Author's Note: Have you noticed that in CCS, all the transfer students have something to do with Sakura and have a certain… response to Sakura and Sakura only? Syaoran and Meilin glare and Eriol smiles unnervingly.
Summary: 2 years after the second movie of Card Captor Sakura: The Sealed Card, life seems pretty normal, not including the training Keroberos forces Sakura to do over the summers and the fact that most of her allowance is spent on sending mail to Syaoran who is living all the way back in Hong Kong. However, when magical entities are stirring up inside and around Tomoeda, what will the crew do? Will they take an aggressive stance, run straight into trouble, or somehow figure out a way keep away from disaster?
A Riot of Surprise
Chapter 3: Transferring all the Way from America!
"Ohayo, Sakura-chan," Tomoyo greeted as Sakura rushed into the classroom. The bell rang as Sakura tiredly replied in greeting. "Are you okay, Sakura-chan? You seem tired."
"Kero-chan woke me up early today," she replied, sitting down at her desk and taking out her books.
Tomoyo giggled at the expression of exasperation on Sakura's face before saying, "But if you woke up early, why are you almost late?"
"Oh, I had cheerleading practice today, and it managed to run late. But besides all that, I met someone new this morning. Remember the house next to mine that was empty before? A boy just moved in next door. He said he was from America and that his name was-" but before she could continue, Terada-sensei walked into the room and the class quieted down.
"I'm starting homeroom now. Well class, today I have a special announcement to make. We have a new student transferring all the way from America joining us today. He will be here for the trimester and probably longer, seeing as he has recently moved here to Tomoeda. You may come in now." Sakura's eyes widened as the boy she met that morning stepped into the room in a school uniform. The boy's uniform was pretty much the same as the girl's uniform, except it lacked askirt of course. It had a dark blue shirt with the school symbol on the chest instead of the sleeves and short, white pants that reached their knees. They also had the same style of cloak the girls wore.
"Nice to meet you," the transfer student said with a short bow as Terada-sensei wrote his name in kanji on the board. There were a bunch of murmurs from the class until Terada-sensei spoke again.
"This is Reizan Saitakou, he transferred from Los Angeles, California and he will be joining us this year," Terada-sensei said. "He has just moved to Japan, so please welcome him and help him around the school. Now, where will you sit?" He looked around and spotted an empty seat to the right of Tomoyo. "How about there, next to Daidouji-san?"
Reizan walked to the seat he was directed to and smiled at Sakura and Tomoyo before sitting down. "Nice to meet you Daidouji-san," he whispered to Tomoyo. "And Kinomoto-san," he added with a smile.
"Nice to meet you too, Saitakou-kun," she replied. Sakura nodded as she fought off another wave of unease and grinned back weakly.
Sakura sighed in relief as the bell rang for lunch as Terada-sensei closed his book. She had been feeling uncomfortable and slightly queasy, ever since Reizan had arrived that morning. For some reason, she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling lodged in her stomach. "You are dismissed, you may go to lunch," Terada-sensei said, and the class filed out for lunch. Sakura packed her bags and followed Tomoyo out the door. Before she left however, she heard Terada-sensei call out to her friend, "Sasaki-san, may I speak to you?"
Rika Sasaki looked up from her desk and blushed slightly, smiling up at her teacher before nodding alright.
Rika Sasaki
Age: 13 (Turning 14 on June 24th)
Grade: 8th Grade at Tomoeda Junior High
Physical characteristics: Dark amber hair / Dark brown eyes
Eligibility: Taken
Love Interests: Yoshiyuki Terada
Sakura grinned to herself, happy for Rika and Terada-sensei. She was brought back to reality when she heard Tomoyo's loud, impatient yells for her to hurry up from halfway across campus.
Outside on the grass, Sakura, Tomoyo and three of her other friends ate lunch together. They sat in the grass under the shade of tall leafy trees in a circle. "Brr… it's getting cold today," Naoko, a girl with round rimmed glasses said as she drank a hot cup of tea from her thermos.
Naoko Yanagisawa
Age: 14 (Turned 14 on October 11th)
Grade: 8th Grade at Tomoeda Junior High
Physical characteristics: Light brown hair / Brown eyes
Eligibility: Single
Love Interests: None
Holding up one finger, Yamazaki, preferring to be called by his surname, even by his friends, started another tall tale. Known for his lies, he began, saying, "Did you know that if the temperature suddenly drops in the spring, it means that a blizzard will soon cover the town in snow? It is said that the Ice God, who favors winter, throws a tantrum every spring at the fact that summer is soon approaching."
Takashi Yamazaki
Age: 14 (Turned 14 on June 1st)
Grade: 8th Grade at Tomoeda Junior High
Physical characteristics: Short black hair / Black colored eyes though he rarely opens his eyes enough to show them.
