Disclaimer: I tried to claim CCS, Harry Potter, and many other series I've used in this fic as my own. But the Libra Card found me out. Damn. I can't really blame the card since I'm not CLAMP or J.K. Rowling or other owners of the series and the spirit's only doing its job. But still.

Specially dedicated to Carol Haibara, who finally got an Internet connection at home and gotten a screen name for real!!

Sakura woke up to the sound of Meiling banging on the door of her guest room.

"Kinomoto-san! It's already eight! Unless you want to go to school with your stomach growling at you, get down at this instant!!"

The said Card Mistress and Kero-chan sat up from their sleeping positions. The guardian beast rubbed his beady eyes and fly towards the bathroom groggily.

30 seconds later, she let out a wail of "HOOOOEEEEE!!" when she finally remember that was the first day of her first year at the Mahora International Academy of Magic.

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The Continuing Legend

Chapter 4

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Everyone looked up from their breakfast as they heard Sakura dragging her trunk and luggage down the stairs. After heaving all the things to the front door, she sat next to Syaoran (who started to blush into his toast) and voiced a cheerful good morning. She quickly gulped down several pieces of toast, a small plate of scramble egg and a glass of orange juice after she wan informed that she only had 10 more minutes before they had to depart for the cable tram. The others also hurriedly finished their beverage and get ready to go.

It took them another 15 minutes to load all their trunks, luggage and bird cages onto the back of a magically enlarged van. They barely able to get to the tram station in time or else they would have to wait for the next ride, which was one hour later. The station was basically the same as the Japanese train station. They flashed their student pass, which they had received together with their school supply list, to the ticket box officer and got onto the platform where the cable tram was waiting under the sign of "Mahora Pier to MIAM, departs at 9:00am".

The two-story tram, for once, was completely normal without much decoration and area-enlarging spells. It was about 12m long of reddish brown color, completed with a plaque which had the words "Mahora Cable Tram" printed in gold block letters. The got onto the tram and saw many rows of wooden seats, where most of them were already occupied by the students. Most of these students were still in their casual Muggle wear. The Card Captors gang didn't really register the fact that they were going to an international school until they witnessed the diversity of the students' nationalities: Japanese students were the majority, there was a large group of Chinese students speaking in quick Mandarin, they could see some students that were obviously of Southeast Asia origin like Thailand and Philippines, a few European or perhaps American students were lurking at the corner of the tram as well. They shoved their trunks under their seats next to some group of 1st years and heaved the luggage bags onto the overhead racks. Then the tram set off.

While the older students continued their chats, many of the 1st years, including our leading characters, were watching the scenery with fascinated eyes. From the cable tram, they were able to view the perfect sea view around the Mahora Island. When they had reached the mid-level of the hill, they were able to see the coastal towns too. With the gentle September morning sun, they felt they were in a peaceful country side instead of going to school, even, they thought, a school teaching magic should not be very boring.

The tram ride was not very long. Half an hour after they stepped onto the tram, they reached the Mahora International Academy station. Not really knowing where they should go, the 1st years followed their seniors and soon found themselves standing in front of a mansion-like building. After they went inside it, they lined up behind one of the many counters with the sparkling words "Dormitory Assigning Counters" floating over them.

It was only five minutes before it was Sakura's turn to get her room assigned. The staff behind the counter gestured Sakura to sit down, then she picked a pen and turned her green eyes--a shade that was very close to her own, Sakura noted--to the sorceress.

"Good morning," she said in a thick Osaka accent, "what's your name and year?"

"I-I'm Kinomoto Sakura, first year."

"First year...first year......Got'cha." The staff flipped over the sheets and finally found the name, "Kinomoto Sakura, first year student, from Tomoeda, Japan?"

After the card mistress gave her confirmation, she scribed down on the paper and handed a key to her. "Your room is in the Wing of Wind, room 457. Leave the building and look for somewhere with a green roof, then you can ask for the directions over there."

