Ayaka watched what happened next in a daze. Lancer tried to press the attack, but he could not breach Shielder's defenses, and with a force that should not have been possible for one of so slight a frame, Shielder then counterattacked by swinging her shield as a blunt weapon. There was a cracking sound, and while Lancer managed to avoid the brunt of the blow by leaping back, his spear had been broken in half.
"Damn. Of course, that wouldn't have happened if I were using my real weapon," Lancer scowled. "That twig was just a spare my Master made for me. But I'm not so foolhardy to press my attack now." He shrugged. "Besides, my ten minutes are now up, so let's call it a night, little lady."
With a leap, Lancer burst through Garden's glass roof, and then disappeared into the night.
"Are you alright, Master?" Shielder asked, bending down. "I see that you are injured, but you should be alright as long as we clean and bind the wounds quickly. Can you stand? If not, let me help you."
Ayaka looked up at her savior. Shielder's short hair had a rosy tint to it and was disheveled, though perhaps it was just that way because of the battle. She wore armor that matched her shield over most of her body, though the upper arms and legs were uncovered, possibly to aid mobility. A long, thin sword rested in a scabbard on her hip, but it was clearly just a sidearm. But most reassuringly to Ayaka, there was unmistakable kindness in Shielder's eyes and a certain innocence that was rarely seen.
"This… has to be a mistake… I'm… I'm not a Master! That would mean… I'd have to fight!" Ayaka stuttered.
Shielder glanced down at Ayaka's chest, noticing something glowing faintly red under the torn blouse that was not blood. "Forgive me, but those Command Spells are proof that you are my Master. Now please, Master, let me help you."
Ayaka saw no point in resisting. She let Shielder carry her to the corner of the Garden that served as her workshop. Ayaka made a point of keeping first aid supplies on hand due to her habit of cutting herself instead of sacrificing the pigeons, and several of the herbs in the Garden had healing properties. Before long, Shielder had treated Ayaka's injuries, and while her leg still throbbed, the bleeding had stopped, and she would be able to walk on her own.
"Is that better, Master?"
"Yes… thank you."
"You do not need to thank me, Master. Henceforth, it is my duty to be your shield." An embarrassed expression crossed Shielder's face. "Oh, I forgot - what is your name, Master?"
"Sajyou Ayaka."
"I regret that I cannot tell you my own name at this time, Lady Sajyou. I sense that another pair of Servants are approaching us."
"No way! I can't fight now!"
"Have faith, Lady Sajyou. I shall be by your side. As long as your heart does not falter, we shall face any obstacle together. And while my heart remains true, my shield shall never break."
Ayaka nodded. "Okay." She had no choice, did she? Even if she was to seek sanctuary in the church after this, and relinquish her Command Spells, she'd still have to get past the approaching Servants.
XxX
"What is the meaning of this, Sajyou?" Toshaka Rin snapped. "You told me very clearly that you had no intention of being a Master! There had better be a good explanation for this!"
"Sajyou-san?" Emiya Shirou asked in shock, a blonde man wearing a poncho that poorly concealed armor at his side. "First Tohsaka, and now you're a Magus too?"
At the sight of Emiya Shirou, Ayaka felt righteous anger rising within her. "Don't play dumb, Emiya! How could you not know that I was Magus? You were raised by the Magus Killer himself, Emiya Kiritsugu! He had to have told you about these stupid Grail Wars!" She clenched her left hand into a fist, but with her other hand she pointed her ring at Shirou's heart. If he or his Servant made a move toward her….
"Whoa… hold on there, Sajyou-san… I don't want to fight you… And what's this about…"
"…you knowing there was another magus living on my territory for all these years?" Rin cut in.
"I had to keep quiet! Kiritsugu would have killed me, just like he killed my father and my sister!"
"My father wouldn't have killed anyone! He wanted to be -"
"Shut up!" Ayaka shouted, firing a volley of feathers at Shirou. His Servant reacted immediately, tossing the poncho aside and intercepting the strike, almost too fast to be tracked by the eye, with… an invisible sword? There was a shimmering in the air, and the Servant's stance suggested that he was holding a weapon, but she couldn't see it. Shielder moved protectively in front of Ayaka, as Rin leveled a finger at her, the energy of Gandr starting to glow around it. Even with Shielder to protect her, Ayaka knew she was outmatched. But for some reason, Shirou's Servant did not make a move to strike her or Shielder.
