©2003 By Julia and Tania
E-mail: ccs_fanz@juliaandtania.com
Cardcaptor Sakura: The Attractive Power (Alternate)
Episode 4

A bustle of noise replaced the usually calm atmosphere which—more often than not—took residence upon the botanical gardens. Thirty or so young Seijyu High students packed the front entrance of the gardens as they chattered away. Meanwhile, the few supervising teachers made their final head counts and equipment checks.

        “Gather around, everyone! Gather around!” the class’ science teacher called on the students. “Remember that there will be others around, so be respectful towards other visitors and the plantations. Also be respectful to the environment—please pick up after yourselves.”

        “Hai,” the students complied in unison.

        “Have you all got pencil and paper?”

        “Hai, Okuda-sensei!”

        “Good, good. You all know what we’re here to do, right?” he asked. The students nodded assertively. “In case there are any of you who don’t know or may have forgotten,” he said patronisingly, “we’re here to observe and study the different species of plants here. Also, don’t forget to do a few sketches, alright?”

        “Hai.”

        “We will be having lunch at around 12:30pm at the garden’s lunch area, next to the main café. Alright then—now break up into your groups and start on your assignment.”

        “Hai,” Sakura responded apathetically, following the rest of her classmates.

        The class excitedly dispersed themselves into smaller groups as Sakura stood staring vacantly past her surroundings.

FLASHBACK...

        The door bell rang as Fujitaka made hot pancakes for breakfast. Putting down his cooking utensil he had in his hand on the kitchen bench, he made his way to answer the door whilst calling Sakura down for the morning. “Sakura-san: breakfast is almost ready. Are you ready yet?”

        Sakura had just gotten up from bed and was in the bathroom cleansing her face. Sakura stopped for a moment to reply. “Hai (Yes)!” Then continued again, wiping the warm face towel over her skin. “I wonder who it could be this early in the morning.”

        “Maybe you should hurry up and go and see,” Kero suggested from beneath her as he prepared to finish brushing his teeth.

        “I’m finished—I was just waiting for you, Kero-chan.”

        “Let’s go.”

        Routinely, Sakura walked down the stairs, backpack on her shoulders, and made her way into the kitchen. As she entered the dining area, she was greeted by her father with a plate of pancakes in one hand, and a glass of juice in the other. Sakura took her seat closest to the kitchen.

        “Ohayou, Otou-san (Father),” she said.

        Fujitaka went around her left to place the breakfast down in front of her. “Ohayou, Sakura-san—are you looking forward to school this morning?”

        “Yeah, I can’t wait! We’re going to the botanical gardens today.”

        “Oh right, I remember—to study plant life for science class, right?” Fujitaka said, finally taking a seat next to his daughter.

        “Hai. Itadakimasu (Let’s eat/Thanks for the meal)!” Sakura said along with her father then began eating.

        “Otou-san,” Sakura began.

        “Nani (What is it)?”

        “Who was at the door?”

        Fujitaka stopped eating. “It was the postman. That reminds me: there’s a package for you, Sakura-san. I put it on the coffee table in the lounge area,” he said as he gestured with his head in the direction it was placed then went back to his breakfast.

        “A package for me—who is it from?” she asked, talking through her eating before swallowing.

        “I’m not sure. I didn’t look. Why don’t you go have a look, Sakura-san?”

        “Arigatou (Thanks).”

        Sakura made her way to the coffee table; there was the package her father was talking about. Excitedly, she motioned to pick it up. “I wonder who it could be from.”

        She flipped the package over and the first thing that she picked up on was the sender’s surname: Li. She scrolled further on, hopeful.

        Li Meiling—that was all. An aching pain grew in her heart when she didn’t find Syaoran’s name following hers.

END FLASHBACK…

        As she thought about this morning, she didn’t know what to think—what to feel. She had so many conflicting emotions: happiness, excitement, nervousness, sadness—they were all running through her all at once today, and she just couldn’t settle on one.

        “We should find Yamazaki-kun, Mihara-san and…“ Yoshiro stopped in mid-sentence, noticing he was talking to himself. “Kinomoto-san: is everything alright?” Slowly she acknowledged him as she turned to face him, but still appearing to be registering his presence.

        “Sato-kun…” she said. She found herself in an uncomfortable position; he was not more than several inches from her. Immediately, she repelled herself backwards, crawling on all fours like a spider. “HOEEEEE!” she screamed; he stood so close.

        He laughed, slightly embarrassed. “I suppose I was too close. Gomen nasai (Sorry), Kinomoto-san—are you okay?” Yoshiro then extended a hand towards her. Sakura nodded, taking his hand.

        As she made her way back on her feet, she was suddenly reminded of Meiling’s package. Quickly letting go of Yoshiro’s hand, she moved to take the backpack off her back and took a brief glance inside. When she saw that the package was fine, Sakura expressed a sigh of relief.

        “Everything… Okay?” Yoshiro inquired worriedly.

        “Hai.”

        He looked at her in concern as she returned the bag onto her back. She still looked very distant. “Are you sure, Kinomoto-san? I haven’t known you very long, but I noticed you’re always preoccupied—do you have a lot on your mind?”

