Part 59: Sequel / Blood Temple / Attack / Sparks

Music: Tender Scenery







Looks like we're interrupting sexy time.

Music: Stop



I feel a chill run through me.
…I think it was a wave of Tohsaka's magical energy filled with enmity, that came flowing out from the shed.

Actually, maybe they just finished.

Music: Whirlpool of Fate 2

"!"
The voice that was calling out to her stops.
…It seems Tohsaka is so irritated that I can feel it from way over here.

""
Their conversation can be heard.
Without realizing it, I'm eavesdropping on them.

"Just who is he?"
Tohsaka murmurs in a tone that could be angry or horrified.
Saber is standing silently behind her.

"I can't believe it. Saber, you knew about this…?"
"…No, I did not know. I am a knight, not a magus. There was only an odd feeling here, so I do not understand the situation as well as you do."

"I see. Then I'll tell you. He's not a magus at all."
In a voice filled even with hatred,
Tohsaka spits those words out.

"…Rin. What does that mean?"
"Just like it sounds.
Magic is an equivalent exchange after all. No matter what kind of magic it is, it can only bring what's elsewhere here to use it."

"…But this is different. He's bringing something that comes from nowhere. He's forming something that should not exist here.
That can only be a concept that violates reality.
His magic is probably a deteriorated version of that one magic."



Music: Stop

Video: Shirou's Magic (mirror)

This is probably the only scene in the game where the anime is (very) slightly more comprehensive.

Video: Shinji's Booty Call (mirror)

By request, now you can hear Shinji calling up Shirou, desperate for some lovin'.



"Oh, phone call."
The phone is ringing far away.

"…It's the living room. Tohsaka iswait, it's a call at my place, so she shouldn't answer it."
I don't think it's important, but I can't just ignore it.
I get up and head to the living room to pick up the phone.

There's no one in the living room.
Saber and Tohsaka must be somewhere else, like in the yard.



"Shinji? Do you want something? I don't think there's anything to talk about."
"Don't be angry. I just called to tell you something."

"…Tell me something…?"
"Yeah. There's something I needed to tell you, but you never came to school.
I don't want to wait any longer and I can't stand it, so I contacted you. …So, is Tohsaka there?"

…Shinji's tone is strange.
I can't tell much from just his voice, but he sounds like he's really excited or pressured.

I can hear students in the background, so he must still be at school.
It's past two. It must be break time right after the fifth period.

"Hey, I'm asking you, Emiya. Is Tohsaka there or not?"
"…She's not here right now. She's gone at the moment."
"Oh, that's great. I wanted to talk just between us. I'll tell you something good, so come to school now. Keep it a secret from Tohsaka, of course."

""
I don't know how to answer.
Shinji is acting strange, and anyway, we're already talking.
There's no need to go to school, and going there without telling Tohsaka would mean betraying her.

"No. I'm sorry, but I can't go to school. If you have some business with me, wait until next week. I'll go back to school after the weekend."
"…Huh? What are you being so selfish for?
That's too late. I just told you I can't wait any longer…!"

Shinji screams at me.
He must be excited as I can hear his heavy breathing even over the phone.

"…Huh. I guess you're thinking a bit. You're right, there's no way you'd come by yourself now. This call sounds too strange no matter how you take it. I guess even you found it strange."
Completely changing, he laughs.

"Hold on. Calm down, you're acting weird. I don't know what happened, but"

"Ahahahaha! Don't lie, Emiya. It's Tohsaka, she would have told you everything. You don't have to hide it. You're right, you're Saber's Master. That means you're a better murderer than I am…!"

Shinji sounds cheerful.
…I've known him for five years now, but I've never seen him this high.

Their relationship makes so much more sense if you think of them as bong buddies.

"Shinji, you…"
"Anyways, I'll be waiting at school. Hurry up, Emiya. You should make it in time for sixth period if you leave now. It's Fujimura's class, so there won't be a problem if you're late."

