S-W-O-R-D

One day, Sakura invited two of her friends to come over after school to study for a spelling bee. Among those invited was Rita, who was nervous about how she would do. Before going to the Avalon's home, the girls stopped by a store. Each of them picked out a brooch and purchased them. Sakura chose a little red heart with white wings on the sides. Rita, in turn, selected a little shining sword. When they got to the house, they started testing each other.

"Rita, spell brooch," Sakura asked at last.

"Hmm, that's a hard one. B-R-, um, um…"

"Maybe we should put them on for some inspiration," Madison suggested. All of the girls fastened on their brooches, including Rita. When it was time for Rita to retry spelling the word, her face went blank. Suddenly, her sword brooch grew. It became a real sword and she started lashing out with it. Kero (who couldn't stand being stuck upstairs) flew down, and found out.

"That's the sword card!" he exclaimed. They ran outside and Sakura started jumping away with another card. She didn't understand what was going on. "The sword card's instinct is to fight, even when there are no enemies in sight," Kero explained. Li came out, and pulled out his own sword as soon as he caught sight of Rita.

"Li- no stop! Don't hurt Rita," Sakura urged him.

"No one has to get hurt if we can knock the sword out of Rita's hands," Kero pointed out. That gave Sakura an idea.

"Illusion Card, show Rita what she fears the most- Illusion!"

Rita stared at the image shown to her, "Mr. Toroto?" she asked, naming one of her teachers. Sakura used the opportunity to force the card away from Rita and sealed it. Rita collapsed promptly. Just then, Julian came by to ask what was going on, and Li again took off as fast as he could.

"What's wrong with him?" they wondered.

The next day at school, Rita asked if her lost brooch had shown up since yesterday.

"No," Sakura said, and she offered Rita a little wrapped item. Rita was puzzled, and opened it to find the brooch Sakura had bought for herself. "I felt sorry you lost yours," she shrugged.

Washed Up

Sakura pushed her face closer to the tank in the aquarium and gazed at the creatures. "Looks like you've made a friend, Sakura. Maybe you should be in there swimming with them," one of her friends said.

"Swimming with those guys? No way- they may look friendly, but they can sting you," she told them.

"Guys the penguin show is about to start!" Everyone gathered around to watch. It looked great. Then after a while, something went wrong. Somehow a whirlpool started and the penguin was having trouble. Plus the trainer's leg got caught.

"Help!" the trainer screamed. Suddenly, Tory ran over and helped her break free from it. When Sakura got home, she started cooking breakfast.

"Can't these pancakes come any faster?" Kero asked.

"Did anyone ever tell you patience is a virtue?" Sakura retorted, "Kero something strange happened at the aquarium today- a penguin got caught in a whirlpool. Are you listening?" When they were finished, she gave some to Kero. Then they heard Tory come in. "Quick, go upstairs!" she said as she flung Kero there. Turning to her brother, she inquired, "What were you doing at the aquarium today?"

"What did it look like I was doing?"

"Tory-"

"I'm helping out there- feed the penguins and stuff. Lucky I was there," he told her, before grabbing at her pancakes.

"Hey! Those are mine!" When she went upstairs, Kero was feeling hurt.

"Treats me like a stuffed animal you can't do that… Sakura I've been thinking about what you said. Penguins are very good swimmers and that shouldn't have happened. Which makes me think it is the water card. Clow Reed made four element cards more powerful than the other cards- wind, water, fire and earth. To capture the water card, you need to use two of your three ally cards- the first three you got- wind, fly and shadow." She remembered the wind and fly cards. "Now concentrate on your third ally- shadow." She remembered the dark figure of the card and how she had used windy to capture it. "Windy, fly, and shadow. You may use any two in combination."

"Can't you help me out here?"

"Nope- this is another test you have to take."

The next day Sakura paced the ground outside, "Windy, fly, shadow. Windy-fly, windy-shadow, fly-shadow…" She put her hands in a water fountain, "how do you capture water?" Madison walked up to her.

"The answer will come to you, Sakura. I know it will. Don't worry," she assured her friend. That day they all went to the aquarium- Sakura, Madison, and Kero. Right outside the entrance, they ran into Julian. Everyone walked in together. Julian told Sakura he'd get her ice-cream later. They looked at the fish.

"I could watch them all day," Julian said.

"All day?" Sakura asked. "Come on, let's go get that ice-cream," she urged him.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" he wondered.

"No reason- I just really like ice-cream," she replied.

"How come she gets to have ice-cream?" Kero complained to Madison. A little kid passed by.

"Mommy, look, toy bear!"

"Back off kid!" Kero snapped. The kid was startled, and upset. Tory took Sakura and Julian's order.

"Sure you can handle that squirt?" he asked his sister. He went to bring it to them. Then a tank close by them broke and the water flowed everywhere! Tory rushed back to help Sakura.

"Guess we'll have to cancel that ice-cream, Tory. Nothing like a swim to cool you down, huh Sakura?" Julian pointed out.

Cool you down? Sakura thought, that's it! That evening, when everyone else had left, Sakura, Madison and Kero sneaked back into the aquarium.

"I haven't taken swimming lessons in this body. I assume you have a plan, Sakura?" Kero asked.

"I sure do," she informed him.

"What is it?"

"You'll see." Madison had split with them, and now she called Sakura on her cell phone.

"The freezer is right where you thought it would be." Sakura walked right up to the nearest container of water and said, "Water card, if you're here, come and get me!"

"Sakura, this is your plan?!"

"Fly!" Sakura commanded, ignoring Kero and flying away from the card now chasing her. They were coming up to a room, and she tricked water inside before yelling "windy!" She shut the door behind the two cards.

"You did it, Sakura- you passed the test!" Kero announced.

"Thanks. Hey, it's probably time now," she opened the door to a frozen card. "Water, return to your power confined, water!"