Sorry for the delay, folks. I had some inspiration on my other story, then I was banned from the computer because my mother wanted me to study for my Semester Finals. Pfft. I didn't know anybody actually did that, outside of movies and books and stuff. Study for Finals, I mean. I never have. And Senior year's a bit late for me to start, don't ya think? Ah, well. What's done is done. I didn't wind up studying after all, I just wrote on paper. So, Finals are over, I probably aced 'em, you guys(used generically) have now got your new chapter, and my mom's none the wiser.
Also, I told a few reviewers that Haru would only go through about episode twenty. I miscalculated. He will go all the way through the Final Judgment. Sorry for the confusion.
And now, without further ado, the chapter.
Chapter Seven: Observations and an Ally
Haruki continued to eye Sakura's backpack for any suspicious movement the rest of the way to school. It didn't so much as twitch the entire time. When they finally arrived in their classroom, there was no one else there. Haru was not exactly surprised seeing as they were more than an hour early. For Sakura, however, this was a first.
"Wow, we're first!" she exclaimed excitedly. Haru resisted the urge to roll his eyes. They walked to their desks and set down their bags.
Sakura was stretching her arms when the classroom door slid open. Tomoyo entered.
"You're here early, Sakura-chan," she observed calmly.
"Ohayo," replied Sakura, running forward to greet her best friend and cousin, "You're here early, too."
"Hey, hey," interrupted Haru, "I'm here too, you know."
"Gomen," replied Tomoyo, "Ohayo, Haru-chan."
"Ohayo," said Haru, somewhat mollified, "And don't call me 'Haru-chan.'"
"Hai, Haru-chan."
"Ano, Tomoyo-chan," began Sakura, "Why are you here so early? Are you in charge of something, too?"
"No, I'm not," Tomoyo told them. "I just wanted to show you something, Sakura-chan. And you too, Haru-chan."
Sakura blinked. "Hoe?"
Tomoyo got her camcorder from her bag and set it gently on Sakura's desk. The three of them crowded round.
"A video?" asked Sakura. Haru only narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brows slightly.
"I was able to film something extremely amusing last night," Tomoyo told them somewhat cryptically. She pressed play and the video began.
As the small screen was filled with an image of the night sky, Haru began to feel a strange sense of foreboding.
'I have a bad feeling about this,' he thought.
Three tiny figures came on screen, slowly passing in front of the moon.
Sakura looked as if someone had just stuff an extremely sour lemon into her mouth whole. Haruki kept his face carefully blank.
"What was that?" asked Sakura, trying and failing miserably to pretend that she had no idea.
"This is an enlargement," said Tomoyo, pressing another of the seemingly endless buttons on the camcorder.
The new image showed an unmistakable view of Haruki and Sakura flying through the air on a staff with wings accompanied by a small stuffed toy lion, also with wings. Sakura's face looked like that of someone who'd been caught red-handed. Haru groaned and smacked his forehead with one hand.
"Hoeeeeeeee!" screeched Sakura.
Immediately, Kero lept from Sakura's book bag.
"What is it, Sakura?" he yelled looking ready to fight. "A Clow card? Where? I'll take it on! Come on!" He finally seemed to see Tomoyo because he went silent and stared.
Tomoyo, on the other hand, looked from Kero to the video footage of Kero then back again. She blinked a few times.
"My, a striking resemblance!" she exclaimed.
Sakura and Kero sweat-dropped. Haruki calmly sat down at his desk and began rhythmically banging his head against it.
At lunch, Sakura, Tomoyo and Kero sat on a picnic blanket they had set on the ground behind the school. Haru was nearby, leaning against the trunk of a nearby tree with his hands behind his head as he prepared to listen to his companions' conversation.
"Why did you tag along?" demanded Sakura of Kero, sounding slightly exasperated.
"Well, I wanted to get an idea of how a Cardcaptor spends her day," explained Kero cheerfully as he began to float a handful of inches off of the ground.
Sakura sighed, but Tomoyo gazed at Kero with a delighted expression on her face. Haru recognized the look as the one his cousin always gave Sakura or he right before she whipped out her camera and screeched, "Kawaii!"
This time, though, Tomoyo's impeccable manners kept her from doing so. She looked at Sakura.
"Would you be so kind as to introduce us, please, Sakura-chan?" she asked, ever so politely.
"He says his name's Keroberos," Sakura said, somewhat offhandedly as she glanced at the creature.
"He sure looks different from his name," observed Tomoyo-chan.
"That's what I thought," agreed Sakura.
"He's more like a...," Tomoyo began.
"Kero-chan." Both girls finished authoritatively and in unison.
Haru rolled his eyes.
'Girls are so weird,' he thought dryly.
Meanwhile, Kero was protesting the continued use of this nickname.
