“The Deepest Friendship” - A Cardcaptor Sakura Fanfic Story Written by Freedom Fighter Rating: PG Finally, we're going to get some action in this fanfic. Will the gang be able to find the source of Tomoyo's nightmares? Disclaimer: I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura or any of the characters from the TV series. ***** Chapter Three (07.29.02) After going home to get some things and telling her dad and her older brother that she was sleeping at Tomoyo's house that night, Sakura and Kero, stowed away in her backpack, head back to the Daidouji mansion. As they rode the bus there, they tried once again to make sense out of Tomoyo's predicament. "It's funny that you can't sense it even though you have almost all of the cards," Kero noted. "By this time, you should be able to sense it easily. The kid should be able to as well." "What if it's not a Clow Card?" Sakura asked, getting scared once again. "What if some poor, lifeless spirit really did take over her body?" "Calm down. I'm sure that there's a perfect explanation for Tomoyo-chan's sudden mood swings." "You call slapping Meilin and Yamazaki mood swings?" "Well, yeah. We know that she doesn't have anything against them. The brat maybe, but not Yamazaki." "But Tomoyo's always nice! You know that!" "True. But there's more to this than meets the eye. Our best bet is to ask Tomoyo what she feels like just before she changes to her more slap happy form. That's the best way to find the root of the problem." "And if it's a Clow Card, I can capture it! Right?" "IF it is a Clow Card." "Hoe!" ====== Fifteen minutes later, Sakura and Kero were on the grounds of the Daidouji mansion. They enter as one of the maids escorts them to Tomoyo's bedroom. They were both hoping that they had gotten here before Syaoran and Meilin because they wanted to spend some private time with Tomoyo. No such luck, as the maid opens the door to Tomoyo's room and both of them are sitting on the floor on either side of her. After checking to make sure that they are all settled, the maid then leaves to start preparing dinner. Of course, that excites Kero a lot, as he jumps out of Sakura's backpack and starts dancing around happily. "Yeah! I can't wait to eat!" "But Kero-chan, you had three mints on the way here!" Sakura exclaimed. "We didn't come here to eat," Syaoran noted, angering Kero a little bit. "Well, kid, if I weren't in such a good mood today, I'd be yelling at you and the brat right now." "Stop calling me a brat!" Meiling shouts. "Kero, we're here to help Tomoyo-chan!" "And I'm happy that you did," Tomoyo told Sakura and the others. "I don't know what to do." "We think that a Clow Card has possessed her, Kero-chan. But I couldn't sense anything. Li couldn't either." Kero floats over to Tomoyo. He then lands right in front of her as he attempts to detect a card's presence. Sakura, Syaoran, and Meiling watch as Kero goes to work, glowing yellow for a few seconds. Kero then stops glowing as he presents his findings. "I don't feel anything." Sakura, Syaoran, Tomoyo, and Meiling all fall to the ground in disbelief. "Some help the stuffed animal was!" Meiling shouted. "Actually," Kero corrected himself, "I feel something. Just not a Clow Card." "What? You mean that something may have really taken over Tomoyo-chan's body?" "But I feel in perfect control of myself right now. It's just those two incidents at school." "She's got a point," Syaoran noted. "If a spirit had taken over her body, she wouldn't be in control of herself at all at anytime, period, and we wouldn't be here trying to figure out what the hell's going on." "Then what?" Sakura asked. She turns towards Kero, who is deep in thought. "I'm trying to remember which of the Clow Cards are still loose... but I can't seem to remember at all." "Hey! Tomoyo-chan, you said that you've had nightmares the past few nights, right?" Tomoyo nodded sadly. "That's why I've been so depressed the last two days at school. I don't want to imagine what I'd do if my nightmares started coming true, Sakura-chan." Sakura gulped in fear. "That makes two of us." "So we'll stay here and see if a nightmare will help us sense