Author's notes- Yayz! Chapter Five! This story is really fun to write. KCH33 and I are coming up with really good ideas for future chapters, and I absolutely can't wait to write them! Now that I think of it, I was sort of debating if I should have either let Carmen come to Outo, or get sent to Yuko(The Dimensional Witch-Main character from xxxHolic, a series that crosses over with Tsubasa) like the gang does in the first chapter. Yeah, I know, kind of hard to choose, since Outo is like my favorite world that they go to in season one. *head/desk.* BTW, does anyone know what Carmen's name means? Well. Here's the definition:
Carmen- A male or female given name: from a Latin word meaning "song". (I love that name so much ^^)
Vega- Spanish dramatist and poet. (Pretty sweet huh?)
-Hey guys! KawaiiChibiHime33 here! Hopefully I'll be able to talk to you more often now. A little info about my name too: "Kawaii" means cute in Japanese. "Chibi means small, or little(there are also many other variations on the meaning, but I really don't feel like listing them). "Hime" means princess, thus my name is "cute little princess." Also, 3 is my lucky number, so I put it twice after my name. OK! Continue Carmen!-
Anyway, both of us are aware that what happens in this chapter NEVER happens in either the manga or anime (We're gonna be following the anime for this story if you're wondering.) I'll explain why I wrote this chapter in the Post Notes at the end. Now without further adieu, let the chapter commence!
KawaiiChibiHime33 is responsible for editing these chapters for your enjoyment ^_^ ~Hyuu, Hyuu!~ *vanishes*
Oh wait, I lied. *reappears*
Disclaimer: I do not own Tsubasa, or FMA. If I did there would be SO many more Kurofai moments, more SyaoSakura moments, AND I would have actually added in Carmen to the FMA series.
Okay, now I leave. *snaps fingers and disappears in a puff of smoke.*
Chapter Five: Swords and Oni
It was cold and pouring rain out the next evening. Fai, Sakura, Carmen, and Mokona had closed up for the night and were hanging around. Kurogane and Syaoran were out. "Probably hunting Onis." Carmen thought with envy.
"I wonder what's taking Syaoran and Kurga-Lurga so long to get back. They've never been out this late before." Fai said aloud.
"I hope nothing's wrong." Sakura worried. Carmen had noticed that Sakura always seemed very concerned whenever the subject of Syaoran and Kurogane hunting Oni came up, or rather, when Syaoran was talked about. She would often look like she was about to cry. She would stop talking normally to them, and try to pretend everything was alright.
"They're fine. They've probably killed the Oni by now and are on their way back." Carmen reassured her. Now that they mentioned it, she was a little worried. For Syaoran, of course. Kurogane could take care of himself. That, she was sure of.
"The Puppy Pair"(1) are great fighters, Sakura-chan! They go out and beat the deamons, so brave so brave!" Mokona chirped from where she was sitting on the counter, drying a plate. She was helping Carmen with washing the dishes.
"Yeah," said Sakura sighing, "I guess you're right."
At hearing this, Carmen turned around to look at Sakura, which also caused her to be the only one who saw the warm, content smile she put on her lips, which then formed the name "Syaoran." Carmen perked her ears up. Sakura said it again, still smiling, and also closing her eyes happily dreaming, as she whispered the name to herself again. This time Carmen heard it clearly with her fairly strong hearing abilities. "My, my, what do we have here?" Carmen thought to herself. "A little romance in our small little group?"
Then, just as Mokona handed Carmen the last plate, a high pitched scream split the air. Carmen stiffened, her eyes growing wide. She looked to the side. Fai, Sakura, and Mokona continued to chat away happily. They hadn't heard the scream, but Carmen had, thanks to her super senses that had been gifted to her from the mark of the cat. It also helped that she was honing in on Sakura's conversation with herself.
She quickly put the plate in the cupboard a stood up, her heart pounding. Fai was the first one to notice the fear in the alchemist's jade green eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked her.
Carmen didn't answer. Instead, she made a beeline to the door. A huge gust of rain and wind blew in her face as she threw it open.
