Sakura: Knight of the Clow
Chapter 16
"Okay, we have a confirmed monster sighting. It's a type of feral critter."
"What's the plan?"
"We split into two groups, pin it between us and kill it."
"I heard regular bullets don't hurt them?"
"Ah, that's just bullshit. Hot lead kills anything."
"Shouldn't we have a backup...?"
"NO. Now, we're going in."
"Chicken shit..."
"I heard that."
"Visibility sucks. But I think I hear something..."
"Target acquired. It's running..."
"AAARGH!"
"RAWRRRR..."
"SHOOT IT! GET IT OFF HIM!"
"FUCK! FUCK! The bullets don't do anything!"
"I TOLD YOU, YOU FUCKER!"
"Retreat! Fall back! We have superior numbers!"
"Shit, we lost Hans too!"
"Pete! No!"
"Aaaah! Aaaaah!"
"Try the grenades!"
There was a loud boom... then the recording stopped.
The colonel sighed as he shut the military recorder off. "A second team recovered the recording device," he sighed.
"I TOLD them that guns would be useless," Sochiro, the government rep, sighed.
"What happened with the monster?" Misaki Mei asked, the medium frowned slightly.
"A team using swords went in and killed them," the officer said grimly.
"I understand there's been a couple of cases where guns were tried?" Misaki asked.
"That's classified," he answered.
BOTH Misaki and Sochiro gave him a look. "Trust me, we are cleared for the information," Sochiro growled.
The older man flinched. "There's been a couple. We're trying to bring the various agencies into line," he admitted.
"Well, they better get their shit together soon," Misaki said grimly.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The two women fought off the swarm of lion-creatures, beating them back with their martial arts and magic. It was awe inspiring, really.
"So you opened up a cavern underground...?" Tomoyo calmly got the story.
The worker blinked, but managed, "Ah, yes. The city is expanding the sewer system..."
"And these things escaped," Tomoyo nodded.
"They pulled Yamada in... I heard..." the man trailed off.
"I'm sorry," Tomoyo patted his arm as he broke down. She made a mental note to talk to the cops later about casualties.
"How can you be so calm?" the worker demanded.
"You get used to it," Tomoyo admitted.
He just kind of looked at her.
A police officer trotted up, "You're Tomoyo Daidouji, correct?"
Tomoyo looked at him a bit warily, wondering if someone was finally going to try arresting her. "Yes?" she answered.
Very reluctantly he said, "My superiors have ordered us to work with you and the Knight." He continued, "What do you want us to do?"
Tomoyo felt pleasantly surprised. "Crowd control, mostly," she said, "so far, modern guns don't seem to work."
"Understood," the cop sighed as the battle seemed to wind down. "Wow..."
Yukito Tsukishiro, her cameraman, was filming feverishly as Sakura and Mei-ling finished the attacking monsters off. Mei-ling was a martial arts using blur, while Sakura mostly used her sword. Both were wearing Tomoyo-designed costumes, including full face masks.
"Did you get lots of pictures of the Knight?" Tomoyo demanded.
Yukito gave her a LOOK, "Of course."
Mei-Ling was soaking in blood as she groaned, "Dis-GUSTING."
"Water would helpfully clean you off," Sakura noted, shaking her sword to get the gore off, then smoothly sheathing it.
"She'd enjoy it too much," Mei-ling sighed.
"Ha. Point," Sakura conceded.
"Uhm...," the cop blinked a few times.
Switching to a business-like manner Sakura addressed the cop, "We're going to need to go into the tunnel and investigate."
"But that's not safe...," the cop started.
Sakura pointedly looked towards the pile of dead critters.
"Ah. Right," he looked sheepish.
"We're going in with you," Tomoyo added.
"Reluctantly," Yukito added.
"Chicken," Tomoyo teased.
"Damn right," Yukito agreed.
After some argument with the cop, the group of five entered the tunnel, advancing carefully. "Watch your step," he cautioned, using his flashlight to light their way.
"Ugh, body," Tomoyo noted, seeing a corpse shoved into a crevace in the wall. Saving it for later, maybe?
"Was this a pre-existing tunnel?" Sakura asked curiously.
"Yes," Tomoyo answered, "the company found the void underground via ground penetrating radar. One of the workers told me."
"That's not good...," Mei-lin muttered.
"Huh?" the cop looked curious.
"We've found a lot of older monsters seems to sleep underground until they revive," Sakura explained. "If you find a weird hole underground... it's usually trouble."
"That's worrying..." the cop sighed.
They advanced down the passage, then up ahead was lit up a eerie glow.
"That is SO not good," Sakura sighed.
"Eldrich glow. Never a good sign," Tomoyo added. "Yukito, ready?" she asked.
"Yup. The lighting isn't going to be good," Yukito added as they advanced.
"HOW do you all take this so calmly?" the cop muttered.
"You get used to it..."
To be continued...
Notes: I will either make a OC or have a Ghosttalker's Daydream character be in charge of monster hunting in Japan. Will decide later.
It's still GODDAMN hot here, which slows writing. Sorry. Doing what I can. Also got second Vax shot, so mildly ill.
Chapter 17
Clow Reed floated in mid air, his robes flowing around him. His staff glowed ominously as he cast, "Lightning!"
The Clow Card, glowing a venemous purple, didn't even budge.
Clow Reed made a choking noise. He had known his powers had declined... but THIS much? He landed with a thump, scowling at the thing.
The local talking rats (don't ask) had told him about it, and Clow Reed had gone to look. He also wondered why he hadn't sensed it? Worrying. Anyway, he went into the tunnels, found the card but it was casually shrugging off his magic.
"Fireball!"
