"The Deepest Friendship" - A Cardcaptor Sakura Fanfic
Story Written by Freedom Fighter
Rating: PG
Will Tomoyo be saved? Or is the world doomed? The beginning of the end is now!
Disclaimer: I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura or any of the characters from the
TV series.
*****
Chapter Eight (09.02.02)
"I give up."
Sakura couldn't believe that those three words had come out of her mouth. But
she had no other choice. She couldn't stand idly by while the third and final
Forbidden Clow Card drew ever closer. So she decided to surrender for now,
hoping she could buy enough time for Syaoran to return... wherever he might be.
"You give up?" Tomoyo asked, wanting Sakura to confirm her surrender.
"Yes. I'm no match for you."
Tomoyo smirked. "I'm glad you see it that way, Clow Mistress!"
"I'll do whatever it takes to help Tomoyo-chan. Even if it means standing by,
powerless to do anything."
"That's right. Go ahead and wallow in self-pity. The sadder you are, the
happier I'll be when I finish you off."
"No way!"
Sakura and Tomoyo turn and see Kero fly up to the duo. He gets into a holding
position in front of Sakura, stretching his little arms as a sign that he
intended to defend her.
"Kero-chan..."
"I will not learn you hurt her! Sakura is the Cardcaptor! Without her, the
Clow Cards will not be returned to the Book of Clow, and then chaos will reign
over the world!"
"Funny. That's exactly what I was thinking of doing."
Tomoyo reaches out and grabs Kero before he can fly away. She then tosses him
aside like a rag doll.
"Kero-chan!" Sakura shouted, a bit worried about the Guardian Beast.
Tomoyo extends her arms out and grabs Sakura's. She begins to squeeze them
hard, which makes Sakura wince in pain.
"I wouldn't be worried about him if I were you," Tomoyo said to Sakura as she
tightened her grip.
"Tomoyo-chan," Sakura began to plead while struggling to get free. "Don't do
this!"
"I told you before, your beloved Tomoyo-chan is gone! Only the entity that
was formed after the merge of the Ghost Card and myself, the Psychic Card,
remain standing before you!"
"No! I don't believe that at all! Tomoyo-chan's still in there somewhere! I
know it!"
"My... for someone who's hands I'm squeezing the life out of, being able to
plead for your former friend to fight back is remarkable."
Tomoyo then flashes another evil smile as she tightens her grip even more.
"But now I remember that you still have the Power Card activated. Of course,
with most of that power absorbed by your staff, that leaves very little for
you to defend yourself with. And in just a matter of seconds, the last of the
energy of that card will wear off, allowing you to feel the true pain that you
should be feeling!"
"Uuuhhhh... Tomoyo-chan, please!"
"The time has come!"
Just as the Power Card wears off, leaving Sakura vulnerable and helpless,
another Clow Card is activated. Tomoyo and Sakura are standing completely
still, unable to move at all. In fact, nothing in the area was moving at all.
Except for the one who had activated the card itself. Syaoran Li.
Moving quickly, Syaoran runs over and somehow manages to squeeze in between
the bodies of Tomoyo and Sakura, effectively blocking the two girls' view of
each other. Despite the close quarters, especially how close he was to
touching both of them by the simple move of his arm, he manages to deactivate
the Clow Card he used and have time start up again.
Believe it or not, the surprise of having Syaoran mysteriously squeezed
between them causes Tomoyo to leap back, releasing her grip on Sakura. Sakura
stumbles back, right into the penguin slide. The sudden impact causes Sakura
to fall to her knees in the sandbox. But before she's able to fall to the
ground, Syaoran catches her by the shoulders.
"Hey, are you alright?"
"Wha... Li-kun?"
"Everything's going to be alright now. I know how to help Tomoyo."
Sakura's eyes brightened at hearing that. "You do?"
The two glance over at Tomoyo, who is still trying to figure out how Syaoran
got between the two of them.
"You boy! How did you?"
Syaoran smiles and pulls out the Time Card.
"Of course," Tomoyo said, realizing what had happened. "Freezing time to give
you a few seconds to save the Clow Mistress. Not bad."
Syaoran turns back to Sakura and hands her the notebook he had been holding
when he entered the park.
"There's only one chance at freeing Tomoyo. You do have all of the cards on
you, right?"
