The afternoon sun shone brightly in the clear, deep blue skies over Seijou High, as a light breeze carried fallen leaves along the sidewalks on the grounds below. On the school track, several students were well into the day's track and field practice. One in particular — a tall, lithe young man with short black hair — braced himself at the starting block as another sprinter did likewise beside him.

The pair held perfectly motionless, waiting…until the instant they heard the crack of the starter's pistol. The two leapt forward nearly in sync, their legs seemingly barely touching down as they sprinted at top speed down the length of the track. For the first two seconds, they held dead even…but slowly, the black-haired youth pulled forward, gaining first inches, then feet over his opponent. Finally, at the finish line, he crossed nearly a full second and a half ahead, with the other sprinter nearly collapsing from the effort as he slowed to a halt. A coach, stopwatch in hand, approached the two as they stretched their legs out beside the track.

"Tanaka-kun, a very impressive showing — you actually cut another quarter-second this time," he said, addressing the victor. "You keep up that kind of improvement, you'll probably break the school record before long. And as for you, Iwada-kun," he turned to the still-wheezing second-place finisher, "you also shaved a tenth of a second yourself. Keep it up!" After a quick glance at his wristwatch, the coach gestured toward the locker room. "Alright, I think you've both worked hard enough for one day. Remember that our first meet is on Friday — don't overexert yourself at practice tomorrow!"

"Yes, Mihara-sensei!"

Another quarter-second…that was even better than I was expecting. Taking a deep breath of the cooling autumn air, Kaoru Tanaka stretched out his arms as he walked home. Still, not quite there yet…

Kaoru was a sprinter, and had been since he was seven years old. When he was in junior high in Kobe, he actually had set the school record for the hundred-meter dash; his high school track and field coaches had reacted with something akin to shock when he announced that he would be moving to Tomoeda after his sophomore year. They jokingly pleaded with him to convince his parents to stay, as he was their top sprinter.

At least it looks nicer out here, he mused. He too had resisted moving, but in the end, had no choice but to accept. His father, an executive with a major electronics company, had been reassigned as manager of a regional branch office in Tomoeda, and the company had offered to cover the expense of relocating the family. Thankfully, the move had occurred during the summer, so that Kaoru was able to start at Seijou High at the beginning of the new school year.

School had started three weeks ago, and Kaoru was still getting used to the differences from his old school. Seijou High was smaller and more tight-knit, so he tended to see some of the same people in several different classes. He hadn't yet made many friends yet, but at least got along with most of the other students. Masaki Iwada, his running partner, was one of the first to actually approach Kaoru. The two were in the same English, science, and math classes, and shared a number of interests. After track and field practice in the afternoon, Iwada worked part-time for a local auto mechanic, which particularly impressed Kaoru.

Hmm…I need to look at getting a job of my own, soon… Kaoru's train of thought was derailed as something at the corner of his field of vision caught his attention. He turned, trying to figure out what he had seen; some flash of reflected light, perhaps… For several seconds, he gazed in the direction of what he thought he had seen, searching. When his careful gaze found nothing, he turned to walk away — and once again, caught a momentary glimpse ofsomething in the grass beside the sidewalk. This time, he walked over to the spot, kneeling down to look more closely.

Probably just a piece of broken glass, or a coin, or something. Kaoru looked about, trying to gauge exactly where the object had been. It would have been right around…here! He spotted what looked like a thin, bunched-up metal chain sitting atop the soil, and carefully picked it up. What is…this?, he mentally asked himself, as he looked at the object he held.

