From Fake Dreams

12

It had been 3 days since Waver had collected enough information to put his plan into action and taken the first step when a very angry department head walked into his room with his assistant and several other department members.

That was 2 and a half days longer than he had expected them to react.
"Lord El-Melloi!" His boss growled at him with a dangerous look in his eyes. "It has come to our attention that you have enacted activities that are most unbecoming of your position."
Waver didn't flinch from his desk. Compared to nearly being killed by Gilgamesh when the golden man was less than 2 meters away, his boss was nowhere near as terrifying. "Oh?" The young adult raised an eyebrow curiously as he continued to scan his paperwork as if he was in just another conversation. "Can you elaborate please? I'm afraid that I am unaware of what you are talking about as I have made sure that everything I have done is within the range of the power entrusted to me by the association and the Archibald family."
"Don't test our patience boy." Growled a woman of noble standing. Waver recalled that she had a family history of around 7-8 generations. This of course meant that she was likely to be as big of a pain as any other noble in the clock tower. She took out a flier and placed it roughly on his desk. "What is this foolishness about setting up a dead apostle ancestor hunt without informing or asking approval from the committee or the higher members of the tower?"
The flier, while a bit crude for anyone's tastes, was Waver's first step in dealing with the Louvre situation. He had posted it up on every board that was in areas where enforcers tended to frequent and its message was clear as could be. Lord El-Melloi was setting up a hunt for the dead apostle ancestor Louvre. The location was decided and confirmed, and most importantly, should the apostle be defeated and his collection be found, all participants would have their choice of whatever mystic code (minus the ones that were deemed too important or dangerous of course) obtained in the vampire's dwelling.
In short, it was roughly the equivalent of what Rider did in the beginning of the 4th war when he stopped his chariot in between Lancer and Saber and asked them to join him in world conquest in terms of insane audacity.
He had already received a fair number of acceptations from several enforcers and given another few days he was certain to have enough members to confidently begin the next step of his plan… that is if he managed to get past the obstacles that were in front of him.
"I doubt that I could have made the message any more clear my lady." Waver replied politely. "I have decided to form a party to hunt the dead apostle Louvre. I have done enough data and research to accurately guess where his fortress is located, and am looking for individuals with enough skill and efficiency to aid me in this task."
"You are actively hunting down an ancestor!" Shouted another lord. "That is strictly forbidden for one such as yourself!"
"Under most circumstances you are indeed correct." Waver nodded. "However there are circumstances that enable me to circumvent that condition. You see, while I am among the lower ranking lords, I am also in charge of the McGinty disappearance case. This enables me to act as a higher authority with regards to anything that is sufficiently related to this job, and it just so happens…" He took out a folder that he had prepared just for this moment. "That I have recently determined that the apostle of our conversation is the culprit of said crime and must be dealt with in a timely and efficient manner due to the fact that there is a chance that he managed to convince McGinty to start making mystic codes for him." He leaned back into his chair and met their unsettled eyes with his own. "It has been 6 days since I discovered this fact and tower protocol dictates that I am required to inform my superiors of ancestor activity within 1 week. Therefore I have yet to do anything wrong."
His superior in the department stepped up. "That may excuse you from not informing anyone about your exact discovery Velvet, however you are still overstepping your position by setting up the hunt in the first place."
He sighed and reached into his desk for one of his cigars. "Once again, due to current circumstances, I have not exceeded my position in the slightest. Current rules indeed dictate that all apostle information is indeed restricted, anything regarding the hunts are less finite since very few individuals outside the enforcers are interested in encountering any of the 27 in combat and the fact that it is difficult to even pinpoint where their locations are. Again my position in managing McGinty's disappearance has enabled me to fulfill the requirements of starting a group to investigate this lead to the best of my abilities and utilizing my resources." He pointed to the flier. "Those pieces of paper were my resource and despite the crude display, it has served me quite well so far."
"You seen quite convinced that the location you have pointed out is where the apostle, and McGinty in turn, are located." Mused the eldest and until then quietest member of those that entered his room. "How is it you came across it so quickly?"
Waver nodded, somewhat relieved that he was answering a question that wasn't directly accusing him of something for once, and took out several maps. "To start with, I have always been a magus that has focused more along the lines of practical analysis. To this end, I have mastered several basic spells that while alone are fairly useless and mundane, but in conjunction or fine tuned are fairly efficient and useful for what I do. Among them is my information retaining and information recording spells, similar to ones that are used by high ranking alchemists in Atlas. Using those I recorded all the information regarding Louvre's movements and past locations in a night and created an outline per half a decade of Norway that shows the possibility of where his dwelling may be." He pointed to several maps of the country that held various percentages and notes of past appearances and activities. "After that, I then spent the next day analyzing any and all significant thaumaturgical and vampirical related activity reports in Norway and made charts that, by every 5 years again, indicate the level of said activity."
Taking the cigar out of his mouth, the man drew a rune into the air lazily with its burnt end, causing the papers to fly up in a neat order next to one another. Another rune drawn caused the ones that were made off of the vampire's activity to be transparent, and a third rune caused all the ones that had aligned timelines to overlap. It didn't take long for the visiting lords to see a correspondence between Louvre's activity, the directions he traveled, and undefined thaumaturgy activity in the country. Interestingly enough, the locations changed every 10-20 years looking at the graphs, but they seemed to occasionally return to a previously occupied spot like a random cycle.
A 4th rune from Waver caused all of the charts to return to his desk except for a handful which indicated one area in particular, including the maps that were up to the current date. "My third day was spent researching the local legends and histories of the areas that Louvre might be occupied in now in order to gain a better understanding of the geography and whatever means he might employ as a defense…" He shrugged. "After I was certain in my findings, I spent the rest of the night making my posters, setting them up, and sleeping as much as I could."
The nobles relented as they were put up with evidence that they could not deny was rather accurate and irrefutable. Waver may be of low standing in terms of magical ability and specified advanced theory when compared to other lords, but he had earned his standing with his ability to relentlessly study something to the point of knowing the subject to perfection such that whenever someone asked him to prove a theory or some idea, he was sure to provide a perfect and absolute response that no one would be able to argue against unless it was something of secretive nature such as the sorceries or family specified magics.
"Impressive…" Grunted the department head reluctantly. "As expected of Lord El-Melloi…"
"Thank you sir." Waver nodded his head.
"A question. Why are you so dedicated to aiding McGinty?" A member of the department of Spiritual Evocation asked. Waver received mixed feeling from that particular department since he returned from Fuyuki. On one hand, he was partially responsible for the death of one of their most prominent members, on the other he gave them an extremely insightful and detailed report on heroic spirits and noble phantasms soon after returning from the war that made many of the researchers there worship his name for a good while. "While he is a member of the tower and a notable one at that, he is not truly that significant in the grand scheme of things nor is he a lord."
