Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ What If ❯ Introduction ( Chapter 1 )

Hello dear readers!

Disclaimer: Card Captor Sakura and all of it's characters are property of CLAMP. I am merely making a story out of it, so don't sue me.

Take note that:

"Character talking"

ºCharacter Thinkingº

(Me talking)

Okay, that's all you need to know for now. Here we go:

Card Captor Sakura

Introduction

Thursday, May 24th.

Two lone figures stood on top of a building in the proximity of the Tokyo Tower. Sakura wondered what she was doing there. She should be in her bed, sleeping. What was that all about? And what were those weird cards floating around her? Plus, why was that cute stuffed bear flying beside her?

There was someone else there too, a boy, with chestnut hair and brown eyes. He wore green Chinese clothes and carried a sword in a fighting stance. He had some of those weird cards around him too. Sakura noticed several bruises and cuts on his body. It seemed as if he'd been protecting her from something. She did feel very protected, but why?

Sakura saw one last person. It was a woman with long red hair. She was on top of the tower and held a bell of some kind in her hand. It was shaped like a crescent moon and had several purple ribbons hanging from one of its ends.

Suddenly a ringing sound could be heard. Sakura could tell it wasn't the woman's bell, but wasn't sure where it was coming from. She ignored it for a while, trying to see more of the strange things around her, but soon realized what the source of the sound was.

Sakura was back in her comfy bed, her body furiously telling her it wasn't time to stop resting yet. As she shifted her position on the bed several times, her mind slowly started to work its way to consciousness. Finally, after a long time of fighting her eyelids, she came to the point of remembering the meaning of
having an alarm clock. She slowly opened her left eye to look at the object which had already stopped ringing a while ago. Realizing what time it was, her eyes widened and her mind went instantly back to full speed.

"Hoe! I'm late for school again!" She quickly leapt out of her bed, took off her pajamas and dressed herself in her school uniform. After combing her hair, she ran down the stairs to find her family already eating their breakfast.

Touya took one last bite before standing up and taking notice of his sister. "Morning monster, you’re late for school again." Touya greeted her, the same way he did every single morning. "Well, I guess that's only normal for a monster like you." Sakura was more than used to her brother's greeting; however, she still couldn't help but lose her temper over it every time she heard the word monster.

"I'm not a monster oniichan!" She said as she stepped on his foot as hard as she could, making him jump on the good foot he had left.

"Ouch!" He cried sitting back at the chair to massage his foot.

Sakura snorted, looking away. "You had it coming." She said while taking a seat in the table too. "Hey! Don't go!" The girl cried out as Touya walked to the door, completely ignoring her. "He never waits for me!" She pouted.

Sakura's pouting was distracted, however, by her father who had been watching the scene very amused. "Good morning, Sakura-chan." He greeted her with his usual good mood, serving her breakfast.

"Morning, otou-san" Sakura's gaze then shifted to her mother. "Morning, okaa-san."

"Good morning, Sakura-chan." Nadeshiko greeted her daughter, wearing a loving expression as if she hadn't seen the girl's face in years. "Did you sleep well?"

Sakura nodded with an exaggerated movement and a goofy grin on her face. Though it was a look that Sakura was used to receiving every now and then, she always felt a great warmth inside her whenever she saw her mother smile like that.

"Itadakimasu!" Sakura said before digging into her breakfast. She ate it very fast, and ran to catch up with Touya.

"Niichan! Wait for me!" She yelled with her head sticking out of the door, but it was too late. Her brother had already left and was far out of the reach of her call.

"If you hurry you can still catch him, here's your lunch." Fujitaka handed her a lunch box.

"Thank you, Tou-san. Bye!" Sakura put on her roller blades and skated after Touya.

Fujitaka and Nadeshiko watched her, as happily as ever. "Bye." They both said. Another usual day had started in the normal life of the Kinomotos, much unlike the day of a young, chinese boy whose life was everything but normal.



Hong Kong, China.

Li Xiao Lang was going through another of his daily martial arts training sessions. It was a dull life being the future leader of the Li clan, well known for it's wealth and tradition. Many legends of magic surrounded the family, and though most people believed them to be just silly stories, nearly half of them were actually true. The other half was usually told by relatives who had no connection to the clan other than the blood. These people were usually taking advantage of the name to show off.

Xiao Lang's life, even if it involved magic and legends, was limited to studying and training, having only a little time left over, most of which he spent with his family. His future was all traced out already and he didn't even have a say in it. It was always about old fashioned, centenarian traditions that couldn't be broken. That day, however, fate seemed to have a better plan for him. He had been surprised at night by a dream he was sure wasn't just a regular one. It had stuck in his mind.

ºThose had to be the cards!º Was all he could think.

Though he knew everything there was to know about those cards, he had never actually seen them, just read and heard about them. Still, in his dream he could see those cards perfectly and still remembered every single detail about them. He could also remember that there were other people: a girl, some strange creature, a woman and someone else whose face he couldn't remember. He barely realized as his thoughts drifted into the dream that he was gradually losing his focus on the sword he was waving around.

