Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Chaos Card Captor Sakura ❯ The Elixir of Fire ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1: The Elixir of Fire

 

Tomoeda, Japan, 1996

 

A tall, brown-haired man with glasses and a clipboard paces down a quiet, tall marble hallway. Each side of the hallway contains many glass-encased pieces of pottery, ancient artworks, suits of knight armor, and other archaic tidbits of times long past. The man wears a badge over his white dress shirt, reading (in kanji) “Kinomoto Fujitaka, Assistant Curator”. Following behind him are two girls, one with long black hair carrying a camcorder, and another with short auburn hair carrying a notepad.

 

Fujitaka turns back to the two girls. “Are you getting a lot of interesting information for your summer assignments?” he asks.

 

Sakura, the short-haired girl, nods enthusiastically. “Thanks for opening this exhibit early, dad!” she responds gratefully.

 

Tomoyo, the latter girl, lowers her camcorder. “Kinomoto-sensei, was this stuff all donated recently to the Tomoeda museum?” she asks.

 

Fujitaka continues to lead the girls down the hallway. “Well, not exactly. This tour of European artifacts goes all over the world, and will leave Tomoeda in about a month's time from the opening day,” he explains.

 

Tomoyo again raises her camera, taking extra care to make sure she gets the entire exhibit on video. “Well if these things are going to be leaving soon, do you have any particular favorite pieces that you recommend?” she asks.

 

Fujitaka perks up and leads the two girls around the corner. “Now that you mention it, follow me. I found this particular piece rather interesting,” he says as he leads the two girls into a dark, inner corridor of the museum.

 

This inner corridor is decorated with many famous European artworks, including the Mona Lisa and Starry Night. The walls are black marble, and the carpets are soft black. The little illumination in the hallway comes from lights pointed at the ceiling.

 

Sakura looks around at all the artwork in amazement. “Wow… these are amazing! You'd think the museum would put them in a little more light than they do so people can enjoy the pictures,” she comments.

 

Fujitaka turns back to Sakura. “Well I suppose that's true, but too much light can damage the pictures. These older artworks are photo-sensitive, meaning that shining direct light on them can actually damage them because they're so old. That's why they're in here. If they were placed in an outer wing of the museum with more windows, the sunlight could dull the colors on the pictures. It's a similar principle to blank film, only less extreme,” he explains. As he glances around the hallway, he leads Sakura and Tomoyo towards the exhibit he was looking for.

 

Tomoyo readies her camcorder as they approach the exhibit, when Fujitaka puts his hand on Tomoyo's camera and points it down.

 

“I'm sorry, Tomoyo-san, but by specific orders of the donators of this particular set of artifacts, we're not allowing visitors to photograph them,” Fujitaka explains.

 

“But why not?” Sakura asks curiously as she approaches the exhibit.

This particular exhibit features a cubic hollow in the wall, covered by thick glass and locked up by a sophisticated locking device with a touchpad. Above the glass is a large label reading “The Kaos”. To the side is a small description of the exhibit engraved onto a plaque. Inside are eight large card-looking parchments, stood up on stands and arranged in four rows. The first row contains two cards, and the second and third rows contain three cards each. The fourth row has a single stand on it, larger than the ones used to hold up the cards, but this fourth stand bears a small bottle. It appears to be made of a bright-orange-colored glass. The bottle itself is shaped like the skull of a bird, with a crooked beak-shaped lid in the top. The whole bottle has a loop of string attached to it, as if it was intended to be worn as a lanyard.

 

At studying the art on the cards more carefully, Sakura's jaw drops. “Hoee...” she moans as she hunches her back in disbelief. “You're kidding me…” she adds.

 

Each card is identical on all of their backs, bearing a grey background with black fringes. On the center of each card is a large oval that takes up most of the back of the card. This oval is a dark red and highly intricate geometric pattern. The first circle contains within it a second circle. Between the two circles are several zigzagging lines, like triangles coming out of the inner oval. Within the center oval is a large seven-pointed star with thin points, bearing resemblances to a pentagram. Within the nonagon in the center of this design is another, much broader-pointed seven-pointed star with another, smaller yet geometrically similar seven-pointed star in the exact center of the design, positioned in the same position but is only smaller than the former. The very center star is a deviation to the dark red of the rest of this symbol, as the center polygon is all black.

 

Sakura takes a step back away from the exhibit, unable to tear her eyes away from this item.

 

Fujitaka notices Sakura's nervousness at seeing the exhibit and kneels down next to her. “So, what do you think?” he asks casually?

 

Sakura breaks her nervous shell and shakes her head back and forth. “Oh, no, it's nothing. I'm okay. Just a little déjà vu, I guess,” she says with a naively lying tone.

 

Fujitaka returns his gaze up to the cards. “So you think it looks familiar too? I thought they looked like something I've seen before. They remind me of a book I once found at an antique shop in Osaka,” he explains, as Sakura begins to sweatdrop nervously. “It was this chained-up diary-looking book that had a winged lion on the cover. It had a similar-looking circle on the back of it, though much less intricate. Its cover read `The Clow'. I would've submitted it to the museum myself, but it went missing about a year ago and I never found it. Weird…” Fujitaka continues, as Sakura continues to nervously sweat much more profusely.

 

Tomoyo reads the information plaque next to the display case before turning to Fujitaka and Sakura. “Fujitaka-sensei, this plaque says something about an Elixir of Fire. What's that?” she asks, breaking Fujitaka's concentration and allowing Sakura to breathe a deep sigh of relief.

 

Fujitaka stands to his feet and looks towards the orange bird-skull-shaped object placed behind the cards. “Oh, that. That little vase was quite the chore to put in there. Half of the technicians got burned trying to place it back there. Unusual how something so old could still be hot enough to burn someone's hand today. The scientific community wants to buy it off of us, smash it open and figure out what keeps it going, claiming that if we can figure out how it was done, we could develop a zero-emission heat source for energy. Of course, however, such artifacts as the Elixir of Fire must be protected first and foremost. After all, to forget our own history is what dooms us to repeat it,” Fujitaka states.

 

Tomoyo returns to read the information plaque for the exhibit. “It doesn't say how that thing got the name `Elixir of Fire' though. Who called it that?” Tomoyo inquires.

