The scent of blood hit harder than anything else Nanoha could ever describe, and she hadn't even entered the plane yet. With her weapon, she'd shot off the plane's wheels, causing the large mass of steel to grate along the ground until it had come to a stop. The cement of the runway had cracked and formed a crevice due to the speed of the plane's prior run off and fall. The ground was littered with small pieces of cracked rocks and debris while smoke wafted into the air from the nose of the plane.
After the scent of blood, panicked screams hit next, and suddenly Nanoha was stating to feel sick. Was this all her fault? In a way, she understood that it was. A plane was a confined space, and she'd been unable to stop the people from filling into it in their panic. The airport was the safest alternative. It was wider, and at the very least, people could run unlike the interior of a passenger flight.
Guilt flickered across Nanoha's face, her lips pulling down into a worried frown, but her strides never slowed. Regrets could wait. There were lives worth saving, yet when the screams died out, and all that was left was the silence of the runway and the clicking of her shoes over the ground, anxiety began to hit.
"Not good," Shirou muttered grimly, his feet picking up speed and pushing him forward faster.
What did he mean 'not good?'
Nanoha bit the bottom of her lip, but hardened her resolve as a veteran of the TSAB. This wasn't her first time dealing with events way over her head, but admittedly, this was the first time where she couldn't foresee any sort of happy ending that she could fight for. For her, it had always been about preventing 'action A' to stop 'action B' which would kill a lot of people as was the case with the Jewel Seeds.
The current predicament was entirely different.
All that she could truly fight for was to save those that remained. Like it or not, this wasn't a situation where she could save everyone, and it pulled on her conscience. She quickened her pace while following after Shirou, not speaking a word in order to focus on what was ahead of her. In a way, perhaps it was a mistake.
Light banter and a quick back and forth may have mitigated the impact of seeing the interior of the plane. It was a nightmare.
Pieces of flesh and whole limbs were scattered across the inner chamber. Passengers had clawed at the windows in a bid to escape the ghouls that had appeared mid-take off, but to no avail. Plane windows weren't made of ordinary glass in order to endure atmospheric pressures. There was no getting out, and people had died trying. Pieces of broken nails and smeared blood stains were scabbed over multiple scratched windows.
Nanoha was horrified, but more than that, she was enraged when a pair of lifeless eyes belonging to a woman stared at her as if in a bid for help, and she couldn't do anything. The woman was sprawled on the ground, missing both of her legs and a portion of her waist. It was a miracle that she was still alive, but in no way was it a mercy.
The sick tearing sound of flesh being ripped from the sinew of one's bones nearly caused Nanoha to wretch even as the woman raised a mangled arm forward. For a moment, Nanoha had thought the woman was pleading for help, and yet it was a different sort of help.
Nanoha's face quickly whitened.
"Shirou, NO!" Nanoha yelled in a panic as Shirou killed the ghoul and promptly cut off the woman's head so that she wouldn't turn into a ghoul later.
Nanoha's mind blanked. She should have felt angry, infuriated at Shirou lack of regard, but she couldn't bring any such emotion to the surface. Not when the last thing the woman did was smile as Shirou's sword neared her neck.
"S-Shirou you…" Nanoha's words die in her throat. She opens her mouth, but only her lips move without uttering a sound.
Nanoha had wanted to chastise Shirou out of impulse, but had faltered in the face of the wry cynicism he was wearing. It was almost akin to a sort of growing acceptance.
'You can't save everyone.'
Nanoha could almost image what Shirou was thinking, and although Shirou acted like his actions did not affect him, he was not doing a stellar job of hiding the trembling of his hands. Slowly, steadily, Shirou must have been growing disillusioned. Uncaring as Shirou portrayed himself to be when handling a job, it was probably a coping mechanism of sorts. In a way, Nanoha could relate to what Shirou was feeling because she herself was no better.
She'd wanted to save everyone, but in the end, it was with her own hands that she'd be killing them. What else could she do other than seal her morals away in order to save the people before her? Shirou was no different.
Before she could stop herself, or even think about what she was saying, the words already escaped her mouth. "It's not your fault," she says as Shirou snaps his gaze up to her.
"What did you say?" Shirou asks softly.
