Zoey Boey

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Divine Mission pt2

Ft. Sakura and Amateratsu
Words: 2710 (+3)

“There, that’s them! Those cabbage munching monsters wandered out of the jungle just a few days ago, and we haven't been able to do anything about it!”

So said one Mayor Theador as he showed them the problem that the pair of the seekers were here to take a look at. He did so while only poking his head around the corner of the house closest to the infested field, wanting to not go a step closer to the pest problem. Neither did the various farmers, which ment that not only where the crops being devoured, but even what wasn’t wasn’t going to be harvested any time soon either.

As for the cause of the problem, it seems, from a distance, to be a large number of giant tortoises that were slowly plodding around the farm’s fields, munching away on the produce at a slow but steady rate.

”Tortoises?” Sakura said, scratching her head. She had pictured something more monster-like. ”They are pretty big.”

Amateratsu, for her part, took one look at this, one look back at the townsfolk, and then rolled her eyes before brazenly walking into the fields and approaching the nearest of the tortoises. Sakura set her fists against her hips and waited, assuming Amaterasu had some kind of plan.

The cabbage munching reptile turned its head, slowly, to look at the divine wolf as she stopped and stood authoritatively before it, simply assuming that the beast like all others would be able to see her for what she truly was, before barking at it to try and get it to scram.

Her ears drooped when, rather than do so it retracted into its shell instead, only for her ears to spike back up in alarm when said shell began to rapidly spin, and then came flying straight at her.

The divine wolf was smashed backwards, having been taken entirely off guard in her arrogance, and though a stack of godhood took the blow, she could feel how absurdly powerful it had been.

Unslowed by the impact the tortoise flew past where she’d landed, then slowed suddenly in mid air as it came out of its shell and dropped to the ground, landing neatly on its feet as it did so.

”Amaterasu-sama?!” Sakura exclaimed, alarmed at the raw power the shelled behemoth possessed. She began to run over.

Ameteratsu rolled on the ground and flipped onto her paws once more, whirling to face the beast that had knocked her down, only for her to stop suddenly, fur bristling with fear, Behind her, the others saw what she had heard: shell after shell thumping into the ground as the other tortoises reacted to her still standing by coming to their fellows aid.

In only a few heartbeats, the air was filled with armored wrecking balls.

”Ieeeh! Amaterasu-sama!!!” Sakura screamed. ”Tortoises! Tortoises!” Sakura used Tag Out, gaining a burst of speed and giving the divine wolf a speed boost and some health recovery, as long as she evaded instead of attacking. Sakura switched places with the divine wolf and warded off an encroaching turtle with a knockback kick that sent it spiralling off course, where it landed neatly in the cabbage field.

Another turtle hurtled itself towards her, and the street fighter blocked it, though her arms flung off to the side as her guard ki broke. Alarmed, she was smashed into by the next tortoise and landed ass over tea kettle. ”Bwah!” Upside down, she flipped and scrambled back to her feet.

”Hey, what’s going on?! What do we do?!” Sakura said.

“Get rid of them please!” the hiding mayor called out from behind a building. ”I got that much!” She shouted back.

Amaterasu got it as well, and provided her opinion on what they should do by hurling herself back into the fray. Unseen to all, her sun disk rose up and blocked an incoming tortoise that had been coming in as Sakura righted herself, repaying the favor of her Tag Out.

That tortoise was launched upwards by the parry, and the wolf jumped after it, grabbed it by the throat, and then slammed it back down into the ground with force. Then she paused time, and drew a slash across the incoming volley of tortoises, knocking them out of the air, giving her time to charge a mighty sword blow which she cleaved into the one she’d throat slammed, wounding it greatly.

Sakura widened her stance, trying to get this chaos under control with the space and time Amaterasu bought her. She ran forward to one of the tortoises that had gotten knocked out of the air and slid towards it, swiping it across the face with a spin kick. Then she delivered an acrobatic chinbuster kick to pop it up vertically. Then, she just went to slam into it and rush it down onto its back, impaling its own spikes into the soft earth to wedge it there permanently. Or at least so she thought, as another shelled beast hurtled itself towards her. She put the flipped turtle between her and it, and the resulting collision sent her tumbling and the trapped turtle flipped onto its back. After catching herself, she punched the dirt, her attempt foiled. ”There’s just too many of them!”” She complained.

Another turtle zoomed towards the young street fighter. Sakura jumped right over it, and the one after that. Eventually, she got the timing down, and used Mental Connection to zip onto a turtle right as it went underneath her. An invisible psychic string connected to the limited thoughts of the beast, letting her anchor herself to it. She grabbed its ridged shell as stability, and was now belly-to-back prone on the shell, her feet flinging out behind her as it spun.

”Step one, done! Step two…working on it!” Sakura exclaimed.

So was Amaterasu, but keeping out of the way of the turtle volleys was taking most of her focus, making actually attacking them a nightmare. She paused time again to try and get a moment to think, and try and figure a way out of this.

She scanned around for a line she could draw through a set of tortoises, found only a meager grouping due to how chaotic things were and then, in a moment of inspiration, drew a second line.

Rather than slashing the beasts, there was a single second where the field was smothered in a thin mist. In that misty moment, from the perspective of Sakura and the Tortoises, Amaterasu moved unnaturally quickly and a dozen turtles were struck out of the air. From her perspective, meanwhile, the world around her slowed for four seconds, giving her ample time to flick her devout beads out over and over, each blow of the long chain lashing out at a different tortoise.

Amaterasu level up

Power: Veil of Mist: Amaterasu draws two horizontal lines which cause a veil of mist to briefly sweep across the area. From her perspective, this effect lasts 4 seconds. For everyone else’s, it lasts 1, during which the divine wolf moves 4 times as fast.

They hit the ground all at once, peeking out of their shells in confusion, and then a half of those dozen suddenly had a massive cherry bomb sitting in their midst, while Amaterasu barked to try and bring Sakura’s attention to the explosive’s slow burning wick.

”Amazing!” Sakura exclaimed. When she was alerted to the big bomb, her eyes widened. ”Oops!” She rolled backwards towards the back of the shell and pushed herself off it with a leap, sending the monster towards the bomb and propelling herself away from it with one action.

Before the turtle could get away, Sakura fired off an EX-Hadoken, launching a blazing electric fireball towards the bomb to set off the explosion now that she was far away. ”Eat this!”

Tortoise were blasted into the sky (as was a fair amount of dirt and veg) before slamming down here, there and everywhere, and in at least a few cases turning to ash as they perished from the combo move. There were still plenty left, of course, but it was the start of the turning of the tide.

Amaterasu rushed to capitalize on the carnage, rushing towards a fallen tortoise, leaping up, and then bringing her oversized sword down on top of its cracked shell, crashing through it and finding flesh beneath. Then she launched a barrage of beads into another, before having to go back on the defensive as the survivors took to the air again, and the shell-storm ramped back up in intensity, though not quite reaching its initial intensity.

”Do you think we could have tortoise soup after this?” Sakura asked over the sound of mayhem.

As the tortoises approached, Sakura decided to try something different. She jumped over them like normal, feeling more comfortable than she did out in the chaos than she did when it all started. She channeled her ki energy into a Focus, grounding herself. As the tortoises whipped back towards her, she lashed out with Mental Connection, connected to the nearest turtle, and pulled it off course, slamming it into another tortoise and into the ground. Hand out stretched, she did this twice more, using the turtles own power against them as she slammed them into each other and the dirt itself.

”Got anything else to hit ‘em with?” Sakura asked Amaterasu. These monsters had demonstrated enough brutishness and lack of any instinctual self-preservation that Sakura had thought of them as just that- monsters!

