The cold wind blew through me.
It seemed to welcome my presence before a night scenery of Setagaya Town.
There was a magic abnormality present.
It could or could not be part of the Holy Grail.
Only I could sense it.
For I was related to it.
CHAPTER FOUR: BATTLE
La la la la la la...
The sweet lullaby was heard most clearly in a small park near to Tenraku Temple.
The grass was brownish from the winter season. That was for a certain portion of it only.
The other portion of it was stained crimson.
The stain was thanks to a certain body lying on the grass, staining it red.
A soft wind blew through, rustling the leaves of the trees nearby.
La la la la...
Nearby the site, a soft landing hit the ground with a thud.
It was the sound of two people.
A master and her servant had arrived on the scene.
The master followed her servant, who sensed out the intense smell of blood floating in the air. It was sickeningly strong that anyone could smell it.
It was not long before they stood before the body.
The shadow cast by a nearby lamplight hid their faces.
'So how many cases has it been?' The master questioned rhetorically.
'The fifth,' the servant spoke under his breath.
The master gave a slight chuckle.
'So there are eight more to go, eh?'
La la la la la...
There was yet again the repeating of the lullaby.
Out of the darkness from afar, a figure emerged from it, carrying a short knife in its hand. The same smell of blood emanated from this dark figure too.
'I see the culprit is here, master.'
The servant responded in a haughty voice.
'You should know our purpose here,' the master answered sharply.
The figure was soon shone on by the lamplight, revealing herself to be a dark-haired girl, clad in a simple white dress.
Her eyes were the colour of amber.
She raised the blood-stained blade of her knife to her mouth, licking the edge of it.
'So Onee-chan and Onii-chan has come to play with Hazuki?'
The master walked forward, revealing her face before the girl.
Hazuki's expression changed, twisting her mouth into an irritated shape. She brandished her knife before herself.
'You are not Onee-chan,' she pointed out at the master. 'Onee-chan has spectacles.'
'I see,' the other person concluded, continuing to look at the girl. 'That's too bad then. You will have to play with us even if we have slice each other's flesh off.'
She raised her hand, flicking her fingers to give a gesture to the shadow behind her who was her servant.
'You're on,' she folded her arms, opening her orange eyes. 'Assassin.'
'Yes, master.'
The servant took out his sword, hidden beneath his robes.
Approaching Hazuki, he drew the blade before her eyes.
He produced a smile on his face.
'Nice to meet you, Hazuki.'
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A servant clad in red and his master landed on the hard semi-frozen ground in a park clearing.
There was no sign of activity around.
There was a musky smell of something floating in the air around.
It was an intense smell of blood.
There was no lamplight nearby, rendering the entire area rather dark.
Shirasaki looked all around, seeing nothing.
The only person she could see clearly was definitely Archer.
After all he had white hair which made it easier to see in the dark.
'Miyuki-san,' he spoke suddenly. 'There is a sinister force around.'
He turned his face towards her.
'Apparently, the person who was supposed to be killed has been killed.'
La la la la la...
The lullaby continued, causing Shirasaki to turn in the direction of its source.
There were soft footsteps approaching her.
She could see a small figure donning a white dress.
It had to be that Hazuki-chan.
And as expected, the strong smell of blood was coming from her.
She approached slowly, stopping a few metres before the two visitors to her playground.
'So Onee-chan and Onii-chan has come to play with Hazuki?'
'Hazuki-chan!' Shirasaki called out to the girl. 'Don't do this anymore! This is wrong!'
'Did Onee-chan come to see my piece of work?' She replied with glee. Hazuki brought the blade of her knife before her, slowly sliding her finger across the surface, clearing shed blood off.
Archer moved in front of the spectacled girl.
'Things will get dangerous,' he turned his gaze back to her and in front again. 'Stand back.'
A flash of light formed in Archer's hand, forming into the image of a bow.
He raised the bow at Hazuki, aiming his glowing arrow before her.
'This is...'
'...what you call an Archer class,' he responded to Shirasaki.
The white haired man turned his focus back to Hazuki.
He pulled back his arm to increase the tension to prepare releasing the arrow.
