Rika Sasaki is Sakura's classmate and friend, known for being unusually mature and elegant for her age—though she's also pretty shy. She's genuinely talented in the kitchen and loves crafts. Throughout the series, the Clow Cards mess with her more than once. Early on, she buys a brooch that turns out to be The Sword card, which possesses her and makes her attack Sakura. Sakura manages to stop her by using The Illusion card to show Rika an image of her beloved, giving Sakura the opening to capture it. Later, Eriol nearly drowns her as part of a magical test designed to make Sakura convert a Clow Card into a Sakura Card.
The most notable thing about Rika's arc, though, is her romantic relationship with her teacher, Yoshiyuki Terada. In the manga, they're actually engaged to be married once she's old enough, and they go on private dates regularly. The anime tones this down considerably—the engagement gets cut, most of their alone time disappears—but they're still clearly affectionate toward each other. Rika hand-makes him a teddy bear that he names after her. In both versions, when Sakura uses the Illusion card against Rika, the image she conjures is of "Sensei," which explains why it stops her cold. During Yue's final judgment, where everyone loses their feelings for the person they love most, Rika is shown handing Terada a paper without her usual blush and shy demeanor.
The English Cardcaptors adaptation changed her name to Rita and scrapped the relationship entirely, reframing her as a struggling student who's embarrassed about staying after school for help rather than someone pining for her teacher.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
