Chapter 2 – Lost in Someone Else's Reality

I was having another one of those floating dreams. You know, the kind where you're floating around watching something happen, sometimes even watching yourself do something. That wasn't strange at all. What was strange was the fact that I was floating and looking at Tokyo Tower.

That's when I found myself looking at a girl, grade-school age, standing on a building ledge. I realized, looking at the costume and the prop she held in her hand, that I was dreaming something similar to Sakura's opening dream sequence. That made seeing Tokyo Tower make sense, in some way.

And yes, there was Kerberos. Weird, he looked kind of strange, kind of…real. I was so caught up with that I was almost startled by the creepy eye that obscured my vision for a couple seconds.

The rest was familiar: the voiceless "JUMP," the wings on the shoes as she stepped up, Kero turning his head, and Sakura falling…falling…

I woke up with a start, grabbing my alarm clock from the top of my bed on instinct. The loud beeping had woken me up, and I stared at the round pink clock I held in my hands. Automatically I hit the 'off' switch.

Finally my brain kicked in: my alarm clock was a wall-plug kind, I had no "top of my bed" to put my clock on, and by the way, this clock looks strangely familiar…kind of like…

That's when I stopped. I knew this clock; I knew the room that was starting to take focus; I recognized the sleeves I was looking at. Slowly, I looked down…

---

Touya was calmly eating his breakfast when a loud "HOE!!" emanated from the room upstairs. Fujitaka looked over from the kitchen and asked, "Was that Sakura?"

Touya nodded, "Yep. Sounds like the monster's finally awake."

(A/N: Please remember that "hoe" is said "ho-eh" and that it's Sakura's most-often-used phrase.)

---

I just kept looking at myself, the real-looking clothes, the definitely real-feeling bed, the…just everything was different. How was I Sakura? Did something happen.

'Calm down, idiot,' another part of my brain said. 'You're still dreaming, duh!'

Of course, dreaming like I had just dreamed Sakura's dream. Maybe the next time I had this dream, I'd keep dreaming, but right now I really wanted to wake up. I reached up, grabbed my earlobes, and squeezed really hard…

…And had to curl up and roll over just to keep from screaming in pain. I also felt like screaming for another reason: this was reality! How had…how had…

'I wish stuff like CardCaptor Sakura were reality…' I shuddered as I remembered saying that the night before. But still, how did it actually happen?

I was distracted from my thoughts by a gentle urge to get dressed. It was as if someone was suggesting what I had to do, and implying that I should do it. For lack of a better thing to do, I conceded and got up out of the bed. As I jumped out, I had a very definite feeling of vertigo hit me. 'That's right,' I thought to myself, 'Sakura is definitely shorter than me.' I let my head stop spinning before getting ready for the next thing.

Then I stopped. Getting dressed…that meant getting undressed…and I shuddered again. I had a younger sister in the real world, yes, but that wasn't my body. Or, to phrase it better, I wasn't the one in that body. But now…

"Might as well get on with it," I said out loud, and got two shocks at once. First and most obvious was the fact that my voice was definitely not my own; it was definitely a girl's voice. But even more shocking was that I hadn't spoken in English! I had said that in Japanese!

"This is too weird," I said, and again all that my ears heard was Japanese. Giving up in my trying to understand it, I set back on…undressing.

I managed to make it through without completely freaking out, but I was definitely on the verge of it. Then came the part I was both looking forward to and at the same time not looking forward to: getting dressed. Yes, I was looking forward to not being naked, but knowing that I was going to have to wear…wear a skirt…just made it not as appealing.

But no, anything was better than nothing, even a skirt. I was just about to wonder how to get dressed (including where to find the clothes) when I felt the same gentle urge I had felt that made me get out of bed. Apparently there was still some Sakura left over that was trying to do the same stuff that was "normal" so to speak.

Getting dressed was…interesting. Sakura made it look too easy when she did it. Plus, there was always the feeling that everything was far too real, since none of it looked 'cartoony' like I was used to. The skirt didn't help any because it was too short to feel like it was covering enough. Still, it was better than nothing, and finally my "inner Sakura" (as I called the subtle urges I was feeling) agreed that I was dressed.

'Next…?' I silently asked, and suddenly felt like doing my hair. I went over to the mirror on the desk, looked in, and gasped. Yes, I definitely was a girl, no doubt about that, but it was extremely strange for two reasons. One, I was looking at a 'me' that wasn't really me, and two, it was a normal human face I saw, not an animé drawing. I still had green eyes and brown hair, but that was where the similarities stopped. I ran a hand through one of the puffs of hair that kind of floated in front of my face. I was surprised that hair really could do that. Then I kind of let the "inner Sakura" ("IS" for short) take over in telling me how to brush said hair, as I had no experience with any hair much longer than an inch.

Next came tooth brushing, and I was glad to finally find something that was the same as it was in real life. After that I went back into the bedroom, grabbed the hat and bag, slipped on the slippers by the door (which I almost forgot to do), and went downstairs.

