Wild Card


     The characters of  Card Captor Sakura are the copyright
property of Clamp, Kodansha and  NHK. No copyright
infringement is intended.

      This story dedicated to D-chan, who asked for it and to
Mad Hamlet, who read it. Thank you both for your
encouragement.

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

      At the sound of the musical chime the tall young man
carefully finished drying the dish in his hand and folded the
towel over the edge of the sink. Walking the few steps from the
kitchen to the front alcove he opened the door on a beautiful
elementary-school girl.

      "Hello Tomoyo-chan." Kinomoto Touya greeted his
sister's best friend.

      "Good evening, Touya-san," her soft musical voice,
like everything about her, was  perfectly suited to her delicate
doll-like features. Even the heavy braid of dark hair that hung
almost to her waist was like a work of art, and perfectly
contrasted her pale, petal soft skin.

      "I have some more tapes for you and your father."
Smiling softly she dipped into the bag on her shoulder,
producing a small bundle of video tapes which Touya took with
a small bow of thanks and a smile of his own. "May I go up?"
She pulled a notebook partially from her bag, letting the words
on the spine show. "Math homework," her eyes twinkled
slightly, "Sakura-chan doesn't like math. I don't want her to
fall too far behind."

      "Of course Tomoyo-chan," Touya held her bag while
she changed into house-slippers from her street shoes. "Go on
up. I'll bring some snacks later."

      "Thank you. But I made Sakura-chan's favorite cakes."
Her every movement soft and graceful, Tomoyo turned the
mere act of walking up the stairs into an otherworldly dance as
she mounted the stairs to the second floor. Walking a short way
down the hall she stopped, tapping gently on the door, before
entering a room, dark except for a soft glow coming through the
curtained windows.

      "Kero-chan?" She clicked on the light. "Why are you
sitting in the dark?"

      "T . . .Tomoyo-chan?" Looking like a small stuffed toy,
the guardian beast Kerberos struggled awake, blinking his dark
beady eyes in the sudden light, the white tuft on his tail
twitching slightly. "What are you doing here?" His normally
energetic Osaka-ben dialect sounded tired and rusty.

      "Sakura-chan hates math." Tomoyo pulled books from
her bag and placed them neatly on the small desk across from
the bed. Turning slightly to the left she opened the blinds,
letting moon-light and neon from street-lights stream into the
room.  Kero-chan's tail stiffened at the word 'Math', watching
as Tomoyo settled her ever-present video-camera in place and
touched a button on the small remote control.

      "Hoeeeh!" Sakura complained from beside her dresser.
"Do we _have_ to do math?." Tomoyo smiled fondly at her
friend's cute "pouty face".

      "Math," Kero-chan repeated slowly. "I guess I'll go see
it Touya left anything to eat."

      "I brought some tea and cakes," Tomoyo reached into
her seemingly inexhaustible bag again, producing a beautifully
wrapped package, paper and ribbon suitable for a gift to the
Imperial family.

      "That's a'right," Kero-chan assured her, fluttering
toward the door on feathery white wings. "I'll make Touya do
some work. Closing the door behind him, Kero-chan spiraled
down the stairs toward the kitchen.  Hearing voices coming
from the family room he changed directions.

      "What's going on?" He spoke to the young man with
greyish hair kneeling by the big-screen television at the far
corner of the room. Another figure sat huddled in blankets at
the bend of the large 'L' shaped sofa.

      "Hello Kerberos," Tsukishiro Yukito peered at the
guardian beast through the round glasses that dominated his
cheerful friendly face. "Tomoyo-chan brought some new tapes
and were just trying to decide which one to play first."

      "What's on them-----hey! Bean jam buns." Focusing on
the really important things in life, he swooped on the plate of
treats like a fat, fuzzy orange-coloured hawk. "Vrs unta thps?"

      "You're going to choke, one of these days." Touya
grumbled, entering with a pot of tea and cups on a tray.

      "Let him alone," his father Fujitaka remonstrated.
"Being able to eat a lot is a sign of good health." He shared a
chuckle with Yukito, even as he brushed clumsily at Kero-
chan's back with a hand that was too weak to even ruffle the
fur.

