Post by Dekar on Aug 24, 2008 17:38:32 GMT -5
Fate Endless Moon Episode One
~April 14th: The Enforcer~
I step out into the dark cold night behind me lay the remains of my last target. I take a lighter out of my pocket and light up a cigarette then look out across the broad and endless sea of stars. I slowly put the cigarette into my mouth, it tasted awful.
“Why do they always insist of fighting?” I murmur to myself in a contemplative tone.
I begin to walk away slowly from the building with the corpse left inside. To a normal person this would seem like an act of indiscriminate murder but to “us” this was merely an execution. If one examined the body they wouldn’t possibly be able to ascertain the method of murder since to most people what we were was nothing more than a myth. After all nowadays apart from the magi and the church no one really believes in magic anymore.
“Good work.” A voice praises from the shadows “You’re quick and efficient as always Kotorii.”
I turn to the voice. As I had said this was an execution, the punishment for one who breaks the rules of the magi, and I, I am an enforcer. One who punishes those who defile the sacred laws of the magi.
“I’ve told you before I don’t need your praise. I am merely fulfilling my job.” I reply to the man in a weary tone.
The man chuckles amused by my response “Yes, yes, anyways you will be contacted soon about your next target.”
“That’s fine I’ll be going now.” I reply to the man and walk away. I can hear the man chuckling amused behind me. It’s only do be expected he’s probably from some important magi family, to him I’m probably nothing more than a stray dog who happens to be very good at hunting. As I reach the edge of the nearby town I see a figure standing in the middle of the road facing me with intense blue eyes filled with both strength and determination.
“What are you doing here?” the voice calls out, judging by the voice it was obviously a girl.
“What are you talking about I am merely visiting the city on business and looking for a place to stay.” I reply in a calm tone.
“The association knows that this city is under the jurisdiction of the Calahan and has barred enforcers from coming here.” She states as she walks forwards now in full view. She was quite beautiful smooth and soft looking skin, beautiful blue eyes, a magnificent figure, and a well sized bust; however the feature that stood out most about her was her steel grey hair that came all the way down to her lower back. She appeared to be about 22 she was wearing a black long sleeved sweater and tight fitting jeans.
“The association has duties which are far more important than the wishes of a single family. We enforcers will go where we are instructed too, if you have a problem with that, take it up with the higher ups in the association.” I reply in a calm and disinterested voice.
“If that is the case then I will have no choice but to use force to prevent you from entering.” She declares in a cold voice that sent a shiver even up my spine, it has been a long time since I had encountered such a person, and I raise one of my hands in preparation for her attack.
“Tomoyo stop!” A voice suddenly rings out from behind the girl, the voice seemed to command respect.
Suddenly a man steps out from behind the girl carrying a crystal lance with ruby red eyes and steely grey hair exactly like the girls. But unlike her I recognized him instantly; he was someone that not a single enforcer wouldn’t recognize. Kawaru Calahan, the greatest construct of the century and a former Tosaka. The girl must have been his daughter. I looked him over, I had heard stories about him but this was my first time meeting Kawaru in person, he was exactly as the rumors portrayed, confident, poised and a man with no openings.
“It’s okay Tomoyo, it’s almost time for “it” to start so your mother and I have given permission to the association for any magi to enter. Kawaru looks at me with a smile on his face and says “It must be cold standing there so welcome to our city, I’d invite you to my house but unfortunately due to circumstances that’s not really possible.”
I shake my head slightly “No, it’s okay, I completely understand.” People like Kawaru were easier to deal with than Association magi, if they were hiding something they would tell you, and they didn’t try to mask their intentions, but at the same time as far as a magus goes, they such personality traits were bad. As the two of them leave I walk into town I had a distinct feeling that something was going to happen here, and my profession has taught me that these feelings of mine are almost always right.
“Please enjoy your stay.” The receptionist at a local hotel bows as she hands me the key to my room “Well I guess I should probably get settled in.”
