PRELIMINARIES: None of this belongs to me. Fate/stay night, and all characters, settings, etc. associated with it, are the property of Type-Moon. Type-Moon is not affiliated in any way, shape, or form with the creation of this story (a fact for which, I suspect, they would be profoundly grateful). I have made liberal usage of their characters and settings in this story; this was done without their knowledge or permission, and is technically an infringement of Type-Moon's copyright. As this story is, at the most pragmatic level, free promotion of the Fate franchise, it is hoped that they will regard this story (if at all) with a benign ignorance.

If you paid a wooden nickel for this story, not only have you been drastically overcharged, but whoever charged you has done so illegally, and I disavow any association with said individual(s).

It should be noted once again that as far as terminology goes, I am relying primarily on mirror moon's translation of the game (e.g., majutsu/mahou as magic/sorcery) with the official release of the anime as a secondary source.

My site, the Codex Scribanus, remains without a home as of this writing. I am still searching for a new host, and I still welcome any suggestions readers might have along those lines.

When the Codex is back up, I will make an announcement on my author profile page, as well as my LiveJournal (see profile for address).

All feedback is welcome, up to and including line-by-line critiques (provided they fit in my mailbox).

I am, as always, deeply indebted to my pre-readers, Shack, Elf, and Kami. They have once again turned an unmitigated disaster into a mitigated one (and with my work, you can't ask for much more than that).

Now, sit back and either enjoy the ride, or (more likely) enjoy thinking of what you'll do to me at the end of it...


He searched.

His was an endless, fruitless quest, with no rewards and no compensation. Yet he had no choice but to continue, for nothing could advance until he succeeded.

Night and day mattered not. By sun or by moon, still, he searched. Still, he sought.

Still, without success.

Such was the lot of a Servant. He did not sleep; he would not tire so long as his Master supplied him with energy, and thus he had no need to rest.

And thus, he had no opportunity for a break from his thankless task.

He had searched the entire city. Then, he had searched it again.

And then, he searched it a third time.

He had no hope of success. He had long since run out of potential hiding places, and was now reduced to searching in the same places he'd already looked, knowing even as he did so that he searched in vain.

The western forest was Berserker's territory. Ryudou belonged to Assassin, while Archer and Rider had taken up residence only a few hundred meters from each other. (He doubted either of them realized it, though. He'd seen castles with fewer defenses than those houses.)

Saber yet lived - about the only thing in this whole sorry state of affairs he considered a positive - and was firmly ensconced with her new Master in the place where she'd been summoned.

But his quarry was nowhere to be found.

Not by the bridge. Not in the park. Not even at the school where he'd met the little lady, and everyone seemed to show up there (the only reason he hadn't just staked out the place and waited was because he was sure that sooner or later, Berserker was going to turn up there, as well).

His former Master's base remained undisturbed. He'd even checked the church, just in case - he trusted the false priest roughly as far as Berserker's Master could throw him - but no luck.

He'd tried using his runes for scrying, but as expected, they didn't tell him a damned thing. His quarry was too well-protected for that. They did draw a horde of bone golems, though, so he decided not to try that again.

The golems were no threat, but there was no telling what might get sent his way next time.

Finally, he came to a stop atop the tallest building in Shinto, and materialized. With the light of the moon to guide him, he looked around and stretched his powerful senses to their utmost.

Nothing.

The Servant Lancer closed his eyes with a disappointed groan. He took a deep breath, then threw back his head.

"WHERE THE HELL IS CASTER?"


THE WORLD WITHOUT

A Fate/stay night Fanfic

by

Lunaludus Scribex


CHAPTER IX

2/5: THE PRECIPICE

"Senpai..."

Saber watched her Master with open worry.

Shortly after Sakura nodded off, she had begun whimpering in her sleep. She'd latched onto Saber with surprising strength for someone of her frame, and refused to let go.

"No...Senpai..."

Saber's shoulder was wet from Sakura's tears. Speaking had not roused her; she continued to clutch at her Servant, and moan for Shirou.

It was obvious, in hindsight; Saber should have realized how suspicious it was. Sakura had wept bitterly when she learned of Shirou's death...but after that, she'd never spoken of it again. It was as if she'd thrown a switch - between one second and the next, Sakura's energies had been wholly redirected from Shirou's death to Shirou's resurrection.

