Loop 15
Day 4
Emiya Residence・Start of Night Things to do
Night・2 Haunted night
Once we came down the hill, the town changed at once.
The lights died out, all human activity disappeared.
Even still, this uninhabited town was full of breathing.
"..., ..., ..., ...―――!!!!"*
Whisper-like, uncomfortable frequency.
“――――――”
Meaningless hatred arose within me.
Must be the beastlike scent in the air.
I felt strong anger at this enemy I had yet to see.
“...Shirou, there is no one inside these houses.
Anything with a human form has disappeared completely from Fuyuki.”
"Disappear" would indeed be more appropriate than mass slaughter.
What Saber saw was the corpseless, bloodless, murder scenes.
"..., ..., ..., ...―――!!!!"*
“This is truly an enigma. Is this the work of whoever restarted the Heaven's Feel?”
“Yeah, probably. None of the other Servants would do this... But, more importantly. Saber, what do you think of these voices?”
“Voices? I am not sure what―――
No, indeed I can hear something. Is this... the wailing of a dog?”
She narrows her eyes, trying to focus on the harsh sound.
"..., ..., ..., ...―――!!!!"*
The voices become louder and louder.
The shrill sounds reflect between my skull and my brain, stimulating my instincts.
“Shirou, what is wrong? Your face is pale. Could it be that there is poison in the air...!?”
"..., ..., ..., ...―――!!!!"*
Yeah.
Now that you say it, these voices could be nothing other than poison.
“I have some resistance to poison due to my armor, but Shirou, you are defenseless.
...Let us retreat for now. I believe there should be no major trouble as Rider is there, but I am still worried.”
“Don't worry, I'm fine. I'd rather do something about these voices. There's only 2 hours left before the day ends. Let's find the source before the date changes.”
“Shirou, I understand how you feel, but there are no clues.
Is it not wiser to retreat?”
This isn't like Saber.
I've been hearing the clues all this time, up to the point of blatancy.
“―――Let's leave home defense to Rider.
Right now, I want to track these voices.”
“S-Shirou!”
I run ahead of her. My sense of balance is getting destroyed by the breathing of these beasts being stirred in my cochlea.
"..., ..., ..., ...―――!!!!"*
Shouldn't be far, judging by that.
Tonight, Saber's with me.
I shouldn't lose no matter who I fight―――
The howling changed into roaring.
“――――――”
Once here, there is no need for me to say anything to Saber.
The "enemy" is in front of us.
That's because the things that wiped out all of the people of this city,
are all here, flocking to a girl I've never seen before.
“They... I've―――”
I know I've seen it before, yet my memory fails me.
Just a little more. The moment the clock strikes midnight, somebody tells me and I will remember...
《 》*
It howled, making jarring sounds of movement.
A frequency outside of my hearing range. The herd howled for sure with voices that no human could ever make out.
"―――I'LL KILL YOU"*
A beast raises its head.
Ringing its claws, it springs at me as if it was crawling.
“Shirou, stay back―――!”
Saber moves forward in a flash.
She cuts through the mysterious beasts.
I don't know what force moves these monsters, but it's obvious that they are no match for Saber.
Saber should clear them out without any problems.
“In that case―――”
I'll catch that girl looking at us from the deeper end of the park.
She's got to be the one behind this real-life Twilight Zone if she's in charge of these beasts...!
I slip past the monsters that are being thinned out by Saber.
“Wh, where are you going, Shirou...!?
Stop, you must not move away from me...!”
The monsters keep attacking her.
They swarm around Saber desperately, probably out of instinctive knowledge of the most powerful being in this area.
I don't like leaving Saber behind, but this is my chance.
They will never be able to outmatch her, no matter how many of them attack together. The best they can do is buy time.
I can use this chance to go after their master.
All this time, the girl simply watched us without running away.
―――I can do this.
She doesn't feel dangerous.
I already knew that I'd be able to catch her by myself.
“―――You're quite the Master.
I would have never expected you to leave Saber to fend off those monsters by herself.”
A voice lacking any emotion.
Her clothes remind me of a lifeless doll.
“――――――”
I'll save the chitchat for later.
Right now, I'm going to get my hands on that girl...!
I grab her arm.
“Got you...! Hey, who the hell are you...!?
No, stop these guys first. If you won't stop them, I'll―――”
I was about to say I would use force on her. However,
“You'll rape me violently?
I don't mind―――except that kind of thinking is awfully unlike you, don't you agree, Emiya Shirou?”
She just saw through that and replied with heavy words that I surely had savored once before.
“You know me―――so you were the one that restarted the Heaven's Feel...!”
“―――Yes, I was the one that restarted it in this form. If you wish to resolve it, you should catch me.