"No, even Fuji-Nee would get mad if I was late. And if I go there for only the sixth period, I get the feeling I'd be scolded more than if I skipped the whole day."

"That's your own fault. Oh, and if you tell Tohsaka, I'll really end our friendship. I let you go about Sakura until now. You can at least fulfill your duty as a friend in the end, right?"

The conversation ends there.
The phone is repeating a boring beeping sound.

"What's with him?"
…But what should I do?
I haven't been able to find Tohsaka in the house, and if I'm going to school, I can't take Saber.
Still, I'm worried what Shinji will do if I refuse his invitation.

He seems distraught after being refused by Tohsaka last night, and he might hit Sakura again if I leave him be.

"…Right. It's still light out, so there should be no problems."
If that's decided, I should hurry.
I'll make it for sixth period if I run.

Music: Surrounded by Smiling Faces



Well, this will all change in a little while.
School's over once sixth period ends.
The schoolyard and the gate should be filled with students.



"…Well, it's not like I'm completely visible, so let's hurry to the classroom."
Class C is down the hallway.
This class by the stairs is class H, so I'll have to walk past five classes to get there

Music: Stop



"Eh?"

The dizziness hits me suddenly.

Music: Nightmare

It attacks my whole body with nausea.







"Haguh."
My stomach crawls around.
My senses are reversed.
My vision is filled with crimson.
As if blood has seeped into my eyes, everything in my vision tints red.

"Haah, guh…!!"
The temperature hasn't changed, but my body is strangely hot.

"What… is this!?"
My feet tremble.
I can't put any power into my body.
I'm weakening like an hourglass, unable to stop it.
It's as if I'm breathing out my insides with every breath.

"Kuh, …!"
I'm suffocating.
My throat hurts.
Could it be that the oxygen has disappeared from the hallway, no, from the whole school?
As if urged by my gasping lungs, I lean against the wall and open the window unconsciously.



"Wha?"
My mind freezes.
The scale of the situation erases even my confusion.

Outside the window.
Around the schoolyard is a field of red.
It's as if only this school is cut out, surrounded by a red world.

The school building is an altar covered by a red canopy.
And with that, finally…
I understand that this is "that kind of a thing".







They are still breathing.
Everyone is convulsing as if asking for help.
There are no fatalities yet.
It's just that they don't have the power to stand up, and they'll soon rot away.
Seeing their miserable condition on the floor…



…I even think that they look like scattered garbage.

"Ahguh"
My nausea gets stronger.
But I deal with it calmly.
I observe the students on the floor.
Even though it's hard to breathe, it doesn't mean they can't breathe.
If they are only weakened, I can still save them if I hurry.
And the instant I check the face of a student nearby, a sound goes *click* inside my head.

"The… skin…"
It's melting.
Not everyone, though.
There must be individual differences, as the most weakened students are starting to have their skin melt away.

Oozing.
Inflamed arms like a keloid, and eyes that look like that of a dead fish.



""
I know this.
I know a scene like this.



"Stop."
This is just hell.
I know it from a long time ago.

"So, stop."



And so, eclipsing fear,
Anger overtakes my body.

"…!"
My left arm throbs.
The Command Spell on my hand tells me an "enemy" is nearby.

"Hah, ah…!"
I run, still breathing hard.
My mind has already gone insane.

Nanaya?



How is it? Do you like this idea?"


Across the hallway.
Matou Shinji is standing right in front of class C.

My arm throbs.
The Command Spell tells me that the man standing there is the cause of this.



Nanaya doesn't have conversations

Unable to breathe properly, I stand there and glare at Shinji's distant figure.
…He must really like how I'm acting.
Shinji spreads his arms exaggeratedly and laughs aloud in the red hallway.



"That's right. I knew you were here, so I quickly activated the boundary field. I had trouble getting the right timing, you know? You'd have run away if I did it too early, and we'd have met up if I did it too late.
As for me, I wanted to see you go pale, so I didn't want to make this too simple."

"I see. So you were lying about having something to talk about."


"Talk? That starts now. I have to show Tohsaka which one of us is superior, and I also have to apologize for lying to you.


