Fate/Stay Night:
Undead Blade World
Hand 2: The Jack, The Queen, The King, And The Two Aces
Tonight was a night that was going to change everything that I know.
Last night, I had just summoned my servant. While I was aiming at Saber, Archer may as well be my second choice. After all it is one of the three night classes next to Lancer and Saber.
After getting to 'know' my servant, and by 'know' I mean a vaguely summarized list of my servant's skills and such, Archer sensed an old prana source miles away from my estate to a noisy alarm blaring facility.
When we arrived we witnessed a battle between some non-human entity, a homunculus of sorts with human and bug aspects, a grasshopper probably, fighting a person in mundane made knight armor.
Though while the armor was mechanical-looking itself, I figured it needed to be powered. With the mana it was pouring out came from a whole different source that the user of the armor couldn't possibly possess. It was really close to the homunculus' mana signature.
The fight ended with the knight himself sealing the grasshopper in a card, a card of all things. Apparently that's the source that powers the armor itself.
When I went back home, I searched my father's extensive library to find anything on these homunculi or these cards. Hopefully my father's journal holds something relevant.
~ Rin Tohsaka, Owner of Fuyuki, Master of Archer of the 5th Grail War.
"Hm,… …. … AH!" Shirou yelped, his chest heaving trying to catch his breath. Taking a quick look at his surroundings he found himself back in his bedroom.
The sliding door to his room opened revealing Hayakawa in his doorway giving him a light smile, "Morning Shirou, have a good night?"
"What happened?" Shirou asked.
"Give it a few seconds," Hayakawa said losing his smile.
True enough, memories of last night's events came back to him, "So Tachibana-san really did help destroy BOARD." "Looks like it, but remember that times like this, we have to doubt ourselves, even when the answer is given to us on a silver platter," said the teacher.
"What do you mean by that?" Shirou asked. "We need the whole story, not just what we saw in our own eyes," Kenichi answered, "Everything has a hidden meaning, whether it's through words or actions."
Shirou just looked blankly at the floor beneath him, "So you doubt Tachibana's betrayal," the red-head Rider smiled. "No," the bluntness of Hayakawa answer wiped his smile from his face, "its clear Tachibana has betrayed BOARD. But in the years I've known him, Sakuya has always done things for a reason, and I want to know why he's doing this."
"Sensei?" chirped a soft angelic voice, "Is sempai awake yet?"
"Er," Hayakawa answered nervously, "Yeah, I was just checking on him myself seeing that me and Hirose-san kept him up late."
"Oh, thank you sensei. Is it alright for me to see him?" Sakura asked
Hayakawa throwing a soft smile, "Sure Sakura, I have to talk to Hirose-san anyways and make sure Taiga doesn't pester her too much. Have fun you two."
Leaving Shirou to Sakura, he sees the huge spread Sakura prepared for breakfast by herself with Taiga, enjoying herself to the food like a glutton while Hirose enjoyed her own food at a slower pace.
Looking up from her feast, Taiga spots Hayakawa, "Yo Hayakawa-san, how's Shirou?" "He's fine, just talking to Sakura-san. We got there after the incident occurred so it barely gave him a scratch, he was just winded," the teacher's excuse was sound considering Taiga was worried that Shirou wasn't making breakfast in the morning.
"I understand," it was highly doubtful to the two BOARD employees considering when she saw Hirose coming from the hall, which incidentally was the same direction Shirou's room was in, Taiga was led to believe a very imaginative conclusion of Shirou being a playboy bringing home lots of women at least 10 years older than him.
Again, VERY imaginative.
Luckily Hirose came up with a story that she was a colleague of Shirou's at BOARD (which was true) and the at-work dorms are being fumigated for the time being, so Shirou offered her a room in the estate since he has the extra space to keep more than a few guests. All of the luggage (the Undead detecting software and equipment) the young teen helped unload tired Shirou out, after all he's only human.
"You know Hirose-san, if you need a place to stay, I might know someone who could rent you out a room," Taiga offered taking the BOARD member from the news on the TV mentioning gas leaks again in Shinto, and once again, no one knows what's going on.
"Arigato Fujimura-san, but I wouldn't want to impose on him," said Shiori.
"Ah, he wouldn't mind, besides, he lives by himself so he would love the company," Taiga smiled.
"Hirose-san," Kenichi whispered to Shiori whilst Taiga enjoys herself some natto, "It might be a good idea to have a separate base of operations. Besides, Taiga doesn't know what Shirou 'does' at BOARD and would like to keep it that way."
"You sure? I'd think that staying here would be better since we'd be in close contact with Shirou," Hirose countered. "Positive," Hayakawa nodded, "Sakura and Taiga are usually here every day. When the bells start ringing, they'll start asking what's going on. They might be in the dark about what Shirou does but they aren't ignorant or stupid."
"So Shiori-san, what do you say?" Taiga asks referring to her previous question. "I accept, but I would like to set some conditions when I stay there though," Hirose answers.
"I'm sure he won't mind," Taiga replies.
The sliding door opens revealing Shirou with Sakura in tow, "Morning everyone. Sorry I'm late." "It's okay Shirou, just sit down and enjoy what food Fujimura-san didn't devour yet," Hayakawa offered.
"HEY!" Taiga snapped at Hayakawa's joke. Everyone got a laugh; it almost felt nice to laugh like that after what happened concerning the three BOARD members.
After breakfast Taiga and Hayakawa left for school, more like the BOARD teacher dragging her along so for once she would be on time to her homeroom. Shirou and Sakura was just preparing to leave as well after taking care of the dishes, "Hirose-san, make yourself at home here. I'm usually back a few hours after school ends helping out the different clubs when I can."
Hirose nods in confirmation, "Oh Shirou, I almost forgot." Hirose held him back into the house from Sakura's vision, "I'll be looking through the video files and check what happened." "I do hope for the best," Shirou said sadly. "Same here," Hirose replied in the same tone.
"Emiya-kun, we're gonna be late," Sakura calls out from the gate.
"Ah, I'm coming Sakura-san."
Shiori smiled as she watched the two teens on their way to school and noticed the closeness between the two, 'Those two are almost like brother and sister.'
Second Chome
On the way to the intersection, they hear police sirens. Probably another murder incident, 'It's sad to think about these incidents as a normal thing lately, but when they've been going on for the last few weeks, it's kind of hard not to. The unfortunate thing is that we don't know who or what is doing them so we can't do anything until it happens to us.'
"Hajime-san!" Shirou hears Sakura exclaim. In the same street ahead of them was Aikawa riding on the same route. Hearing his name called out, he turns around and finds Sakura with Shirou, "I see you're accompanying her this time, Emiya-san."
"No emergency calls this time," Shirou smirked.
