Waking up, Rin Tohsaka stared at the ceiling for a while and yawned. Her bed is a mess and the blanket is on the floor.
Looking at the window, she stretched her body before standing up, looking dazed as ever.
"It's the weekend… why do I even need to get up early?" She muttered but still went to the bathroom to wash herself.
After fixing herself, she went downstairs and saw her mom who was sitting on her wheelchair.
"Mom, you're early."
"Rin, good morning." A mature woman replied. She has green hair and green eyes and her temperament somehow resembles Sakura.
"You should have waited for me, who knows if something happens to you." Rin sighed and grabbed the wheelchair's handle, pushing her mother as she walked.
"I didn't want to bother you, the life of the Tohsaka head is already heavy." Aoi Tohsaka replied to her daughter.
"But still…" Rin does not agree with her mother's view. She was still recovering from her immobility and brain damage.
Even if there was significant improvement due to her years of recovery, she shouldn't be pushing herself like this.
"I'm okay. It's better to practice walking than being confined to a wheelchair all the time." Compared to back then where her mother often mumbles or stares in daze, she can communicate now more fluently.
There's still problems though….
"Rin, did you wake Sakura up?"
There she goes. Rin knows her mom has recovered to some extent and even her biggest grief, her father, her mom seemed to have accepted his death.
Then her sister enters.
Compared to her husband, Aoi Tohsaka tends to say Sakura's name more often.
"Is she home yet?"
"Is she done playing in the playground?"
"Are you practicing magecraft together? Your father will be proud."
Those words pained Rin deeply, everytime her mom mentions Sakura, she had to remind her that her sister was adopted to the Matou family years ago.
Her mother would be in a daze or reply with "oh" before asking about Sakura later, as if forgetting what she told her.
This both worries and makes her sad. It seems that Sakura's adoption was a huge blow to her mother after her father's death.
So even though it was quite embarrassing to reach for Sakura after all these years, Rin is willing to go through it, not just for her mother but also for herself.
Still…
"Sakura is not with us, mom. She's practicing magecraft at Matou household."
"I see… where will she come back?"
"Once she finished her studies."
"Hmm."
Rin sighed inwardly. Aside from her mother, she also needs to take care of a lot of things. Their properties, practicing magecraft, bajiquan, and school.
Also overseeing the Fuyuki leylines. She has heard a lot of supernatural things happening in Japan, like the Misaki Town so even if Fuyuki City was a holy land in terms of mana concentration, she still needs to check from time to time.
It also doesn't help that the church in the city only has one guy available, and someone who's unreliable as well.
"How was Sakura, Rin? Does she have friends? Is her studies going alright?" Her mom's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
"Yeah…." Rin nodded slowly. In fact, she wasn't sure, Sakura's situation in the Matou household is unknown to her and for her school, she was reserved but there was no trouble related to her at all.
Besides, Sakura is very beautiful and gentle, who wouldn't want to get along with her?
Though there are some people that she should NOT get close to.
Remembering a certain fraud, Rin's eyebrow twitched, she still hasn't forgotten how he ripped Sakura's money off and tried to scam her as well.
"Sakura has grown to be a very beautiful and gentle girl, mom. A lot of people in her school like her." She's not sure but the main point is to not make her mom worry.
Besides, she's here and she will make sure that Sakura will grow happily.
"Hmm." Her mom seemed relieved hearing that and closed her eyes.
Seeing her resting, Rin pushed her back inside the house, and ate a meal before going out.
—-
Walking in the streets of Fuyuki, Rin was in deep thought on how to convince Sakura to go back. She knows that it must be a complicated process legally but just making her see their mom is fine too.
As she was thinking, she heard a child crying while looking at an abandoned building. This made her frown, what's happening so early in the day?
She was about to pass the kid but he suddenly approached her while crying.
"My dog went inside!" And then he sobbed some more, tears and snot in his face.
Rin took a deep breath, wanting to make up a reason but when she looked at the abandoned building, she froze.
What's happening?
She often walks when she is not practicing magecraft as a form of resting, she doesn't have hobbies like other girls, going to karaokes or any late night activities that disturbs her schedule.
She has walked this side of the city more than once and she's sure that this building does not have this eerie aura.
".... What happened?" Rin turned to the kid with a questioning look, making him nervous but still answered.
"I'm just taking m-my dog for a walk but then he s-suddenly barked and ran away i-inside the building."
Rin looked at the building with a solemn look. A wraith? Or maybe something else? A magus can detect something strange with their own familiarity with magecraft, even if it's vague, the aura surrounding the building is surprisingly, not discreet.
Dogs can perceive the supernatural too with their senses so it must have entered due to detecting something abnormal.
"What does your dog look like?"
"A golden retriever!"
"Stay here and wait for me." Rin still has some confidence as a magus and a martial artist. If she somehow loses, she can just escape.
Besides, the purpose is to investigate and get the dog though it would be better if she gets rid of whatever this thing is.
This building was said to have been built in the late 1970's and among the old buildings, this was the only one that hasn't been completely demolished while everything else that time has been replaced.
As such, no one tried entering it and even the construction who used to deal with it, stopped due to how scary the rumors are.
