New Mistress of the Cards

New Mistress of the Cards

Life for Sakura Kinomoto has been peaceful after she had all her Clow Cards converted to Sakura Cards. No more strange things happening around her, and no more need to use her magic almost every day. She feels satisfied with her current life, but on the other hand, Tomoyo Daidoji, the card mistress' best friend, seems to feel boring as there are much fewer chances to see Sakura wearing her well designed outfits. And Meiling Li, the female martial artist, just stays close to her cousin Syaoran, sometimes hanging out with Sakura and Tomoyo. But things are not going on as well as they seem to be...


Another normal day at school...

"Hey, Sakura!" Tomoyo pats on her best friend's shoulder during a break.

"Hmm? What's up, Tomoyo?" Sakura turns and looks at Tomoyo... And the newspaper on her hand.

"See this one?" Putting the newspaper on Sakura's desk, Tomoyo points at a small piece of news in the corner of the newspaper.

"Let me see... Girls continuously disappering in our city... So what's the point? You have your bodyguards, I have my magic, and Meiling is surely capable of defending herself. We don't need to..."

"What are you talking about?" Tomoyo then lower her voice, "Don't you think it's something about magic?"

"Come on..." Sakura sighs, "Those things are over, and we don't need to worry about them again. You'd better..."

"It is likely that they're about magic!" Tomoyo keeps whispering, "See, the girls disappeared without any trace. They just simply walked into a shop or something, but the people inside didn't see them coming in! Isn't it weird enough?"

"Ah... Maybe it's just some kind of trick..."

"Sakura! Making a brief investigation won't hurt! And..." Tomoyo looks directly into Sakura's eyes, "I want to see you wearing my new costumes! This is really a good chance!"

"Alright..." Sakura decides to give up, "Make it tomorrow evening, okay?"

"Any time as you like!" Tomoyo is getting excited on the event, "Oh, and I should tell Syaoran and Meiling..." She says as she runs away, leaving a sighing Sakura behind.


After school...

"Bye, Tomoyo!" Sakura waves her hand as Tomoyo gets on the car. Then she turns and heads home. "Hmm... Some more things to buy. Maybe I should go to the store over there..." She tries to recall the shopping list as she pushes the door open.

"Welcome to... Eh?" The shopkeeper just stares at the door. Nobody is there. Only the door is slowly closing.

"Strange... Must be some kind of playing." He decided to ignore this, and continue on his work.


In another place...

"Hmm?" Sakura suddenly finds she's suddenly surrounded by darkness. A feeling of magic comes to her. Almost by instinct, she takes out her star wand.

"Shield!"

A glowing barrier immediately appears around her. Just as it takes effect, she could feel a strong magic force hit on it.

"Oh, wonderful... You're the first one that could stay normal after this. Welcome to my realm, Sakura Kinomoto."

A female voice comes out from the darkness. And then Sakura heard a snap of finger. The torches around her are lighted, allowing her to look around the place she's staying in. A mostly empty room, with a number of girl statues around. All of them have a pose of walking, and look rather confused.

"It can't be..."

"Why not?" A lady walks out from behind a statue. She just looks like a western magician, wearing a large hat and a long gown. Her clothes are in grey, like the statues placed in the room. She has long blonde hair and a pair of sexy lips, but her eyes are hidden as her hat is pulled down. She continues, "You think only you could use that kind of magic? Totally wrong. With proper practice, every magician can create those cards and use them. The only difference is the strength of the cards. You're lucky to have Clow Reed's cards so you don't need to create them yourself."

"So these statues are the disappeared girls? You petrify them with magic?" Sakura asks in disbelief.

"Of course!" The lady looks quite proud of her magic power, "With this Portal card, I can teleport any girl walking inside a shop around your school to this place, if I feel like to. And as they arrive, the Drain card would be used to drain their magical power. Surely they don't have much power, and they are almost immediately petrified as the last bit of power is drained. Sounds good?"

"You... What're you planning for?"

"My plan is to get you of course. Oh, and get your cards by the way. So enough for talking. Why don't we start the main course?" The lady takes out her cards.

"Then no other ways to do it..." Sakura holds her star wand tightly. "Windy!"

A blow of wind swiftly approaches the lady, trying to bind her. However, she jumps backwards and dodges the attack. The wind hits the statues and weakens.

