Author's notes:
Quick note of warning. I'm still writing the big fight scene that I promise you all and I'm taking my time with it so I make it as great as I can. But since I had this chapter finished and ready I decided to post it for you to read and keep you occupied while I continue writing the fight.
Hope you enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 21:
Blame Your God (Part 2)
I was right.
This day just keeps getting crazier and crazier.
"See, this is what you get for fighting again." Aiko Hyoudou thoroughly soaked a cotton ball with disinfectant before she gently took hold of her daughter's head and dabbed at the cut. "Who ever heard of a girl doing something as dangerous as getting into street fights. I swear I don't know where I went wrong with you."
"Ouch!" Karasuba hissed in pain, pulling her head away from her mother to glare sullenly up at her, "Mom, that stings."
"Oh, stop your whining you big baby." Aiko brushed her daughter's complaints aside and gripped Karasuba firmly by the chin, holding her in place as she continued to treat her wound. "If you're brave enough to strut around with an injury like that, then you're brave enough to get it treated. Now hold still and let me finish."
Karasuba scowled in indignation at her treatment but obeyed, enduring her mother's ministrations while sulking in her seat like a petulant child.
While Karasuba had managed to do a half decent job of cleaning herself up on our way here, she still looked like she had just walked away from a fight. Even if she could wash away most of the blood covering her, there was nothing she could do to disguise the large bleeding gash she'd received to the side of her head, courtesy of Heracles. As it was, I was just grateful that no one had reported us to the police on our way here, though we had managed to garner our share off odd looks.
Aiko had already been patiently waiting for us to arrive at the house so had immediately caught sight of Karasuba when we entered. Yet instead of panicking, as I had half-expected her to do, Aiko just sighed resignedly, as if she had expected something like to happen, before latching onto her daughter's hand and all but dragged her to the kitchen to have her cut treated, studiously ignoring all of her daughter's protests with a practised ease.
It was at that moment, when I saw Karasuba being manhandled by her mother as she sulked like a petulant child, that I knew this lunch was going to be every bit as crazy as I had expected it to be.
"Would you like another mug?" A male voice politely offered.
"Yes, please." Without taking my eyes off the mother and daughter pair, I absently held out my tea mug before me and nodded towards the two, "Are they always like this?"
"Who? Aiko and Kara?" He asked, setting the kettle back down on the table after he finished refilling my mug. At my nod, he shrugged, "Pretty much. Why, is it really that odd?"
"No, it's not. It's just..." I searched for the word as I turned to face the man, "unexpected."
Hyoudou Ichirou, Karasuba's and Issei's father, looked exactly like I remembered him from the school visit. A slim man that bordered on being gangly, with a scruffy overall look. Even when he was resting at home on his day off he still wore a pair of slacks and a shirt with the top two buttons undone, the very same type of clothing he had worn at school, though he had apparently decided to forgo the tie and jacket.
It was clear that he hadn't bothered to brush his hair this morning as it was a tangled bird's nest of a mess, and on his chin he still had the scruffy patch of hair that was trying really hard to be a beard but was failing miserably. And just like how I remembered he only had a single arm, the left sleeve of his shirt hanging limply by his side, empty.
Warm brown eyes, so different than those of his daughter's, peered at me from behind his frames, twinkling with amusement as if he knew exactly what I thinking, a tiny smile sitting on his lips.
"Ah, that I can understand." He gave me a knowing nod and turned to look at his daughter where she sat on the stool by the kitchen counter with a fond look. "Our Kara does like to give the impression of being larger than life, doesn't she? You'd never think she was so young after meeting her. But nevertheless, it doesn't change the fact that she is still very much a child; no matter how hard she pretends to be otherwise, she's barely even sixteen."
He inclined his head towards her, "And just like any other sixteen year old, she believes she's full grown and can take on the entire world, but pit her against her own mother and you'll find that there is nothing she can do."
Karasuba must have heard him because she shot her father a glare out of the corner of her eye, but Ichirou just raised his own mug up to his lips in response, hiding the smirk he was wearing, though there was no hiding the amusement dancing in his eyes.
Watching them behave like this, this ordinary domestic scene of a regular family, I was hit with the strangest sense of vertigo. It was the same kind of disorientation I got when I fell asleep in one place only to find myself waking up in another.
Turning back to Karasuba, I decided to heed Ichirou's words and focused all of my attention on Karasuba and looked at her, and I mean really looked at her, without any preconceptions or expectations to cloud my judgement.
And I think that may have been the first time I truly understood just how young she really was.
She was a child.
I had forgotten that she was only sixteen, younger than me, younger than even Sona, closer to Shirone's age than anything. I think she might have even been younger than I was when I first stumbled into the Holy Grail War, and though it was only a few short years ago, looking back even I had to admit I was a child back then. And watching her scowling at her mother as she treated her cut, the truth of that statement had never hit me harder than it did now.
How had I missed it?
When had I stopped viewing Karasuba as a child, like I did with Sona, Kiba, Shirone and the others? At what point had I stopped thinking of her as a young girl and started to think of her as...as…I'm not even sure what. A killer, maybe, there was no doubt she was that, but at the same time I thought of her as something both more, and less, than human.
I think this was the first time I had thought of her as a teenage girl, along with all the emotional baggage that comes with that.
It was a disorienting thought, to say the least. The image I had built up in my mind and what I was seeing before me were clashing badly, and I found myself spending the next few minutes watching her squirm under her mother's touch while I quietly mulled over that thought, occasionally taking a sip from my tea as I allowed the revelation to completely sink in.
The kitchen we were all situated in was widely spaced, far bigger than you'd expect a household of only four to have. Even with the table taking up space in the middle of the kitchen, there was plenty of space for all of us to move around without feeling the slightest bit crowded.
We were both at the kitchen table, Ichirou and I, seated across from one another. A first-aid kit was laid open over the counter on the other side of the kitchen as Hyoudou Aiko, Karasuba's mother, plucked a band-aid from its contents before returning to fuss over her daughter like a distraught mother hen. Karasuba, on the other hand, had been forced to sit on a tiny stool set beside the counter, all but squirming in her seat as she begrudgingly allowed her mother to continue her ministrations.
And had it been anyone else I would have sworn that the frown she was wearing as she waited for her mother to finish looked suspiciously like a pout.
"There, that should to do it." Aiko stated as she finished placing the last strip of band-aid on the cut, using her hold on her daughter's chin to turn her head from side to side, examining the treated wound with a critical eye. "Not my prettiest work, I admit, but I suppose it will have to do. You'll still look like you took a bat to the head, but at least you won't be dripping your blood on the carpet as you bleed yourself to death anymore."
"Finally!" Pushing herself free and away from her mother, Karasuba stood up and stretched. "I thought that you'd never finish."
Aiko snorted as she began packing up the first aid kit, already turning away from her daughter. "If it bothers you that much then you should stop getting hurt. Or even better, just stop getting into fights entirely." The middle-aged mother of two shook her head in dismay before turning to glare at her husband. "This is all your fault, you know."
"Mine?" Ichirou's eyebrows shot up at the accusation while he held his hand up in surrender, though that smile still sat easily on his lips. "What did I do?"
"You were the one who went ahead and signed her up for those Kendo lessons." Aiko declared while pointing an accusing finger at him before turning to finish packing up the kit. "I always knew signing my baby up for those Kendo lessons when she was younger was a bad idea, I just knew it. What kind of proper girl goes around learning how to swing a sword these days, but I just had to let you talk me into it. 'She'll be fine,' you said, 'it will teach her discipline,' you promised, and now look what happened. My poor baby getting into street fights, coming home roughed up every other week, covered in cuts and bruises and who knows what else. I warned you teaching her how to fight was a bad idea, I warned you."
