___ ___ <__< BLOSSOMS IN THE SPRING <__< A crossover Improfanfic started by The Eternal Lost Lurker Street Fighter and all related trademarks belong to Capcom. Cardcaptor Sakura and all related trademarks belong to CLAMP, Kodansha. Used without permission. ___ <__< Chapter Three: Sakura and the deluding ILLUSION card ___ <__< -----======----- "So where are you planning on going, Sakura-chan?" Kasugano Sakura smiled up at her mother as she stuffed a couple of books and Cerberus into her old backpack. "Well, after Yuriko-chan gets here, we're going off to visit Rei. Remember Kasawara Rei, from break last year?" Her mother thought for a moment, then nodded. "Tall girl, light hair, very fast? Yes, I remember her. She seemed a nice girl, if a little overly serious at times." "That's her. We probably won't get another chance once school starts, so I thought I'd go visit her now." Sakura picked up her backpack, made sure the framed picture of Ryu was sitting in front of the hole in the window, then added, "I'll be back for dinner, and the Kasawaras' phone number should be in the little notebook by the phone." A knock sounded from the back door. "And that's probably Yuriko-chan now." "All right dear. But be careful, and make sure you're back early for dinner so you can help with the chores." -----======----- Sakura looked over at her happily skipping friend Yuriko, or really Tomoyo, and felt a surge of nervousness. Not that she didn't have enough reasons to feel nervous: she was one of the youngest competitors on the Street Fighter circuit, she was chasing down some weird magical cards from some past life, school was going to start up again soon, and she was currently going to visit a friend that she hadn't seen in several months. No, the real reason for her being nervous now, though, was the long, thin suitcase that Tomoyo was carrying. The one that looked a lot like a folded garment bag with a handle. "Are you sure about bringing that along, Tomoyo-chan?" Tomoyo smiled, skipping along. "Oh, of course! You never know when Card Captor business will come up, and I want to make sure my Sakura-chan looks her best!" There wasn't much Sakura could do in response to that but sweatdrop. A stuffed toy nosed up from Sakura's backpack, looked around to make sure nobody was close, then asked, "So who is it we're visiting?" "Her name is Kasawara Rei. She's someone I met last year while I was training. Her family owns a small dojo just up the road here, and I sparred with her for a while over the break last year. Her mother had just died, and she really needed a friend. I spent several days here helping to cheer her back up, and she came to visit my place a couple of times as well." "Oh, how sad." Sakura nodded. "They were a fairly traditional family; and she's the only child, so she's going to inherit the dojo once she's old enough and can be registered as a sensei." Tomoyo would have clapped her hands together, except one of them was carrying something. "Ooooh, sounds fun! So does her father teach classes?" Sakura shook her head. "A little, but not really. The dojo was in her mother's name. Her mother was of the Kasawara clan, her father married into the family and took their name to make sure the clan had an heir. I'm not sure of the details, but I think for now the dojo actually belongs to her grandfather as the clan head until Rei comes of age." "Oh. Okay." Sakura smiled as they rounded the last curve in the street, bringing their destination into view. "And here we are, the Kasawara..." Her voice drifted off as she got a good look at the completely ruined dojo. It looked like somebody had been using it as a test target for a bazooka: holes had been blown through it, the roof had fallen over because a couple of the support beams were knocked through, and pieces had been scattered as far as the street. The house was in better shape, but not by much. A small group of city workers hovered back at a safe distance, one of them lying on the street. And in the center of the destruction was a young girl, glaring back at the workers. "... dojo?" Tomoyo stopped in shock at the scene in front of her, while Sakura started jogging up to the men on the street. "What happened here?" After giving his downed companion a quick glance, one of the workers turned to Sakura. "There was a big fight of some sort here about three days ago, and Kasawara-san had to get taken to the hospital. Ever since then, that girl has been stopping anybody from trying to enter the grounds to clean things up. Screaming something about 'defending the family dojo from invaders'." Sakura frowned, hearing Tomoyo coming up behind her. "That's weird. Rei has always taken the family honour very seriously, but she's never been this obsessive." "Well, if you think you can talk some sense into her, go ahead. We've got to take Futaro here to a doctor." "Doctor?" The man shrugged. "He's probably not that badly hurt, but no sense taking chances." And with that, he got on the small truck they had with them and sat down beside his companion who was stretched out in the back. As they watched the truck drive off, Tomoyo spoke up. "Is that your