I take the elevator up to the top floor where my room was, and as I do a man steps off the elevator, I pause for second as the man gives me an odd feeling, I soon realize that there are traces of mana in the air, the man was carrying a feather, magi can more or less hide their mana but the mana in the air seemed to be coming from the feather.
“Sloppy, if you’re going to carry a magic item around, don’t act like you’re carrying something precious.” I sigh as I recognized the man’s face, I suppose most would call it good luck that I had found such a wanted target so easily, but to me it just meant that my vacation was being cut short.
I enter my room and look at the clock, it was about 3:00 in the morning, if he was going to do something with that item he’d have to wait until tonight since doing it now would attract too much attention. I close my eyes and fall asleep, it would take a while to restore my mana.
~April 15th: Summoning~
I woke up around 1:00 PM the next day and traced the mana from the feather to an abandon warehouse on the far side of town. Afterwards I go back into town, eat and examine the layout of the city. When the clock struck 8:00 it was time for me to jump into action. I enter the warehouse and look around, a boundary field had been set up a few hours ago to hide the immense mana that was being produced and also to alert the resident of intruders, since I couldn’t sneak in the best option was simply to rush in and try to catch him before he could surprise me.
“Well time to work.” I hold my hand up to the warehouse doors and with a surge of mana send then flying off their hinges into the building with a blast of air. I run directly behind them searching for the magi. All of a sudden I sense an immense build up of mana as the doors in front of me are blasted to the side by several blue orbs.
“A luminescence orb?” I reeled back as the man in front of me holds out his hand creating several more orbs.
“Oh? Aren’t you that enforcer Kotorii, I’ve heard rumors about you.” He grins “The cold blooded dog of the association.” He muses as the orbs launch at me.
“Spirits of wind head my call and protect me with your veil.” I chant and a wall of wind appears sending the orbs to the side and causing them to crash into some of the barrels.
“So the rumors are true, you made a contract with spirits of wind in order to gain great magical ability.” He sneers as he waves his hand “Sword of light give my might and to slash my enemy to bits!” a sword of radiant light appears in his hand and he runs towards me at an incredible speed, I could understand why none of the enforcers to this point could take him down.
“But I’m different.” I declare as he closes the gap between us and brings his sword down at me.
I parry to the side and jump backwards, he slashed with great speed and skill, there were almost no openings in his attack but—
“Spirits of become my blades, razor wind!” the moment after he finishes his slash lung forwards and swing my arm.
“Heh, you let your one opportunity go to wa—“ He was unable to finish his sentence as blood begins to pour from his mouth and he collapses. The majority of the organs in his chest had been torn apart by my wind, after all there is no need to cause outer damage when one can simply tear apart the body from the inside. His attacks had almost no openings but—it wasn’t perfect, so his life had ended there.
Suddenly there is a radiant glow in the center of the warehouse, I leap over several boxes and reach the area where the glow was coming from. “Huh? What the hell is this?” In the middle of the floor is the most complicated summoning circle I’ve ever seen and in the center sits the white feather he had been holding. I step forwards into the circle to retrieve the feather but the moment I come into contact with the circle I can feel my mana flow out of my body “What the hell!?”
There is a sudden flash of light and before me stands a beautiful girl in red and white, she had white hair but it seemed to carry a light shade of pink her skin was porcelain white and her eyes were absolutely breath taking.
“Tell me are you my master?” She asks in a strong voice which seemed to carry a hint of gentleness.
“What do you mean?” I ask as this had taken me completely by surprise, I’d never seem a familiar or summon of any sort with such an appearance nor have I ever seen one which carried so much mana.
“Are you the one who summoned me?” She asks phrasing the question differently
“Yes, I summoned you accidentally after stepping on the summoning circle.” I reply awestruck by the awesome presence in front of me. The girls whose very existence seemed absurd.