Sakura nods as she takes the notebook and starts reading his notes. After
doing so, she blinks her eyes a few times, somewhat confused about what to do.
"You want me to use the Return Card?"
"Yes. The only way to get rid of the Forbiddens that have taken over Tomoyo
is to stop them before they get to her. Therefore, you must return to the
time just before when the Psychic Card took control of her."
"But Li-kun, I don't know when that happened!"
"You'll have to guess at it. It's our only hope of saving her."
Kero, who had recovered from being tossed aside, flies over to Syaoran and
Sakura. Sakura turns to Kero and looks at him, determined to win.
"Remember," Syaoran spoke up, "once you return to the past, you can't return
to the present until the past catches back up. Okay?"
"Right."
"And the Poison Card is nearby. I'll try to keep it from merging with the
other Forbiddens, but I won't last long. You have to hurry."
Sakura nods again. Syaoran then picks up the staff and hands it to her.
"Go! We don't have much time!"
Syaoran leaves Sakura's side and runs towards Tomoyo. The two start to duel
it out using their fists as a worried Sakura looks on.
"Li-kun! Tomoyo-chan!"
"Sakura, we don't have time for this! Use the Return Card!"
Sakura turns her attention to the matter at hand. In moments, she finds the
Return Card, pulls it out of her deck, and activates it.
"RETURN! Send me back to when the Psychic Card first took control of Tomoyo!"
As the wand hits the card, a pink and purple vortex appears in front of her.
Not even thinking twice, she runs right in, with Kero behind her. The vortex
then immediately closes up, leaving Syaoran and Tomoyo in the park alone.
"Good luck," Syaoran thought as he blocked all of Tomoyo's rapid punches.
======
Before they knew it, Sakura and Kero were standing in front of the penguin
slide once again. Only now, the sun was still up in the sky, partially
covered by some clouds.
"How far back did we travel?" Sakura asked, knowing that Kero didn't know the
answer.
"Who knows? You have to figure it out."
Sakura looks around, trying to see if she could recognize anything. There
were a few small kids running around the park. But they weren't looking at
Sakura and Kero when they appeared, so there was no need to explain where they
had come from. Not that they would need to.
Luckily, Chiharu, one of Sakura's friends, was on her way home from school,
passing by the park.
"Chiharu-chan!"
Sakura runs towards Chiharu, who is leafing through one of her schoolbooks as
she walks. Kero follows cautiously, shouting out a warning at Sakura.
"Sakura! Remember that she can't see or hear you!"
Remembering that the Return Card only took one to the past without allowing
them to interfere with it, Sakura decides to just walk along with Chiharu and
figure out what she's doing. Hopefully, it would give her a clue as to how
far back in time she was.
"As she approached the shrine," Chiharu read aloud, "Ruki realized that all of
her hard work was finally about to pay off. It seemed like a goal she was
destined to fail. But here she was, just a staircase away from meeting her
idol."
Sakura stops walking, instantly recognizing the book Chiharu was reading.
"The Princess Journals! We had a quiz on the final few chapters the other
day!"
"I remember reading that... not exactly the most action-packed story I've ever
read."
"Chiharu had told me the day before that that she was behind and that she
hadn't read the last few chapters. She must've read them on the way home.
Which means that we've gone back three days!"
"Good work Sakura! Now, we just have to find Tomoyo and figure out where and
when the Psychic Card gets a hold of her."
"She's at the library with me!" Sakura exclaimed, the memory coming back to
her.
"Wha?"
"I didn't have cheerleading practice that day, and since Tomoyo and I still
hadn't finished reading the story either, we went to the library to read in
peace."
"How long were you two together?"
"'Til about a quarter to five. We then walked home our separate ways."
"And nothing strange happened to Tomoyo at the library?"
Sakura shook her head. "Not that I could recall. We'd better get to the
library then to make sure nothing does happen."
Sakura runs off in the direction of the library. But Kero yells at her to
stop.
"Sakura, stop!"
Before she knew it, the scenery had started to swirl around. Sakura skids to
a stop, confused as to what's going on.
"Kero-chan?"
Kero sighs. "Another disadvantage to the Return Card is that you have to stay
within 400 meters of the place where you activated it. If you step out of
the range, the card stops functioning and you're instantly returned to the
time and place where you had summoned it."
"But I thought you said that I could only go back when time here had caught
up to the present!"
