A/N: Alright. I give. I'm updating at six reviews.
Kuro-food: You should be happy you got reviews at all. And STOP ADDING FOOD TO THE END OF MY NAME!
Me: Um… Don't we normally reserve this banter for the end of the chapters?
Kuro-foooooooooddddd: STOP IT!
Fai: Yes. We normally do.
Me: Then why is Kuro-food over there making us all have one right now?
Sakura: No idea. But hurry up and end this so the readers can go ahead and read all about my awesome fighting skills!
Everyone: 0_0;
Me: Ahem. Yeah. Okay. So um…yeah. Let's not keep you guys waiting and on with the show! Don't forget to leave atleast six reviews or I won't update.
Kuro-foodyfoodfood: Why I oughta- *gets shoved in a closet*
Me: *ignores the curses directed at her* ON WITH THE SHOW!
"Fuck." Sakura cursed under her breath as she ducked to avoid another blast of magic sent her way from one of the hunters coming after her. She leaned a little to the front, urging the hover-board- that she had acquired from the shop she had sent one of the hunters hurling into- to go faster as she darted through the deserted streets. Those bastards had somehow linked the scrambling spell to her and were currently coming after her.
There was no way, no way in hell that she was going to let herself get caught. Even if it meant killing the ones after her, she was not going to let them catch her. After all, hunters were the ones who willingly swore fealty to the Bat Lord. In other words, they gladly sold their souls to the devil.
Thunder rumbled in the distance as clouds rolled overhead, darkening the previously sunny skies. One of the most unpredictable things in Clow was the weather. One minute it was all bright, hot, and sunny, and the next it was dark and humid followed by the sky splitting in half to pour torrents of rain from the heavens.
Earlier, she had changed her appearance to that of a woman in her early thirties with knee length ebony hair and brilliant onyx colored eyes that complemented her porcelain skin. The look was of someone she had seen only in a recent dream but it was the first thing that came to her mind as soon as she had gotten away from the street where the first two hunters lay dead.
Sadly, her guise had not worked since the remaining hunters had still managed to pick her out from the thinning crowds a few streets over. Had they somehow managed to track her magical signature? If so, which seemed to be the case here, she was in real trouble.
A drop of water landed on Sakura shoulder as she leaned to the right, easily dodging another shot aimed to bring her down. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on releasing a small blast of magic, one that was enough to knock a few of her pursuers off their hover-boards.
However, in her effort to knock her followers down, she failed to notice the hunter coming up from the street to her right. By the time she realized her mistake, it was too late.
The blast of magic hit he hover-board she was riding on and it blew up into hundreds of pieces, sending Sakura flying across the length of the street, landing on the ground in a painful heap. Her long raven hair spread about her body as the band holding it in a high ponytail broke. It whipped about her pale face as she climbed to her feet, flicking out a pair of throwing knives into her hands from the sleeves of her high collared shirt.
The howling wind picked up, bringing with it the fresh scent of rain, as the drops began to fall faster.
By now, around twelve hunters had surrounded her, cutting off all possible escape routes. She would have to fight her way out. Spotting the black, ring shaped tattoo with the symbol of a bat in the middle on the arms of seven of the men encircling her, she quickly surmised that escape would be difficult, if not downright impossible.
But she did not show any outward signs of it having affected her.
"Looks like it's your funeral," she gave them a feral grin before rushing forward, dropping into a roll when the man before her sent a binding spell in her direction. Placing her hand on the ground Sakura lifted both of her feet in a double side kick, catching the hunter viciously in the stomach. Feet back on the ground, she leapt up, flipping over the second hunter who had moved up behind the first, slashing at the back of his neck with one of her knives as she landed. The hunter landed in a dead heap, blood pooling around his body.
But Sakura didn't wait to watch it soak the ground in crimson. Her right arm shot out, stabbing the first hunter in the throat as he straightened. He landed next to his partner with a choked gurgle, eyes rolling into the back of his head as he bled to death. Sakura let herself not feel any remorse or guilt at having taken yet another life, because in the end the hunters were better dead than alive for all those magical folk out there.