"I'm Keroberos," he stated, loudly and importantly, "The Guardian Beast of the Seal, who guards the Clow Cards!"
"Nice job on that, by the way," called Haru from his relaxed position, his eyes half-closed.
Kero looked as if he wanted to fly over to the boy and give him a piece of his mind, when Tomoyo spoke up.
"Clow Cards?" his cousin asked looking as confused as she ever did.
Tomoyo listened intently to Kero's explanation of the previous evenings events. Most people in her place would have either run away screaming or fainted. Heck, most people would have done one of those two things when what appeared to a flying plush toy burst out of their second cousin/best friend's book bag yelling about taking on Clow Cards. Not Tomoyo Daidoujii. No, she simply took it in stride, as if magically sentient stuffed animals and dangerously powerful magical playing cards were a mere fact of life. Not unusual in the least.
It occurred to Haru that his family was highly unusual. His brother saw ghosts, his father talked about magic at the dinner table, his twin sister was now some kind of magical card-collector, and his cousin... Haru glanced at Tomoyo. He didn't even want to go there.
Yes, his family was quite unusual. And that was just how he liked it.
"...And so, Sakura became Cardcaptor Sakura." finished Kero.
"That's wonderful!" exclaimed Tomoyo, clapping her hands together, "The Cardcaptor who protects the city from the catastrophe of the Clow Cards! That's so awesome!"
She seemed to be completely enraptured, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
"I can't do something that important!" protested Sakura.
Tomoyo turned and grabbed Sakura's hand.
"No, you can do it, Sakura-chan!" she exclaimed, caught up in the moment. "If you don't mind, can you show me how you use your magic?"
Haru and Sakura blinked once or twice in unison. The question had been completely out of the blue, but it was Tomoyo, after all.
"Yeah, yeah, show her," urged Kero boisterously
"Demo..." Sakura began uncertainly.
"It's alright," the small Guardian assured her, "There's no one in sight. Do a small flashy one."
Sakura looked at Haru as if to ask his opinion. Haru shrugged.
"Kero-kun is the expert," he told her.
Sakura stood up and walked a few feet away from her brother and cousin. She sighed, then pulled the key from the chain on which it now hung around her neck. She held it in front of her at arms length and began to chant in a fairly confident voice,
"KEY WHICH HIDES THE POWER OF THE DARK,
REVEAL YOUR TRUE FORM BEFORE ME!
BY OUR CONTRACT I, SAKURA COMMAND YOU:
RELEASE!"
As before, a white light surrounded her and a magical circle appeared beneath her as the key extended into a staff. Sakura gripped the staff firmly and twirled it a few times before the light disappeared.
"Wonderful!" exclaimed Tomoyo as she rushed forward. "And you can use magic with that staff?"
"Hai," Sakura replied turning to speak to her friend, "although I do need a card."
"Like this," said Kero, lifting up the Fly Card from inside Sakura's book bag.
"Wh-when did you-?" stammered Sakura looking startled.
"So, do you have a trademark pose, yet?" asked Tomoyo, briskly.
"N-nani?" asked Sakura, bewildered and confused.
"Trademark poses and spells are a basic part of being a magical girl!" pronounced Tomoyo, going into full 'Kawaii'-mode.
Haru spent the rest of the lunch period half-listening as Tomoyo waned poetic about magical girl stereotypes, leaving Sakura quite disturbed.
The day finally ended and the twins said good-bye to their friends and their very bizarre cousin.
"Ja ne," Haru called to his friend Yamazaki-kun. He turned to leave, then whirled around suddenly.
But Yamazaki was already halfway up the street, running to catch up with Chiharu-chan, and Haru couldn't tell if what he thought he'd seen was true.
"Daijoubu?" asked a concerned Sakura.
"Nothing," replied Haru distractedly.
Sakura looked at him for a moment, then shrugged and began to skate towards home. Haru followed, his mind troubled.
He must have imagined it. He must have. Because how could Yamazaki-kun have possibly been missing his shadow? He couldn't have. It must have been a trick of the light. Haru smiled slightly at his accidental pun. A trick of the light, causing him to fail to see a shadow. Yes, that was it. And he put the matter from his mind.
Glossary of Japanese Words and Phrases: Chapter Seven
-chan: honorific generally used for girls or small children, can be considered demeaning when used towards boys
Ohayo: Good Morning
Gomen: I'm Sorry
Hai: Yes
Ano: Um
Hoe: Exclaimation used by Sakura whenever she is surprised, scared, confused, etc. In other words, quite often.
Demo: But
-kun: Honorific used towards males that one is familar with.
Nani: What?
Kawaii: Cute(as in little kid cute, not attractive cute)
Ja ne: See ya!
Daijoubu: Are you alright?
That's it for now. Review if you want to make me happy. If not, I
Until next time, Ja ne!