It was a sort of pendant, he guessed: a small key with a winged gold star in it, hanging from a neck-chain. And it was…pink. He grimaced at the color; it must be some little girl's charm necklace, or something. He looked around him, wondering if its owner might be somewhere nearby — there was nobody else around, however. He looked at the pendant again. I wonder how long it's been sitting there? It's still fairly shiny, so it probably hasn't been there long…

With little clue as to the owner of the pendant, Kaoru got back to his feet and continued down the sidewalk towards home. I'll turn this into the elementary school office tomorrow. Maybe the kid who owns it will go there to claim it. He yawned as he walked, noting that it was getting late: the sun was already starting to set. Then he abruptly came to a halt as he suddenly remembered something that had been nagging at the back of his mind all afternoon. I've got to pick up a copy of Romeo and Juliet for my reading assignment! With that, he turned about, and started briskly jogging in the opposite direction. Man, I hope the library is still open…!

Kaoru let out a sigh of relief as he walked down the aisle. Made it with minutes to spare…

Now, let's see… Fiction, Shakespeare… He glanced briefly at each book as he made his way down the shelf. Nope…no, that's not it, either… Ah, there we go! He carefully pulled the book from the shelf, a satisfied expression settling on his face. He turned to walk to the check-out desk — and froze. A couple spots down from Romeo and Juliet, he spotted a book that looked very much out of place. It had no identifying label, no title on the spine…and it was pink. In fact, Kaoru realized, it looked like the same shade of pink as the pendant he had just found. He pulled it out of his pocket and held it up next to the book, confirming his suspicion. What in the world…?

Putting the pendant back in his pocket and setting the copy of Romeo and Juliet aside, he pulled the strange volume from the shelf and examined it closely. I wonder what this is doing over here, he pondered. Looks like, I don't know, some kind of kid's book… Indeed, it did: the entirety of the book was pink, with ornate figures of the sun, moon, and a star with wings on the cover… And then he paused, as something occurred to him. He pulled the pendant back out of his pocket, and looked at it closely. A star with wings… He looked back at the book. It looks exactly the same! He massaged his temples for a few seconds; he was seriously getting weirded-out by this whole thing. He turned the book over, and noticed two things: an embossed ribbon across the top of the cover bearing the name "SAKURA", and a wing-shaped latch holding the book closed. He pondered leaving it alone and taking the book to the front desk to be put back where it belonged, but curiousity got the better of him. He carefully undid the latch, and opened the book.

What he saw confused him even further. The entire book was hollow, and inside were a stack of…pink…cards? He tipped the book, letting one of the oversized pink cards fall into his hand. On the back was the same strange ornate star, sun, and moon figure from the cover of the book; on the front…

The… Du—Da…Dash? The Dash? What IS this? He turned the card over a couple times as he thought. Is this some weird kind of tarot card, or something? His attention was suddenly drawn back to the book — and what he saw caused his breath to catch in shock.

The rest of the cards in the book were glowing. He blinked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but when he looked again they were still glowing, getting brighter by the second. What on Earth is going on here?!, was his unnerved thought. Without warning, there was a blinding flash from the inside of the book, and dozens of streamers of light shot straight up, vanishing through the ceiling. Kaoru, having dropped the book and stumbled backwards in a panic, slowly approached the strange tome where it had fallen.

It was empty.

He remembered the card he had taken out a few seconds before, having forgotten about it in the confusion. He held it up, looking ever more closely at it.

A pendant, a book, and a card. Just what the heck are they, really? He caught a glimpse of his watch as he held up the card — it was nearly seven. Oh, great…on top of everything else, now I'm going to be late for dinner! Picking up the copy of Romeo and Juliet and — somewhat reluctantly — the now-empty pink book, he made his way to the checkout desk.

Author's notes:

Well, now we have a proper introduction to the story. There have already been a couple of questions, one of which being when the story takes place. I didn't mention it at the time, but Sakura is 16 at the time the prologue takes place; this chapter takes place some time after (the exact timeline will be filled in as the story moves along.

Kaoru Tanaka, Masaki Iwada, and any other "original" characters created for this story are just that - my creations. If you want to use them in your story, for some strange reason, just ask; I most likely won't mind. All other characters are the properties of their original creators (CLAMP). I don't own them, I just write about them.