Blame It On Sakura
Kristy Selean: Hiya! This has been the most reviews I ever got for three chapters!! Thanx everyone! I'm a very happy author! ^-^ Ok. This chappy has more action and some magic, but it's gonna be kinda short.
Chapter 3: First Sign of Trouble
It seemed to be amazing that school ended so early. Sakura felt that the classes that took forever seemed to only last a few minutes each. Sakura rushed out the door when school was finally over despite her ankle's conditions and went home to get ready for the meet at Hiyaku. After a quick stop in the kitchen to get some snacks for herself and Kero, Sakura ran towards her room.
"Hey, Sakura! How was your day?"
"It was great! I think my ankle is just fine now. I'm running around and coming back to myself again."
"That's good. Listen, sorry I had to fly out of your backpack right before lunch was over. I just figured out how to beat this level so I had to go try it."
"It's no biggy, Kero."
Sakura sat on the edge of her bed and put the tray of snacks down for her and Kero to share. Kero grabbed a cracker and stuffed it into his mouth, making his head look like it just expanded a few times bigger than usual. Sakura nibbled on her cracker when a sudden thought came to her mind.
"Kero, how do I learn how to sense things like Clow Reed?"
Kero swallowed the remains of his cracker before answering Sakura.
"Why do you ask that?"
"Well, I'm the most powerful sorceress now that I've beaten Eriol, and things have been pretty quiet. Maybe I'm just a bit paranoid, but what if something happens and I don't end up sensing it? What if my magic gets a little, how do I say this, rusty?"
"Hm... I suppose you have a point there. You'd have to ask Clow Reed himself about that. About the magic getting rusty, you'll just have to use your powers once in a while to keep from losing your touch."
"I guess so. I'll ask Eriol later if I see him at the match today."
*~* Hiyaku Gymnasium *~*
"Wow. It's so crowded in here, but the place is gigantic!"
The entire gymnasium was flooded with people who were trying to get a good seat for the performance that day. Sakura barely found a place to sit where all the bleachers were. It was just enough to fit her and maybe one other person. Sakura found all of her friends glancing about nervously as they sat or stood near their posts for the big event. Sakura smiled when she saw Tomoyo filming everything and making the rest of her team nervous as Sonomi came around the corner. Surprisingly enough, Sonomi stepped toward the podium and stood behind the current speaker who was the principal of Hiyaku.
"We thank you for coming to join us for this spectacular event. Tonight, our Hiyaku girls are up against Tomoeda's Blue Stars. Please give them a hearty welcome and our girls an applause of encouragement."
The stands filled with thunderous clapping, cat calls, and whistling to cheer for their team. Then, the principal stepped down from the podium as Sonomi started to speak over the P.A. system.
"Before this meet begins, I wanted to say that Sakura Kinomoto, one of our most valuable gymnists, injured her ankle at the citywide exhibition. We are lucky to have Meilin Li to take her place tonight. However, the girls from the Blue Stars and I wanted to dedicate this match to our beloved member Sakura. Get better soon, Sakura. We really miss having you here."
The crowd broke into a friendly applause as Sonomi signaled Sakura to stand up. Sakura stood up shyly, completely embarrassed yet ever so grateful for the audience's understanding. Sakura felt completely choked up at how much her friends cared about her and how they did so much to make her feel special. After sitting down, Sakura began to be excited about going back for practice again when an all too familiar scene took over her mind. A slight shift toward the wrong way and coming down to meet the mat. Thwump! Sakura's heartbeat started to speed up immensely. However, little did she know that someone came to take that empty seat by her.
"Do you mind if I sit down?"
"Oh, no. Go ahead."
Just as Sakura turned to welcome the newcomer, she realized that he was the captain of the boy's team! He quickly smiled in her direction before looking on ahead to watch the match. Sakura was in complete shock that he would find her in the entire crowd just to sit next to her in the game while his other team mates were down with the Blue Stars to cheer them on. Then again, she was publicly announced to the whole crowd so why wouldn't he overhear that? Eriol couldn't make it that night, and Yamakazi was with Chiharu as usual, but what was he doing here?
"Is something the matter?"