      "Yes, but Yukito was eating for two," Touya referred
to the Card Guardian Yue who shared his lover's body, then
looked pointedly at Kero-chan's bulging belly, "what's _your_
excuse."

      "I'm the Guardian of the Book," Kero-chan defended.
"I've got to keep my strength up."

      "Why?" Touya's face tightened and the temperature of
the room dropped markedly. "The book is empty, there are no
cards to guard."

           "Things change," Kerobus whispered, seeming
to collapse in on himself. "time passes."

      "We've got a wide choice tonight," Yukito's gentle
voice interrupted, removing the liner-books from the tapes.
"Volume-one of 'Nadeshiko feeds Sakura-chan rice pudding',
Volume-four of 'Nadeshiko and Sakura-chan go to the grocery
store' and a boxed set of 'Nadeshiko and Sakura-chan napping
in the afternoon'." He flipped to the end of one of the books.
"This looks interesting, an Omake theater 'Nadeshiko learns to
snow ski'."

      That surprised a laugh out of Fujitaka, causing him to
choke on a sip of tea. "I'd forgotten all about that," Touya
fussed around his father, cleaning and getting him a new cup,
deliberately letting his earlier anger dissipate in the mundane
activities. "Poor Nadeshiko," Fujitaka glanced sadly at his only
son, "your mother ended up wearing most of the mountain that
day. I thought we were going to have to wait until Spring
before we'd get her unthawed." His face softened as his mind
went back to an earlier time. "I wonder how Sonomi got those
pictures? I was still Nadeshiko's teacher, but even then she
suspected I was going to take her Nadeshiko away from her."
He shook himself back to the present. "Let's start with the
'grocery store'." He offered, looking at the date on the tape.
"As I recall I had to bail Nadeshiko out of jail." At the
surprised looks he elaborated. "Sakura was a _very_ energetic
two year old."

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

      Back at home, sitting on a green-velvet stool in front of
her vanity, Tomoyo drew an ivory comb through her thick hair.
A gift from Sakura-chan, and it made her think of her friend as
she smoothed the tangles from her dark mane. The action was
soothing as a Zen mantra, though not as nice as when Sakura
did it for her---- she looked at the myriad pictures of Sakura
lining the walls----- not nearly as nice as when she combed
Sakura's short brown hair. Finishing the final stroke, she
braided her hair for the night and slipped into bed. Pressing a
button on the bedside console, one wall slid back to reveal a
giant TV screen.  Another button brought the screen flickering
to life. She would let Sakura's sleeping face lull her to sleep.

      *Hoeeeeeee! It's a ghost!* Sakura's panicky voice
came from the wall mounted speakers.

      A whimper escaped Tomoyo's lips. The wrong tape. It
was the wrong------

@@@@@@@@@@

      "It's not a ghost," Kerberos, in his true form of a great
winged tiger,  swung his massive head from side to side, testing
the air for magic. "It smells like a Clow card, but different."

      "I agree," Yue, in the form of a winged man made of
moon-light, landed lightly beside his companion guardian.
"This is Card magic, not a ghost."

      "Sakura-chan will capture the card and make it hers,"
Tomoyo said with serene confidence. She smiled at her friend,
even as she made a minute focal adjustment to her camcorder.
"and Sakura-chan looks especially cute in the new costume I
made for her."

      "It's embarrassing!" Sakura turned to Tomoyo,
momentarily diverted from her fear of ghosts. "Do I _have_ to
wear it?" She swept a hand to indicate the midnight-blue
cuirass and skirt, which left her arms and legs bare, except for
the green hourglass-gauntlets and gold thigh-high calvary style
boots. Looking over her shoulder she set the iridescent
butterfly-wings dancing. "And why are there blinking lights?"
She moved her own wings experimentally to make sure they
didn't tangle with the costume.

      "Those are Sakura-chan's navigation lights, for when
she is flying," Tomoyo pointed out, "Red on the left, green on
the right and white," she picked up a lightly stiffened gossamer
strand with a rotating strobe, " for the tail."

