Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Chaos Card Captor Sakura ❯ The Legacy of Kaos ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3: The Legacy of Kaos

 

Sakura sleepily tiptoes through the house. Reaching her door, she opens it as quietly as possible. Inside her room, she shuts the door behind her. Walking over to her desk, she opens a random drawer and quickly stuffs the Elixir of Fire and the two Kaos Cards into it.

 

After a lengthy yawn and a stretch, she slowly slips back under her bed sheets, feigning sleep in case someone came in. Remembering the cat-ear headband, she quickly discards it, along with the gloves, and stuffs them under her bed. She looks up at the clock on her nightstand as it read 5:59 AM. Right after she pulls the covers over her head the clock strikes 6 AM and begins to ring. Unenthusiastically, she stands back to her feet and reaches for her nightstand to turn it off.

 

“Ugh… that was a nice second of rest,” she mutters as she walks over to her window and opens it up. Looking out the window, Sakura waves at Tomoyo, who quickly waves back and dashes out of sight.

 

Kero flies in the open window. “Well, things didn't go quite as planned. We didn't destroy the Kaos Cards. But at least you're still somewhat well and you have some way of fighting back against the Kaos Cards now,” he reflects.

 

Sakura stumbles back and forth before falling facedown on her bed. “These Kaos Cards are going to exhaust me to death, aren't they?” Sakura says, her voice partially muffled by the mattress in her face.

 

Kero floats to Sakura and pokes her on the shoulder. “Hey, look at it this way: in just one night you've captured one fourth of the Kaos Cards. That's the equivalent of you opening the Clow Book and catching 13 Clow Cards by dinnertime. You're making really good time!” he encourages.

 

Sakura weakly lifts her face off the bed. “Hoee! Only a fourth?” she whines before letting her face fall back down again. She rolls over weakly. “If I do seal all the Kaos Cards away, I won't be able to move. And there are six left?! These Kaos Cards really are evil. At least the Clow Cards had some concept of sleep…”

 

Kero floats over Sakura, sensing her despair at the prospect of the other six Kaos Cards.

 

“At least when I went after the Clow Cards, I had Li-kun's help,” Sakura tells Kero.

 

Kero grits his teeth. `Stupid kozo…' he thinks to himself. “Don't wish for his help. He doesn't even have any more Clow Cards. Yue defeated him. He blew it. You're the unchallenged Master of the Clow Cards. You don't need him!” Kero insists.

 

Sakura puts the back of her hand to her forehead as she stares at the ceiling. “Then… why? What was he doing there? In my dream…” she mutters. “Kero-chan, if you see Li-kun around, please don't tell him about the dream,” she requests.

 

“I may have to,” Kero answers. “As much as I absolutely detest him, he has to know what his family is up to. If he's in on it, I'll have a brand new reason to hate him.”

 

Sakura struggles to sit up. “Kero-chan, be nice to Li-kun. If you don't want to, let me talk to him. Tomoyo-chan was going to help him out with his summer project at the zoo today. I'll just tag along and tell him then…” At finishing that last statement, Sakura flops back down on her bed. “Ugh… but I don't even know if I can stand up… I'm just so tired…” she whimpers.

 

Kero floats over to the door to Sakura's room. Reaching for the doorknob, he locks it. “I'll go,” Kero offers. “You just rest here. Lock up, and don't open the door or window for anyone until I get back. We can't risk another Kaos Card coming after you when you're unprotected like this. I'll be back as soon as I hear from the kozo about what's going on,” he says as he flies towards the window.

 

Looking back at Sakura, he notices that she's fast asleep. Sakura's chest is still moving, indicating that she's still breathing.

 

“…Yukito-san…” Sakura mutters in her sleep.

 

`Not much I can do for her now,' Kero thinks to himself before flying out the window and shutting it behind him.

 

***

 

Tomoyo's house

 

Tomoyo sits on her bed, now wearing her school uniform. She fiddles with her camera, checking the batteries and the focus. Over on a nearby desk, a beeping computer alerts Tomoyo's attentions. She hurriedly runs over to the computer to do some quick file downloads that she had been waiting for. Afterwards, she unplugs her camera from the computer, grabs the hat that goes with her school uniform, and grabs a large duffel bag from off the floor. Tomoyo heads for her door when she suddenly hears a knocking at her window.

 

From the other side of Tomoyo's window, Kero floats around, knocking on Tomoyo's window urgently. Seeing this, Tomoyo tosses her duffel bag aside and sets her camera down. She opens the door and allows Kero to fly in.

”Kero-chan? What are you doing here? Did something happen to Sakura just now?” Tomoyo asks.

 

Kero flies into Tomoyo's room. “Sort of. Sakura fell asleep, and she can barely move a muscle. She'll be okay after a long rest, but right now I'm going to be doing some sleuthing for her.”

 

Tomoyo sighs with relief. “Thank goodness Sakura's okay. But just what kind of sleuthing did you have in mind?”

 

Kero cringes. “I need to pay the kozo a visit. Sakura told me that you were helping him with the video portions of his vacation project. In the meantime, I have things to ask him. Like what exactly his family is doing by irresponsibly putting the Kaos Cards on display.”

 

Tomoyo picks up her camera and duffel bag again. “Well you'd better hurry up, because I'm heading over there now. Li-kun mentioned that he wanted to get his project done as soon as possible. You know how punctual Li-kun can be.”

 

“How naturally stuck-up of him…” Kero mutters as he flies into Tomoyo's bag.

 

***

 

Outside Syaoran's apartment

 

Tomoyo presses on the doorbell button, sending a buzzing sound through the apartment. Kero peeks his head out of the bag in anticipation.

 

“This is the place,” Kero notes. “You don't magically transform into the kozo only to forget stuff like this immediately. I wouldn't be that lucky…”

 

“I could've told you that this is where Li-kun lives. I do have his address written down, y'know,” Tomoyo replies.

 

Momentarily, a tall, old man opens the door. His gray hair is combed down and surprisingly well-groomed for this early in the morning, as is his business suit.

 

“Ah, Daidouji-sama, you're early. Please, come in,” Wei invites. “If there's anything I can do for you and Keroberos-sama, please, do let me know,” he offers, widely opening the door to the apartment.

Kero quickly darts his head into Tomoyo's duffle bag, thinking he was found out.

 

Tomoyo grins at the embarrassed guardian beast's reaction. “Kero-chan, I think Wei-san would at least know something about Clow Reed and his guardians after being Li-kun's caretaker for so long,” she tells Kero as she walks into the apartment.

 

Kero slowly emerges from Tomoyo's duffel bag, head-first. “Well… in that case, where is `Syaoran-sama' anyway?” Kero asks mockingly, flying out of Tomoyo's bag and looking around the apartment and seeing no signs of anyone else except Wei.

 

Kero and Tomoyo enter the apartment and take a seat on a futon set up against the wall.

 

“Um, Wei-san, I know we're early, but is Li-kun even awake yet?” Tomoyo asks Wei politely.

 

“Of course I am,” Syaoran answers, pacing into the room with a towel around his neck and his sword in hand. At the moment, Syaoran is wearing sweatpants and a short-sleeved white shirt, likely dressed for exercise purposes.

 

“Good morning, Li-kun,” Tomoyo greets with a smile.

 

“Good morning, Daidouji-san,” Syaoran answers stoically. He turns away and wipes his forehead with the towel around his neck. “I'll get ready,” he says before walking back out of the room.

 

Wei smiles. “What a diligent young man Syaoran-sama is. Even after the Final Judgment, he still refuses to cease his training. It's as if he never failed.”

 

“Sounds like denial to me…” Kero pipes up with an accusatory tone.

 

“Kero-chan,” Tomoyo scolds gently.

 

“No, think about it!” Kero insists. “He's the descendent of Clow Reed, yet Sakura wasn't. He used Time against Yue, and the kozo got axed from the Final Judgment for it. But Sakura uses Wood against Yue to similar effect, and she gets the do-over! If I were the kozo, I'd be eight fruity flavors of honked off too,” Kero explains.

 

“Water under the bridge, Keroberos,” Syaoran answers before emerging from the other room with his school uniform on and a Tomoeda Elementary backpack over his shoulder. “Some of us choose to live with the past instead of doting over it forever,” he adds.

 

Kero flies up off the futon and gets right in Syaoran's face. “And I take it you're willing to live with what's about to happen too? Or do they keep the failures of the family out of the loop regarding their secret plots?” Kero accuses.

