RECAP: Nothing really big happened in the last chapter. Sakura heard the ghost in her house, then was all freaked out. Touya and her dad both had events to attend, so they left Sakura alone to care for Uncle Guan for the next three days or so.

Chapter Ten - Fighting with Ghosts

Sakura picked at the rest of the food on her plate. Today, Uncle Guan, in spirit of his "festival of languages", declared today Mexico day, and they were eating likewise. Sakura thought he had Chindra put too much peppers in their fried concoction, it was like eating hotsauce.

She took a long drink of milk then looked up at Uncle Guan, who was eating his food happily, though slowly. Sakura was just beginning to realize how strange her uncle really was.

"I am going to put away my dishes, do you want me to take your empty ones?" Sakura asked politely.

"Ci, gracious," Her uncle choked out between the hot food and his already raspy voice. Sakura knew little Spanish, but she was pretty sure that meant yes, so she picked up his plates and brought them to the sink, where Chindra was washing the dishes.

Sakura sat back down at the table, sinking away with boredom. She figured she could entertain Kero for a while. Then again, Kero wasn’t much fun. Sakura decided to ask Uncle Guan about some of the house. "Did you use to use that big room upstairs for tai chi? It’s a really cool room, I’d love to set up mats up there some time and do some gymnastics."

Her uncle stopped eating and finished swallowing before speaking. "Not just Tai Chi, other types of combat." He returned his fork to his plate.

Sakura nodded, amazed that he had all this time to do this stuff. "That’s really cool, Uncle! I have a friend who trains in martial arts as well."

Her uncle nodded. "The boy here yesterday, no?"

Sakura’s eyes went wide with his guess. "Uh, y-yeah. How did you know?"

Her uncle stopped and stared at no place in particular. "True fighters, black belts and such, have a certain manner, characteristics bundled up to make them a true fighting personality. This boy you like has a very strong aura about him."

"OH, no, no uncle. I don’t like him, he is just a friend of mine."

"I see how you two look at each other, stars in your eyes. But, if you say so..." His spanish accent made almost anything sound humorous. "Well if you would like to do gymnastics, there are mats in the closets of that room. Every type of fighting supply you will ever need." He stopped his sentence abruptly, short of breath.

Sakura felt deep pity for her uncle, but knew he would not want it. "Thank you very much, may I then be excused?"

Her uncle nodded. "Au revoir."

Sakura grinned, confused. "Isn’t that French?" She asked as she got up.

"So it is, so it is." Her uncle said absent mindedly.

Sakura left the table and headed up the stairs into the hall. She ran down it, for it was very wide and open for running, then reached the end, opening the door. Sakura went inside and turned on the lights, quickly searching for the closets. She found them to the side, near a hidden bench behind the door. She pulled out some of the mats from inside, each dusty, but still in good condition.

She dragged the heavy mats across the floor and set them up firmly against each other. Once she finally had everything out, she was already beginning to feel tired. She looked through the other things in the closet; a punching bag, several boxing gloves, weights, some boards (probably to punch through), some chalk for sweaty hands, several types of weapons Sakura hadn’t seen, along with a japanese sai. Just about everything in the world was in there, and Sakura bet Syaoran knew how to use every one of them.

Sakura sat on the hard wood floor, catching her breath from all the dust the was finally settling down in the room. She got up and started doing cartwheels across the mat, then went into some handsprings and flips she was still a bit rusty on. After she had gotten so hot she was sweaty (which sweating in this house was amazing, due to the steady temperature of cold), and exstremly tired, she decided to make it another early night. Sakura left the mats sitting out on the floor, then turned off the light, ready to sleep.

Sakura reached her room and shivered, it’s drafty cold very uninviting. Sakura looked around for Kero, but he wasn’t to be seen. "Kero?" She called, trying not to make too much noise.

Fluttering came and Kero popped out from behind the scarlet curtains, shutting the thick door behind him. "Just a little exploration going on. What’s up?"

Sakura shook her head. "Listen, you know that Touya and my dad aren’t home, so you have to gaurd me extra careful like, okay?"

Kero shrugged. "Whatever."

Sakura sat down on the edge of her bed and pulled off her socks and sweatshirt, then swung into the bed and pulled up her covers. "Tomoyo wasn’t at school today because you made her eat that peice of cake."

Kero made a confused innocent face. "Cake? What cake? Oh, oh yeah. Well, see, I could tell she really wanted some, she kept watching me eat it with these longing eyes and, being the good friend that I am, I offered her some. It wasn’t like I force-fed her."

Sakura shook her head. "You and your food." She reached over and turned the light from a second switch. "Kero, I am serious, try to look out for me tonight." She rolled over and fell asleep quickly again, her exhaustion overtaking her.

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Like a broken record, in repitition with last night, Sakura woke up again, at first disoriented. She looked at the clock and then immediately remembered where she was. She shut her eyes and tried to fall asleep before anything happened, before the noises, before anything. Still, her anxiety brought her wide awake. She decided to get Kero before anything happened.

Just as she was about to speak his name, Sakura watched blue sparkles of light settle around Kero, and Sakura looked for their source. She caught a glimpse of the Sleep card, just before it disappeared in midair. Sakura was momentarily releived of her fear, as she thought about the sleep card, how she had captured it, how useful it had been to her.

Quickly her happy thoughts dissolved when a now horridly fimiliar sound broke the silence. Scraping of metal against stone, the sound of friction, sent Sakura’s hair on end. The sound was loud tonight, it filled the room loudly, and was coming closer. It felt more of a reality than it had the first time, and Sakura feared it more than ever. She couldn’t keep her eyes from going to the door, to see the door, the dark door behind the curtains of which the sound was echoing through.

What she saw terrified her. The door, safely shut by Kero, was now opened, halfway, and was wobbling as if it had just been moved. Sakura stared at it in shock, not able to take her fearing eyes away from it. She couldn’t see anything past the first step beyond the door, for the darkness eluded anything past that point. She stared at the wavering door, shaking with expectation, waiting to see the ghost pop out from behind.

A sound by her ear immediatly drew her attention away. Sakura swiftly turned her head to her left, and a gleaming peice of metal met her eye. Sakura refused to look at it’s handler, knowing that if she looked up into that face she would surely lose what was left of her mind. It raised up and then came crashing down, its point flying at Sakura swiftly like a diving bird, aimed well at Sakura’s head. Sakura rolled away, just in time before it dug into her skull, but still did not dodge the attack completly. The sword stabbed into Sakura’s arm, stinging with pain as it pushed into her flesh.The jagged edge pushed into her muscles and nerves, and a sensation of pain Sakura felt was bad enough to take her fear of the ghost. The second it cut, the ghost vanished, leaving Sakura alone with her pain.

Sakura could not scream or cry, the pain was too great. Instead, she grabbed her arm and rocked back and forth, trying to keep the dizzy spells from taking over her. She dared to look at her arm, but couldn’t see it through the dark. She finally brought her eyes up to look for any traces of the ghost, but saw what she had thought she would see; nothing, nothing to prove the ghost was there. Only the cut in Sakura’s arm remained. Sakura looked over at the door, but it was shut, much to Sakura’s releif and confusion.

Sakura’s thoughts were scrambled, she was shaky with fear, her arm stung horribly, but not to the overwhelming point. She finally reached over with her unharmed hand and switched on the light. She was careful as she reached out to her left, for that was where she had been attacked from. She turned the light on and looked down on her arm. Much to her surprise, her arm had just a small scratch across it, hardly more than a scratch you would get from handling a kitten.

Sakura shook all over still, so frightened, fearing that the next time she would look at the dark door it would be open, or that she would see metal gleaming from a dark corner of her room. She exhausted herself with these anxieties, and soon, too tired to think, too tired to wake anyone, she turned off the light and fell into a deep sleep.

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That morning Sakura woke up, horribly groggy, and her arm aching like it had been smashed with an oversized sledgehammer. She reluctantly opened her eyes, then gazed around the room for a while half asleep, before getting ready.

She went across the hall into the large bathroom, realizing she didn’t have that much time before she had to leave for school. She flicked on the light and squinted in it’s seemingly blinding brightness. Sakura looked down at her arm again, sure there would be a big ugly bruise with a large gash in the center. Instead, the small scratch was there, now scabbed over. Sakura frowned to herself. Maybe I dreamed the whole thing? That would make sense. I am sure the sword would have stabbed me horribly, so it couldn’t have made just this scratch. That must be it, I dreamed the whole thing. But then...why does it hurt like it was stabbed?

Sakura dragged her feet through her whole process of getting ready. She went into a fit after she got soap into her scratch, and spent ten minutes trying to wash it out. Putting direct water, particularly pressured water, on the cut, was enough to make Sakura scream, so she had to collect water in her hands and gently sprinkle it on there, meanwhile the soap stung like a hundred bees.

Sakura finally left for school, though was running ten minutes late. She managed to get to school, but was five minutes late, despite her running efforts. She walked into her class, feeling everyone’s eyes on her, and sat down, trying to block out her teacher’s lecture on tardies. She shyly looked up and nodded in recognition, then class resumed. Sakura noticed Syaoran was staring at her about midclass, though he sat a ways to her right. Sakura smiled at him, but he did not change his expression. Sakura shrugged it off and took notes on Napoleon’s escapade into Russia.

