<__< BLOSSOMS IN THE SPRING <__< A crossover Improfanfic started by The Eternal Lost Lurker This chapter by John C Fiala Street Fighter and all related trademarks belong to Capcom. Card Captor Sakura and all related trademarks belong to CLAMP, Kodansha. Used without permission. ___ <__< Chapter Five: Sakura Breaks a MIRROR... ___ <__< -----=====----- Sakura walked home with a spring in her step. She was returning from a fight with Richard Loche, an American streetfighter who, like herself, was trying to make it big. She'd been worried about the fight, and it had gone better than she had expected. So, although her muscles were sore and a bruise or two was tender she felt like she was on top of the world. And so, when she heard a soft noise of protest, and spied a group of young toughs in an alley surrounding what looked to be a girl her age, she did not fetch the nearest policeman like her parents had taught her. Instead, she decided to see what was going on herself. "Let me go!" The girl in the center asked again, in the tone of voice which meant that the speaker didn't expect it to work, but also didn't know what else to do. Sakura noted the girl's black hair and fashionable clothes. "Aw, c'mon cutie! There's no reason to be rude, is there?" Tough number one was tall and skinny, and had a pair of nunchucks tucked into the belt of his pants. Sakura noted them as a possible problem, and wondered if the kid knew how to use them or not. "Yes. Rudeness is what is leading to the degeneracy of Japanese youth," agreed Tough number two, who was decidedly overweight. However, Sakura could see the calluses on his fists. "Er, yeah. What he said," chimed in Tough number three, a generic looking punk with a rather dim look. Sakura noted the knife that looked to be tucked in his pocket. So it was three toughs against a world-class streetfighter. Or, rather, an aspiring world-class streetfighter. Shouldn't be a problem. For a moment she considered calling out a challenge to her, but prudence held her back. She wasn't some sort of magical princess, after all, and three against one necessitated caution. So she stepped back three steps, bounced on her feet a few times to make sure she was limber enough for it, and ran at Tough number one. Her sneaker-clad feet were quiet enough that they didn't notice her until she was on top of them, and then she shouted out a "KIYA!" as she jumped up and planted her feet in the middle of Tough number one's back, the sudden shove sending him flying into Tough number three. Sakura jumped off of the pile before they slammed into a dumpster, spun, and ducked. The duck was wise: Tough number two was on top of her, throwing a punch at her head. She kicked him in the side, and then cried out in pain herself as the kid's other hand tagged her in the side. It was a glancing blow, but there was still power behind it, and Sakura could tell she didn't want him to land a solid blow. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the girl she was rescuing running down the alley towards safety. That moment of inattention almost cost her the fight, it was only the movement of Thug number two's shadow that alerted her of his blow. She flipped backwards out of the way, which seemed to anger her opponent. "Stand still," he yelled out, and then ran forward. Sakura knelt down low, let him come in high, and kicked him in the knee, causing him to fall to the ground. After that, it was simply a matter of a quick kick to the head, and it was nighttime to Thug number two. She quickly checked on the other two, but it was apparent that their meeting with the dumpster had been enough to knock them out. She let out a relieved breath, and turned around. The girl she had saved was standing there with stars in her blue eyes, black hair, fashionable clothes and expensive black shoes. She was rather cute too, and Sakura got the odd feeling that she should know her. "Fantastic!" cried out the girl, who ran over to inspect Sakura's handiwork. (And indeed, to put a few kicks into it.) "That was great! I thought I was," her voice trailed off as her face began to sink. "But it didn't," Sakura said, taking the girl's hand and leading her out of the alley. "And now why don't I see you home, and you'll be fine. What's your name?" "Akane," the girl smiled, "Wow, you're really good. I've never met anyone who knows martial arts before. What's your name?" "Sakura." *** Akane and Sakura walked through town, and Sakura soon recognized the area. Tomoyo/Yuriko lived near Akane, which wasn't a surprise given her clothing. "Nice area of town," Sakura said. "What does your father do?" Akane shrugged. "He's a manager at Yoratech." Sakura frowned in confusion. How do they afford to live here, she wondered. Her confusion was soon calmed as they arrived at Akane's house, and she saw the name: Kotabuna. Then it came to her, she'd rescued none other than Kotabuna Akane. Akane Kotabuna was the newest idol singer, eclipsing the previous popular idol, Mina Star, with a speed that had surprised everyone. Her album had sold platinum, and a second album looked to do as well. "You're..." Akane nodded, blushing slightly. "Yeah, that's me. Here, wait