IV- Nightwalking
------------------
"Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo called as Sakura and Ran walked across the quad
towards Tomoyo, who stood in front of a car. Beside her stood the
four bodyguards.
"Body guards?" Ran asked.
Sakura sighed, "Her mother's work. Tomoyo is the precious daughter of
Sonomi Daidouji."
"I remember." Ran said with a wry smile.
Tomoyo reached for Sakura's hand as they neared.
"I've been waiting all day to talk to you!" she exclaimed. She turned
to Ran and bowed. "Shall we?"
+++++
Sakura wanted to scream. Dinner was not going well at all. In fact
it was a classic nightmare. Tomoyo and Ran sat on either side of her
and they both were having a war of words. The main subject was
pretty much Sakura's life. It started with what they were going to
order. Tomoyo reminded Sakura how much she loved sushi while Ran
replied that Sakura had a taste for udon. Sakura ended up ordering
udon.
It went downhill after that. Sakura could just see the Ran versus
Tomoyo score board above their heads, lit up with little lights and
dinging as each side won a point.
"I know Sakura quit gymnastics, but she's so great at athletics."
Tomoyo said.
"Well-" Ran began to say.
/Enough!/ Sakura placed her hands on the table on either side of her
bowl.
Both stopped.
"I had to deal with this with Onii-chan and Shaoran. Don't make me
not talk to the both of you." she said. "I am not getting involved.
Don't make me be the referee." she said as she stood up and walked in
to the bathroom.
Sakura sighed as she sank down towards the ground in the bathroom
stall. Ran and Tomoyo were not getting along, Kerochan was still
hidden in Tomoyo's purse taking pieces of teriyaki. She was afraid
to leave the bathroom and find Tomoyo and Ran throwing sushi at each
other.
"I should have picked a ramen cart." she muttered, "Less to clean up."
"Its because they love you." a voice whispered.
"I know that." she replied. She stopped and realized that either her
conscious had found a voice and was talking to her or it was-
"Kerochan!" she exclaimed.
Kerochan climbed out of her purse and sat on her lap."Its been a
while Sakura." he said.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left you I couldn't deal with things at
the time... I just wanted to get away." she said as she rose her
knees to her chest. Kerochan sat on her knees so that they were face
to face. "Everything reminded me of him." she whispered. Old tears
threatened to surface past her eyelashes again.
"Its alright." he said, "I knew you'd be ready to see us again."
"I missed you." she whispered as she reached a finger to poke him.
Kerochan giggled. "Me too."
Sakura sighed, "I guess we should head out and see what damage they
caused, ne?"
He nodded, "Then we can get dessert."
"That depends on the state of the restaurant." she said.
Suddenly a scream ripped through the building. Sakura looked up at
the ceiling, "I was kidding about Tomoyo and Ran fighting." She
quickly got up and burst into the restaurant to see it in a mess.
Tables were tossed every which way. It looked like someone had made
an escape path from the garden door to the main exit of the
restaurant. A path ten feet wide was cleared.
"Ran! Tomoyo!" Sakura called.
"Sakura! Over here!" Ran called.
"Oh Sakura-chan! You should have seen it! He just zoomed by!"
Sakura glanced at the garden door, or where it used to be. Glass was
everywhere.
"Zoomed by?" she repeated. "You mean you two didn't cause this?"
Ran laughed, "Sakura, you're cute, Tomoyo-san and I may not agree on
things, but we didn't cause this."
Tomoyo smiled, "Besides, five minutes after you escaped to the
bathroom, we called a truce." she said.
"Oh," was all Sakura could say. 'Thank god.'
"However..." Ran said as they waited for the police to come. "The way
he burst through the door was amazing. He flew by on black wings."
"Black wings?" Sakura repeated. She was still in shock over the state
of the restaurant.
"Yes." Ran said, "He reminded me of the news reports I used to see
when I was younger, I don't remember, it was at least five years ago."
"Interesting." Tomoyo said.
They couldn't say any more on the subject, the police had arrived and
begun a round of questions.
"Sakura..." Tomoyo said later that night. They were sitting on
Tomoyo's bed in the hotel room. Kerochan was munching on a
takoyaki. "Kerochan said he sensed something."
