Chapter 19
~~~~~

"Wow~! Cool!" Sakura exclaimed as she ran down a street filled with luck and fortune-telling related accessories shops. They've reached a town of fortune-tellers. Everyone around them was dressed wildly with lots of different colors and fashions of textiles. "Sakura, don't run too far!" Syaoran shouted as he tried to catch up to her while leading Chocy into the crowds.

"Wow, this one is strange, can it really bring luck? Oh, this one's so cute! Hoe, this one looks just like Kero!" Sakura shuffled through accessories from different stores, there were so many good luck charms, that she didn't know which one to get. Syaoran finally made his way to her. "Sakura, you don't really believe in this stuff, do you?" Sakura turned around, and smiled bright. "Of course I do! Don't you?"

"Well," Syaoran shrugged. "Not really. I believe in magic powers and all, but I don't really believe in fortune-telling or good lucky charms." Sakura groaned. "Oh, come on, this place is one of a kind. Get into the spirit! Hey, you want a lucky charm?" Syaoran shook his head. "No thanks, one is good enough for me." He held out the lucky-charm Sakura gave him for Christmas. Sakura smiled, and blushed a little. "I guess so..." She turned around. "But you don't mind me getting one, right?"

Syaoran smiled to himself. Looking at her made him feel peaceful. He took one of the charms, and started to examine. It was triangular mirror with a pebble in the middle. "What the heck does this do?"

"Shake it." A girl said. He looked around to find a girl about a year older then him, perhaps older, standing to the left of him. "Eh?" He said. The girl smiled. "Just shake." He did. The pebble glowed, and reflected a 3D word in the air above it. It spelled "Most likely." Syaoran smiled, and commented. "Cool, it's just liked one of those magic eight balls. But cooler."

"Magic eight balls?" The girl asked curiously. Syaoran blushed, and waved his arm. "Oh, never mind." He switched his topic, "Say, why are there so many fortune tellers in this town?"

"You mean you don't know?" The girl asked. Syaoran shook his head. She began to explain. "This town is famous for fortune telling because of this place's location. It's right at the highest land point of the whole Ometin, one of the two highest cliffs that stand together. High places like this are very good for our fortune telling tools, such as my pebble." She showed him her pebble that was wrapped with strings on her left armpit. "People from all over Ometin come to this town just to get their fortune told. Say, you want me to tell your fortune? I can give you a discount since you're cute." She walked closer to him with a face that looked like she was going to eat him.

Syaoran wasn't too keen on the comment. "Um...no thanks, I don't really trust fortune telling. I believe the only future is for us to create."

The girl put her waist to her hip. "True, that's what I always tell my clients. Well, mostly for the ones with bad futures that is..." Syaoran smiled as a sweat drop rolled down his head. The girl sighed a little, and looked at Syaoran. Syaoran stared back. "What?"

She smiled. "You're cute." Syaoran blushed, and asked again, "What??"

At the same moment, Sakura skipped back with a cute little penguin bird charm in her hand. She caught sight of the girl and Syaoran, and made a grumpy face. She stood silently to listen to their conversation. "You know," The girl went on. "You look even cuter when you blush." She giggled; Syaoran blushed even harder and asked with an even more confusing tone. "What?!?!" The girl walked closer. "Say...are you with anyone right now?"

"I...what...what do you mean..."

"Ahem!" Sakura coughed unusually loudly, interrupting the two. "Sa, Sakura!" Syaoran said, ever glad to see her, he rushed to her. "It...it was a...I mean..."

"Oh, I see." The girl smiled delightedly. "You ARE with someone."

"I am Sakura Kinomoto, the one who's traveling with Syaoran." She glared. "Who might you be?"

The girl brushed her hair smoothly, and took a bowl. "The name is Kinayo Koushiro. I'm very please to meet you and...your handsome boyfriend here."

Sakura blushed, but was mad at the same time. Kinayo admired her expression; she seemed to enjoy playing with the feelings of the couple. "Say, you two are travelers right? Why don't you stay at my place? It's just around the block. It's on me, what do you say?"

Sakura's ears moved when she said "It's on me". They do need to squeeze every penny now, after all, she didn't know how long will this trip take. Kinayo skipped closer. "Well?"

"Fine, we'll do it."

"That's great! Now come on!" She led them to her house. Sakura, Syaoran and Chocy followed, Syaoran whispered to Sakura when they walked. "Sakura, can we really trust her?" Sakura looked at him and smiled. "Her first entrance might be a bit rude, but I don't think she's a bad person." Syaoran sighed. "You're too simple-minded, not everyone is as nice as you."

Sakura giggled. "Thanks for the compliment, but I'll know what to do, and beside." She held up the penguin bird lucky charm. "I still have this to protect me." Syaoran lowered his head, and sighed hardly. "Oh, Sakura..."

