A/N: Keep in mind that this is a work of fiction and I am not in any way encouraging young people to pursue romantic involvement with their teachers. In fact, I think it is a very, very bad idea and only works in a perfect CLAMP world.

Episode 3
Taboos

Through all the blue, there was a blue sound: wailing and whining. It rang and pulsed and beeped in answer to a call for help.

There was a blue movement: panicked and sloppy. It stumbled and scraped and ran only to hit impassable barriers.

There was a blue heat: scorching and raging. The heat reached beyond sight, beyond sound, beyond feeling and burned bright and loud and painful.

"I'll change it!" he yelled with a blue, blue voice.

He was dragged out of the blue as it began to fade away to nothing.

Because anything was nothing if not blue…

Syaoran blinked. He was staring at a large wall of smooth, shiny whiteness marked with black squiggles. It took him several long moments to collect his thoughts and even longer to come to terms with them.

I'm not me, Syaoran said, looking himself over carefully. He was wearing a white dress shirt and long black dress pants. Too clean. Too professional.

And the smell his own aftershave was making him gag.

Okay, so here I am, Syaoran said, taking stock of his position. I'm staring at a whiteboard. There's a book in my hand about the Edo period. Which means…

"Sensei? Is everything alright?"

Syaoran's heart turned to ice and froze him from head to toe.

Sensei? Oh no… No, No, No.

He slowly turned around to find no less than twenty pairs of very young, impressionable eyes fixed on him. They were looking at him expectedly, eagerly, and perhaps a bit worriedly.

"Terada-sensei?" one of the girls in the front said again. She had short auburn hair that framed her face snuggly around two huge brown eyes. Syaoran stared at her for a few awkward moments as if his gaze had rusted in her direction before finally coming to his senses.

"Uh," he stumbled and paged through the book in his hand as his thoughts catapulted against his skull. "Sorry everyone—uh—students. I seem to have… lost my place here."

With a jerk, Syaoran turned around to look at what this Terada guy had been writing. He could read the words, but they made no sense to his mantic mind. There was a timeline marked with dozens of dates and an unfinished paragraph of text below it that contained words like "class system" and "economic development."

History, Syaoran thought bitterly. It has to be history. I don't even know that today's date is and now I'm teaching history!

"Uh, well," Syaoran said, shouting a little too much. "I think that's enough information for today. Get this all coped down, alright?"

"But what about the last sentence, Sensei?" a student piped up from the back.

Syaoran's eyes skipped down the paragraph to the final incomplete sentence:

It was a time of much

"Uh—right," Syaoran said. He looked around frantically for a marker to write with before remembering that he already had one in his hand.

With a few quick strokes, Syaoran wrote down what first jumped to mind.

"'It was a time of much confusion and uncertainty?'" someone read. "Really?"

Syaoran cleared his throat and resisted the urge to slam his head against the whiteboard.

"Well yeah," a voice said from the left side of the room.

Syaoran searched for the voice's owner and had to bite his tongue to keep from reacting when he found him.

"With all those giant waves like the ones Hokusai painted wiping out cities left and right, you'd be confused and uncertain too," Takeshi Yamazaki said, grinning.

"That's not right," the girl with curly brown hair sitting behind him said confidently. "Is it, Sensei? Sensei?"

Syaoran was too busy trying to keep his jaw off the floor to answer.

I'm still in Tomoeda, he thought wildly as Chiharu began shouting at Takeshi to quit interrupting the teacher's train of thought and let him get on with the lesson. But this isn't the high school. Takeshi and Chiharu both look a lot younger. This looks like an elementary school…

Syaoran sighed and leaned against the whiteboard with a soft thud. He'd gone back in time at least five years. At this rate, he wouldn't be teaching about the Edo period—he'd be living in it.

He sulked against the board for a few minutes until he sensed some movement in front of him and looked up. A student was waving his hand in the air toward the back.

"Yeah—I mean, yes?" Syaoran answered if only to stop the waving.

"Will any of this be on the test, Sensei?" the kid asked.

Syaoran's eyes bugged. "Oh no. No way," he said, making an "X" sign with his arms. "There will be absolutely no tests. Not while I'm around, anyway."

