He quickly got himself dressed. He opened his suitcase, pulling up the upper layer to reveal another compartment. He grabbed the clothing he needed before he waved his hand. In a golden light, an object representing a bank vault door appeared in the middle of the air.
He twisted his hand, opening the vault and he shoved his suitcase and all of his things in before closing it, the vault fading out of existence as soon as he did.
Long socks, high heavy-duty combat boots, and durable trousers he quickly put on. He put a long-sleeved shirt over his white one before putting on a navy blue leather jacket, making sure each button was buttoned.
He heard footsteps outside his room. He quickened the pace, putting on an armored vest with ammunition pouches, armored pads on his knees, before putting on fingerless leather combat gloves.
He began putting on his holsters, two shoulder holsters for his Smith & Wesson M&P handgun and his Heckler & Koch P30L pistol. He sighed as he placed his Smith & Wesson 627 revolver and Colt M1911 pistol in his leg holsters.
He placed his brass-knuckled trench knife in its sheath on his hip, before sheathing another dagger in a sheath on his back. He took out another combat knife, odd symbols marked on its blade and tucked it away.
He put on a black topcoat this time over his multiple layers, the fabric meant to stop even sniper rounds. He finally placed elbow pads on, wondering if this was all worth it as he slung his last weapon over his shoulder, an M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle with a bayonet.
He opened the door to his room once again, in his hand his Glock 34. He looked down the hallway, wondering where the footsteps had come from. He walked slowly down the hallway, walking into the kitchen. He found Taigā's car keys on the counter, and he grabbed them.
He suddenly heard a heavy groan and he turned around. His eyes widened as he stared at what seemed to be a living corpse.
"No way," Shirou gasped. He had seen ghouls. He had seen man-eating fairies and sadistic Dead Apostles. This...this was horrifyingly different and possibly even worse.
Instead of what Taigā had looked like, it seemed to be decaying. It had pale, dirty, grayish skin. In fact, some of the skin had been ripped off, revealing bones and muscle underneath. It was covered in wounds and blood.
No fangs, no red eyes, just a...well, could he call it a zombie? He'll call it a zombie. Its eyes were dulled, fishlike, and without life. It growled like a wild animal and it seemed hellbent on trying to reach him.
It didn't seem to be The Dead, or any sort of familiar or servant a Dead Apostle would use. It just seemed like a reanimated body that was ready to rip him apart for no other reason but to do just that.
It moved wildly and without proper coordination as if its motor functions had been heavily impaired. Well, considering it did look dead, that was a given, he supposed. It snapped its jaws at him and was about to lunge.
He fired into its head, killing it instantly. As the zombie fell back, he edged closer. He could see several wounds on the body, including a noticeable bite wound on the shoulder.
"Zombies...I just killed a vampire now I'm killing zombies," Shirou laughed humorlessly, "great, whoop-di-fucking-do."
More groans could be heard and he gulped nervously as he began to walk outside. There were fires alright. Fires etched on every street corner of the city. The number of flames reminded him eerily of the Fuyuki Fire all those years ago. He could run away right now, try to leave Fuyuki and get help. But, even if his ideals had gone straight to shit all those years ago, he still had a job to do.
"Christ Almighty, why is this my job?" Shirou muttered, all of his senses on high alert.
Unfortunately, he could get help, but he'd need to stay here. In was within his line of work to investigate such matters after all. He jumped into Taigā's car, starting it on. He backed out of the driveway and, against his better judgment, drove into the city, hoping to find answers to this whole situation.
He checked his phone. Five in the morning. He sighed deeply and decided to dial a number, even though he knew the service was out. Instead, his flip phone went to voicemail. He hoped he could send it in case he died while on this new mission of his.
"Hey, Mum," Shirou sighed, "I won't be able to make it back home for supper next week...or the week after that. You get the gist. I got a bloody job to do on vacation! But anyways, I'm sure I can make it out of whatever bullshit I've gotten myself into. I always do. Go on with dinner without me, just remember to save me some pie..."
The power grid had somehow been turned off, leaving the entire city dark except for the numerous fires. As he drove into the heart of Shinto, he felt like he had arrived in hell, as if the Apocalypse had erupted. Corpses littered the streets and every inch of the city seemed to be in ruin.