      "Ohe, I'm _not_ an airplane."

      "Certainly not," Tomoyo settled a jaunty red Tam-o-
shanter on Sakura's head. "Sakura-chan is _much_ cuter than
an airplane. And the chest-plate is lined with kevlar, while the
gloves and boots are reinforced with titanium, so Sakura-chan
will be well protected." She indicated a small lump on the
armors left shoulder. "There is even a built-in transmitter, so
this will be the best video of Sakura-chan capturing a card,
ever."

      "Ohee." Sakura hung her head in embarrassment.
Before she could try to talk Tomoyo out of videotaping her, or
at least getting her a less gaudy costume, a ball of black
lightning roared out of the trees and headed toward Penguin
Park, blasting  a shower of wood, stone and steel toward the
quartet.

      "Shield!" The Star Wand spun in Sakura's hand,
activating her chosen Card.

      The lethal storm smashed into the glowing wall and
vanished into nothingness.

      "Yue! Kero-chan! Take care of Tomoyo!" The sun and
moon guardians moved at the Card Mistresses bidding to ward
her friend. "Fly!" Wings erupted from her back and Sakura
took to the air, zipping down the trail of destruction left by the
rampaging thing. Camcorder leading the way, Tomoyo dashed
after her, Kerberos and Yue on either side.


      "Windy-----with chains of wind, bind-----"

      Blackness, deep, cold and clutching reached for the
winged girl, wrapping around her leg. Sakura screamed as the
leather and titanium-mesh boot flashed into steam.

      "S . . .sword," the enchanted blade spun in her hand,
biting deep into the ugly tendril that was dragging her down.
Bit, but did not cut clean.

      "Power! Fight!" Two more cards she called to her
service and once more 'Sword' flashed, cutting-----not cleanly
----but freeing the Card Mistress, who darted out of range.
Biting back a surge of nausea Sakura looked down at her
shattered leg, then looked away quickly. The strain of
maintaining four Cards, on top of her injury, was beginning to
tell as her strength drained away like water through a broken
dike. Frantically she tried to think of a Card, some combination
of Cards that would allow her to fight this thing. And then there
was no more time.

      It turned----- by accident, by design, some random
hiccough of the Universal Devine-----and rebounded toward
Tomoyo with a sound like cannon-fire, as hundred-year old
oak-trees turned inside out and vanished. Granite melted and
flowed like water, while concrete and steel fountained into the
air and turned to star-light. Kerebos's fire and Yue's arrows of
frozen Moonlight splashed against it's roiling darkness and
were absorbed, then the two Guardians were tossed aside like
rag-dolls as the thing roared down on Tomoyo, who kept
filming, calmly assured that the Card Captor would protect her.

      Folding her wings, Sakura dove like a stooping hawk,
flaming sword outstretched, recklessly spending her last store of
magic in a bid to reach Tomoyo before the ravening ball of
chaos consumed her. Unbidden the elemental cards,  Firey,
Earthy, Windy, Watery sprang forth, creating a barrier in front
of her. Close behind came the rest of her Cards, Thunder, Dash,
Arrow, Dark-----even gentle Wood and Flower. All of the
Sakura Cards made of themselves a weapon and a shield for the
Card Mistress they loved.

      With the burning thunder of a thousand train wrecks the
jaws of darkness charged for Tomoyo, growing larger and
larger in the viewfinder. She could feel the frozen heat stinging
her flesh when an avenging angel pierced the heart of the dark
storm.

@@@@@@@@@@

      The view spun crazily on the big screen for a moment,
then went blank. Tears streaming down her face Tomoyo
dashed from her room and out of the house, ignoring the
startled cries that echoed behind her.

******
      Hours later she found herself in Penguin park. She
hadn't been back since Sakura . . .she hadn't been there in
months.  The giant Penguin slide was gone, except for a few
twisted bits of steel and a shallow crater. The shattered and
'changed' park had been bulldozed away, leaving a stark open
wound, that was still better than the twisted creeping trees that
wept  blood, the concrete roadway that  writhed and cried like a
child in pain and the other . . .things.