Nanoha swallowed. She had not intended on saying what she did, but seeing the flicker of indecision appear over Shirou's carefully steeled features prompted her to continue.
"Whether or not what you're doing is wrong or right, you can't blame yourself for failing to save someone while already trying your best," Nanoha did not know if she was saying this for her own benefit, but her words weren't wrong either. "It's not your fault for killing that woman. Even if you didn't help her in time, it doesn't mean that we can't save everyone. In a way, you still saved that woman," Nanoha grudgingly admitted.
"In the end, it's not wrong to try and save as many as we can," Nanoha concluded.
Shirou grunted in response. "You think I didn't know that?" Shirou sighed before turning away,
Of course, Nanoha felt like Shirou already knew something so simple. However, hearing that he wasn't wrong from another person was different from trying to convince himself that the path he was walking was correct.
"Get ready," Shirou warned.
Nanoha nodded and willed Raising Heart into her hands. Magical energy swelled from within her and funneled towards her preferred weapon. It was with an almost silent understanding that the two decided that Shirou would act as the vanguard with his swords while Nanoha provided cover fire. Raising Heart was large, and Nanoha's ability to swing unhindered within a plane was limited.
The two were currently in the closed off business section of the plane which was scarcely occupied. It was likely, that when the ghouls had shown up in the plane, they'd forced everyone to run towards the passenger class cabins.
Shirou moved towards the dividing door of the plane. With one hand, he tried to swing it open, but paused as he felt resistance on the other side. Based on conjecture alone, he theorized that the door was barred or blocked by something, possibly to keep the ghoul that was in the business cabin from entering. It was clearly a mistake because the ghoul that appeared in the business area was likely just the fastest to turn undead.
With grim expectations in his thoughts, Shirou nodded to Nanoha who readied a short burst of magical energy at the tip of her weapon which she leveled at the door. A second later, and an explosion echoed out as Nanoha blasted the door off its hinges to reveal the passenger cabin.
Like the business area, the passenger cabin was bloodied and strewn with corpses gradually turning into ghouls. However, life still existed.
There were people at the far end of the plane. They'd made a hasty barricade out of luggage from the overhead storage capsules above the two walkway isles. There were a good hundred of them huddled together and shaking, and the several dozen ghouls on board where making quick work of the luggage. The panicked yells, had fell into silent resignation at the sight. This all changed the moment Shirou and Nanoha were spotted.
"Help! T-These bastard brought infected on board!"
"B-But that was my daughter," a whimpering voice called out miserably.
"SHUT UP!"
"It's all your Goddamned fault! It wasn't just your kid who came on board! My son is dead because of you! Why are you even alive!? It's not fair!"
The people began to bicker, but the grief in all their eyes could be seen. They were simply using anger as an outlet, and neither Shirou or Nanoha held them accountable for what they were saying.
To Shirou and Nanoha, what mattered right now was how to go about solving the situation. The ghouls were easy and confined to a narrow place. Nanoha was already shooting them down, but Shirou was thinking differently.
This wasn't going to work. Shirou's eyes darted back and forth, observing the ghouls Nanoha was shooting down while taking note of the injuries on the remaining civilians. It was impossible for him to tell who was infected from whom, and if this problem wasn't sorted, then everything would revert to square one.
There had to be a way. A sure method.
In the midst of Nanoha's cover fire, Shirou shut his eyes and reached from deep within himself. His fingers twitched, patterns of circuit-like magical energy glowing brightly over his skin and drawing a portion of Nanoha's attention.
Shirou ignored what Nanoha was thinking. He'd been stared at by other Magi he'd worked with before who had attempted to dissect the nature of his magecraft. Doing so wouldn't be easy, and he didn't think Nanoha the sort to prioritize scrutinizing him over saving lives.
Think. Think.
That sole word was the only thought in Shirou's mind. Based on the nature of his craft, there would never be a situation where he could be rendered unprepared. If there ever was, that just meant that he wasn't trying hard enough. If he couldn't find a solution to the current problem as he was now, then he just had to imagine something that can.
In essence, this was the truest sense of Shirou Emiya's greatest ability.
"Trace. On."
