Note:
Kyuubi is coming~
(thing): memory
speak: Pearl thinks.
speak: Sakura thinks.
speak: other and amethyst think.
Sakura still doesn't believe how fast humans change. No, how she changes. She is 7 months now, and she can walk, stand on her toes in 1 minute, talk fluently in short senteces. Her Masters don't know it much, they think she's just able to say 'Ma' or 'Pa' or sits up.
Sakura doesn't tell them. She doesn't know how they will react. What if they are displeased because of her changing?
So she does what they want, what they ask for. Nothing more, nothing less.
And then...it occurs.
The event happens in a nice autumn night. Fresh wind blow over Konoha, carries the odor of fallen leaves. The sky is draped over by pitch-black, silk curtain. Silver, sparkling star embroided over it, shining next to the beautiful moon with endless clarity.
(Like White Diamond's glorious cloak.)
Sakura doesn't know how it starts, or why. But she can feel it. She is staring at the peaceful view outside, then, from nowhere, the cloud appears and hides the star away. Dark, thick cloud blocks out all the light, turns the calming night into something...darker.
The wind stop blowing. Nature is silent. Deadly silent.
Sakura has bad feelings. Pearl has bad feelings.
It feels so similar...so dangerous. Something tenses up inside her, somethings that her blurring memory is filled with. Just like when White Diamond's smile is wide, black lips and eyes half-closed, the cloudy mist makes her eyes so dark, so monstrous. A sign. A warning. The calm before the storm.
Sakura shivers, her green eye widen.
Not good.
And then, everything explodes.
Orange aura shines through the night, lightens the horizon into a fake sunset sight. An invisible force flows by, crashing her (helpless) body down and down and down. It's not the empty, cold, mind-breaking, powerful White she knows clearly. This time, it's Red. Outrageous, searing, violent, malicious, blood-thirsty Red. Two different power, yet somehow, the same.
Her mind is calm, robotic calm, but her body is not. Pain conquer her senses, the world outside melts into nothing. No sound, no color else except Red. (White) She can't breath, she has to breath. Humans need air to survive, but why can't she breath? Why does her throat so tight and closed? Why does the organ called lungs not do it's job? It needs to be replaced for not doing it's duty.
(She needs to be replaced.)
Even though it's Red, not White, and she is still Pink, her body quickly follows it's habit. A routine to survive White Diamond's wrath. She tiptoes on her short, weak legs, her body still, straight, ignoring everything around her. The smell of dirt and leaves, what she has been used to, feels so allien now.
White Diamond (no, not her) is angry.
Hands folding into a praying pose, perfectly. Head up, don't look down. Stands in a corner of the dark room, becomes a ghost, her eye glazed over, focus on something far away, waiting for the punishment.
The woodden door crumbled down, separates and isolate the small room totally. No escape for her.
"Sakura!!!!"
Who is Sakura? Oh, wait, that's her now, right? She almost forget that.
Someone is calling her name. Fearful. Gravely. Anguishly. Are they her new Masters? Why do they sound so familiar? No. Don't go searching for her. She is nothing. Just go, she will be ok. Pearl is ok, and so is she.
(Pearl is not ok.)
An ear splitting roar runs through the air, drowns out the screaming of the crowd who are terrified because of something. A creature, thorugh the broken glasses, Sakura sees it. A beast named 'fox', fur like copper and eyes dense like blood, fangs white, sharp and big, tearing everything apart with another wave of demonic energy.
She is not scared.
People scream, again. They run, a chaos, humans pushing humans, crying and begging, spreads over all paths and streets. Ungracefully, but logically. They do that because their instinct is controlling their body. They do it to survive.
Sakura stands still. Some parts of her mind, though, not the Pearl side, childishly screams and shouts and cries and fights back, try to move from her current position
Run!
No! A Pearl doesn't run!
Run!!Follow the order! Be good, be perfect!!RUN!!!
Something's twisting in her Gem, her belly. An energy, a feelings. One is strange but not painful, blue but not Blue, pure and warm. Another, is something she has lost for eons. So weak, small, shaky, but also stubborn and cracking and broken and White and Pink and angry and scared and furious...