Eligibility: Taken
Love Interests: Chiharu Mihara (Though they don't like to admit it openly.)
Sitting next to Yamazaki, his best friend/girlfriend, Chiharu, put two firm hands around his throat and started strangling him, "What a load of lies Yamazaki-kun! That's all I hear from you; lies, lies, and more lies!"
Chiharu Mihara
Age: 14 (Turned 14 on May 28th)
Grade: 8th Grade at Tomoeda Junior High
Physical characteristics: Light brown hair in pigtails / Dark brown eyes
Eligibility: Taken
Love Interests: Takashi Yamazaki (Though they don't like to admit it openly.)
The others laughed at the antics of Yamazaki and Chiharu, and were about to start eating when a voice said, "But doesn't the Fire God also do that during the Fall?" The group looked up in shock as Reizan walked over to Yamazaki, who only nodded in agreement to the comment.
Naoko, who loved scary stories and myths about the supernatural, asked, "So is that why the temperature also seems to fluctuate between hot and cold during Autumn?"
"You're right, but that's not all," Yamazaki continued, despite Chiharu's hands still wrapped around his throat, "It is also said that the only way to stop the world from being buried in snow during the spring is to do the fire dance and yell out to the God of Fire for help by playing the Can-Can on the Harmonica. Did I get it right?"
"I think so," Reizan said with a pondering look.
Déjà vu… Sakura thought, remembering her friend, Eriol Hiiragizawa, who had worked together with Yamazaki to tell tall tales when he had transferred to Japan to test and train her magic. The only difference was that Reizan's comments seemed to be more of a support and much more believable (at least at first glance), and less dramatic than either Eriol or Yamazaki. If you thought of it another way, you would say that he fell for Yamazaki's lies, hook, line, and sinker. But that wasn't possible… was it?
After bantering for awhile more, Reizan mentioned that it was just some tale he had heard and Yamazaki agreed. This produced a few uneasy chuckles at the serious looks the two had on their faces when they had been talking.
After they started eating, Naoko, Chiharu, and Yamazaki asked Reizan about his life story. "I took the plane here myself, with the company of my um… bird and cat. I have an older cousin coming to live with me in a few days who's bringing some of the bigger pieces of furniture for the house, and my pet dog," Reizan replied to one of Chiharu's questions.
"Wow, that amazing!" Naoko exclaimed. "Coming to Japan by yourself and moving into a house all alone. You're quite brave!"
Reizan squirmed uncomfortably at the compliment and muttered, "It's not that big of a deal. I've done this all my life."
"Really? Why's that?" Chiharu asked.
"Let's just call it family matters," Reizan answered with a grin.
Chiharu and Naoko looked confused, but Yamazaki, who had been strangely quiet, launched into another lie, distracting the two girls with his antics as he glanced at Reizan with a look thatseemed to convey the meaning that heunderstood or could relate. Reizan doubted he could either understood or relate as hisanswer was a lie.
While the others talked, Sakura and Tomoyo were holding their own little conversation.
"He seems nice enough, doesn't he? Kind of like Hiiragizawa-san, ne Sakura?"
"Like Eriol-kun? Maybe… I guess he sounds a little bit like him, kind of…" Sakura replied distractedly.
"Is something bothering you Sakura-chan? Come to think of it, you've been acting weird all morning."
"There's not really anything bothering me."
"Come on, you can tell me, I'm your best friend after all." Tomoyo had a look of concern on her face as she waited for Sakura to talk.
Sakura was about to repeat that she was alright, but changed her mind. "It's nothing really important… but I have a feeling that something is going to happen soon, and that something has to do with Saitakou-kun. I also have the feeling that he is interested in me, in one way or the other, and I don't really want to hurt his feelings; there's already someone for me after all."
"I don't think you need to worry about his feelings, he's probably not interested in you as a girl."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sakura asked with a light smile, but her humor was short lived as the serious frown replaced it once again. "But are you sure Tomoyo-chan? Because… I have this weird, cold feeling that crawls up my spine every time I look at his eyes. I also felt someone watching me during the whole period and it came from his direction."
"I can almost one hundred percent guarantee that he is not interested in you like a girl. What I can't say though, is that if he is interested in you or not for another reason. Still, if you really feel that way, maybe you should be a little more cautious and careful around him until you feel more comfortable. That's all the advice I can give you on that subject. As to your feelings of unease, you'll be just fine. Not only are you the chosen Card Mistress with strong allies, you also have your invincible spell!"
Sakura nodded, "I will definitely be alright!"
Ending Note: And here's the revised version of what used to be my chapter 5. Now, it is the new and improved chapter 3. I changed everything about my new character during this chapter, but Sakura and friends are mostly unchanged. (Changed as in what they do.)