There was a touch of dizziness in my head.
I could hear faint voices but I could not see. I tried to move myself but only my fingers responded to the commands of my mind.
As I moved my fingers, I felt the warmth return to my body.
Yes, I could feel the sensation of my body return.
My eyelids were slowly responding to my commands again. I tried to open them, failing the first time because of the gravity pushing down on them.
A voice sounded through my head. The multiple faint voices that I was hearing had merged into one faint but audible one.
I opened my eyes slowly, allowing the light to enter them.
An image was formed.
'You're awake.'
I could hear the sound of a young male voice. As my eyes opened wider, I could perceive the image of a boy wearing a T-shirt and pants. The dimension of my vision only allowed me to view his mouth, which was shaped into a slight smile.
I nodded slightly.
A boy had suddenly saved me.
The sensation returned to my hands. I attempted to push myself up.
I felt the boy's hands slowly guide me towards the wall, propping my back against it.
'Do you need something?'
I remembered how dry my lips were.
'Water,' I replied weakly.
My eyes were now wide-open as soon as he had left the room and slided the door close. I lifted up hands, staring at the palms.
There was something wrong with my palms.
They seemed to be smaller.
I pushed myself up, looking around the room for a mirror. The room had paper walls and it had a very traditional Japanese look.
It was unlike my apartment which was small and Western-styled.
My eyes caught a mirror on the far end of the room.
Another realisation struck my mind again. I wasn't wearing any spectacles. This was not possible. I could never have my myopia cured within a day.
I staggered slowly to the far side of the room, my legs feeling weak.
As I looked up slowly at the surface of the mirror, my appearance was shown.
My hair was black.
I had dyed it? No, I don't recall doing so.
My eyes were cyan.
I had put on coloured contacts? No, I don't remember doing so.
Nonetheless, the appearance looked familiar to me that I didn't feel an animosity towards it.
The door slid open.
I turned my head.
My believed-to-be cyan eyes met the amber eyes of the boy with orange-hair. He was holding a glass of water in his hand.
There was a certain familiarity with that face.
'I've brought water for you.'
He handed out the glass of water to me.
CHAPTER FIVE: PRELUDE
A boy in a senior high school uniform stood by the wall of a dark alley. His uniform was typical. It was black with a typical standing collar normal in most schools in Japan.
His short black hair was typical of the strict discipline at his school.
A slingbag was hanging from his shoulder. He had a tall frame. And that was in contrast to the group who was around him.
The people surrounding were girls from his school.
Not only were they girls from his school, they were wearing in a style contrary to his own dress sense.
Their skirts were long and they did not bother to tie up their hair in a ponytail.
One of the girls, the tallest one, held out to him a cigarette in her hand.
'I repeat one more time,' she warned in a stern voice. 'Will you or will you not?'
'Sorry Aneki,' he responded with an extremely polite tone and crept back against the wall. 'I don't smoke.'
He produced a harmless smile on his face.
The girl replaced the cigarette into her mouth before puffing out a smoke at him. In the next second, she spat onto the floor, taking him by surprise.
It was obvious that the boy was a clean-freak.
The girl laughed out loud, clutching her stomach.
She threw the cigarette down before squashing it with her foot.
The leader girl took one step forward him, only to be complemented with him trying to move away.
She quickly made a hand gesture to her fellow girls. The girls nodded and began to grab him by the hands.
'W-What are you trying to do??' He questioned in a timid tone.
She took the same step again towards him, and stared at his grey eyes.
'For someone who's pretty good-looking,' she smirked. 'Your behaviour is totally different to your appearance.'
She took out another cigarette from the box in her skirt pocket and lit it up.
'You could make some good money if you put your looks to use.'
'W-Wait,' he interrupted.
'Do it, girls.'
The girls nodded, attempting to take off his black outer coat. He tried to fight back but he was restrained by another girl.
The leader whipped out her handphone from her pocket, flipping it open to position it for taking photo.
There was a white flash as the girls succeeded in removing his black coat, rendering him wearing his white top.
It was the perfect humiliation for him.
Another flash followed as they continued to force off his uniform. Halfway through, the reckless actions of the girls caused his shirt to be slightly ripped.
The leader smiled as she took another photo of him.
'Perfect.'
He was soon reduced to only his boxers within minutes. The girls had completed their tasks and return to the leader's side with his uniform.
