Here i am, Hypn0s is back, with another chapter of Rayearth knights, Sakura The Pillar, the last officual chapter before the epilogue, and this chapter is long, emphasis on long.
at the beggining i told you all that this chapter was going to be long, but honestly i never imagined it would be this long, really long, honestly i was thinking of breaking this long ass chapter into two smaller chapters, but then i realized, nah i can't do that, i wanted this chapter to be continous, so i decided to keep it as long as it is, but with a lot of breaks to aloow people to not get missing in the amount of letters in it.
i agree, this is not even long compared to former chapters made by other writters, but to me this is long, and honestly i feel that Galaxy at war will have chapters this long, if not longer in some cases, depending.
now i won't bother you with my rant, i give you chapter 6, enjoy.
CHAPTER 6: LITTLE TITANS
Five minutes before…
Akemi, from the 6th mechanized platoon, or what was left of it, kept her eyes trained around, walking at the side of the APC that was mowing the rocks away of the road, or what was left of the road.
Ever since the earthquake, and the subsequent eruption of every single volcano in existence, either active or dormant, things had gone to hell, in every sense of the word.
The country, not to say the world was a mess, the army was in disarray, and stretched thin, not minutes after the eruptions and earthquakes ended, every base for Tokyo to Hokkaido were attacked, of the twenty bases placed around the country, five had fallen, two were in no condition to be usable in less of scavenging, one was being used as a make-shift hospital, the one in Tokyo, the rest had held against the attack of this 'Pact' as they called each other.
The bastards were shooting freaking beams of energy out of their hands, doing crap that no human should be able to do, to make matters worse, they had their own version of cannon fodder, golems, rock golems, freaking rock golems that could eat trough two clips of assault rifles and a direct hit from a grenade launcher, and still be standing after such barrage.
Now most soldiers were either armed with light machine guns, meaning more bullets and bigger caliber, or armor piercing rounds, those were really expensive, and really scarce, so they had to make every round count, basically they blew a golem's knees, then take a freaking hammer, jump behind them and start bashing their heads in.
Of course she opted more for doing the first, followed by blowing their heads in with a bullet, it was expensive and overkill, but right now nothing short of C4 or a tank can't hope to stop a full regiment of those things, so taking one down fast before more can mob you over it's called on.
While towns were doing okay, or as okay they can do while most of them being reduced to rubble, most people were moving away, trying to find some shelter in the big cities, Tokyo was experiencing a big exodus, and most people there were putting hands together to fix the broken metropolis.
That also meant that the exodus itself was being targeted by The Pact and their golems, most caravans, as the groups of fifty or some people mobilizing around the country were called, were fair targets, some cases the caravans with superior numbers, and obscene use of Molotov cocktails, pickaxes for the golems, and axes and guns for The Pact members, made short work of the ambushes, if they were fast enough to react.
In other cases the caravans were wiped out, survivors of these attacks, which were scarce to begin with, told the soldiers passing by that The Pact was attacking the caravans, taking people in and basically killing those that seemed to not pass a 'test' one of the survivors had said before passing from blood lost and hypothermia.
This was disconcerting to say the least, so what remained of the military were patrolling roads, or what was left of them and that could be used by the caravans to move about with safety, which meant they were hot points to The Pact or bandits, mostly The Pact, whatever bandit groups were around, didn't numbered beyond single digit numbers, and armed with bats or knifes, simply said, they rather say away of the caravans, or stick with one and make it to Tokyo for relative safety, than to risk it with The Pact roaming around and hunger slowly settling in.
Things were getting grim around for those in destroyed towns, without roads, trucks were unable to deliver goods to the stores around towns, electricity had failed in almost 70% of the country, and what remained had to be diverted to Tokyo and whatever hospital and clinic that remained standing in the country, and which servers were still connected to the net in Tokyo.
In short, while some towns would get their clinics working, food would get a trouble soon enough, several fabrics didn't had shortage of supplies, food and junk food alike, but soon enough they will, as starvation and desperate people armed with everything that can crack a skull don't mix at all.
While Tokyo was being guarded almost 24/7 by the military, there was an ever present fear that The Pact would attack at any moment.
It was predicted that in a month flat, Tokyo would be filled with pretty much every single survivor of the country, those that could make it of course, those who didn't would either had to rough it up and survive out of the wilderness, and try to make it to Tokyo, in harsher conditions, of keep themselves on whatever place they might be, and try to survive long enough for the army to regain their strength and try to retake the country.
Then there was 'the rumor' as many soldiers began to call it, for a rumor that was only three days old, it had spread like wildfire all over the country, near to spread all over the world, it seemed The Pact was scared shitless of something, or someone, a person who they had, in repeated occasions tried to trap, defeat, convince to join them, all in failure, veteran members defeated soundly by this force that seemed to not know the meaning of the word 'uncle, uncle!'
The reason they were so numerous here was because it was rumored that this being was here, on the country, close, very pissed against The Pact, it was also a magical user, one that basically wanted to punt The Pact into orbit, in every sense of the word.
No one knew how this being looked, hell most people assumed it was a story The Pact spread all over their ranks and allowed to be filtered outside Pact forces just to give false hopes to their enemies, as there was no clear definition of what this being was.
The only thing know was its name and sex, or better said title and sex.
Sakura the Pillar.
Whoever this 'Sakura' had done, had The Pact spooked, so spooked that their troops had standing orders to run as if the devil was right behind them and then tell the tale.
She knew Pact soldiers never retreated like scary cats, they fought like animals, retreated ordered, and if captured they remained silent, but mention, even whisper the name 'Sakura' and they break, their will to fight is simply gone, they run like hell and if captured, they break in tears.
Whoever this being was…if they wanted to finish The Pact, and find out why they were attacking in the midst of a global disaster, they had to find The Pillar, they had to find Sakura the Pillar and retake Tomoeda, right now the only city that was fully occupied by Pact forces, and devoid of military forces.
Whatever what was happening now had Tomoeda as an epicenter, Tomoeda was still not listed as a priority target, yet, but as soon as it gets on the list…
BOOM!
Akemi, and every corpsman in the convoy raised their weapons in panic, explosions usually prelude Pact attacks going nearby, but it was odd, the closest town was over a day of walk, they had reported that no caravans had passed by, the people of the town that they passed had told them that the only person who had passed before was a little girl that was dragging five men with ease, and by ease they meant like she was dragging pillows instead of five men that were ten times her weight and mass.
Of course that had set alarms on their heads, believing the girl might be Pact member, as they had seen teenagers actually on the ambushes and attacks, and even among the dead, no children had been spotted in the attacks, although some scouts near Tomoeda and Tokyo had reported that they had seen kids with Pact trench coats performing the same kind of attacks on training dummies, AKA whatever walls that remained standing, this was more visible on Tomoeda, as by some bizarre reason, streets suffered the worst of the earthquake, buildings seemed to shrug the apocalyptic earthquake like nothing, so the beam like attacks of kids and adults on The Pact seemed to simply bounce off, hell she betted a tank shell would do little against those walls now, if an earthquake and a volcano couldn't, and they are natural disasters, what chance a human hand had to cause damage like that?
BOOM!
Again the sound of explosions were heard, but this time louder, and more accurate, she, and by extension everyone else could hear the sound, not of explosions, or beams of energy being fired.
No, this was the sound of flesh meeting flesh at a spectacular speed and strength and trees…being uprooted by unholy strength of some sort.
"Oh man, game over man, game over!" Akemi actually rolled her eyes at the voice of the greenhorn, Akira, the kid was pretty much new, fresh out of boot camp, a week before the global disaster, with no grasp of combat or combat drills whatsoever, in short as green as the grass, still he is a crack shot, he could take off a walnut out of the head of a person at hundred miles, that with an average scope, with a sniper rifle he claimed he makes wonders.
On most occasions however he panics, sometimes it was fun seeing him crumble like a house of cards, others, like now, it's simply annoying.
SCHREEE!
"Oh crap!" now she found herself panicking as well, that sound, according to intelligence, was something new, rather new, the past twenty-four hours had seen the loss of three armored divisions, five had been attacked, of the remaining two, survivors had described that their attacker, yes attacker as in singular, was a black, skinny thing that wasn't taller than a teenager, purely black, no facial expression aside a mouth without lips that sometimes parted to expose rotten teeth, no eyes or ears, no hair, no visible sex, lanky, it was in the physical sense, weak, as a single shot to the torso will open a hole of the size of an adult's head with ease, the head was another matter, the thing could take a shotgun blast point-blank and barely feel it, the problem was of course their tentacles.
Four to eight prehensile tentacles that ended in rows of sharp teeth, no thicker than child's arm, but apparently strong enough to break a tank in two, and mince a man with a blow, not only that, they were hardy and fast, capable of moving at an unholy speed and actually acting a shields against bullets, at one point even taking a blow of a missile, bigger rounds tended to leave visible dents and damage on the tentacles, and usually it required more fast-fire weapons to take down these creatures the soldiers had nicknamed 'shirkers' due to their tendency to shriek whenever they attacked.
Their speed was something to behold as well, the reason three of the five armored divisions were taken down was because of their speed, they had slip inside the perimeter of the division and basically had tore them apart with those tentacles, the fourth and fifth attacks had failed because either a soldier had seen the attacker and in a fit of panic had fired, this set the others to fire with everything they had at the thing, which was not invulnerable to bombs, and in the last stance, the shirker had tried to attack a tank, suffice to say that the soldiers stalled the thing more than enough to a tank shell find home on the shirker.
Now here was what's going on, apparently there was something on the woods fighting a shirker of all things, either it had a lot of explosives, or was damn lucky to have survived a fight with that thing for the last minu…
BOOM!
CRACK!
Akemi and by default the division raised the rifles when something came crashing onto the road, cracking the pavement and tearing huge rock slabs away, not to mention the odd abandoned bike that went flying like a toy.
As the smoke settled, her worse fear was confirmed when the shape of a shirker, one with eight tentacles, so far the most dangerous seen, was visible to them…slowly standing up of the crater it had made during its crash by whatever it had been fighting, which apparently must be a Mech with cannons for arms.
What a surprise they got when instead of a massive soldier with a rocket launcher slung on his back, pretty much the epitome of manhood, appearing in front of them, a little girl with a school fuku jumped to the side of the crater, gripping a yellow bo staff, that was greatly decorated.
The shirker finally stood up, shirked as usually before attacking, and did as so, it was quite a surprise when the little girl brought her bo staff down the beast, the tentacles, as usual did their job, blocking the attack…
BOOM!
Of course it seemed the blow had some mean punch behind it, as the shirker found out the bad way, as it met the crater once more, and made it wider.
"Mother of mercy" one of the soldiers whispered, his eyes wide and his rifle nearly falling off his hands, in three days they had seen enough laws of physics and enough of their realities shattered, and now, in front of them they were seeing another one shattered.
As shirkers are hard enough to stand after a rocket blast right up their faces, yet it seemed this one was having difficulty of standing against this little girl.
Granted this girl just pummeled the shirker to the ground with a blow.
That seemed to break whatever spell had fallen over the soldiers, as each one of them rose their weapons, the question was to who they should aim it.
The answer was very simple to Akira, despite being a greenhorn and scared shitless of the shirker, he was also a devoted brother, luckily his sister, just one year older than him was in Tokyo, and he confirmed she was safe.
Yet he is a man, and deep within his blood stirred the feeling of protecting, it was something that the ancestors of mankind had done, as, as sexist as it may sound, men in general were build to take and receive damage, unlike women, who in essence, tend to be petit to men in some areas.
So it was no surprise to anyone when he raised his rifle, aimed down the iron sights into the shirker's head, and pulled the trigger.
BANG!
The shirker blanched on the impact of the bullet, while the head was basically bullet-proof, they weren't immune to the kinetic force behind it, meaning the thing staggered one the bullet impacted, then turned to face the offender, the last mistake it made, as it dropped its guard.
Sakura suddenly blurred to the shirker, Nova on an arc to bat the thing away, distracted, the beast could do little but to watch a little too late how a mystical artifact fabricated out of a soul, shaped as a weapon, and wielded by a little girl who had the strength to flip ten tanks in succession, while stacked, rammed it on its torso, suffice to say it was messy.
BAMM!
"MOTHER OF MERCY!" one of the soldiers screamed, never in his life he, or other had seen something alike.
The sight of a dead shirker was something for sore eyes, the sight of a gibiffied shirker, reason of such state being a girl that it's now covered in black tar like blood because the thing exploded upon impact like a balloon, it's another thing entirely.
"Uh…" Sakura said, her eyes wide, still in the position she used to slam the shirker off, covered head to toe in the tar like black blood that was oozing of her hair, basically the only color on her, besides black, was the green of her eyes, which were wide, she did hit the shirker hard, really hard, pretty much ten times more the strength she used against anything she had ever faced before.
Stand to reason as of why her enemy suddenly imploded like a balloon…her first…kill.
Sakura felt numb, dropping her stance she began to take several steps back, horror slowly settling in, something the soldiers noted, even more when she let Nova slip of her trembling hands, and fall on her behind, slowly shacking, eyes wide and trembling.
She would have bolted out of the place in sheer fear, hadn't been for the fact that someone wrapped something around her.
Even in her shocked state she recognizes the thing wrapping around her as arms, human arms.
"There, there" she heard a woman voice whisper in her ear, Sakura began to shake more, signal of her sure outburst, "You did well, you saved us"
She didn't why, she didn't knew why she did it, if it was for the want of company, for the need of some human contact, because in her life there was not a predominant female presence in her life for several years, or maybe she was just that weak that all her defenses fell when she did THAT to the shirker, but she actually broke, there and there.
Akemi found herself surprised when she had been the first to actually walk towards the little juggernaut that had hit the shirker to a pulp, in a literal sense, even more when she held the little girl on her arms, and so said girl began to cry, covered in the black like blood these things were beginning to be know off, she didn't knew why, but she just held the girl on her arms, reassuring her that all was okay, despite the fact that it wasn't okay.
A little girl had killed, simple as that, despite the fact it had killed a creature that most assuredly had been the responsible of the massacre of the 1st mechanized platoon, and had avenged their deaths, she had killed, a little girl had killed.
As the sobs began to waver, she looked at the rest of the squad, they were, with her, seven, she and Akira, alongside the APC 'Betty' were the only ones that remained of the 6th mechanized, the rest fell on Hokkaido, and like the rest, just like the caravans, were remnants of other units, survivors like the civilians heading to Tokyo.
The captain of the ragtag group, an old soldier that knew nothing beyond military life, stared at her as she stood up, the little girl at her side, his eyes bore with hers, he had seen what the little girl had done, and how she had broke down.
"Akemi, bring her inside 'Betty' and treat any wounds she might have, Takashi, Nakamura, scout the area, 10 meters perimeter from each other, if it's Pact, kill it" the captain ordered, then turning to a giant of a man who had slung a flamethrower on his back, "Isamu, burn the body" he added as he walked to the APC, slamming his hands on the metallic front of the vehicle, "We leave in five!"
Sakura remained numb, the fact a woman she didn't knew was trying her damn best to clean the blood on her face, only succeeding in smearing the blood a little more, like some mock up of war paint.
The clothes were a total loss, as they were coated in the blood like substance, and just like normal blood, it was hell to take off, they would have to be replaced, if they made it to Hikado that is, considering the state of the roads, the rumors going off that the bridge had collapsed during the quake, it meant they would have to take the long road on this one, and would reach Tokyo in two weeks, three tops.
Sakura slowly began to recover herself, trying, in her mind, and failing somewhat, to justify what she did against the thing that attacked her, it was in this kind of situations that she wished Gaia was still around, but she couldn't, after all the guardian was out getting her some back-up, Rayearth quality back-up, so she was alone on this one.
"The first" Sakura heard, looking up she saw the woman who had helped her and carried her to the vehicle, looking at her with some sadness.
"The first kill, it is always the hardest" she began, the rag she had on her hands stained black with the blood of the creature she had killed.
"Mine…wasn't exactly on the field, heck we had never been deployed for combat until three days ago" she continued, "I was eighteen, fresh out of school, filled with hope, filled with dreams, the world was my oyster, and I was its pearl, or so I thought" she added, melancholy setting in.
"Suffice to say that I lost what made me…me, a night, alone, on a street, a glass shard coated in blood, and a guy with a knife, holding his gut…begging for his daughter to forgive him…for a world without wars, we are still too violent" the woman said, slightly smirking and ruffling Sakura's hair.
"Unlike me, you did something good; those shirkers tore three armored divisions, no survivors, they nearly off another two, but those got lucky and hit them first, the one you got must be the one that tore the 12th, I had friends there" the woman in uniform said, "I'm Akemi by the way, corporal Akemi, you're staring at one of the survivors of the 6th armored division and one of the few that actually made it of the base on Hokkaido, by the way I wouldn't go there, the base it's a lost"
Sakura regarded the newly named Akemi with some suspicious, but the shrugged it off, seeing she was army, like the rest of the people around, they were friendly, if you weren't a menace to the country safety.
"Sakura" she began, eyeing Akemi with some apprehension, "Sakura Kinomoto, from Tomoeda"
Akemi by her part bit the surprise that came with the name of the little girl, by some bizarre reason they stumbled on a girl named Sakura, a girl named Sakura that just killed a shirker with ease, and left a mess on the side of the road.
It was too much of a coincidence, one she didn't want to give much of a thought if it turned to be a dud, yet it would be such a fortunate dud if it turned this little girl was 'Sakura The Pillar'
"Corporal" both Akemi and Sakura turned to stare at the source of the voice, Sakura eyes widened when she laid eyes on a giant of a man, old and grisly, with eyes that spoke experience like no other.
"How's the little girl?" he asked.
"Sakura's fine captain" Akemi answered, letting the name out on purpose, the reaction of her commanding officer was, not to say hilarious, of course that lasted a second, before it settled on a more neutral look.
"I see, we will be leaving in five, Isamu it's burning the thing, we don't know if the blood it's toxic or the body might cause more problem what it's worth" the captain added.
Akemi nodded, slightly standing up, or as much she could inside an APC, "Are we still set to Hikado sir?" she asked.
"Yes, granted that we don't run into any snag and the bridge is still standing" the captain said, leaving the entrance of the APC, leaving Akemi and Sakura alone.
"…Hikado? I don't know any town named Hikado" Sakura muttered, Akemi simply laughed.
"Because it's not a town, it's a resort, Hikado's thermal baths, now repurposed as a base because by some unholy reason, the thermal baths there, unlike other places around the country, didn't turn into volcanoes and burned the place to the ground" Akemi stated, "The army it's using it as temporal base of operations, it's the closest building to the tunnel that leads to Tomoeda, and it's a direct chokepoint to anyone that tried to reach Tokyo from that tunnel and otherwise" Akemi said with a slight smirk.
"I haven't been there personally, but I heard some good stories, besides they had thermal baths, natural thermal…oh I can see myself already sinking on one of those pools, relaxing" Akemi said with a smile, one Sakura mimicked, honestly she had never been on a resort like the one Akemi was describing, mostly because they were expensive and there was no reason for her to go to one.
"Well…I nearly went to one when I was working with Big-T…I hope they are right" that thought did bring some gloom on her visage, she didn't knew how the others were, or how the other magicians that were rallied to stop The Pact and protect her were doing on Tomoeda.
As far as she knew, from what she got from Akemi, Tomoeda was no-man's land, the military weren't rolling in because it was either too dangerous or they didn't had enough firepower to attack the main foothold The Pact had on the country.
She soon felt the vehicle moving, not something she would miss considering that the vehicles was big, bulky and its engine roared like someone snoring while having bronchitis.
