Tap
April 1 (continued)
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Ayame frowned at the blank sheet of paper in front of her.
Tap. Tap. Tap tap.
"Professor Clifton…why did he have to give us such a dumb assignment?" she muttered to herself.
Tap tap. Tap tap. Tap tap.
She glared at the paper, as if it were its fault that she couldn't think of anything to write.
Tippity tap. Tippity tap. Tippity tap.
Here she was, sitting in the middle of a library that was a student's dream come true, and not a single book could help her with the project that she needed to complete in two days.
"I'll bet that's why he gave us this prompt, that old geezer." She muttered darkly, glancing at a worn strip of paper to her left.
Write an essay describing who you think you are. Must be at least one thousand words.
Tippitytippitytippitytippitytippitytippitytippity-
In a fit of frustration, Ayame threw her wildly tapping pencil away. She shoved herself away from her table, leaving the blank sheet of paper behind.
...
Briskly, she strolled through rows of books without purpose, just letting herself get lost in depths of the library. As she began to calm down, she started randomly taking books off shelves, flipping through them and putting them back, with the same sense of aimlessness. One book would attract her attention for a moment, before being placed carefully back in its place with the rest of its wordy comrades.
Before long, Ayame found herself in a dusty corner of the library that she had never visited before. Absently she brushed year's worth of grey powder off of volumes, reading titles such as: A Beginners Guide to Professional Fortunetelling, and Ways of the Orient-A Study of Eastern Magic by S.H. Reed
These are books on…magic? Ayame pondered. She fingered the tomes with a higher respect, and an even higher curiosity. Magic was normally a precarious subject at her school, due to the fact that the Headmaster had expressly forbidden anything having to do with any sort of sorcery or witchcraft almost 25 years ago, according to rumor.
"What are all these books doing here, then?" Ayame said to herself.
A single red book that seemed to be significantly less covered in grit suddenly stood out among the rest. With shaking hands, she carefully picked it up and examined it.
On the front cover, a golden winged lion was the centerpiece. A sun was set in front of him. The back cover boasted an intricate design within a circle, below which stood a winged crescent moon. Both sides read 'The Clow'
"The Clow…" Ayame repeated breathlessly, feeling a strange sort of attraction to the book.
Somehow, holding this book was making her sweat coldly, made her heart beat far too loudly and far too fast. She was already quaking noticeably. Why?
Slowly, nervously, her hand flipped the latch that held the book closed, and almost obediently, it fell open in her lap.
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"Oi, kid! Wake up! You okay?!"
Ayame brought a hand up to her throbbing head. "Bloody hell..." she croaked. Somehow, she had wound up lying next to a bookshelf on the opposite side of the square that the shelves made.
What had happened? All she remembered was opening the book…
Her eyes snapped open and she sat up quickly.
"The book!" she cried.
Where was it? She had just been holding it-
Oh. There it was. Why was it over there? Did she drop it?
"Oi, you okay kid? You looked like you hit your head pretty hard…"
Ayame looked to see where the voice was coming from.
A large, yellow face filled her vision.
"HOEEEEEH!!" she yelled, scooting herself backwards rapidly.
It…whatever it was…looked to be a tiny, yellow, flying plush bear with wings.
Ayame hid her face in her hands. "I definitely hit my head too hard…"
An indignant voice rang out; "Hey! I ain'ta hallucination!!"
She hesitantly held out her hands for it to land on. "Then…what exactly are you?"
The creature stuck a flamboyant pose. "I am…Keroberos, Beast of the Seal!"
"Seal? What seal?"
"The seal on this book of course!" Keroberos glowed a little and the book Ayame had opened floated over to where they were. With a little more seriousness in his tone, he added; "A seal which you broke, by the way."
"I…broke?"
"Yeah. I tried to warn you, but by the time I realized what you were doing, it was too late."
Ayame stared at him with an expression that conveyed a mix between horror, confusion and shock.
"Why in the world was there a seal like that on a book?" she whispered.
"Well," stated Keroberos "It was necessary. You see, there were Clow Cards in that book."
"…What?"
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Back in her dorm room, Ayame set her electric teakettle to boil and faced the creature sitting on her bed.
"So Keroberos, any luck finding those cards?"
He shook his head. "Nah. I didn't think I would have any. By the way, where are we? Before I fell asleep we were in Tomoeda..."
"Well, the town that's closest to here is Tunbridge Wells. That's about 70 kilometers south of London if-"
"Wait, London as in England?" he asked incredulously.