He was glad that Taigā's vehicle was tough because he only kept seeing more and more zombies wandered the streets. Judging from the looks of things, Shirou concluded something must've spread to make every citizen in a Fuyuki a mindless walking corpse.
Was the entire city infected? The chaos seemed to have happened overnight. If they went by conventional zombie rules, he highly doubted the infection would've spread so quickly.
If it was a virus or a bacterium, a bite meant transmission by saliva, but such a way to spread disease was heavily hit-or-miss at best. If anything, he should see more of the dead, not the undead.
"My god, what happened here?" Shirou murmured. Perhaps playing Resident Evil too much had made him hallucinate.
He vaguely remembered where the police station was, and he hoped he could get some answers there. He turned on the radio, hoping for news, only to find nothing but static. An impending sense of doom filled his heart, and dread only etched into his mind.
What could've possibly happened? This much chaos couldn't have possibly happened in just a few hours, could it? And if this was the case here, was the rest of the world okay?
Suddenly, out of nowhere, lights blinded him. As he blocked it, he noticed the outline of a truck. Stupid truck, he thought.
"Oh, a truck driver, how splen-OH, SHIT!" Shirou made a sharp turn, managing to avoid the truck as it crashed into several other cars before flipping over and exploding from the gas in its tank.
Fires erupted on the street, blasting debris all over the pavement. Shirou didn't come out unscathed, however, as he crashed into another car hard, shattering the windshield. He groaned as he fell out of the car, slowly standing up with his rifle raised. As he staggered away, the car exploded, sending him off his feet. He groaned in pain as he stood up.
"Well, not a pleasant way to start off summer," Shirou muttered to himself before he noticed he had company, "oh, how nice."
Hordes of zombies began to approach him, causing him to fire his rounds into them. Every street seemed to have dozens of them. He cracked the skull of one with his rifle and kicked it away. More just seemed to keep coming.
It was like they felt no pain. Any bullet that didn't hit their neck or their head had no effect. He killed four, but there were dozens more. With a nervous gulp, he ran, knowing it was better to retreat than waste ammunition and energy. He turned around the street corner, skidding to a halt as he saw even more zombies.
He noticed corpses on the ground, with limbs and guts ripped out and the streets seemed to be slowly forming rivers of blood. Some bodies were simply ripped apart, while others were being munched on by dozens of other zombies.
This was a nightmare, Shirou thought in awe and shocked horror. Some of them knew how to move faster than others, but they were all rather idiotic, so that was an advantage. He quickly evaded or knocked the zombies out of the way, the undead giving chase as he did.
They were varied in appearance. Some looked all bloodied and gray, others looked recently turned. He made sure to avoid the ones already munching on corpses, all the while trying not to gag at the carnage.
He was used to bloodshed. He was used to monsters. He wasn't used to flesh-eating feral zombies as well as a city-wide outbreak of this caliber. He managed to outrun the horde out of his sight after several pain-staking minutes. They never seemed to tire and kept moving.
He eventually came to a run-down convenient store, deciding to walk in to find any survivors and supplies. Every corridor was without light and dark as midnight. It was silent. Too silent. With a nervous frown, he attached a light to his rifle. He kept his breathing quiet as he walked in.
Every aisle seemed to be ransacked, while the floors were covered in blood. A zombie jumped out of nowhere at him from behind an aisle, to which he slashed the back of zombie's neck before it could grab him.
"Fucking shit," Shirou murmured, "something's goddamn wrong with this city."
He ventured deeper into the store. A groan was heard, and he barely dodged another zombie jumping at him. He fired into its head as well. He managed to walk towards a section of the store and found a few lighters. He stashed two in his pocket and found painkillers as he ventured, stashing those as well.
"Hello?" Shirou called out, knowing full well that he might attract more of the undead. "Anyone here?" He turned the aisle, stopping in his tracks. A look of horror plastered on his face, he felt the urge to vomit.
These really were zombies. Not even the children were spared. A young child was ripping into the body of a man, blood covering its face as it ate like a wild beast, feral and savage, munching on the body as if it were a box of cookies.
