A sword, No Words...
Fei Fong Li rose slowly, unaware of those insects posed on the Dream Ship antennae who spied the slightest of his movements
The Geomancer's ability to feel events happening near a Dragon Road was indeed impressive but was limited to perceiving the presence of Mana, its use by magicians, or the most devastating natural phenomena. It was of no use to him under the present circumstances.
Bathed in the blue light of the leyline, he concentrated. Myriads of lightings gushed from the luminescent ground, rising to the assault of his legs. Li held out his open hand over his head and more lightning came out of his fingers. Where they met appeared a luminous point that grew rapidly.
When he lowered his hand, a sphere the size of a soccer ball floated in front of him, with the same bluish luminescence as that emanating from a Dragon Road.
The Geo-Immortal smiles. The Leyline Observation Ball was one of his most useful power. He could control it like a remote control spy devise. Everything that the ball saw and heard was sent to him, its creator.
Fei Fong Li creation responded to his mental order, following the leyline towards the city which he had unintentionally rifted. The confrontation between the exiles and the Horunes was certainly going to be interesting. Who knows, the inhabitants might even be useful to him. The two very powerful entities he felt gave him hope that this would be the case.
The immortal Geomancer didn't care if his discoveries would be useful to the Horunes or Shogun Tietsin Otomo... Although he claimed to be loyal to the latter, he disdained this brutal and vain dictator. Li had joined him for only one reason. The ambitions of the Shogun were just in time to allow his true master to act in discretion to his own purposes. The only role of the Otomo shogunate in Li's plans was that of a diversion. If Otomo had not existed, Li would probably have offered his services to another local power and excited its territorial appetites in the same way. Fei Fong Li cared little about the interest that Fuyuki (a diversion inside a diversion) could represent for his true master, Li had no loyalty to the cruel master who had bound him to the Darkland by offering him the poisoned gift of immortality. However, the entity the Geomancer served was far more dangerous than a mortal. To upset a Baal was to choose suicide... and by the most unpleasant method possible!
In fact, Fei Fong Li only cared about one person... himself. The sole purpose of the Geomancer was to preserve its abnormally lengthened life. For this, he was ready to kill, manipulate and betray. For centuries, it was his daily life.
And the insects that were watching the Chinese geomancer understood and approved perfectly the objective as the method. Fei Fong Li was like a soul brother to Matou Zouken.
The port of Fuyuki continued to be beaten by the rain and the wind unleashed by the storm that the Horunes had called.
But the rain curtains did not hide the arrival of the second assault wave. This time, the pirates had disembarked at three points from the container's port. A flood of monstrous creatures had come out of the three Dream Ships. Most of them were Horunes, big bipedal lizards with five eyes, the others... a collection of monsters to loosen the hair on the head.
Like the first time, arrows and rays of red light had struck their ranks, killing many of them. But the retaliation came in the form of a powerful lightning bolt casted by the strange magical cannon that stood on top of the Dream Ships.
The attack did not take Archer by surprise.
Calmly, the Servant of the Bow stretched out his arm as if he wanted to stop the lightning with an imperious gesture. At the same time, his lips formed two brief but nevertheless powerful and legendary words:
"Rho Aias!"
And a flower of pink light opened before his hand, unfolding seven petals like the doubtful flower knight's spur born of the blood of Aias the Great.
The lightning spell spits out by the Storm Cannon broke on the first layer of the shield amidst a shower of sparks. Around the Servant of the Bow, secondary arcs struck the metal poles that surrounded the heliport platform at the top of Center Building.
In the air stinking with the smell of ozone and molten steel, EMIYA smiles, his eyes that saw everything had revealed that the reinforcements had finally arrived.
As they had been taught, the policemen had taken shelter behind their cars. They made the customary summons... But the faces were pale, the hands trembled. Did they dream of this scene? Because it was like their childhood nightmares. The monsters moved towards them without haste, as if driven forward by the inevitability of fate. Confused, the policemen felt they could do nothing to stop them.