"I know 'Betty' it's not exactly a fast vehicle, or silent" Akemi began, seeing how Sakura slightly smiled at that remark, "But she's sturdy, one of those Pact guys, it launched a beam at 'Betty', she shrugged it off easy, and then returned the favor with its cannon"
Sakura didn't knew why the woman was talking about killing so openly and easily, she didn't like it, "I know you don't like it, the way I so casually I talk about death, like I said, you don't get used to this, if you do…you become less human, and more monster, more animal" Akemi continued, "So don't fall for that, try to keep yourself anchored to what makes you human, if you have someone you love, love him more, if you have family embrace them more, they are your anchors in these times" Akemi concluded.
Sakura took this in stride, and then looked at Akemi with a slight teasing smile, "So you have your own anchors waiting in Tokyo?" Akemi slightly blushed, then poked Sakura on her forehead.
"Not your problem little juggernaut" Akemi said with a smirk as she hosted her rifle and began to check on it.
Sakura did the only thing that she could do now, sitting on a APC that was moving slower that a walking dog, rightly after several hours of jumping around like crazy and fighting that…thing.
She closed her eyes and went to sleep.
Four hours later…
Her sleep had been uninterrupted, also without dreams, just a void without sounds and movement, just rest.
Then it all stopped when something shook the vehicle, and in the process it shook her, making her awake and jump in surprise.
The first sound that assaulted her was the sounds of bullets, actual bullets sounding around the vehicle, not far behind the sound of explosions and 'vhoom' like sounds, like the air being cut by something, alongside yelling, a lot of yelling.
"What's going on?" she muttered, summoning Nova instantly and heading outside…
Instantly to be tackled to the ground by Akemi, "THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" she screamed, holding Sakura to the ground, that prove to be an exercise on futility as Sakura simply stood up, still using the APC as some sort of shield, and Akemi hanging comically of her neck.
"Ugh…you're chocking me!" Sakura exclaimed, only to fall to the ground, alongside with a hanging Akemi as an explosion rocketed the APC and made her loose footing.
"What's going on!?" Sakura yelled sliding to the APC alongside with Akemi.
"WE got ambushed by Pact forces!" Akemi yelled, struggling with her Assault rifle, then tossing the empty mag of the rifle away, while setting a fresh one inside.
"And the others?" Sakura yelled.
"That's the thing, it seemed that we not only stumbled onto a Pact ambush, but a Pact forward camp, basically the guys are making a push to the camp, but well, as you can see, it seemed we got the short end of the stick, must have felt your…magic I guess, because next thing I know 'Betty' it's getting hammered!" Akemi said, slightly peeking to a corner, then ducking when a beam nearly shaved her face.
"So…they know I'm here" Sakura mussed as she gripped Nova a little too harder than usual.
"I don't know, but they seemed to ignore the guys and attack us…maybe they want to damage 'Betty' and strand us" Akemi muttered, noticing how Sakura stood up.
"No" Sakura said, slightly stomping the ground, to Akemi it might look a childish move, but not to Sakura, instantly she began to 'see' their attackers, over twelve of Pact enchanters, that was what her link to the ground allowed her to 'see', her magic senses allowed her to see how powerful they were and what they were using…she wasn't impressed in the least.
"They are here for me" Sakura hissed, flicking her left hand, Akemi idly noted that a card appeared on her gloved hand, then so said card became three with a flick of her fingers.
"The Fly, The Shield, The Sand!" that was all the warning Akemi got before dust was kicked to her face, and Sakura shot the sky in a bright light.
To Akemi, the closest one, it was as a right light came of Sakura herself, then shot to the sky, alongside every piece of dirt that could be lodged to her eyes.
To Pact soldiers it was another thing entirely, as they saw the glimpse of wings, a glimmer of a shield, and the ground suddenly getting sand out of freaking nowhere.
Then they could see clearly who it was hovering over them, wings extended of her back, and a golden staff on her hands.
Every Pact enchanter had been given pictures regarding Sakura, her last know clothes she was wearing, how she should look after how much time around, alongside with magical sensors in their enchanting materials, allowing them to feel the incredible power Sakura radiated, and as it was so unique, it couldn't be mistaken by someone else, also it was so massive that even amateur enchanters would feel it, then freeze in fear upon feeling such massive power, ready to crush them upon provocation.
Yet the description did little to make justice to what they were seeing, for there she was, the greatest enemy The Pact has ever fought, even more than Clow Reed, hovering on the air, pure white wings spawned from her back, lazily moving and keeping her afloat, contrasting against the tar like black dry substance mated on her clothes and skin, a gold like staff held on her hands and gripped tightly, indicating her anger, alongside her eyes, those green orbs that were slowly becoming yellow gold, it was a daunting sight, Sakura Kinomoto looked more like an avenging angel rather than a little girl with too much power.
That was proven to them once her wings twitched, and she charged at them, the Pact enchanters had little to no time to realize that Sakura was in the air, and she had strategic vantage point, the most coveted, air superiority.
Also they failed to realize that she had the ground superiority by simply being a Rayearth of earth, so it was no surprise (It was to Akemi and the dozen of Pact enchanters) when Sakura shot to the ground and slammed her feet in, caving the ground where she landed, immediately five pillars of pure rocks emerged out, hitting five unfortunate Pact enchanters in the jaw, instantly breaking their jaws, teeth and surely scrambling their brains into a coma.
As the first five fell, both Akemi and Sakura were in action, Akemi, upon seeing the fall of those Pact soldiers, and the fact Sakura ruptured the ground with her landing, pulled out of cover and took aim, it was so easy that it almost hurt to gun down two Pact soldiers with controlled bursts, she was used to using the 'three-shot' burst of her rifle, usually it meant that if she failed the first shot, odds where that she would fail the other two, same applied if she hit the target with the first round.
As the first two Pact soldiers fell with wounds on their stomachs, the last five shaped into a 'cohesive' combat form, they had already fired several blasts at a ducking Akemi who slid into cover once more into the APC, that distraction cost them dearly as Sakura was already on them, two of them turned to fire at her, only to see how sand seemed to emerge out of their clothes, grinding painfully on their skin, then forcing them to the ground face first.
The other three found themselves surprised to this to happen, then one of them actually began to float in the air, seeing at Sakura and how she had one hand extended, then forcing it to one side, seeing how their comrade flew away onto the APC and met it full face first.
The last two didn't fare any better when Sakura brought Nova hard on the first, in the arm, breaking it on impact, the guy screamed as he felt to the ground, clutching his broken arm, the second one fared little better when he actually tried to punch Sakura, only to meet Nova on the way, Sakura simply moved it to divert the blow, it was light on strength, light on her current terms was more than enough to rip the door of a convertible.
CRACK!
"AAAAHHHHH!" so it was no surprise to see him clutching his hand after meeting a force that was 'lightly' used to divert his fist, then stopped screaming when Sakura 'lightly' tapped his face with Nova…she broke his nose and his frontal teeth.
Akemi again poked her head of cover, seeing that the scuffle lasted less than a minute, a battle that to average soldiers would last ten minutes to half an hour, considering what kind of powers the Pact soldiers would have, yet that little girl had slaughtered them with the ease of peeling a candy wrap and eating so said candy, it was scary as hell.
No wonder The Pact was afraid of her; she was the game changer of this war, now they had something to hit them hard, with their own tactics.
An explosion in the distance caught her attention, and her eyes widened, it was right where the squad had went and the Pact camp was located…
"Akemi-San!" Sakura called, suddenly taking into the air.
Akemi there weighted her options, she could take 'Betty' and join Sakura into the camp, to try and help the squad, but that would leave ten Pact soldiers that were still armed, and their back unprotected, despite the fact Sakura had hurt them badly, Pact soldiers were stubborn, even if they had their bones broken, they would try to attack them from behind.
"Go Sakura-chan! I'll make sure they don't attack us from behind!" Akemi shouted at Sakura, the winged Rayearth seemed to hesitate for a second, then nodded and shot towards the explosion site.
For a second Akemi stared at the retreating form of Sakura, then focused on the fallen Pact soldiers, they were all unconscious, sans two, who were dead, and they were defenseless, but soon enough they would recover, and the cycle would start once more.
If Sakura realized what she would really do, she would go into shock, like she did with the shirker, so it was better she didn't.
With a sigh Akemi pulled her pistol out, then approached the first Pact soldier, she didn't care if they were family men, brothers or sons of someone, they were the enemy, they had killed and they would do so again if give the chance.
Approaching the first fallen, she rose her pistol at him, "No one's gonna miss you"
BANG!
And she began.
Sakura's flight had been silent and quick, running or jumping is a fast way to sort obstacles and travel, but flying will always will be faster than running, no sorting of obstacles, just a straight line towards her objective.
Which was rather obvious, the rising smoke gave a quite a signal that no one could miss, not only that, she could note in the distance some sort of pillar of some kind, it was made of crystals, like the ones she made during the planetarium raid, but in deep purple.
Soon the sound of gunfire drew her attention, unlike the sound of spells, gunfire was easier to identify, the beams of energy The Pact used where silent at a distance, close was another story altogether.
Hovering some distance from the battlefield under her, she began to scout the area, trying to find the soldiers that were with Akemi, soon going eye wide when she saw that they were pinned down, using trees and rocks as cover, they were pinned down, but they were cut down one from the other, basically they couldn't rush to another cover without becoming targets themselves and endangering the group.
She could also see Pact soldiers moving around, trying to find a gap, an opening to attack, but all they could do was fire; it was a stalemate, one she aimed to break.
Her wings flicked, and she shot forward, Nova gripped tightly on her hands, her aim..the purple crystal pillar.
At the speed she was going, anything that she met would remain standing, and she would be a red stain on the object, if she was a normal being heading at a solid object at terminal velocity, thing was she wasn't normal by any standard, her skin was thick enough to stop .50 caliber rounds and leave a red spot on her skin, explosions seemed to anger her rather than hurt her, not to mention that even advanced weaponry, as in futuristic weapons that shot needles at speeds unheard off and could outperform bullets seemed to do little than tick her off.
So it was no surprise to her (it was a surprise to the combatants) when a winged girl with a freaking gold staff, shooting down at terminal velocity, met the purple pillar.
BOOOM!
And so said pillar blew up with the strength of a tank shell meeting a gas tank.
Everyone stopped, and flew a little away as the explosive wave met them and lift them a little of the ground, rising dust and rocks.
As they recovered, some of the soldiers, especially Akira, who was the smallest and lightest of the group, could see that what had impacted the pillar, had actually made the Pact soldiers run, as in run like hell was opening, just for them.
Of course he was proven wrong when he noted they turned around and began to fire at whatever that was on the remains of the purple tower, meeting only dust.
The soldiers knew that the Pact soldiers were firing at Sakura, she was the only magical being that seemed to be on their side, on what they knew of course, also they were scared of her, which explains why they, while firing at the rising dust, weren't hitting the obvious human shape within the dust cloud.
Then the shape vanished, and the screaming started, almost instantly sounds of crunch, crack and the sporadic boom followed the screams of agony of the Pact soldiers, as their attacks became wilder and lesser as time passed, to the soldiers it passed a whole five minutes, then all went silent, eerie silent.
"…It seems we have a guardian angel watching us captain" Isamu, the giant of a man, holding the flamethrower, said as he eyed the grizzly veteran, by his part, the captain simply sighed, slightly accepting this fortune, who knew how long it would last them.
"Akira, go check on her" the captain ordered, much to the shock of the rookie of the team.
"I…what? She'll rip me in two!" Akira complained in fear.
"No she won't" Isamu stated with a raised eyebrow.
"She just fell out of the sky like an avenging angel, blew up that freaky pillar and proceed to beat the crap out of twenty elites with just a staff, not to mention she killed a shirker not shy hours ago, so excuse me if I'm a little afraid of her!" Akira snapped angrily, gripping his rifle a little too much.
"uh…Akira" Takashi called, slightly pointing at the front, and spotting Sakura, looking somewhat…miffed, and clearly hurt by Akira's words, with a huff she turned tail and went away towards the remains of the pillar she totaled.
"Nice going rookie" Takashi said as he slid out of cover and headed towards Sakura.
The girl by her part kept her pace, looking miffed and basically pushing everything that seemed to be bigger than her, mainly rocks, away with the ease of pushing a pillow away.
The soldiers of course gave her the space needed to vent off, not wanting to end off like the shirker, so the men decided to walk around, round up the remaining Pact soldiers that weren't either stamped on a wall or the floor.
Then she seemed to stop, the random tossing of crystal rocks was off, every soldier focused their sights, albeit a little slowly on Sakura, the little girl seemed to be focusing on something in front of her.
The soldiers immediately went towards her, they didn't consider the unconscious Pact soldiers as a menace, as most of them, at a first glance, had their arms broken, courtesy of Sakura, and severe concussions and bruising forming on their heads and faces, these elites, the best the Pact had to offer against normal militia and armored divisions, besides Golems and shirkers, these men were usually clad in black trench coats, instead of the blue ones, and had even stronger magical attacks.
This obviously came down once Sakura came on the field and basically scared their collective souls and beat their collective butts, it seemed that The Pact as a whole, at least the humans, feared Sakura as much as someone fears an earthquake.
So it was a surprise when the soldiers approached her, and found her staring at a single blue coat Pact soldier, perhaps the only conscious of the group, looking scared as hell, after all Sakura The Pillar was standing in front of him, armed and being backed up by armed soldiers, it was obvious the Pact guy was about to pass out in sheer fear, that or soil himself.
Akira immediately rose his rifle at the Pact guy, only to have his gun pulled down by Sakura of all people, "No…he didn't fought at all" Sakura stated, Akira wanted to raise his gun, shrug her off, but found out that her grip and strength was way out of proportion, she was way too strong for a girl that by any way be unable to keep a gun wielded by an adult, down, and keep it there, with no apparent effort.
"So…a Pact POW" the old captain mussed, staring at the Pact guy with narrowed eyes, there was no way to hide the hate the old captain had for the Pact soldier.
"I say waste him, we don't have space on 'Betty' for him" Takashi stated, ready to do the deed.
He would have, had not a wall of rock didn't suddenly burst in front of him, stopping any attempt for his part.
"Try it…I dare you" Sakura hissed, eyes slowly taking a yellow tint on the edges of her irises, Takashi, and by default half of the soldiers on her eye-range, took a step back, suddenly feeling dread and the urge not to anger Sakura.
Sakura by her part kept her grip on Akira's gun, nearly losing control and squeezing the gun, and taking Akira's only weapon, so far she had tolerated this madness, but she would not tolerate this blatant…murder, this was war true, but one thing is war, other is blatant homicide, both the old and new Sakura hated bullies, and so far the winner of a fight during this war instigated by The Pact was a bully in her books, enforcing their will and basically eradicating the other enemy apart.
"You will be fine, don't make sudden moves, they are the least of your concerns now" Sakura stated, letting Akira's gun out of her grip, and advancing at the Pact guy who was simply terrified out of his soul.
Then she kneeled in front of him, and stared right into his eyes, "What's your name?" she asked.
For a minute, or a second, the guy remained silent, eyes wide, and then he closed his eyes, and took a deep, breath, a deep, long breath.
"..James…James Talon" the man said, everyone could note the accent on his voice, and how afraid he was, not of the soldiers, but of her.
"Okay…Talon-San, my name is…
"Sakura...Sakura Kinomoto" James began, slightly wavering on some words, "Current wielder of the Clow Cards, heir of the legacy of Clow…the Rayearth of earth…the princess of Crystalia" James mussed, earning him a stern and silent look of Sakura.
"How do you know all that?" she asked sternly, making the poor Pact soldier gulp, something the other soldiers noted, they would have laughed, if it wasn't for the fact they were as intimidated by the girl as the guy she was interrogating.
"It…it wasn't that hard, the library is filled with arcane knowledge, old knowledge, the Rayearth knights are old, old enough to have ten books devoted to them and what they can do" James said, slowly moving to a kneeling position, his knees touching the ground and his heels touching his butt.
"Yet The Pact tried to attack me…again, in the planetarium, while I was with my classmates, during a DAMN global volcano eruption" Sakura hissed, it was obvious how mad she was for that, and James and the soldiers noted it.
"Oh…that was you they send the old guard for? And you made it out? Whoa, I mean…whoa, badass" James muttered, blinking rapidly.
"The…old guard?" Sakura and the captain asked at the same time.
"Yeah…the best, even more that the elites, these guys have years to train, known conflict like the back of their hands, and works on teams, trust me, you get the old guard behind you, you ARE an obstacle to The Pact, as in, a freaking wall on the road kind of obstacle" James stated.
"Okay…" Sakura muttered, slightly glancing at the crystal fragments around the camp, and then focusing on James again, "What were you guys doing with those pillars? Did you build them? What for?" Sakura asked James by his part actually blinked at that question.
"Build them? No way, those things…those things were here before the global event, buried" he began, "We tried to dig them out but…every time someone tried to, their magic…they nearly got sucked of their life if they even moved the dirt around the tips…then the event happened, and these things" James said, motioning to the remains of the pillar, "Popped out of the floor like daisies" he added, "Just like she said" he whispered.
"Who?" Sakura did heard that whisper, and asked the question that was nagging a lot of military generals, who was the leader of The Pact, as for this organized assault, there had to be a head orchestrating this mess.
"Uh…well…uh…of to hell with it" James said, slightly surprising Sakura, "Look, our leader…currently is not well liked among the ranks, at least us blue coats and dot enchanters okay?" he began, he looked exasperated, tired, and a little angry.
"Before her, we had a leader, someone…well, one that had a solid plan, it didn't include war and all that, it included patience, time, and a lot of political maneuvers that would culminate in having Pact members on every high political rank, presidents, ministers, name it we would be there…it was fool proof, long, but fool proof, no violence, no war, smooth, long trip" he said, then sighed, "Then he got killed by our current leader…and the crazy bitch eradicated his supporters, their families, anyone who opposed her, I tell you now…she is easily the strongest enchanter ever seen, right before you of course" James said, looking at Sakura straight in the eyes, "Crazy too…way crazy, this was all her plan, the cabal actually agreed with her, only not to get killed by her…you really don't know who you are messing with" he said with a small whisper.
"Have you seen her, the new leader?" Sakura wondered, and by extension so did the rest, this was by far the most effective interrogation, it also helped that the interrogator could actually make you vanish by willing the earth to swallow you.
There James shuddered, as in trembled in sheer fear, "God forbids no, only the cabal has seen her, if barely, and trust me, if a low rank like me is called to her chambers, you can be certain that five minutes later, the janitor will be called, with a mop" that was all James said, his complexion pale white.
It would have been an understatement to say that the soldiers and Sakura were surprised by the sheer fear the Pact know as James was showing by the sole mention of the leader of the Pact, he seemed more afraid of the woman than of Sakura herself.
"Okay…what about those pillars things, you didn't make them, then who did?" Takashi asked, it was something valid, but something a soldier shouldn't ask, they were paid to shoot and fight, not ask questions.
"I don't know…in fact no one knows, I think the leader knows, but she keeps that info too close to her, way too close for anyone would dare to ask" James began.
"Then" the captain asked, "What they do? What they are for?" he asked.
"Honestly, in my opinion, they are receptors, small antennas, placed to receive and send…something" James stated, "At least that's what I believe, they way they are located, in a circular pattern…around Tomoeda" that perked Sakura's interest.
"Around Tomoeda? You mean…" he nodded.
