I breath slowly, mist flowing out my mouth in the freezing cold and snowy December. My bag that slung in my right shoulder tend to rub in my sore muscles from our previous swimming class. What's more, the damn coach named Willy 'punishes' us by running a whole round of laps in our campus nonstop.
"Damn Camzlo, don't just stand there!" I turned to the sound of my gorgeous friend, Sarah covered in her signature 'IDFC' long sleeve and pigtails, her cerulean eyes gleaming in both concern and annoyance.
"Nice to meet you too, Sarah." I sarcastically roll my eyes playfully.
"Do you really want to have a cold so badly that you almost look like a snow man?"
"What are you talking about?" I laughed. She huffed, shuffling close to me and patting the snow out in my head.
Woah, didn't even feel that. I shake the remaining snow in my body, sending her a kind smile.
"You worry too much, Momma. I'm fine, see?" I giggled, my nickname for her comes out with ease, flexing my arms playfully. She might look like she didn't like it but I know she's secretly wanting it.
With proof if I can see a faint blush on her cheeks. Like now.
"Mou, stop calling me that loser. What are you doing here anyway?" she asked, deciding to pick my white kitten style beanie and aggressively slumping it in my wet, messy black hair.
"Ouch, dang Momma you want this girl to get smaller than she already is?" I backfired, kicking a small amount of snow into her face.
"Cut the crap you homo!"
"Ain't no homo, hoe!- Ack! Oh no." I huffed, ignoring the stinging pain in my nape and slaps her head down, thanking my five flat height for giving a direction to my swing, almost bringing her to the cold hard ground.
"Freaking heck! STOP IT YOU IDIOT!" She wailed, blindly scooping a ball of snow from beneath, throwing it to my supposedly direction rather quickly.
"Shoot, you have a nice aim-!" I yelped, my ear being pulled quite painfully, away from the gate campus.
"You biatch!" She growled while my mix yelp and laugh resides at the not surprisingly empty street.
"Remind me why we didn't bring my baby again?" I roll my eyes and answer her question.
"Uh, 'cause we're broke and you didn't have a money to pull it out in the mechanics house?"
Our home's not too far which cost me a bundle of bucks to pay in reasons I don't want to talk about. Our banter keeps getting back and forth until we settled in a comfortable silence, the snow falling down on us. We decided to take a short way home, when she suddenly catch my attention.
"Camz?"
"Hmm~?" I hummed, glancing at the crying sky above in wonder.
"You didn't answer me." Sarah sighs, her voice lace in something I can detect as... concern, as always.
"Pardon?"
"Question, doofus. Don't tell me you forgot already?"
"I'll not ask you if I remembered, am I?"
"Stop being sassy. Campus gate question rewind: 'What the fuck are you doing there standing like a complete idiot'." Sarah blew a raspberry on me. I gave her a pointed look, scowling.
"That's not a rewind, you make three mistakes. One, you don't cursed before. Two, its short and it has nothing to do with me being an idiot. Three, it's 'what are you doing here anyway'." I explained, wiggling my brows.
"Fuck you. Just answer." I can't help but laugh at her pouty face.
"Aha..." Was my only answer, wondering also what makes me stop in the cold environment with a worn out grey sweater and a wash jeans tuck in a small dirty sneakers awhile ago.
What am I thinking exactly?
...
...Ah. Oh yeah.
"I was thing of how my life looks like snow. It's so clean, small, cold... And really white. Like really white." I respond for a long time, catching her attention.
It is too plain for my own liking, with specks of glittering hope here and there while you catch a snowflake in the palm of your hand... Then not too long, it will melt in your warm palm like how a rose wilts in just a few days of showing its glory in summer.
My life's pretty rough. Difficult but simple. I'm a growing fifteen years old girl whom busy herself in her studies in mornings, sports in afternoon, working shifts in night, reading books at midnight while waiting for the dawn to sleep for a very few hours until another morning arise.
Parents are subjected to violation so I let myself go and search my own freedom. Expenses are awful but I manage with this doofus on my side. I spend my time pretty normal like any other people and major things in life trains me to crumble not so easily. Planning is my expertise and executing a plan is my trump card.
But I guess, who wouldn't if you have a 5.0 GPA, right?
"So you're hinting that you want a challenge?... In your life?" She quipped. I stop midway, then continue after a few seconds, shrugging my shoulders.
"I mean.. Why not?" I chirped, looking down at my feet.
"There's got to be a million bad things happening out there Camz, be thankful enough you have nothing too worry about. Finding challenge means problem, alright?"
