Wassup!!!

A/N: I'll be brief here. Thanks for your reviews and curse you if you bothered to read a whole chapter but couldn't go a bit more out of your way to tell me what you thought of it.

Disclaimer: I hereby declare that, for all purposes, Card Captor Sakura is, has always been and may remain forever property of CLAMP.

Some stuff you should read:

"Character talking"

ºCharacter thinkingº

(Me talking)

And one more:

Card Captor Sakura

Chapter 3: Sakura and the Thunder

Part 2: Mana and the Sixth Sense

Syaoran was lying on his bed, casually flipping the pages of a manga. He wasn't really sure what the manga was about. In fact he hadn't read a word of the manga properly. His mind was still at the events that took place in the post office. ºI was so worried about Kinomoto these past few days that I completely forgot about him. I feel just as weird when I'm around him, but it's different. With him, at least I still feel as if I'm in control of myself, even though I get all clumsy and I can't think straight it still feels like it's me that's doing those things.º He sighed.

After closing the manga he rested his head on the pillow and looked at the ceiling. He had become quite familiar with it in the days he'd spent there. ºI knew this trip to Japan would have some surprises but... I never knew it would affect me so much. Back in Hong Kong I was so sure of who I was. Now I just keep surprising myself.º

He looked at the door that led to the hallway. "I wonder if she'll come." He said to himself.

As if on cue, the door to his room opened, letting Sakura and Tomoyo in, followed by Wei. "Kinomoto-san and her friend are here Syaoran-sama. I believe you told me you were going to invite her, so I thought it would be ok to let her in."

Syaoran jumped in surprise as the girls waved their hands and greeted him. They weren't wearing their school uniforms anymore, but Sakura still had her backpack. ºProbably for Kerberos.º He thought.

He immediately stood up and walked towards them, angered. "Don't you know it's rude to invade someone's privacy like that?" He shouted facing Tomoyo. Sakura and Tomoyo looked at Wei as if asking for support.

Wei sighed. "I'm sorry Syaoran-sama. I told them they could come in. It's not their fault."

Syaoran looked at Wei and all the anger vanished from his face, giving place to a slight embarrassment. Though, in theory, Wei worked for him, he didn't have the courage to actually get mad at him or even tell him he did something wrong. "I... It's ok Wei. I was kind of expecting them anyway... I mean, at least Kinomoto-san." He said, glaring at Tomoyo.

Tomoyo faked a sad face. "Oh, you wouldn't be so cruel as to throw me on those lonely streets would you?" She said making a puppy face.

Syaoran sighed. "Fine. You can stay. But don't get in the way of the training." Tomoyo grinned. Syaoran looked at Sakura's backpack. "Why are you hiding, Kerberos? There's nobody in this room who doesn't know about you." Kero immediately flew out of Sakura's backpack.

He looked at Wei. "I guessed so. As a member of the Li clan you must have a large knowledge of magic, right?" Wei nodded with his ever-so-wise smile on. "It's a pleasure to meet you. You already know my name, so it's pointless to introduce myself."

Wei nodded again. "I'm Wei Li. It's an honor to meet the guardian of the cards. Your powers are impressive from what I've heard." Kero smirked. He loved being complimented.

Syaoran walked past them ignoring the whole scene. "Well, let's go training then. We don't have all day." Syaoran said, walking out of the room. The others followed him through a hallway that led to a gigantic living room. "Wei-san, in about fifteen minutes can you bring us some tea on the roof?" He said as he opened a door leading to a small, narrow staircase going up.

"Yes, Syaoran-sama." Wei left towards the kitchen.

Syaoran started climbing up the stairs with Sakura, Tomoyo and Kero right behind him. "So, Li-kun, what kind of training will it be?" Sakura asked cheerfully.

Syaoran opened a door at the end of the stairs letting the faint light of the setting sun in. "Just the basics. I'll teach you about the main magical elements." He said, exiting to the roof and holding the door for the others to pass.

