Sakura: Knight of the Clow

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Sakura Kinomoto ran along the street, her cloak swirling around her as she tried to keep away from her opponent. It was actually kind of refreshing to be dealing with a plain old monster rather than a Clow Card, but she knew she couldn't let her guard down.

Behind Sakura a cat's hungry yowl split the night, and the cat-women burst around the corner to chase after her. They were tall and slim, around six foot tall or so, and their body's were shaped mostly like attractive women. However they were covered by a layer of catlike fur, colored in solid browns or black, or in patterns like some cats. Their faces were very much like a cat-mask, and the ends of each finger were tipped with razor sharp claws.

Sakura had tried talking to them first, but they had charged her instead, leaving behind the corpse of a police officer. She was too late to save him, but Sakura was determined to make sure they would take no more lives.

'Including mine,' Sakura thought grimly as she ran through the side gate to a deserted sports field. Drawing forth a Clow card she held it a moment, concentrating, then struck it as she called, "Lightning!"

The cat-women had been closing in for the kill when the bolt flared from the card, arching out to strike the leader. The explosion of light seared her to ashes in a second, and the backwash of light and hear stunned the rest.

Seizing the moment Sakura twisted the head of the staff, then with a steely hiss drew out the hidden sword. Using the casing as a improvised club she swept in, attacking with both hands. Blood splashed on the grass as a second cat died, the five others stunned by the sudden visciousness of the attack. Blocking a claw strike with the base of the staff she gutted her opponent, the cat staggering back as she tried to hold her guts in. Another leaped at Sakura's back but she whjeeled around, raising her blade to drive it right through the eye and into the brain. Yanking the blade free she swept it out visciously, severing a third woman's throat.

At their comrade staggered backwards drowning in her own blood, the two remaining cat-women looked at Sakura in awe and horror. The one cat knelt, bowing her head as she pleaded, "Please, mistress of the Clow, spare us!"

Sakura was startled they could talk, much less that they were intelligent. "And how many of your victims begged too?" she asked as she advanced on them.

"We are hunters," the other woman spat defiantly, "it is what we do!"

"And this is what I do," Sakura struck the standing one first, a swift and lethal strike to the heart through the ribs. She turned to the kneeling one, "How do you want me to kill you?"

The cat-woman looked at her with a odd sort of dignity as she rose. "Make it quick and clean," she asked simply.

"I will," Sakura promised and did so, ending the woman's life cleanly.

Returning to her car Sakura felt... oddly relieved that Tomoyo and the others had been called away to a emergency press conference tonight. While killing these creatures had been necessary, it wasn't heroic or noble. It had been pure butchery, not something she wanted Tomoyo to see.

Sliding the sword away into the staff she shrunk it down to necklace size, climbing into her car and sitting back with a sigh. She leaned forward to start the car... when clawed hands closed tightly around her neck!

"URGHL!" Sakura made a choking sound, writhing as she fought against that steel like grip, her hands unable to budge them.

"Saw you hunting my sisters," the cat-woman growled from where she had hid in the back seat, her voice tickling Sakura's ear, "followed you and caught your scent. Pretty little car, easy to force the back door open and nap a bit."

Sakura silently cursed her inattention even as she grabbed the Key of Clow around her neck, willing it to staff size. She blindly jabbed over her shoulder, with what little strength she had, and gasped in air as the woman released one hand to catch the weapon. Sakura twisted free, the claws tearing at her skin then yelped as her back hit the passenger side door.

"Die!" the cat-woman howled, lunging across the seat at her.

Taking the staff in both hands Sakura slammed the pointed 'beak' decoration into the woman's face, sending her reeling into the back seat. Consumed by some kind of battle madness Sakura followed, hammering down the staff on the cat's head, blood splattering the walls. Claw swipes marked her arms and face as Sakura attacked, then a blow from her staff brought a sickening c rack and the cat-woman was still.

Sakura panted softly as she slowly came to her senses in the car, her mind coming out of the bezerker haze. Twinges of pain told her the cat had marked her pretty good, her hands aching from how hard they had clenched around her staff. She was virtually bathed in the creature's blood, and worse the backseat was soaked in it.

Slumping tiredly Sakura leaned against the nearest door, literally too tired to move. "I wonder if grandmother or mother ever had days like this?" she finally sighed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"What did you do then?" Tomoyo Daidouji asked, looking more than a little stunned as the two women finished up breakfast in her apartment. The black haired woman had come home from a emergency news conference to find Sakura outside her door, apparently car-less and battered, wearing a spare set of clothes with no shoes or socks on.

"I stripped out of my bloody clothes. Thank goodness I had brought a spare set in the trunk," Sakura sighed, "then used Firey to torch my clothes, the car and the body."

Most people would have asked why she did that, but a experienced reporter like Tomoyo put it together in moments. "The body had trace evidence of your car on it, and there was no way you could clean your vehicle completely," she realized, "not to mention the creature having bits of your blood and tissue under it's claws."

"Exactly," Sakura agreed.