Saber should have known better.

Her Master was a liar. She already knew this; she had seen for herself the masks that Sakura donned almost at will - masks that would have fooled Saber as well, had she not watched Sakura put them on.

And now, apparently, even watching Sakura don the mask had not been enough to prevent Saber from realizing the lie it represented.

Perhaps Sakura was only deceiving Saber. Perhaps she was deceiving herself, as well. It was difficult for Saber to tell, but in either case, one thing was very clear:

Her Master's recovery from Shirou's death was nowhere near as complete as Saber had thought.

And that could very well lead to trouble down the line...because sooner or later, they were going to run into the Master who had killed Shirou.

And if that Master knew Shirou, as Saber suspected, then he or she almost certainly knew Sakura, as well - and would know to use Shirou's death against her.

How would Sakura react to that?

Saber's mind returned involuntarily to the scene at the front of this very house, during those perilous seconds when Sakura believed that Saber had killed Shirou.

What was that? It hadn't seemed like Sakura was in control of it, or even aware of it, for that matter. Did it have something to do with her Magic Crest? Was it something else Zouken had done?

Saber was unsure. But one thing was clear: At that time, Saber's instincts had been absolutely certain that she was in great peril. Even though she was a Servant...

No, that wasn't quite right.

Especially because she was a Servant, her Master - no, not her Master, Matou Sakura - had been a threat to her.

Saber sighed.

There was so much she didn't know. Her Master's past was closed to her; she had so far seen only glimpses of horrific torture at Zouken's hands, for a purpose she could not divine.

"...Nee-san...?"

Saber's eyes snapped to Sakura. She was still asleep; even as Saber watched, her body settled, and her voice dissolved into incoherent murmurs.

But there was no mistaking what she'd said.

Not "Nii-san."

Nee-san.

Elder sister.

But Sakura had no sisters. Her only sibling was Shinji, so who could she possibly be talking about?

Saber's musings were disturbed by the sound of the phone, coming from the other side of the house. She sat up to respond - but her movement was arrested by her Master's surprisingly strong grip.

"Sakura?"

"No, Saber...Nee-san is..."

She was still asleep.

What in the world is she dreaming about?

The phone rang again, but Sakura's grasp was unyielding. Saber couldn't break it without using magical energy to augment her strength - which was simply not an option - and so Sakura continued to slumber.

The phone rang again, and Saber lay back with a quiet sigh. Intentionally or not, her Master had spoken.

For tonight, the Holy Grail War would just have to go on without them.


"Come on...come on...dammit, Emiya, pick up already!"

But the only response Mitsuzuri Ayako received was more rings. They continued to taunt her, until she finally hung up with an exasperated sigh.

"Where could she be?"

For the past hour, Ayako had been trying to reach Matou Sakura, without success. There was no answer at her house - which was half a relief; she had no wish to speak with Sakura's brother again anytime soon - and Fujimura-sensei wasn't home, either.

Ayako had finally thought of calling Emiya. He was a friend to both siblings, so even though he'd been out sick, there was a chance Sakura was there. Even if she wasn't, Emiya needed to know what had happened.

(And who knew? It might even prod him into finally rejoining the club.)

But there was no answer at his place, either.

Ayako sat back, and groaned. "Did I get left out of an alien abduction or something?"

It was as if everyone had dropped off the face of the earth. She was willing to bet good money that if she picked a random name out of the phone book and dialed, they'd be gone too.

I should just let this go.

Ayako frowned. She should, but...

She'd been uneasy ever since she'd heard about Shinji's suspension. She couldn't explain, but it felt as if something had gone very, very wrong.

She didn't know what it was, or what (if anything) she could do about it. Still, she had to try.

Ayako snorted. "It's like I'm turning into Emiya."

...well, she wasn't quite that bad. Ayako, at least, knew when to quit.

That said, she wasn't to that point quite yet.

"Let's try her house again..."

But as she picked up the phone, the doorbell rang.

A visitor? At this time of night?

Her parents and brother were out, so Ayako got up and opened the door. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw who was standing there.

"Sensei! Good evening."

"Mitsuzuri."

Kuzuki Souichirou towered in the doorway. And behind him...

"Fujimura-sensei, too?"

