Verde was the largest shopping centre in all of Fuyuki and could truly be called the jewel of Shinto. Built during the construction explosion that took place after the Fuyuki fire, it contained nearly a hundred individual shops including cinema, clothing stores and tea shops. During the week it was often filled with many adults conducting their business and during the weekend children from all ages and walks of life could be seen frequenting their favourite locations.
Now the place was as cheerful as a mausoleum. A few small packs of people gathered in the open area speaking in quiet susurrations that echoed in the relative emptiness of the centre. The area was tense and, despite the spot being relatively well lit, the darkness outside testified to the fact that none of them felt entirely safe. Everybody here had been through pretty much the same experience. Crazed red-eyes filled with evil intent that belonged to prowling humanoids that were only held off by the men of the church. For Kaede Makidera and her two best friends, they had narrowly escaped death at the hands of a mob of those creatures due to the timely intervention of a woman who appeared, killed them all and disappeared.
Before the woman had left she had fixed them with her icy blue eyes and swiftly informed them that the nearby shopping centre was being established as a protected area and their best bet was to take shelter there. Out of their depth in the current situation and well aware of the distance to their homes all three took her advice and sought shelter in Verde wading through the shadows of the night that their imagination filled with multitudes of red eyes . The entrance was guarded by a handful of men wearing religious iconography that identified themselves as exorcists and after a brief inspection to make sure they were not carrying any deadly weaponry nor possessed crimson eyes; they were let into the atrium.
Nothing much had happened since then. Despite the whole centre being open for the refugees the majority chose to huddle near the entrance, eying the darkness that waited outside their sanctuary as if they would be able to do anything against the horde of red eyed monsters. They wouldn't, the exorcists had made it known that no weapons were allowed for their own safety and from what she had seen of them and the other recounts she had overheard the creatures were too fast and strong for a human to contend against.
"There's no reception," her friend Kane said as she walked towards the group having left in order to try phoning her parents.
"Do you think they are okay?" her other friend Yukika said, biting her lip with a look of worry on her face. Kaede felt a twinge of guilt as she realised that they would be home right now if not for their joint membership of the cross-country club that she had initially pressured them to join.
"I'm sure they're great," she said with an exuberance she didn't truly feel. "They will be sitting safely indoors, besides we haven't heard another explosion for a while. Maybe this thing is dying down."
Yukika looked hopeful but Kane had a look of scepticism on her face. "We still know don't actually know anything," she said. "None of the exorcists told us a thing. For all we know we could be stuck in here for days."
Her cold but true words sucked the life out of the happy feeling and the trio retreated once more into silence. Suddenly the sound of voices came from outside, their meaning distorted and warped by the chatter of the room. Suddenly the darkness disgorged a very familiar figure in the shape of Shirou Inke. He was wearing mottled grey clothing that was barely more than rags at this moment, containing tears and holes that revealed more skin than she was strictly comfortable with, and holy crap was he fit for a seventeen year old. She wasn't attracted to him or anything, but those muscles looked like he had stepped out of a manga.
All of this was thought before she took note of the major difference in Shirou. Burning vermillion orbs surveyed the room with a look of mild interest and her mind was dragged backwards into the scene where crimson-eyed monsters in human form attacked with desperate intent to kill.
Suddenly three loud cracks deafened her ears and knocked her out of her thoughts and she refocused to see Shirou open his left hand letting three small objects drop to the ground. He scanned the crowd and pointed towards a man, who she was surprised to see holding up a gun in his direction and she realised with disbelief that Shirou must have caught the bullets straight out of the air.
"Take a nap," she heard over the ringing in her ears and the man slumped over onto the ground.
Out of her depths she turned back to see a white-robed exorcists hurry into the room and start to converse with her classmate.
"I don't care," Shirou said cutting off the man. "There is really no time for this. If you won't help me then I will just rest here and then do it myself."
"What is happening?" she said softly to herself and from what she could see of the crowd she was not alone in wandering.
"The end of the world," Shirou said and she suddenly realised that he was right in front of her. "Maybe, details have yet to be finalised."