(Pink Pearl was an Off Color Pearl.She was silent, yes. She was graceful and elegant and beautiful and she danced better than everyone.But she was not subbmissive.She was stubborn. Hard head, angry, bitter, sassy. She learnt to fight and dance.She was a Pearl, but she had rage burned in her gem and fire shined in her eye.No one wanted her, and she bowed to no one.Until she met her Diamond. Until she loved her Diamond.Until she wasn't Pink anymore.White Diamond erased every pieces of Pink Pearl inside her. She was White.She hated it so much.)
The echoing, shaking voice shuts down as the Gem's energy begins to flow stronger. Her gem glows pink, but the small crack, nearly unseen, glows white. So ugly. Impure. A dread passion slashes Sakura's heart with it's agony claw. (Why can't she be perfect?) She doesn't care. She doesn't have time.
Buildings are all crushing down like they are made from paper and cheap crystal. One piece from the ceiling, so big, must be the same side of a Jasper, is going to crush her.
Her human body won't survive. She will be shattered. She will fail her Master.
The gem is so shiny now that it shuns the darkness around her away. The light is the mixed color of White and Pink. A rhythm ringing, soft tone and low notes make it sounds like a sad song, a prayer, a broken melody. Piano and violin, prettier than any chimes of the Abalones in the royal court.
(How long has it been? How long since she lost her music?)
Everything happens in just a flash. The fragment is close to her head before it's stopped by something milky pink. A bubble, a shield, clear and hard and beautiful. It reminds Sakura of good old days.
(My Diamond...will you be proud of me now?)
Sakura, still in her Pearl pose, shudders. She can feel the gem's throbbing, trying to keep up the bubble. The other energy in her belly is boiling too, hissing to the Gem, like a beast trying to protect it's landscape. Sakura forces the energy down.
Be good. Pearl whispers, robotically.
Stop messing up, the other baby voice screams.
Obey. Sakura (Opal) orders.
The energy's hissing quiets down to whimpers, and nothing.
Good.
Put all the attention to the bubble, Sakura tried to widen it. The spotty pink circle follows her will, push the material back to ground and protects her. More pieces clooapsed from the other building. None touches her.
Sakura never feels so Pink like she does today.
(Pearl mourns the day she was bright and brilliant. When she held the glistening lomg sword in her arms and move along with her rhythm, allow her to beat any rival, to surpass even an Amethyst, a Jasper.She loved fighting. The icy, cold fury became her most trusted comrade.She loved dancing with death.)
Sakura stays like that, a statue in her bubble, young muscle aching the whole time, only able keeping up thanks to her steel will. The aura has stopped, the destructive atmosphere now filled with sorrow and lost. On the ground, blood flows like river, earth holds the ashes of the fallen close to it. A savor, rotten, dirty, reaches her nose. She looks.
Humans are lying across the street, under the destroyed buildings. Their skin bruised, ripped, reveal the pinkish fresh, white bone and other organs. Eyes widen in fear, mouth open for a last scream before Death takes them away.
Ah...They are all...shattered? Death?
Humans body smell weird.
The bubble fades, slowly. The pink gem also stop glowing, back to it normal state. Sakura inhales, then falls down to her knees, breathing heavily. Using Gem power is not exhausting, the usual seevant stance is what make Sakura so tired. She is just a 7 month baby, so maybe...it's normal?
(Weak.)
"How wonderful." A croaky voice comes from somewhere near Sakura, so she raises her head up. Sound like -what is it? A male, right- is speaking, lower than Kizashi's tone and much grumpier. "I just have to come back to this fucking village the day it gets attack? Fuck fate."
The approaching footsteps are very quiet, like how a cat walks on their soft paws. And then, it gets bigger, like the owner is trying to make as much noises as they can, a ghost walks on physical foot. Sakura tilts her head, and keeps silent.
To say she is suprise when her gem reacts is an understatement. Music vibrates in her mind, the sad combined song of Opal blends with another one that she doesn't know. The song is smooth, weighty and powerful, a sonorous bass with fire fits inside the notes. Piano and violin and cello, harmonizes in an unpredictable concert.
"...Wh..at..." The voice speaks up, shocked. Sakura can understand that. She never know that...that...
What is happening?
The melody grows louder and louder as the footsteps also comes closer to where Sakura is sitting, hurriedly, dastily. Music rises up high, erases the world around her just when a being appears behind what used to be a big building.
A man, a Gem, Sakura is sure of that, that looks like human (like her) in green jacket, dirty black shirt and jeans, black hair tied in a long pony tail. He is handsome, high cheekbones and straight nose, healthy white skin spattered with dry blood mud and dirt. Sharp, brown glaring at her in awe, confusion, supprise , joy and... curiousity?