There were residents around who walked and saw her entering but no one tried to stop her.
Rin cautiously enters the building, when encountered with a supernatural being, the best way is to use a spell with them but since she doesn't know what she's looking for here, she must be prepared.
There was a notice in the door but she ignored it. Probably something that the construction workers forgot.
It looks different than what she remembered but she paid no mind, not everything has to look the same.
The building was dark and the eerie atmosphere here was stronger compared outside, further convincing her that something is indeed weird here.
Her magic circuits are now ready, her muscles twitching, waiting for a surprise attack. Since she doesn't know if it's a wraith or something else, she prepared her specialty immediately.
In fact, there's a high possibility that it's wraiths. Wraiths are also referred to as Ghosts or Human Spirits. They are souls of dead people that remain attached to this world due to past grudges, regrets and other sorts of unfinished business that they had during life.
The nature of this building due to how old it is can be a place where Wraiths gathered, it also doesn't help that the Fuyuki was set on fire years ago, creating more of these Wraiths.
Normally, the leylines can repel these creatures but only low level ones. Wraiths can evolve by consuming other souls or even their fellow wraiths to grow stronger, allowing them to bypass the restriction of some places.
But due to the murders happening, Rin was also opened to another possibility, not only wraiths but Ghouls can be included too or worse…
A Dead Apostle.
She actually already addressed this to Kirei and usually, it was dealt with one way or another but recently, it started getting more complicated.
"It's a new one this time." He said.
This year, every month, somehow, Dead Apostles are popping out with the exception of last month. Compared to the other months, even the Church can't detect any problems or attack from any supernatural.
This means that it was permanently stopped after months of killing or someone was handling them behind the scenes.
She's more inclined to believe the latter though, especially the recent news of murder.
A Ghoul or Shokushiki is too stupid to eat someone and escape, wraiths don't eat organs so it could only be a Dead Apostle, something that has enough wisdom to escape while devouring others.
Luckily, the Dead Apostle seems to be weak, she heard from Kirei that if it had been stronger, it wouldn't have left the corpses but instead turned them into The Dead, like zombies and wreaking havoc everywhere.
Seeing that there's nothing on the first floor, Rin went to the second floor, still cautious like earlier.
After arriving at the second floor, she noticed that the area wasn't as open as the first. This made her raise her guard up and continued walking slowly.
As she was doing so, the feeling of being watched gripped her heart, making her almost raise her hand subconsciously.
That's not good, if she's being watched, it's better to pretend to ignore it. If she shows any reaction, she might get attacked unexpectedly.
Her train of thoughts stopped when she heard footsteps approaching, raising her guard to the highest.
Listening to the footsteps, she aimed her index finger, preparing to fire a spell. The second was even less bright compared to the first floor, the combination of the footsteps and environment even made a magus like her, nervous.
The footsteps came closer and as she was about to concentrate her mana, she heard a voice.
"This is a restricted area for exorcism. No entry for unauthorized persons. Didn't you see the notice outside? Who let you in?"
The voice startled her but for some reason, it sounded familiar.
It seems that she heard it yesterday.
Rin squinted her eyes at the flashlight that was suddenly pointed at her, trying to look at the person behind it.
When she saw the other person's face clearly, she was shocked and blurted out,
"F-Fraud exorcist? What are you doing here?!"
~~ An hour earlier ~~
"Man this looks creepy as fuck." Diego whistled as he looked at the abandoned building. He can see why people are avoiding it, no one with a proper brain would even consider occupying this place.
Hell, beggars might not even consider going inside for shelter too.
He's currently wearing a priest outfit and some stuff, he parked his car a few blocks away for convenience.
He was also wearing some windbreaker with those red hilts hidden inside and a buddhist beads wrapped around his neck like a necklace.
After making sure he's ready, Diego went inside, not bothered by the eerie appearance of the place, it's like a stroll in the night.
He thought that after entering, he would be afraid or at least nervous but once inside, he felt that it wasn't special.
After going to the second floor, Diego put his things down and started setting his "ritual". Which is just setting up some props while chanting something.
He doesn't need to do this since people won't see him but he has to keep it professional. Once he was done, he began walking around while carrying a wooden dagger he made.
The building was big, as expected from a structure that has been standing for decades, it will take time for him to finish.
While he was walking, he didn't notice a grotesque creature approaching him, it was barely humanoid and was double his size, quietly sneaking up on him.
It has a rather translucent body but was emitting a black aura full of dread.
Once it was behind Diego, it opened its mouth, enough to fit an entire adult in it.
Diego, unaware of this, suddenly had a headache, making him cover his forehead as his eyes turned red with rainbow tint.
As the wraith was about to swallow him whole, a flash of light passed on its body, making it pause and then a loud screech echoed.
"That's it? How weak." Diego glanced at the high level wraith with disdain. The wraith split apart in 44 pieces before dispersing in smoke.
After it was done, Diego covered his head again and his eyes returned to normal.
"Did I just hear something just now?" Diego looked around with a confused look, feeling he missed something.
Oh well, it's probably just the wind.
---
A/N: I don't have any stock chapters so updates might be delayed for a day or two. Write a review to give motivation or something.