EPISODE
ONE: Of Cards, Keys, and
Flying Cat-Toys.
"There it goes!"
"I'm working on it! Give me a second!"
A girl no older than twelve, dressed in what appeared to be a
school uniform, struggled to maintain her footing.
A large gust of wind shoved her back, tugging at her clothes
and playing with her shoulder length blue-black hair.
She landed on her rear as the wind swirled around, pulling at
the creature on her shoulder, not to mention the strange blue and
silver rod in her hand.
"I'm guessing this is the windy card?" She shouted
with slight annoyance.
"Right on Girlie!"
She shot a glare at the tiny creature, showing she was annoyed
at the pet name he had given her.
She struggled to keep a good grip on the rod while the wind
tried to pry it from her hands. Drawing
in a deep breath, she used all her strength to raise the staff over
her.
"RETURN TO THY TRUE FORM!"
A bright circle of light and power appeared under foot. It
glowed bright golden in color, sending power waves through her body
and into the staff in her hands.
"SAKURA CA—"
Okay, Let's stop here for a minute.
I have a feeling you're all really confused.
Well, by this point I had pretty much thrown all concepts of
logic and sanity out the window.
Perhaps you should do the same.
Let's back up a bit, shall we?
First, my name is Shibori, and I am 12 years old.
Now, Where did the wand come from, what is that thing on
my shoulder, and just what am I trying to accomplish?
Well, I don't know all the answers to these questions yet
myself, but let me explain what's happened to get me where I am
now…
"Phew!"
Shibori exhaled as she closed her bedroom door, leaning against the
wood panel.
She'd managed to avoid questioning from her mother as to where
she had been after school. Not
like that was the biggest of her concerns.
She was mentally scolding herself at the moment for stealing a
book from her classmate's home.
It's no big deal...
She reasoned with herself, I
mean, she said if I found something I wanted, I could have it.
She pounded the back of her head against the door.
So why do I feel like a
little thief?
Sighing,
She stepped away from the door, taking care not to step on her gray
kitten, which was curled up on the floor among various articles of
clothing. Slowly, she let the straps of her bag slide down her
shoulder, and the bag hit the floor with a soft thump.
She dropped down on her knees, unzipped the bag, and retrieved
the book, with its latch hanging open.
Well, Shibori, you
wanted to know what was inside. So
look. She thought to herself.
Slowly, her fingers gripped the edge of the books cover, and
she pulled it back. What
was inside astounded her.
The book was hollow. Now,
it wasn't so much the fact that the book was hollow, but that there
was a stack of papers inside. Papers with a yellow star surrounded in
pink. Shibori tucked a
lock of her shiny hair behind her ear. She reached in, and lifted the
top paper. "Cards?"
She flipped over the card in her hand, and blinked at the
image. These were
certainly not playing cards. More
like tarot cards. The
image was a strange one. Something
like a deformed rabbit. Her
eyes narrowed at the title below the card image.
Like the book title, it was written in English characters.
It was times like these Shibori wished she had continued to
take English classes.
"Joo…Juh…Jump?"
Suddenly, the card lit up. Shibori fell backwards in surprise
as all the cards suddenly starting hopping –Literally— out of the
book, and bouncing in all directions across her room, vanishing
through the floor and the walls.
The kitten which had been curled up and sleeping soundly jumped
up and hissed loudly as multiple cards bounced over her.
Arching her back, and hissing, the cat jumped onto Shibori's
bed.
"Hey!" Still griping the card labeled 'Jump', Shibori
dove to catch whichever cards she could manage.
She only managed to salvage one.
Shibori groaned, and muttered. "Kusooooo."
Kicking her feet, and throwing a minor tantrum, Shibori scolded
herself. Once she had
calmed slightly, she chanced to look at the card she had grabbed.
The image was of a fencing sword, suspended by chains. Shibori blinked. "A
sword?"
A quiet humming cut off Shibori's thoughts.
Slowly, she glanced over her shoulder, and her amethyst colored
eyes widened sufficiently. The
book that the cards had escaped from was glowing brightly, and a
strange creature was emerging from the glow.
Shibori jumped off the ground, but only succeeded in flipping
over so that she could back pedal into a wall.
When the light faded, Shibori was left staring at a creature
that looked surprisingly like…
"A stuffed animal?" She
cocked an eyebrow, and shifted forward onto her hands and knees
She pulled herself over to the empty book and the hovering
creature. A vein popped
out on the creature's head. "I am not a stuffed animal!" it
pounded a little fist on it's chest,
"I am the great guardian beast, Cerberus!"
Shibori narrowed her eyes, "Osaka dialect?"
Cerberus sweatdropped, "Don't Ask."