"If these are receptors, then in Tomoeda there is a bigger one, the transmitter" he said, "Of course there are those who don't believe me, and there is a good reason…about twenty-four hours ago we lost contact with three sites with these same pillars, teams dispatched two hours later…well, the pillars…they were hollow, like if they contained something…the teams there, the firsts, they got slaughtered, we thought it was you guys" James said, motioning to the soldiers behind Sakura, "But you…well you shoot…you don't dismember, you don't skin…you don't…desecrate bodies like the ones we found" he said, slightly blinking, then looking at the group straight in the eyes.
"I think…I think the event…awoke something…they think the same, that the pillars were prisons, and the magical backlash…awoke them…we unleashed something…too dangerous…oh god what have we done?" he said as he buried his face on his hands.
Sakura kept her look on James, ignoring the sound of an engine roaring, arriving and turning off, alongside footsteps.
"The shirkers" Sakura began, catching the attention of James, "The soldiers here claimed that three creatures attacked several armored convoys, two of those creatures were destroyed when they bit more than they could chew, I finished…the third one" James noted how Sakura faltered on that note.
"So you said three camps were all but leveled…stands to reason that the shirkers came of THOSE pillars you mentioned, the hollowed ones" she added, loud enough for everyone to hear her, and to say that they were outraged to think that The Pact, by accident had released the shirkers, and suffered losses, even more, had no control over them, unlike with the golems.
"Yeah…yes, yes!" he said, exclaiming the last part and standing up, "I see it now, it makes sense now!" he added, pacing around, not noting how the soldiers tensed up and went for their guns, "I was wrong, these pillars are not the receptors, they are transmitters, the reason the magic around them was sucked, the reason these…shirkers were sealed in three of them, why there is one on Tomoeda who hasn't reacted the same way" he said, looking at Sakura.
"These pillars are the transmitters, during the event a great deal of magical energy was forced outside, stands to reason that magic made it here, reason why this place looks so…untouched…they are gathering energy, ands when the time it's right, they will send it to Tomoeda's pillar…unleashing…something" he muttered.
"Sakura…Rayearth Sakura" he said, "I believe our leader knew of this…why she would set this plan in motion, knowing you would stop it? Simple, there is something inside that pillar that is strong, if not stronger than you now; it's gathering magic, energy, I think she knows how to unleash it, and when it has the energy…it will unleash it, on you, the only opponent she fears and knows that can stop her…no wonder she send the Dahāka after you" that caught Sakura's attention.
"Dahāka? What a Dahāka?" she asked.
"It's…a western entity, the complete translation of its name it's serpent king, quite powerful, bulky and buff in appearance, rather strong and fast for its size, but normally it wouldn't stand a chance against you, so she had him along with the cabal to be enhanced in any way possible, everything is tripled in power, speed, strength, everything" James said, slightly rubbing his nose bridge, "I don't know much about it, I wasn't on the team that upgraded it, I only know they released it near the woods that surround Tomoeda, expecting that you would go and fall during an ambush" James said, slightly trembling.
"I don't know you, but I would make it to Tomoeda, quickly, using the main roads, if what I heard on the grapevine was correct, the Dahāka was given strict instructions to stick on the forest and ambush you there, so the roads area safe bet, until you grow stronger" James said slowly kneeling and sitting on the ground, then sighing.
"Man, this has been some shitty days" he muttered.
"Tell me about it" Sakura said, looking at the man, he looked worn out, "What did you did here exactly? You don't look like a fighter" Sakura said.
"I could say the same of you girl, but we know better" the captain said, to that James snorted.
"Might not look like it he says…right now you're standing with one of the four strongest mortals in the universe, the Rayearth knights are given the powers of the elements themselves, their natural gifts enhanced to levels untold, this is no 'mere girl' with some magic in her, she is right now, a conduit of magic and the forces of the earth itself, if she wishes so she could stop an earthquake before it happens, form mountains with a stomp of her feet, or even sink cities with a wave of her hand, why you think we are afraid of her, her power is the limit mortals will reach, but it's a limit we will never reach with training, nor with sacrifices, it's a gift given, passed from knight to knight" James snapped hotly.
"Okay, we get that she is a pocket size juggernaut" Sakura pouted at Takashi's words, "But what can she really do with her…Rayearth powers, against you guys" he added.
"Try what she can't do, it would make a shorter list, I dare say it would included dismemberment, she is the kind of person who resolves on violence not as means for an end, but as a last resort, beyond that, the rayearths true capabilities are obscure, they appear in times of strife, around the cosmos, so there have never been two rayearths belonging to the same place, all I can say she is powerful, powerful enough to stop us…in a way I'm glad is her, and not you guys" James said, making the soldiers blink, and Sakura raise an eyebrow.
"Sakura" he began, "You might believe they are the good guys, you are wrong, this is war, in war there is no good side, only winners, and the winners get to write history, they deem who is good, and who is bad, in these three days, we have lost so many people, not because of civilians, but because of them" he added, motioning the soldiers.
"They might fancy as protectors, but the reality is another, they, like my fallen comrades, are soldiers, meat for the grinder, send to fight and die, I might not be a fighter, heck I'm more of a thinker myself, rather bash a problem with theories and conclusions rather than with my fists, and I admit this was my first taste of real combat, but I know this" he added.
"Whoever wins this war, it's going to carry an genocidal campaign against the other, make no mistake over that, hate runs deeper than any wound inflicted, families torn apart, cities leveled, lives lost…time has made us refine the art of total war, and this global scale war it's going to end in two ways, one, the leader succeeds in her plan, and every single non-magical human will die, or two, The Pact loses, and every single magical being will be hunted until no one remains" James, making Sakura frown.
"No" she shook her head, standing up, "There is a third…choice" she said, looking at the soldiers, then at James, "You just have to…"
BANG!
Sakura recoiled, slightly jumping away and looking around, none of the soldiers had jumped, or had their weapons held high, waiting for an attack, just one held it high, Akemi.
"When did she…" it was there when Sakura noted the smoking barrel of a pistol, and then a slight 'thud' behind her, she didn't need to turn to know what had happened to James, and who had done it.
She felt sick.
"Why?" Sakura asked, eyeing at Akemi with a shocked look, Akemi simply lowered her gun and gave Sakura pitying look.
"Orders, every Pact soldiers are to be eliminated on site, those with high ranks are to be detained, interrogated and…disposed" she said, Sakura kept a calm exterior, which freaked the soldiers.
That lasted for two seconds, then fifty trees around were uprooted by several pillars of pure earth, sending them flying away.
Sakura remained kneeling, slightly breathing; a card on her hand, Akemi slightly noted it was that card she used before, The Sand if she recalled correctly.
"The third alternative" Sakura began, "First I thought it would be better to talk this out, to show that each side could offer the other, after the culprit of this mess was stopped…" Akemi shook her head that would never happen.
"Now" Sakura hissed, "I'm leaning more on leveling both armies" that statement was punctuated when wings popped out of Sakura's back, and she flew away, leaving a stunned group of soldiers behind.
"Great" Akira muttered, "Nice to know that the most powerful mortal in the universe has a grudge on you, rather than me Akemi" the rookie said, it would have been a mocking gesture, if it wasn't for the grim look he held on his face.
Akemi simply shook her head, the girl would never understand, there was no third alternative, just two, like the guy said, one side will win, simple as that.
Night had fallen rather quickly, and so had rain, but Sakura didn't care, she was seated on a rock, arms huddled over her legs, her eye staring at the nothingness.
She was still trying to come up with terms of what had happened today, she knew she was young, she never asked to become a knight, or a card captor, all this was thruster into her hands, never asking her if it was fine for her, it wasn't fine for her.
Yet it had happened, here she was, the most powerful being in the planet, capable of leveling armies alone…
"And I failed to save a life" she muttered bitterly, what had happened hours ago, now she learned, was being repeated everywhere.
Her connection to the ground was not severed during the event, so she could feel everything now, and it hurt, a lot.
Everywhere there were battles, there was death, despair, anger, pain, there was so much misery that now she felt numb, not only be James words, but what it was happening everywhere, people were dying, and both Pact and military were responsible.
Vaguely she could feel a family of non-magicals, being…dragged by military men, then…Sakura closed her eyes, trying to shut down her connection to the ground and not feel the three shots fired…
She had all this power, and yet it wasn't enough, she had all this power, and she couldn't save anyone, nor her friends, nor James, neither that family.
"Gaia" Sakura whispered, staring at the rain falling sky, "Please…come back…I need you"
The rain intensified, and the noise muffled her crying.
Nine days later…
"What's the status of team delta?"
"Lost sir, yesterday, their helicopter got hit by a Pact beam" the Comm. operative said silently, working on his computer, staring at the screen solemnly.
With a sigh the command officer went his way out of the command center and onto the exterior, there he witnessed several men and women working overtime, some cleaning their guns, adding bullets to the magazines, or catching some winks, every single person in this place was tired, the fight was taking a toll on every person here, not only the soldiers here, not only the civilians, but the Pact as well.
One of the scouts had reported seeing several Pact soldiers, dead tired, lethargic, morose, hungry, like them.
This war taking too much of them, and both the emotional and physical toll on them was already showing, friendly fire, abuse of power to name a few, and it was sowing on both sides.
Then it was the news that 'the ragtags' as the armored unit that had arrived not shy a day ago, being composed of survivors of several units decimated by Pact forces during the Hokkaido raid a week ago, had reported that they had encountered not only the last shirker, but the Pact's bogeywoman, Sakura The Pillar.
The girl, apparently was everything the Pact feared and more, capable of obscene amounts of destruction, combat capable and had a plethora of tricks that turned her into a 'pocket size juggernaut' as one of the ragtags had nicknamed her, Sakura The Pillar was that game changer they needed.
That had been the good news, the bad news were of course that Sakura had been there when 'cleanout' order had been enforced, just right when she had 'interrogated' a Pact soldier who had been helpful, at least it seemed that way, as they had encountered some sort of crystal pillar that had emerged during the event, and according to that Pact guy, three of those pillars contained the shirkers, which had massacred the Pact soldiers on site, then moving to other targets.
That data alone was worrying, even more than several sections of The Pact were against this war, but could do nothing, because their deaths on the hands of their leader was going to be something akin to super bloody, little would remain of them, compared to their deaths in the field.
Not only that, Sakura The Pillar had pretty much snapped on the environment, uprooting several trees without even moving, then flying away, not before stating that 'leveling both armies' would be a more preferable alternative than to talk to them to stop this war.
Having a girl as strong as Sakura was worrisome, not to mention one as an enemy was frightening, no wonder The Pact feared her, according to the executed Pact soldier, she was basically the limit in power mortals would ever reach…a power given to them, not trained or earned, given.
The third alternative, as she had put it first, a peaceful way, was now not so peaceful, considering that both sides were committing atrocities to each other, and Sakura had been witness of both.
At least they knew where she wanted to be, Tomoeda, this base, Hikado thermal baths, was directly on the path she was going to take, let it be on air or ground, she had to take it, there they could intercept her, try to talk to her, try to reason with her, make her see reason, she couldn't wage war against two sides, she had to choose a side, she was with them, or against them.
"Sakura…"
Mud in the ground stirred.
"Sakura…"
Something made the ground tremble.
"Get up Sakura…"
"I'm so tired Gaia…so many people…dying…fighting…"
The ground continued to tremble.
"Please Sakura…you have to get up…are you giving up?"
"…why should I fight…everyone fights for such childish reasons…"
The ground trembled more.
"Please Sakura, I am sorry it took me this much to get here, I heard your pleas, but I couldn't make it faster…I resisted the urge to bring all the knights together just for you"
"I don't care, so much death, why people hate each other so much?"
"…it is the LOOK OUT!"
The sudden scream of Gaia was punctuated when Sakura opened her muddy eyes, and was promptly kicked away to the air, landing roughly against a tree, and breaking it on impact.
Coughing up in pain, Sakura brought a mudded hand to her mudded face, spending nine days on the rain, walking aimlessly, falling around on the mud and standing up, only to fall again and stay there, letting the mud surround you for several days, with no food or anything else would let her dirty.
In short she had lost her will to live, after what had happened; slipping into depression would be an understatement, and it was something that was about to happen, the events with James and Akemi had just pushed things further, and her connection to the ground and allowing her to 'see' all around her with this had simply pushed her bottom down.
She was so tired, exhausted, she wanted it to end…
"GET THE HELL AWAY OF HER'TTEBAYO!"
She closed her eyes, at the sound of a fight starting near her…
Then she opened them in panic once more…the sky replaced by…wood?
Standing up, she looked around, noticing that she was on a cabin, it was nighttime, and the only source of light, besides the gas lamp near her, was a small, portable stove…that had an oven filled with water, water that was slowly boiling.
"Hey, you're awake!" slightly wincing at the loud sound, Sakura looked around the cabin, encountering the source of the loud voice, and her eyes widened.
Approaching her was a boy of her age, perhaps one year older than her, clad in an orange jumpsuit, a neon orange jumpsuit to be exact, baggy, also heavy looking if she saw correctly, his feet were covered in blue sandals, exposing his rather sharp toenails, while on his right thigh, he had tied what seemed to be bandages, alongside a blue holster of some sort, while on his left thigh he had tied what seemed to be a holster holding…three scrolls of some sort, the orange jacket was itself baggy as the rest of his attire, not to mention that had a high collar covering his neck, in white, what caught her attention beyond that was his face.
His skin was tanned, it was the evidence of someone who had spend a lot of time on the outdoors, his hair was spiky blond, like a porcupine had taken residence on his head, and was yellow, all that hair was held by a blue bandanna that had a metal plate in the center, covering his forehead, his eyes were a rich blue sapphire, they shone almost with its own light, and on his cheeks he had three…whisker like marks.
"It can't be…the kid from my dreams…Naruto?"
"You were a mess out there, covered in mud, starved, covered in mud, being kicked by rock people! Man this place is crazy, by the way my name's Naruto, nice to meet you'ttebayo" the blond introduced himself, there she noted several things alongside, first, on both his hands he held two cups of instant ramen, with chopsticks ready to be used, and on his left hand…
"A Rayearth glove" she whispered, catching the attention of the blond, he simply grinded, grinded.
"Oh you noticed" he said, making his way towards her, "At first that guardian Gaia told me that you would recognize me at first glance, she was afraid you would freak out, surprise I GOT when it turned to be me the surprised, I mean she showed me an image of you, pristine, healthy, all the shebang" he said, basically plowing himself on the wood ground, and setting both cups of instant ramen in front of the portable oven, "Gaia was really sad when she saw the state you were, scared" his face changed in a fraction of a second, he was sad, obviously sad for the fact he found her in such state, and for Gaia.
"Man, I feel like dirt" she thought, brooding over the oven.
"Hey, don't feel bad" the blond said, "You were at the bottom yes, but guess what, when reaching the bottom, the only thing left is to stand up, dust yourself, climb up, and them push the asshole who pushed you down" he said with a grin, as it that single phrase was something that had drive him all his life.
"Yet again, I have seen his life, that might have been his motto all along" she though with some apprehension, of the three knights, Naruto's tale was the harshest of them all, yet he kept a cheerful aptitude against even the most grim odds, it was like nothing could keep him down.
"I know what you're thinking" the blond said, catching the attention of Sakura, "What? He can read minds too?"
"You're wondering what's this handsome devil is doing in the middle of nowhere, on a cabin, with a muddy girl like you"
"Guess not" Sakura sweat dropped.
"Well, I'm here to beat the emo-ness out of you!"
"To beat my what?"
On normal circumstances, on Sakura's world, no person would ever consider hitting a cute girl like Sakura, especially considering she looked like a miserable puppy right now, muddy and all, it would be criminal.
Obviously they never met Naruto and his patented 'therapy punch'
BAMM!
"ITAI!"
Which he just used.
Sakura was way too surprised, and also hurt by the punch, then she realized that the punch hurt, actually hurt, there was no augmented power behind it, just raw strength, or as much raw strength Naruto could muster, she knew that only she and the Rayearth of fire had augmented strength, while the Rayearth of water had mastery over magic spells, to compensate for his lack of strength, while the knight of wind, Naruto present, had a innate connection to the very energies of the creation, like her, and could access them like her.
"You haven't eaten anything for over a week, remained in a spot for a week, muddy and wet, your natural skin armor is so weakened that a fresh in academy student could draw blood for a punch, what were you thinking? Trying to kill yourself?" the blond snapped, pulling his fist back and crossing arms, a scowl now imprinted on his face, this was even more since he didn't even more from his sitting position.
"I…you wouldn't understand Naruto" she finally said, rubbing her nose, the punch hurt, but it hadn't broken her nose on impact.
"…I can smell the blood from miles around us" he said, his blue eyes hardened on that sole sentence, Sakura own green hardened as well, but more out of anger.
"And what do you want me to do!?" she screamed, standing up, tears slowly forming on the corner of her eyes, "You don't get it! I could feel it! Feel it! Every shot! Every death! Every battle! Every pointless battle!" she screamed as the cabin rattled with her anger, Naruto remained on his sitting position, unaffected by her rant.
"No matter what I do I only end up doing the same! Nothing! I can't help them! I can't help even myself!" she screamed to the ceiling, the trembling got worse, Naruto didn't move at all.
"And to top it off, The Pact, the stupid, morons! They killed a quarter of the world just to start a war they are not even sure they can win! Getting themselves killed! Killing people! Innocent people! Making the other soldiers kill other people! This war it's pointless!" Sakura all but roared, stomping her foot on the ground, cracking the wood upon impact.
"AND I CAN'T DO ANYTHING TO STOP IT!" the trembling stopped abruptly, but not her sobs, not those, Sakura simply collapsed on her knees, crying on her hands, sobbing.
She just cried, in front of a person she just met and only knew in dreams, she cried like a baby, cried because she felt…
"Useless" Naruto stated, catching the attention of the sobbing girl, "You feel useless…all this power, the power to level mountains with a sweep of your hand, destroy armies with a glare…and yet we can't save them all" he said, Sakura caught the 'we' part very well.
"…There was this mission, on the land of snow, it was complicated, and it involved a movie star" Naruto said, "Turned out she was a princess of that land, and this guy had killed her family, short story shorter, there were those who still supported her family…Samurai" he said, "Old people, some young, they were armed with swords, and me and my team where behind them, just catching up with them, trying to stop them, you see, the bad guy had tanks, tanks with Kunai launchers, each tank could shoot over a hundred Kunai, now a hundred tanks, lined up, against a hundred men only clad in ceramic armors and with swords…we were just there to saw the slaughter" he said, Sakura eyes widened, seeing how he slightly trembled, she could faintly hear the wind pick up outside.
"I was so angry, I lost it…I lost myself, I saw red, I let myself go, when I was done…there was no tanks…no survivors, the bad guy ran away of course, I got him eventually, cheap bastard was using a chakra armor to protect himself of any attack" there he chuckled darkly, "Didn't do much of a help when I showed a rasengan infused with wind and tore him up cell by cell" he snarled, and the wind outside picked up.
"So don't tell me I don't understand…because I do, I damn well do" Sakura kept looking at Naruto, just like he did to her, then she sighed, slightly whipping the tears of her face, absently noting that her hands were still dirty and full of mud, and so did her face.
"You…didn't…clean me?" Naruto actually changed looks, from stern to panic.
"Are you nuts!?" he exclaimed, "I have a fiancée, she finds out I touched another girl even a little, even to clean her face, she'll bust my heart out and use my spine as a cane for her old years!" he exclaimed hotly.
"Yeah…I would do the same if Li YOU HAVE A FIANCEE!?" Sakura screamed, eyes wide.
