Author's note:
As of this chapter I will not be marking or hiding the ball on spoilers for Tsukihime (original), Kagetsu Tohya, or Melty Blood. If you haven't played any of these abandonware VNs and care about spoilers, uh... good luck. Oh also spoiler warning for LB7 if you hadn't figured that out yet from Tez's presence.
***
Another Stage
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The sound of an alarm rouses me from slumber.
I jolt awake, clutching the wound on my chest- which isn't there.
I blink once, twice, trying to understand - and then the dream is gone, like always. I don't really remember going to bed, but this is my room. I must have been sleeping.
There was something else, but it's already slipped away, just like the memories of yesterday. Just like the memories of tomorrow. There is only today; an eternal, reoccurring 'now'.
Slowly I get my bearings, remembering… right, today isn't a school day. That suits me just fine; I don't have to make it to the train with any kind of speed. Although…
Although, I feel like there was some place that I had been meaning to board the train for. But maybe that's just the strange dream talking.
In any case, I make my way downstairs in my own good time, where Mama is making breakfast.
"Oh, Miyako, good morning," she says. "I was worried you were going to sleep until noon."
"I wouldn't do that. I'm not Onii-chan." - is what I want to say, but my words choke in my throat. It's frustrating. For some reason, I feel like I was speaking freely just yesterday. Even though I can't remember yesterday.
"Now what's put a frown on your face today?" Mama asks as she sets some food before me.
"'S'nothing," I mumble. "Thanks for the meal." And, raising my chopsticks, I start to eat. It's the same breakfast as yesterday (although I don't remember yesterday). The same as tomorrow. Because, after all, this place is-
"-Oh, that cat's back," Mama says, and I glance out the window, where a black cat with red eyes and a cute bow lies, sunning herself on the front step.
…Well, I'm not really hungry anymore, so I'll share some of my fish.
But, when I step out the door and slide the plate of fish towards her… she turns her nose up at it. Seriously? This is fish, you know? If you're a cat, shouldn't you be all over this?
I push the plate closer and closer - and then, finally, she rises to her feet. She approaches the plate, taking a whiff - and then, even more dramatically turns her nose up into the air. "Seriously…?" This has to be the snobbiest cat to ever exist!
***
In the end, I don't manage to get the cat to eat a single bite, and eventually she wanders off with the same snooty, ladylike attitude she showed the whole time I was trying to feed her. With some disappointment in my heart, I go back inside, wash my plate, and then put on a gi and make my way to the dojo. It's still fairly early, so grandpa won't be up yet; I need to get my practice in now so he won't have the chance to talk to me.
Why do I insist on training, even though he might talk to me. But, for some reason-
(Cold eyes behind a three-faced mask-)
-I feel that I need to get stronger.
***
By the time noon arrives, Grandpa has entered the dojo, and is watching me practice my punches. But I don't stop, this time. [ ]-kun is counting on me, after all. I stomp, like [ ]-san taught me, in a way that combines a simultaneous punch - and I hear the telltale sound of a tearing tatami mat.
"Ah!?" I shout, and behind me, I hear grandpa start laughing.
"Seems like you're getting too into it, Miyako-chan! Who taught you that move, anyway?" The old man says - but I don't respond, I'm too busy looking at the tear. It's small enough that I won't need a patch, I guess…
Still ignoring grandpa, I go over to the storage cabinet for some needle and thread, opening it up-
And then, I fall through it. The world fills with red, squirming things.
Ah. I shouldn't have gone in here.
This is the end of the world. A fraying at the edges, where things are growing more and more incomplete. Death. This is death. Briefly, for just a moment, I see cold red eyes, glaring behind the three-faced mask of a tengu-
Then, a cat meows, and-
***
Act 3, Scene 5 (Continued)
Time seems to move in slow motion. Miyako isn't moving. There's blood pooling beneath her. The Tengu, that same persistent bastard, still missing his arm, takes another step, his wooden sandals clacking against the street - and flickers, that same short-range teleportation bringing him to stand next to me.