a moment - I have a concert two days from now. Would you like some tickets?" Sakura blinked. Tickets to that concert had been sold out for two weeks. "Uh, yeah." Akane grinned. "Wait right here." She ran into the house, and from outside she could hear adult voices raised in worry. After a few minutes, she returned, handing two slips of cardboard to Sakura. "Here you go!" "Thanks!" Sakura bowed to Akane. "No, thank you. It was really cool, you jumping in there and saving me like that." Akane bowed back, and the two girls shared a smile until a voice from inside called Akane back in, leaving Sakura to walk home. *** The next day, while Sakura and Tomoyo walked to school, she shared the details of her adventure with her friend. "... and then she gave me tickets to tomorrow's concert!" Sakura finished, waving the tickets in the air triumphantly. "Wow!" Tomoyo exclaimed. "You're so heroic!" Sakura urrred, looking over at her friend. Sometimes she suspected Tomoyo's adoration to be some sort of subtle joke. Sometimes she hoped it was. "Uh, yeah." "So," Tomoyo drew out the vowel teasingly, "who are you going to ask? Who's the lucky boy?" Sakura stopped walking, and her friend continued for several feet before she realized Sakura had stopped. "I don't know." "You don't know?" Sakura shook her head and caught up with her friend. "I honestly hadn't thought of who to go with." Sakura hadn't had an extremely successful dating career. Most boys her age were uncomfortable about going out with a girl who could wipe the floor with them without breaking a sweat. "Maybe," her voice trailed off. "Maybe?" "Tomoyo, could you come with me? I'm not going out with anyone, and," her voice trailed off as she shrugged helplessly. "Sure, I'd love to!" Tomoyo looked even happier, but her face faded as she saw something over Sakura's shoulder. Sakura turned, and saw that Midori was still giving her the cold shoulder. "She's still mad at me, huh?" "It was for the best." Sakura nodded, and sighed. "Yeah. I just wish 'for the best' didn't have to leave her so unhappy." As they walked on to school, she returned her attention to the previous subject. "Say, Tomoyo, in exchange for the ticket could I ask you a favor?" "Anything!" "Then could you show me the next costume you make before I have to wear it? I'd like to... make some suggestions." Tomoyo looked at Sakura, and then grinned. "Sure." * The concert was loud before they'd even entered. The venue was a large open-air stadium, with seats cascading downwards to the stage in almost all directions, with the space in back of the stage taken up by a large building to hold scenery, speakers, and whatever else might be needed at a stadium. Sakura was wearing a knee-high black skirt and top, under which she had secreted a short pair of pants. It wasn't as comfortable as it would have been with just a skirt, but all of those 'panties' comments from the hentais at the warehouse fight had convinced her that a little more modesty might be called for. Tomoyo was wearing a frilly pink dress with a similar cut, accessorized by the usual video camera and a small purse. They entered the stadium, handing a woman in a Kotabuna Akane tour t-shirt the tickets that Akane had given her. They found their seats quite easily, and settled in. Sakura went off and got some drinks, but otherwise they waited for the show. And it was quite a good show. Soon after the first song started Akane had the whole stadium on its feet, dancing and singing along with the lyrics. Akane even saw them in the crowd, and dedicated a song to her, which made Sakura blush and Tomoyo laugh and sing along. It was shortly after that that it happened. One of Akane's fans, high on the experience and apparently somewhat drunk, managed to climb over the security between the audience and the stage and made it on stage, and was running full out towards Akane. Sakura cursed, fighting her way forward, wanting to help, until Akane jumped up in the air and kicked the drunk in the chin. He remained standing, so Akane executed a perfect spin kick that not only knocked the drunk out, but propelled him off of the stage and into the arms of security. Sakura's jaw dropped. Tomoyo looked at her friend. "I didn't know she knew martial arts too!" Sakura shook her head. Akane hadn't known martial arts, and had as good as said so. What was going on? *** After the concert, Sakura poked a sleeping plush doll in the chest until it woke up. "Waaa?" "Kero! I think I found another card!" Kero, to his credit, woke up. "Oh?" "There's this girl, Kotabuna Akane, the one I saved yesterday?" Kero nodded. "Yeah, I've seen her picture. She's pretty h- ah, she's pretty good, I hear." "Yeah, well, when I rescued her she didn't know any martial arts. But at the concert she did, and kicked a fan who got on stage." "That's very strange. The only card that would do that is the Fight Card," he started. Sakura held up the Fight Card, "which we've got right here." "Exactly. Did you feel a Clow Card there?" Sakura shook her head. "It was too crowded, too noisy. I couldn't tell." Kero nodded. "Yeah, you seem to be a little less sensitive this time around. Can you take me to see her?" Sakura