The rest of the way, Sakura and Shirou talked while Hajime hopped off leading his bike as he listened passively while they walked.
Homurahara
When the three got to school, Aikawa held Shirou back while Sakura made her way to the archery club.
"What do you know of Sakura's brother Shinji?" "Outside that he's an ass to everyone and verbally abuses Sakura, not really much else," Shirou answered as he rolled his eyes, 'Always something with Shinji.'
"Few days ago I gave Sakura a ride back to her house after hours at the Jacaranda," 'The Jacaranda, that's the café a few miles from the school,' Shrou recalls, "The Matou Estate right?"
"Yes, after dropping her off I swore I felt something following me. I would say it was Shinji trying to intimidate me, but he doesn't have the spine to do so. I'm just wondering if he has the means of hired help," Hajime inquired.
"Doubt it, but then again he has his Grandfather who probably has his own security. The Matous aren't the richest people in the city but it looks like they could get their own security probably. Never actually seen them need it, but with all these murders…" said Shirou.
"I see. But all that time you've known Sakura and Shinji, you haven't felt anything suspicious around their home?" Hajime asked.
"Not really, I haven't been around that area for a while so I wouldn't know," Shirou answered. 'Though it might be worth investigating later. But for now…'
"I got to meet Issei-san right now Aikawa-san, talk to you later," Shirou waved leaving Hajime to his thoughts.
"I always appreciate your help Shirou, especially with your busy schedule," Issei commented. "Don't worry about it Issei-san, my schedule is going to be a lot less busy at the moment," Shirou smirked as he rummages around the tool box in front of him to fix the old heater beside him.
Right now Issei was going over inventory and school club budgets, "So Shirou, think you can fix the thing." "If it's the wires and they short circuited, if we replace them it'll probably last through the winter," Shirou surmised.
Issei smirked, "You're very good Emiya. I am very pleased I can count on you." "Issei, you talk weird sometimes you know that," Shirou quipped, "But, could you step out a bit? I need some concentration."
"Ah, that delicate procedure you usually have for this sort of thing," Issei remarked as he stepped outside to let Shirou do his thing.
'Okay, now to see what's wrong this thing,' Channeling his od, he placed his palm towards the heater and analyzed the device in his head using his tracing. 'Hmm, it still works but it looks like the two of the heat lines are disconnected. And the cord can easily be fixed with some friction tape.'
"Shouldn't take too long," Shirou said to himself as he went to his toolbox grabbing a wrench. But as he was about to use the tool to the first nut, he froze, "Tachibana-san…"
"Shirou," his attention was torn away from his lamentations when he sees Hayakawa at the door. "I got a call from Hirose about Tachibana. It doesn't sound good."
Hayakawa and Shirou walked side to side discussing Hirose's new found information. "So Tachibana really did it, didn't he?" Shirou asked sadly. "It appears so, Hirose told me that the video file showed Tachibana as Garren knocking out the president," the teacher answered.
Shirou just sighed, "There has to be an explanation." "There's no evidence outside the security tapes to say otherwise." Shirou shook his head, "Kenichi, I worked with and trained under Tachibana for a few years now. We had a trust and he had friends in BOARD. Why would he all of a sudden betray us? And you said it yourself; Tachibana never does things without reason. We shouldn't just trust what our eyes see or what our ears hear. Are you going to be a hypocrite after what you said this morning?"
They both stared each other in the eye and stood in silence ignoring the students passing them.
Then the school bell chimed.
"Sorry Hayakawa-sensei, but I got to go."
Hayakawa sighed making his way to his classroom for homeroom, 'Maybe he's right. But without contradictory evidence, can't really say anything else. Maybe the medical division has something on Tachibana.'
Rin sat in her usual corner in the back of her classroom staring outside thinking about the battle between man and monster. Saving her father's diary, she decided to go to the students about those warriors considering they were the talk of the school at one point.
From what she gathered these armored warriors were called Kamen Riders, defenders of justice, 'Sounds so kiddy. Like something from a Saturday morning show I used to watch with Kotone. I think it was called… Sentai or something.'
She heard the door open as she watched her teacher, Mr. Hayakawa, come in and take roll call.
'Blade, that's what that guy in black called him. I'll have to keep that in mind after I take care of this War.'
"Sorry Issei, I got called in by one of the teachers about my classes," Shirou explained as the two ate lunch. "It's okay Shirou, you usually come through in the end. I can tell something must have happened," said Issei taking a potato into his chopsticks. "Really?" Shirou questioned quirking an eyebrow.
"Shirou, I've been raised in a monastery. We've been trained to read a person by their body language," Issei smirked biting into his potato.
"You know Issei, no offense but you have a pretty boring bento," Shirou commented pushing away the topic and comparing the two lunches in front of the two. "It's my father's taste in which I've grown accustomed to," Issei replied pouring himself a cup of tea.
"I can relate," Shirou laughed pouring his own cup as well.
"Anyways Shirou, did you hear about what happened this morning in the 2nd Chome?"
This turned Shirou's mood, "Yeah, I saw the police heading in that area on my way here. You know what happened?"
"Homicide."
'Once more from the mysterious murderer,' Shirou thought to himself.
"It was a family of four. The murder weapon they suspect is supposedly long in length. Something along the lines of a katana or a spear."
"They don't have a clue on the identity of the killer do they?"
"Nope," Issei denied sipping his tea calmly, "And another set of murders happened around the hiker trails on the outskirts of town. More than likely a different murderer since these had their throats slashed out after they were strangled."
"Was there a description on any of them?" Shirou asked, "No survivors or a witness for the family; but the group at the trails, only one survivor was there. He was probably delusional when he gave the killer's description; it was supposed to be some demon made of thorns killing anyone it could."
Issei sighed in disbelief, "It's amazing how in such a short time there were counts of numerous gas leaks in Shinto, murderers brandishing swords and slashing throats, and now school curfews are even cutting short."
The groan of the chair dragging along the tile grabbed Issei's attention. He sees Shirou packing up his bento with a dark look on his face with his hair shadowing his eyes. "Shirou, you okay?" the monk in-training asked concerned.
"No, just remembering some bad things from the past," at the back of his head, the Fire flickered behind his head. Flashes of the fire and the burnt corpses, "Sorry Issei, but I got to get home."
"Thank you Hajime-kun for taking me back home," Sakura thanked as she hopped off the dirt bike. "I've been hearing about the latest murders. Just wanted to make sure you're okay," said Hajime flicking up the visor on his helmet.
"What about you Hajime-kun? It's not just the murderer but also those monsters people have been talking about," Sakura said worriedly.
"I'll be alright. I promised you I'd get you here and I did," said Aikawa.
