Chapter 50
Emiya dragged himself through the door, shaking his legs to kick off his shoes unsuccessfully before simply dragging the heel of the shoes across the ground to take it off. Staggering onto the wooden floor of the Emiya residence, he stumbled into the living room, haphazardly hurling the pendant onto the kitchen counter before he summarily fell face forward onto the ground.
"Nggh…"
Pushing off the floor with his elbow, he lay there for a moment as he stared at the ceiling, his body aching from sprinting back home and running into a few obstacles due to the lack of body coordination. His chest heaved a few times before his breathing steadied, the bruises he had sustained throbbing. His chest no longer felt the constant prickling and burning sensation earlier, and for the most part was normal.
"What...what was that?"
His jumbled memory finally pieced together what had happened, the fall to the ground knocking some sense back into his mind.
A man in red wielding a bow, firing arrows that glowed and exploded with the force of a missile. In the stormy skies above him, a rider in black astride an ominous black steed. Red lightning, a tower of light that stretched into the sky, portals that fired energy beams and a great shield of seven petals.
He knew magecraft existed, and practiced it as well, no matter how small his talents in that respect were. Yet, he had never imagined in his wildest dreams that it could be capable of so much. For a second, he wondered if they were aliens. There was no way humans could do something like that. Then he slapped his cheeks to clear his mind.
His thoughts turned to his chest, the fatal wound somehow gone, his chest whole and unblemished.
"I was almost killed...No, I was certainly killed."
The pain of having a huge hole torn through his chest wasn't easy to forget, the feeling of his lungs, heart and spine being pulverized as the lance passed through his body without resistance was something he'd remember for the rest of his life.
Yet, he had been saved by someone, leaving behind only the ruby pendant as a memento of them.
"Who could have saved me?"
The question occupied his mind, the identity of his saviour. If possible, he wanted to repay them as much as he could, for allowing him to live again, giving him a second chance to fulfill his dream.
*Ding, ding*
The sound of the bells hanging in the eaves ringing shook him from his reverie, the sensation of a slight electric current passing through his skin, making the hair stand up.
Wait, that was the Boun-
He rolled away before the ceiling caved in, pushing with all his against the ground as his body crashed into the wooden counter, the ceiling shattering under the charging horse as the lance pierced a hole in the tatami mats on the floor.
The table was flipped over from the blast of air that accompanied her landing as the floorboards caving in while the fruits on the table rolled across the ground. The recruitment poster left behind by Taiga was thrown across the room and rolled across the floor towards him.
Pressing his back against the counter and pushing himself up, he grabbed the steel poster and a kitchen knife behind him, holding the poster cylinder in his right and the knife in his left, dual wielding the bizarre combination.
"I was hoping to end this quickly and with the least amount of effort, but it seems that I will have to expend more energy to deal with you. I'll ask you one last time, stop resisting, and I'll make your death painless."
She was privately surprised that he was still alive, but in the end all that mattered was that she silenced him and obtained the artifact inside him for herself.
"Trace, on."
Those were his only words as he focused, the burning rod shoved into his spine as he created the Nerve Circuit to reinforce the cylinder and knife, blue lines criss crossing across both objects.
*Crss*
The knife shattered in his hands, the blade almost exploding before it simply shattered into dust, the remains streaming through the gaps in his fingers.
But the poster held its form, the steel strengthened beyond what it's original capabilities. Lancer simply watched as he switched to a two-handed grip with the poster, holding it in front of him like a shinai.
Without saying a word, she summoned her might and blasted mana from the back of her elbow, the Mana Burst magnifying her blow into a sure kill strike that would obliterate Emiya Shirou into smithereens.
A single thought ran across Shirou's mind.
"I won't die like this!"
A stroke of genius flashed through his mind as his imminent death drew closer, his hands unrolling the poster as he desperately pushed against the floor to dodge the strike.
In the next moment, a hole appeared in the wall as he was blown clear off his feet across the backyard, through the shed doors and into a pile of appliances in the shed itself.