"You will be wasting your time. I already taught her all about that." Kero said, smirking as he flew past Syaoran.

Sakura stopped as she walked past him to speak. "That's right. Kero-chan told me a lot of things about magic already." She said. She felt a little awkward to see that Syaoran wasn't looking anywhere near her and looked like he hadn't even heard what she said.

But even though he didn't seem to have listened he suddenly spoke out of the blue. "What element should be used to fight back against earth?"

Sakura answered almost immediately. "Wind! And it works the other way around too. Earth can be very effective when attacking Wind. It's just a matter of who's attacking and who's defending. Right?" Syaoran nodded approvingly.

"Right." He walked towards a small plastic table with four plastic chairs around it and a big parasol going through a hole in the middle. He sat down on a chair and spoke again. "Thunder derives from which element?" He asked.

Sakura thought for a while and shook her head. "I don't know."

Syaoran sighed. "The answer would be wind." He said. He then signaled for them to sit down. "Sit down. Today I'll just talk about theory."

Tomoyo looked around the roof as she walked towards the chairs. It had a modest flower garden the covered it's perimeter and some other tables, besides that, it was just a big empty space. "Wow! It's huge." She said in awe.

"I've been using it to train since I've got here." Syaoran said.

Sakura looked around the place admired. "You must really train a lot. You were amazing that time with The Fly."

Syaoran barely nodded his head at her comment, not looking at her. "But we won't be needing all this room today."

Kero sat down on the table. "You've got a good training spot here brat." He said, earning himself a punch in the back of the head.

"Don't call me that!" Syaoran said. "Let's begin, before I punch that thing again." Kero was flying around a little confused because of the punch.

"Hurray! Let's begin."

And so, for the next ten minutes, Syaoran explained to Sakura all the basics about the four elements. Not once looking at her in the eye though. Kero also helped him along his explanation. Sakura had her eyes all on them, paying attention to every word they said.

"Here in our planet, magical energy is provided by the Sun and the Moon. All magical energy there is on Earth came from either one or the other, this energy is called mana. The mana itself is like the fuel of life. Without the Sun and the Moon to provide it, we would all just drop dead." Syaoran said. "When someone casts a magic spell or something of the sort, he is drawing mana from one of these sources and channeling it to his own benefit. What determines how powerful a magician can be is merely how much mana he can draw from them and how well he can use it. Some get there through a lot of meditation and training, and some are just born compatible with magic, like you." He said pointing to Sakura. "Those that are born that way tend to have amazing powers, but in most cases are unaware of them."

"Yeah, I, as a magical being, take all my powers from the Sun, so I'm much more powerful during the day. But during the night most of my powers weaken." Kero complemented. "Since the brat is from the Li clan, I guess he's much more trained to do Moon magic." Kero said, and it didn't take long for Syaoran's fist to land on the back of his head.

"Quit calling me a brat!" He said as the guardian bounced on the table.

Sakura seemed to be fascinated with all that information. "So... The Clow Cards... Are they Sun or Moon magic?"

"Both." Syaoran said. "Half of the cards take their powers from the Moon and the other half from the Sun. Clow learned both kinds of magic cause his mother and father practiced Moon and Sun magic respectively. That's one of the things that made him such an exceptional magician."

Sakura took The Clow from her backpack and took her cards out. "But Kero-chan said that they were looking for a source of mana. Don't they get their mana from the Sun and the Moon?"

Kero landed on Sakura's shoulder. "They do. But Clow-san provided his own powers to the cards so they would work with him. He acted as bridge that increased the flow of mana between the cards and their natural sources. Now that the cards are awake and back to getting their own mana by themselves, most of them are not getting enough to sustain their own powers." Sakura nodded slowly, looking at the cards. "Once you capture them, they take you as their new master and source of mana. That's why it's important that you learn how to control your powers, so that you can provide enough powers for them and for yourself."

