AN
"Blah" - Normal Speech
'Blah' - Thoughts
Fate/Stay Night x Kamen Rider
Journey through the Kaleidoscope
Fate/Stay Night x Kamen Rider Faiz
Fate/Exceed
Chapter ?: Fateful Night
Another night had fallen across Fuyuki, thanks to the curfew that was in effect due to the threat of a potential killer being on the loose; only a few of the city's citizens dare venture out after dark.
One of those brave few happened to be Emiya Shirou, the rust haired young man sporting a frown as he made his way along the mostly deserted city streets as he headed towards his destination.
For Shirou the sight of the empty streets made him feel uneasy, he'd been back in town now for less than 24 hours.
Before long Shirou found himself standing outside of his destination, the gated entrance of Homura Academy, as he stared up at it a barrage of memory flashed through Shirou's mind, in particular memories of that night five years ago, bringing with them feelings of loathing and guilt.
Clenching his fists Shirou those memories from his mind, turning his gaze away from the buildings his eyes falling upon the placard that was attached to the gatepost, emblazoned onto the pieces of metal were the words 'Hourmura Academy sponsored by SMART Brain'.
He shouldn't be surprised, that sign had been there back when he was a student. If fact you couldn't go anywhere in Fuyuki that didn't have that logo slapped on it, a reminder to everyone just who was in charge here.
If he knew back then what he knew now…
Shiriou shook his head, now was not the time for old memories and what ifs, he had a job to do. Fuji-nee had mentioned rumors of figures moving around the school at night, while it might be nothing, his eyes momentarily turning back to the placard again,
Glancing around him to be certain that no one was round, the rust haired man took a few steps backwards, taking a few deep breaths, and dashed forwards before leaping upwards, grabbing ahold of the top of the wall and pressed his feet against before breaking into a sprint and jumped upwards and grabbing onto the top of the wall, pulling himself up and over it, landing on the other side.
Now on the other side Shirou once again looked around him, taking a moment to check if his arrival had attracted the attention of anything, straightened up and made his way towards the building.
Time to see if Fuji-nee's rumor had any validity to it.
A little more than ten minutes after the rust haired man's arrival, Rin and Archer appeared, alighting in front of the school's main entrance, blissfully unaware that they weren't the only ones who had interest in the school tonight.
That same unnatural sensation that she'd felt earlier washing over her once again. "It's still here…" She mutters to herself before turning to look at her Servant, "Archer, you feel it?"
"Indeed, there is an unnatural sense of foreboding that seems to permeate this area?" The tanned skinned Servant of the Bow replied. "You believe it to be some kind of Bounded Field?"
Rin let out a 'heh' in response. "You read my mind." She replied, "But yeah, a Bounded Field makes the most sense, It's the only explanation for why something like this would be here. Is it active?"
"Not right now," Archer informed her, "Although I can't say for how much longer it will remain so or what will happen when it does become active."
"Right, let's get to work. As Second Owner I can't allow the existence of such vile things to go unpunished." Rin said, her voice filled with authority, "First things first, let's focus on taking this down, we can worry about the who and the why later."
The course of action decided upon both Master and Servant made their way towards a door that would grant them access to the building, unsurprisingly finding it locked, Archer doing something that took care of the lock, opening the door to allow his Master inside before following after her.
Now inside, Archer and Rin found themselves inside the building's entrance hall, the area partially illuminated by moonlight from outside. Now inside the tanned skinned Servant paused for a moment as he and Rin took a moment to search the area for any of the inactive Fields trigger points, it was then something caught Archer's attention.
On the wall was a large plague that had over a dozen names inscribed upon it, as well the words 'In memory of those who lost their lives in the winter night tragedy' running across the top as well as a date, what was the date also happened to be of when the Fifth Holy Grail War would have taken place.
Looking away he turned his gaze towards his Master, the ebony haired woman was also gazing at the memorial, a solemn look etched into her features. "Rin, what is this?" He asked her.
Rin let out a sigh. "Five years ago there was an…incident." She informed the Servant of the Bow. "The student council and the clubs had organized a pep rally of sorts, something to promote school spirit."
"You were there?" Archer asked, his tone implying that his question wasn't a question.
"Yeah, yeah I was there. The whole thing seemed silly but I decided to check it out, figured that it would be harmless fun." Rin replied, a rye smile appearing on her lips.. "That night, all the people that were there, they all seemed so excited and happy."
And then, all of a sudden, Rin's expression changed, her smile instantly vanishing and a serious expression etched itself into her features. "That was until it all changed." She continued, "That's when…it happened."
