Tachibana Sakura/Powers and abilities

## Mental abilities

### Enhanced hearing

As with all elves, Sakura is able to hear better than most humans. She can detect conversations from two blocks away, sense directly where a battle is occuring even when miles away by hearing the sounds coming from it, and even hear the heartbeats of other living beings. As such she was not fooled when Artira Kanovarus attempted to use his crest ability of rearranging the positions of his organs in an attempt to hide the location of his heart from Sakura.

### Reaction speed

As is common in skilled swordsmen, Sakura has a well refined reaction speed. She is able to quickly react to and dodge incoming attacks, and together with her enhanced hearing, pretty much cannot be snuck on when fully alert.

### Teaching skill

Sakura is regarded as a good teacher by most that have either trained under her, or that have asked her to help them with something. She was even able to teach the first three basic techniques of the Lunar Wind Style to Nigel Khornewal, who is otherwise completely inept at swordsmanship.

### Noise filtering

Sakura seems to have the same ability which Felix Svenson displayed in Chapter 2. That being the ability to focus on a given task so perfectly that she is able to filter out everything happening in the background. When in this state, Sakura is unable to hear or sense the presence of other people, even if they were to speak directly into her ear. She uses this ability to create plans or to think in peace, but it does have its obvious disadvantages if not used with care.

## Physical abilities

### Physical strength

For a member of the Elven race, a race which is typically regarded as being a race of elegance and natural beauty who rely on magic instead of brute force, Sakura is abdormally strong. She has about twice the physical strength of a Terran male, and comparable to characters such as Amalia Van Ornell. At the beginning of the Otoru village Arc, when Sakura and Nigel crashland on Eden, she was able to pry herself free of the Void Sprinter's wreckage with her bare hands, while Nigel had to crawl his way out.

### Speed and Agility

Sakura is fairly fast and agile, she can fully utilize her fast reaction speed because she is able to quickly jump out of the way of an incoming attack. She can also retreat effectively if she is ever faced with a situation that she cannot overcome. But she still lacks any magical way of increasing her speed, meanign that she has pretty much maxed out her agility.

### Endurance and Durability

Sakura is quite durable, which is probably a result of her well trained body. She can take hits which would knock others off their feet, and can continue to fight even after recieving near fatal wounds. Sakura also seems to have an immensely high pain tolerance, as she was once hit directly by the authority of pain, and although she was unable to move, she did not fall and convulse on the ground like others who were hit at that same moment.

## Ksen

Sakura can use all three basics of Ksen. Enhance, Reinforce and Amplify, giving her some form of supernatural ability aside from magic. She uses her mastery of Ksen together with her sword skills to achieve the Lunar Wind Style, regarded as one of the most powerful single sword styles achievable by the common swordsman.

## Swordsmanship

Sakura is an extremely skilled swordswoman. She has trained for over a century in order to perfect her sword skills and to surpass her lack of magic. With her sword skills alone she has achieved a power grading of Lower 3, which is an extreme achievement for someone who lacks magic.

### Lunar Wind Style

The Lunar Wind Style, or Geppu-Ryu, is Sakura's primary fighting style. It is an enhanced variant of the Single-Sword Style which utilizes Ksen to enhance its techniques. The style takes inspiration from the gravitational pull of a moon to it's planet, and as such works best on plantes with one or more natural satellite orbiting it, it does however work on planets without moons, as the gravitational pull of the sun and other nearby solar bodies give the same effect. Sakura is unable to use this style in outer space however, such as inside a warship.

Sakura has achieved the title of the style's Grand Master, which means that she is the strongest user of this sword style recognized by the Swordsman's guild.

#### Techniques

* **Silver crescent slice**: Sakura violently unsheathe's her sword from it's scabbard and slashes through the air in a half circle pattern. The technique is embewed with Ksen, producing silver sparks which resemble stars as the blade flies through the air. This technique is most commonly used as an opener as the blade tends to still be in its scabbard before the technique is executed. The technique is an enhanced version of the SIngle sword style technique: Crescent slice.
* **Lunar horizon**: Sakura swings her sword horizontally in a very simple and quick manner. The Ksen embewed during this technique produces a bright silver glow which lingers in the path that Sakura's sword took for a few seconds after.
* **Full eclipse**: Sakura begins this technique by positioning her sword level with her head with the blace pointed toward her opponent. She then swings the sword down and towards one side, creating a sideways u shape. She can use this technique to cause significant damage or to cut openings into doors and walls.
* **Silhouette of a new moon**: Sakura spins her body around in a 360 degree motion, cutting the air around her with her sword at the same time. This technique can be used as a crowd control move due to its ability to strike multiple targets at once.
	+ **Midair silhouette of a new moon**: Sakura can perform the technique while midair as well, which seems to be one of her most common forms of using the technique. She often utilizes Nigel's "Heaven reaching icicle" spell to launch herself off of the ground.
* **Zero G, Feather step**: A technique Sakura came up with herself. She uses a combination of Ksen and careful movements to maneuver around a battle field or around an opponent in a manner which conceals her presence almost completely. While hidden she will periodically reveal herself to strike at a target, giving others who witness this technique the impression of her almost flickering in and out of existance.

## Equipment

### Swords

* **Veil Breaker**: Veil Breaker is Sakura's primary sword. It is a Katana with a purple tinted blade, a Jet black guard in the shape of a diamond star, a handle wrapped in dark purple leather, and a Jet black pommel. The blade is made out of Carbonox, a rare and light metal with a molecular structure similiar to obsidian. As such the sword is extremely sharp, but the cutting edge is prone chipping, causing Sakura to have to perform regular maintanance on it.
* **Violet Fortuna**: Violet Fortuna is Sakura's second primary sword which she obtained after loosing Veil Breaker during the Two Heavens war. It has a violet tinted blade, a mint green guard in the shape of a flower, a handle wrapped in black leather and a golden pommel. The blade is made out of Zenosteel instead of Carbonox, causing it to be duller but much more durable, it also conducts Ksen better, allowing Sakura's Lunar Wind Style to be twice as effective.