Draconian Fate Works - Volume 1

by Kratos1989

Honestly, I should have expected it. After all, my line of work would always be screwing with me when I don't need to. What I did not expect was getting myself into a world where Gods are alive and around, Angels and Demons are real, and the residents are really weird. I blame Zelretch for this. Rated T for the time being. (Yes, the title has been changed / Sporadic Updates)

4. Peace before the storm

Disclaimer:

High School DxD is a Japanese light novel series written by Ichiei Ishibumi and illustrated by Miyama-Zero. The Fate series is owned by Type-Moon. I do not own any of the characters mentioned from both series. The only things I own are the ideas that popped into my head for this story and whatever original characters I would create for the story.

My main muses come from Gabriel Blessing and Marcus Galen Sands, authors of great works themselves. This story is meant to be a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life are purely coincidental and should not be taken seriously. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Root Damn It!

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Published: October 11th 2015

Updated: September 18th 2017

Chapter 4: Peace before the storm

Part 1

Sirzechs Lucifer held back a chuckle as he saw through the window several of the younger demons running around with somewhat harassed expressions and messy hairstyles. The past couple of days have been really funny to him, but downright insanity for his assistants.

He was currently in the main office of the Maou government building, seating behind his desk doing some paperwork for the everyday matters. The room was very impressive in its looks; roughly the dimensions of two king-sized bedrooms, the room was supported with white marble columns that go all the way to the ceiling, pictures of some of the most known Devils in the government adorning the walls of light oak and the floor was paved with dark marble. The desk he was currently doing his work on was a big dark oak table with silver trimmings and a few magic circles etched into it for a makeshift protection barrier if he were attacked in his office.

Truthfully, he felt it to be a little too lavish for his tastes. All he ever needed was a small room and a small desk to do his duties, he did not like the idea that there was so much wealth around him that could be used to help the poorer groups in the area. Still he was a Maou, and the old goats in the government were pretty adamant that the office should reflect the status.

Not that it ever stopped him to occasionally 'miss' an item that would be converted into cash and be given to a poor community to help them through the year.

He paused for a moment to look at the assistant through the room window, then with a fair amount of curiosity, he pressed the button on the intercom to hear the conversations going on privately.

"Good Afternoon, no he is not available, please call again later!"

"No, he is not going to give a press conference about this!"

"I have said it once and I will not say it again! It was a Rating Game and Raiser lost! Plain Simple Answer! Got that?!"

'Oh boy, they are really going at it, huh?' Sirzechs thought cheerfully as he thought to the Rating Game.

Normally for Rating Games, there would be a large number of people to witness the fights, but since this was meant to be a private battle between two clans, they were only limited to him, witnesses from the Gremory Clan and the Phenex Clan, and a couple of selected others. However, it seemed that the Phenex were counting their chickens before they hatched, as they had brought in a reporter to help spread the news of their evident marriage.

What they got was a total ass-whooping of Raiser and the revealing of the Dragon Emperor.

Quite honestly, he was really impressed with how far Rias had gone with her training. He had at one point considered using his authority to try and stop the marriage, but that would mean he was abusing his power as a Mau to help his sister and he knew that Rias would rather die than to endanger his career. So he had conspired with Grayfia to try something out if Raiser won the match by having the Dragon Emperor appear during the wedding.

Shame that plan did not come to play, he would really like to have that performance.

Still, he would admit that he was taken back by the sheer improvement Rias's Peerage has gotten. If he had to use a scale to rank them, in the beginning they were roughly in the lower D ranking, able to handle normal demons and slightly weaker Incarnated Devils, but now they were in the upper B ranking, able to handle a fair number of higher grade demons.

And it was thanks to this Shirou Emiya who trained them.

It was Rias's request that the human's name was not to be known as he was just a regular person, and that she was attempting to bring him over to her group. Unfortunately the reporter in the room managed to record the game and sent it to his agency before they could completely silence the witnesses' tongues.

Thus, the current situation.

Needless to say, the news spread like wild fire and people wanted to know more about the game, thus the phone calls to the office from those of high positions or the news companies in the Underworld. Mostly people called in to confirm the news of either the defeat of Raiser or the possibility of the Red Dragon Emperor now in the ranks of the Devils.

But the ones that were a little concerning to him were the minority, mainly the higher clans and older generation of Devils who immediately set loose their network of information to find the person who supposedly trained the Gremory Peerage to be this strong.

He would need to have a quick with Grayfia and considered the next course of action...

'Well, speak of the devil.' Sirzechs thought to himself as a magic circle of the Gremory lit up next to him, followed shortly by the appearance of the silver-haired maid.

"Sirzech-sama, I have returned." She bowed lightly before coming over to assume her position by his side.

"Ah Grayfia, perfect timing." Sirzechs turned the device off and faced her. "It seems that the hunters of the Higher Clans have yet to find their mark it seems."

"Indeed, it is rather fortunate that with the area under the jurisdiction of both Rias-sama and Sona-sama, by default they cannot enter without having us alerted." Grayfia replied as she looked at the stacks of paperwork with a disapproving eye. "At the very least, those seeking official reasons to investigate the Dragon Emperor and other matters would be delayed enough for this matter to roll over."

"The ones we need to worry are those who don't need official reasons." Sirzechs frowned at he few he knew would have zero qualms about their tactics. "Still there will be some bit of leeway for Rias, not to mention Sona-chan is there to help her."

"It is fortunate that Leviathan sama was also watching from her side." Grayfia took a small stack and placed it in front of Sirzechs, who sighed and lethargically picked up the pen to sign the documents. "It seemed that she had heard a little of the human in question from Sona-sama, so she is actively helping her in secret."

"Well if she is involved, they definitely have quite a hurdle to get past." Sirzechs chuckled slightly about that bit of information. It was a well-known fact by all that Serafall was a major sis-con for Sona, and that she would go to great lengths just to make sure that she was safe and happy. Even if Sona asked her to leave her alone at the academy (not an easy feat, if half the stories he heard were true), she was still keeping tabs on her.

"Indeed, and since she had heard about Sona-sama's attempts in trying to bring him over, she has been giving her support by tightening the security around the area and telling her some tips to try and get him. Though I hear it was not quite what she wanted."

'Knowing Serafall, she probably asked Sona and her Peerage to do something embarrassing to get the human's attention.' Sirzechs thought wryly while dealing with another stack of papers that Grayfia dumped in front of him.

"So how is Rias?"

"She is doing well, though I do have reservations regarding her decision to stay alongside her Pawn." Grayfia replied as she looked at the photograph on the table, featuring Sirzechs carrying a younger Rias on his shoulders. "I think she is not yet ready to move into the house of a young man, even if he is a member of her Peerage."

"Oh well, Rias is very stubborn for matters like this. There is no way I can stop her, and even my parents would have trouble to convince her." Sirzechs shrugged in the face of Grayfia's disapproval. "How about Raiser?"

"He is incapacitated and unless I am much mistaken, he may have developed a slight fear of dragons." Hidden within the scorn and ruthless disappointment towards the individual, there were notable tones of satisfaction. Guess she was happier than she let on about Raiser's despairing situation.

"Oh yes, there is one thing I want to know." Sirzechs turned to Grayfia with a raised eyebrow. "You have met this Shirou Emiya before right? What is your impression of him?"

Grayfia closed her eyes and paused for a moment to gather her thoughts, then opened her eyes again to talk. "First time I met him was during the meeting between Rias-sama and Raiser-sama. He was the individual who stopped both sides from attacking one another in a fit of anger. Second time was the evening before the Rating Game, when I met him to lead him to Rias-sama. In both times, I feel that he has a great distrust against our kind, but a great heart to help others in need. Of all, he seems to be closest to the Red Emperor, the new Bishop, and two others from the Sitri Peerage."

"Ah I see, seems like a nice guy." Sirzechs commented as he dipped his pen into some ink and prepared to sign one last document.

"But"

Sirzech's hand stopped short of putting his signature on a document, causing an ink blob to drop on it and make a small dot on it.

'She said but? This must be serious.'

He had known Grayfia for many years, and one thing he could say for certain was her total willingness to speak her mind out with zero hesitation. Either she had something nice to say (which was rare), or something really scathing to speak of (he always enjoyed listening to her almost ruthless description of their opponents or Raiser), she would not pause in her words. The only times she ever said 'but', was when she either had something to admit about a person's character, her views on certain tactics or strategies, or she was unsure of someone.

Judging from her eyes and the topic they were on, the last one was the likely deal.

"Something troubles me about the human." Grayfia started slowly, sounding a little cautious about her words. "On the surface, he seems to be a nice individual, though he is a little rough with his training and that his interactions with both their Peerages are extremely limited. As a fighter, he seems to have quite a good feel for tactics on the battlefield, so he can take care of himself and Rias-sama if needed."

"So what is the issue?"

"I get the odd feeling that he is..." She paused before continuing. "A blank slate."

"... You will need to give me a little more details than that."

"To me, it felt like a part of him is missing, like he does not have a true self." Grayfia elaborated while maintaining an expression of uncertainty and professional curiosity. "What little I have learnt from Rias suggests that he was a wandering magician who happened to get into the town after some sort of an attack, given the medical records available. It seemed that his injuries were severe enough to have him stuck in the town and end up getting enrolled into the academy."

"But you think there's more?"

"His magic is one thing." Grayfia lifted a hand and with a light twirl of her finger, formed a small knife out of demonic energy. "It is not impossible for us to make small weapons with our demonic energy. Magicians can make weapons with their magic as well, but something about that boy's magic is different. For one thing, the power I sensed from them seems to exceed some of the Sacred Gears we have encountered over the years."

"Say that again?!" Sirzechs was now facing her with a deep-rooted curiosity in him. "There can't be a lot of magic schools out there that can have a magic system stronger than a Sacred Gear."

"That's the thing, based on what little I have gathered on him, he does not come from any of the traditional schools we know. His magic style seems to be one totally unique to him."

"You mean he is a SB magician?" Sirzechs leaned back in contemplation. Specially Born Magicians, or SB in short, was something a little unusual but not rare when it came to magic cabals. The idea that an individual born between two strong parents was very basic ideology practiced even by the old clans of Devils, hoping to create a Devil that carries two blood lines from powerful clans. But as stated, it was a little uncommon since the results would be somewhat mixed.

"Perhaps, but when I said about his abilities being different, I meant something entirely different." She looked at him in the eye before saying the unexpected words. "I detected an odd presence from his weapons, as if they have sentience at their very core."

"You are kidding me right?" Sirzech looked at her with his eyes slightly bulging.

"I am not. His weapons and by extension his magic is very unusual." She took out a small crystal and placed it on his desk. The jewel glowed lightly and projected an image on the wall, revealing a shield that looked to be of Norse origins. "This is Svalinn, supposedly from the poems of Norse Mythology. This was the item that Ojou-sama used to protect herself from Raiser's attacks."

"Svalinn, the shield that protects the earth from the power of the sun?" Sirzech ask for confirmation.

"That is what the human said, but evidently the one he loaned to Ojou-sama was a copy of the real shield. From what I gathered, this item had a presence that allows it to judge the user before assigning them a certain amount of power. So it begs the question, where did he find it? And how was he able to replicate its abilities?"

"This is quite deep." Sirzechs muttered as he fiddled with the jewel to look through the other images stored inside. "Any other reasons for your distrust towards him?"

"I have said it before, he gives the feeling of a blank slate." Grayfia replied as she took the crystal from Sirzech's hand and fiddled with it lightly to project an image of the individual in question. "I cannot understand what are his motives and his reasons for helping them."

"Do you remember the battlefield we fought on in Dry Lands?"

Sirzech nodded with a grim look. How could he not remember that battle? Countless generations of Devils were lost due to the battle between the Old Maou and the New Generation. Many of the 72 Demonic Clans were lost or exiled, and the map of the Underworld had to be redrawn due to the powers that changed the landscapes so much. Many of the higher-ups got assassinated either by their enemies or those who were greedy and seek power. It was in such a situation that many realized that it was better to end it quick and seek a way to bring the devil population back from the brink of extinction.

"There was one clan that used a group of their servants to adopt suicidal tactics?" Grayfia watched Sirzechs nod hesitantly before she continued. "The feeling I got from Shirou Emiya was similar to them; nothing else to live for, using their abilities solely for the task they were brought up to. And based on descriptions, it would seem that he has a death wish when he fights."

Sirzech's only response was the narrowing of his eyes. He remembered that clan who had brought up their servants in such an extreme manner that they ended up adopting a personality that was completely suicidal. Everything they destroyed, every life taken, in their minds it was meant to please their masters and somehow served as their only purpose in life.

If that was the case, then Rias and Sona could possibly have an unstable time-bomb in their town. He could possibly snap without warning and just take down every living creature in his sights before he gets taken down.

"Surely he is not dangerous right?" Sirzechs tried to dispel the dark thoughts from his head.

"Granted he is not as extreme as them." Grayfia conceded to his opinion. "Certainly he is not as chaotic as those servants. But I have been reading the reports from Rias-sama's hunts, and the few times I have a word with Sona-sama, all suggest that he was someone who grew up broken, and had adopted someone else's ideals as his own. I do not know what ideal he has taken up, but it would be wise to keep an eye on him."

"Is that what you are planning to do?" Sirzechs asked while noting the tone in her voice.

"Naturally, after all, someone must watch over Ojou-sama while she is staying at her servant's quarters. I will take the chance to observe him silently." Grayfia concluded her words with a light nod.

"Okay then, please watch over them."

"By your leave." The silver-haired maid left his side and stopped in the middle of the room, bowing her head lightly before the magic circle appeared at her feet and she disappeared in a flash of crimson light. Sirzechs stared at her spot for a while before looking at the photograph on the table.

Shirou Emiya, he would need to keep an eye on this individual. He must be a very dangerous magician to be around, given the description of his methods and training. And if he was truly empty, that would make him even more unpredictable and possibly more ruthless.

=()=

"Shirou, one burrito set, two salads, one fish-and-chips, one cheese burger and a pepper steak well-done!" Kano's orders were barely audible over the sounds of the deep-fryer, the oven and stove running on high, but I was still able to hear him with a little use of Reinforcement on my ears.

"Coming right up!" I pulled back my sleeves higher than before and set about creating the dishes for the customers. It has been a very trialing morning, and it looked like I was going to work overtime for the day.

It has been a week now since the Rating Game between the Gremory Group and the Phenex Group, and during that time, I have been working my ass off just to make up for the days I could not come because of the training. Kano certainly did not hold back; he immediately put me into cooking duty and had me work for a few days straight. At least I could use this opportunity to relax and try out some of my experimental dishes on the way.

This morning however was exceptionally crowded; the people have been coming in non-stop, all the three assistants had been called in to help out, and we even had to bring out all the remaining tables in storage and asked for a few more from neighboring stores. They were gracious enough to loan them to us, on the condition they get to eat some of my creations.

It was just as well that I am working right now, this way I could be distracted by all that had happened since the Rating Game.

It seemed that I had underestimated the popularity status that Raiser had as the favorite of the Higher Clans; roughly two days after the Rating Game, both Rias and Sona came to me with troubled expressions and told me that I would need to lay low for the time being, since some of the Devils had started to go nuts from the news. Evidently there was a reporter that was with the witnesses, and while they were more or less silenced, the reporter used Twitter to broadcast the clip where Rias mentioned my involvement with their training.

I was more surprised at the fact that Devils were using phone apps in their world than the possibility of me being hunted.

In any case, because of said reporter, it seemed the higher ups were now starting to utilize their resources to find out who I was, and there were a few big-shots that made the two girls go out of their way to warn me beforehand. So I decided to limit my contact with them and just behaved like a normal student, while going about with my job.

For the time being, there had been no grave issues. There have have no mysterious watchers near me, no assassin coming for my neck or anyone trying to tail me between my workplace and the apartment. It was pretty boring actually.

... Man, my life became more screwed up than I thought if I was actually looking forward for some action.

Well, it was not like I have been idle in my time. I have been trying to repair the Kaleidou-Amulet with whatever I had on me, but it had been a slow and somewhat agonizing process to do so, since I do not have all the necessary parts to fix it. If worse comes to worse, I would have to consider going to Rias or Sona to see if they have anything similar.

Though I really, really hope that I do not need to do so. They would no doubt use my desperation to try and get me into their Peerages.

"Shirou, how are the orders?!" Kano's urgent voice broke my thoughts and reminded me that I had a lot more cooking to do.

"One burrito set, two salads, one fish-and-chips, one cheese burger and a pepper steak well-done. All coming your way!" I yelled back as I pushed the orders through the window.

"Okay, next set of orders! Two Buffalo Wings, one spaghetti, one jambalaya, one double cheese burger, two soups-of-the-day, one taco set and an Eggs-Benedict special!"