"Okay, but there's also um…ano," "Hmm, is there someone giving you problems?"
"Well," Sakura began, "Sometimes I would see this person when I'm coming home. The way he smiles gives me this unsettling feeling."
"What does he look like?"
"Um…He was a blond, good-looking person. He actually looked like a model, you'd be surprised if you see him yourself," Sakura blushed recalling this mysterious person's details.
"Has anyone moved here recently?" Aikawa asked, further pressing for more information.
"No, that's why I thought it was strange," answered Sakura.
Aikawa flicked down his visor and revved his engine, "Have you told Emiya-san of this?" Sakrua shook her head. "Call me or the Jacaranda if you don't feel comfortable here, Haruka-san will take you in even if I'm not there," Hajime reassured causing Sakura to smile.
Without another word Hajime rode off into the darkness while Sakura crossed her fingers and prayed, "Hajime-kun, be careful."
Shirou definitely had undeniable truth, the video files from the President's office showed Tachibana as Garren knocking out President Karasuma and hefting him out of the building through the window as swarms of locusts come in and filling the office. And the rest the BOARD workers knew already.
"I'm sorry Emiya-kun, but…" Hirose whimpered as tears fell across her cheeks feeling the sting of betrayal. "No," Shirou muttered, "there has to be more to this. There has to be a reason…"
"I don't want to hear his reason!" Hirose cried her sobbing overpowering the news lady talking on the television showing the scene at the power plant with several victims. Both turned as they saw the pictures of several bloody corpses with their necks slashed out or holes that stabbed through where the heart was.
Shirou sighed gritting his teeth, "You know, not once did I think BOARD was anything more than a company out to help people," the Rider said as Hirose's sobs soften, "Hirose-san, you're my sempai, do you have even a remote idea of what BOARD was doing? Where the Undead came from? Was everything BOARD was about a huge lie?"
Hirose didn't say anything wiping her tears, from her facial expressions either she knew but couldn't say anything, or she was as ignorant and naive as he was about BOARD.
It was a depressing atmosphere until they heard some crashing at the door. Shirou inwardly sighed, '10 to 1 says its Fuji-nee bum rushing her way through the door.'
"Is Fujimura-san like this all the time?" Shirou sighed as he answered honestly, "Yeah, and amazingly enough she's my guardian."
"And what made her fit to be as such?" "Outside of being the grand-daughter of the Oyabun of the yakuza gang in this area," Hirose just blinked in shock at the school teacher's criminal bloodline, "My father was her mentor and inspired her to be an English teacher after she got her degree. We were all close; me and Fuji-nee became even closer after Dad's death to the point of siblings."
"I-I didn't know Shirou-kun. I'm sorry," Hirose apologized.
"Shirou! I'm hungry!" Fujimura cried out from the hallway.
"Hai, hai, I'll make you something," Shirou called back.
"Make extra food; I brought a friend to talk to Hirose-chan about her living arrangements!"
"Alright!"
"Shirou-kun, it's alright, you don't need to make me anything." "Nonsense Hirose-san, you're the guest and I'm the host. Besides, I like cooking, especially for friends," Shirou explained.
Hirose was going to continue arguing, but one look from the resident Rider halted any further arguments before he walked to the kitchen.
"Yo Hirose-chan!"
Shirou didn't need to turn around as he heard Taiga's loud enthusiastic voice as she entered the estate with a second pair of footsteps, more than likely her friend offering Hirose a place to live in.
"Hey, you wouldn't mind if I grabbed a glass of milk would you," Fuji-nee's 'guest' asked.
"Sure, the glasses are next to the fridge…" Shirou's voice died down seeing who his guest was. Even if the man was dressed like a civilian, he stilled recognized his face and shaggy hair. His guest was none other than the science non-fiction writer Kotaro Shirai staring him down with as much silent shock as Shirou was.
"EHHHHHHH!?"
Highway Outskirts
Hajime was making his way to the Jacaranda after he dropped off Sakura. But ever since he left the Matou mansion, he had this nagging sensation that he was being followed.
"Hm?"
Correction, make that two sensations.
"Undead,"
Without even slowing down, he pulled out the Ace of Hearts Change Mantis and a silver and ruby heart crested buckle, the Chalice Rouser that materialized from black and silver whisps around his waist. Sliding the card through the rouser,
"Henshin!"
'CHANGE'
His body was covered in a translucent black shroud as specks of his person started flying off of him with the shroud affecting his Honda XR250 as well.
And soon the body changed into the black, gold and ruby armored warrior.
The Mantis of Hearts Rider, the enigmatic Kamen Rider Chalice.
The bike's body had changed as well from that of a Honda dirt bike to the black, red and gold decaled Shadow Chaser.
Following his senses, he takes the opposite turn in the fork towards Ryuudouji to follow the call of battle against Undead.
Following him meters away, a purple leather-clad biker followed close by on a violet motorcycle as purple silk-like hair flowed from the figure's helmet.
Ryuudouji
The Ryuudouji Temple for the most part was empty save for the monks that reside there. Outside the gates was one Issei Ryuudou walked up the steps towards the Temple his mind on today's chores.
In the forest surrounding the ascending trail, a beastly being growled, thorny brambles surrounded its body and neck making up its entire right hand, another characteristic to itself was that its legs and forearms were covered in thorns and ivy. Upon its waist an ancient looking belt holding a rough carving of a red heart.
It stalked its prey like a predator poising its vines of thorns to strike and ensnare.
All the while Issei kept walking listening to the various sounds of nature, if there were any. Since he got here he felt a disturbance and not the same disturbance he felt with Kuzuki's so called "wife" or Tohsaka. He's always had a high level of a sixth sense usually that had led to evil spirits he helped his father and his brother exorcize, one of the reasons why he doesn't trust that Tohsaka girl or "Mrs. Kuzuki".
But this one felt different, a high level of malicious killing intent to that of an actual demon, and it was coming from right…
"THERE!"
He dove to the stone floor as five thorny vines zipped above him from the bushes piercing into the oak tree behind him spying the bark turning purple, the vines filled with poison. Picking himself up and regaining his composure he readied himself for combat, "Show yourself demon!"
The vines retracted back to they're source felling the tree into a splintered stump and out came the Plant Undead. "It seems that you match the description, and I doubt a being as powerful as you can be banished by a simple exorcism," the creature had hissed as it leapt at Issei barely escaping the creature's wrath.
Seeing its attention was toward him, Issei used that fact to lure it away from the Temple and further into his home's forest lest it feeds on more victims being Kuzuki-sensei, his "wife", and the monk-in-training's brothers.
He led it along for several minutes before he noticed he lost the creature. "Where is it? Did it go back towards the Temple?" His spine still shivered as he felt the evil spirit's malevolence. Spying a loose thick branch from a felled log, he grabs it and twists it around breaking it free from its confines making a makeshift kanabo.
