.
Something was moving, and Kero could feel it. He just wasn’t sure where. It was so minimal, that he doubted any of the humans could feel it. The kid was moving stealthily nearby, but both Yue and Sakura were making an awful racket. If they would just stand still, and let him concentrate, maybe he could figure it out. With a snap, he turned back to the caroussel; there it was. Out of instinct, he moved forward towards them, screaming a telepathic message, “Yue!”
He didn’t need to hear it twice: rising his arm, the shield was created as a neigh was heard, and Sakura screamed. The horses unbidden from their ride, rushed through them, getting crushed by the force of the barrier. “I can’t believe its doing this,” the moon guardian looked up as he heard something from above. Out of instinct. the card mistress called the Jump, and he had no other choice than get away from the incoming ship that fell on the spot they had been standing.
He landed somewhere nearby Keroberos, who had rushed to get to them. Sakura had jumped higher, and landed on a rollercoaster rail. She saw two lights on top of the metal hill, and was about to jump away, when the Jump was taken away from her. Backing away, she had no other option than ran away; coming towards her was a high-speed cart. She had no choice but use a card, the cart was about to hit her, and her guardians were too far away. Sakura called the Time not one second too soon before she was hit.
As the card took them out of their space-time continuum, Sakura looked around trying to spot the card. Keroberos found her first though, floating on the other side of the rollercoaster, “There it is!!”
“Your hold on the Time card is weakening!!” Syaoran shouted at her, but she paid no heed. Instead, she tried to speak with the card, “You are the sealed card, right? Why are you doing this?” The sealed card didn’t even consider her; “four more” was her only reply.
“Please return everyone!!” Sakura pleaded, getting desperate. “It’s no good! Time is disappearing!!” Syaoran yelled again.
The sun guardian leapt in the air, as Yue flew up to where the card was. The Time card was finally dispelled, and the sealed card absorbed it. The rollercoaster then hit Sakura and she fell. Thankfully, Keroberos had been fast enough and caught her and her wand.
Yue on the other hand, was seething mad, “So you won’t listen to us?” His hand glowed blue, as several shards formed and flew towards his target. They hit the force field surrounding the card, but they didn’t hurt her. It all happened in slow motion: the moment he took out his bow, he simply knew what she was planning to do. He took aim, and she looked at him with so much hurt in her eyes, that it hurt him too. He knew he was going to be defeated; he knew he was going to miss. Yue whispered in his mind softly to his one and only mistress, “I am sorry”
Sakura turned to look at Yue, and the next thing she knew, the card sprite was trapping her moon guardian, attempting to dissolve him, just like that. A card, no matter how strong she was, not even if she was as strong as her whole deck, should never try to destroy their guardians. She saw as one of those holes surrounded Yue, and she screamed for him; he was trapped, but still he tried to fight. He fired his arrow, and once it hit the invisible force field that surrounded her, he was engulfed by her power. He was gone.
Keroberos, guardian beast of the seal, could not simply believe his eyes. That…thing that was attacking them, had bested Yue. Damn it, the only one that could even claim to best Yue was himself, especially not a card. Enraged, he threw a fire blast in her direction, flying up to the rails of the rollercoaster.
“Kero get out of there!!” Sakura ordered from below, but he couldn’t obey. Not after what that thing had done to his younger brother. He glared at her direction and she was looking at him too, he thought he saw her smirk. How dare she?!?!
“Damn you!!” he roared, flying up to her, preparing his fireball. The force field around her grew until he was trapped in it; he was so close to her, that if only he could throw a fireball at her, she would be beaten. But he didn’t have the time; she was ready, and this guardian was even easier to trap than the first one. She had won over the Master’s guardians; she had overpowered the cards…only three more to go.
oOo
He was drifting in and out of consciousness; still asleep, just sometimes more close to waking up than others. He wanted to stay asleep, his head hurt, and he felt exhausted. Every time he drifted to consciousness, a nagging urgency in the back of his mind tried to wake him; something was wrong. But as hard as he tried, he just couldn’t move, couldn’t wake up.
However, the reality of the situation wouldn’t let him go back to sleep anymore; no, he was going to suffer, suffer as much as she had for decades. An excruciating pain shot down his spine. All around him, darkness crept and he couldn’t see a thing; not even himself, which was just as strange. He didn’t even know if he was standing, or lying down, there was nothing around him and nothing below him.