Waver shook his head. "He is a companion that has aided me in my research for several years now. While he is an unsightly individual at times, he is also a breath of fresh air for me as well as a new perspective for my experiments and studies. In turn I aid him when I can. My recent display of runecraft for example is a result of his tutelage. Likewise his recent breakthrough in soul infused weapons that he demonstrated at the previous mystic code and enchanted artifact conference were partially due to my assistance." He blew out a ring of smoke. "Should he pass on, it would take me a long time to come across someone of his capability and control to sufficiently aid my research to that degree…" He shook his head. "Well… there's that and the fact that if I let him die there's the chance I may receive the ire of the Kaleidoscope should he ever return…"
A small period of silence permeated the room as all there looked at one another warily, knowing exactly what Waver was talking about. The master of the 2nd sorcery was not exactly a predictable individual so the young lord's excuse, while a bit casual for their tastes, was certainly reasonable.
"It's a shame you did not put other significant individuals thoughts on your actions into your calculations." Stated a new voice belonging to a person outside the room, surprising everyone there. Turning around, they all laid eyes on the Queen of the clocktower, Lorelei Barthomelloi, standing in her standard noble clothes with proper posture and looking directly at Waver.
As mentioned previously, Waver was not intimidated at all by his department head's anger in the slightest as he compared their presence with Gilgamesh's. As such, Lorelei's presence and focus on him alone merely made him terrified to the point where he could not be able to perform magic efficiently.
"L-Lord Barthomelloi." Waver stammered. "This is… unexpected."
"I was about to say the same thing of you Lord El-Melloi." She stated with a hint of irritation which was not missed by anyone in the room. "Imagine my surprise when I discovered that not only had the location of an Ancestor had been discovered and I had not been notified, but that there was a crude gathering of magi who were going to join in for the sole sake of some trinkets instead of the glory of killing one of the abominations."
Waver gulped. This was not good. Pissing off the Queen was as close to getting a death sentence as one could get in the Clocktower. "My apologies my lord… however I believed that time was of the essence and in order to ensure that McGinty had a significant chance of remaining unharmed I determined that I would not only have to remain a part of the hunt, but as the one in charge as well. I am one of the few people that are aware of how he has… altered his body, and what to look for should his magic be interrupted in any way." Waver hoped that his explanation and his hinting at the mysteries that Sirius had performed on himself would at least intrigue the woman enough to postpone his death until after he rescued the man.
The Queen on the other hand merely snorted and turned around. "Your relationship with the code crafter nor what magic he has performed on himself has no interest to me. You have my permission to gather a force of 100 for this hunt Lord Melloi, however be warned. Should you fail to kill the monster or should your assumption of his location be incorrect, I will have you stripped of your rank and executed, even if you somehow manage to retrieve the crafter."
Waver swallowed heavily and bowed. "Your generosity is a blessing my lord. Thank you."
"Hold your empty praises and gather your forces faster." The woman scoffed as she walked away. "Seeing those pathetic posters set up everywhere is a blight to my eyes. Besides, that ancestor is a weakling compared to the others anyways. It's not worth my time to hunt him down if he was found that easily."
The youngest lord there nodded shakily before turning to his other guests. "If you will excuse me ladies, gentlemen. I have to go remove my posters and set up a more tasteful request for my hunt post haste… else Lord Barthomelloi will kill me." He didn't bother to wait for the others to leave as he poured prana into his legs and reinforced his body to above average levels, courtesy of studying Shirou's and Sirius' approach to the application, and bolted down the wide hallways and past the queen to do as she requested.
"Hmm…" Said woman mused with an impassive face as she watched the male run and turn around a corner. "He runs fast for a pencil pusher… even with magic…"
o. o. o.
Japan:
Shirou yawned as he and Rin walked through the streets of Fuyuki for the 5th night in a row. The late nights were starting to get to him and it was starting to show with his slumped posture and progressively sloppy cooking. It was still very good mind you, but it got to the point where Taiga actually said that he was slipping… before downing the meal in front of her like a starving child.
"Hey Tohsaka… there any chance you have some sort of spell or bounded field effect that can… I don't know, attract any nearby vampires or familiars to it?" The faker asked casually. Despite the seriousness of the situation and the growing number of people disappearing, he and Rin had yet to encounter any significant number of vampire servants in their part of town. While unsettling, it also meant that their nights were full of the two just walking around and talking about random things.
"Even if I did have a spell like that, it wouldn't work." Rin yawned, having suffered from the lack of sleep more than Shirou. "If these things are on average far enough that even you can't detect them, there's no way the spell would be able to reach them."
"Well that stinks…" The boy muttered as he rolled his shoulders and used his "nose" again. "Or not… I still got nothing."
Rin smirked. "Don't worry boy. I'll still give you a treat for trying if we don't get anything tonight."
"Ha ha." Shirou rolled his eyes. "Why do I have the feeling that you've never actually had a dog?"
"Because they're a waste of time." The girl answered as if it was obvious. "Why get a useless animal when you can make a familiar?"
The son of the magus killer sighed. "And I have another reason why I am glad I wasn't raised like a normal magus…"
"What?" Rin tilted her head to the side confused. "What did I say? What's wrong with preferring a familiar? Did you even have a dog before?"
Shirou shook his head. "No, I've never had a pet before and I still am having trouble making familiars, but that still doesn't mean I've never seen the benefit of having a normal animal before. I mean taking care of something less fortunate and helpless than you that returns the favor with affection seems pretty nice when you think about it…" He paused for a moment before donning an expressionless face. "Well… Fuji-nee technically falls into that category too, but I'll pretend she doesn't for the moment…"
His female partner snickered. "That woman is still bugging you for food? She really should grow up."
And thus we have a textbook definition of the pot calling the kettle black. Shirou mentally commented. "At least she doesn't have a habit of trespassing on my property like some 2 bit thief." He muttered.
Rin took offence immediately. "At least I can do more than just make swords appear out of thin air. Really, all you do is just fire off pieces of metal all over the place. If you could make something interesting like an enchanted weapon or something along those lines I might actually consider you useful, but since you can only…"
Shirou began tuning Rin out at that point. For a moment he was tempted to produce one of his more interesting swords to shut her up, but he decided against it. Root knows how much more she would rant if he busted one of those out for some reason… "So any word from the priest yet?" He asked, hoping to distract her irritation with him for her irritation for her guardian. Much to his secret joy, the tactic almost always worked.
"No. Which means either he's dead, wounded, or he's still doing his job and hasn't found anything yet. Personally… I hope it's one of the first 2." Rin immediately answered without skipping a beat.
"I see there's still plenty of love between you two." The boy commented with a tired tone… before stopping in his tracks. "Well… at least we know for a fact that he hasn't killed the vampire yet."
"Is that so?" The more versatile of the 2 asked curiously as she expanded her senses until she got the barest hint of prana usage a fair ways away. "You really are a dog…" She mumbled, somewhat ashamed that Shirou could detect something so distant so easily.
