You know, they say work can come at any time, but when it’s in a place of business such as Hidden Blades... it’s more like a top 3 in the rules sort of situation. Among the others of never having mention that this organization existed outside of to other members, nor that one is to go by their own name among others, it wasn’t so hard to really guess when a job was given in a secretive manner of delivering, you tend not to question it. However, when it came to the second rule, that was broken. By no fault of her own, her playful companion had done it entirely by accident in a moment of joy and play fullness of a game when she was on an assignment with Stiletto. The woman whom she saw as a mentor and a friend was an honor to say the least. If anyone were to help her fit into a place like that, she was glad to know there was someone who was nearly like she was at times. Reclusive and respectful to the chain of command.
She at one point was that way herself back when she was in Black Rose. Probably the highlight of her life at that point. Inexperienced in a number of things, but able to brave it and learn a few things about herself she didn’t know she had in her. The former Mafia girl was keeping those skills sharp and happily making those whom took their time to help her in a time of need that their work was not for nothing. Much like their mafia, Hidden Blades was a place that kept from existence unless it wanted to be known. And as selective as it had been, she was happy to keep it to the standard they held it to. In a way, all she did was join a less legalized mafia, and to her, that was fine. She wasn’t bothered by the actions they took. One day, she too would need to come to a need to eliminate someone, to take a life. Was she ok with that? Truthfully, she didn’t know herself, but she also wasn’t the type to bat an eye over having to use physical harm to get information, so maybe taking a life would be that bad.
Today’s task, thankfully, would not be dealing with the like a human interaction. In fact, this was her time of year to be more normal. Her doll form was a perfect disguise more than usual to her credit. Before, she would just appear to look like an overdressed child or some higher classed child who’s parents threw her in them in order to make her fit the “perfect little angel” motif. However around Halloween, she only appeared to look like a girl dressed up like a princess or something of the sort. It also helped that those normal parts of her body that she spent all year hiding could be freely exposed and to her credit, would just be marveled as a “great costume detail”. Not an ideal way to be complimented, but it made her feel better. She didn’t feel scrutinized for it and to her, that was a self confidence booster that she loved.
One thing that clicked in her mind as she arrived to her current destination along with her companion, Russet, was that she didn’t see anyone else but two random locals who seemed to be tending more to a few stray issues with the land. They paid the doll no mind and frankly, she didn’t feel very comfortable approaching them and asking them about the details of what may have been going on. Instead, the constant squawking above her head in stereo had begun to irk her. While she couldn’t feel any physical pain, the sense of hearing increased because of it was rather disturbing. They seemed to circle around without a destination mind, but surely eyeing up some sort of prey. Carefully, she began to step into the dying garden, devoid of any plant life and simply wasted and dried out soil left around when the first of the crows swept down and took a shot at dive bombing the slayer.
When it’s attempted strike missed by merely a feathers length, the swarm broke off into two groups. The first began to attack the two locals that were on the other side of the grounds from her. The two began to yell and scream while the pestering birds began to block her view and attempts to help as the circled around and pecking, scratching, and screeching into her ear. She was quickly getting fed up with it when she saw an orange like burst of light from behind her. Turning her head, the whiff of fried crow hit her nose and the bodies dropped off. As she faced her companion, he simply yelled out for her to look out. Turning back, the half that split off came after her now. They became rather coordinated and began to drive themselves forward in a torpedo like shape. Taking in a deep breath, the slayer let out her Howl; a cylindrical shaped stream of water glistening with hues of the rainbow throughout the distance it traveled. Being pulled into a single entity almost, the rest of the crows popped like a balloon and spilled out all over the ground.
Giving a small huff now, she rested her hands on her hips while the crows corpses began to move. They were being pulled together almost in a magnetic fashion onto one spot before the mage. She could only watch in a rather genuine curiosity as they had pulled themselves into a single being. A much larger crow with a humanoid like form. It shrieked in a way they had made a chill travel down her spine, if dolls even had them. Pushing off of the ground, it darted after Sakura until it grabbed hold of her by the head and then slammed her body into the tree. The strange beings claw like hand gripped around her face made it impossible to do much else but to almost panic. What was she to do and what the hell even was this thing!?