“Then you are my master, and our contract is formed, from here on our fates are tied together and I shall fight to both protect you and bring you victory in this war.” She degrees and I suddenly feel an intense burning on my right forearm “That is proof of our contract the command spell and the ability to give me three absolute orders.”
Suddenly I got the feeling I had entered into something that was different from anything I had ever before experienced.
“Fine come with me you can explain everything when we get back to my hotel room.” I tell her sternly
“Okay, but you know you’re taking an awfully harsh tone with someone who you just made a contract with.” The girl barks
I turn to her and let out a sigh of frustration “Well before we leave I guess there is one more thing I would like to ask you.”
“Oh and what would that be?” She replies in an uppity tone
“What should I address you by?” I ask calmly
“So you really don’t know about the war do you, huh? I am servant Rider you can simply call me by my class name.” Rider replies with a slightly disappointed look on her face. I ignore it and begin to leave the building but as we leave she notices to corpse and turns to me with a degree of hostility “Did you do this?”
“Yes, as a magic association enforcer it is my job to execute magi who break the laws, he is one of the most wanted magi so I had no choice but to kill him. He’s probably the one that wanted to summon you into this world.” I reply coldly seeing corpses was common place and it’s not as if I had personally known the man it was strictly business.
“Well it looks like I have a powerful master after all.” She admires but I could feel a degree of hesitation in her voice.
I walk outside and suddenly she enters a ghost like form. “What’s that?” I ask
“I’ve entered spirit form like this only you can see me and I can materialize at any time, this also requires less mana.” She explains
“Convenient.” I muse and continue walking but a figure seems to catch my eye.
A young woman sitting on a bench staring up at the moon, as I watch, her slender fingers reach up as if trying to grab it. I walk over and light a cigarette. She looks over acknowledging me with a pure smile. She looked to be a few years younger than me (probably about 18) with light blue hair that almost appeared grey under the moonlight. Her eyes were deep blue and she had a somber beauty about her.
“The moon seems so close.” She says in a soft peaceful voice “Almost like one could reach out and touch it.” As she says this I walk over with the cigarette still lit in my mouth.
“No matter how close it seems the reality is it’s very far away.” I reply in a jaded tone “Wishing to reach the untouchable is a waste of energy. All we can do is look at it and be reminded of the limits that bind us all.”
The girl smiles faintly at my reply “That’s very practical of you, but don’t you think that the desire and wish to reach out to it having meaning in themselves?”
“Nope trying to do something that can’t be done is a waste of time and energy.” I reply coldly “And it just hurts that much more when you realize that what you wish for will never be achieved.”
The girl gets up “But there are forces in this world that can make the impossible possible, I must be going but I have enjoyed talking with you very much.” She tells me as she begins to walk away “My name is Silvia, I hope we can meet again very soon.”
“I’m Kotorii, I’ll look forward to it.” I answer as I watch her bow and then leave.
“Oh, so you can be charming and nice if you try to be.” I hear Rider’s voice from beside me mocking me.
I decide it would be better to ignore her and return to the hotel. On my way back I feel several huge surges of mana from various sources.
“It’s begun.” Rider mumbles ominously
“What has?”
“The Holy Grail War.” She replies “A war waged between seven powerful magi and their servants.”
We reach the hotel and go to the top floor.
“So this is where you are staying it’s nice, you must have a fairly big budget.” Rider coos with a smirk as she sits down on the bed
“No, if I’m going to be in a major conflict I’ll have to find a new residence.” I reply in an unhappy tone “I can’t fortify this like I can other places.”
“I see, well the war doesn’t officially start until tomorrow night, so I suppose that that’s okay.” Rider assures me.
“Hmmm, well if it’s seven magi and their all gathering here then at least one of them is probably going to be Kawaru or Aylia.” I give a disappointed sigh as the thought of fighting a magi with such a clear difference in skill as one of them wasn’t very appealing.
