Situational Gravitas

by MaskedEngineer

William Brown, a depressive prick of a human being who has trudged through life unfulfilled and lacking purpose, unwittingly gets embroiled into the Fifth Holy Grail War as the eighth Master. With forces beyond his understanding at bay, he has no choice but to fight... but when the reward is a wish to grant him what he desires most, no struggle is too great. Oh, they will see...

2. Going Down Under I

A/N: Greetings again, this is yours truly here.

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting this fic to receive such warm reception, given how it is my first outing to Fate and that I'm worried I might get some stuff wrong. But nevertheless, I am quite pleased to see the rave reviews, since they give me more incentive to write.

But that's all I have to say. Please, enjoy the chapter. Also, now you see why there's a 'crossover element' tag. Also, be sure to leave a review so that I may improve on my next chapter.

-0-

Chapter 2: Going Down Under I

"That presence…" Said a feminine voice, clicking her tongue as her contralto accentuates her sheer disappointment from having lost the chance to have a proper talk to the man of her dreams. "It disappeared. What a shame…" But it matters not, as she has already remembered his face.

As the figure stood back up and wrapped herself in the red cloth again. Walking along the choking darkness of her personal quarters as firmly as if there is light illuminating her way, the figure stops at one painting that rests on the walls at the end of a hallway leading down a set of stairs.

The painting, unlike everything else in its vicinity, was relatively well-maintained and clean, thus providing a stark contrast to the unnerving, haunting gloom that the rest of the room exudes. It depicted, amongst other things, a relatively high-class family consisting of an older gentleman with brown hair dressed in a dapper suit and tie with a prim woman, presumably his wife by his side in a modest gown that still manages to give her a regal look. It is only further highlighted by her immaculate bun of golden hair.

The shadowed figure gazed at the painting longingly, before bringing up her finger and tracing over the form of the man with her fingernails, perfectly manicured and sharpened to the point of cutting open tiny crevices in the long-dried paint. "Even long after you died…your presence lingers on in this realm as your descendant. Even as your body rots away in an unmarked coffin…you will not let me find peace." She whispers to the painting in a low voice, her husky breath descending over the man's face in the painting as more and more cracked paint gets under her nails.

Only a year ago, she was seeking for the last link binding the soul and will of the man she detested to this mortal realm, wishing to cut it off with extreme prejudice and free herself from this torturous hate powering her being to go on. And now, her wish has been granted. A week ago, she received visions, no doubt because of the particular nature of this new body of hers signaling some sort of spiritual awakening in his descendant. She was disgusted by the mere notion of it, but on the other hand…it brings her one step closer to getting rid of the bloodline that has damned her.

Not to mention, this vision has been the clearest one she has had yet. Her inquisitive gaze noticed everything: his plain looks, that tacky white coat, that messy living space of his and most importantly, that recognizable chestnut brown hair.

Removing her hand from the painting, the mysterious dame turned her back towards it. Cleaning the multicolored dust accumulating under her fingernails, she glanced at the well-dressed man again. "This is fate, it seems…" Resting a palm on her face while bathed in moonlight from a nearby window, the pale figure's eyes were illuminated and shown in clearer detail. Her sclerae were as black as coal, giving them an inhuman quality, while her pupils were as red as fresh blood, dripping from the severed throats of anyone who dared cross her. There were many feelings clashing against each other in her gaze, making determining what she was feeling almost impossible. However, there is one feeling, a fire that blazes in her pupils, its heat threatening to consume everyone…and herself should she ever let it control her too much.

And that fire was vengeance. "But it is a fate that I will free myself from. A string that I will sever with unmitigated pleasure. I shall slain the last heir, and the last link of him in this world will be gone, forever." As she delivers her soliloquy, her body's pallor of undeath suddenly begins to emanate a strange air. It wasn't an aura that brings absolute terror like a crushing, unrelenting force, but rather, it was more of an understated creeping sense of dread that crawls up your spine and burrows into your soul until even the simplest notion of it could send you running for the hills.

As every second passes, this air only grows more and more oppressive, not unlike if every molecule in the atmosphere has been replaced with pure lead. Flashes of violet, reminiscent of sparks, appeared around her body as the figure remained static, not moving nor emoting to any considerable degree. Before long, the flashes grew into full-blown conflagrations that are exclusively bound to her body. Despite the aura of smoldering purple fire engulfing her form, she does not appear to be hurt from it.

"If he's anything like his father…then erasing this bloodline will now be a trivial task." Said the shadowed figure with conviction in her voice, before noticing another creature that dares wander into her territory. A fly, a simple insect, nothing more and nothing less. Still, with an elevated mood, her lips parted to form a cruel smile. "I will crush you, descendant of Barnabus…just like this."

Out of the blue, or rather the dark, a gauntleted arm, black in color with red diamond-shaped studs on its knuckles materializes from the billowing aura around her being and catches the fly, crushing the unwitting insect in between its palms with frightening speed and power. A brief, but audible sonic boom could be heard as the fly was reduced to little more than crushed fragments.

The armored, ghostly arm opens its palm again, allowing what once used to be a living, breathing fly to fall out, before the figure produces a lace handkerchief and wipes off the remains of the insect's viscera still stuck on its palm. Once finished, the arm swiftly dissipates into the violet haze surrounding her body.

"Just like a fly."

Turning back, the figure left for her quarters in order to make preparations for her trip to the city whose name she saw on one of the old calendars left on the floor of the descendant's home.

"Fuyuki…adorable name. What an utter travesty it is that such a place becomes your grave, descendant of Brown."

-0-

"STAY THE HELL AWAY-!" William screamed as he woke up, eyes bloodshot and body slicked with cold sweat. Eyes darting around to see if he is in any immediate danger. "...from me?" "His voice died down immediately the second after.

There was no naked, ivory-skinned lady with red eyes smiling at him like a maniac here. Instead, it was just the dim, cramped interior of his apartment. Feeling as if the walls themselves are gazing at him like an asylum patient screaming at nothing in particular, William rubbed his eyelids and crawled out of his tiny bed.

"Nothing's more exciting than waking up from a nightmare on work day…" Thought a sarcastic William, mumbling unintelligible curses under his breath as he picked up his dirty clothes from yesterday and threw them all into the large basket he puts at the corner of his flat, with a yellow sticky note attached on it, saying 'wash later, remember that idiot'.

Nodding quietly at the note that his past self has left, the Aussie then remembers that he hasn't bathed yet. Glancing over the electronic clock, he saw that he woke up early: there is still an hour left until school starts. A whole hour for himself before he has to put some work in again. "Might as well use the time." Since he didn't wear much when going to bed last night, William slipped out of his shorts and entered the bathroom.

Lightly tapping the hose to see if his water had been cut off, William was rewarded with a single droplet on his still bruised nose causing him to shudder slightly from the sensation on the sensitive skin. Opening the tap, a rush of cold water sprays out from the showerhead. It was freezing, of course, but after so long a time of not experiencing hot water, William simply got used to it.

Letting the water run down his naked, taut frame, he picked up a bath sponge, applying a tiny squirt of shampoo into it before scrubbing it all over his left arm. When he moved down to his forearm, however, he noticed a particular patch of skin on the back of his hand, almost like a welt.

Is it some kind of infection? Couldn't be, given how the pattern of the strange welt looked far too intricate to be the product of a fungus living off his skin. Admittedly, his apartment isn't the cleanest place around, but he's not that filthy.

Is he? He can't remember the last time he cleaned out his wardrobe. Regardless, whatever these marks are, William was tempted to say that they aren't natural. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the faint red welt on his hand had formed into a peculiar shape in the time it took for him to reflect upon his personal hygiene: a perfect circle with what can be vaguely defined as two arrows connected to it, one pointing up and one pointing down.

His curiosity piqued, William tried touching the spot. Nothing of note happens, aside from the fact that it makes the skin around it a tiny bit rougher than usual. "Maybe it's just a new kind of skin condition." The possibilities of him contracting an undiscovered skin condition is astronomically low, but never zero. But again, what kind of skin disease that only focuses on a single, specific place on his body?

Maybe he's overthinking it. He must have been, since he was so deep in thought that he didn't realize the water went off again.

After finishing washing the rest of his body with the piddling water from the sink, William emerged from the bathroom. While drying himself with the towel, he saw that the odd markings on the back of his left hand was still there. Now that there is no water obscuring the view, they appeared less like welts and more like blotches to him, almost like a bruise of sorts. That being said, the exact details of these marks are still undefined due to their simple shape.

Eventually, William decided that finding out the nature of these odd happenings to his body should be on the backburner for now. After all, he still has a job to get through today and he wasn't about to let blotched skin of possibly supernatural origin stop him now.

Going through his usual morning routine again, William was applying a fresh gauze to the wound on his nose when he suddenly suffers a sudden piercing headache, forcing the teacher to bring a hand up his temple and clutched the skin there as he is nearly overwhelmed by the sudden, stinging pain.

But then, just as quickly as it had arrived, the pain was gone as the headache subsided. Feeling his strength leaving him, William leans against his table with his hands gripping onto the edges, breathing ragged out of duress. "What the…what was that about?" He ran a hand over his hair, finding it now flushed with sweat. And then, a stinging feeling roams the area around his nose, a product because of his facial muscles contorting from the pain earlier and irritating the tender skin.

But still, it is nothing he can't endure.

While he wasn't willing to let a headache put him off work for the rest of the day, he has to make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen again, lest anyone take pity on him being in pain. Taking a deep breath, William sat down on his bed and massaged his temples as the bed creaked a little under the sudden weight. And then, he waited.

One minute passes.

Two minutes pass.

Three minutes…and no further pain to be resulted from that headache, which puzzled William greatly. Usually headaches would still have some sort of 'aftershock', that is the initial pain still lingers on in the form of little stings at the surface of your brain every now and then. But here, the migraine just arrives, hits his brain with a sledgehammer, then immediately applies an ice pack to it and leaves. The pain disappeared too quickly for him to believe that it was anything but a mere splitting headache.

In spite of his skepticism, he still makes sure to have some aspirin tablets easily accessible in his pockets, just enough to make his head vanish whenever he needs it. Returning to the bathroom and serving himself another splash of water in the face, William picked up the briefcase that he had left untouched on the floor once he emerged and gave it a good shake.

The test papers are still in there and have yet to be graded. "Crap." He would have to go through all of them today, or else the principal is going to turn him into a verbal punching bag again. Not that he's afraid of the old man, he is simply trying to protect the vital organs that are his eardrums from further damage.

Well, to be fair, he is afraid. But only because he would be out of a job if he were to defy the principal in any way. Thus, he made it his mission to be done with the pile before the day is done.

