- Rin Tohsaka -
Judging from the power of the move, it wasn't something she could face easily. Especially considering that he could be hiding more power and the unknown nature of that entity inside him.
With this thought in mind, she got to action.
She jumped back, at the same time throwing a couple of Gandr towards him without looking back.
Feeling a sudden sense of danger, she rolled on the ground, almost at the same time as a gust of wind passed over her head and sliced several meters of the road in front of her.
Dammit!
"Es ist groß. Es ist klein! Vox, Gott Es Atlas." She pushed her Reinforcement Magecraft to boost herself and ran forward, taking cover of the buildings but no matter what, the freak was always behind her.
It almost felt as if he was chasing her to enjoy the feeling of a hunt as a cat played with a mouse.
It was annoying.
It was infuriating.
Once more, she dodged to the side but this time instead of one attack, several cuts leveled the surrounding houses in a single moment.
A stray attack even hit her but at that moment, one of the gems she had on her body imbued with Protection Magecraft shattered, preventing her from getting any injury.
Had he stopped playing around?
This isn't going to work.
As she was about to turn back and fight, a shadow rushed from the ground and smashed Shinji into the ground.
"Who's there?" She questioned.
"My my, did I intrude upon your private duel? Apologies but I don't like it when some random nobody cuts apart the cafe I am eating at and ruins my meal. Especially my Berserker… he can get very annoyed if someone destroys my meals."
She looked in the direction of the voice and saw a new figure walk out of the shadows.
She had pale skin, crimson eyes, and long white hair. She was wearing a collared, purple long-sleeved shirt with a light purple scarf to match, a long white skirt and purple boots. It didn't take much effort for Rin to deduce her identity.
Einzbern.
Suddenly a loud roar attracted her attention and she looked in the distance.
A hulking menace of being was punching the living daylights out of Shinji.
"That's a servant."
"Exactly. I saw you using jewels before. Are you perhaps a Tohsaka? A hill-billy from the far east. As expected, you would be tossed around by such weaklings. Say, aren't the Tohsaka's going to take part in the Holy Grail Wars too? Have you summoned a servant yet? Hmm, doesn't seem like it. How unfortunate? I could have taken care of two nuisances at the same time. But we can't have it all, can we?"
"You!" Rin was about to argue when she saw Berserker rip off Shinji's arms and throw his body into the forest, and return to his master's side.
She took a chance to see his stats and froze in shock… Just what kind of stats are those?
All of his stats except luck, which is B, the rest are A Rank!
"Hmm, while I might not be allowed to kill you before the start of the war… ripping off an arm and a leg could get you out of the competition, right?" The little murder machine said with a smile which sent a shiver down her spine.
What came immediately after that was rage. "You!"
"Berserker!"
"Roarrrrrrrr!"
She was sent flying by the shockwaves of the roar.
"Hmm, I am not in a good mood because your annoying duel ruined my meal, so how about you entertain me?"
"What?"
"Run. Berserker will chase you for fifteen minutes. All you need to do is run or hide from him until the end of that time. How about it? Your time starts now. I will even give you a headstart. You have thirty seconds."
"Wha…!" Her words were drowned by the roar of the berserker servant.
Dammit, just what kind of shitty day was this?
As expected, seeing Shinji was guaranteed to bring bad luck.
She turned around and ran. She had to find a place with people.
No matter how crazy that monster is, she wouldn't attack a public place under surveillance that easily.
With that in mind, she dashed ahead without looking back.
In the distance, she saw the board of a Restaurant and quickly dashed inside the door.
But what she saw inside made her freeze instantly.
In front of her was a very familiar purple haired purple eyed girl, someone whom she had all but been sure was already dead, was in the arms of a black haired blue eyed hunk, about to kiss him.
The entry made them look at her too as they pulled away from each other.
Without even realising, her name escaped from her lips.
"Sakura!"
- Yoruichi Shihoin -
She sat on the shoulder of Ikki as she watched the kids running around the streets of Rukonai. They had done better than expected against Jidanbo and even managed to escape Gin Ichimaru, although the latter was more than likely just playing with them, it was still a feat.
These kids had come along a long way since she had started training them in just a month or so.
Every one of them were different and had specialities of their own.
The best among them is without a doubt Ikki and Ichigo.
Ichigo had the most raw power while having no skill.
Ikki had the most skill and yet lacked raw power.
Yes, both of them had been progressing at an incredible speed in the last ten to fifteen days after getting injured.
Ikki especially was gaining spiritual power at an astonishing rate since then.
Kisuke theorised that Byakuya's attack must have injected some of his spiritual power inside him or maybe healing from such an injury had strengthened his soul.
His main problem had been the stagnant growth of his spiritual power which was due to his human body's bindings.
Only by leaving his human body was he able to increase his spiritual power.
Byakuya's attack must have done something to accidentally change this.
There was another theory which was his body absorbing some of that Goddesses' powers and breaking free or at least loosening his restrictions which had somehow increased his growth yet again.
She was after all someone who had dealt with Reincarnations and could resurrect the dead. Such a thing was not out of the realm of possibilities. Seriously, that small restaurant gets more terrifying, the more people learn about it.
