[Beta version posted 5/20/01]
Sakura ran into her dorm room, tossed her backpack on her bed, and flung open the curtains and window to let in the bright sunshine. It was a Friday at last and the prospect of no more classes for two whole days put a giant smile on her face.
"Aren't we excited?" chuckled Kero-chan as he looked up from a manga he was reading.
"It's Friiiiiday! The best day in the world!" She spun around the room twice with extra energy, almost knocking over some CD's on her desk in the process. She'd only been at Ohtori Academy for a week but already she was loving the atmosphere here. She was seized with a sudden urge to do something, anything to express how happy she truly was.
And then she realized exactly what she wanted to do.
She pulled out the key around her neck and held it high. Kero-chan realized what she was up to and frantically tried to stop her, but Sakura ignored him as she said the incantation:
"Power of the key concealed by the star,
"Now show your true shape.
"I, Sakura, your master, command you.
"Release!"
Below her feet, the familiar pattern of her own magic circle flared with golden light, tracing a delicate pattern on the floor. The key hovered in the air in front of her, spinning around and gathering energy before elongating into her staff.
"SAKURA! What are you DOING?"
"Don't worry, Kero-chan! No one will know!"
"How can you be sure?!"
"Mirror! Create my other self!"
"Ack! Nonono! Bad! You know how much trouble the Mirror card can cause!"
"Relax, Kero-chan! I know what I'm doing. I'm not in grade school anymore."
"But this is a Bad Idea," he said with capital letters.
"Sakura-chan, what's going on in there?"
Kero-chan froze in his position, whispering out the side of this mouth, "See?"
Sakura winked at him and opened the door just a crack. "I've got some history to study, so don't bother me, okay Wakaba-chan?"
"Eh! Studying on a Friday? Are you kidding me?" Wakaba stood anxiously outside the door. "We were going out to get some sun and maybe have a little picnic..."
'We' meaning her and her boyfriend. Not wanting to be a third wheel, Sakura shook her head. "Sorry. Maybe next time."
"Oh, okay." She didn't sound too disappointed. See you later, then." Wakaba skipped down the stairs, calling out, "Sakura-chan's going to stay in todaaay!"
Kero-chan unfroze and let out a sigh of relief. "You know that using magic is going to be difficult to hide from everyone, especially with dormmates..."
"Oh please, Kero-chan! Stop worrying! Let's go outside and enjoy the nice autumn weather!"
Because if she didn't, she might start remembering. Remembering someone she'd rather not think about right now. Someone who almost made her not come here...
"Fly!"
Feathers filled the room as large wings sprouted from Sakura's back. She opened the window, winked to the Mirror (who smiled back and promptly picked up the history book), and leapt out.
"You'll be seen!" cried Kero-chan in frustration as he followed her.
"Have fun," said the Mirror as it lightly closed the window behind them. No need to have incriminating evidence around.
The wind blew through her hair. Her rather short hair... She never had the patience to grow it long, and the one time she let it grow past her shoulders she got sick of how it kept getting in her way and trimmed it. Short hair was definitely easier to live with. Especially when she was soaring through the skies. Long hair could have blown into an ungodly mess of tangles, but her short hair merely fluttered around in a controlled manner.
Kero-chan glided behind her, glancing everywhere and making sure no one saw them. It would lead to no end of troubles if they were spotted. "Sakura-chan! You're being rash! What in the world has possessed you?"
"It's okay, Kero-chan. I just needed to get out a little. You understand, don't you?" The wings flapped as she banked to her right. "It's been so long since I've flown. I've forgotten how truly exhilarating it is. I feel so alive! I haven't felt this alive since..."
Since Shaoran held her in his arms and said...
"It's been a while since you've needed to use magic. Didn't you used to say you just wanted to be a normal teenager?"
"I am a normal teenager! I can just use magic, that's all. Besides, if you don't exercise a skill, it gets rusty. I'm just making sure I'm in tip-top shape!" She laughed, "Who knows what secret plots this school is hiding?"
"And you think I sound silly?"
Despite Kero-chan's concerns, there were no cries of surprise, no pointing fingers, no gasps of shock. It seemed that the students of Ohtori Academy had been taught not to look up.
"Kero-chan... what is that place over there?"
"A platform of some sort..."
Something was tugging on her. Something was pulling her towards that platform. And she gave in to the pull as it led her towards the giant stage suspended in the sky.
"Oh my god..." gasped Sakura as she landed lightly on the platform.
"This place..." started Kero-chan as he hovered over her shoulder.
The platform was large and flat, in the shape of a square. It was covered, literally carpeted with roses.
But all the roses were dead or dying.
"What is this place?" asked Sakura, although she did not expect an answer. "It feels like no one has been here for years. These poor roses. No one to care for them, to water or prune them... how can anyone let this happen?"