"Honey," Ichirou stated soothingly, "you know as well as I do that the Kendo lessons have nothing to do with this. Kara has been getting into fights since long before we ever began sending her there."
"I know!" Aiko wailed. "Which is why I wanted to sign her up for ballet classes instead!"
My thoughts actually screeched to a halt as I pictured Karasuba dressed up in a pink leotard and tutu, before I quickly shook the image away from mind. I had enough shocking revelations for one day as it is, and I didn't need anymore. I was already tempted to drop everything and rush back to the Underworld, buy a crate full of beer and look for Asia to see if she wanted to get smashed together.
Ichirou sent me a sly smile as if he knew exactly what I was thinking, and found it every bit as absurd as I did, before turning back to his wife. "Honey, even back then we both knew how badly that would have ended up if we'd tried that."
"I know," she replied, skulking over the counter, "but I can dream, can't I?"
Hyoudou Aiko was of average height for a middle-aged Japanese woman, which basically meant she was tiny. She wore her brown hair long and tied up in a low ponytail that reached to the middle of her shoulder blades. She also had a rather youthful face, free of wrinkles except for what might have been the beginning of crow's feet at the edge of her eyes.
All in all, she looked more similar to Karasuba than her husband did but not by much. There were some noticeable similarities between them, especially in their facial structures and cheek bones, but their builds, heights and, of course, the colours of their eyes and hair were completely different.
"And as for you, young lady." Setting both her hands on her hips, Aiko spun to look up at her daughter with a disapproving frown. "I thought we agreed that you wouldn't get into fights anymore."
"This time it wasn't my fault, I swear." Karasuba held up both hands in surrender, once again wearing her trademarked smile, though now that I had met her parents I couldn't help but compare her reaction to her father's. "I was minding my own business when some gang members were following me around, and when I confronted them they tried to recruit me."
"And why couldn't you just say no and leave?" Her mother asked resignedly, already knowing how her daughter would answer.
"Mom, trust me." Karasuba's lips quirked up further. "People like that don't take no for an answer. You need to use force to make sure the message gets through to them."
"Kara, honey." Aiko's voice turned pleading, her concern obvious as she looked up at her daughter. "You know I don't like it when you get into fights. What if you get seriously hurt one day?"
Yes, because it was obviously Karasuba we had to worry about getting hurt.
"Mom, I'll be fine." The grey-haired girl's smile dimmed slightly at her mother's obvious worry. "The old monkey trained me too well for me to lose to anyone. You have nothing to worry about, you'll see."
Aiko stared pleadingly up at her daughter for a few moments before she slumped in resignation. "Why couldn't you pick a safer hobby like your brother did?"
Karasuba's eyebrows shot up at that, both her eyes opening to reveal their grey irises as she stared at mother incredulously. "You mean you want me to take up sitting in my room and watching porn all day as a hobby?" Her nose crunched up in distaste at the thought.
"What!? No!" Aiko almost jumped in shock before shaking her head venomously in denial. "Dear me, no, I never want you to do that. What I meant was that occult thing he took an interest in recently. Issei is really into it now, joined a club and everything. He even ended up going on the field trip with the rest of his club mates. I know it might not be a very productive hobby, but at least I don't have to worry about him returning home beaten half to death every time he leaves the house." At the reminder of the danger her daughter puts herself in, Aiko slumped her head in exhaustion.
"I swear, Kara, you'll end up giving me a heart-attack one...of..these...days..." Aiko trailed off, her brows furrowing as she stared at something on the floor, frown returning in full force.
"….Kara," she spoke up a minute later, her tone casual, still not taking her eyes off the floor, "why aren't you wearing any shoes?"
Ah, that's right, I'd forgotten about that. Karasuba had ended up walking home barefoot, having tossed her shoes in a dumpster we passed on our way.
Explaining away the blood splatter on her clothes was one thing. She could always claim most of it as her own. Her shoes, however, were totally a different matter. The soles of her shoes were covered with so much blood that they were dyed completely red, and I don't think any explanation she could have given them would have stopped her parents from thinking that she had walked through a pool of blood.
Which, incidentally, she had.
Her original plan had been to sneak into the house undetected and slip on a pair of house-slippers without anyone noticing, but with her mother waiting to greet her by the door that plan was shot to hell straight off the bat.
"I lost them." Karasuba answered with a shrug and an easy smile, the lie coming readily to her lips.
"Lost them?" Aiko was shooting her daughter a dubious look, clearly not buying the explanation. "You lost your own shoes?" Fisting both her hands on her hips, Aiko sent a stern look at the taller girl. "Hyoudou Karasuba, do you honestly expect me to believe that?"
She gave another shrug, smile not faltering. "It's the truth."
"Kara, now you be truthful with me, I promise I won't be angry." This time Aiko's face was filled with concern. "Are you being bullied?
I have no idea how I managed not to spit out the mouthful of tea I was sipping but somehow I did, though I had to clamp a hand over my mouth to hold back the hysterical need to laugh. Across from me, Ichirou wasn't doing much better but unlike me he didn't even bother to hide his amusement and snickered lightly.
"No, I'm not being bullied." Karasuba shot the both of us a quick glare before turning to reassure her mother. "I honestly lost my shoes in a fight."
"Now don't lie to me young lady. It may have been a while but I still remember my high-school days and how bullies would steal a girl's shoes from her locker. Oh, God." Aiko turned pale. "Why didn't I see it sooner? The cuts, bruises and now missing shoes, you're not getting into fights, you're being bullied! It all makes so much sense." Aiko buried her face in her hands. "Oh, I'm such a horrible mother. My little girl is being bullied and I didn't even notice."
"Mom!" Karasuba cut in before her mother could go on. "I told you I'm not being bullied. I promise I'm not."
"You sure?" Aiko peeked up from her hands to look at daughter with concern. At Karasuba's firm nod she lifted her face, obviously still suspicious but willing to relent for now. "Well, okay. If you say so. But if you are being bullied tell me," She thumped a fist on her chest, "Mama will handle it."
The idea of Aiko walking up to school and wailing at the student body to stop bullying her little baby Karasuba was such a ludicrous image that I found myself holding back the urge to glance around the room for the Mad Hatter, just to make sure that I hadn't fallen down the rabbit hole at some point and didn't noticed.
"Mom," Karasuba sent me another warning look, though the hint of red dusting her cheeks ruined the effect, "there is no one bulling me, I swear. Now will you please stop worrying and drop it?"
"But I can't help it, honey." Aiko reached up to brush a strand of her daughter's hair. "You always were such a crybaby when you were younger. You even kept running away from home for a while."
"Once! I did that once. Will you let it go already?"
"Honey, leave her be." Ichirou spoke up, cutting into the conversation. "Kara will be fine. You know what she's like; I doubt there is anyone willing to bully her."
Aiko heaved a big sigh. "Maybe you're right." But a moment later she got a gleam in her eyes and spun around to face me.
"Emiya." I found myself being the focus of an extremely overprotective mother. "You'll tell me if my daughter is being in bullied in school, won't you?"
"Of course." I promised sincerely. Of course I'd probably be running away from whatever was scary enough to bully Karasuba, but I'll be sure to tell her on my way out of town.
"Good." Aiko nodded, satisfied, before facing he daughter again. "Now you, young lady, are going to your room upstairs to get cleaned up."
Karasuba looked taken aback by the command. "Why?"
