Chapter 3: The Life of an Ex-Hero
He grabbed the brown cylinder with red covering near the middle in front of him with upmost dexterity. With quick movements he quickly swiped it past a technologically advanced apparatus in front of him and was content to hear it beep. Then he reached out for the triangular object with a thin transparent membrane surrounding it, with the same agility he possessed earlier he again swiped the object in his hands past the metallic colored apparatus. Done with what he was doing he looked up to face a middle aged woman with long brown hair. Running his right hand through his spikey white hair he finally said to her, "740 yen please." The woman quickly reached into her bag for her purse and handed to him a thousand yen bill. "One thousand yen," he fed the bill into a complicated looking machine in front of him displaying the total, then there were sounds of metal brushing against metal as several coins fell down to a small bowl-shaped object at the base of the machine. He quickly grabbed the coins and handed it to the woman waiting in facing him, "Here you go, 260 yen change," as the woman walked away without a word he called after her retreating figure, "Please come again."
It had been a week or so since the eight NOVA clash, or at least that's what the televisions were calling it in news broadcasts. It had been a week since Emiya Shirou fought against his long-time enemy and emerged victorious, but now he had no idea what he was supposed to do. His rationale was simple, he needed to live on, and to live on means he needed money, and to get money he needed a job. This train of thoughts all lead to one conclusion: "I need a job." This ended with the white haired young man finding a job at a nearby convenience store which didn't seem to discriminate against his forged identification made by replacing a picture on an ID he found where he is living with his own. Unfortunately, Shirou was forced to live in the abandoned bay area near the battlefield of the clash due to the lack of funds.
It seemed like most people had abandoned their homes near the bay area after the eight NOVA clash, no one really wanted to return to where the NOVAs had landed to punish humanity, of course it didn't help that most of the structures in the area had been destroyed by NOVAs. It was maybe ten kilometers from the actual city major, he didn't mind the distance, it was a nice workout for him going to and from work on an undamaged bike he had found in near his living area. Today was the last day of living in the wreckage left behind by the NOVAs, he managed to get ask for an advance payment that Shirou will use to rent a cheap room in the suburban area of the city itself. He did seven-hour shifts for 900-yen per hour, five days a week. In total he would get 126,000 yen for the month and he got half of that from the manager of the convenient store he had been working at the previous month.
Shirou Emiya had used the last few days scouring the city for an apartment that wasn't overly expensive and wouldn't take up all the money he had. He found a nice place for 50,000 yen a month, a certain apartment complex named Izumo Inn. Shirou had been pleasantly surprised to meet the innkeeper, a young, purple haired woman who distinctly smelled of magic. Of course he kept his thoughts to himself during the time he made arrangements with the young and beautiful Miya Asama. She didn't seem dangerous and that was all Shirou needed to know, as long as she didn't try to kill him in his sleep she could have been a dead apostle and he would still have rented the room due to his lack of fund and her comparably cheap rent, beggars can't be choosers after all.
With these thoughts in mind he repeated the actions he had done earlier, with a fake smile on his face he served his next customer and the customer after that.
It was seven by the time he finished with his shift and he immediately set out towards Izumo Inn on a pink bike he had jacked from the wreckage of the NOVA clash. It was a pretty short ride, much less then the ten kilometers he had to bike to work every day from his previous "house." The trip will take approximately five minutes, a distance around two kilometers to the two-floor structure western. Izumo Inn had been a western home in style but still contained a courtyard with Japanese-styled veranda and raised platform. It was a nice, clean place for its price, and the veranda reminded Shirou of the time his father Kiritsugu had been alive. The veranda also reminded him of his own house, his house being a single floored Japanese home. Unfortunately, his home laid in ruins underwater where he had fought the NOVA no more than two weeks ago.