"Oh...Wow..." He approaches her, picks her little form up easily with gloved hair. She can sees his gem now, it placed in the left palm, a red, clear three-sided shape. What kind is that? Ruby, no, not that hard. Maybe a Garnet or a Spinel? "You...I can't believe it!" Long fingers runs over her face side, touching her gem carefully so that he won't hurt her. "You...you are a Gem?"
"Gem." Sakura answers with her bubbly voice, not as squeaky as other children's voice. "You are a Gem, too?"
"Fucking yes." The melody has dissapeared, but they both know it is real. As real as the gem in his palm and her socket. "I... I never think I will encounter a Gem. In a civillian family. Fucking wow shit." The male gem looks excited. Longing. "We...we are... We both are Gem...I am not alone..."
He holds her with his big hands, like something made from glass.
"...What am I fucking thinking? You are young." The excitement vanishes as soon as it arrived. His expression darkens, angry and sad. "...You probably won't survive...unless you reach 6 years old milestone and your Gem is still stable."
"Stable." She blinks, confused. Stable? Does that mean gems in this world are wrong? Easily die?
"Yeah. You seem like a smart one, gemling. Try to survive, little..." He wrinkles his nose. "What kind of gem or you now? I can't recognize it. Why do gems have so much shitty types? Oh, never mind. Tell me your name, baby doll."
This man is weird. He is talking to a small, 7 month, pink cotton hair baby like a real adult. Are humans always this weird? No. He is not real human right?
(Not a very bad think.)
His eyes are shiny, hard, fiery, blazing. Kindness hides behind sorrow, madness and wrath.
(Pink, soft eyes looked at her with awe, sparkling uncontrolably. So full of life, so gorgeous that Pink Pearl blushes a rosy shape."I want this Pearl! My Pearl!")
I like him. The other voice ( Pink Amethyst) says instead of White Pearl. Pearl seems to agree, so it's ok.
So do I. Sakura thinks.
"...I am...P-" White Pearl stops. Sakura continue "Sakura. Ha..Hawuno Sakura." The tongue struggle to pronounce"
"Welp, nice. If you live, I will see you again, baby doll. Name Renji." He laughs, a fruity sound, holding her in one arm and tries to search for other survivor. He finds none.
"Hah, looks like you are lucky, little one." Renji mubles, puts away another bloody limb. "So annoying... That beast, son of bitch..."
"Sakura!! Sakura, where are you!!" Sakura pecks up at the voice of Kizashi and Mebuki, shout out loud, desprerately try to find their little princess. "Sakura!!"
"Hn, are they your parents?" His eyebrow quirks up as he looks down. She answers, polite as she has to be.
"Yes they are."
"Good. Then, what are we waiting for?" She is flying through air abruptly, straight to those she loves. She doesn't know Gem can fly. A Lapis can, with their water wing, but Renji is just...jumping? He hops very high, steadily cross the desolation. As he stands in front of the pair, Renji holds Sakura out.
"Your daughter?"
"Oh Yes!! Thank you, thank you so much!!" Mebuki cries in joy, hugs her baby like if she lets out, her baby will gone forever. "Thank you!! She is our everything."
"You are welcome." Renji shrugs, turning around, the bitter angry Sakura sees in his eyes dims down, but not totally vanishes. "I have to go now. See you, doll."
The man with red gem dissapears, silently like how he turns up. Mebuki just sits down, surrounded by death and blood, eyes soaked with tears, happy, sorrowful. Kizashi, who knows Renji rumors and war records, is grateful, yes, but the fear of it smother that gratitude. He doesn't care that the Mad Ripper, the man who shall be fear, the war veteran that's not human has held his precious baby with gentleness, has brought his baby, his happiness back to him. He only knows that thing is dangerous, and Kizashi never wants him to get near his family again.
However, he will be worried about that later.
He loses the house. That will need more money to fix, but his family is here, in his arms, and that's what matters.
Kizashi cries with Mebuki.
In her parents' arms, Sakura doesn't cry or react that strongly. She simply closes her eye and gem, relaxes in the tenderness of two adults, let the dream world washes away all the doubts, fear and trauma that has become active when Red slams down the village.
Her mind turns dull, still full of music and dancing and singing and fighting, of Red and triangle gem.
Sakura sleeps.