The Price of Survival (crossover)

[Muramasa]

Also, sorry for not updating last week, real life got in the way. To make up for it I will be uploading two chapters this week, you can expect the next one on friday.

Well?

[NewAgeOfPower]

Well?

No need to be annoying.

[mAc Chaos]

Yeah, no need for entitlement.

[Muramasa]

No need to be annoying.

Sure there is. You shouldn't make promises you can't keep.

[mAc Chaos]

There is nothing stopping him from just quitting writing because it's not fun anymore too. Then you get 0 chapters.

Although if he does have another chapter ready to go then I'm curious to see it.

[PhoenixAct]

Chapter VI - Fractured




Ayako’s eyes slowly slid open and even through the dull haze of sleep she could immediately feel that something was off. Then her eyes snapped wide as realisation struck her, she sprang off of the bed and on to her feet. Damn it, she had fallen asleep! She cursed herself under her breath. The sunlight drifting in through the open window was a deep orange, so she guessed she’d slept for a couple of hours. On a normal day that would be only a couple of hours, but in their current situation two seconds could be the difference between life and death. Her partner was certainly in no condition to be fighting anyone.

A quick glance around the room was enough to let her know what her gut had been trying to tell her, when she had just been waking up. Tohsaka was no longer in the room and the door was standing open. Although surely if someone had forced there way in the noise they made would have woken her up, and why would an enemy take Tohsaka and leave her alone? Still, she wasn’t about to take any chances, she picked up her bow and quiver from where she had laid them and headed for the door.

When she reached the door there was a sudden explosion of noise as someone screamed and she recognised Tohsaka’s voice immediately. Instantly she picked up the pace, bolting out of the room and taking the steps down two at a time. She had been wrong to let anyone get this close to them, even Emiya.

She reached the kitchen door and found it slightly ajar. She took a second to catch her breath and ready an arrow in her bow. Then she raised her foot and kicked the door open, it crashed against the wall with a resounding boom. Inside she saw Emiya backed up against the wall and Tohsaka almost looming over him despite her size.

At first Ayako’s mind jumped to what might be considered the natural conclusion; that there had been a fight and that Tohsaka was somehow winning. Just before she released her arrow however her mind noted a couple of things, first was that Emiya hadn’t drawn his sword. Secondly, although she had him cornered Rin wasn’t going for the kill, not literally anyway. She didn’t lower her bow however.

As soon as the door had opened both heads turned to look at her.

“Mitsuzuri?” Tohsaka said.

“Tohsaka,” she replied. “What’s going on?”

“Oh,” Tohsaka answered, apparently just realising what the scene could look like. “Emiya and I just had a little bit of a disagreement.” She walked away from the cowering boy, who seemed to be quickly regaining his cool now that Tohsaka’s wrath wasn’t being aimed at him.

“A disagreement?” she echoed, lowering her bow now that there seemed to be no actual danger. “What about?”

“Emiya thinks we should go around the island trying to round up what remains of our class,” she answered with a frown that told Ayako exactly what she thought of that idea.

“Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing anyway?” she asked, knowing that couldn’t be it but wanting clarification.

“Emiya thinks we can get out of this mess by working together,” Tohsaka replied. “He wants to us to go around trying to convince our classmates of that.”

“This whole situation is wrong,” he said. “We have to try to keep any more people from dying. I’m sure we can get them to listen.”

“I… I’m not so sure about that Emiya,” she replied.

The first thing that crossed her mind was the student they had encountered just outside the clinic, the one who had attempted to charge them down with a hatchet. If any of the others were like that then they would prove impossible to persuade. It was true that they’d only run across two people and Matou had had a rotten attitude even in regular, everyday life, so she couldn’t say for certain. However, a lot of people were dead already, so a few of the members of their class had to have given in to this madness.

She saw Emiya open his mouth to argue and she cut his off.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “It’d be great if it worked. But everyone seems to be willing to attack each other at first sight.”

“I’m certain we can make them listen!” he said and Ayako almost sighed, she was wondering if he even had any sort of plan.

“What about these,” she asked, fingering the collar around her neck. It was something she didn’t like thinking about, because it was a reminder that sooner or later she and Tohsaka would have to try and kill each other.

“As long as we have these on, then only one of us can make it out of here alive,” she pointed out.

He simply smiled at her.

“Ah,” he said, a grin sprouting on his face. “I think we might have a way to deal with those.”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Tohsaka release an exasperated sigh and begin massaging her temples. However, she felt a little hope began to bubble up inside her despite herself, if he had an idea then she wanted to hear it. Still part of her, a large part of her, insisted that it was too good to be true.

“Oh?” she asked. “How?”

She grin slipped from his face, and she felt that doubtful part of her grow stronger.

“I can’t say,” he muttered.

Sure enough the hope she had felt dissolved faster than it had formed, and she found herself feeling disappointed but not surprised. She did however, feel incredulous. He “couldn’t say”, really? He expected her to buy that? Maybe he was telling the truth, it was Emiya after all, but to her it just seemed really suspicious. Moreover, was that what he was planning to tell the others when he found them, that he “couldn’t say” how he was planning to get them all home alive? She wondered whether this might be some attempt at setting a trap, or whether he might want to use them as human shields against the others or something. She would never have believed Emiya could be so devious, but she’d never imagined that she would ever have to fight for her life against her classmates either.

She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. In the end it came down to the fact that she wasn’t sure if she could trust Emiya and his dodgy explanation wasn’t persuading her otherwise.

“And what then?” Tohsaka spat out, before she could form a response. “Are you planning to rally everyone and go toe to toe with all those soldiers?

Ayako felt her stomach sink even further, those were two very good points. Emiya looked at her with an odd expression that almost looked like it was at once both imploring and defiant. Again she shrugged and sighed.

“I’m sorry, Emiya,” she said. “But if you can’t tell me what your plan is, I don’t know if I can trust you.”