"Afraid of breaking the statues? You'll regret that. Taste this!" The lady sends out several fireballs towards her target. Sakura quickly responds, using Jump to avoid being hit. But to Sakura's surprise, the fireballs suddenly explode. The shock wave blows her away, but she keeps unharmed with the help of the Shield. The statues however, are more unlucky as their clothes are breaking down.

Sakura immediately hits back as she manages to land. "Thunder!" Several bolts of thunder are cast. This time the lady is not quick enough. She barely dodges the attack, but some parts of her gown are still burnt black.

"You'll pay for this, really!" The lady seems to be a bit angry. She dashes towards Sakura. The card mistress just steps back and keeps casting her bolts as it's quickly cast and good at hitting moving targets. The lady's gown is hit by a few more times, but the distance between them is much closer. She grins as she approaches the barrier. "What about this one?" She reaches out her right hand.

Sakura suddenly feels weakened. The shield is hit by great magic force. The right hand of the lady just looks like... "A drill?" "Yah, extremely effective on breaking defences!" The ladies laughs as she pushes on. Sakura's magic power can't hold on for long. She has no other choice now... "Time!"

Everything takes on a light yellow tone, and the world becomes silent and unmoving, including the lady. The barrier disappears as Sakura has almost used up all her power to use the Time card. She kneels on the ground, looking at the lady in front of her. She keeps the same pose, and the grin on her face remains unchanged. Wait. Something is wrong. Her mouth is slowly moving! Surprised, Sakura quickly forces herself to stand up, raise her star wand, and...

"Drain."

The card mistress is not quick enough. The timestop effect quickly runs off as Sakura gets hit. The lady loses balance and falls. But she knows she had won. Standing in front of her is a now unmoving Sakura Kinomoto. As a powerful magic user, Sakura is not petrified at once. She's just unable to move as the level of her magic power drops to a certain extent. Her mouth and eyes are widely open, and her right arm with her star wand is slightly raised. She hopes she could move her arm or speak out a card's name, but she couldn't. She could only watch as the lady slowly comes to her feet with the help of both people's magic power. "Huh... Huh... I knew you would use Time..." The lady talks to the helpless mistress, "That's your weak spot as it takes too much power... And you can't totally timestop me... So you've lost since the moment you used Time..." Sakura just stares at the lady, looking quite terrified. "Now you're not petrified because I left a bit of power for you. Why? I just have a better costume for you, other than this school uniform..." The lady says as she walks outside of the room...

After a few minutes, she comes back with a pink dress and a pair of scissors in her hands. Sakura is totally in fear as the lady puts her unmoving body on the ground and starts to cut her black upper clothes. "This looks a bit dull on you..." The lady happily comments, "But soon you will get rid of it!" Several pieces of black cloth are left on ground, along with a white skirt pulled down from Sakura's legs. Now the helpless Sakura is only wearing her white undergarments, with her wand pointing to the ceiling. "Well, well, well... What a cute body you have..." The lady slips her finger slowly from waist up, and finally reaches Sakura's lips. Sakura feels like shivering, but she can't even do this. After playing a bit with the unmoving girl, the lady takes out the dress, and put it on Sakura without much difficulty. She looks very skilled in this, as Sakura's pose is still kept unchanged, even after she is put back on her feets. "Now you look much better..." The lady pushes out a mirror from the corner of the room, making Sakura able to see herself in her new costume. The pink dress fits her nicely, and reveals more of her bare arms and legs. "Oh, and you'll need this..." The lady puts a flower necklace on Sakura's neck, "Now you're perfect. Well, then we could come to the next part..."