A round of murmuring bounced from student to student until the whole room was filled with whispered conversations.

"That's right," Syaoran said, puffing up a bit and hoped he looked less like a rooster than a figure of authority. "No tests. Not for a while. And I declare the rest of the period study time. Understand?"

"Yes, Sensei!" the class chimed.

Syaoran glanced at the sea of little faces. Most of the kids looked pleased with his announcement, but the girl in the front row was still looking at him, her brown eyes tinged with concern.

Why did he feel like he was looking at the sun?

"So!" Syaoran said, shaking off the girl's gaze and addressing the room again. "Just copy this all dow—"

He had turned around to find most of the text had rubbed off the whiteboard when he had leaned against it. With a small indignant whine, Syaoran grabbed Terada's immaculately white shirt from the back and craned his neck to find it smeared with black erase marker.

"Never mind the copying then," Syaoran said amidst a flurry of giggles. He grabbed an eraser and, painfully aware that his dirty back was to the students, wiped the board clean. "Just, you know, study. Until class is over."

The students stared at him uncertainly until he sat down and started leafing through the papers on his desk and generally tried to look teacherish.

He must have succeeded to some degree because the students picked up their books and started taking notes. As per the norm when a teacher declares "quiet time," a whispered conversation in the back rows spread like something contagious and soon filled the entire room with chatter.

Syaoran breathed a sigh of relief that was whisked away amongst the noise. A lot less eyes were on him, which turned out to be a very good thing when Eriol suddenly appeared in front of his desk and Syaoran jumped ten feet in the air.

"Good morning Syaoran-sensei," Eriol said, smirking.

Syaoran gave him a glare that clearly said, Not funny.

"Tell the kiddos that you're going to step outside for a second," Eriol said. He punched a few buttons on Suppi and then shimmied a few centimeters to the right. "We need to talk."

Syaoran stood up and Eriol backed up a few paces. Suppi uttered a few beeps and Eriol shimmied to the left.

Syaoran had to fight to keep the confusion out of his face as he watched Eriol shuffle back and forth every time Syaoran changed his position in the slightest. Eriol looked like a burglar creeping around wearing neon lights in broad daylight.

"Ahem," Syaoran said, clearing his throat pathetically. He raised his voice just slightly over the noise level. "I'm stepping outside for a moment, everyone. If I'm not back before the period is over, I'll, uh, see you all tomorrow, okay?"

Just a few students in the very front row answered him with a distracted, "Yes, Sensei."

But it was good enough for him. He escaped from the classroom and into the empty hallway. He held the door open politely, but Eriol just gave him a "what the hell are you doing?" look and walked through the wall to Syaoran's right. Syaoran rolled his eyes and pushed the door shut with a sigh.

"Why were you acting so weird in there?" Syaoran whispered. The soft sound bounced off the hallway walls.

Eriol shrugged. "Define weird."

"You kept moving around," Syaoran said. "Like you were trying to get in my way."

"I'm a hologram, Syaoran. I can't get in your way," Eriol said. Syaoran opened his mouth, but Eriol held up a hand to cut him off. "In any case, we have bigger problems than my indefinable weirdness. Come on, class ends in thirty seconds and you've got to get back to Terada's office. He's supposed to be there during recess."

Eriol led the way and Syaoran followed. As they passed down the long, brightly-lit hallways, Syaoran felt a strange pang of nostalgia. Everything felt very familiar, if only… smaller.

"Here we are," Eriol said, pausing in front of an unassuming office door.

A melody of soft gongs signaled the start of recess. Doors all down the hallways opened and released a flood of students. Syaoran suddenly felt like the protagonist in a horror movie as he fumbled into the office and shut the door behind him.

The office was a cramped little space with a small oak desk taking up most of the room. A window over-looking the courtyard below was on the far wall next to a file cabinet-sized oak closet in the corner. Syaoran walked over to the closet and opened the door to find a few clean white shirts and pressed pants hanging neatly in a row.

"Yes," Syaoran breathed and pulled out a shirt.

"What's all over your back?" Eriol asked from behind him.