The bell rang, though Sakura hardly heard it. She was feeling a bit fatigued, and everything seemed distant. Sakura walked quietly to her locker, then headed towards math class. Just what I need, something to give me a headache. Sakura sat down and looked up at the board for the problems they were expected to start before the class started.

Sakura stared at it blankly. "If X=7/11 and Y=7/3, and the sum of their reciprocals is 2, then if X=3/9, and the reciprocals of X + Y=2, what does Y equal?" Sakura attempted to write it out, but only found herself more confused. So the reciprocal is the fraction flipped around....Why do they put us through this? They know no one will find the answer!

Sakura was hardly aware of Syaoran sitting next to her, his eyes still locked on her. "Sakura!" He finally said after a while.

Sakura jumped in her seat, then smiled up at him. "Oh, you scared me! What’s up?"

Syaoran shook his head, ignoring her question. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Sakura looked at him blankly. "Yeah, this math problem is just really hard, do you understand it?"

The class started, interrupting their conversation. The math sensei, some genius about 400 years old, grouched at the kids for the correct answer to the before-class question.

No one raised their hand for a long while, and the sensei glared at the class with disapproval. "No one? Not one of you got this very easy problem? I was able to do this in my sixth year of school! Are you telling me not one of you are able to figure this out?"

Everyone sat timidly. Sakura glanced at Syaoran’s peice of paper in front of him and stared at his work, seeing his answer, understanding how he worked it out. She quickly did the problem on her own, arriving at the same answer. She raised her hand, hoping to show the sensei wrong.

The sensei nodded at her with a bit of a incredous glare. "Go ahead, at the board."

Sakura walked up to the board, then quickly scribbled down her work. "You have to find some that 3 can go into 2 times, which 3 times 2 is 6. So to make 9 equal six, you have to subract 3, so the answer is negative three." Sakura beamed back at the class, not helping but to notice Syaoran’s look of amazement at her good answer.

She walked back to her seat and tried helplessly to take her smile of acheivment off her face. The rest of the class was boring, Sakura had a slight grasp on the concepts the sensei tried to get through to them, but could use some extra tutoring. By the end of class she felt a bit guilty for cheating off of Syaoran’s work, just to get brownie points with the sensei. She figured that since she redid the problem herself, that must have made up for it.

Sakura got up when the class was dismissed, only to find her legs were getting stiff. She wasn’t sure why she was so tired and fatigued, but she didn’t like it one bit.

The second she began to walk, Syaoran grabbed her arm, the injured one, though he managed to grab it on either side of the cut. "Who did this?"

Sakura looked down to make sure he was talking about the scratch. "Oh, that little scratch, you mean? I am not sure, I might of done it in my sleep."

Syaoran stared at her, confused. "Scratch? Where I come from, we’d call that a rather large gash."

It was now Sakura’s turn to be confused. Her confused face quickly fell panickstricken. "You mean it’s really there? I didn’t dream? But..I mean-how...It’s only a scratch, no deeper than the first layer of skin!"

The math sensei looked at Sakura and Syaoran standing in the doorway. Syaoran was grabbing her arm, while Sakura had a look of terror on her face. Syaoran quickly dropped her arm, then motioned for her to follow him out of the room. They stopped in a quiet part of the hall.

"I thought it was, I wasn’t sure, but I think you are under influence of the Illusion card. I don’t know what happened, but we have to make sure no one else can see this. You might get sent home for a cut like this." Sakura followed him again, and they arrived to Meilin’s locker. Meilin came walking over, then smiled kindly at Syaoran. To Sakura, no particular facial expression was given.

"Meilin, do you see anything wrong with Sakura’s arm?" Syaoran abruptly jerked Sakura’s left arm up for Meilin’s inspection.

Meilin studied it carefully. "Hmmm, let’s see...Her forearm is a bit too short, it could use some toning, her elbow is a bit too pointy-"

"Meilin! Quit acting childish!" Syaoran spoke with the authority of a big brother.

Meilin sighed and turned serious. "No, nothing but a little kitten scratch." She looked up curiously. "Why, is she under some magic spell?" Her face fell. "Too bad I can’t tell, I don’t have any magic."

Syaoran shook his head. He faced Sakura, now oblivious to Meilin’s presence. "You need to get it wrapped up. Do you feel well? Your face is pale. You probably lost alot of blood, it is really deep." He began steering her through the crowd of neverending school kids, towards his locker. "I think I have some bandadges, but maybe..." His paternal instincts seemed to kick in.

Sakura followed him, a bit stupified as he questioned her. They stopped at his locker, and he turned to face her again, his face gravely serious. "Sakura you cannot be alone and so vlunerable like this again. Why didn’t Kero help you? You told him to, didn’t you? Although he should have done it himself...."

Sakura nodded. "I told him to help out, but the...I mean, ..the Sleep Card got him."

Syaoran nodded, though he was leaning against his locker with his eyes closed. Sakura frowned. "Are you alright?" She answered her own question before he could. "You are probably tired because your magic was used. That stinks." Sakura had another wave of fatigue hit her, she cringed and leaned over her arm.

Syaoran quickly steadied her, then looked toward the door. "We should get you home, you really need to have that bandadged. I am not sure how you can walk around so easily, that is really a horrible cut."

Sakura nodded, not trusting her voice to speak yet. She looked towards the doors, then took a deep breath. "We should just finish the day. We only have five more classes, anyway. Just get some bandadges, I’ll be fine." She smiled, though it was a bit unconvincing. It really can’t be that bad of a cut, I don’t understand how it affects how I walk if it’s in my arm.

Syaoran watched her hesistantly. "You have to promise not to leave without me."

Sakura’s emotions sparked with his gesture of concern. "Yeah, okay."

Syaoran sighed and quickly opened his locker. "I don’t like this. You shouldn’t be in school today at all." He rustled through his bag until he pulled out a large ace bandadge, meant for wrapping up hurt joints. He shrugged apologetically and quickly wrapped it around Sakura’s arm. It was a bit bulky, but Sakura had to admit it felt better.

Syaoran shut his locker, but Sakura stopped him from leaving. "Wait, isn’t this a bit suspicious?" She pointed to the bandadge, which stuck out about a foot from her normal skin.

Syaoran reluctantly stopped in midstep. "Yeah...uh..." He quickly pulled his locker open, then looked in it for a second. "Here, say you’re cold or something." He handed her a green jacket, thin enough that she wouldn’t get overheated.

Sakura smiled in gratitude. "Thanks!"

Syaoran nodded, then looked down the hall with alarm. "We are going to be late for class if we don’t hurry!"

Sakura nodded and hurried off to music class. Syaoran didn’t take this class with her, since it was optional, so they parted ways. Sakura was glad this was such an easy class, or else she might have gone crazy in a tighter atmosphere. They had partners to work on a duet in class, and since Tomoyo was Sakura’s partner, and she was still absent, Sakura worked on it herself. They had chosen a piano duet, and now they were working on composing one of their own. They had only accomplished a few measures the day before, so Sakura tried to find some nice notes before class ended. Sakura kept breathing deeply through Syaoran’s coat. Sakura couldn’t help it, she did it unconsciously, and she was quickly accustomed to its smell. Though the class was easy, it seemed longer than usual. Sakura prepared herself for a long day.

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Sakura shied under Meilin’s suspicious glance as they passed in the hallway. Meilin had noticed Sakura’s green jacket in lunch, and was eyeing her ever since. The day had finally ended, so Sakura was trying to find Syaoran in a subdued way. Finally she caught a glimpse of his dark amber hair, moving against the crowd. Sakura slowly made her way over to him.

"Here’s your coat, I have another one now." Sakura said, handing him her coat while quickly pulling her winter coat on. She smiled once more in gratitude.

Syaoran nodded. Sakura wasn’t sure what to say in the heavy silence, so she turned and headed for the door, ready to get home and tell Kero what happened. Then again, she didn’t want to go back into that house...

Syaoran walked next to her, out the door, and they walked together to the gates. It was there Sakura noticed him following her. "Don’t you need to go the other way?"

Syaoran shrugged. "I can’t let you go back alone. You need to get that fixed up properly."

Sakura grinned. "Why should I let you? You wouldn’t let me fix your cuts up."

Syaoran flushed red. Sakura felt bad for making him embaressed, so she tried to offer some consolation. "You should probably see if you can sense any curses or stuff in my room, I mean, you are better at finding that stuff than I am."

Syaoran nodded. Will we ever get out of this cold? I am freezing! He kicked at a rock on the ground. "So are you taking the bus or walking?" I mean, I am fully capable of walking, even though I am completly energy drained. Who am I kidding? Please say you are taking the bus!

"The bus, I think. I am not quite up to a two mile walk." Sakura yawned, causing Syaoran to follow suit. Sakura laughed. "We both need our sleep. Come on, let’s try and catch the first bus!" She walked briskly towards the busstop they had been at only two days before.

