Fate/Bonds Beyond Humanity
Admitting a mistake here… my username was misspelled(Apprentice was with a 'd' because in Brazil 'aprendiz' is the word and my wires got crossed). Also have edited the first chapter for a better experience. If work allows me I will try to improve the others if necessary, you guys tell me what you think. I would have to focus on that which would delay new chapters for a bit.
Speaking of mistakes… I thought I had edited chapter 6… apparently I didn't… it will be fixed… sooner or later it will be fixed… thanks for all the comments.
…..
7- Malls Have Everything.
Upon hearing the news most of the club congratulated them but none had any real advice on how to have a date. Setsuna, taking upon herself the duty of having the best date possible and looking for information. She began her research by asking one of the students that apparently had gone on plenty of dates, a girl called Maho.
By the end of Monday, everyone knew that the two of them were going on a date and Setsuna looked confused the next day when a lot of girls surrounded her and tried to give her advice, ask questions or just try to talk about it in general.
In contrast Shirou's day was mostly normal with a few guys offering their congratulations or proclaiming their eternal hatred and how life was unfair that he was getting a date, the last part was just two people but Shirou noticed.
During lunch Setsuna was still surrounded and she looked unavailable to eat with them like she usually did. Taking pity on her, Shirou stopped close to them, said hello to all present and gave her the bento he usually made right there in front of everyone. When he did that the second time everyone really took notice and asked questions, once they knew he was the cook many were impressed.
Now he was in first place on the ranking of 'best boys to date', Kiba even clapped for his raise of popularity feeling some relief that he was now second, his situation didn't change much but now there were more girls wanting Shirou to go on a date with them instead of the Knight.
The redhead didn't pay attention to it and instead focused on having a normal week. "Yoh, Emiya." While he was leaving the bathroom Shinji popped inside and started to wash his hands.
"Matou-san." Shirou saluts with a nod and starts to wash his own hands. The both of them never talked much, having nothing in common as far as they knew and both not knowing that the other also was a practitioner of the mystic arts but if Shinji was going to be polite it was the least that Shirou could do.
"Say... I heard that you have a date with Higurashi-san. Is that true?" The blue haired boy asked with curiosity but a politeness in his tone while he brushed his hair.
With no reason to not answer Shirou was honest. "Yes, we are going to go out this Saturday."
"And have you decided where you two are going?"
"Should I? I mean, a date is just something to have fun, right?" Shirou was willing to let the chips fall where they may or let Setsuna tell him what she wanted to do.
"Emiya, Emiya, Emiya! I can't believe how ignorant you are about dating." Then with a pause Shinji commented. "Or maybe you are since you used to be all 'work and no play'. Tsc, tsc" He waved his finger around. "That is bad form Emiya. A man has to set the pace for the date and have it all planned in such a way that the woman will enjoy it. That is what can get you the good stuff later."
Not really knowing if Shinji was right or wrong but respecting the fact that he had seen his classmate with one girl or another on his arm Shirou can't help but ask. "Then how do I do it?"
"Unfortunately I don't have enough time to help you." Shinji's voice seemed to carry a sincere tone of regret. "If we only talked early or we had been friends in the past… But that ship already sailed, unfortunately." The red head was getting confused with that statement.
"Then…?" Waiting to hear anything, Shinji just shakes his head.
"Want to have a lot of options? Got to the mall. It has almost everything you need and you can improvise from there." And with that Shinji was gone.
'Well… he is right about having options.' There was only one mall in Fuyuki too so he can only hope that there would be stuff there Setsuna would enjoy.
…..
"Just to make it clear; don't follow them tomorrow." Rias put her foot down the second Shirou moved to the forge with Liz. Setsuna had not gone to the ORC for a few days now with lots of people noticing she was looking for another club and offered to help.
"Buchou, what an awful thing to say." Akeno had her usual smile while getting ready to teleport, she had a client or two tonight. "This sounds like something you would do."
Her eyebrow twitching, Rias avoided throwing any comment about that and looked at Rin. "And you?"
"Why would I do it, Buchou?" Rin asked while trying to understand the reports in front of her. She was still getting acclimated with her new position. "I have nothing to do with what Emiya-kun wants to do. If he wants to go on a date, let him."
The youngest of the present trio was completely focused on her work, most of it was Rias' work that she gave to the younger woman to teach her some basics and considering that her livelihood depended on it she had no time for 'boys'.
Nodding and accepting Rin's answer she looks to her second in command. "I mean it Akeno. I know you have a crush on him." That was enough of a comment for Rin to get startled and hit her leg on her table.
"True." Impressing the others, Akeno just admitted. "But it is just a friendly date and it may result in nothing. I can wait." With that she steps up to her summoned circle. "And if something does happen… I don't mind being a mistress."
Before the pureblood devil could reply her Queen was already gone and she could only massage her eyes. "Good grief, she could at least be subtle." Then Rias looked at Rin. "You sure you won't try anything?"
The question left Tohsaka perplexed. "Why would I try anything?" Now that it was just the two of them Rin couldn't help but frown. "Are you sure that what is happening is fine?"
"Why wouldn't you?" Rias asked with a smile. "Shirou is going on a date. I am honestly happy for him and since I have a pact with his whole family line, if he and Setsuna get together she will enter under my protection too." Raising an eyebrow the King then asks. "Honestly that is the reason why I thought you would have a problem with it."
"Are you implying that I would be after him… because of the pact?" Rin didn't even feel insulted.
"Are you?"
"No, I don't want to get with someone like that." The idea of arranged marriage… it passed by her head for a bit. "I joined you to protect my sister from such a thing. If I went and did something just because it was politically advantageous there is a high chance that Sakura would gut me."
"But don't you need to marry a magus or someone with circuits to maximize the odds of your descendants having them?" She could see the magus fliching because she couldn't deny it. "The magus community pretty much turned it into a form of breeding mixed with alliances and backstabbing."
Because they lived in the relative isolation of Japan the Tohsaka kept themselves away from that mess most of the time but Rin got her point. "I know that I have to find a suitable partner but I'm not in a hurry."
"So you will do it?" Rias couldn't stop herself. "You will do your duty to your family?"
"I have to." With that Rin just wanted to go back to her work.
"But if you had to choose, between your happiness and your duty, which one would you choose?" But the president of the club was not done yet.
"I-"
"Let me make this clear," Rias was not going to mince words on this, "if you knew for a fact that by doing your duty you would give up your happiness… would you do it?"
"How?" Rin decided to go for a question of her own. "How would I know I would give up my happiness? This is a thing that didn't even happen yet and the only magus with circuits around that is worth a damn is Emiya." Once she said the last comment her face had gone red. "That doesn't mean I'm considering him or anything!"
"Maybe not now?" The heiress suggested with a smile. "Who knows? I could give him some suggestions. 'Look how Rin is looking good today', 'Rin is such a hard worker'." More and more the head of the Tohsaka family goes red as her favorite sweater.
"Would you?" The question interrupted the teasing. "Would you give up your happiness-"
"No!" Came out decisively. "I would fight and bite and struggle to do my duty and keep my happiness."
"But…. if you couldn't?"...
Without saying anything Rias gets up from her chair and starts to march out of the office. Rin could tell by the silence she may have stepped into something she shouldn't and for a moment she tried to contemplate what.
Leaving the room Rias keeps going and also leaves the building, frustration building up in her mind. 'It is fine. Everything is fine.' She reasure herself on the back of her mind. 'My peerage is strong and growing stronger, Shirou is making good progress in his research and there are some potential sacred gears on the school ground.'
That was one of the things Rias was paying great attention to; she can't tell who has what but both she and Sona were still looking for members to join their family and had concluded that at least half a dozen of the normal students had sacred gears already. The problem is that none had manifested one yet but the boundary field dictated that another six entered the school at least at the beginning of the term.
Frustration was building up in her mind anyway, there was much potential around but until the sacred gear woke up there was no way to know what anyone had. All they could identify is that someone had it but until it showed itself all the person exhibited if studied was a small spark of divinity.
'Jumping the gun and reincarnating someone without more information would be stupid.' Rias reminds herself. 'It would be like playing the lottery; every ticket is a prize ticket but maybe the prizes were all bad or maybe there would be one good.' Either way she can't risk it as of yet.
Funny thing about sacred gears is that nobody knows for sure how many are out there. Or, to be more exact, only God knows since he created them and maybe any angel who asked but the general population had no idea.
Everyone knew about the most valuable ones, the more dangerous ones, but Rias doubted that even Azazel would have the whole list and even if he did he fell from heaven a long time ago and who knew how many more powerful sacred gears were made after that.
But for everyone that was useful there was one that was useless, or at the very least needed years of training to for it to become something worthwhile. There were the 13 Longinus, sacred gears that had so much power or the ability capable of killing gods but these were just 13 out of hundreds with most ranging from moderately strong to worthless and then there were some that were unsuited for combat but still had powerful effects.
At least she only had Sona to compete for them since Seekvaira and Rutal both had complete peerages and only her best friend and herself needed to find more people to join and were allowed to use the boundary field for that purpose, a decree that her brother was happy to give to her both of love and the little help he could legitimately give.
Reaching the training clearing she makes her family seal on her hands and soon plenty of stone, straw and even metal puppets appear all around. Targets. Something she definitely needs right now.
Starting by building up her energy Rias is soon covered by a dark red aura that many would call sinister and start throwing her Power of Destruction around without regard for the field or order as she unleashed her power without restraint.
She can't help herself but think. 'My brother didn't need these.' Looking for the magic circle in front of her that released a stream of power at some puppets direction and annihilated every single one of them and even some trees behind. Unlike for the others where the material of the puppets would give some resistance, as existences without mana, Rias could decimate them easily.
Blasting another five puppets on one blast she tries to follow up by using just her mana and focusing her aura as a conductor. That was a trick she had seen her brother, Sirzechs Lucifer do hundreds of times. His power is so great that circles were just a formality for him at this point since he was able to channel the power of destruction through his whole body with barely a thought.
Watching Rin teach Akeno, Rias can't deny she was paying close attention to try and learn the theory. She didn't have magic circuits and as a devil, imagination played an important part in her process with her magic circle doing the necessary to execute the action.
Her brother reached a point he didn't need that.
He tried to explain to her once, to anyone really but he was just on a league of his own. His best friend was the opposite and used magic circles for everything but the strongest devil literally moved beyond that. Sure there were devils that didn't use magic circles but they generally had a replacement, either a sacred gear, a weapon or something else that was part of their lineage.
Rias wanted to do what her brother did, to have so much control over the Power of Destruction that she just needed to snap her fingers and watch things blow up.
'Need to get stronger.' The thought didn't leave her head when she destroyed the last doll and summoned more to start the process all over again, she will have to pay extra to the people that fix it but that was no problem. 'More!'
Focusing mana on her circle she gets working in trying to change the shape of her power into a ball. Instead of building up over time, she rushes it and the result literally blows up on her face, snapping her out of her disturbed state of mind.
Taking a few deep breaths, Rias calms down. 'It is fine. I still have plenty of time. A whole two years.' The deal she made with her family was that until she graduated high school, with good grades to avoid stalling because she would stall if given the chance, the deal itself is a form of stalling. 'My graduation is still far away and Shirou is going to get EM mass production soon enough'.
That was her hope, one of them. To convince her father to allow her to fight off her engagement she had to stack the deck against herself. Riser is older by half a century, had a complete peerage and was the most talented member of his clan only losing to his older brother and yet he still has the superior healing factor.
Rias was starting behind but she had her own advantages, the fact that she was in the human world being the main one of them. Shirou was not the only good thing she found but it still wasn't enough, not yet but her time is not up and she was using it the best she can. There are other tools she can get to even the odds but most were rare and she had run into a problem as of late.
