[h3]Divine Mission aftermath pt2[/h3] Ft. Sakura and Amateratsu Words: 2372 (+3) (+3 rapport) [color=lightgoldenrodyellow][i]"This is Pit! We're being attacked! Give me a status report, all of you, now!"[/i][/color] This message rung through Sakura and Amaterasu’s linkpearls. Only Sakura had, not wanting to be disturbed while she got her Z’s, instinctively taken hers out and placed it on the nightstand next to the bed. In the meantime, she was happily tangled up in her sheets, blissfully ignorant of the violent bombing happening to the rest of the Seekers. Amataratsu, lacking hands to do this, and also having very sensitive hearing, had no such luxury. On the very first word, she awoke with a start. By the third she was up on her paws, glancing around. By the end, she’d clued in to what was happening, and was entirely ready to make a run all the way to the city to help. A glance to her side found that she was the only one in that condition, as Sakura continued to sleep soundly. She spied the street fighter’s link pearl on the table with her lupine eyes, and promptly grabbed it in her jaw before more or less pouncing onto Sakura’s bed to wake her up to try and get her to take the pearl. In doing so, she did not quite taking into account the fact that the human’s night vision was considerably worse than her own. Nor did she take into account how sound a sleeper Sakura was. [color=f49ac2][i]”It’s too early, Snowball-kun…”[/i][/color] She mumbled in Japanese. Her hand reached up and weakly pat in the general direction of Amaterasu’s head. [color=f49ac2][i]”Good boy…”[/i][/color] She turned away from Amaterasu and started snoring quietly again. Amaterasu made a sound of disappointed disgruntlement, dropped the pear in the process, panicked and kicked it up with her paw, then lunged forwards to snap it out there air and only just avoided swallowing it as a result. It was pretty slobbery as a result of all this when the wolf tried to directly insert the pearl into Sakura’s ear. This sudden wet willy revolted Sakura awake, her eyes squeezing tighter before flashing open. [color=f49ac2][i]”Ehhh nani nani?![/i]”[/color] She brought her arm up to shove the source of the feeling away from her, knocking the linkpearl loose. A moment passed and she remembered where she was. [color=f49ac2]”Amaterasu-san, please don’t do that!”[/color] She grabbed the blanket and started wiping her ear off. All she could make out as the vague impression of the divine wolf in the darkness. Said impression promptly ducked down to go after the link pearl, only to find it had rolled its way under the rather low bed. This forced her to duck down and bap a clawed paw around under there to get it, making lots of annoying scrabbily noises on the wooden floor in the process. [color=f49ac2]”What’s going on?”[/color] Sakura asked blearily. She rubbed her eyes, but it’s not like she could see much of anything. She leaned over the side of the bed and gave Amaterasu a few pats. Then she let herself droop over the side of the bed and landed on her hands and knees. She got the impression Amaterasu was trying to get at something under the bed. Sakura lowered her head to get a good look, and was once again treated to a grand vista of near total darkness. Even darker under the bed. [color=f49ac2]”Uhh…”[/color] She blinked slowly. [color=f49ac2]”...neko-chan?”[/color] She asked the darkness. Her best guess was that some kind of cat had snuck it and gotten Amaterasu all riled up. She started reaching around under the bed, though perhaps annoyingly, rarely did she pat the ground itself, preventing her from feeling the link pearl. The wolf gave up on her mundane paws, and resorted to divine intervention on her own part. She paused the world, drew a swirl, and caused a gust of wind to sweep through the room, causing the link pearl to clatter out from under the bed. It also blew the bedsheet off of the bed and dumped it right on top of them. [color=f49ac2]”Huh?”[/color] Sakura felt a gust of wind and was suddenly ensnared by her own bedsheets. The blanket rose and reached out like a cheap ghost costume as Sakura stood on her knees and felt around. She found the bed and started crawling on top of it. [color=f49ac2]”I give up, I give up…”[/color] She sought to return to bed. Now was no time for bed, Amataeratsu declared, in a manner only she could: she shoved open the window, and, with a simply drawn ring in the heavens, raised the sun. Locally. [color=f49ac2]”No way…”[/color] The blanket ghost complained, seeing the sun dimmed through its sheets. [color=f49ac2]”Impossible…just five more minutes..!”