Author's Note: Well, here's Chapter 16. There's a bit of Kobato in this chapter. ;) School is catching up with me finally and I'm afraid my updates won't be as frequent for a while. I will get back to my writing eventually, when I have certain term projects completed. Check back in another month or so for any further updates. Until then, thanks for reading and reviewing. XD

Gemini24: Yes, I wanted to keep the meeting between Spinel and Kero as realistic as possible. As far as Eriol's guardians are concerned, it occurred to me that Eriol would have a normal lifespan once he restarted his physical growth. So it would stand to reason that Ruby Moon and Spinel would need somewhere to go, if not in the Book of Clow, when their master eventually died. Fujitaka and Eriol are both very cool customers, so it was interesting to actually write about them having a lengthy discussion on their existence and supernatural connection to one another. I was amused by your comment, Touya is a very economical character as it is, and this is technically a business transaction he's going to have with Yuko. lol So they might as well be discussing it in that manner. Ironically I'd already planned to have the three stuffed animal guardians interact in this chapter, so you're in luck. ;) As for Yue's feelings, you'll have to wait and see. Thanks again for reading and reviewing. :)

Here's the latest chapter. Enjoy!

One of the first things Touya asked when he telephoned the Witch was the location of the White Mokona in return for giving her certain pieces of information as the price. Her answer was surprising, as she informed him that the White Mokona was currently on loan to a friend running an antiques shop.

"She's keeping track of something for me" the Witch said enigmatically. "I'm surprised by your concern, considering the fact that you've never met her."

"Then the White Mokona I saw in another world a few days ago isn't yours" Touya informed her.

The Witch was silent for a moment before warily commenting on the far reaches of magic and the eventful nature of the universe itself. Her tone was clipped and he could tell she was surprised too, no further explanation needed. Then the Cardmaster voiced his request that they shift the certain events before they came to fruition, specifically the placement of Watanuki and the fate of one Kohane Tsuyuri.

"You do realize what you're asking is nearly impossible, right?" Yuko asked "I can't possibly change what's going to happen now...unless you're willing to give proper compensation?"

"Eriol is willing to give half of his powers to this girl in order to ensure things run smoothly from the get-go" Touya answered. "You know where things are headed. I can't possibly stand by and let Clow's mistake effect the lives of others so drastically, not after what happened with Yue."

"You've changed" Yuko commented as she silently mimed to Watanuki to refill her glass. Something he grumbled about between the echoes of Maru and Moro's chanting.

"You can't possibly want more after finishing three entire bottles last night?" Watanuki interrupted.

"Only three!"

"Last night!"

"More!"

"We want more!"

"And make it quick, kitchen boy" Mokona demanded in the background.

Yuko's eyes shone with mirth as she watched Watanuki trudge back to the kitchen before she resumed her conversation.

"And you, what will you give?" Yuko asked precariously.

"I'll give you a quarter of my power. That should be enough."

"It is. Maybe I speak with Yue now?"

She heard shuffling sounds as the Cardmaster handed the other the receiver.

"I'll give you some of my own power and several decades-" Yue began.

"Wait, you can't-"

"I can, Touya. I've decided that I don't want to leave you behind as I was forced to leave Clow" Yue stated firmly. "I can't do that anymore, the next time may be too much for me bare. A broken guardian isn't any good to anyone."

"They will suffice" Yuko agreed as Watanuki returned with a bottle of sake. "You are aware that you will need to find another guardian, either of the sun or the moon to balance out the Clow Cards themselves?"

"That has already been taken care of" Yue informed her.

"Then consider it done. It will take another year or so for her to appear, but I will inform you when it happens" Yuko stated. "Now put Touya back on the line. I need to discuss the matter of the travelers with him."

"You're talking about those people from an alternate world" Touya said once he was back on the line.

"Yes, four of them to be exact. They will arrive precisely when they are supposed to and in the mean time, the first traveler wants to be sent on his journey."

"Shouldn't he already have left?" Touya asked, slightly confused.