Lancer's blow was too fast and strong for her to shift its course, hence the reason why Emiya was able to survive it. He had just barely strengthened the rolled open poster enough to allow it to survive the tip of the lance skimming across the surface, protecting his body, but the poster had exploded from the stress, and combined with the sheer force packed into that one blow, even a near miss was enough to send him flying. If she had rotated the lance or slowed down enough to adjust more to the left, he would have died on the spot. She also hadn't expected him to resist so much, hence her carelessness and lack of focus on her target despite the force in her blow.
Lancer stared at him through the hole in the wall, her helm lending her a menacing air as she lifted her lance once more to prepare for her charge at him, planning on breaking through the walls for a sure charge with Llamrei that he wouldn't be able to avoid. Even just passing by him would be enough to kill him.
Seeing Llamrei paw the ground and snort, Emiya desperately looked around the shed, searching for something, anything to save him. The lance lowered at him started to whir, spinning as the red spikes started glowing, an absurd thought flashing through Shirou's mind comparing it to a black Christmas tree.
A heater, stray wires, a rice cooker, a red electric kettle and more cluttered the space, yet none of them were useful to him. All he could do was watch as Lancer gathered energy behind her to propel her forward to crush his body once and for all.
"Damn it...I can't die like this."
How could he die again right after being saved by someone he didn't even know?
"I can't fulfill my duty if I die here. I won't be killed here, by someone who takes lives thoughtlessly!"
A fervent desire to live, so that he could fulfill the promise he made to that man on the porch under the full moon. Until he became a hero of justice, he refused to die.
The marks formed on his hand, spreading across the back of his left hand into the Command Seals of a Master. The circle that had been glowing slightly ever since he had fallen into the shed accepted the trickle of energy flowing from him, establishing a connection and calling forth a hero of yore to obey his wish, reaching into the Throne to summon the one connected to the scabbard of the Everdistant Utopia.
Out of the corner of his eye, a brilliant flash emerged, the light sublimating into the silhouette of an armored figure.
Lancer sensed it too, instantly moving forward with her horse as one to eliminate the red haired boy lying on the floor of the shed. She flew forward on her steed, crossing the distance in the blink of an eye. It was a charge like lightning, a spearhead charge aimed at his heart. Dodging it would have been useless, it's speed making it invisible to the human eye.
But...
*BOOM*
The doors of the shed were blown off their hinges as they flipped in the air before landing on the grass, the entrance to the shed gone with a large hole taking its place.
The lightning that tried to pierce him...
...was repelled by the moonlight that tried to save him.
Standing in the way of Lancer's spear, was nothing.
Or rather, an invisible weapon that seemed to shift with the dust thrown up by the clash, the wilder a young girl clad in medieval armor and in a skirt, golden blonde hair tied up in a bun behind her with a blue silk ribbon keeping it in place. The armor wasn't beautiful at all, as unrefined as the cold night. The sound of steel rang across the empty backyard, a harsh clang of steel on steel. Still, Emiya Shirou thought it was a beautiful sound like the crystal clear tinkling of a bell, simply because she left him dumbstruck.
Before Lancer could react, the girl pushed her lance upwards with little effort, then spun a full circle with her right leg as a pivot and kicked the horse with her left leg, blue mana pouring out of her calf to amplify the force of the kick.
They were sent skating across the ground as Llamrei braced himself to stop the two of them from flying into the air despite the pain racking his ribcage and right front leg, the limb in question heavily crippled. Inside the shed, the knight turned to face him, her delicate mouth opening as she spoke to him.
"―――I ask of you. Are you my Master?"
She asked in a voice that lit up the darkness.
"I have come forth in response to your summons. From this time forward, my sword shall be with you and your fate shall be with me. Now, our contract is complete."
Yes, the contract was completed. When she chose her Master...
Shirou swore to help her too.
The moonlight still lit up the darkness. As if following the knight's example, the shed fell silent.
Time had stopped, the scene lasting less than a second.
But he would remember this scene vividly even in hell.
The face slightly turned. The quiet green eyes.
The instant became an eternity. The blue outfit symbolizing her swayed in the wind.
――――A faint blue light filtered in.
The golden hair shone in the moonlight.
(Some parts of this chapter were taken directly from the VN script, all credit goes to TYPE-MOON and Kinoko Nasu)