'Onii-chan is bad,' Hazuki stood motionless before Archer.
'That's not for you to say,' Archer answered as he released the glowing arrow, shooting it at full speed at her.
The arrow hit its target, creating a momentary flash of light.
The light illuminated the area slightly for a while.
This illumination horrified Shirasaki as she looked at the surroundings.
On each tree surrounding the clearing, there was a corpse hanging from it, with a giant yin-yang symbol carved into it.
There had to be some purpose to this, as Shirasaki thought.
Archer raised down his bow, looking at his target.
The light subsided, revealing Hazuki standing there motionlessly.
She was now even emotionless.
Her short knife had blocked the incoming arrow, causing it to dissipate into energy on impact with her weapon.
This time, there was now a dark shadow behind Hazuki.
The shadowy figure moved in front of her, protecting her as how Archer was now doing to the girl with glasses.
A strong aura hit Shirasaki, putting a little pressure on her.
Her memories told her that some people had pressurising auras on her before, but this one was much more powerful.
It was on a level she had not experienced before.
The shadowy figure chuckled, revealing itself to be a young man.
There was a familiar sense of this person.
Blue-black hair.
She was rooted to the ground but she could still talk.
'You...' she questioned in a surprised tone. 'You're the customer from the afternoon.'
The man smirked, closing his eyes for a moment.
'You're quite observant,' he responded. 'Shirasaki-san.'
This person was way too suspicious.
'How did you know my name?'
'It was written on your name tag,' he was irritated with her dumb question.
'Right...'
The blue-black hair boy turned up to look at the spectacled girl.
'My suspicions were right,' he sneered. 'You're indeed a master.'
'That wasn't decided by me,' she defended.
'Your magical circuit was far too obvious,' he looked at her continuously. 'Anyone with a magical circuit could sense it out.'
Archer raised his bow, generating another energy arrow, aiming it at the young man. He pulled it back, releasing it forward, aiming full speed at the two.
The blue-black headed man shook his head, stretching his hand in the direction of the arrow. A barrier, with the facade of a yin-yang symbol, formed from his hand.
The arrow hit the barrier, dissipating into energy again.
It did not even hit him or Hazuki.
'Now that is rash,' he replied. 'I believe you came for Hazuki-chan.'
Hazuki stepped forward, tightly gripping on the knife.
One of her amber eyes glowed intensely.
'But I guess we are no longer neutral.'
His lips twisted into a smile.
Archer regenerated a new arrow in his hand, placing to his bow and released another shot. The flashing arrow was released, shooting full speed at them again.
A bright flash occurred, only to have the two still remaining with the same barrier.
Hazuki raised her knife, and cut the air infront of her.
A tree next to Archer split in the middle spontaneously, almost falling on him. He quickly dodged the falling tree.
His dark eyes turned back to look at what Hazuki had done.
'Those eyes,' he lowered his bow. 'I have seen that power before.'
'That's for sure,' the man placed his hand on the little girl's shoulder. 'For a heroic spirit with much experience, this should be nothing for you.'
Archer closed his eyes momentarily.
'That power is immune to servants,' he answered.
'It's not for the masters.'
He opened his eyes, realising that Shirasaki was not next to him.
Hazuki turned her direction to the bespectacled master, cutting midair again.
Another tree trunk split apart, falling in the direction of the brown-haired girl.
In a swift moment, the red-clad servant sprinted off, taking his master away by the hand. The tree came crashing down just after Shirasaki was grabbed by her servant.
'What did she just do?' She questioned softly.
'She is able to destroy anything that is real,' he responded.
'Then why are servants immune to it?'
'Because servants are spirits.'
He looked at her for a second before looking back at Hazuki who was preparing to cut the knife midair again.
The last sentence spoken by Archer seemed nonsensical to Shirasaki. He was right before her, breathing and real. It was impossible to imagine him as a spirit.
'The battle comes first,' he reminded the spectacled girl. He raised his bow, shooting another futile arrow at the duo.
Hazuki cut midair with her knife again, causing another tree to split apart but not before Archer made his dodge again.
'Archer!'
She was about to make her move when she felt herself freeze.