A thrum of power swelled from around him, creating arms of electric currents that branched outwards and formed sparks as they hit the plane's metal interior. Nanoha was forced back a few steps, Raising Heart held in a defensive grip as a tendril nearly singed her brows. Her mouth opened in shock and disbelief. It was a type of magic Nanoha had never seen nor was she accustomed to.
Surely if it was now, he could pull this off.
Since a few hours prior, Shirou had felt unnaturally saturated with magical energy despite the relatively moderate reserves that he was accustomed towards. A lucky break? A moment's miracle? He didn't know nor did he care, just that the abundance of energy would let him use what he needed.
A weapon not made for the express purpose of harm or violence, yet one that had once held the fate of a nation.
What determines right from wrong? Good from evil? The factors considered were always weighed upon over a scale of one's own moral integrity. For every person, the choice would differ. Therefore, the real question was who got to decide?
In the end, humans themselves were not worthy of such a choice. Instead it had fallen upon a single blade.
Light began to shine brightly, everyone within the interior of the plane's cabin, forced to shield their eyes. It was not a searing sort of light, nor one filled with heat, but it gave the feeling of security and righteousness.
The light itself glittered like specs of refracting droplets.
The sensation she was basked in was hard for even Nanoha to describe, yet she was certain of one thing, the sword that had formed in Shirou's hands was not normal.
A golden hilt, and a clear surface etched with the ancient words of a weapon not made solely by human hands. It was the work of a lost civilization, they who had left the mortal plain and entered the layer of the Reverse Side: The Fae. Magic essence itself exuded from every inch of the sword's make.
If Nanoha could hazard a guess about the sword's origin, to her, it could have had only come from one place. 'A lost sword of ancient Belka!' she screamed inwardly. She'd thought it before, but what sort of Exceptional Human was Shirou to possess so many types of Lost Logia?
The TSAB would need to know of this revolutionary discovery. If Shirou had access to as many Lost Logia as Nanoha was speculating, then what would that mean if any of the TSAB's enemies ever got a hold of him? No! He had to be protected. If he refused to come to the TSAB, she'd detain him for his own safety. He had no idea of the dangers he would face.
Ignorant of what the resolved expression on Nanoha's face meant, Shirou focused on the task ahead of him.
His hands gripped tightly upon the hilt of a certain sword he'd recalled from memory, as he invoked its properties.
Worthy or not worthy.
Shirou wasn't the original wielder of his current weapon, but even still, the sword did not reject him. For in this instance, past and present combined as one through the nature of his craft. His disposition changed much to Nanoha's astonishment. His bearings, his expression, his posture, it all looked so regal; so just to the point that it seemed like all evil that stood before him was bound to be judged.
Light of selection.
A ringing noise echoed in Nanoha's ears, and grew by the second as the air began to glimmer and glow. It didn't matter if the light engulfed the ghouls or the people cowering at the far side of the plane. All was illuminated.
Cleaver of the wicked.
The ringing stopped, replaced instead with a tranquil silence before the sword was swung and unleashed the power of its legend.
"Caliburn!"
The Sword of Choosing.
A beam shot forth, fractures forming over Caliburn's edge as Shirou flooded it with magical energy and broke the sword to increase Caliburn's effectiveness. Ordinarily, Caliburn shot of a laser-like attack that used heat values to decimate all in its path, but when broken, the conceptual properties of Caliburn reached their peak.
As the sword that determined the worthiness of a King to lead the land, it had the ability to select what was evil and vanquish it in its light.
The smell of burnt ash wafted up Nanoha's nose as she looked on bewildered at several people that she was sure she'd seen hit with Shirou's attack standing perfectly fine. Such potent magical power should not have been able to differentiate between friend and foe, but it somehow had. In comparison, the ghouls had turned to dust drifting in the wind.
Nanoha just couldn't believe it. The situation ended at the swing of a sword, and for Shirou's part, he was just relieved that he'd had enough reserves to pull of a Noble Phantasm after Caladbolg's misfire.
Unfortunately, after the ghouls were dealt with came the tricky part.
Not only were all the ghouls defeated, but those infected in the crowd had also been incinerated, meaning that all that were left were people who were saved. Well, could be saved.
"It alright," Nanoha said reassuringly. "Everything's safe now."
