Chapter 2
"Me?" Tomoyo was understandably stunned. "But how? I have no magic."
"Not true. You do have Magic. It was clear in the possible futures I examined that you had to have some sort of Magic, so I checked and confirmed it right after we met in the airport. There are many kinds of Magic and some show up later than others.
"But I never noticed anything. And Sakura never said anything."
"I expect she didn't have any reason to look for Magic in you. And I don't suppose you have been involved in any Magical things lately?" Tomoyo confirmed this with a slight shake of her head. "And of course your Magic is totally untrained so you have no idea how to use it." Tomoyo's eyes were unusually large at this point, but Eriol paid no attention to her shocked look and continued. "So my plan is to wake it up and force your development enough for you to use the Return Card to go back in time and save Sakura from whoever killed her. Sakura told me that Li met her in a mall, told her there was an emergency and that she had to come with him. Then as soon as she was in the car with him she fell asleep. When she woke up the car was in a garage. At that point she glanced at her watch, wondering how long she had slept and noted the time was less than an hour from when she left the mall. This is an important clue! Li then took her into the house and upstairs where she fell asleep again in a bedroom. The next time she woke up she was still in the same bedroom but Li was now very angry. He first asked, and then demanded that she remake the Sakura cards so he would be their master. This convinced Sakura that that this wasn't the real Li but a magic double, like the Mirror card. But in any case, after strongly refusing his demands, Sakura found herself dead. And I think it was shortly after Sakura's death that the Cards went berserk."
"Of course I will do anything I possibly can to bring Sakura back. But why me? Why don't you use the return card and warn her yourself. You have much more Magic than I could ever have."
"That may be, but it doesn't really matter. I can't capture the cards like Sakura did. They have changed. Sakura changed them. When Clow created them, he made them as servants, slaves actually, and they had to do the bidding of whoever was their master. But Sakura never looked at the cards as slaves. She thought of them as friends. And so when she remade them as Sakura Cards, she gave them stronger personality's and more free will. Some of the cards I could overcome with my Magic, but I'm not sure I could control the elementals long enough to explain. And if they were together, as is likely, they would kill me before I even got close to the other cards."
"And they won't kill me?"
"There is a very good chance that they won't. I have examined many possible alternate paths to prevent this terrible event and the one with the highest probability of success by far is if you go and talk to the cards without me. They know you! And they also know that Sakura loved you." This line stabbed at Tomoyo but she concealed her pain and concentrated on what Eriol was saying. "They will listen to you. And once they realize that Sakura can be brought back they will be happy to cooperate. Or at least this is very likely."
"But if I can calm the cards and explain to them about making Sakura live again, why couldn't you be the one to go back and fix things?" This innocent question clearly upset Eriol.
"I don't know the answer to that! I dearly wish I did! It seems crazy that you can do something that I can't, but every path I checked where I used the return card was a failure. And I join Sakura in death. And I can't find out why since the use of strong Magic makes associated events impossible to read with Magic. This in itself is reason to worry, and is another reason to doubt that Li caused all this. I suspect another, far greater power is involved, and I dearly wish I could be the one to go back and deal with it! But," he sighed, "I must not give in to my pride. It seems there are some things that I must depend on others to do for me." Eriol took a deep breath and calmed himself before continuing. "So the only threads of possible reality that result in a live Sakura and no further disasters is for you to take on this challenge alone."
"Me? Alone? That makes no sense at all!" Tomoyo stared at Eriol for a moment, expecting some more explanation, but he just looked back with a tired look. After a while Tomoyo gave in. "I guess I have to trust you. I have nothing else. So I will do whatever is required of me. Where do we start?" Tomoyo now spoke firmly and had a very determined look on her beautiful face.
"Well, I am going to prepare your spirit and show your mind how to enable your Magic and how to control it. This is a process that normally takes years, but we don't have that kind of time. The further back in time you go the more difficult it is to predict the outcome. So I am going to force your development. I have never done this and neither has Clow, so I am going to be feeling my way along as I go. I expect it may take hours to complete the process and I fear it may be very painful for you. And then there is a chance your mind could be permanently damaged, and even a very small chance that I could accidentally kill you. But even if it works like I hope it will, there is a significant possibility that you will fail and die on this mission. Are you sure you want to try?"
"I am sure!" she replied without hesitation. "I will take whatever risks are necessary to bring my Sakura-chan back."
"I thought you would say that. Okay then, while I work on your mind and spirit Kaho will do her best to ease your discomfort. But we can do nothing until we get to your house."