friend, Sakura-chan?" "Un." Sakura dropped her backpack. "I better go talk to her." Cerberus pulled himself half out of the dropped backpack. "Remember I'm in here, Sakura-chan!" Sakura ignored him and his muttering, focussed as she was on her friend. Jogging up toward the dojo, Sakura waved. "Rei-chan! What's going... eep!" She found herself ducking under a kick that could almost have taken her head off. Sakura danced back as Rei launched a series of assaults at her. "It's Sakura, remember? From last year? What are you doing?" "Thief! Destroyer! None shall disturb the sanctity of this dojo!" Sakura frowned, watching Rei's attacks. Fairly standard combination, punch, feint, block there and start a kick... and somehow get hit in the side by a punch she was sure she had blocked. "Nani?" Sakura moved back again. How could she have been hit by that, it was one of Rei's common sets of moves, she _knew_ she had blocked it properly. So how did it get through? "Rei-chan, please stop this! I don't want to hurt you." Sakura shifted her stance, leaning forward into a more offensive position, and threw a couple of light punches of her own, followed by a leg sweep, which Rei jumped over. Sakura stopped in astonishment as Rei somehow seemed to dodge her follow-up punch in mid-air. This allowed a couple more hits to get in, leaving Sakura wincing in pain. The hits weren't _hard_, but expertly placed. The fight continued this way as Sakura slowly retreated back toward the street, completely unable to get a hit in. Finally, she made her way back to the edge of the street. When she finally stepped off the property, however, Rei stopped fighting her. Sakura watched in shock as Rei turned around and walked back to the house, walking over to where the door was originally, despite the more direct route through the missing wall. Tomoyo walked up to her. "Your friend is strange, Sakura-chan." Sakura was still too shocked to come up with a witty retort. -----======----- The three of them sat in a small cafe, eating lunch and talking about what had happened. Well, Tomoyo was chattering away, Sakura was just quietly nodding, and Cerberus was sitting hidden inside Sakura's backpack on the table while sneaking bits of cake off of Sakura's plate. "And wasn't it odd the way she didn't seem to notice the house was gone?" Tomoyo continued. "She put a pot of water on the stove to boil it, but the stove wasn't working, so she made tea with the cold water as if nothing were wrong." "Un." "And then she acted like she was opening up cupboards to take things out and make lunch with them, even with nothing there." "Un." "I wonder if she's been like that since the house was destroyed. Eating nothing but cold tea can't be very healthy. "Un." "Sakura-chan," said Cerberus, "You have a big blob of cake on your nose." "Un." Tomoyo smiled. "Maybe I should dress you up in a tight Chinese cheongsam like that picture of Chun Li you had?" "Un." Tomoyo placed her hand on Sakura's, squeezing. "Really!?" That at least got a reaction as Sakura nearly jumped from her chair. "Um, hai? What did I just agree to?" Tomoyo giggled, which didn't make Sakura feel any better. Cerberus popped his head out. "Why are you so distracted, Sakura-chan? Worried about Rei?" "That too." Finishing her last piece of cake, Sakura sat back. "The fight was just... wrong. I could see her throw a punch, I'd block it... but it somehow hit anyway. And when I started trying to hit her, I couldn't. I'd throw a punch but she'd just not be there when it hit, even if she couldn't possibly have dodged. She managed to dodge to one side while falling in mid-air, which is really difficult. It was like fighting a ghost!" Sakura shivered at the thought. Tomoyo giggled again. "What's so funny?" "Oh, just seeing that you being afraid of ghosts is something that's carried over from the old Sakura-chan." "I'm not afraid of ghosts!" Cerberus said, "You certainly were before." "You stay out of this." Tomoyo said, "Remember that one time in the forest behind the school, we went with Naoko and Rika and Chiharu to see the ghost that Naoko said she'd seen? And we all saw something different?" Cerberus nodded. "Sakura-chan thought she saw her mother." Sakura frowned, thinking. "I think I remember..." She turned to look at Tomoyo. "You saw a meat bun." Tomoyo blushed. "Well, I was hungry." "And it turned out it was the Illusion card all along!" Cerberus suddenly realized both the girls were looking at him. "What did I say?" Sakura said, "Maybe I _was_ fighting a ghost, or at least an illusion..." Tomoyo said, "Maybe she's living inside an illusion of the old house..." "Well, I did feel a Clow Card near there." Cerberus found himself pinned under Sakura's hand. "And why didn't you mention this before, fluff?" "I am not fluff! Or Kero-chan! My name is Cer-ber-us! Cer..." Cerberus looked up at the bulging vein in Sakura's forehead, and survival took over as he spoke quickly: "Um, I didn't want to mention it while we were out on the street and anybody could hear us?" Sakura continued to glare at him for a moment before releasing her hand. Cerberus breathed a quick sigh of relief before