SAKURA TAISEN/WARS and all related characters, names and indicia are TM & (C) SEGA RED and are used here without permission.

Author's Note: This one-shot is dedicated to my "Sakura" and to my "Reni," for whom I will put six new holes into any threat. Written quite a while ago, but never posted until a gentle reminder from my "Sakura."

Rating: R

"I'm Watching You"

January 28, 1925

It was decidedly difficult to clandestinely study these particular two members of the Hanagumi for unusual circumstances, Sakura realized as she focused on Maria and Reni in the Imperial Opera Theatre's commissary. This was especially true when one had one's own rather disturbing situations to consider.

For nearly two weeks now, Sakura had been receiving anonymous letters addressed to her at the theatre's box office. They were typewritten, both letter and envelope, and there was no return address and no post mark, and no one had seen anyone but the postman delivering letters. The letters had started out as simple harmless compliments, very brief and very artless. Then they degenerated into quite the opposite. She began receiving several per day, and some were beginning to make her very uneasy.

Sakura hesitated to bring them up to anyone. She'd considered asking Sumire if she ever got letters like this and what she did about them, but she presumed that Sumire got dozens of letters a day proposing everything from dinner to mariage and all in between, Sumire would likely think Sakura silly for being concerned over such a thing. She imagined Kohran didn't have time to read any mail, if she got fan letters. And Kanna typically found hers funny, and most of her admirers were women. Likewise with Maria, who was the one Sakura wanted to talk to about this the most. Through conversations over the years, mostly via Kanna who could never seem to keep her best friend's secrets to herself, Sakura learned that Maria was the recipient of some of the Hanagumi's most bizarre and often depraved fan mail. She was never one to receive a great many letters, like Sumire, but some of the few she did receive were... quite odd. For that reason, Sakura wanted Maria's opinion. But again, she was afraid Maria had seen such terrible things in her letters that she might think Sakura was overreacting to hers.

And then, there was the problem of how strangely Maria and Reni were acting lately. Quiet, serious, reclusive, edgy... but then, that described them both on a normal day, which was why it was difficult for Sakura to tell what, if anything, was truly going on.

Reni and Maria were sitting alone together across the commissary. Reni was not eating and Maria had only a cup of coffee. They were speaking so quietly that they could not be overheard. Then Reni drew an envelope from her pocket and passed it to Maria, who opened and read it. As she read, Maria's hands tightened on the paper,making it shiver in her fingers. Then she folded the letter abruptly and looked back to Reni, her jaw clenched tightly closed. Reni asked Maria something and she nodded in response, then Reni held up the envelope - typewritten only with "Reni Milchstrasse, Imperial Opera Theatre" on it, no postmark, no return address.

Just like the letters Sakura had been receiving.

Now Sakura was convinced she needed to speak to them. She waited until they rose to go and then caught up with them. "Maria, may I speak with you a moment?"

Both Maria and Reni stopped and turned. Reni was visibly agitated. She may be a wunderkind, but she was still just a sixteen-year-old girl.

"I... I have been receiving strange letters..." Sakura began, uncertain how to proceed.

Maria relieved her of that need. She exchanged a glance with Reni and then looked back to Sakura. "Will you come with us, please?"

Maria closed the door to her room and turned to them. "You've been getting anonymous letters, Sakura? So has Reni."

Sakura looked to the young German girl, who added, "And now so has Maria."

Disallowing Sakura's question or reaction to Reni's statement, Maria redirected the questioning. "For how long have you been getting letters?" Maria gestured for them to sit in the only two chairs she owned, a desk chair and a wooden straight-backed armchair. Then the Vice Captain sat on her bed.

"About two weeks," Sakura responded.

Maria's brows shot up. "And you told no one?"

"I didn't think it was important," Sakura stammered. "Sumire gets letters all the time, and some of them are anonymous..."

"Have you kept the letters?"

Sakura nodded. "They are in my room. I didn't want to throw away anything that might end up being a clue."

"Good. Would you mind telling us what your letters were about?"

Sakura lowered her head. "Well.. the first one was no more than 'I liked you in Cinderella' and that was all. Then the letters got longer, some of them insulting. And recently, many of them were outrageous, and proposed... indecent things. One of the letters even mentions my scenes with you, Maria."

Maria stiffened. "Mentions?"