'Now it gets tricky,' I said silently, knowing that I was going to be encountering other people, namely Touya and Sakura's dad. 'Well,' I thought to myself, 'I guess since I'm Sakura (at least for now) I could call him my dad. It's probably going to seem strange, though,' I added.

"Morning!" I said, appearing at the doorway to the dining room/kitchen. It came out more cheerfully than I expected, though I guess that was my "IS" playing the part again.

As I expected, Touya was sitting right there, sipping from a mug. Coffee, I guessed, though I had never found out. My face tensed, not from the annoyance at him that Sakura naturally has, but from worry that I might slip up and say something that would make them think something was wrong with me.

"Why were you making so much noise this morning?" he said with a smirk, and I nearly faltered. It was weird enough speaking and having it come out as Japanese, but hearing Japanese and understanding it was really strange. But I still had to play the part.

"I wasn't making so much noise!" I said back, rather noisily indeed. I walked over to the chair across from him and put the bag…well my bag and hat on the corner of it.

"You let out some scream up there," he calmly replied, and I realized that normally Sakura probably wouldn't have done that.

"My alarm clock startled me a bit!" I said quite honestly, leaning on the table.

Touya looked to the side and added, "Sounded like the roar of a monster."

Okay, enough was enough. It seemed funny when he did it to Sakura and it wasn't me, but now being called a monster hit some nerve. Although maybe it was just my "IS" severely reacting instead of gently urging.

Before I realized it I was stomping towards him, and despite my definitely smaller stature, I definitely sounded heavy when I wanted to. "I am not a monster!" I said rather forcefully in his face.

I should have seen it coming, but before I realized it his mug was pressing down on my head. 'Definitely coffee,' I though to myself as the identifying aroma hit my nose. Unfortunately, since I was now short (being in Sakura's body), I knew I couldn't reach him to get him to stop teasing me. Not that he knew whom he was really teasing, but it wasn't like that really mattered at the moment. Still, I put up a struggle to keep him from suspecting anything.

Finally I backed away, my head throbbing slightly and my breathing a bit heavy. Maybe I shouldn't have struggled quite so hard. Hopefully he won't tease as much every day.

"You two always get along so well in the morning," another voice said, and strange as it was, I was already getting used to hearing Japanese and understanding it in my head. I turned and saw Sak…no, my dad coming out of the kitchen. (It was a joint effort of my "IS" and my wanting to make this seem more normal that made me think that way so forcefully.) In his hands was a tray of food.

Food! I had been so worried about everything else relating to not being me anymore that I had completely forgotten about eating! Eagerly I sat down at my place at the table. He came over and, with a smile, put the food in front of me, saying, "Here you go."

I was amazed; this was so much better than any breakfast I'd ever had. "Wow, it looks delicious!" I said earnestly. I then pulled another slight shock on myself by saying, "Itadakimasu!" As in, that's what I understood it as. Fortunately I knew what it meant, but finding an untranslatable phrase was amusing nonetheless. Also fortunately I knew how to use chopsticks. Mind you, that was one of my least worries at the moment. I picked them up and started eating.

Once again, I was shocked. The food…it was so good! Sakura made a very big understatement when she said her dad was a good cook. When he asked if it was good, I could barely contain my happiness when I said, "Yeah!"

A soft clunk distracted me. I looked up and saw Touya standing up. "Thanks, that was good," he said simply. I took another bite before realizing that Sakura was supposed to say something about it. I never got the chance to, though. "I'll be going now. Early soccer practice at school."

"Iterashai," S… dad said. Another untranslatable phrase, much like Touya's "Itekimasu," in reply.

Suddenly my "IS" went into overdrive. There was something it wanted and it wanted it now. "W-wait a sec!" I said without thinking, and proceeded to scarf down the rest of the food in front of me.

"Thanks, that was good!" I mumbled through my full mouth.

"Are you sure you had enough?" dad replied, and I nodded. "Here's your lunch, then," he added, pulling out a box wrapped in a napkin. Oh good, more food, as if I didn't have enough of that already. Hurriedly I put it in my bag.

I ran (silently cursing the skirt I was wearing) to the genkan (that's where the shoes are kept, kind of like a vestibule) and stopped short. How could I forget? Sakura always skates to school. I never did learn how to use rollerblades. But before I could curse my luck any more, I realized that since I knew all these other things that Sakura did (that I couldn't have known), I must also be able to skate in these things.

Fortunately, putting the stuff on was easy enough (although I kind of wished Sakura wore a helmet). But sure enough, once I got standing up again, I found a whole tome of knowledge of how to ride just welling up inside me.

"Your brother went on ahead," dad said as I easily glided out the front gate. "Do you have practice today?" he added, but I wasn't really paying attention and merely uttered a distracted confirmation.

"Itekimasu!" I yelled, rolling down the street without any problems.

"Iterashai!" dad called after me.

Finally I had time to think. Like what happened last night, or how I was going to get out of this. But what was most important on my mind was: why did I feel the need to hurry so much?

Well, if you've seen pretty much any of CCS (or at least the first episode), you probably can see the upcoming…complication, shall we say? If not, then it'll just have to be a surprise.