After checking to make sure all the lights are turned off to not waste any extra money on electricity, William leaves the apartment he begrudgingly calls his home. Unbeknownst to him however, the sound of his door closing drowns out to the quieter noise of a small, metallic ball dropping to the floor, bouncing up and down a couple of times before remaining still. Considering the point of where it fell was quite far away from the table and that it fell the second he left the vicinity, it was almost as if the ball…was floating the entire time.

A brief sensation akin to a weight being dropped inside his stomach strikes up from the inside of William as he closes the door…but he chose to ignore that sinking feeling.

After reaching the bottom floor and leaving the premises of his flat, William once again starts his daily commute to work. Along the way, he finds himself walking on the same road as two male students currently chatting away at something. He doesn't recognize their faces from any of his classes, but he's not taking any chances. "They could have already known me from yesterday's events." And with that thought, he brought the briefcase up to cover his face.

He is close enough to catch wind of their conversation, however.

"Did you hear of the gas leak the other day? There's like a hundred people in the hospital right now."

"Oh yeah, that one. Scary shit. Wonder what caused it?"

"Probably a broken pipe or something. But how much gas do you need to knock out that many people? Still, the police are looking into it."

A gas leak? He wasn't aware of this. But again, his apartment wasn't fitted out with a TV and he doesn't buy newspapers to save money, so the only way he could really get outside information is by asking the locals around. However, something else bugged him.

"How much gas is needed to knock them out, you ask…" Thought William with a troubled look on his face, looking at the two boys and then back at the hedgerow next to him. Something about this whole mess doesn't add up. Gas leaks are usually residential, and the fact that the gas is allowed to remain long enough to knock out at least a bunch of people who are likely fully cognizant and can recognize the smell and would get away to more ventilated areas doesn't correlate well with his logic.

Still, he is willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, especially if the police, as non-corporeal and ephemeral a presence as they may be in this city, were involved. Maybe it's just another, if particularly severe gas leak.

Speeding up his pace and leaving the two students behind to continue their talk, the teacher saw that he still had a long way to go to reach Homurahara. Not 'long', as in the road physically becomes longer, but more like the feeling that his steps cover much less distance. He observed no change in the environment, and the stop sign that always stood at the right side of the street remains exactly where it always has been, so it couldn't have been the road's fault for making him feel like the trip is longer.

It's a strange sensation that William couldn't quite put his finger on what it is supposed to be an omen to, so naturally, he tried to rationalize it into something comprehensible. "I really ought to go to bed earlier…" To distract himself, William decided to calculate the time it will take for him to reach the school gates. Better to occupy his brain with numbers than speculations.

"From where I'm standing, the distance from here to school will be about two-hundred meters. Considering that I'm moving at an average speed estimated at five kilometers per hour, wind speed and air resistance notwithstanding, plus the time it takes to turn around that corner…" Mathematics broke out in William's head as he stared at the ground, not really paying attention to what was in front of him. Turning around said corner, he mumbled the seconds it took. "Three seconds, with a negligible tic. So all in all, the time it took for me would be-"

William's calculations were never finished as he tripped over a groove on the asphalt, forcing the teacher to drop his briefcase in order to keep himself from falling down. The briefcase makes a hard landing on the surface of the road and its lock sprung open from the impact, spilling its contents out, including the test sheets.

As a sprawl of paper littered the streets with some carried slightly by the wind, William groaned before scrambling to his feet and frantically waving his hands around to catch the papers. If he left out even a single one, Souichirou will never let him hear the end of it. Just when he thought it couldn't get worse, a sudden gust of wind blew and carried several papers behind his back even further away.

"The flaming universe is just out for me today, isn't it?" An increasingly frustrated William grumbles to himself, before letting out a short, but exasperated breath. If he could have his way, he will burn these papers and scream curses at the top of his lungs so hard even his grandmother up there could feel it-

"Brown-sensei? Are you alright?" The voice has him turning his head around, slowly and as if grinding against stone. The unmistakable orangish hair made it clear that it was Shirou Emiya, clad in his school uniform with a concerned expression on his face.

William's mood was currently foul enough to tell the boy to piss off, and was about to do so until he saw that the papers that were blown away were now in the hands of Shirou. "I saw these papers flying around. I wondered if they belonged to you." Emiya said politely, extending the stack of papers towards the older man.

William eyed the pile for a good five seconds or so, before coughing into his fist to break up the awkward air gradually building up around the two. "That was a dumb thing you did yesterday." He said the first thing that came up in his mind when he saw the teen, taking the papers from him and adding them to his own with haste.

"W-What? What do you mean…?" Stammered Shirou, more than a little baffled at the sudden insult thrown at him.

"Yesterday. Your interruption of Takahashi's fun and all. Not that I don't appreciate the effort, but…" That was a lie. He doesn't appreciate Shirou standing up for him at all. If anything, it just made him look even more like a lame fool to allow a student to defend him. "Look, when you see a lad bigger than you are doing something he likes, you stay out of it and let the parties involved solve it. Don't be the hero, because look at what that gave you. A gut punch."

The teacher deliberately added an angry edge to his voice to make himself sound harsher, but for all the good it did for him, Shirou doesn't look affected by it. Instead, he merely breathed with a little more force and bowed his head. "I…well, I can't just sit there and watch you getting harassed by him. You looked like you needed a hand." Replied Shirou with a kind tone, trying a gentle approach on William by offering him his sympathy.

William's jaws visibly get worked up as he tries to find an answer to that sickeningly idealistic response. There are two ways he could do this: either coldly tell Shirou off for entertaining the idea that he needs help, or to accept his kindness. He felt irreversibly stranger for even considering the latter. "Even then, it's a moronic thing to do. You get hurt, and Takahashi got what he wanted anyway. What's even the point of helping me?"

"I saw that look in your eyes, and I know I have to help. You looked so…vulnerable." Replied Shirou honestly, wearing his heart and ideals on his sleeve. Unfortunately for him, he had just unknowingly pressed one of William's buttons: to call him as anything that denotes that he is weak.

"What did you just call me?" The sardonic tone that William's voice usually comes equipped with disappears without a trace as he shoots the boy a look that is neither threatening or malevolent. It is simply a stare, sharp and pierces through one's soul. Shirou wasn't sure of what to say back, feeling his throat stuck. He had never been on the receiving end from that glare before.

William took a step, and then another step, closer and closer to Shirou each time as his feet grew heavier. Stopping just short of an arm's length from the auburn-haired teen, the teacher scratches the fabric of his slacks before his fists tightened. He took one look at Shirou… before his fists spontaneously relaxed again and his previously-tense posture slumped.

He just can't do it.

He has to think clearer. Lashing out at Shirou won't do anything but create more problems and he knew it. He has to quell his anger. Besides, getting mad at Emiya for saying something he had no prior knowledge that it will set William off is just petty at best. And petty is associated with being insecure, which means weak. And William Brown is not weak.

Thus, with a slightly calmer disposition and gritting teeth, William decides to let this one slide. Just this once. "You know what? Don't mind it. I forgot what it was." The teacher brushes off his previous words, turning away to continue his walk to the academy.

A befuddled Shirou looked at him like he was a couple of cards short of a full deck, but after much thought, merely shrugs his shoulders and follows William afterwards.

The teacher and the student walked side by side, not uttering a single word to each other the entire time. William had no reason to talk unless he absolutely had to, and Shirou had no idea how to approach the man conversationally. This crushing silence would go on until they were footsteps away from the antiquated gates of Homurahara, when Shirou's eyes wandered downwards and caught something on his teacher's arm that piqued his interests. "Sensei, your watch."

William turned his gaze towards Shirou, switching from emotionless to questioning. Bringing his left forearm up, the watch was revealed to have been broken with the hands remaining static while the glass surface was cracked, much to his absolute dismay. Silently fuming, William cursed himself for allowing his valuable accessory to be damaged so extensively, and to know of its condition so late. "William, you... you absolute mongoloid. You can't even keep a bloody memento safe! And now look at what happened: somebody else notices it and calls you out for it."

The watch was one of the few luxurious items that William could afford, mainly because it wasn't his to begin with. It was something that he never once saw leaving his father's side, who always insisted on wearing it no matter the circumstances. Only until he was on his bed, life slipping away from his withered husk of a body does his father take it off and give it to him.

Immediately, a mixture of wistful sorrow and nostalgic despair washes over William as his eyes become downcast. The memory of watching his father wasting away is something he could never get over, not even in a million years. "Ah…well, I best get it fixed later." Said the teacher with a depressed demeanor, rubbing a finger on the glass face of the watch. As much as he tried to pass off as cold and detached, an extraordinary sense of sadness was still being given off.

Shirou wasn't so oblivious to others' emotions that he couldn't see that he had unknowingly touched upon a sensitive subject. Rapidly backpedaling, the young man tried to switch the topic into something a little more light-hearted. "I-I could fix it for you if you want to, sensei. I'm pretty good when it comes to cogs and gears." Offered Shirou, bringing up his affinity for repairing things in hopes that it will stop the current mood surrounding them from burrowing into the asphalt below.

"Can you, now?" His brief moment of emotional vulnerability faded as the teacher steeled his mind again and faced Emiya with a cocked eyebrow. Because of his frequent tendency to spend his time cooped up in his office or the current classroom whenever class is not in session, William wasn't quite as aware of Shirou's prowess with technology as most students and the staff members do. The key word being 'quite', however, as he is still aware that the teen was familiar with moving parts. Not surprising, considering that he did well in the topic of classical mechanics.

"I mean…if I'm being honest, I haven't worked with a watch before. But I'm sure I can work it out sooner or later." Replied a truthful Shirou, rubbing the back of his neck in slight embarrassment upon realizing that he had little prior experience with clockwork. Still, there was no turning back now and he was going to give it his best shot.

William scratched his chin, deep in thought about the offer. While getting the watch fixed would no doubt give him a sense of satisfaction and happiness from seeing his cherished accessory functional again, it also meant that for the entire process of repairing, the watch is at Shirou's mercy. There's no guarantee that he won't mess it up even further or pocket it for himself. Moreso with the former than the latter, but the teacher has long learned to never assume what is and isn't impossible. Chances are low…but never zero.

Letting out a long, but soft breath, William glanced at the anticipating Shirou as he turned back to face him. He had devised a method to see if the boy is worthy of entrusting his watch over to. With knowledge to himself that what Shirou says next will determine the outcome of either receiving the watch or getting brushed off, William locks eyes with him.