And besides, even if they were working for the bastard against their will, death was a million times better than a life of slavery. That's what she always told herself. The first time Sakura had killed a hunter had been almost three cycles ago and even though she had done it in self defense, she had been shaken beyond belief.
But for some reason, her body seemed to gain a mind of its own, every time she had an encounter. The killing just happened. She had tried to go for the non-vitals, but no matter what she did, her opponents always ended up dead. After a complete cycle or so of trying not to kill, she had given up. She couldn't stop herself. So now, all she did to try and spare their lives was avoid fights.
If they persisted…
They couldn't blame her for not trying.
Sakura ducked under a kick from another hunter while the rest of the hunters moved in on her. Using magic to boost her strength, Sakura jumped upwards at an amazing speed, turning around on the spot in a ruthless spin kick. Her foot made contact with the head of another one; the satisfying crack that followed told her that she had successfully broken his neck.
Another down, a whole lot more to go.
She flipped over the dead body, her left foot burying in the face of a hunter who was around the age her Nii-san would have been.
Nii-san?
What the heck was a Nii-san? And how did she know that word?
A fist slammed into the back of her head with incredible force, leaving Sakura reeling where she lay face down on the ground. All questions about the foreign word flew out of her mind. She could worry about that later.
Forcing herself to ignore the sudden headache, Sakura pushed herself off the ground as the rain plastered her hair to her face. Pushing them out with one hand, she realized that she had lost both her knives.
"Damn it!" she hissed angrily, realizing that the hunters, though wary of her, were still moving in to corner her. She was so screwed.
"Mother?" A familiar voice cried in shock.
Sakura's whole body stiffened.
What the hell was he doing here? Wasn't he supposed to be with Kurogane? Eating ice cream?
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Syaoran's pale, wide-eyed face behind a couple of hunters.
"Shit!" A kick with the speed of a snake striking, Sakura threw one of the hunters out of her way before she dashed in the amber-eyed brunette's direction. Where the hell was Kurogane? If the hunters associated him with her, he was screwed over just as much as her.
And the poor guy was in no state of mind to defend himself, or even understand the dangers he was putting himself in, just by being there.
Two hunters moved in her way to intercept her while another one quickly started scanning his Netcom link-pad.
Sakura flicked her left wrist, letting one of her throwing knives fly. It whizzed through the air and embedded deeply in the right hunter's neck. The second hunter flew at her with an enraged cry as two more moved in. Sakura wove among their attacks with ease and grace, turning and twirling with smooth snake-like twists. Grabbing one of the hunters by his wrists, she spun around swinging the unfortunate man along, using his body to strike another hunter, throwing them both to the ground. Without even looking, her knives made short work of them.
"It's him!" the hunter that she had seen consulting the link-pad cried as around twenty more hunters arrived.
"Damn!" she hissed, letting her irritation show, "This place crawling with them."
"Mother…" Syaoran's scared voice reached her ears, making her whirl around to see that ten of the new arrivals were moving towards him, with their weapons drawn.
"Oye! Why are you bastards picking on an innocent civilian?" she yelled, hoping to draw their attention on her. Where the heck was that damned red-eyed captain?
But those guys paid her no mind. She quickly assessed her situation and realized that in her concern for the amber-eyed male, she had somehow failed to notice the remaining hunters moving in on her.
Uttering another curse, she called on her magic. A soft, pink aura surrounded her body as she fueled a spell that would take care of all her opponents at the same time. Unfortunately, more than half of them were magicians who called upon shields to protect themselves and their partners from the heavy onslaught of sharp, cherry-colored shards that rained from the sky along with the water.
Lightening split the darkened sky and thunder rumbled loudly.
