Disclaimer: I do not own any characters involving in this fic.
Phantasm 3『Incident In The Dark - Part 1』
"The city is a strange place. However, once you get used to it, life there should be pretty easy." said Hakuno as he let out a listless sigh, and stared down at the winter schoolyard.
It was unusual for him to get lost in his own thoughts like this, yet here he was. The month in the corner of the chalkboard had changed to December. It was hard to believe that it had already been ten days since he arrived to Misaki Town and enrolled to this school while portraying as Soujuurou Shizuki.
The last vestiges of autumn had been wiped away with the turning of the calendar, and the trees in the schoolyard were nearly barren, the ground below them hidden beneath a mat of fallen leaves. Fourth period was Classics, and behind the podium at the front of the room, the elderly teacher was droning on about some topic or another.
Though Hakuno had finally grown accustomed to the classroom, he was still a long way off from catching up to the contents of the classes. Since he lacked the foundation gained over the years of schooling, every single class was a matter of life and death. However, having the memories of people who had experienced this kind of phenomena helped him to understand the contents of the lesson, even if it kind felt a little uncomfortable to him.
Normally he would scold himself for losing focus when he should be busy, but...
"...Hah."
No matter how hard he tried he couldn't make himself concentrate. But, what was the source of his distraction?
Compared to the mountains, winter in the city was remarkably mild, and even working every day wasn't that hard. Since he wasn't particularly more exhausted than anybody else, that couldn't be the reason. Nor was it because the class itself was tedious.
Though his classmates always complained about how boring it was, he didn't share their feelings. In fact, he rather enjoyed the time he spent here.
So, the problem wasn't a mental one, either.
"...What am I doing? This isn't like me." He scolded himself and turned face the blackboard.
The rhythmic slipping of the chalk lured him toward sleep, but somehow he managed to resist. Still, the fact remained that he simply couldn't concentrate.
"...Hmm." sighed Hakuno heavily and tried to sort himself out. He didn't really want to think about it, but, well... It must have been because of the unbelievable scene he had witnessed last night in his apartment.
Night immediately swept in the entire town of Misaki.
The clock made a soft mechanical sound as both of its hands pointed at the twelfth hour. Supposedly everyone should rest their heads and embraced the warmth of the sleeping hymn in this particular time. However, inside an apartment Hakuno was still wide awake.
In the middle of the apartment floor inscribed a pure silver Summoning Circle. This was a circle used to summon Servants in the Holy Grail War in every World Line except from his. However, he won't use such mystical inscription to call forth Servants but something more entirely.
Someone that would helped him in his mission.
Walking in front of the summoning circle, Hakuno bit his thumb and extended it forward, placing his hand's first digit on the center of the field. Normally, the center of such mystical sphere should have a catalyst put in place. But he didn't need an of that kind of stuff since his self was enough as a replacement.
The blood spread out on the surface as it enveloped the magic circle and started to glow, responding the unusual Mana in his blood. As this happened, Hakuno recited the words needed to summon a True Heroic Spirit...
Let silver and steel be the essence.
Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation.
Let white be the color I pay tribute to.
Let rise a wall against the wind that shall fall.
Let the four cardinal gates close.
Let the three-forked road from the crown reaching unto the Kingdom rotate.
Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill.
Repeat every five times.
Simply, shatter once filled.
Let it be declared now;
Your flesh shall serve under me, and my fate shall be with your sword.
Submit to the beckoning of the Planet and the World.
Answer, if you would submit to this will and this truth.
An oath shall be sworn here.
I shall attain the virtues of all Heaven;
I shall have dominions over all evils of all of Hell.
Yet you shall serve with no restraint by any chains.
For you would be a pillar of hope and order.
Together, we should upheld balance and salvation.
From the Seat of Heroes, attended to by three great words of power,
Come forth from the ring of restraint, protector of the Holy Balance!
The summoning circle glowed red and a bright flash of light covered the entire room, followed by a big gust of wind. As the light faded...
Two figures stood in front of Hakuno.
