Pride of Sakura

Chapter 7 – Yuu, Speeding Doom Loli Express, Manchest

AN: Serious then LULS. Also the end of Ethan and such, because I don't want to rely on canon characters, kthx.

Next chapter or the one after is probably final. Long read ahoy! Some talky-talky, but it's about murder and lolis.

X X X

(YUU'S POINT OF VIEW OMG.)

Ankh's swearing has become part of my life for so many years, that I'd mostly learned to tune it out.

Kind of.

It's rather hard to tune it out right now, for some reason. Possibly because it's him swearing about killing someone I'd actually rather not kill, despite our scruples. I've killed a lot of people, mind you. As a sniper, I killed people. After the accident repaying my debt, I killed even more people. I should have let myself die, I thought to myself often, rather than selling my soul to the devil – but too late for that.

Lives became quite inconsequential after some time. Don't get attached, they're going to die, or I'm going to disappear elsewhere. Lo and behold, the one human I actually became fond of I'm ordered to kill after I become fondest of her.

Maybe there was something almost interesting about her figure, to my Numan eyes. Red hair and blue eyes, freckles – breasts, oh my. Not common things amongst my race. But beyond the stupid, feeble physical aspect, I liked her too. She was brave. She was actually intelligent – she bathed.

Big bonus, there.

"Nasty little bitch…gonna snap her little human neck. They have bird bones," he laughed hoarsely, leaning against a tree behind me. I was scanning the surroundings with my goggles for traces of heat. Lucky me, mine are built straight into my eyes. My mercenary partner was burned badly from Lucy's Foie. The fact that she managed to cast it alone was astounding. He winced, his red eyes a little bloodshot. "I know you can heal a little bit, wanna try it?"

I sighed and turned, trying desperately to channel anything through my metal arms. Not much luck. The energy I felt blossom from my chest turned to sludge in my mechanical arms. Healing with my feet would be a bit weird. Still, my partner seemed to close his eyes, his large chest moving up and down in a slower beat.

"It's ironic, isn't it," I said softly after some time, removing my hand from Ankh's arm, "We've never lost a mark in years, and it's a human girl and a batshit PM." I laughed despite myself, the mental image of them sitting in matching pajamas watching soap operas floating into my brain. The obnoxious, blossoming fondness for Lucy had been building in my head for quite some time, try as I might to quell it.

"Even four years of perfection can be tarnished by one lucky pain in the ass girl," he sighed, yawning with a great display of white fangs. "We'll get her though, man." I said nothing, and he tensed angrily. "Don't tell me you like her or something stupid." He drawled, flexing and cracking his rather impressive body. I'd seen him punch through humans and numans like paper. I dreaded the thought of him and Lucy fighting again. The sound of her arm breaking still haunted me. That thought alone upset me. Perhaps Ankh is right, and I am becoming weak.

"No." I answered quickly, or so I thought.

His red eyes rested on me. "Don't be stupid. This isn't just some shoot-em-n-get-paid job on some pirate. This bitch knows—".

"Stop calling her a bitch. She isn't one all the time."

"…Gray knows." He growled at me, the temper of his people showing. I massaged my temples in anxiety. I couldn't feel my hair anymore, I realized, or the warmth of my own skin. The artificial nerves they used on the fake skin on my arms wore off after a while.

"I need to get my nerves on my arms fixed again," I said bleakly. He stared at me. "So—".

"Why do you care if I call her a bitch or not?!" He erupted, shifting angrily at me. I held out my arms to stop him. "Look what she did to me!" Even a beast would take a bit to heal from those burns. Lucy was a very talented Force.

Is.

She's still alive, somewhere. She's a good healer, she'll fix herself. A tinny voice sounded from the back of my head. Ah, hello soul. Been a while, right?

"I shan't have you speak ill of the dead friend." I smiled at him, and he chuckled and sat back down.

"I'll mind my manners then, and respect the Force she was." He looked at his burns in disdain.

I nodded. Force she was.

Force she is. Is gave me hope. Is. I intend to sustain this "is."

And so, I damned myself to even more death and trouble.

X X X

(LUCY'S P.O.V OMG)

"This one time on Parum, we actually managed to steal an entire frozen juice cart. We managed to avoid arrest by blaming a freak electrical storm and Rappies, even though this beast nearly nanoblasted and killed both of us." Jenna regaled me and Ethan Waber, who was sitting against the same wall dream Yuu had scared the crap out of me at, slurping ramen. I was slurping the same kind. Somehow hearing stories of my own antics were more amusing coming from my own ear.