 

“Funny you should ask that, Tomoyo-san,” Fujitaka begins. “This collection was originally donated to us by a Chinese family, and included a small and old book that tells us about the items. It was this that we learned that these papers were called `Kaos Cards', and were believed to be magical. And the Elixir of Fire was in this record too, only the record ends early. The author of that guide doesn't mention what the Elixir of Fire does, but only mentions it by name. Weirder still, the family that donated it requested that the pamphlet be returned to them, as it was a family heirloom, so we were unable to translate everything written in it.”

 

“Kaos Cards, eh?” Sakura inquires, taking notes on the clipboard she carries with her. Below her notes, she attempts to make a quick and very rough sketch of the circle that appears on the back of the Kaos Cards.

 

“Who donated these things to the museum?” Tomoyo asks Fujitaka.

 

Fujitaka smiles at Tomoyo. “A Chinese family generously donated this particular group of artifacts and then insisted that we display them. They say it belonged to a distant English relative of theirs. The Li family,” he concludes.

 

“L-Li-kun?!” Sakura exclaims in shock, dropping her clipboard on the floor and blushing slightly.

 

Fujitaka turns around and picks up Sakura's clipboard. “Now that I think about it, you had a classmate by that name, didn't you, Sakura-san? I remember after giving a speech on archaeology, he came up to me and asked me a lot of good questions. It seems like he has a rich archaeological background from growing up in such a historically fascinating family.”

 

Sakura stands rigidly before grabbing her clipboard. “Y-yeah, a historically fascinating family. I guess you could say that…” she stutters.

 

***

 

Sakura's room

 

Sakura and Tomoyo both storm into Sakura's room, with clipboard and video camera in hand. Seeing Kero fast asleep on a pillow next to the still-running video game console that he apparently forgot to turn off before his nap, Sakura picks up Kero by the tail.

 

“Kero-chan, why didn't you tell me about the other cards?!” Sakura shouts angrily at Kero, dangling him upside down by his tail. Kero, in response, continues to sleep like a rock.
”KERO-CHAN!” she shouts, finally waking Kero up.

 

Kero begins to flutter around and shake his tail free of Sakura's grip. He rubs his eyes with his stubby paw-like hands. “Wha, wha, wha… I'm up already. Sheesh, being the unquestionable Master of the Clow Cards must get to her head pretty quick…” he mutters, still drowsy.

 

Allowing no reprieve, she holds up her clipboard, showing her sloppy rendition of the magic circle on the back of the cards in the museum. “Kero-chan, this is important! Have you ever seen any magic circle like this before?” she interrogates.

 

Finishing rubbing his eyes, he levitates over to take a closer look at the circle that Sakura sketched out. “Alright, alright, let's see what the fuss is about…” he says before staring at the circle with his paw on his chin. “Hmm… hmmm… maybe... no, wait… it could be…” Kero mutters, pondering deeply.

 

“You don't know, do you?” Tomoyo asks innocently.

 

“PAH!” Kero scoffs, striking a heroic pose. “I'm the Guardian Beast of the Clow Cards! There's nothing about magic that I don't know!” he boasts, and then returns to pondering the circle. “Hmm. Although Clow Reed wasn't the only person to ever use magic circles before. It was a pretty popular practice. It was like inventing your own personal signature. Hard to remember them all, but this looks like a comparatively simple design. It's probably a really early one. Not Clow's, I can tell that for sure. He may have been a quack, but he definitely wasn't evil,” he deduces.

 

“Evil?” Sakura and Tomoyo ask in unison.

 

“Where did you find this pattern, and what color was it?” Kero inquires.

 

Sakura flips through other pages on her clipboard. “Well, dad opened up an exhibit on European History. There were eight cards with this pattern in an exhibit. And the circle was dark red,” Sakura answers, referring to her notes. “Oh, and it was donated by Li-kun's family,” she adds off the top of her head.

 

“The kozo's folks?” Kero comments, now intrigued. He scratches his head. “It must be related to Clow if the Li family had it. And a dark red magic circle. Now that you mention about it possibly being tied to the kozo, I do remember vaguely a circle like that, but it wasn't dark red. It was more of a silver-color.”

 

Sakura sets her notepad aside. “So who created it, and why am I just figuring this out now? Why didn't you tell me about these new cards when I was collecting the Clow Cards? And what do you mean by evil?”

 

Kero flutters over to Sakura's bed, where she haphazardly tossed her sketchbook. He takes another good long stare at the magic circle that Sakura sketched, particularly staring at the center broad seven-pointed star that Sakura had doodled in particularly darker than the rest of the circle. “The center star was darker than the rest of the circle, wasn't it? This was a particular no-no of designing one's own magic circle. The most central body is supposed to be the brightest part of it. If the center part is dark, then the cards will derive their powers from the darkest essences of their creator. But this is an elementary mistake. No magician in their right mind would design a circle like this deliberately. The circle was probably designed properly first, and then fell apart as the sorcerer delved into darker and darker magic,” he explains.

 

“So, the sorcerer that made this circle started good and ended up bad?” Tomoyo deduces.

 

“Looks like it,” Kero answers, nodding his head back and forth at the sight of the circle. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a shame. It's so hard to find a good, pure sorcerer nowadays. A lot of these older guys went corrupt when learning of the magic they were capable of. Sure, it starts as innocently as wanting to do good by one's fellow man. But then they lose their sense of restraint, then their control, and their sanity. They become addicted to their own power, and will create more and more of it, until it consumes them completely, and the magic itself dies…” Kero drones on, not realizing how close an attention Tomoyo and Sakura are paying.

 

“The magic… dies?” Sakura asks softly, beginning to shiver.

 

“What happens when magic dies?” Tomoyo asks Kero.

 

Kero turns back to Tomoyo with an ominous look in his eye. “It becomes a ghost,” Kero answers grimly.

 

“HOEEEEE!” Sakura screams, shrinking away from the conversation and curling up into a ball on the floor. “Kero-chan, why did you have to use the G-word? You know I can't stand ghosts!” she whimpers.

 

“Sakura-chan…” Tomoyo begins, reaching toward Sakura and placing a hand on her shoulder.

 

“It's okay to be afraid,” Kero responds. “…because unlike the nearly powerless ghost of a human, the ghost of a magic card is a terrible thing to behold,” he continues as he points toward Sakura's desk. One of the drawers cracks open slightly and a Clow Card flies out of the drawer. Kero turns the card around and shows it to Tomoyo and Sakura, who slowly regains her confidence and returns her attention to Kero.

 

“Windy?” Sakura asks quizzically.