With that said she turned away from him and began back towards the bedroom, Tohsaka following behind.

- - -

Shinji had been feeling unusually hot since he had gotten up that morning. After eating he’d checked underneath his makeshift bandages and saw angry, red lines spreading out from where that butch archery bitch had hit him. He’d forced himself not to panic, he was already planning to kill everyone on this island, this just meant he’d have to do it a bit faster. And if he was quick enough with the others he’d still be able to take his time with the ones who had done this to him. The images the thought created in his imagination helped to keep his mood up.

He had a new weapon tucked in to his belt; a tanto and he still had his handgun with its two remaining bullets tucked in a the small of his back. He had found it that morning beneath the body of its previous owner, who was hanging by his neck from a tree branch, with what looked like his own belt as a rope. It wasn’t a fresh corpse either, the guy must have hung himself almost as soon as the game started. Pathetic. Still, it was just as well, the guy didn’t deserve to survive any longer than that if he was so weak-willed.

As the morning wore on he started to feel a dull thudding in his head. Shit, he was starting to get a headache; goddamn heat.

He took a swig of water and looked about for somewhere he could get out of the heat. It was then that he spotted the roof a building through a gap in the trees. It looked like it might belong to a temple or something like that. With a shrug he put the bottle of water away and headed straight for it.

As he drew closer he could sounds that let him know someone was already there. Carefully, silently he lay his bag on the ground and slid it in to the bushes. The he drew his knew weapon and began to creep forward.

- - -

Yukika had already made two kills that morning, two students who had picked the seemingly vacant temple as a place of refuge. Perhaps they’d picked this place deliberately off of the map, or maybe they’d stumbled across it through a mix of random chance and bad luck? Either way, the end result was the same.

There had been one of each; a guy and a girl. Yukika hadn’t recognised the guy but she had recognised the girl. Ai, was her name, she was a bit of a bully, picking on other girls, including Yukika once or twice when neither Kane-chan nor Makidera were around; however, Kane-chan and Makidera where with her all the time now, so Yukika didn’t need to be afraid of Ai anymore. She was pretty though, Yukika would give her that and she was using it to her advantage, since the boy seemed to be acting like a bodyguard.

The boy was definitely the more dangerous of the two, his build said he had to be some kind of athlete and he was carrying a shotgun. Ai hadn’t looked to be armed at all. Maybe she’d gotten a joke weapon? Or maybe he had and she’d given him the shotgun so he could protect her properly? Or maybe she’d had a smaller weapon hidden somewhere?

In the end he hadn’t been a very good bodyguard. He’d gone in to the temple first to make sure it was safe, leaving Ai alone outside. Yukika had found it easy to sneak up on him, covering his mouth and slitting his throat before he’d had time to react. His death wasn’t instantaneous and he gurgled for a few seconds as he continued trying to draw breath, then fell silent. She felt nothing over it.

The dangerous one gone, she’d stepped outside. Ai had taken one look at her, blood on her clothes, knife in her hands and froze like a startled rabbit for just a second. Then she ran. Ai had been fast but Yukika had been faster, it had taken her a matter of seconds to catch her, tackling her from behind and pinning her to the ground.

Now she’d just finished dumping the boy’s body next to Ai’s (she didn’t want it stinking up her shrine, after all) and returned to her sanctuary. As she set foot on the step leading up towards the door, a chill had ran down her spine, it was like she could feel someone watching her. She froze and strained her ears, listening to her environment. She was only silence and started moving again when she heard it behind her, the sound of feet on dry, packed earth.

Immediately her knife was out and she spun around, just in time to see the glint of steel coming at her. She ducked, rolled to the side away from the entrance to the temple and then turned to face whoever had attacked her. She felt her blood boil at the sight of him, it was Matou Shinji and she realised now that he had the same profile as someone who had attacked them before. The same profile as the one who had hurt Kane-chan and Makidera.

He had a knife too, although it was in a Japanese style, compared to her western-style one. She heard Kane-chan whisper in her ear to look at his other arm, so she did. It was just hanging by side, and it had blood-stained, white cloth wrapped around his forearm. When Kane-chan whispered something else she noted his skin was strangely flushed and he was sweating quite heavily.

For moment everything was still. Then Makidera yelled in her ear and she sprang forward, thrusting her knife at his chest. There was a clang of steel on steel as he managed to deflect the attack with his own blade and then slashed at her throat. She ducked beneath it and then rose again quickly, aiming the tip of her knife seeking out at the underside of his chin. He skipped backwards to avoid it and she pressed her advantage, springing forward and slashing her arm down. He stumbled to the side and then thrust his blade forward and she repeated his trick and batted it away with her own weapon. Then she slugged him in the face with her free hand.

He staggered back a few steps and glare he threw her when he recovered was murderous. A couple of days ago a look like that would have made her quail in fear, now it did nothing. He’d also dropped his weapon, it now lay in the dirt between them.

She charged at him and he dodged again. However, then he lashed out his foot, striking the back of her legs and knocking them out from under her. On her way down she lost her grip on her own knife. She scrambled back to her feet and suddenly there was a deathly tight, constricting pressure around her throat, Shinji’s arm was wrapped around her neck. She brought her hands up to try and pry herself free but it was no use, his grip was too tight. She could feel the sickly heat radiating off of him and he whispered something but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. However, she heard Makdera when she whispered to her again. She reached down with one hand, grabbed hold of his balls and squeezed. He howled in pain and suddenly she was free. She ducked and scooped up her knife again, before rushing to put some distance between them so she could catch her breath.

If his glare was murderous before she didn’t have the words to describe the raw hatred that burned in them now. She prepared herself for whatever he might try to do next, when suddenly several loud cracks pierced the air and something kicked up dirt on the ground between them.

