As I promised, a new chapter of 52 Curses. The summary below is rather
scant, so if you want to catch up on what's happened so far in a few
more words, you can find the whole story on my webpage at
http://nidoking.anifics.com/52Curses.html


SO FAR: It's been a tough day for Tomoyo, who's being closely watched by
JOKER, a card that not even Clow Reed himself could control. JOKER has
the combined powers of all 52 cards in the Clow Deck, and it's using
that power to grant Tomoyo's wishes... and cause her endless amounts of
trouble in the process. So far, it's set her garden on fire, made Li
Shaoran vanish before her eyes, and trapped her in her bedroom with
Sakura, among many other things. Then, while Sakura was professing her
undying (and magic-induced) love for Tomoyo, Tomoyo wished that the
happy moment would last forever - and JOKER obliged by using the power
of the TIME card to freeze time for everyone but Tomoyo herself.

52 Curses
Chapter 4: Tomoyo's Second Chance

    Tomoyo froze in place, not because of the magic, but because the
horrible truth of what she had done was simply too much for her to bear.
All she had ever wanted was to bring happiness to Sakura's life, and
instead she had brought the entire world to a halt! Never again would
Sakura laugh, or speak, or wear one of Tomoyo's wonderful costumes....
Tomoyo buried her face in the unmoving fabric of one of those costumes
to wipe her tears away. What good would they do her now? There might
still be some hope, since she was able to move, but without the help of
Sakura and Kero, how could she hope to stop JOKER and break the spell?
What could an ordinary girl do in the face of magic this powerful?
    She could barely bring herself to look at Sakura again. She didn't
deserve Sakura anymore. Not if her love was going to bring so much
tragedy. She had wanted the happiest moment of her life to last forever,
but what good was that if she was the only one who could ever experience
it?
    It was all so confusing that Tomoyo's head was spinning. She sat
down heavily, her chest heaving with heavy, sobbing breaths. Sakura was
still smiling, smiling at the spot where Tomoyo had been when time
froze. The silence was beginning to get to her now, driving her mad even
after only a minute - or what would have been a minute if time were
still progressing. "I'm making a sound now!" said Tomoyo, making up
anything just to hear her own voice. But it only made the pause
afterward seem that much more deathly silent. She couldn't spend the
rest of her life talking to herself! But there was no one else to talk
to. Even the master of the Clow Cards had no power left. Tomoyo wanted
so badly to hear Sakura's voice once more, but that would never happen.
She was utterly alone.
    "Cheer up, Tomoyo," whispered Sakura. "I'm here for you!"
    "Sakura?" Tomoyo cried excitedly. She leapt to her feet to greet
Sakura, wondering how she had broken free of the spell... but Sakura was
still frozen, having moved not an inch. Tomoyo sighed sadly. "It must
have been my imagination."
    "You still sound so sad," said Sakura's voice. "Why are you not
happy?"
    That time, Tomoyo had been watching Sakura's mouth, and it hadn't
moved. "Who's doing that?" she asked the silent room. "Who's speaking
like Sakura?"
    "I am," replied the voice. "The one who's been helping you."
    Helping? A thought struck her. "Are you... JOKER?"
    "That's right," said the voice. "You wanted to hear Sakura's voice,
so I used my power to let me speak to you in her voice." It paused. "Is
that not what you wanted?"
    "No, it's not!" Tomoyo shot back. "I wanted to hear Sakura's voice
from Sakura, not from you!"
    "Oh, dear," JOKER moaned apologetically. "Once again, I have
misunderstood."
    Tomoyo wanted to tell the evil card to shut up, but that would be
rude. Besides, this was an opportunity to find out more about JOKER so
that once Sakura was free of the spell, she would be able to figure out
how to capture it. "What are you trying to do?" she asked.
    "All I want is to make you happy!" replied JOKER, apparently more
cheerful now that Tomoyo had curbed her anger a bit. "You have so many
beautiful dreams. I want to make them all come true!"
    "But my dreams are about Sakura!" explained Tomoyo, hoping to reason
with the card. "My dreams will never come true unless you end this spell
and restore time!"
    "I can't do that," said the card, its voice now truly sorrowful. "I
can only use the power of each Clow Card once. Now that I've used the
power of TIME to stop time, I can't use the same power to start it
again."
