©2002 By Julia and Tania
E-mail: ccs_fanz@juliaandtania.com
Cardcaptor Sakura: The Attractive Power (Alternate)
Episode 1

"Return to your rightful form, Clow Card!"

        Sakura had completed one half of the task returning the Clow card to its true form. She gripped tightly onto her sealing wand as she gazed into the spirit in front of her.

        Sacrificing her feelings seemed like such a harsh exchange. It was what Clow-san had meant when he said that something terrible was to befall on the world if the cards were not captured. Now, this one card was to impose this threat on her.

        Thinking about it though, it didn’t matter that she was going to lose her feelings; she wasn’t going to notice after she completed the transformation. As long as the world returned, her family, her friends, Syaoran returned, she was ready to give it all up for them.

        At the thought of Syaoran, she felt repentance of the fact that she had so many chances, but never told him what she had planned to say for so long. “I guess, in the end, I never got to tell him my true feelings...”

        Her chin held up high, she began her final incantation. It was time everyone returned. “The card made by Clow, return to your original form. Go to your new mistress, under the name of Sakura!”

        She watched the card as it went into its final transformation to a Sakura card. As she waited for the final deed to be done, she held onto her last moment where she was still her entire self. But just as she expected the inevitable to happen, she did not expect this.

        The swirl of light exerted from the newly transformed Sakura card raced past her, blinding her for a few seconds. As the light dissipated, Sakura realised what had happened and what was about to take place.

        “Syaoran-kun!” she cried as she made her way to the edge of the platform. The card had chosen the individual with the strongest power. And the one with the strongest power was Syaoran.

        Enveloped inside a black sphere, Syaoran looked to her. “I'm glad I made it in time,” he said, fatigued, “It seems I have more magic left in me, after all. Feeling tired? It makes sense, since you just transformed that card.”

        “Syaoran-kun!”

        She thought he had disappeared back there. All this time she thought he had been captured by one of those black spheres, only to find out that he had escaped and had been trying to catch up with her.

        “Even if I don't have these feelings, I'll just fall in love with you again, Sakura...”

        “SYAORAN-KUN!!!!!” Tears of despair ran down her cheeks as she watched the blackness of the sphere engulf him whole.

        Amidst all the commotion, out of sight, a Sakura card called upon itself to activate, shooting a beam of yellow light. Soon, inside the clock tower was occupied with a blinding white.

        Seconds passed. The light disappeared. Openings created by Emptiness were still present in the tower walls, Sakura on one side—still crying—and Syaoran on the other.

        “Don’t cry. It’s all right,” a voice said to Sakura.

        She reached for the card which had flown to her. “It’s you,” Sakura said. It was Emptiness combined with the card she created months ago for her feelings towards Syaoran. It was now called The Hope card.

        In the background stood the very guy she had become so fond of. He was looking to his hands, scrutinising them as if searching for something that was supposed to be there where it wasn’t.

        Syaoran-kun! Sakura thought in dismay. Fear coursed through her as she realised the consequence of her successful capture.

        “Syaoran-kun...” her voice trembling, yet determined, “even if you don’t feel anything for me anymore, I love you! The one I love most is Syaoran-kun!”

        No response.

        Streams of tears ran down her cheeks to her neck, saturating her costume. His facial cast was emotionless, blank towards her and her words.

        Crying, Sakura’s heart began to fall into a deep, dark chasm upon the acceptance of the card’s contract. It had been done.

END FLASHBACK...

        His nonchalance was disquieting as Sakura walked alongside a frigid Syaoran. She noticed the rips and tears in his uniform—his battling costume tattered. He had wounds, yet he didn’t flinch a bit. He just walked, apathetically. What was his mind thinking? What was he feeling?

        “S-sy-syaoran-kun?” Sakura stuttered. He turned to face her, sharp and unfeeling, “A-a-are you alright?” she continued, prevailing over the apprehension she felt.