"Marker," Syaoran replied, struggling with the tie around his neck. "I leaned against the whiteboard on accident and got it all over me."

Eriol laughed. "Are you sure you don't have a twin brother who's the real genius?"

"Could be," Syaoran said, yanking the tie off and laying it on the desk. "Only I wouldn't really know it, would I?"

Eriol looked at him sideways. "You still don't remember anything? Not even one tiny little thing?"

Syaoran opened his mouth, then shut it again slowly. He leaned against the desk and scrunched his eyebrows together.

"What is it?" Eriol said. His eyes got bright. "You do remember something, don't you?"

Syaoran nodded. He glanced up at Eriol. "Yeah. I mean, maybe..."

"Well?" Eriol prodded. "Tell me."

"It was just before I came out of the leap," Syaoran said. He stared at the floor as if he could see a movie playing there. "I remember sirens and incredible heat. I think I was inside a building on fire or something because it was so hot. I was running and—and then…"

"Yeah?"

"I said 'I'll find a way to change it,'" Syaoran finished. His shoulders slumped and he peeled his eyes off the floor to look back at Eriol. "It was frightening. Frightening and… very sad. Something terrible happened then, but I can't remember. I don't even know what I was doing there!"

Eriol looked on helplessly. "It may have not been a particularly insightful memory, Syaoran, but it's certainly an improvement over a completely empty head. At least you've remembered something."

"Yeah, well I can't even be sure it was a memory at all," Syaoran said as he unbuttoned his shirt. "It was really vague and I didn't see anything as much as I felt it. And everything was tinted blue. Maybe it was just hallucination caused by the stress from the leap."

"Maybe," Eriol said. His voice sounded doubtful.

"Do you know anything about a fire in my past?" Syaoran asked. He shucked off his shirt over his head and stood there, bare-chested. "Was I ever caught in a burning building or anything?"

Eriol opened his mouth when Suppi beeped loudly like an alarm going off.

"What the heck is wrong with that thing?" Syaoran asked, covering his ears.

"There's a message," Eriol said. The beeping stopped. "Shirt your put back on…?"

"What?" Syaoran hissed. He moved to look over Eriol's shoulder, but couldn't make anything out of the random show of lights being displayed on the screen.

"Um…" Eriol said. He tilted the little computer and squinted at the display. "Ah! Put your shirt back on."

"Wha—" Syaoran began.

There was a single knock on the office door before it swung open.

"Sensei? I was wondering—"

The brown-haired girl who had been sitting in the front row of the classroom was now standing in the doorway to the office, staring wide-eyed at Syaoran's bare chest as Syaoran stared back at the girl, too horrified to move.

"I'm sorry!" the girl cried, cupping a hand over her mouth and slamming the door shut again. The white canvas shade on the backside of the door clanked against the wood.

"Was that—!" Syaoran pointed at the door, his shirt dangling in his hand.

"Don't just stand there, Syaoran!" Eriol yelled. "Put your shirt back on and do some damage control! That was one of your students. Her name is Rika Sasaki and Suppi says she's why you're here."

"Really?" Syaoran breathed as he yanked his shirt on and fumbled with the buttons as if he were dressing in the dark. "Why?"

"I can't explain now," Eriol said quickly. "You've got to talk to her."

Syaoran rushed to the door and pulled it open. He expected to have to run the girl down, but she was still standing there with her back to the door and her face in her hands.

"Sasaki-san," Syaoran said, stuttering slightly. "I—I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am for that. I'd gotten my shirt all marked up from the whiteboard…"

"No, it's my fault," Rika said, her small voice muffled in her hands. "I shouldn't have barged in like that."

"Come on in," Syaoran said, opening the door wide and stepping out of the way. "I'll leave the door open."

Rika nodded and turned around. Her face and neck were bright red, but she looked at Syaoran right in the eyes when she said, "Thank you."

Syaoran nodded and moved to the desk. Rika followed him, and to Syaoran's great surprise, shut the door once she was inside.

"You don't have to—" Syaoran said.

But Rika simply shook her head and smiled lightly. "It's all right. It's too noisy in the hallway."