Ah come one! What was with the crowd today?! There were never this many people that would come about to the shop! Forget working overtime, we were going to be working all the way past midnight if this does not die out!

There was only one thing to do. That much I decided as I took a cloth to tie up my hair and took off my shirt to handle the heat.

"Trace. On."

Time to cook up a storm.

=()=

"Whew! I thought we would never close the shop for the day." Kano flopped on the chair and mopped his brow.

"Indeed, I don't think I have ever cooked that much for quite a while." I let out a contented sigh as I laid back on the chair, the soft cushioning helping to ease my tired back muscles. Using Reinforcement on my muscles for a few hours straight was really straining, and I was really thankful for the soft cushioning of the chairs.

"Well, at least our business is booming as usual." Kawako beamed as she came back after locking the door and putting down the signs. "It has been such a long time since we were this crowded, it reminds me of the time when this shop was first opened."

"Was that the case?" I asked politely while leveling my eyes at her.

"Indeed boy. I was a young man roughly your age when the shop got opened by my old boss. It was practically packed to the roof with customers that more often than not, we had to close shop earlier than normal because we ran out of ingredients to cook with!" Kano shook his head while chuckling at the memories. "But still, it was a good thing it lasted this long, because this was where I met the girl of my dreams."

"Oh dear~" Kawako leaned forward and lightly pecked him on the cheek. I could only smile lightly at the affection they shared for one another. It was rather heartening to see such a loving couple. It was folks like these two that made me feel that my actions were worth the pain and suffering.

"But you know Shirou." Kawako turned to me with a rather teasing light in her eyes. "I had noticed that many of the customers that came today were the girls from the nearby district."

Uh oh, I know that look.

"Hmm... Good point. They did try to see you during the past few days, and they were so disappointed." Kano took the opportunity to tease me. "Then when I mentioned to them that you were back, they were pretty adamant to meet you. But you only talked to them for a short while."

Oh no, they have ganged up on me.

"Erm, that's because I was busy." I lightly squirmed in my chair at their teasing. It was a bit of a problem when a few of the girls I had met after taking up the job started to come around to visit, and it was admittedly a bit tiresome.

I mean, I was supposed to be in my twenties right now, I felt like I was robbing a cradle.

"Ara~ but I thought you would be happy that girls would be coming to the shop." Kawako remarked cheerfully.

"The only reason they come to the shop is because I helped them out out of their problems, so they just want to thank me. That is all."

"Oh~ is that so?" Kano's smile almost resembled Raiga's smile when he was about to go on a teasing rampage. "How about that girl from the supermarket down the street?"

"That was because I helped her with dealing with some of the hooligans that come around every so often."

"How about Adeline from the flower shop?" Kawako-san threw in her bit.

"I helped to get rid of the guys that come to harass her a few times and helped her sell some of the flowers."

"Sayaka Miyabi from the Kendo Club of First High University?" Kano took his turn.

"Because the male seniors of the Judo Club were harassing her group and they needed some help, so I took them on in a competition."

"The girls from Hanou Academy?"

"They were having issues with their rival school counterparts, and since one of them knew me from another incident, she got me to help them out."

"How about that Saegusa girl?"

"She was trying to help out her younger sisters from some hooligans, and I was around to stop things from getting out of hand."

"Oh dear Shirou, you really are innocent when it comes to females, huh?" Kano smirked at me as Kawako chuckled lightly.

Not sure how to reply that question, after all my relationships with girls were a little messed up in the past, and regarding the innocence, perhaps it was best I did not tell them about that one night stand with Saber and Rin while escaping Berserker.

Before Kawako could continue with her attack, the chiming of the doorbell indicated that someone was outside the door.

"Now who could that be? We are already closed for the day." Kawako got up to check the person while Kano stayed back to continue teasing me. At the least there was reduced firepower towards me.

Still, I can't say that I did not enjoy the occasional teasing. If anything it kind of reminded me of my younger days when I worked at the other pub, and how I dealt with some of Raiga's guys back then. It was rather relaxing and at the least, put me to ease.

"Shirou, some friends of yours have come to visit!" Kawako's voice echoed in the shop as she called out from her side.

'What?' I frowned slightly as I got up and made my way to the door. I don't recall telling anyone about my workplace, I did not see the need to do so. So who...

A familiar scent momentarily made me pause in my movements and stopped short of turning the door handle.

Why were the devils here in the district, here in front of the store? Was I too careless in my preparations? Have they come to try and take me by force? Would they try to hypnotize the residents to kill me so that they could resurrect me?!

I have no idea, but they were not going to get their way without a fight. That much I decided as I prepared the trigger in my head, then turned the knob sharply and...

"Emiya-kun, we have come to visit you!" Meguri chimed as she jumped forward and hugged me by the arm while smiling. Wait what~?

As always, I almost got my thoughts shuffled whenever this girl comes around, she always seems to make the situation a little less tensed and a lot more awkward.

Certainly not helped with her chest firmly pressed against my arm right now.

"Meguri-chan, you should not trouble Emiya-kun like that." Reya frowned as she stepped forward to try and pry Meguri off me. She paused to smile at me. "Hello, Emiya-kun, I hope we are not interrupting anything important."

"Err, no you are not." I managed to get my head back and replied while gently trying to remove my arm from Meguri's hold. "Why are you guys here?" I directed my question at Sona, with a little tone to suggest that I was currently wary of them.

"We were trying to contact you, but we could not get a hold of you. So we had to ask around to find your working place." Sona replied back while bowing her head lightly. "Apologies for the sudden visit."

"Really, you are a hard person to find." Meguri pouted as she was finally pried off me. "We had to ask a lot of people just to get to this area."

"Well, I figured that it was not important, and certain individuals do not need to know of such things." I replied back with a slight tone to indicate my slight displeasure. "Some things should be considered a little private."

"So Shirou?" My heart nearly went to my throat as I turned my head to find the elderly couple behind me. "Who are your friends?"

I guess there was no chance for me to salvage this. I motioned with my hand towards my work associates. "These are the student council members from my high school. Evidently they have a message to pass to me, and since I am working, they had to find me here."

"Apologies for taking up his time, this will be a short message." Sona bowed her head in apology.

"Oh no problem my dear. In fact, why don't you all come in?" Kawako beamed as she opened the door wider for the group to enter. "We still have drinks and snacks out so you can take some."

"Ah but we should not be imposing on you..."

"Don't you worry, my dear" Kawako waved away Sona's attempt to dissuade her. "Any acquaintance of Shirou is welcome, and I would like to know about the Academy from the council's point of view."

"Well in that case, we thank you for welcoming us." With that, the lot entered one by one after greeting the elderly couple, followed shortly by Kawako and leaving me with Kano outside the shop.

"Shirou." Kano wrapped an arm around me and lightly shuffled my hair. "You are one lucky lad, you know that?"

Sigh~ he was so not letting me go after finding new ammunition to tease me with.

=()=

"So this is where you worked." Sona looked around with a cursory glance. "I have to say, I did not expect this. I was expecting more of an engineer's workshop or something of the sort."

"I did start out at an automotive shop, but it was cutting a lot into my time, so I took up the job offer here. It pays well, the owners are nice, and it is pretty close to my area." I said as I placed the refreshments on the table and settled myself in the chair.

"Still, a pub huh?" Tsubasa alternated her eyes between me and the bar top. "Do you by chance make the cocktails for the customers in a suit?"

"Non-alcoholic versions, I am technically unable to touch alcohol, despite knowing some recipes." I replied with the information more for Sona's benefit. "And frankly speaking, I don't often come out that much to make the drinks, I just cook in the kitchen in the back."

"Hmm, well I suppose it would be okay." Sona paused as she looked at the drink in her hand. "This is really good."

"Glad you liked it." Kawako beamed as she placed some treats on the table. "This is one of our top drinks, and Shirou helped to perfect it."

"It is an exaggeration, I merely changed a couple of items just to appeal to the masses." I scratched my head in embarrassment.

"Once again, the Brownie strikes and remains modest." Saji commented as he took a bite of the treats. "Oh man this is good."

"You can thank Shirou for that as well, it is one of his creations." Kano replied as he looked on. "He is basically the reason our profits went up 70% in the last few months, he has a good head for ideas and a hell of a hand when it comes to cooking."

"Indeed, he is a natural." Kawako nodded in agreement. "Why, just the other day he made a superb chicken roast with mushrooms and mashed potatoes with the most delightful mustard onion sauce. And to finish it all off he created a vanilla souffle with a chocolate truffle filling."

"Damn, now I really want to eat some of his food." Saji groaned at the thought of all the food described to him. "Emiya, you have got to make those at the school!"

"Saji, we do not make other students cook for us." Sona flashed her glasses as she replied. "It is not supposed to be a free treat."

"If that is the case, then that means I should not have to cook for both you and Rias anymore." I said as I took a sip.

Three. Two. One...

"NNNOOO!" The other girls got up and panicked at the thought of me not coming to cook for them anymore.

"Kaichou, you need to make an exception for Emiya-kun! This is a matter of life and death!" Tsubaki actually went against her typical support of the president and argued her case.

"Indeed, Gremory is one thing, but we must have Emiya's cooking!" Momo replied earnestly.

"Emiya-kun's tea snacks help our productivity a lot, so don't let it go!" Meguri added her bit with desperation in her eyes.

"Please, we need our afternoon tea to get us through the workload!" Tsubasa pleaded with Reya nodding quickly.

"Please Kaichou, let him cook for us!" Ruruko put her hands together and begged with the puppy dog eyes that was often used against me.

"..." The person in the face of such arguments could only hang her head and sigh heavily while massaging her head with a little more force than normal. Maybe I better get her something to ease her headache.

"Whoa, you got them wrapped around your finger." Kano blinked as he looked at the chaos unfolding. My only response was to raise my drink in such a way that only he can see the smirk on my face.

"Well, perhaps I should bring more of Shirou's treats for you to sample." Kawako chuckled as she got up from her seat. "A part of me wants to see the reaction when you sample his latest creations." With that, she left with her amused husband to get the other treats from the kitchen, leaving us alone.

Now for the talk.

"So, I assume there is a reason you are here?" I asked the question while keeping a close eye on the couple.

"Just thought you would like an update on the other matters of the school." Sona phrased it lightly as she finally stopped her headache and lightly tapped the table. "How much are you kept up-to-date regarding them?"

"Other than certain individuals trying to make heads and tails of my involvement in that game? Let's see, there is the part about the most popular girl moving into the house of the most unlikely individual of the student body, there is also the case where certain people had to be properly checked for requests, and the fact that a group has yet to take up my offer to do some training." I paused watching some of the members squirm at that reminder before adding one more bit. "Ah yes, there have been more rats and roaches appearing in the area recently."

"So true, especially of the rats and roaches coming around. We would need the exterminator to deal with them." Sona's glasses flashed briefly in the lighting. "Preferably within these couple of days. You think he will be available?"

"Well, luckily it is the weekend so the exterminator should not have to worry about the students being around when he rustles them out." I replied as I used my finger to lightly tap my glass. "At the very least, it should be an easy job."

"You might want to hold back on your predictions." She paused to give a quick glance to the side. "It seems we have a few that are a lot bigger than normal, possibly the type that would need a team. So he would need to be careful."

"I'm sure it is not something he can't handle." I replied while sipping my drink.

"Sounds like you guys have an infestation going on in your area." Kawako replied as she came along with some of the snacks she mentioned.

"Yeah, not just at the academy grounds, they have been appearing in quite a few areas." I replied back to them. "You might want to lock up everything and stay in the house for a couple of nights, because some of the rats seemed to be pretty determined to get inside buildings."

"Oh dear, that sounds bad." Kawako turned a worried expression to Kano. "We are going to need those mouse traps again."

"Hah~ honestly, with all the rubbish lying around, I'm not surprised all these rats are getting bolder in getting inside a house." Kano grumbled as he contemplated the last time he placed those traps. "Thanks for the heads up."

"No problem." Sona took one final sip of the drink and placed the empty cup on the table. "Well then, I think we will be going now."

"Eii... Can't we stay longer?" Meguri pleaded with Sona as she busily munched on a few pieces of Pocky, a couple of chocolate bars and a cinnamon toast. She better not choke on those.

"We can't, we got more paperwork to do." Sona shot her down and got up from her chair. The others stood up a few moments later while looking at the food wistfully.

"Here." They turned to find Kawako holding up a few carton boxes. "You can fill these up with those treats. Better take them while you can, because we can't hold them for too long."

"Thank you very much!" They took the boxes in their hands and started to staff as much of the treats as possible. Sona could only shake her head lightly and sighed softly as she watched this sight.

As for me, I was silently recording this for some possible blackmail in the future.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" I asked after getting the goods in my phone.

"Well not much, but due to certain matters, we will be teaming up with Rias's group for a while." Sona raised an eyebrow at my frown. "I still don't understand why you don't want to be around her much, but we do need her help with some of the bigger issues that came up recently."

"Ha~ Fine." I let out a sigh and shrugged. There was no helping it, I still feel wary around Rias, but at the least she was not doing anything wrong like last time. I would just keep my distance with her and keep a watchful eye on her.

"Right, see you back on Monday then." I opened the door and let the group out of the shop, with Tsubaki, Reya and finally Sona lightly nodding before I closed the door.

"So, Shirou." I turned to find both elders looking at me with a very teasing expression. "Tell us more about those girls."

Oh boy.

=()=

"Well then, I guess that's it then." Sona said after leaving the premises.

"Yup, we managed to get the message to him, and on the plus side, we figured out where he is working." Tsubasa looked at the shop with a raised eyebrow. "But quite honestly, he was rather secretive about the place, I expected it to be shady of sorts."

"Likely he kept it secret to ensure the folks around here don't get involved with the supernatural side." Reya commented as she looked around. "From what we gathered from the people we talked to, it seemed that he was on very good terms with them, and he was probably trying to limit the contact with us around here."

"Guess that explained that look he gave us earlier." Saji let out a troubled sigh. "When I think about it, he must have thought that we were about to do something to the elderly folks, so he was on his guard for quite a while earlier."

"Huuu... I think Emiya-Senpai is upset with us." Ruruko looked down with a slightly troubled expression.

"At the least, he seemed to be a little relaxed now." Tsubaki shrugged while looking slightly apologetic. "But perhaps next time we should announce ourselves rather than give him a surprise visit."

Sona could only nod lightly while frowning inwardly. It seemed that her progress with Shirou was still a little slow, despite having a somewhat better lead than Rias. But then again, considering what little she had seen and heard, it seemed Shirou had spent a majority of his life fighting supernatural creatures to the point of distrust.

Hah~ what a pain.

"Still a pub huh?" Momo put a finger on her chin with an amused smirk. "And the few people we talked to said that he tends to mend the drink area on several occasions. Can you imagine him in a bartender suit?"

"..."

The group paused to think of the idea, then with the exception of the lone boy, started to blush heavily at the idea.

"That was... A very dangerous thought there." Tsubaki plugged her nose and breathed deeply to control her thoughts.

"Indeed, that image was a very deadly weapon." Momo had a rather disturbing expression of hunger while blushing and panting hard.

"ARURURU~" Both Meguri and Ruruko were getting extremely flustered and clutching their cheeks.

"Emiya-kun, in a bartender suit..." Reya muttered softly while wriggling her body a little weirdly.

"Whoa, that would be a killer look for him." Tsubasa commented as she lightly scratched her cheek in slight embarrassment.

"Damn, that guy would be a bona-fide chick magnet if that ever happened." Saji remarked while having an expression stuck between a scowl and some reluctant approval.

"Cough~ okay now, let us get back to the issue at hand." Sona attempted to get their original conversation back on track, though it was clear that she too was affected by the image she had, her cheeks having a deepening shade of red being an indication.

"Okay, we are back." Tsubasa replied as she slapped her cheeks lightly. "So, do we ask Rias-senpai for her cooperation?"

"Yes. We would need her help in dealing with some of the targets." Sona agreed with her question. "It is extremely irritating that the number of Stray Devils seems to have doubled recently. I don't know what is going on."

"You don't think that this might be due to the Rating Game recently, do you?" Reya asked in a worried tone. "I mean, given what you just told us about some of the old clans wanting to know about the match's finer details, they may be using the Strays as spies or distractions so that they could figure out what is going on."

"That is possible, which is partially why I want Rias to come along. She would need to keep an eye on Hyoudou and I would want to discuss certain matters regarding Emiya. If the Strays are the result of some of the Higher Clans trying to sniff them out, we would need to watch over them."

"Yes, we would need to have a word with her I guess." Tsubaki remarked before pausing. "By the way Kaichou, mind if I ask a weird question?"

"Sure?" Kaichou raised an eyebrow at the odd tone she phrased those words.