      A gas leak and explosion had been the official
explanation, while the unpleasant, unnatural, unexplainable bits
had been quickly disposed of, almost as quickly as the shattered
body of . . .Tomoyo swayed, feeling faint at the memory of her
last sight of Sakura-chan. Laying in the midst of the devastated
park, like a bundle of old rags. Mercifully,  Kerberos had
shielded the pitiful remains with his wings, while Yue took her
in his arms and turned  away from the sight. She stared
unseeing at the spot, remembering how much Sakura loved the
park, especially the giant Penguin slide, when a faint noise
caught her attention.

      She turned toward the sound, the camcorder she'd
grabbed out of habit as she fled her room, coming
automatically to her eye. In the view-finder a flickering light
grew in size, quickly resolving into the image of a winged girl,
slashing at a pulsing, heaving ball of light with a sword. The
two images darted together, then apart, in a frantic combat that
brought them closer and closer to the ravaged park with a
droning sound like a distant hive of wasps. She jerked the
camera from her eye as the image filled the viewfinder, to see
again her Sakura-chan's death dive into the heart of the beast.
The two ghostly images met and flared in a white, soundless
explosion.

      "Sakura-chan?" She ran for the spot where the images
had met, where Sakura-chan had died.

       "SAKURA!"

*****

      "Is she asleep?" Yukito looked up from where he was
making cups of strong Turkish coffee. Adding another scoop
full of sugar he appeared satisfied when he could stand the
spoon upright in the syrupy mixture. Dinner had been forgotten
after an hysterical Tomoyo had staggered into the house on
bloody bare feet and everyone was feeling the effects of hunger.

      "Finally," Touya said wearily, taking one of the
proffered cups. He took a sip, then grimaced at his lover.
"Don't you think you've got too much coffee in your sugar?"
He grabbed a tray of sandwiches Yukito had made and the two
of them headed for the family room.

      Mizuki Kaho sat on the couch, next to Fujitaka, her
long red hair unbound and flowing down her back like a banner
of blood.  She reached for a sandwich and coffee, without
taking her eyes from the white-snow flickering on the television
screen. "Thank you." the some-time math teacher, some-time
magician offered absently, taking a sip of the tarry black brew
with every sign of pleasure.

      "Anything?" Touya asked, settling next to her, Yukito
beside him.

      "Nothing but a blank tape," Kaho took a bite of
sandwich and chewed thoughtfully. "I've been over it twice,
and there's nothing here but static. The camera," she pointed to
the camcorder laying in pieces on the table, "was in perfect
working order . . ."

      "So, if there had been anything to see, the camera
would have picked it up." Fujitaka finished heavily.

      "I'm afraid so." Kaho answered. "I'm sorry. But it
looks like a simple case of nervous exhaustion, causing
delusions."

      "It's not your fault." Fujitaka said wearily. A clouded
expression crossed his face as he wrestled with a thought.
"Could . . . could you tell me what happened? That time when
. . . I never really knew what happened. I never even knew
about the cards until after . . .so I didn't really understand . . ."

      "It was a Wild Card" Kaho answered after a moment.
"That's our best guess, after the fact." She paused, searching
for the right words to explain colour to a blind man, or magic to
a man who had none himself. "The Cards are elemental forces,
given form, limits, control. A magician is simply someone who
can see and touch the stuff that makes up matter and energy,
the quantum glue that holds the universe together. With enough
power a magician can start fires, break stone, move things from
place to place with her mind." She gestured and pieces of the
camcorder rose from the table and circled the couch before
settling again. "A crude application of brute force, but mildly
impressive to the untalented." Kero-chan pulled down his
eyelid and stuck out his tongue at the red-eyed woman, who
merely smiled back.

      "A really _powerful_ magician," she continued like
Clow Reed or . . .or Sakura can manipulate matter on the
quantum level, change matter to energy and back again, alter
the flow of time, do almost anything, limited only by the force
of their will and the strength of their life force."