he heard Tomoyo clap her hands. "So this is Card Captor business after all!" "Uh..." Tomoyo placed her money down on the table, then grabbed Sakura's hand. "Come on, I've got to show you the new costume I made for you! And we've got to save your friend!" Sakura just had enough time to grab her backpack as she was nearly dragged down the street, Cerberus flapping in the breeze as he hung on to the other backpack strap tightly. -----======----- "I'm not going out in this." "But Sakura-chan..." Cerberus tried to say something, but Sakura had very carefully zipped the backpack shut before stepping into the washroom, so all that came out was a muffled squeak. "This is... is..." "Sakura-chan, you're a martial artist now and going to fight, right? Well, there are two types of clothes that work well in a fight. Loose clothes like a gi or a hakama that will move out of your way, or skin tight clothes like a leotard that moves with you." "I can't let people see me like this!" "Sakura-chan, nobody is going to recognize you dressed like that." "But..." "Please? I spent all last week on this. Please, for me?" Sakura's head banged against the door; she could just imagine the really cute, wide-eyed expression on Tomoyo's face. She never could resist her friend once she started doing that... in either life. "Oh, all right." "Wai!" And with that, Sakura stepped out. The outfit started with a bodysuit 'leotard' so fine as to be almost sheer, covering Sakura all the way from her feet to her neck, leaving only her hands uncovered. Over that was what looked like a dark green one-piece bathing suit, cut high over the hips on both sides and stretched tight over her chest as it swept back to a pair of thin straps on either side of her neck. Finishing off the ensemble were a pair of boots, a set of bracers, a light sleeveless vest, and a beret-style hat, all in camouflage colours. Sakura tugged on one of the top straps of the 'bathing suit', shifting it to get a bit more comfortable. "How does Cammy put up with this, anyway?" "Wowww..." Cerberus abruptly realized, from the two pairs of eyes staring down at him, that saying that aloud was probably a bad idea. He quickly pulled his head back into the backpack and tried to zip it shut from the inside, only to get caught by Sakura's hand before he'd had a chance to get anywhere. When she pulled the magical guardian out, she found him hanging on to a little pink key, which he held up towards her. "Shall we go out and catch a Clow Card, Sakura-chan?" he said, in his best and cutest 'please don't hurt me' voice. After a second or two of glaring, Sakura put Cerberus back down and nodded. She then took the key, and checked to see if anybody else was around. "Key which hides the powers of the Dark... reveal your true form before me! I, Sakura, command you under our contract... RELEASE!" Tomoyo bounced happily as the key extended into a wand, clapping her hands together. "Let's go!" -----======----- Fortunately for Sakura, the cafe washroom wasn't far from the dojo, and so she didn't have time to attract too much attention from passers-by. The pair of girls snuck up the sidewalk to right in front of the house, and peeked around to the yard of the Kasawara dojo. Rei was calmly sitting in the middle of the dojo, looking out at nothing in particular. Tomoyo pulled out her video camera, and did a quick scan over the ruined house and dojo, then scanned over to Sakura. "Sakura-chan, how do you plan on defeating her?" Sakura was too wrapped up in watching Rei to notice the camera facing her. "Well, I know from before that I can't trust my eyes when facing her. So I'll have to fight with my eyes closed." She frowned. "Not something I've practiced much." "So how will you find her?" "I won't. She'll have to find me." With that, Sakura grabbed the wand and walked straight out onto the yard, making no attempt to be stealthy. Rei stood up. "So, the destroyer returns. I shall have to drive you out again." "Rei-chan, don't do this. This isn't you doing this." Rei just leapt at Sakura, "Begone!" Sakura quickly found herself on the defensive, blows raining down on her so fast she barely had time to block them, and several of the ones she thought she had blocked were still getting through. And she couldn't get a hold on one of Rei's arms, either; it was like the girl almost melted away after each punch. A few times she got close, brushing a retreating hand, but never quite enough. Tomoyo's voice drifted over. "Come on, Sakura-chan, you can do it!" Remembering her plan from before, Sakura closed her eyes... just in time to get hit by a nasty uppercut to the chin which sent her flying backwards. One end of the wand caught in some of the rubble of the house, abruptly causing her to twist during her fall and land on her side with a grunt of pain. "Sakura-chan! Are you okay?" Sakura pushed herself onto her back slowly, wincing; she could see Rei standing back where she had been, looking... confused? She seemed to be having trouble, though, standing still and staring at nothing as if fighting with herself. "Do me a favour, Tomoyo-chan?" "Of course!" "Next time you make a costume for me, make sure there's somewhere on it to hold the wand so I've got both hands free and won't trip over it?" Tomoyo-chan flushed in embarrassment. "Sorry, Sakura-chan." Cerberus popped his head up from the backpack again. "You can do it, Sakura-chan. Just have to hold her in one place long enough to use the wand." "You just have to find your center, right?" Sakura groaned as she sat up. "Right." Sakura found Rei's attention finally focussed back on her as she stood up. Rei still hadn't moved, though. "Do you yield?" Sakura closed her eyes, relaxing. Find her center, right? That was the key, really. Block out all outside distractions. Block out the pain. Nothing except her and her opponent. 