10th of April, 2004 – Tokyo, 10:34 AM
RATTLE RATTLE RATTLE
The engine coughed, wheezed, then finally caught with a groan that sounded like a dying animal choking on gravel. The old silver sedan, probably a 1992 Corolla if you squinted past the rust and dents.
Saber glanced at the passenger mirror, which was cracked and hanging slightly loose, then turned to his Master.
"…This is the car? I feel like every other car around was maintained better than this one Master-chan."
Kairi Sissigou exhaled slowly, taking a drag from his cigarette as he kept one hand steady on the wheel and the other resting near the gearshift, which had been duct taped together.
"We didn't buy it." He muttered. "We found it around, so we can't really complain."
"You mean we stole it."
"That's a bad way to put it."
Tokyo's side roads blurred past, not the clean parts tourists liked, this was the city's underbelly, a patchwork of shuttered shops, cracked sidewalks, and vending machines too dented to function.
"Where are we even going? The slums? Oh wait, are they still called that?" Saber asked, adjusting the collar of his coat, he changed his clothes trying to look less like a sword wielding ghost in a stolen car and more like a normal person.
"Just taking a look around." Kairi replied. "Places like these always know when something weird's about to boil over. Even in big cities like this one."
They stopped near a run down arcade, where a group of three teens and a skinny man in his late twenties loitered beneath a flickering sign. After parking the car Kairi approached them.
"Yo," he called, voice low. "Got a sec?"
The group turned. The kids sneered automatically, but like the older man they squinted when they looked at him, taking in the stranger's scarred face, sunglasses, and cigarette. He might have just been an American version of a yakuza looking at his leather jacket from their perspective.
"Mmm, can we help you with something, mister?" Said the older man wearily as he looked at Kiari.
"Just curious about a few things about this place. So I wanted to ask around for information."
"Yeah? What kind?"
Taking a drag from his cigarette Kairi asked what he needed. "Anything off. Bright lights, missing folks, or loud shits that makes you check your windows twice at night."
One of the teens sneered. "Tch. Sounds like you're chasing ghosts, old man."
Kairi stepped closer. The boy stopped laughing.
"I'm not asking twice."
The older guy scratched his cheek, eyes darting between Saber, who hadn't said a word but stood holding a sheathed katana after Kairi told him to before getting out of the car so if his master looked like an american gangster he did look exactly like yakuza, especially with his shoulder length hair, add to that Kairi, whose aura suggested violence was a career, not a hobby.
So yeah, he was scared.
"There's not many rumors I can think of." He finally said. "People say a building near Minami-Senju's old district got busted last night. The building collapsed but it was a pretty crappy one so maybe it was just made poorly."
"Police?"
"Mmmm, I don't know it just happened so maybe not yet?."
Kairi frowned, exhaled smoke through his mouth. "Anything else?"
The man visibly struggled but tried his best to recall anything that might have happened lately. "Hmmm, I guess a few days ago there was some conflict with the local gang and another man, a white haired foreigner with hair I believe."
Kairi turned to leave. "Thanks."
Saber smirked. "Poor guys, you scared them to death."
They climbed back into the junker sedan, Saber eyeing the surroundings curiously.
"So." He asked. "Think this is useful?"
"Not at all, at least not until we go check for them ourselves." Kairi replied. "But we have until the sun comes down to investigate every strange thing happening in the city. For example, this one about a foreigner might just be one of many rumors that are just bullcrap but eventually among them we'll find something."
"So we are just hunting for rumors around? Reminds me of kids curious if they will see a ghost or a yokai if they go to a cemetery or a shrine at midnight."
Saber leaned back in his seat as Kairi drove away. "Still, you've got a point." He muttered. "One ghost story leads to another. And isn't this whole war just one big ghost story?"
"Yeah. I guess that's what it is after all." Kairi couldn't help but smile at his comment.
"So? Where to now, Master-chan?"
"We are going to wait for lunch."
***
12:55 AM
The Corolla wheezed its way down a stretch of uneven road lined with scaffolding and temporary fencing. Orange cones and warning signs set around the sidewalk to divert traffic.
They had reached a small construction site nestled between a block of half renovated buildings.
