Blossoms and Carrion Birds
Matou Sakura felt her heart race as an icy chill ran through her veins. Blood roared in her ears, drowning out the taunts and demands of the scruffy looking punks around her. One of them reached out towards one of the grocery bags she was holding with a smirk showing grimy, yellowed teeth. Even at this distance she could smell his rank breath.
"What'cha got in the bag, babe?" he asked, his small, beady eyes moving up and down her form.
She swallowed and answered, "Groceries."
"Mind sharing with us?" one of the other punks asked before slowly licking his lips.
A spike of sheer heat shot up through the ice that was running through her veins as she took a deep, slow breath. Her eyes narrowed and she replied, "I'm already sharing with six other people. I'm sorry, but there's not any more room at the table."
"Hey, I recognize her. She's Emiya's girlfriend, aren't you baby?" the third and youngest punk said as he glared at her.
Sakura felt that heat quickly eat away at the ice from within and replied, "That's none of your business."
"Didn't Emiya kick your ass, Rao?" the leader asked with a slow grin.
Rao cracked his knuckles and said, "Yeah, that bastard did."
Knowing Sempai, he did for good reason, Sakura thought with narrowed eyes.
Rao pulled something from his jacket and Sakura almost groaned at the flash of steel in the street lights. She looked around, they had her cornered and backed up against the wall. She silently cursed and thought, This wouldn't happen to Nee-san.
"Now, if you're good Emiya's Girlfriend we'll let you go, if you fight . . . well, it's not going to be good for you," the leader said with a wide grin.
She bit her lip as she felt velvet darkness start to coat her veins. It was eager, ready and willing to do her bidding. The darkness ached to render each one of these idiots into parts that were unrecognizable. It wanted to shred and violate them.
Sakura whispered, "You should get away from me."
"Why's that?" Rao asked, "Your boyfriend gonna come save you?"
This caused a wave of laughter to bubble up from the other punks, as if it was the funniest thing that they'd ever heard.
No, because I'd kill you without breaking a sweat, she thought.
"No, because she'd either blast you to tiny bits where they'd have to seep you off the pavement with a sponge or something equally unpleasant," a low female voice with an odd accent said from the inside of the alley.
Sakura tilted her head to see a tall Caucasian woman that didn't look that much older than her saunter out of the shadows. She was dressed head to toe in black with a flowing leather duster. Blond hair woven in a braid that had seen better days caught the light as she approached.
Sakura shook her head and the blond girl winked at her.
Sakura blinked slowly as the foreigner folded her arms across her chest and said, "Now why don't the lot of you go run off and do something more constructive, eh. It'll lengthen your life expectancy."
"Who the hell do you think you are, telling us what to do?" the leader said with a glare.
Rao stared at the blond, lifted his knife and said, "I don't know Kenji, but she's kind of my type. For a foreigner."
"They're not really original, are they poppet?" the blond asked with one eyebrow raised.
Sakura blinked and asked, "What are you doing?"
"My usual. Not knowing when to butt out and sticking my nose where it doesn't belong because I can't let this sort of thing go," the blond said with a sigh before throwing out her fist.
Sakura blinked as Rao had been standing up right one moment and then the next he had been thrown across the alley. She'd barely seen the blond move it had been so fast. Inhumanly fast, Sakura thought as she took a step back and did the wise thing of staying out of an alley brawl.
******
Now, that right hurt.
The vampire who gave her name as Forest, also known from her point of origin as Law Unto Herself, hissed right as cold steel punctured right into her cold, undead flesh. Pain welled up sharply and made itself known as it traveled through her nervous system like wildfire. Her fangs throbbed in response as she growled low in her throat before reaching out to grab the little cunt with the knife.
His dark eyes widened as she drew him close.
“Didn’t your mum tell you that it’s bad to play with knives?” she asked in a low voice as she reached for the knife in his hand. His fingers uncurled easily when she pressed her thumb right into a point on his wrist that shorted out nerve impulses in a way she knew to be quite excruciating but ultimately harmless. There was a sharp clatter as the knife impacted the pavement.
The little pissant’s response was to scream loud enough to make her ears ring. She flinched at the pricing sound before darting forth. Fangs pierced sweaty and dirty flesh right before hot, sweet life splashed onto her tongue and down her throat. Her toes curled at the warmth flooding through her with each swallow and she heard him moan and arch towards her. An all too familiar smell of salt and musk filled the air as he gripped her arms to hold her in place.
