Episode 23--Shouko
Sakura’s Point of View
“Split up?” I echoed, looking at Syaoran.
He nodded. “We’ll have to. It’ll take up too much time if we all go searching through them individually. We have to do this as soon as we can.”
“Split up?” Kazushi smirked. “Why not just blow it up?”
Meiling turned to him as he reached his hand into his bag. He pulled out…
“A bomb?! Are you stupid?! What kind of retard carries around a bomb in their bag?!” Meiling yelled.
He raised a finger to his lips, and Meiling closed her mouth. He smiled at her and patted her head. “I don’t carry a bomb everywhere with me. It just so happens that there’s demons here and I wanted to be prepared,” he told her.
“Oh, yeah,” Meiling said stupidly, blushing. “Oops.”
Kazushi muttered something like ‘yeah, oops’ as he pulled the pin out and whipped it down the first tunnel. “GET DOWN!”
“REALLY?!” I screamed sarcastically as I dropped to the ground and covered my head with my hands.
The first corridor exploded, sending chunks of rock everywhere. A couple of them grazed past and cut me.
When the commotion finally died down, I peeked up at the destroyed passage. It had actually taken out the second one, as well!
Eriol stared at it. “This doesn’t seem right,” he stated before running down the demolished path, hopping over pieces of stone in his way. He stopped while he was still in sight. He reached out his hand. “I knew it. It’s a barrier they set up! It’s magic, so it wasn’t so easily blown up with the tunnel!” he called back to us.
“What? So then…should we blow up the other one now, too?” Toya asked. Eriol nodded.
Tomoyo bit her lip. “Looks like they don’t want us past that barrier…but what are they planning exactly?”
We all crawled hastily back to the floor as Kazushige fished another explosive out of his bag. Right after he threw it, I remembered Eriol was still really close to where the bomb would go off.
Once again, it went off with a loud boom and rock went flying all around us.
I looked at Eriol; he was fine. I could see a sort of glowy thing around him.
“Eriol?” Tomoyo called out to him, sounding a bit worried.
He was still smiling like usual. “I erected a barrier around myself. There was no need to duck. Plus, there’s already magic in the aura of this place, so everyone’s at least a little protected.”
“Sakura, you’re bleeding!” Syaoran walked over to me and wiped the blood off face with his sleeve. I heard Toya grunt followed by Yukito’s chuckle. “Are you okay?”
I smiled and nodded.
“Ah!” Eriol exclaimed suddenly. Tomoyo was with him already. “I’ve figured out how to eliminate the barrier!” He beckoned for us all to come over to him.
“Put your hands flat on the barrier like this,” he said after we had caught up to him and Tomoyo. “Then focus on getting past it.”
I did as he said, and imagined walking through it and facing the Li Guardians. And winning. The magic began to melt around my hands, and I kept my mind on destroying the enemy by getting past this stupid barrier until the part of the barrier in front of me was completely gone. I smiled and stepped through it.
I could hear the others, like, growling at it, wanting it to go away as fast as it did for me. Finally, Toya and Yukito stepped through, followed by Eriol and Tomoyo, then Syaoran helping Meiling through and Kazushi jumping through Syaoran’s. It sealed up again behind us; it must have just been a temporary meltdown.
We walked on and on for so long…my feet were killing me, but I didn’t use any of my cards because there were so many other people with me.
All of a sudden, the lights burnt out, all at once. It smelled strongly of smoke and I started to cough. I made my way to the wall of the wide tunnel and fell to my knees, coughing.
The lights came back just as I stopped coughing. I looked around, noticing only then that I was all alone.
I stood up and looked back and forth. “Syaoran? Tomoyo? Toya!” I called. My calls echoed along the hallway, but no answer came back. I clenched my fists.
“Well,” I told myself. “There’s no point staying here waiting for them to come back. If I keep walking, I’ll meet up with them again soon.” I continued trekking down the eerie pathway, singing Boys Boys Boys to myself.
Soon, I had gone through Boys Boys Boys eighteen times, and I was still walking. I stopped, scowling. “This is so stupid. I’m gonna have to sing a different song now.”
I started walking again, but my feet were so sore from walking for so long. I took out the Fly card and used it to glide lightly across the ground. I decided to sing Don’t Trust Me.
On my fourth time singing it, I was interrupted.
“Shush girl, shut your lips. Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hi…huh?” I squinted at a trembling lump at the side of the tunnel. I dismissed Fly and ran over to it, hoping it was one of my friends. “Hello?”