"Come on. This way." Shirou urged as he dashed in the direction of the irregularity, clearly using reinforcement if his speed was anything to go by.
"Wait up damn it!" Rin shouted as she followed suit, albeit she was slightly less used to going from 0 to 25 miles an hour so quickly. Keeping the combat specialist in sight she ran after him while muttering curses under her breath until she saw him stop at the beginning of an alleyway. Halting next to him, she understood why he didn't simply just go guns… er… swords blazing. In front of them stood at least 20 zombie like humans of various ages and builds. The number wasn't exact however as the sparse lighting in the alleyway between the averaged sized buildings made it difficult to determine. "Whoa…" She blinked. "Didn't expect this many…"
"She's playing with us." Shirou stated darkly. "There's no other reason to get this many in one place without her being here herself." He stepped forward, already with 2 swords in hand when Rin's hand stopped him from progressing. "Something wrong?" He asked without turning around.
"No. Not really." The Tohsaka sighed as she stepped forward herself and rolled up her sleeves. "I just think you should let me do my job that's all. I mean you've been doing most of the killing since this thing started. Let me have a bit of fun for once." She didn't notice the temporary look of shock on the boy's face as she closed her eyes and began to chant in German. Slowly a mass of prana swirled around her left arm where her family's magic crest was implanted, growing in power by the second. It was enough for Shirou to step back out of pure reflex and keep his guard around his partner as she continued to chant her foreign aria. It wasn't long till the undead had actually noticed that something odd was happening at the end of the alleyway, but by then it was too late as the girl finished the last syllable of her spell and swung her arm. At least a dozen massive blades of tore down the alleyway and butchered the zombies to the point that the ones in front were nothing but mere chunks of flesh before the attack even reached the middle of the group. Mere flesh and bones provided no resistance for the attack as it continued forward unrelentingly until it collided with the building on the other side of the alleyway and was finally halted by the coarse concrete, leaving several gouges in the material.
Shirou gulped as he inspected the damage. He was fairly certain that he could handle those numbers without much issue himself, but not with a single spell and so quickly without making much noise. Oh how he was glad he was on her good side again.
Rin smirked as she saw Shirou's expression. "Are you finally realizing where you stand with respect to me Emiya-kun?"
Shirou looked at her and then at the destruction before looking at her again. "… Um… yes?" He said hopefully. Technically so long as he knew what she was doing and could get a shot in on her, he was fairly certain that he could hit Rin before she could let loose a spell of that level on him… but he didn't dare say anything lest she actually attempt using a spell of said level on him.
The girl clearly was expecting more if her disappointed look was any indication. "Ugh. Why do I even bother?" She shook her head and sighed tiredly. "Look, just make yourself useful and repair any damage I might have done to the area will you Mr. Janitor?"
"Yeah yeah." The boy shook his head and looked at the alleyway now covered in corpses. Looking at everything but the dead and taking a deep breath to calm himself he tapped into his circuits. In an instant he had the structure and data of the path in front of him and everything inside all mapped out. Rin had made 38 different gouges into the roads and buildings, but only 1 of them would actually require immediate attention if left alone. Fixing this would be easy. "Trace… on…" He muttered from right in front of Rin as he lightly touched the ground underneath him. Using his reinforcing magic, he seamlessly fused all the cuts in the area shut and within seconds the area 50 meters in front of him was good as new… if one ignored the scores of dead bodies at least, but that was next on the faker's list of things to clean. Despite the sickening feeling in his stomach, the boy analyzed each and every one of the corpses in front of him before chanting his next spell. "Key components and structures… Isolated. Withdrawing…"
Slowly but noticeably, each and every one of the corpses in the alley began to decompose at an extremely rapid rate, clothes and all. He had told himself that it was better off this way as he doubted that the family's of those who had died would have preferred to have found their loved one's bodies butchered, and he was fairly certain that anything less than a pure disappearance would cause unwanted attention in their area. When he was done the only thing left of the bodies were puddles of unidentifiable substances. "That's the best I can do with the bodies Tohsaka." He sighed as he stood up again, barely feeling the drain in his body from the spell. "You'll have to do the rest."
Rin stayed silent as she analyzed Shirou's work. He managed to fix everything perfectly from all the way back here without hesitation and decomposed the bodies such that even the clothes are now indistinguishable from the corpses. I thought that structural grasping, reinforcement and alteration were mundane arts… but he really has taken them to a terrifying level if he has such little trouble decomposing bodies so quickly. "Humph…" She grunted and walked up again, channeling more prana around her arm in the process. "You're so useless without me." Moments later a small wave of water washed away the puddles that remained of the bodies.
"I'm sorry if I didn't brush up on getting rid of corpses Tohsaka." Shirou rolled his eyes as he turned the other way lazily…
… And in the next moment he had two blades crossed in front of him defensively while being blasted backwards and crashing into said unwary girl. The force carried the 2 a fair distance into the alleyway before they crashed into the ground hard.
"Ow! What the hell Shirou!" Rin yelled irritably as she picked herself up only to notice that 1, said Shirou was coughing on the ground and holding his chest in pain, and 2, there was now a 3rd person alive and standing from the direction they were thrown from. In less time than it took for the girl to put 2 and 2 together, she had instantly poured prana into her arm, ready to cast any spell on a moment's notice and managed to get into a crouching position. "Who are you?" She growled, no sign of fooling around left on her face.
"My my…" The newcomer purred in a sultry tone as she walked forward slowly, somehow so deep in the darkness of the night that only her figure was visible to the girl. "That young man is quite impressive. On mere reflex he conjured those cute little toys of his and got in the way of my attack while defending himself in the process."
"Tohsaka! Careful!" Shirou gasped between breaths. He may have been able to block most of the damage, but he still had the wind clearly knocked out of him and he wouldn't be surprised if at least one of his ribs was broken or bruised. "Has a code! Mass manipulation! Too hard to deflect or block!"
Rin faltered at this information as she frantically went through the spells that would now be useful in this situation. She could wonder how the hell her partner managed to figure out their assailants weapons' mysteries so damn fast later.
The boy's warnings caused the woman to stop momentarily. "Hoh? Now that is even more interesting… just one hit and you already know how my dear toy works…" A few more casual steps forward brought her under a streetlight for the 2 to see clearly. She was a beautiful woman indeed, but what caught their attention most were the whip in her hands and her blood red eyes. "You wouldn't happen to be Shirou Emiya would you boy?" She purred with a smirk.
Rin grit her teeth. "I thought you were still in training Emiya-kun. When the hell did you piss off a vampire?"
Shirou panted as he slowly picked himself back up. His chest was on fire and his lungs were barely working at a 4th of what they normally did, but he had experienced this feeling before countless times with Bazett. He would manage somehow. "I've never seen a damn vampire until just now. I'm just as clueless as you are…" He breathed as 2 more weapons appeared in his hands and several more appeared in the air around him pointed at his new target.