"Good evening, Mitsuzuri-san." The younger teacher gave Ayako a sad smile. "I'm sorry we came by so late, but..."

Ayako looked from one to the other with a growing sense of dread. Kuzuki-sensei was as impassive as ever; Fujimura-sensei, on the other hand, was almost too easy to read. Her eyes were red and swollen, and she looked as if she was doing her best not to break into tears (again).

"What's going on?"

"Can we come in? We're..." Fujimura-sensei trailed off with a soft hiccup.

Kuzuki-sensei glanced over at her for a moment, then turned back to Ayako. "This is a conversation best had seated."

Ayako swallowed, and nodded. "All...all right, then."

She stepped back, and allowed the two teachers to enter her home.

Kuzuki-sensei pulled the door shut behind him with a gentle click.


"Well?"

"Well what?"

Archer sighed, and Rin took a moment to reposition her teacup on the table in front of her.

Maybe it was petty of her, but Rin wanted her Servant to engage her on her terms. In this, at least, she still ruled her world, and she'd be damned if she gave that up.

Besides - the longer she delayed, the longer it would be before she had to think about what had happened.

So naturally, Archer didn't let her get away with it.

"If you're finished sulking in the corner, we have matters to discuss."

"Sulking - !" Rin was halfway out of her seat, mouth open to tell her Servant to go jump in a bonfire, before she caught herself.

She knew what her dreams the past few days were - even if she didn't know what the flames meant - but that was not something she wanted to admit to Archer that she knew. (Hell - it wasn't something she wanted to know, herself!) Nor was she sure of what his reaction would be, if she tried to use them to strike at him.

Still, between that burst of thought and the sheer irritation Archer's words awoke in her, Rin found her energy returned...which was, more than likely, exactly what Archer had intended. The bastard knew exactly what buttons to press.

And that pissed Rin off beyond all belief.

"All right, Archer. So why don't you tell me - what the hell happened today?"

"What happened," Archer said in a tart voice, "was that we were incredibly fortunate to survive."

Rin blinked. That wasn't what she'd been expecting him to say. Still, she'd take it. "That bad, huh?"

"It was a trap from start to finish, and we walked right into it." Archer paused, then shook his head. "No, even before the start, it was a trap."

"What do you mean?"

"How did the Servant know to attack us there? How did she know that we would be entering the woods, and from that direction?"

"You tell me. The only reason we were even there was because..." Her eyes widened. "Wait. You don't mean - "

"Either she and Saber are cooperating, or she was watching us when I spoke with Saber this morning. She knew we would be investigating the area where we saw Saber depart."

"Which do you think it is?"

"I do not believe them to be cooperating." Archer snorted. "Not after how vehement Saber was about the matter."

Vehement...?

Rin went still.

"Archer. Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

He nodded. "She is not Assassin, and I would have seen any other Servant who got close enough to watch us. Also, from where we were this afternoon, the woods and the dojo both obstructed her view of the girl she left us to assault. The only way the Servant could have seen her - or spied on us, for that matter - is by making use of the boundary field."

Rin took a deep breath, and sat back.

"So she's the one." It was kind of a relief; at least she knew her enemy, now. And if she focused on the Servant, she didn't have to think about the girl yet. "All right, Archer. What can you tell me about her?"

"Her class should be obvious, to begin with."

Rin frowned. Saber, Archer, Lancer, and Assassin were all accounted for. The Servant's actions were too deliberate for Berserker, and she hadn't used any magic the whole time, so Caster was out. That left only one class from those Kotomine told her had been summoned.

"Rider."

Archer nodded again. "She does not seem to be particularly strong in close combat, but she does not need to be. Even unmounted, she should have strengths to more than offset that deficiency."

"'Should'?" Rin raised an eyebrow. "You couldn't tell who she was?" It shouldn't have been such a surprise, but she'd almost come to expect it by now. Archer being unable to unmask an enemy just seemed wrong, somehow; it was what he did.

Judging by his disgruntled expression, it wasn't something Archer was accustomed to, either. "I do not recognize her appearance, and she did not use any special abilities during the fight." His mouth twisted in annoyance. "She was very careful; she gave me nothing to work with."

"What about the sounds? She was doing something to fool my ears, and..."