    Well, that dashed all of her hopes to pieces. "You mean... the world
will be like this forever?"
    "I'm sorry. But it doesn't have to be sad! I still have many powers
left! You can wish for more things and make the world a perfect place
just for you!"
    "I don't want the world to be just for me!" shouted Tomoyo. "I want
Sakura back!"
    "I can't do that," said JOKER. "But look at her. See how happy she
is?"
    "That's not the point," snapped Tomoyo. But she did look happy....
    "She'll be that happy forever. It's the perfect moment, and it will
never have to change. If you had time back, she would have to go to
school and do lots of homework, and then get a job just to make money to
survive, and you'd probably grow apart anyway. In this timeless world,
there is no suffering. No one will ever die, or get sick, or even be
sad."
    "You're not making me happy," said Tomoyo.
    "That's all I want," said JOKER, sounding truly wounded now. "Just
choose a different wish."
    "Stop granting my wishes!" ordered Tomoyo.
    "I can't," replied JOKER. "I have to give you everything you want.
It's all I know how to do. But I can only do the things that are within
what remains of my power. I have to find a way to make you happy.
Surely, there is something I can do to make you happy, isn't there?"
    "I was happy before, when you weren't granting my wishes. You've
done nothing but make me miserable since then."
    "Then what can I do to make it up to you?" asked JOKER. "What can I
do to make you happy?"
    "NOTHING!" shouted Tomoyo. "I don't want you to do anything! I don't
want you to help me anymore! I wish you'd never even granted any of my
wishes in the first place!"
    That intrigued JOKER. "You want everything to be the way it was
before I joined you?" it asked. "Now, THAT I can do." The room began to
swirl around her, making her feel dizzy again. The colored dresses began
to flow into each other, becoming an eclectic rainbow wallpaper that
danced and spun around her. Tomoyo turned to Sakura, only to watch her
friend be dissolved into the mixture of pigments and be absorbed. Tomoyo
reached out for her, but her hand grabbed only very thick air. The
colors continued to blend into each other, becoming more unified. The
world split into three layers: blue and white on top, green and red in
the middle, and brown beneath her feet. Then, textures began to form.
The colors above became a sky with clouds, below a dirt path, and hedges
with flowers sprang into bloom around her. With a final POP!, everything
stopped moving, and Tomoyo found herself standing in her own backyard
under the early afternoon sun.
    Now she was very confused. How had she ended up here? And what was
that strange magical effect? What had JOKER done now? And why were the
hedges still intact? The last time she'd been in the garden, the hedges
had been burned by a mysterious fire....
    "Oh!" Tomoyo said excitedly. "JOKER must have sent me back in time,
to before it ever granted any of my wishes!" She hugged herself,
celebrating her good fortune. She had outwitted the devious JOKER and
saved the world! But something still felt wrong about the whole
situation... "JOKER?" she called timidly. "Are you still here?"
    She got no reply. For a second, relief washed over her, as she
realized that it was truly over; then, she remembered that JOKER had
only been able to speak because of one of her wishes, which had been
negated by her most recent wish. But wouldn't that wish have been
negated as well? Apparently not. It must have been a wish to negate all
wishes except itself. Or....
    Tomoyo shook her head, still a bit dazed and very confused. There
was no way she could figure this out on her own. She would have to talk
to Sakura about it. The very thought that Sakura was free of the evil
time-spell lifted Tomoyo's heart, but she had to remain clear-headed and
not celebrate until she was sure that she was free of JOKER's influence
forever. She would have to give Sakura a call.
    As she entered the house, Tomoyo saw her mother sitting near the
fireplace reading a book. She ducked out of sight, fearing that her
mother would scold her for being outside after all the trouble of the
day before - then remembered that none of it had actually happened. This
time travel business was going to take some getting used to! Taking a
few deep breaths to calm her nerves, Tomoyo stood up, smiled and waved
to her mother, then crossed the room to reach the phone and dialed
Sakura's number.