'The fight is all,' as Ryu-sama would say. "I said, do you yield!?" Sakura brought her hands to her side, focussing on the spirit in her hands, then slowly shook her head, eyes still closed. "HADOU..." Sakura heard the loud cry as Rei launched herself at her friend. She heard the footsteps on the rubble, slipping slightly at navigating the uneven terrain. Felt a slight pressure on her side as the air compressed just before the impact... "...KEN!" Sakura split her hands apart, one launching the blast of chi over Rei's shoulder as a distraction while the other snatched down to grab the other girl's wrist. With a quick tug, Rei lost her balance and fell to the ground, spun around so as to land flat on her back with just enough of an impact to knock her breath out. Sakura could only grin at the cheers coming from the sidelines as she picked up the wand again. Grasping it in one hand while she held onto Rei's wrist with the other, she brought it down towards Rei's heart as she recited the spell: "Return to the guise that you were meant to be in! CLOW CARD!!" The beak of the rod stopped just short of Rei's chest, then flared out as a beam of bright light shot forth from her. Sakura's hand shook slightly as she watched, the beam of light flaring out to cover Rei completely, then collapsing down into a small bright packet of light. With a final pop, the light blinked out, and a playing card fell down onto Rei's chest. A card with a fancy abstract pattern on the front, from the sun at the top to the moon at the bottom, with two words in the bordering ribbon: THE ILLUSION. Sakura was about to pick it up when she got a good look at Rei, and gasped. Rei was... thin. Emaciated, as if she hadn't eaten in several days. And looking rather shocked as she turned her head to take in the destruction around her. "Rei-chan?" "Sa... Sakura?" Sakura nodded. "I'm here, Rei-chan. The Illusion is gone, it's all right now." Rei curled up against her friend, and started letting out three days worth of tears. "Tomoyo-chan, could you call an ambulance for Rei, please?" "Uh, H-hai." Without dropping the video camera, Tomoyo pulled out a cell phone and hit a speed-dial button. Sakura just shook her head. -----======----- "What happened to you, Rei-chan?" Tomoyo looked around the hospital room while Sakura talked to Rei. The hospital had put Rei into the same room as her father, who had been there since the day the dojo was destroyed. The older man was recovering, but he looked as if he'd been beaten rather badly. "I was off shopping for food when it started." Rei turned to look towards her father. Her father sighed loudly. "I was practicing katas in the dojo when this... punk kid challenged the dojo. He seemed a pretty typical arrogant bully type, we get a couple of them every year, trying to make a name for themselves by taking on a small but respected dojo. He called himself Kageko; Shadow child. "He was a lot better than I expected, fairly well trained in what looked to be a form of Muay Thai kickboxing. It was obvious he was just playing with me at first, treating this as a game. An impression I decided to break him of by launching a fast series of strikes while his guard was still lax." Kasawara-san looked at Sakura, who looked somewhat upset at the mention of Muay Thai. "That was my big mistake. I hurt him, but not enough; it just got him angry. He started launching some sort of chi-blast punch at me, punching holes in the walls of the dojo when I dodged. Then he started laughing and just started knocking holes in the walls because he felt like it, not even pretending to be fighting me anymore. When I tried to stop him, he managed to get a hand on me and slammed me into the ground, then threw me through the dojo walls back at the house." Rei took up the story: "That was about where I came back from shopping. I saw my father slam into the wall of the house, cracking one of the supports badly. Then I saw the man in the dojo, laughing madly. I just stood there in shock, thinking 'This can't be happening.' "It gets kind of blurry after that. I felt a sort of warmth around me, and for a moment the house seemed fully repaired, and even the dojo was only lightly damaged. Grasping onto that as a lifeline, I ran up to the dojo to fight off the madman who had damaged it." She sighed. "I think I won; at least, I'm still alive and he's not around anymore. And I probably did a lot more damage in the process. "I think he came