As she flailed around in some state of worry, she had heard the porcelain cracking. Surely it was trying to crush what it thought was her skull, but being that she was a doll, this wasn’t exactly going to work in his favor. Needing to move fast, the yokai split her spirit from the doll she embodies and with a sword in hand, she gave one swift swing as she emerged. The hand holding Sakura’s body soon slid off of the arm, dropping both down to the ground. Russet scurried over and grabbed the doll body, dragging it to a safe place for her while the spirit herself now held her weapon pointed right at the creature. As it gave one more shriek, it clambered after her at a high speed, only to be beaten out not by speed, but direction. With two more swings, Sakura ducked herself under and between its legs, taking out one leg with the first swing, then as she turned herself to face its back, she handed the other leg the second cut of her blade. The beasts legs literally came off beneath it, where it collapsed onto the ground. One sneaker pressed down on the back before the blade was then thrusted into its neck, twisted and slid about until finally it stopped moving and the creatures head rolled off to the side some.
Just when she believed this was all over, a laughter brought her attention to the other end where the locals were at prior to the ambush of crows. A scarecrow had just taken its sickle and beheaded them both while laughing maniacally and looking at the slayer. Sakura’s eyes went wide at the sight. The brutal fashion she had just used was being shown a much cleaner way to do things, but this was quick to dispose of enemies. Noted. Normally, one would run into their next opponent in the heat or adrenaline. Unfortunately, Sakura was not one to be driven by adrenaline often. She held to he usual by being more calculated and tried to keep her cool as often as possible. When it came down to this fight, she was holding to her guns as best she could, but now this scarecrow wanted the opposite. It started to charge toward her with its sickle cocked back for a swing. Met with only an outstretched and empty hand, a light formed in the palm of her head and would discharge in a beam aimed dead at the chest of the oncoming scarecrow.
The blast of light knocked the scarecrow back onto it’s back and it shook its head as it tried to collect its head from the sudden impact. For a moment, it struggled it seemed to get to its feet, but the idol smiled and let out a whistle. Pointing up, the scarecrow looked in that direction and a small circular shape of white water hovered above. A hand then waved down from the air to the ground before the water hanging above shot down in a burst of speed, crashing down on top of it, smashing the scarecrow into pieces with straw being strewn around. Well... at least it seemed like it couldn’t get any worse than it already was, but soon a loud laughter had begun to make its way around the area.
The laughter carried for only a moment more before the sensation of a presence behind her got her to jump. The idol had only a moment before a clawed hand slashed into her back. Falling into the ground, she cried out in agonizing pain as the poison began to sink into her blood. A stabbing feeling and unlike anything she had felt in years, Sakura screamed out as she rolled onto her back and then shooting up onto an upright sitting position. The pain began to dull as she let a veil of a spiritual aura surround herself and quickly begin healing her body. The poison being fizzled out and the claw marks also being slowly closed back up with magically influenced closure of her wounds.
As his hand raised up for another swipe, a figure appeared from the side. A white colored blob of water would close in on it. The blob would be seen to be the shape of a shark with its jaws wide open as it would crash into the pumpkin king, it would bite down onto its arm. The explosion of the shark would force the creature to the side and then shake it off. As the spirit rose to her feet, a large, armored being appeared before the idol. He stood tall and braced for the next attack while Sakura had gotten her sword ready. She jumped straight at her defending pal, ready to phase herself through him and then land a surprise attack, but during her attempt, she watched the king slap the spirit guardian away as though he weighed nothing. Despite that surprise, the swing of her weapon was led with force and as she swung, an arcing rainbow seemed to join in the swing.
The attack left a large gash on the chest, but she had to follow up with the attack quickly. With a deep breath, she spun her body around and then let off another Howl. The burst of water shot back the pumpkin king and far back enough to slam into trees and through the first. As she tried to land on her feet, she stumbled for a moment and began to gasp softly from exhaustion. She hadn’t been this exhausted fighting in so long. Looking a little worse for wear, it seemed like it was now or never to finish him off. The king went right for Sakura with no hesitation when a wind suddenly began to kick up. A tornado of wind had picked up, which launched the king into the air. Seeing Russet ready to help again, the idol smirked and nodded to her companion as she watched the descending king. She then had a brilliant idea and to do it, she placed her right foot forward, brought her left hand back and then threw her sword up into the air.