 

Syaoran drops his backpack to the floor in a single motion. “What's that supposed to mean?” he answers back.

 

“You're sounding pretty surprised all of a sudden. What's the matter? Don't have a ready alibi?” Kero accuses stronger, shoving his face into the bridge of Syaoran's nose.

 

Syaoran pushes back against Kero. “No, it just happens that I'm not used to being indicted by a flying Teddy Grahm! Go pester your almighty master about this!” he counters.

 

Wei cracks a smile and begins to laugh aloud. “It is as your mother envisioned, Syaoran-sama. She knew that you and Keroberos-sama would become the best of friends,” he comments.

 

“WE'RE NOT FRIENDS!” Kero and Syaoran simultaneously insist to Wei, causing Tomoyo to giggle.

 

“This isn't a laughing matter, Tomoyo! You saw what happened to Sakura!” Kero shouts at Tomoyo.

 

“What?!” Syaoran steps back. He grabs Kero firmly. “Talk straight, Beanie Baby, what's going on here?!”

 

“Li-kun, Kero-chan, cut it out!” Tomoyo pleads.

 

Syaoran grunts before releasing Kero and folding his arms.

 

Kero swallows in a few deep gulps of air. “You want to know what's going on here, kozo? Well I'll give you a name and you tell me if it rings any bells: Kaos Gin,” he says grimly.

 

Syaoran raises an eyebrow. “Mother Goose is out for blood now?” he asks coyly.

 

“Mother Goose?” Tomoyo and Kero simultaneously ask Syaoran.

 

Syaoran walks towards a tall bookshelf. He pulls up a stepladder and reaches for a relatively thick, tattered book on a high shelf. Bringing it down, he shows it to Tomoyo and Kero. The book is covered in Chinese characters. Syaoran cracks open the book, reading it left-to-right, and scans quickly for a particular page. Finally finding what he is looking for, he puts his finger down in the text before showing it to Kero and Tomoyo.

Tomoyo turns her head at the chicken-scratch writing. “Chinese?”

 

“This better be good…” Kero mutters as he floats towards the open book. “Hmm… lesse here… Now what's that one mean again? …Uhh… …umm…” Kero thinks aloud, pointing at the characters and attempting to read it left to right.

 

“Can you read it?” Tomoyo asks Kero.

 

“Yes, I can read it,” Kero responds defensively. “I'm just a little rusty on my Chinese, that's all.”

 

Syaoran rolls his eyes before turning the book back so he could read it. “Ugh, useless stuffed animal. It's a legend about Clow Reed and Kaos Gin. It's a pretty long story, so I'll basically give you the quick and dirty summary,” he begins, and clears his throat. “When Clow Reed was alive, there was another rival sorcerer named Kaos Gin, and while Clow Reed was a sorcerer of good magic, Kaos Gin's magic was evil. So Clow Reed confronts Kaos Gin, defeating him and his magic. The end,” he summarizes before shutting the book closed.

 

“Kaos is a family legend to you, Li-kun?” Tomoyo asks.

 

Kero's eyes narrow down as he stares down Syaoran. “Y'know, all myth is rooted in some form of truth. That little storybook you have seems to omit a rather large amount of details…” he suggests ominously.

 

“I know,” Syaoran adds matter-of-factly. “The history of Clow Reed's family traces back to colonial England, where he had a brother who died a martyr. He tried to make a magic that would conquer death, but died before he could finish his project.”

 

“So, if Clow Gin was a martyr… what was in the museum?” Tomoyo pipes up?

 

“The ones that martyred him,” Kero answers.

 

“The Englishmen?” Syaoran asks, puzzled.

 

“The Kaos Cards,” Kero corrects.

 

Syaoran nods his head back and forth. “Why don't you get your facts straight before you go pointing your stubby little fingers? Kaos Cards never existed. Ne-ver! No historical artifacts have ever been found that would indicate that there were ever any such things as Kaos Cards. Those cards are just fairy tales,” Syaoran protests, folding his arms.

 

“Correction: no artifacts have been found that you've seen!” Kero adds.

 

“You sound so sure, Li-kun,” Tomoyo notices.

 

“Too sure…” Kero goes off again.

 

“Kero-chan!” Tomoyo scolds.

 

“If there were ever a Kaos Gin in real life, I'd definitely know about it,” Syaoran argues. He turns away and pauses for a few moments. “My mother wouldn't keep secrets like that from me,” he finally adds, sparking Kero's and Tomoyo's attentions.

 

A smirk crosses Kero's face. “Okay then, kozo, now we're getting somewhere. Let's play a little Devil's Advocate then,” Kero invites, hovering over Syaoran's shoulder. “Let's say your family was keeping Kaos Gin from you. What, from the stories in the fairy tale, could you tell us about the Kaos Cards that could help us defeat them?”

 

Syaoran sighs deeply. “I don't know what you could be getting out of this. It's only a story, like I told you already. The basis is that even sorcerers have superheroes. Clow Reed happened to be one of the founding historical figures of magic, making him the candidate for many tall tales, like how Americans tell tall tales about figures like Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan. According to the legend of Kaos Gin, each time Clow Reed fought a Kaos Card, it was like a parable,” Syaoran answers, again flipping open the book with the fairy tales in it. “Each Kaos Card was a standalone story within the larger scheme of the story of Kaos Gin. There are all sorts of different battles that Clow Reed had with these cards, according to the legends. Each card was a symbol of a different type of human depravity, which Clow Reed, the `Purest of Souls' fought against.”

 

“For example?” Kero grills, probing ever deeper.

 

Syaoran flips through the pages of the storybook before laying his finger down on a choice passage. “Oh, here's one about Clow Reed's never-ending dream. It says here that Clow fell asleep one night, but a gargoyle invaded his dreams. He nearly went insane, attacking all those that were close to him in his dream. But Clow confronted the Guardian Gargoyle, who tested his purity. After Clow had bested the creature with the power of his inner will, he woke up victorious over the Kaos Card called the Nightmare Card,” Syaoran reads. “You happy now?” he asks Kero aggressively.

 

“Hold on…” Kero interjects. “Does that legend happen to mention what the Guardian Gargoyle's name is?” he asks.

 

Syaoran skims back through the passage he read over, nodding his head. “Yeah, it was called the Guardian Gargoyle, Lycan,” he reads. “But what's it to you?” he asks, growing more frustrated.

 

“I knew I heard that name somewhere before!” Kero insists.

 

Syaoran completely snaps. He tosses the book onto a nearby coffee table and points at Kero. “Quit evading the question! What do you care about Li family legends, you glorified carnival prize?!”

 

Kero responds by quickly biting Syaoran's extended finger which was so temptingly pointed out. This causes Syaoran to wave his hand around, trying to shake off Kero's deceptively powerful jaws. Tomoyo steps away from the swinging Syaoran until Syaoran manages to pry Kero off his finger.

 

“Tell it to Sakura, if she survives!” Kero spurts out.

 

“Kinomoto-san?” Syaoran asks, temporarily rattled out of his accusatory tone against Kero. “What does she have to do with this fairy tale?” he asks calmly.

 

Getting an idea, Tomoyo searches through her duffel bag for her camcorder, which she pulls out. “Here, Li-kun. I still have the footage from last night. Sakura-chan, Kero-chan and I all snuck into the Tomoeda museum after we saw the Kaos Cards, to try to destroy them before they could do any damage.”

 

Syaoran glares at Kero again. “So… let me get this straight: you knew about the Kaos Cards, you knew how dangerous they were, you let Sakura go after them, yet you actually have the audacity to call yourself a guardian beast?!” he asks angrily.

 

Tomoyo desperately tries to separate the two heated combatants by getting between them. “Boys, boys, cut this out! Sakura-chan's life is in danger. This isn't the time to be fighting amongst ourselves. Li-kun, forgive Kero-chan for being a little suspicious. Kero-chan, just let Li-kun see the footage. It's the easiest way to prove the Kaos Cards are real,” Tomoyo tells the two. After Syaoran and Kero turn away from each other, Tomoyo hands Syaoran her camcorder, which Syaoran reluctantly takes hold of.

 

Syaoran stares at the paused camera screen. The screen shows Sakura wearing the leopard-themed battle costume from the previous night, with Sakura looking into the camera with a humiliated expression on her face. Syaoran can only hold the camera and stare at the screen, or more accurately, at Sakura.

 

Tomoyo points to a large `Play' button on the side of the camera. “Li-kun, you play the video with this button here,” Tomoyo tells Syaoran.

