[EMIYA SHIROU]
[THE GAMER]
[LV 27- 15000/26000]
[HP: 2700][MP: 35][MC: 27][ST: 920][SP: 11]
[STR: 45][DEX: 47][INT: 50][WIS: 33][CHR: 102]
In one's life, no matter the undertaking of choice, the first thing to do is to acquire knowledge about the subject of interest.
For Magi, this tenet was the most ironclad rule of all, not merely because they pursued knowledge above everything, but because failing to do some preemptively would certainly result in a most horrifying and premature death.
Emiya Shirou was a Magus and regardless of unusual he was, he too followed this tenet when the circumstances allowed for it.
Therefore, the only reasonable thing to do was finding out more about this new threat, and who better than Tohsaka Rin could help him with that?
"Mikado... Ryouko?" she asked. "You want to use my contacts with the Clock Tower to find out more about this woman? May I ask why?"
"She declared herself as my enemy, so I would rather know more about this threat to my life."
"Honestly! What did you do to her?" she asked.
"That's precisely what I'm trying to find out. I don't think I ever did anything that would offend her, but dad wasn't exactly popular with the Magus community and he might have stepped on a few toes."
"Oh, well. I can certainly look into it, but I can't make any promises about results."
"Of course," he nodded. "Any decent Magus would have done a good job at concealing knowledge about themselves and one who didn't would probably be much a threat to begin with."
"Precisely," she agreed. "You understand, of course, that I must be neutral in this entire affair. As long as this woman does not breach any of the Association's laws then I cannot intervene on your behalf."
"I know. This is something I must deal with by myself. It's more than enough that you are willing to help checking her background."
"It's merely a case of equivalent exchange, Emiya-san. Your gratitude is appreciated but unrequired."
"You were under no obligation to accept this job. The payment is merely for services rendered but the willingness to perform them can't necessarily be bought."
Rin inclined her head in acquiescence. He was perfectly right, of course and under different circumstances she would not have accepted this task. However, he was currently one of her most promising sources of income and losing him would be a setback to her finances. It didn't get to the point of making an enemy out of the other party, but normally she wouldn't be sticking her head out even that much.
It was good that he could understand that much, which made Rin notice even more how odd he was. He didn't behave like a child of his apparent age. Even though the children of Magi were inherently more composed than ordinary kids, they still largely retained the mannerism of children.
Emiya Shirou had none of that. From the way he sat, to the way he he held his cup of tea, to the way he talked, Rin would have pegged him as someone even older than her.
She knew little of his abilities, but he was a member of Soul Society therefore he had to have a certain amount of skills. Skills that a child was not supposed to have, even and especially a first generation Magus one.
He was an aberration, even from the point of a view of a Thaumaturgist like her. It was little wonder then, that another practitioner of the craft had taken an academic interest in him.
He clearly decided to keep this possibility out of their conversation as the motive for his conflict with this Mikado person, and Rin had no reason for calling him out on it, least she implied she had similar interests, which she very much didn't.
She might have been curious about him, that was true, but the nature of her family's craft was far removed from biology, human or otherwise. Therefore, unless his body naturally produced jewels as byproduct of its functions she didn't care much about it. Certainly not enough to make an enemy out of him and a competitor out of the other Magus.
Ultimately, there was no better position for her in this entire matter than the one she currently occupied; that of a quasi-neutral third party.
"This issue aside, are your studies progressing well?" she asked casually. Inquiring about another Magus's advancements in Magecraft was almost rude but she was generic enough in her wording that it didn't quite come out as that.
"Ha ha," he laughed, "I think I'm doing fairly well, thank you."
"Well, that's good to hear. If you ever find yourself stuck on the basics, don't hesitate to ask."
For a fee went unsaid but he was intelligent enough not to assume that she'd work for free.
"I'll be sure to do that, than you. Were you able to find anything else about my father, or did you manage to acquire more books?"
"Not yet. Your father was quite the character and I believe he disseminated a lot of false information about himself. I wouldn't pass onto you anything I'm not absolute certain about."
"That's very thoughtful of you, Tohsaka-san. Well, it seems that it has gotten already quite late. Thank you for your hospitality."
She showed him to the door and watched him leave. Once he was out of her Boundary Fields she went back inside the house.
She had taken a job, so the least she could do was complete it flawlessly.
[br]
For the next several days, Shirou spend all of his free time increasing his proficiency in boundary fields using his Sword cheat.
Thanks to his affinity for blades, his fighting prowess was already fairly high and with the Busujima sword style maxed out he could no longer improve unless he stumbled upon another style capable of contending with the supernatural and fundamentally superior in efficiency.