"Sakura-chan... I'm getting a bad feeling."
Roses were for love.
No. She shouldn't think that way. She couldn't think that way, or the tears would start to flow again. She had to think positively. And she knew just what she had to do.
She reached into her small bag and pulled out a card.
"Sakura... what are you doing?"
"Watery!"
The star on her wand spun around, crackling with power. A blue, elfin water elemental rose from the magic circle that shone among the dry roses. It spread across the platform, creating small rainbows as the sunlight struck the drops in just the right way, before the magic return to the card.
But the roses remained dead.
"You can't heal these roses in one step. It takes a lot of time, a lot of care."
"Yes I can."
Kero-chan looked at her, surprised at the sudden determination in her face, as she pulled out another card.
"Flower! Make these roses live again!"
From the second card, a beautiful, lively girl emerged. The petals that surrounded her as she arose filled the air with their colorful shapes. They flew around the platform, and every rose they passed over started to show more color, more life, until the heavy blooms became light and soft and beautiful once more.
Sakura and Kero-chan could only stare as the rose platform came back to life through the power of Sakura's magic. It took only a brief moment before the place was entirely red from the blossoms of the roses, and the scent that rose from them was heady.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" murmured Sakura softly, in awe.
The Flower gathered its petals together and waited in front of Sakura, looking at her expectantly.
She suddenly let out a whoop of joy and grabbed Flower's hands, pulling her around in a dance that scattered more petals into the air. "It's so beautiful!" her voice rang out happily. Her laughter filled the air. "Thank you so much, Flower! It's gorgeous!"
Kero-chan smiled as he watched the two rejoicing, thinking to himself, "It's not Flower that needs thanking... It's Sakura."
"Who's that up there? Don't you know this place is forbidden to everyone except the Student Council?!"
In a second, playtime was over. As Kero-chan dived into her bag, Sakura instantly resealed the Flower card and wand and blindly thrust both of them back into her bag.
"Who... who are you?" demanded the young green-haired man, staring at her from the gated entrance to the platform.
Saionji Kyouichi tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the elevator to reach the top. Sometimes he wondered why he came up here anymore, anyway. There were those Student Council meetings he had to attend, but lately it was getting so boring. There was no purpose in the meetings. What was there to discuss anymore? And since the roses had started dying two years ago, he hated having to stand there among the dead plants. They reminded him of Anthy. The Rose Bride who cared for those flowers so lovingly. But she was gone, taken away by that damnable girl, Tenjou Utena.
Leaving everything behind.
All that talk about the world revolution and yet here he was, still trapped in this school, still playing out the roles of prince or prince-to-be, squabbling with his fellow Student Council members for... nothing. Not anymore.
The elevator bell chimed and the iron gates swirled open, the grating clacking softly as it slid back. Slowly, reluctantly he started up the last short flight of stairs to the dueling platform, a platform where no duel had taken place for more than two years.
Laughter reached his ears.
Someone was already up there! Who could it be? How could they have gotten up there if the elevator had restricted access?
Angrily, he rushed up the stairs. "Who's that up there? Don't you know this place is forbidden to everyone except the Student Council?!"
And then he reached the top stair and froze before the open gateway that led to the rose platform.
And stared at the beautiful red roses that were blooming, and smelled the scent of their blossoms in the air.
And saw a young woman staring back at him in surprise, a mischievous grin tugging at her lips.
"Who... Who are you?" he demanded to know.
Her heart was pounding in her ears as she stared in fright at the young man. "I... I'm very sorry! I didn't know this place was restricted. Please excuse me!" She quickly pushed her way past him and ran into the elevator, pushing the button for the bottom floor before he could make a move. The metal grating slid closed and the car began its descent before he was able to say anything, and by then it was too late.
Sakura's breath was caught in her throat as she slumped against the wall of the elevator, trying to regain her composure.
"Didn't I say you might get in trouble?" whispered a voice from her bag.
"I know. I'm sorry, Kero-chan. I should have been more careful. I should have known better."
"I know it's been years since you've used magic, but you let it go to your head. Smaller doses next time, okay, Sakura-chan?"
"I don't think I've felt this scared since... I was fighting against Eriol at Tokyo Tower. My heart won't stop racing. I was so frightened."
"It's okay, Sakura-chan. Just get back and we'll talk about this some more. There has to be a safer way for you to use magic without anyone noticing."
She looked out and watched the world rising around her as the elevator swiftly made its way to the ground floor. She hadn't felt her heart beating this fast since...
No. Don't think that way. Take care of the immediate problem right now - getting back to the room and dispelling the Mirror Card before she got into even more...
"Just who are you?" demanded a tall, red-haired man.
...Trouble!
"This elevator is restricted to members of the Student Council! Just how did..."