    "Hello, this is the Kinomoto residence," replied Dr. Kinomoto's
voice from the other end. "Nobody's here to -"
    Tomoyo hung up. She would have to speak to Sakura in person. But
where would Sakura be? ... Of course! When she'd met Chiharu and
Yamazaki at the park the day before... or rather, the day that hadn't
actually taken place, they'd just seen Sakura, hadn't they? "Mother, may
I go to the park?" she asked.
    "Are you sure you're up to it?" asked her mother, setting down the
book. "I thought you were tired after the dentist's appointment this
morning."
    True, she had been, but that seemed so long ago. "I'm fine, Mother.
I'd like to spend some time around other people now. The garden is too
lonely."
    Mrs. Daidouji smiled. "All right, Tomoyo dear. Just don't be too
long. I want you back before dark."
    Tomoyo gave her mother another prize-winning smile. "Thank you so
much!" She bowed gratefully and ran for the front door.
    "'Thank you?'" her mother repeated to herself. "Whatever for, I
wonder? Did she think I was going to keep her here, like a prisoner?"
*************************************************
    The park was just as beautiful and lively as Tomoyo remembered it -
which wasn't a great surprise, considering that this was the same period
of time during which she'd last visited it. However, she ignored most of
the sights around her, focusing instead on trying to find Sakura before
she left. She set off in the direction from which Chiharu and Yamazaki
had come when she'd spotted them before (after? Crazy time travel!),
hoping that they weren't too far away.
    Her hopes, for once, were answered without interference from JOKER.
Chiharu and Yamazaki were just waving goodbye to Sakura and Li around
the next curve. Tomoyo ran to meet them, shouting "Sakura!" to catch
their attention.
    Sakura waved back. "Tomoyo! What a surprise to see you here! I
thought you went to the dentist today!"
    By the time Sakura had finished her sentence, Tomoyo had closed the
gap and come to a stop, resting her hands on her knees and panting from
the exhausting run. She hadn't slept yet, and it had been a VERY long
day. "I did," she began, "but I needed to talk to you about something.
You and Li both."
    Li nodded. He was staring at Tomoyo as if trying to classify her as
friend or foe, but this time, she knew the reason. He waved at Chiharu
and Yamazaki dismissively. "You two had better go. This is private
stuff."
    "How rude!" returned Chiharu. "Not even a goodbye... and we were
going to tell Tomoyo about the surprise for tomorrow."
    "We'll tell her later," snapped Li. "This doesn't concern you!"
    Sakura jabbed Li in the side with her elbow. "Sorry about that," she
apologized. "We've got some exciting stuff going on too, and we really
want it to be a surprise for you two."
    "That's okay," said Yamazaki, extending his index finger. "They're
only unveiling the world's biggest ice cream sundae here tomorrow. Only
five hundred yen for all the ice cream you can eat!"
    "I already heard that one," Tomoyo said without thinking.
    Yamazaki blinked in surprise. "You mean it's true? I thought I just
made it up!"
    Quickly realizing her mistake, Tomoyo forced a wide smile. "Ha ha,"
she laughed dryly. "I fooled you that time."
    Chiharu gave Tomoyo a worried glance, her hand already tightly
gripping Yamazaki's ear. "Are you feeling okay, Tomoyo? I've never heard
you joke like that before."
    "I'm fine, really!" Tomoyo assured her, a bit too eagerly. "I'm just
a bit out of sorts after my visit to the dentist this morning. It's
nothing to worry about."
    "Okay," Chiharu reluctantly capitulated. "You should go home and get
some rest for tomorrow. Yamazaki's going to show off his new model plane
right here in the park, and he's invited you, as well as Sakura and Li,
and Rika and Naoko."
    "It sounds like fun," Tomoyo said with her natural winning smile.
"I'll enjoy it."
    "Just don't get too close to the propeller," warned Yamazaki. "I've
seen kids get sucked in by the force of the wind, and -"
    "Right, right," sighed Chiharu, dragging him away before he could
finish his tall tale.
    Sakura sighed in exasperation. "I didn't want to know what happened
to the poor kid who got sucked into the propeller...."
    Li shook his head and returned his stare to Tomoyo. "What did you
want to talk to us about?" he asked suspiciously.
    Tomoyo took a deep breath. It was not going to be an easy
explanation. "I know you feel a strange energy in me, Li. But I promise
you that I really am myself. I've just become the vessel for a Clow
Card."