        He nodded. “Are you alright?” he asked neutrally, his gaze remaining fixed on the path ahead of him. There was sincerity to his question, but Sakura couldn’t feel the degree of concern that once existed. She could do nothing but nod in return.

        Few more silent moments existed between the two as they made their way back to the streets that was once holding the Nadesico Festival before Sakura gave into her thoughts. Her eyes began to cover with a thin layer of water again. A tear streamed down her cheek, immersing the tip of a strand of hair belonging to a lock that had been hovering over her face in it, then made its way to the ground below as more followed there after.

        They kept coming. No matter how hard she tried to hold them back, her mind just wouldn’t allow the thoughts prompting the tears to rest. “Here,” she suddenly heard him say in a soft voice. She halted in her path then looked up.

        Placed in front of her was a steel-blue handkerchief with white lining around the edge. It was the same one he had given her all those months ago.

        “Thank you,” she said, politely accepting, sliding the piece of cloth out from his fingers as she used it to wipe her tears away.

        “What’s wrong?”

        “Nothing.” Sakura wiped the tears off her cheeks. She forced a smile, recomposing herself. She lied, “I’m just glad everyone’s back...”

        Except for you, she thought soon after.

        “Sakura-chan! Li-kun!” a high-pitched female voice called to them.

        “Kinomoto-san, Syaoran!” another said amongst the first voice.

        “Tomoyo-chan! Meiling-chan!” Sakura called in return, running towards Tomoyo and Meiling. Alongside them were Kero-chan, Yukito-san and her brother.

        “We were all so worried about you. Are you alright?” Tomoyo asked, taking a hold of Sakura’s hands as she did. Both Sakura and Syaoran nodded.

        “Where’s that girl with the grey locks?” Meiling asked, referring to the last Clow card.

        “She’s with us now,” Sakura replied.

        “That’s great!” Tomoyo shouted. Then she noticed Sakura’s despondent mood. “Isn’t it?” Sakura nodded as she forced another smile.

        “I wonder what they’ll do with the festival now—I mean, they can’t continue the play when everyone is everywhere,” Sakura heard Meiling say to Tomoyo as she broke out from her thoughts.

        “Maybe they’ll postpone it,” Syaoran replied. His voice made Sakura turn to look at him. It was so detached from any emotion; just a simple reply to a thought.

        Sakura and the others scanned the vicinity, looking to the many people scattered around the area on seats, on the ground, confused to how they got to the place they were in, and how they had fallen asleep, then, to be woken up in early morning of the next day.

        “Yuki: let’s go. We better go take a look and see if they need help cleaning up,” Touya said.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

        “Good morning, Sakura-chan!” Tomoyo called to her as she ran towards her from behind in the corridors of Tomoeda Elementary school.

        “Tomoyo-chan: good morning!” Sakura greeted. Sakura’s tone was not as cheerful as usual.

        As soon as Tomoyo caught up with her, she continued to her classroom. Silence took place soon after.

        “Sakura-chan?” Tomoyo spoke with concern, breaking the silence. Something in her gut told her Sakura was preoccupied with the same thing she was preoccupied with yesterday.

        “What is it, Tomoyo-chan?”

        “I noticed yesterday you were not yourself after you came back with Li-kun. Is something wrong?”

        Sakura snapped to her presumption. “Wasn’t I? No, nothing was wrong really...”

        “You were not yourself because of Li-kun?” Sakura didn’t reply. “Li-kun, I noticed, was a little different too.”

        She couldn’t lie to her friend. Sakura took a dejected exhale, “Syaoran-kun...”

        Suddenly a loud clatter echoed through the hallway. Both Sakura and Tomoyo jumped to the noise as their sense of hearing told them that the clamour had come from their classroom.

        Hastily, they made their way into the classroom through the back entrance to reveal scattered props for their play on the floor, a box with its bottom-side unbounded, and an apologetic Takashi on the floor picking up the mess.