The leader girl walked up to him where he was covering his own face in shame. He was cowering down, in total shame.
'How's that instead of not trying my cigarette, eh?' She sneered back at him.
He did not reply.
'Reply me, DAMN IT!' She caught hold of his neck, forcing him to look at her face. His grey eyes were wet and almost into tears.
She gave a sinister smile, before using her handphone to take photo of his face.
As soon as she let go of her grip, the boy suddenly kowtowed to her.
'Please!!' He cried out in desperation. 'Don't do this!!'
'The first time I hear a guy being in despair,' she muttered to herself. 'Shameless.'
She kicked off his hands as they tried to grab hold of her ankle.
She turned around, showing him the pictures displayed on her handphone. The pictures were totally outrageous. They contained the whole process of the boy being totally de-clothed by her gang of girls.
'With a lean body like that,' she replied with glee. 'You can become famous overnight if this is put on the Net.'
'Please! I'll do anything!'
She got up and kicked off his persistent hands trying to grab hold of her ankles.
'He said please, didn't he?'
There was a sudden voice coming from somewhere.
'Who is it?!'
The leader exclaimed, looking around but there was no one.
'If he said please, you should let him have his way,' the voice suddenly emerged from behind, causing her to have a shock.
The owner of the voice revealed herself. It was a woman with golden hair, wearing a tunic-like dress which was white.
'W-Who exactly the heck are you?!'
'Just a nobody,' the lady folded her arms. 'I don't see the need to identify myself.'
'Are you from the other turfs?'
'I'm not as low as you bunch of gangster girls,' the lady responded sarcastically.
'You!' The leader was about to give the lady a punch when her movement stopped midway.
Her eyes widened. She wanted to assault the lady but she had no idea why she had stopped.
She could hear footsteps coming out of the shadows. As the figure emerge, it was wearing a hood over its head followed by a cloak for its body.
'Master.'
The lady walked towards the cloaked figure, kneeling with one leg before her.
'This is unfortunate,' the figure replied, revealing to be a female voice. 'To think that Japan still has such problems after so many years.'
'You were just gone for too long,' the blonde lady responded, turning back to face the group of girls. They were trembling at the sight of seeing their own leader being frozen midway.
The cloaked figure lifted up her head, allowing more light to shine into the cloak.
A bright red light that seemed to be her eye could be seen.
More than a normal light, it was the light of a monster.
'Scram.'
She muttered a few words before the leader could move again, falling onto the ground from her previous position.
The gang of girls threw off the boy's uniform on the concrete ground before running away.
The blonde lady took up the uniform and walked over to the boy who had been scared off by what had happened.
The cloaked girl took a step towards him with him stepping backwards again.
'Don't come near!'
His tone was filled with much fright. The golden-haired lady took the clothing and draped it over his naked torso.
'Don't get into trouble again,' the cloaked figure spoke suddenly. 'It's not everytime that you're lucky.'
And she slowly walked into the darkness. The lady followed her, melting back into the darkness soon.
The boy looked at his palms for a moment. He could only ponder why these people had suddenly saved him. All he knew was that his mind was a in a whirl.
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On the futon, Shirasaki slowly opened her eyelids to find that it was already morning. She got up from it, involuntarily taking her glasses to put them on for the sake of seeing clearly.
The past few weeks had been strangely calm for her.
The rumours of Tenraku temple had stopped and there was no evil aura around Setagaya town since.
As expected, that man who was killed by the blonde-haired lady was the primary cause for the strange number of killings back then.
Nevertheless, if there was no abnormalities around, it would be good. But her so-called servant Archer was still around, assisting her in the upkeeping of the apartment.
For some crazy reason, he liked housekeeping.
Something struck her, causing her to take her handphone. The holographic screen opened up by itself, welcoming her as she turned it on.
She quickly scanned through what was her online bank account, and closed back her phone giving a sigh.
With Archer who did not really need to eat or drink, she could save more. But her bank account was dwindling on the contrary.
Her part-time job was not paying that well too.
There was something strange of why her money was decreasing.
It had to be something to do with what Archer was buying, as she thought to herself.
Quickly getting up, she opened the door to her room, seeing the white-haired servant sitting down with his eyes closed.
He was probably at his state of rest, as she thought. He had been resting like that since the time he was summoned so it was probably what Professor Moriyama described as 'standing guard'.
Professor Moriyama had not disturbed her on events of supernatural natures. And to her, that meant that there had been peace for a few weeks.
