Part 3
Originally, this and Part 4 were merged but I split them because it was a bit long. Cardcaptor Sakura and all characters are (C) CLAMP. This fic was made by a fan for fans. Please don't sue!
An early alarm woke Sakura from her slumber but like most children her age, she simply shut off the sound and went back to sleep. However, ever-present Kero was already awake before her and shook Sakura with as much force as he could muster.
"Sakura! Hurry! You have to wake up as soon as possible! Today is the day of the tournament and we can't be late! Your dad will be driving down to the arena any minute now and... and..."
"Don't worry, Kero-chan. We'll make it on time." Sakura muttered, rubbing her eyes and forcing her weary body to slide out of the bed.
As she got dressed, she couldn't help but think of Tomoyo. Wait, of course! "Kero-chan! Do you think Tomoyo is coming today? She said she will come."
"I don't know." Kero said honestly as Sakura placed him in her knapsack. "She did seem a bit reluctant."
"Still, it wouldn't hurt to give her a call."
"If you say so, Sakura. I think you worry about others so much that you forget to worry about yourself sometimes."
Sakura, fully dressed and knapsack in tow, went downstairs, picked up the phone and dialed Tomoyo's phone number as fast as possible. Her father was already calling for her to come. She hopped anxiously on one foot, hoping Tomoyo would answer.
"Hello, Daidouji residence." spoke the voice on the other end, finally. It was a servant.
"Ah, hello. This is Sakura Kinomoto." Sakura gulped. "Is Tomoyo there? She was going to go with me to..."
"I'm sorry, dear, but Tomoyo isn't available at the moment."
'Eh?' Now Sakura was worried. "What happened to her?"
"Don't worry about it, dear. She'll be fine. Just have fun today."
"O-okay. Thank you very much." Sakura bowed, although the servant couldn't see her, and hung up the phone.
"Sakura! I'm in the car!" Fujitaka called from outside.
"Hai! I'm coming!" Sakura ran out the door as fast as possible. Her father noticed how out of breath and hectic she was.
"Is something the matter, Sakura? You seem a bit frantic."
Quickly, Sakura explained about Tomoyo's weird behaviour and about Tomoyo's mother over the phone. For a brief second, Fujitaka's eyes were hidden behind the reflection of his glasses. Then, he blinked. "Well, you know, Tomoyo is a busy girl. I'm sure that she and her mother have something to do today. Don't worry about it too much, Sakura."
"Mmm... okay." Sakura nodded. If there was anyone she could rely on besides Tomoyo, it was her father.
Soon, they were on their way. Sakura tried her best to not think about Tomoyo. Today was the day of the big tournament. She had to cheer Meilin on, and that was her duty. She resolved, however, that after today, she will confront Tomoyo once and for all.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of traffic along the way and Sakura was late once she arrived. The arena was still very crowded nonetheless. Mr. Kinomoto dropped Sakura off at the entrance where Li, boy who somehow knew she'd be an hour late, was waiting for her. He was dressed normally and not in his full green robes. He was serious about him not entering, despite the fact he was a talented martial artist himself.
"This way." Li said briskly, wanting to avoid as much speech contact with Sakura as possible.
Sakura paid her way in and she followed Li into the spectator's seat he had saved for her. She felt lucky that from where she sat, she had a clear view of the ring. 'But then again, Li-kun has been to these tournaments before, so of course he'd know where to sit.' she thought to herself.
The tournament had already taken place. At the very bottom, in the center of the room was a large ring. It looked like one of those boxing rings, and Sakura wouldn't be surprised if it was. Surrounding the large ring were many other smaller ones marked off by duct tape where kids already were pitted against each other.
According to Li, this was the simplest way to eliminate as many competitors as possible, then choose the top three to go on to the real tournament. The 'block competitions', as he called them, were no contact, which meant no hitting opponents was allowed - a near-hit strike to a weak point above the belt would suffice.
Sakura merely nodded. All her fears about Meilin being hurt were put to rest, but at the same time, she was still wondering about Tomoyo's problem. Even in all this commotion, she still couldn't get her best friend out of her mind.
"Kinomoto..." Li spoke up.
"Hm? What is it, Li-kun?"
"I... I have something to give you." Li dug into his knapsack and produced Tomoyo's camcorder, of which he pressed into Sakura's hands. "Give this back to Daidouji after the tournament."
Sakura blinked. "T-Thanks, Li-kun. But what are you doing with Tomoyo-chan's camcorder?"
Li didn't reply.
Sakura gave him a semi-suspicious glance - as suspicious as she could get - but she put the camcorder in her knapsack with Kero. The Clow guardian was just as confused as to why Li had the video recorder but Sakura shrugged, indicating that she didn't know.