~~~~~

They walked for around five minutes, and reached a small but fancy fortune telling shop in the middle of the business district. Sakura and company stepped up, and examined the shop. The sign on top of the door read "The House of Fate", it is made out of blue glass with white letterings. As a matter of fact, the whole shop was bluish. Even the windows were made out of blue glasses. The walls were some sorts of blue jade, and it got a shiny surface. She opened the door and invited them into it. "Come on, what are you waiting for?"

They followed her in. Now they were in a circular room with all shorts of lucky charms hanging on the wall, in the middle of the room stood a small table with long, thin legs. The only light source of the room is the dim light that hung low above the table. There were windows, but the drapes were closed. Behind the table was a door hidden by a curtain that seems to lead to Kinayo's living area. Syaoran looked around, and felt uncomfortable. "It's so dark in here..." He said. Kinayo turned around and grinned at him. "This is the business area. It's just to create a mysterious atmosphere to help my customer to get into the mood. If you like light, come into the living area". She lift the curtain, behind the door was a narrow, spiral shaped stairway. They climbed the steep and twisted stairs and reached another door.

Sakura and Syaoran both exclaimed as Kinayo opened the door. This room was still circular, but everything else was so much different from the other room. There were no ceiling; instead, there was a huge semispherical glass that covered the top of the building. The room was bright; beside then the light that was coming from the transparent "ceiling", there were at least five windows, each on narrow and long. In the center of the room was a crystal armillary sphere with two white sofas surrounding it. There was a white table with four chairs at one corner; it seemed to be the dining area. The room was decorated with white objects, unlike the other room. There were four doors in that room, one leads to the bedroom, one leads to the guestroom, one leading to a hallway with washroom and kitchen, and the last one is the one they just cam in.

"So." Kinayo turned around, and looked at them. "I guess you two can share a bed tonight." Both Sakura and Syaoran's faces turned red. "What??" They exclaimed together. Kinayo studied their expression. "What?" She repeated. "Or do you, Sakura, preferred the match of Syaoran and me...?" Sakura blushed; she wasn't too happy about Kinayo's joke. "Syaoran and I are matching up of course!" She yelled madly.

"Good." Kinayo said. "It's settled then."

The doorbell rang, Kinayo ran down. "Oh, a customer!" Sakura and Syaoran followed. As they reached the first floor and backed to the business area, they saw an old lady waiting at the door. "Kinayo, honey?" the old lady said. "Can you give me some advice?"

"Sure, Mrs. Kinsweth." She said, and then turned around. "I've got to take care of my customer now, why don't you go out and have a look at the town?" Sakura and Syaoran nodded, and walked out of the door. As they leave, people started to line up at the shop to get their fortunes told. Syaoran commented, "Wow, she's really good at it, isn't she?" Sakura tapped his shoulder, and pointed to the shop across from her. "Not as good as that one." Syaoran looked, and gasped. The line across the street was much longer than Kinayo's.

"Holly." Syaoran said. "This guy must be good." Sakura pulled his arm. "Let's go and have a look!" Syaoran complained. "But it's a very long line." Sakura refused to give up. "Come on, let's just peek through the curtain."

They looked through the window. The inside of the shop was pretty much identical to Kinayo's, even darker, if possible. The lights were decorated with black instead of blue like Kinayo's, and gave it a little evil feeling. They saw a young man in a hood telling fortune with a big mirror. The mirror had two dragons around it as decoration. An old man walked up, and asked the young man. "I...I want to know, if my legs will ever get better?" The young man took out his wooden staff, and pointed it towards the mirror. He touched the mirror with it, and the staff was dipped into the mirror like as if the mirror was water. He started to stir it like instant coffee. Moments later, he stopped, but the mirror was still jiggling. He pushed the old man to the front of the mirror. "Look into it, it shows you the answer to your question." The old man swallowed hard, and looked. He saw himself sitting on wheelchair. He shook his head wildly. "No, this can't be right. I just hit my leg a little on a pole, how can that be?" His voice was shaky; the young man walked closer to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Our lives and fortunes were already decided since the day we were born. Nothing can change fate, the only purpose of fortune telling is to make you prepare for the worst."

The old man looked at him, still feeling a little shocked, he suddenly lost all of his hope. "I...I guess I'll go buy a wheelchair while I can still walk." He slowly walked out of the room, and into the street. The young man looked at him, and sighed. "Another hopeless soul. I'm sorry, but I'm not god, I can't change the future. The best we can do is to prepare for the worst."

