Birth of the Deck Master
Prequel to Harry Potter and the Deck Master
Chapter Three: The Lonely Card
Disclaimer: Card Captor Sakura is owned by the four lovely ladies of CLAMP and was originally published by Kodansha comics.
"...going out almost every night. I admit I'm a little worried if this pattern continues; his grades may begin to drop. But Touya-san is happier than I have seen him in years, so I'll let it slide for now. Do you think that's a good idea?"
The sound of her father's voice from the otherwise empty kitchen was more than telling. Sakura Kinomoto, eleven year old sorceress destined to be the most powerful sorceress in history, knew of only one reason her father would be talking to himself in the empty room. Part of her feared the fact and part of her envied it, but without a doubt it could only be that.
Hanging back in the doorway, holding her Sun Guardian to her chest, she tried to be unobtrusive as she tested her ability of stretching her senses in hopes of seeing as well. She knew if her father noticed her, he would stop talking. They never talked in front of the children because neither child could see her any longer. However, whether she told him or he noticed Sakura's magical presence on his own, he turned and looked at his daughter with a smile.
"Sakura-san, Cerberus, do you two need something?" Fujitaka asked.
"We were getting a little hungry..." Sakura admitted.
"Of course, it is about lunch time now, isn't it? What would you like to eat today?" he asked her with a smile.
Sakura shrugged in response. "Anything's fine..."
"I want pudding!" Kero announced from in Sakura's fists.
"Mou, Kero-chan! I told you we don't have the ingredients here for that!" Sakura scolded her Guardian.
Fujitaka laughed, "Indeed we do not, but how about I bake a cake for us to have after dinner tonight? Will that be all right instead of pudding?"
"Yeah, I guess that'll do," Kero confirmed.
"Were you..." Sakura began nervously, "were you talking to Okaa-san just now...?"
Fujitaka's eyes widened slightly in surprise before his expression fell to a sad sort of nervous smile. "Yes, I was."
"Umm... Is-is she still here?" Sakura asked, her face both pleading and ashamed.
"Yes, Nadeshiko-san is over there, by the sink..." he informed.
Turning in the indicated direction, Sakura bowed slightly in respect. "Konnichiwa, Okaa-san... Um... I love you...?"
Smiling with a sad sort of fondness, Fujitaka blinked the tears from the corner of his eyes as he spoke for his dead wife. "She says she loves you very much as well," he told his daughter. "Oh yes, you received another letter in the mail today."
"From Eriol?" Kero asked hopefully.
"No, this one is from Hong Kong," Fujitaka informed both of them.
Sakura's face pinkened at the information. "Syaoran-kun?" She hurried forward excitedly and took the letter from her father before running upstairs to read it.
With a fond smile on his face, the archeologist looked to the transparent woman who floated in the room. "Our little girl is growing up..."
Sakura clambered onto her bed, black teddy which she had taken the liberty of naming 'Syaoran' tucked under her arm, and letter in hand. Propping herself up on her elbows while she lay on her stomach, she cuddled the bear a moment before tearing open the envelope and taking out the letter her most beloved person had written to her.
Sakura,
I'm happy to hear that things are going so well in Tomoeda for everyone. I really miss being there with everyone, I've had little time to do anything but work and train since I got back to Hong Kong that being with you every day like that seems more and more like a distant dream.
You need to be sure to not let Daidoji do anything strange in those videos you're making with her. She does have the habit of getting carried away, after all. But then, if she has the time to be scripting up scenarios for you then I don't need to be too worried about problems happening.
And speaking of scripting, Yamazaki wrote me a letter and said you were putting on a play for an upcoming event. What part are you playing in it? He said that Yanagisawa was the writer, so I hope for your sake that it's not going to be an occult one.
On a more serious note, though, there may be reason for you to be wary. I recently received a "gift" from someone claiming to be Clow Reed. As I know your father wouldn't be the one responsible, it is most likely from Hiiragizawa, which could only mean that he's up to something again. However, we shouldn't write off the possibility of a third party being the culprit just yet.
Whatever the case, this act screams suspicious behaviour, so please be careful. I don't want anything bad to happen to you when I can't be there to help. Even though the help I could offer someone like you is minimal, I find it is worse to be so far away and not able to do anything at all. So please, for both your own sake and for the sake of everyone who cares about you, be careful.
Yours,
Li Xiao Lang
Folding the letter carefully back along its creases, Sakura held it to her chest as she entered a state of hanyan. Syaoran-kun said he cares about me! she thought with a blush. She laid for a time in this state, daydreaming about his honey eyes and proud figure before finally pushing herself up and going to the desk to write her reply.
Syaoran-kun,
It makes me so happy to hear from you, as always. I hope your work load lightens up somewhat so you can have some fun as well. I know you push yourself really hard, but please remember to take care of yourself. We all miss you so much, I would hate to see anything bad happen to you because you're working so hard. I wish I could be of some help, and I hope that at the very least hearing from me makes you half as happy as I am whenever I get a letter from you.
As for the play, Naoko-chan is writing a fairy tale about two countries torn apart by war. This time the roles were chosen by class vote, rather than ladder game. Tomoyo-chan is in charge of costumes, and I did such a good job in the last play, the class decided I should have the role of the princess. Yamazaki-kun is the one playing the prince of the enemy kingdom who the princess is supposed to fall in love with. You remember Yamazaki-kun's performance in Sleeping Beauty, right? How he stole the show, even though he was the evil witch? Everyone's positive he'll be amazing this time, too, so they're really excited.
I felt a little weird playing opposite Yamazaki-kun at first, and offered the role of princess to Chiharu-chan when I heard what the plot was going to be, but she said it was fine, and it is only a play after all. So, it's not too completely weird pretending to fall in love with Yamazaki-kun in the context, right? Hoe, it's all so confusing.
Also, I have decided! I am going to stop being afraid of ghosts now. Even though Onii-chan can't see them cause he gave his magic to Yukito-san, Otou-san now sees them instead since Clow Reed's magic was split. Otou-san spends a lot of time around Okaa-san, but he's nervous about letting me know because he knows about my fear. I don't want to make Otou-san and Okaa-san sad, and I don't want to be scared of Okaa-san, so I've decided I just won't be afraid of ghosts any longer. Eriol-kun and Kero-chan both said it was a good idea, as likely when my powers get stronger I'll start being able to see them as well.
What kind of "gift" were you sent? I haven't had any dreams lately, not about anything important at least. I dreamed about where the neighbour's lost cat was, and what the new cheer-leading routine would be, but that's it. So, I don't think it's anything too bad, I would probably have a dream about it if it was. But even so, I'll be careful and tell you right away if anything bad happens, just as I promised.
And also, please don't say all the wonderful time we spent together was just a dream. You are my very important friend, and it would be sad if it wasn't real. I can't wait to see you again, so please try and visit soon.
Until next time,
Kinomoto Sakura
Putting her pen aside, Sakura folded up her letter and left it on the corner of her desk to be taken care of later. She took her Syaoran-bear and curled back up on her bed. I want to see you, even if it does mean more danger, I want to go back to the days when I could see you every day. And this time around, I'd be sure to let you know what is in my heart.
The full moon shone down over King Penguin and the three figures perched atop it. Sakura, in a blue and white star dress, stood proudly between her two winged guardians in all their glory. Slowly, determinedly, Sakura reached her hands out before herself and began to chant. "Hoshi no chikara o himeshi 'kagi' yo! Shin no sugata o ware no mae ni shimese. Keiyaku no moto Sakura ga meijiru. RELEASE!" (1)
From the orb of light between her hands grew her pink staff topped with the encircled star. Suddenly, moving more quickly than the ritualistic motions she had been preforming before, she summoned a card to her hand from her pocket and threw it out before herself. Pointing the tip of her staff at the card which now floated a good meter away, she called out it's name and therefore called upon it's magic power. "JUMP!"
Transparent wings burst forth from either side of each foot, like Hermes's flying sandals. Then with a single great leap she took to the air, effectively dodging the burst of fire that hit where she had been standing a moment before. A dragon made of swirling flames reared up from the ground and circled the Card Mistress who was suspended mid-air. Sakura watched its head circle around behind herself, ignoring the vaguely human shape outlined within it's chest. She once again summoned a card to her hand, throwing it straight up before calling out it's name. "WATERY!"
A torrent of rain poured down from the cloudless heavens, drenching out the fiery beast and returning it to a sealed form. Sakura's foot touched down atop the monkey bars just in time to dodge a boulder that came speeding towards her. "SHIELD!" She cried, throwing out her defensive spell as another boulder crashed into it's surface. Yue swooped from the sky and lifted his Mistress to safety while Cerberus took up her position and met the stone mammoth head-on with a blast of fiery breath. Landing to the side while the mammoth was distracted, Yue set his Mistress down and let loose a volley of powerful magic missiles, strengthened more than usual by the full moon hanging brightly above them.
The projectiles burrowed deep into the mammoth's side, splitting the stone and causing it to crumble. Yet just as it did, a new threat arose as a titan made of wood and vines stretched up behind the lunar guardian and sorceress. Acting quickly, Sakura called forth one last card. With a cry of "SWORD!" her magic staff reshaped itself into an enchanted blade which she used to slice through the nature giant and fell it. Once the opponent was down, the Card Mistress released the spell and reunited with her guardians to prove that none of them had even broken a sweat.
Tomoyo clapped excitedly as she sat beside Kero and Sakura admiring the ending credits of her latest film masterpiece. "It's so wonderful!" she announced in her starry-eyed daze that was oh-so-typical when anything related to Sakura was involved.
To her left, Sakura sat clutching a pillow which every now and again she'd bury her red face in out of embarrassment. "T-This even had background music..."
"Of course!" Tomoyo insisted, as if the fact were the most natural thing in the universe. "I took the liberty of adding it during the editing. Finding music that was perfectly timed to all the scenes was difficult. But, it was all for you, Sakura-chan!"
The only thing Sakura could find to say in response to that was a quiet, nervous little "Ho-hoe..."
"Man, I look really studly," Kero interjected, flying over to the TV to get a better look. When his image stopped being shown on the television, he hit the rewind button on the VCR and announced "All right, I'll watch it again!"
"Ke-Kero-chan!" Sakura scolded, attempting to keep her guardian under some form of control. She didn't want to upset Tomoyo at all with any of his self-interested presumptions.
However, her friend didn't seem to be registering any of it, as she quite happily continued to talk all about her film. "But because you helped me out, Sakura-chan, I was able to shoot wonderful footage!"
"You're embarrassing me," the young sorceress admitted.
Tomoyo just smiled reassuringly. "There's no reason to be embarrassed. You turned all the cards into Sakura Cards, and matured into an amazing magical girl!"
"But her habit of being late hasn't changed, even in the 5th grade," Kero felt necessary to add.
"Kero-chan!" Sakura cried in reprimand, blushing from the open way they were talking about her.