"Exactly!"
"Then what am I supposed to do? If the card gets Tomoyo-chan anywhere but
here, then how are we going to save her?"
"I don't know, Sakura."
"You have to know! You're the Guardian Beast of the Clow! There's got to be
at least one card I can use!"
Kero tried to think of a card, but Sakura had already pulled out her deck to
search for a card to use.
======
Back in present time, Tomoyo and Syaoran had reached a stalemate in their
battle. The two of them were standing about 15 meters apart, staring each
other down.
All of a sudden, a strange feeling comes over Tomoyo, causing her to fall to
her knees. Syaoran runs over, concerned about her.
"Daidouji?"
Tomoyo had her hands on the sides of her head, as if she had a headache.
Thinking that the third card was nearby, Syaoran takes his mind off of Tomoyo
temporarily to try and find the card. He closes his eyes and tunes in his
senses.
After about a minute, he finally senses the card flying in their direction
from the west.
"It'll be here any second."
Syaoran opens his eyes so that he can keep Tomoyo safe. But she's no longer
kneeling in front of him. At first, he thinks that Tomoyo's run off to meet
the card. Looking in that direction, he doesn't see her. But then he hears
the rustling of some leaves behind him. He turns and sees Tomoyo on the run,
away from the card.
"Why is she going that way? The card's in front of us, not back there."
Syaoran wondered what was going on, until a frightening thought came to mind.
"The lake! What if she..."
He runs off after Tomoyo.
======
Not too far away from the park was a bridge that spanned over a small lake
that bordered the park's south entrance. Syaoran runs up to the bridge and
stops, gasping as he sees Tomoyo standing on one of the bridge posts.
"I'm sorry," Tomoyo said apologetically, and to Syaoran's surprise, in her
own voice.
"You broke free? How?"
"Only temporarily. This is my only chance to free myself."
"Wait!"
Syaoran runs over to stop Tomoyo, but she's already turned and made her leap
off of the bridge post.
Coming in Chapter 9 (the final chapter):
- Will Sakura find Tomoyo and keep the Psychic Card from reaching her?
- Is drowning herself the only way for Tomoyo to free herself?
- And the relationship between Sakura and Tomoyo takes an interesting turn.
Story Written by Freedom Fighter
Rating: PG
Will Tomoyo be saved? Or is the world doomed? The beginning of the end is now!
Disclaimer: I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura or any of the characters from the
TV series.
*****
Chapter Eight (09.02.02)
"I give up."
Sakura couldn't believe that those three words had come out of her mouth. But
she had no other choice. She couldn't stand idly by while the third and final
Forbidden Clow Card drew ever closer. So she decided to surrender for now,
hoping she could buy enough time for Syaoran to return... wherever he might be.
"You give up?" Tomoyo asked, wanting Sakura to confirm her surrender.
"Yes. I'm no match for you."
Tomoyo smirked. "I'm glad you see it that way, Clow Mistress!"
"I'll do whatever it takes to help Tomoyo-chan. Even if it means standing by,
powerless to do anything."
"That's right. Go ahead and wallow in self-pity. The sadder you are, the
happier I'll be when I finish you off."
"No way!"
Sakura and Tomoyo turn and see Kero fly up to the duo. He gets into a holding
position in front of Sakura, stretching his little arms as a sign that he
intended to defend her.
"Kero-chan..."
"I will not learn you hurt her! Sakura is the Cardcaptor! Without her, the
Clow Cards will not be returned to the Book of Clow, and then chaos will reign
over the world!"
"Funny. That's exactly what I was thinking of doing."
Tomoyo reaches out and grabs Kero before he can fly away. She then tosses him
aside like a rag doll.
"Kero-chan!" Sakura shouted, a bit worried about the Guardian Beast.
Tomoyo extends her arms out and grabs Sakura's. She begins to squeeze them
hard, which makes Sakura wince in pain.
"I wouldn't be worried about him if I were you," Tomoyo said to Sakura as she
tightened her grip.
"Tomoyo-chan," Sakura began to plead while struggling to get free. "Don't do
this!"
"I told you before, your beloved Tomoyo-chan is gone! Only the entity that
was formed after the merge of the Ghost Card and myself, the Psychic Card,
remain standing before you!"
"No! I don't believe that at all! Tomoyo-chan's still in there somewhere! I
know it!"