 

Kero takes hold of the card and stares at it. “Windy, for example, is a very gentle card. She's soothing, compassionate, graceful, the epitome of good will and good magic. However, if Windy were to turn into a ghost card, she would abandon all of these traits and resort to the naturally capricious state of all magic. Her daily activities would be creating menacing tornadoes, whipping up monstrously destructive hurricanes, destroying crops, crashing airplanes, capsizing ships, and all manner of unspeakable nastiness attributable to flowing air. She would descend into utter chaos,” Kero explains reverently. “And that is what your job is as the new Master of the Cards, Sakura. Your job is to keep the Clow Cards from falling like this,” he explains.

 

“And my job is to make sure you look fashionably stylish while doing so!” Tomoyo adds, pointing her camera at Sakura, attempting to lighten the mood.

 

Sakura ponders Kero's previous statement to herself. “Chaos… Chaos… Wait a second…” she mutters before grabbing her clipboard and reading the notes she had made. “The Kaos!” she reads. “I knew I saw that somewhere before. Kero-chan, I think they're called the Kaos Cards! Have you ever heard of anything like Kaos Cards before?” she asks Kero frantically.

 

“Kaos Cards?!” Kero responds in disbelief. He punches his palm as he nods in disbelief and turns away from Sakura and Tomoyo. “Kaos…” he broods, among multiple ominous “hmm”s and “umm”s.

 

“KERO-CHAN!” Sakura shouts. “Just what are we dealing with here that's worth raising such a fit?!”

 

Kero shakes all over with frustration and fear. “The Kaos Cards… They were never supposed to get out!” he says as he takes hold of the Windy Card and hands it over to Sakura. “I told you about the kinds of things that ghost cards are capable of. Kaos was the first ever Card Captor in history, before Clow Reed showed the world his incredible magic. Kaos died in a tragic incident, while creating his own cards. And with his life went the lives of all his own cards. They all turned into ghost cards in one fell swoop, and are embodied with the power of Kaos's fury and anger at the time of his death, making them the most powerful magic cards in the world, each one capable of unimaginable destruction. Even with Clow's great magical powers, he couldn't fully defeat the Kaos Cards in their entirety, so he sealed them away, never to be released again. Those cards overcame Clow Reed, as great as a magician as he was, and were almost his undoing. And to think Clow arranged for people to put those hideous things in a museum to be gawked at by tourists, who will never be told the full-scale of destruction caused by the Kaos Cards. It's enough to turn your stomach on end,” Kero monologues.

 

Sakura takes the Windy card from Kero and hugs it close to herself. “So… what are we supposed to do now that those Kaos Cards are out?” she asks, still in stunned disbelief.

 

“Leave,” Kero says to Sakura. “I couldn't in good conscience ask you, the world's youngest Card Captor, to deal with the world's most dangerous Card Captor. If you try to fight them, you, and everyone you hold dear, will not survive. Those cards will do anything they can to anyone around you in order to defeat and even kill you. If you leave now, there's a small chance that the Kaos Cards won't have noticed that you are the Card Captor of the Clow Cards, and they won't chase you. I'm not advising you, Sakura. I'm begging you. I've been at the death-bed of one master already in my lifetime, and I'm not anxious to be at the death-bed of another.”

 

Sakura ponders the offer for a moment, but then smiles comically back at Kero. “I'll do it!” she declares. “If those things get out, who knows what they could do to Tomoeda, and even the world. But they won't. Because I'm going to stop them right here and right now! I'm the world's only Card Captor, and it looks like I've got one more task ahead of me. Those cards won't even know what hit `em. Zettai daijobu!” she boasts confidently.

 

Tomoyo places a hand on Sakura's shoulder in support of her friend. “And I'll be right there beside you, making sure that you go into battle with full style and maximum cuteness!” she adds.

 

Sakura hangs her head at Tomoyo's overjoyed display of exuberance. “How did I know that was coming?” she asks herself rhetorically.

 

Kero sighs deeply at the girls' naïve enthusiasm. “Sakura, I want you to know first of all that I do not support this foolish decision of yours. But if you honestly believe that you can get the job done, and will go out there and do it regardless, just know that I'll be right there by your side, lending my help in any way I can,” he encourages. “It's time for Card Captor Sakura to go for one more adventure!”

 

“And time for a new battle pose,” Tomoyo adds, pointing her camera at Sakura like a giddy schoolgirl.

 

“Hoee!” Sakura whimpers.

 

***

 

The Museum, late that night

 

Tomoyo's van is parked right outside the museum, with Sakura, Tomoyo, and Kero inside, fervently planning for the most dangerous adventure of their lives.

 

Tomoyo rummages through the racks of specially designed clothes, as if looking for a particular pattern. “Sakura-chan, I made another outfit just for this very occasion that I wanted you to wear on your first adventure battling the Kaos Cards. Now where did I put that thing? I just made it this evening…” she goes on.

 

Sakura puts her hands up defensively. “Well technically, I'm not facing them, and I hope that I never have to. But…” she pauses, trailing off into deep thought and attracting Kero's and Tomoyo's attention.

 

“Sakura, you're not rethinking this already, are you?” Kero asks, flying up into her face.

 

Sakura stares on blankly for a moment. “It's just that… those cards. They're my dad's favorite part of the exhibit. And he really wanted to put the Clow Cards on display too. It seems like I'm always taking things away from him…” she laments.

 

Kero toughens up his voice. “The Clow Cards were fated to fall into your control, just like you're fated to go after those Kaos Cards. And Kaos Cards aren't going to be as forgiving to the lives of civilians as the Clow Cards were. Could you imagine what those Kaos Cards could do to the tourists that come to see them? Don't psyche yourself out. Those Kaos Cards could end your life without a second thought. Don't make it any easier for `em by not bringing your game face. C'mon, zettai…?”

 

“…daijobu, I know, I know,” Sakura finishes after a moment, rubbing her eyes.

 

“Aha, I found it!” Tomoyo announces, pulling out a set of clothes on a hangar for Sakura and Kero to see.

 

“Hoee, this is gonna' be a long night…” Sakura whimpers.

 

***

 

A few minutes later…

 

“AAAAAAA, it's adorable!” Tomoyo squeals, admiring her handiwork with her camcorder in hand and an enormous grin on her face.

