Author's Note:
School started.
Sorry about the wait. Honestly, it was a combination of factors: school, violin, my new sleep schedule (thanks for having the bus arrive at 7:55 and making me wake up at 5:45), my inexperience with calm/fluffy scenes like this chapter, and a whole lot of shit.
Anyways, some actual notes:
RadioPoisoning: Really? Huh. I could have sworn that it was actually Angra Mainyu. It kinda leaves me in a quandary, seeing as it's already ingrained as an important plot point. I'll have to soldier on, though. For my source on AM appearing to Illya, while I'm aware it's far from the best source, it's from Illya's wiki page on Type-Moon Wikia. As I've said, I can't really change it now, given that it's important to the plot. In the future, I'm going to try and not dig myself into pitfalls and such. Thank you, though. :)
On Time Alter; yeah, I freely admit I'm overestimating Time Alter's effects, especially considering that Kiritsugu is under the curse. However, he is only using Double Accel, as he would have been using as his maximum prior to receiving Avalon. And don't get me wrong, Kiritsugu overworked himself past his physical limits, what with all the fighting and using Time Alter repeatedly. However, though he has much less time to work with than compared to Shirou, he has a head start in terms of Illya knowing magecraft.
Off-topic, but I wanted to say thank you to everyone who's followed, favorited, and/or reviewed. WOW. I'm overwhelmed by all the support that I've been getting. Thank you guys so much! :)
And now, the disclaimer:
I DON'T OWN FATE. THE FOLKS OVER AT TYPE-MOON OWN FATE.
Triple-Linked Crane Wings
Chapter 3: Luminosity (Part 1)
A FEW DAYS LATER
When the light dawned upon the room, a pair of scarlet eyes fluttered.
The girl lulled for a while, turning and rolling in the confines of the futon.
Suddenly, the bundle of humanity surrounded by pajamas truly awoke, the girl springing up from the futon. Red eyes frantically turned back and forth throughout the room. Expecting a cold white backdrop to gaze upon once she rose, Illya instead saw black and white lines lining the room's sides.
"Huh...?"
For a second, Illya collected her thoughts.
Where am I?
As she stepped, slowly moving from the futon, she froze.
Fire fire flame death burn perish destroy incinerate
Memories flowed like a raging storm through her mind, overwhelming her with an endless tide of colors.
Ice eyes smile mama swords papa bullets everywhere no no no
Gone fire burning fire cold warm flame frost all gone-
Illya screamed.
Suddenly, footsteps came running down the hallway.
When Illya regained her bearings, a brown-haired woman suddenly appeared.
"Illya-chan! Are you alright?! Did something happen?!"
"W-what?" Illya stuttered, as the woman ran straight at her. "Ah!"
The woman embraced Illya, completely hysterical who was trying to keep what remained of her bits of composure.
"I was so worried that someone tried to kidnap you, or use you to blackmail Kiritsugu, or...!"
Illya finally regained some semblance of composure.
"I-I'm fine. Thank you...um..."
The brown-haired woman's demeanor changed in an instant.
"Oh!" she cupped her hands around her mouth, forming an O-shape. "I haven't introduced myself yet, have I?"
She proudly puffed her chest. "I'm Taiga Fujimura! The Tiger of Fuyuki, international kendo extraordinaire, and most importantly, Kiritsugu's best friend!"
Illya sweated, as the woman continued, and started to get uncomfortably close.
"And do you know what that makes me?"
"W-what, Fujimura-san?"
"Your big sister!"
She tackled Illya, diving straight into the futon.
"Eep!" Illya flailed around, as Taiga hugged and embraced her. "F-Fujimura-san! Please, let me breathe!"
Taiga pouted, as she pulled Illya closer.
"Mou~" Illya tried to pull herself out of Taiga's arms, to no avail, as Taiga pouted. "Don't be like that, Illya-chan!"
Suddenly, Taiga stopped. Just as quickly as Taiga's 'assault' on Illyasviel von Einzbern's bed began, it ended. Illya gaped, as Taiga suddenly stopped, and jumped backwards, clarity in her eyes.
"Oh! That's right, Kiritsugu!"
Taiga's expression quickly shifted to one of seriousness and concern, as the disheveled and fettered appearance of Kiritsugu came to mind. Moments passed, as Illya watched, and Taiga scrambled to find the right words to say.
