Composed by deko
Translated by Yuki Neco
In Daidouji residence in the exclusive residencial district of Tomoeda, some housekeepers and body guards are eavesdropping the conversation in the living room through the door.
“There’ll be a big dispute after a long time,” one of the housekeeper whispered.
“Yeah, Mr. Daidouji came back home at this very bad time,” one of the body guards smirked, “He’ll be toast, for sure.”
“In contrast, Tomoyo is well organized,” giggled the second housekeeper.
“Quiet! It’s almost beginning,” the second body guard said.
The head lady of the family was steaming even hotter than the firewood burning in the fireplace in the room, “Tomoyo, what do you think you’re saying?!”
“I know what I’m saying, Mom,” Tomoyo replied determinedly. A man in a white coat nodded his head, without a word, to the yong girl who talked in a stable manner.
“Darling, why do you keep quiet? Say something!” Sonomi barked out to her husband.
“Hey, Sonomi, you gotta pay more attention to how she feels,” the father defended Tomoyo, but the moment she glared at him he shut up on the instant. The daughter put her fist on her chest and faced her parents, then said, “Mom, Dad, I know I can learn and experience technical skills if I go up to the school to study technical subjects. But still, above all things, I want to choose precious time I spend with Sakura and Syaoran. That’s because friendship is the most valuable thing in life.”
“You said it!” the father replied.
“What? Are you saying whole of your life is satisfied as long as you’re hanging out with your friends?” shouted Somoni, “You know, encounter is the first part of farewell, as the saying.”
“I sure have something I want to accomplish, but that doesn’t mean I have to dedicate myself to it. I don’t need specialized education,” Tomoyo said.
Somoni walked to the closed door in a fierce look, and shouted to the women who were eavesdropping out in the hall by the door.
“Stop eavesdropping, and make us some tea. I’m so thirsty!”
The head lady of the family breathed a sigh as soon as she felt all the housekeepers had walked off.
“From who did she inherit that stubbornness?” the mother frowned, and then she shouted, “Darling!!”
As the way he was accustomed to, the father stood still to hear his wife shout.
“You’re responsible for it, got it?” Sonomi said angriy to her husband. Knowing her mother’s agreement in intuition, Tomoyo raised her thumb to her father.
“That’s what you say, I’m still busy with my study...” the father mumbled with his eyes wide with astonishment.
“Do something for your family! You’ve enjoyed more than enough in your private laboratory, leaving the hard work in the company all on me,” the mother said strongly staring at the father. Even though Tomoyo was allied with the father, she agree with her mother on that point. “I too think you should have hardship for a change, Dad,” the fourteen year old girl giggled.
“Oh, my sweetheart...”
“By the way, I want to go to granddad’s villa next week,” Sonomi said decidedly, “Sakura will be there next week, and I want to have a good time for a change.”
The father shrugged and sighed, overwhelmed by the women’s power that he could not ever stand against.
Mt. Souen was reflectingly white covered with snow; there was a tall building among the snow field. The gate, by which the guard house stood, held the signboard “Advanced Communication Laboratory.”
In the director’s office of the laboratory, Satoshi Nakagawa, the director, and his secretary Misako were having a meeting. “From South America, Peru branch reported the system is working properly,” Misako reported.
“Good. How about a new report from South Africa branch?”
“Professor Bracket said it was impossible to activate the system as scheduled,” Misako replied. Satoshi got upset and grabbed and half squashed the report paper, and shouted, “I don’t want to hear such a report. We decided tomorrow! Dr. Elnann and I, and he made the promise!”
“But it’s in the middle of the red hot Kalahari Desert. I don’t think it’s posstible to establish the stability before the winter solstice,” Misako said. The director pointed the world map on the wall, on which there was a triangle connecting Japan, Peru, and South Africa. “If there’s a defect in either of the given three points, even positioning can’t be carried out,” he said, “All right, I’ll e-mail him.”
When he was ready to get down to his work, he noticed his secretary was still in the room.
“You want something else?”
“Your daughter, Rumi, does not go to school these days, her school told me about it,” Misako said quietly.
“Thanks. But I haven’t been home for days.”