*HISSSS!*
The monstrous hiss tipped the in-training monk of its incoming attack, side-stepping the attack of vines that crashed and dug into the earth. It jumped down from the trees retracting the vines back attempting to perform and aerial clothesline into the ground.
Seeing no way out of it, he took his weapon in hand and prepared his guard against it.
Suddenly a blur of black and red zoomed in and tackled the malevolent beast blowing Issei away on his back from the force of it. Recovering from the knockback, he sees an unbelievable event. One of the urban legends the student body has been gossiping about, a Kamen Rider, responsible for banishing those beasts.
Chalice was able to tackle the Plant Undead before it harmed the monk. He recognized the student that was usually with Shirou, Issei Ryuudou. But for the life of him, he didn't know why he acted like he did. Chalice had more of a chance to defeat the Undead after it killed the student, so why didn't he?
That was another question for later, the Undead was recovering from its knockdown. The Plant Undead charged swinging its arm of vines in wide arcs. Materializing around his arm in a translucent dark shroud, it formed into that of a composite bow with its arms akin to that of razor sharp blades, the Chalice Arrow.
Extending the blades out fully Chalice parried the incoming vines chopping off bits and pieces. Once it got close enough, Chalice parried the arm away once more before he kicked it back down.
Issei was in awe at the battle before him, he couldn't look away and be jealous of this warrior's skill and strength. Strength he wished he possessed at times, the strength his brother and his father had. Looking down he found the creature's vines snaking down the trail towards his feet.
He gasped frozen in place as the thorny appendages shot up and aimed straight at his heart.
Sensing danger towards Issei, Chalice dives into the monk in-training protecting him from harm. It slashes into the Rider with a deep gash drawing up green bodily fluids flying from his wounds and onto the forest trees.
Issei, out of his frozen shock, notices the bleeding coming from Chalice's wounds, "You're hurt."
"I'm fine," Chalice grunted getting off of him calling back his weapon, "I'll heal. Get out of here now lest it still keep coming after you. I can't keep protecting you."
The monk understood the logic, so long as he's here, the Heart crested Rider would shield himself in front of him. He ran back towards the Ryuudou Temple to warn the others of this creature and possibly others like it.
"You protect that pathetic human. Why?" The Undead hissed at Chalice. "None of your business. Even I don't know why I did it. But he's gone and it's just you and me," Chalice replied in the same native tongue.
"No one gets in the way of my prey!" The Plant Undead roared shooting its vines at Chalice once more. Likewise, the Rider retaliated with the Chalice Arrow at hand as the vines wrapped itself onto the weapon yanking it out of his hands before throwing a left hook into Chalice's head. Swinging its thorn covered fist back, Chalice barely dodged the offending arm.
The Plant Undead swung its right arm towards Chalice while the Rider backed up to increase the distance between the two. It's right arm was flailing wildly at the Rider one strike aimed at his right shoulder, it slashed into the tree behind him soaking the wood with poison as the tree's wounds in itself turned purple before spreading into the whole tree itself as it fell and rotted away.
"DIE!"
Chalice brings back the Chalice Arrow extended at hand and blocked an overhead strike. Pushing away its thorny appendages, Chalice threw an upward swing into its chest.
Unable to block Chalice's attack, the critical slash drew copious amounts of neon green blood.
But he didn't stop there; Chalice continued his assault with spiraling body movements and swings of his weapon slashing the Undead, opening many wounds on its person. One last spin, it brought his extended arm holding his Chalice Arrow with extra centrifugal force and slashed its throat sending the Undead flying and tumbling along the earth.
As it tried its damnedest to get back on its feet holding its bleeding throat, Chalice took his Rouser from its buckle and attached it in the gaps between the bases of the blades on the bow. Opening the card box on his side, he pulled out the Category 6 of Hearts Tornado Hawk and slid it through the Rouser.
'TORNADO'
The power of the tornado imbued into the bow accumulated as Chalice pulled back the switch on the weapon while the Plant Undead propped itself onto the tree behind it. He aimed dead center at the Undead while the Undead made a last desperation move at Chalice throwing the poisoned vines at him.
The tactic proved futile as the Tornado arrow tore past the offending appendages and into the Undead smashing the Plant hard into the oak tree. With the accumulated damage between the exchanges of blows, the heart carved stone buckle opened up flashing the number 7 carved into the stone.
Pulling out a SEAL card, he threw it into the beast and absorbed its body and power into the card.
And so the Category 7 of Hearts Bio Plant is sealed once more.
Emiya Estates
"So, you and Taiga-chan know each other?"
After the shock of surprise between the writer and the Rider, dinner became a little awkward. While Taiga stuffed her face with food as usual and Kotaro nodded in affirmation as he went to enjoy the resident chef's food with the same if somewhat downplayed enthusiasm, Shirou and Hirose excused themselves to the Hirose's room after eating their fair share. Currently, they were conversing as to what happened in the kitchen.
"So he knows?" Hirose asked.
"Yeah. It was from yesterday when Tachibana-san and I went after the Bat Undead. He happened to stumble upon the fight. The guy is a science non-fiction writer trying to get a story on the Kamen Riders. He's really persistent about it too," Shirou explained remember his efforts just to get his bike started just to get away from the guy.
"This might work out for the best then," said Hirose.
"How so?"
"This way I won't have to be stepping on eggshells when one of the Undead alerts go off with some half-assed excuse."
"True. Speaking of which, I heard there was another set of murders around the plant. Their method of killing seemed strange if not overkill, strangulation before slashing out their victim's throats."
"I saw that on the news while I was setting up the Undead program again. The last alert when I got it back up again was about two hours ago near Ryuudouji Temple," Hirose explained.
"If you didn't call me then I assume Garren must have got it," Shirou assumed bringing his thoughts towards the rogue Rider, but the operator invalidated his assumption with head shake of denial.
"Actually it was our unknown Rider friend, Chalice,"
"Chalice," Shirou was familiar with this one.
He and Chalice had bumped heads when an alert went off on a Heart Category Undead. As per usual, Shirou as Blade attempted to make friends with him and hopefully as a comrade.
~flashback~
Sparks flew as Chalice swung his extended Chalice Arrow like a spinning pendulum as he struck Blade repeatedly.
Blade offered a partnership between himself, Garren, and Chalice as a sign of friendship and a mutual benefit to seal the Undead back.
But negotiations were not as hopeful Shirou had hoped. Despite Chalice's rough and mysterious nature , and the fact Blade knew next to nothing of the mysterious Rider of Hearts, seeing him defend a small girl against the Eagle Undead, Category 6 of Hearts.