"On the contrary, that man, has caused time and space to shift and become unpredictable. Many years will pass in each of the other worlds, while only a few months have come to pass in this one." Yuko explained.

"You mean the man with the monocle. I knew he was trouble. What about the boy in your shop, isn't he simply a replacement for the other boy? Are you saying he was brought into being ahead of time?" the Cardmaster inquired.

"That's not what I'm saying at all" Yuko assured the Cardmaster. "In fact, this boy is from yet another world that is similar to ours. Watanuki exists to fill in one of the gaps left by the man I was referring to. He is simply doing so in this world rather than another, where two unexpected additions were already placed."

"You'll have my staff before the year is out" Touya said finally. "I just have one last Card to locate."

"You are aware of the consequences of catching it?" Yuko asked speculatively.

"Eriol was very specific about that" the teen answered. "We won't require any assitance."

"A pity" the Witch commented. "I would have enjoyed seeing Clow's unfinished experiment for myself. See that you give me your payment as soon as possible."

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"Well I'm here Sensei. Now tell me what's going on?" Sonomi said as she sat down opposite Fujitaka at a small table in a local coffee shop. "You were incredibly vague about this over the phone. Does this have anything to do with Touya?"

"It's something of a completely different nature, I assure you, Sonomi" Fujitaka answered. "I've been thinking about a certain something for a while now and I've decided to be honest about it. I hope this won't change your opinion of me in any way."

"No fear of that" Sonomi answered with a wry smile. "You did steal my precious Nadeshiko away. You're never going to be off the hook for that."

"I know" the professor said favoring her with an amused smile. Then his expression became serious once again. "I...care about you Sonomi, as more than simply a friend or a member of Nadeshiko's family. I realize this is probably unacceptable to you, but I hope that you-"

Sonomi held up hand and cut him off.

"I had my suspicions, though I'll admit you are a difficult man to read at times" she put in. "You married Nadeshiko even after she'd forced to give everything up, so I know you're not after my company or Tomoyo's inheritance. You're too honest for that. I believe we can come to some sort of agreement about your feelings. That is...I like you as well Sens-Fujitaka."

"Sonomi, do you mean it?"

"Well of course I-"

"This makes me incredibly happy, you have no idea." Fujitaka answered with a bright smile.

"Yes well, when I need a date for a corporate cocktail party, you may not feel the same way" Sonomi said jokingly. "We'll need to sort a few things out and see how the children feel about this. This will be very new to them."

"They already get along remarkably well" the professor commented. "I'm sure they can handle this in a mature manner."

"That's not all" Sonomi said shaking her head. "Once Tomoyo hears about this, she'll start trying to make my outfits again. I'd rather she focused on Sakura, as her tastes lie closer to that of her own age group."

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"Where exactly are we going?" Spinel asked

"I told you, we're going to meet a friend of mine" Kero said as they rode in Sakura's shoulder bag, as she walked through downtown Tomoeda. Sakura smiled down at them. "His name's Ioryogi and he lived with this girl named Kobato."

"I'm glad Eriol let you come with us, Spinel. Kero and Yue don't always like the same things, so it's nice that Kero has a friend to hang out with" Sakura commented.

"It has been nice meeting you as well. So, where exactly do these people live?" Spinel inquired. "I haven't really seen much of your town since we arrived."

"Oh they live in the eastern part of town" Kero replied him. "Kobato works at a preschool near there Ioryogi told me she also does a lot of charity work. Though, he keeps calling her an idiot for doing it. He thinks she cares more about others than herself."

"She must be a very kind person" Sakura said. "I'm sure we'll have lots of fun visiting them."

When they reached Kobato's apartment building, Sakura quickly checked the numbers on each mailbox, before finding the right one and pressing the buzzer. A girl who was a few inches taller than Sakura, with light red hair that went fell down to her waist, opened the front door a few moments later and smiled in greeting. She was wearing a white dress with ornate flower designs interwoven on it, a green fall coat and a small straw-woven sunhat. There was a small stuffed plushie that resembled a blue dog riding on her shoulders.

