View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb3UmzOqios
[... If Ayako wants it]
But the witches will help her.
Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!
—
"If Ayako wants it, we should keep it around."
Medea stares at you, it was her third look. You had begun to classify them, the first was her normal, impassive look. The second was the look she used when she was annoyed with you. This was a third look, a mixture of the two, she used that when she wanted to kill you. You had begun to see it more and more lately.
"Ooooh, good boy! Yes, I am very useful, now just let me get to those soft, supple fingEEERRRS?!" Rubies attempt at being… whatever the hell it was doing, was interrupted by Circe picking up the stick with a long pair of wooden tongs. Where exactly she had pulled them from you had no idea.
Circe twists the stick this way and that, observing it as it wiggles and twists within the tongs. "Indeed," then Circe smiles. "We can certainly teach Ayako, after all, we are good witches and help the training of others, don't we, my dear pupil?" Circe asks, turning her gaze towards Medea.
"I am far from a 'good witch'," Medea growls. "And in any case, something of that nature should not be in the hands of a stupid girl that has no idea what she is getting in the middle of."
"Hey!" Ayako says, looking more than mildly offended. "I get good grades!"
"And yet you are a fool regardless," Medea says, with the same tone one might use to discuss the weather. "For multiple reasons, but it is not my pla-"
"Name
one you blue-haired bitch." Ayako replies.
"Perhaps getting stabbed and deciding that you were pleased having that happen in the future? Or perhaps continuing to involve yourself in the Grail War despite knowing you had no means of defending yourself within it. Or perhaps charging a compound filled with criminals on the off-chance your boyfriend had been kidnapped."
Ayako's eyes narrow. "I had good reason for all three of those."
Medea says nothing in response, instead, she turns her gaze to you. "I see like attracts like even in this age."
"Medea-dear, jealously is an abysmal look for a woman your age," Circe says.
Caster's head turns so hard she threatens to snap it as she focuses on Circe, the witch is still squatting by the doorway, grinning. Ruby for… her? part wasn't struggling anymore either. "I have little to be jealous
of, and do not use my name so freely."
Circe moves a hand to her mouth. "Oh, my apologies. Were you hoping he had forgotten it so that when you next deign to reveal it he can woo you by stating he didn't care about your past? Again?"
"
Circe." Medea growls.
The hand lowers, revealing a vicious, mocking grin. "Yes, that is indeed my name." Circe then points to you and Ayako. "And that's Shirou and Ayako, do keep up my dear pupil. I do understand that your brain is old and your loins are dry, but I do not understand how you plan on seducing that boy without remembering his name."
"Out… get…" Medea says,
"Oh dear, she's lost the ability to speak," Circe says, looking now a tad worried. She then looks to Ayako. "I'll clean up the lobby and put your family in order, would you mind getting some clothes together? I would… recommend staying with Shirou for the time being," the smile then returns. "To better assist in your training in how to use this device, and to… ward off any threats, might I say."
"Threats? Like… the… people like her running around?" Ayako asks, pointing at Medea.
Circe's smile grows a touch. "Yes, but not in the manner you are perhaps thinking."
Ayako blinks, confusion on her face. "I don't… what?"
"He has started to fight back, however, attacking his opponents from the front and behind." Circe continues.
Oh. "Circe… can you please go handle her parents? I'll help Ayako pack… if she's alright with coming with me."
"Not sure how I'm going to tell my parents I'm staying over at a crime lord's house," Ayako says.
"You're on a school trip," Circe replies, standing and making her way down the hallway. "I'll modify their memories to make it as such."
"You can
do that?" Ayako asks curiously.
"There is very little our magic
cannot do girl," Medea replies with a sigh. "Now, pack, before anything else idiotic happens. This conversation sin't ove-"
*BANG*
Circe goes flying back down the hallway in an explosion of dust, dirt, stone and wood. You briefly make out something on top of her before she lands with a crash against the end of the hallway, and by extension, at the foot of the door to Ayako's room. The witch was splayed out, back against the ground, Ruby still hand loosely in her opposite hand via the tongs as she got her bearings.
"
Nevermind." Medea says.
Atop Circe, the cause of her fall, was a man, and the man stood quickly, and you took a step back on instinct as he nearly brushed against the ceiling in doing so. The man was taller than Kuzuki was, and that teacher was already one of the tallest men you had ever met. He was dressed in a blue and gold… uniform of some sort, you didn't recognize the make, but it was old. It was also torn to shred, bits of it were missing, and gashes cut into the material to reveal bloody skin underneath. His hair was white, but… oddly unnaturally so, in a way, you couldn't quite describe. In one hand he held an old-fashioned flintlock pistol, in the other, a slightly curved sword. He tucked the second away quickly, reaching down to aid Circe. "My apologies madam."
Circe blinks, looking as confused as Ayako was earlier as the man helps Circe back up. He then takes a step back, and looks around the space for a moment, before settling on the three of you in the room. "Good morning."
"Good… morning?" Ayako offers.
The man smiles, a tight-lipped thing. "Master Shirou, I would recommend evacuating these premises immediately." Then he turns, making his way back towards the front door, leaving you to sit there in confusion.
What?
—
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4xsfkhcw-A
—
Then you hear it,
▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!
A loud cry like that of a wounded animal echoes down the hall, shaking the wood and causing you to stumble where you stood. Nausea tears through you, as does… fear. Your body screams at you to run, to get away from whatever it was that made that sound. But you knew what made that sound, you had dealt with it once already…
And now it was back again.
You move forward, past Circe, and past the obliterated front door and into the open. There, standing in the road was…
Before you had only seen it in the dark, it somehow made even less sense in the day among people. It was a man, at least in shape. But there was no rhyme or reason to it. Limbs jutted out of limbs, the body was twisted, distorted, bending in ways and shapes no human or living thing besides could deal with. Eyes emerged from the flesh, blinking and searching. And it was
howling.
▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▅!
There was a thing that shouldn't exist, something that didn't belong to this world in the middle of Fuyuki. It had escaped the dark, it had escaped your nightmares. And it was now standing amidst the parked cars and signs of life like an errant
thing that shouldn't be. A glitch in reality, there was nothing correct about its existence.
The man who had crashed into the house raised his pistol and fired. The monster stumbled back, then charged forward. Its body shifted and changed shape as it moved, jerking from one position to the next, slobbering mouths and grasping hands all over. The wicked spear you saw before gouged through the earth, carving up the asphalt like it was sand to try and stab at the man. He for his part narrowly moves out of the way, then disappears from view, moving further up the street. But you heard another shot ring out, and the monster turned and chased after him, away from the house
and further into the neighborhood.
"What the hell is that!?" Ayako screeches.
"It is what attacked your brother," Medea replies. "Shirou, we cannot stay here."
… That much was obvious. The monster was here, but so was Ayako's family. You could not, under any circumstances, allow her or her family to come to harm. But that man… who was he? He looked like he was leading the monster
away from you all deliberately at that last moment. You knew how powerful that thing was.
But you also wanted it gone from this town. And the monster had disappeared from the dark of the night and was here now, in Fuyuki, in the daylight and around people it would easily slaughter fighting a servant.
You take in a breath, thinking for a split second. Then you speak.
—
[] [Escape with Ayako's Parents]
[] [Have one of the servants leave with Ayako's parents and brother, you and another servant will help the man]
[] [Write-in]