Chapter 3:
Tsubasa and the Last Tomato
By this time, I'm pretty sure you all know that I'm still pretty angry, and all I could still do was cry. I could see myself in the mirror; I was pitiful, really. And there was this pent up rage inside of me now. If I didn't get rid of this soon, something would explode inside of me.
I took out from my bookbag the pink tennis ball and slammed it into the floor. The purple smoke commenced, I became Cherry Supreme, and the staff fell from the ceiling. I caught it, and waited for all the visions of trouble around the city; there were only four, but it was good enough. Pent up anger could be released this way.
In a flash, I was out of the girl's bathroom and into the city, running rapidly with my staff in hand. The first crime scene was a simple purse snatcher, but I thoroughly made sure that creep wouldn't do it again; a third of my pent up rage was spent on that crime. The second crime scene was a bank heist, in which I sneaked through the window and then whacked the criminals with my staff, just like baseball. The audience seemed to be in a sweatdrop, but besides that, it was all good.
By then, most of my rage was pretty much wasted, so I began to walk to the third crime scene; a criminal was pointing a gun at a couple in the park; when I heard a voice coming from close by: "Sheesh, did you really have to hit them that hard?"
I jumped, raised my staff and looked around; there was no one nearby. I was all alone, so where did that voice come from? "Who are you? Where are you?"
"I'm your staff, stupid," the voice replied, and I quickly swiveled the staff closer to me, to take a closer look at it. "The name is Tsubasa. Pleasure to meet you."
"You can talk?!" I asked, confused. I twirled the staff around in y hands, looking at it curiously.
"Yes, I can talk," Tsubasa answered. "Not quite right if you keep on swiveling me around like that." I caught Tsubasa and kept a firm hold on him. "Looks like draining your energy this morning taught you a lesson, lassie."
"That was you?" I asked in disbelief, and annoyance. "Why did you do that? Why do I have to be this? Explain everything!"
"Once you become Cherry Supreme, you must finish your superhero duties to turn back," Tsubasa answered, though his voice was dull and bored as if he was tired of explaining this. "To turn back to normal, you have to be either out of energy, or I have to be drained of energy. That's the rules."
"Who makes these rules?" I asked, exasperated.
"The same person who turned me into a pink tennis ball and a battle staff!" Tsubasa answered, also annoyed. "Look, just do your job as Cherry Supreme so we can earn enough points to turn me back into a genie again."
"Points?" What was this, some kind of game?
"Every time you maintain peace in this city, I'm awarded points," Tsubasa replied, obviously bored with this. "There's a screen somewhere on the staff that'll tell you the number." I looked around the handle and there it was, a screen with the number 50 in it. "Please, just hurry this thing up and go save the couple in the park so we can get more points."
"Right," I said, rushing up ahead. "But why is it now that you can talk? Why couldn't you tell me this earlier, like when I found you by the stream?"
"After a certain number of points, we can get a bonus upgrade," Tsubasa said. "That was fifty with the heist; bonus upgrade, I can talk. Whoop-de-flippin'-do."
"Yeah, let's get this over with," I agreed, slowing my pace as I got closer to the scene of the crime. Nothing had changed; there was still a couple with a gun pointed at them, the guy demanding cash.
"Announce yourself," Tsubasa whispered suddenly.
"What?" I asked.
"Just burst in there and say, 'I'm the protector of peace and love, Cherry Supreme,' or some other crazy thing you see in shoujo anime." Tsubasa clarified.
I felt myself get a little red. "Why do I have to do that?" I asked.
"It gets more points!" Tsubasa screeched, a little too loud. The robber heard this, and pointed his gun at the bush we were hiding in.
"You, who are you?" he demanded. "Get out of there! Before I shoot, come on!"
I took a deep breath and jumped out of the bushes, my staff raised. "The protector of peace and love in Konoha, Cherry Supreme!" I answered, faking the confidence I knew I didn't have to say all that. It was just all too embarrassing, but I continued, even pointing Tsubasa at him. "You, sir, are disturbing the peace! Get out before I give you your just dessert."
"Nicely said, Sakura," Tsubasa taunted, and I turned a little pink on the inside. Stupid Tsubasa.
The robber didn't find anything cute in my little show, and instead shot a few bullets. I swiveled Tsubasa and deflected each bullet, running ahead to him. I kicked the gun out of his hand and then put him in one of those wrestling moves that doesn't let him move, or else I'd twist his arm off. Whatever that is. At the same time, five police officers came from all around, pointing guns at me. I was dead confused.
