The familiar, half-cold water of the community showers ran in rivulets off her bare skin as she reached
forward to shut off the faucet. The tile floor was cold against her bare feet, the air crisp as she rubbed her
enormous fluffy towel over her body, buffing it dry. "It's going to be another cold one," she thought aloud,
tucking the towel around her lithe form before she ventured out of the shower stall.

Normally, Sakura was not a beast borne of vanity, but somehow she couldn't help but glance at herself
in the mirror this time around. Messy brown bangs, bangs she had never really bothered to tease or play with,
hung heavily in big green eyes. Her shoulder-length tresses were heavy with water, hanging straight around the
edges of her face before falling onto her still-damp skin. She frowned, pausing to finger-comb her hair idly.
Why was it that she couldn't catch Yukito's attention long enough to get him to date her? She was pretty enough;
not gorgeous, of course, but definitely not bad looking. Chiharu had her sarcastic tease of boyfriend, Takashi,
and - though Sakura would never, EVER admit it aloud - he wasn't all that bad. Sure, he joked around a lot and
played with the more gullible members of society, but... He wasn't TERRIBLE. And Rika, dear, sweet Rika, she
was lucky enough to have a fiancé. Granted, that fiancé was the masochistic and EVIL Professor Terada, but he
WAS a fiancé, nonetheless.

"I'm so pathetic," laughed the brunette to herself as she started down the hallway, still bundled in her
towel. Her slippers scuffed loudly against the tile floor. "I don't want a real man, I want some sort of
unobtainable ideal!" She rolled her eyes as she reached for her own doorknob, terribly thankful that she and
Tomoyo lived in the all-girls wing of their dormitory building. Only occasionally did a male wander into the
hallway, and generally that male was Takashi, anyway, so it didn't really matter that much.

That is way it came as a shock when Yukito and Touya both turned to look at her as she walked into her
own bedroom, dressed only in a towel.

Sakura shrieked, turning bright red as she realized that, yes, her older brother and her older brother's
best friend were sitting on her bed, and yes, they were BOTH STARING DIRECTLY AT HER HALF-CLOTHED BODY. Her
shriek was loud enough that it caused Tomoyo - whose back was half-turned toward the doorway - to give a start
and tug off her headphones. "Whoa, down girl," she commanded as she watched her friend try to hide in her
nearby closet. "It's just your brother and..." She frowned as soon as she remembered that, yes, Yukito was in
the room. "Uhm, they wanted to come see you?"

"Why would anyone care what a monster like you looks like, anyway?" snorted the dark-haired man with
a roll of brown eyes, but his sister was CERTAIN that the hints of a blush had crossed his cheeks. "But, just
to appease you, we'll turn around. Right, Yuki?"

Yukito smiled charmingly, his normal, pleasant visage showing no sign of embarrassment or repulsion as
he turned his face toward the wall.

Grumbling, the brunette pulled a random pair of pants and an equally random t-shirt from the pile of
folded clothes that, the day before, she had tossed on the floor of her closet. "What brings you two here,
anyway?" she inquired bitterly, shaking her wet hair free of her neck hole as she struggled with the jeans.
Since when had her jeans been so tight, anyway? Curse Tomoyo and her homemade cookies! "And shouldn't you be
at work, Touya?"

"As much as I would rather be there than here, the water main in the library broke in two places," sighed
her brother, his voice hinting at just a bit of irritation. "And, anyway, I need my key back before someone
notices I'm missing it." He turned around to glance at his sister just as she was pulling her hairbrush through
her tresses for the final time. "Where did you - "

A giggle. It was subtle, hardly audible, but it turned quickly into guffaws as Touya slid off his
younger sister's bed and onto the floor, clutching his stomach as he laughed.

Brown eyes blinked as Yuki turned his head toward Sakura, wondering what was so funny. His pale lips
curved slowly into a goofy grin as he gave the younger female a quick once-over. "That's certainly an...
interesting...choice of garb...Sakura," he chortled, obviously trying his best NOT to end up like Touya.

"My shirt!" announced Tomoyo, the most horrified look on her face as she hopped up from her seat and
rushed to stand next to her friend. "I was wondering where that went!"

A frown crossed pink lips as Sakura glanced down at the pink letters that ran across the chest of her
t-shirt.

The word "r4ck3d" stared back up at her.

========================
"An American Cardcaptor"
A Cardcaptor Sakura Alternate Universe Fanfiction
Written by Kate "SuperKate" Butler
Chapter 3: "The Assistant Hall Advisor"
========================

Once the key had been exchanged and the males pushed out of the tiny room and out on their marry way,
Sakura collapsed on her bed with a groan. "I don't BELIEVE you, Tomoyo!" she moaned, her voice hardly audible
as she buried her face in her pillow. "I told you I was going to take a shower, remember?"