Sakura and Syaoran couldn't believe what they just saw; they looked at each other, and nodded. They ran to chase after the old man.

Around few minutes later, they saw the old man walking along the side of a small hill. "I guess I'll do some of my last walking while I still can." Sakura and Syaoran caught up to him. "Hey, wait up, mister!" They yelled. The old man turned around. "Why, what can I help you with, little kids." Sakura and Syaoran looked at each other, they didn't know what to say, they weren't even sure why did they chase him, but they felt like they have to. "I..." Sakura said. "I just want to say don't take it so seriously!"

"Yeah!" Syaoran agreed. "Fortune telling isn't always right, you shouldn't give up so easily."

The old man gave them a smile. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up, but I know I'm doomed."

Sakura shook her head wildly. "No you're not! Don't say things like that! I'm pretty sure those legs are fine! You really should see a doctor instead of a fortune teller."

The old man grinned. "Oh, I guess you kids don't know the power of Israel's mirror."

"Israel? Is that the fortune teller's name?" Syaoran asked. The old man nodded. "He bought it from a local merchant a few months ago. That thing can tell anyone's fortune, and its percentage of being right is always 100%! If the thing says the sky's going to rain, it's going to rain! If it says you're going to be a millionaire, you're going to be a millionaire! If it says you're going to be cripple, you better go buy yourself a wheel chair. He he he..." He laughed hopelessly, and continued to walk.
Sakura looked at him sadly. "But still, you might beat the odds!" She said. The old man waved, and yelled. "Thanks anyway, kids!" Sakura and Syaoran looked at each other, and slowly, they began their journey back to Kinayo's house.

~~~~~

"Israel?" Kinayo asked surprisingly during dinner. She scooped up another spoon of thick, rich soup that she made, and drank it up, swallowing it before continuing. "The guy across from my shop? How'd you meet him?" There was a bit of angriness to her tone.

"Well, we thought we go around town, and saw him telling fortune." Sakura said, putting down her glass of water. "Then we saw him making that old man feel sad by filling his mind with hopeless futures."

"Yeah, that Israel's pretty good at it, isn't he?" Kinayo sighed, "Ever since he got that mirror he had really became competitive." Syaoran looked at her curiously. "Is that what all fortune tellers do? Reveal horrible futures to their customers and make them feel like the whole world is coming to an end?" Kinayo looked at him, and laughed. "Oh, come on. I don't look that bad do I? Each fortune teller has a different way of predicting, I use my pebble right here." She pointed to her pebble wrapped with a string at the upper arm. "I dip it in the special water I create with the aqua sand and it reveals a foreshadowing image of the answer to my customer's problem. Most of us can only see foreshadowing while Israel can really look into the exact future with his mirror. That's why most of the customers go to his shop." She brushed her hair back casually. "But this isn't what fortune telling is mean to be, the customers were only supposed to use the vision they see as a guide, not a fate creator. They should just see it, get over it, and move on with their lives."

"So," Sakura said. "That old man won't necessarily become cripple?"

Kinayo shook her head sadly. "I don't know...everything Israel predicted has came true so far. I doubt that the old man stand a chance, but hey, you never know." She shifted in her seat. "I...rather not talk about him though..."

"Huh?" Sakura tilted her head. "Is something wrong?"

Kinayo put her spoon down, and frowned. "He's just a cold-blooded monster, that's all."

"Why'd you say that?"

"He is! Just half a year ago, when he first purchased the mirror, he saw his own sister's death and told no one about it until the day she died! He didn't even shad a tear! He said that was her fate, and he couldn't do anything about it! I can't stand him, his sister was one of my best friend and he let her die..."

Sakura looked down, and didn't say a thing for the rest of the meal.

~~~~~

Sakura sat on the bed in her pajamas and stared peacefully at the moon. Syaoran can in after he took a shower. "Can't sleep?" He smiled to her. She looked at him, and then looked down. "No."

He sat on the bed, and touched her face gently. "Don't worry about it too much." Sakura shrugged, "It's just that..." She looked back up at the moon. "It really makes me think. Is our future already decided? If it is, why do we even bother trying? Why can't we just let it go?"

"You can't think like that." Syaoran said. He leaned closer to her. "If you do that, then there's no hope at all. You have to keep trying. The only fate is in our hand. We have the power to control it. And if you don't try to keep going," He put his forehead to hers. "I'll keep it going for you."

Sakura blushed, and smiled. "Thanks, Syaoran. But I don't think I'll have problem keep my life going."