"Yeah, kinda common back home, I'm a ninja you know, fight young, die even younger" Naruto said, making Sakura groan, Gaia had to get her support of a world were life and death were as fleeting and fast as a blink of an eye.
The silence they had, thankfully was broken as the water on the pot began to heat up, "Oh, finally, I hate the minutes it takes to boil the water for the ramen" he said as he took the pot, opened the instant ramens and bean to pour the water inside them.
"Not as good as Ichiraku's, but then again they don't do ramen to go, here you go" he said as he handed Sakura her ramen and a pair of chopsticks.
Sakura, on normal circumstances would not touch ramen at all, but the smell of beef…and broth, and…
"Itadakimasu!" both cried, instantly diving for the ramen, finishing it in one minute…and letting twin burps.
"I knew it, no one can't resist the flavor of ramen, this is the food of gods, it will lift your spirit'ttebayo!" Naruto proclaimed, lifting his empty ramen cup to the air, like worshipping it, Sakura couldn't help but to giggle at that, her dreams had also allowed her to see that Naruto was a ramen addict; he had enough sodium in his blood thanks to that food that surely his blood was pure sodium.
"Ha, I made you laugh, I tell you, ramen it's the ultimate funk remover!" he proclaimed, making her giggle more, then he actually, somehow, pulled another pair of ramen cups, out of who knows where, and pours more water into them, "You need your strength back, that means eating a lot, then we can figure what to do from here" he said, digging on his ramen, this time on a more steady pace, steady meaning he ate this one in two minutes rather than one.
"Honestly, I don't know, it's a war out there, I know The Pact has a leader, and they are planning something on Tomoeda, my hometown, something that includes those strange crystal pillars, and a lot of magic gathering if James-san was correct, but also I have to stop the army from massacring every single magical human around, that includes my boyfriend, her mom, his sisters, my brother and apparently half of my school" she sighed at that, "Honestly, I don't know where to start" she confessed.
"Oh, that's easy" Naruto said, finishing his third ramen cup, "We go to Tomoeda, all while beating the crap out of army soldiers and those Pact guys to purple, then we go to your city, take the leader, beat her so bad that her great-grandchildren will feel it and break her little project into many little pieces, with her face!" he proclaimed, Sakura actually looked at Naruto oddly.
"That…it's a better plan that I have" she confessed, "Honestly, I don't have anything else but the possible location of The Pact leader, my hometown Tomoeda, apparently there is something there that caught their attention, they have the heaviest force there" she stated.
"That's good, that's good, there was this guy back in my village, Ibiki, expert in interrogation, scary dude, but could pry your secrets out, he told us that charging at an objective without intelligence is perhaps the worst mistake a ninja can make, also he told us that sometimes you have to trust your team, put your pride and life on the line and simply charge" Naruto said.
Sakura nodded at that logic, they were, perhaps, the only beings in the whole war, that knew what was truly going on, and they had to stop whatever plan The Pact had before more people died.
"Yes…can I count with you to help me with this, Naruto-Kun?" she asked, extending her hand to Naruto.
"But of course…uh, ah…what's your name, Gaia was kinda in a hurry and just tell me to 'beat some sense into you' before you turned emo, glad I did" Naruto said, making Sakura pout, then slightly smile, regardless of how they met, if it wasn't for him and Gaia, she would surely had died on that clearing, alone, muddy, feeling useless.
"Not at all…I am Sakura, Sakura Kinomoto, let's be friends from here on out" she said, grasping his hand and shaking it.
"Not only friends, the best!" he proclaimed, "So, how you plan to get to Tomoeda…I don't know where it is" he confessed, making her slightly smile.
Maybe her map, along with her food got left behind in 'Betty' during the mess with Akemi and the others, but that didn't meant she didn't knew where they were going, they had three days to get their bearings, get to Tomoeda, kick a lot of butt and stop a war from escalating beyond what it was now, before something worse might happen.
True, she had no idea where she was, but that didn't meant that she couldn't find her way around.
She just needed to find the biggest magical source, besides hers and Naruto's.
"So…when do we start Sakura-Chan?" Naruto asked with a grin.
"Now or never would be a good time as any"
"Oh yeaah, time to kick butt Dattebayo!"
Five minutes later…
"Okay, explain it to me again, what are you doing?" Naruto asked, looking at Sakura, who right now was seated on a lotus position.
"Li's mother taught me how to sense magic, no matter where I was, ever since the event my powers had got…more powerful I guess, I'm going to do that, focus around me and find the strongest magical firm on the country" Sakura stated.
"Can you do that? For real?" Naruto asked.
"Of course, before you arrived and I kinda got…depressed, I could feel the vibrations on the ground, I was feeling everything on the country, and then some more, if what James said was correct, alongside Gaia, we knights are conduits of the natural forces, stands to reason I could feel everyone that touched the ground" she explained, making Naruto eyes to widen.
"Of course, not only that, Anima told me that this generation of knights is the first selected with actual powers beyond the ones the knights have, me with my chakra and ninja abilities, you with your magic and…cards you say?" Sakura nodded with a smile.
"Of course, the knight of fire being a shinigami and the knight of water being a half-ghost, all that got augmented when we became knights, what we were supposed to be got unlocked…that talent, the level we would reach with our original powers, to meet the standards as a knight" Sakura said.
"I'm not happy to have things given to me on a silver platter, making things easy just stuns you, you know?" Naruto stated, making Sakura sigh.
"I know that Naruto-Kun, but right now we don't have much of an option, besides only the travel part will be easy, the hard part will be the fight" she answered.
"You say that because you're a wimp"
"I AM NOT A SHRIMP!"
"Uh, I said wimp, not shrimp, still fits you, shrimp"
"OH PUT A SOCK IN YOUR MOUTH!"
Naruto's laughter matched perfectly the pout that marked Sakura's mouth, both were so childish.
As the laughter died down, Sakura took a deep breath, and clasped her hands together.
"You realize the moment you do this 'scan' to a country scale, someone is going to realize it's you doing this, and they are going to look for you, heck I think the moment you do this, you will release so much energy you will become a beacon" Naruto's oddly serious tone of voice met her ears, and she knew he was right.
Her magic was so strong, that even a flare could set alarms to every single magical sensitive before the event, back in Tomoeda.
Now, with The Pact actively looking for her, with the army wary of her, and with some sort of creature released and augmented with the sole purpose of defeating her, doing this would give her position to all these elements.
"That's why you're here Naruto-Kun, they are expecting me, and they're not expecting Konoha's number one unpredictable ninja" she said with a grin, one Naruto mimicked.
"Do your thing, I'll do mine" he said, his grin turning feral.
With that declaration she closed her eyes, and began to focus, gathering all her magic to create the pulse, not only that, she began to gather the energy around her, it was something she learned to do not shy two weeks before the event, but never used it for it was both taxing and took time, it gave her power and endurance like she couldn't believe, but the time needed to do this was exaggerated, it let her vulnerable, but now there was someone who could back her up if something went wrong.
Time passed slowly to her, gathering all the energy she could until she could force it out in a pulse, for Naruto whoever, a minute passed, arms crossed and eyes focused, seeing how Sakura drew energy from her and around her to her, then he braced himself, her body tensed, her visible skin tensed, muscles and eyelids tensed, everything in her tensed.
Then he felt the rush, the grass around them flattened around them, leaves where blown away and the trees around them bended when an unnatural force simply pushed them away.
In the middle of it, right in the epicenter, Naruto stood his ground, arms crossed and senses open, other beings would have been blow away by the sudden pulse, but not him.
As this was not like the time Sakura used her magic and leaked it all over Tomoeda buildings, in an attempt to minimize the damage of the volcanoes, this was a forceful push of magic everywhere, not subtle like the one she did, while others felt it, they were more coved by the presence she showed during that, this was different, this was pure magic being pushed everywhere, just for the purpose of finding someone, something.
The energy pulse traveled all over the country, touching every single living being in it, animals included, it was interesting to see that animals had a distinct magical energy reading, so it was easy to ignore them, focusing on the humans, as her magic traveled around, one particular wave hit a large concentration of magical beings…
Sakura smiled, she had found Tomoeda, it was easy to discern from the camps The Pact had all over the country to this one, to start, this one had magical signatures she easily recognized, Li, his family, Kero and Yue, Asura, they were there, Tomoeda was there, she had found them.
Easily she found the strongest magical signature in the city, surrounded by other signatures she identified to those Pact soldiers that had attacked her before the event, her enemies.
Then she realized something else, the magic around Tomoeda, that almost permanent presence of magic around the city was being sucked, no, it wasn't only the city, it was all over the country…no, the world!
She could see the energy, rich star dust like flecks, dancing around her, then being forced towards Tomoeda, towards something the strongest magical presence in the city was guarding…underground…a…thing…
As soon as the pulse came, it was gone, and Sakura had her eyes open wide.
"I know what they are doing now" she said, Naruto gave her a grin, and approached her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Ne, Sakura-Chan" he began, "Want to send The Pact a message?"
"What the hell what's that?"
"Oh god it was a magic pulse!"
"A pulse that covered the country? Impossible!"
Laura stared at the bickering Pact soldiers and enchanters around, she had felt it, they had felt it, every person in Tomoeda had felt it, a presence so overwhelming, so powerful, washing all over them, checking on every single one of them.
Those familiar with the presence, knew who had done it, Laura, and by extension, every single kid in the planetarium two weeks ago, could easily recognize to who belonged that power, Sakura had just done that to look for them, and she had found them.
Of course every Pact soldier was on edge, this was power, true power, not even their new leader could command such a power…
Her eyes widen as her hearth is ripped open of her ribcage…
Laura gasps in shock and starts to tremble in sheer fear, her blood feels cold, and so her sweat, her skin is hot, but because of the sudden flush for the feeling of fear, and every hair in her body has stood up, a primal defense to former predators…
Her skin is shredded right before her eyes, her hands are just bones…
She gasps again, bringing her hands to her face, to her eyes, to see, to reassure herself that she still has flesh on her hands.
She sees a sea of red, bodies litter the sea, she realizes that the sea is blood, blood of every single body in the sea, and in the distance she can see two figures, one is a girl with green eyes, the other is a boy with blue eyes…eyes that turn yellow and green for the girl and boy…they talk, and their words are carried by the wind, alongside with the screams of many, screams of rage, screams of vengeance.
"Blood for blood"
Laura gasps, and looks around, realizing she isn't the only one on her knees, every person is on their knees, vomiting or heaving, but one thing in particular was mimicked in their faces.
Fear, no bounds fear, the fear of knowing something was out there, someone was out there, was more powerful than you, had a bone to pick with you, and no matter what you do, who powerful you become, there was nothing you could do to fight it, it was inevitable.
Now she knew why the leader feared the knights, she didn't get the depth of their danger in the planetarium, now she did, the knights were forces of nature, they were unstoppable, alone or together, and now The Pact had the undivided attention…of two of them, hell was about to break loose.
Three days later…
12 hours before the calling…
"Ne, Sakura-Chan, found the base"
"It's a thermal bath inn turned base Naruto-Kun"
"I know, it's just too convenient that they placed their base here, so close to your city"
"Naruto-Kun" Sakura sighed, "Tomoeda is one of the closest cities to Tokyo, the capital of the country, you can actually see Tokyo tower from Tomoeda, quite clear, either at day or night, so stands to reason that a base would be placed here, to make sure The Pact in Tomoeda don't attack the capital" there Naruto seemed to nod in understanding.
"I see, keep harassing them, focus here so they don't see the capital, the right hand doesn't know what the left does" Naruto summarized, Sakura seemed to nod at that logic, but had a frown on her face at the way Naruto mentioned it.
"Oh don't look me that way, it's a standard ninja misinformation technique, one that I barely passed back in the academy, I've never been one for subtleties" he confessed with a grin.
"Oh I know that, Gaia was more that specific that you rather bash a wall in that round it up" she said with a smile.
To that Naruto's only answer was a grin of his own, his eyes suddenly darting to the 'base' in front of them, there were advantages of hiding with a ninja, there was no exaggeration of them being masters of stealth, after all she was hiding with a ninja who had blonde hair and was dressed in a traffic cone orange jumpsuit, he was as bright and noticeable as he could get, especially with green and brown around them, even that no one had spotted them in their position, considering that they were overlooking a military base, filled with trained soldiers, and surely trained snipers, each one of them looking through their scopes for any sign of The Pact, she was clearly surprised that they hadn't spotted them in such an obvious place.
The base was, in Naruto's honest opinion, a piece of crap, he had told her, while it was obvious it was made for being a luxurious spa and hotel for visitors looking to be away of the busy city life of Tokyo and Tomoeda, and the stress of the life as a whole, this place retired location, nearly within the woods themselves was perfect for that retirement.
For a base however, it lacked fortification, it lacked space to store bigger, destructive things, like tanks (she clearly remembers seeing Naruto's mood darken at the word tank) and above all, it could be found in any map.
Not only that, since it was an inn, it's layout was pretty much easy to dissect, even to her, the command center, the nerve of the base would be, obviously located in the biggest room of the inn, where many people can work on conjunction, move freely, and also have a lot of equipment available to them, also it would be the room where the boss of the base would be, at least she hoped, take the nerve of the base, the base goes out like a light.
The thing was they weren't aiming for that, oh no, she knew that Tomoeda was close, and what was inside it, what they didn't knew however, was the state, she could feel the magic of her friends and enemies alike, allowing her to locate Tomoeda as a whole, but the overall situation was not known to her, she needed to know what was going on there before charging head on, it was a sentiment Naruto shared with her, better to take caution now, but they had to be cautiously fast, they were working now on a schedule.
"So, what can you see from here?" Sakura asked to her fellow knight.
"Ten guards on the road, eight more doing patrols around the place, twenty in the courtyard, surely working with the vehicles there, sixteen snipers, four to the second, third, fourth and fifth floors, looking at the four directions, two on the main entrance, and one on the kiosk" Naruto said, eyes focused on the inn.
"Hoe, all that at first glance, it's either the wind that allows him to feel them even when a breeze hits, or his ninja training included infiltration to bases" Sakura thought with a shocked look.
"Did they actually taught infiltrating bases back in your village?" she asked.
"Oh yeah, traps, ambushes, hit-and-run tactics, venoms, code messages, I was pretty good at all that" Naruto said with a smile.
"Then why you repeated the academy three times?" she asked with a shocked look.
"Because all that just summed the twenty percent of the total grade, the rest was divided into written exams, sparring and of course those stupid clones, I mean how couldn't they notice, knowing I contained a massive chakra battery, realize that I was putting all that energy into illusion clones, and didn't correct it…oh yeah, bigot bastards" Naruto muttered sourly.
Sakura simply shook her head at that, it was still dark, she wagered it was four in the morning, and the sun wouldn't rise for some time, this was perhaps, the perfect element for Naruto, despite the fact he is the most colorful ninja ever to grace the world, let alone the universe.
"So, how we proceed with this?" Sakura asked.
"Trying a frontal assault would be stupid, and as much as I want to try it, those snipers are a problem on their own, besides we are not here to tear the place apart, just to get intelligence on Tomoeda status and enemies within" Naruto summarized, "So we climb up, right now the snipers are more waiting the shift change than an infiltration, they are tired and sleepy, especially the one facing east, third floor, do you have a card that lets you jump three floors up?" he asked, she nodded at that.
"Good, I just saw you with that wings card"
"The Fly, Naruto-Kun" she answered.
"Yeah, that one, we are going to slip pass the entrance, go to the east section and jump straight to the third floor, on the blind spot of our tired sniper, we leave him there and move towards the command center, any idea where that might be?" Naruto asked.
"Must be the first floor, as it has the biggest room, the lounge room, the other rooms must be filled with soldiers sleeping or storage for weapons and gear" she answered honestly.
"Fair enough, and after we get the info?" Naruto asked.
"Simple…we tear our way out to Tomoeda, and waste any army dumb enough to get in our way" that made Naruto grin viciously.
"You know, the look you sport might get you some 'kawai' from some people" Naruto began, ignoring the protest of Sakura that she is 'cute' and all that, "But the way you act says otherwise…what The Pact guys did to piss you off that bad? Or the army in general" he asked.
Sakura simply sighed, staring at Naruto's eyes, "Where to start? The Pact orchestrated this whole war, it's global Naruto-Kun, I wasn't exaggerating when I say a quarter of the world died, they somehow managed to use a ritual that was tied to the fire element, every single person, let it be magical or no magical with ties to the fire died instantly, not to mention that triggered both active and inactive volcanoes that just set off simultaneously around the world, adding on the dead people" Naruto actually had a scowl painted on his face on that.
"As for the army, they seem to be on a death campaign against every magical person, tying them to The Pact by that alone, this has to stop, people don't know about anything, just that The Pact rolled once the volcanoes stopped, I'm not only going to gather info on Tomoeda, but on this operation, during the pulse and my…emo moment" Naruto slightly chuckled, "I was connected to the world, while I didn't expand my pulse to a global scale, I was able to feel the world during my…emo moment, while the war its global, the indiscriminate massacre it's not, I felt some Pact soldiers…actually helping wounded, defecting…army soldiers actually helping wounded Pact soldiers…Naruto-Kun, I have to stop this here, to show them all who is truly responsible of this mess, to bring her to justice, to bring the responsible of the massacre on both sides to justice, to pay, I want this, I need to do this, it has to be done, not for me, but for them, for every person that has died a needless death in this war" she exclaimed, making Naruto stare at her hard.
"Okay…change of plans Sakura-Chan, I'll make a distraction, a big one, I'll tear this place up from the outside, draw as many of those soldiers here, you slip inside, get the info and help me tear the place a little more, but be quick, I won't hold a lot on this, I WILL hurt them" Naruto said, glancing at Sakura, the girl by her part nodded at him.
"Okay…but don't…kill them, okay?" to that he grinded.
"Oh please, who you take me for, an amateur?" he asked, slightly brushing the crystal on his glove, there Sakura slightly closed her eyes at the flash of light and wind, and when it died out, in his right hand he held the biggest, meanest, most intimidating sword ever to be made or seen, the fact a boy of her stature was holding it with a hand made it even more…scary.
"This is my soul Sakura-Chan, made to endure, to be strong, to kill only the assholes and the trash that abandon their comrades, I won't kill Sakura-Chan, for that its part of my nindo, my ninja way, and I never go back on my word, see you in five minutes!" with that he jumped away at an incredible speed, basically blurring out of sight, it was only the fact Sakura could feel the vibrations of the ground that allowed her to 'see' him, he was fast, almost to a ridiculous level.
With a sigh he summoned two of her favorite cards for the past days, and activated them at the same time.
"The Dash, The Jump!"
Being the guard on a cheaply made booth was something of a death sentence, there was little cover, the walls of the booth wouldn't stop the beams, let alone bullets, and he was exposed form all sides, honestly he believed he was here because he pissed the commander on some way, how he didn't know.
Especially at this hour, he had a full turn, he didn't had shifts, only two hours of rest and maybe he could sleep at least one hour before forcing himself to wake up and work on coffee alone, so it was obvious what happened next.
In the darkness, with a nearly asleep guard, inside a comfortable booth, he just closed his eyes a second, of course that second was a minute, more than enough for Naruto to actually slip pass by, stare at the guy, steal his gun and a grenade, then tossed the gun aside, all while toying with the grenade.
"Okay, it looks like the same mechanism as the smoke grenades the ANBU uses" Naruto mussed, fussing over the circular metallic object, actually looping his finger on the pin, and slowly pulling it out, all while holding the safe hard.
Humming a slight tune, Naruto carelessly tossed the grenade to a side, so grenade rolled under a jeep, which was near some barrels, "I wonder if these ones toss smoke too"
BOOOOOM!