"Lightning!"
"Stone crush!"
"Water scythe!"
After nearly an hour, Clow Read was leaning tiredly on his staff. "Why...?" he muttered. The protective aura the card was putting out was stopping him easily.
"Hey, boss?" one of the rats added.
"Yeah?" Clow replied.
"You know there's someone else here in the tunnels with us?" the rated noted.
Before Clow could react, bolts of purple energy exploded out of the darkness. Already exhausted by his magic casting, he had no chance.
The figure looked down at Clow, "It's been too long, Clow Reed."
As Clow felt himself black out he thought, 'Who...?'
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Ok, that was a hell of a story," Kaho waved at the latest front page from Tomoyo. "Government is unhappy though."
"They want to censor the monster stuff?" Tomoyo asked dryly.
"Hmm." Kaho nodded. "Of course, I told them hell no, but they may take more forceful steps."
"That's what lawyers are for," Tomoyo observed.
"Agreed," Kaho said. "Ok, what else are you working on?"
"I just gave you a cover story," Tomoyo protested.
"The news is a hungry beast that must always be fed," Kaho said casually.
"We're following up on the Mayor, but admittedly it's mostly 'He's still gone.' " Tomoyo admitted.
"Can we hand any new crimes on him?" Kaho asked dryly.
"No, we've pretty much covered everything," Tomoyo admitted. She paused,...
"Yeah?" Kaho asked.
"We've been pretty low key on your engagement to Sonomi," Tomoyo said delicately. "I jbow you don't consider it news but...,"
Kaho made a face, "We did post the official announcement."
"On page six, in a short article," Sakura said drolly.
"I know, I know... I'll put the social writer on it," Kaho conceded. She added, "YOU can't cover it. Conflict of interest."
"Too bad. I'd have fun," Tomoyo teased as she got up.
"Those Government Spooks still want to talk to your Knight," Kaho added as a afterthought.
Tomoyo shrugged, "They can go pound sand."
Mei Lin waved as Tomoyo strode off. They... got along, but weren't exactly buddies. "Miss Kaho," she addressed her boss. "Less interview requests for Tomoyo, thankfully."
"She hates doing the media stuff," Kaho agreed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Sakura was vaguely relieved the media had decided bugging her was a bad idea. "Yue!" she waved at her arriving co-worker.
"Miss Kinomoto," Yue smiled politely.
"Hey, Sakura!" Catherine waved cheerly.
"Walking your boyfriend to work?" Sakura teased.
"WE ARE NOT...," Yue sighed.
Sakura just laughed warmly. "We'll see you around lunch, I guess?" she asked Caroline.
"Oh yeah," Caroline agreed, then trotted off.
"Let's get the security check in started," Sakura led him inside briskly.
"There's been a break in," the guard advised.
"WHAT." Sakura yelped. "Why wasn't I called?" she asked.
"Director wants to keep it quiet," he said as he called up.
The last Director had threatened Sakura's job over politics. That was countered, the board eventually found out and fired him. The museum had a new Director but they had come in over the holidays and Sakura hadn't met them yet.
"I'm SO sorry," the gorgeous if androgenous figure said.
"Nauru Akizuki?" Sakura blinked, "Didn't we meet at Sonomi's party?"
"We did," Nauru admitted. "Please follow me, I'll explain what's going on."
"The guard said there was a robbery?" Sakura pressed.
"Yes, though a very odd one. The police are baffled," Nauru admitted as they led led them into a n part of Sakura's usual department.
"The 'Sorceress' desplay... it's empty!" Sakura blinked.
"Sorceress?" Yue asked.
"A legendary rival to Clow Reed, when he was in Hong Kong. Supposedly a fortune teller to rival him," Sakura said.
Naruru added, "Normally the police would talk to you, but our security footage is top notch. One minute the times were there... then they were not."
"Seriously," Yue blinked.
'Magic?' Sakura instantly thought. 'But why...?'
"Anyway, we need to start our next steps," Naruru said briskly.
Sakura instantly focused, "We need to determine what went missing, and also prepare a temporary display," she noted.
"Inventory is in theory automatic but...," Yue noted.
"We'll need to go through each section," Sakura cautioned. "If they could just snatch the robes and objects..."
"Yes ma'am," Yue nodded.
Sakura addressed Naruru, "You probably don't want to hear this, but we probably need to do a full, museum wide inventory too."
"Oh joy," Naruru sighed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Tomoyo!" Sakura practically collapsed in her lover's arms.
"Rough day?" Tomoyo lead her into her apartment. Sakura had moved in after the whole press reveal of the Knight, and Tomoyo wanted to ask her to make it permanent.
"Inventory. LOTS and LOTS of inventory," Sakura groaned.
"There there," Tomoyo patted her arm. "I ordered take-out."
"Oh thank god," Sakura sighed.
Tomoyo just laughed.
"And how was your day?" Sakura asked as they both settled on the couch.
"Kaho continues to be a task master, but that's as usual," Tomoyo admitted. "I'm working on a story involving unique weapons the Self Defense Force wants to import."
"Upgrades for anti-monster fighting," Sakura guessed. She wickedly added, "Go ask your mother?"
"She probably IS tangled up in this somewhere," Tomoyo sighed. "Though I'll try to hit up my other contacts first..."
"Poor you," Sakura noted.
The security guy buzzed them, noting the take-out was there. "Eat, TV, and... we'll lay down a bit?" Tomoyo suggested.
"If by laying down you mean sex?" Sakura grinned.
"Yup," Tomoyo blushed abit.
To be continued...
Notes: Yeah, decided I needed a villain other than Clow. Still thinking bits through.
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...