DISCLAIMER: Tsubasa belongs to CLAMP, who is plotting to make me even crazier and less patient than I was to begin with XD

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"What the hell was that about, manjuu?" Kurogane yelled, pressing his right hand against his bleeding forehead.

"Ah, Kuro-pon, don't be mad at Mokona, it's not his fault," Fai replied calmly, completely unfazed by the other man's temper.

"Like hell it's not! He did that on purpose!" The ninja stood and grabbed at Mokona but missed.

"Mokona doesn't control where we land! If you land in a tree, it's your own fault if you fall out!" Kurogane's angry growl indicated that he disagreed with Mokona's logic. He continued to chase the small white creature, who was used to being chased and had gotten very good at staying far enough away to be safe but close enough to taunt.

The scene was so familiar that the other three travelers hardly noticed it. Syaoran was too busy helping Sakura. The princess had, like Kurogane, landed in a tree, but she had managed to stay safely in the tree, and Syaoran was helping her climb down. The fact the branch she was perched on was not very high and she could have climbed down just fine on her own did not appear to have occurred to either of them.

Fai, who might have otherwise joined in the chase, was too busy observing his surroundings. They had landed a small clearing in a forest. The sky was dark except for a pale blue tinge in the east that suggested the sun would rise soon. Aside from Kurogane's attempts at murder, the woods were quiet. Everything seemed rather peaceful, especially compared to the fighting in the world they had just left behind.

That was the first clue that something was wrong – Fai had been in trouble in various dimensions and knew that a little paranoia is a good thing. And who wouldn't be paranoid when surrounded on all sides by hostile magic?

The magician sighed. Oh, how dull life was when it was serious! And now he was going to have to be the one to make everything serious! He could at least have a bit of fun first, he thought, smiling wickedly and sticking out his foot as Kurogane ran by.

The ninja was not distracted enough – or stupid enough – to fall for that trick, and all Fai succeeded in doing was making himself the object of Kurogane's anger. "Bastard! Did you just try to trip me?"

"Yup! But Kuro-rin is too smart for that!" The wizard's smile did not even flicker as Kurogane placed his hand on Souhi's hilt. "I was just trying to get your attention, Kuro-wanwan. If you didn't stop chasing Mokona, you were going to set off some rather unpleasant spells," he explained.

"What do you mean?" The question didn't come from the ninja, whose red eyes were narrowed with suspicion, but from Syaoran, who clung protectively to Sakura. The boy's worst-case-scenario mind presented him with dozens of things that 'unpleasant spells' could be a euphemism for, and he was not going to let any of those happen to his princess.

"Exactly what I said," Fai said with a shrug. "This forest is full of spells, and none of them seem agreeable." The mage stopped when Syaoran and Sakura's eyes widened with shock and the boy clung to the girl in a way that was, if possible, even more protective. Oh dear.

He turned and caught sight of a pack of animals. He couldn't tell what they were – something of a mix between wolves and lizards – but he could tell they weren't friendly. The creatures moved swiftly, and he barely had time to raise his staff to block before the first attack came.

Kurogane grinned savagely as he drew his sword. This was better than chasing a hyperactive rabbit or worrying about spells he couldn't see. The thrill of battle was not decreased at all by the fact that there were about twenty-five of the creatures. If anything, it made the battle more interesting.

The monsters had an unnatural way of slithering quickly and ending up being someplace quite different from where they had been a second before. The ninja had no trouble defending against their attacks, but hadn't managed to attack successfully, either. "Interesting" changed to "vexing" as the fight continued for a few minutes as more of a dance than anything else.

"Damn it you bastards, stay in one place!" he roared.

"Ah, that's not very fair," Fai said from over near Sakura's side. "I don't think they want you to kill them."

"Then they shouldn't have attacked me!" It only took a second for Kurogane to turn and glare at the blond (who, though he could not actually see the ninja, still knew he was being glared at). That was enough time, though, for three monsters to leap for him. He was impressed with their speed but not with their intelligence – they didn't really think they could surprise him like that, did they? He swung Souhi in a vicious arc that sliced neatly through two of the creatures.