Kero gave a nervous laugh at his mistress's indignation before choosing to smooth things over by returning the topic back to the tape. "But this really looks good! The enemy we made out of Firey isn't that bad, either."
Sakura shyly rubbed her cheek with her index finger as she responded, "Before I made them, I read tons of fantasy novels that I borrowed from Naoko-chan."
"Now that Hiiragizawa-kun has gone back without any incidents, a little screenwriting and exaggeration is inevitable." Tomoyo pointed out as if it were the most natural thing in the universe.
"Tomoyo, you're a pretty wicked girl." Kero teased in a dangerous tone of voice.
"I choose every means to film Sakura-chan wearing the clothes I made. Ohohohohoho!" the young heiress replied in like.
Sakura nervously watched her best friend and guardian interacting and could only express herself with a quiet little "Hoe..." as they went on planning all the things they were going to do to her.
"So, what other cards did you want to record getting used?" Kero asked, calling the Book to himself and opening it up to look at the cards in question.
Tomoyo also leaned in to examine the deck. "Well, there's Illusion, and Thunder, Erase too... Oh, and I'd love to know what this card does." Tomoyo suggested, holding up the one card that had never been called on before.
"That card?" Kero asked, floating up to it. "This is the card that Sakura made from her tear. But it doesn't have any name on it. How do you call on a card with no name?"
"Then how about Flower?" Tomoyo suggested instead.
However, Sakura was no longer hearing the two as they planned the next big adventure movie. Syaoran-kun... she missed him so much, with him being away in Hong Kong. That card was created the moment that she had realized her true feelings for her friend and fellow sorcerer. It held a special place in her heart, even if she didn't know what it did or how to get it out of card form. Syaoran-kun... even if it means trouble, I want to see you again.
"SAKURA!" Syaoran's voice suddenly called. Looking up in surprise and a momentary flash of excitement, the Card Mistress realized that it was only the television.
She watched Syaoran run to her side and fall to his knees behind her, supporting her and protecting her as he always had, while Yue's cold voice washed over everyone. "If you don't use attack cards as well, you can only run! If you don't get serious, it's over."
"What's this? Bonus content?" Kero asked, flying over to look at the screen.
"Oh, there must have been some old footage still on the tape." Tomoyo expressed.
"Oh! I'm there too! I really do look awesome..." Kero expressed, watching the majesty of his true form.
"I'll forget..." Sakura's voice floated to her own ears from the other side of Kero, "...the one I love most...?"
"That was a scary time..." Tomoyo admitted as she watched the events unfold on the television.
"More than scary, it was so sad, and lonely," Sakura corrected. "I remember I fought so desperately just so that lonely future wouldn't come about... So I wouldn't loose Tomoyo-chan, and Kero-chan, and all the cards, and... Syaoran-kun..."
"It's already been a month and a half since Li-kun returned to Hong Kong." Tomoyo pointed out.
"Yeah..." was the only reply she received.
Seeming to almost hear the conversation going on outside the television, the Sakura inside it smiled and announced, "Somehow, I'll surely be alright."
"Tomoyo-chan... you knew... about my feelings for Syaoran-kun," the brunette confirmed, blushing rather brightly.
"Yes," was her cousin's simple reply.
"I was the only one that didn't realize it until the end," Sakura admitted.
"I'm sure that Li-kun fell in love with you, Sakura-chan, because you are a fluffy person like that," Tomoyo reassured.
To this, the sorceress felt the need to protest. "But... Syaoran-kun never said he liked me, and I didn't get a chance to tell my feelings to him, either."
"How about by telephone or by letter?" suggested the seamstress.
"No, it's something that I need to say in person. I want to see him and tell him properly," Sakura insisted. So please, hurry and see me again, Syaoran-kun.
this is the original Japanese chant that Sakura uses to summon her star staff. The translation is approximately "Key which hides the power of the stars! Show your true form before me! I, Sakura, command you under contract! Release!"
The summer sun beat down on Tomoeda on this peaceful July morning. Nadeshiko watched as the birds collected in the trees and on the grass, and marvelled at the world that she could take part in even after her own demise. The sound of her husband humming some classical piece to himself as he fixed breakfast in the kitchen filled her sense of being with a warm contentedness.
Her son, who had only just recently lost his magic, sat and read the morning paper at the dining room table unaware of his mother's presence in the living room. He would be going to work within the hour with that boyfriend of his, and was just waiting for said boyfriend to show up. He really was so very self-sufficient, this son of hers, and that knowledge made her proud of his every achievement.
The quiet peace of the morning was shattered, however, with a loud cry that nearly shook the very foundations of the house. "HOEEEE! I'm going to be late!"
Upstairs in her room Sakura had awoken and noticed the time was after nine already. She jumped from bed and rushed around her room, throwing things on as quickly as she could manage. From his drawer that doubled as his personal bedroom, Kero's head popped out, still in the nightcap that Tomoyo had sewn for him so long before. "We have the usual pattern again today..." he commented as he watched Sakura dashing back and forth while she put on her things.
"It's summer break, so I'm used to waking up late!" the Card Mistress defended herself while changing her shirt.
"You're in uniform," Kero pointed out, "so today's a school day?"
"Yeah, to get ready for the Nadeshiko Festival," she explained, brushing her hair in her little table-top mirror.
This managed to peak Kero's interest, though he was always one who wanted to be part of every piece of action or excitement. "Oh! The festival that all of Tomoeda gets ready for?"
"Yeah," Sakura replied as she put her hair up into it's usual pigtails. "Class 5-2 is representing Tomoeda Elementary School with a play, and Naoko-chan wrote the script."
"And what role are you playing?" Kero questioned conversationally.
"A-a princess..." Sakura informed bashfully as she packed her script back into her bag.
"Oh, the princess has gotta be the lead role!" Kero expressed excitedly. "That means I have to find a way to see it. I wonder if I can manage to get the Snow-bunny to take me... Well, that kid was the princess last time. Hahahaha! That was such a horrible sight!" Kero stopped his musing for a moment before asking, "by the way, Sakura, are you going to school like that?"
"Eh?" she asked, looking down at herself. It took a moment to register that she was only half dressed and still wore her pyjama pants. "HOEEEE!"
From downstairs all the family heard was her cry, followed by loud crashes and bangs as she likely fell over once more in her hurry. Fujitaka just smiled and went back to preparing breakfast while Touya, who was setting the table, gave an annoyed sigh. A minute later, the little lady herself entered the room as her usual smiling ball of energy.
"Ohayou!" she called to the family in general as she entered.
"Ohayou, Sakura-san," Fujitaka replied.
Before going to join them at the table, however, she turned to the photo on the bookshelf. "Ohayou, Okaa-san!"
As Touya put the plate with her breakfast down in front of her, he replied, "Osoyou... (1)"
Sakura bristled at his jab and repeated herself with a determined glare, "O-HA-YO-U!" she insisted at him.
His response was to sit down across from her and rest his head in his hand, levelling her with one of his teasing smirks. "Osoyou... Kaijuu..."
"I'm not a kaijuu!" Sakura argued back at her taunting older brother.
Fujitaka chose this moment to interrupt his children in their sibling squabbles. "Now, now, both of you. If we don't hurry, we'll be late. Now, let's eat."
Complying with their father's request, the children dropped the subject and turned to their respective meals. After a short period of silence, Fujitaka turned to his daughter sitting beside him and remarked, "Say, you usually start in the afternoon. You're rather early today."
"Yeah, we only have one week left. There are lots of spots I can't perform well, so I have to practice more," Sakura admitted.
"I look forward to it," Fujitaka insisted, earning a shy little laugh from his daughter.
Never one to miss an opportunity to poke fun at his kid sister, Touya chose to comment as well. "A play where a monster is the lead role... Wouldn't the Nadeshiko Festival be a mess?"
Sakura shot a glare at her snide older brother from across the table as she continued to eat, scheming how to get back at him, but having no comeback on the tip of her tongue at the moment. So she instead used the food in her mouth as an excuse why her retort had to take some time to come.
"What about you, Touya-san?" Fujitaka asked, turning the tables slightly.
"My college will be having a parlour, so I'll be helping them out," he responded easily.
"Yukito-san too?" Sakura asked excitedly, standing up in her boundless energy.
"We do go to the same college...," Touya reminded.
"Waaai!" Sakura cheered, throwing her hands in the air in excitement. "I'll have to try it out!"
"I'll make sure to put Tabasco in what we serve you," Touya promised jokingly.
(1) Osoyou means 'late morning'. To understand it correctly, however, it requires to actually break down the term as well as the term Sakura is using, which is generally translated as "good morning". See, while "Ohayou" is what you say as a morning greeting to someone, it is generally used between the times of dawn and about 10am. After that you're supposed to switch to saying "good day" or "konnichiwa" instead. The actual word itself, however, translates literally as "(you) are early" and would function as the beginning of a sentence which has merely been clipped down over the centuries in a similar way that "konnichiwa" literally means "good (kon) day (nichi) *subject marker* (wa)". What Touya says literally means "(you) are late" as a morning greeting, indicating that he's saying "good morning" but it's technically too late in the day to be using "good morning". It's used generally as a sarcastic greeting for someone who has slept the morning away and so can't be greeted with "good morning" any longer, and that is why Sakura becomes irate at him for using it, as it is likely still before 10am during the scene and he's just using it to poke fun at her for not being an early riser.
As Sakura roller-bladed through the streets of Tomoeda that morning, her eyes wondered to every building. Shop workers were putting up decorations for the festival. Flowers, lights, and ornaments coloured store fronts brightly, and it seemed like everyone had a smile on their face. Many windows and doors, and even a few signs were trimmed in her mother's flowers, making the whole street look like it were part of some sort of park rather than a commercial district.
"Wow... the preparations are coming along pretty well! All of Tomoeda's involved with this festival. I'm so looking forward to it!" she couldn't help but announce out loud. Before long, she came upon a construction project and stopped to observe the workers for a short time. "The play's being held here... It makes me nervous... Oh yeah! I'm going to be late!"
Within the classroom as she approached, Sakura could hear her gathered classmates already going through the rehearsals as Yamazaki was reading his lines. "Please, Princess... Do stop crying, a smile suits you more..."
Creaking the door open as quietly as she could manage, she slipped inside. One of the stage hands was sitting in for her, looking very uneasy while Yamazaki professed sweet words at him so naturally. However, she wasn't quiet enough apparently, as Tomoyo turned at the sound of the door clicking shut and called out a greeting, "Sakura-chan!"
"Sorry I'm late..." she told the room in general as the rehearsal came to a pause and the thankful looking stage hand scurried off the 'stage' that had been created by the circle of preteens.
"Sakura-chan!" Naoko, the play's scriptwriter and director, practically pounced on her with script in hand.
Sakura jumped at Naoko's determined greeting, scared that she was going to be scolded by her friend, "Yes?"
"I added a couple of lines. Can you try acting it out?" Naoko pressed.