 

Sakura poses outside the van, wearing Tomoyo's latest battle costume. The costume has a very strong leopard theme to it, with long, leopard-spotted gloves, equally long leopard spotted boots, a black short-sleeved shirt with a leopard vest, a hair band with round leopard-like ears, and even a short leopard-spotted skirt with a leopard tail trailing out the back.

 

“Don't tell me: leopard camouflage?” Sakura asks unenthusiastically.

 

Tomoyo lowers her camera for a moment. “Of course, Sakura-chan. What better way to sneak into a heavily-guarded museum than dressed as a stealthy leopard? And a cute one at that?”

 

“But don't you think cute sort of defeats the purpose of stealth? The only people there to see me are you, Kero-chan, and the guards, and if the guards see us, it's all over…” Sakura argues desperately.

 

Tomoyo puts a finger on her chin. “You make a good point there, Sakura-chan,” she comments before climbing back into the van.

 

“Uh… what are you doing?” Sakura asks nervously, though not really wanting to hear the answer.

 

“I'm getting leopard makeup to make you a super cute leopard!” Tomoyo answers back from inside the van.

 

“Hoee! Can't we just get this over with?” Sakura whimpers pathetically.

 

***

 

A few more minutes later…

 

Sakura stands outside the locked gate to the museum with her key in star pendant form in hand and goofy spots-and-whiskers patterns of makeup on her cheeks.

 

Kero flutters beside Sakura. “Okay, here's the plan. First, find the Kaos Cards. Then, quickly hit `em with the Fiery card. If you can destroy `em without incident, that's the best-case-scenario,” Kero whispers to Sakura.

 

“That sounds too easy to me. Will it work?” Sakura whispers back skeptically.

 

Kero puts a paw on his chin. “Probably not, but if it does, we can't afford not to try it. The worst thing that could happen is that it won't work. But there's a chance that it might work because the Kaos Cards have been without a living master for over two centuries, so their powers, like those of the Clow Cards when you first found them, may be a little on the rusty side, so there's a chance you could get rid of `em before they notice you're there if you're quick about it,” he clarifies.

 

“But first we have to immobilize those guards. The Sleep card should do the trick,” Sakura adds, as she holds out her star pendant.

 

“Key hiding the powers of the Darkness, reveal your true form before me. I, Sakura, command you under our contract: release!” Sakura commands, as the key grows into a wand with a pink-nosed bird head and materializes in her hand. Sakura twirls the wand for a couple of rotations, still thinking over the dilemma of destroying the Kaos Cards before pulling out one of her Clow Cards from a pocket in her vest. “Afflict all the security guards within with a deep rest. Sleep!” she commands, flicking the card out and touching the tip of her wand to the card.

 

After summoning the card, a bluish-white sparkling dust rains over the entire museum.

 

Sakura pauses and takes a deep breath before reaching for another card in her bag and pulling out the Float card. Momentarily, Sakura, Tomoyo and Kero are levitating over the tall metal gate of the museum, careful to not make a sound. The Float card slowly sets the three intruders on the ground before dissipating.

 

Kero flutters next to Sakura and begins whispering in her ear. “Psst, Sakura, be careful! That was your second card already and we haven't even walked into the museum yet. Make sure to conserve your magic, just in case things get a little wild in there. You have no idea how badly those Kaos Cards would want to take a cheap shot at you if you run out of magic, so don't give them that chance,” he advises quietly, as Sakura replies with a quick nod.

 

“Sakura-chan, also watch out for security cameras and silent alarms,” Tomoyo adds with a whisper. “A place like this is going to be heavily guarded with the most state-of-the-art anti-theft devices,” she adds.

 

Sakura turns back to Tomoyo with an innocent grin. “Well, technically I'm not a thief…” she whispers in response.

 

“And that's because technically, you're about to be a vandal,” Kero replies, patting Sakura on the shoulder.

 

Sakura lowers her head. “Thanks Kero-chan, that makes me feel soooo much better about this…” she responds sarcastically before reaching into her vest for another two Clow Cards as she holds them up. “Loop, cycle through the security camera's footage. Through, allow us to pass through the walls. Loop! Through!” Sakura declares strongly, yet still with a low volume.

 

Upon activation, the Loop card heads straight for a nearby window of the museum, presumably going after the nearest surveillance camera. Through, however, forms a barrier around Sakura, Tomoyo and Kero. The three then quietly tiptoe through the empty outdoor patch around the museum's perimeter before tiptoeing straight through the solid outer wall of the museum.

 

Penetrating the inside wall, the magic bubble created by the Through card dissipates.

 

“Good idea with using Loop and Through, Sakura-chan,” Tomoyo encourages.

 

“No, bad idea!” Kero responds sternly, getting Sakura to turn towards him.

 

“Huh? What for? Did I do something wrong?” Sakura asks, puzzled and confused, holding up the now rematerialized Through card in hand.

 

Kero sighs before turning to Sakura again. “I told you to be careful about using too many Clow Cards at once. Your magic isn't strong enough to use too many of them, and you're going to need everything you've got to beat the Kaos Cards. And to make matters worse, the more of Clow's magic you use, the more likely the Kaos Cards are to wake up,” he responds in a nagging tone.

 

Sakura pulls a large handful of the Clow Cards out from her vest pocket. “I'm sorry, Kero-chan, but it's this whole being the new master of the Clow Cards thing. This is the first time I've had all of the Clow Cards at my disposal at once, so I have a lot of different kinds of magic to keep us from getting caught, and it seems wasteful not to use them all,” she responds defensively, staring at a deck full of the remainder of unused Clow Cards. “It wouldn't make sense to preserve my magic at the expense of getting caught by…” she mutters, hugging the Clow Cards close to her chest.

 

Tomoyo lowers her camera, catching the drift of Sakura's feelings. “Sakura-chan… You don't want your dad to find out that you're trying to destroy his favorite exhibit. Is that it? …Sakura-chan?” she asks, rhetorically.

 

After a lengthy pause, Sakura begins to tear up and sniffle, her hands slightly trembling. “When catching the Clow Cards… I've had to do a lot of things behind dad's back that hurt him. When catching Sleep, I broke his laptop and ruined weeks of research. Against Cloud, I got really sick and pulled him away from a huge dig he was looking forward to going to. And when I first opened the Clow Book up, I've never been straight with him about taking the Clow Book out of his library in the first place. He thought a burglar took it. He was going to put it in this museum too. It would've made him very happy. And now… to keep the Kaos Cards from running amok…” she goes on, gripping the Clow Cards tighter and wiping tears out of her eyes with the sleeves of her leopard gloves. “…I thought I was done. I just don't want to hurt dad anymore…” she cries.