Those two fell to the forest floor, dead, and the third leapt to the side and retreated hastily. Kurogane's brief feeling of victory soon died, though. Two more monsters sprang up immediately from behind their fallen comrades to attack.

He lost track of time. Normally the ninja loved fighting, but this was ridiculous. More of the creatures were arriving to help the original pack, so that no matter how many he cut down there were more to surge up from behind them.

The monotony was broken when Kurogane stabbed one of the creatures. He could not even guess at this point how many he had killed, and at first it seemed like this one would be no different from the others. However, this animal did not fall to the ground dead, but just kind of vanished. Kurogane assumed the worst, having, like Fai, a healthy level of paranoia.

Syaoran yelped "What?" and, for a second, his face showed expression other than protective loyalty. His confusion was caused by the same phenomenon that Kurogane had just observed. Even as the kid paused for a moment he saw that the creatures were blinking out of existence as if they had never been there.

"What just happened?" Sakura asked, nervously looking over her shoulder. The forest seemed as peaceful as the moment they had arrived and the only sounds the travelers did not make came from a slight breeze moving through the branches.

"Some damn magic thing," Kurogane muttered. "Hey, wizard! What was all that?"

"I hate to disappoint you, Kuro-pii, but I don't know," Fai said, shrugging his shoulders as though it didn't really matter. "You could ask the person in that tree, though."

The ninja spun around, cursing himself for not having noticed that someone was behind him and cursing Fai for, well, being Fai.

A person sat in a tree about ten feet away from him and ten feet above his head. He examined the figure and decided Fai had been rather hasty in declaring this apparition a person. In the early morning light it was clear that this thing, while very convincingly human-shaped, was not quite substantial enough to be a person. It looked as someone had made a life-sized doll out of smoke.

"What are you?" Kurogane growled, gripping Souhi more tightly. The ghostly creature in the tree smiled at this, knowing perfectly well that no sword could harm it. Fortunately for the ninja, the smoke-person did not plan to harm any of them.

"Oh relax," the creature in the tree said. Its voice was feminine, although its figure was too indistinct to indicate gender. "I'm just a little spell."

Syaoran, nervously remembering Fai's warning about "unpleasant spells," hastened to place himself between the princess and this unearthly newcomer. "What exactly to you mean by that?" he asked, proving once again that a polite request is more effective than an angry interrogation.

The indistinct figure smiled again, though it was very hard to tell. "I'm a smoke-servant – smoke that a magic user has shaped to serve a specific purpose. I'm only here to spy and deliver a message. I don't mean you any harm."

Syaoran hesitated. There was so much goodwill in the shadow's voice that it was hard to suspect that it intended to hurt them. Still, this journey had taught him nothing if not the importance of being careful, so he politely replied, "Forgive me for saying this, but I don't trust you completely."

This was perhaps the first time that a human had apologized to a smoke-servant. "That's quite alright. That's probably natural."

The shadow was beginning to annoy Kurogane. It smiled all the time and said cryptic things that it failed to explain. He wondered briefly if the magician who created it had ever met Fai. "You mentioned spying," Kurogane said, his voice quieter than before but more hostile.

"How careless of me to get distracted and forget what I have been sent to do. I have of course been spying on you."

The ninja had not expected such an open admission, but it did not throw him off balance for a second. His reaction was delayed, however, by the thought that a sword probably couldn't do much to a cloud of smoke. He didn't raise Souhi, but he did raise his voice. "That's your definition of doing no harm? Who sent you?"

"My master sent me," the creature in the tree said. If it were capable of emotion it would have been grateful for the distance that the tree placed between it and Kurogane. Instead, it just said "Perhaps spying is the wrong word. I waited here for you to appear, and I watched you for long enough to determine that you were the people I was looking for. I shall of course tell my master what transpired, but I assure you, my master does not mean you any harm and will not do anything bad with the information. On the contrary, my master wants to help you."

It was even harder for Syaoran to trust the creature now than it had been before, so he was naturally quite surprised when Fai nodded. "Alright. What about the message you mentioned?"