"My... for someone who's hands I'm squeezing the life out of, being able to
plead for your former friend to fight back is remarkable."
Tomoyo then flashes another evil smile as she tightens her grip even more.
"But now I remember that you still have the Power Card activated. Of course,
with most of that power absorbed by your staff, that leaves very little for
you to defend yourself with. And in just a matter of seconds, the last of the
energy of that card will wear off, allowing you to feel the true pain that you
should be feeling!"
"Uuuhhhh... Tomoyo-chan, please!"
"The time has come!"
Just as the Power Card wears off, leaving Sakura vulnerable and helpless,
another Clow Card is activated. Tomoyo and Sakura are standing completely
still, unable to move at all. In fact, nothing in the area was moving at all.
Except for the one who had activated the card itself. Syaoran Li.
Moving quickly, Syaoran runs over and somehow manages to squeeze in between
the bodies of Tomoyo and Sakura, effectively blocking the two girls' view of
each other. Despite the close quarters, especially how close he was to
touching both of them by the simple move of his arm, he manages to deactivate
the Clow Card he used and have time start up again.
Believe it or not, the surprise of having Syaoran mysteriously squeezed
between them causes Tomoyo to leap back, releasing her grip on Sakura. Sakura
stumbles back, right into the penguin slide. The sudden impact causes Sakura
to fall to her knees in the sandbox. But before she's able to fall to the
ground, Syaoran catches her by the shoulders.
"Hey, are you alright?"
"Wha... Li-kun?"
"Everything's going to be alright now. I know how to help Tomoyo."
Sakura's eyes brightened at hearing that. "You do?"
The two glance over at Tomoyo, who is still trying to figure out how Syaoran
got between the two of them.
"You boy! How did you?"
Syaoran smiles and pulls out the Time Card.
"Of course," Tomoyo said, realizing what had happened. "Freezing time to give
you a few seconds to save the Clow Mistress. Not bad."
Syaoran turns back to Sakura and hands her the notebook he had been holding
when he entered the park.
"There's only one chance at freeing Tomoyo. You do have all of the cards on
you, right?"
Sakura nods as she takes the notebook and starts reading his notes. After
doing so, she blinks her eyes a few times, somewhat confused about what to do.
"You want me to use the Return Card?"
"Yes. The only way to get rid of the Forbiddens that have taken over Tomoyo
is to stop them before they get to her. Therefore, you must return to the
time just before when the Psychic Card took control of her."
"But Li-kun, I don't know when that happened!"
"You'll have to guess at it. It's our only hope of saving her."
Kero, who had recovered from being tossed aside, flies over to Syaoran and
Sakura. Sakura turns to Kero and looks at him, determined to win.
"Remember," Syaoran spoke up, "once you return to the past, you can't return
to the present until the past catches back up. Okay?"
"Right."
"And the Poison Card is nearby. I'll try to keep it from merging with the
other Forbiddens, but I won't last long. You have to hurry."
Sakura nods again. Syaoran then picks up the staff and hands it to her.
"Go! We don't have much time!"
Syaoran leaves Sakura's side and runs towards Tomoyo. The two start to duel
it out using their fists as a worried Sakura looks on.
"Li-kun! Tomoyo-chan!"
"Sakura, we don't have time for this! Use the Return Card!"
Sakura turns her attention to the matter at hand. In moments, she finds the
Return Card, pulls it out of her deck, and activates it.
"RETURN! Send me back to when the Psychic Card first took control of Tomoyo!"
As the wand hits the card, a pink and purple vortex appears in front of her.
Not even thinking twice, she runs right in, with Kero behind her. The vortex
then immediately closes up, leaving Syaoran and Tomoyo in the park alone.
"Good luck," Syaoran thought as he blocked all of Tomoyo's rapid punches.
======
Before they knew it, Sakura and Kero were standing in front of the penguin
slide once again. Only now, the sun was still up in the sky, partially
covered by some clouds.
"How far back did we travel?" Sakura asked, knowing that Kero didn't know the
answer.
"Who knows? You have to figure it out."
Sakura looks around, trying to see if she could recognize anything. There
were a few small kids running around the park. But they weren't looking at
Sakura and Kero when they appeared, so there was no need to explain where they
had come from. Not that they would need to.
Luckily, Chiharu, one of Sakura's friends, was on her way home from school,
passing by the park.