Her power stopped growing, or to be more precise she hit a limit,a wall, and got stuck. She can't break it, it doesn't matter what she does and she is trying everything that comes to mind. It wasn't unexpected when following some theories about the limits a devil could have with their bloodline, most devils were born with only one when they had any and it was common knowledge that sooner or later they would hit a limit when using it. Her older sibling being the exception.
But she had two bloodlines, two powers of the great devil houses and that was rare, absurdly so with her being one of the few if not the only one since no one else claimed that. Devil's Luck was arguably one of the strongest powers for anything other than combat, it was a theory that first she developed her luck and then the Power of Destruction since both her father and her had Luck on their side. But that was of little use in a 'fair' fight, that is why the only 'legal' way for getting out of her engagement was combat where Raiser can just use brute force and defeat her.
Rias is not dumb, she knew that there were plenty of houses wanting to see if she can either revive their bloodlines or strenghten them with her luck. That also gives her a chance of winning the 'illegal' way, by knocking the Phenex clan out of contention by taking away their main power that was their monetary assets.
Even the threat of it can be enough since she will be first a Gremory even if she was part of their family. After that the sharks will smell the blood in the water and the rich family will have a ton of problems if they don't let her go. That is just one of the means she can use but she needs time.
After a short break, she tries again to control more of her power, this time she is going slower and taking it easy with the resulting failures blowing up in ways that didn't harm her again.
"I won't give up! I refuse!" She says with conviction. "I will show everyone what the heiress of Gremory can do!" With two powers of the great devils houses she is going to surpass her limits and find a way to get rid of Riser.
Determination renewed, Rias took the rest of the day and the night to train. Even if she can't do magecraft she is going to try and apply some lessons to improve.
…..
There are few times in life Shirou can say he was legitimately nervous. First few days living with his family after meeting them, the time his dad almost burned down the house, his encounters with devils. A part of him was certain that the day of his first date, ever, was going to fall in next time he makes a list.
At the moment he was in front of the mirror and getting the final touches, for a while he thought about how he should go about the whole thing. For a minute he thought of calling his mother and asking for advice… that idea lasted for the whole minute and no more.
"You ready to go?" Liz entered his room, dressed casually with a white shirt that hid nothing and shorts ready for a day of relaxing at home.
On the other hand Shirou was dressed with a blue button up shirt and a black shirt underneath, jeans, his best sneakers and a watch on his right arm. "Yes. I just… don't know what to do about the hair."
Usually he kept his hair normal without combing or anything like that but a date is supposed to be special even if it is only as friends, he knew he wanted Setsuna to have a good time.
"What is the problem? It looks fine."
"Is it? It is just the same as always." He was looking to himself again and could say for certain he was well dressed but he looked just the same in his opinion.
"You could do what your mother always wanted." With a frown he pulled his hair completely back. "See. Your eyes look more sharp, your forehead is not that big to distract from them and you really look like an adult."
Shirou didn't disagree with her but he felt that the style wasn't for him. "I look like a douchebag." Liz frowned and took a good look at him. "Liz?"
"Ssh." She started to mess with his hair.
"What are you doing?"
"Stay quiet." Moving her hands she didn't hesitate in getting even closer to Shirou to the point that he was feeling parts of her on his back. Usually that wouldn't be that much of a problem but he was already too nervous to be in this situation.
"Liz! Auch!" She pulled his hair.
"Almost done." After a few more pulls and twitches she steps back and Shirou pays attention to himself again.
It was his hair but more pulled up but the front was not completely pulled back. It was better than his previous work. "Thanks."
"You look good now." Liz complemented. "Almost like a hero ready for a cool last stand with lots of cool one liners."
"... You are watching too much anime." The white haired maiden gave him a smile.
"Doesn't mean I'm wrong." She then flicks his nose. "If something happens, call me. I will be there as fast as I can."
"What is wrong?" Then the maid turned around. "Liz? What is the matter?"
"It's just…" The maid then pulls out a tissue. "It's your first date… and I'm the only one to see you off."
Shirou raised an eyebrow and moved to look at Liz, her face was still the same. "Please tell me that mom didn't put you up to that."
Liz chuckles. "Don't worry. I didn't tell her." After Shirou let out a sigh of relief she says. "You better get going. A girl doesn't like when the guy arrives late."
Checking his watch Shirou noticed that he still had plenty of time but just to be sure and since he was going to walk there, "Yes, I should get going just to be safe."
"Remember to bring me something." Moving to the couch she sits on her place that was pretty much marked for her.
"You know I'm going on a date right?" The homunculus chuckles.
"A friendly date. Bring me something." Accepting the situation he was in, Shirou just sighs.
"Yes, yes." While he was leaving he commented. "Make sure to watch the house."
Leysritt just gives him a thumbs up and he sighs again making a mental note to get something for her. Deciding that he should get going he picked his cell and started walking, the bundle of nerves on his stomach growing progressively more unstable.
To start the date they decided to meet close to the mall. When Shirou had suggested the mall Setsuna agreed immediately saying that some girls had given the same suggestion telling her that it would be the ideal location for a date.
Standing by himself Shirou looked around for any signs of his date and then checked his watch. There were still 10 minutes before the agreed time but he was already ready to go. 'I really want this to start soon.' So distracted he was that he didn't notice his surroundings and the presence behind him.
"Shirou?" Almost jumping out of his own skin the magus turns around and is able to see Setsuna as she approaches him more. "You are here early." She sounded pleased by it.
Looking at her he could see that he was not the only one ready for this date, dressing into a shirt with short sleeves and another unbuttoned one over it, both in different shades of blue with a black bag over her shoulder. Her trousers were black, the same color as her sandal shoes..
Compared to normally at school Setsuna looked more feminine with some jewelry on her arms and a little touch of make-up that brought more attention to her eyes. She was also missing her usual ponytail, her hair was completely free for the first time since he met her, going past her shoulder until the middle of her back.
Finding his center Shirou says confidently. "You look beautiful." His honesty shining outshining his nerves.
"Thank you. You look good yourself." Her voice was still the same even in these circumstances. "Are you ready to begin?"
"Yes! I mean, yes." Managing to control his emotions a little more, Shirou offers his arm which she took. "I checked some movies if you want to watch one. There is also this place we can eat."
She nods at his suggestion, noticing that they fell with her own plans. "I had the same ideas and there are other things I wish to do." With that they enter the mall and the date officially starts. The couple not realizing someone was following them, mostly Shirou, for some time now.
The first thing they did was 'window shopping'. They passed by some stores and just checked some stuff, nothing much in reality but it was something that Setsuna wanted to do and Shirou obliged.
Most of her targets were clothing stores for some reason, she would look at some, frown and turn around while looking for another place, pulling the redhead around most of the time. They saw diverses kinds of stores like this, from clothes, to shoes, to more clothes. Shirou noticed a theme going there but decided to not comment and moved along.
They stopped in front of an electronics store for a bit and Setsuna pulled something from her bag, Shirou couldn't see what it was but he got to look for some new models of computers, even if he didn't use one much often he liked to work on them. Once the young woman had finished whatever she was doing they moved again, this time to the food court.
For that Shirou did some research on the most well ranked place to eat on the mall, a 5 stars place known for their sushi. "I don't like sushi." That was the first time Shirou was hearing of this. "I prefer more substantial types of meat. I can eat fish just fine but…"
"Okay, we can try other stuff…" Now, the magus is really good at the culinary arts but he wouldn't be able to tell which one place would have the best food without tasting it, especially since all the food there is made to be attractive. "Do you have any preferences?" When she shakes her head Shirou sighs.
Setsuna is not a picky eater, he knows this since she never complains about what he made for her and since the only problem was sushi they go for chinese. It was something that they don't eat much and Shirou admits he doesn't know how to cook the style very well so it would be a new experience.
Unfortunately for them they ended up getting one of the worst places of the mall, even if most can't notice it they can. The food was too oily and the smell was a mixture that both could tell, with Shirou's trained senses and Setsuna's more developed ones, that it was not healthy to eat that.
What made the matter worse was that they could see other people eating the same food and for a second they looked at each other, asking silently if they would really eat the food. After a couple of seconds Shirou asks. "Want to see the movie now?"
"Yes please." They left the food untouched and looked for the theater of the mall.
It was easy to find, being close to the food court and had some stores around it that were under construction or reform.
The movie they would watch was called 'Waters of October', something romantic and had Setsuna looking away from him for a second, checking a small book she had picked out from her bag and then looking back at him again, pleased.
Since they didn't get to eat a reasonable hour they compensated by buying lots of popcorn and other lunches for the movie. When they both got in the actual projection room they had so much food and drinks that they had to use extra chairs to the sides to avoid dropping anything.
Setting themselves down they got ready to watch the movie, it started standard enough and both were enjoying it until Setsuna started to hear some noises. Looking around she noticed a couple kissing.
Paying a little more attention she could see that there were other couples doing it as well or just sharing a moment with each other. For the first time in a while the hanyou gets embarrassed and looks at her date.
The cinema is considered a place where couples had an excuse to be closer to each other and she started to berate herself. 'Did I really get this much food? Wasn't the idea to give Shirou a good date experience.' Nodding to herself and treating this as a mission Setsuna got ready to make a move.
While Shirou was distracted she positioned herself to act by doing a classical initial maneuver, placing her head on his shoulder. Unfortunately events didn't play out exactly like she wanted and when she started to relax her body the food on her lap fell down, starling Shirou. "Setsuna." He whispers in a panic and unfortunately also drops his own but this time on the couple on the front.
"WHAT THE HELL MAN!" The guy gets upset and turns to face Shirou.
"I'm sorry. It was an accident!" Shirou tries to defend his situation.
"Are you an idiot?" The guy was not having any of it. "You just drop stuff on us out of nowhere! How is that an accident?"
Before an explanation could be offered someone else screamed. "Just shut up! We are trying to see a MOVIE HERE!"
The guy that still had a bit of popcorn on him had just got more upset. "Oh yeah! Come here and make ME!" Deep down he was just trying to impress his own date. What he didn't expect was that the actual complainer just got up and he was much taller than the ordinary japanese.
"Just SHUT UP!" He moves to the first one and Shirou tries to deescalate the situation.
"It was an accident, okay? Let's all just calm down." Working in his favor was the collected culture that the japanese population established in the last few decades. Working against him were teenagers, hormones and people who expected to get laid today.
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" The bigger guy throws the first punch and to avoid further violence Shirou acts and immobilizes him. He grabs the arm and throws him down, pinning him to the ground.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" In came the security with at least three people and lots of the ones present let out groans, laughter and complaints. "You! Red Haired one! You are coming with us!"
"Sir, this is a mistake." Setsuna jumped in defense of her friend. "There was an accident-"
Events conspired on that moment and another girl stepped up. "That punk hurt my Tadaki-kun." And in a way she was right.
Without context it appeared that Shirou had just beat down the guy actually on the ground, adding that to the fact that only his date was saying they were innocent and that most wanted them out and the result was the security taking them out of the premises to the sound of cheers and more laughter.
…..
'This date was a disaster.' Shirou couldn't help but think while he and Setsuna marched out of the mall, passing by the parking lot while one member of the security kept an eye on them. Once they were far enough away from the entrance they were officially let go and only because Setsuna called someone to ease the tensions.
He didn't know what was said on that phone call but he was grateful to whoever she called because there would be no charges and they were let out with just a warning. Now the night has arrived and the march to their homes has started. Like in most cities there were too many lights to see many stars in that part of the town and that night there was no moon.
"Sorry." He hears his date say while they navigated the place full of cars. The parking lot was mostly desert as far as anyone could see.
"Why are you apologizing? This whole thing was my fault." The raven haired girl shook her head.
"No. I am the one that insisted on the date." It was obvious she felt guilty about it. "Maybe if I had prepared better none of it would have happened."
