Chapter Fourteen "Psychopath to Hero"

Clementine journeyed through the streets. The more she traveled the dirtier the streets became. The faint stench lingered on the air of garbage and other wastes. Most people would've felt disgusted and might have thrown up from the horrible smell that was become even stronger as she journeyed through the street. It was mild stench that caused her nose to wrinkled up, but otherwise not care about. She had faced worse. Way worse. The battlefield filled with dead and decaying bodies being one.

Poor districts tended to be a good place to hide people or just about any manner of items because the authorities tried to avoid the slums if possible as it smelled and was a dangerous place. It was also a good place to gather information as criminals and beggars tended to know a lot of things that was going on around any large population centers like towns and cities. Amongst many other things that poorer districts that only they provided.

"Should I go back?" Clementine wondered before she shook her head. She had time to kill. A lot of time. If she was to return to her master than it would likely result in more orders. Orders that she didn't want to obey as it constantly reminded her that while she was still alive, her continued existence had come with a significant cost. Her independence.

She continued walking through the narrow alleys. As Clementine forged silently ahead in the darkness, she saw a heavy steel door in front of her – about 15 meters away – suddenly creak to life as it opened, and light leaked out from within. Clementine stopped and watched silently.

Once the door had fully opened, someone poked their head out. The backlighting only allowed Clementine to see his silhouette, but the person was probably a man. Said man looked around, but he did not notice Clementine, and shrank back inside.

There was a thump as a large sack hit the ground outside. Illuminated by the light from inside, Clementine could see that the soft object inside had changed shape from the fall.

The door was still open, but the person throwing out the sack like so much garbage seemed to have gone back indoors, and there were no movements for a while.

Clementine frowned, debating over whether to move ahead or go in another direction. Sticking his nose into this would probably lead to trouble. After hesitating briefly, she continued her silent advance along the dark, narrow alley. Her shoes scraped along the ground, and she soon drew near the sack. Just as she was about to pass it, she stopped in his tracks.

Clementine felt something had caught onto her pants. Looking down, Clementine saw what the mouth of the sack sagged open. A slender arm, like a withered branch reached out from within the sack, grabbing onto the leg of his pants. The half-naked body of a woman appeared from within when the sack opened fully, exposing the woman's upper body.

Her blue eyes were dark, clouded over and empty of life. Her shoulder-length hair was messy, with split ends from malnutrition. Her face was swollen like a ball from beatings, and there were numerous pale red spots all over her dried-out, bark-like skin. She was a desiccated bag of bones, with hardly any vitality left in her. Her eyelids were so swollen that they were only separated by a thin slit. The cloudy pupils which seemed to be peering at the sky from within could not see anything at all.

Normally, the sight of someone in a similar condition to the woman before Clementine wouldn't cause even a single emotional response from her. She had seen some many people like her that she had become immune to it. Hell, she even got kicks out of it when she tortured individuals that she had to extract information from or had wronged her. There was no reason to feel any emotions from looking at the woman, but for some reason the woman reminded Clementine of herself. A time when she was very different individual. Long ago when she didn't possess the skills and experience that she now had. A Clementine that had been powerless to protect herself.

"Oi, what do you think you're doing?!" A low, brutish voice. A man appeared from behind the door. His arms and chest bulged with muscle. His scarred face clearly displayed his hostility, and he glared hatefully at Clementine. The lantern he was holding emitted a red light. "Oi oi oi, the fuck you looking at?" The man clicked his tongue with exaggerated deliberation, and then jerked his chin at Clementine. "Fuck right off. While you're still in one piece."

Seeing that Clementine remained still, the man took a step forward. The door slammed shut behind him with a ponderous thud. The man slowly placed the lantern by his feet with an intimidating swagger. He worked his shoulders and cracked his neck. Then he slowly raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist. He was clearly not afraid to use violence.

"Let's see who is underneath the hood and cloak!" The brute shouted as he pulled away the hooded cloak that Clementine had been wearing.

The anger that made the brute furious disappeared as the hooded cloak was wrenched away to reveal the identity of the individual that had pissed him off. A smirk grew on the brute's face. Greed glowing in his eyes as he inspected the woman standing before him. Any thoughts of hurting her when he began to lustfully look at her beautiful appearance and incredible hot body. She would make a perfect replacement to the trash that he had thrown out and make him a lot of money. On the side, he could get a lot of pleasure out of it too.

