Chapter 5: 4 - Survive or Don’t
Shirou stood up and walked to where the peculiar girl was meditating. He could tell that she had some amount of skill in combat, if they way she looked at him earlier was any indication.
As Shirou was about to greet her in order to make some sort of ally in this place, her eyes suddenly opened and immediately snapped towards him, her body tensing as if to prepare for any situation.
Shirou froze as he gazed into her crimson eyes, understanding that his life may be threatened if he continues. He ignored the feeling and continued to approach her.
"Hello, I wanted to ask you if they made you fight another person or a Night- I mean monster," Shirou fumbled, as he remembered that the people in Nightmares don't call them Nightmare Creatures.
The girl seemed confused, as if she caught on to his slip. She seemed to ignore it as she replied, "The monster."
Shirou started to get excited, as he found another person capable of defeating a Nightmare Creature. He wondered if she was an awakened of some sort, and used her aspect to defeat the beast. Seeing her starting to look impatient, Shirou quickly explained, "I did too, so I was wondering if they usually send people to fight them."
He sat down next to the girl, who seemed to move slightly away from him. Shirou made a sheepish expression, before asking her, "Are you an awakened?"
The girl seemed slightly annoyed by the question, as if she had her trump card taken from her. "No, my core is only dormant," she stated to Shirou.
Shirou became skeptical of what she told him. Humans portrayed in the Nightmares don't have formed soul cores until they are awakened. If the girl simply said that she was a dormant human, than it would have made sense. Yet, she specifically said that her core was dormant, similar to aspirants and dreamers from the Waking World.
Shirou brushed it off as a slip of the tongue and told her, "Even so, you're probably pretty strong right? It shouldn't be easy for anyone to be able to fight those monsters." Correction: it was easy for Shirou to defeat the Withering Wolf, although he still does not have any explanation for how it was possible.
She nodded before saying, "I trained with the sword before I came here, so I suppose I would be strong compared to the others here," she seemed slightly smug as she said that, although Shirou couldn't figure out why.
Shirou leaned towards her before whispering to her, "Wanna start a revolution," she widened her eyes before quickly comprehending what he said, as if it was natural for this to happen.
"Yes," Shirou did not expect her to accept this so readily, but he was not complaining. He looked around at the other children and was relieved to see that nobody hear them, or pretended not to hear them.
Shirou looked back at the girl before informing her, "Not now, I want to gather information by being called out more." That was only half of the truth. His main reason was that he wanted to fight more Nightmare Creatures to try and gather more Memories.
She nodded with satisfaction, as if she had her own preparations to make.
Shirou smiled at her before standing up and walking towards the door. He banged on the door a few times and stepped back. The same man that dragged him away before returned with an irritated expression on his face. "What do you want brat," he snarled at Shirou.
Shirou flashed a polite smile before saying, "I would like to volunteer as an offering to the War Goddess," he stated in a completely smooth tone.
The man stared at him in surprise before smirking. He waved his hand over to himself to make Shirou follow him. As Shirou walked behind the man and enjoyed the privelege of walking on his own, he reviewed the information he gathered so far.
The first thing he needs to do is gather memories. He would then attempt to find a way to go into the basement the priest exited. He has a couple of ideas on how to get in their, but nothing concrete.
In the Nightmares, the usual way that they are completed is by resolving a conflict. Shirou can guess that the conflict is most likely between the children and the people who run this place. This gave Shirou the idea to make the children revolt against the cult. Of course, his chances are much lower than if he were to simply side with the cult, but if he can get any decent memories, than it may be feasible.
Shirou can tell that the girl he was speaking to earlier is most likely a core piece of the Nightmare. Now that he has got her on his side, all he needs to do is get stronger and gather information. The best way to do the first is to battle Nightmare Creatures, and the second is to build up a reputation with the cult.
As Shirou is brought into the arena, a different one than last time, he looked at the silhouette on the other side. He froze in shock as he noticed that it was a human.
It was a women standing at around Shirou's height. She had long wavy hair, which Shirou gawked at, as it was light purple of all things! She had golden eyes that faded to brown, and wore a white dress, which was quite revealing if his limited knowledge on fashion was reliable.