 

Syaoran snaps out of his daze and moves Tomoyo's hand away. “I can see the play button just fine, thank you. I'm a swordsman, not a caveman. I know just as much about technology as the next guy!” he insists, pressing the Play button.

 

“Well, technically I'm not a thief…” the Sakura from the video claims.

 

Syaoran can't help but blush a little. He completely zones out while watching the video. The Sakura from the video was just as Syaoran remembered her, always smiling optimistically no matter what. In fact, Syaoran hadn't seen or even heard from Sakura since the Final Judgment, figuring that he'd have no further part in Sakura's adventures, and life, now that he had been stripped of his Clow Cards. Syaoran continues to stare on at the video in a daze until Kero finally intervenes.

 

“Here, let me fast forward through these stupid parts for you,” Kero offers, getting right in the way of the screen and pressing down the Fast Forward button. This causes Syaoran to break his blushing trance, replacing it with a resentful glare aimed straight at Kero. Both Tomoyo and Wei giggle softly in the background at seeing this little scene unfold.

 

Syaoran shoves Kero out of the way of the small screen and off the fast forward button. He pauses the playback before glaring at Kero again. “I was watching that, stupid beast. I'm looking for any clues because I happen to know what to look for, so I have to see the whole thing!”

 

“Oh, you're looking for something alright…” Kero begins in a sarcastically understanding tone. “Oooo… Sakura and kozo, sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-Gaaaak!” Kero taunts before he feels Syaoran's hand wrap around his scrawny neck.

 

“Shut up, I'm serious!” Syaoran insists, despite blushing bright red in the cheeks. “If you want me to do my part to help Sakura defeat the Kaos Cards, then you'd better show me some respect!” he demands.

 

“That's twice!” Tomoyo notes of Syaoran's statement, pointing in Syaoran's direction. “Li-kun, you said Sakura-chan's name without keigo. I thought it was just a slip of the tongue until you did it again. When you speak Japanese, you don't do that unless…”

 

(A/N: Assume everything in English is actually spoken in Japanese, only you can understand it.)

 

Syaoran stares back at Tomoyo and drops Kero right out of his hand, letting him fall unconsciously to the floor. Syaoran shakes his head back and forth in denial, fighting off a blush. “Look, I'm just a bit rattled right now and I forgot about it. It happens every now and then when you don't speak Japanese as your native language, okay?! So do yourself a favor and don't read into it!” he insists defensively. He then storms over to the futon in a huff before plopping down and playing the video clip again.

 

“Daidouji-sama, allow me to bring Keroberos-sama some ice,” Wei offers as he kneels down to eye level with Tomoyo. “Syaoran-sama can be a tad… tenacious when he feels that his weaknesses are being ridiculed,” he whispers into Tomoyo's ear before walking into another room, presumably the kitchen.

 

Tomoyo scoops Kero up off the floor and looks over at Syaoran.

Syaoran holds Tomoyo's camcorder delicately in his hands. He watches attentively, his eyes not budging from the tiny screen built into the camcorder. He begins to slouch forward, leaning in closer towards the screen.

 

“You've always kept an eye out for Sakura-chan, haven't you?” Tomoyo calls over to Syaoran.

 

Noticing that Tomoyo had been watching him, Syaoran quickly pauses the clip and closes the camcorder. “What?” he asks with a deep growl.

 

“Caring for someone isn't a weakness. It's one of the greatest strengths a person can have,” Tomoyo states.

 

Syaoran blushes at Tomoyo's proverb. He stares at the coffee table, where he threw the storybook with Kaos Gin's legend in it. However, Syaoran remains speechless as he reaches for the book again and flips it back open. After reading it again for a moment, he sets down both the book and the camcorder on the coffee table.

 

“Daidouji-san…” Syaoran begins as he stands to his feet. “I saw enough of the footage. I don't know what it was that you stumbled onto exactly, but I'll help in any way I can. But don't go thinking that this means anything between Kinomoto-san and I, except for duty. If she's not powerful enough to fight the Kaos Cards by herself, it's my obligation as a relative of Clow Reed's to do what I can to help. Don't fool yourself though. If it didn't have to do with Clow Reed, I wouldn't be even considering this.”

 

“Of course,” Tomoyo replies with a grin.

 

***

 

Sakura's House

 

A humanoid figure with large bat-like wings floats from out of the sky and perches on top of Sakura's house. The being's head and torso are clearly that of an adult human, albeit supernaturally augmented. His short reddish-orange hair sticks straight up, as do the creature's pointed ears. Extending out the closed lips of the creature are two curved fangs. The human skin of the creature is without a single scar, blemish, mark, or even damages of age. At the creature's shoulders and waist, his skin transitions from its perfect human flesh texture to that of red, reptilian scales. The reptilian portion of the creature's body is heavily muscular. Each hand and foot is dragon-like, bearing three long, pointing fingers and two prehensile fingers that act like thumbs. Each finger grows into a curved, bony spike of a fingernail. The creature also bears a muscular and enormous tail like that of an alligator or a small dinosaur. The tail, as well as the entire human vertebrate, bears hook-like spikes, similar to the creature's fingernails, protruding from the skin.

 

“Excellent work, Lycan, the cherry blossom has been ensnared,” the creature whispers in a mundane voice which wildly contrasts the wicked appearance of the being. “Now for me to attend to the little wolf…”

 

The creature lifts up a small animal skeleton. Its spinal cord is short, no more than a palm's length, but the vertebrae are like finger rings. The skeleton has no other limbs, and would appear to be a snake, if it wasn't for the oddly-shaped beakless bird skull at the end of the skeleton. In the creature's other hand, he holds up three Kaos Cards in his hands, faced towards himself.

 

“Soon, Master, very soon your dream will be achieved,” he says to the Kaos Cards in his hands before soaring straight up into the air in a burst of speed.

 

***

 

Sakura's Room

 

Still laying face-up and asleep on her bed, Sakura shows her first signs of life by twitching her eyelashes. She then opens her eyes and stares at the ceiling above her.

 

“A… Kaos Card's… presence…” Sakura mutters before closing her eyes again. “Too tired… Can't… move… Must… rest…”

 

***

 

outside Syaoran's apartment

 

The door to Syaoran's apartment opens up, and Syaoran begins pacing out across the balcony, heading stoically for the stairwell. He had already packed up his backpack and grabbed his hat as well, wearing his hat on his head and his backpack over one shoulder.

 

Momentarily, Tomoyo darts out and quickly runs to catch up with Syaoran, carrying with her the duffel bag she brought and a still unconscious Kero with her. “Li-kun, wait up!” she shouts.

 

Syaoran nears the stairs and grabs onto one of the hand railings before turning back. “C'mon Daidouji-san, my project won't do itself,” he replies.

 

Catching up to Syaoran, Tomoyo pauses to catch her breath. “Your project? But what about the Kaos Cards? I thought you were going to help Sakura-chan defeat them!” she insists.

 

Syaoran turns away and begins walking down the stairwell. “And I intend to, just not now. According to the legends of the Kaos Cards, they're all nocturnal, so they won't activate during the daytime. So we should be safe until the sun goes down,” he answers as he proceeds downstairs.

 

Tomoyo stares ahead skeptically until she realizes that Syaoran had started going down the stairs without her. “Li-kun, wait up! I'm the one with the camcorder!” she shouts.

 

Syaoran reaches the ground floor of the apartment complex first, with Tomoyo eventually following him.

 

“Hurry up, Daidouji-san!” Syaoran calls up the stairs to Tomoyo.

 

Tomoyo hurriedly jogs down the stairs to meet Syaoran at the ground level, when she takes a moment to pant heavily and catch her breath.

 

Tomoyo leads Syaoran over to a white van parked in the nearby parking lot. She opens the large back doors of the van and puts her duffel bag in the back. Syaoran follows Tomoyo, jumping quickly into the back of the van and taking a seat on the floor of the van. Tomoyo then climbs into the back before shutting the doors.

 

“The zoo, I presume, Daidouji-sama?” a straight-haired, suit-wearing female bodyguard asks from the driver's seat of the van.

 

“If you would, please,” Tomoyo answers the bodyguard in a kind tone.

 

Momentarily, the engine begins to rev up as the van begins to rumble slightly. The vehicle begins moving.

 

After a few moments, Syaoran takes off his backpack and opens it up, pulling out the storybook that he was reading from in the apartment. He opens it up and begins reading silently to himself.