She watched the king fall onto the sword in a fashion way out of the meaning of the phrase. After it had bounced off of the ground and then began to try and get up, Sakura calmly walked over, yanked her sword from the body and then swinging upward, slicing the body in half. With its final action after being cut in half, the king reached out, trying to grab a hold of her. Stepping out of reach he only muttered one thing. “He’s looking... for you.”
2160 words
She at one point was that way herself back when she was in Black Rose. Probably the highlight of her life at that point. Inexperienced in a number of things, but able to brave it and learn a few things about herself she didn’t know she had in her. The former Mafia girl was keeping those skills sharp and happily making those whom took their time to help her in a time of need that their work was not for nothing. Much like their mafia, Hidden Blades was a place that kept from existence unless it wanted to be known. And as selective as it had been, she was happy to keep it to the standard they held it to. In a way, all she did was join a less legalized mafia, and to her, that was fine. She wasn’t bothered by the actions they took. One day, she too would need to come to a need to eliminate someone, to take a life. Was she ok with that? Truthfully, she didn’t know herself, but she also wasn’t the type to bat an eye over having to use physical harm to get information, so maybe taking a life would be that bad.
Today’s task, thankfully, would not be dealing with the like a human interaction. In fact, this was her time of year to be more normal. Her doll form was a perfect disguise more than usual to her credit. Before, she would just appear to look like an overdressed child or some higher classed child who’s parents threw her in them in order to make her fit the “perfect little angel” motif. However around Halloween, she only appeared to look like a girl dressed up like a princess or something of the sort. It also helped that those normal parts of her body that she spent all year hiding could be freely exposed and to her credit, would just be marveled as a “great costume detail”. Not an ideal way to be complimented, but it made her feel better. She didn’t feel scrutinized for it and to her, that was a self confidence booster that she loved.
One thing that clicked in her mind as she arrived to her current destination along with her companion, Russet, was that she didn’t see anyone else but two random locals who seemed to be tending more to a few stray issues with the land. They paid the doll no mind and frankly, she didn’t feel very comfortable approaching them and asking them about the details of what may have been going on. Instead, the constant squawking above her head in stereo had begun to irk her. While she couldn’t feel any physical pain, the sense of hearing increased because of it was rather disturbing. They seemed to circle around without a destination mind, but surely eyeing up some sort of prey. Carefully, she began to step into the dying garden, devoid of any plant life and simply wasted and dried out soil left around when the first of the crows swept down and took a shot at dive bombing the slayer.
When it’s attempted strike missed by merely a feathers length, the swarm broke off into two groups. The first began to attack the two locals that were on the other side of the grounds from her. The two began to yell and scream while the pestering birds began to block her view and attempts to help as the circled around and pecking, scratching, and screeching into her ear. She was quickly getting fed up with it when she saw an orange like burst of light from behind her. Turning her head, the whiff of fried crow hit her nose and the bodies dropped off. As she faced her companion, he simply yelled out for her to look out. Turning back, the half that split off came after her now. They became rather coordinated and began to drive themselves forward in a torpedo like shape. Taking in a deep breath, the slayer let out her Howl; a cylindrical shaped stream of water glistening with hues of the rainbow throughout the distance it traveled. Being pulled into a single entity almost, the rest of the crows popped like a balloon and spilled out all over the ground.
Giving a small huff now, she rested her hands on her hips while the crows corpses began to move. They were being pulled together almost in a magnetic fashion onto one spot before the mage. She could only watch in a rather genuine curiosity as they had pulled themselves into a single being. A much larger crow with a humanoid like form. It shrieked in a way they had made a chill travel down her spine, if dolls even had them. Pushing off of the ground, it darted after Sakura until it grabbed hold of her by the head and then slammed her body into the tree. The strange beings claw like hand gripped around her face made it impossible to do much else but to almost panic. What was she to do and what the hell even was this thing!?