Syaoran smiled. "Now go to sleep." He patted her shoulder, and they fell asleep under the peaceful moon.

~~~~~

"I'll fight till the end for the sake of your safety..."

"Wait...who...are you...?"

For the first time, she could see the outline of the person's figure. It was bright behind him; she couldn't really see his face. She narrowed her eyes, trying to get a better look.

"Sy...Syaoran?"

Just when she recognized him, his body was pulled away; everything was suddenly dark.

Then something wet dropped on her face.

Blood.

"What...?"

"It's...raining...blood."

"Sy...Syaoran..."

"SYAORAN!!!"

Sakura jerked up on her bed, trying to catch her breath. Her body was sweaty, and her throat was dry. "It was just a dream." She whispered, and looked aside; Syaoran was sleeping peacefully beside her under the moonlight. She didn't like the vision in that dream. It could mean trouble. She remembered how Kero always used to her to remember her dreams because a magician can always predict one's future in a dream. She shivered, wishing that he were wrong. She didn't like the idea of Syaoran being taken away under the shower of blood drops.

She leaned closer to Syaoran, close enough to hear him breath. It made her feel peaceful just listening to him breathing. She put her head on his shoulder. The thought of being separated from him hurts her. She decided to ask Kinayo about the dream tomorrow. Meanwhile, she needed some good sleep.

Sakura lay down, lifted Syaoran's arm, and put it around herself. She snuggled in Syaoran's chest, wrapped her hands around his waist, and fell asleep.

She didn't have that dream again for the rest of the night.

~~~~~

Syaoran's eyes slowly opened; bright sunlight shone on the closed drape, but still passing enough light through to wake him up. He sighed, and closed his eyes again, thinking that he'd better sleep in for a little longer. Moments later, he realized that something was around his body, it took him at least five seconds for him to realize Sakura was hugging him in her sleep, and he had his arms around her shoulder. Maybe that was the reason he felt extra warm last night. All of the sudden, the blood through his body concentrated on his face, and he blushed wildly in reaction.

He tried to calm down. Slowly, he removed her hands from him and sat up on the bedside. He knew he needed to freshen up a little. He needed to be awake, period.

As he changed and walked out of the room quietly, Kinayo popped up in front of him. "Hi!" That gave Syaoran a little stroke; he backed up and put his hand to his heart, feeling his own heartbeat. "What do you want?" He asked hastily. Kinayo put her index finger to her mouth. "Just asking if you want breakfast. Boy, you look suspicious. What are you doing sneaking around my house?"

"No...nothing..." Syaoran said, avoiding eye contacts. Kinayo studied his expression, and understood what was going on. Her mouth curled up a little, and looked at him closely. "You know, I felt pretty guilty, squishing you two onto one tiny little bed." The topic made Syaoran's heart race. She continued. "I hope I didn't put you two in an awkward situation. Nothing...nothing happened back there, right? I mean...between you two."

"What??" He stared. Right away, Kinayo turned away. "Oh...nothing...just trying to ask if you had a good sleep."

"Couldn't you just ask it like that then?"

"Why? Nothing...happened, right?"

"Um. I...I've got to go!" Syaoran ran downstairs before he even finished the sentence; a gust of wind blew up as he went by. Kinayo turned around and giggled to herself.

