Cardcaptor Sakura: The New Trials (Wish-luv)

Chapter 54: Cherry Blossom Branches Shake

 

A golden twelve pointed star illuminated in the dark. Ten figures standing around me in a circle. Two spots missing. Three shadows standing behind you. Nine figures standing around me in a circle. Three spots missing.  

******

April, Tomoeda, Japan…

Kinomoto Sakura, age sixteen, woke up an hour earlier than usual, jittery and nervous as usual on the first day of a new school year. It was not just another new semester but her first day of high school.

“Sakura-chan, you’re up early,” Kero-chan remarked, handing Sakura the brush. A mere onlooker might confuse the yellow creature as one of Sakura’s stuffed animals, but in actuality, he was the Guardian of the Clow, the golden-eyed beast named Cerberus.

“Good morning, Kero-chan. Can you believe it? It’s my first day of high school,” Sakura said, brushing out her long golden-brown hair damp from the shower. She went to the closet and took out her freshly pressed high school uniform. Careful not to wrinkle anything, she pulled on her black skirt and buttoned down the white shirt, tucking the ends of her blouse into her skirt. Next, she fastened on the navy blue tie with golden lining. Finally, she put on the sky blue blazer with the Seijou High school emblem embroidered on the breast pocket. She checked her reflection in the mirror, recalling how jealous she had been of her brother’s uniform when she was in elementary school and had to wear a sailor uniform. But somehow, she was already a high schooler. After pulling on her knee socks, she ran down the stairs.

“Good morning, otou-san!” Sakura called out. She could hear the sizzling of oil on the frying pan in the kitchen and the smell of hotcakes drifting throughout the house. There was a never-seen picture of her mother wearing a lemon-yellow sundress on the kitchen counter today. “Good morning, okaa-san.” Her mother had passed away when she was three, but her father changed pictures of her mother daily so that her presence in the house was never forgotten.

“Here’s your hotcake, Sakura-san. To think you’re already a high schooler,” Kinomoto Fujitaka, in a yellow apron, stated as he brought over the frying pan from the stove and set a steaming hotcake on top of Sakura’s plate. Though Sakura’s father was in his mid-forties, he looked no older than his thirties and was one of the most popular professors at Seijou Universities, his specialty being archeology. Recently, Fujitaka had received tenure and was now in the process of writing a new article for an archeology journal. 

“My favorite!” exclaimed Sakura as she lathered the hotcake in butter and syrup then wolfed it down. Her mouth was filled with warm sweetness.

“Slow down Kaijou, or you’ll choke,” Kinomoto Touya said, walking in through the patio door with his best friend, Tsukishiro Yukito. “Your table manners are still the same.”