"What is there to find? Fate, dragons and pegasus, Sarah?" I teases the myth loving girl. She gave me a hard look, shutting my attempts to make a little fun.
"Don't make fun of me, Camz. You have a pretty thick assortment of history books in your room."
"Oh yeah? But it's a small amount compared to your comic books." I laugh while dodging her tantrum slaps.
"Don't make me slap a book on you with Nero Claudius as a picture, Jauregui." Sarah warned. I grinned and raise my hand up in surrender.
"What's the big deal out of all this exactly? I do believe I'm a normal person thinking normal things and your fantasy of mythical creatures is out of my league." I started, the seriousness in my voice pitch in.
"Hate to say this but you need to be practical, Sarah. Our world is not a fairy tale in books like you thought. There are no dragons, unicorns or hydras. There is no Fate. There is no magic. There are no heroes who comes home innocent with blood on their hands. There is no choices you have to think for a long time. Yes, I said I want something new to happen but what I mean is just a problem to spice up my life, like you being pregnant." I smirk, earning a punch in my sore back.
"Or my parents finding me, or I have come to realize I'm not really an asexual person, or maybe I'll find myself a one night stand." I rambled. She groaned, shaking her head. "You just want to have sex." She murmured.
I laughed and spun around so I'm walking backwards, my front facing her. "Not kind of 'one night stand' you're thinking, bitch. I mean one night of you locking me in our shared home while I stand in our door like a freaking douche-bag."
Sarah shook her head, a small sigh escaping her lips which confuses me.
"You alright, pal?" I pats her shoulder. Sarah's silent for a minute, grumbling in her scarf.
"... You better take it back." ... What? What will I take back?
"Elaborate Sarah." I state.
"That Fate is not true, you better take it back." That's weird? Sarah rarely talk seriously but when it did, it certainly doesn't make me feel good... But my practical self is stubborn and I, for sure will have a big consequences coming.
"No, Fate is not true. Science and Experiments are. Fate is bound to be hypothetical, Sarah. So no, I'll not take it back." I said with force, turning at the left abruptly, unnoticing the cars driving fast beyond they needed.
"One last chance, Camz. Please take it back."
"Nope, not a chance. Fate can exist in books but not here, Momma."
"Camz!" And before she berated me with her begging again, I ran...
Only to tripped in a concrete besides the road. Her fading face in my vision was replace by a bumper of a truck.
There is a scream.
A continuous honking.
The flash of my gray memories.
Then a big momentum struck my body, pushing me in the air.
And a loud thud.
My head and body produce an excruciating pain, my vision blurring at the last second after I saw her face, contorted in fear and devastation.
And I realize.. Dang, I'm hit with a truck. I tried to smile but all I produce is a gurgle of blood. My organs flaring to burst... And it did.
My thoughts led me to my friend, and how it frankly satisfy me to be cared and for me to not care. To be selfish for once in my life.
I felt my organs stops. And my last breath inches away.
And this is where my selfishness wins. There is no Sarah, no problems, no arguments.. Just curiosity on what is at the other side of the world.
I stare at the sky one last time, admiring the snow falling.
Just like my life draining.
And guess what? Another thing struck me.
My blood paints the snow red beneath me.
Well, I guess I have left a small memory.
There is no emotions that I can describe but contempt to my incident.
What is there to live... If I'm living in an automatic repetition of so called normalcy.
Then I let my grasp of life slips, preparing myself to die.
I cough out and wheezed in the fresh cold air, my vision blurry and dotted to form an accurate images and shapes to satisfy my growing confusion and anxiety.
If not, the sensation of being tied by a crinkling chain doesn't help making me comfortable in this situation.
Why not?
Because I had let go.
Because I am no more.
Because I'm supposedly unwelcome to the land of living anymore.
I had felt the life- my soul leaving my body in a matter of seconds, in between the blaring noise and shouts of a familiar voice from afar, clogged by my disoriented mind.
I thought dead persons' aren't meant to feel something?
*Clang*
But why the heck I can figure out my wrist is burning by this minute?
Try as I might, I cannot look up or even move a muscle as I hear a faint sound coming over my slump form. What's more, the sorrounding noises of the living has became muffled in a split second in turn of a cold and terrifying feeling of being watch in every corner.
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. TICK-
A giggle. An innocent one floods my hearing, the pitter patter of a clock ticking I cannot identify where is also adding the suspense I cannot handle in the beat of its own rhythmn.
"... Hello?" I croaked out in fear, my mouth moving on its own.
