Cadcaptor Aiba - Chapter 11
****Flashback*****
I have no idea where am I going. Is J really going to bring to the past or is he just going to trick me? How powerful he is to be able to control time? If he has his own magic, why does he need the clow cards for? I bet he is more powerful than the combined power of the cards.
I don’t know why but my eyes suddenly got heavier. Maybe because I’m going to travel through time and I’m not strong enough, it makes me get tired easily. Despite feeling uncomfortable with the speed flying, I found myself suddenly being drifted to dreamland. When I woke up, I was alone in a forest and J was nowhere to be seen. Am I in the past or am I still in the present?
“I see that you finally wake up,” hearing a voice from my back, I turned around, expecting to see J. But, it was not him. In fact, it was a girl. I may have been too sleepy to not realize that it was a girl’s voice who spoke to me just now.
“Who are you?” I asked the girl. She is a very cute girl. I think she is around 10 years old. Looking at her reminds me of someone but I don’t know who.
“My name is Sakura Kinomoto and even if I tell you who I truly am, you’re not going to believe me. But, don’t worry. I am your ally,” I snickered hearing her words. If she thought that I wouldn’t believe her if she tells me who she really is, what makes her think that I’m going to believe that she is an ally?
“Seriously, I don’t have time for all of this. I need to get away from here. My friend is in danger. I need to help him,”
“But, you need to know what I’m going to tell you to be able to help him,”
“Are you going to help me to defeat J?” she smiled hearing my words. The more I look at her, the more I realized that she is actually resembled someone.
“Matsumoto Jun is not your enemy. Ninomiya Kazunari, you have a very complicated history and it is my fault,” I was surprised to hear her words. A complicated history? Good, now she is going to make me more confused than I already am. It’s not like I don’t have much to worry about Aiba, clow cards and J’s true identity.
“First, you need to be relaxed. Don’t worry about the time. When you get back home, you will get back to the time you left with Jun. I promised you that it’s not going to take a long time. For you to be able to help Aiba, you need to know who actually your enemy is,”
“Okay, first, tell me who you really are. I will decide if I’m going to believe you or not after that,” I told her that. But, she was sighing, almost reluctant to tell me the truth.
“Look, how am I supposed to believe that you’re a friend if you’re not going to tell me who you are,” she took a deep breath, turning away from looking at me before finally started to talk again.
“Do you remember anything about the past?”
“Well, I just remember that all of us were the student of Clow Reed and Clow chose Aiba as his successor but J objected the reason and caused the havoc. Ohchan was killed in the havoc,”
“You don’t remember anything about your life before you become Clow’s student? About your family?” now that she said it, I suddenly thought about my family in the past. What was it about my family? Is the information about my family relevant to our situation right now?
The more than I tried to remember, the more that the girl in front of me now, or Sakura become more familiar. Her smile, the warm feeling that she radiates to me really reminds me of my childhood. Don’t tell me that she is actually…
“Are you my mother?” I asked her. She was just shaking her head. Then, if she is not my mother, why does she make me feel like she was?
“I raised you up until I was killed when you were 5 years old. But, I’m not your mother. Here is my story, Nino. When I was a kid, I have two companions, Kero chan and Yue that my father created to protect me. Then, when I was pregnant with my real son, Kero chan told me about a prophecy where someone will betray me and my son’s life will be in danger because of that. Kero advised me to exchange the child with someone else to protect the child. It was a convenience at that time when you are born around the same time as my son. I was selfish; I put my son’s safety first without thinking that it may actually bring you more harm. And, to know the identity of the one who betray me makes me feel guiltier than ever.
“Who betrayed you?” I asked her curiously. She closed her eyes, maybe trying to erase the painful memory of being betrayed by someone. I know that feeling. After all, J betrayed all of us, or at least that is what I thought. But, what if Sakura is telling me the truth about J is not actually my enemy? And speaking of J, where is actually him? Isn’t he supposed to be the one who kidnap me? Why am I with Sakura instead?
“It was my own student. It was your teacher, Clow Reed,” to say that I am shocked was a bit understatement. It was beyond shock. It’s true that I don’t even remember his face, but my feeling when I was dreaming about him yesterday makes me think that he is a good guy. So, to know that he is actually the traitor makes me doubtful about this girl. Even in the slightest memory I had about him in my mind right now is a pleasant memory. He was the one who took care of me when Sakura died after all.
Then, I remembered that J used to say that Clow is actually the bad guy and thinking that this little girl may actually an ally with J, who I’m sure is a traitor, I doubt that her real intention is to help me. Maybe she is just trying to trick me, just like J. But, what if she was telling me the truth? Oh my, my head is a mess right now; I don’t even know what is true, and what is false anymore.
“You may doubt what I’m telling you right now, but that is the truth. I was his victim. I don’t want to believe it at first but after what he did to Jun, I know that he is not who I think he was,”
“So, what did he wants from me actually? Why did he betray you?”
“The prophecy said that my son is going to be a very powerful magician ever and it would make someone betrays me if he knows about the prophecy that the power could be steal from my son. At first, Clow’s target is my card but he changed his focus when he knew about the prophecy. I don’t know how he knows about the prophecy. After I chose him as my successor, he set the plan to kill me and take away you, pretending to be the saviour. He manipulated Jun’s desire to get your power. If not because of your boyfriend, your power may have become his long ago,” wait, there is something I don’t understand right now. I’m not Sakura’s real son, right? So, wouldn’t that mean that the power Clow wants is not from me? So, why would she worry about the power? She has been successfully hiding her son somewhere, so, she should worry if Clow had finally discovers the identity of her true son, not about Clow getting my ‘power’ which does not exist, actually.