 

Kero notices Sakura's tears dropping to the floor. “Sakura, to remind you, I disapproved of this from the start. You were the one who talked me into it. If you're having any second thoughts about this, we should just leave now. Who knows? The Li family sent these things. Maybe they'll have some way to deal with them too. And as much as I hate giving that kozo credit for finishing what Clow Reed started, it's not worth putting you in this kind of danger without you being on your toes,” Kero suggests.

 

“No!” Sakura snaps back stubbornly, still fighting back her tears. “If I leave the Kaos Cards here, they'll attack dad and everyone who comes to see them. I'm the world's only Cardcaptor, so this is my job, and my duty. But if I just leave now without confronting the Kaos Cards, what happens to everyone because of them will be something even harder to live with than lying to dad,” Sakura reasons, wiping the last of her tears away. “Let's finish what we came here to do!” Sakura adds with renewed confidence.

 

After tiptoeing down several hallways and corridors and bypassing several soundly-sleeping security guards, Sakura, Tomoyo and Kero make their way into the inner wing of the museum, where Tomoyo and Sakura had seen the Kaos Cards earlier that day. As the three approach the case, they stare at the Kaos Cards in unison. The Kaos Cards, in response, are just as they were earlier that day, with the slight orange glow of the Elixir of Fire in the back casting a wicked corona of energy on the lesser Kaos Cards, which is considerably more visible at night with the few lights in the inner wing turned off.

 

“So here they are, after all these years. Ultimate destruction is just beyond this glass window…” Kero whispers reverently.

 

Sakura grips her wand tightly, pulling out the Firey card from her vest. “And they're not getting out if I have anything to say about it…” Sakura begins, preparing to call on Fiery.

 

“Sakura-chan, wait!” Tomoyo beckons with an urgent whisper, interrupting Sakura and pointing to a small caption under the glass window, reading “Kevlar-reinforced glass”. “It's fireproof,” Tomoyo reads.

 

Sakura lowers her wand as well as the Fiery card as she begins to groan in the tediousness of the task. “Hoee… This just keeps getting more and more challenging…” she whimpers.

 

Tomoyo scrutinizes the bulky, high-tech locking device on the right side of the window. The device itself has a small, self-illuminating LCD screen over a glow-in-the-dark numerical touchpad. The LCD screen itself reads “Please type in the 3-digit code to unlock:”.

 

Kero also notices the locking device. “Don't try to bust the glass with a Clow Card. You'll set off a silent alarm, or worse, wake the Kaos Cards. You've got one good cast left that the Kaos Cards don't seem to have noticed, so save Fiery for that when you get the case open,” Kero instructs.

 

Tomoyo looks back away from the locking device and towards Kero. “But a three-digit combo lock has one thousand different combinations possible. While we could open all of them, these kinds of devices tend to set off alarms if you type in the wrong code too many times, so we'll have to be lucky guessers right now,” she comments.

 

Sakura fixes her eyes on the Kaos Cards, as well as the Elixir of Fire that illuminates them. “We won't have to guess. I think I know the pass code,” she comments monotonously as she reaches towards the keypad, much to Tomoyo's and Kero's shock. Sakura slowly types in the three digit combination of 5-2-0, causing three asterisks to appear on the LCD screen, before she finally presses a defined enter key.

 

Kero and Tomoyo stand back in anticipation, keeping their fingers crossed that the combination unlocks the case. The LCD screen reads “Processing…” before momentarily displaying “Password Accepted!” and the lock pops open, allowing Kero and Tomoyo to breathe in a sigh of relief.

 

“Dad really did love this exhibit,” Sakura comments, not showing any surprise to the code working on the first guess.

 

“How could you figure out that code in just one try?” Kero inquires, as if it was by some magic that Sakura knew.

 

Sakura takes a moment to wipe her eyes again with the back of her hand. “5-2-0,” she explains, “…it meant May 20th. That was my mom's birthday. It was a predictable pass code, coming from dad. He probably wished that mom could be around to see the defining moment of his archaeological career. And evil cards or not, I wish she could've seen dad succeed too…” she states, holding her tears back as she reaches to swing the door open.

 

As soon as Sakura budges the door open, the orange glow of the Elixir of Fire flares out brightly, enveloping all the other Kaos Cards in a blinding red glow, forcing Sakura, Kero and Tomoyo to cover their eyes.

 

“What's happening?” Sakura asks Kero loudly.

 

“It's started! Looks like the Kaos Cards knew you were Clow's selected Cardcaptor all along and were just playing us for a bunch of chumps, those sneaky little devils!” Kero responds.

 

From inside the case, the Kaos Cards all begin to slightly vibrate before dissipating into red flickers of energy as they shoot out of the case through the tiny opening. The Elixir of Fire remains, and the glow from it subsides to its more typical weak orange.

 

As Sakura, Tomoyo and Kero turn back to the now nearly empty display case, they notice that all the Kaos Cards have vanished, and the Elixir of Fire has returned to a normal orange glow, or at least as normal an orange glow as it can emit.

 

“Hoee! They got out!” Sakura exclaims.

 

“Did we fail?” Tomoyo asks Kero.

 

Kero flutters around, frantically trying to figure out where the Kaos Cards went to. “For right now we did, but we can take care of the Kaos Cards later. Right now, we need to get out of here as soon as we can. Now that the Kaos Cards are active, they'll come after us, particularly Sakura. And after four casts already, Sakura needs to conserve her magic more than ever now,” Kero explains before turning towards Sakura. “But first, Sakura, get that Elixir of Fire. If that's the source of the Kaos Cards' magic, then by destroying that, we can wait out the Kaos Cards as their magic expires,” he instructs.

 

Sakura nods before reaching into the display case and quickly grabbing the bird-skull-shaped orange vial tightly in her hand before recoiling in shock. “OW! The stupid thing burned me!” she exclaims.

 

Kero sighs deeply. “Maybe that's why it was put it on a string, y'think?” he suggests snidely. “Look Sakura, if we get the Elixir of Fire out of here, then we can worry about the rest of the Kaos Cards when you've got more of your magic back. If we can't fight the Kaos Cards now, let's at least not leave empty-handed!” he orders.