She gave a rather thick folder to Sakura and waved cheerfully at the Japanese girl. She thanked the staff and left the counter to find her friends. Sakura found out later that Tomoyo, Eriol and Syaoran was assigned to the Wing of Water, while Meiling were in the Wing of Fire. She soon found the building of her dormitory, which was indeed having a dark green roof. She spent at least 20 minutes getting lost within the maze of corridors before finally arrived at her destination. She knocked on the door and a girl with long blue hair answered the door in 3 seconds flat.

"Hello! You're my new roomie, right? I'm Ryuuzaki Umi, nice to meet you!"

Sakura looked up at the tall girl. Her eyes were several shades darker than her hair. She was carrying an elegant composure, and her aura was calm, like a gentle flow of water. She helped Sakura to settle her luggage into the room before showing her around her living quarters.

The room was quite big and comfortable for a school dormitory. Two beds were situated at two corners. Next to the beds, there were two large wooden desks with a shelf over the writing space. One of them, which Sakura assumed was Umi's, was already filled with books, stationary and a few photos. At the end of each bed, there was a large wardrobe for their uniforms and other clothing.

"You can unpack later today." Umi said as she went back to what she was doing before Sakura arrived, which was shoving her trunk under her bed. "The assembly, Sorting Ceremony and the feast will only last for the afternoon. You'll have a whole night to get your stuff in place. I can help you with the mountain pile of books. I came early so I'm almost done."

"Thank you, Ryuuzaki-senpai." Sakura replied politely and Umi waved a hand at her.

"Just Umi will be fine. If I were you, I'll use these," she glanced her watch, "two hours to leaf through the file they gave you just now, though."

Following the older girl's advice, Sakura sat down at her bed and opened the file. There was a school calendar, stating all the holidays and exam weeks, a schedule of the first day, where Sakura noted that she was supposed to leave for the "Indigo Hall" at around 1:30pm, as well as some brochures about the school, including the houses, subjects they taught and some basic knowledge about the magical society.

"Oh, you get those." Umi noted when she saw the brochures. "You're a Muggle-born?"

"How did you know?" Sakura put down her file and ask.

"They only gave out those brochures to Muggle-born students. So they won't be 100% clueless about what they're going to do here." She shrugged. "We still have another two hours, wanna unpack some of your stuff right now, or do you want a tour?"

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The girls settled to unpack for an hour before walking around the dorm. From their talk, Sakura learned that Umi was also from Japan. She was a half-and-half--her father was a wizard and her mother was a Muggle. She had two best friends who were also 4th years Nereus like her. That was the time when the question on Sorting came up. But "we're under strict instruction that we could not tell the first years about Sorting under any circumstances." was all she had answered before they called for a break. She took Sakura around the dormitory as well as the campus ground.

"Each of these wings had five floors. We're now on the 4/F, where we can find the dorm rooms as well as on 5/F. The third floor has the study rooms, you can do your homework there or back in your room. The public bathrooms are there too. 2/F is the canteen. Lobby is obviously on the first floor."

"There are four wings in total: the Wind, Water, Fire and Earth. It's very easy to look for: just remember the roof color. Ours is green, the Water Wing is aqua blue, Fire is bright red, and Earth is dark yellow. They don't assign your dorm according to your houses. But there's a specific area in the main school building where people in the same houses gather during non-lesson hours."

They turned around the corners and come across a stadium, which was actually the school's Quidditch pitch. Umi told Sakura that every first years must attend flying classes in this pitch and attain a student flying license if they wanted to be on the house Quidditch team. There were inter-house Quidditch games throughout the year as well as some popular Muggles sports game competitions.

Passing the stadium, Sakura saw three big mansion-like building. Each of these buildings was, once again, marked with three different colors for the roofs.

"That's the Indigo Block." Umi pointed out the building with a dark bluish purple roof. "Most of your classes should be held in this block. Be glad that you don't have to run between the three buildings to catch classes. You won't have that luxury when you're in 2nd year and above."

"Over there with the grayish silver is the Johto Block. I'm going to spend my year practically living in this building. You can come and find me if I'm not back in the dorm room."

