Fear is a mechanism to warn against danger, and through training fear itself is numbed to the point where a Shinobi can harden themselves to focus in the worst of situations. It was a feeling that Hirota Kusogawa of Kiri had thought that he'd overcome; however, something felt wrong today while out on patrol with his fellow Shinobi to investigate reports of a gathering of bloodline users.

Perhaps it was something in the air, or just plain intuition, but he was beginning to feel uneasy and began to linger near the back of his patrolling squad. There were around a dozen of them previously in an arrow head formation.

"You're breaking formation, Hirota," a steel-like voice echoed in Hirota's ears, but he didn't care much for it.

"We're in the village," Hirota reasoned towards his colleague. "We can cover more ground on a patrol if we spread out."

Said colleague grunted, but didn't pursue the matter. War-time policies had slackened the foundation of Kiri's internal police force due to the substandard employment of inept individuals. Anyone capable enough to be deployed in the war was to head to the front lines to display Kiri's might and prestige as a Great Village. Of course, this meant that those left behind in the village were generally sub-par. More so when it was just a unit patrolling at the edges of one of Kiri's border towns.

Hirota was one such individual, and so was the rest of his team.

While one of Hirota's colleagues silently agreed with Hirota's reasoning, another voiced a complaint.

"Is this really, alright?" A woman wearing a Kiri-flak jacket and fishnet attire furrowed her brows and grimaced. Her name was Katsumi Myanowa. "Weren't there reports of bloodline user activity in this area a couple weeks ago? What if they're strong?"

The mood suddenly turned heavy.

Bloodline users were monsters. Even the weakest of them and untrained could still slaughter a full-grown Shinobi when caught off guard. This was the power of a bloodline and each is unique per clan.

"They're just a bunch of freaks," Someone shuddered in the group. "If we don't execute them all fast enough, what happens if they gather together and form an uprising?"

However small a group of bloodline users could be, it only takes one to decimate dozens. The Uchiha Clan's Sharingan for example allowed them to combat several opponents at once. There was also the Yuki Clan and their ice mirrors.

"I see a group up ahead," Hirota changed the subject as tension began to permeate. His eyes narrowed upon sighting a child in the group conjure ice with his bare hands. "Bloodline users," he informed apprehensively.

Right there and then, they all felt it as they moved forward towards the group to investigate.

Radio static, and the thrum of an unseen force.

It was like muddling through a film of water.

Something buzzed in Hirota's ear, like a noise that steadily increased in volume until it was impossible to ignore and everyone in the group was experiencing it. They abruptly halted, glancing at each other in confusion as the feeling passed a minute later.

"I don't sense any Chakra in the air," Katsumi, the only sensor in the group informed. "It doesn't seem like a Genjutsu either." Just to make sure, Katsumi formed a Ram Seal and sent a burst of Chakra threw her body.

Nothing. No change whatsoever to explain the phenomenon the entire group experienced.

"Lets just get out of here. I can also leave now and file in e report to send a bigger squad," Hirota suggested hastily. "We can reason that there were too many bloodline users to deal with."

The others gave Hirota predatory looks, none of them willing to accept his proposition. The lure of slaughter which caused the heart to thump wildly with adrenaline was a thrill too hard to pass up. More so when they were clearly weaker and simple to exploit.

Psychopaths. All of them.

Hirota grimaced, but it was the fault of Kiri's graduation system.

"They're all skin and bone aside from the two red-heads at the front. We don't need to report for back up if just kill them." Katsumi chastised. "They're too weakened to be much of a threat anyway and I will not run from children."

Hirota watched as the others agreed with Katsumi's reasoning and bolted forward, their bloodlust radiating from off of them. Tentatively he followed everyone when they continued further ahead in fear of getting lynched later for his cowardice.

By the time Hirota arrived by his colleagues, it was to see them all slow down in caution, sweat matting Katsumi's brow.

"Careful, this kid's Chakra is monstrous," Katsumi warned while everyone turned to look towards the red-haired boy who stepped forward.

Hirota narrowed his eyes. From the boy's bearings to his unflinching gaze at the face of the blood-lust in the air, he clearly wasn't ordinary.

"You are a Shinobi?" Hirota questioned, airing on the side of caution.

No matter how strange it was, something just felt off.

Hirota's eyes darted left and right while waiting for the boy's answer in order to look for anything out of place. However, he could find no traces of any trap. All that he could see were some oddly placed items and markings around the vicinity, but even if he found their arrangement odd, there was nothing lethal about them. They weren't fuinjutsu seals either.

In short, they were harmless and perhaps set up in order to throw a cautious Shinobi's guard off. With this thought in mind, Hirota began to ease away the uncertainty in his mind.

High as the kid's Chakra reserves were, he was a fool to step forward against an entire group of adult Kiri Shinobi.

