9 Chapter 9: Meeting Part 2
Beta read by Shigiya and Paragon of Awesomeness
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Beta read by Paragon of Awesomeness and Shigiya
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-Sainan Middle School-
(One Year Earlier)
For Momioka Risa, the past few days were quite uneventful. Exam season was in full effect, leading to her usual free time after school that she spent hanging out with her friends at karaoke to disappear.
Now she instead had to spend hours on her studies to memorize the subject material from classes she either skipped or never paid that much attention to in the first place. Risa's friend and partner in crime, Sawada Mio, was safe given her rather surprising discipline to study everyday after school — even after they spent the entire day hanging out and returned to her house dead tired. Risa didn't want to flunk her exams and risk getting held up for an entire year and missing the opportunity to be surrounded by more mature and developed girls at Sainan High School.
"Mn… my head is going to explode." She said while slouching at the cafeteria lunch table. Her eyes were sunken with dark bags under them, bloodshot irises, and a generally messy state from the enormous amount of stress, lack of sleep, and missing out on meals she got from studying all night. Looking in front of her, she was met with the unappealing sight of a lunch tray filled with a single apple, a carton of juice with the main dish being some yakisoba bread.
"I think I'm going to vomit." Nothing looked appetizing anymore. The cafeteria food tasted stale and bland, the juice was far too artificial and everything made her feel even more nauseous.
"You can bring your own meal, Risa." By her side sat Mio, looking normal and the complete opposite of her whilst munching on a tuna onigiri.
"You know that I can't cook anything other than an omelet dressed with some ketchup and mayo." Just the thought of eating another one of those made the girl sigh at her misfortune. "Dad and Mom have barely spent any time at home recently due to their jobs, so at night we mostly just eat takeout. The next morning there's barely anything left and the day-old food just doesn't look as appealing to me." She grabbed the bread and took a single bite, and just as she guessed — it was quite bland.
"Are you sure you're not sick or anything? Even your skin is pale. I don't think I've ever seen you in such a state before, Risa. Maybe you should go see the doctor or have a nap at the infirmary." Mio said, worried about her friend's health.
"I can't," Risa moaned. "Next we have math class, I can't miss it or else I'll have more to revise later on. I'm already super late on my other assignments and I think the teachers are plotting to fail me intentionally with how they keep introducing new chapters when they've barely gone through the last one!" This was injustice! A secret plot put together by the corrupt staff of the school who wanted to keep a beautiful and sexy girl like her, just so they can torture her further! She could already feel the stares coming from every corner of the halls, the evil cackles and mustache-twirling happening in the background as they plotted her downfall!
"I think the lack of sleep is getting to you." Mio deadpanned, finding the sight of her friend losing her mind to be almost funny were it not for the very possible consequences weighing everything down. "And again, if you don't rest now then I guarantee you'll learn nothing in class with that fried brain of yours."
Risa shook her head, "I don't need rest, I need another bottle of energy drink and a nice pair of racks to charge me back up." It was a bit embarrassing to admit, but Risa missed groping other girls' breasts — so much so that she began touching her own without any effect. That feeling of catching someone by surprise and hearing their cute cries soothed her soul. All of this coupled with the fact that everyone was unique, so she always felt something new everyday. "Haa… if only I had a time-dilation machine like the ones in those shows where a single year inside is a single day in the real world. I'd have enough time to learn everything and get some sleep while I'm at it."
"Humph," the bespectacled girl scoffed. "Knowing you, you'll just laze around and by the time you'd have learned everything, you'll probably come out as a middle-aged woman."
"Tch, what kind of friend are you? I ain't that dumb."
"That remains to be seen."
As they continued to converse and trade light jabs at each other as a joke, both girls heard a commotion happening in the background. Turning their attention toward the source, they found a group of students huddled around a crying girl — comforting her the best they could. They both looked at each other in confusion, "Who's the chick? I don't remember hearing anything about her from our class." Risa asked, taking another bite of her yakisoba bread.