"I remember," sighed the graphic designer as she straddled her chair, frowning slightly, "but I didn't
figure on you coming in here in a towel." She paused, wrinkling her nose a bit. "Then again, what's the point
of freaking out about a towel? It's not like you were showing off anything they can't see just by looking at
you normally."

From his spot on the dresser, Kero glanced up from the copy of "Good Housekeeping" he'd smuggled in from
the main lounge and shrugged his little, stuffed-toy shoulders. "Not like it matters none, anyway," he snickered,
glancing toward the brunette for the reaction he was trying to rouse. "After all, Yuki's door ain't swingin'
the right way, if ya catch my drift."

"KERO!" shrieked the girl on the bed, hopping up immediately. "You take that back, right now! There is
NO way that Yukito could conceivably be gay!" She paused as she said this, as though it really did make a bit
of sense. That thought passed rather quickly and she tossed her head, screwing her face into a rather angry
scowl as she glowered at the little beast. "He is NOT!" she decided rather loudly. "After all, who would he
be sleeping with, huh? My BROTHER?"

Her dark-haired friend considered this, pursing her lips in thought. "You KNOW, Sakura," she noted
aloud, her brow furrowed slightly, "that really WOULD make a lot of sense, now that you've mentioned it. I mean,
they live in the same apartment and they spend a lot of...eh....eheh..." The angry, almost vengeful look on her
friend's face caused her to trail off. "Then again, heh, I do live with you and that doesn't mean that WE'RE
gay, right?"

This sent Keroberos into a round of giggles so severe that he rolled off the dresser top. Tomoyo
snarled and tossed one of her slippers at him. "I was SERIOUS!" she insisted, annoyed at the little beast's
laughter.

"And who's to say I wasn't, hmm?" questioned the stuffed animal through his laughter. "After all, Tomoyo,
I think we ALL know that - "

"Sakura?" The door cracked open, and it was all Kero could do to stop in his jabbering and fall face-
first onto the carpet. Into the dorm room walked Naoko Yanagisawa, the mousy brunette girl who acted as the
hall advisor.

The room's two inhabitants both paled as soon as the door began to open, and, giggling, Sakura moved
to kick the innocent-looking "plush toy" under her bed. "Hi-ya, Naoko!" she chirped, green eyes slanting closed
as she smiled charmingly at the newcomer. "What can I do for you today?"

Frowning slightly, Naoko wrinkled her tiny nose. Despite her reputation of being slightly on the
stingy end of things, she was a very effective "Hall Marm" when it came down to it. "I need to go down to the
library," she sighed, shaking her head. "Seems that there's some sort of emergency with the climate control,
and so they've called all the hall advisors in to move the books to a safer location." Her scowl deepened as
she considered her own words. "Honestly, I don't know where the safer location will be; the water mains on the
first level are the ones that broke, but there's some sort of condensation coming from the special collections
room, too!"

"Clow card!" announced a tiny voice, almost muffled enough to be ignored.

Blinking brown eyes, Naoko eyed her two hall mates. "What was that?" she asked, glancing toward the
dust ruffle on Sakura's bed.

With elaborate and over-done gestures, Tomoyo patted her chest, HARD, and pretended to hack up a lung.
"Wow, I don't know WHAT that was," she choked, clearing her throat as she spoke. "I guess the cafeteria food
got to me..."

"We'll go to the library instead!" announced Sakura eagerly, lunging toward the closet as she spoke.
The hall advisor gave a start and stepped out of the way, blinking down at the other girl as she struggled to
pull on her sneakers without unlacing them. "You're so busy, being a double major and everything! You don't
have time to move books! But I'm the assistant Hall Advisor, and I know that WE have the time!"

Her roommate scowled. "Uhm, I have a graphic design project due tomorrow, you - "

"Good! I'm glad you're with me!" growled Sakura, tossing her friend's camera bag at her. Tomoyo shrieked
and caught it effortlessly, but there was something about the expression on her face that stated her want to
throw her roommate against the wall and beat some sense into her. Still, the brunette pressed on, running over
to the edge of her bed as she made a show of grabbing a large tote-bag out from under it. "And who knows? Maybe
we'll fix the water mains and stuff! Hehehehehehehee...."

Naoko frowned slightly as the other sophomore started out the door. "Well, alright..." she acquiesced,
following her friends out into the hallway as she spoke. "But be sure to check in at the desk on my behalf. I
don't want to get put on restriction because I don't show, and - "

"Yeah, yeah, we'll be FINE!" waved Sakura as she turned her back and started down the hall and toward
the stairs, Tomoyo in tow. "Don't worry a thing about it!"

As soon as they turned the corner and were out of the RA's line of vision, the brunette's massive canvas
bag stirred and an orange head popped out of it. "Good goin', Sakura!" cheered Keroberos, his little eyes
slanting into a smile. "You got outta that like a pro!"