"I am not a Shinobi" the boy said flatly in response to Hirota's previous question. In a single motion, the boy dug a line across the ground using his foot and stood across from it. "I am a Magus," he declared. "There's a difference."

The others around Hirota began to laugh in scorn to relieve their earlier apprehension, but the unease Hirota had been feeling since the beginning abruptly increased. A Magus meant a travelling magician, right? One of those people who faked magic with Chakra? If that were the case, why did the boy appear so confident despite the current adversaries he faced?

Static buzzed in Hirota's ears again as if forming a symphony of tolling bells and the clinking of chains. He cupped his hands to his ears and could have sworn he saw the figure of an adult man superimposing over the boy.

Genjutsu? No. It couldn't be. Katsumi had already shown that it wasn't.

Steel grey and cold eyes narrowed not with bloodlust, but resigned indifference.

Hirota suddenly shivered at the image in his mind.

"So, you're something like a magician? Right?" Hirota watched a colleague leer and bare her canines at the boy in an amused grin. "Come to Kiri to perform some parlor tricks for ignorant people?" The Kunoichi's eyes shifted away from Shirou and towards the group behind him. "Seems like you've gathered quite the crowd too. Pity they're all going to die after seeing a real life 'magic' show. Do you really believe that magic is real and that it's going to save all your lives?"

The words echoed, and the people behind the boy directly panicked and began stepping away only to realize that there was only deep water at their backs.

Different from the others, the boy didn't so much as flinch. Instead, he motioned to the line drawn upon the ground and said a simple answer. "Yes."

It threw everyone off guard. More so when the boy gave his own warning. "Step over this line and you'll see for yourself."

The boy was Shirou, and Shirou had long since made his preparations.

The one thing about magecraft was that its power was based on a collective. The more magi that know a certain spell, the more distributed the power of a spell becomes which explained the secretive nature of magi. In the case where only a single person could perform a feat of magecraft unable to be replicated by anyone in the world, then that was the basis of a True Magic.

In the modern era Shirou had lived in, there were only five known True Magics. In comparison, at the dawn of the modern era's emergence during the Age of the Gods, there were dozens of True Magics that couldn't be replicated.

The Elemental Nations was a world where Shirou alone appeared to be the only Magus in existence. No matter how bastardized or third-rate his attempt to do proper magecraft were, everything he replicated could now be considered one of a kind. A third-rate spell can not be considered a third-rate craft if there was nothing to compare it to, and in this case, third rate, suddenly becomes first-rate.

"Algiz, Nauthiz, Ansuz, and Ingwaz," Shirou muttered much to the confusion of all who heard him.

The Ford of the Forked Branch.

Four runes formed from branches in a rectangular shape hummed with an unseen force that rewrote the laws of the space within the set boundary across the line Shirou had drawn. There was no inherent magic power within the Runes, but they guaranteed a single certainty for all those within the field.

One on One combat.

The woman that had threatened to kill everyone directly stepped over the line while absently drawing out a Kunai. Still, no matter how tough she talked, she hadn't forgotten what Katsumi said about Shirou's chakra reserves.

"What are you guys all waiting for?" the woman said impatiently when no one moved to follow her. "I'm not doing this alone."

No answer.

Near the woman, Hirota could not believe what was happening. Slowly, carefully, he placed his hand in front of him and seemed to touch an invisible wall that was preventing him and everyone else from entering.

"!" Everyone's eyes widened, and even the panicking bloodline users gave pause.

"What the hell is this?" Noticing that something was wrong, the woman that had stepped over the line tried to back away, but encountered the same wall. Flustered, she began feeling out with her hands and realized that she was trapped like a bird in a box.

"Magic," Shirou said lowly. "You want to run? I'm afraid you can't do that anymore."

"Bullshit!" The woman turned to Katsumi, but began to feel apprehensive when she read the words Katsumi was mouthing to her.

'No. Chakra.'

No way. This couldn't be happening. Without waiting for a second, the woman began stabbing with her kunai only to hit empty air. For a moment, the wall itself ceased to exist, and the woman did not waste the opportunity to body flicker away; however, shock soon assailed her.

There was no escape.

It was an oath of old by the Knights of the Red Branch of Irish mythology.

Two may enter, but only one must remain.

"Ayako, why the fuck are you going back!" Hirota called in disbelief. He and his other colleagues still couldn't move forward due to the invisible wall, and could only watch Ayako who had body flickered in the distance come right back step after step.

"I-I can't stop!" Sweat was matting Ayako's brows, and the very real fear of the unknown was beginning to assail her. She was trembling from the strain of trying to run away but being forced back by some sort of mysterious property.

Her body wouldn't listen to her and she'd tried to dispel any sort of Genjutsu from the start, but to no avail. No one could understand how any of this was happening, but inwardly terror was further building in Ayako's mind when she heard the mutters under Katsumi's breath.

