Cardcaptor Kirin

by Faunamon

Chapter 1: The Shock

            “It’s been quiet around here lately,” Sakura muttered, walking into her room holding Kero-chan.

            “That’s because there are no more Clow Cards to capture or make into Sakura Cards,” Kero responded.

            “I know that, Kero-chan. It’s just that without the Cards around to keep me busy, I’ve gotten… almost bored.” Sakura sighed, and suddenly got an idea. “Hey, I know! Kero-chan, let’s explore my attic!”

            “Why?”

            “Well, I want to look at this box of old pictures my dad keeps up there, because I can find some pretty interesting things in there. But I’ve never even gotten to the bottom, so I just want to look at the very last pictures.”

            “Ok, then.”

            So, that’s about how the biggest adventure of Sakura’s life began…

            “Wow! Look at all these old photos! Dad must have added some more in here!” Sakura exclaimed excitedly. She shuffled through the photos, looking them over one by one, then dug her hand deep into the bottom of the box. “Found them!” she called as she emerged from the box with a handful of pictures.

            Kero-chan and Sakura looked through the pictures. They had things like Sakura’s mother, Sakura sitting in a tree with a squirrel on her arm (Sakura loved that photo), and their old dog in them. Pretty ordinary…

            “Whoa! What’s THIS?”

            It was a picture of a very young Sakura and another girl. It wasn’t a girl Sakura recognized, but she looked just like the Cardcaptor! In fact, she couldn’t even tell which was her! They were wearing different outfits and had their arms wrapped around each other’s waists, so she immediately knew it wasn’t a mirror or her reflection in water.

            Looking through the rest of the pictures in her hands, Sakura found similar scenes… Sakura and the other girl chasing butterflies, holding hands, at a Christmas party…

            She ran down the stairs, the photos in hand. Several of them flew out of her fists and settled on the stairs, but there was no time to go back and get them now. Kero slumped in her arms, pretending to be a stuffed toy. “Dad, explain this!” she cried, flinging the photos into her father’s face.

            “Well, um, Sakura… Maybe Toya and I should both explain?”

            “Explain what?”

            Sakura’s dad sighed, looking embarrassed, upset, sorry and relieved at the same time. “It’s time you learned the truth, Sakura…”

            “So what are you saying?”

            “Baka!” Toya said, trying not to laugh too much. “He just said!”
            “I-I have a TWIN SISTER?”

            “Yes,” Fujitaka said, much too calmly for Sakura to believe. “Named Kirin. I know it’s the Japanese word for giraffe, but it’s also sometimes used as unicorn; that’s my reason for calling her that. I don’t know why I decided to name her unicorn, but something about it just felt so… right for her.”

            “Wh-what happened to her?” Sakura asked, afraid of what she might find out.   It was now Toya’s turn to explain. “Well, Kirin was very little, like you, when Mom died, but that goes without saying. It upset her so much, she asked if she could live with Grandma in Osaka.”

            “And I said yes,” Fujitaka finished.

            “Why don’t I remember?”

            “You were only two years old…”

            “But don’t you think I would remember my SISTER?”

            Toya and Fujitaka exchanged glances. “Sakura…” Toya started. “You… well, something happened after Kirin left.”

            “What?”

            The two once again looked at each other. “We don’t know…” Fujitaka admitted, accompanied by a sweatdrop from everyone, including a small one from Kero.

            “Let ME explain,” Toya offered, picking up the story once again. “Right when Kirin was getting on the plane to go to Osaka, a flash of white ran between us and her. The two of you looked at each other in surprise right before the plane lifted off, and you’ve never remembered each other since.”

            “When we call Kirin, we never mention you; neither does she.”

            “And THAT’S why we never visit Grandma anymore.”

            “DAD! YOU TOLD ME IT WAS JUST TOO EXPENSIVE TO FLY!”

            “I don’t believe this, Grandma…”

            “Believe it, Kirin,” Kokoro Kinamoto said sadly. “You and Sakura… You’re twins, and she’s very real.”

            “No!” Kirin cried, bursting into tears and running off into her grandmother’s library. The reason she was so upset was that if she really DID have a twin sister she’d forgotten, she’d forgotten a family member. To Kirin, anything like that was unacceptable, and that’s why she’d headed to the library. Reading always calmed her down; never mind WHAT she was reading. So that’s why, when she sat down in a chair sobbing, she reached for the nearest book and opened it without even looking at it.

