Disclaimer: Fate and its derivatives do not belong to me, all its story and characters belong to Type-Moon, and Honaki Impact belongs to Hoyoverse.
Chapter 1, A new world…
After a nice bath to clear my head, get dressed, and get ready, I hurried back to the kitchen. If I'm lucky, Tachie won't have finished making our breakfast yet, and then I'll be able to help her somehow. Unfortunately, luck was not my strong point...
An incredible smell greeted me as I entered the room, which was not surprising because Tachie was not bad at cooking and the reason why I was in such a hurry was that one of my pleasures was cooking, so I wanted to do something, anything, but, from what I could see, my friend had already finished making breakfast.
She looked at me and, for a moment, smiled at my disappointed expression, and as if reading my mind, she said, "If you want to do something, then set the table."
I sighed, yes, I wanted to do something, but I didn't mean this. In the end, I gave up, after all, this was my punishment.
So Tachie and I had breakfast together while watching TV, for us, this was almost a daily routine, even in our school days.
Losing myself in the environment, I began to wander, and my mind went to the past. Tachie and I were what is commonly known as childhood friends, and yes, I know it's a clichéd term, but it is who we are. We'd known each other since we were little, as Tachie was my neighbor, so it didn't take long for us to become friends, and the fact that we were both the same age also helped a lot. The two of us formed an interesting duo in the eyes of others: I was always calm, serene, and willing to help, and she was arrogant, restless, and sometimes rude. In a certain sense, we interpenetrate well, although there was one thing in which we were the same: Stubbornness, because the moment we got something into our heads, I can assure you that we will do everything in our power to achieve it.
"Hey, Shirou!" My friend snapped me out of my rambling state, "do you think that one day all the mysteries of the Old World will be discovered?"
I turned to the television, and as I imagined, it was an informative transmission about the Old World. I will not deny that I, like everyone else, was very interested in anything related to the Old World, or the previous world, as the researchers also called it; however, I really doubted that its mysteries were so easy to reveal. As someone associated with magecraft, I knew that the sands of time hid many secrets, and none were easy to discover.
"I doubt it, although everything we've discovered has been useful to us, so I hope one day more will be discovered."
Tachie nodded with a smile, "Well, tomorrow we have to go back to hell, so let's live this last day in paradise with everything we have!"
I smiled, "You exaggerate things too much, you know that there are worse things than going back to the school, and worse places we could be."
My friend's smile faded a little, "Yes, I know. But don't be a spoilsport; you know that, in our world, we never know what can happen from one day to the next."
I nodded, got up from my place, and got ready to leave.
"Do your parents have to go out that often? Leaving you alone all the time isn't bad? Besides, considering the state of our world, it's not only irresponsible but also very dangerous."
My friend tried to convince me again that my father's actions were harmful to me; however, she did not know that my father was related to magecraft, and while we could not consider ourselves a family of magi, we certainly had ambitions as great as any of these. So, as a family of magecraft-related blacksmiths, we prioritized our "research" above all else, no matter how dangerous it was. So I couldn't blame him for doing it, even if I didn't like that my father put himself in danger too.
For my part, I also had the ambition to achieve the goals set by my family; however, I always believed that, in my life, there was something more, to the point where Tachie sometimes said that I lived as if I owed the world something, and, although I did not think so, I always thought that, for some reason, I should to try to keep this world as good as possible and help as many as possible, I never knew why, but that desire was inside me, for some reason.
"Ready?" my friend asked me with a smile.
I nodded, and we both left my house.
The breeze and the sun's rays welcomed me. I lived in the Fuyuki residential area, or well, in the new Fuyuki residential area, since the old residential area was destroyed five years ago, and back then, I almost lost my whole family. Fortunately, my father and I managed to get out without major injuries, but, unfortunately, my friend was not so lucky; Tachie lost her family that day, and, for a moment, I almost lost her; however, thanks to several factors, among which was maintaining her mental health after that disaster, it was decided that taking her away from me, who was her closest friend and her most trusted person, would be a mistake, so the relatives Tachie's tried to replicate our life before the attack, so my friend moved in with me, living with one of her distant relatives, who had taken care of her ever since.
Fortunately, buying two adjoining properties for the two of us to live next to each other was relatively easy, at least thanks to the help of Raiga Fujimura, an old friend of my father's. I had known him since I was little, as well as his beloved granddaughter, who sooner than later became an older sister to me, and as for Raiga, I always thought of him as a kind of second grandfather.
"Where we go?" I asked my friend.
"How about we just go out and let ourselves go?" she replied with a smile.
I sighed, "You and plans have never gone together."