the Clow Card better. That is, if it is a Clow Card." Meiling rejoiced with glee as she leaned over and wrapped her arms around Syaoran. "That means that we'll get to snuggle tonight, right Syaoran?" Sakura laughs nervously as she watches Meiling ogle Syaoran to no end. ====== That night, Sakura, Tomoyo, and Meiling are talking amongst themselves while Kero sleeps on the dresser and Syaoran watches them from afar. "I guess I never got a chance to formally apologize for what happened yesterday, Meiling-chan." "No problem! I've taken hard blows than the one you gave me!" "Now, if I could only do the same for Yamazaki-kun and Chiharu-chan." "I'm sure they'd understand," Sakura says. "I just hope we can put an end to this before you do something extremely extraordinary." "I hope that never happens. I'm glad you're all here." Tomoyo then turns towards Sakura and grabs her hands with her own. "Especially you, Sakura-chan!" "Anything for you," Sakura gleefully replies, oblivious to the true sincerity of Tomoyo's statement. "It shouldn't be a problem for me and Syaoran to take care of! You're just here for moral support, Kinomoto-chan!" "Meiling-chan... why can't we all just work together for once?" "Because my Syaoran's the one and only Cardcaptor around here!" Off to the side, Syaoran sighs sadly, as he usually does whenever Meiling embarrasses him. ====== It's not long until all of them fall asleep. Tomoyo is sleeping in her own bed, while Sakura, Syaoran, and Meiling are on the floor, curled up inside sleeping bags. Sakura's bag is red with a pink cherry blossom pattern on it, while Syaoran and Meiling's are both just plain green. Thus far, Tomoyo seems to be sleeping comfortably. But suddenly, she starts to twist and turn as she lulls herself into a dream sequence... ====== "Sakura-chan! Behind you!" Sakura, dressed in another one of Tomoyo's battle costumes, hears Kero's pleas to watch out. She glances up into the sky behind her and spots the Clow Card preparing to fire an arrow at her. Immediately after the Clow Card lets the arrow fly, it quickly splits into two, then four, eight, sixteen, and so on, until there are hundreds of arrows in just a matter of seconds. And they're all heading for Sakura. "Fly!" Sakura quickly pulls out and activates the Fly card. She then jumps on her wand and takes flight, moving just as the arrows start hitting the ground. With some fancy flying, she manages to avoid them all. But she's not out of the woods yet, as the Clow Card fires off another arrow, which also begins to multiply, the same as before. Off to the side, Tomoyo is taping the whole battle with her camcorder, as she turns towards Syaoran and Meiling, who are off to her left. Syaoran has his sword out, getting ready to summon a spell. "Thunder god, answer my call!" Syaoran then swings his sword in the direction of the Clow Card. A thunderbolt comes flying out of the sword, aimed right at the card. But at the last moment, the card dodges the attack. "No way!" Meiling exclaims. "Syaoran had that card cornered!" "The Arrow card is one of the fastest cards!" Kero explains. "Even if you do get a chance to attack it, it's very hard to catch the card off-guard! We need a diversion!" Tomoyo suddenly gets a bright idea. Running with her camcorder in hand, she makes her way towards the group. "Tomoyo-chan!" Sakura shouts, not knowing what Tomoyo is trying. She gets almost directly underneath the Arrow Card. She then resumes recording, pointing the lens up at the card. As she's taping, she starts waving her left hand up and down. "Smile for the camera!" she shouts happily. "What's she doing?" Meiling shouts. "Tomoyo-chan, get out of there! It's dangerous!" As expected, the Arrow Card aims and fires an arrow right at Tomoyo. She lowers her camcorder and makes a run for it as the arrows multiply quickly in mid-air. Both Meiling, on foot, and Sakura, flying on her wand, race to save Tomoyo. Kero looks on, hoping Sakura will make it in time. He then notices that Syaoran is not paying any attention to Sakura. Instead, his attention is focused towards the card floating in the sky. Meanwhile, Sakura flies as fast as