? I'm looking right at the quotation mark. Is it not showing up for some people?Originally Posted by Bloble
I'm pretty sure most don't wear their uniforms, but I suppose some schools might require it depending on how formal the trip is. If it were some kind of organized "Here we are going to visit this museum and present our class with a valid learning experience" might dictate uniforms, but this is "seniors goof off under the pretense of learning."
Localizationing stuff
Huh. Took a second look and it's right there. But I could've sworn...
Well, never mind then. It was probably just me.
I hope that Shiki is wearing his uniform because if he's wearing that shirt, Arihiko is going to have a hard time getting girls to come to him hanging out with Shiki.
Lancer x Archer OTPSpoiler:
Shiki is a 90's boy in the 00's.
Nah, I tend to imagine his civvis to be what they show in Carnival Phantasm, not that ugly-ass blue and orange thing.
Actually, it occurs to me that he wears something similar to his CP date outfit in that not-anime thing. Maybe one of the few holdovers that was worth keeping.
Localizationing stuff
I was wondering how Arihiko was able to notice one of Rin's most distinctive features if she was wearing a school uniform since the skirt for it is quite long.
You can assume Rin is in her red-and-black ensemble, Shirou in his baseball t-shirt and jeans, Ayako, Issei, and Shinji in their HA outfits (pimpin' Shinji is pimpin'), and Satsuki, Arihiko, and Shiki in something like they might've worn in an anime if they had ever had one.
Localizationing stuff
Ugh. Must apologize for how long this took to get out. Had a two week job I spent most of my time on that kept me away from the net for the most of it.
Chapter 3
Test of Courage
With fifty students and two instructors, the inn’s traditional dining area was a little cramped. The Misaki students were technically delegated to sit at the larger, Western-styled tables as their reservation had been made second, while the Fuyuki students were set up with the single-person trays; however, between Shinji Matou’s smooth talking and some of his classmates’ desire to avoid problems, the traditional singles tables were divided among the two.
“Just look at it this way,” Issei Ryuudou said, “If he networks with students elsewhere, perhaps he will find it agreeable enough to pursue a career far away from the rest of us. You will never have to see him again.”
Ayako gave the class rep a disbelieving look. “What is it like to be so optimistic? I’m not sure.” Despite the fact that all the students had roughly the same meal and that she personally had no preference with eating arrangements, Ayako felt that being regulated to the Western-styled tables because of Shinji’s womanizing was less than pleasant. Rin and Issei as student council representatives had lead the way in finding more agreeable circumstances for everyone, so they had volunteered their single-person tables; other Fuyuki classmates had followed suit.
“At least he’s been doing it less and less back home,” Shirou Emiya said. “I guess there could be a worse time for him to try and make up for it all. Like right before exams.”
“What, are you one of those types that gets distracted and does badly at exam time, Emiya-kun?” Rin asked.
The only positive was how they had ended up positioned together, so Rin and Shirou sat opposite of one another along their table and Ayako could watch the both of them for any further incriminating signs.
Like the almost-dirty look Shirou gave the school idol.
Issei jumped ahead of any response that the redhead could have made, though, glaring fiercely at Rin. “I do not think that is any concern of yours, Tohsaka. Suffice it to say, I would not have the student council call upon his help if his grades suffered due to it.” He crossed his arms and nodded. “I would think it obvious that my taste in friends would not suffer someone intellectually my inferior.” He frowned and gave Shirou a corner-of-his-eye glance. “Although, perhaps your grade in English could improve…should I tutor you?”
Shirou frowned right back.
“I say that only because Fujimura-sensei regularly queries me about your academic performance.” Issei shrugged. “She says you stonewall her on the topic, along with your future plans.”
Ayako cut in at that. “You could always come back to the Archery Club so Fujimura-sensei stops bothering people. You’d have extra time to talk her down.” She grinned at the timing. Anything to put Shirou on the back foot. He was a pushover when all things were equal.
Shirou did look thoroughly on the defensive, since everybody around decided it was time to bully him. “I get enough of that at home. So, the answer to all of that, in order, is no,” he glared at Rin, “no,” he glared at Issei, “and no,” he glared at Ayako. His eyebrows looked ready to fuse together by the end.
Ayako’s gaze zeroed in on the very tiny twitch from Rin’s cheek. The school idol covered any further reaction by using that moment to make a dent into her food.
“Although I probably should work harder on English,” Shirou admitted. “I hear London is an interesting place to visit.”
The way Rin seemed to hiccup mid-swallow at his statement made Ayako doubly suspicious. She knew Shirou well enough to pick out when he decided to attempt craftiness and his words seemed to be timed specifically to trip Rin up.
“You intend to go abroad?” Issei asked, completely ignoring Rin’s inelegant coughing as if it were a matter of course. “You have never expressed much interest before. At least, not in Europe.”
“I don’t know,” Shirou said, “In the past few months the British Museum has sounded more and more interesting.” He somehow seemed to brighten up at his own mention of the place. “I’ve, well, sort of gotten an internship offer there.”
Rin tried to settle her problems with a drink of water.
“Really?” Issei looked intrigued. “How did you come by such a fortuitous circumstance?”