The orange ninja looked at one side, seeing how the jeep, and the barrels filled with gasoline, flew sky high, just right where he had tossed the grenade, and the sound of alarms and screaming of soldiers who got startled by the explosion.
"oh….whoops" Naruto muttered, reaching for the massive sword on his back, then launching it like a lance, so said sword simply speared three soldiers clean, embedding them on the nearby wall and making them scream in pain.
Naruto sighed, the screaming guys would surely make the other soldiers come at him, making the fight very short, he promised Sakura he wouldn't kill, of course that meant that while she took her time sorting info, he would go on a merry hunt and scare the soul of professional soldiers, after all he had done the same with ANBU, and those guys were hardcore, these sweet puffs wouldn't stand a chance against him.
That had been the original plan, now however it seemed he would have to fight head on, that meant less time to Sakura to do her magic, that also meant dodging bullets, he hates bullets.
And yes, there are guns back in his world; the thing is that ninjas move faster than a bullet.
Now dodging bullets fired by guns that apparently, were automatic and required to reload not after every shot, but after emptying the clip was going to be a pain in the ass, didn't meant that they had the advantage, he can slice their guns, make a telekinetic shield around him (he did it several times, while orchestrating a jail breakout and beating the crap out of a freaky winged emaciated demon) or the old fashioned 'move faster than a bullet' but he had to be faster than them, way faster than them, of that he was.
Walking to the pinned soldiers, he reached for his sword, Kaze No Yaiba, all while the first soldier glared at him, "Stupid…Pact brat" he hissed, there Naruto grinded, his smile showing all his teeth, all his very sharp teeth.
"Pact brat? I'm their enemy idiot" he said as he planted his foot on the soldier's groin, hard, and pulled, the poor soldier squealed like a squirrel as his jewels were crushed and the massive sword was removed of his chest, all while seeing the blond swing the blade with ease, and noting two things.
One, the lack of blood.
Two, his sudden exhaustion.
Also he noted that the kid's blue eyes had hardened, gone was the childish look, replaced by the look of a veteran soldier who had seen war after war without rest.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure your friends are as hurt as you, so you don't feel lonely in the infirmary" with that the kid actually turned and went to work.
Screams of pain, unholy pain began to escape the inn, alongside explosions, and thunders, you can't forget the thunders.
Sakura winced as she heard the sounds of screams of agony and pain, followed by the sounds of thunders crashing into the ground and…
BOOM!
Blowing things up, well she had to hand it to Naruto, distraction and misdirection was his art, and apparently so was indiscriminate destruction of property, beating the hell out of people…
"OH GOD LEGS AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BEND LIKE THAT!"
And putting the fear of God on people.
"I just set loose a force of chaos and destruction given flesh, and who used to contain a force of chaos and destruction on his stomach…on a bunch of soldiers with no experience against a force of chaos and destruction given flesh…I'm a horrible person" Sakura muttered, suddenly breaking on a sprint.
What stood on her way was totaled and toss aside, which was in fact the only soldier that remained on guard on the entrance to the inn/base, suffice to say that he went through three walls before a console stopped his travel, sadly the console didn't stood a chance, just like the guy.
Once inside she noted the incredible amount of cables connected to almost everything and attached to the walls and floor, following those cables, Sakura reached her destination, right where she expected it to be, in the inn's longue room, the biggest room around, besides the basement, the command center.
Empty as it was because of Naruto laying hell outside, this allowed her to see the state of the place, and it was a mess to be honest, coffee cups everywhere, remains of chip bags on the floor because the trash can was already full, chairs were strewn aside, surely because of the explosion Naruto provoked, alongside a long of notes tossed on the ground.
With a sigh, and ignoring the sounds of gunfire and desperate shouting that became painful screams, Sakura made her way around the consoles, scanning the computers many screens and commands, but none making some sense.
That was until she found it, the main console, and the screen, oh the computer profile was open, and everything in it was hers for the taking.
"Okay, now…for an USB, and USB…Kami my life for a freaking USB, CD, I settle for a diskette" Sakura muttered, looking around for anything where she could save the soon to be hers info.
Then she found it, still attached to one of the CPU's, a single black USB, with a yank she tore the device out and planted it in the CPU where she was, and she began to work.
"No much time, get the essentials and incriminatory, just that, just that" Sakura muttered as she navigated trough the files in the computer, only to stop when she found something of use, and saving it on the USB.
"Reports of attacks and friendly fire…videos of mislead assaults…audio of 'Order clean-up' here you go" she smiled, getting what she wanted, the evidence that incriminated her own people, the army of her country on attacks against civilians and unarmed Pact soldiers, even those who gave up and tossed their charms away, they only way they could fire their beam attacks.
"Oh you guys are in so much trouble" she muttered, and in one way they were, and so was she, because she knew the moment she goes public on this, she will have the army of her country against her, she didn't knew if the world would listen, buts he had to try, all those deaths couldn't go in vain.
"Sakura" so said girl actually stopped altogether, recognizing the voice as a whole, and biting the feeling of trampling the owner of that voice.
"Akemi" Sakura slightly hissed, still facing the computer screen, "So…you guys made it…after what, killing unarmed people?" Sakura shot back.
"Don't put words in my mouth Sakura, I had my orders, and here orders are sacred" Akemi replied from behind Sakura, the Rayearth of earth simply sneered at that, and act alone that showed to those who knew her that the personality merge was finally completed, for Sakura never sneered.
"Orders are meant to be disobeyed when they go against everything you stand for…or are you a cold killer, who guns unarmed people down, entire non-magical families whose only interest in this senseless war is to survive? Are you that kind of person Akemi?" Sakura wondered, "Because if you are, then you are not better than the shirker, than The Pact leader" that made Akemi slightly growl, but she held herself down, she had Sakura where she wanted it.
"Don't bother on stalling for time, by now your friend must be captured" Akemi reminded, making Sakura laugh at that remark, there she finally turned, a small smile on her lips.
"Are you sure of that?" Sakura asked, "Because your guys have only, what guns, grenades and a old APC that was battered in combat too many times to count" Sakura countered, reaching for the USB on the CPU, and pulling it out, then began to gaze at it.
"On your end you have a bunch of soldiers full of bloodlust and need of revenge, wanting to kill anything magical, no matter the age, they are many, but they are useless" Sakura said with a serious look on her face, "ON my end however I have a ninja, a real life ninja, assassins of the night, granted with powers equal to my own, capable of summoning the very elements themselves and clone himself as much as he wants, and used to be the container of a massive energy entity that could level half a continent with just a flick of its tail" Sakura said, making Akemi take a deep gulp.
"And you think they can take him down?" as to punctuate her question, a large explosion soon followed, rattling the remaining windows, making dust move and then the inn shook, like if something had crashed in it.
"He can't be stopped, simple as that, and you can't stop me, you won't stop me" Sakura clarified, taking her gaze of the USB and pocketing it, "All you guys have done is in this USB, all the atrocities committed by both sides, I'm going to bring both sides to justice, for all you have done these days, The Pact leader will pay for starting this war, and the man who issued the order to indiscriminately kill unarmed people, suspected of being magical will join her! And there is nothing you can do to stop me!" Sakura said fully turning around and facing Akemi, this one taking a deep sigh and pulling her handgun and aiming it at Sakura, making her narrow her eyes dangerously.
"I won't ask again…move away" Sakura stated, Akemi simply shook her head, neither noting that the explosions and screams outside had subsided.
"I won't, the order came from the top, the very top, are you asking me to betray the emperor himself?" that caught Sakura off-guard.
"He did what?" Sakura asked, her eyes focused on Akemi's own.
"The order gave every single person in the army executive orders, we are allowed to take any measures in containing the situation and eliminating The Pact and any associates, so in short the big guy gave the order, signed it up, heck he even televised it, or radioed it to anyone who was hearing, why you think the civilians in towns kept to themselves, rather than risk the roads and encountering us or The Pact? Because they will get in the crossfire, and if one of them dies in it, we can chalk them as associates of The Pact" Akemi replied.
Sakura simply trembled, her fists shaking, and the consoles around her simply flattening under an unknown pressure, "And you think I care how!" she screamed, the consoles flattening now where added to the walls, once they were ripped of the very ground and set sailing away by the unseen force, "You can be very sure of one thing, he is very lucky I'm on a timetable, or I would march to Tokyo myself and show him what happens when you give license to kill to a BUNCH OF IDIOTS!" Sakura all but snapped the inn simply shook with her violent outburst; Akemi kept her ground, but was afraid of Sakura now, really scared.
"You…that's treason!" Akemi snapped.
"It's not" before Akemi could comprehend what was happening, or to look at the source of the voice, a blade as large as her torso emerged of her chest, ripping her shirt and flak jacket, making her scream in pain as she was lifted by the owner of the blade, by instinct she began to pull the trigger of her gun, but her aim was so off that she end up shooting at the walls at her right side.
"Gomen Sakura-Chan, but all that 'orders before anyone else' was pissing me off, she is lucky I didn't punch her to the basement" Naruto exclaimed from behind Akemi, so said girl was gasping in pain, and trying to reach for the owner of the blade.
"No harm no foul Naruto-Kun, we were done talking anyway, toss her aside, I don't want to see her around" Naruto nodded, simply flicking his sword to one side, and tossing the pained Akemi to the very wall she was shooting in pain, it wasn't a strong toss, but it still hurt like hell.
"…you realize the moment you do this you're going to paint a nice bull's eye on your head, right?" Naruto asked, ignorant that Akemi was still conscious.
"I know, and I don't care, this has gone long enough, the army might see me as a traitor once I show this, and maybe I'll have people against me too, truth is I don't care, I just care in protecting my family and friends, the rest can go suck a lemon for all I care" Naruto smirked at that.
"Suck on a lemon? Oh Sakura-Chan, I have so much to teach you" and with that both knights jumped away of Akemi's sight, leaving a ruined base and carrying perhaps the most important info ever.
Info that, just like Naruto said, would paint a bull's eye on Sakura's head, but not for the reasons they believed.
Ten hours before the calling…
The 'Y' as it was know, was one of the many tunnels carved into mountains within the country itself, due to the fact that Japan had many mountain formations, or natural rock walls, this of course, in modern times, with cars, was an obstacle on its own, in a era where being on time and fast was paramount, carving tunnels to bypass the obvious obstacles was the thing to do.
The 'Y' was different from any other tunnel however, made during the beginning of the 'eternal peace' era, which was fifty years ago, this tunnel was the only thing that connected Tokyo and Tomoeda to each other directly, and while the travel was quite long, it bypassed the need to carve a path within the woods of Tomoeda, which are considered the oldest around the country, also this tunnel connected Tomoeda to the outside world, and vice versa, and was another access point to Tokyo city.
Nowadays the tunnel was a warzone, since both Tokyo and Tomoeda were so close, and both army forces and Pact forces were so close to one another, the tunnel acted as both communication point and a chokehold point, since the battles had receded in the past days, fights in the tunnel as well, giving both forces a breather from one another, not that they needed it, as their fight consisted of shooting like crazy and not using explosives inside, less they cause a cave-in and kill everyone in the tunnels.
"We just lost two hours in that freaking tunnel!"
"Naruto-Kun, they were firing at us!"
"I know, and they had those rock people, stupid rock people"
Sakura gave a long, suffering sigh, not bothering to look back at the destruction they had left behind, and the number of Pact soldiers she knew Naruto had crippled for life, maybe she is not a medic, but she sure as hell knows that backs are not meant to twist like that, and knees are meant to be whole, not shattered like glass.
The tunnel that connected to Tomoeda had been crawling with Pact soldiers that had been hearing the hell Naruto had unleashed against the army, suffice to say that when they saw her, they screamed, when they saw her and Naruto together, and put two plus two, they had two reactions, fight and scream.
Now the battle, if it could be called that, lasted them two hours for several reasons, among them was the amount of golems and entrenched Pact soldiers, suffice to say that The Shield was the way to go on this situation, but she had set The Shield to stop energy attacks, that left the golems open to attack, there Naruto and Kaze No Yaiba came into play, and she had to say that she was impressed, his combat style could be easily described as 'chaotic' and full of energy, she felt tired of just watching him, it was relentless, it gave no quarter, it was a style to those who simply aimed to win by maiming their opponent to a bloody pulp, or slicing them to fine slices, thankfully Naruto's sword, like him was attuned to 'maim' and 'cripple' not kill, and inflict pain, untold pain, and disrupt magic, as she learned, it seemed that everything he sliced with his sword simply lost its ability to make magic, either for eternity, of for some hours she didn't know, she didn't care,
Of course this set them on a slow pace, as they had golems to spare, and sometimes Naruto was too occupied to even make a clone, then again they were Rayearth knights, and they pulled out of that mess, with excessive use of force, well Naruto did, she was more subtle, like making walls suddenly sprout fists and beating anyone close enough, or sudden pillars that hit them in the soft spots, it was a good thing the Pact was mainly composed of men, and she was a girl who knew where to hit.
"Okay, we are near your city; this is your home turf, where to next?" Naruto asked, slightly dusting himself off, seeing the sun slowly rising above the hills and buildings, he would have marveled at them, but…okay he was marveling at them now.
"Sugoi, so pretty, this is your city?" he asked.
Sakura lightly giggled at the sparkly eyes of Naruto, "Yep, Tomoeda, its small compared to Tokyo or other neighbor cities, but its home…and we're taking it back" Naruto there smirked at her remark.
"Damn right Dattebayo! Now where to?"
"There" Sakura pointed, in the distance Naruto could note a building, the biggest he had ever seen, bigger than the Hokage Monument, and on top of it there lay several disks arrayed around a metal tower of some sort.
"That's Daidouji's communications Tower, it's a new venture of Tomoyo's mother, trying to branch out and hitting new things, they sell cell phones and computers like if they are bread" Sakura said, "Tomoyo told me that the building has one of the best, if not the best communication network in the country, if not in the continent, we must go there, from there I know what to do, I have to reach the top floor, Tomoyo's mother office, she has contacts with a lot of military guys from the other side of the continent and some nearby countries, generals and the likes looking for ways to facilitate communication, she has their numbers, I'm hoping one of them is willing to listen what I have to say" Sakura stated.
"That works, there's a problem on that plan" Naruto mentioned, closing his eyes, "From here to there I sense…over a hundred Pact forces, those guys are obviously better than the ones we fought in the tunnel, stronger too, and rested" Naruto added as he opened his eyes.
"Yeah, I feel them too, I also sense golems as well…five times the numbers the Pact has in men…why they are around the tower?" Sakura wondered.
Naruto wondered the same, "Can you check if there are people inside?" she nodded and did that, focusing on locating energy signatures within the building, then she felt it.
"Oh crap, I feel a lot of presences inside, mostly on the tenth and subsequent floors, all familiar too, Li, Tomoyo, Kero-Chan, my family is there" Sakura exclaimed.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Naruto would have jumped off, if it wasn't for Sakura's hand stopping him altogether.
"Hey, Sakura-Chan your family is in danger!"
"I know…but can't you feel it?" she questioned, Naruto simply furrowed his brow, but closed his eyes, letting the wind, just like the earth and ground did to Sakura, talk to him, and it did.
"The hell, it's near us"
"It's waiting for us…Dahāka" Sakura muttered, summoning Nova and turning around, then reaching for her pocket and pulling the USB and giving it to Naruto.
"Go to the tower Naruto-Kun; look for Tomoyo Daidouji and Syaoran Li, give them this and tell them what I told you about the plan, to contact someone from outside, willing to listen to me and see this evidence, and if possible send someone that can talk some sense into the government, or what's left of it, this has to stop now" she said squeezing Naruto's hand, not hard enough to break the USB.
"What about you?" Naruto asked, clearly worried about Sakura.
"The Dahāka is near, it's looking for me, just me, I fight it there is a chance The Pact will be drawn to me, and will try to capture me…I'll destroy that thing and act as weakened, letting them capture me, letting them take me to their leader" Sakura said, she noted how Naruto was in deep thought, and alien vision she dared say.
What caught her off-guard was that Naruto bit his thumb, drawing blood, turned her around, and began to scribble something on the slope of her ruined school shirt, something complex by the feel of it.
"Naruto-Kun, what are you doing?" she wondered.
"I'm adding a safe place, when you need me, or when you're in the presence of that leader, focus your energy onto the spot I just marked with my blood, I just wrote a complex seal formula, it took me five months to learn how to without messing it up, and I can do it once or twice, but I can do it safely, focus your magic in it, my chakra in the formula will react to the energy, and when it does, I will be there" Naruto said, slapping Sakura on the back.
"Now you better win this fight'ttebayo, or I'll be pissed" Naruto proclaimed hotly, "Besides what I will tell your boyfriend if you lose?" there she smiled, no less than five or six hours together, and he was already babying her.
"Tell him that I love him, and that big brother Naruto will come charging with a big sword and tornadoes tearing the ground" she smiled at that remark, not believing what she just said, and Naruto did too.
"Okay, but I'm not gonna kiss him…Nee-chan" with that Naruto jumped away, along with its precious cargo, leaving Sakura alone, just like she wanted it.
She knew Naruto was strong, perhaps stronger than the creature, this Dahāka, and more experienced than her in combat, but this was something she had to do, this was her battle, her war, not Naruto's, he was here just to support her, to make things easier, nothing more, not to wage her war.
"You realize I brought him here to help you WAGE this war, and win it" Gaia reminded.
"How can I hope to face whatever it's on Crystalia and win, if I can't do the same here?" was Sakura's response, Nova gripped tightly, this was going to be a fight only using her Rayearth powers, she would not use the cards, she would have them used on another thing.
Sakura tensed as she felt the ground vibrate, it was just like James had told her, a creature that was strong, made stronger to face her, who would leave everything else alone just to face her, let loose to look for her, knowing that she would head to Tomoeda, to her home, a trap in any way you look at it, now she was standing in the edge of the trap, it would be the Dahāka to spring the trap, not her.
As the trembling continued, so did her anxiety, "So, this is what it feels…to know you are about to fight for your life…but you know little of your enemy…or it's…excitement? I am excited for a fight?"
"No, this not the desire to fight, but the desire to prove yourself, for the first time ever you are eager for a fight, because you know that here marks the beginning, you win here, and you will be certain to be able to take on anything life might throw at you"
With a grimace, but holding her ground, Sakura nodded, holding Nova on one hand, and deciding there that she would use the cards, realizing that Naruto had displayed a combination of his ninja skills and his Rayearth powers, like bringing down thunders down and summoning tornadoes.
The ground shook even more, making her tense, she could feel the presence, it was powerful, really powerful, but not as her, she was rested (somewhat) had eaten merrily (just ramen) and was aware of her opponent (she had no idea the size her opponent was)
The trembling increased, and so did the tempo, indicating that the Dahāka was actually running to her position, rushing to her, now she was able to pinpoint its location…
She did a pure brute strength fueled back flip, dodging a black blade that nearly hit her.
Doing several back flip jumps to make some distance, Sakura was able to discern her enemy, and her jab dropped.
The Dahāka…was small, really small.
Barely reaching her own height, in fact the Dahāka was a girl, a small girl, a small, bald girl, such bald head had a lot of rune marks, carved on her flesh, carved, glowing all kind of different colors, her eyes were black, pitch black, no pupils, no irises, just black, while her dress…there was no dress, she was naked…or as naked one can be without any defining sexual features, her skin seemed like rubber on look alone, almost tar colored, no toes, her hands were different at all, while her left hand, more specifically her fingers were in fact foot long claws that shone with the morning sun, her right arm was in fact a freaking cleaver like blade, her whole arm, it was freaky as hell.