"Last, but not least," she gestured to the building with the roof of bright blue color, "the Hoenn Block. Only the 6th and 7th years will use that building. A lot of rumors about the haunted rooms and ghosts are related to that block..."

"Ghost?!" Sakura shrieked. Her companion, who knew nothing about her fear of supernatural beings, thought she only yelled because she didn't know about the existence of ghosts and continued her tale.

"Yeah, ghosts. I don't know how many of those rumors are true, but I run into one last year, literally. I almost jumped through the ceiling." Umi stopped at Sakura's rapidly paling face. "You're afraid of ghosts?" She asked gently, and Sakura gave a shaky nod.

"That's what happens if you heard too much Muggle ghost stories. Most of the ghosts are pretty nice. Some of nastiest ones will only try to block your way to class when you're running late, dump a bucket of water or paint over your head, that kind of stuff. They're pretty harmless." Seeing her explanation didn't really comfort the card mistress, Umi decided to change the topic instead. "It's about time. You don't want to get on Prof. Clef's and Madam Kaede's bad side on your first day. Come on, the Indigo Hall in the, well, Indigo Block."

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To say the Indigo Hall was huge can be a massive understatement. Rows and rows of chairs were laid out neatly and students were starting to fill up the seats. Now all students were wearing their uniforms: standard black robes and a badge indicating which house they belonged to. On the stage, a long table was placed on it, but no one was sitting there yet. Umi dropped Sakura off to the 4 rows of chairs nearest to the stage before returning to the seats for the Nereus House students.

Sakura was a bit nervous. She could not find her friends yet and she was not really sure what was going to happen. She wandered through the chairs until she saw one in the second row with her name scribed on the back. She took the hint and took the seat. Later, Tomoyo came through the door. Sakura told her about the supposedly seating arrangement. Fortunately to her, Tomoyo was sitting right in front of her. The camera girl was telling Sakura about her roommate when Meiling, Syaoran and Eriol walked into the hall. Eriol was sitting at the end of the first row while Syaoran and Meiling were sitting a few seats away from Sakura. They all noted Syaoran was scowling like he was about to blast anyone who speak to him with his lightning spells.

"I was assigned to be with him for a whole year." Syaoran hissed. Even someone as dense as Sakura could guess the "him" was Eriol, since the said boy was grinning contently to himself.

Then suddenly, the whole chattering hall was silenced. All the first years turned around from their chair to get a good look of the hall entrance. The other students immediately stood up--of course the first years had followed--as the professors come through the door. The one walking in front was apparently the headmaster. He was wearing a creamy white robe, and with his white beards and few white hairs, he gave the students a feeling of a kind old grandfather than a headmaster of a rather prestigious wizard school.

Right behind him was Prof. Cielo, the deputy headmaster whom Sakura and the others had met on the ship ride one and a half months ago. Most professors were in their best robes, though mostly were in dark color. The Card Captor gang almost yelled "Mizuki-sensei?!" in front of the whole school when they saw THE Mizuki Kaho walking and chatting quietly with the other professors.

After all the professors walked up to the stage and seated, Prof. Cielo walked up to a microphone with a long list in his hand. He addressed the school with a strong voice of authority, "now if everyone had settled down and stopped talking, the Sorting Ceremony of the first years is going to begin." He stopped for a moment until the light applauding had died down. Then that was the time when Sakura had noticed on the long table over the stage, there was a clear crystal about the size of a small vase sitting on it. She was wondering if it was used for the Sorting when the midget professor spoke up again. "First year students, when I call out your name, you will come up to this stage and hover your palm over this crystal. It will turn into the symbol color of your house. Red for Vulcan, yellow for Gaia, green for Viento and blue for Nereus."

Most of the first years were now shifting uncomfortably. Some of them were talking to those next to them, regardless they knew them or not. Eriol just looked on calmly, as always. Then the professor announced the first name, "Amos, Kaith."

A dark-skinned girl stood up from her seat and stumble towards the stage under the eyes of the whole school body. She did what Prof. Cielo had said and seconds later, the crystal was bathed in a green light and students of the Viento House applauded loudly.

