Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Through A Looking Glass ƽ��Ι��Z ❯ It is the deep breathe before the plunge ( Chapter 8 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Through A Looking Glass

By: Aisaki Sumi

Chapter Eight

An approaching storm

Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding

Heian Jidai (Heian Period), 1179, mid-winter, Heian-Kyou

Time fleeted by like the careless breeze. The moment was already gone before one could realize it. As the river of time continued down an unknown path towards the verge of forever, each day, each minute and each second became a part of history - a part of people's memories.

Miyuki carried a bucket of water with much difficulty and was shakily making her way to where Sakura lived. The wintry chills seeped through the thin material of her kimono and sent shivers down her spine. It was cold alright and her fingers were numbed from the pervasive coldness of Heian-Kyou's harsh winter.

Still struggling, Miyuki kept her eyes on the bucket of water and her path to ensure nothing would spill onto the well-polished wooden floor. She didn't want to be called clumsy because anything she did wrong would be blamed on Sakura, simply because she was Miss Sakura's lady-in-waiting. And she already hard enough horrible untrue things said about Miss Sakura already and had no intention of worsening it.

Her hasty footsteps slowed down and eventually halted into a stop as she approached Sakura's room. The narrow ramp that exuded from the compound seemed like an endless road, leading towards an almost magical place embraced by mysteriousness and a rare soul-calming tranquility.

This part of the compound belonged to Sakura only. Only such beautiful place could suit her. It brought out Miss Sakura's inner concinnous demeanor. And sometimes she wondered why Ms Sakura wanted to hide her true self like this and gave the Taira family a twisted and distorted image of herself.

Upon sliding open the wooden paper screened door, Miyuki's gaze swept across the dimly lit room and settled down upon the beautiful woman who was half sitting on the tatami pad and leaning against the wall, with a book in her hand. Her long auburn hair cascaded over her shoulder like the finest silk as she immersed herself in her reading.

“Miss Sakura,” Miyuki called out quietly, interrupting the peaceful tranquility and her soft voice resonated in the air. She slowly lowered the heavy bucket of water to ground level and let go only until she was sure that its bottom touched the ground safely.

When she tilted her head toward Sakura's direction, she saw Sakura looking up at her, smiling elegantly and warmly as ever. Her eyes fell upon the book as she paused for a minute, as if uncertain of what she was going to say.

But she went ahead anyway. “Miss Sakura, pardon my rudeness and I know it's not my place to suggest such thing, but you should go out a bit more like the other ladies of the house.” Miyuki suggested while her crafty hands worked to pour out some of the now tepid warm water into a small round-ish looking metallic bowl.

“Hmm?” Sakura drawled, playing with the book in her hand idly as she listened on, curious of what her lady-in-waiting had to say.

“Like going to the temple to pray, or participate in ladies' tea parties or something like that.” Explained Miyuki, elaborating on what she thought a high-class lady like Sakura should do during her spare time. Getting up, she brought the metallic bowl to Sakura.

“Oh? You think I should hang out with those bored ladies with nothing to do other than fighting for who's the prettiest and who's more loved by their husbands?” Sakura raised an eyebrow with evident mockery in her eyes as she asked cynically, her eyes boring straight into Miyuki's.

Miyuki bit her lower lip hard and frowned resentfully as she said indignantly. “But Miss Sakura, you don't know what those people are saying about you in these days! I over heard it from the servant girls and they were saying how you're not pretty or healthy because you're always in your room and that once you die--”

Miyuki's eyes widened to twice its original size and covered her mouth hastily as a preventative measure to stop herself from blurting out anything else ourtrageous. Regret quickly flashed in her eyes, overriding the indignation Sakura saw earlier. She mentioned the word death, which was considered very lucky by the buddists.

“…once I die from some incurable disease Syaoran-sama would be able to take another `more suitable' woman's hand am I right?” Sakura slowly finished her sentence, looking as calm as ever as if she was merely narrating someone else's fate.

Letting her gaze fall to the ground, Miyuki bit her lower lip and remained silent. She heard a cold scoff from Sakura and stole a quick glance at her from the corners of her eyes, there she saw Sakura smiling again. Puzzled, Miyuki didn't understand the sudden change of expression on Sakura's visage.

Did she find the whole thing amusing or something like that? Miyuki couldn't help but wonder and frown in slight disapproval.

The gossips and rumors were flying around the house like aimless arrows. Everyone knew about it. Everyone gossiped about it behind closed doors. Perhaps Miss Sakura was misunderstanding the seriousness of this situation because the rumors weren't just spreading around the house, but were also spreading in Heian-Kyou like a pandemic disease.

Just the other day someone was trying to tie the red string between the younger sister of Heian-Kyo's number one beauty and Syaoran-sama. (Tie the red string is a saying similar to the western expression of “cupid's arrow of love”, used when someone's try match make two people).

“You're worrying too much Miyuki. Those are just rumors. People like to gossip about others because they're so pathetic themselves that they need to make other looks bad in order to make themselves look better. You don't have to take the things they say seriously. All you gotta do is turn on a blind eye and pretend it's just the wind hissing like a wild cat.

