CHAPTER 3: THE DRUNKARD (REDUX)
The ground feels wet to me. I guess I’m not wearing shoes, then. Unless I happen to be standing in a puddle; that’s happened on several occasions, even though I don’t remember walking into them. Maybe someone picked me up and placed me in it while I wasn’t looking. While I ponder these things, and wonder why this dress feels so breezy, Seraph’s voice echoes throughout the empty courtyard.
“The first match shall begin right in this very temple. The rest of you will not be able to interfere with the match, but you can shout words of encouragement to them.” Good, the power of friendship will win in the end. That’s usually how these things go, right?
“Just a few more things before we begin. First, the general story is that you are fighting Servants and Masters, to the death, for control of the Holy Grail, which is said to grant any wish the winner makes on it. Second, I had scanned several people around the school and town during the vacation, so some of their personalities may have bled into the characters you will be facing; it will make things interesting, to say the least.” Seraph ended that on a dry note. This could lead to some interesting philosophical and ethical debates between me and myself, and possibly Seraph; perhaps when we leave I’ll discuss this with him.
“And finally, I have some… things… to attend to, so my friend that you saw at the computer will be here to take over for me. Say hello, Cici.”
“Hello, Cici,” said the slightly-monotone feminine voice. Well, if she’s saying ‘hello’ to Cici, then who is that voice…?
“While Seraph takes care of his business, I will be here to answer any questions you have and announce the match-ups. I will also be monitoring your vitals, just in case…” She seemed to trail off on purpose. “With that said, the first match will be between Dark Sakura and Berserker.”
As I focus back on the others, I notice that they are all staring in my direction, so I turn around to see if anyone is behind me.
“Oh, I guess she means me. Someone wish for me to ‘break a leg.’” I smile to myself on the inside with that little joke.
“Uh, how about ‘bust some heads,’ instead, Rin?” Aww, how sweet of Hisao.
Hanako chirped up, saying, “Uh, Berserker is s-supposed to be the spirit of Heracles, from A-Ancient Greek myths. B-Because of his class, and partly due to Heracles’ story, he is supposed to go in a mad rage when he fights, so be careful.”
Trying to remember who this Heracles is wasn’t doing me much good, so I just walked over to the front of the temple while the others stood off on the grass, away from the stone walkway. “Wait, where’s your weapon?” Emi yelled toward me, seeing as how I was unarmed, in more than the usual manner.
“I’m fine, just wait and see.” I said coyly, finishing with a sweet giggle. I was feeling rather giddy about the whole idea of fighting people, especially ones I know. You have no idea how exacerbated I get with some people. And yes, that is completely without a bit of irony; I’m just as human as the next armless cuckoolander. Moments later, the earth shook, then again, and again. It felt like someone was stomping their way closer toward me.
Then he appeared through the temple archways: a giant, in the true sense of the word, over eight feet tall, and muscles upon muscles. All he wore was a type of metal skirt that soldiers wore in ancient Europe. He was dragging a giant stone sword behind him that looked like it weighed a few hundred pounds; Hanako called toward me and said it was called “Nine Lives.” I was beginning to wonder who Seraph picked for this character, because I certainly couldn’t think of anyone, until…
Oh, man, that’s just freaky. On top of this hulking mass of muscle was the head of Kenji, complete with red-and-yellow scarf and coke bottle glasses. He did have wildly flowing black hair, which managed to suit him… I really had a bone to pick with the real Kenji, so I guess I’ll take it out on this one. More of a challenge…
“GGGRRRAAAAWWWW!!!” Crap. This might not be easy. “DAMNED FEMINISTS!” Well, it’s still Kenji. On steroids. With a sword.
“FIGHT!” Cici’s voice rang over the temple. Immediately, Kenji rushed, as fast as a giant can, toward me. He moved the slab stone sword with great ease. I stood there motionless, waiting for him to get closer. As soon as I was within his sword’s range, Kenji roared out, “GIGANTOMACHIA!” He lifted the sword directly behind his back, as if putting all of his strength into this swing.