After hearing her words Shirou caught himself asking. "'Prepared'?" At that she pulls out a small book from her bag and passes it to him.
"I asked around the school and got some notes on how to have a good date." And now he was reading the notes themselves, all written on her elegant handwritten. There was a lot of stuff there including comments about the mall and the best stores for her to take him to, the same ones she frowned and left just after taking a look or two.
"Why these stores?" For a moment Setsuna freezes before saying.
"I was… supposed to pick some clothes and ask for your opinion on them… I didn't understand the instructions and neither found anything I liked." But the boy did and he blushed on that.
"It's fine! I mean… it was not something you wanted to do anyway."
"You didn't want this date either." Shaking his head Shirou said.
"I just… didn't know what to do on a date…"
"Well… neither did I!" The two stood there for a bit then started to laugh together after finding the whole situation funny. "How much- how much you-" Setsuna was laughing so much that she couldn't even finish her phrase.
"Used the advice I got?" Shirou managed to recover first but Setsuna was still shaking, trying to hold her laugh. He never heard her laughing before, she was a person who only gave small smiles and those were rare. "Just pretty much everything… the mall… the movie…"
Nodding, Setsuna finally said after recovering, a smile still on her face. "I did the same."
"So… how much better would this have been if we went around the town instead?"
"Or to a park?"
"Or a restaurant?
"Or you made us food?" That made Shirou's smile grow.
"The night is still young… If you want we can go to your house and I cook something there." He was ready to offer his own home but thought that her guardian may not like that.
Setsuna didn't see the same problem. "We can go to yours. You know what you have there."
"OH BOY! I FEEL BAD FOR THIS NOW!" Before Shirou could answer someone steps out among the cars. "I mean it! Really! Sorry to block you like that kid but congrats! After the disaster in the mall the girl still wants you! That is more than many can brag!"
Both Kuoh's students looked at the man with messy blackhair and a goatee. He looked completely relaxed and smiled in a way that could be called arrogant. "Can we help you?" Shirou asked. Since the man mentioned the mall he may be a buyer who was leaving and decided to just talk, no reason to not be polite.
"Well… she can't," he pointed to Setsuna and then to Shirou, "you, on the other hand, absolutely can." Getting ready to take something from his coat-
"SHIROU LOOK OUT!" Setsuna picks Shirou and jumps to the side just as a white arrow hits a car's window. She had heard something coming at high speeds in his direction and barely had a second to react before throwing both of them to the ground.
"Where did that come from?" Shirou couldn't help but ask and all present turned to look at the distance, at the top of a building there was an archer covered by the night but their shadow was visible.
"Tsk. That bitch is also here." The man mumbles just high enough for both of them to hear. "It 'sa race them!" Not hesitating he pulls out a machine gun and starts shooting at them.
Not wasting time the two roll in different directions and hide behind cars, the bullets hitting the one in front of Shirou. "What is going on?" He asks.
"I don't know- MOVE!" In a panic she races and pushes Shirou out of the way where an arrow hits her shoulder.
"SETSUNA!" Seeing his friend hit and knowing that the archer on the rooftop was responsible Shirou moved to help her only to see her pulling out the arrow and getting him up.
"Run!" Both started to go in a random direction.
"GET BACK HERE!" The mysterious man ran out of ammunition on his gun and was replenishing it while they got away.
Before they could get out of the parking lot more arrows started to go in their directions, aimed only at Shirou and Setsuna was able to hear them approaching and get him away again. They managed to jump over a car while a rain of arrows covered it but the arrows were unable to get them and they managed to get cover behind a truck.
"What is going on?" Setsuna asked.
"I don't know!" Shirou shook his head confused and tried to look past their cover while using reinforcement on his eyes. He ducked back behind it when another arrow hit the ground, going exactly for his head. "But someone is trying to get me."
"Two of them, I think they are working together." Setsuna said while abandoning her bag. "Take care of this." She positioned herself into a crouch.
"What are you doing?" Shirou grabs her by the arm.
"Someone is after my friend. I won't let them hurt you." Shirou didn't appreciate the sentiment.
"And you will get hurt?" 'More than you already are!' Before she could answer they heard the man again.
"Emiya Shirou! Where are youuuuuuuuuu?" Edward was dancing among the cars, the small machine gun in one hand and a pistol in the other. "You can let the girl go ya know? We don't want her! We want YOU!" He shouts, jumping behind a car but finding no one.
But trying to call Shirou out he gave up his position too much and his targets were moving as stealthy as they could passing by car after car. The parking lot was quite big to accommodate a good number of cars and there were fences for protection, while anyone could leave on foot only with a paper someone could pass the unmanned security gate.
Climbing the fences with the archer still around was asking to get shot down, at least for Shirou. "You need to get out of here." He tells his friend.
"I will get that archer. Can you handle this maniac?" That wasn't what the magus meant.
"No. You need to get away. This is my problem." Then his friend looked at him, her eyes angry.
"Since when did I give the impression I would leave a friend behind?"
"You are already hurt!" Hearing Shirou the man rushed to the sound of his voice but failed to find him there.
"SHOW YOURSELF BRAT!" More bullets flew but the duo was already considerable away, they tried to rush for an exit but the archer had a perfect view of them and Shirou almost took an arrow on his head again.
"You take care of the guy. I got the archer." Before Setsuna the magus said.
"I don't want you to get more hurt." He was looking directly at Setsuna's shoulder. "This is dangerous Setsuna. These people want to kill me. You need to get out."
For a moment the young woman looked confused before sighing. "Don't say that."
"But-"
"Don't!" She interrupted him. "You are my friend… one of the few friends I ever had in my life." Both started to move again and they were starting to run out of space. "And I refuse to let you die."
"You don't even know why they are after me?" Raising an eyebrow she questions.
"Do you?" He could guess.
"My father may be an assassin…" He gave her a moment, waiting for a reaction.
"My father is a 300 year old monster that used to eat people." She just said it out of the blue. "Does that bother you?"
"What? No." She was not her father and he would never blame her for whatever he did who knows how long ago. Maybe if he knew her father he would feel disgusted but she had nothing to do with it.
"Good. Neither your father bothers me." Her eyes were full of conviction. "So trust me as your friend, we don't know if these two are working together or is just convenience, the archer is not shooting the man and all he has is guns… can you take him?"
Could he? This was the second time he would enter a fight against someone actually trying to kill him, someone that was after him for reasons he didn't know yet. At least with the devil he knew the being had been careless enough and was hurting people… "Yes, I can."
Nodding the hanyou says. "I will go and get the archer, give me 3 minutes to reach her and then you will be able to move more freely." She was confident he could take down a man with a gun, he was fast enough and strong enough for it.
"Wait." He made an EM and she allowed him to stab her to heal her wound, once he was done, he presented it to her. "Take it. Just in case."
"Won't you need the mana?" Even while asking the question she still took the scalpel.
"It's just a guy." 'With guns.' He was counting on reinforcement to protect him if he is actually shot. "Just… take it for luck."
Accepting Shirou's logic she then moves forward quickly and plants a kiss on his cheek. "For luck. 3 minutes."
In a normal situation a teenager would get flustered, in a more calm setting Shirou would be a bit embarrassed since a girl outside his family kissed him but it would not for long. In the actual circumstances he gives a solemn nod, part of him wanted to make her a naginata but she didn't ask and he supposed she was going to use her hands to climb and he would have difficulties adding a rope or something to it.
At a silent signal they both moved, Shirou for a different car, closer to the complaints of the man that wanted to kill him while Setsuna bolted in the direction of the building, trusting that the archer would be focusing on Shirou and ignore her.
No arrows were going in her direction, either the archer really was willing to let her go or they were focused only on Shirou. Either way it was good news for her since if the person was not caring about witnesses or just herself that was her opportunity to approach and she was doing it fast by running and then jumping the fence on a single leap.
Once she was out of the parking lot she felt a weird sensation around her body, almost like she jumped out of water. 'Boundary field?' It made sense and explained why no one entered the parking lot yet, they would be hit with a sudden wish to go other places and not notice what exactly was going on inside. 'Need to go faster!'
She thinks urgently as she starts to climb the building she knew where the archer was shooting from, even seeing another two arrows leaving that position. That just made her hurry more and disregard everything else, her friend needed her and if someone sees her that was their luck or problem.
The streets were moderately empty since there were few buildings around the area of the mall which allowed greater expansion for those who wanted to build more or for the mall itself to expand. The place where the shots were coming from is the tallest of all these buildings, a residential one at that with 20 or so floors.
Closer and closer she got to the building, Setsuna started to let her youki flow out her body and a small transformation started to happen. The nails on her hands start to grow and get sharper until they become claws, her eyes are sharper and the canines of her mouth grow and turn into proper fangs.
Her speed raises and she uses her claws to accelerate her climbing, holding windows and using them to prompt herself up, jumping as high as she could with her eyes never leaving the rooftop. More arrows were shot which was good, it told her that Shirou was alive.
Getting to the top, she did so in time to catch the last arrow that was shot, startling the archer who jumped back, she was a woman with long blonde hair dressed into a silver greek toga that covered her shoulders and ended on her knees with leather sandals. On her back and waist there were quivers, two were still full of arrows while the one at her right side was almost empty, there were also two knives on her belt, bigger than her hands.
The huntress was surprised, she had seen the raven haired girl run away, quite fast but she didn't expect for her to show up on the rooftop that fast, it took her 2 minutes and 56 seconds. "Why are you here little Doe?" The woman asked, aiming the next arrow to Setsuna. "Or should I call you little Lioness?"
"Why are you trying to harm my friend?" The blonde woman glares at her.
"Your friend is the son of a man I hate very much and I shall have my pound of flesh." The bow was ready for the next shot, the huntress confident that she would not miss at the actual range.
"He is not his father." To Setsuna that said everything that was needed..
The huntress didn't like what she said. "I don't care. His father destroyed my family and killed all of my sisters! Now I will make him suffer the same and then I will find him and end his miserable life!"
'So much hatred.' That was the moment that the hanyou knew she wouldn't be able to talk with that woman. "I won't let you harm him."
"Then you will die. Die by the hands of Selene, the last of Artemis' Huntresses! Die knowing that after you I will hunt that boy down!" After the proclamation she starts to fire her arrows but Setsuna was not worried, she just destroyed the first and moved her head out of the way of the second and the third. 'Definitively nonhuman. Her instincts are too sharp.' Selene deliberated as Setsuna launched herself at her.
Meanwhile in the parking lot Shirou was positioning himself to get his assailant. He was almost shot down by arrows or bullets but now the arrows had stopped. 'I need to take this guy down, fast!'
Edward was now more silent, trying to pay attention to any shadow, any flicker of light. 'Where is that brat?' He stopped talking when he noticed that his voice may be detrimental to the situation. The reality was that the man was not subtle enough to disguise his steps and the more time passed the more upset he got and more clearly Shirou could hear where the man was thanks to reinforcement.
Now that the arrows were gone all the redhead had to do was to get behind the guy and knock him out with a hard enough blow on the back of the head. It is a simple plan but it was the safer alternative to both himself and his opponent. So with careful steps Shirou moved between the cars, some were damaged by bullets and arrows already and the man was making a habit of just looking forward and to the sides but Shirou was not taking any chances.
He is close now. "SHOW YOURSELF BRAT!" And the man was losing his patience. "WHAT'S WRONG? YOU CHICKEN?" Already he was in the car behind the guy and Edward turned, checking his back for the first time. Shirou holds his breath, thinking he may have made a mistake. "COME OUT AND FACE ME LIKE A MAN!"
A second passes, then two. Edward moves to him and passes the car that Shirou was hiding behind, showing the magus his back. That was Shirou's chance, he starts to channel mana on his hand and-
*DAN DAN KOKORO* It was Liz's tune.