Head hanging down to her chest, the dark-haired girl of the trio sighed remorsefully. "I have a graphic
design project due tomorrow," she muttered in defeat, following her friend down the stairs as she continued to
gripe about her sorry state. "It's an important project, and I have to get it done..."

Sakura paused in mid-step, causing her best friend to slam into her. Green eyes sparkled as she gazed
up at the other girl, and she managed to allow a sad smile to cross her lips. "I'm sorry, Tomoyo," she
apologized, reaching up to pat her friend on the shoulder. "If there's anything I can do to make it up to you,
I will. Promise."

Purple eyes glimmered. "PROMISE?" repeated the fair-skinned girl, clasping her roommate's hand in her
own. "Absolutely, POSITIVELY promise?"

"Uhmm.... Yeah?"

"Good!"

Sakura nearly fell over as she was dragged down the stairway by her best friend.

===

"Uhm... Remember when I promised to do anything?"

There was a soft buzzing, so quiet that it could be hardly heard, as pale fingers pressed down on the
"Zoom In" button on a familiar digital camcorder. "What about it?" questioned Tomoyo eagerly, her smile
broadening as she further focused on her best friend.

"I DIDN'T MEAN THIS!"

Pulling the camera lens away from her eye, the dark-haired girl gave the other a quick once-over.
Sakura was dressed in a skin-tight leather mini-skirt with a leopard-print tank top. Not that it really mattered
what kind of sleeves the top had, considering the fact that, over it all, she was wearing an ankle-length
black jacket. For a long moment, Tomoyo stared at her friend, considering the situation carefully. And then,
she shrugged. "You're right," she admitted with a small shrug, bringing the camera back her eye as the elevator
slowly came to a halt on the sixth floor. "The jacket COULD stand to be a few inches shorter."

As the brunette slumped across the back wall of the elevator, muttering something, the doors slowly
crept open and the floor came into view. A thin, damp mist wafted into the elevator chamber. Green eyes
fluttered open and the Cardcaptor hopped onto the carpeting. "Hoe?!" she exclaimed, glancing around the room.
Nothing but clouds and a slight...drizzle? She frowned slightly. "This ISN'T a climate control issue, is it?"

"It's a Clow Card, alright," nodded Kero, floating idly above her shoulder as he spoke. "The Rain card.
Pretty easy, I'm thinkin.'"

She eyed him curiously, as though she was almost afraid to consider a Clow Card "easy." "Define that
word," she requested rather dully, her face a mask of skepticism as she spoke.

Kero gritted his teeth, as though he hadn't thought about this. "Uhmm..... Not hard?" he chuckled
guiltily. When her eyes lowered in his direction he backed up slightly, chortling in embarrassment. "Don't
worry 'bout it!" he stressed with the wave of a paw. "Nothin' bad's gonna happen!" he insisted rather loudly,
his optimism seeming to fade with every few syllables. "Thinka the Fly card! Was that so hard?"

Green eyes lowered, and he sunk a few feet closer to the ground as he remembered the teen's near-death
experience that was falling from the sky after riding briefly on the back of a giant blue-white bird. "Fine,
prove me wrong," he grunted.

"I think I will." Despite the carefree choice of words, Sakura's voice was completely without humor as
she ventured into the thick fog, the outrageously tall shelves stretching into what seemed to be the sky.
Thick clouds enveloped the ceiling, obliterating it from view and obscuring the familiar fluorescent shine of
the overhead lights. Her huge rubber-soled boots, courtesy of Tomoyo, plodded on the carpeting as she
carefully paced toward the special collections room. Behind her, she was somewhat aware of the sound of Tomoyo's
flip flops as she followed them through the stacks, video camera in tow.

If the floor itself was covered with only a fine mist, the special collections room was downright foggy.
"Looks more like the Fog card to me," muttered the cardcaptor irritably, her grip on her Staff of Clow tightening
as she took her first step into the dense clouds. "Still, I can feel it..."

There was a chuckle, and she glanced up to see a what looked like a little child sitting on a cloud,
smiling happily. But the cloud was pouring rain down upon the carpeting, soaking it completely through.

"It's so cute!" cooed Tomoyo from behind her camera, zooming in on the card intently. "I think this
Rain card is my favorite, Sakura!"

"Grrrrrrrrrrrreat," muttered the brunette with a roll of her eyes. Then, effortlessly, she flipped a
card out of her pocket and tossed it into the air, somehow not surprised when it suspended itself before her
instead of falling down to the dampened carpeting. "Become the chain that binds!" she commanded, bringing her
staff down onto the card. "Windy!"

There was a flash of light as the Windy erupted from her card and rushed forward, tendrils of green-white
wind curling forward. The Rain card's little eyes widened as it realized that, yes, the Windy had every
intention of capturing the other card and, no, there was nowhere to run. The tentacle-like spirals of wind
wrapped tightly around both the cloud and the little child atop the cloud, binding them in place.

