The 7th Summoning of Heaven's Feel.
An unlikely occurrence.
The previous summoning was prevented.
On the same day, 4th April 2044, the city of Fuyuki was said to have vanished.
Together with all its residents.
Fuyuki was not built in a day but it disappeared in one.
Chapter 1: Confrontation
Shirasaki looked at the man facing her.
Strange clothes did give her the feeling that this person was not a normal person.
He must be some weird person, rather.
'What do you mean by this Master-Servant relationship?'
The white-haired man folded his arms.
'So I have been summoned by someone incompetent again,' he answered with a lamenting tone, shaking his head.
'Look cosplay-san,' she addressed him sarcastically. 'I don't even get what you're trying to say.'
A folded piece of paper fell swiftly down onto the floor. The brown-headed girl looked down, noticing that the whole crazy situation here had cleaned her mind of the memory that she had received a strange letter.
Picking it up, she unfolded it slowly, revealing the contents written on it.
Her eyes fixated onto the contents of the words.
The note was from someone she knew. A person who went by the name of Professor Yaguchi. The handwriting on it seemed to be hurried.
There was something bad about the content in the letter, Shirasaki felt.
Minutes after she re-folded the piece of paper and stashed it into her longcoat pocket.
'Even if you're a so-called servant', she looked up to face the man. 'How can I possibly summon you? I have no way of casting magic, which doesn't even exist in the first place.'
'You hold the command mantra.'
She gave another doubtful look.
You're a tattoo enthusiast, eh?
The words of Yui sounded through her head in an instant. The strange tattoo found on her arm formed a sudden image in her mind.
She moved her gaze to look at her right arm.
Indeed, on her right arm, there existed a strange marking whose colour were distinct from her fair skin.
'This is a command mantra?'
She whispered to herself.
'That is the mantra.'
The man before answered her, surprising her that he could hear her despite her soft muttering voice.
Shirasaki took a step back. He had suddenly come so close to her.
'Watch your distance please,' she remonstrated the man dressed in red.
'Anyway, how do I address you?' She made a query.
'If we follow the book,' he answered in a calm tone. 'I'll call you Master.'
'I asked you on how I should address you.'
Her tone was aggressive and cold. This servant was trying to beat around the bush.
'You can call me Archer by my own class.'
'Class?'
'By the type of weapon we use to battle.'
Shirasaki sighed for a moment. And looked back at Archer again.
'I see that you have a very fertile imagination,' she commented back. 'To think you should be a writer or some sorts.'
'That's up to you, master.'
'I don't know what kind of a sick joke this is,' there was a sharp reply from her. 'I'm not your master and my name is Shirasaki Miyuki.'
'Understood,' he gave a quick affirmation. 'Miyuki.'
Shirasaki was a little surprised at how this Archer guy had suddenly chosen to address her by her personal name.
Well, at least he did not know infer out that her nickname was Shirasagi.
Which was frequently used by close people around her.
'Anyway, Archer-kun,' she decided to address him politely for once. 'I'll assume that you happen to be stuck in here and I'll let you stay the night here.'
'You could permit me to dematerialise into spirit form.'
Her ears rejected the words of Archer as rubbish.
'I'm afraid I don't have such ability to do so,' she responded, under the impression of playing along with him. 'It's near midnight and I need to rest now.'
'Understood, Miyuki-san,' he nodded.
She turned around to face her back to him. A person she barely knew was now addressing her by her first name.
It was a certain crazy night for her.
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The time was six in the morning.
Due to the seasonal weather, the sun had started to illuminate the skies. The sliding window was slightly ajar, allow small breezes to occasionally enter the room.
And this also allowed a small wind chime hanging by the window sill to make a sound as it was blown by the breezes.
Shirasaki laid in her futon.
The chime was beginning to awaken her.
And she had better too since it was yet another normal school day.
As she slowly opened her eyes, the beige colour of her ceiling greeted her. She got up from her futon and looked subconsciously around her surroundings.
There was no commotion outside.
Perhaps the events of the previous night were just a dream.
From what she could remember, she had ordered the man in red to only rest in the living room while she retired to her small personal room.
Shirasaki slided open the door to look in her main apartment room.
On the coffee table, there laid a tray with bread and butter garnished on a plate. She could also sense something strange about the room.
Comparatively, the room was strangely cleaner than usual.
She had no time to clean her room thoroughly.
The only time she could remember was when she last moved in.
'Did he do this out of gratitude?'
