Cardcaptor Sakura: The New Trials (Wish-luv)

Chapter 63: The Joining of the Circle

A sweet aria drifted through the auditorium of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum during the Young Designer Showcase, and the runway was showered by soft violet and blue light. The audience waited in anticipation for the last pair to come out for the final theme of the fashion show, "eveningwear." People shifted in their seats as the song continued on and yet no models appeared on the stage.

Kinomoto Touya and Tsukishiro Yukito glanced at each other.

"Isn't Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun supposed to come out next?" Yukito whispered to his friend.

"Do you think something happened backstage?" Mihara Chiharu asked Sasaki Rika, brushing off Takashi's hand as he whispered in her ears, "It's an alien abduction."

Tanaka Miho turned to Eriol and mouthed, "Is it a dark force?"

And then, the lights turned off. Was it a part of the show? What was going on? After a couple of minutes, a loud buzz of chatter resonated throughout the auditorium. Was this a blackout? Why wasn't the emergency generator coming on?

And a shot resounded through the pitch blackness like a truncated thunderclap. Then, there was a silence.

Li Meilin, like everybody else in the auditorium, felt the startling bang erupt in her eardrums. Cold sweat trickled down her neck. A gunshot. She gripped her armrest expecting more gunshots. But there was only one. By now, the audience was thrown into a state of panic. Was it a massacre? A terrorist? There were shouts and cries.

But Meilin kept a level head. She lost no time scanning all the exits, six in total. She saw a shadow move towards the edge of the left aisle of the auditorium. As soon as the lights came back on, she saw the left wing emergency door swing shut as a man in black slipped away.

"Where are you going?" Miho called out as Meilin pushed through the crowds of people thrown in panic, towards the exit door.

In the background, Meilin heard someone call out that Kinomoto Fujishinto, Chairman of the Hoshi Group, had been shot. Her breath came out in short pants as she ran up the emergency staircase, chasing after the footsteps ahead of her. She caught her balance on the railing and swerved around and continued up the spiraling stairwell. Long black legs disappeared through the door above. Meilin leapt up the stairs two steps at a time until she reached the metal door and burst onto the rooftop. Her vision was blinded by the glare of the afternoon sunlight, which tinted Tokyo a deep blood red crimson.

She blinked as her vision cleared, shivering as a gust of cold wind swept across the rooftop of the museum rooftop. There, at the edge of the roof, stood Mizuki Kai all in black. In his hand was a gleaming semi-automatic pistol.

Mizuki Kai thought he heard footsteps following behind him, but he did not waste time to look back. He sprinted up the stairs faster and faster. Flinging open the door, he burst onto the rooftop, his eyes shielded from the glare of the sunlight by his black-tinted glasses. There was nobody on the roof deck. He ran over to the edge of the roof where a gleaming silver pistol on the ledge and picked it up. He saw a black figure streak away across on the adjacent roof. It was too late.

Just then, he heard the door swing open behind him, and he swerved around. It was Meilin; her jet-black hair whipped behind her as a gust of icy wind blasted across the rooftop.