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.


It was Tomoyo's third day back to Lecourt Private Academy since the invasion five nights ago. Some students were yet to return to class.

Sakura had returned to class yesterday. So far, Meiling's antidote seems to have worked but Sakura still had prescriptions for lots of cocoa as a precaution for any aftereffects from the Ko poison.

The country and international community was in shock. The newspapers were reporting that night as an abnormality in the space time continuum that would not happen again. However, the International Committee was currently conducting formal investigation of the tragic incidents.

Tomoyo had questioned her mother about the recent events, but she refused to answer. It was possible that she did not know everything as well.

Yelan Li promised that she would reveal what has been happening, but she was yet to hear from her or the Li Cousins since they departed Central Library for the hospital to treat their magical exhaustion and Mr Li's amnesia. Meiling was not even answering her chronophone.

Her own family's injuries were minor compared to theirs.

Sakura walked in and slid into her chair, barely acknowledging anyone. She was early for once. She sat on her chair by the window with her face resting on her palms.

"I wonder what's wrong with Sakura," whispered Presea.

"She sure ain't cheerful today," said Caldina.

They tried to cheer her up with puns and jokes, but it was only when Mr Li walked in did she change her posture.

Mr Li was staring back at Sakura.

After a moment he guiltily looked away and then sat down at the front. Sakura turned to face the window.

"Miss Daidouji, Miss Kinomoto," said Meiling. She hugged them both in greeting. "I'm glad that you're all right. My Aunt asked me to invite you to dinner tonight. She's already notified you're brother and parents."

"We will be delighted to attend," said Tomoyo. Her cousin was sneaking glances at Mr Li. "How are you, Meiling?"

"I-"

The school bell rang.

"I'll see you later," she said instead. She flashed a small smile before walking briskly out of the classroom. She was hiding something.

She wondered what would be revealed to them. She had dreams of the events leading up to the invasion, but she has seen other things too that haven't come true yet at places she has never been to. Aunt Nadeshiko was planning to teach her how to control her dream seeing powers over the holidays.

Tomoyo could hear the rumours bubbling around the class.

"Syaoran isn't talking to Sakura."

"Maybe they broke up."

"Good. Now is my chance. "

Tomoyo focused on Sakura instead. Her jaw was clenched determinedly.

"Settle down class. I have some news," said the teacher. "Mr Syaoran Li and Miss Meiling Li will be transferring to Zhonguo and will not be joining us the next school year."

The look on Sakura's face was unbearable.


Meiling welcomed Miss Daidouji, Miss Kinomoto and their families to the Li mansion, her home for the past three years. Many of the items were already packed away, but there were still a lot left to do before they were to depart.

Originally Meiling had stubbornly refused to pack which ended up in a shouting match between her and her parents as well as a few temporarily broken windows. They gave her the option to stay here at the price of cutting off her ties with the Li Clan. She couldn't leave her family behind, even if they were insane at times, and she had to believe that her friendships here would last.

They all sat on the round dining table laden with their best dishes: steamed chicken dumplings, sticky char siu spare ribs, beef with chilli plum sauce, greens with oyster sauce, salt and pepper prawns, rice noodles with tofu, Meiling's special fried rice, and Syaoran's peach buns and mango pudding for dessert.

Aunt Yelan motioned for them to eat.

"What would you like to know first?" she finally asked.

Meiling spoke. "Who is this person you keep talking about? Is it that phony healer? What does he want with the soul feather and who does it belong to?"

Aunt Yelan took a sip of her tea before answering. "The person responsible for everything is Fei Wang Reed. Yes, a relative of Clow Reed, but of a different dimension. We have identified the false healer as a man called Kyle Rondart, his subordinate."

"The feathers are the pieces of the soul of a favoured daughter of God," explained Professor Kinomoto. "Her powers are beyond imagination. Fei Wang Reed scattered the feathers to other worlds where they are causing wars, destruction, and also bestowing power to objects or people."

"We believe that his main intention is for her to travel between the dimensions to collect the imprints of the different worlds onto her body, and then he will use her and her power to break logic itself," finished Aunt Yelan.

Meiling looked at her friends. They appeared as confused as she was. "What do you mean?"

"It's what everyone wants to do at one point," said her aunt. "He wants to resurrect someone from the dead."

"Like that child, Eriol?" said Miss Kinomoto.

"Yes."

"Is he involved in all of this too?" questioned Miss Daidouji.

"Not directly," she admitted. "We are keeping an eye on him though."