…This darkness is after you, I know it. It will make you weak, it will consume you, and you are not strong enough to stop it…
A whisper of a voice was heard all around, “Guardian Judge, are you well?” he could hear the sarcasm in her tone, “I really hope you are, after all, you are my friend” she said, and her voice was gone. Yue tried to hard to breath, to collect his thoughts and try and do something. But he was frozen to the spot. He felt as something grabbed both his arms, binding him and he couldn’t help but yelp in pain. He could feel as those binds started to drain his energy, making him even weaker than he already was. And then, all of a sudden, in front of him the scenery changed and he was kneeling down in what seemed to be a room with open windows, facing someone familiar.
“Toya!!”
He looked up to the other, “How..?” he managed to ask, his voice rasp but steady. Touya smiled at him, extending an arm to try and help him, but as he was about to reach Yue, he screamed in pain, closing his eyes. The guardian stared as the man turned around to see what was that had attacked him. There, on the other side of the room, stood none other than Yue himself.
He looked terrible, his face was swollen, his eyes were red, and he clearly hadn’t slept for days. His hand started to glow, and his icicles formed, quickly dashing to its target. Touya managed to dodge them, but one had rushed past his cheek, drawing blood. The bound guardian stared dumbfounded at what was happening before him, “No, this is not supposed to happen…the card…” it was doing this, showing this, torturing him. He had to overcome it, he is the Guardian Judge, and no card should be able to beat him.
“This has to be a special card, its pure energy. I need to acknowledge it, say its name, but I don’t know it…”
The other Yue was fightingTouya, relentlessly, hurting him. He was shouting too, but he couldn’t hear what they were both saying. Touya was trying to avoid him, explaining something to him, but the other wouldn’t listen.
…So, its not erase, it destroys, but we are still here. Energy can’t be created, just transformed, but we are not in the same place as Sakura-sama. So it’s another dimention, we were just swallowed…
Yue was losing energy, pretty fast, and he was sure that if he didn’t hurry, he would start hyperventilating soon. It was an unbearable pain watching how Touya was hurt…by him. Thankfully, Yukito seemed unaware of everything; he was sure that if the other knew what was happening in front of him, he would lose all control.
…like a black hole. Yes, that has to be it, a black hole sucks all the energy and matter around it, and even though it doesn’t destroy it, the items no longer exist in the same plane. A synonym… empty, no it has matter … shallow, no it has a depth…hollow, no it occupies space…
Yue was starting to fade now, if she kept him on like this, there would be nothing more left of him once his mistress captured the card. Yes, he smiled to himself; she was going to capture it. Then, the answer came to him, and it was so painstakingly obvious that he had to admonish himself for not remembering sooner.
“Void, let go of me, now!!” the illusion in front of him shattered just as the other Yue was grasping Touya painfully by the neck. Everything was dark again, but this time, he was no longer bound, and the effect of the card on him had diminished considerably. He opened his eyes and could see himself, like the moon in the middle of a clear night sky. He started breathing better too, but he still was weak, and even if the card had conceded him some power over her, she was still drawing energy from him. He had to act fast if he was to do something.
Void?
“The only element that’s not present in the deck. I should have known that Clow wouldn’t leave an element aside.”
And what are you going to do now?
He would have replied, but Yukito had the tendency of talking too much when he was nervous. The last thing he needed right now was to lose time.
“Cards of the mistress Sakura, your service is needed
The mistress ask; The rulers command
Cards ruled by the Sun, go forward
Your guardian calls!
Cards ruled by the moon, come forth,
Your guardian needs you!”
As he cast his summoning spell, he felt the Void try to stop him. But she couldn’t, not anymore; now that he’d acknowledge her, she was just a card, and he was her guardian. With several streaks of light, twenty-five cards appeared and surrounded him; they rotated on their axis until each card became its card sprite. They all looked at him with grief on their faces, but clearly Void was not hurting them. There was a vacant spot for the 26th card, and unfortunately, it was the one he needed the most: the Shield.
The summon spell took much more energy than he would have wanted, and he was having trouble breathing again. Mirror moved towards him, hugging him as he felt himself losing strength. The sweet girl provided him a little bit of power, just enough not to faint. Then, on the spot where Shield should have been, Through appeared startling them all.
“Yue, are you all right?!??” she spoke, but it was Keroberos voice the one that was heard thundering in its force. He winced, that stupid cat was too loud. “Yes, barely” Dark decided to answer the other ruler of the cards, “and please, there’s no need to yell.”