The wolf didn’t have anything to hit them with hard, but she did come up with one more trick, which was to whip up a gust of wind that knocked the current volley of tortoises off course such that they sailed past the fighters rather than into them. Mainly however what she did was try and use the reach of her divine beads to tag tortoises to knock them out of the air, close in, and then deliver a sun disk smash to their scally faces for their trouble.

It was slow, methodical, but between them they wore the herd of cabbage munching pests down, each death making things just a little easier. Which was good because the fight was a chaotic mess that worked up one hell of a sweat and a fair share of mental strain on top.

”I’m glad the koopas aren’t here for this.” Sakura said. She looked into the eyes of a giant tortoise and found nothing but the flat, low-resolution desire to munch on cabbage and bowl into anything that moves. It was almost creepy! It wound up to smash into her again, only to hit nothing but air. Sakura scattered them against each other and sent them packing with kiblasts.

”Phew…that was intense. What the heck was their problem?!” Sakura asked. She looked around at the semi-ruined cabbage field. ”Uhh…hmm…” She tapped on her chin, worried.

Right on que, the Mayor finished slowly peeking his head around the corner (his top hat having been in view a full 5 seconds before his face was) and asking “is it over?” before wincing at the sight of the cabbage field with the worried street fighter and panting wolf sitting in it, cloths and fur streaked with dirt and ash.

Still, as he glanced around a bit more, and saw not a tortoise in sight, that wince shifted to a little O of amazement and then a smile as he stepped out and, with a clap of his hands, declared them to be “Spectacular!”

The farmers took this as que to also peek out around the corner. Though one looked absolutely miffed that his cabbage patch had been ruined, the rest burst into a cheer, and then rushed forwards to congratulate the duo. This prompted a dismayed cry of “My cabbages!” from the plot owner as any survivors ran the risk of being trampled.

A bead of sweat, and not one from physical exertion ran down Sakura’s face. She smiled. Big crowds again. At least they weren’t angry this time. ”Oh, haha, it was no problem.” She said as she shook one hand, then another, and another. ”No problem, no problem…no comment, no comment!” It was all starting to get to be a bit much. Maybe Sakura could find an excuse to book it?!

The mayor managed to wade into this gaggle of merry folk while shouting “now now, there’ll be plenty of time for that later! For now, please, we need to salvage as much of the crop that these two- I mean those nasty pests ruined! We have a feast to prepare after all!” and promptly shooing the farmers away.

Once they had some air to breathe, the mayor took off his hat, held it to his chest, and gave a short bow while giving thanks of his own “truly, we are in your debt.”

Amatatsu tried to look as impassive as possible, as if it had been nothing, but her tail was wagging behind her in happiness of the recognition of her good deed, and the Praise it had earned her.

Sakura relaxed. To the mayor, she set her hands at her side and bowed her head. ”You’re really welcome!” She said.

”In terms of reward…it’s food, right? Do you think you could spare enough to put into some kind of package? I’d like to send it to my friends who need it. Don’t worry, I can take care of transport.” She said.

“Oh?” the mayor replied, before a moment of thought agreeing wholeheartedly “of course of course. We’d be delighted to help.”

There was only one caveat, which was simply that it’d be “Once we’ve got a harvest of course. It’ll take a little while to work out what’s salvageable and all that. Could hardly send you away with half chewed veggies of course!”
Sakura smiled and nodded. ”Thank you!”

He gave a little belly laugh at his own joke, before beginning to “in the meantime could I offer you some tea?” before looking them over again and suggesting instead “Oh. Or maybe you’d like to use our local hot springs? Does wonders after a hard day on the field, or so I’ve heard anyway. Certainly helps out these old bones”

”Oh, uh…” Sakura looked at Amaterasu. ”What do you think? Do you like hot springs?”

The divine wolf barked enthusiastically at the notion, forgetting in her enthusiasm that she disliked the one for yes two for no method of communicating she was stuck with.

She looked back at the mayor and shrugged happily. ”I guess that’d be nice!”

“Marvelouse!” the mayor said with another clap of his hands, before giving them directions to the hotspring. Given that it was a fairly small village, these weren't all that complicated.

“Oh and do say hello to Ukee for me!” he added as they began to head off.

”Okay!” She waved as they left. ”Who is that?” She asked loudly, but at this point was kind of far away. ”Do you know who Ukee is?” She looked at Amaterasu, who barked twice for no (with the suitable amount of disapproval for the communication method this time).

The divine wolf supposed they’d find out soon enough.

”...It’s one bark for yes, two for no, right?” Sakura asked. ”Couldn’t you just nod or shake your head?”

Amaterasu looked over and up at her as they walked, and then did her best to shake her head in response to the second part, and looked very uncomfortable as she did so. Plus the snout waving back and forward was much less of a concise motion than it was on a short nosed human. That was all before you got to Amateratsu’s thoughts on the matter which were not going to fit into four word sentences scribbled on napkins.

”No, no, like this!” She wiggles her head back and forth like a dog shaking out water. Or at least, the best human approximation of it.

”Ah, nevermind. I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what you’re thinking, anyway.” She said, setting her hands behind her head and strolling off with her wolf teammate.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Divine Mission

Ft. Sakura and Amateratsu
Words: 756 (+2) (+2 rapport)

Amatersu couldn’t say she was particularly happy with the whole theft thing. Literally and figuratively. If she could talk, she’d have had a lot to say about how they should be helping people, not harming them, even if Galeem’s reality was ever so ephemeral. This world was bad enough without those who knew its true nature also making it worse.

She could not, however, do this. Instead she could merely lead by example.

Unfortunately, currently, that example had resulted in her being flat broke due to having donated all her recovered treasures to charity. So she was in need of funds, and far too proud to go to Miss Fortune for them, as much as her belly would soon complain about that if she did nothing about it.

Fortunately, she had a solution to that, which she had spotted on the way here, namely a large board called Bonus Wag which touted itself as a way for fighters to earn some extra coin. On it had been many notes pinned to it with job advertisements of various kinds.

Most were utterly unsuitable, but it only took a few moments to nip out the board and spot one she liked the look of. By the time Missfortune was thinking of heading out, she had returned with it held in her jaw, and promptly showed it off to the first person she ran into, which turned out to be Sakura.

”Amaterasu-sama. What’s this?” She took it and read it.

The (rather weather worn) note read:

Help wanted!

Awful armored pests from the bamboo forest are slowly devouring out crops, and we can’t even harvest what they haven’t eaten because they will attack us if we get close. Normally we’d ask the Pandas to help out, but there’s some sort of terrible robot war business going on inside and they are sadly much too busy with that to help us.

Strong fighters wanted to help toss these terrible turtles back into the woods where they belong. Sadly we can’t pay much, what with not having been able to harvest our crops and all, but rest assured, as soon as your work is done you’ll have a veritable feast on your hands, freshly plucked from the fields!

Haste would be much appreciated

Signed

Theodore, Mayor of Flowerbud Village

Sakura nodded to herself, and then kept nodded at Amaterasu. ”Hey, sounds fun!” She said. ”Besides, you uh, already took the note thingy. We kinda have to go, now.” Sakura said.

”Let’s see. Flowerbud village.” She tapped her chin. ”I can’t say I know all the villages around Esaka. There’s gotta be a map or some signage or someone we can ask.”

The divine wolf tilted her head to the side, and then glanced around the lobby of the Banishing Flats, sharp eyes spotted what looked to be a tourist guide in a little rack of free to peruse reading material. She padded over, picked it up with her teeth, and popped it onto a table before awkwardly pawing through it till she got past all the bits about the city and found a bigger map of the area.