"Who is this "we" you keep mentioning, mother?" said Syaoran

"Our world is unique in the way that the general human population is aware of the existence of other worlds," said Meiling's aunt. "Despite that, there are only a few who interact with the other worlds and only certain individuals, such as myself, who actively strive to maintain the equilibrium between the dimensions."

Meiling passed the dumplings to Miss Daidouji. "Just like the Witch of Dimensions."

"Correct. However, her magical abilities far exceeds my own." Aunt Yelan was the strongest in the family and one of the most powerful in the world. It was hard to comprehend there was someone she would acknowledge as being stronger than herself.

"You received a letter from her the day of the attack," said Meiling. "What did it say and why did it mentioned the Ko attacks?"

"We had numerous theories about the strange events that were happening in the past year. The letter confirmed our worst fears. We will have to be even more vigilant."

"But why is he using the Ko?" said Syaoran.

"Let me guess," interrupted Miss Kinomoto's brother. "He is using the Ko parasite to harvest souls because he needs a large energy source to achieve this goal of bringing back the dead."

The professor nodded. "That is our guess too. On the aside, those pendants you encountered when you first came here were failed attempts at stealing souls."

"What will happen to the sealed feather?" said Miss Daidouji.

Miss Kinomoto's mother spoke up. "I saw in a dream that the child who the feather belongs to will arrive to Lecourt to collect the feather."

"Then why are you leaving?" said Miss Kinomoto to Aunt Yelan.

"Now that the soul feather is secure, it is inevitable that it will be returned to its rightful owner," she said. "To tell you the exact reason why we must return to Heung Gong would be beyond the allowable limits of interference. However, I can say that Lecourt will be safe and we have business that we must attend to in Zhonguo."

"You'll come visit us again, right Meiling?"

"Of course! With the aerotrains, Lecourt and Zhonguo are practically neighbours! And when you come to Zhonguo, you can definitely stay with us."

While she still had many more questions to ask her Aunt and father, all she wanted to do now was to spend as much time as possible making happy memories with her friends.


Syaoran was embarrassed by all the noise and attention they were getting at the aerotrain station. He was surrounded by his football teammates and classmates. They formed a barricade against the distraught girls and the gifts that they lobbed over their heads. He would kind of miss this form of chaos when he'd return to Zhonguo.

"You were a valuable player," said Lafarga, offering his hand.

"Thank you," said Syaoran. "You all taught me a lot."

Fye Flowright slapped him painfully on the shoulder, "Don't miss me too much and cry, Syaoran."

"Whatever, Prince." He slapped him back.

Meiling was surrounded by her friends, many of them bawling. She had made many close companions over these past three years. She was being comforted by her closest friends, Daidouji and Sakura Kinomoto.

Syaoran couldn't remember her, try as he might. There earliest memory he had of her was when he woke up in the Central library infirmary bed and she was there, sitting beside him holding his hand.

Syaoran cringed at the memory. The first thing he said to her was, "Who are you?"

She looked as if she was about to cry.

Meiling had explained it all to him; how he had loved Sakura Kinomoto and he gave up the memories of her to keep her safe. But even when Daidouji showed him photographs of their time together, Syaoran couldn't remember her or figure out how she fit into his life before.

Was he supposed to pretend he remembered her? No, that would be unfair; she was too kind for her own good. Besides, his mother had decreed that the whole family return to Zhonguo since Fei Wang Reed was unlikely to return here to Lecourt.

Syaoran rubbed his temples. He'd get headaches if he thought about what he forgot too much. He also forgot his mathematics, but that could be relearned. Memories could not. Meiling and Daidouji theorized that that the more associations with Sakura Kinomoto the less he remembered.

He felt a tap on his shoulder. "May I have a word with you please?"

Jade green eyes. It was Sakura Kinomoto.

"Mr Li," she said using his last name now. "This is for you."

There was a small package and the handkerchief he thought he lost in her hand.

"For me?"

"It's to say thank you and sorry for all the trouble I've caused."

"I-I should be the one apologizing." Why was he stuttering? Why was she smiling at him?

She put the items in his hands and her lips on his.

All too soon she pulled away.

Daidouji took a photograph. Toya Kinomoto broke a sign. The crowded around them erupted into a roar. But all Syaoran heard was Sakura's voice. "We will meet each other again."


It was the second day of the new school year. Sakura honestly wasn't looking forward to it. The holidays were like a dream. Aunt Sonomi organized for the Amamiya Clan to go on a holiday. Sakura spent the summer with her brother, Tomoyo, Princess Emeraude, Prince Ferio, and the three Hanato sisters, Kotori "Tori", Kobato "Koe" and Kohane "Honey", exploring the Mesogeios Sea and isles to the south.