"You and following the plans either," she countered.
I decided not to continue the discussion, I would not fight a losing battle, and thus, we decided to wander around Fuyuki...
Before we left, I took my katana, and, fortunately, it was invisible to ordinary people, and then took a look at what had been my home for almost the last five years: A large traditional Japanese house that my father had bought after that we had been forced to move. As much as I liked my old home, I wasn't going to deny that my new house was much better equipped for sword training and forging.
We quickly reached the intersection and headed for the Miyama shopping district.
"Hey, Tachie, what would you like for lunch?"
She frowned, "We just had breakfast, we can buy things for lunch when we come back."
I didn't know where we were going, but knowing my friend, we would surely be back late. So I nodded and just took a look at the prices.
In the distance and before leaving Miyama, I saw the Ryuudou temple, "What if we go to visit Issei?" I suggested.
My friend made a face. It's not that she didn't like the Ryuudou temple; however, she and Issei were like oil and water, at least personality-wise, because even though Tachie hated going to class, she was one of the best students.
"Well, I guess we can go take a look, but let's not stay too long. The last time we had to stay all day helping with things of the temple."
I nodded, I didn't mind staying to help the people in the temple, but Tachie didn't feel the same way. So we climbed the stairs of Mount Enzo and reached the temple; however, when we arrived, we saw an enormous hustle and bustle.
"What's going on?" Tachie asked.
"I have no idea…" I replied.
"Oh? You two? Have you come for some special reason?" I recognized that voice easily; it belonged to my classmate, Ryuudou Issei.
"Issei, what is happening?" I asked my companion who was approaching us.
"Shirou-kun, Tachie-san." Issei greeted us with excessive courtesy, considering we had been classmates for a year and also had known each other for a long time, "Looks like our temple will be used as a support base for the Schicksal."
"The Schicksal!?" asked my friend with a mix between fear and excitement.
I could understand Tachie's reaction since the Schicksal was the largest anti-honkai organization in existence in our era; they were literally our protectors.
The honkai, on the other hand, according to what the Schicksal had revealed to us, is a natural phenomenon that occurs in our world. According to said information, it has appeared in many forms in the past, although, in those days, we could not identify it as such. According to reports, it has manifested as natural disasters, plagues, diseases, etc. The most important thing about the honkai is the form it currently took, the so-called honkai beasts.
Honkai beasts are creatures of pure destruction created in places with high amounts of honkai energy, an energy that is a unique property of them. They seem to know only about destruction and death and have no conscience other than their will to destroy humanity.
The honkai had been a catastrophic problem for humanity, reducing our numbers enormously, so much so that, several centuries ago, many said they would drive our species to extinction. For us who practice magecraft, it was no different, and I even dare say it was even worse than for normal humans. Why? Well, honkai energy has several peculiarities; however, for us mages, we only care about one thing: it corrupts mana. It makes it totally wild and uncontrollable.
If magecraft was already progressively disappearing from the world, then the appearance of the honkai was the last nail in that coffin. It didn't matter how good a magus you were, your lineage, number of circuits, talent, etc. Rest assured, any spell that meets honkai energy will backfire on you. At best, it would blow up in your face, and, at worst, the magecraft would work, but it would work against you.
We, humans, by ourselves, had no chance against the beasts. We used all kinds of weapons, nuclear bombs, missiles, tanks, etc. But it did not help, and it was not because these weapons did not work, because they did; however, the honkai was endless, and more importantly, honkai energy emanated around it, and, among other qualities of this energy, was its effect on humans.
Honkai energy possesses the ability to turn those who come into contact with it and do not have enough resistance to it into mindless zombies. In addition, there have been people who ended up partially exposed to this energy, and its effects have been very varied:
Loss of emotions
Loss of consciousness.
Pain suppression.
Madness.
Enhanced physical abilities and the possible gaining of unknown skills, but with dire secondary consequences. (Rare cases)
Rapid decomposition of organic tissue and rapid mutation of the existing specimen into a new organism with characteristics and functions ideal for survival and self-defense. (Basically, you become one of them.)
There were few times when exposure to honkai energy helped in any way, as honkai energy usually caused death.
The Honkai unceremoniously attacked humanity, and we, the ordinary humans, could not stop them, and also, when they ended up getting involved with the magi, they discovered that their advantage, magecraft, had turned against them. Humanity had no way to win. We did everything in our power, but it was not enough, and that's when Alaya intervened with the summoning of counterforce guardians, but unfortunately, that did not improve things.