Mio frowned, obviously deep in thought before hiding her left hand with a fist. "Oh, I remember her. She's from class 3-A… Hanako if I remember correctly?"
"Hanako huh… So what's her deal?"
"She got roasted and destroyed by one of her classmates." A voice spoke near them, Mio nearly jumped away from fright when she found a boy with a face that resembled that of a monkey sitting a bit too close to them. She was pretty certain that no one was sitting there a couple of seconds ago… "I tell you, I feel kinda bad for the girl, I never heard anyone cut down someone else to such a level with words alone. Like seriously, I felt the burn despite not even being part of it. Heck, not even the teacher was spared from his scathing silver tongue and ended up fleeing the room in tears… but I can't say I feel that bad for him."
"..."
First of all, Risa appreciated the information that came so quickly, and second of all, "Who the heck are you?" She asked dryly, not in the mood to be playful or even teasing anyone for that matter.
"E-Eh, I-I'm Saruyama!" The boy announced, being a bit caught off guard by Risa's question. "We've literally been in the same class since the beginning of the year! I even helped you to cover your shift in cleaning the classroom last week!" The boy looked so close to crying that Risa felt bad for him, her mind not being in the best of states right now — so she decided to wing it.
"Oh yeah, I remember you now!" She really didn't. "Sorry about that, I didn't recognize you before, I was… uh… too concentrated on my… food?"
Even Mio gave her a "Really?" stare with how bad that excuse was. Seeing her friend's reaction, the blonde shrugged her shoulders; she honestly couldn't come up with anything better in the heat of the moment.
Cut her some slack!
"Anyways!" She wanted to change subjects. "Can you give us the details? Like, did she experience such a bad breakup with her boyfriend that one of his friends decided to get back at her? Or maybe it's something else? Hmm, I smell drama in the air."
"Not quite," Saruyama stopped her before she could get any more outrageous ideas. "You know about the garden at the back of the school, right?"
Risa and Mio nodded, having visited the place many times in the past.
"Well, just this morning, the place got completely trashed!"
That made the girls gasp in shock, they remembered how beautiful that place was, and imagining it getting ruined didn't sit well with them.
"The girl you see there, Hanako, came upon the scene of the crime just in time to see another student holding a trowel. Putting two and two together, she guessed that he was the one who created the mess and reported it to the teachers. Of course, he was then called to the front of the class and pressured to admit his crime and even got scolded by the teacher for lying to his face." Saruyama frowned, from his tone it hinted that he didn't approve of how the matter was treated. "I know the guy, he's my best friend, and he would never do such a thing since he's the one who took care of the garden in the first place. Unfortunately, many in the class didn't believe him when he said it wasn't him, and the fact he had literal dirt on his hand when Hanako found him didn't help his case and just gave more credence to her accusation."
The matter turned out to be bigger than either of the girls expected.
"Thankfully, before it could continue on any longer, his brother came to the classroom and literally put his foot down and took control of the situation. He heard the story from both sides and immediately started berating both the teacher and Hanako how they were idiots to assume that his brother could have done that in such a short window of time given they all were in class together just a few minutes ago. He called Hanako a brainless and short-sighted brat, questioning her intelligence as a human being and so much more that I would rather not repeat. Heck, the entire class and teacher weren't spared by his wicked tongue, they all were targeted for being a bunch of morons and blind sheeps for taking Hanako's side without question when his brother was known to be a plant lover and is part of the gardening club."
Wow, that was certainly a drama Risa wished she could have spectated. Would have made her day more enjoyable seeing the scene happen in person. She could already imagine the gossip that would come from this incident very soon.
"Oh, he's here!"
Saruyama exclaimed, they followed his gaze and found two boys walking inside the cafeteria. One being an orange-haired boy who she remembered seeing him gaze at Sairenji Haruna every once in a while — obviously being quite lovestruck by her — while the second was a redheaded boy which Risa remembered seeing from time to time before. Shirou was his name, and she remembered hearing it from her friend who mentioned how he helped out around the school with broken equipment. Everyone in the cafeteria started whispering at their arrival, or rather, everyone's attention was only focused on the latter more than the other kid who was obviously looking very uncomfortable with all the staring.