"Because you're filthy." Aiko answered promptly, before taking her daughter by the hand and leading her outside of the kitchen and up the stairs. "And you're not eating on my table looking like that. You're going to take a shower and change into a clean set of clothes."
"But I took a shower this morning," Karasuba tried to argue back, "only like three hours ago."
"And you're taking another one now. You've already bled all over my kitchen, I'm not going to let you ruin my-"
A door slammed shut somewhere upstairs, muffling the rest of the conversation. And with the two women of the household gone, I was left alone in the kitchen with Hyoudou Ichirou.
He sat across the table from me, his eyes narrowed in amusement, bringing out the crow's feet on his face, with an easy smile sitting on his lips. He watched me over the rim of the mug as he held it by his mouth.
"So..." I began, searching my mind for a topic to talk about. "You're the one who got Karasuba into Kendo?"
"You could say that." His lips quirked up as if he saw through my attempt at breaking the ice and gave a tiny shrug. "Though it would be better to say it was Kara who forced me to send her to those lesson. She always did have a fascination with swords."
"And the one who taught her to use a sword, 'the old monkey' she was talking about, who is he?" I asked, partly out of curiosity and partly to dig up a little more information on Karasuba's past. I was beginning to realise how little I knew about her.
Ichirou snorted, amused by something I said, and shook his head. "Oh no, Sun-Sensei wasn't the one who taught her how to use the sword, they met up far too late for that, so he just taught her how to fight. I think he ended up taking Kara as a student back when she was... nine I believe nine, while Karasuba started studying Kendo when she was five." He set the mug down on the table, smile never leaving his face. "She had been calling him a monkey since the first time they met, and though he complains about the lack of respect she shows him, I think old Sun is secretly pleased with the nickname."
"I see," I said as I took another swallow from my tea. That was actually a little surprising. From my experience most Japanese or Asian martial arts instructors tended to be rather strict. I couldn't imagine one of them ever allowing their students to call them a monkey unless they were really laid back. Well, either that, or they really were a-
I froze mid-sip as a thought hit me.
He said that Karasuba had been studying under him since she was nine...wasn't that the same age that Karasuba began disappearing from the city? No, not just the city, Sona said that she had dropped off from the face of the earth. And with the resources of the Sitri Clan to help here with the search, there was no way that was possible unless someone with supernatural abilities had been helping her remain hidden.
That actually matches up with what I already know about Karasuba. She was too familiar with her Sacred Gear, Touki and magic for her not to have been entrenched in the supernatural side of the world for years. And if my guess is right, this 'Sun' Sensei was the one responsible for teaching her about it.
As I began to piece things together, I was hit by another suspicion, one so shocking that I almost dropped my mug.
"Old monkey," I began casually, "is a rather interesting nickname."
Setting the mug on the table, I focused my attention on the man before me, observing him carefully and watching for any signs of deception. "How did she come up with it? Was it supposed to be some comment on his looks, or was the nickname supposed to be taken more...literally?"
It had been bugging me from the start. How had the Khaos Brigade or even 'Sun' discovered Karasuba in the first place?
Her magic levels were abysmal. It had been so low that, like the case had been with Issei, it made her virtually undetectable to the traditional means of locating Sacred Gear users. She had been hidden from Devils so well that we didn't even know of her existence until a few days ago despite both Sona, Gremory and any other Devils who had wandered here before them scouring the city for Sacred Gear users.
While the Fallen Angels could be explained through Azazel, the man's obsession with Sacred Gears was legendary and it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to believe that he had created his own method to detect Sacred Gear users, but the same couldn't be said for anyone else.
So how had they discovered Karasuba?
The answer was simple, they had done it the same way we did: through Senjutsu.
It was Shirone that had discovered Issei, who first noticed Karasuba wandering the school's halls. She was a Nekoshou, one of the last survivors of a race famed for their prodigious ability to wield Senjutsu, and it was through that skill she was able to sense the presence of a dragon in the school's halls, taste Ddraig's breath lingering on Issei's flesh, sense his might hidden in Karasuba's soul.
And back then Shirone had been unwilling to use her Senjutsu, repressing it. Through force of will alone she had forced it dormant, yet even in its inactive state she had still been able to sense Ddraig's presence. If someone untrained in Senjutsu, who had abandoned and repressed that ability, was able to sense their presences from nearby, then what would a master be able to do?
How far would a person who had not only been born with the ability to wield Senjutsu, but had actively trained in the art to the point of mastery, be able to cast their senses? How far away would they need to be to notice the presence of a Dragon lingering nearby?
If the Khaos Brigade had a Senjutsu practitioner in their midst then it would have explain why they've found Karasuba now. The fall of Kokabiel had drawn the eyes of many of the Supernatural community to this city, and my presence, along with Sona's and Gremory's, made sure those eyes lingered here. It would only have taken a little bit of bad luck for the Khaos Brigade to have sensed a Dragon wandering in its streets.
As for 'Sun', I had my suspicion on who he might have been. If he had discovered Karasuba as a child, possibly at a time when she had just discovered her Sacred Gear, then he must have been a Senjutsu user of some renown.
And the most famous Senjutsu user in the world just happened to be a Youkai, a sage with the power to match the Heavens, the Monkey King Sun Wukong.
What were the odds that Karasuba's instructor just happened to share the same name as him?
Ichirou just lifted his mug to his lips, smile not wavering, saying nothing as he peered at me over the rim with narrowed eyes that twinkled with hidden merriment.
Despite his reaction, or perhaps it would be better to be call it a lack of one, I felt the certainty of my suspicion build, and I knew that I needed to confirm it one way or another. So, trusting my instincts, I decided to take a chance and gamble.
Holding the mug in my left hand, I brought my empty right one up before me. Holding it palm up, I started to project onto it. I didn't rush the projection and went slow, making sure to let him know that it was no trick or slight of hand. I allowed my projection to build from the ground up, giving him a chance to see how a mug, identical in every way to the one I was holding my other hand, began to form on my palm.
It took five full seconds to complete, the lime-blue lights that were a by-product of my magic dancing in the air, but by the time I was done there was a perfect copy of the mug sitting in my hand where once there was none.
And all I received in response was the lazy opening of his eyes as he focused their attention on the projection.
"Neat trick." He commented mildly, his warm brown eyes studying the replica with interest, his tone holding neither shock nor bewilderment, just a sense of mild curiosity.
I felt my heart freeze with dread.
There could be no doubt. He knew about magic. Hyoudou Ichirou was aware of the supernatural.
No, it wasn't just him, they all were. Karasuba, Aiko, every member of Hyoudou household was aware. Why else would they have allowed their daughter of nine to be taught by the Monkey King? What else would have convinced Aiko, as doting and overprotective a mother as I have ever known, to allow her only daughter to be taken away from her for most of a year unless she knew why it was so important for her to have proper training?
Once again, for the second time in a single hour, I came to the startling conclusion that somehow, everything we had presumed about Karasuba was wrong. Worse, everything we had presumed about the Hyoudou family was wrong as well.
We were being played.
We weren't the ones hiding the secrets of the supernatural from the Hyoudous, there were the ones hiding secrets from us, and we've been falling for it the entire time. They've known for years and we are only just discovering this now.
Dismissing the projection, I set my hand down on the table and tried to calm my ragging emotions down while my mind raced through dozens of thoughts.
We screwed up, we had screwed up badly. Sona, Gremory and every single Devil who was supposed to watching this city had completely and utterly messed up. How did we miss this? How did all of us miss this? The entire Hyoudou family was involved with the supernatural and not a single one of us had so much as a clue.
From the corner of my eyes I caught sight of something, and the sight of it was enough to bring even my racing thoughts to a halt.