It was lunchtime now, and the workers were all clustered on the edge of the site, bent over bento boxes, slurping instant noodles or sitting with their backs against the fence while chugging canned coffee.
Kairi parked across the street, then looked at Saber. "Alright. Your turn again."
Saber gave him a sidelong look. "You just enjoy making me talk to strangers, don't you?"
"I enjoy not having them call the cops." Kairi muttered. "Come on, it's just like the people we tried it on before, just go strike a friendly conversation. Also you look more like a normal person than I do, I look like I'm here to collect a debt."
"You do look like the kind of guy who'd break someone's kneecaps over 5,000 yen." Saber replied with a grin.
Kairi didn't deny it and just gave him a playful snort.
Saber sighed, fixed his coat, and walked across the street, slipping into a cluster of workers sitting beneath the shadow of an old billboard.
"Yo. Mind if I bother you for a second?" He said casually, glancing around. "This one of those demolition and rebuild jobs? Or are you guys fixing earthquake damage? I heard there was one around two months ago in Fuyuki and it affected some of the cities in the distance as well."
A few of the workers looked up mid bite. One of them, an older guy with streaks of white in his hair, took a sip of his coffee and answered. "Demolition, mostly. The place next door's getting torn down next week too. Whole block's up for sale."
Saber nodded, taking a step closer, hands still in his coat's pockets. "I see. There has indeed been a lot of dust in the air lately."
"Are you a city inspector?" Another guy asked, squinting. "You don't look like one."
Saber grinned. "Nah, nothing like that. Just asking around while I'm in town."
"Tourist?" Someone asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Kind of." He scratched the back of his neck. "Actually, I'm working on a local report, more like a personal project. I'm collecting information on strange urban events, paranormal stuff, old stories and building collapses that don't make the news. That kind of thing."
The men laughed lightly. "Oh, one of those." The first guy said. "Looking for things like aliens, ghosts and spirits, huh?"
"Hey, can't blame a guy for being curious." Saber shrugged. "Heard something about a building coming down in Minami-Senju the other night. I also heard of other places like an industry's roof collapsing near the Sumida river and a few houses that had some bad episodes in Adachi Ward near Kitasenju."
One of the men, a guy with a bent nose and oil-stained gloves, paused mid chew. "I don't know much about the others but I saw that place in Minami-Senju. I passed by with the truck this morning. The building collapse was pretty strange indeed, it looked like a part of it had melted."
"Melted?" Saber echoed, curious.
"Yeah. The steel supports looked like someone twisted 'em like pretzels. Weirdest thing I've seen in my life. And no cleanup crew yet though. Just some dudes in suits taking photos."
That made Saber raise an eyebrow. "Government?"
"Maybe. They didn't look like contractors. Didn't talk much either."
Saber rubbed his chin a bit before smiling at the worker. "I see. Thanks for the information, pal. Do you guys happen to know anything else?"
The first guy smiled as he leaned on the fence to get more comfortable as he spoke. "Well, I know a few people who worked around Kitasenju for asphalting roads. The houses around there are all somewhat crappy and poor, so I'd suggest leaving it out of your report. Those places had problems before they even got finished, it's not strange they fell now."
Saber nodded as the older man finished. "I guess, I can just go somewhere else then, thank you, old man."
'Though I guess the real old man should be me but It would be hella awkward to say that.'
"Well, it's no problem, no need to thank me. It's nice to have some different topics to talk about during lunch break from time to time, so you didn't really bother us."
"That sounds fair." Saber said with a grin. "Thanks again. Hope the rest of your shift goes easy."
As he turned to leave, the guy with the oil stained gloves called out. "Hey. If you're really curious about ghosts or whatever, check the old pachinko parlor down near the river. People say there was a blackout yesterday. Also I don't know if it's mold or a viral form, but it gave people headaches this morning."
Saber gave a casual wave. "Appreciate it."
***
1:22 PM
Kairi stood leaning on the car's door and ate a sandwich. Saber crossed the street just as he took the last bite, brushing off the crumbs.
He opened the passenger door and dropped into the seat with a long exhale. "That makes it three groups." Saber muttered, shutting the door behind him. "I'm exhausted. Want me to try another one?"
Kairi raised an eyebrow, wiped his hands with a napkin, and shook his head. "Lunch hour's ending. Anyone else worth talking to is already halfway back to their job site."
