Hello everyone and welcome back to chapter 3 of Card Captor Megumi! I am so glad to be able to get this chapter up. I was afraid I wasn't going to get it done in time. The holiday season at my job as been leaving me rather exhausted and I kind of fell behind on things! But I managed to get done!

A big thank you to Penguin Lord0029, James Birdsong and Brandy for your reviews, keep'em coming folks! Without further ado let's get into chapter 3!

Chapter 3: Home Life

"Remember, stay quiet until I get you up to my room." Megumi said to Kero who was hiding in her school bag along with the two Sakura Cards and the Key of Clow.

"Just don't forget to get me something to eat, preferably something sweet." Kero said as he poked his head out from under the top flap.

"I'll see what I can do, now be quiet!" Megumi said through clenched teeth. The last thing she wanted to do was explain to her family a talking stuffed animal with an attitude and a sweet tooth. They'd think she had gone nuts. In part of her mind she thought she WAS crazy. Magic wasn't real, it was only in anime and manga. But not twenty minutes ago she had just used a magical key that turned into a wand to catch a runaway magic card. Yep, definitely crazy she thought to herself. She had finally snapped, no question. Now outside her family's large two-story home she wasn't even sure she wanted to go in. But with no other choice she did anyway.

"I'm home." She said after opening the front door, not that she really expected a response. like she thought her mother was scolding her three younger siblings. Curious about Megumi's family, Kero peered out from the bag. The first person he spied was a woman Kero guessed to be Megumi's mom. She had the same red hair as Megumi which was tied up in a slightly messy bun. She was pointing her finger at three younger kids and giving them a stern talking to. The eldest of the three was a boy with short spiky brown hair. The other two appeared to be a pair of twin girls, both with the same red hair as Megumi and their mom. One had their hair in a braid that went just past her shoulders while the other had a short pixie cut. None of them seemed to take notice of Megumi expect for her mother to give her a quick 'Oh, hello dear.' before going back to yell at her younger children.

"There you are Megumi. I was beginning to worry." A tall girl with long brown hair that went all the way down to her waist walked out of the kitchen holding a drink. "I was just about to call you."

"Oh, hi Haruna." Megumi said to her older sister. She tried to walk upstairs but was stopped by Haruna who gently put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hold on a sec. What happened? You're never this late and you're soaked to the bone." Megumi let out a sigh, wishing she could just go upstairs and change. As much as she liked the rain, she wasn't fond of being cold and wet. But she knew her sister wouldn't let her go until she got an answer out of her.

"I had to take a detour to get home. They closed the road because of a downed light post. Instead of going all the way back to school and going around I cut through the woods and that old abandoned neighborhood. I thought it would be quicker, but it wasn't quite the straight shot I thought it would be. I lost my umbrella to a gust of wind, that's why I'm all wet." She of course left out the part about finding a magic book and the talking stuffed animal that came out of it.

"Megumi, who knows what kind of trouble you could have run into there! Why didn't you just call home for a ride?"

"Really?" Megumi said looking at her mother who still had her hands full with the younger kids.

"Well, you could have called me, I would have come and gotten you. Or you could have just dropped dad's name to the officers that I'm sure were there. It's not like I haven't done it. They would of most likely just let you through or even gotten someone to give you a lift." Before she could answer the twin with the braid having spied Kero came up, stuck her hand in Megumi's bag and pulled Kero out of it.

"Oh cool! It's so cute! Check it out Mika!" She tossed him through the air to her twin sister who nearly dropped him.

"Ah! No! Give him back!" Megumi cried out. The twin girls began to tug and pull on Kero's arms and ears. Megumi cried out and rushed over to rescue Kero who was thankfully keeping quiet and staying still, despite the rough treatment he was receiving. But her younger brother, seeing an opportunity to torment his older sister grabbed Kero from the twins and held him up in the air.

"Keep away from Megumi!" He shouted in glee as he darted backwards. He tossed Kero to the twins who were all too eager to join in. Mika caught him and threw him to her twin when Megumi got too close.

"Stop it you three!" Their mother shouted, but it was Haruna who ended the game. She plucked Kero out of the air just as her little brother was about to catch him again.

"Ahh, Haruna. You're no fun." He said with a whine.

"Enough is enough. Leave Megumi alone." Haruna said sternly, glaring at her younger siblings. She looked at Kero who was holding absolutely still like a he really was a toy. Haruna's eyes narrowed as she stared at him. "There's something… funny about this toy. Where'd you get this?"

"I found him." Megumi said quickly as she took Kero from Haruna and stuck him back in her bag. "I thought he was cute so I brought him home with me."