Sakura blushed. "It is... unrepeatable."

Maria glanced at Reni, who looked miserable. The Russian managed to unclench her jaw to speak. "This goes beyond anonymous appreciation of our art."

"Were your letters... inappropriate... as well?" Sakura asked.

Maria nodded. "Suggestions, it seems, on how I should improvise certain scripted scenes toward our admirer's preferences. It is Reni's letters which concern me the most."

Reni did not look up at either of them, but her soft voice penetrated. "I have received just under a hundred letters in the space of three weeks."

"A hundred!" Sakura rose to her feet. "And as implicit as the ones Maria and I have received?"

"More so," Maria replied evenly, still seated.

"But... But Reni... Reni plays the very young boys on stage, and the child roles... she's sixteen years old!"

"Yes," Maria's face was pale with restraint.

"And you and Maria are both mentioned in my letters as well," Reni added, now also blushing.

"Maria, this is a matter for the police!" Sakura was flushed with anger.

"I have already contacted them," Maria said. "As for you and I, since we are adults, there is nothing they will do until we are receiving upwards of twenty-five letters a day."

"Twenty-five a day!" Sakura's eyes widened and Maria nodded.

"But Reni, since she is a minor, they can begin tracing the letters immediately, and they have done so. Unfortunately, Reni did not save many of the letters."

Apologetically, Reni added, "I didn't want them in my room. They were awful."

"It is all right, Reni," Maria sounded strikingly like a protective older sibling. Then, to Sakura, she said, "It seems that the letter writer is rather fixated on Reni."

Reni drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Maria bore the distinctive look that anyone stepping too near to Reni would instantly have six new holes in the most uncomfortable parts of their body. And now that Sakura knew about it, they might find certain rather useful parts of themselves cleanly severed, too. The Hanagumi protected each other, without question.

Sakura sat down again. "The impression that I got from the letters I received was that I am not particularly well liked by this admirer, except as Cinderella to your Prince Charming..."

Maria frowned. "My letters did not begin until I became an advocate for Reni to the authorities."

"What did your letters say?"

Maria did not answer. Instead, she redirected the conversation again. "This is not a matter the Imperial Army can assist with, without compromising our secret. We will just have to let the police handle it on their own."

"But, Maria..." Sakura drew a letter out of the folds of her kimono and handed it to her. "My most recent letter says that the writer will be at tonight's performance."

Sakura sat in front of the mirror in her room, working at a tangle in her long black hair with a wooden comb. Tonight's opera had gone off without a hitch, a beautiful performance of Gounod's "Faust" in which Sakura had played the unlucky ingenue, Marguerite. The Evil One himself was pulled off with unearthly and eerie splendour by Sumire in an unusual cross-dressed role. Faust, the desperate man who wants nothing more than Marguerite's love, was played by Maria. And Faust's theology student, Siebel, also in love with Marguerite, was played by Reni. The heroic and fatally tragic Valentin was played by Kanna, and the nosy neighbour Marthe was sung by Orihime. Iris and Kohran were Marguerite's angels, though Kohran doubled as Faust's second student at the beginning of the opera.

Everything had been simply gorgeous, and the orchestra was nearly drowned out at the end of the finale "Ange pure, ange radieux" by the applause. Sakura had received flowers and gifts... and no letter, much to her great relief. Once she was completely cleaned up from the costume and makeup of the stage, she was going to meet Kanna and Sumire downstairs in the lounge for coffee and then to the formal meet-and-greet which would be attended by some of the patrons who'd paid higher prices for the evening's entertainment.

Reni opted for a long, hot soak before her requirement to attend the formal party.

And Maria had gone straight to her room after getting out of costume. She opened her bedroom window and drew several long, deep breaths, her ribs slightly sore from being bound in costume. And of course, she needed to shake the disturbing feeling of guilt that seemt to cling to her after portraying a particularly heinous role, such as Doctor Faustus.