The fact that Fuyuki City sunk troubled him. He didn't have much there after his time as a "hero", but it held some sentimental value. He still had some fond memories of the city itself, even the Grail War had been something pleasant to think about, a sort of 'coming to age' ceremony that taught him the true meaning of being a man. There was nothing for him to return to after his time, his friends all died during his last conflict, the society he ended up fighting for also laid in ruins. The mage association had tried to respond to the threat of this mysterious "NOVA" by first sending the Enforcers, the Executors were sent by the Vatican, freelancers were contracted to war, then the magi from the association had gone in themselves.
Of course the non-battle oriented magi had pretty much been annihilated. Even the strongest enforcers and executors didn't last very long. The alien had been strong, it froze the movements of those around it, the humans were taken by surprise. Researchers who had not been research oriented had no chance against the ghoul-like minions the soldiers created from corpses of the fallen. The creature's battlions were strong, as strong as some dead apostles, and the suicidal way of fighting at close range ripped past the magi's range techniques with apparent ease.
The non-magical humans were next to useless, their advanced weaponry didn't do anything to the NOVA; they're strongest bullets merely bounced from the NOVA's shell, their smart bombs speared out of the sky by the creature's feelers. Non-magical soldiers died and were strengthened and reanimated, all hope had been lost. That is until Shirou had arrived. He fought valiantly for as long as he could, for days he trudged the battlefield using Rule Breaker and Gae Dearg to halt the advancing arm of reanimated corpses. He summoned his weapons from his armory and led the few capable of fighting back onto the battlefield. There he had met Aoko Aozaki, or Aoko "Blue" Aozaki. She had been one of the few magi that stood against the NOVA without major difficulties, however, the freezing field seemed to slow down the movement of prana within the area severely limiting her abilities when she fought.
In fact, most magi were limited in the regards of mana movement, their spells' cast time became longer and in some cases spells failed to even realize. The alien was strong and, from what Shirou had found out at the time, magical. They were beings of magic, they countered magic, truly the bane of mankind.
He ran his dark toned hand across his hair as he thought about the last moments of the battle. His legs pedaled furiously as he tried to forget the bloodshed, the pain, the death he had faced. It had been cruel, it had been devastating, but he had prevailed just enough to attain victory. It only took him another minute or so of furious pedaling before he finally arrived at his future living place.
As he arrived his heart was filled with some sort of nostalgia seeing Izumo Inn. It wasn't structurally similar to his old home in Fuyuki, but the feeling he got was similar, the cohabitation similar to high he lived his own life in high school. He liked waking up and seeing others, he liked seeing Sakura come over to help with chores nearly every morning. Life had been hard for him after the Holy Grail Wars, without Sakura there he felt lost. He immersed himself within perpetual warfare and Apostle hunts and took his mind off his lost through bloodshed. Shirou Emiya had turned to be a very different man then he once thought himself as, circumstances pushed him to become something different from what he vowed to be.
At the gate of Izumo Inn Shirou could see a young woman in her twenties standing there with her purple hair hanging loose like how Rider had left it. She was Miya Asama, the magical innkeeper of Izumo Inn, magical not being a pun. Her facial features were warm and she wore a kind smile on her face, she wasn't exactly tall and her shorter frame only emphasized her considerable bust. Despite having her eyes closed at the moment Shirou remembered her red eyes, those orbs seemed to pierce into his soul, evaluating him, seeing if he was worthy of her protection. Shirou knew she was special, not just her inhuman beauty, but her unnatural understanding of this world told the former freelancer that Miya Asama was not someone he would want to mess with.
The purple haired woman noticed Shirou as he approached her with his bike in both hands, he had a heavy backpack and a duffle bag strapped onto the backseat of his bike. These were all things he had looted from his living area the last few weeks, it reminded him of war when he needed to loot abandoned homes to keep himself living with provisions. Truth to be told he didn't have much even after his week or so of pillaging, he did find some money which he saved for emergences, he did get some clothes, but not much else he could or knew how to use. There were instances when he did find what would probably have been cellphones used in this time frame, but compared to the cellphones in his time he wasn't sure if he could get it working or if it was even worth the trouble learning. He compromised by picking one up and when his boss wanted his phone he just gave his baby blue cell to his manager so the store manager could input the information Shirou needed onto his phone.