But to Shirasaki, peace was unstable. There was an eventuality that it would be broken.
The game was not over yet.
As she made her first step into the room, the servant opened his greyish eyes.
'Good morning, Miyuki,' he greeted in a cold, monotonous tone. A week ago, she had told him to drop the formalities and call her by her own name without any suffix attached to it. He had complied with it knowing that she was his master.
'Archer,' she stood before him. 'What did you buy?'
He gave an empty look at the spectacled brown-haired girl in her nightgown.
'You're not telling me you spent away a fifteen thousand yen in a few weeks?'
She pushed the holographic screen of her handphone in front of his face.
He got up from his sitting position without responding to her. Without a single moment of hesitance, he walked over to the refrigerator, its door opening itself ajar as it sensed a being nearby.
The white-haired servant swung opened the door, revealing loads of groceries in it. He took out a few pieces of cutlets wrapped in plastic on a styrofoam white tray.
'These were bought at 5 trays for two thousand yen,' he responded coldly before taking out a few bags of potatoes.
'And these were bought at 3 for eight hundred yen.'
Shirasaki adjusted her spectacles, looking at how plausible the prices of the food could be.
'Then what happened to the rest if the things you bought are that cheap?'
'You friend, Yui, needed eleven thousand yen when I was on my way back.'
The time seemed to stop around Shirasaki. She felt as if the colour in her had all discoloured like what bleach did.
She heard the most possible candidate for borrowing her money.
And Yui had not returned her the money from that day at the family restaurant.
'So you gave her the money without telling me?'
'Servants don't own handphones.'
She gave a slight laugh before increasing the volume of her voice. Archer's eyes were a little bigger than usual but he stayed calm nonetheless.
She raised her head to look at her servant.
'Fifteen thousand yen gone in a few weeks.'
Archer dug into his pocket, showing before her a grey shiny card. It was a cash card that Shirasaki had given him in case he needed to spend anything. And she had authorised the use of fifteen thousand yen in it.
It was a card with zero value in it now.
The handphone vibrated suddenly, causing her to look at it. There was an email.
The sender of the email was spelt Y-U-I.
Before she was about to press the button to open the mail, the doorbell shrilled. The monitor showing the outside of the apartment unit cracked to life, revealing a familiar girl's face.
'Yahoo! Shirasagi!!'
It was the energetic university classmate she had for a friend.
Before she could open the door widely, Yui bolted through the entrance.
'Yui!'
The lively girl stopped in her tracks. Shirasaki turned to look at her friend.
'Did you fleece Archer of some money?'
Yui turned back to look at the man who had seated on the floor, in deep concentration of something. She walked to him, facing his back.
'Didn't we promise not to tell Shirasagi-'
'Don't call me by that!' The spectacled girl exclaimed.
Yui turned around, giving an innocent smile. Her friend knew how unreal that was.
'So where's the eleven thousand yen?'
'Well...' Yui answered, pausing for a moment. She was probably finding some excuse. It was always like this. 'Anyway, I can't return it to you now.'
Shirasaki took out her handphone, opening its calculator function.
'I'll charge you interest then-', she stared in disbelief as her friend snatched away the holographic portable phone.
'Alright, I'll repay you soon,' she presented the phone back to her friend. 'I'll treat you today for once.'
'Your treat?' Shirasaki looked at her again with disbelief. 'With my money, that's supposed to be my treat.'
'It's alright, dear Shirasagi,' she quickly turned the bespectacled girl around, pushing her into the bedroom. 'Let's get you changed up!'
'Hey! Yui! Stop...!'
Before she knew it, she was pushed by Yui into her bedroom, sliding the door halfway. The energetic girl turned around and peeped outside.
The white-haired man was still there, with his eyes closed.
He slowly opened them to look at her.
'Do you have a problem?'
Yui pouted her lips, looking at him.
'Don't peep in. This is girls' talk!' She ordered him back, sliding the door shut.
Archer chuckled softly without letting the two girls hear it.
'Now what's going on?' Shirasaki asked Yui back in the room. 'It's not just because you're going to help me change for sure.'
Yui looked down while contacting the tips of both her index fingers together.
'Well, I have this relative of mine...' she mumbled audibly enough for the other girl to hear it. 'He needed some money.'
'And you lent it to him readily?'
'He had a bad situation so...'