"You mean they're getting their powers from me right now?" Sakura looked at the cards on her hands. The cards felt warm to her touch.

Kero nodded. "So am I. We were made out of magical mana, if we don't have a large source of mana we just cease to exist."

Sakura felt a cold feeling in her stomach. "You mean... But what if my powers are not enough? Could I... could I d-die?"

Kero shook his head and friendly patted Sakura's shoulder. "Don't worry, that would only happen if we sucked all the mana out of you. You should have enough powers for all of us. Clow made the seal so that only one with enough powers to sustain me and the cards could break it." He said pointing to the book. "The only reason I'm not able to summon my full power yet is because it works together with the sun cards and you haven't gotten any of them yet. Besides, you're still not used to your own powers. With a little training I think you're going to have more than enough mana for us all.'"

Syaoran took the book in his hands and examined it for the first time. "The cards should have a symbol on the back indicating if they're Moon cards or Sun cards." He said as he looked at the symbol on the back of the book.

Sakura looked at the back of her cards. All three of them had a symbol similar to the one on the back of the book. "It's a magic circle with a crescent moon. So they're all Moon cards?"

"That's right." Kero said. "You must be very suited for Moon magic cause they seem to be healthy." He said.

Sakura smiled feeling a great relief inside. "That's good." She said looking at the cards. She felt hypnotized by them, as if they had suddenly become objects of an uncanny beauty.

Her daze was broken when she felt a creeping chill run down her spine. She dropped the cards and stared blankly into the horizon. She felt as if all her blood had been replaced with really cold water and was running at double speed inside her. "Sakura-chan, are you alright?" Tomoyo asked when she noticed Sakura's paralyzed look.

Sakura nodded slowly when she heard Tomoyo's question. She finally shifted her gaze from the horizon to Syaoran. The boy had been looking at Sakura with worried eyes but looked away the second their eyes met. "Li-kun, what does it mean when I feel something that isn't even touching me? Like a g-ghost going through me." She asked, fearing the possibility of a ghost showing up. With or without magic, ghosts had always been her biggest fear. "It's like I can see it, hear it, even smell it, but not clearly enough to be sure it's real."

Syaoran looked at the table so he was facing Sakura without looking at her. "I think you mean magical auras. That feeling you have is what we call the sixth sense, the sense that feels the mana around us. Usually, you can only feel that when there's a magical aura around manifesting itself in some way." He closed his eyes in an attempt to feel any auras around him. After two seconds he snapped them open. "It's close... Get down!" He shouted, suddenly dropping himself on the floor. They all automatically jumped to the floor just in time to avoid a bolt of lightning that passed horizontally through the roof, right above their heads.

Tomoyo looked up, but the bolt had vanished as quickly as it had appeared. "W-what was that?"

Kero flew higher to look around. "It was the Thunder card, I'm sure of it. It's very powerful so keep an eye for it. If it hits you, the shock can be deadly."

Syaoran summoned his sword. "None of the three cards Kinomoto-san has will be of much use against it. They're all Moon Cards." He said.

"Release!" Sakura summoned her staff and ran to Syaoran's side. "But didn't you say that thunder derives from the wind? I though that meant Windy would be much stronger than Thunder." Syaoran didn't seem to be paying any attention. He was busy looking around for any traces of the card's next move.

Kero flew to their side too. "It is stronger than Thunder, but they are from the same basic element and both cards are Moon cards, so they can barely harm each other." Kero said. "What we need is a Sun card. A powerful one. Opposing elements are the way to go when attacking, remember?"

"It's coming again!" Syaoran said, raising his sword defensively.

All Sakura could see was a bright white light that was apparently moving towards her very fast. She closed her eyes and raised her hands to protect her self from the imminent shock even though she knew she would never be fast enough to raise her hands before the light hit her. It was ridiculously fast.

