Eriol's thoughts

For Li Syaoran, today had been an awful day.

A few days earlier, his mother had ordered him to go to Tokyo, Japan, to retrieve a set of magical tools called the "Clow Cards," supposedly lost by their family. They were relics left behind by their ancestor, Clow Reed.

In fact, the Li Family had only recently learned that the Clow Cards had appeared. Calling them "lost" was misleading; the cards had never gone missing from the Li Family in the first place. Their whereabouts had been unknown for countless years.

But as Clow Reed's descendants, according to the rules of the magical world, the Li Family did have an obligation to prevent the Clow Cards from causing harm now that they had surfaced and repeatedly caused supernatural incidents. They also had the right to reclaim them.

His mother had not even given Syaoran time to prepare. She had simply bought a plane ticket and put him on the flight.

After an exhausting day of travel, before he had even had a proper rest, he had the misfortune of suddenly being trapped inside someone's Barrier that evening.

And the reason was simply that the place he rented was within five kilometers of her house! She had merely been experimenting with magic.

He wanted to call her overbearing, but he couldn't.

Because that girl genuinely had the power to throw her weight around. Without using any form of magic, she had suppressed him with raw magical power alone, leaving him unable to move a single finger.

Anyone could tell that this was the result of an overwhelming gap in strength.

Syaoran even wondered whether his ancestor, Clow Reed, had only been at this level himself.

She was the strongest magician Syaoran had encountered since birth, bar none.

After finally making it home, Syaoran flung himself onto his bed, still feeling that he had suffered far too many shocks for one day.

He had even begun to feel pessimistic about his chances of successfully capturing the Clow Cards.

Fortunately, that girl probably had nothing to do with them.

Syaoran picked up a letter from beside his bed. He had only read half of it earlier, having interrupted his reading and rushed outside when he sensed something strange happening around him.

The letter contained the name of the school his mother had arranged for him to transfer to.

"Tomoeda Elementary School..."

Thankfully, it wasn't University of Tokyo Affiliated Takada Elementary School-the elementary school from earlier, where that terrifying girl studied.

It was such a relief that they wouldn't be attending the same school.

Naturally, Huo Lin had no idea that she had left an innocent boy psychologically scarred.

"Eriol, didn't you say you were born in another world?"

The next day, when Huo Lin came storming over, Eriol was utterly baffled.

"What?"

Only after hearing Huo Lin explain what had happened the night before did Eriol understand.

"Oh, that. I suppose I was indeed born on this planet in one of my lives."

"One of your lives? You've reincarnated more than once?"

Well, that's a new one. Was that really so strange?

"Haven't you done the same?"

Clow Reed would never believe that Huo Lin was merely an ordinary nine-year-old elementary school girl. How else could she possess such powerful magic?

She had to be a great mage from the Age of the Gods who had reincarnated many times.

For mages at their level, reincarnation was hardly anything unusual.

The past had faded like smoke, while Sakura was his daughter in this life, so of course she was his own flesh and blood. As for Li Syaoran, even if he carried the blood of Eriol's previous incarnation, he was already a very distant relative.

Once she understood how he decided whom to treat as close family, Huo Lin had no objections. After all, she was closer to Sakura herself.

"More importantly, have you finished preparing to deal with the Book of the Night Sky?"

Eriol couldn't understand why Huo Lin still had the time to concern herself with other things when the Book of the Night Sky was clearly the most important matter.

Compared with the destruction the Book of the Night Sky could cause, the Clow Cards were utterly insignificant.

Clow Reed also wanted to resolve this as soon as possible, lest it introduce unpredictable dangers into Sakura's trials. They were all in Tokyo; if the Book of the Night Sky went out of control, none of them could escape. It would be a world-ending catastrophe.

This was the Book of Darkness. Even someone like Clow Reed had to take it seriously. If the Time-Space Administration Bureau learned that the Book of Darkness had appeared in the 97th Unadministered World, they would probably send an entire fleet.

That was no exaggeration. Given the Book of the Night Sky's terrifying history, no amount of caution was excessive. It was an out-of-control Device that could truly bring devastating catastrophe upon an entire plane.

"Eriol, do you really not have any magic equivalent to the main cannon of a Time-Space Administration Bureau warship?"

"Of course not!"

Who would research something like that? He was a magician from the Age of the Gods, not a god.

Destroying a planet was the equivalent of ending the world in mythology.

The sheer quantity of magical power needed to drive planet-destroying magic was beyond what any human could supply. Even for the Time-Space Administration Bureau, it was a trump card-a true weapon for a decisive battle.

It even exceeded the scope of SS-rank magic from the Age of the Gods.

"We can only contact the Time-Space Administration Bureau and request that they dispatch a cruiser of L class or above."

Even an L-class vessel could carry a planet-destroying cannon. For instance, the Asura, which had appeared in outer space during last year's Jewel Seed Incident, had been equipped with a Rainbow Light Cannon and possessed basic planet-destroying capabilities.

There were also the more advanced Klein-class Battleships, whose main cannons were naturally even more powerful.

"Is there some reason you're reluctant to contact the Time-Space Administration Bureau?" Eriol was a little suspicious. This girl was even hiding behind a disguise. Could she be wanted by the Bureau?

Huo Lin did not notice what Eriol was thinking. Of course she wasn't wanted, nor did she have any other particular concerns.

It was simply her first time taking the initiative to contact the official authorities of the magical world, and she felt she wasn't ready yet.

She had no idea whether the Time-Space Administration Bureau would be especially strict, or whether its "officials" would be stern.

"I understand. Then please contact them on my behalf. Sorry for the trouble, but I don't have their contact information."

"Mm, of course. It's a small matter."

"President!" Just then, her upperclassman Amano pushed open the door. "About the cookware for the restaurant-the school says we aren't allowed to use bottled gas. Would alcohol burners work?"

As a slender, petite girl, Amano couldn't handle heavy physical work, but she was very enthusiastic about coordinating and communicating with others.

"Of course not. Who cooks with alcohol burners? Ask whether we can use a cassette stove. They're designed for camping, so they should be fairly safe."

"All right, I'll go request permission right away."

Despite saying "right away," Amano Touko did not immediately leave. Instead, she watched the club president and the transfer student with interest.

"I keep getting the feeling that you two have some sort of secret. Don't tell me you're dating?"

"What are you talking about?" Huo Lin was baffled. "Can't you see we're both boys?"

"Sure, sure~" Touko waved a hand dismissively.

Sugisaki wasn't the only one who had noticed that the president had a secret. Touko had actually discovered it even earlier. A person's appearance could be disguised, but to Touko, the words they exchanged in writing were something she was much more sensitive to, and much harder to fake.

She truly hadn't noticed last year, but now she was certain that the president wasn't a boy at all.

Still, Touko had no intention of exposing her.

For a literature girl, a story like this, so much like the plot of a novel, was fascinating.

There was Viola, who disguised herself as a man in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or Miss Portia, who posed as a male lawyer in The Merchant of Venice.

The feeling that a novel was unfolding right beside her delighted the literature girl. Her only regret was that she would graduate soon and wouldn't be able to keep watching.