 

Sakura reaches into the display case again, grabbing the string tied to the beak of the container before yanking it out of the case and examining it. In response, the eyes of the structure flicker a dark red glow. “Kero-chan, what does the Elixir of Fire do exactly?” she asks, oblivious of the Elixir of Fire's fluctuation.

 

“Not sure off the top of my head, now let's just get out of here before the guards wake up!” Kero instructs frantically.

 

Sakura balls up a fist as the Elixir's glow flickers. “Wow, you're really useful when dealing with magical artifacts, aren't you? Don't you know anything?!” she shouts at Kero angrily.

 

“Hey, I do my best!” Kero growls back at Sakura, getting in her face.

 

“Cut it out, you two!” Tomoyo begs, trying to get in between the two fuming individuals and yanking the Elixir of Fire's lanyard out of Sakura's hands.

 

As the Elixir of Fire is forced from her grip by Tomoyo, Sakura's concentration breaks instantaneously, causing her to hold her forehead. “Ohh… what was that?” she asks weakly.

 

“Never mind that. I told you not to use so many cards at once. Looks like the pressure is starting to get to you,” Kero notices.

 

The three make their way quickly into the outer wing hallway of the museum. Tomoyo checks around the corners quickly with her camcorder before the three make a break for a nearby window. Kero floats behind Tomoyo quickly, as Sakura picks up the rear while still rubbing her forehead.

 

“Sakura-chan, pick up the pace,” Tomoyo whispers forcefully at Sakura as she and Kero have reached a window leading outside.

 

Sakura tries to jog over to the window to join Kero and Tomoyo, but is interrupted in her dash in the middle of the corridor by the sound of metal in contact with stone. “Hoee?” she squeaks minutely as she darts glances all around her. The sounds continue, causing Sakura to freeze in place and shiver. “W-w-what's that sound?” she asks frantically.

 

Clanking sounds continue to echo throughout the hallways, originating from a darker end of the corridor. Soon, the source of the sound steps in front of another open window down the hallway. The loud metallic sounds come from a suit of medieval knight armor, standing under its own power and carrying a large and heavy sword. The age-dulled armor shines softly in the moonlight from the window it slowly shuffles past as it approaches Sakura.

 

“HOEE! A GHOST!” Sakura screams.

 

Kero notices the self-standing suit of armor as well. “No, it's not quite a ghost. It's a ghost of a magical card. Sakura, it's a Kaos Card!” he declares.

 

Sakura darts toward Tomoyo and desperately grasps onto her. “A Kaos Card! Hoee, that's worse! Let's just get out of here!”

 

“There's a window over here,” Tomoyo indicates, placing her hand on the metal bars over the window, attempting to budge the bars.

 

As Tomoyo grabs onto the metal bars covering the window, the metal of the bars bends out of shape and quickly wraps around Tomoyo's wrists, binding her up.

 

“Sakura-chan!” Tomoyo shouts out in shock.

 

Sakura in response begins swinging her staff at the misshapen portions of the metal bars. “Hey, let go of her! Let go! Let go now!” she orders, swinging her staff harder and harder at the metal, all the while the knight armor slowly makes its way to where Tomoyo, Sakura and Kero are.

 

Glancing back between the bent bars and the knight armor, Kero quickly turns towards Sakura. “Industry! This is the Industry card!” he declares. “That's how it can levitate that armor and bend the metal around Tomoyo's wrists. If you seal it, the metal will return to its original shape,” Kero instructs.

 

The knight armor now looms over the three. It raises its sword high into the air, preparing to strike down.

 

Sakura stands in between the immobile Tomoyo and the ominous knight armor. “Oh no you don't!” she declares, pulling out a Clow Card from her vest. “Shield!” she declares, as a translucent wing-shaped shield appears in between Sakura and the knight's sword just in the nick of time, blocking the attack. Breathing a sigh of relief, she turns her head towards Kero for a split second. “Kero-chan, is it safe to assume that I have to get the Industry card to show it's true form, just like the other Clow Cards, before I can seal it?” she asks.

 

“Basically,” Kero responds. “But as Kaos Cards are undead magic cards, sealing them off could prove a little tricky. Also, considering the caliber of sorcerer that created them, they were powerful in their own right before falling. And I really don't want to find out how dieing influences the power of a magical card,” he adds.

 

The knight withdraws its sword away from the shield as the shield dissipates, and the knight takes a few steps back, preparing to charge.

 

“Wood!” Sakura commands, tapping her wand to the end of another Clow Card. Vines erupt from that card and intercept the armored behemoth in the middle of the charge, but its sword slices straight through the vines, causing the severed weeds to shrivel up and vanish into sparkling dust.

 

“Sakura, you can't beat metal with Wood!” Kero warns.

 

The knight armor tediously backpedals away again and raises its sword high.

 

“Then I'll fight it head-on,” Sakura boasts as she pulls out yet another Clow Card. “Sword!” she declares, tapping her wand against the next Clow Card, causing her wand to dissolve and rematerialize as a brass blade with a jewel-encrusted sharp tip. She swings the new sword at the knight, but the blade simply bounces off the knight's breastplate, showing no damage at all. In response, the armor raises a high knee, knocking Sakura across the floor.

 

Sakura slowly climbs to her feet as the moving suit of armor approaches yet again, while she herself shows far more frailty than the suit of armor opposite her. “Maybe the Mist card can erode it away…” she struggles to say, fighting to pull out another card from her vest.

 

“Don't count on it,” Kero responds. “If Sword bounced straight off of its armor like that, Mist probably won't do much good here either. We need to get away somehow,” he tells Sakura.

 

“Sakura, use Dash!” Tomoyo advises, her hands still being bound to the bars on the window.

 

Sakura turns to her restrained friend. “No, I'm not leaving you here!” Sakura insists. “If Industry wants a piece of me, I'm right here…” she continues, holding her staff tightly.

 

“But Sakura-chan, if you stay here, it'll take as many pieces of you as it wants to,” Tomoyo warns. “I'll be fine, just get out of here!” she insists as the suit of armor takes more and more strides towards Sakura's position.

 

In between a flash of epiphany and a flash of madness, Kero quickly takes the Elixir of Fire that Tomoyo held by the lanyard and swings it towards Sakura. “Sakura, take the Elixir of Fire and run! It seems to be drawn to its source of power, so if you have that, it'll follow you. Now go!” Kero orders.

