Fate Online: Shadow

"Geez, these people are so nasty. They didn't even spare the students"

Michael said the moment he arrived inside a brightly lit hallway where he saw a couple of students lying dead on the ground, but after that, he didn't any more dead students and instead people in monk robes lying in their own pool of blood.

He recognized the place where he is right now. It's just a small place compared to the main grounds of the school as this place would be more considered as a storehouse for books and weapons.

This is the reason why the intruders only managed to kill two students and a couple of guardians.

Or else, they would've died by now if all of the students and guardians attack them.

Even an elephant would die if thousands of ants attack it.

The place wasn't complicated as Micheal had already spotted the two men in a kabuki mask at the other end of the hallway, yelling in Nippon at the door in front of them.

And Michael could also hear a group of kids yelling at each other in anger on the other side of the door that the masked men are trying to barge in.

"Hey!!!"

"Nē tomodachi, watashi wa ato no kenri no tamede wa arimasen!?"

The two masked who was just about to walk away when a person appeared on the corner gesturing for them to follow the person when they Michael started yelling towards them that they stopped and turned around to see him walking towards them with a smile.

"I'm not late for the party, right?" Michael laughed as he rushed towards them, his eyes flashed when he saw someone hiding on the corner at the end of the hallway.

The man in the red kabuki mask was the first to charge towards him and thrust his spear towards Michael's face.

Michael just leaned his head to the side and didn't even pause in his steps as his shoulder slid through the spear shaft and slammed his body on the man, sending the red kabuki stumbling on the ground.

Black kabuki looked at his companion on the floor then at Michael.

"Ahh!"

Black kabuki waved his two small sickles at Michael.

He slashed towards his face, but Michael just leaned his head back.

Black kabuki then tried to stab Michael on both of his shoulders, but Michael just took a step forward making his attack useless as black kabuki's wrists were the only things that slammed on Michael's shoulders.

So he quickly tried to pull his hands back to skewer Michael from the back, but Michael was once again a step ahead of him and punched the sides of the man's elbow, causing him to scream in pain and let go of his weapons as they dropped on the ground.

Meanwhile.

"Can you guys hear that? It seems someone is here" Mark quickly gestured for his friends to shut up.

His friends didn't try to argue with him as they also heard a different voice yelling, and so they instead ran towards the door and pressed their ears against it.

"Nē tomodachi, watashi wa ato no kenri no tamede wa arimasen!?" they heard another voice of someone shouting other than the men who were chasing after them earlier.

"Maya, what is the man saying?" Mark said to the girl beside him.

The girl with black short hair and probably someone from the Nippon Federation looks at Mark and said with confusion, "He's saying if he's late...for the par..ty"

"Party? What does that mean? There's no party here" the bald dude with tattoos couldn't understand the meaning behind those words.

Maya rolled her eyes at him and said, "He means the fight Kiko"

"Ohhh…" Kiko snapped his fingers, finally getting it.

"Who do you think it is?" Kiko said as they really don't know what's the situation outside as the only thing they could hear is the wind getting sliced due to the weapons, men groaning and a large object falling on the ground.

"Master Lin?" Mark tried to guess.

Kiko glared at him and said, "He surely doesn't sound like that, you prick"

"Shh!"

Mark was about to argue back when Maya interrupted them to shut up by putting her finger before her lips.

"Listen" she whispered in a low voice.

And the two men finally realized that they couldn't hear anything anymore from the other side of the door.

"Ahh! F*cking bastards! I just bought this coat today!"

"You students inside, you can come out now"

Maya and the other two looked at each other.

*****

"Ugghh! Dammit! This coat was expensive"

Michael groaned in annoyance looking at the sliced part on the left sleeve of his coat.

"Annoying bastard!"

"Ugh!"

Michael angrily kicked black kabuki on his stomach in anger, and just looking at his now messed up coat gives him the urge to kill the guy.

"Are you kids still not coming out?"

He once again turned his attention towards the people hiding behind the door.

Finally, after a few seconds, the sound of things being pushed echoed from the other side, and the door finally opened soon after.

Michael was greeted by the sight of a girl and two boys looking at him warily, and he saw another girl and a boy lying beside each other behind them, bloodied.

"You guys are safe now," he said.

"Who are you?" Maya said as her hand that's holding on a metal stick tightened.