"Carmen-chan! What's the matter!" Mokona yelled.
"I'll be right back," was all she told them before sprinting out into the darkness, her friends calls getting lost in the wind.
The alchemist ran down the dark street, heading for an outcrop of trees at the end. She recognized that scream far to well. It belonged to none other than Syaoran! Sakura sure wasn't going to like this.
It was difficult for her to see in the rain, but Carmen was able to navigate herself through the trees using her senses. With great speed and agility, she silently flew through the darkness, like a shadow in the night. Her senses led her to the edge of the "forest", and into an open area. Carmen quickly hid in the shadow of the tree in front of her. When she slowly looked out, her eyes widened in horror at what she saw.
A huge Oni, bigger then she had ever imagined, was standing right in the center of the clearing. Kurogane was standing in front of it, holding himself and sword in a fighting stance. His blood red eyes burned with both anger and adrenaline of the fight. Syaoran was over to the far right of the clearing. He was slumped against the trunk of a Sakura tree and holding his stomach. Carmen let out a small gasp as she saw scarlet blood dripping through his fingers and onto the rain sodden ground. The deamon must have wounded him pretty badly. There was no way in hell that Kurogane could take on something that powerful. She had to help them, fast.
She stepped away from the trunk, making sure to stay in the shadows. She took a deep breath in and exhaled as she clapped her hands together. Blue sparks flew from her hands and smoke rose around her feet her as Carmen pressed them against the wet ground. The rain falling around her body stopped, suspended in mid-air. The rain drops then sped toward her hands. The smoke cleared, revealing Carmen had transmuted a huge ice spear out of the rain. She took it and got to her feet, waiting for the right moment. After a few seconds, she threw the spear as hard as she could. The weapon went right through the beast's head, causing pitch black blood to spurt out the other side.
The alchemist's mouth started to slowly turn into a smirk, but stopped herself. Instead of falling over and dying, the deamon slowly reached up and wrapped its long, skinny fingers around the hilt. The spear splintered into ice shards in the Oni's grasp. It then swung its head around, looking for the one who had dared lodged the weapon into its cranium. Carmen slowly unsheathed two of her daggers from her belt and waited.
The Oni must of sensed her presence, because it charged toward her hiding place and swung it's massive tail. Carmen was ready. As soon as the tail was about to hit the trunk, she lunged out and slashed at the beast. It bellowed in rage. It reached out it's long claws in an attempt to grab her. That only resulted in Carmen dodging to the side and attack again. She slid to a halt beside Kurogane as the Oni drew back a few feet.
"What the hell are you doing here alchemist? Last time I checked, Fai didn't sign you up to be an Oni hunter!" Kurogane growled.
Ignoring his hostile tone, Carmen rose to her feet. "What happened to Syaoran-kun? His wound looks pretty serious."
"The bastard Oni clawed him as soon as we started fighting. Why do you care? And how did you find us?" the ninja demanded.
"Super senses," was her only reply.
She quickly made her way over to Syaoran. His face was chalk white now from the pain and the amount of blood he had lost. Carmen made him sit down so she could get a better look at the wound. It wasn't that big, but it was deep, and the blood was coming out pretty heavily.
Carmen gently put her hand over the wound and closed her eyes. Her hand started to glow in a blue light. The blue aura spread over Syaoran's stomach. He gave a small gasp of pain and clenched his fists. After a few minutes, Carmen moved her hand away and the light faded. Her healing abilities left the wound as a scar, but Syaoran was healed. He murmured his thanks as he slowly stood. Carmen supported him by holding onto his arm so he wouldn't fall back down.
Alchemist and Oni hunter then moved forward, flanking Kurogane on both sides. The demon had started to come back. It's ugly, red eyes glared furiously at Carmen.
"You better stay out of this kid," Kurogane muttered to her, still keeping his angered tone. "Daggers can't penetrate the enemy as well as a sword can."
"That's why I have this," from her belt, Carmen took out a pure white dagger, with what looked like a vine design on the hilt. The same Ikora pendent that was on her cloak was embedded into the end of the grip.