The bus came up just as they reached the stop, and Sakura climbed up the steps. Syaoran waited for her to get up the steps before going up them after her. He noticed a figure in the distance, watching him. Shi-

"Syaoran!" Meilin’s voice carried over the distance. Syaoran hurriedly pushed Sakura up the rest of the stairs, then sat down.

"Sorry, Meilin was looking over here." Syaoran said, glad to see Meilin disappear as the bus drove away.

Sakura smiled. "It’s okay. Did you need to tell her you were leaving?"

Syaoran shook his head. They rode in silence the majority of the way. Sakura stared at her arm, amazed that such a deceiving illusion could be produced, and Syaoran stared into space, thinking.

The bus finally reached their stop, and they both filed out. Sakura took the lead and led the way to her driveway. I wonder how long he is planning on staying? I don’t really mind him staying, I guess.

"I’ve got to have the longest driveway in the world!" Sakura said as they made their way down it.

Syaoran smiled. "It is long." He agreed.

They reached the house, then Sakura turned around, blocking Syaoran from going in the door just yet. "Uncle Guan has been speaking in different languages, don’t mind him. I’ll try to get around without crossing paths with him."

Syaoran nodded. "We should try and find if there’s a source in your house the ghost is coming from. It would help alot to find its home."

Sakura shuddered inside. "Yeah, probably so." She opened the door, looked around, then quickly hopped in, motioning for Syaoran to hurry. She galloped up the stairs and finally reached the safety of her room. She closed the door and let out her tension with a held breath.

"I think the ghost has something to do with that door." She pointed over to the door, hating to look at it.

Kero came over, just the right time, looking very disagreeable. He was clutching his little stomach, and had hardly taken any notice to Syaoran. "Sakura, I’m sorry Sakura. I know I shouldn’t have eaten it, but it seemed to take so long for you to get home..." He moaned and clutched his stomach again.

"Ate what? What are you talking about Kero?"

Kero shook his little head. "I went down to the kitchen, and there it was, Touya’s pineapple cake. It still looked alright, but...I think it was a little spoiled."

Sakura shook her head, now. "Kero, you know better then to go wandering the house when I am gone. Am I going to have to lock the door when I leave?"

Kero sighed and hung his head, until he notice something. "Magic, where is it? Do you sense it?"

Sakura shook her head, her fear jumping up the wall. She looked around worriedly.

"Your cut, remember?" Syaoran said, his bright mood a bit dimmer now that Kero was in the room.

Sakura nodded. "Oh, of course!" She pulled off her coat, shivering a bit since the room was so cold, yanked off the large bandage, then held her arm out for Kero’s inspection.

Kero gasped. "What did you do?" He, with hard effort, flew over to have a closer look. "But I was ready, I was gaurding you! Nothing could have gotten through!"

Syaoran glared at Kero. "Obviously not, if you fell asleep."

Kero glared back. Sakura sighed. "Quit, don’t start fighting. Kero, the Sleep card was used on you before you ever woke up, it must have been really powerful. I can’t even see the cut, or else I would have told you about it this morning. I thought I had made the whole thing up from a realistic dream." She looked at her arm, still marvelling over the spell.

Kero slowly nodded. "The Illusion card. I get it." He now frowned at Syaoran. "So why is he here? Your cut is gonna get fixed, why’d he come along." He flew over heavily and stared him in the eye. "Unless you made the gash yourself..."

Syaoran fumed immediatly, about to grab Kero out of the air. "Kero, that’s ridiculous. Syaoran is here to help us find the ghost, you should be grateful he came." Sakura scolded.

Syaoran was a bit more at ease. "Grateful." He repeated to Kero.

Kero shook with anger, but held it in. "I’ll be grateful when he leaves." He muttered.

Sakura shook her head and walked over to the door. She felt much braver with Kero and Syaoran behind her, plus it was still light out. She opened the door, then let her eyes go down the stone steps. She was very curious to go down there herself, but too scared to dare.

Syaoran walked over to the door, Kero trying to keep up, clutching his stomach. Syaoran opened the door wider, looking down the steps as well. "We should start looking down there. We might find something." He brought his sword out, then lead the way, cautiously.

Sakura hesitantly followed him, enjoying the light while she could. The bottom steps were hardly visible, they were hidden from the light. The windows stopped at about the eigth step, after that the light got thinner.

Syaoran quickly reached the end of the stairs and looked up, waiting for Sakura to finish making her way over. She hopped off the last step and faced a dark door. She moved out of the way so Syaoran could open it, then reluctantly followed him into the next room.

There were two windows on each side of the large basement, but the windows were very high up. Sakura guessed they were underground, so the windows were just above the ground level. The basement had several unused bookcases and other furniture, and was cluttered with bags of old clothes and such things. Sakura could hardly see the other side of the basement, the lighting wasn’t very good.

The basement smelled too, full of dust and mold. Through the traces of light Sakura could see floating dust, it was thick in the air. Sakura stayed right behind Syaoran, not wanting to be left behind.

Syaoran made his way to the other side of the room, sword ready, but saw or felt nothing. "I don’t know, I don’t think there’s anything here."

A loud crash came from near the door, and a box of things toppled over, clashing its way to the ground. Sakura jumped behind Syaoran, trying to keep calm. Syaoran pointed his sword at that spot, ready for battle.

Kero came fluttering out from behind the box, sweat-dropping. "Hehe sorry, I uh guess those weren’t real, I kind of knocked it over by accident."

He pointed at some fake rubber grapes that lay up top of the box. Sakura let out an exasperated sigh, and Syaoran relaxed his tense muscles. "If you are going to come with us, you can’t be making noises like that. You are going to get us hurt."

Kero didn’t have a comeback, but only looked a bit hurt by the order. Kero flew silently over to Sakura and sat on her shoulder. "I’ll just stay here, out of the way."

Syaoran turned back around and resumed his search, but saw or felt nothing dark about the place at all. He scanned the walls, then found something interesting. "Look!"

His voice breaking the quiet made Sakura jump again, and she quickly looked to where he was facing. Seeing nothing, she glared at Syaoran for making her go into such an upstart. "What?"

He pointed with his sword. "That door, have you gone in it before?" He pointed to the door in the far wall, dark and hardly visible by shadows.

Sakura shook her head, sad to see another scary looking door. They made ther way over and studied the door. The door itself was in ruins, but was heavily boarded over, much like the one across from Chindra’s apartment. "Oh, this is nothing. It just leads to the ruined part of the house, the broken hallway you can see from my room."

Syaoran nodded. "You should really keep that boarded a bit more securely." He pushed at the flimsy boards. "I can hammer some in later, I guess." He turned back towards the other wall, where the doorway to the stairs was a box of light. "We can go back, I’m sure we’ll find something later."

Sakura walked her way around the boxes and clutter to the staircase, not liking being the leader, but glad that Syaoran was right behind her. She reached the stairs and was happily greeted by the light from the stair windows. She stopped and pointed out one of them, once the stairs were high enough to look out of. "See, that hallway over there?"

Syaoran peered out. "Yeah. This place must be pretty old." They turned and went into her room, closing the door behind them. Sakura unintentionally whacked her arm against the back of the door, causing a great stinging pain in her arm. She cringed, though trying to hide it. Syaoran looked at her sympathetically. "You should wrap that up, again. Do you have any peroxide? It needs to be cleaned out, really."

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, I have some in here. She walked over to her bathroom and looked under the sink. Since she hadn’t brought that many things with her, there was only a few things under the sink: extra soap, some toothpaste, and some peroxide. She grabbed some extra toilet paper to use as a surface to pour the peroxide in. She went back into the main room with her retreived items. Sakura handed them to Syaoran, then walked over to her desk. She had two chairs, they might as well sit down. Syaoran followed her over, then Sakura stuck out her arm.

He poured the peroxide on the paper, then looked up reluctantly. "This will probably sting-" alot. He pushed the paper down on Sakura’s cut, hoping it didn’t hurt too much for her sake.

Sakura clenched her teeth, the intense stinging driving her mad. The corner of her eyes watered, not like crying tears, but just a reaction to the sting. The peroxide sizzled into white bubbles, when Syaoran lifted the paper off her arm. Sakura tried to concentrate on them. "It kind of looks like snow." She commented weakly.

Syaoran grinned as he poured stuff on another peice of paper. He looked up and met her pleading eyes. She shouldn’t make me feel so horrible, I am trying to make her better! Then again, it must hurt badly. I would take her pain if I could. "One more time, I promise. It shouldn’t hurt half as much as the first time. It’s really good we are cleaning it, it’s already badly infected." Sakura nodded then watched him press the paper down on her arm.

He was right. The lasting effects of the other time masked some of the pain on this clean. Sakura bit her teeth together again. Her arm felt cold now, though she could feel the warmth of Syaoran’s hand supporting it. He took the paper off and wadded it up with the other one, then threw it into Sakura’s trash. He smiled at her. "Didn’t hurt so bad, did it?"

Sakura smiled weakly. "No, not that bad."

Syaoran looked around the room for the ace bandadge she had thrown down. He spotted it on the floor and picked it up. "Do you have any bandaids to put under this?"