A song starts to play on his cellphone, giving up his position. He wished to regret turning it back on after the fiasco in the theater but he had no time. "GOT YOU!" The man turns in time, surprised by the music but just unloading his machine gun in that direction. Shirou managed to dodge the first volley but the man now had him in his sights and didn't plan to let him go.
Rising his pistol he starts to shoot again and again while running after the redhead. Once the smaller gun ran out of ammo he just threw it aside and pulled out another one, and started blasting again while Shirou dived behind another can. 'I can't approach him like this.' Considering his options Shirou noticed that the man was going around again, the music on his cell still playing and giving his position.
Edward was confident now, his target had stopped moving leaving him to believe he managed to get a shot. "GOT YOU!" He announced while turning around and finding the cell on the ground. He shots it in rage. "MOTHERF-" Before he could finish the line a couple of knives hit him on the arms, forcing him to drop his pistol and machine gun. "AAAAAH!"
Jumping out of his hiding on the car after the one the man found his phone, Shirou didn't hesitate, reinforcing his arm he punched the man straight to the face, breaking his nose and bringing him down to the ground. "Why are you doing this?" The magus demanded to know.
"ARH ARH SHIT! FUCKING PIECE OF…!" The man kept shouting profanities, not caring for Shirou's question. Sighing and to relieve him from his pain, Shirou makes the knives disappear, approaching to disarm anything else the guy might have.
"I am going to take you to the authorities." He said while watching Edward moan in pain. "They will sort you out…" Then came a pause, Shirou deliberated taking the man to Rias instead, she was an authority and the guy was trying to kill him for some reason. With a devil's hypnosis, they could figure out why he attacked. "Just hold on for a bit-"
"Hey kid." The voice was calm and Edward looked at him with a smile, a sinister smile that Shirou didn't like. "GOTCHA!" He pulls out another machine gun and unloads the cartridge on Shirou's chest bringing the redhead down. "HAHAHA! YOU SHOULDN'T CARE ABOUT YOUR OPPONENT IN A FIGHT! IDIOT!" Getting up the killer clears the blood of his arms. "Like a bunch of puny knives could go deep on my clothes! Is the best coat money can buy!" Then he starts to approach his target. "Is that all the son of the 'Magus Killer' can do? Maybe you aren't him after all… Well! Doesn't matter! 100 million is enough for anyone's conscience!"
Closer to get proof of his kill, Shirou's leg goes up and hits the guy on the knee, the redhead getting up after. "Thanks for the information."
"Wh-" Before the question was complete Shirou didn't hesitate this time, reinforcing his fist to the fullest extent he punches him again, then grabs the coat and shoves the head of the man into a car window.
Breathing hard Shirou takes a moment to see if the man was going to move again, he doesn't and he pulls the guy out of the car, his face bleeding and full of glass. "Don't worry- I will heal you-" Falling to his knees he comments. "After I heal myself. Can't let you catch me off guard again."
To survive the sudden attack he had to reinforce both his flesh and his clothes to the extreme, it was just because the man smiled at him that gave Shirou the chance to do so. Even if tracing is technically the spell he can do best, reinforcement is the spell he has the most practice with since his path on magecraft started and he had enough time to react and survive.
But he could feel some of his bones and the pain of the bullets. What he did was not that different from instant super kevlar but his clothes had nothing special before the maneuver and weren't able to stop the bullets completely. A weaker person would have passed out from the pain at that point but Shirou was familiar with it, both from his childhood and his time training with his family and his friends.
Even now he could see some purple from the holes on his clothes, he was lucky that a stray bullet hadn't hit him on the head. After taking a moment to rest Shirou prepared to make another EM until he heard steps approaching him. "As expected of the son of the 'Magus Killer'."
What was said was enough to signal him that the person approaching was not an innocent bystander. The size of the man, at least two times bigger than Shirou, was another sign that the night was not over. "Why?" He asks.
"Two reasons." The man decided to elaborate. "You can pick either: the first one is the monetary one, someone really wants you dead and placed a really big price on your head." The giant started to take out his suit, first the tie, folding it and placing it at the top of a car before he started to take out the rest. "The other reason is personal. Your father killed people I cared about, people my mistress cared about and only the gods know how many others. For that reason you are going to die, either fast or slowly is up to you but you will die regardless, for that man- for him to feel a fraction of our suffering."
In the middle of the monologue Shirou got up and started to take steps away from the man already on the ground. He was hiding his left hand from view of this new enemy and made a EM, using it for a small incision on his hand while sending mana through it.
For all intents and purposes EM had a design flaw, it was deliberate since Shirou placed it there to avoid healing a person in the wrong way by messing with something that a medic should be properly consulted in; the bones. The original healing spell was able to take care of bones easily by just applying in the area but the caster needed to be careful on the position of the bones and how it needed to be placed back into place.
Since the idea of EM was that anyone could use it with some mana, anything that would raise the risk to the 'patient' had to be scraped and the tool lost that part that affected the bones. Maybe that was why he was having difficulties in mass producing it but for now that only meant his damaged ribs weren't getting better while the rest of him was.
While Shirou moved the man was finishing taking out his clothes, he was on the final button of his shirt and after taking it off he folded it again even turning his back to Shirou. Even with an undershirt the redhead could see them, scars, lots of them.
The arms were covered with them, many cuts and a former bruiser that healed wrong or was never going to in the first place. But the shock came when the man took out the shirt. There were three scars that had Shirou's mind going into overdrive. Two huge vertical ones on his back making an 'X' and another that was the size of a head and was above the lung.
When the man turned Shirou saw more scars but worse, the one above the lung also passed by his heart. "If you want an easy death, tell me where your father is. Do it and I promise a fast and painless end to you."
"Would you believe me if I told you I don't know?" That scar on the heart was telling him something simple. 'This guy is not normal. I may not be able to hold back on this one.' Shirou didn't want to kill anyone, if he could find another solution he would take it.
"It doesn't matter." Was the answer. "You shall die none the less and I don't need to be considerate while killing you." The way that the man said unnerved Shirou, it was like that person was seeing him as an insect or just a means to an end, he truly wanted to see his father suffer. "Know that Igarius is going to be your killer."
Now he could put a name to the face. "Igarius… is there anything I can say for us not fight?" Unlike the devil that he faced before this was a person that hadn't done anything wrong as far as he knew and even then he wanted to avoid a confrontation. The 'Hamelin's Flutist' was a being that deliberately put lives in danger, these two around him just hated his father. 'Are you really a killer, dad?'
"No. Not while the man you call father draws breath!" He said with his voice getting more gruff. That confirms Shirou's fears but he tried to be optimistic.
'I just need to knock him out too.' He was confident in facing any normal human in a fair fight, even if he had lots of unusual scars and even a bizarre one, enough force on this guy's head could be enough to end everything. 'I just need an opportunity.'
Then something happened that made a chill go to Shirou's spine, the already big man started to grow and hair started to grow all over his body. The pants and shoes he was wearing broke apart to give more space to his legs, his face started to grow, change in a shape that reminded Shirou of a dog- no, a wolf.
Once he made that last connection he knew that this got a lot more complicated. He could hear the sound of bones changing and he couldn't help but look to the sky. There was no full moon tonight. *HOOOOOOOOOOOOWL* And yet, standing before him was a werewolf, a creature of legend known for its appearance in the full moon.
Before the man was already bigger than anyone Shirou had ever met, now he was big enough that he can tower over a small house. The fur was grey and his eyes, yellow and full of hate, looked at him like he was an appetizer. Now the magus known for certain, it is do or die.
When the wolf opened his mouth he could see the teeth, which only lasted a second as Shirou had to jump to the side and avoid the monster that almost killed him having charged on his four limbs, the car previously behind Shirou got irreparably damaged by the mass of the werewolf.
He didn't take any damage on that, just pulling himself back up and going at Shirou again a second later. Reacting quickly the magus made a spear and tried to stop the charge. It broke, not even lasting a second and he was hit on his right side, being launched down the asphalt.
Bleeding but still not out Shirou tried to get up only to be picked up by his arm. 'Think… what can deal with werewolves.' Unfortunately for him none of his parents ever bothered with such a lesson and he could use some since he could see the mouth of the werewolf approaching him looking for lunch.
Unable to free his arm he uses it as a lever to pull up his legs and kick the wolf in the chin, it did nothing. Igarius was not bothered by it nor was he by any kicks to the chest or shoulder.
"Trace on." Finding no better alternative Shirou traces a sword. "I'm sorry." He said once the mouth was close enough and he took a stab at it aiming to try and pierce the brain. Unfortunately he had failed to hit his target deep enough for a kill but it was still enough that he was thrown away by a panicking werewolf.
Reinforcing his back and neck Shirou hits the front of a car, pain running his whole body as he fights to keep his eyes open. The werewolf was shaking his head, a very animalistic reaction to the pain as if trying to make it go away, that gave him some time as he tried to think of something that could help him.
His time was up when the wolf started to charge him again and Shirou decided that he had no choice but to go for it and made six knives on his hands, filled them with mana and threw them with all his strength.
They were already huge fireballs before they hit the wolf and the fire spread over the monster body before the knives themselves, all of them reinforced, tried to pierce the skin. They failed, not a single one pierced Igarius and the fur didn't even look tinged, he just kept coming and Shirou barely had time to roll away before the claws ripped the car behind him apart.
Tracing one of his best swords, the wyvern sword, Shirou tried to cut off the arm but the wolf just used his arm and beat him away, forcing Shirou to let go of the sword. His time training with Kiba made him instinctively cut the feed of mana since he could make another one but he was facing the problem of not being able to hit his opponent.
Now the wolf was being more careful, it was still approaching fast but it was not going to just rush him, it looked like the wolf planned to get close in case he tried to just make another sword. 'It can still think.' He made the wyvern sword again and tried to step back but the wolf was still rushing too fast for him to get more distance.
Once Igarius reached the magus he tried to rip his head off with the claws of his right arm. Shirou placed the sword in between them and hoped it would cut the limb off. It didn't, there some drops of blood but the wolf didn't look bothered and used his other arm to try to finish Shirou off.
Abandoning his sword the magus made one of Kiba's, a sword capable of generating electricity. The magus reinforced himself to his limits and instead of retreating he dove forward ready to stab the wolf in the chest while activating the sacred gear's product.
But it was not meant to be as the sword broke when it made contact and he felt himself being picked up by the claws, this time not by the arm but by his shoulder. Flesh was being torn apart by the sharp claws and Shirou screamed. "TRACE ON!" He didn't need to shout the aria like that but it helped with the pain as he made the wyvern sword again and while he had his arm raised, holding the blade there and using gravity to help with the swing, he managed to hit the wolf.
Even if Igarius had some human intellect there was plenty of the animal side since instead of biting the pain down the werewolf throwed Shiru away again. Reinforcing his legs Shirou rolled out of his sudden flight and started to run away, he looked for a big car, truck or van he could hide behind and treat his wounds.
He prepared to make another EM when he heard it, the werewolf was moving, straight in his direction. Shirou ran again, jumping over cars and sliding on them when he needed but the werewolf saw him and started to destroy everything on his way to get the young man. 'Okay. My best sword can harm him but I don't think I can win a war of attrition.' Tracing the shuriken. Shirou throws it, only for it to bounce off. 'Why did I think that was gonna work?' Maybe the blood loss was affecting him.
The werewolf was getting more and more angry and was starting to lose the caution that his human side gave him. Turning a sharp corner Shirou raced to another line of cars, before he could get there he was open for an attack and the wolf landed on the ground, cracking it with his weight and advancing at full speed.
