"We've been here for a few months now. Is it safe to say that we've moved here?" Spinel asked. "Or are you actually planning to go back to England at some point?"

"Let's stay here a little bit longer." Eriol said.

"This is the third time you said that." Nakuru pointed out. "If you want to move here, then just say so. That way, it's going to make things clearer."

"Fine, let's move here temporarily." Eriol finally said.

"Temporarily? Honestly, Eriol, what exactly do you want? Do you want to stay here with her or are you going to leave again at some point?" Nakuru asked. "And no, don't dismiss me. You have to think about that. The longer you stay here, the closer you get to her, the harder it would be to leave."

"If you want to leave, that is." Spinel added. "Honestly, why don't you just tell her?"

"Yes, I also don't understand that." Nakuru said. "Why don't you just tell her how you feel? It's not like she's in a relationship. She's very much single and looks available."

"It's complicated." Eriol said.

"How is it complicated? You're single, she's single. You love her, she... well, I don't know how she feels, but at least, you could try to find out." Nakuru said. "Seems pretty simple to me."

"I'm not like them."

"Who is this 'them'?" Spinel asked.

"The other men. Men who deserve her."

"Hold on a minute!" Nakuru said. "You don't want to tell her how you feel because you don't think you deserve her?! What kind of logic is that? I thought you were supposed to be smart?"

"The fact is, I don't deserve her, Nakuru. Given my past, who I am, who I was, she deserves someone who can... who can make her happy."

"And what makes you think that you can't make her happy? I mean, so what if you were Clow? That doesn't mean you can't love her and make her happy. You already love her and seeing how she keeps calling you to hang out with you, I'd say you do make her happy." Nakuru said.

"It's not that simple." Eriol said.

"It's that simple, Eriol. You're the one who's making it complicated." Nakuru said. "Right now, you keep hanging out with her and you're doing whatever she asks you to do. That could send mixed signals, you know... Don't lead her on if you don't plan on following through. That's not fair for her and you're just going to hurt her more in the end. Either you tell her how you feel and figure things out between you two, or you leave her be."

Spinel and Eriol looked at Nakuru.

"What?" Nakuru asked.

"Since when did you become so... erm..."

"Wise." Eriol finished up for him.

"I wouldn't say that, in case she gets cocky." Spinel said.

"I might have read a few books." Nakuru said. "And it's your fault. You keep going back and forth with leaving, I can't get a job. I'm getting very bored! And Suppi is not helping because he doesn't want to hang out with me!"

"And she's back..." Spinel said and Eriol chuckled.

"I'll think about it." Eriol finally said. "Right now, she's busy trying to find a new job and I have my own work to do."

"Yeah, well, just don't take too long. She might get the wrong message." Nakuru reminded him before taking her plate to the sink.

Eriol spent the rest of the day thinking about what Nakuru said. She was right. It wasn't fair of him to keep doing this. While he didn't know how Sakura felt towards him, it was clear that they had gotten much closer.

Human emotions were unpredictable and fascinating. It was the one thing that neither he nor Clow could fully understand and predict. But it was such a strong force that could drive a person to do things that they didn't normally do. It went beyond reasons and logic. He himself was a prime example of that. His feelings for her had made him do things that he never thought he'd ever do. His love for her had made him feel things that he didn't usually feel, jealousy, anger, desire, and a whole other things.

He wanted to tell her how he felt, but his own fear and insecurity stopped him from doing so. Nakuru was right, it had nothing to do with her, it was all him and his own thoughts.

By the end of the day, Eriol decided that it was time for him to tell her how he felt. He didn't know what would happen next, he couldn't predict that. But she deserved to know and he'd leave it to her to decide what they were going to do next.

With that resolution in mind, Eriol went to bed.


The next morning, Eriol texted Sakura asking if they could meet up. She agreed and said he could come over to her house if he wanted.

'I'll go over at 11am if that's okay.' Eriol replied.

'Ok! See you later!' Sakura's reply came in a minute later.

At 10.45am, Eriol left his house and made his way to her house. He was undoubtedly nervous. This would be the first time he actually confessed to someone and she was very special. He couldn't sleep last night, afraid of what would happen if she rejected him. He even changed his mind briefly this morning, but in the end, he gathered up his courage and texted her. Now there was no going back. He would tell her how he felt and they'd go from there.

He turned the corner that led to her house and stopped dead in his tracks. He saw Sakura was talking to Li Syaoran at her front door and they seemed to be having a serious conversation. Eriol quickly hid himself around the corner before they noticed him.

Eriol knew he should just leave. Whatever was happening was none of his business and he was overstepping his boundaries just by being here. But his curiosity got the better of him, so he stayed.