“No, they were competitors in the previous war so they are barred from competing in this one.” Rider responds to my worry. Apparently Servant have knowledge of the participants of previous wars if only the names.
“Then that Tomoyo girl will be a participant. I’m not sure on who else, but all of that aside tell me how powerful of a servant are you?” I ask curiously
“I am the strongest of course.” She replies in an upbeat voice “Since I’m going to win the war I must be the strongest servant.”
I look at her skeptically, I admit she’s powerful I can tell just by the mana railing off her body but to go so far as to say she’s the strongest when we haven’t met any of the opponents yet is going a bit too far.
“What you look like you don’t believe me.” She whines.
“That’s because I don’t. I haven’t seen the other servants yet. Oh well I guess that was pointless.” I sigh and lay down in my bed.
“You know you still haven’t asked for my real name, don’t you care what hero I am?” Rider asks curiously
“Not really, your class if fine. But it’s nice to know that you are all heroes from the past.” I reply simply “Besides I don’t know all that much about mythology even if I did know who you were it probably wouldn’t tell me much.”
I roll over in bed and close my eyes silently drifting off to sleep.
~April 16th: Residence~
I check out of the hotel with Rider following me in spirit form. I’m careful to completely mask my magic circuits so even high ranking magi wouldn’t be able to tell I was a magus.
“So do you have any idea where you’re going to stay?” Rider asks curiously as she follows closely behind me
“I haven’t really thought about it that much but I was thinking of Ryudo temple, I’ve heard the head is a kind person who will take in people who don’t have a place to stay.” I answer her in a slightly hopeful voice “Things like wards and boundary fields are similar to spiritual barriers so it will be easier to cover up.”
“Ryudo is an excellent choice but there will likely be another master there as well as it is the perfect base since the spiritual barrier around it will repel almost all servants who don’t go through the front entrance.” Rider explains “Do you think it’s worth the risk?”
“I don’t have anywhere else to go, I can’t fortify a location in just a day without help so it’s really our only option.” I reply as I really hadn’t had time to prepare for this war at all.
“If you say so, I suppose that’s better than sleeping in a warehouse or shed or something.” Rider admits as we head towards the temple. As I ascend the stairs an older man with brown hair, and a wirery muscular build is there to greet me.
“Oh hello, are you here to visit the temple?” He asks with a charismatic smile
“Actually I was hoping if I could stay here for a little while, I’ve run into some problems and I—“
“No problem at all, we have plenty of extra rooms so feel free to stay here.” He cuts me off agreeing before I even explain the situation “However, I will request that you help out with duties around the temple in exchange for board.” He requests
“That’s fine, thank you very much, but are you able to make such decisions?” I ask slightly surprised
“Certainly after all I’m the head of this temple Kazuto Ryudo.” He replies, this takes me aback more than the swiftness of his answer, I didn’t expect a head monk to be sweeping the stairs or to have a full head of hair.
At the top of the staircase is a stand where a girl is selling charms, upon closer examination I realize she is the girl I had encountered the previous night. There are also an abundance of tourists and monks.
“Be careful I sense a servant” Rider warns as step into the large building. And Kazuto explains to me what I will be doing first on the list was finishing the sweeping job I had seen him doing, I probably should have seen that coming.
“Rider you said you sensed a servant do you know who the master is?” I ask her
“No I merely know that there is a servant here the master must be masking their mana just as you are, however they probably know that you are a master since a servant appears the day you take up residence in this place.” Rider replies calmly
“That’s fine, if they come to me it’ll save me the trouble.”
“You realize that you can’t defeat a servant right? You’re powerful as a magus but that is as a magus, a servant is an entirely different breed of being.” Rider informs me of the obvious.
“I already know that if you can keep the servant busy I’ll kill the master and it will be over.” I explain.
“You know you really should respect life, more than you do, every time you end someone’s life you end any possibilities their life could have held you end all the time they had.” Rider explains.
