Chapter 8 - The Meat Dish (Clash)
Shirou, Tohsaka, and Sakura approached the gates of Ryuudou Temple.
Standing there was a man they never expected to see, serenely smiling at them from above.
"Kuzuki-sensei?!"
His clothes were not any different from what he usually were, but there was now, somehow, a very different and now pristine air about him.
He formerly had given of being cold and composed, but now, he felt much more graceful, elegant.
It was the presence of a servant; a powerful one, at that.
They could tell that they wouldn't be able to get past him easily.
"Emiya and Tohsaka, huh?"
His eyes briefly glanced over Sakura behind them, as well.
"And the Matou girl..."
Kuzuki craned his neck, signaling for them to go on ahead.
"Tohsaka and Matou can pass, but I'm afraid Emiya will have to stay."
"What?" Rin questioned, "Why Emiya-kun alone?"
Kuzuki didn't answer, leading to a tense silence.
Shirou, however, broke the silence by nod.
"It'll be alright, Tohsaka." Shirou assured, tilting his head, signaling them to go ahead, "I'll be fine, you two go ahead."
Rin protested, and was insistent on staying as some sort of support.
"Sakura, though..." Rin hesitated, "Sakura might be our best bet, for scouting. We don't know what lies beyond Kuzuki-sensei, and with her speed, Sakura should be able to escape unscathed if it gets too dangerous."
Shirou felt hesitant to agree to that and put Sakura in any sort of danger, but after their battle, he had also seen first-hand the ridiculous speed that Sakura possessed, and found it difficult to argue the point.
Hesitantly, he nodded.
Sakura, seeing Shirou's affirmation, nodded. And she went on ahead, past Kuzuki.
...
Now, it was only the three of them, Shirou and Kuzuki facing each off each other, staring each other down tensely as Tohsaka observed to the side.
"Now, Emiya."
Kuzuki addressed, moving into a battle stance,
"I'd like to request a fair one-on-one bout with you. As a knight, or rather, as one representing a knight, I trust you have no objections?"
Tohsaka was about to object, as they had the upper hand with the two of them, and accepting such thing when they were supposed to be in a fight to the death was nothing but stupidity.
Unfortunately, before she could, Shirou already nodded, and agreed.
"Fine by me!" He declared, equipping his armor all at once, sword by his side.
"Tohsaka," Shirou glanced at her, knowingly.
She sighed, "Yeah, yeah, I know, I'll stay out of it."
He shot her a grin. "Thanks."
Inwardly, Tohsaka couldn't help but be exasperated at the irrationality of it, the foolish pridefulness of men and their honor.
Facing each other, Shirou and Kuzuki exchanged their names.
"Emiya Shirou, fighting on behalf of King Arthur!"
"King Arthur, hm? Quite the impressive Heroic Spirit you've summoned." Not delaying, Kuzuki also shared the name of his Heroic Spirit.
"Kuzuki, Soichirou. Heroic Spirit, Sasaki Kojirou."
Shirou and Tohsaka both were taken a bit aback at that.
That was a name that almost any Japanese person would recognize, a legendary swordsman of Japanese history.
Tohsaka instantly grew wary. If that was the case, then, like Sakura and Ilya, Kuzuki might be abnormally powerful compared to ordinary Servants. If it really was Sasaki Kojirou, then, the fame had in Japan would surely boost his power considerably. Why was it only them that always encountered the unfair enemy Servants?!
Shirou had been fighting against almost exclusively manifestations of European heroes and legends up until this point, and so the whole war up until this point had felt almost surreal, to some degree. But now that he was fighting a Hero from his own homeland, it felt all the more real than ever before.
Shirou grinned. "Is that so? Well, it's an honor, Sasaki-san."
Kuzuki returned the grin. "Likewise, King Arthur."
...
The battle kicked off, Shirou rushing up to meet Kuzuki.
Shirou had, at first, held off on trying to slash at Kuzuki-sensei, intending to use his "Wind King" sheath as a blunt force weapon instead, feeling uneasy about trying to cut down someone that seemed to be unarmed.
However, that turned out to be a major mistake.
The moment Shirou had entered his range, Kuzuki instantly parried away Shirou's sword before it could be aimed at him, and struck powerfully into Shirou's torso with his reinforced arms, knocking him back and dealing a fair bit of injury and bruising.
"You don't have to hold back, Emiya." Kuzuki stated, noticing Shirou's hesitation, "My whole body is my weapon. All my limbs, and even my internal organs, have all been reinforced by Caster to become stronger than steel."
"Come," He said, "At full force."
Shirou nodded, acknowledging his words. "Then, I'll take you up on that!"
Shirou once again charged at Kuzuki-sensei, this time at full force.
Sword met Fist, as they exchanged blows, Kuzuki gracefully parrying Shirou's swings and slashes with his own thrusts and redirects.