Shirasaki questioned herself.
She entered the room and sat down on the floor to look closely at the tray.
A shadow darkened the surface of the wooden table. Shirasaki looked up, expecting to see the supposed maker of the meal.
'Yahoo! Shirasagi~!'
'Yu-chan...' she muttered to herself.
There was something very wrong about how Yui came to be in her room.
'How did you get in?' She exclaimed.
Yui pointed to a direction. Shirasaki turned behind to look at the direction of her finger.
There was nothing there.
'That's strange,' Yui looked at the direction in perplexity. 'He was there a while ago.'
'He?'
'Your boyfriend, isn't it?'
Now Shirasaki's face began to turn red at the awkward words of her friend.
'What did you say again?!'
'Admit it Shirasagi,' Yui placed her hands on her hips. 'You never told me you were rearing some man here.'
'I did not!'
The door of the main apartment unit opened to allow light to enter the room from outside. The man she saw the night before stepped into the room.
There was something different about him.
He was not wearing those peculiar costume, but simply just a black shirt and pants. The only outstanding part of him was his white hair.
'I see you have woke up, Miyuki-san,' he stood before her.
'Miyuki....san...?' Yui crept closer to her, curious to know why this man was addressing her friend by her first name.
'Nothing of that sort!' Shirasaki turned behind to give her the signal of denial.
She turned around again to face her so-called servant.
'Anyway,' she turned her gaze away from his eyes. 'How did you get out and in again?'
'You left this on the table,' he answered raising his left hand which a bunch of keys hung from it.
She snatched the keys immediately from him.
'I don't know what you intend to do,' she looked up at him angrily. 'Don't go around touching my stuff.'
'Understood.'
'And besides,' she pointed to the food lying on the tray. 'Did you do this?'
'Yes.'
'Thanks,' she folded her arms, remaining silent.
'I have something to report to you, Miyuki-san,' he broke the silence.
'I'm going to be late for my school,' Shirasaki entered her personal room, shutting the door. 'You can tell me your crap afterwards.'
'That's the first time I've seen Shirasagi so fired up in the morning,' Yui commented as she looked at the shut door.
'Shirasagi?'
'Oh?' Yui answered in mischief. 'Didn't you know? That's her nickname actually.'
She made a few steps closer to the man.
'Say,' she suggested. 'What's your relationship with Shirasagi, eh?'
'She's my master.'
'Then you're the slave?' Yui responded suddenly with probably a strange fantasy appearing in her mind.
The sliding door slided open. Yui turned her look to her friend.
'I didn't know you had such wild desires,' she questioned immediately, pointing to the man. 'So you're a BDSM enthusiast besides being a tattoo one?'
Shirasaki looked at the white-haired guy.
'Did you have to say everything?'
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'I see,' Yui gave a pat on her friend's shoulder. 'So Archer was your distant relative?'
'That's right,' Shirasaki answered calmly. She had a whole ten minutes trying to clear up the misunderstanding of the relationship with Archer.
The two of them were on a monorail to the university. Although her house was in far-off Setagaya, the decade old Tokyo Central Monorail linked the city conveniently, allowing her to commute to the university within fifteen minutes.
It was probably a blessing to stay in the Tokyo of AD 2104.
However, as far as she could remember, she didn't stay in Tokyo all the time.
There was a piece of her memory missing. It was perhaps due to she was probably too young to remember it, as she had concluded.
There was only this strange person who was supporting her by the name of Professor Yaguchi.
As Shirasaki looked up at the digital screen projected on the window of the monorail car, there was a news channel being broadcasted.
'It seems bad again,' Yui blurted out suddenly. She was also looking at the screen.
On the headlines, there was yet another strange disappearance of someone.
'Someone must be causing all of this,' Shirasaki responded to Yui's words.
'It must be that Hell Gate.'
Yui had mentioned about something similar the night before.
'What Hell Gate?'
'You didn't know about it?' Yui answered. 'There is this abandoned shrine in one part of Setagaya that has been rumoured to have its gate as the Hell Gate.'
The last few words from Yui's mouth gave her a spiny creepy feeling.
Turning back to look at the news channel, a thought emerged onto Shirasaki's mind.
If the victim disappeared at night, it coincided with Archer's appearance too.
There could have been some relation to it too.
No doubt, it could not be a coincidence, as she thought.
'A penny for your thoughts?' Yui questioned her in concern.
'It's nothing.'
The monorail slowed down to a halt.