"What's that?" I asked.
Ichirou glanced around in confusion. "What's what?"
"That." I pointed through the doorway that linked the kitchen to the living room.
"Hmm," Ichirou quirked an eyebrow once he noticed what I was looking at. "You could spot that from all the way over here? My, that's impressive." He turned back to look at me with a lazy smile and his eyes narrowed shut again. "You must have really good eyes, Emiya."
Ignoring his words I stood up, pushing myself off the chair and striding forward toward the living room, never taking my eyes off the object that had captured my attention.
Like the kitchen, the living room of the Hyoudou residence was large and spacious, with more than enough room to hold a family of four. The entire room had a cosy feel to it, with warm coloured wallpaper and comfortable furniture. A bookshelf sat in one corner of the room with a television set nearby. Along one of the walls was an empty fire-place, one crafted for decorative reasons rather than use.
And there, sitting on the mantle of the fireplace, was a photograph.
Three smiling faces, grinning eagerly up at me through the camera as if they could see me through the lens. They were children, only five or six years old at most, their faces and fingers covered in paint, staining their clothing and making a complete mess of things, but going by the open joy and laughter on their faces, none of them cared.
They were standing together in a line in the middle of a living room, the middle child hooking her arms around the necks of the other two, dragging their heads next to hers as she beamed at the camera. Her hair was such a peculiar shade of orange that even though she wore it short then, I still had no trouble identifying her despite her age.
Shidou Irina. One of the Exorcists that had came along with Xenovia looking for the stolen swords a couple of months earlier. But as unexpected it was to see a picture of her here, it was the other two children that had drawn more of my attention.
Their hair was such a matching shade of brown that it was immediately obvious that they were related. They shared so many similar traits, eyes, skin, height, they even had the same smile, they were such mirror reflections of each other that no one would have trouble identifying them as siblings. The only real difference was their hair, one had theirs cut short while the other wore it long.
To think that the Hyoudou twins had once looked so much alike.
What had happened? Why had her once brown hair changed to the ashen grey she had now? She hadn't dyed it, that much was certain, and going by her twin's still brown hair it wasn't genetic. Was it stress? But that wouldn't explain why her eyes had changed colour as well, for the colours of the eyes that peered back at me through the photo were of the warmest shade of brown.
Something nagged at me from the back of my mind, a feeling, an absolute certainty that I had seen something like this before.
It was then that I caught sight of my hair, reflected on the glass panel protecting the photograph. More specifically, it was the strip of pure white hair in the midst of my otherwise red locks that had drawn my eyes.
I remembered then of another man who was born with a head full of hair every bit as red as my own. I recalled what became of it, the bleached white strands that had lost all colour, leaving no hint of crimson behind, along with skin that had darkened as it had been baked under a harsh sun and eyes, that once shone like pure gold, fading until they became a dull iron grey.
The fate of a man who poured so much magic through his body that it burned him from the inside out.
If that had happened to a fully grown man, then what would it do to a child? What would channelling something as potent as the Boosted Gear do to a young girl just shy of her tenth birthday? Would her skin eventually blacken and burn? Would her hair fade? And would the colour bleed out of her eyes until nothing but emotionless grey remained?
Looking at how Karasuba appeared as a child, I believed I had my answer.
But as interesting as they were, it wasn't Karasuba, Issei or even Irina that had caught my eye. It was what had been mounted on the wall behind them that drew me to the picture. They had hung it up like a painting, over an empty fireplace similar to the one I was standing in front of, the splendour of the sword obvious even through the decade old photograph.
An Excalibur fragment.
If I had any doubts remaining that the Hyoudou had been aware of the supernatural for years then they were all washed away with this one picture. They had a photograph of one of most valuable Holy Swords in the history of this world set up on their living room mantle for all to see.
"I see you've taken a liking this picture." Ichirou walked up beside me and picked up the photograph, looking it over with a fond smile, "I have to admit, it's one of my favourites too. Things were so different back then."
He tapped his finger on Irina, "We took this photo in our old neighbour's house before they moved away. Kara and Issei used to love heading over next door to play with their kid. But that was a long while back; little Irina sure has grown and isn't so little any more. I still remember when she was this high," He held up a hand to his waist, "so tiny that I could carry her in a single arm. Them too," titling his chin to the photo, "hard to believe the kids that I used to cradle in my arms, or who made me look under their beds for monsters every night have grown to become as tall as I am."
"They looked like they got along." I commented, a little surprised. With the evident terror Issei held for his twin, it obviously wasn't the case any longer.
"They did," Ichirou confessed with nod. His smile did dimmed slightly a little though and he sighed, "or at least they used to." He returned the photo back to its place on the mantle. "And that's life for you," his fingers lingered on the photo, tracing the smiles of his children. "Things change, and not always for the better."
"What happened?"
"...They grew up." A hint of old pain in his voice. Taking his hand off the photograph he turned and gave me a weary smile, eyes hidden behind his lids. "They used to be so close, practically inseparable when they were children. It got to the point that you'd never see one without the other nearby, as often the case was with twins. But as they grew older the differences between the two became apparent, and as more time passed those differences just grew until it drove them apart."
"Differences?" Tasting the word as I shot him a curious look. "What do you mean exactly?"
"Do you know what separates the extraordinary from the ordinary?" He asked, answering my question with another question. "It's not talent like most people would expect, or at least, it's not natural talent. If that were the case then every gifted child would grow up to be an equally gifted adult without fail, and that is surely not the case. What divides the extraordinary from the ordinary is something far more fundamental than talent."
"No," I spoke up when he drifted off, "I have no idea."
"It's how they see the world," he replied, a smile resting easy on his lips. "That's what separates the two. One looks at the world and sees only what he desires, while the other looks at the world and sees all the obstacles that stand between him and his desires, then begins searching for a way to reach it anyway."
He reached out to the picture again and this time laid his fingers on Issei's image.
"Issei...he's content," he began. "He is an ordinary boy with ordinary dreams, and he will hopefully one day grow old living an ordinary, if happy and fulfilling, life. And that's just fine." He shook his head. "You don't need to do anything extraordinary to become happy, just simple everyday things are enough to achieve that. Give him a good girl to love and that loves him in turn, a nice job that he enjoys, maybe even a kid or three to keep him busy and he'll end up happy. He's quite like his mother and me in that regard, content with the simple things in life."
"I don't think you could call someone who dreams of becoming a harem King one day 'ordinary'." I told him wryly. I had happened to hear Issei yell out his dream to the heavens on more than one occasion, in a voice so loud that I could hear it all the way across school.
"Ah, but that's the thing," he replied, humour colouring his voice. "Dreaming is all he does. Has he ever actually done anything to turn it into a reality? If my son was truly seriously in achieving his dream then why hasn't he taken any steps to make it come true? He would yell it from the rooftops, swear to every man, woman and child he knows that he will make it come true one day, and cover his bedroom wall with posters of women and imagine them in his harem, but what hashe done to make it happen?"He turned back to me and held his empty hand before him. "Nothing."
"For all of his proclamations, in the end he does nothing but wait and dream, pretending that one day the key of achieving his dream will magically fall from the sky and into his lap. Just like every other adolescent teenage boy his age does." Ichirou smiled. "And that's just fine. Even I dreamt of having several women after me when I was a boy. It is something we all do to some extent or another when we are younger, and it's precisely things like that which makes him so very ordinary."
Ichirou shook his head. "This might be a little bit cynical and rather crude of me to say, but in my experience most women tend to be attracted to power. Wealth, fame, or the more obvious physical sort of power, these are the things that can draw women to men. Gather enough of it and you might just be able to attract enough women to pull off a harem."