Soon enough, the tournament preliminaries had finished and a young announcer's voice blared over the speakers. "Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome once again to the 10th annual Worldwide Children's Kumite Tournament where budding young minds learn to test their newfound skills against the world! Now we have reached the real tournament. Each competitor has 3 minutes to win their match in this single-elimination, full-contact tournament."
Gasps and murmurs from the audience accompanied that remark.
"Yes, full contact. Only the best will win in this free for all. However, weapons of any kind, disabling pressure points and fatal attacks are not permitted by strict law. While this tournament is full-contact, please be assured that we have the finest of medical care behind the scenes. The first competitor to get 5 points wins the match. Now, onto the battle!"
"S-scary... Even if fatal blows aren't permitted, it doesn't make me feel any better." Sakura shuddered. "I feel bad for the poor people here."
"Sounds like a definite no-holds barred!" Kero grinned, peaking out through the knapsack. "I can't wait!"
The announcer continued. "Now, let us begin!"
A giant chart, similar to the one Sakura saw earlier, appeared on a giant screen, along with two names. "Meet our first contestants - Jeffrey Spier and Pierre Dufont!"
The battles raged on wildly. In the heat of the battle, Sakura even glomped on Li's arm in fear, to which he immediately pushed her off. Then finally, Meilin's name appeared.
"Now, we have Meilin vs Rin Rin!"
Meilin vaulted into the ring in a very fancy gymnastics flip and landed, hands on hips, grinning confidently. Dressed in her Chinese battle garb, she was ready to take on anyone. Her opponent was a girl much her age and similar in appearance to her, only her hair was an interesting shade of blue.
"Umm... why am I here again?" the girl named Rin Rin looked puzzled.
Meilin stomped her foot in annoyance. "Because you're supposed to fight me, you dolt! That's why!"
Rin Rin blinked. "Oh yeah! Well, good luck to you!"
"You're the one who's going to need good luck," Meilin entered a crane stance, "because you'll need it!"
The referee held his arm upwards. "Ready..." he swung downwards in between the two girls, "BEGIN!"
This battle was none like Sakura had ever seen. Meilin proved to have as much skill as her ego claimed as she deftly dodged Rin Rin's attacks and struck precisely, quickly gaining her 3 points within the first minute. However, Rin Rin made a nice comeback in the second minute, scoring her a quick four points. Then, down to the final minute - Rin scored herself another point, then Meilin one. The score was 4-4 - the next attack will determine the winner.
'I have to win. I have to win. I have to win...' Meilin chanted in her head.
Sakura stood on her feet. "Meilin! Go, Meilin! Give it your best!"
"Go, Meilin!" Kero cheered too. He was too caught up in the heat of the battle to notice that he was speaking out loud. Li bonked him on the head as a 'friendly' reminder.
Meilin grit her teeth as she spun around to avoid a swift punch from her opponent. She heard Sakura's voice loud and clear. 'That's right. I have to win, no matter what! For I am Meilin and I am the best in the world!'
The young, black-haired warrior ducked to avoid a kick, then came back with a rising knifehand strike to Rin Rin's jaw. The blue-haired one fell back and stopped when the referee's whistle blew. To her dismay, Meilin had clearly gotten that point. Which meant that Meilin had 5 points.
She had won the battle.
"The winner of this match is Meilin! Everyone, give a round of applause for our defending second place champions!" the announcer cried. "Will she manage to win first place this year? Only time will tell."
The crowd went wild in response to Meilin's win, and she ate up the attention like a delicious meal. Sakura was among one of the many who gave standing ovations. Even Kero, who Li had to remind again. But other than the bonk to Kero's head, Li remained his usual unfazed self.
The battles continued on. Eventually, Sakura broke down. "Li, this is so violent!" Sakura cried, glomping his arm again. "I can't imagine doing this myself! I mean, I feel really bad for all those kids who get hurt. I'm so lucky that..."
"And now, the match you've all been waiting for... Roland Speiling versus Ritchner Kitohara!"
The crowd went wild. This time, Li didn't shrug Sakura off, mainly because he seemed to be so intently focused on the Ritchner name. Sakura noticed. "What's the matter, Li?" she asked, then followed his gaze to the name. "Oh! Ritchner Kitohara! That's the girl that's supposed to be the best, right? Are you interested in her?"
Li was silent before he replied. "Kinomoto, there's something that I have to let you know... about Kitohara's real identity."