Her body was not listening to her.
Somehow, the night had become a little brighter. She looked up at the night sky, seeing a disc the design of a yin-yang fixated onto it.
The white portion of it emanated light, which was causing a slightly faint shadow to be cast on Shirasaki's body. As her eyes traced her shadow, it led up to overlapping with that of the other person.
No doubt, there was something to do with their overlapping shadows, as she thought.
Her human opponent was probably freezing her body through that shadow.
'How is that Onmyou Tsuki spell on you?'
She heard soft whispers reaching her ear from that man.
'The shadow...' she felt herself being slowly pushed down. There was an invisible pressure pushing down on her body. Her knees were being forced to bend.
If she did not do something soon, her body would be pushed down until it was an unnatural state.
'That's right, I'm manipulating the shadows,' he responded.
She tried to push herself up but with little success.
'You don't have any resistance spell at all,' he sneered. 'To think you could be a master.'
She ignored him. Her only concern now was to push herself up to resist this force.
A flashing arrow hit the man, smoldering him with a bright light. For the moment, the invisible force was gone.
He must have lost his concentration, as what Shirasaki thought.
She turned her head to look at Archer who had fired the agile shot. Soon enough, her eyes caught Hazuki cutting another point in midair, causing yet another tree to fall off.
The tree was nearby, causing one of the branches to directly head for Shirasaki. She could only stare, shocked at what was heading for her.
The only thing she could do now was close her eyes to await her final predicament.
Don't admit defeat now.
A sudden voice rang in her head.
She reopened her eyes. There was no one talking to her.
In front of her, she could only see the tip of the branch a few centimetres before her eyes.
It was strange that the branch had stopped before her. There was a red liquid slowly emerging from the edges of the branch.
Blood.
It was fresh blood.
She got to her senses, looking up. It was the same familiar white-haired servant before her.
'Archer!'
At the cost of his own materialised body, Archer had blocked the attack, causing the branch to impale through his chest.
He turned his face back to her.
'Servants don't die this easy,' he stood straight up, slowly pulling out the branch.
She cupped her mouth as she saw the huge wound the branch had did. Blood dripped from his body just like how a raindrop did.
'There's no time to be shocked,' he snapped. 'As long as the master is alive, the servant will fight.'
The bow in his hand vanished, only to be replaced by twin swords. The swords were rather unique by their curved shape.
There was a cry of laughter from the shadow-controlling man.
'An Archer with swords?' He was still laughing away. 'Don't insult me. An Archer can't fight with swords.'
'Archer.'
Shirasaki frowned, giving a solemn look at her servant.
'I'm sure you can fight with swords.'
The dark-skinned man closed his eyes, smirking before looking back at the spectacled girl.
'Someone told me that before,' he answered back. 'A former master.'
'Then I won't lose to your former master,' she clenched her fists. 'Just take him out.'
'Understood.'
The girl with one glowing eye cut through in their direction, causing the tree behind them to split. Archer moved forward rapidly, beginning to engage in melee combat.
Use your will.
Shirasaki looked at the bursting tree. Its pieces went out in all directions like a bomb.
A voice was resonating in her mind like the pulse of a heart.
She could feel something electric moving through her.
It was there was a current within her.
That was possible since humans had nerve impulses which were electrical in nature. But this current was different.
It was strong enough to be felt.
'Mage circuit.'
The voice of Professor Moriyama sounded within her mind.
This mysterious current could be that mage circuit she had talked about before.
Several tree branches were headed in her directions like a guided missile. She closed her eyes, concentrating and wishing for the branches to detour.
Shirasaki concentrated harder, focusing on the current within her body which was getting stronger.
'I reject!'
With an invisible force, the branches seemed to hit something before falling flat on the ground. She opened her eyes to see that she was safe.
However, the current within had dissipated.
It must have been this power which was so-called magic.
'I'm sorry about being late.'
Shirasaki turned her head to the woodlands. A dark figure emerge, only to reveal her signature cigarette inserted between her lips.
'Professor Moriyama?'
She placed her hands inside her pockets, before looking at the night sky which was still illuminated by the spell of the Onmyou Tsuki spell.
