The registrar's door banged open loudly, hitting the wall with an unusual force as he strode in. It
was, in fact, so abrupt that Naoko Yanagisawa, acting secretary to the registrar, gave a start and managed to
drop an armful of manila file folders. She thought she might have heard a muttered "sorry" as she reached down
to pick them up, but she wasn't sure.

She was, therefore, surprised, when her hand bumped into another, slightly darker hand, both reaching
for the same file.

"Thanks," she blushed, allowing herself to be handed the thin folder. The stranger - a male - was young
and rather attractive. He nodded and moved the back of his hand to brush shaggy brown tresses from equally
brown eyes. Their gazes locked, and Naoko shivered. It was almost as though he was staring beyond her eyes
and INTO her body, and that wasn't a feeling she liked.

Hopping to her feet, the secretary smiled and bustled over to her desk, trying her darnedest not to
seem smitten by the stranger. "So, how may I help you?" she questioned pleasantly, cocking her head to one
side as she spoke.

The stranger thrust his hands into his back pants pocket, deadpan expression not fading from his face
as he stepped forward, directly in front of the desk, and continued to stare her down. "I'm here to pick up
my registration packet," he informed her curtly, his manner surprisingly gruff. "I was told that I could
get it from a girl called Yanagisawa."

"That would be me!" chirped Naoko, slightly put off by his behavior. A new student acting so strict
and stern? He'd last all of two weeks in such an outgoing, friendly college. "Just give me your name, and I'll
find it."

Emotionless, the young man raised a hand to his head, finger-combing his hair out of his eyes. His
face showed no signs of caring and his voice no signs of compassion as he shoved his hand back into his pocket
and spat out his answer:

"Li Shao-Lang."

========================
"An American Cardcaptor"
A Cardcaptor Sakura Alternate Universe Fanfiction
Written by Kate "SuperKate" Butler
Chapter 4: "The Newest Student"
========================

"And then, he introduced himself as 'Li Shao-Lang,' all backwards like that, and it literally took me
ten minutes to figure out what he meant by it!"

As always, the five girls, all just average students, were seated around the tiny circular table in the
college commons, munching on nachos and other various snack food as they gabbed about that day's happenings.
More or less, at least for the others, the day had been rather uneventful, but Naoko's story was both unsettling
and amusing, causing the four others to be rather impressed with this bold new student who had wandered into
their little campus.

Smirking slightly, Chiharu winked a brown eye at her residential advisor. "So, Naoko, was he CUTE?"

The sophomore blushed guiltily and paused in picking apart her nachos to push her glasses further up on
her nose. She wasn't one to interact with males on a day-to-day basis, and, unlike the others, she had a rather
large tendency to avoid flirtation and such at all costs. "He was pretty snappy, actually," she replied, not
entirely lying. "He gave me one-word answers and quick little snippets of information."

"But it was in a CUTE way, right?" pressed the braid-headed one with a sly grin. Her friend blushed
further and took up a VERY acute interest in her food.

Tomoyo rolled her eyes and smacked the teasing girl at her side. "C'mon, Chiharu, you have a boyfriend!"
she prodded, chortling. "And we all know that you're not going to give up Takashi for all the tea in China, so
it shouldn't really matter." She gave a little sigh and glanced wistfully at the ceiling. "The only ones of
us who are allowed to look should be Naoko and I."

Her roommate wrinkled her nose, confused. "Hey, I'm not taken!" she protested.

The purple-haired teen smirked evilly and poked the brunette in the ribs. "Ah, yes, but YOU have your
Yukito, and we all know that, sometime, you two will end up making wild, passionate love on the lounge sofa!"

All the girls sans Sakura laughed at the expense of their one friend, who just turned bright, bright
pink and stared down at the table top guiltily. She hadn't planned on making her crush so blatantly obvious,
but it seemed as though the longer she stayed around her friends and told them all her hopes and dreams, the
more blatant it had become. Still, with the exception of her giggling roommate, she still did have one major
secret she was forced to keep, and it hurt more than anything else.

As the conversation wandered to other things, like the coming freshman fair, the Cardcaptor found her
mind jumping from thought to thought like a child playing hopscotch. Since the appearance of the Illusion card,
life had been fairly docile; no other cards had appeared to torment her, and, as much as she would have liked
to say she sensed the coming of more, the truth was that no one - not she, not Tomoyo, and not Keroberos - felt
like another card was coming. It was almost as though time itself had come to a grinding halt and made it so
no more odd occurrences would happen.

But Touya looked at her funny every time she ran into him. That was one thing she COULD sense. There was
something about his mannerisms that make her wonder what exactly he was thinking about her, and why he was
thinking like that. Her father, in his latest e-mail from his archeological dig, had expressed her older
brother's concern. She had attempted desperately to write it off as "no big deal," but the die-hard truth was
that he was right. He was right that she was acting funny. He was right to be concerned.

Yukito didn't seem concerned. He was his sweet, sensitive, smiling self. How badly she wanted to give
him an enormous hug and kiss and tell him she loved him! But it was a childhood crush, something silly. And, as
much as the girls teased, she was just as single as the rest of them. She might as well look at the strange
new student and -

"There he is!" hissed Naoko, and Sakura snapped from her thoughts to glance up, across the commons.
Standing near the entry way was a rather typical-looking college student - tan khakis, green sweater, tussled
brown hair. He was glancing around, almost as though he was looking for someone, his dark brown eyes drifting
from student to student.

Rika, in her high-bred manner, smiled softly. "He is quite attractive," she admitted, warranting a
quartet of shocked glances. For all her wonderful points, the auburn-haired one's major downfall was the fact
she would rarely - if EVER - look at a male other than her fiancé, if only for a brief second.

