Chapter 1
Tuesday July 25 7:34am Tokyo time.
The next morning when Tomoyo didn't come down to have breakfast with her, Sonomi checked her room. And found her daughter watching a news channel. "Is something interesting happening?"
"Hong Kong is being destroyed. They are still calling it a strange but natural disaster, but the Chinese military is being very secretive about it."
"What? What happened?" Sonomi was understandably shocked.
"Earthquakes, Buildings just tipping over, lots of unexplained fires and huge tsunamis. And they have just found a new volcano which is erupting just north of mount Cameron and pouring lava towards the down town basin.
"That's impossible!"
"Yes, it is. But it's still happening."
"But what about..." Sonomi started to ask, then thought better of asking about Sakura. Tomoyo didn't seem to even notice her mothers unfinished question.
Once Sonomi was finally convinced that the impossible was true, she was stuck to the TV alongside her daughter for a while. They kept replaying the earlier footage of the fires and toppling buildings over and over. Then she remembered what she had come up for. With the promise of breakfast served in the TV room downstairs, she did get her daughter out of her bedroom and with some difficulty, got her to eat something, but it was obvious that she was deeply depressed. All she wanted to do is watch the news.
That afternoon, while she was checking her email Tomoyo's cell phone rang, and she pounced on it immediately. "Hello? Sakura?"
"No, I'm sorry, it's Eriol."
"Do you know anything about Sakura?"
"Yes... I do." The tone of his voice plunged an icy sword into her chest.
"Well?" She forced herself to say. "What have you heard?"
"She was killed-" The words tore at Tomoyo's insides. It was her worst fear and had been tormenting her horribly since she realized the disaster had to be magical. "-but it should be possible to go back in time and save her."
"Save her? But? Did you said "go back in time"? The Time card?"
"No. Too late for that, but it should be possible to go back with the Return card and save her."
A bright flood of warmth drove the icy pain out of her chest.
"You have another Return card?"
"Well, this is complicated and I don't have time right now to go over the whole thing on the phone. I just wanted you to know that Sakura can be saved."
"But why are you coming here? Why don't you just go to Hong Kong yourself?
"I don't have time to explain that. Anyway, I need your help, so don't go anywhere. I expect to be there tomorrow morning on JAL flight 3849 arriving at Tokyo airport at 7:30am. Can you arrange for a car to pick us up and bring us to your house?"
"Just a moment." Tomoyo said as she opened a text file and typed the information into it. After saving the file she returned her attention to Eriol. "Okay I have it." After confirming the information Eriol hangs up, and Tomoyo is left with a ray of hope. She is dead, but Eriol can save her anyway. Magic is wonderful! After this call Tomoyo's mood improves a lot. She is still very anxious, but her depression has lifted, which relieves a lot of the stress on Sonomi, and allows her to finally go to work.
Wednesday, July 26, 8:10am Tokyo time
Tomoyo was surprised to see Kaho with Eriol at the baggage area, but after only a quick hello, she started questioning Eriol. "So what happened to Hong Kong?"
"The Cards." He answered sadly. "Sakura was killed Monday evening before all the destruction happened."
"So you are sure she is dead?" Tomoyo asked very softly. "Yes, we are sure. Her ghost came to me in England and told me what happened. I expect that her cards went crazy with rage after she was killed and attacked the whole city."
"You say she "was killed". Does that mean murder?"
"Yes, it does. But I have investigated this event very throughly and I have found that there is a way to prevent it from happening."
"The Return card?"
"Yes. Are you familiar with it?"
"I remember Sakura used it to go back in time and see Clow."
"Exactly. It's a time travel card; using it, a person can go back in time to before Sakura is killed and save her, which would then save the countless people the Sakura cards have killed in their rage.
"You can actually bring my Sakura-chan back!"
"Well, actually..." he hesitated for a frustrating moment before continuing, "it is you who will have to do it."