Sakura was waked up by the noise; she walked to the door sleepily. "What...is going on...?" She yawned. Kinayo shook her head. "Nothing...Syaoran just went out for a walk that's all." Sakura rubbed her eyes. "He sure did it loudly..." Kinayo giggled again. "Sure did."

~~~~~

"Phew..." Syaoran sighed as he stepped out of Kinayo's shop. "Sometimes I don't know what does she want from me." He said grumpily, and started walking. He came to a stop as he saw Israel saying good-bye to his father. He had his hood down, Syaoran could see clearly now. Israel had short, white hair, a pair of shiny blue eyes, and a pebble tide around his forehead. "Have a good day, father." He said, looking up at a man in his mid-forties, and had a tummy as big as a melon. "Be careful in the land mine."

[His father?] Syaoran thought to himself. [Hard to believe a strange kid like him has a normal father like that.]

"Whatever, son." His father said cruelly. "You should've tell that to your sister before she was bitten by that snake in the forest if you're so smart." Israel looked hurt; he lowered his head and murmured. "But this is exactly what I'm doing..." His father didn't hear the last sentence; he headed to work.

But Syaoran knew what he was saying, he could tell by reading his lips. Syaoran frowned, and watched as Israel's father left. Israel headed back to his shop. Syaoran followed him.

Israel took up his wooden staff, and started to stir up the mirror again. "I'm sorry, my father. I could do nothing to stop this from happening." As he stopped stirring, an image appeared. Syaoran peeked through the window like yesterday. He gasped as he watched.

The mirror showed an image of a rockslide, tons and tons of heavy rocks tumbling down a steep hill. The image also showed workers fleeing for their lives, many of them managed to make it out of the paths of the rock, but one was buried under miles of storming stones.

He was Israel's father.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?" Syaoran charged through the door. Israel was shocked, turning around sharply, he asked. "Who the devil are you?" The image on the mirror fainted away as he did.

Syaoran ignored the question. "You know your father's going to die, and you're not going to even try and stop it?" He yelled. Israel shook his head. "There's nothing I can do, nothing can change fate. We don't have the power to do anything. All we can do is watch and accept the fact."

Syaoran was furious. "I don't believe it...is this whole fortune telling business more important than your family?"

Israel yelled back. "It's not something I can choose. People die, there's nothing we can do about it. We must let it go." Syaoran's hands were shaking from rage. He held them together tightly, forming two shaky fists. The more he looked, the more he hated the person that was in front of him. He held his anger back until he couldn't hold it any longer.

Pow!

Syaoran's angry fist slammed Israel's face hard. Israel fell back to the mirror, hitting it hard, and formed a long crack on it. Israel looked up slowly; the sun light behind Syaoran hurt his eyes. He could only saw a blurry figure of Syaoran. "I don't see why should your family die," Syaoran said. "When you're the one who deserves to go to hell the most." Israel's eyes widened, feeling ashamed, he said nothing.

Syaoran turned and ran. Israel stood up. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Syaoran braked, and looked at him. "If you're not going to," He said surely. "Then I'm going to try and save your father." He rushed out of the shop as he finished his sentence.

~~~~~

"A dream?"

Kinayo asked. The girls were inside her shop, Sakura told her about her dream, and wished to do a reading on it. "Can you help me?" She asked. Kinayo nodded. "Sure." She replied, and took off the pebble that was wrapped around her left armpit. "Come." She told Sakura as she walked towards the long legged table in the middle of the room.

She grabbed a pouch full of magical dust, and sprinkled it on the table. The dust shone and floated in the air. Kinayo snapped her finger; the dust expanded, and become water. It was floating in the air like a flying disc with clear light blue colour. She told Sakura to stand across from her, and close her eyes. Sakura did, and then she told her to start picturing the dream in her mind, every single detail of it. Sakura tried hard; then Kinayo dipped her pebble into the water, and told Sakura to open her eyes and look into the water.

The water reflected an image from her dream, this time she was sure: it was Syaoran. "It was..." Sakura said. "It really was him..."

The image showed him being pulled back, further and further away from her. Then there was total darkness; moments later, it started raining. It was raining...blood.

The image disappeared, there wasn't much different between this and her dream. She wanted to know what it means. Kinayo put her hand to her mouth and started thinking. "Hm..." She said. "It could be telling what lays a head." Sakura looked up at her. "What do you mean?" She asked hastily. Kinayo looked at her seriously, and said. "Your dream...it's predicting the future."

"The future?" Sakura asked. "What kind of future?"

"I don't know...this isn't really clear." Kinayo said. She glanced at Sakura, who was shaking, and gripping her own hand. Kinayo knew what she was thinking: she's afraid to loose Syaoran.

"Let's just pretend that this is a before and after picture." Kinayo said, trying to cheer her up. Sakura looked at her with confusion. "Hoe?" Kinayo tapped the table. "In another word, look at it as a warning. Syaoran being taking away, and then there's the rain of blood. Let's just say the rain of blood is some sort of disaster or aftermath of Syaoran's kidnap. Then all you have to do is grab on to him really, really tight!" Kinayo held her two fists together tightly and showed Sakura what kind of tight she was talking about. Sakura stared, and giggled. "Thanks, Kinayo." Kinayo laughed, too. "No problem." She looked around. "Say, Syaoran's taking awfully long for his walk." She turned back to her. "Want to go check on him?"

Sakura nodded, the girls went out of the shop.

~~~~~

Syaoran was running at his maximum speed. His lung was hurting, but he couldn't stop, not now. He arrived at an open landmine site. There were a lot of workers around, digging and shuffling. At a glance, Syaoran thought all of them looked the same, he couldn't tell which one was Israel's father.

He breathed hard, calm, he told himself. [You'll have to calm down and use your magic to search for him.]

There was no time to use his board; he'll have to do it in his mind. He closed his eyes, and concentrated. Shadows of the workers appeared in his mind. He scanned them, swallowing as he did. Then he saw him, standing beside a steep hill. Syaoran opened his eyes, like the image he saw in his head, he found his target. Israel's father was standing beside a steep hill, a steep hill with rocks piled for at least five meters high, roughly held together with two ropes.

He dashed, like he had never dashed before. Syaoran ran at his top speed, hoping to get Israel's father as faraway from the rock pile as possible. He dashed faster, sweeping by other workers.

That was when it happened.

He wasn't sure, but he could see a blurry figure on the top of the rock pile. The figure bended down, and was playing around with the ropes. Seconds later, the ropes snapped, and the rocks were sliding down. Most of the workers saw it coming, and ran away. Israel's father was still standing at the same place, confused. He looked back, and was horrified to find the piles of rock ready to burry him alive.