Just like that, a big howl of laugh booms in my ears, violently.
"Hey!? Who are you!?" I frantically spats in panic, my unmoved body gives a shudder as a cold touch of lips grazes my nape seductively.
"Now now, Our own name won't be the first thing you need to matter in this instant, young one." A throaty feminine voice hushed my fears right on the spot, a huff of relief escapes my body.
"W- what?"
"Ye creatures are amusing, We admit." She pats my head softly, almost telling me secretly that she's impressed. I don't know what, but I'm sure it's not the simple thing like my voice or any other things considered normal.
"Ye expects none but simple amusement for ye life, lass. We do admit, a jest of a magus are finer than your words."
Yeah, totally not normal.
"Excuse me?" The biggest reasoning in my mind vanishes into a plain question, like my mind was preventing my body to speak what I mostly thought.
"You talking to me or what!?" I added. "... 'Cause if you are, care to help me here first before speaking up?!"
'She' giggled at my struggle and she must've been shaking her head now on how pitiful I look.
"And what will We get in return?" She replied, teasingly. I roll my eyes at the back of my mind.
Seriously, why is she saying 'We' if she's only one person? Does she knows the differences of We to Me, myself and I?
"Uh, my complete attention, maybe?" Sarcastic as I might be, I don't care. There are so many questions regarding my existence that I totally needed to investigate.
"That should be enough."
..What? Did she just fall into that?
With one small snap of her fingers,my body jerks up in motion. My eyes, now cleaned out of mist takes sight of my location.
And if there's one word that can describe here, it would be-
"Ethereal." I gasped on my own.
Flex of a million trail of colorful threads lightens the whole sorrounding, dancing in the breeze. The mention of a palace floor may not be needed in this lair, if a bundle of softly 'living' flowers have graze your feet.
Rocks are not stones that we see in a beach in wonder, but gems of superior class of stones such as diamonds, rubies and sapphires lights embroids itself in every leaves of the disbelieving nirvana of oblivion. As the ungodly big crystal moon shares its glow into the glowing flowers beneath me in different sizes, my nose were filled with a pleasant undescribable scent and a feast for the eyes are beyond what I cannot cope with...
That I cannot comprehend to understand, rather.
A floating shard of glasses reflects the abundant rays of spectrum that teases my eyes in awe when suddenly-... I remembered.
I assume that the woman whom talks to me were merely creepy and psychotic person on high...
"Shit." I murmured, lump forming in my throat.
But this is a foolish excuse of mine of what she truly is.
No, that's a small amount of what...
It is.
Contradicting the surrounding paradise is a thing I was once reminded as a nightmare.
"Are ye done, lass?"
Who am I kidding?
Am definitely inside a nightmare.
"Erm, not really?" I squeak, pushing my seat backwards, away from a ... Woman dresses in a thin linen with three different heads and 3 pairs of feet and hands.
I take a look at its tummy and my eyes almost bulge out in their sockets to find out a huge golden wheel swirling with threads replacing their supposedly stomach.
It is beautiful, I admit- it's body is provocative but the three heads kinds of turn me off.
"Wh- what are you?" I whispered, taking a great amount of courage to say it out loud.
"Fufufuf, We are what ye see." It smiles at me kindly-
"What the!?" And its head snaps out and jerks sideways, its kind smile no more, replace with a psychotic grins! Have you seen Silent Hill's puppets! Just like that!
"Eek!" I stands up when it moves forwards, me being klutz, pushed the chair to lay down while I backs away fearfully.
"We have heard yer' call for entertainment and We do believe ye competent enough to struggle in Our bindings."
The wheel in its stomach spins violently as those shards of glasses turns my way- each one of them striking my post. I screams in pain, the shards rest itself in my legs and shoulders that pins me into a gold pillar standing alone amidst the flowers.
"What the hell!? Let me go!" I yelled, the threads circles my fists.
"Beware, human. Your wish is proven to be heard. What not..." It rolls straight to my face. The pleasant scent is no wonder coming from her. "It was given by those ye seeks to be unreal."
I hissed in surprise, its lips grazing mine dangerously. I gulped, pushing my head in the pillar, sweat dripping to my face.
"What are you going to do with me, huh?"
A smile. Not a good one either forces itself to their faces.
"... Oh, We might be helping to pay yer depth by atrociously speaking Our existence in rude attempt to reason with the hidden secrets of the Universe. But first... What do ye say we starts now,hm?"
Who says numbers of hundreds of codes are not only for geniuses to solve?