"What's... the smile for…?" The brute asked as he took several steps back he finally noticed the unnerving smile and predatory look that was being sent his way. "Uh… uh, uh, what're you…?"

Shaken by Clementine' smile, the man could not finish the words he was trying to form. He staggered back, without realizing how heavily he was panting.

Clementine smile continued to grow as she closed the gap to the man. The man could not even react to that movement. She moved so fast that she reappeared before the brute's eyes and Clementine to seized the man by the lapels, and then she easily lifted his body off the ground. Lifted up this heavyweight with one hand.

The brute, who had been lifted completely off the ground, flailed his legs and twisted his body. Then, when he thought to take Clementine' hand in both of his own, his eyes filled with fear as he realised something. He finally realised that the woman before him was nothing like what her appearance suggested. He also realised that pointless resistance would only serve to anger the monster before him.

"What are you doing?" Clementine asked in a very cold tone.

As the man began stiffening in fear, that cold voice bored its way into his ears. That voice was as clear and quiet as a softly-flowing brook, The sheer contrast with the hand that was easily lifting him up only heightened the man's fear. He was about to lie when the dangerous gleam he saw in the woman's eyes made him reconsider. It was obvious that he was in for a world of hurt, but he didn't sprout any lies. He knew what was coming for him and also the time of person that he was dealing with. He was dealing with someone that dealing out "justice" or out for vengeance. Lying only make him seem even more worthless as an individual, and considered as disposal. The truth might hurt, but it might save his life.

"She, she's a worker in our place," the man replied, his voice off-key from panic. The tightening of hand holding him up made him fanatically add, "The woman had become worthless because she was beat up by a customer. She was also not worth enough to be healed. So, I was taking her out."

"Tsk… I wanted you to lie to me and that would've given me a good excuse to have some fun." Clementine clicked her tongue in annoyance as the magical enforced servitude left very few loopholes to carry out her former past time of torturing and killing without a good reason, normally linked to carrying out her new role as unwilling hero.

The brute closed his eyes as prepared for the pain that was to come since he had annoyed his captor. No pain came. He sighed in relief. The relieve didn't last long as Clementine' grip intensified, and the man was briefly breathless. His eyes were wide in fear, trembling like those of a frightened little animal.

"Uggghhh!" The man struggled to breath.

"What do you mean, 'take out?' I hope it doesn't mean I thought it mean?!" Clementine said in a dangerously cold tone as she tightened her grip on the man, making it harder for him to breathe, and the man gave off a queer wail.

"I was going to leave her out here for the cleaners to dispose of her elsewhere. A dead human corpse wouldn't help the establishment if found on the brothel grounds would hurt our reputation. No one wants to see or smell a decaying corpse. Also, we didn't want diseases to spread because of it." The man hastily responded. "Aiiiieee!"

Clementine' grip grew even stronger, and the man's face flushed red as a cry leaked out of his throat. Her grip was relenting, and she glanced over to the badly injured and starved woman in the sack. It reminded her all too much of her own past. Painfully so. She felt phantom sensation as she could remember the pain all over her body and the bottomless hunger she had felt. It had been a chance encounter with a passing member with the Black Scripture that she and her brother had managed to escape the life of the woman in the sack.

"Please… stop…"

The man was having trouble breathing. He thrashed wildly as he realised the mortal danger he was in. Clementine casually blocked the fist headed at her face with one hand. The flailing legs hit Clementine body, but Clementine was as stoic as the mountains. The man was unable to breathe, and Clementine narrowed her eyes at the man's crimson face. She let go of the man just before he had passed out.

With a great thump, the man fell to the alley floor.

"G-guwaaargh!" The main expelled the last dregs of air within himself as a gasped cry, and then greedily drank in the fresh air in big gulps.

Clementine continued looking down on him in silence. She wanted nothing more to kill the man standing before her. Not as just revenge for the terrible condition that the woman was in, but also for the man reminding her of part of life she had wanted never to remember again. Her smile grew when she didn't felt the physical and mental pain she got for torturing or killing someone. It seemed her magic enforcing her servitude sensed that she was playing the role of hero and allowing her to carry out her favorite pastime.