It was, unfortunately, not labeled, but she did find an unlabeled village up north that was one closest to the border of the forest found to Esaka’s west by her judgment. She glanced at Sakura, then back to the map while patting a paw below it.

That was the best she could do anyway. If anyone was going to ask around about it, it would have to be Sakura herself.

Sakura looked at the Mecha Zangief, an amused, confused expression on her face. ”This is weird. I know this guy. Why did they make so many robots of him? I mean, I guess, he’s pretty cool, don’t get me wrong.” She said.

The Mecha Zangief, with its apparent encyclopedic knowledge of the nearby area, managed to confirm the direction of Flowerbud village (leaving Amaterastu feeling pretty smug even if her attempt had been rather redundant).

Map in hand, she leaned down towards the divine wolf.”Let’s go, Amaterasu-sama!” She raised her hands above her head.

”We’re heading to Flowerbud village to get some fruits and veggies!” She informed the rest of the Seekers, before jogging out the door and heading towards the Golden Fields yet again, with the divine wolf hot on her heels.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

After Tea

Word Count: 5,412
EXP: +5
Yayama, Sakura, Captain Falcon, Amaterasu
@DracoLunaris@Chevaleresse@Double

---

In the end, they’d resolved the situation more or less by just running away. There would be consequences to that, of that the divine wolf was quite certain. Especially because they’d had to actively ditch some of the more persistent belligerents in the process, including the sage’s two machine people.

They’d lost Terry in the process, but hopefully he’d both lost anyone following him, and after that either they or another group would run into him again and be able to explain the situation to him.

Still, they’d pulled off their little escape, and ended up somewhere in the middle tier as a result, in a secluded booth of some sports bar they’d not bothered checking the name of before using it as cover. Given the nature of the town, the only sport being played in this bar was the combat type, with a boxing match between one Balrog and one Lil mac currently being shown on the monitors. One that didn’t really seem fair given the size difference of the two fighters, even if the little slugger was currently giving as good as he got.

Regardless, that wasn’t really why they were here, or what was interesting to the divine wolf right now. Instead it was the diminutive hero who’d helped them out on a whim, a fact which Amaterasu thought gave her a few points towards justifying that title certainly, that had her attention.

Sakura smiled at Yayama, and her response to the nature of being a hero. ”Classic hero stuff. But yeah, I know how you feel. It’s almost embarrassing to think of yourself that way, huh?” She said.

”Adventurer feels more appropriate. But me, I think the perfect word is Seeker. Which is our little group.” She said, and then followed the new adventurer’s eyes off to the distance where Terry had went.

”He’s normally a pretty happy-go-lucky kinda guy.” Sakura mused.

At her mention of Terry, the wolf looked away, embarrassed at how that had turned out. It had been her idea, and her actions, that had freed him, and things had not gone smoothly, she’d admit that much if anyone asked. Not that they would, given she could not answer them with any degree of complexity.

”I’m sure he’s fine.” Falcon interjected at the mention of Terry, trying to offer reassurance. ”He probably just needs some space to clear his head. I imagine he’ll find his way back to Amaterasu and I in time for the KOF to start.” It made sense to the Captain at least. Being flooded with previously absent memories and learning about something as… complicated as Galeem was a lot for anyone to take in.

Sakura nodded and agreement. ”Terry-san’s got a strong, good heart. He reminds me a lot of Ryu-san. The kinda guy who doesn’t really talk about his feelings as much as he…wanders about them. Broods stoically. Like this.” She threw an invisible jacket over her shoulder and strode a few steps away.

“Hard to say in cases like these, but there’s no need to be embarassed. I don’t know what exactly you did back there, but people don’t always respond predictably to big emotional revelations.” Yayama addressed Amaterasu directly, despite responding to Falcon. “Can you talk, by the way? You don’t exactly look or act like an ordinary wolf, and I’ve met auspices before.”

As Yayama talked, Sakura ended up behind her, casual-like. She formed a ‘heart’ looking shape with her fingers, and looked at Falcon and Amaterasu. Then she pointed at the top of Yayama’s head, and made the heart shape again, making a ‘yeah?’ expression with her face. This got a raised eyebrow from the Captain, followed by a small nod of agreement.

The wolf put her paws up on the table, hauled herself up a bit, and then stole a napkin from a little holder of them, before letting it fall onto the table with the word “Yes” written on it in pure black ink, conveniently answering both questions at once.

Sakura gave an emphatic thumbs up towards her two comrades. Yayama noticed the movement behind her - it paid to keep your wits about you in her line of work - but elected not to pay it any mind for the moment. She didn’t have any reason to suspect Sakura of anything untoward. “Ah.” Realizing she was potentially misunderstanding the situation, but proceeding anyways, she pitched her voice lower. “Is there a reason you haven’t done so aloud? Keeping up some kind of appearance or whatnot? On my blade, I won’t spill your secrets if so.”

”I don’t believe she can speak verbally.” Cap said, attempting to clarify the Sun Goddess’ answer. ”She understands us fluently. But to communicate back she either uses her calligraphy power to write notes or barks once for ‘yes’ and twice for ‘no’.” He gave a quick glance toward the white wolf, seeking confirmation that his explanation was accurate so as not to look like he was speaking for her.

The wolf, helpful, gave a bark for yes of confirmation, though it was possibly the least enthusiastic bark possible. She was, after all, not the biggest fan of the communication method. Unbeknownst to her, their diminutive new friend heard the bark as plain language, though she waited patiently to point this out as the Captain moved up to introduce himself.

”Come to think of it,” Falcon then said, ”I don’t believe I introduced myself yet. My name is Captain Falcon. You might have heard of me from the F-Zero Grand Prix.” He said, name-dropping his status as a famous F-Zero Champion though such a thing might not be that well known in a city like Esaka. ”As for our silent furry friend here, her name is Amaterasu.”

Yayama nodded along with the explanations and introductions. “You got my name earlier, of course, but I could add a few more titles if you’d like?” Her tone was dry, but she did wait a moment in case someone did in fact want to hear the appellations in question. “I also happen to be gifted with a particular gift known, at least where I’m from, as the Echo. I bring this up because one of the abilities it grants me is the ability to communicate soul-to-soul, without the intervening barriers of language. I can’t read minds, if that’s what you’re thinking,” she clarified, though even that wasn’t true if taken in the absolute strictest sense, “but what I can do is speak to someone regardless of what tongue they communicate in, so long as they think enough like a human for us to reach a mutual understanding.” She gave Amaterasu an expectant look.

The divine wolf cocked her head at this information, clearly sceptical. She also wasn’t entirely pleased with the idea of having her thoughts read. Then again, given that the woman had had to ask if she had ‘human’ like thoughts then presumably it had some sort of active component? All she needed to do was be the master of her thoughts while whatever it looked or felt like was happening, and she’d be fine, surly. An easy task for one such as her, naturally.

Decision made, she righted her head, and then after a moment's hesitation thought a formal greeting Yayama’s way.

Sakura’s eyes were wide and she was leaning in close near Yayama, like she was trying to pick up some kind of residual message. She waited with bated breath. Being able to talk to animals has to be the number one superpower, right?!

“It’s good to meet you as well, Amaterasu Okami,” the lalafell responded. “I have to say, it’s refreshing to meet a deity that isn’t, in some way, trying to kill or subjugate me.”

The divine wolf thought very poorly of beings such as those, and expressed as much to Yayama, before committing to the goal of dragging her impression of the divine out of the mud, be it via her own positive impact on the world or by putting these abusers of their divine nature in their place.