A pink staff swirled as Sakura stepped forward, glaring at the Rain card. "Return to your true form!
Clow CARD!"

Familiar colors and energies flickered around her as, slowly but surely, the Rain card - pouting the
entire time - disintegrated into the form of a Clow Card. Sighing, the brunette stepped forward and seized it
out of the air before it could fall onto the soaked carpeting and, therefore, be utterly and completely ruined
by the Rain's childish sense of troublemaking. "One down," she muttered with a roll of her eyes, tucking the
card into her jacket pocket. "Where next?"

"Main level," sighed Kero, landing lighting on one of the special collections desks, hands on his little
plushie-hips as he spoke. "Isn't that where Naoko said the trouble was?"

"Sakura?" There was a squeak as the orange toy fell over, black eyes going glossy as he morphed into
what could be called "stuffed toy" mode. The brunette jumped a mile into the air and whirled around on her heel
to see her older brother standing in the doorway, blinking brown eyes in her direction. "What in the WORLD are
you doing here?"

Blushing a deep shade of crimson, the young woman chuckled guiltily and moved to scratch the back of her
neck. "Naoko was too busy to come here and help move books, so I came instead," she lied, her hands trembling
as she felt herself being completely and totally examined. "I got confused, though, and I ended up here, and,
wouldn't you know it? I found the climate control panel and I fixed the problem!"

Touya Kinomoto wrinkled his nose, as though he didn't believe what was coming out of his sister's mouth.
"You found the climate control panel?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow. Her face turned more and more ruddy
with every syllable. "I've worked here for a year, and I don't even know where it is."

"Oh, Sakura is VERY smart!" stressed Tomoyo suddenly, cutting into the conversation suddenly. The
graduate student turned and gaped at her, as if he hadn't realized she, dressed in a pair of khakis and her
favorite "ph33r m3" t-shirt, was there at all. "She found it right away! I think all the studying she's been
doing up here has really paid off!"

There was a snicker from somewhere beyond Sakura, and it was all the brunette could do to grimace before
her brother's eyes turned to focus on the discarded, belly-up stuffed toy. "You brought your stuffed animal
to the Special Collections with you?" he questioned coolly, gaze not wavering in the least. She chuckled, and
managed to force a smile. "And isn't that the same stuffed doll that freaked you out in the first place?"

"What do you know?" squeaked his sister, grabbing her "stuffed toy" and slamming it into a pocket as
she did so. "Now, uhm, I would really LOVE to stay and chat, but I PROMISED Naoko that we would do a good job
with this book-moving business, so we're off to go downstairs and, uhm, move those books!" Seizing Tomoyo
by the arm, she took off across the soggy carpeting, waving a hasty goodbye to her sibling. "Be sure to lock
up when you're done!"

Her brother watched her leave, his eyebrows creasing together even as the elevator doors slid shut behind
her lithe form. "Sometimes..." he commented to himself, lips pursed in thought. "Sometimes, I really worry about
that girl."

===

Sakura slumped across the back of the elevator as soon as the doors closed, resigning herself to do
nothing more but sigh and shake her head. "Why?" she muttered to herself, eyes fluttering closed as she resigned
herself to despair. "Why does he always show up at the stupidest times?"

"You have to admit, it's a strange coincidence," nodded Tomoyo idly, toying with the velcro strip on
the handhold of her camera as she spoke. "I guess it's just one of those funky things." She paused and glanced
away from her recorder, cocking her head slightly. "Didn't you say once that your brother has some sort of
supernatural thing going on?"

"What?!" There was a rustle as Kero burst out of the coat pocket, blinking black eyes at the two females
in the elevator. "Sakura, your bro's got magic, too?"

Frowning slightly, she shrugged, a slightly noncommittal look crossing her face as she considered it. "I
don't think it's really magic," she sighed, pursing her lips in thought as she spoke. The subject of her
brother's 'powers,' as her father had often nicknamed them, was never a pleasant one. At least, it was never a
subject she was comfortable with. The fact of the matter was that, sometimes, her brother saw things that most
people couldn't see; the image of their mother nursing his sick sister back to health, perhaps, or the image
of a dead man giving his wife a kiss on the cheek at the cemetery whenever they visited their mother's grave.
Her father had often said it was a rare gift that their late mother had left him, the gift of seeing those
things that most people overlooked. It wasn't that normal people couldn't see them, but that they didn't
try to.

The elevator shuddered to a stop, and she blinked, realizing at the last second that she had completely
and totally zoned out. "Sorry," she apologized, glancing down at her steel-toed platform boots as the doors
slowly slid open. "I just kinda got lost in my own..."

Her voice escaped her as she looked upon what had once been the main level of the library. The carpeting
was soaked completely through with a shallow layer of fresh water resting atop it, a layer that was nearly-level
with the lowest-most book shelves. Here and there, Hall Advisors and other various people bustled around,
scooping entire stacks of books onto carts before pushing said carts into the other elevator and moving them
upstairs.