"Hm? Oh no. Nothing's wrong."
"Hey, look, it's one of your friends waving at you."
Sure enough, there was Tomoyo waving at her, happy and nervous as ever. For once, she wasn't the one who was holding the camera. Eriol pointed the camera her direction, and Sakura smiled nervously and wiggled her fingers at them. Eriol held a thumbs up to the one sitting next to her and turned back around to record the meet.
'I wonder why he held a thumbs up at the captain. Oh well. Maybe it had to do with a secret greeting or something.'
"So is your ankle getting better, Sakura?"
"I think so. It seems to be okay so far. I tried running up and down the stairs yesterday, and it seemed fine as long as I didn't run too fast and trip over something on the way up."
"That's good to hear. It's still good to soak it in baking soda and warm water to keep it from stiffening, though. I've heard that helps recovery go faster too."
"Yeah, that's what my doctor told me."
'"Oh, sorry if I sound like a doctor sometimes. I just got really interested in medics after I joined some gymnastics and had some pretty bad falls."
"You fell?"
Sakura couldn't believe it. Here was Mr. Perfect here, and he actually confessed to her that he fell before when doing gymnastics. Noticing her shocked expression, her companion sent her a friendly smile.
"Of course. Every gymnist falls once in a while. It was when I was on the parallel bars. I missed a front somersault; it was a total wipeout."
"Bummer. That must have really been the worst, not being able to practice again for a while. Even after you come back, you still feel like it's going to take you some time before you get back up again. I'm sorry, I'm just babbling as usual."
"No, I know exactly what you're talking about. It was hard for me to get back to practice too. After I got better, I was still pretty scared about going back to the bars again."
"What did you do?"
"I talked to my coach; he taught me to take ten deep breaths, count backwards from 100, try to see myself doing it right, stuff like that. It really helped me get back to practicing again."
"Wow. Sounds so easy."
Sakura turned her attention back to the meet. She felt guilty for talking to the captain of the other team this whole time and knew that she was going to get a really long lecture from Chiharu if she didn't watch the rest of the semifinal meet, regardless if she was talking to her new crush. Just then, she realized that she didn't know his name.
"Um, can I ask you one last thing?"
"Sure, go ahead."
"Well, you know my name, but I didn't quite catch yours."
"It's Ookami."
"Oh. Well, it's nice to be formally introduced to you, Ookami."
The meet was on it's second event, vaulting. Everyone had already gone, and it was Meilin's turn to vault. Meilin seemed to be filled with some confidence, but she stumbled on her landing and didn't make it stick so well. Not being able to stick the landing was one of the most common mistakes that was made. Every one of the Blue Stars did it in performance or practice including Chiharu. Captain and usually perfect as she was, she still stumbled every once in a while, but to Meilin, it looked like the end of the world as her painful score of 5.5 was posted up. Sakura cringed when she realized that Meilin's low scores put Hiyaku ahead.
"Don't worry. You're friends will do just fine."
Not only was Ookami a great friend to talk to, but he seemed to somehow be able to read her mind. Sakura stared at him in surprise that he knew what she was thinking. Ookami blushed from watching her stare at him so closely as Sakura turned away a bit pink in the face as well. Ookami cleared his throat and continued the conversation.
"Besides, vaulting is Hiyaku's best event, and your friends are doing just fine, even without their strongest vaulter. If you ask me, the Blue Stars have more than just a chance at winning this meet."
Suddenly, the ground started shaking and Sakura felt as though she were either going to go flying into the mat from where she was sitting or she was going to throw up her insides. Sakura felt shaky as her body reacted violently. Ookami turned toward her in confusion and helped her out of the building.
"Sakura, are you alright?"
"I'm not exactly sure. It feels like something is trying to take over me."
"What do you mean?"
Before Ookami could ask any more questions, the ground started shaking again. Oddly enough, only Sakura seemed to be the one who could feel the earthquake as everything else seemed to stay in place. Just then, Sakura felt the presence of some sort of magic. It seemed to be neither good nor evil. After reassuring Ookami that she would take a breather and come back in later, Sakura went to check it out for herself when she met up her with her Guardian Yue. Yue's silvery hair, cold, sapphire eyes, and gigantic yet beautiful wings were shined upon by the moonlight, making him seem as though he were glowing a silver aura.