She quickly casted her hand over the pendent. The dagger began to glow in a silver light. She spun it in her hand as it began to grow. She then brought it across her her body and into a fighting stance as she now held an ivory long sword in her hands.
Syaoran looked impressed by the blade.
Kurogane pretended not to notice.
The Oni lunged forward, taking a vicious slash at it's opponents. The three of them dodged the attack. Syaoran attacked the beast with a well aimed kick. It caused its arm to split in two, but the beast regenerated so that it was whole again. "Why doesn't he just use his sword?" Carmen thought to herself, striking out with her blade as the Oni came at her again with its tail. "Kurogane is teaching him how to use it, isn't he?"
The alchemist ducked as the tail came at her. She swung her sword upward, cutting off the appendage. She got out of the way as a new tail sprouted. "God damn it! What's it going to take to kill this thing?" she thought, gritting her teeth in aggravation.
Clapping her hands together again, Carmen slammed them onto her shining appendage, transmuting her automail hand into a gun. She pulled the trigger and fired a bullet at the beast's head and at it's torso. She swore as her weapon did hardly any damage.
"Where the hell did you get a gun?" she heard Kurogane's shout from across the battlefield.
"It was built in when I got this hand." she answered as she dodged another one of the Oni's attacks.
"YOU ARE NOT FRIGGEN' OLD ENOUGH TO USE A GUN!" the ninja's pissed off yell answered.
A vein throbbed in the alchemist's temple as she tried to keep herself from blowing a hole through the nihon's skull. He wasn't her father! She could do whatever the hell she wanted!
A sudden flash of light out of the corner of her eye caught Carmen's attention. She turned her head to see Kurogane shouting out an attack. A surge of blue light shot out of his sword and blasted through the demon. It let out an agonized scream before exploding.
Carmen stood there, stunned at what she had just seen. Where had the ninja learned how to do that?
"Carmen!" she heard Syaoran's concerned yell. She turned her head to the brunette. His brown eyes widened in horror. "Carmen, you're bleeding!" he exclaimed.
It was then that the alchemist felt a burning pain race down her arm. She looked down to see the right sleeve to her yukata torn from the top of her forearm to her hand. Dark red blood had spurted from the wound and was dripping onto the rain-sodden ground.
"Well, ain't that a bitch." she said, not really sounding concerned about her wound.
Syaoran on the other hand was completely horrified. "You've lost a lot of blood! Don't you think you should be somewhat worried about that?"
Carmen waved off the younger teen. "You don't need to worry about me, Syaoran-kun. A minor cut like this can be healed easily," with that, she placed her other hand over her arm. Blue light shone for only a few seconds before the alchemist removed her hand and inspected her arm. The wound had disappeared and had been replaced with unbroken skin. She held out her arm for her friend to see. Syaoran just stared but said nothing.
"You still haven't answered my question, kid. Why did you come here when Syaoran and I were fully capable of killing that Oni?" Kurogane's voice sounded behind her. She turned around to see the ninja scowling, arms crossed over his chest.
Carmen frowned. "Like I told you before, I sensed Syaoran's scream when the Oni attacked him. I thought that he was in trouble, so I had to go with my instincts and go help him."
The ninja was silent for a few moments. He turned on his heel and stalked away through the trees. "Let's go home," he growled to his companions.
Sakura had been worried sick when the three of them had gotten back. But when Syaoran started to explain the reason for their lateness, she became frantic, bombarding the flustered teen with questions asking if he was okay, which he quickly answered trying to calm his princess down. Carmen escaped to the kitchen to make her friends some midnight tea and snacks (mostly to avoid Sakura's questions when the princess had seen the alchemist's ripped yukata.)
It seemed Kurogane was still bothered by the fact that the Oni could regenerate themselves. At first he thought it was just an ability that a higher leveled Oni had, but the other hunters had never experienced anything like it either. They were just as troubled as he was in the matter.
