Chapter 10 – Sakura's Flowing Courage

The day after Chrono's battle. They all went over to his house. On their way up to his room, his parents stopped them all to ask what happened yesterday to make him so exhausted. Nanoha made up an elaborate story about how he unavoidably missed a bus back home and had to run the 22 blocks to their meeting place, so he didn't make them wait to long. They seemed to buy it so they let them continue up to his room. He was still in bed even though it was one in the afternoon. Nanoha made sure to tell Chrono the details for the lie she told his parents in case they asked so they would get suspicious. Nanoha as a general rule didn't like to lie, nor did the rest of them, but they knew given what they were doing it was necessary. After all, if their parents or other people found out about their powers and what they were doing, they would at a minimum be forced to stop and worse yet taken to some secret government lab to be dissected or some other sci-fi horror scenario. That said, they put that to the back of their minds as they all congratulated Chrono on his impressive victory, though just one among them had a completely opposite reaction as Sakura did something totally unexpected. She went up to him and slapped him in the face with a few tears rolling down her face. Chrono also replied to this very unexpectedly, "Thanks, I probably deserved that. Sorry." Sakura was a bit teary eyed, "Just don't be so stupid in the future, OKAY!"

After Sakura knocked some sense into Chrono, he seemed to liven up a bit. To make him feel as good as new, Lance used a special healing spell to help restore Chrono's stamina. After that, he felt good as new. Unfortunately, Lance said that using magic to replenish stamina wasn't some miracle cure for tiredness, and that all it really did was take the excess energy the body naturally burned when resting and converted it into a stamina boost, which was why he couldn't use it on Chrono yesterday after the fight. It was all he could do to get Chrono to be able to walk which of itself was impressive taken into account what had transpired in that battle. Lance went on to explain that this was the reason that mages didn't simply use a stamina-restoring spell to avoid sleeping. In any case, they all re-watched Chrono's fight again and continued telling him how well he did to take out the evil tree monster. Chrono felt good about all the attention but as to not give lack of credit, he told them that it would not have been possible if Nanoha hadn't been there to provide help and to actually seal the stone. Nanoha thanked him for his kind words and then Lance said he had something to discuss with them all.

Lance, and truthfully everyone else had started to notice a pattern forming. The Saren Stones always seemed to appear or activate whenever they were around. Sakura, "Isn't it kind of strange, the timing seems a bit too perfect." Lee, "I know what you mean." Chrono, "Yeah, and they're always at the worst times, it can't be just coincidence." Nanoha, "Yeah, I know what you mean." Lance was in thought for a moment, "Well, the only reason I can think of is that its because we're the strongest magical entities in the area. Magic always seeks out other Magic above all else, so my guess is that they activate because they sense that we're nearby, and possibly a threat, like an autoimmune response." Lee, "Wait, so you're saying we're causing it? I don't want to be responsible for setting those kinds of things loose upon Japan." Lance, "Well I wouldn't worry about that. Its true that any of us getting close to a stone might cause it to go off, but truthfully they would almost definitely activate sooner or later. My guess is that any number of catalysts could set them off, most of which probably have nothing to do with any of us, so maybe we should consider ourselves lucky that they do respond to us being close, since it means that they're easier to find and that at least one of us will be nearby to try and stop it." Nanoha, "That's true I guess, but if that's the case, we should probably think up a strategy to make sure that we can respond appropriately." Lance, "True, which means we should make up some balanced team combinations."

Lance continued by pointing out that for the last few battles, only a few of them were there to actually take care of the spawn of the Saren Stone. The Saren Stones seemed to have the power to put up a potent form of ATF or anti transport field so it made it so that they couldn't just teleport to the scene of the crime. During her training, Sarah proved that she couldn't seal the stones for she didn't have the aptitude for innate sealing magic so they made a point of stating that only Nanoha and Lee and if ABSOLUTLY necessary Lance could actually seal the Saren Stones. This led to a group decision. If outside their houses, they would try to be in groups at all times. That group would have to include Lee, Nanoha or the combination of Sakura and Lance. The third group was so that Sakura could help maintain the barrier while Lance focused on sealing the stone. Lance said he was generally a non-combatant so he didn't have confidence in being able to do both in the middle of a fight by himself, though Nanoha said that Lance was stronger than he let on, but no one pressed the issue farther. They might not have known each other the longest, but they felt that they had become good enough friends with Lance and knew him well enough to trust his judgment.

