Disclaimer:

I have no affiliation with Cardcaptor Sakura or any other of CLAMP's works. Also any similarities to real life events or people are unintentional unless explicitly stated.


Tomoyo and Sakura were chatting to their friends in the classroom waiting for their magical theory lesson to start. The topic was about a lucky charm that Presea Pharle recently bought from Twin Bells, a cute store in the heart of town.

"Yeah, they work really well," said Presea, pointing to the golden orb dangling on a delicate chain on her forehead. "Last week we that had quiz for history and I normally fail that subject. But when we got our results back, it was full marks. I swear that the only reason I got that mark was because I was wearing this charm."

"They have all sorts of charms. Y'all have to be quick though, they don't have that many," said Caldina Chizeta, best friend of Presea.

Sakura turned to Tomoyo. "Do you want to check it out? Training was postponed until tomorrow."

"We do not have any club activities for today either, so I cannot see why not," said Tomoyo.

"Miss Daidouji, Miss Kinomoto! There you are!" Meiling came into the classroom clinging onto Mr Li's arm. He had his hands in his pockets. "We collected his timetable and it seems they put us in separate classes by mistake."

"So does this mean that he's in ours?" asked Caldina, smiling at Mr Li.

The bell rang and Meiling scowled. "Miss Daidouji, let me know if he cheats on me with anyone." She ran off.

"Would you like to sit with us?" Tomoyo gestured to an empty seat beside Sakura.

"I'll sit at the front, thanks," Mr Li said, curtly. He sat at the remaining desk next to Fye Flowright, a distant relative of hers.

"He's quite good looking," said Caldina.

"A little rude, though," said Presea. "He didn't even give us his name."

Fye was introducing himself to Mr Li and shaking his hand.

Sakura spoke up. "He could still be tired from unpacking. He was like that after he just arrived."

"You met him before?" their friends asked.

"Oh my," said Tomoyo. Fye had his scheming face on.

Presea spotted him too. "That Fye, he's plotting something. He deserves to be boiled in water, or have a smelly sock stuffed in his mouth, or even tied up in front of an aerotrain track…"

"Presea," said Sakura, warily.

The teacher, Guru Clef, walked in and Mr Li stood up and bowed, alone. "All hail the Master."

Laughter erupted around the class, and a sharp yelp came from Fye. Presea had impressive aim.

Fye honestly had to stop pulling pranks.

Mr Li glared at the blond boy beside.

Sakura stood up bravely. "Um, teacher, this is Meiling Li's cousin. He transferred to our school today."

"Ah, I see. Why don't you introduce yourself?" said Guru Clef.

Mr Li glared at Sakura, who slowly sat down.

"My name is Syaoran of the Li Clan." he said. "Please to meet you." He sat down and said nothing more for the rest of the lesson.


Students had started to pack up for second period before it ended. Syaoran wasn't used to this moving classroom system, but he was relieved to change classes after this morning's embarrassing start.

He sighed. He'll have to remember that Fye Flowright liked to play pranks. The blond boy smiled serenely. Where had he heard the name "Flowright" before?

The bell rang and suddenly a crowd of girls were surrounding Syaoran. He could hardly understand what they were saying, let alone answer the series of questions they were throwing at him.

"Hey what are you doing to him?!" He was never more relieved to see Meiling in his life.

"He's your cousin right?" asked one girl.

"Why don't you put in a good word about me?" asked another.

"He can't, he's taken," said Meiling, smugly. Syaoran had a bad feeling about where this conversation was going.

"But, he just came," said a third.

"Unless he has a girlfriend is back in Zhonguo!" whined a fourth.

Before he could say anything, Meiling shouted, "Back off! He's my fiancé!"

Syaoran had enough. He started to push through the startled crowd.

"Hey, Syaoran, where are you going?"

"Class."

He walked past the corridors following the directions on his map to his mathematics classroom specified on the timetable, ignoring everyone else.

Trust Meiling to do something like that. At least she wasn't in his maths class; that was one positive thing of being unable to enrol into the ranked mathematics class.

Mathematics was Syaoran's best subject; he topped the grade back in Zhonguo.

The Lecourt Private Academy's school administration wouldn't let him into any of the already full ranked classes because they had already settled the timetables, but said that it was possible to change if he did well and another student wanted to swap with him after the end of semester exams.

He sat down at the end of the first row and stared out the window. The school grounds were vast. He only had to stay less than half a year in this class.

"Good morning, Mr Li. May I sit here?" It was that powerless Amamiya girl, Kinomoto. She was in his magical theory class earlier. She stood up after he was tricked.

"You don't have to sit next to me because she said so," he said referring to Meiling.

"But I normally sit at the front," she said.

"Do as you like."

She sat down in the seat beside him and started taking out her workbooks. A familiar blond teen sat down on the other side of Kinomoto.

"Fye Flowright," said Syaoran, glaring at the newcomer. His fortune today was indeed unlucky.

