Prologue

Only recently, in a land our brave dimensional travelers have not yet had the pleasure of visiting, there has been a growing hubbub in regard to a certain series of events sponsored by a certain royal family. Said hubbub has manifested itself, in general, as a giddy but competitive demeanor amongst the kingdom's young female populous, which, on occasion, has descended into fits of name-calling and other general rudenesses as well as outright uncivilized behavior.

Just one day prior, a small group of schoolgirls had purposely wrecked a classroom so that the one assigned to that day's cleanup duties would not be able to make it to the fabric merchant's shop before closing – and this, on the scheduled day for new arrivals from a neighboring kingdom renowned for its beautiful cottons and linens. She was pretty enough already, they said. She didn't need the first pick of materials.

Instructors in the schools have noticed a decline in grades, even among the most dedicated of students. One such student by the name of Sakura, has maintained her cheerful and kindly disposition – having remained apart from the petty feuds of others. The decline in her marks has been a result of her daydreaming more than anything else.

Having met the prince briefly on more than one occasion in the past, she finds herself looking forward to the upcoming festival more than she has anything in her remembering. Some of the girls in her classes have been whispering of marriage and heirs and what it would be like to be a princess. Sakura only thinks of how it might be nice to see that boy, the young prince, once again.

The festival is only the first in a long series of events designed to allow the prince to socialize with girls his age, the idea being to avoid the disaster they encountered with his brother, the new king. For as well educated as he is and for as genuinely concerned with the kingdom's well being as he is, he has already announced to the Royal Council of [already overly paranoid] Advisors, that he has absolutely no intention of taking a wife and would not, under any circumstances, be producing an heir.

Rumor around town was that he had fallen in love with another man and as nice as that was, for every person who would commend him for staying true to his heart by refusing both wife and concubine, another would say that he is shirking his responsibility. "A country needs to be certain there will be someone to inherit the rule should the unthinkable happen," they would say as though the King didn't have a perfectly capable brother, young though he may be.

The Council blamed themselves for this turn of events, thinking that if he had only met a nice girl early on, he wouldn't have "resorted" to someone of the same sex. Let it be known here and now: the Council is not known for their brilliance, but for their zeal, which they hold in great quantities and are overly generous in spreading to others.

It took little time for their ploy to pair off the young prince to become known to the public and even those who realized the ridiculousness of the reasoning were not opposed to the idea as a whole. An event would be held once a month for as long as it took for the Council to be sated with the fact that the prince would be falling in love with a woman. There was no need to rush the boy to pick someone right away; he is only 15 after all. They only wanted to be secure in the feeling that someday (hopefully soon (the sooner the better)) Prince Syaoran will be able to pick himself a wife.

Seeing as nearly everyone enjoys festival, picnics, concerts, dances, and other such entertainments, the plan's popularity spread like floodwaters after the annual spring thaw. There is however, one man among all the population that does not enjoy such frivolities and his name, though you might have guessed, is Kurogane, one of the more senior guards devoted to the protection of the prince.

In Kurogane's viewing, the whole scheme is rife with the opportunity for someone to get hurt. He can picture it clearly in his mind: hundreds of village girls descending in hordes on his charge. The kid was liable to be trampled to death, suffocated in the commotion, or at minimum, lose his hearing from the doubtless high pitched squealing those girls were sure to suffer upon the entirety of the kingdom.

It is with this pessimistic attitude that he prepares himself – and the prince – for the upcoming event as though it were battle.

The young Miss Sakura, briefly mentioned earlier and mentioned now because it is time to introduce the final character in this story, is a member of the formerly great house of Kinomoto. Both the master and mistress met with an untimely death at the hands of a freak card accident and ever since, it has been the responsibility of their lone child to uphold the estate and the name. Thankfully for her, she is not entirely alone. Just prior to their ends, the master and mistress took into their employ a traveling man who seemed unusually adept at keeping their child out of harm's way.

Said traveler had intended only to earn enough money to move on to the next kingdom, a few short months at the most and he would be gone, for he was after all, a traveler by trade, but when the poor girl's parents had died, a surge of maternal instinct had welled up inside him. He decided then that he would stay and watch over the sweet child until she was capable of caring for herself.

Though Sakura was the head of the house and as such, responsible for the making of all decisions, she often sought the wisdom and council of Fai, our intrepid but gentle natured journey-man.

On this night, the night preceding the first festival, Sakura seeks such advice. "Fai-san, all the girls of the kingdom will be there. Some have already planned the wedding but I just want to say hello to the prince. He probably doesn't remember me. Umm…" She trailed off uncertain of what she was trying to articulate.

Luckily enough for Sakura, her self-appointed caretaker understood what she was fearing. "Sakura-chan. Don't trouble yourself over those other girls. Believe in yourself and everything will be okay."

And so it was that the very next night, Fai escorted his pseudo-daughter to the festival. This is where our story truly begins.