        Her face fell into puzzlement, caught up by his comment. “No, I’m not,” she said, waving her hands in the air.

        “Then why do I always make you fall on your butt?” he said teasingly as he raised an eyebrow, countering her defense.

        “Umm…” Sakura began, staring at her feet. She could feel Yoshiro waiting for a response.

        Yoshiro looked at her, analysing her body language: she didn’t want to say. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he let off, smiling as he began to head off towards the entrance of the gardens.

        She looked up. He’s already gone… Had she offended him, she wondered.

        “Kinomoto-san, shall we get to Daidouji-san and find the rest of our group—I’m really looking forward to seeing the rest of this place, aren’t you?” He was quite a distance away from her now. “I wonder what kind of surprises we’ll find here,” he spoke excitedly, looking at everything, everywhere.

        Nope, he sounds fine. She smiled and swiftly caught up to him. “Tomoyo-chan…?” Sakura searched around for her, having not noticed her absence. “What happened to Tomoyo-chan, Sato-kun? I thought she was with us.”

        “Not anymore…” he said with a chuckle, stating the obvious. Sakura smiled at his remark as she walked alongside him.

        In the distance—beyond the large gate separating the garden and entrance area—stood Tomoyo. With her, was the baby she seemed to have found so hard to part with: her video camera. She was panning her surroundings, taking shots right around, from one end to the other, not at all disturbed by the public’s odd glances towards her.

        “Tomoyo-chan…!” Sakura called to her.

        Tomoyo saw Sakura and Yoshiro approaching through the lens as she pointed the camera on them. “Sakura-chan: stop.” Sakura immediately yielded to her wishes, confusion present. “Say something cute; introduce our field trip!”

        “Umm… umm…” Sakura hesitated then she turned to look at Yoshiro: he had taken a stride to the side. “Sato-kun: what are you doing?”

        “You heard Daidouji-san—it’s your show, Kinomoto-san,” was all he said.

        She laughed uncomfortably, turning back towards the camera, “In front of all these people, Tomoyo-chan…?”

        “Come on, Sakura-chan! You got to do this for me!”

        Just as Sakura was about to give in, she was saved by the science teacher. “Students, get to it, get to it. Who’s in your groups?”

        “This is our group. Yamazaki-kun and Chiharu-chan are also in our group,” Tomoyo replied.

        “Where are they?” Okuda-sensei asked.

        “Here!” a voice approached.

        “Mihara-san, Yamazaki-kun: good, now you all can get to work. You all got a lot to do today,” he said as he walked past to leave the group.

        “Hai!” they all replied.

        Disappointment clearly visible, Tomoyo turned off the camera, “Another time, Sakura-chan?” she asked, hoping she’d accept. Sakura’s face frowned, mumbling a weak ‘okay’ underneath her breath.

        As the group casually made to their destination, the leaves of a few trees which they had passed bore enough yellow leaves to look odd, but no notice was paid towards it—not even by the mistress of the Sakura cards.

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

        Sakura had decided to sit herself down at a comfortable distance from her subject. She whined at the sight of her drawing, her back slouched in disappointment. “My tree… it’s not a tree. Why can’t I make my sketch to look like that tree?”

        Gazing hard at the tree, she tried desperately to see what was wrong with it. As she looked back and forth, she could see her flaws, but she just couldn’t put what she saw onto paper. She just didn’t have the artist’s eye she needed for this task.

        “Hoe!” she sighed.

        Freshly out of will power to continue, she sat staring at it idiotically. She didn’t move from that expression for a good minute before another, “Hoe!” was expressed, her head sinking below her shoulders thereafter.

        It was not like art was a subject she hated; she actually liked how relaxing this subject was. Sometimes, she just wished she was good at it. If she was good at it, she wouldn’t get to this point where she found it a drag.

        Today, she really didn’t have the patience to continue any further. She sighed again, “But I have to complete it. It’s no use complaining about it I suppose. Like dad says: start off little; small things make a whole lot of difference. So, I suppose I’ll start off small—beginning with the…” She looked at the sketch again, wondering what she could start fixing. “…the leaves.”

        Sakura moved to her pencil case to search for her eraser, but it wasn’t there. Thinking it may have slipped out of her pencil case, she looked for it in her bag. Digging deep into the main compartment of her bag, she tried feeling for a rectangular, squishy thing.

        Her face scrunched. She did find a squishy thing—squishy and damp. She braved the disgusting feeling of this thing and pulled it out. Banana peel: nice…

        “Kero-chan!” Without thinking, she threw it away off into the distance, but then she remembered what the teacher had said to the class this morning about not littering the place.

        She ran off quickly and got it back, placing it in a nearby rubbish bin before returning to search for what she was looking for in the first place—her eraser. After a few minutes, she found it. As she reached for the eraser, her hand brushed Meiling’s package. Sakura’s attention diverted to it, dropping the eraser back into her bag to take out the package.

        “Li Meiling,” she read quietly as her eyes transfixed itself onto the package she laid on her lap. “Li… Syaoran,” she replaced, wondering what contentment she’d feel to see his name there as well.