"Sakura!" called a voice, and green eyes blinked as Rika rushed forward, her fiancé in tow. The brunette
blushed as soon as she saw the familiar face of her dreaded Myths and Legends teacher, but he somehow seemed
much happier on the arm of his sophomore bride-to-be than he did standing in front of a class of twenty. Rika
sloshed to a halt in front of her friend and frowned, watching as Tomoyo followed her into the sopping-wet
library floor. "Where's Naoko?"

Perpetuating another lie, just because of the stupid Clow Cards. Sakura sighed and resisted the urge
to drown herself in the three inches of water that flowed freely across the saturated carpeting. "She was really
busy," she fibbed, watching as Tomoyo surveyed the area with her video camera, capturing every detail on digital
film. "So Tomoyo and I volunteered to come down here and help."

Professor Terada smiled charmingly. "That's very noble of you, Miss Kinomoto," he nodded, as though his
words were all the support she needed in the world. His student resisted the urge to fall over, dead, on the
floor. After all, what would Rika think of such a reaction? She certainly would not be too pleased.

"Thanks," she forced, once again grasping Tomoyo firmly by the elbow and beginning to drag her toward
the most secluded area - a group of bookshelves that had already had their bottom-most shelves emptied. "We'll
be seeing you! So long!"

As soon as the happy - if perplexed - couple wandered off, Sakura sighed and banged her head against
a metal shelf. "They're really going to start wondering about us," she muttered irritably, ignoring Kero as
he popped out of her pocket and perched himself atop a volume of Dickens. "I swear, someday, I'm going to have a
word with Terada and it's NOT going to be pretty."

"We've gots bigger fish to fry, girly," shot the guardian beast, his Southern lilt commanding as he
rested his little paws on his equally tiny hips. "The Watery Card is here, an' it ain't gonna be pretty in your
library if we dun catch it, like, yesterday."

"Do this, do that, do the next thing," groused the Cardcaptor known as Sakura Kinomoto as she tugged
her key from her pocket. It weighed heavily in her hand, a weight she wasn't really comfortable with, a weight
that, honestly, she didn't like being responsible for. Sighing, she seat the key in her palm and shook her head.
"When I'm done with this, and I've collected all the cards," she vowed, "I'm going to go back to my normal
little way of life and forget this whole thing ever happened. RELEASE!"

Energy flooded the area between the stacks as, magically, the Staff of Clow appeared just beyond
Sakura's grasp. Her face became a mask of determination as she grabbed it and twirled it between to of her
fingers. "I can feel the card nearby," she breathed, her grip tightening on the staff as, slowly, she began to
walk toward the back-most wall of the room, "but I can't be certain."

Kero nodded, taking to flight after a cautious look down the stacks. "We can't be too showy, y'all,"
he pointed out, as if it was a sentiment that really needed pointed out in the first place. "There are a
mighty lot of peeps around."

"But we can't be so casual, either!" put in Tomoyo as she stopped mid-step and pulled the video recorder
from her face. "The fact of the matter is that Sakura is now actually a magical girl! She has to have a super-
secret pose she makes before she vanquishes her enemies, or else she cannot succeed!"

Green eyes blinked, and rubber-soled boots halted. Slowly, VERY slowly, the brunette turned around,
eyeing her friend cautiously. "Tomoyo..." she drawled, voice almost trailing completely off. "Were you watching
Sailor Moon again?"

Shaking her long, dark hair, the other college sophomore smiled triumphantly. "Tokyo Mew Mew!" she
chirped, repositioning her camera as she spoke. "It's like the new Sailor Moon, and it's CUTE!"

Sakura sighed and shook her head, turning back around. Why in the world did she -

"SAKURA! HELP!"

The brunette was able to whirl around just in time to see Tomoyo fall backwards onto the watery carpet
with a soft splash. Her hands flew up as she dropped her camera and grasped onto the edging of one of the
shelves. Where her feet had been - SHOULD have been, noted Sakura as she rushed toward her best friend - was
a whirl pool, pulling her slowly under. "Is that it?" questioned the cardcaptor as she hopped over the pool
and managed to land on the other side with an audible splash.

"Yuppers!" chimed Kero. "Ya gotta get it to take it's true form, though! Otherwise, it ain't gonna be
catchable!"

Sakura groaned some sort of affirmative as she discarded her wand and grasped onto her friend's wrists.
Grunting, she tugged Tomoyo's arms, trying desperately to counteract the force of the whirlpool. But every
tug failed and, slowly, the dark-haired girl found herself submerged from the waist down.

"Let go!" commanded Tomoyo sternly, struggling against her friend's force as she thrashed into the
whirlpool. "I'll be fine!"

"No way!" Her companion moaned softly as she reached for her wand. Catching it with the very ends of her
fingers, she managed to knock it off the nearby shelf and into the water. "Reverse the direction of this
whirlpool! WINDY!"

