Sakura, Knight of the Clow
Chapter 18
Sonomi Daidouji was less that thrilled being in the news. Again.
"Could you at least tell me you're going to spring this stuff on me?"she demanded crossly without even saying who was calling.
"Good afternoon to you too, Mother," Tomoyo answered wryly.
Sonomi paused a moment, "Sorry. How have you been?"
"Oh, fine," Tomoyo answered. "You?"
"I'd be better if shareholders weren't yelling at me," Sonomi said wryly.
"In my defence, I did contact you assistant, asking for a statement before we ran the piece. You weren't told?" Tomoyo asked.
Sonomi scowled, "No, I wasn't. It seems by assistant and I will need to talk."
The story was about the new weapons that Daidouji were developing for the Japanese Police. Conventional guns appeared useless against monsters, so they were developing both modern designs like taser based devices, and updating swords and such with modern tech.
"Thank you for the mostly positive story, as far as that goes," Sonomi noted.
"Off the record, I'm actually really impressed with the new armor you're people have designed," Tomoyo added with the eye of a costume designer. "The steel plates over kevlar weave should stop most monsters."
"Should," Sonomi agreed.
"And the sword/ baton/ staff modular system looks good," Tomoyo added. "Any idea when they get into heavy production? I want one!"
Sonomi chuckled at that. "We're doing our best to get them into police hands as soon as possible," she answered.
"Hmm," Tomoyo said. She added, "Have you and Kaho set a date yet?"
"No. We're both trying to decide on a best date to do it when everyone coming would be free," Sonomi said a bit defensively.
"May I make a suggestion?" Tomoyo said. "You're not going to make everyone happy. Pick a date, then we can figure out getting it free etc etc."
"Point."Sonomi conceded. "When are you and Sakura moving forward?" she teased, "We could do a double wedding."
"Oh no," Tomoyo laughed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Blood and gore exploded as Sakura swept her sword across the beast's belly.
"Awoo-gh!" the huge, wolf-like monster howled.
"Water! Bind it!" Mei-Lin ordered, activating the water card.
The blue, shimmering woman enfolded the wolf-man, who still struggled valiantly.
\
"Aaah!" with a incoherent cry Sakura charged forward, swinging her sword across the neck and decapitated it.
"AWESOME," Tomoyo muttered.
"Damn," Yukito agreed.
Water flowed back to Mei-lin, "Praise me, Master."
"Well done," Meil-lin said, then kissed the shimmering water-girl.
Sakura shook her sword to get the blood off. "There's at least one more of them," she cautioned the others.
"Are these ACTUALLY werewolves?" Tomoyo had to ask.
"No human form, thankfully," Sakura sighed. "They ARE intelligent, but they chose to prey on humans," she added.
The group of four set out walking through the park as Tomoyo asked her, "So we can't reason with them, then?"
"I've tried a few times," Sakura looked sad, "it hasn't worked."
They heard the howl as three huge wolf-beasts broke from cover. "Shit!" Mei-lin yelped as she engaged one, Sakura drawing her sword to face another.
"Behind me!" Tomoyo barked at Yukito.
"Eeep," Yukito quickly obeyed.
Tomoyo had a stun-baton in each hand, pulled from hidden sheaths. She jabbed one into the third wolf, triggering the taser. It SHOULD have dropped a grown man, but it barely phased the wolf. So she then clubbed it across the snout, making it yelp.
Thankfully Sakura quickly finished her wolf, then hurried over to help.
"THAT was scary," Yukito sighed.
"You too all right?" Mei-lin asked.
"We're fine," Tomoyo said as Sakura fussed over.
They could hear police sirens off in the distance, but quickly getting closer. "Let's get out of here," Sakura suggested.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"We REALLY need to track down this 'Knight.'" Misaki Mei noted sourly. The offices of the Living Environment Division aka 'The Agency' were now much busier now that the world knew monsters actually existed.
Yuna Scarborough, a half westerner who worked for the Agency, noted, "Can you blame her? She might think we'll arrest her."
Misaki made a face, "There was talk of that, at one point."
"Yeah, I don't think monster hunting is covered by law," Yuna mused. "Did you see the historical report?"
"What there is of it," Misaki said. "The data is very sketchy."
"But if it's right, there's been 'Knights' for at least all of the twentieth century!" Yuno noted to her excitedly.
"And apparently all with reddish brown hair," Misaki looked dubious.
"But if the (admittedly scanty) information is right, it's an inherited role," Yuna pointed out. "If we can just uncover the family involved..."
"Hmm," Misaki just kind of tuned her out a bit as she read. "Has anyone run blood tests on samples found at the monster sites?"
"Monster blood?" Yuna sounded confused.
"I mean human blood found there," Misaki corrected. "If the Knight bled there, we could at least get DNA."
Yuna nodded thoughtfully, "I'll get right on it."
"I doubt we'd get that lucky," Misaki admitted, "but it's worth a shot."
As Misaki saw her coworker start chasing down Crime Scene Reports, she saw back at her desk with a weary sigh. 'If we could only get that damn reporter to give up the name of the Knight,' she thought to herself resentfully.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Tomoyo sneezed loudly.
"Getting a cold?" Sakura asked as they relaxed in Tomoyo's apartment.
"I'm fine," Tomoyo waved that off as she stirred a sauce on the stove.
"Someone's talking about you, then," Sakura teased.
"Ha, no," Tomoyo shook her head. "I was surprised to hear about the museum theft from a press release," she noted.
"I did want to tell you, but...," Sakura sighed.
Tomoyo relented a bit as she admitted, "Well, if Kaho asked me to keep a work thing secret, I probably would too."
"Thanks," Sakura sighed.
Tomoyo checked how tender the pasta was as she asked, "Do you think it's connected to the Clow Cards and such?"
"It would almost have to be," Sakura agreed, "but I checked with my staff. There was no magic used there..."
"Seriously?" Tomoyo blinked.
"Other than residue from artifacts that I knew had magic, anyway," Sakura said. She sighed, "It's all very strange."
"Mind if I ask a coworker to look into it?" Tomoyo asked as she started dishing up food.
"Why not you?" Sakura asked as she poured them drinks.
"We're dating. I'm not objective," Tomoyo shrugged slightly.
They sat down and started to eat.
To be continued...
Notes:
Sonomi actually respects and admires Tomoyo's work, when it's not biting her in the ass.
At some point I need to Gov't to deploy their own monster hunters. I also want to add staff to the Gov't exorcist group.
I'm still debating who grabbed Clow Reed. Might do a modified version of Ruby Moon, maybe...