The sound system sounded out to indicate the station's name. Not surprisingly, it was the destination. The doors opened, spurring the passengers to alight from the monorail car.
Yui pushed her way through first.
Being the last to alight, Shirasaki stepped out of the car, passing through the doors.
A strange aura struck her from the right.
She turned to look at the source of the aura.
A bespectacled boy with a woollen vest worn over his shirt stood there before her. Like any normal student of the university, he had a few books bundled up with a string tucked under his arm.
He was smiling, though it was like a forced one.
No, it was more like a smirk.
'Hello Shirasaki-kun.'
This was peculiar to her. A boy she didn't know knew her name.
'Do I know you...?'
'Not really,' he adjusted his squarish glasses, looking up to see her. 'But I am impressed with you.'
'I don't get what you mean.'
He began to leave. As he walked past her, he stopped short a few metres from her.
'But I do hope to see you soon.'
The boy continued his departure from the station platform.
'Shirasagi!'
Yui came back to where Shirasaki-san was.
'What's taking you? And who's that boy?'
She looked at the boy who was walking away.
'Someone random again.'
The both of them looked at the back of the enigmatic figure.
But no doubt, Shirasaki had felt a strange aura. And just at the same time, this boy approached her like he knew her well.
There was going to be a strange development of events soon.
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The boring sound of the professor was began to drown her out. Sitting on one of the higher rows in the auditorium, Shirasaki was beginning to fall asleep again.
She told herself not to do so.
This professor was a fiercer one.
Professor Moriyama had a famous history of throwing out students who were not paying attention to her lectures.
This was in total contrast to her appearance, which she had yellow hair coupled with green eyes. In short, she had the image of some infirmary nurse than some terror professor.
However, some people had mentioned about how young this professor was. She was only a decade older than most of the students lying in the auditorium.
As Shirasaki looked around, she ascertained that Yui-chan was next to her. Despite her playful character, the ponytailed girl had a very serious attitude when it came to academics.
And on her left, her eye caught a certain familiar sight.
The same boy was there. She could tell it by his familiar studious hairstyle and its hue of violet. He was wearing glasses too which made him stand out too.
It was still uncommon for people in Japan to wear glasses unless they were really, stereotypically, the studious kind.
And his eyes were looking at hers, with a smirk on his face.
'Why is he looking at me again?' She questioned herself mentally.
'Are you listening to the class?' She felt her right side being nudged by Yui.
Shirasaki averted her stare from the left to the front. She had better not look elsewhere to avoid the professor noticing her not paying attention.
Or she had thought so.
'I'll need a volunteer to show how this forumla works,' the professor slammed both hands on the desk.
She opened a brown school file to look at the contents.
'Shirasaki Miyuki.'
There was no response.
'Shirasaki Miyuki.'
'Present.'
The professor looked up to see that a brown-haired girl had raised her hand.
'Good,' Professor Moriyama responded to her with a seemingly authentic smile. 'You're on.'
With a blank mind, Shirasaki slowly made her way down the steps leading to the teaching platform. On the whiteboard, there was a whole bunch of formulae that seemed like jabberwocky to her.
She took a deep breath, approaching the teaching platform.
Her luck must have been rotten recently, as she thought.
Picking up the red marker pen from the wooden surface of the teaching desk, she took a few more steps to stand before the whiteboard.
Smudging the edge of the board, the marker began to move.
Shirasaki felt dizzy a little. The whole auditorium was watching her complete the strange problem on the whiteboard.
No, it was almost like the whole world was observing her rather.
Knowing she had to be truthful, she dropped the market tip from the edge of the board. Turning around, she bowed to Professor Moriyama.
'I'm sorry! I can't do it! I wasn't paying attention!'
There was utter silence in the air around her.
'How were you able to solve it?'
An unexpected response from the Professor. She recovered her posture, facing a surprised-looking Professor before her.
Shirasaki turned around, looking at the contents of the whiteboard.
A wave of shock splashed on her face.
On the whiteboard itself, there was an entire array of mathematical forumlae never seen before that had been written on it. It was only minutes ago when she had started to write down her answer to the question.
The Professor adjusted her tinted glasses.
'I see you have done well,' she spoke in a solemn tone, giving a pat on Shirasaki's shoulder. 'Well done.'
Shirasaki gave a small bow without question, and returned up to her seat, aware too that everyone were having their eyes stuck on her.
'How did you do that?'
Yui asked curiously.
But deep down, Shirasaki had no answer for that.