With his legs stiffened and feet planted firmly on the ground, William lets his back lean backwards while keeping his hip at roughly the same position, thus creating a pose where his upper body was edging away from his lower half, with the weight of the former causing the legs to slightly sway to the right. In spite of the hilarious posture, William's serious and hardened expression when performing the pose kicks the intimidation factor up a notch. He was… menacing, so to say.

Raising his arm fully and pointing a finger at Shirou, who was understandably weirded out by watching his teacher posing for no discernible reason, William opens his mouth for the long-awaited question. "Tell me something, Emiya…what is your 'purpose' for offering me help? There is no gain for you in this, so why?" He asked the same question as before, but with much greater gravitas this time around since he was about to entrust the boy with an item he considered valuable.

And potentially, taking the first step in 'trusting' someone else, if only for the selfish purpose of wanting his watch fixed.

If he hadn't been accustomed to the character quirks of the physics teacher, Shirou would have not hesitated in following his heart and told William that he wanted to help just because. He wanted to see the man happy and not look so moody all the time. He wanted to help because he thought his sensei needed it.

Knowing that saying anything related to selflessness would have an adverse effect on the teacher, Shirou gave a different, but still honest answer. "I saw your broken watch, and I thought I could take a look at it. I like working with machines. You can always tell what everything is supposed to do. Besides…it will make you happier, right Sensei? I like making people happy. As long as they are happy, I am too."

William didn't expect someone like Shirou to give him a proper reply. In fact, he was fully convinced that the kid would come up with something like 'Oh, I help you because it's the right thing to do and that you're a victim in need' or other similar condescending nonsense. Seemingly sated with the teen's answer, he finally felt like he could understand Shirou, if only to a degree. He is someone who would be willing to go to great lengths for someone if it meant they are happy, his own needs be damned.

In other words, the boy can be a great asset to have by his side. This is perfect. "Well, you are one of my better students, so I suppose I will let you indulge in your hobby." Said William in a slightly haughtier-than-usual tone, taking off his watch and placing it in Shirou's open palm. "I better see this again before the end of the day."

"You can count on me, Brown-sensei." Replied Shirou fervently, observing the watch with rapturous interest before stuffing it in his pocket.

"I don't care for promises, Emiya. I want results." William replied bluntly, before walking away. Shirou was put in a brief stupor at the abrupt change in attitude from the teacher, but decided not to think about it too much.

Upon reaching the entrance gates, Shirou and William entered the school at the same time. Their shoes touching the ground of the schoolyard, they both let their minds resign, expecting today to be the same affair as usual…

That is, until the two took a second step. Simultaneously, both William and Shirou stood still, completely static with their faces seemingly permanently frozen with a shocked visage. Shirou's mouth was halfway from being fully agape with his eyes the size of dinner plates and his throat rising up and down as if wanting to say something, but was unable to. Time itself seems to halt as a sickly sweet smell akin to those given off by an insectivorous plant to lure in prey fills his nostrils.

William doesn't look a whole lot better than him, either. His hands were shaking like a pair of blancmanges under a strong wind, he could feel sweat pooling up in his socks and his vision suddenly, albeit in a very small window of time, became tinted in rose as strange humanoid shapes, resembling hollowed-out dolls strewn across the yard in front of him.

Before either of them could determine what was going on, the intense feeling of listlessness and eerie stimulations to the senses departed both student and teacher and the two stumbled forward with visible weakness in their knees, but remained standing mostly upright.

"What…was that?" Pondered Shirou, rubbing his eyes to see if it was all an illusion. "Am I this tired already?" He then looks over to Brown, who was similarly freezing up. Did he go through the same thing as well?

William blinked several times in a row, wholly unable to comprehend what he just saw and felt. A hallucination? Or perhaps something more? He could at least try to explain a short-lived severe headache and a weird bruise forming out of thin air on his hand, but he had nothing for what he just experienced. Either the entire supernatural hocus-pocus that his grandma told him instead of bedtime stories were true…

Or maybe he has finally cracked like a walnut after going through the same tedious, soul-crushing loop of waking up at the crack of dawn, teaching a bunch of hormone-addled teenagers who would much rather be doing anything but learning, taking up increasingly labor-intensive odd jobs unbefitting of his profession before going home late and have biscuits and store-bought sandwiches for dinner again. So far, it seems exceedingly likely that the latter is what happened.

But whatever it may be, he's not going to let it distract him from an honest day's work, as ephemeral and pitiful as that is. With a calming breath to quell the storm of questions in his mind, he glances at Shirou. "Are you coming to class, Emiya?" William called out to the redhead, unaware that he was similarly affected by the unnerving sensation.

"Huh? Oh, right! After you, Brown-sensei." With great urgency, Shirou snaps out of his trance and goes behind William, waiting for him to lead the way. Despite his impassive expression, the boy's thoughts were a mess. Unlike William, Shirou has had exposure to the supernatural world, and combined with the nightmares he had experienced lately, he couldn't help but wonder if the disarming feeling is of ill portent.

Without much else to say, the two ascended the stairs to their respective classes with each of them experiencing vastly different emotions: for William, tired resignation, morose apathy and a generally undisturbed psyche. For Shirou…a sense that something big is about to come. And not in a good way.

-0-

"Physics. It is the study of…what?" Asked William rhetorically, clapping his hands together as he prepared the chalk while glancing around the classroom for potential raised hands. "Anyone?"

Like usual, the class either doesn't care or flat out ignores the teacher with students more interested in chatting and fooling around with each other than paying attention to the lesson, with the exception of two. Goda didn't show up at all, which strikes him as out of place. Not that William wants him to come or anything, he isn't so far gone yet. It's just that Goda showing up and disturbing him throughout the lesson has become such a frequent occurrence that William has gotten used to seeing the delinquent.

As it turns out, from the little snippets of gossip he caught from some students, the principal finally laid down his foot and suspended Goda. At first, William couldn't believe his ears. That useless mung of a principal actually poked his head out from that huge pile of money and cigarettes he lives under and have something be done about the school's most notorious bully?

With confirmation from Fujimura and Kuzuki, William, for the first time ever since his arrival at Homurahara, actually felt a sense of being at peace. Finally, after so, so long, Takahashi gets his just desserts at last. It was a comically small punishment, being a one-day suspension, but at this point the physics teacher is so starved for any kind of punishment to be applied to the bully that he takes it in stride.

Even if it was only one day, it was one day without Goda around to make life harder for him. Thus, he could afford to be a little less depressed in today's lesson. As such, that explains why there is an increased passion in his demeanor, if only by a very marginal degree compared to his usual state.

As his watchful gaze scanned over the room, a hand raised.

"The study of the fundamental constituents of the universe, such as energy and matter, and how they interact with one another, sensei." Rin Tohsaka said with elegance and a straight posture, being one half of the two students that paid attention. As the only one who raised her hand, Rin cracks the slightest of grins at the corner of her lips, quite satisfied with herself making the rest of the class look like idiots. "Not that that's undeserved."

It takes a trained eye to spot, but for a moment a ghost of a smile appeared on William's face. Some teacher-student interactivity, at last! "Very good answer, Tohsaka. But…that isn't all there is to it. Physics isn't merely just about finding out what A and B are and how they interact and compliment. It is, by technicality, what you said." Said William, his hands moving around animatedly as he speaks. "But I prefer to see it as the study of the same thing every scientist has asked themselves: how everything around us behaves."

It appears that the change in William's average behavior have gotten several eyes from the rest of the class, though they only lingered on the board for as long as the lifespan of a mayfly in a forest full of Venus fly traps before turning away to something that did a better job at catching their interests.

The teacher once had called them out for their lack of respect for the subject, but now? He merely regards their disinterest with equal dreary indifference. If they don't want to pass the tests and graduate, then fine, that's on them. If they don't care, then why should he? If they insist on yawning at him, then it's only a matter of time before he starts yawning back.

Pushing aside his irreverent thoughts, William refocuses onto the lesson. "The universe is a vast thing, and I think it is perhaps the closest thing we got to a deity or a god that we could see. It is everywhere, it can create anything, and like any true god, we are all kept in order by the laws it has set out. It is…fascinating, to say the least." The physics teacher delivered his words with a passion he once thought forgotten, hands drawing invisible lines in the air. Then, he raises a finger.

"But…there is one important power, one core phenomenon that serves as a rope tying the core components that made up the universe together. Everything, life, planets, stars, galaxies or even light itself - they are all drawn together and via this phenomenon. Entire astronomical bodies are formed because of it. And that is…" William swiveled around with the grace of an amateur ballerina before picking up a piece of chalk and writing his desired word on the board. "Gravity."

"Deriving from the Latin word gravitas, meaning 'weight'. A common debate is whether or not gravity itself is a force, but I think that depends on what source you're consulting. The most accurate description of gravity is that it's less of a force and more like a curvature in spacetime, hence the theory of relativity, black holes and dilation of time." William explained as he chalked out a diagram of spacetime, represented by a net of lines. "But for the smaller and more common applications, we'll use the law of universal gravitation instead, which states that gravity 'is a force causing any two bodies to attract each other'."

"In all senses, gravity is a set of laws unto itself. Everything we do here, gravity is there. It is a constant in our lives. All lives, actually. You all may not notice it, but gravity is always exerting its presence upon us. Like, take a bird for example." William quickly produces a sketch of a simple bird. "If it wasn't for its unique biology, the laws of gravity dictates that this bird will fall…and become a splattered memory on the street." He then draws a puddle around the sketched bird with a piece of red chalk, before crossing out its eyes as a cartoonish way of portraying death.

"Gravity also dictates that we all remain bound to the planet and not floating off to die in the vacuum of space. Slightly disappointing to what it does to my waistline though." William went off-topic for a second, running a hand over his waist which are of normal proportions. Looking back up, he could see that the students are still busy with daunting tasks such as dangling pencils over their noses or doodling rude caricatures in their notebooks.

As it always has been. Oh well, at least he could still count on two of them actually taking this seriously-

Wait, scratch that. Much to his surprise, only Rin was writing in her notebook. Shirou, on the other hand, was staring out of a window with a distant look in his hazel orbs as his pen rolled back and forth between his index and middle finger on the table. While the boy was comparatively less skilled in physics compared to Tohsaka, and a great deal quieter as well, but he more than makes up for it for being hardworking and always turning in his work on time, so seeing him being distracted for more than a second was quite a revelation.

And it didn't sit well with William. He would be dead before he allows one of his two most worthy students to be degenerated into yet another lazy bum. He will not have it. Breaking a chalk in half, the brown-haired teacher throws the piece up and catches it as he looks at Shirou. Narrowing his eyes into squints, William quickly deduces the exact distance between him and the teen, the height difference as well as the amount of power needed to throw the chalk at the correct trajectory.

