LEAVE IT TO KERO-CHAN SPECIAL EDITION: A GUIDE TO THE CLOW Konya nyatchiwa! Okay, for those who don't know about me, let me introduce myself before I begin...*ahem* I'm the very important, absolutely cool and awesome, amazing and incredible and powerful Cerberus, Guardian Beast of the Seal! It's my job to make sure the Clow Cards stay quiet in Clow Reed's book, 'THE CLOW'! ...demo, I kinda fell asleep and everyone got out and went crazy. Aheheheheheh... ANYWAY! So now that I've told you that, it's time to get to the reason I'm writing this. It looks like there's a new series here at Improfanfic which stars me (WAI!) and Sakura and Tomoyo and...a bunch of other people! And it's a little weird, and I kinda feel sorry for Sakura-chan, with the whole alternate universe thing and all. Hidoi ya! ;_; Oh, but I'm forgetting the point to this again, so let me get back on track. When writing something like this, it's very important to know a lot of stuff about both Street Fighter and about the Clow Cards and Card Captor Sakura in general. This tends to be a problem, as a lot of people know all about one but little about the other. SO! Because I'm such a nice and cool guy, I'm gonna tell you EVERYTHING you need to know to write a GREAT chapter of "Blossoms in the Spring"! Although actually, I may just focus on the Card Captor stuff for now, because there's a whole lot of websites that have more information about Street Fighter than I could give you. Besides, websurfing is fun, don't you think? So anyway, now I'm going to tell you a lot of stuff about Sakura-chan, the Clow Cards, and all that. Ready? Yoooosha! Let's start with the very important and powerful magic spells the Card Captor uses! As the Card Captor, Sakura-chan has a magical staff, the Key of the Seal, that is used to seal Clow Cards and to use the powers of any cards Sakura has in her possession! The Key doesn't really have a special name, so don't be afraid to just call it a key or a staff or whatever. There are two basic spells involving the Key that Sakura can use without any cards whatsoever. The first is the spell she uses to turn it from a little key into a staff that's a little over 1.2 meters in length. You may think it's the same spell I used to bind the Key to her in the first episode, but it's not, so listen carefully! "Key which hides the powers of the Dark...reveal your true form before me! I, Sakura, command you under our contract! RELEASE!" When Sakura uses this spell, the Key becomes her powerful tool as the Card Captor, allowing her to capture cards and use their powers. When it's time to capture a Clow Card, Sakura uses this spell to seal the card away: "Return to the guise that you were meant to be in! CLOW CARD!" Pretty simple, ne? By the way, notice that she doesn't actually have to say the name of the card she's sealing to make the spell work. I know you might be thinking Clow Cards work like a lot of other summoning/exorcism rituals, but that's just not the case at all! Sakura doesn't even have to know the name of the card she's sealing to make it work! For example, when Sakura captured the FLOWER Card at her school sports festival (see episode 10 of the anime!), I didn't tell her and Tomoyo what card was causing the trouble until after Sakura had already captured it! After all, I'm not necessarily always around when Sakura battles a Clow Card! Oh, but one thing: when Sakura uses a Clow Card, she does call out its name to activate it. Sometimes she uses a sort of incantation first, sometimes she doesn't. It really depends on the card she's using. Oh yeah...you might notice that I said the name of the card in all caps. This is a minor detail, but you might want to make a note of it...card names are usually capitalized in text for one reason or another, I dunno why, but doesn't it look cool? (I wonder why they don't capitalize my name, I'm a lot cooler than any of the Clow Cards...;_;) Now, let's talk about some of the Clow Cards and what they can do. I'll tell you about more cards in the future, but for the time being let's start with the basics: THE FLY With the FLY Card, Sakura can fly using the Key Staff. Its unsealed form is a big bird with powerful wings! It's pretty impressive! THE WINDY WINDY is one of the powerful cards of the elements. As the name implies, WINDY has control over the power of wind. Although WINDY is a gentle card, it can command awesome power, and is a great ally! One thing Sakura likes to use WINDY for: "Wind, become a binding chain! WINDY!" Using the WINDY to bind her opponent, Sakura has an easier time of sealing away almost any Clow Card! WINDY's true form is a cute zephyr-like girl with gentle eyes. THE JUMP JUMP is a tricky little card who, as his name implies, can jump really high and really far! His true form is a little weird...some kind of red plushie bunny thing with nasty eyes. THE FIGHT FIGHT is a scary card! She likes to fight strong opponents, and goes all out in every battle! Her true form is a cute girl in a fighting costume with hard eyes. THE FLOWER FLOWER is a cute and gentle card who likes fun things. She gets excited when there's a celebration or a festival, and she tries to make things more fun for everyone by spreading wonderful flowers! But she overdoes it a bit... FLOWER can make any kind of flower appear in any quantity. Her true form is a girl with curly hair in a party dress. THE SHADOW SHADOW is a bit of a scary card that can control shadows. It prefers to come out at night, obviously, and gets stronger the more shadows it has to add to its body. Its true form is just a big shadow, but you won't really see it all that often. Like WINDY, SHADOW can be used to bind things. THE SWORD SWORD, whose true form is an antique-looking sword, can make whoever wields it an expert swordsman. When using SWORD, your will determines its strength...if you don't want to hurt your opponent, you can use it to stun only. If you wish strongly, however, SWORD can cut through anything, even rocks. THE SHIELD SHIELD protects precious things. Used by the Card Captor, SHIELD can create a defense that protects against a number of things, including the power of other Clow Cards (see episode 12 for an example; Sakura uses SHIELD to ward off the effects of TIME). Its true form is an ornate silver shield. THE TIME Taking on the form of an old man in a hooded robe with an hourglass, TIME is an old codger who is a bit unpredictable. TIME can freely control the flow of time, and only those with inherent magical abilities can sense that time has been disrupted. THE THUNDER THUNDER is one of the elemental Clow Cards, and thus is very powerful! It looks like an impressive beast in its true form (it's not as impressive and cool as I am, though!), and controls the element of thunder, creating lightning that can be really shocking! THE WATERY WATERY is another high-level element card, and has a bit of a mercurial nature. She tends to be a bit violent, and can control water in any manner, up to and including making undercurrents that can hold someone underwater. Isn't that pretty mean? WATERY looks like a girl made of water with mean eyes. THE WOOD WOOD is the card that can make a big tree grow really fast. Its true form is a pretty wood sprite. THE RAIN RAIN can make a little shower or a heavy squall, and is very mischevious. She looks like a naughty little girl riding on a cloud. THE ILLUSION ILLUSION, who doesn't really have a true form (for obvious reasons), is able to see into the hearts of people and appear in a form that confuses and bewitches them. This is useful as a ruse or a distraction (see episode 9 of the anime!). Anyway, I think that's all I have time for right now because I have to get back to my video game! But I'll be back later to add some more info, just because I'm such a great guy! If you can't wait, though, I suggest you try going to this website: http://oldcrows.net/~rabi/CCS/ There's a whole lot more information about Sakura-chan and me and the Clow Cards here, so if you're writing for this Impro and need help, check it out! Oh yeah, and you can also e-mail the guy who started this thing. I think his e-mail addy is lurkerdrome@worldnet.att.net or something like that. He can help you out a lot, and is always willing to preread. Hona sainara!