Whispering a few words Shirasaki could not comprehend, the seemingly fake moon faded into nothingness.
'That was...'
'...just a cheap trick,' she took out her cigarette, blowing out a puff of smoke. She turned her gaze towards the man with the blue-black hair.
'I see you're here to make some trouble,' she starred at him with a solemn expression. 'Shadow ninjutsu cannot be considered real magic after all.'
The man was a little unsettled in his expression. A mere woman could suddenly dispel all of the spells he had prepared to defeat Shirasaki and her servant.
The battle between Hazuki and Archer was not over. He was still engaged in combat with her. Each time he tried to swing his sword to get her, she would jump a step back, cutting through mid-air to split something up into an explosion.
It was definitely a losing battle for Hazuki. Through that glowing eye, she could not see the lines attached to the servant. The only way she could do was to destroy things around him to make him receive fatal injuries in order to dematerialise.
A certain feeling overcame Hazuki suddenly. In a flash, she jumped back to near where Shirasaki was formerly at.
Archer sprinted after her, arriving back to where Shirasaki was former at.
There was no sign of his former master.
Hazuki stood there before turning back to face him.
In her hands, there was a piece of paper in the shape of a human. The words written on it were familiar.
A realisation struck him.
That hooded person he had met a night before. Those were the same wording on it.
Hazuki's glowing eye faded, rendering her back to normal.
Her mouth shifted into a smile.
'Onee-chan has already left,' she replied enthusiastically. 'Hazuki is going to Tenraku Temple to play!'
She skipped happily, melting into the darkness swiftly.
Archer was left alone in the clearing.
He had finally seen through the ploy. The main goal was not to kill Shirasaki, but to simply lure him away so that they could take his master away.
'You're naïve as usual.'
A voice from behind caused him to turn around.
It was the same hooded person standing before him.
He dematerialised his swords, turning it into a bow, aiming it at the person before him.
'You have something to do with this,' he materialised an arrow to aim at the figure. 'Especially that shikigami.'
The figure stood motionless before him, unfazed by his weapon.
'Are you the mastermind behind this?' He increased the intensity of the weapon.
The hooded person gave a chuckle.
'You're naïve as usual even as a servant again,' the person replied. 'Your main priority is your master yet you are still here.'
Archer could sense a smile being worn inside the hood.
'Heroic Spirit Emiya.'
He lowered his bow a little. Frowning again, he raised it again.
'Who are you?'
The hooded person turned around, slowly walking back into the pitch black woodland.
'I'm asking you a question.'
'I'm expecting great things from you,' the figure replied without turning back. 'Don't disappoint me, Emiya.'
And soon without realisation, the figure melted into the darkness.
Dematerialising the bow, Archer looked up at the dark nightsky.
The temple mentioned by Hazuki was the only place he could go to get his master back.
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There was sheer coldness surrounding Shirasaki's body. She began to shiver.
She woke up to see herself in darkness.
The floor was hard and consisted of planks. And dusty too.
She got up from her lying position to see herself in a large hall with broken paper walls that allowed the cold air to enter in.
There was a bad aura about this place.
No doubt, this was the infamous and abandoned Tenraku temple.
She recovered her standing, determined to know what was going on with the temple.
The brown-haired girl crept slowly across the hall, slowly stepping on the floor. It was useless to be discreet since each step she made created an audible sound from the wooden floor.
She was about to reach the side of the broken paper wall.
'You're going somewhere, I see,' she heard a voice to her side.
Turning her head, she saw the same man before her. He must have taken her away. Her mind was in a state of confusion on how she had been taken away by him.
And Professor Moriyama was nowhere to be seen too.
'Looking for that woman?'
She remained silent.
'That was a trick,' he looked back at her without hesitation. 'Just a shikigami.'
'A trick...?'
She was bewildered. How could the Professor be a trick?
'Opponents are tricky these days,' he continued. 'To think the enemy will send a shikigami just to defend themselves.'
He grabbed Shirasaki by the end tightly.
She tried to push his hand away but without much strength.
'You're coming with us,' he grinned.
She felt a sudden presence behind her.
It was that of a small kid.
