Some family bonding now (Haha) and a bit of expositional talk from Artoria, but it's not long. I know she talks a lot for a Berserker, but I made a previous note about this and well, she has a lot of baggage which needs a bit of verbosity to get across. So, here is Chapter 10: Delusions.
Kariya
You know when you sleep awkwardly in bed and your whole body feels like pain? Kariya knew. Consciousness returned with a splitting headache and aching limbs. Bile rose in his throat and the Magus vomited up a torrent of dead worms into the bucket supplied next to his bed. He began to heave, then stopped, just giving a belch. Great, now his mouth felt like death.
He was aware of another presence in the room and slowly turned his eyes to the watching figure of Artoria, AKA Berserker. The disgust was clear on her face, but he was in too much pain to care. Memories came quick and fast, and he shook the fog from his head.
"What the Hell did you do? You almost killed me you son of a bitch."
"What?" she cried, leaping up. "It's your fault for being so weak! Passing out in the middle of battle? Pathetic!"
"I can't help you if I'm dead, Berserker" he replied, glaring at his Servant. She rolled her eyes and strode up to him, hand outreached for his chest. His reactions were still slow reached into his chest. He gasped from the sensation, not experiencing any pain as one would expect. Looking down, Kariya saw a golden light emanating from his chest, and out of it was pulled something beautifully gold. It stay inside him, too big to fit inside his body but there nonetheless.
It stopped halfway out, and the pain returned. His organs began to shake, arm going dead. Kariya didn't have the energy to scream before it was shoved back into his body. He panted, feeling the pain subside and his limbs become invigorated.
"You were never in any danger, idiot. Avalon resides in your body, rendering you effectively immortal."
"Why didn't you tell me?" exclaimed the Mage, sitting up and glaring again at the Servant who shrugged.
"Character building? Regardless, now you have no need to worry. You just need to practice giving me all the power I need for my Noble Phantasm. Granted, I may not use it until the traitor is dead, but I can't have you passing out in the middle of battle."
"Why not give it to Sakura? Perhaps we can remove the worms from her!"
"The trauma would be too much. You are old and useless; a child is pure and innocent. Plus, it only works if I'm near it. I know what I'm doing, idiot." She flicked his forehead and stalked away. It was then he noticed the swords; plural.
"Wait! Berserker."
"What?"
"How come you have two swords?"
Artoria gave a smirk, tenderly caressing the newly acquired Clarent. "Archer gave me the idea, funnily enough. I thought it would just be a prop, but Clarent exists as a Noble Phantasm in his Gate of Babylon."
The blackness exploded, Kariya feeling the full force of her fury. "THAT TRAITOROUS BITCH IS IN THE HALL OF HEROES ALONG WITH THE DEFILER AND EVERY OTHER EUNUCH THAT DARED CHALLENGE ME!"
She pulled out the sword, eyeing her reflection in the blade. Its peal slowly faded and then rang out, the point stuck into the floor. Kariya flinched, remaining quiet for her answer.
"THAT CUM STAIN stole it from me, and so I took it back from her; a battlefield trophy!"
Hatred rolled off his Servant's aura, threatening to engulf and choke the weakened Magus. No longer a warbling mass of black shadows, it instead outlined her in thick darkness, and gave her words an ominous weight.
"With grail in hand, I will wipe the stain left from my legend on the Hall of Heroes. I will eradicate the false heroes and anything relating to our legend. Nobody will remember the accursed reign of King Arthur. My revenge will be complete."
She pulled the sword out and left, and the Magus closing his eyes to gather his thoughts after her violent outburst.
Later that night.
"Kariya, you bastard!" yelled an angry voice, a heavy boot smashing open his door. The Magus jumped out of bed, expecting an attack but not who came through his door. "You can't go around hurting my son like that, you piece of shit" yelled Byakuya Matou, striding up to his younger brother in a wobbly line. A strong smell of booze wafted from him, causing the Magus to grimace. "You gave him a black eye! How am I going to explain this to child services?"