She trailed off as Archer shook his head. "Your ears were not deceiving you, Rin. She really was moving that quickly."

"What? But that's - " Rin paled.

"I told you we were fortunate to survive."

"So you did." And that was the big question, wasn't it? "Why did we survive? She had us, so why didn't she finish us off?"

"The girl she killed was not a Master. She was not even a mage, for that matter."

"I know that," Rin snapped. It couldn't be helped, but that was the very last thing she wanted to think about. "So why would Rider prioritize killing her over killing a Master and Servant?"

"She wouldn't."

Rin blinked. "What?"

"Rider would not leave us to kill someone who wasn't even a witness. No Servant would." Archer sighed. "Only a Master would be capable of such foolishness."

"...Archer, what are you suggesting?"

"That girl was Rider's target all along." Rin stiffened, even as Archer continued. "Her appearance at that time was the only thing that saved us; Rider was compelled by her Master's order to abandon us in favor of the one that he wished struck down."

Archer's face might as well have been carved from granite. "We yet live because she is dead."

She already knew that. She knew what kind of a War she was engaged in, what kind of people her enemies were - this enemy especially, who had ordered the boundary field over her school. None of this was a surprise to her.

But Archer's words hurt, all the same.

It didn't matter that Rider would have killed the girl whether Rin was there or not. She had been there, and she'd had a chance to stop it - and not only had she failed, but she had been saved only by the death of an innocent bystander.

Again.

"Rin. What will you do now?"

Rin closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

She knew what she had to do. She had known what she would have to do for a long time.

She didn't want to do it. Here, in the privacy of her mind, she freely acknowledged that. She acknowledged her worries, and her fears, and her insecurities.

And then, she moved forward anyway.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to school."

"And then what?"

"And then, I'm going to have a talk." Rin opened her eyes, and forced her face into a mask. "And depending on what I hear..."

Archer frowned. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"We know what we're up against. There's no point in waiting any longer."

Tohsaka Rin's course was set. There were no more second thoughts. There were no more distractions.

There were no more regrets.

"Tomorrow, we move."


"You useless bitch!"

There was a dull thump, almost completely swallowed up by the acoustics of the living room, as Matou Shinji's fist connected with his Servant's cheek. Rider, as usual, turned her head with the blow, but gave no other reaction.

It was a habit of hers that annoyed Shinji to no end, and never failed to ignite his temper. Right now, though, he was already too pissed off for it to make a difference.

"What did I tell you to do?" Shinji grabbed Rider's hair, and pulled her face down to his level. "Well?"

"You ordered me to kill the archery club captain. I carried out your order."

"That's not what I ordered you to do, and you know it!"

Rider did not respond, and Shinji ground his teeth in rage.

'Kill her, Rider. Take that bitch of a captain, and eat her alive!'

Those had been Shinji's words. Rider had known exactly what he meant. There was no possible way that she could have failed to understand that he wanted Mitsuzuri Ayako dead. And she claimed to have followed his command.

And yet, Mitsuzuri Ayako was still alive.

Rider had killed another.

"Are you turning against me too, Rider?" The Servant did not answer, and Shinji smiled thinly. "It's all right to tell the truth. Sakura let the cat out of the bag - I know she's still your Master."

He still had a hold of Rider's hair, and he felt her try to draw back as his statement registered. He held her tight, though, and she stopped her movement almost before it started.

Shinji grinned without amusement. "So you see, there's no need to hide anymore. I already know she's using me to get the Holy Grail; I just want to know what she plans to do with me afterward."

"There are no such plans."

"Still with this charade?" He released Rider's hair, retreated to the couch, and sat down.

Calm. You're a Matou. You're in control. Stay calm.

"It's all right," he lied. "I won't get angry. Sakura already told me I'm never getting the Grail, so what does it matter what happens to me afterward?"

It mattered a great deal, but that was not what Shinji wanted Rider to believe.

Stay calm.

"Come now," he crooned softly. "Just tell me how she's going to have you kill me, and get it over with."

You're a Matou. Stay calm.

Rider said nothing. She just stared at him without moving, for a long moment.

You're in control. Stay calm.

With an effort, Shinji kept his voice level. "Well?"

"Sakura has given me no such order." Rider's voice was matter-of-fact, and devoid of warmth.