The Keibu (Chief Inspector) Murasaki swallowed and gave the order to open fire. The Model 60 New Nambu slammed, but the .38 ricocheted on the armor and even on the unprotected limbs of the creatures. The shooting continued, however, until the firing pins slammed into the void... not a single Horune had been wounded. They were invulnerable.
One of the five-eyed monsters raised a sort of short, stocky rifle, strangely covered with spikes, and opened fire on a container behind the police roadblock.
A hurricane seemed to come out of the barrel of his gun. And the container broke in half, ejecting metal fragments and debris from its contents in all directions.
The policemen - who had turned around - watched the damage with terror.
Suddenly a shadow passed over them.
Falling back into a puddle of water, she stood there, interposing herself between the tide of enemies and the stupefied policemen.
They saw her from behind, a small blonde girl wearing a sort of improbable dress-armor.
The Horunes were probably even more surprised than the Japanese. Nevertheless, one of them threw himself forward to seize her... he saw only an unarmed human, an easy prey, the first spoil of this day.
But Saber was not unarmed. Her hands buckled on the handle of her invisible sword and the King of Knight swirled upon in a movement as graceful as a dance step. The next moment, the monster was falling apart, cut in half.
There was a moment of shock, then all the Horunes threw themselves forward, hungry for revenge. They brandished barbed daggers, some sort of swords, or tridents wrapped in a blazing aura.
Artoria glanced at her assailants, noting their position. Then jumped forward, drawing Mana from her Dragon Core. A fabulous power spread through her nerves, bones, and muscles, accelerating her speed, increasing her strength and endurance. At the same time, the Sword of the Winds' King reduced the atmospheric pressure around her and thus the friction of the air. This attack was one of her favorite moves, as it was a particularly effective way to fight many enemies. Saber had named this attack Winds' King Slash.
Saber shape becomes blurred... and appeared simultaneously in four or five different places.
As the afterimages disappeared, the King of Knights reappeared behind the group of Horunes who had attacked her. Her sword was no longer invisible. The blood covered the blade to the guard, having splashed the knight's breastplate and even her cheek.
In a crimson outburst, the Horunes she had just faced fell to the ground... had lasted the time of a wink.
Stunned, the pirate leader stretched out his finger toward the King of Knight and yelped a brief order. His subordinates opened fire. Only the scarlet laser beams struck Saber's armor. The techno-magic weapons, whether they fired sound waves or plasma discharges, fired in vain. Their magical charges disappeared around the Servant, dissolving into a sphere of translucent light.
Artoria held one hand to her chest... the laser shots had been stopped by her chest plate, but they had left some superficial impacts. It was disturbing. Normally, a Heroic Spirit could not be wounded by ordinary weapons. And if it had been spells, her powerful protection from magic would have stopped the attacks. It seems that some rules concerning the invulnerability of Servants have been changed by her arrival in another world (1).
If the result of the salvo had surprised Artoria Pendragon, her reaction had been limited to a brief narrowing of her jewel-like eyes.
On the other side, the pirates were stunned by shock and terror. Some were starting to retreat. Artoria straightened herself, grabbing Excalibur with two hands, and threw herself upon them. She leaped, turning in the air, to fall down beside the leader of the assailants. The Horune remained for a moment without moving, then a red line appeared from his shoulder to the hip... the top of his body collapsed on one side, the bottom on the other.
Around them, the pirates fled in panic.
Sagakawa Shiori was a female police officer and wore a uniform consisting of a navy blue skirt and jacket, as well as a light blue shirt. In all his life, the junsa (Police Officer) Sagakawa had never done anything riskier than verbalizing pedestrians crossing when the traffic light is red or motorists in a bit of a hurry.
Today, she was running towards the nearest car, horrified and panicked. She entered the right side, that of the driver, and leaned over the radio:
"This is car 27, requesting immediate backup on the loading dock of the..."
A grunt made her turn. One of the five-eyed monsters had followed her. She screamed with terror and closed the door. The Horune stopped next to the car and tried to open the closed door from the inside... and forced as the lock resisted. The noise of the torn metal sounded as the Toyota sedan was shaken in all directions. The door tore out of the chassis.
