NIGHT SEDUCTION

/...S2.KOIISHII.S2.../


Sakura held her arms firmly and protectively in front of her as a blur of a black figure accelerated towards her with hard fists. She instantaneously felt the stabbing contact, penetrating through her skin unto her bones. She smirked, shaking her hands from defence mode to an attacking stance, black flat shoes wide apart for balance and fingers carefully portraying the special style she used and mastered. In a flash, she charged like the wind towards her opponent, throwing a hard stone-like palm force to the chest, knocking him slightly off his feet, a crucial moment she didn't dare miss to cast an unexpected low kick aimed at the shin which she thought would work wonders to her advantage. Wiping her forehead with the back of her hand, she waited for her opponent's fall to the ground but instead felt two fingers squeezing the two pressure points on either side of her neck. She moaned loudly, realising her defeat.

"You can hardly call this fair," she protested madly, clawing her brother's fingers from her neck, "How can I possibly beat you when you know what I'd do before I even know them myself?"

Touya sighed, using his free hand to ruffle his younger sister's auburn hair, "There is no opportunity to question what is fair and what is not in the battle field, kaijuu."

Sakura slapped his hand away defensively and glared at her older brother, looking up unto his fierce dark eyes, "And it is not at all respectful to mock your opponents this way."

He grinned down at her, throwing an unanticipated low kick similar to the one she had used on him before hand but as he expected, she was quick to sense his attack and she jumped out of the way just on time. "But the thing is, you are my brat of a sister, I have every right to taunt you and call you whatever name I please--"

Her emerald eyes glimmered in irritation, the smirk returning on her face, "What can I possibly do but prove you wrong elder brother and I will do just that!"

Their training session resumed in a haze of fast movements that only a specific trained eye would be able to perceive. Aside from the sound of laboured breathing, screeches of attacks and the unusual air resistance caused by their swift movements particularly when dust would flutter seemingly all by itself, the wooden dojo remained mundanely stagnant. Only those with tainted eyes would have the capability to grasp the inhumane speed and stealth in which the siblings moved and practised. The term tainted was used to define those who belonged in the populace of the dark realm, particularly the vampiric empire. It refered to the distinct eyes vampires possessed which could easily be distinguished from all others by the lone signatory blood mark outside the iris that could be found in the left eye. Female vampires however could also be recognised in a different way, after successfully undergoing the mating ritual, they would have permanent imprinted blood tattoos on the back of their neck, on both the inside of their wrists and just beneath their navel. These tattoos were crimson-coloured, easily noticed and stood as label for the ownership of an alpha – these women were deemed as untouchable to other males. The breach of this law promised a dooming death, one that could not be possibly avoided nor stopped.

Sakura breathed in a mouthful doze of much needed air as she watched her brother's fading back as he left the dojo; it wasn't long until she was left all by herself tending to the fresh bruises she acquired from the training session she just had with her older sibling. Ignoring the aches all over her body, all she could do was beam brightly as she untied her black uniform from the waist, peeling the skin-tight sleeves from her arms and pulling it down to her hips, leaving a short black shirt on her well defined torso. It had been months since she last sparred with her brother as he was usually confined in the palace fulfilling his duties in serving the Dark prince as his Weaver. Since he started working there, Sakura barely saw him and during the precious times she did, they would engage in serious, physical combat for old time's sake with Sakura trying to desperately outdo her older brother in the means of proving herself worthy in his eyes. It was Touya who first introduced and taught her the art of fighting when she was 4, mimicking his techniques and gradually developing her own as years passed. Although it was enforced that the art of combat be learnt by every single member of the family, Sakura held every moment a dear experience in which she formed a close, strong bond with her brother – one that might usually involve the regular taunting and name-calling, her body covered in new blue, purple and red bruises every vicious encounter and the stinking feeling of failure for every defeat – all these did not matter. But now that she had grown into a beautiful and stunning young woman and he had left her to do her own training to work in the palace, she never admitted it to him but she gravely missed him. She cursed the prince for every damn second he had taken her brother away from her family and from her. She loathed him for many other reasons as well. Although there was really little she could do to change matters, her family – the Kinomoto kin – had swore allegiance to the royal family many centuries ago, an allegiance that had turned into a blood oath that could never be broken.

The Kinomoto lineage was known for their adept skill in secrecy, combat and honour. It was the only family that maintained a high-profile in the ninja-profession in the dark realm keeping true to the principles of nobility and pride, ranking second in the most respected and feared elites after the royal family. Strong, pure vampiric blood ran through both ancestries – such potent blood that sometimes caused a few to be born with special abilities.

