Li Syaoran

The two landed on the school rooftop.

The school had no lights on late at night, and it loomed in the darkness like a massive beast.

Hayate had thought she would be afraid, but whether it was because Huo Lin was beside her or because she now possessed the power of "magic," that knowledge eased some of her fear.

The rooftop was rather windy at night, though in the summer heat, the breeze felt refreshing.

On the pitch-black rooftop, the stars overhead shone brighter than ever.

"Are we the only two in this Barrier right now?" Hayate asked.

Having an entire world to themselves felt rather strange.

"In theory, yes. The Barrier automatically excludes creatures without magic power, so unless another Mage enters, it's just us. There aren't many people on this planet who can use magic."

This planet?

That was an unusual way to put it.

"You make it sound like you're an alien, Huo Lin."

"Well, aliens aren't all that unusual either. I heard the Time-Space Administration Bureau calls Earth the '97th Unadministered World,' so to people in the magical world, we're the ones living in a remote, uncivilized backwater."

Hayate had no idea what the Time-Space Administration Bureau was. She simply felt that Huo Lin knew an awful lot.

Besides, although this world was supposedly a magical wasteland, that might not actually be true.

Huo Lin alone had already encountered several people with magic power.

There was Eriol, the transfer student at school, Sakura, whom she knew, and that "Phantom Thief Jeanne." Every one of them possessed magic power. There might well be more magic users in this world than she had expected.

So meeting someone who could enter the Barrier would hardly be surprising.

Just as Huo Lin was thinking this, she sensed something unusual.

"Someone's coming."

"Huh?"

She had barely finished thinking about it when an intruder actually appeared. If an outsider entered the Barrier, its caster could sense them.

And that magic power belonged to a stranger Huo Lin had never met.

They must have sensed Huo Lin as well. After all, she had never suppressed her magic power, keeping a certain amount released to maintain the Barrier.

Her output was roughly half of Eriol's.

That made her extremely conspicuous within the Barrier.

As a result, Huo Lin sensed the stranger pause for a moment, seemingly hesitant, before ultimately choosing to approach.

"They've entered the school gates."

"Huo Lin?" Hayate sounded a little nervous.

"It's fine. Step back a little."

Huo Lin was not nervous. There was nothing to be nervous about. The stranger's magic power was not particularly strong, about on the same level as Hayate's.

Using Hayate as a benchmark was a little rude, but Huo Lin had no other concrete point of reference.

Before long, even without Huo Lin pointing it out, Hayate heard footsteps coming from the stairway below the rooftop. The stranger was running, their steps accompanied by breathless panting.

Then the rooftop door was kicked open.

How rude. Whose kid is this?

It was a boy, holding a Compass in one hand and wearing green... was that a Taoist robe? It looked rather odd.

"Not a Clow Card?"

Li Syaoran hesitated when he saw the two girls on the rooftop.

He had flown to Tokyo that day. His butler, Wei Wang, had rented a place for him in Tokyo ahead of time.

Worn out from the journey, Syaoran had planned to rest for a day before thinking about collecting the Clow Cards. But after dinner, the world around him had suddenly emptied of people.

His butler had disappeared, along with the pedestrians and passing cars outside.

Naturally, Syaoran assumed a Clow Card was behind it. Although his Compass showed nothing, he could sense the direction the magic power was coming from.

If such immense magic power really belonged to a Clow Card, it was probably Light or Dark, the twin pillars of creation. Or perhaps one of the four elemental cards: Wind, Fire, Water, or Earth.

That made him hesitate for a moment. One of the four elemental cards would be manageable, but if it really was Light or Dark, his current level of mastery would make capturing it head-on very difficult. He might get hurt instead.

Still, now that he had encountered it, there was no reason to turn tail and run.

But he had miscalculated.

What awaited him on the rooftop was not a Clow Card at all. The situation was entirely unexpected.

"Who are you?" Syaoran eyed them warily.

They were twin sisters who looked about his age.

"You barged into my Barrier, and now you're asking who we are? Where are your manners?"

"Barrier?"

Syaoran had heard of Barriers, but he had never thought to connect one with the strange world surrounding him.

"This entire world is your Barrier?"

He had genuinely believed this was the result of a Clow Card going out of control. He had never imagined a person could achieve the same effect. How profound would their mastery of magic have to be? It was almost unimaginable!

"This is only a Barrier with a five-kilometer radius, hardly an 'entire world.' Did you need something from us?"

"No, n-no." He had only come to collect the Clow Cards.

He had noticed the strange phenomenon and come to investigate, but he could not sense any trace of the Clow Cards here.

Besides, although the girl before him looked about his age, it was obvious that she was not someone to mess with.

Syaoran inwardly cursed himself for letting his guard down. Curiosity killed the cat, and he was already thinking of retreating.

But just as he was about to step back, he discovered that his entire body was immobilized, as though the air around him had solidified.

"I mean no harm! I only wandered in by accident. Your Barrier covered my home," Syaoran hurriedly explained, afraid that if he waited any longer, they really would keep him here.

The Barrier covered someone else's home? Huo Lin felt that she might indeed be somewhat in the wrong. She felt Hayate gently tug her sleeve from behind, probably also thinking that they were the ones being unreasonable.

But Huo Lin gently squeezed Hayate's hand, signaling for her to be patient.

"Who are you?"

Syaoran did not dare conceal anything.

"I'm Li Syaoran, from Hong Kong. I came here to capture the Clow Cards."

"The Clow Cards?"

So he's here to compete with Sakura? In that case, Huo Lin could hardly pretend she had not heard that.

Syaoran thought she had never heard of the Clow Cards.

"The Clow Cards belong to our family. They're magical items. They were lost some time ago, but our family discovered that they had appeared in Tokyo, Japan, so they sent me here."

That has to be a lie, right?

Huo Lin knew that the Clow Cards were something Clow Reed had left to Sakura.

When he reincarnated, his soul had split in two, and one half became Sakura's father, Fujitaka Kinomoto. So there was nothing wrong with calling Sakura Clow Reed's daughter.

Clow Reed had told Huo Lin all of this himself. There was no way it was wrong.

Syaoran did not understand why telling the truth seemed to have angered her.

Although the girl said nothing, the pressure bearing down on him intensified, until Syaoran could barely remain standing.

He had never met such a terrifying magic user. Even his mother was not this powerful.

"You're saying the Clow Cards belong to your family?"

"Yes. They're relics left by our ancestor, Clow Reed."

Huo Lin was a little surprised that he actually knew Clow Reed's name. But wasn't Clow Reed from another world?

"You're Clow Reed's descendants?"

"You've heard of Clow Reed?"

"Yes. He was a very famous archmage from the age of the gods, wasn't he?"

"Yes." Knowing that she had heard of his ancestor's renown filled Syaoran with pride. "Our ancestor's father was British, and his mother was born into a Chinese Taoist family-our Li Family."

Syaoran spoke with absolute conviction. It did not sound as though he was making it up.