"What's the matter, Saber?" Rin asked Shirou's Servant, Gandr still at her fingertips. "She just tried to kill your Master!"
"Sajyou-san! What's gotten into you?" Shirou cried in disbelief. "I don't want to fight you!"
"Kiritsgusu kidnapped me! He killed my father and my sister! And…. And…." Ayaka choked on her words. She had been going to say, "took you away from me!" but that was just too embarrassing, especially in front of Rin.
"How can you say that? My father saved both of our lives! When he found me in the rubble, he was already carrying you out too!"
Ayaka grimaced. As far as Kotomine could be trusted, what Shirou was saying was true. Sajyou Hiroki had somehow, in spite of his grave injuries, managed to stand again and carry her beyond the initial conflagration at the Civic Center before finally succumbing to his injuries. Thus, Kotomine had been able to recover the Sajyou Magic Crest from Hiroki and transplant it onto Ayaka. Kiritsugu had then found her amid the rubble, and brought both her and Shirou to the hospital for treatment. Ayaka could never understand why Kiritsugu had done it after taking everything else away from her. Kotomine had suggested that Kiritsugu had a change of heart, and since Kiritsugu was a new man now, she should find it in her heart to forgive him. But Ayaka had never been able to forgive Kiritsugu, not even after he had died, and Kotomine made her feel that her failure to do so was her own sin.
"If I may, Master," Saber said, lowering his sword. Shirou nodded, and Saber then addressed her directly. "Please calm down, Ayaka. None of us wish to fight you, and nor do I wish to raise my sword against your Servant."
"Huh?" Something wasn't right here.
"Hey! How did you know she was named Ayaka?" Rin demanded, ever quick on the uptake, even as she let Gandr fade. "That's impossible, unless you're some kind of mind reader!"
"I was summoned by your sister in the last Holy Grail War," he continued, still addressing Ayaka. "While I cannot remember much of it, I am truly sorry that I was unable to protect her or your father. I honestly expected that if I were to be summoned again, it would be as your Servant, but I am glad to see that a knight of peerless virtue answered your call." He turned his head back toward Shirou. "You should know that I still consider it my duty, on my honor as a knight, to see that she remains safe. While I shall also protect you to the best of my ability, if you wish to order me to cause her harm, you will have to use a Command Spell."
"I wasn't planning to fight her," Shirou said, still a bit shaken.
"This doesn't make any sense!" Rin complained. "Servants aren't supposed to retain any of their memories when they're summoned anew!"
"Mine are… unusual circumstances," Saber replied.
"Fine. But now… what class is your Servant, Sajyou?" Rin asked, her brow furrowing. "It can't be Saber or Archer… nor Caster, and it doesn't look like an Assassin. It's not a Berserker… so that would leave Rider? But…"
"I am Shielder."
"What."
XxX
Rin was despondent as the three of them made their way toward Kotomine Church. Not only had Shirou, a third-rate Magus who didn't even know about the Holy Grail War, managed to summon the best Servant, but Ayaka had entered the War and somehow summoned an irregular class.
The three of them had agreed to a truce for now. Ayaka wanted to go to the Church to relinquish her Command Spells (Rin sneered at this, asking if she had any pride as a Magus), Shirou wanted an explanation of the War from Kotomine, and Rin said she didn't trust Ayaka not to try to kill Shirou again if she left the two of them alone. Rather than seeming disappointed in her, Shielder said she would support any decision Ayaka made, as long as it was made with conviction. But now that she didn't have to fight Saber, Shielder seemed considerably happier, and tried to lighten the mood. Clearly the two knew each other, but neither would speak on the matter. Indeed, Saber didn't speak much at all on the walk to the church, with just a brooding, almost sorrowful expression on his face. Then again, to him, it was probably just hours ago that he had failed to save Sajyou Manaka and Sajyou Hiroki.