"Huh, looks like he must be heading to a table near here," commented Tomoyo aloud as the group of girls
turned back to their lunches and, once again, started chattering eagerly about other things. "Still, Sakura,
don't you think he looks kinda serious?"

The brunette would have shrugged had someone not picked that precise moment to rest their hand on her
shoulder.

Brown eyes peered down at Sakura through thick, dark bangs. "Are you the one they call Sakura Kinomoto?"
questioned the new student with a rather dry tone, ignoring both the cry of "HOE?!" and the gaping of the other
girls at the table.

Swallowing hard, the second-year student forced a smile and nodded meekly. There was something rather...
disconcerting...about the way he glanced at her. In fact, it felt a bit like when she looked at Kero... "That's
me," she croaked after her nod received no response. "And you are...?"

"That's not important," he responded curtly, his eyes lowering a bit toward her as he spoke. "Just know
that your mission ends here. I have come to pick up the pieces of your shoddy attempt, Cardcaptor."

And with that, he tossed his head and walked away, leaving a group of very confused young women
behind him.

===

"That's just the THING!" whined Sakura rather loudly as she tossed herself onto her bed in a fit of
absolute frustration. "I've NEVER seen this guy before! In fact, Naoko said that he just registered TODAY,
meaning that he's utterly new to the state of New York!" She punched her pillow in annoyance, her green eyes
glaring at the white-painted wall. "She even checked up on him, and he's from Hong Kong. HONG KONG!!! I don't
even know where Hong Kong frickin' IS, let alone know someone FROM there!"

The Guardian of the Clow sighed slightly at her ranting and raving, but continued to pace back and
forth across her dresser. "That's real weird, Sakura," he commented after a moment of consideration, earning
himself a rather pointed glare. "I mean, if ya knew him, that'd be one thing, but if ya've never met him before,
then..."

"He really did seem to know you," put in Tomoyo with a frown as she turned away from her computer
screen and toward her roommate, who was still laying face-down on her bedspread. "I mean, he walked RIGHT up
to you and addressed you by your name. Are you SURE you two have never met?"

For what seemed to be the eightieth time in a row, the brunette affirmed that, no, she had never met the
strange boy and, no, she didn't recognize him at all, and no, they had never had a class with him in high school,
and she was just about to affirm that she had never been to Hong Kong when Kero's jaw fell open and hit the
dresser with an audible "thump."

Sakura frowned, glancing dubiously at him as he picked his chin up off the ground. "That kid's from
Hong Kong?" he repeated, black bead eyes blinking once, twice, three times. "Aw, crap."

"'Aw crap?'" echoed the Cardcaptor with a rather arch expression. "Do I WANT to know the significance of
'aw crap,' Kero?"

Her plushie sighed and forced a small smile. "You went an' wrote a report on the Clow," he replied with a
half-nod of his rotund orange head. "Where'd the maker of the Clow come from, hmm?"

Green eyes widened involuntarily toward the guardian as Sakura fought to process this suggestion. "You
don't mean that... That he could be Clow Reed, do you?"

Kero nearly fell flat on his face, and the only thing that kept him from completely face-vaulting was
the rather large history book that was sitting next to him, which he caught himself on. "No!" he howled, glaring
at her. "I mean that this kid, whoever he is, knows 'bout the Clow 'cause he's FROM Hong Kong!" Sighing, he
shook his head. "But it still dun make sense that he'd know the Cardcaptor on sight. Hmmm..."

"Maybe he's somehow related to the Clow Cards," suggested Tomoyo helpfully, tucking her feet up until
she was sitting cross-legged on her desk chair. Kero glanced at her and arched an eyebrow, and she gave a little
half-shrug in response. "I don't know," she smiled, a bit embarrassed by the guardian beast's sudden interest
in her. "But if he's from Hong Kong and did know who Sakura was right away, that suggests that maybe he has
something to do with the Cards. They ARE magical, after all. Maybe he has the same kind of magic Sakura does."

The brunette would have responded had there not been a knock on the door at that moment. Kero immediately
keeled over, falling to lay half on the dresser and half off, and Sakura forced a smile and called "Come in!"

In came a rather flustered Rika, frowning profusely as she slipped in through the door and then leaned
heavily on it to force it shut. "Uhm, Sakura, not to concern you, but..." Her frown deepened, brow furrowing
as she glanced at the room-dweller. "Did you perhaps invite that new student over to our dorm?"

"Hoe?" squeaked the brunette, nearly slipping off her bed in surprise. "Wh-what are you talking about?!"

Her friend paled. "I figured," she sighed, shaking her head. When she realized that the two roommates
were still STARING at her, she blushed a little and reached to scratch the back of her neck. "It's just that
the new student - Li Sho-Long or whatever his name is - has been wandering up and down the hallways looking
for your room. I figure he'll show up soon and, I don't know, I thought you would want to know."

"Thanks, Rika," smiled Tomoyo as she watched her roommate continue to blink, starting like a deer caught
in the headlights of an 18-wheeler. "We'll let you know if anything really weird happens."

The auburn-haired one nodded, and as soon as she was out the door Keroberos was on his feet, his black
eyes the size of saucepans. "LI?!" he roared, staring after Rika with his mouth hanging open. "The Lis are the
most powerful magic-users in all of Hong Kong! No WONDER he's here! He's a descendent!"

His charge shot him a rather confused look and he sighed, plopping down on the very edge of her history
tome. "Clow Reed, the creator of the Clow, died a real long time ago," he explained, accompanying each word with
a rather elaborate wave of his paws. "But he left some nieces an' nephews an' stuff, and they had some kids,
and them kids had kids, and their kids had kids, passin' his super-powerful magic down the line all the way. The
most powerful of them families was the Li family. And, if the new kid's name is Li Sho-Long - "

"Shao-Lang," corrected Tomoyo helpfully.