...However, this time it was a failure. We were not meant to meet here.”
“――――, wha-”
My vision flickers, and in an instant,
“――――――《Noli Me Tangere》――――――”
“Gu, gaah...!?”
My limbs are restrained by a cloth with a will of its own.
“Hah, guh―――what the, hell―――!?”
My body isn't listening to me.
The cloth's only restraining my arms and legs, and all that's pulling on it is that girl's slender arm, so why the hell am I having trouble even breathing...!?
“Resistance is futile.
It is impossible for men to break the Holy Cloth of Magdala.”
My body's grating like a door hinge.
Thankfully, the restraint that's holding my entire body doesn't seem to have enough power to tear me apart.
...But that's not really the right way of looking at it. This looks like an enchanted garb specialized only in "restraining" its target.
“I have no intention of killing you. Since this meeting was a failure, all we need to―――, ch...!”
The girl's face starts convulsing.
I hear a sharp sound.
The sound of flesh being ripped apart, and the smell of blood drifting through the air.
“N, nrg―――...!”
Her face distorts in pain.
―――What's going on?
No one is attacking her, yet there is blood trickling down her body.
“Hey... a-are you alright? That's definitely not normal.”
I'm the one tied up, but what that girl is going through muted any pain that I had.
“Oh for god's sake, just get this thing off me! You're suffering, right? I won't do anything, so just take it easy...!”
I wonder how much of that she believed.
The girl slowly moves her collapsing body,
“...How could I become possessed so quickly... I knew it. You are...”
Leaving that interesting remark behind, she staggers away.
“kh―――Stop moving around when you're hurt, you idiot! And if you're going to run away, get this damn cloth off me!”
The red cloth is doing its job even with its master gone.
Can't move, can't breathe too well, and just as I'm about to pass out...
“Are you all right, Shirou?”
Saber's sword cuts through the red cloth.
...The horde of monsters is still all around us.
She came to save me in the midst of her own battle, no doubt. Not letting her guard down, Saber's sword is still pointing at the beasts.
“What was that cloth?
These monsters do not have such an ability―――”
“I do not really know, either.
Anyway, nothing is going to make any sense until I save... I mean capture that girl.”
“What? Did you say "girl"?”
“She went that way. I should still be able to catch up to her. Sorry, Saber, please take care of these guys for me...!”
Leaving Saber to cover my back, I run off.
I don't know the cause, but that girl was injured. I want to know who she really is, but first, those wounds have to be treated...!
The trail of blood continues on to the tufts of grass on the riverbank.
She lost a lot of blood. If something isn't done soon, she could lose her life.
“...gh... Kuh, ...n, aa―――!”
...A voice of suppressed agony.
The girl is lying in the tall grass to hide herself.
“Hey, you're in there, aren't you...? Don't run away, I'm not going to do anything to you. I just have some things I want to ask you, but I'll do that after I patch you up.”
“...gh... Sto-...... run, away......!”
I hear the sharp sound of ripping flesh again.
“...!”
This isn't the time to be worrying about traps or a counter attack.
Urged on by the smell of blood, I step into the grass.
“Ha―――uah, ah, ya......!”
The girl's injury has worsened.
I don't know what happened, no, what's going to happen, but I keep walking closer, unable to let things go on like this.
“kh―――Sto, p―――don't, look―――!”
Her agony intensifies.
Every step I take, it gets worse.
“Haa, a, naah, ah...!”
Somehow, it sounds sexual.
The gasps of pain grow hotter, bit by bit.
With each step, I move into her body.
Little by little, I dig into her body.
If that's the case, the moment I reach her, she'll climax.
“Nnngh, ha, aauuh, hn...!”
One more step.
A part of me thinks I could then treat her body, and...
“No―――don't! Don't come clos...er...!”
Another part of tells me to stay away or I'll die.
“Bbu―――......what the, what is this?”
Red liquid backed up, pouring out of my mouth.
I look down at the sinister weapon that penetrated my stomach.
“Hah, ah, ―――yeah, that'll definitely...”
I've seen many things up until now, but none of them ever lived up to the horror in front of me.
―――Huge claws are coming out of her slender body.
So that wound came from the inside.
Gasping in heat, the girl formed that monster and impaled me as I got close.
...I'm fading out.
I will die here, not making it to the next hour.
But still, the knowledge I gained is tremendous.
This was not the right place.
I cannot meet her here.
To know her name, it has to happen at a place closer to the source.
Engraving only that onto my memory, I release the consciousness that I kept linked to my body.
...And on the verge of death.
Looking at the figure of the girl that gave birth to this weapon, I suddenly remember a demon from a fairy tale.