Taking a look back at the man who had now become a corpse shirou turned his head around with a jerk. Then shaking his head he came back and gently put his finger beneath his father`s nostril as if expecting the gush of warm air to come and prove all his senses wrong and make all this a mistake on the part of his senses, he was a human and he could make mistakes too. But thoughts are inconsistent and actions are not, kiritsugu emiya the magus killer was as dead as he could be at this place. When he slowly moved his gaze to the lawn he saw red stains that looked like paint, following that he found a splatter of red as if someone had crushed a tomato. He looked at the red colour as if in a trance and found a head floating in it, as if touched by the wind it turned and revealed the face of an adult Rin.
Her hollow gaze, mouth open in an agonising scream and cheeks stained with tears made for an emotional sledgehammer on the poor boy`s mind, as he blinked the face had changed now it was the face of Rin he knew, the girl`s skull had caved in and her face was lying in scattered remains of her clothes as her hollow gaze matched his. The next second the image was gone from his vision proving that it was a mirage conjured by his mind compared to the sharp pain in his heart which was vivid, but it was unknown whether this was due to the 5-inch-long blade sticking out of his chest or his mind which has long since closed itself crawling out of the haze.
He staggered out of the door and balancing himself out of pure muscle memory he ran, ran like a lunatic into the dead of the night. The road was covered in snow and his movement left shallow impressions on it along with small red stains from the dripping blood. At his moment the blood was leaving his body from numerous wounds and pinprick-sized holes were also opening on his flesh from new swords poking out. His mind had filtered this out long ago as his pain was enough to give a normal human a heart attack. So he ran and ran into the moonlight snowy road where the gentle blue glow and sizzling red drops made a hauntingly beautiful symphony.
His rhythmic steeps echoed in the snow till they steadily decreased in frequency and came to an abrupt end with a thud. The boy had fallen onto the road face-first and was struggling on how way towards the street which was rumoured to be haunted, his target was the supposedly haunted mansion where he could find some solace from this irrational fear and negative thoughts eating him up from the inside.
The emotions and feelings that came from that soul fragment on that fated night had changed the course of his life, the reason for his ability to get visions and the change to his personality by fusing an already matured one onto his had given him an edge but it also took away the malleability he should have possessed, as he would have lacked enough mental capacity to comprehend his loss but now he could and it was eating him from inside as well as the fear that somehow rin would also disappear from his life as he watched on helplessly.
After helplessness came anger, the anger at his weak body and lack of discipline, he had convinced his mind that if he was better he could have prevented all of this. If he was a full-fledged magus he could have stopped Kiritsugu`s death but he didn't know that this falls under the domain of magic. Crushing his weak body he tried to get up and reflexively used his katana as a crutch. As he pulled his nearly anemic body to stand he caressed the hilt of the blade, as he pulled his body forward and tried to open his circuits there was no response, opening magic circuits requires a trigger and in his deranged state he hadn't done it. But to his already panicking mind when an action as familiar as breathing failed fear of the unknown filled him and chilled him to his soul.
As his moving hand passed over the body of the blade a deep-rooted feeling of jealousy was felt by him followed by immense longing. With this, he fell down again and this time he was still as if he had given up, then suddenly bluish-green glow reflected off the snow. The mana pathways of the soul connected with the physical body and flooded his body with mana, normally then stopped here but this time they spread towards back from his chest and the complex pattern that only Melvin was able to see till now lit up. With the coordinated activation of the crest and the circuits, mana filled his body and brought new energy to it, he stood up swiftly as if the staggering figure from minutes back was not him.
He caressed the tough steel now on his waist and the pain from the compatibility issue from the crest that normally would have rendered him immobile was ignored like a breeze. He moved his grip to the blade and with his thumb gently pushed the tsuba. With a light pop, the airtight seal of the handle broke and the sound of steel rubbing against itself echoed in the still environment. The circuits on his face flashed bordering on the green as he uttered
"I am the Bone of my sword!! Steel is my body!!"
Then nothing happened no grand moment nor any earth-shaking change occurred rather the boy staggered towards the Tohsaka mansion. Except there was an odd sense of dissonance remaining on the scene it was like the uncanny valley effect. It was like something unseen had changed like he was no longer part of the common masses. It was like encountering your drug dealer in a grocery store, that feeling of this is not right stuck around him as he dashed towards the mansion and gained speed due to his reinforcement.
Perhaps something had twisted, perhaps it was never meant to be strained like this. Steel being elastic can take up a lot of pressure and stress but at its elastic limit, it deforms into an unrecognisable shape rather than break depending on the way pressure is applied. A twisted steel bar appeared straight from some angle but if you turned it around you would discover its form was an illusion of what it once was.
By now his overcoat had a lot of rips and tears in it and also was sprinkled with blood but the black colour made them less visible. When he reached the gates of the tohsaka residence he jumped over the gate and rushed in instead of waiting at the gate like other times he came here. Rin had adjusted the bounded field to detect shirou but as nobody is more paranoid than a Magus family the ward still was triggered and Rin who was deep in her sleep was jolted awake.
Startled by the intrusion alerts she jumped out of bed and blew up in a rage, then in a practised motion caught the azoth dagger, slipped the cursed dagger into its sheath, pocketed her jewels and cautiously approached her door as she held the cursed blade.
When the door opened she looked at the black object with the stench of blood rushing towards her, she prepared for combat with her crest glowing as the scenarios from spirit presence to attack of a rouge magus to the coming of a dead apostle flashed in her mind and she prepared for whatever is to happen.
As soon as she opened her circuits it became abundantly clear that the thing looking like a lunatic was Shirou. Still, his presence at this odd time and his odd state put her on edge, she still was struggling between accepting him as her best friend and thinking their interaction was a transaction between Magus and nothing more.
Still what she lacked was not courage hence she approached him and when they were near enough Shirou's face lit up looking at her as if a drowning man had caught a straw or a traveller had seen an oasis in an endless desert. When shirou mindlessly jumped at her trying to touch her to confirm that she was real and this was neither a vision nor his mind playing tricks on him she took her martial arts stance and dodged.
Her reflexive action fueled by her inner conflict immediately changed the air in the area, the bright presence slowly bled away and shirou hesitantly took a step back in a trance. His face quickly cycled between stunned, betrayed and self-loathing, then went back to his gentle smile that made Rin shiver.
(A/N: and it's here. This is what we were waiting for the dramatic end of this arc. Well guys I am finally shifting to my college hostel. More like the extremely overpriced shared chicken coop they call a hostel so idk how my 1st week at my university will go chapters might be a little wonk during this time so bear with it. I will not drop this as it would make me feel shity and even if something happens I would put up an announcement.
And THANK YOU Melegant for joining my Patreon which I haven't even set up correctly. So guys yes I remembered my Patreon and you people can join. I will put the chapters there as soon as I finish writing them plus I will make sure to have at least 2 chapters in advance and then plan to make them 6 later.
(the Patreon link is in my comment here)
So I am planning to provide the 2 chapters in advance at the 1 dollar tier and make it 6 for the 3 dollar one. By next Sunday the advanced chapters should be there plus the basic release. and above all
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THANK YOU FOR READING:)