        But his name wasn’t there. This left her with… with what? What else was there left for her to feel? She had already gone through them all—sadness, regret, anger, denial, acceptance—what else? Suppose what was left, what she always had was…

        Then suddenly, all her thoughts collapsed, crashing into each other. There were just too many going through her mind at once, and too many not arriving at any definite point. Sakura just sat there, staring into oblivion.

        Yoshiro, who was several metres from Sakura and the rest of his group, was very much finished with the sketching of his tree. He stared at his picture for a little longer as he evaluated his efforts. Yoshiro nodded with satisfaction then sighed in relief; the task of constantly staring at that tree and his drawing was getting wearisome—not to mention very straining for the back and neck.

        Fatigued, he fell back onto the lush, green grass beneath him. He stretched his body as he expressed pleasure with an audible exhale. “This feels good; this is much better.” Yoshiro stretched some more, feeling every tense muscle in his body relax while he used his hands to support his head. “I like it here—I really like it here.”

        He stayed like that, head off to the side, watching the rest of his peers do their sketches. As he watched, his attention halted at Sakura. “Hmm…” She was motionless.

        Yoshiro decided to pay her a visit. He packed up his gear and headed over to her. “Ohayou (Hi), Kinomoto-san,” he greeted.

        Without consciously aware of herself doing so—or who she had addressed, she replied. “Ohayou.”

        “Can I sit down?” he asked. When Sakura didn’t reply, he invited himself to sit down beside her and waited for her to acknowledge his presence.

        Many seconds had passed and still she hadn’t thought to snap out of the trance. It seemed she was engrossed by the yellow package she had on her lap.

        He sat there, his eyes wandering corner to corner, lips pursed as he waited for her to break out of it. After a while, Yoshiro found himself looking for something to do, feeling a little ridiculous just sitting there.

        He spotted her sketching pad by his leg. It was her assignment. To him, it looked alright, but the shape was slightly off and the right side of the tree had too few leaves. Yoshiro smiled; this was the ‘something’ he was looking for. Picking it up, he began to draw.

        Whilst Yoshiro sketched, Sakura continued to live in her own fantasy world.

DAYDREAM…

        Hands cupping her chin as she rested her elbow on her sketch pad, Sakura whimpered in dissatisfaction. “My tree… it’s not a tree. Why can’t I make my sketch to look like that tree?”

        This task was tough and it was draining her patience, but she knew that a certain someone who was sitting in the distance across from her would be able to take care of that. That person would be able to bring those energy levels right back up with no effort at all.

        She lifted her head, giggling as she thought about meeting his gaze—god, she hoped he’d look up and catch the gaze. Sure enough, he sensed her. She smiled wider, holding it just for him until his eyes met with hers… waiting… There it was: Syaoran had sent her the most delightful and warmest smile she could ever imagine, expressing an unspoken ‘hi’ as he settled his gaze.

        Sakura continued to watch him with content, then, rewarding her even further, she saw him packing up his gear. Syaoran was heading her way—she better prepare for him.

        Checking around, she made sure she had a nice place for him to sit, preferably a place close to her. Gracefully, she moved her sketch pad and pencil over to her right where her bag laid then shifted herself backwards slightly to a more inviting position.

        Ready! Just in time too. He stood towering over her, greeting her with his amiable features.

        “Sit, Syaoran-kun!”

        He nodded, taking off his shoulder bag. “How is it going with your sketch, Sakura?” he queried.

        “Unn… not too good,” she replied, lips pursed.

        “Is that right—why not?”

        Sakura reached for her sketch pad, clutching it in both hands as it lay on her lap. “I don’t know… it’s just… not turning out the way it’s supposed to turn out,” she said, absorbed in the drawing which exhibited efforts she found disappointing.

        Syaoran leaned across Sakura to peer over her shoulder. “Yoro shi desu ka (May I)?”

        “Sure,” she said, handing it to him. Syaoran took the drawing and began to sketch.

        Sakura watched him with intent eyes as he focused between the tree and her sketch. He displayed such concentration, unaffected by anything around him—not even by her.

        Sakura felt herself edge closer to him—not that she wanted to distract him—but something about him, his present state, she found so alluring. She continued to watch him then, suddenly, even before she was aware of it herself, she had rested her head on his shoulders.

        Syaoran’s shock could be sensed as she felt a break in his movements upon her most recent action. She had interrupted his flow, but more so, he didn’t expect her to do that. Although, once he had adjusted to her, he didn’t seem to mind a bit as he returned to sketch soon after.

        She smiled widely to herself. She was so happy…

END DAYDREAM…

        Unconsciously, she brought herself out of the dream state, realising that it was not the case. Sakura opened her eyes to be met by the package sent only by Li Meiling—the package which was responsible for sending her into that false reality created by her mind in the first place.

        Syaoran was on the other side of the waters. With him back in Hong Kong, how likely was it that she’d ever be able to experience that sort of happiness? Not only were they far apart in terms of locality, but their friendship was too.