Sakura nodded. " I think so, lemme go see."

She got up and left the room, heading for the main bathroom across the hall. She went in and looked in the cabinents behind the mirror. She found some with little cartoons on them, and not finding any others, she figured that would have to suffice.

She came back in the room, seeing that Syaoran was eyeing Bob, who was still in the same spot in his jar, hanging out in his large caccoon. "It’s so sad he won’t live long after he comes out. I want so badly to bring him to a place with other butterflies, but I know that’d be impossible. He’d probably die before we got him there." Sakura said, sitting down.

Syaoran nodded, though inside he didn’t like the thought of Bob making heirs. It’s amazing how caring she is, even about bugs. He took the bandaids from her and stared at them. "This was all you had?"

Sakura nodded sheepishly.

"Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s gonna be under the other thing, anyway." Syaoran made a sturdy X with the bandaids, then picked the other bandadge off his leg. He wrapped around, tighter this time, so it would stay on, and not look so bulky. He tried to get it as straight as he could.

Sakura watched him wrap up her arm, amazed at how concentrated he was. He’s so into wrapping my arm-maybe he enjoys bandaids or something? Syaoran felt her eyes on him, and he glanced up at her as he finished up wrapping, their eyes met for a second of silence. Sakura smiled and looked away, embaressed to get caught staring. Syaoran looked back at the bandadge, securing it before sitting back. "All done. You’ll have to clean that every day for a week, now that it’s so infected."

Sakura nodded. "Okay, thank you very much!" Sakura smiled, but now realized they had nothing to do; they had looked for the ghost and not found it, and now they were finished cleaning her cut up. I guess he wants to go home now. I am not sure. "Are your cuts all healed, the ones from the States?"

Syaoran nodded, mildly blushing from the concern. "Yeah, they are fine now."

Sakura smiled. "That’s good." There was silence for a moment. "I guess you can go home now, if you want. I mean, we have done everything we could, and I am sure I’ll be fine tonight."

Syaoran frowned. I thought she had figured out I was staying to make sure the ghost didn’t get her tonight! Well this is awkward. How can I say ‘i was planning to stay the night’ without putting her in an awkward position as well? "I can’t just leave you here alone!"

Kero glared, watching their whole conversation with disgust. Does she actually like that kid? "Hey, I’m here! She’s completly safe with me!"

Both Sakura and Syaoran sweatdropped. "You can’t be a very good gaurd if you fall asleep!" Syaoran said.

Kero pouted and crossed his arms. "Whatever."

"Well what exactly did you have in mind, Syaoran?" Sakura asked, amazed and touched by his concern for her.

Syaoran fidgeted. I can’t say ‘I was going to sleep over’, God knows what she’ll think I meant by that, but.. "Kero and I can take shifts to gaurd. It’s no big deal." There we go, that was good wording. "That is, of course, if you don’t mind."

Sakura was now even more amazed with him. "No, it’s not that I mind, but you can’t stay up all night watching me sleep!" Who knows what I do in my sleep! "We have school tommorrow, and you are already tired as it is..."

Syaoran tried to read inbetween the lines. "If you don’t want me to stay, just say so." He said, angry that she would turn him down in such a hard to figure out way.

Sakura frowned. How did he come to that conclusion? "NO! I mean-I didn’t mean that, err..." Why did I have to say ‘no’ so loudly? Now he will think that I really want him to stay. "You can stay, Syaoran, I just meant, ...that you shouldn’t have to stay up all night just for me, that’s all." Sakura had to force the last sentence out of her mouth, her shyness almost keeping her from saying what she felt.

Syaoran felt bad for thinking she had been saying something between the lines. She actually meant that. So she really does care about me. "Yeah, it’s probably for the best."

Sakura nodded. Kero was sad to hear Sakura accept him. "I still think I could have handled it." He looked sadly at Sakura’s wrapped up arm. "I am so sorry, Sakura! I really wish I could have beat that ghost up when I had the chance." He sighed and let his mind wander off.

Sakura smiled, hearing the sincerity in Kero’s voice. Sakura looked at her watch, then was sad to see they still had a few hours until supper. "We have a while until supper." She said aloud. What can we do for two hours?

Sakura brightened with an idea. "Hey, do you want to go do some stuff in the big gymnastic room?"

"The dojo?" Syaoran corrected her.

Sakura laughed it off. "Whatever. We can go use some of Uncle Guan’s stuff, he’s got all kinds of fighting things in there." Sakura looked down at her outfit, seeing she was still in her school uniform. Syaoran was as well. "Well, I need to change clothes, do you have any extras with you?"

Syaoran nodded, glad he had brought his bookbag with him. Sakura walked over to her closet and yanked out a tshirt, then a pair of tear-aways (pants that buttoned all the way up the sides), great to wear over shorts in gymnastics. "Okay, you can change in that bathroom across the hall.’

Syaoran nodded, trying to hide his blushing cheeks. He marched away out of the room and into the bathroom across the hall. He shut the door and looked around the large bathroom. It had a huge oldfashioned tub in it, it looked like it had been imported from France. The walled all looked new, possibly refurnished. The counters and sink were spotless, nothing to show a family lived here. Syaoran unzipped his bookbag and pulled out the clothes he had left from soccer practice a week ago. Luckily, the practice had been cancelled, so the clothes weren’t dirty, Syaoran just hadn’t gotten to taking them out of his bag yet.

He put on a green Adidas tshirt, then pulled on some long black silk shorts. I’m glad I was going to dress well to that practice. Syaoran threw his uniform clothes into his bookbag, then left the bathroom. Sakura wasn’t out yet, and Syaoran wanted to avoid uncomfortable situations as much as possible, so he decided to wait for her in the hall. Sakura emerged a second later in a yellow tshirt and black tear-aways. Syaoran tried to keep from staring at her, he was so used to seeing her in either school uniform, or like in the old days, Tomoyo’s strange costumes, that he found it hard not to notice the difference of how she looked in normal clothes.

They walked down to the dojo quietly, Kero quietly sitting on Sakura’s shoulder, until Kero hopped up into standing position. He abruptly flew away and into the bathroom, not saying anything, but the panicked look on his face giving Sakura an idea of what was going on. She shook her head. "He knows not to eat expired food."

Syaoran didn’t say anything, inside he found the whole thing kind of amusing. He waited for Sakura to open the door, then looked around with bright eyes at the room. It wasn’t quiet as dusty as it was the last time he was here, and there were now mats laying across the floor. He looked to the left of the door and saw a mountain of different weapons and training aides laying in front of the closet. Sakura smiled and walked over to the assortment of things.

"I found all this stuff last night when I was putting down the mats. I don’t know what half of the stuff is, but I am sure you would know." Sakura said, picking up a block of wood on a string.

Syaoran walked over and took it out of her hands. "This is a nunchucku. People swing it around and hit things with the block of wood."

Sakura looked at the object, amazed such a simple device could be a weapon. "Do you know how to use it?"

Syaoran nodded. "A little bit, I didn’t do much training with weapons other than swords." He fiddled with the rope.

Sakura was curious to see how it worked. "Can you show me? I mean, if you don’t mind?"

Syaoran nodded reluctantly, not wanting to make a fool of himself, but not letting that show on the outside. He flipped the rope around with his hand, making figure eights with the wood as it spun around. "See you get it going like this-" He looked around for something to hit. To the side of the pile of junk lay a punching target. "Then you hit it like this." Syaoran seemed to flick his wrists, and the block of wood lurched out and nailed the center of the target. Sakura stared at this with wide eyes.

"That’s amazing! Can I try?" Sakura knew that Syaoran made everything look easy, but this looked particularly easy, she might be able to learn it.

Syaoran nodded, taking the rope and handing it to her. "Now hold it like this-" He fixed her hands into the proper position, trying to keep his blushing under control. Sakura couldn’t help but feel his hands on hers, but trying to keep concentrated, she blocked it out with all her might. Syaoran stood back. "Okay, now swing it around, but be careful, it’s really easy to hit yourself in the head with it."

Sakura tried to swing it around without dramatically moving her arms, but the wood seemed heavier than it looked. Syaoran sighed and moved her hands straight again. "Keep them like this. If you move them, you are sure to hit yourself in the head. You want to be able to use the least amount of power for the greatest amount of force." Sakura tried spinning it again, but the wood just wouldn’t complete the full circle. Sakura looked at Syaoran sideways as she continued to try. Syaoran walked over again, his patience clearly deteriorating. He tried to move her wrists from her side, but couldn’t reach both of them, and found no alternative but to stand behind her and move her wrists from there (which means he had to unintentionally hug her ^ ^ ).

"Loosen you wrists a second." He said, trying to concentrate on giving instructions, although finding it rather hard while being this close to her-he was practically talking over her shoulder.

Sakura let her wrists loose, which was easy since she was already weak in her knees and other vital joints. Sakura’s attention was completly somewhere else now, she found it hard not to think about how close she was to Syaoran. Still, he seemed to be professional, so she should be too.