"I see…" It was obvious from her tone that Haruna didn't quite believe her. Her eyes were locked on Megumi's bag and she opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to get out these wet clothes." Megumi slipped past her older sister and dashed upstairs to her room, which was the at end of the hall. The plastic nameplate that marked it clattered against the door as she closed it behind her.

"All clear." She said with a slightly relieved sigh. Kero popped out of the bag looking a little dazed.

"Well, that was unpleasant!" He said as he flew around the room taking a look around. It wasn't a very large space. Megumi's bed sat in one corner near the one window in the room. A four-drawer dresser sat on the other side of the window. A desk with some sort of device Kero didn't recognize sat in the far corner of the room. Next to the door was a bookcase that held a few anime figurines. Similarly, a few posters of various anime characters hung from the walls. "Are those twerps always like that?" Kero asked as he inspected Megumi's room.

"Yeah, Mako likes to harass me. The twins are about as bad." She said, the annoyance in her voice coming through loud and clear.

"Your older sis seems to handle them well enough." Kero pointed out as he continued to fly around.

"Haruna handles them alright. They're actually afraid of her." Megumi said. She went to her dresser and pulled out a set of dry clothes.

"I can see why. She seems pretty intimidating. Though I'm surprised your mom didn't say anything about you being late instead of your sister."

"I doubt she even noticed I was all wet. She has to divide her attention between six kids and you saw how the three younger ones are. She doesn't really have much time for me." Megumi said unbuttoning her school blouse. "Not that it really matters. I just try to stay out of the way and let them get on with things. Hey I need to change, could you like turn away or something?"

"Oh yeah, of course." Kero said. He floated down to the floor and crawled under the bed. "Got to say that sounds kind of lonely." He said once he was underneath.

"Maybe it is, but it doesn't really bother me. It's just how it's always been." Megumi as she took off her wet clothes. She threw them into one corner, planning to take them down to the laundry later. "I'm the middle child, comes with the territory."

"If you say so." Kero said. "So tell me about your family, was that all of them down there?"

"No. Not everyone was home." Megumi said as she finished getting dressed. She was now wearing a white turtleneck sweater and a blue skirt that went about halfway to her knees. She took off her holo-cell from her wrist and set it on its charging pad. "You can come out now by the way." Kero climbed out from under the bed, flew up into the air and took a seat on the blankets. "You saw some of them obviously. You have the twins, Aoi and Mika, they're seven. If you want to tell them apart Aoi is the one with her hair in a braid while Mika is the one with shorter hair. I think mom makes them keep it that way so she can tell them apart. Next is Mako, your typical ten-year-old brat. Real rough and tumble type of kid. Gets into all kind of mischief, both at school and home. The twins are basically his henchmen. Drives mom nuts." The way Megumi rolled her eyes as well as what transpired downstairs told Kero that Megumi found them quite troublesome as well. "Next is me. Then you have my older brother Riku who wasn't there. He's fifteen."

"What's he like?" Kero asked to which Megumi let out a bit of a sigh.

"He's on the school baseball team, and is really good at it. A lot of people say he has a real shot at going pro one day. But that kind of talk has given him a bit of an ego. He's not terrible, but he can be kind of annoying at times. Thankfully, he usually just ignores me, which I don't mind."

"Yikes, sounds like he's a bit of a pain."

"Eh, sort of. But it's not like he causes the kind of grief that the younger kids do." Megumi said. "He just gets full of himself sometimes. I probably made him sound worse than he is. Finally, you have Haruna. She's seventeen and oldest of the kids. She's the most popular girl in school, not that she really cares about that. She's really down to earth honestly. She's considered the prettiest girl in school and is the star of the swim team, but unlike Riku she hasn't let it go to her head. She's even done some modeling part-time. There's been talk about her going pro after she graduates high school in about a year, but I don't know what her actual plans are."

"Well, she seems pretty cool at least." Kero said. "So, what about your parents?"

"You saw mom downstairs. Her name is Fumiko. She's a fulltime housewife and as I'm sure you can guess she has her hands full with Mako and the twins. She likes to draw, but doesn't get much time to do it for obvious reasons. My dad, Kenta, wasn't home yet, but he's usually late. He's a detective with the Tomeda police department so he has to spend a lot of time at his job."

"Is that what Haruna meant about mentioning your dad's name to some police officers?"

"It is, but that's not something I tend to do. I try to handle things on my own. I don't want to be a bother to anyone." Kero was about to respond, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. He quickly froze in place and flopped onto his side. "Come in." Megumi said a little nervously.