"The CASTS were really confused, you see. But I just acted like I was all boring and official and they believed me. Damn, that ramen smells good—oh, my senses are coming back! Oh yes, but anyway. There was this one hobag that made fun of Lucy's boring hairbun, which is by the way atrocious and terrible. So one day in the colony! We snuck into her room and used Pannon Jelly to gunk all of her doors closed and filled her room Ollaka Livers, and then welded her hibernating PM to her ceiling with a Foie. It was pretty cool."

Waber blinked in disbelief. "Wow, you guys did some cool stuff."

"We had a lot of free time," I mumbled, half in embarrassment. I was feeling a lot better.

"Oh yeah!" Waber said, standing up. "I have a present for you!" He reached for his front pocket.

"ALERT, ALERT! HE IS GOING TO WHIP IT OUT! DEFCON 5! PULL OUT THE SNIPPERS!"

"What the hell are The Snippers?"

"I need scissors! Sixty one!"

"Guess she's still tweaked pretty bad," I sighed, as Waber pulled my nano device out of his front pocket. Relief washed through my system. "T-thank you!" I said as I took it reverently. It blinked warmly in my hand.

"Got a change of clothes in there?" He asked innocently, but eyeballed the Jenna Earring with caution. She was rambling about anemones.

"Oh, probably," I said easily.

"SHE KEEPS MOST OF HER WARDROBE IN THERE, BECAUSE SHE'S AFRAID OF FASHION PHANTOMS GOING AFTER HER ESSENCE."

"…Right." Waber turned around dutifully, as I stood up and tapped my nano device.

It slapped me into a vastly unfamiliar outfit. Or wait. It was a black vest, with Neudaiz style baggy pants, and a dark green low-collared sweater under it.

Oh, God! Yuu's clothes! Waber turned around, and snorted in laughter.

"Guess they scrambled," Jenna offered. "Sometimes photons do funny things to technology. So much magic floating around on both sides." I looked down. The pants fit perhaps a bit snugly around my rump, but were otherwise fine. The problem was the shirt, which was meant for pretty-skinny little numan boys, not busty human girls. The shirt cut low enough to reveal where my breasts started, and stopped just below my belly button.

Greeeeeaaat. And on the cover of Girl Running From Mercs Covered in Mud Hanging out with Waber Apparently Stealing Clothing Weekly: Lucy Gray. Seen here wearing the clothing of the guy she's in love with that wants to stuff a Megid bullet in her nose, in charming sniper commandos that reveal her boobcrack and lovehandles. Next week: Ankh's pajamas.

I cycled through outfits, but what came out was a jumbled array of things, including what I guessed to be one of Ankh's boots, a humungous bucket of hair gel that Jenna immediately suggested throwing at Ethan, a giant red trenchcoat I was guessed belonged to Ankh, and some socks, which I immediately thieved. Hey, he did try to kill me. I threw the coat over my shoulders for warmth and sank miserably to the ground.

I shoved my hands in my pockets, or Ankh's rather, a couple minutes later. Defeat. I thanked god for having worn a bra that apparently repelled water. I was surprised when I felt something crinkle in my pocket. Some sort of paper? In this day and age?

I pulled it out with my good arm, squinting at the paper. There was an odd drawing on it, with a few lines of scribbled Moatoob. The drawing was of three circles, with a smaller one in the middle of each. There were 5 dots along each, and one dot on each ring was circled.

A map? My heart thumped in my chest as I squinted at the unfamiliar language.

"Jenna, can you—"?

"Fifty-two miles east of Neudaiz. Inbetween the twisted Mizuraki, cave. Careful not to use wrong door."

Waber looked at me quietly, blue eyes alert.

"Their hideout?"

"I would say so, genius," Jenna drawled at me. "No, they're directions to the Illuminus' favorite fried chicken and strip joint. Magashi dances there a couple nights a week, gets real wild."

Waber put his face in his palm.

"So anyway," he said. "You need to get back to the colony, or you're gonna be in big trouble. Teano and Sezaburo are two of the best killers on the market."

I gulped, trying to associate Yuu with such things. Unbidden, the image of TENBLAST Yuu in mysterious sunglasses and a dramatically flapping trench coat came into my mind.

"Yuu is as much a mercenary as Lucy is someone who has a social life."

"Bite me, Jenna."

"Right back at 'cha, babe."

Waber blinked. "They're really dangerous. About four years ago, three important rogue families had their leaders picked off. Two were shot through all-together about ten feet of rock, over a span of about one hundred and twenty-three feet of space."

My mouth hung open.