- - -

Issei heard the noise of fighting not long after stumbling across those two bodies, on guy and one girl. Both had been viciously killed, the male’s throat had been torn open and the girl’s white blouse had been dyed crimson.

He’d crept forward slowly and had arrived at the scene just in time to see Matou attempting to strangle a female student he vaguely recognised, a timid thing that barely said anything. For a moment he was at a loss, he wanted to do something but he was no expert with guns and he was almost certain to hit both of them. Then the girl managed to free herself and scramble away.

It crossed his mind then that Matou might be responsible for the students he had just passed. Certainly, he could easily imagine being one of the first to give in to the madness that was the BR Act.

Now that he had opening he fired a warning shot between them, careful to only keep the trigger down for a second. Now that he had their attention he stepped out of his hiding place, making sure to keep his weapon trained squarely on Matou the entire time. He stepped over to the girl and said:

“You may wish to leave.”

The girl hesitated for only a second before complying, scampering off in to the forest like startled deer.

When she was gone he turned back to Matou, regarding him with contempt. Even in regular, civilised life he had had a rotten attitude but right now he even looked crazy with that mad-eyed stare.

“I have nothing to say to you Matou, except,” he said. “Goodbye.”

However, before he could pull the trigger the other boy charged him, knocking both of them to the floor. The gun still went off but the bullets when harmlessly in to the dirt nearby. Matou pinned him to the ground and punched him in the face, send pain shooting through Issei’s head and causing colours to erupt in his vision. He responded by whipping the end of his gun across Matou’s face, sending him sprawling in to the dirt.

He rolled to the side and rolled in to a kneeling position, aimed at Matou and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, instead of a series of harsh cracks, there was only a dry click. Suddenly on the verge of a panic he cast his eyes about for anything he could use as weapon and saw the sun being reflected off of something nearby. He scrambled over and snatched it up but then he heard another click. He glanced up and saw Matou with his own gun pointed directly at him.

Issei felt his blood freeze in his veins and faced with no other choice he turned and fled back among the trees. Although he didn’t hear any gunshots he kept running until his legs felt like jelly beneath him, then collapsed in to the overgrowth. Well, that didn’t quite go as planned.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

AN: Chapter six up! Sorry for not getting this to you guys on Friday like I said I would.

[PhoenixAct]

Chapter VII – Catch Your Breath





The rest of that second morning was oddly domestic.

It started with the two of them sitting at the kitchen table together, eating their “breakfast”. The morning update had already sounded a little more than two hours ago. The death count was now up to twenty-seven and three more danger zones had been added to the map. Emiya had already left not too long ago, determined to find others on the island and convince them to stop fighting each other. They had argued long and hard about it before he had departed; an argument that was not helped by the fact that hunger was now their constant companion.

Rin frowned as she swallowed her water. Some of the things Emiya had said before he’d left … she hoped he didn’t have any ideas about sending people back this way. She and Mitsuzuri had told him repeatedly that in the given situation, other people just presented a greater danger. He seemed convinced after the talk they had had early that morning, that there was a way out of this. All she had was an idea, and it wasn’t even an idea that he could tell other people about. That’s even assuming any of the remaining students would even be willing to stop and talk.

“Hey Tohsaka, you all right?” asked Mitsuzuri, briefly interrupting her thoughts.

There was part of the motivation for her to actually try and bring her idea to fruition. If she could get Mitsuzuri out of here alive, then that would make them even. Of course, the tricky part would be explaining what she was doing, without actually explaining what she was doing. The other part was because this “game” was a travesty. It was true that being a magus was to walk with death, but that was in pursuit of something; it had a point, it had a purpose. This was just a meaningless waste of life perpetrated by a corrupt government, who were trying to re-establish the control they were quickly losing.

“Tohsaka,” said Mitsuzuri again. “You okay there? You kinda just spent the last several minutes staring in to space.”

“Rin,” she replied without thinking.

“Eh?”

Oh well, might as well go through with it now, right?

“You saved my life twice yesterday,” she answered. “So … just call me Rin,”

“Ah, well, I couldn’t just leave you to die, you know?” she replied.

“…You may have to eventually,”

A heavy silence hung in the air between them, until Mitsuzuri eventually broke it.

“Wow, you know how to bring a girl’s mood down, Rin-chan.” Replied Mitsuzuri with a bitter smile, then she frowned. “Heh, that sounded weird. Rin-chan, Rin-san? That’s gonna take some getting used to.”

“You can drop the honorific too, if you want,” she said. Then the other girl leaned forward and for one wild moment Rin thought she was going to kiss her; but instead she simply pressed their foreheads together.

“Eh, M-Mitsuzuri, what are you doing?!” she asked. This close she could see the teasing light in her partner’s eyes and found herself unable to look away.

“Just checking you don’t have a fever,” she answered. “Hmm that’s strange, completely normal. Well if I’m gonna be using your name I guess you better start using mine too.”

“Really?”

“Well yeah. It’d be kinda awkward to call you Rin, only for you to keep calling me “Mitsuzuri”.”

“Very well then, Ayako-san,” Rin said.

Again there was an awkward silence between the two of them. With nothing to say she went back to studying her map, which was a futile exercise, there was no more real intelligence to be gained from it. Plus, it would make it much easier to study the potential solution to their predicament if she was able to stay in a single location.

“So what do you think we should do next?” she asked Mitsu – Ayako.

“Honestly, I think we should stay where we are for a while,” came the reply.

“We don’t really have much time,” she responded. Although that would keep them out of the sun, which would mean they wouldn’t get quite so thirsty and would allow them to preserve their water more. She was curious as to why Ayako had had the same idea as her, it couldn’t be for the same reason after all.

“I know,” Ayako sighed. “But we don’t actually know where any of the others are, we could easily get caught in another ambush and with your leg the way it is… And since we’re on the subject, we should probably let your leg rest for a bit longer anyway and – oh yeah…”

“Hm? What is it Mi – Ayako?”