'Like him being publicly humiliated?'
Yui froze for a moment before blinking her eyes. She looked at her friend for another few moments.
'Eh? Was that for real?' Shirasaki cupped her mouth for a moment.
Yui padded her friend on the shoulder, giving a small laugh.
'You do know how to read others,' she complimented. 'It's no wonder you could suddenly succeed in doing Professor Moriyama's crazy assignments.'
'But...who would want to do such a thing to him?'
'That's not the point there,' Yui stepped back a little, looking a little more confident. 'I don't quite trust the fact why he would need that much. So...'
'We're meeting him later?'
'Bingo,' Yui answered back excitedly. 'You can probably sense why bullies would do such things to him when you meet him.'
'After class?'
Yui looked at the watch before lowering her hand.
'Nope,' she responded quickly. 'We're going to skip it.'
'That's wasting my time,' Shirasaki began to slide open the door. 'I'm not going for such pointless things. You've got to solve this on your own.'
She felt a hand pull the fabric behind her.
Turning around, her eyes faced the large screen of a handphone. Yui possessed one of the rarer older handphones without a holographic function.
'It happens that there is only Professor Moriyama's class today,' she replied with a smile. 'And she has approved our absence.' The email displayed on the screen wrote as 'Confirmed'.
Shirasaki's eyes widened behind the lens of her glasses.
'How did that happen?'
'I told her I was going with you to skip the lecture,' Yui answered the queries of the other person. 'Didn't you know you were magical? As long as it's you, I can skip my class as much as I like.'
It came to Shirasaki Miyuki that Professor Moriyama was yet another person with abnormalities in the mind similar to the girl standing before her. It was unexpected of a professor to approve the absence of someone for the reason of just being absent.
She continued her action of opening the sliding door.
'I'm going to take a bath now,' she informed the girl without turning behind to face her. 'You can talk to Archer if you're too bored.'
And she closed the door as soon as she had stepped out of the bedroom.
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At the nearby family restaurant in central Setagaya town, two girls were seated. The white haired servant belonging to Shirasaki had been told to keep watch at home.
It had been one hour since the arranged time but there was no sign of the person they were supposed to meet.
Shirasaki was staring at Yui who was looking outside the glass window.
'Didn't you say it was at ten?' She questioned the girl responsibility for contacting the person. 'It's already eleven.' She showed the holographic screen on her handphone which displayed the clock.
The main entrance of the restaurant swung open.
A somewhat tall person entered, moving to where the two girls were seated at.
Shirasaki looked at the approaching man. He had long hair and was wearing a fashionable shirt with jeans, complemented with a coat similar to that of hosts from Shinjuku.
She could forgive him for having a good dress sense.
As soon as she had thought so, the man zipped past their table, walking to one table where there was a lone woman there.
It was definitely not Yui's relative.
'Your relative is late,' she turned back to see Yui who was looking outside the window. Yui was focused on looking outside, ignoring what her friend had just said.
'Yui-aneki,' she heard a voice of addressing from the opposite side. Shirasaki turned around to see a relative average-looking boy in a senior high school uniform.
'Yui, this is your relative?' She turned back to question her.
A slam hit on the table. It wasn't good when someone stood up Yui for a long time. The girl stood up without opening her eyes.
She turned to open them facing the boy.
Pinching his ear, he tried to coax her to stop doing it.
'You dare to stood me up, eh???' The tone of Yui's voice had changed. It was not the lively version but more of the ferocious one.
'I'm sorry, aneki!' he addressed her in the most polite tone, calling her as his big sister. They were not siblings but he had was accustomed to calling her that way.
'Calm down, Yui,' Shirasaki stood up panickingly, passing her a glass of water on the table. There were two but Yui had half-drank hers. 'We can talk it out~!'
It took a while for Yui to release the grip on the boy before settling down.
As soon as he was seated next to her, the boy bowed to Shirasaki, extending his greetings. Apparently, he went by the name of Tsukamoto Kenshi.
He was of average built but he was apparently someone in the baseball team of his senior high school. His tone was a little soft and shaky too at times, which was not expected of a typically confident baseball player.
Nevertheless, he was a nice person to talk to. But the main aim suddenly struck Shirasaki reminding her of what she was here for.
'I heard you borrowed elevent thousand yen.'
'I'm really sorry, Shirasaki-sempai,' he bowed, pushing his palms against the table surface. 'Please give me some time.'