Maria Tachibana, in a move her audiences had come to expect, declined to attend the party. Her short blonde hair was still damp as she sat at her desk, disassembling and cleaning her revolver. She hadn't fired it at all today, there was no need. But there was something cathartic about the ritual of it, something about the routine that eased a mind continuously whirling with thoughts, plans, memories and possibilities. She held the open breach cylinder up to the window and squinted through it. The rifled barrel of the revolver gleamed with moonlight. She slid the bar of the star in with her middle finger and it moved almost noiselessly and with no catch. She turned it slightly, examining the ridge that lifted out each bullet shell. Chamber four was still too shallow - if it wore away any further or if any of the bullets she loaded were at all misshapen, it wouldn't lift the empty shell out. She had mastered the feel of her own revolver, she could breach it and slam the star up in a single movement, and the empty shells would rain down around her hands. And somewhere in that muscle memory, she always remembered to press slightly right on the star piston so it would catch that fourth shell. Satisfied, she clicked the breach closed and set the gun on her desk. She hadn't loaded it. She thought for a moment that perhaps she should, but then she decided against it. Instead, she set her speed-loader, six bullets ready in it, on the desk beside her Enfield and drew the curtains.

Things had been relatively quiet, lately. And that was a blessing after what they'd been through in the few months previous. It was winter, and the snow seemed to calm things a bit in the city. She stood by her radiator for a moment, then laid her long black robe over the back of her desk chair near the radiator, stepped out of her slippers and slid under the inordinately cold blankets. She shiveredfor only a moment, then let the cold seep into her, a trick she'd taught herself in Russia to keep her jaw from aching and shivering. Eventually, she drifted to sleep.

Buffet tables were set up around the lobby of the theatre and spread with hors d'ouvres and wine glasses with centerpieces of crystal candleabras and fresh lilies. Kanna had just entered from the center stairs, looking unusually stunning in a red draping blouse and a long red pants voluminous enough to look like a skirt when she stood still. Ruby stud earrings and an attempt to array her hair were the extent of Kanna's preparation. Accepting the public invitation were Sakura, Kanna, Sumire and Reni. Declining were Orihime, Maria, Iris and Kohran.

Sakura was already there. Her gown was strapless and pale, sparkling pink, the skirt had some swing to it and it was cocktail length, just below the knee. Sumire looked stunning in an elabourate tulle gown of pale violet and deep purple, accented with rhinestones and draped off the shoulder. Reni was playing wallflower, her dress simplistic ice blue, high at the neck but sleeveless, and floor length.

Nearly a hundred theatre patrons were milling about, talking and drinking and smiling and congratulating the actresses. Sakura caught Reni out of the corner of her eye and wondered how she managed to be so invisible. Sakura herself was surrounded on all sides by theatre-goers.

And that is when she noticed Maria at the top of the stairs.

Sakura gasped in surprise, both at seeing Maria, and at seeing Maria like this…

The patrons around Sakura turned to look as well, and slowly, a hush fell over the gathered crowd as they looked to the top of the center staircase, to the actress they'd just seen play Doctor Faustus… looking quite different than they'd ever seen her before.

Maria wore black, where she wore anything at all. Her short blonde hair was swept back in clips, a few fine wisps falling over her forehead only. The black dress had spaghetti straps and a scooped neckline that revealed the flat of her breastbone. The back of the dress was low enough to reveal the small of her back, and though the length puddled on the floor, there was a slit up her right thigh that went nearly to her hip. Three-inch strappy heels wrapped around her ankles and tied in bows there, making her significantly taller than almost every patron, male and female alike. Diamond droplets hung from her ears and a black velvet choker encircled her throat. Black satin gloves reached above her elbows.

Nearly everyone was struck dumb and breathless, though for different reasons. She looked striking. But this was not how Maria dressed nor wore her hair nor made an entrance. And if she had, she would have had the good grace to blush. Maria, instead, gave a coy smile to Sakura, who'd inadvertently started the spectacle.

What was Maria-san playing at?

In a voice even lower and more sultry than she typically managed, Maria greeted the guests, a breathy whisper that all strained to hear. But she did not make a public announcement, she greeted each individually, choosing the men who were most attentive, as she walked past them.

"Come out of your corner, Reni," Maria breathed to the shocked German, and took her hand, leading her into the crowd. "She is shy at her first party," Maria explained to the nearby guests, and ran a hand over Reni's hair, making a soft grip with satinclad fingers at the short hairs at the nape of Reni's neck. Reni looked horrified. "Be gentle with her," Maria left Reni surrounded by patrons who were paying attention to no one but Maria.

Then Maria found Sakura.

