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.


"I'm so glad that you're here," said Sakura Kinomoto, lying on Syaoran's chest. He propped himself up on his elbows. She had wrapped her arms around him. They were in the middle of the street and she was lying on top of him.

"I-I-"

He looked at Meiling for help, but she was too busy unsuccessfully holding in laughter.

"Sakura! I told ya to slow down," said small golden stuffed toy flying towards them. It rested on Syaoran's head. "Translatin' magic takes a lot of magic, ya know?"

"Sorry, Kero," she said. "I was just so happy that Syaoran is here." She beamed at him, and he felt even more uncomfortable.

The weight was lifted off his head.

"Eh," said Meiling, holding it by the tail. "I didn't know that your stuffed animal could talk."

It bit her finger. "What did you call me?"

Meiling's hair flared into a brighter orange colour. "What in Heaven's name?!"

"Hoe? Meiling? What are you doing here?" She still held on even when he shifted himself up on his elbows.

Meiling put her hands on her hips. "What are you on about? We just saw you at dinner."

The plush toy hovered to Syaoran's level, peered into his eyes and blinked. "Ah, Sakura… I think that this here kid is the wrong kid…"

She took a closer look at him too.

"HOE!" Sakura Kinomoto exclaimed, scrambling off him. "Ah sorry. I thought you were someone I knew. I must be really heavy."

She bowed really low and then ran quickly away into the shadows without another look at him.

The yellow creature flew after her. "Hey! I told ya to slow down!"

"That was weird," said Meiling. She took out her chronophone and a few moments later, Sakura Kinomoto's face appeared.

"Hoe? Mei-Li?" he heard her say. "What's wrong?"

"Where are you now?"

Syaoran picked himself up and dusted his clothes.

"Still at our cousins' place, why? Are you all right?"

"We're fine, but you be careful. We just bumped into someone who looked like you," she warned. Spirit doubles were bad omens.

"Really?"

"Yeah," she said. "In any case, I'll see you tomorrow."

Meiling shut her chronophone and asked what Syaoran was thinking. "If Miss Kinomoto is at her cousins, then who was that?"


Toya was cycling back from his night shift when he spotted Sakura standing at the opposite corner wearing a skirt that was an immodest length. She made eye contact, then turned and started running away from the intersection.

"Hey!" He pedalled after her. "What…"

She wasn't Sakura. Her presence was extremely similar, but it was different somewhat. A spirit double?

"What are you?" he asked, threateningly.

She took a couple steps backwards, eyes wide, and then her stomach grumbled. She smiled guiltily, in the same way Sakura does.

Toya hopped off his bike, and sighed. He couldn't let his sister's look alike starve. "I'll buy you breakfast."

"No, it's all right," she said, waving her hands. He ignored her refusal and looked for a decent restaurant.

"But foo-"

She laughed nervously and he noticed that she was holding a stuffed toy. He was sure that it was the exact same one she got last year for her birthday. He was also certain that it was just talking.

He bent down and glared at it. It was alive and had power. Now that he thought about it, he felt a strong source of magic radiating from her too. Her presence was definitely alive. Where did she come from? Her resemblance was uncanny. Was she from another world? Why was she here in the first place? How long has she been here for?

He straightened and pushed his bike to the bike rack in front of the congee restaurant a few stores down. "C'mon, monster."

"What did you say?!"

Huh. It was exactly the same reaction.

When he pulled open the door, he caught a glimpse of the stuffed animal flying before she grabbed it. "Are you coming?"

She flustered a bit before running inside. He held up three fingers to the waitress and then waited a moment while she cleared a table. He ducked to avoid the floating plates and prodded the Sakura look alike to sit.

"Umm, thank you," she said quietly. "But I'm not carrying any money."

He continued reading through the menu. "Don't worry. What do you want?"

"It's all ri-"

Her stomach interrupted again.

"Chicken congee please," she said, resignedly.

Toya pointed to the creature. "And that one?"