Her eyes opened from their previous slits as she motioned to greet the newest arrival and tenant of her inn. "Ara ara, Emiya-san is that you? I was expecting you a bit earlier but have no worries," she moved up to Shirou to give him a hand with his luggage which he, as a man, subtly refused by lightly brushing her soft hand off his luggage and smiling, "Your room is all ready for you to move in," noticing his refusal of her help she didn't press on. Instead she grabbed his free arm and lightly tugged him towards the complex. "Hurry Emiya-san, your just in time for dinner, if you don't hurry then dinner will be cold."
Shirou smiled at his eager innkeeper momentarily forgetting her being a magical creature. She acted so much like a normal human to a point that it scared him. He allowed him to be lightly pulled away but before that he gave her a deep bow, "Asama-san, please forgive my tardiness, but I was held up at work. Thank you for having me."
She returned his bow with a dip of her own head to match the angle of his inclination, "Nonsense, there's nothing to forgive, don't be a stranger Emiya-san, Izumo Inn's going to be your home until you move out." Emiya blushed inside despite having a steely expression, his new landlady was beautiful, despite his years of experience both with women and also in hiding his emotions he still found himself captivated by the woman in front of him.
Following his landlady into the complex he could do nothing but feel slightly content at Miya's enthusiasm, even during his travels as a freelancer Shirou never felt cared for, all he saw was blood, a lot, a lot of blood.
"Kazuha, what'cha doing?" Kazuha Aoi walked with a sort of lifelessness down the carpeted hall of West Genetics. Despite her lack of energy her posture still radiated elegance as she strode forward in her blue dress-like uniform with high heels. Even though she did not pay much attention to her looks this morning, like every morning for the past week or so, her hair remains un-split and flowing behind her with each step she took forward. Her auburn, yellowish eyes were tired from lack of sleep, and a light dark ring around her orbs only further evidenced her lack of rest these past few days. She had been kept up thinking about a certain swordsman, and of course the failure of a mission she had been on, only six out of eighteen survived the eight NOVA clash.
She continued to move forward with her long dark hair gliding behind her, it seemed as if she didn't hear her brunette friend Yu-Mi Kim. The brunette gave a cute frown before she swirled her athletic figure until she faced her Japanese friend causing them to collide into each other at point blank.
"Itai…" Kazuha cried indignantly smashing headfirst into something that appeared in front of her out of nowhere. "What the." Upon closer inspection at what she had hit, "Yu-Mi. What the heck?" Her tone was higher pitched than normal both out of embarrassment at bumping into her friend but also slightly frustrated someone cut her thoughts off.
The short haired PANDORA with auburn hair gave a slight frown before scolding one of her best friends, "Kazuha Aoi, I should be asking you what the heck are you doing." Kazuha backed off at her friend's sudden anger. "This past week you've been sulking, stop, Kazuha, it's not your fault." Yu-Mi had always been headstrong as a PANDORA taking the role of vanguard if they were characterized in roles, she was brash and straightforward, but at the same time compassionate, very compassionate about those she cared for.
Kazuha was left speechless at her friend's sudden change in mood, from an angry and provocative mood into a caring atmosphere. Kazuha didn't really understand what her friend was saying, so she tilted her head right and stared at Yu-Mi with her brown eyes utterly confused, "What'you talking about Yu-Mi?"
Yu-Mi's facial expression softened from her intial scowl into a gentle tenderness that is rarely seen on her face. Then she put her hands on Kazuha's shoulders, then pulled her into her well-matured breasts. "Kazuha, it's okay, let it out, it must hurt doesn't it, the ones we lost during the clash." She paused, slowly rubbing Kazuha's back in a soothing manner. "Don't feel down, we did what we had to, they did not die in va…"
She was quickly pushed off by the blushing Japanese PANDORA. "What the , Yu-Mi, no." Despite Yu-Mi's attempt to re-engulf Kazuha in an embrace the shorter girl held her off with outstretched hands, "No Yu-Mi, it's not that." The Korean froze in her attempts to hug Kazuha. "No, it's not the girls that I'm thinking about, I know they died knowing their sacrifice and that they did not die in vain, I was thinking of 'Codename Arthur'."