Realizing the situation he was in, Shirou turned and traced the wyvern sword. The wolf saw it and destroyed more of the parking lot to stop himself from running on it. While he was at it Shirou threw his sword, aiming for the head. The wolf's reaction time was fast enough that he managed to evade the blade just enough to be hit on the shoulder instead, the bone sinking in on his flesh.
Shirou got to running again, he knew that such tactics were on borrowed time. Once the human side manages to get enough control then the magus would be hunted and killed. 'What can I do?' He tries to put as many cars of this distance as while trying to figure out a way to survive. 'There has to be something I can do! Think!'
He could feel his blood spilling, the pain of every wound, his shoulder felt as if it was burning from the inside and his legs felt like lead. Using Structure Analyses on himself he found that two of his ribs were almost broken while some muscles on his legs were damaged. The werewolf started to move again, this time slow, methodical and the redhead could see the gears turning on his head as he started to go around the cars. The animal was out, tamed, the human was now in full control and that was bad for Shirou.
Biting back the panic that was mounting on his core, Shirou took a deep breath and tried to remember something, anything, that could help him in this situation. In his mind, unless the wolf got back to charging at him, he had at least a couple of minutes if he kept moving. 'Why no one included werewolves in my lessons? Did nobody think I could be dealing with one?'
"Devils are weak against holy and light." Shirou could almost hear his sister's voice.
"Why are you telling me that again?" They were having dinner, it had been his day of cooking and his sister just said that mid conversation.
"An excellent question." His mother points out. "Why are you just saying that Illya?"
His sibling had just shrugged in response. "Since Shirou is going to get more involved he really should learn some basic weaknesses of anything he can encounters." Illya had said while nodding to herself. "Just to be safe."
Both maids had stayed silent in that conversation, they would just defer to whatever their superior decided and Iri had tilted her head and started to think. "Maybe you are right... but there are so many supernatural entities and you never know what is still around or not… oh, I know." She looked Shirou straight in the eyes. "You know all the anime and movies that have supernatural stuff?" He nodded. "Great, suppose that they were right until you find out the contrary."
Illya slammed her head on the table. "MOM!" The older woman looked confused at her daughter's frustration.
"What is wrong?"
"You can't give that kind of advice. Not everything on TV is right." Her mother nods at the comment.
"Yes, but I'm sure someone spilled the beans on some secrets when making some." Was the older woman's defense. "I mean, Stoker's Dracula got a looooooot of stuff right." She sounded like she had a suspect in mind for that. "Either way I will teach you some general stuff to help but remember: when in doubt, go for either what you saw on TV or something sacred." His sister had facepalmed at that.
'Is it that simple?' The memory was still vivid in his mind. "I have to try something." Shirou can see the werewolf approaching, he was almost out of time. "Trace on." Circuits flare as he makes another sword. With his wounds he couldn't just run, healing himself was a waste of mana if he didn't neutralize the threat.
Igarius was on him, jumping and ready to rip the magus apart with his claws. Shirou's sword was ready and before the wolf could change his course the blade had already cut close to his eyes. The human looked to the sword in his hand, impressed by the easiness that it had cut the werewolf while the giant was whining and holding his eye with his hands.
Shirou could see the blood on the blade burning and dissolving into vapor. Old legends gained place in the modern media, the weakness of the werewolf being one of the most famous in movies for decades at this point. Silver was the weakness of those who transformed into wolves under the full moon.
Unfortunately Shirou only had one sword made with silver, something simple he made before he ever met Rias, he actually showed it to her once. Fortunately it was a good sword, the silver has been a gift from his sister since it was considered a great conductor. On his hands and with a handle with a leaf pattern was a rapier that was made with a mixture of silver and steel.
"Wolfsbane." Shirou finally gave the sword a proper name. "Thanks Illya." He took a fencer position and got ready for the fight.
The wolf didn't advance, looking to the blade, instinct had ironically suppressed the animal completely and Igarius knew that if he was careless now he would be the one dead by the end of the night.
…
Watching the events unfold, he stood watch above the mall, like he was a gargoyle he stayed crouched and even if for some reason one looked up there was little to no chance of anyone realizing he was there.
He was patient, in his profession he had to be and he was also cautious. It was him who made the boundary fields that were surrounding the parking lot and the mall. The one who was stopping people from entering and leaving by the parking lot's direction, nudging them to do other things or buy some more by the means of his smaller boundary field at the door of the mall. Some would complain for the extra expenditure later but he was trying to avoid innocent casualties.
While he watched the chaos and the destruction escalate he wondered when he would act or if he would at all. At the moment the ones standing were going back into combat with some hesitation, now the playing field was even. With a single stab of the new sword the wolf will be permanently out of commission.
But the redhead was growing more and more tired, even with mana to help him to keep fighting he was still human, no weaknesses but many limitations. The fact is that without proper preparations and standing against an enemy many times his physical superior he was, without a shadow of doubt, in a situation that would have already killed a lesser man.
Watching the wolf try another attack, much slower and careful this time he could see the young man making another rapier, the same one, on his other hand and using it to keep the wolf at bay with a small cut in the arm. That was a problem, the young man was lacking a killing instinct, avoiding the necessary steps that he could take to win, it was only a matter of time before the man turned wolf found a solution to the situation.
It was not the first time such observation was made, he saw how Edward was neutralized with unnecessary risk as the boy took a rain of bullets for a mistake. In such a situation, Emiya Shirou was fighting to incapacitate, not to kill and that was a bigger problem than the magus could see.
For now he held the advantage, the wolf had no weapon and a precise stab could end it all… if the boy had the will to do it. If he gave too much time then the werewolf would figure out a way out of this predicament.
Turning his head and looking to a somewhat distant rooftop, there was another fight happening at the moment, two maidens in conflict. One was the daughter of one of the mightiest beings of Japan, if she inherited even a small fraction of his power it would be enough to devastate the population of the town.
The other is a millennium old huntress, a woman that had centuries to perfect her craft and to sharpen her instincts. She had no benefits from the goddess she followed other than an eternal youth, preserved with her purity and the training that was taught by said goddess a long time ago, a training to hunt and not fight directly but she had her age to back her up with experience.
If he was to make a description about that fight he would say it was power versus experience. While that fight didn't interest him it was still an interesting match that the result could influence what was happening down in the ground. If the hunteress wins she will start to shoot an arrow again, this time with someone that knows how to use her support present. On the other hand the hanyou may be fast enough to get down and help defeat the werewolf, maybe the girl will have more guts than the boy.
Either way, it didn't matter. He had a job to do and he had to wait for the right moment. In the dark, the mask just smiles.
…
Arrows made of wood were not the best weapons on the planet, there is a good reason why they are not very used outside of sports in the modern day. But changing to something that one is uncomfortable with is even worse than a bad weapon, a person using a weapon they are used to will be superior to someone with a better weapon but no skill, unless the weapon is overpowered.
As someone that lived over a thousand years Selene turned shooting a bow into a form of art. Too many times Setsuna got close enough to finish the woman only for her to have to block a precise shot that even with superhuman speed she couldn't dodge and Selene did that while pulling up insane maneuvers to keep her distance.
At the moment Setsuna was taking out an arrow from her leg and breaking it in half while dodging another one aimed at her arm. Her body was bleeding and her opponent had yet to take a single hit and her face wasn't able to hide her frustration anymore.
"You can leave if you want." Selene did look a little winded but not enough to be relevant as of yet. "I have no quarrel with you." The blonde woman didn't take her eyes from the black haired one, hand and bow ready to shoot another arrow.
"I already said all I had to say." Setsuna started to advance in zig zag but the woman was cautious and started to run for a corner of the roof.
"You don't know the crimes his father committed!" Selene aimed and fired again, her hand already moving to get another arrow while Setsuna blocked with her hand and destroyed it mid-flight. After a while the woman started to use the ones Setsuna just dodged or discarded forcing the hanou to always destroy the ones that could end on the roof, it got to the point she was just destroying them all. "He murdered my sisters! He destroyed our way of life!"
Another three arrows were shot in sequence forcing the hanyou to dodge and block again, getting hit on her stomach forcing her to stop again to take it out. The woman wasted no time and collected more arrows from the ground, she was starting to run out. Both of her quivers were already thrown from the rooftop with only the one on her back still on. "You are starting to run out." Observed the hanyou pulling out the most recent hit.
"Tsk. Don't underestimate a huntress of Artemis! Besides, you are not in the best condition, little one."
Gritting her teeth, Setsuna knew she was right, her rush in trying to end things quickly gave the huntress too much space to take pot shots at her, most of those on her thighs. Yet that also gave Setsuna a strange feeling, almost as if, "You aren't trying to kill me."
For a moment Selene said nothing, when she noticed that Setsuna was about to try and attack again she sighed. "Maybe if you know the truth you will stop this suicidal attempt to stop me." That got the hanyou to raise an eyebrow.
"Suicidal? I almost had you twice."
"Is that what you believe, little Lioness?" Selene couldn't stop herself from chuckling. "You are faster than me but you lack vision. Every arrow on your legs was not just to try and neutralize you, you are slower from when we started and it will only get worse." Then the woman frowned. "There are also your wounds bleeding, if you don't stop soon you will die."
"Then I just have to beat you faster." After that, the hanyou could take care of herself and save Shirou.
The frown deepened. "Do you truly believe that?" Setsuna nodded with conviction. "That changes nothing. He is the son of a monster- a demon on human flesh! It won't take long until he kills you and anyone on his path!"
The venom that the woman was letting out with her words caught the younger one off guard. "Why so much hatred?"
"Because Kiritsugu Emiya destroyed my life!" Even when she looked about to lose her composure the huntress managed to hold it. "He killed my sisters and destroyed our last temple in our time of weakness." Once she started Selene couldn't help herself. "It was 20 years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday. We had lost many of our huntresses on an expedition against the servants of another god, trying to find clues about our goddess."
"Clues?" Setsuna was in a hurry and wanted to rush her opponent to save Shirou but she also couldn't deny that the break in the fight was helping her.
"Lady Artemis was missing… is still missing, our goddess has been missing for centuries now!" Now there was anger and lots of it.
"I haven't heard of it. Is she-"
"DON'T YOU DARE TO FINISH THAT SENTENCE!" Selene was now furious. "SHE IS FINE! SHE HAS TO BE! ME AND MY SISTER-" Pausing Selene took a deep breath, her eyes were still on Setsuna. "My sisters and I were looking for her. We got a lead that a certain goddess was responsible for Lady Artemis' disappearance and assaulted her fortress."
That was the mistake the huntresses made, they were pereless in the art of the hunt and their prowess couldn't be contested but attacking a fortified building? That was a thing they were not good at and they paid for it.
"That whore taunted us and picked us apart one by one. Only I escaped and that was a miracle." She still could remember the attack, her sisters laying dead or worse on the hands of their enemy. "When I returned to the temple of our goddess to get the rest of the huntresses to mount a rescue, they were all dead! I spent days trying to save them! I BEGGED AND CRIED FOR ANY GOD THAT WOULD HEAR BUT IT WAS IN VAIN!"
Setsuna was almost jumping to attack when she saw that the woman was losing control but Selene shot her arrow forcing a dodge. The movements of the huntress were still sharp enough that she went for her other arrows and kept shooting.
"Took me months of investigation to discover that it was the Magus Killer! That bastard killed my sisters and razed our temple!" She drew another arrow and another and another. "But I can rebuild! With the money I will get for that boy's head I can start again! Find new maidens! New huntresses!"
'She' s mad.' The subject was obviously traumatic for her and Selene started to get more aggressive, the hanyou's position as someone protecting Shirou potentially making her qualified to be someone she could vent her anger. But her skill was still the real deal as she started to run in Setsuna's direction, still shooting arrows.
The two were getting closer and closer, Setsuna was confident in winning that kind of fight and couldn't understand why the archer decided to change her tactics. "I was going to spare you! After fighting you I can see you are strong too! You would make an excellent huntress!"
