With both of the Sabers now occupied, Hijikata wasted no time in creating as much distance as possible between them and himself, with Jason still fully in tow. The effects of his Noble Phantasm still lingered about, and despite the various wounds he had sustained up until this point and the all-too-distinct trail of blood that he was leaving behind, the Berserker was still able to maintain his pace from before combat had begun. Jason himself, however, had found himself simply frozen in shock from trying to process the whole situation. There wasn't a way to bring up
anything that had happened in the last few minutes, especially given that he had tried (and failed) to use two Command Seals, to no avail.
The young man was soon thrown out of that state—quite literally, in fact—once Hijikata had arrived at a dead end. The area, formed by a variety of buildings meeting in such a way to create a small hole-in-the-wall style area surrounded on all sides, went unused even as a back entrance by the looks of things; that, of course, made it a good enough location to mount a last stand.
With an involuntary cry of pain from tumbling across the ground for the second time today, Jason slowly pushed himself into a seated position and stared at Hijikata, who was simply staring back at him. At this point, the young man had reached his wit's end; it didn't seem reasonable to be wrapped up in this incident, and even less so to be dragged and thrown around like a ragdoll for the better half of the day. As far as he knew, Servants weren't like that; no, even those that were as unreasonable as this had a reason for this. The Berserker in front of him seemed to have enough control over himself to avoid such insanity for the most part, so why...?
"You're still trying to figure it out? I figured you a fool, but to take this long and still not come to the correct conclusion... Honestly, I don't know why I decided to drag you along."
The Berserker's comment caused Jason to pause, and he simply blinked in silence as the Berserker's strength finally began to give way.
"Kid, you're not cut out for this city if you can't figure something this simple out. Let me spell it out for you, then, since it's only going to take a minute for them to catch up:
you were never in control to begin with."
"...Huh?"
"Yeah, you heard me. You should've realized it when you tried to Command Seal earlier; why the hell do you think I didn't give a damn? Go on, try me. Tell me to kill myself; those Seals have about as much power over me as a gust of wind."
The blatant declaration from Hijikata caused Jason to pause, and the suggestion of Command Seal-induced suicide only caused him to freeze up instead. When he thought about how the events thus far had transpired, it made sense—that didn't mean that he want to accept it, though. Despite everything, he was a Master now, so——
"...Fine. By my Command Seal, I order you: Berserker, kill yourself."
Almost as if trying to defy fate to some degree, Jason watched as the last Seal on his hand disappeared...
And Hijikata, still bleeding out in front of him, stood completely unfazed by the command.
"See? Now, just sit there and wait, you dumb kid who couldn't even tell he wasn't a Master—no, couldn't even tell he was just a puppet dancing to someone else's tune; your dream was no more than that, and you'll never be able to do anything as things are now. But at the very least, you'll see how the Shinsengumi fights when cornered," he said, turning to face the sole entryway to the area, his katana fully drawn as he waited for the enemy to arrive.
@VitaVitaARThe brief moment of sadistic joy in Meltryllis' eyes after dragging her opponent out of the shadows was almost immediately proceeded by a long—and rather lengthy—sigh of disappointment. There was no look of fear or despair—or
anything, really—on the Archer's face, given that he
had none in the first place. There was the standard flailing about in some desperate attempt to get out of her grasp, yes, but the enthusiasm that she had held seconds prior was all but gone by now.
"Oh. A doppelganger of that green Archer BB likes to keep around. How boring," the Alter Ego sighed, her shoulders sagging as she dug her feet deeper into the Archer's torso and neck. "You're no fun. Fine, let's end this farce. You've ruined my mood; I hope you're happy."
The body beneath her legs quickly seized up as it was injected with copious amounts of venom, and it took only a second more for the entire figure to begin to dissolve into nothingness. Once the shadow Archer was no more, Meltryllis took a deep breath, as if to re-orient herself mentally, before walking back towards her Master.
"We're done here. Let's go back; you're far too much of a liability as you are now."
At the Arena
From such a close distance, taking the headbutt from Mordred was all but guaranteed, and Chiron knew as well as anyone else watching that such a blow couldn't be mitigated. Of course, without anything to guard his head from the metal of the helmet, the Archer couldn't help but grit his teeth and wince as he took the blow. The thin stream of blood trickling down from his forehead didn't seem to faze him as much as the concussive force of the blow, but jarred as he was, Chiron still managed to send Mordred into the air.
Without missing a beat, the Archer quickly drew his bow and fired off a volley of arrows at Mordred in an attempt to make the most of the momentary disorientation created by launching her away.
"If you wish to pit your own strength against other heroes of equal stature here, then it would be in your best interests to learn how to deal with opponents whose skill far outstrips your strength. Not that I have any room to talk; I am a mere teacher, after all," he said, strafing around the arena as he continued to fire off shot after shot. "This is not to say that a wild style like yours is by any means unviable, though; there are more than a few Servants who fight similarly to you who have had ample success in this arena, after all."
@KoL