" - then he's one of them magic-users." He scowled, resting his chin on a paw. "The Lis must know that
the cards have escaped, an' want them back in their hot little hands." He paused, glancing dubiously at the girl
on the bed. "Makes me wonder how a school like this ended up with the book in the first place, ya know?"

Sakura was about to respond to the rhetorical question of her guardian when, once again, there was a
knock at the door. Both young women gave a start and glanced at each other, not at all noticing that Kero's
attempt to revert into "stuffed toy" mode ended in his falling off the dresser and face-first onto the tile
floor. For a moment no one said anything, waiting in silence for the knock to go away.

It echoed a second time.

Shrugging her slender shoulders, Tomoyo turned back to her keyboard and slipped on her reading glasses,
followed almost immediately by her headphones. "Come in!" she called merrily before flicking on her WinAmp
player.

The brunette scowled at her friend but said nothing as the door swung open and the new student, still
dressed in the green sweater and the khakis, stepped into the room. Brown eyes locked immediately with green,
dark and unmoving. Then, in one swift movement, he pushed shut the door and flipped the bolt, locking it.

"Hey!" shot Sakura, hopping out of her bed as soon as she heard the tell-tale click. Her hands flew
around her back and fumbled their way into her back jeans pocket, fingering the familiar bulge of the Clow Key.
"What do you think you're doing, huh? This is my room, and I won't be bullied in my own - "

"Quiet down," he snapped rather blandly, rolling his eyes in her direction. "Or do you want everyone to
hear our coming conversation, hmm?"

"What conversation would that be?" growled the brunette, her gaze switching into a dead glare almost
immediately. "You never did explain yourself. You didn't even give me your NAME before you started through around
big words like 'Cardcaptor.'" She frowned slightly, deciding inwardly that, since she was in the hot seat, she
might as well pretend to be absolutely clueless. "What is a Cardcaptor, anyway? Is it something like a 'Magic: The
Gathering' player?"

The brown-haired young man shot her a rather annoyed look, like that of a parent who is able to see
through his child's little white lies. "Don't play dumb with me, Kinomoto," he snapped, tossing his head
haughtily. "If you expect to rival me as the Cardcaptor, you first have to own up to being her." He glanced
around the room slowly, examining it. "And, if you MUST know, my name is Li Shao-Lang. You may call me Li."

Sakura made a face at him, wrinkling her nose. "I'm supposed to refer to you by your last name?"

"As a matter of respect to your better, I expect it," snorted the young man, taking a few steps further
into the room as he craned his neck to glance in the half-open closets and on top of the desks and dressers.
"Where do you keep them, anyway?"

"Keep WHO?" demanded his adversary angrily, hopping up and down in front of him to prevent him from
seeing anything in the room - especially the red-leather book that was sitting beneath her history text and the
orange-yellow plushie on the floor. "And who do you think you are, calling yourself my better? I don't even
KNOW you!"

Li shot her a rather dirty look before reaching forward and grasping her by the shoulder. She found
herself struggling against his strong grip. "Listen to me, Kinomoto, and listen good," he informed her, his
voice deadpan. He attempted to stare into her eyes but she turned away, glancing desperately toward her roommate.
Of course, Tomoyo was too engrossed in her power-punk and her newest web layout to really notice her friend's
plight. "I don't want to play games with you. I just want the Clow Cards. Give me the cards and I - OWWW!!!"

Suddenly, the hand was gone and the brown-haired stranger was hopping around, clutching his left leg.
And, attached to his shin by the teeth was a yellowish-orange, growling plushie.

"Kero!" squealed Sakura, lunging toward her guardian beast. Unfortunately, Li picked that moment to shake
his leg rather violently, kicking the brunette woman in the face with the motion. Not that it really mattered,
because her inertia still sent her sprawling toward his legs, which knocked them both off their feet and into
the closed-and-locked door with a loud "THUMP!"

Tugging off her headphones, Tomoyo swiveled in her seat to glance at her roommate at the strange new
student. "What in the world is going on, you - " And then, upon seeing Sakura laying in Li's lap with Kero
smashed under her chest, the purple-haired graphic designer did the only dignified thing she could.

She burst out laughing so hard that she fell out of her chair and onto the floor.

"Not funny," muttered Sakura irritably, clambering to her feet and dusting off her jeans and t-shirt.
This comment somehow managed to send her friend into an entirely new round of hysterical laughter, leaving her
to glower helplessly. Then, she bent down and plucked the swirly-eyed Keroberos up off her newfound enemy's
leg, holding him upside down by his tail. "And as for YOU, Kero, I should have you given to the Salvation Army!"

"What?" whined the little stuffed cat-lion-bear, crossing his arms over his chest as he glanced rather
annoyedly at his charge. "I was only tryin' to keep that there kid from bad-mouthin' my fine Cardcaptor!"

Brushing off the seat of his khakis, Li glanced toward the upside-down plush toy. "You mean to tell me
that YOU, a stuffed animal, are the legendary Keroberos?"

Kero grunted and struggled to turn himself around, but his tail refused to do a full 180-degree turn,
and so he contented himself to stare idly at Sakura's midsection. "If ya HAFFTA know, then yeah, I'm the
Guardian Beast of the Clow." He wrinkled his little nose and twisted his torso violently, causing his captor
to release his tail. Wings fluttering madly, he raised himself up to the level of the new student's eyes and
glared into them. "But when I'm in my REAL form, I am so super-powerful that I can make li'l midgets like you
wet your panties, kiddo."

"My name is Li Shao-Lang, plushie," snorted the brown-haired man with a toss of his head. "NOT 'kiddo.'"

"And mine is Keroberos," replied the seeming stuffed toy, hovering dangerously close to the man's nose.
"And I am NOT a plushie."