Sakura clapped her hands together and hopped up and down, enthused. ”That’s amazing!”

”Huh, well I’ll be.” The Captain said with a hum of appreciation, ”Looks like you finally found someone who can fully understand you, Amaterasu.” He mused. ”That could make things much easier on us, actually.”

“Here’s hoping,” Yayama said, replying to both Falcon and Amaterasu. “I try not to assume the worst of people, so I’m not lumping you in with the rest, but the sentiment is still appreciated.” She glanced over her shoulder to Sakura and her increasingly close proximity. “Did you need something, by the way?”

Sakura scampered back a few steps. ”Uh, well-”
Amaterasu informed Yayama of Sakura’s fighting fanatic nature and guessed that she wanted to spar. Privately she was now even more onboard with the heart gesture the streetfighter had made. This was simply far too convenient for her not to endorse.

“I wouldn’t mind,” Yayama replied to the wolf. “I got all riled up to fight that Miqo’te or whatever she was earlier, but it turned out to not be necessary. I could use the practice, too; if I’m going to get anywhere here, I need to get through these tournament brackets.” She turned back to Sakura. “Assuming she’s right?”

Sakura put the context clues together and clenched her fists, nodding in agreement. ”I think it’d be great to have a fight!” Her fight with Falcon was interrupted, and while normally she would just challenge him to a rematch, recruiting Seekers was more important.

”No shady bars and bets needed. Just two fighters, last one standing wins!” Sakura said.

“Alright then,” Yayama said with a grin. “Just don’t complain if you get more than you bargained for from one of the Warriors of Light.” Her boast had a playful note to it; Yayama did genuinely expect to win most fights she got into, but she wasn’t trying to put Sakura down. “Did you have a venue in mind? Pretty sure I saw a couple spots earlier that were intentionally cleared out for this kind of thing.”

She grinned, excited that Yayama was confident. ”Somewhere we can’t get sued for damages.” Sakura said, grabbing her shoulder and rolling it. ”I usually just pick a wide enough street and go for it.”

Amaterasu thought (at Yayama) that maybe they could just ask the bartender where the closest spot was.

Sakura was already on it, though: ”Excuse me, sir. D’you know where me and my friend here could throw down?”

The answer to this question involved the man simply pointing up.

click for music

Grey clouds hung overhead, as the two ladies took to opposite sides of the bar’s roof. Around them a few spectators were found, as it seemed there always could be. The wolf and the falcon naturally had found their own spots, and like sharks smelling blood, or worms drawn to rain, a number of Yokai had already perched themselves around the area as Yayama took up the same fighting stance she had previously.

A few patrons, early drinks or late lunches in hand, were scattered about too, and the odd onlooker took a peek out their window, but with the hour being that awkward middle of the afternoon, and the rain threatening to fall, there weren't actually more than a handful of bystanders interested in the upcoming sparring match.

As such, the first attempt of heckling by some Yokai who’d definitely been at the teahouse of “alright let’s see what you’re actually made of!” got shut down by a growl from Amatarasu, and with that the pair were left in relative peace to their bout.

”Just try to relax.” Captain Falcon advised the heckling Yokai, ”Ms. Kasugano is as tough as they come. She won’t disappoint you.” While his own match against Sakura had been cut short, Falcon had seen enough in that fight to have an idea of how strong the girl could be. Anyone who could take even a glancing blow from his Falcon Punch was someone who had definitely earned the Captain’s respect.

Sakura waved at the Yokai and then at Captain Falcon. She bounced back and forth from one foot to the other then settling into a rhythmic fighting stance.

Yayama began the fight deliberately, taking slow, measured steps toward Sakura and waiting for the other fighter to initiate. Her cheerful expression had fallen away, replaced with one of focus as she prepared for Sakura’s assault.

”Three, two, one…here I come!” Sakura didn’t hesitate for long, running towards Yayama, curving her approach to the right side. She was going to come in hot with a powerful straight punch downward before unleashing a series of quick kicks. As long as she could, Sakura would stick to Yayama, kicking and elbowing her, and if her defense was too strong, tripping her up with martial throws to the ground.

Her guard proved to be sufficient for the series of attacks, using the large flat of her blade to deflect the overhead punch and utilizing her stature and her armor to dodge or harmlessly soak most of the series of following blows. She hadn’t been prepared for the throw, which sent Yayama tumbling over the ground, but she halted her motion by driving her blade into the roof and pulling herself up with it. “My turn.” She held one arm out to the side and a barrier shimmered to life around her. With its protection, she launched her counterattack, leaping a surprising distance into the air and then plunging downward with a gravity-assisted slash. She followed it up with a broad sweep of her blade diagonally upward, positioning it to either return to a neutral position or double down on a successful attack.

When Sakura landed the throw, she took the time to position herself accordingly, right outside her estimated reach of Yayama’s sword. The barrier looked hard to overcome with one of her usual anti-airs, but she was quick on her feet and pulled out a trick. As Yayama surged downward, she used her speed to dip right under her at the last moment, dodging the swing and ending up behind her as she landed. Twisting around, she slammed her fist into the barrier to get a gauge for its strength, before shifting right, bringing her hands back, and blasting it point blank with a blue fireball.

The lalafell simply charged through the fireball, the Blackest Night shattering like glass as the warrior beneath was singed. She swung her blade skyward in a sweeping uppercut, wreathing it in aether to further extend her range. This was immediately followed by another downward slash, falling diagonally as she converted it into a spin in the hopes of catching her faster opponent off guard.

Sakura jerked to the left as she failed to draw her arms back in time after shooting the fireball, and then was brought to her knees by the downward swipe. Both hits resulted in great yellow sparks on impact. There she stayed in a crouch, a little lower than Yayama’s eye level now. ”Gah…more hyper armored opponents for Sakura.” She said with an acknowledging, if slightly annoyed, tilt of her head. At this point she was wondering when she could get her hands on the stuff.

Not one to relent in her assault, Yayama threw herself at Sakura once more. With her blade being somewhat out of position for a clean followup, she went for a body check, driving her shoulder toward Sakura and relying on her defenses to ensure she came out on top of the ensuing impact. She prepared to chase that attack with a pommel jab, followed by swinging her sword horizontally to get it on the correct side of her body relative to her opponent.

Sakura’s knee scraped against the ground, meeting Yayama’s shoulder with her own, raising her arm. The pommel strike bounced off, and she shifted closer to reduce the amount of power available for Yayama to swing and block the swing up close. Then she went to ram her elbow into Yayama’s face with piercing power, prompting a grunt of pain from the lalafell. Then, a noise like gunfire rang out as she went to launch Yayama off the ground with a rising Shouoken uppercut. ”Shouoken!”

The blow dazed the dark knight and sent her flying almost straight up. Yayama managed to maintain her grip on her sword, which trailed behind her as she sailed through the air. Damn, she’s not bad, Yayama thought as she tried to shake off the impact and right herself before she hit the ground.

The blow was strong, able to secure a knockdown on even the toughest fighters where Sakura came from. Sakura landed on her feet first, having launched Yayama fairly far away from herself. Having landed a good hit on her opponent, her spirits soared. While the knight was still falling, she gathered her hands together and charged up a powerful fireball, more than doubling its power. ”Hadoken!”She launched it forward, having it be well on its way towards her opponent before she could get her bearings. It would explode at her feet sending pleasantly warm blue flames everywhere, though the concussive force wasn’t nearly as pleasant. Before the swirling blue flame was even half-clear, the street fighter burst through it on the offense. She looked to grab Yayama by the head and hook her leg behind the knights, before sweeping her onto the floor hard. ”Hup!”