Syaoran moved her wrists around. "Like that. That’s how you are going to get it to move easy." As he moved her wrists, the block of wood went into a full fast circle. "Got it?" He asked, completly ready to stand a safe distance away again.

"Yeah." Sakura said, a bit weakly since the rest of her body was a bit weak.

"Okay, I am going to let go, you have to keep this going by yourself." Syaoran said.

"Uh-huh." Sakura said. Syaoran let go and quickly moved over to her side again, breathing more regularly. Syaoran couldn’t beleive himself for going so soupy. I have taught Meilin the same thing, it never bother me to stand close to her like that. Maybe it’s because I have sincerely hugged Sakura before and...Syaoran forced his attention back to Sakura, who was improving her sloppy circle by the second.

Sakura found the rythm of the weapon rather nicely. "So how do I hit?" She tried to fling it, but it backfired and the wood nailed her right in her gut. Sakura fell onto her butt in shock for a second, then got up, slowly straightening out.

Syaoran looked at her with pity, worry, and smugness all at once. "Are you alright?"

Sakura nodded, standing normal withing a matter of seconds. "Yeah." She laughed it off, imagining how stupid she must have looked-being pushed down to the ground by a block of wood.

Sakura looked at her watch and saw they had somehow wasted away an hour fiddling with the nunchucku. Only one hour to go. Entertaining Syaoran is really hard.

______________________________________________________________________

Sakura was about to gag on the kremps her Uncle had Chindra make. Today was French day, in light of yesterday’s language mishap. Today Uncle Guan had read some French or something when Sakura was in school, because he was completly baffling Sakura and Syaoran.

"Vu le veux un task d’eau?" Uncle Guan repeated for the third time.

Sakura smiled weakly. "Uncle, we really don’t understand French. Can you please talk so we can understand?"

Her uncle shook his head, disappointed. "I thought you could at least follow that easy sentence. You just wait till I start talking egyptian like-Chindra’s going to teach me all kinds of words."

Sakura’s uncle had seemed like he knew Syaoran was already there; he wasn’t surprised to see him at supper. Syaoran had been quiet since he taught Sakura how to use the nunchucku. Sakura wasn’t sure, but she thought Syaoran was subdued by their sappy weapon experience.

Chindra came in with a tray of water, ready to serve. She had an annoyed expression, Uncle Guan waved it away. "Chindra, they don’t understand. Just give them the glasses of water."

Sakura smiled weakly, her uncle was so strange. Chindra set the glasses in front of them, then ran into the kitchen, hearing a sizzle sound. Uncle Guan laughed merrily. "Those kremps, you can’t leave them on the grill long or they’ll burn."

The kremps were like flat pancakes, if you have never had them before, and Uncle Guan had wrapped ham and cheese in them. The past few days Sakura hadn’t eaten very much.

Chindra came in with another tray of half burnt kremps. She set them down in the center of the table, then sat down, exhausted.

Sakura watched her, still suspicious of the quiet character. Chindra payed no attention to Sakura, but made frequent glances Syaoran’s way.

A loud crash caught all of their attention. It was a distance away, definatly aways from the kitchen. Uncle Guan looked alert, and Chindra even more so. She glanced worriedly at Uncle Guan, then hurried out of the room towards the sound. Sakura was about to follow when Uncle Guan reassured them that Chindra could handle it.

________________________________________________________________

Keroberus was bothering Syaoran about some unimportant matter. Sakura was trying to set up beds in the dojo, Kero had insisted on somewhere for him to transform , and the dojo seemed the biggest and best room.

"It’s gluttony. It’s a sin, and a sign of a very weak person. You can’t hold yourself back from a bag of doughnuts, how do you expect to hold Sakura back from fighting?"

Keroberus roared, and for a second Syaoran went a bit pale, thought he stood his ground. Sakura stopped what she was doing and glared at them. "You guys, quit! Keroberus, you know you can’t roar! I don’t like having you transformed here anyway, what if they see you!? Besides, I doubt they would think Syaoran or I made that noise. Be quiet! If you want something to do, help me set these blankets up."

Keroberus hung his head, Syaoran scowled. They walked over and picked up a blanket, then somehow made it into competition. Syaoran was throwing the blankets down with superb speed, and Kero dragged them over with his mouth with swiftness.

Sakura stood back and let the competition role, hoping they would finish the beds while the competition was still going. They each reached the last blanket at the same time, and Keroberus, noticing this, stuck his large paw in Syaoran’s way, trying to trip him.

Syaoran deftly lept over his paw and threw the blanket across the bed, finishing before Kero could recover and throw his blanket across. Syaoran collapsed into sitting position, smiling widely, and Keroberus had his paws over his big head, pouting again.

Sakura was happy to see the beds finished. "Thanks guys!" She said brightly, straigthening out the blanket on Kero’s bed, which got a sad squeak from him.

Sakura looked down at her watch. I am not that tired, but it’s getting late. Sakura looked at Syaoran, who looked a bit tired. "Do you guys have your shifts figured out?"

Keroberus nodded. "The brat has the late one and I have the first one."

" ‘kay. Well I am going to sleep, I don’t know about you." Sakura pulled at her pants, wanting to sleep in the shorts underneath. She sat down on her bed, which was a long way from where the other now lay. Syaoran was pulling it to his own spot, and Keroberus was settling down in the corner. "Don’t get too comfortable Kero, you might fall asleep."

Kero shook his big head. "Keroberus does not fall asleep on gaurd."

Sakura hoped this was true, but figured that between the three of them, they could stay safe. Sakura walked over to the light switch and turned it off, then walked half blindly to her bed, the darkness making it hard to see. Sakura sat down and pulled her covers over her, but was not tired. She turned over and stared at the outline of things that were on the floor in front of the closet.

Syaoran was not sleeping either, he had no intention to. Keroberus’s eyes alredy looked droopy. Syaoran lay on his back, so he could see to both sides of him.

____________________________________________________________________

A horrible fate. That is what the ghost wants you to have. That’s why this is happening.

Sakura opened her eyes and saw only the dark ceiling. She tried to rid her memory of the dream, but it was already falling into the back of her mind on its own. Sakura sat up and looked around the room, her eyes seeing more easily in the dark now that she had closed them for so long.

She saw Keroberus’s outline from the moonlight. She looked over towards Syaoran, and saw him staring into space, sitting against the wall. He brought his mind back and looked at Sakura. "What is it, do you sense any magic?"

Sakura shook her head. "Is it already that late? It’s your gaurd already?"

Syaoran shook his head. "Keroberus fell asleep - on his own."

Sakura sighed. "Oh. Well you should wake him up, you need to sleep."

Syaoran shook his head and sat silent. Sakura was awake now, she didn’t feel like sleeping. She slightly hoped that the ghost would come, because now Syaoran was here waiting for it. Sakura sat up and pulled the blankets off her legs. The air was cold, but it felt good. She looked down at her watch but couldn’t see it without any light. Her glow button was no longer working.

Syaoran stayed in the dark corner, speaking coolly. "You should sleep, you need to rest so your cut will heal quickly."

Sakura was taken aback from his order. "I can’t sleep. Do you know what time it is?"

"No. It’s probably about midnight." Syaoran said, seeing the moon’s position out the window.

Sakura sighed, the night still had a long way to go. She layed back down on top of her blankets, trying to sleep. She was finally near sleep when a quiet noise dragged her into consciousness.

It was scratching, Sakura was sure of it. She looked quickly over to Syaoran, who was now crawling over to her. He had his sword ready in one hand. "Is that it?"

Sakura nodded, looking around the room. "It’s farther away then normal."A sense of magic immediatly hit her, she felt it stronger then ever. She looked at Syaoran, trying to determine if he felt it too.

"Do you feel that?"

Syaoran shook his head. "No, what is it? Magic?"

Sakura nodded, then bravely jumped to her feet. "We have to find it, I don’t want it to get away."

Syaoran hopped up. "Lead the way, I can’t feel it."

Sakura nodded, then headed to the door, quietly opening it. The hallway was dark, though she could still see the walls on the sides. The large stairs loomed far ahead. Sakura stood waiting for Syaoran to come to her side before she progressed.

She concentrated as deeply as she could, and felt the magic coming past the stairs. She passed her normal bedroom, but couldn’t look in because the door was shut. Sakura led the way down the stairs, glad they didn’t creak. She reached the bottom and was amazed at how dark it was in the main entry room. Sakura looked into the open rooms that branched off of it, but they were dark, and she couldn’t see past their doorway. Sakura lost the strong sense for a second.

"I can’t feel it anymore, It’s gone!" Sakura said, panicking. Another wave hit her, and she immediatly ran after the direction. She didn’t look the way she was going, she just followed her sense. She sprinted hard, her legs went swiftly and her feet hit silently on the carpet, her bare feet eluding all sound. Sakura stopped and found herself in front of a large door. She looked behind her, and didn’t see Syaoran.

For a moment she panicked. She became aware of her surroundings, slowly realizing where she was. She recognized the red carpeted stone hall, the dark windows, the way it curved into the darkness. Sakura slowly walked away from the door, looking for Syaoran.