[/color] It flopped onto the pillow. Ameterasu promptly drew a line through the sheet, slicing it in half while leaving the woman inside unharmed, and insistantly presented the now visible in the light of day link pearl. [color=f49ac2]”Since when am I your enemy?!”[/color] Sakura asked, curling into a ball. The wolf simply continued to insist, making an effort to vaguely wave a paw at the thing in her mouth to draw attention to it in a semi-human manner (something she’d not engage with unless it really was urgent). Still, she looked at the link pearl. [color=f49ac2]”What, that?”[/color] She left her lower half on the bed and crawled over to the link pearl with her arms, snatching it up, and then laying back down at the bed. [color=f49ac2]”I can’t believe it's morning already.”[/color] She complained, miserable. [color=f49ac2]”And why is this thing so freakin’ wet?”[/color] Frustrated, she wiped it off on her split sheets. [color=f49ac2]”Was it really necessary to do that? These are perfectly good sheets. Someone probably made it by hand. I mean, this thing really is important, so thanks, I guess…still…”[/color] With a yawn, Sakura put the now dry pearl in her ear. At that moment, the duo's linkpearls activated once more, this time bearing the deep, rich baritone and smooth metallic echo of Big Band. "Heads up y'all, it looks like the storm's mostly blown over. We still got some folks pickin' through the rubble, but those self-destructin' robots are all gone, so there's no more action for the time bein'. Only person unaccounted for is Ms Fortune, though I suspect she ain't dead either, seein' as her whole shtick is not dyin'. I s'pose we're gonna split up and lay low for now. Band over and out." [color=f49ac2]”Uhh, huh..? Something happened over at Banishing Flats in the night. I guess it’s all good now, though…”[/color] Sakura stood up in place and stretched, forcing herself to begin the day. Beside her, the divine wolf promptly flopped down into her bed again in utter exasperation of her wasted effort. Yes, she thought, it was good that it was all over, but still, the frustration was palpable. [color=f49ac2]”Eehh? After all that, now you wanna stay in bed? How is that fair?”[/color] Sakura walked over and started shoving down on the wolf. The wolf simply ignored her, waiting for her ink to recharge. Then with a sketch she filled back in the slice she’d made in the bedding, and with a half circle in the sky, promptly put the sun down again, plunging the village back into its natural night. Sakura blinked, suddenly plunged back into darkness. [color=f49ac2]”Wh-what! That was you?!”[/color] [color=f49ac2]”You bastard! Gimme my sleep back!”[/color] She fumbled around in the darkness to grab Amaterasu and rub her knuckle into her head. The wolf, utterly confused by this sensation, was stunned for a few heartbeats, before she promptly started to try and wiggle her way out of the grab. She would escape, but not before being thoroughly bonked by a pillow smash. Sakura kept trying to smack in the wolf’s general direction. The wolf took this for a few hits, before grabbing a pillow from her den in her jaw, and then using that to try and bap the streetfighter right back. Sakura was unprepared but undeterred, swinging away in the darkness. [color=f49ac2]”I’ll get you for this!”[/color] She declared. She tossed her pillow away and went for a blind tackle, thudding onto the floor instead. There, she stayed. Now that she had fallen over it was impossible to get up. Amaterasu reeled her pillow back for a finishing blow. Paused. Mentally sighed. Then went for a mercy kill. A swirl of wind launched the dropped bedsheet up into the air, then two lines filled the already dark room with mist, during which Amaterasu moved fast. She tossed the pillow under the slow falling blanket, grabbed Sakura by the scruff of the shirt, and then back flipped to slam her over head and down onto the bed, head landing neatly on the pillow. Then she drew two more lines, slowing time again, during which she grabbed each corner of the falling bedsheet and neatly tucked them in, leaving Sakura, in eight seconds of work and two