“Uh,” Shirou lost his smile. Apparently, that was about as far as he had thought to reveal. “Uhhh…you see, my dad, he left me some things when I came of age, and his reputation abroad sort of helps, and…well…there might have been this nice girl that offered me an opportunity…”
Though Rin was now giving Shirou a look that probably said many different things in it, Ayako felt her attention wavering as thoughts unbridled came to mind. “Hey, wait, London you said?” Her own eyebrows narrowed as she groped around her memory. “Tohsaka, didn’t you say something about London before? Like it was some kind of long-held dream?”
Rin’s eyes widened. “That was—”
Whatever she intended to say was interrupted when Issei violently spun Shirou in his chair, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him violently back and forth. “I thought something was fishy! Emiya, you let it happen, didn’t you?! That fox has cast her curse over you! You can’t let it go this far! I cannot bear it! Repent, Emiya! Repent!”
Ayako thought that with how violent he was being rattled, Shirou’s neck would snap at any moment. If his brain did not turn to paste before that.
The redhead was saved, however, in the form of Shinji Matou. Or at least Shinji Matou’s big mouth.
“Just who do you think you’re talkin’ about?!” one of the Misaki students shouted, jumping to his feet and crossing over to where Shinji sat between two of the Misaki females.
Shinji only made that insufferable smile that often caused visible frustration in other males his age. “Now, now, I didn’t say anything about you, just that if Katou here thought she could do for some maturity in—”
The student, a taller boy that looked rather athletic, managed to not go all the way and just deck the elder Matou. He did kick Shinji’s tray, causing the mostly-uneaten food to spill all about the floor and Shinji’s lap. The girls sitting to either side scurried away, while Shinji himself shot up to his feet out of reflex. It was far too late, however, as the miso soup and his drink had stained his right leg.
Good boys that they were, Issei and Shirou were both up and across the room like lightning to blockade an escalation in the situation. Two of the Misaki students got up as well, putting hands on their friend’s shoulders. Shinji, for his part, just looked miffed. “Thank you for brilliantly proving the point I was making.” He then fixed Issei and Shirou with an equally-annoyed expression, one that Ayako was quite familiar with: Like I would need your help.
Ayako just thought Shinji might be a lucky sort, to always be picking fights with guys that didn’t go straight for the jugular. She understood that Shirou had once given him a punch, but she believed that if both of the boys really wanted to, they’d have beaten each other into a mess. Neither one seemed like they were likely to cut loose on someone they were once close to.
Although it could still be summed up, their attitudes, all of them:
“Boys,” Ayako muttered. She heard Rin sigh at the exact same time, long and drawn out, as if she were about to say the same.
Itou, the Fuyuki teacher, was fast into the room at the commotion. Though slight and approaching the twilight years of middle age, the woman had a headstrong presence that managed to cow most of the students in line. Even if she was not the hothead that Taiga Fujimura was known to be. “Just what is going on here?”
Shirou and Issei, of course, were immediately trying to smooth things over while the two instigators of the situation glowered at each other. Issei said, “We were just addressing some, ah, issues standing between our classes. Perhaps a sense of rivalry due to our similar ages and school spirit? It must be the restlessness from travel.”
Ayako briefly went over that in her mind, deciding that if spirit = skirts, it might be an apt way to put it.
“And, uh,” Shirou stuttered when Issei looked his way for backup, “we were kind of egging each other on, and it got a bit out of hand? No harm done, just got a little too…worked up?”
The old instructor looked like she was only partially buying it—which was only fitting since the boys were only partially telling the truth. Itou was, however, the kind of teacher that let their students dig their own holes if they asked for it. “I see. Egging each other on over what?”
It was at that point that both boys looked at the end of their current thought process, as Issei went to fiddling with his glasses and Shirou developed a rather vacant look on his face. Normally, Ayako thought that Shinji himself would smooth things over, but the boy seemed to be too busy seething at both the unwanted help and the guy responsible for dirtying his clothes.
Rin looked somewhat amused by it all, but decided to stick her neck out before the diplomats could get theirs metaphorically lobbed off. “It sounded like a challenge to me, sensei. The forest out back is spooky-looking and they were discussing the merits of each class’ ability to weather a trip through it.” Ayako thought it carefully worded, since Rin implied she was passive in the matter, listening in, and they were discussing would have been referring to the standing boys. It allowed the teacher to build up her own conclusions regarding what was going on—probably that the boys were trying to act macho.
While that might have simply worked fine with someone like Taiga Fujimura, this instructor seemed to instead play along, upping the stakes. “Then perhaps you would like to see to it that this challenge is carried through, Tohsaka-san? I will speak with my fellow about you Misaki students if this is indeed where things can be decided?” She gave an imperious tilt of her chin and the faintest signs of a smile could be seen. “Once everyone is finished eating, of course?”
Rin frowned. “I…suppose I could do that.” She was now eyeing the three boys from her class, not quite a glare.
“Uh, yeah, that sounds great,” Shirou immediately jumped in, though his voice did not match his words. “I mean, right? A fair competition to settle things?” He was now looking at the boy that had kicked Shinji’s tray and seemed to be trying desperately not to look in Rin and Ayako’s direction. “Get some fresh air, too, after being all together like this?”
“A…fair point,” Issei said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
There was a kind of broken murmur amidst the different students: girls mostly complaining that they did not want to do this sort of thing, boys either agreeing or caught up in the pissing contest that had unfolded before them. Ayako grinned, hiding it behind bridged hands—Shirou just did not have the kind of charisma to convince people of his cause. Issei might, but he sounded displeased at having to go along with an idea that Rin spoke of.