Shirou meanwhile didn't seem bothered at all, casually walking past everyone as if not noticing, or more likely, not caring about their glares — even greeting the lunch lady with a smile and asking for a juice box like everything was normal.
"Oi, Rito!" Saruyama shouted before rushing off toward them. Risa couldn't hear what they were talking about but whatever it was, Shirou just shook his head before walking out of the cafeteria with his juice box.
"Well, that certainly was something…" Mio said, noticing how many people no longer bothered to lower their voices when talking about him, calling him a delinquent and rude person. "They certainly don't hold back when he's not here."
"What can you do? People will gossip like this whenever they get the chance. Not that we can say anything as we don't know much about the story. The guy probably interfered because he didn't want his brother to be on the receiving end of everyone's ire." Risa spoke, having no real opinion on this matter given she just learned about this a few minutes ago. Furthermore, she was still very much exhausted and too stressed to care honestly. She leaned against the table, her eyes growing heavier as she felt the lack of sleep getting too much for her to handle.
"I'm saying it again, you need to go to the infirmary, Risa."
"... No, it's alright. Let me just get some fresh air, this place is getting crowded and I feel like it will only contribute to my headache." And also because she wanted to take her mind away from studying and just enjoy some peace.
"You haven't even finished half of your yakisoba bread…"
"Meh, you can have it yourself or throw it away, I don't care. Can't stomach this crappy food anymore even if I was hungry for it."
She said goodbye to Mio before walking outside the room. The school only had one quiet place, and so that was her destination.
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On the rooftop of the school, the door opened slowly with Risa walking out while yawning. As soon as the girl set foot there she was hit by a pleasant breeze which felt so much better than the cramped atmosphere of a classroom.
"Man… I can't wait to go back home and take a nap. Sweet bed of mine, how I long for you." She whispered before stretching her arms a bit.
The sky was mostly clear, with some small clusters of clouds here and there that casted a moving shadow over the roof. There was little to no noise, an ideal environment for the tired Risa. As she finished stretching, a light fragrance wafted over her nose.
"Eh?" She blinked, not expecting to smell such a salivating aroma on the roof. Her previously dead appetite was coming back to life and with a vengeance. The inside of her mouth began to salivate slightly as she started to follow the scent like a hound dog. It wasn't until she turned around a corner that Risa's eyes widened when she saw Shirou sitting by himself on a bench, with a book in his left hand and a pair of chopsticks dug inside a bento box filled with steaming hot tempura fried tonkatsu over rice and some miso soup on the side.
'Didn't expect to run into him so soon…' Risa thought, weighing her options on whether she should mind her own business or go over and say hi to the guy. Then again, she was too tired to deal with such troublesome matters and he looked very focused with that book of his — so disturbing him wouldn't exactly be ideal. But… that scent was just so enticing to her, making her hunger grow by the second as she couldn't remember when was the last time she had a nice home-cooked hot meal.
Unfortunately for Risa, her stomach made the decision before she could say anything.
Grrrrrrr~!
"Shit," she cursed at her body's betrayal, why did it have to announce its hunger so loudly like that? Wasn't she struggling to eat a piece of bread not that long ago!?
She panicked a bit when he looked over to her, their eyes meeting in silence for the following few seconds. She wondered if he knew her, given the reputation she and Mio had built around the student population with her excessive groping habits and perverted jokes just to get a reaction out of anyone she met.
"Can I help you?" The redhead asked calmly, putting a bookmark over the page he was reading before closing the book. Looking closer at the cover, she discovered it was actually a story, something to do with armored knights it would seem.
In a lapse of self-control, she let her instincts take over and uttered a single phrase.
"Eh… can I please have a bite?"
