Farlan continued to sometimes sneak incredulous stares at him as they walked in the Underground streets. When Levi had told him that he wanted to recruit the pink-haired beggar, Farlan laughed nervously, unsure if it was Levi's special brand of humor or he was just messing around with him. Even when Levi had convinced him that he was serious, Farlan still had refused to believe him.
And when Farlan finally had believed him, the barrage of questions came.
"How are you supposed convince her to join us if she can't even speak our language?"
A minor setback, but nothing Levi couldn't surpass.
What Levi couldn't handle was how every person they asked about the girl's whereabouts said they hadn't seen her in two days. Two days? Levi had just encountered the girl yesterday, and nobody had seen her in two days? Levi had gotten so flustered that he had ordered Isabel to find the woman who had come out of the alleyway when they were going inside, hoping she had seen the pink-haired girl.
"And you're sure she exists?" Farlan asked, trying to make it sound like an innocent question but Levi knew he was just questioning his sanity.
Levi didn't even deign to look at him. "For the third time, yes. You even asked Isabel about it and she told you, right?"
"Isabel would do anything to please you, since you saved her and all."
Ah, yes, the unfortunate incident where he looked out for another instead of looking out for himself. Quite a bit uncharacteristic of him, but, Levi reasoned, even he had something against picking on children. And though Isabel was only a couple of years younger than him, she was a child in every sense of the letter.
"Nobody asked you to come. You can go back and I can continue searching. At least then I'll finally have some peace and quiet."
And with that the blond promptly shut up and continued walking.
They continued asking if they had seen the foreign girl, the one who spoke in a strange language, but everyone just shook their heads no.
To add to his frustration, Farlan started getting more visibly annoyed, whether it was with Levi or with the situation Levi didn't know. Even though Farlan had sought Levi to form a partnership focusing on petty crime, Farlan had many unspoken doubts about him, and he wasn't very good at hiding them. To his benefit, their partnership was barely three weeks long, and Isabel had only joined them two weeks ago. They've had good bedlam jobs lately, barring the last one which earned them their bad reputation, but it was still not enough to convince Farlan.
"We're not going to find her," the blond announced with finality, his eyes narrowed. "We're just wasting our time here. Is she really that necessary?"
"We won't die if we don't have her in our team, but her skills would be extremely beneficial. Right now we need all the help we can get. If we can find her."
Levi looked around the marketplace, looking at all the people buying and selling wares, people who swore they had never seen the girl or had only heard of her for two days. Farlan was right; they were wasting their time. At least now that the talked died down they could observe the schedules of their next target, the Military Police.
"You agree with me," Farlan pointed out confidently.
Levi gave him a sideways glance, then nodded. "Yeah, let's go back."
The walk back to their headquarters was shorter than the one to the marketplace, mainly because they didn't have to ask every soul they passed if they had seen or heard of the whereabouts of a foreign girl in a tattered green cloak. Now that he thought about it, making their interest in the girl so obvious might bring some problems later on, especially when it came to negotiations with neighboring gangs. Farlan would be annoyed, since he was the one who handled their group's relations with other factions.
Farlan hadn't even opened the door when Isabel flung it open and step out. "Wow, she was right! You guys are back!"
"She?" both of them asked at the same time.
The redhead grinned, her green eyes tinkling in excitement. She stepped sideways and extended her arm towards inside the house. "Look who I found."
Sitting on his seat was the girl they had been looking for the entire day. Her hood was down, revealing her shocking pink hair, and she was twirling what looked like a knife, her expression betraying an open curiosity.
Levi and Farlan stepped inside their home, a bit wary of the new addition. Isabel pushed them forward and shut the door behind her, destroying any option of an escape.
"You were right! The woman we saw yesterday knew who she was. Quite well, actually. They're in a partnership. The woman, Hilda, draws the attention of an onlooker and Sakura steals their valuables once they turn away. Pretty ingenious, right?"
"Sah-koo-rah," the pink-haired girl enunciated, annoyed. She stood up, walked towards them, and pointed at herself. "Sah-koo-rah."
Farlan pointed at himself and said, "Farlan."
"Farulan," Sakura repeated in her accent.
He did the same. "Levi."
"Levi," she repeated in a surprisingly correct accent.
The girl nodded at both of them, her expression a bit more serious than what he expected. Her face was pale, paler than the usual Underground dweller, and her lips were pink and small. Her eyes were a curious shape and shade of green, not quite as dark as Isabel's, but pale like her skin. She was barely taller than him, which wasn't exactly a feat, which put her on the shorter side of the average.
And her hair. He still couldn't get over the fact someone could have hair like that. It was short, barely reaching her neck, but it was surprisingly clean and well-taken care of, which was a bit of an oddity in the Underground. Whether it was because of a lack of access to or disinterest in hygiene, most Underground dwellers didn't smell or look the best.