"Are you Sakura?" she asked "I'm glad you didn't get lost. Kobato was a bit late getting out today, so I hoped we hadn't missed you. I'm Kobato Hanato. It's very nice to meet you."

"That's me, Sakura Kinomoto. Nice to meet you too. My brother said I could take Kero over here today instead. I hope you don't mind Spinel tagging along. Kero wanted him to meet Ioryogi." Sakura replied with a smile.

"Oh that's alright" Kobato assured her. "I'm afraid he gets lonely sometimes when I leave. So it's good for him to have friends around."

"I have friends, you idiot. You've even met them before!" the blue dog plushie answered.

"Yes, but it doesn't hurt to make new ones."

"So you're Suppy? You're a lot smaller than I expected." Ioryogi commented.

"I assure you, my true form is much larger than this" Spinel said as he eyed the blue dog plushie speculatively. "I assume you can change your shape as well."

"Ioryogi, isn't exactly like us" Kero explained. "It's a bit more complicated than that."

"So, why are you here anyway?" Ioryogi asked Sakura as he turned to stare at her. "You don't seem like the type to do that Card Wizard's dirty work?"

"Ioryogi! That's not very nice" Kobato scolded him lightly, while giving Sakura a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry. He gets like this sometimes."

"It doesn't change who is he, Dobato" Ioryogi reminded her.

"No, it's fine." Sakura said with a smile. "I'm not here for Nii-san. I'm doing this for Kero and Spinel. Even if Nii-san is busy today."

"Kobato hopes he and Yukito are doing well" Kobato added thoughtfully as she opened the door to her apartment. "Fujimoto says he your brother works almost as many hours as he does."

"Nii-san works very hard" Sakura agreed. "He works almost everywhere in town. Yukito worries about his health sometimes, but I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Would you like some tea?" Kobato offered as she gestured for them to follow her up the stairs. "I'm afraid Kobato doesn't have much but-"

"Hoe! That reminds me" Sakura exclaimed. "I almost forgot. Nii-san wanted me to give you these."

She pulled out a small container with five Konpeito candies inside.

"He said they were for your collection" Sakura said handing it to Kobato.

"Well whaddaya know" Ioryogi remarked. "The Card Wizard did something right for a change."

"Tell him Kobato is very grateful" Kobato said, her eyes shining with excitement. "Kobato won't forget what he's done."

"They're very important to Dobato" Ioryogi explained. Then he whispered under his breath. "Even if they won't do any good in the end."

Spinel tucked this knowledge away for later. He would mention Kobato to Eriol, even if there was nothing they could do for her. The wizard should be aware of what other beings existed in Tomoeda. The black cat guardian could sense that Kobato wasn't human and that Ioryogi wasn't quite the same as he and Kero, although the blue dog was indeed trapped in his current form through some type of magic.

A moment later Ioryogi led Kero and Spinel off to the far corner of Kobato's one room apartment to play a card game. Sakura sat down on a nearby chest with Kobato and sipped the tea that had already been prepared.

"So how did you meet Nii-san and Yukito anyway?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Ioryogi was...in a tight spot a couple of months ago. Kids keep thinking he's a toy" Kobato answered. "Your brother and Yukito found him as he was trying to escape a little boy who wanted to take him home. Touya knew where he belonged without my telling him and they brought Ioryogi back here. Kobato was extremely grateful and asked if there was anything I could do for them. Your brother mentioned Kero and we began arranging the two of them to hang out together. He seemed to think Kero was in need of a friend."

Sakura sighed.

"I'm sure Kero was lonely during the months I was away last year and Nii-san was trying to keep him a secret from Dad" she said. "It must have been hard on Kero having to hide all the time. It's nice to know that Nii-san thought of him, even back then, since they don't always get along the way they should."

"Everyone shows their feelings in different ways" Kobato replied understandingly. "Kobato has a friend who doesn't always say what he means, but I know he cares about people. He often tries to help me, even when Kobato makes mistakes."