"But what has Issei done to gain that power? Nothing," he shrugged. "He just lives his life just like any ordinary teen does. He goes to school, plays with friends while leaving his homework to the last possible moment, and chases after any pretty girl that catches his eye, get shot down by said girl, and mopes around for a short while only to end chasing another pretty girl. A completely ordinary life, and that's just fine. There is nothing wrong with living an ordinary life, those wise enough to understand may even call it a blessing, but you can't expect to achieve an extraordinary dream by living so ordinarily.
"A child dreaming of the impossible is natural, something that everybody goes though. We call children like that normal or healthy. But when a child dreams of the impossible yet actively strives to achieve it anyway, that's what we call a prodigy."
"Harem King," Ichirou's smile widened just a bit as he said the title. "Such an extraordinary dream, a momentous goal to achieve when you take the facts of reality into consideration. But you cannot call Issei's dream anything more than a dream. You can't call it an ambition if he continues to live his life like he has. If he does, then that dream of his will turn into nothing more than an adolescent fantasy, something that will be remembered as a folly of youth."
"To achieve the extraordinary, you can't allow yourself to be ordinary." Ichirou looked back to the picture, this time his focus was on his other child. "And Kara seemed to have instinctively understood this."
"I can never imagine Kara being content living an ordinary life." He's eyes lingered on his only daughter, brown eyes filled with an emotion that I could not readily identify. "Even back then as a child, it was clear to me that Kara would never settle with finding a good man, getting married, having children, starting a family. These ordinary, everyday type of happiness, they just weren't for her. She would never be satisfied with that kind of life.
"Karasuba, she was serious about her dream."
He turned to me again. "Despite what you might think of her, Emiya, as a child that girl loved the common joys and pleasures of life every bit as much as Issei did, or any other kid her age would. She wanted to hang out with her friends, play games with her brother, start up a game of tag with Irina, buy the latest video games or even head over to the park and join the other kids playing a soccer match. But even though she could have done those things whenever she wanted to, she chose to train instead."
Ichirou looked over my shoulder and pointed at something. "There." Without waiting for me turn to look he strolled forward, walking pasting me and stopping before a window. A small walled off garden could be seen beyond the window, and unlike how large the house was the garden was tiny, just a stretch of land, empty of everything save grass and a single tree.
"Over there," he pointed out the window, towards one corner of the garden, "that used to be where she would train before she outgrew it. I used to see her there almost every day, sometimes for hours at a time, swinging that bokken of hers." His lips quirked up a bit. "I never encouraged her to do it or even tried to guide her. That girl forced herself to train entirely on her own. Every morning, she'd wake up an hour earlier than everyone else and jog around the neighbourhood. She never even told us she planned on doing it, just woke up one day and decided to do it. I only ended up finding out by chance, I had spotted her running laps outside my window early one morning when I had trouble sleeping."
"That child understood that she needed to sacrifice the pleasures of everyday life if she ever wanted to accomplish her dream." He turned away from the garden and back to me. "And it is precisely that, the willingness to suffer today, and the day after, and the day after that, and many more after that one, it is that commitment which separates those who are ordinary from the extraordinary. They willingly throw themselves into the fire of ambition because they know that only by enduring the heat of its flame, by suffering through the pain of its touch, can they can reap its rewards.
"The hunger that burns in them would accept nothing less. And that, Emiya, was what drove those two apart. That in the end Kara was hungry enough to suffer for her dream while Issei," Ichirou shrugged, "just wasn't."
"And you honestly believe that she hates him over something like that?" I asked, a hint of skepticism colouring my voice. "Isn't that a little convoluted? Can't you be over thinking things? I would have imagined that she would have hated him for wanting to become a harem King, instead of not trying hard enough to become one."
"No," Ichirou shook his head firmly as he leaned back on the windowsill, using his arms to prop himself up. "I know my daughter, Emiya, and she is not the type of person to look down on someone for having a dream that is purely selfish. On the contrary, it might be the only thing left that she can still relate with her brother. After all, at heart, Kara is an inherently very selfish person too."
"So no, Emiya." He repeated, "She does not hate Issei for his dream. She hates him for not doing anything about it. She hates him for daring to be ordinary when she is so very not, hates him for being different than her, for not being like her. She has never forgiven him for that." Pushing himself off the sill, Ichirou made his way back to the mantle. "And I don't think she ever will."
Once again he picked up the photograph, his brown eyes taking in the sight of the three smiling children, of the pair of twins who were so happy being together. A moment in time that will never return again. "And that was what drove the two apart." Ichirou remained where he was, his eyes hidden by the light that reflected off the lenses of his glasses, not looking away from the picture of his children. "Tell me, Emiya, do you have a dream?"
I thought back to that night, all those years ago, bathed under the light of the full moon. Even after all this time that memory had not faded in the slightest, fresh and clear in my mind. The image of Kiritsugu smiling as he shut his eyes for the last time, relieved, finally allowing himself to rest. That night will remain with me forever, the ideals that were born then and my resolve to follow them until the end, they blazed within me as brightly as ever.
"Yes," I answered simply, unable to think of the words to convey what I truly meant, "I do."
"That's good." His smile looked a little forlorn as he continued gazing at the picture. "And have you done all you can to make it come true?"
I thought of all the training I had done since childhood, both magical and otherwise. The months I had to pester Kiritsugu until he finally relented and allowed me to learn a little bit of magic. My morning ritual of exercising for an hour before school to keep my body in shape, the late nights I had spent alone in my shed that doubled as my Workshop, practising my Magecraft. The Kendo sessions with Fuji-nee and the archery practice that followed after that in high school. I thought of all the extra studying I had to do after Rin and Ilya had come into my life, their determination to help me fill in all the gaps in my knowledge of Magecraft.
And with the exception of the last, all of that had happened long before I had ever even heard of the Holy Grail War.
"Yes," I answered again, knowing that I had, "I have."
"Then you too just might be like my Kara: extraordinary." He said, finally setting the photograph back to its proper place on the mantle. "It might have even been what drew her to you, a person that might be every bit as abnormal as she is."
With once final look at the photograph, Ichirou turned to fully face me. "Do you know what my dream is, Emiya?" He asked, smiling fondly at me with closed eyes. "It is a rather simple one, something that's not hard or even difficult to accomplish. What I want, all that I have ever wanted, is to see my children live a long and happy life." He held his hand open before him. "And that's it."
He shrugged, his smile turning a little sheepish. "I admit it might not quite as grandiose of a dream that my children have but to me, it is all I'll ever need. And it is for that reason that I'm about to tell you this, to make sure that little dream of mine will come true."
There was a thud over our heads, and we both glanced up to the ceiling only to hear the muffled sound of laughter coming from the floor above. I could hear Karasuba yell something out but all it did was cause the laughter to redouble.
"Kara, she's not as strong a person as she appears to be." He had a fond look on his face as he stared at the ceiling, no doubt imagining the antics his wife and daughter were up to. "For all the strength she exudes at times, she is just as much a human as you or I am."
"Even though I'm beginning to believe that there might be more to her than I ever expected," I admitted as I too turned to look at the ceiling, trying and failing to picture the same Karasuba that had fought the Khaos Brigade and had thoroughly terrified Sona as the same one I had seen in this house, "I still have trouble thinking of her as something as mundane as merely human."
"Ah," He nodded knowingly and lowered his head to give me an understanding smile. "That's because you only know her as she is now, not as she was. You, who have only seen Kara as she stands today, can never understand. I have known her since the day she was born, when she was so small that I could hold her whole body in one hand. I have seen her cry over a scraped knee, huddle by my side on the couch as we watched a scary movie on TV together, shake me awake from sleep after she had a nightmare. I have seen all these sides of her and more, wiped away her tears more times than you can ever imagine, so I know better than anyone just how fragile she really is."