Kurogane stared. The wizard had done a lot of stupid things on their journey and Kurogane was starting to expect this kind of thing. Still, he had thought that Fai could recognize that some situations required serious behavior. Apparently he'd been too optimistic – a mistake he didn't often make. "You believe this thing?"

"Of course," the wizard replied with his smug, isn't-it-obvious tone of voice. "That spell is too simple to lie. Only very complex magical creations are capable of lying. That smoke-servant is little more than a parrot that says what its master tells it too."

"Oh?" Kurogane asked. He kept his temper only because experience had taught him that yelling had no effect on Fai. "And what if its master lied to it?"

"He probably didn't," Fai replied cheerfully, seemingly unconcerned about the "probably" part of his statement. "If someone wanted to hurt us, it would be much easier to have the servant hide. What magician would be stupid enough to reveal himself to his enemies if he didn't need to?"

The look Kurogane gave Fai implied that a magician of such mental deficiency was standing right in front of him. Unfortunately, Fai had convinced the princess, and Syaoran seemed inclined to give the creature another chance to win his trust. Mokona had never been trouble by the shadow but rather felt a kinship for its fellow androgynous magical creature. The ninja was now in a minority of one and it made him resent the shadow as much as he distrusted it.

"Please come down," Sakura asked the figure in the tree. "I would like to see you better, and it is easier to talk when we're all on the same level."

The servant jumped down from the tree, although it fell through the air slowly. The princess walked toward the figure until the two were a few feet apart. Syaoran was a little less happy about how near Sakura was to this very odd stranger and compensated by staying as close to her side as propriety would allow.

Sakura found, however, that being close did not help her see the shadow any better. The more she tried to see it, the more she found herself examining the trees behind it. Later, when she tried to picture the servant, all she could recall was a faint outline of someone very short and slight who was perpetually smiling. This didn't seem to bother her much, and she decided to talk to the spell, since looking at it was nearly impossible. "What is your name?" she asked, returning its smile.

"I don't have one," the shadow said slowly, as though it had never thought of names before. "I'm very young. I was only created yesterday."

"That's no excuse!" Sakura exclaimed. "Everyone ought to have a name. Your creator should be ashamed for not give you one." She thought for a moment. "May I name you?"

The servant shrugged. Syaoran and Kurogane found something unsettling about the motion but couldn't decide what it was. "If you like," it replied.

"I shall call you Kage."

The shadow nodded, and again the men found something disconcerting about the gesture. "That name pleases me," it replied, but the bland politeness in its voice suggested that it would have found any name pleasing.

"Kage-san, could you tell us where we are?" the princess asked, gesturing at the forest around them. Syaoran realized that he had been so worried about the spell that he had completely forgotten his surroundings. He panicked for a moment and looked around him with wide eyes in case more lizard-wolves had snuck up while he was distracted.

"Of course, but first I would like to assure your friend that you are safe, for the moment." Kage stared at Syaoran as though it could see through him. "You are in a place called Ven Woods which is not, generally, a safe place to be. However, my master anticipated your arrival and cast some spells to protect you from the various creatures and spells that are here."

"You keep mentioning this master of yours," Kurogane said, about as convinced by the servant's assurance of safety as he had been by its assurance of good intention. "You want to tell us about him?"

The shadow shook its head and apologized, "I can't do that. That could be dangerous for my master." Syaoran suddenly realized what was so unnerving about the creature. The servant looked less like it was moving through the air and more like the air was moving through it. It seemed as though a single wrong gesture would dispel the smoke and leave nothing but the trace of a smile. It was not a happy thought.

"If your master really isn't our enemy, why is he so afraid?"

The servant laughed. "Oh no, the danger would not be from you! My master is afraid that someone else will find out, and I cannot risk that happening. You never know who is listening. Which reminds me..." Kage glanced at the sky and spoke, this time very serious. "The first thing I am to do is get you out of the forest. This is a bad place to be, and my master cannot protect you for much longer."

Kurogane grinned wolfishly. "We're not scared of the forest. We handled those bastards just fine on our own."