“Yeah, lets go with the old-fashioned guys and their springtime of youth clichés, it’ll fix everything right up,” a dark-haired boy with glasses said from the Misaki crowd, kitty-corner in the room to Shinji and them. He seemed equal parts disinterested and sarcastic.
Of course, that might have been the very thing to fire up the other boys and some of the girls in Ayako’s class. Though most of the boys might not rise to Shinji Matou’s defense, Issei was a popular enough guy to be friendly with and Shirou regularly did favors for various people. The girls, too, tended to favor at least one of the three.
Although, as Ayako thought about going out into the forest on some lame challenge that nobody initially wanted to do, all just because Shinji Matou was thinking with what was in his pants, she started to imagine using the time to pop the back of the playboy’s head with her fist.
The murmuring on the Fuyuki side started to waver toward responding to the smart remark from the Misaki boy. They all seemed to turn their gaze to Rin, the directions from Itou-sensei suggesting Rin would be organizing things from her end.
Rin gave them a reassuring smile. “Lets finish our meal and we can figure out details from there.” She turned the smile toward the standing boys.
Even the ones that did not know her seemed to wilt ever-so-slightly.
“This sucks,” Arihiko said for the fifth time.
He and Satsuki waited in the cluster of students that had yet to venture out into the woods, fidgeting with the flashlights given to them. While some of their classmates were taking turns attempting to psych the others out with ghost stories or taunts, Arihiko—one of the few paired with the opposite gender—both did not feel like worsening Satsuki’s mood, even if it meant he might feel better.
Where Shiki was in all of this, he’d not been able to figure out. He had the sneaking suspicion the boy had escaped the organization chaos that had followed the challenge decision, using the way that nobody paid attention to him if they could help it to his advantage. Since the inn had landline phones, he thought Shiki might have been the whipped dog that he was to call home to his master.
The doubly-annoying thing was that Nanako, still silent the vast majority of the time since promising to come along on the trip, would give him sly grins here and there, like she had some kind of bad idea in mind now that he was without backup and out where everyone would be isolated from both each other and society in general. Since Satsuki could not see her, Arihiko simply ignored it as much as he could, but he could not shake that suspicious feeling.
Especially when her tail wagged.
“Takenashi, Endoh, you’re next.” Ijima, the Misaki class rep kept the students entering the forest at staggered intervals. He would occasionally check his phone for mail from the students that had set up the finish line and what the status of everybody was from that.
Arihiko really pitied the students that were actually frightened by a wooded area so close to actual civilization. Or the guys that were constantly teasing some of the girls and would so obviously not be getting lucky anytime during this trip. “You’d think that after what got us all into this mess, they’d know to shut the hell up.”
Satsuki gave a nervous laugh. “I don’t know, some of the others actually like the teasing. I mean, didn’t you ever do this as a kid?”
“I guess,” Arihiko said. Though his mind briefly wandered to thoughts of another class trip and real, actual scary situations. “But if they want to be all buddy-buddy, they’d probably do better to zip it. It’s not like half the teams aren’t just you girls all going together like whenever you all take quests to the bathroom together anyway.”
“You make it sound so grand.”
“If I wanted a girl to go around with me out here so I could show off, constantly bugging them about scary crap would not be how I’d do it.” He blinked, then relented, grinning. “Not that I can’t hang out with you, Yumizuka, but you know what I mean.”
She halfway glared, halfway pouted. “I’m not a girl? Or that you don’t want me around?”
“I said you know what I mean.”
“I wonder where Tohno-kun ran off to,” the girl lamented, completely changing the subject. Or not, if she was feeling unwanted.
“I don’t know, but the guy sure is smooth. Gets in a jab at those guys from Fuyuki, then gets under cover where nobody but us’d go looking. Bastard.” He did think it was likely for Shiki to be contacting Ciel, but he thought Satsuki might not want to hear about that. The girl got oddly depressed about it sometimes.
Arihiko did too, for other reasons.
“Hee,” Nanako tittered at that exact moment, circling unseen around class rep Ijima as he looked to his phone.
“Yumizuka and Inui.”
Arihiko tapped the crown of his head with the flashlight. “Urgh.”
“Let’s just get done fast and then we can go back inside sooner,” Satsuki said. “I don’t know about you, but this place is kind of creeping me out. It’s like it’s watching us.”
The redhead gave the girl an even stare. “Just so you know, you can’t actually creep me out as revenge for all girl-dom.”
Ayako had a plan. It was simple, to the point, and made all this Shinji-related trouble worth it to her.
It had not escaped her notice that among the four that had gone to the so-called finish line for the courage challenge, Rin had volunteered herself and Shirou for the duty. It made sense for her—she was left responsible for the situation, and it made a certain amount of sense that Fuyuki’s false janitor would be around to handle whatever logistical issues she’d need done.
But she also had paid close attention to the guy at the start area that was calling out names, how he frowned at his phone. When it was her turn to go, she had asked him as casually as she could if there was something wrong—and he had responded in such an interesting way.
“Your classmates ditched the guys on the other side. They said to go patrol the forest so nobody got lost.” He did not sound like he believed it.
Ayako had reassured him and her partner, Yukika, agreed shyly: Rin Tohsaka and Shirou Emiya were diligent people that would not have jumped ship like he might believe.