{Break}
(Present)
To say that Emiya was worried would be an understatement. Anything related to the principal and his depraved motives always put him on edge. How that pervert wasn't a registered sex offender or locked behind bars was a testament that there was more going on behind the scenes and how he could have possible connections to high ranking officials.
He did briefly entertain the thought of firing a Broken Phantasm at the degenerate, thus ending the leech in a manner that would leave no trace behind.
"Um, Shirou? I'm done." He heard Lala's voice coming from the other side of the room — the infirmary to be more accurate. Given before attending classes whatsoever, the alien princess was tasked to pay a visit to the school nurse and get a routine check-up. He went over past the white curtains that separated the room into different sections and for privacy.
"All good?" He asked the pink haired girl as she adjusted her clothes that he'd been forced to create another copy of for her. Peke returned soon after they fell through the roof, so he turned into a hairpin. That accursed bracelet was put away inside a phone of all things that was capable of storing physical items and even living entities from her words. From Lala's perspective, it was a standard phone that she used to call other people. But unlike a standard phone, it used dimensional technology that contained her inventions which she would "call" upon when needed.
At that point, he just learned to accept it and not ask questions.
Saved him the headaches.
"She is healthy, with normal blood pressure, stable heart rate, excellent vision, and hearing." Next to Lala sat a beautiful woman with green eyes and brownish-red hair. She wore a white lab coat, a pink top held together by a belt on her waist and a black skirt. Mikado Ryouko, Sainan High's nurse and unofficial counselor as he liked to call her. "I must say, I'm quite surprised you brought your girlfriend here, Emiya-kun."
The woman also had a bad habit of teasing basically anyone, even his brother. The poor boy had little to no defense against such things so he'd always end up having an over-the-top reaction, tripping and falling on a passing girl or getting an atomic red blush that would send him running off and oftentimes cause him to crash into a girl. At least one of her good points was her maturity, which unfortunately was a rarity in this school, even among the so-called adults that work here.
"She's not my girlfriend and I've brought Lala here so I can keep an eye on her during the day. Though I didn't expect her to get accepted so easily by that principal. I didn't even have to say a word before he'd suddenly filled out all the paperwork." Emiya said, watching Mikado write down something in her clipboard. From where he stood, the redhead could understand why many of the boys in the school always searched for even the smallest reason to come to the infirmary. With how much cleavage she showed, he began to wonder whether she was doing it intentionally.
Now that he thought about it though… "Where are all of your usual so-called 'patients'? I half expected the cots in the room to be filled to the brim with boys like they were the last time I came to visit."
"Oh don't worry about that. I made the half-serious comment that I liked strong men who could ignore such injuries and the next thing I know, the entire place is vacant." She giggled, obviously knowing exactly what she had done, as well as what all those boys had tried to pull. "Though I won't lie, it can get quite lonely at times yet crowded at others. Fortunately, now I can focus more on my actual work while also being able to chat with you, Emiya-kun. Speaking of which, how has life as a high school boy treated you so far?"
"It hasn't even been two weeks," he sighed, "but I guess it's been alright for the most part. Lately, things have been a bit hectic but I think I can manage."
That made the woman nod her head.
"I'm glad you took my advice, it's not healthy to always stay alone — especially after the incident."
"Eh, what incident?" Lala asked, curious about the topic they were discussing.
"Nothing serious, just some small accident that happened in the past, I'll tell you later." Emiya said, going back to continue his conversation with Mikado. "As for your advice, you say it as if I never talked to anyone, which is not entirely true. And not that many people care about what happened during the garden and have moved on. Though I do still get some glares here and there, but it's not something I'm at all worried about."
"I see, then I'm happy for you, Emiya-kun." She said, smiling at him. "Though I would advise you to get some male friends one of these days. People might get weird ideas seeing you spend so much time with all those girls that you hang out with, fufufu~"
Her response only made him roll his eyes. "Drop it, I've already got Mikan and Rito giving me the same sort of crap back home, I don't need you jumping into this trend as well. And as for making any male friends, it's rather hard when quite frankly it's difficult to find a male student that doesn't hate my guts for some asinine reason or was a complete horn dog or an idiot." This wasn't an exaggeration, for whatever reason, the boys of this world were more… difficult to understand compared to what he remembered from his old world. They were more loud, brash, perverted, and idiotic even.