'Tsukamoto,' she interrupted for a while. 'Eleven thousand is not something that can be easily lended out.'
'How about telling us the reason for this loan?' Yui interjected, folding her arms while staring at the boy. Two senior girls were looking at one junior boy. It was not a good situation.
Kenshi stood up suddenly, startling both girls.
'I'm sorry!' He bowed a little. 'I need to go to the restroom.'
And he rushed off to the restroom.
'Seriously...' Yui cursed softly. 'At such a time.'
'Don't forget the bill is on you,' Shirasaki reminded Yui.
Yui was mumbling about something. When those mumbles reached Shirasaki's ears, it did tell her that something was up to no good.
'I have been a little low on my funds,' she tried to bring herself out of the situation.
That sentence was ignored. The brown-haired girl pressed the button for the bill.
'I'm off to the restroom as well,' she stood up. 'Good luck with the bill.'
As she left, she thought that was the most sarcastic thing she had ever told Yui. Shirasaki hated to be sarcastic but she had to act as one around an inconsistent person like her friend.
Slowly heading towards the restroom, she turned into the corner before she could reach it. The sound of the bustling family restaurant faded away as she moved further away from it.
Entering the restroom, she moved her hands onto the tap sensor allowing the water to flow out. Shirasaki took off her spectacles and splashed the water onto her face. She could relax for a while before she went back to see how Yui handled the bill.
Outside she could hear the faint sound of the door of the gents opening. In a moment, it closed behind, followed by the footsteps of someone walking away. It must have been that student Tsukamoto who had probably went to hide away in the loo for a while.
But no, it seemed that he was not headed for the restaurant.
He was headed for the back door.
That boy was really cunning, as Shirasaki thought. She moved towards the door, opening it only to find that the boy had left through the backdoor.
Twisting the knob of the backdoor, she opened it slightly, feeling the cold air outside enter the room.
As she peeked outside, she could see Kenshi standing there alone. He was at the other corner, which only showed part of his image.
'So how were the negotiations with your big sister?' A third voice sounded where the boy was at. Shirasaki crept out of the building, walking along the wall quietly. As she got closer to where Kenshi was, the view of a few delinquent-looking girls could be seen. Not only were they delinquents, they were dangerous enough to be so with wooden baseball bats held by them.
The boy kept silent, hanging his head low.
'As expected,' one of the girls with long hair swung her baseball bat, resting her hand on the hilt of it. 'Tsukamoto is pretty useless as usual.'
She grab up her baseball bat, preparing to attack him.
As her baseball bat was about to hit onto him, she felt a resistant force towards her baseball bat. Looking ahead, she saw that the boy was pushing his hand back on the weapon.
'Oh, you do have some resistant spirit in you, don't you?' She sneered, withdrawing back the bat.
'I said I'd find some way to get you the money!' He shouted awkwardly.
Money? As Shirasaki thought about what she had just heard. So that was all it was about. The student known as Tsukamoto needed such a huge sum to hide something.
It was probably time for her to confront him. If she could negotiate out with those girls, he could be free of this loan and could return her the money.
'Tsukamoto,' she called out to him which he turned around his head to see her. 'What's going on?'
'S-Sempai?!' He was surprised to see her. The long-haired girl, probably the leader of the gang of girls, rubbed her nose with one finger before looking away.
Shirasaki neverthless proceeded to stand in front of the boy.
'That money belongs to me,' she warned. 'I'm not going to let it slip away without knowing a reason.'
'It can't be helped,' the leader took out her handphone, revealing the pictures to her.
There were pictures of Kenshi in his underwear in a dark alley.
'He could make a model for some talent agency,' she flipped her handphone close. 'If he provides us with forty thousand yen, we will ignore this.'
'This is utter blackmail!'
'It doesn't matter. We're talking business here, sugar sister.'
'Who are you calling a sugar sister?'
'You're offended, I see,' the girl laughed at Shirasaki. It was not funny yet she was laughing away. 'Fine, four-eyes.'
It was a fact that she was wearing spectacles but that didn't warrant the other girl to call her four eyes.
The delinquent girl was still laughing away when she felt something hit her. As the thing which hit her dropped to the ground, it made a large thud on the hard ground. Looking down, it could be seen as a large stone pebble. It was hard enough but not serious enough to cause bleeding.
'Who the heck was that?!' She screeched, looking around.