seconds of real time, squared away back in bed again. After such an efficient putting to bed, Sakura seemingly had no more complaints. Once second she was falling to sleep on the floor, there was a brief rush of movement, and she was back in bed like nothing had ever happened! [color=f49ac2]”Uhm…”[/color] She muttered, but her eyes had already closed again for the evening. Satisfied with her work, and now quite sure she wouldn’t have to do this again because Sakura was now sleeping with the link pearl in her ear, the wolf padded over to her own nest and settled down to get as much shut eye as she could manage. They had a big day tomorrow after all. She spared not a second thought for how confusing the entire experience of brief sunrise in the middle of the night had been for everyone else in the village. — Despite a brief interruption, the two were no worse for wear when the morning actually came. Sakura was doing dynamic stretches by the dirt road, putting all of her weight on one leg and leaning way out to the side, then switching back to the other leg. They were going to be hitching a ride on the villagers cart into town, so that’s where she was waiting. She was very refreshed, even having to get up so early. [color=f49ac2]”Today’s the big day! Are you excited for your matches, Amaterasu-san?”[/color] She asked, shifting from side to side. [color=f49ac2]”I know I am. I’m not going to hold anything back. I’m gonna win this thing!”[/color] She grinned. [color=f49ac2]”Then, I’ll smash that rotten M. Bison into smithereens.”[/color] The wolf bore her teeth in response, not as a smile, but as an approval of and agreement with her readiness for the fighting to come. She might not have a personal vendetta against the part of the guardian heading their tournament, but there was no backup plan if her team got knocked out of the tournament, and so she’d be giving it her all. Just not right now. As the street fighter stretched, the divine wolf lounged on a patch of grass by the road, conserving energy. Soon enough, their ride, and its driver [url=https://i.imgur.com/hiHprT1.png]Pete[/url] arrived, ready to transport them, and a whole host of veggie goodies to market. Along with them, a fair chunk of the town turned out to wave them off and wish them good luck in the tournament (which they intended to listen to over the radio). “We’ll be cheering you on! Go give them what for!” the mayor called out as part of this, prompting a cheer from the crowd. [color=f49ac2]”Bye bye!!! Thank youuu!”[/color] Sakura waved and responded until they were all out of sight. Once they were out of the village, and a gaggle of kids that had run after them to wish them further luck had been left behind, they settled in for the slow but steady ride to the city. Amatarasu found a clear shot in the wagon itself, where she lay herself down to have a little extra shut eye, leaving Sakura to sit up front and small talk with Pete. Smalltalk which started with “well wasn’t that the darndest thing last night? With the sun and all?” [color=f49ac2]”You saw that?”[/color] Sakura asked Pete, before glancing over her shoulder at Amaterasu. [color=f49ac2]”I think that was my wolf friend. She’s good at that kind of thing. I- I’m not really sure how that works, to be honest.”[/color] She admitted. As she talked, she casually hopped off the cart and started jogging along side it. It was only when they were getting close that the duo got the call from Big Band. The man might be an early riser, but he hadn’t managed to beat the farmers at this game, and the pair had woken up on their schedule in order to catch this ride into town. As it turned out, the cafe he’d chosen was popular with the visiting farmers as well, and so the duo’s ride got parked nearby, and its driver was more than happy to show them there. [color=f49ac2]”Thank you Pete-san!”[/color] She called out, though she had jogged the latter half of the trip anyway. Upon arriving, they spotted a gaggle of seekers, and headed over, with Amaterasu thinking a greeting the Lalafell’s way, and enquiring how she, and everyone, was doing after the commotion she’d heard about over the linkpearl. [color=f49ac2]”Hey! We’re back! Sorry, guys, I wish I coulda been there to help out at Banishing Flats. Did the Consuls have something to do with it? It’s not very Esaka friendly conduct.”[/color] She said, thinking aloud.