"Oh how cute, they think they can fight me…" The vampiress chuckled as she continued to walk forward. "But as for why I'm after you boy… well simply consider it bad luck on your part. If it weren't for who you know, this wouldn't happen… however I'm not supposed to kill you until father says it's ok to, so I'm just going to have to take you hostage for now." She turned her attention to Rin and her smile turned sweetly sadistic. "You on the other hand…"
"DODGE!" Shirou yelled as their opponent moved with blinding speed and caused her whip to shoot out at them with insane speed that tore at the air. The teens barely managed to jump out of the way before the spots in between them was crushed with indiscriminate force. An instant later Shirou's blades had shot out through the air towards his assailant, however his weak counter was blocked by the length of the woman's whip as if she barely noticed it. Before he could even swear though he had to dodge another lightning fast strike that once more tore up the asphalt street. To his side he saw Rin shooting off her Gandr curse rapidly, only to be blocked and denied as well before having to dodge the relentless attack as well.
"Come now. Surely you two can do better than this!" The undead woman laughed happily as her weapon danced around her, striking and defending at the same time.
"Any bright ideas?" Rin yelled as she jumped back while shooting off more curses in an attempt to hit the woman. "We can't get an opening like this and she would kill either one of us if it was one on one!"
Shirou grit his teeth as he glared at the woman and her weapon while firing swords at her, buying time so he could give Rin his analysis of the situation. "Her attacking range is 15 meters but in order to safely switch from attacking to defending with our constant assault its reduced to 7. Her code has a strong resistance to both magic and physical wear. If we continue like this we're dead." He jumped back quickly to avoid getting shredded. Judging from his current position, he guessed they had another 30 meters before they were cornered by the woman in the alley. "If we're going to get out of this we have to overwhelm her code."
"I have my jewel but I don't have enough time to get it out!" Rin argued firing off more shots.
"I'll make some then!" The faker yelled as he stupidly ran forward so that he was between the 2 females and conjured several more blades that fired off rapidly while at the same time barely managing to deflect the few heavy blows that barely reached him. His eyes could barely follow the tip of the whip as he countered as many strikes as he could with blades in his hands, feeling as if he was hitting a cannonball every time.
Slash down with the left arm. Parry with the right. Block to protect the right collar. Twist slightly to prevent direct hit to left thigh. Duck right. Damn, didn't have enough strength and had the flat of the blade hit his head. Duck. Tilt left. Block at the shoulder. Still not enough strength used. Arm was nearly dislocated.
Despite Shirou's blatant display of selflessness and swordsmanship, he was getting pushed back and or injured with each strike he encountered. His style was built for this sort of opponent and situation, but not this particular weapon, and he was outclassed by too much to utilize his suicidal technique at all. Each sword he blocked with shattered in his hands, only to be replaced by another copy a split second later to block another strike of the serpent like whip. He had reinforced his clothing and his body to high levels the moment the fighting began, however it still did little to prevent his limbs and ribs from feeling like they were pushed to the breaking point every time he was hit with a glancing blow that he occasionally missed. He didn't bother to wonder what would have happened to his person if he didn't have the extra protection when they hit.
"Shirou you idiot! What the hell do you think you're…!" Rin's shout of shock and rage was interrupted as she had to avoid an attack that managed to get past the red headed meat shield.
"Protecting the princess are we?" Laughed the woman as she did not slow down in the slightest. "And here I thought that chivalry was dead. You certainly are making an impressive stand for a mere child…" Several quick flicks of her wrist enabled her to give the boy some glancing blows that caused him to cry out in pain while still managing to keep the girl behind him too busy moving to do anything about it. It was obvious that she was still playing around. "It's a shame that shooting swords at me is the only thing you are good at boy…" She paused as she heard a soft chuckling coming from the boy. "Strange… I don't think I hit your head yet…" She mused and stopped attacking, if only to get a better view of her opponent seemingly going insane in front of her.
"You're right about one thing lady…" Shirou laughed as almost double the normal amount of swords suddenly appeared behind him compared to his previous salvos. "I really am only good at shooting swords…" Without warning, the small crest on the boy's chest glowed fiercely. "Accel!" He yelled fiercely as the weapons above him bolted at his opponents at speeds that dwarfed their predecessors' and surprised everyone else there. The air between the two became the speedway for flying swords that tore the air so violently that all 3 could hear each individual blade of metal cut through the atmosphere as it made its way to impale its target.
"Fast…" Hissed the eldest one there with narrowed eyes as she quickly maneuvered her whip to deflect the oncoming storm of swords, for once having difficulty keeping up as each projectile was significantly harder to track than anything else thrown at her so far. If that were not enough, the additional speed provided a boost in concussive force for each of the flying tools, causing her beloved code to lose momentum and make her focus completely on defense.
"Rin! Hurry up already!" Shirou yelled impatiently as he felt the consequences of manipulating time on so many swords at once. It felt as if the 3 circuits on his chest were burning a hole into his chest so deep that his heart felt like it was being marked by the crest. Every breath he let out was visible to the naked eye as his body temperature skyrocketed by his efforts. And that was the pain without the partially crushed ribs from his assailant's first blow.
Magic beyond one's capabilities would kill the caster. That was one of the fundamental rules that magi taught their students. Shirou was firing off roughly 30 swords at roughly double the acceleration and velocity that Gaia would normally read them being shot off at.
His personal best until that moment had been 9.
"R-right!" The girl stammered as she realized that she finally had time to move without worrying about getting killed and reached into her pocket for one of the jewels that she had been storing prana in every night since her father died. Grasping the sapphire in her fist and taking aim, the Tohsaka shouted the German aria needed to trigger the massive stores of power inside the stone and unleash a massive blast of pure energy to turn the tide of the battle. There was no element to the attack, only pure force in the shape of an amorphous light the size of a large car that barreled down the alleyway without discrimination, barely missing Shirou in the process.
Despite being clearly above human capabilities, the vampiress was hard pressed to find a means of escape without exposing herself to the flying swords. Seeing as she had no other option, the woman quickly twitched her arm and channeled her energies in a fashion such that her weapon retracted and coiled upon itself to form a shield large enough to protect her just as Rin's attack reached its target.
The entire alleyway burst with light as the attack met its target with unrelenting force and a deafening collision, so much so that neither Shirou nor Rin could tell what had happened to their opponent. No doubt someone would have probably felt something even if the vapiress had set up a field to contain any noises and disturbances in the area.
Rin panted heavily as the air in the area settled. "That should have done it…" She breathed out heavily as she looked at Shriou who was still hunched over and breathing at least three times as hard as she was. "Heh… you look like shit. Serves you right for doing something so stupid as to try to hold her off alone…" Any other comment she would have made however died in her throat as her danger senses screamed at her and she slowly turned her attention back to the destruction where a very malevolent figure was standing in the middle of the rubble with glowing red eyes.