"I will be taking her with me," said Clementine as she reached out for his throat again.

"W-wait… p-please, wait!" Having personally experienced the terrors of oxygen deprivation, the man scrambled away from Clementine' hand. "She belongs to us by law! If you step in, you'll be breaking the country's laws! And if you dare take her away, that'll be kidnapping!"

Clementine stopped herself from frustratingly sigh. She had put the man on the ropes. Making him fear that she would torture or kill him if he didn't answer her questions truthfully. The fact that her captive had seemingly grown a spine when the street that had once been completely empty of human life and began to fill up. He was likely expecting someone to come to his aid, be it a stranger or an ally. She turned her frustration into glee when it came to her that she might be able to let lose for the first time in weeks since her resurrection and enslavement.

The magic that enslaved her to her master had set conditions that she had discovered over the weeks. There were not so many conditions as she had initially feared. A few were self-explanatory for anyone slave owner. One that the slave wouldn't harm or disobey the master. Two, run away. Besides those two conditions most slaves were free to do anything they wished as the more complicated the slaving magic or magical item, the more expensive it became. She had discovered that additional conditions that she couldn't carrying out her favorite pastime, torturing and killing whoever she wished.

Now is the time. I am only protecting myself if anyone comes at me. Clementine thought in glee.

"I am not just a simple thug. I work for Eight Fingers," said the man in a smug tone. "Leave the girl and walk away. I will pretend nothing had happened and whoever you work for will not suffer the wrath of the Eight Fingers."

Clementine froze up. The man had played on her greatest possible weakness. While her master had said that she could take overt action when the situation called for it, that was only when she was scouting out the Royal Capital. Her master had been very clear that she was not to attract attention to herself, if possible. Drawing upon the attention of the Re-Estize Kingdom's most powerful and largest criminal organization was not something she wanted to do. Given that the Eight Fingers were said to control the Re-Estize Kingdom from the shadow, Clementine was willingly to bet that the Eight Fingers or using their connections with the authorities would lead to an investigation. In other words, doing so might lead to major and obvious repercussions, which her master would not smile upon.

Clementine froze up, the man began to crudely laugh at the opportunity that he had found. For the first time, Clementine' brow knitted in visible frustration as she took in the man's mirthful expression.

"I don't know who you serve, but won't you cause trouble for your master if things get blown up? And who knows, your master might have ties with our establishment. Not afraid of being scolded?"

The belittling didn't affect her. Clementine had been insulted in more humiliating ways and by masters of words. It was not the man or what the Eight Fingers could do that made Clementine pause to think. She, Clementine, was a former 9th Seat of the Black Scripture. Amongst the peak of human fighters. Beyond even adamantium-class adventurers unless they were specially equipped and devised special methods to fight her, even then they would have to be a group of them to have any chance of taking her down. She could probably take down a bulk of anything the Eight Fingers could throw at her. Clementine didn't fear what the Eight Fingers could do.

What had made her pause to think was her master. He was an incredible dangerous man. Someone that was not afraid of the Eight Fingers. No, it was the Eight Fingers that should be scared of him. He was no ordinary human, as he was God-kin. A descendant of the Six Great Gods. The one that had killed her easily without breaking a sweat. Resurrected and turned her into a slave. She feared feeling the wrath of her master, Shirou Emiya, if she ruined any of his plans.

…Wait a moment… Why would my master send me to scout out Re-Estize if he already had connections with the Eight Fingers? Clementine wondered and then a dangerous smirk grew on her face. "My master has no connections to the Eight Fingers. In fact, thinking about it… I think he would order me destroy the Eight Fingers."

That seemed to have gotten through to the man, and fear flashed across his face for a moment. However, he recovered his confidence almost immediately.

"...Why don't you give it a try, then?" The brute taunted with a smirk. His smirk disappeared as quickly as it had formed when he screamed in pain. "Aaarrrgggghh! Wat dis' ou do t'at fuh?"

Clementine didn't bother to waste any more time with the trash before her. She delivered a blow to the throat to crush the man windpipe as she didn't want to him talk anymore. Dropping the brute like the unworthy trash he was, Clementine grinned as the man blinked in confusion and reached for his throat, even as he gasped for breath. It was at the last few moments that the man realized what was happening and fanatically looked around for help as the light of his eyes started to fade away.