        Each passing day, she could feel it diminish as contact between her and Syaoran became less frequent, and even then, it was only through secondary means. She wasn’t even sure how much of that friendship was left. She sighed at the thought.

        Suddenly, her ears were alerted with the sound of pencil on paper. What? Who’s doing that, she thought. She turned to the right—the direction the scratching sound was coming from.

        Sato-kun… when did he come and—that’s my drawing: he’s sketching the tree for me. Her eyes widened. “Sato-kun: you don’t… you don’t have to do that for me!”

        Yoshiro felt himself jump out of his skin time after time; he didn’t expect that at all. “Kinomoto-san!”

        “You don’t have to do that for me, Sato-kun,” she repeated, calmer this time. She extended her hands to take hold of her sketch pad, sliding it out from his hold gently.

        “Are you okay?” Yoshiro asked, not responding to the previous matter.

        “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s nice of you to help me, but you really didn’t have to.”

        “I know, but you were really out of it just before—” Yoshiro then looked at her with curious eyes, inhaling a breath to continue, but in the end decided he wouldn’t ask. “Well, since you’re okay now, I’ll leave you to it. It’s almost lunchtime anyway, so I’ll head back to the lunch area and save our group a table.”

        She cocked her head, confused to how quick he was to dismiss it. Nonetheless, she nodded as Yoshiro stood up to leave. “We’ll meet up later then.” Then Sakura looked down at the sketch: he had done so much. “Hey, Sato-kun…” she called to him. Yoshiro stopped in his path to turn and face her. “Thank you for helping me!”

        Yoshiro smiled then continued in his way. As Sakura watched him leave, passing some trees and foliage around the area, she saw something strange. Tracking his path were leaves changing, transforming its normally green hue to yellows and oranges.

        Sakura blinked then shrugged it off, rubbing her eyes—the constant eye contact with the sun as she sketched must have influenced her vision. Hearing her stomach protest for fuel, she quickly got back on task.

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

        “Thanks so much for waiting for me, Tomoyo-chan!” Sakura called as she ran towards Tomoyo, having just finished her sketch. “What are you doing?” she asked.

        “Since I was waiting, I thought I’d take some more shots of this place,” she replied through her camera. “Have you seen the floral arrangement of the Tokyo Tower? It was a work of art!”

        Sakura shook her head, “I didn’t have a chance to see it yet—you have to show it to me later, Tomoyo-chan!”

        “Hai (Sure).” Tomoyo took a break from her camera as she used her eyes to scan the area in front of her. “There are so many nice views here, but I just haven’t found the right shot to take yet. Do you mind if we walk around a bit?”

        Sakura looked at her stomach to seek permission. “Nope, my stomach’s not growling yet, so sure, Tomoyo-chan!” Sakura then giggled.

        “Great! Thank you, Sakura-chan!”

        “What are you planning to do with your pictures?”

        “I’m thinking of doing a painting,” Tomoyo replied simply.

        “Really—that’s nice. I’d love to see it when it’s finished.”

        Tomoyo nodded. “I will definitely show it to you to see what you think of it before I send it.”

        “Who are you sending it to?”

        “To Hiiragizawa-kun,” Tomoyo replied as she returned to the camera upon finding a potentially good shot for the painting.

        “Eriol-kun—I haven’t written to him for such a long time. How is he doing?”

        “He says ‘hi’ and he’s missing Japan and that’s why I’m doing this!”

        “That’s very nice of you. I know he will love it!” Sakura said with enthusiasm. “When are you thinking of sending it to him?”

        “It’s going to take me a while because I want the painting to look photogenic. As well as that, I have school, choir, and your battle costumes.”

        “B-b-battle costumes?” her voice: shrieking. What was Tomoyo-chan talking about?

        “Yeah—I can’t wait until you put on my new designs! With magic present again, you’ll need them.”

        Oh right, the aura—she had almost forgotten about it all. “Y-y-you already have new ones made?”

        “Hai!”

        Tomoyo-chan sounded so excited, she thought. It was great that it brought her best friend happiness, but at the same time, she felt the complete opposite. The thought of it created a sudden dull ache in her chest.

        She remembered how she had to push herself beyond her limits just to capture and transform the Clow cards to Sakura cards for the past two years. In that period of time, it had put an immense strain on her, her life, and the people who were affected by them. But at least back then, she had Syaoran to guide and support her. Now though, if this new magical presence turned up, she’d have to face it alone—and she wasn’t exactly sure how much confidence she had in herself to defend against this.

        In addition, the entrance of this aura was definitely the last thing she wanted right now. She had just come out of it not too long ago and to have it all happen all over again—she just couldn’t; she couldn’t think about it. Her life was chaotic enough having lost her most important person to magic... Then again, it wasn’t like she had a choice in the matter.

        “Sakura-chan, Sakura-chan,” Tomoyo called to her, voice echoing through Sakura’s thoughts.

        “I’m okay,” she replied to her unasked question.

        Tomoyo’s face expression became sombre. “Did something happen again?”

        “It’s nothing like that, nothing that I haven’t told you—it’s just…”

        Tomoyo smiled, comprehending her thoughts. “Li-kun right?”