She did not even know how she had done it. For all of what she could remember, her arm was the one moving automatically on its own, doing the bunch of rubbish on the board.
It was, as if, her subconsciousness was doing the thinking than herself.
As she turned to her left again, she could see the look from the same person in her direction again.
An utter change of events.
This was getting a little too strange for her.
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It was now early evening, evident by the orange hue of the sky with sparse clouds floating.
Outside the huge majestic gates of this capital region university, a lone man stood outside. The season was autumn but it was still rather warm.
That was what this lone man thought so.
The people around him were wearing thicker clothing than him.
He was just dressed in a black shirt and trousers.
He opened his eyes to look at his surroundings.
'I see that you're here.'
He heard a voice from behind.
Archer did not feel the need to turn behind to look who it was.
After all, he was an accomplished veteran in sensing too.
'You're not just any normal person.'
'That's right,' the mouth of the person behind twisted into a smile.
'Waiting for your master?'
'That is the duty of the servant.'
'I see,' the boy behind answered. 'When night falls, the fun begins.'
'That's none of my concern.'
'It should, be of your master's concern then,' the answer came around.
'My master is incompetent.'
'That's for you to say,' the voice came closer to Archer's ears. It was as if he was going to whisper something.
'The horror will come back soon,' the voice whispered.
'I see.'
'It appears I have spoken too much,' he answered back. 'I shall take my leave now.'
And the voice went away with the distancing of the footsteps.
At the same time, Archer looked ahead, noticing a few figures beginning to appear on the road behind the gates of the institution.
He approached one pillar of the gate, leaning against it, folding his arms.
'A-Archer?!' He heard the voice he expected to hear. He opened his eyes to look at the short-haired spectacled girl.
'I see this is where you go to,' he answered her.
'Didn't I tell you to go back to where you came from?'
'Where I came from is where you're from.'
'Shirasagi....'
Yui's voice came from behind.
'Didn't you tell me you two were relatives?' Yui-chan's eerie tone filled the air. 'I see now that you two were having more than that.'
'I'll bring Miyuki-san back from here,' Archer's words suddenly came out. 'Thank you, Yui-san.'
'W-What!?'
Shirasaki took a step back.
'I'm going with Yui-chan to Kitazawa.'
'I shall tag along then,' he answered her coldly, looking a little irritated. To Shirasaki, it was as if she was a rather difficult person to handle.
'There...There's no need!' She pushed out her palm to just a few centimetres before Archer's face. 'You can go back first!'
'Very well,' he folded his arms. 'Be careful then. Summon me if you meet into trouble.'
And Archer began to walk away. Before they knew it, he had disappeared, as if it was like he had melted into the surrondings.
'Summon?'
Yui questioned her suspiciously.
Ignoring her friend in a fit of anger, Shirasaki walked on brisky ahead.
'Hey! I was just joking only!'
Yui began to chase up with her friend again.
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At night, Kitazawa was the centre of all commercial acitvities in Setagaya town. The final meeting place before residents returned to their homes in the surrounding suburbs, it was normal for both Yui and Shirasaki to meet there before it was too late to return home on the last train.
At a family restaurant, which was plainly a restaurant for lower income customers, the two of them were seated opposite each other. On Yui's left was the great glass window of the outside of the sole building of this restaurant.
'Shirasaki-san,' she answered politely. Shirasaki sensed immediately that there was something going on Yui's mind.
The girl with a high ponytail dug into her small slingbag. Within minutes, she produced heaps of paper onto the table, which was meant for eating and not for work.
'Can you teach me some of the tutorials?'
Shirasaki looked at her shockingly.
'What I did in today's lecture,' she heaved a sigh. 'Was just purely out of luck.'
'You're lying.'
'No, I'm serious,' she dug into her own haversack, taking out a bunch of files that seemed to be brand-new. Opening one page up, she revealed the contents to the girl opposite her. 'Look, that's how much I've absorbed.'
Yui looked astonishingly. The contents of the file was almost blank. If not, there were several doodles on the paper.
'Shirsagi...' her voice turned cold.
There was an air of suspense around the spectacled girl. There was no telling what Yui was going to do next.
'You're a genius!' Yui laughed unexpectedly. 'I can't believe you slept in class yet you could solve that problem!'
Outside the restaurant, in the street of buildings, there were two figures standing in an alley, a spot where the restaurant could be easily seen yet the observers could not be seen easily.
One of the dark figures, a woman, stared at the two girls through her lenses.