Reeling his hand back, William sends the piece of chalk with an underarm throw. The chalk spins through the air before its flight comes to an end as it bounces off of Shirou's head, causing the redhead to jump up from the solid impact on his dome.

"Nice day for skygazing, isn't it Emiya?" Asked William with a lemony tone, prompting the boy to stand up with knees held close and a stiff back, showing the same degree of freedom as a robot while a couple of girls chuckled at the sight. "Since you're so inclined to use these precious hours of education gazing out a window today, I assume you have mastered this subject to the point where you can answer anything about it right off the bat, yes?"

"Oh, I wasn't- I didn't mean to…" Shirou struggles to answer back, unused to the sudden barrage of sarcasm from the teacher. He wanted to pay attention, but his mind was strangely out of touch today. There was some sort of premonition that kept him distracted and unable to focus on the lesson like usual. It's not the same feeling as when he and William entered the school premises, but it carries that same spine-chilling effect. "I don't mean to offend you, Brown-sensei."

"Don't worry, you didn't. But I'm going to pick you anyway." William dryly replied, crossing his arms and leaning towards Shirou's direction. "Quick question. Does zero gravity mean the absence of gravity?"

Shirou may have been taken aback by William's scrutinizing gaze and unfeeling voice, but he wasn't so dumbstruck that he couldn't reply to such an easy question. Easy to him, at least. Several students are already tilting their heads. "No, sensei. Because gravity is a presence appearing everywhere in the universe, it would be impossible for something to have no gravity acting on it. Zero gravity just means a state of weightlessness, such as in a free falling lift."

William continued to stare at the orange-haired teen with that same dead-eyed look…before turning back to the board and picking out a brand new chalk to write with, seemingly satisfied with Shirou's answer. "You are correct. Good job." His breath briefly hitches upon delivering the 'good job', as giving out praises is something entirely foreign to William since his boyhood. The teen lets out a relieved sigh before sitting back down.

While he is chalking up the last few pieces of information about the topic of gravity, William caught a playful shriek from one of the tables in the back. His writing slowing down to a dead stop, causing a few specks of chalk dust to litter the floor, he turned around to see what was going on.

Two students, a boy and a girl, sat in the same table with their lips only mere seconds away from locking, if it weren't for the others casting glances at them. As they conversed and traded flirts with the girl giggling like a preschooler and the boy having a shit-eating grin on his face, William noticed that the male's right arm was resting at an odd position. Either he was purposefully keeping it suspended…

Or his hand is placed on top of something. Judging the girl's reaction, he had more than a few guesses as to where that hand is touching.

"Miyamoto." He called out to the male student, now named Miyamoto with a tone that is dripping with venom. "Is there something wrong with the seating arrangement?" William points his chalk accusingly at the empty desk one row above where the couple are at.

Miyamoto and the girl looked at each other before their faces adopted a visibly disheartened expression, with the latter standing up and shaking his head sullenly.

"Now, everyone. Turn to page 58, on gravitational fields-" William was interrupted by a loud, screeching noise as Miyamoto dragged his chair back to his desk, the rusted metal legs grinding against the faded black-and-white decor of the ceramic floor. He could have easily picked the chair up, but the look on his face makes it all but obvious that he wanted to make noise.

"Just to piss Brown-sensei off." Everybody's thoughts seem to be in sync as some pursed their lips out of acknowledgement of his potential troublemaker status, with others snorting in derision at his sheer audacity. But most are content with just watching the scene unfold and take guesses as to how their teacher will blow his top. The last time was him punching a student, what will this time be?

Eventually, the noise stopped as Miyamoto plopped down on his seat. But not before scooting left and right to make himself comfortable, further creating unnecessary sounds.

Even after the classroom had calmed down and all noise had ceased to exist, William stared Miyamoto down with furrowed eyebrows and clenched fists. He very fleetingly wondered as to what is wrong with him, gaining urges to punch his students these days. But then he reminded himself that getting himself a second strike probably not the best move unless he wanted another earful from the principal. And get kicked out.

So, as is tradition at this point, he puts up with it. Swallowing his pride and anger like a bitterest of medicines, the worst William could do to the unruly boy is to send a scathing glare his way. Miyamoto remained unaffected, maintaining his flippant attitude and crossing his arms while reclining back in his chair like an emperor resting on his throne.

"Are you finished?" Asked William with poison lacing every word. Not only is this kid willing to get intimate with his little girlfriend over there, he's willing to do it right in front of him. Not even an ounce of respect was shown. The smirk is the only reply he needed. Placing the chalk back in the box in the calmest fashion he could muster, the teacher sat down with all of his weight.

"Page 58. Textbook. Gravitational fields. Read until class ends."

The rest of class passed by fairly uneventfully, if disquietingly silent. Shirou reads his textbook without making a single peep, to the point that he almost suffocates from the lack of breathing. Rin fared better, as working under great pressure is something she has long since gotten used to.

However, as steel-faced as the beauty may have been, even she could see the gloomy clouds hanging over the heads of most students, the biggest of which was none other than their teacher. The sheer mass of negative thoughts emanating from him could be compared to a black hole: it sucks all the air out of the room and leaves everyone choked.

Eventually, after what seems like an eternity, the bell rings. The students, thankful to be away from the classroom's gloomy atmosphere, vacated the area like a broken dam. Rin and Shirou were the last to leave, with the former closing her textbook and giving the physics teacher a nod before leaving without a hint of emotion in her eyes. The latter packs his things more haphazardly, but ultimately gives him a polite nod as well before rushing out of class, making sure to close the doors after himself.

And so, William was left on his own again. Now that he has some free time, he could actually focus on something more important. Opening the briefcase, the teacher dumps the stack of paper on his table with a heavy thud, kicking up a miniscule amount of dust gathering around the edges of the desk. Looking at the stack of papers the size of Mount Fuji with a despondent expression, he uncaps his red pen and begins marking the papers one by one.

It was a mind-numbingly boring chore in every sense of the word, but it is still much more preferable than having to expend more of his energy to teach for another one-and-a-half hours. After all, he was alone and had no one to disturb him from his work. He couldn't ask for anything more.

Upon finishing with about one-fourth of all the papers, William massages his temples, mentally exhausted. Looking up at the clock, he realizes that fifteen minutes had just passed. Meaning, there is only fifteen minutes left until he has to drag himself to the next class.

A labored sign escaped his mouth as William twirls his pen around his fingers, debating on whether to take a break or keep on working. Choosing the latter just so that he could be free later on, the red ink-coated tip of the pen was about to touch another grading column…

When three knocks are heard on the door. The knocks were surprisingly quiet, and William would have likely not picked it up if he wasn't in an empty room right now. "Who is it?" Asked William with a hoarse voice, a byproduct of his disdain for Miyamoto somehow altering his baritone.

He's not entirely sure what to make of that.

The mahogany door gradually slides open, prompting William to raise an eyebrow at whoever on the other side is taking so long to open a simple door. Eventually the door stopped moving, leaving a gap just wide enough for one person to fit through.

Peeking out from the other side of the door, albeit at an agonizingly slow pace, was a girl with mysterious violet hair that reaches her shoulders, complete with a reddish-pink ribbon on the left side of her head that compliments her eyes, which are of similar color to her hair. Her school uniform hugged her a little too tightly around the chest, leaving not much to imagination. Her hands were holding onto a notebook with a plain vanilla cover and a single white sticker with her name written on it.

However, William expressed less interest in her appearance, and more as to why she is here. Taking a second look, he recognized her as one of the students from the first-year math classes, a subject which he also governs, if only because physics also involved a lot of numbers and the principal decided to be a cheapskate about hiring more teachers for the job. "Matou. What do you want?"

His voice was inexpressive and it wasn't his intention to sound harsh, but that was enough for Sakura Matou to physically recoil from her spot. "Um…nothing, sensei. I-I'll be going now." She spoke in a soft, timid voice, rubbing the cover of her notebook in an anxious manner while trying to backstep away from the classroom.

"Hold it right there. You were here, and you knocked on the door. There is a reason for you to be doing all of that." He replied just before Sakura could fully disappear, causing the poor girl's hair to stand on end. Moving away from his chair and standing up to his full height, the older man approached her from behind with a hand resting on his hip. "You're not hiding something from me, are you Matou?" He asked her, deepening his voice while staring at her in the eyes.

Sakura suddenly finds herself short of breath, despite never physically exerting herself to any degree prior to this point. She had only come here because she was struggling with the work he has given them, and now her teacher has turned what should be a simple talk into some sort of tense presage before a standoff to the death.

But again, her past experiences have left her more than a little equipped to deal with stressful situations, and thus she turns around to face him directly. Finding strength in her own voice again, she extends her notebook towards William. "I have a few questions about the work you gave us last week in math, sensei…I-I don't understand them, so can you help me?"

The violet-haired girl's gentle face, combined with her meek voice and general demure nature could easily induce sympathy and draw protection from anyone with even a semblance of a heart. William, however, was only interested in one thing. Sticking his head out and hovering only inches above Sakura's head, he spots several students down the hallway, talking and doing things teenagers liked to do.

They have yet to cast their gazes upon the two, but William knew better. "Well, why didn't you say so the first time? Come in." He said to Sakura, beckoning a finger at her while trying to sound as lighthearted as someone of his disposition could be, which in the end didn't amount to much. Sakura didn't seem to question this change in behavior, and obediently followed him inside.

As William sat back down on his chair with his back relaxed, Sakura quickly became aware of the four stacks of paper divided by the teacher for ease of access, and considered leaving so as to not distract him from work. "Are you busy, sensei?"

William followed her gaze, before a mocking smirk spreads across his lips. "Busy marking these? Of course. But are they really important? No." He said with a tone of cruel impassiveness, picking up one paper that is marked with a measly '13%' in bright red ink. "I don't think I even need to mark any more. Most of them flunked the test anyway, so it's just a waste of good ink."

Sakura was a bit taken back by how utterly uncaring the physics teacher is towards the future of his students. Even Kuzuki-sensei, whose emotional range could be compared to a piece of rock, showed that he genuinely cares about his students and wanted them to do better, even if it means redoing an entire exam because one of the questions was incorrectly typed.

But Brown-sensei…he just does not care, or even mind, that the test could determine where his students will go next. But she could understand what made him this way. Being a passive observer in most of the classes that he teaches, she witnessed all the humiliating treatment he was forced to go through, and the subsequent resentment that was present on him as a result of being unable to do anything about it.

"Anyway, let's crack on. Which one are you struggling with?" Asked William in an authoritative manner, crossing his legs and arms. Sakura snaps out of her trance, before nodding and flipping open her notebook to the page where the questions she desired answers to then placing it down on the table for him to see the questions better.