Syaoran hadn't thought the hallway was noisy at all, but nodded anyway. He glanced quickly to Eriol who shrugged.

"Were you on the phone?" Rika asked. She sat down in the seat in front of Terada's desk. "I thought I heard you talking to someone."

Syaoran shook his head vigorously. "Me? Oh, no no. Um, I was just, you know, talking to the air. Just trying to remember some things, sorting things out, that's all."

"Oh," Rika said. The red was beginning to drain out of her face and she smiled. "I've never heard you talk to yourself before."

"Yes, well," Syaoran scratched his head self-consciously. He was having a hard time looking her in the face. "I haven't been feeling like myself lately…"

"Ha!" Eriol blurted and rolled his eyes.

"Have you been eating right?" Rika asked. She reached down beside her chair and pulled up the plastic bag she'd been carrying. "I have some extra lunch. Here, I'll split it with you."
"No, I couldn't…" Syaoran said, but he could feel the lack of conviction in his own words.

It was becoming apparent to Syaoran that he didn't want Rika to leave. It was distant, nagging feeling, but it was definitely there. It was as if someone had told Syaoran to give the girl a message and he was stalling for time so he could remember it.

Rika acted as if she hadn't heard Syaoran's weak protest and set two small boxes in front of each of them. Syaoran eyed them and lifted an eyebrow.

"You packed two lunches?" Syaoran said.

Rika smiled slyly and shook her head just a bit. It was a flawless gesture that made the young girl look at least ten years older. In fact, with her perfect posture and the way she was so efficient with every movement, Syaoran had a hard time believing he was looking at a ten-year-old.

"I always make too much food," she said. "I like to share whatever I don't use myself with my friends. One of them in particular rushes out of her house every morning and often forgets her lunch…"

She has to be at least sixteen. At least, Syaoran thought vaguely as he watched her mouth move. Maybe she's a teacher's assistant or she was held back…

But as their little impromptu lunch date progressed, Syaoran had to abandon both those ideas. Rika was very specific about the fifth grade classes she was taking and their subject matter. So she was most certainly a student at the school rather than a teacher, or even an assistant. And their conversation was much too interesting for Syaoran to continue entertaining the idea that she would ever have to repeat a grade.

Really, she should be skipped ahead, Syaoran thought as he crammed another onigiri into his mouth. She certainly cooks well enough that she could make a career out of it—even at ten-years-old.

Out of the corner of his eye, Syaoran caught Eriol staring seriously in his direction several times.

"Anyway, I should be going," Rika said. She jumped up out of her seat and quickly swept the boxes off the table before Syaoran could even utter a syllable to offer to clean up. "My friends are probably wondering where I am."

"Oh, uh, sure," Syaoran said. He stood up and walked Rika the five feet to the door. "And thanks. The food was great."

Rika blushed, but retained her composure. "I'm so glad you liked it."

They stood there for a few hanging moments. Rika's hand was on the doorknob and Syaoran looked down into her big ginger eyes. Syaoran's face was burning and his hands tingled. The air between the two of them felt like it had magnetic polarity and Syaoran felt himself drawing closer and closer without any thought on his part.

"Sensei, I…" Rika said. Her voice was small and sweet like a springtime breeze.

"Yeah?" Syaoran said, all composure gone.

Rika turned the handle on the door and drifted out into the hallway. Syaoran followed as if he were floating away on a tide.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Rika said. She smiled brightly and then raced down the hall. She rounded a corner out of sight.

Syaoran stared after her for a moment before shutting the door and heading back to his desk. He jumped a bit to see Eriol standing there with his arms crossed.

"I forgot you were there," Syaoran said, grinning sheepishly. He sat down at the desk and reclined back in the chair, linking his hands behind his head. "Isn't she an amazing girl? She's a wonderful cook—did you see what she made? Oh man, Eriol, I wish you could've had some of that. It was like eating clouds. And she's so articulate! She talks like she's in her 20s—"

"Syaoran," Eriol said sharply. "She's 10."

His sentence was like a dash of cold water.

Syaoran didn't really know just how old he was, but he was old enough to be completely reviled by his own feelings.

"But… She's…" Syaoran began. He grabbed his head with both hands.

