“The Deepest Friendship” - A Cardcaptor Sakura Fanfic Story Written by Freedom Fighter Rating: PG The second chapter, finished at last! I’ll try to get a new chapter out at least every other week, possibly sooner. It all depends on how much time I have to write. I apologize for this taking so long. I didn't realize it's been TWO months since the last chapter. Anyway, enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura or any of the characters from the TV series. ***** Chapter Two The following morning, Sakura continues to worry about Tomoyo. As she arrives at school, she doesn’t even wave goodbye to her brother or Yukito. She takes a seat on a nearby bench to remove her rollerskates. Afterwards, she makes her way through the crowd and towards her locker. She opens it, gets out the books she need, puts her rollerskates in, and then closes it. As she heads for her classroom, she looks around for Tomoyo. She is nowhere to be seen. Sakura pushes the sliding door to the classroom aside. Entering the room, she is immediately confronted by Syaoran. “Uh... is there something wrong?” Sakura hesitantly asked. “Let’s go outside,” Syaoran responded nonchalantly. Sakura quickly complied and the two went out to the courtyard to continue their discussion. Once outside, they quickly look around to make sure no one is around. “Why so secretive, Li?” “Wasn’t Daidouji acting strange yesterday?” “You noticed that too, huh?” “Yeah. But didn’t you feel a bit strange just before she ran off?” “Yes, I did. I talked it over with Kero last night.” “What did he say?” “He said it may be a Clow Card, but he doesn’t remember a card that has the ability to control a person’s soul.” “You think Tomoyo’s possessed by an evil spirit?” “More or less, yes.” “That’s preposterous!” “Maybe. But you wouldn’t be asking me if you didn’t think a Clow Card was involved.” “True. We’d better keep a close eye on her.” “I agree. By the way, have you seen her today?” “Doesn’t she usually come in with you?” “Yeah, but I haven’t seen her at all this morning.” “I see.” “How’s Meiling doing?” “Oh, she decided to stay home. She was afraid that Tomoyo might attack her.” “Meiling? Afraid? That’s a first. I can’t believe it.” “And you shouldn’t believe it.” The two turn and see Meiling standing right beside them. She has an angry look on her face. Sakura jumps back in fear, running behind Syaoran and hiding in fear. “What are you two doing out here?” Meilin asked. “If you must know Meiling,” Syaoran began, “we were just discussing what happened yesterday.” “Yeah right,” Meiling replied sarcastically. “Explain to me why Kinomoto is hiding behind you?” Sakura steps out from behind Syaoran to defend herself. “We were just discussing the possibility of having to capture a Clow Card.” “Don’t lie to me!” Meiling exclaimed, getting right in Sakura’s face. “I know you were trying to take Syaoran away from me! How dare you!” “What?” Sakura shouted. “I would never do such a thing!” “She’s telling the truth,” Syaoran added. “We were discussing the Clow Cards and how Tomoyo may be possessed by one.” Meiling backs off of Sakura. She begins to walk away towards the building. She then turns around one last time and points at Sakura. “I’ll be watching you, Kinomoto!” With that, she heads into the school building. Sakura breathes a sigh of relief. “I thought she’d never leave,” she said. Syaoran grabs Sakura’s hand and begins to lead her inside. “We’d better head back or we’ll be late.” “Um... Li-kun...” “What now?” “Could you let go of my hand, please?” Syaoran looks down and sees that his hand is indeed clasped over hers. He immediately pulls his away and sticks it in his pocket. He blushes in embarrassment. “Sorry about that,” he apologized. “It’s okay,” she responded, smiling. “Ahem... let’s just keep an eye on Tomoyo, k?” “Okay.” At that exact moment, Tomoyo walked onto school grounds. Yes, walked. Usually, she would be given a ride to school by the family bodyguards. But she was feeling anything but usual today. Tomoyo seemed to be in some state of hypnosis, but how she got into it was unknown. The few random students that were hanging out in the courtyard suddenly go silent as they watch her pass by. It had taken less than a whole day for the news to spread over most of the student body. They had all heard about how she had slapped Meiling yesterday. Some of them were wondering if