DISCLAIMER
The following is a fan-based
FICTION
F/SN, F/Z, F/KPI and other products related to the Fate Series are all owned by TYPE-MOON, Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi.
Please support the official release.
Chapter 3: In the right place, in the wrong time...
Early in the mornin, Courtyard of the Church-Temple...
The courtyard, once immaculate, was now laid barren. The responsible sitting on the ground, sweaty and tired. Sean had been lucky that the day after had been a school-free one and that the creepy priest, Kotomine, was away from business.
It was disturbing how cold his voice was and how his mood changed at random times, but thankfully no malice was still perpetrated and Sean preferred to keep this uneasy truce has long as possible and, if possible, until the end of his stay.
The cause of such destruction could be attributed also to the little study that the foreign teen had just finished to practice. Once he had woke up, Sean spent a short amount of time still reading the books, to try to understand this new skills he may develop with his new Magical Circuits.
The first tome had been mostly theories and other basic, if not, dangerous rituals that Sean decided to not try now. Looking once again at the description of the ritual he had tried the day before, the teen felt lucky to have not died in the process. This Magical Initiation Ritual was something theorised recently and tried to attach the Magus' Circuits to another 'supplier'.
The reason of the limitation of the Magi's skills are mostly related to Earth, called by the book Gaia, jamming the ability to create a stable connection to the Root. This 'Root' is the origin of the Magical Fuel 'Od' and many had died tried to understand more of the divine object.
In Sean's opinion, it was a waste of time. Sure, it would be great to discover the mysteries of the world, but lacking the opportune instruments the whole attempt would fail at its initial stage.
The book ended describing another worrying subject. In the late 18th century, some noble Magi families created a deadly competition against each other. The reward was the Holy Grail, an artifact created by Magi of old and capable of make the wish of the winner come true.
The object seemed quite OP in Sean's mind, also the Grail was related to the Holy Cup of Jesus just by name and anything else. The Holy Grail War was truly an horrible conflict between seven Masters that fought together with seven Servants.
Those Servants were Heroic Spirits, individuals that are internationally cherished and object of prayers.
Saber, Lancer, Berserker, Caster, Rider, Assassin and Archer. All Servants chosen had an unique class each and owned powerful artifacts, or Noble Phantasm, that made them even more special than others Spirits.
The last recorded war was the Third. It seems that it was also considered unconvential because of the introduction of a Eight Servant Class, Avenger. The Einzberns had tried to win deceitfully the competition in an attempt to reclaim their Heaven's Feel, the Third Magic and only connection to the Akashic Record, or, if there were still confusion, the Root.
The place was where the souls of everyone ended and, those worthy, were then placed in the Throne of Heroes. In a certain sense, this whole logic reminded him of the only year of Philosophy he did as a freshman.
Parmenides first and then Plato described of a infinite world away from ours where everything was present in their truest form and that our world was a mere copy of this metaphysical reality. Sean had contemplated the possibility that those Greek Philosophers were Magi scientists, but decided to kept this little thought to himself and to focus on the present.
He had read half the second tome and was getting more and more accustomed to Projection and Reinforcement. Interestingly enough, the draining feeling that the book described was absent and Sean just deduced it was because of his different Magic Circuits.
He had first tried with a wooden sword and was satisfied with the perfect first attempt. He hit a sack of dirt with his newly reinforced wooden sword and was even more pleased to see it cut through as if made of thin paper.
His next attempt was recreating a dagger and a fairly-known one for those who like classic games. And here it was, the Dagger of Time from PoP was in his hands. His first instinct was pressing the big button on it but concluded it was the Dagger was empty of the Sands of Time.
Sighing, he now focused onto something more complex. And now Sean was grasping Sora's Keyblade. His grin was reaching a very unhealthy extension.
But there was still a major experiment to try and willing his Circuits, he Projected and Reinforced a Kolibrì handgun and cocking it straight to the now halved target, he shoot.
The Kolibrì, the weakest handgun of WWI and the following conflicts, was able to pierce the target, leaving a quarter of metre hole on the now open sack of dirt.