It had been a week since Touya left for the palace. Sakura sat down in the middle of the dojo, pulling out the silk charcoal ribbon twirled in her hair and using her hands to fan herself. Finally breathing normally after yet one of her strenuous trainings, her pulse slowly settled to even, rhythmic beats as she laid down on the cold wooden floor and stretched herself like a star. The sweet smile adorning her lips never left her face as she reminisced of her childhood training sessions, giggling stupidly at the memory of how she would attempt to stomp and tantrum her way out of every single spar against her brother. Now, she looked forward to every opportunity but they didn't come as often as she liked. One of her goals in life was to undermine her brother's special ability to predict future events in order to finally defeat him. She struggled with this objective like many others, she couldn't figure out a way to overcome an opponent who knew what you were going to do before you even knew it yourself.


...FLASHBACK... (A/N: it's a long flashback and I didn't want you guys to have a hard time reading if i put it in italics.)

"Every warrior no matter how great he is, possess a weakness," Touya stated simply, lecturing a wide-eyed 5 year old Sakura, "Usually this weakness is right in front of your eyes but you fail to see it or refuse to acknowledge it. Sometimes we think far too deeply, drowning in meaningless and useless conclusions when the answer is right on the surface, vulnerable yet we are too busy swimming in possibilities."

Sakura nodded dumbly, unable to comprehend much of the latter but knowing full well that she would be able to run off to have snacks sooner when she agreed to most things, "Right, don't drown in useless conclusions and instead look in the surface."

Touya shook his head in disbelief, reaching down and ruffling Sakura's mop of auburn hair, "What did I tell you? You shouldn't nod and agree to anything if you don't understand what the other person is saying, squirt."

She nodded again, eager for some biscuits and milk, "Yes, elder brother."

"You are doing it again!"

Sakura stomped her small foot twice and looked up defensively at her brother, "I cannot help it if you are always right brother! How can I ever disagree to anything you say? You know far more than me do you not? Have seen more than me and done more, how can I possibly question your authority?!"

"If only you can fight as competent as you can fib-talk Sakura," he laughed, taking her by the sides and carrying her in his arms, "All I am saying is that keep things as simple as possible, if you desire something – take it, if you're hurting – fix it, there is only little places you will be able to go if all you do is hesitate. Do you understand?"

Sakura smiled and reached up to her brother's neck for a cuddle, "Hesitation is not an option! Right!"

He sighed, carrying her off to get something to eat, "At least you absorbed that much. I think it's time for your well deserved biscuits, is that what you want?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed and added in a serious tone, "Want something – take it!"

"Good."

The years following that became different, the day she turned six marked the beginning of Sakura's stricter and tougher training regimen. Touya changed into a heartless, severe instructor, caring less for any bruises or injuries – to her, she felt like he was preparing her for the battle of her life.

"Stop crying!" he yelled, his voice booming throughout the dojo, "Do you think your enemy will stop to take pity just because you have tears in your eyes?!"

"I wouldn't know!" Sakura screamed back, hurt and angry, "I'm friends with everyone in school, why would they hurt me?!"

Touya's eyes slightly softened as he approached his crying younger sister, "Listen to me Sakura… you are not like every other tainted immortal out there, you're not like your friends. You're special, how many times have I told you that?"

"Well brother, yes you have repeatedly said I am special but like many things that you tell me, I do not fully understand your meaning." She sobbed pitifully, "If this is what it means to be special, then I'd rather not be."

He knelt down to her eye-level, ruffling her hair, "I'm afraid you have no choice Sakura. You were born with no choice to decide what to become of your destiny because destiny has chosen you."

"You are talking nonsense again brother."

He took her left hand and faced her palm upwards, "Do you see this? This mark?"

Sakura lowered her eyes to see what her older brother was talking about only to find his finger pointing at her birth mark on her left wrist which she had for as long as she could remember, "What about this silly mark? I have asked mother about it and she said every one had one?"

"Yes, everyone does have their own special birth mark Sakura," he said, tracing a finger over the dragon-shaped mark, "But yours is different."

"It is?" she asked, her eyes widening in wonder, "How is it?"

"You know how I have to ability to foretell the future?"

"Yes!" Sakura said excitedly, "That is why no one will ever beat you in fighting isn't that right? You know how to beat them before they even attack!"

He chuckled, "That's right although father has beaten me once. But that is not the point, have you not wondered what your special ability is Sakura?"

"Not everyone is gifted with such abilities brother, father had told me once. The gift only comes to those of pure and strong blood like ours but still not everyone in the family was given one."

"That's right," Touya said, lifting her arm to her eyes, "But you WERE given a gift Sakura – the most rare and powerful of all gifts. But because it is the most special, it is the most tricky to master, you will have to give it everything you got in order to release and control it."

"Is it the ability to fly brother? To make things move with only my mind?" she asked animatedly, "What is it?"

He leant forward to kiss her forehead lightly, "It is the power of salvation Sakura. You will be the one to fight for me, for mother and father, for your friends, for your friends' family, for everyone."