Next on Lance's list was their strategy for when they were not all there. They decided on a play it safe and said that each group needs to have someone good with support fire from afar so that meant that they would try to destroy it long distance. The exception would be Chrono who would just go ballistic while aided by support fire. After that was all decided, everyone decided to spend the rest of the day at Chrono's house, seeing as Chrono still couldn't leave. Though he was all healed up, his parents wanted to keep him home for the day since they were a bit worried because of how he had come home yesterday.

They spent the whole day just hanging out at Chrono's place until it was time to go home. Nanoha had already left to go to the public library with Sarah and Sakura was already asleep on a couch so Lee decided to teleport her back to her house. When they got there, Sakura woke up realizing she was on Lee's back as they couldn't teleport directly into the house without raising suspicion, so he had teleported them a few blocks away to a vacant lot behind some building supplies where no one would be looking. She blushed for a moment and then thanked him for bringing her home. She always got embarrassed when Lee carried her home, which actually happened more often then she cared to admit as Sakura fell asleep at Chrono's and Lee's houses a lot.

That said, the moment she got off Lee's back, both of them got a feeling in the pits of their stomachs that immediately put them both on edge. Just a moment later the sky turned dark and a weird dark mist started to surround them, and then both of them felt it, something was approaching in the darkness. A black blob then appeared from the bushes. Lee, "Why does this always happen on my way home." Sakura, "Well I thought we already discussed that earlier, but either way let's finish this quick, this one doesn't look that strong." Suddenly, blob transformed into something resembling a person. The only thing was that the person had no face and was grey skinned.

Both of them backed away quickly and Sakura telepathically asked Lance to put up a barrier over the whole area so she could concentrate on fighting instead. She saw the barrier go up and then both of them transformed. Lee then changed his staff into a sword. Sakura flew back quickly as Lee went straight for the fake person monster thing. It dodged and shot 2 blasts of magic at Lee. Lee dodged and to his amazement dodged them at a super fast rate. He had found that he could increase his physical stats even more by concentrating his magic a bit; a useful tip from Nanoha, but it was much more than she had made it out to be. It followed up by firing a whole bunch of blasts all at once. Just then CERENITY chimed in, "Try RAPID SCARLET SHOOTER." Sakura aimed her staff at the incoming blasts, "RAPID SCARLET SHOOTER." She found that they shot at her will and she could shoot as many as she wanted. She also found when she transformed her staff into it's firing mode she had super enhanced senses. She aimed carefully and shot the blasts from the enemy and in rapid succession, shooting them all down.

Lee then tried to cut the enemy up again. This enemy was more agile then the ones before them. It dodged and if sliced, it could regenerate a limb. He just couldn't manage to get a good swing at the heart though. After realizing this, he backed up and changed his staff into shooting mode. "SHINNING BUSTER!" His attack missed just barely, and Lee didn't know why but he tried to for lack of a better phrase, will his buster to change directions and to his surprise, it did indeed turn just a bit, just grazing his enemy, but it was a good hit. Its arm was blown off and it was clearly unsettled by the attack despite quickly regenerating the destroyed limb, probably wary of Lee's great power, but at the same time it smirked, as if it had just come up with a plan. Lee though didn't notice any of that and followed up by firing some glowing shooters at it, but realized a moment too late that he had been successfully bated as he saw something crazy. The Saren Stone manifestation seemingly caught and collected all of Lee's powerful blasts, molding them all together forming them into some huge sphere, but that wasn't all. Suddenly it charged it's own power into it as well, severely increasing the power to something much stronger then Lee's buster and then with an almighty surge of power, it shot it all back as one large attack at Lee, who was caught severely off guard, resulting in a clean and devastating hit. "LEE!" Sakura went over to him and tried to heal him, but while she could use healing magic, she wasn't as good as Lee. He healed well enough but he appeared to use up most of his power on deflecting the fatal damage of the attack with a last minute defensive aura, but the attack had weakened him physically. He only had just enough stamina left to potentially seal it, but as for the rest of the fight he was out.