        “Partly…” Sakura paused, trailing off as she gave herself time to hear her own thoughts. “It’s both. I’m worried about all the things that’s happening and facing this without him.”

        “Oh, I wish I could fight with you, Sakura-chan… I hate to see you face it alone,” Tomoyo said, disheartened.

        Sakura noticed Tomoyo’s troubled expression. She shook her head, “You don’t need to feel that way, Tomoyo-chan; I still have Kero-chan and Yue-san by my side.” Sakura then raised her index finger to the air—a trademark gesture she often used—as she tried to convince Tomoyo. “Also, also, you do help me out a lot too. Without you, I don’t think I’d have survived all the other times.”

        “Arigatou, Sakura-chan.”

        Sakura smiled happily. “So Tomoyo-chan, have you found Eriol-kun that perfect picture, yet?”

        “I think I’ve taken enough to choose from. Shall we head back?” Sakura nodded as both made their way for the lunch area to take their long-overdue lunch break.

        The afternoon sun was set at the pinnacle of its daily course as lunchtime finally made its way in on the day. The students and the public alike enjoyed the perfect spring day as they packed the small lunch area. Not so much enjoying the day though, were the gardens’ residents.

        Plant life and trees looked like they were living through the autumn season, while small patches of grass looked like it had already lived through a drought in summer rather than its current season. More and more were changing as each minute passed; and without even a single individual realising its serious condition, at the end of the day, the beautiful garden would be lifeless.

        Meanwhile, sitting amidst it all was the card mistress and her friends, Tomoyo, Chiharu, Rika, Naoko, Takashi, and Yoshiro. They were all enjoying their lunch at the picnic bench, showing their artwork whilst they ate.

        “Oh wow, Tomoyo-chan!” the girls exclaimed as they admired Tomoyo’s sketch.

        “You really have talent in art, Tomoyo-chan,” Sakura praised her as she placed her own sketch back under the table where her bag was placed, having just shown hers to her friends.

        Naoko nodded in agreement. “You have such insight. I can’t believe how detailed the bark is on your tree trunk—and the leaves: they’re so life-like! How long did it take you?”

        “For the most part of the time allocated,” Tomoyo replied. “Thanks for the compliments.”

        “How did you go with yours, Naoko-chan, Rika-chan? You guys did flowers, right?” Sakura asked, popping back up from under the table.

        “Hai,” Naoko replied. “It didn’t turn out as well as Tomoyo-chan’s, though.”

        “Can we see?” Tomoyo asked as she picked up her cup of orange juice, taking a sip.

        “Yeah, but it really doesn’t look that good,” Naoko said as she took her turn to showcase her sketch. She moved to her bag beside her to reach for it. “I think I’ll stick to drawing ghosts—”

        “G-g-hosts?!” Sakura stammered.

        Yoshiro cocked his head, having found another piece of interesting information about her. “Kinomoto-san, do you not like ghosts very much?”

        “GHOSTS?! Hoeeee!” Sakura fell backwards against Tomoyo who, in turn, spilt orange juice all over the table before both of them toppled off the seat.

        Yoshiro quickly moved to the end of the bench to peer at the fallen girls. “A-a-re you guys okay?”

        “Hoeeee…” Sakura said, nodding afterwards. She turned to Tomoyo who was sprawled across the lawn. “I’m so sorry, Tomoyo-chan. Are you okay?”

        “Hai, Sakura-chan.” Sakura offered Tomoyo a helping hand as the both returned to the table.

        It was all wet. On the table were a few of her friends’ lunchboxes and all of them had their lids removed. Her heart rid of guilt. Because of her childish fear, she was the cause of the dousing of water each of their lunches received when she fell.

        “Oh no… Mina gomen ne (Sorry everyone)! I’ll get some napkins to clean this mess up.” Sakura began to head off, but was stopped by Yoshiro’s call.

        “No, Kinomoto-san, I’ll go get them since I was the one who caused you to do that. Besides, I was going to get up and get a drink anyway. I’m as thirsty as those dry leaves on the trees.”

        “Hoe?” she said slightly baffled. She looked towards the direction he was looking at. I suppose some of the leaves on that tree in front of us do look a little dry, she thought. Dismissing it, she stood up. “No, Sato-kun, I’ll get them.”

        He nodded as he stood up as well. “Does anyone know where the drinking fountains are?”

        “I think I saw a few drinking fountains near some trees that I passed earlier,” Rika pointed at an angle to her left. “Just keep walking straight, you’ll see them.”

        “Thanks. I’ll be back soon,” Yoshiro said to the group as they all nodded.

        “I’ll be back soon too with some napkins. I’m so sorry I soaked your lunches,” Sakura said as she made her way towards the café just a short walking distance from the outdoor lunch area.

        A tall man stood behind the counter as he frothed the milk with the steam wand of the coffee machine. Sakura stood patiently in front of the counter as she waited for the man to turn around. She felt that, at any moment, he was going to turn, but he didn’t. He just began making another cup of coffee—going rather slowly this time.

        “Umm… excuse me, sir.” Sakura waited for the server to respond. He didn’t. “Excuse me,” she called to him again, but only to be ignored once more. “Do you have any napkins?” she persisted.