"She's an elementary school girl whose life you are about to completely ruin," Eriol said, poking at Suppi.

"What?" Syaoran snapped his head up. "How?"

"You devastate her," Eriol said. "Okay, well not you, exactly. Terada does. According to her file, her family enrolls her in counseling this summer after she completes fifth grade. Her mood change was ruled classic depression and she continued regular counseling sessions up through high school. By the time she graduated high school, however, she was released from her counselor's care and deemed mentally well. And then she went off to college on a study abroad program where… she committed suicide three months later."

"And her suicide in eight years is Terada's fault?" Syaoran asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Emotional scarring can last a really long time, Syaoran," Eriol said. "Especially when it happens to someone so young. Rika was never the same after Terada rejected her."

"So… where do I come in?" Syaoran asked. "I mean, how can I change Rika's future?"

"You have to stop this craziness right now!" Eriol said. "Let her know you're not interested before her feelings mature any further and you set her up only to totally knock her down."

"Okay…" Syaoran said. He sighed.

"What?" Eriol said, crossing his arms.

"It's just that…" Syaoran said. "Well, I'm not sure Terada wants to reject her. I don't know… I just have this feeling. Like—like I know Terada. See, I think some of him was left over when I leaped into his body. I feel this strong attachment to Rika that couldn't possibly be a part of me. I think… I think he really loves her, Eriol."

"That's impossible," Eriol said.

"No, I really think it's true," Syaoran said. He got up and leaned over the desk. "You have to admit that Rika is special. She's way advanced beyond her age bracket. And I think Terada picked up on it and… fell in love."

"Well, Rika certainly does seem mature," Eriol said. "And I guess it would take a special kind of guy to recognize that."

"It takes a special kind of guy to see beyond her age and still not take advantage of her," Syaoran said. "Terada really wants the best for her. I can tell."

"That's probably why he was so harsh on Rika when she asked him to go out with her," Eriol said, putting a hand to his chin. "I mean, can you imagine what kind of horrible things could happen to the both of them if their relationship were ever discovered?"

"When does Rika confess to Terada?" Syaoran asked.

"Tomorrow morning before school," Eriol said. "In the library."

Syaoran's stomach tightened and he groaned. "It's so soon."

"You're not actually thinking about showing up, are you?" Eriol said, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course I'm going to show up," Syaoran said. "Why not?"

"Because Rika's not going to confess to an empty library," Eriol said. "If you're not there to reject her, then no rejection occurs. Mission accomplished."

Syaoran shook his head. "What about the next time they're alone together? I'll just leap back for that time and the next and the next. Terada can't avoid her all year until she graduates elementary school. He's going to have to say something eventually."

"But turning her down doesn't work," Eriol said, holding Suppi up and shaking the device. "We've established that. She takes the rejection hard, Syaoran. You can't talk to her. There's no way to let this girl down easy."

"I need to think," Syaoran said. He put his head in his hands. "I have until the morning. I'll deal with everything in the morning."

"Famous last words," Eriol muttered.

---

Syaoran spent the rest of the day teaching gym (in which he supervised a rousing game of hopscotch) and grading papers (everyone received an A).

Eriol stuck around the whole day, shimmying in and out of Syaoran's view in a fashion that got steadily more annoying as the day went on. When Syaoran was going back to his office at the end of the day, Eriol absolutely insisted that they go the long way around the school instead of passing through the courtyard from the gym. And while they went around, Eriol stood in front of every window so Syaoran couldn't see outside.

"What is it?" Syaoran asked, glaring at Eriol as he quickly slunk down the hallway to cover each window before Syaoran got there. "What are you hiding from me?"

Eriol rolled his eyes. "Why would I hide anything from you?"

Syaoran stopped short in front of Eriol who was in front of a window. Beyond the wall, he could hear some cheerleaders practicing enthusiastically from the courtyard.

"You don't want me to see something," Syaoran said. "Why?"

"You're just being paranoid," Eriol said.

Syaoran reached out to grab Eriol's shoulders, but his hands simply passed through Eriol's projected image and met empty air. Syaoran sighed.