"That's what friends are for" Sakura commented with a smile. "I have a good friend named Syaoran. He didn't really fit in at first, but Nii-san helped him once and because of that we all started to get along. Well, him and Nii-san still don't, but Syaoran is friends with me and my cousin Tomoyo now. He even helped out Nii-san put a spirit to rest during a trip on Hong Kong."

"That sounds exciting" Kobato said wistfully. "I've always wanted to go someplace far away. If I work hard I'll get there someday. It's my goal."

"I hope you succeed Ms. Kobato" Sakura told her. "Let us know if you ever need any help."

"Thank you so much. We're doing okay for now though. Ms. Sayaka helps out and Fujimoto does too, but I'll remember what you said." The red haired girl replied.

Sakura noticed that Kobato didn't have any tea herself.

"Aren't you going to have any tea, Ms. Kobato?"

Kobato shook her head.

"Kobato can't-" she explained. "Kobato can't tell you why."

"Oh, okay. I understand" Sakura said, thinking that Kobato didn't like tea.

Ioryogi turned a wary eye toward the two momentarily before returning to his card game. No one except his friends knew that Kobato was actually a wandering spirit with another soul inside her body. Kobato had a contract with god that said she had to collect Konpeito candies, enough to fill the jar sitting in the corner of their one room apartment. Fulfilling this contract meant that Kobato could go to the place she wanted to and the angel inside her body, once Iorygi's love, would finally be free. He had started a war so that he could have his love, only to be punished for breaking the nonaggression pact with Heaven. It would take another few decades, and possibly Kobato's death, for his love to actually be free, but he was willing to wait that long. Being stuck as a dog plushie for all that time would be difficult and he knew Kobato's own displacement and subsequent feelings for her gruff coworker Fujimoto Kiyokazu, made things difficult for her as well. Kobato refused to show how much the hardship weighed on her at times and had kept up her cheerful attitude throughout their ordeal. Her lack of prior memories didn't seem to bother her either, though Ioryogi was aware that focusing on helping those in need and reaching her goal were keeping her extremely busy at the moment. The time would come when Kobato either reached her goal at the appointed time or failed and thus forced the two of them to start over, or damned them to an even worse cosmic punishment. Ioryogi was grateful that Kobato had helped him meet some new friends, despite his interaction with his old friends Ginsei, Genko, and Zuishō. Kero, and even the uptight Spinel, had given him a new perspective on life, particularly while trapped in his current form. It gave him a slight hope when he'd had so little to begin with.

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A week after Touya had completed his deck, minus the stolen Clow Cards, Ruby Moon came upon another section of Tomoeda that had mysteriously disappeared during her walk home from school. She caught a glimpse of the Card herself and decided to give chase. The Moon Guardian was determined to make up for the trouble she'd caused Eriol and show Spinel that she was still as good a guardian as he was. Surprisingly, her initiative paid off as her quarry led her back to its hide out.

"Wait, that's the Tsukimine Shrine! Dammit, Eriol's not going to be happy about this" Ruby Moon said with a grim expression. "Neither is Kaho. At least she stayed with us at the manor instead of her family. Eriol might've been even more put out if she'd suddenly disappeared too, because a Clow Card was hiding out at her house."

"I don't suppose you could tell us what exactly is hiding out in that shrine?" asked a voice from behind her. Ruby Moon turned to find a tall boy with two different colored eyes, one blue, one gold, in front of her. A second teen with a bow was standing next to him. Both had dark hair, a similar height range and were wearing black gakuen uniforms indicating their status as high school students.

"Or at least why you were following it" the second teen put in.

"Who are you?" Ruby Moon asked curiously.

"I'm Watanuki and this is Doumeki. We're here to help out the people of this shrine." The teen, Watanuki, explained. "My employer was given a request by the family that lives here."

"We're here to take care of their spirit problem" Doumeki put in.

Ruby Moon blinked.

"Oh. That might be a bit of a problem" she said. "The thing haunting this shrine isn't a spirit. It's a Clow Card. Only my master or the new Cardmaster, Touya, can have any power over it."

