Chapter 11
What do you do with a caged beowolf, anyway?
The woman with the sultry voice explained, "Actually, we're researching creatures like these so we can learn how to defeat them. We aren't planning to do anything harmful with them, I promise."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Sakura was quite relieved. Shaoran was still suspicious, but he could not logically explain why, so he lowered his sword and relaxed his stance.
The lanky silver-haired one kicked the cage, saying, "All in a days work for a hun—" The remainder of the sentence was interrupted by a roar from an angry beowolf.
Cinder picked up where he left off. "For a cryptozoologist. Say, why don't you come back with us? With magic like yours, maybe we could learn something from you."
"Really? I think I could learn something from you. Your fire magic is amazing! Actually, why don't we put out these fires?"
"Sorry, but I don't want us to get discovered. And this one here," the raven haired maiden gestured to the beowolf, "he's just too dangerous to explain. Come on, I'll explain everything soon, once we get back to our base. Let's go."
Cinder offered her hand to Sakura, and she took it. After all, this cool magical onee-san and her friends had helped her to beat the terrible monster.
The green-haired one had wondered over to Tomoyo, still filming the scene, "What don't you come too, kid? We all need to be close for her to open the portal."
"Okay, sure!" She stopped aiming her camera so that she follow the woman across the darkened street, littered with the debris of a battle.
Meanwhile, Shaoran wondered why the boss lady hadn't offered him her other hand. In fact, it was strange that he never even saw that other arm, even in combat. Maybe she had lost it? He felt the chi around her, and sure enough, there was no arm on her left side. Just a void. Too much of a void.
Shaoran grabbed Sakura by her free hand and pulled her back hard. She just barely slipped out of Cinder's grip. "Shaoran?"
"Her other arm. It's--"
But then the kids were surrounded by the adults. "Come along now, we can't stay here forever." It was no longer a request.
Sakura got the message. When she knew where to look, she could feel the darkness radiating from Cinder's grimm arm. In the presence of the beowolf, it had been easy to miss. A few seconds later, and she no longer needed her magical senses to know something was wrong, as the coal-black arm stretched inhumanly across the street, the claws rushing toward's Sakura's hand.
Yue deflected the hand with his sword at the last minute, and it retracted back to Cinder's body.
Shaoran cried, "Stay back, she's being possessed!"
"Oh no, silly," Cinder said. "I am possessing it."
Tomoyo managed to get Cinder in frame that dramatic pronouncement, but began to wonder if filming it was such a good idea. Maybe, she thought, it was best to leave this to Sakura-chan.
"Come on, a maiden like you has skill. Powers like these could be yours... and I'd be happy to teach you. Don't be all alone in a new universe, let's all be friends."
Cinder was, in a sense, telling the truth about all of it, but Sakura still didn't trust her motives. Someone who would willingly fuse with that black thing — it was just too creepy to even think about. "Maybe? I think I should ask Belldandy first."
Cinder frowned. "That would be a very bad idea."
Yue declared, "You need to leave."
"And you need to leave with us." This time Cinder's grimm arm went straight for Sakura's neck.
"JUMP!" She called out to her Sakura Card, and made a superhuman leap out of its path.
Kerberos jumped towards the arm, and held it his jaw. But a couple seconds later, the arm slithered out of his maw like a eldritch tentacle. Cinder retaliated, sending a magical fireball towards Kerberos, but he dodged it and leapt into a neighboring house's front yard. She sent another fireball, even bigger than the first one. Kerberos breathed a gout of flame in response, to fight fire with fire. It worked, but the combined conflagration caught the eaves of the house behind him aflame.
Emerald made a split-second decision, abandoning Tomoyo to try to block Sakura's escape, as she was the only one close enough to do so. Mercury cringed that she gave up the opportunity to take a hostage and regain control of the situation. So he decided to do the next best thing and went to pick off the boy.
Shaoran was not as much of a pushover as Mercury expected. He ducked under Mercury's opening roundhouse kick, and lifted his jian into a guarded stance. Mercury circled around Shaoran to build a little distance from that blade, then vaulted off a picket fence to descend on his prey. Shaoran parried the kick with a sword to the boot — which left him open to Mercury's other leg, carrying most of the momentum.