"Well it is regarding that conversation with Emiya in the bar."

"What is wrong with the conversation?"

"Do you two practice speaking in codes often?" Tsubaki raised an eyebrow at her. "Because that conversation went a little too natural to be a coincidence."

"Indeed, the way it went, one would think that the two of you have been spending time alone together to have that type of conversation easily." Momo let out a teasing smile as she looked at Sona. The other girls leaned in to see Sona's reaction, while Saji actually recoiled in disbelief.

"... I have no idea what you are talking about." Sona faced forward to avoid anyone looking at her face. "It is clear that Emiya-kun is no stranger to accepting backdoor deals. I just want to make sure the message was clear to Emiya-kun without revealing our issues, that's all."

"... It seems Kaichou is a little bit tsundere." Tsubasa commented on the side with an amused smile at the answer.

"What does that mean?" Sona narrowed her eyes at the Rook who merely shrugged in good nature. She paused in her scolding to look at Meguri who had a complicated expression. "What is the matter? You look a little uncomfortable."

"Somehow, I feel a little jealous." Meguri pouted lightly before continuing to walk forward, and to the others' surprise, Reya followed her with a somewhat similar expression. Sona could only sigh lightly and rubbed her temple again.

Honestly, teenagers and hormones.

Part 2

"STABH! SHRING!"

"AHHHH!" Two more Devils dropped to the ground before bursting into flames, lighting the area enough for me to see the despairing faces of the few Devils left.

As Sona had cryptically said, there had been quite a number of devils and demons coming into the area recently, and it seemed to have increased in a disturbingly exponential rate. Even during that period I was laying low, I had to take out at least ten on my way back home. No Sacred Gear Users so far, but this was becoming quite problematic.

And as of now, I just killed off number twenty for the day. Joy.

"Damn it! What is with this human?!" A black-haired devil hissed as his hands twisted horrendously into sharp claws. "I never heard of a human who can fight like this!"

"Is he an Exorcist? He has all those holy runes on him." A creature with a lizard-like complexion narrowed its eyes at me.

"No, he is not wearing the church's clothing." A crow-like creature tilted its head to a nearly bone-crunching ninety-degree angle. "Also he is using magic, and you know how those church-goers feel about magicians."

"I could care less, this human is making me mad!" The first one jumped forward to take a swipe at me, simultaneously conjuring up several balls of fire behind him so as to attack me from all angles when I dodged his first attack.

Too bad that he was not paying attention to the blades that were aimed for his limbs.

"STABH!"

"GARRRGHH!" The Devil yelled as he was brought to an untimely halt due to my blades impaling his legs to the asphalt, followed shortly by his arms getting cut off. Before he could try to free himself, I introduced a Black Key to his head, ending his yelling of pain.

"Shit! Split up!" The earlier two and four other Devils sprung from their locations and made off in different directions to avoid my attacks. They may have made it harder for me to aim, but they ended up making themselves an easier target for the crew I was with to take them out.

"Fireball!" Momo conjured up a huge ball of red flames and directed it at the crow devil, instantly incinerating it without a chance for it to scream.

"Here we go!" Tsubasa jumped out of her hiding spot and punched the lizard creature hard in the gut and sending it crashing to the pavement below, creating a two feet crater in the process.

"EEII!" Ruruko kicked a third devil right between the legs and sent him flying into the air, leaving himself open to Meguri who rushed in to stab him in mid-air.

"Damn it!" One of the strays tried to run into an empty alley only to have his face meet a metal gauntlet courtesy of Ise.

"Have some lightning on me!" Akeno gleefully let loose her attack at the devil, reducing it into quick ashes within a few seconds. The remaining two paled in the face of the opposition and tried a different direction, only to drop dead by the introduction of Kiba's swords.

"Well, I think we got them all." Rias commented as she looked around the area with a big frown. "But honestly this took a lot longer than expected."

"Indeed, this is most troubling." Sona concurred as she came out of her spot and surveyed the area. The small road junction of the area resembled more like something from a post-apocalyptic setting with huge cracks in the ground and the various sign-posts pulled out and bent like tissue. "The numbers have been increasing for the past few days now, and they seemed to be getting bolder in terms of getting to the school area."

"We will need to set up more detection spells in the area, but it seems that they are finding their way around them, we could only detect half of them so far." Momo frowned as she tapped her feet impatiently. "At least we have Emiya-kun to help find the remainder."

"Yes, maybe we could get some detection spells from him to help out. Would that be fine, Emiya-kun?" Sona turned to me only to pause. "Emiya-kun, are you okay?"

"Hmm?" I turned to face her from the lot of charred bodies near me. "Yeah, I'm okay. What's up?"

"I was asking if you could know any detection spells to place in the area."

"Oh, I see." I absentmindedly scratched the back of my head as I considered the number of spells in my head. "Yeah, I think I can lend you a couple of spells if it is just detection." She nodded while giving me a cursory glance. I merely turned back to the pile of bodies and sighed lightly while writing a rune to burn them.

Something was wrong with me; I am not sure what, but I have been feeling somewhat frustrated for the past few weeks, and I was not sure why that was the case. The only thing I know was that this feeling always come about after my hunts of these Stray Devils. What was wrong with me?

A sudden scent in the air broke my thoughts and I directed my attention to a drain nearby. The lid was blown slightly off from all the earlier attacks and the opening was enough to let the sewage smell come out of the opening. But that was not the scent that I caught, it was something more sulfuric about the scent.

The scent of a devil.

A quick projection directed at the drain and the devil jumped out of his hiding spot and landed right in the middle of the group. The relatively paled-face creature went paler at the sight of the Peerages all around him and started to scurry away. I immediately threw a dagger at him, but by some dumb luck he dodged at the last second, letting it sail past him while he jumped to the rooftop and made his getaway.

... You have got to be kidding me? I let a weak guy run away?!

"This one is mine." Before anyone else could refute, I channelled Prana to my legs, and with a big leap, jumped to the rooftop and started my chase with the Devil. It was a bit of a professional pride to take down a creature that escaped my attack.

It was a few miles later that I managed to corner him in an abandoned warehouse just a little near the closest hill from town. Try as he might, he was letting himself open in the back for a quick shot with an arrow.

"GARHH!" He stumbled for a short while before dropping face first into the ground, his body bursting into flames from the sword impaled into his back. I lightly landed on the ground and viewed the slow burning of the body, using that moment to keep stock of the situation.

As far as I could tell, it was just bad luck that there were more strays entering the area. The girl's cautious efforts to keep me and Ise under wraps were more than likely pure paranoia that someone was after us for our strengths. Still it was nice of them, and for Ise's case, he would definitely need the protection. It had been subtle, but during the training period, I could tell that he was not fully over the death of that Fallen Angel. Given the trauma he went through, that was a given.

Hah, I felt so old.

After watching the flames died out, I took stock of the area I was in and found myself wondering around the space. This was quite big for a small warehouse by the hill, this could easily fit my old house comfortably. It was relatively undisturbed and rather decent in fact. I have been thinking of finding an apartment or a small building to use as a safe-house in case I had to hide, and this spot was relatively remote and I could use some of the rooms at the sides as storage or even my workshop.

I must be lucky.

Without warning, my arms automatically moved to intercept a copper-colored spear aimed for my back, cutting it neatly in half and making the two halves pierce the ground hard. I only had a brief moment to look at them before they cracked and broke down into smaller pieces, scattering the remains on all over the ground.

I did not think about it too much as I started to move my body in time to avoid another spear, this time a red one aimed at my legs. But to my unpleasant surprise, the spear started to bend at an unnatural angle and headed straight for my head. I poured more Prana into Kanshou to extend the edge so as to intercept the spearhead, before jumping away in time to break my weapon and destroy the spear as well. I quickly got my back to a column and lowered my center of gravity as I projected another blade and surveyed the area with a critical eye. That was close, I almost did not sense the killing intent behind those spears, and whoever it was could hide his presence very well.

But who was it?

"Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!"

I turned my head slowly to find an individual leaning against the wall as he bought his hands together lazily while looking slightly amused. His garments consisted of a modern blue jeans torn at certain places, a simple shirt and a dark jacket, complete with a pair of sneakers. His hair was somewhat like a tundra, having differing shades of green and yellow and being very long. His face was heavily tattooed on one side of the face, and his eyes were a deep shade of red. But those were not the ones that attracted my attention.

The first thing was the scent of fresh blood and slightly sulfuric scent that clued me in about his devil nature. This guy was clearly someone who had fought a lot in his life and had killed more in the process.

The second had to be that slightly careless manner he carried himself. This was someone used to being on the battlefield with multiple opponents and always coming out on top. Combined with the amused smirk on his face, I would say that this was a guy who always seek out the strongest opponent to fight with.

The last thing I noticed was the spear that he was currently supporting under his arm. It had a somewhat sickly coloring to the shaft, with dark green lines merging unevenly with nauseating yellow and markings on random parts of the body. Attached right at the top was perhaps one of the meanest looking spear heads I have laid my eyes on.

Yet, despite looking at it, the spear felt empty for some reason. Like there was something missing like Kiba's swords.

"Ba~Bump!"

This feeling again, the feeling of something inside wanting to wake up. I only ever felt it with Kiba's Sword Birth and perhaps with Ise when I first examined his modified anatomy. This could only mean one thing.

This devil was one of the Sacred Gear users that Sona warned me about, one that required a team to deal with. And I was his target.

I knew I shouldn't have tested my E-rank luck.

"Nice, very nice." The devil spoke with a light drawl in the accent that made one think of Eastern Europe. "It is very rare to find a human who can fight with a devil in close combat. Clearly you are not a member of the Church since you are not wearing the clothes of a priest, yet you have Holy Scriptures on your clothes. At the same time, you seemed able to wield demonic weapons. Perhaps someone affiliated with the Grigori?"

"Then again, perhaps you are the one I have been hearing for the past few days." He paused to look at the spot where the previous devil used to be. "The one who has been training the Gremory Peerage that resides in this town and defeated the Phenex Peerage. The rare human magician in the area."

"So then, let's have some fun in finding out!"

Good thing I was keeping a tight finger on my trigger, because this guy could move a lot faster than Kiba. I barely moved to the side and projected a blade to cover my weak spot when he struck it with his spear. Without stopping, he twisted the spear at an impossible angle and nearly nicked my neck with the tip. I threw my entire body backwards and used the momentum to aim a kick to the head, but he easily dodged it and went backwards, using the break to get back to a safe spot. Then pulling back his arm, he let loose the spear with a big throw and sent hurling for my head. I barely managed to parry the spear by hitting the spearhead in time to have it sail past me and hit the column behind me.

"BBOOMM!"

I was not prepared for that and I paid for it dearly by getting blown away from the blast and nearly crashing into the wall in front of me. Cursing mentally, I projected a blade and threw it at the devil who quickly brought another spear and spun it enough to knock my sword away, only to be introduced to my own explosions. I landed a few feet away and got into a stance with Kanshou and Bakuya, watching the spot that got blown up.

"Well that was rather unexpected." The voice that came behind the cloud of smoke sounded amused, before the smoke got parted by the spear, revealing the devil to be unharmed and looking relatively excited. "But that was rather fun too."

This time I attacked first and threw both blades at his legs before rushing forward with a fresh pair in my hands to attack him while he was mid-flight. But with the ease of one who has encountered this attack style, the devil twisted his body and used his spear to knock both blades away from me before violently thrusting the spear at my head. I barely had the reaction speed to pull back my head and used the momentum to kick his hand upwards, while I used one arm to anchor myself and let the motion flow naturally through to allow me to do a spin kick and hit him at the side.

Not to be deterred, the devil did a somersault and managed to throw the spear at me, forcing me to abandon my hold and quickly projecting another blade to push me off the ground and into the air, before breaking my projection and sending shards in all directions to try and hit him. But he merely created another spear and stabbed the ground to create a barrier to stop the shards aimed at him.

"HEHEHEHEHEHE!" He let out an eerie chuckle as he looked from behind the barrier he made. "Not bad, not bad at all. But let's not rush into this. Let us enjoy this more!" I frowned as I looked at him. This devil was most certainly the most challenging one to date; he made the other Strays look like weeds and he made Kiba look weak with his attacks. He was dangerous for sure, and I have to be on my toes.

And yet...

The odd feeling of frustration got replaced by the feeling of familiar awareness of danger and the feeling of restrained exuberance at this fight. I was not certain why the latter was the case, but I only had one thought in my head as I projected a fresh set of my favorite blades.

Time to go hunting.

=()=

"Emiya-kun is taking a while to get back." Rias commented as she looked at her watch.

"Indeed, I hope there is nothing wrong." Sona looked to the clock on her table, slightly troubled at the time that had passed. Normally if Shirou finished a hunt, he would notify them immediately. Even if the target in question was a little tougher, he should have reported within 10 minutes tops.

It was already 45 minutes since they saw him go after the other Devil.

"I'm sure he is fine." Ise commented as he finished with the paperwork necessary for each successful hunt. "After all, that guy trained us to beat Raiser, and he was holding back a lot in our training. So a regular Stray like that guy would become chowder for Shirou."

"That is true." Tsubasa nodded lightly before pausing. "Still this is taking a while. You don't think he is in trouble by any chance?"

"I doubt that." Sona took a quick glance at Meguri and Reya who momentarily had a troubled expression at those words. "I have just gone through the list of Strays that had appeared tonight, so far there are no Sacred Gear users, and that one runaway was a recently incarnated Devil worth one Pawn, so he is not that strong."

"Yup, that is a good point." Rias took up her list and looked through the set. "So far we only had one Sacred Gear user that appeared and that was before Emiya came here. All the others are low grade Strays, so we have nothing to..." She paused abruptly in her words and her hands tightened considerably on the papers.

"Rias?" Sona asked cautiously as the others took note of this odd reaction.

"Erm, Sona? By chance have you guys encounter this one?" Rias took out one slip and passed it to Sona. She took it and peered at the details for a quick moment. Her heart nearly stopped at the name of the Devil mentioned.

"Oh no."

"Kaichou, what is the matter?" Tsubaki came to her side to look at the document.

"Remember what I said about some rats being a lot bigger than others?" Sona took a deep breath and laid the document on the table to show everyone. "This is the biggest rat of the lot."

"Regeis Cornelius. A Reincarnated Devil from the old house of Cretan, a branch stemming off from the House of the Ose Clan." Rias started explaining with a big frown on her face. "This devil was a very problematic individual who attacked the entire household, single-handedly eradicating the branch of their existence and making off with his master's weapons."

"This guy has been a fugitive for the past couple of centuries and he has not been caught once." Sona took off her glasses and rubbed her nose. "That and his skills with weaponry ranks him pretty high on the termination list."

"So he is put on the list for destroying the branch family?" Tsubaki asked as she read the document.

"The other reason is because of his Sacred Gear." Sona replied back tiredly. "The gear he has is [Hell's Trident], it is similar to Yuuto's Sword Birth by being a gear that allows the user to create weapons, in this case spears. And that devil has a lot of choices."

"If Yuuto's use of swords are meant for direct attacks, Regeis uses his gear of spears towards assassinations. His multiple assassination methods are often uncontested with his gear." Rias had a very disturbed expression as she recalled her information. "It was with such a gear that allowed him to kill off the prominent members of the clan and leave out the remainder for him to pick off one by one."

"Whoa, with strengths like that, he sounds more like someone the higher-ups should be handling and not groups like us." Tsubasa remarked as she looked at the photo with a bit of fear.

"Oh, but it gets better." One could almost taste the amount of venomous sarcasm in Sona's tone as she said it. "Regeis got resurrected with a Mutated Knight Piece."

"Mutated Knight?" Ise tilted his head in confusion. "Is that something a lot stronger than a regular Knight?"

"A whole lot stronger." Kiba turned to Ise with a grim look. "As Buchou had explained to you and Asia, each of our pieces are worth a certain value. That is for regular pieces. Mutation Pieces are a lot rarer but at the same time a lot more valuable, because someone who is resurrected with a Mutation Piece would mean that the person would be a lot stronger than another resurrected with a regular piece."

"Yeah, and considering his Sacred Gear and his exponential growth as a fighter, it explains why he has a Mutated Knight Piece." Rias pursed her lips as she looked at the photo. "Quite honestly, I don't understand the thought process of the one handing out the notices. It's as if they want us to fail at catching this guy!"

"You think? After all, there are those who disapprove of my sister and your brother and are constantly seeking ways to undermine their authority." Sona rubbed her forehead in frustration. "From what I was told back home, it seemed some of the higher ups have started more extreme manners of trying to get back at the current government. One method would be to put us in the bad light, thus making our brother and sister look bad."