"It?" Archer asked.
"I…I can't really recall exactly when it happened, it seemed to happen so quickly, like the jovial atmosphere of the event was switched off and the excitement was replaced by sounds of panic and screams. And the people who died, instead of leaving a body behind they dissolved into piles of ash…" Rin's voice tapered off, closing her eyes tightly and took several deep breaths, Archer could tell that she was composing herself.
"At some point during the panic something happened to me that caused me to black out, when I came too I saw…it." Rin continued "I found myself staring up at some kind of creature looming over me."
"Creature?" Archer asked.
"Yeah, I've never seen anything like it before."Rin told him, "It just sat there, staring at me. Its body was an ash grey colour, and its head, it looked kinda like a wolf."
"What did you do?" Archer asked, Rin let out a chuckle in response to his question.
"I screamed." She told him. "I know, you probably can't believe it. A member of an esteemed Magus family trained in the use of Magecraft and all I could do in that moment was scream like a scared child. After I did, the creature just ran away, took off into the night leaving me behind."
"Any idea what it was?" Archer inquired.
"I have no idea," the Tohsaka heiress replied. "After that night I spent years trying to find out what it was but even with access to the resources of the Clock Tower I couldn't find anything that matched its description or its method of killing."
Rin fell silent but by the look on her face Archer could tell that his Master was trying to repress the events that she had described to him, not wanting to relive them again.
Giving his Master a moment to compass herself, Archer turned his attention back to the memorial and scanned the list of names on the memorial, several of them standing out to him.
Ryuudou Issei…Mitizuri Ayako…Matou Shinji…Emiya Shirou… wait, Emiya Shirou?
For a moment Archer felt a sense of numbness overtake him as he processed this piece of information, a revelation that had hit him like one of Zeus's thunderbolts, the Emiya Shirou of this world was already dead, a victim amongst the many of the same incident that Rin had managed to avoid.
In that moment he was unsure of what to do with himself, his sole reason for being here was to confront his past self and eliminate him and maybe, just maybe, undo the foolish decision that had led him down the path that had led him here.
Now what, if he could not face his younger self then what point was him being here, was ensuring that Rin won the Holy Grail War his only real purpose now?
Rin sighed and shook her head. "Come on, let's get out of here. We've got a job to do and we're wasting time standing here. Rin said before turning on her heel and began walking away. "The past is the past, no point dwelling on it."
Archer didn't answer her, shooting the memorial one final glance he reverted back to his incorporeal form before following after his Master.
Elsewhere inside the building Shirou was making his way along one of the corridors, doing his best to make as little noise as possible. so far it seemed like this entire thing looked like it was a bust.
He was considering packing it in for the night when he just so happened to notice what appeared to be movement at the opposite end of the hall, seeing this Shirou quickly crouched down and pressed himself against the wall before moving again, trying to make as little noise as possible.
Slowly but surely, inch by inch, he pressed forward until he drew close enough to where he'd spotted the moving shadow and glanced around the corner where he was met by a pair of Orphnoch's, both of whom were leaning against the wall outside one of the many classrooms, strained his hearing to listen into what the two of them were talking about.
"Tsk, this is such a waste of time." He heard one of them groan. "This assignment is so boring."
"Will you quit complaining." The other retorted, clearly annoyed by his companion's attitude, "I know this assignment is boring but hearing you bitch about it isn't gonna make the time pass any quicker."
"I'm not complaining, I'm simply stating a fact." The first snapped back. "Apparently a guy with one of the missing belts just showed up in town and instead of looking for it we got stuck on guard duty in an empty building."
"Considering what's downstairs it makes sense that the boss man would assign security here." The second told his companion. "As for the belt I happened to overhear something interesting, apparently the guys downstairs are working on a new belt to replace the ones that were stolen."
This got Shirou's attention, momentarily gripping one of the straps of his backpack. 'Belt…'
"A new belt," The first Orphanoc said, sounding interested. "Huh, I wonder if they've assigned a user already?"
"I wouldn't get your hopes up, no way the boss would give it to guys like us." The second replied. "I bet it will be one of those Lucky Clover guys, or some hand picked mercenary from overseas."
All of a sudden something outside caught everyone's attention, both of the Orphnoch's instantly turning their heads in the direction of the window.
"Wha…what the…?" Shirou exclaimed aloud, instantly regretting what he had just done.
"Huh…" One of the Orphnoch's said as he turned his head in Shirou's direction. "What the, there's someone there."
"Shit…" Shirou cursed.
"Well don't just stand there, get them." The second Orphnoch told his companion, "You're the one complaining about being bored."