Four days. Four days since I fell here. Three days before that since I fed. That’s pushing it even for me.
“Don’t stop, oh god please don’t stop,” the punk moaned as his fingers gripped the sleeves to her leather duster.
She licked the tiny punctures closed and he gave a full body shiver and moaned. He stared at her with wide eyes and said, “Do that again, please do that again.”
“No, I’ve taken my fill,” she said as she met his eyes.
Short term memories were easily dealt with, rearranging a bit here and there, and within moments he was wondering off in confusion with a giant stain in the front of his pants. The other two gangsters stared at her and she walked over to them. Their leader moved to pick up the knife, but a swift kick to the face halted that motion. He crumpled to the ground as she met the eyes of the one that really hadn’t caught much of her notice. Soon he was wandering around as well.
Then she turned to the violet haired girl who was staring with narrowed eyes. Forest put up her hands and said, “I won’t hurt you.”
“You wouldn’t get the chance,” the young woman said as she lifted her head defiantly. The smell of ozone and blood was stiflingly thick around her. Power was coiled around her like a second skin, the sort of power that Forest was use to seeing Fae wield and not some Japanese school girl with remarkably pretty hair.
And rather shapely to boot, and I thought the Japanese were slimmer than this. And normally don’t have purple hair and eyes, Forest thought with a frown, considering her all too slender form.
She replied, “I’d give you more of a fight than I’d let on. Besides, magic takes time to cast. I’m quick despite being dead.”
The girl moved from the wall, adjusting her burdens as she looked at Forest. Her eyes traveled up and down, widening at the tiny tears and dried blood that marred both her tank top and jeans. The vampire fidgeted with a loose lock of hair while she was thoroughly inspected. Suddenly the violet haired girl stepped up, gave a tiny bow, and said, “Thank you for your help.”
“Figured you didn’t want any more blood on your conscious,” Forest said with a shrug.
The girl’s eyes widened and she asked, “How did you . . .?”
“When someone with your sort of power hesitates they have reason to. Usually a personal one,” Forest said with a shrug. And you seem too nice to randomly lay waste to a bunch of punks.
The girl tilted her head and said, “My name’s Matou Sakura.”
“I’m called Forest,” the blond said with a polite bow. At least my Japanese isn’t rusty. It’s been over a century since I’ve stepped foot on these lands.
Blossoms and Carrion Birds Part Two
“So, if you had been a few minutes later, what would have you done?”
Sakura bit her lip as soon as the words were out of her mouth and wrung her hands together. The blond currently sprawled on the floor and doing minor repairs on her leather duster looked up. Thoughtful indigo eyes met Sakura's as Forest drug the needle through the heavy leather with a tiny frown.
Forest answered, “I would have tried to save those punks and kept you from doing something you would have regretted.”
“You would have killed me,” Sakura said, her voice sounding hollow even to her. Not that I would blame her.
“No, I may have beaten you unconscious, left you with the equivalent of a physic hang over, or drank from you until you passed out, but I wouldn't have killed you,” Forest replied with a slightly lopsided grin. “If you didn't completely own my arse with your magic first.”
Sakura blinked, stared, and then asked, “But why?”
“Because people have bad stuff that happens to them and that leaves a mark that sort of never goes away. They get better, but then they have something that happens to them that makes them think its happening again, except they have the ability to respond with extreme prejudice and do, even though logically they know they don't have to, but they still do,” the blond replied with a shrug before looking down at her stitches.
There was the barest whisper as Sakura took another step closer to the vampire. She asked, “Something like that happen to you?”
“Sort of yes, but I've seen it a lot over the centuries as well. I have this friend who would have gone utterly berserk at those cunts circling you like a pack of dogs and it would have been really messy,” Forest answered, looking up at Sakura again with eyes that were far too old for the face that held them.
Sakura asked, “Why did you come help me anyway? I mean, you said you could sense that I could take care of myself.”
“Being able to act with Deadly Force and wanting to act with Deadly Force are two rather different things. And why act with Deadly Force at all when a few good blows and a bite does the trick and everyone goes home happy. Really happy in the case of that one bloke,” Forest said as her nose scrunched up.
Sakura chuckled at the memory and asked, “Where you meaning to do that?”
“No. It just sort of happens. It's right embarrassing,” the blond said with a shaky laugh before rubbing the back of her neck.