 

Tomoyo sets Kero down on the floor of the van as she notices Syaoran returning to the storybook from before. “Looking up more about the Kaos Cards?” Tomoyo asks innocently.

Syaoran flips the page before looking up from the book, at Tomoyo. But before speaking up, his eyes gravitate towards the bodyguard in the driver's seat. “Uh, Daidouji-san, maybe we shouldn't talk about that stuff while there are other people around…” he begins nervously.

 

“I'm not paid to see and hear weird things,” the bodyguard replies back monotonously. “Bizarre… unexplainable things…” she drones on, taking a sip from a coffee mug nested in a cup holder at arm's reach.

 

“Go ahead, Li-kun,” Tomoyo invites. “Does the story say anything else about the Kaos Cards?” she asks.

 

Syaoran returns his gaze to the pages of the book once again. “Well, according to the story, there are only eight Kaos Cards. The sorcerer that created them, Kaos Gin, died making these cards, so he couldn't make a large set. When the sorcerer's life ended, the cards died with him, as well as his two Guardian Beasts-”

 

“Wait a second, two Guardian Beasts?!” Tomoyo interrupts, intrigued by what Syaoran had just read.

 

Syaoran stares up at Tomoyo, closing the book before setting it down. “All sets of magical cards have two Guardian Beasts. Take the Clow Cards for instance. The Clow Cards are split into a dichotomy over two contrasting forces, Light and Darkness. Keroberos, the Selector, rules over all cards under the control of The Light, and Yue, the Judge, rules over the cards under the control of The Dark. That was how Yue was able to turn Sakura's and my cards against us during the Final Judgment. Until the true master was decided, all Clow Cards fell under the control of one of the two Guardian Beasts, like temporary Cardcaptors. Therefore, the Clow Cards would always obey their Guardian Beast first and their holder second, until the Master was decided. That was how Sakura won the Final Judgment,” he explains.

 

Tomoyo grins warmly. “Y'know, you must really like Sakura-chan to call her by name all the time like that,” she notices innocently.

 

Syaoran rolls his eyes in frustration. “Quit changing the subject! Look, I really don't care anymore. I think we've substantially beaten it into the dirt that I've got a crush on her. Fine, go nuts, go write a book about it, or maybe a video documentary would be more up your alley, or whatever. Just SHUT UP ABOUT IT!” he insists.

 

Tomoyo sits motionlessly, blasted away by Syaoran's pent-up fury and not knowing what to say next. “Uh… you can forget I asked. You were saying again?” she asks with a mix of meekness and fear.

 

“There are more important things at stake here than insignificant little feelings,” Syaoran patronizes as he holds up the storybook. “These Kaos Cards aren't measly little playing cards like the Clow Cards were. The Kaos Cards are out to kill and torture all of humanity. That's all they know how to do now that their master is dead. If you want them stopped, quit worrying about how I feel already. Let me worry about junk like that,” Syaoran says with an ominous confidence.

 

Tomoyo shrinks away, leaning against the opposite wall of the van. “You're starting to talk like she did that time,” she mutters, catching Syaoran's attention and snapping him out of his fit of rage. “I'm not a powerful sorcerer like you or Sakura-chan, but from what I've seen, the magic of Kaos Gin makes people angry, lonely, and scared. I know what we're up against. I've looked Sakura-chan in the eye, and when I see that tortured, demented glare… she's just not herself.”

 

Syaoran stares down at the floor of the van, and at his trembling hands. He clenches his fists tightly, in a vain attempt to stop the trembling.

 

“Li-kun, I know why you don't want Sakura-chan to know how you feel,” Tomoyo continues. “You're afraid that the Kaos Cards will take her away from you. You're afraid of Sakura-chan being trapped in her anger, alone and scared forever, because of the Kaos Cards.”

 

Syaoran laces his fingers and puts his hands behind his head. “I don't know,” he whispers. “I just don't know what I feel anymore. All I know for sure is what I know for fact. And whether you're right, or whether you're wrong, it's clear that you don't fully understand what Kaos Gin is about.”

 

“Li-kun, you know something,” Tomoyo notices. “Something important. Something that can make the difference. You're holding out. You're holding out on her. But you know what that means.”

 

Syaoran stares off into space, contemplatively studying the van wall opposite him. “It's insulting how you imply that. You're probably thinking that I don't care enough to say why,” he begins.

 

“But you do care, so that's why you hide,” Tomoyo interrupts before cracking a smile. “You're still watching out for Sakura-chan in your own backstage, subtle little way.” She picks up the storybook that Syaoran had been reading from before and hands it to him. “I bet there's something about the Kaos Cards that knowing it makes them far more powerful. You don't want Sakura-chan to lose her cheerfulness over this.”

 

Syaoran reluctantly takes back the storybook. He sighs as he pinches the bridge of his nose between his fingers and staring down in stress. “It's my mother…” he blabs out in a subtle whisper, pathetically attempting to mask his fear. “She lied to me about Kaos Gin. She wanted to protect me from reality. So all she ever told me about Kaos Gin was that he was a character in an allegorical fairy tale. If she thought I could've handled it, she would've told me the truth and I could've prepared for it. The only reason she wouldn't tell me would be if nothing I could do would ever match their power.” He lifts his head morbidly, looking Tomoyo coldly in the eye.

 

Tomoyo returns the stare with deep confusion and a longing for comprehension. “So… you're trying to protect Sakura-chan by not allowing her to know what is going to happen, just like your mother tried to protect you,” she deduces.

 

Syaoran looks away. “No, not quite,” he responds, the morbidity washing over him completely. “I know what happens in the end of Kaos Gin's story. Kaos vowed to return one day and claim a Cardcaptor to walk in his footsteps to complete his project: to finish the cards that he had designed in his lifetime.”

 

“Evil cards, I'd wager?” Tomoyo jumps to conclusions.

 

“Actually not,” Syaoran answers persuasively. “Kaos Gin's original cards were themed at the improvement of human life and existence. Rivaling Clow Reed, Kaos Gin viewed Clow's cards as gratuitous and selfish uses of magic, so Kaos set out to outdo Clow with a set of cards to better all of humanity. Kaos Gin's final project was a card called The Life. The other seven cards that predated Life's contemplation were all cards that were themed around improving the ultimate quality of life, but only in tangible ways. But despite his best efforts, he couldn't conquer the ultimate suffering, death. So he decided to create a card governing over life itself. Unfortunately, even despite Clow Reed's pleas for him to understand, Kaos was too stubborn in his pursuit. Conquering death is impossible, even with magic. What makes life so precious that it can't be artificially cheapened. Despite this, Kaos's goal was the success of his project. The Life was never completed, the Kaos Cards fell into a state of magical un-death, and Kaos Gin perished, but he vowed that, someday, his chosen Cardcaptor would complete his card, and legacy.”

 

Tomoyo looks on with confusion. “That was really what Kaos Gin was like?” she asks, perplexed. “That Kaos Gin doesn't sound like the same nutcase that created the Elixir of Fire that made Sakura-chan evil,” she disputes in disbelief. “Kaos Gin sounded like he was trying so hard for the sake of those around him, even trying to overcome the impossible… A lot like Sakura-chan does, now that I think about it.” Suddenly, realization overcomes Tomoyo in a quick flash. “Wait, do you think that's why Kaos Gin had Sakura-chan elected as his Cardcaptor?” she asks frantically.

 

“Don't you dare compare Sakura to that fiend!” Syaoran insists. “If Kaos Gin is anything at all like how his story depicts him, he isn't worth the benefit of the doubt. Kaos Gin was warned repeatedly by everyone around him that conquering death was impossible, even with magic, and that terrible things happened to sorcerers that attempted to do so. Kaos Gin wasn't empathetic, he was downright obstinate. Sakura is more of a human being than he ever was before or will be ever again!” Syaoran takes a moment to pause after his ardent commentary. His breathing heavy, he clutches his chest to calm his thunderously heavy heartbeats.

 

Tomoyo smiles at a fuming Syaoran. “You don't have to convince me that Sakura-chan is a kind person,” she responds.