"Salleh Bin Ahmad."

A fragile-looking boy walked onto the stage shakily and repeated what Kaith had done. This time the crystal turned yellow and the Gaia House clapped enthusiastically.

Time for Tomoyo to leave her seat seemed to be approaching too quickly. Tomoyo walked up confidently and put her palm over the crystal, which turned into blue in color. She flashed a small smile to Sakura and walked down the stage to the seats for Nereus students.

A few names later, which Sakura didn't really take note of, she felt Eriol was looking at her direction. Then she noticed that after this boy--"Higurashi Souta" she recalled--it would be Eriol's turn.

"Hiiragizawa Eriol."

Eriol, like Tomoyo before him, walked up to the stage calmly. It didn't even take a second before the crystal shone in a clear blue light. He sat next to Tomoyo and started to chat with her quietly.

At this moment, she felt a chilling gaze over her.

She looked around wildly and found a girl three seats away from Meiling was starring at her with a pair of cold onyx eyes that were completely void of emotions. Her silver hair was tied back in a long braid. She soon turned her eyes back onto the stage. Sakura didn't have time to ponder on the mystery girl, though.

"Kinomoto Sakura."

Sakura tore her gaze away from the girl and finally noticed that it was her turn to be Sorted. She walked up and put her hand over the crystal. She didn't feel anything at first, then suddenly, a gentle wave of magic flow through her body, just like whenever she uses her Sakura Cards, and the time when she finally "met" her destined wand......

She snapped herself out of her short trance when she registered the shining blue crystal and the thundering applauds from the Nereus students. She quickly left the stage and joined her friends at the seat. She barely able to catch the wink Umi had sent to her direction before she sat down.

More and more students abandoned their seats as the sorting continued. A "Kanzaki Akari" was sorted into Gaia House, then a "Kwong, Winnie" to Vulcan, after her......

"Li Meiling."

Meiling almost jogged up to the stage (which she received a half-glare from Prof. Cielo) and got sorted into Nereus as well. She gave a small high-five to Eriol, Tomoyo and Sakura. Then all of them turned to see the last member of their little group being sorted.

"Li Syaoran."

For some reason, the whole hall started to whisper to each other. Eriol quickly explained to Sakura and Tomoyo, who were rather confused with the situation. "Remember, Syaoran is the heir of a very famous and ancient magical family. And they are the direct descendant of Clow Reed. Of course 'Wolf Boy' will be a celebrity around here."

"Who are you calling 'Wolf Boy', exactly?!" Syaoran growled at Eriol, who really looked like a child who got caught sneaking cookies. He was also sorted into the Nereus House. Sakura was clearly thrilled by the arrangement.

The Sorting of course didn't stop there. "Luyaben, Hezzell" become a Vulcan, "Minamoto Shizuka" was sorted to Viento House, so did "Miriam, Razi". After Razi walked off quickly, Sakura felt the same chilling aura again.

"Naran, Shourin."

The white-hair girl got up from her seat and strolled towards the stage without a sound. Even the hall seemed to be completely silenced by her freezing cold aura. A small fraction of Sakura's mind was wishing she would not be in the same house as her. But she ended up in Nereus as well. Sakura could not help but shivered a little. Syaoran noticed, but didn't say anything at that moment.

Half of the first years were already sorted. After Shourin Naran, "Ng, Kennis" become a Vulcan. A Korean girl named "Chunhyang" became a Nereus, a short-hair girl called "Nekoi Yuzuriha" was sorted to Viento. "Ortega"......"Reed" (Eriol hid his laughter with a serious fit of coughing), "Riccs", "Runge"......"Saga", "Sebring"......"Tsang" and "Tsang"--a pair of Chinese twin sisters......The whole Sorting ended finally when "Yanagida Ichino" become a Gaia. Prof. Cielo rolled up his list before clearing his slightly sore throat.

"This is the end of the Sorting Ceremony. Now Headmaster Konoe would like to share a few words. Headmaster Konoe, please."

