Someone is dreaming. A book opens, and the person finds herself standing on the top of a building and looking at Tokyo Tower. She is wearing a strange outfit and holding a pink staff. Floating beside her is a weird small stuffed animal. Mouthing something, small wings appear on her shoes and she jumps from the building.

BRRRRRRRING. Morning, and one very dis-orientated girl wakes, startled, from her sleep. Downstairs, her father calls that it is time for breakfast. The girl introduces herself as Kinomoto Sakura. She is in 4th grade at Tomoeda Elementry, and that she likes gym and music but hates maths.

Downstairs you see an older boy sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee. He asks what all the noise upstairs was, and Sakura replies innocently that she was walking like she normally did. He comments that it sounded like a monster walking. Sakura gets mad and stomps over to him and yells that she is not a monster. Sakura introduces the boy as her older brother, Touya, who is in 11th grade at Seijou High School, and that he always teases her because he’s bigger. Sakura then imagines herslf growing to the size of a telephone pole and squashing him (she has a determined look on her face, anyway....ah, the joys of being young.....)

Then a man walks in wearing an apron and glasses. Sakura introduces him as Fujitaka, her father. He is a professor of Archaeology, and can cook and sew. Sakura sits down and her father serves her breakfast. Sakura narrates that her mother passed away when she was three, but she wasn’t lonely because she had her father and brother to keep her company. Fujitaka asks if the food is good, and Sakura assures him it is.

Touya gets up to leave because he has early soccer practice, and Sakura yells for him to wait. Stuffing the food into her mouth, she thanks her father for breakfast, takes the lunch he offers, puts on her rollarblades and scoots after Touya.

Whizzing around the corner, Sakura hopes that she can catch up with her brother, and then notices that the cherry blossom trees are blooming. This makes her happy, and then she spots her brother ahead. As Sakura skids and slows down, panting, next to him, Touya comments that she didn’t have to skate to school with him, and that she could have taken more time. Sakura thinks to her self that she rushed because Touya always rode to school with *him*.

Touya calls out to another boy ahead. Yukito slows down and Sakura thinks she’s in *love*. Yukito comments that Sakura is up early, and Touya mutters that it was because she stuffed down her breakfast in 2 minutes. Sakura glares, kicks him in the shins and smiles nicely at Yukito. Yukito smiles back and says that she is always cheerful. Sakura introduces the boy as Tsukishiro Yukito, her brother’s best friend and that he is in her brother’s class at school. He’s so sweet and kind that Sakura can’t believe that he is such good friends with her mean brother.

Arriving at school, Yukito says goodbye to Sakura and tosses her a piece of candy. Sakura catches it and watches, love struck, as he and her brother ride away. Suddenly, a girl Sakura’s age shows up and comments that he was pretty smooth. Sakura introduces her as Daidouji Tomoyo, her pretty and smart best friend, who is the daughter of the president of a big toy company. Tomoyo tells Sakura that she looked sooo cute, holding the candy and looking so wistful - she wished she had it on camera. Sakura goes very embarrassed, and comments that Tomoyo’s hobby was taking pictures and videotaping, and that many of them were ofher.

Tomoyo says that she has a new video camera and that she can’t wait to try it out on Sakura. Sakura says it’s fine, but maybe Tomoyo should film something more interesting. Tomoyo gets all starry eyed and says that nothing was more interesting or cuter than Sakura - which makes Sakura fall over. Sakura comments that Tomoyo was a little strange sometimes........

In class, Sakura is doodling on a piece of paper a picture of the strange stuffed animal in her dream. Tomoyo leans over and comments that she liked the picture, but what is it? Before Sakura could explain, the techer calls on her to read, and Tomoyo hurriedly whispers the page number.

After school its cheerleading practice, and Sakura is doing flips. Then its time for baton practice. Sakura is so pre-occipied with her dream, she imagines her baton turning into that strange staff, and promptly drops it on her head. One of the girls comments to another that Sakura is atheletic and good with the baton, but sometimes she just 'got that way'. The other girl agrees.

After cheerleading, Sakura is at home and finds a note saying that her father would be home late. When she goes to get some pudding from the fridge, she hears a strange noise coming from the basement. Clutching her baton, Sakura peeps around the corner and looks at the door to the basement. Since no-one else is home, Sakura is very scared. Wondering if it is a burglar, Sakura decides that she’ll check it out, and if so, she’ll call the police.