"Chiharu-chan!"
Sakura runs towards Chiharu, who is leafing through one of her schoolbooks as
she walks. Kero follows cautiously, shouting out a warning at Sakura.
"Sakura! Remember that she can't see or hear you!"
Remembering that the Return Card only took one to the past without allowing
them to interfere with it, Sakura decides to just walk along with Chiharu and
figure out what she's doing. Hopefully, it would give her a clue as to how
far back in time she was.
"As she approached the shrine," Chiharu read aloud, "Ruki realized that all of
her hard work was finally about to pay off. It seemed like a goal she was
destined to fail. But here she was, just a staircase away from meeting her
idol."
Sakura stops walking, instantly recognizing the book Chiharu was reading.
"The Princess Journals! We had a quiz on the final few chapters the other
day!"
"I remember reading that... not exactly the most action-packed story I've ever
read."
"Chiharu had told me the day before that that she was behind and that she
hadn't read the last few chapters. She must've read them on the way home.
Which means that we've gone back three days!"
"Good work Sakura! Now, we just have to find Tomoyo and figure out where and
when the Psychic Card gets a hold of her."
"She's at the library with me!" Sakura exclaimed, the memory coming back to
her.
"Wha?"
"I didn't have cheerleading practice that day, and since Tomoyo and I still
hadn't finished reading the story either, we went to the library to read in
peace."
"How long were you two together?"
"'Til about a quarter to five. We then walked home our separate ways."
"And nothing strange happened to Tomoyo at the library?"
Sakura shook her head. "Not that I could recall. We'd better get to the
library then to make sure nothing does happen."
Sakura runs off in the direction of the library. But Kero yells at her to
stop.
"Sakura, stop!"
Before she knew it, the scenery had started to swirl around. Sakura skids to
a stop, confused as to what's going on.
"Kero-chan?"
Kero sighs. "Another disadvantage to the Return Card is that you have to stay
within 400 meters of the place where you activated it. If you step out of
the range, the card stops functioning and you're instantly returned to the
time and place where you had summoned it."
"But I thought you said that I could only go back when time here had caught
up to the present!"
"Exactly!"
"Then what am I supposed to do? If the card gets Tomoyo-chan anywhere but
here, then how are we going to save her?"
"I don't know, Sakura."
"You have to know! You're the Guardian Beast of the Clow! There's got to be
at least one card I can use!"
Kero tried to think of a card, but Sakura had already pulled out her deck to
search for a card to use.
======
Back in present time, Tomoyo and Syaoran had reached a stalemate in their
battle. The two of them were standing about 15 meters apart, staring each
other down.
All of a sudden, a strange feeling comes over Tomoyo, causing her to fall to
her knees. Syaoran runs over, concerned about her.
"Daidouji?"
Tomoyo had her hands on the sides of her head, as if she had a headache.
Thinking that the third card was nearby, Syaoran takes his mind off of Tomoyo
temporarily to try and find the card. He closes his eyes and tunes in his
senses.
After about a minute, he finally senses the card flying in their direction
from the west.
"It'll be here any second."
Syaoran opens his eyes so that he can keep Tomoyo safe. But she's no longer
kneeling in front of him. At first, he thinks that Tomoyo's run off to meet
the card. Looking in that direction, he doesn't see her. But then he hears
the rustling of some leaves behind him. He turns and sees Tomoyo on the run,
away from the card.
"Why is she going that way? The card's in front of us, not back there."
Syaoran wondered what was going on, until a frightening thought came to mind.
"The lake! What if she..."
He runs off after Tomoyo.
======
Not too far away from the park was a bridge that spanned over a small lake
that bordered the park's south entrance. Syaoran runs up to the bridge and
stops, gasping as he sees Tomoyo standing on one of the bridge posts.
"I'm sorry," Tomoyo said apologetically, and to Syaoran's surprise, in her
own voice.
"You broke free? How?"
"Only temporarily. This is my only chance to free myself."
"Wait!"
Syaoran runs over to stop Tomoyo, but she's already turned and made her leap
off of the bridge post.
Coming in Chapter 9 (the final chapter):
- Will Sakura find Tomoyo and keep the Psychic Card from reaching her?
- Is drowning herself the only way for Tomoyo to free herself?
- And the relationship between Sakura and Tomoyo takes an interesting turn.