~~~~~

Kinayo wasn't going to do it. It wasn't like her to care for the fool. But she couldn't help herself but take a look when she saw Israel's mirror was broken and he had a bruise on his left face. Sakura followed her into the shop. She saw Kinayo putting her hands on her waist when she asked cruelly. "Hey, what the heck happened back here? Did the devil himself finally come and try to take you?"

Israel gave a faint smile. "Just a fool that was trying to go against fate." Then his smile was gone. "But he was a worthy fool, too good to die, though."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"I saw my father's future. He's going to die in a rockslide today."

The girls gasped. He continued. "But a boy came in this morning. Saying that I shouldn't be controlled by fate, and find my own way instead. He found out about my father's fate, and tried to stop it. Anyone knows if he does, he'll be burry in that rock slide, too."

[Find my own way...?] Sakura's heart leaped. "Was it a boy with brown hair and dark brown eyes?" She asked fearfully. She watched and gasped as Israel nodded slightly. "Syaoran!" She yelled, and ran out to get Chocy.

~~~~~

"Look out!!" Syaoran was now a few feet away from him; he charged with his maximum force, jumped, and pushed him out of the way.

Storms of dust hit the air along with a thundering noise. The workers coughed and coughed. One of the workers yelled. "Hey! Someone! Go see the boss and that kid!! Hurry!!" All the workers gathered around the area of the rockslide. The dust hadn't clear yet, they fanned the air with their hand, everyone of them yelling, "Boss! Kid!"

They were relieved to see both of them landed around one meters away from the rockslide, and reached safety. They were safe! It was all like a miracle!

Syaoran slowly got up, he remembered Israel's father, and turned around quickly to see if he's all right. The big man lay there; his big tummy was going up and down, that means he was breathing. Syaoran sighed, and smile.

Slowly, Israel's father opened his eyes. He got up, and looked around. "What happened?" The workers explained the situation to him, and pointed to Syaoran. The big man walked towards him with stumbling steps, and took Syaoran's hand, shaking it hard. "Thank you, thank you so much! You have saved my life! How can I ever thank you."

Syaoran took his hand back. "It's no big deal, really." And forced a smile. All the workers gathered around him to give him a pat on the shoulder. As they commented on his bravery and speed, Sakura and Kinayo came along on Chocy's back. "Syaoran!" They yelled. The group of workers backed up to open a path for them. Sakura jumped off Chocy before Chocy even stopped. She rushed up to Syaoran, putting both hands on his shoulders. "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly. Syaoran shook his head with a smile. One of the workers stepped up and said. "Yeah, he was really cool! He saved the boss's live from the rockslide!" The others agreed. Syaoran blushed and scratched the back of his head. "It's really nothing."

Sakura looked at Syaoran with a gentle smile, and threw herself around him. She was glad that he was safe, and the dream didn't come true. "My hero." She said, hugging him tightly. Syaoran blushed. The workers yelled "Woo-hoo" and started to whistle at them.

"But..." Kinayo said. "What caused the rockslide?"

Israel's father pointed to the broken rope. "The rope broke off. We have to get some safer ropes if we don't want this to happen again." He turned to face the workers and clapped his hands. "All right, folks! Break it up! We need to go back to work and clean up this mess!" The workers said yes sir, and went back to their position. Kinayo walked towards the rope; she knew something was going on. She picked up the ropes, and saw what she expected to see.

Sakura and Syaoran joined her. "What's wrong?" Sakura asked, leaning towards her with her hands at her knees. Kinayo turned around and showed them the rope. "Look at the end that had been broken off." She said, handing the rope to them. Sakura and Syaoran examined it; Syaoran frowned. "The end is even; this was purposely cut off." Sakura gasped. "You mean..."

Kinayo nodded. "This was no accident. Someone was trying to kill somebody back here."

"Come to think of it." Syaoran said. "There was someone standing on top of the pile of rocks when I came. He didn't wear the worker's uniform; he was an outsider." He looked around and scanned the field. He came to stop when he saw a suspicious personnel headed towards the wood area. "There!" He pointed, and ran towards him. Sakura and Kinayo followed.

The figure knew he had been spotted. He sprinted towards the wood and disappeared into it. Sakura and the others arrived at the wood, and ran into it without thinking. They ran deeper and deeper, away from the mine site, until they realized they'd lost him. Syaoran slowed down, and came to a stop. The girls behind him gasped for air. He looked around, and hit the nearest tree. "Damn!" He cursed.

"Why? Why would he do that?" Sakura said between her breathe. Kinayo nodded, agreeing to her. Syaoran shook his head, he didn't know. "I have no idea why. It was as if that person wanted Israel's statement to become reality. I don't understand..."

"The merchant." Kinayo gasped as the thought came to her. "The merchant, it was him! It has to be him!" Sakura and Syaoran looked at her, then at each other. "What merchant?" Sakura asked. Kinayo explained. "It has to be the merchant that sold Israel his mirror! To make his mirror's prediction come true! Yes, that's the only possible explanation!"

The group nodded, they seemed to be buying this theory. It made sense.

"Darn, I was hoping that I could stay under cover. But I think I have no choice but to destroy all of you."

The group gasped as they heard a mysterious voice said. They looked around. A man did a back flip, and jumped down from a tall tree near by, landing in front of them. "Who are you?" Syaoran yelled.

