Ancient Girl

Composed by deko
Translated bt Yuki Neco

Chapter 1

One beautiful morning, a comfortable breeze of beginning of summer blows in. Kinomoto family’s day began with “Hoeeeee.”

Sakura was totally upset changing into school uniform, muttering “I’m gonna be late.” She combed her hair, and said, “Good morning, Hope,” to the doll on the bed. Seeing the doll yawn, Sakura smiled gently.
The Hope said “Morning, Sakura,” demanding Sakura to carry her.
When Sakura held the Hope, the doll given by Tomoyo, the Book of Sakura Cards on the desk opened and the cards flew out to float around Sakura and the Hope.

“Good morning, Sakura Cards,” greeted Sakura. Kero woke up and came out of Sakura’s desk drawer.
“Good to see you guys are good friends, but no time for rest,” warned Kero.
“Hoeeee.”

Sakura rushed downstairs.

“Eighth grader, but she’s an oversleeper as ever.” mentioned Kero, when a pillow was thrown at him.
“What the heck are you doing?”
“Nobody says that way of Sakura,” Hope spoke back angrily.
“Wanna fight, huh?” Kero provoked.
“I do.” They somehow hear a bell of fight.


In the dining room.

Fujitaka served Sakura rice, “Here you go.” The big brother was chuckling across the table. Sakura asked, “What’s so funny,” when she haul rice into her mouth with her chopsticks at an amazing speed. “I realize that a monster has an incredible stomach, even though you’re not so fat.

Snuffling, Sakura tried to kick him in the shin... but she failed. She pouted, eating miso soup with unsatisfied feeling. Putting down her chopsticks on the table, she stood up and said “See you later,” to the picture of Nadeshiko as usual.

Fujitaka said, “We’ll have important guests, so be sure to be home by five, OK?”
“Important guests?” Sakura asked.
“Very important ones.” replied Fujitaka.

When Sakura was gone, Toya commented, “It was today.” and Fujitaka nodded.
“Sakura has grown up to be a pretty girl,” said Touya.
Fujitaka replied, “He knows it.”

Touya stood up, seeing a newspaper, and mumbled, “Today. That brat will come, too.” Fujitaka, washing the dishes, said, “What?” “Uh, nothing. I’m going to the site.”
When he finished washing the dishes, Fujitaka walks back to the picture of Nadeshiko and talked to it, “Honey, here comes the day.”


Sakura, running on the street, was about to cross a small intersection, then someone yanked her by the arm.

“You could get killed!” a voice came from behind her, besides an automobile crossed her path without even braking. “Oh, thanks...” she lost her tongue.

It was Syaoran, dressed in the school uniform of the same school as Sakura’s.

“Syaoran-kun,” amazed Sakura gasped, she didn’t even believed her eyes. But she realized it was real.
“I’ve done all I had to do in Hong Kong. Japan is my country from now on,” he said. “You mean you’ll never leave here?” Sakura said with tears in her eyes, “No more endurance, only talking to you on the phone and letters?” “No more,” Syaoran replied, and hold her gently.

The embrace feels to the two like such a long time; they are detaching from everything around.

“Excuse me.” Hearing Wei, Sakura and Syaoran jumped off each other and turned red to the max.
Wei continued, “If you don’t hurry, you are going to be late.”
“Hoeee!”
“Let’s go!”
Wei smiled and saw off the two junior high school students rush to school hand in hand.


In Sakura’s classroom are the familiar students from their elementary school days. The chime tolled to sign the homeroom class began. Mr. Asaka walked into the classroom, who was a plump man wearing thick framed glasses.

Asaka announced, “We’ve got a new student today,” and looked all over the students before continuing, "but it must be your old friend.”

Tomoyo seated next to Sakura sang the greeting, “Welcome back, Syaoran.” Sakura practically collapsed with surprise, and questioned, “H-how do you know?” Then Tomoyo replied, “Meiling told me about it on the e-mail.” Before long, applause arose in the classroom.

Too bad, that reaction made him nervous, and he couldn’t introduce himself. But it was not all.