Again. 'No. Chakra.'

"Sorry, but you can't refuse combat," Shirou said when Ayako eventually returned in front of him.

Suddenly, the realization that she was alone sunk in. Reacting on instinct, Ayako brought her hands into a hand seal and activated a Kiri Speciality Jutsu in order to hide and figure out what the fuck was going on.

"Hiding in the Mist Technique."

Mist spontaneously appeared everywhere, making it impossible to see even a foot away. Ayako faded into the mist, but what she failed to understand was that the mist was to Shirou's advantage.

Shirou had made quite a scene before his arrival into Kiri, and by now, there may have been word of an Uzumaki who could create objects from out of nowhere. Shrouded in the mist however, he lost all forms of precaution because there was no one who could see what he was doing.

'Trace. On.'

He called upon the strength of his profession. The magic circuits within him thrummed to life and formed circuit-like patterns of energy over his skin which converged over his left palm.

One enemy had been ensnared in the trap of the forked branch, but there were still eleven more to go. This was going to be a prolonged battle, and prolonged battles weren't just about physical capabilities, but psychology as well.

Fear was the tool.

"You think you're hidden? You think that you're safe?"

The air began to stir as the experience of a hardened mercenary took over Shirou's form. His nose twitched, and suddenly, from within the mist, Ayako knew she was being stared down as a red glow penetrated through the vapours

"Then you'd be wrong."

Ayako's body stiffened. She considered moving in and executing a Silent Killing, but she couldn't bring herself to move closer. Not when a strange sensation began eating away at her.

It was a feeling unlike anything other.

Wither. Decay. Rot.

It wasn't Chakra. It wasn't, and it was driving her senses crazy.

If one does not believe that he or she can win when going into combat, then surely, he or she will lose. Therefore, Shirou needed a method of victory that wasn't swift, but was the most impactful. In this case, he was going to have to use a method similar to Rin Tohsaka of his previous world.

He'd curse them.

Shirou couldn't cast such magic himself since he knew nothing of how to do it, but he could use something else as a proxy. Hidden within the mist, he Traced a dagger-shaped Mystic Code which gathered magical energy at the tip in the form of a curse similar to a Gandr.

The air suddenly shifted again.

Ayako didn't know what the change meant, but panic was beginning to set in. She was truly and genuinely freaked out at this point. Chakra she could handle; weapons she could handle; hell, she didn't even fear the concept of death and bloodshed as a Kiri Shinobi, but fairing against something she couldn't even understand unnerved her to no end. It dug out the fear she'd thought she'd lost in her academy days and mercilessly brought it to the surface.

"Flesh ages, bones weaken, skin dries,"

W-What did he just say? Ayako couldn't see too far out in her own mist, but sound travelled unimpeded.

Ayako wasn't the only one hearing what Shirou was saying, but her comrades as well.

"This curse will be mine to make, and for you to bear."

Move. She had to move.

There was nothing else in Ayako's mind as a flash of dark red light rapidly shot in her direction. It was too fast, making it impossible to dodge. Raising her kunai up in defence, she stopped fueling her chakra to produce mist and instead used it to form a protective layer in front of her. The shot of red light then struck her body as the mist cleared, giving everyone a good view of what had occurred within.

Standing ten feet apart, Ayako blinked her eyes open wondering if Shirou's attack had missed, but that's when tragedy struck.

"A-Ayako, you're hand!"

The sound of a Kunai clattering to the ground echoed while Ayako began to hyperventilate. Gandr curses decrease the physical health of a target, but the magic shot off from the mystic code in Shirou's hands was more potent.

Ayako was beginning to shrivel and mummify, and in her silent plea for help, Hirota and the others took a step forward but it was already too late.

"N-No! This can't be real. I blocked it with my Chakra!" Ayako legs gave out on her. She looked down only to see wrinkled skin sticking to the husk of her bones. She gagged, dry heaving before convulsing on the ground.

The admission chilled Hirota and the other Shinobi to the core. They were finally beginning to realize that they were dealing with something never before seen.

Magic.

Actual fucking magic, and not just chakra used to imitate it. Worse, there was no defence because no one knew any preventive measures.

Silence.

Silence broken only by the swaying of the water lilies and a deafening sigh.

"Well, that's unfortunate,"

What was unfortunate? The fear of the unknown was becoming palpable.

Hirota shuddered, and in response, he watched along with his comrades as Shirou simply pointed a short distance behind everyone.

In their involuntary movement, they'd done something that they later realized that they shouldn't have.

They'd stepped foot across the drawn line.

"One down," Shirou stepped forward and took the initiative. "Eleven to go."

A Magus among ninjas.

Thanks for reading!

Next update: Fate-In time

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