"Hey, you alright?" Haruna asked as she stuck her head inside the room. "I thought I heard you talking to someone."

"Just talking to myself." Megumi said with a shake of her head.

"You sure?" Haruna asked. She stepped into the room and her eyes instantly went to Kero. "I swear I heard two different voices coming from here." Megumi just shrugged her shoulders.

"No one here but me. I think you're imagining things."

"You sure about that?" Haruna said to which Megumi just shrugged her shoulders again. "Well, whatever. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes."

"Okay, I'll be down soon." Megumi said. Haruna just nodded. She turned to leave, but before she did, she took another hard look at Kero. He could feel the older teenager's eyes boring into him, a sensation he had encountered before. Haruna frowned a bit and left the room, closing the door behind her.

"Whew…" Kero let out a breath once Megumi's older sister was gone. "That was intense. I'm going to have to be careful around her. She's really perceptive."

"She's always been like that." Megumi said. "It's kind of weird. Every now and then something will catch her attention and she'll just stare at some random object or sometimes nothing at all. I remember this one time we went on a family vacation to Mount Fuji about three years ago. We were camping out and one day she got this look in her eye when she looked out into the woods. She said she was going to take a walk and went off into the forest, a friend of hers that was on the trip with us went with her. They returned like half an hour later. It looked like Haruna was clutching something in her hand, but I couldn't tell what it was. She had this sad smile on her face, it was all really odd. And she's always been really interested in ghost stories."

"Is that so…" Kero said thoughtfully.

"What?"

"Oh nothing. She just reminds me of Sakura's older brother, Touya. He was like that as well. He had magic and could see things that others couldn't." Megumi groaned and plopped down backwards onto her bed.

"Ugh, I still can't believe I'm talking to a magical stuffed animal."

"I not a stuffed animal!" Kero said slightly annoyed. "I'm the totally awesome Guardian Seal Beast, Protector of the Book of Clow and the Sakura Cards!"

"Yeah, I think we've already covered that part." Megumi said in a bit of a deadpan voice. She sat back up and rubbed her forehead a little. "What I want to know is how bad can all of this really be? I mean, the Jump Card wasn't that hard to catch."

"They all won't be that easy. Like I said earlier some of the cards are a lot smarter and more powerful. Especially the attack and elemental cards, which can be really dangerous. Some of the cards will be content to remain dormant, but not many of them. And some of the cards can actually possess people. They have to be found and caught, or who knows what kind of damage they'll cause. And I hate to say it, you're going to have a harder time of it then Sakura did."

"And why is that?" Megumi had a feeling she wasn't going to like the answer she was about to get.

"Cause you're going to have to find more cards than she did." Kero crossed his arms over his chest. "A few years after she converted all the cards she asked Eriol about making new cards of her own to add to the deck. After Eriol talked her through it she made several new ones. Yue didn't think it was a very good idea, but never made a big deal about it."

"Eriol? Yue?" Megumi asked slightly lost.

"Sorry, I forgot you don't know who everyone is. Eriol Hiiragizawa was the reincarnation of Clow Reed."

"Wait, reincarnation is a thing!?" Megumi blurted out.

"Yeah, but let's not get off topic. He was a powerful sorcerer in his own right and had a lot of Clow's memories. He lived in England and showed up here not long after Sakura finished capturing the cards and was recognized as the new master. He put all these challenges in front of Sakura in order to get her to transform the cards." Kero took a breath and flew to the window and looked out into the night. "Yue, like me, was created by Clow Reed to be a protector and servant."

"Where is he now? Is he still in the book?" Megumi reached into her bag and pulled out the red and gold Book of Clow, wondering if another talking creature was about to pop out of it.

"I have no idea where he is right now. We serve different roles. He will have woken up long before I did."

"So does that mean we need to find him? Is he going to look like a stuffed animal like you?"

"Ugh, how many times do I have to tell you I'm not a stuffed animal?" Kero said slightly exasperated. "To answer your questions, he'll find us eventually. As to what he looks like, I've got no idea what kind of disguise he's taken. He could stand right next to us and I would have no idea it was him."

"That's a little disconcerting." Megumi said biting her lip. "You said he had a different role then you. What exactly did you mean by that?" Before Kero could answer however Haruna called up the stairs for Megumi to come and eat. "You know what, let's talk about that later. It's too much of an information overload at this point. I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that magic is real and that reincarnation happens." She let out a breath and got up from the bed. "I'll be back in a little while. Make yourself comfortable. I think mom was going to make sugar rolls for desert tonight. I'll see if I can sneak you one."