            Suddenly, she heard a wispy, unearthly voice. “Herein lie the Adele Cards. If their seal is broken, disaster will befall this world…”

            “Wh-who’s there? Who’s saying that?” Kirin cried. From a large, doglike drawing on the cover of the book she’d opened appeared a small flying puppy.

            “Hey, there, Cardcaptor!” he chirped, sending Kirin flying back screaming.

            “Wh-who are you? WHAT are you?”

            “Me? Why, I’m the creature of seal, and you’ve let me go! Thankee-sankee!”

            “Thankee-sankee YOURSELF,” Kirin snapped, picking herself back up and rubbing her spine. “Now I’ll probably have a backache for a month!”

            “Huh? You mean, you’re not scared?”

            “No way! You’re just a toy!”

            “No, I am NOT! I’m Lucandon, creature of the seal!”

            “Mind if I call you Luca-chan for short?”

            “Of course not. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, the Adele Cards.” Luca motioned towards the book with his paw. “To open this book, you must possess magical powers – much like its companion, the book of Clow Cards. Pretty much standard issue for all magical Card books. Problem is, now the Cards are gone! They must have been snagged while I was on vacation.” He nodded, as if that were the obvious answer, then started a very long speech about how the Clow Cards were created by Clow Reed, and then his daughter, Adele, made her own set of Cards, the Adele Cards. “Each Card is different, living, and full of personality. Much more advanced and alive than the Clow Cards, really.”

            “So, what are you saying?”

            “Would you like to become a Cardcaptor?”

            “Yeah, sure, why not? By the way, my name’s Kirin. Kirin Kinamoto,” Kirin told him, extending her hand, which he shook.

            “By the way, I’m not usually so tiny,” Luca told her, sitting on a table and turning his head to face her. “Normally, I’m HUGE! And I look just like a wolf!”

            “Cool!” Kirin exclaimed. “Wow, Luca, you’re really making me feel better. See, I just found out I had a twin…” she explained, retelling her grandmother’s story.

            “Wow, that Sakura girl sounds awfully familiar…” he muttered, rubbing his chin. “Aw, well! Key of the Seal!” Suddenly, a small key floated out of the book. “This is Kirin. She wishes to become a Cardcaptor. So, key! Bestow your power on her, Kirin Kinamoto!”

            Suddenly, the key became a large staff (looks like Sakura’s, but pastel/light blue with pink wings) and placed itself in Kirin’s hand.

            “Wow! Luca…”

            “Yes?”

“This is AMAZING!”

            “You mentioned your twin sister, and how you never knew about her until now,” Luca said, apparently having been thinking about it. “I’d like to meet her. We fly out to… where does she live?”

            “I don’t know, I think Tokyo.” (Sorry if this is wrong!)

            “Tokyo. We fly out to Tokyo tomorrow.”

            Luca snuggled into Kirin’s arms, and she threw the staff behind a beanbag chair. “Grandma?” she called. “I want to meet Sakura…”

            One day later…

            “Sakura?” Fujitaka called. “Grandma just called. She said Kirin’s coming to visit. Turns out she decided to tell her about you yesterday, too. But unlike you, Kirin didn’t find out on her own. Grandma just got tired of hiding it, and I guess I should have too. Kirin will be coming in about an hour.”

            Sakura was very surprised. She was really going to meet her twin sister, whom she’d only found out about a day ago? She was a little nervous but, at the same time, insanely happy. She was going to meet her twin sister…!

            “I can’t BELIEVE this!” was all she said.

            “Me either,” admitted Toya. He looked over at his little sister – and to his shock, saw their mother standing over her, looking worried. He spit his drink out all over the table, but no one seemed to notice.

            My sister… Kirin, the unicorn… coming BACK? Now, when I’ve just now learned about her? I want to meet her, so badly, but…

            “I-I’ll go to the airport to meet her,” Sakura decided, grabbing her skates and running off. Once outside, she put them on and rolled away, Kero in her arms. But just when she was about to the airport, she heard a sob.