He should have realized what the card had meant, since he talked lower the next time, “Sorry…Thanks for sending me the cards.” Windy was now holding him, supplying him more power and Mirror just held his hand in worry, “She is a Moon Ruled, it’s the least I could do,” he said at last, and he could hear Keroberos mumble something, “and you?”
Kero figured that was the closest his brother was going to get about asking for his safety. He huffed, “I am Keroberos, of course I am fine!!” He could hear Yue disregarding his reply, and quickly added, “Okay, so Power is helping me. It’s not like you aren’t using Shield right now!”
“Actually…” the Windy started, but got interrupted by the sun Guardian’s yelp, “NANI?? Shield isn’t there?!?!” They all winced and Yue groaned from the pain. His headache was growing with Keroberos’ outbursts. “Keroberos, you are too loud!” Watery chided, nevermind the other was a guardian of the cards. “Well, excuse ME for worrying about my little brother…”
“Keroberos…” Yue barely found his voice, and Watery couldn’t help but snicker at the Sun Guardian’s ramblings.
“…I mean, it’s not like we aren’t all trapped in here with no way out…”
“…Keroberos…” that stupid loaf was embarrassing him in front of his cards. And there was a way out…
“…and it’s not like he isn’t in some kind of mortal danger or anything…”
“…KERO!!!”
Everything was silent after that. Yue had never, ever, called him Kero before, and the sheer abruptness of it was more silencing than any quantity of pudding in the world. After a while, Yue finally managed to say, “The summoning spell, if we both cast it, we can get them out…”
“There’s no way I am letting you do that in your condition, do you hear me? I’d rather wait for Sakura to find a way to free us!”
“We don’t seem to have the time, master Keroberos,” Dark said as Time nodded his approval.
“I don’t care! I trust Sakura!!
“We trust her too,” the Dream replied, “but we have to help her, we need to get out of here”
“But Yue…” Kero knew he was losing this battle. There was no way his brother could cast the spell safely. He refused to do so, but he knew he wasn’t there to stop him.
…If you must...fight it, then don't let Yue-san do it. The darkness will consume him, but...you are not him, so that may not happen. At least promise me that…
“Of course…” Yue muttered to himself, as the fleeting memory came to him; that was what the boy tried to tell him. Louder this time, he tried sounding as cold as he could so there was no refusing him, “Keroberos, this is no time to be stubborn. We have a duty, and we’ll do whatever it takes to fulfill it; we need to protect the cards and the mistress,” he paused, his voice becoming a lot softer than he intended, “trust me, I know what to do.”
“You realize that once we start the spell, the cards won’t be able to help you anymore, right? There will be no Windy or Watery to supply you with energy…I mean, you could…” he didn’t want to finish the sentence, he refused to consider it.
“…I do”
“...fine then, but don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Kero sighed and struggled for some words, “Yue, you know, if something happens, I…”
“I know” he smiled softly, and he could hear Keroberos growling wherever he was, “How do you know what I was going to say?”
It was Watery the one that replied, “We all know what you were going to say, Keroberos.” He could hear the Twins and Mirror giggling and he was sure that Watery was grinning. He harrumphed, “I think you must be mistaking me for Moon Icicle over there, Watery, I am not that predictable.”
With that, Through bowed her head and disappeared. They were all silent, waiting for his command. They were apprehensive; after all, the sun guardian was right. But they trusted him, and his judgement. However, they were unsure of how he was going to pull the stunt off.
“No matter what, I want you to listen to my command. Is that clear?” they didn’t dare to contradict him, “You must try your hardest to get out, nothing else matters.”
They nodded, and then felt as the Shield was taken by the Void. Almost instantly, the card appeared at its rightful spot. “The last card,” Time started and Return continued his train of thoughts, “She has them all.”
He gave them no time; his wings extended behind him and he transformed into Yukito. He stammered forward, he couldn’t believe how much the pressure had reduced itself now that he was in his other form.
Yukito, you need to cast the spell; in this form, it’s a lot harder for her to drain our energy. However, it will be a lot harder to cast the spell but it’s the only way.
They all turned to look at him rather surprised. He couldn't do it; how did Yue expect him to cast a spell like that? He saw as Windy and Mirror both returned to where they were supposed to be standing and nodded to him. They all trusted him, they all were expecting him to save them. He couldn't let them down now. He heard as Yue told him how the spell went, and he braced himself. He started chanting.
