Chapter 25: Sisters Reunited
The two of them stepped into the elevator.
Kazama Chiba pressed the button for the tenth floor.
"Um... aren't we supposed to be going down?"
Touka asked from behind him, confused.
"Oh, I just remembered I need to check something real quick."
Kazama said casually.
In truth, he wanted to verify whether what The Illusion card had said about the residents returning was actually true.
After all, if an entire floor of people had vanished into thin air, it would definitely blow up into a major incident. When the police started investigating, it would be very difficult for him—the last person seen at this location—to escape suspicion.
However, before the elevator doors even closed, a cacophony of angry shouting echoed down from upstairs. Even through the elevator shaft, they could hear furious roaring.
"Who the hell threw my TV into the hallway?! This is attempted murder! I'm calling the police!"
"Where's building management?! Where the hell did they go?! Why was there a sudden power outage?!"
"Ow, my back... Was that an earthquake just now? I feel like I fell asleep on the floor..."
A chorus of angry complaints carried clearly down through the elevator shaft from the floors above.
Listening to these shouts, Kazama Chiba expressionlessly canceled the tenth floor button and pressed the first floor instead.
Touka: "Hm? Not going up anymore?"
Kazama: "Never mind. Just remembered something. Let's skip it."
...
"Ding."
First floor.
The moment they exited through the first-floor entrance, a black shadow burst out from the roadside bushes.
"Big sister—!!!"
Takanashi Rikka threw aside the umbrella and yellow plushie in her hands, slamming into Touka's arms like a cannonball.
"Wahhh... Saint Conditioner! You finally escaped from that interdimensional rift! I thought you were going to be devoured by the void!"
That crying voice held less of her usual chuunibyou flair and more genuine distress and lingering fear.
"That hurts! Don't ram into my stomach!"
Though Touka complained verbally and even gave Rikka a knuckle rap on the head, her hand didn't push her sister away. Instead, it rested gently on top of Rikka's head.
That sense of relief at recovering something lost made even this usually stern and efficient older sister's eyes redden slightly.
"I'm fine."
She reached out, gently patting Rikka's back. That gesture was as tender as the father from her dream who would never leave.
"Sorry. I made you worry."
While the sisters staged their touching reunion scene, Kazama Chiba quietly walked over to the nearby bushes.
Beneath an evergreen plant that Rikka had trampled flat, a yellow plushie lay sprawled on the ground playing dead.
"Hey. What's wrong with you? Still alive?"
He crouched down, poking that soft, squishy belly with his finger.
"Getting caught by Rikka of all people—you're really pathetic."
Faced with Kazama's mockery, Kerberos responded with a mix of tears and indignation.
Earlier, when he'd seen that girl taking the elevator down with Kazama, he'd figured he'd just fly down himself.
But the moment he landed, that girl had somehow been waiting in the bushes right next to the first-floor entrance and grabbed him instantly, declaring something about "capturing a rare magical beast." To avoid exposing his identity, Kerberos had been forced to play the role of a stuffed toy.
Kazama didn't mention that The Illusion card had been behind it. He just sighed helplessly and stuffed the unlucky creature back into his pocket.
Meanwhile, the two sisters' emotions had finally stabilized.
Rikka wiped away her tears and pulled Touka over to stand before Kazama Chiba.
"Ally! Though the process was perilous, the mission is complete! This is all thanks to the guidance of the Wicked Eye!"
"Sure, sure." Kazama replied perfunctorily. "Now that you've found her, how about honoring that promise?"
"Promise?" Touka glanced at her sister. "What promise?"
"That... that thing..." Rikka stammered. "That thing on top of the cabinet... the sealed supreme tome..."
Touka paused for a moment, then understood. The look she gave Kazama held a measure of gratitude.
"You're Kazama, right? Thank you for looking after my sister. If you don't mind, please come to our home? Since you're Rikka's friend, I'd like to show my appreciation properly."
"No need to go to the trouble. Just give me the item and I'll leave."
Kazama was about to refuse.
"No way! This is part of the contract!" Rikka struck her chuunibyou pose again. "Besides... if you don't come, you won't be able to break the seal on that tome!"
In reality, she'd just put it on top of a cabinet where she couldn't reach it.
Kazama Chiba sighed. Looked like he couldn't avoid this meal.
The three of them turned and left.
Night deepened. The streetlights stretched their shadows long across the pavement.
...
At the same time, on the rooftop of another office building several hundred meters from Misaki Mori Tower.
The night wind howled.
A figure wearing gorgeous robes that clashed dramatically with the modern cityscape stood at the roof's edge, looking down at the farce that had just concluded below.
Behind Ougihoshi Kaguya, six wings as white as snow unfurled against the night sky.
"My, my."
"Three days, and he's already obtained The Windy, The Shadow, The Mirror, and The Illusion? Four cards?"
"Seems my earlier assessment was too conservative. That child has even more talent than I imagined."
Kaguya turned around, the hem of her robes whipping in the wind as she raised her right hand.
"Since the protagonist has taken his position and the stage has been set, certain props that might break the illusion should be cleaned up to let this play proceed more smoothly."
Between her fingertips was a pure white card. That card bore no pattern—only an expanse of void-like blankness.
The Erase.
"Erase."
Ougihoshi Kaguya's lips parted lightly.
That gray card transformed into an invisible ripple, instantly spreading across all of Kamimizu City.
"In this world... all concepts, memories, merchandise, and related traces of Cardcaptor Sakura..."
"Erase them all."
Hummm—
An invisible wave radiated outward from her as its center, instantly spreading across all of Kamimizu City and even the entire world.
In that convenience store, the manager's hand paused mid-restocking. He looked at the paper slip reading "Book of Clow inventory order" and suddenly felt confused.
"What the hell is this? When did I ever order merch from some anime I've never even heard of?"
He shook his head and crumpled the slip into a ball, tossing it into the trash.
In countless otaku bedrooms across the city, manga volumes on bookshelves, figurines, and posters began undergoing subtle changes. Those girls in pink dresses transformed into other characters, or simply became blank spaces.
Memories of that story were like words written in sand on a beach, slowly smoothed away by the rising tide.
Like a massive eraser.
Wiping away traces that shouldn't exist in this ordinary world, scrubbing them completely clean.
"There."
Kaguya lowered her hand. The wings behind her slowly folded, finally disappearing. She transformed back into that beautiful, ordinary teacher.
"The stage is set, Kazama-kun."
"See you tomorrow."
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