One was a tall female with white complexion, around 172 centimeters in height with long golden hair and red eyes. She wore black sleeved shirt that only covered the upper part of her breasts, just enough to conceal her nipples and her middle torso was barely exposed and showcased unusual red streak lines, with a golden gauntlet and shoulder pad on her right appendage, a short black mini-skirt topped up with with a golden colored skirt-like armor, and a pair of golden leg armors that covered her entire feet up to her lower thighs.
The other one was also a female albeit with tanned skin, around 175 centimeters in height with a long white hair and grey eyes. She was garbed well with a red cloak over a black leather armor tank top, just enough to cover her profound chest, exposing her midriff down to her very navel, a high-knee length black pants with an unusual design that revealed her inner thighs, connected to her black leather-like underwear on each sides located on the hips, and a lower-knee-high black boots.
One was an almost topless golden sun while the other one was a voluptuous red shroud, one was from an ancient pass while the other was from a distant future, yet both have a beauty that surpasses mortal women. From their dress alone Hakuno could tell who these two people are, if the memory of his "other self" serves him right, yet their unprecedented appearances somehow left him in distraught...
"..."
"..."
The two female figures stared at each other for a moment before both of their respective eyes hovered at a stupefied and perturbed Hakuno.
"King of Uruk, Gilgamesha." The blonde woman introduced herself, "I have manifested in this form in response to the World's crisis. It is definitely not in answer to your summons. Though the King of Heroes find it degrading to stand together with a Faker, mongrel."
"I hate it to say this but I have to agree with this pompous Goldie." The white haired woman retorted. "Unlike her, I answer to your summon. Though my name is of no importance, you can call me Mumei if you wish."
"Ho? You have guts to speak ill of me face to face." said Gilgamesha as she moved closer to the slightly taller Mumei with a confident smug. "Are you that eager to clash that forgery of yours against my genuine ones? Hah. Irritate me more and you'll have that wish sooner or later."
"Try me." taunted Mumei as she reciprocated the blonde's actions, her eyes meeting hers with her lips curled up wryly. "There's no rule that says a fake cannot beat an original. Want to have an example?"
As the two powerful women continued to exchanged gazes and words of mockery, from the sidelines Hakuno could only watch with a sigh while scratching his cheek.
"It seems tomorrow will be a hectic one." he thought for a while before he stood frozen as his brown orbs captured the sight of the two Heroic Spirits in front of him, with their ample chests pushing against each other, their visage were almost closed with one another as if just a little bit more, their nose and lips would brushed with each other and...
"...Hah." he sighed again.
Remembering 2 sexy, glamorous, and scantily clad women going at each other throats was literally something that would make every male's nose bleed and throw off their conscious on the darken area of awareness.
At the chime marking the end of the class, the old teacher bowed and left. Almost immediately, all 30 students sprang up from their desks.
The clock that had slowed to a crawl around 11:30 now read 12 o'clock sharp. A laid-back atmosphere spread through the room. It was the start of lunchtime - the high point of school life, a nd a brief respite from the stiff formality of classes.
The food served in Misaki High School's cafeteria was notoriously awful. Complaints that such negligence was unacceptable at a private school went unheeded, and the same peculiar dishes clogged the menu day after day.
Between the high prices and the lackluster taste, it was only natural that the box lunch faction had become the dominating power within the student body.
Class 2-C was no exception.
The boys roughly scooted their desks together into a single, long dining table, while the girls elegantly split off the cliques of 2 to 3 and started chatting amongst themselves. Neither side wasted even a second of their precious lunch. Their actions might have been different, but they both had the same goal.
"..."
For a moment, Hakuno remained at his desk before grasping his bag with his hand and sling it over his shoulders. It had already been 10 days since he transferred or enrolled into this class, and he always don't eat lunch together with his classmates.
Exiting the classroom, he went immediately upstairs.
The rooftop of Misaki High School was something Hakuno could describe as inclined with nature. Such green roof were rare in this part of the city since the area was just beside a lush green hills. As he sat on the wooden bench, he unzipped his bag and let his hand roam around inside, looking for a rectangular piece of thick metal box.
