Their dinner lay on the table covered with a tray, while Sakura and Syaoran were sitting face to face in the drawing room.
He followed what she had asked of him, as she suggested she could be of help. All kinds of compromising situations found their way to his imagination and he looked away from her as much as possible, with his cheeks turning red. His eyes twitched as Sakura kneeled down before him with her bag beside her.
"Umm... Don't you think we should take this to the bedroom?" He spoke awkwardly. Sakura looked at him with a confused expression. She took out a card from her bag and held it in her hand.
"A Card?" Syaoran looked at the card carefully. Sakura nodded.
"I am going to look into your memories, to find out what happened." Sakura explained.
"Oh... By help, you meant that?" Syaoran sighed.
"What did you think?" Sakura looked at him from the corner of her eyes.
"Nothing! Nothing! How did you learn to do that?" Syaoran tried to deviate the topic.
"Let's say, I tried this before." Sakura smiled. She held out her hand, asking for his. He kept his hand gently on hers and memories from the forbidden night started returning to Sakura's mind. She rearranged her focus to the card and closed her eyes, chanting her incantation.
"Help me gaze into the past, Return."
There was the sound of a bell, and the card in her hand glowed golden. Gusts of wind started to blow. In a flash, their surroundings disappeared and a giant magic circle under her knees. Syaoran's vision grew blurry and he closed his eyes as he fell forward on Sakura's shoulder. Distant bells rung as Sakura closed her eyes, travelling into a dream state.
--
When Sakura opened her eyes, she looked around. She recognised the room from the time she had visited Hong Kong when she was little. She could see Syaoran's mother walk into his room, gracefully separating the blinds. Syaoran was sitting on the desk reading a book. She could tell from his face that he was just in high school.
"I had a dream... You might have to go back to Tomoeda..."
"Is it Sakura?" He hesitated.
"It's the cards. They might need your help." His mother spoke calmly.
"Then I must complete my duties and return back as soon as possible." He inferred.
-
With those words, the scene melted into another, where she could see Syaoran training. He was punching the wooden training pillars, his hands were bruised and covered in bandages. Sakura wished she could reach out to him, but this was only a fragment of his memory.
He clenched onto his summoning sheet and screamed out the words, but only a small whiff of fire emerged which quickly disappeared. Sakura's fingers covered her lips in shock, it was true. Syaoran knelt on the floor with his face covered by his hair and his mother watched him cry from a distance.
-
As Sakura drifted further into the string of events, she could see Syaoran talking on the phone.
"How... do you know me?" He asked with suspicion. He looked older compared to before.
"I am a friend... I know a lot about you, about Sakura... And also... About the Clow Cards." It was the voice of a woman Sakura thought she had heard before.
"Who are you?" Syaoran asked with panic in his voice.
"I am a friend... I call to help you..."
"How do you know about all this?"
"You're Clow Reed's successor aren't you?" The voice spoke in a taunting tone. Syaoran couldn't find the words to answer.
"I am here to help you. Sakura is in danger, you must protect her."
"Why should I believe you?"
Music: https://youtu.be/UM_lfJVvsf0
"Isn't it your responsibility to protect those whom you love?" The woman pulled the strings to a stinging wound. Sakura could see Syaoran cornered by the expression in his face.
"How can I help?"
"Someone is after the cards, you need to take them to a safer place, before they get to her."
'The cards? Like what Mother told me about her dream?' Syaoran thought to himself.
"They?"
"I can't tell who... But you need to protect her... And you mustn't let her know..."
-
As the scene faded, it changed to a familiar place, it was her room. The setting sun threw giant shadows on the floor and she could see Syaoran looking inside the room from the tree beside her window. The light, the wind and the colour of the sun, she knew exactly when this happened.
Syaoran made sure no one was home, and climbed up to the windowsill. The last time he had sneaked back into her room, he was in the body of kero because of the switch card. He looked around the room, opened the drawer of her table, took the magic book and left.
Sakura clenched her fist, so what she suspected was true... It was he who had stolen the cards that day... But was it because he was informed about the danger that she could be exposed to? Was it not out of selfish motives?