        “Mihara-san, can you go get some tape for the bottom of the box for Yamazaki-san, please?” Terada-sensei called from a corner of the room, his head lifted high to overlook the heads of the students.

        “Yes, Terada-sensei,” obliged Mihara Chiharu.

        “Chiharu-chan: what happened?” Sakura asked, swinging herself around the door frame.

        “Sakura-chan, Tomoyo-chan: morning! Takashi was playing around with a heavy box-full of costumes and props to aid telling one of his silly stories again and then the bottom of the box broke open. No one’s hurt.”

        “That’s good. At least it’s not too serious.”

        Chiharu nodded. “Your performance yesterday, Sakura, was impressive,” suddenly changing the subject, “So was yours, Tomoyo-chan.”

        “Thank you,” the both replied, bowing their heads.

        “But, it’s a pity I don’t remember the rest. I seem to have forgotten what happened after the scene where the prince’s identity was revealed.”

        Sakura only nodded. She noticed Tomoyo being put into a state of contemplation, obviously puzzled by the same matter.

        Being so disturbed by Syaoran’s removed manner, she didn’t have the temperament to inform anyone—not even Tomoyo—of what happened. It was evident to Sakura now that no one remembered anything after being drawn into Emptiness’ black spheres—even Kero-chan and Yue-san were slightly unsure of the last moments before they were enveloped by the spheres.

        Sakura sighed inwardly. What was she going to do? She had already made her mind up that she loved Syaoran, loved him the most. But she also understood that she had to lose those feelings in order to keep things balanced. But she never calculated that Syaoran would turn up and save her from the undesirable trade-off.

        So why did it turn out this way; why did it have to be this way? As much as she hated to lose her most important feeling, even knowing that Syaoran would suffer from this, it was much more bearable for her if it had stayed the way she thought it was going to be.

        “Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan? Are you alright?” Tomoyo’s voice echoed through her thoughts.

        “Huh? Ah... Yeah. Sorry.” She searched to find her bearings again. Chiharu had gone, only Tomoyo was still standing next to her.

        “What were you thinking?” Tomoyo asked.

        “Ah… Nothing... Let’s go help clean up.”

        As Sakura took Tomoyo across the room from the doorway to the front of the classroom, a loud voice interrupted a rather quiet room.

        “Morning!” came Meiling’s energetic voice.

        Sakura turned to the direction of the voice. “Good morning, Meiling-chan. What are you doing here?” Standing next to Meiling was Syaoran. “Good morning,” she greeted Syaoran with slight hesitation.

        “Morning,” he said in his usual tone.

        “Syaoran suggested we should come and help the class clean up. Besides, it would be a great chance to say goodbye to everyone,” Meiling replied.

        “Goodbye?” Sakura asked, saddened.

        “It is our last day today. Our plane leaves for Hong Kong tomorrow morning,” answered Meiling, then turn to Syaoran. “But, we’ll return to Japan very soon though, right Syaoran?” nudging him in the arm.

        “Yeah.”

        Meiling’s brows furrowed at the lack of enthusiasm. Then remembered suddenly: Kinomoto-san... The new Sakura card... Oh no! She thought. Kinomoto-san doesn’t feel anything for him anymore. She should have remembered the contract. It wasn’t any wonder Syaoran didn’t speak much yesterday when he returned to Daidouji-san’s place.

        “Daidouji-san, can I speak with you?” Meiling said urgently, pulling her by the arm, away from the group. Tomoyo nodded.

        “What is it, Meiling-chan?”

        “Did Kinomoto-san say anything to you about yesterday? Both of them seem to be acting strange ever since,” Meiling asked as she spoke eyeing Sakura and Syaoran.

        “No. I did try to ask her about yesterday, but the clamour in the classroom earlier interrupted our conversation.”

        “Do you think it’s true the card has taken away Kinomoto-san’s feelings?”

        “No... I think Sakura still loves Li-kun. I see it when she talks of him; she still blushes at the mention of his name.”