"Thanks." Kero said. He stayed at the window for a bit, continuing to stare out into the night. He then flew down to Megumi's bag and pulled out the framed picture of Sakura. "Did you see this happening? Was that why you were so calm like Clow when you said goodbye to us?" He sighed and closed his eyes. "Did you know I'd meet Megumi? She's a bit serious for my tastes. There's no denying she's got a lot of magical potential. But I can't help worrying about her a bit. There's something about her that seems kind of … lonely. But I like her. I know you'd like her. You said that I'd need to tell her everything, and I'll try. But she's just had her world turned upside down and I don't want to overwhelm her. I'll do my best though, I promise."

Downstairs Megumi unceremoniously slid into her seat at the dinner table. Haruna passed her a plate to which Megumi nodded her thanks as she began to eat in silence. A quick look around told her that both her father and Riku had returned home. From the looks of it her dad was reviewing some documents on a portable holo-projector. Most likely something related to a case he was working on. He was absently chewing his lip, a sure sign he was thinking something through. It was also reflected in his steel grey eyes which had a look of absolute concentration in them. He brushed a strand of his dark brown hair out of his face.

Riku sat next to their dad. He had inherited his father's brown hair as well as his tall and lanky frame, but like the rest of the kids he had gotten their mother's blue eyes. He had his usual cocky grin on his face. He was leaning back into his chair while he was telling some story to Mako and the twins who were sitting across from him. Megumi didn't pay any attention though, she wasn't really interested in her older brother's baseball stories. Haruna was also not really listening to him either and was instead checking a couple of messages on her holo-cell which she turned off once she was done reading them. All told it was a pretty typical dinner time at the Ishida household. It was a mostly uneventful meal until it came time for dessert. As Fumiko was putting a plate loaded down with sugar coated pastry rolls onto the table Riku went into a story about something that had happened to him on the way home from school.

"So there I am minding my own business when this girl from the junior high runs right into me! And I'm like 'Hey, what's the big idea!?', right. She starts babbling about seeing some kind of floating ball of light in the woods near the school. Before I can even figure out what she's going on about she takes off again."

"Ball of light?" Both Megumi and Haruna asked at the same time. Haruna looked at her sister in surprise. She was a little taken aback as Megumi usually didn't take an interest in such things as a potential ghost story.

"That's what she said anyways. Who knows what she really saw?" Riku said with a shrug.

"Probably just some kids playing with a drone or maybe fireworks." Kenta said. "I'll let patrol know to keep an eye on the area, just in case. Don't need a fire breaking out."

"What time was this at?" Megumi asked her brother.

"Hunh? Why does it matter?" Riku asked.

"Just curious." Megumi answered back to which Riku just shrugged.

"Let's see. Practice got out around five thirty, I hung around with the guys for a while after that so maybe about six." He said slightly confused. Megumi just nodded and retreated into her mind. That was well after she had opened the book. She had no idea if the girl that had run into Riku had seen another of the Sakura cards or not, either way she would have to talk to Kero and get his thoughts on the matter.

Megumi wasn't the only one lost in thought. Haruna had a hand on her mouth and was staring off into space. It was a look Megumi had seen more than once on her sister's face. Knowing she wouldn't be missed she snagged a couple extra sugar rolls before heading back up the stairs to her room.

"Here you go." Megumi said handing the treats to Kero.

"Yes! I'm starved!" Kero cried out happily as he dug into the pastries he had been brought.

"I may have a lead on another of the cards." Megumi told him.

"Oh yeah?" Kero asked in-between mouthfuls. As he ate Megumi explained about the story Riku had told them about.

"What do you think? Could it be one of the cards?" She asked after she finished

"Could be." Kero said as he wiped the corner of his mouth off with the back of his paw. "The timing sure is convenient. Have you ever heard any stories about lights in the woods before?"

"Not that I can remember. It has to be a card, right?"

"Well, only one way to find out. I'll have to go to school with you tomorrow."

"What!?"

And that is where we'll end this chapter! I hope you enjoyed getting a look into Megumi's family, especially Haruna who we will be seeing a lot of as the story continues. Let me know in any reviews how I'm doing!

Just to let you all know this will be the last update of the year. I need to turn my attention and focus to the sequel for my other story B.L.A.S.T. which I hope to launch sometime later this month. But don't worry, I will be working on chapter 4 as well! Keep an eye on my profile for any updates!

Next chapter: Megumi takes Kero with her to school where a new student with a very familiar last name catches his notice. Later, Megumi goes into the woods to find just what is causing those balls of light.

Till next time, this is Shocklance, signing out.