Round 5 – 'But there is always a way'
'Arigato gozaimasu!' Daidouji Tomoyo bowed politely at the last customer that left her shop. 'Yes! This was a total success!' The dark haired girl clasped her hands before her, smiling happily. Wearing a cute maid uniform, which consisted a short black plaid skirt, a black satin dress topped by an apron with her shop's logo on it, Tomoyo hopped to the centre of the room and stared at her shop. Yes, it may be too much for a 12-year-old girl to own a bar, but who cares? This was perfect! Sure, half of the tables were still stacked by the walls and the amplifiers and karaoke equipment were still not set up on stage, but it was getting there. The business has barely started that day, and it already has a huge anticipation with the onlookers outside. Tomoyo smiled, wiping a tear from her eye.
'All this for you, Sakura-chan…' Tomoyo's smile faded. 'Sakura-chan… where are you?'
The front door suddenly opened, ringing the small bell that hang above it. Tomoyo turned around and smiled. 'Welcome to To-'
Four women has entered the shop and they were all moving so fast, Tomoyo was a lost for words. A woman with long blonde hair and a girl with shorter blonde hair was pulling down the blinds of the shop as a green haired girl with cat ears was flipping the 'Open' sign on the door to 'Close', locking the door and ducking behind a table. A pink haired girl placed something in a booth and was looking around, picked up a plastic chair and stood by the front door, heaving heavily.
'Ummm… Excuse me… Who are you people?' Tomoyo finally asked, a bit nervous at the girls. They were all disheveled, their clothes torn and dirty. Their faces were swelling with bruises and deep with cuts.
'Oh! Umm… Sorry about this! Can we hide here for a bit?' The blonde with the long hair asked politely, clasping her hands in front of her and bowing at Tomoyo. 'A scary lady is chasing us and we have nowhere else to go.'
Tomoyo was still a bit taken aback by all of this. 'Hiding? From a lady? But why?'
'Dammit, Dejiko! Get out from under that table and check on Sakura!' The short-blonde girl suddenly snapped, who was walking up to the front door to stand next to the pink haired girl.
'No way, nyo!' Dejiko cried out from underneath the table. 'Digi Charat has to save herself first before-'
'Sakura? You don't mean Sakura-chan, do you?' Tomoyo's heart stopped. The four newcomers looked over to Tomoyo, who was now running to the booth the pink haired girl was before. When she peered over, the dark haired girl gave a soft gasp. Tears welled Tomoyo's eyes and she fell to her knees.
Sakura was a mass of pain and bruises. Her face was black and blue. Her hair was all messed up. Her clothes were torn and slightly charred. Her rollerblades were half-shattered, as if something has squeezed them. And there were marks all over Sakura's body, marks as if something long and sharp has wrapped itself the auburn haired girl and has crushed her. And Sakura's right arm… it was placed over her chest, but it was turned around in an impossible angle.
'Sakura-chan… my… Sakura-chan…' Tomoyo raised a shaking hand towards her best friend, unable to believe what she was seeing. Her heart has begun beating again, but it was quick, painful, almost beating in despair. 'My Sakura-chan…'
'You know her…' the pink haired girl spoke, walking up to the shocked Tomoyo. 'We're sorry. We couldn't protect her.'
Tomoyo was brushing away the tears with the back of her hand as she spoke, choking on the words. 'What are your names?'
'I'm… Utena… Tenjou Utena.' Utena waved a hand to the rest of the other girls. 'She is Narusegawa Naru, Digi Charat and Kawamura Kumi.'
'I am Daidouji Tomoyo. And thank you for doing your best to help Sakura-chan.' Tomoyo was standing up, looking as if she has miraculously recovered. Utena was taken aback at this as Tomoyo rushed to the back of the room. 'Please, carry Sakura-chan and follow me! There is a medic bay here, so please hurry!'