“I’ve got to change you bandages.”

“Wait, what?”

“Well, I think you’re supposed to change a person’s bandages every so often, to stop them dirtying the wound or something. I figure we should be extra careful with that, seeing as everything on this island looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in years.”

Rin considered her statement. She could fight against any potential infection with her magecraft but she would have to split her attention between that and her current project. If she tried to brush it off Ayako may just become more insistent, the archer had a stubborn streak in her. That said, she didn’t need the girl to attend to her, she didn’t want to become too reliant on her friend.

“That’s fine, I can do it myself,” she finally answered, but Ayako just frowned at her. “What?”

“Really? You think you can wrap the bandages on properly by yourself? And even if you can, it would be easier just to have another person help you out. You can relax, I’ve already seen your underwear after all. Although, black panties Rin? Were you planning something for this little field trip?”

Rin tried but she couldn’t stop the heat that rushed to her face. The grin that spread over Ayako’s face only confirmed her fear that her face had likely turned a bright red.

“O-of course it wasn’t anything like that, they’re just comfortable,” she responded. “Really Ayako, you need to pull your head out of the gutter.” Despite her retort the victorious grin didn’t leave her friend’s face.

“Whatever you say Rin,” she said, grabbing one of the magus’ arms and placing it over her shoulders. “Now let’s go deal with those bandages.”

“I can walk by myself, you know?” she said, with as much dignity as she could muster.

“Yeah, whatever. You should really learn to let other people help sometimes. Now quiet or I’ll carry you.”

So with Ayako’s help Rin limped up the stairs and back in to the bedroom, their maps folded up in one hand. Once she was lying down on the bed, Ayako pulled out their bags from where they’d been hidden beneath the bed and began rummaging around for what she wanted; which she produced with a flourish and a victorious grin. As she set to unwrapping the old bandages she placed one hand against the inside of Rin’s thigh, presumably to keep the leg steady or something. If this caused Rin’s skin to start tingling, it was only because of where Ayako’s hand was; it was only natural when someone else’s hand was that close to … certain areas of the body. And if she was blushing, again it was only because of the proximity of her partner’s hand to the aforementioned regions of her body.

“Well,” said Ayako, as the bandages fell to the floor, mercifully distracting Rin from her own thoughts. “It hasn’t turned green or anything, that’s a good sign, right?”

“Yeah,” Rin agreed.

“Right!” Ayako said, clapping her hands. “I’m not really sure if we have to, but maybe it would be best if we applied more anti-septic?”

The medicine stung as it went on, although not so bad as last time, and Rin couldn’t help hissing in pain. Still it faded quickly enough, even if it didn’t disappear entirely, she could take it.

“Okay, now the bandages,” her impromptu nurse stated.

Though in reality it probably only took Ayako a matter of minutes to wrap some fresh bandages around her leg, it felt much longer to Rin as the girl’s hands moved lightly across her thigh. Eventually how ever it was done and the petite magus could breath easy again.

“There!” pronounced Ayako, leaning back and admiring her handiwork.

“Thanks,” Rin mumbled, deliberately avoiding looking at her friend as she said it.

“No problem,” Ayako replied, as she packed the medical supplies away again and returned the bags to their hiding place. “So, you feeling good Rin?”

She almost blushed again, as her mind offered her an interpretation of the sentence that Ayako almost definitely had not intended.

“I’m fine,” she answered. “Although, I think I’ll stay here and rest for a bit.”

“Yeah sure,” Ayako shrugged, then she sat down on the floor, leaning her back against the edge of the bed. “We already said we aren’t leaving here today, right?”

There was a silence between the two of them, yet oddly enough it didn’t make Rin feel at all uncomfortable. It was sort of nice, actually. Normally to her, silence meant a sort of isolation and this sort of comfortable, companionable quiet was a new experience. Inevitably though, as the seconds ticked by with the two of them doing nothing, Rin began to get bored. Then she began to get agitated; if she could just convince Ayako to leave the room somehow, then she could begin to see if her rudimentary plan to save the both of them was actually worth anything.

“I wonder how my family’s doing,” Ayako said, suddenly.

“Pardon?”

“My family, you know my mum and dad, I wonder if they even know I’m out here?” she clarified.

“I don’t know,” Rin replied. Although she did know in truth, the government always informed the families of the students chosen to participate in the battle royal, although not until they were on the boat. She just hoped Ayako’s parents hadn’t raised too much of a fuss over it, for their sake and their daughter’s.

“What about you Tohsaka?” Ayako asked.

“What about me?”

“Your parents?”

“Dead,” she replied simply. This felt kind of awkward to her, nobody had ever asked about her private life before, she’d never let anybody close enough. In fact, she wasn’t sure why she hadn’t just shut Ayako’s line of questioning down already.

“Oh, crap … err, sorry?” Ayako mumbled.

“Don’t worry about it, it was a while ago,”

“I’ve got a little brother as well,” Ayako said, in an obvious attempt to move past the awkwardness. Rin felt a chill run through her at this new turn in the conversation.

“He’s a year younger than me and he joined the archery club too when he started high school,” Ayako continued. “He’s kind of a pain in the ass but, I’m still sort of glad it’s me here and not him.”

“I wouldn’t know about that,” she answered. “I don’t have any siblings … but I think I can imagine what you mean.”

“Wait a second, are you serious Rin?” Ayako asked, turning her head to face her. “You’re seriously telling me you have no one, it’s just you alone, in that big house?”

“Well,” Rin answered. “There is one guy who’s officially my guardian but he only checks in on me every now and then. So I am by myself pretty much all of the time.”

“Wow, that sounds like a really irresponsible guardian. You’re life’s starting to sound like a T.V. drama.”

“He is irresponsible,” Rin confirmed. And I’m going to murder him, when we get out of here, she added in her head.