Hazuki.
'If you are uncooperative,' he looked at her. 'It's troublesome for us to bring you to our master in pieces.'
Hazuki made a cutting sound in midair, causing the nearby paper wall to break into several pieces.
Shirasaki slightly nodded, being pulled by the man as a gesture to start moving.
'I don't think it would be her who will be in pieces.'
She heard a familiar voice at the other side of the hall.
The visible white hair of her servant could be seen. There was a bright arrow-like apparition in his hand with a bow in the other.
'Hazuki,' the man signalled to her.
'Understood,' she replied in solemn tone looking up to reveal her glowing eye.
He continued pulling at Shirasaki's arm, making her to follow her further.
Archer jumped off, preparing to ambush on the man. At that moment, a wooden beam broken down, raining its splinters on the servant.
He dodged it, looking at where Hazuki had suddenly cut in midair.
'You have to get through me first.'
He smirked, aiming his bow at her. The arrow was ready to go.
'That dagger,' he broke the pressure of the moment before the fight. 'It smells of blood though it is clean.'
Hazuki did no respond. As expected, she did not talk when her right eye was glowing. She raised her dagger, preparing to attack next.
'...It smells of the blood of people around you then.'
He continued, changing his tone from cold to a sly, cunning one.
Hazuki stood there for a moment, suddenly lowering her dagger. Her glowing began to lose its illumination, slowly reverting back to normal.
Archer released his flashing arrow, quickly rushing towards her. As the arrow quickly made its way through, its flash diminished slowly revealing itself to be a black sword.
Hazuki stared at the arrow-turned-sword heading in her direction. She was stuck to the ground, her feet refusing to obey her.
A sudden barrier in the design of an yin-yang symbol materialised before the girl in the white dress, preventing the arrow Hrunting from reaching her body.
The tip of the sword pierced through the barrier, slowly pushing itself through.
In no time, it would soon penetrate the barrier and sear through the girl's body.
'Begone.'
A disembodied voice sounded through the dark hall. At that command, the barrier with Hrunting in the middle piercing it, shrank rapidly absorbing the weapon as like a black hole. Within moments, the entire barrier was gone, along with the weapon.
Archer looked disbelievingly at the spell before returning to his calm composure.
Hazuki fell back down on the ground, her knees shaking.
A sudden glowing glyph similar to that of the shield formed on the wooden floor, surrounding the little girl.
'It's your win this time, Heroic Spirit,' the voice sounded through the hall.
'Hazuki is not done with Onii-chan!' She shrieked as she tried to stand up only to fall back again.
'You'll see us again,' the voice continued. And the glyph closed in on the girl, causing a bright flash. Both the glyph and the girl was gone.
Archer lowered his bow.
'The Onmyou.' He muttered under his breath.
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Out in the ruined temple courtyard, Shirasaki continued to struggle as the man relentless pulled her by the arm.
He seemed to be pulling her towards the giant torii gate which had began to slowly glow red.
'I said let go!'
She shrieked at him to no avail.
He continued to pull her with much strength towards the gate.
As they were within steps of the gate, another magical presence was felt by the spectacled girl.
She turned her head up to look at the gate.
There was a certain someone on the top of it.
The man stopped too, noticing that there was an intruder on the top.
The person jumped down from the gate, unscathed by such a height upon landing.
As the person regained posture, it was revealed to be a woman. Her hair was short, yet bright as gold.
The most interesting thing was that she was wearing like someone who stayed in ancient times. In fact, she was wearing a Greek tunic.
Her skin was milky white, contrasted with the dark hazel eyes.
'Who are you?' The man lessened his grip on Shirasaki's hand.
With another hand, he raised it, trying to control her shadow.
He tried to feel it but there was no shadow.
'You...Are not alive,' he took a step back.
'That's right,' she took one step towards him as he took a step back. 'But neither will you be soon.'
She quickly materialised three short knives in her right hand, quickly hurling them at him.
The movement was so quick that Shirasaki could only hear the sound of blood spurting out. She readjusted her focus to look at the man before her. He had totally let go of his grip.
As her eyes fixated on him, she knew why as he fell back onto the ground.
