AN: 11:14 PM, June 24th, 2018. Ok, so first of all, I'm starting to feel dis lexic(no offence dude). That is to say, like I can't focus on a single story. If this keeps up, I'll end up with a dozen barely started stories that I never seem to go back to . . . Oh well, I quite frankly have no idea were this story is going to go. It started as me thinking how I wanted someone to kick those soulless, stuck up, arrogant, Mage's Association bastards at the clock-tower, right were it hurts and spit on there pride. Trust me. If this goes as far as I want it to, your in for quite the show.
Kariya Matou was a rather passive person. He didn't speak out often, didn't look for trouble, and tended to let things go along natural. No point causing needless friction, after all. But there were things that could cause him to lash out, first among which was his grandfather, followed by his brother, and so forth. Also among them was total strangers following ten feet behind him making no attempt to hide they were doing it.
"Why are you following me!?" Kariya demanded, turning to face the man, taking his first good look at him. He was a clearly foreign young man, most likely just out of his teens, twenty five at the absolute oldest. He had a rather plain face, with straight grey/green hair pulled into a french braid at the back of his neck. His eyes were a shocking orange colour. The most notable thing about him was the rather gaudy plaid suit he was wearing, which heavily featured green red and purple
"Oh, sorry!" the man had the decency to look and sound embarrassed in his surprisingly unaccented voice. "I just over-heard someone at that drycleaner call you Matou and thought that the name sounded familiar . . . " no . . . "so I was wondering . . . do the name's Makiri mean anything to you?
Kariya turned around and walked away without a word. "H-hey! Wait!"
'No matter how hard I try to avoid those people, those mages always seemed to find me!' Kariya thought in anger, as he walked down the Tokyo sidewalk with a hurried pace, a nasty scowl on his face.
"Hey! Wait up! I'm sorry if I offended you! Please wait!" the fact that the poorly dressed man was still following him didn't help his mood. Finally having enough of it, he paused as he passed a alley-way, looked in to make sure that there was no-one already in there, and turned down the path. Even if he didn't like the practitioners of magecraft, he new better than to confront one in public.
The man came into the alley soon afterwards, and as the man came to a stop in front of him, Kariya felt a slight ripple through his body, the same kind he felt when he walked into his family home. A boundary line, he believed it was called. Essentially a magical barrier used for multiple purposes Kariya had never bother to memorize.
Looking at the man who seemed to be thinking over what to say, Kariya absent-minded noted that he wasn't the slightest bit winded in spite of the brisk pace he had been going. "I'm sorry if I offended you. It was just honest curiosity on my part. I didn't mean to cause you any distress." he said, a sincere tone in his unaccented('Is he using a translation spell of something?') voice, before bowing until almost vertical to the ground.
After staring at him for a good ten seconds, Kariya finally decided to give the man the benefit of the doubt with a body deflating sigh. "It's all right. I just get a little touchy whenever my family, or magic for that matter, is brought up."
The man came up from his bow and smiled somewhat nervously. "I think I get were your coming from, you a shunned second son to or something?"
Kariya sighed again, not wanting to talk about this. "Yes, more or less, but I'm rather disgusted by mages in general."
The man seemed to brighten a bit. "I can definitly see that!" his expression then darkened. "Honestly, I once found this guy trying to kidnap a three year old because he needed a test subject that could speak, but had an "untainted mind". Trying to explain to the group leader how Cline got decapitated was both awkward and terrifying." his speech grew quitter towards the end, the last bit a mutter.
Realizing that the man before him was clearly rather dangerous (causally talking of decapitating someone, not that this Cline fellow didn't deserve it . . . ) decided he should probably make his escape (what was he thinking, confronting a mage in an alley!) "Yes, well I suppose that's to be expected, they are more or less mad scientists. Well, I have to go to lunch, preferably before my appetite is ruined by all this talk of . . . things."
Before Kariya could try to leave, the man seemed to brighten up again, his entire colour scheme seeming to get one stage brighter. "Oh, well I suppose I should treat you to lunch, after all it is I who delayed you in the first place." with that, Kariya was grabbed by the arm and whisked off without his consent, to an overly expensive restaurant.