Feeling rather embarrassed at her own outburst Yu-Mi immediately recognized the term 'Codename Arthur.' After all, they all heard about it in debriefing. From what Kazuha had described and what the detection instruments set around the battlefield had said, this man appeared out of nowhere, cut the NOVAs down, then disappeared. There were glimpses of his silhouette captured by the cameras, he was shown to be a tall man with tanned skin and whitish silver hair. Reports on who he was were sketchy at best. From what Kazuha had reported he wielded a sword named "Excalibur", hence his name as 'Codename Arthur'.
"Codename Arthur," this unfamiliar word rolled out of the brown haired PANDORA. Everyone knew the story of Arthur and his knights, the Knights of the Round Table, Excalibur. But for someone to claim they had 'Excalibur' must have been a counterfeit, after all, according to the legends, Excalibur was returned to the Lady of the Lake. "Arthur, Arthur." She muttered to herself finding this name strangely unfamiliar to her tongue, "Why think of him, Kazuha?"
By now they had stopped walking and Kazuha had leaned unto the walls for support well she stood. "I dunno, maybe because he saved my life?" She nodded to herself, "Yes, it must be because he let me see dear Kazuya again, heeheee, he's such a nice person, but of course, Kazuya was really good too…gueguegue…" Yu-Mi shuddered a bit at Kazuha's fixation on her brother Kazuya, she felt that it was a bit, what'ducallit? Different? Borderline illegal? But as a smart PANDORA Yu-Mi kept her thoughts to herself when her thoughts are a bout a person who could defeat her without any trouble in actual combat.
"Yeah, I guess that does warrant your attention, but still, it's been a week."
"A week? It's been that long? Well, then it's been a week since the mystery started, and I intend to solve it."
"Mystery? Solve? What'you talking about Kazuha?"
She got off the wall and swirled to me Yu-Mi in the eyes, "We're gonna find him of course?"
Yu-Mi Kim could only sigh at her friend's antics, being friends with Kazuha Aoi was surely troublesome.
I shuddered a bit before I continued to unpack my luggage, or lack of luggage for that matter. The room Miya had taken me to was a small rectangular room with a closet and few shelves that I could put my things. All-in-all it was more empty than my previous abode, probably due to the lack of a bed. Of course this wasn't really a problem, I was used to spending my nights in sleeping bags with no roof over my head, anything better than that was good in my mind. Dinner had been uneventful, I met the other two tenants of the house, a certain Ms. Hoover and a certain Takebayashi-san.
Ms. Hoover was the sister of a PANDORA in West Genetics. She moved to Japan from England along with her sister who attends West Genetics, the military boarding school training PANDORAs. From what I learned PANDORAs are the fighters against NOVAs, and Chevalier is a sort of international military organization dedicated to fight NOVAs. In Audrey Hoover's case her sister Emily Hoover was funded by Chevalier after being diagnosed with the potential to become a PANDORA. Part of the deal was that Audrey will be moved into Tokyo. From what I understand the government of Japan changed the map a bit after the first Clash, Tokyo now incorporates the whole region, including the former Fuyuki City.
Audrey Hoover is what I would describe as a serious and withdrawn girl. On the surface she looked bold, an eye-catcher, a beauty. Her red hair reached down her back, Audrey would wear her hair down without constraints very much like how Miya wore her's. She had a very sharp complexion, along with her piercing blue eyes made her intimidating when she wanted to be. Her height also added to her intimidating figure, despite not being tall compared to me she stood at an above average 170 centimeter, the last time I saw her when I visited the inn she had been in high heels, and with the added height she was extremely imposing.