"Maria-san…" Sakura whispered to her, confused and stunned. "What are y—"

Maria had slunk straight to the swordswoman, swept her up in her arms and kissed her in a manner that was in no way staged. Sakura's balance was lost against the much taller woman, and her mind reeled in shock. The crowd around them gasped, and someone started a nervous round of applause, assuming this was some theatrical display.

When Maria pulled away, her eyes heavily hooded and glazed, Sakura noticed something. Strands of light. Just in a blink, then they were gone.

Recognition flooded through Sakura as Maria turned back to Reni, who was backing away in terror.

"Maria-san is not a puppet!" Sakura yelled, alarming some guests even further. Yoneda was beginning crowd control, attempting to get some of the guests to leave. Kanna appeared at Sakura's shoulder. "Where is he?" she hissed.

"What are you going to do about it? You're just actresses!" a thin, high voice echoed throughout the room and several electric chandeliers burst, plunging the room into semi-darkness. The patrons began to flee, but the doors would not open. They pressed their backs to the walls, clearing the area around the Hanagumi as if it were theatre in the round.

Maria advanced on Reni, who now stood her ground, recognizing their foe.

Setsuna.

"Let her go!" Kanna growled, her fists balled and heeled feet planted as widely as her dress would permit.

"As you say," Setsuna's voice answered, and Maria collapsed to the floor, unconscious. Instead, threads and strands of light shot through Reni and she moaned in pain only momentarily, then lifted her head calmly, approaching the stirring Maria.

"Let me help you," Reni said, kneeling beside a confused and disoriented Maria. Reni slid an arm under Maria's shoulders and lifted her to a sitting position, then wrapped her other arm around Maria's waist as well. Maria raised an eyebrow, stunned into full wakefulness.

"Reni?"

"I was so concerned for you when you fell…" Reni buried her head in the crook of Maria's shoulder and neck. Maria was supporting herself on both hands, but she lifted one now to pat Reni consolingly on the back and glance around to see Kanna and Sakura in angry, battle-ready poses.

"Setsuna," Sumire explained in a soft growl to Maria, and Maria noticed her twisting the long wooden handle out of a pushbroom which had been standing in the corner.

"I don't know what I would do without your strength, Maria, without you to hold me up when no one else understands…" Reni lifted her head and gazed up at Maria, who was now gently disentangling herself.

"Reni, snap out of it,"Maria hissed.

"You couldn't, Kazuar," Setsuna's voice echoed throughout the lobby, the realization and the callsign both making Maria's stomach drop in sudden fear.

"Show yourself!" Sumire commanded, weilding the broom handle as if it were a naganata.

"If I did that, I would no longer be your secret admirer…" Setsuna giggled maniacally, his voice coming from every direction at once.

The mystery of the letter writer was solved, at least.

And suddenly, Ohgami was there, wearing his usual vest and tie, emerging from the ticket office where he'd been helping Yuri tally the box take. He ran straight for Reni and pulled her away from Maria, aided by Sumire in holding Reni back.

Maria stood with Kanna's help and looked down at herself for the first time, and stepping behind Kanna as if the Okinawan could shield her from public view. And partially, at least, she did.

Reni launched into an incredibly heart-wrenching and dramatic display. "Maria! Please don't turn away from me! I know it's you! I know you're the only one who can reach into my world of seclusion and pull me out, you're the only one who can save me! If you would but touch me, you would remember your own past, remember how it ached, and save me! Please, Maria, I love you!"

Maria's eyes were wide with horror. It was too close to possible. "Stop him!" Maria commanded, though with no more idea how than any of the other Hanagumi. "Find him!"

And with that, Setsuna materialized above the makeshift stage, drawing gasps and cries from the patrons pressed as far away against the walls as they could manage. "But I am right here, my playthings." He grinned. His left hand was attached by silvery threads of light to Reni, and he flung out his right hand toward Maria once again, wrapping her in his ethereal puppet strings. She collapsed, hanging from the strings like a puppet in storage.

Sumire's broom handle and Kanna's hands passed through the strings of light as if they were not there at all. "Let them go!" Kanna yelled.

"But the fun is just beginning! They haven't filled my requests yet. Ah, but there's one more cast member… the most important puppet…!" Setsuna gathered up Reni's and Maria's strings in one fist and fired threads of light from his right fingers at Sakura.