That was all the reply he made. She knew he didn’t want to get involved with his daughter.
A number of colorful dots were going down hill drawing trails behind them on the spotlessly white ski slopes of Mt. Souen. Sakura maneuvers her ski poles and moved down hill beautifully; she skied much better than her elementary school days. Kero poked his head out of the hood of her ski suit, and said, “You’re great. It’s good you’re so athletic. But in contrast...” Kero rolled his eyes, and then Syaoran Li went passing them with a whiz in a totally scared look. It rather looked like he was carried by a pair of skis against his will.
“Syaoran, watch out!” Sakura cried, but it was too late. A big crashing sound and a scream echoed in the area. At this time, old Masaki came to them skiing carefully.
“Snowscape is something!” Masaki said. Giggling at Syaoran who was buried in a lump of snow, Sakura and Masaki pulled him out of the snow.
“I had a friend in this town. There’s a silver dome on top of that hill, but can you see it?” Masaki pointed a hill; with a careful look, the girl and the boy could see a glittering building on the white hill.
“Actually, I came here because I wanted to see him, we haven’t seen for ages. I want to visit him in a few days,” Masaki said with a smile.
“Is that an observertory, that has a gigantic telescope?” Syaoran exclaimed.
Sakura’s attention caught on something else, not the talk about the observatory.
“Is somthing the matter, Sakura?” Syaroan asked.
“Look,” Sakura pointed a gigantic parabolic antenna sticking out of the massive forest.
“That’s a scientific facility to have a chit-chat with people all over the world through the outer space,” the old man explained, “They call it Advanced Communication Laboratory.”
“I feel someting eerie... What is it?” Sakura thought to herself.
At this time, they heard a gunfire, and a girl’s scream followed.
“Granddad!”
“I can’t believe it!” Masaki said aloud with surprise, “This is a ski resort. Hunting is prohibitted.”
“Let’s go check! I heard a girl,” Syaoran said, when another gunfire sounded.
A white creature was dashing in the forest kicking powdery snow in the air. It was a female rabbit with clear blue eyes whose ears are as long as to reach the end of its tail.
“Help me, Rabbita! Rumi won’t be here in time for sure. I didn’t expect this!” the female rabbit said in telepathy.
“I’ll be right there, Lull! But don’t use your power until the last minute.” A male rabbit named Rabbita replied in telepathy. Lull dug herself into the snow, stayed alert, and replied in telepathy, “Appears a couples of bullets got in my lung. The hunter is taking annoying hounds to chase me. What disgusting wretches!”
The hound ran up in front of the female rabbit, and smelt the presence of the rabbit with its sensitive nose. An elderly hunter came to the secne about a minute later, “I found you. You rabbits have ruined the forest. Be good, bunny.” The hounds were barking surrounding the rabbit as the hunter pointed his riffle to her with a pleased look grinning. At this moment, a pink figure leapt in the scene. “Stop it!” It was a girl in a pink parka who stood between the hunter and Lull. The girl blocked the poor rabbit from the hunter.
“Stay out, little girl. This one is responsible for the increase of rabbits in this forest,” the elderly hunter said to the girl.
“Lull didn’t do anything bad. All she did was protect her friends,” she spoke back.
Not caring about her cheek stained by blood, she held the injured female rabbit tenderly. There Masaki, Sakura, and Syaoran ran up to the scene.
“Would you leave her alone, mister?” old Masaki asked the hunter in a gentle manner.
“Oh, Mr. Amamiya!” the hunter gasped with surprise.
Sakura and Syaoran stepped closer to the girl cuddling the rabbit, but she refused them from coming closer.
“That’s OK. We want to be friends with you and your bunny.”
Dispite the kind-hearted words from Sakura, the girl glares at Masaki and the hunter with blazing anger, and then she shouted, “Grown-ups are all sly! Why do they blame anything on Lull and friends in the forest? Forest is everyone’s share.”
“Hey, your Lull is dying. We gotta do something quick,” Syaoran interrupted. As he said, the female rabbit is almost lifeless, and then the girl named Rumi realized that her friend was facing a crucial hardship.
“Lull, don’t tell me you’re gonna die!” Rumi cried.