Even as she said it, though, Ayako was smiling.
She started them at a fair clip into the woods, Yukika worried about how fast they were going, but it was all so very perfect. Kaede’s team had gone right before them, so Ayako figured that they would not be much further ahead—and she was right. It took them all but two minutes to catch up, the track team duo having also met up with another pair of girls as if it were a plan to make a larger party out of the trip none of them seemed to want to take.
“I’m gonna go off ahead,” Ayako said. “Tohsaka and Emiya could probably use some help.” She made it sound as if her help were reluctant and her statement filled with much suffering.
“If you see Shinji, drop kick him off a hilltop,” Kaede said.
Ayako nodded. Shinji and Issei—paired off because the student council president refused to let the boy cause any more trouble—had gone off ahead as one of the first in. Ayako admitted that if she did come across them first, she might do just that.
But she had her primary goal, and one that went against what she had told the Misaki student Ijima:
She was convinced she would catch Rin Tohsaka and Shirou Emiya relationship-red-handed.
To be continued.
Last edited by Arashi_Leonhart; September 8th, 2013 at 05:26 PM.
Localizationing stuff
Not much to say, obvious set-up chapter is obviously a set-up chapter. Kinda dull but it does hold promise for future funsies and was probably a necessary evil. Kinda disappointing that you had all these characters who are probably going to interact later in the story in the same place but didn't actually have them do so on screen yet. Just to be clear, Shiki was the one who started shit with Shinji right? That seemed to be Arihiko's implication.
Oh Ayako. Good luck with that goal.
Dat issei. So moe.
and I eagerly await Nanako shenanigans.
[18:00] Spinach: Because I don't like Saber's personality but boy oh boy does she make my dick turn to diamonds when I see her getting tentacled.
[18:01] Leo: feeling superior to EU makes me hard
[16:16] <Bloble> Drakengard? Is that a rhythm game?
@KelnishThis is Shiki, I think. The guy who kicked Shinji's tray was just Random Highschool Student #1.“Yeah, lets go with the old-fashioned guys and their springtime of youth clichés, it’ll fix everything right up,” a dark-haired boy with glasses said from the Misaki crowd, kitty-corner in the room to Shinji and them. He seemed equal parts disinterested and sarcastic.
Random mook #1
If you can dreamand not make dreams your master;
If you can thinkand not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster;
And treat those two impostors just the same,
-Ruyard Kipling, "If"
-)|(-My works [Updated June 21st, 2013]
"From a dusky world with an ever-setting sun, a limitless rain of Ryougi Shiki streaked down from gargantuan gears set in the sky." Fate: Over 9000, my best Crack yet.
Sorry for the delay. Been busy. Doing this from a borrowed computer and net access. Ugh, I hate not having something out in months.
Chapter 4
Went Left
“No, I’m not going that way.”
If one were to venture out into this forest unwillingly, it would make perfect sense. The path through the bushes came to a fork where it branched off in three directions. The one going right was both the most worn and clearly made for civilization once more with lights glimpsed beyond the tree line. The one going straight forward also looked worn, with a glade within view from the divergence. The path on the left looked more like an animal path, barely visible amidst the weeds and brush, plus no light could be viewed in that direction. Between the moonlight fading randomly behind cloud cover and no signs of human presence, the left pathway just evoked a feeling of superstitious dread from the average person.
Issei Ryuudou was not an average person by any stretch of the imagination. Nor was his logic.
After all, was this not the purpose, to test one’s courage? Was it not a part of his duty, not just as a class leader, but as a young man to push that to its very limit?
When told of this location out in the woods, it was obvious to the ones organizing it that this would be an important spot: after nearly half an hour out in the middle of nowhere, disconnected from the rest, it would be the perfect place for the other students to tease one another and do what was required by their underdeveloped brains. They would harass and harangue their peers over not stepping foot in the scarier direction, then make jokes about it on the way back. It was not just expected, it was necessary for a situation like this.
But for Issei and his partner, it was an opportunity. He would force Shinji Matou down that path for a little while, trouble the troublemaker for a while, and hopefully drive it into the young man’s skull that it was his own doing that led him out into an unwanted situation. A well-deserved punishment, without being a punishment in name. It had the benefit of possibly tiring the playboy out as well, leaving him less likely to cause more difficulty for the remainder of the night.
He would do this all effortlessly, if Shinji would only cooperate.
“This is the direction we are to take,” Issei said. It was not a lie—since he had planned from the beginning for the two of them to diverge from the path given to the others.
“Then you’re blind even with those glasses,” Shinji said. He tipped his head in the other direction as if unwilling to expend any further energy. “That’s the way back. You’re standing on a goat path or something.”
Perhaps, Issei decided, he was going about this the wrong way. It was customary to fulfill the obligations of youth, was it not? “Oho. Perhaps I have found a weakness in that impenetrable personality. Are you frightened, Matou-kun?”
Shinji’s eyes narrowed, adding to an expression that could only be interpreted one way: he was about a hair’s breadth from strangling the monk. “No, you stupid four-eyed suck-up, I want to get done with this stupid game as soon as possible, and wandering into some stupid place in the middle of some stupid forest is not part of it, no matter how much stupid your stupid mind can conjure up.”