"He was able to do that using only a heat sensor and a super-sharp bullet shot through a high-intensity photon rifle. He was killed while eating dinner, shot directly through the throat. The bullet was so hot it cauterized the wound before he even died. The bullets he used made a sakura blossom shaped wound. Looked almost like a tattoo." My mind went a little blank. I remembered hearing something about this. But I was young then, maybe sixteen. Was Yuu that much older than me? Waber drew patterns in the dirt floor of the cave, and I felt sort of bad for usurping his bed. Ha. Usurped! "Despite all the prestige, he never revealed his identity. So when Guardians opened up a case on him, they called it—"

"Pride of Sakura." Jenna finished. "File 435-U. Unsolved. Closed as of two years and six months ago, opened again ten months ago. Status is still unsolved."

"Yuu's accident," I whispered. "They gave up and closed it, then reopened it. He must have started …working…again to repay the debt for his arms."

"Sounds right." He continued. "As for Teano." He winced. "He's been in the underworld quite some time now. Teano's the one they used for…personal things. Or when they don't want someone recognized fast."

I blinked, hand moving slowly to my arm. "Most of the time…" Ethan started. "Whoever's unlucky enough to be chosen by him is so maimed that it takes DNA sampling to identify the body."

My breath came out in little gasps for a moment, and I clutched my arm.

"Woo, good thing you got away from that one, spanky. He coulda seriously screwed you up!" Jenna interjected cheerfully, if a bit cracked and fuzzy. His eyes glanced to my arm.

"Him, I take it?"

I nodded, eyes downcast. "Well. I pissed him off really good."

"You'd better hide then. We need to get you back to the colony. Unfortunately I can't set foot there because Laia Martinez hates me. But I know a way to get you to the HQ in Moatoob. You're on your own from there, though."

I blinked at him.

"Oh boy, let's run from mercenaries to a planet full of drunken rapists with cat ears. This sounds like an improvement. Hurry up and get me a new body so I can shoot some people."

X X X

(Yuu's POV, Oh my God again!)

I stretched, watching the rain let up. Ankh slept next to me, leaned against a tree, twitching a bit in his sleep. The beast was restless, upset. I was too, though for different reasons.

I picked at my sleeve, then gazed upon my palm, flexing my fingers. Yeah, I needed a tune-up. Lucy's spell had hit me hard, too. I could feel the wires attached to my nerves grunt in protest. This was my punishment though. Mutilation, followed by a series of annoyances. It was almost funny.

Not really. The one who brought down the hammer of punishment was totally correct in his doing so. He paid for it with his own life, but I suppose that was part of the reward for him. Vengeance, and then supposedly reuniting with his wife and unborn child. Fitting. I was the one who killed them, after all. I looked over to Ankh again, then his hands. His were covered in blood, more literally than mine though. I shuddered. The things he did to his marks…

I knew they were the product of the rage and pain that enveloped his childhood on Moatoob, but still. My own apathy was born of loneliness itself. Two very different sorrows, both resulting in death. What a terrible world we live in, just terrible. I see now why the Illuminus wants to do away with it. I'd never aid them, really. They were just a means to try and live my life again. I was foolish to think I would escape them, though.

I'd always been a bit of walking zombie. Maybe a little less for a while, finding a companion in Ankh. I had gone even number after the accident, acting as a spy for the Illuminus. The only time I felt air actually pass through my fake lungs was with Lucy. Even if it was irritation, it was emotion. I smiled a bit to myself. I'm idiotic. I would have let myself die, rather than summoning my SUV on the Onmagoug and revealing my monstrous self. I put my trust in Ankh getting there in time, thusly endangering all of us.

I flexed my stiff hands, mind racing. Where was she? Was she okay? Was she happy? Would I be able to distract Ankh long enough for her to escape? Our cover was blown at this point. I reached into my pocket, flinching a moment when I felt something sharp. I pulled out Lucy's little sapphire earring, glinting in the gloomy light. I had barely felt the pain. I twirled it between my fingers for quite some time, contemplating.

I looked to Ankh again, and looked at his bloody hands. No, not her. Absolutely not. I sighed, and wished I could see her. I wished it was days ago, when she used to show up at my room in the colony to bug me with random movies and actually fairly tasty food. That was gone now, sunken to the bottom of some dark pit along with the rest of the things I'd never be able to hold.

I guess I will have to wait for hell to see you, Lucy Gray.

X X X

(Lucy's POV!)

I am on a pirate ship, and I only think I'm okay. Not sure how happy I am right now though. Ethan has brought me here. There's some sort of beast loli and a really handsome but insane looking beast man in hotpants. He needs to stop being a man with a manchest. It's distracting.

Ethan was explaining my situation to them. The small beast eyed me suspiciously, clinging to the big man.

He glanced at me, sympathy flashing across his crimson eyes. "Sorry to hear that, kid." He said.

I shrugged nervously. "I've had worse. My PM exploded and I got a scorpion stuck in my bra one time on Moatoob. It had to be surgically removed from my nipple. That's why I didn't really wanna come here but I figured it was better than being shot or reduced to a Lucy-Based-Goo."