Sakura flicked Nova around, after twirling it for a second; she brought it forward, pointing it at The Dahāka.
"Come on!" she didn't regret the choice of words, but was surprised how a little girl, that was as tall and surely as heavy as her, upon rushing at her, began to make the ground shake with each step.
Steeling her ground Sakura deflected the cleaver strike easily, deflecting it to the left, then bringing her free fist at the Dahāka's face, the strike was clear and met its mark, what surprised Sakura was that the Dahāka stood its ground.
"Wha" was all Sakura said before the claw of the Dahāka met her face, now she was the one flying towards a wall, meeting the wall with such force that it actually cracked, it was impressive since it was one of the many walls that was still reinforced with her magic.
Slowly shaking her head, and rubbing her right cheek, Sakura eyed the Dahāka, the creature stopped walking, rose her claw, and actually gave her a 'come and get me' motion…the thing was taunting her.
Steeling herself and standing up, she didn't went for the bait, instead she began to slowly advance, her mind already had three cards ready to use, letting the beast approach her…
Now!
"The Dash! The Jump! The Power!" with that cry all three cards activated, and she swung Nova at the Dahāka, the beast was unable to comprehend the power now behind the blow, it did a second later when it met it's left arm and send the creature flying like a ragdoll, head first into a wall, actually sticking the head onto the wall.
Looking at the Dahāka, Sakura eyes began to widen when she saw the thing actually push itself out of the hole, and once out, crack it's neck around, obviously glaring at her.
"This is not good, that last blow was at least twenty times stronger than the one I used against the shirker" Sakura thought while ducking and bringing the tip of Nova and slamming it in the chin of the Dahāka, sending it flying it once more, Sakura there followed the attack, jumping at the Dahāka and slamming Nova at the body of the black beast, sending it crashing down the pavement, leaving a nice crater on landing.
"And it still endured; James did said that they had enhanced the Dahāka for the sole purpose of fighting me" Sakura thought as she landed and slightly crouched, bringing Nova up front, she felt easily the shift on the ground, and how the Dahāka stood up with ease of the blow.
"It's insane, that thing it's soaking on my blows, it should have blown up, not stand up!"
"Peace Sakura, you must remain calm, yes this creature is resilient, but you are more, just keep attacking, its skin must crack, it WILL crack"
Sakura narrowed her eyes, it was something that Gaia had drilled to her in the early days of her powers surfacing, everything had a breaking point, just like she did days before Naruto's arrival, she had reached her breaking point, and the Dahāka's almost unbreakable skin would also give in.
She had just to put an extra effort in her attacks.
"Okay, overdrive time!" Sakura shouted, suddenly rushing at the Dahāka, the beast roared, advancing at Sakura with the same speed, but Sakura saw this miles away, the beast was obviously set to attack her with the same intensity she attacked, it was a gamble, she hoped it worked.
It was almost like seeing a race of chicken between two bulldozers using jet rockets, the only way they would dodge was if one of the bulldozers could actually jump.
Which was what Sakura did, vaulting over the Dahāka that stopped to stare at her and wait for her to land, not that Sakura would allow that.
"The Shot!" his most offensive card, after The Arrow and The Sword, The Shot, before would manifest in its original form, right above Sakura, before taking the form of a ball of energy, one that would start firing energy blasts that in power were comparable to a high caliber sniper rifle round being fired.
However now it took the form of energy in her right hand, instead of becoming a floating ball of energy, as for firepower…
"Smile"
BOOM!
Now it was packing the firepower of a tank shell being fired via magnetic cannon.
As the Dahāka flew away because of the impact, Sakura rose her right arm, aimed and let loose several blasts at the flying beasts, each blast making the area around shake with each successful impact, Sakura didn't even felt the shock blasts, but the windows and some walls did.
Letting the power of The Shot vanish, Sakura rushed at the fallen beast right after landing, the Dahāka was showing some problems on standing up, just like she wanted it, roaring a battle cry, Sakura slammed Nova on the stomach of the rising Dahāka, slightly rising it of the ground, then brought Nova down to the back of the Dahāka, slamming it on a deeper crater, then raising Nova up.
"The Earthy!" calling forth the card, the elemental card, like The Watery, enveloped Nova, not Sakura or the environment, and shifted the staff into a weapon.
This weapon being a mace, a simple looking mace, if by simple meant that the mace was of the size of her body, and each end was set in teeth like dents, to make the damage major on pretty much everything with armor and underneath the armor.
And she tested that, by slamming Nova Crusher into the Dahāka's fallen form.
BAMM!
BAMM!
BAMMM!
Three times, each hit causing the area to tremble, to a big crater to form up and to pretty much awake every single person in Tomoeda, at least those who had the fortune to sleep, in a city with a resistance actually attacking the occupying forces, rarely there was a good night sleep.
After the third blow, Sakura brought Nova Crusher on an arc, basically caving the pavement as she dragged the shifted weapon like a gold club, and the Dahāka was her golf ball.
BOOM!
Of course golf balls go into air in an arc, not straight, like an arrow.
There Sakura followed with a single jump, of course the enhanced The Jump was more than enough to allow Sakura the jump required to reach the Dahāka mid-air, but there lay her only mistake of the battle, and it cost her dearly.
Once in air, and right below the Dahāka, and approaching dangerously to it, Sakura was all about ready to punt the creature into orbit, she would have, if the Dahāka suddenly hadn't opened its mouth, and a purple beam was fired of it, spiraling into her general direction.
"Oh…hoeee….."
BOOM!
The beam met its mark, and even with it met Sakura, it went even more, pushing her downwards, head first onto the unforgiving ground on terminal speed, plus mach 2.
BOOOMMMM!
Tomoeda as a whole shook on the impact, and a huge cloud of dust raised from where Sakura crashed head first, the black form of the Dahāka slowly descending onto the impact zone.
Atop an electric pole, and grinding his teeth, Naruto clenched his hands in frustration, looking down he spotted a Pact soldier, a lone Pact soldier that was, like pretty much everything Pact in Tomoeda, making its way onto the impact zone.
The Pact soldier screamed in fright when he was suddenly lifted off the ground, then launched to a house, breaking back first on the main door, onto a table and freaking the hell out of a family of two, who remained rooted in the spot, and could only glance in shock as Naruto advanced at the fallen Pact soldier, Kaze No Yaiba in hand, and not a second later, in the torso of the Pact soldier who whimpered in pain.
"You will tell me everything" Naruto began kneeling in front of the Pact soldier, and whipping a kunai out, "Starting where you will take Sakura-Chan, or I will start skinning you, starting with the skin of your face" Naruto snarled, the poor Pact soldier pretty much told Naruto his life.
In five minutes, quite sad when you think about it, when you can condense your life in five minutes.
Two hours later…
Ever since The Pact had rolled into Tomoeda and pretty much had started a global war, Tomoyo had only seen perhaps three days of sleep, like pretty much everyone in the building.
This place was a refuge, a shelter, also it became a hospital when the hospital was seized by Pact forces during the take-over, now repurposed as a Pact hospital and base, after all no military would attack a hospital.
Daidouji's tower was one of the few places on Tomoeda, besides the college, which was also invaded by Pact forces, that could hold the many wounded and sick inside with ease, of course holding them was one thing, keeping them comfortable was another entirely.
While there wasn't a shortage of medical staff, as they all pretty much left the hospital alongside their charges when The Pact kicked them out, and in the hospital remained much of the drugs and equipment needed to keep some of the sick fine, the second priority of the 'freedom fighters' besides fighting Pact forces, was locating medicaments from local drugstores and mattresses to set anyone in, the nights had been cold, so been the days, the ash fired by the volcanoes during their simultaneous eruptions, while not setting the stage for the apocalypse, was now a close second, as the ash had covered the sky quite well, making the sun rays to reach the world to be minimal, not enough to set an ice age or something like that, but enough to make cold nights to be…colder, way colder.
Of course the tower would be assaulted by Pact forces, and with the freedom fighters, most of them enchanters send to help Sakura, only to find out she had been whisked away by Li to save her of some sort of horrible fate by Pact forces, had been the bulk of the defense here, well, had been, the last two hours had been, honestly, the most calm ever, and all thanks to Sakura's new friend and 'brother' Naruto.
At first sight Tomoyo would chalk Naruto as the happiest person alive, his bright clothes, bright hair, bright eyes and smile had already girls turning heads in his direction, what did set him apart of everyone was the little fact that Naruto was a Rayearth, a ninja Rayearth at that.
His entrance had been…explosive, with an emphasis on destruction, dismemberment and deaths that would have haunt her, had the attackers been alive to begin with, the golems had little to no chance against Naruto and his arsenal of destructive attacks which ranged between calling tornadoes down, launching thunders out of his fingertips that were comparable to a tank cannon in destructive power, telekinetic grips in which he crushed their necks with ease, a sword that sliced them like if they were made of paper Mache, and of course that beautiful orb in his hands that had decimated twelve golems with the blast alone.
His arrival was timed of course with the explosion that had shook Tomoeda minutes before, apparently that had been Sakura fighting a super powerful enemy The Pact had set out just for her, and had pretty much ordered Naruto to leave her alone in this fight, all while he carried something that would paint her precious Sakura as a traitor of the nation, and either save them or doom them.
The USB that Naruto had carried, alongside with the message Sakura had relayed to them, trough him, while welcomed, was foreboding.
And while her mother worked on the USB and get in contact with anyone willing to listen and see the evidence within the USB data, what was left of Sakura's classmates, Li, Mei-Ling, Yue, Kero and Tōya, stared at Naruto, this one looking at the horizon, seated in a lotus position, his massive sword nowhere in sight.
"So…you just let her do this, alone?" Li all but gritted his teeth at the blond, and while Kero and Yue, in their true forms were very close to the level of outrage Li had for Naruto, there was also the healthy respect of the power and skill the whiskered blond had, after all he decimated the golem army, alone, without mercy, and without mercy for a ninja means no survivors, and in a lot of pieces, something Naruto did, it was apparent that Naruto was very angry that moment, and now he was as well, if not worse, for the accusations of Li.
"Sakura-Nee had to do this on her own, I understand her desire" Naruto snapped, his blue eyes narrowed, Tomoyo noted how tense he was, more like…frustrated for what had happened.
"And don't dare tell me I left her alone, because I didn't want to, together that damn thing…that Dahāka would have been a smear on the ground, but I understand her plan, and I added something else to the mix" Naruto stated.
"A plan? Sakura planned to get beaten?" Mei-Ling wondered, surprised by that.
"Nah, Sakura-Nee wanted to defeat that thing, to prove that when the time comes, she will be more than ready to tackle any obstacle and enemy in front of her, then she would pose as wounded and defeated, making the Pact take her to their leader, after all that woman seems to be the kind to gloat" Naruto snarled.
"I doubt it, Sakura-Sama doesn't know who she is dealing with" Asura muttered.
"And you do?" Naruto answered back, "Because the way I see it, it was either Sakura's plan, or me and her, alongside you guys, charging like idiots on the base front…lot's of casualties on both sides" Naruto said, "With the seal formula I added on her shirt, the moment she flares her magic in it, I will feel it, then I will be there" Naruto stated, "So don't worry about your girlfriend, I know what is to be on a situation like this, my Hinata-chan got encased in a crystal substance not shy three months ago by an enemy Kunoichi, hoping to make me give up…I made her see the error of that tactic, repeatedly"
The group of kids and somewhat odd teen shivered at the tone of voice Naruto used, especially considering that this kid was perhaps the deadliest person around, with the obvious exception of Sakura.
Tomoyo tore her eyes of Naruto for a minute; she had half a mind to film him, for posterity and her personal collection, but realized that now it was not the moment, and Sakura wasn't present, so adding just Naruto to her personal video collection would be the odd thing on it.
"Naruto…was it?" Tomoyo nearly jumped at the voice of her mother, looking at her worn form, Tomoyo frowned, this war had taken its toll on pretty much everyone, and Sonomi Daidouji was not the exception to the rule.
"Oh Sonomi-san, did it work?" she nodded at Naruto's question, and one could easily see the tension on his body slightly vanish, but it was still there.
"So? What they said?" Naruto questioned.
"They are as bogged down as we are, but they are outraged for what has happened here; the blatant violation of human rights is recorded and written, as soon the Pact leader is defeated, they will send a detachment of their forces here, to secure…well everyone on Tomoeda, then the country, right now we know too much" Sonomi mentioned, making Naruto nod.
"Well, most of them, the Russians have already send a team here, they would arrive in five hours, six if the ash doesn't damage the engines of the boat" she added.
"four hours have passed already, five more, nine hours, I think it's more than enough…I hope Sakura get her part of the plan trough, or I'll have to level a college" was Naruto's casual response.
"They are holled up in the college?" Tōya asked.
"Yeah, the soldier I…interrogated was rather…informative" Naruto said with a smirk.
"Informative as?" Tōya asked, dreading the answer.
"Informative as tell me what I want to know or I'll remove your face, lair by lair of skin" Naruto replied casually, looking at the group with a slight smirk, a stark contrast to the horrified looks everyone was giving him.
"And you're charged to protect my sister?" Tōya asked with a shocked look, "What the hell they teach you back in your world?" he added.
"Well, beyond traps, hit-and-run tactics, taijutsu, pressure points and the history of war, edition number eighteen, we learned also math, language and a history in general, which is tied to history of war, oh and also we are taught to…"
"It was rhetoric question!"
"My what now?" Naruto cocked his head to one side, everyone was of course wondering how this airhead, whose focus was a fickle as the weather, was able to fight, heck they were wondering why he was a Rayearth knight at all.
"Anyway, right now all we can do is wait, I hate waiting, especially when I have to wait for my ramen to heat up'ttebayo" Naruto said with a pout, making everyone, no exception, to sweat drop, This was the best hope for Sakura? She was doomed!
"Besides" Naruto said, slowly standing up, then approaching a window, and opening it up, "That thing is not longer with her" he added, eyes now hard as steel, "It seems I have their attention" he added with a smirk.
"Of course, they captured the strongest Rayearth, now they are moving for the other" Asura's words made Naruto scowl, but then to smile.
"The strongest she is, but I am the hard working one, the hard worker will always beat the prodigies" Naruto said he took a leap of faith, jumping out of the window, right out of a tenth floor, straight to the ground, landing softly and with ease.
The fact he did it, while landing around several people, and freaking the hell out of them, was an added shock.
"Everyone get back to the building; don't get out until I return" Naruto ordered, the shocked people, most of them police who had seen him tear the golems apart, simply nodded, stiffly of course, they were putting their lives in the hands of a kid, most of them had children of their own, and of his age, this was a blow to their pride as men and police officers.
As everyone vacated the location, Naruto narrowed his eyes, summoning Kaze No Yaiba, and slowly swinging it around, leaving deep gouges on the concrete ground, then stopping when eh spotted The Dahāka approaching…slowly…limping.
Wounded, dripping blood.
"Sakura-Nee did a superb job" he thought with a smirk, he had seen the pummel she had given to the beast, and was now sure that if the beast hadn't attacked her, her last attack would have killed The Dahāka, but she either underestimated the creature, or was not prepared for its last attack, probably the second, as she went no quarters against the thing.
"So they send a limping half-dead beast to do the job a bunch of clay dolls were unable to complete? Man that's sad" Naruto muttered, it wasn't loud enough for anyone to hear, but it seemed the Dahāka did hear him, for the limping creature that seemed feminine, but it wasn't, and now it was angry at that comment.
Naruto simply smirked at that, impaling his sword on the ground, and slightly tracing his fingers on the pommel, then to the cloth on the pommel, and finally to the dagger tied to the cloth.
"Oh, angry?" Naruto taunted, launching the dagger at the Dahāka, the beast simply tensed up, seeing the dagger take an arc and pass between its legs, harmless behind it, the beats snarled, turning it's gaze to the Rayearth of wind…
Only to find him gone, alongside the sword.
"Last mistake, hurting Sakura-Nee" Naruto called from behind, swinging Kaze No Yaiba behind the Dahāka.
The weakened beast was simply no match against two Rayearth knights, especially one that had years of training under his belt, and intensive combat experience, even more than the knight of earth.
Five hours later…
Laura could still not conceive that the Dahāka had defeated Sakura, even if the evidence was present in front of them, there she was Sakura the Pillar, in front of them, restrained, or better said encased.
The girl, which at first sight had been on a war of her own by the looks of her clothes, was encased in a green crystal like solution; the spell had been casted by their leader, and it was also the first time she had seen someone like their leader, she seemed to exude some sort of royal aura, but with an obvious aura of power that was only comparable to the one Sakura emanated during her time at the planetarium.
The unconscious girl, encased in the crystal, was currently in the last place they wanted her to be if she was conscious, the very core of their plan, the very essence of the magical aura on Tomoeda, the core of Project Ragnarok.
Of course she wasn't alone, alongside the leader, besides the dozen of elite Pact guard forces, there was also Akane the crimson, who was eyeing Sakura with a critical eye, there was also Isaac and his men, as one of the few people who had faced Sakura several times, he was called to oversee the security of the place, not that it would do much help, Sakura was encased in crystal, in the off-chance he wakes up and bursts out of the crystal, the sharp crystal will…do more than sting.
Of course there was one little detail that was yet to be clarified…
"How the hell they got another knight here?" Isaac muttered, pacing around, eyes darting once in a while to Sakura's encased form.
"The knights have a connection with the guardians, it is obvious that sooner or later our escalation would be met with an escalation of their own" Laura muttered.
"They escalated by sending a natural disaster with two legs, just seven hours ago we lost over a hundred golems, all in the Daidouji tower, then the Dahāka two hours later, I don't need to tell you who it was" Akane stated.
"Then we have to assume he is approaching here, ready to kill us all, he is obviously trained for combat, the kid that we are not" Laura muttered as well, her eyes buried on Akane's own, there was no secret for these two that together they might stand a chance against Sakura, one restrain her (Laura) the other hits her with everything she has, repeatedly (Akane).
Of course that was before, now it was different, two knights means double the firepower, and depending of their element means a whole lot of problems, the knight of earth and the knight of wind means that there was no safe place between heaven and earth.
Isaac simply shook his head, gazing at the unconscious girl, closing to her encased form, before anyone would be afraid of getting close to her, especially after it was proven months ago that not even force fields were enough to hold her down, but now she was both unconscious, not asleep, and encased on a material, he dared say, was stronger than diamond, he kept a steady gaze on her face, trying to see if she breathed…
Only to see how her eyes snapped open, inside the diamond like substance.
"Oh shit"
CRACK!
BAAMMM!
The akin sound of breaking glass and flesh meeting flesh, alongside some of that crystal echoed the room as Isaac was send flying away, pieces of that crystal stuck on his left cheek, and one cutting his nose bridge, and unconscious, Laura and Akane both assumed battle stances, eyes wide as Sakura's arm, let alone form, which had been encased on a diamond like substance, simply moved inside with ease, and had broken the thing, from within, with nothing but raw power, and as they saw the crystal break around her, not in a spectacular fashion, but more like cracking and chipping aside piece by piece, allowing Sakura some sense of freedom, neither of the girls noted how their leader moved away of the room with her guard.
As the crystal finally fell, exposing Sakura as a whole, and flexing herself, her eyes darted to both girls in the room, both tensed up, especially when Nova appeared on Sakura's hands.