"S-sure!" Sakura agreed, taking the newest rendition of the script and going over to put her bag and hat to the side with everyone else's.
Following after her, Naoko pointed to a few spots on the page. "Here, these are the new lines."
"Alright," the sorceress confirmed, "I'll try it."
"Then, from where you were just now, Yamazaki-kun," Naoko ordered.
"Okay!" he responded, not the least upset about having his scene interrupted. Unnoticed to most of the room, now that Sakura was present, Tomoyo pulled out her camera and began filming the rehearsal.
"Then let's start!" Naoko gave the cue.
Falling naturally back into the role, Yamazaki began again with the emotion and gestures of a professional. "Please, Princess... Do stop crying, a smile suits you more than anyone. Please forgive me for making you so sad. However, I cannot stop these feelings. I am in love with you." The words came from his mouth as naturally as if they were his own, emotion filled each and every syllable until it seemed that he really had fallen in love with Sakura. He was a natural at acting, he hadn't even needed to glance at the script, proven even more by the fact that it was left abandoned on the table behind him.
Sakura, for her part, clenched the edges of her script, blushing slightly, though it was more for what she had to say than from what he had said to her. To speak these words to Yamazaki before she ever got the chance to speak them to Syaoran just seemed so impossibly cruel. "I... I..."
She bit her lower lip and closed her eyes, attempting to pretend that it was Syaoran kneeling before her confessing his love, rather than her friend's boyfriend, and tried again. "How I feel about you..."
Rehearsal had continued for seven gruelling hours, not including the lunch break in which Naoko had found it necessary to give pointers to everyone about every little detail. While the scenes had been done out of order to give different actors breaks, as the female lead there had been few that Sakura could sit out of completely. Between scenes in which they performed, the students helped in the production of props and stood still for Tomoyo to take their measurements for their costumes.
But with the day finally over, Sakura and Tomoyo were walking home together. "Oh, it's so hard! Being the princess for the first time makes me nervous!"
"It's all right," Tomoyo insisted, "your acting is becoming more and more princess-like each day."
"Oh, you think so?" Sakura asked.
"As one allowed to film each day's practice, I guarantee it!" the heiress assured.
"Then I guess it's okay...," Sakura consented.
"If you're really worried about it, I could teach you some of the things I learned in etiquette class," Tomoyo offered.
"Oh please, no more practice. At least, not right now," Sakura whined. "It's not so much that I'm worried about acting like a princess, I mean I want the play to be good, but... it's just that Yamazaki-kun is so natural at acting that I feel that if I'm not just as smooth as he is in the scene, then I'd be letting him down and ruining the play..."
"Oh, I'm sure everyone feels the same as far as Yamazaki-kun is concerned. He's just exceptionally good," Tomoyo insisted.
Sakura paused as she noticed a new poster on the community pin-up board. "Hoe? Tomoeda Amusement Park...?"
"It was built on that hilltop, come to think of it," Tomoyo commented.
"Yeah, over by where Eriol-kun used to live. I wonder if Eriol-kun is doing well?" the Card Mistress pondered.
"Would you like to drop by on the way back tomorrow?" Tomoyo asked.
Sakura only thought about it for a moment before smiling, "Yeah!"
The sun had set some time before, and Kero was already sleeping soundly within his drawer, but Sakura was still up in the room practising her script. She had needed someone to read the lines opposite herself, and so had summoned Mirror to do the job. However Mirror had proven to be a poor actor as far as mimicking the behaviours of those she had never met, such as Yamazaki, so instead Sakura chose to just have her play the role of one of the ladies in waiting and go over those scenes rather than the love scenes.
"As if my heart was not my own... I cannot fall in love with him. Yet I cannot stop my own heart. I cannot forget his kind smile. I want to see him. I want to see him and tell him how I truly feel," she read aloud from the script as she sat on her bed next to Mirror. She tried to make the words flow naturally, as if they were her own, and put effort into adding a regal air to her tone as if she really was a princess of a kingdom. The more she read the lines, the easier it was for her to recall them, but she still found herself mixing up which sentence should come next.
"If that is how you feel, Mistress, then you must go to him at once, or else you may lose your chance and regret it for the rest of your life!" Mirror insisted from her position, sitting on the bed next to Sakura and reading over her shoulder.
"You're supposed to call me 'princess' for the lines in the play, not 'mistress'," Sakura corrected.
Mirror blinked, "Oh, I'm sorry!" she cried, blushing at the slip of her tongue, "It is just... the Mistress is the Mistress, so..."
Sakura shook her head, "It's alright, I understand," she reassured.
Just as Sakura opened her mouth to read the next line, Kero started to mutter in his sleep, "I can still eat some more..."
Both girls looked at him in his drawer as he rolled over and fell out of his bed without even waking up. They exchanged glances for a moment before bursting into giggles at the Sun Guardian's expense. As they laid together, sprawled on their backs on Sakura's bed, the Card Mistress's smile slowly faded to one of nervous worry. "Ne, Mirror-san?"
"Yes, Mistress?" Mirror asked, turning her head so that she could look at Sakura's face.
"Do you think... it's really okay... for the girl to seek out the guy like that?" she asked.
"Why not? After all, he did tell her he was in love with her," Mirror reasoned.
"But... but what if he hadn't. Would it still be okay? To travel all that way to another country in order to tell him her feelings?"
Mirror sat up and looked down at the one she was bound to with eyes far older than her young appearance. "Does the Mistress desire to seek out the Li Clan's heir as the princess in the story does her prince?"
To this, Sakura could only blush as she held the script tightly to her chest as if it could hide her heart behind it. Neither card nor girl noticed that as if by synchronization, the nameless card which sat atop Sakura's deck on her table began to glow with a golden light, as each was too busy focusing on each other and the conversation at hand.
She stood atop the tallest tower within all of Tomoeda, a clock tower stationed within the Tomoeda Amusement Park which had been made tall enough to be seen anywhere within the park grounds. As such, from this vantage point this little forgotten child could survey the whole of the city. From here, she would be able to watch that thief who stole her friends. From here, she would be able to extract her revenge.
It was dark. And not just the pseudo-dark of the night with the moon and the streetlamps giving off residual light, but true darkness that made her think for a moment that she had been captured once more in Dark's pocket reality. She could see herself standing there in some dress that she had never warn before, she assumed it was a battle costume designed by Tomoyo, and she could see all twenty of her cards hanging around her, encircling her in a comfortable bubble of familiarity.
They needed her, and she existed for the sake of fulfilling their need. No one called for her, but that was alright, because she was still needed by them. But slowly, one by one, each of the cards faded and finally vanished. And she was alone in this place, this dark and empty world, where fear and loneliness crept in upon her like some unknown predator that she could not escape.
"Card-san!" she called out into the endless void of blackness, "Yue-san! Kero-chan?"
She looked around, she heard no answering call, sensed no presence beyond her own. "Light-san? Mirror-san? Jump? Fly? Windy?" Nothing. No response, no answering hum of power. She was alone, and they weren't going to come back for her.
"Don't cry," she told herself, "Syaoran-kun always said very first thing: 'don't cry. Calm down and concentrate.' Concentrating isn't working, so... so I just have to think of something else."
She looked around once more at the blackness, an overwhelming sensation of loneliness and despair overtook her. "They're not here. No one is here, I'm all alone...," tears began to well at the corner of her eyes. "Iie, if they aren't here, then I'm just going to have to go look for them, I suppose."
With that in mind, she began walking. She kept calling to them each by name, both with magic and with her voice, but it was no use. They were gone, and they would not heed her voice any longer. Finally, alone and abandoned, the Card Mistress fell to her knees in despair, "Why?! Why, Card-san, why?! Why won't you answer my summons!?"
And then, just before she woke up, she heard a voice respond, "Because... you are not our Master anymore."
It had been a long day of rehearsals today, especially for Sakura. She had put in so much practice with Mirror the night before, but that dream had haunted her all through the day. She knew while she was in it that it was most likely a vision, but still she hadn't been able to shake her need to run back and check that her cards were still there between each scene of the play.
This is why she had been looking forward to coming to the new amusement park with Tomoyo all day. Hopefully it would help to put her mind at ease and let her forget the troubling dream for a while. However, to their dismay, a sign stood outside the front gates of the park. "It's still closed? Didn't the poster say it would be open yesterday?"
"You're right," Tomoyo agreed, looking sadly at the sign. Suddenly a flash of something hit Sakura's senses like an ice cube down the back of her shirt. She whirled around eyes wildly searching for the source of the disturbance, causing Tomoyo to become concerned. "Is something wrong?"
"I felt a presence..." she told the only school friend left who knew about her magic.
"A presence?" Tomoyo's hand instantly went into her bag to reach for her camera, a motion done as if by reflex alone as her face showed concern and worry rather than the starry eyes of her fan girl mode.
A second, stronger flash of the presence allowed Sakura to pinpoint the source as straight ahead of them. Wait, straight ahead was... "Inside the amusement park?" Flashes of her vision the night before filled her head as the Card Mistress began to run towards the source. She didn't even hear Tomoyo call her name as her mind was filled with one scary and confusing truth. I know this presence...! This presence is...
She rounded a corner and ran face-first into an employee. "Oi, kid! What are you doing here? You aren't supposed to be here, the park isn't open yet!" the man scolded.
"I'm sorry, but I have to... I need to...," Sakura desperately pleaded up at the man. But when the man didn't look like he was going to budge, she slumped her shoulders in defeat.
"Sakura-chan! Where did you... oh, there you are!" Tomoyo called, hurrying up to where Sakura stood before the man. "Ano... we're very sorry about barging in like this. We'll go now," Tomoyo insisted, bowing to the man before escorting Sakura out of the park.
It wasn't until they were a few blocks away from the park that Tomoyo spoke again, "So what was that about a presence, anyway?"
"I know it sounds crazy, but I felt the presence of a Clow Card," Sakura explained.
"Clow Card? But didn't you capture all of those already? I thought that was what the Final Judgement was all about...," Tomoyo asked, confused.
"I know, and what's weirder is that it was only there for a minute before disappearing...," Sakura informed, shaking her head in defeat.
"Maybe... you made a mistake? After all, it's been a long time since you last sensed a Clow Card," Tomoyo suggested. At the disheartened noise Sakura responded with, Tomoyo suggested, "let's talk to Kero-chan about this. He may know something that we don't."
"I have dinner duty tonight," Sakura informed as she climbed the front steps to her house, "would you like to stay over?"
"May I?" Tomoyo asked.
"Nn. I don't mind. Yukito-san is probably going to follow Onii-chan home from work again, too, so one extra person isn't too much effort. Does pasta sound alright?" the brunette enquired.
"I would love some pasta!" Tomoyo assured.
"Kay," Sakura said with a smile, leading her friend inside. "I'll make some tea for you while you're waiting. Otou-san baked a cake, too, so you can have some with the tea."