        “Can you not see it’s on the other end, next to the cash register?” he answered rudely.

        Sakura jumped in shock. “Hoe?”

        “…Kaijuu (Monster)!”

        That sounded familiar. “Onii-chan!” she shouted. She should’ve guessed: a man that could be that rude to her had to be her brother. “You knew it was me all that time?!” she huffed.

        Touya turned around with a smirk. “You wanted napkins…?” Touya leaned his weight onto the table as he lazily pointed to a spot Sakura couldn’t see from her position. “There.”

        Sakura moved over a foot to her right, searching for them, but couldn’t find them. Her brother sighed then moved over to where he pointed then lifted up the newspaper which lay on top of the napkins. Sakura gave him a glare: how was she supposed to know it was under all that?

        She walked over to it and grabbed a few napkins from the container, still glaring at Touya. “What are you doing here anyway—aren’t you supposed to be at your lectures?”

        “Nope—I had the day off.”

        “Touya, are those coffees done?” a voice came from behind the counter.

        “Hai, but Kaijuu over here is distracting me,” Touya replied. Sakura glared at him again—who was he to tell a total stranger that?

        “Arigatou (Thank you), Touya,” the voice said as he neared the counter.

        “Yukito-san!” Sakura called to him as he revealed himself from a room behind the counter, surprised.

        “Oh, Sakura-chan: how are you? What are you doing here?”

        She smiled, as always, happy to see him. “I’m good. Oh, our class is here to study the plants and trees the botanical gardens have here.”

        “How is that going?”

        “It’s great. It’s pretty here… I managed to do a sketch of a tree too. I’ll show them to you later!” Yukito nodded. “Anyway, I better get back to my friends.”

        “See ya, Sakura-chan. Enjoy the rest of your field trip!” Yukito shouted as Sakura exited the café.

        “See you later, Yukito-san!” she shouted to him cheerfully. Then she muttered, gritting her teeth, “See you later, Onii-chan.”

        Touya smiled. “See you later, Kaijuu!”

        As he expected her next reaction to be a grumble and followed by: I’m not a kaijuu, he was mistaken. Instead, Sakura stood still, mannequin-like. Only the tilt of her head betrayed the look.

        “Sakura: are you okay?” Touya asked, his expression displaying concern. She didn’t reply. He exchanged a glance with Yukito before they were forced to run after her as she hastily exited the café.

        How strange… They were all dying—trees, flowers, grass—all plant life were dying. I don’t understand; what’s happening? Sakura thought as she watched with incredible awe like the rest of the onlookers.

        In a few seconds, and as far as she could see, the vibrant green pigment which was present not too long ago soon disappeared as a sickening yellow overtook the leaves and grass in a quick sweeping motion. Flowers which stood proud in the sunlight eventually surrendered to whatever had taken away their life force as the flower crumpled before it dropped to the ground.

        “Sakura, are you—Oh my god,” Touya said, arriving onto the scene. “What is this?” his voice barely above a whisper.

        Yukito stood behind Touya, staring at the spectacle, just as amazed.

        Could it be—was it magic? It had to be… Sakura thought, arriving to a conclusion.

        A moment later, the detection of a strange aura—but not new to Sakura—quelled all other possibilities. Finally having her suspicions confirmed, Sakura’s attention was directed towards the people; they were watching all of this.

        “Sakura-chan,” Yukito said with exigency.

        “Yukito-san,” she replied as she turned to face him, surprised. Yukito was standing next to her, but through his intense stare, she could see Yue through them. He was desperately urging her to allow him to emerge to the surface.

        Getting the message, Sakura decided it was time for action, “Oh Key with the power of the stars: show me your true form. I, Sakura, command you under our contract: Release!”

        The small key which lay flat on her palm during her incantation, extended into the Sakura sealing staff. Having reached its final stage of transformation, she gripped the rod as she threw a Sakura card into the air. She made contact between the staff and the card, commanding, “Sleep!”

        Upon the order, everyone fell to sleep including Touya who was slowly descending off to the side. “Touya,” Yukito said in his soft voice. Quickly, Yukito moved to catch him then laid him on the ground before he transformed to his true form.

        Sakura kept her attention at the front, granting only a brief eye to the back. After her brother was safe, she returned her gaze to the dying plants ahead as Yue joined her.

        “I’m sensing magic,” Yue expressed.

        Sakura nodded—her facial cast in distress. “I have to do something. If I don’t, it’ll continue then everything will die.”

        “Your magic is enough to stop it,” Yue reminded her.

        “Right,” Sakura said. But what should she use? “Shield,” she finally decided, “Surround the gardens.”

        Both Sakura and Yue watched Shield obey the command as it encompassed the whole of the botanical gardens. But even Shield couldn’t stop this unknown source of magic from consuming the plants which had already been affected before the card’s activation.

        “The plants are still dying,” observed Sakura in dismay.

        Yue nodded. He spread his wings as he took flight, taking a bird’s-eye perspective of the situation. “Nowhere else is being targeted; only plant life residing in the botanical gardens are dying.”

