Cardcaptor Sakura: The New Trials (Wish-luv)

Chapter 71: The Alliance of the Stars

Part I: Return of the Card Captor

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Tokyo Tower...

Daidouji Tomoyo stood on the top observation deck of the Tokyo Tower, both hands pressed against the cold windowpane. She was not admiring the grand cityscape, which was cast in a dark shadow, but peering up at the flickers of hazy verdant sunlight that could be glimpsed through the ominous blackened sky. The sky was not black because it was overcast, or because it was nightfall-it was actually approaching late afternoon. It was because swarms and swarms of locusts were shielding the sunlight, furiously flitting around an invisible barrier doming the city.

Yue, Guardian of the Moon, clad in white and lavender, said quietly, "The Shield is not going to hold up much longer."

"What are we going to do then?" asked Tomoyo, glancing up at Hiiragizawa Eriol, their default leader now that Sakura was gone, who stared pensively at the center of the special deck of the Tokyo Tower, currently off limits to the public for renovation. A group of their most immediate friends, the Star Alliance, was gathered there in their one last hope to trace their missing leader.

Squinting up at the sky over the rim of his sunglasses, Mizuki Kai remarked, "If Syaoran really disappeared inside that portal, it means it's likely that the Shield is going to collapse, probably within minutes." Sure enough, the former thief could spot ripples in the Shield where locusts managed to break through.

Li Meilin let out a shriek as a huge locust sizzled down from the sky and smashed into the windowpane that she was standing next to. She turned around as she heard another thud across one the other side of the observation deck. And more and more locusts dropped from the sky like meteoroids.

"The barrier has broken," exclaimed Kero-chan, spinning around 360 degrees within the Tokyo Tower, watching locusts dropping down in streaks, like burning coal sinking down. More patches of the fiery afternoon sky could be glimpsed, tinting the city in a deep crimson, as if it were ablaze.

They could actually hear thumps against the glass windows, throughout the lattice structure of the tower. Meilin backed away from the glass. "It's like they're trying to break through and get in here."

"They won't be able to get in," said Ruby Moon, flicking back her long fuchsia hair. "Eriol has set a barrier around Tokyo Tower, so we're safe."

"But they'll graze through everything outside," Kai said with a frown, staring through a pair of binoculars into the cityscape, at Shiba Park across the street from the tower. "At least the Li Elders seems preoccupied with containing the Wu Clan and their hired thugs. I don't think they even realize that Syaoran is missing."

"Doesn't that just mean we've got to find him then, before they do?" exclaimed Kero-chan. "He is the new Card Master-it's his duty to seal or trap or do something about the dark force."

"So, who wants to go in the portal to fetch Syaoran then?" asked Kai with false cheeriness. "I would love to offer myself, but apparently there's a darn good imposter of me inside the Fantasy, and truthfully, if that's where fantasies come true, I don't think I would ever desire to leave my harem of Meilin in a high-slit cheongsam, Meilin in a bunny costume, Meilin in a-"

"Just go in there and don't bother coming back," snapped Meilin, kicking his shin.

From the corner of the observation deck, Chang Eron remarked, "If Syaoran could do something about the dark force, don't you think he would have resolved the issue here before disappearing in there?"

Kero-chan said, "So do you have a better contingency plan, smarty-pants? Go find your twin sister and make her do something about it then!"

Eron's golden eyes flickered, and his violet ponytail whipped around him as he spun towards the portal.