        “Then what could it be?” Meiling looked to her two friends. She did notice some distance between the two. Kinomoto-san was standing shy, eyes downcast towards the ground, giving him transient glances at times.

        “Syaoran-kun,” Sakura called, her head still inclined towards the floor. She couldn’t look at him, afraid she would burst into tears.

        “What is it?”

        “Umm...” Sakura began to move her eyes to meet his. As she did so, she tried to think of how she was going to ask him what she desperately wanted to know—if he did, in fact, lose his feelings for her. “Syaoran-kun...” she began again, her eyes fixed on his.

        She could feel it arise. Her throat began to knot up, her nose and eyes stinging. As much as she willed to contain herself, her eyes began to fill up with a film of water. The sight of Syaoran’s facial cast was too painful to be maintained. Sakura burst into tears.

        “What’s wrong?! Kinomoto,” Syaoran quickly reacted, unsure of how he should proceed next.

        Sakura cried even harder. The way Syaoran addressed her was enough to give the answer to her question.

        “Sakura-chan!” Tomoyo cried, preparing to run after her.

        “Kinomoto-san, are you alright?” Meiling asked.

        Sakura ran out of the classroom, too ashamed to face the class in her present state, and in despair.

        “Syaoran? What happened?” Meiling said in a reproaching tone.

        “We were only talking then Kinomoto—”

        “Kinomoto...?” Meiling said to herself. When did he start to call her by her family name?

        “I’ll go see to her,” Tomoyo offered.

        Tomoyo left behind a shouting Meiling and a distressed Syaoran as she made her way into the corridor. Sakura was seen sitting against a wall, rolled up into a ball, sobbing into her uniform.

        “Sakura-chan,” Tomoyo said in a calming voice, walking up to her.

        “I’m fine, really,” Sakura replied from underneath, muffling the words.

        “No, you’re not. I know something’s bothering you... Is it because of Li-kun?”

        “No,” Sakura denied through her tears, “What makes you think that?”

        “The contract of Emptiness was that the individual with the strongest power would lose their most important feeling. But it’s clear to me that you still have your most important feeling—that is your love for Li-kun—so the person who had lost their most important feeling mustn’t be you.

        “Li-kun came back with you. It was strange how you two walked so quietly, as if you two had met each other for the first time.” At this time, Sakura had stopped crying and was looking at her friend. “So is it too presumptuous of me to guess that Li-kun took your place?”

        “Tomoyo-chan!” Sakura broke into tears once more. Quickly, she sniffed heavily and wiped away all her tears before she began again, “I sealed Emptiness, then I told Syaoran my true feelings, but he didn’t return my feelings. I’ve lost my chance, Tomoyo-chan. He’ll never find those feelings for me again!”

        “Is that how it is,” Tomoyo said as she consoled her.

        Sakura nodded, still sniffing away. “It’s painful to know that he lost those feelings. What am I going to do?”

        As Tomoyo was about to reply, Syaoran stood before them. “Are you alright?” he said, handing her a handkerchief. “I’m sorry for whatever it was I did to cause you to cry. Please, don’t cry,” he said with sincerity.

        So many times had he given her this handkerchief, so many times it was to wipe tears from thinking about Yukito-san, now it was over Syaoran. Even if she willed herself to stop, she couldn’t. Yukito-san was hard enough to get over. Her feelings for Syaoran, they were not the same; he was the one she truly loved. It was going to take her a while to stop crying over him.

        Sakura took the handkerchief as she stood up. “Thank you. Sorry, I shouldn’t have started crying all of a sudden.”

        “You’re alright now?” Syaoran asked her, concerned. She nodded. “That’s good.”

        “It’ll be okay,” Tomoyo said to Sakura as she smiled at Syaoran. She nodded. “Shall we head back into the classroom?”

        Both Sakura and Syaoran nodded.