He swept his hand across the air and water emerged from it and then spread throughout the building. "We're a bit on the knife's edge," he continued and Kaede watched with some amazement as real life magic happened before her, created by an all too real magician. Carried back were various foodstuffs and the water pureed them before Shirou gulped down the mixed substance.
"Disgusting," he said grimacing to himself and ignoring the frightened looks of the surrounding people. "I need volunteers," he said stamping down his foot. When he lifted it there was a symbol underneath it. It was simple containing nothing but two trees encircled by two streams of water. "To go to these places." Shirou said as he made another gesture and a copy of Fuyuki created entirely out of ice rose was formed from the water he summoned. A flick of his fingers and the ice turned red at five locations.
"You're insane," the voice arose from the general murmurs that started when he phrased his request. "There are those things out on the street. None of us would make it."
"Actually most of them are disposed of," Shirou said offhandedly. "The streets aren't that much worse than the typical Fuyuki nights at this point. Just stay away from the area north of the school and you should be fine."
"Why don't you do it yourself," the man said striding towards him and once again to Kaede's amazement Shirou simply gestured and the man fell unconscious.
"I am agonizingly short on time and you are wasting it," he said. "This task could possibly save the world, now is there anybody who will volunteer."
Nobody answered. The collective refugees stared back at him with traces of uncertainty and fear with silent tongues. A look of agonizing disappointment crossed Shirou's face before it faded behind a blank mask. Still Kaede couldn't blame them; it would require somebody very foolish to go out into the black night at the moment and nobody in the room looked to be a fool.
"Uh," Yukika said softly by her side and Kaede turned her head slightly to look at her. She looked like she was visibly struggling with something. Her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. Kaede watched in horror as she stepped forward. Somehow her mind clicked at that moment that her friend was going to volunteer despite the complete lack of reason to do so. There was no way she should be out there. Yukika was a good manager of the cross-country team but she was terribly unfit herself. The person who went out there should be fast, fit and, oh who was she kidding.
"Dammit," Kaede said under her breath. "I'll go," she said staring the magician in the face. "Running to those places will be a breeze for the 'Black Panther of Homura'."
Shirou smiled and that smile was enough to cut off her motivating speech. It was a smile that somehow seemed to contain inordinate amounts of pride. It was the smile on a person's face when they saw their hard work being validated. Kaede had to admit, despite herself, Shirou could be very attractive when he smiled.
"Excellent," he said. "Thank you Black Panther," he said with startling sincerity. He reached towards his wrist and she flinched back as a spurt of blood sprayed out before forming into a glob of blood. A vague gesture of his hand and the blood landed on the ground forming a perfect circle with the other blood drawing symbols and iconography within the circle. A coin appeared in Shirou's hand and he tossed it towards the circle and Kaede watched as the coin stopped as soon as it passed over the circle.
"Let me give you something to help you along," he said walking towards her. As soon as he was in arm's length he placed his hand on her head and Kaede felt a wave of… something wash through her making her body feel lighter and her muscles tighter. She felt like her entire life she had been half asleep and for the first time she was wide awake. "I'm counting on you Kaede," he said using her first name.
The next second he was floating in the middle of the circle encased in ice with his eyes closed and despite his continued presence the room drained of its nervous energy.
"Are you really going to go," Kane said speaking up for the first time since Shirou entered. "You were just as scared as the rest of us."
"Shirou's counting on me," Kaede said. "I'm sorry Kane but he said that there wasn't time."
"Good luck," the white robed exorcist said. "We'll guard the rest of these people and the Magician. You go inscribe the runes, may God be with you."
Kaede nodded and she took off faster than she had ever moved before into the darkness of the night.
xxx
If you were to open an encyclopaedia and look up the term 'bad situation', well it wouldn't tell you anything, encyclopaedia's don't work like that, they only look up specific terms. But if they did and you did then you probably wouldn't find this situation listed. After all encyclopaedias don't usually provide specific examples and it was very unlikely that the writer of the encyclopaedia even knew about Primate Murder or Altrouge Brunestud. Rin's thoughts went in very weird places when facing imminent death.
