First and foremost, I would like to dedicate this fic to angel, who was really, really nice to me, and a very, very, good reader! Arigato angel! I really appreciate it! And Tomodachi means good friend.

I Know The Meaning Of Pain…Chapter 2…Tomodachi

There is something strange about those two. But I can’t put my finger on it, and it annoys me. Something is tugging at the back of my mind, reminding me to remember something that I have forgotten.
Something told me that I should know them, that I have met them before…but…the memories are hazy…it’s been so long. And he doesn’t seem to know who I am, perhaps because I don’t look like a Clow Card
anymore. Kirin doesn’t seem to notice, she’s just as energetic about this as she was about everything else. She enjoys these trips, and I’m glad that she’s happy.

But something inside of me tells me not to put my guard down, that something dangerous is coming. Suspicions obviously would lead to the two that had arrived. They look so alike, but I know they are not twins.
No one would believe me except Kirin, because she always believes what her onii-san says. I’ll find out what they’re hiding behind their masks. I’ll find out what they really want, and then I can tell the
Cardcaptors, and they’ll take care of it. I’m sure it has something to do with Clow.

I may be human, but I still have the traits of the Loyalty. And I will help Sakura, because something’s telling me that whatever it is, is after her.

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"Here Tomine, you’ll be sharing my room with Sakura, Kirin and me. I hope you don’t mind and think it’s too crowded?" Himika said, leading the sixteen-year-old to her assigned room. Sakura and Kirin followed
after. Tomine looked around. There were three small mats laid on the floor, each with a pillow and a blanket. They probably each had one. There was plenty of room for a fourth. Tomine forced a smile onto her
face and nodded honestly.

"Of course I don’t think so. I’m so thankful you let us stay here until we can get back on the road." She lied. Himika smiled and walked over to a closet, pulling out another mat and a pillow and blanket. She
turned to Tomine and put them in her arms.

"These will be yours. You can put them wherever you want to sleep." She explained. Tomine nodded, and walked a few steps towards the side of the room, and lay her mat out on an empty space. She put her
pillow at the top and carefully folded the blanket and put it at the bottom. Brushing her hands together, she stood up and turned to the three girls, bowing slightly.

"Arigato." She said. Then, Kirin took Himika’s hand as she pulled the older girl out to continue their game of dolls, leaving Sakura and Tomine in the same room. Sakura stepped inside, and smiled sweetly.

"Now we can get to know each other. I’d feel funny if I didn’t become your friend." She said. Tomine stared at her.

"Fr…friend?" she asked. Sakura nodded and sat down next to her on the floor near Sakura’s mat and pillow.

"Right. I’ll be your friend." She said. The word seemed funny in Tomine’s ears…only Ishiro had ever called her a friend. Sakura looked at her, concerned. "What’s wrong? You’re not feeling okay? You look like
you’ve seen a ghost. Did I say something wrong?" she asked. Tomine shook her head. These humans were too friendly for their own good! "You’ve never had a friend before?" Sakura asked. The words struck
Tomine, but she quickly shook her head.

"Ishiro’s my friend." She said, wanting to change the subject as soon as she could. Sakura giggled.

"But he’s your brother, that’s different." She said. Tomine stared at her, an evil glare in her eye, if she only knew who they really were…

"Why is it different?" Tomine asked. Sakura thought.

"Well, because he’s related to you, and he’s a boy…it’s different because girls can talk to girls about stuff that boy’s don’t talk about. Like clothes, boys don’t talk about clothes, and boys don’t talk about that. And
he’s your brother, that’s different. Friends are close, but not as close as a sister or a brother." Sakura explained, thinking of Tomoyo when she said the word "clothes". "And sometimes, it’s good not to tell
everything, because otherwise you might be too close of a friend for comfort. But a brother knows everything." She said.

"But Syaoran is you friend. Is he different?" Tomine asked. Sakura’s face suddenly turned a light pink. I could have guessed, Tomine thought inside her mind. She forced another smile and nodded. "Oh, I
understand." She said. Sakura smiled uneasily.

"Where do you come from, Tomine?"

"I…uh…don’t know. I was an orphan with my brother…and we were amnesiac when we were found." She said, making up the lie as she got along. "When we were old enough to fare for ourselves, we left the
orphanage and traveled on our own."

"But how did you survive?"

"We have our ways." She quickly said. Sakura nodded. Tomine leaned back and propped herself up with her arms. Suddenly, her hands slipped and she fell backwards. One hand slid under the bed, and the
other under Sakura’s blanket. Sakura kneeled over her.

"Are you okay?" she asked. Tomine’s eyes went wide. There was something under Sakura’s pillow…something flexible…and there were lots of them. Tomine nodded and got up, staring at Sakura’s face. "What’s
wrong?" she asked. These couldn’t be…

"Sakura, what are these?" she asked, putting her hand under her pillow had pulling out the stack of Clow Cards. She lifted the top card, and read out loud its name. "The Firey." But they weren’t Clow Cards…they
were…Sakura’s. She had heard of the Cardcaptor changing the cards with her name. These weren’t Clow’s anymore. They were Sakura’s. They were the Sakura Cards. (Spoiler warning : this really does happen
when Eriol comes and helps Sakura turn the Clow Cards into pink Sakura Cards.) The Firey was one of the four most powerful cards, one of the elements. She held the card up. "What is it?" she asked, though she
knew the answer. Sakura gasped and took the cards from her, putting it back under her pillow.

"It’s…an old card game…that my father gave me…to play with." She said. Tomine smirked. Not bad at lying for a human, Sakura, but you can’t fool me. Tomine took them out again.

