Written by: Sakura_Kinomoto
6/20. The New Rival
It's early morning at the Avalon home and Kero is trying to talk Sakura into buying him a new game. Sakura and Tori leave for school and are joined by Julian. Tori, as usual keeps making fun of his sister. He also mentioned that the paper talked about some girl in the park who challenged people with martial arts and won. When Sakura gets to school, Madison tells her that Li, who is usually so early, was late. He finally arrives, looking more out of it than usual. Neither Sakura or Madison know what is going on with him. Mr. Terada comes in and announces that they all had a new exchange student. An unknown girl throws the door open and Li freaks out when he sees her. She runs over to Li and tells him she's sad they didn't walk to school together. The girl is Meilin Rae, also from Li's hometown. When Sakura asks Li if he knew who the girl was, Meilin instantly runs to the back, puts herself between them and tells Sakura to back off. Li sighs to himself.
Later at lunch, Sakura is with her friends when they are joined by Zackery and Li. Meilin comes running after Li and is happy about her father's transfer so that now she can make him lunch. Li tries to persuade her not to, but Meilin tells him it'll be like old times, pretending they were cardcaptors. When Li objects, saying he is one, Meilin mentions that the lasin board said someone else was, to which Li says that person's still not very good at it. Meilin figures out that Sakura is the cardcaptor and says she can help Li better than Sakura. During gym class, the class is doing gymnastics and Meilin sees Sakura as a major competitor, trying to show her up whenever she can. The girl isn't happy when Sakura does just as well as her in everything. Mr. Terada even asks them both to show more of their best moves in gymnastics. Throughout the day, Meilin continually glares at Sakura, making her nervous.
That night, the Avalon family and Julian are having dinner and they discuss the girl at Reedington Park. Apparently, the girl only chooses strong opponents. The newspaper also says authorities are looking for a young girl wearing an unusual costume. After dinner, Sakura, Madison, and Kero are at the park, looking for the Clow card. Meilin joins them, saying the card they're looking for is the Fight card. She then tells Sakura to leave, since she's there to help Li. Besides that, she's also surprised that Kero is who he is.
A figure leaps out of the water and they know who she is immediately. She bows to them and then shoots toward them. Out of the people present, she chooses Meilin to be opponent. They do battle and Meilin does well until Fight catches her by surprise. Fortunately for Meilin, Li arrives and kicks the card away. He yells at her for taking the lasin board from his home and Sakura is surprised they're fighting, since she thought they were partners. Kero says Meilin has no magic and is no cardcaptor. Li also scolds her for being there when the card resurfaces and knocks Li into a post. This angers Meilin and she fights harder against the card. Sakura says she's good, but Li says fighting with a Clow card is different.
After a while, Meilin is beginning to lose out against the fight card. Sakura uses the Power card and the Fight, sensing the strong power in Sakura, goes after her instead. The cardcaptor accidentally knocks Fight out with her staff and seals it. Li helps Meilin up and she's angry that she lost the card. Sakura tries to compromise but Meilin is stuck on saying that both she and Li would eventually defeat her. Li let's out another exhausted sigh.