one of the teachers would confront her about it. A few others were wondering if her mother had heard about it. And a few were fearful that she might retaliate on someone else. Those fears were to come out sooner than expected, as Chiharu and Yamazaki walk into the courtyard, side-by-side. Without warning, Tomoyo quickly turns and lunges at the duo. But just as Tomoyo raises her arm to slap Chiharu hard across the face, Yamazaki pushes her aside just in the nick of time. That doesn't leave Yamazaki enough time to dodge the blow, though, as the sound of Tomoyo's hand connecting with his left cheek is heard throughout the courtyard. In fact, the slap is so hard that Yamazaki is sent soaring into the air, only to come down shortly thereafter. As the confused crowd tried to figure out what to do, Tomoyo runs off just as swiftly as she appeared just a minute ago. A random student or two ran off to find a teacher while Chiharu checks herself for bruises or scrapes after being shoved down to the ground. She then runs off to check up on Yamazaki, who seems to be cringing in pain. "Yamazaki-kun!" Chiharu shouted worriedly as she helped pull him up. "That stung!" he responded as he gritted his teeth. Chiharu looked at his left cheek and saw that Tomoyo's handprint had left quite a mark on his face. "Are you sure you're okay?" "I'm fine. But I have to admit, Tomoyo slaps pretty hard. Almost as hard as you do." "This is no time to joke around!" she yelled at him, only to discover that he had turned to talk to someone else. "Did you know that over 30 million years ago that girls were first born into this world? Back then, the only way a female would get respect from a male was if she slapped him silly. That's why boys started hunting animals for food. It was the only way to retain their masculinity, as well as their status as the head of the relationship. Not all guys were strong though, and so they resorted to beating up their wives constantly to show they were in charge. I think the most common weapon used for beating was a whisk. First, they would bash them over the head with it. Then they'd twirl it around in their hair to mess it up. And then..." Chiharu grabs Yamazaki by the ear and starts dragging him off towards the nurse's office, stomping all the way. "The only thing you're using a whisk for is to prepare the batter for that cake you were going to make me today! I swear, one day those stories of yours are going to get you into a lot of trouble." Of course, Sakura, Syaoran, and Meiling had heard about the incident. They ran down to the nurse's office, only to find Chiharu outside. "Chiharu-chan!" Sakura yelled out with a hint of worry in her voice. "Sakura-chan!" Chiharu responded. "What happened?" "It was Tomoyo-chan! She arrived this morning and... and..." "And what?" "Did she slap you across the face?" Meiling quickly interjected. "Actually..." "Wait! Why are you outside of the nurse's office if she hit you?" Sakura asked. "Actually, she hit Yamazaki." "What? Why would she do that?" "Well, she was aiming for me, but Yamazaki-kun pushed me out of the way and took the blow for me." "He did that?" Finally, Syaoran decided to speak up. "It's like yesterday, isn't it? She just tried to hit you, right out of the blue, for no apparent reason?" Chiharu sadly nodded in agreement with his theory. "What could be wrong with Tomoyo-chan? Do you think she's having trouble at home?" "I sure hope not," Sakura replied, not wanting to tell her that she thought that there was a Clow Card behind this. "We'd better visit her after school," Syaoran told Sakura. "Good idea, Li-kun." "You're not going without me!" Meiling added. "Fine," Syaoran sighed. Just then, the door to the nurse's office slid open. Yamazaki stepped out, holding a small ice pack up to his left cheek. Otherwise, he looked just fine. "Yamazaki-kun!" Chiharu cried. "Chiharu-chan, I'm okay." "How are you feeling?" Sakura asked him. "Oh," he responded, spotting the trio for the first time. "Other than that hard slap Tomoyo-chan gave me, I'm fine." "That's good to hear." "I hope we find out what's wrong with Tomoyo-chan before she really hurts someone." Later that day, Sakura, Syaoran, and Meiling take the local bus to the Daidouji mansion. They were determined to confront Tomoyo and ask her what was going on. "Now remember," Syaoran reminded Meiling, "we're here to talk." "I