From the time he accompanied Rin to her school in his astral form, Emiya recalled seeing one Ryuudou Issei. Even though he'd long since forgotten about the version of Issei from his own life, it didn't stop him from knowing what kind of person he was upon seeing him again. He guessed that mature disposition coupled with his disciplined behavior from being raised by a family of monks was what made Emiya Shirou stay friends with him for so long. He didn't know what happened to the one from his time, maybe the boy became the head monk or something of his family's temple like his father.
In this life though, there was no person in all of Sainan High who held a similar personality. The only one he felt comfortable to speak with normally was Mikado herself. Someone who treated him as a regular person, didn't pay attention to his past or other relationships and basically being the only true adult in this building.
"Aren't you close with that one senpai of yours, one Motemitzu Taizo?"
Emiya's eyes twitched when thinking about that blonde idiot who somehow managed to have at least two mindless hype-men following him around praising literally everything he did every waking moment. "No, he just sees me as some kind of rival for no reason, and also won't stop bugging me about my so-called 'secret' at getting girls."
"I recall seeing you two sitting at the same table sometimes during lunch."
"He's never invited nor welcomed, I just tolerate his presence since getting rid of him is more trouble than it's worth. I'm not fooled by his gentlemanly appearance, he's just as much of a desperate pervert as any other kid in this school."
After talking for a few more minutes, both Emiya and Lala walked out of the infirmary after thanking the school nurse for her diligence on ensuring Lala's good health, the woman in question waving them goodbye before returning to her work — her eyes frowning as she gazed at Lala's name.
"So the Princess is here… I just hope Emiya-kun will not get into too much trouble." Looking out the window, she realized that things would soon get very interesting around this school, even more so around one boy in particular.
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"She's a nice lady, don't you think so?" Lala spoke as they walked through the empty hallway, classes had already started and they were heading toward wherever Lala was assigned… which turned out to be everywhere! That principal gave her complete freedom to attend any classes she wanted for some reason.
"She is, Mikado Ryouko has been the only voice of reason in this place from what I've seen so far. Though she has her moments of childishness, for the most part, she's normal and level-headed, which is a quality that is all too often found wanting within these halls of supposed education." He heard some gasps from some of the students still walking along the hallway. "Have you decided where you want to go?"
Emiya did not miss the increasing number of students popping around in the hall. Many of them were boys all mesmerized by the beauty of Lala by his side. Yet those heart-shaped eyes soon turned into a burning fire as they saw him walking alongside her. He didn't need any sort of mind-reading power to guess what was going inside their one-track brains — really even a child could guess their… well, childish thought processes.
A bad feeling was creeping up on him this time though. Something felt unnatural about the surrounding presence. The number of boys who walked past them had steadily increased, and now there were far too many wearing some sort of bandana around their heads.
Meanwhile, Lala was oblivious to all of this, she read the paper listing all the different classes the principal had given her and thought about it briefly before answering his question.
"I want to go wherever you go, Shirou!" She said it out loud and with a giant smile, with everyone around them hearing the words clearly, and that statement proved to be the final straw that broke the camel's back.
Woosh!
Immediately, he was surrounded by a line of students. All of them wearing those bandanas over their heads, making them look like a bunch of biker thugs. He and Lala stopped, the latter looking around in confusion while he narrowed his eyes at a certain monkey-faced boy in front of him.
"So the great leader's words were true after all." One of the students whispered in a hiss.
Saruyama brought his shaky fingers up and pointed at Lala. "O-Oi, Emiya… who is she? And what is your relationship with her?" The boy he knew as Rito's close friend, Saruyama Kenichi, asked with barely hidden dread in his voice.