 

Syaoran stares off into a contemplative daze once more. “But still, you make an uncomfortably good point. Kaos sees in Sakura all the good that he himself believes that he has, in all his arrogance. He probably thinks that Sakura can complete the Life Card for him. But it won't ever be enough, even if she were the greatest sorceress to ever live. If she continues acting as the Cardcaptor of the Kaos, she'll attempt to finish the job that Kaos Gin started, either willingly or not. And then…”

 

Tomoyo's eyes widen in fear as she fights a losing battle to hold in her tears. “It can't be… Sakura-chan will…” Tomoyo mutters. “But wait!” Tomoyo insists. “There were actually eight Kaos Cards. Sakura-chan, Kero-chan and I saw all eight of them at once in the museum. So if the Life Card was never successfully completed… what's the eighth Kaos Card?” Tomoyo asks bleakly.

 

“That, I don't know,” Syaoran answers plainly. “Daidouji-san, please don't tell Sakura any of what I told you. I've seen with my own eyes the kind person that she can be. If she knew about any of this, she'd try and finish Kaos Gin's Life Card.”

 

Tomoyo nods compliantly. “I promise,” she tells Syaoran.

 

Suddenly, the movement of the van starts to slow down as the tires screech loudly against the pavement. Tomoyo and Syaoran are both thrown to one side of the van by the sudden breaking and swerving of the van.

 

“Stupid cat. I swear the thing wanted to get run over…” the driving bodyguard mutters with frustration as she slowly pulls over and parks.

 

“What was that?!” Syaoran exclaims as he slowly pries his cheeks off the cold metal wall of the van.

 

Tomoyo shakes her head back and forth. “You said something about a cat running out into the road. Did you hit the poor thing?”

“Stay in here, I'll check it out,” the bodyguard instructs as she opens the driver's side door, gets out of the van and shuts the door behind her.

 

As Kero lays face-up unconscious on the van floor, he begins to show signs of life as his eyes open slowly. “…uhhhh… Man, what could possibly knock me out like that?” he asks weakly, rubbing his eyes.

 

Syaoran glares at Kero. “Nice of you to wake up now,” he patronizes as he reaches for the handles to the back doors of the van.

 

Tomoyo holds up her hand. “Wait, Li-kun, she said we should wait in the van,” she suggests.

 

Syaoran jumps out of the open back of the van and surveys the surroundings. “I bet she says a lot of things,” he retorts snidely.

 

Kero stretches widely as he floats slowly into the air. “What's all the commotion for? What happened?” he asks.

 

“Li-kun strangled you and you fell unconscious. You really shouldn't taunt him about Sakura-chan,” Tomoyo answers. “But right now, we were heading to the zoo in the van, but I think we hit something.”

 

“No kidding…” Syaoran remarks sarcastically, grabbing his backpack from inside the van and shoving the storybook into his backpack before throwing it over his shoulder.

 

Tomoyo climbs out of the back of the van right behind Syaoran, with Kero following her from the air. “Do you mean `no kidding' about hitting something, or Kero-chan taunting you?” Tomoyo asks, but Syaoran vanishes from her sight before giving a response.

 

Syaoran, Kero and Tomoyo find themselves behind the open van, parallel parked in a suburban housing district. Tomoyo's bodyguard stands in the middle of the street, staring down perplexed. Syaoran and Tomoyo go to her side, and Kero poses as a stuffed animal perched on Tomoyo's shoulder.

 

With her hands on her hips, Tomoyo's bodyguard stares at a small box turtle shell right in the middle of the street. “A turtle? That's so weird. Could've sworn it was a cat. I've never seen a turtle move that fast before…”

 

Tomoyo and Syaoran come alongside the bodyguard and also stare down at the turtle.

 

Syaoran stoops down to carefully pick up the immobile shell of the turtle before scrutinizing it.

 

“Li-kun, what do you think a turtle is doing out in the middle of a neighborhood?” Tomoyo asks.

 

Syaoran turns the shell around, attempting to examine the limbs of the creature from inside the shadows of the shell. “It's probably somebody's pet and it just got lost. What I want to know though is what a turtle was doing in the middle of the street, much less crossing it at the speed of a cat…” he ponders.

 

The bodyguard pushes her sunglasses up off the bridge of her nose as she proceeds back towards the van. “It probably just got kicked by some kid. Mystery solved, so set it over on the sidewalk and let's get moving,” the bodyguard replies complacently.

 

Tomoyo heads back for the van, but Syaoran continues staring at the turtle shell, particularly in the retracted part of the shell where the head presumably comes out.

 

“Come on, Li-kun, didn't you want to go to the zoo?” Tomoyo asks, turning back after noticing that Syaoran was not following her back to the van.

 

“This isn't just an ordinary turtle…” Syaoran answers back. “I told you that I chose biology as the subject matter for my summer vacation project, so I've taken the liberty of reading about different kinds of animals. Turtles like this one are indigenous to humid swamps and other kinds of wetlands, notably those in Central and South America. However, as Japan is essentially a group of mountainous islands a relatively large distance from the Equator, this country isn't exactly a suitable natural habitat for aquatic reptiles like turtles,” he adds skeptically, still staring into the supposed head-hole of the shell, when he is greeted with the return stare of a pair of bright yellow eyes from inside the dark hole in the shell.

 

Slowly emerging from the shell, the head of an orangey cat pokes out, the shock causing Syaoran to reflexively hurl the shell several meters down the street. From on the ground, the head of the cat tries to stare up, but is hindered partially by the shell. Regardless, it glares fiercely at Syaoran while hissing violently.

 

Tomoyo stoops down to the shell as she sets her duffel bag on the ground next to her. “A cat got stuck in a turtle shell, I guess?” she asks Syaoran after staring at the unusual hybrid animal before her.”

 

“Typical humans,” a mature, adult male voice booms out from above Syaoran and Tomoyo's heads and firmly capturing their attention.

 

Tomoyo's bodyguard stares up into the clear sky as well, huddling close to the cars on the side of the road while reaching slowly into an inner pocket inside her suit. “Who's there?” she calls out sternly, but with a hint of futility and fear.

 

Out of the sky descends a tiny black dot that races closer and closer to the ground. The air around the figure burns bright orange as it descends and appears to burn up, but doesn't. The figure quickly takes shape as it comes into sight. Large, orange-membrane bat wings protrude out the back of a bare humanoid torso, with said torso melded to the limbs of a creature more akin to a dinosaur than anything truly anthromorphic. With a thunderous explosion, the creature crashes like a meteorite right onto the concrete pavement, with fragments of flaming rock and metal shrapnel from the street and a number of unfortunate automobiles hurls out, causing Syaoran, Tomoyo, and her bodyguard to lay low to the ground to avoid being clipped by these high-speed projectiles. After the thick smoke clears, the being that had fallen from the sky drapes its deceptively-thick wing membranes over its form before momentarily standing up on its massively muscular reptilian legs. Its clawed feet, each with three `fingers' and two `thumbs', dig aggressively into the now-crumbled pavement, and with the lowering of a powerful alligator-like tail, the creature hunches forward and regains its balance in an awkwardly lumbering position.

 

“So little changes over two long centuries,” the creature speaks, implying a male gender with his tone. “You humans attempt to explain that which you cannot fathom with your `intellect', denying in your bigotry that there are beings that boast more power than you,” he adds, raising a muscular, three-fingered, dual-thumbed claw in the air. A red ball of energy forms in the creature's hands, out of which an enormous flaming spear launches out, headed straight for the van near where Tomoyo's bodyguard had hunkered down.

 

Tomoyo's bodyguard dodges this hurtling burning arrow narrowly, somersaulting behind another car, as the burning bolt causes the van to explode. She takes cover behind another car and pulls out a handgun from her inner suit pocket and taking aim at the creature. “FREEZE, FREAK!” she orders.

 

The creature looks to his feet to see the rattled turtle shell with the cat head sticking out. He gently stoops down and with a mysterious gracefulness he carefully picks up the shell and cradles it in one arm like a child. “Freak? Is that what you call our blighted kind, human?” he answers the bodyguard with an aggressive glare. “No one does harm to those under my protection… and gets away with it!” he growls, all the while gently stroking the cat-headed turtle with his free `hand', eliciting a soft purr from the mutated turtle-cat.

 

Tomoyo is unable to tear her stare away from the unusual duo of the cat-headed turtle and the reptilian-humanoid being before them. She nervously tugs on Syaoran's sleeve without as much as even moving her head. “L-Li-kun… what is that thing?”

 

From atop Tomoyo's shoulder, Kero stares at the two with a peculiar glare in their direction, though still hanging his body limply over Tomoyo's shoulder, maintaining his stuffed animal charade. “Could that guy… really be…?” he mutters.