Sakura knew that she was going to have to take the stand, scared as she was, but against Lee's protests she told him to sit out and that she would take care of the rest. Sakura turned to her enemy and launched some blasts at it but to no avail. It dodged them easily but Sakura wasn't about to give up there. Cerenity, "Try SCARLET FURY BUSTER." A large red magic circle appeared under Sakura. "SCARLET," the staff started gathering red colored magical energy into the barrel of the staff, "FURY," she aimed it straight at the target, "BUSTER!" a wave of immense red colored magical energy shot out of the staff. It dodged the buster but the wave of magic changed course with it. It tried to dodge again but the blast was too fast for it and they collided. It put up a shield but the attack pierced it and hit the thing straight on. It fell to the ground but just as quickly got up.

"What is it going to take to beat this guy," Sakura kept thinking to herself. I need a different move. Cerenity gave Sakura another suggestion, "Try Crimson Bind." Sakura, "CRIMSON BIND," and the thing stopped moving. It had red rings around its legs, arms and throat. "Okay, try this, PLATNIUM SCARLET SMASHER." With the bind still in effect, it couldn't dodge so the attack made a direct hit but Sakura wasn't done yet, "POWER EXTENTION." The attack doubled in power as it just bombarded the fake person thing. When the attack died down, Sakura's staff released a lot of steam out the back. When she looked at the spot where the thing was she was shocked. It was still there without a scratch. "You shouldn't still be alive after that much less unscathed" Sakura was kind of scared, that was her strongest attack, but she knew that she had to do this, Lee was down and she was the only one here.

Suddenly her enemy went into a rampage of blasts shooting one after another at Sakura. She got hit with them all as she was pretty drained of power, her feeble defense not able to withstand the onslaught. She was getting tired and terrified at this point. It just seemed impossible for her to defeat it. She also had to worry about Lee who would already be pushing it by reserving power for the sealing. It was all she could do to try and deflect some of the blasts. "RAPID SCARLET SHOOTER." She intercepted the blasts with her own. It was a furious battle of blasts as they matched evenly, neither Sakura nor the Saren Stone manifestation were giving an inch. They just stayed locked in combat. But Sakura knew she couldn't keep it up forever.

Then it flew away and put its hand into the air. It charged up a large blast and shot it straight at Sakura. "CRIMSON SHOT," Sakura launched an equally large blast of red magic at the monster. There was a large explosion, forcing them both back, but Sakura's blast was stronger so the manifestation took more damage. It was when the thing was regenerating that Sakura's keen senses saw it; the Saren Stone was in its heart. The only problem was that she couldn't hit it. She had to get past the exterior of the thing first, and that was near impossible since when she did, it regenerated. She knew what she needed though, something fierce, something narrow and focused, but something ungodly strong, something that could pierce through in one go, but she didn't know how she could even accurately aim something like that, let alone use it. She turned to her staff for help, "No chance you turn into a sniper rifle or something?" She was half-joking, and so was surprised when she got a response from CERENITY "Master, there is a HighPoweredSniper Mode, though it is not recommended in user's current state." Sakura though didn't have any hesitation as she flew to the ground. "HPS Mode, ACTIVATE." Sakura's staff changed; its head changed into a four pronged head that met at a nice point with another pointy rod in the middle, sticking out and CERENITY was in the center of it all. The staff now had a handle and aiming scope attached to it. It felt impressive to Sakura, but at the same time draining; it was like it was sucking the life out of her just to hold it.

"Use CrimsonSniperShot DRIVER," suggested CERENITY. Sakura didn't know what was going on, but something in her told her to just flow with it. "CSS DRIVER, START." The point started to shine red and a super large magical circle appeared under Sakura. "SCARLET BINDER, SHOOT," the point shot out a small but concentrated laser-like beam of red magic that pierced the enemy leaving a non-fading trail behind it. It also seemed to keep her enemy from going anywhere. Suddenly, a huge amount of magic started to gather into the head of Sakura's staff, and she could feel it, this was it, her own finisher, and it was strong. The abomination tried to move out of the way, but found that the spot that the beam had shot was stuck in place. Sakura felt her power peak. "Here I go! This is my all, everything I've got left. CrimsonSniperShot, FIRE!" A HUGE wave-like blast of pure red-crimson magical energy shot out of the staff and straight toward the enemy, mostly focused at the head of the attack, and following the SCARLET BINDER's trail and thus hit it's mark perfectly. The pure power of the attack focused on the one point she had marked, and then completely incinerated the monstrosity, and it seemed that it couldn't regenerate after being hit in the heart. It also tore apart the surrounding landscape and anything else in the immediate vicinity leaving a large trail of damage where it past. The only thing left was the Saren Stone, which Lee with the last of his power sealed away quickly. Haruno, "Number 18, sealed."