Even now, when he was not in his human body, his spiritual power was, slowly, very slowly increasing.
It was at the level of a seated officer now and could probably reach a higher level with his Ittou Shura.
Yes, he had come along a long way.
Now if only that Aizen bastard was caught this time, she could actually train him properly using all the resources of the Shihoin Clan. Who knows, he might even be able to learn Shunko one day?
- Silas -
I looked at the new girl who was staring at Sakura looking stunned and then at Sakura who was suddenly frozen.
She was most likely from Sakura's world and someone who must have known her closely for Sakura to react like that.
The girl however broke from her trance and quickly stepped forward. "Sakura, where have you been all this time? There was an accident at the Matou Estate and then you stopped coming to the Academy. Everyone of the Matou family disappeared and then Shinji suddenly became… that… I thought… I thought you had…" She quickly started babbling and she actually looked genuinely worried.
Sakura looked uncomfortable at the questions so I stepped forward.
"Excuse me. Who are you?" I asked.
The girl turned towards me fast enough to have actually snapped her neck, actually glaring at me.
"No. The question here is who are you! What are you doing with Sakura? Why is she here when everyone is looking for her? Are you holding her against her will? Do you have anything to do with the… accident at the Matou Estate?"
…
…
…
…
My eyes twitched at her questions.
This girl fired off questions as if her mouth was some kind of automatic gun.
I was going to reply when Sakura broke the silence once more.
"Rin-senpai… no one is holding me against my will. I am staying here because of the death of the Matou family elders. Silas-san here is giving me a place to stay till I can get a place for myself. I work at this Restaurant."
"Why would you need to work here? The Matou don't lack money." The girl countered and then looked at me with an even stronger glare before turning back towards Sakura, actually holding her hand. "You don't have to stay here anymore. If you have nowhere to go then come with me. I can take care of you."
"It's fine, senpai. I am fine here. I don't need to go anywhere." Sakura replied, politely, with a smile, although I could see that fake politeness of her easily. It made me feel quite uneasy.
She hadn't used that tone and smile for a while now.
The girl was actually shocked by the rejection.
Suddenly, she turned toward me. "It's him, isn't he? Is he blackmailing you somehow? I saw him trying to kiss you. Is he forcing you to do this?"
…what the fuck girl.
"It's nothing like that, senpai. He has been nothing but good to me. I just like working in the Restaurant and it offers a place for the employees to live." Sakura replied, looking increasingly uneasy at the conversation.
Worse yet, I was sensing her Cursed Energy move.
Normally, Sakura had an extremely great control of her cursed energy and it was hard for anyone to even sense it but it was slowly moving now.
If one looked closer, the shadows under feet were slightly wavering.
Seeing this I too stepped forward to explain the situation and deescalate the matter.
Although taken aback by the intensity of the girl, I could see that she didn't really mean anything bad for Sakura so I too tried to keep things civil.
"Miss, you are misunderstanding something." I tried to speak but the girl snapped at me.
"Be silent. I will come back to you later." She said before looking back at Sakura, not letting go of her hand. She pulled Sakura along with her. "Come back with me. We can talk when we get back home. Things are very dangerous outside right now."
This was getting out of hand so I held her shoulder, to stop her.
"Please let go of her. You cannot force her to go with you if she doesn't want to." I said, seriously this time.
"You! What do you want?"
"I want you to let her go. You're making her uncomfortable." I said, pointing at her hand which was grabbing Sakura's hand.
"I am taking her back to her home. And who even are you? I haven't ever seen you or heard about you. How do you even know Sakura or the Matou? Why is she staying here? I don't know what you are holding on her but I will…"
"Enough!" Sakura suddenly shouted, her Cursed Energy flaring suddenly.
Both the back haired girl, Rin and I froze.
For me, it wasn't as much as her power but the fact that she actually shouted.
Sakura… she never shouted.
I had never seen her show such an emotion before.
No matter how angry or sad she was, she never snapped like this.
I looked at her and saw that this time her eyes were slightly wet.
She glared at the girl, fists clenched, her shadows moving erratically at her feet.
"Why? Why are you here now? Why do you want to take me back home? Where were you when I was sent to the Matou house? You never said anything. You didn't even say a single word to me, pretending I was a stranger. You left me alone when I needed it the most, behaving like you didn't even know me… then why… what gives you the right to suddenly come back and pretend to care? Go back. I don't need you. I don't want to go back anywhere. Go back, go back, go back!"
"Sakura… I…"
"Please… leave."
"I…" The girl paused, still stunned by the outburst.
She looked between both Sakura and me… and then stepped back, looking hurt. She left the Restaurant.
I turned towards Sakura. She had her hands clenched into fists and tears streaming down her cheeks.
Without even realising, I was beside her and pulled her into a hug. She too didn't move away and actually held my shirt, sobbing lightly.
She calmed down after a while and wiped her eyes. "I am sorry for that, Silas-san."
"It's fine. You didn't do anything wrong." I quickly reassured her. "But… who… who exactly was that girl? She didn't seem like a simple senior from your school?" I asked.
"She… she was my sister. My birth sister."
"…what?"