Issei scowled, changed tactics. He motioned down the unused path like a chauffeur. “If you take this route with me, I will give you less concern for the remainder of the evening and tomorrow—as long as we are to share space with the other students.”
For a moment, Shinji’s expression seemed aghast—probably imagining Issei bothering him far into the night and hovering over him in the morning during breakfast. Whatever conclusion came to his mind was very displeasing. “Why?” Shinji’s scowl would have been intimidating if not for the fact that Issei still had height on him. “It isn’t part of the deal, going off in a different direction. We’ll just get to the end and be the good little boys that you want us to be, eh?”
“Since we went early, we would finish before everyone else and your personality would once again cause trouble,” Issei said, his didactic tone making his statement sound like the most obvious thing in the world. “I do not wish for these festivities to be once more coerced by your terrible attitude, so we will take a long detour and finish later than most. It will be your penance for causing so much difficulty for everyone.”
“Drag around that pinhead that started all of this. I didn’t cause anything.”
Issei sighed, as if his statement should be blatantly obvious. “You know very well that your actions antagonized the other party. Even if you are not actively causing problems, your passive issues bring antagonism before you. Then you attempt to get out of obligations whenever possible, earned or unearned. Whether it be duties after class, or that one time you were supposed to stay after for punishment.”
Shinji looked entirely miffed. “I always get someone to fill in for me when that happens. And that one time you’re talking about, I did exactly what they told me to.”
“When you are given the instructions ‘write twenty pages of kanji,’ the instructor does not actually mean for you to write the words ‘twenty pages of kanji’ and turn it in.”
“Oh lighten up. Endo-sensei thought that was hilarious.”
“And I believe it would be hilarious if you followed me down this path!” Issei said.
Buzzing insects kept it from going completely silent for a long moment. Shinji’s caustic tone eventually broke through. “Ryuudou, the day you have a sense of humor, I’ll run naked through school.”
“That would be against policy and a criminal act on top of it!”
The little shake-jerk of the head Shinji involuntarily gave stood in for any response. He seemed to be in physical pain. “Alright, if it will shut you up and I can be rid of you for the rest of the night, fine. Get your damn flashlight, lead me down the path, goat-herder, and then after a minute I’ll pretend to be scared like some five year old girl and you can lead me back out like the manly man you aren’t and we’ll have wasted less time than we’ve spent right here with your stupidity.” He followed up with the kind of sneer he had not shown for many months. “And when that idiot that really did cause this does it again, you’d better get it in your head that this is pointless.”
As if oblivious to the insults, Issei said, “Thank you,” and did just that, switching on the flashlight he used earlier and had switched off to conserve battery power. Ignoring the loathsome look from his peer, he motioned for Shinji to follow him into the denser foliage.
Shinji made to look at the heavens as if to rage at whatever deity was to be watching them but was met only with a breezeless forest canopy.
From beneath the eaves of a large older tree, a pair of eyes tracked the boys suspiciously.
Ayako watched the boys venture off the given directions, curious as to their intentions. From what the hotel workers had said about the forest, the only thing they would find that way was a dead-end path and an old farmhouse nobody used anymore.
“If it were a different pair, maybe,” Ayako muttered to herself. Sometimes…well, most of the time, she was certain Issei played catcher for the other team, but she was also pretty sure that he and Shinji truly despised one another. Really, she could not conjure up any other ideas between the two. Ayako considered herself rather open-minded, but the image of those two together simply violated her basic sanity.
The thought had occurred to her—and probably other couples in the class—that the seclusion just off the path they’d chosen might be a good hiding place if people wanted some privacy. What would stop them was the creepy, deserted presence out in the middle of unfamiliar territory, a deal-breaker to the superstitious lot that made up the vast majority of her class. A feeling she was pretty sure no couple present was willing to exchange for some alone time…
Unless…they were Rin Tohsaka and Shirou Emiya. Rin might just be stubborn enough, Shirou might just be enough of a yes-man.
The thought of catching them sneaking off, under cover of “helping arrange everything” overrode Ayako’s other ideas, including her better judgment of her friends’ nature. Despite saying earlier how diligent they were. Despite knowing they were unlikely to care for that kind of tryst. Despite that she still had no proof they were even a thing. In fact, it helped cement the idea of why Shinji and Issei were heading off on their own, since Issei was pretty protective of Shirou and Ayako knew that Shinji, like most of the boys in the class, was sweet on Rin.
“Convinced Shinji to help him check up on the two?” It made enough sense.
It might, just might make up for all the trouble Shinji had brought on them. It might even be funny to witness: Issei’s predictable meltdown and Shinji’s scathing reaction. Ayako herself could not think up what Rin and Shirou themselves would do. Denial, embarrassment, frothing rage…
Nor did it occur to the girl just what, exactly, she was supposed to do upon uncovering it—after all, even if she caught Rin red-handed, it still meant Ayako was the loser of their little bet.
“All the search party could find remaining was the girl’s hand!”
Satsuki eyed Arihiko through the evening’s gloom with an expression somewhere between boredom and absolute blandness. “Is that it?”
“You aint afraid of sharks?”
“Not in public swimming pools.”
The duo had passed some of their classmates on the way through the forest, chatting normally and otherwise unperturbed where their peers nervously shuffled around or moved from end to end as fast as legs would take them. More of a concern was the occasional insect that buzzed about Arihiko, oddly taken with something about the boy; Satsuki they completely ignored.