      "Why," Fujitaka asked, unable to really comprehend
what the young woman was talking about, but willing to accept
on faith. After Yukito and Kerebos had revealed their true
forms following Sakura's death he had learned a lot about faith.
"Why did you want my baby to fight these awful things. Why
did she have to . . ." A shudder wracked his body and he put his
face in his hands.

      "Not for fighting," Kaho shook her head, "but for the
same reason a composer writes sonatas, or an artist uses paint
and canvas. To create beautiful things." At Fujitaka's
disbelieving look she gently squeezed his shoulder. "Some of
the Sakura Cards _were_ dangerous; Firey, Watery, or  Sword
for instance, but most were playful and gentle like Wood, Song,
Flowery. And they were all beautiful, in their own way. A
magician is like any other artist, driven to create . . .in their
own unique medium."

      "And sometimes there's a very limited audience for
their creations." Touya muttered, thinking of some of Clow's
odder creations like "Silence" or "Bubbles".

      "What is this 'Wild Card' you were talking about?"
Fujitaka asked after a moment.

      "A Wild Card is a . . .a potential," Kaho said slowly,
struggling to explain. "an  unformed pool of magic. It can
happen naturally or sometimes a magician overestimates his
power and his . . . his 'making' breaks loose. Then you have a
'Wild Card', an unstable matrix that blunders around looking
for something or someone to set it's pattern. If left alone, a
Wild Card may simply break apart after a time." She heaved a
sigh, "Most are tiny things. They cause strange lights in the
sky, poltergeist reports, sightings of sea-serpents, that sort of
thing. Larger ones can cause more damage, but _usually_, the
bigger they are, the more quickly they fall apart.  The one that
kil . . .the one in Penguin park was the largest I've ever heard
of. And it might have come from a thousand miles  or ten-
thousand years in time. If it hadn't been stopped, it could have
devastated Tokyo, killing millions." She put her arm lightly on
Fujitaka's shoulder. "It might help to know that Sakura was a
great hero."

      "Thank you," Fujitaka said heavily, raising shakily to
his feet, "but it doesn't help." He turned to Touya. "I'm going
to my room, now. I'm very tired." He waved off an offer of
help and made his way slowly to the stairs.

      "Tomoyo's mother is flying back from New York,"
Yukito remarked, watching as Fujitaka vanished up the stairs.
"I told her Tomoyo would stay with us, until she got back." He
moved to open the sliding doors, letting the night air cool the
room.

      "That's fine. Sa . . .she would have wanted that,"
Touya smiled sadly. "I called Hong Kong, to let Shaoran and
Meiling know." He dropped heavily onto the sofa, cradling his
head in his palms. Yukito moved quietly behind him and began
messaging his shoulders.

      "And?"

      "Yelan still has them traveling all over Europe. Trying
to keep her son and his new bride entertained, I guess." His face
tightened with anger.

      "It wasn't Shaoran's idea to marry," Yukito said softly,
easily reading Touya's emotions. "or Meiling's. But they were
both tearing themselves apart with guilt for being in Hong
Kong instead of here.  Yelan may be ruthless, but she's keeping
them both too busy to grieve themselves to death."

      With a sigh, Touya's iron tense shoulders relaxed.
"Someone on Yelan's staff is going to try to get a message to
them by the end of the week." He lay his cheek against one of
Yue's hands, smiling gratefully. "I'm not sure what they could
do for Tomoyo. It's just-----"

      "They were all friends," Kaho put in, finishing off her
coffee and reaching for the pot. "they would want to know she's
in trouble. I just hope it's not too much for Shaoran to take, on
top of everything that's happened." If she closed her eyes, she
could see the young boy looking small and lost in the middle of
the stark white hospital bed,  thick bandages wrapped tightly
around his chest, IV tubes pumping fluid into a body bled
almost dry. If the shard of glass hadn't broken against a rib
above his heart, if he hadn't passed out before he could try
again, if Meiling hadn't had a 'feeling' and gone looking-----
She took a deep breath to dispel the vision.

      "What were you thinking?" Yukito asked softly.