"Cut it OUT," commanded Sakura, smacking her guardian beast so that his hover actually acted as an
accelerator to run him into the floor. "And I HIGHLY suggest if you're done here, MISTER LI, that you get out."
Green eyes narrowed to slits. "NOW."

Li glanced at her, his face completely void of emotion. "Is that to say that you're still considering
yourself my rival for the capture of the Clow Cards?"

She moved one hand just long enough to brush a strand of loose hair from her face. "No," she responded,
completely deadpan as she pushed past him and opened the door. "I'm no rival to you. I AM the Cardcaptor."

And with that, he tossed his head and strode out of the room, leaving Sakura to slam the door behind
him.

===

"Ow ow ow..." mumbled Sakura, pressing the Ziploc bag full of ice against her cheek as gently as she
possibly could. Even the tiniest little bit of pressure on the slowly-appearing bruise - a large red-purple
welt that looked extremely grotesque after only an hour's time. "Who would have thought that weirdo would have
kicked so hard? Oooowwww..."

Sighing, the brunette sat slowly up, leaning against the wall that her bed was pushed up against. "Who
does he think he is?" she questioned of the empty room, half-expecting Kero to pop up out of somewhere, but he
didn't appear. He had actually left at the same time that Tomoyo had class, saying that he had a few things he
"wanted to look into." The Cardcaptor had nodded dully and let him leave, not really pausing to think how odd
his comment was until after he was long gone. She blamed it wholly and completely on the sudden - and painful -
appearance of Li Shao-Lang.

It wasn't even really that Li bothered her. She could see that he was going to be an irritation, but
then again, there were a lot of things in life that were irritations. Her brother was an irritation, her friends
tended to be irritations, and Kero didn't help much either. But the fact remained that capturing the cards was
her responsibility. It was something that she was completely ready to do. Well, okay, not completely ready,
but ready enough. She had been the idiot, who let the cards free. It was her responsibility. Nothing could
change that.

Even so, he was going out of his way to make sure that she was uncomfortable. After all, he had come to
her room, locked her door, and caused much more mischief initiating tended to cope with. In fact, though more
she thought about it, the more she realized that Naoko had been right. For all his faults, Li was cute. Granted,
he had the personality of viper and the look to match, there was something about those brown eyes and that
shaggy head of hair that made her heart skip a few beats here and there. Unfortunately, he was making it rather
hard for anyone to find him at all attractive. The mere thought of his attitude problem that Sakura want to
smack him.

Just then, there was a knock the door, a knock that was just soft enough to make Sakura wonder if
Tomoyo's class had been canceled. "Come in!" called Sakura from her spot against the wall. For moment, nothing
happened, and Sakura assumed that Takashi was playing yet another trick on his girlfriend's buddy. But then,
Rika, her hair a little disheveled, peeked her head into the door. "Oh, hi Naoko," smiled the brunette, hopping
off her bed and crossing the room until she stood face to face with her friend. "What's up?"

The "hall marm" frowned slightly, scratching the back of her head and stepped more fully into the room.
"Well," she began, pursing her lips, "I have a meeting to go to, and so I'm not going to be around the rest the
day." She stopped to push her glasses higher up on her nose. "I was wondering then if you could run down to
the College Commons for me and pick up the care packages that were ordered. I think there are only four for our
floor." Her hopeful smile was enough to indicate that she was absolutely, positively desperate for the help.

Sakura shrugged and turned toward her dresser, grabbing her keys and stuffing them into her pocket.
"Of course!" She grinned, not really wanting to cross her hall director. Well, not wanting to cross her this
soon. "Besides," she added, try not to look too sheepish, "I could use getting out of this room. I think I've
being cooped up in here for entirely too long."

Naoko sent her a rather odd look. "Where in the world did you get that bruise?" asked her friend,
obviously concerned about the large welt that had appeared on the other woman's cheek. "Did you get into a
fist fight or something?"

The brunette assistant hall director blushed slightly as she slid on her sneakers. "Like the idiot I am,"
she lied, feeling both increasingly embarrassed and angry about the argument that had taken place earlier that
day, "I smacked into a door when I was leaving history class. I think Terada bust a gut laughing at me."
And actually, that wasn't entirely a lie. She had run into the door on her way out of class, and it had hurt.
But it hadn't been nearly enough velocity to cause a bruise. At least, not a bruise as huge as that one.

"Thanks a lot, Sakura," gushed the glasses-wearing sophomore. "I'll come by and get the care packages
sometime tomorrow." And with that, she was out the door and on her way down the hall, half jogging as she headed
off to whatever meeting she had to go to this time.

Sakura frowned a little, wondering how exactly she always got herself into these messes. Then, she allowed
that thought to fade away and wandered out of her dorm room and down the hallway to pick up the care packages.

===

As luck would have it, Sakura was almost all the way to the College Commons when she saw, of all the things
in the world, a garbage can bouncing down the sidewalk.

Now, in her time at the college, Sakura had seen a lot of things. She had seen the men's floors
in her dorm building run four panty raids, she had seen drunken frat boys stumble into the girl's bathroom thinking
that they had made it all the way to the fourth floor, and then watched as they attempted to use the sink as a
urinal. She had lived all sorts of weird little things, really, so a hopping garbage can should have felt second
nature to her.

Except this particular hopping garbage can brought with it the tingling, shiver-filled sensation of a Clow
card.

"Dammit!" muttered Sakura as she ducked behind the impractically large sundial that had forever sat just
outside of the science building. She fumbled in her pockets for her key and her cards, hoping that, by some miracle
of life, she would just happen to have remembered them. "First a weird new student, now THIS! What next, a talking
cat?"