Shiori drew her service weapon, a Model 57B New Nambu. The .32 ACP was less powerful than the caliber of policemen's revolver... and had even less effect.
The pirate D-Bee grumbled again, irritated by the resistance of the human. Fortunately for Shiori, she was a future slave and as such had value only in good condition. He pulled her out of the driver's chair with almost gentle gestures, and laid her on his shoulder without worrying about the kicks and punches she continued to distribute.
He brought her back to the wharf. The battle was almost over. The policemen were lying on the ground, most of them were only slightly wounded.
On the other hand, the Yakuza were still struggling. Their improvised weapons were incapable of hurting supernatural creatures. However, as soon as they had been put in danger, supernatural energy had spread in them...
The fighting continued with bare hands and the Fujimura Yakuza were personally trained by their Oyabun in various martial arts. The beatings they gave made the Horunes stagger and when the monsters retaliated, they had to go a little seriously to hurt the mobsters. However, the fight remained uneven. Of course, the Yakuza were now much stronger and more resistant than ordinary humans, but they were not able to fight monsters like the Horuns and their allies.
Except for Raiga.
The Yakuza Oyabun had undergone the same strange transformation as his men, becoming what was called "a light megadamages creature"... his strength and endurance became supernatural allowing him to counter the attacks of his opponents. But above all, he had in hand a seventeenth-century Katana forged by a traditional master blacksmith. By a process similar to that which had transformed its owner, Fujimura Raiga's weapon had become... how to say... alive? Supernatural energy spread in the blade, reinforcing its resistance and sharpness, communicating to the Oyabun the quintessence of the swordsmanship of its successive users.
Two wounded Horunes lay at his feet and a different creature advanced towards him. His hands and feet had only three fingers and horns protruding above his forehead. Above all, he had five arms. Three hands held a weapon: a katana, a kind of pistol, and a Kusari-Gama (2). Despite its small size, the being was threatening... Raiga recognized a creature of the Japanese legends... an Oni! A kind of demon mentioned in the tales or that appeared on old drawings.
The Oni threw himself forward. Raiga blocked the attack of the sickle weapon while avoiding the weight weighted at the other end of the chain of the Kusari-Gama that the demon made twirl with the skill born of long practice. While deviating a second katana attack, the yakuza Oyabun retaliated with a kick that hit the opponent in the chest, forcing him to retreat.
Alas, this brief victory prompted the Oni to resort to his innate magical powers.
The Japanese demon disappeared!
One moment, the Oni was there... the moment after, his image disappeared in a wobble.
Surprised, Raiga stopped and frowned. Around him, the Horunes shouted and waved their weapons, cheering their champion, visibly delighted by the climax. Hearing a slight noise, Taiga's grandfather made a side jump. Too late, a bloody line tore his kimono from shoulder to hip. The old man retreated, his face filled with drops of sweat.
The attack had put an end to the invisibility of the Oni. Of course, it had just reappeared, leveling the playing field a little. Unfortunately, the demon had probably some other weird tricks. The fight was bad for Raiga...
But the roar of a furious tiger interrupted the duel. All the heads turned to a trail of dust that was zigzagging in the streets of the city, rushing towards the port. The phenomenon was caused by a woman wearing a green dress with two shoulders straps on a yellow sweater striped with black. She has short light brown hair and eyes. She was running at an incredible speed squeezing into her hands a kendo's bamboo blade.
Before the Horunes could make a move, the woman stopped in front of the Oni as stunned as his allies and struck him with Tora-Shinai. The demon tore himself from the ground... whirled in the distance... and fell back into the sea, more than two hundred yards from the shore, throwing a geyser of foam towards the sky:
"NOBODY TOUCHES MY GRANDDAD! *ROAR*!"
Behind the young woman appeared the cartoonish dawning of a tiger with the rising sun and two ideograms meaning "Tiger of Fuyuki".
For many, it was the strangest event of the day (yes the rifting of a city, like Fuyuki one's, was almost routine on Rifts Earth).
For Fuyuki high school students and the tenants of the Emiya Residence, it was just Fujimura Taiga...