"Xiao Lang!"

The boy nearly fell over from the surprise. He accelerated his breathing to keep up with his heart and tried to make a straight face. "What do you wish mother?" He had been taught to treat his mother with a lot of respect, seeing as she was a great magician and the current leader of the clan. That was more than enough reason for all of Hong Kong to respect her.

"Don't be so formal." His mother said, amused by his attempt to look as if he wasn't surprised at all by her arrival. "You know I hate it when you do that, son. You can act naturally when none of the elders are around."

"Yes mom." He bowed apologetically and returned his sword to its talisman form. It was a pendant with a small, black, crystal-like orb.

"That's better." Yelan gave him a warm smile, but soon let it make room for a very serious expression that more closely resembled the image that she had among most of the clan members. "Son, you've trained for a long time now, just waiting for the day you would take my place as the leader of our family. You know there are two conditions for that though. One of them is just a matter of time: you must be at least 16 years old. And the second is a very important one. You must be tested and approved by the elders." Syaoran nodded, already anticipating what was coming next. "Well, the elders have decided it's time for your trial."

The boy had barely recovered from the scare his mother had caused in him when she arrived and already he was feeling shocked again. "And what's it going to be?" Syaoran asked feeling his heart race even more than before; he hadn't been prepared for that kind of news so suddenly, he had always thought he would only go through the trial after he was old enough to be leader.

"This might come as a bit of a shock." Yelan took a deep breath. "The elders have finally located the Clow cards."

Syaoran was wide eyed, feeling as if someone had just hit him in the head. That was far from anything he could expect. Way too far. It was well known by the family that it had been centuries since the legendary cards were lost and there hadn't been any trace of them since. Many believed they were nothing but myth in these modern days. He then remembered his dream. "I see... So that's what my dream was all about." Syaoran said to himself.

Yelan eyed him suspiciously "What dream?"

Syaoran cursed himself for saying that out loud. "Well... I had this weird dream involving the Clow cards. There were some people with me too. A girl, a woman and some strange creature."

Yelan didn't show much surprise "I had the same dream, and so did nearly every important member of the family. You see, after having that dream, one of the elders sensed that the seal of the book would soon be broken. That was when they felt the presence of the cards. Then they decided upon your destiny and now it appears we are all having these dreams."

The elders of the clan consisted of the father and mother of the current leader, in that case, Syaoran's maternal grandparents. They were the ones who usually kept the clan in contact, since many of the members were in the clan
just because they had the same blood, name and attended to the parties and ceremonies. Very few members even believed in magic, and an even smaller number actually practiced it.

Syaoran was still trying to keep up with reality. The whole situation seemed completely absurd to him. "But why is the seal going to be broken? Didn't Clow himself said it would happen about a century from now?" He asked while trying to sort his thoughts.

Yelan nodded. "That is a mystery. But more important than answering that question is retrieving the cards as soon as possible." She said sternly. "Apparently, they're in possession of a family that is completely unaware of what the cards can do. They live in Tomoeda, a small district in Tokyo."

At that Syaoran nearly fell on the floor. "In Japan?!" He asked, interrupting his mother.

Yelan smiled. "I knew you'd be surprised, we have no idea how they got there. The family I mentioned is the Kinomoto family. We will contact them and warn them of your arrival."

Syaoran eyed her as if not believing, confusion seen all over his face. "But why this family? Is there something special about them?"

Yelan nodded. "Yes. It was quite a surprise when we found out they all have a strong natural gift for practicing magic, though we believe they are completely ignorant about the existence of mana, and it's better that it stays that way."

"It won't." A tired voice came from behind them. It was a very old man in his late seventies who shared the same name as Xiao Lang. He was his grandfather.

"Father, don't be such a pessimist." Yelan said to the man.

"Kinomoto Sakura is the name of the girl in your dreams. As you should know, many of the family members dreamt of her too. That's not just a coincidence. She will be involved in this no matter what you do. That's fate and it can't be changed." The old Xiao Lang said, apparently very disappointed that Syaoran and Yelan didn't understand this in the first place.

Syaoran sighed. "Kinomoto Sakura..."

TO BE CONTINUED...

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A/N: There. Just a quick introduction to get you in the mood for the fic and to help you decide if you'll keep reading it or will just look for something that you find more interesting.

I'm just writing this note to tell you about my first fic (This one you just read.). Well, one nice Friday night I had nothing to do, so I read some CCS fics, and then this idea just popped up into my head. This is an AU (Alternate Universe). I intend to do the entire original story from scratch. Just different... that's pretty much it. Basically it's a "How I would have done it" version of CCS.

Hope you enjoyed it enough to move on to next chapter. If so, I'll see you there, where the story really sets off.

This chapter was edited by Meredith Summer. She did one hell of a job in making it more reader friendly without asking for anything in return and I feel she deserves a special thanks.