Prologue
It was the first of September. Across the world students returned to school to start another school year, for some it was their first year of school, the beginning of a long journey through the hardship of education.
In Japan, in town named Tomoeda, a copper haired girl, who could only be described as cute, walked towards the gates of Tomoeda Elementary school. Smaller children a few years younger than her were streaming through the gates. As the girl approached the wrought iron gates a voice called out to her.
"Sakura!" The copper haired girl turned to see a brown haired boy running towards her. They were the same age and the girl instantly blushed a little and looked down at her feet a little before looking back up at the approaching boy.
"Shaoran-kun…." She mumbled the greeting as the boy pulled to a halt in front of her.
"Sakura, did you forget?" Li Shaoran asked. Sakura looked questioningly up at him, they were the same age but as was normal Shaoran was significantly taller than Sakura.
"Hoe?" She murmured her almost trademarked sound of confusion.
"That's the wrong school. We're in High School, remember?"
That's right. My name is Kinomoto Sakura. I'm just starting high school now. This is Li Shaoran-kun; he comes from Hong Kong and is my boyfriend. Oh; and I'm also the mistress of the Clow Cards, or Sakura Cards as they are now. Shaoran-kun and I competed to capture the Clow Cards after I accidentally released them over three years ago but I became the mistress. After some mysterious incidents I changed the cards into Sakura Cards and after finally resealing the Sealed Card, "The Hope", Shaoran-kun and I became a couple.
Now Shaoran-kun has returned from Hong Kong to stay here in Japan… with me.
"You're zoning out again." Shaoran said and Sakura shook her head free of the inner monologue.
"Sorry! Yeah I remember, I'm just so used to going into here that I just followed my feet and they led me here." Sakura looked back towards Tomoeda Elementary and felt as if all her memories of when she had been there were laid out before her.
"Well, we should get going to the right school or we'll be late on the first day." Sakura nodded and together they walked towards a new beginning; and not just in their educational lives.
"Good morning, Sakura-chan, Li-kun.." A pale girl with long, flowing black hair that fell down to her knees smiled at the couple as she crossed the road to their side of the street.
"Good morning, Tomoyo-chan! I haven't seen you very much lately; every time I rang you were on holiday." Sakura said, momentarily sad at the memory of having not spent as much of her holiday as she would have wanted with her best friend, Daidouji Tomoyo. The beautiful girl smiled sweetly.
"I'm sorry but my mother insisted we go abroad for once, since her breaks are rarely at the same time as our holidays." Tomoyo's mother was the head of a very successful toy company and as a result her family were very wealthy; but her mother rarely had time for her daughter and so showered whatever free moments she did on her cherished offspring. Tomoyo's mother was also the cousin of Sakura's deceased mother and adored the copper haired girl as if Sakura were her own child.
"Tomoyo-chan!" An out of breath call from behind them made them all stop and turn to see a blonde girl running towards them. She stopped as soon as she caught up, bending and resting her hands on her knees, gasping for breath.
"Elena-chan, I thought my mother was sending you to school in the car today?" Tomoyo said, half inquiring. The blonde girl pulled in a few more big breaths before standing up properly.
"I was going to but the car had a problem so I decided to try and catch up with you. I'm glad I looked at that map of the town on the plane!" She beamed at the trio, a smile full of joy. "Oh, might these be your two close friends you talked about?" Elena asked, peering at Shaoran and Sakura in interest.
"Ah yes I'll introduce you. Sakura-chan, Li-kun, this Mithran Elena-chan. Elena-chan is staying with me for the moment, her father is a business associate of my mother and he's currently working in Japan so my mother offered to let Elena-chan stay with us so she had somewhere familiar to stay."
"I was so happy that Tomoyo-chan's mother let me stay! I love Japan, it's been so long since I came here last and I hadn't seen Tomoyo-chan in ages! Nice to meet you!" Her smile, impossibly, widened, the energetic girl a complete opposite to the quiet and mature Tomoyo.
"Mithr-" Sakura started but Elena interrupted, shaking her head vigorously.
"No, no! Please, call me Elena-chan!" She insisted and Sakura nodded, starting again.
"Elena-chan, are you not from Japan then?" Elena shook her head.
"Nope! I'm from England. Oh, that reminds me, I was told to give you a letter. It was faster to get it to you by hand rather than to mail it." Elena rummaged inside her school satchel and pulled out a letter with Sakura's name written in Kanji on the front. She handed the envelope to Sakura.
"Who's it from?" Shaoran, who had not yet spoken, asked Elena.
"It's from Eriol." Elena said, forgoing use of any suffix to demonstrate her familiarity with the boy.
"Hiiragizawa-kun?" Shaoran demanded. Elena's head bobbed up and down as she nodded enthusiastically.
"Yup! He gave it to me before Tomoyo-chan arrived and said he had foreseen me going to Japan. Eriol's predictions are never wrong, I mean, Clow Reed's reincarnation wouldn't get simple visions of the future like this wrong, right?" That stopped them all short and for a moment no one could say anything.
"You know about Clow-san?" Sakura demanded, Elena gave Sakura a funny look as if to say it was obvious.
"Of course I do! I come from one of the old English families that are descended from the most powerful sorcerers before Clow Reed appeared so I have some of that power too. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone your secret." She gave Sakura a conspiratorial wink and turned to Shaoran and inspected him keenly. "Hm, although most of my magic is a little odd, it's very different to that of my ancestors, it comes in handy though." She nodded as if she had found something satisfactory in Shaoran's face, a mask of confusion and unease at the girl's scrutiny.
"We'll be late if we linger out here for much longer." Tomoyo said and the group were dragged away from the world of magic and sorcerers, of Clow Reed and the magical cards he had created. They were school children entering High School and it didn't matter that Sakura was one of the most powerful magicians in the world; she would still get a tardy like any other students so the group took Tomoyo's advice and headed for the start of their new school life.
And in her own separate world, watching over the lives of everything on the world for millennia in advance, a shrouded wraith watched the scene in front of it and grinned. The wraith, known by many names but most commonly known as Fate, was bored and when Fate was bored, someone's life always became harder.