Now, I don’t really like Kenji. Aside from the drunkenness, the paranoid attitude, and his generally unfavorable attitude toward women, which is a group I happen to belong to, the thing that really pissed me off was when he insulted my last art project. Normally, this wouldn’t have bothered me, but seeing as how I was painting it as a present for Hisao, I made an exception. Because of this, I decided to toy with this particular Kenji for a bit…
Just as his sword was mere inches from my head, I activated my shadow power, and fell into the pool of black and red shadow beneath me. Nine Lives connected with the stone walkway, instantly turning the stones into powder. I was standing in what could be considered an infinite room of pitch-blackness, aside from the light and image coming from the portal I just fell through, and the portal on the temple deck I was about to rise out of. If I wasn’t in the middle of a fight, this would be a nice place to sit and ponder life’s mysteries, like where that missing sock in the dryer ends up. Maybe it ends up here?
Anyway, as the dust cleared, I poked my head, up to my nose, out of the shadow, almost like I was in a pool of water, except I can ‘swim’ much better in shadows than in actual water. The others hadn’t seen me yet, as they were still looking rather worried toward the giant crater. I rose out of the pool, as the shadow began to waft through the air around me, rising almost as smoldering wisps. Once I noticed the others had seen me, I couldn’t help but giggle. How un-Rin-like. I slowly descended the temple stairs, moving no faster than an old man, partly because that’s how this Dark Sakura seemed to move in the image I had of her in my mind, but also because I wanted to piss Kenji off even more.
Kenji was too preoccupied with removing his sword from the three-foot deep crater he created. As soon as he lifted his sword back up, I had teleported within a foot of his personal space. Kenji roared, either from surprise, fury, or the fact that a pure, yet sexy woman was mere inches from him; I’m not sure. You can’t rationalize madness.
“Try and dodge this, big boy.” I smirked and began waving my armlets about toward him, the long sleeves of my black dress flapping with the movement and the wind. With each flick, the shredded frills of the black dress became sentient, although they stopped just below my crotch… oh, that’s why it’s breezy here. The strips of cloth turned into expanding and extending spears and spikes, which moved at alarming speeds, striking Kenji in the gut. However, each strike appeared to do little in the way of stunning him, because he roared in frustration. The next thing I knew, Kenji’s arm shot out and, with the force and possibly weight of a ‘super sumo-wrestler,’ grabbed me by the neck. I felt my skin tighten under his rough hand, as well as bone beginning to crack; his grip was tight enough that I couldn’t even let out a scream in pain.
“GELONUS’ RAMPAGE!”
He slammed me into the cold, hard ground behind him, then lifted me up and threw me into the stone walkway near him. The force was enough for me to bounce into the air as he lifted his sword behind him. At this point, the pain from the first body slam hit me, which nullified the bouncing pain, I assume. I reached Kenji’s eye level, about eight feet in the air, when he swung the sword downward. It connected with a sickening “THUCK,” in which I managed to only let out a small yelp of pain as the sword ripped through my dress, left shoulder to right hip, and deep into my chest cavity, almost completely eviscerating me. The odd thing was I was more concerned about the fact he obliterated my right tit with that swing; I am very proud of my rather ample bust. As I was momentarily paralyzed, he flicked my body away with the sword, like he was flicking a can out of his way. I crashed into the deck of the temple, causing it to fracture and warp from the force. I think I got a splinter in my butt.
Through the dust of the now-raining wood particles, I could vaguely see that my friends were obviously concerned for me and voicing some words of support, although my ears were still ringing. As I assessed my wounds, I thought I could see my entrails, as well as what you could consider the front of my spine, through the window Kenji created in my chest. Gives me an interesting idea for a painting. I stood up, although without much difficulty, and gave Kenji the best death glare I could give him. I may have frightened my friends more, what with the hole in my chest and everything. I didn’t feel the pain anymore, and without looking I knew that the organs were reforming, the hole sealing and healing, and the dress reforming. Gotta remain somewhat decent. A small trickle of blood ran down the side of my mouth. I really wanted to give off the psychotic vibe I was feeling from the character, so I licked the blood off my lip, visualized my attack, and simply muttered:
“I’m hungry.”