“Don’t be afraid. Leave it all up to me,” Sakura assured the girl, “She’s going to get through.”
Convinced by Masaki, the hunter walked away with the pack of his hounds, then Rumi felt a relief and knelt down. Old Masaki cuddled the girl in his strong arms. Sakura took off her overcoat and wrapped the rabbit in it and caressed.
“Are these ears familiar, Sakura?” Syaoran asked.
“Not now. We gotta take her to a vet,” Sakura said in a quick tone. At this time, a glowing dot floated above them, but nobody noticed it. Neither did Kero who was hiding in Syaoran’s overcoat.
Scientists and engineers are working with computers in the system control room in the Advanced Communication Laboratory. The central screen showed the outer view, in which they could see a ski slope in the distance.
“Link to the data relay satellite established,” an engineer reported, “then it’s possible to adjust the synchronization with South American station.”
Almost simultaneously, a scientist reported, “Evaluation of the interrupt loss from African station is on the way.”
Satoshi Nakagawa was looking over the control room, but he seemed to think about something else; he didn’t turned to look at the sectetary when she entered the room.
“Professor Nakagawa, local police told that they found Rumi,” Misako reported.
“Good, we managed to prevent a system defect,” Satoshi turned to the secretary, “then where is she?”
“They said Mr. Amamiya took her to his villa.”
“OK, arrange an appointment in order that I’ll meet with him. I want to tell him about the project one more time.”
She walked out of the room, and as she stepped out of the room, she utterred with anger, “What kind of father is he?!”
Arriving at Amamiya’s villa, Sakura, Syaoran, and Misaki got off the snowmobile, when three people came out of the house to see them.
“My! Welcome back. You look like a good family,” Tomoyo said.
“True! You gotta find a nice gentleman pretty soon, Tomoyo,” Sonomi said, “and chain up by the collar not to let him run loose.”
“Hey, honey, that’s premature for Tomoyo.” Then the father noticed the people who just came weren’t in the state to accept any kind of jokes, then asked, “What seems to be the trouble?” He took a stethoscope out of the bag by his feet. Sakura and Syaoran were amazed that his moves were smooth.
“Dad used to study to be a vet,” Tomoyo explained. As her explanation, he looks like a real vet when he was examining the rabbit with his stethoscope. “It’s injured in the lung. Perhaps the bullets are still inside. We gotta take them out urgently,” the father said.
Confused by the atmosphere, Sonomi wandered around restlessly without knowing what to do, and her husband said to her, “Honey! Boil some water. And bring a first-aid kit.” Conversely to the usual husband-wife attitude, Sonimi runs as her husband’s direction. There was one more person in the villa, who said, “Oh, good to see you here, Master Syaoran. Well, is there anything I can do?”
“Hi, Wei. You have some special skill to help him?” Sakura asked.
“Yes, Lady Sakura. I have some skills for surgery,” Wei replied in a gentle manner as usual. Just for the common objective, all the people coorporate tightly before introducing themselves each other.
A car was running on a snowy road at night, carrying Satoshi Nakagawa and his secretary Misako. “I’m sorry I failed to make an appointment,” she said regretfully.
“Don’t blame yourself,” Satoshi replied, “Rumi will work better than any kind of appointment. It’ll be more favorable for us,” he took out a cigarette and lit it. She saw that for the first time in a long time. “Is it OK? I remember you said you promised your wife not to...” Misako said with breath of surprise.
“For the sake of the project, I can be a liar and a wretch. Thanks for your advice, but leave me alone for this, OK?”
He opened the side window to let smoke out, through which the stellar field like jewelry was seen.
“Is this world the only place that can hold us alive? That’s ridiculous! Here’s a good opportunity for me! I can find it,” Satoshi said breathing excitedly.
Rumi was asleep at the midnight beside the fireplace in Amamiya’s villa. In her arms was the basket in which Lull wound with bandages was sleeping. Three figures came to check her. “Poor girl. She must have fell into asleep while crying. OK, Rumi, I will save your little friend,” Sakura whispered.
“Dad said the bullets were all removed, so all we have to do is to let it sleep in peace,” Tomoyo said.