There was no way it could be the two people in front of them. They did not even raise a finger.
'It's me, idiot Yanki,' a voice came from behind. From the corner of the wall, a familiar person emerged.
'Nice to see you again, both of you,' Yui smiled back. But as soon as she had smiled at them, she turned her face to look at the group of delinquents.
Her face twisted into a bad frown.
'I can't take it when someone insults others for no reason,' she got down to pick up another pebble, tossing it up and down with her hand. 'It bloody sucks even more when a hole has burnt in my pocket.'
Yui had probably paid the bill earlier. She was cursing despite saying that she would pay for the entire sum.
With another go, she threw the pebble, hitting it onto the forehead of the girl.
'You bitch!' She swung her baseball bat, preparing to lunge at Yui to whack her with it.
The railway tracks next to the family restaurant made a loud clanging sound. A train passed by rapidly, causing the sound of its metal wheels to impact with the rails, making the surroundings noisy.
With a deafening sound, Shirasaki could not foretell what was happening.
All she knew was that a shadow appeared before her very eyes.
As the train was far-off, she blinked her eyes to see what was happening. A man in a black shirt and pants, stood there holding the delinquent girl's baseball bat.
'Archer? What are you doing here?'
'W-what are you?!' The assailant took a few steps back.
He looked at her coldly with his grey eyes.
'Scram.'
'What?! I'm not going to be scared off by the likes of you!'
'Scram.'
He looked down at her like a towering structure.
The delinquent leader took a few more steps back, supported by her gang of girls.
'I'll let you off, Tsukamoto,' she cursed at the boy who was looking down. 'You'll get it from me soon!'
And the gang ran off.
Archer remained in that position, standing like a stone statue.
Kenshi crept against the wall.
'Tsukamoto,' Yui questioned. 'What's wrong with you?'
'I...I...' he stammered for a while, still staring at the figure dressed in black.
Archer turned around to look at him.
'I'll...take my leave now!' Kenshi cried out before running off.
'Wait!' Yui shouted out at him but it was to no avail. He was gone as soon as he had announced his departure. 'Darn that boy.'
'Let's go, Archer,' Shirasaki ordered her servant, ignoring Yui's curses.
'Understood.'
And soon the two of them were leaving Yui too.
'Wait! Why am I the one always left behind??' She soon left to follow them as well.
In one shadowed corner, someone was watching them unknowingly.
A lady in golden hair was observing them. As she smirked, she turned around to dematerialise into a spirit again.
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Night had fallen.
Shirasaki walked to her apartment door along the corridor. She had been called in the afternoon to fill in for the duty slot at her part time job.
Her manager was offering her a higher pay for that slot. No doubt she couldn't resist such an offer.
There was something very silent about the apartment block.
There were two figures standing outside her door.
One of them had white hair which was no doubt Archer.
The other person had a cigarette in its mouth, probably an unexpected visitor.
As the spectacled girl stopped in her tracks, the two figures looked in her direction.
The figure with the cigarette approached her, revealing herself to be the yellow-haired professor.
'Professor?!'
'Evening Shirasaki-san,' she took out the cigarette from her mouth and breathed out the smoke. 'There is an urgent matter here.'
'An urgent matter??'
'Come,' she turned around, inducing Shirasaki to follow her.
As the both of them approached the door, she could see a faint glowing glyph on her front apartment door.
'....'
'You can probably see it, Shirasaki-san,' Professor Moriyama spoke out.
'What is it doing there?'
'Someone placed a seal on the apartment door.'
As the professor touched her hand with the seal, it generated static electricity repelling her back.
'The seal is strong enough,' she explained. 'Since you live in this unit, you may be able to dispel it.'
'What seal can this be? Who would want to seal this place?'
'It's a test,' the professor took off her spectacles for a while.
'A test by other mages,' she continued. 'This is an ancient seal that was previously used by the Tohsaka line of magicians.'
The word Tohsaka seemed to have affected Archer as Shirasaki could sense it. As she turned around to look him, he was still remaining motionless.
She turned back, tensing herself up. She stretched out her hand slowly, approaching the seal. Static electricity emerged from it, dancing with her fingers.
It was no doubt painful. But it did not feel like static electricity. If it was so, she would have withdrawn her hand.
As the spectacled girl touched the seal, it broke into shattered pieces, moving in all directions and disappearing soon after.
'So that was true,' the professor muttered.
