Fragment Of The Night

{Wayward}

I step out of the airport.
The sky is clear and the wind is very cool.
It's a pleasant day.
A shame that the reason I came here isn't pleasant at all.

Nine years.
It has already been nine years since the end of the Fifth Holy Grail War.
Nine years since I fought against my ideal to carry out my hope.
It felts so distant now, those memories.
But it could be said that it never really ended.

As I walk, I get the occasional odd looks from people.
Its only natural.
My left arm isn't mine anymore.
Its covered by the Shroud Of Martin, but the discrepancy in length is clear even to a casual observer.
… More over, the Shroud itself is an oddity.
I'm sure that it draws more stares that the arm.

I wince.
Its distant, but the looks make me remember that night.
That instant.
The moment where Gilgamesh got the better of me.
I narrowly managed to escape my death, but lost my left arm as compensation and I was left at his mercy.

My survival was pure luck.
Only Archer's intervention saved me from the King Of Heroes, once again.
And he was also the one who granted to me this left arm.
He formed a contract with Tohsaka, so he could last long enough.
Until Tohsaka managed to find another spiritual doctor.
Kirei had been one, but he had died.

To be honest, its a little vexing.
Even now.
We did it together, even though we didn't love each other.
I couldn't use the strength Tohsaka granted to me to win.
I had to depend on that red knight.
It's not like I don't appreciate that he saved me, but it is vexing.

But well, its not like I can change it.
He was always such a show off.

Anyway.
Six people had been found dead here, in Shin Tokyo.
None of them were clear cut cases, yet in less that a day they were filled away as accidents or some such.
Its suspicious, no matter how I think about it.

I don't know what or who is behind it.
A Magus.
Or a Dead Apostle.
I don't care.
I only care that they are throwing lives away like trash.
I can't let anybody get away with that.

I don't have anywhere to stay right now, but that can be taken care of later.
I can't allow myself to rest, not when I can prevent somebody's death.

I have nothing to go on, for now.
And since the only magic I can use doesn't help with it, is not like I can examine the bodies.
...Not without breaking several laws myself, anyway.
But well.
I leave that to Tohsaka, since that's more of her thing.
So I should investigate the area myself before calling her.

While walking through the streets, searching for any kind of lead.
I couldn't help but observe the people around me.
Their peaceful existences.
Their happy existences.
Their life, the people around them, the future they are dreaming of.
Everything could been destroyed in an instant for nothing.

He told me to drown in my ideals and die.
He said my life was a false life.
Kiritsugu had once said that an Ally of Justice is only so strong.
Archer's life taught me that, engraved it into me.

Still.
I want to kept walking down that path.
Even if helping people for the sake of it will with end with me in the hills of swords, I will not have any regrets.
His end was something to be proud of.
If that's to be my end too, it would been fine.
I wouldn't make the contract, of course, but the point still stands.

Where I'm going with this...
I want to save everybody, even if its out of the question.
Looking at these people, knowing what I know, makes my stomach churn.
I wanted to protect the false tranquillity they live in.
I want to make that "peace" a reality.

This world is twisted.
But as long as I'm alive, I want to do something about it.
No matter what will I will lose as compensation.

Foolish?
Yes, but that's fine.

Before my brain can process the scene, my body tenses.
A woman is there.
She's huddled on the ground, breathing heavily.
There are no signs of wounds, but I don't care.

Its clear she's escaping from something.
From the police or from some criminal.
I don't know.
All I know is that she needs help.

I run to her without even thinking about it.
It takes me an instant to realize that, since she is escaping, me running could scare her away.
To be fair, if her situation is truly serious, then it wouldn't matter If I ran or not.
But still.

Before I can stop myself, the girl turns her head towards me.
She's beautiful.
Her beauty couldn't be called otherworldly, unlike Saber, but that doesn't change that simple fact.
But there's a sense of unreality to her, anyway.
Beauty like hers is something you only see in the covers of magazines.

Wait.
I vigorously shake my head.
What the hell I'm thinking?
I'm stupid or what?

