Sincerity to the Cherry Blossom 1
By: Makoto Almasy
Rating: PG
Summary: Card Captor Sakura/SM. Makoto has a strange dream about a young girl who has magical cards and a star wand. What is the connection between these two? Why is Makoto having this dream?
Disclaimer: Clamp owns CCS and Naoko-san owns SM.
AN: Don't be surprised about people being OOC because this is the first time I'm writing about Card Captor Sakura. Do check whether the Japanese names are correct too ^^;;.
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Makoto could feel her body's system slow down like a train engine as she lay peacefully underneath her bed covers. The muscles in her arms started to relax and dropped lazily on both sides of her large pillow. Everything happened so quickly when she began to drift into her usual ten-hour slumber. Her eyelids stilled and her abdomen went into a steady rhythm. Even when still wide awake with her eyes closed, she could never tell when she was really asleep so easily because the dream-state always kicked in at such good times. Learning about one's own body had so many mysteries, didn't it?
Biology wasn't Makoto's favourite subject of course. Maybe it would be one of Ami's. Mizuno Ami loved mathematics and all three different science subjects that she would sit in the dark for countless hours to read through a huge pile of books and probably memorise each paragraph on each page. She was definitely the most studious female among Makoto's friends. The only time Makoto was like her was in cooking or housework.
She could clean her apartment in less than three hours if she worked non-stop without interruptions. Makoto was seldom lazy with these chores. If she had to, she sometimes helped Usagi do the housework in her house and it never bothered her at all. In fact she was normally willing to help her best friend out and it truly surprised Usagi's parents a lot even when it was the weekend and teens were supposed to either be having fun or doing homework.
Makoto always missed the tiny moment when the dream state came to life. As soon as her eyes would close and her body would switch off, she'd be in some other universe, experiencing either a nightmare or a heavenly land. For this dream she wasn't sure what the sensation would be. Her surrounding seemed…silent. There was no life showing upon her and no colour at all.
The sky was pitch black without any twinkling stars and the air wasn't hot or cold. Makoto couldn't sense the temperature or any life signs.
"What are you thinking? Dreams are like this. You have to wait until something happens. Be patient," She always reminded herself before bedtime every night. She spotted a long pathway, which seemed to be a good start to her dream, and used this direction to begin her dreamy journey.
The path she walked through so far didn't have any buildings showing up or any bright colours popping up in front of her eyes. This was going to be a very quite and boring dream for Makoto. Occasionally she would have nice dreams where her cooking was always spot on and delicious or where she'd be cooking for a handsome older man in his house and said her food was just perfect. Those were the usual good dreams she had each night.
Though when it was bad, she would be falling from a plane or off a cliff. Or…even come close to vomiting in a fast speeding plane. Planes weren't Makoto's favourite travel transports. That phobia was something she couldn't get rid of magically. It was hard to travel to different countries when you feared planes so much. To make herself feel better she would just refuse to go on holiday with her friends and let them have the fun. Makoto preferably wanted to stay or travel somewhere in Japan rather than a whole new country or continent.
Gladly her friends didn't mind about Makoto's excuse to not travel faraway on a plane. Besides one had to expect new Youmas coming out from hiding anytime soon and someone had to be on guard in Juuban and the whole of Japan, didn't they? This is too quiet. I want to see some life here Makoto moaned as she found herself continuing to walk straight ahead on the pathway. Why weren't there any flowers blooming in the ground? More importantly where was the bright green grass?
This was going to turn into a nightmare, wasn't it? Who knows? This could be the beginning of an endless maze. Dammit Makoto you've been watching too much of Labyrinth She shook her head shamefully and forced out the reluctance inside of her to leave while she resumed her ongoing walk. The soles of her feet suddenly ached and literally pierced through the flatness of her favourite leather shoes. Her feet would hurt more if she wore high heels. Thank god she was tall for her age and wasn't fussy about her height like a minority of tiny people.
Makoto developed an urge to run as fast as she could to speed time up and instantly her feet went into a simple sprint. She was on the move. And it didn't tire her out like it should do in five minutes. That was what was cool about being in a dream. Rarely would you be tired if sprinting in a dream. It would take longer for exhaustion to kick in inside your body. Maybe if she ran then the dream would turn out differently. Or perhaps take her to another scene where she could see familiar faces. That was her goal tonight in this dream world.
She was happy that she wasn't tired yet. Because she had lost count of how many minutes she had been running down the same path. It seemed to have no end whatsoever. How long could she handle this? Would she have to wait until she woke up from her sleep to end this non-stop walking? Repeating the words 'Wake up' over a dozen times wouldn't do the trick. Especially if you were in the middle of a good dream. But duh! This wasn't becoming a dream yet. In fact it may not be a dream at all.
There has to be something here. Or even someone I can talk to! Oh come on PLEASE! Makoto wanted to scream a name out loud so somebody could come to her and talk for hours. Just to please her sleep until she wakes up for a glorious morning. Nevertheless Makoto pushed herself to keep running till something popped out from nowhere to surprise her I'm gonna have one bad dream eventually.
Her feet kept on going although her mind insisted she take a rest and wait till the alarm clock rang. Why the hell should she? She was here to dream and have fun in another world – to get away from the real events happening in her life. She wanted to get rid of the tiredness from housework and studying. Shouldn't she deserve it? Maybe someone like Usagi had too much sleep and relaxation, which was why she sometimes ended up being late to school every weekday.