"Please excuse me! I'm very sorry!" Sakura pushed her way past the four elegantly dressed students and ran back to the dormitories, heart once again caught in her throat.
"If a chick cannot break its shell, it will die without ever being born.
"We are the chick. The world is our shell.
"Smash the world's shell!
"For the power to revolutionize the world!"
"Do you know how much I tire of that saying? It's always the same old phrase, as if we had no time or imagination to come up with another analogy."
"Saionji-san!" gasped Nanami as the elevator reached the top floor and she and the other three Student Council members stepped out. "We thought you weren't coming!"
"After all, we waited and you didn't show up," added Miki.
"I arrived early. And I made a discovery."
"A discovery?" Juri asked suspiciously as Touga smirked.
"Wipe that smile off your face. This changes everything as we know it... again. Oh, just forget it. Go up and look for yourselves."
The five Student Council members ascended the stairs tot the gateway, where four of them froze in shock.
"The roses... they're alive again!" gasped Miki.
It was Saionji's turn to smirk at the speechless Touga.
"How did this happen?" wondered Nanami as she eyed the red platform. "And when? It has to be fairly recent or we would have heard something about it before."
"When I came up here, there was someone else here. Did you run into a young woman with short brown hair coming here?"
"The girl in the elevator," mused Juri thoughtfully, hiding a scowl. "How did she get up here if this place has restricted access? I thought only the duelists were allowed up here - and I don't recall her having a Rose Signet on either."
"I don't know. But she might have been the one..."
"To make the roses bloom again? In a single day? That's not possible."
Saionji shrugged to Nanami, having no more answers than the others.
"Don't you see?" said Touga, dropping his words in the pause like pebbles in a quiet pond.
The others looked at him.
"The Rose Bride has returned."
Sakura opened the door to the dormitory and nearly ran straight into Wakaba.
"Sakura-chan? Weren't you upstairs studying for history?"
"Ah! Wakaba! Oh, er, I was! But I decided to, er, get a little fresh air..."
Wakaba did not look convinced.
"I'd better get back up, shouldn't I?" She laughed nervously as she walked up the stairs as quickly as possible without attracting any more attention. When she turned the corner, she dashed the rest of the way down the hall to her room, where she slipped inside and slammed the door shut.
The Mirror smiled at her return and set down the history book before reverting to its true form, of a robed woman holding a round mirror in her hands.
Sakura reached into her bag searching for her key so she could reseal the card before anything else could go wrong.
"Ouch!" complained Kero-chan as she upended the bag over the bed and shook out its contents.
"Kero-chan! The key, where is it?"
"You're not wearing it on your necklace?"
"I had to take it off when I used the Flower card, but then I thought I threw it back in the bag when that guy came up. Tell me you saw me throw it in the bag!"
The little guardian beast started going through the things on the bed as Sakura desperately peeked into the empty bag. "The Flower card is here with all the others... but no key."
"Are you sure?" Her heart started to pound again.
"Yes..."
"Then... it must still be on the rose platform!"
Saionji looked out at the campus from the edge of the rose-laden platform. From this height the students far below looked small and insignificant. The only building higher than the rose platform was the director's tower that housed the school's bells.
How long had it been since those bells had rung to announce the duels?
How long had it been since the Rose Bride had tended the flowers?
How long had it been since he last saw her face?
"A nice view, isn't it?" asked a voice from behind him.
He refused to turn around, to acknowledge his friend.
Touga shrugged although Saionji couldn't see it. "You really loved her, didn't you?"
Stony silence.
"We all dueled for our own purposes. Power. Protection. Jealousy. But you dueled because you loved her."
He was starting to get irritated by this lecture.
"Time doesn't go backwards. It won't stand still, either. The roses are blooming again. But it's not because of Anthy."
He waited until he heard the metallic clatter of the gate and the chime of the elevator's descent. He looked back and stared at the empty elevator shaft.
"Don't know what you're talking about," he muttered to himself. "After all, look who went and fell in love with Utena."
Something shiny caught the edge of his eye, and he reached down gingerly into the carpet of roses to pull out a small key. It was gold and pink and had a winged star on the top. He looked at it for a while, wondering what it might be for. The key to someone's diary, perhaps? It certainly wasn't a dorm key. After a few minutes he gave up and put it in his pocket to deal with it at some other time.
He let out a sigh as he sat down among the roses, alone with his thoughts, his memories, and one question.
Who was that girl on the platform?
...to be continued...
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Card Captor Sakura was created by CLAMP and is (c) their respective companies. Shoujo Kakumei Utena was created by Chiho Saitou/Be-Papas and is (c) their respective companies. Please address all inquiries to me at ming_ling@hotmail.com. Please do not repost this fanfic without my prior written permission.