Now, despite there somewhat awkward first meeting, Kariya and his strange stalker, who he latter discovered was named Gabin Gelain(Pronounced Gel-lain), got along rather well, the more exuberant mage being balanced out by the self-chosen reject's more passive, down to earth mentality.
Gabin was a somewhat odd person, by both mundane and magical standards, who seemed to be both curious and reckless, yet suspicious and capable at the same time. He would drag you into trouble, only to get you out of it with the same slippery, nonsensical ease as he got you into it.
"I'm telling you, those old fools at the clock-tower are so stuck in the past that most of them don't realize that trains are no longer the fastest travel method, and some of them don't even know what a phone is! I'm serious! I swear, if I have one more person ask me what my cell phone is, I swear I'll flip!" at the moment, the two had met up again after one of Gabin's jobs.
While to two had only rarely discussed magic in the few years since there meeting, more often he talked about the last sci-fi novel he had read, or a new cheezy martial arts movie. When they did talk about magic, it was usually about Gabin's grievances with the rest of his society.
Seeing as how there opinion of mages as a whole seemed more or less the same, Kariya had, early on, wondered why his newfound friend remained in the moonlit world at all. But as he got to know him, Gabin soon proved to have the overall ambition of a magus, even if it was channelled in a vastly different manner. Case in point, they were having their conversation as Gabin went through a hybrid kata at speeds that Kariya refused to believe were not the product of reinforcement.
"Yes well . . . " Kariya began as he picked up and hurled a water-melon at the martial artist(who was in a gaudy green and orange Gi) " . . . if they were more modernized, you wouldn't be able" 'splat!' "to so effortlessly defeat them with the other enforcers." Kariya finished as the water-melon was reduced to a red stain on the wall . . . thirty feet away. Curiously, the melon had remain completely in tact before it hit said wall, in spite of being struck with a fist moving over a hundred miles per-hour, something else that defied logic.
This leads us to Gabin's goal. Now Gabin had long ago decided that the life of a researcher was not for him. Rather, he had developed an obsession on a completely different subject. What he wanted, was foolish, suicidal, and all but impossible. What, one may ask? He wanted to be able to defeat the likes of a dead-apostle ancestor . . . with his bare hands. An after seeing him train, Kariya, at least, believed he could pull it off.
Not that he ever bragged about his strength, Kariya only new how strong he actually was because the martial-mage regularly came to japan to train out of the public eye . . . and insisted on Kariya helping him set up, which was as much a good thing as a bad thing.
To be honest, before he met Gabin, he wasn't a very physically active person. Sure, he jogged, but that was just to keep in good shape. Now? He could lift the three hundred pound cement blocks Gabin was fond of demolishing bare handed onto the platform easily. He would never admit how glad he was the Gabin used magecraft to clean up afterwords.
Casting aside the (humorous in hindsight) memories, he returned to watching he friend run laps around the course. He was moving faster than a car on the highway. Once again, he was sure that magic must be involved in this somehow. Even if he accepted that Gabin's strength was all but unparalleled, he still couldn't believe that was just normal human power that was cratering the ground with every step . . .
Gabin was worried. This in and of itself was not an uncommon occurrence. His constant work as an enforcer meant he often found himself in nerve-racking scenarios, such as the time he hid under a sealing-designations bed after the rest of the party was taken-out . . . but this was different. He wasn't worried for himself this time. Rather, he was worried for one of his few friends.
Over the past few months, Kariya Matou had broken contact with him. Seeing as he was one of his few friends, and the most vulnerable, that was somewhat nerve-racking. In response to the silence, he had placed several calls to his apartment, sent a half dozen letters, and a even a telegram! Nothing had gotten a response.
Thus, he had come here. Fuyuki City, Japan, to see the one person who may know where he was. Aoi Tohsaka, Kariya's childhood friend.
As he walked down the street, he found himself subconsciously using thought acceleration magecraft. Normally only practised by alchemists, Gabin had found use in it out of the desire to actually perceive his own movements. After all, the brain is an extremely delicate organ, and reinforcing it was an all but guaranteed death.
