Chapter 18
Sunday July 23 4:59pm
In the blink of an eye Tomoyo found herself at the dinner table with her mother. She was holding her Light Saber Card and looking at it. "Ah...this one arrived before I did and my earlier self had no idea what it was. I'm glad I didn't put it someplace where I couldn't find it." Tomoyo then looked around casually and couldn't see any other Tomoyo Cards so she felt that everything was going fine. A minute or so later, as she was eating, a card appeared in the air next to her right hand and almost fell on her plate. "Ah, there is the second one, now just one more to go." After that she kept her right hand over her lap and waited.
"Are you full already?" Her mother asked.
She thought quickly. It appeared that she had just started eating and she didn't want her mother to worry that she wasn't feeling well or something. "I should have sent the cards with my left hand, then I could still eat. I'll have to make a note of that idea for the next time I go back in time." She smiled to herself.
"No, I just have to use the bathroom." Once in the bathroom she expected the last Card to arrive in a minute or so. But after five minutes and no Fly Card, there was a knock on the door.
"Are you all right Tomoyo?"
"Yes, Mother I'm fine. I'll be out in just a few more minutes." Then she realized that she did need to use the toilet. And of course the fly card picked the worst possible moment to appear. As she was about to flush she saw it peeping out from under the toilet paper. "Aaaaah!!" she screamed as she jerked her hand back from the flush lever.
"What was that? What happened?" Sonomi's worried voice came through the door.
"Nothing important Mother. I just accidentally dropped something in the toilet and was startled." After rescuing her Card she carefully washed it while hoping Magic Cards were waterproof. Once she had it dried off she stuck it in her skirt pocket with the others and then went and finished her dinner.
As soon as she could get away she checked the date on her computer in her room. Sure enough it was 5:21pm Sunday, July 23. She had gone back in time a full week. Eriol had said she needed to go to Hong Kong, but she tried Sakura's cell anyway. And wasn't surprised when she got her voice mail. She packed a carry on bag with practical clothes, and took a quick shower. Her body wasn't really dirty or smelly at all in this time but it seemed like she could still feel the smelly stickiness that she had been enduring in the future. "And I don't know how long it will be before I get a chance to take another bath." she reasoned. "Now I just have to explain to my mom that I have to suddenly fly to Hong Kong when Sakura is suppose to be back the day after tomorrow... Unless I tell her that Sakura decided to stay longer and wanted me there. That sounds reasonable. And as much as she has been pushing me to be with Sakura she shouldn't have a problem with that."
And Sonomi didn't. She was delighted at the news that Sakura had rejected Syaoran and then just smiled a lot when her daughter told her that Sakura was staying longer in Hong Kong and wanted Tomoyo's company. She even made the reservation herself. "Have fun with Sakura!" Were her final words as Tomoyo left in the limo.
"I wish I could Mom. I really wish I could." The new Magic Girl thought sadly to herself. A few minutes later Tomoyo was surprised to receive a call from Li's mother, Ieran.
"There is a terrible disaster coming and it has something to do with you and the Sakura Cards! Do you know anything about it?" Ieran was in turn very surprised indeed when Tomoyo explained briefly all that she had just been through. "I will stop this now! Don't worry, I will save Sakura for you."
"I'm coming anyway. Even if I am not needed. So I will see you soon." Tomoyo told her and then she ended the call. It took over an hour to get to the airport in the Tokyo traffic but she had allowed for this and by seven fifteen she was sitting at the gate waiting to board her plane. She was just relaxing a bit when it dawned on her that Sakura was probably already kidnapped. And hidden in a house somewhere. So she -had- to get to Hong Kong after all. "Why couldn't I have come back to this morning before Sakura had gone anywhere? Then there would be no problem just getting her out of Hong Kong before anything happened. But, it seemed that wasn't allowed. So now we have to save her the hard way." Then a possible answer came to her. "Perhaps if I had brought Sakura back home this morning, then maybe whoever killed her would have followed her here, and killed her anyway. And maybe me too...and then it would be Tokyo that the Cards take their rage out on...and there would be no one who could stop them..."
Fifteen minutes before her flight was to leave she got another call from Ieran. "Sakura is missing. Meiling says that Syaoran met them at the mall and took Sakura away for an emergency, but Syaoran says he hadn't seen her since she left to go shopping with Meiling. My Magic is telling me that my son is telling the truth, so it must have been someone with a Magical disguise. I have tried to locate Sakura and the cards from my home with my Magic and have been unsuccessful."
"I have to board now, Ieran-sama, I'll call you from the plane phone, give me the number you are at, please." Once Tomoyo was in the air and the phones were working she called Ieran back.
"If we do not find Sakura," Ieran stated, "The destruction will start a little after 11pm tomorrow night. And I have a vague memory of my house falling on me. I suppose that is the future if we don't change it." Ieran announced without even saying hello.
"Did you see where the destruction started?" Tomoyo asked.
"No. I didn't even see what exactly killed me. And all my Magic can read is vague feelings of destruction and death. But you were alive and watching the news, where did they say the destruction started?"
Tomoyo closed her eyes for a moment and tried to remember what they were saying when she first heard the news. "All I remember is the man said at one point that the destruction was so far limited to the north half of the island. They were talking about buildings being toppled and fires."
"I have a helicopter coming here to pick me up and I will try searching from the air. Perhaps I can detect something if I am closer to where Sakura is being held. I will start by searching the down town area and then move out from there. Tell me your flight number and arrival time and I will have someone meet your plane."
"Okay, but before we do that I just remembered something. Eriol told me that he learned from Sakura's ghost that she had traveled less than an hour before she got to the house she was killed in."
"Did she say where the house was, or which direction, or anything?"
"No. She was asleep on the way and she never saw the outside of the house."
"Well at least we know that she is within an hours drive from that mall."
"I want to help you search for Sakura! Eriol says I have a very good Magic sensing ability and there is a high probability that I will find her!"
"Very well, I will pick you up when you get to the helicopter pad." There didn't seem to be anything more to talk about so Ieran passed the phone to a man who took her flight information.