"You… little fucks…" She growled angrily with an inhuman voice that reverberated between the buildings. Looking down in front of her, she glared not at the teens but at the smoldering cord of what looked like broken up charcoal, which both assumed was the remains of the tool that had been just moments before almost crushing them to death. The person in front of them was no longer someone that merely thought of them as entertainment. It was a demon that was fully set on making them suffer. "That was my favorite weapon!" Faster than the stunned Rin could follow, she dashed towards her with inhuman speed with one warped clawed hand ready to tear her into pieces. In less time than the younger female expected, her soon to be killer was right in front of her and in striking distance.
Time slowed down for Rin as she absorbed the terrifying sight in front of her. She was going to die. This was a fact that echoed in her mind relentlessly. Rin Tohsaka as of this moment was incapable of fighting against this monstrosity and was going to die. As soon as the next 10 feet was covered, she would be a bloody mess all over the ground. She wouldn't have her blood sucked. She wouldn't be tortured. She would simply be tossed like the small individual that she was. As a magus she had come to accept that she could die in such a manner years ago, but as a young teenage girl and living being she screamed in protest that she was going to die before accomplishing anything in her life…
She was so preoccupied with her dilemma that she almost didn't notice when Shirou just as quickly as her assailant appeared between them with a bow in hand and drawn back with a silvery transparent spiraled sword glowing fiercely, notched, pulled back and aimed right between the bloodsucker's shocked red eyes, his own fiercely calm and focused onto the point of impact.
"Let me show you one of mine."
A second blast of explosive prana crashed into the shrieking woman and forced her to go flying in the opposite direction with a colorless light at speeds that clearly indicated how dangerous his bow and arrow combination was. If Rin's unleashed gem was akin to a bazooka with a huge blast radius and hit area, Shirou's bow and arrow was comparable to a sniper rifle with a shotgun's spread, where anything hit was either pierced completely or shot back with relentless force. Out of the alley, down another, and three more blocks before a distant but notable crash was heard, followed by multiple car alarms and things falling.
Rin stood there speechless as her brain slowly caught up to what her eyes had witnessed. "What… the hell… was that?" She stammered as she finally found her voice and looked at the taller teen standing in front of her… and watched as he collapsed onto his knees breathing harshly.
"Ether… element… sword…" The boy panted, each word accompanied by a cloud of steam from his mouth. "Poured… all… my prana… into it… almost… didn't make it…"
Rin blinked in confusion. Ether was the 5th of the 5 base elements that a magi was normally aligned to, the others being earth, wind, water and fire. The Fifth Imaginary Element according to the teachings of the Mage's Association, it combines itself with any of the other four elements in order to actualize the mysteries of thaumaturgy. Although amorphous and incapable of materializing by its own power, it is what allows shapeless bodies to take a material form. its domains were among the lines of composition, dissolution, modification, separation, unification, spiritual bodies, conceptual weapons and others.
From what Rin saw, she could guess that Shirou's modified and charged arrow simultaneously decomposed and recomposed itself into a massive blast of prana with incredible force due to being shot from a modified bow. It was an honestly brilliant and terrifying maneuver if she were to be honest, more so when she recalled how quick the boy managed to project both the bow and the sword, modified the sword, set it up, and got into position from where he had been lying just moments before.
"Since when the hell could you make something like…" She began to start irritably before shaking her head. "Never mind. We have to make sure that the bitch is actually down for good."
"Don't… drop your guard… for a second…" Shirou panted as he slowly pushed himself up. "I can't… save you again… like this…"
Rin clenched her fists as she silently admitted that she would have been killed multiple times already if it weren't for Shirou's aid and experience. Not only had he been able to hold his own against the woman far more efficiently than she would have, but she herself had nearly been torn to shreds like a rookie magi with her head up her ass twice within the past 5 minutes. "Humph. Who said I needed your help Emiya? I just waited to see what you were capable of doing since I knew you were too much of a bleeding heart to let me get hurt." She brushed her hair to the side and walked away. "If I find you here when I get back, don't expect me to drag your pathetic ass back to your place…"
"You're welcome…" Shirou laughed painfully, holding his chest and ribs as he did so and stumbled till he was leaning heavily against a wall, not even paying attention as Rin walked away to do some damage control. His body was burning, his limbs were heavy as lead before he used the bow so he didn't even know if he even had arms at this point, his heart felt like it was seared, his lungs were always empty, more than a few bones were bruised or at least fractured, he was out of Od, and close to passing out.
All in all… from what he's heard, he managed to do fairly well for his first vampire encounter gone wrong.
o. o. o.
Norway:
Sirius grunted in irritation as he examined the metal in front of him with a sharp eye. He had been working on Louvre's pet project for a few days now and to be honest he was actually getting into it. He didn't like the fact that he was helping out an egotistical man who killed people for the sake of doing so, but he'd be damned if he said that he wasn't somewhat of trying to make something new. His previous ultimate anti magus weapons really were little challenge for him to make since the materials he used did most of the work, but starting from scratch he was interested in seeing how far he could get… he knew what results he would need to make this final weapon, but he didn't know how to get it to happen or if he could…
"It's quite interesting to see you in action…" Louvre mused from the entrance of the study where Sirius was examining his materials. "Many wouldn't believe that one such as yourself was the research type… especially with that name you earned yourself back in your hayday… what was it again?"
"Tey called me ta Divergin' Golem…" Sirius replied without turning away from the material he was examining. "Tough I doubt anyone oter tan ta geezers taday know about tat…"
"Ah was it that long ago?" The vampire chuckled. "I must admit when you are my age time does seem to pass rather quickly at times. Though I am curious to see how you earned that name in the first place." He drank some wine elegantly before continuing his conversation. "The golem… Jewish mythology if I am not mistaken. One of the oldest legends too depending on which story you follow, though the most famous one known currently is roughly my age." He scratched his beard curiously. "I wonder if the original was ever discovered… it would certainly be an immensely powerful artifact should it still exist…" It was a well known fact that the older an object or being of magical nature was, the more potent magic it possessed. The Phantasmal races were a prime example of that, but the oldest ones alive today had ages only spanned to the centuries. If the original golem existed, it would no doubt be at least 2 millennia in age…
"Sirius nodded in agreement, admitting he studied up on the subject himself. "If it was found, you'd bet yer arse tat ta Church has it…"
"No doubt." Louvre nodded. "Those annoying priests always did have a habit of gunning for middle eastern based relics in their spare time…" He walked to the larger man. "So how long will it take for you to finish my order. I am of course well aware of how tedius the creation, testing and stabilizing process can be for codes, yet I do wish to know a rough estimate…"
Sirius glanced at the vampire before chuckling. "Ya know as well as ah do tat tere's no such ting as a true anti magus weapon Louvre. Sure tere are ones tat can put tings in yer favor, but thaumaturgy is so diversified nowadays tat it's impossible to cover every approach tat ya can be attacked by. Tis includes tose special codes ah mentioned earlier…" He put down the metal on the table in front of him and leaned back. "Tat isn't ta say ahm not tryin ta make ya some good stuff, but if ya truly want ta have all yer bases covered, yer gonna have ta settle fer a fairly large set o codes ta save yer skin." He began to list off various branches of magic. "Puppeteers, familiar users, elementalists, alchemists, telekinetics, spiritualists, mentalists, alchemists, standard enforcers, noble phantasms, conceptual weapons, scriptures…" He shook his head. "Too many ways ta get killed these days. Its ta reason ah brushed up on my bounded fields when ah retired. Area effects help out a lot." He smirked. "Although ah guess tat's what yer tryin ta achieve eventually ain't it? Yer own reality marble…"
Louvre frowned, not liking the not so subtle jab the Irishman gave him. "I admit that my request is rather unreasonable to assume that a single weapon will suffice, however you still have yet to answer me. How long before I can start to get results?"