There was a burst of light as the Windy erupted from her card and dove into the whirlpool, pushing
against the current with all its might. Suddenly, the dark-haired girl was tossed violently from the water,
nearly tumbling heels-over-head into her roommate's lap. From the water on the floor came streams of bright blue,
followed closely by an elf-eared creature that looked something like mermaid. But mermaid or not, it was mad,
and immediately took off down through the stacks.

Sakura acted on impulse, tossing out the Fly card and activating it without a second thought. "Come
back here!" she screamed after it, the long flaps of her jacket hanging over the edge of her staff as she
chased down the mischievous card.

"No!" hollered Keroberos, his wings flapping crazily as he attempted to follow his charge with very
little avail. "Ya can't just follow it! What if we get caught?"

The staff made a sharp left, trailing the Clow card out of the stacks and into the abandoned, book-
filled teacher's lounge. "What else CAN I do?" she responded tersely, ignoring the crash that emanated from
the Watery overturning an immense table covered in books. "I have to catch the card before it floods the whole
building!"

Her coat was almost caught in the fire door as the card took off up the stairwell, its potential
captor in hot pursuit. "Maybe so," shot back the enraged guardian, now huffing and puffing for each breath in
his chase, "but don'tcha think that a few ruined books is a better loss than your HIDE?"

"It's all relative," grunted the young woman as she shimmied through the quickly-slamming fire door
to the sixth floor, her eyes lowering as she continued the high-speed chase. "All I have to do is corner it...
I know!"

Pulling the Windy card back out of her pocket, she bit her lower lip. The special collections door
still stood wide open, undoubtedly left as so by her brother as he attempted to clean up the Rain's mess.
Would the Watery take the bait, though? Would it see that there was no way out of that room but the front door?

A tight curve, and the Watery dove into the special collections room, headed toward the back most
corner. "Blow shut the door to special collections!" screamed Sakura, tossing the card out into the open.
"WINDY!"

There was a gust of wind, and the Watery splashed into the closed glass door just a moment too late.

A water-logged, exhausted Sakura Kinomoto sighed and hung her head, eyelids suddenly very heavy as she
picked up the discarded Windy and tucked it back into her pocket. "Capturing cards is hard work," she muttered
as she raised her staff before the glass, ready to bring it down in the direction of the distraught Watery
card. "I'm already too old for this, and I've been at it for, what, two days?" She shook her head. "Return
to your true form, Clow Card."

The enraged, disappointed card closed its eyes, and it therefore came as no surprise when the light
died down and the card itself, nothing more that a slip of thick paper, slid under the door and levitated itself
into Sakura's waiting hands.

"And here, I thought monsters didn't strike the same place twice," snickered a voice. Whirling around,
the brunette came face-to-t-shirt with the familiar form of her older brother, and she scowled at his familiar,
bemused chuckling. "What are you doing back up here, anyway? Hunting more stuffed toys?"

She scowled, a low growl developing in the back of her throat. "One of these days, Touya, I am SO going
to - "

"Teasing again?" chuckled another male's voice, and green eyes went wide as Yukito Tsukishiro stepped
out from behind a stack of books, smiling in his kind-hearted way. The brunette's face turned BRIGHT red as
she realized he had heard their whole conversation, threat and all. "Really, Touya, you have a sweet and
pretty sister! Why on Earth would you pester her, so?"

His friend shrugged noncommittally, hands in his pockets. "She's a monster," he responded, unimpressed
by Yukito's attempt at diplomacy. "How else do you explain her disposition?"

The elevator bell rang merrily and Tomoyo rushed out, her soggy clothes dripping all over. "Sakura!"
she scowled, completely ignoring the two males as she went to stand nose-to-nose with her best friend and
roommate. "You KNOW I wanted that footage! How DARE you!"

Sakura gritted her teeth and chuckled. "Uhmm.... Because..."

"C'mon!" The dark-haired girl seized her by her wrist and began to drag her - sputtering, wet, and
confused - toward the open elevator. "We're working on your trademark 'magical girl' stance, so NEXT time -
when I actually GET your footage - I can have you looking sharp, like a well-tuned machine!"

As the doors slid closed, the dark-haired man frowned, chewing thoughtfully on his lower lip. "Yuki,"
he commented off-handedly, "do you ever get the feeling that there's a LOT more going on here than meets the
eye?"

Brown eyes blinked, and a hand was raked through gray hair. "What do you mean?" questioned his friend
with a slight scowl.

Touya Kinomoto sighed and shook his head. "Never mind."