        It was evening. A handful of wispy clouds lay against an otherwise clear sunset sky. Tomoeda Elementary was officially on summer break. Sakura had invited Syaoran, Meiling and Tomoyo over for dinner at six. It was almost seven thirty now as Sakura walked Syaoran back to his temporary home at Tomoyo’s—having been left behind by the scheming house host, Tomoyo, and Syaoran’s cousin, Meiling.

        “Thank you for dinner,” Syaoran spoke first after minutes of silence. “Your father’s a very good cook.”

        “Yeah...” was all Sakura could think of to reply to his compliment. Then added, “Sorry about my brother—he’s always so annoying.”

        “It’s okay,” he said, hands in his pockets.

        “When’s your plane to Hong Kong leaving? I’d like to see you off,” Sakura said.

        “You don’t have to, but it leaves at nine o’clock in the morning.”

        “That early...” unsure she would be able to wake up early enough to get dressed, have breakfast, and get to the airport on time.

        “You don’t have to if you can’t get up,” Syaoran said reading her thoughts.

        Sakura shook her hands frantically in the air, reassuring him that she would not let him go without seeing him off. “No, no—I’ll make sure I wake up to see you off. You see, I have three alarm clocks. I’ll set them before I sleep, one after another. That way, by the time I turned them all off, I’d be awake. I’ll get Kero-chan to wake me up too,” she said with a determined face.

        He smiled at her resoluteness before he replied, “If it’s too much trouble, it’s not necessary for you to,” he repeated again.

        Syaoran’s smile made her feel tingly inside; it made her happy for that split second. “I want to, really,” she said with enthusiasm.

        “Whatever you like then.”

        Then they both drifted off into another patch of silence, returning their gaze in front of them. As Sakura continued walking, she became aware of the intensity of the setting sun on her eyes. The brightness got more and more unbearable. She averted her eyes to her right—the side of which Syaoran was walking on. She could not help but be transfixed by his presence; she couldn’t blink away from him.

        “Sakura... I... I... I’m in love with you!” she recalled him saying after defeating Eriole’s magic.

        He was going back to Hong Kong with no memory of ever loving her. She wasn’t even sure what Emptiness really took away from him. She wanted to ask Syaoran directly, but couldn’t; the rejection would be too difficult to handle. But she desired so much to know how much he remembered.

        Sakura had been in such deep thought that she hadn’t realised she had stopped walking. She also didn’t realise that Syaoran had also stopped.

        “Kinomoto. Kinomoto. Is something wrong?” he said, hands on Sakura’s shoulders.

        “What?” finally breaking out of her thoughts.

        “You stopped walking all of a sudden. Are you alright? You don’t sense anything do you?” Syaoran asked, slightly concerned.

        “Sense anything?” puzzled by the question then caught on what he meant. “Oh. No—I don’t sense anything.”

        “For a long time, you were staring at me—what is it?” he continued to ask.

        Sakura readied herself as she took a deep inhale. She was going to ask him. “Syaoran-kun...”

        “Yes?” He continued to look at her.

        She hesitated. His attentiveness was slightly discouraging, nevertheless she willed herself to continue. “Umm...” But then she couldn’t. “Nothing.” She sighed heavily.

        He nodded then continued walking. Sakura followed suit, in low spirits.

        “Well, we’re here. Thank you for walking me home and for dinner,” Syaoran spoke after a while of walking in silence.

        Abruptly coming out of her thoughts, Sakura forced a smile. “No problem. I’ll... I’ll see you tomorrow.”

        He nodded. “Goodnight.”

        Sakura watched him walk into Tomoyo’s home as she stood disappointed at having not had the courage to do what she had set out to do. Her nose began to sting again and she heard herself sniff. She turned around to head back home, sobbing again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

        Sakura’s brother, Touya, was up early today in his usual cooking apron, at the kitchen bench preparing glasses of juice while hotcakes sizzled on a frying pan for breakfast. Today, he knew, would be a sad day for his little sister, and as much as he hated to admit that to Sakura’s face, he was a caring brother and Sakura’s happiness meant a lot to him. “Sakura: you’re going to be late,” he shouted to her.