Yayama grunted as she hit the rooftop yet again. Then Sakura crouched, one leg stretching to the side as she brought her fist down hard like a hammer toward the knight’s head. Said knight, however, had different ideas, and intercepted the incoming strike by blocking it with one gauntleted arm. Out of her guard, she threw a straight jab toward Sakura in an attempt to get the latter to back off.

In what the people around Esaka may refer to as a ‘frame trap,’ the hammer blow sunk Yayama’s gauntleted arm with a thudding blue spark, and Sakura beat out the counter jab with one of her own, a stinging jab to the nose. She punched down once more before converting into a close ranged one handed fireball blast that separated the two of them, Sakura bouncing back onto her feet. ”How are you feeling?” She asked. The knight was tough, so Sakura was hoping her meters and gauges would let her start doing some real damage soon. Though even if Yayama was in range of being Friend Hearted, Sakura wanted to see this fight through to the end one way or the other.

She pulled herself back up to her feet, returning to her neutral stance out of habit. “Well, I felt the last couple, so you're doing better than the usual rifraff,” Yayama said with a smirk. “But if that was enough to put me down, I wouldn't have made it this far.” The greatsword swung up onto her shoulders as she switched to a one-handed grip, using her armor to bear the weight while she stayed ready to swing it if needed. Yayama thrust one arm forward, palm up, and roiling energy began to gather above it. “I've got more than just a big sword and a big mouth.”

Sakura shifted her shoulders back and forth, pleased. ”Then I should probably just shut up, huh?” She asked rhetorically. ”Getting back to it!” She gathered some more ki energy between her hands and began lobbing fireballs towards the knight to see how her mobility and tankiness dealt with exploding bombs of varying speed, power, and range. Sakura switched it up to keep it tough to predict.

Yayama responded in kind, as the energy in her hand suddenly compressed, then shot forward at high speed. The Jolt would explode on impact with a, well, jolt of concussive force, while its caster expertly wove through the wall of incoming projectiles. The dark knight used a minimum of motion, standing just on the edge of each blast, then executed the second half of her dualcast during a brief opening in the pattern. The second spell had less overall force, but burst over a much wider area; Yayama attempted to set it off just behind Sakura to disrupt her guard.

Sakura considered turning up the heat on her fireballs, but thought she should save for a more powerful attack later. Feeling the jolt from behind, Sakura stumbled forward but converted into a big jump upwards, like she was going to come down on Yayama. Instead though, she drove her feet downwards like a nail and cut her arc well short, stabbing down into the ground evasively.

Seeing this, and recognizing a pattern from seeing (and fighting) other martial artists of similar talents and styles, Yayama responded to the aborted jump by taking up her two-handed grip once more and launching a full powered, overhead swing, aiming to slam Sakura down as she lands and create an opportunity to dish out what she’d mostly been taking so far.

Sakura was slammed face down onto the roof, flattening like a starfish. ”Oof!” She thought for sure she would be able to pull that trick off at least once, but no dice. But still, pain is a lesson, and she knows that Yayama will go for the big swing if she thinks she can get it. Sakura got her hands underneath her and pushed herself up into a dodge roll to get away from Yayama.

The dark knight followed with another leaping plunge, leaving Sakura with no time to breathe. Predicting that the pugilist would see the strike coming, she pulled the weapon hard to the side, launching a mostly-horizontal rising slash, itself followed with a thrust of her weapon.

”Oops!” Sakura’s eye glinted and from her crouching position she spun, leg outstretched, to knock Yayama off her feet and away from her. This V-Reversal technique spent her 1 bar of V-Meter and did no permanent damage, but had extreme knockback. Sakura decided to frustrate Yayama’s offense before it could get going. Popping up to her feet, with things reset back to neutral, she began to approach, practically gliding along the ground as she put more focus into her footwork.

Yayama decided to be a bit more proactive this time around, not wanting to give Sakura an opportunity to land the throws and knockbacks that had been giving her trouble. Once she skidded to a halt and righted herself, she closed the distance herself, launching an exploratory thrust to try to catch Sakura on her approach.

Sakura learnt the range of Yayama’s sword the hard way, taking a stab to the gut for her trouble. After all this, Sakura reckoned she was about half-way to falling over. She stepped back and then shifted right, and looked to dash in again only to stop her momentum to bait out another thrust. Then she would deliver a mighty roundhouse kicked aimed towards the blade itself to knock it aside.

Yayama aborted her second thrust halfway, sensing something was off, but it was too late. Sakura’s gambit was successful, sending the blade spinning away as Yayama decided she’d be better off letting it go than following it off the roof in an effort to halt its flight. Left vulnerable, she cast another Blackest Night, then began channeling a Jolt using the last of her remaining mana.

The street fighter’s eyes gleamed with intensity, her heart pounding. She smoothly transitioned her round house kick into a blurring forward roll, closing the gap between the two of them. She then shot into the air with a knee to slam into the barrier. Turning away from Yayama mid-air, she planted both of her feet on the barrier and moved to break it by kicking away from it and catching herself into a roll that put her back where she started. It all happened at speed some might consider ‘alarming’.

Yayama staggered from the impact, but remained standing. The determination to finish out the fight flared in her eyes. “I can do this all day,” she declared, raising her fists. She sprinted toward Sakura, moving with speed belying her stature, and aimed a wild punch toward her with a shout.

Sakura leaned forward, clenching her fists. She raised her front arm and blocked the punch aimed her way with a deep thud and a bright blue spark of ki. ”Seyah! She shouted back, and engaged in a furious exchange of blows. But when it came to hand to hand combat, Sakura felt confident she had the upper hand.

”Senpu!” In a blink she was outside striking range, slicing at Yayama with a hopping spin kick. ”Senpu! Senpu!” She danced around the roof, her sneakers clattering against wood and shingles.

When the moment was right, and she had forced the opening, Sakura pounced. ”Power and skill!” She shouted, blasting the knight with a dazzling short ranged fireball. ”Hooooah!” She yelled, pushing the knight back with a series of spinning kicks shrouded in sharp ki energy that took her off the ground entirely.

”Sakura no Ame!” With a final shout and a burst of pink and blue light, she struck the knight with a powerful uppercut. When they both landed again, Sakura pumped her fists and let out a breath, looking to see if the knight could or would still fight.

Yayama bounced off the roof and rolled to a halt, but forced herself to spring right back up again as if nothing had happened. “Like I said,” she said, eyes gleaming with Galeem’s influence for those who could see it, “all day.” She made a “come at me” gesture with her left hand, while she stuck her right off to the side. In a burst of shadow, her weapon reappeared, and she brandished it at Sakura once more. Anyone with combat experience, though, could tell that the warrior wasn’t doing as well as she acted. Her blade was unsteady, and there was a tension to her expression that hadn’t been there earlier.

Sakura snapped back into her fighting position, eyeing Yayama up and down. While it was obvious Yayama still had a lot more fight left in her, if this was only a friendly bout or spar this might be the appropriate time to call it in Sakura’s favor to save them both the pain and effort. But that wasn’t the case- Galeem’s curse was at work. Sakura was in Yayama’s place once in her fight against Ryu. Every Seeker had been in some form or another. She spared a glance towards the watching Captain Falcon and Amaterasu. If Sakura lost control of the fight she knew they wouldn’t let Yayama beat the tar out of her, at least. Still, she wanted to win on her own.

Yayama had beckoned Sakura to come forth. The street fighter would always oblige the notion. ”Hiyaah!” She dashed forward to begin round two in earnest. Yayama met her opening charge with another overhead swing, aiming to land a telling blow early to compensate for her own condition.

