A CCS Fanfic By Card Captor Schlueter (a.k.a. Syaoran-kun)
Memo From The Legal Dept.
We don't own this stuff and we don't care because we have disclaimers. Try to sue us and we'll shred you into coleslaw, got it?
Chapter Three: Will The Real Sakura Kinamoto Please Step Forward?
Thankfully, there wasn't too much talk about the morning's events as the day wore on. I had been wondering how to tell my family back home about all of this. I wasn't sure how they would take it. Hell, I wasn't all that sure how I was taking it. Three days I've been an official Card Captor and I've barely had time to think about what it all means. Lord knows I have enough to deal with when I'm just the second stringer in the situation.
Alas, that's all I was until now. Sakura was the Card Captor and I was just, well, there. I was her assistant, which didn't seem right at first. But, I guess I had grown accustomed to my role. Sometimes I wonder if I hadn't made a mistake by becoming more passive in my pursuit of the cards. But, the past is the past.
My philosophizing prevented me from listening to Terada's lecture but it didn't matter much anyway. Whatever he was talking about was probably of no use to me anyway.
**
"What good is this card going to be to me anyway?" I grumbled. "I already have a sword."
I didn't expect an answer. After all I was alone. As I walked home I wondered what good it would do me to have `The Sword' card since I used the Li family sword for everything anyway. I let out a sigh. Maybe Kero-Ni would know the answer.
"Li-kun!"
My thoughts were interrupted by the very familiar voice of Sakura. I turned around to see her running to catch up with me.
"Li-kun, I'd like to talk to you about something." she said. Somehow, I sensed something odd about her. She had the weirdest smile on her face, like she was getting away with something.
"Um... Okay." I replied.
"Hey, Li-kun!" Wait a second. That sounded like.... Sure enough it was Sakura and Tomoyo. Once they got within a few yards they stopped dead in their tracks. They no doubt noticed what I noticed.
We had one Sakura too many.
When I turned back to face the Sakura standing next to me... ACK! There were two of them!
Three Sakuras!
"What's going on here?" asked Tomoyo, sounding nervous.
"Clow cards.." I replied quietly.
The two Sakura close to me ran over and grabbed the third one and started spinning in a circle.
"Round and round we go!" one of them shouted. "Where we stop nobody knows!" When the whole thing stopped I was faced with three identical and very dizzy Sakuras
"What is all this, Li-kun?" Tomoyo was now panicked.
"It's `The Mirror' card and `The Illusion' card." I replied. This was the last thing I needed, a game of Three Card Captor Monte. I had to be able to figure out which Sakura was which before I could seal the cards. I retrieved my sword form my backback and tried to focus on which was which. "No good. They're too close. I can't tell the magic signatures apart."
"I'm the real Sakura!" one of the clones said.
"No, I am." said the second.
The one on the left stayed silent. It just stood there. I took advantage of discovering the card's weakness.
"Illusion card!" I said pointing my sword at the Sakura on the left. "Return to your power confined!"
The Illusion started to go weird like a television image when static hits. It slowly dissolved into a single Clow card that floated over to me.
"That was pretty good." said Tomoyo.
"The Illusion card can't speak like `The Mirror' or `The Twin'." I said. "It's easy to spot, if you know what to look for. Picking out `The Mirror' on the other hand..." I looked over at the two remaining Sakuras. "..is another matter."
"What happens if you can't pick it out?" asked Tomoyo.
"Then..." I said "We're in big trouble."
"Is there any way to tell them apart?"
"I could use an attack card." I replied. "The card would pass right by `The Mirror' but it would also probably do some serious damage to the real Sakura."
"I'm the real Sakura!"
"No! I am!"
"So what do we do?" Tomoyo asked.
I stopped and tried very hard to focus. I thought very carefully about the situation and then I came up with something. I pointed my sword to the Sakura on the right. "You're the Clow card `Mirror'!" I announced.
The Sakura on the right suddenly glowed as its form dissolved and reformed as a girl wearing long robes and carrying a mirror.
"Mirror card! Return to your power confined!" `The Mirror' was once again surrounded by light and once the light had faded all that was left was the card, which promptly placed itself in my hand.
We all let out a collective sigh.
"That was pretty good, Li-kun!" Sakura said cheerfully. "How did you manage to tell the two of us apart?
"Yeah. That was great!" Tomoyo chimed in.
"Well... Um..." I was starting to blush. "Actually I just took a guess."
Tomoyo and Sakura facefaulted and fell over.
"Hey, even I can't know everything." I grumbled.
After all, half of everything is luck, isn't it?
Next: Syaoran's dealt with humiliation before. He was trapped in Kero-Chan's body. He was forced to play the princess in the school play. But what he's facing this time is a new hybrid form of humiliation when `The Change' card appears again and forces Li to walk a mile in Sakura's kawaii little shoes.
All this plus Li getting revenge on Touya in "Chapter Four: When Amber Eyes Turn Green"
Notes: I know I originally said `The Twin' card would be in this chapter but someone pointed out that Li already had `The Twin'. So I had to rewrite most of the chapter, which made it shorter and, I think, a little duller.