        A few minutes later, Sakura came running down the stairs, her right arm pushing through a sleeve. “Good morning, Oniichan (Brother)! You’re up early today.”

        “It’s quite a warm morning, are you sure you want to wear that top?”

        Sakura ran into her lounge and peered out the window, pressing her face and hands against the window.

        “Are you sure you’re not close enough to the window? You already look enough like a monster as it is. You don’t want to make it any more obvious do you?”

        Sakura gritted her teeth, fists clutched tightly. “O-nii-chan!”

        Touya was right for the other thing though, it did look like a very warm day outside. “Hmm...” she thought aloud, dismissing her annoyance quickly. “Did you go outside, Oniichan?”

        “Yup.”

        Sakura decided not to wear the top. She ran back upstairs and a few seconds later, she came back down with a T-shirt. “It’s nice of you to make me breakfast. But why are you up so early?” she asked.

        “Part-time job. Didn’t you see it on the board?”

        “Yes I did and I remember your job doesn’t start for another two-and-a-half hours,” Sakura said.

        With pursed lips, Touya shrugged it off. “Eat up, monster!”

        “Don’t call me that!” Sakura turned to him to say. Touya smiled. She sniffed the aroma of the pancakes and began to take a bite. “Thanks, Oniichan!”

        “So you’re off to the airport today?” Touya asked, pretending not to know.

        “Syaoran-kun and Meiling-chan are flying back to Hong Kong.”

        “The Kid’s going back, huh? Well, you better hurry up and finish your breakfast then.”

        Sakura cocked her head, halting her dining. There was no retort about Syaoran at all this time. Oniichan just let it go.

        She nodded as she hurriedly scoffed down her pancakes. She looked at the time: it was slightly past seven. If she was going to make it to the airport in time, she had to leave now.

        Quickly, Sakura wiped her mouth with a napkin and headed for the door. “I’m off! Thank you for breakfast!” she shouted as she got her shoes on.

        “Okay!” Touya acknowledged.

        “We’ll make sure we’ll return to Japan, soon,” Meiling said to Sakura and Tomoyo.

        “It’s a shame you can’t stay a little longer. We could have had a lot of fun, just like old times,” Sakura said.

        “I almost forgot,” Syaoran said, stepping into the group, having finished checking Meiling and himself in. “Daidouji, thank you for this.” He handed her the battle costume she made him to help Sakura capture the last Clow card.

        “Keep it as a souvenir, Li-kun,” Tomoyo said. She then moved into his ear. “Hopefully, it’ll remind you of a certain someone.”

        Syaoran didn’t understand, nevertheless, he nodded. “Thank you, Daidouji.”

        “Flight 105HK to Hong Kong is now boarding. Please make your way to gate five, thank you.”

        “It looks like it’s us, Syaoran-kun,” Meiling said to him.

        Syaoran nodded then said to Sakura and Tomoyo, “See ya.”

        “Make sure you write,” Tomoyo said to the departing pair.

        “Of course we will! See you soon,” Meiling replied. As she followed Syaoran’s lead, she halted for a moment to give one last message before leaving, noticing Sakura’s unspoken thoughts, “Don’t worry, Kinomoto-san, I’ll help you.”

        She smiled. “Thank you, Meiling-chan.”

        Saddened, Sakura stood watching as Syaoran and Meiling disappeared below the escalator. He was really gone. He had left her behind.

        “Sakura-chan, it will be okay,” Tomoyo said to her suddenly, “Li-kun has told you that he loved you. At the moment, he doesn’t have those feelings, but Sakura-chan, you know that they’re there. Li-kun just needs time to find them. You are kind-hearted and spirited. It was what he fell for in the first place and he will find those qualities in you again. He will find his feelings for you again, Sakura-chan—no doubt.”

        Sakura didn’t reply, only continued to stare in deep thought until she couldn’t see their heads anymore.

To be continued in episode 2: “Sakura and Junior High School”.