Blood and guts were all over the floor. Dribbles of intestine could be seen dripping from the child's blood-covered face. It noticed Shirou, to which the redhead quickly shot it in the head, causing it to reel back and fall. Years of bloodshed had made him rather unrelenting and absolute, he supposed.
He pulled out his phone, scowling when he saw he had no signal. With all communication blocked off...it seemed as though he was alone in Fuyuki. He began to walk back out of the convenient store, quickly glancing around for any zombies, before he continued on his way towards the police station.
He met the occasional zombie, deciding to kill them with his bayonet to save bullets. It seemed any severe damage to the brain or the brain stem would kill them. That was a good thing, he supposed, to find out their main weakness so quickly.
But it did raise even more questions. This disaster didn't seem to be supernatural, Shirou noted. If it was some sort of pathogen, why did it only make the brain operate? Why did it need flesh? He doubted zombies ate brains for some asinine reason.
Assuming only a few parts of the brain was functioning, as he could tell from the way these zombies moved and behaved, he doubted most of their bodily systems were even functional. Their muscular system seems to be working, albeit at a limited stature.
Then there was the issue of that vampire that Taigā had turned into. Was that just a one-time thing or were there more of them?
He suddenly heard a scream in the distance. Even without his reinforced senses, he could tell where the scream was coming from. He ran, running down the street to find an alleyway full of zombies. However, they seemed to be closing in on something...
"Stop! Stay away! Get back!" A female voice screamed.
Shirou sighed and began to fire round after round into the zombies. They noticed him as he brought down their numbers, and he viciously stabbed the first one that tried to attack him in the head. He kicked another one back, shooting another zombie in the head once again. The last zombie he tripped and crushed the skull with his boot.
He looked up to see a rather short woman (well, to him anyway), leaning against the wall breathing heavily. He lowered his rifle slightly as he approached her. She backed slightly into the wall at the sight of him, fearful.
He guessed it was to be expected. You don't usually wander into a city full of the undead trying to eat your face off.
"Ma'am, I'm not going to hurt you," Shirou said firmly, albeit kindly.
She looked hesitant. She had rose-blonde hair and olive green eyes. Oddly enough, she wore a Taisho-styles kimono and a hakama, as well as long, leather boots. She was young, perhaps in her twenties or late-teens, and Japanese...yet she damningly enough, looked a lot like Saber...
"Are you hurt?" Shirou asked, "any scratches, cuts, bruises?" She shook her head. "Bites?"
"Bites?" The woman questioned, "no, of course not. Why?"
"Well, these bastards have a tendency to bite folks," Shirou replied dryly, "I'm Shirou Emiya. E Pluribus Unum. A pleasure to meet you."
"E...Pluribus Unum?" The woman said in confusion.
"Oh...right, I'm not on active duty," Shirou murmured, "I'm a federal agent from another country if that helps."
"I'm...I'm-"
"I know you're a Servant," Shirou stated. The woman's eyes widened in shock. "It's not that hard. No one dresses like that around here unless there's an anime convention and not too many people carry swords."
That was a bit of a lie, of course. While the way she dressed was a clue, Shirou could recognize her life energy. A skill he had picked up while in his line of work. He sensed remnants of a Heroic Spirit's Mystery, yet it seemed to be fading rapidly.
She sheepishly stammered before closing her mouth shut, a light blush on her cheeks. Shirou, on the other hand, wasn't surprised. It wasn't something so outlandish he'd never see before.
Even so...it didn't make much sense to him. There wasn't a Holy Grail that he knew of here. If there was, then his boss surely would've assigned him a mission instead of a vacation. If another one had been created, it would've been hunted down and destroyed right off the bat.
The last Holy Grail War ended when he himself ended it fifteen years ago. How was it possible for a Servant to be summoned now? It made no sense! Though, then again...he really didn't know what to believe anymore. As of this moment, Shirou Emiya, in his 32 years of existence, could really say he had seen it all.
"Saber class, am I correct?" Shirou asked.
"Yes...I'm Okita...Okita Souji," Okita replied softly. Shirou only chuckled. He knew he'd meet one of Japan's legendary swordsmen? A woman no less, yet, with his experience with Saber, history tended to be bent backwards.