“Hey Tohsaka, you feeling alright? You kinda just got this weird look on your face,” Ayako asked her her, moving in close and making Rin nervous at the proximity, as she remembered the way the other girl had “taken her temperature” mere minutes earlier.

“Yeah, I’m fi – “ Suddenly there was a light pressure on her lips. It was only there for the briefest moment; one second there was a pair of lips pressed against her own and the next there wasn’t.

For a moment she couldn’t move, she just stared at the girl who had kissed her, the girl who right now, looked to have surprised herself just as much as she had surprised Rin. Ayako’s mouth was hanging open slightly, her eyes so wide they looked to have grown and her cheeks as red as Rin’s felt. She looked for all the world, like she had been the one who had just been caught by a surprise kiss, rather than the other way around. Rin tried to say something, to ask what she thought she was doing, but her mouth just came out with a bunch of incoherent babble. It was Ayako who managed to recover herself first.

“Oh sh – sorry,” she stumbled over her words. “I’m er … just gonna go to the top of the lighthouse and keep a lookout. I’ll be up there if you need anything,” after saying that she almost tripped over herself trying to rush out of the room in a hurried walk.

Rin just continued to sit there on the edge of the bed for a few moments, staring at the door. She raised a hand to her lips, on which she could still feel the warmth of the other girl’s breath. What the hell!? Why the hell had Mitsuz – Ayako just kissed her out of the blue like that? Not that it had felt unpleasant or anything. The fact that it was her first kiss didn’t really bother her at all, she just hadn’t expected it to be taken by a girl. What was troubling was the fact that it wasn’t troubling, did that mean she swung that way? Hm, well she had been attracted to guys in the past too, so she couldn’t be completely of that persuasion. Not that she’d really have a problem with herself if she did, beyond the obvious.

She shook her head and forced those thoughts down, they weren’t the most important thing right now. Instead she tried to focus on something more significant, she’d wanted some time alone so that she could work on her plan and here it was.

Even before she thought about what she could do, Rin could see a big flaw in her plan. In order to achieve it, she might need to reveal the existence of the moonlit world to Ayako and if that happened the enforcers of the Clock Tower would probably end up coming after them eventually. On the other hand, it was a certainty that one of them would die here if she didn’t try something.

She closed her eyes and placed her fingertips against the cool metal of the collar around her throat. She had to concentrate hard, structural analysis was not her strong point, in fact most traditional magi considered it almost worthless and thus had little practice in it. Yet thanks to information Emiya had provided her with, she was able to grasp more detail and faster than she otherwise would have, because she already knew some of what to expect. However, that was really very little help, even with everything she had been told she wasn’t able to see all the details of how it worked. The device was just too complicated, there was no way that she would be able to take it apart with any real amount of precision.

That said, she wasn’t prepared to give up after just five minutes, not with so much at stake. So she couldn’t gather as much detail as Emiya, they didn’t even have a real idea of how they were going to take the thing apart yet anyway. Perhaps if she worked more generally, if instead of trying to pick it apart piece by piece, maybe if she could just get a generally understanding of how it worked? Well electricity and water were right out, they’d told them right from the start that it was both shock-proof and water resistant. If it wasn’t fastened around their throats she would have just pumped it full of her prana until it couldn’t take anymore; the problem was that method tended to have somewhat explosive results. Then again, if it wasn’t fasten around their throats it wouldn’t be an issue in the first place.

Although … perhaps she could do it the opposite way, instead of reinforcing it to the point of destruction she could compromise its structural integrity instead? As far as she knew though converting matter in to energy and then draining it was impossible. So what if she tried to impose the concept of “fragilty” or something on to it; or maybe there was another way of weakening it without having to physically take away from it?

She needed something to write on. She grabbed her bag and took out her map and turned it over on to the blank, white reverse, then she grabbed her pencil and immediately began to write. After a moment she paused before plunging one hand in to the pocket of her waistcoat and pulling out a smaller, brown sack. She tipped it upside down on top of her notes and eight small, scarlet gems fell out on to the paper. She needed to take in to account all of her possible resources before she attempted to make any plans. She examined each of the gems carefully before placing them back inside the sack.

After that she began to think, occasionally putting pencil to paper to jot down ideas and formulae that would make no sense to most people. Assuming their start time to have been at midnight, she had just over a day and a half to come up with something good.

- - -

Shirou trudge through the overgrowth, the new hope he felt having renewed his strength. He had never known that Tohsaka of all people was a magus, never would have even considered the thought, but that didn’t matter right now. What did matter was that he had been right in his earlier thought, that someone with greater skill in magecraft might be able to do something about the devices around their necks. Now there was a chance for him to save everyone who was left alive on this island, finally he could put an end to this ridiculous game.

Despite his renewed vigor though, the heat was still difficult to deal with, if anything it might be hotter than yesterday.

Right now he was attempting to find someone in particular, although he had no real idea on how to track people in the wilderness, so he had just picked a direction and prayed that he was right. He had also deliberately chosen to head in the direction of where he had last seen the person he was looking for. Since most of the killing seemed to centre around the woods his nerves grew as he got further in, figuring that that was where most of the survivors would be hiding out … or waiting in ambush. He wasn’t a complete idiot he knew that anyone still alive at this point would likely be very quick to go for their weapons, because of that he crept along making his footsteps as soft as possible.

It was at that point that he heard crunching sound of footsteps behind him. He spun around but made sure to keep his hands as far away from his sword as possible, he was here to try and make peace, he didn’t want to appear aggressive and accidently provoke a confrontation. He saw no one but he did hear the footsteps again. Slowly, softly he crept towards them, keeping as low as he could; he wanted to appear peaceful but it would not mean much if they killed him before he could talk to them. He leaned up against a tree and peaked his head out around the corner. He saw someone moving through the woods in the exact way he had, half-crouched and paying a lot of attention to the movement of their feet. And it was exactly the person he had wanted to find.