"Ya was expectin' maybe an anime mascot?" chided a voice, and Sakura's cry of "HOE!!!!" echoed across
the Quad as Kero fluttered down off his perch atop the sundial to land on the brunette's shoulder. "I'm thinkin'
the same thing ya are, Sakura," he drawled, tail twitching as he watched the can hop onto the grass and start
chasing a squirrel. "I was lookin' for that Li kid when that garbage can appeared, and I've been followin' it
ever since."

Mumbling a few rather rude things about "deus ex machina," Sakura grabbed her key from her pocket,
clutching it in her fist so hard that her knuckles turned white. "Time to party," she grumbled rather irately before
chanting the magic words and allowing her wand to appear.

"Wait!" hollered Kero as he watched his charge toss out the Fly card and hop onto the staff, her sights
fixed on and only on the bouncing garbage can. "I gotta warn ya, that there card is the - "

Before he could finish, the college student took off across the Quad on her magical flying Staff of the
Clow, her hair blowing behind her.

The guardian beast sighed and shook his head. "It's the Jump card," he mumbled to himself, "and it's a
trickster."

His words were too soft to be heard by Sakura, however, who was now zipping across the quad on her pink,
bird-headed staff, the fall wind tossing her already-messy brown hair every which way as she chased the garbage
can. Luckily for her, the can wasn't very quick in it's little hops across campus, and - though she had a strange
feeling that, yes, it had picked up speed since she'd taken off after it - the distance was covered quite rapidly.
In fact, she was within an arm's length of the possessed waste receptacle before she reached the ever-nearing
back wall of the College Commons.

Reaching for the end of the staff, Sakura glared at the can, which had now come to a stop against the
red brick wall of the nearby building. "I don't know what you are," she announced, "and I really don't care!
Return to your true form, Cl - "

It was then that Sakura realized just how close to the wall she WAS.

There was first the audible "SMACK!"-ing sound of flesh and bone hitting brick, followed by a groan from
the said mash of flesh and blood and then a thump as Sakura landed atop the twitching, shivering mass that was an
obviously nervous trashcan. Somewhere between the groan and the landing, however, the brunette finished the words
"Clow Card," and yet managed to be surprised when a card - complete with a bunny-looking illustration and text
reading "The Jump" - appeared before her.

"Ya okay, Sakura?!" howled a rather concerned Keroberos, his wings fluttering wildly as he hovered
beside his charge. She was still seated atop the garbage can, staring blankly at the wall in front of her even as
Kero babbled into her ear. "Say somethin'! ANYTHIN'!"

Ever-so-slowly, she turned to face him, her green eyes lowering to a glare that would have been terrifying
were it not for the giant red-purple bruise that remained just under her left eye. "I hate this job," she growled.
"I absolutely HATE it."

The guardian beast grinned. "Yeah!" he cheered, his little black beady eyes slanting closed in a triumphant
smile. "You're okay!"

Sakura took her staff, which was still in it elongated form, and smacked him.

===

"Today has just not been your day, has it?" chuckled Tomoyo as she watched Sakura move the Ziploc of ice
from her bruised cheek and onto her rather swollen nose. Luckily for her (or was it unluckily...?), the university
staff doctor had discovered that her nose was not broken but rather just badly bruised, and he remained fairly
certain that the swelling would go down in a few hours. Still, he had seemed rather concerned when his patient
had said she'd fallen down a flight of stairs and landed face-first at the base, and he had recommended her to
the local Alcoholics Anonymous group, reminding her that she COULD get help. She had been absolutely certain, then,
to shoot him the nastiest look possible before storming out of the office and slamming the door behind her.

The brunette sat up and glowered at her roommate, wrinkling her nose slightly until she remembered that
nose motion equated to mind-numbing amounts of pain, at which time she contented herself with harrumphing. "The
thing with the Jump card doesn't bother me NEARLY as much as that Li kid does," she responded, moving to lean
against the wall, her legs stretched out into a "v" shape across her bed. "I mean, even if he IS the freaking
heir to the Clow cards doesn't mean that he can come in and try to tell me what to do!"

Her friend smirked, cupping her chin in a hand. "Maybe it's because he's a man," she suggested, receiving
a look from her friend that directly translated to 'Oh, PUH-lease!' "I mean, guys DO tend to be stupid and
insensitive like that."

"Not Yukito," snorted Sakura rather haughtily, crossing her arms over her chest as she spoke. "Yukito is
so sweet, it's almost like he's a chick!" She giggled, her eyes going starry. "Do you remember when he made his
own stationary to send me that 'Welcome to college' note, Tomoyo? Tell me that that's not kind and sensitive!"

"Sounds kinda gay to me," commented Kero as he flipped through a rather battered copy of one of Tomoyo's
Playstation magazines. "I mean, what kinda guy makes his own stationary, huh? I'm thinkin' that his branches are
blowin' in the other breeze."

As green eyes lowered to a glare, the dark-haired roommate nodded thoughtfully, glancing out the window
as she considered the guardian's words. "He DOES have a point, even if you don't want to admit it," she reminded
her roomie thoughtfully, studying the blackish-blue sky that had replaced that afternoon's robin's egg blue. "Not
many guys can cook, clean, and knit as well as your obsession can. Maybe you should take that as a sign..."

Hopping to her feet, Sakura abandoned her bag of ice so she could more effectively rest her hands on her
blue jeans clad hips. "There are TWO reasons that Yukito isn't gay!" she declared stubbornly, her slippered foot
slapping the floor as she stomped her emphasis to this fact. "The first is that NO MAN that witty, kind, and
absolutely GORGEOUS could POSSIBLY be gay!"

Kero snorted, trying his best to hide a smirk and fading at his attempt. "Except for the fact that, the
prettier they are, the harder they fall to all fours."

Tomoyo whapped him upside the head for that one, even though she, too, was smirking.