Stay calm.

"Nor do I expect to receive such an order from her in the future."

Stay c -

The gentle facade disappeared beneath an eruption of anger. Shinji leapt to his feet, kicking away the low table before him with a loud crash.

"Don't give me that crap! I may not be your Master, Rider, but you're still my tool, and I'm ordering you to tell me the truth!"

He glared at his Servant.

His Servant looked back at him.

And when Rider finally spoke, it was to confirm the worst possible outcome.

"The truth," she said, "is that you have misread my Master's intentions from the beginning, Shinji."

His legs gave out beneath him. It was only through dumb luck that he managed to fall back to his seat on the couch, rather than suffer the indignity of tumbling to the floor at the Servant's feet. He barely noticed, though. He could not take his eyes off of Rider.

My Master.

He'd said it himself, but Shinji hadn't truly believed. At some level, he wanted - needed - for Sakura to be lying, for him to still be a Master.

For him to still have a chance.

But now, Rider had acknowledged the truth.

And with that acknowledgment, the final delusion of Matou Shinji crumbled.

Rider continued to speak, but he did not listen.

"You did not allow Sakura to finish her explanation this morning."

He was beyond listening. Beyond caring.

"It was never her desire that you be denied the Holy Grail."

Even if he had listened to Rider's words, he would not have believed her. He would not have accepted it.

The long contradiction had at last ended...or, perhapse more accurately, Shinji had decided to end it.

There was no longer a need for it.

His sister was a mage. So it was impossible that she should fail to act as a mage should. Anything to the contrary, he refused to acknowledge.

He had erased from his mind the knowledge of what Sakura had allowed him to do.

It was a lie. He understood that. But his life before this had been a lie, as well. And with this new lie, at least, things were as they should have been.

"It is true that she has a need for the Grail, now. But that does not preclude - "

"That's enough, Rider."

He spoke in a soft, peaceful tone. It was so uncharacteristic that Rider stopped in surprise.

"Shinji?"

"It's all right," he said, and this time, he was not lying. "I know what I have to do, now."

The barriers had fallen, and like a butterfly from a cocoon, the true Matou Shinji emerged, for perhaps the first time. He understood what he was, and the situation in which he now found himself.

He understood the course of action now required of him.

"What are you planning to do?"

"What I should have done from the start."

He had lost his dream. He had lost his wish. He had lost his position. Most importantly, he had lost the only means he had of regaining them.

But that was fine. He had lost much - but for now, at least, he still had Rider. He still had his ideal. And he still retained the most important thing. He still had the one thing that made Matou Shinji who he was.

Revenge.

"Tomorrow..."

Matou Shinji smiled, and for the first and last time, he felt a kinship with his grandfather.

"Tomorrow, it ends."


"Again, Berseker! AGAIN!"

It was almost a relief for Shirou when the vision began.

The agony he now endured was unlike anything he had felt before. It afflicted his soul, not his body - and hence, there was no way for the body to interfere or diminish the pain. It was like he was being shredded from the inside out; even what Berserker had done to him did not compare to this.

He should have died the moment his Magic Circuits erupted...but Ilya's spell prevented it. Failing that, he still should have lost his mind from the pain. He would have welcomed that; he was ready to give in, as he had before.

But he could not.

Shirou was not a fool. He'd realized that the force that had restored his mind was the same force that continued to draw energy from Ilya, in an ever-increasing flow. And what that force had once restored, it would not surrender again.

And so he endured - because he had no choice in the matter.

That much Shirou understood. But that was the limit of his knowledge. There were many things he had yet to comprehend...and first and foremost among those were the seemingly random spikes of pain that had begun to afflict him.

These flashes should not have been there. It was as if each one subjected Shirou's broken Circuits to a far greater strain than Ilya's energy should have accounted for - from the 600 and rising of Ilya to well over 2,000 - and yet, damaged as his Circuits were, the damage was still only that of Ilya's 600 units of energy. The flashes were not real.

The pain, however, was.

It was a "phantom" pain, but it was pain nonetheless - and while it offered him an escape from the pain of Ilya's energy, it was only by way of a still greater pain in its place. And all the while he endured that, the flow of energy from Ilya was still growing.

Emiya Shirou's existence was thus one of endless pain. He moved from great pain to greater pain, and then back to greater pain still.