To his dismay, Lala said the one thing that, while true, was far the best answer in this situation. "Me? I'm Shirou's hostage!" She exclaimed it loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear and even grabbed his arm lovingly — her head resting against his shoulders as she smiled gently. "He's so sweet! He let me sleep on his couch after cutting my cheeks with a spear and knocking me out."
"..."
Everyone was silent, one could even gear a pin drop followed by a face slap which came from Emiya himself. The killing intent spiked, the burning flames inside their hearts coming forth as an inferno of unstoppable fury amongst all of them. Their teeth clenched while many began cracking their fists, showing obvious signs of wanting to break every bone in his body.
"WWWWHHHHHHAAAATTTTTTT!!!!!!?????" They all screamed in unison.
"Y-Y-You have all of them… yet now also resort to k-kidnapping beautiful girls?" Saruyama whispered, "A-And sh-she's happy with it!? DAMMIT WHY?! What kind of Lovecraftian horror monster did you make a pact with to have this power?!"
"You bastard, you need to suffer for taking another gorgeous girl like this for yourself before any of us even get to introduce ourselves!"
"It's time you get familiar with my fist!"
They were all getting ready for a fight.
'…You know what? This seems like a great opportunity for me.'
Since Lala's arrival, facing two superpowered aliens, having a meeting with the emperor of the galaxy coming up this afternoon, and several other problems all at the same time… these things had started to get on his nerves. One headache after another, pushing his so far peaceful life to the edge of getting destroyed… It was not a fun experience — so it was understandable that Emiya had some pent up anger he needed to vent. So he did the one thing that always confused Lala as to how he actually did it. Opening his bag and reaching inside, the redhead secretly Traced a singular weapon that would help him teach these perverts a lesson and help to release some of his anger. It wouldn't seriously hurt them, but good enough for what he was about to do next and teach them a lesson.
A single wooden shinai came out gripped in his hand, the weapon itself having a cute little tiger-shaped accessory strapped to its hilt. Funnily enough, no one questioned how he could have pulled out a full length shinai out of such a small bag.
"Eh, what is going on, Shirou?" Lala asked, confused about why things were escalating so quickly.
Emiya ignored her and just smirked at the crowd of boys surrounding them, something that seemed to only inflame their anger further.
"Come on now, let's get this done quickly. Fun as I'm sure it'll be to vent my frustrations like this, I've got better things to do than deal with the likes of you idiots."
"You!" Insulted and offended, Saruyama was the first one to rally his comrades and charge forward. "Members of the Anti-Emiya Alliance, our enemy has ensnared yet another maiden with his nefarious bishounen looks! We must save her from his evil clutches here and now, and in doing so we may very well end up getting to go on a date with her and even earn ourselves a free kis—!" Crack!
His speech was stopped mid way with the tiger themed shinai hitting him square in the face and sending the monkey-boy's body flying backwards and bowling over several of his comrades.
At that moment, everyone charged at the same time with a unified warcry.
{Break}
-Classroom 1-A-
For the most part, everyone was focused on Honekawa-sensei's words. Taking notes and generally staying busy doing regular classwork. Rito was sneaking glances at Haruna while the latter focused on the board. He was once again contemplating trying to confess to her again after school; his brother was always encouraging him to not give up.
A few seconds later, the whole class suddenly heard the sounds of numerous painful cries coming from somewhere in the building. Everyone wondered what it was, a few guessed that it could have been the students in gym class — but they were proven wrong when they saw that there was no one outside.
"This… doesn't this sound like a fight going on somewhere?" At one of the desks, Risa commented after she peered outside.
"It does sound like that… What is going on?" Mio wondered.
"I think it's coming from the west wing building."
"Woah, yeah, I see a whole bunch of people there!"
"Are they fighting!?"
"Yo, is this a riot or something?"
"Should we call the cops?"
They all noticed the commotion going on the neighboring building where most of the staff rooms were located. And there, they could make out the sight of many male students lying on the ground with bruised faces curled up in agony, and all of them wearing some weird cloth over their heads.