I mean seriously! Who wears a miniskirt when you're trying to kill someone.
Shirou thought about it for a second before realizing that it is probably a good strategy if you wanted to distract someone in the midst of combat. Speaking of distracting, "Huge…" Shirou muttered to himself in absolute disbelief after seeing the impossibly large, yet shapely protrusions on her torso.
…How can she even fight like that?
The arena doors shut behind him as, unlike his last match, a man wearing really bright clothing stood at the midway point of the arena. He assumed that he was most likely meant to start the fight. It wouldn't have been possible last time, as the Nightmare Creature would have simply attacked immediately.
"Today, we have a battle between the boy blessed by the War Goddess herself, and an awakened bought here from a temple of the Storm God."
The crowd cheered when he introduced me, most likely recognizing me from my fight with the Withering Wolf less than an hour ago. Yet when the women across the arena was introduced, they started to throw things into the arena.
I wonder if your Goddess is happy to see you dirtying her arena.
Shirou looked at the girl across from him. It seems that she was most likely kidnapped from her temple, if the nervous look she has on her face is any indication. As an awakened, she was probably much stronger than Shirou, although she doesn't seem to be very confident in her skills in combat.
It doesn't matter. Even if she is an awakened she doesn't have any armor. A single swing of my sword should be enough to kill her. Although the same applies to me…
Shirou had the [Washing Pole] summoned during his walk in the hallway, and the man who led him there did not seem to notice. Shirou tested the weight of the sword in his hands, and figured that centrifugal force would be important if he wanted to get a fatal attack in.
The announcer walked away and exited the arena using a third gate in the middle. A whistle was blown before suddenly, Shirou found the girl right in front of him with a focused look on her face. Somehow, he already figured where the sword would go and masterfully deflected it with the [Washing Pole], causing the girl be suprised that he was able to defend himself from that. She immediately started to release a flurry of attacks with a sword that resembles a scimitar.
Shirou quickly moved back after realizing that he cannot match her in speed, which means that it will be extremely difficult to find an exploitable opening. Shirou slowly moved backwards before his back was only a few inches away from the spikes on the wall.
He attempted to look staggered even though he perfectly parried a slash from her sword. The girl noticed and dashed forward in an attempt to finish him off. At the last second, Shirou rotated his body to the right while using the [Washing Pole] to deflect the sword. This allowed him to switch their positions without having to make any unnecessary movements.
"Huh?"
The girl almost ran into the spikes, but quickly stopped herself by using her inhuman capabilities. She turned around to face Shirou, and found him attacking her from a low stance. She was able to block the attack, but as the slash was more powerful due to using [Hold], her back was pushed against the spikes on the wall, causing them to stab into her back.
As she was stunned from the pain, she noticed that Shirou was already in his stance again. He quickly drew his sword from it's sheath, which she was able to block again, but it pushed the spikes deeper into her back.
This exchange happened multiple times before the girl dropped her sword and letting out a pained scream. Shirou decided to put her out of her misery, using [Hold] one last time in an attempt to bisect her in half.
"Mo…ther," the girl whispered before she breathed her last, as her body was cleaved into two. Shirou looked at her unmoving corpse one last time before turning around and walking to the gate.
As the man who brought him here led him back to the room. Shirou looked at the runes that had appeared since he killed the girl.
[You have slain an awakened human, Ingvild of the Storm]
[You have received an Echo: Ingvild of the Storm]
Shirou blankly stared at the runes before dismissing them.
Even if she's not real… she was still a person at one point in time.
Nightmares tend to create scenarios using the Dream Realm's past. The people and locations did in fact exist at one point in time.
…Maybe she would have survived if I wasn't here.
As Shirou entered the room, he dismissed those thoughts from his mind before sitting in his corner to enter his soul sea.
Time to see that echo I guess…
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Type_Sword
Type_Sword Bet you didn’t expect Shirou to just kill her with no hesitation. Really shows how old habits die hard… or something like that.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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