Saber leaned his head against the window and let his eyes close for a second. "That's good. While some were very nice, others were kinda trashing me for ruining their dayn I'm eager to go through that again right away."
Kairi chuckled. "Welcome to modern society, Mister Samurai."
Saber just gave a faint smile at the comment. "Nah, society's still the same. Just that, now people have more guts to scream at others when their days are bad."
Saber straightened a bit and rubbed his temple. "Anyways, let's see… aside from the building in Minami-Senju getting folded like a bad poker hand and a bunch of men in suits loitering without saying a word…"
He held up a finger.
"One guy swears his cousin's water stopped running in Adachi right before some pipes exploded."
Second finger.
"Another guy mentioned hearing weird static on his radio near the Sumida industrial block. Said it sounded like someone breathing over the airwaves."
Kairi raised an eyebrow. "Vague but kind of creepy."
Third finger.
"Some guys say they heard strange sounds during the night around an apartment block three blocks away from here."
Fourth finger.
"There's a ghost story about a girl riding an elevator haunting her neighbor. But it's an old one so I guess it doesn't matter much."
Fifth finger.
"Oh, and apparently there was a blackout near the old pachinko parlor down by the river. And many people in that zone seem to be suffering from headaches."
Seeing that Saber finished recounting what could be amounted to his last two 'expeditions', Kairi took out a map of the city and circled the area where the pachinko parlor should be at roughly.
"And with this pachinko parlor we have a total of 16 places to check out. Let's investigate as many of these locations today as we can before dawn."
"Ok, that sounds good, I guess. I was tired of asking people around." Saber yawned as he looked outside the window. "Though hopefully we don't run into some crazy strong guy right off the bat."
Kairi smiled as he started the car's engine again. "Getting cold feet already?"
While normally it would be somewhat worrying seeing your Servant acting like he's scared of fighting. Kairi understands that his Servant simply has a very cautious nature and dislikes fighting without making sure of his chances first.
And he couldn't really point him out on that as he was the same. And regardless of it, he already checked his abilities and he's sure that Saber is a strong Servant. Sure, he has his weaknesses but which Servant doesn't? Many heroes have things like an Achilles' heel.
"Yes, totally. My feet are freezing from the fear Master-chan. So please protect me." Saber whined as he acted like a scared little kid. He really brings a light hearted atmosphere in their discussions.
"Haha. I wish I could, but if I need to protect you that means we're pretty much done for, you know?"
"Oh, come on Master-chan. You have such scary looks, certainly you should be able to intimidate their Masters at least right? I mean, before you totally looked like you were about to beat those kids black and blue."
Kairi lit up a cigarette as he started driving the car around to their next destination.
"Beat them?" He repeated, giving short laugh "Please, I'd never be able to beat a kid."
Saber glanced over, amused. "Really now? You sure looked scary back there."
Kairi shook his head, eyes still on the road. "Look, I've seen the kind of men who lay hands on children and sleep just fine after. I'm not one of them."
He tapped his ash out the window. "Sure, maybe a slap or a boot to their ass if they're doing something really stupid, like setting fires or throwing stones at stray cats but that's just teaching them a lesson. Beating a kid? No, that's not the kind of thing I could stomach."
"..."
"..."
There was a pause. The only sound was the wheezing engine and the low hum of city life outside.
"I wouldn't even sleep at night." Kairi added quietly.
"..."
Saber scratched the back of his head a bit awkwardly. "Sorry, Master, I didn't want to make this so serious. I messed up."
"Nah, you didn't mess up. I just went off on a tangent." Kairi reassured Saber It's not his fault he went a bit moody on the subject.
Saber gave a sheepish chuckle. "Guess we're both getting old. We kinda went way too off topic while talking"
Kairi snorted. "Speak for yourself. I'm still in my prime."
Saber smirked. "32 years old isn't exactly a prime time to speak of, you know."
Kairi snorted. "Hey, this is not the Edo Period now. People don't die at 40 due to old age anymore."
Saber laughed, stretching his arms behind his head, leaning back into the torn seat. "Sure, sure. Modern medicine and all that. But I'm still saying, if you need reading glasses in the next year or so, I'm not letting you live it down. I'll come back as a ghost just to taunt you, so be prepared."