"I am not Fye. I am Yuui Flowright, Fye Flowright's twin," said the blond teenager extending his hand. "It is nice to meet you. My brother will be joining us shortly."

Syaoran had never met a twin before. His manner was completely different from his brother's. Hopefully with his brother here, Fye Flowright wouldn't play any tricks.

"Yuui, I am Sakura Kinomoto," Kinomoto said. "I didn't know that Fye had a twin. Did you just transfer today as well?"

Yuui Flowright was hit on the head by a female student wearing a pendant on her forehead. "That's because he doesn't have a twin, right Fye? Surely you knew that he was an only child, Sakura!"

"Hoe?" said Kinomoto.

Fye Flowright laughed.

"Hi, I'm Presea Pharle, never listen to what that one says" said the newcomer. "I was in your magical theory class and I guess we're in the same mathematics class."

"Don't worry though," said Kinomoto. "Our teacher is really nice and is very helpful."

Syaoran had to agree that the teacher, Ms Mizuki, explained the material well, and he was grateful that she didn't pause more than a moment to nod in acknowledgement when it came to his name on the roll.

The mathematics terminology took a few moments to get used to, but besides that he was surprised to find that the content wasn't as far behind his coursework Zhonguo as he thought it would be. He finished the set exercises shortly after the teacher finished going over the content.

Kinomoto kept asking the teacher how to solve the problems. So far it seemed that she was only good at martial arts.

"Why don't you ask Mr Li how to solve the questions?" the teacher suggested, on the other side of the room. "He seems to have completed his work and there are other students that need my help too." She turned to Syaoran. "You don't mind, right?"

It's not that he minded…

"Wow. Are you doing the extension questions? That's amazing," said Kinomoto.

He shrugged. "I like mathematics."

"Why?"

"Because it's the same in every country," he said.

Her smile reached her green eyes. "I never thought of it that way before."

"Hey," said Syaoran before she could talk some more.

"What?"

"Didn't you have a problem with the mathematics questions?"

It turned out that she had many problems.


As soon as the bell rang signalling for the end of their practical magic double period lesson, Meiling grabbed her fiancé's arm. "Syaoran, let's go outside for lunch."

She wanted to spend as much time as she could with him. They were only in each other's elective practical magic, elective commerce, literature, magical research and physical education classes, after all. He stubbornly chose archaic enchantments as his third elective instead of music. But he would definitely join the Bartitsu Club to make up for it.

"Meiling, can you let go?"

"I can, but I don't want to," she teased.

"Can you stop using my first name in public at least?"

"Why? We're at school and besides, there are hardly any spirits here unlike Heung Gong, and no one knows your True Name or your birthday. Do you want me to call you "Love" or "Bao" or "Wan-Wan"-"

"My first name is fine."

She led him to an empty table on the rooftop garden. "How are you enjoying your classes?"

"They're okay," he said unpacking his food. Meiling opened hers.

"After lunch we have the magical research period. Have you decided what to do your topic on yet?" asked Meiling.

"No idea."

"Are you going to join the Bartitsu Club?"

"Maybe."

Meiling was getting frustrated. He never spoke that much before she moved here, but honestly she hoped that he would be a little more communicative after not seeing each other for so long.

"Wow, your food looks very delicious." It was Miss Kinomoto and Miss Daidouji, sitting down on the seats opposite them. They had come from their elective Zhonguo language class together.

"Syaoran made them," said Meiling. "Say "ah"."

"Hey! I can feed my-," she successfully fed him a prawn dumpling.

"We were looking for you, Meiling" said Miss Daidouji, taking out her lacquered lunch container. "We heard from Caldina and Presea that Twin Bells was selling good luck charms and we were wondering if you would like to visit the store together after school. Sakura informed me that you do not have club activities today as well."

Miss Kinomoto spoke eagerly. "Apparently they have all sorts of charms; money, school, love-," she put her hands up defensively. "Not that you need it!"

A love charm.

"Why not?" said Meiling, smiling at her fiancé. "It would be an ideal opportunity to show Syaoran around the town too, right Syaoran?"


At Twin Bells, Sakura was disappointed to find that the last charm had been sold. Maki, the shop owner promised to give her a call when she received the next shipment.

To cheer themselves up, Sakura went with Tomoyo, Meiling and Mr Li to the Triol bakery.

Surprisingly, her brother was working there. Although he did unjustly glare at Mr Li, who admirably didn't back down, Sakura's brother snuck in a couple extra strawberry cupcakes.

They took their bounty to the park to neat. They sat on a bench near the King Penguin play equipment.

"Jeez, Miss Kinomoto," said Meiling in between bites. "Your brother works everywhere."

"It's so embarrassing at times," said Sakura. "Do you remember that time when he showed up at the strawberry picking excursion in primary school, Tomoyo?"

She nodded nodded. "I have always wondered about that. Cousin Toya was in his final year of high school then."