"Still, is it because of that, or is it perhaps about the match?" Reya asked in concern. "After all the match got leaked to the general public and everyone wants to know what was going on. Maybe this person is the same?"

"That may be the case, but none of that matters now." Sona glared at the photo like the man offended her big time. "I am more worried if Emiya meets this guy."

"I'm sure he can handle himself." Ise said while sounding a little uncertain.

"No doubt he could, but I don't know if he has ever fought anyone like Regeis. He definitely did not know about Sacred Gears until we told him and there are multiple versions of gears that could outmatch him, and no offense to him, he is still a human." Sona paused for a moment before adding one more bit. "And regarding his strengths, I fear that would be the reason Regeis would come for him."

"He wants to fight Shirou for being strong?" Ise asked with a tone of evident disbelief.

"Regeis is known for being a battle-junkie. Back when he was under his master's control, he was constantly seeking out strong fighters to take them on. Eventually he grew tired of the lack of opponents and took on members of his group." Rias answered. "To him, being on the battlefield with his life on the line is what defines his very existence. Constantly facing off strong opponents is the proof that he is alive and stronger than them."

"So if he meets Emiya-kun?!" Meguri got up from her seat too quickly, causing her chair to topple backwards.

"Bad news." Ise supplied the answer with a pale face.

"Okay everyone, this is an emergency. We are to find Emiya-kun and get him back here in one piece." Sona gave an order to everyone with a strict face. "If you encounter Regeis, do not attempt to go against him. You are to run and hide while waiting for backup. If need be, use a teleportation spell to get yourselves and Emiya away from him."

"I know you do not want to involve our siblings in this manner, but I think I will prepare a quick line with Onii-sama just in case." Rias said in a very serious tone. "Given the fact that Regeis is in the area is already cause for concern, and considering all that has happened, I would not put it past some people to try and use this opportunity to do some mayhem in our town."

"Right, so let's go and find Emiya-kun!"

"BOOOMMM!"

Everyone faced the window to find one of the closest hill have one side blown off completely and the forest going up in flames. Thankfully the hill had a barrier to contain any damage, but it was doubtful that it was meant for such an explosion.

"I think we may have found Shirou." Ise said out the thought that was in everyone's head.

=()=

Boy, was I having the time of my life or what?

The warehouse was no longer looking as barren or spotless a few minutes ago. Now with my rather unusual decorative talents, the place resembled something like an inverted pin-cushion, with swords as the pins and big cracks in the ground, with the occasional spears provided by my dance partner.

I was right about this fellow being a very dangerous individual; right from the start, he used multiple versions of those weird spears to try and rob me of my mobility, using some very unusual movements to disrupt my concentration, and perhaps the most disconcerting, this guy was using assassination type movements that were extremely effective. He was quite arguably the most efficient fighter I have met since coming to this world, none of the other devils came close, not even Kiba with his techniques could compare to him.

"HAHAHA! YESS! Now this is a fight!" That devil looked at me with the most disturbing eyes. "So long I have been fighting weak opponents, and every one of them keeps dropping like leaves. It got so boring that I was starting to contemplate just straight up murdering everyone."

"Then I heard about the supposed Red Dragon Emperor living in this area and decided to try my luck. On my way here, I also heard about a supposed human who was training a group of Devils to beat the Phenex Peerage and I got more intrigued. Not many humans can be that strong, and I must admit I was a little distrustful of that news." He started to twirl the spear that was in his hands while circling around me, his eyes still having that crazed light and looking like a hunter who has found good prey.

"But then I saw that clip of the Rating Game, and so I decided a little experiment was in order. I caught a few of those Strays and released them into the area to lure both of you out into the open for me to study. For the past few days, I studied the both of you, looking at your take-downs. One thing became very clear."

"The reincarnated devil wielding the Longinus is decent enough, but extremely green." The devil let out a disdained snort about Ise. "He has zero experience, and clearly it was a fluke that he gained the gear from his birth. He still needed help for even the most basic of fights, it was embarrassing to watch."

"But you are an exception."

To prove his words, he instantaneously created another spear and threw both at me, only for me to quickly parry them and jump in time to avoid the third that came from behind and detonated on impact, scattering debris everywhere.

"You are definitely someone who has fought a long time, and I have been watching your tactics. And I can make a few conclusions. You are someone who clearly has been dealing with more overpowered individuals than one should normally deal with, yet you always come out on top with your fangs sharpened with each kill. You are the type who does not fool around with his kills, you go straight for the jugular."

Another two spears of unusual design came in opposite directions, and I sidestepped in time for them to hit each other before I detonated one of my blades to destroy them.

"And at times when you have a tricky one in your midst, you tend to use tactics that would be considered suicidal, but it will always end with you on top."

A carefully placed throw forced me into a ring of spears which he detonated with a snap of his fingers. With a quick slam on the ground, I was able to project a wall of swords to protect me from the blunt of the explosion, which ended up taking out a portion of the roof.

"Yes, and I am also sure of one thing." At this point, his smile became so wide that he looked less of a man and more of a beast. "You and I are actually two peas of a pod."

Okay, now that remark made me frown a little behind my cover of swords. In what way did I resemble this guy?

"I have seen your fights, and I can tell, you are deeply dissatisfied with all your hunts." The devil started to explain with somewhat grandeur relish, all the while looking at me. "Every so often, you tend to look irritated at the lack of challenge from your hunts. Each of your hunts, you disapproved methods used by those girls and boys regarding the handling of certain traps, and once in a while, you held back more than needed to deal with some of the easier prey."

"And I can tell that beneath the shroud of protection, you actually yearned to have a fight to the death, don't you?"

... Okay, this guy could pass for a psychologist in some manner. I hate to admit it, but he was right in terms of me being irritated for some time regarding my hunts. There have been cases when I felt that something was missing each time I took down a Stray Devil, and every now and then I found myself training my body a lot more than normal just to vent off some steam.

To be a magus was to walk with death. Any jobs you take on, any enemies you faced, even the experiments you have done countless of times, any of these would kill you. During my time with the Association, I have dealt with so many rogue magus, Undeads and Dead Apostles, it just seemed second nature to me.

But here, it felt relaxing. Too relaxing in fact for a sword like me. In this world, my hunts were of random Stray Devils barely stronger than an undead, the creatures of the world were playing make-believe warfare, and I seemed to get caught up more in high school drama than fights to the death. It was... 'Lacking' to say the least.

But this devil was wrong about one thing.

"I am not like you." I spoke out for the first time since we started this fight. "I do not fight for pleasure."

"Oh, is that so? But the proof is right here, in this very place we are fighting." The devil gestured with his hand at the mess we made. "Perhaps you haven't been aware of it, but you are a lot feistier and more energetic during our little dance. A huge contrast with your hunts. I purposely told that stray to come here for safety so that he can lead you here. You should thank me since you can let loose a little more than when you are dealing with the weak ones in the city."

Just how long has this guy been watching me?! I was feeling really creeped out right now.

"Now come on, entertain me more!" He bellowed as he created more spears in the air and launched them at me from all sides. I immediately projected my blades and directed them at him as well, taking out multiple spears in the process and clearing a path to get to him. One thing I could tell from his fighting style was that he loved to use a large number of spears at once to scare if not overwhelm the opponent, then used the distraction to sneak in another spear hidden out of sight to take them out.

I have got to be really careful with this one, he certainly love ambushing me with differenty types of spears that were out of my detection range, and there have been a couple of close calls. Not this time though.

My weapons were able to take down most of his spears, and I finally got a clear shot at him. I rushed forward as best as I could, then with a big leap, I raised the sword in my hand and...

A sudden shift in the scent nearly caused me my head, but I managed to twist my body in time to avoid a strike, using the momentum to take down the clone in front of me and the one at my side. Then without pausing to see my work, I projected my bow and notched the sword onto it, forcing it into the shape of an arrow and released it at the far end of the warehouse, causing the wall to blow out spectacularly.

That devil had started using a spear that allowed him to clone himself for the past few minutes now, and the only thing that was helping me avoid a repeat of Lancer's attack was the scent changes each time he used one of those clones. It was subtle but they were enough to tell me that something was wrong, and after a while I noted that each time he made those clones there was an odd scent of carbon nearby. That would usually be where he was hiding.

And once again I was right as he came out of the smoke looking a little tattered and torn, and once again his expression was truly disturbing me.

Not even Lancer was this excited for a fight.

"Nice, very nice~" The amount of ecstasy evident in his voice was enough to send chills down my spine. "It has been sooooo~ long since anyone was able to last this long in a fight. And I will congratulate you for the being the first one to see through one of my favorite attack styles in so short a time. You are able to force me back and you are able to gain some ground in our little fight. You have pushed me to up my game and I have reach new heights in my skills, and I intend to learn more and get stronger."

"So tell me how you are doing it. How are you able to keep up with me? How can a human create swords without a Sacred Gear? How can a mere human keep up with a Mutated Knight Devil? I want to know more so that I can fight more!"

I barely dodged the spear he threw when he appeared at my side and created two other spears in his hand and started a series of thrusts and slashes to try and hit me. I parried his attacks as best as I could before jumping high to let the projection I made behind me shoot him in surprise. Without hesitation, he spun one of the spears to create an energy shield to block the sword and actually used the momentum to force my weapon around and shoot back at me. I quickly threw both Kanshou and Bakuya to intercept the blade, then grabbing two other blades on the ground and charged forward.

Honestly this was going nowhere! Each time I tried to make an opening in his defense, he would avoid the moves and use that opening to deliver a strike to the legs. If he tried to get me through my openings I would try to go for the neck only to have it blocked by his spears.

There was no choice, I would have to wing it in this situation.

I started to hit other blades on the ground to dislodge them, before striking at the right angle to send them at the devil. As planned he defended himself with the spears in his hands, but I was close enough to start hammering the deflected blades back at him and right onto his body, forcing the blades to be stuck to him and getting them interlocked with one another.

"Oh~ what are you planning?" The devil sounded amused despite getting boxed in by all the swords I was forcing on them. "Show me!"

'If you insist that much, so be it!'

I immediately jumped back and snapped my fingers to give the command of breaking my projections, making the first one explode at his side. That started the next one and another, until he was completely engulfed in multiple explosions that blew up part of the wall and the roof and set fire to some of the trees outside. Using that distraction, I brought out my bow and another sword to aim at him, using his Prana signature to get an idea of his position, before releasing the sword. It flew through the smoke and I got rewarded with the sight of an arm flying out of the smoke.

'Got him!'

"Got cha~"

The yellow spear next to me glowed brightly and exploded, throwing me off my feet and sending me crashing into the closest column and making a miniature crater in it. My ears ringing from the explosion, I raised my head in time to see the smoke starting to swirl and disperse to reveal the devil spinning his spear.

"Well that was really unexpected but I like it!" The devil bared his teeth to the point of looking like a blood hound with rabies. "This is excellent, give me more!"

'Well, that did a whole load of nothing.' I grumbled in my head as I took stock of his condition. At the very least, I finally did some major damage to him. The most noticeable injury I gave him was the loss of his arm, with the blood dripping quite profusely from the wound. His clothes were finally showing more damage, revealing a torso that had been scarred from previous fights and now sporting new ones courtesy of my explosions. Even his legs were bleeding lightly from the shards that embedded themselves into them.

But still this person could keep on going. Honestly, if this devil ever got summoned as a Servant, I can only pray that he does not get summoned as a Lancer with A-Rank Battle Continuity. That would suck a lot for me, and I was already having a splitting headache, coupled with the area spinning around and...

My body seemed to collapse without warning and I barely had time to grab the handle of one of my blades to stop myself from getting a broken shaft in my head. My head seemed to start flooding with cold sweat and my heart rate was going nuts. What was going on?

I felt something wet on my hand and raised it to find blood smeared all over it. I looked to the source and found one side of my pants being soaked in blood, with several holes supposedly coming from the explosion earlier. I gingerly fingered one of the wounds and pulled out a shard that smelt like snake's venom.

"How you like the poison coursing through your veins? I have made that spear especially for this very fight." The devil smiled as he leaned on his spear casually. "Each of the shards hold enough poison to kill a full-grown elephant within 1 hour, and since you took that point-blank, I dare say you have roughly a few minutes to last. So better use that time properly."

Damn it, I got too careless!

I tried to get myself up and make some distance, but I stepped on something that made me slip and hit my head against one of the swords. Cursing myself and tasting blood in my mouth, I tried to get up again only to drop onto one knee and heave hard for air. The poison was spreading a lot faster than expected, and it seemed potent enough that even Avalon was taking a while to start cleansing the system. I had to maintain body control quick.

Unfortunately, my body seemed to have left me completely, and my vision seemed to contract in on itself, darkness seemingly coming from all sides and reducing my vision. Damn it, I do not want to have the devil's smirk as the last thing I see!

I needed to get up!

I needed to keep on fighting!

I needed a weapon, something that could break his defenses, something that he could not avoid no matter what he did.

Something like that red spear that nearly killed me that night.

As my thoughts seemed to fade, my hand barely grasped the shaft of one of the spears next to me and held on to stabilize my body.

"Ba~ Bump!"

=()=

Regeis let out a dark chuckle as he watched the human stumble onto the ground, trying to get himself up only to trip over a broken piece of sword and hit his head against another weapon. He was impressed that the human was still able to move despite the poison inside of him; this was a variation of another type that had killed countless others before him in seconds. Even the strongest one before him dropped after a few minutes.

Not that it mattered to Regeis, all he cared was this human was still alive and currently on his last legs, and given what he had seen so far, he knew that the human would give one last fight to the death. An animal being pushed to death would be the most desperate and most ferocious.

A light dose of pain interrupted his thoughts and he directed his irritated gaze at the stump where his arm used to be. It seemed that the cut was clean enough that even the nerves did not register the pain early on. The blood was still flowing out of the stump rather quickly and he could feel the first waves of having a light head from blood loss. Wordlessly he created a fire based spear and lightly pierced the stump, wincing slightly from the pain as the flames started to cauterize the wound. After a few seconds Regeis removed the spear and examined his handiwork. The wound looked ugly but at least the blood stopped flowing out like a leaky tap. He could get it cleaned up later.

It didn't matter if he got an arm cut off. Pain and death were prices to pay for a good fight, and this was most certainly the best of them all. He was the first one in a long time to push Regeis this far and take a limb from him.

The maniacal grin went back on his face as he turned to look at the human grabbing one of his red spears to try and support himself. The time was drawing near. He could always tell if his prey was scared or desperate during their legs.

This human was one of the rare few to exhibit neither one, this one was calm and determined to fight to the end. He would ensure that he kept on fighting until Regeis was dead, and he would not regret it the least.

Regeis eagerly waited on the human as he struggled to stay up and pulled the spear from the ground. Oh so he wanted to use it huh? All right then, he would let the human fight with it, he would be generous.

Regeis looked at the spear in his own hand as he waited. He could definitely feel it pulsating with energy all through this fight. [Hell's Trident] was most excited at this fight, he had never felt it feeling so alive for such a fight. It too wanted fresh blood from this opponent.

And he would most certainly give it to the gear. He would make sure to carve out the beating heart of this human and poured the last drops of blood on to his spear to feast on.

Now how to do that? Perhaps he could immobilize him with the fire spear he was using. He could stab him in the stomach and watch the human scream in agony as the flames cooked his innards and...

Whatever thoughts he had got put to a jarring halt as he looked at the human, who has now adopted a crouched position on all fours with the spear pointed diagonally at the ground and the heft raised above his shoulder. His breathing seemed to have stabilized to the point that one would mistake his heart to have stopped and his eyes seemed to have changed its color to that of the blackest steel. But the position and behavior was not what stopped Regeis.

It was the spear in the human's hand; something about it had changed in some manner. It was not a physical change, that much he could tell, but something at the spear's core that seemed to become foreign to him, like he could not control it anymore. Furthermore, the feeling he got from the spear was vastly different. It was no longer raging like a bull, it was silent and calm like a snake lying in wait for the kill, and the amount of blood-thirstiness was practically suffocating him.

Regeis blinked once to clear his eyes of the sweat that dripped into his eyes, and in that moment he saw a figure alongside the human in the same position as him while carrying a different spear in his hands. The figure seemed to be an Irish man that was clad in a tight blue leotard and his shockingly dark blue hair tied into a long ponytail. But the part that was gripping his heart was the savage expression on his face. It reminded him of a hound who has found his prey and was about to sink his teeth into its neck. And if Regeis looked carefully, the illusion seemed to overlap perfectly with the human's figure.

In that moment, Regeis felt something foreign settle in his heart. It was very alien and oddly unsettling, yet he knew what this feeling was, the type that he imposed on his targets.

The feeling of being cornered by a predator better than he was. The feeling of the hunter becoming the hunted.

He needed to get away now! He needed to make some distance from this human and rethink his strategies! He needed to...

