.The Dreams We Left Behind .

A Card Captor Sakura fic by Melissa Ordesky

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Disclaimer: Card Captor Sakura does not belong to me. Duh. PG-13 for bad words, sometimes this time Sakura's and Tomoyo's fault! Eesh, Syaoran, you're baaaaaaaaad influence. Based on the anime.

Author's Notes: Sorry for the wait! I had written up until the end, just so y'all would have got the last four chapters within a week and been happier, but just when I had only a few! hundred! words! to! go! BOOOOOOM. Lost everything. So, from the dark recesses of my head, I am trying to recreate this fic.

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Last chapter: Sakura was seen by Rika, Naoko, Takashi and Chiharu, and had to explain to them about being the Card mistress, and why she was missing a certain messy haired brunet... Meanwhile, Syaoran and Mei Ling prove once and for all that Syaoran still has magic, and they enroll his sisters' help to uncover Tae's evil plot and for an opportunity to discover Sakura's feelings. Back in Tomoeda, Sakura and Tomoyo went to Tomoyo's for a sleepover to discover the police chief, mayor and newspaper editor, and an old ferocious friend who knocks out Tomoyo...

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Chapter Six - All Those Things I Never Knew

I turned, and then discovered why I really felt so unsettled. A girl bedecked in blue and white glared menacingly at me.

I stared back.

She rushed at me, her hands outstretched into fists, and stars exploded about my head. I felt the floor spin dizzily beneath me, the sky turned black and I remembered nothing more.

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Sakura

"TOMOYO!"

Launching myself forwards as Sonomi dashed to her daughter's side, I looked at the Fight menacingly. The Fight smirked at me, and tensed, preparing to run away. I didn't want to have to risk having to chase after it, especially if clone!Li had the same thing Syaoran had - that Laisin board thingamajig - which helped him find the Clow cards.

"Fight card! I challenge you!" Dropping into the formal stance to begin a traditional fight, I kept eye contact with the Fight until it mimicked my stance. It bobbed its head and I bowed slightly. I forced myself to take a deep breath, hoping Kero had taught me enough. I began to feel very grateful that Kero had insisted on teaching me to fight.

Moving first into a defensive position, I dodged a punch from the Fight and swivelled on my heel. The background blurred as I focussed all my attention on the fight with the Fight. (Try saying that very fast, five times, without your brain falling out. Go on. I dare you.) Dodging and sidestepping its attacks as best as I could, I started to lead it outside where I'd have enough real space to get into position to attack. Unfortunately, it saw what I was doing and started to edge me towards the wall instead.

Blocking a nasty leg swipe at my own legs, I glanced briefly at the wall and wondered if I could pull it off. I needed to get behind the Fight in order to be any good. I moved into a very defensive position, play-acting that I was in trouble, and moved my hands like Kero had taught me to block the Fight's advances. I stepped backwards once more for good measure, and then used all my energy to jump, kickback off the wall, and somersault. The world span dizzyingly around me and I landed with a thump on the ground, my bent knees taking most of the pressure. From my position behind the Fight it didn't have enough time to turn around and attack. It turned, and I caught it in a throw, throwing it over my shoulder with a crash. The Fight scrambled to its knees, and I moved into a defensive position again, but it stopped and knelt on the ground, her head bent.

She was submitting to me.

I nodded at it. "Return to your power confined!" I yelled, happiness swelling through me in a warm wave that rocked me. The card floated into my hand, and I dug in my pocket for my pen, scrawling my name on it and sliding it fondly into the side carrier with the rest of the cards. I figured that perhaps the Fight interpreted the Test in this way. I had proved myself by besting her in the fight, and that was enough.

I turned, and my heart thudded down into my stomach.

Crapitcrapitcrapitcrapit. I smirked sardonically at my own articulacy, and was frantically glad that I didn't speak my babble out loud. I'd kinda forgotten that I'd had an audience. Sonomi and a now awake Tomoyo looked at me from the ground, Dad looked like he was having an aneurysm, and the police chief, mayor and newspaper editor were just blinking at me.