William's eyes rapidly dissect the complex equations and algebra that makes up the content of the page, before leaning back with a dissatisfied yawn. "Is this it? And I thought you caught up with it." Said the teacher half-derisively, before taking out his pen and began instructing Sakura on how to solve each question without actually giving her answer.

The shy maiden listened to William's explanations, nodding in understanding every time he made something clearer to her. But when he isn't, her thoughts wander.

In truth, part of the reason why she seeks for him, aside from him having the expertise needed with her subject, is that there is something about him that intrigues her. He doesn't have Fujimura-sensei's kindness and positive thinking, nor does he have Kuzuki-sensei's sternness and humility. He is his own person, in her opinion. Putting up a mask that hides his true self, unable to form real bonds with others and not even batting an eye at when someone fails, all while resentful towards those more successful than him. While he doesn't mistreat her, he isn't exactly the most sociable person either.

In other words…he reminded her of who she used to be. They are both individuals who are beaten down and stretched far too thin by those around them, and further they descend into misanthropy and losing their original idealistic outlook on life. The only difference is, she was able to largely fix some of these bad traits and even become somewhat happier when she got to know her Shirou that fateful day.

It looks like her teacher wasn't quite as lucky.

"Matou? Matou." William snaps his fingers a few times after seeing that the girl's eyes are pointing somewhere six meters behind him and not at the notebook. Sakura instantly turns to him, her mood inscrutable. "Did you understand this part?"

Her violet-hued eyes followed the direction of her sensei's fingers, before landing on the last equation. It was solved already, most likely because of William growing impatient with his student's delayed responses. Sakura takes a solid five seconds to let the numbers sink in, before giving him a light nod and a hum.

William raised an eyebrow, not entirely convinced by her wordless reply. Before he could say anything else, the bell saves Sakura from another round of questioning. "Well, that was the last question anyway. The knowledge required here is fairly basic, so I hope you can solve these independently from now on." Said the teacher in a lackadaisical manner, closing the notebook and holding it in front of Sakura.

Matou was about to take her notebook back when the sleeve of his coat slid off slightly, allowing her to have a good, unobstructed look at his hand. Her blood went cold. "It can't be…don't tell me that sensei is also…"

Almost half a minute would pass by before Sakura regains the presence of mind to respond to outside stimuli, and even then only because of William's incessant finger-snapping. "Matou! What's wrong with you today?" And then, he takes out a handheld flashlight from a drawer and shines the beam straight into her unprotected eyes without warning. "You're not taking any drugs, are you? Eyes open wide. If your pupils are pinprick, opiates. If they're dilated, amphetamines."

"No, no! It's not like that, sensei!" Sakura was quick to deny any accusations that she might have dabbled into the practice of injecting chemicals in her body while hastily covering up her eyes, temporarily blinded from the flash of light. "It's just…I didn't expect you to help me with the assignment. From what I've heard…other students said that you're not the kind of person to do anything without a reason." She lied, but not out of instinct. Brown-sensei doesn't look like he is aware of the true nature of that faint mark on his hand yet, so she dare not to risk complicating matters.

"They're not wrong." Confessed an unrepentant William to himself. He knows he's not the most selfless person out here, but hey, it's not his fault he is the way he is. Chuckling with a gravelly rumble in his throat, he walks next to Sakura's side. "Oh, Matou. You should have known that, as your esteemed teacher, it is my obligation, my duty to help you."

The speech was something that sounded so out of character for William that Sakura, despite not knowing the man for any longer than a few months, and even then only on a surface level, could see that there was going to be a catch.

"And also, you were standing outside looking like a hurt puppy, and I'm in here, and if you walk away, everybody in the hallway is going to assume that I denied you help, and my reputation as a teacher is going to take a nosedive. Trust me, I don't need it to go any lower than it already is."

And there's the catch. "At least he is honest about it." Thought Sakura, a soft, resigned sigh escaping her. Replacing her neutral frown with a fake smile, she waits patiently at the door of the classroom while her teacher is packing his things. Once done, he emerged peering down at the girl, what with her being shorter than he is.

"I'm having math with your class next, right?" Asked William, pulling back his sleeve to take a look at the time…until he came to the realization that his watch is still in the possession of Shirou Emiya. Grumbling at his own obliviousness, the physics teacher gave himself a smack on the head.

Sakura was mildly amused by William's antics, but didn't show them. Instead, she replies to him with a tone that is more or less impartial. "Yes, sensei."

"Best get going now." Covering his forearm and most of his hand with the sleeve of his coat again, William went on his way... leaving Sakura to ponder as she walked behind him.

That mark on his hand… even though it is still crude and undefined in shape, she knows what it is. And it is not a good sign. "Could it be that…"

"Brown-sensei was chosen as well?"

-0-

Five in the afternoon already…and still no signs of Emiya showing up with his watch.

William was standing at the school gates, leaning against a wall and counting off the seconds that had passed since the time officially reached five o'clock, while observing the sun setting down the horizon. The amount of students exiting the school has long dwindled down to one or two at best, mostly lingering around for non-study purposes.

After another minute had passed, William clicked his tongue in frustration. Tardiness is one thing, but tardiness when it comes to returning a valuable object of his? He should have known better than to trust some teenager with his things. He will not repeat this mistake.

Fed up with having to wait any longer than he had to, the teacher slung his briefcase over his back before starting his search for the redheaded student that he entrusted with his watch…

He just has to uncover every inch of this place, that's all.

"Emiya?" William called for the teen, swinging the doors of the stools in the male bathrooms.

"Emiya!" William repeated his actions in the female bathrooms. The shame he experienced upon entering and defiling such sacred grounds that no man dares to stumble upon is greatly outweighed by his need to find the watch.

"Emiya, if you don't come out RIGHT now…" He spouted threats at imaginary figures of Shirou, jumping into every classroom while yelling 'AHA!' every time.

After covering the upper floors with little success, William figured that the next logical step would be to search the lower floors and the yard. Descending the stairs with the same urgency as one would be rushing to the toilet after a heavy meal, his first target was the shooting range reserved for the archery club. It is a wide area, and thus most likely to be the location Emiya is hiding at.

Running at full force, William brakes with his legs so that the momentum he has built up from the sprinting will not send him flying through the dojo's doors. Bending over and lacking oxygen in his muscles, he pushed the door to the side and leaped into the room. "EMIYA!"

Lady Luck has blessed him for once, as after half an hour of turning the place upside down, he has found his target, currently scrubbing the floor of the dojo with a wet rag on all fours, a bucket full of water and cleaning solution not far away from him.

Hearing his last name spoken in such a powerful manner, Shirou stood up and found William standing at the door, his ponytail slightly mussed and his chest rising up and down harshly from being out of breath. "Oh, Brown-sensei! I didn't know you were still around here." Said the teen, blissfully ignorant of the real reason his teacher is here.

Sharply exhaling, William straightened his posture and extended his open palm towards Shirou, as if to wait for something to fall into his hand. "My watch." His voice was soft…but his tone was dangerous.

"Ah, right! Don't worry Brown-sensei, I haven't forgotten about it yet." Shirou replied, reaching into his left pocket and fishing out the watch, still cracked and dysfunctional. "I was planning to fix it once school is over, but…I have to clean the archery range as well."

"Then why didn't you mention it this morning?"

"Erm…about that. Well, you see, I remembered it during class. That's why I was staring out of the window-"

"Do you take me for an idiot, Emiya? Do you think I seriously buy that?" William points a finger at Shirou accusingly.

"N-No, sensei, I would never-"

"Then stop. Making. Excuses." The teacher punctuated his words for extra emphasis, clapping his hands together and pointing it at the orange-haired teen. "What happened between then and now? Why are you doing this and not the task I set out for you?"

Shirou casted his eyes at the floor, unsure of how to respond. Eventually, seeing as there is no further reason to lie to his teacher, he caves in. "The captain of the archery club asked me to help him out. I thought I could just be done with this and then-"

"Are you a member?"

"I…used to be. But-"

"Hang on, hang on." William raised a hand to stop Shirou from talking any further. He couldn't believe his ears right now. "You're telling me…despite no longer being an active member or even a part of the club, you still took up the job? Despite knowing that you promised to fix my watch?"

"W-Well, I thought I could clean up the range and then move on to the watch. You said it has to be returned by the end of the day, right? Technically the day hasn't ended yet, so…"

"No, I said before the end of the day. Which should be before five."

"But…why would the end of the day be by five in the afternoon?"

William was filled with so much anger born of frustration from the sheer density of Shirou's skull that he thought he might just snap. "Because, that's when everybody goes home. That's when their 'day' at school ends. That's when the sun sets. Hence why they call it 'daytime', Emiya." The physics teacher meticulously explained the terminology of his sentences out for the teen, all while leaking potent doses of sarcasm. "Don't tell me you thought I meant an actual, entire 24-hour day? What, are you going to show up at my place just before midnight to give me the watch?"

Shirou put his rag down and rubbed his chin. Soon, his eyes slightly widened in understanding. "Ah. I'm sorry, Brown-sensei, I didn't know that was an expression."

"Did you at least get anything out of this?"

"Huh?" Said a confused Shirou.

"As in, did you get some kind of reward for cleaning the range?"

"I wouldn't say so. But seeing the range tidy again is its own reward to me." Replied Emiya with absolute honesty in his voice, cracking a little smile at the end of his sentence.

A slack-jawed William blinked slowly at Shirou before rubbing his eyes in the same fashion as one would do when dealing with the words of a particularly unintelligent child. Unleashing the heaviest sigh he has ever brewed in his lungs, he beckons a hand at Shirou again. "You are just about the biggest drongo I know."

"A…what now?" Asked the teen, unfamiliar with William's native slangs.

"A moron. Why do you even take him up for it? Shouldn't cleaning this place be the job of its members? Where's Fujimura in all of this? She's the supervising teacher for the club, so shouldn't she have a say in this?"

"It's…not really that easy to say. But-"

"Actually, Emiya…I don't want to hear it. Look, it is getting late, and we both won't achieve much by talking back and forth like this. So, here's what we're going to do." William took off his shoes and walked inside, hands dipping in the pockets of his coat. "You are going to fix the watch. Me…I'll handle the cleaning from here."

"You don't have to do this, Brown-sensei. Really, I insist-" Shirou, ever the selfless one, tried to handle all the workload again…

…only to go quiet when William shot him another glare that said 'I want no more words from you' in a pure visual format, something that should be impossible. "Now." His one-word reply was short and sweet, while packing just enough authority to dissuade any notion of resistance.