Nanoha began walking forward, but Shirou did not quite join her. Instead, his eyes darted outside the window towards a place he knew the rest of his fellow magi were waiting. He knew that he'd taken longer than necessary, and that meant it was almost guaranteed that someone would be sent to check up on him.
Shirou's expression darkened. He knew the policy regarding those who learned of magic by accident or otherwise.
Death was the simple fix, and it was what was expected of him to do.
It was what his fellow magi would do without question over the hassle of memory magecraft.
As Nanoha continued moving towards the frightened people, Shirou continued looking for any sign of his colleagues. Things would get bad quickly if they discovered what was going on.
Shirou was just thankful that for a magus, Nanoha seemed pretty loose with the notion of secrecy. He'd tried to get a read on her by going through the history of Raising Heart, but because of Raising Heart's sniping component, categorizing it as a gun, the notion was difficult. What he knew of Nanoha now was only bits and pieces made worse, as Raising Heart was not the original. It was a re-forged weapon so its history was far from long. All that he knew from Nanoha was that she had a peculiar form of magecraft, and just like him, she'd started off ignorant to the Moonlit World before some sort of event had forced her involvement.
Fortunately, she seemed to possess a humane moral code comparable to his own.
"It's alright. Everything's fine," Nanoha said again in the tense atmosphere.
Shirou kept his silence, but 'everything's fine,' was not the way he'd describe the situation.
Shirou's eyes abruptly narrowed. He saw a figure.
From the looks of things, no; everything wasn't fine.
From the side of a plane, an ear deafening crash alerted Shirou and Nanoha to an individual who'd blasted his way into the plane.
Smoke wafted out from a custom shotgun as a man with unfeeling green irises narrowed his gaze while observing the situation within the plane. The scars that ran over the brow of the man's left eye and the right side of his mouth and chin, creased with a sigh. The barrel of the shotgun was aimed at the surviving people which quickly put Nanoha on edge. However, the prosthetic hand holding onto the grip of the shotgun slackened before the weapon was put away.
Different from Nanoha who was staring at the man warily, Shirou's relief was evident on his face.
"You're damn lucky it's me, Emiya," the man said curtly as a man of few words. "Same as last time, then?"
"Same as last time." Shirou nodded as the tension left his body.
Nanoha just stared back and forth between the two.
Allen Miller scratched at his messy blond hair and slumped his shoulders. He couldn't help but think that he should have made better friends, but it wasn't everyday that he met someone with similar ideals.
If a person could be saved, then there was nothing wrong in helping. In this sense, Allen and Shirou had quickly gotten along as individuals aware of the supernatural.
Allen stared at Nanoha for a moment before seeming to come to his own conclusions.
"Let's go. There's not much time before the others come."
Allen led everyone away including Nanoha while Shirou went and reported to his fellow magi that the situation had been dealt with.
Hours later, and after the magi had left, Shirou arrived to what amounted to an underground bunker that was the size of a small facility. There was a story to how it was acquired by Allen, but it was a tale for another time. What mattered was that the facility was being used to house dozens of people who were meant to be killed after discovering the existence of magic.
What Shirou was doing was heresy in the eyes of the Mages Association, but he could never bring himself to kill the innocent unless forced. This fact was still true to him.
He was walking on a tightrope with the Association, and one mistake could land him with a lot of attention. He was already being scrutinized by his peers and this was after Rin hid the topic of him possessing a Reality Marble. His situation was precarious, his actions punishable by death, and yet he still followed through with them.
Shirou shook his head. This wasn't the time to think about 'what if's.'
Inside the underground facility, Shirou noticed Allen staring down an appalled Nanoha.
"What do you mean these people will be killed if they leave?!" Nanoha screamed at Allen's face. No, Nanoha appeared too composed to be screaming. It was more akin to raising one's voice just enough to convey outrage.
She'd grabbed the scruff of Allen's collar and pulled him down to her level in order to demand an explanation. Allen grimaced in discomfort, and stared at Nanoha in confusion.
Nanoha was weird for a magus if she didn't yet know the Mage Association's secrecy policy. She could have been sheltered, but even Shirou had known and he'd been a recluse to the moonlit society.