"Thank you," Tomoyo replied, sitting down comfortably on the sofa in the living room. To pass the time while she was waiting, she pulled her sketch book from her bag and continued designing costumes for her classmates.
For Sakura's, she had an image in mind already, and she knew the prince had to have something worthy of standing in the spotlight alongside her precious cousin. The extras were easy enough to design for, all she had to do was pull them out of books. Naoko didn't have an acting part, as she was the director and playwright, but Rika and Chiharu would be on stage a lot and needed designs that not only suited their position as Sakura's support, but also their individual characters.
As it stood, she had a rough sketch of the general shape and design to each of their dresses, but the fine details were yet to be worked out, which is what she was attempting at the moment to complete. Her work was interrupted when Sakura came back in a minute later with the tea tray. "Sorry to keep you waiting. What's that you've got there?"
"It's fine," Tomoyo responded politely, "this is just my costume sketch book. I'm trying to finish the designs for Rika-chan and Chiharu-chan's dresses."
"Oh, can I see?" Sakura asked, placing down the tea tray.
"Certainly," Tomoyo responded, handing over the book. "You take one sugar in your tea, right?"
"It's okay, I'll take care of it!" Sakura insisted to her friend.
"It's alright, I like being able to help out like this. I'm never allowed to serve other people at home," Tomoyo explained, "let me take care of you. It really is what I want to do."
"Well, I suppose...," Sakura consented. She turned her attention to the book she was holding instead and flipped through a few pages of sketches. "I like the neckline on this one for Rika-chan, it looks very lady-like and would suit her mature appearance nicely."
"Yes, but it doesn't really suit Chiharu-chan,"
"Do they need to have the same cut?"
"I suppose not, but-"
"I smell cake!" Kero interrupted as he burst into the living room.
"K-Kero-chan!" Sakura exclaimed.
"Were you trying to eat cake and keep it a secret?" he accused his Mistress.
"I-it wasn't a secret!" Sakura insisted nervously.
"You didn't call me!" Kero reprimanded.
"We were just about to," Tomoyo interjected, "there was something strange today that we needed to talk to you about."
"Eh? Something strange? Like what?" Kero asked, floating down to stand on the table where he looked between the two plates of cake. "If you weren't keeping it a secret, why are their only two servings here?" he demanded.
"I-I need to go start dinner, you keep Tomoyo-chan company and talk to her while I do!" and with that, Sakura scurried back out of the room.
Kero landed once more and began critically inspecting the pieces of cake. "So what was it you wanted to ask, anyway?"
Taking her cue from the Sun Guardian, Tomoyo began telling her tale. "Well, on the way home today, Sakura-chan said she felt a magical presence at the amusement park."
"Uhuh..." Kero muttered, only half listening. "Right, this is the bigger one!" he announced, taking one of the pieces of cake and sitting down to start eating.
"The strange part was that she said that it was the presence of a Clow Card. Do you know what that may be about?" she asked, choosing to politely ignore Kero's greedy behaviour towards the guest.
"A Clow Card...?" Kero asked, suddenly becoming serious, "That shouldn't be possible."
"I know, there were only 19, weren't there? So then what was Sakura-chan feeling?" Tomoyo questioned. "She even said it went away so she couldn't feel it any more after a few minutes."
"That is strange. I couldn't say what she felt as I wasn't there and didn't feel anything from her room. But one thing is for sure: if it has the power to hide it's presence like that, then it's powerful enough to be trouble."
Tomoyo looked at Kero with sparkling eyes and clasped her hands beneath her chi, "You mean... the continued adventures of Sakura-chan as a beautiful and charming magical girl?"
"That's right! More amazing action shots of yours truly saving the day!" Kero cheered.
"A whole new season, with a whole new enemy, and all new costumes! And I'll be there to film it all..."
And Sakura, who was watching them from the door to the dining room, could only laugh nervously and quietly say, "Hoe..."
Dinner had been comfortable enough with Kero and Tomoyo off on their thread about her supposed "third season", whatever that was supposed to mean. As predicted, Yukito had followed Touya home, and after Yue had been called out and informed of what was going on, had insisted that they take the situation more seriously and actually investigate the disturbance. Which was what lead to Sakura, her Guardians, and Tomoyo and Touya standing at the gate of the amusement park after darkness had fallen.
"I'm not feeling anything," Cerberus insisted.
"Neither am I. Where did you say the presence originated from?" Yue asked.
"Straight ahead somewhere, I didn't really have time to find out exactly before it disappeared," Sakura explained.
"Straight ahead would be in line with that clock tower," Touya pointed out.
"If we search the area, we may be able to locate residual traces of the magic which would let us know what it is we're dealing with," Yue explained.
With no other leads at the moment, Sakura and her Guardians began a thorough combing of the area that Sakura had indicated, yet after two whole hours of searching they still didn't turn up any clues. Finally, it was Touya who insisted they call it a night, "It's well past Sakura's bedtime," he insisted to Yue, who was less than keen about the idea of leaving an unknown potential enemy loose in his Mistress's town, "and Daidouji-chan needs to get home, too. I'm sure her mother is worried about her."
"But we still are as empty handed as when we started," Yue argued, cold eyes burning holes into Touya.
"Gomen ne, Yue-san. I didn't mean to waste everyone's time like this...," Sakura insisted.
The change was instantaneous as Yue turned and knelt before his Mistress. Taking her hands in his, his face became gentle as it was for no one else. "It's not your fault," Yue insisted, "your orders, Mistress?"
Sakura looked to her brother and friend briefly before turning back to her devoted Guardian. "It's okay, Yue-san. They didn't do anything this afternoon when I felt them initially, so I doubt they are an immediate threat. We'll just have to keep our eyes open, that's all."
"Yes, Mistress."
She sat within her clock tower, inside the bubble that stole away all traces of her existence and kept her separated from the rest of the world. She sat there and remembered the thief who had come twice now to search her out. The determined sense of Master's Moon Guardian on the hunt for an enemy, taking orders like all the others from this little thief. That was enough to know that the thief intended to fight over what had been stolen, rather than return them peacefully as one who had made an honest mistake would do.
That left only one option: this forgotten child would just have to take it all back by force.
And within the Kinomoto residence, a card answered her call to come home.
The sun was bright and warm once again, and while the search from the previous night had kept Sakura from getting quite enough sleep, at least no dreams had plagued her. She opened the door to her classroom, 5-2, to find it already full of students. "Ohayo! Sorry, am I late again?"
"You made it just in time," Chiharu told her with a grin.
"I'm glad," Sakura admitted as she piled her bag and hat over with everyone else's.
To the side, Tomoyo was talking to Naoko, "I really like this design, but to use that theme we would need another two ladies in waiting..."
"Hmm... I see what you mean. But the only way to do it without completely re-writing large sections would be to cut the lines of the other two ladies in waiting and work it in that way...," Naoko pondered.
"There's less than a week, though. Do you think it would be okay?"Tomoyo asked.
"Ne, Rika-chan, Chiharu-chan, would you mind if I cut a few of your lines and gave them to some new characters?" Naoko asked.
"No, it's fine with me," Rika replied.
"I don't mind, either. Less for me to have to remember!" Chiharu agreed.
"Alright. Sakura-chan, Yamazaki-kun, you two start going through your scenes. Pick ones you're having trouble with and work through them. I'm going to see if I can't write in these new characters," Naoko announced, taking her script and red pen and getting to work over in the corner.
They worked like that for a little over an hour before Naoko announced that she wanted the girls who didn't have parts yet to try reading through a handful of lines each. After she had seen them all and made her choice, the rest of the day was dedicated to playing the scenes that involved them so everyone knew how to work the new characters in. The girls chosen for the parts were the tomboyish Tachibana Rei and the quiet Sato Hikari, and while each only had about a dozen lines throughout the whole of the play, they would be needed on stage for a good number of scenes as Sakura's personal attendants.
"We should keep working on our lines," Chiharu announced as she was packing up to go home along with everyone else. "Make sure we know our cues and don't mess any of them up, right Rika-chan?"
"Shall we go somewhere and work on them, then?" Rika asked.
"Definitely. Sato-san and Tachibana-san, too," Chiharu insisted.
"But where would we go?" Tachibana asked.
"If you like, I found a nice little cafe the other day that sells wonderful juice," Sakura piped into their conversation.
"That works for me," Chiharu agreed.
"May I come along as well?" Tomoyo asked.
"Certainly," Rika insisted, "Naoko-chan, will you be joining us as well?"
"Hmm? No, it's okay, I'm going to go home and type up the changes to the script so that everyone has their lines," Naoko informed them.
"Alright, see you tomorrow!" the girls called as the six of them turned and started following Sakura.
They walked for a little ways in silence before conversation struck up once more. "I can't wait for this play to begin," Tachibana announced as they walked together along the sidewalk.
"I can," Sakura insisted, "the idea of having to act in front of so many people makes me nervous!"
"But Sakura-chan, you're the princess! You can't be nervous!" Chiharu scolded, half-jokingly.
"But then again, the princess is kind of dense...," Tachibana pointed out.
"Hoe?"
"Tachibana-san, you aren't talking about our Sakura-chan, are you?" Rika asked.
"No, no. I mean the real princess. From the story. And call me Rei, it makes me feel left out with you all using first names and then calling me by my family name."
"Sato-san, too, then?" Sakura asked the black haired girl.
"Well, I-I suppose...," she agreed while blushing shyly.
"But anyway, back to the point: she was actually asked out! She should reply right away, on the spot," Rei insisted.
"You need to consider timing and environment," Chiharu insisted.
"Of course," Rei agreed, "but he'd want a reply soon, right?"
"Y-yeah...," Sakura agreed, her cheeks turning pink at the thought of the dreaded love confession scene.
"It's quite a task, but a girl must have some courage!" Rei continued to insist, "Ugh, so hot. How much farther to the cafe?"
"Not far, we should go up this hill and turn at the mailbox," Sakura instructed, before running on ahead.
"Hey, wait, Sakura-chan!" Chiharu called after her as the other five girls had no choice but to run as well.
When Sakura got to the intersection she desired, however, she found no mailbox to be seen. "Hoe?"
"Jeez, it's hot out! Don't run like that!" Chiharu scolded as she caught up, panting and sweating a little due to exerting herself in the heat.
"Is something the matter?" Tomoyo asked, noticing how Sakura was looking around.
"Isn't there a mailbox somewhere around here?" the Card Mistress asked the others in confusion.
"I don't know, I don't usually travel along this road," Tomoyo admitted.
"Maybe they took it away?" Hikari suggested.
"Maybe..." Sakura consented.
"This is the way, right?" Rika asked, pointing down the street that Sakura had stopped by.
"Y-yeah," Sakura confirmed uneasily.
"It's hot, so let's hurry," Rei insisted, before leading everyone into a light jog towards the indicated direction.