Sakura sidestepped the overhead swing, and lunged in with a harsh elbow to the face, then battered her from the other side with both of her closed fists interlocked together. With another signature spin kick she smashed into Yayama twice more before kicking her away. This time instead of waiting, she ran right back into the action to not let the tough knight recover any more.

When she came to yet another skidding halt, it took Yayama longer to stand back up. She planted her sword in the ground to lever herself up, the desperate fire of determination that prevented her from giving in - why was she so invested in this spar, anyway? - the only thing keeping her on her feet. A barrier between her and Sakura began to shimmer weakly into existence just as the latter arrived.

Sakura knew why. But it wouldn’t be that way for much longer. She slammed her fist into the barrier, and then with a flash of orange ki energy she blitzed forward instantly to prevent counter attack. She planted her hands on Yayama’s shoulders and then flipped easily behind her, kicking out the back of the shorter woman’s legs. Then she tackled her from behind, trying to pin her. Looking to finish it, she tapped her own chest and produced the Friend Heart, before pushing it into Yayama’s back. ”This should do it!” She exclaimed.

With that, the fire in Yayama’s eyes would once again entirely be her own, and the fog of Galeem’s curse would lift!

Yayama’s eyes went wide as a tide of memories and emotions flooded back into her awareness. Urianger and Y’shtola, Alphinaud and Alisae. Thancred. Hoary and the rest of the ex-Scions. Going on world-saving adventure after world-saving adventure, fighting foes not unlike the being that ruled this eternal world, alongside her most precious of companions.

Petra.

Her power surged, Yayama’s dark side threatening to take the wheel as shadowy aether erupted from her. With all the triumphs came all the struggles along the way, the people she hadn’t been able to save, the people she’d had to put down for the fate of the star. All of this, further soured by the bitter knowledge that in the end, it had all been for naught. A tide of light had swept away her and everything she cared for, bled for, nearly died for. The raw emotion ripped itself free as a wordless shout of anguish and rage sent to the heavens.

The leather wrapping the handle of her sword creaked in her grip as she slowly rose to her feet, using it to lever herself up again. The scream died off into growling breaths through gritted teeth as she went, her chest heaving with the effort of keeping herself under control. A part of her just wanted to hurt something, anything, make anyone pay for the sheer injustice of the situation she now realized she was in.

But Yayama was a hero. These people had done nothing to wrong her; they in fact had suffered just as much as she had, though they’d likely needed less tampering with their minds to keep them from rebelling. So, her breaths smoothed out, her grip loosened, and she closed her eyes. With a final, deep inhale, she gathered up the rest of her rage, and released it on the exhale. “I’m gonna kill him,” she said matter-of-factly. She made no indication of who she meant, but it would be abundantly clear to the Seekers.

After another moment to compose herself, she turned back to Sakura. “Thanks for the fight. It really cleared my head.” It was a bit late to play off what had just happened, but it wouldn’t hurt to go back to acting like normal. After all, killing gods took patience.

Sakura haltingly reached out and set a gentle hand on Yayama’s shoulder. ”N-no problem, Yayama-san. Welcome to the Seekers of Light.”

Having been watching all this from the sidelines, and now somewhat getting why fighting was such a big spectator sport as a result, Amaterasu now padded over to add her own greeting to Sakura’s.

”Ha! What’d I tell you?” Captain Falcon said to the various Yokai, ”I told you Ms. Kasugano was tough as they come, didn’t I?” He asked, referring to his earlier assurances that Sakura wouldn’t disappoint them. Sakura grinned in Captain Falcon’s direction. She used it as inspiration to further brighten the mood.

”Great fight, Yayama-san! You’re really tough, it was like I was punching… I dunno, something really tough!” Sakura said.

“Aetherically enhanced wolfram steel,” Yayama offered for Sakura's sake. “I need to fight people like you more often, I'm getting rusty.” She glanced down at herself, then scowled at what she saw. “And to change. What the hells was I thinking, going out in this. . . ?”

”Well, I’m down for a rematch anytime. Er, in a general sense.” Sakura said. She lowered her voice and leaned in. ”We’re busy right now, mostly. The Four Kings of Esaka are the Guardians here who work for and protect Galeem. The uh, big star thing that took us all here and made the World of Light. We Seekers are gonna take ‘em out.” She said. ”That’s the gist of it. I’m sure you’ll, uh, pick up the rest.”

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Sakura Level 11: 011/110
Location: Madam Bo Cafe -> Streets
Word Count: short
Points Gained: 1 +9
New EXP Balance--- Level 11: 002/110

Ugh, this was horrible! Sakura was terrible with crowds! She decided to revert back to an age old strategy that she had done when questioned by paparazzi and interviewers when they started to overwhelm her back on her old world.

”No comment! No comment! I have no comment!” She began repeating, backing up. When Nadia asked her if the amount of money she got was appropriate for her effort, Sakura looked at her and said: ”No comment!” again! Then she covered her mouth in surprise and shrug-nodded, giving Fortune her real answer with the gesture.

Fortunately, a little purple lady tried to calm things down. Unfortunately, it was Terry who ended up silencing the crowd. It looked like he needed to get away from it all to clear his head. ”Just, uh, come back to us if you need anything!” She said as Terry strode off. Fortunately, if he still wanted to participate in the tournament, he would have to talk to his Seeker teammates. So they still had that connection. Hopefully the wandering fighter didn’t decide to skip town after whatever his troubling revelations were.

Though that did put doubt into Sakura’s mind whether they actually recruited a new Seeker. Maybe this lady in armor could want to help out? She already kind of was.

Sakura looked at Yayama. ”You’re right, let’s get out of here!” She said, then to Falcon and Amaterasu. Finally, to the crowd, she offered one more round of ”No comment!” and ran out of the door.

—

Once they were free of all the commotion, Sakura looked at Yayama. ”Thanks for backing us up back there, even if things got a little hectic. Ugh, I hate crowds like that. I like, never know what to say. My name’s Sakura.” She pointed at herself.

”Are you uh…some kind of hero?” She said, not so subtly trying to gauge if she was Seeker material. ”I only ask because, y’know, we’re strangers to you, but you tried to help anyway. Like, no one wants to try and reason with an angry mob! She said with a nervous laugh.

Ultimate One Universe: Resistance

I'm still chilling around if anyone wants to RP with me. I've got the Miss Martian character

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Sakura Level 10: 96/100
Location: Pao Pao
Word Count: short
Points Gained: 1
New EXP Balance--- Level 11: 002/110

Sakura took a bite out of her kebab only to get nothing but wood. In a manic haze she had devoured her entire meal! Damn it, she did this way too often. Dejected, but ultimately satisfied, Sakura set down her stick and listened to the rest of the conversation.

”Bye, Xilgrev-san.” Sakura waved him off.

”I gotta admit, I’m a little concerned about the Organization. Can we really trust them to put the universe back into order if they don’t even know what’s good about it anymore? What if they mess up and make all kebabs as flavorless as they perceive them to be? What a dark world…” Sakura mused. ”We’ll have to get clarity on that before the job’s done, I think.”

She sighed, sitting back in her chair. ”Saving the multiverse is hard.”

Band brought up lodging, and Sakura nodded. Finding a place to stay was always a number one priority for any traveller. Though to be honest, Sakura had done a lot of crashing at other people’s places in her time. But Esaka wasn’t big on residential areas like that.

Nadia asked Sakura a question, and she smiled. ”I do know everything. Sakura-chan is omniscient.” She joked, tapping either side of her head.