Don't stress over such insignificant things especially when you know it's not true. As long as you know it's not true, Syaoran-sama knows it's not true, then what's there to worry about?” Sakura smiled assuringly at Miyuki, patting her on the head a little. She knew Miyuki was concerned about her image and how Syaoran would react when he heard about these things because this could potentially lower her status in the house.

A woman's status and power was directly proportional to how much attention her husband would gave her. And for a man to pay attention to a woman, he must be attracted to her and like her.

But Miyuki didn't know about the deal she made with Syaoran. It didn't matter if Syaoran loved her or not, or whether he pays attention to her. Her status as the great Taira No Syaoran's first lady would not be changed so easily, and if ever, at all. This was his promise to her. And at the same time, he had promised to indulge many of the things she did as long as they weren't too over the line.

So everything was good at this moment. “Cheer up and help me get dressed.”

Miyuki sighed inwardly and knew she shouldn't dwell on something Miss Sakura said she shouldn't worry about. Nodding respectfully, she took out the make up box from the closet, though somewhat reluctantly. The smile on Sakura's face never waned as she watched the divinely beautiful woman in the mirror turn into a ghostly white woman with almost hideous make up.

Her intention was never “fall in love with her husband”, thus it didn't matter what he thought of her. As long as she still enjoyed the privilege she had at the moment, she could care less what he thought and did when she wasn't around.

Love wasn't necessary when one had great powers.

……

You should visit her more often even though she's ill in bed all the times. The words of his mother's advice rang in his ears as he made his way down the meandering long hallway that was leading towards the foreign place which he had only been to once--his so-called wife's compound.

He never saw her again after the night of their wedding. She didn't want to see him, and he didn't want to see her. She kept her end of the bargain, which was leave him alone, and he would keep his end of it which was make sure no one bothers her and the best way of doing it was to announce to the world that she suffer from a long term illness.

Arriving at her bedroom's door, Syaoran paused for a moment, but entered anyway.

“Sakuno,” he tried her name on his tongue. It was the first time he ever called her by her first name, it felt somewhat strange and awkward to him but he didn't know any other term he could call her with.

The word came out as a soft echo, almost sounded as if he knew her all his life. Sakura turned slightly, looking over her shoulder with a somewhat surprised look in her eyes. But it quickly disappeared as soon as it surfaced. She put on her trademark smile and got up obediently like the perfect wife to welcome his arrival.

“Master Syaoran, please excuse my rudeness of not welcoming you at the door. Miyuki should've notified me.” She lowered her head and bowed to him. Even though it sounded as if she had blamed Miyuki, but he could tell it was just polite act that she had put up for him.

“Don't worry about it.” Syaoran brushed it off nonchalantly and looked around and came to a strange conclusion. “How come I don't see any servants or ladies in waiting around?” He questioned with perplexity evident in his eyes.

“I'm not really used to having too many people wandering around me all the times. Besides, Miyuki is my lady-in-waiting and she serves me really well, so I didn't see the need to have too many people around.” Sakura explained cap-in-hevndly.

“Saa…souka na. (I see)” Syaoran nodded lightly in acknowledgement and bought her reason. He flashed a quick glance at her and saw her with her head low again. Even though she seemed fragile on the outside, but his gut instincts told him that she was who she seemed to be.

She only had one servant girl around - a servant girl she brought from her family - was enough to show that she didn't trust people easily and that she was enough smart to know that trusting people easily could potentially be the end of her in a deceptive place like this.

But it didn't mean he couldn't keep an eye on her either. As long as she didn't do anything too extreme, he would turn on a blind eye and indulge it all. After all, it was his promise to her. “One lady-in-waiting is too little, you should at least have one more around to serve you in this compound.”

Even though she seemed calm and elegant on the outside, her fingernails were digging into the flesh of her palm underneath the cover of long kimono sleeves. Sakura wasn't stupid enough to think that he was just being a caring husband.

He wanted to add one more servant to this peaceful compound because he wanted to keep an eye on her every move, implying he didn't trust her entirely and she should be cautious of her actions. He was indirectly warning her not to step over the line.

Tightening her fists, she forced herself to smile thankfully. “I really appreciate this Syaoran-sama but the last thing I want to do is to worry you with my unimportant business.” He glanced at her and lifted the corners of his mouth just slightly. It appeared to be a harmless smile, but somewhat it sent shivers down Sakura's spine.

He really wasn't someone to be taken lightly. She concluded.

Ever since he set his foot through her door, her mind raced at the speed of light as she tried to figure out a legitimate reason of his sudden visit. She just couldn't think of anything that could've caused him to come over to her place and have these little seemingly harmless chats with her.

Saa looks like she would just have to wait around and see what he had installed for her. Enlarging her obedient and gentle smile, she offered him to sit. After all, she was the perfect host and she would never show her fears or doubts to anymore.

Being the master of pretense wasn't easy, but she was intelligent enough to hold her mask in place, and so was he.

She watched him carefully as he took a seat, and sat down herself as well. “Please make yourself comfortable here. And what kind of tea would you like to have? I'll call Miyuki over to prepare it for you.” Sakura offered, and just when she was about to get up, he gestured to remain where she was.

