Day 21 Chapter 2
- Location
- Around here
[X] Enetious
<Please, you've got to help me find her!>
Mikuni Oriko has disappeared? It doesn't make any sense to you. Why would she choose now, of all times, to disappear? You quickly run through possible reasons for her disappearance in your head.
At first, you think that she simply skipped town in fear for her life, for one reason or another. Perhaps she saw something with her precognition that made her change her mind about staying in Mitakihara to fight, or her efforts to exterminate the local puella magi population didn't quite go as planned and she had to skip town to avoid someone with an even larger grudge against her than yourself.
But as soon as the idea crosses your mind, you discard it. Mikuni Oriko may be many things, many of them bad, but you do not doubt for a second that the love and care she shows to Kure Kirika is genuine. If Mikuni Oriko had skipped town, you're sure she would have brought Kure Kirika with her, and not left her a frantic and scared mess in the middle of the night.
Unfortunately, all the other options you come up with are no better for her. If she decided to go out hunting again later in the night, it's entirely possible that a witch, or Assassin, or something else lurking in the dark places of the city that you haven't yet encountered, has killed her. Or, even if they didn't kill her directly, the fight could have forced her to take on so much corruption that she became a witch. Or, if you assume that her outburst last night was her own emotion and not the weight of her accumulated corruption, she could have simply had enough and taken her own life.
As you consider the possibility of each option, you can hear on the other end of the line that Kure Kirika is grown ever more frantic, her desperation mounting as the seconds pass and she waits to hear your reply. Finally, the dam breaks. <I know we don't really get along, but you're the only person I can even ask for help! I'm using Oriko's phone right now, and you're the only other number she has. Please, I'm begging you, you have to help me! I'll do anything!>
"The situation isn't looking so good," you say at last. "I've tried to think of reasons why she might have disappeared, but none of them bode well. I can try to get in touch with her telepathically, and I can send the word out to Tomoe-san to bring Caster in on the hunt, but I'm afraid that my own abilities won't be of much help to you in searching for her, assuming she is even still with us."
<Don't say that! Oriko can't die, not without me! She's alive, I know she is! She's got to be... I can't- I can't live without her.>
And to think, you were just starting to feel something other than hatred for Mikuni Oriko... "Alright, I'll see what I can do." ... "Mikuni Oriko, are you there?" Silence. "I repeat, are you there? Kure Kirika is worried about your disappearance." Still silence. On a last, desperate attempt, on the off chance that she's either asleep or unconscious somewhere that isn't her mansion, you try sending one last message. It contains no words, sounding off only to the loudest cacophony your mind can muster. The roar of storm winds, the chorus of gunfire and explosions, and the crash of buildings collapsing around you.
You send the sounds that you hear every time you fight Walpurgisnacht.
And still, there is silence. You have no choice but to inform Kure Kirika. "I'm sorry," you say. "But I'm not getting any response from her. I can send Archer out to search the city, and I can tell Tomoe-san to ask Caster for aid, but there's nothing else I can realistically do."
You hear only two words from Kure Kirika as she hangs up on you, a tearful, choked <Thank you.> And then silence. You sigh, setting your phone down as Archer enters the living room.
"It's a little early to be chatting with your friends, isn't it?" he asks, taking a seat beside you. "I take it that something bad is happening?"
"That was Kure Kirika. Mikuni Oriko has gone missing."
"What the fuck is wrong with me; why did I do that?"
Because you're secretly a super-good guy and you couldn't stand by and let some idiot child get hurt while there was something you could do to save them.
Your name is Emiya Shirou, and right now, as you stand atop a skyscraper overlooking the city, that's the only thing that you can say. Against your better judgement - indeed, against every drop of mana that comprises your body screaming at you to leave that girl to whatever fate she had wandered into - you had, in the end, followed your master's order when she sent you out to look for Mikuni Oriko.
"That was Kure Kirika. Mikuni Oriko has gone missing."
You cross your arms over your chest as your master gives her report. "Good. Maybe this will teach Kure to be more independent."
Clearly, your master didn't appreciate your response. "Archer, this is a serious matter."
"I know. I'm taking it as seriously as it deserves. Those two are in a distressingly unhealthy relationship and are practically joined at the hip. In fact, if what you said about them having found a way to transfer mana is true, it wouldn't surprise me if that statement was a bit more literal."
Your master eyes you suspiciously, and asks "What does that mean?"
"It means that Kure could stand-" you snicker to yourself as you realize the pun you've just made "-to learn how to live without her babysitter for a few hours. It might be good for her."
"Archer, when I say that Mikuni Oriko has gone missing, I don't just mean that she's packed her bags on gone on holiday without telling anyone. I mean that she is missing. M-I-A." Your master sounds more distressed about Mikuni's vanishing than you would have expected, given everything you know about their history. "One of my allies - one of the people that I need in order to keep this city safe, to stand a chance of beating Walpurgisnacht - has gone missing, and all attempts at contacting her have turned up silent."
If it were solely up to your own discretion, you would have had no qualms about leaving Mikuni to her fate. But this isn't just about you. Your master needs Mikuni in order to keep this city safe, in order to keep Kaname Madoka safe. As much as you want to leave her, you can't, not without risking the integrity of your own mission in the process.
"Archer, I've just finished speaking with Tomoe-san. According to Caster, Mikuni Oriko is to the northwest, inside a labyrinth. I've instructed Kure Kirika to have Lancer link up with you before you enter."
"She's inside a labyrinth? Then that just means she's taking her sweet time in killing the witch, right?"
"We have no idea how long she's been inside, and if the labyrinth closed behind her we'd have no way of contacting her from the outside. Kure Kirika informed me that when she awoke at four-thirty, Mikuni Oriko had already been gone for some time. Maybe she's taking her time, or maybe the witch has captured her. Or maybe it's the labyrinth of her own witch."
A Lancer servant shouldn't be capable of Independent Action; if Mikuni had fallen in battle, Lancer should have vanished, but she hasn't. But you don't know what happens to a servant if their master becomes a witch, do you?
[ ] Wat do?
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