===

She flicked off the television with a small grunt and flopped into her bed, her eyelids heavy. The last
few days had drained almost all her energy, both creative and otherwise. Her paper, for all intents and purposes,
would be livable when she turned it in Monday, but it certainly wasn't going to win any prizes. Not even Kero,
the Guardian Beast of the Clow itself, could tell her anything more about the book than what she could find in
the library and online. The fact of the matter was that, yes, Yoshiyuki Terada was not qualified to teach
anything that allowed him to play favorites, which was - unfortunately - every college subject known to man.
Still, Chiharu and Rika seemed happy enough with their topics, so maybe she didn't have any right to complain.

Maybe.

The truth was - and Sakura had realized this in the early morning hours after capturing the Watery
card - that her project had inadvertently produced a side-effect. A rather large, gangly, ugly side-effect, but
one nonetheless. And that was the fact that she was now single-handedly responsible for saving the world...if
only because it was her fault it needed to be saved!

"Tomoyo," she sighed, rolling over onto her side so she was facing out into the room rather than facing
the wall, "I think we should - "

She stopped and blinked at the video camera lens that was pointed in her direction, cringing. "Hoe?"

"Your thoughtful, pained pensiveness is so perfect for my project!" grinned the graphic designer,
her fingers dancing across the zoom buttons as she spoke. "I can't wait to chronicle the life of Sakura
Kinomoto on video!"

Kero, who was sitting in the middle of the dresser and chomping merrily on M&Ms, raised an eyebrow
curiously at the dark-haired girl. "Ya know, you're always talkin' 'bout this project o' yours," he commented,
popping another few candies into his mouth and chewing contentedly. "What's it for?"

Shutting off her camera, Tomoyo straddled her chair and smiled charmingly, like a proud mother smiling
over her adorable little children. "I'm in a video journalism study," she explained. Her fingers toyed with the
velcro hand strap, idly undoing it and then re-hooking it as she spoke. "We have to pick a subject and analyze
all parts of it for the end of the year media festival!" Her purple eyes turned starry as she smiled at her
best friend. "I couldn't help but chose my favorite person in the world, Sakura Kinomoto! There's so much
action and adventure in your life!"

The orange plushie on the dresser sighed and shrugged his little shoulders. "Just don't get too excited,
'moyo," noted he with a stern look. "Her bein' the cardcaptor ain't the topic, she is. Ya know?"

"Don't worry, Kero!" she responded with a glittering smile. "I can cut the footage of her being the
cardcaptor and just focus on the obvious - her being the beautiful Sakura Kinomoto!"

Sakura nearly fell off her bed at that exclamation. "Hoe........." she muttered, burying her face in
her pillow. Sometimes, she just didn't KNOW about her best friend.

There was a light rap at the door, and a squeak as Kero fell back into "stuffed animal" mode, knocking
a handful of M&Ms onto the floor. "Come in!" called the brunette as she rolled off the edge of her bed and
focused on picking up the candies. "It's open!"

Hinges groaned as the door was pushed open, revealing a rather perplexed Chiharu Mihara. Walking in her
wake was an equally perplexed Takashi Yamazaki, though he, unlike his girlfriend, smiled as he strode in. "Hi,
Sakura, Tomoyo," chuckled the brunette, scratching the back of her head guiltily as she spoke. "Uhm, is Naoko
around?"

"She had a Phi-Delta-Omega meeting," grinned the girl with the video camera, her head cocked slightly to
one side as she spoke. "But Sakura's the assistant Hall Advisor for the floor, so why don't you ask her?"

"You know, Hall Advisors were once nuns who watched over floors at Catholic universities in Italy,"
Takashi informed the room-dwellers with a smile, his voice taking up a teacher-like quality as he spoke. "They
were in charge of making the all-male students behave according to scripture."

Green eyes blinked. "Hoe?" questioned the aforementioned assistant, tossing the M&Ms into the garbage
basket as she spoke. "Really?"

Chiharu slugged him in the stomach, causing him to cough and double-over. "No, it's NOT true," she shot,
once again annoyed by her partner's constant and nearly-compulsive lying. It seemed like he enjoyed telling
the ever-gullible Sakura as many lies as possible. "Anyway, uhm, I have a little problem."

"Oh, I think it's more than a LITTLE problem," pointed out Takashi. Brown eyes glowered in his direction
and he immediately shrunk back, frightened of being slugged a second time. "I would say the problem is about
six-foot-two, male, and has a bowl of popcorn in his lap."

Sakura's eyes nearly bugged out of her head as she listened to the dark-haired male speak. "You have a
another guy in there?" she gasped, as though she couldn't believe it. "No wonder you have a problem!" Frowning,
she stepped forward and patted Takashi softly on the shoulder. "I would have told you, had I known," she lamented,
shaking her head slightly. "But there are plenty of fish in the sea, Takashi. I'm sure that you can find
another - "

"Not THAT kind of guy!" snapped Chiharu irritably, her voice cracking as she shrieked at her friend.
"I'm talking about the uninvited kind of guy!" She sighed and waited a moment for her eyebrow to stop twitching
before she dared to speak another time. "I tried to yank him off of the futon and drag him out into the hall,
but he must be bolted to the spot or something, because he does NOT move." Frowning slightly, she chewed on her
lower lip and looked toward the longer-haired inhabitant of room 414. "Funny thing is that he looks like Layla's
boyfriend, but they're both on African term..."