"Do you do this often, Sakura?" Dad shook his head in disbelief. "Tomoyo, I can't believe you'd put your own best friend in this much danger."

Huh? I thought.

"Huh?" Tomoyo blinked at Dad, then at me, then at her mother, and finally back at Dad. "Uh, I'm not the Card mistress, Kinomoto-san."

Dad sat with a thump on the sofa, and I winced. They'd thought Tomoyo was the Card Mistress! I suppose it made a twisted amount of sense, if they'd found the costumes, or something, and thought that Tomoyo was always missing when a Card was being captured.

"I'm the Card Mistress," I said, my voice feeling suddenly tight and constricted. The words sounded flat to my own ears. Dad stared at me hollowly.

"It's true," Tomoyo said, getting to her feet and padding over to me. Her eyes were the kindest I'd ever seen them, and I felt suddenly and abruptly ashamed that she'd been injured because of me. "I can show you the tapes of some of the captures, if you'd like. Or maybe the footage I got of the last encounter with Eriol." Her eyes sparkled at me, and I frowned. I hadn't realised she'd been taping that last fight.

I watched the adults for their reactions. Sonomi and dad held the same bewildered expressions, and the men just looked a little bemused.

"Sakura," Dad finally managed to get out. "I think you have some explaining to do."

I exhaled heavily. "What can I say? I accidentally opened the seal on the Clow book when I was eleven, and was assigned to the task of collecting them up again by one of their guardians, Keroberus, because the reason they were out was my fault. Then, a couple of years later, I had to change them all to Sakura cards, and was helped by the reincarnation of Clow Reed to do so. If you call dropping hundreds of toy sheep on my head help," I added ruefully. "Clow Reed set a Test into the cards, so they are set loose every four years to test their Master's strength, if they are still able to wield the power of the cards. That Test is happening now. The boy on the photo is some kind of magical clone of Li Syaoran, a boy from the Li clan in China, a very powerful Chinese magic clan. His clan have always wanted the cards, as they are descendents of Clow Reed."

"Magical clone? Is that possible?"

I shrugged at the mayor. "I happen to believe so. The real Li Syaoran would not place so many people in danger."

"How can you know? If he is from a clan who have always believed that the cards belong to them, the-"

"Seven years ago he came to Tomoeda because his mother had sensed the release of the cards, to capture them for himself. He managed to capture eight cards, and even though he could have held onto them for himself, he gave them to me. He understood that I was the master that Keroberus and Yue had chosen for the cards."

"Yue?" Dad's voice sounded faraway, as if he wasn't really there. Like when he talks about mother... Sadness fought with the happiness that lingered within me from the recapture of the Fight.

"Clow Reed created two guardians for the cards," I explained. "Keroberus for the sun, Yue for the moon. Both of them are powerful in their true forms, and have false forms that Clow Reed created for them so they could be closer to me. Keroberus is, actually, that yellow bear with wings you've seen me carry around occasionally."

Dad blinked. "And Yue is that other teddy bear?"

I felt a small blush come to my cheeks. The bear... that Syaoran had made for me... "N-n-no. Actually, Yue is Yukito."

Dad facevaulted. "Yukito? As in... Tsukishiro Yukito? As in your brother's little boyfriend?"

"As in," I agreed, before all of his words filtered through. BOYFRIEND???? Huh. Boyfriend?? Huuhhh...

"And Touya knows about this, I presume," Dad continued.

"A-huh," I said, nodding. Then my brain caught up to me. "Boyfriend?"

Tomoyo stifled a giggle. "You didn't know, Sakura?"

Indignant, I turned to her. "You knew? And didn't tell me?" I sat on the ground with a thump. "Boyfriend. Jeez." Folding my arms, I resisted the urge to sulk. "Guess I'm not the only one who's been surprised today."