Of course she's beautiful, but I can't allow myself to get distracted.
Not at at time like this.
Man, how embarrassing.
I should really apologize, but apologizing for seemingly not reason, out of nowhere, would only been even more embarrassing.

"Miss." I call out to her. My voice grows softer without really thinking about it. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing."

She breathes out.
Her face is red out of exhaustion.
She stands up on her shaky legs.

She's tall.
Not only tall for a girl, but just plain tall.
Standing up, her head reaches my shoulders.

"Just hurry out and get away. I dealt with this by myself."

"What are you saying, you idiot?" I let out without even thinking. "As I can leave you alone when you need help."

"Look." she winces. "I appreciate it at all, but you don't know what you're dealing with here. Just… Just run, okay?"

"I..."

Lighting strikes, drowning out my last two words.
The shock wave itself is strong enough to send a normal human flying.
But my body is not normal.
Since I was here with the intention of investigating, I reinforced my body as preparation.
So it doesn't manage to move me.

Smoke rises, clouding two figures.
Rumble goes flying.
I tense, watching the smoke dissipate.
I don't project anything.
I have to ascertain the situation first.
Besides, I only need an instant.

The smoke clears.

...What the hell is this?
I have seen many strange things, but even I think this is strange.
The two women are wearing scandalous dresses that seem to be held by wishful thinking.

Maybe I'm dreaming.
That thought crosses my mind like sunlight through the clouds.
But I know I'm not.
I would been too convenient for it to be so.
And now that I have assimilated such a strange thing, a possibility floats thought my mind.

It makes my stomach churn.

The superior sneers on their faces don't intimidate me at all.
I take a step forward, putting myself between them and the girl.

I'm only sure about one thing.
Those two woman aren't human.
At least, not fully human.
I don't know what they are exactly, but at least I understand that.
Maybe this girl behind isn't one, either.
I don't know.

"What an eyesore." The woman on the left says. Her voice is disturbingly lively, despite her words. "Get out, or I'll make you. Don't even think about winging that one."

Winging?
Doesn't matter.
There are many things I don't understand, even with so many years under Tohsaka's care.
I can leave that to Tohsaka.
For now, I can only concentrate on the enemies in front of me.

"Shut up." the girl behind me yells. "Leave him out of this, all right? I'm not reacting, and, anyway, attacking him would be against the rules. You can't just do whatever you want."

That's…
The words make my blood turn to ice.
Two things are confirmed.
She isn't human either.
And this fight is part of some kind of tournament.

Pieces of the War flash through my mind.
The students at the school, unconscious.
Rider's with her neck twisted off.
Archer skewered by the weapons in the Gate of Babylon.
And… above them all, a white haired girl I couldn't save drenched in red.

The thoughts make my frozen blood boil.
No way.
We stopped that once, and now you're telling me something like that is happening again?
Don't joke around.

"That's up to him." the one in the right says. "Nobody can blame for getting him out of the way, if he becomes an eyesore."

I eye the red restrain from the corner of my eye.
I have come far since then.
The spiritual doctor didn't do a perfect job, but I have survived it.
I have lived with this thing for nine years, and I've become a magus that can match this arm.

That means that I won't die even if I take it off.
Its not longer a death sentence.
We're separated existences.
Yet, we have reached something that could be called coexistence.

It will hurt.
I haven't take it off even once, but I understand that implicitly.
It will hurt so much I might go mad.
And if I get careless, I could disappear in the maelstrom of feedback from the arm.
But that's only if I make a mistake.

To be a magus is to walk with death.

That's right.
I can't hesitate, even if I might die.
There's only one answer.
This arm exists to be used, and he entrusted it to me for that reason alone.

Still…

That's an undue risk.
It won't do any good to hold back, but that doesn't mean I should just risk it all when I have no reason to do so.
I'll probably been able to take on these two creatures using my own abilities.
There shouldn't been any need to take off the Shroud.
Unless I'm getting over my head.

With that in mind, I...

1. Take off the Shroud.

2. Fight my own fight