"And SECONDLY," continued the brunette, tossing her head as she ignored her friend (and her talking plush
toy), "if he WERE, by some flaw of nature, gay, that would mean that he would be sleeping with my brother. And
if anyone is more straight than Yuki, it would have to be Touya!"

Purple eyes widened, and dark eyebrows arched. "You mean Touya, who can make a four-course meal without
using a recipe book? Touya, who knit you a sweater for Christmas after he hand-spun his own yarn from a yarn-making
kit he got at Jo-Ann fabrics? Touya, who dressed better than ANY man in ANY of the Abercrombie and Fitch
catalogues?"

Her roommate flinched at all the references. "So what?" she questioned, plopping back down on her bed,
not really noticing that the door was starting to creep open. "I mean, look at Professor Terada! That guy has more
fashion sense than even Touya, and he comes across as an amazing flamer, too." Oblivious to the fact that Tomoyo
was making a not-so-subtle slashing motion at neck level, she continued. "But for some reason, he - the man who
probably would be voted 'Most Likely to Swing the Other Way' by a survey group of college students - is getting
married to a FEMALE." Her green eyes flickered in mirth, and she smiled triumphantly. "All you have to do is
apply that logic to Yukito's case, and you've got yourself the perfect reasoning for why he's NOT gay." Proud of
herself, she turned toward the auburn-haired girl from down the hall, who was standing in the doorway with a
rather pissed look on her face. "Right, Rika?"

Suddenly, she realized exactly what she had said, and to whom. "RIKA?!"

Glowering, her neighbor shot her a dirty look before tossing an envelope atop of Sakura's desk, which sat
next to the door. "I was GOING to tell you that this note was stuck to your door before I invited you to dinner
with Yoshiyuki and myself, but I have suddenly lost my appetite." And with that, she turned tail and stepped out
of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Sakura slid off the edge of her bed, hitting the floor with an audible thump. "Hoeeeeeeee," she moaned,
too lazy to stand as she literally crawled over to her desk and pulled the envelope off of it. "I am such a moron."

"I ain't arguin'," chortled Keroberos as he turned back to his magazine. "Takes a whole buncha bein' stupid
to say things like that in fronta your friend."

"Shut up," shot back the bruised and battered Cardcaptor as she tore open the flap to the envelope and
pulled out the sheet of paper inside. Her lips moved as though she was about to add something else to her comeback,
but words refused to formulate as she read the note within the envelope. Her green eyes widened to enormous
proportions, but neither of her companions took any notice of her rather shocked reaction.

Until she hopped to her feet and practically dove into her closet, rooting around for her shoes. "What's
going on?" gaped Tomoyo, hopping off her desk chair as she watched her friend toss purses, textbooks, and even
dirty dishes out of her closet as she looked for her footwear. "Is something wrong?"

"That stupid Li kid needs to see me about the cards!" she grunted, falling to the floor as she began to
tug on her tennis shoes. "He wants to meet me behind the old gym building by 8 pm, and if I'm not there, then
he's going to FORCEFULLY take the cards from me."

There was a blur of orange as Kero zipped over to flutter right in front of her face, a scared expression
crossing his little stuffed-animal face. "That little kiddo!" he growled, tail twitching as he hovered before
his charge. "I don't believe that any kid like him would try an' be a Cardcaptor! Don't he KNOW that he ain't got
the magic power for it?"

Looping the strap for her camera bag over her shoulder, Tomoyo winked at him before moving to her own
closet and flipping hangers at an alarming rate. "I don't know," she admitted, smirking rather evilly as she
stopped midway through her wardrobe and paused, examining something. "But I *DO* know that it's time we introduced
the newest hero of the magical girl genre!"

"Oh NO..." groaned the brunette, eyeing the door with increased urgency. Unfortunately, Tomoyo's closet
was on the opposite side of the room from her own, meaning that it was directly next to the closed door. There was
no escape.

Her roommate grinned rather manically and reached to lock the door. The "click" echoed through the otherwise
silent dorm room. "The debut of the one, the only, the fighter for love and justice.... CARDCAPTOR SAKURA!!!"

Sakura's screams of "HOE!!!" fell on deaf ears.

===

The old gym building was, for a lack of better description, a dilapidated old granite building that sat on
the very edge of campus. Built shortly after the school's historic opening in the 1870s, it had been in use
for several decades before, in the sixties, the school chose to close it down, stating that it was too old for
use. Unfortunately, the National Register of Historic Building decided to add that gymnasium to its list only a
month before a demolition team came in to "take care of business," and the administration had been bitter ever
since.

Behind the building was a small stretch of cracked and broken concrete that had once served as a basketball
court and, just beyond that, an enormous drop-off that led to a ravine. A small stream ran through the ravine, just
enough to be a trickling of water. Trees, dead and living, bent over the stream, as if they were paying homage
to some sort of holy site.

Shao-Lang Li had been waiting for about fifteen minutes when he could finally hear the girlish squealing
of Sakura Kinomoto approaching the basketball court behind the gym. It was rather warm for a fall night, but at
the same time, it was just windy enough to carry her voice from wherever its origins lied and into his waiting
ears. And this particular time, that voice was whining.

"I don't believe this outfit, Tomoyo! It's... It's absolutely - "

"I know it's a masterpiece!" Another voice, one that sounded vaguely familiar. His ears perked up. What was
the name of that girl that Kinomoto was always with? Tomo? No, no, that wasn't it. He could remember her reaction
to their unfortunate dog pile that morning - her purple eyes alight with mirth as she started - but her name eluded
her.

A third voice, this one with the most annoying and unidentifiable accent he had ever had the displeasure
to hear. "I ain't what I wudda thought she'd make for ya," it commented, the young man recognizing the voice of the
stuffed toy that considered himself a guardian beast. "But it is kinda cute."