The person looked up; she was the cutest girl I’d seen in my life! She had long, flowing black hair and purple eyes. She wore a pink Chinese robe. Tears streamed gently down her cheeks.
I gulped. “Uhm…wh-what’s wrong?”
“Please help me! I got lost! Where am I? I’m scared!” She jumped up and wrapped her arms around, sobbing.
After the shock of a cute girl hugging me suddenly, I gathered myself and patted her on the head. “It’ll be alright,” I told her comfortingly. “You can come with me, and I’ll get you out of here.”
“R-really? Hic!” she asked looking at me.
I smiled and wiped the tears away from her eyes. “Really. I’ll protect you. I promise.”
She smiled, and it felt like I was floating. I smiled back, though mine didn’t nearly match hers.
“My name’s Shouko.”
“My name’s Sakura.”
We began walking again, but this time I didn’t sing. I wanted to impress this girl.
We walked. And walked. And walked. And walked.
…
And walked.
And walked.
I stopped. “Aggh! I can’t take it anymore! No more walking!” I screamed.
“Oh no,” Shouko sniffed. “Am I being a burden to you?”
I whipped around to face her, shaking my head madly. “Of course not! It’s just that my feet are really hurting me.” I bent down and outstretched my hands behind me. “Get on; I’ll use my Dash card and we’ll run to the end of this horrid tunnel really fast.”
“Okay!” She hopped on, and I almost fell over. She was really heavy!
“Er…how much do you way?” I asked.
“Um…I’m 160 pounds.”
EH?! I’m only 145!
I said, “Really? H-ha ha…”
I was so lucky I that I was using Dash, or I would’ve been twice as slow. I was still running way faster than I could ever dream without it.
However, even with Dash, I was still running an hour and a half later. Are you kidding me? This would’ve taken days to cover regularly on foot! I thought to myself angrily. What was the point of a tunnel the size the friggin’ earth itself?!
As I slowed down, panting, the lights blew out one by one until we were blanketed in darkness. Shouko squeezed my back in fear. I let her slide down my back, and then grasped her hand. “We can keep walking; I’ll make sure there’s nothing in front of us.”
I walked along cautiously, groping the wall to make sure we were still going straight. A gust of wind blew my hair back from ahead.
“Ah!” I cried happily. “We’re at the end of the tunnel!”
A bright lightly abruptly blinded me. I closed my eyes and put my free hand over them.
The light died down quickly, and I looked back at Shouko, holding her hand tighter.
“Are you okay?! Sho…” I trailed off when I looked at the person behind me. It was Shouko…but it wasn’t!
“That’s right; I am Sho!”
Suddenly, it clicked. “Y-you’re the Sho from Lord Yoshida’s story!” I cried. “You’re one of the cross-dressing Guardians of Kiyoi, aren’t you?!”
He smiled. “You got it!” He was now garbed in (men’s) Chinese clothes. You know, the one with pant legs but it’s kind of like a dress?? Gah! I’m Japanese! I don’t know these things! Also, his eyes were now red.
“Don’t you love the Chinese outfits I have?” he asked when he noticed me looking at his clothes. “The Li’s gave them to all of us when we were named the Guardians of their district!”
“Uh, that’s great…”
He looked intently at my face. “…You’re cute. Yuhi wasn’t kidding.”
I blushed. “Eh?’
He laughed. “Aww, you’re embarrassed! Is it ‘cause you know I’m just as cute as you?”
“N-no! You’re ugly!” I lied.
He continued smiling, his ego totally unhurt. “Then why are you holding my hand when you could’ve let go--or at least loosened your grip--a long time ago?”
I flushed and whipped his hand back to his side, but he grabbed my arm and turned me around to face the exit of the tunnel. I gasped.
“The other cross-dressers!”
Most of them looked mad, but the one in the middle--he was floating--laughed. “She’s an amusing one.” Did I mention he was floating?
They were all dressed like Sho, and they all had either black or brown hair. All of them had red eyes.
Their leader waved his hands and these weird orbs appeared. All of my friends were in them!
“Let them go!” I demanded.
“Join us, and we’ll consider it,” he said calmly.
“Join you?! What do you mean, join you?!”
“I mean, be our personal maid, do everything we tell you to without complaint, and your friends won’t die,” he explained, smiling. “Any other decision means your friends will die slowly and painfully, and you’ll watch.”
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