Utena just stood there, almost stunned by Tomoyo's sudden change of attitude. Shaking her head, Utena picked up Sakura and did as she was asked and ran after Tomoyo…
---
Sakura's dream was full of swirling darkness. She was trying to wade through it, but she was lost. She did not know where to go. The darkness begun to surround her, choking her, stifling her breathing. Sakura gasped, raising a hand over her head, as more of the darkness clenched around her. She was afraid. She was scared. She was frightened. But she was not going to give up. She kept on reaching forward to the darkness above her, and from the cracks that the darkness parted, was light…
Sakura woke up from the dream, finding herself looking through her outstretched hand, light seeping through her fingers. She blinked once and sat up. She looked at her right arm, which she has used. She flinched and grimaced, remembering how it was broken before.
'Hoeee? Hey, it WAS broken… so how come it's like nothing has happened to it?' Sakura asked out loud, looking at her arm. It was not necessarily true that 'nothing' has happened to it. There were small scars over her right arm. She looked over to her other arm, and found out that there were similar scars. Sakura was just wearing a hospital robe as she jumped off her bed. Her Star Wand, which reverted to a small key on a necklace, was on the nightstand beside her bed. Sakura picked up her key and hang it around her neck.
'Ah! Sakura-chan! You're awake!'
Sakura looked up to find Tomoyo coming into the room. Sakura blinked, staring at the regal looking violet kimono the dark haired girl was wearing. Sakura was still staring at the etchings of lilies on Tomoyo's kimono as the other girl rushed forward and embraced Sakura ever so tightly. 'I thought you would never wake up!'
'T-Tomoyo-chan! How… Why… What… What's happening?' Sakura was just as lost as she was in her dream. Tomoyo giggled.
'You've been asleep for over two weeks now.'
'HOEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?' Sakura's eyes bugged out of her head as Tomoyo giggled.
'Oh, hush! It was acceptable! You did got yourself half-beaten to death.' Tomoyo sighed and hugged Sakura again. 'I couldn't believe someone would go to all that trouble to hurt you…'
'Tomoyo-chan… I'm so sorry… I was so weak…' the auburn haired girl returned Tomoyo's hug, closing her eyes as she sighed also. 'I lost Kero-chan and Yukito-san… they took them away… But I promise me and my friends will get them back-'
'Oh! You mean Utena-san, Naru-san, Dejiko-chan and Kumi-chan?' Tomoyo pulled back a bit, nodding. 'Hai, they're downstairs right now. They've been waiting for you to rest up and wake up.' Tomoyo walked to the corner of the room and opened up the cabinet that stood just a few feet away from Sakura's bed. 'Here, a change of clothes. You don't want to go down there and embarrass yourself now, do you?'
---
'This is even more embarrassing…'
Sakura was blushing, placing her hands on her cheeks. She was wearing a pink version of Tomoyo's maid uniform. Tomoyo even got matching hair ribbons for Sakura's short pony-tails. 'Tomoyo-chan! I can't believe you forced me into this thing!' Sakura wailed, walking down a long corridor with Tomoyo in the lead.
'Ah! The word is 'helped', Sakura-chan! I 'helped' you to wear it!' Tomoyo giggled. She recalled how smooth and soft Sakura's body was and gave a small shuddering breath of happiness. Despite the small scars and cuts in the first day she saw Sakura beaten up, Tomoyo still loved her sweet Sakura!
'Uuuuh… Anyway… where are we?' Sakura asked, not liking the sound Tomoyo just made. Tomoyo made a small coughing noise and turned to Sakura as they walked.
'Oh! That's right! You were attacked before you could visit my 'surprise'! Well, since you are a very powerful mahou shoujo, I thought you, of all people, need something like this! And your defeat just proves that you REALLY need this!' Tomoyo was giggling, making wild hand gestures. 'I mean, this is the perfect place for you to strategize, regroup, plan and also relax and hide! I knew you would need it so I had it made! I just had no idea you would use it so soon!'
'Aaaaah… okaaaaay… so, What IS it?' Sakura finally asked, blinking as she and Tomoyo stopped in front of a door.
'Sakura-chan… welcome to your base of operations… your new hide out!' Tomoyo opened the door and swung her hand out.
Everything hit Sakura all at once. The noise, the smell, the chaos, the people, the talking, the lights, the singing, the maids running around and doing waitress jobs… Sakura was aghast at all of this, her mouth was hanging open. Tomoyo stepped out and turned to Sakura, spreading her arms out.