The counter guardians are beings with spiritual bodies, and we never expected what would happen to one of them when exposed to honkai energy because similar beings, such as some phantasmal species, had already left our world, so we found out the hard way. Having a body made of ether, the artificial magical energy that forms the basis for modern magecraft, the reaction to encountering honkai energy was no different than mana.
Now, imagine it for a second. If it was already insane to face a horde of monsters whose energy killed you almost instantly unless you had some way to resist it, now add one or more crazed counter-guardians alongside those beasts.
For a time, humanity was out of options until the Schicksal appeared. Which, according to what they revealed to the public, was an organization they had created from scratch with a new generation of warriors. These were humans biologically modified to fight the honkai, but whether this was true or a lie, it was information that had never come to light; however, since all of humanity was about to become extinct, no one really cared where they came from, the only thing that mattered was that they could fight against the beasts and, despite the doubts, they did.
Of course, not everything was rosy, legendary heroes did not appear to kill the monsters overnight, and our world is not a fairy tale; however, the Schicksal managed to become the organization that stabilized the war and brought it to a standstill. It wasn't a victory, far from it, but it was better than nothing. Thus it became a world-renowned organization that surpassed other organizations in authority, such as the United Nations organization. How great its power is today is debatable; however, it's certainly powerful enough that conspiracy theories about them ruling the world from the shadows don't sound so crazy.
"If the Schicksal is here, that means…" I whispered, not wanting to finish my sentence.
Issei nodded and, walking over to us, whispered, "They said they had detected a honkai energy spike in Fuyuki. Nothing too exaggerated, and it disappeared as quickly as it appeared, but, as a safety precaution, the Schicksal decided to come to watch the area."
"I understand, but why in the temple?" My friend asked confused.
Issei shook his head, "I have no idea, but they said it's the best place to settle in Fuyuki."
Here? Right here? I asked myself.
"Be that as it may, the temple will close and become a restricted area very soon, so I think you two should leave before they force you to leave."
I noticed how Tachie smiled for a moment, then frowned and pretended a despondent expression, "What hospitality the temple has…"
At this accusation, Issei bolted on the defensive, "It's not our fault! Go blame the Schicksal members!"
At these words, many of the workers stopped to glare at him for a few moments. Realizing what he had said, the young monk bowed in shame for forgiveness.
"Please take her away, Shirou."
My friend told me, almost pleading with me, and knowing that Tachie wouldn't stop bothering Issei, I sighed and nodded, "Come on, you said you didn't want to spend much time in the temple, right?"
Tachie smiled and nodded, "It's the last day of our vacation, so we have to make the most of it!"
The young monk frowned, "School is good for all of us, Tachie, it teaches us discipline, something you lack."
Tachie smiled, "So, why do you go to school, Issei? Discipline is something you have left over. You could stop going and leave the school in our hands"
Issei adjusted his glasses, "I wouldn't mind giving my position as student president to Shirou, but I don't know how the hell you would influence him if I left you alone with him."
My friend smiled, "Our reign of terror would be legendary."
Issei sighed, "Shirou-kun, please…"
I nodded with a smile, understanding how he felt, and took Tachie's hand to leave, "Come on, Issei seems to be very busy."
My friend did not resist, and we both went down the mountain.
So, we went through the shopping district again, and then I realized something...
"T-Tachie…"
Seeing my reaction, my friend looked worried, "What's wrong?"
"Haven't you noticed something very important?"
"What?" she asked me curiously.
"Fuji-nee!"
"Oh… that's right, she's in the city, right?"
Fujimura Taiga, Fuji-nee for short, was a professional athlete, a kendo master to be specific, this meant that she was always traveling, and we rarely saw her. She was also old man Raiga's greatest pride.
"Exactly, and Fuji-nee always comes to our house for breakfast when she's in town!"
For a moment, Tachie started to pale, and we both thought the same thing: What could keep the Fuyuki tiger from her food? We didn't know, and we didn't want to find out. Was the end of the world really near?
On our tour, we passed by one of the largest houses in the area of foreign families...
"This house has always given me bad sensations…" my friend whispered.
I nodded. The house my friend was talking about was the house of the Matou family, which had been uninhabited for who knows how many years and, in fact, all the properties of the great magi families were uninhabited, which was not something new since I had never seen these inhabited houses, even though the Tohsaka family was the second owner of this land, I did not understand the reason for this; however, I did not give it much importance either.
Finally, we walked until we reached the Fuyuki Bridge, we crossed it, and thus we arrived at the other half of Fuyuki, Shinto. And, to be honest, neither Tachie nor I liked coming to this part of town as it brought back bad memories for both of us. Even so, we crossed the city as fast as we could until we reached the Green Mall, the largest mall in Fuyuki, where we wasted the rest of the afternoon, and when it was getting dark...