            Quickly turning, Sakura skated to the bush the sob had come from and saw a teenage girl sitting there, looking as if she’d been struck by lighting.

            “What happened?” Sakura asked in alarm.

            The girl didn’t reply for a very long while, then finally looked up at Sakura and said in a cracking voice, “It’s… coming… Run…”

            Sakura gasped and rolled away as quickly as she could. She knew in her heart she should have helped the girl – she was the Cardcaptor, for crying out loud! But…

            In about five minutes, Sakura reached the airport. She read a manga magazine for the next five minutes, but was forced to look up from Tokyo Mew Mew when she heard the plane touching down. She slowly stood up, putting her magazine into her bag, and walked over to a girl who was departing the plane. She knew the girl must be Kirin – she looked exactly like Sakura.

            “Um, Kirin?”

            “Sakura?”

            The two girls immediately began laughing and hugged each other with one arm. In Sakura’s other arm she clutched Kero; in Kirin’s a small stuffed animal that looked like a royal blue flying puppy. Sakura was slightly startled when she saw it; the toy looked almost exactly like Kero, in dog form.

            Sakura and Kirin skated back home, hand in hand. Sakura occasionally looked down to study the small key on Kirin’s belt. It looked almost exactly like her staff, only colored differently…

            “You’re a CARDCAPTOR!” Sakura shrieked, breaking away. “That stuffed animal must be a Creature of the Seal, and that key…” Sakura’s eyes filled with tears. “Kero! I’M supposed to be the only Cardcaptor! I’M the only one who can catch the Clow Cards!”

            “Clow… Cards?” Kirin asked. “That’s what he told me about… Well, Sakura, you’re right. I AM a Cardcaptor, and from what I’ve gathered, so are you. And this is Luca,” she said, letting her doglike companion fly from her hands. “Luca-chan’s real name is Lucandon. And he told me about the Clow Cards.” Suddenly, Kirin’s face looked very serious. “But I’m not trying to catch the Clow Cards; I’m after the Adele Cards. I haven’t managed to catch any yet, but…”

            “Wait… Adele Cards?” Sakura questioned. “What are they?”

            “They were made by Clow Reed’s daughter, Adele,” Kero explained.

            “Yes,” said Luca, nodding.

            Kirin reached out and clasped Sakura’s hands. “Two Cardcaptors will just make the world a safer place, Sakura…”

            Suddenly, a huge bolt of lightning crashed right between the sisters! Kirin and Sakura screamed, and Sakura called out, “What was that?”

            “I don’t know!”

            Luca suddenly cried, “It’s an Adele Card!”

            “No way!” Kirin cried, reaching for her staff. “Key that conceals the forces of light… show me your true form! By the forces of the moon, I, Kirin, command you! RELEASE!” The staff grew to full size, and she held it out in front of her. Sakura was about to follow her, but Kirin called, “No, Sakura; only this staff will work on the Adele Cards!” To Luca, she added, “What are the forces of the moon, anyway?”

            “No such thing; it just sounds cool,” Luca explained.

            The Card soon revealed itself as something similar to the Jump, but made out of living lightning.

            “Kirin! Use your staff to scan the Card!”

            Kirin held out her staff, and soon a holographic description of the Card appeared. “The Shock. Very wild and unruly, its greatest joy is shocking innocent people/”

            “I saw a girl who looked as if she’d been shocked on her way to the airport!” Sakura exclaimed.

            “Luca, what’s the best way to fight the Shock?”

            “Well, the best way to battle an Adele Card is with a Clow Card or, should I say, Sakura Card.”

            “Luca-chan! That’s why Sakura seemed so familiar to you!”

            “I guess so.”

            Sakura’s wand would now become full-size immediately, and so she was able to release a card quickly. “WINDY! Wind, trap the air around the Shock!”

            Windy gathered itself around the Shock, tightening the atmosphere around it so that it could not create lightning.

            “NOW!” Luca-chan called. “Kirin!”

            “To the form you were meant to be… Adele Card!” Kirin cried, and the Shock immediately turned back into an Adele Card. Kirin pulled out a pen and wrote, in big, fat letters, “Kirin”.

            “Not all Adele Cards will be this easy to catch,” Sakura whispered. “I should know.”

            It was going to be interesting, living with Kirin.

            To be continued…

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