- Silas -
"Congratulations!" We all wished Saitama as we raised a toast to him.
It was late in the afternoon when Saitama had returned with the results of his Hero Association Assessment.
"A B Class Hero? That sounds quite good, but how good is a B Class anyways?" Ainz asked.
"Dunno? Haven't seen them work before." Saitama shook his head, unbothered, making us sweatdrop.
"I think Bang-san was S Rank. Isn't that quite high?" Rimuru asked.
"Oh yeah. The old man is quite famous. Everyone at the test venue knew him. He is called Silver Fang." Saitama said.
"Silver Fang? Is that his Hero name? Oh, what's yours?" Ainz asked.
Suddenly, Saitama's face fell down and he looked depressed.
"Saitama? What happened? Didn't you get a Hero Name yet?"
"...dy."
"Huh?"
"...aldy. They named me… Caped Baldy. What kind of name is that? How is that a Hero's name!" Saitama suddenly exclaimed.
…
…
…
…
Now, I could have laughed…
I had a very intense, almost painful urge to do so… but I held back, through sheer willpower alone.
Ainz was quiet too although the repeated green flashes around him gave him away.
Rimuru… well, Slimes can have a pretty damn great poker face.
But Saitama really needed our help at that moment.
"Say, were they making fun of me? I knew it. It's hazing the newbie, isn't it? They are bullying me just because I am new."
…
Ainz patted his shoulders calmly. "That might be true. Workplace bullying is not uncommon."
"Oh yeah. This is your first job, right?" Rimuru also chimed in. "That kind of thing was quite common even when I was working. They will go back to normal in a while. You just need to work hard to show them that you are the real deal."
"Yeah. I am sure you will do great. Anyways, what work do you need to do as a Hero?"
"Eh, just the usual stuff. Beat up the bad guys and weirdos. Although they said that I would need to take classes about those too."
"Work hard, dude. Every field of work has competition now. Who knew being a Hero was so competitive nowadays. Anyways, the drinks are on me today. Silas, give us something good today." Ainz said.
"Hmm."
I got some Rainbow Fruit wine for us today.
Lavy and Sakura had taken Orihime to August-sensei's place.
Shuna was watching over the oni and Yuri, Narberal and Tanya watched over the Publishing House.
That left only Tohru who was currently free as no one was ordering anything.
The Restaurant was not that crowded.
The only customers were Fafnir and Kazuma who were playing games.
Megumin and Darkness had gone to do some shopping together.
Aqua was here, although she was busy drinking. She always manages to find someone to pay for her bills. Usually it's Fafnir, today it was the calligrapher guy. She seemed like she was preaching to him.
Since there was no crowd, I took an early day off and got down to drink with my friends.
"You know what, why don't you look for a girlfriend? Just go out and meet some girls. It would be a good change of pace for you too." Rimuru asked Saitama, taking a sip of the Rainbow wine.
"Umu. You are not getting any younger after all. You should start planning for the future too." Ainz nodded on the side like some wise old man.
"Girlfriend? What?" Saitama was confused by the sudden turn of events.
"Girlfriend, lover, partner. Call it whatever you like. I mean how long are you planning to stay single? Look at Ainz, he's got a succubus girlfriend and another vampire girl in line and let's not talk about Silas."
"Oi… what about you, you ero-slime?"
"Anyways, you should totally start stepping into the dating game before it's too late."
Saitama for his part was completely confused by the turn of events.
"Me?"
"Yeah, you. Don't worry about your hair. Some girls are into clean shaved ones too." Rimuru offered his advice sagely.
I don't think Saitama's problem is his bald head.
The guy didn't seem to have any clue at all.
While talking, we had dinner too and then one by one Rimuru, Ainz and even Tohru left the Restaurant too for some work.
Saitama was actually drunk so he decided to rest here today.
When it was time to close the Restaurant, Sakura returned.
"Lavy didn't come?"
"She was playing with the new kids and was stopped by them."
"I see."
"Will Saitama-san stay here today?" She asked, looking at Saitama who was resting on the couch.
"Maybe. He is just resting for now. He will return after a while. Oh by the way, I had snacks with the guys today. Let me serve you something?"
"It's fine. We had food at Sensei's place with the rest of the kids too."
"Oh. I see. I will close the Restaurant then. Let him sleep for a while." I said looking at Saitama who was out like a bulb.
As I stepped forward, I stepped on something on the floor and stumbled. Sakura quickly moved in to catch me.
I hugged her on instinct and suddenly, we were in the middle of the Restaurant, hugging each other.
The soft music which Rimuru had put before the party was still playing, creating a subtly romantic atmosphere.
I looked into her purple eyes, felt her breath so close to me and I don't know if it was the alcohol or just the general atmosphere of the room that made me instinctively take her hands and hold her in a dancing pose.
"Would you like to have a dance, my lady?" I asked, pushing in every bit of charm I could, the alcohol, working overtime to prevent a blush from forming on my face.
She paused for a moment and then gave me a slight nod, gripping my hand too.
We moved slowly to the tune of the music.
One song ended and another one started but we didn't feel it and before we knew it, we were leaning towards each other…
She too closed her eyes and actually leaned in.