"Are you ready?" The human raised his head slightly to show a very cold and somewhat restrained savagery on his face. "Here I come."

Just as Regeis started to move, the human begun his attack by charging a few hundred feet before leaping high into the air, but oddly enough the spear was directed at the ground. Regeis wasn't fooled though; the spear that human grabbed on to was one of his favorites. He was inspired to create a spear based on Irish mythology that allowed him to pierce his target's heart no matter where they are or how much protection they had on them. It was always a great way of killing his targets unaware.

Oh, the irony of having his own creation against him.

Regeis quickly sent out a mental command to cancel his creation, only to find himself stumped at the lack of reaction from the spear. It actually ignored an order to disperse, and that human was about to use it on him! But surely he could not use it!

"Gae..." Regeis's heart stopped the moment the human said that; the spear that was once silent was now roaring with its desire to take the life of its previous owner, like it had found a new owner worthy of its desire to kill and would gladly end him.

"BOLG!" And with that, the human hurled the spear hard, and the spear seemed to turn into a red flash and rushed straight for his heart. Regeis attempted to use the same spear to attack the human before it got to him, but the rogue spear smashed its counterpart to bits and basically bored itself into Regeis's body and through his heart.

"GARGH!" Regeis spat out blood as he grabbed the spear and tried to free himself from it, when he saw the human raising his hand.

"Break." The human softly voiced out while snapping his fingers

"BOOM!"

The red spear glowed brightly before exploding and taking out a portion of his torso and his his lungs. Regeis staggered a little as he tried to maintain consciousness, his vision going dark quickly. The last thing he saw was the human standing with the illusion right behind him, and the last thought he has was how he got beaten by one more bloodthirsty than him.

'Ah, that sucks a lot.'

=()=

"Ha~ Ha~ Ha~ Ha~" I panted hard as I looked at the body of the devil crashed to the ground and the last glimmers of life vanished from his eyes. After waiting for a few seconds to ensure that he was truly dead, I released the tension that was keeping me up and let my legs buckle under me so that I could lie on the ground and rest my aching body, while keeping the blood flow at a minimum for Avalon to remove the poison.

Again there was that weird feeling inside me, but this time it got accompanied by another emotion I did not understand. I felt extremely 'savage' for the lack of description, like I actually wanted to tear out his heart or something. Even the feeling of grabbing that spear was unusual; it felt so much like the red spear that Lancer used that I actually blanked out for a moment and just adopted the same style of fighting as the Servant to take the devil out.

A light metallic clicking brought my tired eyes to the pocket where the Kaleidou-Amulet was peeking out, the jewels glowing brightly but slowly diminishing. Again that weird reaction from it, it seemed to be reacting to something but before I could pinpoint the cause it kept going out like a candle. What the hell was going on?

Maybe it was just the adrenaline and my frustration talking.

I grunted loudly as I failed to get up from the ground. Avalon was finally gaining some momentum in clearing the poison, but my body was still feeling like I got Caster's poison inside me. I took a deep breath and recite a light incantation while releasing my projections to turn them back into Prana. For a while they lingered in the air, then they started to move towards me like a gentle cloud of golden dust. Slowly and surely, they gathered above me and then flowed inside me.

Honestly, that spell that I found by accident at the old libraries of the Association was a godsend for me. Since I could not generate as much Prana as many of the others, I used this spell to gather the Prana in the air and used it as my own. This quickly became a good way of getting back some of my old Prana from my fights, and considering how rich this world was, it was ideal for Avalon to use that Prana and go about fixing my body.

After a minute of lying on back, I let out a sigh of fatigue and forced myself into a seating position. At least the poison was now mostly cleared; there was still a little inside me but not enough to have me in danger. I took a deep breath and took the time to look around me.

Oh boy there was a lot of damage control to be done.

"Ba~ Bump!"

"GRK!" I clenched my teeth as that odd feeling started up again, only this time it was making my chest ache uncontrollably and it was preventing me from concentrating and healing myself.

"Ba~ Bump! Ba Bump!"

Okay now this was getting ridiculous, the feeling resonating inside me was starting to become very painful. What's more, the spears around me were starting to glow in pulses while letting an odd ringing tone. Seriously, what was going on?

Wait a minute, the last time this sort of thing happened, it was with Kiba's blades. And didn't they lunge at me just to follow me?

"SHRIK!"

"CINK!"

"SHII!"

One by one, the spears dislodged themselves from their original positions and hovered in the air, their tips pointing ominously at me while glowing a bright red. I forced myself up and prepared my mental trigger again. This was going to be a very tight situation, I may not have used up my Prana that much, but whatever that guy did to me with that spear seemed to be wreaking havoc on my body. Even if Avalon was inside me, it would need some time in order to remove whatever was inside me, and as I am, I was having a hard time concentrating on defense.

"Splat! SHREK!"

Despite the danger before me, I twisted my head quickly to find the source, only to think to myself that I wished I did not see this before me.

The dead corpse belonging to the devil started to display violent spasms, with his limbs violently hitting the ground while the mouth was spilling a large amount of blood. The spasms started getting more erratic to the point that his remaining arm that was loosely connected to his torso ended up breaking off and flew a bit away, and one of his eyeballs actually popped out of its socket and rolled on the floor.

But that was not the worst part.

"SCREEK! CROCK!"

Like some twisted reenactment of a James Cameron film, the chest portion started to let out some weird sounds and more blood started to gush out of the wounds I gave him. I projected a random sword in my hand and readied my stance. Was this a last-ditch attempt to take down an opponent if he ever got defeated? Don't tell me that there was some creature inside him designed to come out on his death?!

If I recalled the internet lingo, I do not want to have a 'Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong' if the latter was true.

A splitting sound broke my thoughts and I directed my eyes at a glowing piece of steel poking out of his chest. Another jerk of his body and two smaller appeared alongside the first one, nearly splitting the torso in half. And then...

"SPILY~ BOOOM!"

"Whoa!" I raised the sword to block the pieces of flesh that flew from the corpse that suddenly blew apart violently. It continued for a few more seconds until the mini rain of blood had stopped and I could risk lowering the sword a little to take in the sight before me.

Truly, the corpse that was lying split open truly resembled something from a James Cameron film with a dose of a slasher flick; the entire torso portion looked like something crudely cut open by someone who had the remote idea of using a badly maintained chainsaw. The head got separated and ended up at the far end of the warehouse.

But that was not the weird part, it was the object that was hovering above him that got my guard up.

It was some sort of weapon glowing very brightly to the point of making my eyes water just looking at it. It seems to be a spear, but with two additional small prongs at the side that gave the appearance of a trident. I could not tell if it had any features besides the unique spearhead because the light was just that bright, and it seemed to be pulsating with demonic energy to the point of sounding like a heartbeat.

My wariness soon turned to anxiety when the others spears started to glow even brighter and with a quick flash, started to fly towards the trident spear, breaking into smaller particles of Prana and merging with it. Okay, so that meant this was the Sacred Gear that the devil was using to create these other spears. But now what?

"Ba~ Bump! Ba Bump!"

The spear was glowing even brighter as the earlier ones got absorbed into it. The demonic energy radiating from it was almost crushing in feeling, and the sense of Deja Vu was kind of getting to me. Sure enough, the spear gave one more glow before it turned quickly and aimed its head at me. It paused for a moment, then with a final glow, flew straight for me.

"OH SHIT!" It was a little too sudden and out of reflex, I threw the sword in my hand at the spear to intercept it. Even if it was only for a split second, I needed it to project a shield.

I had expected the spear to be slightly deflected by the sword and hitting the ground.

I had expected the spear to cut the sword in half and continued on its trajectory.

I even expected the spear to behave like Gae Bolg and bend its way around the sword to get to me.

However those did not happen, and I certainly did not expect the reaction I saw the moment the two weapons met in mid-air.

Time seemed to halt when both tips of the weapons touched each other, before a small point of light started to shine and grew larger to the point of enveloping both weapons. Squinting through the glare, I saw both weapons starting to spin at their contact, then to my surprise, they started to break apart and swirl around in the ball of light, gathering in the center of the ball and started to form a shape that was something similar to the spear. I couldn't tell further than that because that was when the ball of light started to compress on itself and glow even brighter to the point I had to use my hands to block the glare.

That may or may not have been a mistake to make, as the ball of light ended up coming straight for me and hit my hand, pushing me back with more force than I could imagine and making me hit the wall hard. The glare finally lessened enough for me to risk opening my eyes and seeing what I had in my hand.

Firmly gripped in my hand was the same spear that came out of the devil's body, but this time I could see the runic features that run along the shaft and the brownish green coloring that seemed to shift like river water the longer I looked at it. That one glance showed me a sight that was both beautiful and deadly.

Oddly enough though, the feeling I got from checking its insides seemed to suggest that the spear had somehow merged with the plain sword I used to try and knock it away. It felt solid and whole like with Kiba's blades that I had taken ownership of. For a moment I hesitated, then gripping it a little tighter, I traced the weapon in my hands to understand it.

[Hell's Trident]. That was its name, its ability was to create any type of demonic spear imaginable for its user. Power and strengths are placed roughly in the B-Rank category, and it had been passed down roughly sixteen times in the past 200 years. It has seen many battles, assassinations and other turbulent times.

And now I was the owner of this spear. Oh joy.

I could only look at the spear for a while before letting out a sigh. Raising my head, I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, before I called out loudly.

"Okay, it is safe to come out now."

A moment of silence, then a figure walked out of her cover and faced me before bowing. "Thank you for your concern, but it was not necessary."

"Maybe, but it is basic courtesy to voice that out, even if said person happens to be spying on others for the entire duration of the fight and not bothering to reveal themselves." I said as I loosened my joints while keeping a close eye on the silver-haired maid. Avalon was almost done with removing the poison in me, but my movements were still hampered from all those attacks. And something about this woman was making all the alarm bells in my head go off like crazy.

"I see." Grayfia stood rigid and gave that same watchful eyes as last time. "Forgive me for that, but I had been wanting a word with you for a while, and considering what Ojou-sama was telling me regarding your battle prowess, I wanted to see firsthand whether you were as skilled as she said."

"Well then, did I meet your approval?" I gripped the spear that was in my hand a little tighter than needed as I kept my eye on her. Something was changing about her Prana signature, and the spear was also reacting to her as though it was trying to warn me about some danger.

"Something of the sort." Grayfia maintained her tone and her gaze on me. "That Devil you fought happens to be one of the most wanted on the list, with a particularly high bounty on his head. His skills were very well-praised for assassinations, and until tonight, none lived to tell the tale."

"I will say that you defeating Regeis says something of your skills, so at least that part Ojou-sama said was true. But..."

I was not ashamed to admit that I actually froze for a moment when the amount of Prana leaking out of her changed from a torrent to a tsunami. The intent to kill was enough to make Gae Bolg feel puny for crying out loud!

"When Ojou-sama told me about her attempts to recruit you and your lack of history, I decided to do my own search about you, and I will be honest with you, I do not like what I have found and what not. You have skills yes, one that would benefit Ojou-sama, but I doubt she understands the full extent of your abilities. Some of your weapons have the type of awareness that should not be possible and the type of power that comes from them are too dangerous to be let out into the world, let alone copied and used by a magician of unusual talent."

The warehouse started to shake at its foundation, causing some dust and loose debris to fall to the ground around us, and the already fragile rooms to collapse spectacularly.

"And then we have your lack of history and your reluctance to talk about it. I have seen several similar types like you, and all have one thing in common." She continued talking in an even tone while maintaining that tsunami of Prana and her posture changed slightly to one loosely similar to one ready to cut off my head with her hands.

"All of them bring some form of danger to the people around them, and under no circumstances would I let someone of that sort be around Ojou-sama."

It was instinctive, but I barely jumped to one side in time to avoid an outburst of ice that protruded from under me and destroyed the column nearest to me. I could not help but gaped at the size of the ice block. Not even the best magus I knew could make an ice block that fast and huge!

"I am going to ask you once. What is your intention being here in this town?" Her gaze fell on the spear that I was currently holding both hands in a defensive position. "Are you here to steal the Sacred Gears that are in both Rias-sama and Sitri-sama's Peerages?"

"Whoa, time out! I am not here to steal anything or do any crap!" I argued my case as I held the spear in one hand and raised my other hand to show I meant no harm. "I only got here by accident because of a fight I had during my last hunt!"

"Then why haven't you leave this town?"

"Firstly, I am still recovering from my last fight that got me here. Secondly, I could use the vacation period to my own studies. And lastly, I am stuck at the academy, so I would need to finish the system before getting out." I replied back a little flatly for the final bit as I tried to juggle my attention between her and controlling the blades inside my reality marble. They were seriously getting spooked by this maid and it was taking a lot of my attention to calm them down.

"I would think that the magic cabal you belong to would be trying to seek you out?" Grayfia raised a good point as she looked back at me.

"Well, those guys could care less about me and some of my buddies." I replied back while remembering the Clock Tower policies. They would no sooner blink an eye at the Executors and Enforcers getting killed in action than get flustered about their work, and being an Asian only made it easier for them to ignore.

Being the adopted son of the Magus Killer would only made them happy if I were dead.

"Why does the Sacred Gear react in that manner towards you?" Grayfia once again looked at the spear in my hand. "If I recall correctly, it also happens with the weapons belonging to Kiba Yuuto."

"That makes two of us, I have no idea why." To demonstrate, I lightly threw the spear in the air where it hung for a while before returning to my hand with enough force to make my knees buckle lightly. "Every time I tried to get away, they just keep following me."

Grayfia was still maintaining the straight posture and gaze on me, and I was honestly getting freaked out by this maid. If Rias scared me because of that odd power that gave me that intoxicating sweet scent, Grayfia was scaring me due to the amount of Prana she could unleashed without hesitation. This woman had no visible openings, and I had half a mind to call upon all of my holy arsenal to just deal with her.

"One last question." Grayfia said as her eyes became almost unreadable and the intent to kill went to an all time high. "Who and what are you?"

Well, this was it. Let's hope the truth would work.

"Shirou Emiya, a third-rate magus and occasionally free-lancer." I paused before adding one more thing. "And currently a student of Kuoh Academy who is trying to get rid of some devils and demons while simultaneously dealing with the rent and my hospital bills."

"..."

Grayfia continued looking at me with a very strict expression, and I could feel the sweat gathering on my forehead and threatening to flow down. After a while I could feel her Prana levels dropping slowly to somewhat safer levels and her posture seemed less prone to trying to cut off my head.

"It seems you are telling the truth for now." Grayfia closed her eyes momentarily to let out a light breath before directing them at me again. "Though your attitude could use an adjustment."

"Well, it's not every day you would meet someone who would actually stop short of attacking you. Most of the people I met tend to go for the head shot." I kept my hands steady and avoid showing any expression that showed my relief of her standing down.

"I guess that would be true." Grayfia raised an eyebrow at me while maintaining that poker face. "But as I say, you need an attitude adjustment."

"I have gotten that a lot. Believe me when I say, this is considered an improvement." I allowed myself to roll my eyes at the memory of Rin constantly running her mouth off about me. Boy was she real vocal about it.

"I would appreciate if you do not tell Rias-sama about our little talk. This is a private matter for me." Grayfia bowed as she made her request.

"Snort~ I doubt she would believe me for that matter." I replied back as I lowered my arms slowly, still keeping a tight hold on my mental trigger in case she tried to attack me with my guard down. "But fine, I will not tell her or Sitri-san."

"I thank you for your discretion." Grayfia paused as she lightly turned her head to one side. "It seems I may have overstayed my welcome. Ojou-sama and Sitri-sama are on their way with their Peerages."

"Oh great, just what I needed." I let out a frustrated sigh as I looked at the damage around me. Well, I guess I won't be able to use this place as a secondary workshop anymore, I would have to look elsewhere.

More importantly, I hope they don't charge me for the damage; that would take me a few more months of hard work to pay it off.

"Well then, until the next time we meet, Shirou Emiya." The silver haired maid bowed once more as a magic circle appeared at her feet, bathing her in crimson light, then with a bright flash, disappeared without a trace.

And not a moment too soon, as I could hear hurried footsteps in the distance. A moment of silence, then...

"BBBOOOOOMMM!"

"SHIROU! We have come to help you!"

One of the larger doors blew off its hinges, and I was greeted with the sight of the devils rushing through with their weapons deployed and their eyes scanning the entire area for an enemy. They stopped almost comically and nearly crashed into each other when they saw the destruction around them and the mangled corpse of the devil.

"Whoa..." Ise blinked at the body before turning to me. "Shirou, did you do that?"

"... Yes and no." I replied after getting my thoughts back together. "I managed to take the devil down, but he had some sort of fail-safe in the event he was taken out. Quite honestly, I was not sure if I would survive that blast when he blew up."