She held her breath prepared to be hit, but the shock never came. When she opened her eyes again, what she saw was Syaoran's back. He was holding his sword in front of her with both hands, apparently making an incredible effort to hold it, as if the sword was trying to escape from his grasp. The sword itself had several small bolts of lightning circling it in random, violent movements and a silver glow surrounding it. The image reminded her of the dream where she had first seem Syaoran.

"I've got it trapped in my sword. Try locking it! Quick!" Syaoran said between shut teeth. The others could tell by his voice that he was in considerable pain.

Sakura looked at Syaoran with a scared face. "I..." She slowly raised her staff on her shaking hands.

"Hurry up, Sakura! He won't be able to hold it much longer." Kero shouted.

Sakura pointed the staff at Syaoran's sword. "Ok!" She frowned as hard as she could to try and give herself courage. "Return to the shape you are meant to be in. Thunder!" The Thunder immediately left Syaoran's sword and the boy fell on his knees at the same moment, using the sword as a cane to stop his body from falling on the floor. Sakura smiled when a white rectangle of pure energy formed itself on the tip of the staff. "It worked!" But her expression quickly changed. She felt a wave of electricity run through her staff and instinctively let go of it, interrupting the sealing magic.

"No!" Kero shouted as the card vanished in the sky. "It got away."

Syaoran looked at the sky breathing heavily. "I can't feel its aura anymore. Damn it!" He let go of his sword and sat on his butt, leaning backwards and using his hands for support. "We lost it! And we were so close..." He cursed under his breath, scaring Sakura a bit with foul language.

Kero looked around to make sure the card was gone. "The only reason we could capture The Fly and The Storm so easily is because they are weak cards." He said. "Thunder is one of the strongest cards there are in the deck. That's probably why it was so aggressive too. The stronger the card the more desperately it needs mana."

Tomoyo was also looking around, scared of being attacked again. "Are you sure it's gone?" She asked.

Syaoran nodded. "Yes. I'm sure."

Wei came out of the apartment holding a tray with four cups of tea. He was slightly surprised to see Syaoran in such an exhausted state, but he accounted that to the training he knew they were going trough. ºKinomoto-san must be really powerful to leave Li-san like this.º He though, looking at Sakura who was now dropping her body on a plastic chair, staff still in hands. "Syaoran-sama, the tea is ready." He said, walking towards them. "Having a good training?" He asked Syaoran politely as the boy picked his cup.

Syaoran sighed. "Not quite." He looked at his tea with disgust. "I think I'm gonna need something more refreshing." He put the tea back in the tray and walked towards the door. "I'm gonna make me some lemonade." He said as he disappeared down the stairs.

Later, in Syaoran's living room.

Sakura, Tomoyo and Syaoran were sitting on the couches that filled only a tiny portion of the huge room, each of them holding a glass of lemonade in their hands. On the coffee table, in the middle of the couches, Kero drank lemonade through a straw that came out his glass.

"So, what you're saying is that you can't feel an aura unless it's actually using its mana for something." Tomoyo said, looking at Syaoran.

The boy shook his head. "No, it's not like that. I think the easiest way to understand it is to think of your hearing. You can hear a very loud noise even if it's very far away, but as you get closer to the source of the sound, you can hear it better even if it's not so loud." He explained. "The same goes for the sixth sense. You can feel a strong aura even if it's far away. The closer it is to you, the easier it will be to sense it, even if it's weaker. Of course, when you are actually using your magic, your aura gets much stronger, so it's easier to find you."

"But you're right beside me and I can't feel your aura." Sakura remarked.

"That's because you're not used to it and my aura is very relaxed now. Even I would have to concentrate to feel the auras of everybody here." He said. "That's our problem. To sense a Clow Card that's not doing anything would be almost impossible. Very few people have such a strong sixth sense. If only we could find someone with those kinds of skills..."

Kero took a giant sip through his straw, emptying his glass. "That would be great, but I've never met anyone who could sense a sleeping aura that well other than Clow himself. And I met lots of magicians back when I was with him." He said.