"You aren't trying to keep me from remembering things, are you?" Syaoran asked, invading Eriol's personal space.

Eriol shook his head and smiled like a fox. "Of course not, Syaoran. I want to help your memory."

"I hope so," Syaoran said, backing away and turning to walk the rest of the way down the windowless hall to his office.

"I want to help your memory, Syaoran," Eriol mumbled. "Not implode it."

He turned around to watch the cheerleaders practice in the courtyard. One girl was lifted into the air by her teammates to be on top of the pyramid. She had red hair and bright green eyes.

"And an implosion is eminent, isn't it?" Eriol asked, looking up at the ceiling.

"Yes," a voice that only Eriol could hear came from somewhere beyond the holographic projection of the school. "If Li-san were to encounter Sakura Kinomoto at this stage, there is a 90 possibility that the shock would cause a flood of memories that would overwhelm his system and his subsequent irrational behavior may endanger the timeline."

Eriol chuckled. "You know, a week ago I would have told you that Syaoran is incapable of irrational behavior. But he certainly proved me wrong." He turned away from the window and headed down the hall. "It's amazing what someone will do for the person he loves."

"Especially when he feels as guilty as Li-san does," the voice added.

"Well, at the moment he's not feeling guilty, is he?" Eriol said. "And I want to keep him from feeling guilty for as long as possible. If he doesn't feel guilty, he won't do anything stupid."

---

After searching everywhere for Terada's car keys and wallet, Syaoran ended up spending the night in the office. He awoke early the next morning with a crick in his neck and Eriol staring him in the face.

Syaoran yawned and stretched. "Is it bad that I'm kind of getting used to you popping in from nowhere?"

"Have you thought about what you're going to do today?" Eriol asked. "About Rika?"

Syaoran put his forehead on the desk. "Not really."

"Good," Eriol said. "Because you shouldn't say anything. You shouldn't even be at the library. Treat it like a quarantined area. Don't even go near it. You'll be out of here in no time, you'll see."

Syaoran opened his mouth to respond when the door to his office flew open and a frantic-looking man entered. He came straight up to Terada's desk and leaned over it to stare down at Syaoran with a ruffled, panicked gaze.

"Terada-sensei, you have to help me," the man said.

"This is Taketo Ohtani," Eriol said, punching buttons on Suppi. "He teaches 5th grade Literature here."

"Calm down, Ohtani-sensei," Syaoran said. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm so glad you're here early. I need to ask you a huge favor," the man said. "I haven't finished my lesson plans for the day and I still have a huge stack of papers to grade. But I also need a few books from the library on famous 17th century Japanese poets. Would you please go down to the library and pull those books for me? I'd really appreciate it."

Syaoran cast a quick, worried glance toward Eriol.

"Tell him no," Eriol hissed, coming up behind the man to look down over his shoulder. "You can't go to the library today! Tell him your library card's been suspended, that you're afraid of books—anything!"

"I can't!" Syaoran whispered to Eriol, totally forgetting that his side of the conversation wasn't private.

"What? Why?" Ohtani said. "I thought you of all people—"

"What I meant was, I'd be happy to help," Syaoran said, managing a smile as Eriol smacked Suppi to his forehead a few times.

"Great! Thank you so much!" Ohtani said. He pulled a short list from his pocket. "There are the authors. Just pull whatever you can about them. You can probably find most books about them in the biography section, so start there."

"Okay," Syaoran said, taking the list.

"Thanks again," Ohtani said. He turned to leave. "I owe you."

"What did you do that for?" Eriol began even before Ohtani had left the room. "I thought we agreed that you weren't going to that library today."

"I never agreed to that," Syaoran said. He slipped on Terada's suit jacket and headed for the door. "And besides, I'm not going to make Terada's colleagues upset with him for my refusing to do a simple errand. It's rude and any explanation I could come up with would just sound like a lame excuse."

"But you're going to ruin Rika's life if you go down there!" Eriol said. "What are you going to say to her when she confesses? Have you even thought about it?"

Syaoran stuck his hands in Terada's jacket and opened his mouth to reply, but quickly shut it again. He pulled something out of the pocket of the jacket.

It was a small black velvet box.