The students gave a rather non-enthusiastic but polite applaud. Some students were already asleep--or pretty close to being asleep.

"To the new students, welcome to our big family. To the old crowd, welcome back......"

Even the Card Captors gang, who were usually good students who seldom fell asleep during lectures like this, had to shut their brain from the headmaster voice. He, put it in a bad way, had droned on for a good half-an-hour before the word "last, but not least" sprang up.

"Last term, Prof. Taiitsukun had retired from her position as the History of Magic professor, saying that her old bones would not be able to handle more pranks from the students." The Headmaster paused and scanned the hall, snickers could be heard throughout the huge hall. "And this year, we have a new professor to fill up the vacancy. Let's give a warm welcome to one of our alumni, now Prof. Hirono Sango!"

Prof. Hirono was very young compared with most of the other professors. She was in her mid 20s with long black hair, tied up in a high ponytail. Her chocolate brown eyes looked around the hall as she stood up when her name was being mentioned.

"Now, before everyone move to the House Areas, I would like to remind everyone about the curfew and the list of forbidden items, posted outside the student office. Prof. Belldandy will now dismiss the school." Once he concluded his speech, the school broke into a slightly louder applaud. Then an elegant lady with light brown air and sapphire eyes stood up and began to direct the students.

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Just when the Card Captors gang walked out of the hall, they heard another familiar voice yelling over the crowd of excitedly talking students.

"Come on! Nereus 1st years! Try to follow your housemates and don't get lost! We're going to You-Know-Where now!!"

"Hey......" Tomoyo breathed.

"Isn't that......" Sakura whispered.

"Nakuru-san?!" The two chorused together.

"When you think in this way," Meiling cut in nonchalantly, "if Hiiragizawa-san over there is in this school, I won't be surprised if his guardians are here too."

"We should really go now, if we don't want to get lost...or being squished to death." Syaoran added--always being the voice of reason.

The crowd seemed to become less suffocating as more and more people started to go separate ways. Some groups were going to down the stairs, while the Nereus and another house were climbing what seemed like hundreds flights of stairs. They almost missed the wave and thump-up from the two Viento House students, whom they had met on the ship ride, when the two houses part ways.

Finally, when the majority of the students were almost to the point of dropping dead on the floor, they stopped in front of a large blue door. Nakuru walked up and addressed the group on top of her lungs.

"Hello, students, if you could please quiet down for a minute?" She yelled, and the effect was fabulous: the noise died down in 10 seconds flat. "I'm one of the 7th years prefects, Akizuki Nakuru! Here's the door to the attic of the Indigo Block...Okay, better change that. If you just open the door without doing anything, it will be a dirty, never-be-clean-in-a-century store room. But for us Nereus, there's trick to turn it into our nice common area. 2nd years and above, this is old hat to you. First years, please look around your robe pockets."

All the first years dug their hands into their pocket, and very surprised that they pulled out a blue badge--about the size of a small compact mirror--with the sign of Aquarius craved on it. Nakuru also pulled out hers and put the badge over the door. Instantly, the door glowed in a vibrant blue light. She grabbed the handle and opened the door. The students of the senior years walked into the room and most of the 1st years followed closely behind. After everyone was inside and able to absorb the view of the room, astonished gasps could be heard throughout the crowd.

The slanted ceiling was the only sign signaling they were indeed inside an attic. But the room itself was nothing like a "dirty, never-be-clean-in-a-century store room". It was clean, well-lit with a warm fire in the fireplace near the entrance as well as numerous candles, and was done in a blue, silver and gold theme. Pale blue sofas and cushions, stairs and doors with silver handrail and handles, moving pictures in golden frames......And in the middle of the room/attic, many tables were pushed together and mountains of food and drinks were arranged neatly.

"Welcome to the Nereus Plateau! Now, why don't we dig in, stuff ourselves and mingle?"

That was the final signal. All the students immediately rushed to a table with at least a couple hundreds of serving utensils and most probably missing the prefect's shout of "try not to break too many dishes!". Sakura and the others took this time to reunite with their old friend.