"She bleeds, Emiya." He told me. "No differently than you or I do, she can get hurt and even cry just like anybody else." He snorted at an amusing thought. "More than Issei ever did."
He spared a quick glance up at the ceiling before giving me a mischievous smile, brown eyes twinkling behind his frames. "Don't tell her I told you this, but between the two, Kara was always the bigger crier. Even though she had always been something of tomboy she was still frightened of a lot of things as a child. Not any more, of course, but when she was around that age," he tilted his head towards the picture, "she was a timid, overly emotional girl, the definition of a scaredy cat. She used to have this old teddy bear that she refused to sleep without, used to take it everywhere." Ichirou scratched his chin and gained a thoughtful look. "I think I just might have that old thing lying around somewhere around here."
He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before he shook his head. "Anyway, it may be because she's my only daughter, but you could say I have grown rather protective of Kara over the years, more so than even her brother. And even now, though I know she's grown and become far stronger than I ever was, I keep doing my best to make sure my little girl remains safe like I had done when she was only six."
Ichirou glanced up as another thud came from the floor above us, and I followed his gaze, staring at the white painted ceiling. "Which is why, Emiya, I think it would only be fair to let you know, that if ever you do anything to hurt her-
I'll kill you.
There was no bloodlust in the air, no sense of impending violence and even the words were softly spoken, a gentle promise rather than a harsh threat. Yet for all of its mildness I still felt the hair on the back of neck rise and adrenaline flood my veins as every instinct I had yelled out in warning.
But when I looked at him, he still looked exactly the same. Just a scruffy middle-aged man, relaxing in his home with his family, who was smiling kindly as he watched me with the warmest brown eyes I had ever seen. I almost believed that I had imagined the whole thing.
And yet, there was something about the unassuming man that made me absolutely certain that he was being serious. He really would try to kill me.
It was then that I remembered.
I had thought that he was an ordinary human, just a run of the mill white-collar worker. There were no calluses built up in his hand like Karasuba, his tiny magical reserves far too small for him to become a Magician, and the way he walked marked him as untrained in combat. But I was wrong, for no matter how inconspicuous he may have looked or ordinary he appeared to be, this man was not normal.
This was the Father of Dragons.
It looked like it was a mistake to think that Karasuba took after Aiko the most. It wasn't her mother that she resembled; it was her father.
"We're coming down." I heard Aiko call out, followed down by the sound of footsteps climbing down the stairs.
"Well, let's head back." Ichirou turned away and began to make his way back to the kitchen. "It's a little late but Aiko should start working on lunch now."
"One question." I called out, and he paused just as he was about to step over the entryway to the kitchen. He looked back at me over his shoulder. "Your arm, what happened to it?"
Ichirou gave me an indecipherable smile.
"A Dragon ate it."
"Your parents were nice."
"Hmm," Karasuba hummed vaguely by my side, not commenting either way as we made our way through the crowded street.
She had changed after her shower. A long sleeved shirt, stopping just short of her wrists, covered her top. It was coloured pitch black, and so were the knee length shorts she chose to wear. The only splashes of colour that could be spotted on her new outfit were the pair of white lines that ran down the front of her shirt and the brown leather belt buckled around her waist. A jacket, a dark grey a couple of shades darker than her hair, lay draped over her shoulders, its sleeves hanging empty by her sides.
Oddly enough, the clothes suited her somehow. She even appeared comfortable in them, they were almost form fitting and seemed to be easy to move in, in no way restricting her movements.
Karasuba was smiling, her usual benevolent grin sitting firmly on her lips while her eyes were narrowed so much they appeared to be shut. If I hadn't known any better, she would have looked like just another ordinary teenage girl wandering the city, one of thousands.
Or at least she would have if it wasn't for the overwhelming amount of bloodlust she was exuding.
The crowd parted before her without thinking. People were pressing themselves against each other to make room, creating a pocket of space with her in the centre, not even understanding why they did it, only that they unconsciously understood that they shouldn't get anywhere near the smiling teen that walked in their midst. Some people even went as far as to cross the street to avoid her, only to end up glancing around in bewilderment when they realised what they were doing.
It was like watching a completely different person than the one I had seen at that house. It wasn't like she had been putting up an act in front of her parents, her reactions had been far too natural not to be real, too fluid to be faked. I had felt genuine love and affection from her whenever I saw her interact with either one of her parents. Her father especially so. It was obvious that as well as she got along with Aiko, she was much closer to her father.
Though I hesitated labeling her a daddy's girl despite all of the evidence pointing in that direction because, well, quite frankly the idea of Karasuba being one was every bit as unbelievable as a cross-dressing Halo fanatic dhampir with a fetish for pink. But whoever that girl that allowed herself be dragged around by her mother was, she wasn't here anymore. The thing walking beside me was someone else entirely.
When I saw Aiko start preparing lunch, I naturally decided to lend a hand and help out...and I may have eventually ended up inadvertently kicking her out and taking over the kitchen. She had looked rather offended the entire time, which was understandable, and took to glaring sullenly at me through the kitchen door while I handled her kitchenware. She continued to do so right up until she took the first bite of my cooking. After that she began referring to me as Sensei.
Not long after the meal was over Karasuba and I had left the house, and no sooner than we had set foot outside of the house had she begun to emit this euphoric desire for bloodshed. It had started off small, only barely perceivable to my senses, but the further we walked from her home the more Karasuba reverted to how I knew her. Her steps grew longer, more silent and graceful, like a prowling animal and after only a few minutes her desire had became an all-encompassing presence that set people scurrying away like frightened roaches.
After my failed attempt to start up a conversation the remainder of the journey was spent in silence, neither of us having anything to say to each other as we leisurely making our way to our destination. It was only when we reached the park that the conversation resumed.
Karasuba hummed thoughtfully as she glanced around the park, taking it in. "So, is this it?"
"A little further on." I pointed at a grove of trees off to one side of the path. "Over there, behind those trees is a clearing. We can fight there."
Karasuba gave me a skeptical look, but eventually shrugged and obediently went towards the direction I indicated with me following close behind her. We soon reached then navigated past the trees, pushing through the branches and stepping over the roots breaking out of the ground. Though they weren't particularly big, the trees were so closely packed together they ended up forming a natural curtain, blocking the clearing that sat hidden behind them from the view of any causal observes. Which was preciously the reason why I chose the place.
Before long we broke through the trees and reached the clearing, a small pocket of open space surrounded by trees, no more than a dozen yards wide.
"Oh?" Karasuba paused at the edge of the magic circle, one eye opening as she took in the sapphire lines that were carved into the ground, forming a design so complex that no one short of an expert could have deciphered its meaning. She cocked her head to one side and crouched down, "What's this now?"
"Our ticket to the battlefield." Stepping around her I walked onto the circle. It wasn't very big, no more than six yards wide at most, but it was enough to do its job. Stopping once I was firmly in the middle of one half of the circle, I turned and pointed to the spot across from me. "We're almost there. Just stand there and we'll get going."
Karasuba remained crouched, her eyes half-opened as she scanned the ground, studying the circle carved into it. Her forefinger was drumming a steady rhythm on her knee, a contemplative expression on her face as she took everything in.
At long last she glanced up at me, giving me a searching look. For a brief instant she appeared to hesitate, a rare moment of indecisiveness holding her, only for her to smile and give an exaggerated shrug of her shoulders, her eyes crinkling shut once again. Pushing off her knees Karasuba unfolded herself, rising up to her full height before with an easy stride, she stepped over the edge of the circle.