Eriol saw Syaoran smiling at Sakura and said something to her that made her smile widely. Then he saw them hugging and his heart clenched painfully in his chest. It was pretty clear to him what was happening. They were getting back together and he'd lost his chance. Just like that, suddenly Eriol didn't want to be here anymore. Silently, he left and went home.

"How did it go?" Nakuru asked when Eriol got home. They knew he was going to confess and were waiting eagerly. Her smile faltered when he saw his face. "Eriol?"

"Pack your bags. We're leaving." Eriol said shortly.

"What happened?! You haven't even been gone for fifteen minutes!" Nakuru asked in surprise.

"Just do it, Nakuru." Eriol said as he made his way upstairs. "Tell Spinel to get ready to leave too."

"At least tell me what happened! What did she say?" Nakuru asked. This was a very unexpected turn of events.

"It doesn't matter anymore." Eriol said. "Pack up. We're leaving first thing tomorrow morning." With that, he went into his room and slammed the door behind him.

"What an idiot." Eriol muttered to himself. "To even think that she has feelings for you..."

Eriol sat down at the edge of his bed and ran his fingers through his hair. He was angry, confused, and hurt. But he could only blame himself. He had done this to himself. He should've stayed in London, should've just loved her from a distance, should've stayed away from her. But no. Instead, he'd come here, wanting to see her. He knew she had a boyfriend, but he just wanted... God, he was so stupid. And even more so after he found out that they had broken up. He had allowed himself to hope. He should've known better. Sakura would never love him. At least he hadn't made a fool of himself by confessing.

When his phone rang, he was jolted out of his thoughts. He looked at the display and saw her name. His finger hovered above the answer button. He was supposed to go over to her place at eleven and it was now 11.20am. But she shouldn't be calling him. She should be spending her time with Syaoran, now that they were back together.

Eriol rejected the call and put his phone aside. Ten seconds later, it dinged, signalling an incoming text. He didn't even bother looking at it.


Sakura was vacuuming when the doorbell rang. She glanced at the clock, 10.45am. She turned off the vacuum and went to the door.

"You're early!" Sakura said with a big smile when she opened the door, but her smile disappeared upon seeing who was standing there.

"Expecting someone else?" Syaoran asked.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura said instead of answering his question.

"I'm wondering if we could talk..." Syaoran said.

"There's nothing to talk about."

"I know you're angry and hurt..."

"It's over, Syaoran. We're over. I don't want to rehash it all over again."

"I know and it's totally my fault. I owe you an apology for everything. For what happened. It was wrong of me to do that to you. This might sound like a lame excuse, but at that time, my family put a lot of pressure on me and they made me feel like I had to choose. If I had to do it all over again, I would've chosen you, but at that time..."

"It wasn't just that one time. You've got to admit that we've had our own share of problems. Your family played a big part in what happened, but it was on us too." She paused briefly. "I've had some time to think about it, about what happened to us and I realized that what really happened was that our relationship had run its course. We fought over the little things and we never talked about anything anymore. Instead, we just swept everything under the rug and pretended that we were okay. Or maybe we were just too young to actually deal with any of it. Between your family, magic, growing up, and everything else, we couldn't handle everything."

Syaoran nodded. "Yes, you're right. But in the end I did hurt you and I made you feel awful about yourself and that's the one thing that I regret the most."

"It was partly my fault too, actually. You were under a lot of pressure and I wasn't helping." Sakura admitted.

"I'm sorry, Sakura." Syaoran apologized sincerely.

"Me too." Sakura said, smiling softly.

"I know it's been a while and it must be weird for me to show up here now. But I've met someone and I guess, I just want to, to clear the air with you, so that I can move on. It's silly, but I just want to..."

"I understand." Sakura said. "I need this too, actually. To be able to move on completely from you, from us. What we had, it was special in its own way, but now it's time for us both to move on."

"You've met someone too, haven't you?" Syaoran asked.

"It's complicated. But yes, there's someone that I really care about and I don't know where we're going, or if we're going to go anywhere at all, but I think it would be good if I can move on from this."

"Well, good luck then, Sakura. Whoever it is, he's a lucky guy and he better knows it." Syaoran said, his smile widened.

Sakura smiled widely at him and suddenly she stepped forward to hug him.

"Goodbye, Syaoran." Sakura said and she felt as if a big burden had been lifted off her shoulders, a burden that she didn't even realize she had been carrying for months.

"Goodbye, Sakura." Syaoran returned her hug. This was what he needed, something that he didn't have the chance to say last year.

And with that, they closed that chapter of their lives.


Eriol didn't even come down for lunch and had locked himself in his room. Nakuru tried to talk to him, but he gave her the silent treatment, so she left him be.

A few hours later, Nakuru's phone rang and she picked up to see Kero's name on the display. Intrigued, Nakuru answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Akizuki, is Sakura there?" Kero asked without preamble.