Where before the two of them traded just a few words, now Selene couldn't stop talking. That was fine for Setsuna since in her mind that meant her opponent was unstable. Once she was on strike range, Selene let out the last arrow she had aiming for an eye.
In her mind the hanyou could see the next steps of the fight before they happen, she was going to finish her dodge doing the most optimal move with her neck while getting closer, the huntress will drop her bow to get the knives but before she had the chance Setsuna will have her using her by using claws to grab the woman arms and them knocking her out with a knee to the face with her superior strength. All possible because it didn't matter the age of the person, Selene was still human and in a fair fight Setsuna will win pretty much uncontested.
She started the movement, moving her neck out of the way of the arrow. But instead of dropping the bow Selene uses it to hit Setsuna's nose with everything she had and while the hanyou was unbalanced, she uses the weapon to swipe her feet having Setsuna hit the ground back first and taking the air out of her lungs. Only now the older woman discards the bow and pulls out her knives and takes stabs at the hanyou, aiming for the throat and the heart.
Almost in panic, Setsuna grabs one arm with a hand but to stop the other she has her hand stabbed with the knife, piercing all of its length and almost getting to her chest. Setsuna fights back the urge to scream.
Then an explosion happens followed by another and another. "Your friend is dead, little Lion." Both were still struggling, the hanyou could smell the smoke and ash in the air. "I wished that I could have killed him myself but Igarius must have hit something flammable. A human without a sacred gear couldn't have survived that."
Every word had Selene putting more of her weight and strength on her knives. "Shirou- Shirou wouldn't lose to a simple gunman." There was no hiding the pain in the girl's voice and the huntress smiled.
"You think Edward is my ally?" She chuckles. "He was a distraction for me to get into position. An idiot that would distract and redirect you all. If it wasn't for you I would have got the boy myself. No, my ally is someone that shares my hatred and my devotion." The knives were getting closer. "He is the closest thing to a brother that we can have, a child of the moon like us, able to harness it's magnificence and transform into the strongest predator! He is also someone that the Killer wronged by destroying his family! If I can't get Emiya and his family I know he is more than worthy of avenging us!"
'She didn't get mad, she is insane.' Now Setsuna was worried and she decided to do something reckless, flaring her youki she did something she was awful at, she focused it on her hands. It was a thing that she didn't want to do, that both her and her sister had difficulty doing, it was painful but what was more painful to her right now was knowing that her friend was in trouble. "I refuse to believe he is dead!"
Her eyes turn red and the huntress screams in pain, jumping back she looks to the arm and the knife that Setsuna was holding all the while still shouting in pain. The burns on her arm were the worst she ever saw, she couldn't feel it or her hand at all besides the blinding pain. The knife she was using was ruined, it could still stab but the edge was destroyed.
"I prefer to use a focus for my power." Setsuna said, her voice barely a whisper while her own hands were 'leaking' green smoke. "I can't control it properly yet so if I use it myself I can get seriously injured. But that is not the worst part." Rising her head Selene sees the red eyes that promised death. "The worst part is that it hurts, it really hurts, like a thousand needles are being shoved into my hands and I am almost screaming just by using this power wrong." The hanyou starts to approach the huntress who readied the knife, her last weapon, to defend herself. "But that doesn't matter right now. My friend needs me and I am DONE with you."
When she thought Shirou was fighting a normal human she was confident that she could wrap things up and go back to find Shirou safe. Now she knew the danger was greater than she expected and she was pissed that someone made her waste her time. If she had her naginata this would already be over, even if it was just a sword or a knife Setsuna would already have dealt with Selene.
But she had none of these resources, all that she had was her hands and the fact that she was fighting carefully to not get harmed. But now she officially threw all caution to the wind.
"You think you can win, little Lioness?" The woman was still confident, even with the youki that was manifesting around Setsuna it didn't change the fact that the girl was wounded and bleeding. "All that I have to do is get one hit, and you are done." It was a bluff, the pain on her arm was agonizing and the huntress knew she couldn't win so easily.
But she had a plan and took a couple of steps back getting to one of the edges of the rooftop, all she needed was Setsuna to rush her and all would be done.
But she didn't do that, instead Setsuna walked to her calmly, shocking Selene. She wanted to rush, to hurry and end the fight quickly, that was all true. But she learned plenty from this fight, including not underestimating the opponent in front of her. "You are wasting time, little Lioness."
If there was any doubt in her mind before now there was none that the person before her was done. "Shirou is alive."
"Huh?" She exclaimed surprised while noticing the energy that was surrounding the raven haired girl diminish.
"Shirou is alive. And this is what is going to happen, I will get you, break your leg in the most painful way possible and go, leaving you here to either save yourself or bleed to death." That offended Selene.
"You are overestimating yourself." The knife was prepared to distract her opponent, all Selene needs is one chance. The youki was now completely gone from Setsuna's hands, the claws receded, becoming nails once again and her eyes had gone back to normal. If anything that was irritating the last follower of Artemis even more and she felt herself being underestimated. "You-" That error in judgement was her mistake.
Even if her youki wasn't flowing or visible, Setsuna only looked normal. She could pass as any normal girl but in reality she wasn't one, her offensive potential was not totally tied to her youki and turning to normal didn't diminish her speed. The experienced huntress didn't realize that and had no time to process when Setsuna jumped on her and kicked her leg before Selene could react.
It wasn't just a strong kick, it was aiming to cause as much damage as possible by going to the side and hitting the knee using her full monstrous strength. The goal was to finish this once and for all.
Pain coursed through Selene as she fell to the ground, bones were popping off her leg in different angles and all she could do was scream and cry in pain. Her leg had all its bones broken while bending it in the wrong direction as well. Even centuries of experience are useless in face of the human condition, if anything they made it worse since she was trained to keep herself focused and conscient in highly stressful situations.
But never before Selene had felt this much pain, she could see her bones between tears and a part of her wished the younger woman would just finish her to free her from the pain.
Setsuna wasn't interested, her mind focused and upon neutralizing the threat she was now going to save her friend and she was already in the stairs. She couldn't climb down, she wanted to but unfortunately she didn't know how to fly or anything of the type and in her condition that wasn't viable. That meant that she needed to go inside the building to leave but it also meant she wasn't going to waste time and finish an opponent that wasn't able to bother her anymore. Anything to save some time.
She picked up the scalpel Shirou had given to her and stabbed herself with it to start the healing process. Her calm pace lasted until the scalpel disappeared on her hands, then she started to go at the stars as fast as she could regardless of the wounds that she had. 'Please, Shirou, please be okay.'
…
Minutes earlier.
The two sides didn't know how to win decisively at this point, the situation was now reversed from what it was before and it was the wolf that was trying to keep his distance. The swords on Shirou's hands were capable of cutting him like a hot knife against butter and every instinct told him that a mistake meant death, a painful one at that, and Igarius could still feel every cut that he took since the first sword showed up.
It didn't have much silver, it wasn't coated on it but it was part of the structure of the blade in minor ways. Not much silver was used but there was enough of it there that the whole thing was basically toxic to the werewolf, like an acid with a solid form and was capable of ignoring any defense he could put up.
"Can we stop now?" Shirou asked, tired from the events of the night. In fact, ever since he had to deal with his first attacker he had been using reinforcement nonstop worsing his condition. "We fought, it's over. I don't want to kill you. Pick your friend and leave."
What Shirou really wanted was to talk with his father and to figure out who placed a bounty on his head. If he didn't make a habit of rarely coming back to Japan, only a few times per year, Shirou would think that Kiritsugu was avoiding him and the conversation they are going to have.
Part of the redhead was not looking forward to it but if his father truly wronged these people… Shirou already didn't like the idea of killing, on this occasion it got far less appealing even if he could do it to just end the whole mess. He was also thinking about Setsuna and that she didn't return as of yet.
A snarl came out of the wolf, it looked angry, more angry than before, his eyes sharpened more. 'How dare he?' The human part of the brain was now officially all in on just ripping the boy to shreds. 'I will rip him apart and eat his heart!' Regardless, his body refused to attack.
The wolf was not allowing any stupid or suicidal attacks now, always looking to the swords warily. There was no way for the wolf to throw caution to the wind like this, it was taking everything the animal had to not just run away. Maybe if it was a full moon he would be more willing to fight but now the only part that wanted this fight was the human's.
But the human part could do something the animal couldn't and it was to get creative, to figure out an equalizer and end this on their terms. Turning around, confident that the redhead was not going to attack him, the werewolf made long strides to one of the cars.
Shirou lets out a sigh of relief, thinking that he managed to diffuse the situation. He realized he was wrong when he saw a small car flying in his direction.
Jumping out of the way Shirou noticed how the car slipped and broke the fence. If someone was outside there was a risk of them getting harmed. Before he could say anything else another car was flying in his direction and he couldn't look back to make sure there was no one, with that in mind he decided on a plan.
The werewolf was picking up the car by the sides and not as much as throwing them as he was pushing them with his full strength. It was still fast enough that some bones would be broken if not someone killed if they got hit even if they wouldn't be actually crushed by the weight of the car.
After dodging another one but before the car passed him completely Shirou used the side of the blade on the front of the car to take away it's momentum, that was what this sword in specific was design to do in the first place, the magus just never thought that he would ever do something like this.
Another car went in his direction and he was managing to dodge so far but he was growing tired. One of the swords on his hand was glowing too much and he untraced it, choosing to remain with only one sword for the time being.
Noticing that the werewolf starts to accelerate his throws to make Shirou lose the other sword as well by racing to a stack of motorcycles and throwing two at once. The magus ends up jumping and while trying to advance only for another to come at him and he is forced to redirect himself to stop it.
The thing was starting to grow into a rhythm since the werewolf needed to stop from time to time to pick up another car or to get closer to a stack of bikes. To make sure Shirou was busy Igarius even threw market cars in Shirou's direction, anything that wasn't nailed to the ground but he was starting to notice that this wasn't working.
If he had more control he could try to get a lamppost and just use it as a bat to finish the redhead but Igarius didn't. All he could do was guide the wolf, follow his instincts and try to direct their actions as best as he could, leaving him to count on keeping the magus at bay for long enough to run in and allow the werewolf to finish the fight.
Shirou was in a similar situation, the cars were getting damaged and they accumulated enough around him that he didn't need to make extra swords anymore and focused on only one, still with the newly christened Wolfsbane he just can't approach. The brief thought of throwing his sword came to mind but it was quickly discarded.
Not only he needed to keep moving to avoid damage, it would also be a waste of mana since a rapier was not made to be used like that. Being forced to run a whole car to avoid getting hurt Shirou realized that it was now a competition of stamina and he was losing, he was badly hurt and the opponent was a werewolf that was going to outlast him unless he figured something out.
But there was a shift, a change to the battlefield that neither combatant expected. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" The man that was taken down before had risen again and Edward wanted blood. "YOU FUCK! I WILL KILL YOU!"
The resurgent gunman, still bleeding from his face with a deranged look on his eyes while he glared at Emiya. With both of the fighters now looking to the sudden return of someone they thought was already out of the game, the werewolf couldn't help himself but mustered enough humanity to blink. 'I thought he was dead.'
"YOU THINK YOURSELF HOT SHIT?" Pulling up another gun from his coat this one was different from the others used before. Previously the weapons used were modern, with all the qualities and defects that came with them. This one was old, as in the model of the gun was old and that it shouldn't be used and instead have residence in a museum or a collection of some sort.
It was a flintlock, something that was more in place in a time when guns were still only able to shoot a bullet every few seconds since it would take a good amount of time, with practice, for a reload.
Upon seeing the weapon Shirou used Structural Analysis to try to understand why such a gun was being used. What he saw shook him to his core and made him run, run to the cars that had been dislocated, run to hide. There is no fighting what is coming, there is only survival.