My brain was flashing with images of Touya and Yukito, how they were always so close, knew what the other was thinking. The small embraces, Touya's hand resting briefly on Yukito for small brief periods of time, the amount of time they spent locked in Touya's bedroom...My face felt very hot, and I was relieved that it wasn't because of Syaoran for once. Of course, thinking about Syaoran made me think about Syaoran again.

There obviously was no god. I was blushing so hard it was ridiculous.

Of course, Tomoyo had to go and make it worse.

"Yes, Sakura. Boyfriend. Like that messy brown haired, brown eyed boy we both know that happens to be yours," Tomoyo teased.

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" I shrieked back, furious.

"Who's not your boyfriend?" For the first time all evening, Dad looked amused, as if he'd almost accepted the situation and could find some things funny.

"The real Syaoran," Tomoyo said, at the same time I said "NO ONE!" Um. Maybe I yelled it. It didn't help that everyone could still hear Tomoyo.

"Be glad," I hissed at her, clenching one hand into a fist, "that I do not have Chiharu's mallet on me."

Is it wrong to feel glad that she suddenly went very pale?

-----

Syaoran

Mathematics is an easy subject for me, if only because every question can be completed by completing a set of rules for each type of question. The logic of mathematics does not change. It does not rely on instinct.

Unlike magic.

My senses were going wild, and my skin bristled with the carefully contained power. I could not let a single smidgen of magic get away, or Mei Ling, Fuu Tie and I would be in an awful lot of trouble. Believe me when I use the pre-modifying adjective awful. I don't mean it in a purely colloquial sense. It's more than a saying.

Li Tae was evil. I knew it as surely as I knew now that I would never not love Kinomoto Sakura.

Mathematics, however, can be affected by other things. Especially when your magical instincts are blaring at you that a Star Card is on the war path. I could barely sit still. Aino-sensei fixed me with a long, piercing glare.

"Li-kun," the teacher said, frowning. "Are you all right?"

"Yes," I grunted back between clenched teeth. Aino shrugged a little and turned back to his blackboard. I tried to follow the white squiggles on it, and succeeded up to the point of finding the inverse of the function, but the tingling from my magic was getting too much for me.

Using my magic so suddenly must have reinstated my magical sensitivity. A world I had thought closed to me had been abruptly opened, and every part of me yearned to stretch out and feel it. I could feel magic in every corner of China, some subtle, some lingering. A black cloud seemed to be heading towards Japan, which chilled my soul and left the physical effect of numbing my fingers. I tapped them against the table to warm them up, stopping when Mei Ling fixed a fiery glance in my direction.

I stilled, wincing my apology back at her.

"So, if you take the function g(x), which is the derivative of f(x), and plot them both on the same axes..."

Nope. My brain still wasn't functioning when it came to Mathematics. I sighed, and decided to let my instincts tell me what they were trying to tell me. Sakura. Sakura was in some kind of trouble. This far away and it was telling me that Sakura was in danger. In-freaking-credible. Thrilled at this discovery, I worked on keeping it silent, the pulse of energy that pulsated across my skin, and the throb in my temples that told me she was in danger continued for another minute, until it just disappeared.

I snapped back into reality with a thump, and found that I'd clenched my hands into fists, the paper that had lain on the table scrunched into balls. I fought for my breath, and looked up with unsteady eyes at Aino-sensei.

"Li-kun. Would you like a five minute break so you can get some cold water and rest?"

I nodded, gasping my thanks. I turned to see Mei Ling looking at me worriedly, and I looked back, exhausted but fiercely happy.

"I'm going to get some water," I said, meaning there is some hope after all.

From the look in Mei Ling's eyes, I think she even understood.

-----

Sakura

Tomoyo's a deceptive beast, you know. Just when you think it's safe to get into the water, bam!, she sinks her teeth into you and you're a gonna.