      "That I'm glad I've never loved anyone." She ignored
Yukito's troubled look. Finishing her second cup, she stood to
leave. "Don't bother to see me out. And let me know if I can
help." She bent to kiss Touya softly on the forehead, then left
through the sliding doors.

****

      Tomoyo lay in Sakura-chan's bed, staring up at the
ceiling as the last of the twilight faded to night. Out of the
corner of her eye she could see the dim outline of Sakura-
chan's favorite stuffed animals; Owl-san, Swan-san, Bear-chan,
with his gold crown, and Penge-chan. Tomoyo lay her cheek on
the pillow and inhaled slowly. She could feel Sakura-chan's
presence and tried to hold onto the feeling, tried to fill the sick
void in her middle with the bits and pieces of Sakura that lay
fading in the room like picked flowers.

        She lay quietly as the street lights flickered into life
with an atonal hum, and while the moon crept across the sky,
casting odd shadows of moonlight mixed with neon. A soft
tapping came at the door, and Touya quietly asked if she
wanted dinner. She ignored him, and he went away. She lay
quietly, waiting for the murmur of voices and the click of
chopsticks to still, waited for the house to settle into slumber. A
while longer she waited, then rose and moved to the window.

      She swung her legs over the sill and jumped for the tree
branch, landing with an ooomph. For a moment she paused,
waiting to see if any in the house had heard, then awkwardly
made her way to the ground. She was not as athletic as her
Sakura-chan, but what she had to do, she could do.

      They'd watched her closely for the past weeks. Afraid
she would . . .she smiled to herself. They were so gentle around
her, so quiet, so worried that she would try what Shaoran had
tried. She made a tiny moue of disgust. She would never make
a mistake like that. The secret was to make calm, methodical
plans.

      Patting her pockets she made sure she had everything;
the Sakura Book, empty now of cards, the Star Key, cold and
dull looking in the yellowish glow of the streetlights and her
greatest treasure. The small rubber eraser in the shape of a
rabbit-----Sakura-chan's first gift to her.

      Moving through the darkened streets like a fairy
shadow, Tomoyo arrived at Penguin Park in less than half an
hour, then settled herself to wait.  They kept telling her that
Sakura-chan was . . .that Sakura-chan had gone away. That
cherry blossoms were fleeting, and were all the more beautiful
because they left this world so quickly.

      The sick feeling came back, almost doubling her over.

      That was stupid. Sakura-chan couldn't be . . .she
wouldn't go away. Not without Tomoyo.  Tomoyo had been
born for Sakura-chan, she'd known that from the moment she
first saw Sakura-chan. Tomoyo's name meant 'friend and
trusted attendant'.  Sakura-chan's friend. Sakura-chan's
attendant. Tomoyo without Sakura-chan was like night without
day, or up without down. It just wasn't possible. And Tomoyo
didn't believe in impossible things.

      The flickering light again, but this time Tomoyo was
ready. She knew what to do. Pulling out the tiny key pendant,
topped with the gold five-pointed star within a circle, she raised
it high, as she'd seen Sakura-chan do so many times before.

      _They_ couldn't see anything.

      "Key that holds the power of darkness . . ."

      _They_ thought she was imagining things. Imagining
the ghostly image of a winged girl chasing a seething ball of
energy that sped ever closer.

      " . . . reveal your true form to me!"

      She'd heard them talking, when they thought she was
asleep. Talking about the Wild Card and about Sakura. And
she knew then what she had to do. Seal the Wild Card and save
Sakura-chan.

           "I, Tomoyo, order you . . ."

      She'd save her Sakura-chan, and everything would be
alright again.

      " . . . under our contract. Release!"

      The Key remained dark, the Star Wand didn't appear.
The pale, insubstantial image of the winged girl was almost on
her.
      "Release!"

      Almost she could reach out and touch the fluttering
white wings, tattered and burned, that grew from her shoulders.

      "Release!" The ghostly images passed her by, heading
to the raw wound in the center of the park. "Release!" She ran
after her. "Release-----Release-----RELEASE!"

      In a soundless explosion of white light, the girl
vanished, leaving Tomoyo alone. "Oh please," she fell to her
knees beside the crater, "please Release. Please. Please." She
bowed her head to the ground, praying to whatever Kami might
be listening.