Meanwhile, Illya had taken to sorting and reorganizing her ruffled sheets, with quiet resolve. Taiga quietly let her work, internally brooding.
Silence continued.
And then, the words came.
"Say, Illya-chan..."
"Hm?"
Inquisitively, Illya looked at Taiga, pausing after having smoothed the sheets of the futon.
Taiga breathed, and then asked:
"What happened to Kiritsugu?"
In that moment, Illyasviel von Einzbern froze.
Everything was frozen.
She was numb.
The winter landscape had returned.
I'm cold, a voice manifested in her mind. I want to go home.
Everything burned.
Everything that she had come to know in her year, that had been eating away at her heart ever since Papa left and never returned, it all returned to ash and dust.
For the heiress, the Einzbern's apex of alchemy and magecraft, everything that she had been taught had burned as fast as it had arrived.
For Kiritsugu Emiya had not abandoned her.
For Kiritsugu Emiya had protected her.
For Kiritsugu Emiya, the so-called Magus Killer, the one who had betrayed the Einzberns and left Mama to die, the one who had abandoned the Holy Grail when it was in his grasp, had saved the last Einzbern.
And yet, Illyasviel von Einzbern was cold.
In the distance, Kiritsugu Emiya laid, bleeding and on the verge of death.
To his side, 'Mama' stood, with an expression that scared the scarlet-eyed homunculus.
And from the corner, the last Einzbern looked on, as 'Mama' viciously grinned and walked into the flames, disappearing entirely.
She was cold, because she was alone, with everything that she had known, loved, or cared for broken, shattered, and destroyed.
And yet, while her vision blurred, she barely made out the half-dead form of Papa. He crawled through the flames, unscathed by the unholy fires yet brutally injured by 'Mama', as he made his way to Illya.
Her vision blurred once more, with formerly well-defined shapes turning into a handful of shapes and colors.
Despite her vision failing her, she could still feel.
She felt the cold touch of a dead man, the one of a person who had become a hollow husk and became a being driven without purpose. Despite the cold sensation, the cool feeling that almost radiated from the Magus Kill- no, Papa's hand, the callused hand felt like the comfort of a warm, flickering fire coming to life in Illyasviel von Einzbern's soul.
Papa.
Her vision blurred, the myriad of colors slowly fading into an endless landscape of black.
And yet, as she faded into unconsciousness, she felt the gentle touch warm her, even into the void.
"Illya-chan!"
A shout pierced the ice, shattering the memory as Illya returned to reality. Blurry-eyed, her sight gradually returned, as she looked up to the face of Taiga, who only looked on with sympathy.
"Fu...Fujimura-san..."
"You fainted when I mentioned Kiritsugu. Did...did something..." Taiga suddenly held her tongue. "You don't want to talk about it, right?"
A brief, numb nod was all she needed.
"I'm sorry."
Taiga reached out her arms to hug Illya. Still dazed from the memory, Illya moved into Taiga's embrace, almost falling into it.
After a few moments, Illya spoke. Her words came in short breaths, quiet enough to hide the phantom ache that had begun to take hold throughout her mind and body.
"Fujimura-san...c-can I please get some water?"
Taiga paused for a moment. Then, she quickly nodded, beginning to leave the room.
"I...I think I'm going to go sleep for a little bit."
The student abruptly paused, then looked back at Illya. After a moment, the Fuyuki Tiger proceeded to nimbly glide through the winding hall to the kitchen.
As she left, Illya exhaled, and fell into the futon, physically and mentally exhausted. As she descended into unconsciousness, she fell into a restless sleep.
Her dreams repeated and repeated the endless void of emotions that her flashback had entailed.
Illya staggered through a vortex of confusion, filled with tinges of anger and yet loss that she couldn't comprehend. She traveled through the landscape that had once more filled with the stench and sight of smoke and flames.
Endlessly, she staggered and tried to escape the ending through the myriad of dreams that she wandered through.
Each time she had tried to stop the maid from locking the door to the cathederal, every time that she cried and shouted, kicking and screaming at the maid as she admonished her for losing her proper composure, every time that Illyasviel von Einzbern tried to defend Papa from being hurt by 'Mama', she always ended in the same place.