Sakura turned to Kerochan, "Oh?"
Kerochan nodded, his face smudged with sauce, "I felt a change in the
air, like as if magic was being used."
"I didn't feel it." Sakura said.
"Its no magic you're used to." Kerochan said. "I think it happened
around the time of the robbery."
"Kerochan and I thought that the thief may be magical." Tomoyo said.
"And?" Sakura did not like what they were implying.
"If he is magical, then you should help to-"
"The answer is no." Sakura said.
"But Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo exclaimed.
"No." Sakura said again. "I stopped using the Clow Cards three years
ago." she said. "I want a normal life. I can't use them now, not when
I have midterms, and some guy harassing me."
Tomoyo smirked as if to say /I'll talk to you about the guy later.../
and then looked at Kerochan with a sigh.
"Sakura." Kerochan said slowly, "Think about this, please." he
said, "The university will suffer if they lose more paintings."
"Sakura-chan you're the only person that can stop the thief." Tomoyo
said.
"The answer is still no." Sakura said, crossing her arms.
++++++
Sakura sighed, "Why can't it be the police? I'm no longer a Card
Captor." she said, "I thought I didn't need to use the cards since
the battle with Eriol."
Tomoyo walked up to Sakura and smiled softly, "You know that you're
probably the only one that can stand a chance." she said, "Three
paintings, all valued highly by the university." she held out the
Clow book and the key.
Sakura picked the key up and just stared at it. She turned to
Kerochan, "Can you remember feeling any traces of magic during the
time the paintings were stolen."
"I'll try to remember if the magical feeling I felt was around then."
Kerochan said as he sat on Sakura's desk.
Sakura rubbed her temples, "This can't happen, not during midterms."
she muttered.
"Sakura?" Ran called through the door.
Sakura opened the door.
"Ran, I want you to meet someone." she said as she sat down at her
desk chair.
"Who?" Ran asked as she looked around the room. "Sakura why are you
in that get up? I never thought vinyl was your thing."
"Me!" Kerochan exclaimed.
Ran looked at Kerochan, "Sakura that plushie just talked."
"Of course!" he said, "I'm Kerochan, nice to meet 'ya!"
"Oh..." was all Ran said and then fainted.
Sakura caught Ran before she hit the ground and sighed, "Well that
went over well."
+++++
Sakura sat on the roof of the music building, which was situated
right across the quad from the art building. It gave her a good view
of the main corridor that led to the gallery.
When was the last time she did something like this? She was at least
twelve. Those days seemed like a distant memory, a different life,
but chanting the spell to release her key was so easy as if she did
only yesterday. She flew her way to the roof of the music building
reluctant to dispell the wings. The feeling of flying was so good.
"I forgot what it felt like to fly." she said with a small smile.
"And you forgot what it felt like to use magic." a voice said next to
her.
Sakura looked down at Kerochan with a smile, "Yes, I know." she
looked back at the art building, "I remember everything, how to do
it, how easy it was. I never forgot that. I just locked the memories
away it seemed."
"I think you're beginning to heal." he said.
Sakura drew her knees to her chest. Tomoyo was so excited about
Sakura out in costume again, Sakura insisted that she stay in the
dorm with Ran. This was something she needed to do alone. Tomoyo
felt a little put out, she knew it would be great material for her
film theory class. Sakura wondered once again what they took for
normal in Clamp Campus.
Ran was a dear, she took Sakura aside and said, "I don't understand
all this card business."
Sakura bowed her head, even after a small demonstration of what the
cards could do Ran was still skeptical.
"But for the first time I'm seeing the missing part of you." Ran
said, "And I support whatever direction you want to take with it."
Sakura smiled at Ran, she hugged her. "Thank you." Sakura whispered.
"Oooof!" Ran exclaimed.
"Promise me one thing." Sakura said in her ear.
"Yes?" Ran asked.
"Never make me a costume, one is enough."
Ran laughed, "I hate vinyl."
Sakura smiled as she remembered how Ran kept Tomoyo company. "Tell me
about Sakura when she was little." Ran said as she reached for a bag
of cookies. She winked at Sakura as Sakura ducked out of the window
to catch the thief.