"What?" Eriol said, his gaze skipping between Syaoran and the box. "What is it?"

"Terada must've been carrying this with him everywhere he went," Syaoran said, turning the box carefully over in his hands. "I know just what to do with this."

"What is that thing? What's going on?" Eriol demanded as Syaoran left him behind and headed down the hall to the library. "Syaoran!"

Syaoran expected Rika to be waiting for him in the library, but it was dark and empty when he arrived. It was too early for even the school's librarian to be in yet. After a few minutes of searching, Syaoran found the light switches and lit the room up.

"Maybe she's not coming," Eriol said, suddenly by Syaoran's side again. "You must've changed the future somehow."

Syaoran shook his head. "I don't think so."

He took the list Ohtani had given him and headed for the biography section. He hadn't been looking at the books long when the door to the library swung open and Rika walked inside. She closed the door quietly behind her.

"Syaoran, I'm begging you to leave," Eriol said. "Suppi's showing an almost zero percent chance that anything you say will change Rika's future. Any way you let her down, she still ends up killing herself."

"I think I know why," Syaoran whispered. He turned to Eriol as Rika got closer. "Just trust me, okay?"

Eriol's head snapped up and, for just a fraction of a moment, he looked completely at a loss for words. But the shock quickly dissolved into a soft smile and he sighed in a single puff of air as if psyching himself up for a cage match.

"I really hope you know what you're doing," he said.

Rika rounded the corner then and looked rather shocked to find Syaoran standing there.

"Sensei," she said uncertainly, managing a wane smile. "Good morning."

Syaoran felt his heart flutter and was reminded, for the briefest moment, that this heart was not his own.

"Good morning, Sasaki-san," Syaoran said. "You're here early."

"I usually come here before school," Rika said. She began to scan the row of books in front of her in a transparent attempt to look nonchalant. "You're the one who's out of place here."

She smiled and, as if smiles were as contagious as the flu, Syaoran smiled right back.

Eriol began punching buttons nervously on Suppi. "Syaoran, what's wrong with you? Your pulse is racing. The neurons in your brain are firing randomly. It's sixty-five degrees in here, but you're starting to sweat! Are you feeling alright?"

Ignoring Eriol, Syaoran sucked in a deep, wavering breath and reached into the pocket of Terada's jacket.

"Sensei, I have something I need to tell you," Rika said. She was blushing furiously and looking everywhere but up at Syaoran. "And I feel that if I don't tell you, I'm going to burst into a million pieces and never be whole again."

Syaoran kneeled down on one knee to look Rika right into her eyes. He slowly removed the black box from his jacket, but kept it concealed in his palm.

"I know how you feel," Syaoran said.

"You do?" Rika said. She choked out a laugh. "Am I that transparent?"

Syaoran smiled and shook his head. "No. It's because I feel the exact same way."

Rika seemed to stop breathing for a moment. "Really?"

Syaoran nodded. "To be honest, I knew this day was coming. And I've been a nervous wreck since the moment I came to realize what was going on." He reached out and took Rika's hand. "At first I wanted to tell you to forget about me, to move on, find someone your own age and be happy."

Rika shook her head furiously. "No. I can't."

"I know," Syaoran said softly. "You're such a special girl, Rika, and you're precious to me. I'd be lying if I said anything different."

Tears were pooling at the corners of Rika's eyes, but she managed to keep mature composure as she smiled serenely at Syaoran.

"I've been carrying this around for ages and waiting for just the right moment. Some days I wasn't even sure I had it in me to give it to you," Syaoran said. He opened the box and held out a ring to Rika. "But now I know that I want you to have this."

Syaoran reached out for Rika's hand. The tears were flowing freely down Rika's face, but she didn't sniffle or attempt to wipe them away. She remained perfectly composed and calm as Syaoran slipped the ring onto the middle finger of her left hand.

"When you've gotten a little older," Syaoran told her. "Come to me and I'll move the ring one finger over and ask you to make my life complete."

Rika nodded and drew her hand close to her heart. "Okay."

The school's chime sounded then and the librarian walked into the library, sending Syaoran to his feet. Rika flashed a smile and backed away with her hands behind her back.