The place where the sun never shone, where endless waves of black and shadow filled the skies and air, where ice and fire collided to create the contradiction that had warped Illya.
And yet, even in the dreams that had ended with her on the brink of death, with her heart being shattered like glass, and the horrible sights of Papa limblessly trying to crawl towards her, they had all ended with a light burning at the door of darkness.
Where the feeling of Kiritsugu Emiya had warmed her heart.
Where a feeling of cold isolation turned to silent joy.
Where his light had filled her night sky.
And where a man's steel broke an illusion of ice.
She woke up, feeling neither the distant warmth of her Papa.
Instead, she felt her right hand being gently prodded at by Taiga.
"Illya-chan, are you awake?" she softly asked.
"Y-Yes, Fujimura-san."
Taiga breathed a sigh of relief, as she suddenly tightened the grasp, nearly pulling Illya out of the futon.
"W-Wait!"
She paused, as Illya flailed around. Then, the red-eyed girl gave her question. "Where are we going, Fujimura-san?"
A moment passed, before a response came.
"We're going to go see Kiri." Her voice was uncharacteristically subdued, especially to Illya.
Suddenly, the grip became a tug, as Illya was suddenly swooped up from the futon. "Come on now, Illya-chan! Let's get ready!" The Tiger's jumpy demeanor had returned, her tug easily overpowering Illya's little body. "It's almost seven o'clock! If we don't hurry, we'll be late!"
"R-Right, Fujimura-san!"
Taiga waited for Illya to get changed, watching TV in the meanwhile. As she idyllically looked at the screen, displaying the final moments of the evening news, she thought about Illya.
She had been polite and courteous, just as Kiritsugu had described her as. However, there was something about her that seemed...
Taiga banished the final lines of thought, as she scolded herself. Illya was just a little girl! And not just that, but she was also her best friend's daughter. She found it difficult to imagine Illya as being anything other than normal.
Her mental soliloquy suddenly ended, as Illya came down the hall. Dressed in a loose (and frankly, oversized) t-shirt that was one of Taiga's old shirts, Illya slowly walked to the table.
"Are you ready, Illya-chan?"
Illya nodded. "Mmm."
Taiga got up, and began to walk with the girl, as the night began to fall.
The drive was surprisingly calm.
Despite Taiga's playful argument with the driver.
"Illya-chan, this is Yorosuke. He's one of my family's top bodyguards, and so long as I'm here, no one will be able to land a finger on you before he smashes them with his fists!"
Taiga almost jumped with sheer excitement as she said this, pointing inside the car. Despite this, Illya cowered, slack-jawed at the sight of the burly bodyguard sitting in the back row.
"F-Fujimura-san...h-he's huge!"
"Are you doing alright, young lady?" The bodyguard's deep voice suddenly rang.
"Eep!" Illya shivered, running to hide behind Taiga's legs.
"Yoro-san!" Taiga chided. "Don't scare her like that!"
Yorosuke chuckled, bashfully. "My apologies, Fujimura-chan. I forgot that I sometimes scare off the kids."
Taiga ignored this. "After all, Kiri just came home with her!"
Exchanging the favor, Yorosuke ignored her. "Besides, don't you scare your classmates, Tiger?"
Rage followed.
"DON'T CALL ME TIGER!"
As playful banter ensued, Illya eased up, and felt a warm atmosphere fill the car.
Even as the car ran down the road to the hospital, a memory came to her.
It wasn't a memory filled with shadows or ice, nor the spikes of steel that she saw.
Instead, it was the scene of a daughter, mother, and father enjoying the warm, flickering flames of a distant fireplace.
Illya began to lightly cry, as she closed her eyes.
Screw it, here's the chapter.
This was going to be longer but I've already put this off for too long. I really wanted to include the scene with Kiritsugu, but 2K words is still pretty good. Thank God for study hall.
Got a chance to expend and practice my few forays into humor. It's a bit jarring, but I need to balance this out. After all, if this goes all the way (assuming I even get to the potential third route without jumping off the Fate train), it will be more depressing and fucked up than HF + F/Z. I guarantee that, if I get there.
Anyways, I hope this was OK. The dream + memory might be a little too anvilicious, but eh.
Please leave a review if you enjoyed this or want to offer constructive critique!
Thank you!