Sirius snorted before reaching into a pocket and tossing the man a ring covered in runes. "Tere. A code tat protects ya from anyone tat tries ta perform any mind or sensory alterin spells on ya and reflects it at tem 10 fold. Automatically uses yer prana when activated tough it barely uses anytin ta begin wit. An when ah mean any spells, ah bloody well mean it. Consider it part 1 of ta McGinty set."
"Hmph…" The vampire grunted as he examined the loop of metal in his hands curiously. "It is a start, though a bit bland for my tastes…"
"Ah'm a weapon smith, not a bloody jeweler. Kidnap an Edelfelt if ya want it ta shine all ta colors of ta rainbow." Sirius grumbled as he got back to his work. "So what did ya come here for? Ah know yer not ta type ta start givin me house calls afta not even a week's past…"
"Hm? Ah, yes how silly of me." Louvre chuckled as he turned to the larger of the two again. "It seems as if my son's efforts turned out to be fruitful after all." The room suddenly became very tense, not that either men physically showed it. "Indeed, I was surprised myself when I heard of how surprisingly simple things were."
"He actually… found it?" Sirius swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. On one hand, he had a chance to examine a noble phantasm other than Fragarach, something he never expected to happen in his lifetime... well that is until Shirou got through the grail war in 1 piece. On the other… it was in the hands of the guy that kidnapped him. "Well… shit…" He said, summing up his situation rather accurately.
Louvre smirked as he walked away. "I'll tell my son that you are also impressed by his achievements. Continue to impress me and I might even allow you to hold it when he gets here…"
o. o. o.
Emiya Estate:
The first thought that crossed Shirou's mind when he woke up that morning was that he must have sparred with Bazett and lost horrendously before he fell asleep because his body was killing him. His limbs hurt without moving, his lungs burned, his chest screamed with each breath he took, and he had a headache that was bad enough that he didn't even want to think at the moment. It was because of this that it took him a while to remember what exactly happened… or not.
He recalled fighting a vampire using a mystic code, going up against it, being thoroughly tenderized, Rin using her jewel… him getting in that last shot… and then trying to get back home…
And that's where he drew a blank. Shirou couldn't tell for the life of him how he got back home, and he knew for a fact he was home since he was in the middle of the bounded fields that he, Waver, Sirius, and his father had set up. He couldn't mistaken the spells surrounding the Emiya estate for anything else.
"Trace… on…" He muttered as he scanned himself. While he could scan virtually everything else without his aria, he needed the extra push to do a full self body scan since he couldn't see every part of his body naturally. 5 ribs bruised, 1 fractured, 1 arm fractured, 1 tibia bruised, and several half healed cuts. He wasn't going to bother with how many muscles of his were strained to the point of needing to see a doctor if he was a normal human. "Damn… I really overdid it this time…" He chuckled dryly as he slowly and painfully picked himself up and put his good arm to his leg and chanted a quick healing spell that Rin taught him. It was fairly weak, but it would at least get most of his injuries to the halfway point in terms of getting healed. He'd let Avalon take care of the rest and be at full health by the end of the week. He was able to slightly accelerate the noble phantasm's ability to regenerate his body, but it was really only good for light bruises and cuts. Deep injuries like the ones he had now would take too long to get his body to an adequate level of health… well that and he had a tendency to glow like a firefly whenever he used the sheath.
It took almost an entire hour, but Shirou had managed to return himself to a condition that he felt would not prevent him from doing everyday tasks. He definitely would refrain from doing anything strenuous for a few days, especially when it came to his magic crest, but he felt fine for the most part as he picked himself up and began to walk to the door…
… Everything was moving slower. He could hear his blood as it ran through his ears and mind. He could feel his bones as they grinded against one another in their joints. His breathing could be sectioned off into individual spasms and clumps of air as they filled the tiny sacks that permeated his lungs. Everything looked darker now as he watched himself lose control of his body and slowly…
Stumble against the wall next to his door, his sense of time returning to normal and his breathing suddenly becoming much deeper than it was just moments before and his chest hurting in ways and places that no doctor could describe of diagnose.
This sensation, despite its alien like qualities, was not something that Shirou was new to. He had overused and overextended himself when it came to his time thaumaturgy again. Despite the fact that what he had adjusted was his projected weapons, he always seemed to suffer some kind of mental feedback whenever he pushed himself too far in this field. Luckily he knew the aftereffects were temporary and would probably go away after a few days. Unfortunately he never pushed himself quite this far before, so he doesn't know how badly he will be affected or how frequent these pseudo seizures will be. The worst ones were when his sense of time slowed down and everything around him seemed to speed up tremendously. He hated it when that happened.
Taking in several deep breaths, Shirou regained control of himself. There was no point in worrying in when his next spasm was. He would deal with it when it came... not that he had any other choice in the matter…
Regaining composure, the teen looked at his clock. It was already 11:30 and… "11:30!" The redhead yelled in surprise and shock as he gave the clock a double take. Even if he was out cold, Sakura or Taiga would have come to wake him up by at least 7. He was so late for school it wasn't even funny.
Within less than 2 minutes the teen had managed to put on a clean set of his school uniform before bolting through his house, grabbing his books, passing by Sakura, Rin, and Taiga in the living room, running out the front door, and out onto the street before screeching to a halt.
"… No…" He muttered to himself in disbelief and fear as his brain caught up to him and he slowly turned back to look at his front door suspiciously. "… It couldn't be…"
Slowly walking back to the entrance of his home, the boy examined everything around him with utmost scrutiny. If someone was playing a joke on him… they were not only well informed, but extremely skilled to pull off such an illusion in hos own home… in addition to being purely sadistic…
He wouldn't be surprised if Sirius showed up for a surprise visit.
Peeking his head into the living room again suspiciously and on guard, Shirou spied on the 3 females in his living room all staring back at him as if they had been expecting him.