"No!" Ohgami released Reni to Sumire's restraint and ran toward Sakura, who was struggling against the strings like someone bound in spider webbing. Grabbing a candelabra from one of the tables as he went, he flung it at Setsuna, who dodged it and then he and the strings vanished as he laughed tauntingly.

Sakura slumped on the strings as well, then all three puppeted actresses stood. Sakura spoke first. "Some day, my Prince will come," she said dreamily. And Maria straightened into the posture she typically used for playing the male lead, striding toward Sakura. Reni interrupted. "Doctor, I can no longer study theology, my heart belongs to another!" Maria spun on a heel, glaring angrily at Reni. "Explain yourself, boy!" she bellowed at Reni, who fell to the floor and began to drag herself backward away from Maria in fear.

The emergency lights came on, casting everything into a blue-violet glow. Oddly, the emergency lights were supposed to have been white… Ohgami looked up and saw Kohran atop a ladder, finishing replacing one of the bulbs, and gave a thumbs-up to Ohgami.

Now Ohgami could see the strands again.

"Follow them, big brother," Iris said, tugging on Ohgami's shirt sleeve, having appeared from nowhere as Iris is wont to do. "Follow the puppet strings to Setsuna." Perfect! Iris must have sensed what was going on in her sleep, and warned Kohran. Ohgami wrapped his arms around Sakura, restraining her.

"My prince!" she cried, reaching for Maria, who turned again, dropping the hand with which she was about to strike a cowering Reni. "Save me!"

"Maria!" Reni cried, getting up to her knees again and reaching for her as well. "Save me!"

Maria turned back again, and again, responding to each cry for help. Then Maria put her hands over her ears. "Save yourselves!" And she began a low chant, similar to Faust's summoning of the devil, except it was not the lyrics in the opera – it was a language too familiar to Yoneda and the Hanagumi, words they had heard Aoi Satani speak. Setsuna was using Maria to summon a demon.

"SAKURA!" Ohgami shook her by the shoulders, then embraced her, sending as much of his energy through her as he could muster, through the strings wrapped around her, and to the puppeteer that ran them. And Sakura came back to herself. Recognizing what Ohgami was doing, she tightened her arms around him as well, combining her power with his.

Maria stumbled in the incantation and Reni screamed. Sumire held Reni tightly, more of an embrace than a restraint, now, and Reni hid against Sumire. Maria fell to her knees, silent.

And now, the only sound was the scream of Setsuna as he reappeared, flooded with a glow of pale pink light, and exploded.

The lights came back on. The theatre foyer fell silent. The doors unlocked. The strings were gone.

The Hanagumi picked themselves up off the floor and dusted themselves off. Their patrons looked on in wide-eyed horror.

"The Hanagumi thanks you for your patronage to their shows of Cinderella and Faust!" Yoneda proclaimed. The patrons did not seem quite convinced.

Sumire grabbed Reni's and Maria's hands and lifted them in the air. Ohgami did the same to Sakura. When the entire Hanagumi had their hands lifted, Sumire lead a bow.

"Bloody frightening display…" the crowd murmur and applause began. "How did they pull off those special effects?" "Must have been the little girl playing that demon boy," another said, for Iris was nowhere to be seen. Kohran climbed down from her ladder and gave a wave to the crowd. "Well that explains why Miss Chateaubriand and Miss Tachibana declined the invitation tonight, as well as Miss Ri." "What do you suppose Orihime's role was?" "I don't get the puppet part…" "It's NEUVEAUX ARTE, you plebe, of course you wouldn't understand." "Was it supposed to be poetic?"

Ohgami, Kanna and Sumire helped Sakura, Maria and Reni up the stairs, where they whispered for them to mustre one more bow and wave of good night.

"The strings symbolize the script to which the actor is bound," another patron theorized. "I disagree, I think the puppeteer is the constraint of society on all of us." "Or the temptation of the devil, if it is to be seen as associated with Faust…"

The patrons filed out of the theatre with no further explanation offered by Yoneda or the Hanagumi.

"Do you think he is gone for good, Maria?" Reni whispered, unable to meet Maria's eyes.

"I don't know."

"At the very least," Sakura said, her arms folded and Ohgami's arm around her shoulders, "he knows now that he is far weaker than we are when we are together."

Maria smiled at Sakura.

The End - for now!