"Fred!" Kinayo yelled. "He's the merchant! That's him!" She pointed to him as if she was pointing at a murderer on the court. The man had white hair, combed to the back of his head like spikes. God knows how much jell he spent on his head. "That's right, it's me." He laughed. "It's ashamed that you know my little plan. You all have figured out too much to live. You simply have to die."

"Why?" Sakura yelled. "Why did you do it?"

"It was a rather simple plan," He began to explain. "You see I was to sell Israel that mirror of his, and then project images into it. The images are just made up images created by me, showing bad fortunes of people getting hurt, kill or whatsoever. And then what I do is I go ahead and make those so call prediction a reality. How do I do that? Simply by hurting or killing those people that went to Israel for fortune telling. Then I can cause chaos and disorders in this society without people getting suspicious." He began to laugh. "Isn't that simple? Isn't that great?"

"You...you..." Kinayo glared at him with angry eyes. "This is unforgivable! You are a total disgrace to the whole fortune telling industry. People like you deserve to die!"

"Wait..." Syaoran said. "Did you say create chaos and disorder? That means...you are one of the missioners!"

"Ah, I'm afraid you have known even more than you should now. Good, that would give me another reason to kill you!" He ran forward, charging toward Syaoran at a high speed. Syaoran panicked; then he pulled out his sword and swung. Fred disappeared before Syaoran could slice him; Syaoran looked around but found no trace of him. Sakura yelled. "Syaoran! He's up there!" She pointed. Syaoran looked up and saw him coming down with a long knife in his hand, ready to stab him on head.

Sakura released her key fast, and used shield to protect Syaoran. Fred hit the shield, bounced a few meter away, and landed a few feet away from Syaoran. "Ah, I see you know magic. Don't mind if I use a little magic of my own." He put his hand together. Suddenly, his body became blurry.

Sakura ran forward to see Syaoran. "Are you okay?" She asked. Syaoran nodded. They looked up to see Fred in the bushes, jumping here and there. It took them a while to realize they were looking at more than on of him. There were at least ten of him jumping around the wood. The next thing that came was an echo of laugher. "Can you tell which one is me? If you can't you're toast!"

Kinayo watched as many Freds jumping around the wood. She could help them; she knew it. She snapped the pebble of off her armpit, and began to concentrate with the pebble in her hand. She closed her eyes and mumbled some spells. Her eyes snapped open, and her pebble was floating towards the real Fred, following him everywhere. If She weren't holding the string, the pebble would have fly out of her hand and towards Fred like a strong magnet. "There!" She yelled, and pointed. "That one's the real one! Behind the tall tree!"

The real Fred glared at Kinayo. She backed up a little. All the fake Freds disappeared, and the real one jumped up towards her. "We don't want a smarty, now, do we?"

"Kinayo!" Sakura yelled; she drew out a card. "Wood! Tangle Fred's legs!" The wood card released into thousand branches of ivies, all headed towards Fred. The ivies got hold of his legs, and drew him back in the air. He landed hard on his face. It definitely pissed him off.

"Oh, little girl..." Fred looked up behind and over his shoulder. "You have made the biggest mistake of your live!" He used his long knife to free himself. In a slice, the ivies were all cut off. He got to his feet, and charged toward Sakura. Sakura reacted fast; she drew out the jump card, and leaped into the air. Unfortunately, Fred followed her. It was unbelievable that he used his own strength to jump as high as Sakura. "I got you now, little girl." He reached out and was about to grab her leg when a blast of fire appeared in front of him, burning him and blasting him away from Sakura. Sakura turned to found out it was Syaoran who used his charm to save her. She gave him a faint smile. He smiled back.

Fred landed screaming, but the screaming didn't last long as he got up to his feet. His burns were already healing. "That was fun while it lasted, but it didn't last long, now, did it?" He held his knife up. "And I have a feeling this fight won't last long either!" He charged again. Sakura landed beside Syaoran, for a moment, their eyes met, and they knew what to do. "Wind!" Syaoran drew out his wind charm. Meanwhile, Sakura drew out her Sand card. "Sand!"

The magic mixed together to form a dust storm. Fred could do nothing but block the dust storm with his hand. He nudged slowly forward. "We don't have much time!" Sakura said. "We need to find his tattoo fast!"

"Tattoo?" Kinayo asked from behind a tree. She had been staying out of the battle area ever since Fred tried to slice her up like lettuce. She saw Syaoran nodded. "It's like a weak spot." Kinayo took out her pebble. "I can help." Again, magic started to gather, and she closed her eyes. She scanned Fred's body in her mind. In her head, she was looking from up to down, left to right. Suddenly, her attention was grabbed by a mark on Fred's left waist. She opened her eyes, there, she told herself. "It's there! By his left waist!"

Sakura and Syaoran nodded to the cue. They stopped their magic. Fred was gasping for air as they stopped. His vision was blurred from the sand, when his vision came back, the first thing he saw was Syaoran coming up to him. Then with a swing of Syaoran's sword, the battle was over. His body vanished, and his soul sucked into the crystal.

All of them collapsed and sat down as the battle finished. It was very tiresome, and all of their energy had been burnt out. "Man," Kinayo sighed. "That was close! I hope to see nothing like that ever again!" Then at the moment, they looked at each other, and grinned.