know, Syaoran!" Meiling exclaimed. Sakura goes up and rings the buzzer. Seconds later, Tomoyo's voice can be heard from the loudspeaker. "Hello?" "Um... Tomoyo-chan?" The other end of the line suddenly goes silent. Sakura rings the buzzer once again. "Tomoyo-chan? Are you still there?" "What do you think is going on?" Syaoran asked. All of a sudden, the gates begin to open. The trio walks past the gates and heads for the front door, where they see Tomoyo waiting for them. She ushers them in and leads them to the back patio. Once there, they sit down at the table set up there. "I knew you guys were going to come eventually," Tomoyo said. "We're just worried about you, Tomoyo-chan," Sakura stated. "What's going on with you? And why did you slap Meilin yesterday and then try to slap Chiharu today?" "I don't know. It just happened!" "What do you mean it just happened?" Meiling shouted, enraged. "You call slapping my face something that just happened?" "Meiling, sit down!" Syaoran ordered. Meiling sat down as Tomoyo resumed her speech. "It felt like I was losing control. Just minutes before I would slap someone, I felt like I lost control of my body. Like I was possessed or something." "Possessed?" Sakura asked, beginning to get a little scared. "You mean by a g-g-g-g-ghost?" "I don't know. But it felt like something!" "Sakura-chan, do you sense anything?" Syaoran asked. "You mean like a Clow Card? Let me see..." Sakura closes her eyes and begins to concentrate. As she does so, she turns her head towards Tomoyo. She then stays in that position for about a minute or so before coming out of it. "I don't sense anything at all," Sakura concluded. "That's weird," Syaoran added. "I could've sworn that there might have been a Clow Card behind this." "Me too. But why don't we sense it?" Sakura and Syaoran begins to ponder this thought as Tomoyo sits in her chair, getting more worried by the minute. "I don't know if this will help," Tomoyo began, "but this started happening after I had all of these recent nightmares." "Nightmares?" Meiling questioned, wondering where this was going. "What types of nightmares?" "Well... they're nightmares of me..." "That's terrible!" "It gets worse. They're nightmares of me... killing..." "Killing?" Sakura was starting to get worried again. "Of whom?" Syaoran asked, although he think he knew the answer. Tomoyo sniffles, then blurts out her answer. "They're of me... killing Sakura-chan." At that point, Tomoyo begins to wail loudly. As Syaoran tries to calm her down, his eyes are turned on Sakura. So are Meilin's. Of course, they had good reason to do so, as Sakura looked like she had just been scared out of her wits. "Me?" Sakura screamed. "No! I don't want to die! I don't wanna, I don't wanna, I don't wanna!" "Sakura-chan!" Syaoran yelled, bring Sakura back to her senses. "Freaking out isn't going to help Tomoyo-chan any right now. We've got to figure out what's going on!" "You're right, Li-kun. If Tomoyo-chan's having problems with nightmares, we'll help her out by staying here tonight!" "What?" Syaoran was the one freaking out now. "You mean tonight?" "If we're going to get to the bottom of this, we have to find out for sure what is causing her nightmares. And if it's a Clow Card, then I can capture it!" "If it's a Clow Card," Meiling interrupted, "then it'll be a piece of cake for me and Syaoran. We won't need your help." "Meiling-chan, this isn't the time to settle our petty diffrences. We have to help Tomoyo-chan out." "Sakura-chan's right. We have to do this together. Got it?" "But Syaoran..." "No buts!" "Fine. But she'd better not get in our way!" "Sure..." Sakura replied, sweatdropping. "Did you hear that? We'll help you solve your problems!" "Come on, Tomoyo-chan. We'll make sure you won't have any more nightmares!" All of a sudden, Tomoyo stops crying. She uses her arms to wipe the tears from her face. She then gets out of her seat and runs over and hugs Sakura. "Thank you, Sakura-chan! Thank you!" "No problem, Tomoyo-chan! After all, we're best friends!" "Right," Tomoyo reassured herself, "best friends!" To be continued... Coming in Chapter 3: - Sakura, Tomoyo, and Meiling have a sleepover, much to the chagrin of Syaoran. - But even that doesn't stop Tomoyo from having another nightmare. - Will Tomoyo really kill Sakura, or can the cardcaptor bring her friend to her senses? Copyright Date: 3/31/02