When they arrived Sonomi was away at work so they went right up to Tomoyo's bedroom where they had Tomoyo lie down on her large bed. Eriol sat on one side of the bed and held her left hand, while Kaho sat on the other side and took her right hand. Tomoyo took a few deep breaths while staring at a large picture of Sakura that was on the wall. "Okay, I am ready."
"Then try to make your mind blank. Or as blank as you can. I know, that's really hard under the circumstances, but try your best."
With this Tomoyo closed her eyes and laid back against her pillows; but not for long. She started twitching in just a few seconds and it continued off and on, as the minutes passed. Then after an hour or so had past, Tomoyo's twitching grew stronger and became more frequent and what was far worse, the twitching was now accompanied by moans and small cries of pain. Kaho's expression went from concentrating to frustrated and back again many times as the minutes slowly past.
When three hours had past, the two Mages rested for a half hour while Tomoyo's twitching slowed down and finally stopped. But about two hours after Eriol resumed his work, Tomoyo suddenly started convulsing violently, and screaming in a horribly painful way. They stopped immediately and when a bodyguard burst through the door holding a gun. Kaho met her and made her forget what she had heard, took her to another bed room, had her lay down on the bed and put her to sleep. The second guard that showed up was treated the same and put into the same bed. The very tired pair, then took a much needed full hour break.
The third session started out with the convulsions and horrible screaming again but after less than an hour it slowed down and became little more than twitches and moans once more. This session went on for four hours, by the end of which Kaho and Eriol were totally exhausted and Tomoyo seemed to be peacefully sleeping. "That's it. I can do no more." Eriol pronounced, "Torturing her like that was by far the hardest thing I have ever done. But if we can save those millions of people the Cards have destroyed, it will be well worth it." After standing and trying to work the stiffness out of his body he looked down at the sleeping girl and continued softly. "But I expect that you value Sakura's life more than all the people in Hong Kong."
Wednesday July 26 9:12pm Tokyo time.
"The poor girl. I tried my best but I'm afraid I could not help her very much without interfering with your work. Can I have her forget the last few hours?" Kaho asked.
"I'm afraid not. There is too much chance of your spell undoing some of the work I did. You can however, help her deal with the memories after she wakes up."
"I hope we haven't done her permanent harm." Kaho sighed.
"As do I. But even if all goes according to plan, she will have Magic now for the rest of her life, and as you well know, she will no longer be the same person she was. Did you feel where her power comes from?"
"Yes. But I didn't know it was even possible to draw power from the Earth itself."
"It is a rare type of Magic. And has unusual properties. And it is likely the reason she is so special. Perhaps this mission can only be done by someone with Earth Magic. Clow was not an expert on it but he did know an Earth Magic adept and learned a few things. Their special power is more like anti-Magic than Magic. They are particularly good at removing static spells and defending against nonphysical attack spells. Clow suspected they also had other powers but they were very secretive about themselves, as is usual for mages." After a pause Eriol continued. "She needs to be at the remains of Hong Kong Friday afternoon to follow the thread that leads to success."
Kaho looked understandably shocked. "The day after tomorrow? How can she learn to use her Magic in one day!?"
"What I worked out on that endless airplane flight will hopefully make that at least possible. First, I connected her mind to her Magic as carefully and naturally as I could. I tried to simulate a connection built up over years of use. Neither I nor Clow ever did this before, and I wouldn't have attempted it without my vision of her succeeding. To succeeded she must have had Magic and she must have gotten it from me. And there is no time to do it properly. So there is my logic." When Kaho didn't have any questions he continued. "And then I was able to follow her Magic back to it's source. An ancestor of hers who lived six generations ago. She is the reincarnation of that very powerful woman. So I tried to connect her mind, through her Magic, to the memories of that person. Clow never did this either, but he had heard that it was possible. So, since I saw no other way she would have any chance at sucess, I tried it. I am hoping that when she needs them, she will be able to call upon those memories just as I can call upon Clow's memories. When she wakes up we will see how successful I was. Then if it went well, she will need to get used to her Magic and how it feels and works, and then learn to draw and hold a large amount of Magic Energy so she can use the Return card." After a moment Eriol continued. "When she wakes up, don't encourage her to try anything while she is still weak. Just watch over her and try to keep her from having nightmares. Now I have an errand. I am going to find Yue and see if he knows if Kero is alive."
Thursday, July 27 3:12am Tokyo time
When Eriol returned, he found Tomoyo still sleeping and Kaho sleeping on the edge of the bed next to her. With the lightest touch of his Magic Kaho awoke. "I've bad news. Yue is gone. Toya says Yuki just suddenly said he had to leave, turned into Yue and flew off without explanation. Now I doubt that either of them are alive any more. So now she has no allies and I need a way for her to fly to a zone where airplanes are not allowed. And it's a place I can't go myself. But I did get reservations for three to Taiwan at ten fifteen this morning at least. That will get us most of the way there if flights to Taiwan are not canceled and she is awake by then. But now I will rest and plan in another room so I do not disturb Tomoyo."
Shortly after dawn as Eriol slept and Kaho was watching, Tomoyo awoke. When she saw Kaho she looked puzzled for a moment. "Oh, good morning." She mumbled. You came yesterday? And then... My Sakura-chan is dead, isn't she?" When Kaho nodded sadly she continued. "Then that wasn't just a nightmare... But then there WAS a dream. It was horrible. It was like I was being forced to do something I couldn't do and then tortured when I failed and it seemed to go on endlessly and I couldn't wake up. I KNEW it was a dream but I COULD NOT WAKE UP!" Tomoyo screamed as she finished. Then she was crying so hard it was painful for Kaho to watch.
"It's over now. Try not to think about it." As she said this she eased Tomoyo's mind and softened the pain she was remembering.
"Yeah. It was just a dream." she said as she sniffled then leaned over and pulled some tissues from a box on the nightstand. After wiping her eyes and face she still looked miserable.
"Do you remember us talking about saving Sakura?"
"Oh yes! I remember now. You were going to give me magic and then I was to save her. And I remember Eriol saying... Saying it would be painful. So that was the nightmare I was trapped in." She paused, closed her eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. "But it was worth it to save my Sakura-chan... So how did I do? Do I have magic now?"
"We certainly hope so. Later after you are stronger we will test you and see what you can do, but first you must rest some more."
"Okay, I will try, but now my mind seems to be very awake indeed. It's like my thoughts are racing around inside my head." Then, just as Kaho was going to ease her mind with Magic, she yelled, "SAKURA!" jumped to her feet and rushed to the door. "But they said you were dead!"