 

Without thinking, Sakura grabs the Elixir of Fire out of the air, but she grabs it by the bottle. “OW! Wrong end, wrong end, wrong end!” she frantically reminds herself. Flinching in pain from the burning heat of the bottle and shaking her burnt hand around, Sakura fumbles with the bottle as it plummets to the floor.

 

As the Elixir of Fire's container hits into the floor with a sound like a glass bottle against a rock, Sakura, Tomoyo and Kero stare frozen at the bottle, which seems miraculously untarnished. All three breathe a brief sigh of relief, but the beaked end of the bottle opens, causing the orange substance inside to shoot out of the bottle and form a circle around Sakura. After completing the circle, a pattern forms on the circle, which is identical to the pattern seen on the back of the Kaos Cards. Sakura stands perfectly still, seemingly frozen in time, as this circle is drawn under her by the emptied contents of the Elixir of Fire. After the completion of this pattern, the entire circle shoots up a pillar of fire, enveloping Sakura and causing her to scream out loudly. These events keep Tomoyo's and Kero's attention with a magnetic grip.

 

“Sakura-chan!” Tomoyo screams to Sakura.

 

“A selection?!” Kero notices, as he is clearly shocked by the Elixir of Fire's unbound powers.

 

The cylinder of fire dies down, condensing around Sakura. As the flames clear more and more away, Kero and Tomoyo notice the flaming energy penetrating straight into Sakura's chest, causing Sakura to shoot bright orange light energy out her eyes and mouth. As the remainder of the energy completely permeates Sakura's body, she stands motionless, with her head hung and her entire body smoldering, though not physically burned. After a momentary pause, Sakura raises her head, revealing a bright orange glow in her eyes. She then raises her staff and lets it go, and flames from her palm consume the staff as it levitates in the air. She then mutters a mystic incantation in a deep voice, clearly not her own.

 

“Key of the powers of the Inferno, there is one seeking contract with you. Her name is Sakura…” she mutters before finally grabbing the staff out of the fires? The fire then plunges into the tip of the staff and cause it to change into the skull of a bird with a cruel, hooked beak, similar to her former Key of Clow, but with more of a zombie theme.

 

Seeing this causes the knight armor to back away, as if it were in fear.

 

“Kero-chan, what's a selection?” Tomoyo asks, unable to look away from the disturbing events that literally surrounded her friend.

 

Kero is no more able to break his stare than Tomoyo. “A selection is when the key of the former magician selects a new Card Captor. This allows the individual to use and seal cards from that particular sorcerer away. And the Elixir of Fire has apparently selected Sakura,” he explains.

 

“So Sakura can seal away the Industry card easier, right?” Tomoyo asks.

 

“Well we're about to find out…” Sakura says confidently, though not in her typical childlike tone. She lifts up her new staff as she pulls out the Fiery card. She tosses it out in front of her as she prepares to swing down onto it. “Fiery, consume the… hey!” she begins, but is interrupted as the Fiery card levitates over to Kero. “Worthless scrap of paper... it deserted me!” she shouts at Kero, trying to reach at Kero to retrieve the Fiery card.

 

Kero holds up the Fiery card, handing it back to Sakura again, but Fiery slips out of Sakura's hands again and floats back to Kero again.

 

“Kero-chan! Make the stupid card come to me! It's an attack card, and I'm ordering it to attack!” Sakura shouts at Kero.

 

Kero stares at the card and feels its surface with his paw. “It's afraid of you, Sakura,” Kero explains.

 

“Darn right it's afraid of me. I'm the master, and the card is the slave. I called the card out, and the card disobeyed my order!” Sakura shouts, snagging Fiery away from Kero and stuffing it into her vest pocket.

 

“Sakura-chan, you're not yourself…” Tomoyo whispers in fear, barely recognizing Sakura after being infused with the Elixir of Fire.

 

The suit of armor begins pacing towards the group again, noticing Sakura's inability to activate the Fiery card.

 

Tomoyo begins struggling against the bent bars again, getting Sakura's attention. “Ugh, do I have to do everything around here?” Sakura groans as she kneels down next to Tomoyo and grabs the metal bars that wrap around her hands. Sakura's very touch against the bars causes them to smolder and turn red as Sakura bends the bars back into their normal position by hand, freeing Tomoyo's wrists. “Ironic how this knight in shining armor is the one putting the damsel into distress in the first place. Get a boyfriend, Tomoyo. Maybe he'll tolerate you dressing him up like a clown. Write him some freaking emo music while you're at it…” she grunts heartlessly and with deep frustration before taking up her transfigured staff once more and facing the walking suit of armor. In defiance, Sakura wipes the kiddy makeup off her cheeks, preparing to confront the armor suit with all seriousness.

 

The suit of armor raises its sword high and approaches Sakura before stopping. It swings its large sword, but Sakura quickly deflects the sword with a mere backhand, swatting it out of the knight's grip with minimal effort, causing Tomoyo and Kero to drop their jaws in shock.

 

The knight's glove was still gripped around the sword as the glove was knocked away. Revealed is a long, thin metal coil, appearing like a wire, but considerably thicker, protruding from the missing limb of the armor.

 

“Sakura, that coil is the Industry's true form! If you can get the armor off it, you can seal it away,” Kero instructs, pointing at the cable hanging out from the armor suit.

 

“Gee, like I haven't figured that out myself,” Sakura remarks, rolling her eyes at the obviousness of Kero's statement. She grabs the opposite glove of the knight's armor before tearing it off with her bare hands, revealing another metal cable under the armor. She then quickly takes her staff and swings it at the backsides of the knees of the knight armor, tearing away the leg pieces and tossing them back down the corridor. More of the cables are revealed, but they shrink back into the breastplate of the knight's armor, falling to the floor before Sakura. With a swift kick, Sakura knocks off the helmet of the knight armor, revealing a giant wad of cables holed up where the knight helmet was. “And I heard that Kaos Cards were tough. Pathetic little coward,” she demeans before raising her staff and the circle from the Kaos Cards appearing under her feet once again. The ball of cables attempts to squirm away, but it falls out limply like mechanical spaghetti. “Return to your true form, Kaos Card!” Sakura commands, smashing the hooked beak against the balled up wad of cables. In a burst of flames and orange light, the Industry card emits a mechanical shriek. It finally succumbs to the sealing spell and conforms to a different shape, the Kaos Card that it was. The card floats towards Sakura, who grabs it forcefully out of the air, almost crumpling it.

 

“One down, seven to go,” Sakura concludes ominously before glaring back at Tomoyo and Kero, who flinch away.