"It's alright, guys, she saved us!" the male of the couple announced, walking into the circle. Four of the police officers lowered their arms, and the last took the robber off my hands. I sighed; looks like I'd be held up here for a while before I finished that last crime.
"You, Miss Cherry Supreme, how could we ever thank you?" the male of the couple asked, taking me by the hand. "I'm the Chief of Police, Sawatari Koji. Pleasure to meet you." Strange, he didn't look the part. He looked a little too young to be the chief of anything; nowhere past his mid-twenties yet.
"Likewise," I said, unsure about this attention. Already, there was one taking pictures of me. "Look, Sawatari-dono, I'm just here to defeat crime, not for fame but to keep this safe for my family. I don't need any praise, just let me do my work."
"Of course, of course," Sawatari-san answered, maybe feeling a little high and mighty because I used the –dono suffix instead of –san. I sure know how to give people what they want, eh? "But, please, do remember to call the police right after so we can lock up the baddies, alright?"
"Understood," I said, and bowed my head before I ran off.
The last crime scene was pretty easy; a car going way too fast for his own good. I went the other way, to a part ahead of them where they were going to pass by anyway. And I just stood in the middle of the road, waiting for them to reach the road already. Of course, seeing a young beauty such as myself in the middle of a narrow road, they slowed down, but it wasn't enough. I actually had to step up and stop their car myself with my super strength. One of the greatest advantages of being a superhero. Makes you wonder if they actually wanted to run you over, huh?
After the car was at a complete stop, I walked over to the driver's window, already open, and said, "Excuse me sir, if you could please slow down, I'd appreciate it, mkay?" as cutely as possible. "You're sort of disturbing the peace with the roar of that engine. Please think about others before you do something so insensitive."
The driver was completely shocked, flabbergasted, confused. "Who-who are you?!"
I made a peace sign and said, once more, "The protector of peace and love in Konoha, the fabulous Cherry Supreme." A slight ego, I admit. "Please slow down for the rest of the ride, alright?"
The driver nodded vigorously, and drove off. My superhero duties were done.
"Sakura, I can keep your transformation for a few more minutes," Tsubasa talked again. "Hurry up and use those minutes to get back to school. Don't you have something important to do there?"
"The rite of passage for transfer students, right," I said, and began sprinting right away; I surely didn't want to become plain old Sakura again in the middle of a road I didn't know. "Ugh, I still need to be pelted by the ice king's tomato. Well, at least it's almost over."
"You're willing to stay at a school like that?" Tsubasa asked.
"Don't be so nosy, Tsubasa," I answered. "And yeah, I am. I've got a few friends at least. Everything else, I can just ignore it. Or pent up the rage for Cherry Supreme time."
"Amen to that." At that very moment, I became plain-old Sakura again, with my tainted blouse and untied tie, my denim skirt and pink hair, in front of the school.
"New girl."
The boy from the nurse's room was here, too, lying by a Cherry Blossom tree. I never actually got his name, so this was all I could call him by.
"Faint! Hey, Faint!"
Kiba and Hinata came running from the school towards me, Kiba waving his long paper and Hinata trying to catch up. "Good job, Faint! You found the Ice King, Uchiha Sasuke!"
Although I was more annoyed at being Faint, I couldn't help but brighten up at knowing my prince's name. He was the last person on the list to pelt me before I'm recognized as a student. What luck!
I bowed my head to Sasuke. "Please, just do it quickly." I wanted this over with.
"No."
I looked up. "What?"
Sasuke was looking at a shiny red tomato, observing it. "I said no. I'm not going to waste a tomato."
"That's a pretty nice thing of you to do, Sasuke, but I sort of need you to do this," I pleaded. "It's tradition; it has to be done."
"Some of this school's traditions should be changed, don't you think?" he said, suddenly. Then he stood up, and pushed the tomato into my hands. "Think about it." And he walked away.
I sure as heck was thinking about it; if a cute boy told you something, wouldn't you do it, or at least think about what he said? It was just like that tomato bit earlier; I understood nothing but I was pretty impressed at his smarts. No questioning it!
Suddenly, the tomato was taken away from me as Kiba examined it carefully, though disappointed because it was a very sound and clean tomato. I couldn't help but be worried again; would I ever actually be a student here? He took my hands and examined them, too; they had a bit of tomato juice on it.
"Congratulations, Sakura," Kiba announced. "You're officially a student at Leaf High." I hugged him after that.