Footsteps were coming rapidly ahead of her. She reached where the the narrow hall hit the large hall she was in in the T. Syaoran slid out in front of her, stopping just before he hit the wall. He quickly turned to Sakura. "I have never seen anyone run that fast." He was breathing hard.

Sakura frowned. "I didn’t know where I was going, I just by my senses."

Syaoran pulled his hair out of his eyes. "You are using your cards without even knowing it. The Dash card was making you run fast."

Sakura smiled. She wasn’t breathing hard at all, she realized. Syaoran must have run really fast to keep up with me. "I think it’s coming from the room with the stream."

Syaoran led the way now, his sword scouting out the front. They approached the door slowly. Syaoran reached for the door handle and pulled it open.

Sakura walked into the room first. She looked at the stream and saw a raging river. "It’s flooded!" She ran over to the edge of the stream, standing in the ankle deep water, her feet cold without shoes. The stone walls glowed with a dull light, moonlight being pulled in under the wall where the water passed through. The water was moving swiftly, and the steppings stones that led across seemed to have been swept away.

Syaoran walked to the edge of the water and stopped just before his feet touched the water. "Sakura, get out of there! The water is the magic!"

Sakura frowned, then started running out. Though it was only a few steps to where Syaoran stood safely on the side, but just as she picked her foot up, water snaked around her ankle, pulling her down. The sudden jerk brought her down to her stomach.

Syaoran almost jumped into the water, but knew that was foolish. He searched around quickly for something to throw out to her before she was pulled away. Nothing but his sword was around. Syaoran grabbed the sharp end of his sword and stuck the handle out for Sakura to grab.

Sakura quickly reached up and got a grip on it. Syaoran bit his teeth together, the part of his blade cutting into his hands. He threw his weight back and tried to pull her out, but the water’s strength was too great.

Syaoran let one hand off the sword and pulled a card out of his pocket. This has to work. I don’t know what I’ll do if it doesn’t. "Wind, come to my aid!" A little breeze came off it, but it couldn’t be determined whether it was the draft from the water or his card. He shouted in frustration and shoved the card aside. He tried to pull her out again, but the strength seemed to be pulling him, not the other way around.

The sword slipped through his already bleeding wounds. Syaoran got a better grip on it, a new spot on his hands. He pulled hard, but nothing happened. Instead, the sword was completly pulled out of his hands. He was almost pulled in, but he caught himself just in time. Sakura was pulled into the full deep water, and disappeared under the wall. Syaoran stood alone now, frustrated, his anger powering him.

"ARGH!" Syaoran pounded his wounded hands into the ground, then looked up at the water. He knew the only thing to do, he was going to follow her.

Syaoran jumped over all the ankle deep water, he landed straight into a dive, heading for Sakura’s direction.

He was underwater a long time, soon he was worried hee would never surface, but just as he lost hope he surfaced into cold air. Syaoran felt the water slow down, and he looked around for Sakura. He saw a figure ahead of him, half up the side of the stream.

"Sakura!" He shouted, now swimming down the stream by his own power.

Sakura pulled Syaoran’s heavy sword out of the water, then was more then delighted to see Syaoran. Syaoran pulled himself out of the water, only to be greeted by the harsh cold late November air. He dropped his own concerns and made sure Sakura was alright.

"Are you okay?" He asked, taking his sword from her.

Sakura nodded. "Just scared. I don’t understand. The Water was still mine!"

Syaoran softened. "I don’t know. I am sure we will figure something out." He looked around at the dead trees that surrounded them. "Where are we?" The ghost didn’t use the Move card on us again I hope!

"The Courtyard. See the broken wall over there?" Sakura pointed across the stream.

Syaoran looked over and saw the ruined stones. "At least we know where we are. Let’s get inside before you get sick."

Sakura laughed weakly. "Me, sick? You were in the water too."

Syaoran shrugged. "Come on, let’s go." He got to his feet, stiff from the cold.

Sakura got up and tried to stand lightly on her feet, they were bare, and the ground was covered in sticks and pine needles. Syaoran got up also.

Sakura looked wide-eyed at Syaoran’s hands. "Syaoran! Did you do that when you were holding on to the sword?"

Syaoran looked down at his hands. They were torn apart across his palms, the cuts were fairly deep. He nodded quietly. "It’s not as bad as it looks. Come on, let’s get inside."

Sakura’s eyes were watery around the corners, but Syaoran didn’t see in the dark. He did that without even thinking, and it didn’t even work. His hands are going to hurt for weeks. Sakura followed him slowly, they made their way along the side of the stream. They got to the end of the stream , at a solid wall. The stream slipped under it, but they had no way to get under it.

"There has to be a door somewhere." Sakura said, looking down the wall, but the dark didn’t allow her to see very far. Syaoran was leaning against the wall. Sakura could tell that though he was keeping his eyes open, he was horribly exhausted. "Maybe if we sit down and think, we can figure something out."

Syaoran nodded, and they sat down against the wall. Sakura thought of an easy idea. "We could use the Through Card."

As she said the last card, the air seemed to moisten, and water was sprinkling down on them. Sakura jumped up in alarm as the stream beside them rose up over their heads in a stationary wave. Sakura backed up, trying to get away before the wave could make its move. Syaoran hopped to his feet and faced the wave next to Sakura.

They stood still, grounded in their spot, waiting for the water to make its move. The water seemed to have a similar strategy, as it towered up in front of them, not moving from it’s surging spot.

"Use firey or freeze card!" Syaoran shouted over the water’s rushing noise. Sakura nodded and pulled out her cards. The freeze seemed dull, so the fiery was probably their best chance. Sakura turned her key into a staff, then held Fiery out.

"Fiery! Destroy the-" As Sakura yelled her order, the water came crashing down, knocking Sakura off her feet. The water quickly leveled to the ground, leaving Sakura sitting wet on the soaked muddy earth. She shuddered with cold, the freezing water resoaking her bones.

Syaoran had kept his footing, and was staring at the wave, which was turned into Watery’s true form. Watery was staring at Sakura, who sat unaware on the ground. Watery’s eyes met Syaoran’s, then she raced down to hit Sakura. Syaoran sprinted to meet her, but Watery was faster. Sakura looked up just barely too late, and was swept into the water, then thrown heavily into a tree. Sakura fell onto her knees, as the water disappeared into the ground around her. Sakura could hardly breath, she had hit the tree so hard, and the force had knocked the wind out of her. Syaoran ran to her side immediatly.

"Are you okay!?" He asked quickly, keeping his eyes glued for Watery’s next appearance.

Sakura tried to nod, but found any movement close to impossible. Syaoran leaned over her, not able to give her his full attention, but his concern showing all the same. "I am going to move you, okay?" Syaoran said.

Sakura attempted another nod, so Syaoran gently picked her up and quickly brought her further down the wall. He set her down as carefully as he could, then turned back towards the water. "I’ll be right back."

Syaoran ran evasively over to the water’s edge, prepared for anything to pop out. He saw Watery hovering over the stream, like a bird looking for prey. Syaoran had to avenge Sakura, he had a fire in him that burned to be set loose. He dodged around some dead tree branches, then kicked into the air, doing a flying kick straight into Watery’s form. Since it was water, he went straight through it, but landed safely on the other side of the stream. The kick had done its job in getting Watery’s attention, so Syaoran had to think quick from here on.

He had run into battle without a plan, and winging it wasn’t the greatest battle tactic. Syaoran looked quickly around for some natural defense, but saw nothing that could really come to his advantage. Watery grinned and collected herself, then shot down tiny pellets of water. Syaoran sheilded his face with his arms, then turned to run. He ran out of the shot distance, then thought for another plan. He looked at the large trees that stood over the stream, and knew they would have to have some use.

Syaoran carefully made his way over, knowing that if Watery forsaw his plan, it would be ruined. When he was close enough, Syaoran ran over to a tree and hacked his sword into it with everything he had, knowing this blow would determine victory or defeat.

The tree crashed down across the Watery, pushing her into the stream under. Syaoran ran across the temporary bridge and hit his sword into the opposite tree. He had used up so much strength in the last hit, that the sword didn’t make it all the way through. Syaoran kicked the tree hard, and it teetered, finally falling across the other tree. Watery’s face shone in the stream below, but disappeared. The stream subsided into it’s normal depth and current, and all motion ceased to move.

Syaoran collapsed onto his knees and took the situation in for a second. He had just cut down a tree with a single blow of his sword. How is that possible? I didn’t know that I had that kind of strength, even at my best moment. Syaoran wanted to pass out right there, but forced himself to stay awake, and dragged his body over to where Sakura sat against the wall. Sakura looked up at him, her eyes asking the questions her mouth was unable to ask. Syaoran didn’t say anything, but fell next to her, sitting heavily against the stone wall. He leaned his head back and looked up at the starless sky.

Sakura watched Syaoran. He looked beat up and close to unconsciousness, yet he still moved. Sakura found it a bit hard to breath, let alone speak, so she was unable to ask him what had happened. She only saw bits and peices from where she was. She had heard Syaoran shout something, then heard some crashes, but nothing clear had made it to her ears. Syaoran was about to pass out when Sakura finally forced herself to speak.

