A/N: wow! I'm going to try to work on this fanfic and my other one (the princes and the pauper). But I've been so busy, so please hang tight!
I hope you'll like this fanfic, and please review!
DISCLAIMER: Darker than Black inspired me to do this fanfic, and the characters DO NOT belong to me. They belong to CLAMP.
The wind chime tinkled as the door opened and closed. A girl sat up straight in her chair and set down her novel.
The dainty little store sat in between a coffee shop and a grocery store, its flower selection ranged from Irises to Lily of the Valleys. You would always be able to see a crowd of average citizens in front, but once a day, there would always be at least one rich businessman in there. This may not seem unusual, but Tomoeda has 20 florist stores, and this one particular store has attracted so many accomplished men that the workers in the plaza were used to it.
"Uh… I'm sorry, but this store is closed." she greeted the mystery customer with a polite smile.
"I would like to order a batch of your freshest cherry blossoms please." The tall male walked up to the counter and handed her his credit card. Her face changed from confusion to understanding.
"How many would you like?"
"2 please."
"Please write down the receiver's name, occupation, and location." She slid a blank white card towards him. Brown eyes and black met, they understood the procedure. He pushed his rimless glasses up the bridge of his nose and wrote down the name and address. The customer slid it back to the employee. Her honeyed bangs covered her eyes as she glanced at the card.
"I suppose you're the one delivering the flower?"
She nodded.
"That will be $20,000." She handed him back his credit card. He thanked her and turned around. Half way across the room he turned around and stared at the entrance to the store's backroom.
"Do you have a question, sir?" the florist asked.
"Yes, where can you meet the Creator?" she shifted uncomfortably in her seat and her porcelain face became blank.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." The customer smiled slightly.
"I didn't expect you to answer me. Good day." The door closed, and the chime sang again. The female's face turned slightly to the side.
"How long have you been watching?"
A person stepped out of the shadows of the opened room in the back. She had a smile etched on her face. Violet hair framed her face, and her eyes were black.
"Oh Sakura-chan. You can be quite the actor. But how are you enjoying the Syndicate, my Newbie partner?" She twirled a wavy piece of her hair. Sakura turned around in her chair completely.
"Well hello to you too, Tomoyo, how are you?" Sakura muttered. Tomoyo smiled.
"Ah, you know… the same old missions. Kill blah, blah, blah, etc." she released her lock of hair. "Looks like we just got hired for the job. We're a 'Cherry blossom', or one of the top, new, assassins."
"This mission is going to be tough, though. We have to go kill a wasted pot head." Sakura said sarcastically. Tomoyo grinned.
"When do you plan on going?"
"12 a.m."
"Oooh, being dramatic are we?"
"Shut up."
Tomoyo's face became serious. "But there's one thing…" Sakura cocked an eyebrow. "You must… LET ME RECORD YOU IN YOUR CUTE MURDERING SUIT!" she magically whipped out a video camera from her pocket.
"…. And I'm guessing that this 'cute murdering suit' has already been made, and is in your other pocket?" Bingo. Tomoyo whipped out a pair of cargo pants, a thick strapped tank top, and a black hat. The female sighed wistfully with stars in her eyes. Sakura eyed the outfit warily.
"Is this the payback from using your powers last night?"
"This outfit has obviously been bought, not homemade. Don't you remember? My compensation is MAKING clothes, not buying them." Tomoyo laid the outfit on the counter, next to the cashier.
"So? What is the real reason you came up front? You could've given me this downstairs." Tomoyo held up a case with a pair of contacts inside.
"You're contacts should be changed every once in a while, so the color doesn't fade."
Sakura thanked the eccentric female. She took the contacts and headed into the bathroom. Once she entered, she took her contacts off. Vibrant green eyes stared back at her.
"You do realize that after this, your eyes will change color, and you will be defined as a murderer."
"Being a murderer is better then being a weakling, isn't it?"
It sighed. "Fine."
Sakura inserted the fresh contacts into her eyes and winced slightly as they stung. She walked out of the bathroom and back to Tomoyo.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
Tomoyo stared at the front door of the store. Sakura looked up at her with interest.
"What's up? Do you think that guy's hot or something?" she wiggled her eyebrows.
"No… Well that too, but… I wonder how he found out about the Creator…" Sakura shrugged.
"Don't ponder over it much. You'll begin to get wrinkles before you become 20."
The graceful teen looked over at her friend.
"Well, there's another reason why I came up here." Sakura sat back down on the white chair and crossed her arms over her chest. "There's a new person joining our team, and guess who has to tell her the "works" of the Syndicate?" Sakura scowled.
"When's she going to come?"
The chime sang softly as a female, the same age as Sakura and Tomoyo, entered. She wore a black jacket, with a hood covering her face.
"Well, what a coinky-dinky." Tomoyo grinned. The tall woman slid her hood down, revealing a pair of ruby eyes. "Looks like you're not the Newbie anymore, Sakura." Sakura glared at her grinning friend and gestured the mystery female towards her. She walked towards them, her Chinese-styled hair flowing behind her.
