The First Installment of Card Captor: New Beginnings

Episode Four- The Battle of Might and a War of Wits

Keitaro lay on his bed that night, pondering the unusualness of what had just transpired. Had it really been only a day that he had known them? Had he really gone up the haunted hill just that morning, and had he really met the three most unexpected people there, in a mansion on top of a supposedly barren hill?

Had he really passed two of five tests that could qualify him as a Card Captor? Were all the stories his grandparents told him true?

Or… was it all just a dream?

The next morning brought an answer. It was Monday, and Keitaro woke up to the sound of his alarm clock going off. Blinking back his drowsiness, he looked at its blinking fluorescent face and promptly shot out of bed with a yell.

"Six o'clock?!"

His mother's voice drifted into his bedroom from the kitchen downstairs. "Keitaro? Your school bus arrives in ten minutes, you'd better be ready!"

"In a minute, mom!"

He leapt into the bathroom and took the quickest shower ever recorded in the history of mankind. Shooting out of the bathroom, he dressed hurriedly in his uniform and slid down the banisters to his exasperated mom. "You woke up late again, didn't you?" she sighed, holding out his packed lunch and a jelly sandwich just as the bus screeched to a halt in front of their house.

"No time to chat, mom!" he exclaimed. 'Saved by the bell--- er, bus!' He planted a swift kiss on his mother's cheek as he flew out of the door, school bag askew, and into the bus. He waved merrily at her from the window when he had sat down.

He was just unwrapping the jelly sandwich when the bus stopped once more in front of a house. Keitaro was surprised when the student there promptly sat down next to him. "Nice breakfast," she remarked. "In a hurry, huh?"

Startled, he looked up at her. He choked.

"Spark?"

She smiled. "The one and only."

They were soon the center of attention. Even Butch Fester, the neighborhood toughie, was interested. "Yo, girl. You new?" he asked. Butch sat behind Keitaro at the bus. Spark turned to give him a sunny smile, and extended her hand for a shake. "Yup," she said. "Name's Aurora Brimstone, but people usually call me Spark." Butch took her hand and gave it a sound shake before turning his attention on Keitaro.

"You better not keep this pretty dish to yourself, y'hear me?" he said gruffly, poking Keitaro every other word for emphasis. Keitaro nodded dumbly.

That day in school, Spark was once again the center of attention. Looking at her carefully, Keitaro couldn't see what everyone else saw in her, except that she was very friendly. Still all the guys said she was pretty. Oh well. He was attracted to her too, somehow ("It's just the elemental energy you know… Nakuru, Yukito, Syaoran and Sakura felt the same way about each other", said Spark) but at least he didn't have a crush on her! No, he liked that girl… the one that was always sitting at the back of the room, quietly doing her schoolwork. The one with large glasses and short, wavy blonde hair. The smart one.

"Hi, I'm Heart Rae Saul. Call me Rae for short."

Keitaro looked up, surprised, as the object of his affectionate thoughts spoke. She had gone up and introduced herself to Spark. Glancing sideways, he saw that Spark had eagerly reached for the proffered hand and happily shook it. "Aurora Brimstone, but my nick's Spark." Rae smiled, and Keitaro knew instinctively that those two were a match made in heaven; they were born to be the best of friends.

But even soul mates would not last long when faced with an insurmountable secret, and Spark soon found herself longing to tell her newfound friend the truth about herself. She clamped down on that thought with the iron will she'd practiced with the help of Darkyce (Neptune tended to spoil her; he had an elder sister, but she had long left Crystal Mansion, and everybody, including the butler and Neptune, was only too pleased to have another female presence in the house) and consoled herself with the thought, 'She'll never believe me anyway.'

Unfortunately for her, Fate had a different idea.

That afternoon, after school, Rae was surprised to see Keitaro and Spark leaving the school together. 'Doesn't Keitaro go on the bus? And for that matter, I don't think they live near each other, do they?' But it was none of her business, so she pushed it out of her mind as she rode her bike home.

Meanwhile, Spark and Keitaro had arrived at Crystal Mansion, and the Second Test was about to begin.