"Er…yeah. Didn't you notice I was speaking English?"
"Not really." He shrugged. "Languages all seem the same to me."
Ayame sat down in her desk chair. "Before, you mentioned that I broke some sort of seal on…'Clow Cards'. What are Clow Cards?"
"Well, they were made by a magician named Clow Reed. They're a set of magical cards, with powers and personalities all their own.
"And when the seal on them is broken…a disaster will come to this world."
Ayame put her head in her hands again. "Oh no. This is really, really bad, isn't it?"
"Pretty much, yeah." he replied grimly.
A thought entered her head. She crawled over to her bed and sat down in front of him.
"Is there some way I can get them back?" she asked frantically.
Keroberos scratched his head. "Well, there is, but-"
"I'll do it! If it'll stop a disaster from coming, I'll do it!!"
She stood, frozen like that, as he gave her a long, searching look.
A half-smile crossed his yellow face as he shrugged. "Well, you broke the seal, so I guess you must have some magic."
Ayame's eyebrows shot up. What in the world was he talking about?
"What's your name, kid?" he asked.
"A-Ayame."
"Alright then Ayame, if you'll just back up a little, and move that chair-" She did so. "Then…"
The Clow book that rested beside Keroberos began to glow, and the room disappeared, replaced by a grey-green expanse. The same circle that adorned the back of the book glistened underneath them.
Ayame tore her eyes away from their new surroundings when Keroberos began to speak softly.
"Key of the Seal." A tiny ball of light rose from the lock on the book and came to hover between them.
"A person is here who wishes to make a contract with you. A girl. Her name is Ayame."
Ayame felt the distinct sensation of being examined for a split second, before Keroberos went on.
"Key, give her the power! RELEASE!"
The girl yelled as an intense light obscured her vision. Through the haze, she noticed that the same design that was the motif of the back of the book lay under her feet.
"Ayame! Take the staff!!" Keroberos yelled through the mayhem.
"What?!" She yelled back at him.
"The staff! In front of you! You have to grab it!"
Ayame groped blindly until her fingers met wood. She grasped it and the light died down slowly.
The pure white staff in her hands turned a clear, deep green that spread from where her hands touched it. The head of the staff was entirely made of a pale gold, shaped like a bird's head, and a black opal served for eyes.
The teakettle beeped, signaling that the water was ready. She ignored it in favor of turning over the staff slowly in her hands, examining it from every angle.
"So…what is this?" Ayame asked Keroberos. "What did I just do?"
"You just became The Cardcaptor!!" he replied boisterously.
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So, she had flunked a Biology test, been reprimanded by her English Professor, and been assigned to defeat and capture a set of powerful, highly dangerous, magic cards that she had somehow scattered.
All in one morning. Simply delightful.
Ayame fingered the bird-shaped key that now hung around her neck in bewilderment.
Someone behind her poked her shoulder, hard. "Hazel, the Professor just called on you!"
"Huh?" she said belatedly. A few people sniggered. Obviously, someone had been trying to get her attention for a while.
"Would you care to answer the question, Miss Hazel?" her Algebra teacher said, falsely sweet.
"Er, yes ma'am." She replied quickly. Desperately, she glanced at her neighbor, Lindsay, for assistance.
"Number 14." She mumbled.
"I owe you." Ayame whispered back quietly. She stood up and looked at her book. "If Ralph sold £11,000 worth of furniture and his rate of commission is 2.1, how much…"
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Just as the sun touched the horizon, a girl barreled into her room.
"Keroberos! Is this it?!" she yelled, shaking the yellow creature awake. She presented him a red and gold strip of paper that she held.
He took it out of her grip. "Yeah! This is 'The Wood'! Where did you find this?" he questioned her.
"It was just stuck under a painting in the house common room! Pretty neat huh?" she plucked the card out of his tiny paws as she spoke. "So, what does this do, exactly?"
"You have to write your name on it." He said, pointing to the card. "It won't listen to you otherwise." She pulled out a pen and carefully wrote her name down as he continued. "And you can find out what it does later. Don't you have an essay to write?"
She stiffened noticeably.
"I'll get to it later!" She said, placing the card on her desk, as she ran out the door. "I'm going to dinner; I'll sneak you up something, ok?"
The door slammed as her retreating steps resounded down the hall.
Keroberos sighed and flopped himself down on the bed. "I wonder if he'll ever forgive me if she actually succeeds" He closed his eyes. "It's only been about fifteen years since Sakura died, after all."