"Hoeeeeeeeeeeee...." whined the first voice again, and it was then that he, standing with his back against
what was left of one of the ancient basketball hoops, got his first glance of the trio at hand.

The girl with no name - was it Toyo? - was walking backwards, occasionally almost-tripping thanks to all
the cracks in the concrete that surrounded the supposedly-historic gymnasium. In her hands was a state-of-the-art
digital camcorder, the lens of which she kept constantly focused on her roommate.

Keroberos hovered near her shoulder, and he appeared to be snickering at something. And as for Sakura...

Shao-Lang Li choked as he realized exactly what the brunette was wearing, and suddenly, the conversation
he had been "lucky" enough to overhear made a lot more sense.

The brunette's rather short tresses were pulled up and out of her face by what appeared to be a white
headband, but - as the wind picked up and ruffled her hair - he realized that it wasn't a headband at all, but
rather a thick ribbon. The tails of said ribbon hung down her back and all the way to about her ankles, which was,
interestingly enough, where the hem of her dress fell. The dress itself was also white, but it was a shimmery
white that almost looked silver in the dim, half-flickering lights that were attached to the back of the gym.
As if the white-silver dress and super-long ribbon were not enough, attached to Sakura's back were two white wings
that appeared to be made out of real feathers.

Snorting, he stepped away from the basketball hoop and stepped into the center of the court, his hands
on his hips. "What in the world are you wearing?" he questioned rather dubiously, his shock winning over his
urge to point and laugh.

Green eyes, which had previously been watching out for cracks in the ground, snapped up to give the young
man a once-over. "I should be asking you the same question," Sakura shot back, staring at him. He was wearing what
appeared to be some sort of costume out of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," complete with a sword tied around
his waist and some sort of hideous little cap. "At least my costume is something discernable."

Li crossed his arms over his chest and glared right back at her, a bit phased as he noticed how the other
girl's camera kept swinging back and forth from him to his adversary, as though the camerawoman was trying to catch
every last snippet of conversation. Probably because she was. "If you MUST know," he returned haughtily, "I am
wearing the ceremonial robes of the Li family. Not that YOU would understand that, of course." He smirked slightly.
"Anyone dressed up as an angel definitely wouldn't get it."

The glower from the brunette woman intensified. "Oh, and you think this was MY idea?" she snapped back,
obviously annoyed at his attitude. "Maybe if you had some friends, you'd understand what it is to do kind things
for them!" She took a few steps forward as her voice got louder.

"Maybe if you weren't such a little weakling of a Cardcaptor, I wouldn't have to insult you to get the
point across!" He, too, took a few steps closer to her, his hands still on his hips. "And if you really want to
outdo me, you have a LOT to learn, Kinomoto!"

"Really? Well, maybe YOU should learn some manners!"

"Me? Manners? At least I know how to address those who are stronger and more mature than myself! You
would not know proper decorum if it kicked you in - "

Suddenly, the argument was interrupted by a rumbling sound that resembled a cross between a growl and a
clap of thunder. The duo glanced toward the source of the sound - namely, the roof of the gymnasium - and then
glanced at one-another, exchanging rather concerned glances.

Standing on the roof of the ancient, dilapidated athletic building was a creature that looked somewhat (but
not entirely) like a bristling wolf, with "fur" that sparkled and crackled as lightning did and dark, blue-black
eyes that glared down at them. Then, he barked, and the thunder roared again, this time accompanied by a well-placed
bolt of lightning.

"A card!" squealed Sakura, diving out of the way just quickly enough to avoid the wolf-creature's attack.
Li, too, barely missed being charred like a marshmallow on a campfire, and the two of them rolled across the
broken concrete in opposite directions. "What is it, Kero? The Lightning?"

"It's the Thunder!" corrected the guardian beast as he abandoned the ever-attentive camerawoman to flutter
over to his charge. "It attacks with lotsa lightnin'!"

Grumbling, the young man climbed to his feet, only to find himself evading another rather quick attack by
the Thunder card. "Really, now?" he chided the orange-yellow beast, shooting it a rather annoyed glance. "What gave
you that idea? Perhaps it was THE GIANT LIGHTNING BOLT THAT NEARLY KILLED US BOTH?!"

From her spot behind the camera, Tomoyo made a tisk-tisk sound with her tongue. "Now now, Shao-Lang, that's
no way to talk to the guardian beast of the Clow!"

Initially, Li shot her a rather annoyed glance, but said glance faded as he was forced to dodge yet another
flash of yellow-gold light. "Okay, Kinomoto," he grunted, landing gracefully next to the angel-garbed brunette and
glancing at her concernedly. "What cards do you have right now?"

She frowned slightly as she glanced at the handful of red-and-gold cards that she had collected in the
last few weeks. "I've got Windy, Fly, Watery, Rain, Wood, Jump, and Illusion," she read off, her urgency
intensifying with each syllable. The wolf-thunder roared, and they jumped out of its way in amazing unison, landing
to stand back-to-back. "What do you think?" she questioned, glancing nervously at her "partner" in card capturing.
If he could be called that, she amended inwardly. He still was a pain in the rear-end, even if they DID have to
work together, this time. "Windy?"

"No way!" came the haughty response as the young man reached to his back and tugged on something. With a
swing of his arm, he released an enormous sword from it's back-mounted scabbard. Sakura glanced rather dubiously
at the silver blade and took a little step away from him, suddenly feeling VERY sorry for anything bad she may have
said to anyone with a weapon that large. "Windy is too docile for something like this! What we need is a distraction,
so it will leave US alone!"