"..."
His face soured when he remembered he wasn't able to make a bento for himself earlier this morning.
"It seems that someone forgot their bento." said a female voice, prompting Hakuno to looked behind.
Behind him stood a tall tanned skin woman garbed in a business suit-type attire with red auburn hair tied in a ponytail fashion and golden eyes. With a smile grazing on her rosy lips, the woman occupied the vacant seat beside Hakuno and placed the bento on her lap as she unpacked it.
"Thanks."
"When I saw your bento inside your dish drawers, I assumed that you forgot your lunch." she said as she one by one spread each containers in her lap. "Thanks to that I managed to scout the entire city this morning while walking to this place."
As the containers were already set, both people said thanks to their meal before digging in.
"So..." trailed off Hakuno as he eyed the woman beside him, "This is your human form?"
"Yes when I was a human back then." retorted the female as she picked a piece of cooked vegetable. "Master, I'm sorry for how we behave last night. It's just that Goldie and I are not, in a way to put it, in good terms."
"I take it that she and you are from the same World Line?" asked Hakuno, to which the tanned skin woman nod in agreement. "From how both of you interacted with each other, I can tell that Mumei used to clash blades with her a lot."
"Hmm." nodded Mumei as she picked a piece of meat from her box. "Pretty much in every Grail War that we are participated to. It's ironic that although we are summoned in the World's call, I always find myself meeting with her."
Hakuno silently munching his nutriments as he allowed Mumei to speak, before pushing the food down to his stomach. "Now that you mention it, where is she?"
"You don't have to worry about her Master." replied Mumei nonchalantly. "She can take care of herself. She's an adult who always declares that the whole world is hers. With a large sum of gold in her vault, rest assured that she have the time of herself."
After school, Hakuno went straight to work without making any detours.
Though he had properly informed the school of his jobs at the Chinese restaurant and fishmonger in the Misaki shopping district, there were even more that he was keeping under wraps-not just because he was worried about having too many, but because the jobs themselves were apparently less than legal.
Today's workplace was a prime example: the pachinko parlor near Yashirogi Station. He changed out of his school clothes into the shop's black, tuxedo-like employee uniform, and got to work sweeping outside the building.
Yashirogi was the face of Misaki City, and the area near the station was packed with commercial buildings and bustling shopping arcades. Where people gathered, so too did the things they produced.
An optimist would say it was joy and laughter. A pragmatist would say it was money and commerce. And a realist would say it was just a lot of garbage.
No matter how much local government worked to build a cleaner Yashirogi, they couldn't defy the basic rule-a rule that went double for this particular kind of establishment. The very nature of the business attracted all sorts of riff-raff and rabble, which meant it was necessary to clean the storefront several times a day.
And so, Hakuno stood outside in the winter cold, sweeping up cigarette butts, picking up discarded fliers, and throwing away empty cans. Something about it must have reminded him of life in the mountains, because he finished the work cheerfully without delay. Though such past event was not his to begin with, it was Soujuurou's.
It was Soujuurou's life that he was living. Something like this could be labeled as immoral or unacceptable and he knows that, but he had to act like Soujuurou and traced every inch of his step because it was necessary for his "main job".
After giving the building's perimeter a quick once-over to make sure everything was in order he went back inside where it was warm. Overwhelmed by the dazzling lights and sounds and choking on the stench of tobacco in the air, he cut through the main floor and headed towards the office.
"Manager, I'm done cleaning outside."
"Good job. Let's see... next could go check out the customer at Unit 40 on the second floor? My gut says she's cheating."
The manager was a good-natured former office worker. However, the reason he had hired Hakuno, who was obviously still a student, wasn't because he was moved by the sight of a young man making his way in the world alone or anything sappy like that. It was simply because all of his other employees had intimidating faces, and he wanted to have at least one person on hand who was actually capable of putting people at ease.
"Are you sure? I still haven't cleaned the bathrooms."