    "A Clow Card?" Li repeated. "But that's impossible! Sakura controls
the Clow Cards!"
    "It's not one of the cards in Sakura's deck," explained Tomoyo.
"It's a different card, called JOKER, that has the powers of all 52
cards. JOKER follows me everywhere I go and grants my wishes using that
power."
    Kero popped his head out of Sakura's backpack and gasped in a
miniature lungful of air. "Did you say JOKER?" he asked. "I've never
heard of a card like that."
    "But you were the one who told me about it!" protested Tomoyo.
    Kero climbed onto Sakura's shoulder and crossed his arms. "Sorry,
kid. You must have me confused with some other guardian beast. I don't
know anything about any JOKER."
    "You remembered it while we were doing a reading with the Clow
Cards," Tomoyo insisted. "The TWIN card came up to show the magical
nature of the threat, and -"
    "When did we ever do a reading with the Clow Cards, Tomoyo?" asked
Sakura. "I've only done one reading, and I did that one alone."
    Of course. The detail she'd forgotten to mention. "None of you would
remember it," she realized aloud. "I accidentally made a wish that
caused JOKER to freeze time for everyone but myself, and then wished to
go back to the way things were before I made any wishes. So everything
that happened to me since yesterday afternoon really didn't happen, but
I can remember it."
    "It doesn't make sense," said Li. "Sakura and I have magical powers
and you don't. If anyone could remember what happened, it should be us."
    "JOKER has sealed away your powers," Tomoyo explained. "Sakura tried
to use her powers, but they didn't work, and Kero couldn't transform
into his normal form."
    Kero scratched his chin. "JOKER... JOKER... it's starting to remind
me of something...."
    "What else do you know about this card?" asked Li. "Tell us
everything."
    Tomoyo quickly related the events of the day that had never
happened - the fire in the garden, her visit to the park, the near-death
experience with the speeding car, the encounter with the jewelry store
owner, and finally Sakura's visit and JOKER's attempts to trap Sakura in
her room forever. She avoided mentioning the effect of LIBRA, instead
mentioning the time freeze without giving the reason for the wish.
    "Then JOKER spoke to me in Sakura's voice," she finished, "and told
me that it could grant any wish I had, but could only use the power of
each Clow Card once. And then it returned me to the moment when it had
first met me."
    "Using the power of the RETURN card, obviously," Li deduced.
    Kero nodded sagely. "Now I remember JOKER. That was a wily card, all
right. Clow never did manage to figure out how to tame its power. I
guess the trick was that JOKER needed to choose its own master. I
suspect it was looking for an unselfish heart to guide it, and Tomoyo's
as unselfish as they come."
    Tomoyo blushed deeply. "I'm not that unselfish."
    "So, what can we do about JOKER?" asked Sakura.
    "I think we need to exhaust its power," said Li.
    "Exhaust its power?" repeated Sakura.
    Li nodded. "She said it can only use the power of each card once,
right?"
    Tomoyo nodded in affirmation.
    "Then once it's used all 52 cards, it'll be helpless," Li continued.
"That's how we can get rid of it."
    "I don't think it'll be that easy," argued Kero. "I don't think
JOKER will be helpless for long. If I remember Clow's procedure
correctly, once the card runs out of power, its magic will recharge
within a few minutes, and it'll escape in search of its next victim."
    "But we'll have those few minutes in which to capture it," Li
pointed out.
    "Assuming that the seal on Sakura's magic is broken when its power
runs out," countered Kero.
    "Even so, Tomoyo will be free of its power," returned Li. "So what
if the card gets away?"
    "We can't just let a card that powerful run free!" Sakura put in.
"If it finds another victim, we might never be able to track it down!"
    "Then we'll just have to get it right on the first try," said Li. He
turned to Tomoyo. "Go on. Wish for something so we can start using up
JOKER's power."
    Tomoyo shook her head worriedly. "I can't do that."
    "Why not?" Li asked, beginning to show signs of anger. "Just wish
for something!"
    "If I do, someone will get hurt!" Tomoyo protested. "Every time I
wish for something, somebody ends up getting hurt! I can't let that
happen!"
