Chapter 3: Sakura and the Deep Chill
Sakura is near-hysterical with dismay. Tomoyo has suddenly become a Yandere and is threatening to kill Shaoran with a pen-knife in order to have Sakura to herself. She, Shaoran, and Kero quickly surmise that something is catastrophically wrong. After a brief scuffle, Shaoran disarms Tomoyo and Sakura binds her with the WINDY Card. Kero senses dark energy from Tomoyo's camera, which erupts as Tomoyo screams, and a winged black heart shape flies out of her chest...
When the energy and the winged heart merge together, a monstrous creature is born, fashioned after the camera and wearing Tomoyo's heart on its chest. It attacks Sakura and Shaoran and is swiftly defeated when Sakura gets dangerous, which restores Tomoyo to normal... but then the true nightmare begins.
Joker makes his grand entrance, and an unknown voice in Sakura's head whispers: "It's all gone wrong, it's all gone wrong..." Joker claims responsibility for Tomoyo's initial corruption and the subsequent monster created from her energy and her Psyche, a Youma-Jikochuu hybrid. It soon becomes clear that he's done far more than that: he's taken possession of Sakura's lost Cards, and somehow is even able to use Cards that still belong to Sakura.
Engaging them in battle and toying with them mercilessly, Joker takes advantage of an opening and goes after Tomoyo. He traps her inside a card of his own twisted design, and laughs with sadistic joy at Sakura's grief. In the ensuing scuffle, he cryptically mentions "others" before summoning one of the most dangerous Cards of all: the NOTHING Card, whose eyes turn red and smolder with pure hate when she sees Sakura's face...
Tropes That Appear in this Chapter:
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Part of Joker's entrance: "I? Just a jaunting, jovial jester, japing and jeering with joy and jollity on a jocular journey of jubilant jackanapery…"
- Big Entrance: Fitting with his penchant for drama, Joker reveals himself to Sakura's group in style, appearing out of nowhere atop a street lamp.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Both Tomoyo and the NOTHING Card.
- Heinz Hybrid: The Youma-Jikochuu, which Joker dismisses as a failure.
- Oh, Crap!: The appearance of the NOTHING prompts this reaction, for good reason.
- The Reveal: Joker is behind all the strange events plaguing Sakura: the alteration and disappearance of her Cards, the reversion of her wand back to its original form, and Tomoyo's Yandere episode.