"Not the weirdest I've seen, believe me," Shirou sighed, "follow me, you can fill me in on the way." He still noticed the look on her face. "If I wanted to kill you I would've done it by now. Let's go. Besides, strength in numbers, you know?"
She finally relented, tagging along. The police station was just far down the street and around the corner, perhaps a thirty-minute walk at the latest.
"So, how did a Servant like you suddenly become powerless against a pack of the undead?" Shirou asked. Okita's cheeks were flustered. He found it cute.
"I...I was just summoned here by something," Okita said sheepishly, "I don't know who or how, but I'm here, and I don't have any powers."
"Wait, so you just popped up here out of nowhere?" Shirou asked incredulously.
"Pretty much," Okita nodded, "I-I-I opened my eyes and the n-next thing I knew I was being chased around by those things! But I can't do anything a regular Servant can do!"
"In other words, you're a regular human," Shirou said bluntly. Okita nodded. To her surprise, he touched her forehead for a second before letting go. "Well, I'll be damned. You aren't a Heroic Spirit anymore, either. You're mortal."
That raised more than a few alarms in his head. Shirou didn't recall anyone capable of ripping out Heroic Spirits from the Throne of Heroes and making them human again. Hell, how the hell do you depower a Heroic Spirit? Then again...there was one possibility, but it was unlikely, he thought to himself. Either way, such a thing occurring told him larger forces were at work, and perhaps the reason the city went to hell.
"I'm...I'm what?" Okita said in disbelief.
"It's like you were ripped out of the Throne and revived..." Shirou muttered, "this is bad. Without a good weapon, you'll be dead in hours."
"I have a sword," Okita said hopefully.
"That won't do much when you have a mob of them coming at you," Shirou frowned. Okita also frowned.
"Where are we headed?" Okita asked, "out of this city, I hope?"
"The police station," Shirou replied, "I hope to find some answers to this whole mess. Besides, we don't know if this has spread to any other cities."
He flinched as he heard what seemed like a bone crack.
"Did you hear that?" Okita gasped.
Suddenly, Shirou tripped her, causing her to fall to the ground hard. She barely had time to register why he did it until she saw a blur of a creature slam into the ground a few feet in front of them.
"Be careful, that thing nearly lopped off your head," Shirou grimaced.
He turned his attention back on the creature. It was humanoid. Pale skin and glowing red eyes. It was just like Taigā, Shirou realized. He then saw the fangs as the creature growled. Vampires.
The vampire launched itself at blinding speeds at Shirou. If it hadn't been for his years of experience, he might've been another meal. The redhead responded with a good kick to its skull, sending it crashing into a brick wall. It quickly got up, however, dashing up and about before trying to strike again.
Okita quickly slashed at it, splitting the vampire's face open and causing it to reel back in pain. Shirou quickly shot it twice in the head. The two of them looked up as they heard hissing, and found a pack of vampires marching just around the corner.
"Kill...them..." One hissed. They charged towards them in a murderous zeal.
Shirou was now more dumbfounded than ever. What type of bullshit happened in this damn city that its entire population turned into zombies and vampires? What's next? Werewolves? Actually, he didn't want to be answered.
"Run," Shirou ordered, "now!"
Unfortunately, the vampires were faster than the average human. Okita, her senses honed from years of training, narrowly dodged the swing of a vampire's claws, which instead struck the door of a car, ripping the entire door right off. Okita quickly impaled it in the throat. Shirou fired upon one of them, blowing its brains out. He was suddenly tackled to the ground by two of them, their fangs baring.
Shirou forcibly shook one off, before he punched the second and then stabbed the first one with his bayonet. Okita, after managing to decapitate one, watched in amazement as Shirou suddenly ripped off the one on him and flung the vampire a good seventy feet down the street.
"Oi! Stay sharp!" Shirou yelled, firing a bullet that killed the vampire right behind Okita. The vampire fell back unceremoniously with a thud.
She gulped before swinging her sword again, slashing the chest of another. Shirou kicked another vampire in the chest, slashing its throat with his rifle's bayonet. Just when it seemed to be over, the two of them heard vicious inhuman screams down the street.