“You’re suppose to sit behind Ms. Kinomoto,” said Asaka, at which the students were surprised. “That’s what Mr. Terada told me,” explained Asaka.

Syaoran walked up to his regular seat while everybody in the class cheers him for celebration. The regular seat is just behind Sakura’s. At the moment of “We finally got together,” spoken by Sakura, he almost fainted from blush. He took his seat with all his might.


Roaring sound of race cars is heard in Sakura’s bed room.

“There! There!” Kero was handling a gamepad in a banging manner. He was very good at maneuvering a race car. But there’s one car chasing him. It was maneuvered by the Hope. She was a reckless driver, pushing the police cars trying to catch up to her out of the road, showing her expert driving skill.

“Oh, no!” Kero tried to run, but it wasn’t long until he was passed by her on the screen. To make the matter worse, Kero’s car crashed and rolled over, and so did he. Not paying attention to Kero in dizziness, the Hope crossed the goal, “Yay, I won!”

The other Sakura Cards were seeing the game behind those two. It was a peaseful usual day.


In Sakura’s classroom, Mr. Asaka wrote something on the blackboard, which read, “Summer break study: Excavation of Tomoeda hill or your own independent study.”

Mr. Asaka told to the class, “There’ll be an exavation of the ruin of Yayoi period on Tomoeda hill this summer. They are recruiting volunteer excavators. Besides, if you have your subject, independent study will be good.”
“Excavation, of archeology?” Syaoran asked.
“The digging is for a company in a neighboring town to build their new office building,” Tomoyo said.
“That’s your dad’s profession, Sakura,” mentioned Rika. “Yeah,” Sakura smiled.

Takashi appeared to spin a story, and then Chiharu covered her face with her hands, mumbling, “Not again.
“Did you know archeology started from treasure-hunting?” “Yeah, I know that,” Naoko replied, “It started out for sculptures of Greek and Roman period, didn’t it?”
“Sounds interesting,” Asaka joined them, “Explain it to us, Mr. Yamazaki.”
“Yes, sir,” Takashi continued, “That started out when an aristcrat in the Recaissance was fascinated by the sculptures that had been dug up at the ruin of Pompeii and he became a collecting freak,” Takashi spun a story, “but he lost his money for the extravagant hobby.”
“What did he do, then?” Syaoran asked.
“The poor aristocrat decided to sell his collection to the king to get out of debt. He wanted to sell them as expensive as possible, so he lied that the collection had belonged to good lineages like of kings or emperors.”

Whole the class looked at Takashi with various looks for each.
Takashi delivered more words, “Then at the night, just before the day he turned the sculpture over to the king...”
“Night?” Sakura, who guessed the story would develope into scary one, took off her seat, came behind Syaoran, hang onto Syaoran behind the back of chair, shivering.
“All the Roman citizens are scared of the deadly scream heard from the aristcrat’s mansion,” Takashi horrified.
Sakura practically was holding Syaoran tightly. Tomoyo was smiling. Naoko was taking a note.
“Next day, the house was completely torn down, and none of the clan was found alive. Instead, sculptures were found covered with blood... yes, the curse of the sculpture was executed. No one shall impair our dignity...”

No matter how old she gets, scariness is scary. Sakura ran into Syaoran’s arms. But he was also shivering, clattering his teeth. Asaka wore an I-saw-an-interesting-thing look.
“Relax, Sakura, he’s just lying,” Tomoyo soothed Sakura.
At the same time, the sound goes off that Takashi, who took an uppercut from Chiharu, broke down on the floor. Subsequently, Chiharu applied joint locking to him.
“What? He was lying?” shouted Sakura and Syaoran.
Rika smiled, “I see those of two are as pure as before.”
“Archeology has been developing in many standpoints,” Asaka remarked, “in order to overcome superstitions like that. Archeology is the study to look for where you guys yourself is being in the society.”
It was when the chime tolled to sign the end of the homeroom.


Preview: Reunion

Postscript

I know there are some interpretations about the Hope Card, but, in this fanfic, I assumed its identity based on my exclusive interpretation. Mr. Asaka, the homeroom teacher, was modeled on Mr. Morio Asaka, the director of anime version.

-deko

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