Whatever Ise wanted to say got interrupted when a blur of red hair flew past and slammed into me, causing me to gasp loudly and hit the ground hard.

"Emiya-kun, are you okay?! That Regeis Devil did not hurt you badly did he?!" Meguri started spouting a lot of questions as she hurriedly look at my body for injuries, before hugging very tightly to the point of suffocation.

"ARGH! Lady, can't breathe! My ribs, my ribs!" I choked out the complaint as I struggled to breathe under her grip. Damn, this girl could rival Luvia when she was hugging me out of concern, I was in serious danger in passing out right now!

"Meguri-chan, give him some room to breathe!" My savior came in the form of a flustered Reya who came over and tried to persuade her to release me. But it seemed fate was taking lessons from Zelretch as Meguri shifted her body to avoid getting separated from me, but was not prepared for my large frame and thus making her stumble and tripping Reya, and before I could react, ended up on the ground again with me being in a very perilous position, with Meguri hugging my midsection and her head a little too low, my hand accidentally touching her bottom, and Reya being on top of me and smothering me with her chest.

Damn it, this was not what I had in mind of dying on the battlefield!

"Whoa, I thought that only happened in cartoons." Tsubaki remarked in a incredulous tone.

"Hohoho~ this is good material." I could hear the click of a camera over the evil musings of Momo.

"Damn that lucky bastard!" Ise cursed rather loudly with a big tone of jealousy.

"... Very lucky man." Unless I was mistaken, I could hear a hint of amusement in Koneko's flat voice.

"HYAAA!" Reya shrieked and got off of me, allowing to get a breath of fresh air. At the corner of my eye, I could see a blushing Reya kneeling a little further from me. Meguri soon followed, with her face being as red as her hair and her body a little fidgety.

"Need a hand?" Kiba came forward and offered his hand. I merely grunted as I took it and he pulled me back up. He smiled before looking at the spear. He then gave a thoughtful frown as he turned to look at the sword in his hand. My guess was the sword was telling him something.

"Emiya-kun, would you be so kind as to relay what has happened during the time we lost contact with you?" I turned to face Sona, and I was not ashamed to say that I flinched slightly at the smoldering gaze she had on me. Clearly she was angry that I did not report in after fighting, and I was hoping that my story would placate her.

But thankfully an interruption came in the form of Ise.

"Wait, what did you say Draig?" Ise frowned as he looked at his red gauntlet. I imagined he got his answer as his eyes went wider. He turned his head slowly and laid his eyes on the spear that was still in my hand all the time. "Shirou, by chance that spear is..."

"A Sacred Gear." Kiba finished his answer as he looked up from his sword and focused on it as well. "That is what Sword Birth is saying. You apparently obtained a Sacred Gear from this fight."

"What?!" Everyone stopped inspecting the area and turned to face me with flabbergasted expressions. My only response was to shrug and let out a tired sigh.

"That's going to be a long story."

=()=

"Damn it! That guy had to go and get himself killed by a mere human!" A figure cursed in the darkness as he slammed his fist against something hard.

"It is unfortunate, but look on the bright side, at least his death cannot be linked to us." Another answered back in an attempt to calm him down. "And the fact that guy is removed helps us, since we do not have to worry of having his spear in our backs."

"Yes, and on another note, it seemed the rumors were true, that a human wizard was behind the victory of the Gremory Peerage. Him taking on Regeis is proof of his strength." A third figure raised his arms in slight despair.

"That may be the case, but Regeis was supposed to assassinate those wretched siblings of the Maous! It was the best chance we got!"

"There is no use crying over spilled milk, just be grateful that no one knows his real purpose for being there. They would think that he was just there to find the Red Dragon Emperor and the odd human." The second figure assured the first speaker while shrugging.

"Fine." The first figure folded his arms while grumbling. "But what was with that weird reaction with his Sacred Gear? The gear just burst out of the corpse and headed straight for the human."

"This is a first. I suppose we need to look into this more closely." The third person replied back. "Perhaps we may have stumbled onto something rather interesting. We could hold him hostage and force those girls to our will. While we are at it, we can find out why the gear reacted in that manner."

"You won't need to."

"SHRING!"

Before anyone could react, a brief flash appeared and their heads dropped to the ground softly, followed shortly after by the bodies. The person in question calmly removed the blood from the blade he used with a cloth, before he took out three crystals and threw them towards the bodies. As they made contact, the crystals started to glow, then small glowing ball of light came out of the bodies and move into the crystals, making them shine with a red shimmer.

"Well, I got that guy's material, but seriously why doesn't he get some live ones? First the feathers and blood of that fallen angel, now some random devils. It would be easier to have some live specimens to compare with." The person grumbled as he went to pick up the crystals before snapping his fingers to set the bodies ablaze.

"Whatever, he got what he needed, and I get to rid myself of some inquisitive trash. All I have to do now is send the information anonymously and those devils should be able to do the rest of the cleanup for me without anyone being the wiser." The figure paused as he watched the flames continuing to burn the bodies.

"So, that is the reaction of a Sacred Gear huh? Interesting, but then again, Shirou Emiya always did bring something new to the party. For now, I think I will keep this little tidbit of information to myself. After all, this might be useful and fun for me in the long run." With that, the person vanished into the darkness, the only proof of his presence being the flames that eventually burned out.

Part 3

"Emiya-kun, are you sure you are okay?" I blinked my tired eyes at Reya who asked me that question.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I waved my hand at her. "I'm just a little wound up from that fight with Regeis. It has been a while since I was in a life-and-death situation."

It was most definitely a trialing night with that fellow called Regeis. In some ways, I had to berate myself in my head for getting too lax with my fighting style. It was clear that whatever this world entails for me, the Sacred Gears would most definitely be the most problematic of the lot. I would need to step up my training.

I was now back in the Student Council room on a Saturday morning, with both Peerages sitting around on chairs and sofas, each one of them looking seriously burned out from all the hunting we have done. Even Sona and Rias were lying down on their separate chairs with rings around their eyes and nursing their fatigues with the tea Akeno brewed.

I have already given my report regarding my fight with Regeis, but as promised I have held back the bit of Grayfia coming to visit me. I could understand where she was going about me being somewhat evasive regarding my purpose for being here, and I could also tell that deep under the tough exterior, she was actually heavily concerned for Rias and by extension her Peerage and friends. She was the type who did not like unknown elements that could disrupt her protection.

And I was that unknown element. Joy.

"When was the last time you fought in a life-and-death situation?" Rias asked as she leaned back on the chair she was on and let out a contented sigh.

"The one that got me into this town in the first place." I replied back as I settled for the cup of tea I brewed for myself. "That one knocked me out long enough that I had to lay low here. I am still recovering from that attack."

Technically I am already recovered in terms of the physical aspect, but they don't need to know that or the fact that I needed materials to fix the Kaleidou-Amulet. I might as well keep up the masquerade.

"Still recovering?" Sona straightened slightly as she looked at me. "So during our side jobs and Rias's training, you were still having injuries?"

"Yup, they are mostly healed, but I am still trying to take it easy." I replied as I cracked my shoulders to ease the stiffness. I turned to face Sona only to blink at the serious look on the face.

This was not going to be good.

"Shirou Emiya, although you helping us is a great blessing in its own way, as the student president, I cannot allow a fellow student running around with injuries that may prove fatal in the long run if not properly healed." The 'Shitori Glasses' flashed somewhat menacingly. "Until you recover, you should abstain from our hunts."

"EEEHHH!" Everyone turned to her with baffled expressions, with the exception of Rias who looked on with a resigned look as though she knew Sona would say that.

"But Kaichou, if he is not with us, how are we able to hunt down the other Strays?" Momo asked in a slightly strained voice. "As it stands, they have been avoiding all our other detection spells, and based on what Emiya-kun has told us, other devils could easily block a number of them to let a big group get through."

"I believe that I had asked Emiya-kun for some detection spells of his own design right?" Sona reminded her of her request. "And I'm sure that if we really need something, we can ask him for advice, but we do not bring him along for our jobs until he is fully recovered."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked. "You guys might get into trouble with the type like Regeis."

"If that ever happens we will contact you, but until then you are to refrain from strenuous activities in our field of work." Sona replied back while fixing her glasses. There it was, the 'Student Council mode' that she adopted to ensure anyone listening must obey or suffer the consequences.

Oh well, I might as well use this opportunity for some personal R&R time.

"Okay then, I might as well figure out some spells for you to try out for the town, and I can use this chance to understand the issue with these Sacred Gears." I pointed with my thumb at the spear that was currently resting next to me on the arm rest. This was a very clingy item that even managed to partially pierce through the dimensional pocket I tried to store it in, so I had no choice but to carry it by hand all the way here.

Seriously, my luck stats sucked big time.

"Oh, before I forget, here's something for Shirou." Rias took out a small envelope from the stack of papers on the desk. "Here's the pay for your hunt. Evidently the people involved were wide awake when we reported about Regeis and they got the paperwork done quickly." She sighed lightly as she handed it over to me. "Why can't they be faster at other times?"

I raised an eyebrow when I took the envelope. It was significantly thicker than normal, and the weight was most definitely heavier than usual. "This is a little different from the others."

"I believe that much of it would be compensation for having to go after Regeis." Sona answered back with a tired frown. "Regeis was not someone that should be handled by teenagers like us, even if we are born with abilities considered destructive. Regeis was a Class A Target that could only be dealt with by professionals on the field. Something like this would be normal." She paused before adding another bit with a straight face. "That and quite possibly the fact that a certain person I know had overheard about that person and basically rampaged trying to find someone responsible for the mess."

Rias snorted ungracefully as she attempted to stop her laughter. I only gave her a glance before opening the envelope and peeking inside. "What the~"

"We did say there was going to be compensation. We split the amount and the remainder is for you." Sona's mouth curled lightly as I took out the cheque from the cash. "And that cheque you are holding would be your reward for taking down Regeis."

"Phew~"

I let out a whistle as I looked at the amount on the cheque; granted it was roughly around the amount of a C-Rank Job in my world, but even then they yielded a lot of cash for those missions, and this was most definitely the highest amount I got from hunting down a Stray Devil.

Though I suspect that a certain maid was involved with this transaction.

"I am going to need another bank account from the looks of this." I folded the cheque and placed it carefully in my pocket. "It would be a little hard to explain why I have a lot of cash entering it recently."

"Oh you would have two accounts?" Akeno remarked as she looked on.

"Actually make that four if I decide to go along with it." I replied back easily as I placed the envelope deep into my jacket and zipped the pockets up.

"... Why would you need so many accounts?" Rias asked while giving me a baffled look.

"In my line of work, that is the minimum requirement." I shrugged back. "The most I ever created for one of my jobs was twenty different accounts for whatever purpose I could think of. After that job, I just closed the accounts and moved whatever assets out before anyone started asking questions."

Oh yeah, that was very trialing for me, not because it was hard to liquidate the assets, rather I had to make Rin did not find out about it. The Jewel-Craft was really expensive work and she was taking a lot of my pay.

"And what work, pray tell, would require you to make that many accounts?" Sona asked in a slightly strained voice as though she was trying preserve what level of sanity she had left.

"Nothing you need to know, so that you would not be an accessory in any illegal proceedings." I replied while giving my most innocent smile, which did not convince her that much as she snorted derisively before clamping her mouth a little late.

"You really are meticulous, aren't you?" Tsubaki remarked while blinking like an owl.

"Well if there's nothing else, I think I will head back." I winced lightly from the popping of the joints as I got up. I was going to need a warm bath and maybe sneak in a nap before going for the afternoon job shift.

"Actually." I stopped to look at Rias with a type of look that I had come to associate with Rin's pondering on an idea that would be a bad situation for me. "There is something I think you might be interested in." She looked to Sona while maintaining the expression. "Would you object bringing him to that event next week?"

"That event?" Sona gave a very big frown at her request. "Are you certain? We never really bought a human along to that place. Also, I thought you want to deal with the matter differently."

"If you are talking about having a contest for that occasion, I think we will cancel that for now, considering all these jobs we are having." Rias sighed heavily as she attempted to make herself more comfortable.

"... I guess you have a point. We are in no condition to have little contest." Sona repled as she moved slightly in her chair. "But what is the rationale for bringing Emiya-kun to that spot?"

"Well since he cannot follow us, that means he won't be under our surveillance whenever we go on our jobs." Rias motioned to me as she explained. "We may be able to spare some people to watch over, but I doubt even we can do much considering the type of attention that is on this town. And if someone like Regeis came here for Emiya-kun, who else will come?" She paused before adding one more line. "And I believe you know of whom I speak of."

Whatever that cryptic line meant, it seemed to have won Sona over, judging from her reluctant nod. She took in a huge breath of air before she turned to me. "Emiya-kun, if you are interested, would you like to come with us for an event this coming Monday? It is just a small issue, but I think it might benefit you a lot."

"And may i ask what is it about?" I asked while raising an eyebrow.

"You just have to come and see." Rias replied with a mysterious smile and a wink, while Sona gave a resigned shrug. I paused for a moment thinking I should refuse, but considering what she just said, I must as well go along just to see what they had in mind.

How bad could it be?

=()=

"..."

"..."

"..."

'Okay~ this is awkward...'

I was letting out a light sigh and massaging my head while looking at the Mexican standoff that was right in front of me. On one side, the Gremory Faction was standing very still with agitation present in their mood, with the exception of Asia who was looking a little confused at their behavior. On the other side, Sona's faction were looking somewhat put-off and cautious around us. And on this side, a certain twin-tailed fallen angel was looking back at them defiantly with that all famous glare of hers.

Maybe it was not such a good idea to bring her along.

At the appointed time, I came along with Mitelt to the area that would bring us to the designated spot and meet up with the others. It was a little hard to convince her since she was quite reluctant to come along for the field trip; she felt she did not have the right to come to a place where the devils hung out after she did. It was after a while that she finally agreed to come along.

Unfortunately, most of the others did not agree with me.

It would be an understatement to say that the Gremory Faction overreacted when they turned around to find her with me. They basically formed a protective circle around Asia and looked at Mitelt like she was a hyena trying to steal their baby.

Sona's Peerage reacted differently; they were aware that the fallen angel was reformed, but they still regard her as a possible threat and thus took precautions like bringing out their weapons and keeping a close eye on us.

Mitelt was not helping her situation by adopting her usual expression of indifference and glaring at every single one of them as though hey would try to surprise tackle her if she let her eyes off them for a second. This was a really volatile situation to say the least.

I want to enjoy having my full mane of brownish-red hair before I start getting back the gray hair, please.

"Okay, can everyone please relax for a moment?" I stepped forward to try and mitigate the situation.

"Emiya-kun, may I ask why is a certain guest here without permission?" Rias turned to me with a smile that could rival Rin's any day. As it was the case though, I was feeling more worn out than scared by her, so I merely let out a sigh and replied back.

"I can't exactly leave her stuck in the house or the general area all the time, and I thought it would be good for both sides to at least interact." I paused as I looked at everyone giving me 'the look', aside from Asia and Ruruko who looked confused. "Ah come on, can we please let bygones be bygones already?!"

"Emiya-kun, sometimes I wonder what is in your head." Momo shook her head in slight disbelief. "I think you are the first one who does not think harshly about Fallen Angels considering your encounters with them."

"Because I can recognize some can have a second chance if offered." I lightly patted the little blonde's head while inwardly smiling at the way she seemed to pout under my hand. "And if we are talking trust issues, in some ways I am still on the bench for both your groups."

"Ara~ Are we still that unworthy of you?" Akeno said it in a manner that sounded somewhat provocative to the point of making some of the females blush at the implication. But rather than embarrassing me, she merely gave the opening to start my assault.

"Well let's see, there was the time you tried to seduce me in the gym a few days ago, and that time when I was stuck at the building after chasing the stray." My comment only seemed to amuse her greatly while earning a few raised eyebrows from Sona's group and a look of disapproval from the president.

"There was the few times with Rias when she tried every tactic from bribery, blackmailing and even seduction each time we go on the hunts or when I was in the probation period." Rias turned her head to the side to whistle lightly.

"Then we have Koneko who tried to carry me back to the club room every time I was thinking of cooking something." Koneko directed her attention to a rock nearby while maintaining her stoned-face expression.

"At least Kiba and Asia are not that forward with their intentions, and for Asia's part, she is mostly doing it because she was asked to by Rias." The blonde girl tilted her head even further in confusion while the gentleman of the group let out a light chuckle. At the sounds of others laughing, I turned my head to the other Peerage who were having trouble restraining themselves. That changed the moment they saw my expression.

My next target had been found.

"Of course, I am not forgetting about your attempts as well." I smile gently at the group who were now going pale and slightly bending backwards at my expression. "After all, how can a young man forget the type of methods you girls used to try and get me in?"