          "Release!

         "Release."

         "Please . . ."

****

      False dawn was starting to light the park and Tomoyo
sat dry-eyed and empty beside the crater where her Sakura-chan
had died, waiting to see her again. A dozen times that ghostly
scene had played itself out, and each time Tomoyo had
commanded the key, begged the key,  threatened and cried over
the key.  But the Key remained a key, and there was no magic
in her hands.

      As the ghost of her Sakura-chan came near, a gentle
breeze blew the scent of new blooms to her, and delicate pink
blossoms swirled around Tomoyo's head. Spring. The Cherry
Blossom Festival was today.

      Sakura's birthday.

      She'd almost forgotten.

      Letting the useless key and book fall to the ground she
stood to meet Sakura-chan's ghost.

           *Sakura, Sakura.*

      Tilting her face to the sky, she began to sing.

                 *Yayoi no sora wa,

                 mi-watasu kagiri.*

      Softly at first, then with more power as her love and
grief poured forth.

                 *Kasumi ka kumo ka,

                 nioi zoi-suru.

                 Iza ya! Iza ya!

                 Mi ni yukan*

      Over and over she sang, the old song of festival and joy.

           *Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms.

Cherry blossoms are everywhere.*

      Her Sakura _was_ here. In her heart.

                 *Like a cloud from out the sky

                 mist of blossoms fills the air,*

      She closed her eyes as she sang, feeling the soft petals
brush against her skin.

                 *Cherries, cherries, blossoming.

                 Come and see, come and see.*

      An electric tingle ran up her spine and she felt the wind
blowing stronger and stronger around her.


                 *Let all see and sing.*

      But she couldn't see. The air around her with thick with
light, so dark it deafened her. The blinding scent was rough
against her skin as she became the song.

           *Saita, sakura,
              hanamite modoro.*

      *Cherry blossoms, Cherry blossoms,
      All the world their beauty sees*

      She welcomed their sharp edged beauty
as it cut her like a knife, and her blood fell like rain to the
ground.


                 *Yoshino wa sakura,
                 Tatsuta wa momiji,*

                 *Yoshino is cherry land,
                 Tatsuta for maple trees*

      And Tomoyo? Where was her place, without Sakura-
chan?  The song solidified around her, clogging her lungs with
beauty, breaking her bones with love and silence screamed her
name.

                 *Iza ya! Iza ya!*

                 *Come see, come see*

      She couldn't breath.

                 *Mi ni yukan.*

                 *Let all see and sing.*

      Like a puppet whose strings are cut, Tomoyo fell to the
ground, her blood soaking into the thirsty earth.

                 *Sakura, sakura . . .Sakura-chan!*

      Spent, she lay on the hard packed dirt, disinterestedly
wondering if she were dying.   As she stared up at the cloud of
swirling cherry blossoms they gradually coalesced into a solid
shape that fluttered to the ground beside her. Tomoyo let her
head roll to one side, to see a pulsing rectangle, scribed with
cherry blossoms and musical chords.

      Feeling a slight stir of interest she rose on one arm,
reaching out with her other. Grasping the card, she lifted it,
almost dropping it in surprise. It was heavy. And warm.
Strength seemed to flow up her arm from the card like an
electric flood, washing away her injuries.  Turning it over, she
saw the card's name written at the bottom in Romanji and it's
power at the top in Kanji. In the center was the image of a
smiling winged girl, surrounded by a host of smaller figures; a
mirror in the corner, a shy quick animal, peeking around a tree.
A rain cloud, a shield . . .on and on the figures stretched, in an
endless chain around the girl.

      Crying and laughing at the same time she wrote her
name, with a shaking hand in her own blood, across the bottom
of the card, capturing it for all time; the only Tomoyo card that
ever was or ever would be:

                         Beloved

                             Sakura



*******************************************************
      End


My stories and D-chan's may be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/ayongedarling/index.html

Mad Hamlet may be found at:
http://www3.mb.sympatico.ca/~shadow27/madhamlet.htm


















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