"There's more incoming!" Okita warned. Thirty to be exact. They were all rushing in like a mob. Shirou scowled. He took out something from his pouch. It was a small flask of green glowing liquid.
He quickly grabbed Okita by the hand and flung the flask at the incoming mob, smacking one on the head. He snapped his fingers, and Okita's eyes widened as a fiery fireball appeared in thin air, launching itself at the mob of vampires just as the flask shattered.
Shirou pulled Okita over a car to use as a shield. A massive explosion rocked the entire city, much less the street. Green flames erupted across the field, burning everything it touched. Windows shattered, debris flew into the air, and even the car they used as cover looked like it was about to tip over.
As the dust settled, Shirou quickly pulled Okita up to her feet and they ran for their lives towards the police station. She looked back at the area, shocked to find everything in ashes.
"What...what the hell was that!?" Okita exclaimed.
"Greek Fire," Shirou said darkly, "don't ask me how I got it."
They soon reached the police station, managing to catch their breath. It looked like it was in disarray, yet many of the barricades were still in place. They stopped outside a tall, metal fence.
"Alright, I'll lift you up," Shirou sighed, "ready?" Okita nodded, and as soon as she got over, Shirou pulled himself over as well.
"Is that the entrance?" Okita asked, pointing at the doors to the station.
"Sure seems like it," Shirou said dryly.
He tried the door handle. Unlocked. The two of them looked at each other nervously before Shirou opened it. The inside of the station was in shambles. Everything was in massive disarray. The floors were covered in blood and debris, as well as shattered glass and bullet casings.
It was way too silent for either of their likings. Shirou frowned as he led the way in. He attached a flashlight to his rifle as they entered the station.
"Hello?" Shirou called out, "anyone here? Anyone!?"
No response.
"It looks like a battle took place here," Okita remarked, "so they're in here too, huh?"
"Whatever you do, aim for the head," Shirou stated and Okita nodded.
This place gave both of them the creeps. They were in the lobby, and they walked up to the counter. Shirou looked over, finding a corpse laying on the floor. He poked it, finding a bullet in its head before he walked up to the computers. He scowled, as with the power out there really was nothing they could check or see.
He gestured her to follow, putting a finger up to his lips to tell her to stay quiet. They ventured into the detective's section of the station. They noticed ceiling tiles missing, doors that had been busted down, chairs and desks overturned, and sparks from damaged lights, all giving an air of creepiness to the station.
Suddenly, a zombie fell out of the ceiling right in front of Shirou. The two of them nearly screamed in fright, as the zombie snapped its jaws at them like a feral beast. The redhead quickly shot it in the head twice. The two of them looked at each other sheepishly before continuing.
He kicked down a door, the light from his flashlight glancing around to see if there was anyone.
"The whole place seems to be empty," Okita said softly.
They began to notice more and more corpses on the floor as they walked by. A slight groan was heard, and to their surprise, a corpse that was laying down was slowly sitting back up. It looked like it had just died, the coloring in its skin still slightly evident.
Shirou quickly fired a bullet in its head, killing it instantly.
"Perhaps there's a timeframe before these bastards turn," Shirou murmured.
"Who could turn human beings into such a thing?" Okita said in horror.
Shirou didn't know, and he highly doubted Dead Apostles were ever this disgustingly brutish. Whatever happened, there must be a cause. He was determined to figure out what it was.
They continued through the station. The station was large, and Shirou hoped they could find a safe spot so he could give Okita proper weaponry. With the power out, every second was tense. Every noise could be a sign of a zombie, or a vampire, or whatever the hell else was wandering in this city. It was terrifying. Shirou hadn't dealt with a disaster on this magnitude for years.
They soon entered a hallway leading to the patrol section of the station. The corridors were dark and damp from the blood. Every step they took creaked the wood floors. Okita didn't even want to make a nervous gulp, afraid of what could happen as they walked through.
They heard light groans and they both were suddenly on high alert. One of the doors behind Okita burst open, revealing a feral zombie. The two them, in their fright, jumped back a few inches. She hastily unsheathed her sword and decapitated it. She shivered as she kicked the head away.