Kage looked down, embarrassed to have to contradict someone. "The wolves are nocturnal creatures. They were very weak because it was nearly sunrise. At night, you would not survive – they travel in large packs, as I'm sure you noticed, and you could not kill all of them. Besides, there are other things in the forest worse than the animals."

"Like what?" Kurogane doubted that the forest was as bad as the servant said it was. Assuming the damn thing wasn't leading them into a trap, it was probably exaggerating the danger to make them feel more grateful at having been rescued.

Kage whispered so quietly that only Sakura heard. The princess looked at the shadow for a moment, then leaned over and placed her lips very close to Syaoran's ear. As hard as he tried, the boy could not keep his face from turning red, but Sakura did not notice. When she had repeated whatever secret Kage had told her, Syaoran nodded and turned to the men. "I really think we should leave," he said, and they could tell there was no arguing with him.

"You will lead the way?" Fai asked the shadow with a small bow.

The servant might have been surprised by this gesture if it were subject to such emotions. Instead it answered "Of course," and began to walk along a trail that really was too small for humans.

Kurogane sighed quietly. It seemed that no matter what decision they made, they were gambling their lives on the words of a mindless creature who had already confessed to spying. But he resigned himself to this fate and asked one more question. "Where are you taking us?"

"I can't tell you that now. I really think it should wait until we are out of the forest." With that last cheery comment, Kage set off down the path at a brisk pace, with Sakura right behind it. Syaoran followed her, glancing behind every tree and under every shrub for the unknown threat. Mokona skipped through the undergrowth as though the danger did not exist simply because he chose not to acknowledge it. Fai started to walk after them but Kurogane stepped in his way.

"Oh? You want to talk to me so badly you can't even wait until we're out of the forest? That's sweet of you, Kuro-chan."

"I want you to explain what the hell's going on around here."

"Well I'm afraid you're out of luck, Kuro-rin. I don't know."

Kurogane glared. In Japan, it was a glare that had caused brave men to break down in tears. For some reason Fai was immune to it. Kurogane was determined to discover why this was so that he could fix it. "You know about that damn shadow-monster."

"Not exactly," the wizard replied in a condescending tone. "The details of magic change from place to place, but many of the ideas are the same. I've never seen a 'smoke-servant' before, but they are similar to magically constructed beings in other dimensions. This one has barely any magic in it at all – meaning it's very simple and very weak." He looked past Kurogane to their friends and noticed how far behind they were getting. Before he could mention something about this and get out of this conversation, the ninja asked the question he had hoped not to hear.

"How did you know it doesn't have much magic in it?"

Fai winced internally but gave no outward indication of how much this question bothered him. "Ah, well, I can tell," he said vaguely, cursing himself for forgetting how observant Kurogane was.

"You have to use magic to sense magic, which means you're lying again."

Damn the person who taught him that. Fai tried to distract the ninja from this inconvenient knowledge by annoying him. "What can I say? I'm complex," Fai shrugged with a laugh. "That makes me dishonest. You're problem is that you're too simple, Kuro-tan."

Kurogane scrutinized the wizard's face. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but he didn't find it. "Have you finally gone insane?" he demanded of his blond companion.

Fai's smile took just a second longer to appear than it normally did. "Don't worry, Kuro-chi. When I go crazy, you won't have to ask. You'll know." His voice was carefree but the spark in his eyes made it clear that that was all he was going to say on the subject. He stepped around the ninja and followed the others. Kurogane had little choice but to follow, suspicion and exasperation wearing away at his nerves.

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AN: Well, I hope you enjoyed this! My apologies if it seemed awkward or incoherent; it was something of a piece-wise chapter, since I wrote a bit, changed some, added some, changed some of that, etc. over an extended period of time. I will try to write future chapters in a more direct and efficient manner.

Any advice, opinions, or statements remotely related to this story are most appreciated and earn you my undying loyalty and gratitude, which is something that normally can only be bought with food Next chapter: Kage attempts to deliver its message and the travelers find out more about the world they have arrived in. Some more original characters make their appearance, too.