And soon Sean started to create more and more guns some quite well-known, others quite rare and exotic on their appearance.
And now Sean was tired to the bone, the Courtyard demolished by his experiments and little time to repair all the damage.
As he got up from the ground he paled at hearing the sound of hands clapping behind him. He turned quickly to see the intruder and was shocked to see the same old man that gave him the three tomes, grinning at him.
"Kaleidoscope-san?" At this the man laughed. "Oh boy. It's been a while since I got someone to be respectful to my being." As he placated his laugh, he returned to grin at the boy before him.
"Greetings Sean Graham. I'm Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, the Wizard Marshal or, as I like to proclaim myself, the Vampire Troll. But you can call me whatever you want, I don't care."
"Ehr.. Zelretch-san, why are you here?" The still stunned teen asked. It wasn't the main concern but he opted to avoid to go straight for the point in that predicament.
"Oh. You see, Sean-kun, I am a very busy Magus. Being the main responsible for the Second Magic, the Kaleidoscope, I have to deal with many, different jobs in all those parallel worlds and sometimes I have to deal two works at once." He adjusted his dusty, old clothes. "So I decided to search for a competent substitute in some of those situations. And guess who was the lucky guy?"
Sean thought well of his answer before replying. "Me?"
"Yes, I mean, no." Zelrecht paused "Well yes and not. You are still being trialed and until now you are exceeding my expectations."
"What do you mean 'trialed', Zelrecht-san?" The whole discussion was surreal. First he discovers this magic-science and turned into a pseudo-Magus and now with this important old man, if his title of 'Wizard Marshal' actually is high in the hierarchy.
"That is simple. Things in Fuyuki are going to get exciting very soon, just like ten years ago."
Then Zelrecht turned away from the boy before holding his hand with a peace sign.
"Now that the tutorial is over, I hope you can truly beat this challenge. It would be boring to find another candidate. Ciao!" As he finished the sentence, the man disappeared in a blink of eye.
Sean kept looking at the former location of the old man but was thinking about the message the Magus had relayed to him.
While he had been in Fuyuki for almost two-three days, the teen had noticed the unexplainable deaths that had started for a while.
And what did the old man meant with 'like ten years ago'?
Curious of this, Sean cleaned the courtyard before returning to his room and, once there, turned on his laptop. Knowing that he would stay away from home, the teen had took with him his second best PC and this has proven to be a good idea.
As he browsed through the news, he started to see a weird pattern. There were various conflicting reports of the local police that described the presence of blood and destruction but the lack of bodies. It was also strange how in that period a young serial killer had been found death. Ryuunosuke Uryuu was a monster that thankfully had been put down but..
Who did this and how did he/she cover their trails?
It was frustrating how limited the reports were of that time and, feeling bored, decided to check other newspaper article of the period. One of those caught his attention.
It was a merely a description of a local, noble family. The Tohsakas. Sean remembered hearing Shirou talking about a Tohsaka-girl he knew. The family was quite small but there were two little girls. Rin and... Sakura.
Sean was sure that he would remember hearing about twins or even seeing them around but the younger girl was oddly familiar. She seemed someone he had already seen at school but..
Why couldn't he remember where and when?
His head landed in his pillow. Life was becoming like a crescendo of bizarre stuff. Sean hoped that thing weren't going to end up as badly he felt they were going to turn.
His reverie was interrupted by someone knocking at the door. "You may come in."
"As if I needed your permission to enter, mongrel." A blond young man entered in the room, followed by a smiling Kotomine.
"Sorry but.. who the hell are you?" was the foreign boy reply. The blond was quite arrogant both in his way of walking and his talking.
"You Cur!" He barked and looked ready to attack Sean. "I'm Gilgamesh, the King of Kings, and you shall respect me as your liege."
Sean turned to Kotomine confused but the priest simply explained their visit.
"You see, Sean-kun. Gilgamesh-sama here is in need of sustainance and you might be able to help him."
At this Sean felt that the situation was indeed grave and that he needed to escape the room somehow.
"So Mongrel." The blond continued, strange yellow circles forming on his side "Die!"