"Sakura? No. What made you think that she's here?"

"She said she was going there and it's almost dinner time and she's not back yet and I'm starving." Kero said.

"Well, have you tried calling her instead?" Nakuru asked. "After what she did to Eriol..."

"What did she do to Eriol?" Kero asked.

"I don't know, but my master is sulking in his room and refuses to come out after he talked to your mistress this morning." Nakuru couldn't keep the annoyance out of her voice.

Kero frowned. "What are you talking about? She said he was supposed to come over this morning, but he never showed, so she went there instead. It's been hours! And yes, I've tried calling her, and your master, but I went into their voicemails."

"Huh?" Now Nakuru was confused. "You're saying they didn't even talk?"

"I don't know. I was busy." Kero said. Now he was getting worried. "Can you please check with him? It's really not like her..."

"Fine." Nakuru said and went upstairs. She knocked on the door. "Eriol? Kero is on the phone. He's looking for Sakura."

No answer.

"He's not answering." Nakuru told Kero.

"Put me on loudspeaker." Kero said.

"What good would it do? If he's not listening to me, why would he listen to you?" Nakuru asked.

"Just do it, Akizuki!" Kero said loudly.

Nakuru put him on speaker. "You're on speaker now."

"Eriol! Sakura is missing! You know I wouldn't go to you if it's not urgent, but this isn't like her at all! I've called Yukito and he had been walking around, but Yue can't feel her presence! I don't know what's going on with you two, but we're worried about her!"

"I don't think that's going to..." Nakuru said, but then the door opened. "Well, would you look at that! It actually works!"

"She's with him." Eriol said simply.

"With who?" Both Kero and Nakuru asked.

"Syaoran."

"Syaoran? Like, Li Syaoran?" Kero was surprised.

"Yes." Eriol said.

"That brat is not even here! I haven't seen him in more than a year!" Kero said.

"I saw them together earlier. If you're looking for her, call him." Eriol said shortly and stepped back into his room. He closed the door before Nakuru could stop him.

"Well, at least we know what happened this morning..." Nakuru muttered.

Kero hung up and called Syaoran instead, who claimed that he hadn't seen Sakura since he left her house this morning.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Kero asked.

"Tying up some loose ends." Syaoran said. "She was expecting someone, so maybe she went with him?"

"Yeah, I've called. She's not there either." Kero said. He was getting more and more worried. The door opened and a pale Yukito showed up. "Hold on, kid." Kero said. "Yukito, did you find her?"

"No, but I found this." Yukito showed Kero a bag, Sakura's bag. "It was lying on the ground in an alley. Her cards are all here."

"Kero, what's happening?" Syaoran asked when the line went silent.

"I think Sakura is in trouble..." Kero said. "I've got to go."

"No, wait!" Syaoran stopped him. "I want to help!"

"I don't see how you..."

"Look, despite what happened between us, I do care about her and if she really is in trouble, then I want to help!" Syaoran insisted.

"Fine." Kero had no time to argue and the more people who helped, the better. "Where are you?"

"I'm at a hotel downtown. I can be there in about ten minutes."

"Don't bother coming here. Meet us at Eriol's house."

"Eriol? As in Hiiragizawa? He's here?!" Syaoran was surprised.

"Yes. We'll see you there." Kero said and hung up.

Then Kero got into Sakura's bag and Yukito rushed to Eriol's house.


"What are you two doing here?" Nakuru asked when she opened the door to reveal Yukito and Kero.

"Akizuki, Sakura is in trouble." Kero said.

"Look, didn't Eriol tell you? She's with..."

Kero showed her Sakura's cards. "Yukito found them at the side of the road and there's no sign of her."

Nakuru's demeanour instantly changed. "Come in." She stepped aside to let them in. "Eriol is upstairs, in Clow's old room. I take it you still remember which one?"

Kero went upstairs as Yukito transformed into Yue. Then he and Nakuru followed Kero upstairs.

"Eriol! Open the door!" Kero banged his paw on the door.

The door opened. "I told you..."

Kero shoved Sakura's cards in his face. "Yukito found them on the ground at the side of the road between the house and here!"

Eriol took the cards. "When?"

"Just now." Yue replied. "It was hidden from view. Her phone and wallet are inside too."

"How about her key?" Eriol asked.

Yue shook his head. "Didn't see it anywhere."

The doorbell rang.

"What is he doing here?" Eriol asked. He knew who was at the door.

"He wants to help. Look, can you put aside whatever thing you two have and just focus on Sakura?" Kero asked.

"Open the door." Eriol told Nakuru. Kero was right. Their priority was to find the missing Cardmistress.

Eriol went downstairs just as Syaoran entered the main hall.

"Syaoran." Eriol greeted him.