Carmen had listened in on enough of the conversations to know that the Oni were on different levels, depending on their strength. The Oni that they had just fought hadn't even been close to a high enough level to regenerate itself. Maybe it had to do with the rumor about the new Oni. This one was in the form of a man, and he could control the other demons. When she had been serving people their food in the cafe with Sakura, she had overheard them talking about how some of the Onis had been attacking people who weren't Oni hunters. Maybe the two events were linked together somehow.
The alchemist dismissed the thought as she passed cups of tea to her friends and settled down in a chair beside Sakura with her own cup. She drank it silently as she listened intently to the conversation that was being discussed. Her attention was then directed toward Syaoran. The younger teen had turned his gaze on her. His expression told her that he was confused about something other then the Oni problem.
"Is something wrong, Syaoran?" she asked him.
The brunette was silent for a moment, but then said, "Sorry, but there's something I still don't understand. When I was injured, how were you able to heal me so easily without any medicine or anything?"
Carmen stiffened at his question. This was something that had been asked frequently before. She was getting used to telling people, but that didn't mean that she liked explaining it.
"Well, you remember my first day here? When I told you guys how I'm a decendent of the Ikora Tribe?" When Syaoran nodded, Carmen continued. "When I was born, the mark of the cat appeared on my arm. That meant that I was going to have the speed and agility of a feline, but what we didn't know was that I was also going to possess healing abilities. Only the people of the highest class of my ancestors had that power. It hadn't been passed down to any of the pure-blood decendents until I was born," she then reached for one of the daggers on her belt. She took out the Ivory one that she had turned into a sword earlier. "This weapon is called the Ivory Blade. It's been passed down through my tribe for generations from father to son. Since I was my parent's first kid, the blade got passed down to me. Some of my ancestor's were powerful mages in water alchemy, so they combined their magic so that the dagger could turn into a sword and be more powerful." She trailed off for a second before continuing. "I was almost denied the right to the sword when I was younger."
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked her curiously.
"There's a law that all members of the Ikora tribe have to live by. It's forbidden to marry a human. My father had to swear to the oath, but he fell in love with my mother who was of the race of man. He refused to leave her, so he had his mark taken away. There's a certain term that is used to identify a child who is half Ikora and half human." The alchemist scowled as she spat out the name like it was poison. "They call people like me half bloods."
"Half bloods?" Mokona echoed.
Carmen nodded, anger burning in her eyes. "They judge us for who our parents are or what they did. All the people who were born as pure-bloods look down upon us."
Sakura was now looking down at the floor. "I'm sorry, Carmen," she whispered.
The alchemist got a panicked look on her face and waved her hand at the princess. "Don't worry about it Sakura-chan. It's no big deal. It happened a long time ago, nothing to be concerned about it now." she reassured her.
Before anybody else could say anything, Fai stood up and stretched. "Well, it's getting pretty late. Why don't we hit the hay for tonight. I have a feeling we're going to be very busy tomorrow. Isn't that right, Big Puppy?"
The three younger members of the group sat together in silence as they watched the skinny mage running for his life as a pissed off ninja chased him around the cafe with his sword unsheathed and yelling threats of what he would do when he caught him.
Post notes- (1) Haha, yay! The nickname from the Outo arc in the manga!
I'm TERRIBLY sorry that this chapter came out so late! I recently just started another Tsubasa/Fullmetal Alchemist crossover and I've been hooked on it ever since. Finally, I decided that it was time to show a little attention to this neglected story :D. In other news, KCH is currently in Morroco right now (for vacation) and is going to be there all next week. I MISS HER ALREADY! *sadface* Luckily, she's keeping in touch with me through PMs, so I'm happy about that. BUT I STILL MISS HER!
Oh, right. SO, the reason why I wrote this chapter was because I wanted to finally introduce a battle scene, Carmen's alchemy, and the Ivory Blade. Don't worry, the next chapter is going to be on the the anime story line again, I promise you.
Read, Review, and Comment, and I'll see you in Chapter Six!
Your Friends,
Carmen Veiga AND KawaiiChibiHime33 :)