To her utmost shock, Makoto realised her feet weren't touching the ground. Why was that? She looked down carefully and a tiny gulp soared into her throat. The long pathway she had become attached to from running had suddenly vanished. This was another thing that happened in dreams. Scenarios change quickly while you're doing something else and an alteration just comes up unexpectedly.
When something like this came up in a cartoon series the main character would either drop dead to the ground straightaway or magically float in the air with wings. But Makoto thought she'd be the former (as most cartoon characters would). And sadly her prediction came true. Her balance vanished within her and Makoto's body dramatically dropped downwards like she was a heavy ton of bricks.
Her ponytail flew across her face as she descended speedily.
"OH WHY?" Makoto screamed and covered her face while she let herself drop to whatever was down on the ground. She didn't care what was below her feet. It was important for her to have a safe landing and that was it. She couldn't understand why she wanted a safe landing. She would wake up anytime to relieve herself of her intensity, right?
However it didn't seem like she had woken up from her dream. No she was still here in this world. Her hands still covered her face carefully and she was on her knees, crouching and touching the hardness of the floor. So she did have a safe landing. That sure was quick. Next time buy a dream book and analyse, Mako-chan Makoto removed her hands off her face and straightened her figure.
She scanned the surroundings to spot various changes. Oh there were definitely changes all right. This was a whole new world. Not like before when she was in the dark, eerie land with only a long pathway that seemed to have no end when in fact it did, which Makoto had found out the hard way. Thick clouds hid the azure shade of the sky and tall trees enveloped the large field standing forth.
Where the hell was she? Whose garden was this, if it was a garden? Makoto wasn't sure if she was allowed to even be here at all. She almost stumbled backwards when she blinked twice to see where she was standing. This wasn't a garden after all. It was actually a hill, leading away from a large town straight ahead. Makoto could see every single building from here and it was indeed similar to Juuban.
From her senses, Makoto could tell this wasn't Juuban even though this town had the same sized buildings and widespread capacity. This town appeared to have a more public area. The hill she was standing on must come from a local park because she could spot a playground from the corner of her left eye. What was she doing here? Why did her dream take her to a town like this?
So many questions were unanswered and Makoto wasn't sure how to get the responses. Looks like she had to find out herself, right? She walked towards the playground and jumped back when she saw how large the penguin shaped slide appeared to be in a zoomed up perspective. She had to find out where she was. It was tempting to go on the swings or move on the slide but Makoto knew she had to be serious here. This dream may have a reason for creating this town and curiosity was eating into her guts.
She managed to find the park sign and keenly read each word. The main word that stuck out to her face was 'TOMOEDA.' Tomoeda? That's a town quite far from Juuban Makoto glanced to the outer appearance of the town It's kinda nice too. Surely this couldn't be an out of body experience. If it was, she would have seen her own body from the ceiling of her own bedroom.
A swift flash of light travelled across her nose to cut off her stare at the park sign. Makoto turned to her left to see who or what just did that. The light that passed her seemed to be a strong beam. What could it be? Was it magic? This dream was intriguing her more and more as she looked around to see what was going on. A running figure pushed past her abruptly, tempting her to punch the person who rudely forgot to say 'Excuse me.' But it appeared that this person was in a rush.
Makoto caught sight of a young girl in an outrageously colourful costume – one, which was definitely considered fancy dress and different to her Sailor fuku. The girl held a long pink staff with a star on the end and she stopped running when she saw an object stop in the air above the girl. Two other shadowy figures stopped alongside her. Both of them had wings. One had a look of a beast on four feet whilst the other seemed to be human.
It was too hard to see what they really looked like underneath the red coloured sun. What was it in the air? Makoto wondered. Her eyes focused on the object and discovered it was a flying…bicycle. Its wheels rolled round and round violently and the young girl wasn't able to get near it. Makoto went into a shocked trance as the mysterious female floated on her heels to soar into the air and chant something loudly at the flying bicycle, holding what appeared to be a card.
Lightning formed into the sky. Huh? How did she…? How did she create lightning? Is she a magician? Makoto thought in awe. She knew she wasn't in her Sailor fuku so it wasn't she who called upon thunder. As the lightning strike attacked the aggressive bike, a strange smoke vanished off the object and the bike simply dropped to the ground in a loud clatter. The lightning had also disappeared and the unknown girl slowly landed to the ground as well. She smiled at her card and then turned to her allies.
Makoto still wasn't able to see who they were though her impressions told her that these people weren't from around here. Then again she was a Sailor Senshi and she was used to meeting with different beings. Maybe they were on the same side as her. She wouldn't know. Makoto watched the three mysterious figures talk to each other Who are they?. Her thinking trance somehow caught the attention of the tallest figure who lifted his head up to look at Makoto. His wings fluttered against the tiny gust forming around him. For sure Makoto could tell he had very long hair. Was he the girl's guardian angel?
Soon all three of the strangers noticed her presence and looked at her unusually. Perhaps she was a witness of something that shouldn't have been seen. If only she could see them. Or talk to them. But there wasn't time to think about that. Because Makoto's alarm clock had rung suddenly and that opened her eyes to the beginning of Monday morning. This didn't feel like a dream at all. Dreams that had a realistic sensation always put Makoto into a deep thinking state. What was she to do now?
She did think about buying a dream book to analyse her dreams but that may not be enough. This dream was something new to her. The three figures were looking at her for a reason. And she wanted to know who this girl was. Who had the power to use cards? She hadn't been reading any fantasy books in ages and there was no influence from that. This couldn't involve destiny, could it? Did she have to go to Tomoeda to find out for herself? Makoto had to tell someone about this dream. And her friends would be the right people.
TBC.