Five-year-old Tomoyo Daidouji wandered aimlessly around the large ballroom of her enormous mansion, looking up at immensely tall adults, which looked to her like redwood trees. Many adults appeared inarticulate apart from managing to squeal things at her like 'Isn't she cute!' and 'What a polite young lady!' despite the fact that that last comment was absurd as she was only five years old.
Then she spotted a younger, friendlier yet wiser-looking man standing in a corner, not talking to anyone, really. He looked like the sort of person who would not be patronising or condescending to her. She walked over to him partly out of pure curiosity, and partly because of the fact that she seemed drawn irresistibly to him, like a moth to a flame.
"So," he said as she approached, "you must be Tomoyo Daidouji."
Now, this sounded like a perfectly normal thing to say, but he said it with a look that he had been waiting to meet her for years. Tomoyo cocked her head confusedly at the man, trying to comprehend why he had spoken to her with such an odd tone.
"Yes, mister, my name is Tomoyo," she said cautiously as she wondered who this man was, and why he had anything to do with her mother, as he appeared very different from the other people gathered in the room.
"You are a very beautiful girl," he said with a smile as he regarded the girl with a fatherly look. She bowed politely.
"Domo arigato," she said.
"Please, mister, will you tell me your name?" she asked.
"My name is Clow Reed," he said, still smiling brightly at the little girl in front of him.
"Konnichiwa, Mr Reed," Tomoyo said, and bowed again politely.
Clow looked down at the little girl with barely-concealed amusement.
'If only you knew, Tomoyo,' he thought.
Yes, if only she knew… If only she knew that she and his re-incarnation would fall in love, that Sakura possessed magic… But then, what would change if she knew? Clow sighed, and said to the girl,
"Life is a very complicated thing, Tomoyo."
Tomoyo laughed, a happy, joyous sound that lifted some of the layers of sadness from his heart.
"My okaa-san says that sometimes," she said with a smile.
"She does?" he asked her.
"Yes. Mr Reed, I know that it is not polite to ask a person's age (that's what my mom says) but how old are you? It's just, you look a lot younger than the other people," Tomoyo asked.
"Tomoyo, my dear, young I am not. I am as old as time itself, and I am ageing by the second," he answered.
"Wow…" she said in childish wonderment.
"Tomoyo, I have to go now," Clow said, and although he was reluctant to leave the child's company, it was the truth.
"Okay," she said, "but before you go…"
She held out her little hand and Clow looked at her confusedly until he understood her intention. He held out his own hand and shook the child's little one.
"Goodbye, Tomoyo. I'll see you again, in one shape or form," he said before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
"Tomoyo, Tomoyo, where are you?" called her mother.
"Oh, there you are, dear," she said upon finding her daughter.
"What were you doing?"
"I was talking to Mr Clow Reed," Tomoyo replied happily.
"But I-I know no-one by the name of Clow Reed…" Sonomi said.