The Day I Found Hope

by dreamergalz

Chapter One: A Story Before Our Creations: To the Palace

Disclaimer: I do not own CCS, only the story and the plot!

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I am the Hope Card, sealed by my mistress, Sakura, a few months ago. Before that, I was the Void Card, sealed under the house that Clow Reed used to live before he died. I am here writing to you my story, one filled with despair and sadness until I found my new mistress. Sakura was the one who suggested me to write this out, in the hopes that she would understand me more. This is my story, my life, since my creation. I hope that you all readers out there will not make the same mistakes I had made again...

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Clow Reed was sitting under the Sakura tree with Keroberos and Yue, the Cards surrounding them. He was resting after a tiring day of helping people out with their problems. The Cards were created around a year ago and they were bored out of their minds. Keroberos and Yue too, for they had nothing better to do than eat and sleep, doing whatever they wanted to do.

Keroberos sighed. He asked: "Master, could you please tell us a story? I really am bored here, doing nothing."

Clow slowly opened his eyes and looked at Keroberos. "What kind of story?" he asked.

"How about something that happened before all of us were created?" Yue suggested. It was a bit out of the ordinary for Yue as he was usually the one sleeping, not listening a word to what Clow would tell them when he was telling them a story.

"Hmm...sounds interesting. We have not heard a story about Master before we were created." Keroberos answered. Clow thought of it for a moment before answering. "I am telling you one about what happened to us around a year ago, just before you all were created. This is how it goes..."

"Yeah! A new story that we have not heard! Finally!" Keroberos shouted. Everyone was excited; for it was the first time their Master was telling them a story before they were created. Clow usually told them stories about myths and legends, not real things that happened in the past.

"Shush! You are disturbing everyone!" Yue reprimanded.

"Sorry." Keroberos smiled sheepishly. "Master, could you please start again?"

"This how the story goes...oh by the way, if anyone of you interrupts again, I'll not repeat again. Anyway..." Clow started telling them the story...

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Clow was staring in a trance-like gaze. He had been like this since this morning, sitting in his red armchair and doing nothing, except stare. Out of the blue, he woke up from his trance-like state.

"Yes. Now I know why I am like this, staring at nothing in the air. I must create them!"

Then, Clow rubbed his stomach.

"But before I create them, I guess I have to eat some food." He sighed.

Clow went to eat his food and in around half an hour, he was back, this time feeling more energized and less sleepy. However, today was not his day. Someone had knocked his door with the brass knocker.

He sighed again. People were always looking for him to help with spells and such nonsensical stuff. He only received those who desperately needed his help, not those with extra money to ask him to use a spell to kill someone. He could not blame them though; he was considered the most powerful magician in the world. It was probably due to his feat quite a long time ago, killing all the enemies from England in a gigantic spell who were going to murder the rightful heir to the throne.

Clow walked to the door and opened it.

"Yes?" he asked.

Bowing politely, a Royal Servant dressed in the livery of the palace replied: "Begging your pardon sir. My Master, the Emperor of Japan, has invited you to join him in a feast at his palace to discuss politics, sir. My Master has also invited you, sir, to a stay at the palace for a few days."

"Sorry. Please tell your Master that I am currently not free at the moment."

"Sir! Begging you please! If I were to go back to the palace without your consent that you would be coming to the palace, my Master would have me killed, giving the excuse of being not able to persuade you, sir. Because of this, many people who had served Master was killed by him, saying that they were not doing his duties."

"Is it true? No wonder I see all the people living around here are very poor and always fear the people from the palace."

"Its very true sir. Master had taxed the commoners from a comfortable life to a poor life. Many people have died of starvation everyday. We do not like the Emperor but we are not able to remove him from the throne. He kills anyone who is not loyal to him..." the Royal Servant sucked in his breath before continuing, "I have spoken of treason sir! Please, I beg you, please do not let the people know or I would be dead!"

Clow, feeling very bad for this man, replied: "I would not let anyone know. Tell your Emperor that I will come to the palace."

The Royal Servant, feeling very relieved, thanked Clow, for he would be able to live for at least another day.

"Would you like to go now sir? I have a carriage ready to fetch you to the palace now."

"All right then." Clow answered.

Clow closed the door to his home and sealed the whole house with his magic. He did not want to come back from the palace and having to clean up the mess made by the thieves and magicians who wanted to steal his books to learn his spells and other valuable items. Not that he cared about the valuable things in his house. He cared about his books more than them. He was afraid that he would not be able to replace the contents in his books, as there were around one hundred of them. It was impossible to remember every single detail in all the books. Nobody was able to tell you that at this book page number what has this information about a specific spell. He had around a hundred books and they were all treasures to him, for he had either bought them a long time ago or written them himself.

Clow walked down the path to the gate (the distance was around five hundred meters). He disallowed people to drive in their carriages to the entrance of his house a very long time ago when a careless driver drove his carriage haphazardly, causing almost half of his garden's flowers and trees to wither and die.

There, Clow stepped through the gate and entered the Royal carriage, which had two footmen and a driver. One of the footmen closed the door and resumed standing at attention at his place. The driver whipped the horse and the carriage started moving.