 

Syaoran looks over towards Tomoyo's bodyguard, stationed cautiously opposite a car and leaning over the hood with her handgun aimed right at the creature. “Whatever it is, something tells me that your bodyguard's gun is going to be about as effective as a spitball,” he begins as he takes off his backpack and quickly rifles through the contents with both hands.

 

“Should I get back?” Tomoyo asks quietly.

 

Syaoran slowly pulls a Chinese-style double-bladed sword with a tassel-adorned scabbard out of his backpack, having just summoned it. “Don't ask me any questions. Just stay out of my way. I'll handle this myself,” he responds with a cocky certainty.

 

“Cocky kozo…” Kero mutters under his breath.

 

Meanwhile, Tomoyo's bodyguard and the creature trade intensely deep stares, the creature levitating up another burning javelin and the bodyguard having drawn her pistol. The bodyguard quickly opens fire with a fast succession of six headshots, but the bullets bounce harmlessly off the impregnable skin of the mysterious being's forehead.

 

The creature frowns back. “You modern humans would make my Master sick. After all he did for you ingrates you honor his memory by building instruments of death and murder. I suppose some humans are simply undeserving of life when you hand out death so eagerly,” he begins as he rears his arm back to throw the flaming spear.

 

“Summon: Dragon of Water!” Syaoran recites. He strikes the edge of his sword against an ofuda, summoning a mighty torrent of crystal-clear water in the form of a giant serpent, rushing straight at the unknown entity.

 

Upon contact with Syaoran's Water Dragon spell, the being cries out in pain as its spear evaporates into an effervescence of steam and smoke. The creature stoops closer to the ground. He shivers violently and drops the turtle-shelled cat onto the ground. Momentarily, the water spell that had dampened his body begins to boil away and vaporize off the very surface of the creature's skin. “A… an element sorcerer? In this day and age?!” he exclaims in shock before looking towards a confidently posed Syaoran with his sword extended in his direction.

 

“So you ARE Damien, the Guardian of the Kaos Cards!” Syaoran shouts, noticing the creature's physical reaction to the touch of water. “I guess the rumors I heard of the non-fictional nature of both you and your master weren't exaggerated after all.”

 

“Damien?” Tomoyo asks curiously, quickly pulling out her video camera from her duffel bag and frantically beginning to film the unfolding events.

 

Kero grits his teeth, having witnessed Damien, the dragon-like being, and the heat-based nature of his powers.

 

Damien shakes his mighty wings off, whipping up a piercingly hot wind to vaporize the last moisture from Syaoran's spell. “You… know of my name, boy? And of my Master as well? I see that the stories of Reed's crimes lasted through the centuries, did they not?” he asks ephemerally.

 

Kero begins to take flight and flutter off of Tomoyo's shoulders, wearing an expression of received offense. “Wait a minute, what do you mean by `Reed's crimes' anyway? Kaos Gin was insane, and Clow defeated him, end of story!” he insists defensively.

 

Damien's beast-like eyes shoot wide open. “Wrong, you uneducated creature! How dare you speak so rashly of my Master. Who do you think you are anyway?!” he argues, balling up a clawed fist.

 

“I just so happen to be Keroberos, Guardian Beast of the Clow Cards, as well as of Clow Reed himself!” Kero shouts back, folding his stubby little arms in a pathetic attempt to appear macho.

 

“You're Keroberos?!” Damien asks in denial.

 

Kero stares at his plushie-looking body. “Yeah, I get that a lot,” he answers back, but he quickly flutters away as Damien lunges at him angrily, also causing Syaoran and Tomoyo to back away several feet.

 

“Keroberos, you vermin!” Damien fumes. “You follow Clow Reed despite the fact that he was a shallow little boy in the vast world of magic, vainly using his powers only for himself and no one else. All the while, my Master chose the path of bettering mankind, yet is somehow remembered as a villain! How can you support him after what he did to my Master all those years ago? Or did Reed actually have the wherewithal to erase those memories from between your ears?” he snarls, gathering up flaming spears in both his claws.

 

Syaoran pulls out another ofuda before readying his sword for another spell. “Just what do you want here, Damien?” Syaoran asks courageously.

 

Damien quickly spins around in a full circle, whipping Kero ferociously with his tail and sending the miniscule Guardian flying off into the sky. He then grabs Syaoran by his arms with but one hand and lifts Syaoran into the air, to eye-level with himself. “It would be such a shame to have to kill such a powerful sorcerer, so don't tempt me, Little Wolf. I have come for but simple business,” he declares as he holds out his other claw. In his palm rests a small snake skeleton with limb bones, presumably wings, coming out the back just after the skull.

 

“What business?!” Syaoran asks frantically. He struggles furiously against Damien's grip, managing to touch the ofuda to his sword, but the discharge of magical water went straight up, missing Damien entirely. Syaoran resorts to flailing roundhouse kicks at Damien's face, but Damien does not even budge to Syaoran's blows.

 

“What's that thing supposed to be?” Syaoran asks, his eyes fixed to the snake skeleton in Damien's palm.

 

Damien holds the skeletal creature closer to Syaoran. “This is an artifact from when my Master was a Card Captor. This is the Key of Kaos. And you, Little Wolf, have been foreordained by my Master to be the Card Captor of the Kaos. Congratulations,” he explains as he wraps his claw around Syaoran's hands and rolls down Syaoran's right sleeve down past his eblow, despite his best attempts to fight back.

“A Card Captor of the Kaos?!” Syaoran exclaims, flailing about. “I heard what you did to her, too. What could you possibly need both of us for?” he asks with a demand for answers.

 

Damien smirks at Syaoran. “You will understand when the Master reveals it,” he responds in an unsatisfying way to Syaoran's question.

 

With the exposed skin of Syaoran's arm now touching the skeletal artifact in Damien's claw, the artifact glows bright orange in the eyes before taking life and crawling around like a centipede. It scurries from Damien's scaled fingers over to Syaoran's wrist and it backs down his arm, so that the tail pointed toward Syaoran's shoulder and the beak pointed towards his hand. The skull of the artifact crosses its knife-like beak across the back of Syaoran's wrist, drawing blood down his arm, but he only grits his teeth through the pain, stubbornly refusing to scream despite a believable amount of agony. His grip on his sword gets progressively weaker until it finally slips right out of his hand.

 

“W-what's it doing?” Syaoran asks, much weaker and no longer fighting nearly as vigorously, practically hanging limp in Damien's grip like a rag doll.

 

Damien turns his head towards the sky as he closes his eyes. The glowing orange Circle of Kaos appears below his feet, like magma glowing under the cracked pavement. He begins to speak an incantation with an echoing in his voice. “Key that hideth the powers of the Inferno, heed the call of Damien, thy Guardian Beast. There is one that seeketh contract with thee. His name is… Li Xiaolang. Crossbow of the Inferno, Release!”

 

The blood that trickles out from Syaoran's wound drips down the length of his forearm, forming a nearly perfect straight line down Syaoran's arm. The mobile artifact scurries along Syaoran's arm, aligning its vertebrae along the line of blood on Syaoran's arm before attaching itself cleanly to this line as if the blood were a magical epoxy. The vertebrae of the creature lace themselves along Syaoran's arm, further fastening the morbid device to Syaoran's arm.

 

After this had taken place, Damien releases Syaoran's limp form from his grip, letting him fall straight to the ground, but Kero quickly bolts from over the horizon and grabs Syaoran by the collar of his shirt by his mouth as he desperately lifts him over to where Tomoyo had witnessed the passing events of another of her friends succumbing to Kaos magic.

 

Tomoyo puts Syaoran's good left arm over her shoulder as she tries to keep him stood up, but Syaoran can barely keep his eyes open. In an un-ladylike fashion, Tomoyo shoots a fierce gaze squarely at Damien. “You monster! What did you do to Li-kun?! Wasn't it enough to select Sakura-chan and force her to chase those demonic cards of yours around Tomoeda?!”

 

Damien folds his arms, completely unfazed, as the Circle of Kaos below him dims and fades away. “The Little Wolf will be just fine. Trust me, if I wanted him dead, it would be all too easy… be he a relative of Reed's or not,” he responds with sarcastic encouragement.

 

Kero floats beside Tomoyo, echoing her anger. “Damien, if you want to try and get to me through Sakura and the kozo, you might as well just attack me right now instead of involving them. I'm not going anywhere, and it's clear that you want a piece of me more than anything,” he boasts, levitating defensively in a pathetic attempt to protect Tomoyo. “Leave everyone else out of this. This is between Guardian Beast and Guardian Beast.”