    "If you don't use your wishes in a controlled way, they'll just act
randomly the way they've been doing," Kero pointed out. "Somebody's
going to get hurt no matter what you do. Just try to think of harmless
things to wish for."
    "I just had a thought," Sakura began, before Tomoyo could come up
with a harmless wish. "We want to make sure all of the cards get used
up, so we should find a way to keep track of which ones were already
used."
    "Kero, what about the ones that were used before RETURN?" asked Li.
"Are they still used up, or were they canceled when JOKER reversed
time?"
    Kero shrugged. "Don't ask me. This is new magical ground for me
too."
    "We could try using one of the wishes that Tomoyo already made
before," suggested Sakura. "If the same thing happens again, we'll know
that JOKER got all of its power back."
    "I've got it!" Kero cheered excitedly. "Wish for the kid to
disappear again!" Li glared at the guardian beast, who stuck his tongue
out in return.
    "No, don't do that!" protested Sakura. "If Li really disappears...."
    "... we can just use the RETURN card to undo the effect, like
before," Kero finished for her. "There's absolutely no danger involved
if the wishes can be reused. And if they can't, then nothing will
happen."
    "Besides, I only wished for Li to disappear because I was scared,"
added Tomoyo. "Now that he knows the truth, he won't threaten me, and I
truly don't want him to disappear again."
    Li continued to glare at Kero. "I think we should find another wish
to repeat," he said coldly.
    "We could go to the jewelry store and wish for the brooch again,"
suggested Tomoyo. "I know I'd still love to have it."
    "I think that's a much safer suggestion," agreed Sakura, favoring
Kero with a glare of her own.
    "Yeah, whatever," Kero grumbled, climbing back into Sakura's
backpack. "Just don't expect me to help if the three of you get caught
shoplifting."
*************************************************
    After a brief detour to let Sakura's father and Wen know that they
would be at the north side of the park, the three set off toward the
jewelry store with Tomoyo in the lead. She was nervous about the
prospect of being chased by the owner again, but reminded herself that
the RETURN card's power would be enough to avoid any further trouble...
and if it came to that, she'd use the SLEEP card on herself to get some
well-deserved rest. After all, she'd only just returned from the
dentist.
    "Tomoyo, look out!" shouted Sakura from several feet behind her.
With a start, she realized that she'd walked right into the street
without looking where she was going, and a truck was bearing down on her
too quickly to stop. Tomoyo screamed and curled into a ball, praying
that JOKER's magic had indeed returned, because without the power of
EARTHY, there was nothing to stop the truck from running her down.
    "Petals of wind, heed my call!" Li shouted from the curb. Tomoyo
felt a strong rush of wind as the truck barreled toward her, its horn
signaling her imminent death. But the impact never came. She opened her
eyes and peered up into the still-gusting wind to see the truck rising
into the sky, carried in the center of a swirling vortex of air.
    Sakura and Li were at her side in an instant, rubbing her shoulders
as the tornado carried the truck away. "Are you all right?" asked
Sakura.
    "I'm fine," Tomoyo said for the second time in the situation. "Thank
you, Li."
    "For what?" asked Li, tossing a limp ofuda to the ground beside her.
"My magic failed."
    "Failed?" repeated Tomoyo. "But the truck -"
    "That wind didn't come from me," Li reaffirmed. "It looked more like
the power of STORM."
    "STORM...." Tomoyo's brow furrowed as Sakura and Li hauled her to
her feet, hoping to move along before a crowd could gather. The street
was almost empty by now, and the few people who had seen what had
happened seemed to be more interested in where the truck had gone than
the children in the middle of the road. "Last time, the power of EARTHY
saved me," Tomoyo thought aloud as the other two led her to the far
sidewalk. "But this time, it was STORM."
    "That might mean that JOKER's powers haven't recharged," speculated
Li. "On the other hand, the situation was a bit different. It's possible
that EARTHY wouldn't have been able to stop the truck in time, forcing
JOKER to use a different power. I still want to see what happens at the
jewelry store before we leap to any conclusions."
    Tomoyo nodded and swallowed. Her heart was still pounding from the
shock, and she could barely stay on her feet even with both Li and
Sakura supporting her. But having her friends at her side provided
immeasurable comfort, as did - loath as she was to admit it - the power
of JOKER watching over her to protect her from any truly mortal danger.