Michael just smiled at her and said, "There's a traitor in your little group little missy"

"Wha..what?" Maya was stunned by the sudden information from him, and when she tried to once again question him, she saw him ignoring her.

"You're Markus, right?" Michael grinned, causing Markus to take a step back.

"I am...who are you? Why did you save us? Where's Master Lin?" Markus tried to sound calm, but a pity that he can't hide the trembling in his voice.

"That hypocrite? He's probably with his family" Michael said as he wanted to see their reactions to it.

"What!? Don't lie, his family is already dead" Kiko couldn't help but say, a little bit annoyed at Michael for lying to them.

"That's why he's a hypocrite" Michael just smiled at the kid, but his smile sent a chill down Kiko's spine.

"Wha..what? Are you actually here to kill us?"

He couldn't help but have that thought looking at his smile as he slowly back away from him.

Ignoring the kid, Michael suddenly reached out to his pocket, startling Maya and Mark that they quickly raised their weapons towards him.

He just smiled and wasn't bothered by their actions.

"Here!" Michael said as he handed two Joker cards towards Maya and Mark, the edges of the cards were plated in silver.

Mark and Maya looked at each other for a second, then Mark stepped forward while looking warily at Michael and slowly took the cards from him.

"What are these for?" Mark couldn't help but ask after a few seconds, fascinated at the silver-plated cards.

Michael smiled at the two and slowly explained what the purpose of the cards are.

"At the back of the cards are my initials"

Then two kids flipped their cards and saw two letters in them.

"SW?" Kiko said as he stood behind the two, wearing a curious look on his face, not even bothered at the fact that the man didn't give him a card as he just thought of it as nothing useful.

Thinking that it's probably just a meeting gift or something.

"Look for a place called De Luna Inn in the city and show those cards to the receptionist"

After saying that, Michael turned around and slowly walked away from them.

"Wait! Who are you?"

He didn't even walk that far when Mark ran out of the room and shouted towards him.

Michael stopped in his tracks, "Call me...Shadow, kid"

"Right, I almost forgot. Don't trust Master Lin and don't lose those cards. It can save your life" then he started walking away after saying those words.

"What do you mean by those words!?" Maya shouted, but Michael just raised his hand in goodbye.

Markus was looking at the card in his hand with an intrigued look on his face.

"Shadow"

"Who do you guys think the man is?" Kiko couldn't help but say.

"I don't know. All I know is that man is dangerous" Maya said, then a sudden flash of realization hit her.

"Right, the Kabukis!"

With her reminder, the two men quickly jumped around in fear, but then quickly calmed down when they saw the two intruders lying on the ground, with no intention of getting up at all as they just moaned in pain.

Meanwhile.

"Were you the one that caused this?" a plumped middle-aged man said as he glared at Michael in anger while blocking the doorway.

Michael just smiled at him and continued walking towards the man, then he stopped just beside the plumped middle-aged man.

"Master Lin, lying to your students is not good" Michael grinned before walking past Master Lin who had turned rigid when he heard those words.

"Who are you?" Master Lin said.

"The culprits are inside, and your students are safe"

Michael didn't bother answering his question and just left the vicinity.

Master Lin then place the matter about the man on the back of his head and hurriedly made his way underground to where the grounded students are at.

"Master Lin!"

Maya, Markus, and Kiko quickly greeted Master Lin when they saw him entering the room.

"The Kabukis attacked us," Maya said, then she continued, "They probably came here for me"

"No matter. We will discuss this later" Master Lin said and had Kiko call for help so that they could treat the two injured students.

"Did you guys see an unfamiliar man earlier?" Master Lin asked the two after Kiko had just left.

Maya and Markus looked at each other.

"Yes sir, he saved us" Markus answered for both of them.

Master Lin looked at the two and felt like there's something they are hiding from him, but he didn't probe any further as he knew that it's not the right time to be questioning them.

*****

"Finally done with my matters here"

Michael is drinking a bottle of soju through a drinking straw while walking the busy streets of London City.

A few minutes later, he arrived at a place beside the river that runs across the city and leaned on the guard rail on his back as he looked at the people walking past him.

"Right, there's also that b*tch. I really should pay her a visit so that she stops looking for me"

Michael smiled, remembering Princess Violet who has been looking into him.