“Are you going to use the Life Card?”
“You don’t like me to do it, Syaoran?” Sakura asked worriedly.
He knew that his girlfriend was as kind-hearted as Mother Mary, but was stubborn about how she saved other people in distress.
“OK, let’s get to it,” Tomoyo said taking out her camcorder, “Now’s the start of Cardcaptor Sakura, Tender Nursing episode.” Sakura realized her best friend would never change, heaving a sigh, then she took out her key to the seal and started chanting. At the same time, a hostile power arose out the window, but Syaoran didn’t notice. Next moment, a log broke the window and came in the villa. Barely, Kerberos stood protecting the master of the Cards, and knocked down the log that had been thrown by an unseen force.
“Look, brat! That creature...” Kerberos shouted with astonishment when he saw the male rabbit with super long ears and blue eyes that they once saw in the playground of an elementary school.
“Aaaa!” Kerberos was lifted by an unseen force and thrown onto the couch in the corner. Syaoran called his blade in response, and shifted to the position to protect Sakura. Simultaneously, unseen forces shifted the funiture and surrounded the two teenagers with the pieces. “What’s going on?!” Syaoran shouted with a sweat drop.
“That’s pshychokinesis!” Kerberos shouted.
“Syaoran, I’m gonna grant my power to the Life Card,” Sakura said panting, “O Life Card under my control, convert my power to yours and save the life in critical condition!”
Couches moved by unseen forces flew attacking the two. The room completely turned into a battle field; Syaoran slashed the couches in the air. The Life Card, which had been a Geso Card, was released by Sakura, and simultaneously a magic circle of Sakura Cards appeared, glowing and generating a field of magic forces.
“Stop! Stop hurting Lull!”
Sakura felt as if she could hear the male rabbit, but there was no reason she should cease her magic. Tender glow enclosed the cardcaptor slowly, then the female rabbit. The glow of the magic circle flickered slowly in response to the gently pulsating Life Card.
“This is how the magic circle pumps Sakura’s power into the Card,” Syaoran was amazed to see the variation of the glow.
“So powerful,” Kerberos turned to the male rabbit, “You rabbit, stay there! We’re gonna pay you for the other day!”
“Shut up! Nobody can beat me,” the rabbit shouted in telepathy.
The moment the two magical beast started attacking each other, Windy and Wood released out of the magic circle came between them. Then Sakura turned to the beasts and said determinedly, “Guardian beast of the Sakura Cards, and beast with long ears, you’re not allowed to fight in this place.”
Hearing those words from her best friend, Tomoyo who was videotaping everything happening in the room from the corner, turned off her camcorder. She did not explain why, but she felt ashamed as if she was disgracing the sacredness by videotaping Sakura’s actions like a paparazo.
Next morning, Rumi giggled happily when Lull was licking her cheeks. The long-eared rabbit was on the table glareing at Kero who put on a stuffed animal impression. The breakfast table was in a very happy mood, there everybody looked at the girl and the rabbit with a smile. “Lull said thank you to the animal doctor and the lady,” Rumi smiled.
“Animal doctor... me? Glad she got better,” Tomoyo’s father replied.
“Amazing! You can talk with rabbits,” Sakura exclaimed.
“Yeah. Oh, Rabbita said sorry for dumping garbage on you.”
At her translation, Sakura and Syaoran lowered their heads blushing, and conversely the people at the table laughed.
“Anyway, can we have your name, young lady?” Wei asked.
“I’m Rumi Nakagawa. This hurt one is Lull, and that one is Rabbita. They’re my friends, and love each each other just like that lady and that gentleman,” Rumi introducing the rabbits, smiling at Sakura and Syaoran.
“Impressive. You understand what animals talk,” old Masaki whistled. It was difinitely hard to believe to the grown-ups who was not there the night before.
Satoshi Nakagawa was standing below the parabolic antenna surrounded by the illusional snowscape. In the crisp morning atmosphere, he was watching the sun rise not careing the cold. “Yoshiko, I will be ready to dedicate myself to my girl... but not now. So, please watch out for her until the time comes.” Satoshi mumbled. Misako left in the car in a distance was watching him with anxiety.