"I think I'm getting used to this," Okita remarked.
"Ain't that dandy," Shirou murmured.
More groans could be heard. Shirou immediately fired upon the incoming zombies. One jumped out of a close door, grabbing onto him. The zombie snapped its jaw at him, and Shirou grunted in annoyance as the zombie tried to bite him. He elbowed it in the head before Okita stabbed it through the eye.
It fell, and he began to fire upon the others. Okita decapitated two as they approached. He fired and killed the last one. More groans could be heard, and they looked behind them to see dozens more slowly walking towards them. Police officers. All turned.
"We should run," Okita stated.
"Good idea," Shirou agreed and they ran, to where they didn't know. The two them finally found themselves in a hallway, and Shirou noticed a sign outside one of the doors. An armory.
Out of nowhere, the window behind Shirou shattered, and he was grabbed by the feral undead. His back slammed against the wall and he dropped his rifle. He managed to resist being dragged through the window, yet his eyes widened as he saw the head of one of the bastards, with skin peeling off and large bleeding areas on the skull, move next to his.
"Okita! Grab the rifle!" Shirou shouted urgently. She quickly grabbed it, yet her inexperience with guns led her to hesitate as she held it. "AIM THE DAMN THING AND PULL ThE TRIGGER!"
She hastily did just as Shirou managed to wrestle away from the grasp of the zombie, avoiding the blood splatters from the bullet wound Okita left. They heard the growls and groans of the undead horde behind them, slowly getting closer and closer. Shirou grabbed Okita by the hand and ran.
They finally reached the armory, and Shirou pushed the doors open before slamming them shut again, and Okita dragged over a shelf to barricade the metal doors while Shirou locked all of the locks. They were too afraid to even emit a sigh of relief.
The armory seemed to be clear. Shirou noticed, however, the entire armory seemed to be empty, with every gun gone. Even the body armor was gone, along with helmets and ammunition. He checked everything. Everything was cleared, zombie and weapon alike.
"Damn, I was hoping to find somebody," Shirou muttered, "as well as some weapons for you." He turned around. "Alright. You're gonna need to get dressed."
"What?" Okita asked.
"You're not going to make it out with those clothes," Shirou sighed, "somehow, whatever made these people turn also gave them increased jaw strength. Human teeth have enough trouble ripping through cotton, yet these bastards are ripping through everything. Don't worry, I have extra clothes that I can modify."
In her surprise, Shirou's vault door reappeared in the air and out his arms reached in, waved around a bit, before pulling out a set of clothes and weapons.
"D-Don't look," Okita said sheepishly as Shirou handed her the clothes.
"As much as I'd love to," Shirou sighed, causing Okita to fluster. "I am a man of class."
Okita quickly put on the first few layers of clothing. It was much like Shirou's, with the only difference being her leather jacket was a dark chocolate brown while she had different holsters.
She handed him her original clothes. Luckily, they weren't covered in blood, rather dirt and grime. He didn't trust it, however, and pulled out a large plastic bag from his vault and shoved the clothes in there before shoving it back into the vault.
He helped her with her armored pads and body armor. He handed her a few guns. A Heckler & Koch P30L pistol just like him, a Colt .44 Magnum revolver, a SIG Sauer M11 pistol, and a Glock 34 handgun. She was then handed an extra gun. A Beretta 92. Each firearm seemed to be imbued with some of energy that Okita couldn't quite figure out.
"You know how to aim well?" Shirou asked.
"Of course," Okita nodded.
"Listen closely then," Shirou stated, before quickly explaining on how to operate and use each gun. Okita was lucky she was a quick learner and could hear well. She was a swordsman, after all. Guns were a rather new weapon she had no choice but to master.
She attached her sword to her side behind her topcoat while Shirou brought out a few knives for as well. She received the same brass-knuckled trench knife he had, as well as a KM2000 German military knife and a black-bladed dagger with runes carved into the blade.
"Here's a rifle, there is a no other rifle like it, you must master this rifle as you master yourself," Shirou jokingly said as he handed her an M1 Garand with a bayonet, "how do you feel?"