"Got it, Brown-sensei." The auburn-haired young man nodded in compliance, sheepishly holding the mechanical watch as he went for the door. "But…can you handle the entire range, sensei? If you need help, I'll be at the workshop-"

"Emiya, I'm a twenty-five-year-old man living by himself, subsisting on nothing but biscuits and store-bought sandwiches. I can do cleaning, so stop underestimating me." William deadpanned immediately, sounding a little pissed off as well. Shirou deemed that keeping his mouth shut for now would be wise, and left the archery range.

Scoffing to himself, William went over and picked up the wet rag, before dipping it in the bucket again and gave it a hard squeeze. "Not doing this to help him. Just doing it so that he could focus on my watch." He said to himself, before getting on all fours and began the arduous task.

-0-

"Hello? Brown-sensei?" Opening the door to the archery range was Shirou, now coming back with the new and improved watch. The clockwork nature of the watch was certainly more of a hassle compared to pipes and faulty electronics, but he eventually adapted to all the tiny cogs and gears working in conjunction and thus was able to repair it in time. There's nothing he could do about the crackled glass face, though.

Entering the range, the teen could not help but let out an impressed whistle as he looked around. While he had no reason to doubt the cleaning skills of William, the results shown here are beyond his expectations. The floor was scrubbed to the point of reflecting light and the bows have been neatly placed into the racks designated for them along with the arrows. And from the looks of it, the bolts have been fitted out with new tips as well. "Woah…never thought Brown-sensei could make it shine. I always thought he was a messy person."

As for the man himself, William was resting on one of the chairs lining up around the walls, solemnly staring at the gleaming floor while hugging his knees to his chest in a manner oddly reminiscent of a hedgehog guarding its fragile underbelly. Hearing the sound cues of Shirou's return, the foreign teacher stood up. "Well?"

Emiya takes one last scrutinizing look at the watch to make sure that it is good to go, before handing it back to William. "I think everything should be working now, Brown-sensei. I can't replace the glass though…" Said a pensive Shirou, twiddling his thumbs together as he speaks.

William said nothing as he observed the watch in his hand, before putting it back around his wrist. True to the boy's words, the clock appears functional again, with Shirou even painstakingly taking the time to set the time back correctly. Well, not entirely correct since he was off by two minutes, but William wasn't about to hold him out for it.

He still makes a note to set the time accurately and get the glass face mended once he gets back home, however. No half-measures. "Huh. I didn't expect you to figure it out, but…good for you, I suppose. Job…well done." He doesn't know if Shirou could see it, but his opinion about the teen just went up a little. It's not enough to commandeer his total respect yet, but it is something nonetheless.

"Could say the same for you." Shirou mentally snarks at the teacher, finding a little humor in how his teacher always seems to have something in his throat whenever the situation calls for him praising someone. But all laughs aside, he sees that glimmer in William's eyes. It is almost imperceptible to the normal eye, but Shirou was sure that, in the loosest of definitions, it was gratitude.

Despite the physics teacher's insistence on maintaining an unflappable exterior, it warms Shirou's heart somewhat to see that he managed to make William feel something positive for once. Even if it was nowhere near being enough to relieve this emptiness he feels.

"It's getting pretty late. We should leave." William said as he peeks his head outside and gazes skyward. There should be a full moon today, considering that it has been twenty-nine days since the last one. And yet…the sky is as black as the void of space, as if the moon is simply not there. There are no clouds either, so the moon couldn't have been blocked out by those. "That's bizarre…it's supposed to be a full moon night, and the moon dipped out."

Shirou walked out alongside William and looked to the sky as well. He had been so absorbed in his work that he wasn't even aware that it had gone dark until the teacher pointed it out. "Oh man, I didn't even notice it. Fuji-nee must have been worried. Sakura isn't coming over tonight, so that's fine."

With both having different lines of thought, Shirou and William made their way to the main gate. Upon giving it a tug, William finds out that it has been locked shut. "Tch…guess we'll have to go all the way to the back now." The physics teacher clicks his tongue in annoyance, dismayed that he has to waste more time trudging to the back gates just to get out of here.

Just as the two of them walked near the fences surrounding the field typically reserved for sporting events, a distinct sound entered their hearing range. The sound of…metal clashing against each other? William, his curiosity piqued first, turned his head to the side. There wasn't just the noise either; large amounts of what looked like sparks flew all over the air, bathing the center of the field in a flashy glow.

"What…what is that?" Shirou's question was met with no answer as his legs, in spite of the red flags getting hoisted up inside his head, began to propel themselves towards the field. It may have sounded like metal banging against each other to William, but to Shirou…it was the unmistakable noise of blades crossing one another.

And its allure has proven to be effective towards Shirou, who now finds himself naturally drawn towards the glow of sparks in the middle of the sports field, with the sounds of clashing swords growing ever more ferocious and rapid.

William was quietly observing the flying sparks with squinted eyes to focus his vision. "Probably some kids burning fireworks…" Making that off-the-cuff reply, he turns back…only to find Shirou no longer by his side. Instead, the boy is already more than twenty footsteps away from him, getting closer and closer to the site. "Hey- wait! Don't just wander off like that!"

The older man gave chase, but when he finally caught up to the teen, they were already close enough to see what was causing all the racket. And thus, with only the flimsy meshes of the fence as their line of defense, William and Shihirou witnessed something that they never would have thought to have the (dis)pleasure of seeing.

In that moment, the words 'blissful ignorance' has never sounded more lovely, yet never sounded so far away.

There, in the middle of the field, were two men whose weapons of steel clashed vigorously against each other, moving at such impossible speeds that no human eye could see their movements. One wields a pair of blades while the other has a spear as long as he is tall, and they both appear to engage in a duel to the death, never resting nor stopping until one falls.

As an awestruck Shirou stood still with his hands shaking from an unknown emotion, William took to watching the two combatants duking it out with confusion and interest at the same time. Just…what is he seeing right now? It was too dark to make out the men' faces and clothing, but he could clearly see their figures shifting around.

All of the sudden, the spear-wielding figure stopped his assault and leaped backwards, away from the range of his opponent. The duo, with William having taken refuge in a bush next to him, raised an eyebrow. He was the one with the superior range, so why did he willingly stop pushing the advantage?

A few seconds of radio silence went by…before the spearman's stance changed. His right foot turns to a new direction.

Their direction. William felt all the oxygen leaving his lungs as his analytical mind went into overdrive. Judging by the proximity and the width of the field itself, they couldn't have been any more than a hundred meters away from the spearman. But other than that shifting in stance, he couldn't have spotted the two, given the half-relaxed pose.

Or is he just feigning ignorance?

That question was rendered irrelevant when Shirou, clearly feeling the dread creeping up his spine, took a step back. At the worst possible time, that step accidentally flattened one of the dried leaves blown here by the wind. The crunching of dry leaves was usually a satisfying thing for someone to hear, but now…it spells nothing but a sensation of inevitable doom.

With much more deliberation, the spear-wielding figure snaps his head towards their direction, staring at the two. "Who's over there?!" His voice, even in the context of questioning, was fierce and loud.

William needed no more prodding to get up from his prone position and start bolting the hell away. Shirou seems to have gotten the memo as well, gasping and quickly taking off after the teacher. Their running paces eventually matched as the two practically trampled each other on the stairs of the main building. Shirou felt inclined to follow William, being the younger of the duo and thus seeking guidance from his elders, whereas William, in his moments of terrible panic, did not know where to flee to so he just chose the nearest place that can be used as a hiding spot.

They would keep on running for at least another minute, skirting pass hallways and ascending flights of stairs until the two reached a long corridor connecting most classes together on the current floor, where William slowed down and grabbed Shirou by the shoulder to stop him from running as well. "Wait!" Said the teacher in between desperate gasps for air, releasing his death grip on his briefcase and dropping it on the floor with a solid thump.

"W-Why, Brown-sensei? If we don't book it now, we're gonna get killed!" Shirou protested, unable to see the logic behind wanting to stop and wait when there is an armed superhuman out for their blood.

"Yes, I know that. But the thing is, I'm tentatively sure that our enemy has seen us running into the building and, if he has more neuron cells than a potato, it's likely that he'll go up the opposite staircase and ambush us…there." With his breathing calmed somewhat, William explains his thoughts as he points a finger at the other end of the hallway. "What we should do is to stay in the middle. That way, both of us can see where he comes from."

Shirou opens his mouth in an attempt to say something, but ultimately decides against it and gives William a curt nod instead before turning around with his back facing him. With the teen covering one end of the corridor, William felt like checking the end where they came from would be the reasonable thing to do next.

Then why do his legs feel heavier with every step? As if his own body is telling him his intuition is wrong and that the spear-wielding assailant will actually appear from where he thought he wouldn't and kill him.

"No. You can't doubt yourself now, William!" The son of Brown berates himself, pushing out any intrusive thoughts. He must be determined, or else he won't be able to achieve anything!

Poking his head out carefully around a corner, William frantically checked every nook and cranny that he could see on the hallway perpendicular to their own. Seeing that there is no immediate danger or any figure lurking around the shadows created by the pale moonlight. It was then that he noticed that the moon had made an appearance, despite not even appearing on the same plane of existence minutes prior. Was it hidden by abnormally thick clouds then?

Shaking his head and giving up trying to make sense of it all, William takes another look. For now, his end of the corridor can be deemed as safe. A relieved sigh escaped him as he turned around to give Shirou the good news. "Looks good over here, Emiya-"

His words were cut short as he saw the tip of a blade, blood red in color, emerge from his right palm, just as he was turning back. Due to the blade penetrating cleanly through his hand, William didn't feel any pain at first. Instead, he was simply paralyzed by shock at the sight he saw once he fully looked back.

There Shirou was, limping with fresh blood leaking in two thin streams on each side of his mouth as he was pierced straight through the heart with an ornate spear, whose blade is currently skewering William's hand along with the boy's body. There was a sense of terrible panic in his face as he tried and failed to reach out to his teacher in time. "Sen…sei…" Thus spoke Shirou Emiya, his last words reserved for the closest thing he has to a mentor figure before life fully fades away from his eyes and is replaced with the duller color of death.

"What a terrible night to be out here, don't you think?" Said Shirou's killer in a deeper, foreign voice as he retracts the spear and lets it rest on his shoulder, the blade dripping with ichor from both Shirou and William as the latter's body drops unceremoniously to the ground.

William, having just witnessed a student of his getting outright murdered, was open-mouthed in horror. The initial effects of shock then wear off and a debilitating pain spread all across his hands and set his nerves on fire, causing the teacher to let out a yell of agony as he fell on his back. "AAAAGH!"