Sakura found herself smiling and replied, “Still, thank you. For saving me.”
“You're welcome,” Forest replied with a smile of her own, “And thank you for bringing me here. I'm really not fond of sewers, despite what popular culture likes to say about vampires. Hyper keen senses and poo water don't mix.”
“I know, Lancer complains a lot about stuff like that,” Sakura said with another chuckle.
Forest moved her coat to the side and said, “You can sit down if you want. I won't bite you.”
Sakura blinked at the invitation and sank close to the vampire. She sat on her knees and said, “Still, not everyone would be so inclined to act like you did.”
“Well, not everyone goes around patrolling to keep the forces of evil at bay either. I'm a bit daft like that,” the other woman replied with a shrug.
Heat filled Sakura's cheeks and she replied, “So is my boyfriend actually. He wanted to save everyone not too long ago.”
“The problem with that is not everyone deserves to be saved,” Forest said before jerking the needle through the worn leather.
Sakura smiled and said, “Maybe you're not as daft as you think you are.”
“I'll argue about that before I get distracted by something shiny,” Forest said with a tiny grin.
Sakura chuckled and replied, “I don't think it's that bad.”
“Something shinny and pretty and I'm pretty much gone,” Forest said as her grin grew into a smile, flashing even white teeth. Sakura noticed that Eloise and her troop had small fangs at all times, and Lancer and Rider's canines were pronounced in their sharpness, but the vampire before her grew fangs when she fed. Or rather her canines lengthened and sharpened to fangs when she needed them too. It's kind of fascinating, having a being from an entirely different dimension with a different set of rules here.
Sakura grinned and said, “Then don't look too closely at Lancer's earrings.”
"Looking too closely at Lancer's a bloody problem altogether," Forest muttered as she quickly looked down.
Sakura had to smile at the sight of the vampire sheepishly looking away as if she was blushing, but no color crossed those fair cheeks. She replied, "He's not exactly my type."
"Well, think of it this way, I grew up hearing stories about him. I wanted to be like him. He was like my childhood hero. It would be like you meeting Sailor Moon or something," Forest said with a sigh, "And yes, he's bloody gorgeous. And taken. All the good ones are taken. Or gay. Your beau is also too adorable for words."
Heat filled Sakura's cheeks and she found herself smiling as she asked, "You think Sempai's cute?"
"Poppet, that boy is beyond cute. Then again I have a fondness for well built redheads and he's a good guy to boot," Forest said before rolling her eyes.
Sakura found her smile stretching her face at the sheer joy that a supernatural creature found Sempai cute and Sempai didn't even notice her other than she was someone who needed help. Well after he asked if he could get something to eat when he thought she was starved. She almost chuckled at the memory and shook her head.
Forest said, "You hold tight to that one. Men like him don't come around that often."
"I wasn't planning on letting him go," Sakura replied with a smile before tilting her head thoughtfully.
After a moment she asked, "What about Archer?"
"The big brooding man with the stick shoved so far up his arse he's probably tasting his breakfast?" Forest asked before jabbing the duster with the needle as her face twisted in a snarl.
Sakura raised her eyebrows and said, "He's not that bad."
"I wanted to punch him," Forest said with narrowed eyes.
The violet haired girl chuckled at that, shook her head, and replied, "I think he wanted you to." Because Archer is tsundere. Very tsundere. And he likes strong willed women. If he starts teasing and taunting like that right after meeting someone new, then he either doesn't know how to handle her or he likes her. Or maybe a combination of both. Forest would be a foreign and new element for him. Someone who he has no base knowledge from his past to handle. Someone who isn't some bizarre sort of deja vu for him.
"Man seems to be getting over a death wish," Forest said with a sigh, "Has a giant chip on his shoulder and it's easier to get angry than to do anything constructive."
Sakura eyed her and said, "You're partially right. Archer has a very . . . troubled existence."
"Archer is a troubled existence," Forest said with narrowed eyes and a scowl.
Sakura smiled and said, "Maybe he's someone who needs help."
"Now you're not playing fair," Forest said with one gracefully raised eyebrow. She then sighed and said, "He's burned out. I know that look. Seen it far too often myself. He's burned out and lost, struggling to find his place in this crazy world. Which I can sympathize. Doesn't make me want to punch him less though."
Maybe Forest is a little tsundere too.