Alternatively he could grind his stats, but they were already fairly high in comparison to his level.
Trying to level up would require him to undertake Quests, but most of them gave too little EXP to make it worth its time. Under ordinary circumstances, he would not care about the payout of helping people, but with the threat of Mikado Ryouko hanging over his head (and that of everyone close to him) he could scarcely afford to worry about doing minor helpful tasks.
Therefore, the best course of action was grinding all of his other skills as much as he could and Boundary Fields were his current focus. Since this was one of the first non-entirely sword related skill that he grinded from the ground up, he managed to get a decent grasp on how the growth progression of a skill worked.
The amount of work required to increase a skill grew with each subsequent level, but the rewards were also proportionally higher.
Loosely speaking, the progression of a skill could be divided in four blocks.
Beginner, from level 1 to 25.
Adept, from level 26 to 50.
Expert, from level 51 to 75
And finally Master, from level 76 to 100.
Going to from level 1 to 50 was relatively easy with the use of his Sword Cheat, unless the skill was abnormally difficult to raise. Shirou managed to take his Boundary Fields skill to that point by focusing on it on his free time for a week straight.
His stock of Mana Cores, already dwindling from having to pay for Tohsaka's services, plummeted even further as he used them to recharge is own Mana.
However, it revealed itself to be a sound investment when the skill finally hit level 51.
[Boundary Field Creation has reached Lv. 51]
[Time Altering Boundary Fields have been unlocked]
[Time Altering Boundary Fields: Allow the manipulation of time inside its perimeter (up up 300m2), speeding it up or slowing it down.]
[Energy consumption: 100MP every real-time day. Additional 100MPs required for each increment]
Shirou's eyes threatened to pop out of his head as he read the description. A Time Altering Boundary Field. Wasn't this basically a Hyperbolic Time Chamber?
It was a staple of manga and anime, so renown that even he, that read and watched almost none, knew of them. The concept was quite simple and yet amazing.
He could make time flow differently, which meant that he would have more time to train and grind for each natural day. It was the same as getting stronger faster.
But the price of this skill was extremely steep. He could manipulate time in a area of a three hundred square meters at the cost of a hundred MPs per day. However, the cost would increase the more difference there was between inside and outside.
It meant that if he wanted the time inside the Boundary Field to go at twice the speed than outside of it, it would cost him 100 MPs, 200 to make it go three times as fast, 300 to make it go four times as fast and so on and so forth.
Fortunately, it was not a cost to be paid upfront, like most spells were, but it would be drained from his reserves as time went by. Otherwise he wouldn't even be able to deploy it, much less keep it going.
With his meager 35 MP he could afford to hold it up for about eight hours each day at a time ratio of two to one.
But that was more than enough. He was hardly ever home for an entire day anyway, and there was no prohibition for him to sleep while inside it either. If he calculated his timing well, each hour that he spent at home would count for two.
He could double the rate at which he became stronger. How could he not be happy about it?
But getting this far depleted him of his stock of Mana Cores and he would have to replenish it. Going back to the Mirror World would mean exposing himself to the machinations of Irisviel and Mikado Ryouko, not to mention eventual others who had yet to reveal themselves.
After all, if one had taken an interest in him there could very well be a hundred more.
However, what did it mean for him? Nothing!
"The path of a hero is riddled with hidden dangers," he concluded. He didn't chose to walk this path because it was easy or devoid of risks. Even only as a Magus he already walked with death, and he had made the resolve to advance on this path a long time ago.
What reason was there for him to be afraid at his point? None whatsoever. All he had to concern himself with was getting stronger and stronger. That way he could face whatever threat came knocking as this door and protect the people that needed to be protected.
Having come to that decision, he started setting up the Boundary Field around his house.
[br]
When Yoruichi returned home the next morning, she arrived in her cat form as usual, but when she jumped over the wall she felt like she had just sunk through a layer of mud, as if the air was denser inside the grounds than it was outside.
She felt nauseous for a moment, but she quickly regained her bearing.
"This is… a Boundary Field?" she asked to herself after she returned to her human form. There had always been one around the house, but it was not as powerful as this one. Furthermore, there was something odd about it.
Looking up she saw a flock of birds flying through the early morning sky. It wouldn't be anything unusual if not for the fact that they were moving too slowly for it to be natural.
No… she was the one inside the Boundary Field, therefore she was the one behaving unnaturally. She was the one whose perception were accelerated.