She could see him running towards the forest. 'This is where something happens', she thought to herself as she followed him into the shadows of the trees. But she saw Syaoran stopped running and stood looking at the book. He opened it, took out the cards, and looked at them with contemplation.
"Can you... Help me get my powers back?"
Suddenly, the scene was split into half. On one half, she could see Syaoran with the cards, on the other she could see herself in her room. She saw her past self filled with tears, standing beside the empty drawer with kero and remembered how emotionally unstable she was at that time. Her father was at the hospital in a critical condition and she was at the edge of her breaking point.
It was the absence of the cards which pushed her down into the void of uncontrolled power. As the rage inside her erupted, without an incantation she set off a card.
Suddenly sharp gusts of wind blew around Syaoran and he could hardly see what was happening. Windy's soft locks turned into spears and attacked Syaoran from all directions. They tore some of his collar and bruised his arm while he tried to dodge it.
"What is this power? Element Wind!" Syaoran unleashed a flow of wind from his summoning sheet to clash against Windy's attack. It barricaded the magic for a while, but his powers were not strong enough to protect him for long, he needed to think of something fast.
Windy attacked him ruthlessly and he ran dodging her aim, bruising many trees that stood in the way.
"Element, Fire!" He pointed his sword at the summoning sheet he had. Swirls of fire wrapped around the sharp blades and burnt them into air. Windy flew backward and raised her slender arms up to the sky.
Syaoran could hear ominous whistles because of the draining wind that she pulled to herself. She aimed her sphere of wind at Syaoran and fired it towards him in lightning speed. Syaoran was thrown off by the force and slammed against the ground, highly bruised.
"I can sense them here", he could hear Keroberos' voice.
The spirit of the card returned back to its sealed form.
"Are you sure Kero?" Sakura asked.
Hearing them, Syaoran crawled behind one of the stones.
"They're here!" Kero exclaimed.
"Oh thankgod they're okay!" Sakura sighed as she picked up the book from the ground.
"You've already done too much crying. Let's go home and rest okay?" Keroberos suggested with a caring tone.
Once they were gone, Syaoran could finally get up and leave. He couldn't stand up because of his injured knee so he decided to summon his sword to help him. He held it before him and chanted the spell, but nothing happened. He tried again and again, still nothing happened. That's when it struck him, his magic was gone.
-
The scene dissolved into the present, like ripples that clear off to give a clear reflection. Syaoran could finally open his eyes, and he blushed as he realised he had fallen on her shoulder. He sat up straight and rubbed his face. However Sakura sat still looking at the floor. Syaoran waited for her to say something, but the room was filled with an uneasy silence.
"Sakura? Are you okay? Could you see the past?"
"So it was me." Sakura spoke softly without raising her head.
"What?"
"It was my fault you were hurt. I couldn't control my emotions... And set off windy."
"But you weren't there that time... Did you call for it?" Syaoran looked at her with concern.
"I did not... But it was my lack of control that set off the cards... First father... Then you..." Sakura's voice was cut off by the tears she choked on.
"Hey. Hey! Don't cry." Syaoran got up from the sofa to sit on the floor beside her.
"If it hadn't been for me... You would still have your powers..."
"My powers started growing weaker way before that happened. And I know you'd never try to hurt me."
"If I had controlled my powers then, all this wouldn't have happened. Even father... Wouldn't be in this state..." She covered her face with her hands.
Syaoran held her face with his warm hands. She looked up at him with tears blurring her eyes.
"It wasn't just your fault. It was because of all of us. If I had not have stayed away just because my powers were weak and returned to help you when you said that your powers are going out of control, this wouldn't have happened. It was my responsibility to look after the cards too, I am equally to blame." Syaoran looked straight into her eyes.
"But that won't help father... Or your magic."
"It won't. You can't change the past, but you can make the most out of what's left."
Sakura looked at him with a blank expression. She then rested her forehead on Syaoran's shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her back.
"This feels like high school, doesn't it?" Sakura whispered.
Syaoran smiled and nodded.