Not wishing to waste any words on Nanoha who he felt was pulling his leg, Allen freed himself from Nanoha's grip and turned his attention to Shirou. "Deal with her," he said flatly before excusing himself to stand behind Shirou.
Allen was not a real magus. He was a man of science who was aware and had survived through numerous encounters with magecraft. If Nanoha wished for explanations about how magi went about their business, Shirou was the better choice.
Scratching the back of his head, Shirou took a step back when he noticed Nanoha's glare train on him for answers.
"It's protocol," Shirou said reluctantly.
"Protocol- Protocol?" Nanoha couldn't believe what she was hearing, but just looking at the unwillingness in Shirou's eyes, it was clear that he wasn't lying. "Why?" She stressed.
"They saw magic."
Almost as soon as Shirou answered, he knew what Nanoha thought of his reply.
"For such a stupid reason!" Nanoha had to shut her mouth and forcibly quell the anger building within her. The TSAB also had the same policy on magic. They'd warned her about not showing magic to the common population on earth, but this was the first she'd heard of a killing policy.
"This is ridiculous," Nanoha vented by speaking her mind. "Besides, who is supposed to kill them anyway? Does the world have some sort of secret organization meant solely for that purpose?"
Shirou refrained from speaking out a 'Yes,' in this moment. Nanoha wouldn't appreciate it, as from his perspective, she must have been a highly sheltered magus.
Unfortunately, Shirou's silence was still enough of an answer.
"Fine then, I'll take them from your hands." Nanoha said stoically much to Allen's relief.
Truth be told, the recent number of people Shirou had saved was running the underground facility over capacity. There simply wasn't enough room to house any more people before Allen would be forced to start kicking others out to fend for themselves.
"Where are you taking them?" Allen asked as he felt the need arise for it. "I'd recommend a desert setting or an abandoned island not found on the maps. It would be safer," he spoke from experience.
Nanoha had other plans however. Right before Shirou and Allen's eyes, she pressed her index and middle finger to her right ear and activated a magic circle which she talked into. "Requesting mass transport," she said.
Shirou furrowed his brows while staring at Nanoha. A long-distance communication spell? Yet, who exactly was she contacting?
The answer came after Nanoha began patiently calling everyone in the facility to form into a single group. Around two-hundred individuals including family members and friends huddled together in a small circle before something strange occurred.
A strong smell entered Shirou's nose, alerting him to a large influx of magical energy building up over head. "What are you doing?" He questioned Nanoha sharply, but it appeared as if she didn't hear him over coordinating with whomever she was speaking to with her magecraft.
The air began to shimmer and distort, the people growing nervous, but constantly assured by Nanoha not to worry.
In his mind, Shirou locked the hammer of a mental gun in place as he readied a certain Rule Breaker into deployment if Nanoha planned anything malicious.
And then it happened.
A radiant pillar of light manifested for only an instant before the underground facility became eerily empty.
Alarmed, Shirou moved towards Nanoha to question her by force if he had to about the people's whereabout. However, it was then that he noticed that Nanoha was staring right at him with an expression of utter astonishment.
Shirou looked down at himself and soon noticed a small spot on the back of his right hand was shining brightly. It possessed a sapphire glow, and now that Shirou focused on it, he felt the sheer amount of magical energy stored within and balked. Whatever Nanoha had done, the magical energy used for the transportation spell had reacted with something that had burrowed inside him.
"T-The Jewel Seed," Nanoha stuttered.
The what? Was all Shirou could think of before his vision blurred and he found himself in a place a long long ways away from home.
Thanks for reading!
P a treon. com (slash) Parcasious
Next update: Fate In time
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Milestone Announcement: My first book has been published on Amazon's Kindle website! It's called 'Fated Legacy: Dark' (Author Name: Parcasious Grace)
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Summary of book:
Death. Grief. Ruin. Nothing was left unchanged after an unexplained tragedy led to the loss of millions across the world in key locations. Cities were reduced to wastelands of steel and concrete, and many were forced into migration. When events leading to the prior tragedy occur once more, Kevin Black was going to have to learn that sometimes mysteries were better left unsolved. Trapped with his friends in the world of a ruined city filled with monsters, the journey out would be far more perilous than the journey in.