        “There must be a way to save them… There must be a way to stop them from dying…” she thought aloud.

        “Shield is slowing down the magic,” he reported from above. “If you activate Time, you’ll be able to temporarily stop it.”

        “It’ll give me more time to think,” Sakura said more to herself than to Yue. Without hesitation, she threw the card in mid-air, summoning its power, “Time!”

        Sakura’s mind eased as she found that everything came to a halt, leaving her mind in peace to think of a way of reversing the damage.

        Once her magic had controlled the situation, Yue returned to stand behind Sakura, arms folded at the front as he gave an opportunity for his mistress to find a solution. She stood there, concentrating on her surroundings, desperately trying to realise a way to rescue the situation as she scanned the area.

        Nothing—nothing was any help.

        Time was running out—literally. Her magic was thinning especially with the use of three cards. Feeling herself weakening, she willed herself to come up with something more quickly. Then she remembered: Sato-kun had said he was thirsty, as thirsty as those dry leaves—maybe that’s what they needed.

        Quickly she went into action, calling back Time. As she got ready to call for her next Sakura card, she rocked from side to side ever so slightly. “I can feel my magic depleting… Please work. Rain: shower those plants with your rain!” she commanded, slightly out of breath.

        The rather small, but the cuter of the cards rose to the sky, high above the horizon. As deceiving as its appearance was, the Rain exerted a mighty volume of water in its cloud, giving the much needed irrigation to the plants.

        Slowly, but definitely, the plants began to revive, regaining their natural, healthy pigmentation. The botanical gardens had returned.

        “Phew. I did it!” Sakura said, relieved. Suddenly her head snapped upwards. “The aura: it comes in and out.”

        “Yes. I felt it. It’s gone now,” Yue confirmed.

        “Who is it?” Yue didn’t respond, clueless himself. “Why is this hap—“

        Sakura was descending towards the ground. Concerned, Yue extended his long arms to catch his mistress. “Call back the cards; they’re draining your powers!”

        She agreed. As tired as she was, she waited for Yue to transform back to his false form before calling her cards back.

        The moment the last Sakura card, Sleep returned, everyone began to regain consciousness to be greeted with a wet ground and water saturated clothes. They moaned as they got up, staring up at the clear blue sky; there wasn’t a cloud in sight and no sprinklers nearby—how could they fall asleep and get wet?

        Sakura watched everyone wring their loose clothing, trying to rid as much water as they could. “Mina-san gomen ne,” she said, quietly apologising as she too wrung the water out of her clothes.

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

        Not one student on the bus could sit still as they tried to bear the unpleasant feeling of wet clothes clinging to their skin. They shuffled uncontrollably as they tried to find a position which was the least irritating to them, all the while discussing about the field trip’s abrupt end.

        “I can’t believe my sketches are all ruined,” Sakura heard one of her classmates say to her friend. Sakura’s head drooped, feeling the guilt.

        “Mine too,” the friend replied.

        “What happened to your glasses, Naoko-chan?” entered Chiharu’s voice.

        “I don’t know how, but it was lying on the table when I woke up, shattered; I guess I broke them when I was asleep…” Naoko replied, confusion in her tone.

        “Sato-kun: sorry,” Rika apologised as she pulled her wet sleeves away from him.

        Yoshiro smiled. “Don’t worry, Sasaki-san. Are you cold?”

        “Just slightly, but I’m okay. I’m just wet,” she said with a smile. Then she looked at him with curiosity. “You’re so lucky you managed to stay dry, Sato-kun.”

        Sakura straightened her back, peering over the top of heads over to the front of the bus. Rika’s comment held truth; he wasn’t wet.

        “Yeah, I must’ve had luck on my side,” Yoshiro replied.

        She sunk back into her seat in thought. How odd…

        “I decided to head inside to get a drink when I realised the water was not going to come out of the fountains,” Yoshiro finished off.

        I suppose that makes sense. Sakura thought, falling back into her seat.

        Then she watched the scenery of houses, streets, people on sidewalks, and everything cross the path of her vision. As she watched it all pass her by through the sizeable bus window, apprehension stalked the corner of her mind; it was about to happen again and the immensity of it was unclear and unsettling.

        She felt like she was in the middle of a remote forest at the moment where nothing but eeriness existed. This place assumed thick fog and there was no way she could see or move through it. At the moment, all she could do was to wait it out until it began to clear.

        “Are you okay, Sakura-chan?” Tomoyo’s voice interjected her thoughts.

        Sakura snapped her head around to face Tomoyo, displaying a cheery expression. “Hai!” She didn’t want Tomoyo to worry; she had put her best friend through that too much these days. Sakura could see Tomoyo didn’t buy it and tried to move the conversation off that direction. “Tomoyo-chan: was your sketch okay? It didn’t get wet?”

        Tomoyo smiled. “No it didn’t. My bag was under the table next to yours, Sakura-chan.”

        Sakura sighed, relieved. “I’m glad. I feel bad for the ones which did though.”

        “You didn’t mean to, Sakura-chan. You had to do it.”

        “Thanks, Tomoyo-chan.”