"Your name?"
"Li Meiling."
"Are you willing to tell me why you went to the Creator?"
Meiling looked straight into Sakura's eyes.
"The same reason why you went to It."
Tomoyo laughed comfortingly and held her hand out.
"I'm Daidouji Tomoyo, and she's Kinomoto Sakura. We're your teammates and we'll BOTH, yes, including you Sakura, be explaining how the Syndicate works. But first, wear these contacts." She handed Meiling a pair of hazel contacts, while Sakura made a face. "We don't want you to work here, freely revealing that you're a serial killer." Meiling nodded, the two buns at the top of her head jerking around. "The bathroom is out in the back, first door to your left." She went off without another word. Sakura sighed and tilted her chair back.
"Quiet one isn't she? Now our team of two has become a trio. What are we going to do about the money, Tomoyo? I asked the guy for $20k, not 30…" Tomoyo shrugged.
"We'll let her go with us to watch how we operate, but she won't do anything. So you don't have to pay her."
"Wonder what 'Gift' she has…" Sakura pondered out loud. She almost jumped when Meiling replied to her question.
"I can conjure up fire…" Tomoyo and Sakura whipped around towards the standing figure.
"Your compensation?"
"Compensation?" Meiling cocked her head to the side.
"When you use your Gift, you get the urge to do something. What is it?" Tomoyo asked calmly. Meiling started to grin sheepishly.
"My compensation is… cooking…" Sakura smirked and the violet haired woman snorted. "Well what are your Gifts?" Meiling indignantly said.
"Mine is making things go 'splodey." Tomoyo gestured with her hands, something blowing up. "For example, I can make your heart explode this very moment." She smirked. "My remuneration is sewing."
"And what's Kinomoto's?"
Sakura cringed. "Please, if we're going to be working together, at least call us by our first names, okay, Meiling?" Sakura got back into her chair and placed her hands behind her head. "You'll see my Gift when we go to our first mission." Sakura winked.
"Well, let's head downstairs, you'll be sleeping in our room." Tomoyo bounded down the stairs as the other two females walked down, normally.
"Is she always this hyper?" Meiling whispered to Sakura. She nodded, and Meiling's, now, hazel eyes clouded with fear.
"Wait 'till we go out on the mission. She's even more frightful."
---12 pm---
"Have you guys deactivated the cameras yet? My legs are dieing." Sakura crouched behind a shrub in the shadowy darkness. Moonlight poured on the backyard's grass, while the artificial light of a lamp shown through a window. A pair of emerald eyes peered through the shadows. "Explain to me again, Tomoyo, as to why I had to take off my colored contacts. It's not like I'm blind or anything (A/N: All three of these characters have perfect 20/20 vision, so the contacts don't have any "degrees" or whatever on them. The contacts are just for changing the eye color.) , But what if someone saw my eyes while I'm killing that target?" A female voice giggled in Sakura's earpiece.
"You're so naïve Sakura-chan!" Sakura's eyebrow twitched. "When the 'wasted pot-head' sees your differently colored eyes, fear and terror will strike within him and he won't be able to move! And plus, your eye color is so cute!" Sakura sighed.
"Anyway, I'm moving in. Is everything clear?"
"Clear, we've taken control of the cameras." Meiling signaled. Sakura pulled on a mask, so she doesn't breathe in any of the drugs, and dashed across the moonlit yard. She pulled on a pair of black gloves and kicked the door open. The interior of the house looked normal enough, but when she entered the kitchen, she pulled a face.
Dirty dished filled the sink to the top, and utensils for making "Mary Jane" were scattered all over the counters. Chairs were overturned, and the table at the very center had 3 bags full of a certain substance.
"Don't. Move." A skinny, pale arm circled around her neck, and a shaky, bony hand held a knife. "I will kill if you do anything." A raspy voice stated. A sneer formed on her face.
"You wish. Now, Meiling, watch carefully." She lashed out to grab the spidery hand, and twisted it behind his back. "Here's my Gift." The male underneath the assassin gasped.
"You're a Remunerator?" she smiled.
"Yup." Sakura took off her glove, flicked his head, and it disappeared. Blood came bursting out from his decapitated neck. From her earpiece, she heard Meiling inhale sharply.
"Alright, time to make those disappear too."
Sakura stood up and walked over to the table. There, she flicked the plastic bags, and the disappeared, along with its innards. She calmly pulled her gloves on and jogged out of the house. She ran down a block, towards a white van, got in, and it drove off. Leaving a bleeding corpse behind. Meiling turned around towards the grinning assassin. Sakura inserted her contacts back into her eyes, and turned towards the Chinese woman.
"So?"
"You make things disappear by flicking them? What's your compensation then?" Sakura grinned, and passed out. "Oh. It's sleeping…" Tomoyo giggled.
"I now have 100 recordings of Sakura killing somebody!" Meiling rounded on the crazy female.
"What?"
A/N: haha, this was a chapter that drove me NUTS. I kept thinking over and over, what Sakura's Gift would be? And then it hit me. Making things disappear. GENIUS. So please, review!!!