"Bless you Ran." Sakura whispered.
"Sakura... I think there's something going on down there." Kerochan
said.
Sakura looked down and saw movement along the corridors of the art
building. A shadow was swiftly heading towards the gallery wing.
Sakura stood and took a deep breath, "Alright... here goes." she
whispered, she let the wand spin in her hands as she pulled out a
card and said, "Jump!" The next thing she knew she was off chasing
after the shadow that she knew was the legendary thief named Dark
Mousy.
++++++
Dark slipped into the gallery. He ignored all the other paintings
that hung around him. He wanted the one that hung in the back of the
room just as Daisuke had seen when he and Sakura had toured the art
building.
/She's nice./ Daisuke said in the back of his mind.
"I can tell." Dark said as he tried to figure out a way to get the
painting down with out making a mess.
/I think I'm getting to her./ Daisuke said as Dark carefully took the
painting off the wall and set it on the ground. /She reminds me of me
when I lost Riku.../
"I think she's what you need." Dark said as he carefully pulled the
frame off the canvas.
"Stop right there!"
Dark looked up to see a woman standing in the dark, silhouetted by
the moonlight that came from behind her through the open gallery door.
"Or else what?" Dark asked as he popped the frame free.
"I don't know." she said, "It usually works in mahou shoujo manga."
He laughed, "Well... I want this painting and you're here to stop me.
So now what?"
She walked forward with a wand and said "Windy!"
Dark felt the painting being ripped from his grasp. It fell neatly
into her hands. She sighed with relief. "That was easier than I
thought."
Dark chuckled, "For now." he walked up to her and grabbed her
hand, "But I will come back for that painting. Try to catch me then."
"You aren't going to put up a fight?" she asked bewildered.
He walked away from her, his arms behind his head, "No." he said.
"No?"
"You amuse me." he said, "I like where this is going." he looked at
her out of the corner of his eyes, "Besides, you're quite a looker."
He could hear her gasp and whisper, "Ecchi!" he chuckled.
"Tell you what." he said, "I'll let you go... if you let me look at
you under the mask."
"And then turn me in?" she said, "I have enough trouble trying to
hide the cards."
"I could try to get that painting out of your hands." he said, "Its
not that hard."
"Why do you want this painting?" she asked.
"Family issues." he said, "Not to get into too much detail, its a
family rivalry and I steal the paintings."
"Ahh..." she said.
"The mask or the painting." he said. "I promise I won't tell."
"You won't tell?"
"Don't do it!"
Dark looked down to see a little yellow bear with wings at her side.
"But the painting."
"I don't trust him." the yellow bear said.
Dark blinked, who would have thought that another magical creature
would exist? And this one spoke Osaka ben!
"Kero-chan if it means the painting is safe I'll do it." she said.
"Not safe." he said, "Just temporarily safe."
She looked at him, "You won't tell?" she asked.
"No." he said, "I like you."
She stepped forward, into a pool of moonlight that spilled from one
of the upper windows of the gallery. She reached for the mask and
sighed. "You promise not to take the painting?"
"Of course." he said.
She reached for her mask again, as she pulled it off the alarm went
off.
"Crap!" he said.
"Jump!"
She disappeared. No she jumped away from him and was on the second
floor of the art building. "Gomen ne!" she said, "But I have to save
this painting and my identity." she said. "I would suggest leaving
now before they catch you."
He chuckled. "I never get caught. You win this time," he called up at
her, "but next time the mask goes off!"
She laughed, "We'll see." and she disappeared.
----------------------
Notes: (aka Steph's rambling)
1) Now things get interesting. ^_^ I always guessed Tomoyo would be
rather possessive over Sakura. Especially when she "chooses" who
Sakura could go to. Tomoyo is learning to deal with the fact that
she may never know all of Sakura. ^^;;
2) Not a bad exchange between Sakura and Dark right? Its obvious to
us that its Sakura parading as a mahou shoujo (magical girl) ^_- but
its not to Dark, so things get interesting there.