"You will get out of my way, or I'll move you out of my way…either way you both end up with concussions" she said, advancing at both girls, so said girls looked at each other, then nodded, without any other word, they attacked…
Five minutes later…
A door being ripped off its hinges was the only indication to the Pact guards around that Akane and Laura lasted phenomenal five minute mark against a Rayearth, that alone was an achievement of its own, the fact also that their bones were nearly grinded to dust by ruthless blows was also a record.
As Sakura made her way out, she was welcomed by several blasts of blue energy that instantly clacked around herm slightly singing her clothes, but not stopping her as the telekinetic blast she let loose to the three soldiers that met them head on and stuck them on a wall nearby.
With a snort, she began to make her way around the halls of their base…her father's workplace and brother's study place.
Tomoeda's College, formerly called Tomoeda Academy of higher learning.
She didn't knew what had ended up buried in Tomoeda's college, but it was more than enough for the Pact leader to set up shop here, instead of somewhere more fortified, somewhere with less history and with papers backing up the fact this was a historic building…one she was about to rampage inside.
With a shrug she focused her senses, allowing them to catch on any residual magic around, trying to sense the greatest magic energy around, and she found it.
"The auditorium" she muttered, facing the wall, and slowly moving her neck around, "Dad is so going to ground me for this" and with that she broke onto a sprint, right into the walls.
CRACK!
BOOM!
CRACK!
The concrete walls were to her like paper Mache, breaking wall after wall, it was so easy, and it beat trekking the halls filled with pact soldiers, true once in a while she crashed against a soldier, sending him flying away, but right now she was crushing the distance of her to the auditorium, which was on the other side of the college…
"OFFF!" Sakura cried, being send away by a powerful shove, that didn't explain why her ears were ringing.
Shaking her head, she looked around, and actually blinked, there was a tank on the courtyard, a tank with a smoking barrel in the courtyard.
She was standing afar a crater, directly where she had been running, near the tank with the smoking barrel on the courtyard.
"I got shot by a tank…and I'm alive?" she thought in panic, feeling that every part of her body was attached to her, and she was well after getting hit by a tank shell, a feat no one could clearly say to come out with their limbs still attached to their bodies.
"Sadly I can't say the same about your skirt" Gaia suddenly replied, making Sakura blink, and look down, then slightly bristle.
Ever since the upgrade of the cards, and the chases of the cops, she began to wear biker shorts under her skirt, to prevent any panty shot she might unwilling give to any passerby, now that seemed to have paid off, as her skirt, and her left shoe and left sock were gone, exposing her biker shorts, albeit worn out by the blast and days of rough treatment, but it beat showing her panties.
Of course what got her mad was that she nearly got naked by a blast, and the guy in the gunner seat would have got an eyeful.
"Only Li-Kun gets an eyeful!" she thought angrily, standing up fast and suddenly bringing Nova up, the tank let out another blast, but Sakura this time easily batted the shell away, blasting a portion of the college off, then rushing at the tank, and ramming it with her elbow, rising the tank out of its threads, then bringing he bare foot to the underbelly of the tank and giving it a vicious kick, now she properly send the tank flying off to a wall, where it crashed noisily.
Huffing in annoyance, Sakura decided to continue with her rampage/trek, but this time nothing short to a cruise missile to the face would stop her, flicking her left hand, she called the card, loud.
"THE BIG!"
To anyone looking from outside, the sight of a girl suddenly appearing in the courtyard, growing a whooping 60 meters tall was a sight to behold, especially to a city which bigger building was 20 meters tall, 30 if much.
Sakura, now in her gigantic form, let out a snarl that basically shook the college, then took a gigantic step, everyone under her, and inside the halls, upon seeing the giant girl take a step forward, they panicked, and began to run away, before they got crushed.
Her first step was more than enough to level a whole section of the halls, and pretty much scatter every single Pact soldier dumb enough to stay and fight now, then she took a second step, and covered the distance to the auditorium, the tip of her bare feet destroying the entrance of the auditorium.
With that done she let the power vanish, slowly returning her to her normal size, right in front of the damaged auditorium, and the rising smoke and dust her stomps caused.
Fully reduced to her normal size, Sakura simply walked towards the entrance of the auditorium, pieces of concrete paving the way, but it wasn't enough to stall her, not even the sounds of screams of panic as she made her way made her look around, this ended here and now.
Once inside the auditorium, Sakura focused her sights on the stage, and there she was, she had no doubt about it, the Pact leader was in front of her.
While she was clad in the usual Pact trench coat, gloves and boots, the rest was not usual, her purple eyes shone with a light of its own, white her silver hair flowed down gently, almost unnaturally so alongside her slightly tanned skin, it was perfectly tanned, there was no excess, it was perfect tan.
The woman, as it was obvious for her developed assess, had the most serious expressions Sakura had seen ever, glancing at her like a bug…no, it wasn't a serious look, it was an annoyed look, the kind given to an obstacle that had stood in her way time and time again, stopping her from winning the race.
"You" the woman began, "Rayearth of earth, never in my life I would have expected to live to see the coming of a second knight of earth" she added.
"Second coming? But the last knight of earth was called five millennia ago" Sakura frowned at that.
"Yet, it doesn't matter, time and time again, you have stood against plans you have no control or knowledge off" she added, "And somehow you have STOPPED THEM ALL!" every chair in the auditorium instantly caught fire, Sakura didn't moved at all, not even to flinch.
"Until now" was she said, a small smirk forming on her lips, "Aren't you wondering why you were encased in a crystal, and brought here?"
"So you could gloat on your 'trophy' while other watches?" Sakura guessed, slowly advancing at the Pact leader, she simply snorted at Sakura's guess.
"Oh please, we have been trying to capture you ever since you got your Rayearth powers, for that specific reason, not because you were an obstacle, but because of your power, your latent Rayearth power" the leader began.
"You see, this plan would have never come to fruition if it wasn't for your power, in the beginning, and if you were captured, I would have taken a sliver of your Rayearth powers, before using you as a sacrifice for the event, but obviously you were on a league of your own, against arch-mages this world possessed, they were facing a mountain" she added, "So I decided to bid my time, start this…war, as it is called, to me is just simply a purge, for I need the strong" she continued.
Sakura kept her gaze and position, even when the leader began to move around the stage.
"Once you were defeated by the Dahāka, I captured you, and placed you in a special crystal solution know as Crystalium Minimum"
"What? How does she…that's a crystalian mineral!"
"A crystalian mineral?" Sakura thought, obvious to Gaia's sudden shock.
"Yes, it is the only natural mineral of the crystalium family that grows naturally around the planet; it is very weak on its natural state, but with the proper chemicals, heating and a little of magic on the mix, it can be turned into crystalium medium, which is used in pretty much every single cutting based weapon, armor alloys, even lenses"
"How it relates to the crystal I was inside?"
"Simple, crystalium minimum is known for being manufactured by melting it in its natural stage and by just pure magic, it is the weakest of the crystalium family, still can resist a tank shell being shot at point-blank range, but what makes it valuable, even more to magicians and Magi-tech users in Crystalia is it's incredible magical resonance, you can store, harness and even transport magic from one to the other…now I see everything clearly…so this is where the heart of Ras-gul went after the civil war"
"Ras-Gul?"
"I see Gaia finally realized, so let me enlighten you, about five millennia ago, there was a war in Crystalia, a war for the throne, unlike the war of King Nothing, this one involved a once proud and powerful race, the blood elves" there her eyes seemed to shine, "They were powerful, proud, and above all, with a story as rich as Crystalia's own" she added.
"They were even Rayearth knights, the very first knights, and there our pride ended" Sakura noted how she referred that to 'our' instead of 'their'
"After that…incident, our people were looked down, we lost it all, and for millenniums it continued as such, until it reached the boiling point"
"What she means by that incident?"
"The knight of water betrayed the others to The Dark Lord, offering his body and soul to the being, in this form The Dark Lord was mortal, and tangible, he killed the original knight of wind, neither knights knew that this had been a plan hatched by the queen and the knight of water to allow the mortality of The Dark Lord to surface and end the war, in a sense he did not betray no one, he laid his life willingly to stop The Dark Lord"
"Uh, have you tried to explain this to the blood elves, they sound…pissed by this bias"
"It was explained to them, several times, over and over, but they wouldn't listen, they are proud, proud to a fault, the situation got worse when people started to talk aloud about the events of the end of the war, no one knew what had happened…until that idiot of Megala opened his big mouth and began to shout to the four winds that one of their own would never betray them for false power, you can imagine the rest from there"
Sakura frowned at that, now she understood there and there that pride in great quantities can be dangerous, very much so.
"It was that day, when we got a new queen, a blood elf queen, oh we were joyous, we were finally give retribution to our unwanted sins…just that the crown didn't resonated in her frown"
"Her…resonate?"
"The crown of the queen is special, forged by us, it is attuned to the ruler of Crystalia, every queen worthy of the title has the crown placed on them, there it resonates with the mind, body and spirit of the queen, whose sole purpose is the well-being of her people, as every king and queen should be…their queen, Queen Megara, she is not accepted by many as an official queen for one particular reason, the crown didn't resonated, she had royal blood, like her family, but neither she and her sisters had heart, mind and soul placed on the welfare of the people, just the one of the blood elves"
"So we did the most sensate thing ever, for this insult we waged war"
"And the knights were called, all of them, including a replacement for your queen" Sakura drawled, "I can't believe you, all this" she motioned the destruction around, "Just for…a crown…for honor?"
"Honor is the only thing that keep some men alive" the leader said, "In the last days of the war, we were reduced to less than a million, not much to fight a war against a world, especially if they have the knights on their side, so we decided to move on, with our last breaths we forged the heart of Ras-Gul, in our language, Ras-Gul means god of the dead, we transferred our souls and the flesh of the strongest of us all in the crystal, and we simply left, in a way we cheated death, and prevented the extinction of our people" she said, her eyes glowing.
"Of course the heart would land here, to this magic rich planet, here we began to plan, I was released, and placed the six pillars around the heart, three of them containing the Arh-Gal, it means guardian of the death, our anchors to this world, siphoning the magic around slowly, sending it to us, for our eventual liberation"
"So James-san was right, it is a magic receptor…wait…liberation?" Sakura asked with a blink.
"Of course, you think we will remain bounded here, on that crystal, it has served its purpose, keeping our souls in place, now we need freedom, the magic we gathered has ensured as much"
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, staring at the leader with a narrowed gaze, "Magic can't do that…unless" Sakura muttered, gazing at her hands, then eyes widening at the implications.
A small sliver of her Rayearth powers had been taken, the powers of earth.
Earth, mother earth, mother of life, from which all life comes out and comes back eventually, ash to ash, dust to dust.
"So you realize, yes, your power is the one of the same to mother earth, give life to the un-living, we are souls, we need vessels, your power has allowed us to do that" she said, a small smirk forming on her lips, "So congratulations, you are about to be a mother at the tender age of twelve, mother to a whole civilization, and the last thing we need of course" she added, making Sakura tense, then she felt it, the floor shook, something…big was coming out of the ground, towards them, towards her.
Then the ground broke, and a…crystal something came out, the leader simply moved a little to the back, allowing herself to be taken by the massive crystal that simply rose out of the ground, easily towering her giantess form, and floating lazily in the air, after tearing the auditorium and pretty much everything under it.
"Is for you to die" then the crystal, which resembled a massive plumbBob, and in purple, like the crystal pillar she smashed several days ago, began to shine in a specific point.
Then it let loose a beam, and Tomoeda College was blasted away.
"The heck is that!?" Naruto simply raised both eyebrows in surprise, even more than Mei-Ling, who had her jaw on the ground, the massive…crystal thingy was…big, simply big, and purple.
He had seen a lot of crazy things as a ninja, raging for mega structures that are not what you think they are, to freaky weapons of old and strange creatures that are as strange and rare as the Bijuu themselves, but a freaking purple crystal, that took the…
BOOM!
The ground itself shook as a massive explosion simply happened, and a massive fireball rose in the air, making everyone jaws to drop, Naruto simply narrowed his eyes, dropping the arm blade of the Dahāka aside.
"That…was in the direction of the college" someone muttered, there he blinked, and his eyes widened.
"Sakura-Nee!" Naruto cried, instantly leaping away to the direction of the explosion, heedless of the explanations of Sakura's friends and magical companions behind him, Sakura had been on that explosion, and surely hurt.
Only Kero and Yue could follow the orange Rayearth, in whose veins flowed the blood of the fastest ninja alive, if barely.
Here she was, at the age of twelve, and almost dead, all her victories and failures, displayed to her in a white void, there she stood, with no direction but onward, or backwards, in a place where the only color was white, direction was something irrelevant, just as in a black void.
There she stood, with no direction, and with no idea on what to do now, there she stood, alone.
"Sakura…Sakura…"
She blinked, a voice echoed in the white void, everywhere, but also nowhere at the same time.
"Behind you"
There she turned around, and her eyes simply widened, alongside watered.
There, in the middle of the white void, stood the only woman in her life that, while not physically present, had remained a constant in her life, she was just like in the picture, if not more, the beautiful white sundress that moved with a mind of its own enhanced the ethereal beauty of Nadeshiko Kinomoto.
"Kaa…chan?" Sakura wondered, the woman simply nodded with a gentle smile.
The only warning she got before Sakura enveloped her in a hug was the wail the little girl emitted before blurring and appearing in front of her, and hug her with everything she had.
"KAA-CHHAAANN!" Sakura wailed, crying on the bosom of her mother, Nadeshiko smiled softly, slowly and sweetly stroking the head of her daughter, saying nothing, but soaking on the presence of her daughter, one she had been unable to hug for over a decade, and was only allowed to help when it was truly needed, and interact when her need was the greatest.
Nadeshiko knew this place well, a decade for the dead is an eternity, no sleep, no hunger, to exhaustion, time is meaningless for the dead, so exploring is something many do, and this white void as many came to call it, was the entrance point for the newly departed, unlike limbo, who had unwanted visitors when someone had tore the time-space continuum with a powerful attack.
She shook her head; kids these days were acting more like sentai teens and popping out with powers and attacks that could tear the sun itself.
"Where am I?" Nadeshiko thoughts changed when she heard her daughter speak, there she let out a long sigh, while this was the very entrance to the newly departed, it was also the exit point to the reincarnated ones.
Sakura was an oddity on itself because she wasn't dead, or about to reincarnate.
"You" Nadeshiko began, "You are here because your soul was hurled here because of that attack, an attack that affected both body and soul, your body is almost indestructible now, but your soul is another matter, it is not matching the strength of your body, the blast…basically gave you a one of a kind out of body experience" Nadeshiko provided.
"…Hoe?" Sakura asked, tilting her head to one side, to Nadeshiko, that single act was too much.
"OH SO CUTE!"
"OH COME ON!"
While Sakura acted annoyed by this, her mother rubbing her face to her own, she knew this was the only time she would get this from her mother, it would be only time her mother would hold her, would hug her, would talk to her, she was soaking in this moment as much as she could.
As Nadeshiko released her of her hug, Sakura gazed on her mother's features, right now the picture on their kitchen didn't made justice to the real deal, her mother was beautiful…no, beyond beautiful.
"Oh Sakura-Chan, you look so pretty, I wish we had more time" Nadeshiko stated, brushing her daughter's cheek, "But sadly we don't, that woman's actions, alongside the ones of her species and The Pact have caused a destabilization of the world, all the magic released during the cataclysm eroded the remaining one in the world, and that magic was absorbed by that crystal, right now the world itself is running on empty, in a few hours, destabilization will begin, and a cataclysm far worse than the one that hit the world two weeks ago will arise…this time it won't stop at all" Nadeshiko said grimly.
Sakura simply stared dumbly at her mother, looking rather put out by the news that her own loving mother gave her, "…uh…did…did she knew?" Sakura wondered, referring to the Pact leader, the obvious puppet master of this act.
"If she did, she didn't care, so fixated by her hunger of revenge she overlooked everything" Nadeshiko answered.
"But what I can do, I mean you said yourself, my body is near indestructible, but my soul got actually blasted out of my body, ending…here" Sakura said, motioning to the white void, "What can I do? Dodge? I don't think it will help, considering that attack will be aimed to me, while I come from down, and Tomoeda will behind me…I can't risk it" Sakura said.
To that Nadeshiko actually giggled, "Oh Sakura-Chan, you got all the help you can have, here" Nadeshiko began, reaching for Sakura's gloved hand, and touching it slightly, pulling out The Hope out, and slightly flicking it in front of Sakura.
"And of Naruto" she added, handing the card to Sakura, then slowly taking steps back, Sakura noted this once she tore her gaze of her original card.
"Wait! Kaa-chan!" she called, trying to move, but finding out she couldn't move at all, but instead seemed to be pulled back.
"Don't worry Sakura-chan, I'll always be here, with you" Nadeshiko said, touching her chest, right were her heart was, "A mother always loves, a mother's love always endures, I love you" she said, her words reaching a weeping Sakura, who could only watch as her mother grew distant ever more with every second.
"Oh, and don't you dare to die yet, I want you to live, to marry, to form a family, I want you to live fully, a long, full life"
Sakura, with tears in her eyes, could only slightly nod, hiccupping while at it, as the white void began to shine, yet it didn't bothered her, neither the many human silhouettes in the background, melting and hiding her mother from sight.
"I will Kaa-chan…I promise"
"Come on" Naruto called, pulling Sakura's body out of a hole she had been pushed, she looked horrible, so pale, the big purple…crystal seemed to not pay them mind, as it continued to ascend, rising high in the clouds, he didn't dared to force tornadoes down to the thing by several reason, right now the first was because Sakura might get caught in the crossfire, the second was because…the wind felt weird, unnatural, something really wrong was going on.
To be honest the last hours had been like this, the planet's natural energy seemed…lacking, and what remained was tainted, it was the only way to describe it, no Kyuubi like tainted energy, more like…corrupted, disrupted of its original purpose.
The moment that beam hit, the world seemed to…change, the weather was crazy, the sky suddenly darkened, even more than before, with the ash in the clouds, thunders were blowing inside the clouds, and he was sure it wasn't because of him, and every five minutes or so, the earth would shake.
And hours had passed ever since the attack, they were cutting time short, right now he wagered they had half an hour before the calling, the reason he had to take this much time to reach Sakura, when it took him ten minutes to interrogate the guy and make it to the tower was simple, The Pact seemed to crawl out of the freaking woodwork, like moved by some unseen force made by the crystal, everything was attacking anything within the range of Sakura and the crystal, Kero and Yue had delayed, allowing him time to breach the ring of Pact soldiers and those that got in his way were now in a wall.
And if things weren't bad enough, those army morons were attacking the freaking crystal with explosive projectile flying tubes…that did shit, only rain scrap metal and fire onto the ground, it wasn't chipping the crystal at all, and the thing was still rising up, it was slowly, but surely, rising up.
Right now, the only thing he knew was that he had to do something, the something in specific eluded him, he could always reach limit…
A sudden movement of Sakura, followed by her pushing him three meters away towards a wall was all the indication to Naruto that Sakura had recovered consciousness, rather violently.
Well she could have punched him, like Sakura-Chan usually does when he wakes her up.
"Sakura-Nee!" Naruto called, bouncing back on his feet and rushing to the downed girl, so girl slowly rising up, taking deep intakes of air, and blinking almost in a dazed manner, which was kinda understandable, if Naruto was right, Sakura wasn't near the impact of that beam, she was at the impact epicenter.
"Na-Naruto-Kun" Sakura whispered, slowly sitting up and blinking about, her sight was full of bright dots, and her body felt like lead, but overall she was alive.
"Yeah, man that was crazy'ttebayo" Naruto said, kneeling to her height and slightly helping her sit up, Sakura slightly wincing at the actions, she felt her skin so taut, although it was slightly receding, the feeling was uncomfortable.