"Do you think we got it," Altrouge said. "I was kind of hoping that we could have destroyed the grail in that blast." She turned towards the enormous wolfish creature. "I think we missed Primy."
She might have said more if the place where she was standing wasn't ripped apart by an explosion that engulfed all four of their opponents. Rin whipped her head around and saw Aoko Aozaki striding from the wreckage of the house with a ticked off look on her face.
"Oh," she thought with some shock. "I forgot she was here."
"What have I missed," the other red-haired Magicia said rubbing her neck. She was dressed in pyjamas and her hair looked understandably messy.
"We were just tracking down a grail," Altrouge said waving away the dust in the air. "You wouldn't happen to have seen one."
"It's below," the sixteenth Dead Apostle Ancestor said brusquely.
"Of course, why wouldn't it be," she said with exasperation. "All the others were. Can't you give me a more exact location?"
"Can't you just feel for the gaps in the Earth using your Marble Phantasm," he replied.
Altrouge opened her mouth as if to speak and then shut it again. After a second she closed her eyes and then opened them. "Shut up," she said annoyed.
While this was going on Aoko was stretching out her muscles and eying up her enemies. She glanced at the three of them. "Do we have any reinforcements," she whispered. "Do they?"
"Shirou and Arcueid," Ishtar replied back just as quietly. "I don't know."
"Then we must stall," she said as if it was obvious and perhaps it was because both Satsuki and Ishtar nodded back immediately. A slight whirring started up and Rin watched with some indignation as the three stepped forward, standing between her and their foes. But they didn't move to attack as the three of them watched the vampires and the hound silently.
"Found it," Altrouge said with joy in her voice, sounding almost childish as she walked towards the ruins of the shed. A tap of her foot and the ground opened up to reveal a box of wood that seemed to be well made but noticeably rotting. "Do you think it could be in here," she said. "Seems a bit small for these grails." She tore open the lid of the box and Satsuki held up a hand to forestall any attack. Reaching into the box she pulled out a lot of dry brown mouldy vegetation that seemed to have rotted underground.
"Wow, that was disappointing," Altrouge said to herself as she tossed the stuff. "I wonder what that was." She shook her head. "Primy blow up the ground."
The beast opened his mouth, white light coalescing between his jaws and then the three in front of Rin moved. In an instant the beast had was kicked in the side by Satsuki and had multiple arrows imbedded in its face by Ishtar. It shrugged off those blows and fired off a beam of energy downwards only for that energy to disappear as Aoko appeared in front of him.
Rizo-Waal Strout unsheathed his blade and moved angling to stab the Magician only for her to disappear and launch a kick at his head. Turning he swung his sword to bisect the airborne Magician and Rin seized the moment to drain half a dozen gems of their and light him on fire. Turning around he glared at Rin gulped as the young magus realized that she had a very angry, very powerful Dead Apostle Ancestor out for her blood. But her discomfort waned as in the next second his body disappeared, ripped apart by the force from multiple explosions.
Rin suddenly had to dodge to the side as a badly wounded Satsuki flew backwards through the space that she had occupied a moment before. Her arm was shaved down to a stump and the wounds that she had incurred would have spelt certain death for anybody weaker but in the next moment she was up, her body already regenerating the wounds.
"Keep your head down," she said to Rin as she dived back into the fight with the massive wolf. But Rin refused to do so with the stakes so high. While she was strong for a magus her real strength lay in the gems that she had so painstakingly infused her prana into during the long years in which she was a magus. Using them she might be able to some damage to one of her opponents or even distract them so that one of her allies could kill them. Her eyes roamed the battlefield tracking the possible targets. Aoko was fighting Black Knight Strout but none of the damage she inflicted lasted more than a second before he regenerated.