Sakura unconsciously touched her cheek where fading red marks from claws were, along with ones on her neck and her arms. If she didn't heal faster than a normal person because of the Clow Cards she would have much more vivid looking injuries, and as it was she had decided to call in sick, today. There was no way she could go into work today without her boss or assistant looking at the marks and asking what happened.

"I suppose I'll have to report the car as stolen," Sakura grumbled, "maybe carjacked. Otherwise too many questions will be asked."

"Any chance the police could recover anything from the car?" Tomoyo wondered.

"I was pretty thorough," Sakura said, "by the time I was done, it was a puddle of slag." She sighed softly, "My poor car...."

"I'm sorry I wasn't with you last night," Tomoyo apologized softly, reaching out to gently pat the top of Sakura's hand.

Sakura shrugged slightly. "I'm sort of glad you weren't," she admitted softly, "I don't want to imagine what might have happened if she had attacked you first."

Tomoyo looked like she wanted to argue, but thankfully didn't. "Are you going to be able to get to work all right?" she asked.

Relieved to be talking about something more normal Sakura smiled, "Oh, I'll be all right. I can bus pretty easily from my home to work, after all. I did that as a trainee too." She made a face, "Unless I want to fly I'll need a ride from you or Yukito if I'm going to chase any Clow Cards, though."

"You can count on me," Tomoyo said warmly. She looked off in the distance, tapping her fingers thoughtfully. "I'd love to write a story on the cats, but I better not."

"Because I crashed here?" Sakura asked.

"That and I'd be basing it on what you told me, rather than what I saw," Tomoyo admitted. "I can't exactly use you as a source without revealing who you are...."

"Sorry," Sakura said, shrugging slightly. She knew Tomoyo hated missing a story, but the other woman would be fine. Curiously she asked, "What happened with you last night?"

Tomoyo smirked, "The police, specifically a certain detective I know who owes me a favor, got a warrant to search the Mayor's residence involving certain documents involving the improper awarding of certain contracts."

"From the look on your face they found them," Sakura smiled.

"Right where my source said they were," Tomoyo agreed. "Me, a TV news reporter and our cameramen got it all on tape, while his Honor the Mayor fumed in the background."

Sakura drank some orange juice, sighing happily. "Do you think it will be enough to bring him down?" she wondered.

"That, I don't know," Tomoyo answered, sounding a bit frustrated. "The stuff I've turned up already should have lead to his own allies ousting him, but he's holding on."

"Don't worry," this time Sakura patted Tomoyo's arm comfortingly as she said, "I'm sure you'll get him eventually." That stirring moment was interrupted by her stomach, which picked just that moment to gurgle loudly.

"Hungry again?" Tomoyo asked, faintly surprised. She knew that Sakura had a appetite, but it usually wasn't this bad.

"I think it's because of the fast healing," Sakura blushed as she explained, "it really burns through the calories."

"Makes sense," Tomoyo conceded as she got up from the table and walked to her kitchen. "How about I make you a early lunch?"

"You don't have to...," Sakura started to protest.

Tomoyo waved that off, "I know, but I want to." As she started getting items out of the fridge she added impishly, "You can always pay me back later."

Normally Sakura would have ignored that or made a joke, but her close call last night was far too recent. "Well, neither of us are going out today...," she purred suggestively.

Tomoyo nearly dropped the eggs, recovering at the last minute. "Who are you," she joked, "and what have you done with the real Sakura?"

Sakura couldn't help but laugh.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Sonomi Daidouji sat in her office, studying the report in front of her. It wasn't as complete as she would have liked, her agents were limited in how close they could get to Sakura, but what she read was disturbing. The young woman had nearly been killed last night, probably would have been killed if not for her fast reflexes and a bit of luck.

'I need to send Tomoyo some samples of the light weight armor cloth were developing,' Sonomi thought grimly as she picked up another sheet.

The police report on Sakura's car had also been forwarded by certain individuals who owed her favors on the police force. The fire that had destroyed the car had virtually vaporized any trace evidence, so much so the detective involved thought the car had been stolen for a yakuza hit. Her people would keep monitoring the case, but so far Sakura was merely considered the victim of the theft of her car.

Sonomi made a note for her staff that if Sakura had any trouble with insurance or obtaining another car, steps would need to be taken. Sakura was family, even if they had different last names, and you took care of family.

'I also need to determine if there's anything more direct we can do to help,' Sonomi mused, turning in her chair to look out the window.

Police's early encounters with the monsters had shown that most kinds of conventional weapons were useless. Bullets barely fazed the variety of creatures encountered, only brute force applications of power like ramming it with a car had even slowed one down. Edged weapons were some use, as a housewife had demonstrated when she chopped a attacking kobold apart with a meat cleaver, but the odds were good she couldn't convince the police to give up guns for swords.

'It seems we're stuck depending on Sakura and her magic sword,' Sonomi thought grimly, then her eyes widened as a thought occurred to her. 'If there's one magical sword,' she mused, 'why can't there be more?'

With new determination Sonomi picked up the phone, connecting to her secretary. "Get me the head of the archeology department at Tokyo University," she ordered, "and make it fast."

To be continued....