"Ah~ We have no idea what you are talking about?" Momo replied while stammering slightly.

"Oh is that so?" My smile went a little wider and my voice a little sweeter as I began my assault. "How about the time you tried to obtain information by getting me into a classroom and pushing your body against me to rattle me?" The white haired girl looked away in embarrassment while Meguri and Reya looked at her in shock and oddly enough, a hint of anger. Guess they did not like the idea of her being loose.

"Then we have Tsubasa-san who tried to wrestle me that one time to see how I could perform certain maneuvers during our hunts, and somehow within a few minutes, both of us were in serious danger of losing our clothes." The rook in question started being very interested in the trees by our sides with her face blushing heavily.

"And how about Tsubaki-san who tried to persuade me to join the Student Council and somehow or another, made the student body misunderstand our positions as something from a certain film regarding fifty shades of a certain color?" The tall and curvy vice-president started to choke in a manner to avoid suspicion.

"And after that..." I was about to make a comment about Sona's attempts when she held up her hand to stop me

"Okay, you have made your point." She said before sighing lightly. Seeing both her's and Rias's expressions put a really big smile on my face.

"You have been holding onto that ammunition for a while, haven't you?" Mitelt raised an amused eyebrow at me. I merely shrugged back in reply.

"Get dazed!"

"WAAHH!" Ise, Asia, Mitelt, Saji and Ruruko jumped in surprise and the three girls went to hide behind us guys, Mitlelt looking around for a possible enemy.

"Ah Satooji-san, it is nice to see you again." Rias and Sona stepped forward and curtsied towards the rather rough looking middle aged man.

"Ah, you grace me with your presence, my ladies!" He bowed deeply and respectfully, before turning to Ise and the others. "So are those the ones coming for today?"

"Yes, this is my Pawn and Bishop." Rias motioned to Ise and Asia, both looking uncertain at the guy's odd energy. "And the two over there are Sona's two Pawns."

"Hmm, so I will be attending to two dull-faced boys, one blonde beauty and a cute twin-tail girl. Okay leave it to me then!"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING DULL FACED BOY?!"

The guide ignored the two red-faced males and turned his attention to us. "Strange, this is a first time that I have a human and a fallen angel in my forest. Are they here for the familiars?"

"Not exactly." Sona took a glance at us before starting her explanation. "The human is relatively new in the supernatural side of matters, and I am hoping to expose him to our culture a little more. The fallen angel is currently under his custody and so she has to come with him. But given the circumstances, I believe we can also expand your operations to other groups with them as your test subjects."

I will say this, Sona has a way with words. She could make a good salesperson if she wanted to, evidenced by the manner the guide seemed to ponder her words before nodding enthusiastically. "All right, this will be a good time to test out new grounds!" Satooji-san spun on the spot before pointing his fingers at us. "Leave it to me, I will make sure you will 'get dazed'!"

"He really likes those words, huh?" Mitlelt muttered softly while looking at the guy with a critical eye.

"Yup." I replied back as he started to lead us into the forest and show us some of the creatures that live in the forest. Seeing all the creatures in question and in such numbers made me wonder how some of the magus back home would salivate at the thought of attaining one of these creatures.

Thankfully they can't do that here. This was a peaceful place and a set ecosystem, I don't want to imagine even one of those crazy people here experimenting on the creatures. Although I would like to see their reactions if they were to meet the Undines of this world. Clearly an example of stereotypes going way off the mark.

"Interesting." I noted with great interest at a creature that reminded me of a white stag. The huge antlers were roughly the size of my torso and it had a huge crest on its chest that it displayed proudly for all to see.

"Like that one?" The guide nodded his head proudly at the deer. "That is one of the most popular ones in the area, especially for those who seek to get its antlers. It has great medicinal value and since it sheds every few months during a new moon, it is often sought after. Of course, that meant a lot of troublemakers come after it." He sighed heavily before muttering. "Damn poachers..."

Ah, looks like he was having the same problem as the ones back home. My sympathies to him.

"Ah that is a very grand looking creature!"

"It is! Mitelt-san, what do you think?"

"... Yes, it is rather majestic in a way."

I turned to find the trio of young girls standing together and having a conversation. It was somewhat unusual seeing Mitlelt with them, but from the looks of it, it seemed that Asia and Ruruko were trying to strike a friendship with her during the tour. It was slow, but at least they were making progress compared to the others, given that the fallen angel was showing a semi-resigned but slightly cheerful disposition when talking with them.

Further thoughts got interrupted when Satooji-san let out a light call and a blue light attracted my attention to a tree where I saw, to my surprise, a small dragon with bright blue scales resting on top of a branch.

"Ah a sprite dragon, and such a beautiful hue!" Rias remarked as she looked at it. I had to admit, the dragon did looked rather glamorous with the blue glow despite its size. It reminded me of a blue gem hit by a soft light.

It seemed to have sensed our presence, as it let out a cute yawn before opening its eyes, blinking sleepily at us. Lightly stretching, it opened its wings and fluttered towards us, lightly tilting its head at each one of the members. As it came towards me, it seemed to pause for a moment while its eyes grew alert. It stopped right in front of me and continued looking at me with a steady gaze, occasionally titling its head to the sides as though it was curious about me. After a while, it flew past me and made straight for the junior girls of the group.

"Erm~ what?" Mitelt blinked as the little dragon paused in front of her and sniffed her lightly in curiosity. Then with a rather cute gesture, it lightly bumped her cheek and lightly rubbed its head on it. It then looked back at her and opened its mouth wide to let out a cute squeak, making her blush in embarrassment. It did the same for both Ruruko and Asia, before settling on top of Asia's head and taking a nap.

"So cute~"

All the girls swooned at the gestures made by the little dragon, and they took turns to lightly pat the head of the dragon, who merely opened an eye each time it happened and just let out another squeak.

I smiled lightly at the interactions before a scent caught my attention to my part of the forest It was at the far end of one of the darker portions of the area, but the scent was quite noticeable. There was also the contradicting presence that seemed malevolent, yet benign in nature. I took a quick glance at the two groups before silently making my way to that spot.

It should be fine, but better safe than sorry.

=()=

It did not take me that long to find the area where I felt the presence. It was at the foot of a small hill where the trees towered over me and there were a few rock formations around that channeled water to a nearby lake. At the face of the hill, there were several other rock formations that surrounded the entrance of a cave, making it look like the gateway to some boss fight.

But I could tell that something intentionally made it in such a way it would be a death trap if one was not careful; some of the bigger rocks had claw marks that cut deep into the rock, and the cuts were really clean with the occasional cracks along some of the harder materials.

The scent was stronger here, and now I could detect faint scents of ozone, steel and oddly enough, wild canine. I could also feel the Prana around here being extremely thick here, like a blanket that covered the area. Likely the creature in question exuded the Prana to use as a detection system in case there were intruders.

"Oui boy, come back here!" I blinked at the guide who apparently came after me running. He grabbed his knees and hefted hard while wheezing, a clear sign that he was not in good shape.

"Boy, we got to leave now! This side of the forest is not safe for us!" He managed to choke that out while inhaling deeply.

"Why?"

"This is where the Forest Guardian is staying, and he does not like intruders of any sort!" Satooji-san hissed nervously as his eyes darted in all directions. "This guy is very picky about any visitors coming into the forest, so it has taken residence here. We should leave now!"

I was about to say something when a growl broke the silence of the forest and the Prana around us suddenly felt very cold to the point of freezing, I could almost see the breath coming out of our mouths as we exhale. Slowly, I turned my head to the cave entrance where I could see two glowing eyes staring right back at me with killing intent. I could hear slow footsteps echoing from the entrance and oddly enough the sounds of metallic clicks was in time with it.

After a few seconds, the beast came out of the entrance and stopped at the ledge in front of us, watching us both with narrowed eyes. In the darkness, I could only see the golden eyes intensively checking us both with its breath coming out of its mouth in a thick puff. After a while, it seemed to dismiss us and start to groom itself. It was in that moment that the moon peeked out of the clouds and I finally laid eyes on the creature before me.

"Is that... A wolf made out of blades?" I blinked at the unusual sight that was in front of me.

"Close, all my sources indicate that this is a creature that is a distant relative between a Komainu and the Hokkaido Wolf." Satooji-san replied nervously as he tried to edge back to the big tree behind us. "He is one of the rarer creatures around, even rarer given the odd mutation that gave him that type of features."

"Wow..." I let out a sound as I looked at the creature before me. It felt so surreal as I looked at the manner its flesh and black fur seemed to fuse perfectly and naturally with the silvery-black steel plates that made up the back portion and then to the steel spikes that protrude from its shoulders. The head had some blades coming out of the skull, giving the impression of a small crown of steel on it, and the mouth was evenly and seamlessly fused with the steel, making it look like it has a special armor for the head alone. In the moonlight, the steel shone with a type of radiance that was natural in a manner that could not be replicated even with my swords.

It was without a doubt a beautiful creature.

The beast seemed to have read my thoughts as it paused in its grooming and looked at me straight in the eye. Its golden eyes seemed to burn with a dangerous light that was telling of its long years in the world and seemingly spoke of its confidence. That look and the posture it took was all I need to know that this was a creature who understood its strengths and its place in the world, and it seemingly commanded that respect from others around it naturally.

"Careful lad, this guy has a bit of a temper issue and..." Satooji-san started talking before the beast silenced him with a warning growl before looking back at me again. I merely maintained the eye contact and lowered my head slightly to show respect for its space. All my jobs dealing with magical beasts paid off beautifully, as the creature seemed content to let us be.

At least until it tried to move away and something on its back rattled loudly, causing it to growl in irritation and twist its head to try and bite something off.

"What's wrong with it?" I asked while watching its behavior.

"Ah it is those spikes on its back." The guide pointed to the unique features on the back. "Due to the mutation this creature has, it is growing those blades out of its back, but it seems to be growing them faster than it can lose them, so every so often it tends to get some stuck inside."

"Then why haven't they been removed?"

"I tried." Satooji-san shrugged in his defense. "But this fellow keeps on trying to bite my head off, and he gets wise on the sleeping potion I try to sleep him so that I can work uninterrupted. After six times of attacking me and the other visitors, I had to stop tending to him and leave him be."

I frowned deeply as I looked at him before turning back to the wolf who was now trying to snap at the loose blades. That was not right, it was still a benign creature if not short-tempered, and it really looked like it could use some help.

"Wait lad, what are you doing?!" The guide gasped as I stepped forward slowly towards the wolf while keeping my posture as loose as possible. The wolf stopped its movements and turned to me with narrowed eyes. I was invading its space and it clearly did not like it. I stopped near a lake and let the wolf come towards me with slow cautious steps.

It was only when it was right in front of me that I could appreciate the features of the creature in front of me. This fellow was as long as I was tall, and with it standing upright, it could easily reached my chest. From my angle, I marveled at the state of its back, where the spikes seemed to grow from it rather than them stuffed in it. There was the contradiction of it being unnatural and yet it was totally organic.

My thoughts were silenced when the wolf leaned forward to sniff at me and slowly walked around me, likely assessing whether I was a threat. After one full round, it gave me a scrutinizing glare before slowly lowering its body in a posture that was semi-relaxed, but at the time allow it to leap at me if I did something stupid.

"No need to be afraid, I will not hurt you." I raised my hand to show that I meant it no harm and slowly brought it forward despite it giving a warning growl as a bluff. I lightly touched one of the loose steel spikes and just as gently pulled it out and laid it out on the ground next to us, and repeating the process. It was surprisingly quick as the spikes in question did not need any force to pull them out, and before long all the loose spikes were removed. After that I took the pieces in my arms and moved back, placing them neatly at the side and returned to looking at the creature.

The beast got up and lightly shook its body, pausing for a moment to twist its head to check for loose spikes, before slowly looking back at me, its aggression seemingly dropped in place of curiosity. Well at least that went well.

"No way..." Satooji-san let out a voice of disbelief as he watched us. The wolf briefly switched its glance at the man before coming back to me. After a while it lowered it head briefly before raising it, then turned around and headed back to the cave. I waited until I cannot detect its scent, before releasing the breath I was holding on unconsciously.

"My word lad, you are one ballsy fellow!" Satooji-san came out of his cover and slap in the back. "I think you are the first one he does not try to maul to the ground."

"Lucky me." I snorted as I looked to the pile of spikes next to me, then creating a dimension pocket to hold them inside. I was going to need a list that tells me the number of portals I had made and the type of items I was carrying.

"KYYAAAA!"

I snapped my head in the direction where the scream came from, my heart almost stopping from the fear in that scream. Then other screams came along, and I was now rushing in the general direction. I had to hurry!

That first few screams belonged to Reya, Meguri and Mitelt.

=()=

Okay seriously, was the Root trying to destroy my faith in this world?

When I arrived at the spot where I heard the girls' screams, I had expected to find the mangled corpses of my classmates, or the groups fighting a giant monstrosity, or Mitelt taking on either Peerages, or even some raving lunatic like Regeis attacking them.

What I saw instead made me turn my head in utter embarrassment and cursing the Root for the absolute absurdity in front of me.

"NNNNNOOOO!"

"My clothes are melting!"

"Don't look at us!"

I was honestly perplexed at the scene unfolding before me. The only way I could describe it in words was that it resembled a B-Grade Horror/Monster Flick/Erotic cartoon where the monster would slowly feast on the flesh of its female victims in the most erotic manner.

Even then, I was not sure if that really describe it properly.

"Can someone tell me, what in the name of the Root is going on here?!" I yelled out while trying to avoid eye contact with the girls as I took a quick glance to find the source of the slime and tentacles that was currently violating the girls in a very unusual manner by dissolving their clothes and wrapping the tentacles in the wrong manner.

"I have no idea how to even start." Kiba replied to me while closing his eyes tightly and his back facing the girls. He was the only male aside from me trying to avert his sight from the girls, while Saji was apparently torn between not looking and being tempted by the scene before him. Ise on the other hand was ogling at the sight with a bloody nose. With an irritated twitch, I summoned the Torashinai and smacked him on the head with a little more force than required.

He better not looked at Reya, Meguri and Mitlet with those type of eyes. I have made a silent vow to at least watch over those three.

"Ah that would be the slime and tentacle duo of the forest." Satooji-san came along sporting a nosebleed as he looked on. "They are harmless to people, they just enjoy removing girl's clothes by using some sort of secretions and make a lot of trouble, no biggie."

Like hell it was no biggie! This is a very Bad Biggie! And stop staring at them!

"Less ogling and more action on trying to stop those creatures!" I yelled out in frustration as I tried to find the creatures' location, but instead got an eyeful of what many would call 'a slice of heaven'.

Think good thoughts, Emiya! Evil thoughts be gone! Be Gone!

"Emiya-kun, can you please help us out of this predicament?!" Sona uncharacteristically yelled as she tried to move her arms to cover her body and simultaneously escape from her current situation.

"KYAA! Emiya-kun, please don't look at us!" Meguri wailed as she tried to move her arms and cover her privates.

"Stop looking at us with those eyes you damn idiot!" Mitlelt yelled with her face turning as red as a tomato.

"I can't get married anymore!" Reya let out a wail as she tried to cover her face in shame and folded her limbs around her.

... That's it. Green Blob and Stupid Tentacles going down, BIG TIME.

I projected a few swords and sent them straight at the two creatures, piercing their bodies and setting them ablaze without hurting the girls. The blob squealed in pain and thrashed about crazily while its tentacle buddy went nuts before they released the girls one by one. Without taking a glance, I projected a few towels for them to cover themselves up before notching an arrow to fire at the creatures.

There was no way in Root Freaking Hell I am going to let such an abomination loose on this earth.

"Wait, don't you dare hurt Surataro and Shokushumaru!" Ise got in front of me with his gauntlet at the ready, barring me from taking the shot. Wait a minute, did he already named those two creatures?!

"Ise, move. Now." I kept my bow steady as I tried to get a clean shot, but the idiot actually moved forward to block my shot and took a swing at me. Before I could get readjusted, he immediately used the remaining momentum to swing his leg and do a drop kick on me.

Really, you were only showing the fruits of the training now when your bloody perversion was high?!

I dismissed the bow and arrow and projected Kanshou and Bakuya in my hand in time to block a blow from his gauntlet, before using the backward momentum to twist myself and trip him while holding my blade backwards to hit with the blunt side. But he seemed to have foreseen that and twisted his body to avoid the blade, using the hand on the ground to lift his body temporarily and do a spinning kick on me.

"Ise, why the heck are you trying to save those creatures?!" I growled angrily as I attempted to knock him out.

"They will be my familiars, I have decided and you will not change my mind!" Ise raised his face with a determined expression marred by a heavily bleeding nose.