"Hiiragizawa." Syaoran nodded curtly.

"What's happening?" Spinel asked in confusion. He just came out of the library to find the group gathering in the hall.

"Sakura is missing and something has happened to her." Kero said.

They went to the living room to talk.

"Kero, tell us from the beginning." Eriol said.

"She left home after lunch, saying that she was coming here. I didn't think much of it, but then I got hungry and I called her, but went straight to voicemail. I tried calling her several times, but nothing. Then I called you." Kero turned to Eriol, "And I also went to voicemail. So I called Yukito since obviously I couldn't be wandering around. But Yue couldn't feel her presence and I called Akizuki. Hm... I called a lot of people today..."

"How about you? Wasn't Sakura with you?" Eriol asked Syaoran.

"I talked to her this morning, but then I left. That was it." Syaoran said.

"Do you think maybe someone took her?" Nakuru asked. "Sakura wouldn't go anywhere without her cards, so maybe someone took her when she was walking here and she dropped her bag."

"You mean, like kidnaping?" Kero asked. "Why would anyone kidnap her?"

"Well, do you have any better explanation?" Nakuru shot back.

"If you think about it, that's the only logical conclusion." Spinel chimed in. "She wouldn't part with her cards willingly and she definitely wouldn't leave them on the road like that, unless she was taken by force."

"Or unconscious." Syaoran added. "We all know she's a fighter and she wouldn't just go without a fight."

"This is not a movie though." Kero pointed out. "Sakura wasn't some billionaire's daughter. Nobody has any reason to kidnap her, especially in the broad daylight!"

"There is." Eriol said and everyone turned to him. "There's someone who might've done that."

"Huh?" Kero looked confused. "Who?"

"Assuming that Nakuru is right, that she was kidnapped, that's the only reason I could think of that anyone would do that to her."

"Stop being cryptic and just tell us who it is already!" Kero said.

"Did she tell you why she got fired?"

"Sakura was fired?" Syaoran asked.

"Hm... nothing. She just said she must've done something wrong, but she didn't tell me why. You mean you know?" Kero asked. "How did you even know that?"

Eriol nodded. "Something happened during the company dinner a few weeks ago. That's why she got fired. There was an incident involving another person."

"What incident?" Kero asked. "It can't be that serious that it had not only gotten her fired, but also kidnapped?"

"I'm not at liberty of saying anything about the incident itself, but what I can tell you is, the person might be behind this."

"Okay, so assuming you're right, how are we going to find her?" Yue asked. "Right now, that's the most important thing."

"Yes." Eriol nodded. "As to how, I might have a way, but it really depends on whether she still has her key with her."

"Let's say she still has her key, how can you find her?" Kero asked.

Eriol got up and left. He came back a few minutes later with something. He raised his hand and one of Sakura's cards flew into his open hand. The card glowed and The Mirror floated out.

"Clow..." Mirror greeted Eriol.

"Hello, Mirror." Eriol smiled gently. "We need your help."

Mirror frowned. "Yes. My mistress is in danger."

Eriol nodded.

"How did... You can summon the cards?!" Kero was surprised. "I thought Sakura's staff is the only thing that could summon the cards!"

"It is. But Mirror is special." Eriol said. He then held out the other item in his hand. It looked like a pocket watch.

"What's that?" Syaoran asked curiously.

"A compass." Eriol said and the compass glowed as Mirror was absorbed into it.

"What are you doing?" Kero asked.

"This compass, with Mirror's help, would be able to find Sakura, or rather, her key. And if she has it with her, we'll find her too." Eriol explained.

Kero and Spinel got into Sakura's bag and Yue changed back into Yukito. Then they left. They wanted to fly, but it was still daylight and they didn't want to take the risk of getting spotted.

"Don't worry, we'll find her." Eriol told Syaoran, thinking that he must be very worried.

Eriol had spent the past few hours thinking about this. He was angry mostly at himself for letting himself be vulnerable. But he had come to terms with it and had resigned himself to a lonely existence. He knew he would always love her and he'd never regret that. He wouldn't allow himself to regret loving her. But he had also accepted that they were not meant to be and he was okay with it. As long as she was happy, then he'd be content. That was the most important thing for him.

The past few months had been the happiest he'd been. But now, it was over and he had nothing left but memories. And he'd treasure those memories that he had made with her, however short they were.

"Yeah, I know." Syaoran nodded. By now, he had concluded that Eriol was the 'new guy'. He was admittedly surprised. Out of all people, he didn't expect it to be him.

"It's getting dark. Let's go to the woods. I think we can do this faster if we fly." Eriol said and they agreed. They headed to the woods and the four guardians transformed into their true forms. Eriol climbed onto Spinel's back and Syaoran got onto Kero's back. Then they took off into the air.