Hakuno Kishinami did. And by the looks of it, she really did it.
Starting from zero, being a girl who have no memories of her life which luckily summoned the most promising Servant- with her ego so high- she could ever find forces herself to fight her friends in order to survive.
At first.
Then she was confronted with the revelation that she was fighting for a wish everyone wanted, needed, hoped, desired, only to realized herself never having one to wished, never have a reason to keep moving forward.. But she did.
Against all odds, her Servant- Saber remain loyal, protective and patient with her, have cared for her, loved her, and that Saber sacrifices her place in the system in order to walk ahead, to prove their love, to prove their bond will never been broken.
Hakuno, if by the looks of it- even though ready to battle, was hurting inside, the proofs are the stain of tears marking her face every battle she won, because whether how far she carried on, there will be lives that are left behind.
Lives that she cannot help but sacrificed. Like Alice, a deceased child, Julius and the big blow in her mind- her friend, Tohsaka Rin- whom not just help her, but in order for Hakuno to take the next Level of Elimination, decided to fight fairly and leave her wishes hanging with a smile on her face. Hakuno never cried so much, and it pains her to hear even the name of her friend in guilt.
Despite all problems, Saber being poisoned, humiliated, brushed aside, defeated and stomped upon, Hakuno pursued to beat the last of the survivor of the hundred of Masters in that hell called Moon Cell.
Only to be stopped again, not by the enemies but the existence of herself. She is merely but a ghost, with no body to the Outside world, with no reason to fight for... That's what she believes.
But did she back out? Did she lose hope?
Never.
Saber became her pillar, her light to her night, the fire in her heart... Just like how Saber's history in the Throne of Heroes stated, 'she who burns Rome to ashes, sang with her lyre in the middle of the flame, Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the Emperor of Rome.', she also burns all Hakuno's blank and empty thoughts, to be replaced with conviction and determination to finish what she started.
Amidst all this, even labeled as a surreal ghost with physical attributes of a Master, Hakuno grew to learn love... And darn hard she fell.
And who else could it be?
Of course, that small female Servant of hers strikes her hard when the feelings- which from the beginning is very crystal- are mutually accepted and given.
There, she met the doctor she's familiar with- a Cyber Ghost like herself protecting the God's Eye, to pursued the winner to accept his wish. Twice Pieceman, the doctor she later known as her supposedly doctor of her body, freeze in a capsule- sleeping peacefully in the World of Chaos.
Due to her straight ahead decisions and reasons, she refuses to be swayed.
And look at where she is now. She solved the equations for Mystic codes, divide her affections and love to her friends, add all her pain to the reasons to give all, diminished all foes in a bunch of Arenas and execute her enemies until she wins.
She have done everything in her power to make it in there, to win the Holy Grail, to be in the God's Eye, to help her loyal friend- Rani VIII, escape the vanishing and crumbling plane of S.E.R.A.P.H. and for her to know what happens to the sleeping Hakuno at the Outside World, before she vanishes as a new numbers of Ones and Zeroes to add in Moon Cell, hugged tightly by her lovable Servant.
But nah, her story do not end there.
She- the Cyber Ghost, was not totally wasted. Of course, if a troublesome AI had taken a liking into Hakuno.
She was sent in the other side of the Moon Cell, where S.E.R.A.P.H's Eye do not know, locked up in a building. There, she meet her friends- Shinji, Rani, Leo, Julius, Gawain- Leo's Servant, Sakura and Rin, with no memories on how they have gotten there which lead them to a Labyrinth,meeting new enemies and allies, and basically surprised by meeting three different version of Sakura Matou. First, is the alter version AI Sakura named B.B or BB with a more incredible powers than the Sakura whom gave her a bento every chance she got. Second is a newborn AI, Passionlip- masochist and deadly, who is very shy and weight a hundred of pounds. And last, Meltlilith- sadist and a seducer in her small, frequent ways. All of them is different, but they have the common likeness to Hakuno whom dedicated herself to end the Sakura's Labyrinth without fail.
Fights resumes, swords crosses, and deaths are evident as Hakuno loses her friends again, only this time- without turning back.
They regain their memories after all the hardships and confusions.. Yet they remained strong.
Failing, succeeding, they rejoices in the end-, for the second time, holding the Holy Grail. Meeting the same fate again, in the arms of her legendary lover, she closes her eyes and succumbed down to the portal of numbers and abyss of codes...
Or so she thought.
"Hello? You awake?"