'I welcome you to Tomoyo-chan's Karaoke Bar!' Tomoyo cried out happily. Sakura was still staring as Tomoyo grabbed her hand and let her. 'Also known as the TKB! You see, the bar is a front, so no villain would notice! But since it's set here in the middle of Tokyo, you as our heroine can get where you need to be! We have a medic bay, a command centre, a docking bay underneath the bar, a bomb shelter, a weapons and communications room, a library, a computer room, and other important rooms that a super hero needs! Also, we have an indoor hot springs for boys and girls, to relax after a tiring day's work as a hero!'
'Wh… Wh… Wh… Why?' Sakura found herself a lost of words again as Tomoyo brought her to the main bar where a maid was serving drinks.
'Because YOU need it! You're the main heroine! The one and only Card Captor Sakura!' Tomoyo replied happily. Sakura gawked at her and Tomoyo waved a hand. 'Oh, don't worry! You need the publicity! People NEED to know this place has a magical girl working here, so of course business would be booming! Plus, being a mahou shoujo doesn't pay well, and everything we bought is more than mother could afford, so I had to get loaners. But don't worry! Once we start taking up 'job offers' along with the usual 'save the day' jobs, the government would start giving us funds, not to mention the base earnings we'll be getting here at the TKB!'
'B… B… B… But…' Sakura couldn't form the sentence she wanted to say. 'TKB… bad… idea… we can't…'
'SAKURA!' Sakura fell silent again as a group of four girls rushed to her and hugged her. It was Utena, Kumi, Naru and Dejiko. Sakura was still stunned as the girls hugged her tightly, but Sakura did notice that Naru and Dejiko were wearing similar maid uniforms as she was, only different coloured. Naru has yellow while Dejiko has green. Utena and Kumi were wearing 'butler' uniforms, dark pants with a nice looking black jacket and white polo.
'Oh, gosh! We were beginning to worry! How are you?' Naru was the first to asked, looking at Sakura's face as she knelt down.
'In shock… what are you guys doing here?' Sakura found herself queering. Naru straightened up, looking sheepishly at Utena, Dejiko and Kumi. 'And… uh… why are you waiting tables?'
'Well, we thought if we worked here, we could be a lot closer to you and see if you recover.' Utena answered, placing her hands behind her head. 'We didn't feel like leaving you all alone, especially with that Black Gaia character roaming around and you comatose.'
Sakura blinked again. 'Who?'
After some short explanation of what happened the moment Sakura fell unconscious, Sakura has begun to see the weight of the situation.
'We can't let Black Gaia get away with what she's doing.' Sakura stated, clutching her key around her neck. Utena, Naru, Kumi and Dejiko were all nodding in agreement.
'And remember,' Naru added, 'she said 'all creation'. She doesn't only want power, she wants to rule the world. Crazy people like that are gung-ho in destroying everything and everyone just to get what they want.'
'We've got to warn the other mahou shoujo in the world before it's too late.' Kumi added matter-of-factly, arms crossed over her chest. 'But we also have to be careful and make sure they aren't already possessed by Black Gaia.'
'I say we just hide, nyo!' Dejiko piped in. 'We could barely do anything against her magic, nyo! Despite Sakura-chan's magic powering us up, nyo!'
'Spell Channeling…' Sakura muttered underneath her breath. 'So that's what it's called… I have to get stronger so the magic I lend to you guys would be just as strong.'
'Hey! I know!' Utena grinned. 'We should get more people to help us fight this thing! I'm sure there are plenty of heroes who would want to help us! If they're already strong, with Sakura-chan's magic, they would become even stronger!'
'That sounds like a plan, desu!' Tomoyo clasped her hands together in joy. Sakura and her friends are starting to look like the 'super hero team' she has dreamed of. 'Leave it to me in contacting more allies! You guys focus on getting stronger!'
The front door suddenly opened again and more customers piled in. Tomoyo smiled at Sakura-chan and her friends and nodded her head towards the customers. With an equally enthusiastic smile, and the future looking a bit brighter, Sakura and her friends followed Tomoyo and worked in the TKB.