"Told you he was dense." Taiga chuckled, although the standard light heartedness that she normally had was surprisingly weak.
"… Should I be scared right now?" The redhead asked warily, still hiding from the other side of the doorway. While Taiga was rather amused, he noticed that Sakura was surprisingly depressed at the moment from the way she was holding herself… or not, and Rin had that look that said that something was bothering her even if she was pretending not to acknowledge it. "And if not, can someone please explain to me why."
"You know… you must be the only teenage boy I know that's scared stiff when you realize that 3 beautiful females such as ourselves appear in your living room." Taiga huffed as if insulted.
"Sempai… I… that is…" Sakura stumbled over her words while periodically glancing at Rin nervously.
Rin on the other hand was more direct. "Don't you remember Emiya-kun? We came across one another last night when that terrorist set off those bombs in town."
"Terrorist?" Shirou blinked as he tried to figure out what Rin was talking about. "Bombs?"
"That freak that's been kidnapping people lately decided to take things up a notch." Taiga grimaced. "He set off a bunch of bombs last night and caused some serious damage. Schools are canceled for now while the police are running around trying to figure out what's going on. Even gramps was asked to help them out…"
"Word is they still haven't caught whoever's responsible for it either…" Rin shot Shirou a meaningful glare that he understood at once. Despite their efforts, the vampiress wasn't killed by his last attack and is still running around.
"I see…" Shirou frowned as he looked at the three again. "… But that doesn't explain why the heck you're in my home Tohsaka…"
Rin pouted. "Humph. Is that the way you thank the person who went out of her way to lug your unconscious body back to your home?"
"Now now Tohsaka-san, you know he doesn't know what happened." Taiga tried to placate Rin. "He doesn't remember since he was knocked out from the blast. You told us that yourself…"
The 1st class magus brushed her hair back. "It was a bit rude of me, but since my guardian is off doing whatever the heck he's doing, I didn't feel comfortable trying to get to home alone after what happened, and since Emiya-kun's home is so big and no one is here, I figured I could steal a room for the night and apologize in the morning…" She opened an eye and looked at Taiga and Sakura. "I didn't expect for company to arrive so early though…"
"We got a call from the school shortly after we got here saying that everything was canceled, which is why Sakura is still in her uniform." Taiga continued with a sigh and leaned back. "Honestly, this thing is getting out of control. When is this guy going to get caught?"
"Soon enough hopefully." Rin frowned.
"I should really get back home…" Sakura mumbled and looked away, as if ashamed to even consider looking at Shirou right now. "The call came after I got here… Grandfather and brother must be worried about me…"
"No." Shirou replied a bit forcefully without even thinking about it and getting odd looks from the females there. He paused before smiling nervously. "I mean… you're already here and safe right? There's no need to rush back home when everyone around the area is still running around. You might accidentally get caught up in something. Plus not to be mean, but I don't think that Shinji is the best person to talk to for comfort."
Rin snorted. "Not unless you're an idiot that lives off of shallow compliments anyways…" She muttered under her breath.
The youngest one there looked at everyone in the room nervously before relenting. "I-I guess I can call up grandfather later and tell him that I'm staying over for the night…"
"Eeee!" Taiga squealed. "Finally some progress!"
"What?" The teens asked the "adult" in the room confused.
"Nothing!" The future teacher looked away with a cat like grin before grabbing a very confused Sakura. "Ok! The ice is getting broken! Sakura! Come with me and we can start planning for your next step! You finally have some momentum going and we are going to ride it for as long as we can! First we're going to make a list of what you need to get from your home and then…"
Rin and Shirou blinked as they listened to Taiga's ranting die down as she went to a farther part of the estate to talk to Sakura privately. "Any idea what the heck that was about?" Rin asked.
"Not in the slightest." Shirou replied before shaking his head and turning back to the girl. "Never mind her, what about the vampire. She isn't…"
"Dead? No." The Tohsaka grimaced. "It didn't take me long to get to where she landed, but when I arrived there was no sign of her body." She crossed her arms and sighed. "That means she's still alive and around. Good news is that I doubt she'll be trying a direct approach again anytime soon…" She glared at the boy suspiciously. "Speaking of the damage we did to her though… when the hell were you going to tell me that you could make an ether element sword?"
Shirou looked away sheepishly. "I didn't think it was important at the time…"
Rin covered her face with a hand and sighed. "Next you're going to tell me that you can make one of the other 4 elements too."
"Pretty much." The faker replied as one by one he produced a sword that was enchanted with each element and laid them down in front of the progressively irritated girl. They were all identical save for their coloring and the runes on the flat of each blade. "They take more time and energy to make compared to the normal swords I make so I don't use them much other than for specialized arrows. Each one gives my shots a different ability with some interesting effects." He pointed to the dull silver sword that possessed the ether element. "This is the one I used last night. It's the most powerful and destructive of the bunch, but it takes up too much prana for me to use that often." He looked up to see Rin glaring at him angrily. "… What did I do this time?"
"You mean to tell me…" She started off slowly. "That so long as it's in the shape of a sword and you have seen the original… you are theoretically capable of recreating ANY mystery to near perfection without using a medium or any additional external sources of prana or information, bypassing the years and years of training, the required element, knowledge, and education that it would normally take for virtually any other mage to even think of producing such an object?"
Shirou gulped as he saw Rin considering blowing his head off right then and there. "Th-theoretically…" He admitted. "B-but these swords here are really basic. I wouldn't be surprised if you could make them yourself… I just reinforced the element to make them stronger…"
Rin' eyebrow began to twitch before she gave up and collapsed onto the couch next to her. "… You are so lucky I need you to fight that vampire or I would dissect you on the spot…" She mumbled under her breath. "… Wait… if it takes you so long to make those things, how the hell did you make the one from last night so fast? You were nearly out when she was about to gut me… unless…" She paused and looked at him dangerously. "You were faking it and using me as bait weren't you?"
The "faker" stepped back nervously. "W-well I was trained not to let down my guard until the enemy was confirmed dead… I just kind of expected you to have the same idea as well, but because you weren't she went after you and ignored me completely until the last moment, so… it all worked out for… the best?" He smiled weakly as the female in front of him glared at him with progressively increasing amounts of rage... before it all went away and a calm and happy smile donned itself on her face.
… He felt safer when she was filled with rage.