Sakura looked at the sky. She wondered what the weather would be like in Zhonguo. Would the sun be up?

He hadn't replied to her letter. Meiling sent a couple already. They started school a couple weeks ago and she says that although they're not in the same class as each other she's in the same class as Kobato. It's a small world, isn't it?

Maybe she shouldn't have kissed him. She couldn't help it; her body moved on its own.

Something sparkling was floating slowly down towards her. It was a golden dream balloon and its string landed in her palm.

Sakura searched for nearby dream traders and people.

She was alone. If anyone recognized it she would return it, but for now she tied the string around her wrist and continued walking to school.

Tomoyo was waiting excitedly for her by the gate.

"Sakura, look at this!" She was holding a flyer.

"Hoe?"

"The Academy is sending some students on an exchange program to Heung Gong High School in Zhonguo, Meiling and Mr Li's school, after the new year," she said breathlessly. "The program lasts for half a year and is open to Zhonguo language students."

Sakura smiled. First the golden dream balloon, then this exchange program to Zhonguo, at Meiling and Syaoran's school. It couldn't be a coincidence. It had to be fate.


Author's Notes:

- Dear readers, thank you very much for reading this story! Thank you for reviewing, favourting and following this story too! Believe it or not, I was always more of a science and math during high school. English was by far my worst subject. So it was a really nice to know that there are people who kept reading to the end and some that also enjoyed it. I really had fun writing this story! Let me know if you enjoyed reading it or didn't (and why). If you think it is worthy of being read by others, support the story by leaving a review (you can leave anon messages too) =P

- Since this is the last chapter, I thought it would be okay to write more about why I wrote this story.

Firstly, I was quite (and somewhat still am) frustrated with books and television. Why are women so antagonistic towards one another and over a boy? Why do the couple get together in the last episode or last pages of the story only to break up at the start of the sequel? Is there no such thing as true love in the world? Why is there only one female with a kickass action sequence? And don't we live in a multicultural society?

And Cardcaptor Sakura was one of the few series that I didn't ask those questions for. Sakura had really strong relationships with Tomoyo and her friends and teachers. Her and Syaoran's relationship was really well developed and grounded over the episodes. Sakura could hold her own athletically and magically with Syaoran. Meiling was also kickass. And to westernized eyes, the fact that Syaoran and Meiling are Chinese might not be that significant, but to Japan they are considered foreigners. This is a children's manga/anime primarily created over 15 years ago and it was talking about accepting foreigners, one parent families and homosexual relationships.

Okay, so they only got together at the end of the 2nd movie and didn't develop the relationship more than that, but that's what I was hoping that Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles would have done! But honestly, I didn't find it that satisfying. It's such a creative work, full of surprises, but I guess the main thing that annoyed me is that Sakura was left out of the action a lot. And the series was created by the same people who made CCS!

Anyways, the week before finals I had a conversation with my friend about Harry Potter (as you do), specifically about Squibs (non-magical beings born to a magical family) and something clicked.

My thoughts were along the lines of, "Harry Potter, imagine if the whole world was like Harry Potter? What if time rewound like in that CCS episode, but all but one person had magic so no one realize? Hey that's cool. What if Sakura, instead of being all powerful, was a squib? Hey, isn't there a world in TRC where magic is taught like an ordinary subject? Yeah, a feather was found sealed in a book. How did it get there? Shit."

And so when I got home, I started jotting down all the ideas. Each chapter went through numerous revisions. Some of the twists and details only fell into place before or soon after I published the chapter.

Tldr: I wrote what I wanted to read, but it wouldn't have come together if I didn't share it to you all. Thank you!

- CCS, TRC, xxxHolic and Rayearth were the main CLAMP influences on the plot (there are a couple others), but I didn't really explicitly state that from the beginning (some people picked up on a few Easter eggs which was a pleasant surprise) because I wanted to see if I could write a cohesive story that could be enjoyed on its own, but at the same time still be entertaining for those who have read them. Go ahead and read or watch the above series if you wish, but mind you, it's extremely trippy and will leave you with more questions than answers. Also, oops, spoilers.

- Oh, and a (black) helium balloon actually floated down to me one day from the sky.

- Thank you for reading Sakura's Lecourt Chronicles! I hope it made sense. Feel free to leave a message or PM me if you have any questions. I'm sure that we'll meet each other again! But first I need to focus on my quizzes and assignments.