"Anyone else have anything to say?" Clementine asked to the growing street of onlookers as she looked around with a murderous look. "Disappear immediate!"

The crowd of onlookers quickly scurried away in fear. It wasn't just the murderous look and aura that Clementine unleashed that scared the onlookers. The fact that Clementine had carried out a killing without any remorse and difficulty was what scared them. The onlookers knew that she could easily kill them if they gave Clementine one single reason to.

Clementine cradled the woman's head. All he could hear was the sound of faint breathing. It was worse than she thought. The woman's condition wasn't the problem. Even while she was in a terribly beat up state, that wasn't what was dangerous about her condition. It was her mental state. She was on the very verge of giving up. Giving up her life and embracing the silence of death.

"Do not be afraid. Rest. You are under my protection now." Clementine said in kind and sympathetic tone.

Faintly. The girl's lips moved faintly. It was not the natural movement of breathing. It was a willed, conscious action. She spoke a few words. Words that clearly seemed beyond her, but somehow she was able to make it. The words spoken were so quiet that if Clementine hadn't had the training to strengthen her hearing to superhuman levels than she wouldn't have heard the words. Clementine upon hearing the words gave a big nod. The girl closed her clouded eyes, as though wrapped in a warm shroud of compassion.

"I hope, Master forgives me for not completing the task he gave me when I bring someone in need of help back." Clementine whispered as she picked up the girl and strode forth.

- O -

"Welcome back…" Shirou became surprised when he saw Clementine enter the room. "Clementine, what is this?"

"I picked her up." Clementine replied while struggling to hide the smile that was forming. I always thought Shirou knew what was going on, but it seems like that truly isn't the case.

Clementine saw that Shirou had an emotionless look, but she had become to know him enough that even while seemingly unreadable what might be running through his mind. He was probably wondering why he had brought someone back. After all, Shirou had also come to have a good read about her personality. Never in the time after Shirou had resurrected and enslaved Clementine that had she brought someone to their home.

"Why is this woman injured and did you bring her?" Shirou asked as narrowed his eyes looking at Clementine.

"Did you think I have no heart, Master? That I would never help a person in need?" Clementine asked.

"I know your type very well. You are psychopath whose emotions had become numbed to what you have done and witnessed. You are after all a woman that enjoys torturing and killing people amongst other things. It is hard to believe…" Shirou responded than a creepy smile that unnerved Clementine formed. "I see… This woman reminds you or yourself. That is why someone who normally wouldn't shed a tear become emotionally responsive."

"Get out of my head!" Clementine snarled as she realized that her master was reading her mind.

"I don't trust you nor have you proven loyal to the point that I will not sleep with my eyes closed. You want me to kill me in a slow and agonizing manner for enslaving you." Shirou replied in a not-so-amused tone.

"Could you start by healing her wounds?" Clementine asked as she gave up from trying to confront her master. Past experiences told her that she could never win, not until she found something to negate the slaving magic cast upon her.

"Healing…" Shirou looked at the girl that Clementine had brought in. "You could have brought her to the temple for healing."

"I thought you liked being a hero? So help her." Clementine replied in amused tone.

"You could've used a healing…" Shirou spoke until he realized that couldn't be the case.

"I would have a healing potion, several if you didn't force me to walk around like this?!" Clementine growled as she tore off her hooded cloak from her body.

Shirou could only smirk at the furious look that Clementine was sporting. Shirou was willingly to bet that Clementine thought she had been resurrected and enslaved because he got the kicks out of it. That wasn't true. In fact, it was because it had been a necessary decision. Clementine didn't deserve to live. She had tortured and killed countless people for her personal enjoyment. A murderer that deserved to be put down. The only reason why she wasn't dead was because he needed her. Both her knowledge of the New World and her abilities.

That didn't mean Shirou left Clementine unpunished for the unjustified killings that Clementine had made over her life. He was smirking because it was evident that his plan was working. He wasn't the type to use torture as method of punishment. Torture was only a method he would employ if he had to extract information from someone in a timely fashion normally to save human lives. That didn't mean he was against other methods of punishment. Humiliation tended to very effective, if not more on individuals like Clementine, who were extremely proudful.