Seriously. I'd thought she'd embarrassed me enough half an hour ago. This. This was beyond humiliation. BEYOND humiliation.

Folding my arms and resisting the urge to pull out the Fight and let it give another beautiful black eye to accompany her first one. As it was...

I pulled at the skirt forlornly, and stepped around the corner. Sonomi and Tomoyo were on the settee, sitting together, hearts jumping into their eyes as they saw me. Dad looked a little sad still, but he was smiling at me.

"Tomoyo," I said, my teeth gritted, "the toy sheep thing is not cute."

Tomoyo just goggled at me, her eyes starry. No change there, then. "But it is, Sakura."

I fluffed up the black sheep ears she was making me wear. "Isn't the whole costume thing meant to make me look respectable?" I demanded. "What's wrong with the other one?"

Tomoyo looked at me as if I'd gone insane. "It's serviceable, yes, but now you're probably going to be on TV more... and the Test is even more important... you need new battle costumes! Now mum's going to help me, it won't take up so much of my time!"

"But I look like a human sheep!" I twirled in the fluffy white skirt, restraining the urge to bleat at her. Or set her on fire. One of those two would really cheer my day up.

"No, sweetie." Dad wasn't looking sad any more, he was looking way too amused for my liking. "I think you look adorable." He burst out laughing. Crossly, I folded my arms.

"You should have seen some of the other costumes she made me wear," I said gruffly, meaning it in a quite nasty way. Hey, what can I say, the girl completely embarrassed me.

Except, I don't think that was quite the right thing to say. Her eyes went wide, and started to glimmer. I'm not kidding. I swear, if you turned the light off, you could still see her eyes shining.

"Oh, you should!" Tomoyo leapt off her chair. "I'll go and get them!"

I narrowed my eyes, and swiped at her with my Star staff as she hurried off, laughing.

I laughed a little myself, unable to resist the infectious laughter in the atmosphere, and stopped when a faint humming noise reached my ears. What in the-

I didn't even have time to react as the wall where not forty minutes previously I'd been using as a kick-back to capture the Fight erupted inwards, shattering debris everywhere. Something fell on me, and everything went black.

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Mei Ling

The household was so still, it wasn't surprising everyone heard Syaoran's yell and the shattering of glass.

I just ran, despite Aino-san's muttered protestation, my hair flying behind me at the speed I was going. I skidded around the corner to see Syaoran's face, tight and white, water and glass in a shattered pile on the floor. He was looking up at the ceiling, his eyes narrowed. I wasn't the only one to hear, as the entire household staff ran in too, the cleaner looking a bit narked off to tell the truth, and then She Fa who was also at home ran in too.

She was staring at him, and I think she got what he was feeling first, as she gasped, "mother!" and turned to run up the stairs. A stunned Syaoran turned to follow. I put up a hand as if to stop him, and instead stepped back and let him go. I shrugged apologetically at the cleaner, and Aino-san who had followed me to see what all the fuss was about, and ran up the stairs to listen in.

"...so pale, got to get the doctor," She Fa was saying as I reached the top of the stairs and paused there, and the beeping sounds announced she was dialing the local surgery from there. Japan has it good, I thought briefly, horribly. China doesn't have emergency services like they do.

"No, it's too late," Syaoran replied, in that horribly worried voice he'd only recently been reserving for his ruminations on Sakura's fate.

I managed to get my feet to move round the corner, and I gasped as I saw Yelan on the bed, in a heap, faint recognition in her eyes as Syaoran bent over her worriedly. He lifted his hands over her, folding them together, concentration on his face as he began to speak.

His hands started to glow. Healing magic! I was momentarily stunned – that type of concentration required years of concentration, of meditation – but of course he'd had the years of meditation! He must have been honing his mind despite not knowing he had the power to do it, obviously hoping to get it back some day.

In admiration I stumbled over to join him, my hands over his as I formed the spell in my head that would pass my magic over to him. He looked at me fleetingly, thanks on his pained face, and together our hands started to glow.