Unnoticed by the six preteen girls was the remaining stump close to the ground where a mailbox had once stood. The clean cut had a vaguely spherical shape to it as if a sweeping blade had sliced the surface taking the mailbox clean off without leaving any trace behind that it had ever been there to begin with.
They had stayed for quite some time at the little cafe that afternoon. At first they had been good and worked on their lines like they had said they would, but eventually they had stopped and started to get to know each other as neither Rei nor Hikari hung out with them at all. Finally, the girls decided to part ways and Sakura made it home just as dusk was falling over the town.
Within her room, Kero was playing one of the demo games that Tomoyo had given him on her game system. "Tadaima!" Sakura greeted as she came in.
"Okaeri," Kero responded without even looking over his shoulder at her.
"You've been playing games all day again?" Sakura accused as she put her bag and hat down on her desk.
Kero didn't answer at first, only continued playing, until a moment later the game announced the end of the race with a cry of "Goal!"
Kero began jumping around cheering at his victory, "Yeah! First place! A course record! Yay! Hooray, hooray! I'll show him with this one!" he cried, before coming over to Sakura. "Hey, Sakura, you going to write a letter to Eriol in England?"
"A letter?" she quoted.
"Yeah!" Kero insisted, remaining excited.
"That's true. I can ask him about what happened at the amusement park yesterday," the Card Mistress realized.
"Then can you send my letter, too? I wanna tell Suppi about my record time!" Kero begged.
"Suppi..." Sakura tested the unfamiliar name, "you mean Spinel-san?"
"Yeah!"
This fact brought a smile to Sakura's face. "You really get along well with Eriol-kun's black cat!"
"No, no, we don't get along...," Kero denied, "We're rivals!"
Sakura only gave him a blank look as he demonstrated his fiery passion and determination. "Hoe?"
"That damn Suppi! This time I'm going to win!" Kero insisted, throwing shadow-boxing punches mid-air and posing to show off the muscles that were simply non-existent in his sealed form. "You can't beat the record I got oh so easily!"
And so, a few hours later, after she had eaten dinner and spent more time working on her lines, Sakura laid up in bed writing to her father's other half all the way over in London, England. Beside her, on her pillow, Kero slept curled around his own bragging letter to his supposed rival, mumbling in his sleep every now and then about one thing or another involving his dark counterpart, and occasionally, Yue as well. Whenever he would, she would smile down at him affectionately and occasionally reach over and rub the fuzz that covered his head.
Eriol-kun,
How are you doing? It's a very hot every day over here. As I wrote in my last letter, I'm busy every day preparing for the Nadeshiko Festival. About my role in the play, you were right. I ended up with the role of the princess. Somehow, I'm very nervous about it. I hope I can perform well.
Today I made two new friends. Some of the girls who were in our class have been made handmaidens in the play and we spent time after practice getting to know each other. Their names are Tachibana Rei-chan and Sato Hikari-chan. We got along alright; I hope we can go on being friends in the upcoming term as well.
That's right; they're getting ready to open an amusement park over by where your house used to be. But something really strange happened when Tomoyo-chan and I went to check it out yesterday. I know that it sounds very strange, but I thought I felt the presence of a Clow Card. That shouldn't be because I already captured and changed all the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards. Do you know what might be going on?
On other news, I got a letter from Syaoran-kun, apparently things are going well in Hong Kong. Maybe I'll be able to see him again soon.
Sakura reached over to her deck that was laying on her nightstand and lifted her nameless card from it. "Syaoran-kun..." she murmured as she looked longingly at the card. Her eyes grew heavy and she laid her head down, only for a minute, and never lifted it off her pillow again as she slept through another card dashing away from her deck.
The rest of the week whizzed by in a blur of rehearsals and preparation. Details were hammered out in their acting, and Sakura perfected her lines with much help from Mirror and Tomoyo. The costumes were completed, the stage props were constructed, and all that was left was the performance scheduled for the following night. Having perfected her acting as much as possible, she and Tomoyo decided to take the afternoon off for once.
Kero, having heard their plan the night before to go for sweets together after practice, had stowed away in her bag that morning and hadn't been discovered until she had been outside of her school building when it was much too late to return him. So now he was being carried in Tomoyo's handbag as her and Sakura walked along the street.
"I wonder what this new enemy will be after," Tomoyo mused. "And what upgrades Sakura-chan will get to combat them?"
"Upgrades? What is there to upgrade beyond what she has right now? The Sakura Cards, and not to mention being partnered with the most awesome Sun Guardian ever to exist!" Kero argued.
"It's a new season, there are always upgrades in new seasons," Tomoyo reasoned.
"Has to be? Like a law or something? Huh, well if that's the case, maybe Sakura'll get an upgrade for Yue..." Kero mused.
"Or she could get a special new wand, or maybe new cards, or maybe that card that Sakura-chan made will have some super awesome special ability!" Tomoyo gushed. "Oh, I can't wait!"
Sakura walked along behind her friend and Guardian, quite accustomed to being talked about like this by them, though still blushing slightly at their topic. "Well, if it's about that card, first Sakura will have to call out its name before she can use it."
"But what should she call? It doesn't have anything written where the name goes," Tomoyo reminded.
"That's why she needs to name it," Kero reasoned.
"I can't!" Sakura suddenly announced, "How can I name it when I don't have any idea what it does?!"
"You're its creator, it's your job to define it," the Sun Guardian insisted.
"The other cards, they let themselves out and that's how I learned what they did. Can't this card just do the same?" Sakura pleaded hopelessly.
"It won't work. You already wrote your name on it. A card that's been claimed won't unseal itself...," Kero informed.
"Then it's hopeless..." Sakura insisted, tears of frustration building up in the corner of her eyes. Suddenly something large, orange, and yellow swished through her view of Tomoyo and Kero. "HOE!?"
All three turned to look quickly at the thing intruding on their conversation to see a giant winged rabbit holding a huge flower. "USHAGI?!" Kero cried out in surprise.
Then a voice, all too familiar, floated up from the alley the thing had just come out of. "Don't do that, To-ya!"
"Hoe? Yukito-san?" Sakura asked in confusion as the man himself stepped out to the thing's side. The giant rabbit then proceeded to pull its own head off, revealing that it was a suit with none other than Kinomoto Touya standing inside of it. "Onii-chan! You surprised me!"
"Because you were standing there dazed and looking stupid," Touya reasoned, earning a glare in response.
"Gomen, Sakura-chan, Tomoyo-chan, Kero-chan, To-ya and me were just getting off our shift, we were going to go to the new amusement park after work, would you like to come?" Yukito offered the trio.
"Really? Yay!" Sakura cheered.
"We should get changed out of our school uniforms first," Tomoyo stated.
"Alright, then we'll meet at the parlour for ice cream first! I'm starving!" Yukito suggested.
"Ice cream? Yahoo!" Kero cheered, throwing his little paws up into the air in celebration.
"Right! If Yukito-san is hungry, then we best hurry home and change quickly! See you soon!" Sakura stated as they started down the street towards their homes.
"Alright, see you soon!" Yukito called after them with a smile and a wave.
"Oi, what's the idea inviting the Kaijuu and her friends?" Touya sulked, pouting and glaring at his best friend and boyfriend.
"Oh have patience, To-ya!" Yukito scolded, "It's only for the day, and besides, you were being rude to them."
The two young girls hurried through the park towards their homes in order to not make the men treating them wait too long. Tomoyo clung her handbag to her chest as she ran because Kero made such a fuss about how Sakura always swings him around until he's dizzy. Though it was hot out, they had the exuberant energy of children still and so a little mid-day run wasn't in danger of wiping them out.
It was mid-step that she felt it. Something was wrong, something with her cards was terribly wrong. "Hoe?" She stopped running and slipped her bag from her shoulder, looking inside. Her deck was alight, glowing a beautiful soft blue, save for her one nameless card that radiated a bold golden light.
"What's wrong?" Tomoyo asked, noticing that Sakura had stopped.
"The cards, they're acting funny..." Sakura informed.
Kero lifted himself from Tomoyo's handbag and flew over to peer in the bag as well. "What is it?"
"Hoe? Where is Erase-san and Glow-san?" Sakura demanded as she physically reached in and pulled her deck out to flip through the cards one by one and ensure that yes, indeed, they were missing.
This observation caused Kero to absolutely flip. "WHAT!?"
Before Sakura could reply, however, Tomoyo's voice reached the pair in a startled cry that got both hurrying over to her side. What Sakura found there was not Tomoyo in trouble like she had feared, but rather, "The bridge... is gone...?"
Clean cut, like some curved blade had sliced it away, the bridge was indeed missing. "Could it be under construction?" Kero suggested.
"But there were no signs warning us about this..." Tomoyo reasoned.
"Then why?" Kero's hanging question was one for which no answer was available.
Some time later, after the girls had finally made it to the parlour, they sat around an outdoor table, removed from the others, and talked. "What? The bridge was missing?" Yukito asked in surprise.
"Yeah, the caretaker of the park came by and was really surprised!" Sakura recounted the tale.
"My, what a strange thing to have happen..." Yukito pondered in a bemused tone of voice.
"That English gaki's not here any more, and all the Clow Cards have been turned into Sakura Cards. That leaves only that strange presence you felt before at the amusement park as the cause..." Touya reasoned out.
"You're right about that, but..." Sakura agreed.
"What is it, Sakura-chan?" Yukito prompted.
"Well, Kero-chan stayed home to look and make sure, but... I could have sworn I had them all this morning! But when I felt something strange and went to look in my bag on the way home, Glow-san and Erase-san were missing..." the Card Mistress confessed.
"What?!" Touya demanded incredulously.
"That is troubling..." Yukito, and more so Yue within him, fretted. "Anyway, in case something does happen, you should keep the Sakura Cards with you at all times, and your cell phone too. If anything comes up, I want you to call me, no matter what time, and Yue will be there shortly, alright?"
Sakura nodded obediently, "Yes."
"Anyway, there's no point in worrying over it further at the moment. Shall we get going?" Touya questioned. Getting a round of confirmations from the other three present, they all gathered their things and headed out.
The Tomoeda Amusement Park, now that it was properly open to the public, was bustling with activity. Parents escorting children, lovers attending dates, and friends just looking for somewhere to hang out filled the walkways and the rides, lineups at more popular rides and at food stands, and every single one of them smiling. In the background, the clock tower chimed its afternoon bells across the grounds in clear tones.
Clasping hands, the young girls ran forward into the excitement with the giggles of innocent youth. The main attraction at the entrance was the whale shaped fountain around which was situated a number of colourfully painted buildings and pavilions. With excited eyes, the two preteens scanned the visible rides in order to decide what they wanted to go on first. It didn't take long for one ride, snaking in and out of view, to become appealing to the young Card Mistress.
"Onii-chan! Yukito-san! I want to ride the roller coaster!" Sakura insisted, pointing at the ride in the distance.
Touya groaned and rolled his eyes, but Yukito smiled and said "Sure, that sounds like fun!"