“Cards of the mistress Sakura, your service is needed
The mistress ask; The rulers command
Cards ruled by the Sun, go forward
The Mistress calls!
Cards ruled by the moon, go forth,
The mistress needs you!”
It didn't work; at least not on the first try. The cards had returned to their original forms and he kept casting the spell over and over, until they could break free. Maybe he was too weak for it to work, maybe Kero had lost his energy faster than him. Maybe, just maybe, her power was equal as the both of them combined, canceling each other out.
"I have been alone all this time...sealed away in a cold, dark place. I was lonely...I finally have my friends back. Why are you interfering?" Her voice was back again, and even though it was soft, it resonated around him. She tried to stop him one more time binding him in her dark chains once more, but then, he saw as all the cards finally broke down her spell, getting out of her dimension.
"Everyone...why? Do you hate me? Am I not friends with you all? WHY???" In her frenzy to get a hold of them, she was choking him harder now, and Yukito saw his vision blurring. It didn't matter anymore, Sakura had the cards, "Because," he replied, his voice barely audible, "there's a balance for everything: for all that you've destroyed, something had to be gained." She screamed then, and Yukito neither heard nor saw anything more. He passed out.
oOo
For what seemed an eternity he must have slept. When he opened his eyes, he did so because the sunlight was rather strong, and he idly wondered why he didn't close the drapes the night before. He hated to wake up with sunlight in his face.
Groggily, he took in his surroundings. He was on the ground in the amusement park. Not his house. In front of him, there was a yellow plush toy that he'd seen several times before. He stared as said plushie sat up and rubbed his eyes. He was also taking in his surroundings: when he turned around he saw Yukito and stiffed back into his toy posture.
Yukito smiled knowingly as he sat up. His head was aching, but he felt somehow better than the last time he remembered being awake. He stared at Kero, and took him into his hands, petting his head as if he was a cat.
It was not the first time Kero had been lavished attentions by the snow bunny, but it was the first time he wasn't either teased or thrown off a window. He knew humans liked to hug and pet toys, but he'd never been petted before by anyone while pretending to be one. It was rather...awkward.
"I don't know what you are doing here," Yukito spoke up suddenly, "but I'm glad you didn't get lost. Sakura would have been sad."
Somehow Kero didn't think the snow bunny was talking to him as a toy anymore. Maybe he did know about him, and now that he thought about it, it would be obvious if he knew. After all, the oniichan knew about him too...
He was about to fly off the hands of the other, when a shout from behind them stopped him. Yukito turned around and saw as Sakura and Li came rushing towards them. He got up, and once they got to where he was, he handed the girl her toy. Sakura could have fallen on her face at the two of them, but she was too tired to argue. That would have to wait another day.
They headed back to the open stage. Sakura went to look for her father as Li looked for their friends. Yukito found Touya still asleep near some bushes. He kneeled in front of him, brushing some hair off the other's face, "Toya??" The boy grunted, shifting slightly and opening his eyes slowly. He smiled as he saw Yukito, "Ohayo"
He was ok, he truly was fine. If Sakura had taken more time, they probably wouldn't be there anymore. Any of them. "Ohayo" he answered back.
"Thank you," Touya said as the other helped him stand, "for everything. Is everyone else...?"
"Eveyrthing is fine, back to normal"
"And you?"
"I wasn't," Yukito replied slowly, "for a moment there I really wasn't. It almost killed me."
If Touya had been paying attention to the way he said that, he probably would have said something, "but it didn't, so don't feel bad about it," Touya hugged him and hoped they could stay like that for a long time. "I needed that," Yukito sighed letting himself enjoy their closeness.
"And Sakura?" Touya let him go after a while, as he looked around searching for his sister. Yukito didn't need to reply, as he spotted her near her father and Daidouji-san. They too started walking towards them, but Touya stopped once he saw Li walk up to them with the other two girls. The group was talking a lot, and the people around them started waking up. He didn't know what the Gaki had said just then, but Sakura laughed merrily, and hugged him, making him blush crimson red.
"It happened, then..." Touya stared at them in disbelief, "...finally." Yukito didn't know exactly what the other was talking about until he turned to look at Sakura. Understanding in his eyes, and a condescending tone followed, as he grabbed Touya's arm, "Let's go and have some breakfast"
He didn't have much of a choice, nor did he really fight it. He just let himself be dragged away from that awful scene, wishing he really didn't know what had happened. But he did, and he had known that it would happen for a while. The Gaki had finally taken her away from him.