Ethan and the beast blinked at me in disbelief, and the pigtailed beast started laughing. I shrugged.

"AND I AM JENNA, QUEEN OF EVERYTHING. IF YOU LIKE IT, I'M THE QUEEN OF IT, AND THEREFORE I OWN YOU."

"Uh. Like I said, I kind of blew her up. Her name is Jenna, and she's modded…"

"I ALSO LIKE PIZZA AND HATRED."

"Nice to meet you both, I'm Alfort Tylor." He said, clearly confused.

"I'm L-Lucy Gray," I said, and held my hand out. Emotion moved across his face briefly, and the girl beamed at me. He took my hand, dwarfing it easily. The contrast of skin tones was not flattering on my part. "Thank you for letting me harass you."

"ARE YOU SOME SORT OF PEDOPHILE?"

Silence. The sound of the ship. My own inner crying.

"HOLY SHIT YOU HAVE NO CHEST HAIR. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA-".

I hoped this ship traveled fast as the bridge stared at me in horror. "Right." He said.

Silence.

"Lucy, let's hope this ship has pizza and moves fast. We're going to miss our soap!"

I put my face in my palm. The little beast laughed again. "Ethan, show her to her room."

He obeyed. We moved through a series of halls silently, and I thanked him as he let me in my room. He paused for a moment, then smiled at me.

"You'll be okay," he said. "Once you get home."

"I'm grateful to have met you." I said earnestly. He nodded. "And would you please tell Mister Tylor I'm sorry. Him and his loli.

"Sure. And her name is Liina, and she's two years older than you." He sighed.

He left, the door swishing closed in the tiny bunkroom. I sank to the floor in relief, resting my cheek against the cool linoleum. Jenna made a gentle clink as she made contact.

I listened to my heart beat and let the fan cool my clammy skin. "Of all my luck…"

"We are lucky. But not that lucky. That guy is still a pedo in hotpants. Very dangerous, ar ar ar ar!"

"Huh?"

"Fifteen thousand bananas. I have indeed earned the title of cottage cheese, and will soon be ascending to claim the title of LORD XENU. You will be my faithful servant, Juicy Gay."

"…Guess you're still malfunctioning." I said after a moment.

"Pickles are a delicious source of STEP OFF BITCH, THOSE ARE MY GOLD TEETH, I FOUND THEM FAIR AND SQUARE."

I snorted, the smile feeling painful and odd on my face. I rolled tentatively on my back, the cool feeling wonderful on the scratch marks. My arm had basically healed, but the scratches were still stiff and painful.

Time passes strangely, I decided. I had sort of nodded off, lulled by the hum of the ship, when there was a knock on the door and I rose to a sitting position, looking up.

It was Ethan, looking solemn, along with the captain and his loli-looking-non-loli. "We're just above Moatoob," the beast said, stepping into the room with the other two. The door swished closed, and I suddenly felt very antsy. Jenna was quiet.

"However, we're gonna need to make this look authentic. Switch back into your dirty clothes." I tapped my nano device with the blanket still wrapped around me, and took a peek to make sure I hadn't ended up in anything retarded.

"Checking something?" Liina asked.

"Sometimes one of my boobs goes lopsided. It was a terrible accident involving a truck, a cat, and some lasers, but I'm okay now. Unfortunately due to my disgusting Guardians salary I can only afford to use staples and my own tears to hold it back up." I shrugged the blanket off and stood shakily in my torn, mud-splattered clothes. Pity flashed through Tylor's eyes again.

"Turn around a second."

I did so, and there was a small gasp from Liina. "Wow." She said softly. "He got you deep, huh?"

I nodded, turning back around. "I'm sorry to have to do this to you, after all that." Tylor said, taking a step forward. I tensed.

"Yet another person trying to molest you today," Jenna chipped in.

He rolled his eyes. "Can it, tardbot."

"Up yours, furry!" She cried back.

He put his large hand on my temple, closing his eyes briefly. Liina crossed her arms and pursed her lips. Yeah bitch, I'm takin' your man. Kind of.

"It was nice meeting you, Lucy Gray."

I closed my eyes, what he was about to do dawning on me. Ethan waved at me from across the room, a dorky smile spreading across his features.

"It was nice meeting you too, Mister Tylor."

It was then that the full grown beast raised his arm and brought it back down hard on my temple, thusly knocking me the hell out.

Jenna later told me that I was dramatically cradled against his manchest and carried down the transporter room to be deposited at Guardians HQ. Of course I was unconscious for this. Also, Liina was so jealous she had a fit. When I awoke, there was a tiny boot mark on my shirt.

X X X

AN: Holy crap, long! Thanks for bearing it to the end. XD;

There Mura, I finished it.