The lineup was long, as the roller coaster was one of the more popular attractions at the park. Touya wouldn't stop complaining about what a waste it was to stand in line for twenty minutes just to go on a five minute ride. Yukito would just laugh at him about this and insist something along the lines of anticipation and excitement increasing the enjoyment once the moment was at hand. This would manage to shut Touya up for a few minutes before he would start in again. Neither girl really understood what it was Yukito was saying, but they supposed Touya would quiet down because his boyfriend was telling him to.
Though the ride was short, it was also exhilarating. The wind rushing past at such speeds was something that Yukito had only ever achieved within his faintest dreams. The feeling of the endless open sky, of a freedom his imprisoned heart could only dream of. As the ride came to an end and the rushing wind in his short grey hair died away, the Moon Guardian turned his attention to the young man sitting next to him and he had to choke back on a laugh.
Beside him, Touya's eyes spun dizzily, indicating the reason he had been so against the ride in the first place. Yukito's amusement of the situation only increased when he got out and found his Mistress in a similar state. "Ah, here..." Yukito said, as he stepped under Touya's arm to hold him steady. "Do you mind helping Sakura-chan, Tomoyo-chan?"
"Not at all!" Tomoyo responded, taking Sakura's arm and leading her after Yukito. They sat the siblings down on a bench not far away where they could rest until their worlds stopped spinning. "Like brother, like sister..." Tomoyo mused lovingly as she watched Sakura.
"Indeed," Yukito agreed, giving a similar look to Touya, "I'm going to get them something to make them feel better. You wait here, alright?"
"Okay," Tomoyo responded with a nod.
Yukito wandered off in the direction of the nearest food stand, causing Tomoyo to chuckle once more. By the time he returned a few minutes later, Sakura was up and bouncing around happily with Tomoyo while Touya was sitting looking a little groggy still. When he spotted the tray piled with food and four drinks, he rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"Food is your answer to everything," Touya accused.
"Well, not everything," Yukito responded cryptically, "I just thought a little food would make you feel better!"
"You mean you figured I'd refuse it so that you could eat it all," Touya corrected.
"Onii-chan!" Sakura interjected on Yukito's behalf, "don't go picking on Yukito-san! You'll hurt his feelings and make him cry!"
Touya began grumbling about his little sister while Yukito, having inhaled much of the food already, decided now would be a good time to change the subject. "Shall we be going to the next ride soon? Something gentler this time for To-ya's sake."
"Let's go on the merry-go-round!" Sakura suggested.
"The horses are so pretty!" Tomoyo agreed.
Smiling at the one whom he could never deny anything, Yukito gave a nod. "Alright, merry-go-round it is." Standing up with the tray of food, each of the girls and Touya only having soft drinks, they began walking towards the next selected ride. Looking out of the corner of his eye at Touya, Yukito smiled shyly and suggested, "You know, if you're still feeling dizzy you could use my shoulders to steady yourself..."
Touya's cheeks reddened at the suggestion and quickly turned away. "I'm fine."
The line to the merry-go-round was much shorter than the roller coaster had been, filled mainly by adults who were accompanying children. Most children were sent on by themselves while parents stood on the sidelines and watched; however, when Touya attempted to do the same, Sakura began making a dreadful fuss.
"You come on too! I want to ride the merry-go-round with Yukito-san!" she insisted.
"No. It's a kiddie ride," Touya argued back.
"Yukito-san! You want to come on, don't you?" Sakura pleaded.
Yukito smiled at both the girls before turning his grin onto his boyfriend, "Oh, come on To-ya. What's the harm in humouring your little sister once and a while?" then his grin turned taunting and teasing, a look that only Touya could extract from the usually sweet golden-eyed boy. "Don't you want to ride the pretty pony?" he asked, batting his eyelashes.
Touya glowered at the snarky comment, but let himself be pulled on by his teasing boyfriend anyway. The girls examined each horse as if checking thoroughbred race horses before placing a bid, but eventually settled for a pair of white ones decked out in flowers and bejewelled saddles. Under the pretence of keeping a close eye on the children, Yukito drug Touya to sit with him in an ornate carriage. As the girls laughed and played, urging their horses onward and making a fast game of how they were taking the carriage to a ball, Touya fought the blush that Yukito was enjoying all too much. He didn't know what it was about flustering him that Yukito adored so much, but every uncomfortable squirm or reddened cheek seemed to amuse his partner immensely.
After the merry-go-round, they rode the water slides, then the bumper cars before Yukito wanted to stop for food again. While he was eating, Sakura and Tomoyo went to watch the face painting and balloon shaping. "Onii-chan!" Sakura came running back over with a determined face, "We want balloon hats!"
"I am not paying for something that stupid," Touya countered in a monotone.
"But Onii-chan...!" Sakura began to counter, when she realized she really had nothing on her brother this time to counter with.
"I'll get some," Yukito offered, nipping the argument in the bud.
"Wai! Wai!" Sakura cheered, jumping up and down before running back over to the stall.
Sakura had blue cat ears and Tomoyo a big pink butterfly when the three came back, a suspicious smile gracing Yukito's lips once more. Touya sighed. "What did you do this time?"
Before he could react, Touya saw Yukito whip out something green from behind his back and plop it securely on Touya's head. Further, he pulled out a pair of orange bunny ears and set them on his own head. Dreading what he would find, Touya pulled the offending item from his hair and looked at it. "A crown?"
"Yep!" Yukito said, returning to his place beside Touya on the bench once more. "Seeing as Sakura-chan is a princess in her play, I figured it would be fitting." Touya rolled his eyes at Yukito's sense of humour and went to toss the offending piece of air-filled rubber aside. "No...!" Yukito whined at him, leaning across to grab the crown once more, "don't throw it away! I bought it for you..."
"Fine, fine...," Touya replied in defeat, knowing when an issue was a hopeless cause and put the crown reluctantly back on his head. "You know those girls are a bad influence on you. They feed you way too many ideas."
Yukito smiled a grin that indicated some hidden joke that only he could understand. Touya wearily eyed his friend, but didn't have to take long before the Moon Guardian cracked and started talking. "So, with Sakura-chan being a princess, what does that make To-ya?" he mused.
Touya just gave him a pointed look as he had no intention of playing along.
"Would you be a prince? You don't make a very charming one, especially not with that face, but Sakura-chan did say that she was taking us to a ball..."
Touya gave a smirk and rolled his eyes at Yukito's determination to play with him.
"Or if not a prince, maybe it would be a king?" he continued to muse to himself, "A grand and brave king, with a heart of hidden gold and a continence to command millions..."
"And where, pray tell, would you find these millions to be under my command?" Touya challenged, but despite his tone, his hard face had started to melt under Yukito's praise. He tried not to show how much he was enjoying the adoring eyes that scanned his face with a quiet sort of hunger buried deep within them.
"Oh, I don't know. Some far off place, an exotic land where a castle sits overlooking its subjects. In a grand hall lined with silken drapes of the deepest of blues to match To-ya-sama's eyes and a thick rug of a rich crimson adorning the floor. In a bejewelled throne with a blue satin seat sits To-ya-sama in his magnificent regal robes, so proud and powerful that none could question his absolute authority."
"Oh? Why somewhere far away?" Touya pestered.
"Because, then it doesn't matter that they adore you. You're still all mine here," Yukito informed him sagely.
"So you intend to send me away to that 'far off' and 'exotic' place all by myself, do you? And where will you be while I'm on this trip of mine?"
"Why, with you, of course. The humble and devoted servant of his majesty, kneeling at To-ya-sama's feet, eagerly awaiting orders to do whatever his majesty desires of me..." Yukito leaned in close, his eyes falling half shut, and said just above a whisper, "how shall I serve you, To-ya-sama?"
"Yuuukiii... Not in front of Sakura..." Touya scolded him, looking over Yukito's shoulder to where Tomoyo and Sakura had gotten up to play tag in the square.
Fighting down a blush at what Yukito's vivid scenario looked like, played out in his mind's eye, Touya couldn't make up his mind if such a scene was appealing to him or not. On the one hand, there was something definitely thrilling about the idea of Yukito kneeling before him like that, while on the other, it rang too loudly of Yue and his slave-bound relationship with Sakura. It worried him a little that Yukito may think he needed to enslave himself to the will of another like that in order to be loved.
After all, it wasn't love unless both sides desired and respected each other.
"Alright, alright!" Yukito laughed, pulling Touya to his feet and starting to walk towards the part of the park they hadn't yet visited, the girls automatically following suit. "Let's find the next ride."
They rode the wave swinger, and the teacups, the music express, the octopus, and the pirate ship as well before Sakura and Tomoyo began whispering conspiratorially between themselves.
"Alright, Kaijuu, what are you rug rats planning now?" Touya called forward to them.
"Oh, we're just deciding which ride we want to go on next..." Sakura replied a little too innocently. Touya raised an eyebrow. Realizing her act had failed, Sakura turned and took two bold steps forward, taking a deep breath, she pointed at a ride up ahead. "I want to go on THAT one!"
"The Ferris wheel?" Touya double checked, flushing slightly at the unspoken implications.
"Right!" Sakura cheered, turning back to them with a sugary smile. "Tomoyo-chan and I have things to discuss in private—girl things, you know—so Onii-chan and Yukito-san will have to ride alone together."
Touya tried a few times to open his mouth in protest, but couldn't seem to find his voice to do so. Honestly, part of him wanted to ride the Ferris wheel with his boyfriend, like normal couples do, but he was still nervous about it. It wasn't his own self that concerned him, people could say whatever they felt like about him and he didn't care, but Yukito was already so sensitive about his humanity that the last thing he wanted was to cause his boyfriend distress simply by being with him.
And so it was that the four marched onwards to the Ferris wheel. The attendant looked sympathetic when the girls made such a fuss on how they had to ride the car alone together and the boys had to ride in the next car together as well. He let them have their way and before Touya knew it, he was sitting opposite the Moon Guardian in the rising car.
It took the mischievous Yukito no more than a minute to announce, "We're not in front of Sakura-chan, now..."
"She's only in the next car over. She could still see..." Touya insisted, shifting uneasily.
"You have such a sister complex," Yukito told him in a dead-pan. "What's wrong? She knows about us, she's okay with us. So why do we have to hide, even in front of Sakura-chan and Tomoyo-chan?" the Moon Guardian pressed. "Did you change your mind about being with me, or something?"
"Don't think that! Don't ever think that. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me," Touya insisted, "it's just..."
"Just what?" Yukito forced, leaning over to prevent Touya from breaking eye contact and ending the conversation.
Touya opened his mouth to answer, and then closed it with a heavy sigh as he put his thoughts in order so as not to hurt his beautiful friend. When he had figured out what he wanted to say and how, he opened his mouth once again. "She's my baby sister... For so many years, ever since mom died and dad had to step up how much he was working to make ends meet, it was left up to me to take care of Sakura. I know she's getting older and all, but I've spent so long looking out for her that it's hard to stop now that she doesn't need it any more.