"So, I guess we'll just have to wait until the cards show themselves to go after them." Sakura said.

Kero nodded. "But that may be a problem. If we take too long to get to them, they might use up all their energy and die... Or maybe even start attacking random people to absorb their vital energy. You know, go berserk. The Thunder is already doing that apparently."

Sakura swallowed a big lump of saliva. "But what can we do?"

Syaoran crudely put his glass back at the table making a loud noise that called the attention from everyone in the room. He appeared to be very upset at something. "That's the reason I wanted to train you in the first place!" He said. "Someone who has such powers from birth... I though that you might be able to feel sleeping auras." He sighed. He was about to say that he had wasted his time, but the words got stuck in his throat. "Too bad you can't, you could only feel The Thunder when it was about to attack us." Was all he managed to say.

"She did sense it before us." Kero said, to defend Sakura. "That means she is already the best among us to search for the cards. Who knows? She might improve as she gets used to magic." He insisted, but Syaoran had set a gloomy mood in the room and there was nothing he could do to break it.

Sakura also tried to change the uncomfortable situation. She smiled at Syaoran, even though he still wasn't looking at her to see it. "At least I learned a lot about magic today, right?" She said, but got no response from Syaoran again.

After they had all finished their lemonades Syaoran stood up and collected all the glasses taking them to the kitchen, without saying a word. When he returned, they were all standing beside the front door.

"I guess we better leave, Li-kun." Tomoyo said. "It's getting dark outside and you probably want to be by yourself."

Syaoran looked at her, slightly surprised. "If you say so..." He opened the door and made way for the three to pass.

"Bye, Li-kun." Tomoyo said.

Kero waved his paw in one short motion. "See ya."

Syaoran waited for Sakura to pass, but the girl wasn't moving. He saw through the corner of his eyes as she made a bowing motion. "Thank you for teaching me all those things. I really appreciate it." She said before joining the other two at the other side of the door. She was disappointed to see that Syaoran didn't show any signs of recognition to her thanking. "Bye, Li-kun!" She tried, still sporting her smile, but still getting no reaction from the boy.

Syaoran merely waved his hand in a lazy motion, like Kero, and closed the door. He could finally relax now that Sakura wasn't around anymore.

ºI can't keep ignoring her like this. It looks like every second she's around I have to stop myself from saying something stupid. This time I didn't even look at her and I still felt like that.º He walked to the couch and laid down on it. ºAnd when the card attacked her... I lost the chance of capturing it myself just to protect her. If she was the one hit by The Thunder I would probably be able to capture the card before it could hurt her much. It would be easy.º He thought, picturing that possibility in his head. When the image of Sakura being hit on the chest by the strong lightning appeared in his mind he felt his heart sink. Slowly, a big emptiness crept inside him. ºThis feeling... it's just like the one on the Penguin Park when she was falling down.º

He looked at his hands. ºDon't I trust myself to do that? Am I afraid that I'm gonna screw things up and jeopardize her life?º He pulled his torso up so that he would be sitting down. "No..." He said under his breath. "I just didn't have the guts to take that kind of risk."

His thoughts were interrupted by a phone ring.

"I'll get it." Wei said, entering the room and picking up the phone from it's receiver that hung from the wall. "Hello." He waited for a few seconds as the other side of the line spoke. "Alright, I'll get him for you. Just a moment." He covered the speaker with his hand. "It's for you Syaoran-sama. Says it's an urgent matter."

"Huh?" Syaoran took the phone from Wei's hands.

"Hello." A moment in silence took place as the voice on the other side spoke again. When the voice finished its short speech, Syaoran's eyes suddenly widened. "What?! Who is this?"

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A/N: There you go. Another chapter. Right on schedule. Now it's your turn. You know what to do. If you don't I mean you have to review. That's right. Click the little button down there and write a few words. Bye. See you next chapter.