She straightened up, let her own legs carry her weight, and pointed the
way to the jewelry store.
    They'd gotten a later start than Tomoyo had the last time she'd made
this trip, so by the time they got to the jewelry store, the sky was
beginning to darken. "I think my father's probably worried about us,"
Sakura noted. "We'd better hurry."
    Tomoyo felt uneasy once again as she turned to face the window
display. The brooch was in its place, as she had known it would be, but
the thought of actually holding it again brought with it the chilling
memory of a giant hand grasping her arm, and she shivered at its touch
even though it was merely in her imagination. Her desire to have the
brooch was nothing compared to the traumatic experience associated with
it. Besides, even if it was unlikely to work, she was just going to
invite trouble by making another wish. She didn't want any more trouble!
    "What's the problem?" Li asked impatiently. "Make the stupid wish
already."
    "I don't think I can," Tomoyo replied sadly. "I'm too scared."
    "There's nothing to be scared of," Li told her condescendingly. "If
something goes wrong, you just wish to go back in time again."
    Sakura put her arm around Tomoyo's shoulders. "I understand how you
feel, Tomoyo. I'm kind of scared too."
    "Really?" asked Tomoyo, taking comfort in Sakura's empathy.
    "I've faced a lot of Clow Cards, and I had magic to defend myself,"
Sakura reminded her. "And I was still scared of them. I can't imagine
what I would have done if you hadn't been there with me. So now I'm
going to be here for you."
    Tomoyo gripped Sakura's hand and squeezed it, feeling the reassuring
warmth of their friendship. With Sakura by her side, nothing could
threaten her. And such a special friend deserved a beautiful piece of
jewelry.... Tomoyo's eyes fell to the flower-shaped brooch again, and
this time she truly did want to hold it again, take it home and put it
onto a costume for Sakura to wear. She held out her hand, palm up, and
felt the cold metal of the brooch on her fingers.
    "Hey, it worked!" exclaimed Sakura.
    "No, it didn't," replied Li, pointing to the display. "It's still
there."
    Tomoyo closed her fingers around the brooch as she followed Li's
finger to the spot in the display where the brooch still sat,
undisturbed. "No, I have it in my hand," she confirmed. "But it's not
the same one that's in the window. It must be a different one."
    Li held out a hand to Tomoyo expectantly, and she gave the brooch to
him. He examined it carefully, then stared back at the one in the
display. "It's the same," he announced. "It's an exact copy of the one
in the store window."
    "What are you kids doing here?" asked a gruff voice from the
direction of the shop's front door. Tomoyo gasped at the sound - it was
the store's owner! He grabbed Li's arm and looked at the brooch. "That's
from my store!" he shouted. "How did you kids get it?"
    "We were just comparing it to the one you have there," Li said
calmly, pointing to the window again.
    The man looked down at the brooch in Li's hand, then at the one in
the window. "That's impossible..." he said. "That brooch is a
one-of-a-kind antique! My grandfather made it with his own hands and
destroyed the mold afterward!"
    "Guess someone must have found a way to copy it," returned Li. "It
doesn't look that special to me. I could probably make one just like it
myself."
    "Did you make this?" the owner asked, waving the brooch in Li's
face. "Where did you get it?"
    "Would you mind giving it back now?" Li asked, not batting an eye.
"Don't make me go to the police box. They don't take kindly to old men
who bully kids."
    Sakura grabbed Li's shoulder imploringly. "Don't provoke him, Li,"
she whispered.
    "He can't prove anything," Li replied coolly, as much for the man's
benefit as for Sakura's. "Like he said, his brooch is one-of-a-kind, and
it's sitting right there in his store. If he's not going to accuse us of
stealing, then he'd better just move along and leave us alone."
    The man's eyes narrowed, and Tomoyo had the sinking feeling that he
was about to drag Li into the store and call the police. She stepped
forward, clearing her throat to buy time to think of a way to explain
their situation without telling the truth about the Clow Cards; but the
man stepped away with one last glare at Li. "I don't want to see you
kids around my store again, or your parents will hear about this."