Eh? Interesting, why am I hearing a voice? I'm supposed to never hear again, right? To never feel, to never taste, to never smell, to never thought as I'll be falling down in the abyss of darkness my entire time?
But why am I hearing the shuffling noises of a cloth rubbing in a surface? Why am I feeling myself being pat in the head like a cat? Why am I tasting a fresh spring water in my mouth? Why am I smelling a sweet scent of apples and roses? And why do I know I'm laying comfortable in a floor full of blooming flowers?
Is this the corporeal diminishing data place? If it is, then I wonder why there is no recorded data of this location? Is it because no one comes back alive to write it through the system?
"Dang it, you're not dead, right? Please tell me you're not dead." There it is again, that raspy voice of a female. I wanted to answer her question, that maybe, I wasn't dead- or deleted, sort of and so I tries to open my eyes, with a little hope that I am still, 'alive.'.
Imagine my surprise look when I did, only to stare straight ahead in a clear blue sky with the weirdest sun up high. S.E.R.A.P.H's sun consist of only numbers forming an artificial one while this sun is a mass of ball full of spectrum- like tendrils swaying beautifully in every corner.
Is this how a real sun looks like?
"Oh good! You're awake, You scared me there!" I snapped my attention to my left, my eyes gazing at an attractive girl with a shiny black hair with a white beanie on top, her left green-eye and right-brown eye warmly greeted my dull ones in silence. Sitting Indian style in no more than a sweater and jeans with holes in both clothes stained with blood from her visible wounds. She laughed at me when I sits up and completely lays down in a second.
I cleared my throat, surprisingly its enough to hide my embarrassment. "U-um..." I stammered, slowly sitting successfully. "W-who might you be?"
She smiled and wave her hands, her face contorted in amusement. "For a person born in future, you're choice of words are rather old, but I guess everyone had their own quirks. Oh, and I'm Camzlo Jauregui by the way." she extend her hand as I connected it to shake our hands.
"A-ahm, Kishinami Hakuno." I introduce myself. Camzlo tilt her head to the side in confusion, her brows furrowing slightly. "Kishinami's your name?" she asked. My mouth forms an 'o' shape, realizing something new.
"Uh, no. I guess it is in my language or birth land to introduce my last name before my birth name. I presume, you're from the West?"
She nod, a sheepish smile on her face. "Yup, and you're a Japanese lady base on your sailor uniform." She pointed out, earning a small chuckle and a blush to me. Camzlo's smile wavered, replace by a somber look as she analyze me closely.
"How are you feeling?" she asked. I only shake my head, a small same smile graze my lips, my eyes looking at my shaking hands. "Well. Better, actually. Surprised that I am still intact as a whole character even though I am useless anymore. How about you, Camzlo-san? I can call you that, right? Or do you prefer Jauregui-san?" I asked, pointing to her wounds.
She look down and grimace but other than that, she brushed it off. "Camzlo without honorifics is cool with me. And for the wounds... Fine, I guess. A bit painful but I can get used to it." I didn't question further, stepping an unknown boundaries is not my virtue.
"Wait, intact? Character? Useless? It seems like your saying you're inside a game ..." She chuckled but I stiffle my giggle as her face turn into surprise. I nod at her amazed expression. Funny how she founds out about me like it was the most impossible way to have. "Yes, Camzlo... Isn't it the same for you?"
"Wait, seriously!?" She gawked, eyes widening. I tilt my head to the side in confusion. "I have beaten all my foes and won the Holy Grail twice. I have fulfilled my mission and thus, I must not exist anymore. Haven't you experience the same fate as I am?"
She chuckled and raise her hands in motion. "I don't know what kind of War you are referring to but I haven't done anything extreme such as you to be here. The fate you're mentioning goes beyond ludicrous, I was merely hit by a dang truck in the road. I have come to realize my life is nothing but a common gist of absurd words of idiocy, so I have let go and ta-da! Look at me."
"A truck? Are you implying you're from the Outside World?" Now I was beyond surprise, my luck of meeting a person outside the Moon Cell is in a total way of 0.00001%- and here she is, the embodied of a real person sits in front of me.
Yet one question remains though, why is she here? In the outline of S.E.R.A.P.H's recycle bin? Then, I analyze her words...
"This is a place for deleted players of the War, is it not?" I voice out my previous thoughts, while my confusion peaks as Camzlo laughed nervously, pulling her beanie out to ran a hand to her hair like it was the casual thing to do.
"We are dead... Right?" Oh no, do not tell me...
"Actually.." She rumbled, ducking her head shyly. "... I doubt that we are." She finishes, pointing in my back, in which I turn.