The mention of Chiharu's missing roommate caused the brunette's ears to perk up. "That's right!" she
exclaimed, her smile brilliant and friendly. "How IS the Lay-ster doing in Madagascar, anyway?"

"Quite well, actually!" responded her neighbor. "She e-mailed me from the school they're currently at
to tell me all about the safari they just got back from, and - "

"CLOW CARD!"

Everything in the room froze as the unfamiliar voice - rather high pitched and distinctly Southern -
cut through the air. Twitching slightly, Sakura turned her back on her friends and neared the dresser,
pretending to peer out the window and toward the stretch of sidewalk below. "Now who in the WORLD yelled
that?" she questioned, standing on her tiptoes. "Did anyone else hear that?"

Sufficiently hidden, Kero hopped up into a sitting position. "It's a card!" he hissed, voice hidden by
Sakura's continued babbling about the rude people who had to have been outside and how terrible and
inconsiderate they were for hollering such things. "I'm thinkin' Illusion, since it took the form of someone
who ain't around."

She nodded, sweeping him off the dresser and into the pocket of her hooded sweatshirt. "I know!" she
announced, whirling back around. A huge smile crossed her face as she bounced - literally bounced - over to her
two friends. "Let ME go talk to this guy and see if I can't get him to move. It could be some frat prank against
Sigma Theta Pi or something!"

Takashi gritted his teeth. "Alpha Beta Phi..." he muttered under his breath, annoyed.

"So, yeah, I'm off!" she cheered, throwing open the door as she spoke. "Keep them company, Tomoyo!"

The dark-haired girl nearly dropped her video camera. "But - "

"Bye!"

As soon as the door closed behind her, Sakura sighed and slumped her shoulders, her face turned toward
the ground. "Why ME?" she lamented, pouting slightly as she crossed the hallway and glanced cautiously into
Chiharu's room. The door was propped open to reveal exactly what she had described - a tall young man, quite
reminiscent of their friend's foreign-term boyfriend - was seated in the middle of the futon, munching popcorn
and watching Trading Spaces. "THAT is a card?" blinked she, totally unconcerned as the little orange plushie
popped out of her pocket and began to levitate at her side. "He looks like a totally cute guy!"

"That would be Illusion," nodded the guardian with a small shrug. "Nothin' more than a troublemaker,
really. Just wanted to shake things up, 'sall."

Sighing a second time, the brunette strode into the room and slammed the door behind her, glowering
dangerously at the card. "Listen to ME, Clow Card," she spat as she fumbled around her key for her key. "Do me
a favor and tell your little friends that I don't have the energy to catch, like, three of you in less than
twenty-four hours, okay?"

Dark eyes twinkled as Illusion rose to his - its? Sakura wasn't so sure - feet and nodded, bowing
slightly in her direction. She frowned slightly and thrust the key forward, not at all bothered by the magic
and light that erupted when she called out the words of incantation.

"Return to your true form! Clow CARD!"

Keroberos - the guardian of the Clow - was unaware of the young woman behind him as he gazed out the
window and at the world beyond. It really was a fairly pretty fall day, with all the leaves below turning colors
and rustling in the breeze. But, somehow, he felt as though that was all about to change. Something was
happening, but what?

What could it be?

===

What could it be?

Brown eyes stared out across the familiar landscape of the campus, focusing on the reds and golds that
dotted the still-green grass. The wind-bent trees rustled softly, as did his gray hair, as he watched the world
go by, his sweatshirt warm but yet not warm enough in the cool fall atmosphere.

A hand, comforting and warm, rested on his shoulder, and he immediately leaned back into his roommate,
completing a soft and yet subtle embrace. It was an embrace that many would overlook as purely friendly, but
somehow... Somehow, it was more. He wasn't sure how, but there was more.

"Something wrong, Yuki?" questioned Touya Kinomoto gently, not quite pulling away from his long-time
friend as he, too, stared out across the world from their safe apartment balcony. "You looked lost, like you
were confused about something..."

"I'm very confused," admitted the other man with a small nod, raising a finger to adjust
his glasses as he spoke. "I have this terrible feeling, like something big is about to happen, but I can't
place it." He chuckled slightly, almost guiltily. "I'm so silly, aren't I?"

His friend shrugged. "Maybe," he teased, ruffling the shorter man's soft hair. "But come on. Dinner's
ready."

Nodding, Yukito Tsukishiro took one last, long glance across the campus, eyes searching for something
he couldn't quite find.

But somehow, he had the distinct impression that black, beady eyes - almost like those of a stuffed
animal - were staring back at him.

===
End Chapter 3.