A loud, cranky 'ryow!' cut through the air, and the tiny
kitten flung itself on top of Cerberus, pinning him to the ground.
Cerberus squawked, "Oi! Cat! Get off of me!"
The tiny creature screamed as the kitten nibble on the
stuffy's ear.
"Chibi, Let it go!" Shibori exclaimed, plucking the cat off
of a now-twitching Cerberus.
"'Chibi'?!" Cerberus exclaimed in disbelief,
"that…thing ain't little!"
Shibori tossed the cat a jingling ball, and Chibi followed with
eye aglow. Shibori
opened the door, and allowed the cat to run right out the door.
Quickly, she shut it behind Chibi, and turned back to the tiny
guardian beast, and empty book.
Cerberus looked up, "Thanks kid."
"No problem…but…" Shibori walked over, got down on her
knees, and poked Cerberus, "What are you? Am I dreaming?"
Cerberus swatted away Shibori's finger, "No, 'fraid your
not dreamin' kid— By the way, what's your name?"
"Shibori. Do you
MIND explaining to me what just happened, and what THESE,"
She held up the two cards, "Are?"
"Those, are the magical, all powerful, Sakura Cards.
Specifically Jump, and Sword."
"Nani?"
"Did you even bother to look at the title of the book?"
"It said 'Sakura'. I
thought it had to do with flowers."
"No. Sakura is a
name, the name of the sorceress who last possessed these cards."
Shibori cocked an eyebrow.
"Well, all the cards hopped away.
What does that mean?"
"Well, since the book opened for you, and the cards ran away,
then you have a job to do."
Shibori was afraid to ask.
"Is this some sort of twisted form of 52-pick-up, cause if it
is, I'm not liking where this is headed."
"You, Shibori, have been chosen as the CardCaptor."
"The WHAT?!"
"Shibori-san! Who are you talking to?"
Shibori tensed at the sound of her mother's voice, carried up
through the stairwell, "No-one, Okaa-san, I'm just yelling at
Chibi!"
"Well, keep it down! I'm
heading to the store, so keep an eye on your little sister."
"What about Onii-chan?!"
"He is out at the moment."
Shibori sighed, "Alright."
Shibori turned to Cerberus, "I'm the what?" She whispered
again, though forcefully.
"The CardCaptor. The
one who has freed the cards from their seal within the book, and thus
the one who must re-collect them."
Shibori pinched her arms.
"This… isn't happening…why can't I wake up?"
"Girlie, SNAP OUT OF IT!" Cerberus's tiny paws slapped
Shibori across the face.
In reflex, Shibori swatted back at Cerberus as if he were an
annoying mosquito. She
successfully knocked the stuffed-animal-like creature from the air,
and smashed him into the floor.
"Itai!"
"Ah, Gomen!" Shibori plucked Cerberus off the floor,
cupping him in her hands, "Daijobou?"
"Yea…you pack a punch."
Cerberus sighed, "Now, if you're ready to listen, I'll
explain everything."
Shibori set Cerberus on the ground, "Alright. Start
explaining."
What followed was basically the tiny guardian beast explaining
his role in the protection of the book. He also went into the
consequences of letting the cards run loose.
"So…lemee make sure I got all this."
"Okay."
"I let special cards out of a book that belonged to the most
powerful sorceress in the world."
"Right."
"So, it's my job to get them back."
"Yup."
"And if I fail to collect them, a tragedy will befall the
rest of the world."
"'fraid so."
There was a long pause between the two.
"I'm TWLEVE, the fate of the world is NOT SUPOOSED
TO BE ON MY SHOULDERS!"
Cerberus covered his huge ears, though unsuccessfully due to
the tiny size of his paws.
"Well, you don't have much choice.
Sakura herself chose you.
You were pre-destined to this before you were even born."
"How is that POSSIBLE?!" Shibori half asked, and half
demanded.
"The cards tend to work in mysterious ways."
Shibori sighed, "And they just had to work their
mysterious ways with me?"
Cerberus sighed, "I have a feeling this is going to take a
while."
"Ya know, stuffy, you're really beginning to piss me
off."
"Watch your mouth, Girlie. You're stuck with this job
whether YOU like it or not! I
don't make the decisions around here."
Shibori laid her two salvaged cards in the book, and closed the
cover. Then, she plucked
the tiny guardian beast off the floor, and calmly deposited him in her
desk drawer, along with the book.
"This is all a nightmare, and I'm going to wake up, and you
will be gone." She said in a monotonous voice, before closing the
drawer, and locking it.
Cerberus sighed. "And
I thought Sakura was bad."
And I
thought that would be the end of it.
I thought it was all some nasty dream… maybe a result of the
school lunch. But let me tell you this:
I couldn't have been more wrong.