Watching his actions, the Rider seemed cold and ruthless in his actions, but he tried his damnedest to protect her from the various wind blasts the Category 6 was shooting.
Maybe the Chalice wanted to work alone and he wasn't afraid to cut anyone down from sealing the other Undead for himself. Shirou didn't care as he laid there, muscles aching and in pain, Chalice had a good side to his ruthless nature.
After all, the Rider spared him when he was vulnerable.
~end flashback~
Shirou chuckled softly at the memory, 'Not one of my better moments, but I still stand by my point.'
"Shirou-san, I know you think he's a potential ally, but we have no clue on who he is or what his motives are," Hirose explained.
"Shirou-kun! Where are you?!" Said teen sighed at the childish teacher's calls, "Fuji-nee must have run out of food."
"You put out enough food for a whole wedding buffet, how you know she's not just full from all the food she ate?"
"Eh, you're still hungry Taiga? But you cleared out half-the table and that would have fed three," Kotaro asked in surprise.
"Shirou! Make some dessert!" Taiga demanded.
Shirou sighed making his way towards the kitchen, "See what I mean?" Hirose just stared dumbly at the redhead, in the few years she's known him; she never talked to him about his civilian life. The older woman chuckled finally seeing the somewhat hectic life he has in this house.
The next day
The morning went as usual. Seeing how late it was, Kotaro stayed over until the morning before taking Hirose over to his place in the country side, but not before leaving Shirou a new phone, 'The phone has a new Undead Alert application for future attacks in the area.' "Arigatou, Hirose-san."
He didn't see Sakura in the morning when Taiga came for breakfast, but that wasn't unusual. She sometimes got a ride from Hajime in the morning. Shinji usually isn't too happy with that and tries to scold Sakura with his usual verbal abuse, but fear of the mysterious boy and the fact he can't take a punch sort of prevents him from confronting the man.
Speaking of the happy couple, he spies Aikawa and Sakura at the gates speaking with Mitsuzuri from the Archery Club Taiga is responsible for. She spies Shirou arriving from the side, "Ohayo Shirou."
"Yo Mitsuzuri, what are you guys talking about?" Shirou greeted.
"Just asking Hajime-kun over here if he wanted to join the Archery Club considering he trained Sakura here how to shoot a bow. I was just asking why he hasn't joined already if he was good enough to make Sakura one of the top archers in the club next to me," the club captain said.
"I have responsibilities at the Jacaranda. Especially since they provide my room and board," Hajime explained.
"But Hajime-kun," Sakura interjected, "you're really good with the bow. You'd make a great teacher to some of the newcomers."
Aikawa pondered for a moment going over Sakura's words, "I'll think about it. But I'm not making any promises. Let's get going Sakura."
"Hai Hajime-kun, sempai," Sakura bowed before following Hajime to their classroom.
As they left, Mitsuzuri's expression turned to that of slight disdain, "I really do hope Hajime-san does join." "Why?" Shirou inquired.
"Shinji."
"Causing hell again?"
"That boy has been going overboard lately," the captain summed up as they head inside the school building. "He thinks too highly of himself," said Shirou but Mitsuzuri just quirks an eyebrow at him, "That's pretty much the understatement of the century. The second I take my eyes off of him he starts doing whatever he wants. He's been humiliating some of the beginner archers, tripping them up until they were able to hit a target."
At the shoe lockers, Shirou puts in his own two cents in the situation. "Yeah sounds like him. He keeps on giving me crap about quitting the club few years back every so often. But being captain of the club, can't you just demote him and give the job to someone obviously better or better yet, get Fujimura-sensei's permission to kick him out?" Shirou suggested.
"Trust me, I'd rather do both. But some of the other guys don't want to catch even more hell from him later, and I'd hate to say it, for me to be able to kick him out, I'd need to catch him in the act. None of them are willing to squeal and I have no time be around the dojo to catch him in the act," Mitsuzuri explained, "pissing me off to no end. And what's worse, he just runs off whenever I confront him about it."
"Knowing Shinji since we were kids, all he's got on him is his money, pride, and his sharp tongue. Though that 'sharp' tongue of his is getting pretty dull from overuse over the past year since Hijime-san arrived." "I agree," Mitsuzuri nodded, "Which is why I want him in the club so bad. If he could boost Sakura's confidence up as much as it has since last year, think of the good he could do for the club."
"So what got Shinji on the humiliation spree again?" Shirou asked out of curiosity. "From what I heard from the other students, he got flat out rejected by Rin Tohsaka."
"T-tohsaka?" Shirou choked, choking that turned to almost hysterical chuckling. From what he knew of her, outside of the overview he had of her and in terms of relationships, was that she rejects any guy that tries to ask her out. Taking Shinji's subtle reputation and obvious characteristic as a womanizer plus Tohsaka's reputation against the male populous, the answer was obvious. The Matou heir was shot down by the Tohsaka heiress, harshly, taking a huge blow at his pride.
Later
Shirou sat down at his seat waiting for the class bell to ring unpacking his school supplies in peace; that was until Shinji came by. "Yo Emiya," the smug voice of one Shinji Matou called out.
Masking his irritation at the former childhood friend, "Hey Shinji, how's archery practice going?"
Shinji didn't even bother masking his smugness, "Heh, why would you want to know? You're just an archery club drop out. We're doing great since I'm there." God he just wanted to go Blade and just shut him the hell up, 'I swear if the smug was a pollutant, Shinji would be suspect No.1 in causing a global epidemic.'
"I see. Hey, if you need help, I'll be happy to take time off my busy schedule to help out. You weren't that great in stringing the bowstrings or fixing the bows themselves, doubt you got better at it since I was gone," the last statement chipped a bit of Shinji's barely lingering pride off of Shinji's smug face.
"Of course, because unlike you, I have no interest in chores such as those," Shinji replied ignoring the jab. 'Yeah, because you didn't even bother to learn, not to mention you're a lazy bastard,' thought the red haired teen.
Before Shirou could say anything, the school bell rang its usual chime, "Better get to class, despite whom your family is, they won't give you any exceptions on tardiness." Shinji simply snorted making his way to class.
And not too soon, Taiga stumbled her way into the classroom. Shirou let out a sigh of relief, 'Finally, I swear one of these days.'
Meanwhile in Hayakawa's homeroom, Rin flipped through her father's notebook while the class rep called for roll call, she didn't pay attention though because she already knew most of the stuff they're covering, and not to mention the Hayakawa wasn't even here, he sent a substitute to take over. So far her father hasn't even said anything about that creature during that incident when she summoned Archer for the War.