"Oh really?" she said, taking them out again. Sakura saw them and put them back again. What she didn’t see was Tomine keeping the card on the top, the Firey, as it disappeared in her grasp and reappeared in
her pocket. Tomine got up. "I’ve got to go now, I want to talk to Ishiro. Bye…Sakura." She said, almost about to say Card Mistress. Tomine thought. Sakura stared after her.

You’re a very good friend, Sakura. A very good friend indeed. But perhaps to a human. But I am not a human, so too bad. But thank you anyway, you have showed me where the Card Mistress is. Right here. And
I will steal the Clow Cards…no, Sakura Cards back again, and will turn them against you. The world will be better without Cardcaptors, and even better without humans at all. Clow Cards will rule, once and for all,
punishing those who have thought that they were merely created to serve them. The Cards can feel, Sakura. They can cry, they can laugh…and most of all…they can hate.

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"What do you mean you’ve found the Card Mistress?" Ishiro said at the back of the house, where he and Tomine had gone to talk. "Where is she then?" Tomine took out the Firey.

"Look. It’s the Firey. I found it under Sakura’s pillow, with the rest of the Clow…Sakura Cards. Fate is on our side, it seems. We’ve found the Cardcaptors without even knowing that we did." She said. Ishiro held the
card in his hands and stared at it, turning it around in his grasp.

"But where is the other Cardcaptor? Sakura doesn’t have all the cards, the other Cardcaptor has a few as well. Without all of them, we can’t complete our mission." He said. Tomine shrugged, her human form
fading away into her true form. Ishiro stayed the same, though.

"I don’t know. But Sakura does. I will find out soon enough. Make her trust me, then attack. Stealth is a very strong weapon if you have patience." She said. Ishiro nodded and smiled, his fangs bared as now he
was in his guardian form.

"But first, we’ll have to steal all the cards. They won’t suspect a thing." He said. "But that boy…Shotoku…and the little girl, Kirin. They seem strange to you, don’t they? They have some connection with all this,
but I don’t know what it is."

"It won’t be that big of an importance. You know as well as I do that there are only two Cardcaptors with cards. Other people who know of it will be of no use to us." She said. Then, she turned to go, but Ishiro
stopped her.

"Have you ever wondered how these humans were able to keep control of the cards for so long? Did you feel the burning that the Firey card produced when you touched it…as if she didn’t want to go?" he said,
holding the card up. Tomine nodded.

"It must just be a trick that the Cardcaptors have used to make her be this way." She said, taking the card. Slowly, she turned it towards her, and bit it, making two holes in the paper. The pink background around
the card faded as she did so. It was familiar looking…none other than the look of a Clow Card. "Firey, you belong to Clow once again." Tomine whispered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Syaoran, Kirin, Shotoku! I can’t find one of my cards! One of them is missing! Did any of you take it to use or something? Give it back please!" Sakura said urgently to her three friends. Each of them shook their
heads.

"None of my Clow Cards are missing." He said. "Which one is missing?"

"The Firey!" she said. Shotoku shook his head.

"That’s not good. The Firey’s one of the most powerful cards." He said.

"Maybe someone took it!" Kirin said. Sakura and Syaoran looked at each other. "All we have to do is figure out who! Maybe a thief came and took it!" she suggested.

"But why would the thief want a card that would be of no use to him or her?" Syaoran said. Then, Himika walked up.

"What’s wrong, Sakura? You look distressed." She said. Sakura shook her head.

"Nothing’s wrong." She said. Kirin quickly led the girl way to play dolls. "Thanks Kirin, I owe you one." Sakura whispered.

"We have to get it back! It’ll probably cause trouble!" Shotoku said. Both Cardcaptors nodded. "But how?" he continued. They stood and thought for a while, until Ishiro’s voice reached their ears.

"Mr. and Mrs. Kimiura says it’s time for lunch!" Syaoran and Sakura felt their stomachs growl, and decided to postpone the subject solution until later. As they ate, both Ishiro and Tomine looked down at the food.
They had never eaten before. Shotoku and Kirin put the food into their mouths. They didn’t taste it, but it would seem funny if they didn't eat. Mrs. Kimiura looked at the two, looking skeptically at the bowl in
front of them.

"What’s wrong? You don’t like my cooking?" she said. Ishiro shook his head.

"No…it’s just that I’m not hungry." He explained. "I’m going to go outside." He said, pushing his chair away from the table and walking out of the room.

"Me too." Tomine said, leaving the bowl of steaming noodles on the table. Mrs. Kimura shrugged.

"Poor children. Been starved so long they’re not even hungry." She mumbled to herself, while the other four stuffed the food into their mouths. Outside, Tomine was standing, leaning against the wall while her
ally was sitting down next to her. Ishiro shuddered.

"Human food makes me feel so sick…" he said as she sat down next to him. "It just smells so…funny." He said. Tomine nodded.

"I know how to get to the Card Mistress if we need to battle." She said, changing the subject. Ishiro turned to her. "She has feelings for…that Syaoran boy. I bet if we use him, we could manipulate her enough to
win, if we need to fight at all." She said. Ishiro smirked.

"That’s good. We have an advantage. She couldn’t use anything against us." He said. "We don’t care about anyone, luckily." Tomine almost winced when she heard those words. He didn’t’ care about anyone but
himself…why did that bother her so much? "We probably will have to fight…this Card Mistress isn’t as weak as we thought if she could have kept all the cards under her possession for so long." He said. Tomine
nodded.

"Right. So when will we strike?"

"In due time we will. Everything will play out in front of us. All we have to do, is watch."