Tohsaka Rin and Emiya Shirou may have used the Reinforcement Magecraft to run faster, but they were only slowing Saber down. Rin had ordered her to go ahead to stop the pirates. She had obeyed reluctantly... her acceleration had left them far behind. As they entered the harbor, they were also doubled by Fuji-Nee...
For a moment, Rin had been amazed. A supposed ordinary human was running faster than them, almost as fast as a Servant. Then she sighed... ordinary logic and the laws of physics seemed to no longer work within a ten-meter radius around Taiga. Also, the Magus was content to press the step again.
Rin and Shirou arrived just in time to face the attack of the Horunes, determined to avenge the defeat of the Oni.
While Shirou held out his hands...
"Trace one."
...and materialized Kanshou and Bakuya. At his side, Rin pointed a finger at the pirates:
"Gandr."
Several black projectiles like ink, wrapped in a red aura, hit the first row of the Horunes. A single Finn Shot did not have the power to seriously hurt a Horune, even though this Runic Magrecraft had been transformed into something much more powerful since their arrival in this world.
Although no words were exchanged, Shirou and Rin work perfectly fine together and the redhead youngster had guessed his girlfriend's battle plan. As she diverted the attention of the assailants, he jumped among the enemies. The Married Blades mowed around, describing bloody lines. Shirou was like mercury, lively and fleeting, impossible to grasp. The Horunes had rushed towards him, but they seemed to move in slow motion. Dodging, blocking, striking, jumping over his opponents Shirou kept running and changing direction, attacking an opponent and immediately getting out of range. Despite their numbers, the Horunes could not encircle their opponent. And more and more enemies gripping bloody wounds abandoned the fight.
Attentive, Rin followed the confrontation shaking her hands on her chest. When she saw a leader begin to give orders, reaching out to the police prisoners and then pointing to Taiga and Raiga, she understood his plan:
"Shirou, come back!"
The young redhead had fallen back behind a Horune. He struck him on the back of the ankles, cutting the tendons of Achilles. Then Shirou bowed to the ground, passing between two other enemies, to beat them to the thighs. While the three wounded were crawling away, he stopped near Rin who had lowered her left sleeve revealing a labyrinthine pattern of a fluorescent blue-green... her Magic Crest.
"Das Schließen Vogelkäfig Echo."
As Rin hypnotized herself drawing on the knowledge of her ancestors, her Magic Crest shaped Prana and a sort of wall appeared before them. It was a sort of translucent pink-violet membrane covered with sparks.
An instant later, the strange weapons of the Horunes struck Rin's Bounded Field. Laser rays, plasma spheres, and sonic discharges bounced back in vain.
As often, Shirou looked at his girlfriend with disbelief. Her mastery of Magecraft always seemed unreal for him... Of course, the Tohsaka Magic Crest worked like a real magic process generator allowing Rin to use the Magecrafts known by her ancestors. But only a true genius could sum up in one formula the creation of a Bounded Field that normally required a Formalcraft ritual and several hours of incantation.
An instant later, Rin turned to Shirou:
"Their leader is preparing to use the prisoners they made as hostages. They're on the ground, all I have to do is shoot above the knee and hit the Horunes without harming the policemen. On the other hand, can you neutralize the Horune carrying the policewoman there on the right? I can't shoot him without risking hurting her."
Shirou nodded without a word. He let his two Dao (Chinese's sabers) dissipate into blue Prana particles before Tracing a large black bow and some arrows:
"I am ready."
Rin had an ominous smile and held out a finger, without worrying about the second wave of shots hitting her Bounded Field. Once again her Magic Crest manifested itself as she resorted to the knowledge of her ancestors. The young Magus in red shouted in German:
"Fixiering Eile Salve !"
A rain of Gandrs, more powerful and more numerous than that which Rin generated by herself, mowed down the group of Horunes who stood beside the prisoners lying on the ground.
Simultaneously, an arrow hits the hostage-taker who held Sagakawa Shiori.
Constantly attacked by the Dream Ships Storm Cannons, Archer was now unable to use his bow. He astralized approaching the port as fast as he could.