“Issei!” he called, stepping out from behind the tree.

His friend spun, raising his weapon and Shirou ducked back behind the tree, just in case he pulled the trigger. When no shots came however, he stepped back out in to the open.

“You again, Emiya?” Issei said. “I see you still haven’t learned, you managed to sneak up on me and could have killed me easily, yet you didn’t. Well, I am grateful for that.”

“Yeah well, thanks for not shooting me,”

“I probably would have, if this weapon still had any ammunition left,”

“Why are you still carrying it, if it has no bullets left?”

“While it may no longer be of any use for fighting,” Issei answered. “It is still useful for scaring people and stopping them in their tracks, thus preventing them from killing me. Like you, for example.”

“I already told you, I have no intention of killing anyone,” Shirou replied, trying to inject some iron in to his voice.

“Still talking like that, Emiya,” Issei responded, chuckling in a way that was equal parts amused and exasperated. “You will have to eventually I’m afraid, although I am surprised you got this far without taking anyone’s life.”

“Actually, this time we have a plan,” Shirou said.

“A plan?” Issei snorted. “I admit myself a little intrigued, very well what is it?”

“I can’t say here,” Shirou responded, shaking his head, Issei still had his microphone uncovered after all. “Do you know where the lighthouse is?”

“I have seen it on the map,”

“Head there, Tohsaka and Mitsuzuri are there already they should be able to explain some of it to you,” he said. “I’ll be going back there once it starts getting dark.”

“Tohsaka is…?” Issei mumbled seemingly to himself, before going silent for several seconds.

“Issei?” Shirou asked.

“Very well, I will head there immediately,” he responded eventually. “Thank you for informing me Emiya.”

“No problem,” Shirou replied, as for the second time he watched his friend turn and walk off in to the woods.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

AN:​ So, chapter seven. Opinions?

[dragon20990]

Oh Shirou...your naivety is going to get everyone killed. Hopefully Issei will appreciate Tohsaka's more realistic POV before his anger gets the best of him.

[mAc Chaos]

I hope they don't try to kill each other.

[NewAgeOfPower]

*Gendo Ikari Pose*

Issei and Tohsaka. Excellent.

[Muramasa]

*facepalm* Shirou, you idiot.

[Lycodrake]

*facepalm* Shirou, you idiot.

He's an idealist stuck in a situation where idealism really doesn't help; where idealism only seems foolish or stupid.

[kay4today]

Oh man, I'm looking forward to the Issei/Tohsaka team-up! I always thought Issei disliked her, but look at how eager he is to see her now! Surely he realized that Shirou has a plan and they will now fight together and survive as a team. With the power of friendship!

[biigoh]

Shirou... you IDIOT!

[Ergast]

Well, after the next chapter, Rin may be a tad angry with Shirou. And I mean gandr rain tad of angry. That or he will claim his first blood in Issei's body. That works too.

[dragon20990]

We're most likely going to find a dead Issei in the next few chapters. Any chance that Shirou is slowly developing his "mind of steel"?

[PhoenixAct]

Chapter VIII – The Second Day






The midday update had been and gone and two more people had died. Although Ayako couldn’t remember how long ago it had been broadcast but it must have been hours by this point. She supposed she should be more troubled by the fact that the announcement of the deaths of her classmates didn’t disturb her like it once did, nor did the sound of the priest’s deep, soul-crushing voice disquiet her in the way it once had. However, in all honesty she was just relieved that she and Tohsaka were still alive at this point and the priest did still inspire some emotion in her, mostly anger. She could always hear in his voice a sense of smug amusement and she could imagine the smirk on his lips, she would like nothing better than to beat the cockiness out of him.

Her mood was not improved any by the pain in her hip. Last night she had been able to carry Rin no problem but after waking this morning it had been one of the first things she’d felt. It hurt constantly now, a dull ache and when she walked it protested a little sending a small, throbbing pain through her. She’d pulled her skirt down a little when she’d been alone to check and like she’d predicted, there had been a large, dark bruise on her hip. Still she wasn’t going to complain; Rin had taken an arrow just above her knee after all. Frankly, if she got out of this hell with just that bruise, she’d count herself extremely lucky.

Ayako stood atop the lighthouse, leaning against the railings, keeping a watch over the edge of the woods and the main body of the island in general. She could see a fair distance from up here and felt confident that she would be able to spot trouble before it reached them. It had an added benefit in that, while it allowed her to see all around, it didn’t leave her too exposed to anybody on the ground below.

The heat today was just as bad as yesterday, if not worse and she was sweating profusely once more, causing her clothes to once again start sticking to her. She was spared the previous day’s exhaustion thanks to the fact that she was not hiking through the woods. That and if the heat began to get too much for her, she could just duck back inside for a few moments to cool off. So far the only real problem she had had was the glare of the afternoon sun; since the rest of the island was to the west sometimes when she looked that way the sun would obscure her vision.

She was aware that she had been up here well past what people may consider her fair share of time, but she felt no inclination to go down and get the other girl to take a turn. For a start Rin was injured and could use all the rest she could get, besides with that injury, she didn’t like her chances of getting down those stairs quickly in the event of an emergency. She didn’t think she could look Rin straight in the eye right now anyway.

However, since not much seemed to be happening boredom inevitably began to set in and other thoughts began to intrude. Well, actually it was only one thought and it was the same thought she’d been having every ten minutes or so since she had climbed up here. It was a thought that gave her a really intense desire to kick herself.

Why the hell had she kissed Tohsaka!?

Seriously she had no idea why she’d done it. She only been leaning in to take her temperature and it had only been a joke, since she taken her temperature already mere minutes earlier. She’d even intended to use her hand rather than her forehead, since that had felt so incredibly awkward the first time. But as she’d drawn closer she’d felt a sudden, strong impulse and without even thinking she’d acted on it. She been tempted to go further too, to deepen it but thankfully, before she could she’d regained her senses.

