"You couldn't handle it either," Touko Aozaki said as if it were only natural. In her eyes, that was obvious. If Shiki could skillfully use the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, she could easily take down that corpse, but she still couldn't.
"Who cares whether it's dead or whatever?" Shiki slowly rose to her feet. "That corpse is still 'alive,' right? In that case..."
Shiki untied the bandages around her eyes and opened them. Rainbow-colored halos, as though from the realm of gods, slowly turned within her pupils.
"No matter what it is, I'll kill it for you!"
As she spoke, the aura of Ryougi Shiki, the God-Slaying Origin and one of the four great forces who strode across the Type-Moon universe, was fully unleashed.
Shiki charged the corpse, her fingers tracing along its lines of death and leaving orange marks behind.
The corpse swayed. Shiki maintained that posture, and the two remained like that for about one or two seconds.
In the end, her fingers simply lacked enough force. Tracing along the lines of death might destroy relatively fragile things like plants, but against something that left even some third-rate magi helpless, it was still nowhere near enough.
The corpse raised its arm and smashed it down at Shiki with a howl of wind.
She dodged with the agility of a beast, making the corpse miss. When its first strike failed, it changed its smash into a sweep, but Shiki used its momentum to knock the arm aside. With a push and a shove, she sent the corpse flying.
Though it tumbled awkwardly to the ground, an impact that would not even injure an ordinary person could do nothing to a corpse that did not fear even flames.
Neither Shiki nor Touko knew that on the hospital rooftop, a person—or rather, a person and a spirit body—were watching them.
"That reckless fighting style is just like I thought! Emptying her mind and letting instinct guide her body... isn't that just like a Hollow?"
That was right. Watching Shiki and Touko from the rooftop were Shirou and the spirit-form Kirie. The two had returned to the hospital when it had just started raining, and they had happened to catch this show.
"If Shiki were put in Ichigo's position, White would probably get beaten to a pulp! Come to think of it, Shiki was also the first gold sword I got in the game. I finally got to see the real person today..."
"Kirie, head back first! There's someone I know here. I'll take care of something, then come find you," Shirou told the spirit-form Kirie.
She nodded and walked straight through the wall.
Watching that, Shirou's eye twitched. "Why do I feel like Kirie should work at a Haunted House?"
Shaking his head, he tossed those random thoughts out of his mind and used Sonido to arrive beside Touko.
"So this is Mikiya's girlfriend? She's pretty damn gorgeous. Mikiya really has good taste, huh? Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, too!"
"Didn't you also find a pretty little thing with Mystic Eyes of Distortion to raise as your child bride?" Touko snapped. She had already grown used to Shirou appearing and disappearing without warning.
"Child bride? Can magecraft matters be called child brides?" Shirou glared at Touko.
"That sounds a little familiar. Feels like I've heard it somewhere before."
"Forget that," Shirou said. The two of them were always at each other's throats.
There was nothing to be done about it. Touko had nearly tied Shirou to an operating table for academic research, after all. Shirou's High-Speed Regeneration was an ability Touko could not resist.
His self-healing ability, stronger even than that of a True Ancestor, had successfully piqued Touko's interest. That was precisely why the two could stand here chatting. Otherwise, Touko would not give boring people the time of day.
"The urgent matter is dealing with that lowlife—zombie or not, evil spirit or not. Touko, you're planning to make Shiki work for you too, right?"
"That's right." It was no big deal, so Touko admitted it outright.
"Then let me see just how far she can go now!"
Trace On!
Although he had never seen a Noble Phantasm and could not Project something so convenient, useful, and capable of doubling as fireworks, Projecting an ordinary blade was simple enough.
"Catch!"
The katana traced an arc through the air before Shiki caught it firmly in her hand. After all, she had practiced kendo. Handling a blade was child's play for Shiki, a fifth-dan kendo practitioner.
With the weapon in hand, Shiki glanced in Shirou's direction. A strange brat, but since he's beside Touko... Tch. Another so-called magus?
Shiki did not give it much thought. Anyone standing beside Touko was Touko's business. She had no interest in getting involved.
Emiya Brand—quality guaranteed!
"Good blade!" Shiki swung the sword in her hand and spoke in satisfaction.
That was only natural. In the eyes of other magi, Projection Magecraft was merely a low-grade little spell. The things it Projected were far inferior to the originals, possessing only superficial resemblance.
But there was another saying: there were no useless techniques, only the wrong way to use them.
Analyze the basic structure, reproduce the materials, recreate the accumulated years, and surpass the many processes of creation. After Shirou had gone to great lengths to accomplish all that, he could Project something no less impressive than the genuine article.
The only flaw was that the world did not permit two completely identical existences. As long as Shirou stopped supplying magical energy, the Projection would vanish. But compared to its magical effects, that barely counted as a drawback.
"You're in the way!"
Having gotten her hands on the long-missed controlled blade, Shiki immediately put her thoughts into action. With one clean stroke, she cut her original long black hair short. Only then did she truly have that Ryougi Shiki feel.
Though Shiki now had equipment, her opponent was a corpse. It did not care what state its opponent was in. So it suffered miserably when it reached out to grab Shiki. She directly cut through the arm's line of death, "killing" the arm.
"You're nothing but a collection of the dead. Don't block my path!"
Dark crimson blood splattered across Shiki's face, yet she did not even furrow her brow. She drove the sharp blade into her opponent's neck, then slashed—
Splat! Blood sprayed from the wound, and the corpse collapsed limply. From Shirou's perspective, a mass of spirits streamed from the corpse's mouth.
"That settles it!" Shirou, standing some distance away, reached that conclusion. "But the real test is only just beginning!"
What Shiki had killed was only the possessed corpse. The spirits occupying it had not been killed alongside it. Once freed from the corpse, the spirits all surged into Shiki's body at once.
"Not thorough enough? Idiot!" Touko said.
"No, that's exactly where she's clever!" Shirou said. "Keep watching! This person, Ryougi Shiki, definitely isn't that simple!"
"Oh? Is that so?"
"Now you can't escape! I'll never hand Ryougi Shiki over to you!"