He raises a sword - vaguely familiar to me, but I can't place it in this precise moment. But before I let him kill me I have to check-
[Cor Leonis] - she's not dead. Her star is flickering, but Arima Miyako isn't dead yet, and that means-
"[EMM]!" My first command spell blazes to life, and the Tengu's sword passes through me as I phase out of reality. The spell ends, and my [Unseen Hand] crashes into him, driving him back as I dash towards Miyako, scooping her body up in my arms - woah, that wond's huge! [Emergency First Aid]! [Emergency First Aid]!
Clack.
Shit-! He's next to me already, sword swinging-
"[Flash Blade - Monk Imprisoned by Doubts]."
A dozen crashes of steel against steel, and the alleyway is flooded with sparks as Nanaya Shiki melts out of the shadows to parry the attack. "Len," he says, closing his eyes as a lithe black form leaps from his back and melts into Miyako's shadow. "Get running, Subaru-kun."
There are tons of things I want to ask, but- "Fine!" I shout.
She's not dead yet. She's not dead yet. Romani is a mage who specializes in healing, so-!
I dash through winding streets once more, ignoring all of my bruises.
"Flugel," Says Recorder - and I can tell from his voice that he's irritated with the alias since Emiya-senpai and Nanaya have already completely torn the disguise to pieces, but he's chosen not to contest the issue at this precise moment. "I'm detecting common monsters approaching your position."
"Right, those were here too…" I mumble as I continue my run, This is fine. This is fine. I cleared the parkour course, after all, this is nothing to me.
Zombies in police uniforms exit a station, raising guns towards me - but I leap, kicking off a wall and launching myself over their heads as the gunshots ring out. My legs hurt, but I keep running. Whatever that shadow Nanaya sent out did, Miyako's star stopped dimming - but she's still losing blood. I can't slow down.
I round a corner - where strange flowers are growing in the middle of the street. "No, I've seen this scene before!" I guess I'm close to the watchtower, so enemies from the Augria Sand Dunes are spawning now? Obviously, I reroute to avoid the bizarre meadow.
The ground rumbles. "Below you!" Recorder shouts, And I scramble for options-
"[EMM]!" A second command spell is what it takes, as a massive worm, one of the natives of the region encompassing the Watchtower in the other world, bursts from the ground, passing through me and burrowing into a skyscraper which swallows it up. "You've gotta be kidding-!"
Counting the Sand Earthworm, and the Courtesan Bears that would have popped out of that meadow - there are two more Witchbeasts not named Shaula that I better start expecting.
No sooner do I think it than a swarm of small winged shapes break free from another building's window, darting towards me and ramming their heads - almost wholly merged with their horns - into the ground behind me as I fire off an [Emergency Evade] with one of Iori-san's gemstones. While my hand is in the bag, I pull from a second gem to [Emergency First Aid] Miyako again - and then one more on myself in the hopes of refreshing my flagging stamina. That's the Feathered Moles down which leaves-
A cry like a human baby echoes from somewhere behind me.
-The worst for last. I swerve, diving into another adjacent street, hugging Miyako tight against me to shelter her from a sloppy tumble as fire fills the street I just left. Naturally, I keep running without looking back, because I'm not dealing with the Hungry Horse King right now.
But, before I can proceed much farther, the rumbling returns. "Backwards!" Recorder shouts, and I just barely leap back as the Earthworm crashes through the street in front of me - and comes to a stop, barring my path. Did it die- no! This is… "Coordination!?"
There's still no time to waste, so, burning Mystic Code fresh off of cooldown, I reinforce my legs, wall-hopping up and over the vast form just barely clearing and getting behind it as another gout of flame passes overhead. Again, the baby-like cry of the Hungry Horse King resounds, and again I don't even bother looking back, dashing to round the corner and- "Shiiiiit."
What blocks my path - isn't a dead-end. It's a vast beast with blue-black skin that resembles nothing so much as a hippopotamus. Not a native of the sand dunes, but still a Witchbeast I'd seen before. "...What was this one called again?" I ask as a nervous grin starts to crawl across my face. I'm not sure how to feel in this scenario. There's part of me that says we can talk this out. I want to hope that's true. We've seen a few compliant rumors, after all, and this person was an ally at one point.
But, her graying skin, bloodshot eyes, and most of all, the butterfly-shaped bruise on her neck, courtesy of my own hands, suggest things won't end so nicely.
"It's Mr. Rockpig, Onii-san~. Didn't I tell you about him when you made me the plushie?" Says Meili Portroute with a shake of her head.