But it wasn't enough.

I twisted my head back to look at She Fa, and she nodded, yanking up the phone again and hitting one of the speed dial numbers. I heard Eriol's name floating through the air, and then felt him. The air slammed around us into a miniature storm, and I stumbled, falling against the bed. A hand, tight on my wrist, stopped me falling, and I looked at Syaoran gratefully.

He nodded, and went back to his tricky intonation patterns.

I stepped back, my power spent, and a familiar figure breezed past me.

Eriol! His arrival must have displaced the air and caused me to stumble.

Eriol was raising his staff, twirling it high in the air, and my eyes widened as I recognised the movements. He was cutting off a magical link.

It took seconds, but it felt like hours to me. The whole room was taut with tension and panic and magic, and when it all finally slipped away with a whoomph! sound, I sank to the ground, holding the doorpost and looking up at Yelan's face with concern.

A little bit of colour had returned to her face. Syaoran had slumped at her side, and Eriol… Hoooo boy, did Eriol look pissed.

"What the HELL is going on here?" Eriol demanded. "Why did you wait so long to call me? How long has she been like this??"

I raised my hand, suddenly feeling as if I was in class. Eriol's face softened at the sight of me.

"She's been like this for a while," I explained. "Uncle Tae has been using her power to reclaim the Sakura cards."

Eriol took a second to think this over before, inevitably, turning to Syaoran. "And you! Little descendent, I thought I could trust you to hold your family back! And why aren't you in Japan, huh? And-"

"It's not his fault!" I yelled, suddenly irate and pissed at Clow Reed's reincarnation. "Because of that stupid Sealed Card stunt you pulled, they dragged him back here! Syaoran's been little more than a prisoner for the last four years! We only rediscovered that he had magic a week ago! How dare you swoop in here so judgementally as if you're so bloody righteous! If I could give you a piece of my mind right now, I would and I freaking hope you choke on it! Yeah, come on, blue boy, chow down on my brain and die! Go ahead! Chomp on my neurons! Just-"

"Mei-mei," Syaoran interrupted me gently, and I stopped and stared at him, gob-smacked for two very good reasons. One, that he'd interrupted me mid-flow and now I had all this pent-up rage still floating around inside me, and two, that he'd called me mei-mei. He'd never done that. It meant sister in mandarin. Somehow it floored me more than anything has done for awhile. I had been hurt that he didn't care for me like I cared for him, and it turns out, he does.

Eriol looked just as floored, though, so I took some comfort in that. "I think," Eriol said, his voice strangely quiet, "that you've got some explaining to do."

I couldn't agree more.

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Sakura

This unconscious thing is starting to get on my nerves.

Thankfully it only lasted for half a minute, gauging by everyone's reactions, but still! What is it with things trying to drag me into deep, dark voids??

I stumbled upwards, clutching at my head and shaking dust out of my hair. Frantically, I looked around to see if anyone was hurt. Dad and Sonomi looked a bit shaken, and the newspaper editor and mayor looked terrified.

No one looked actually hurt, so I decided to concentrate on finding what the hell just smashed the side of the building in!

There was still lots of dust in the air, so I looked through the cards I had to see if there were any that could aid me. I used the Windy to blow away the dust, while simultaneously using the Create to make two temporary pillars to keep the house up, just in case that was a very important wall.

It was only then that I dared look, really look.

Clone!Li was stood there, with a look of contempt on his face. Something in me withered to see such a look on a face that I loved.

"Card Mistress," Clone!Li greeted.

"Clone," I gritted back at him through clenched teeth. Clone!Li just smirked a little.

"I see you've managed to win the support of a few prominent figures in this town," Clone!Li said smoothly.

"And won another card back," I said arrogantly.

"Ah, yes, the Fight." Clone!Li's voice was slightly smug. He knew something I didn't! "It doesn't matter. I've just found out something that'll destroy any hope you have of continuing anyway."