Between the reinforcement and thought acceleration, he could easily identify the amount of time it took for the sound of his feet colliding with the sidewalk to reach his ears. One would be surprised how much a minute difference in the sound waves can tell you about the area, after all, boundary lines tend to have a slight, but present, affect of air pressure. The fact that Gabin perceived magic as sound waves only enhanced the entire process to levels far above what most would be capable of.
After almost an hour of walking, he refused to use a taxi, he came up to the Tohsaka estate. He hoped that, when he arrived, Aoi would remember him. He had, after all, only met he three times, and he had never really spoken to her much. As it was, Rin and Sakura were more likely to remember him, seeing as he usually brought candy and was friends with "Uncle Kariya".
He walked through the gate's and towards the main entrance, keeping a careful ear on the sound the boundary field generated, wary for any sign that it may attack him. You never know with the ethereal ones . . .
He reached the door unscathed, and prepared to knock, only for the door to open of it's own accord when he reached for the knocker. 'Does Tokomi like horror movies?' Gabin through only semi seriously. Rather than enter, he waited for someone to come invite him in. He had seen to many booby-trapped entryways to feel safe just entering.
After about two minutes of standing so still he could be mistaken for a statue, someone came to the door. "Yes? May we help you?" a man in what appeared to be a priests cassock asked. Rather than question why there was a priest serving as a butler, Gabin responded.
"Hello, my name is Gabin Galain. I'm here to speak to Aoi, I'm a friend of a friend, you see. It should only take a few minutes, is she available?"
"I will go find the lady of the house. Weather or not she sees you is up to her." the priest disappeared back from whence he came. Gabin found himself, once again, standing in front of an open doorway. Was there a reason for the open door? After several moments of waiting, the master of the house appeared.
"Hello, I . . . " Tokomi shut the door in his face without looking at him, and Gabin over-heard him(remember, reinforced hearing) grumbling about a cursed door-handle as he walked away, leaving Gabin wondering if he had walked into a sit-com as he waited for the priests return. Overall, it took his ten minutes of waiting for the man to return, leaving the gaudily dressed magus to wonder how large to Tohsaka estate was. He knew they used to own the whole town, but still . . .
"The lady of the hose will see you." the priest stated factually, gesturing for Gabin to enter. As they entered the house, Gabin noted that, once again, the door was left open . . .
It took three minutes of walking to reach the room were Aoi was, confirming Gabin's suspicious about the size of the estate. Overall, it's actually surprising that the priest managed to find here on such a short time frame considering the size of these rooms. Sure, he'd been in bigger buildings, but the Tohsaka estate didn't look that large from the outside. Had he perhaps found himself underground without realizing?
Coming to a stop, the priestly butler gestured to one mahogany door on the left side of the hall they were in. "The lady is in there." with that, he stood at the side of the door and waited. Realizing that he would not open the door, Gabin approached the door with as much caution as possible without coming off as rude. Concluding that the door was not a trap, Gabin turned the knob and entered the room, where he found Aoi and Rin, both happily working on what appeared to be a quilt. In spite of the heartwarming scene, he couldn't help but feel something was off.
Looking up from her task, the little girls eyes sparkled with delight. "Gabin!" she rushed up to him, smiling the whole time. "Is uncle Kariya with you?" she asked, with a curious tilt of her head.
"No, sorry Rin-chan," Gabin responded, kneeling to the girls level. "that's actually what I came to talk to your mother about." His expression shifted to one of slight worry. "Sorry, but could you leave me and your mother alone for a few minutes? It's really important."
Rin humphed, crossed her arms and blew up her cheeks. "Why should . . . I." she looked at the highly decorative crank-able top he had pulled out of the large purse like bag he had thrown over his shoulder. She gasped, her eyes lit up, and she snatched it out of his hands before rushing out of the room.
"Rin!" Aoi called. "don't be rude. Thank the good man." she seem as amused as anyone as her daughter rushed back in and bowed in apology, then dashed back out calling her thanks.
Gabin turned to the woman. "Hello Aoi. It's nice to . . . "
"Is something wrong with Kariya?" the amusement from before had faded, being replaced with a certain level of nervousness.