Muttering another curse Shirou quickly rose from his hiding spot and bolted down the hall, the sound of hurried footsteps was heard coming from behind him. As he ran, a series of strange patterns suddenly appeared upon his face as he ran towards one of the windows.
Meanwhile, whilst Shirou's encounter had been going on, Rin's search had brought her up to the building, currently hunching over a seal that she had found there, the seal itself consisting of symbols and runes that she was unfamiliar with.
"This makes seven all together, from what I can tell this particular seal seems to be the trigger point of the whole field." She said, seemingly to herself, "This text however is not one I'm not familiar with, seems I'm out of my depth on this one."
She then rose back to her full height, a stern look on her face as she did so. "Archer,I take it you can guess as to any idea as to the nature of this particular field?" She said to her invisible Servant. "As far as I can tell if this thing activates it could liquefy everyone trapped inside and steal their souls, that can only mean one thing. We're dealing with an enemy Servant."
"Makes sense, incorporeal beings like Servants partake of human souls the way you do animal flesh." Archer replied. "The more souls we ingest the more our strength increases. Although I assure you that I would never partake in such actions."
"Ok then," Rin said, satisfied by Archer's answer. "Let's take this thing apart. I may not have the skill to take it down completely but I should be able to throw a wrench into this particular Servant's plans."
"What, you're going to erase it now." A new voice called out. "Sounds like a waste to me."
Hearing it, Rins head instantly snapped in the direction it had originated from, her blue eyes were greeted by the sight of a figure squatting on a nearby water tank. This new figure was a man clad in blue armor/bodysuit with dark blue hair tied up in a ponytail, a long red spear draped across his shoulders.
'Wha…how did he…? Damn, could he be…?' Rin cursed herself. "Hey you, this thing your handiwork?"
"What, me. Nah, not my style. Underhanded tricks are more of the Master's department." The man replied. "Me, I just go fight where, when and whom I'm told to. I bet the same goes for your invisible friend there."
Rin frowned, doing so to keep a look of surprise from appearing in her face. 'Wha…he's aware of can sense Archer's presence…' She thought to herself, 'No doubt about it, he's definitely…' "I take it, you're a Servant."
"Bingo lil miss, and since you know about Servants I guessin that makes you my enemy." The mysterious Servant replied as he rose to his feet. "Heh, I really screwed up there. My Master told me I was just supposed to observe and gather Intel on the other Servants but I let my curiosity get the better of me."
Rin's frown deepened as she considered her options. The rooftop was too exposed, nowhere to really hide, not to mention boxed in on all sides. There stairwell that led back inside the school was nearby however she quickly dismissed it, she doubted that she'd be able to make it before this Servant got to her and even if she could trapping herself in a narrow area with a pursuer on her heels was plain suicidal.
It left her with a single option, not a particularly smart one and it was not without risk, but it was her only chance for survival. She just hoped Archer didn't screw this up.
Quickly turning on her heel Rin ran in the direction of the fence, she didn't need to look back to know that the blue clad Servant was on her tail, uttering a string of German words under her breath as she did so, focused on channeling her Prana into her legs, increasing her speed dramatically as well as allow her to narrowly avoid her spear wielding pursuer as he tried to impale her.
Close enough she launched herself into the air, easily clearing the fence and found herself plummeting towards the ground below. "Archer," she muttered through gritted teeth, "You'd better catch me…"
Moments before she hit the ground the air around Rin began to shimmer and her decent came to a sudden halt moments before she found herself once more being launched into the air once more, carrying her through the air a fair distance before descending once more towards the ground where she felt herself being tossed, her feet skidding across the concrete before she managed to bring herself to a halt.
No sooner had Rin managed to stop herself she felt a tingling sensation in the back of her neck which was quickly followed by the clang of metal striking metal, wasting no time she ran a short distance before turning to look back, just in time to see the patch of air where she had been moments ago shimmer as Archer appeared, a single sword in hand, the tanned skinned man placing himself between her and the mysterious Servant.
"Heh, now that's more like it." The spearman scoffed, "You decided to show up, I'm fine with that. It means we can finally get serious."
Rin scowled. "You're the Lancer Servant for this Grail War?" She called out to her attacker.
"Correct," The blue clad Servant replied. "What about that guy, he might have a sword but he doesn't strike me as a Saber. So pal just who are you?"
Archer didn't say anything, choosing to instead glare at Lancer.
"You don't seem like the proper combat type either, guess that makes you an Archer." Lancer said, his tone mocking. "So Mr. Archer, you need a moment to get your bow? You do have one right?"