I frowned at him, puzzled, and then gasped as a tall familiar redhead walked towards me, holding another familiar bound figure. My heart cried out, loosening my voice before I could stop it. "CHIHARU!" I yelled. Chiharu looked absolutely terrified, her brown eyes widened, and I- Oh, I wanted to scream, kill, rip chunks of skin from his face!

Chiharu whimpered through her gag, and everything inside me wrenched horribly. I was horrible! I put all my friends in danger!!

Maybe… maybe I shouldn't be the Card Mistress.

"You let her go, you bastard!" I yelled, staff ready in my hands. I was in battle mode. I valiantly tried to forget I'd just sworn in front of my father, too.

"Very well."

I stopped, stunned, as the woman – one of Syaoran's sisters, obviously – let Chiharu go! Chiharu stumbled across the wreckage, and Tomoyo caught her, cradling her protectively in her arms.

"She's told me all I need to know, anyway," Clone!Li said smoothly. "You have feelings for my nephew, Syaoran. I bet he's all that keeps you going."

His voice was mocking. My hands tightened into fists. I could feel that my nails had punctured my skin, drawing blood, but I didn't care.

"If you've done something to him," I said, fiercely, "I'll kill you."

"Quite," Clone!Li said, smirking. "But it is not I that have hurt him. Yesterday he discovered he had no magic left at all. It devastated him. No, I did not hurt him, but he-"

"LIAR!" I yelled, bringing up my arm, reaching for a card.

"Not so fast, Sakura- I can call you Sakura, can't I? There are twenty cards left, after all. We should save our strength for that last showdown." Clone!Li's face was hard. Mocking. Everything in me despaired. Syaoran wouldn't hurt himself- kill- No. I couldn't think that. I just couldn't!! "But with your entire reason for living dead…" Clone!Li looked even more smug. "Well, I guess no one could blame you for giving up."

"If he's dead," I said furiously, "then it'll be because of you, putting him down, locking him away! And I shall revenge his murderer. Syaoran would want me to have the cards. He believed in me, right until the end! His belief in me was his most important feeling!"

Clone!Li looked a little startled at my fury, and in that moment, I knew Syaoran was still alive. And that whoever was controlling Clone!Li was getting worried, to use such a flimsy tactic as to try and get me mad!

"A betrayer to the end," Clone!Li said softly, his lip curling. "Believe whatever you will, Sakura."

Before I could react any more, Clone!Li and Syaoran's sister – I think it was Fuu Tie, but I can't be sure – disappeared in a swirl of magic.

I stared at the spot they'd just vacated in horror for a second, before whirling and running to Chiharu, worry clenching my heart.

-----

Chiharu

Sakura descended on me, righteous fury on her face combined with a self-directed fury. I ought to have known she'd blame this on herself!

"He didn't hurt me, Sakura," I said quickly, rushing to reassure her. "He must have been watching us leave your house. Yamazaki only left me for twenty seconds."

"This is all my fault!" Sakura's eyes welled up. "I can't believe that I've managed to put everyone in so much danger!"

Truly miserable, Sakura slumped to the ground.

"Hey, stop that!" I yelled, irritable. Sakura looked up at me, wide-eyed and shocked. "I won't have you blaming yourself! That idiot will get his comeuppance, and in the interim, you have to keep going and give it your all, your best!"

Okay, so if my words were typed, there'd be an awful lot of exclamation marks in it, but I didn't care. I was just so damned mad at her all of a sudden! I think it was just transferred rage. I was mad at Clone!Li, so I was transferring my rage to her.

"Yeah, Sakura!" Tomoyo agreed. "We believe in you! And no way is Syaoran dead," she added firmly. I nodded my agreement.

"Oh!" That reminded me. The redheaded girl that had helped guard me while Clone!Li had stormed us to our destination had slipped me a note and whispered me an order, to get it to Sakura. It had made me less scared, knowing she obviously wasn't working voluntarily for the clone. "Fuu Tie gave me this to give to you!"