The Moon Guardian eyed the two teens thoughtfully and took stock of the magical potential held between them. She'd learned her lesson from chasing down the Li brat. Eriol would have to be enough to soothe her hunger for a magical treat. Besides, these boys had traces of the Dimensional Witch on them. She had sensed a similar residue from both Touya and Yukito after they'd paid her a visit, as well as the Li brat after Eriol had informed them all that the boy had summoned the Witch for some type of aid. No, her days of searching for an outside power source were over.

"We'd like to see for ourselves" Watanuki insisted.

"You don't want to do that, boys" Ruby Moon said smartly. "If you haven't noticed, parts of town have slowly begun to disappear because of this card. You go in there and you'll simply vanish until my master and Touya finally agree on a plan and actually confront it. Or her actually."

"Are you completely certain about that?" Doumeki asked quietly.

"One hundred percent" Ruby Moon assured him. "I can take you to my master, whose a friend of your mistress. Yuko, I believe."

Watanuki and Doumeki reacted with surprise upon hearing the Dimensional Witch's name. Ruby Moon simply grinned. Then she shifted her appearance to that of her human form.

"I told you." She said as she turned and walked off in the direction of Eriol's manor. The teens followed behind her at a slow lag, they seemed unsure of whether or not she was leading them into an even more tumultuous situation. Ruby Moon noted that the two of them seemed to argue the entire way, with Watanuki spazzing out at Doumeki's alternating remarks. They did eventually settle into a much calmer method of conversation by the time the manor was in sight and seemed to be discussing the merits of various protection charms. It was only to be expected, she surmised, since they worked so closely with someone like the Witch on a frequent basis.

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Tomoyo Daidouji had one singular supernatural ability that allowed her to actually see the red string of fate and its various spiritiual incarnations as they perched, wrapped around any and every individual's little finger. It had taken her most of her formative years to figure out that not everyone could see the red string. She hadn't even realized what it represented until an acquaintance of her mother's had remarked on it, motivating her to research the meaning of the mystical string further. After determining that she was not, in fact, hallucinating, Tomoyo decided to watch each string carefully. She was determined both to find the person whose string was attached to hers and to bring together anyone she knew with their particular partner. It was during her elementary years when she met Sakura Kinomoto that she realized one could be in love without even realizing whose string was meant to connect to theirs. Tomoyo felt a great deal of amiable feelings toward Sakura, including friendship, that was slowly tainted with semi-romantic feelings that drove her to count the girl as her best friend and secretly, the number one person in her heart. This went on for years, before Tomoyo took notice of how the red strings that connected her various classmates, friends, and teachers seemed to vary with each new romance they entered into. She learned to tell the difference between a leveled romantic encounter to a fated romance from shade of red each string appeared to be. The brightest red always meant that fate or "hituzen" was involved with that particular couple and odds were they were meant to be together. It was this very string that she had witnessed tied around Touya and Yukito's fingers, and it was then she knew that they were in a likely permanent relationship. The could be said of Sakura and Syaoran, although they didn't know it yet, and Tomoyo refused to give the game away before the two of them truly realized their feelings for one another. She was pleased to note that the string between Fujitaka Kinomoto and her mother was slowly growing brighter. This was to be expected as Fujitaka's fated love was likely Nadeshiko, but now after all this time he had slowly developed feelings for Sonomi as well. It lightened her heart considerably to know that she had been right about Sakura's father and her mother being compatible, even if Touya would grumble about the complicated family relationship they were all going to have if the two ever got married. It was a shame that Tomoyo herself still didn't know who her own string was tied to and could only hope that someday the answer would reveal itself.

That afternoon, as she looked out onto the sidewalk beneath her bedroom window, she saw a bright red string tied around the fingers of two dark haired teenagers who were being led up the street by none other than Akizuki or Ruby Moon as Touya had informed her, herself. This caused her to speculate briefly about the guardian's intentions before quickly dialing her cousin's phone number.

"Hi. Touya? Yes, I was surprised as well. Listen, there's something you should know about..." Tomoyo began.