Despite being quite daunting she is actually very reserved and shy around others. She tends to avoid the other inhabitants of Izumo Inn unless it's mealtimes, sometimes she still misses her meals in favor of eating out presumably with her friends. She almost never talks and even less talks about herself, I only learned what I learned from Miya who added information in the questions she asked. Audrey hadn't really talked to me at all during the whole meal, she did reply to some of Miya's questions though, but never me.
The other male inhabitant of Izumo house was a certain Taro Takebayashi. There isn't much I can say about him, he was nice and talkative, a contrast with the red hair tenant. He wasn't really tall or short, having a height of something along the lines of 165 centimeters if my guess is correct. He had black hair which drooped around his face since it didn't look like it was cut a lot. He moved here to Tokyo in order to study at the local university Tokyo University, the most prestigious in Japan. From what I have learned from our light conversation he moved here from Osaka and is studying something like "Particle Physics" or something along the lines of that, he lost me at the first few sentences, I was never good at studying.
Despite the fact that he was a bit overzealous with his studies, he was definitely nice. He's been living at Izumo Inn for over a year now, and told me a lot about the surrounding area. There is something about him that made him so friendly, it wasn't the long face he has, the small eyes, or his obviously athletic demeanor, he just felt nostalgic, as if I had known him before. After time of thought I guess it was just the atmosphere he gave off, it made me feel as if I was in school again and he was my best mate or the sorts. Then again he is a student I guess.
My hands reached into my duffel bag to take out one of the few things that is not an article of clothing. It felt rough around the edges, and cold, yes, it was cold to my touch. When I took it out it reflected the light from the lamp overhead. Yes, a small crystal, or what looked like a crystallization of something. I managed to swipe it from a dead ex-human, a crystallization of what seemed like prana, on the humans it seemed to be something akin to parasites.
I was never a great magus, but from what I observed both times, the Everlasting March seems to be some sort of possession of the body by the main body, or the NOVA. From what I observed this time around it seemed to convert every nerve of the corpse into magic circuit, then overload them with mana to control the body as one would through hypnosis. It was strange, you can't hypnotize a dead body, but the NOVA managed through these crystals akin to lightning rods to direct its magic. It also explained how they became so strong and fast, the abnormal amount of magic circuits reinforced the body to a point above what the body was originally capable of.
Another strange phenomenon was that these crystals didn't just disappear after I detached it from the host body. It remained there, inactive, and still filled with what I presumed to be mana from the NOVA main body. What I can conclude is that these parasites are not in fact implanted onto the person, but an effect of the spell made from the NOVA. These are probably a side effect of a natural phenomenon, one that I have never seen before.
Putting my hijacked crystal on the ground I reached into my bag again to retrieve my phone. It was funny I've never really owned a cell phone before this and I didn't even pay for this phone. I found this flashy piece of electronic equipment on the ground in the wreckage, and it seemed like I needed one. From what I understand before cell phones have this thing called "plan" I need to obtain a cellphone plan in case the original owner of this phone cancels his number or stops his payment after dying. Another thing to add to my already dwindling budget I guess.
It was another day at work as I slowly grabbed another thing to swipe across the scanning machine. Two weeks and I still can't get used to this peace, and I hope I don't really. I've been keeping up with my workout running around the community Izumo Inn resided in without the aid of reinforcement but it wasn't enough. However, it definitely seemed weird to the other inhabitants, sometimes Miya would look at me with these cautious eyes when I returned, maybe I'm just being overly paranoid.
"Welcome." I said as a customer entered the Lawson I was working at. This was probably the thirtieth time I said 'welcome' today, but it's okay, it's nearly the end of the lunch rush and not that many people come during the afternoon anyways.
This job was boring, I've done part time jobs before but they were mostly physical in nature, like fixing some broken appliances or handling some heavy objects. Never have I had to do a job that required me to interact with others, I've never been good at 'interacting' preferring to keep to myself but hey, we learn something new everyday.
