CHAPTER NINE: REVENGE

Two weeks have passed but still there was no sign of the other magi.

Shirou went to school and silently sat on his chair. He was thinking of finding the remaining magi. There's only 18 days before the full moon. Shin said that the spell could only be used during the full moon. If they couldn't find the remaining magi before that day comes, they would have to wait again for the next full moon.

Shirou saw Issei walking form side to side of their room with a gloomy face.

"Issei what's wrong?"

Issei just stared at him but did not answer. He walked passed him as if he didn't hear what Shirou asked. He sat on his chair and looked at the sky.

After few minutes the bell rang, all the students returned to their proper sits. When teacher arrived Issei, the class representative, lead the class to raise and bow to the teacher.

"Issei what's wrong?" Shirou whispered to his friend who's sitting right next to him.

"The girl I like just turned me down yesterday."

"Huh?"

"There's a transfer student in this class. He came from Hongkong, his family moved here coz of his father's work," the teacher said as he wrote the name of the transfer student in the blackboard.

Ryuzaki

"Please introduce yourself to the class," the teacher said after he finished writing.

"I'm Ryuzaki Ichimaru, it's nice to meet all of you."

"Well now you need a seat. Oh there's a vacant seat at the back of Shirou's chair, you can seat there Ryuzaki," the teacher said while pointing at the vacant chair.

The transfer student nodded and stared at Shirou while walking to his direction.

Shirou watched him as he sat on the chair behind him. The transfer student slightly leaned closer to Shirou's back whispered to him.

"The Holy Grail War is over but the damages it left will haunt you forever."

Shirou stared at him, one can see that he was shocked.

Who is that man and why does he know the Holy Grail War?

Those were the question that he thought. The boy looked back at him and smirked.

xxx

Shirou was not able to concentrate in the class the whole time because of Ryuzaki, he kept on thinking who that man could be. After the class he decided to approach him.

"Tell me what do you know about the Holy Grail?" Shirou asked as he stared directly to Ryuzaki's eyes.

The man did not answer, instead he looked at Shirou with fury.

"Meet me at the park where the fire happened 11 years ago, I will tell you everything," he said as he passed Shirou.

"Oh and by the way, be prepared to fight me," he added and left Shirou.

xxx

Shirou told Rin, Sakura and Ilya what happened. He also told them not to come because most probably he would be fighting the transfer student.

He went alone in the park. For some reason it reminded him of how his step father helped him.

After seeing his parents burnt in their house, he followed his father's order to save his life. As he ran, he heard the people's cry, they were asking for help. He forgot how many people died back then. But for some unexplained reason he was the only person who survived. After hours of walking, the sky became dark and the rain started falling. The rain was strong, after few hours, the fire was gone. But it was too late all the people of that town died. Shirou had no strength to stand anymore so he fell on the ground. Then a man with deep black eyes appeared, he was Emiya Kirigitsu, Shirou's body was badly wounded. After seeing the black haired man the boy lost his consciousness.

When Shirou woke up, he realized that he was in the hospital. And the man who saved him was sitting right next to his bed. The boy was not aware the Kirigitsu put Saber's scabbard to his body to heal his wounds.

That man was his hero. And from that day on, he became Shirou's model. So when he learned about Kirigitsu's dream of becoming a "Hero of Justice" he decided to continue his step father's dream.

He felt a man's presence behind him. It was Ryuzaki, he was wearing a black vest and was carrying a big sword. By the looks of the sword, one could tell that it's sharp and heavy. Ryuzaki stared at Shirou with such anger.

"I will kill you! I shall have my revenge! You killed my sister and stole her servant!" Ryuzaki said, then he pulled his sword from the scabbard.

"What are you talking about?" Shirou asked as he stood up.

"Stop pretending that you don't know what I'm talking about! I will cut your head and will offer it to the grave of my sister! Prepare to meet your doom Shirou!" after he said those things he swung his sword to Shirou's direction aiming to cut him into two.

Shirou dodged the attack using both of his hands, he created a shield to protect himself. He didn't want to fight Ryuzaki.

"Listen Shirou, if he knows something about the grail there a big chance that he is a magus," Rin told Shirou after he told her and the rest of his friends what Ryuzaki told him.

"Ne ne, then maybe he can help you," Ilya said as she stood up to eat the cookies in the table.

"Yeah, I guess he can," Shirou answered but he was uncertain himself.

"Why don't you create a sword? Don't tell me you're giving up already?" Ryuzaki said and then he swung his sword with all his strength.

The sword missed Shirou and hit the floor. But Ryuzaki continued attacking him, Shirou did not fight back, he was just protecting himself. Ryuzaki was strong, but compared to the white haired man that Shirou fought few weeks ago, he was slower. It was easy for him to defend himself.

"Ryuzaki, listen to me, I did not kill your sister! I didn't kill anyone in the Holy Grail War except for Kirei who betrayed me!" Shirou said after he ran away from Ryuzaki.

Shirou was keeping distance from his enemy. He was determined to convince the man that he did not kill his sister.

Ryuzaki just stared at him, it was obvious that he didn't believe Shirou. He raised his sword to the sky and mumbled some spell. After few seconds the sword shone, Ryuzaki transferred some mana to his weapon to make it more powerful.

He struck Shirou's shield, then it broke to pieces. Shirou could not believe what he just saw. He jumped away from the Ryuzaki but he followed him not allowing Shirou to create a new shield.

"Common, is that all you can do? I can't believe it, you're weak! What trick did you do when you killed my sister huh?" Ryuzaki angrily said.

"I didn't kill her, believe me Ryuzaki."