"Hm?" Haruna noticed something weird. "Who's that?" She pointed towards the other side of the field where the blue haired girl saw a single girl with brown hair running full speed to where the chaos was happening whilst holding a… shinai?
"That's Kûjo Rin!" Yui, who came over earlier to the class in order to drop some paperwork, exclaimed in surprise while watching next to Haruna. "What is going on over there!? Such displays are not suitable for our school's image and break so many rules! I must put a stop to this at once personally!" She exclaimed angrily while rushing out of the classroom.
"W-Wait, Kotegawa-san! It's not safe!" Haruna quickly followed the brunette, wanting to make her rethink her decision.
Rito while looking at the scene, noticed a familiar shade of red hair appear near the window for a fraction of a second before disappearing. 'Wait… isn't that...'
"Yuuki-kun!?" The teacher yelled when he saw the boy run out of the class as well.
"Neh, Risa, didn't you notice something weird about Rin?" Mio asked, finding the entire thing very interesting.
"Hm? I can't see much from here, she's too far away…"
"Yeah, I think I saw her… smiling?" Mio said, unsure of her words. "I don't know if I can call it smiling but she did look very excited for some reason… and scary."
"Wanna go take a look?"
"Of course!"
Both girls grabbed their bags and dashed out of the classroom as well, with Honekawa finding himself becoming helpless in trying to control the situation before giving up and returning to the blackboard to resume teaching what remained of his class.
{Break}
-???-
Meanwhile, inside a dark room there were three figures standing silently staring attentively at a large blank screen.
If Emiya had been there, then he would have recognised all three of them as Zastin, Maul and Smutts. They were all extremely nervous, even sweating profusely as they looked at the screen which showed the system trying to connect with a certain someone. Someone whom the mere thought of made their blood run cold as no one dared to move a single inch.
Shrt!
The screen flickered before the image of an equally dark room appeared before them. A large golden throne sat in the middle with a shadowed figure sitting leisurely upon it. A long tail, similar to Lala's but both ornate while also looking far more vicious and deadly. The edges gleaming against the light like a sharpened sword.
A single deep voice spoke from the other side first.
"Where is my daughter, Zastin?"
Zastin swallowed and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He hoped that whatever this human magic user, Yuuki Emiya Shirou, had planned with the emperor of the galaxy would end up working and not infuriate his liege. Or else… in just a matter of days, Earth wouldn't exist any longer.
"Rest assured, Your Majesty, the Princess is safe and sound. But, uh… there is someone who wants to speak with you concerning her return." He went on to explain to the Emperor what had happened throughout these last few days, from chasing the Princess to Earth, the chase and brief battle between the young yet powerful human who wielded strange magic and his subordinates, as well as the talk that Zastin himself had with the boy earlier this morning. The entire time, the dark figure on the screen remained silent, yet everyone could feel the piercing stare coming from the other side. Like an invisible pressure weighing upon their shoulders, judging their every action and word as if all their lives depended on it. After Zastin was done giving his report on these events, a few seconds of heavy silence followed as they awaited the Emperor's decision.
"…Hooo, so we have some random human who thinks he can look down on me? Amusing… very amusing."
That… that wasn't the response Zastin was hoping for. Sweat dripped from his chin at the realization that Emiya's request may have very possibly offended the Emperor.
The razor tail on the screen whipped around, slashing part of the throne clean off.
"I still have a planet that I'm scheduled to destroy in a few days…" he was contemplating something that made many in the room worried. They saw a large grin appear from the shadowy figure. "I want to see what this boy is really all about before meeting him face to face. Very well, bring him forth, I shall have a small trial for him to judge if he's worthy of even listening to or not."
Once again, Zastin prayed for the redhead's sake and that of this planet. Whatever this trial was that the Emperor had in mind, he knew it wouldn't be easy.
Emperor Gid Lucione Deviluke was a ruler most infamous across the galaxy for his ruthlessness and cruelty.
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.