Kairi gave a wide smile, blowing out a plume of smoke through the cracked window.
"Bold of you to assume I'll still be alive in a year. But if I do, I guess that when the time comes, I'll have to pay an exorcist just for you then."
"You better be prepared to pay a huge sum then. I'm a very annoying ghost."
***
2:05 PM – Near the Sumida Industrial Block
"Mmmm. In the end it was just some old guy with hearing problems." Saber complained as he sat down on a bench.
"Well, we did start with the most unlikely rumors first. It's normal we didn't find anything, at least we removed a few places from the list." Kairi started signing off a few places on the map in his hand. This was the third place they visited since they left the construction site.
Kairi folded the map slowly, then tucked it into the inner pocket of his jacket.
"Come on, get up. We have a lot left to do for today. We will retreat to the graveyard before it's dark."
Saber groaned softly as he stood, brushing the dust off his coat. Then, after a moment of silence, he tilted his head and frowned slightly.
"Hey, Master."
"Yeah?"
Saber scratched his cheek thoughtfully. "I just remembered… isn't it kind of a really bad idea to be walking around the city like this while our base is left unattended? I mean what if Caster took the opportunity to put traps in the graveyard?"
Kairi didn't even flinch. He just shrugged his shoulders. "Not a problem."
Saber stared at him, narrowing his eyes. "Not a problem?" he echoed. "You sure? I mean, I know you've got experience as a mercenary, but… do you really have that much confidence in your magecraft to protect us from a Caster infiltrating our base when we aren't even there?"
Kairi snorted as his lips twisted into a smirk. "Who said anything about magecraft?"
Saber blinked. "...What?"
Seeing his reaction Kairi smiled even wider as he put his hands in his pocket and started walking forward. "Come on Saber, don't get left behind. We have other places to investigate."
Saber hurried after his Master as he snapped out of his stupor. "Hey wait, at least tell me what you meant by that."
"Nah, it's really funny if I do."
***
3:55 PM
The yellow tape flapped in the wind, strung across the narrow alley sealing it off. The entrance was marked off by rusted barricades and a laminated notice slapped crookedly on the wall. "ENTRY RESTRICTED – REPAIRS ONGOING – TOKYO INFRASTRUCTURE AGENCY."
Kairi exhaled a puff of smoke, hand on his chin. "Hmmm. We did hear about a blackout but nothing about the repair works."
Saber, standing beside him, eyed the scene with mild interest. "Maybe it's been sealed off recently. Want me to check what happened?"
"Yeah." Kairi said, glancing around the street. "Ask some passerby. See if they know why this place got shut down."
Saber nodded and approached an older woman dragging a small shopping trolley toward the main street. She slowed as he neared, cautious at being approached by a stranger.
"Excuse me," he said with a polite bow of the head. "Do you happen to know what happened in that alley?" He gestured behind him to the taped off path. "Looks like something serious."
The woman paused and gave a wary glance toward the alley. "Mm… you mean that place behind the pachinko? Yes, I heard something about it from the storekeepers around. They said there was a gas leak last night. The pipes must've burst or something. The whole back alley smelled awful, apparently. But fortunately there was no big damage. They just sealed it for the security of people passing around."
"Thanks for the information ma'am." Saber gave the woman another polite bow before going back to Kairi's side. Once he reached him back he started whispering to him, now in a more serious tone. "Locals were told it was a gas leak. Pipe supposedly burst late last night."
Kairi narrowed his eyes. "Gas leak, huh?" He glanced toward the laminated notice again. "Smells like bullcrap, I heard this one before too many times, let's go take a look."
With a deft flick of his boot, Kairi kicked aside one of the barricades and slipped under the tape. Saber followed him without hesitation right away.
The alley beyond was deserted. The cement was cracked and scorched in places, debris scattered across the floor. Saber crouched near the center of the alley and brushed his fingers along the fractured ground.
"Hm."
Kairi looked around, his foot nudging a spent, half-melted cigarette. "Seeing anything interesting?"
Saber narrowed his eyes. "Not a gas explosion, that's for sure, not I that ever saw one but this doesn't look like the aftermath of an explosion that's for certain. These cracks, look how they spread outward, not all of them look like the result of a burst but like… somthing really heavy landed here with force."