"How can that possibly be true when I will never be able to defeat you brother? You are the strongest among everyone."

"Anything is possible when destiny intervenes, and I am never wrong in my predictions," he winked playfully at her, "So will you fight for me?"

Like a gullible, clueless 6 year old child, Sakura beamed and nodded energetically, "Yes! I will fight for you, for mother, for father and for my friends!"

"Now from now on just give it your all."

"Right!"

"Good."

She fought on with fire and determination in her eyes; she fought like any child would who feared to lose the people she loved most. Through the following years, she honed her skills in combat and in the art of using specialised shurikens. All of it in the desperate attempt to summon and awaken the unique power that was supposedly dwelling within her – the salvation of her people.

"Focus Sakura!" Touya snapped in frustration, "Push yourself harder!"

All she could hear was his constant yelling and roaring, she could not even think straight or think at all. She was sweating all over, bleeding in places, limping on her left foot and struggling to swallow as much air as she could through her system – she felt like a torn rag doll being ripped further apart. She wasn't like the other 7 year old tainted kids who ran around to play outside in their frilly, adorable clothes or those who sipped blood-wine comfortably and happily with their parents. She barely saw her own mother and father, the solid walls of the dojo became the foundation of her life, her brother became her only family and her weapons, her only friends. She became stronger and stronger, faster, independent, fierce…and feared. Her successes weren't her own but her people's, her brother's praises became food for her soul, nothing satisfied her but victory as this was what her brother only approved of. She channelled her whole childhood perfecting her techniques, sometimes pushing herself to the brink of death – no matter what she did, no matter how hard she kept on focusing and pushing to release her inner power, her special mark remained as indifferent and ordinary as it had been since birth. This constant failure introduced her to her own inner demons; the Sakura inside of her taunted, cursed and intimidated her far worse than Touya ever did.

Pushing her aching body from the floor, she spat the accumulating blood in the pits of her mouth and resumed a fighting stance, "Attack!" She signalled using the fingers in her free hand and watched as Touya charged with the same stealth and power, he never held back on her. The moment his fist came in contact with her defending palm, the exchange of fists and flying kicks began with Sakura on the verge of tears.

"It is non-existent Touya!" she screamed as she pulled away from his attacking radius, "Maybe this is it! This is the damn dark power, I'm probably already using it and it's useless!"

He stood with his arms crossed, his dark and irritated eyes looking down on her, "What you are doing right now is not helping. Get up and start again!"

"No!" she cried, feeling her barriers start to crumble, "I have never complained before but I am exhausted, I am drinking my own blood in my mouth and I have had about enough!"

"I have had enough of this, get up and start again!" he barked, walking up to her to drag her to her feet, "It's there, I know it and you just have to try harder, be better and push yourself more than you already have. It is only a matter of time until you release it. Get up!"

She fell to her knees and settled her entire body on the icy floor, sprawled out like the child that she was for once in her life. "No more!" She hoarsely whispered, hiding her face beneath her auburn tresses, "No… more."

She listened as his approaching footsteps started retreating and it wasn't long until his presence completely faded from the dojo. She could not hold back any longer as a sob escaped her lips and tears cascaded down her reddened cheeks, she knew that the suppressed tears she had been stopping to fall and show for years would come sooner or later – she just didn't think she would be foolish enough to show her one, predicted moment of weakness to the person she didn't want to show it to the most. She needed not to see the look in his face while he was walking away, it was already painted with in her line of vision and it grew clearer as she closed her eyes. She would never forget that feeling – the true feeling of utter loneliness and misery multiplied 100-fold as she did not even have Touya to drown it away with his scolding. It had always been his repetitive and deafening voice that numbed her inner-voices and demons, without his constant yelling, she was left to hear herself.

"Stop it!" she shrieked, her voice resonating throughout the wooden room, "I do not want to listen anymore!" Sakura struggled to push herself up and limped off to her room to clean herself - feeling the water caressing her body, she scrubbed the dirt and blood off her arms and legs. She scrubbed and scrubbed hoping to wash away every strip of shame within her, watching as her flesh reddened from the continuous scouring. She looked up, her face parallel to the ceiling, preventing any more tears from escaping her lids, "You've cried enough Sakura. Today will be the first and the last."

The next day came like every other day, it progressed on without the mention of the occurrence the day before. The 10 year old Sakura knew there was no need to apologise and that it was not expected from her either but that made her somewhat even more ashamed. But she had changed into a different girl and person then, a different fighter.

Both her hands crept to her sides as she smirked at the chilling but comforting feeling her metallic shurikens bestowed upon her. They became her extended foreign body parts – sharp, dangerous and deadly accurate. "I'm not going to go easy on you today brother," she smiled and resumed a fighting stance, "Are you ready?"