“It's alright, I just came to let you know that I'll be leaving for a few months to train some of the Taira clan soldiers to prepare them for future prevention of attempted assassinations of the emperor.” Syaoran explained vaguely, eyes set on afar.

“The previous assassination already stirred fears in Heian-Kyou and we were the ones to blame for allowing that assassin escape right when he was underneath our noses.”

Of course she remembered it. Taira no Kiyomori, Syaoran's father, thought his one stone for two birds plan was brilliant, but he never thought of the possibility that SHE would be involved in this underlying political struggle. Thus, he was forced to announce that the assassin escaped and call for a massive search and make the entire event public.

Sakura nodded and listened quietly while she scrutinized his handsome features from the corners of her eyes. She didn't know if it was the affect of the room's shadowing that made him appear so unreadable and mysterious, or if this was the way he is. In a way, he reminded her of a deep bottomless abyss.

“Please becareful Syaoran-sama, and I'll be praying for your safety while you're away.” She replied understandingly, acting her role of the perfect loving wife. He nodded at her in satisfaction and let a serene silence wash over the two of them.

The way he described his journey was extremely vague and made it sound insignificant. But Sakura knew there was more than that to it. This was just the peaceful and calming stage before the arrival of a raging storm.

Looks like chaos is going to embrace Heian-kyou pretty soon. She thought to herself almost amusingly. In a way, it sounded extremely ironic to her because the name Heian meant Peace, but this place was far more dangerous and scheming than any other place in Japan.

Unlike the other women who prayed for peace, she wanted war. She looked forward to the start of a war that was going to change Heian-Kyou forever.

Because she remembered clearly: in the midst of chaos, only heroes could arise from the ashes and only the rule of survival of the fittest would apply. Status didn't matter anymore, only true talents could take one to a greater height.

But then again, this state of anarchy could either make one or destroy one, and she intended on making it to the top.

With Minamoto No Yoshitsune escaping and meeting up with his brother, it was only a matter of time before they revolt against the Emperor. To take out the emperor they must first get rid of the Taira family because only through the downfall of the powerful Taira family could they finally claim the throne.

Saa…it was the battle for the ultimate power. life was finally getting more interesting. She mused to herself. This was her chance to shine and she would not miss it.

“Anyway, mother wants to speak to you about this, which is part of the reason why I came here to inform you on it. She has this talk with every single woman married into this family and let them understand that we're a family of samurai generals, and it is our job to protect Japan and its leader so it is only natural for us to be a way for long periods of time sporadically when it is needed.”

This snapped Sakura out of her thoughts. She never really wanted to social or interact with the people in this family, unless she had to, and this seemed like one of the moments when she had to put on her obedient and serene smile and be as fake as she could.

“Perhaps I should go right now, it's not polite to make the lady of the house wait.” Sakura suggested, one hand pressing against the floor to pull herself up as gracefully as possible. But what she really meant was: I want to get this over with.

Syaoran, being the gentleman he was, automatically held out an aiding hand. She gave him somewhat surprised and doubtful look but took it anyway.

When their fingertips touched, Syaoran felt a familiar spark bolting through his body and his eyes widened slightly. Lowering his head a little bit, his piercing gaze paralleled with the beautiful hand resting on his palm.

The breath he inhaled in a moment ago was caught in his throat as he stared and stared at it as if his penetrating eyes were trying to puncture through the smooth pale skin.

Her skin was soft and cream, just like the last time he had touched it, though unintentionally. And Syaoran was struck to a realization. He couldn't be wrong and was rarely wrong, but this time, he almost wished that he was wrong, because it was none other than that “boy's” hand he was holding at this moment.

A/N: I've been busy, which explains the lack of updates. Please leave me a nice lilo review as encouragement and I'll try to update asap! And yes, I'm sorry that the characters seem OOC, but you have to understand that the CCS characters are older now and have taken on the roles of famous historical people. Thus, it would be out of the question for them to act like they were 10 and bubbly in the original CCS series.

PS: I update very sporadically, so please do not spam my mailbox with capitalized emails such as this “DAMN YOU UPDATE RIGHT RIGHT NOW OR ELSE!!” ahem, it ain't gonna make me update any quicker just so you know.

PS 2: this story will be a long one, so I'm taking the time to let it slowly unfold and develop so please bare with me here. The pace may seem a bit slow but it's all for a good cause. Ahem, doesn't seem so convincing but oh well.

PS 3: Both Sakura and Syaoran have such dark and scheming personalities… I know, I know, and most of you probably hate me for making them this way. But once again, it's alllllll for a good cause. Besides, name someone who's a successful politician and isn't a scheming person?

PS4: err so many PS's lol XD giving you guys a choice here, update more often and shorter chaps or less often but longer chaps? It's up to you guys. Whatever the majority readers decide I will try to accommodate to that.

Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Through A Looking Glass ƽ�����Ι����Z ❯ It is the deep breathe before the plunge ( Chapter 8 )

Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Through A Looking Glass ƽ��Ι��Z ❯ It is the deep breathe before the plunge ( Chapter 8 )