"You're absolutely right Emiya-kun." Rin replied with a sweet façade. "Since that's the case, I think that after this mess is settled with, you should train me a bit in these combat tactics that you seem to be so adapt at using…"
As expected of Tohsaka… Shirou shivered. Without even trying she makes it sound like I'm the one that's going to be trained…
Rin's grin dropped quickly though. "Your punishment aside though, we have another thing to discuss." She frowned. "Why are you letting Matou stay here? Please don't tell me you actually can't tell that she's…"
"I've known her longer than I've known you." Shirou replied. "We've known about one another for years but we didn't even acknowledge that we were magi until about a week ago when I had to take out a few ghouls in front of her…" He paused before looking away. "Personally though… I just want to keep her away from that grandfather of hers…" He shivered. "He isn't human…"
"You think I don't know there's something weird about him?" Rin raised an eyebrow. "Our families have been aware of one another for generations. Of course I know that the man uses odd magic to keep his body alive…"
"That isn't alive Tohsaka." Shirou shivered. "Advanced structural grasping, remember? His body only looks human. On the inside though… to be honest I have an easier time looking at the undead than I did looking at him…" He swallowed heavily. "The worst part is that whatever makes up his body… there's some in Sakura's too…"
Rin's face momentarily paled before looking away ashamed, apparently showing that she knew more about the subject than she let on, but Shirou's observations confirmed her worst assumptions. "… I know you feel helpless about this… but there's nothing you can do about it now. It's how her family passes down their secrets… no matter how disgusting it may seem." She sighed. "Look… I guess I can let you be around her… but don't make this a habit Emiya-kun. If you let the wrong magus learn too much about you, you'll find yourself being taken advantage of and be forced to do distasteful things... but then again I'm already doing that to you aren't I?" She smiled weakly before regaining her composure. "We can talk about that stuff later. For now we need to focus ourselves on the task at hand. The bitch last night said that she was after you in particular. Are you sure you don't have any idea why?"
The boy shook his head. Rin was right again about Sakura. He didn't like it, but he also knew that it didn't take priority at the moment. He could ask Rin about what she knew about his other magus friend later. "Unless dad pissed her off at some point no… but even then it did sound like she was working for someone else didn't it?"
Rin nodded. "Yeah it did…" She put a hand to her mouth. "Plus it was weird that she was using a mystic code. Most dead apostles don't use weapons and rely on magic… plus hers was a strong code too. It was destroyed in the end, but it managed to prevent the bulk of my jewel's attack from hitting her even though it wasn't built for defense. It really was a high quality weapon…" She glanced at her partner and noted the look of realization on his face. "You remember something?"
"One of my family members from England that I told you about…" He started slowly. "His name is Sirius McGinty. Soon after I got back from vacation I got word that he disappeared but that there was reason to believe he was alive…" He gave Rin a worried look. "He's known as the best mystic code maker in the association bar none…"
Rin connected the dots together immediately. "… So they're trying to use you to get him to do what they want…" She concluded before throwing him a small smirk. "Too bad they didn't do their homework on you, otherwise the bitch would have brought some bigger weapons to deal with the son of the magus killer…"
"Stop comparing me to my dad." Shirou grunted as he took out his cell and began to go through his contacts. "We have completely different goals in life."
"Doesn't look like it to me…" The female muttered under her breath before eyeing the phone. "You actually use one of those things? Who are you calling anyways?"
"One of my other relatives." Shirou answered as he found Waver's number. "He's a lord in the association and is in charge of finding Sirius-jiji…"
"A-A-a LORD?" Rin gaped in shock. "You are related to a LORD?" She paused for a moment. "AND HE ACTUALLY OWNS ONE OF THOSE STUPID THINGS?"
"He's also likes to play Final Fantasy and Dynasty Warriors in his spare time." Shirou replied without thinking as the phone rang by his ears, not paying attention to Rin letting her jaw drop. She didn't play video games really, but even she recognized some of the most popular franchises in the subject. "Come on…" He muttered under his breath as he waited for the man to answer, only to no avail as the answering message played. "Damn." He muttered under his breath as he began to press a sequence of numbers on the phone and channeled prana into his fingers.
"What are you doing now?" Rin asked curiously.
"It's a spell that Sirius-jiji came up with that he put into all our cells." Shirou answered as he put the phone to his head again. "It sends the message that I'm about to record not only to his phone, but to every piece of communications equipment he owns that is connected to this spell as well so he won't miss it…" He cleared his throat. "Waver-nii. It's Shirou. I think we might have a lead to who took the old man. Problem is that I think they're after me too and I just pissed them off with one of my arrows. I don't know how much longer it will take for them to come after me for real again. Get back to me as soon as you can. I don't know how far my luck can take me the next time. Hope to talk to you soon…" He closed the phone and sighed.
"Well a fat load of help that did." Rin muttered. "A lord actually using one of those things…" She shook her head. "I'm going to go back home and get some stuff. Hopefully by the time I'm done I'll be able to actually make sense of all this crap…"
"Stuff?" Shirou blinked. "You mean you're coming back?"
The Tohsaka looked at Shirou as if he was stupid. "Of course you idiot. The bitch is gunning for you, so as long as I'm near the bait I can be sure to encounter again sooner or later, and that's when we'll finish her off for good…" She turned around. "Let's see, other than clothes and books, I'll need my gems and…" She began to make a list that grew in proportion to how scared Shriou felt.
By the time she left the house Shirou was in a state of dire straits. It was because of this that he immediately did the only thing he could do in order to calm himself down…
He made himself a very elaborate brunch.
o. o. o.
Elsewhere in the city:
Her body was wracked with pain. Every breath, every twitch, every thought, every second, every moment was filled with the throbbing caused by a heart that no longer beat. Her beautiful skin was marred, her beloved clothes were torn, her lustrous hair was frayed, her flawless skin was bruised and cut…
She would make them pay. She would make them break. She would drink their blood…. Blood… blood… oh was she thirsty. Her servants in the city were few and would not bring her the needed amount of energy for a while… but she would eventually recover an she would eventually have her revenge…
She laid in her bed in the private hotel room she had ordered for herself when she arrived, enjoying the luxuries that her father had provided her to the best of her current suffering ability. The curtains, the sheets the phone the door, the chair, the lamp, the shower, the tv, the dresser the fan…
She wanted to destroy all of it so badly right now, pretend that all the splinters were blood and soak herself in the remains as if it was a nice refreshing bath…
Slowly she reached for a small jewel on her dresser and picked it up. It weighed no more than any other trinket, but in her current state it may as well have weighed a good 50 lbs to get it to her face. Breathing heavily, the woman channeled some of her energy into the small piece of thaumaturgy and watched it glow a bright purple.
"Daddy…" She muttered weakly, ashamed that she had been reduced to this state and lost her favorite weapon. "I need your help…"
o. o. o.
A/N.
… SKYYYYYYRRRRRRIIIIIIIMMMMMM!
CREEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDD!
WWOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRKKKKK!
I NEED SLEEEEEEEEEEEEP!
Ok. Is it just me, or does about a third of the people in Skyrim talk like Sean Connery?
So… I got nothing. Nothing worthwhile to talk about right now. Current arc should last another 3-5 chapters. I'm not doing another filler arc, so be glad.
Oh… and Gabriel Blessing is finally getting in the groove again with IF and updated. Woot.
So Review! Worship the log! Speak with an incredibly attractive accent as if you are from the move Highlander! And Review again!