She picked up a small stone from the ground and dropped it. She watched as it fell at the speed she expected it to. Her senses were fine. She wasn't being affected by the Boundary Field in any way.
"Time Alteration? It has to be," she concluded. "That brat! Since when did he have this kind of ability?"
She immediately went looking for him inside the tool shed that he used as a Workshop.
She found him sitting cross legged on the floor, with a hand stretched in front of himself, while energy crackled around his arm, coalescing into his palm and taking the shape of a sword which he firmly grasped with his finger.
There were several such swords laying around the place.
"Yoruichi-san?" he asked, having noticed her presence on the doorstep. Their eyes met and he immediately looked away. "Welcome home."
Hm? What was wrong with him? What did he see to make him look away?
She looked down at her body and she found it to be naked like every time she transformed back from her feline form. However, this time she felt an highly unusual sense of embarrassment was over her.
It was silly, so she chose to disregard it.
"Watcha doing?" she asked as she approached, her naked feet pattering on the cold concrete.
"What does it look like?" he answered still looking elsewhere. "I'm training in Magecraft."
"Sword creation, huh? I suppose that right up your alley," she told him after she had sat cross-legged in front of him. She grinned as his blush intensified. "I didn't know Warding was also something you were good at, though. A Time Alteration Boundary Field? Someone's eager to get stronger."
"So what if I am?" he asked, turning to look at her in the eyes. "Is there something wrong with it?"
"Not at all. In fact, I admire it," she leaned to the side, putting both hands on the floor and she started crawling around him on all four. Her back was slightly arched and the toes of her dainty feet curled to grip the concrete.
"Perhaps this onee-san could teach you a trick or two, hmmm?" she purred into his ears. This close to him she could easily smell his sweat. Far from being disgusting, it had a profound masculinity to it.
It tingled her nose and in traveled all the way down to her stomach.
'Hmmm... he does smell quite nice,' she thought privately. Then she blinked. 'It looks like that even I am attracted to this guy a little bit. Perhaps I should really teach him a couple of things after all.'
"Shouldn't you rather say obaa-san? Ow! Did you just bit my ear?"
"That's what you get for making jokes about my age," she rebuffed.
"Eh, Yoruichi-san is a woman after all," he commented.
"Ohh?" A vein pulsed on her forehead and she put both hands on his shoulders, digging her fingers into his flesh. "Since when did you start thinking I'm not a woman, brat?"
"Ow! Ow! Ow! That's not what I meant. That's not what I meant, Yoruichi-san."
"Then what is that you meant?" she asked, releasing a bit of pressure but still keeping the threat of her nails very much present.
"Well... it's just that you are so casual about your body that it's hard to imagine you'd be susceptible about your age."
"Hmm... fine, I'll concede that point. But I am a woman, and you would do better to keep it in mind."
"It's not like I could get it out of my mind if I tried," he mumbled under his breath, so low that if her ears weren't as sharp as they were she would have missed it.
She felt a strange bubble of pleasure go off in her stomach.
"You know... if you say things like that I'll start to think you're hitting on me."
One of her hands slid further down his chest, all the way to his stomach.
Shirou jumped up in the air like a miniature rocket, high enough that he nearly hit the roof of the shed, only for gravity to bring him back down and crash on the floor, where he rolled until he found himself with his back against the wall.
"I didn't' meant to say that out loud! You weren't supposed to hear it! I wouldn't hit on you!"
"Hmm? Why, is there something wrong with me?" she asked as she crawled towards him. "Am I not pretty enough? Or perhaps you really think I'm too old?"
By that point she had reached him and she pulled herself upright on her knees.
"I'll have you know, my body won't lose in firmness even to a teenager." Her hands roamed her stomach and cupped her breasts delicately, but with enough force that her flesh bulged through her fingers. "Wanna try it for yourself?"
A drop of blood fell from Shirou's nose. There was already no other place in his body where it could go. Down below was already stretched to the max but despite the additional space, his blood pressure was just too high.
Yoruichi saw this scene and the mask of the seductress cracked.
"Pffft... AHAHAHAHAH!" she fell to the floor, clutching her stomach. "Oh, your face! AHAHAHAHAHA!"
Shirou was dumbstruck at the sudden change in atmosphere and he looked at Yoruichi like she was crazy.
"What's wrong, brat?" she asked. "Disappointed that I was only kidding? ... YOU ARE! MWAHAHAHAHAH!"
Shirou felt his face flush even further, though for entirely different reasons.
He held his mouth shut, but he was indeed disappointed. What reasonable human wouldn't have been?