I couldn't decide if she chose to step forward because she believed that this wasn't at trap, or if she decided that it didn't matter even if it was.
"Well Emiya." Karasuba smiled unnervingly at me from where she stood across the circle from me, arms crossed before her. "I'm waiting."
Almost everything had already been set up before hand, all I needed to do was get Karasuba into the boundary of the circle with me and all the preparations for our fight would be complete. With one last check to make sure everything was in place, I began to feed my Prana into the ground beneath me.
The magic circle came to life under our feet, I could feel it tugging on my magic, hungrily feeding on my Prana as it glowed with a dim sapphire light. Knowing I hadn't given it enough, I fed it more of my Para and the circle blazed up like a fire in response. Just like with the magic circle that had delivered me to my Rating Game match, I shut my eyes as the lights became too bright and patiently waited for it to dim down again. And when it finally did a couple of seconds later, I already knew what I'd find before I'd even opened my eyes.
"My," Karasuba breathed as she craned her head upwards, looking from left to right as she stared at the skyline, before she once more shifted her sights back onto me and gave a beatific smile. "You really bring me the best presents, Emiya."
The steel and buildings of the city's financial district towered over our heads, their peaks reaching towards the sky and blocking most of it from our sights. We stood in the middle of a wide intersection, one free of traffic or cars. Around us the traffic lights continued flipping their colours from green to red to green again aimlessly, not knowing that there was no one to heed their commands.
It felt strange being here, standing on what was supposed to be a busy road that now lay empty. There were supposed to be cars speeding by there, their drivers filling the air with the roar of their engines as they sped on by while taxi drivers prowled the street searching for wealthy customers. In a city that close to half a million souls called home, this was a place that was always busy. No matter the time of day it would be filled with the constant hustle and bustle of city life as people went about their business, but now it sat empty, had turned into a metaphorical ghost town without a single soul in sight save for the two of us.
But what struck me the most was the silence. It was not something you'd every expect to hear in a city, not when the sun was still up and shinning, and it was almost unsettling for how unnatural it felt.
Most people never seem to realise how rarely we ever heard true silence. Many probably have lived their lives never experiencing it. We are always surrounded by noise, constantly. Sometimes they are obvious; the hustle and bustle of a busy street, the chatter of a crowd, the ringing of telephones, feet thumping on the ground or the honking of car horns. Then there were the less obvious; the quite humming of an air-conditioner or a computer, the ticking of a clock, the swaying of leaves in the wind, the buzzing of insects, or even the sound of the person next to you breathing.
We block it out, the pandemonium of noise that always surrounds us, always seeking out attention. There was simply too much of it for us to constantly take in without being overwhelmed but it all, so we shut the noise out of minds and never really notice that it's always there. It's only now, when I'm standing in the streets of a dead city, do I finally realise how disconcerting absolute silence really is.
There was nothing alive here other than the two of us. Not people, not birds, not rats, not even a single bug. This was a ghost town, dead in every sense of the word. And in the middle of this lifeless concrete jungle, only Karasuba and I lived.
It was precisely that very reason which made this the perfect battleground for a rampaging Dragon.
Turning to said Dragon, I asked, "You understand the deal?"
"Yes." She laughed, one arm wrapping around her belly as she bent over slightly and looked up at me through the bangs of her hair. "Are you sure that's really all you want?" Her eyes were dancing with genuine amusement, "Only a single question? Nothing more? I would have given up a lot more for the chance to kill you."
"Yes, that's all I want." I began to move away, clearing some space between the two of us for the fight. "From now until the sun sets you are free to attack me as much as you like, even kill me if you can managed it. I ordered my Peerage members waiting outside to let you leave unharmed should that happen. But if I win, I expect an answer, a full and proper one to any question I give you."
"If only I knew it was that easy I would have sent you a letter of challenge ages ago." Karasuba shook her head in either amusement or disbelief. "And you really need to learn how to bargain better Emiya. I would have given up a lot more if it meant I got to kill you."
"No," I corrected her. She blinked, surprise filling her expression as she tilted her head questioningly. "The deal was for us to fight, which means you only get to try and kill me."
"You mean that there is a difference?" Karasuba asked in faux confusion, her smile teasing.
I didn't bother replying. There were a dozen or so yards between us now, more than enough room for either of us to manoeuvre. Dropping into my stance, I mentally prepared to project a-
I had to resist the urge to slap my hand over my face once I realised my mistake. "Karasuba," I began, embarrassment filling my voice that I had forgotten about such an obvious but essential matter that needed to be dealt with before we could fight. "Where's your sword?"
Karasuba's weapon of choice, the nodachi, was nowhere to be seen. I hadn't realised on our way here but Karasuba hadn't been carrying her weapon with her when she left her home, and I could almost feel my cheeks heat up at forgetting to bring it up.
I was about to offer to project her a copy of her sword when she spoke up.
"It's right here."
She raised her left hand up and held it open by her side, palm facing the sky. I saw a flicker of movement coming from the middle of her palm, the skin there bulging as something beneath it's surface pushed upward, trying to force it's way free. Her skin parted under the pressure and a blade tip emerged from the opening, piercing through her flesh.
More of the naked blade began to emerge, drawn steadily upwards from her hand. When several feet of steel stood above her palm a hilt finally followed after the blade, the skin stretching almost grotesquely to make room. Once the bottom of the nodachi pushed its way free from the confines of her hand, skin sealing shut behind it, the sword began to tilt before falling over. But before it could travel far Karasuba snatched the sword out of the air and held it down by her side.
I stared in incomprehension for a few second, trying to make sense at what I had just seen. It wasn't a spell. Even if Karasuba had the Mana reserves to pull it off I would have sensed it happening. And it certainly wasn't some variation of Touki, that's for sure. But if that were the case, then the only thing left that it could be was her Sacred Gear.
That's right, I've forgotten but the Boosted Gear had a minor secondary ability in addition to its ability to double its user power. When properly mastered the Boosted Gear could be used as a storage device, it had some kind of internal dimensional pocket and several of its previous wielder's were said to have stored their weapon in it.
But where was the Boosted Gear?
"It's internalized, isn't it?" I theorised, knowing that I had seen something like this recently. The feeling I was getting from Karasuba was similar to what I had gotten from Georg, though nowhere near as potent. Unlike with the inhuman empty shell that the Magician had become Karasuba still felt almost entirely human to my senses. Though something had definitely changed inside of her, it was subtle enough that I might not have noticed the difference if I hadn't been focusing. "This is your Balance Breaker, a Sub-Species. Instead of the scales of a Dragon, you have their flesh."
"That's right," Karasuba looked down at her left arm. "I never saw the need for armour. Scales that can deflect all but the strongest attacks is all well and good but to me, a weapon that doesn't help you kill is not a real weapon. So I traded defence for offence, in place of the impenetrable hide of a dragon to protect my life, I have their almighty strength to strike my foes down with instead."
"But you can't use it, can you?" There was no way a human body could handle that much power, not if they wished to remain human anyway. Had she tried channelling any more than the smallest fraction of a Dragon's power through her human body she would have deteriorated under the strain.
"Afraid not." Karasuba freely admitted with an easy shrug of her shoulders, not at all concerned with revealing a potential weakness. "I can feel it killing me even with the minuscule amount I am capable of handling. Ddraig offered to turn me fully into a Dragon to fix that little problem but I turned him down. As tempting as it is, there are still some things I need to do and I can only do them if I'm human. Maybe later when I'm done I'll take him up on his offer but for now, I'll just have to make do."