I do not know what will surprise me anymore. The way that I am- for the second time retrieve or revive again, or the way the creature smiling at me can never scared me at all. Fighting many mythical and legendary heroes teaches me to stomach every detail that may come in handy, to exploit weaknesses and find spots in their unhuman bodies... and this is one of them.
This creature- is no other than the Fate, or Fates if some wants to call the sisters separately. They are the so called Myths that ties the souls of the other, the weaver of the life and death of a person, the Fates whom cuts any thread they pleases in exchange of a new one to tie to those who are not given.
"Have We scare ye, lass?" They speaks to me in curiosity, hinting my lack of response and my famous blank stare. I shook my head negatively, almost like I knew this was coming. "Forgive me for rudely staring, dear Fates."
"Ah, this young one know who We are." The smallest head spoke, a hand gesturing at Camzlo. "Unlike the Unbound." I creased my eyebrow in wonder as Camzlo scowls in return of the comment.
"Just get on with this promotion thingy you'll talk about so we leave this gosh darn place fast." She spats, clearly irritated as the Fates poke her teasingly. When they didn't get a satisfying reaction from Camzlo, the presence surrounding them turns humid and somber.
"It is not a promotion, but a choice ye have to think none." They spoke, turning to Camzlo. "And by yer case, ye have to pay the insult ye thrown for Us, a superior creatures than to yer kind by doing this in order to be freed by Our convulsing wrath." Then they look to me.
"But ye, young lass- has a huge role to yer own victory, and to Our own amusement."
"... And what it might be?" I countered, scooting closer to Camzlo who place her arm in my shoulder. The Fates rolls away, swinging in the breeze of spectrum of lights, the humor no more, in place with bulbous malice.
"Hate to burst your bubble, but are you- by any chance, will accepts her offer of leaving here?" Camzlo hushed in my ear, asking the question peeking at the back of my mind.
"... I do not know." I answered truthfully, seeing her gaze at me understandingly.
"Angra Mainyu have done a sparks in Our threads that cuts the ties of what We grew to weave in Our flesh and blood. The unacceptable ways of ending the War of the Holy Grail that rips an unbalance peace in Us gods is unforgivable, and sought We did." The Fates spokes, and truthfully, I know where this is going. My gaze runs down in my Command Seal where it once were. The thought of meeting her again pushed me to accept without question, and it's killing me inside to cradle her again.
Do Nero wants me to agree? Do I get to see her well again if I did this? Is this will be the reason for me to start again?
I might be familiar with 'Angra'... but it is not the time to dawdle in the surreal specks of a corrupted Grail.
"Ye two are outstandingly unique in your own ways the gods have not predicted. And thus, I offered ye to be the Fate of Yer Own, in a Universe where the Holy Grail is no more than a filth of a Magus's creation. We..." I blocked their voice and turn to Camzlo whom plays with her beanie, eyebrows raised in the incredulous statement the Fate sprouts.
Agreeing means another journey, and another journey means another chance of knowing what is happening at Outside World, that I am curious about. Yes, I have come to know all things considering I have become one with the God's Eye, a non-corrupted Grail from the future but experiencing it is my desire... And now desires wins over my contempt to be here in this place alone.
"Camzlo." I hummed, wanting to have her ears to my words.
I always depended myself on what is in the future prospect of my actions and thus, not realizing a gem in the stones of present time in oblivion. I come to decide that, why not become who I am from the beginning. Win the Holy Grail for the third time may be impossible but...
I have this certain feeling, a six sense of my mind which contents to be in with the journey along Camzlo Jauregui. And glad I did come to, as my eyes connected with her questioning specks of chocolate and forest green.
"Yes?" She asked. It's now or never. Nero tells me to follow my heart. And I will.
"Be patient with me, will you?" I asked, referring to my lack of experience from the Outside World. She gaped but it turns in such a genuine smile that I cannot help but reciprocate.
"Only if you do the same, then I will."
The world is cruel, Tohsaka Rin learns this in the hard way. Her family that was once happy and bundle up, are ruin to shreds in the point nothing is left but a mere memories of her happy days as a child.
Her father, an honorable magus she worshiped have failed to survive the catastrophic war of the Grail with her mother in tow, as her Uncle diminished the love for her mother in a moment of jealousy and refusal of hearing the truth. Rin's sister, the one that she love dearly was thrown away from the rotten corpse of living hell called Matou Zouken. And now, standing at the graves of her parents in the rainy day she stand motionless, bowed in respect.