nodded. "Yeah. But no more of that nonsense from the locker room, okay?" "Of course not! Professional all the way!" Kero tried not to leer. Given the way Sakura was glaring at him, he needed to work on that some more. *** Sakura felt nervous, waiting outside of Akane's home. The bodyguards inside had come out when she had started waiting, but recognizing her as Akane's rescuer, they let her wait by the street. Actually, they had invited her inside, but Sakura wanted more privacy than that. After an hour, she saw Akane walking down the street, so Sakura ran to meet her. "Sakura! How cool! Did you enjoy the concert?" Akane asked after Sakura had run up to her. "Yeah. But, uh, I didn't know you knew any martial arts." Akane grinned. "I'm full of surprises, aren't I? I just remembered what you'd done for me, and tried it myself." Sakura slipped her hand into her bag, and poked Kero with her pointer and middle fingers. Kero was to pull on the pointer if he felt a card, and the middle finger if he felt nothing. She felt plush arms encircle her pointer finger, and sighed. "Akane, there's no way you could have learned martial arts that quickly. There's a spirit, isn't there? A magic spirit that helped you with it?" Akane looked puzzled at Sakura, and stopped. "Well, yeah. How did you know?" "Well," Sakura's voice trailed off, "I'm sorta responsible for them. I need to collect them." Akane started to walk again, frowning at Sakura. "And you want to take mine?" "I have to. Look, Akane, martial arts is a discipline. It's something you have to work for. Getting it for free like this isn't good for you." "I don't care," said Akane as she ran onto her front yard. "I'm not giving it up. Now, I could kick your ass right now, but I think I'll just have my bodyguards escort you away." She made a signal, and several large men in black suits filed out of the house, arranging themselves between the two girls. Sakura sighed. She could try fighting all of them, but they looked pretty strong, and after all they were just doing their jobs. She backed away, slowly, watching Akane as she triumphantly marched into her house. And then she turned and ran home. * That night at Sakura's house, it was a council of war with Tomoyo and Kero. "And so now she's going to be extra-careful," Sakura finished. Kero nodded sharply. "Well, if we could figure out what card is in her, that might help." Tomoyo nodded. "So, which card lets you copy people?" "The card that lets you copy people," Kero said pretentiously, "... I don't know." "You don't know?" Sakura and Tomoyo chorused. "Nope." Sakura batted Kero across the room. "Then say so! Geeze." Tomoyo tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I can't think of anything like that either. The Illusion card would let you look like anything - or the Mirror. But that only changed how they looked." Sakura nodded, and took a deep breath. "Well, I don't absolutely have to know what card it is. And if Akane's already copied me, then it probably won't matter if she does it again, so it doesn't really matter which it is, I guess. I'll just find out when I get it." She sighed. "But I'm going to have a really hard time getting close to her without her bodyguards interfering." Tomoyo nodded. "You know, I think she goes to singing classes in the same building that I do. I think I've seen her once or twice, and her bodyguards wait outside of the building after escorting her to the classroom. If you used the Illusion card to look like her teacher, you could get the card undisturbed." Sakura nodded. "Yeah! But what do we do with the teacher?" Kero sighed. "It's a shame we don't have the Sleep card yet." "We do have the dream," noted Sakura. Tomoyo smiled at Sakura. They nodded together. *** Tomoyo had sneaked a look at the teacher's schedule, and they knew Akane's lesson began at 5:30. At five Tomoyo and Sakura snuck into the building, and waited for the five o'clock student to finish and leave, fidgiting with the worry that Akane and her bodyguards would show early. But soon enough, the student left, and the pair walked into the room, Tomoyo standing by the door just in case. "Can I help you? I'm afraid I've got a lesson in a few moments." Sakura smiled, and pulled the wand from behind her back. "Dream card! Release!" The Dream swirled up from the card, and Sakura pointed to the teacher. As the teacher jumped in alarm, the Dream swirled around his head, causing him to collapse slowly to the ground, deep asleep. Sakura nodded, and pulled out the Illusion. "Illusion card! Make me look like that teacher!" A swirl of kalidoscopic light, and Sakura now looked like the sleeping teacher, who was soon snoozing in the closet. "Part one, go!" Tomoyo said. The girls smiled at each other, and then Tomoyo slipped into the hallway. Sakura shifted her weight worriedly for a few minutes until Tomoyo knocked on the door, warning her that Akane was coming. Sakura tried to stand still behind the podium and look stern. Akane entered, waving to someone in the corridor. "Hello, Sensei," she sang out, "what are we learning today?" Sakura grinned, and pulled the wand from behind her back. "We are learning not to cheat." She