"It's near by."
Sakura nodded and tried to sense where this strange being of magic could be when she heard a tick-tock of a clock come near her feet. Sakura and Yue looked down to find an ordinary alarm clock that seemed to be taking a step for every second. When Sakura leaned over to pick it up, Yue quickly pushed her out of the way as if on instinct. However, the second his wings brushed by the clock, Sakura and Yue saw an explosion take place, burning a few feather tips of Yue's wings to a crisp. Yue began to fume when he saw a pathetic alarm clock scorch his lovely feathers that he preened so thoroughly.
"That stupid clock is going to pay for this!"
"Yue, calm down. We'll figure something out."
Yue seemed a bit more calm as the clock continued its walk toward them. However, they found that no matter where they went, the clock only followed them around. Sakura tried to throw a water spell at it by calling out watery, but the clock burst into flames again and scorched watery as well. Sakura stared at it in slight alarm and hopelessness, but she decided to combine two cards to see if she can win.
"Watery, Windy, work together to destroy the clock!"
Watery and Windy devoured the clock and it seemed to have been defeated. When the steam cleared from the water, wind, and fire battle, the two cards returned to their original form and all that was left was the clock, slighty having some burned marks over it. Just as they thought it would be over, the clock's alarm went off and it was restored to full health again. Sakura gaped at the clock as she sweatdropped, and Yue just slapped his forehead in despair as the whole process began again. Sakura knew she was getting tired from using her magic so much.
"I wish that Syaoran was here..."
Just as she said that, Sakura shook her head furiously and bit her cheeks to keep from crying and blinding herself with her own tears. Sakura focused and tried to do something, but she couldn't figure out what to do. Just as she looked down, Sakura jumped up in the air with the jump card before the clock exploded into flames again from slightly touching her shoe. Luckily Sakura dodged most of it, but she started to fall out of the sky from the boost of the explosion and the scorching of the Jump card. Yue tried desperately to reach her, but the clock used its hands to pin him down to his spot.
"Sakura!"
Suddenly, a deep male voice was heard somewhere from far away as he seemed to be saying some sort of incantation. Then a quick swipe of the sword was heard.
"Wind!"
Sakura instantly slowed her falling until she reached a good enough height to flip off of the green wind cloud underneath her feet. Sakura whipped around her surroundings, instantly recognizing the aura of the one who had saved her. Sakura looked up to find a shadowy figure on top of the school's gymnasium who stood to peer at her for a quick moment and then disappeared in a flash. Sakura blinked in confusion just before whirling around to look for Yue.
"Mistress, stay back. I can't let it hurt you too!"
Sakura shook her head and smiled. That was Yue. Always trying to be the hero. Had he forgotten that Sakura was the Mistress of the cards and him? Sakura started walking closer to him and the clock while thinking of a strategy.
'The clock only wants to hurt me. It's only holding Yue down. Yet, it's trying to kill me. Well, Watery and Windy worked a little, but there's gotta be something to clean it's clo... wait, that's it!'
"Time!"
It was clock versus clock, each battling each other. Sakura knew she would lose all her strength if this kept up. She thought of a good strategy so far, but she needed to enhance it, fast! Sakura thought hard about what made that clock tick.
'If Watery and Windy didn't work, maybe I should fight fire with fire.'
"Time card, reverse the clock's time to right before it heald itself! Firey, hit the clock as soon as Time is done with its job!"
Time reversed the time for the clock only up to the point where it was badly scarred and charred (o yay! i did a rhyme! hehe... sorry for interrupting...) when Firey used its mighty flames to devour what was left of the clock. Soon the remains of the clock fell to the floor and soflty clattered onto the ground. Yue and Sakura waved goodbye as he headed back to where Yukito should have been. As she waved farewell to her moon guardian, Sakura started to recognize her heavy breathing and tried to regain her energy only to realize that she was much too tired to move or even stand. Sakura fell to the floor, too exhausted to move. Although she was conscious, her body didn't want to listen to her. Just as Sakura's vision became blurry from the tears of disappointment to not be able to watch the meet, the same shadowy figure came to her aid. Sakura could see the outline of his form as he murmured some sort of incantation in a low and hushed whisper that allowed Sakura to be healed. Then in a flash, he was gone again. Sakura sat up and looked after the mystery figure who left her; well, techincally, it wasn't a mystery who it was.