From the side, Tohsaka internally sighed a breath of relief. It looked like she had been worried for nothing. Kuzuki didn't seem to be more powerful than normal servant would be.
His method of fighting was strange, and the reinforcement of his body seemed to be some form of enhancement coming from outside, rather than his own doing. But even so, his strength was about what would be expected from a Servant in this war.
As the fight continued, it was clear, though, that Kuzuki had the upper hand.
Their level of skill was about matched, but Kuzuki had the higher ground, and besides just that, Shirou himself was not able to fully utilize his Servant's skills.
His body and his circuits weren't strong enough to withstand bringing out any more of King Arthur's speed or power, and even his reflexes, as greatly enhanced as they were, weren't able to match up to Kuzuki's speed.
In the time that Shirou had managed to land one blow on Kuzuki, Kuzuki in turn would manage to land 10 blows on Shirou, through openings he found from Shirou's slight lag in movement speed, or through openings he created from parrying and taking advantages of Shirou's lag in reaction time.
Another blow sent Shirou's feet sliding down a few steps, though this time Kuzuki didn't press the offensive with his long, snake-like arms.
Eyeing Shirou, he couldn't help but notice that his wounds seemed to be healing surprisingly quickly, and without any lasting impact on his movement.
"Some sort of healing factor...?" Kuzuki deduced.
"..." Shirou gave no reply.
"Well, no matter." He replied, "It's about time I started getting serious, anyway."
Shirou tensed as the pressure around Kuzuki intensified.
... ... ...
"Tsubame Gaeshi!"
As Kuzuki declared his attack, each of his fists closed in on Shirou from 3 different directions!
A double-sided Tsubame Gaeshi!
Shirou barely managed to avoid one of his fists by quickly side-stepping, but the moment he did, he was caught inside the trajectory of the other fist!
Each attack hit even harder than usual, the impact of the fist that slammed into him felt like the impact of truck crashing right into his body!
Just a normal blow from Kuzuki felt like being hit multiple times from a strongman with a sledgehammer, but these hits landed even more powerfully, with even more range and impact.
It might not have been nearly as lethal as it would be if the technique were executed through a sword, but for normal people, no, even for normal martial artists experts, even a single blow would be enough to kill them, let alone three, from six seperate directions.
And that was before bodily reinforcement from Caster! With Caster's reinforcement and other physical enhancements, each blow hit like the force a truck slamming into the body. And this was from three different directions.
Shirou coughed, barely suppressing the pain of the bones he could hear shatter and cracking under the weight of Kuzuki's fist, as he grit his teeth, and force down the blood threatening to spill out of his mouth.
'Spatial Manipulation?!' Tohsaka observed, astonished at Kuzuki's move, 'No, a Multi-dimensional refraction technique? Even so, that would be a technique bordering on true magic! What kind of monster is he?!'
With Kuzuki's long snake-like arms, though, even though they were not ideal for the technique, they were at least close enough, to mimic the multi-dimensional refraction aspect of the original, even if less perfectly.
Each of what were originally Sasaki Kojirou's strikes were fittingly lethal for the title of an Assassin, and they fit with Kozuki Soichirou's style perfectly.
An ordinary man that reached the level of being able to deal strikes on the level of noble phantasms through sheer technique, compatibility, and enhancements.
And to be able to reach such a level, through only sheer compatibility and reinforcement!
Kozuki Soichirou was truly a monster among men...
To say nothing of his Servant, Assassin, who had managed to create such a technique of such level within his lifetime, one that bordered on the very edge of True Magic, even without the help of any sort of magecraft...
Still, it seemed less than optimal range that the technique could achieve, as though the technique was not meant for Kuzuki's long arms and heavy fists, but rather for something that a longer range and reach.
Shirou backed up and stayed on guard defensively, though to no benefit of his own, as Kuzuki looked perfectly content to patiently waited for him to heal.
After that perfect technique, a heavy 6-sided attack with no way to dodge, Shiro knew that defending against the technique would not be possible. Once launched, it could no longer be evaded. In which case, it would only be possible to evade the technique before it launched or for Shirou to reinforce his ow organs to strengthen his own defenses to minimize the damage with launching a counter-attack.
That was what Tohsaka had concluded, at least.
But instead, Shirou did something insane! As per usual, for that idiot!
"Tsubame Gaeshi!"
Instead of looking out for the attack or reinforcing his defenses, Shirou charged straight through the middle, tanking through the attack and reducing the impact of it at the cost of broken bones and limbs, to take a swipe at Kuzuki's chest!
He succeed, though only delivered a shallow cut before he was forced back by more of Kuzuki-sense's blows.
Kuzuki wasn't reliant just on that technique, but also continued to follow up and extended chains of blows and jabs towards Shirou, breaking more of his already shattered bones and wounded internal organs, faster than Shirou's continuously healing body could keep up with.