And it didn't help there was a nagging pull at the back of her head, even the slight warmth on the back of her hand didn't help either, that usually meant, "Archer," Rin muttered silently, "You feel that right? The enemy is nearby watching this school.""Yeah," Archer said in his astral form, a fun fact about a servant being in astral form, only she could hear the Heroic Spirit's words, "It doesn't seem like he'll start attacking anytime soon. He seems to be biding his time, waiting for his chance to strike."
On the rooftop after class, Rin contemplated her battle plan with Archer, "We'll stay back until nightfall. By then no one should be here."
Nearly sunset and Shirou just got finished helping Issei with one of the school televisions. With his bag in tow, he made his way to the front gate passing by the Archery Club. Unfortunately running into Shinji in the process with his flock of girls, though the number seemed to have dwindled by half than it usually was, wasn't enough to get a few girls with him, "Still here Emiya?" 'Great,' thought Shirou. "I see you're still screwing around here Emiya."
"What you call screwing around, I call helping. Issei needed help with the electronic equipment again," Shriou explained.
"Ah, the student government ass-kisser," Shinji said cutely getting a few giggles from the girls, "By the way, mind helping out with our chores too? I'm so busy and it just gets pretty messy in there."
"Matou-sempai, didn't Fujimura-sensei tell you to do it?" one of the girls asked.
"But if we do, the store will close. Why not let the Fake janitor here do it?"
'The Fake Janitor, an accurate nickname for me considering all the help I do around the school when the Undead don't start attacking.'
"Sure, I'll do it. I'm pretty free for the moment."
"Then it's settled. Let's go girls," Shinji announced escorting his groupies out.
But Shirou decided to have the last laugh, "Hey Shinji, I heard Mitsuzuri asked Hajime to join the club. Did he show up?"
Hajime Aikawa, now that was a man that pissed him off to no end. Especially that shiner he gave him for trying to put Sakura in her place for going to Shirou's that one day. "Actually he did," one of the girls answered.
If this was Sakura trying to talk, he would have waited to when Shirou was out of ear sight to discipline her from talking about that guy. But he would have to endure in this case as one of his girls started talking.
*flashback*
Hajime Aikawa showed up to the Archery Dojo with Sakura pulling him in tow.
"Ah Hajime-san, you made it," Mitsuzuri said with relief. "Sakura-chan convinced me," Hajime simply answered.
"Ano, Mitsuzuri-sempai wanted to see your archery skills," the Matou girl replied with a blush.
"Well, let's see your archery skills match mine," Shinji said with a cocky tone in his voice. The boys and girls murmured amongst each other at the prospect of the blatant challenge at the new comer.
Taking a quiver on one of the haystacks, Shinji announced the rules, "5 arrows, the one with the most cumulative distance from the bull's-eye is the loser." Hajime didn't object as he nodded at the terms of conditions.
Shinji went first as he fired his five shots. The target mapping was average hitting slightly off the center barrier with only one arrow hitting midway from the bull's-eye.
Next be Hajime's turn, and what happened next was to say the least jaw dropping. First arrow fired off slid right dead center of the bull's-eye. Second shot was adjacent to the arrow at the center as well as the third.
Shinji was sweating bullets, the Archery Dojo was his territory, no matter what that bitch Mitsuzuri says. Who cares if she's the Archery Club captain? That can be taken care of in an instant, he was the Matou heir dammit. And he wasn't about to let this new comer upstage him.
Taking his bow, he 'accidently' drops it on Hajime's leg forcing him to shoot up last minute. Mitsuzuri started mouthing off at Shinji, but he feigned ignorance. But Aikawa didn't falter; in fact, he took his last arrow and shot it up at the 4th arrow flying off course.
It knocked the previous arrow's trajectory down to earth, aiming straight at the target board hitting dead center at an awkward angle. And to add insult to injury, the last arrow, in true Robin Hood fashion, came down as well splitting the fourth arrow in two.
Everyone was speechless, he just hit bull's-eye five times in a row, despite Shinji's interference with the last two.
And Shinji, he just tightened his teeth and started grinding them like there was no tomorrow, he might have chipped a tooth in the process. Shinji wasn't going to stand for this, oh no, Hajime Aikawa is a dead man.
*end flashback*
Shirou snickered as he turned his back from the visibly flushed Matou heir as he went to the Archery Club's mess. To finally hear Shinji knocked down a peg, and by Hajime no less, it was worth it, 'I guess wishes do come true eh Mitsuzuri?'
Sundown at Homurahara
Shirou was still at the Archery Dojo taking the last clean-up running the cleaning rag across the dojo floor till it was spick and span, 'All in a day's work for the Fake Janitor.'
Meanwhile Rin Tohsaka sat on the school rooftop napping and saving her strength till Archer signals her. And just in the nick of time, "He's coming. It seems he was waiting till sunset too and will be striking soon."
As Rin got up, she could feel how off the air was, she could feel it in her bones, "This killing intent."
"Yo!"
The sudden call jerked her head up to the moon. Silhouetting the moon light, a blue clad warrior holding a blood red spear was identified, "Beautiful night, isn't it?"
"Lancer," Rin identified
"Of course, your friend there would agree with me right?" said Lancer seeing Archer's astral form in front of his Master, "And of course, you both know that I'm your enemy!"
Lancer leaped from his perch on the fence as Rin bolted from her position to the stairway. Reaching the railing, she hopped off trusting her Servant to help her landing. The trust was well placed as her descent slowed millimeters away from the ground.
"Archer, his weapon is a lance. Let's try to move the battlefield to our advantage."
Shirou was taking the cleaning supplies to the closet when he heard a loud explosion. He doubted it was an actual gas explosion, and his phone didn't go off all day, "The hell is going on?"
Rushing outside he stopped at the chain link fence of the school baseball field introduced to a peculiar sight. A tanned white-haired man in red wielding two black and white falchion swords that seemed to be akin to yin and yang, fending off another individual, clad in blue all but in skin tone, furiously in battle happy glee attacking the individual in red with a blood red spear.
'A spear, the killings! Issei said they were killed with a long range weapon,' Shirou realized looking at the crimson spear in the attacker's hand, 'akin to a katana or..a…spear,' "He's the one," Shirou muttered.
"Who's there?!" the spear wielder exclaimed, obviously he heard our hero. And finding out that he's been discovered, he ran back into the dojo to grab his bag, 'I need to get the BlayBuckle, otherwise I won't stand a chance.'
Lancer seeing his new prey, according to the rules of this War he set out to silence any outsiders who happen to stumble upon the Grail War. And he knew only one way to do so, kill and neutralize the target.
"Dammit," Rin berated herself, "Someone was still here?"
Shirou was able to grab the Rouser, jumping out the dojo window in case the spear wielding warrior followed him directly. He knew his way around battling against various weapons due to his training, long range weapons like a spear or a halberd needed room to swing leaving attacking options limited to stabs and short swipes in any direction.