"Syaoran..."
"Sakura-san!"
Sakura whispered his name into the winds of the night as a slight breeze made her shiver. Just then, Sakura realized who was calling her as Ookami stepped toward her and helped her back into the gymnasium. He helped her catch up with what just happened, and it was now the final event. Sakura crossed her fingers during the rest of the match, hoping and praying that her friends would win. Of course, she couldn't use magic to make them win because that just wouldn't be fair. Besides, they didn't need her help. The Blue Stars won and were now heading toward the district finals! Sakura went down to the locker room to congragulate her friends.
"You guys did great!"
"Thanks, but it would have been better if you were back, Sakura-chan."
"Oh and would your happiness come from a certain somebody who was sitting next to you?"
Chiharu eyed Sakura suspiciously as the rest of the girls from the locker room began to show great interest in what Sakura had to say. Sakura backed up a step or two and began to sweatdrop as she laughed nervously.
"O-of course not, you guys."
"Uh-huh. Sure, Sakura."
Sakura sighed in defeat as her friends and she headed out the locker room to leave the gymnasium. On the way, Tomoyo pulled Sakura aside and asked her why she left in the middle of the meet, and Sakura explained everything that happened. Tomoyo was upset as usual for not being able to record her in action, but was satisfied when Sakura promised to have Yue do a solo narrating and have Kero exaggerate it. Sakura and Tomoyo walked out of the gymnasium together. Sakura set herself into a deep concentrating while repeating the advice Ookami gave her.
'Maybe if I follow his advice, I'll be back to my fearless self in no time!'
The five partners linked arms and decided to go to Baskin Robbins. Besides, little did Tomoyo know that everyone else knew that Eriol was working the late shift that night...
Kristy Selean: Hiya! This has been the most reviews I ever got for three chapters!! Thanx everyone! I'm a very happy author! ^-^ Ok. This chappy has more action and some magic, but it's gonna be kinda short.
Chapter 3: First Sign of Trouble
It seemed to be amazing that school ended so early. Sakura felt that the classes that took forever seemed to only last a few minutes each. Sakura rushed out the door when school was finally over despite her ankle's conditions and went home to get ready for the meet at Hiyaku. After a quick stop in the kitchen to get some snacks for herself and Kero, Sakura ran towards her room.
"Hey, Sakura! How was your day?"
"It was great! I think my ankle is just fine now. I'm running around and coming back to myself again."
"That's good. Listen, sorry I had to fly out of your backpack right before lunch was over. I just figured out how to beat this level so I had to go try it."
"It's no biggy, Kero."
Sakura sat on the edge of her bed and put the tray of snacks down for her and Kero to share. Kero grabbed a cracker and stuffed it into his mouth, making his head look like it just expanded a few times bigger than usual. Sakura nibbled on her cracker when a sudden thought came to her mind.
"Kero, how do I learn how to sense things like Clow Reed?"
Kero swallowed the remains of his cracker before answering Sakura.
"Why do you ask that?"
"Well, I'm the most powerful sorceress now that I've beaten Eriol, and things have been pretty quiet. Maybe I'm just a bit paranoid, but what if something happens and I don't end up sensing it? What if my magic gets a little, how do I say this, rusty?"
"Hm... I suppose you have a point there. You'd have to ask Clow Reed himself about that. About the magic getting rusty, you'll just have to use your powers once in a while to keep from losing your touch."
"I guess so. I'll ask Eriol later if I see him at the match today."
*~* Hiyaku Gymnasium *~*
"Wow. It's so crowded in here, but the place is gigantic!"