“Your concern is touching, but my time stopped long ago.” I replied “So to me all time stands still.”
I finish sweeping the steps and look out across the city, that had been bathed in blood from repeated wars.
“It looks like we got to see each other again after all,” A voice calls out, I turn around and see Silvia staring at me from the middle of the temple yard “it was sooner than I expected.”
“To be honest I hadn’t actually expected to see you again, but I suppose coincidences do happen.” I reply with a shrug.
“Do you honestly believe it’s a coincidence?” she asks curiously
“Of course, I’m not one to believe in either destiny or fate.” I reply plainly as she looks at me with an amused expression.
“Well there are things other than those which you have named for instance circumstance.” She smiles broadly as she tells me this, but something was off this response sent a shiver down my spine as if she meant this on an impossible level.
“Well anyways since we’re both living here now let’s try to get along shall we?” she asks with in innocent smile. She was definitely very pretty but she was also far too naïve. For the rest of the afternoon as a finish the jobs I was given Rider fills me in on the details of the Holy Grail War, such as what it was, the goal, and classes of servants at the end of the day I lay down on the futon Kazuto had left for me in my room. I was used to physical activity so this wasn’t extremely hard work, but all of this Grail business was too much to take in, I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.
“Who’s there!?” I’m awakened by the approach of a figure as they enter my room, it was Silvia, it seemed she wanted to talk to me about something but I immediately got to my feet and prepared to defend myself, something was different.
“Huh? You already woke up? Wow, you did it without a boundary field too, you must have had a lot of training.” Silvia admires as she enters my room. Behind her is a blonde man who carried two swords a silver one and a gold one. His inhuman presence was similar to Rider’s and she immediately manifested drawing what appeared to be a sword with a blade that extended down to the base of the handle (not on the hilt).
“Servant Saber.” Rider mumbles in a displeased tone.
“Relax we’re not here to fight.” Silvia assured the two of us, but we both remained ready to fight.
Silvia lets out a sigh and dismissed Saber then sits down “I have a proposition for you two.” She offers
“And what would that be?” I asked
“I would like to cooperate with you two in this war. I have heard that some of the servants summoned this time are the strongest yet, and I do not wish to fight alone if that is the case.” She explains. This request made sense if she was going to attack me it would have been better to launch it from the outside of my room and try to take me by surprise.
“Well why do you want to team up with me?” I ask curiously as it was a perfectly valid question since I’m sure there were more prepared magi for this war than me.
“Honestly? I want to work with you for two reasons, the first is we are living in the temple together so it’s more convenient, and the second is, I want to prove to you that the impossible can be achieved.” She announces and announcement that take me aback
“Seriously? You chose me because of that?” I ask in surprise.
“Yep.” She nods enthusiastically portraying neither ill intent or dishonesty
“I think it’s a good idea.” Rider announces “You don’t have much preparation done for this war, and it’s disadvantageous if we fight here since we’ll probably have to leave so we can fight her later after other masters have been eliminated.
I let out a small sigh showing my consent and then lay down on the futon “That’s fine but don’t think that I’ll go easy on you when the time comes.” I inform her
“I wouldn’t expect you too.” She replies merrily leaves the room I close my eyes preparing to go back to sleep when suddenly I hear her pulling something into my room I look up and realize that she had brought her luggage and futon into my room.
“What are you doing?” I ask
“Moving in, if we’re going to work together I want to be in the same room as my partner and besides “Your rooms bigger than mine and you’ve already set up a boundary field.” She smiles
I can’t do anything but stare at her dumbstruck, this had to be the most absurd thing that had happened today, what compelled her to think I’d let her stay, as I get up to drag her out of the room I realize that she had already fallen asleep on her futon. As I stare at her peaceful face I can’t bring myself to disturb her and I walk back over to my futon and pull up the sheets “Fine but just for tonight.” I grumble.