And what better place to limit a spearman's attack than a school hallway.
Making his way to the second floor, Shirou was slowed his pace near one of the lowerclassmen classrooms. He stayed in the middle of the hallway awaiting the blue clad spearman keeping an eye out in both directions, "Come on out, I want to know why you murdered those people this morning!"
"Yo!"
Hearing the man behind him, Shirou acted quickly and hopped away keeping his distance from this enemy. Obviously he wasn't human; a normal human would have had to take as long as he did to follow him from the dojo to the second floor of the school. So he was either waiting for him in the school or this guy was extremely fast.
"You didn't answer my question. Why did you kill them?" Shirou asked again. But the blue man just smirked, "I don't make a habit of answering to dead men. And I'm afraid you were in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Is that why you killed them? The family saw some fight to the death in their front yard?" Shirou snarled preparing to grab the Rouse card in his pocket.
"That is an entirely different matter; let's just leave it at that. Just prepare to die like a good little boy," the lancer prepared for a thrust, taking careful aim to his heart.
But Shirou had a trick up his sleeve. Or rather his pocket.
Taking his Rouse card and the BlayBuckle at hand, he slipped the card into the buckle. The red cards shuffled out of the buckle into a belt, chiming a ready signal with his hand on the latch.
The peculiar pose caught Lancer's interest, "Oh, trying to look good when you die. Don't think I'm going to give you any mercy just by looking cool."
"Trust me, there's more than just a cool pose here."
"Don't think I'm gonna let you do whatever it is you're trying to do!" Lancer charged in, aiming for a powerful thrust, true to his target's heart.
"HENSHIN!"
TURN-UP
"What!?"
Only inches away from Shirou's heart, the spear had collided with a blue field depicting an image of a beetle with a spade on its carapace. The spearman struggled against the field as crackles of electricity erupted from the shield and spear like sparks. But the magic in the Rouse Card was too powerful against this warrior's weapon.
Upon losing the clash the spearman was rebounded away from Shirou in shock of what just happened, "Dammit, what the hell was that?"
"RAAAAAGH!"
The battle-cry alerted Lancer seeing the kid run straight through the field, instantly equipping the red-head in blue and silver armor.
Shirou drew the BlayRouser from its holster on his side and swung low and wide. Spearhead down, Lancer met the incoming attack with a short low swing of his own and followed blocking an overhead attack against Blade's sword with a two-handed horizontal block with his spear. Left, right, high and low metal upon metal clashed together in a seemingly endless parry.
Lancer blocked effortlessly impressed that this kid wasn't allowing for any retaliation from himself. But despite his limited weapon movement, Lancer knew the armored teen couldn't keep this up forever. Once he slipped up, one thrust from his spear through the armor and the kid's heart and he'll be able to leave happy and somewhat satisfied.
And there it was, the armored knight-like warrior pulled his distance away from Lancer to turn his sword over. The blue-clad spear wielder didn't wait for him to finish his activity and sped in for a thrust, once more aiming for Shirou's armored heart.
Outside the school, the Tohsaka heiress heard a loud explosion in the school, "Lancer's going overkill over one guy." "Master, he's back," Archer alerted. "The knight in blue?" Archer nodded in confirmation.
"Archer, let's go."
The dust kicked up, as it settled, Blade's BlayRouser deflected the spear down nicking his right leg chipping out half-way through the diameter of the shin guard and into a crater close to the roof of the next floor beneath them.
Lancer grinned like maniac, impressed at his opponent's fighting ability, "You're good kid, too bad I'm gonna have to stop playing around and kill you. Still I wonder, what's the property of your armor?"
Shirou ignored him pulling up his other hand revealing two cards. "Hm?" Lancer hummed in curiosity. Slipping the first card through the Rouser,
'TACKLE'
Next thing Lancer knew, it felt like he got run over by a charging bull. Blade shoulder charged into Lancer with a sudden surprise attack empowered by the 4 of Spades Tackle Boar.
But that didn't stop there, Blade slipped another Rouse Card through the Rouser,
'SLASH'
Once more empowered by another Undead, the Slash Lizard's power sharpened his sword and swiped at Lancer. The blue Servant parried again into the wall blowing a big hole into the wall of the hallway and a giant slashing scar kicking up dust once more.
The dust died down again, this time Lancer was alone. 'Shit, where did he go?' Roaring engines echoed throughout the area as a blur of blue, silver, and red zoomed out from the gates easily recognizing the mana signature from the Undead cards off of Blade.
And from fighter to hunter, Lancer tracked down the Rider, hopping from the school to the various roofs. By the time Rin arrived to the battlefield that was the school hallway, she cursed herself as she prepared the restoration on the battle scarred school, "Archer, find Lancer. If the blue knight from the other night let that one student escape from Lancer he's gonna kill him."
"As you wish Master."
With Archer gone, Rin let her prana flow as she pricked her finger letting a bead of blood drop onto a piece of rubble and glass as they reconstructed and cemented together good as new, 'Now onto more pressing matters.' "Archer, where is Lancer headed to?"
"He's heading towards the Miyamachou side to a large traditional estate. More than likely where our spectator resides," Archer answered.
"Hopefully we aren't too late," Rin worried. As the owner of Fuyuki, it was her responsibility to take care of the magic from mundane. More specifically in this case the secret of the Grail War. Most would have just killed any spectators like Lancer is trying to do, Rin was more than willing to look for him to erase or modify his memory about the brief clash between Archer and Lancer.
Neighborhood Streets
Riding away from the school, Shirou reverted back into his civilian form with his blue bike helmet on. Activating his communicator built in the helmet, he called on the operator hopefully done with the move, "Hirose-san!"
"Shirou-kun, what's going on? I got a transformation alert earlier from you but I didn't see anything on the radar," Hirose answered.
"You recall the news this yesterday about the murders? I think I found the killer," Shirou explained.
"WHAT!?"
"Call Hayakawa-san and tell him to come to my place."
"But, shouldn't we call the police," Hirose suggested.
"The police aren't going to be remotely helpful in this case. I was barely able to get away as Blade," Shirou explained, "Just get Hayakawa-san."
Shirou zoomed around the corner finding his estate's gates. Stopping his bike to a screeching halt, he dumped his vehicle at the said gates and rushed towards the front door. 'I doubt I lost him, more than likely he followed me keeping shadow distance. Fighting him would be almost useless. The spearman was holding back, a lot,' Shirou contemplated.
"Best chance I got is to get ready for him," Shirou said aloud.
"Good idea."
The Rider jumped away and turned around. In front of him was the spearman in blue, "You know, I almost lost you a few times. But your vehicle tipped me off where you were."