The entire gymnasium was flooded with people who were trying to get a good seat for the performance that day. Sakura barely found a place to sit where all the bleachers were. It was just enough to fit her and maybe one other person. Sakura found all of her friends glancing about nervously as they sat or stood near their posts for the big event. Sakura smiled when she saw Tomoyo filming everything and making the rest of her team nervous as Sonomi came around the corner. Surprisingly enough, Sonomi stepped toward the podium and stood behind the current speaker who was the principal of Hiyaku.
"We thank you for coming to join us for this spectacular event. Tonight, our Hiyaku girls are up against Tomoeda's Blue Stars. Please give them a hearty welcome and our girls an applause of encouragement."
The stands filled with thunderous clapping, cat calls, and whistling to cheer for their team. Then, the principal stepped down from the podium as Sonomi started to speak over the P.A. system.
"Before this meet begins, I wanted to say that Sakura Kinomoto, one of our most valuable gymnists, injured her ankle at the citywide exhibition. We are lucky to have Meilin Li to take her place tonight. However, the girls from the Blue Stars and I wanted to dedicate this match to our beloved member Sakura. Get better soon, Sakura. We really miss having you here."
The crowd broke into a friendly applause as Sonomi signaled Sakura to stand up. Sakura stood up shyly, completely embarrassed yet ever so grateful for the audience's understanding. Sakura felt completely choked up at how much her friends cared about her and how they did so much to make her feel special. After sitting down, Sakura began to be excited about going back for practice again when an all too familiar scene took over her mind. A slight shift toward the wrong way and coming down to meet the mat. Thwump! Sakura's heartbeat started to speed up immensely. However, little did she know that someone came to take that empty seat by her.
"Do you mind if I sit down?"
"Oh, no. Go ahead."
Just as Sakura turned to welcome the newcomer, she realized that he was the captain of the boy's team! He quickly smiled in her direction before looking on ahead to watch the match. Sakura was in complete shock that he would find her in the entire crowd just to sit next to her in the game while his other team mates were down with the Blue Stars to cheer them on. Then again, she was publicly announced to the whole crowd so why wouldn't he overhear that? Eriol couldn't make it that night, and Yamakazi was with Chiharu as usual, but what was he doing here?
"Is something the matter?"
"Hm? Oh no. Nothing's wrong."
"Hey, look, it's one of your friends waving at you."
Sure enough, there was Tomoyo waving at her, happy and nervous as ever. For once, she wasn't the one who was holding the camera. Eriol pointed the camera her direction, and Sakura smiled nervously and wiggled her fingers at them. Eriol held a thumbs up to the one sitting next to her and turned back around to record the meet.
'I wonder why he held a thumbs up at the captain. Oh well. Maybe it had to do with a secret greeting or something.'
"So is your ankle getting better, Sakura?"
"I think so. It seems to be okay so far. I tried running up and down the stairs yesterday, and it seemed fine as long as I didn't run too fast and trip over something on the way up."
"That's good to hear. It's still good to soak it in baking soda and warm water to keep it from stiffening, though. I've heard that helps recovery go faster too."
"Yeah, that's what my doctor told me."
'"Oh, sorry if I sound like a doctor sometimes. I just got really interested in medics after I joined some gymnastics and had some pretty bad falls."
"You fell?"
Sakura couldn't believe it. Here was Mr. Perfect here, and he actually confessed to her that he fell before when doing gymnastics. Noticing her shocked expression, her companion sent her a friendly smile.
"Of course. Every gymnist falls once in a while. It was when I was on the parallel bars. I missed a front somersault; it was a total wipeout."
"Bummer. That must have really been the worst, not being able to practice again for a while. Even after you come back, you still feel like it's going to take you some time before you get back up again. I'm sorry, I'm just babbling as usual."
"No, I know exactly what you're talking about. It was hard for me to get back to practice too. After I got better, I was still pretty scared about going back to the bars again."
"What did you do?"
"I talked to my coach; he taught me to take ten deep breaths, count backwards from 100, try to see myself doing it right, stuff like that. It really helped me get back to practicing again."
"Wow. Sounds so easy."
Sakura turned her attention back to the meet. She felt guilty for talking to the captain of the other team this whole time and knew that she was going to get a really long lecture from Chiharu if she didn't watch the rest of the semifinal meet, regardless if she was talking to her new crush. Just then, she realized that she didn't know his name.