3) doki-doki.org/fanfic/ccs/shape/ ~ notes
------------------
"Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo called as Sakura and Ran walked across the quad
towards Tomoyo, who stood in front of a car. Beside her stood the
four bodyguards.
"Body guards?" Ran asked.
Sakura sighed, "Her mother's work. Tomoyo is the precious daughter of
Sonomi Daidouji."
"I remember." Ran said with a wry smile.
Tomoyo reached for Sakura's hand as they neared.
"I've been waiting all day to talk to you!" she exclaimed. She turned
to Ran and bowed. "Shall we?"
+++++
Sakura wanted to scream. Dinner was not going well at all. In fact
it was a classic nightmare. Tomoyo and Ran sat on either side of her
and they both were having a war of words. The main subject was
pretty much Sakura's life. It started with what they were going to
order. Tomoyo reminded Sakura how much she loved sushi while Ran
replied that Sakura had a taste for udon. Sakura ended up ordering
udon.
It went downhill after that. Sakura could just see the Ran versus
Tomoyo score board above their heads, lit up with little lights and
dinging as each side won a point.
"I know Sakura quit gymnastics, but she's so great at athletics."
Tomoyo said.
"Well-" Ran began to say.
/Enough!/ Sakura placed her hands on the table on either side of her
bowl.
Both stopped.
"I had to deal with this with Onii-chan and Shaoran. Don't make me
not talk to the both of you." she said. "I am not getting involved.
Don't make me be the referee." she said as she stood up and walked in
to the bathroom.
Sakura sighed as she sank down towards the ground in the bathroom
stall. Ran and Tomoyo were not getting along, Kerochan was still
hidden in Tomoyo's purse taking pieces of teriyaki. She was afraid
to leave the bathroom and find Tomoyo and Ran throwing sushi at each
other.
"I should have picked a ramen cart." she muttered, "Less to clean up."
"Its because they love you." a voice whispered.
"I know that." she replied. She stopped and realized that either her
conscious had found a voice and was talking to her or it was-
"Kerochan!" she exclaimed.
Kerochan climbed out of her purse and sat on her lap."Its been a
while Sakura." he said.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left you I couldn't deal with things at
the time... I just wanted to get away." she said as she rose her
knees to her chest. Kerochan sat on her knees so that they were face
to face. "Everything reminded me of him." she whispered. Old tears
threatened to surface past her eyelashes again.
"Its alright." he said, "I knew you'd be ready to see us again."
"I missed you." she whispered as she reached a finger to poke him.
Kerochan giggled. "Me too."
Sakura sighed, "I guess we should head out and see what damage they
caused, ne?"
He nodded, "Then we can get dessert."
"That depends on the state of the restaurant." she said.
Suddenly a scream ripped through the building. Sakura looked up at
the ceiling, "I was kidding about Tomoyo and Ran fighting." She
quickly got up and burst into the restaurant to see it in a mess.
Tables were tossed every which way. It looked like someone had made
an escape path from the garden door to the main exit of the
restaurant. A path ten feet wide was cleared.
"Ran! Tomoyo!" Sakura called.
"Sakura! Over here!" Ran called.
"Oh Sakura-chan! You should have seen it! He just zoomed by!"
Sakura glanced at the garden door, or where it used to be. Glass was
everywhere.
"Zoomed by?" she repeated. "You mean you two didn't cause this?"
Ran laughed, "Sakura, you're cute, Tomoyo-san and I may not agree on
things, but we didn't cause this."
Tomoyo smiled, "Besides, five minutes after you escaped to the
bathroom, we called a truce." she said.
"Oh," was all Sakura could say. 'Thank god.'
"However..." Ran said as they waited for the police to come. "The way
he burst through the door was amazing. He flew by on black wings."
"Black wings?" Sakura repeated. She was still in shock over the state
of the restaurant.
"Yes." Ran said, "He reminded me of the news reports I used to see
when I was younger, I don't remember, it was at least five years ago."
"Interesting." Tomoyo said.
They couldn't say any more on the subject, the police had arrived and
begun a round of questions.
"Sakura..." Tomoyo said later that night. They were sitting on
Tomoyo's bed in the hotel room. Kerochan was munching on a
takoyaki. "Kerochan said he sensed something."