she can to pull Tomoyo out of the line of fire. It's going to be close! "Tomoyo-chan, grab on!" Sakura yells as she sticks out her arm towards the fleeing Tomoyo. Tomoyo quickly grabs on as Sakura brings the wand to a stop. She pulls Tomoyo up, then flies out of the path. Well, almost, as one of the arrows hits the back of the wand, bringing it to an abrupt stop and without warning, throwing Sakura and Tomoyo into the air. The two girls hit the ground, tumbling a few feet before rolling to a stop. ====== "Thunder god, answer my call!" Syaoran fires another thunderbolt at the Arrow Card, who is distracted as she watches one of the arrows hit Sakura's wand. But that's all the card sees as the thunderbolt hits her, paralyzing her and sending her falling to the ground. The card hits the ground with a loud thud. "Seal it!" Syaoran yells to Sakura. "Sakura!" Syaoran then hears Kero screaming with a hint of worry in his voice. Turning to the right, he sees Meiling running towards Sakura and Tomoyo, who are both on the ground and not moving at all. Syaoran sheathes his sword and immediately runs over to help. By the time he gets there, Tomoyo is awake and alert as Meiling tends to her. Syaoran sees that Tomoyo has a few bruises and a scrape or two, but is otherwise fine. He then turns to Kero, who is shaking Sakura furiously. But she doesn't seem to be responding at all. "Sakura! Sakura!" Syaoran pushes Kero out of the way and moves Sakura so that she's lying flat on her back. He gasps, seeing some blood coming out of a cut on her forehead. He quickly examines the rest of Sakura, seeing assorted bruises and cuts all over. "What's going on?" Tomoyo asks, slowly pulling herself up as Meiling supports her. She then sees Syaoran with his head rested against Sakura's chest, listening for a heartbeat. "Sakura-chan!" She tries to limp over to Sakura's side, but Meiling stops her just as Syaoran glances back at them to tell them the bad news. "She doesn't have much time!" Tomoyo glances a few feet away, where the Key of Clow and her now damaged beyond repair camcorder lie on the ground. But her attention was now focused on Sakura, who seemingly sacrificed her life to save her. "Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan! Wake up, Sakura-chan!" But Tomoyo's pleas for Sakura to wake up fall on deaf ears, as she fails to respond. Meiling runs off to find a phone in order to call for an ambulance. Tomoyo crawls her way over to Sakura's fallen body, where Syaoran is taking off the top layer of his robe in order to use it as a temporary wrapping to slow down the bleeding. "Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!" "There is a way to save her." Tomoyo suddenly hears the strange voice talking to her. Without trying to figure where it's coming from, she immediately seeks its help. "How?" "There's only one way to do it, Daidouji Tomoyo." ====== Tomoyo wakes up from her dream. She immediately hops out of bed and runs out the door. The noise immediately awakens Syaoran, who quickly shakes the others up. "Nani?" Meiling asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "What's going on, Li-kun?" Sakura asks before seeing that Tomoyo is not in bed anymore. "Where's Tomoyo-chan?" "She just ran out of here all of a sudden!" Syaoran exclaims. "Kero-chan, wake up!" Sakura yells, bring the guardian beast to his senses. "What?" he shouts, before freezing in his tracks. "I sense a Clow Card!" Sakura and Syaoran glance at each other and nod in unison. They sense it now as well. It was time to go to work. Sakura pulls out the Key of Clow from under her shirt and prepares to summon her wand. But before she could so, Tomoyo bursts back into the room. And she's holding something over her head, though it's hard to see what it is in the dark. "There's only one way to do it," the mysterious voice tells Tomoyo. "You must destroy the Clow mistress!" To be continued... Coming in Chapter 4: - Will Tomoyo really get rid of Sakura? - Can Sakura help her friend without harming her, even if she has to risk her own life for it? - Could there be one last secret to the Clow Cards that Kero hasn't told our heroes yet?