"And she looks up to me, follows me around and tries to copy things I do. I don't want to be a bad role model for her by having her try to copy me doing things she's not ready for just yet. I love you. Don't doubt that I love you, but as long as she needs me I can't just stop being her big brother, you know?"
Touya's eyes were so pleading with Yukito for understanding that he couldn't even bring himself to make a jibe at Touya about his sibling relationship and who really needed whom the most. So instead he just smiled adoringly at his beloved and came to sit beside the dark haired man. "I'm so lucky..." he finally bragged, "My boyfriend is the sweetest, most secretly caring annoying big brother in the universe."
"Yuki..." Touya warned, catching the playful hint to his friend's words even through the admiration and love that resounded throughout.
Putting on his best innocent face, Yukito turned to face his boyfriend and asked, "When we're above them, they can't see us, right? So then can I be as naughty as I please?"
Touya rolled his eyes in exasperation, "I don't think the ride lasts long enough for that. But sure, we can be a little naughty once we're above them." Yukito sniggered now that Touya was playing back, and settled for resting his head against Touya's shoulder and waiting for the ride to move around so they could have a few moments of greater intimacy before returning to proper public behaviour.
In the next compartment over, Sakura and Tomoyo spied on the couple, cooing at the success of their mission. "Awa, they're cuddling together! That's so sweet...!" Tomoyo gushed.
Turning around to sit down proper, now that their plan had come to fruition, Sakura nodded in agreement. "I know, I'm really happy for Yukito-san! He's with the one he loves, and that person loves him back, even if that person is Onii-chan."
"Really, Sakura-chan, is it so hard for you to see Touya-san's good sides?" Tomoyo asked, returning to her seat across the way and training her camera back on her bouncing cousin once more.
"No, Onii-chan is really great, even if he does get on my nerves some times. It's just Yukito-san is so wonderful; he could have absolutely anyone he wants. It's just the person he wants is his best friend, Onii-chan, and I don't really get it. It would be like me and you falling in love..."
Tomoyo smiled a sad little smile at this, "Yes, the heart is a mysterious thing. Why do people fall in love with who they do? Why do people chase hopeless dreams? Who can really say what the answer to that is? Sometimes the only answer to be had is that it just is."
"You're so deep, Tomoyo-chan. You and Rika-chan... I don't think I'll ever be as grown up as you two," Sakura complimented.
Tomoyo nodded in acknowledgement and thanks, but before she had managed to get anything out, Sakura had jumped to her feet and was staring off into the distance. "What is it?" Tomoyo asked.
"This presence..." Sakura murmured before out of her pocket zoomed a card in a flash of light. Straight through the door, it dashed away from them of its own accord. Sakura pressed herself against the door of the compartment, calling out after it in a horrified tone without thinking. "Maze-san!"
Agonizing minutes passed as tears of fear and desperation threatened to drown Sakura as she was held captive here away from her dear friend. Finally the door to the car opened and Sakura was off with all the speed her small legs could muster. She knew without looking that Yue, still barely maintaining his human disguise, and their two non-magical companions were right behind her, following as quickly as they could.
Running right into the rope barring the way to the still closed House of Mirrors, Sakura took only a moment to lift the rope up so that her and Tomoyo could dart beneath it. Not thirty seconds later, Yukito and Touya vaulted over the same rope and came up to where Sakura was standing at the first fork, attempting to guess which path would take her to the source of the feeling the fastest. This presence... it can't be...
"I feel the presence from here..." Yukito informed, or rather Yue making use of Yukito's body.
Sakura examined the direction that Yue had indicated before nodding, "Yeah, let's go."
With the two magical beings leading the way, Yue in his true form and Sakura with her staff held aloft, the quartet made their way slowly through the hallways, running into dead ends and having to backtrack from time to time. The location was playing havoc with their senses, surely a ploy planned out by their attacker.
As they came to another bend in the mirrored maze, Sakura turned her attention momentarily to the silver haired angel. "Yue-san, this feeling really is..."
"Yes, there is no doubt about it. This is Clow's presence," Yue confirmed stiffly, as if the very confirmation brought him great pain and effort.
"Damn it, what's that bastard's intention, playing with us like this... I thought he went back to England!" Touya exploded, as much for the trouble Sakura has to deal with as the pain that Yue—and Yukito by extension—would undergo in having to face his old Master once more on the battlefield.
"I don't understand!" Sakura exclaimed, starting to feel overwhelmed by it all.
"Could Hiiragizawa-kun be the one who took the cards?" Tomoyo suggested reasonably.
"No, if Clow had wanted the cards for himself, he would have called them to him when he came to Japan," Yue reasoned, agitated at the situation he simply could not understand. "Why go through the trouble of finding a new Mistress, and even teaching her to wrestle control away from himself, in order to merely take them away again?"
Without warning, or any obvious prompting to her companions, Sakura suddenly started with a small gasp, spinning off towards a direction they hadn't tried yet. "That's..." was all she got out, before she began running towards the image reflected in the mirror ahead.
A girl, no older in appearance than Sakura herself, with long hair that fell in waves down to the floor. Her dress was made of pale, washed out blue silk and lace, with a white overcoat on above it. From her head sprouted two large white wings, and her face was a mask of misery and longing.
They chased the image through a series of hallways for a good five minutes, twisting around so many times that Sakura was sure they were all thoroughly lost. At last, they reached a dead end, the girl standing resolutely in front of them, however their own reflections stood behind her and she inside of the mirror.
Sakura stepped up, and carefully tapped the mirror with her staff, the image of her staff head going right through the girl as if she were some opaque ghost. The strange girl looked down and watched the action, before returning her gaze to Sakura with a sudden determination alight in her sad eyes.
"Who are you?" Yue demanded, sweeping Sakura and the non-magical pair behind himself with one large wing in case the stranger decided to attack. "Why do you feel like Clow?"
"How do we reach her?" Sakura wondered, looking at her from around Yue's wing.
"It can't be..." Touya marvelled.
"Give them back," the girl ordered. "My friends..." Shadow suddenly glowed a radiant blue as it removed itself from Sakura's card case and flew through the mirror to float before the girl. It spun where it hovered until it finally came to a stop and faded into nothingness.
Now determined to deal with this obvious threat, Sakura withdrew Wood from her deck and set it before herself. "WOOD!" she cried, and a tangle of vines burst from the card and shot towards the mirror. However, instead of penetrating or breaking the mirror, they bounced off for a moment, rickashaying back towards Sakura.
Seeing this, Touya dove, knocking both girls beneath himself for protection. Therefore, it was only out of the corner of her eye that Sakura saw Wood return itself to its card and slip after Shadow into the mirror. "Ah!" Sakura cried, desperately trying to reach out and grasp her beloved card despite it already being on the other side of the mirror.
Yue pulled back on his magic missile, prepared to let loose a barrage of attacks, but before he got his chance, the girl and the stolen cards vanished without a trace. "She's gone..." Sakura whispered, putting her hand to the now normal, empty mirror.
"Yes, the presence is gone as well..." Yue confirmed, scanning the area for any trace of where the assailant may have gone. Finding none, they had no choice but to give up and go home.
The walk home had been a quiet and oppressing affair, in which Sakura had guessed the fate of Glow and Erase before Kero had even announced his failure to find either of them anywhere in the upturned house. Rather than be upset at the mess when he returned from work, Fujitaka had helped Kero to move furniture around and search the house from top to bottom once he had been told what was going on.
Though Fujitaka had no memories of his life as Clow Reed, the cards and Guardians had remained imbedded in his mind somehow as important things that he had to take care of as he would his own two children, therefore the knowledge that two of them had gotten lost left him ill at ease and determined to find them back again. When they entered to find Fujitaka and Kero in the living room, Kero was the first to relay how the hours apart from each other had been spent, and then Sakura told her side of the story.
"What?! The cards were stolen from you!? By who? Yue, how could you let this happen!?" Kero blew up, partially overreacting.
"It was a small girl with long hair..." Sakura attempted to describe.
"A girl?!" Kero mimicked incredulously.
Sakura curled in on herself in shame and sorrow as she attempted to find the words to describe the impossible. "But that presence was... It couldn't be...," she was interrupted by the ringing of her cellphone and moved to go answer it.
"Who could it be, during an emergency like this?" Kero complained, half wanting to tell Sakura to just ignore it and let it ring.
"Yes, Sakura here," she said as she held the phone to her ear.
The voice on the other side was calm, cool, and so refreshingly, mind-bogglingly familiar that it almost made Sakura cry to just hear it. /It's been a while, Sakura-san./
"Eriol-kun?!"
/I'm calling in regard to the letter you wrote,/ he continued smoothly, ever so polite, that the sound of his voice began to put her at ease. /The presence you mentioned makes me concerned. Could you elaborate on it?/
"Well, yes. Yue-san and I felt it again today at the amusement park. We followed it and it lead us to a strange girl who stole my cards..." Sakura explained.
/A girl, you say? With long wavy hair and a sad face?/ Eriol asked over the phone, a hint of unease tingeing his voice.
"Yes, that's the one," the Card Mistress confirmed.
Eriol gave a sigh, and when he spoke again his voice held a tone of resignation to it. /I see. It is as I feared, then. What you saw just now is none other than Clow Reed's Deck Master./
"Deck Master...?" Sakura parroted, confused by the unfamiliar term.
/Yes, a Clow Card. A very special one. It seems as though when you finished changing all the cards into Sakura Cards it caused her to awaken,/ the reincarnation explained.
"What exactly does this special card do?" Sakura asked. She was vaguely aware of Kero hovering by her head, listening in on the conversation while Yue, Touya, and Fujitaka sat in the background and waited patiently and quietly for her conversation to end.
/It is The Void, Clow Reed's most powerful card, an imprint of his heart for the purpose of keeping the other cards in line when he could not be with them,/ the tone of Eriol's voice could have been her father's when lecturing on history, if it weren't for the unmistakable child's pitch that his stunted growth could not conceal. /In sealed form, the Clow Cards cannot see or hear, their only way of knowing what's going on around them is by sensing the will of their Master. However, if left unattended for any length of time, the cards will become restless and begin activating for themselves. That is the purpose of creating a Deck Master./
"In order to do what?" Sakura asked, not quite sure she had grasped the concept of what he was talking about just yet.
/In order to fool the cards into believing their Master is attending to them. It is the Deck Master's duty to keep all the sealed cards in line. I fear Void has grown restless without a duty to preform and so intends to subdue the cards by force./
"That's horrible!" Sakura exclaimed. "Then how do I capture her if she steals all my cards every time I try and use them?"
/Did you not already have a trial where you had to make the cards obey you when someone else was telling them to do other things?/ Eriol reminded, with a hint of something between pride and amusement tingeing his voice.
"So all I have to do is get control back?" the brunette verified.