We were both walking through the streets of Shinto. There really was something wrong with this city, for it felt too artificial. Well, it was logical, it was built in a hurry after what happened five years ago.
Eventually, we got to that place. Neither of us liked coming here, but we always ended up coming back, and most of the time, we came together because, at least for my part, I felt that if I came unaccompanied, I would collapse instantly. We kept coming back, no matter how torturous this was for both of us, as if, coming back here, sooner or later, we would find those things we lost again.
Five years ago, something happened. Neither of us really remembered what, but we were sure something had happened. Studies reported that what happened was a spontaneous outbreak, although I didn't think so. However, it was a fact that tracking honkai energy before it exploded was difficult to do because our technology in that regard was limited, but I always thought it couldn't be that simple anyway.
Still, it wasn't what caused it that was important, but what this blast of honkai energy caused. This park, where we were at the moment, was built, along with much of Shinto, in the old residential area of Fuyuki where Tachie and I lived five years ago.
The blast of honkai energy turned hundreds of people into mindless zombies in a matter of seconds, and those who survived this transformation faced perhaps a worse fate.
Many honkai beasts appeared after the huge explosion of energy that day. These destroyed over 100 buildings and killed nearly all of the survivors of the Honkai energy blast.
Fortunately, my father got us both out of the disaster area, saving our lives, but unfortunately, Tachie lost both of her parents that day. I, for my part, did not come out unscathed either because, that day, I lost my mother.
I sighed. Tachie had denied everything; this was her way of coping with the situation. She had denied that she had lost her parents, and she had denied that I lost my mother, so, in a nutshell, Tachie locked herself in a bubble where none of that happened in the first place, and nevertheless, that bubble burst every time we came here.
Tears ran quickly and fleetingly from my friend's eyes, running down her cheeks until they hit the ground. I knew we shouldn't keep coming here, but we couldn't leave this place either, and so we always end up coming back, torturing ourselves, with the small hope that those we lost as children would somehow make it back.
"Come on, Tachie, we have to go back." I took her hand and forced her to follow me. We shouldn't have come back. Even if we couldn't put the past behind us, we shouldn't let it consume us.
So, late at night, we went back to my house, it was customary for Tachie to stay for dinner, so we both had dinner together. Strangely, Fuji-nee didn't come to dinner either, and I really couldn't imagine what would be able to keep Fuji-nee from coming to eat, but it must have been something significant. I hoped nothing wrong had happened.
At the temple, Ryuudou, that night...
I was looking at the night sky from the temple, several years had passed since the last time I returned to my home, but I was not happy to return, not in this way...
"You look like you haven't changed a bit in these years..."
The one who approached was none other than my grandfather, dressed in a yukata and a vest with stripes similar to a tiger. He showed me a photo of me and Shirou from several years ago.
I smiled sadly at the picture, "It's because I haven't really changed. A side effect..."
"You don't look very lively, Taiga."
"Is that why you haven't gone to visit Shirou? I know you've been holding back…"
I nodded.
"Are you afraid of something like what happened almost five years ago happening?"
I nodded again, "I don't want Shirou and Tachie to have to go through something like that again."
"Well, whatever happens, you're a mighty Valkyrie now, aren't you? I'm sure it'll all work out. Though I wish instead of having to carry a spear, you'd carry your sword."
Those that the Schicksal used to confront the honkai later became known as heroes. In fact, many seemed to be using weapons from ancient times, rather than modern weaponry. The Schicksal decided to further romanticize this idea by having the women in their organization called Valkyries, as in Norse mythology, minor deities associated with battle and warfare; on the other hand, the men were generally called Spartans, one of the examples of the most disciplined and deadly warriors in human history. All this to increase their image as the heroes of humanity who had risen to defeat the honkai.
I smiled wistfully, "It's not like I could have chosen, the spirit I'm compatible with uses a spear, I don't have a choice."
"I see, it's a shame," Raiga turned to his granddaughter, "Do you really think something like what happened five years ago will ever happen again?"
"I pray because not..."
…
…
And so the last day of our vacation came to an end. After that day, the little normality that we kept in our daily life would began to disappear.
Author notes:
Well, it took me a while, but the chapter is ready. And I hope that, for the next one, it won't take me so long (although I don't promise anything).
About feedback:
Swiftsure supremacy: Yes, Tachie is a character that I really like.
Redguardmen: I'm glad I could have done a decent translation.
USSRParrot: (Placing my sandwich in a safe).
Sekryuushintei: No, it's Type Saturn.