Gabin's shoulders sank. "That's what I came here to talk to you about. About six months ago, he stopped returning my letters. I tried calling him, but he never answered. I even sent a telegram. Nothing. I honestly wanted to come sooner, but I was off with another friend hunting for a rather dangerous artifact off in America, so I couldn't come as soon as I wanted." Gabin had an unsettled look on his face, a sharp contrast to his usual demeanour.
"When I got to Japan, I found out that he had quit his job, sold his house, and disappeared without a trace. Do you have any idea what might have happened to him? Anything at all might help at this point. I'm desperate."
Aoi looked conflicted. "Well, the last time I saw Kairya was when he came to visit a few months ago. Actually, it was around the same time you say he disappeared." Aoi looked a little melancholy. "he came to visit out of nowhere, as usual." she smiled a little, but the melancholy feeling didn't fade. "Rin was so happy to see him, he even got a gift for her."
"I doubt he only got her a present. Kariya wouldn't play favourites like that." Gabin smirked, but his expression blanked as he saw Aoi's smile fade a little, and she looked at her feet.
"Yes, he got Sakura a gift to. That's when . . . " She trailed off. That's when Gabin realized what trough him off earlyer.
"Hey, Aoi . . . " her gaze rose to meet his eyes. "Where's Sakura?"
AN: 12:08 AM, June 29th, 2018. Well, that's chapter 1. I hope that it's not to rushed, I feel like I just rushed into Gabin's introduction rather than developing his character. I just don't know how I would go about characterizing him in the first place. I suppose that's a result of not interacting with others enough. That, and I'm not that good with scenes like that in the first place. Not one of those people who can put out twenty chapters of training and character development before we even begin to approach canon-start.
As for the story itself, well . . . For now, it will focus on the grail war and the after-shocks, but there will be some major changes afterwards. For now tho, here's a dossier for Gabin.
Name: Gabin Galain.
Age: 28
Height: 182 CM
Weight: 180 Ibs
Hair Colour: Greenish Grey
Eye Colour: Orange
Nationality: French
Likes: Gaudy clothing, Martial arts movies, Sci-Fi novels, Good fights.
Dislikes: Arrogant people, Weak Morals, restraint stratifies.
Natural enemy(s): Zouken Matou, Nosferatu Chaos.
Element: Air, Water, Fire.
Origin: Unkown.
Mana Circuit numearity: 24
Maba Circuit quality: E-D
Maximum Prana output: 410 units
Known Magecraft: Reinforcement, Structural Grasping, Alteration, Thought Acceleration, Rune Craft, Fire Magecraft, Wind magecraft, Hypnosis, Boundary Line Creation/Demolition.
Description: Gabin is the second son of the Galain family, a somewhat young family devoted to the creation and manipulation of Golems and other such constructs. This family is divided into two groups, the main family and the off branches, formed from the children not selected to inherit the family crest. Members of the branch family are raised for the sole purpose of financial supporting the main family's research.
From a rather young age, Gabin was outshone by his younger brother, who ultimately became the clan heir. He showed an overall disinterest in the moonlit world, until he was forced to accompany his uncle on a mission to hunt down a minor dead-apostle. During the conflict, Gabin watched as one Executor tore apart super-human monstrosities bare handed. Afterwards, he gained an obsession with martial arts, learned what magecraft could enhance said practices, and abandoned his family, who he has not been in contact with (Besides his older brother) since his teens.
An unconventional magus, he is more concerned with how a spell can tie-in to his martial ability, and how to best drive his body beyond the standard human limits. This leaves him rather looked down upon in the research community, but highly sought after for mercenary work.
He has several contacts in both Atlas and the Church, as well a among less well know magic circles. He is most well know for an incident were he publicly beat a dead-apostle to death, along with roughly two dozen thralls, without the usage of reinforcement. This and several other incidents have given him a reputation of over excessive brutality when his moral lines are crossed, and it is commonly accepted that it is unwise to send him after people wanted alive.
Ok, Dosier finished, see you next chapter! . . . Hopefully . . . and of course the Internets out, why wouldn't it be!
12:30 AM, June 30th, 2018. OK, so turns out the internet was a good thing, as this needed some modification before publishing.