Clow stuck his head out of the window and told the driver: "Please do not whip this horse again. It will go on its way to the palace at its own speed." The driver nodded his head. He understood what Clow meant. Everyone knew that Clow had a strange temper, telling people who served him to do the opposite of whatever their Masters said. The Royal Servant, who was sitting next to the driver, was smiling to the people near him. The people obviously knew who he was, since the people there smiled and waved at him. He either lived around here or that his duties was always around there.

After waving or smiling to him, the civilians turned to look at who was in the carriage. They gasped. Clow knew that they had recognized him.

"Oh! That's Clow Reed you know! Since when has he come out of his home? I guess that today is the day." A woman gossiped to another woman who was standing next to her, since they were both buying vegetables.

"Why yes! You are right! It has been a long time since Clow has ever come out of his home! I wonder what business he has to do with the Emperor? I hope that it is not something bad, or else we civilians would suffer again."

"I really hope that he would help us. We are very poor and all the innocent people killed..." a man next to them sighed. "My family was one of the innocent people killed by the Emperor. Just because we were not able to pay the tax he had imposed, he had killed my wife, my children and even the family dog!"

Clow was very shocked to hear this. He had overheard this conversation by accident, not on purpose. He was enraged. How could people be killed just because they were not able to pay the tax? "I really must talk to the Emperor about this." He thought.

Clow pondered about this until he had reached the palace. The palace was a magnificent sight, with beautifully decorated walls and the rooftops covered with gleaming wood that were obviously polished that day, for there was still people polishing it.

The carriage rode through the gate and stopped in front of the entrance of the main door. A man in his fifties walked towards the carriage while a footman stepped down from his position before opening the door. Clow climbed down form the carriage and before looking at the man dressed in his finery, who was flanked by guards, he looked at the footmen, Royal Servant, driver and horse. "Thank you for spending your time to drive me here. I am grateful for what you all deed. A great thank you to you all." Clow told the men. Then, still ignoring the man, Clow walked to the horse and patted it in the head. "Thank you." He whispered into the horse's ear. The men replied that they were happy that they were given the honor of driving Clow to the palace. After which, the men resumed their positions and drove away.

Finally, Clow turned to look at the man looking obviously annoyed at being ignored for such a long time while Clow was talking to his servants. The man, who was the Emperor, was dressed in silks and gold. He had a katana at his hips and wore jewels in his hands. His hair was tied up neatly without a hair out of place. His fat face, which was sweating due to the heat of the day and also due to the amount of clothes he was wearing, was twisted into an awkward smile.

"Welcome to the Royal Palace of Japan, Master Clow Reed." The Emperor greeted Clow.

"Nice to meet you, Your Majesty." Clow bowed to him.

"Since you are here, would you like to take a rest?"

"If you wish me to, Your Majesty."

"Servant! Take Master Clow to his rooms!" the Emperor ordered to the man who was hidden behind the bulk of the Emperor and the guards.

"At your service, Your Majesty." The man walked towards Clow and greeted Clow. Then, he said: "Master Clow Reed, please follow me to your rooms." Clow followed him quietly. Actually, he was looking at the splendor of the palace. Most of the decorations, he knew were relatively new and this showed that the Emperor was spending his peoples' money for these ornaments so as to impress visitors, like him, for instance.

The man led Clow through a series of corridors and turns before reaching a magnificent door. The man opened the door and stepped aside. "Your rooms, Master Clow Reed."

"Thank you."

"Do you need anything else, Master Clow Reed?"

"Nothing but I would like to take a look at the palace before the feast."

"It would be done."

"Thank you."

The man closed the door Clow entered it. He looked around. Clow almost dropped his jaw. Not that it was not nicely decorated but the room was filled with all the finery he had seen on the way to his room. He walked around, looking at this and that. "No wonder the people was being taxed until they had not enough money to feed their own families." He thought. The room was also inlaid with jewels along the walls, making designs out of them. In this room, all that occupied was silks, jewels, wood, gold and silver, nothing else. Clow noticed that the room was just swept clean today, for he could still see some tiny water puddles gathered at the sides of the room, with water still dripping from some of the jewels.

Clow sighed. How could people be so careless that they would not realize that people were suffering right in front of them? That Emperor must have been blind not to notice this. "I would have to discuss this to him." Clow thought.

Around half an hour later, the man returned to the room.

"Begging your pardon, Master Clow Reed. Are you ready, Master Clow Reed?"

"Yes. I am ready to take a look at the palace."

"Where would you like to go?"

"The Servants quarters."

"But sir, it is forbidden to go there except for Servants."

"I still wish to go."

"His Majesty forbids you to go there, Master Clow Reed."

"I wish to go there."

"But...but..."

Clow stared at him. Slowly, he rose up his right hand, which was nearer to the man. Clow allowed it to glow slightly. The man trembled at the sight of Clow's hands. He nodded frantically. "Yes, I will take you there."

"Good."

Well, how is it? This is only a part of the story, which I have managed to type as fast as possible. I have decided to cut this story into two because I do not want you all readers out there to wait for a long time before reading a new fanfic. Hope that you all enjoyed it! The part two of the story may be out in a few weeks...sorry about that. School is re-opening soon so I may not be able to update soon! Sorry about that. Gomen nesai! Ja!