Shaoran fell backwards, asphalt grating on his martial arts robes as he slid back a couple meters into the street.
Meanwhile, Emerald caught up with Sakura — again. The magical girl managed to have ridiculous bursts of speed, calling them out as "dash", but Emerald was no slouch in the speed department either. A run here, a swing off the tree limb there, and she caught up to the girl. But she wasn't very threatening, to be honest. More like a scared girl. "You don't want to fight me, do you?"
"No. Just let us go," Sakura pleaded.
The girl looked so cute and innocent in her white and pink undine dress, Emerald wanted to relent. She sighed, "I wish I could."
She looked at the mint green haired woman with a sudden look of determination. "Then I guess we have to... Fight." The last word activated the Sakura Card in her hand; the power glowed subtly and flowed into her body.
Emerald wasn't magic-sensitive, but she could tell that the tween girl could fight a whole lot better than she had a minute prior. Sakura evaded the chain that shot out of her kusurigama, and dodged her charge attack with a judo counter. Being so small, the girl didn't have much in the way of offensive power, but she did have supernatural speed, skill and grace.
And then Sakura's staff turned into a thin, pink and white sword — what was, for her, a longsword. Emerald could tell that her opponent wasn't trying to hit her directly, and only striking at her weapon. That wasn't particularly reassuring, however, as the sword sliced through a steel pole like it wasn't even there. The stop sign it was holding up clattered to the street.
Behind a block wall, Tomoyo managed to hide herself again, but as the fires ignited around her, it was getting harder and harder to do. Fighting fire with fire worked for Kerberos, but it had a downside. He seemed to be losing ground to Cinder, the two of them causing more fiery collateral damage with every pass. Yue could keep her superheated obsidian swords occupied by freezing his own, but with every slice parried by his blade, he had to renew the icy enchantment. Things were not exactly going well.
But as far as Tomoyo could tell, everyone was fully immersed in their own battles and wouldn't pay much attention to a little distraction like herself. And she was starting to get a little uncomfortably warm where she was trying to hide. She decided she might as well film Sakura's heroism if she was going to be in danger anyway. She stood up, opened the gate of the yard, and walked out into the street to record what came next.
What do you do with a caged beowolf, anyway?
The woman with the sultry voice explained, "Actually, we're researching creatures like these so we can learn how to defeat them. We aren't planning to do anything harmful with them, I promise."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Sakura was quite relieved. Shaoran was still suspicious, but he could not logically explain why, so he lowered his sword and relaxed his stance.
The lanky silver-haired one kicked the cage, saying, "All in a days work for a hun—" The remainder of the sentence was interrupted by a roar from an angry beowolf.
Cinder picked up where he left off. "For a cryptozoologist. Say, why don't you come back with us? With magic like yours, maybe we could learn something from you."
"Really? I think I could learn something from you. Your fire magic is amazing! Actually, why don't we put out these fires?"
"Sorry, but I don't want us to get discovered. And this one here," the raven haired maiden gestured to the beowolf, "he's just too dangerous to explain. Come on, I'll explain everything soon, once we get back to our base. Let's go."
Cinder offered her hand to Sakura, and she took it. After all, this cool magical onee-san and her friends had helped her to beat the terrible monster.
The green-haired one had wondered over to Tomoyo, still filming the scene, "What don't you come too, kid? We all need to be close for her to open the portal."
"Okay, sure!" She stopped aiming her camera so that she follow the woman across the darkened street, littered with the debris of a battle.
Meanwhile, Shaoran wondered why the boss lady hadn't offered him her other hand. In fact, it was strange that he never even saw that other arm, even in combat. Maybe she had lost it? He felt the chi around her, and sure enough, there was no arm on her left side. Just a void. Too much of a void.
Shaoran grabbed Sakura by her free hand and pulled her back hard. She just barely slipped out of Cinder's grip. "Shaoran?"
"Her other arm. It's--"
But then the kids were surrounded by the adults. "Come along now, we can't stay here forever." It was no longer a request.
Sakura got the message. When she knew where to look, she could feel the darkness radiating from Cinder's grimm arm. In the presence of the beowolf, it had been easy to miss. A few seconds later, and she no longer needed her magical senses to know something was wrong, as the coal-black arm stretched inhumanly across the street, the claws rushing toward's Sakura's hand.