The thing about the NOVAs are still running on the news, it kept saying things like 'Two NOVA attacking, is the world going to end?" Things like that, how ridiculous. Humans should learn that our race is actually extremely resilient, we keep fighting, no matter what the obstacle is we will learn to break through our limits. At least that is what I felt about the human race, well another part of me hates our race since we always find a way to fuck up and require the Counter Guardians to step in. I remembered my times as a Counter Guardian, the slaughter my job required me to do was a bloody mess, nothing more, nothing less.
"Please come again." I said halfheartedly to another customer I had just served. Working in a convenience store really wasn't exciting; it was simply repetitive work.
Finally there was no one here, from what my experience tells me there won't be anyone here for a while, "Yo Emiya-san, come help with the back since the store is empty." A person called at me in the distance. And my thoughts of some free time were destroyed. The person was calling for me was Yamato-san, a young man working as the manager of this branch of Lawson. He was sunny, that was the word I would choose for him.
It was probably his spikey brown hair, or maybe it was the necklace? No, it must be the colored glasses he wore that was a sunglasses and at the same time wasn't a sunglasses; it blurs the line between the middle. I guess I could describe him as a bit scruffy, standing tall, somewhat taller than myself and having a tattoo on his arm. How he became the manager he I will never know but he did. Despite looking like some delinquent he was surprisingly nice, he showed me the ropes of what to do around here and had been very understanding about my situation dealing with money.
"Coming," I called after him as I made way to the back of the shop in order to help him stock up on the shelves, why, in fifty years no one developed something to automatically stock the shelves I will never know.
"You guys heading out?" Elize Schimtz asked the pair in front of her, a brunette and a girl with raven hair walking side by side.
The duo both turned around at the sudden interruption, recognizing the Elize Yu-Mi answered, "Yeah, Kazuya thought it'd be nice to go to the city a bit, she's been holed up here after all."
"Oh, the city, why not go home to her brother?" Elize asked a bit surprised, normally when Kazuha wanted to go out it was always home to visit her brother.
Kazuha gave a slight frown at Elize's question, "I went home the moment the clash ended, and we have a pretty important event tomorrow that I can't afford to miss, you know that Elize."
The green haired PANDORA with her hair tied in a pony tail nodded at her Japanese friend's words, "Yeah, the inner school tournament is indeed tomorrow, I guess you're right. But Yu-Mi, didn't you have somewhere to go today?"
The Korean PANDORA looked genuinely surprised before face palming. "Ah crap, sorry Kazuha, I need to go to the checkup today, I can't miss it, I already cut it last time."
Her friend glared at her, then looked at Elize, "With me?"
The German PANDORA only shook her head, "Can't I have the time right after Yu-Mi, that's why I know she had somewhere to be."
Kazuha glared at both her friends, "Tratior. Hmpff," and without saying anything twirled and kept going ignoring her two friends.
Elize looked at her shorter friend, "Where's she going anyways?"
Yu-Mi looked back at Elize, "Officially she's out to shop around and take her mind off the clash."
"And unofficially?"
"She's looking for Arthur."
"Only her, only her." The two gave a knowing sigh at their friend's antics, then again, maybe she'll get lucky today.
It was kind of sunny in the afternoon as the Kazuha Aoi exited the gates of West Genetics and entered the bus heading towards Tokyo major. West Genetics is located something like twenty kilometers from Tokyo major for secrecy, but due to the fact that PANDORAs are encouraged to go to the city to mingle with the normal people a schedule of buses exit and return to the campus every day. Classes do not follow a rigid schedule so the buses run pretty much every hour.
It was roughly twenty minutes before Kazuha Aoi exited the bus in her casual clothes as opposed to her blue dress with heeled loafers. She changed to a blue t-shirt and denim shorts with high-heeled sandals to oppose the summer sun. She headed to the commercial district where the shops are located and proceeded to spend the day as she pleased.