Touya smirked in return, "What is it that I always say Sakura? Give- it-your-all." Sakura threw the first 3 of her metal stars in the speed of light as he spoke tauntingly, they bulleted through space and neared their target in an instant. He unclasped the necklace around his neck which held a small dagger and used this to swiftly block the three shurikens which all rebounded and darted to the wall. He suddenly heard Sakura sniggering as she charged towards him, holding one of her shurikens in her long, perfect fingers, the blade within its edges gleaming in the light. She swiped past his neck and his cheek, missing by a few centimetres, "I think you have gotten rusty brother!"

"Rule number 2," he sniggered back, disappearing from sight and reappearing behind her, kicking her hard on her lower back, hurling her forward, "Never underestimate your opponent!"

Thinking that Sakura would require a span of a few seconds to collect herself like she usually did, he turned around with his smirk never leaving his lips. He did not have the time to properly react as one of her shurikens swept past his head, barely missing it, "Do not underestimate me then!"

He opened his hand to catch the strands of his dark brown hair which were unfortunate enough to have been in the way of Sakura's accelerating metal star, "Impressive but not good enough." He outstretched his arm to his side and let the dark strands flutter slowly to the floor, "But it is the first time you finally made contact."

"There is more of where that came from," she sneered, preparing for another attack, "Do not take me too lightly brother!"

Touya laughed in amusement, "Sakura, the moment you actually hit me properly, and I mean it to be a hard, well-aimed punch, that will be the moment that I will give you the benefit of fighting me while I am using my gift."

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise and bewilderment, "Do you mean to say that all this time…all this time you have not been using your ability at all?"

She watched as his smile widened even more, "You have not seen the true extent of my capabilities Sakura. You have still a long way to go."

Clenching her hands in fists, she glared up towards her gloating brother, "How foolish I have been!"

"Do you understand now Sakura?"

She looked up and slightly nodded her head, realising the truth of her brother's actions and words, "Why did you not tell me the extent of my weakness earlier brother? You made me tread around like a blinded fool—"

"You are strong now but you can be far stronger, there is no chance of you unleashing your gift as you are now. I have not been pushing you and training you all these years for you to get to this stage. You are expected to go much further than this, to test the borders of the after-life of immortality, you will not satisfactorily play your role in this state, do you understand?"

"Then I intend to reach further," Sakura declared, pulling back the sleeves over her left wrist to stare at her birth mark, "A lot further than this."

"Good."


She sat up from her lying position and sighed, heaving herself off the floor. Staring off blankly unto a distant wall, memories of her life abruptly materialised before her eyes in a reeling slide show that irritated her to no end. She should stop making a habit of upsetting herself, memories of the past only reminded her of her own weakness but it was the only way she could keep the memories of her brother fresh in her mind. She shook her head and glared unknowingly towards her birth mark, a spiralling dragon innocently enveloped around her tiny wrist.

"You are suppose to be more than what you are right now," she whispered to herself, lifting her wrist to her eyes, "But who are you now? And who are you suppose to be?"

After much contemplating, Sakura found herself exiting the gates of her own house, a black travel sack adorning her shoulder. Beyond the gate was a world totally unknown to her, she had never even once in her life thought of stepping out of the place that was supposedly her home. The idea of travelling subconsciously came to her like an innocuous fleeting thought among many others but it on the other hand, stayed wanderingly on her mind long enough for serious consideration. It left her fatigued due the lack of sleep and consequently no choice but to pursue this lingering curiosity of the world outside the sanctuary of her dojo. She was already of the right age to travel, armed and powerful and infinitely intrigued. She yearned to learn much about the civilisation that she was born to save and savagely trained to protect.

She barely left a message to one of the servants to inform her parents of her departure, she found neither reason nor obligation to personally bid farewell to them. She figured she would save them the awkward situation of being compelled to bless a daughter they never really knew. Touya was the only one she saw fit to be farewelled, but even he was beyond her reach now as he was in the palace.

She stepped away from the gate completely and started walking unto the unknown. Upon looking back just for the sake of etching the exterior appearance of her home which she never really ever had the opportunity to properly and completely gaze at from outside, she found it even more foreign to her with its looming black walls and stretching red old-fashioned roofs. It was a huge property, spreading far to both her left and right that she couldn't even distinguish where it ended. She suddenly wondered if she would ever find herself retuning to the particular place… it was far too soon to tell as she was just yet to begin another phase of her life. She turned back towards the road.

She felt like a child again, young and naive.

But she couldn't deny her bubbling excitement or suppress the flooding questions in her mind.

Pulling her knapsack comfortably on her shoulder, she moved step by step forward,

This time without turning back.


A/N: all comments, suggestions, flames blah blah are welcome.

s2.koiishii.s2