Sakura's mind is filled with fear. "No, no please..." She cries in her mind, but no voice would come out from her widely opened mouth. She feels weakened again, as the lady starts to drain the last bit of her magic energy. From the mirror, she could see herself petrifying. Cold and hard feelings come from all parts of her body, and she would scream if she can. Not just herself, but also the costume she wears and her star wand are all turning to solid stone. "Help me... Anyone... Hel..." Her thought disappears as she completely turns into a statue. Her eyes are now two orbs of stone, unable to see anything. Her hair has become strands of solid stone, totally unmoving even when blown by strong wind. The lady just enjoy looking at the expression on Sakura's face. That just gives her a great sense of success as her finger wanders on her stone face. The Card Captor is now captured.
And then the lady takes out the Sakura Cards. They all feel cold as their owner has lost all her power. "Now these powerful cards are all mine!" She sends her own magic power into the cards, converting them all into her own cards. Sakura could do nothing to stop her as she's merely a statue, no difference from the other girl statues in the room. The lady pushes the petrified Sakura to the center of the room. "You're my best trophy, Sakura Kinomoto. I know your magic power will regenerate in time, but no problem, as I'll keep draining every second! So just never think about it, and serve nicely as my collection and source of magic! Oh, I'm sorry you can't even think now, my statue mistress. And I've overheard that you and your friends are going to catch me tomorrow evening? That could add some more statues to the gallery..." She takes out a card, "Now let me try on this. Twin!" A perfect copy of Sakura's statue appears besides her, starting to take on a normal skin tone. "Good... This is useful..."


At night...

"Hey, this is not interesting, Syao... Hmm?"

Meiling rubs her eyes as she sits up in her bed. She was having a sound sleep when her blanket was yanked away. She thought it was some kind of joke from her cousin, but surely it is not the case. A girl is standing in front of her bed, instead of Syaoran. And she's holding a wand, a very familiar wand to Meiling.

"Sakura...? Why are you..."

"Voice."

Then Meiling couldn't utter a word. Feeling that this can't be good, Meiling jumps down from her bed. Thanks to the martial arts training, she still wears her battle costume and is immediately prepared for battle. Without hesistation, she dashes forward and tries to make a punch. But Sakura is faster as she only need to speak out the words.

"Shadow."

Meiling feels that she's dragged by a powerful yet unknown force. She looks back, only to find her arms and sleeves are locked in place by the shadow. Her fist simply stops at somewhere close to Sakura, but not any further. She also tries to perform kicks with her legs, which are quickly bound by the shadow too. Now her ways to attack are totally restricted by the shadow magic. And without her voice, it's unlikely to wake up her cousin to help. She could only raise her head and stare in confusion at Sakura. Sakura, however, doesn't give any response to her Chinese friend, and just casts one last spell.

"Freeze."

It's not the first time Meiling suffers from this. Without any power of magic, she freezes up almost in a second. The punching pose is still kept, but even without the binding of the shadow, she's unable to move. Her skin is pale now due to the low temperature inside the ice block. The confused look still locks on her face. Sakura just walks up to the frozen martial artist, and the two vanish into the air, only leaving the slightly wet carpet on the ground and the blanket on the empty bed...


Later, back into the lady's base...

"Welcome, my dear Meiling..."

Meiling could barely stand up when she gets unfrozen from the ice block. And then she's surprised to find two Sakuras in front of her. One is a statue, looking surprised with her wand slightly raised. The other is still flesh, but she simply stands there watching as Meiling unfreezes. A lady stands between the two, looking like a magician.

"Who are you? And why are there two Sakuras?"

"Me? That's quite unimportant to you." The lady answers, "And for the second question, of course one of them is just a copy. You would surely know which one is true, right?"

"Impossible... How could this happen? Sakura should be..."

"Enough!" The lady looks a bit angry with Meiling's words, "She is no longer the mistress of the cards! I am! And you, you should stay here as a statue together with your friend! Drain!"

"Wh..."

Meiling could only raise her hands before she's hit by the magic. As a normal people, she immediately turns into solid stone, together with the short Chinese garb on her body. Her long hair and long sleeves hang unmovingly in the air as stone. Compared with Sakura, she has her arms properly covered. But on the other hand, her legs are more exposed. The lady can't help with touching her cold, hard legs for a few times, and slips down the smooth stone skin. "Oh... The martial arts training surely gives you wonderful legs..." And then she moves up after toying a bit with the stone bells on Meiling's costume. They're not making any sound of course. Looking at Meiling's terrfied face, the lady just feels excited. "What a cute face you have..." She says as she looks into Meiling's eyes, which is now blank and made of pure stone. She also finds the two buns of hair on Meiling's head quite interesting, after grabbing them for several times. "Well... You're really nice to catch." The lady comments, "Now, why don't you stay with your friend a bit while I add a final piece to this set? I'm sure you and Sakura would be happy to see her joining!" The two petrified girls just stare at the lady, with no thoughts in their minds. Statues couldn't think...