The wolf didn't know what was coming, the weapon had a presence that made it wary but it had faced similar things before and previous experience said that the weapon on Edward hands was irrelevant. Still it would not allow the previously unconscious man to get in the way of him and his prey, the human side was secure of his victory and therefore the gunman was an obstacle. Igarius charged forward, there would be no silver to stop him this time.
But Shirou knew that it was going to be something worse."TRACE ON!" And he put all the mana he could to make shields, more than one even, using everything he had into defence. He even managed to, in his despair and adrenaline, trace shields away from his hands but he was too preoccupied to notice. Even with a veritable wall of metal he was still worried and with good reason.
If it's not a sword Shirou's magecraft needs some time to process and give him the complete information, such was the case for the gun. But the gun had two things that jumped to him the moment that Edward brought it out; the first one was a history of blood, many years before the modern day that weapon had already taken many lives; the second was that the weapon was used recently and with 'a shot' Edward had destroyed half of a small coastal town.
For that gun was not just old, it was an object that gained power and it grew with time as the legend of its original owner grew after his passing. It was not something that should be used callously and it had powers beyond comprehension on the right hands and Edward, a descendent of the original owner, had the right hands.
In a world where anyone can use magic, legends can gain power just by being legends, the more famous someone or something was the greater was the power that can be acquired.
Some scholars spoke that it was the same principle of the faith system of the christian God. Faith, belief, admiration, desire, envy, prayers and inspiration; all of these could make a legend grow and the more they grow the more the parts of it also grow. To gods that was always more direct and variable since they can change by the belief of their followers or the world, especially since most need all that just to exist.
But an object don't need prayers for sustenance before or after they ascend to a higher plane of existence, a form that all members of the moonlit world know to respect, they just need to be taken care of and once they did ascend it would be truly hard to destroy them while the legend that created them 'lives'.
It is said that such weapons can only be called forward with Heroic Spirits, the true owners returning to the mortal plane and bringing their arms back with them, those boosted even more from when they were alive gaining powers from the myths they spawned forward.
In Edward's hand is a gun that also belonged to another Edward years ago, it has seen blood, it was preserved and taken care of as a trophy for years before being recovered by Edward in a robbery.
The time that took Shirou to get cover was the time it got ready to shoot, it needed time, time to manifest a ship behind its user, a ship whose cannons were pointing in the magus direction and the wolf who was also on the line of fire. It was a pirate ship, the kind that existed in the times of explorations and conquests.
This ship was connected to the gun, was part of it, the gun was a Noble Phantasm and if Edward had enough power he could use them to cross the seas by himself and conquer them if he so wished. For this ship was once the ruler of the seas, for it was once the terror of the oceans, for it was once the treasure of the famous pirate: Blackbeard.
"DIE! QUEEN ANNE'S REVENGE!" The cannons fire! Their roar is strong enough that half of the town can hear.
And then, explosions. The first shot went for the werewolf that had placed himself on the path of a cannon, that would be the only one that wouldn't go for Shirou, the other two shots were in his direction and all he could do was brace himself as best as he could.
Cars were destroyed, all vehicles that were used to get Shirou before became small bombs with their fuel. The parking lot that had some damage but was still salvageable previously was now ruined.
And the magus suffered, the improvised barricade he made, even with placing himself in the best spot possible was not enough to compete against the destructive power of the Noble Phantasm. He watched as his shields were broken with just the impacts and shockwaves from the explosions, he felt his body being flung around and was unable to stop it.
Only three shots were fired. Three shots that destroyed everything on their path, only the stuff behind Edward survived as everything else exploded by just the impact of the attack. The mall wasn't a target but it's windows broke and the people inside panicked, the boundary field not being capable of hiding the events or protecting anyone from the glass that fell on the mall's customers.
Panick was spreading and the security was focusing on calming down the population while guiding them for any exit other than the one for the parking lot, the authorities of the town were already being called and it wouldn't take long before everyone started to move to the location to figure out what was happening.
Watching all this was the masked man, he could do little to stop the proceedings and decided to undo the silencing functions of the boundary fields, now it was only useful as to keep people away from the danger and that was only temporary before someone capable of ignoring it showed up.
'He didn't even hesitate.' Observed the masked man, watching as Edward laughed with glee at the destruction he caused. There was fire everywhere, metal spread around broken and the devastation looked like something out of a movie. 'If he had aimed a little higher or had more power, hundreds would be dead. One way or another I better get rid of him tonight.'
Because the man was clearly unhinged, he was laughing and smiling all the way as he did a little dance around the fire, his face still bleeding but he just didn't care. His actions caused chaos, even now death was already happening because of the panic inside the mall and around town.
Accidents, fear, everything that such sequences of explosions could bring out was being brought out. But the damage was already done, nobody expected that such a man would have a Noble Phantasm, it was unexpected and the lack of intel was the only reason that such a person is still alive.
A few seconds after the attack Shirou was feeling his whole body in pain. Lots and lots of pain. More pain he felt throughout the whole night. He tried to get up but it was useless, his legs were not responding and the heat was not helping. Surrounded by fire, Shirou had hit the leftovers of a car at some point and fell face first to the ground. He thought his back was fine but only because most of his body was in so much pain he couldn't focus on it.
Running an assessment first he manages to use Structural Analysis on himself. All that the magus received was bad news. Most of his bones were broken, he was bleeding a lot and had some internal damage to his organs. Because he took most of the attack from the front, even with five or six shields to help him and some cars being used as cover, he still suffered a lot. The explosive power of the Noble Phantasm was enough to get him and do real damage even indirectly.
Using all the strength he had left he made an EM and had it stab in his extended hand, using as much mana as he could to heal himself, focusing first on his organs. While he managed to fix some things soon the small tool disappeared. 'Out of mana.'
Laughter echoed in his ears, he knew who was coming. The first assailant of the night, Edward was his name, a descendent of Edward Teach, the Blackbeard and Shirou regretted not having punched the guy harder. "FOUUUUUUUUUND YOUUUUUUUUU!" He approached Shirou, the madness still in his eyes. "You still alive?" The magus tried to lift himself with his arms but failed. "DAMN! I MISSED!" He screamed but sounded more in joy than in anger.
Once he got close enough he pulled Shirou by the hair and placed his gun on the magus throat. The magus was glaring. "You could have hurt someone." Shirou observed, not caring much about himself but about others.
That made the pirate descendent laugh. "Really? Do you think I give a shit?" He tried to stop himself. "Pft… hahahaha!" But he couldn't. "This world is eat or be eaten brat! You got lucky that I missed, the blood on my face made it hard but I don't care!" Mana, a small concentration started to focus on the gun. "You are dead!"
Someone jumped close to them, crossing the inferno surrounding the two men, the appearance of another person put Edward on edge as he let go of Shirou to point his gun at the new arrival. Shirou could barely see at that point, the exhaustion, wounds and now smoke had taken their toll and he really just wanted to close his eyes.
But he refused upon having recognized his savior. "Liz…" He whispers, unable to raise his voice.
Liz turns and looks to him before looking back to Edward. "You did this?" She was dressed the same way that he had left her, the kind of clothing that he would chastise her for dressing in public only with the addition of sneakers and her voice sounded the same, her face looked calm as always.
Edward, on the other hand, wasn't. "The homunculus? Shit!" He attempts to shoot the new arrival but she easily dodges and grabs his arm before a second shot. "NO! WA-HAAAAAARRRRRR!" The man was screaming because Liz just broke his arm and once he let go of the gun, losing the presence that it had since being drawn. What followed next was the homunculus placing both of her hands at the sides of his head.
Shirou could only watch as Liz breaks the man's neck.
Before the body properly hits the ground the maid was already kneeling close to him. "Shirou, don't worry. It's gonna be fine." But he was not reacting, his eyes couldn't leave Edward, his face looking straight to him regardless if the body was laying much like he was.
Leysrytt raises her head a bit and gets up and looks behind her. Charging through the flames was the werewolf Shirou was facing before but he was not the same, half of his chest and a leg were missing, the fur was burnt in many parts and there was blood everywhere. Igarius was gone, only the wolf remained and it wanted blood. A last directive to kill everyone while the human side recovered or hold back the pain.
The homunculus raced towards her enemy with her fist raised. Once she was in range she punched the werewolf down. He tried to get up, to use his claws and fight back, she just blocked the first swipe and kicked the leg, making the werewolf lose his balance and fall to the ground.
Her follow up was to get on the werewolf's back and start kicking and stomping repeatedly, aiming for the neck and the head at first until the homunculus realized that he was using his arms for defense. Changing her target she goes for the rest of the back and spine. She just kept going, stomping the same spot multiple times until the wolf pushed himself back with his arms and tried to swipe at her again.
Ducking the attack, the homunculus punched the chest of the werewolf. With only a single leg he was unable to stop himself and fell on his back. She advanced and got on his chest and the wolf immediately reacted by covering the face again in fear but she wasn't aiming for the head this time.
First it was a jab to the chest, testing the reaction. The wolf kept his arms to protect the head and noticing this she started hammering the chest with everything she got, repeatable punches with her full force before raising both of her arms above her head and using them to smash the ribs of the wolf together with the ground below him.
There was no way that the wolf could keep going after that, his arms falling uselessly to the side. He looked at the homunculus in fear, he was scared, terrified and if he was human at that moment he would be begging for mercy.
Not that she would care as she started to punch again, this time the face, breaking everything she got her hands on. The eyes got crushed first, followed by the nose, the teeth pretty much turned to dust on how much punishment she was delivering.
Shirou couldn't take her eyes off the horror he was watching, it was a thing in a fight but this was another thing entirely. Liz was determined to pulverize the werewolf with her bare hands.
Time passed, his mind wasn't able to keep up with the real world anymore. To him it was almost as if days could have transpired and he would be none the wiser, that was how much out of it he really was after everything. Surrounded by the heat of blames, destruction and now death he couldn't help but remind himself of his first memory.
But there was a difference, something that he couldn't associate with that day that kept him grounded. 'Liz shouldn't be doing that.' The thought came to his head from somewhere. 'She should be lazing around the house or watching TV.'
Yet there she was, still punching, he couldn't see beyond her back and the rest of the lower body of the werewolf but she was still going and hitting something, the arms of the wolf moving around either by the impact of the punches or some reminiscent nervous reaction, he couldn't tell.
All he knew at that moment, in a place that was already digging out a memory he really didn't want back, was that one of his precious people was killing someone in the most brutal way possible.
The homunculus finally stopped and turned to him… the last thing Shirou remembered of that night was the vision of a homunculus covered in blood and gore.
…
He had to wait for them to leave, took them a while but once the homunculus got her charge secured and the hanyou returned, stopping for a bit in obvious shock seeing the homunculus handwork, they managed to use a piece of paper that the white haired woman carried with her to call the devils.
After that he got down from the rooftop and got to work and he had to move quickly. Soon enough the authorities would be arriving to investigate and he needed to get any dangerous materials before something went wrong or the devils decided to look closely at the situation. Shirou's wounds actually helped him since the Gremory side will be distracted.
First things first, the Noble Phantasm. That was the most unexpected thing out of the whole deal, who knew that a 'common' criminal had such a weapon with him? But it made sense in a way, the weapon of a pirate got back to the owner through his descendents who technically was a modern version of a pirate.
Kneeling down with the corpse, the masked man notices that the weapon was still on the man's hand, not letting it go even in death. 'A good habit.' The masked man thought while taking his time to take the gun out of the firm grip.
Once that was done he picked the body up and threw it on the closest raging fire with whatever weapons it had. He needed to make it hard for the normal authorities to determine the causes of death. Moving to do the same with the former werewolf he was glad that the species turned back to humans when they died.