"You wouldn't kill a guy whose unarmed would you?" Shirou joked. "I am an honorable guy and normally I would," the blue warrior grinned, "But as I said before, you saw something you weren't supposed to see."
Lancer once again, thrust his spear at Shirou. Spying a katana one of Fuji-nee's relatives got him for his birthday at one point on a stand, the Rider made a grab for it, barely dodging the spear tip clipping his now bleeding side.
"Hmph, should have known you would go down fighting," Lancer mused, "After all, I can see it in your eyes. You're a warrior through and through, a man of the sword who fights for the people of his land no matter what happens to him. The way you fight speaks for itself."
Shirou clutched at his side in attempts to keep the blood in. Adrenaline was what kept Shirou going as he felt his wound starting to slowly close up. 'Damn, the gash was deep,' Shirou cursed to himself, pulling out the katana from the sheath using his od to reinforce the blade.'I'm gonna have to try and transform into Blade again, but he'll be expecting that. Still, I doubt he can get through the transformation field, so that the best bet I got. Need to get some distance from him.'
Shirou took a simple kendo stance as he circled around the spearman, taking each step carefully.
"Archer, find Lancer, we have to defeat him before he gets to that guy," Rin commanded as she ran the streets of Miyamachou.
"Too late, Lancer already arrived to the kid's destination, chances are that he's dead," Archer told her.
"Dammit," Rin cursed doubling her efforts to get to Lancer, "Archer, take me to him. If he is dead, there may be a chance to save him."
Inwardly Archer winced at the comment, unconsciously placing his hand over his heart. But he had to choice to comply at this time; he phased into the physical plane of existence and swiped Rin off her feet, carrying her across the roof tops.
Their destination, the Emiya Estate.
Emiya Estate
Shirou flew out of his living room through the window pane glass and out to the back yard with his katana embedded in the earth beside him as he landed in front of his shed. Lancer had followed flying outside, just paces away from Shirou, watching him struggle to get up.
"Give it up kid; you're way out of your league. It's starting to get boring now."
Once again, Shirou struggled back to his feet. He sported various cuts and gashes across his body, his gut bruised and his ribs quite possibly broken.
But somehow he was able to find the strength to pull out his Buckle and Rouse Card. Slipping the Ace in the BlayBuckle for the second time today, the belt formed again around Shirou whilst he shifted to his signature transformation pose.
"Oh no you don't," Lancer growled taking his lance overhead adopting a crouching stance while his red spear glowed blood-red.
"HENSHIN!"
"GAE…"
TURN-UP
"…BOLG!"
Lancer's speed proved true to his class, thrusting his spear once more. His spear going through the growing blue field inching closer to Shirou's heart, inching ever so closely to the nearest millisecond.
But as the spear inched closer to its target past the field, the field itself resisted Gae Bolg's advances till the tip of the spear just barely broke the skin over the flesh containing Shirou's heart.
"WHAT?!"
Lancer poured more of his Od into his spear trying to force his way through to the deathblow. Like earlier at the school, lighting and sparks flew all around the area but at a larger scale. Both let out a battle cry before the gap between the two individuals exploded sending the rocketing away from each other.
Rin and Archer heard the explosion seeing smoke rising over the rooftops only several blocks away from where they are.
"Archer!"
"I know."
Shirou had been rocketed through the doors of his shed/workshop as piles of rubble littered the area. He picked himself up again but only as far as his hands and knees as the adrenaline in his body faded, each stinging sensation his cuts that had been dulled escalated, much like the soreness of his bruised and the splintering pain of his ribs and other bones.
It was painful enough that he didn't even notice the warm sensation of red markings of a sword was etched onto his right hand whilst the glow of a spell circle traced itself with a sky blue glow, unnoticeable under these dim lights that filtered around the area.
"Hmph," the grunt of the blue-clad spearman catching Shirou's attention, "I don't know what the hell you have on you, but it ends here."
Upon his face, Lancer held a shit-eating grin like he just went on the greatest ride of his life, "Your little artifact was strong enough to repel my Noble Phantasm. Impossible, but then again, miracles have happened through history itself."
Lancer didn't bother with a proper stance, just taking a hunter's stance with his spear in an underhand style, "It's a shame, and you would have made a great seventh."
"Seventh?"
"But all things must meet its end, some sooner than others."
.
…
…
'Is it really my time to die?'
Fires flickered across his mind. The event ten years ago, just before Shirou was found by Kiritsugu to make a new beginning.
'I was supposed to die back then. But I was saved, denied my early death.'
Fires subsided as inky black sludge flooded the area, extinguishing everything there, those who touched was cursed to die. Either it be painfully or swiftly.
'I was offered a penance for surviving.'
Kiritsugu lied on his deathbed. Young Shirou and Taiga crying for a fallen loved one.
'I became Blade.'
Hayakawa, Hirose, President, Tachibana, Sakura, even Hajime. All of them helped him further on in his life. The BOARD members offering him the BlayRouser and the Ace of Spades Change Beetle.
'I became a sword, a sword for the people. To fight the Undead, protect them from their senseless killings.'
A golden sword, it was blurred, but the shape was there within the blurry gold and blue shapes of the sword.
'NO!'
The circle beside him glowed brighter. Lancer flinched at the sudden brightness, but Shirou was unfazed. His strength came back to him and Shirou came back onto his feet.
"I have a duty."
His marking on his hand glowed reacting to the circle behind him.
"The Undead must be sealed, I must protect those close to me. And I can't do so if I'm dead!"
*BOOM*
The glowing spell circle shined brighter than ever finally catching Shirou's attention. Ascending from the circle, a silhouette came out till it materialized to a physical form.
A blonde haired, silver and blue armored female knight.
Immediately she attacked Lancer, forcing him away from Shirou and out of the shed with one swing of nothing but air. And while it had the desired effect of repelling Lancer, the blow was powerful enough to knock Shirou down again in his weakened state.
Next thing he knew, he stared straight into her sea-green eyes. Even more so, his wounds that he accumulated from Lancer seemed to have healed at an increased rate, but he didn't seem to notice pushing it off as a numbing side effect from the aura the girl in front of him seemed to hold.
The first words the new girl spoke were,
"I am the Servant Saber. Upon your summoning, I have answered your call. I ask of you, are you my Master?"
And thus we have our conclusion to the second chapter. Now I know you may have your questions on certain scenes I left off on. Well that's because those are going to be answered in the next chapter. I went over this like twice so if there are anything that may have caught your attention please tell me.
As for Hajime and Sakura, I'm going to sort of fuse Heaven's Feel into this. I got the over view on the Type-Moon's Wiki and I'm halfway done with the visual novel on the HF route.
I hope you all liked this fic.
~Cross177