"Um, can I ask you one last thing?"
"Sure, go ahead."
"Well, you know my name, but I didn't quite catch yours."
"It's Ookami."
"Oh. Well, it's nice to be formally introduced to you, Ookami."
The meet was on it's second event, vaulting. Everyone had already gone, and it was Meilin's turn to vault. Meilin seemed to be filled with some confidence, but she stumbled on her landing and didn't make it stick so well. Not being able to stick the landing was one of the most common mistakes that was made. Every one of the Blue Stars did it in performance or practice including Chiharu. Captain and usually perfect as she was, she still stumbled every once in a while, but to Meilin, it looked like the end of the world as her painful score of 5.5 was posted up. Sakura cringed when she realized that Meilin's low scores put Hiyaku ahead.
"Don't worry. You're friends will do just fine."
Not only was Ookami a great friend to talk to, but he seemed to somehow be able to read her mind. Sakura stared at him in surprise that he knew what she was thinking. Ookami blushed from watching her stare at him so closely as Sakura turned away a bit pink in the face as well. Ookami cleared his throat and continued the conversation.
"Besides, vaulting is Hiyaku's best event, and your friends are doing just fine, even without their strongest vaulter. If you ask me, the Blue Stars have more than just a chance at winning this meet."
Suddenly, the ground started shaking and Sakura felt as though she were either going to go flying into the mat from where she was sitting or she was going to throw up her insides. Sakura felt shaky as her body reacted violently. Ookami turned toward her in confusion and helped her out of the building.
"Sakura, are you alright?"
"I'm not exactly sure. It feels like something is trying to take over me."
"What do you mean?"
Before Ookami could ask any more questions, the ground started shaking again. Oddly enough, only Sakura seemed to be the one who could feel the earthquake as everything else seemed to stay in place. Just then, Sakura felt the presence of some sort of magic. It seemed to be neither good nor evil. After reassuring Ookami that she would take a breather and come back in later, Sakura went to check it out for herself when she met up her with her Guardian Yue. Yue's silvery hair, cold, sapphire eyes, and gigantic yet beautiful wings were shined upon by the moonlight, making him seem as though he were glowing a silver aura.
"It's near by."
Sakura nodded and tried to sense where this strange being of magic could be when she heard a tick-tock of a clock come near her feet. Sakura and Yue looked down to find an ordinary alarm clock that seemed to be taking a step for every second. When Sakura leaned over to pick it up, Yue quickly pushed her out of the way as if on instinct. However, the second his wings brushed by the clock, Sakura and Yue saw an explosion take place, burning a few feather tips of Yue's wings to a crisp. Yue began to fume when he saw a pathetic alarm clock scorch his lovely feathers that he preened so thoroughly.
"That stupid clock is going to pay for this!"
"Yue, calm down. We'll figure something out."
Yue seemed a bit more calm as the clock continued its walk toward them. However, they found that no matter where they went, the clock only followed them around. Sakura tried to throw a water spell at it by calling out watery, but the clock burst into flames again and scorched watery as well. Sakura stared at it in slight alarm and hopelessness, but she decided to combine two cards to see if she can win.
"Watery, Windy, work together to destroy the clock!"
Watery and Windy devoured the clock and it seemed to have been defeated. When the steam cleared from the water, wind, and fire battle, the two cards returned to their original form and all that was left was the clock, slighty having some burned marks over it. Just as they thought it would be over, the clock's alarm went off and it was restored to full health again. Sakura gaped at the clock as she sweatdropped, and Yue just slapped his forehead in despair as the whole process began again. Sakura knew she was getting tired from using her magic so much.
"I wish that Syaoran was here..."
Just as she said that, Sakura shook her head furiously and bit her cheeks to keep from crying and blinding herself with her own tears. Sakura focused and tried to do something, but she couldn't figure out what to do. Just as she looked down, Sakura jumped up in the air with the jump card before the clock exploded into flames again from slightly touching her shoe. Luckily Sakura dodged most of it, but she started to fall out of the sky from the boost of the explosion and the scorching of the Jump card. Yue tried desperately to reach her, but the clock used its hands to pin him down to his spot.
