Eriol reread the letter, this time reading all of it. He had already sent Windy back to her new master, Sakura, with a letter without one of his cheery updates or vague hints. He couldn't afford to give away too much, Serenity not being a person to trifle with. Instead, his reply had been brief with but two statements; I'm coming. Don't leave Syaoran with her.

Finished, Eriol got up from his comfortable arm chair. He walked towards the library, letter in hand, and a certain book in mind. He wasn't surprised to find Spinel, in what Sakura and Tomoyo called his "cute form," lying down on his stomache, bathed in orange afternoon sunlight, reading an ancient text from the massive library. Spinel looked up at his young master.

"I thought you read all of these already, Master Eriol," Spinel stated in a questioning way.

"That was in another lifetime, Spinel," Eriol replied, pulling out books and looking them over, "And I have a particular weakness in remembering the historical stuff."

"Historical," Spinel repeated. He shifted onto his side to read the title of the book Eriol chose. "History of the Moon? What's that supposed to mean? Astronomy?"

Eriol walked over to Spinel. He placed a hand on Spinel's head, scratching behind the ears, and the black creature flicked his tail in suspicion. Then bringing his other hand up, Eriol put a pointed finger to his lips.

"Beween you and I, Spinel." Eriol bent down until he was eye level with the small guardian. His stare made the creature shudder. "I trust you won't tell Naraku, hmm?"

Eriol walked out of the library.

"Goodbye, Spinel." And he was gone.

"Sakura-chan," Usagi said, for she had become friends with Sakura and Tomoyo, "Thank you for inviting me to your house!"

"No problem, Usagi-chan," Sakura replied, letting the new girl into the house, "And Tomoyo should be here soon with some treats!"

Dropping bags and pushing off shoes, the girls chatted about the days events. They walked upstairs to Sakura's room and Sakura kept the conversation going, knowing Kero would catch on and hide himself. He was pretty good about that.

Sakura cautiously opened the door to her room, checking for Kero. Then, spying him stiff on the bed, she fully opened entrance and let Usagi in. They set down their bags and soon heard Tomoyo knocking at the door.

"Be right back," said Sakura rushing down the stairs to welcome her best friend.

Usagi sat on Sakura's bed and picked up the cute stuffed animal propped against the pillow. She started playing with the funny thing, tossing it above her head. It hit the ceiling and Usagi could've sworn she saw it move. She was so surprised, that she wasn't able to catch the thing on the way down.

Without her hands there to catch the stuffed animal, or mighty gaurdian, though that was unbeknownst to her, the small creature landed on the white carpet and rolled into Sakura's backpack. The cute, pink back pack knocked over from its resting position against the wall and something tumbled out.

"Ah, Sakura-chan's stuff!" Usagi exclaimed and rushed to the bag, forgetting that she had just seen a stuffed animal twitch.

They were beautiful pink cards, with astrological symbols on the backs and mysterious pictures on the front. Each picture differed from the others, sometimes depicting objects, and sometimes things that looked quite like people. Usagi could feel a pulse of energy from the cards. One pulse similar to her own, and another more like the one she used to get from Mamoru. Used to. A sad smile came over Usagi's face for just a moment, before she blinked her eyes and put on a look of concentration. Why were the cards emanating power?

Just then, something rustled in Usagi's book bag. First, a little wet nose poked out of the corner, followed by the rest of the head, which pushed against the bags cover flap. Small paws appeared too, and the bag continued to rustle. The bag shook and shook and when it finally stopped, some desperate meowing began. Usagi sighed and went over to her book bag.

"Luna, you fell asleep in there again? I keep telling you that now that I'm in high school, it would be better for you to stay home. I might get in trouble." Usagi pleaded to the animal, as if it were more than just a cat, while she lifted the flap and let the creature out. "Nothing bad has happened since…since a while! Besides, you always end up falling asleep anyway, and then I have cat fur in my bag!"

The cat began to prune itself, licking its paws as if being trapped in her owner's bag was nothing at all to be embarrassed about.

"Well, without Ami, Makoto, or Rei, I don't know if I trust you," the cat replied calmly. She avoided mentioning the outers, for whenever one of the outers went with Usagi, Haruka usually went too, and although Luna knew Haruka would willingly give her life to protect Usagi, Luna did think the woman drove a bit too fast. As for Minako…

"And I'm sure Artemis is having the time of his life with Minako right now. She's bound to be even more trouble now that she's been scouted for modeling or whatever she's so excited about."

The cat paused and blinked, wiping a paw over her sleepy eyes.

"Hmm, not that I find that type of job the most productive of all careers out there, but I've been wondering for a while. Why didn't you take that job with her, Usagi? The agent said you could pass for sisters and that sister models would be a big hit. Four months ago that would have made you ecstatic."

"I'm at someone's house, Luna, stop talking," Usagi said, avoiding the question, while scooping Saura's cards back into the bag.

It was all true, she and Mina could probably pass for fraternal twins, but that made sense. Mina was supposed to be able to pass for Usagi, or rather Princess Serenity, after all. And yes, four months ago, Usagi would have been ecstatic to be a model. But in the time Usagi had grown to be such a beauty, she had changed inside as well as outside. Maybe it was part of her transition into queen, maybe it was simple maturation, but that fact was that glimpses of Serenity were beginning to show more and more in her.

As if on cue, just as Usagi was able to put Sakura's Cards back into the pink back (trying to hide them from Luna, who was still a bit too sleepy to notice their pulse of power), Sakura and Tomoyo came in through the door.

Three teacups were set on a tray along with cake slices, and Sakura carried them in with grace. Tomoyo had a bag in here hand that contained the rest of the cake she had baked just his morning. It would be going to Kero, of course. Though he didn't need to eat, the guardian probably ate more than Tomoyo and Sakura both, even if Sakura was trying a diet currently. He probably couldn't east more than Usagi, but we'll get into that later…

Tea was served and the girls became friends quite quickly.

Kero paced back and forth while Sakura said goodbye to the departing Usagi and Tomoyo downstairs.

What exactly had gone on back there? A talking cat! A girl who seemed totally oblivious to the fact that her cat was talking! And that power that came from the girl. It was strong. Sakura wouldn't have noticed it, it only seemed to hum its true strength. But because Usagi's power was that of the moon, Kero felt it especially. It seemed to oppose his own power. And yet, it also seemed to search for something inside his power, something it loved, even yearned for. He couldn't tell for sure what it was exactly, but knew that he had to inform Sakura quickly. She was strong, too strong. Sakura would have to be careful. She hadn't exceeded Clow's previous power yet, and this new girl was, quite likely, much stronger than Clow.