"Emiya-kun!" Tohsaka shouted of concern, steeping up to intervene in the duel, "Let's retreat for now! We can regroup later, after we come up with a better strategy!"
"No," He objects, "Stay back, Tohsaka! This is a man's battle!"
"This is no time for your stupid pride!" She objected, and looked at his wounded and battered body in concern...
"Don't worry." Shirou said, "I'm already used to it, by now, broken bones and all."
"That's not something you should be used to, you idiot!" Tohsaka scowled.
No, in the first place, wasn't his fighting style just too reckless? It was practically suicidal in nature!
Instead of using it like that, it would've been a much more effective tool if was only used efficiently, to catch enemies off-guard when they think they've already won.
Sure, he had a very ridiculous regeneration ability, but he shouldn't have been so depend on it!
She would have to scold him about that later!
But the battle continued as it was, though it was just more of mostly just Shirou getting pounded again and again with his recklessness, but occasionally getting a few swings and slices in, as his movements gradually became shaper, as though he was gradually become more and more synchronized with his card.
Kuzuki landed yet another hit in, one that struck Shirou's jaw and rattled brain, as Shirou temporarily blacked out. But again, thankfully Kuzuki waited and didn't follow up.
It seemed as though Kuzuki wouldn't attack an enemy that couldn't respond out of some sense of warrior's pride, or perhaps simply because he was enjoying the fight in and of itself, but whatever the case may have been, it at least gave Shirou the time he needed to recover.
And neither he nor Kuzuki had any fatal wounds yet, but strangely enough, both of them seemed to be enjoying themselves (even Shirou, despite his grievous injuries and pain).
The battle continued on a little while longer, as Shirou continued to improve in the heat of battle, now able to match Kuzuki 3-for-1 in every injury recieved for every sword slice dealt.
Suddenly, Kuzuki backed off.
"That's enough." He declared, "I'm already satisfied. You may pass."
"Huh?"
Shirou and Tohsaka were both confused by the sudden change in nature, but they looked at each other and nodded.
They made to pass Kuzuki on the stairs, but Kuzuki stopped Shirou one last quest.
"It was a good match." Kuzuki commented, "but why didn't go all out, without killing intent or striking at my vital points? Surely if you had done so, it would've become a much more even match towards the end."
"Well," Shirou replied, "...I don't like to kill if possible."
"And more than anything," Shirou continued, as Kuzuki looked unsatisified by that answer, "I didn't sense any killing intent from you."
"Oh? How so?"
"Well, even your first attacks were very clean and precise, like they were meant to deliver crippling wounds, but ones that could heal easily with enough time."
Kuzuki smirked, "I'm impressed you noticed."
Shirou smiled wryly, "Well, it's kind of hard not to, when I'm constantly healing from things like that.
But, through the course of his fight, Shirou had also become quite impressed with Kuzuki-sensei, and by the spirit granting him power, Sasaki Kojirou.
Well, nothing more on him needed to said, though.
A mere humble samurai needed no words, after all.
They glanced at each other respectfully, and nodded.
Shirou ascended the steps, as he felt a friendship between being formed after their duel.
...
At the entrance of the temple, Shirou and Tohsaka were met by the sight of a waiting Sakura.
"Are you okay, senpai?" Sakura asked, concerned.
The sounds of the battle reached even up to the top of them, and though she had been reassured by Caster that Shirou would be fine, and though Shirou looked fine physically, having been healed up by his healing factor, Sakura still couldn't help but express her concern for him.
"Don't worry." Shirou assured, "I'm perfectly healthly."
"More importantly what about Caster?" He asked, "Have you already taken care of Caster? Or found out anything about them?"
Sakura shook her head, "No, but..."
She was about to say something else when a different voice suddenly interrupted her.
"You took long enough to get here, Emiya," A familiar voice called out, "Did Assassin keep you for that long?"
A figure in black steeped out, one that Shirou and Tohsaka knew all too well.
"Issei?!"
...
Bon Appetite!
...
...
...
Author's Notes:
...
False Assassin brings more serene and gentle but confident personality to Kuzuki's otherwise stoic nature,
About Tsubame Gaeshi and Double Tsubame Gaeshi - Fist version,
Only Kuzuki, raised as an empty weapon who only knew martial arts and lengthy limbs, could mimic and translate the move from swords to fists so perfectly, filling his body, as an empty vessel, with the technique, just as Sasaki Kojirou filled Kuzuki's personality with his existence.
Maybe a certain Chinese martial arts master could do something similar, given enough time, but Kuzuki really was only one who could master techniques so perfectly.
...
False Assassin is one of my favorite Servants.
Fate's Sasaki Kojirou is just too cool.
Truly one of the epitomes of Japanese Men,
The True Legend of Samurai.