“Aww, c’mon, it never even frightened you as a kid? Jumping into something deep where you can’t see all the way to the bottom?”
Satsuki sighed. “You’re not good at scary stories, are you?”
The problem with their pace and their banter was it had taken them far from the other groups—leaving the duo bored. Arihiko was absolutely unimpressed with their surroundings and Satsuki had since learned many, many scarier things than a pathway where a bunch of kids were passing through. The occasional flash of light between trees—the signs of their peers ahead or behind them—made it further impossible to frighten them.
“Okay, so, try this. Two guys decide they can take their pick out of a variety of girls, so one day they…”
About ten minutes in, Arihiko seemed so bored that he decided to do the very thing he was berating the other boys for earlier and attempted to tell a scary story. Where stories might actually see fit to frighten the girl since her imagination could take over, the redheaded boy proved completely inept at maintaining a sense of tension in his telling; he was simply too easygoing to be around that his personality stole any mood he tried to add. That plus his lousy choices in story.
Stories about ghosts that inhabit forests or suicide pacts in the middle of nowhere might work. Stories about girls being eaten by sharks in public pools or in landlocked upper-story buildings did not. Satsuki wondered what his obsession with sharks was anyway.
“But then they find it in their breakfast the next day—”
“Have you ever watched something like The Ring? That sort of thing is way more scary.”
Arihiko thought about it. His eyes darted one way, then quickly away, as if he did not want someone to notice him looking. “That’s…the one about the girl crawling outta the TV, right?”
He probably thought Satsuki did not notice. Every once in a while he would act strangely, like he was catching himself staring at something nobody was supposed to see, hearing things nobody else could make out.
Of course, the thing was, Satsuki could see the spirit that was further down the path. She had seen it tailing Shiki and Arihiko since the train, but had not said anything. The fact that Shiki was unaware of or ignored the spirit meant that she did not want to bring up a strange or sour point to the boy, so she pretended as if she was unaware. The last thing she wanted was for Shiki to think she was somehow strange.
“Um, are we supposed to go that way?”
Arihiko took a look around, apparently only realizing it when she pointed it out: he had wandered out into a thicker, more overgrown area with the path under his feet barely visible. Satsuki stood at a split in the path they had been on, glancing back down the way they came then back up to her partner. “Isn’t this the way?”
“I think we’re supposed to go that way.” Satsuki motioned to her right.
“Oh.” He shrugged, turned back the way he had been going. “Then lemme just…er…hm.” He peered further down that track, scanning for something.
Satsuki thought she knew—the little spirit girl had wandered further ahead and was already out of sight. “You want to see what’s up there?” she let herself say, giving him the opening he seemed to lack.
“Yeah. Kinda strange looking, all this growth. I’d swear there’s an abandoned farm cart up here or something.”
They followed the path for a short while, Arihiko letting himself get a bit further away from his classmate, probably to see if he could somehow catch the spirit girl without Satsuki noticing. Pretending not to care, Satsuki followed after, frowning at her surroundings now that she took a better look around.
For some reason, something felt off about this way, even just a short distance away from the path they had been on.
Only a couple minutes elapsed when the path made a hard curve. Arihiko was not paying enough attention to the sounds that issued from that blind turn and when he rounded it nearly crashed into a figure making his way back out: the flirty troublemaker from Fuyuki that had contributed to this trek in the first place.
“Ah, watch it!” Arihiko shouted, reflexively. He stumbled off into the grass a bit while the wavy-haired boy spun on his heel.
“We’re going back, right now,” the Fuyuki boy said.
Another voice issued from around the bend; Satsuki trotted up to hear the response clearer. “Matou-kun, it has been not ten minutes. Try at least double that, please.”
“No, I’m telling you, there’s something wrong out here. We’re heading back.” He seemed only then to take notice of the guy he had nearly run into and Satsuki further back down the path. “All of us are.”
“What’s wrong?” Satsuki asked.
Arihiko managed to get the flashlight up to the boy’s face just in time for a rather large roll of the eyes. “Eighteen things, one for each year this guy has been alive.” He thumbed back up the path and Satsuki leaned around the bend to see the taller Fuyuki boy there, the class rep-type that wore glasses. “I think we ran across something like private property and we should get back down the main path now.”
Satsuki’s eyebrows shot up. Out this far, it didn’t seem like there should be such a thing, and she had not seen any markers. “What’re you talking about?”
The boy did not respond, however, as his eyes had fixed back behind her. When Satsuki turned to head to follow his gaze, she found they were not alone.
Near the far end of the course through the woods, idly watching some of the students on the last leg of the route, Rin Tohsaka felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
“Something wrong?” Shirou asked from beside her. Though he did not seem to be aware of any kind of change in the atmosphere, he seemed to be unconsciously looking in the direction she sensed a shift in the currents of power about the area.
“Maybe,” Rin said.
Shinji Matou cursed his nonexistent luck.
The prickly feeling that he’d experienced the moment he’d stepped onto the path kept growing with each second—but he’d attributed it all to his annoyance with Issei. Now though, the odd throbbing sensation he got deep within his muscles whenever he passed the Tohsaka manor or even stepped into his own forsaken home flared up and he felt sick.
There was something back down the path, some meters behind the girl with twintails that had followed them up. It moved slowly, eerily like viewing through a short video missing frames, jerking forward at random points but never stumbling.