Sakura took the paper I handed her, confused. She opened it, and her pretty cheeks coloured in an entirely other emotion than rage. I chuckled as Tomoyo helped me to my feet.

"She- he-" Sakura babbled incoherently for a moment, before looking up. "Syaoran is alive. And he still-" She flushed, brilliantly. I high-fived a grinning Tomoyo.

Kinomoto-san took advantage of his daughter's incoherence to snatch the paper out of her hands. I watched with Tomoyo as Sakura flushed even more as Kinomoto-san and Daidouji-san bent their heads over the paper.

"I'm going to get the cell phone!" Tomoyo's mother squealed, and turned and ran to some other room in the house, apparently unbothered that her sitting room was living up to Fred Flinstone's best bud's surname. Ayep, rubble.

I'd gotten a look at the note myself. "Sakura, Syaoran is WAY still in love with you. Bo Tae is EVIL keeping you apart! We've smuggled a cell phone into the house, Fan Ren has it. Call her and she can pass a message onto our Little Wolf. You two would be so cute!!! Good luck retrieving the cards, you SO are the one meant to have them. Love, The Li sisters (YOUR FUTURE IN-LAWS!!!!!!!) Fuu Tie, She Fa, Fan Ren and Fei Mei."

I couldn't help giggling as the newspaper editor, mayor and police chief (of course I recognised them, even though they were covered in rubble dust!) looked at the note too.

-----

Tomoyo

Chiharu and I staggered across the mess to the part of the room that wasn't covered in broken stone, while Sakura flipped out the Create card again to fix the wall.

Steadfastly ignoring everyone who was staring at her, Sakura put the card away and stepped back to admire her work.

"A pity you haven't got a card to tidy up, too," Sakura's dad said.

"I haven't got the Erase card back yet," Sakura said, sadly.

"Else you could Erase that bastard," the police chief broke in. "Daidouji-san," he said, greeting mother as she came back into the room, clutching her satellite phone. "We'll send a clean-up crew, compliments of the local government, of course."

"Thank-you very much," Mother replied, remarkably serene considering what had just happened! I guess she's just overwhelmed by everything, and probably relieved that her best friend's daughter will be okay, will have a romance that she and Sakura's mother probably prattled gaily over when they were our age.

"We'll contact you later, Card Mistress, about your official status," the mayor said, nodding at Sakura. "I trust you won't mind, Daidouji-san, if Eri writes up a brief account of what transpired here today?"

By Eri, I suppose he meant the newspaper editor. Mother nodded. "As long as he keeps everyone's safety here into account, of course. But if you publish a single word that will harm either my daughter or Sakura, I will not rest lightly."

The mayor actually bristled! "Go mum!" I whispered triumphantly to Chiharu, who was in a remarkably good mood considering she'd recently been kidnapped.

"I will give you a lift home, miss," the police officer said politely to Chiharu, who took his offered hand with a smile. "Explain things to your parents."

"Thank-you," Chiharu said, dimpling a smile. "I'll see you two tomorrow."

I nodded as the mayor, Eri, police officer and Chiharu all gingerly picked their way over the rubble and left, leaving Sakura, her dad, my mother and I alone in the room.

I watched as mother and Sakura's dad looked at each other, some kind of argument in their gazes, and mother eventually handed over the phone to Kinomoto-san.

I held my breath as Sakura's dad tightly held the phone, before bending down on one knee in front of Sakura. I had thought for a minute he wasn't going to let her have the phone, but that was irrational!

"Sakura," he said, his voice gentle, "phone them. Get them to tell him what you feel, inside. Don't let anyone decide your heart for you."

Sakura took the phone, and instead of dialling immediately, she threw her arms around her dad and started to cry.

After everything she'd been through in the last six years, I really, really didn't blame her at all.

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To be continued.