”Of course,” She sat up straight and spoke up more clearly. ”The best way to earn money is to fight well and earn the adoration of the Livestream.”

”...But if you want…” Sakura glanced over at Terry knowingly, then leaned forward, lowering her voice conspiratorially alongside Nadia. ”I can show you to the Locals.” She whispered, eyes sparkling with mischief. Clearly she was taking some pleasure in acting as some shadowy ne’er-do-well, even though the existence of underground fighting rings was essentially an open secret.

”It can be pretty dangerous, though…” She said, mysteriously. ”Anyone can enter, people will gamble and bet, tensions can run high, and the fights are completely unranked. But if you want to earn some quick cash and you've got the skills to back it up? Then yeah, your instinct is dead on, Nadia-san.” Tapping her fists against the table, she bit on her lower lip. She had been wondering what she was going to do after meeting everyone here. Supporting her locals was a perfect way to kill some time, and more importantly, get into that fight she had been desiring since this morning.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Sakura Level 10: 96/100
Location: Fields of Gold
Word Count: 1225
Points Gained: 2 +3
New EXP Balance--- Level 11: 001/110

”You’re paying, Terry-san! Haha, awesome! I won’t turn that down, ever. Thank you!” Sakura said greedily.

Terry went on to ask Sakura about Ryu and Ken after she mentioned she had perhaps too eagerly joined up with the World Warriors again. She had no idea what a ‘katera fella’ was but it was probably Ryu. ”I saw Ryu-san just a few days ago, actually, after I left Esaka. He’s still out and about, y’know, doing his Ryu thing. I’d still be with him but…I had to join up with the Seekers and, well-” Damn, she felt bad. While she was Galeeming in the fight with Ryu-san, he had held back, and she was incapable of doing so, and so she injured him so much he had to stay behind. She hadn’t seen him since… what a waste!

Speaking of Gleaming the friendly Wolf himself was still under Galeem’s control. The good news is, all they had to do was get Terry down to half or so vitality before the Friend Heart could take affect. So if Sakura decided to throw down with him, she wouldn’t have to win. Not that Sakura wasn’t confident that she could beat Terry or anything, but for her money he had to be one of the toughest customers around. ”-well, you know how he is. He’s a wanderer. Not super social.” Sakura smiled sheepishly. Fortunately, Terry had to take off to go register, so he wouldn’t be confused as the Seekers started to talk shop about the stuff Galeem would prevent him from knowing.

Sakura looked at Harry, and felt bad immediately for what she said about Dan Hibiki. ”N-no, that’s not what I mean! He wasn’t lying, it’s just- he’s- he’s a real character! I just- you’ll be okay.” Sakura said. ”Kitsuragi-san is right! Hibiki-san is a good guy, I’m sure he won’t steer you wrong.” She said. At the very least, neither of the two normal guys weren’t going into Mortal Kombat.

Speaking of which, Sakura was shocked that Pit chose Mortal Kombat. It made sense for Nadia because of her get-out-jail-free card. From what Sakura could tell, it was pretty much impossible to kill her. And at the very least, she could fake her death more convincingly than anyone on the planet. But Pit was just a friendly Cupid looking guy! She was sure he could handle himself, but…still!

”Sheesh, alright, well…just be careful, Pit-kun- Pit-san.” Sakura said. ”Those guys mean business. And you’re the leader!” Sakura said.

Suddenly, a member of Organization 13 made his appearance. It was hard to tell them apart- was it the same person as in the Deep Blue? The voice was different. Still, he mentioned recognizing some of them from a description.

"Is it me? Do you recognize me? I'm Sakura. What's your name?"

"No, Ramaxi was the one who met you all in the Deep Blue Seaside. If she is to be believed." Despite the stranger's lack of hesitation to namedrop his comrade, he seemed less willing to let slip his own identity.

"I remember her. I don't know if there were any alternatives, but her idea was...kinda not so good. I didn't like it." She admitted.

She noticed, though, that he didn’t say his own name. Was he just trying to be mysterious? No skin off her back, Sakura thought. Then again… "I guess you don't have to tell me your name if you don't want to. Would make it a lot easier, though. Because if we meet up with someone else from the Org it's gonna be kinda inconvenient to try and describe you based only on your voice." Sakura reasoned.

Still, it turned out he had a pretty big bombshell of information to drop. Sakura had no reason to distrust that Organization from what she could tell, though from what she remembered Roxas-kun had a distaste for them. They were slinking and sleuthing around, looking for clues and dropping hints. Even if Sakura didn’t always like their ideas, such as the shady methods the last lady wanted them to employ, all to get into the Maw, which turned out to be the worst day of Sakura’s entire life. Still, the information was solid. And in this case, it was all about the Guardian. Or rather, Guardians.

As the conversation went on, the food began to arrive.

”That’s…super weird. I didn’t think any of those guys would be down for teamwork. I guess Galeem is the biggest boss of all, though…” Sakura said. ”We gotta take ‘em all out at once, huh? Kinda wish Juri-san was here to hear that.” Sakura sat back and crossed her arms.

When Sakura’s food arrived, she rubbed her hands together and stuck out her tongue. ”Oh my- thank you!!” Before she dug in, she heard the Organization member complain about the lack of Japanese food…and he was eating a slice of pizza with a fork and knife!

"You're just gonna eat a kids pizza with a fork?! At Pao Pao cafe?! Are you crazy?! There's more great food in this world than just Japanese, you know! Here, try this!" She leaned across the table and thrust one of her kebabs towards him, before even taking a bite herself.

The Organization member held up a black-gloved hand in a 'stop' gesture. "Unnecessary. To tell you the truth, not even Japanese food brings me joy nowadays. I wish I could say that saddens me, but I cannot even say that. Still, it's not too heavy a price." He sniffed in a somewhat disdainful manner. "At least I have the decency to not pretend otherwise. Unlike some of the others."

Sakura wiggled the kebab around. Eventually, she relented. "Wow. That's too sad." Sakura sat back down with a frown. "I guess you've been around a while, huh? Can I ask...what are you fighting for, then? Freedom? Some kind of obligation?" As a fighter, the reasons she fought were deeply personal, and sometimes hard to describe. She was really curious what his were, if he couldn’t even enjoy something as simple as good food.

The Organization member put his utensils down as he considered Sakura's words. "The same thing as you all: putting an end to Galeem, and setting the worlds straight. Which is why it would behoove both of us if you Seekers heeded my advice, and dispensed with the demonstrative skepticism." He crossed his arms, thinking for a moment. "I suppose you have a point about the names. I have no reason to hinder communications with or within Organization XIII. If required, you can refer to me as 'Xilgrev'."

Sakura nodded thoughtfully, and raised her fingers away from her kebab passively. "Hey, I believe you. I'm heeding. I'm behooved."

Sakura looked down at her kebab, getting ready to take a bite. "Xilgrev. Cool name. Ramaxi and Xilgrev. Well, pleased to meet you, Xilgrev-san." She smiled. "Once we win this thing you can have a dozen kebabs."

Xilgrev issued a dry, fake-sounding chuckle, but at least it was something. "When this is over, I'll have much better things to eat."

As he said that, Sakura took a bite of the first meat cube on the end of the kebab. Her eyes drifted upward and she sank into her seat like jelly. "That’s impossible…" She answered dreamily. Nothing was much better to eat than this.

Ultimate One Universe: Resistance

im still around. ive discussed a flashback collab with AndyC so at some point once i stop being lazy im gonna get a starter on that going. though i think i might be seeing how a story arc shakes out or something i cant remember

Young Justice

The Incorrigible Iceburn!

