Cardcaptor Sakura: The New Trials (Wish-luv)

Chapter 64: A Christmas Miracle

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Four students were seated in a music room in the old Seijou building, before the middle school extension to the campus was built, some twenty-three years ago. The girl with the long auburn hair tied back in a ponytail stared at her essay assignment, nibbling on the back of her pen. She was slight-framed but had alert gray eyes that darted back and forth with great shrewdness.

With a sigh, she set down her pen. "What are you most scared of, Ryuuren?" asked Mizuki Miara, age fifteen.

"Me? I'm not scared of anything. Fear is a sign of weakness," replied Li Ryuuren, a third-year in high school. He absentmindedly tuned his violin without playing a tune. Those who did not know him would describe his attitude as haughty but there was a sense of humor behind the deep sapphire eyes.

"Show off," said Tanaka Keisuke, a twenty year old university student, deftly doodling on a sketchpad with a stub of charcoal. His strokes were bold but his touch delicate. "To not admit your fear is a sign of weakness in itself. For how can you face your fear if you're not willing to acknowledge it?"

"What about you, then? What are you most scared of, Keisuke-senpai?" Mizuki Miara asked.

"Of losing my loved ones, of course," said Keisuke. "What about you, Mi-chan?"

"I'm most scared of disease—because there's nothing you can do to prevent it, to stop it. Because humans are helpless in the face of nature," Miara replied. Her literature composition on the subject of "What is your greatest fear?" was getting nowhere.

Amamiya Nadeshiko, Miara's junior high classmate, looked up with dreamy evergreen eyes. "True, all of those things are frightening. But as for me, those are still things that humans can deal with. What I'm most scared of is not being able to live life to the fullest. Whether in the face of illness or death, adversity of the loss of a beloved one, I'm afraid that such fears will keep me from living my life to the fullest."

From his seat by the windowsill, Ryuuren looked up.

Just then, the fire alarm rang.

"What is this?" Miara demanded, covering her ears.

A girl with shoulder-length pigtails in a paint-smeared smock burst into the music room. "Kei-sensei, fire in the art room!"

"I told you guys not to fiddle with the torch when I'm not around, Eri-chan," said Keisuke, bolting up.

Eri hung her head. "I know—I told Reiji-kun to wait... But he had an awesome Christmas ornament idea."

Keisuke quickly followed Eri out the room and Miara rolled her eyes and followed after them. "I'll get a story out of this—negligent student art teacher burns down school."

"Go back to the junior high section," grumbled Keisuke. "How is any of this my fault?"

"Because you suck as a teacher," replied Miara with a callous chuckle. "You're better suited to do individual work, not teach." The door shut behind the squabbling twosome.

Only Ryuuren and Nadeshiko were left in the room now. They exchanged bemused glances. Ryuuren set down his violin on the windowsill.

"Poor Kei-senpai," Nadeshiko murmured.

"Don't feel sorry for a guy you rejected just last week," said Ryuuren, walking over to Nadeshiko and glanced at the sheet music she was writing out for the finale of Star-Crossed.

"Kei-senpai wasn't really serious, anyway," said Nadeshiko.

"You're his muse, he says," Ryuuren said, rolling his eyes.