So that THING on my shoulder is a "beast" called Cerberus.
The rod? I'm getting to
that…
The beeping of the alarm clock was annoying, to say the least. Half asleep, Shibori reached a single hand from under the
blankets, slapping around for the object.
Finally, in her flailing, she knocked the clock to the floor
with a clunk. When it
struck her brain that she also knocked over her soda-pop bottle, she
bolted up expecting to find a stain slowly seeping into the carpet.
She forced her heart to calm itself when she found the bottle
was capped, not to mention empty.
With a sigh, Shibori pushed back the rest of her covers and
plucked the alarm clock from the floor.
"Another day," she muttered, placing the clock back on her
nightstand.
She didn't even take a second look at her mangled bed.
She scratched her head, with her usually smooth hair sticking
up in all directions as she made her way to her vanity mirror. She dug her fist into her eye, rubbing vigorously, while
using her free hand to open her desk drawer.
She grabbed what she thought, was awfully soft to be her brush.
She blinked. It was also squirming, and muttering? Taking her fist away from her eye, she turned to face her
right hand. Dangling in
her grasp, was an apparently very annoyed Cerberus.
"You know, that drawer is awfully stuffy."
Shibori's eyes widened to twice their normal size before she
screamed, and practically flung the guardian, as if he might give her
the plague.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?! You were just supposed to be a
figment of my imagination after eating too many cookies!"
Cerberus landed with a thud, tumbling across the carpet, and
falling victim to Shibori's cat before he could say more.
Now, Shibori would have been perfectly happy to watch the kitty
tear apart the creature that had her convinced she was going insane.
She quickly changed her mind when she noticed the 'possessed
stuffed animal' was bleeding.
"CHIBI! DROP IT!" she commanded the cat, trying to scare it
away from it's new chew toy.
Her attempts were successful, as the cat fled, leaving Cerberus
motionless on the ground. The
chew-toy-mistaken victim moaned slightly.
The cat had succeeded in putting a few teeth holes in his tiny
white wings. Nervous, Shibori scooped him into her hands, and ran to the
bathroom, making it just in time to lock out her brother.
She gently laid Cerberus onto a stack of towels on the counter,
while she grabbed a bandage from the first aid kit.
"Oi! Shi, what're you DOING in there?" she heard her
brother shout from the other side of the door, "I need the
shower."
"Just a minute!" She replied, opening the bandage.
Cerberus winced, "damn, that little beast you call a kitten
can sure bite."
Shibori grabbed the tiny wing, gently wrapping the bandage
around the teeth marks. Cerberus
fluttered the wing with its extra weight.
Then he looked up Shibori with his beady eyes, "You don't
seem freaked out anymore."
"You were bleeding. I went into first aid-mode." She
muttered, before scooping him into her hands again, and opening the
bathroom door. She shoved her way past her much taller older brother, and
walked as calmly as possible to her room.
"Shi, what'd ya use the first aid kit for?"
Shibori froze. "Ah… stubbed my toe on my desk."
"Klutz." He muttered, and he shut the bathroom door behind
him.
Once safely back inside her room, Shibori deposited Cerberus on
her desk. Then, she
quietly went about her daily rituals, pretending he wasn't there.
Cerberus watched her with little interest. He crossed his tiny arms as the stubborn girl brushed the
tangles from her hair, and made her bed.
His eyes widened when she pulled the pajama shirt over her
head, and quickly replaced it with her school uniform.
If Shibori had turned around, she would have seen the
creature's beady eyes were twice their normal size before he quickly
turned his head the other way. Finally,
she pulled her hair up into violet colored bows.
As Shibori turned around, her gaze met Cerberus's.
"You're still here." She muttered.
"I'm gonna be here until you except your responsibility."
He countered.
Shibori walked over to her desk, and leaned down so she was
nearly nose-to-nose with him. The
two, both stubborn as mules, stared at each other for a while.
Finally Shibori straightened, and sighed.
"Fine. I'll do
it."
A smug look crossed the stuffy's face, and he jumped into the
drawer. The book glowed,
and slowly floated out of the drawer.
Slowly, the book, and Cerberus, settled once again on the desk.
A tiny key suddenly appeared from the lock on the book, and it
floated in front of Shibori.
"What
is this for?"
"Just
repeat after me."
Shibori
nodded.
"Key
that hides powers of the stars,"
Shibori
drew in a breath, "Key that hides powers of the stars."
"Appear
to me, Shibori, your mistress under contract,"
"Appear
to me, Shibori, your mistress under contract!"
The
key glowed, and began to spin in the air.
"Release,"
"RELEASE!"