Ishtar and Satsuki were fighting against Primate Murder moving at such speed that it strained her eyes to even keep up with it, and, well they weren't exactly winning but they weren't dead yet. That was pretty good for fighting the first Dead Apostle Ancestor. Better than most people could ever claim. Ishtar was immensely fast and agile and her lithe body avoided the many attacks of the wolf by a hairs-breadth and she was constantly retaliating, firing arrows into his blood, soaked and oozing skin. Satsuki on the other hand, well Rin was honestly surprised at how tough she was. Many times had the beast connected with her and then Ishtar would distract it and then Satsuki would be back fully recovered.
Tearing her eyes away from that fight she focused on the third Dead Apostle Ancestor, the Black Wing Lord. As soon as she laid eyes upon him his gaze snapped to meet with her own before he looked away in disinterest. Rin tore her gaze away to look for the last opponent, only to feel chills run down her back as she felt an arm drape over her shoulder.
"I don't suppose you want to get into one of these contests of strength," the smooth voice of Altrouge Brunestud said. Rin said nothing as her life flashed before her eyes and she felt cold sweat form on the back of her neck. She had never felt such sheer terror as when this monster had so easily invaded her personal space. She had no illusions that the delicate looking arm that was so friendlily around her shoulder could have just as easily broken her neck. "I'll take that as a no them," she said cheerfully. "Gransurg is also staying out of the fights," she moved her head closer until her lips were inches from her ear. "Between you and me I think he's scared that if he gets too close to the fights one of my friends will 'accidentally' chop him up."
All of the people fighting had noticed her precarious position but none were actually in a position to do anything about it. Aoko cast a worried look before resuming her fight not being in a position to do much.
"Oh wow, you're pretty tense," Rin heard before she felt strong hands start to massage her shoulders. She involuntarily winced as she felt knots that had accumulated due to the stress of the last few days begin to soften and she had to force herself not to relax completely as one of the most dangerous creatures in the world gave her a back massage. "Have you ever thought about becoming a vampire," Altrouge said taking first place for the most inappropriate sales pitch in the world as their collective allies battled just metres away. "You don't even need dental your teeth get so good," she continued. "And you get immortality, don't forget the immortality. You're pretty attractive. You could keep your looks for a few hundred years. How does that sound?"
Rin opened her mouth trying to think of the correct words that she could use and not get killed. "I appreciate the offer," she said. "It's a pretty good offer…" she said deliberately slowing down the sentences.
"Please, just think about it," Altrouge said with a smile as she turned Rin around to face her. "I'm sorry but right now I'm going to have to put our conversation on hold. I sensed a powerful object far below the earth, hidden beneath a cavern. I've just finally managed to get it to move," she said and Rin saw the ground beneath her bubbled and bulged. Suddenly Satsuki appeared from thin air right in the blind spot of Altrouge and Rin felt a sense of hope emerge.
That hope was taken away the very next second as Altrouge casually twisted her body and lashed out with a punch that sent Satsuki spinning into the hard earth where she lay still.
"Really?" Altrouge said. "I have fought against Sumire before I'm not going to lose against some bargain basement rendition of her tricks. She stuck out her hands and Rin viewed in mixed amazement and horror as something burst forth from the ground. A wave of prana exploded as the object was disgorged in such intensity that she was nearly blinded and when she opened her eyes it was to the sight sphere five metres in diameter made entirely of crystals.
"Damn," Altrouge said and Rin could detect annoyance as well as faint amusement in her tone. "It really is like dealing with Sumire."
Author Note: Difficult chapter. Can anybody guess what the rotted brown vegetation was. If you can then you should use that brain to remember more important things.
SentinalSlice: Shirou and Zelretch would really not get along. The story would probably start in a bar and end with them banned from Gensokyo or something.
hyperomegasonic26: The two options she had was to become part of Arcueid's psche again. A collection of memories aware that it is only a ghost of the original Crimson Moon or to die. She chose the latter. Although Shirou might have given her the latter regardless.
YuukiAsuna-Chan: If he had more time he might have been able to track down Touko to transfer her into a puppet body or even made one himself.
LoneWriter091: It's beneath his secret lab which is beneath the pantry. That's because only he and Nine ever go into the pantry.
KnightmareNeko: That would be far too much crack for me to handle.