~~~~~

"So now do you believe there's no such thing as fortune telling? At the end, it was Fred who created all the accidents." Syaoran said as they walked down the road out of town on Chocy's back. Sakura nodded slowly. "Well, kind of. But I really like this cute little charm!" She held up her penguin bird charm. Syaoran sighed. "Sakura..."

"Okay...but I'd say Kinayo really have the power."

"Well, maybe...still, the bottom line is that you've got to build your own future with your own hands, you got that?"

"Yeah, I got it. It's too bad that Kinayo can't say good-bye to us when we leave today, though."

"I heard that she's got some personal business to take care of."

"Hmm..." Sakura hummed. "I wonder what could it be?"

~~~~~

The sun shone high in the sky, the light was reflected on the golden lettering of a cross-shaped grave, out in the open field with green grass. A bundle of flowers were placed next to the grave by Israel. He stood up, and looked down upon the grave of his sister. His smiled, and said. "You have no idea how glad I am to know father is not sleeping next to you. I guess I own one to that fool."

He looked up into the sky, smiling, with a bit of pity in his voice, he continued. "I guess I'm the real fool. If I had figured Fred was behind all of this sooner, you wouldn't be here in the first place." He looked down, closing eyes, he sighed.

He heard footsteps behind him; he turned around to find that it was Kinayo, with a bundle of flowers in her hand. "Oh...hey." She said. He smiled to her. "Hello." She came to the grave and put her flowers down. "What are you doing here?" She asked. Israel joked and said. "A brother can't come to visit his own sister?" Kinayo turned away from him. "You don't deserve to be her brother." He looked down, and sighed again. "Maybe I don't." She looked at him, and was surprised to see a bit of regret in his eyes.

They sat down next to the grave. "So what are you going to do? No one will believe you as a fortune teller anymore, not after the incident." Kinayo asked. Israel shook his head. "I don't know. But it's okay, I'm still young, I'll find something." Kinayo stared at him; she had never saw this side of him before, perhaps it was because she never really looked at him. "Well," she said, standing up. "If you want to find something, you can always ask me. I've got connections." She started to walk away. "I'll be across from you."

Israel smiled, "You know...you're really not bad as a girl."

Kinayo turned around, surprised; she looked at him for a while. Moments later she found the words she was looking for. "Shut up."

Well, I hope you liked this chapter! Kinayo is based on the "Legend of Ometin contest" winner! ^(oo)^ The character was designed according to her will! I'm sorry that the chapter took so long! And please join us in the next chapter or the next "Legend of Ometin contest"!

Piggy Ho Ho ^(oo)^
April 15, 2001