"It's fine, it's fine. Now, this lady's parked herself right in the camera's blind spot soI can't get any proof from here. Since you've had a 100% success rate spotting this sort of thing so far, I want you to take a look and tell me what you think."
Hearing his manager's reason, Hakuno nodded his head, put away the cleaning equipment, and started making his way to the second floor. He already know who she was judging on Soujuurou's past memories.
This place was a quintessential, 2-story pachinko parlor. it was basically a community-oriented establishment, content to drain the locals of their money little by little without relying on exploitative rules and regulations.
But even if the that was the management's intention, customers came in all shapes and sizes. Some came just to play for fun, while others were pro gamblers who lived off their winnings. And there were even those who aimed to make easy money through illicit means.
In particular, by using a device that had become prevalent in the mid-80's, they could access the game machine's circuitry from outside, disrupting its programming and making it incredibly easy to hit the so-called Triple Seven Jackpot.
Naturally, even if the management would prefer to deny entry such people outright, they couldn't just turn away potential customers without hard evidence. In the service industry "innocent until proven guilty" was an iron-clad rule. As a result, all they could do was punish those they caught red-handed.
However, Hakuno having the memories of Soujuurou, wasn't privy to any of that. All he knew was that they were dishonest cheaters and a nuisance to the management.
"Red has been spotted." he said to no one as he went upstairs.
Compared to below, the racket of the cable radio and game machines here was more subdued. There were a hundred units on the 1st floor and over 80 on the 2nd, and although there were empty seats here and there it was pretty good turnout for the evening.
He walked to the center aisle where Unit 40 was located and nonchalantly rested against the wall. True to the manager's suspicions, there was a customer showily hitting the jackpot in fever mode.
"..."
Somehow, he knew she was playing fair the instant he saw her. He still wasn't entirely clear on what made somebody a pro, but if it meant being special then this woman was definitely the real deal.
Her good luck was almost palpable. Basking in the attention of the customers around her, she silently turned the handle again and again. Outwardly, she looked to be several years older than himself though in reality he was more mentally mature than her.
Her green, one-piece dress hugged her figure in all right places, and her slim, stocking-clad legs were crossed seductively. More than a gambler, she had the elegance of a model posing for a painting. Short, dark hair with a reddish tinge framed a pair of stylish glasses and scarlet lips.
Frankly speaking, she didn't belong here. There were already 4 large containers of balls stacked at her feet, and she showed no signs of slowing down. Looking bored, she took a drag of the long cigarette between her slender, porcelain fingers.
The eyes behind the glasses turned to the wall and... saw him.
Though unlike Soujuurou's first reaction upon eye contact, Hakuno stood his ground with a calmed look on his face, his eyes unrelentingly gazing back at her. The staring contest between them was almost like gone to infinity. He decided to end the long staring scene with a silent words from his orifice.
He saw the woman's brow quirked upward but Hakuno didn't mind and walked out the room not before glancing at the blonde woman wearing a fashionable white v-neck with three quarter sleeves, and python print short pants.
He checked in with his boss.
"Manager, I'm going home early. Don't worry, the person on the 2nd floor is fine."
Cramming his school uniform into a paper bag, Hakuno silently exited out the front door. He slowly walked through the streets of Yashirogi, already thick with the shadows of night due to the cloudy weather, and halted his footsteps as he felt a presence behind him.
So here's the second chapter, guys. As you can tell, Female Gilgamesh and Female Mumei came from the same parallel universe who fought several times with each other in the HGW of their home world and their memories of their clash are still intact. The only difference is that their legends are somewhat differed from the canon ones. Fem!Gil history is somewhat similar to Caster!Gil, a supreme wise king of Uruk who returned from her journey of immortality while Fem!Mumei have the same history with Extra!Mumei just she was born female.
For clarity sake, they are Heroic Spirits that was summoned directly from the Throne of Heroes alongside with their human flesh. So basically they are Heroic Spirits in pure flesh, which is a plus for not openly giving off the impression of a Servant or HS. More importantly they will be part of Hakuno's harem.
So how do you like the chapter? Leave a review or comments on the box below.
Until next time, see 'ya!