    Li brazenly stuck his tongue out at the owner's back as he walked
away. "Adults are all the same. They think they can push us around
because we're kids, but all we have to do is stand up to them once and
they can't do a thing."
    "That was amazing, Li!" cheered Tomoyo, whose knees were still
shaking. "You're so brave!"
    "Eh, it was nothing," said Li. "Here's your brooch."
    Tomoyo accepted the brooch from him, while Sakura took the first
chance to compare the two brooches. "How is it possible?" she wondered
aloud. "It really is an exact copy. But that man said that it was the
only one like it in the world. So how...?"
    "Don't you even know your own power?" Li shot back. "This is the
work of the TWIN card."
    "Oh, right," Sakura agreed sheepishly. "I forgot about that card."
    "Then instead of stealing the brooch from the store," Tomoyo
realized, "JOKER just made a copy of it this time."
    Li nodded. "I think that proves that JOKER's power hasn't returned.
Twice now, it's granted the same wish using a different power."
    "Well, that's good news," said Sakura. "It must be pretty weak by
now."
    "It's also bad news," countered Li. "It means that we don't have the
power of RETURN to undo any mistakes we might make. From this point on,
any trouble that JOKER causes is done for good."
    Tomoyo felt a lump forming in her throat at Li's declaration. Her
own mind filled in the unspoken words: any trouble that Joker causes by
granting her wishes. There was no way to deny that her desires were
responsible for everything that JOKER had done. Even such a harmless
thing as a brooch, even when the original remained where it was while
she had a mere copy, her wish had still caused more trouble than it was
worth.
    "Is something wrong?" Sakura asked, apparently seeing some of the
guilt on Tomoyo's face.
    Tomoyo curled her fingers around the brooch again, taking in the
smooth texture of the gold plating and the slightly rough blue coating
on the petals. Why was it that such a beautiful object could feel so
loathsome when she finally had it? She hauled her arm back and hurled it
down the street as far as she could. "I HATE IT!" she screamed.
    Sakura and Li gasped in unison at the venomous declaration from the
mouth of the most loving person they'd ever met. Sakura approached her
carefully, as if suddenly afraid of the girl her best friend had become.
"Tomoyo...."
    "Why does everything I want have to hurt people?" wailed Tomoyo as
her legs failed her and she fell to her knees, steady streams of hot
tears pouring down her cheeks despite herself. "I never wanted to hurt
anyone!"
    Sakura knelt beside Tomoyo and held her in a tight hug. "It's okay,
Tomoyo. It's not your fault."
    "But it is," Tomoyo sobbed. "I stole jewelry, made Li disappear, set
my mother's garden on fire, froze Sakura in time forever, and even
manipulated her emotions... and I wanted all of it! Every one of those
things was something I wanted!" Torn with hatred for herself, Tomoyo
turned and buried her face in Sakura's blouse. "I don't want to want
anything anymore! Not if people get hurt!"
    "You can't be angry at yourself for this," said Li. "It's the power
of JOKER that makes your wishes hurt people."
    "But Kero said that JOKER chose me because I was unselfish... how
can I be unselfish when I want so many things?"
    Li opened his mouth to say something else, but Sakura's eyes caught
his with a warning glare before he could come up with the words, and he
wisely decided to shut up.
    "I'm scared, Sakura," Tomoyo whispered, barely breaking the silence.
"I'm scared of what will happen to everyone if I keep wishing for
things."
    "It's all right, Tomoyo," Sakura assured her. "Whatever happens,
we'll be together."
    Tomoyo gratefully squeezed Sakura so hard that the older girl
couldn't breathe until she loosened her grip. As bad as she felt, Sakura
always had a way of convincing her that things would work out in the
end. Still, the tears had already started, and didn't stop until Dr.
Kinomoto's car pulled up to the curb to pick the kids up and take them
home. In the meantime, it was all Tomoyo could do not to wish for
anything that would end up hurting her friends again. It was beyond even
JOKER's incredible power to grant the only wish that would truly make
her happy now - to never have another wish again.

-------------------------------------------------------

LEO: I can't drive since my license got suspended.
HYDE: What did you do?
LEO: I dropped it in a glass of soda, and it just hung there, like,
suspended... then while I was looking at it, I ran a red light.

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