"We have to get inside." She was right. Her hair was stiff and frozen, so she could only imagine how cold her body temperature was. Syaoran looked very pale, though it was hard to tell with only the slight glow the moon provided.

Syaoran nodded, then slowly got to his feet, unsteady at first. He had completly run out of fuel; he had used up all his reserve, also. Sakura watched him sadly, knowing he was at no point to help her get back. Sakura forced herself on her knees, stifling a groan.

She pulled out her cards. "Return card-" She said weakly, hardly managing to speak above a whisper. "Please, return us to my room."

Wind swept around them, then in an instant they were set down lightly onto Sakura’s stone floor. Sakura put the card away and looked at her bed, then realized she had taken them to the wrong room. "Sorry." She said. She dragged her feet over to the door, then walked into the dark hallway. Syaoran and her seemed to take forever to walk the hallway back to the dojo. When they finally reached it, Syaoran’s walk had become stiff, and Sakura was hardly doing anything more than shuffling her feet.

Sakura hardly remembered to close the door behind her, all she could do was look toward her bed, low as it was to the ground. She fell onto it, then fell asleep just seconds after she hit the floor. The rest of the light could not have gone by faster, Sakura could have slept for a week straight.

_______________________________________________

Sakura finally woke up, the blinding sunlight streaming in through the single window in the dojo. At first she had to determine whether everything that happened last night was not just another dream. After she remembered everything well enough, she tried to sit up off her stomach. Her ribs ached horribly, and her stomach muscles were screaming with pain. She rolled over onto her back to save pain, then bumped into something.

She looked over and Syaoran scowling and squinting at her, all at the same time. He looked as if he was woken after a hundred years of hibernation. Sakura rolled back over and laughed, then said "Ow" because the laughing made her stomach hurt awfully. This just made her laugh harder, which started the cycle over again.

Syaoran looked over at his pile of blankets, which were off to his right. Syaoran wasn’t quite sure how he had rolled off this way, but he wanted to go back and go to sleep. He army-crawled back over and pulled a cover over his head, avoiding the bright sunlight.

Sakura looked at her watch and screeched. "We are late for school!" When she spoke, her stomach muscles hated her.

Syaoran didn’t move, but tried to sleep all the more. Sakura crawled over and yanked on his blanket. Syaoran glared at her, now the sun hitting his eyes again. He rolled over onto his stomach and hid his face in the pillow.

"We’re like three hours- ow." She held a hand up to her stomach.

Syaoran couldn’t beleive her. "You actually think we are going to go to school today, after we practically went unconscious?" He said, his voice muffled by the pillow.

Sakura suddenly realized that there was another alternative. "Of course, I don’t think-" She stopped talking, it hurting her stomach too much.

Syaoran didn’t move, but seemed to fall asleep already. Sakura felt a bit tired, but not that much. She attempted to get up, but ended up crawling over to Kero instead. Keroberus lay in the same corner, comfortable, unharmed from any events last night. Sakura decided not to wake him, she wasn’t up to answering questions.

Sakura sneezed, then after that went into a bit of a sneezing fit. Finally she stopped, and was cringed over her ribs, aching from all the muscles used in the sneeze. She looked over to see if this waked Keroberus, but he remained asleep.

"I told you you’d get a cold." Syaoran’s muffled voice said.

Sakura frowned and layed back on her bed. "At least I’m not too sick." Sakura shivered and pulled the covers over her, finding that she was very cold. She figured if she wasn’t going to school, she might as well catch up on rest. She slept for another good six hours before waking again.

When she woke, the sun was almost at the opposite spot it was the last time she had woken up. Keroberus was now Kero, and he was playing ping pong with himself against the wall. Sakura still didn’t want to talk to him, but rather thank Syaoran properly for his protection last night. She didn’t remember anything after she was moved away from the tree. All she remembered was that Syaoran had moved her, she couldn’t remember much about that, even.

Sakura looked over at Syaoran. He had his back to her, but was breathing evenly and looked asleep. Sakura glanced down at her watch and was surprised to see it was an hour till suppertime. Sakura wasn’t sure how she was going to manage this, because she couldn’t explain her cuts to Uncle Guan, therefore she couldn’t explain why she didn’t go to school, and then she couldn’t explain why Syaoran was still here.

I can just let him sleep here through supper. Uncle Guan never comes upstairs, so that won’t be a problem. I wonder if I should wake him and tell him? Sakura felt more rested. Getting up still hurt horribly, but she was able to get onto her feet without collapsing. She was a bit dizzy as well, but she walked over to Syaoran’s side, then knelt down.

To her surprise, Syaoran was awake, but looking down somewhere, not yet looking up at Sakura, or acknowledging her presence. "I am going to go to supper soon. Do you want me to bring you anything?"

Syaoran finally looked up. Sakura hadn’t really payed attention to his appearance, but now that she looked, his face was dirt stained, and his hair was still stiff. Sakura gasped as she saw one of his hands outside his blanket. She picked it up and studied the cuts. "It looks worse." His hand was just ever so slightly larger than hers, Sakura noticed, his fingers were long and slender, very good for instruments like the piano. Sakura set his hand down and looked at him with concern.

"Honestly, are you going to be okay? What did you do last night? I can’t remember much." She picked at a loose nail while she waited for him to asnwer.

"Alot of my magic was used, that’s all. I just need some rest." Syaoran said, leaving Sakura insane with his general answers.

She couldn’t just let this be, she wanted to know what happened. "What happened? Can’t you tell me?"

"I can’t now, okay?" Syaoran tried to be as patient as he could with her. He knew she had no clue how hard he had tried to fight for her, and he was glad she didn’t, or else she would be driving him crazy with all her gratitude, but he wished she would just let him sleep for the moment.

Sakura nodded, smiling as warmly as she could. "Sorry, I am just curious, that’s all. Do you want anything to eat?"

Syaoran shook his head. Sakura nodded, then quietly left the room. She sucked it in and prepared herself to fake a normal appearance.

_________________________________________________________________

Uncle Guan wasn’t very talkitive today, he had forgotten his accent for the day, and Sakura was thanking her lucky star he chose today to do it. She escaped the after supper talking and left Uncle Guan with Chindra. Chindra had been staring alot at Sakura through the dinner, Sakura wasn’t quiet sure if Chindra had seen something last night or not.

At the moment, Sakura didn’t really care, so she walked back to her room, then collapsed on the real mattress. She hadn’t realized how hard the blanketed floor was, but this mattress was incredibly comfortable. Poor Syaoran. I should let him sleep here. Then again, I wouldn’t mind having a bed to myself. Maybe I’ll accidentally fall asleep here for a little while. My ribs hurt really bad, and he’s probably asleep in the other room. Sakura scolded herself for her selfishness and prepared herself to sit up.

"Sakura-chan!" She heard her uncle’s voice echo from downstairs. Sakura rolled over and walked hurriedly out of the room.

"Yes, uncle?" Sakura made her way down the stairs.

"Sakura-chan, come try this pie."

Sakura came into veiw of the kitchen, and saw her Uncle and Chindra sitting at the table with plates in front of them. Sakura walked over and surveyed the plate of pie. It looked to be a chocolate mousse of some sort. "What is it?"

Her uncle shrugged. "We’re not sure. Chindra just started baking and here’s the outcome." The three of them stared at the pie for a few long seconds.

Uncle Guan was the first to move, he grabbed a peice and bit into it. His expression seemed good enough, so Sakura grabbed herself a peice. She bit into it, then couldn’t beleive how good it was. It had just the right amount of dry cookie things in it, and the mousse was perfectly whipped. Sakura quickly devoured that peice, but didn’t have the stomach for another one just yet, for they were so rich they were almost cloying.

Sakura picked up two more peices and set them on her plate. "Is it okay if I take these with me while I do my homework?" The long sentence died out, her aching lungs and ribs limiting her speech.

Uncle Guan nodded. Chindra reached out for a second peice, but Uncle Guan’s lightening reflexes barred her hand from reaching it. "Let’s save some for later." He eyed her cautiously, as did she, and she slowly drew back her hand. Sakura had to smother a laugh as she left the room.

Sakura passed her bedroom and set out to the dojo. She figured Kero would love to have a peice, and Syaoran might appreciate it as well. Sakura quietly slipped into the room, then noticed that Syaoran was already up.

He was sitting up on his bed, and he had all of his cards in an array in front of him. He looked up at Sakura. "I was trying to collect some magic to use, but..."

Sakura knelt down beside him, sympathizing. "I got some pie. I know you didn’t want anything, but it’s really good."

Syaoran looked at peice of pie. He shook his head. "It does look good, but maybe later." Syaoran looked over at Kero. "He hasn’t woken up at all."

Sakura noticed Keroberus with concern. She got up and walked over to him. She gently shook him, but he remained unchanged. "Kero?" She said softly. Still he didn’t wake. Sakura started to panic. "Kero! Kero wake up!" She shook him faster. Kero still remained asleep. Sakura was thinking that he might be dead. She pressed her ears against his chest, and heard a heartbeat. This was a bit of releif. Sakura shook Kero once more, then looked back at Syaoran.