 

Damien grips his fists tightly as he grits his teeth and leers intensely at the pint-sized Guardian Beast before him, but he finally breaks his gaze and scoffs before he paces away. “As much as I would love to kill you and destroy your very essence right here and now, it won't bring my Master back. So don't go thinking that I wouldn't love to see you die at my hands, but I have important business to attend to that doesn't involve you, fortunate little vermin.” He spreads the large pair of dragon wings growing from his back as he floats off the ground and into the air before turning to face Keroberos, Tomoyo, and an unconscious Syaoran.

 

“So you're running away, and I'm the vermin? Care to explain that one, you blighted scum?” Kero jeers at Damien while shaking his paw in the air.

 

Damien folds his arms. “Running and observing are two very different things, vermin, and it would do you good not to get them confused. For, you see, I cannot interfere in the final stage of the Rites of Kaos. The selected must capture a Kaos Card with the power of their own magic before the Key of Kaos will respond to their incantations and they will truly be a Card Captor of the Kaos. The Cherry Blossom passed her Rites with flying colors under the watchful eyes of Lycan, and now it's time to see if the Little Wolf can do the same,” he explains. “Arise, blighted one. Chimera, release!”

 

At Damien's incantation, the mutated turtle shell with the cat head levitates into the air before growing to enormous proportions. The shell swells to the size of a battle tank, and the shell sprouts two wings on the left and right, one the white feathered wing of a bird, and the other a black, sinuous wing of a mythical dragon. The head of the creature emerges from the shell, revealing the head of a saber-toothed tiger. The forelegs emerge, revealing themselves as the tree-trunk-like legs of an elephant. The rear legs emerge, in the form of long, dangling octopus tentacles. The tail extends in a high arc, taking the shape of a scorpion's tail. With all four of the creature's limbs firmly on the ground, the creature lets out a thunderous roar. It begins to lumber slowly and clumsily down the street, stomping cars and pavement alike, making its way toward Tomoyo, Kero and Syaoran.

 

Syaoran's eyes begin to open up slowly, revealing an orange glare in the eyes. As he slowly regains consciousness, he looks up to the ominous amalgamated creature before him. He straightens his back as he pulls his arm off Tomoyo's shoulder. “Get out of here, Daidouji-san, Keroberos,” he mutters monotonously.

 

Tomoyo clasps her hands together. “Kero-chan, Li-kun is under the control of some evil power that that freak Damien gave to him, just like Sakura was before.”

Syaoran darts a quick glare back at Tomoyo. “Look, I am not possessed by anyone or anything, now get out of here!” he insists harshly.

 

Kero stares at Syaoran with deep confusion. “I'm not sure. With Sakura, it's an easy distinction, but with the kozo, it's hard to tell whether he's being supernaturally possessed… or if he's just being a jerk.”

 

Damien keeps his arms folded as he begins to get tiresome. “Geez, if a marauding, debased Kaos Card can't keep their puny attentions…” he mutters. “Chimera, crush them all beneath your mighty footfalls!” he commands from over the makeshift suburban battlefield.

 

Syaoran notices the further approach of the beast, so he backs away and keeps Tomoyo behind his arm as he backs up. “Look, if it wasn't obvious enough, the Chimera is a very dangerous Kaos Card. Furthermore, Chimera is a Kaos Card of Destruction, meaning that its powers are most geared towards more tangible forms of havoc. So if you don't escape now, it'll kill you both,” Syaoran explains.

 

Tomoyo stubbornly grabs Syaoran's shoulder. “No! I didn't leave Sakura-chan to fight the Industry Card alone, and I'm not about to leave you here either,” she insists.

 

Syaoran rolls his eyes as he shrugs Tomoyo's grip off his shoulder. “Just stay back…” he warns as he stares down the Chimera.

 

The Chimera lumbers ever-closer, its elephant-feet crushing more cars under its incredibly heavy body weight, while the tentacles smother the concrete pavement under its weight likewise. Nevertheless, Syaoran courageously somersaults underneath the creature to where he had dropped his sword. After grabbing his blade, he quickly crawls out from under the Chimera, over the trailing, slimy tentacles of the Chimera, before the enormous shell crashed down and smothered the pavement below, just narrowly missing Syaoran.

 

Syaoran places a double-handed grip on his sword as he observes the awkwardly low state of the Chimera. Noticing the slime-coating on the tentacle-limbs of the Chimera, the limbs that were now the closest to him, he pulls another ofuda out of his pocket and tosses it in front of him. As he straightens his sword to a horizontal position, the ofuda whips itself across the edge of the blade. “Summon: Emperor of Thunder!” Syaoran declares, sending a storm of magical lightning shooting out of the ofuda and at the moistly saturated tentacles of the Chimera, causing it to respond with a pain-filled howl.

 

After a moment, the scorpion-tail from the back of the Chimera retracts in, and the saber-toothed tiger head emerges out the back, and the tiger-head in front was replaced with the scorpion tail. It roars at Syaoran again, forcing Syaoran to brace himself against its foul breath.

 

“Creative, Little Wolf, very creative, using the weak points of the Chimera's individual limbs against it like that,” Damien admonishes. “…But as strong as your ofuda magic is, you'll need to use the magic of the Key of Kaos to seal the Chimera away for good. Just pounding at it with your magic won't be enough like with Reed's cards… when the Cherry Blossom did all the sealing for you…” he hints.

 

Syaoran glances directly above him, at Damien. “What's that supposed to mean?” he asks, perplexed, but he quickly jumps out of the way to dodge the lightning-quick lunging from the Chimera's scorpion-tail. The tail instead imbeds itself into the street, narrowly missing its mark.

 

On the opposite side of the Chimera, Tomoyo and Kero move away from the Chimera and onto the relatively safer sidewalk.

 

“Kero-chan, what does Damien mean by all of that?” Tomoyo asks.

 

Kero's eyes open wide at the realization. “Hey, y'know, Damien has a point! The kozo never sealed his own Clow Card before. Sakura always sealed the card for him, and it would just choose him later if he was the one that did the most work towards sealing it. This'll be a first for him,” he notes.

 

The Chimera pulls its elephant legs in and replaces them with two giant three-toed reptilian feet, resembling the limbs of an alligator. It slowly drags itself towards Syaoran, who backs away while shooting off bursts of lightning at the creature as it advances, but to no avail as the bolts merely bounce off the turtle shell.

 

Syaoran pauses from his lightning bursts and routs quickly, getting a good amount of distance between himself and the tediously-advancing Chimera. He then pulls out another, different ofuda. “Summon: Petals of Wind!” he commands, once again drawing the ofuda across his sword and this time whipping up a mighty wind. The gust, however, is unable to even budge the Chimera and merely runs over its shell, unable to stop the implacable advance, but a sizable distance still remains between him and the Chimera.

 

Damien lands on the ground softly behind Syaoran. “Seal it, you dolt!” he mutters under his breath.

 

Syaoran turns up to look at Damien with even more perplexity. “Are you trying to help me?” he asks suspiciously. “I can do this myself, thank you very much!” he responds cockily.

 

Suddenly, Tomoyo comes running over from the sidewalk, with Kero flying at her side. “Li-kun! Li-kun! I just had an idea of how to defeat the Chimera!” she chimes up, rushing to Syaoran's side only to immediately lean on her knees and catch her breath.

 

“Daidouji-san, I told you to stay back!” Syaoran reminds Tomoyo, pulling another ofuda, again a new one, out of his pocket. “Summon: God of Fire!” he declares, shooting a stream of fire out of the ofuda by crossing it with his sword. But the Chimera responds by pulling the tiger-head into the shell, allowing the fire to blow smoothly over the surface of the Chimera's turtle shell. Syaoran grits his teeth in frustration.

 

“Li-kun, you have to seal it away… just like Sakura used to do to the Clow Cards… remember?” Tomoyo tells Syaoran in between swallowing fresh gulps of air. “It's the same incantation as sealing a Clow Card… only calling the target a Kaos Card instead.”

 

Damien stares at Syaoran from behind with folded arms. He rolls his eyes. “Methinks I should've selected that girl to be the Card Captor of the Kaos instead…” he mutters.

 

“But-” Syaoran begins, but goes silent as he stares at the gruesomely-themed artifact that had magically bound itself to his right arm. He analyzes the artifact thoroughly, in particular the head of the key and the arc-like wings that had been folded back. “…maybe…” he ponders before turning to Tomoyo. “Just don't expect me to do this on film for you…” he warns Tomoyo as he holds his forearm out before him.