Why had she even felt that impulse in the first place? It wasn’t natural was it, to want to kiss someone of the same sex like that? Moreover, why had she liked it? Because she had definitely liked it, there was no doubt of that. The jolt of electricity that had shot down her spine, the feeling of warmth on her lips and the way her skin tingled just to remember it. Yeah, she had liked kissing Rin very much but that was the problem, wasn’t it?

With a growl she forced those thoughts down yet again, this was neither the time nor the place to be thinking of things like that. She would have plenty of time to sort through her personal feelings on what had happened once she got out of here. And if she didn’t make it out, then those feelings wouldn’t matter anyway.

She had resumed her watch for a couple of minutes when she caught sight of someone approaching the lighthouse. She couldn’t make out the details from where she was, not with the sun in her eyes, as such her bow was up and an arrow was nocked. She didn’t fire though, at least not straight away, again the sun was throwing off her aim. The figure kept coming, apparently not noticing her up in her vantage point. As they reached the lighthouse door they raised their hand … and knocked?

At first she was tempted to fire anyway, to at least try and drive them off. Then she remembered the conversation they had had with Emiya that morning, and she wondered if he’d actually been able to get through to someone after all. Even if she still had no clue how he and Rin were supposedly planning to get everyone off this island. After a moments hesitation she shouted down to whoever it was.

“Who is it?!”

“Ryuudo Issei!” came the reply.

“And what do you want, Ryuudo-san?!”

“Emiya sent me,” he answered, confirming her thoughts.

“Hold on a moment,” she shouted back.

She walked back inside the lighthouse and began a brisk pace down the stairs. She reached the bedroom door just as Rin pulled it open and she asked the other girl to go back inside. She complied but not without shooting her a dirty look, Ayako shrugged it off. Rin may have been tougher than she looked but she was also injured, and there may yet be a fight. Just because she was willing to give the benefit of the doubt, it didn’t mean she trusted Emiya to be a good judge of character, she knew that he used to be friends with Matou Shinji after all.

She reached the bottom floor, undid the bolt on the front door and pulled it open.

“Thank you, Mitsuzuri,”

“So like I asked before,” she responded. “What do you want, Ryuudo-san?”

“Like I said, Emiya sent me. He seemed to believe Tohsaka was cooking up a plan of sorts, where is she?” he asked.

“She’s somewhere around here,” she answered.

“I see…”

It was experience that saved her life. As a practiced martial artist she had some familiarity with seeing people when they were preparing to strike, the way they tensed up a moment or two before they attacked. Trained fighters could eventually grow out of this, keeping their movements more natural, Ryuudo was not a trained fighter. She leapt back a step just as his arm lashed out, and she saw the weapon in his hand. It was a knife of some kind but made in the style of Japanese swords; a tanto. She raised her own weapon but unfortunately the bow is not a weapon designed for short range. He was able to knock her aim off slightly with the hand holding the gun and her arrow went sailing out of the door behind him.

Instead of going for another arrow straight away, she instead opted to punch him in the face with her now free hand. There was a satisfying crunch under her knuckles as her fist landed and a spurt of blood shot from Ryuudo’s nose. She sprang back up a few steps in order to gain the distance to use her bow properly. Despite the broken nose however, Ryuudo seemed intent on not giving her the chance, as he was hot on her heels. She ducked in to the kitchen, grabbing another arrow as she went. Then she turned and fired instantly. With no time to aim at all the shot only grazed his cheek, but it also stopped him dead in his tracks, and forced him to hide beside the doorway outside the room.

She nocked another arrow, sunk to one knee, tensed her bow and waited. The next shot wouldn’t miss, she could visualise it striking him in the chest, if he stepped out from his hiding place he was dead. He had two choices, die or go away and leave them alone. It was disturbing how easy it was to imagine and how she knew she wouldn’t hesitate. But those were thoughts for another time, right now she had to focus on the immediate threat.

She felt the sweat drip down her neck and over her face as she knelt there, waiting. There was a silence that could have been no more than a handful of seconds but seemed to last hours. Her breath came deep and steady, sounding loud to her own ears. Then he spoke:

“It is a shame really Mitsuzuri-san,” Ryuudo said, his raised voice echoing slightly in the confines of the lighthouse. “I really only came here for Tohsaka, the woman is a devil and almost everyone else on this island is more deserving of surviving than her.”

She didn’t respond.

“Well,” Ryuudo continued. “I expected Tohsaka to manipulate others in to doing her dirty work. Why should she risk her own life when she could get everyone else to kill each other, while she just hid herself away?”

Again she didn’t respond, he was definitely just trying to rile her, coax her in to making a mistake. The problem was it was kind of working. Whatever jumbled emotions she had in regards to Rin, the girl was at least her friend and hearing him bad mouth her was starting to piss her off.

“Mitsuzuri – “

Whatever Ryuudo had been about to say next was cut short as something … something, shot past the door too fast for her to see properly. She heard Ryuudo scream and then the sound of him tumbling back down the staircase. She froze wondering what the hell had just happened, when Rin limped in front of the open doorway.

“R - Rin? What the hell was that?” she asked as she eased herself back to her feet.

Her friend ignored her for a moment and simply continued to stare down the stairs, one arm outstretched in front of her. Ayako called her name again and she jumped as though someone had snuck up on her.

“Huh, what?” was the response.

“Rin,” Ayako said, placing one hand on the girl’s shoulder. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, shaking her head slightly. “Are you?”

“Yeah,” she responded. “I’m all right.”

“That’s good.”

“Okay then,” Ayako replied slowly. She felt like Rin wasn’t actually telling her the truth about being okay but what could she say?

“So,” she continued. “What was that you did Rin? Because that definitely wasn’t a hatchet.”