One knive had penetrated his neck, another to his forehead, and another to whether his heart was.
It was three impossibly accurate shots.
She screamed at the grotesque sight.
'My my,' the lady put her hands on her hips. 'This is a boring task.'
Shirasaki fell onto her knees, shocked at another sight of death.
The other lady sighed.
'Some people just know how to exaggerate the scene,' she responded sarcastically, looking at the girl in shock.
Shirasaki was cupping her mouth. She looked at the woman in a tunic.
'That was just a job,' she replied in a nonchalant tone.
The girl stood up.
'You committed murder,' she responded in a cold tone. She ran towards the blonde lady only to have her run through.
The lady had turned into a translucent form.
'I have no time to play games with you,' she bellowed, closing her eyes for a moment, before materialising completely again. 'Anyway, the case for the serial murders is solved with this idiot dead.'
Shirasaki looked at her defiantly.
The other person gave a yawn.
'I guess you'd better get away before anyone finds out, miss.'
She jumped on to the top of the red gate.
'Hey! Where are you going?' Shirasaki shouted from below.
The other woman smiled from above.
A sudden flashing arrow hit the bottom of the gate, creating a bright flash. Shirasaki turned back.
It was Archer with a bow directly pointed at the gate.
'Get away from-' he paused, looking at who was above the gate.
The lady on top of the gate looked at him with a blank look before looking down at Shirasaki.
'So I see you have a servant after all,' she replied sly. 'I didn't expect that, miss.'
And she quickly dematerialised into spirit form.
As soon as she vanished, the gate started to lose its glow. Before long, there were sounds of wood cracking.
The bright flash had caused some damage to the ruined gate.
It was starting to topple down, directly onto where Shirasaki was on.
She turned around, quickly running away from it but she was too slow.
'Why does this have to happen to me?!' She shrieked before being pulled by the white-haired servant rapidly away from the fallen gate.
She turned back to look at the rubble that was once that glowing torii gate.
'It's too dangerous here,' Archer spoke out.
Before Shirasaki realised, it was rather chilly and she was only in her night clothes. She quickly walked away towards the surrounding abandoned houses.
'I'm going home.'
'Understood.'
And the tall red-cloaked servant followed the spectacled girl who was trying to cover herself with her arms from the cold.
From the top of the ruined temple, they were being watched. The chilly wind of winter blew through this figure's clothes.
The hooded figure gave a soft laugh.
'It's too early for the Wiedervereinigung yet.'
The voice under the hood muttered out.
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The master stood looking down on the grass.
She picked up a small broken piece of paper.
'Shikigami, eh?'
She smiled to herself.
Turning behind, there were just three Kanji characters written behind it.
'So this is what it is about.'
She tucked the small piece of paper into her pocket, turning to look at where her servant was.
The servant stared at the corpse hanging from the tree, with a yin-yang symbol etched into its flesh. Taking out his sword, he sliced through the line connected the corpse to the tree branch, causing it to fall onto the soft grass.
As the corpse fell down, it broke into three segmented pieces.
It was as if the corpse was made up of segments rather than originally connected together.
The assassin bent down looking at the corpse.
It was not a corpse, definitely as he thought.
As his hand touched the one segment which had the yin-yang symbol etched into the flesh, it glowed brightly in eerie green.
Another hand entered his sight, touching the symbol and effectively breaking it into pieces. He looked up to see his master doing that job.
The corpse slowly transformed into that of a white shapeless object.
'A doll I see.'
The master smirked.
She stood up, followed by her servant. She looked at the night sky only littered with stars but no moon.
'The game has started becoming dirty then,' she muttered out the words into the air softly.
'You're sly,' a boy told the person in the office.
The office was stagnated by much cigarette smoke.
A blonde hair lady took out her cigarette, puffing it out the smoke.
She turned behind.
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'I'm not being sly,' she replied to his comment. 'I'm just a neutral player.'
The boy folded his arms, turning up his head to look at her.
'That's still being sly, Professor Moriyama.'
He smiled, looking at her with his squarish glasses.
The ceiling fan continued to turn about as usual.
TO BE CONTINUED