She have no tears to cry, for she cannot waste her time on the dead corpses down on her feet. She have no reason to plead for them to come back to watch her grow in need of affection and love.
Eventually, she'll forget the pain that the scar in her heart produced at the lost of her loved ones, so that she can move on to face the upcoming future laid upon her by the name of her ancestors, the right of the descendant of Tohsaka family to chain herself in her heirloom of both Blessing and Curse.
Rin, tries to be brave at the young age of 6 turning 7, to be a Magus that her father desires and the Magus Association expected from her birth right.
"Father, I will do as you say and continue on your honor, yet it is firmly not my fault if the world have come to forget your doings and thus, it will affect my performance in the future." She whispered without malice, her eyes distant as she spoke, a distant thanks to her least favorite person- Kirei for leaving her presence after the ceremony.
"I do not doubt you, Father but I cannot help but feel caged in your words, that I was hypnotized by your false attempt of saying the world is better, that I feel all my life I was dependent in your words, in your bound, in your lies. I wish, that now your gone, I can be independent. That I can make my own choices based on my needs, not yours."
She turns and left at the shed of the umbrella and let the rain pours at her little frame, to let the rain mourn for her for she cannot do. "I wish I can dry my tears without your help. I wish you can trust me with my judgement. I wish you have given me the responsibility of taking care of my little sister. I wish that I am not merely your heiress, but a person who will make not just you, but all of our family proud. I wish you never controlled me like you are doing now. I wish you never planned out my whole life to please the crowd. When, Father? When will I grew up to be a lady, that is not on your territory of selfish wishes in the future War?" Rin listed her anxiousness and let out a sigh.
"And guess what?" Rin laughed mockingly, the book her father gave to her before he died in her hands were thrown up high...
So Rin can use Gandr too many times at it to burn in ashes before it lands on the ground. "I have found my escape to your clutches, asshole. I can dry the tears of my own success. I am now independent. I am now in my own to make choices out in your league. I am now capable of making judgement without your permission and denial. I am responsible to my sister you once thrown. I am not your heiress anymore for I replaced you as the Master of my House. So just be there and don't do anything that will pissed me off than you already did, fucking goat man." she cussed. A child cussing is like seeing Buddha in a Catholics temple, but Rin do not care. Do not pretend her Father to be a good role model, because she is what she wants now.
"Oh, thanks you for the dagger by the way, I do need it." she quipped.
And imagine, the gray sky without any joy at all, sparks up in a desirable way she wanted, like a hope flashes at the dull world of hers.
A huge, disastrous thunder of mana resonates at the clouds, directly on top of her, and then, she smiles. The soft thuds of feet in the mud grow closer and a pair of arms wraps itself in her waist. "... Rin." her favorite girl has come, and thus, she swept her sister off the ground and gave her the love she cannot give before. "Sakura." she sighs, disappointed for seeing the void and closed expression of her sister. "It's okay now, I'll take you away from him. Do not worry my little sister, I will protect you from now on."
"Granpa's coming after me again." Sakura voiced out, hugging the soaked Rin in return of affection . "Not when I'm around." the Tohsaka head murmured, fist balled in anger.
"... I am broken, Rin. Do you really want a threat to take shelter in your roof? Afterall, I'm not your sister anymore. You did say it, right?" Sakura mumbled, but her arms are still clutching her big sister, not wanting to let go. "That is the worst thing I ever done in my life, dear sister. Forgive me if I let you believe I speak of it like it was the truth. Do not speak of yourself that way Sakura, because there is no days, nor nights that I remind myself you are not my sister, forever and forevermore. If it will make you feel better, the contract between the Matou's and Tohsaka's are not legal by the Mage Association- in fact, never once you've been a Matou at all. I wish you see yourself in my perspective... Imouto." Rin stated, gently brushing the now violet locks of her sister.
"Even if you look like them, or even act like them due to everything they've done, I will always love you." Like a dam being open, tears of anguish leaves Sakura's eyes, bawling her heart out and unleashing the suppress hope and light her grandfather- Zouken have corrupted- to make it known- that she thinks the same as her sister. She wailed Rin's name too many times until none left as Rin dried her tears all the time it fall.
"O-Onee-sama?" Sakura whimpered.
"Yes, Imouto?" Rin asked, kissing her little sister in her damp forehead, sending a quick acknowledgement to the two persons accompanying her sisters arrival. "You mean it all, right? It's true right? Onee-sama?"
Rin grins, giving her sister an eskimo kiss. "It is true, Sakura."