Lee was so exhausted of energy that his Barrier Jacket and his staff released on their own. Sakura rushed over. "SCARLET HEALING." Sakura activated the spell and healed most of Lee's injuries, though at the cost of nearly fainting herself, Lee had to catch her. Lee now only felt very tired but luckily not in pain. Lee, "That was amazing Sakura. I can't believe you went into battle all by yourself. Didn't know you had it in you to fight like that." Sakura, "Well to be honest, neither did I. It just happened. I just felt an urge to fight and went along with that. Guess it was like some sort of adrenaline rush or something." Just then Lance, Nanoha and Sarah came flying in all suited up for battle in their barrier jackets and Lance with his spells at the ready. Sarah "Guess we miss all the action." Lee gave her a weak smile, "Afraid so." Sakura, "Wish you could have been there, it was a real BLAST if you get my drift." Lee, "Very funny." He then turned to everyone else, "You really should have seen Sakura fight though, she was on fire. She went head to head with it and came out on top. Wish I could have helped more but I got cheaped out with a blast made by taking my own blasts and then throwing them back at me twice as powerful and thus I got pretty banged up. I tell you it was the cheapest thing I ever heard of. If he was going to blast me, he could have at least had the manners to do it himself." Sakura, "It's okay you helped in the beginning a lot. I was scared stiff then and couldn't do anything. You inspired me to fight really."

After they all released their weapons and Barrier jackets, Lance restored the area and released the barrier. Lee suddenly realized they were short a member, "Where's Chrono?" Nanoha, "He's still a little worn out from yesterday so he couldn't leave his house. Also I don't think his parents would let him. They think he must be sick or something even though he's technically fine now, Lance saw to that." They all headed back to Chrono's house where they were greeted by Chrono's parents. They let them through this time without question but said how lovely it was that Chrono had so many good friends. When they got to Chrono's room, he was in a chair playing a video game on his TV. He paused it though when they entered and went straight up to them to ask what happened and who fought etcetera. Lee and Sakura told him what had happened. Chrono was surprised to find out how good Sakura could fight. He quietly resolved to not do anything stupid around her again in fear of what could come of it now that they all had the equivalent of super powers. Later everyone went home. Lee needed Sarah to teleport him home due to his extreme exhaustion where he went straight to bed as soon as he got home.


Authors Note:

So before anyone has a chance to ask, I'm going to preempt everyone by asking a question that almost everyone whose read this story and understands even a modicum of Japanese and Japanese culture has asked me, and that is Why is Sakura's magic colored red, instead of cherry blossom pink for which she is named after. The answer to this one, unlike many things, is in fact more of a practicality than anything on my part as the author. Nanoha might as well have a trademark on pink magic in the context of her series, and by extension my derivative work of it, even if hers is a very deep electric shade of pink versus the traditional shade of light pink associated with cherry blossom trees. Thus, since there was no way ever that I would even begin to consider changing the color of Nanoha's magic, I had to do so for Sakura. Besides, despite her name, when imagining her character design, crimson red seemed to be more her thing anyway.

On another note, this is probably the last chapter that I'll be uploading today (same day as new re-release of this story) since its late and I like to sleep. That said, at this point, I would like to acknowledge literally every other author who is on this site. I love fanfiction dot net, and as a reader, despite its simple (and some might even say dated) design I find it easy to navigate and use. On the flip side, I can't say the same of author features. It is entirely possible that its entirely my own doing, but it feels overly cumbersome to set up a story and add chapters, between having to upload them to the doc manager, give that doc a title, then go to an entirely separate page to then add a chapter, give that chapter yet another title, then add the doc to that chapter to connect the text with it, and then finally publish it, all with no feature to directly edit a chapter's contents without then going back to the doc manager to edit that doc, then go back to the chapter area, hit the update button, and then reselect that doc for that chapter to apply said edits. This is especially cumbersome for me though since some of my stylings don't ultimately translate well, but show as fine when I upload initially, and so I have to go back and do on site edits to get it to look right. Thus, in honor of my frustration and the headache I now have, I give thanks to all the authors who deal with this headache daily, as well as ask them for an aspirin, or better yet, their secret for dealing with this, as I am sure that there is a better way that fanfic masters on this site know of that I am not yet privy too.