Sakura turned to Kerochan, "Oh?"
Kerochan nodded, his face smudged with sauce, "I felt a change in the
air, like as if magic was being used."
"I didn't feel it." Sakura said.
"Its no magic you're used to." Kerochan said. "I think it happened
around the time of the robbery."
"Kerochan and I thought that the thief may be magical." Tomoyo said.
"And?" Sakura did not like what they were implying.
"If he is magical, then you should help to-"
"The answer is no." Sakura said.
"But Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo exclaimed.
"No." Sakura said again. "I stopped using the Clow Cards three years
ago." she said. "I want a normal life. I can't use them now, not when
I have midterms, and some guy harassing me."
Tomoyo smirked as if to say /I'll talk to you about the guy later.../
and then looked at Kerochan with a sigh.
"Sakura." Kerochan said slowly, "Think about this, please." he
said, "The university will suffer if they lose more paintings."
"Sakura-chan you're the only person that can stop the thief." Tomoyo
said.
"The answer is still no." Sakura said, crossing her arms.
++++++
Sakura sighed, "Why can't it be the police? I'm no longer a Card
Captor." she said, "I thought I didn't need to use the cards since
the battle with Eriol."
Tomoyo walked up to Sakura and smiled softly, "You know that you're
probably the only one that can stand a chance." she said, "Three
paintings, all valued highly by the university." she held out the
Clow book and the key.
Sakura picked the key up and just stared at it. She turned to
Kerochan, "Can you remember feeling any traces of magic during the
time the paintings were stolen."
"I'll try to remember if the magical feeling I felt was around then."
Kerochan said as he sat on Sakura's desk.
Sakura rubbed her temples, "This can't happen, not during midterms."
she muttered.
"Sakura?" Ran called through the door.
Sakura opened the door.
"Ran, I want you to meet someone." she said as she sat down at her
desk chair.
"Who?" Ran asked as she looked around the room. "Sakura why are you
in that get up? I never thought vinyl was your thing."
"Me!" Kerochan exclaimed.
Ran looked at Kerochan, "Sakura that plushie just talked."
"Of course!" he said, "I'm Kerochan, nice to meet 'ya!"
"Oh..." was all Ran said and then fainted.
Sakura caught Ran before she hit the ground and sighed, "Well that
went over well."
+++++
Sakura sat on the roof of the music building, which was situated
right across the quad from the art building. It gave her a good view
of the main corridor that led to the gallery.
When was the last time she did something like this? She was at least
twelve. Those days seemed like a distant memory, a different life,
but chanting the spell to release her key was so easy as if she did
only yesterday. She flew her way to the roof of the music building
reluctant to dispell the wings. The feeling of flying was so good.
"I forgot what it felt like to fly." she said with a small smile.
"And you forgot what it felt like to use magic." a voice said next to
her.
Sakura looked down at Kerochan with a smile, "Yes, I know." she
looked back at the art building, "I remember everything, how to do
it, how easy it was. I never forgot that. I just locked the memories
away it seemed."
"I think you're beginning to heal." he said.
Sakura drew her knees to her chest. Tomoyo was so excited about
Sakura out in costume again, Sakura insisted that she stay in the
dorm with Ran. This was something she needed to do alone. Tomoyo
felt a little put out, she knew it would be great material for her
film theory class. Sakura wondered once again what they took for
normal in Clamp Campus.
Ran was a dear, she took Sakura aside and said, "I don't understand
all this card business."
Sakura bowed her head, even after a small demonstration of what the
cards could do Ran was still skeptical.
"But for the first time I'm seeing the missing part of you." Ran
said, "And I support whatever direction you want to take with it."
Sakura smiled at Ran, she hugged her. "Thank you." Sakura whispered.
"Oooof!" Ran exclaimed.
"Promise me one thing." Sakura said in her ear.
"Yes?" Ran asked.
"Never make me a costume, one is enough."
Ran laughed, "I hate vinyl."
Sakura smiled as she remembered how Ran kept Tomoyo company. "Tell me
about Sakura when she was little." Ran said as she reached for a bag
of cookies. She winked at Sakura as Sakura ducked out of the window
to catch the thief.