Ayaka still felt wary next to Shirou, but with Rin testifying to his ignorance of even basic spells, for the first time, Ayaka was forced to consider that maybe she had been wrong about Shirou. It seemed the Magus Killer had taught him very little, except for a little Structural Analysis and Reinforcement, which he admitted all too freely for a proper Magus. As for how Shirou claimed he had gotten involved in all of this, he had been staying late at school, helping the Archery club, when he had seen Rin's Servant fighting with another, who Rin suspected to be Caster. When she saw him, Caster had set her familiars on him, which had dealt him what should have been a mortal wound. But when he came too, the wound had been healed, and he found a pendant lying nearby him. It did not escape Ayaka's notice that Tohsaka blushed when Shirou mentioned the pendant. Obviously, she was the one who had healed Shirou. Jewel Magecraft was a Tohsaka speciality. Did Rin have feelings for him too, or was there another reason? Anyways, Shirou said Caster had followed him home when she realized he wasn't dead, he stumbled into a magic circle in his tool shed, and he inadvertently summoned Saber. Really, the resemblance to her own story was uncanny, minus the whole not dying when he was killed part, but even that had been a close call for her.
Ayaka felt still more on edge as they neared the church. Was the diminutive silver-haired Master still lying in wait for them? But the girl was nowhere to be seen. And so, they reached the Church a little before midnight.
XxX
"My, my… I never expected Ayaka to come to my church with son of Kiritsugu Emiya," Kotomine said with a smile. "And I see you've brought my other wayward charge with you too. It's very unbecoming of both of you to ignore my calls, Rin and Ayaka. I am your legal guardian, after all."
"We don't have time for that, Kirei," Rin replied curtly. "Emiya-kun here has no idea what he's gotten himself into, and Sajyou-san is here to reliquinish her Command Spells after summoning an irregular Servant."
"An irregular Servant? What class of Servant did Ayaka summon?"
"Shielder," Ayaka replied.
"It appears you are a further anomaly than that, Ayaka. You are the eighth Master to enter this Holy Grail War, with the eighth Servant. This is most interesting."
"No way!" Rin shot back. "Everyone knows that there are only seven Masters and seven Servants in the Holy Grail War."
"Except Kiritusugu's son here, though I suppose he does now," Kotomine agreed. "But like any system, there are exceptions."
"What do you mean, Kirei?"
"Under ordinary circumstances, the Grail only allows seven Servants to be summoned. However, your ancestors, along with the other Founding Families, agreed to establish a Reserve System as part of the Greater Fuyuki Grail. While the Reserve System will deplete the leyline of Fuyki, it permits the summoning of up to an additional seven Servants. You see, the Founding Families were concerned that all or most of the Servants and their Masters might choose to join forces with each other."
"That defeats the point of the Grail Wars! And are you telling me there could be another six Servants out there?"
"Perhaps. Be that as it may, the Reserve System ensures that the battle will continue, and that a worthy Master shall be found to claim the Holy Grail."
"That doesn't explain the irregular class though! Whoever heard of Shielder?"
"There are several more classes than the standard seven recorded within the Great Grail System, Rin. Shielder is but one of them. You might consider them prototype classes, which the Founding Families, for one reason or the other, chose not to implement into a regular Holy Grail War, but are still there, waiting for a Heroic Spirit to occupy them. Though clearly, something has gone astray if not only the Shielder class is being used, but there are one or more additional Servants in this War. As the Supervisor, I thank you for bringing this to my attention."
Shirou finally spoke up. "Umm… I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I still have no idea of what is going on here."
XxX
Shirou finally was brought up to speed on the basics of the Holy Grail Wars, but until then, Ayaka doubted anyone could have faked cluelessness that well. He didn't seem sold on the idea of fighting either.
"I wonder, Emiya Shirou, if you know what really caused that fire, ten years ago?" Kotomine asked.
"You don't mean…"
"As I'm sure Ayaka knows all too well, Kiritsugu Emiya, the Magus Killer, was one of the last surviving Masters in the last war, and he was within the Fuyuki Civic Center, which was the epicenter of the Great Fuyuki Fire. The Holy Grail had manifested there, and - "
"Are you saying my father caused that catastrophe? I don't believe you!"
"It is of course, impossible to say what really happened that night in the Civic Center," Kotomine continued. "There are only two surviving witnesses who were in the room where the Grail manifested, and both of them are standing before me. Of course, one of them forgot everything from before the fire, and the other's account remains incomplete. "
"I was told we were both survivors of the fire, but was I…"
"Yes, you were there with me in the Civic Center, back before you were an Emiya," Ayaka nodded, saying the last word with distaste. "I couldn't tell you who you were before though; I barely knew you." She certainly wouldn't say that she had wished she had more time to get to know him before the fire. "What I do remember is that someone made a wish on the Grail… it was there, over the stage… there was this black muck coming out it, and…." She trailed off, the memory of a dark tentacle slashing out at her father, screams of the other victims who had been torn apart and dissolved appearing vividly before her. Her heart raced, her skin became clammy with sweat, and she began trembling, feeling weak and nauseous.