Despite their losses, the Horune were still far from having exhausted all their resources. In the midst of the other pirates stood a D-bee hardly different from its congeners, the five-eyed lizard raised a hand towards Rin's Bounded Field:
"Dispel Magic Barriers."
And as the wall of light broke like a glass window... the Horune cast another spell centered on Tohsaka:
"Globe of Silence."
A spellcaster was reliant on spoken incantations. And this invisible magic globe stops all sounds, making a magician completely powerless because his words cannot be heard.
"On attack, I neutralized the girl. Capture her and kill the man next to her."
Of course, the Horunes did not know that, in Magecraft, the incantation was only used to focus, it was absolutely not indispensable.
What Rin feared had just come true... she faced a Magus using True Magic. He had broken her Bounded Field with great ease. Seeing the Horunes rushing upon her, she had to tap into her pride to not flee in panic.
Fortunately, Shiro intervened, injuring several attackers.
As Tohsaka used her Magecraft to support him she did not hear her own words... which completely baffled her, preventing her from using the Magecraft she was preparing. Troubled, stunned, the Red Devil then saw three Horunes throw themselves upon her. By reflex, the young woman closed her eyes while mentally calling Saber for help, muted, she could not call Shirou back.
There was a shock and she felt lifted from the ground...
[Rin, you can open your eyes, you're safe.]
Hearing Archer's mental voice, Rin blushes while looking around. Her (traitor of) Servant carried her like a princess and had just landed on the highest container of a stacking dominating the battlefield.
She hurried to tear herself from the (too) protective arms of EMIYA. For once out of words, Tohsaka turned to the battlefield. She saw Saber, running towards them. The Servant of the Sword came from an area of the docks littered with corpses and crushed vehicles...
[Saber, take care of Shirou, I'm safe with Archer.]
[Agreed] answered the mental voice of the golden-haired Servant.
Standing a few steps away with his bow in hand, Archer had begun to throw arrows to support the redhead in the middle of a battle against the Horunes. But, suddenly, his gaze drifted towards the sea.
A stream of foam had just appeared.
"These are whales," thought the hero EMIYA.
He gave little importance to what he thought were harmless marine mammals, preferring to concentrate on the assailants.
But even Archer did not know everything. He did not know that with the arrival of the whales the battle would know a new turning point.
Some distance away, the small fleet of the Republic of Japan was advancing through the strait separating the islands of Shikoku and Kyushu.
The sonar operator of an escort was the first to hear and recognize in the whale song at Whale Singer Spellsongs.
"Commander, our reinforcements have arrived."
The officer in white uniform took a pair of electronic binoculars and turned towards the end of the strait... and the town of Fuyuki. The clouds were tearing! The magic of the whales' song had worked, calming the storm created by the Horune.
"Prepare the helicopter for a reconnaissance mission."
"Aye, aye, sir."
Shirou had short breaths. Blood was running from a wound to the cheek. The sleeves of his jacket were lacerated. With exhaustion coming, the young Magus more and more hardly blocked and avoided attacks. Standing up to hundreds of enemies was very different from fighting a single powerful opponent like Archer or Gilgamesh. It was increasingly difficult for him to keep up... The redhead was running out of steam as new opponents came in to replace the losses.
Without the presence of Saber, struggling by his side, he would have been submerged for a long time. In fact, she did most of the work, interposing like a shield between the energy weapons fire and her ex-Master, eliminating the Horunes who attacked him in the back.
Without the presence of Archer who supported them at a distance and Rin who had started a magical duel with their leader, the situation would have been much worse.
However, the Horunes suddenly stopped their attack. Undecided, they looked at the sky... The rain had stopped and the wind had been reduced to a simple sea breeze.
This was the signal of the attack of the Japanese army.
The Striker Attack helicopter was an advanced four men multi-purpose combat chopper that was a work-horse of the Navy of the old American Empire. The Japanese, one of the main allies of the U.S., had also bought this reliable and relatively economical machine.
Flying over the Horune fleet, several of these gunship helicopters moved around dodging the Wing Boards attacks. Around them, flying power-armors were in charge of eliminating the most pugnacious opponents.