back several times, but I can't be sure. Everybody looked like him, it seems. I even thought you were him, Sakura, until you... woke me up again." Sakura nodded, and held up THE ILLUSION. "It's a... spirit of sorts, bound into a card. It makes illusions of what people like to see... so you saw what you really wanted to see. But it's sealed away now. Kasawara-san nodded. "Arigato. We owe you a great debt." Sakura blushed. "Well, please don't spread around stories about the spirit part, at least. Nobody would take me seriously ever again." Tucking the card back into her pocket, Sakura stood up and bowed. "But now, I should let you two rest." Before she could leave the room, Kasawara-san spoke up. "Sakura-san?" "Hai?" "You seemed... worried about the idea of a Muay Thai fighter that could throw around chi punches." Sakura nodded. "There's a fighter I've heard stories of, by the name of Sagat. An arrogant, obsessive, and dangerous man. He fights in a style similar to what you described. This certainly wouldn't have been him, or the one student of his that I've heard of; neither of them would ever give a false name. But the idea that he might have another student... worries me." -----======----- "Something wrong, Sakura-chan? You've been quiet since we got back from the hospital." Sakura sighed, looking around her room, at all the posters on the walls. "Just thinking about Rei. Coming home one day and finding your home destroyed, with no idea of who did it. No wonder she wanted to live inside an illusion rather than face that." "Un!" Cerberus pounced into Sakura's lap. "You did good, Sakura-chan. One more card you can use in to exorcise other Clow Cards. It makes a good distraction, anyway." Sakura looked down at THE ILLUSION. "But what it did to Rei..." Tomoyo gave Sakura a hug. "The Illusion card gives people what they want to see, Sakura-chan. It's not really deliberately trying to be mean, it just wants to make people happy, and doesn't really think about what will happen." "Be careful what you wish for... you might get it." "Exactly, Sakura-chan." Tomoyo went back to her usual smile. "Anyhow, I've got to get back home and transfer this video to my new computer for editting. I've got a Firewire card and everything, so I can just plug it in and watch it on the computer. Don't need to borrow the school's video room anymore." Tomoyo grinned, and bounced out the door. "See you later!" Sakura chuckled at that. "If only that energy could be harnessed, we could light half of Tokyo." -----======----- As the night cooled off, Sakura lay in bed, looking out the window. Three days... that would make it possible for the Illusion card to be the one that had previously possessed her, though it would have been close. She couldn't be sure, of course. And school was coming up soon, less than a week to go. With a sigh as she looked out at the stars, she asked herself, "Who am I really? And what illusions am I hanging onto?" -----======----- LEAVE IT TO KERO-CHAN! -----======----- Konya nyatchiwa! Well, it's good to see Sakura-chan succeeding both at her old life and her new one, even if she still has her doubts. But I'm sure that with the support of her friends, we can recapture all the Clow Cards and save the future! Good friends are always willing to help, if you're willing to help back! Since this was the first time Tomoyo made a costume for the new Sakura, we'll be taking a look at that. The basic design is similar to that worn by Cammy-sama when she fights in tournaments, though it is green instead of Cammy-sama's preferred blue. The vest was added to give Sakura-chan a pocket to put the card in once she captured it. OK! KERO-CHAN... CHECK!! The main suit over the torso is thicker than it looks, and actually contains a little padded armour to help protect Sakura-chan from hits without lowering her flexibility too much. It also shows off her figure quite nicely, don't you think? [Cerberus looks up and sees he's being glared at, and quickly removes his paw from Sakura's chest, dropping back to his chair.] I'm sure Tomoyo will come up with more and even better designs in future episodes! And I'll do my part too, helping Sakura-chan with how to fight and catch the cards! See you later! [Cerberus makes a quick dash off-stage, leaving his little smoking jacket behind, before it gets hit by a hadouken and starts smoking in earnest.] -----======----- NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW: School's coming up soon, and there's just time for one more big shopping trip to make sure I've got everything before going back. What's this? It's all dark and creepy here. But a true Street Fighter shouldn't be afraid, right? Right? Join us next time for, "Sakura and the haunting Shadow." RELEASE!! -----======----- Author's Notes: Aieee... Just a quick thought, but which I couldn't find any way to work in here properly: if the key/wand can be extended further, could it be used as a naginata? And great thanks to my pre-readers, Sean Givan, Dave Larmour, Capfox, and the Eternal Lost Lurker, the last of whom also deserves greater thanks for starting this piece of insanity in the first place.