"Sakura-chan!" Nakuru squeaked and glomped the poor girl...a bit too passionately. "I haven't you see lot for two whole years! I'm sooo glad you've all gotten in my house...Oh, hello too, Eriol!" She said all that in one brief before Eriol coughed a little, secretly suggesting she should let Sakura, who was turning blue due to lack of air, go.

"How was school, Ruby?" Eriol asked. And Nakuru cheerfully whirled around to face her master.

"I have so much fun with the twins! Totally driving the Trio nuts!!" The guardian exclaimed. She turned as she saw at the corners of her eyes that her friends were coming to her where she was. "Hi, Presea and Sierra! We're just talking about you guys!"

"If you're talking about the Prank War One with Ferio and his gang, we'll pretend we never know you." The older twin saw, rolling her eyes. Her stern expression softened when her younger sister discovered the Card Captor gang. "Hello guys! I hope you guys aren't scared too bad by Akizuki over there..."

"Hey!" was Nakuru's undignified reply. "They are my friends! And Eriol there is my, eh, younger cousin from London! I won't scare them, or anyone!"

"Sure, sure." Sierra said in a mocking tone. "Oh, and Sakura-san? I heard that you're Umi's new roommate?"

"Huh? You know Umi-senpai?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Yeah. Ascot had totally fallen for her and can't stop talking about her for a minute. Not that we don't like her. Just don't make her feel frustrated." The younger twin continued. "See you later then! And Nakuru, remember don't use more of your Killing Glomp on them."

The twins left and Nakuru was making faces at them. Eriol raised his eyebrows at her.

"Younger cousin?"

"What am I supposed to say then? 'I know you because you're Clow Reed's half-reincarnation and created me as your guardian for the Final Test on the Card Mistress'?"

"I guess you do have a point."

"Why is this place called the 'Nereus Plateau'?" Tomoyo asked as she taped everything with her famous recorder.

"Because we're high up in the roof and it's a big piece of flat land." Nakuru said as if that explained everything. "The Viento House had an unused lighthouse and they called it the 'Viento Tower'. The entrance to the Vulcan House area was a broken mirror, and it was called the 'Vulcan Den'. The Gaia House was down in the dungeon, the Gaia Lair. You know, with names like that, people will soon start to think they are hiding some beasts inside."

The feats raged on as the group continued their talk.

I was having a serious fit of laughing when I typed the part on Sorting. Loads of cameos appeared, ranging from Battle Athletes Victory to Inuyasha to Doraemon. Most of the names are made up by me, but between the cameos and non-existent, there are a few of them who are real people in real life......my schoolmates/old classmates! I doubt any of them will be reading this now, but Winnie Kwong, Emily-Miriam Razi, Kennis Ng, Charlie & Kelly Tsang...please don't kill me after this chapter.

Cameos of the chapter: one from Detective Conan, a few are taken Battle Athletes Victory, Inuyasha, Doraemon and Shin Shunka Den for Sorting. More Rayearth characters and the famous (but anonymous in this chapter) duo from You're Under Arrest had come back. More casts from the last two series will appear in the future.

Time for the Reply of the Reviews!!

green-aura: Because the situation of Sakura and Harry was quite similar: both of them were strangers to the wizard world. So following the same procedure at the beginning was logical...At least it is to me. There will be sorting, actions will come much later, but there is going to be some. And I've somehow survived the finals, thank you! XD

Star Wish: Thanks for the compliment. I've taken your advice and changed the summary. Hopefully there will be more review to boost my low self esteem...This fic? Like JKR's work? ((Faints from the shock)) Er, for the Manga problem, have you ever tried the online translation? But it doesn't really matter for this fic anyway, as I've mentioned before, except for CCS, all characters existed as AU.

nosie: Thank you. I'm glad that you like the idea. XD

Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcomed. Flames will be donated to World of Elegance.

No Snippet this time because next chapter will be up very soon (in a few days within this week), as this unworthy one had already finished final!! (Although not out for summer yet, argh!)