        Silence settled before Sakura was reminded of the package in her bag. Sakura placed the bag onto her lap. Unzipping it, she got the package out before placing the bag back onto the ground.

        “I got a package this morning,” Sakura told Tomoyo.

        “Really?”

        She nodded. “It’s from Meiling-chan.” At the mention of Meiling, Sakura could see a change of expression in Tomoyo. She ignored the downcast of expression. “I wonder what it is!” Sakura continued, voicing her thoughts.

        She unbounded the flap from the yellow packaging and pulled out a red box. She opened it to find, “Chinese hair pins! Wow, pretty!”

        Tomoyo smiled, not interrupting, simply agreeing, “Hai.”

        Sakura emptied the rest of the packaging, pulling out a letter set. Clipped onto the letter set was a silver-rimmed, pink pen, and slipped between that, was Meiling’s letter. She slid it out then placed the letter set on her lap before she read the letter.

To my good friend, Kinomoto Sakura,

Happy birthday, Sakura-san! From now on I’m going to address you this way since we have known each other for so long. I hope you don’t mind.

Next is, why don’t you write more often?!

        “Hoe?” Sakura said, reacting to Meiling’s telling off. Then she went back to reading the letter.

But I forgive you because you couldn’t find a pen or paper, right? But, me being me, I’ve solved that problem for you! I’ve sent you a letter set along with my other gift (the hair pieces—aren’t they beautiful?) so that you have no excuse not to write to me more. I’m a great friend don’t you think?

Oh, about Syaoran, I had to remind him of your birthday, so… We actually had an argument about it… By the end of it all, I somehow ended up telling him to do it. You know him—it was then he gave in and said he’d do something. But then I yelled at him to not do it because I told him so, but do it because he wanted to. At that point, he got impatient with me and left the room.

So, I’m sorry it turned out that way, Sakura-san... Although, I don’t know what he did. You see, I got him to take it down to the post office the next day, so I don’t know if he listened to me in the end. I guess it’s: good luck, huh? I hope he sent you a gift.

Jya (Later), Sakura-san!

From your friend,

Meiling-chan

P.S. Sorry for the late birthday gift and say ‘hi’ to Tomoyo-chan and all our classmates for me and Syaoran, okay?

        Sakura kept her attention on the letter, absorbing what Meiling had said to her: there was a chance he may have sent her something. But memory has it that the package had a wide opening, so it wasn’t hard to miss anything unless it was so small that it was practically invisible. Furthermore, she was sure she emptied everything.

        Nevertheless, she reached for the packaging to suppress any curiosity.

        Just as she expected: it was empty. She smiled; it wasn’t like she didn’t anticipate the outcome to be so anyway.

        Quietly sitting in her seat, Tomoyo observed her friend every now and then. Sakura looked disappointed, but trying hard not to let it get to her. She supposed Li-kun had not sent her anything. She wished she could comfort her, but nothing she could do or say would ease what her friend was feeling inside; there was only so many times she could say something before it became discouraging and meaningless.

        At the moment, Tomoyo saw her holding onto the gifts, resting it on top of her backpack, appearing to have been in the process of sliding it into her bag. Instead, she stopped and sat contemplatively staring out the window. Her reflection showed an expression that not even Tomoyo could read herself—it was that confusing.

        She left her friend to her solitude, facing back to the front of the bus. In her periphery as she turned her head, she caught the traffic lights change to red. The bus jolted harshly as it came to an abrupt stop.

        Instinctively, Tomoyo turned to check on Sakura. “Sakura-chan—“

        Tomoyo was interrupted as she saw Sakura lose control of her possessions, desperately clawing them back towards her abdomen. Frantically, Tomoyo came to her aid, grabbing hold of the jewellery box Meiling had given her friend while everything else fell.

        “Here you go, Sakura-chan,” Tomoyo said, slightly out of breath.

        “Arigatou, Tomoyo-chan!” a relieved Sakura said from below as she scrambled to stop the other things from rolling and sliding underneath the bus chairs.

        Sakura shrieked when her pen started to travel as the bus shifted into gear again. “Hoeeee!” she shouted amidst the noise of the excited students. She slammed her palm on top of the pen, preventing it from taking off.

        Once she had that under control, she picked up the stationery before sighing, exasperated from the work. Sakura began to return to her upright position when halfway there, she felt her fingers slide as her stationery set appeared to have unstuck itself from something.

        “Hoe?” she said as she turned the stationery set around.

        Sakura didn’t feel it before, but it wasn’t part of the stationery set. It was a white envelope. She separated it from the stationery set and turned it around. Written on it were the romanji for Kinomoto Sakura.

        Syaoran’s writing: he had sent her this card. It had been so long since he had personally contacted her and she missed hearing from him so much. It was a small gesture, but it was more than enough to make today one of the best days she had in a long while.

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

Kinomoto Sakura,

Happy birthday

Your birthday was April 1st, so I suppose it makes this a belated birthday wish. I hope you had a nice birthday and that you received everything you hoped for.

Li Syaoran

To be continued in episode 5: “Sakura and Her Dismay”.