"I have been hearing your name spread like wildfire. Clementine 'the Flasher.' I wonder how long it would take to become Nudist?" Shirou asked with a growing smirk.

Clementine went pale. She nervously swallowed as she got what her master was implying. That he would force her to expose the rest of her body if she disobeyed and angered him. If she had thought that she was immune to being coerced against her will then she had been horribly wrong. Physical methods such as torture was useless against her as she had trained to against it. Any weaknesses that could be exploited against her either eliminated by her own hand or through others. How her master had figured out public humiliation and harming her reputation against her was beyond her.

"Anyway, perform an examination. I want to know what sort of injuries that the girl has."

Clementine nodded silently by way of reply. She gingerly laid the girl down upon the clean sheets of the bed within. Carefully stripping the girl of the cloth which covered her, revealing a bruised and battered body. That ghastly sight should have made for difficult viewing, but Clementine's expression hardened.

In silence, Shirou watched as Clementine inspected the girl.

"What is your diagnosis?" Shirou asked.

"Several of her ribs and fingers are broken. The tendons on her right arm and left leg have been severed. Her upper and lower incisors have been pulled out. There are countless traces of contusions and lacerations." Clementine replied as she finished conducting the physical examination.

The degree of accuracy of Clementine's assessment was outstanding. For a moment, Shirou thought he was getting a medical report from a trained medical practitioner. It was likely she had used her own experiences of past injuries to assess the physical state of the girl that Clementine had brought.

"Here, use this," said Shirou as he threw a very small book at Clementine.

Clementine caught the book and looked into it to see that it was blank. She was about to ask why she had been given a blank book when her instincts told her that there was more to it than the eye could see. Instincts that had saved Clementine countless times and unraveled mysteries that she would have been unable to solve. Her instincts told her to inject ki into the book. She proved her instincts correct when ink filled the once blank pages with words and pictures.

"This is…" Clementine said in awe as she read the title of the book. "Where did you get this? Do you know how rare this is?"

She was held in disbelief at what she was holding. What she was holding was an incredible rare and highly sought after book by mages. Every within the wealthy and influential Slane Theocracy were the book she held in her hands rare. A book that could be thought as a strategic resource in certain cases. Normally kept in secured vaults and under heavy guard, they were magic tomes that contained just about every arcane knowledge that a mage needed and would need to know. A magic tome that was entrusted to the ownership of single individuals that had both the power and need to employ such large stores of arcane knowledge such as mages of the Black Scripture.

"You are going to use it," said Shirou.

"Use it? You want me to use the Arcane Tome. A magic tome that most mages would die to get their hands on." Clementine asked in incredulous tone.

"You will use it as this is going to become a mage under my tutelage. Your first steps as a mage will be to heal the girl." Shirou replied.

"A mage? You want me to become a mage? That takes years of diligent training." Clementine asked suspiciously.

"Think of it as using training wheels as you learn to use a bicycle. It is an aid that will help you develop the necessary traits needed to ride a bicycle." Shirou explained.

"Training wheel? Bicycle? What are those?" Clementine asked in confusion.

"They are…" Shirou sighed as he remembered that the New World likely didn't have bicycles. "Never mind. What I meant was think the Arcane Tome as a training tool. An incredibly thick training tool."

What are you planning? Clementine thought as she looked suspiciously at her master. She was wondering why her master wanted to train her as a mage. From what she knew so far it wasn't a magical item that was being used to enslave her, but magic. Any slave master knew that slave would seek revenge on their master and tried everything to prevent that. The simplest method being keeping their slave unaware how to free themselves from the slaving magic or magic item used on slaves. Yet, her master was putting himself at risk since she might be able to free herself if she was trained to become a mage.

She shrugged. Whatever reason that her master was planning to do by teaching her use magic, it wasn't like there was anything she could do. The only thing she could best do was to stay alive. Clementine would instead use this opportunity to learn what she could of magic to one day allow herself to free herself.

"What do I do? How do I heal the girl with the Arcane Tome?" Clementine asked.

Shirou smiled. Clementine would be the first of his grand project to see of his experiment would succeed or fail. A project to see if he could utilize his magecraft from Earth and YGGDRASIL avatars abilities. What neither Shirou or Clementine would know was that what they did with the healing of the girl would be the first steps to revolutionize the New World and leave their mark on history.

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