'You were testing me out?!' Shirasaki exclaimed at what the professor had just said.
'We don't have time for that now,' she swung open the door, revealing the darkness of the apartment's interior.
There was light at the other side, which it came from the balcony. As Shirasaki ran in, she could see a lone figure in the room.
The lone figure was holding a penchant in its hand. Without turning, it gave a soft chuckle.
'You're late, girl,' the figure replied, revealing itself to be a girl.
'Are you an enemy?'
'I can be one,' she responded, turning her hooded head to Shirasaki. 'I may be your ally as well.'
The figure turned to the balcony.
'I'll take back this important artifact,' the person replied.
'Wait! Who are you?'
'You'll know in time to come,' the figure responded. And she ran towards the balcony, jumping off it.
At the moment the figure had disappeared, the light was turned on.
Archer walked into the room, still as calm as ever.
Shirasaki turned behind to look at her servant.
'Why were you locked out?' She demanded a reply.
Her servant remained silent. As it seemed to her, he was defiant for now.
'I'm going to take a bath,' she stomped to her bedroom to get her bath towel. It was weird. Of all things, this was the craziest of all. And now, even though she had a so-called servant, he had failed to keep her house safe.
The strangest thing was that the apartment was kept neat and tidy though that figure had intruded. It appeared that this figure knew exactly where the penchant was kept.
That penchant she had saw was received from Professor Yaguchi, an enigmatic person who had supported her financially since she entered middle school.
Rubbing her head for a while, Shirasaki gathered her bathing equipment and expelled all weird thoughts from her mind.
As she closed the door behind her, Professor Moriyama stared at Archer who was looking at the piece of shikigami he had picked up after the battle with the same cloaked figure.
'Ryuudou-ji temple,' she read the words written on the shikigami.
'So you knew what was going to happen,' Archer replied to her, folding the shikigami and placing back into his pocket.
'That should be my line,' she folded her arms. 'You were rendered totally helpless when that figure invaded.'
'That figure has a mage circuit signature too familiar.'
'I see.'
Archer looked up to see the yellow-haired professor who was dressed in a large overcoat.
'That figure had a mage circuit similar to Shirasaki?' The professor questioned.
Archer closed his eyes, smirking.
'You're observant, Moriyama,' he replied to her non-politely.
'It's not being observant, Archer,' she retorted back. 'Your master has yet to realise it yet.'
'There is a seal preventing us from gaining the full potential.'
'That's right,' the professor answered. She took out another cigarette. 'And very soon, the seal on this giant garden will be lifted along with it.'
She lit the cigarette.
'Neverthless,' she puffed it out. 'You'll eventually have to remove your seal to allow you to function better.'
She turned towards the entrance.
'Tell your master that I'm leaving,' she ordered. 'It's time we started to train her up for the beginning of the worse to come.'
'Understood.'
Professor Moriyama smiled without turning to face Archer and closed the door behind her.
Archer thought about the words he had seen on the shikigami.
'Ryuudou-ji temple,' he mumbled. It was a familiar name he could remember as the weeks went by. The fragments of his memories were piecing themselves together.
Friend or foe, he knew he had to face them soon.
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At another part of Tokyo, there was a huge crimson splatter on the wall of an alley.
A dark creature with red eyes was licking its tongue off the crimson stains of the wall. As it finished its meal, which was provided by an innocent victim, it turned around to look at two people in the distance.
'My my,' the shorter figure shook her head. 'An undead creature is on the loose again.'
She clapped her hands in sarcasm, approaching the dark figure.
As the dark figure looked continuously at the undaunted girl, it growled and began to transform into a human shape.
'You're more powerful now I guess,' the girl responded. 'Since you've drank the blood of one with spiritual power.'
She pointed to the deceased victim, who was a monk.
The figure stretched out its hand, shaping it into a lance. As it hit the hard ground, it created a dent in it but the girl had jumped off.
In a flash, the other figure behind, swiped through the shadow's lance, cutting part of it off.
The weapon the other figure had used was a shiny thin silver sword.
The girl drew out a knife from her skirt.
'Now, would you rather die by the servant's hand?' She taunted.
One of her eyes glowed amber.
'Or would you put in a little more effort and die in honour by my own hands?'
The dark figure took a step back, its eyes glowing red. It was going to be a scene of bloodshed in this small narrow alley.
TO BE CONTINUED