Interactions
The Beach

---

A big splash. Pei was making the biggest splashes. A little pump of her powers could fuck with the water enough to make it go fairly high if she did it right. Pei let out a little whoop and giggle and stood up, looking out the horizon.

When Pei saw the ocean water, she was reminded of the great flood back home. She thought about what it felt like to drown. Not in like a traumatize-y way or anything like that- but it was hard not to think about it at least once. It's not like she was afraid of the ocean. She was standing in it now, her bare feet submerged in water and sand alike. She was wearing some knee-length black swim leggings, a black bikini top, and quite notably, her hair was completely undyed. This time she couldn't be bothered with the dyeing steps necessary to protect its color from the ocean water, as relatively easy as it may be. So her hair was its natural shade- black.

Pei stared out into the open ocean, standing straight up, before lowering herself down into it and becoming a floating head. The shaded goggles over her eyes completely obscured them, and protected them from the glare of the sun and the surging ocean waves against her face. Going horizontal, she pulled herself along the sand with her hands. Pei felt comfortable in the water. With her powers, she was pretty much immune to drowning. Unless, like, someone hit her on the back of the head or something. But that was always bad, so that's not very fair to the ocean, now is it?

There was one more advantage of her goggles. It allowed her to sneak peaks at her teammates without them noticing. Because what she was still hesitant around was the three-for-one special person. The so-called "KJR". Pei had listened to the briefing quietly, her arms crossed and her mind as open as she could. Was 'Ro' really going to be going on missions? After what happened to Will and Vincent? Or were they just going to go on missions and just hope he didn't show up?

Kilimanjaro, Metamorph- that, to her, was the main guy. That was the guy. First impressions were pretty hard to shake, and that was the guy she got to know first. Quiet, intelligent, professional. A bit stiff maybe, but other than that practically an ideal superhero. So it was a little weird to see him hiding up and trees and acting like a cat!

Whatever. She'd have to get used to it.

Vincent brought his girlfriend, and Zach brought his boyfriend. She guess they could be trusted with secret identities? Much to her chagrin Pei never really figured out that side of superherodom, despite all the obvious intrigue and coolness factor around having one. But her hero Superman didn't have a secret identity, so she related mostly to him. Superman was just Superman all the time.

Pei's head continued to float around, occasionally battered and submerging under the waves. Maybe she'd get sucked out by a riptide. That'd shake things up.

Gathering her thoughts. Pei would go back to being comfortably extroverted as usual. She couldn't just hang out in the water forever.

World of Light: the Endless Now (The Ultimate Videogame Crossover)

Sakura Level 10: 86/100
Location: Fields of Gold
Word Count: 861
Points Gained: 2 (+3 +5
New EXP Balance--- Level 10: 96/100

With Ammy and Pit, and now herself all settled, Sakura took a walk around town. Collect her thoughts and get her bearings with some alone time. She had never spent too much time in the Low Tier. Sakura offered a friendly wave to anyone who recognized her. Sakura had never done well around big crowds and groups of people, so not having to battle off a horde of adoring fans was a blessing. Even if it did mean her career around Esaka didn’t go as well as it could have at the time.

Sakura was no spy master, so when she noticed she was being followed she turned around openly and without suspicion. When she saw it was Asuka and Lili, she smiled genuinely, though her eyes narrowed and her brow lowered like she was already sizing up her Dojo counterparts for a fight. Asuka and Lili were powerful challengers. Whenever they ended up fighting each other, either for fun or in some kind of crossover tournament, they usually ended up going even.


”Yep, I’m Sakura! And of course, there’s no way I could forget you.” Sakura said. Her smile faded a bit awkwardly when Asuka mentioned amnesia.

”Oh, uh, I mean- I’m not offended you forgot me or anything. I guess if you take as many hits to the head as we did something like that is bound to happen eventually…huh…” Sakura mused aloud. ”But uh, yeah no!” Sakura pushed herself closer to Asuka. ”Let’s be friends again! Now I can tell you jokes all over again, it’ll be like the first time you heard them.”

When Lili ‘complimented’ Sakura, the brunette grabbed her colorful jacket and opened it up slightly to look down at it and her cropped shirt with her name on it. She supposed street fashion wasn’t Lili’s brand. But Sakura was pretty sure that her new outfit meant she was dressed to the nines. ”Oh, I would have, but Karin is real busy.” Sakura said.

”She’s kind of running a new town to the north east of here.” Sakura said. About then, it clicked. Karin had…left, right? Not long before Sakura had. Asuka, too. But then she was in Limsa, like she’d always been there. Memory was a funny thing.

Asuka and Karin had both died, hadn’t they? Here, in Esaka. And nobody cared. Or…nobody noticed? Not even Sakura. Talk about a spiritual gut punch! Yikes! Sakura’s face had fallen as she made this revelation, blinking back into the present moment when Lili made a comment about Critical Art.

”Oh, uh…a museum?” Sakura said. There might be some useful intel there. About art. How does culture even form in this terrible World of Light?

”Um, sure! I might have to dip out early though, I’m travelling with a group and we’re all meeting up at the Pao Pao.” Sakura jerked a thumb over her shoulder.

Asuka asked for stories, and Sakura wasn’t entirely sure on how to answer her. ”Uhh…” She floundered.

Would she even have to lie? ”Oh, I’ve been all over. I’ve been to Lumbridge and Limsa and Midgar. Been all sorts of places. There’s lots of crazy stuff out there.” Sakura said as she walked along.

”It’s not as big as you’d think. I mean it’s huge and full of all sorts of crap but this place we’re in you can just walk across it if you try hard enough. It’s pretty fun actually. I’ve fought all sorts of people- monsters, even. Some of them…pretty scary actually! I’m just glad I wasn’t alone, haha.” Sakura said.

—

After getting back from her brief visit to Critical Art, Sakura jogged in through the door of Pao Pao Cafe. It was weird seeing another place that existed on her world- so far it had just been Karin’s beach estate. It was familiar in some ways, different in others.

Sakura waved over and sat down at the table, quietly looking over the menu as she considered her order. In the end, she went with an order of a few Brazillian steak skewers. Meat and vegetables, stacked ontop each other on a wooden stick. Kebabs like this were Jimmy-san’s favorite food.

Sakura laughed at Fortune’s antics. ”That’s really smart, Nadia-san! I bet you’ll really annoy all those grumpy, edgy goobers over there in the Dojo and in the crowds, too. So that’s a plus.” Sakura said.

Sakura waved over at Terry- she had been to distracted by Yokai to introduce herself properly the last time they met. ”Hi Terry-san! Have you joined the Seekers already? Wow, that was fast!” She said. Terry seemed like the heroic, wandering fighter type from what she had gathered of him. ”Did you, uh, find that third member yet?” She asked. ”I guess it coulda been me, I was a little too eager to meet up with the World Warrior dojo again. My bad.” She said.

When Harry and Kim mentioned they were fighting, Sakura looked concerned on their behalf. To be honest, they looked a little too…normal? When Harry name dropped someone, Sakura nearly choked on her skewer.

”Dan Sensei? Like Hibiki Dan Sensei? Saikyo Style?” Sakura asked.

”L-listen, uh, I don’t wanna be rude, but I feel like you guys should be careful entering your first tournaments. I’m sure Hibiki-san told you his Saikyo Style would make you invincible but- it- it’s- um…it’s harder than it looks to win with it?” She managed sheepishly. ”I was his student back in the day.” Sakura explained.

”His, uh…his only student.” She added with reluctant emphasis, trying to gently hint about the true nature of Hibiki Dan’s martial prowess. And unfortunately having to imply her own naivete when she first started out.