 

***

 

Momentarily…

 

Tomoyo, Kero, and a still-possessed Sakura stand outside a big, gaping hole blasted in the outermost wall of the museum.

 

Sakura leans back on the wall and folds her arms smugly. “Well, all's well that ends well. I've been selected as the new Cardcaptor of the Kaos, I sealed off the Industry card, and the Elixir of Fire has decided to bestow its awesome powers on me. A great night, despite having to put up with you two losers,” she reflects, glaring meanly at Tomoyo and Kero, holding up the Industry card, as well as her brand new key.

 

“Sakura, would you just listen to yourself for once?!” Kero snaps back. “That Elixir of Fire is getting to your head, and we're gonna' get it out of you if it kills us!” he declares. “Right, Tomoyo-chan?”

 

Tomoyo turns her head away from Sakura, ignoring Kero altogether. “Sakura-chan… You really think I'm useless?” she mutters.

 

“Speak up, field mouse. I can't quite hear you over the crickets,” Sakura jabs with a wicked smirk.

 

“Sakura, apologize to your friend!” Kero orders.

 

Sakura turns away from Kero. “Sure thing, mommy, right after I do my nails,” she replies sarcastically.

 

Kero frowns. “Funny you mention your mother. What do you think she would say if she were alive right now?” he asks, trying to jar a reaction.

 

Sakura stares up. “Oh, I don't know. Probably something like `help, help, get me out of here, this box doesn't have any air holes', or something like that,” Sakura responds stoically.

 

Kero grits his teeth, preparing another response, when he is interrupted by the sound of Sakura's recorded voice, her normal voice, in the background. Turning back towards Tomoyo, Kero notices her balled up on the ground, looking at the display window of her camera, watching footage she had recorded few minutes ago, showing Sakura confessing that she doesn't want to hurt her dad's feelings.

 

Tomoyo cries, as she watches the footage play back. As footage of Sakura striking a cheesy grin rolls past, Tomoyo freezes the playback and stares deeply at the screen. “Sakura-chan… what happened to you?” she asks the Sakura on the display screen, clutching her camera close to her chest.

 

Kero keeps turned towards Tomoyo. “Sakura, when I thought that facing the Kaos Cards was going to kill you, and you said you'd be alright, it looks like we were both right. You walked out of that museum with ten fingers, ten toes, two arms, two legs, and a head on your shoulders. But the Sakura I knew… the Sakura that I selected… her heart in that museum tonight. You aren't my master anymore…” he says before fluttering over to Tomoyo's shoulder and perches there, watching the last shot footage of the old Sakura.

 

“Well if I'm not Sakura anymore, can I go home now?” Sakura asks before trotting off down the dark street.

 

Kero breaks his glare at the girl formerly known as Sakura before returning his attention to Tomoyo's video camera. The scene of Sakura's transformation is about to play again, and Tomoyo reaches for the rewind button. “No, wait, let it play,” Kero tells Tomoyo, stopping her from rewinding the footage.

 

Tomoyo turns her head to see Kero perched on her shoulder. “Kero-chan? You want to see the footage of Sakura turning into a monster?” Tomoyo asks weakly.

 

“What was THAT?!?!” a booming voice sounds from down the street.

 

“There might be some clue as to how to reverse the effects of the Elixir of Fire,” Kero explains as the footage rolls. “Play it at half speed, so we don't miss anything,” he suggests.

 

Tomoyo turns a small dial controlling the playback speed of the video she captured.

 

“I sure hope nobody up there suggested what I thought they did!” the possessed Sakura's voice booms, signaling her approaching.

 

Tomoyo and Kero are now viewing the scene in which Sakura is fumbling with the Elixir of Fire right before she drops it on the ground. The two stare intensively at the pixilated representation of the Elixir of Fire as it heads for the ground.

 

“Pause, now!” Kero tells Tomoyo, who complies. The video had frozen on the exact second when the Elixir of Fire hit the ground. “Now zoom in on it,” Kero continues, and Tomoyo continues to follow his instructions.

 

With the magnified image on display, Kero and Tomoyo see the Elixir of Fire landing beak-first on the marble floor, and the beak caving in slightly.

 

“So it's like a soda bottle. Push in the beak, and the Elixir comes out…” Tomoyo notices as she fishes around in her pockets for something.

 

The enraged Sakura approaches Kero and Tomoyo, with the mutilated key and the Industry card in hand. “Heads will roll, you two. Nobody and I mean nobody calls Kinomoto Sakura a monster!” she bellows deeply.

 

Tomoyo pulls her hand out of her pocket and pulls out the empty glass case for the Elixir of Fire. “I knew this would come in handy!” she exclaims as she attempts to tap the nose of the bottle against the concrete sidewalk outside the museum. Despite her attempts though, the bottle doesn't open. “It's not working!” Tomoyo notices.

 

Sakura stops at point blank range in front of Tomoyo and Kero. She holds out her staff as the magic circle of the Kaos Cards appears on the ground below her feet. “Industry, silence these two weaklings for good,” Sakura orders.

 

Kero frantically grabs the Elixir of Fire's container from Tomoyo and flies it at Sakura. “This better work!” he exclaims, rushing the bottle at Sakura's chest. Crashing into Sakura, the nose of the bottle buckles in slightly, causing the eyes of the bottle to glow a bright red, and depletes the orange glow from the magic circle below Sakura's feet. Sakura reels slightly with the opening of the bottle, dropping her key and the Industry card on the ground, with the key reverting back into the small star key form. Reddish orange energy pours out of Sakura's eyes and mouth in a torrent of flaming power. The energy flowing out of Sakura is sucked right into the bottle, filling it quickly. As the last of the energy flows out of Sakura's mouth and eyes, the bottle in Kero's arms seals up and the eyes glow dark red. Without the elixir's power flowing through Sakura, she falls limply toward the ground, when Kero and Tomoyo catch her. Kero is careful this time to not let the Elixir hit the ground.

 

“Sakura-chan!” Tomoyo calls out, catching Sakura quickly. “Is she alright, Kero-chan?” she asks Kero.

 

Sakura begins to show signs of life, rubbing her eyes. “…uhhh… hoee… wait… Yukito-san…” she mutters in her unconsciousness while blushing a bright pink in the cheeks.

 

Kero and Tomoyo stare at each other. “If that doesn't prove it, I don't know what does…” Kero responds.