"Promise?"
"I do not promised, I vowed." Rin roll her eyes playfully, not really paying attention to the sticky dampness of her clothes.
"So you vow?" Her sister asked. Being adorable and cute, Rin have no reason to disagreed or decline her sister.
"I vow to the depths of my heart, Imouto." Tohsaka Sakura giggled, pulling her sister away from the graves, her smile reaching her dull violet ones, celebrating the new found love she hides in her heart for her big sister. "Let's go, Onee-sama. Haku- chan and Camzi- chan said we need to be out in the rain."
"Only for you. Now come." Rin agreed, sheltering her small sister in her arms and grinning at the two little enigma friends of hers, supporting a kind smile on their own. While Camzlo wears the smile smugly in her cute black dog style beanie, Hakuno wear hers innocently, her arms wrap tightly on her waist in order to conserve heat.
Rin's eyes trail at Hakuno's visible Command Seals, a flash of memories resides in her vision.
It was terror.
Fuyuki, the land she was born- has been covered by the corrupted Grail and burn without mercy. The fight that had scar the land is blemished with the Masters and Servants combined fury, stood in front of her eyes. She's having none of it. Tohsaka Rin could not absolutely think of a vast destruction like the once she is witnessing right now.
So she ran, to try and find her parents that did not contact her for a few days she was away in Fuyuki, miles away from its boundaries. A sting deliberately clungs her sensitive skin as she enters at the premises of the burning houses in the middle, hair almost heating up to start a new flame. Her lungs burn in exhaustion and she coughed in the poisonous smoke around her.
But she didn't mind. She didn't care. She may not have a good experience with everyone but she wanted to help, in her little ways. She cast a hydro spells, in which she never told her parents she knew. Infact, there are so many spells she knew that is not regarding the gems and her ancestors stones.
And Rin's glad she learn a bunch no Magus her age can accomplished. She recovers all she can diminished in her peripheral vision when something caught her eyes. It is an untouched door directing down on the ground, hidden at the upturned huge garbage can.
Rin debated whether she lets her curiosity wins or do the right thing for the population of Fuyuki.
"Curiosity killed a cat." She murmured, looking down at the door and contemplating if she wants to go on until she decided with her own reasons. "But satisfaction brought it back or I'm not really a cat."
And her mind switch on it's own, her magic move her to the door unconsciously. Her small body almost didn't fit at the broken door, but it did.
Layers and layers of stairwell she walk, guided by a burning wood she fetch outside. It looks like the outside world didn't affect the place as the air in her lungs made her relax in a way. She felt it. The shift she do not understand, runs on her veins like she have entered another dimension.
If only she knew.
Not long, she hears a humming sounds of a machine, and the light down in the stairs means she reach the open.
And how flabbergasted she is in what she saw. Thousands of human capsules scatters around, the electricity running for its functions are none but a spark of cut vines of wires. "The rotten corpse of both children and teenagers should be helpful to Matous." She grumbled, the specks of disgust lace with venom. Usually she'll scream like a little girl she is but no. There is no one to impressed, no one to fake her true nature.
"What is going on?" She asked herself, and jump up high in fright as two bang, resonated at the only capsules who have an active heart monitors, flashing the pulse of a living being inside. She rushed forward in hopes of saving them.
That she did. And not just any person, with hetero-colored eyes and cute brown ones...but two person with a Command Seal running not just from their skin, but to their blood, Rin can feel it.
They are more important than the people dying above the ground.
She just knows it.
She walks closer to them and winked. "How's your encounter? Is it nice?" She asked Camzlo, who laughed and shrug her shoulders in distress. "Thank you for reminding us he is full of maggots. Camzlo literally puke in his doorstep ." Hakuno replied for the both of them, patting Sakura's head affectionately.
"Nice, you ass. I have a traumatic experience with worms, he reminds me all of it." Camzlo huffed, stepping out the grass beyond mud reach.
"... But it's worth it, now that Sakura- chan's here, neh?" Camzlo stick her tongue to the youngest, earning the same result. They walks out the graveyard without looking back. Besides...
'I need to plan where's the next time we'll burn Zouken for good.' Rin thought, sensing Hakuno putting her head in her wet shoulder. 'And find out how the hell did Hakuno knew me from the very start.'
Author's Note:
If you must know, it didn't originally follows the plot of Fate Zero in the end because I'll tell you now, this story will be the multi crossover of every Fate series involve. And oh, Rin is not the stuck up princess you knew, alright? You remember the Fate Extra Rin? yep, that's the one.