“I am a fool for believing in a prophecy, Nino. The act of believing in a prophecy and trying to avoid it is what makes the prophecy comes true. The prophecy will not come true if I don’t exchange the baby. If only I know who you truly are, I would not do it and avoid involve you in this situation,” okay, that’s weird. What does she mean by that? Who am I, after all?
“You are the powerful magician mentioned in the prophecy, Nino. I took you under my care, so, you are my son. That’s what the prophecy means. The one who Clow thought as my son and wants to steal the power from. He can feel the power coming from you. If it was my real son, he would not realize about the power and may not have known about the stealing power at all. I make him knows about your existence, even though he doesn’t know for sure why you are so powerful. He thought that you are powerful because of the love I felt for the son that I conceived, but he was wrong. You are powerful because you are the son of my brother and Yukito, who is Yue’s human form. I don’t even know how Yukito could get pregnant, because he is a guy, but, I guess there is some magic involve. You are created from magic, and not just an ordinary magic. My brother is not a magician, but he has a psychic power of his own and Yukito has his own magic. So, it would only be natural that their son is more powerful. They ran away from us and build a new life before dying and leave you with someone else. I only know your true identity after I died. I’m sorry for involve you in this,”
That was a lot of information to digest. I don’t even know if it was true after all, but there is something about Sakura that makes me believe in her.
“So, what should I do now?”
“You have to stop Clow before it is too late. I already tell Jun how to defeat Clow and if you believe me, you have to believe in him too. I wish that I could tell you more but I cannot. The connection is getting weaker and I have to return to where I come from. It’s only because I stay in my child form that I can speak to you for this long,” her image started to get blurry and I don’t want to let her go yet. There is another question that I want to ask.
“Wait, have you ever wonder what happen to your real son? Have you ever tried to find him?” she was smiling at me. And now, I know for sure someone who resembles her.
“I sent Kero chan to take care of him from afar. That’s why I am alone, without my companion to protect me. Even before Kero chan died, he ensures that someone else will replace him to take care of my son. But, it seems that the replacement do a lot more than just taking care of my son. I think you know who my son is. I’ll give you a hint. I create the cards that now known as clow cards so it is only natural if my descendant is the one who can control the card. And, Nino, your attitude is very similar to my brother,” her image starts to disappear after that. As for myself, my eyes started to get heavier and when I started to fall asleep in the forest, I found myself awake in J’s room with him staring hard at me.
“You look like a pervert staring at me like that,” I told him as I tried to sit on his bed.
“So, did you meet her?”
“You mean, Sakura? Yes, I met her and she told me that you know how to defeat Clow. But, who is Clow actually, in this life? Is he someone I know?”
“You will be surprise to know that he is actually our headmaster. But, don’t worry; we are one step ahead of him because he doesn’t know who you truly are. He doesn’t know the right way to steal your power,”
“So, how difference would it is to steal my power than what he already knows?”
“The spell is different. And plus, as the son of Toya, you have to willingly sacrifice yourself to be killed for the power to be transfer. The other spell could be used without the victim intends to be sacrificed,”
“Oh, before that, why do Sakura communicate with you instead to me directly?” I actually want to ask Sakura before this but I forget as her image started to disappear.
“She can only show herself to her creation. That’s why she used to me. I help her setting up the dream for you to meet her. Thanks to her, I know that Clow actually tricked me,” I stared hard at J because I don’t know what he actually means by that.
“I am a clow, no, sakura card but Sakura couldn’t finish me and that’s why Clow continued her work. As a result, I am not stable enough to stay in the card form. So, Clow puts my soul into a human body,”
“And, Nino I’m sorry for deceiving you in your past life. I just wanted to be a human and Clow told me the only way to be human is by killing you and have your power. He lied to me. Killing you would not turn me to human but killing me after having your power transferred to me will make him powerful. I’m so sorry for that,”
“But, why do you want to be human?”
“As a card, I don’t have feelings. I just want to know how to feel love. Looking at you and Ohchan, I really want to experience that,”
“But, I thought you’re in love with Aiba,” he was just shaking his head saying that I was wrong. He doesn’t love Aiba but feel attracted and wants to protect Aiba because of Aiba’s own power.
After that, he told me the plan on how to defeat Clow. The plan will be carried out once the judgement on Aiba is done. In order to do that, I have to pretend that I will die in front of Ohchan because he said that by fooling Ohchan, everyone else will also be fooled. Ohchan is the one who understands me the most so we need to convince him the most. Then, of course, Clow will also fall into the trap by looking at Ohchan’s expression. And, J also told me that he would cast the other spell that Clow know about, instead of the real spell to kill me. The spell would make me look dead for a while. And, as for the rest of the plan, we will see how powerful I am.
*****Present Day******
I listened to every single detail that Clow told my other friends. I feel so humiliated to think that I once think highly of him but he is the one who caused the miserable. It is just like what J predicted. He will not even bother to check if I’m really dead because he is confident that J would just follow his plan. He must be so surprised to find out that it doesn’t go according to his plan.
Once I sensed that he getting near to J, that is the moment for me to wake up and show him who is the real boss here. And, I am not surprised to see his expression after that.
“You’re not the only one who knows how to manipulate other people desire to get yours done. We also know how to manipulate your greedy desire to defeat you,”
A/N: Tell me that this is not a weird plot. And, there is one more chapter to go. Comments are appreciated.