Again Archer said nothing, instead momentarily glancing over his shoulder at Rin. seeing this the Tohsaka heiress.
"Archer…" Rin muttered, just then her eyes widened slightly as she realized what was going on. "He…he…"
Taking a breath she quickly composed herself, her face adopting a stern look. "Archer, don't expect me to hold your hand in this." She told her Servant, her tone matching her expression. "I want to see what you can do, so you better not disappoint me."
Hearing this a sly grin spread itself across Archer's face before a glowing aura began to radiate off of his body, catching the tails of his coat and his hair to rustle. All the while Lancer looked on, looking seemingly unimpressed.
All of a sudden Archer vanished from view, moving at tremendous speeds. Acting quickly, Lancer assumed his fighting stance before raising his spear, managing to block Archer's sword as the man in red and black suddenly reappeared.
As the two men engaged each other Rin watched on, the dark haired heiress rendered speechless by what was going on before her doing her eyes. Even with all her years of training and preparing to take part in the Grail War ritual she found rendered speechless as she bore witness to the two Servants as they engaged each other. She could barely keep up with them.
The way the two of them moved, both Archer and Lancer's skill and proficiency with their chosen weapon on full display. Pressing or falling back. Swifting from offense to defence. Shifting of tactics and position, all of it done at speeds that defied comprehension.
This…this truly was a battle between Heroic Spirits, it was a sight to behold.
"You really are a piece of work," Lancer told his opponent, a grin on his face as lunged towards him, "You're nothing like I've ever fought. A bowman who fancies himself as a knight is damn amusing. What kind of Archer Class Servant uses a pair of swords instead of a bow?"
"You're quite the oddity yourself, a spearman who fights with the savagery of a beast but the precision of a surgeon." Archer replied as he blocked Lancer's attempt to skewer him with his blades, "Only the swiftest of spearmen can be honored with the title of Lancer, and you are among the greatest I have ever had the pleasure of facing."
The grin on Lancer's grin grew maniacal as assumed a new stance., "Trying to butter me up isn't going to save you, Archer." He replied, "You are still someone that I must kill. Prepare yourself."
All of a sudden his weapon suddenly became engulfed in a mass of crimson energy that radiated off of the tip of the spear that engulfed the length of its shaft. "I wonder," He said, "How will you respond to my strongest blow, will you run or face it head on?"
"I will not run nor attempt to stop you." Archer replied as he readied himself. "You are an opponent I must face sooner or later, I am prepared to cut you down before your spear strikes."
"Damn, that's an excessive amount of Prana that he's channeling." Rin muttered to herself as she watched what was going on, "That could only mean one thing, it's his Noble Phantasm. Is he really going to use it this early?"
All of a sudden the fight came to an unexpected end by the sound of breaking glass, Lancer, Archer and Rin's heads quickly snapping in the direction it had originated from, the three of them were greeted by the sight of someone falling from the one of the second story windows, shards of broken glass glinting in the moonlight as they fell.
"H…huh!" Lancer exclaimed, the crimson aura radiating off of his spear suddenly vanishing. "What the hell?"
"Wha…what…" Rin exclaimed, "There was someone else here!"
As the mystery person fell towards the ground their form began to change, their appearance becoming less human looking and more bestial, the landed, crouched on the ground.
Rin felt her heart begin to beat faster and her breathing become more erratic as she took in the sight of the creature as it shifted its head upwards, seemingly looking up in her direction. There was no doubt about it, the same creature that she'd woken up to that night. The one that was responsible for the deaths of just about everyone who had gathered together for the pep rally that night five years ago.
Without a sound the grey wolf creature bolted, charging between both Archer and Lancer and vanished into the night. No sooner had it disappeared the sound of something hitting the ground was heard and looking over Archer found Rin seated on the ground, the ebony haired women's eyes were wide, her breathing quick and erratic and a look of terror on her face.
"Rin…Rin…" Archer called out, placing his hands on her shoulders, her skin felt cold and clammy to the touch, "Rin, speak to me."
The Tohsaka heiress didn't respond, it was as if she couldn't hear him, she stared back at him but it was quite clear she didn't see him, too lost in her own terror to realize that he was in front of her.
This was bad, his Master was on the verge of a full blown panic attack, leaving her incapable of giving him any orders as well as unable to defend herself if an enemy her yo get the drop on her.
Acting quickly Archer invoked his classes of skill of Independent Action and scooped Rin up into his arms and leaped up onto the roof of the building and before leaping again into the night air and away from the school building, leaving a very confused Lancer behind.