Thus, his relief at the vision's onset. He desperately grasped at something, anything else on which to focus.

"Lancer was one thing - but Assassin, Berserker? Assassin?"

Sella and Liz looked on in silence as Ilya berated her Servant. Shirou looked on, as well - and as he did, the images and knowledge came unbidden.

Berserker had challenged the Ryudou Temple (Shirou had a brief flash of worry, as he remembered that his friend Issei lived there) but never saw the one he had come for. He had been stopped by a samurai, of all things, draped in violet.

The samurai - Assassin, Shirou suddenly understood - could not harm Berserker; his oversized katana merely skipped off the giant's skin, not leaving so much as a scratch. But Berserker could not defeat Assassin, either. There was something off about the battle; Berserker moved slowly and sluggishly - gravity magic, Shirou realized - and this allowed Assassin to hold his own through speed and skill.

And as the fight went on, sweat had begun to bead on Ilya's brow.

It was completely unexpected. She had trained to control Berserker for far longer stretches than this - for days on end, in fact - but the simple reality was that fighting a Servant, particularly while under the hindrance of enhanced gravity, was taxing on a level that merely slaughtering wolves could not hope to approach.

The duel was a battle of attrition, not between Assassin and Berserker, but between Assassin and Ilya - and Ilya was not prepared for such a battle. In the end, she had been forced to retreat.

"You're supposed to be the strongest!" Ilya now screamed. "If you're not the strongest, then why did I summon you?"

Ilya knew better. Even Shirou, unaccustomed to battle as he was, could understand that it wasn't a matter of Assassin being stronger than Berserker. It was a combination of the circumstances, Assassin's skill, and whoever had cast that gravity magic - Caster, Shirou suddenly knew - that had managed to stop the giant.

But the point remained. Berserker had been stopped...and he could be stopped in the same fashion again.

It was a stalemate. Caster and Assassin couldn't defeat Berserker here, but by the same token, Berseker could not defeat them there. Both sides were invincible on their home ground.

And a stalemate did not favor Berserker. A combination of just two Servants had stopped him. If Caster and Assassin managed to add one more...

"Ojou-sama - "

Ilya turned to the maid with an unchildlike grunt. "I know, Sella, I know. If we can't get Caster now, then we'll just have to make sure she doesn't..."

She trailed off, and her face lost what little color it had. She began to topple - and as she did, only his ruined body prevented Shirou from crying out in shock.

That's - !

"Ojou-sama!"

The maids rushed out to catch her, and the vision ended. Shirou was left alone in his body once again, trying to make sense of what had happened.

He should have seen it sooner. The signs were all there; it should not have taken such a blatant demonstration to make him realize what was happening.

As Ilya lost her balance, the phantom pain had returned.

The answer was obvious. It was Ilya's pain that Shirou was feeling during these spikes. It had been Ilya's pain all along.

Yes, he understood now. He had felt her pain - the pain of controlling Berserker - as the Servant fought Assassin. He felt her pain now.

The link between them was the cause. It was the cause of the phantom pain. It was the cause of the visions. It was the cause, Shirou realized with a start, of his sudden knowledge of Ilya and her maids.

The link could not be broken - not by Shirou, anyway - and it could not be ignored.

However...it could be exploited.

The flow of energy from Ilya continued to grow as Shirou felt for it, and began to backtrack. He traced the flow in reverse, fighting the current, seeking what he needed to find - and, at last, he reached the base of the link.

The place where he and Ilya were joined.

It would be painful. If pitchforks now tore at his soul, he could only flee it by diving into the boiling pitch itself - and when he could stand the pitch no longer and had to emerge, the pitchforks would be there, waiting for him.

But Shirou accepted that. Pain was nothing new to him, even before he had come to be in his present circumstances. And while he would not be able to go for long, that too was acceptable; it might be a greater pain, but it would be a different one, as well.

Leaving aside anything he might learn, that in and of itself was reason enough to act.

And with that thought, Emiya Shirou plunged forward, and made his first deliberate foray into the mind of Ilyasviel von Einzbern.

INVENTA AUTEM UNA PRETIOSA MARGARITA
ABIIT ET VENDIDIT OMNIA QUAE HABUIT ET EMIT EAM