 

“I think he's got it…” Damien thinks to himself as he finally begins to crack a smile for the first time.

 

Syaoran shuts his eyes as he begins the incantation as the Circle of Kaos appears around his feet. “Key hiding the powers of the Inferno, show your true form before me. I, Xiaolang, command you under our contract: …Release!” he commands.

 

At hearing the incantation, the artifact's wings spread out wide to form a single wide arc, and the skull folds over Syaoran's knuckles, like plate armor on his hand, but the flexibility of the vertebrate still allows Syaoran to swivel his wrist around. The tip of the beak itself begins to glow with an orange energy, as does the entire spinal column of the artifact. Fully transformed, it takes the shape of a crossbow, with the beak presumably being the arrow.

 

“This is a card-catching key?!” Syaoran exclaims, examining the `Key' of Kaos with a measure of dissatisfaction. “I thought it was supposed to be some kind of wand that I had to swing and hit at the end of the card, not some stupid piece of jewelry- WAA!” he begins, but as soon as he points the crossbow at the Chimera, it launches out a long, orange bolt of laser energy that penetrates straight through the Chimera's nearly impenetrable shell, but also sending a kick through Syaoran's whole body that lands him squarely on his rear.

 

The glowing orange bolt remains imbedded in the Chimera's shell, causing its tiger head to pop out and snarl in pain. It begins to flail around wildly, extracting the octopus tentacles and pulling out a pair of crab claws. It thrashes these claws around, flattening yet more cars and pavement while sending violent tremors through the ground, causing Tomoyo and Syaoran to step back.

“Who's going to pay for all this damage?!” Tomoyo shouts over the riotous mutant cacophony as she takes cover defensively behind Syaoran.

 

In a quick flash, the Chimera's scorpion-tail shoots down to where Syaoran and Tomoyo are standing. Unable to dodge this blow, Syaoran raises his arms defensively, and the giant poisonous tail hits against Syaoran's gauntleted arm, doing no damage to Syaoran whatsoever. Noticing this, Syaoran wrestles against the mighty scorpion-tail, pressing it back and aiming the crossbow. As Syaoran grits his teeth and stares at the impending spike at the end of the scorpion-tail, the tip of the crossbow glows again and shoots out another bolt of energy, causing the tail to fly backwards and catch on fire. The tail burns away and dissolves into the air, leaving nothing but steam and smoke behind. With nothing but stubby limbs, the Chimera slowly drags itself across the street, towards the position of its assailant.

 

Syaoran stares again at the gauntlet-crossbow mystically strapped to his arm. “Not even a scratch…” he notices before looking back up towards the Chimera, witnessing an even fiercer tantrum from the deformed creature. He confidently braces his posture and aims the parasitic crossbow at the snarling creature's tiger head. “If this really is a Key of Kaos, then this should seal you off!” he begins, as the Circle of Kaos begins to glow at his feet.

 

The glowing orange bolt launches straight at the Chimera, impacting the tiger head right between the eyes. It begins to leak rays of white light out the wound as its remaining limbs burn away and vaporize, just as the Chimera's tail had done. But still, a straight, solid orange bolt remained, drawn from the tip of the crossbow to the Chimera's wounded head. This long rod begins to glow white as well.

 

“Return to your original form: Kaos Card!” Syaoran commands, sending a surge of orange power resonating through the bolt. As it reaches the Chimera, the orange wave envelops the whole of the creature's head and shell in an orange corona. The Chimera glows brightly as it reforms and shrinks in a bright orange light. After a short moment, all that remains of the Chimera in the form of a small piece of paper floats down like a feather in the air before softly landing on the ground. On the back of the card, currently the side facing up, an elongated and stretched out Circle of Kaos displays itself over the majority of the black background.

 

Approaching the card in a run, Syaoran stops right in front of where the card had finally landed. He slowly bends down to pick it up. He sees the central art of the card being a turtle shell adorned with the Circle of Kaos on its highest plate. Out each of the openings of the shell burst forth many unusual and vicious-looking heads, including those of snakes, alligators, bears, and wolves.

 

“Is… this what it's like to be a Card Captor?” Syaoran asks himself. But suddenly, something catches his mind and he turns back to see Tomoyo standing on the edge of the un-destroyed street pavement, with Kero floating beside her.

 

“And… cut!” Tomoyo calls out, lowering her camcorder.

 

Syaoran tenses up as he snarls at Tomoyo. “Hey! How much of that did you record exactly?!”

 

Tomoyo smiles innocently back. “Enough to capture your bravery, Li-kun,” she responds innocently. “This way, when Sakura-chan sees this, she'll know that her Li-kun has her back.”

 

Syaoran drapes his free hand over his face to cover the blushing. “Don't you dare, Daidouji-san…” he fumes. As he notices Tomoyo and Kero by themselves, his eyes shoot open and his blush dissipates. “Wait a sec, where'd that weirdo Damien go off to?!” he asks sternly.

 

Tomoyo and Kero turn around, not seeing anyone behind them.

 

“He was here,” Kero responds. “…but his magic seems like it just vanished into thin air, without a trace at all…” he adds mystically.

 

Syaoran runs over to the two. “Pathetic stuffed animal. Guardian Beasts don't just vanish into thin air,” he snipes at Kero. “Find him!” he orders.

 

“Sure, Master, when pigs fly,” Kero responds snidely.

 

Syaoran shakes a fist at Kero. “You're airborne, aren't you?!” he snaps back, and thus the two begin a long, strung-out string of back-and-forth insults.

 

***

 

In the middle of… nowhere?

 

In a burst of bright orange fire, Damien appears in a dark, abysmally empty space. He unfurls his wings and opens his eyes to observe the total darkness of his surroundings.

 

“What? How did I get here?” he asks softly, only to hear his voice echo through the darkness.

 

As suddenly as Damien had appeared there, the ground, as it were, begins to rumble with the sound of heavy footsteps. Damien takes short flight in the air with a single bound as the first wave of thunderous tremors had nearly knocked him off balance.

 

“You left a huge mess, Damien,” an unearthly, snarling voice answers Damien. “You were supposed to observe… and only observe Xiaolang's rites of initiation,” it continues, getting progressively louder to Damien's perspective.

 

Damien lowers his guard and drops his gaze. “Oh, it's just you, Lycan. Hey, don't just pull me out of the material universe like that!” he responds, showing familiarity to the voice.

 

“FOOL!” the voice replies. Taking form, a bear-sized quadruped figure with large wings and a skeletal mask walks forth from out of the shadows, his shady body blending in almost perfectly with the dark background. It places an enormous claw on Damien's chest, driving him into the ground.

 

Damien looks up from the ground to see the face of the Elixir of Fire glaring down at him. “Hey, we're both on the same side, y'know!” Damien reminds Lycan.

 

“Sometimes, you make me wonder of the true nature of your allegiance,” Lycan snarls back. “The Guardian Beast of Destruction… You and your Chimera card live true to your respective titles. I had to resort to what little magic I have left after Master's death to cover your tracks and erase the memories of all those that heard or saw, but I could not clean the memories of everyone there. You should be far more careful with your Card Captor, Damien. Keep a tighter leash on him… like I do with my Card Captor.”

 

Damien muscles Lycan's clawed foot off his chest, allowing him to stand back up. “Your Card Captor? Both the Little Wolf and the Cherry Blossom are the Master's Card Captors, belonging to neither of us, and I have enough personal interest vested in keeping this a private matter without your threats!” he retorts strongly with a clenched clawed hand. “It's almost time, and I couldn't wait for the Little Wolf to wrap his puny brain around how the Crossbow of the Inferno works.”

 

“Indeed,” Lycan answers back calmly. “It has been near two-hundred terrestrial oscillations since Master's entombment. This time will never pass again. But still, patience is a virtue…” he begins, once more slamming Damien into the ground and snarling over him. Saliva drips out of Lycan's mouth and lands on Damien's skin, vaporizing right off, while Damien attempts to back away from Lycan's breath. “…and I desire not to be the one to explain to Master Kaos how his Guardian of Destruction was gutted alive like a fish…” Lycan threatens before releasing Damien from under his foot. “Until Master appears again… don't do anything reckless,” he threatens before walking off into the shadows, waving his spiked tail to and fro.

 

Damien picks himself up once again, holding his sore chest. “…Understood,” he answers, but still looking on with hidden contempt.