[Heading in Ch. 1]

16. In Which Someone Gets Suspicious and a Reincarnation is Found


Kinomoto Fujitaka waved as he watched his daughter race down the stairs and bolt
out the door, still chewing her food. He laughed slightly to himself and stepped
back inside, shutting the door behind him and taking off the apron tied around
his waist. Then, he headed up towards her room betting to himself that her bed
wasn’t made.

Inside the room a deathly stillness echoed and Fujitaka found himself holding
his breath for a moment as he finally expelled it forcefully and shivered. Then,
he noticed something.

On the desk... were cards. He picked the cards up and laughing, remembering
where he had attained them for a moment and counted them. He had gained the book
from a young woman... with a daughter. Fujitaka thought for a minute. Yes.
Mizuki was the family name. Then, he stared once more at the cards.

One was missing.

Earth.

-`-


Nakuru Akizuki stared at the airport personel with disdain as she shoved the
purse containing Spinel Sun into the bag check. The woman with the clip board
stared over her nose at her and she momentarily flicked her wrist, sending a
bead of magic towards the woman to make a huge hole appear in the seat of her
pants before snickering and moving through the rest of customs.

“Welcome to Japan, Spinel Sun. Home of the soon-to-be Clow Mistress,” Ruby said
and pulled Spinel from her bag. “Suppi, they say if you hold like that for too
long your face will freeze like that.” She dropped him back into the bag.

Glaring at Ruby from the depths of the bag Spinel rolled his eyes, “Don’t make a
joke of this Nakuru. First, you know, we have to find Clow’s reincarnation. That
won’t be quite so easy.”

“Actually, I planned on finding you,” a low voice belled out and Nakuru whirled
around, coming face to face with the visage of a small boy. Brown hair whipped
into her face as she tensed and bit her lip. Then, she burst out laughing.

“You? The reincarnation of the great Clow Reed? You’re just a KID!” she giggled,
hiding her laughter with the palm of her hand.

The boy didn’t look surprised. He merely raised a slender eyebrow and gestured
with his hands.

“I call upon the powers of the day and the night, sun and darkness, unleash your
might. Release,” the words escaped the child’s mouth easily and for a moment
Ruby held her breath as the magical tool of Clow Reed appeared in the hands of
an underaged manikin. She crossed her hands in front of her chest and remembered
suddenly to breath.

“Alright. It’s you, Boss. Now, what do you have planned? Hopefully it will keep
me entertained for a good long time.”

The child turned his head and for a moment Nakuru could have sworn she saw Clow
Reed’s tired face within the navy depths of his eyes. “Have you ever had the
urge to get a formal education Ruby Moon?”

-`-

Touya Kinomoto gripped the ground hard with his hands and then jumped to grab
his bike before it was smashed by a falling rock from the pillar. He looked
around wildly and then one thought occured to him: the competition. Sakura and
Yukito were there.

There wasn’t time for a next thought, because a rock came crashing downwards.
Touya lifted his hands and deflected it dizzily. He rubbed his arms loosely and
glanced around. No one was in sight, so he picked up his bike and started
pedaling.

Then, he looked up.

He simultaneously crashed his bike into a rock pillar.

Sakura, the little kaijuu, was flying through the sky on what looked, to him,
like a broomstick. He squinted his eyes hard and then frowned... no it looked
like some kind of cheerleading wand... with wings.

“You were hit harder than you thought, Kinomoto,” he whispered. He watched as
the visage of his sister landed and grabbed his bike. Crazy or not, there was no
way he was going to leave this one alone. If anything happened after that, Touya
didn’t notice. He was whipping through the city, dodging columns of rock and
falling stones.

SLAM! A block away from his destination, a rock hit his bike head on, popping
the tire and sending Touya sprawling. Touya growled and ran a hand through his
hair before he stood and started running towards the area where he saw Sakura
disappear beneath the trees.

Whatever his sister was into... it was big trouble.

       -End Ch. 16-