"See you in class, Sensei," she said and disappeared around the corner.

Syaoran turned around and put his head against the cool wood of the bookshelf. His heart was racing as if he'd just fought off a horde of rabid dogs.

"Well done, Syaoran," Eriol said. "You did it. That was the right thing to say."

Syaoran smiled into the bookshelf. "I knew it. I knew the reason Rika was going to be so devastated was because she knew Terada felt the same way. She's too strong, too mature to let something like a rejection from someone who truly doesn't love her get her down to the point where she'd want to kill herself."

"Well, you'll be happy to know that Rika and Terada eventually did get married," Eriol said, looking at Suppi's display. "Her parents weren't thrilled with the age difference, but they consented. They are still living happily together here in Tomoeda where Terada continues to teach and Rika works at a branch of one of the nation's most respected model agencies as a designer."

"Sounds like a great life," Syaoran said, pulling books from the list Ohtani gave him off the shelf. When he was through, he headed for the door. "I'm glad I could help."

"Well, everything's been wrapped up neatly in this timeline," Eriol said. "You should be leaping any minute now."

Syaoran walked out of the library carrying his stack of books and headed down the hall to the teacher's offices. He found Ohtani's and went inside.

"Here are those books," Syaoran said, setting the stack on Ohtani's desk.

"Oh, thanks a bunch, Terada-sensei!" Ohtani said, glancing up from the huge pile of papers in front of him. "Oh, you'd better head to your first class now. The principle is waiting for you there. He wants to see you."

"The principle?" Syaoran said, getting butterflies. "Why?"

Ohtani shrugged down at his papers. "I think there's a new kid in your homeroom and since it's your homeroom, you're going to have to introduce the kid to the class."

"Um, okay," Syaoran said, feeling relieved. "Thanks."

Eriol let out a huge sigh when they left Ohtani's office. "For a minute there I thought we'd been busted."

Syaoran reached his classroom and found an older man standing by the entrance. A boy was leaning against the wall a few feet away.

"Terada," the principle said. "There's a new addition to this class."

He handed a slip of paper to Syaoran as the bell rang.

"Please do me the favor of introducing the boy to his new class," the principle said. He then moved in real close to Syaoran and whispered, "He's moved here from China so he might be a little slow. Don't be surprised if he has trouble keeping up with the other students. He doesn't seem very bright at all, this one."

Syaoran nodded and caught just the vaguest impression of a mess of shaggy brown hair before the principle urged Syaoran inside the classroom.

"Good morning class," Syaoran said to the students, his voice wavering.

He found with some disappointment that he hadn't gotten over his public-speaking jitters at all. But it helped to focus on Rika.

"We have a new addition to our class starting today," Syaoran said, forcing an awkward smile. "Let's all give him a warm welcome."

Syaoran turned toward the door and gestured. "Come on in."

The boy entered and marched right up in front of the class. He had shaggy brown hair and huge brown eyes that looked like they'd been carved from wood and then finished with a honey glaze. He stared stonily ahead and looked like the most unpleasant, cynical young man Syaoran had ever seen.

Syaoran unfolded the note given to him by the principle. "This is Sya—"

He choked on his own words and read the note several more notes before finally responding.

"This is Syaoran. Syaoran Li."

Syaoran looked over to where Eriol was standing towards the back of the classroom, blocking the view of a particular student. Eriol looked up at Syaoran with a helpless glance and a sly smile.

"Nice to meet you," the class chimed.

"Okay," Syaoran said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Go have a seat."

Syaoran looked up to scan the classroom. The only empty desk was the last desk in the last row. Syaoran grabbed the seating chart and pointed to the back.

"Have a seat back there," Syaoran said. "Right behind Sakura Kinomoto…"

The world began fading out and Syaoran felt his soul stirring as if it were struggling against an impossibly strong current that threatened to sweep him away. At the last second before Syaoran's sight filled with blueness, Eriol stepped aside to reveal what he'd been hiding.

A girl with red hair and bright green eyes smiled as the twelve-year-old Syaoran walked down the isle to sit behind her.

Sakura…

How could I have forgotten you?