· Shiki, Slaughter! (Part 2)

"You can't solve it either," Touko said matter-of-factly. In her view, this was only natural—if Shiki could use the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception proficiently, she could easily take down that corpse, but right now, Shiki couldn't.

"Who cares if it's dead or not." Shiki slowly stood up. "That corpse is still 'alive,' right? If so..."

Shiki untied the bandage wrapped around her eyes and opened them. An iridescent halo, as if from the divine realm, slowly swirled in her pupils.

"No matter what it is, I'll kill it!"

As she said this, Ryougi Shiki's aura as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Type-Moon's God-Slaying Origin blazed forth.

Shiki charged at the corpse, her fingers tracing along its lines of death, leaving an orange trail.

The corpse wobbled. Shiki held that pose, and the two remained like that for about a second or two.

The power of her fingers alone wasn't enough. Tracing along the lines of death might destroy something relatively fragile like a plant, but against a creature that left even third-rate magi helpless, it fell far short.

The corpse raised its arm and slammed it down at Shiki with a whoosh of wind.

The latter dodged with the agility of a wild beast, leaving the corpse grasping at air. Failing that, the corpse switched from a smash to a sweep, but Shiki used the momentum to deflect its arm, pushing and shoving to send the corpse tumbling away.

Though it stumbled and fell in a clumsy heap, the kind of impact that wouldn't even hurt an ordinary person was nowhere near enough to harm a corpse that feared neither fire nor pain.

Neither Shiki nor Touko knew that on the hospital rooftop, a person—or rather, a person and a spiritual body—were watching them.

"That reckless way of fighting—just like I imagined! Emptying her mind and letting instinct guide her body—isn't that the same as Hollow?"

Indeed, watching Shiki and Touko from the rooftop were Shirou and the spiritual Kirie. They'd just returned to the hospital when the rain started, right in time for this show.

"If you put Shiki in Ichigo's place, Whitey would probably get his ass kicked! Speaking of which, my first gold sword in the game was Shiki too—finally meeting her in person today..."

"Kirie, you go back first! There's an acquaintance of mine here—I'll handle something and come find you," Shirou said to the spiritual Kirie.

The latter nodded and walked straight through the wall.

Seeing this, Shirou's eye twitched. "I'm starting to think Kirie should work at the Haunted House."

Shaking his head to toss those random thoughts out of his mind, Shirou activated Sonido and appeared beside Touko.

"So this is Mikiya's girlfriend? She's gorgeous. Man, Mikiya's got good taste—Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, no less!"

"Didn't you find yourself a beauty with the Mystic Eyes of Distortion to raise as a child bride?" Touko said irritably. She was used to Shirou's sudden appearances.

"Child bride? This is magecraft—can you call it a child bride?" Shirou shot Touko a glare.

"That sounds familiar, like I've heard it somewhere."

"Forget it," Shirou said. The two of them were always at odds.

It couldn't be helped—after all, Touko had nearly strapped Shirou to an operating table for academic research. His High-Speed Regeneration was an ability she couldn't resist.

A healing power stronger than a True Ancestor's—it had successfully piqued Touko's interest. That was the only reason they were standing here chatting. Otherwise, Touko wouldn't bother with boring people.

"The priority is to deal with that half-zombie, half-evil-spirit piece of trash. Touko, you're planning to have Shiki work for you, right?"

"That's right." Since it wasn't a big deal, Touko admitted it outright.

"Then let me see just how far she can go right now!"

Trace On!

Though he'd never seen a Noble Phantasm and couldn't project those convenient, versatile, firework-worthy treasures, projecting ordinary blades was simple enough.

"Catch!"

The katana arced through the air in a parabola, landing steadily in Shiki's hand. Having trained in kendo, handling a blade was a piece of cake for a fifth-dan swordsman like Shiki.

Weapon in hand, Shiki glanced toward Shirou. "A weird kid, but since he's with Touko... Tch, another so-called magus?"

Shiki didn't dwell on it. If he was by Touko's side, that was Touko's business—she didn't care.

Emiya Brand—quality guaranteed!

"Good blade!" Shiki swung the sword in her hand and said with satisfaction.

That was only natural. In other magi's eyes, Projection Magecraft was nothing but a crude, low-level trick. Projected objects were far inferior to the originals—mere imitations in shape alone.

But there was also a saying: no useless techniques, only wrong ways to use them.

Analyze the basic structure, replicate the composition material, reproduce the accumulated years, surpass the completed processes. When Shirou put in the effort to accomplish all this, he could project items that rivaled the originals.

The only flaw was that the world didn't allow two identical existences, so as soon as Shirou stopped supplying magical energy, the projection would vanish. But compared to the magecraft's effectiveness, that was hardly a problem.

"In the way!"

With a long-awaited bladed weapon in hand, Shiki immediately put her thoughts into action. She cleanly cut off her own long black hair into a short style, finally giving her that Ryougi Shiki feel.

Though Shiki now had equipment, her opponent was a corpse—it didn't care about its foe's state. So it got the short end of the stick. It reached for Shiki, and she sliced through the line of death on its arm, "killing" the limb.

"You're just a mass of death—don't block my path!"

Dark red blood splattered across Shiki's face, but she didn't even furrow her brow. She drove the blade straight into her opponent's neck, then slashed—

Squelch! Blood gushed from the wound, and the corpse collapsed limply. From Shirou's perspective, a flood of spirits poured out of the corpse's mouth.

"And that's that!" Shirou concluded from a distance. "But the real test is just beginning!"

What Shiki had killed was only the possessed corpse—the spirits inhabiting it hadn't been destroyed along with it. Freed from the body, the spirits all surged into Shiki's own.

"Not thorough enough? Idiot!" Touko said.

"No, that's exactly her brilliance!" Shirou replied. "Keep watching! This person, Ryougi Shiki—she's no simple existence!"

"Oh? Is that so?"

"Now you can't escape! I'll never hand Ryougi Shiki over to you!"