Rin’s blue eyes locked on to hers for just a moment as though sizing her up, before she turned away.

“Later,” the smaller girl mumbled. “First we need to get out of here, now.”

“Why?”

“Because Emiya’s being an idiot,” she answered, her voiced laced with more than a little irritation.

“Eh, Emiya?” Ayako asked. “What’s he got to do with… ” She felt like an idiot as soon as she said it, as the pieces clicked in to place immediately, Rin elaborated anyway.

“You heard Ryuudo,” she answered. “Emiya sent him here. He’s got some stupid idea that we can save everyone and he’s sending them all here. Even though all of them are going to be like Ryuudo and only coming here because that’s where all the targets are going to be.”

She felt the fear bubble up inside her as she realised what Rin was driving at. The best case scenario was that no one listened to Emiya and didn’t bother coming here. The worst case…

“Emiya’s going to turn this place in to a danger zone by himself…”

“Right,” Rin confirmed. “That might have been his plan all along, although I doubt it.”

She nodded at Rin then sprinted back up the stairs to the bedroom, taking them two at a time and threading her bow over her shoulders as she went. Inside she found Tohsaka’s map lying on the floor, apparently she had been using it to write on. Ayako grabbed it and stuffed it in to one of the bags at random. Then she grabbed a bag in each hand and bolted back out of the door and down the steps to the entrance.

When she reached the bottom she found Rin staring down at Ryuudo’s fallen body. She hadn’t seen it before but one of his legs and his neck, were bent in ways they were never meant to bend. She wondered what was running through Rin’s head right now, if she felt the same way Ayako had felt when she had killed that guy outside the clinic. Unfortunately she could not read minds, so she had no deal what to say or whether saying anything would make things worse. So she said nothing, instead she stepped forward and placed one hand on her shoulder. The other girl didn’t jump or start this time.

“Rin?” she asked softly. “You ready to go?”

“That was quick,” Rin responded and Ayako couldn’t help a small smile.

“Hey, you said we needed to get moving immediately, right?” she replied.

“Yeah,” Rin responded. “But you didn’t have to rush like that.”

“Why not? Ryuudo made it here already and we don’t know how far behind the others will be. For all we know, Emiya ran in to someone else five minutes after him.”

“Then let’s stop talking and get out of here,” Rin said and any softness in her face and voice evaporated, leaving the aloof detachment that she normally carried herself with. Ayako watched her for a second wondering if she should be worried, before laying her concern aside for the moment, nodding firmly she handed Rin one of the bags. She really didn’t want to put the extra burden on the girl’s legs but it would be too difficult to hold her weapon properly, if she tried to carry them both herself. They didn’t bother to close it behind them as they left, there was no point.

Like last time Ayako felt her nerves kick in as they crossed the open field towards the cover of the woods. If there were other people out there, then the two of them were completely open until they reached the treeline. There progress was too slow as well, with the adrenaline from the attack fading the ache in Ayako’s hip was starting to come back; she had to concentrate in order to maintain a normal stride. Tohsaka may be up and about now but the hole in her leg was causing her to limp, slowing her down too. As a result, it took them a truly nerve-wracking amount of time to get out of the open.

- - -

It wasn’t footsteps or anything similar that alerted him to the presence of another person, like one might expect. It was the sound of someone crying and as soon as he heard it, he headed directly towards it.

The sun was lying very low on the horizon now, he’d have to turn back after this one. He’d continued his search after talking to Issei full of hope, hope that had been dealt a severe blow by the six o’clock update. His friend was dead, killed before he could reach the safety of the lighthouse or at least that’s what he chose to think. He didn’t want to think that Mitsuzuri or Tohsaka had killed him. He remembered the argument they’d had had before he’d set out, but the two girls had only been concerned about others attacking them. No he was confident that they would only fight in self-defence, they wouldn’t start it.

He could hear the sobbing louder now, it seemed to be coming from behind a nearby tree. He rounded it carefully and slowly, trying to spook the person who was behind it. He came around the other side and found the crying person was a girl, she was sitting up against the tree with her legs pulled up to her chest, sobbing in to her filthy and tattered skirt.

“Hello,” he said softly.

The girl started and raised her head, looking him directly in the eyes. This girl had brown hair and matching eyes and she looked fragile. She looked small to him, she didn’t even looked strong for her size and she hugged herself tighter at the sight of him. When he saw her face, it took him a second but he was able to place a name to it; she was Saegusa Yukika.

“Hey Saegusa-san,” he tried again. “Are you okay?”

“Emiya-san?” she replied, timidly.

“Yeah, that’s right,” he answered, and took another step forward, causing her to press herself harder against the tree.

“Ah, it alright,” he said, raising his hands. “I’m not going to attack you.”

Several tense seconds passed and then Saegusa rose to her feet, her arms crossed in front of her and her shoulders slumped. He took another step forward and was heartened a little when she didn’t retreat. When he drew close enough she virtually leapt at him and wrapped her arms around him, sobbing in to his chest. He hugged her back, trying his best to comfort her, it was a miracle a girl like this had survived apparently alone, on this island for this length of time.

“It’s okay,” he said. “There’s a lighthouse to the west of here, Tohsaka and Mitsuzuri are there and –“

Suddenly there was a hot, sharp pain in his stomach, then another and another. The pain came again and again and again; when it stopped coming his strength slipped away from him and he fell to the ground. He didn’t feel the ground as he hit it, his body having already gone cold and numb. He looked back up as the darkness began to encroach on his vision, and saw Saegusa standing there, holding a bloodied knife in her hand.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

AN:​ Chapter eight... Thoughts?

[kinlyki]

You killed off Shirou already? Harsh.

[NewAgeOfPower]

He has Avalon. He doesn't die when he is killed... unfortunately in this fic, seeing how derp his philosophy can be.

[mAc Chaos]

I'm starting to get HF flashbacks.