Level 6: 27/60
Location: The Maw: The Stage -> Carcass Isle
Word Count: 1347
Points Gained: 3 +15
New EXP Balance--- Level 6 : 45/60
Kasugano Sakura looked down at her child body, wishing it would change back to normal. Still, with the Lady nothing more than ash, she was just happy they had finally freed this place of its terrible leader. Even if seeing that cruel Larry as a helpful striker gave Sakura the creeps, at least it was better than nothing. Adrenaline faded, the roar in her ears dulled. But she felt...good. Hopefully Ryu-san wouldn't be disappointed in her for finding joy in the death of another person. Even if the act of killing would never get easier for her, the consequences of the Lady's death were surely nothing but positive. Though even Ryu-san would agree to take the life of a truly evil person if there were no other options, considering his track record with M. Bison. He'd blown the evil dictator the hell up a couple times.
Once inside evil Lady HQ, they could see the entire Maw on the various screens.
"What a rotten place." Sakura surmised.
There, they encounted a very strange man doing something very strange with magic. As he said he wasn't doing anything while clearly doing something, Sakura couldn't help but smile. He was like a character from a european fairy tale. He made her want to say 'What an odd fellow, indeed!' or something like that.
"Keeping the lights on? You don't have to worry anymore, Mister. The lady has been defea- WOAAAH!" Sakura tumbled forward as the entire Maw jolted. Sakura grunted,
"Nngh!", As her back slammed into the railing.
"Owie!" Her friends quickly concluded that they were about to crash.
"Oh, no!" Sakura held onto the railing tight. But as the Maw hit the sea bed, she bounced hard off the railing, soared breathlessly through the air, and smacked into the wall.
"Uaaah!" Shouting in pain, she felt herself fall and get taken by the tide.
Sakura's rocked head had no time or energy for dreams. The girl, now back to her young adult self, was soaked to the core. If nothing else, while cradled in Bella's arms, her sleeping expression looked peaceful. Her cat tail and ears had returned, though both were limp.
"Nnh...ooh...itaiii..." She groaned, stirring to life, her eyes shifting under her lids. Her ears twitched. Coughing up some extra salt-water, she turned her head to the side away from Bella. Fortunately, as a street fighter, waking up after getting her ass kicked wasn't exactly an unknown phenomenon. Sakura brought a hand up to her pounding head and cracked one eye open. Unusually, she found she was pretty comfortable. As she observed the area around her, she found she was basically being hugged by Bella. It was always a bit embarassing to be unconscious in front of others, as it was impossible to maintain one's dignity in such a state. Just a senseless ragdoll that has to be dragged and carried everywhere. The very definition of a burden.
"Oh...hey, Bella-san." She said quietly, straightening herself out. Shivering a little, she let out a shaky breath. They were all gathered under a little shelter, on the least fun looking beach Sakura had ever seen.
Blinking slowly, the gears in her mind began to restart. She saw everyone gathered around the shelter, using each other for warmth. Reading the mood, she instinctively surmised that all of her friends were account for. Moving her head away from Bella, she looked up at her.
"Hey, you're- you're back to normal. That's great, that's really great." Sakura rubbed her eyes.
"...Back to normal?!" Sakura shot up into a full sitting position, glancing down at her form once again. She was back! While Araisho was still lending her some of her strengths and weaknesses and her outfit, there was no doubt Sakura was back to her old, athletic self.
"Ya-ttaaaaa!" With a triumphant shout, she kip-upped to her feet.
"We made it, we really made it!" As if pure elation and relief washed away all her pain, she ran out onto the carcass ridden beach like it was sandy and sunny. She dropped onto her hands and knocked out twenty perfect form push-ups in twenty seconds. Then sprang off the ground, back to her feet, and jumped fifteen feet into the air, flipping backwards before landing back on the beach light as a feather. The only thing that slowed her down was her harness. Testing it out, she went to fire it into the sea. There was a small cannon shot, and it splashed into the rocky waves. Next, she gathered her hands and fired off a mighty blue fireball into the ocean, the force carving through the water before dispersing.
"Yosh." Her excited energy was subdued by the sheer horror of the wasteland around her. Smiling nervously, she rubbed the back of her head.
"Oh, man. Woah." Chilled in the rain, she saw the submerged Maw, gargantuan, in the distance.
"I don't think all those people escaped." Arms drifting to her sides, she let her eyes drift over the decay and rot. Thinking about all the people that didn't make it out. Carl, Glenn, Duerage...so many. Too many. The crash probably destroyed the sushi chef, too. Even the clothes she was wearing now was a result of the death of a stranger. But now these losses only strengthened her resolve. Gazing up at the grey, thick clouds above, she was surprised to find herself emboldened. She wasn't going to give up. Not now, not ever. After being so thoroughly humiliated and helpless for such a long time in the Maw, the street fighter had a chip on her shoulder. Now that she could help others again, she would. It was as simple as that.
Sakura returned to the group, a resolute, contented look on her face.
"Sorry I kinda ran off there. We're using each other for heat, right?" Sakura sat back down next to Bella.
Rubbing her hands together, Sakura took deep, slow breathes. Heat built in her core. Blowing into her palms, she extended them outward and summoned the warmth of the Hado. Despite it's appearance as a blue, flame-like energy, it wasn't actually hot enough to burn. Instead, the temperature of her fireballs matched Sakura's own body temperature. The warmth wasn't much, and didn't have a great deal of range, but it was pleasant compared to the chill. Sakura crouch-walked from Seeker to Seeker, offering what little warmth she could. Especially to the ones who were just waking up, and Hat Kid.
Once most of everyone was gathered, Sakura spoke.
"I still have a bit of a headache. But I'm ready to go when you guys are. I don't think anything can be tougher than the Maw, so I'm ready to get out there and kick some ass. Plus, this beach smells awful. I can't imagine the inland smells any better but...I mean, we'll never know until we try." She pulled at the collar of her off-shoulder shirt, and twitched one of her ears.
"I suppose I'll keeping borrowing Araisho-san's power for now. I might ask you to take it away from me later, Peach-san, just so I can be fully myself again. But there's a pretty big chance I might need to use the water-walk ability at some point, right?" She shrugged, speaking mostly to herself at the end.
Still happy at her hard-earned strength being returned to her, Sakura crouched on one leg only, letting her other leg hang horizontally in the air. Like a piece of perfectly balanced one legged furniture, she stuck her tongue out slightly and concentrated. While she could normally hold this pose for an entire day, the harness still attached to her body dragged her back down into a sitting position after a few minutes. Still, it was far, far, FAR better than before. Blue fire between her hands she hopped around underneath the shelter, continuing to share her paltry warmth.
"But, man! As bad and sad as this beach is, compared to that stupid boat? It's a vacation." Sakura stood up straight as she heard an unfamiliar voice. Turning around, she spotted a handsome American man approaching, carrying firewood. And he didn't look like someone who lived on an island like this. too friendly, and his fashion was all avant garde punk stuff.
"Hello!" She waved cheerily over to him, hand still emitting some blue energy.
"Yeah, we got room. We're, uh, survivors of a ship crash. We're all a bit cold and wet, so I think we would be very grateful for the firewood. I'm Sakura, by the way!"
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