For the first time… Sakura was actually accepting…
I was about to close the last bit of distance between us when… the door to the Restaurant opened with a bang.
"Oh what the fuc…!" I turned towards the door, barely holding back the cuss that had almost spilled from my tongue.
At the door was a young girl, around our age, with aqua eyes and long wavy black hair in a two-side-up hairstyle, which consists of part of her being made into twin tails tied with black ribbons, while the majority hangs loose. She was wearing a red turtleneck, a black skirt and long black stockings under brown leather flats. Her clothes however looked dirty as if she had been falling around or maybe rolling on the ground.
I held back my annoyance with great difficulty and was about to tell her that the Restaurant was closing when she spoke first.
"Sakura."
- Rin Tohsaka -
She looked down from the top of a building at the streets below.
The last few months had been nothing but stressful for her.
Where once she was preparing for the Fifth Holy Grail War, for a chance to reclaim the glory of her family, she suddenly had to worry about the freak accident at the Matou Residence. As one of the overseers of the town, it was her duty.
But even after so much time, she hadn't found anything solid to report.
To make matters worse, a series of murders had started in Fuyuki City. The bodies of the victims were found sliced into pieces. The slices were clean… too clean to have been made using any weapons. Moreover, a lot of the people killed had some connection to the supernatural world.
It was obvious that it was the work of a supernatural being.
Great. Just great.
A supernatural psycho serial killer… just what she needed before perhaps the most important event of her life.
Yet, the worst part was the fact that ever since that day, Sakura was missing.
She didn't even know if she was alive or dead. Not only her, the entire Matou house had disappeared without a trace of their bodies. She had tried to search for any clues for them. Never had she thought that she would voluntarily search for Shinji one day and yet she had done even that and yet… they had all just vanished into thin air.
Ultimately, she had to come to a conclusion that they had all perished in whatever that accident was.
The accident or whatever experiment they had been doing back then had cursed the entire land and the place had to be sealed away.
In fact, it had been so bad that it had attracted the attention of the Church Headquarters even after Kirei had tried to hold the matters off.
And now the Clocktower was sending people to check on the situation, using the murders as an excuse too.
So many trained magus coming to Fuyuki right before the Fifth Holy Grail War was a red flag if she had ever seen any.
That's why she was working overtime, even skipping school just for a chance to catch the serial killer and turn him in to prevent them from coming to Fuyuki City.
"It looks like today is going to be a dud too." She sighed inwardly and left the building.
The time was coming close and she was planning to summon her servant soon.
As she was heading towards her house, she felt something off.
Someone was following her.
Could it be the assassin?
She needed to get out of the civilian area.
Without hesitating even a bit, she changed her track towards an empty area, while preparing her defensive spells in advance to defend against any sudden attacks.
Reaching her intended area, she spoke up. "Come out. There is no use hiding. You are not doing a good job either way."
Out of the trees in front of her came a face she had not expected.
"Hehehahaha… as expected of perfect Miss Tohsaka. Always so confident." His tone and that greasy voice left no doubt that it was the same pond scum that she was so loathed to see.
Suddenly, his disappearance over the past few months seemed to be quite good. Still, she noticed that he seemed to be slightly different from before.
His eyes were reddish shrunken and had large dark circles around them as if he hadn't slept for a month.
"You… Shinji Matou. While I would like to say that it's good to see you alive, I don't have the habit of lying, especially for worthless reasons. But I will still push myself to ask… where have you been all these days? What happened at the Matou Estate and where is Sakura?"
"That's just like you. Do you still think you are at the top of everything, Tohsaka? Little miss perfect Magus, always thinks she is above us filthy commoners."
"Oh, so you understand that. Good, then make yourself scarce from the next time you see me. It would do us both a lot of favors."
His face morphed into an ugly look and he snapped at her. "Silence! You will not insult me like that."
"Oh, then how would you like to be insulted? I am feeling generous enough to grant you a request."
Suddenly, an extra set of eyes appeared under his own eyes and a mouth appeared beside his mouth.
The foul magic… no, it felt darker, curses…
Yes.
It was quite similar to the remains found at the basement of the Matou estate. Did he do some kind of experiment,a ritual of some kind to summon or fuse that monster with him?
Was that the reason for the destruction of the Matou Estate?
"You really are worthless, Shinji Matou. Why do you waste so much time on this fleshbag? Ask her the questions. If she is of no use, kill her." A demonic voice spoke from that mouth of his.
"I know that already." He shouted, although it was easy to see that he was intimidated by that voice too. He then turned towards her and continued. "Rin, I have been doing some study recently, you know. I know about what goes on in Fuyuki every decade."
Rin narrowed her eyes a bit at this.
"The Holy Grail War… I want a part in it, and you will tell me how… if you want to live."
"Oh, dreams of grandeur. But unfortunately, such a thing is not possible. The Holy Grail War is a battle between esteemed magus and their summoned heroic servants. It takes great skill and power to do such a thing, none of which you possess. It is impossible for you."
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" He waved his hand and a gust of wind passed near her and several trees as well as a stone bench were sliced in half.
That… it was the same technique used in those serial killings.
It was Shinji Matou… dammit!