"No!" Sakura glanced at Syaoran and saw that he had his back pressed to the wall of a closed store. "M-mother…" His scared eyes were darting between her and the hunters that separated her from him. His face was pale as a ghost, with dark, almost black bangs sticking to his forehead and lips trembling with cold and fear.
One of the hunters shot a tranquilizer at Syaoran but Sakura managed to erect a shield in front of him only a split second earlier, raising another one around her own self as the hunters surrounding her opened their fire as well.
Why were they going for Syaoran? Clearly, they could see he was not a threat so then…
A bolt of lightning crashed into the shield protecting her and glowing pink screen shattered under the magical attack. Sakura dropped to the ground, feeling the darts whizz past her body as the hunters kept firing. She rolled to her right, jumping to her feet with an angry snarl as she called on a deadlier spell. Finer, more needle-like shards the color of diluted blood rained from the heavens, piercing right through the hastily erected shields of her adversaries.
Five men dropped dead as blood oozed out of the holes in their bodies. A sharp pain went through her right leg and shoulder. Looking at the hurting spots she noticed the small darts sticking out of her body.
"No!" she gasped, feeling their immediate effects as her magic receded and her body grew weak.
The shield around Syaoran shattered who fell to the ground at the same time as her, clutching his tattooed arm to his chest, small whimpers of pain issuing from his mouth. Sakura felt her legs and arms grow numb, all feeling leaving her muscles as she tried to move.
A burly, big, muscled hunter roughly picked her off the ground, moving her arms behind her back so that his partner could place handcuffs on her wrists.
"No!" she struggled in his grasp, "lemme go, you bastards."
"Shut up," her captor growled as he shoved her roughly against the wall, burying the darts deeper into her shoulder, making her cry out in pain.
"Aaargh!" one of the hunters screamed as Sakura felt a thick, suffocating, magical aura permeate the air. It was the same as the one on the ship, the one that she had felt during the pirate attack. Seconds later the man holding her had let go, making her drop on the rough pavement, grazing her cheek along the wall in the process.
Sakura felt the aura cocoon her body, dulling the effect of the tranquilizers enough to allow her a chance to turn on her side. She could only gape in shock at the scene before her, once she did.
Four hunters lay on the ground around Syaoran, all of them sporting severe burns on their bodies. But it wasn't the fact that they were dead that shocked her. No. It was Syaoran.
The amber-eyed eighteen-year-old was curled up in a ball on the muddy street, cradling his right arm as he scrunched up his eyes, his whole body trembling. A pained scream tore from his throat as a dark, forest-green aura surrounded him.
Sakura's heart skipped a beat.
That deadly, suffocating aura…
It…
It belonged to-
"Syaoran…" Sakura watched with bated breath as the remaining hunters all converged on him, their gun drawn at his kneeling form. Before Sakura could even so much as shout out a warning, they shot at him. As though alive with a mind of its own, the aura flared and the tranquilizer shots were incinerated the second they made contact.
"What the- oof!" the hunter who had started to speak was slumped against a couple of trash cans.
"Die." A cold, emotionless voice reached Sakura's ears and all she could do was watch in horrid fascination as a hand reached out to grab the unconscious hunter's neck. A crack sounded and the man's head lolled uselessly over his chest, displaying to the world that he was clearly dead. Dropping the corpse, the attacker turned around and stared at the remaining hunters with a face devoid of all emotions.
A/N: Alright, so can anyone tell me what just happened? Who is this mysterious attacker that just saved our favorite TRC characters?
Go on, take your wildest guess. Some of you are bound to get it right, right? Free cookies and Kuro-food for all who review! ;)
Kuro-food: *screams in rage while attempting to break down the steel reinforced door he is locked inside* LET ME OUT OF HERE AND I'LL SHOW YOU FOOD!
Me: Nah. I don't think I will. Anywho, I'm not really in a mood for a chat with the voices in my head so yeah, I'm gonna end the note here. I hope you enjoyed this update.
Till next time.
-Nims.