Next evening, on a street...

"Sakura, you look cute in this pink dress! Where did you get it?" Tomoyo asks as Sakura appears, "I think my costumes could be put away until next time..."

"Really? Oh, I just bought it from the shop there yesterday." Sakura tries to explain. "Syaoran and Meiling are not coming, right?"

"Ah, yes. Syaoran says Meiling is ill in bed and he needs to take care of her." Tomoyo recalls.

"Yah. And it would make things much easier without them."

"What? What do you mean by that?" Tomoyo starts to get confused.

"Time!"

Different from the way Sakura used her Time card, this time it doesn't stop everything in the world. Only Tomoyo is timestopped. Her confused look on her face has made her more cute. The lady walks out from the hiding place around the corner, and takes a more detailed look at this wealthy girl. She wears her school uniform, having reversed colors compared with Sakura's. The lady thinks that this costume suits Tomoyo quite well, so she doesn't need to cut her clothes and bring her a new one again. The only thing she need to do is to find a good pose, as Tomoyo is totally posable during the timestop. After a bit thinking, the lady decides to spread her legs a bit, like her two already petrified friends, and her arms are also raised, together with the video camera on her left hand. Then her head is turned slightly to her left. Some more slight adjustments have been done, like widening her eyes and mouth more, and brushing her hair to a more natural state. The lady takes a few steps back, looking quite satisfied with her 'art'. "Now we could do the final part..." She smiles as she takes out the video camera from her hand and reduces the effect of the time magic.

"Sa... ku... ra...?"

The lady happily watches as Tomoyo starts to move, in a extremely slow speed. The Drain card also begins working on the girl, but due to the Time's effect, it's going on very slowly. Sakura stands in front of Tomoyo, holding the video camera and recording her best friend's petrifying progress. Slowed in time, Tomoyo can't even realize what's going on. She could only feel that she's standing alone in a street, body turning to stone, and Sakura is not helping her. The gray wave spreads from Tomoyo's feet, then her leg, and way up. As the petrifying goes on, Sakura even moves around Tomoyo to take a complete record. Tomoyo's hips, waists, chest, arms, all are getting solid. She could even hardly have a chance to move them. As her face starts to turn to stone, Sakura takes a step forward, making a detailed look at the process.

"Help... me..."

Tomoyo manages to finish the last sentence before her lips get petrified. The video camera is then moved up from the two pieces of stone lips to her beautiful eyes. The terrified look is all recorded in the tape, and then slowly, her eyes are also petrified. Now she takes on a more vacant look. The rest of the progress goes on swiftly, turning her long black hair into a long smooth piece of solid stone. She's completed, as a perfect stone statue petrified in the center of the street. No one would find her, because the lady uses a little trick with her Portal card, causing the passers-by to directly skip this part of road without noticing. The lady takes the video camera from Sakura's hands, "Oh, this is a really precious record. And this one..." She creates a copy of Tomoyo with Twin card. "Now you two could replace those two poor statue girls in real life. No one would ever find out what's wrong with the three... Hahaha!"


In the lady's base...

"So here completes the set!" The lady laughs as she places the petrified Tomoyo on the side of Sakura. The three friends are now gathered again, only in a more solid way than ususal. All of them are totally silent even they have opened mouth. Meiling stands on Sakura's right, unable to perform any physical attacks as her arms and legs are sealed in stone. Tomoyo is on Sakura's left, looking like holding a non-existing video camera towards Sakura. Her head is turned to the side, sharing a similar terrified look with Meiling. Of course, neither of the two match the value of the petrified girl in the center. Sakura Kinomoto, the once mistress of the cards, is now merely a stone statue accompanied by her stone friends. She looks as if she's going to battle, but she has already lost. Meiling won't be helping her, and Tomoyo won't be filming her either. All three are only serving as collections of the lady. She kisses Sakura on her face, draining a little bit magic power by the way, and walks out of the room. The torches in the room gradually go off, leaving the three girls statues standing in the darkness. No one would ever notice their disappearance. They'll be forgotten, and remain forever in this gallery as the most valuable 'art'...