"Besides," she reached up and pushed aside her bangs, "it's not all bad. Even the little bit I can use has its uses."
It took me a moment to realise what she was getting at, to notice what had happened to the wound that Heracles had given her, but when I did I immediately understood. At some point Karasuba must have removed the band-aids her mother had used to treat the wound because there was now nothing there but a thin pink line just beneath her hairline, barely noticeable, all that remained of her injury. It's only been a couple of hours but it already looked like it was entirely healed.
"Not quite instant regeneration," Karasuba let the bangs fall back over her face, "but you wouldn't believe how useful it can be at times."
"Oh, I think I can imagine." I replied, thinking about my own knack with regeneration. I had long lost count of the number of times Avalon had ended up saving my life, or from losing a limb, during the Holy Grail War alone and that's not mentioning everything that happened since.
There was a shift in the atmosphere, the kind of feeling you'd get walking into a cold room after a hot day out in the sun, a wordless signal that our conversation had come to an end. Karasuba's lids began to open fully, revealing her grey eyes while her smile gained a feral edge, her sword now gripped in both hands and held in a ready position before her.
Widening my stance a little, I held my hands empty by my side, ready to project a blade at a moment's notice. I found that it always made it harder for an enemy to break through my defence when they didn't know what weapon I would be wielding. It was a small trick but an effective one, one that I learned to use to my advantage.
Honestly though for all the power she held, and she had a remarkable amount for a human who hadn't even reached her second decade of life, in my mind the outcome of this fight was already determined. The raw physical abilities between us made sure of that. I had seen what she was capable of in her fight against the Khaos Brigade, and while impressive I could say with certainly that I was both far faster and far stronger than she was. Even if she managed to draw out more power from her Sacred Gear I doubted it would ever be enough to bridge the gap.
This was a fight where one combatant had an overwhelming physical advantage over the other, it was a situation that I was all to familiar with but for once I wasn't the one with the disadvantage. After so many years of fighting opponents who were both faster, stronger and more talented than me, it felt kind of weird to be on the other end of things for a change.
In sword's skills alone I was confident I could match her even without the use of my Noble Phantasms, but at the same time I had no intention of not taking her seriously. Had this been an ordinary fight it would have been easy, I could have ended it as soon as it began. Just overwhelmed her straight from the start without giving her a chance to boost and it would be over. The critical flaw of the Boosted Gear had always been the time it needed to gather its power, and the first few seconds of a fight has always left it's wielders vulnerable to attack. But my goal had never been to kill her, just stop her, and that tiny difference made this a whole lot more difficult.
I had known from the very beginning, before I even left the Underworld, that a fight between Karasuba and me was unavoidable. She was simply too fixated on fighting me, to the point she had been willing to throw herself on Gàe Bolg's tip if it meant getting to me. I had barely been able to avert a disaster by the skin of my teeth then, and I doubted I would continue to be so fortunate the next time.
So no, it was better to give her what she wanted now in a place of my choosing, a place where I could minimize the damage, and hopefully get it out of her system. And by setting things up this way I would at least be able to get an important questioned answered in return.
Who are you?
Just who was Hyoudou Karasuba? Nothing I knew about her seemed to make sense. There were so many facts about her that straight-out contradicted one another. She was an outright battle junkie that didn't care about her own life but backed away from a fight with me when I pointed out that other people might get involved. She appeared to be a bloodthirsty killer but she didn't kill indiscriminately. I had read through the report Sona had collected on Karasuba and found, much to my surprise, that there had been no rise in homicides or unexplained deaths in the city whenever she visits. Mundane or otherwise. Until her run in with Khaos Brigade there were no signs that she had ever killed anyone before, not here in this city at least.
There was always so much bloodlust pouring out of her that you'd expect here to leave a trail of bodies behind her where she goes but she always appeared to restrain herself, holding herself back, terrifying people away but never actually hurting anybody.
Nothing seemed to fit. I felt as if I held all the pieces to one giant puzzle but I couldn't seem to bring them together. Almost as if I held the parts for two different puzzles rather one. Which is why I set things up this way. I wanted answers and the only way I could get them was through her.
That meant that I couldn't just take her out, I needed to wear her down, hold her back until the sun sets at which point our fight would finally come to an end. To me this would become a battle of mental endurance rather than physical. I had to maintain my focus through several hours of continuous combat, making sure to keep pulling back my strikes the entire time so I didn't accidentally kill her, and all the while Karasuba wouldn't be hampered by the same limitations. I had no doubt she'll gleefully come at me with everything she had.
Even with that hampering me I still had the advantage in this fight but that didn't mean I could slack off, a single mistake, just one slip up could cost me my life. And in battle, where seconds can feel like hours and minutes like days, sunset was a lifetime away. This was going to be one hell of an annoying fight.
Perhaps if the circumstances had been a little different I could have relaxed and savoured the challenged, maybe even had a little fun while I was at it, but with the amount of malice flooding the air I doubted that would be happening.
Whatever I had felt from her this morning it paled in comparison to this. It was as if the hours of waiting did nothing to calm her battle-lust. If anything it made it worse, like locking away a starving beast only makes it that much desperate to dig it's claws into its next prey.
It was a grin so maniacal and bloodthirsty, something you'd find only on a killer's face just as they claimed their latest victim, a sight that was no doubted that last thing many of Karasuba's opponents have seen on earth.
"I'm going to kill you," she promised politely, raising her sword over her head. And whether or not she would fulfill her promise, I had no doubt she was going to do her very best and try. And unlike last time, I didn't have a cursed spear pointed at her to keep her at bay.
Then with a howl of "Emiya!", Karasuba launched herself at me.
*Chapter end*
Author's Notes: And that's it for the chapter – sorry for cutting it off right there but this is going to be a very important fight and I want to take the time to do it right rather than rush it. And since it might take me a few weeks to get it done (depending on my writing speed and how helpful my muse behaves) and I had all of this already ready and finished, I decided to post it for you to enjoy and mull over while I worked on the fight scene.
And I promise (this time I really mean it) that all the answers will be given in the next chapter, a lot of twits will be revealed and all of the mysterious solved as it will be the last chapter for the Karasuba character Arc. We'll be heading back to Underworld next and get to enjoy the madness that is the Rating Games.
I had fun writing Ichirou and Aiko. In the anime there was almost no information about Issei's parents, they were pretty much glossed aside despite most of the cast living in their home. Sad as that is, it did give me plenty of room to work with. And I hope you liked them.
And yes, Karasuba is a daddy's girl.
I know, it surprised to me too. Oh, as for Karasuba's Balance Breaker, the funny thing about it is it's actually weaker than Issei's Balance Breaker as it stands. Karasuba's body currently can't use it to it's full potential, if she was physically older and more matured she'd be able to utilize it better but in a still growing teenage body, she would have been better off with the armour. Then again, I can't imagine Karasuba ever wearing bulky armour.
Note: please remember the boosted Gear is limited to the amount of boosts it can give, while in theory it's infinity in practice it's limited by its host's body. A humans or even a Devil's body can't hold the strain of too many boosts. It's actually canon, it's the reason why Vali releases energy from his wings when he divides, he draw in too much power and needs to get rid of it because he's body can't handle it. In the Light Novel the author had to wave away this rule after the third volume to allow Issei to keep winning, but here that rule will hold true.
Well that's all I have to say for now. I'm working on the fight scene so look forward to it and, hopefully, it will be out soon.
Be sure to leave a review on your way out to let me know what you thought of the chapter and once again, thanks for reading and I hope you liked the chapter.