"He had so many part time jobs in high school," added Sakura. "I don't know how he found time to study or do his homework."

"How did he do in school?" asked Mr Li, speaking up for the first time since school ended for the day.

"He was in the top ten of his grade for each of his subjects," said Sakura, grabbing another cupcake.

After they finished eating their cupcakes, Sakura collected their rubbish to put in the bin. On the way over to the bins she stopped to pick up a shiny object on the ground. A shadow passed over her and she heard a loud crash.

"Sakura, are you ok?!" called Tomoyo. Meiling and Mr Li were also standing up. The boy had a sword in hand.

"What was that?" asked Sakura.

"Behind you!" pointed Meiling.

There was a young primary school aged girl standing there with short red hair and blood dripping down her fingers. She stood up and fixed her blank stare on Sakura.

The child started running towards her.

"Move!" yelled Mr Li.

Sakura clicked her heels and jumped onto the top of the penguin's head.

Meiling and her cousin ran towards the girl and Tomoyo kept launching bursts of light that kept missing its moving target.

The red haired child focused her gaze on Tomoyo and charged. The Li cousins were too far behind.

Sakura jumped towards Tomoyo tapping her ring to the seal on her heel. It expanded into a long staff and Sakura used it to push the girl away. "Go away!"

The girl stumbled backwards reflexively holding her stomach. She stared at Sakura with unblinking eyes.

"She's only a young girl," said Sakura, relaxing her grip.

Mr Li jumped in front of her and Tomoyo with his sword out and began chanting an incantation.

Sakura pulled on his arm. "Don't hurt her! She's merely a child!"

"Guys look out!" yelled Meiling.

Sakura dodged with Tomoyo in the opposite direction to Mr Li.

She felt static in the air radiating from Mr Li.

"I said don't hurt her!" Sakura shouted.

Tears were running down the child's eyes.

The forming lightning disappeared. "But she's hurting herself by attacking us!" he protested. "She's possessed! See that in her hand? She's not some brat cranky from a lack of sleep!"

Sakura spotted the small blood red orb dangling from a chain.

"That's it!" said Sakura. "We can trap her in wind and then Tomoyo can put her to sleep."

Mr Li began chanting but Meiling stopped him. "Stand and watch, Syaoran! I've become much more powerful since I've last seen you!" she said.

A small whirlwind formed in Meiling's hands. Her long hair and clothes flapped in the wind. The funnel expanded freezing the possessed girl mid-air.

Tomoyo began to sing. The child closed her eyes and grew limp. Meiling caught her and pried the pendant from her hand, careful to only touch it with a silk seal.

They all ran towards the young girl.

"That pendant is similar to Presea's lucky charm," said Tomoyo, looking up from tending to the girl's injuries.

"Do you think that they were possessed too?" asked Sakura. "What if there are more?!" She began to move.

"And what are you going to do about it?" Mr Li asked.

Sakura stopped. What could she do?

"The child is stable, but we need to take her to see some healers," said Tomoyo.

Mr Li reached for the package but Meiling spoke rapidly in hushed tones to him in the Zhonguo tongue. He nodded.

"Miss Kinomoto, quickly take this to your father," Meiling handed the sealed package to Sakura. "He has more access to information about magical items than our family."

"We will be fine," said Tomoyo. "Be careful."

Sakura nodded, grabbed her bag and jumped the most direct route home.


Sakura was immediately approached by Meiling and the others when she arrived at school the next day.

"What did your father say about the item?" she asked, Mr Li standing close behind.

"It burst into flame as soon as the seal was removed," Sakura replied, sitting down. "Father is worried but he wouldn't tell me why."

Tomoyo said, "There was an order released for all the charms to be collected."

"Well that's a bit late," said Presea, her arm in a sling. "I was lucky that Caldina was there. She managed to hypnotize me before I hurt myself too badly."

"The healers aren't paid enough to deal with this many casualties in such a short time. It would've been bad enough if it only the possessed, but there were also some innocent bystanders. They'll be swamped for a while," Caldina said.

"I heard that the sibling of a girl in the grade below us was killed," said Meiling in muted tones.

"Hey," said Mr Li, breaking the silence. "There's nothing that can be done now. But you helped save some lives yesterday."

Sakura felt a little lighter. Mr Li didn't always talk much, but when he did, his words carried much strength and power. "Thank you," she said.


Author's Notes:

- Season's greetings everyone =) I hope that you're having a wonderful time and it's filled with much laughter and joy!

- Thank you to all who submitted a review, is following the story and read it. I really appreciate it!

- There are some characters from other CLAMP works that pop up in this story. I've done that out a mixture of laziness (ironically, even though I don't have to create new characters, I had to figure out how the characters act in their original stories which ended up being quite a bit of work too) and also to try and recreate how CLAMP likes to re use their characters from other stories. They have such a rich collection of characters in their multiverse, it felt like such a waste not to use them.

This is why I put this story in the non-crossover section; the story focuses on the main characters from CCS.