Then something else stepped out from the foliage nearby, also like the first, and a short, girlish shout rang out. From some meters ahead of that second figure, Ayako Mitsuzuri burst out from behind a tree and darted up toward them.
“Where—?” Issei said from behind Shinji. “Mitsuzuri-san?”
“Wh-what are they?” Ayako stuttered, actually running up past Shinji and placing the boys between her and the figures further down.
The redheaded boy that had stumbled up to them waved a flashlight in their direction.
They looked human in shape, but their faces were like out of surrealist art depicting death mask faces. Eyes that appeared like voids cast in swollen sockets peered at them, while lipless mouths gaped as if in a soundless scream. Their skin was sickly and the bits of moonlight piercing the canopy only heightened how pale they seemed, which was only then enhanced by bony limbs and necks that stretched out, coarse and brittle, like touching them would be touching sandstone. Somehow, the way they shambled through the kudzu overgrowth was the most unnerving thing, unhindered by any of the rough landscape.
A third figure emerged in the growth to the far right of the other two—where from was unclear, appearing as if blinking into existence.
“I…” Shinji started to say something, but clamped his mouth shut hard enough that his teeth clattered. Despite the emaciated, rough appearance these things had, the inhuman detail they added to something that otherwise evoked human bodies made the teen remember things he would rather leave far, far behind.
Two more figures materialized in the gloom, and the first three approached now within a handful of meters from where the teens all stood, oddly transfixed.
“H-hello?” Issei said, looking to the things in earnest. He swallowed loudly to clear the stutter in his voice. “Can we help you?”
Faster than a pouncing animal, one was before the clustered students, a withered hand clawing at Ayako as if to rip off her face.
Simultaneous screams filled the quiet forest.
Kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it
Shiki Tohno winced at the sudden dizziness that swept over him. Thankfully, he was still seated, the little phone booth he had found offering a nice, leather chair from which he had been convalescing from lack of Ciel contact.
“Tohno-kun?” the voice on the other end of the phone intoned.
“I feel kinda sick,” he said.
Satsuki’s scream was louder than the rest—but not nearly as terrified.
The people from Fuyuki all dove away from the grasping hands thrust before them, fight-or-flight responses kicking into action before their intellectual minds could muster a clear thought. The girl among them leaped the furthest, screaming all the while, rolling into the dirt alongside the troublemaking boy. The one with glasses ducked in place, tucking his head beneath his arms as if taking cover under a school desk as was often taught in earthquake response.
All three missed the momentary change in atmosphere. Difficult to see in the dark, impossible to see when fearsome creatures are lunging like predators at them. Plants gave up their healthy color, the air went absolutely still, even the pressure changed within everyone’s lungs.
The creatures closest to the students crumbled to an ash-like dust.
The forms further back took pause, their inhuman expressions for one brief moment conveying very human confusion.
Arihiko was not watching the strange figures, however. The redhead was staring at a vacant space off the path and his eyes widened at some unseen sense of horror. “Run!” he shouted, taking off himself before he was even finished.
The three from Fuyuki seemed to take that in place of their nonfunctioning minds and took off in his wake. Satsuki waited for them to pass, peering out over the creatures that still remained.
For a split second, the girl’s expression became somehow more feral, more animalistic than the strange, revolting death masks the creatures wore.
Then she took off after her peers.
They ran deeper into the forest, deeper down the unused trail, deeper into the trees and bushes such that it seemed their only source of light was the flashlights some carried.
They were not alone. The death-mask-like beings were following, rustling the leaves and branches as they went yet somehow not seeming to touch the ground they passed over, like wind disturbing the forest in its passage through.
They tried screaming. Shouting for help. Waving their flashlights. Had they been on the main path, they would surely have been heard or seen by their others. Each step they made took them further from their fellows, however, and even before, merely a few dozen meters in, it had seemed like they were cut off more from the others somehow.
A creature just barely missed grabbing the Fuyuki girl by the ankles, diving past her in ambush. The earth where she had been flew up into the air, almost like a squib explosion.
One of the Fuyuki boys—the one with glasses—cut his face on a branch and knocked his spectacles askew. The girl kicked an upraised root and hissed in pain. Both kept up with the rest, even as Arihiko tore through the growth and paced them still faster.
“Is that a house?!” Satsuki shouted from the rear, sounding very relieved.
Up ahead, the others peered to where Arihiko led them, and just barely through the gloom and shadows they could make out the vaguely manmade shape.
“Maybe we can—” the troublemaking boy from Fuyuki spared a glance back and even in the darkness Satsuki could make out the whites of his eyes, “—shit shit shit, faster!”
The others followed his lead, looking over their shoulders to find the inhuman creatures still in pursuit, some of them now leaping from branches like swordsmen in Chinese wuxia film.
When they turned back, blood pumping fast enough for a second wind, the sight they beheld was not comforting. The building they had spied was now truly taking shape and it seemed only more unsettling than the creatures giving chase.
If there could be the encyclopedic entry for a haunted house, this would look right at home next to the entry. Not merely old and rotting, the two-story building seemed to lean to one side yet unnaturally stay erect. Two of the front windows seemed to be spilling kudzu or other vine plants outwards and in the gloom the flora gave off nearly human shadows, granting the face of the house the appearance of eyes crying hanging bodies. Parts of the roof appeared caved in, though no trees appeared over the building to suggest what had caused such damage. A fountain in front of the building, whether by design or happenstance had crumbled away such that the second tier of the feature no longer looked like a bowl and instead appeared like a Christian crucifix gravestone.