Sakura cautiously treads down the stairs, but she can’t see anyone through the bookshelves. Coming to the corner, she sees one particular book glowing in the bookshelf. When Sakura reaches out for the book, it stops glowing. Sakura pulls it out. The title is 'The Clow'. Sakura suddenly recognizes it as the book in her dream! Then, by itself, the lock on the book openes, shocking Sakura so she almost drops it.

Sakura slowly opens the book, which, to her surprise, contains cards. Taking the top one, Sakura stumbles over the english title...."Win, Win, Windy!" When she says Windy, the floor around her suddenly glows in a strange pattern, and a fierce wind suddenly rips through the basement, scattering the cards out of the book and then they disappear. When the wind finally ceases, Sakura drops to the floor and stares at the remaining card in her hand.

But then 'The Clow' begins to glow again, and a small yellow-gold creature rises out of it. The strange stuffed animal in her dream. Opening its eyes, the creature cheerfully greets Sakura. Sakura is totally shocked, and the (animal/creature?) continues to speak in a thick Osaka dialect.

The creature comments that he was surprised that she had woken him, and said that the book has been in Osaka for a long time. Sakura then grabs it, and looks for a battery or switch. The creature is insulted and declares that he is not a toy. Kerberos then flies into a panic, demanding to know where 'they' are, and why 'they' are gone. Sakura admits to reading the title Windy, and it blew all the cards away. They both chuckle for a moment, before Kero goes ballistic.

Sakura shoves all her dinner into her mouth and takes her dessert upstairs, making the excuse that she wanted to eat while studying. Kero is floating around trying to locate the Clow Cards, but he can’t find anything. Kero tells Sakura that if the Clow Cards were ever to be released, great disaster would befall the world. He explains that the Clow Cards were created by the most powerful sorcerer ever, Clow Read. Each card is alive in a sense, meaning that it had its own desires and feelings. Clow Read made the book and put Kero in charge of guarding the cards, making him the seal beast. He must get them back, and Sakura was going to help him.

Sakura askes why must she help him, and Kero replies that it was her fault that they got away in the first place. Sakura points out that he was supposed to be guarding them, and Kero glares and says that he fell asleep accidently - for about 30 years, mind. Sakura snorts and says "You call yourself a Seal Beast?!" and then she realizes that the noises she heard were Kero’s snores. Kero changes the subject and says that because Sakura broke the seal, she must have magical powers. He asks her name, and then tells her to stand.

Glowing, he chants an incantation, and the sealing cane appears. Telling her to take it, he then announces the birth of a new cardcaptor - Sakura. Sakura realizes that she has been tricked, and is not a happy kid. Kero merely starts to eat her dessert. Later, as Sakura dries her hair, she protests that she can’t be a cardcaptor because she was a normal 4th grader. Kero reminds her that it was she who released the cards. Sakura retorts that he should have been guarding the Clow Book. Both glare at each other across the room.

All of a sudden, a huge wind springs up outside, and Sakura goes over to shut the window. Of course, she isn’t prepared for the gianormus bird which flies overhead. Kero tells her that this is no time to be impressed - it was most likely to be the Fly card, and that she must capture it. Sakura, clad only in her pj's and rollerblades, skates after the bird, and yells to Kero that there was no way that she could possibly catch something that big. Kero tells her that she’s being a wimp. Fly then notices them, and with a sweep of a wing, blows them away. Luckily, Kero catches Sakura with his teeth and lowers her to the ground, telling her to use her magic. Sakura takes out her seal key, and turns it into a wand.

Kero then yells that since Fly was attributed to Windy, they should be able to capture the Fly with the Windy, if they could get close enough. Fly suddenly keeps on attacking them, and Sakura and Kero start to skate (or fly in Kero’s case) for all their worth. Sakura demands how on earth she’ll do this, and Kero replies that it was a cardcaptors job to figure out that part. Sakura thinks hard for a moment, and then gets an idea.

As she skates ahead, Kero gets blown away. Rollerblading on the side of a wall, Sakura takes a flying leap onto the huge bird’s back, and grabs onto whatever she can. Clutching feathers, Sakura pulls out Windy and commands it to bind the Fly. The Windy zooms out and ropes down the enormous bird. Sakura takes the oppitunity to seal the card. Sakura collapses onto the ground, and Kero flies up and tells her that he was very proud. Sakura, however, bursts into tears. She thought she was going to die. Kero tells her that she would be a better adult if she had all kinds of experiences in life, and laughes.

Now that the danger is over, Kero tells Sakura to try out her new card, and Sakura is then able to fly on her sealing cane. Flying high over the city, Kero tells Sakura that he would enjoy working with her, and Sakura grumbles that she had never agreed in the first place.

~The Beginning~

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