"Hoe? Don't-"

"Fish congee!" it declared so loudly that the restaurant became silent for a moment before resuming the chatter.

"Kero!"

"What?" it asked.

Toya placed the order with the waitress and the food came soon afterwards.

Before she and the stuffed toy ate they clapped their hands, bowed slightly and said, "Itadakimasu."

He raised an eyebrow. Taiyo Isle speech?

She burnt herself on the first try, but on the second she blew before eating it. Her eyes lit up and she declared it to be delicious before devouring the rest of her meal like the plush animal was already doing.

"What is it?" she asked, definitely in Taiyo Isle speech. Her spoon was halfway to her mouth.

He probably was staring too much. "You remind me of my little sister," he said.

She smiled. "You remind me of my older brother."

"He does!" the thing agreed. "Even his glare! Honestly, I was surprised!"

"Kero," she hissed.

If he was right, she was from another world and therefore there really were other versions of him across the dimensions. "How did you get here?"

"Well, we were walking around, I'm not exactly sure where, but before that we were in this giant park where-,"

Toya put down his spoon for the moment and interrupted. "I mean, how did you cross over to this dimension?"

"I'm not-"

He gave her a hard glare.

"Something was taken from me, and I followed them through the portal, but I don't know where they are now."

He nodded and continued eating. They ate in silence.

"Yes, thank you for the meal," they said when their bowls were empty.

She stood up to leave.

"Wait," he said, leaving money on the table. "I'll help you find what you're looking for."

"But-"

"If you can find it," he said, giving her a smile, "I'm sure that you can return to where you're from. I'm sure that your family is looking for you too."

"Okay."

"Let's go!" cheered the stuffed toy.


After purchasing the soy sauce, paper plates and serviettes Sakura ran back to the school. Her class was running low of the sauce while they were preparing the food, and someone realized that they all forgot to buy the plates and serviettes. How were the customers going to hold the items? She checked the bag to make sure that she bought everything that she was supposed to as she waited for the tram to pass.

Someone put a hand on Sakura's shoulder and said something in the Taiyo Isles speech that her parents spoke to one another and sometimes to her brother.

She turned around and recognized the speaker. "Hoe? What did you say, Li?"

His expression turned into anger and he pointed his sword at her face. "Who are you and what did you do to Sakura?" he demanded in the Zhonguo tongue.

Someone shouted. Tsukishiro ran towards them and gripped Li's arm. He said a few words in the language of the Taiyo Isles that she was sure meant, "It's not her. She must be the Sakura of this world."

Could this be the counterpart Li similar to her other self that Meiling said she encountered yesterday and who Tomoyo thought that she might have been dreaming about recently? This Tsukishiro had shorter hair.

This "Li" returned his sword to its amulet form and clenched his jaw. He had dark circles under his eyes too.

"Sorry," he said, bowing. "I thought that you were someone else."

"Wait," she said quickly before they left. "If you're looking for someone that looks like me, my friend said that she bumped into her last night."

His expression changed quickly and he gripped her shoulder tightly. That girl must be very important to him.

"Where did they see her? Is she okay?"

He suddenly let go of her shoulder.

Sakura thought back to the conversation and finally admitted, "She didn't mention. I can contact her."

He nodded.

She tried a couple of times with the two of them anxiously watching her. Sakura left a message telling Mei-Li to contact her when she received the message and sighed. Mei-Li must be busy preparing for the school festival tomorrow. "She's not answering, but I'll try contacting my cousin. She thinks that she's been dreaming of her recently."

"What?"

"I think she said she dreamt that she was sleeping inside play equipment at a park," said Sakura while waiting for Tomoyo to pick up. "She also mentioned Kero, my stuffed bear," she added.

Tsukishiro breathed a sigh of relief. "At least she's with Kero."

Tomoyo's face appeared. "Hello," she said, "I was just about to contact you."

"Hoe? Why?"

"I was attempting to see more about your other self-"

"Where is she?" interrupted the other Li.

"Who is this?"