Her cleanliness corroborated Isabel's explanation of Sakura's partnership with the woman Hilda. There was no way a street rat could remain so clean. But how did Isabel convince either Sakura or Hilda to break off their deal so Sakura could join them?
"I convinced Hilda to let us borrow Sakura." If Levi didn't know any better, he would've thought she was a mind reader. "Hilda agreed as long as she and Sakura received a portion of the goods we steal," she continued more apprehensively, as she should. Isabel didn't have the power to make those types of bargains for the group. She was young and new and, most importantly, inexperienced. She was a prime target for unfair deals and she had no way of defending herself from them. Levi trusted Farlan because he was shrewd and clever, but Isabel just had a big heart.
At first glance, having a big heart would put Isabel at a stark disadvantage, but if Levi hadn't sensed that heart of hers, he would've never gone out of his way to invite her to the team. And, if he could guess Hilda and Sakura's skill at observation, they too allowed such a deal because they sensed her good will.
"You made a deal without consulting us?" Farlan, though he tried to sound calm, came off as snappish.
Isabel flinched, but she didn't back down, her eyes gaining a determined glint. "I didn't know if Hilda and Sakura were going to leave, so, yeah, I made a deal without consulting you first because I thought this was more important than some stupid power dynamics."
"It's not a power dynamic, Isabel! You're just––"
"I'm just what? Not as smart as you? Yeah, that's true, but that doesn't mean I can't make decisions for myself!"
"You just made a decision for the group!"
Levi sneakily looked at Sakura out of the corner of his eye only to find her already looking at him. When their eyes met, she just smirked, knowing she had beat him in their observation game.
She was good, damn good. And dangerous, oh so very dangerous.
"Farlan, Isabel," he said, his voice a bit louder than usual. "Yes, Farlan is right, you shouldn't have made a deal without consulting us. But Isabel is also right in assuming such a deal wouldn't stay around forever. Your both rights cancel out so the discussion is over." He sent them a rather nasty glare when they both opened their mouths. "We have bigger issues right now."
"Like what?" Farlan asked, exasperated.
"Sakura," Levi called, making sure he tried to get the pronunciation right, "you don't understand our language, right?"
The pink-haired girl just stared blankly at him.
"We weren't joking when we said she was a foreigner," Levi continued. "We have our work cut out for us to make Sakura a valuable member."
Farlan frowned heavily. "What's the point of having her as a teammate if she can't really form a part of the team? I don't think she's worth it."
"Oh, she'll show you," Isabel muttered under her breath. "Hilda taught me a command to get Sakura to use her powers. Uh, sha… No… Shi? Yes! Shinabi? No… Ah, yes, Sakura! Shinobi!"
Sakura nodded in understanding and walked towards the wall, then walked up the wall, then started walking on the roof and stopped right above Farlan. She then disappeared from the roof and appeared right behind Farlan, tapped his right shoulder, then disappeared again and reappeared between Farlan and Isabel.
Even though he had seen her do that in the alley, he still felt an intense amazement at her abilities. How did she do it? How was it possible?
He didn't believe in magic, or in the Wall goddesses, but her powers were not normal.
Farlan was less discrete than him in his surprise at her powers. "But… How?"
Sakura must've sensed his wonder, because she crossed her arms and smiled in self-satisfaction, but she soon furrowed her brows in concentration. "Ano… Mizu… Mizu… Wa? Mizu. Wat? Wata?"
"You mean water?"
Her eyes lit up. "Hai! Water!"
Isabel bolted towards their rather small kitchen, rapidly poured water in a glass, and jogged back towards Sakura, who said something foreign but Levi was going to guess it was her version of thank you and promptly started drinking her water. Ari-something, she said.
"Hilda said she was learning words with her. She's apparently a fast learner."
"She has to be. No one around her speaks her language. Adapt or die." He knew the feeling quite well.
Farlan still looked like a fish straight out of water. "Levi… This means that we're rich."
"And once we get our hands in that 3DMG, we will be rich and unstoppable."
"That is so true we could…"
Farlan and Isabel started talking excitedly amongst themselves, but Levi tuned them out in favor of observing the newest member on their team. Sakura stopped drinking the little bit of water left in the glass and stared at him with serious green eyes. She must've sensed the hunger in his voice. That could be bad. So far, she hadn't displayed signs of egotism. The only time she showed off was because Isabel asked her to show off.
Only fools would turn down a chance to join Levi in one of the Underground biggest heists, but Sakura was powerful enough to afford choosing who to work with without negative repercussions, if her partnership with Hilda was of any indication.
But she just smirked at him and started drinking her water again, green eyes so hungry that could rival his own.
I'm still unsure whether I want Rosette to be a crackfic or a serious-fic. I'll get a better idea once I'm out of the introduction.
For those that have read this on Tumblr, this is almost a word-for-word copy of the Tumblr one. New content for the next chapter.
Just to make sure everyone is on board, this is non-Vessel Sakura here. Which means she has her memories, normal jutsu, and her original personality. This also means there will be no spoilers for The Vessel.