Even an elite PANDORA like herself often enjoyed the relief normal activities inspires. Contrary to popular beliefs PANDORAs did not spend all their time training, in fact, the amount of time really depends on the PANDORA themselves, an elite like Kazuha may spend something like an hour sparring and going through simulations, but rarely more than two. She enjoyed just going around the city a times, of course if Kazuya was here she'd be even more happy, but sometimes you just can't complain that much about life.
She clapped her face a few times bringing her attention back to herself, 'No Kazuha, your purpose today is not to shop.'
'But they look so pweettyyy.' Another part of herself said.
'No, we're here for one reason and one reason.'
'So pweettyyyy…'
'We're here to find Arthur, not spend our time looking in stores, but then again, maybe he's shopping as well?'
'So pweettyyy…'
Having an inner conflict with oneself definitely didn't seem easy.
Business was definitely going slow, there hadn't been a customer in the past thirty minutes. Yamato-san is staring as his cellphone, I wonder what he's looking at, is he checking out people's numbers or something? Ah, he's laughing again, why is he smiling at a bunch of numbers anyways, modern people, so strange. As expected the afternoons passed by slowly, there was practically no business and all we did as clerks is sit on a stool behind the counters and find ways to waste our time. One would expect a convenient store placed in the shopping district would have a lot of business the whole day, but I guess that is wrong.
Sitting for hours I've been looking for a course of action, I got a phone plan a few days back, the clerk said something strange, something about internet on their phones? I've never been good with computers and this illustrious 'internet', I had used it a few times as a student for researching but really, my work requires me to use 'synchronized magic crystals' to communicate with other magi rather than use cellphones and the internet. So like all other magi I fell out of practice in terms of technology. The few people I've met on my travels like one of my teachers Waver Velvet told me that my father Kiritsugu was good with technology, I guess I just didn't have the same knowledge he had.
My mind drifted back to the NOVA I fought. I remembered us humans calling it the "World Eater", a monster that will devour the world. The one I fought was definitely the same, albeit a bit weaker, it was strange, the one that got resurrected was a lot weaker, but it was the same, I was sure of it. Or maybe it was that the first attack I used on the NOVA did more damage than I imagined, maybe Gae Dearg's effect affected the passive shields, maybe, but I think it might be something a lot more ominous than that.
During my last moments fighting the creature I finished the fight with Excalibur, it was so bright but the fact that nothing was left after my attack made it strange. What I think is that they were transported back to where they came from, I highly doubt that even Excalibur could wreck two of them at once, maybe the smaller one, but the big one, my rival, not a chance. It took me the use of my reality marble, thirteen fully activated noble phantasms, six broken phantasms, and a hell loud of magi shooting spells at it to defeat it, it just didn't seem logical. It didn't matter though, what does matter is that when it comes back, presumably eight years later, I will be ready and I will put it down for good.
My thoughts were suddenly cut off by the smell of magic saturating the air. Steel, yes, it was the smell of steel, or in this case I think it's the PANDORAs. All PANDORAs smelled like untarnished steel. It was approaching, and fast, approaching me? Did it know who I was, did it know what I am? I needed to act fast, so I suddenly stood up surprising my manager who almost fell back on his stool at my sudden movement. I made for the back door but I wasn't fast enough.
The automated reply of the automatic doors said, "Welcome to Lawson, we wish you have a good day."
But another voice shouted at me, a voice definitely feminine but with a hint of anger, "You, you...its you…"
I turned around to see a girl with long black hair and auburn eyes stalking towards me. She wore a t-shirt that seemed to be a bit small for her accentuating her breasts and tight enough to enunciate her curvy hips. She wore denim shorts that and white heeled sandals. Her hair swished behind her beautiful face as she stalked towards me, I could tell she was angry, but why I did not know.
"You, its you, Codename Arthur." She spoke to me once she reached the counter that I tried to run from, I couldn't since I was captivated by her charm and the strangeness of her behavior. A traced sword was already loaded into the gun within my mind but I didn't project it into reality since I very much doubt she's going to try to kill me right now. My last thoughts before facing the girl head on was 'Arthur? How very ironic.'