Sakura blinked at him. "Leave US alone...?" she repeated, biting her lower lip in thought. The faces of
the cards - Windy, Fly, Watery, Rain, Wood, Jump, Illusion - stared up at her lifelessly, but yet she could feel
their power coursing through her veins. But which one would keep Thunder away? Certainly it wouldn't be Rain, for
Rain and Thunder often went together, and Watery would just amplify the power of the Thunder card. Illusion really
wasn't good for all that much, now that she thought of it, and the Fly and Jump were more evasion tactics than
offensive moves. But, then, how -

"Of COURSE!" cheered the brunette, tucking all of the cards but one back into the pocket of her angel's
gown. "I've got it! The card we need is - HOEEEEEEEEE!!!!"

Li turned away from his companion just in time to see a bolt of lightning - as gold and prickly-looking
as ever - come sailing in their direction. With a flick of his wrist, Li pulled from his pocket something like that
looked rather like an extra-long orange post-it note and tossed it in front of his sword. "Spirit of Lightning,
come forth!" he cried, swinging his sword so it made contact with the paper. Immediately, another flash of lighting
smashed into that which the Thunder-beast had created and overtook it, the two forces exploding with a crackle of
brilliant light.

Seeing the opening she so needed, the angel-garbed cardcaptor stepped forward, dangling her key in front
of her. "Oh key that hides the power of the dark! By our contract, reveal your true form to me. This, Sakura
commands!" Doing just as Tomoyo had "taught" her after the incident in the library, she raised her hands high over
her head, the key spinning almost dizzyingly over her head. "RELEASE!"

Then, as soon as the Staff of Sealing had appeared, she tossed the card that she had chosen from her small
stack in front of her body. "Wood!" she commanded, lowering the staff head onto the card. "Cover us with foliage
and hide us from the Thunder card!"

"Good thinkin'!" cheered Keroberos merrily as the Wood emerged from its containment and wove a thick
blanket of branches and leaves high above their level, hiding them from view. Sakura beamed, quite proud of her
efforts, but Li just snorted and tossed his head.

"Now," instructed the cardcaptor, trying earnestly to ignore her urge to kick her male counterpart squarely
between his legs, "I'm going to sneak around the back of the building with Fly while the Thunder keeps trying
to nail us under the trees. YOU - " She sent a pointed and rather bitter glance toward the scowling Shao-Lang Li.
" - just use another one of those super-post-its if it tries to attack again. Okay?"

His brown eyes lowered dangerously in her direction. "POST-ITS?" he roared, his glare not lessening even as
she summoned the Fly card and hopped onto her staff. "You DARE call my ofuda Post-Its?"

"Whatever!" called the brunette after him as she zipped through the rather tidy little rows of trees the
Wood card had created, ducking out of the way of a few stray branches here-and-there. The artificial wood stretched
almost halfway around the building and, by time Sakura had emerged back into the dimly-lit glory that was the
sidewalk around the gym, she was completely certain that she had gone unnoticed. Somewhere on the roof, she could
hear the Thunder growling and throwing lightning bolts at the forest below, the energy crackling off the wood and
echoing through the night sky.

So silent was the Fly card's gentle wing beats that the Thunder was completely oblivious to Sakura's approach,
even when she suddenly climbed from ground level and high into the sky. Her silhouette was reflected by the full moon
as she grabbed the end of her staff and raised it high above her head, allowing the wings of the Fly to disappear.
For a moment, it seemed that she was participating in a complete and total free-fall, her body plunging toward the
roof of the gym without a sign of stopping, but then, as she aimed the bird head toward the wolf-beast, time seemed
to slow, and her plummet was almost totally halted. "Return to thy true form!" she called out, causing her adversary
to swing its great head toward her, noticing the angel-cardcaptor's appearance for the very first time since she
had disappeared beneath the cover of the Wood card. The unconfined card roared, the thunder clap painful to the ears,
but it was too late. Already, the tell-tale pink rectangle that signaled the capture of a card had come into view.
"Clow CARD!!!"

Within moments, Sakura felt time once again pick up and she landed HARD on the roof of the gymnasium,
sliding down the steep incline rather violently. Shrieking, she reached out a hand just in time to grab - of all
things - a disconnected and long out-of-service telephone cord. She skidded to a stop just feet from the edge of
the roof, her green eyes only peering ONCE at the twenty-foot drop to the ground before she shirked away from the
drop-off, clutching tightly to her lifeline.

"Good job, Sakura!" praised Kero excitedly, spiraling high into the air as he cheered for his favorite (and
only) cardcaptor. "I dunno if ya are just a ham for Tomoyo's camera, but that was AWESOME! Ya GOTTA do more moves
like that!" Grinning, he imitated the brunette's freefall staff-swinging a few times, still babbling.

His charge didn't listen. A breeze had picked up and blown the ends of her long white hair ribbon into her
face, and - as she raised a hand to push it away - her eyes met Li's. He was staring up at her, his lips slightly
parted as he stood in the middle of the now-empty basketball court, his ceremonial robes tossed by the wind.
Something about his gaze made her - a college sophomore, an ADULT - feel suddenly embarrassed, and she blushed
accordingly, her cheeks turning a rather becoming shade of pink. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Naoko's comment
about how attractive he was echoed, and she couldn't help but agree as she stared at him from atop the roof.

Shao-Lang Li, too, blushed slightly, glancing down at the ground rather shyly, a gesture that his rival
would not have expected from him. "Good job, Kinomoto," he nodded, his voice just loud enough to be heard. Then,
he took off down the sidewalk toward main campus, his back turned and his face never turning to look towards the
girl on the roof or the abandoned gymnasium.

And from her spot still standing on the sidelines, Tomoyo Daidouji smirked and shut off her video camera.

===
End Chapter 4.
===

Author's notes: I know that my updating has been rather irregular. I hope to work on making it a bit more scheduled,
but there's this thing called "college" that tends to get in the way. I'll try my best to post a little more often,
though. Sorry for the wait, all three of you who read this. ^^;