The First Installment of Card Captor: New Beginnings
Episode Two- A Possible Card Captor
"I've waited a long time for this day."
It was true. Each Guardian had spent centuries guarding the precious NeoClow. It had been two hundred years since the first Card Captor, Kinomoto Sakura, had released the Clow Deck made by Clow Read, catching every card and turning each into Sakura Cards. When finally the task was done, Sakura and her friends (who had been in Grade Four, ten years old), Daidouji Tomoyo (Sakura's cousin and best friend), Eriol Hiragizawa (Sakura's classmate, Clow Read's half-reincarnation), and the descendants of the magical family of Clow Read, Li Syaoran and Li Mei Ling, secretly devoted their lives to creating a new Clow deck, which they finished in their last year of college. They had called it the NeoClow, and supplied it with its three most powerful cards: the Guardians Dragonflame, Frozenshade and Scarface. Then they set the Guardians free of the deck… separately.
Three generations had passed since then, three that were closely monitored by each Guardian, none of whom knew how the others looked like in physical form. One carried the Book of Clow, a compilation of both Clow and NeoClow, along with various visions and predictions by Clow Read, Eriol, Sakura, and Syaoran (Tomoyo and Mei Ling had no magical powers). Another had the Spellcaster, a book of summons that could get the help of the NeoClow authors and Clow Read, or the Guardians created by Clow Read and Eriol (Sakura's dad was the other, non-magical half of Clow Read). The last was the Weapon Smith and kept the Guardians' weapons.
It had been prophesied long before that on the year of the silver dragon, the Guardians would meet on a stormy night. It would be the thirteenth day of the seventh month. The potential card captor would celebrate his or her tenth birthday the next day; the one who could feel the summons using inborn ESP (as all from the bloodline of Read had, with the exception of Li Mei Ling) and forego the celebration to answer the calling was to face trial by Guardian.
Today was the day, and the summons had already been sent out. The Three were clustered still in the Crystal Mansion. Aurora was plopped on a large beanbag she had procured, biting her lower lip and her nails alternately in tension. Darkyce, who had spoken, was silent once more; he stared out of the large window with his eyes unfocused and roving. The master of the mansion, however, could not have been calmer: he had a glass of iced chocolate and yet another vanilla ice cream, and seemed quite content.
The front door bell rang, and the Guardians snapped to attention.
"Did you have anything delivered?" growled Darkyce. Neptune shook his head. No. "Brimstone?" he barked at Aurora.
"Not that I recall…" she faltered. "Good, then," sighed Darkyce.
Could this be the one they had long been waiting for?
The butler hovered hesitantly at the door. His master had acted very strangely, accommodating two complete strangers who came in from the storm yesterday night, when he had purposely kept away from people and had no acquaintances save for the servants. Would his uncharacteristic hospitality continue further, or would this third guest be turned away? Finally, he decided to take his master's mood for all it was worth. He opened the door to let the child waiting outside in.
The child entered the hallway uncertainly. He didn't know why he had the sudden impulse to leave his birthday celebration and run up the haunted hill. Furthermore he was surprised to see that instead of being bare and barren, a huge mansion with sprawling gardens stood on top of the hill. The gardens were well tended, and he had assumed that the house (well, the castle, then) was inhabited because of that.
And it was! Why, it was magnificent! Just like in the fairy tales! A butler, and servants bustling about, and rich, deep carpets…
And silence. It bothered him. With so much people why was never a sound heard outside? Why hadn't he ever seen any of these people before, when he lived just at the bottom of the hill?
And if he had never seen them before, why did the mansion and the faces inside it almost seem… familiar?
The child wandered along the dimly lit halls. Something seemed to draw him inexorably toward a closed door, and he found himself wondering inexplicably what could be hidden behind it. Well, he was about to find out.
Neptune himself opened the door for the hesitant child. He glanced out at him and flashed a rare and very brief smile. "Welcome to my humble abode," he said. "I trust the butler has been satisfactory in his service? Please, come in. My friends and I have just been having a little chat." Sensing that the boy was a little leery, Neptune assumed that he was apprehensive about meeting a group of snotty old rich men and threw open the door. "See?" he said with a slightly bigger smile, "all normal. I'm not as snooty as you probably think."
Unfortunately, Aurora had temporarily disappeared into the bathroom and Darkyce, well, was being himself.
"Come on in," insisted the master of the house finally. "My iced tea is getting warm. I insist! After all, I let you in my house, and I don't even know who you are." Darkyce smirked visibly, and Neptune glared icy daggers at him. "You're a different story altogether, of course, monsieur Darkyce. By the way," he said, "my name is Neptune Liquicia. You may call me Neptune, if you prefer."
"Darkyce," growled the owner of that name.
"And I'm Aurora Brimstone. My dad calls me Spark, though," grinned the only female Guardian, bouncing out of the bathroom with a towel in her hand. "Neptune, you haven't got any hot water running in this house, have you?" she complained. "First rain, now this? My complexion's getting ruined! Phoenix is never this cold. Drat!"
The boy grinned. 'That girl's got some fire in her! And she's about my age, too. I suppose this Neptune-fellow can't be so snooty after all,' he thought. "I'm Li Keitaro. I'm half Chinese, half Japanese. I turned 10 today," he said proudly.
"We know," nodded Aurora sagely.
"You---"
Darkyce interrupted impatiently. "You have felt a strange compulsion today, am I right? That is why you are in this mansion, in this room. Other children felt this compulsion, but only you were brave enough to follow it."
"We sent a message out," blurted Aurora.
"Yes, we did. Through ESP. Children of the Li clan and other psychic families would have heard it. You are the only one to heed it," nodded Neptune. "Now you must learn of your destiny."
"My… destiny?"
And so, the trial by Guardian was begun. Keitaro was told the history of Clow, NeoClow, the Guardians, and the previous Card Captor. Tonight would be the first trial.
"You do realize, of course, that this is the first time any of us will be doing this?" wheedled Aurora. "I don't think I can…"
Neptune put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and squeezed it lightly. "Be strong, little one. Our trials have only begun."