The Strikers did not target the Dream Ships with their missiles or even their belly gun laser, such weapons would have been hardly more effective than a wasp sting on the skin of an elephant.
Their most powerful weapon was the invisible beam of a laser designator.
A dozen nautical miles away, a Japanese Haguro class Nuclear Guided Missile Cruiser was advancing in the Bungo Strait. On her upper deck, in front and behind the bridge, metal opercula slipped to reveal the ninety-six cell Mk-59 vertical launcher kiln silos. In a tear of fabric multiplied by a thousand, cruise missiles emerged from the silos, carried by flame jets. In a few seconds, the Guided Missile Cruiser spewed out a salvo of 384 cruise missiles armed with plasma warheads.
The salvo fell, divided between a dozen Dream Ships "painted" as a target by the Striker Helicopters. The strange ships were incredibly resilient, but the attack was extremely powerful. Caught in a rapid succession of dazzling explosions, the magical constructions were reduced to inflamed wreckage adrift. Some Dream Ships broke down into a cloud of Prana butterflies. The magic that animated them having disappeared, they had become again the dreams (or rather the nightmares) that they should never have ceased to be.
Simultaneously, "Samurai Class" SAMAS (3) power Armor fell from the sky to attack the Horunes who had landed in the container ships' port. As their name indicated, these flying exosuits resembled samurais in armor. Nevertheless, they had two powerful thrusters hanging in the back, with air inlets and a pair of wings on their shoulders. Other smaller wings protruded on the calves. Still less "samurai-like" they held in hand a kind of big gun connected to the dorsal generator by two cables.
As they were diving on the Horunes that receded towards the Dream Ships still at the docks, dazzling blue rays emerged from their AT-P1000 SAMAS Particle Beam rifles.
Hit by the precise shots, several D-Bees collapsed, their armor covered with painful electrical arcs. Struck by several simultaneous shots, one of the monsters disintegrated.
Rin, Saber, and Shirou looked at the clash with amazement. Their enemies had completely forgotten them. They returned to the pier, abandoning their weapons and wounded in their haste to flee.
Unfortunately for them, the same panic reigned aboard the Dream Ships that had dropped them off. While many D-Bees were still crowded on the docks, the ramps were already rising, abandoning the latecomers.
The Samurai SAMAS had stopped shooting. A voice amplified by a loudspeaker sounded:
"Throw down your weapons and get down on your knees with your hands on your head! Those who try to resist will be killed! Comply immediately, this is your only chance to leave the place alive."
Their morale shattered, the Horunes turned themselves prisoners.
As for Archer, after dropping Rin off with her friends, he headed for a container. In the shadow of the huge metal box, a Prana sphere the size of a soccer ball floated on the ground.
EMIYA had spotted it earlier, spying on the battlefield. Thanks to his Structural Grasp Magecraft, the Servant of the Bow knew it was a kind of familiar.
He had a smirk:
"Hello, Fei Fong Li. I have two things to say to you. The first is that I already know more about you than you know about me. The second is that I don't like being spied on."
He threw Kanshou. The blade swirled on itself and pulverized the Leyline Observation Ball before returning to EMIYA, magnetized by Bakuya.
Archer dissipated the yin and yang Dao and turned around without a look back, certain that his message had been heard.
Some air-cushion troop's transports hovercrafts vessels had boarded the port of Fuyuki. They landed soldiers dressed in strange blue-gray segmented armor. With its helmet that looked like an insect head, its vision slits like completely black eyes, this armor turned its wearer into a strange bug-like humanoid.
While the soldiers of the Republic of Japan took charge of the prisoners, an aerial machine appeared. It was VTOL with two tilting rotors at the end of long wings and distinctive twin booms reminiscent of the P-38 fighter from World War II. It flew like a propeller plane but landed like a helicopter.
The machine carried red crosses on its wings and, just on the ground, military doctors came out to take charge of the wounded Yakuzas and policemen who were witnessing the deployment of an incredulous look.
One of these doctors even approached Saber to ask if she was hurt... it must be said that her armor was covered in blood. But the woman knight thanked with the most perfect politeness, keeping her hands crossed on her invisible sword.