Therefore, Shirou could only sit there and suffer Yoruichi's teasing, but even though it was quite embarrassing, his erection didn't look like it was going to recede anytime soon.
Stupid hormones and stupid insanely hot woman.
[br]
Busujima Saeko was displeased. The fault of her sour mood could be found, as it often was the case with young women, with her boyfriend.
She didn't think herself a controlling girlfriend and she certainly couldn't be blamed of being jealous either, considering that she pushed him to find more girlfriends for himself.
One of said girlfriends was laying on the floor of her dojo, with her arms and legs spread at her side, breathing heavily from the exertion Saeko had put her through in the course of the afternoon.
It was Fujimura Taiga who had brought to her ears the news that had upset her so much, when she moved into Saeko's place a couple of days ago so that she could spend more time training.
The reason for this decision was that she wanted to become stronger faster and help Shirou with a new threat that had cropped up.
Saeko could understand Shirou's decision to temporarily push away Taiga. The school teacher was nowhere capable enough to deal with threat of mystical nature yet, at least not that posed by a Magus.
By virtue of their own ability they would avoid direct confrontation and come at them from their blind spot. Taiga had a strong foundation in swordsmanship, and with Saeko as her tutor she could soon step into the real of those who fought monsters, but she lacked the mindset for dealing with the supernatural society as a whole.
What upset Saeko was that Shirou did not call out to her for assistance. She understood that he didn't have into himself to put people in danger for his own sake. It was part of the reason why Saeko loved him, but right there and then it was the reason why she was angry at him.
She was not a damsel in distress. She was a warrior. He had no right to keep her from the battlefield.
She took out her frustration on Taiga, but the other woman trived under duress. She took everything Saeko threw at her and surpassed her limits each and every time.
"Alright, I think you are ready for the next step," Saeko declared, looking at the prone from of her trainee.
"What's… ah… what's that?" she asked in between gasps of breath.
"You are coming with me tonight. We're going to hunt together."
"Hunt, ah, what?"
"Why, ghosts of course," she replied matter-of-factly.
"Eh… EEEEEEEEEEH?"
Saeko smiled. It was going to be an interesting night after all.
[br]
Meanwhile, at Narita, an airplane was slowly making its descent towards the ground.
Inside it, among several other passenger, sat a man in his early twenties with long smooth hair dressed in a sharp suit.
He glanced out, down to the ground and then pulled out a pocket watch to look at the time. Satisfied with what he saw, he put back the watch where it belonged and leaned back on the seat to enjoy the last few minutes of quiet before having to wade his way through the airport crowd.
Some thirty minutes later, after going through custom and retrieving his luggage he immediately climbed on a train.
Destination: Fuyuki City.
He would have really liked not going back there for the rest of his life, but as it's often the case one doesn't get to choose their burdens.
Waver Velvet was no exception to that rule.
[br]
Fujimura Taiga had to repeat to herself over and over again that it had been her decision, her choice to be there in that moment.
She had no one else to blame other than herself for her circumstances. Still, she never thought she would ever found herself lost in a forest, in the middle of the night.
To make things worse, it was a ghost haunted forest.
Saeko was walking ahead of her, wearing something that could be loosely called a battle armor but that looked more like something out of a fetishst dream. A modified high school uniform with a indecently short skirt, armored thigh-high boots and gauntlets.
"Is that get up part of your family tradition?" she asked to distract herself from the anxiety she was feeling?
"Hmm? This one? Oh, no. It was merely my personal preference," Saeko replied.
"... You've got some weird tastes."
"Not too different from yours in some regards. Wouldn't you say so, Taiga-chan?"
Taiga grumbled but did not refute her statement. Of all the faults anyone could find with Saeko, her choice in lovers would be the most damning, and with Taiga having the same exact lover she couldn't be think of herself in much better terms.
Stupid, irresistible Shirou.
"There it is," Saeko declared.
Taiga looked in the direction where Saeko was pointing, and sure enough she could see a fait human outline in the distance.
She started sweating profusely and her hands went cold.
A ghost. An honest to god spirit. She wasn't seeing things.
Taiga was already aware of the supernatural, but seeing people fight with superhuman abilities was a different thing from seeing ghosts.
She was supposed to fight these things.
"Do not be afraid," Saeko told her. "Swords alone are useless against spirits. A resolute heart is your only weapon."
"Easier said than done," she whispered.
"Consider this. Whether the enemy is tangible or intangible, you will not prevail if you don't believe you can."
"So, I just need to believe that I can win to win?"