I uttered the words before facing her wrath, "Blasted E-rank luck."
A/N:
It's kind of short but live with it. I didn't really proofread it so yeah, it's gonna have some major grammar and typing errors, I'll edit it a few days after.
I have a major headache right now so I don't even know what to write for A/N. I intended to answer some questions from the reviews and PMs I received but I'll do that tomorrow when I don't have a headache. I can barely think and type right now.
Anyhow chapter 3 is up, it's fun and light, no fighting, like an interlude really. I had fun putting the slight Sekirei addition into the story, I've been meaning to write a F/SN Sekirei crossover before this but I don't have the time after I started FuD.
Major thanks to Piterio who talked with me well I was working the chapter itself, our conversations were pretty irrelevant with the current chapter but more of striking a backstory for Shirou Emiya but it was fun anyhow.
Another thanks to reven228 for a bit of an idea on the Excalibur-Arthur thingy
Thanks to all who reviewed, it was a lot more than I expected, and I appreciate it. I reply to most of my reviews, or all of it barring the one word or sentence congratulations that I have no idea how to reply to. This dude wrote like Spanish, it was really cool but I can't speak Spanish, luckily google translate took care of that. I do speak Chinese if anyone's interested.
I'll edit the A/N some other day, so yeah, check it up in a few days if you want a few questions answered.
Read & Review, I appreciate everyone's input
-Wiltheavatar
11/18/2013
Edit time:
I'll answer a few questions to the best of my abilities
I think I managed to reply to most of the reviews who well had something to review to
A few people mentioned if Sekirei will be in the story, the answer is no, I never watched or read sekirei, I've gone on the wiki to reference GB's In Flight but that's it. However, Miya will be some sort of counselor to Shirou sometimes since he kind of has PTSD even if he doesn't really show it yet. Anyone who lived through combat that is not a psychopath will have PTSD, or at least most of them. EVen the best trained soldiers suffer from some form of PTSD.
Someone mentioned my lack of knowledge on F/SN: Very true, I was 6th grade when I played the VN, not the best age since I was immature and innocent, I skipped through most of HF since it was like 1/3rd sex. I look through the wikis, and I try to make it as good as possible but there are going to be major mistakes from what I interpreted.
Rite, about the enforcers, executors, etc. They are strong, I know they are, make no mistake. But the first NOVA was well I put it at somewhere near 200 meters, that's a 50+ stories building. And the freezing field in FuD messes up with prana, handicapping magi. Even sorcerers will find it hard to fight a big monster without their full magical capabilities. IN my opinion enforcers, executors, etc are all anti-unit and anti like humanoid units like dead apostles (so far all the dead apostles I know are human sized or a bit bigger, none that is 50 stories tall). I think the wiki mentioned something about phantasmal beasts, like dragons and such, compare NOVA with dragon, but a bit bigger, scratch that, a lot bigger, with magic resistance and a fucked up boundary field. And it summons minions as strong as supernatural beings, not going to be easy. R-classes have this shield as well, just putting it out there.
Is shirou going to get paired? FOr now? no, he's a bit unstable if you get what I mean.
When is the next update? I dunno, somewhere among the next two weeks, college apps is hard, I'm already procrastinating.
I'll edit the actual story in a few days, I think.
Rite, I need to answer from the last chapter:
A lot of people asked about SHirou's personality about the speech. Some liked it(1) some hated it (everyone else). LoL, think of it as a spur of the moment, a moment of emotional outrage. If you just woke up and someones fucking with your house I'm sure you'd be angry and do things you normally won't do.
I think this is most of it, if there are questions, I'll reply PM, no problem
Now I'm just being lazy, but if someone wants to edit parts of my story for grammar errors, feel free, just PM me and I'll upload it myself, just copy and paste, your freedom
Haha, R&R
-Wiltheavatar
For anyone who cares Taro Takebayashi is my best friend in second to third grade, I don't talk to him anymore but its a tribute, I actually kind of modeled the char after his fb profile picture