He knew he might be reprimanded for this later but at that moment, as the two of them sailed through the cold winter air, all Archer cared about was getting Rin as far away from this location as possible.
AN And like that another chapter is in the can. To be honest I wasn't planning on posting this particular entry so soon buut based upon recent developments I figured why not release as the next instalment in this little project.
In case anyone isn't aware of what I'm talking about Kamen Rider Faiz is getting a 20th anniversary V Cinema which is coming out next year called Paradise Regained, an obvious parallel to Faiz's movie Paradise Lost apparently most of the original cast are coming back to reprise their roles plus Faiz is getting a new form which I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan of but maybe it'll look better in the movie itself.
Whilst Faiz might not be one of my favourite Rider show, I think its an ok show, but still I kinda looking forward to seeing this, Sentai have been doing these anniversary reunion movies for a while now and only recently has Rider started getting in on the act of doing, it'll be cool to see the cast reprise their characters again and potentially wrapping up Faiz's story. I also hope that this movie will have to small tribute to Masayuki Izumi, the actor who played Yuji Kiba who sadly passed away in 2015.
Getting back to the subject of this chapter, this particular entry leaned into this stories version of the Ryusei school incident, EMIYA noticing a memorial to those who died on that night whilst he an Rin investigate Bounded Field that has been set up around the school which leads to Rin informing him of what she witnessed that night as well as of the Wolf like creature that she'd seen and believes was the one responsible. Studying the memorial EMIYA taking note of several of the names, one of those names listed just so happens to be Emiya Shirou. After moving on both Master and Servant have their encounter with Lancer and leading to the first battle of the Fifth Holy Grail War.
Meanwhile in Shirou's section of the story he's investigating the school based on a rumour that Taiga's informed him of, saying that figures have been seen moving about inside the building after school hours who he learns are a group of Orphnoch's and that somewhere in the building a new Rider belt is being made.
And of course both stories coming to a head with Shirou escaping from the two Orphnoch's he'd happened across and just so happening to interrupt the fight between Archer and Lancer as well as Rin being reunited with the Wolf Orphnoch, the same Orphnoch she'd seen on the night of the Homura incident.
As to why Shirou's name was listed amongst those who died during the incident that happened five years prior to this story when we see that he's very much alive there is an explanation. In a later chapter Shirou wold confirm that he was indeed present at the school on the night of the incident and following it no one could find him, because of this just about everyone concluding that he'd died along with the other victims that had perished that night when in reality that he'd fled Fuyuki following it and hadn't been seen until his return for reasons at the start of this story.
Also no Rider action in this instalment, as well as no proper reunion between Rin and Shirou. If anyone's disappointed by that I promise that their reunion would be coming soon, it would happen round about the same time that Shirou summons Saber, as well as Rin finding out that he's also Faiz. I've got a couple more ideas for chapters for this story so next time we return here I promise all that we'll be past this point in the story.
Bot much left to discuss in regards to this particular chapter so I figure that this is a good stopping point. In regards to future instalments I recently I finished up the new OOO chapter and I've got my second Saber chapter in the works. Oh and recently Geats has been added to the Kamen Rider filter along with the names of several of the characters. For some reason the only Rider show that isn't available on the filter is Saber nor are any of the characters listed either. I recently sent a request to the site admins to get them added but for some reason Saber and its characters aren't showing up.
Speaking of Geats from the looks of things its seems to be moving into the final arc of its story with the announcement of the Desire Royal not to mention the major shake up between the main characters with Ace, Kiewa and Neon looking to be enemies in the Desire Royal, the winner of which gets to decide the fate of the world.
Ace now looks to be working with Michinaga, I doubt the two of them are friends all of a sudden the two of them currently have the same goal of bringing down the Desire Grand Prix, albeit for very different reasons. Ace wants to free his mother from being the Goddess of Creation and Michinaga seeing the games as nothing but a source of misery.
I imagine that in any other circumstance Kiewa would probably agree with Ace that the Desire Grand Prix needs to be brought to an end but, given the revelation of how the Goddess of Creation operates, he doesn't want to see it end until everyone who either died or was sacrificed is avenged first.
And as for Neon, she wants to keep the Desire Grand Prix going for the purpos of using the Goddess of Creations power to create a world where she never existed.
With our main character seemingly on different paths things should be interesting to watch going forward, although I don't doubt that the three of them (possibly four if Michinaga decides to play ball) will come back together before the end to face off against the final big bad.
Anyway I think I'm done for now. As always feel free to drop a review and tell me your thoughts in this chapter. Also are looking forward to Faiz's anniversary movie next year.
Until next time, peace out y'all.