"Sakura!"
Suddenly, a deep male voice was heard somewhere from far away as he seemed to be saying some sort of incantation. Then a quick swipe of the sword was heard.
"Wind!"
Sakura instantly slowed her falling until she reached a good enough height to flip off of the green wind cloud underneath her feet. Sakura whipped around her surroundings, instantly recognizing the aura of the one who had saved her. Sakura looked up to find a shadowy figure on top of the school's gymnasium who stood to peer at her for a quick moment and then disappeared in a flash. Sakura blinked in confusion just before whirling around to look for Yue.
"Mistress, stay back. I can't let it hurt you too!"
Sakura shook her head and smiled. That was Yue. Always trying to be the hero. Had he forgotten that Sakura was the Mistress of the cards and him? Sakura started walking closer to him and the clock while thinking of a strategy.
'The clock only wants to hurt me. It's only holding Yue down. Yet, it's trying to kill me. Well, Watery and Windy worked a little, but there's gotta be something to clean it's clo... wait, that's it!'
"Time!"
It was clock versus clock, each battling each other. Sakura knew she would lose all her strength if this kept up. She thought of a good strategy so far, but she needed to enhance it, fast! Sakura thought hard about what made that clock tick.
'If Watery and Windy didn't work, maybe I should fight fire with fire.'
"Time card, reverse the clock's time to right before it heald itself! Firey, hit the clock as soon as Time is done with its job!"
Time reversed the time for the clock only up to the point where it was badly scarred and charred (o yay! i did a rhyme! hehe... sorry for interrupting...) when Firey used its mighty flames to devour what was left of the clock. Soon the remains of the clock fell to the floor and soflty clattered onto the ground. Yue and Sakura waved goodbye as he headed back to where Yukito should have been. As she waved farewell to her moon guardian, Sakura started to recognize her heavy breathing and tried to regain her energy only to realize that she was much too tired to move or even stand. Sakura fell to the floor, too exhausted to move. Although she was conscious, her body didn't want to listen to her. Just as Sakura's vision became blurry from the tears of disappointment to not be able to watch the meet, the same shadowy figure came to her aid. Sakura could see the outline of his form as he murmured some sort of incantation in a low and hushed whisper that allowed Sakura to be healed. Then in a flash, he was gone again. Sakura sat up and looked after the mystery figure who left her; well, techincally, it wasn't a mystery who it was.
"Syaoran..."
"Sakura-san!"
Sakura whispered his name into the winds of the night as a slight breeze made her shiver. Just then, Sakura realized who was calling her as Ookami stepped toward her and helped her back into the gymnasium. He helped her catch up with what just happened, and it was now the final event. Sakura crossed her fingers during the rest of the match, hoping and praying that her friends would win. Of course, she couldn't use magic to make them win because that just wouldn't be fair. Besides, they didn't need her help. The Blue Stars won and were now heading toward the district finals! Sakura went down to the locker room to congragulate her friends.
"You guys did great!"
"Thanks, but it would have been better if you were back, Sakura-chan."
"Oh and would your happiness come from a certain somebody who was sitting next to you?"
Chiharu eyed Sakura suspiciously as the rest of the girls from the locker room began to show great interest in what Sakura had to say. Sakura backed up a step or two and began to sweatdrop as she laughed nervously.
"O-of course not, you guys."
"Uh-huh. Sure, Sakura."
Sakura sighed in defeat as her friends and she headed out the locker room to leave the gymnasium. On the way, Tomoyo pulled Sakura aside and asked her why she left in the middle of the meet, and Sakura explained everything that happened. Tomoyo was upset as usual for not being able to record her in action, but was satisfied when Sakura promised to have Yue do a solo narrating and have Kero exaggerate it. Sakura and Tomoyo walked out of the gymnasium together. Sakura set herself into a deep concentrating while repeating the advice Ookami gave her.
'Maybe if I follow his advice, I'll be back to my fearless self in no time!'
The five partners linked arms and decided to go to Baskin Robbins. Besides, little did Tomoyo know that everyone else knew that Eriol was working the late shift that night...