With that, the shadow beneath me jutted out within a foot of Kenji, who didn’t care, or was unaware of its approach, where it then stopped. The shadow began to rise out of the ground, forming a large bulb. It continued to swell quickly until it burst, spraying outwards, sending hundreds of shadow shards and vapors toward Kenji. This had a visible effect on him, in that he was thrown about twenty feet backwards into the temple wall behind him. The wall instantly collapsed into the hole he formed, burying him with rubble. I began to meander toward Kenji, when he appeared to rise from his premature grave and began to hurl the midget-sized debris at me. If those were real midgets, I’m sure they wouldn’t be too pleased. Being naturally fast on my toes, I side-stepped the projectiles easily.
“C’mon, Rin; give this sexist bastard a real lesson!” My, my; I forgot that Emi has quite the mouth on her when she gets riled up. “I wanna see him bleed whisky!”
As Kenji began to deplete his ammo, I began to twist my feet on top of the shadow, almost like a deadly dance. While each flick of my arms sent out spikes and shadow fists, each twitch of my feet sent forth a visible wave within the shadow, eventually forming a wide, waist-high mist that someone Kenji’s girth couldn’t dodge. Several of the spikes impaled him at various points in his limbs and abdomen, and the mist shredded his skin, but even as he was bleeding he continued as if nothing was there. This is starting to become bothersome. My rapid-fire plan of attack appeared to do the job, never giving Kenji an inch, until…
“GGRRRRRAAAAAARRRRR!!!” Kenji gave a guttural roar, like before, but his body was surrounded by a bright light. There was a visible shockwave that emanated outwards, causing me to break off the attack, mostly because I was thrown backward a few feet by the blast, although I wasn’t hurt by it. While I recovered from the blast, Kenji managed to bridge what gap there was between us, and yelled out, “NINE LIVES!”
I barely had time to visualize a wall, which formed a shield in front of me as Kenji began to swing his sword wildly at me. The first strike was slow and heavy, creating sparks as it glanced off my shadows. The second was slightly faster, as were the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, each increasing in speed. I lost count, seeing as how I was more focused on keeping the barrier up. In the twelve seconds it took from when he yelled out his attack until he stopped, he must have swung that sword at least one hundred times, and he didn’t even break a sweat. What it did do to me was create a ringing in my ears from all the clanging. I did have enough strength to force the barrier into Nine Lives just before it would have struck, and forced Kenji backwards a bit. I immediately lowered the shield, and simply stood there with my trademark stare. As Kenji took his first step towards me, I stated:
“Art: Angra Mainyu…”
The sleeves of my dress, as well as all the material just above my nipple line, extended as tendrils into the shadow below me, which had grown to cover a good amount of the courtyard, including where the other were standing. I think I saw Hisao checking my cleavage; however, it was blemished by the blood-splatter-like marks scattered on my breasts and collarbone. I wish he’d check when I didn’t look like this… oh well, fan service is fan service. The black cloth tentacles rose from the pool under Kenji, wrapped around his wrists and ankles, and lifted him spread-eagle high into the air. As he rose, so did four massive shadows, each gaining the form of headless giants, which happened to look like some things I drew when I was a kid; you know, with the dots for faces. The giants then pulled their arms back, and struck Kenji with all their might. The tentacles immediately threw him to the ground, and reformed the top half of my dress. Kenji lay there, motionless.
I noticed that my friends were about to head toward me when Kenji rose AGAIN. Hisao yelled out, to no one in particular, “Why won’t he just die!?”