'So I see,' she muttered to herself. 'So that's what is causing the strange things around here.'
'You're always as smart as ever, master.'
'There's nothing for us here,' the lady replied. 'Come.'
And the two figures melted into the darkness of the alley.
Back at the restaurant, Shirasaki was trying hard to look into the worksheet. The papers were killer material to her.
If only her subconsciousness came back to help her solve the problem.
Yui stared blankly outside the window. Pressing a button curiously under the table, a holographic television screen projected onto the transparent window.
It was space saving to have such functions since it would have cost more to have a machine used solely as a television.
There was yet another news channel.
As of recent, many businesses in Setagaya had usually tuned in to the news channel. The many strange occurrences in Setagaya were causing a growing concern that most residents preferred to tune into the news rather.
'There has been a power failure in West Setagaya,' the news caster broke the information out. Yui's eyes widened. Her home was in the area just reported. 'Trains have shut down and there may be a delay in travelling time to and fro. Residents staying there are advised to leave earlier.'
She turned to see Shirasaki still fumbling over the pieces of paper.
Yui quickly snatched the few pieces of paper, causing her friend to look at her.
'Look, I've got to go now,' Yui exclaimed suddenly, behaving in a rushed manner. She stood up instantly.
'Aren't we supposed to help you with your work?'
'That can wait I guess,' Yui replied with a smile. 'Keep it on my tab. I need to you to settle the bill first!'
And before Shirasaki knew it, her friend was gone as she bolted through the doors, ignoring the staff behind who were thanking her for patronising the restaurant.
'Really...' She placed her hand on her forehead.
Pressing a button under her table, she looked to her right to see the holographic screen change to a main menu type that had the option of calling for the bill.
She pressed on the option on the touchscreen window.
An attendant came to her table.
'The bill, Madam?'
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Nearby the Kitazawa area, there was the famed area of the abandoned shrine which had become the centre of strange events happening there. The shrine was abandoned because many construction companies attempting to demolish it had met up with mishaps.
Besides going bankrupt, they had met up with several other problems like the sudden disappearances of their workers, causing a worry to the public there.
Shirasaki walked slowly along the barely-lit street. Her home was relatively in the central area yet it was rather far from the station.
The vicinity was almost vacant to the extent of being eerie.
The surroundings could be well-fitted for some horror movie shot, as she thought to herself.
The cold air complemented the creation for some weird apparition to come out.
The entire area felt like a labyrinth to her. With the non-maintenance of the street lights around, it was becoming dimmer and dimmer. Most residents staying around the area were already asleep by now.
It was only past nine o'clock.
La la la la...
Her mind was playing tricks on her.
There was a faint sound she could hear somewhere.
La la la la...
The sound seemed stronger from the direction in the east. She turned her direction to look at where it was coming from.
La la la la la la...
Indeed, the sound was stronger from the direction she had just turned to.
The faint voice was like the sound of a child. But it was strange for a child to be playing out in the streets at night.
No, it was almost impossible at such a time in such a place where almost everyone had gone to bed.
La la la la la la la la la la...
She moved quickly in the opposite direction.
A sudden black figure appeared and vanished before her in the distance ahead.
It must be her hallucinations.
At the intersection nearby, a sudden soft ball bounced out and vanished into the other side.
This was getting too scary.
Somehow, Shirasaki had to make her way back quickly or something untold would happen, as these orders from her consciousness raced through her mind.
Sprinting off, she ran through the street, turning through alleys and alleys. Behind her she could feel as though something was chasing her.
She would rather not try to identify what that thing was.
Before she knew it, she stopped short in her tracks. There was a dead end ahead as she could feel it.
Her ears picked out the sound of something dripping onto the ground, probably already making a puddle there.
There was an intense smell floating around too. It was rather musky.
It smelled of iron.
No, it was fresh blood rather.
There was no street lamp here, causing her eyes to experience night blindness. However, as the darkness continued, her eyes were beginning to get used to it.
She could see a certain something hanging onto the wall of the dead end.
A footstep could be heard.
La la la la la...
It was the same sound as before.
The dark figure approached her. As her eyes told her, she could see the figure licking its hand.
There was a strong smell of blood on the person.
Shirasaki's eyes gained complete night vision.
The figure revealed herself to be a small girl with dark hair. Her eyes were bright amber.
The little girl smiled up at the bespectacled one.
'Do you want to play with me, Onee-chan?'
TO BE CONTINUED