See, I didn't tell you, but I'm the one that set up the boundary field at school."

Ahahaha, Shinji laughs cheerfully.
""
That…
Makes me realize from the bottom of my heart.


"Huh? You're not as surprised as I thought you'd be. What, I told you the boundary field wasn't mine, but I guess you didn't believe me. …Haha, that's great. That means for once, even you didn't believe someone!"
His laugh drills into my skull.

""
I'll make this clear, but I'm surprised enough.
I was only prepared for the discovery that the Master who constructed the boundary field was either Shinji or this other Master.

That's all.
This is the result of the optimistic view.
Back thenas soon as I figured out Shinji was a Master, I should have settled this matter.
So this is my mistake.

"…Shinji, why did you set up something like this? Were you lying when you said you had no intention of fighting?"



If I set a bomb, Tohsaka won't attack me so readily, and it can be my trump card in case something happens."

"…I see. But Tohsaka said the boundary field needed a few more days' preparation. Was her estimate wrong?"


"Heh, I knew she'd think like that. The boundary field is not complete, but its shape is already there, you know? There's no problem just activating it.
Well, the effect is lower because of that. It should take at least a few more minutes to kill anyone."

"Stop."
The nausea has already gone away.
I say so, staring directly at Shinji.


"Stop? Stop what? Don't tell me you're telling me to stop this boundary field. That'll be such a waste. I can't just stop something I've already started."

"Stop. Do you know what you're doing?"



This is my power. The only one who can decide whether or not to stop it is me, and if you want it stopped, isn't it logical to at least kneel and beg to me?
Geez, you and Fujimura, you guys don't know your positions."

"Hey. What about Fuji-Nee?"


"Huh? Oh, Fujimura? She could move pretty well after I activated this boundary field. Everyone else was falling to the ground, but she was still wobbling, you know?
And she came to me, still upright, and told me to call for an ambulance. It's amazing, wouldn't you say she's a model teacher?"

"But I shouldn't call for something like that, and I don't even want to. That Fujimura kept clinging to me and it got annoying, so I kicked her and she ended up not moving at all!


Hahaha, in that state, I think she'll die first!"

""

Music: Stop



I've switched over completely.

…Nanaya?

Tohsaka said something about pushing a switch in my head, but it's not like that.
Clang.
A hammer strikes in my head and the inside of my body completely changes.



Nanaya doesn't give warnings.


"You don't get it, do you? The more you ask me, the less I feel like stopping the boundary field. If you dislike it so much, why don't you stop me by force?"
"I see. Then it's simple."
So basically.
I need to stop him before I can stop this boundary field.

Music: Clashing Souls



My body leaps.
My body is burning like a fire.
There's less than twenty meters between me and Shinji.
For me right now, that will only take an instant.
My body is full of energy vastly higher than when I have a Magic Circuit inserted in me.





The shadow settled in the corner of the hallway starts to take form and move.
A sharp edge made of black.
Like a guillotine to cut anything that approaches Shinji.



This choice is far too brief and meaningless for me to interrupt a good Shinji beatdown. Let's go with the first.

Music: Clashing Souls





The three sharp edges approach me.
"You're the stupid one, Shinji…!"
An attack like this is easily avoidable compared to Saber's attack!



"Wha…!?"
I pass through the opening between the three shadows.
There's nothing dangerous about them.
I felt no threat in the shadows.



Music: Clashing Souls





Shinji runs away.
The instant I reach out to his back…

Music: Stop



"!"
I feel a chill run through my whole body, and I quickly withdraw my extended arm.



Something cuts through the air.
A sharp black edge cuts through the space I was in a moment ago.

"…!"
I stop.
I don't know where it came from, but in front of me…



"Ah"

She interrupted our Shinji beatdown.

Music: Breach

My mind stops in fear.
I'll be killed.
I don't want to think about it, but an image of my head being ripped off pops into my head.
This is…
…A sense of death that the previous shadows cannot even compare to.