A
blast of energy exploded from the key as it enlarged into a full-sized
rod. Atop the blue rob
was a silver star, with tiny white wings sprouting from the base of
it. As if she were being controlled, Shibori grabbed the rod, and
twirled it once.
"Well,
it's settled then." Cerberus said smugly, "You, are officially
the cardcaptor."
Despite
her confusion, Shibori found herself smiling.
There was still a chance it could all be a dream.
And if it was, she'd wake up, and it would be no big deal.
"SHIBORI!
What is all the noise up there?!"
Shibori
nearly dropped the rod, shocked into a state of panic, "Ah, it was
just my Television! Gomen nasai Okaa-san!"
"Hurry
up, you'll be late for school!"
Shibori
jumped, and flailed, "What do I do with this thing?!" She hissed.
Before
Cerberus could respond, the rod shrunk into a tiny pendant, snuggled
into the palm of her hand. She
blinked, and stuck it in her pocket. "How Convenient."
Shibori
grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder, completely unaware of
the tiny yellow guardian that snuck into it.
In a flash, she ran out of the door.
And
as if THAT wasn't bad enough…
"Ohayo!"
Shibori called out as she entered the classroom.
"Ohayo,
Shi-chan!"
Shibori
walked across the room, and took her seat beside the girl who had
greeted her. She sat with
her arms crossed on top of her desk, her red-brown locks of hair
tied up into buns atop her head.
She smirked at Shibori, her sea green eyes
glittering.
Shibori
blinked. "Hana-chan,
what are you smiling about?"
"I
saw you ride up with Shijou-san."
Shibori
flushed a bright red, and promptly clamped a hand over the blonde
girl's mouth. "Hana-chan, not so loud!" she hissed, before
releasing her hand. "It's not like that."
Hana
simply burst into a fit of giggles.
"Then
why did you turn the same color as a tomato just a moment ago,
Hmmmm?" Hana poked Shibori repetitively in the ribs.
Shibori just sunk down into her seat, as her cheeks flared up
again. Hana proceeded to
giggle again. Hana had brought up one of the worst possible
subjects. Shibori's crush, Highschool Freshman, Shijou
Tsukiyo. She was thankful when the teacher began the
lesson.
And
just when it couldn't get ANY worse… it did.
The minute the school bell went
off, Shibori leapt from her chair, and got out of the school as
quickly as she could. Needless
to say, she hadn't been pleased to find Cerberus had tagged along,
not to mention he'd devoured half of her sandwich.
She rounded the corner outside the school, and ran to a
secluded area. There, she open the bag, and whipped out the tiny guardian.
"Why
did you follow me?!" she hissed.
"You're
new it this. I had to
keep an eye on you!"
Before
Shibori could say anything, a large gust of wind blew her hair in
every direction, ripped her bag form her hands and sent it flying into
a near by tree. Screams
came from all around, as other students struggled to find shelter
before they could go home. Some
voices complained of lost homework because of the wind.
The gust blew stronger, the sound increasing in volume.
Next, the wind pulled the hat from atop Shibori's head, and
threatened to carry it away. She
was barely able to snatch it, before she lost her balance, and another
gust shoved her into the ground.
Cerberus clung to her arm.
"This
is the work of a Sakura Card!" she yelled into Shibori's ear.
"THIS
is what they do?!" she yelled in reply, barely able to hear herself
above the wind.
"YES!
Now you have some WORK TO DO!"
And,
that brings us pretty much back to the present…
"SAKURA CARD!"
Much
to Shibori's surprise, light swirled from every direction, forming
into a rectangular shape above the tip of the wand.
Slowly, the wind died down, and the glowing circled faded away.
The card floated down, settling in the palm of her hand. The swirling colors slowly disappeared, leaving a pink card,
adorned with the image of a woman.
"Windy
card belongs to you now, Shibori."
Shibori
blinked. Her hair was a
mess, not to mention her clothes and scuffed shoes, the rod in one
hand, the card in the other. For
what must have been the umpteenth time in the past 48 hours, she
pinched herself.
But
she didn't wake up.
"Something
tells me… this is going to be a very…very long school year."
TO BE CONTINUED!
Next Episode
SHIBORI: God,
this whole thing is CRAZY! I
have a flying Cat Toy--
CERBERUS:
Who you calling CAT TOY?!
SHIBORI:
--and tarot cards with magical powers. Maybe the school carnival will get my mind off of this…
Maybe I'll go to the fortune telling both and get it all figured
out--
CERBERUS: Um…
Girlie, who's the gal in the robes?
SHIBORI: … O.O HANA-CHAN!?
Episode
Two: Of Elements, Friends, and Fortunes!
NEXT TIME! ^.~