"Bless you Ran." Sakura whispered.
"Sakura... I think there's something going on down there." Kerochan
said.
Sakura looked down and saw movement along the corridors of the art
building. A shadow was swiftly heading towards the gallery wing.
Sakura stood and took a deep breath, "Alright... here goes." she
whispered, she let the wand spin in her hands as she pulled out a
card and said, "Jump!" The next thing she knew she was off chasing
after the shadow that she knew was the legendary thief named Dark
Mousy.
++++++
Dark slipped into the gallery. He ignored all the other paintings
that hung around him. He wanted the one that hung in the back of the
room just as Daisuke had seen when he and Sakura had toured the art
building.
/She's nice./ Daisuke said in the back of his mind.
"I can tell." Dark said as he tried to figure out a way to get the
painting down with out making a mess.
/I think I'm getting to her./ Daisuke said as Dark carefully took the
painting off the wall and set it on the ground. /She reminds me of me
when I lost Riku.../
"I think she's what you need." Dark said as he carefully pulled the
frame off the canvas.
"Stop right there!"
Dark looked up to see a woman standing in the dark, silhouetted by
the moonlight that came from behind her through the open gallery door.
"Or else what?" Dark asked as he popped the frame free.
"I don't know." she said, "It usually works in mahou shoujo manga."
He laughed, "Well... I want this painting and you're here to stop me.
So now what?"
She walked forward with a wand and said "Windy!"
Dark felt the painting being ripped from his grasp. It fell neatly
into her hands. She sighed with relief. "That was easier than I
thought."
Dark chuckled, "For now." he walked up to her and grabbed her
hand, "But I will come back for that painting. Try to catch me then."
"You aren't going to put up a fight?" she asked bewildered.
He walked away from her, his arms behind his head, "No." he said.
"No?"
"You amuse me." he said, "I like where this is going." he looked at
her out of the corner of his eyes, "Besides, you're quite a looker."
He could hear her gasp and whisper, "Ecchi!" he chuckled.
"Tell you what." he said, "I'll let you go... if you let me look at
you under the mask."
"And then turn me in?" she said, "I have enough trouble trying to
hide the cards."
"I could try to get that painting out of your hands." he said, "Its
not that hard."
"Why do you want this painting?" she asked.
"Family issues." he said, "Not to get into too much detail, its a
family rivalry and I steal the paintings."
"Ahh..." she said.
"The mask or the painting." he said. "I promise I won't tell."
"You won't tell?"
"Don't do it!"
Dark looked down to see a little yellow bear with wings at her side.
"But the painting."
"I don't trust him." the yellow bear said.
Dark blinked, who would have thought that another magical creature
would exist? And this one spoke Osaka ben!
"Kero-chan if it means the painting is safe I'll do it." she said.
"Not safe." he said, "Just temporarily safe."
She looked at him, "You won't tell?" she asked.
"No." he said, "I like you."
She stepped forward, into a pool of moonlight that spilled from one
of the upper windows of the gallery. She reached for the mask and
sighed. "You promise not to take the painting?"
"Of course." he said.
She reached for her mask again, as she pulled it off the alarm went
off.
"Crap!" he said.
"Jump!"
She disappeared. No she jumped away from him and was on the second
floor of the art building. "Gomen ne!" she said, "But I have to save
this painting and my identity." she said. "I would suggest leaving
now before they catch you."
He chuckled. "I never get caught. You win this time," he called up at
her, "but next time the mask goes off!"
She laughed, "We'll see." and she disappeared.
----------------------
Notes: (aka Steph's rambling)
1) Now things get interesting. ^_^ I always guessed Tomoyo would be
rather possessive over Sakura. Especially when she "chooses" who
Sakura could go to. Tomoyo is learning to deal with the fact that
she may never know all of Sakura. ^^;;
2) Not a bad exchange between Sakura and Dark right? Its obvious to
us that its Sakura parading as a mahou shoujo (magical girl) ^_- but
its not to Dark, so things get interesting there.
3) doki-doki.org/fanfic/ccs/shape/ ~ notes