Their battle continued.

xxx

Rin together with Sakura and Ilya arrived at the park. They saw the great damage that was made by Ryuzaki. The three girls ran towards them and tried to stop Ryuzaki.

When Ryuzaki saw Rin, he blushed and stopped the attack.

"Tohsaka," Ryuzaki whispered and then he disappeared.

Everyone noticed that after Ryuzaki saw Rin he stopped the attack and left.

"Ne Rin, it's obvious that he has a crush on you," Ilya while grinning.

"Well then, we can use that for our advantage," Rin answered with no emotion.

xxx

"Probably," Rin said after she sipped the tea that was made by Sakura.

"…."

Shirou silently watched her as she spoke.

"Probably, the sister she was pertaining is Lancer's original master. You know the girl who was killed by Kotomine Kirei."

"Ah, we never met her during the war right?"

"Yes, we didn't. If I remember correctly, she died in a cruel way, not only that…"

Shirou felt that there was something watching him from behind. He looked at his back and saw Ilya with a grin on her lips.

"What is it Ilya?" he asked as he smiled at her and patted her head.

"Listen carefully to what Rin will say onii-chan, you'll see why that Ryuzaki hated you so much," Ilya said and she sat beside Shirou.

Rin looked directly to Shirou's eyes, she was serious.

"You know that in order to control a servant, one needs the command seals right?"

"Yes, I know that."

"Well, here's the deal. You cannot just steal a servant during the war, it should be that the servant had lost his master and the master had lost its servant in order to make a pact. But in Kirei's case, he still have Gilgamesh with him right?"

Shirou silently nodded at Rin, thinking of the scenario.

"Okay, from the investigation report that I read, it was written there that Bazette's arm with the command seals was cut off. Kirei did that so that he can use Lancer."

"What? He cut her arm!"

"Yes he did," Rin calmly said.

She put the tea cup to the table and stood up.

"Now Shirou, you know why that Ryuzaki hated you so badly, coz he thought that you were the one who did that to her sister."

"Oh, onii-chan by the way," Ilya interrupted, "Remember you have to convince him to help you."

Ilya smiled at Rin and softly said to the group that she had a plan.

xxx

The next day, Ryuzaki did not talk to Shirou. He acted as if nothing had happened, he participated in class activity and started to make friends with their classmates. But there was someone who disliked him despite of his kind appearance.

Issei talked to Shirou during their lunch break about the transfer student.

"Shirou, what do you think about Ryuzaki?"

"Huh?"

Shirou almost choked to death when he heard Ryuzaki's name. He drank his water before he answered Issei.

"Well, he looks nice and he had friends already. I guess he is even popular with girls," Shirou answered.

"Hmm, there was something fishy with him, his aura is like Rin Tohsaka, the Witch of our School," Issei answered as he moved his glasses up with his right arm.

"Tohsaka is not known as the Witch of the School, she is known as the School's Princess," Shirou corrected trying not to laugh.

Issei was always like that, even if the whole world adores Tohsaka, for some reason he hated her with all his hearts, even now Shirou couldn't figure why he despise her.

Shirou continued eating not paying attention to Issei speech about how witchy Rin was.

xxx

After the class Shirou approached Ryuzaki but was ignored.

"Ryuzaki listen to me, we have to finish this war now. Follow me," Shirou said and the he started walking.

Ryuzaki followed him and the arrived at the park where they fought each other yesterday.

Ryuzaki took his sword off the scabbard and pointed it to Shirou. Without hesitation, he attacked Shirou with all his might. But before the blade of the sword reached Shirou, he heard a spell from his back. The girl who whispered it has long snow-like-hair and has angelic face with red eyes. It stopped Ryuzaki from moving, he felt his body numb. He tried to move but no matter how hard he tried, his body did not respond.

A beautiful girl with long black hair who was wearing a red sweater and short skirt came in the scene. She smiled Ryuzaki as she stopped walking.

"Rin it's obvious that he has a crush on you, I don't think he'll listen to Shirou's explanation about Bazette and I think you're the only one he'll believe in," Ilya said when they were having a dinner at Shirou's house.

"Listen to me, whoever you are," Rin said with calmness in her voice.

"His name is Ryuzaki Ichimaru," Shirou said.

"Okay, Ryuzaki, you must know that Shirou did not kill your sister. It was Kirei who did it. I know that it was hard for you to accept it, losing someone important to you is hard but you have to accept the fact that she is gone. If you'll be a prisoner of the past, then your future is at stake. Everyone has a purpose in life, and you can't just throw them all away because of your anger, your revenge will not do you any good. It'll make you miserable."

Ryuzaki was silent, while he was listening to Rin he realized that she was right, his future is more important that his past. Because he learned that Shirou won the war, he assumed that it was him who killed his sister. And there was a man who said that it was Shirou who killed her. He believed that man and after a year of training in sword and magic, he decided to go to Japan and have his revenge. Not knowing that the man he wanted to kill was innocent.

He believed her, but he couldn't face everyone.

Ilya took off the spell and let him go. Ryuzaki turned to Shirou and said sorry then, he disappeared.

"Thank God it's over," Shirou said and then he closed his eyes to relax.

Sakura walked towards him and patted his back.

"Ummm… Shirou-sempai, you forgot to ask his help," Sakura said.

Shirou who just realized his mistake, a sat on the ground while continuously scratching his head.

I'm an idiot! What am I gonna do now? What if he goes back to Hongkong? Where can I find another magus?

"Idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot!" he said to himself aloud.

The girl with long brown hair was watching them from a long distance. She smile when she saw Shirou, at last she found him. The person she will have to help.

To be continued….