"Sajyou-san! Are you okay?"
Blinking, Ayaka looked up. Apparently, she had fainted for a moment. Shirou had caught her, preventing her from falling to the floor. A blush covered her face, and she quickly pushed herself out of his arms and back onto her feet. It was pathetic. Just earlier that day, she had told Shirou not to dredge up the past, but she had been the one to have the worse reaction… she could almost see Rin shaking her head in disapproval.
"So what is your decision, Emiya Shirou?" Kotomine asked. "Will you follow in your father's footsteps and attempt to claim the Holy Grail? Or will you throw the greatest of opportunities away, and resign when the battle has barely begun, like Ayaka here? Of course, should you choose the latter, I will guarantee your safety as well."
"No good can come from the Grail!" Ayaka shouted. "I saw what came of it with my own eyes!"
"Soon, this will not concern you, Ayaka," Kotomine chided her. "Such a catastrophe may occur yet again if an unworthy one touches the Grail, but you should let Emiya Shirou make his own choice."
"There's no choice to be made," Shirou replied with a conviction that surprised Ayaka. "If this Holy Grail is as dangerous as you say it is, I'll have to put a stop to the fighting before anyone else gets hurt. Even if what you say is true, and my father was this Magus Killer, that doesn't change what I saw. The sorrow on his face as he carried a small girl, and desperately looked for other survivors. And when he found me… he looked like he was the one who had been saved. That's not the sort of man who deliberately causes a tragedy. Even if all of what I thought I knew about my father was a lie, that doesn't change the ideals he passed on to me."
"I could tell you any number of stories about atrocities that Emiya Kiritsugu performed as the Magus Killer," Kotomine with a smirk. "The downing of an airliner, the bombing of the Fuyuki Hyatt hotel, sacrificing anything and anyone if it would save the world. That was your father's ideal. But it is as you say… Kiritsugu was a changed man after he rescued you and Ayaka. If you believe that you can succeed where Kiritsugu failed, then take pride in your path, and rejoice, for your wish will be granted. After all, to be a hero, you must first have a clear evil to defeat."
Shirou clenched his fist, but said nothing.
"Now go, Emiya Shirou, but if you have any parting words for Ayaka here, you should say them first. In a moment, I will remove her Command Spells, and then she will remain in this church until the end of the Holy Grail War. It is not for Masters who wish to continue their fight to seek sanctuary here."
"No." Ayaka said in a small voice.
"Excuse me?" Kotomine said, looking quizzically at her.
She reached up and adjusted her glasses. "I'll fight."
"Don't tell me you were moved by Emiya's little speech there?"
"Fighting for people I don't know is stupid, and I have no wish for the Grail. But I've just been running away, haven't I?" Really, she couldn't stand the thought of one even less skilled than herself choosing to fight while she cowered in the church with Kotomine, especially if that person was Emiya Shirou. She was trying to sound strong, and again she cursed her nature as a braggart. She didn't really feel any braver than she had before, but her ego wouldn't allow her to take her words back now.
"I will look forward to seeing what you accomplish then," Kotomine said with a smile. "Then leave with Emiya Shirou, Rin and my blessing, Sajyou Ayaka."
"Save your blessings, fake priest" Rin said irritably.
'That reminds me though," Ayaka said, thinking back to the graveyard. "Another Master approached me earlier and said he was from the Church. How can…"
"Rest assured, Ayaka, I will not show favoritism to any side in the Holy Grail War. As the Supervisor, I am required to be an impartial observer."
She didn't trust Kotomine's promise, but knew she wouldn't get anything from Kirei. Nodding, she took a deep breath, and walked out of the church to rejoin her Servant.
Author's Note:
The Reserve System originates from Fate/Apocrypha, which establishes it as part of the Fuyuki Holy Grail System. Those who are familiar with Fate/Prototype might be able to surmise the aberrant conditions that have led to its activation, allowing an unusually high number of Servants in the War. Those who are not, rejoice, for you will eventually learn for yourselves.