/In order to use the cards against her, yes. They will listen to the Mistress who bears the greatest will to control them,/ Eriol informed, returning to his mentoring tone of voice. /However, in order to capture her, that is not enough. She is a Deck Master, the imprinting of the Master's heart. If you wish to make her your Deck Master, then you must give to her your strongest feelings so that they may become hers as well./
"My strongest..." Sakura trailed off, mind racing back to The Judgement and the horridly lonely vision she had seen as a result of her loosing.
"Chotto, chotto!" Kero spoke up instead, calling into the phone from a few inches away. "Wasn't there only 19 cards? What's the deal of having one more?! Why didn't I know about this card?!"
/I am sorry, Cerberus. Because this card was not part of The Judgement, Clow Reed altered your memories so that you would not seek her out. He did not want Sakura-san to face this card before she was ready,/ Eriol explained, not seeming the least bit surprised to hear Kero's voice over her cellphone.
"So... so I'm ready now?" Sakura asked, seeking confirmation in order to boost her confidence in the situation.
/I'm afraid you'll have to be. The only other option is to let her take your cards,/ was Eriol's disheartening reply.
Sakura shook her head ever so slightly without realizing it. "No... my friends..."
/But Sakura-san, you need to be careful. This card has more than just the ability to take your cards from you. Void's real power is-/
When his sentence didn't continue after a moment, Sakura called out to him. "Eh? Real power is what? Eriol-kun? Eriol-kun?" For a long moment she listened, but finally hung up in defeat once the phone began beeping at her, proving the line was dead.
"Hey, what's going on?" Touya demanded as he saw her put her cellphone down.
"The line's been cut..." was all she responded with.
On the far side of the Eurasian continent, on another island nation, a different family of oddities sat in a different living room surrounding the telephone. "It was cut off?" the black winged beast questioned the boy who had just put the receiver down.
Eriol leaned his head back and gave a tired sigh. "Yes."
"Eriol..." Kaho began, but let the question hang unspoken in the air.
Reaching up and rubbing his tired eyes beneath his glasses, the ancient spirit answered. "Yes, Void noticed me contacting Sakura-san and so removed the connection. Please, Sakura-san... Discover her other power before it's too late and she takes everything away from you..."
Reaching over to lay a hand on the small shoulder, Kaho used her thumb to rub soothing circles against Eriol's collarbone. "Do you know what the outcome of this will be, Eriol?"
The sorcerer slowly shook his head. "I know what it would have been, but my power has been cut too low, I cannot see Sakura-san's future any longer." This was all his fault, if only he hadn't have been so impatient then sweet little Sakura wouldn't be facing this danger before her time.
"Please don't worry about it, Eriol! It's Sakura, so I'm sure everything will be fine!" Nakuru attempted to cheer him up, plastering a smile on her face for his benefit.
"Nakuru is correct. There is no point fretting over something that is out of your hands," Kaho counselled. "After all, Sakura-chan does have an unbeatable phrase..."
With one last sigh, Eriol smiled a strained and worried smile at his assembled family. "Yes... of course, you are right."
The following day was the day of the Nadeshiko Festival, the streets were full of people already enjoying the festivities even though it was still before lunch time. Class 5-2 was hard at work, having a dress rehearsal in the classroom to verify that everyone was indeed ready. They were nearly complete, which was fine with Sakura because she was hungry. She had stayed up so late worrying about what would happen with the Void card that she had only gotten a few hours of sleep, then she had slept in so late that she hadn't had time to do more than grab a slice of toast on her way out the door.
She had still shown up to rehearsal nearly 5 minutes late as it was, and now she knelt before Yamazaki, as she had so many times these last few weeks, reciting the last of her lines before it was time to take their break. "Why did this have to happen? To die protecting me... there is no happiness for me if you are not here! I wish I had told you how I feel... how I truly feel..."
With that last line uttered, the class erupted into applause. "This is the first time I've seen it in full, but it was very well written. You did a wonderful job, everyone," complimented Terada.
"All of you were very good!" Naoko praised.
"I'm only sleeping, the one who's good is Kinomoto-san!" Yamazaki humbly insisted. "By the way, speaking of sleep..."
Chiharu interrupted her boyfriend's newest story by coming up and pushing him aside. "You acted with lots of emotion, Sakura-chan! It was really good!"
Blushing slightly, Sakura accepted the compliment. "Thank you." Truth be told, it wasn't so hard to act lonely and heartbroken when so much was looming just on the horizon.
"Alright, is everyone ready for the performance tonight?" Terada asked, resuming his leadership role. "We should all do our best for the festival."
He received the usual chorus of agreement from the class and the class disbanded for the usual post-rehearsal cleanup.
During her lunch break, Sakura managed to sneak away from her friends in order to make a call. She wanted to hear his voice, even if for a minute. She hoped she wasn't too big a hassle, but she didn't think she could stand it any longer.
/A twentieth card?/ Syaoran's voice reached her ear over the receiver after she had finished filling him in on everything that had been happening as of late.
"It's apparently what Yue and I saw at the amusement park yesterday..." she explained weakly.
/Did you also ask what you should do?/
"I'm supposed to turn it into a Sakura Card as well. But to do that... I need to exchange the feeling that's held most dear. During the Final Judgement of the Clow Cards, I saw a world that had no feelings of love. It was such a lonely world... I never want to see that again. I absolutely don't want to see something that sad!" Sakura tearfully informed.
There was a long silence from the other end of the line before Syaoran's voice came back to her sounding tense. /There is no other way?/
"I don't know. Eriol-kun's phone call was cut short," the Card Mistress admitted.
/...But if there really is no other way... you can't do anything about it./ His tone was defeated, yet held a strange sort of determination behind his words. A determination that broke her heart to hear spoken with so much acceptance.
"Syaoran-kun... You don't care if your dearest feeling disappears?" she accused, near hysterics.
/If the alternative is a disaster.../ Syaoran attempted to explain his point, but how to explain a lifetime of being raised putting others before yourself to a heartbroken girl who just wanted the one she loved to express some sort of longing for her in return?
Angry at him, angry at herself for needing him so much right now, Sakura hung up. She choked back a sob, positive by his ease at giving up love that he surely couldn't return her feelings. If he did, he wouldn't have been so ready to throw her feelings away like that, right? Unable to face anyone right now, Sakura fled from the school grounds, running as hard and fast as she could manage. She had to get away, get some space, clear her head and find some sort of solution that wouldn't result in her losing her heart.
In her blind dash, she didn't see the figure before her until she had barrelled right into it. Delicate yet strong arms encircled her as she began to tumble backwards into the ground. Familiar arms, comforting arms. She knew who's embrace she was in before she even turned her head to look and see the face, for his arms were just the same as those of his other self. "Ah! I'm sorry!" Sakura mumbled hurriedly into his shirt.
"Are you all right, Sakura-chan?" Yukito's gentle voice replied.
The King Penguin Park was a refuge for moments like this. This is where she had come with Syaoran to lament her broken heart over Yukito. She supposed it was irony that she found herself secreted away here once more with Yukito to cry her pain away involving Syaoran breaking her heart. They had walked to a secluded part of the park, off the main trails, and were sitting beneath a large oak tree.
"Would I trouble you if I asked what was wrong?" Yukito prompted, concerned for the one he saw as a little sister. He hadn't known initially what had made him decide to leave Touya's side and wander in the direction he had, but the moment he noticed Sakura's tears he understood that Yue was the one behind the action.
Sakura didn't respond to the question, just continued to stare miserably at the ground and sniff from time to time. "Is it something I can't ask about?" Yukito questioned, a feeling of rejection and inadequacy bubbled up inside, despite his logical mind saying that sometimes people just don't want to talk about things that are bothering them. Still, the worry was mounting in his chest to suffocating levels as the Card Mistress continued to ignore the questions. "Or would you rather talk to my other self?"
This got a reaction, dazed and confused, and a little unsure if she had really heard right, Sakura looked up at her brother's boyfriend. "Eh?"
"My other self is very worried about you..." Yukito explained. A look in her eyes hinted at a thought crossing her mind on how unlikely it is that the emotionless Yue would really act like that. Yukito just smiled sadly and announced, "I'll switch."
His last thoughts as he fell into a slumber was that it really wasn't too surprising that Sakura would choose the Guardian who was bound to her over himself. After all, he was just some flimsy fake mask that existed because his true self wasn't quite ready to cast him aside yet. Why would Sakura want something like that when she could have the real him instead?
Yue opened his eyes as Yukito fell into the recesses of his mind, waiting until he would be called forward again, and greeted his Mistress with an almost embarrassed, "I wouldn't say 'very'..."
Since Yue had come out just for her, Sakura felt she had little choice but to explain her side of everything. The beautiful angel listened with a devoted attention that most people would never experience in their respective lifetimes. Her every syllable was like life and death to Yue, in the sort of way that only his blind need to serve could accomplish.
When she had finally finished her tale, Yue gave a slow nod. "I see. Why must you always end up in tough situations?" he demanded of no one, frustrated for her sake alone.
"It's not just me. Everyone's the same. I'm sure that Syaoran-kun is as well..." Sakura reasoned now that she had calmed down again. She just hoped Syaoran wasn't too hurt by her hanging up on him like that. It was awfully rude.
"The Deck Master was something Clow created. Clow never made anything that causes only harm to the world," Yue reasoned.
"Yeah..." was all Sakura could bring herself to say.
"There has to be some way... A way to not lose your dearest feeling. I'm sure you can do it. It's alright," whether his words themselves were comforting, or merely the effort he put into making her happy, Sakura couldn't say. But the truth remained that she did feel comforted by those words. She ignored the devotion Yue still held to his old Master, she knew that love wasn't something so easily given up and she had seen enough of her Guardian's behaviour to know that both Yue and Kero still loved Clow very much.
And that was it. She knew in watching him that love wasn't something that would simply vanish one day because the person you love is gone, or because some spell made it like that. Love was more powerful than that, and she just had to believe in that power and everything would be alright. Giving her beloved Moon Guardian a true smile, Sakura expressed everything she felt for him simply because he existed. "...Thank you..."
Well, there you have it. First half of the movie in 28 pages of writing. This will be the second time I've updated this summer, for some reason when I updated my main story, Harry Potter and the Deck Master, there was no indication sent out that it WAS updated. Trust me, though, it is. I've gone and checked it on other computers, outside of my account, and it's there. So for anyone waiting to read that completed chapter, it's there waiting for you. I have no clue when the next chapters will be out, I've hardly started on the next chapter for the main story, and it took most of my attention span to get this one out so I wouldn't be expecting the next chapter in either until winter break at least. Because sadly, whether I have inspiration or not, homework comes before stories. As for trivia, if you can tell me a) what scene the tape was playing after Sakura's scripted movie and b) what the original scene was instead, and c) a random number 1-5, I will send you a bonus scene of events that will never take place in this story proper. Anyway, that's really all I have to say at the moment, so Shade and Sweet Water to you all, have a nice day, people.