“That’s my line, Hisao.” I was seriously tired of this, so I then teleported within an arm’s length of Kenji. The sleeves, yet again, became sentient; however, they went straight for his ankles. Just as they grabbed him, I let loose the most sadistic smile you could imagine, and said:
“Heaven’s Fall…”
The shadow then extended underneath Kenji, and the sleeves pulled him under the shadow, and towards me. As they pulled him closer, the upper half of my dress became tentacles again, and forced him closer to her. I began giggling hysterically, and crawling as best as I could on my knees toward him, while my breasts were jiggling due to lack of support. More fan service for Hisao… and any of the girls, if they felt like it. Oh, I’m going to enjoy this…
After what felt like pure ecstasy, I plowed myself into Kenji so hard he shot out of the shadows and laid in a crumpled heap on the grass. He let out a sort of defeated grunt, and began to evaporate into white light. “Dark Sakura wins.” Cici’s voice spoke, once again, calling victory in my favor. About damn time. As my friends ran over, I was wracked with pain. I crouched on the ground, knees in my chest, rocking back and forth, muttering “It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts…” to myself. For some reason, Hisao’s face was a combination of fear and anger.
“Are you… okay, Rin?” He managed to choke that out as he knelt down and placed his left hand on my shoulder. “No… during that last attack… I stubbed my toe.” “Uh, Rin, what exactly were you doing to Kenji underneath the shadow?” He slowly asked me, as if treading a dangerous issue. “I was just kneeing him in the crotch; probably hard enough that the real Kenji felt it.” I whipped my head around as I heard all the girls face-fault to the ground upon hearing my answer. Shizune fell over, as well. “Oh, Rin, we were so worried that you were doing something horrible to yourself,” spoke Emi as she sat back up. “It wasn’t that bad, it actually felt pretty good,” I said, apparently not getting the message they were trying to imply. “No, we all thought…” Emi knelt down and whispered into my ear, almost seeming embarrassed to say what she was about to say in front of Hisao.
“…We all thought you were raping Kenji,” whispered Emi. “My goodness, Emi; what kind of girl do you take me for?” I noticed that Hisao placed his hand over his face as I started to poke fun at Emi. “I thought you knew me better than that.” “You aren’t exactly easy to read,” spoke Lily, with a frown, albeit a relieved one. Hmm… if she can’t see, how can she know what face to make? Yes, I’m more focused on THAT than on the idiom she just used; that’s how I roll. Hmm…Rin rolls. I wonder what ingredients would be in that? I assume they would be best served in a tin bin with a glass of gin. It’s an acquired taste…heh.
“What was it like, controlling those shadows?” Shizune signed, apparently truly curious. “Well, I can’t exactly describe it. They were like a part of me. Think of it as receiving arms, and knowing how to use them without having to use them before. I knew how to form those attacks without ever fighting like that before. It felt… good.” I paused, and actually played the entire fight in my head to see what it would be like from their perspective.
“What about that giant gash through your chest?” “Oh, so you WERE staring at my chest, Hisao?” At least I know he WAS looking. “Yes, I was; it was a little hard to miss, what with the giant hole in it.” “Well, it did hurt for a minute, but then vanished.”
“U-uh, Servants and some Masters can use mana to heal q-quickly. Dark Sakura was able to reattach her head after being decapitated in the v-visual novel.” Hanako explained to all of us; I guess that’s why I wasn’t particularly freaked when I saw my guts: “I,” meaning Dark Sakura, had been through much worse. “This is also a game; if such injuries were allowed to persist, the matches would be very short,” Cici explained, in a dry, matter-of-fact way. She is right, you know.
“The results for Rin’s match have been saved, and all vitals appear normal and unchanged. Please enter the temple, now.” The sliding doors to the temple opened, and all that shown through was a bright, white light. We entered it, and as we walked a few feet inside the light, we reached a metal door. After Hisao opened it, I saw nothing but gravel and metal air conditioner cubes. I walked over toward the edge of the low wall, and saw an entire city lit by the lights of the buildings under the night sky, although not bright enough to erase the view of the stars high in the sky. As I looked around, I saw that the others were just as awe-struck by the view from this skyscraper as I was.
“Please enjoy the view before the next match begins,” Cici stated. “The next match is between Saber and Assassin.”
-----------------------
Not much else to say at the moment, but here's the title for Chapter Four: "The Angel of Death." Have fun guessing who Assassin is...
(just imagine him as blue, mostly to represent your balls)