"No. Victory and loss are a result of the circumstances, of which individual ability is only one factor. The choice is only between fighting or to fleeing. Both are acceptable, but if you decide to flee then you must run with all of your power and if you decide fight, then you must do so with all your heart. Only death awaits if you do things by halves. So... will you run or will you fight?"
Taiga took a steadying breath and clutched the hilt of Torashinai even tighter.
Fight or flee. The choice was her own. No one had pushed her to come to this mountain, subject herself to Saeko's training and then go ghost hunting.
It had been her choice from the beginning. She was aware of the risks, she knew of the dangers yet she came all the way.
She gave a snort and stepped forward, pushing past Saeko who did nothing to deter her advance.
Was she scared? Of course she was. Who wouldn't be scared when faced with a ghost, of all things?
But it was a fight of her own choice, therefore she would fight.
As soon as she got close enough, the wraith seemed to notice her presence and it turned to face her fully.
It was dressed like a samurai, but half his armor was missing and so was almost half his face. Its eyes were empty sockets burning with malice.
It looked at her without eyes, lifting an accusatory finger in her direction and letting out a completely silent scream that unhinged what was left of its jaw.
Then it rushed at her.
Its speed wasn't any faster than a human's, but the sight of it was enough to freeze Taiga solid.
One heartbeat. Two heartbeats.
It that short time it had covered half the distance and Taiga was still stupefied.
Fight of flee. Fight of flee. Fight or flee.
Three heartbeats.
Fight or flee.
Four heartbeats.
Fight.
"Taaah!"
She swung down her sword in a textbook Men (面), squarely across its head.
The wraith momentum was halted and it even took a few staggering steps backwards, but such an entity was immune to things such as shocks or traumas and it reared its head immediately.
However, the flow had already changed. Taiga was no longer frozen. Her instinct to flee had been completely mastered by her will to fight.
In the time it took to the wraith to recover, she had already followed through, closing the distance of her own volition.
One strike. Two strikes. Three strikes. Four strikes.
She landed blow after blow upon the wraith until it could no longer retain its form and it crumbled away in wisps of grey mist.
Taiga stood there, breathing raggedly with sweat covering her whole body. It hadn't been a particular intense exertion, but she was exhausted all the same.
She had put all of herself in each blow, thus becoming mentally drained, to the point where she would love nothing more than to curl down and sleep in that very same spot.
This drowsiness was offset only by the victorious surge she felt building up in her chest.
She had done it.
She had fought against the supernatural and won. She excitedly turned towards Saeko, only to see her rush in her direction, sword drawn and poised to strike.
Before Taiga could react in any way, Saeko swung her blade in her direction. It slipped right next to Taiga's body cutting something behind her.
Taiga turned just in time to see another wraith disappear into gray mist.
"This is no place to let down your guard, Taiga-chan," Saeko reprimanded.
Whatever Taiga would have wanted to say in response had to be postponed, as more and more ghostly figure started appearing all around them.
She clutched Torashinai tighter, a look of panic flashing through her eyes for a moment, before she shook her head and replaced it with a determined glare.
"Come!" she called out. "I'll send you right back to whatever hell your crawled out from!"
"That's the spirit," Saeko said approvingly, standing with her back against Taiga's.
Additional words would have been a waste of energy, as they were simultaneously swarmed from all sides and they needed every single breath to fight for their lives.
[br]
When the sun cracked over the horizon, bathing the world with its light, all of the wraiths became unable to retain their form and disappeared, joining the early morning mist.
Taiga stood with her clothes partially torn in several places but still firmly holding Torashinai in her hands.
Only when she heard the click of Saeko's sword being sheathed she really believed that the fight was finally over, allowing her fingers to loosen up and her knees to buckle.
It had been the second, most terrifying night of her life, surpassed only by the one in which she believed that Shiou had died.
This... this was the Moonlit World. This was where Shirou and Saeko lived and fought. This was where she had willingly stepped into.
She heard Saeko's footsteps getting closer and a hand patting her on the shoulder.
"Well done," the younger but more experienced woman congratulated.
"Eh!" she replied, before doing the only reasonable thing and dropping on her side in the underbrush, regardless of the dirt.
A moment later, she was snoring loudly.
Saeko looked at her and chuckled, shaking her head in amusement.
'What an unbelievable woman,' she thought. 'She might actually have the potential for this, after all.'
Smiling to herself, Saeko decided that it might be a good idea to take a page out of Taiga's book and thus curled next to her on the ground.
Soon enough she too was sleeping soundly, oblivious to the world.
XXX