Writhing on the floor while clutching his impaled hand to try to stop the bleeding, William looked up, his eyes nearly stinging with pain as the moonlight gave him a good view of what this mysterious attacker looked like.

Standing before him was a youthful man with eyes as crimson as his weapon and blue hair that is kept in a rattail, all while clad in a tight-fitting bodysuit with armor around the shoulder blades and lower abdomen. A pair of silver earrings dangle gently around his ears as the spearman gives William a flat look.

"It's not like I wanted this, but since you guys saw what happened out there, and the war got some pretty strict rules about outsiders…" The assailant coolly said to William, who at this point was far too terrified to even coherently respond. "So, nothing personal, but you need to die. Don't struggle and I'll try to make it as painless as possible." Said the blue-haired man, before brandishing his spear once again and flicking it sharply into the air to get rid of the residual blood.

What does he mean by 'try'? That's not reassuring at all! Though it should be the least of his concerns at this point. He was about to die, and there is nothing he could do about it.

But he refuses.

He refuses to die here. Stabbed and left to bled out, like some kind of mangy dog getting put down. He looks over to the corpse of Shirou. He died because he let his guard down. William, however, would not make that mistake.

But how, how does one fight an enemy that moves so fast that kills without even making enough noise to wake a baby? William thought about this for a second, before coming to the conclusion that this blue-haired stranger is practically invincible and there is not a chance in hell that he could win…

In a straight fight, that is. For an enemy like this, he would have to use all of his wits to come out victorious, or at least alive. He would have to use this very environment to his advantage, something that he is intimate with given how this is the floor that most of his classes took place.

Not to mention, perhaps making himself look bigger might be a viable tactic as well..

With his plan in motion, William clumsily struggles to his feet before standing up, walking back while facing the stranger. He raises his left hand in an apprehensive manner while blood softly drips from the fingers of his right hand, now unable to move because of the blade severing some tendons when it enters. "Stay right there!" He yells, pointing at the man while biting down on the pain.

The spearman raises his head, clearly befuddled by the human's sudden change in demeanor. One second ago, he was confused and frightened. And now, he is screaming at him. "What?"

"Yes, you! Don't come any closer! I am here and you are there! Stay that way!" William shouted and made his voice as bombastic as humanly possible, complete with exaggerated poses and hand motions. "Come any closer and things will NOT end well!"

"Has fear driven you mad?" Asked the spear wielder in a bemused tone, a light smirk crossing his face.

"Fear? Think again! This isn't because of fear, this is me warning you to stay as far away as possible, lest you get caught up in the sheer, overwhelming power…" The teacher striked a dramatic pose, with his good hand shrouding over his face like a mask while his left thigh raised up to the hip.

He can't believe he is actually going to say this next line, but to quote The Art of War: 'All warfare is based on deception'. To fight is to deceive the enemy, and if he has to bullshit his way through…so be it. "The power of my MAGECRAFT!"

The small, condescending smirk on the spearman's face disappeared…only to be replaced with a bigger, more manic smile. "Ho? So you're a magus then?" It goes without saying that he hardly bought the teacher's words, but a little entertainment every now and then is always good.

"That's right! And if you don't heed my words, I'll unleash its full power on you, with zero chance of survival!" Exclaimed William, forming the number zero with his fingers to prove a point while still making unbroken eye contact with the stranger. Thank goodness that his grandma is gone, or else she would have been jumping out of her grave out of joy if she heard him say that.

But given all the things he has seen thus far, it doesn't sound quite as unbelievable anymore. But still.

"And…what exactly does this magecraft of yours do?" The spearman replied with a calm voice, half-curious as to what William would say.

"A gambler never reveals his cards! But I will let you in on something!" William taps his forehead as he looks at the assailant. "It is something so powerful your feeble minds will never be able to comprehend it in a million years! It shakes the earth! It rumbles with the stars! It controls the elements! Nothing, and I mean nothing, could defend itself against my magecraft!"

Upon hearing William's wild boasts, he couldn't help but chuckle, finding them to be overblown but weirdly charming in a sense. "Right…okay, it's been fun listening to you, but I think I best send you on your way to the afterlife now." Running a finger along the length of his spear, the blue-haired assailant then points the tip towards the teacher. "You know, your friend there just died. I thought you would take this more seriously."

"I AM BEING SERIOUS!" William snaps, pointing an accusing finger at the spear wielder while shooting him a withering glare, before tightening his fist and raising it above Shirou's corpse. "Seeing my student getting killed…it pisses me off to no end! And now, the only way to avenge his death is to let YOU know the horror of your own mortality before I decimate you off the faces of the earth!" Emiya's death didn't actually make him experience that much emotion, but it is enough of a shock that he could convincingly act off of and not sounding too forced at the same time.

With disciplined breathing and bulging muscles, the physics teacher assumed what he thinks is a combat stance before facing the spear-wielding stranger. "But no more words! Now take this, you scum! Suffer the earth-shattering, inconceivable strength of the Brown family's ancestral magecraft!" Roaring a battle cry that sounded more like the mating call of an exotic animal, William rushes at the spearman with a blazing fire in his eyes.

The stranger, out of some odd sense of honor, at least regards William as an opponent, raises his spear and prepares for a decisive strike. After all, magus or no magus, the man before him is still a normal human, and for him to face certain death like this is nothing if not courageous.

The two fighters, one a mortal man and the other a being of great power, face each other. As William came ever closer to the spearman, his fists tightening to the point of whitening his knuckles, it looked like he would score the first blow, before being ruthlessly cut down by an opponent whose respect he had earned…

But alas, truth is stranger than fiction.

Upon entering the range of the spear, William halts his charge, falls down on his ass and starts crawling away with a terrified expression, all in a single motion. "H-Holy shit! What is that?!" He cursed, looking behind the spearman while pointing fingers at something behind his back.

To say that his opponent was dumbfounded would be a major understatement. However, the spearman's surprise at the sudden cowardice displayed before him was usurped by his curiosity as to what was behind him that induces such terror. Shifting his stance and looking back, he expected a third party to join in the fight.

What he got instead, was nothing. Just an empty, lonely corridor illuminated by the light of the moon. "What could he possibly be afraid of-"

His confused mumbles vanished the moment he set his target on William again. Or rather, the absence of him as not a single trace of the teacher remains before him, save for a few bloody handprints and the irregular trail of blood he left behind. "Did he just…oh." The stranger trails off as he sharply inhales, silently fuming upon getting deceived like this.

Meanwhile…

"You absolute fool! You just fell for the oldest trick in the world!" Thought William, currently sprinting across the hallway where he and Shirou came from in order to reach the stairs. That way, he could get back down to the yard, where it naturally offers more space to run around.

Unlike what its name may imply, the 'Brown family's Ancestral Magecraft' is more aligned towards defense than offense, as well as disturb and confuse the enemy, to make them sway. A form of special magecraft passed down only to the firstborns of the Brown family, it consists of willfully manifesting your soul and heart into an aura that creates a believable distraction while carefully and quickly retreating from the opponent, as well augmenting the user's eyesight in order to pay better attention to their surroundings for things that may assist in defeating the enemy.

To most, it might just seem that William is running away like a total coward…which he is, but not in the way that one would imagine. He isn't running away merely to preserve his own hide, he is running away to come up with a plan to retaliate against the one who killed Shirou-

"First thing first, get the hell out of this place! Second thing, get a different job! Hotaruzuka, I'm working full-time for you now!" Okay, he is running away to preserve his own hide. Perhaps that brief stroke with death was all it takes to remove his pride. Has William invalidated his own right to be a hero?

Reaching the stairs, the physics teacher was about to slide down the rails…only to find that same red blade piercing him again, this time through the thigh. If the pain in his hand was already bad, the agony in his thigh was far, far worse as there was far more flesh, thus more nerve endings for the blade to cut and tear. "Leaving so soon?" The smug tone of the man with the spear irritates his ears again. With the blade still embedded deep inside William's thigh, the blue-haired assailant cracks a mean sneer before lifting him up with the spear itself supporting the teacher's weight, further causing him pain as his own mass pushes against the blade. Then, the spearman took a wide swing and sent William flying through the air.

Crashing against a wall next to a classroom and tumbling to the ground, William could tell that a rib or two must have cracked or even broken from the impact. The new aches in his back and right side, compounded by the bleeding wounds in his hand and thigh, seems to have been the final straw to William's tolerance as he laid still on the floor, incapacitated by the pain. Blood from the raw, penetrative wound in his hand and thigh pools up at an alarming rate and stains his clothes. "How the hell..did he catch up so fast…the hallway was fifty meters long, and I got a three-second head start…so how-"

"And here I thought…you could actually give me a challenge. Oh well, I should have known better than to believe the words of a man under the threat of death." The stranger ran a hand over his blue mane, briskly approaching the downed William while gripping onto his spear tightly, primed and ready to attack at a moment's notice. "But I'll give credit where it's due: that was a clever ploy you pulled off. Too bad, trickery will only get you so far."

"Not to mention…abandon a fight? I trusted that you would fight honorably. You must have been desperate to resort to something that low." The spearman spoke up with a hint of disdain in his words, not taking being tricked by William too well. Watching the wounded teacher trying and failing to get some kind of distance between them, he huffs indignantly. "Where did all of that bravado go?"

However, his words simply fell in one ear and out of another, as William was less concerned with honor and more with how to stay conscious, given that the spear has likely grazed his femoral artery and now he is exsanguinating. Weakly pressing his hands on the wound to prevent any more blood from escaping, the teacher's haggard breathing fills the air as he tries to crawl away.

He had no more tricks up his sleeve, and with the injuries piling up, he was all but helpless against this seemingly-unbeatable enemy. "Now…stay still, will you? Let's get this over with." The stranger said, seemingly bored with William's futile struggles as he raises his spear and aims the blade squarely at where his heart would be.

Bleeding out, wounded and cornered, William rolls over onto his back to look at his soon-to-be murderer, several locks of his brown hair breaking away from his ponytail and swaying over his eyes. Is this it? Is this how his life ends? It has been a crappy ride so far, but deep down inside, he still held onto the hope that his life will take a turn for the better. And now, his life will be extinguished before that day even comes. As despair slowly wraps its black, wiry tendrils around his heart…

"Even though you saw what I could do down there, you and that kid still chose to run. Even after I killed him, you still run, despite knowing that it won't make much of a difference. Wouldn't it be smarter to just lay down and have a quick death? I suppose fright does make people more stupid." Said the stranger, taunting William one last time. Little did he know…

That would be the biggest mistake he had made yet.

William's eyes, previously closed as he accepted his fate, shot open upon hearing that word. He had just been called 'stupid'. Killing a student and grievously wounding him, he could understand, but insulting his intelligence? Boy, he would be damned if his last will and testament includes shoving those words so far up this guy's ass he will be spitting them. "I won't forgive it! I won't!"