Syaoran half crawled over, then observed Kero. "Maybe it is a spell?"

Sakura nodded, then looked to her cards for help. "Libra! Show us Kero’s spell if it is present!" Libra formulated, then washed over Kero. The spell became visible. A clock was dropping sand, as the moon revolved around it. Sakura called the Libra back, then looked at Syaoran for a plan.

"We can’t do anything until the spell wears off. I mean-well we could, but we don’t have very much magic right now so..." Syaoran said, answering her unvoiced question.

Sakura frowned in sadness and looked at Kero. "Now even he won’t be able to help me." Does this mean Syaoran could be put under a spell? He can’t leave me! I wouldn’t be able to fight off anything without him!

Syaoran seemed to see her thoughts. "We’ll have to be very careful, this is a very strong spell. Kero has alot of powers, but the ghost was able to surpress them."

Sakura nodded, then looked out the window. It was sunset, and the room could use some extra light. She walked over stiffly to the light switch and turned it on. Syaoran moved back to the wall, leaning against it as he sat. Sakura walked over and sat next to him. "Do you feel any better?"

Syaoran was staring at Kero. "A little." He said quietly.

Sakura looked at his hands. The cuts looked horribly painful. Syaoran noticed her staring and shoved his hands under his knees. Sakura looked up at him. "So what did happen? What did you do to the Watery?"

Syaoran stayed quiet for a moment. "I didn’t hurt it, all I could do was trap it away. Some trees fell on it, then it disappeared. I really didn’t get to do anything at all."

Sakura sighed inwardly. I know he did more than that. Why would he be so tired? "Thank you very much for fighting for me, Syaoran." She said quietly, looking away shyly.

Syaoran tilted his head to see Sakura’s expression, but she was looking away, so he dropped his instinct and spoke blithely. "No problem."

Sakura was surprised and almost disappointed at how indifferent he could be. She decided to switch the conversation to school. "We are going to have a math test to make up tommorrow. Are you planning on going to school?"

Syaoran shrugged. "I don’t know if I will be able to stay awake that long, but I will try."

Sakura tried to sympathize with him. "I remember when I changed everything into Star cards, I was tired all of the time. It was the pits."

Syaoran nodded. His eye lids weighed down, but he forced them to stay open. Meilin is going to give me hell when I get home. How will I ever explain this one to her?

Sakura’s thoughts were running on the same track. "What are you going to tell Meilin?"

Syaoran sighed. "Who knows. I’d use a memory spell on her, but..."

"I don’t have any magic left, I’d give it to you if I could." She was sort of surprised at her boldness to say this, but knew she better stick to her words. Syaoran was quiet beside her.

He spoke after a while. "Is your back okay? You hit the tree really hard."

Sakura blushed, the situation just dragging itself out for too long. "I’m fine. It hurts to talk alot. And laugh. And breath." She half laughed, but kept it low tone, she didn’t want to hurt her aching ribs any more.

Syaoran looked at his own hands, then addressed her answer. "You might have bruised your ribs. If you did, they’ll hurt really bad for a while."

"Thanks." Sakura said sarcastically. She looked at his uncovered hands again. "Should you clean those out? You need to bandadge them or something."

Syaoran shrugged, then felt bad for seeming so dull and indifferent. "I guess I should get some more ace bandadges. I didn’t know we where going to have all these injuries. Had I known, I might have carried some extra bandaids with me."

Sakura shivered, and she realized she was cold. The room went very cold without sunlight, and now it was just starting to sink in. She crawled over and grabbed a blanket from her bed and wrapped it around her, then returned over by Syaoran.

He looked very tired, Sakura was amazed he was still awake. She was still debating about missing another unexcused day at school. "Aren’t you freezing?" Sakura asked between her teeth chattering.

Syaoran shook his head. "You probably have a fever." Syaoran put the back of his hand to her forehead, then took it down abruptly. "You are very hot, you should try and break your fever. You can either make yourself very cold or very hot."

Sakura immediatly picked the better choice. "I am cold right now, so hot sounds good." She grabbed another blanket off Syaoran’s closer bed. "If you don’t mind?" She said as she took it.

Sakura sat comfortably against the wall, the thick wrapping doing a good job in keeping her warm. Sakura pulled her hand out and look at her watch again. "We might as well go to sleep, unless you want to do your math homework."

"I already finished it in class."

Sakura nodded. I should have figured. "Oh. Well you should probably catch up on your sleep. I am going to do my homework." Sakura got up, which was difficult with all of her blankets. She staggered along out of her room, then found her bookbag near the door of her room. She swung it over her shoulder which also proved itself difficult. She walked back to the dojo and set her bookbag down inside the door. She pulled out their Algebra book and then searched for a pencil. Once she found one, she sat down against the wall near where Syaoran sat.

The first couple problems were easy, but after that they started to get harder. Sakura thought about asking Syaoran for help, but he looked really tired, so Sakura just set it aside and figured she would do the other problems later.

________________________________________________________________

Sakura woke up hearing some rustling noise around her. She opened her eyes and found that the room was dark, thought a bit of light streamed in from the door. Sakura noticed that Syaoran was up, he was stuffing away his clothes into his bag. He was already wearing his school uniform, and his hair was wet, so Sakura figured he had taken a shower. Sakura pulled up her watch to see it was only five in the morning.

"Do you always get up this early?" Sakura’s groggy voice startled Syaoran.

"Just sometimes." Syaoran picked up his bag and dragged it to the door. His limbs felt heavy, but he was much more awake since yesterday. He walked over and sat next to Sakura. "Do you want me to leave? It would be a bit strange if people saw us walking to school together and..."

Sakura was slightly hurt. "oh- uh you can if you want, I guess. But I wouldn’t mind company for that long walk." Sakura felt bad about guilting him into staying, but then again, he might of not wanted to leave, he was just trying to be polite.

Syaoran smiled, though it was hard to tell what he was really feeling. He didn’t say anything, he just picked at his hands, pulling at the loose skin.

Sakura frowned and grabbed them from him. "Don’t do that!" She cried.

Syaoran was startled once again with her quick movement. Sakura quickly finished her reasoning. "Here, we might as well bandadge them."

She got up from her bed (which she found her ribs had not improved since yesterday, and her head felt stuffy) and led him out of the room. She made sure the hallway was clear, then went into the steamy bathroom. She pulled out the bandaids that she had used the day before. "Sorry, this is all we have." She laid the bandaids across his hands, which took a good five on each hand to cover up the cuts, then let his hands go. "We can get some good bandadges on the way to school." Syaoran nodded.

Sakura eyed him in the light now. He was clean, but his eyes still looked tired. Sakura felt bad making him walk all the way to school. "How do you feel today?"

Syaoran blushed slightly. "I’m fine, don’t worry." He would have loved to pick at his hands right now, but the bandaids were a little barrier.

"Well we can go get something to eat, then we can leave." Sakura said, leaving the bathroom and breathing more easily out in the open hallway.

Syaoran followed her down the steps, in thought. Sakura is going to be without Kero’s help for a long while, and the ghost is only getting stronger. I am getting weaker, but I have to be able to fight for her! But how do I fight a ghost? I cannot cause any physical damage, or can I?

Sakura didn’t know, but she was unconsciously hearing his thoughts. "How do you fight a ghost?"

Syaoran was surprised. How did she know I was thinking about that? Was it just coicidence? I’d better check my thoughts, she might hear something I don’t want her to hear. "I was thinking the same thing myself."

Sakura smiled, entering the kitchen. "Were you? It’s just that, if a ghost isn’t real, or at least isn’t solid, how do you hurt it?"

Syaoran, since he had already been thinking about this, had a prepared solution. "Well, it just depends what kind of ghost it is. It might be stuck between worlds, like they say, and has to avenge themselves before they pass on, or it might be chained or bounded to another afterlife. She could be condemned to hell, we can’t really be sure until we hear her talk a bit more."

Sakura found his answer a bit intriguing. She had never thought that ghosts had different classifications. She always thought, a ghost is a ghost. Still, a blank spot remained in the answer. Just how do you fight a ghost?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

HAHA! Longest chapter yet again. They just get longer and longer. I can’t help it, I have become addicted to my own story. Somehow I transformed from a normal cardcaptor fan into some freak fanatic that spends all her spare time with a laptop in front of her. I drove somewhere with my friend, and the whole ride I had the laptop up on my lap, writing this chapter. So there you have it. The end is dragged out, the talking and stuff after the fighting is boring, I just kept trying to make a transition in scene but it never happened. Well next chapter. This one was very sappy and S + S, but at least I finally have them getting along. You know me though, there is never an extensive amount of smooth sailing. I think next chapter will have more school scenes, they have two days to make up! plus next chapter is December- I was trying to get the story in time with the one I am in, it’s almost there. I plan to write about their Christmas the same time I am having Christmas. So you fans, since you know I am such a poor poor kid and am going to have such a feeble Christmas, maybe you all can brighten it with some fan mail??? I’D LOVE IT!

that’s it, I am one step from writing out my Christmas wish list.

Your dedicated fanatic