Cardcaptor Sakura: The New Trials (Wish-luv)

Chapter 57: The Gathering

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At the edge of the cliff stood the woman in a white kimono. Her long dark hair, unbound, whipped around in the wind. Tears blurred by rain streamed down her pale cheeks from golden-brown eyes. Her heels had hit the edge of the cliff and rocks crumbled down the deep ravine below. But she did not glance back. Ever so slightly, her lips moved.

The wind carried the whisper of her voice in the abyss below. "Gomennassai... Sayonara..."

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End of summer break, Japan...

"Mizuki Kai, you're going to be late on your first day of school," Li Meilin called out, pounding on Kai's apartment door. She smoothed out the crinkle in her white summer blouse of her Seijou uniform, tucked neatly into her pleated black skirt. Tapping her foot impatiently, she adjusted her black tie.

It was just a couple weeks ago that she had been back in Hong Kong, with no intention of ever returning to Japan. Till this day, she wondered if following Mizuki Kai had been the right choice—it certainly had not been logical one or the prudent one. But that day at the airport, she had a feeling that if she let him go, she would never see him again. Participating in the Best Couple Contest had not been her idea of fun, but it kept her mind off the imminent problems. It had been strange returning to this apartment complex without Syaoran. Because she refused to stay under the same roof as Kai, she had no choice but to return to Syaoran's flat. She no longer had the key, but it was a simple enough feat for Kai to break in for her sake—he even produced a set of spare keys that he had somehow molded months ago. Meilin had long since given up on questioning Kai's shady ways.

Everything had been left the same in the apartment. She did not enter Syaoran's room, but she saw that his laundry was folded, and in the bathroom, his toothbrush was in the toothbrush holder. In his bedroom, there were stacks of books on his desk, along with his careful notes for all his subjects, as if he had been in the middle of exam preparation. While there was relatively less dust than one would expect to have gathered in half a year, Meilin found a distinctly unpleasant odor from the refrigerator and hastily emptied it of long-expired and half-rotten products. It was as if Syaoran had been taken away without warning. Perhaps her initial theory was correct, and he had been kidnapped after all.

In the mere week she had to settle into the apartment and clean up everything, Kai had been missing. Her boxes of luggage packed shipped from Hong Kong by her mother had arrived, and Meilin had been busy unpacking that—she had even been more surprised at her mother's apparent willingness to let Meilin reside in Japan. "It might almost be better for you to remain there and have a normal high school life with your friends," her mother had said. That is if you would consider it possible to have a normal school life with a former thief, a Card Mistress and an aspiring designer and filmmaker as you friends. Meilin had grown too used to Kai's spontaneous appearances and disappearances to take his absence personally. But she heartily hoped that Kai remembered that today was the first day of school as she continued pounding on apartment #705. There was still no answer. Fine, she had been knocking out of courtesy, but the door wouldn't be locked knowing Kai. She kicked open the door, furious and barked, "Mizuki Kai, do I seriously have to wake you every morning from now on?"

Perro-chan greeted her with a peck on her nose. "Left already! Left already!"

"What?" Meilin shrieked. Neighbors peeked out their doors and shot her nasty looks. "He dared leave without me?"

By now, Meilin was seriously contemplating whether her hasty decision to follow Kai back to Japan had been the best choice after all.

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