The stranger, just as he was about to impale William, took notice of his eyes. No longer was there a sense of distress inherent to all those who are about to face impending death. This mortal man, despite being in a position of utmost vulnerability, now has the eyes of a raging storm, his pupils seemingly transforming into plumes of blackened fire. "What's with that look? Wasn't he trying to run moments ago?" The spear wielder pondered, his weapon of choice only a finger's length away from skewering his target.

As his despair swiftly gets overturned by a terrible feeling of anger, a strange aura of blue and silver emanates from the depths of William's soul and surrounds his body from head to toe, bathing every inch of skin in an iridescent light. Droplets of his blood began to inexplicably levitate into the air, shaking as if some unseen force is physically holding onto them to maintain their shape.

The stranger, his instincts telling him that something momentous was about to happen, and not necessarily in his favor, quickly thrusts his spear downwards to finish William off. In all scenarios, he would have skewered the man's heart right now…

Except he didn't. Not because of some last-minute pang of sympathy or kindness, but because of the simple fact that the blade will not sink into William's chest no matter how hard the spearman pushed down, like there was some sort of force field preventing the spear from moving any further than hovering a hair's breadth above his chest.

The physics teacher instinctively raises his left arm to block his face when the stranger makes a move to end his life, unaware that there is an invisible shield holding the blade back for the meantime. After realizing that his demise came a couple of seconds too late, William moves his arm away and sees that the spearman is visibly straining his muscles, trying to push the spear in and failing for some unexplained reason.

Just as he was about to reel his fist back for a counterattack, however, several beams of light suddenly erupt from random spots on his arm. For a second, his rage turned into confusion, which then turned into horror as the skin of his left arm then proceeded to split itself in the middle, tearing open a vertical line from his wrist all the way to his elbow. Somehow, it doesn't bleed nor does it cause him any discomfort, much to his astonishment. He couldn't even see the insides, not even bones or muscles. "W-What the hell is going on with my arm?!"

Just as he was questioning his own sanity from witnessing the sight, from the parted skin in his arm emerged another arm. William instantly remembers it as the ethereal, mechanical arm he saw the day prior, when Goda and his goons were knocking him around. The long, spindly fingers grab onto a nearby chair leg and heave itself further out of his arm.

Meanwhile, the stranger is now finding himself inexplicably floating into the air, along with every other object in the immediate vicinity. Flailing around and repositioning himself with inhuman grace, he readies up his spear again, this time aiming for William's head. He leaps forward…

…and is immediately repelled away when William was fully engulfed by a blue light as that 'figure' fully emerges from behind his back and from his arm, creating a forceful expulsion of air that knocks the spear wielder off his balance.

Objects that were previously affected by their sudden weightlessness now fall to the ground, resuming their daily lives of being under the effects of gravity. As the spearman clambers to his feet and assumes a stance, pointing the spear at William…he sees something else by the man's side as well. A small, but blithe smile slowly appears on his lips.

"So I see... you do have a magecraft after all. And a strange one at that." Said the stranger, his face makes it clear that even he isn't sure that 'magecraft' would be the correct word to call the thing he saw before his very eyes.

William, his eyesight still recovering from being covered in light, looked at the spearman with confusion, but no less anger as he remembered what he said about his intelligence. Slowly standing up while ignoring the mystical blue aura surrounding him and the bleeding wounds in his hand and thigh, he shot the spearman a piercing stare filled to the brim with fury. "What the hell are you talking about?"

As if meant to answer his question, something placed its hand on his shoulder and moved in front of him. In his eyes, William saw a diminutive humanoid with various robotic features adorning its body, with a sturdy torso and elongated mechanical arms greater in proportion to its body. Its dark, spherical shoulders bear the bold outlines of two arrows, the right one pointing up and the left pointing down. Its hips and crotch took the shape of a barrel-like unit suspended at the base of a flat spine on its back, possessing two small legs with truncated feet that looked more like brick slabs.

One would call it a spirit since it was floating like one, but all William saw was some kind of ghostly robot colored in sky blue with strips of gunmetal gray running down from the base of its pronounced shoulders down to its hips. The mechanical-looking spirit turns its oversized head shaped like an upturned bucket towards William, directing its empty, cog-shaped eye sockets at his blue eyes. Was it…awaiting an order from him?

"Is this…is this what grandma always talks about? I wonder if I can control it…" William wondered, reminiscing of his late relative. Moira could go on and on when it comes to supernatural stuff, especially when it comes to the topic concerning weird-looking spirits you can summon if your will and aptitude for magic is strong enough. Shrugging, William casts his gaze on the stranger again. "Move closer to him." As commanded, the strange-looking ghost floats towards the spearman, causing the latter to take a step back to ascertain his target's newfound power.

"Well, well…now, you're fucked." The teacher gave a cocky grin in spite of his wounds, leaning against a door while pointing a finger at the spearman with the force of God behind it. He wasn't wholly sure of what was even going on, but now that he has a spirit that follows him and his every command…it gave him a power high of the greatest magnitude. "Now prepare to perish! Spirit, attack!" He hadn't had a name for the thing yet, but it understood him just fine and flew forward with its fingers, each having a sharp point at the tip, stretched out.

The stranger's facial features hardened, now taking the fight more seriously, but still not to the degree that would warrant him using everything in his arsenal. As he and William's ethereal creature close in on one another, the ghost makes the first strike, swiping its hand at the spearman's head.

But of course, the swing was nowhere near fast enough to catch the stranger, who simply moved his head to one side, dodging the attack entirely. He considers attacking the ghost, but since he has no knowledge of the thing's true properties, for all he knew, the spear might just phase through the mechanical ghost. Thus, he decides to go for William.

Nevertheless, the spirit wasn't quite finished yet. Turning around at an unexpected angle thanks to its airborne position, the ethereal robot-esque being delivers a kick to the back of the stranger's head. Due to the spearman having a single-minded focus on William at the point, he was unable to dodge it this time and the kick connects.

The stranger, despite his head being physically knocked back by the force of the kick, doesn't appear to be injured in the slightest. Stopping his charge momentarily, he softly touches the back of his head and nape. "Oi…is that one supposed to hurt me?" Said the spearman with a mocking tone, not feeling anything from the kick at all.

William could feel his confidence dissolving as he mentally ordered the ghost to attack again. The robot complies, but after a couple more punches and kicks that the stranger willingly lets it perform, a realization slowly starts to sink into both men: this spirit of William is incredibly physically weak.

"Enough of this." Ignoring the odd spirit, the assailant charges at William and reaches him in the blink of an eye, leaving the teacher defenseless with no chance to react. Once within range, the stranger jabs his spear straight into the teacher's gut, but instead of getting impaled, William was simply sent flying a couple of meters back from the power behind the thrust.

William crashes into the wall behind him and tumbles to the ground, further aggravating his existing injuries. Clutching his stomach in agony, he fully expects to see a hole down there…and much to his bemusement, there wasn't one. Sure, he could see some blood staining his shirt already, but everything else feels intact. As if that spear thrust only breaks the skin and nothing else. "How did I…?" It still hurts like a bitch, though.

"Huh… funny. That one should have gone clean through you." Said the spearman, unable to hide his surprise as well. As far as he is concerned, that 'ghost' of his didn't provide William any kind of additional defense other than, well, having a ghost to fight for him, as weak as it may be. "Guess I'll just cut you up then."

As the spearman's grip on the spear tightened, William saw that his ghost had manifested by his side once more. Looking at it with profound dejection, he punches the floor without regard for his wounds. "It can't be…is my hidden power this pitiful? After that whole process and this is all it amounts to?" He thought, completely unwilling to accept that this power he summoned could be so weak. He has the will to kill the bastard, and all he gets in return is this?

The spirit silently observed its 'master', its hollow sockets barely reaching above his shoulders due to it being about one-third of William in height and size. Levitating itself over his head, the spirit moves closer to his right ear.

Fac ut gravibus.

"There's that voice again! Where did it-" William's eyes darted left and right, before landing on his ghostly guardian. In spite of not having anything remotely close to resembling a functional mouth, the thing was whispering to him and he could hear its voice. It is hard to describe what its voice sounds like exactly, but William thought it was high-pitched. Though, the thing was a little too close for comfort.

"Fac ut gravibus…" It murmured again. What could that possibly mean? Latin was the one course he didn't bother taking for college unless absolutely necessary, so his knowledge of the language is quite limited. The ghost then moves in front of William, shielding him from the stranger's oncoming attack.

Already seeing what it could do, William could only openly despair as the spirit will inevitably try to attack the spearman again to absolutely no effect, and he will get cut down. His eyes at half-mast, the teacher slumps to the ground, watching the ghost…

Doing something different? Instead of trying to attack with its limbs again, the robotic-looking spirit adopts a stance where it joins its hands together and points them at the spearman with its arms raised. Turning its arms around so that its left hand is above its right, the spirit stands still as the stranger rapidly closes the distance between him and William.

"W-What are you doing? Attack!" William protested to no avail, as the ghost remained silent with its joined hands poised towards the spearman. Producing an aura around itself, the spirit looked up the second the stranger entered its range. Then, its left hand raises, showing its palm.

The stranger was initially confused by the spirit's actions, but thought nothing of it as he moved in for a swift slash…before a huge weight suddenly appeared on his back, killing his momentum and abruptly forcing him to the ground. He tried to get back up, only to find that same weight persisting and sinking him to the floor again. His spear, however, did not seem to be affected. "What the hell?!" Thought the stranger with widened eyes, frantic that he is being kept down by an unseen weight that is roughly as heavy as he is. It wasn't so heavy that movement was impossible, but it greatly affected his agility.

As the spirit maintains its stance, William sits up, his mouth open and slackened out of sheer astonishment. Watching the stranger immobilized by the ghost's ability, he turned towards it, fingers pointing at it and then at the spearman. "D-Did you…do that?"

A quick, confirming nod was its only reply. William, his expression of incredulity fading away, gazes upon the spear-wielding stranger with a smirk forming on his lips. "So this…is what magecraft is like. Amazing…"

Leaning against a wall for support, William pushes himself back on his feet, clutching his sore abdomen along the way. As a surge of confidence fills up his soul, the teacher strikes a pose behind his summoned ghost, with his legs spread apart and his hand pressed on his chest. He then remembers the term that his grandmother would use to call her own spirit, which would explain why she sometimes spark a conversation with the empty air.

His eyes glowering and his aura growing larger into an intense haze of blue, William looked at the stranger dead in the eyes. "This...is my Effigy."