"Seriously you want to make them your familiars just to see female's clothes melt?!" I seriously wanted to reinforce my hand so that I could give this perverted idiot a solid hit to the face, I mean come on, what was with his bloody thought patterns?!

"It is the dream of all men around, why can't you see that, Shirou!"

'Like hell it is!'

I ranted in my head before glancing over to the red hair in the distance. An idea came into my head and I quickly voiced it out. "So you are saying that you don't mind letting other guys see Rias Gremory without her clothes on when they attack her?"

That definitely got his attention and his minor stumble from getting the thought in his head was enough for me to project a few blades and send them in the general direction I saw the offenders try to depart, setting off the area spectacularly and revealing the creatures in their glory.

... These were supposed to be creatures of the night? Zelretch's pet monsters were more terrifying in appearance, and even they looked ridiculous.

"AHH! Don't you dare hurt my babies?!" The attack rebooted Ise's brain and he resumed trying to stop me attacking the slime and the tentacles. I barely had enough time to call another set of blades and launch them at the creatures before having to dodge Ise's onslaught of punches and kicks at me. Okay this was getting real ridiculous!

"BUZZ BUZZ!"

We both turned to the skies to find the same miniature blue dragon I saw earlier hovering above us and its body glowing with electricity running around it. Then with a bright flash, the electricity shot out and hit the Green Blob, Stupid Tentacles, the perverted idiot in front of me, and for some odd reason, the other males in the area besides me.

"AAARRRHHHRHHAHAUEEHAH!"

Ise being the closest to the dragon got shocked to the max, followed shortly by the Green Blob, which glowed brightly for a while before crumbling into dust. The tentacled monster on the other hand got lucky and managed to disperse the attack by stabbing the ground and diverting the lighting from its body to the stream nearby. After a while the dragon stopped its attack and flew near Asia and Mitelt, hovering over them and looking at us carefully.

"Puff~ from the looks of it, the Sprite Dragon thinks we are the enemies trying to attack the girls." Satooji-san said that while looking like something from a cartoon show with his face black with soot and his hair standing on end.

"Wait a minute, the girls and the damn handsome are not affected?!" Ise coughed his answer and pointed a finger at me.

"Well I guess it is a male dragon so it would see other males as the enemies." Satooji-san tried to smooth his hair and clean his face as he answered. "But as for your friend there, I think it did not register him as a threat since he was trying to stop the slime and the tentacle."

Thank you for sparing me Sprite Dragon. If you ever come with us, I will make you some nice dishes.

"NOOOO! Surataro!" Ise let out a cry of despair at the sight of the Green Blob burnt to ashes. I ignored him in favor of the tentacle creature that escaped the attack and was now flaying around madly. The one eye I was looking at was glaring back with some anger in its eye.

"KRREEE!"

Oh boy, Stupid Tentacles seemed to be getting even more pissed off. Well I guess I will have to...

"RRRROOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR!"

We stopped moving at the sound of that roar and held on to the trees for dear life as the ground shook violently and the birds let out startled squawks as they took flight and flew away quickly.

"Oh no~~~" Satooji-san let out a frightened groan as he looked to the far end of the forest where the trees started to shake and drop in all directions. "He is coming." It only took me a moment to understand what he meant by that, and I got my response when the trees in front of us fell down and a black blur shot out of the woods and landed in front of us.

"RRRROOOAAARR!" The Blade Wolf let out a challenging roar that made large fissures in the ground before dashing forward and mercilessly mauling the tentacles with its blades and mouth. It only took it a few seconds to completely rip it into pieces and stomping the body to a bloody smear before spitting its remains out of its mouth. It lightly shook its body to get the blood off before turning to us and let out a warning growl.

It did not want us making noise in the area anymore.

"AAAHHH NNNNOOO! Shokushumaru!"

... And Ise just ignored that in favor of the destroyed creature.

"Don't worry Surataro and Shokushumaru, I will not forget you two!" He clenched his fists and turned to face both the dragon and the wolf. "Damn you two! I wanted them as my familiars! You guys will pay!"

The baby dragon merely let out a quiet yawn before dropping on top of Asia's head and closed its eyes, but the wolf started to growl even more ferociously and the steel spikes seemed to rise and crackle with red electricity.

"Uh oh! Everybody move, the guardian is getting pissed!" Satooji-san paled and duck behind a rock. I looked around me and saw the others hiding behind trees and rocks to shield themselves, while Ise and the wolf were releasing large amounts of Prana that was making the area shake a lot. Okay this was really getting out of hand, and I was done with the craziness.

"Here I go you damn dog!" Ise leaped forward while the wolf opened its mouth right to gather the electricity into a bright ball of red plasma and then...

"CRASSHH!"

... One thirty foot blade slammed into the ground, creating huge fissures in the ground and separating the two from each other. Courtesy from yours truly.

"WHAT?!" Ise put on the brakes in time to avoid slamming into his side of the blade face. "How the heck did this appear here?!"

"Emiya-kun, is that..." Sona peered out of her hiding spot and gaped at the sword towering over everyone. "Is that one of yours?"

"Yup."

"How the heck do you wield such a thing? Wait for that matter, why would you even have such a weapon?!" I really, really wished I had a camera right now to capture that expression on Sona's face. It was like the perfect blend of astonishment, fear, disbelief and absurdity that would appear on the strict student council president.

"For situations like this." I turned back to both Ise and the Blade Wolf, the boy looking dumbfounded at the sheer size of the sword while the wolf was lightly sniffing the edge, its curiosity having taken over its aggression. "Okay, I think we have all calm down enough to call it quits right?"

"What the heck?! No way!" Ise pointed to the wolf who was still sniffing the giant sword with a cursory nose. "I need to get my revenge on those two."

"Okay first, get over it. The Green Blob and Stupid Tentacles are dead." I massaged my temple while sighing heavily. "Secondly, you are not strong enough to handle something like the guardian over there. And lastly regarding the sprite dragon..." I motioned with my thumb. "You sure you want to attack it now?"

"You can't bully him." Asia said as she lifted the dragon from her head and hugged it gently.

"Please don't hurt him senpai!" Ruruko stepped next to Asia and pleaded on their behalf.

"Hurt the dragon, you are dead." Mitelt bluntly said those words while calling out a spear to point at him.

"..." The guy took one look at them before dropping his stance and his head, looking every bit defeated by the girls and the dragon as one would imagine it to be.

"Now that is done." I turned to find the wolf having finished its inspection of the sword and was now looking at the others with narrowed eyes and its canines showing. Oh boy, I could smell the raging Prana leaking out of its body. Hope it can still remember me.

"Please wait." At that, the wolf turned its head sharply at me and I could almost my reflection in those golden eyes. I merely lowered my stance and maintained my eye contact while dispersing my weapons, not an easy feat as my eyes were really wanting to close. That did the trick as the wolf's stance seemed to have loosen and it was not showing its sharp teeth.

"We did not mean to bring any disturbance to the forest, nor expect to get involved in a fight with certain individuals." I let out a light growl while glancing at Ise who flinched at my tone. "We will be leaving soon, so I ask that you forgive us."

The wolf continued on with the steady gaze, then much to everyone's surprise, turned around slowly and silently made its way back to its home, pausing for a moment to glance at me before disappearing into the shadows.

"Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!" Satooji-san scratched his head in disbelief. "I can't believe that it did not attack us. Normally he would either blast me with lightning or keep on chasing me until I teleport out of the forest."

Well I don't get any of these, all I know was that I was just done with the forest and just wanted to get back home and sleep. I turned to find the dragon cuddling in Asia's arms and occasionally turning its head to let out rather cute squeaks at both Ruruko and Mitelt who completely melted on the spot and just continued stroking its head. At the corner of my eye, I could see the others trying to wrap the towels around them better while Kiba and Saji tried to help them, Saji trying but failing to avert his eyes from them thanks to Momo and Ruruko handling their towels awkwardly in a somewhat deliberate manner.

"I think we can safely say that the dragon wants to belong to Asia?" I motioned with my thumb. Satooji-san took one look at them before lightly nodding, with both of us ignoring the idiot crying over the remains of the Green Blob and Stupid Tentacles.

Well, at least that craziness was over. Maybe I can have a normal school week.

Part 4

"So do you know what is going on?" A white-haired teenager with swords strapped to his waist asked as he and his partner went down a corridor.

"No clue." His partner in plain wizard robes replied while using his finger to push up his spectacles. "Whatever it is, It must be important for Cao Cao to call us in while we are still dealing with the preparations for Kyoto."

"Well, we will know soon enough?" The swordsman paused to open the door next to him and entered into the room with his partner, to find three other members waiting for them.

"Ah! There you are, the both of you are late!" The sole female dressed in a school uniform pouted as she greeted them. "You know how long we have to wait, Siegfried? I have to talk non-stop with Hercules and Leonardo here."

"Well sorry Jeanne. We would be here faster if someone did not mix up the locations and directed us to the right area in the first place." The wizard replied back with a roll of his eyes.

"Hey it's not my fault Georg, Hercules here got the message from Cao Cao and got the location mixed up with the other meeting for earlier." Jeanne pointed to the biggest person in the room.

"Hey what gives? You were the one who got the message wrong, not me!" Hercules growled as his arms started to bulge under the strained shirt barely fitting him.

"Never mind that, where is Cao Cao?" The wizard asked as they took their places in the room and Siegfried laid down his swords.

"He may not be able to make it, since the plan regarding Kyoto and the underworld is still going on." The youngest called Leonardo replied. "As it stands, we were already told some of the details and we are to relay them to you."

"Well then, lay it on us. What does Cao Cao want to do this time?" Siegfried asked as he listened to Leonardo's words.

"Cao Cao has an assignment for the both of you." Jeanne took out a phone and send a text to their phones. "The details are in that message, but you are supposed to go to Kuoh Town for a surveillance target."

"Scoping out a target? That is a little unusual. Not to mention the location is heavily guarded." Siegfried remarked as he looked at the details on his phone.

"That's what we thought, but it seems that someone over there seems interesting enough to catch Cao Cao's attention, and he wants you two to verify." Jeanne had an amused grin on her face as she answered. "Evidently, there is supposedly a wizard who fights with swords."

"A wizard who fights in close combat?" Siegfried and Georg looked at each other with puzzled expressions. "Well that's a first, I never heard of a wizard who does that, even those who fight with unconventional methods tend to stay back."

"BAH! It is still a waste of time, why don't we have more real fighters instead of these soft lads?" Hercules commented as he shook his head, pausing to look at the only wizard in their group. "No offense Georg."

"None taken, I can somewhat understand your thinking, and in this case there is something unusual about this information." Georg used his finger to raise his spectacles. "Is the information correct?"

"Seems to be accurate, the informant is someone that Cao Cao had talked to for quite a while now. Oh and there is something you should know. I believe you have heard about Regeis Cornelius?" Jeanne spoke as she twirled her phone in her hand.

"A Stray Devil that has been on the bingo-book right? Worth a few thousands?" Georg tapped his glasses lightly as he tried to remember the name. "If memory serves, he has not been captured once."

"The same one, and he got himself taken out by that individual apparently." She replied back easily. "From what I gathered, it was one hell of a fight."

"Well that is interesting." Georg mused as he looked at Siegfried. "So what do you think?"

"Cao Cao gave us a mission, and the Intel seems solid." Siegfried shrugged while replying.

"Okay, I best to prepare my potions." Georg got up from his chair and made his way to a nearby room. "You might want to get yourself ready, we should be there pretty quickly."

"Right then." Siegfried took up his swords and strapped them to his body.

"We are off to Kuoh Town."

=()=

In a room made of wood, a figure sat next to a relatively humble bed with a book in hand, the only source of light coming from a small candle on a desk close by. On the bed laid a few items that would cause one to raise an eyebrow; on the left, there was a slightly tarnished bronze cross, a couple of scrolls containing text of Holy Scriptures and a bottle of holy water. On the right, a few polished daggers with Latin words etched on the blade laid next to a sword scabbard, a few pieces of paper with runes written on them, and finally a silver Desert Eagle fully loaded and kept in its holster.

The figure continued reading in silence while subtly checking the clock on the wall. He had received a message from one of his higher-ups of a possible mission he was to participate in. Quite frankly he was surprised to have gotten involved with such a mission, but they were very adamant that he joined in. So without much choice, he agreed with the condition that he was allowed free reign for his own actions. He did not want innocent blood on him.

At least he won't be alone on this mission. Apparently, one of the original members in question was killed a couple of months ago, and the small group did not have anyone else that could handle the rigors of the mission or deal with the questionable thought patterns of some of the others, so he and another person got called to make up for that loss.

Further thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door knob turning and the door opening quickly, throwing a bright light into the room and forced his eyelids to nearly shut themselves to reduce the glare. The person who was currently standing at the door frame had his figure outlined by the bright light behind him, obscuring his facial features.

"Lyle, we have been summoned by old man Galilei." The figure at the door said as he threw a card at the person who merely raised a hand to catch it by his fingers. "It is confirmed, we are heading out to grab the Excalibur Swords."

By that message, the reader closed his book with a bit of force and looked up to look at the other fellow.

"So it begins."

=()=

"So, you have passed the message to your informants?"

"Yup, and they have passed their bits to those two groups, so we should be seeing some action soon."

"Still I must confess, the idea of telling both the Khaos Brigade and Galilei remains somewhat illusive to me. Why do you want to gather both groups at Kuoh Town of all places?"

"You should know why, what with all the chatter we have been hearing and the message from the others."

"Shirou Emiya, you want proof."

"Exactly. We keep hearing words that he may be in the area and what-ifs. Some presume to be him to be the version of this world, others say otherwise. I want to see for myself, so I decided to use those two to find out."

"Khaos Brigade I can understand, since they have very talented spies, but why Galilei and in extension Kokabiel? How do they come into the picture?"

"I need bait, and that old man has the bait I need."

"Ah I see, the man's obsession with that sword then?"

"Exactly, if this is the Shirou Emiya we know, he would have to come out to face both Galilei and Kokabiel when they execute their plans, and he would see the sword of this world. No doubt he will be very angry."

"You should know, since you were the one who tried to create a pseudo-Excalibur by seeking out the graves of the associated Knights of Camelot and tried to rob the grave of King Arthur. If I recalled correctly, Shirou Emiya was rather pissed to the point that he totally leveled your island and turned it into a small lake."

"Hmph! I would be able to see whether or not this is the same Emiya from his reaction alone, not to mention some reference for my projects."

"That may be the case, but do not forget, not all who arrived here have the same mindset of wanting to kill or have our revenge on Emiya. Some want to have a rematch, others wished to have a certain 'connection' to him."

"Ah yes, how can we forget those people, not to mention the few females in our presence? They do seemed a little obsessed with the lad. Wasn't there an Archibald heir around as well?"

"He is still around and one of the few who wanted a rematch with him. Quite frankly I am surprised that he is really different from his clan members; I think he is the only one not trying to end the legacy of the Magus Killer, rather he is simply interested in fighting Shirou Emiya is he is."

"Yeah well, I will never understand those individuals, and I am sure as hell not getting in the way of at least two of the females after him. They are really messed up in the head."

"Those guys and girls are one thing, the ones we must watch out is that group currently residing at the remote regions of Europe."

"You mean Shirou Emiya's former Executor and Exorcist fighter buddies? Yes, they would be a problem, especially that man. He was the one who mentored Shirou Emiya during his time at the Association."

"Not to mention that their reasons for wanting to find Emiya are totally different from us, considering that there was not much bad blood between them even when he had defeated and sent them here. And if that individual meets that boy, our plans will go to waste."

"Well then, it would be best to make sure that they don't find him in time then."

"Indeed, let's hope this plan of yours works."

"Oh it will, that is certain."

---

=()=

---

=====Author's Notes=====

Hello, I have returned with a new chapter for this story. No new Noble Phantasms for this chapter, I was concentrating more on fleshing out the chapter in preparation for the next one. Since people wanted the Excalibur Arc so much, I decided to put in a small bit.

It was quite a headache for me to think of a manner to illustrate the aftereffects of the Rating Game, I had to ask someone who had some experience with politics to get an inkling of what to write, and being a history buff, he provided some examples of political backstabbing of the worst sort (though he did give me a weird look when I had asked about it...).

I hope I was able to describe the little fight Shirou has with Regeis well; I tend to have trouble trying to put ideas about something into words that would be able to illustrate them properly.

I had to admit, writing this chapter did help to show the dynamics a little and to show a litte more of certain watchers in the darkness. And I hope that this chapter might answer the remarks made by some of my more recent reviewers. It was an idea I had for a while, and I am trying to build up on it.

Hopefully we get a little more Mitelt in the coming chapters.

And I put my pen down for now.