"You got hit by that crazy beam right?" Sakura nodded, "Man, I'm surprised that you are still standing, let alone clothed, last thing that I hit with something of THAT magnitude got it's ass send into oblivion, and the ring, and it's soul, and it tore the time-space whatever the name follows" Naruto said, Sakura blinked once more, checking herself in, finding, with some relief that she was still clothed.
"Not that I can say the same about…everything else" Naruto added with a slight grimace, Sakura looked around, grimacing alongside Naruto, the epicenter around her was pretty much devoid of debris, beyond a…Sakura shaped hole in the middle, the blast had been so strong that she had been pushed to a hole, inside the crater, a flat crater, she didn't knew if it could be called a crater when it wasn't a crater at all.
Beyond that, there was disaster, Tomoeda College was gone, simple as that, just flaming ruins remained on a college with fifty years of history, reduced to ruble with a single blast of energy, and she didn't help either.
Immediately she felt nauseous when she realized that by the time the attack hit, there was still Pact soldiers inside, Akane and Laura too…
"Oh Kami" Sakura whispered, catching Naruto's attention, "She attacked…with her people inside" Naruto there grimaced, slightly shaking his head.
"Well, now this makes me want to beat her to death, if something I hate most aside waiting, is traitors, and even more if they are traitors who manipulate and sacrifice the people who willingly follow them" Naruto said, standing up and extending his hand to Sakura who took it and helped her stand up.
"That thing is taking air, we need to stop whatever it's planning" Naruto said, he and Sakura seeing how several missiles were launched and met the crystal, not even making a dent.
"Oh yeah, also we have that" he added, making Sakura grimace, especially when she saw the amount of missiles being fired at the crystal, and the sudden booms that sounded over the hills, as she guessed, tank shells were fired to aid in taking down that thing.
"…How long was I out?" she asked to Naruto, the blond there grimaced.
"Almost three hours, we are on our last minutes, ten, maybe five I don't know" Naruto said honestly, Sakura bit her lip at that, "And I think we might have another problem" Naruto trailed off, looking around, Sakura looked around as well, and grimaced.
It seemed the Pact wasn't done with her, not by a long shot, as a dozen of golems and a battalion of the, surely their last and most experienced members were arriving, trying to delay her of attacking the crystal, unaware of what the crystal truly entailed.
"Naruto-Kun, I have a plan, but I need your help" Sakura called; there she caught the full attention of Naruto.
"Go on, I'm listening"
"Listen" Sakura said, summoning The Hope, and showing it to Naruto, "Before all this began, this card was card number fifty-three, The Nothing, a card created to balance the incredible power of the other cards, until it merged with The Love, and became this" she said, "So far I have used it once, and its power is kinda vague, really I don't know much, but I think I have a slight idea what might do" there he cocked his head to one side.
"The Hope grants power, power to help in times of crisis, but it needs a catalyst, something to latch onto" Sakura said, gazing at the crystal in the sky, "I have been wondering what my Kaa-chan meant when she told me I had The Hope and you, then it hit me, you are here, one of the most experienced knights, and I have a card that can grant me power equal to the one that is latched onto, like she did when she helped me reveal my true feelings for Li during the disaster when she was The Nothing, she latched on me, on my need to tell Li how I felt for him, how I truly felt for him, she amplify it, and I was able to tell him, of course that was the only example I have of her power but…"
"Say no more Sakura-Nee" Naruto said with a smile, "I told you already, I'm here to help you, no matter what, I never back on my word, and on my actions, you do your thing, I'll do mine…but first" Naruto said, his eyes gazing on the advancing troops, something Sakura noted, she instantly summoned Nova, but Naruto stopped her, summoning Kaze No Yaiba and slowly advancing a little, then stopping.
"We need to remove the annoyances" Naruto exclaimed, suddenly taking a swing stance, and then he swung Kaze No Yaiba with all he had.
The end result was spectacular if she dared say; a blade of pure wind escaped the length of the blade, traveled towards the formation at an impossible speed, and impacted.
The resulting explosion tore the golems apart, and launched the Pact soldiers aside like ragdolls, they had little chance against that kind of firepower, and as they fell to the ground, the sound of crunching bones and snapping altogether, Sakura there understood than right now she couldn't hesitate, she had to win this, to stop it before it went to the point of no return.
They claimed this plan was unstoppable, she…no, they would prove them wrong.
Some of the enchanters, ten in total seemed to have survived the initial attack, and were advancing at them, Sakura narrowed her eyes at this, raising an arm to stop Naruto from attacking once more, she summoned The Dash, and poured as much magic she could in the card.
"No more miss nice girl" she said, then she blurred.
Naruto traced her movement easily, he was trained for this kind of high-speed fight, The Pact however was not, three seconds later, ten Pact soldiers had their arms out of their sockets, and their femurs reduced to less than powder, their ribcages were simply broken, not enough to kill them, but enough to leave them in unholy pain and make them grimace from phantom pain for the rest of their lives.
"A little overboard back there, not that I complain, those guys are dicks"
She slightly smiled, a small sigh escaping her lips, "They had it coming" she answered to Naruto, who was now standing at her side, she was amazed how fast he was, faster than The Dash with much of her magic poured in it.
"Ready to go and end this? Princess?" he asked with a small smirk forming on his lips, oh Sakura slightly grimaced at those words, but she supposed that once this is all over, and when they arrive to Crystalia, she would be called princess a lot more than before, she would pay him back for making her remembering this somehow.
"Yeah…LET'S DO THIS!" she screamed, flicking the card in front of her, The Hope spun in mid-air, nothing sustaining the unnatural spin and defiance of gravity, all while Naruto took point, and began to focus, energy cracking around him, pouring all the area, washing her and The Hope.
"Alright…THE HOPE!"
Immediately it happened, Sakura was right on one thing, she had never used The Hope willingly, the last time The Hope had acted on her own accord, because she wanted Sakura to finally admit how much she cared for Li, from there on out she had acted as the X in the equation, Sakura barely knew her powers because there was little in where to use them, or against someone.
Now it was different, this enemy had pushed Sakura beyond the limits, up to the point that another knight had been called to help her, that showed how serious this problem was, and how serious Sakura took her mother's advice back in the gates if she was willing to use her, even if she didn't knew the full extent of her power.
Now it was time to show it, The Hope's power was something unexplored by her mistress, now she had free reign, and there was a lot of people in the world that wanted this war to end.
She latched onto that, drawing it to Sakura, and then she latched on Naruto, and the power he held, the power that Sakura had of her own, and activated it.
To a Rayearth to reach Limit mode, they need at least to pass three trials, two and the aid of their guardian to activate it, trying to use Limit with just one trial passed means suicide, at least for the average Rayearth.
But Sakura was not the average Rayearth, so the sudden magic/telekinetic/elemental burst that suddenly pulsed over the world, unlike Naruto's that had shorted his whole village, her pulse shook every person in the world, every animal froze, every head of every single living, breathing being turned to one point, the focal point of the pulse.
In the middle of it, right where it had happened, soldiers and civilians alike stared at the epicenter with a shocked look, it was the only way to describe it.
Now far from it, just two meters away, stood Naruto, looking back, his eyes wide and mouth slack, The Hope had long returned to Sakura's glove, having done its job more than well.
And in the middle of the pulse stood Sakura, her whole body changed, a transparent yellow like skin of solid energy held what seemed a rainbow of energies that made out her new body, her nails and hair had turned into a blue like rock substance that didn't move with the extreme winds, and so were her eyelashes and eyebrows, her eyes were now glowing fully pink, there was no distinction between irises and sclera, and her lips were a combination of latex and crystal gone right.
The transformed girl looked at the sky, her eyes narrowed, it gave her a daunting look, especially considering that most of her clothes were battle-worn and her transformation had reduced some parts to nothing else but rags, she was still decent, but she was just one blast from being naked, or topless.
"Oh man…Hinata-Chan will kill me if I ever tell her this" Naruto muttered, knowing full well how Hinata got whenever he mentioned a girl and their state of clothes, or how he met them…or a girl in general, she was the jealous type.
Sakura seemed to note the slight distress of Naruto, and assumed it was because of the current events, and she simply smiled, her usual smile, that gentle smile she gave to everyone who knew her, that assured them that everything was going to be okay.
"Don't worry Naruto-Kun, I will end this quickly, then we can go together to Crystalia" her voice, an echo of her own with something metallic and mechanical, sounded over the place, then she jumped, her jump having the unfortunate effect of actually leaving a crater on the ground she stood on, rising dust and blowing Naruto away, rolling on his butt and actually having to use Kaze No Yaiba to stop himself of rolling anymore.
"How in the hell…she has Limit?" Naruto wondered, looking how in a single jump, Sakura had covered half the distance between her and the crystal, then wings come out of her back and enable her to cover the rest of the distance, Nova gleaming alongside her wielder.
To any outside witness, it was like staring a yellow streak flying directly towards the crystal, ready to play the most one-sided game of 'chicken' ever.
But for Sakura, this was the thing that had to be done, flicking Nova around; she sped up, The Fly working overtime to keep up with her demands of speed.
This was noted by the crystal and its owner, as the lower tip of it began to shine, gathering energy for an attack, and then it fired.
The effect was different of anything the attacker expected, instead of impacting against Sakura, or dodging, the transformed girl flicked Nova, and slammed the bo staff into the beam, there the impossible occurred as a beam capable of leveling a whole block was deflected back at its source, the deflected beam simply ate the fired one out of simple force, and impacted on the crystal, making it shudder on impact and buckle, all while the shockwave was felt everywhere in the area.
Sakura just kept rising, the wings on her back working overtime, and then it began as a whole, the crystal began to fire beam after beam after beam, and Sakura, during her ascend, kept deflecting beam after beam, back to its source, each beam impacting with three times its original force, making the crystal buckle under every impact, and each blast slightly splitting the sky even more.
"No more!" Sakura barked, her voice echoing over the battlefield, then taking a more offensive stance, she seemed to speed up, the wings on her back vanishing as she shot out, like an oversize bullet, anyone who blinked there, saw her one second a quarter the way, the other second…
BOOOM!
The very world shook when she impacted head first onto the crystal, and this one simply cracked, a spider web of cracks that simply traveled from impact point to the whole body at super-speed, just like her.
Anyone with a sharp eye, or a telescope, they would have seen that now the yellow energy that was Sakura slowly making her way onto the center of the crystal, slowly, but it was making its way, just as the cracks began to grow more pronounced, more and more…
'You dare to deny our right to live?'
"Just because you want to kill my people, my family, my friends!"
'They are nothing but dust, echoes in this cosmos, we are eternal!?
"Who are you to dictate how we live? You're not Kami!"
'We are superior, we spit at fate, and sneer at death, we cheated it once, and we shall do so again!"
"No! you had your chance! You toss is it away by pride! Dumb pride that cost you everything! Your lives, your children!"
'You are just a mere child, a being with a fifty year natural life expectance, we live by millennia if they were simply months, you cannot hope to comprehend the humiliation, the pain, the agony that was our existence!'
The cracks in the crystal seemed to heal on its own.
"Maybe, but I know…no, if we know something is that you must work hard to change their views, you were a proud race…a race that fell because pride was too important, more important that your own children lives!"
'Hush child! Don't dare speak condescend to us! We are superior; we are your betters, show respect!'
The very ground groaned and shifted, then it spit something out, Naruto recoiled in shock as a massive white crystal spike was spit by the very ground itself at double the speed Sakura jumped, and impacted the massive crystal PlumbBob, taking a huge chunk of its size with ease, the cracks now failing to reform there.
"Here's my respect!"
Another crystal spike was spit by the ground right at the PlumbBob, this one now getting stuck on another side of the crystal floating in the sky and damaging it further.
"Here's the respect of the world!"
The ground itself became the most deranged machine gun as it began to spit massive crystal spikes, ones as big as a person, others as big as a car, all going at speeds unheard off and more damaging than the missiles fired previously, each spike digging into the PlumbBob deeper and deeper, transforming the once smooth three dimensional figure in the most deranged looking work of art ever seen by human eye.
'Stop, you are killing us!'
"Naruto-Kun is right, I can't give up, I won't give up, especially with people who betrayed all they once stood for!"
'We stood for no one but us!'
"Then why the first rayearths were blood elves!?"
'…'
"That's right, they once stood for something right, for the people, not only your species, but Crystalia as a whole, they are the honorable ones, the three of them, you betray their trust on your kind, two died for you all, and you spit their memories!"
"NO!"
Tomoeda as a whole became silent, including Pact soldiers as they heard their leader cry a despair cry of anger, the yellow light near the center was nearly pushed outside, but it held, if barely.
Naruto was the only one who saw that the spikes were slowly being pushed, and the cracks on the PlumbBob were being repaired on its own, "No!" he cried, his eyes glowing purple/pink for a second before pushing his arms to the sky, and the spikes suddenly digging even deeper into the PlumbBob, causing damage that was harder to repair, "Come on Sakura-Nee, beat that bitch'ttebayo!"
Perhaps Naruto wasn't the only person on Tomoeda rooting for Sakura and loudly cheering for her victory, but he was the only one heard around.
This was not the case to Sakura, who even in her transformed state was having a hard time to push back the ethereal Pact leader and former Blood elf away, as immediately she was assaulted by a million upon million of voices, all saying one thing.
Win.
Sakura brought herself to reach on everything she had, pushing the Pact leader slowly, the ethereal form sneered at Sakura's effort and tried to push her away once more.
BAMM!
Hadn't she not been punched in the face by another ethereal being wearing military fatigues.
"THE HELL!"
The ethereal Pact leader roared in defiance, trying once more to push Sakura back, only to get punched at least a dozen times by at least a dozen ethereal fists coming out of thin air.
She tried again, and again, and again, meeting the same result, ethereal beings that weren't her own blood elves attacking her, she tried calling for her fellow elves, but only could saw in anger how the souls of her people were being held at way by men, women and sometimes children, holding blood elf children at bay, in most cases with violence, fist meeting fist, repeatedly.
It was there that she finally realized who they were, and what they had done, in a world where the dead interact with the living so closely, this was a variable she never expected, or an intervention that could be catalogued as orchestrated by mortal hands, this was simply a divine act, a superior being, far superior than the guardians themselves had acted, leaving the door to the dead walk in, open ajar, with the souls of so many that had died during the cataclysm and subsequent war, their numbers easily surpassed the ones of her own people ten to one, they were outnumbered and outgunned.
She would have none of that.
"NO! WE ARE LEGION! WE ARE FATE INCARNATED, WE ARE-"
"Oh shut up already!" Sakura suddenly roared, taking the sudden distraction of the ethereal Pact leader and uppercutting the being, hard.
Outside, the tip of the damaged PlumbBob was cleanly blown away.
"This is justice!" Sakura then brought her right leg on a roundhouse kick, impacting the ribs of the ethereal being, and apparently breaking her ribs, as the sound of something shattering was heard.
That something heard was in fact one side of the PlumbBob being blown off cleanly by that kick.
"This is your punishment!" this time she lashed with Nova, cracking the face of the ethereal Pact leader with the tip.
This time a whole section of the PlumbBob was gone with the impact.
And another.
And another.
And another.
To the outside spectators, it was like seeing something out of a movie, as the massive crystal was getting blown out from the inside out by the golden girl they had seen ascend and impact the crystal, and be responsible for the crystal spikes on most of the PlumbBob.
Inside, things were different of course.
"No more you monster!" Sakura cried, this time slamming her knees on the stomach of the being, the structure within the crystal was giving in on the brutal assault.
"I hate you! I hate you so much!" Sakura panted, starting to slap the being in the face, several times, each blow seemed more desperate, and the attempts of the ethereal Pact leader to defend herself grew weaker and weaker.
"Murdered! Killer! How many lives you have to destroy to be satisfied!? How much suffering you have to spread to be happy you monster!?"
'UNTIL OUR HONOR IS RESTORED!'
"IT WILL NOT BE RESTORED WITH THE BLOOD OF MY WORLD!" Sakura all but screamed, her rage was all but palpable to the souls around, and some more when she brought Nova up, then down, right at the skull of her enemy, hard.
The impact was more than enough to propel the Pact leader down, then off the PlumbBob, directly onto the unforgiving ground, all while Sakura looked down with a serious look on her transformed face, then she followed down her quarry, all while the crystal around her began to fall apart, and the soul of the blood elves screamed in rage, all while slowly vanishing alongside the souls of the fallen people of her planet, restraining them and making sure this was the last time anyone would see the souls of the Blood Elves.
When Sakura was away of the crystal, and half-way on the ground, then PlumbBob cracked in half, finally after the brutal assault of Sakura and Naruto's telekinetic support, the crystal cracked, then it simply blew up.
The explosion, if it could be called that, was simply having both remains of the massive crystal to simply disintegrate, like sand with water being lifted by a hand, breaking apart and having the wind carry over the soggy small remains away, of course when both sides fully vanished, the explosion as a whole happened, energy seemed to simply burst onwards where the crystal had been, forming a ring that expanded outward, it carried no concussive force, yet it pushed the clouds apart, but didn't pushed people or pieces of houses or anything else away.
Naruto smiled and whooped, something that was mimicked all over Tomoeda and even outside as the army men cheered at the sight, all while seeing a golden mot of light descending of the remains of the crystal.
Naruto stared as Sakura descended, then smiled grimly, he could feel Kero and Yue rushing to them, and their time was up, it was finally up, it was time.
Sakura seemed to share his grim reaction, as her face, even transformed, mimicked his grim smile.
"It's time Sakura-Nee" he said, making her way towards her, once Sakura had landed, her transformation finally vanishing, exposing her body, and taking deep breaths, trying not to fall on her face, Naruto's hands on her shoulders were the only thing holding her on her feet.
"I know" she panted, rising her hands and holding Naruto's shoulder like he was holding hers, there he noted how she was trying, and failing to contain tears.
"I…I don't even get to say goodbye" she slightly sobbed.
"I know" Naruto muttered, tightening his hold on her shoulder…the he perked up.
"I got an idea, if you're okay with it?"
On the distance, Yue and Kero rushed to where Sakura was, not even giving a second glance to the body of the Pact leader, broken and a haunted look as her last expression on her face, only to stop when some sort of light show began to appear there, they simply sped up, trying to reach Sakura.
Then the lights and slight thunders died out, both guardians of the cards rushed there, only to find Naruto standing there, and a slight burhs of wind around, no sign of Sakura however.
"Hey guys" Naruto began, "Before anything, Sakura-Nee just left with the boss to the Crystalia business thing" Yue and Kero did noted the way Naruto referred to Sakura and…himself.
"I'm a clone if you're wondering; the boss left me here to give you and Sakura-Nee family her message, okay?" there both guardians noted that the energy around Naruto was weaker, wild, unlike before, it seemed fragile, really fragile.
"She says she's sorry"
So there it is, the last chapter before epilogue, and i got to say, i'm proud of this one, unlike in the other last chapters of the rayearth knights, were in a way the knights get to say goodbye before leaving, Sakura didn't directly, well neither Danny, but he got to say some memorable last words before going away, or falling into a portal.
as it stands, in this chapter you see Sakura's greatest change after seeing the brutality of soldiers of both sides, her depresion and herf decision to betray her goverment once realizing that they are perpetuating the cycle of war by commiting atrocities and decides that both sides need a good scrapping, the repercussions of course, won't be seen until Universe at war, like the rest of stories.
so wait, sit a little more, and prepare yourselves for the epilogue and the teaser of Universe at war.
so meanwhile, read, enjoy and review.