"This feels kinda heavy but lighter than I'd thought," Okita stated.
"You'll get used to it," Shirou sighed.
"Is this usual for you?" Okita asked, "this whole outfit?"
"Only when I'm out in the field at work," Shirou said sheepishly, "the topcoat should protect your neck. We should find something to protect our heads though..."
"Didn't you say I had been ripped out of the Throne Of Heroes?" Okita asked, "how...how could you tell?"
"A skill I picked up over the years," Shirou said vaguely, "I can detect some things others can't. As for you being here, I don't know how it happened. Alas, besides the mental scarring, how are you holding up?"
"I'm tired, if that's any indication," Okita said dryly. He chuckled in response. "Are they ghouls? Demons?"
"Zombies," Shirou stated.
"Zom...bies?"
"The undead. You know, living corpses meant to eat your face off."
"Isn't that same thing?"
"No, zombies just want to eat your face off because they feel like it."
"That's...not very nice," Okita muttered. Shirou shrugged.
"So it's me, a federal agent from another country, and you, a legendary swordsman that should be dead, against a city of 1.3 million people in the middle of Japan," Shirou sighed, "wonderful."
"That's not very optimistic," Okita remarked, "so...is this normal in your line of work?"
"Not really," Shirou sighed, "not on this magnitude. I've dealt with the undead before, but this is unsettling. Vampires? My god, what's next?"
"Don't answer that, please," Okita said nervously.
There was a sudden banging. Not on the front doors of the armory, but at the very back. The two looked at each other and gulped nervously. Shirou led the way. They found a back door at the very end of the armory.
"What should we do?" Okita asked.
"Well, either we go through one way and face a horde, or we go this way and face whatever it is," Shirou said grimly. Suddenly, the door burst open. "Aim and ready!"
He aimed his rifle, Okita hastily aimed hers as well, not used to having a firearm in her hand. The smoke cleared and a female voice came out, her hands raised in a panic.
"Don't shoot!" A blonde girl yelled. Shirou's eyes widened in shock. Familiar blonde hair and green eyes came into the fray.
"S...Saber?" Shirou murmured.
"Woah!" Another man ran in, his face covered by a mask and sunglasses along with a helmet. "Everyone lower your weapons!"
He had a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun. He was armored just like they were, albeit his armor was more on the side of standard military combat uniforms. The woman looked just as equally armored, likely due to the man.
"How about you lower yours?" Okita retorted at the man. The man only raised his gun higher.
"We don't want any harm," The man stated.
"Don't be saying that while you have a fucking gun aimed at us, dipshit," Shirou scowled, "who the hell are you?" Instead, the man answered Shirou with a completely unrelated question.
"Did you drink the tap water?" The man questioned.
"What?" Shirou asked in confusion.
"I said, did you drink the fucking tap water!?" The man questioned.
"No!" Shirou replied with annoyance, "what the hell are you on about?"
The man finally lowered his weapon and sighed deeply. He hastily took off his headgear. Both Shirou and Okita gasped in shock. The woman looked at the two of them before realizing it as well.
The man had light copper hair styled in a dappered side-part. His eyes were the color of pure amber and he looked slightly older than Shirou, at least in his early forties.
He seemed to be at least an inch shorter than Shirou, though he still had a slim, but strong muscular build to him. He had a short-boxed beard and seemed as weary as Shirou was. Albeit there were minor differences, one look at his face and it was undeniable. Shirou himself looked like he was staring at a ghost.
"How?" Shirou questioned. The man only shrugged, as if he'd been in this situation before.
"Charles Matsumoto," The man said with a wry grin, "or, in other words, I'm also Shirou Emiya. A pleasure to meet you, my fellow counterpart."
His life was batshit crazy, Shirou thought. He'll need a drink if he survived this.
A/N: Zombies! Vampires! Wheee! Currently, we have our first Shirouface to appear, Charles Matsumoto. Along with Shirou, they'll be trying to investigate the cause of the outbreak, as well as figure out the eventual reason for why Servants are appearing but with no powers and with a physical, living body.
Unfortunately for our favorite redhead, zombies and vampires won't be the only creatures he'll be facing. Till next time.