"They're looking for the person who looks like me," Sakura explained, "Do you know where she is?"

"She went to the Walled City."

The Walled City was a densely populated and ungoverned area of Heung Gong. She heard that the Triads headquarters were somewhere deep within. Meiling had warned them stay away from there.

"However that is not everything I dreamt," Tomoyo said hurriedly. "In my dream saw peach blossoms."

Her brother was involved. Sakura felt her blood run cold.


Tomoyo woke up in the rickshaw heading towards the Walled City. The dream did not reveal anything new. Once again the last scene she saw was of Sakura, the Other Sakura, descending out of view down a staircase beyond a rusted gate with pink peach blossoms falling around her.

The view of the Walled City was exactly as Tomoyo had been seeing it in her dreams. The City was a dense, squat collection of buildings constructed haphazardly and out of an inconsistent selection of materials. There were buildings stacked on top of buildings and some that were sloping. Caged balconies holding pot plants, laundry and other belongings covered the façade. Bright lights streamed out from the countless windows.

But what her visions did not capture were the people teeming within its walls. She noticed children sitting in the caged balconies swinging their feet and more scuttling between the shoppers on the ground floor. Suited men loitered by an alley way, smoking. The sound of indistinguishable conversations and movement mingled together. The sour scent of sewerage and rubbish was difficult to ignore. Underneath the collective energy of the inhabitants was another more larger and ancient presence.

The energy tangled their chronophone connections despite it being the latest released model and prevented them from connecting to Cousin Toya. However, he was definitely down there in the City of Darkness.

Tomoyo probably should not have informed her cousin that her brother was involved and handled the situation herself with her bodyguards and the two visitors that looked like Li and Tsukishiro. Now Sakura insisted on going into the depths of the city. Admittedly, Sakura's bravery was something she admired greatly about her.

She might not have been able to prevent her dear cousin from entering the City, but that did not mean that she was going to let her go in unprotected. She gave Sakura a loose fitting collared blouse that tuck into a long split skirt. These were made of dark fabric that would hide their presence from the spirits. The skirt also had magically expanding pockets that stored Sakura's nunchaku and daggers. Her staff would not be of much use in confined spaces. She was also given a sash of thin fabric to be worn over eyes that was woven with fibres that help her see the flow of energy. Using this, she would be able to detect spirits.

Additionally, Tomoyo had lent experimental communicator technology to Sakura, the Other Li, and the Other Tsukishiro that were still technically in development. It used Ariadne Thread and let the users communicate to each other directly.

"Don't you have any communicators that don't look like animal ears?" asked the Other Li, grimacing.

"Unfortunately, it is currently only produced in that model," admitted Tomoyo. While the communicators were very cute, they did not match Sakura's outfit.

When they arrived they would set up base station outside the city and a handkerchief butterfly set to track Cousin Toya would be released. Then a floating camera, operated by a bodyguard at the base, would follow it and then the group would follow. It would not be practical to use Ariadne Thread in the city, so they would be heavily reliant on the communicators.

Tomoyo was not going to remain at the base while the others entered the city so she followed closely to Sakura as her bodyguards would allow but as she was about to enter the south gate her bodyguard ahead of her was zapped by an invisible barrier.

Sakura noticed but was quickly prevented from approaching by the Other Li. The air crackled and resonated through the communicators. Tomoyo's bodyguards surrounded her and whisked her away from the growing crowd. Her bodyguard and the others caught up in the barrier twitched violently before crumbling to the ground.


Author's Note:

- Hi! Thank you for reading this story! There will be a couple of different storylines going at the same time so I'd really appreciate it if you'd give me some feedback so that I know if you actually like what I've written and if what I'm writing is actually what I intended (PM's and anons welcome). =)

- The Walled City was an actual place in Hong Kong prior to the 90's. It's pretty interesting to read about.

- Similar to Sakura, I don't speak my parents' native language but I can understand it, and when I listen to it, I sort of mentally translate it so even though it's not a word by word translation I can get the general message...