Yue deflected the hand with his sword at the last minute, and it retracted back to Cinder's body.
Shaoran cried, "Stay back, she's being possessed!"
"Oh no, silly," Cinder said. "I am possessing it."
Tomoyo managed to get Cinder in frame that dramatic pronouncement, but began to wonder if filming it was such a good idea. Maybe, she thought, it was best to leave this to Sakura-chan.
"Come on, a maiden like you has skill. Powers like these could be yours... and I'd be happy to teach you. Don't be all alone in a new universe, let's all be friends."
Cinder was, in a sense, telling the truth about all of it, but Sakura still didn't trust her motives. Someone who would willingly fuse with that black thing — it was just too creepy to even think about. "Maybe? I think I should ask Belldandy first."
Cinder frowned. "That would be a very bad idea."
Yue declared, "You need to leave."
"And you need to leave with us." This time Cinder's grimm arm went straight for Sakura's neck.
"JUMP!" She called out to her Sakura Card, and made a superhuman leap out of its path.
Kerberos jumped towards the arm, and held it his jaw. But a couple seconds later, the arm slithered out of his maw like a eldritch tentacle. Cinder retaliated, sending a magical fireball towards Kerberos, but he dodged it and leapt into a neighboring house's front yard. She sent another fireball, even bigger than the first one. Kerberos breathed a gout of flame in response, to fight fire with fire. It worked, but the combined conflagration caught the eaves of the house behind him aflame.
Emerald made a split-second decision, abandoning Tomoyo to try to block Sakura's escape, as she was the only one close enough to do so. Mercury cringed that she gave up the opportunity to take a hostage and regain control of the situation. So he decided to do the next best thing and went to pick off the boy.
Shaoran was not as much of a pushover as Mercury expected. He ducked under Mercury's opening roundhouse kick, and lifted his jian into a guarded stance. Mercury circled around Shaoran to build a little distance from that blade, then vaulted off a picket fence to descend on his prey. Shaoran parried the kick with a sword to the boot — which left him open to Mercury's other leg, carrying most of the momentum.
Shaoran fell backwards, asphalt grating on his martial arts robes as he slid back a couple meters into the street.
Meanwhile, Emerald caught up with Sakura — again. The magical girl managed to have ridiculous bursts of speed, calling them out as "dash", but Emerald was no slouch in the speed department either. A run here, a swing off the tree limb there, and she caught up to the girl. But she wasn't very threatening, to be honest. More like a scared girl. "You don't want to fight me, do you?"
"No. Just let us go," Sakura pleaded.
The girl looked so cute and innocent in her white and pink undine dress, Emerald wanted to relent. She sighed, "I wish I could."
She looked at the mint green haired woman with a sudden look of determination. "Then I guess we have to... Fight." The last word activated the Sakura Card in her hand; the power glowed subtly and flowed into her body.
Emerald wasn't magic-sensitive, but she could tell that the tween girl could fight a whole lot better than she had a minute prior. Sakura evaded the chain that shot out of her kusurigama, and dodged her charge attack with a judo counter. Being so small, the girl didn't have much in the way of offensive power, but she did have supernatural speed, skill and grace.
And then Sakura's staff turned into a thin, pink and white sword — what was, for her, a longsword. Emerald could tell that her opponent wasn't trying to hit her directly, and only striking at her weapon. That wasn't particularly reassuring, however, as the sword sliced through a steel pole like it wasn't even there. The stop sign it was holding up clattered to the street.
Behind a block wall, Tomoyo managed to hide herself again, but as the fires ignited around her, it was getting harder and harder to do. Fighting fire with fire worked for Kerberos, but it had a downside. He seemed to be losing ground to Cinder, the two of them causing more fiery collateral damage with every pass. Yue could keep her superheated obsidian swords occupied by freezing his own, but with every slice parried by his blade, he had to renew the icy enchantment. Things were not exactly going well.
But as far as Tomoyo could tell, everyone was fully immersed in their own battles and wouldn't pay much attention to a little distraction like herself. And she was starting to get a little uncomfortably warm where she was trying to hide. She decided she might as well film Sakura's heroism if she was going to be in danger anyway. She stood up, opened the gate of the yard, and walked out into the street to record what came next.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto