Almistyor
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Anomaly Ch. 7
🕑 Added 2023-01-27 10:51:41 +0000 UTCIt had been two weeks since he’d come across to this ‘Special Region’. Two weeks since the JSDF had fought against a hostile, invading force. Two weeks since Shirou himself had to reveal the existence of magecraft to the wider world. Two weeks since the JSDF formally entered the anomaly.
And those two weeks were some of the most tedious of his life.
Far from what the rest of the world was probably thinking, coming to another world was no easy task, especially when you were helping the government while you were at it. Supply lines, logistics, barracks, defensive positions, all of those had to be set up on the fly, as nobody had any data on the situation.
Their situation was even made worse by the fact that nobody could contact anybody from Earth while they were in the Special Region, as there was absolutely no signal to be had. That had forced the leading government agents to send orders by car, which would take at least an hour.
Coupled with the fact that each and every single soldier was tested for infection any time they had even the most minor of injuries, equipment that was advanced for the 70’s, twenty hour workdays, and everything else, then you had one of the most miserable jobs you could find.
Morale was so low, in fact, that Shirou had no doubts that had he not been here to settle more than one argument, then the situation would have most likely devolved even further.
He certainly couldn’t blame the soldiers, though. As someone who’d planned a lot for Apostle hunts, these soldiers were nothing more than a stalling tactic. They were meant to show that the government was doing something. It didn’t matter if these people died here for them.
They were nothing more than cannon fodder.
It was a mentality that Shirou was unfortunately all too familiar with.
Speaking of which.
“Knock it off, the both of you!” He got in between two green-clad soldiers even as the both of them tried to punch over him, “You’re acting like children!”
“Fuck off, Emiya!” The one on his left screamed, spittle flying out as he glared at the other man with bloodshot eyes. A quick Analysis of his clothes showed that the man had been wearing them for more than forty hours, a sign that the man had little to no sleep for two days now.
Another Analysis on the other man showed something similar.
“Stop.” He interjected before either could say anything more. To their credit, they did stop to look at him, “I don’t care what you’re fighting about. What I do care about is that you’re fighting, and that needs to stop. Both of you, you’re relieved for the day, go get some rest.”
The man on the right scoffed at him, “You’re not my CO.”
“But I am.” Hazama stepped into view, walking straight through the small crowd of off-duty soldiers that had formed around them, “And, much as I hate to admit it, I agree with Emiya. Go. We’ll talk about your behavior tomorrow.”
Grumbling, and with one last glare at each other, they split off.
“And what the hell are you doing just standing around?!” Hazama yelled to the other soldiers, “Get back to work!”
“This situation is untenable, you know that.” Shirou calmly said to Hazama as the rest of the crowd finally dispersed. The newly-appointed commander for the Special Region glared at the magus even as the white-haired man approached him. Regardless of whatever animosity between them, Shirou knew he had a point, and Hazama knew that he knew.
“Can’t really do anything about it,” Hazama grunted, “Ever since the Prime Minister announced that this place was part of Japan, doing anything else could be seen by other countries as free real estate.”
Shirou snorted without any humor, “Politics.”
“Politics.” If there was one thing the two agreed on, it was that the current political situation was tense at the best of times. China, South Korea, the United States, and several others had been clamoring for a piece of the pie known as untapped resources.
There’d been more than a few announcements from the White House, for example, calling for Japan to open its borders to international settlers for the Special Region. Something that the current Japanese government was not too keen to let happen any time soon.
That’s not even pointing out the situation between religions currently ongoing. Churches all over the world had been denouncing the existence of magecraft, with more and more joining every day. Japan was thankfully free of that, and was much more accepting of the events, regardless of the tragedy.
Amusingly, despite many others calling for them to do so, the Vatican had not said anything about magecraft. More than likely because they had known of it due to their ties to their…less than public factions.
Worryingly, he had also not gotten any news from London, nor from Zelretch. All he had was that Sakura had fallen into a coma, and it had taken a firm lecture from Rin to convince him that her sister would be fine, and that his mission had to come first.
It was still a close thing.
“You’ve read my report?” Shirou changed the topic, dispelling his thoughts.
“The one about the village?”
“Yes. I remember that I included that I wanted to scout out to around another four kilometers in case there are more settlements that are unaccounted for.”
“Sure, go ahead. Hell, I don’t even know why you’re filing reports, you’re not even JSDF!” It was true. Shirou had submitted a full 40-page, handwritten report on what he’d done before they had come over. It was simple enough to Trace a pen and some paper, with the more difficult part of the entire thing was actually submitting the report.
Turns out, people normally didn’t submit reports to organizations they weren’t a part of, unlike the Clock Tower who’d required a report out of every Dead Apostle killed, even if the person wasn’t even an Enforcer.
“Alright. I’ll head out tomorrow morning.”
…
Productivity was something that Shirou lived and breathed. It was ingrained in him from such a young age, after the fire, that even now, he couldn’t help but try and do something whenever he could. It’s why, the next morning, he woke up at four and immediately went to jog. Just something to do that was productive, but unintrusive.
As he did, he passed by several soldiers working tirelessly to build accommodations that, from what he’d heard, would house their reinforcements to come in soon. He had initially offered to help, but he’d been vehemently declined, as they didn’t want the headache of employing a technical civilian in a primarily military outpost.
That was another interesting thing: he really was just a civilian in their eyes, and nearly every single soldier had protested his presence when they’d first arrived. It didn’t matter what he’d done during Ginza. They told him that this wasn’t a place for him, as he might get hurt. That he should stay behind back in Japan and deal with whatever.
It would have been funny if they weren’t serious.
Sure, they had seen the numerous videos of him shooting down wyverns, but at the end of the day, those wyverns were also shot down by guns. And if a wyvern could be put down with a well-placed shot, then Shirou could as well.
He didn’t have the heart to tell them that he’d fought worse, and had probably taken more bullets than all of them combined and lived to tell the tale.
None of them knew the extent of what he was capable of. None of them, bar Hazama, to his begrudging respect. None of them knew that, had they been just a few days earlier to come to this place, they would have walked into enemy lines, outnumbered a hundred to one.
It was a sobering thought. It was the same thought that let Hazama tolerate his presence, or at least, that’s what Shirou thought.
Regardless, it all became moot just a week later when they’d received a notice that Shirou had been ‘officially’ hired to do some private investigation under the London Clock Tower, granted by the Prime Minister himself.
Of course, unofficially was another matter entirely. Shirou was only technically under the Clock Tower at this point, having a contract with the Wizard Marshall. It was probably said vampire that pulled strings to have the Minister sign off on this, otherwise, he’d be arrested, favor or no.
Passing by even more soldiers, he gave them a discreet nod, with a few even nodding back, and more failing to stifle a yawn. The more he jogged, the more he could see them busy this early in the morning digging various trenches and foundations.
It would take a couple more days to finish everything with their current manpower, which was a miracle in itself.
He took his final route back to his spot. And by that, he really meant a spot. He hadn’t been given a tent, nor did he ask for one. Instead, he had just been camping out with a bed made of straw, and a campfire.
All in all, still not the worst situation he’d slept with.
He gathered what materials he needed - just food and a crude map he’d drawn of the area - and headed out before the sun even had the chance to crest the sky. He didn’t bother informing anyone of his departure.
None of them would even notice him gone.
…
The forest was cleaner than he was used to. To many others, it would be quite the sight. Not just the lack of pollution, but the cleanliness of the air. No sign of smoke, car exhaust, or anything of the sort.
Shirou could honestly live like this, if he could.
Still, he’d a mission, and as he walked and mapped his path, he took notice of any landmarks that could help.
‘Cliff on the east, overlooking a forest. Forest, currently unnamed, contains trees that have similar features to ash, bordered by a river to the-’
Movement.
Shirou didn’t waste time before a sword was Traced and launched. A shout, male, and the sound of bushes crunching. Shirou whipped around to see a blonde had launched himself backwards, a bow pointed straight at him.
The magus was alarmed. Whoever this was, they had managed to slip past his senses to be within ten meters of him.
“I’m giving you one chance to explain yourself.” Shirou knew that his words weren’t understood, but the sword threatening to launch itself next to his head would do most of the talking.
The man across from him seemed to get it, as Shirou could see him start moving his head to find a way out. It was when the Enforcer could finally get a good look at the blonde’s ears. Pointed.
Elves.
He was in front of an actual goddamn elf. And not a fae either - he would have recognized the power that Saber had shown years ago. No, this was a Tolkien elf, one that was apparently and stereotypically good with the bow with how he was currently aiming at Shirou.
Speaking of which.
He Analyzed the bow, and was immediately bombarded with who this elf was.
“Hodor Marceau.” This elf wasn’t a threat. He dismissed his blade, and held up his hands, “Not enemy.” His Latin was more than a bit rough. He only knew a handful of words owing to several jobs with the Burial Agency.
The elf, Marceau, looked a bit startled at first, but to his credit, held Shirou’s gaze, “Who are you, and what are you doing in Koan Forest?” Even as he said this, he lowered his bow as a sign of good faith. Or at least, that’s what Shirou wanted to think.
Shirou could just barely understand what was said, “Shirou Emiya. Map.” He held out the piece of paper he’d been mapping on and handed it to the still somewhat cautious Marceau. The elf frowned, before turning it around. Shirou could see the realization flash in his eyes as the map was handed back.
“That map was centered on Alnus Hill. I suppose you’re new arrivals?”
“Alnus Hill?” Shirou tested the word on his lips.
“Yes. It’s usually where the Gate appears to bring more into Falmart. I’m just surprised you speak our language, albeit a bit broken. New to it, I’m guessing? Usually, we can’t even understand them until a couple of decades!”
“No understand long. Difficult.” Shirou frowned as he tried to parse the rather long string of words, to which the elf rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
“Sorry. I’ll try to keep things simple.” Shirou nodded in appreciation, “Anyway, apologies for the bow - some Empire soldiers were seen retreating, so the village elders thought there might be some trouble.”
“Empire?”
“Ah, right. New. Well, here, follow me to the village and I’ll explain there. We’re usually the second village you new guys find, and you don’t look like too much trouble, so I don’t think it’ll be much of a problem. We also have a couple of maps you could use as a reference.”
Shirou could only understand several words, but he’d got the gist of it from the surprisingly energetic elf, who he knew to be already a father. He nodded along as Marceau started to guide them through the forest, seemingly turning at random points.
This was going to be far more interesting that he’d thought.
…