Sakura blinked as Li handed her a magazine article. "Ritchner Kitohara... first started martial arts as soon as she was able to walk. Ritchner Kitohara is only her pen name. Her real name is..." And then her eyes trailed onto the girl's photo. Her eyes flew open in shock. "No... no, it can't be.."
She looked at the photo and then down to the ring. In the exact same position and the exact same appearance was that girl. Her thick black hair was in a tight french braid. She was clad in a gi of pure black, even darker than her hair, and a red bandanna was tied around her forehead. To the world, that was Ritchner Kitohara, but to Sakura, that was...
"... Tomoyo-chan?!"
Down by the ringside, Tomoyo glanced into the spectator stands. Sakura made it after all. For a brief moment, Tomoyo looked sad. 'I'm sorry, Sakura-chan. I didn't want you to see this. But now, I guess I can't avoid the issue any longer.'
She climbed into the ring, then adjusted her dark blue gloves, glaring intensely at her opponent - a boy a year older than she with dirty blond hair and looked like a deadringer for a Hanson brother. He grinned at Tomoyo. "So, Ritchner, you're even cuter than your magazine pictures. How about after I beat you, I'll take you out to dinner."
"No thank you." Tomoyo politely declined. "There's already someone else who's captured my heart."
"And it isn't me? I'm so hurt!" Roland placed his hands over his heart.
The referee sent his hand downwards. "Ready... BEGIN!"
Sakura didn't know much about fighting or martial arts. So she just stared dumbly at her friend in the mere shock of that secret.
Li, on the other hand, was as much knowledgable about martial arts as he was with magic and Clow Cards - which meant he knew alot - but he still acted like it was no big deal. He had seen it all before. He glanced at Sakura. "You okay there, Kinomoto?"
Sakura's hands were trembling to the point where Kero placed his own paws upon her. "I... I didn't know about Tomoyo-chan. Not kind, gentle Tomoyo-chan. Why didn't she tell me that she's a fighter? I don't think there's anything wrong with that."
"Hm..." Li still sounded a bit uninterested, but a little less so than usual. "There are some things which some people choose to keep secret."
"But... but... I don't get it..."
Suddenly, the crowd gasped, interrupting Sakura. "Look!" Kero cried, pointing to the match.
Tomoyo was ahead of Roland, 3-0. But apparantly, Roland had pulled a last-minute foot sweep on poor Tomoyo and, before Tomoyo could react, Roland had already claimed his point. Some spectators argued how cheap the foot sweep was while the officials claimed that only blows to the groin were banned. "Foot sweeps and the like are just fine."
"Hm. People should get out more often." Li commented.
Sakura wasn't sure how to take that comment. Some people may not be knowledgeable about fighting, but they would about other things. She told her feelings to Li, to which he responded, "I guess you're right."
'Well, at least he agreed with me, sort of.' Sakura thought to herself.
Down in in the ring, Roland grinned at Tomoyo. "So, Kitohara, I bet you weren't expecting that, were you? Maybe next time I should snatch a sweet kiss."
Tomoyo merely adjusted her gloves and said nothing. She glanced at Sakura, who was watching her with intense worry, then back at Roland with fierce determination. 'I'm sorry to make you worry, Sakura-chan. I don't know if I can tell you the truth about me... I'm not being very fair to you, am I?'
"BEGIN!"
Roland bided his time. He knew that Kitohara was at her best with counterattacking. Tomoyo realized his strategy and also knew she had to make the first move. But a first move can also be one's last. She jumped forward slightly and stomped the ground, hoping Roland would take the bait.
He did.
He thought that all of Tomoyo's weight was on her front leg and he attempted another foot sweep. But, her weight was centered and it was no big effort to shift her weight to her back leg and easily avoid the attack. Roland went back to his feet and swung around with a knifehand strike. Tomoyo grabbed him by the arm, her other hand grabbed his gi, and she flipped him over. Roland came down to the ring with a crash.
Fans and supporters of Roland shouted and protested. However, the ring judges again said nothing to stop the match. "This throw was very legal. Roland had broken his fall, hadn't he? He's perfectly fine."
Perfectly fine physically, yes. However, Tomoyo managed to score a point on him. Point 5 came soon after.
"The winner is Ritchner Kitohara! Everyone, give a round of applause for our defending champion!"
More wild applause. Tomoyo bowed politely, mainly directed towards Sakura, and left the ring.
Sakura was torn. As she applauded as fast as possible, she was torn if to give her cheer her all or be utterly shocked and hurt. Suddenly, she tore off.
"Kinomoto--" Li called with an outstretched hand.
"Where are you going, Sakura?" Kero cried.
But Sakura was already out of earshot. Even if she wasn't allowed backstage, she had to go see Tomoyo about this once and for all.