raised the wand, but had to duck as Akane jumped over the podium at her. Sakura ducked and rolled to the side, springing up once she had room to move. "It's you, isn't it Sakura?" Akane cried out, and moved in to attack. The girls traded blows, Sakura having a slight advantage from Akane not really being able to see where her hands where. However, Akane was able to tag her with a lucky kick, and Sakura slid across the room, jumping back to her feet as Akane advanced slowly. "Why not drop that ridiculous illusion?" Sakura shrugged, and cancelled the Illusion. Akane laughed, and jumped forward. Sakura was expecting a kick to her head, but all Akane seemed to be able to manage was a half-hearted swing at her arm, which Sakura handily blocked. Akane's landing was all wrong too, almost twisting her ankle and leaving her sprawling on the floor. "What's wrong, Akane?" "Fight her! Why won't you fight her?" Sakura was going to ask Akane what she meant, when she realized what was going on: Akane was talking to the card inside her, which was no longer letting her fight. Suddenly she realized that Akane had stopped, and that a copy of Sakura had stepped out of her opponent. She felt a creepy feeling crawl up her spine as she stared at herself. She jumped as her double's face changed to that of a sweet, beautiful girl in a kimono, holding a round mirror. The girl smiled shyly at her, and then looked downwards in shame. Sakura was about to ask what was going on, when she was enveloped in a memory. --- Sakura was standing at the base of a cliff, in a park. She could see three people: another copy of herself, a handsome boy crumpled at the base of the cliff, and a cute Chinese boy. The handsome boy looked hurt, and Sakura wondered what had happened. "You're sorry, aren't you," she heard herself say. The copy mutely nodded. Sakura felt a shock of discovery as she realized that the hurt boy was her brother, Touya. She had a brother. She watched dream-Sakura capture the Mirror, and then it faded. --- "You still feel bad about it, don't you?" Mirror nodded. "He was fine, wasn't he? Afterwards?" Mirror mutely nodded, still refusing to look up at her. Sakura smiled, and stepped forward to grab Mirror's hands in her own. "It's okay. He's fine. You don't need to tear yourself up over this." Mirror looked up at her, and smiled. "However, if you want to help, then you need to go back into Akane. I can't seal you unless you're in her." Mirror nodded, moved back over Akane, and faded away. Sakura held up her wand, and realized Tomoyo had opened the door and was filming her. She gave the girl a triumphant wink, swung the wand around with a bit more flair than was entirely necessary, and then said it: "Return to the guise that you were meant to be in! CLOW CARD!" White light enveloped Akane, and flowed upwards, filling a card shape in mid-air. The pyrotechnics over, Sakura grabbed the Mirror card before it could fall. She wasn't sure, but she thought it was smiling more than before. Then she realized Akane was sobbing. Sakura sighed, and gave Akane a hankerchief. "Here, here. It's not that bad. So you're not a martial artist anymore... you weren't a week ago, and you were fine then." "But, but, I'm not an idol singer either! I met, met Mina Star a year ago, and, and, I got her singing. I can't sing," she wailed loudly. Sakura frowned. "Well, I'd feel sorry for you, but you got to see how it was being a star without any hard work. If you want to have it again, you'll have to learn to work for it!" And with that, she walked out, Tomoyo in tow. *** That night, Sakura and Tomoyo sat in an ice cream parlor, a hot fudge sundae sitting in front of them both. Instead of diving in, though, Sakura sat down her spoon and looked at Tomoyo. "You remember how, how things used to be, right?" Tomoyo nodded, setting down her own spoon. "Sure." Sakura smiled. "Tell me about Touya... tell me about my brother." Tomoyo smiled back, and did. -----======----- LEAVE IT TO KERO-CHAN! -----======----- Konya nyatchiwa! Well, this was an interesting episode, wasn't it? I didn't have much to do at all! It's very important that every one of you write to the author, and tell him how disappointed you are that I was missing! (Well, I'm sure he could put in more scenes of me beating you against the wall!) Oh, er, yeah. Well, today, let's look at Akane's skimpy Idol costume! OK! KERO-CHAN CHECK! Now, here you can see Akane's gentle curves and smooth skin, as she's dressed in this... gorilla suit? What's this from? (Tomoyo made it with her video computer!) Grrr... No respect! Here I'm an ancient and powerful guardian beast, and you treat me like some sort of ecchi plushie! (That's because you *are* an echhi plushie! Now get off before I decide to use you for practice!) Well, see-you-next-time! ***** Author's Notes: Well, this one was a bit rushed, so I hope you'll forgive me. But I hope you liked it none the less! I've got some other CCS stories on www.fanfiction.net, so feel free to read them! I've always thought the Mirror card had the nicest personality, and I wanted to try to show some of that. Thanks for reading! -john fiala {jcfiala@home.com | jcfiala@cssltd.com}