Impressed by her formidable presence, the doctor did not insist.
Standing near Saber, Rin looked at Shirou who was next to Raiga. The old man was being bandaged by a nurse who was getting tons of useless advice from a hyperactive Taiga.
As the redhead came back to them, the Red Devil smiled at him:
"Is your grandfather okay?"
Shirou nodded to that:
"Yes, he has only a flesh wound. And according to what the doctor says about the medicine practiced here, he should be cured by tomorrow."
This surprised Rin. Of course, she had already seen more incredible things... such as the almost instantaneous healing of Shirou's wounds. However, it was probably a very advanced technology in this case.
As the redhead remained immersed in his thoughts, she teased him:
"What's wrong with you? You look like a squirrel that would have licked a piece of sugar."
The remark made Shirou laugh:
"I don't really understand what happened to Raiga and the other Yakuza, it's...
"It's their tattoos."
Rin, Shirou, and even Saber turned back to watch Archer. The latter stood nonchalantly against a container, arms folded and eyes closed. Rin asked him to repeat. EMIYA opened an eye:
"What I said is not obvious? Yakuzas are tattooed in a ritual manner with a dragon (emblem of the Yakuza) plus their clan's own motif, such as a geisha, samurai, or chrysanthemum flower. Yakuzas lend these tattoos a protective capacity. Every time a Yakuza completes a major mission or rises in rank, his tattoo is retouched as a reward, enlarged and embellished to increase the protection he receives."
Rin wanted to speak and stopped before taking a pensive look:
"In our world, the magic power of these tattoos was nothing but superstition."
Archer showed his empty hands in a gesture of exaggerated surprise:
"True, but all magic is based on the conviction of its existence. And these ritual tattoos are meant to protect their wearers. In our world, of course, magic was like a stream dried up by drought. But here..."
With a gesture of his hand, the Servant pointed to the inlet.
As night fell, the wall of blue light formed by the Leyline became more and more luminous, making the ocean sparkle transforming it into an alien landscape.
"Here," he repeated, "magic is a river that overflows, inflated by floods. The forms of magic that we look like superstitious are real here."
"And Raiga's katana, "asked Rin "why can it hurt the Horune when a gun is incapable of make wounds?"
"It's a minor Noble Phantasm," replied Shirou. "I added it to my Reality Marble. However, I do not understand... I had already seen this sword before and it had nothing special."
Archer sighed theatrically while shaking his head:
"And I would never understand how you can be so stupid. You still don't understand after my explanation about yakuza tattoos?"
The mocking line made Saber frown:
"Archer, no need to be hurtful."
But Rin was not interested in the dispute, she rubbed her lips with a thoughtful look:
"What happens to a Noble Phantasm who has lost all his Mystery?"
This made Archer smile:
"There, our little genius got it."
As Saber and Shirou turned to Tohsaka, she seemed surprised:
"Indeed, it's obvious... In our original universe, magic has become a very limited resource. The more people who know about the existence of a Magecraft, the less powerful it is, conversely, the more secret it is, and the more effective it is. This is called the Mystery. A Noble Phantasm who loses all his Mystery becomes an ordinary weapon or object. But here, magic overflows, there is no need to restrict the knowledge of magic, no need for the Mystery. So, in this universe, Raiga's katana once again became the Noble Phantasm he had been before he lost all his Mystery."
The conversation between the two former Masters and the two Servants had been listened to by the Yakuzas, the police, but also the soldiers of the Republic of Japan. Most of the listeners exchanged incredulous looks. For them, the quartet might as well have spoken in Martian...
But this was not the case with Fujimura Raiga. The old yakuza knew many things. And then, he was an accomplice of Emiya Kiritsugu. Although he was not "officially" aware of Magecraft's existence, he had spent too many years as a helper of Shirou's father not to become aware of certain things. He approached, leaning on Fuji-nee:
"I am far from having understood everything. But, to sum up, we were projected into another world where magic is more powerful than in our original universe."