Even to Satsuki, such a thing was instantly unnerving, rising gooseflesh up her arms.
“Are you crazy?!” The Fuyuki girl hissed. “You want to run into that thing?”
“I’d rather find cover than get caught out in the open by one of those things!” Arihiko retorted. Just about the only thing about the house that did not look to be dying away were the double front doors, apparently made out of some rich wood that seemed untouched even from the distance they could view it from, and the boy was leading them straight for the entrance.
“We might find someone that can then call the proper authorities,” the one with glasses said. “Or at least shelter to regain our wits.” He seemed certain that there was some kind of explanation to the situation and that there would be an equally simple solution that would provide itself.
“My phone!” Satsuki gasped, fumbling for her pockets. She pulled the largest thing she had out and flipped it open—and her eyes dropped when she read what was on the screen.
She was about to raise that point when the wavy-haired troublemaker said, “Mine isn’t working.” He jammed the keys harder with his fingers. “Out of range my ass, you were working before!”
Satsuki bit her lip, suddenly reminded of a time and a promise she did not want to be reminded of at the moment.
“Inside!” Arihiko shouted, ignoring whatever situation the others were bringing up. He was already breaking out into the courtyard-like space between trees and building, rounding the fountain.
The others followed, whether they thought it a good idea or not. To their left, one of those creatures broke from the tree line as well and charged straight for them.
Satsuki didn’t know what the others saw—or if they were paying attention at all, even, as more rustled the forest noisily behind them. The death-like creature swept across the courtyard and made for one of the Fuyuki boys, but out of nowhere the tiny girl spirit that had been with Arihiko all evening appeared, galloping across the courtyard from the opposite side on all fours. She body-checked the dead figure and sent it sprawling, and Satsuki thought the noise following behind her suddenly went quiet, unsure.
Arihiko made it to the building doors, wrenching one side open when he found it was unlocked. The three from Fuyuki dove in the moment he had it wide enough, and Satsuki followed when she saw the spirit-girl get up and make for the doors as well.
Within, a very Western-styled house that reminded Satsuki of the one time she had been allowed to visit the Tohno estate, though not nearly as opulent or maintained. While a large staircase was immediately evident in the foyer they found themselves in, Satsuki could not make out any decorations—just plain, antiseptic walls.
Arihiko shoved the door closed behind them, and for a moment the only noise was the sound of panting as the teens all tried to regain their breath.
Then a violent shudder struck the door, flinging it partially open and throwing Arihiko to the floor.
Satsuki fell to her knees to grab for the boy, and the Fuyuki students all flinched, then scrambled over to the door—
Despite the horror movie-expectation to have those things grasping and groping for them just beyond the ajar door, nothing was there. The Fuyuki girl was the one to cautiously peek out at an angle to look about, but nothing but an empty porch and courtyard met her gaze.
Which seemed to suit her just fine, as the girl then pulled the door closed again and setting the latch there to lock.
Again, no sound but harsh breathing. Arihiko, along with the Fuyuki girl and the boy with glasses all then waved their flashlights around to get a better look at their surroundings.
“Freaked out now, good job Tohsaka,” the Fuyuki girl said.
It was at this point that all three flashlights went out, simultaneously, flickering once before snuffing out completely in a synchronized moment, stranding them in the pitch black.
“We’re so going to die,” Arihiko said from the floor.
To be continued.
Last edited by Arashi_Leonhart; October 7th, 2013 at 11:22 PM.
Localizationing stuff
YESSSSS
Linger: Complete. August, 1995. I met him. A branch off Part 3. Mikiya keeps his promise to meet Azaka, and meets again with that mysterious girl he once found in the rain.
Shinkai: Set in the Edo period. DHO-centric. As mysterious figures gather in the city, a young woman unearths the dark secrets of the Asakami family.
The Dollkeeper: A Fate side-story. The memoirs of the last tuner of the Einzberns. A record of the end of a family.
Overcount 2030: Extra x Notes. A girl with no memories is found by a nameless soldier, and wakes up to a world of war.
Interesting. Are the things that were pursuing them from Japanese mythology?
And interesting about Satsuki. Is she more supernatural here then she lets on, other than seeing Nanako I mean? Was the whole turning the creature into ash something from her or Nanako?
Last edited by warellis; September 8th, 2013 at 05:55 PM.
Not read the update yet so I can't say for sure until I can properly give it some thought but I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts it's an application of Depletion Garden destroying magical energies.
My Fanfics. Read 'em. Or not.McJon01: We all know that the real reason Archer would lose to Rider is because the events of his own Holy Grail War left him with a particular weakness toward "older sister" types.
^
And no, they're not taken out of Japanese mythology, they're actually based on surrealist art. There's a very specific reason in fact that nothing is Japanese.
Localizationing stuff
Dis shit be too good.
I have been waiting for this chapter for months. Your sig only seemed to tease me about its existence. Now it is here.
I am of the personal belief that the Tsukihime Remake is two years from release. It will remain as such until a release date is announced, at which time its actual release date is 6 months after that date.
That whatever created them isn't Japanese?
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