That corpse needed to be burned and he made sure that it would be on the biggest fire. He also needed to get rid of the blood but he was prepared for that ever since the werewolf showed up in tall he made a point of getting silver for weapons and for dust. Dust that he placed on a pouch just for this occasion, there was no way a werewolf wouldn't leave some blood behind and he wasn't taking the risk of someone being exposed to it.
'Is Emiya Shirou going to turn into a werewolf?' He asked himself before shrugging, it didn't matter anyway. 'I don't believe a homunculus can be infected with the curse.' He observed while getting rid of the rest of the blood.
After disposing of the bodies and the guns to make it difficult for an easy explanation the masked man started to move to the apartament where the two maidens had fought. First disguising himself as a normal person he just walked in without anyone thinking him strange since he was 'just a normal resident.'
Arriving on the rooftop he ditches the disguise and looks around. Plenty of broken arrows were all around the ground, that wasn't surprising. What was surprising is the blonde woman trying to drag herself to the bow. "Miss Selene? You still live."
Yes, the huntress had managed to recompose herself, centuries of discipline made her able to suppress the pain. If she was honest with herself she would admit that she wanted to cut the leg off but her last knife would just worsen her situation.
"Hassan?" She looked at him and it was evident she was suffering and if nothing was done soon she was going to die. "You are here? Where is Igarius? Igarius! Where are you? Did you kill the boy?"
"While it seems your discipline managed to keep yourself going you weren't able to watch the events that transpired." Hassan hated to deliver bad news. "Your ally and Edward both perished."
"What? That boy killed him?" It was obvious who 'him' was.. "Just like his father! I'm gonna kill him!" She keeps dragging herself to her bow, having all intention to hunt even on her condition.
"I apologize but I can't allow that." And with that the assassin got behind the fallen huntress and took out a knife, the woman barely had time to react before Hassan finished her via a swift cut on her neck. Waiting a few minutes to see if the woman truly died he starts to move again.
This time he collected the white bow, it was nothing really special, a bow made from the sacred woods where the temple of Artemis once resided. A good weapon if nothing else.
Collecting the arrows was mostly unnecessary and leaving the body there was also something that didn't bothered him since the devils would probably be the first one to find it so he just got what he found relevant and prepared to-
He felt his cell phone vibrate on his pocket. Taking a deep breath he knew what that meant; he was late, the fights took longer than he expected.
Taking out his black phone he answers the call. "You truly couldn't wait anymore could you?"
*Report.* Came the voice on the other side.
"Your son is still alive and I didn't have to interfere. He received a call earlier, probably Leysritt tried to call and, noticing that he failed to answer,rushed to the mall, saving him before I had to make any moves." Part of it was what he managed to figure out while watching the conflict play out.
The timing of the call was bad but it made sense that a glutton like her would call close to dinner to know if she should get take out. He was informed that she didn't know how to cook but considering that the call made Emiya be exposed mid ambush but it also may not have made any difference since he pulled a more successful one after.
*Was there any complication?* For such a cold man normally the Magus Killer had a soft spot to his family, Hassan liked that since it made his associate more human.
But he hated to deliver bad news… or maybe this is good news. "I shall start with the obvious; He had both of his opponents down for the count but refused to use more permanent means of dealing with them. If he had gone for the kill from the beginning he wouldn't have got hurt… or scratched by a werewolf."
*Irrelevant. Even the most powerful curse on the planet wouldn't affect him.* That made Hassan pause.
"Ah, so that is where you hid Avalon." He waited a couple of moments for a response but since there was none he decided to say. "I have no problems with it, you know? It just shows that you care about your kids."
Letting out a sigh Kiritsugu decided to just say. *It's more complicated than that.*
"I believe that I should inform you something… there were some blunders with the plan."
*What has gone wrong?* The voice on the other side didn't sound frustrated but Hassan knew he was. *You eliminated any real threat that approached Fuyuki and we made sure that the ones that passed were just above human parameters.*
The fact that the devil thought he could spread a bounty on the Magus Killer son in 'his' town was laughable. Sure there was nothing official anywhere saying that since the devils technically owned the place but there was a reason why Fuyuki was chosen for the heiresses of such prestigious families to take residence.
Much of the city belonged to the government of the Underworld, the chief and main caretaker of external politics was the Leviathan who also took care of most of the holdings, however the one that had an actual agent on the ground in the town was Lucifer himself. Sirzechs like any other devil can have a pact with a magician of his choice and he and Kiritsugu were in a pact.
Unlike Shirou's, that pact didn't extend to his whole family beyond protection since when it was made the Magus Killer had no intent to expose his children to the moonlit world. That didn't change and the pact was just between them and what the human could offer the devil on it was something he was sorely lacking: subtlety.
When Sirzechs made a move people noticed, the guy was a walking juggernaut of power and everyone paid attention to him. There was a high chance that if he disappears from the Underworld for a few hours unaccounted for, someone may panic and declare war. That is just how dangerous he is considered to be.
That is why he looked for the best to help him out, the best assassin and while Hassan is the best in killing directly it is hard to find a better planner in the modern day. The guy was known for killing some of the most dangerous beings on the planet while being a human, not the strongest ones, just those that did acts that could be considered reprehensible since there were plenty of people that tried to upset the delicate balance in the world that even the Hassan had no problem working for him.
With the funds and the contacts that the devils had, and a little probing of his wife, Kiritsurugu built a network using the best recruits he could get, the people he saved. That and people like Hassan that agreed with him on plenty of prospects. And all that in such a way that only a few knew all that and understood the full extent of this alliance.
Focusing back on the conversation Hassan drops the bomb. "There was a Noble Phantasm involved."
*... Selene?*
"No, Edward. I already collected it." He could almost feel the glare of the man.
*How did we let that pass? That was supposed to be a simple test.*
The fact was that more than just three people wanted a chance to get even with the Magus Killer. Hassan took care of anyone that arrived in Fuyuki since he arrived a day after the message of a chance to 'find and hurt the Magus Killer' was sent. Every time a dangerous entity arrived, someone that was dangerous and that the devils couldn't take care of, the assassin would quietly remove them from the picture with none the wiser.
"Edward was a descendent of Blackbeard. He had a gun capable of manifesting the flagship of the pirate." The Magus Killer could already guess everything from there. "You should train your son properly… or if you want I can do it."
Silent again, Emiya Kiritsugu following question was, *Is Shirou alright?*
"He will live and still has all his limbs." Hassan starts to walk to the edge, he could see police and firefighters already working. "Surviving an explosion like that was impressive, I wouldn't be able to do it but he also got lucky. His attempt to knock the pirate out had left him too stunned to use the gun properly. Besides that, everything else has gone as we calculated, the devils will be more on guard now and tighten the security around him and maybe your son will have learned to not spare his opponents."
That is what the training is supposed to do, Shirou already can fight and he just needs to learn how to kill. Getting Irisviel to accept that is being a challenge but that was how these things went and the why they cooked up this scheme. There was a breach of security… that was what he would tell her once she got the news of the events. Some small fry were able to pass under the radar, Edward who liked to travel on ships without leaving a paper trail and Selene who changed identities every couple of years.
On the other hand all of them were no threats to more experienced fighters, Edward was, previous to the Noble Phantasm's reveal, a normal human that could be easily dispatched in hundreds of ways since he had no training nor talent for magic. A drug dealer that managed to survive their organization's downfall mostly by luck.
Selene was the most stubborn between the huntresses before their destruction; she stuck to the lessons their 'missing' goddess had taught them and refused to change her ways. The ones that learned how to fight in a modern setting were a minority with the majority agreeing with her, maybe that is why their goddess abandoned them and left with just some, refusing to make a new group and mostly staying to herself, gods were like that.
Unfortunately that pretty much corrupted their organization since they refused to believe Artemis left them and started to cause problems in the last century, including the capture and forceful conversion of innocent women. It was bad enough that Artemis herself and her smaller group of huntresses were part of the raid to take them down. Yes, the Magus Killer was also part but he was just one of another hundred that decided to interfere. If his fame wasn't the biggest one of the group and the goddess involved were more considerate he wouldn't have been accused of being the mastermind.
About the werewolf, Kiritsugu knew Shirou had a sword with silver and the curse couldn't affect him. He was no threat… except he underestimated his son's compassion and that almost cost the redhead his life.
"Do you want me to take care of the Phenex? Or maybe Matou?" Because if they thought someone wouldn't find their involvement they were definitivally wrong. The devil and the magus made the mistake of forgetting that Rias' pact is now mainstream news. Once Hassan looked closely at the Phenex residing in the town he also got the Matou in the area and figured out he must have found a way to tell the Phenex.
*No, let Gremory figure it out. Sirzechs wouldn't forgive me if I took her chance to neutralize some threat to her. She just needs to be smart and have some evidence.* It wasn't like there would be anyone else in line to attack Shirou anyway.
Hassan looks behind him to the body of Selene, a body on the rooftop definitively counted as evidence of something. "As you wish."
*You can stay in Japan or leave if you want. I will call you if needed.* And with that the Magus Killer hangs up the phone.
"Kukuku." Hassan chuckles. 'The world's 'most dangerous assassin', someone that acted more machine than man, has family and as such a weakness.' He couldn't help but find it funny. 'Nonetheless this is good. We will have to keep all that happened from his wife but it was still good for the boy.'
Hassan looks over the fires that were being put out and replays the fight on his head, it was obvious that physically Shirou was strong, the problem was the mind. In the same situation and resources Hassan could accept taking the damage he took to get Edward to talk but after that he would kill him and then Igarius before the werewolf could properly transform.
Sure he was considering himself in that scenario but he also can't blame Shirou's actions. 'This world would be lost without those that are innocent. Yet, for the boy to survive we may have to kill his innocence.' The assassin didn't like that.
It was part of his Code, the Code of his order that those that joined must do it from their own free will. Turning Emiya Shirou into a killer was against that.
'Gremory better do something about this. Just to make sure I shall stay in Japan for a bit.' He gave a nod to Selene's corpse and started to leave for his hideout.
…..
Okay let me make something clear about Noble Phantasms; they grew out of proportion compared to their origin in the original work. In the beginning they were something that only belonged to Heroic Spirits, then came Bazett Fraga, Gray and some other stuff that basically said 'screw it'. Which means that the concept of growth depending on their stories grew in and out of these stories. Ironic or appropriate, you decide.
In this world they can be born from normal objects? No, they needed to have belonged to someone that made some real impact on the world and the greater the impact the stronger the object can be once they ascend. They can ascend in the same way that one can become a Heroic Spirit but without the many benefits that a full person would have if they ascende, also the individual Phantasm is weaker, still powerful as heck and can beat most magic around but if it was in the hands of their proper owner, lets just say that if the Rider Blackbeard was the one attacking Shirou would be a goner, him and the mall.
Before anything else let's make a comparison on the levels of the Noble Phantasms of this world. For example, Francis Drake vs Blackbeard; Since Drake's impact of history is bigger, having defeated the Spanish Armada and secured England's position as Mistress of the Sea, it is fair to say that he(I think she is a she on fate because Drake is also a representative of England's naval might and the country is always retracted as a woman) is definitivally stronger than a pirate whose impact only lasted his lifetime. In those circumstances a pistol that belonged to Drake, since both have similar Phantasms, would use way less mana to summon a ship and it would have more fire power.
Can anyone use them? To an extent, doesn't mean they can use their full power however, only the true owner can bring out their full potential, Edward as a descendant of Teach had easy access but not full access and even if he did and fought Blackbeard he would lose because servant skills are broken like that. That is why Heroic Spirits are waaaaay later if at all in this story… (plans can change after all)
Already seeing the question: is Durandal, Excalibur, etc.. also Phantasms? Yes. So Xenovia- Yes. What? She is going to show up in the second year, that is not a spoiler since everyone can see it coming.