Lighting his pipe, the Yakuza's Oyabun looked at the battlefield, the containers still smoking, the corpses and nodded:
"A very dangerous universe... and according to your explanations Tohsaka-san, Archer-san, you are the only people who can defend Fuyuki." He added after a nod to Shirou: "I mean you, my grandson and Saber-san, of course. I think we're going to have to discuss this. Shirou, take your friends to my house tomorrow."
Clenching the hands on her belly, Rin opened wide eyes surprised... the last events had completely made her forget that non-Magus could listen to them... Rin had the talent, not blessed by the gods, to do these kinds of trivial mistakes. Troubled, she smiles by reflex, trying to look decent:
"Yes... indeed, Fujimura-san... I think Fuyuki's exiles must help each other. I sense that trials await us in the future."
Rin looked at the soldiers who were starting to pile up the corpses and pick up the abandoned weapons... In fact, the most immediate problem was this "Republic of Japan". They were friendly, seemed well-intentioned, and without them, the city would certainly have suffered great damage. But they made Rin uncomfortable. First, no Magus believed in altruism. And the heiress of the Tohsaka expected to be presented with the bill of intervention at any time.
Besides, what the hell, how could she trust humans who dared to do better than her Magecraft with... technology? It hurt her Magus' pride.
In truth, Rin hated technology... and, for a technophobe like her, stay too long among these men with their weird armors, their lasers guns and their flying samurai was the guaranteed of an eczema crisis.
Seeing the scornful and furious expression of the Tohsaka heiress as she watched the Republicans, Shirou winced. He better watch carefully how Rin behaves with these "Republicans".
He remembered too well what happened when he asked her to record a TV program on his VCR.
The poor VCR... (4)
Ten nautical miles away, Fei Fong Li was resting in his cabin aboard the largest Dream Ship in the Horune fleet.
The battle had been very instructive... and terrifying.
He shuddered, recalling the mocking face of this man with colorless eyes and white hair:
"Hello, Fei Fong Li. I have two things to say to you. The first is that I already know more about you than you know about me. The second is that I don't like being spied on."
Li clenched his teeth, trying to forget the implicit threat contained in the words of this "Archer". He was not very brave. But the Geo-Immortal justified it in a simple way. After all, ordinary men lived only a few years... they had little to lose. He could live for thousands of years. His death would be a waste.
Li turned to his bed and sighed. The Geomancer had trouble thinking. Since he had gone to bed he had heard noises in the partition, squealing, like the singing of many insects.
The noise had only increased. There must have been an infestation of vermin onboard.
Suddenly, from the ventilation hatch came a swarm of monstrous worms. While the Geo-Immortal looked at the phenomenon with fright, unable to flee because of its distance from all Leyline, the horrible insects gathered in the middle of the room to form a mound that rose up to the height of his shoulder.
The mass twisted and metamorphosed to take on the appearance of an old man leaning on a cane and dressed in a kimono. The horribly wrinkled ghoul looked at him with a smile:
"Have no fear, honorable Fei Fong Li. I didn't come to attack you. In fact, I want to help you."
Author's note: The first fight of the Servants in the world of Rift was not very difficult. It is obvious that the Horunes (plunderers who attack coastal communities, pirates who attack disarmed commercial vessels, and slave traders who attack the weakest) were not up to the task.
Nevertheless, if one were to note the dangerousness of the Horunes on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give them a 3. Compared with Lord Splyncrynn; the demonic legions of Hades; or Dyval Deevils' hordes... they are about as dangerous as kittens just born.
(1) Artoria is wrong. There is nothing out of the normal rules of a Grail War. Lasers are indeed "ordinary" weapons, but the Horunes are supernatural creatures and as such, they can hurt Servants.
(2) One of many chain weapons used by ninjas.
(3) SAMAS was the acronym of Strategic Armored Military Assault System. The SAMAS, sometimes affectionately called "Sam", is the most characteristic flying Power Armor of the world of Rifts. The first models were made before the opening of the Rifts, in the U.S.A. In the 100 P.A. years, they are mainly found in North America, where these armors have a large number of descendants.
(4) See in Carnaval Phantasm...