He moved to another spot near the wall, examining a groove carved into the asphalt.
"This was from a weapon or someone sliding really fast. The spacing and debris suggest close quarters combat, and whoever fought here moved much faster than a normal human should be capable of."
Getting up from the ground and looking at the various scars around the walls, Saber addressed Kairi again. "I think two Servants have fought a battle in this alley Master."
Releasing a puff of smoke from his mouth Kairi's expression took a serious tone. "I guess we didn't even need to reach Minami-Senju to find our first clue. I honestly thought we wouldn't find anything before we got there, that place looked very suspicious after all."
Saber smiled as he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I thought the same. But it's nice we found out about this though."
Though the building collapse in Minami-Senju stood out as the most compelling lead, its twisted steel frame and silence from the authorities practically screaming of a suspicious event, both Kairi and Saber instinctively agreed not to approach it right away. It was too fishy, too public and too conveniently wrapped in rumors and uncertainties about how it happened. The place practically invited attention, and in a war where deception was as deadly as a sword, anything that obvious was rarely without danger.
To seasoned fighters on the battlefields like them, it felt less like a mystery and more like an obvious red flag that would only bring trouble.
Any Master worth their command seals would expect someone else to come sniffing around, especially after making such a commotion. It was the perfect place for an ambush.
Instead, they decided to circle the periphery first by visiting the less talked about sites, gathering threads of information about the area from the edge of the web before stepping into its center. By building a picture from the outside in, they could approach the heart of the conflict with greater clarity, and maybe, if they were lucky, avoid walking into someone else's trap.
So finding traces of a possible battle between two Servants in this place was certainly a nice discovery. And seeing how news of this gas leak was pretty much a background news that has not even been talked about even by locals unless asked might have meant that it was probably kept under wraps to not attract attention, so it was most likely not a trap.
Looking at the scratches around Kairi tried to guess what might have caused them. "Looks like one of them used a bladed weapon, maybe both of them."
Saber nodded in agreement. "Yes, most likely both did, some cuts have different sizes so unless one of them wields two blades I'm more inclined to believe they both wielded one by looking at the direction of the cuts."
"I can't really guess what weapons have been used here, do you have any thoughts on it, Saber?"
Saber stopped for a second in contemplation as he concentrated on the cut markings. "No clue. At one point the thinner cuts seem to have gotten bigger but that doesn't really help me in guessing what weapon was used, however there are some signs of blunt impacts around."
Kairi raised an eyebrow. "Like a mace or something?"
Saber scratched his chin. "It could be or maybe one of the weapons had a long pole for a handle like a spear or halberd."
"I see." Kairi muttered as he crossed his arms. "It could have been a Lancer then, unfortunately the battle seemed to have lasted only a few bouts, so there is not much more information we can analyze by looking around here."
Saber agreed with a sigh. "That seems to be the case."
"Then let's go back early for today. I don't think it's a good idea to investigate further for today."
Getting back to his flippant easy going attitude Saber gave him a military salute. "Aye aye, Master-chan, going back to the good old sweet home it is."
Kairi snorted, turning back toward the alley entrance. "Then hurry it up if you're so eager. We are gonna have to stay up all the night after all."
***
Hello, did you enjoy this chapter? I know it was pretty boring for some of you, but the boy isn't the only character around so he's gonna take backseat for a few chapters with only little apperances for a bit(not too many just around 5/6).
This was the beginning of day 1 of the holy grail war and we saw kairi and hajime going around and investigating.
As I said while this is ultimately the kid's story, this holy grail war had a certain number of masters and servants and they contribute to the plot with or without the presence of the kid. So for as long as the war is concerned everyone who has a chapter on their point of view is a main character in this arc.
So its his story but at the beginning it's not just his alone.
I plan to make him come to take part in this bullcrap but do not expect him to just have 0 to 100 in a few chapters. It's my first work so I'm not sure how well it will come off but I'll try my best to slowly build him up.
I hope you liked this chapter even if it was only a 4k words of build up for kairi and hajime's characters and relationship/chemistry as master and servant.
Leave a power stone and maybe a review if you liked the story so far.