As she flailed around in some state of worry, she had heard the porcelain cracking. Surely it was trying to crush what it thought was her skull, but being that she was a doll, this wasn’t exactly going to work in his favor. Needing to move fast, the yokai split her spirit from the doll she embodies and with a sword in hand, she gave one swift swing as she emerged. The hand holding Sakura’s body soon slid off of the arm, dropping both down to the ground. Russet scurried over and grabbed the doll body, dragging it to a safe place for her while the spirit herself now held her weapon pointed right at the creature. As it gave one more shriek, it clambered after her at a high speed, only to be beaten out not by speed, but direction. With two more swings, Sakura ducked herself under and between its legs, taking out one leg with the first swing, then as she turned herself to face its back, she handed the other leg the second cut of her blade. The beasts legs literally came off beneath it, where it collapsed onto the ground. One sneaker pressed down on the back before the blade was then thrusted into its neck, twisted and slid about until finally it stopped moving and the creatures head rolled off to the side some.
Just when she believed this was all over, a laughter brought her attention to the other end where the locals were at prior to the ambush of crows. A scarecrow had just taken its sickle and beheaded them both while laughing maniacally and looking at the slayer. Sakura’s eyes went wide at the sight. The brutal fashion she had just used was being shown a much cleaner way to do things, but this was quick to dispose of enemies. Noted. Normally, one would run into their next opponent in the heat or adrenaline. Unfortunately, Sakura was not one to be driven by adrenaline often. She held to he usual by being more calculated and tried to keep her cool as often as possible. When it came down to this fight, she was holding to her guns as best she could, but now this scarecrow wanted the opposite. It started to charge toward her with its sickle cocked back for a swing. Met with only an outstretched and empty hand, a light formed in the palm of her head and would discharge in a beam aimed dead at the chest of the oncoming scarecrow.
The blast of light knocked the scarecrow back onto it’s back and it shook its head as it tried to collect its head from the sudden impact. For a moment, it struggled it seemed to get to its feet, but the idol smiled and let out a whistle. Pointing up, the scarecrow looked in that direction and a small circular shape of white water hovered above. A hand then waved down from the air to the ground before the water hanging above shot down in a burst of speed, crashing down on top of it, smashing the scarecrow into pieces with straw being strewn around. Well... at least it seemed like it couldn’t get any worse than it already was, but soon a loud laughter had begun to make its way around the area.
The laughter carried for only a moment more before the sensation of a presence behind her got her to jump. The idol had only a moment before a clawed hand slashed into her back. Falling into the ground, she cried out in agonizing pain as the poison began to sink into her blood. A stabbing feeling and unlike anything she had felt in years, Sakura screamed out as she rolled onto her back and then shooting up onto an upright sitting position. The pain began to dull as she let a veil of a spiritual aura surround herself and quickly begin healing her body. The poison being fizzled out and the claw marks also being slowly closed back up with magically influenced closure of her wounds.
As his hand raised up for another swipe, a figure appeared from the side. A white colored blob of water would close in on it. The blob would be seen to be the shape of a shark with its jaws wide open as it would crash into the pumpkin king, it would bite down onto its arm. The explosion of the shark would force the creature to the side and then shake it off. As the spirit rose to her feet, a large, armored being appeared before the idol. He stood tall and braced for the next attack while Sakura had gotten her sword ready. She jumped straight at her defending pal, ready to phase herself through him and then land a surprise attack, but during her attempt, she watched the king slap the spirit guardian away as though he weighed nothing. Despite that surprise, the swing of her weapon was led with force and as she swung, an arcing rainbow seemed to join in the swing.
The attack left a large gash on the chest, but she had to follow up with the attack quickly. With a deep breath, she spun her body around and then let off another Howl. The burst of water shot back the pumpkin king and far back enough to slam into trees and through the first. As she tried to land on her feet, she stumbled for a moment and began to gasp softly from exhaustion. She hadn’t been this exhausted fighting in so long. Looking a little worse for wear, it seemed like it was now or never to finish him off. The king went right for Sakura with no hesitation when a wind suddenly began to kick up. A tornado of wind had picked up, which launched the king into the air. Seeing Russet ready to help again, the idol smirked and nodded to her companion as she watched the descending king. She then had a brilliant idea and to do it, she placed her right foot forward, brought her left hand back and then threw her sword up into the air.
She watched the king fall onto the sword in a fashion way out of the meaning of the phrase. After it had bounced off of the ground and then began to try and get up, Sakura calmly walked over, yanked her sword from the body and then swinging upward, slicing the body in half. With its final action after being cut in half, the king reached out, trying to grab a hold of her. Stepping out of reach he only muttered one thing. “He’s looking... for you.”
2160 words