"Tell them the truth. He tried to rape his sister and got injured."
Byakuya blinked once, then twice, inebriated brain trying to put two and two together. "Are you fucked in the head? Shinji wouldn't do that!"
"I caught him literally with his pants down an hour ago! Sakura was trembling and quivering in front of him and if I hadn't arrived, who knows what could have happened! Before that, he almost broke her arm! Your son is a sadistic asshole!"
"Don't talk about him that way!"
"Raise him properly then!"
"Ha! That's rich coming from a virgin! So desperate to get laid you have to pretend she's your daughter!"
Kariya's fist flew out, a shoddy attack that anyone could avoid, but it was enough to floor a drunk Byakuya. His younger brother seethed, bending down to grab Shinji's uncle by the collar, desperate eyes staring back at furious ones. "She's my responsibility, you understand? I'm all she's got!"
Even in his alcoholic daze, Kariya's brother could see the ridiculous nature of his last statement. "What the fuck are you on about? She has an entire family!"
Kariya paused for a long time before replying, "It's complicated!"
"No, it's not: you're fucking insane. That piece of shit Zouken is dead, so why is she still here? Give her back, and we can forget about all this crazy magic shit! You got what you wanted and now you want even more? To play his crazy game?"
"I have to! For her!"
The shouting gave Byakuya a piercing headache, causing the brother to get up and look at Kariya, patience worn thin. "Fuck this, and fuck you. Run yourself into the ground for all I care. This family is a rotting carcass, and it's starting to stink." He walked off with a swagger, rubbing his chin. "Don't touch my kid again, psycho!"
Initial anger gone, the harsh words of his brother resonated in Kariya's mind. Why was Sakura still here? He wasn't an expert on crest worms or magic and couldn't heal her. Tokiomi was an accomplished mage and knew his daughter better than Kariya did. It really was as simple as Byakuya said, and he felt bad about punching his brother.
"Did you talk to him about the little shit?" demanded Berserker as she banged the door open, striding in as if she owned the place. Lying on the bed, he gave a groan and nod, causing her to scrutinise him more closely. "What is it?"
"Why -am- I still doing this? Zouken is dead, and Sakura is getting worse. I have no clue what to do and there are six Servants still out there. I'm just holding Sakura here now because I don't want her to go. It's not for her benefit she's here, but mine. How am I better than Tokiomi to manipulate her like this?"
"Are you fucking serious?"
"All there is now is the pain and rage. I'm just so exhausted."
She was uncomfortably silent, and Kariya looked at her reach into his chest. One smooth movement was all it took and Avalon left his body. All his aches, pains and exhaustion rushed back, knocking his system like a jackhammer. "I guess if you're giving up, you won't need this. Enjoy the pain." Her voice was cold and matter-of-fact, red eyes paralysing him.
"Please…" croaked out the Magus, raising a weak hand, but even that dropped. "Please…"
"Why? So you can give up and mope in peace? Sorry, not sorry, it's out now." She climbed on top of the paralysed man, holding his arms above his head and summoning Excalibur. He shrunk away from the blade, whimpering as she put it above the hand with his command seals. "I can't trust you with these, so off they come."
"No!" cried Kariya, summoning all his strength and pushing her off him. Skin rippled as the worms gestated and moved beneath the surface, the anguished look in his eyes like something possessed. As he tried to focus the new strength, she punched him in the gut. The Magus fell down on his knees, at the mercy of his raging Servant.
Now I didn't know how to put it in the narrative, so I'll just add a small note. Kariya claims Shinji was about to rape Sakura, thus starting the cycle of abuse we're all familiar with. I decided not to show it because 1, I'm not going to write a scene like that, ever, and 2, it's better to leave it ambiguous. Kariya is a paranoid and unstable individual, maybe he misinterpreted something going on? Maybe Shinji learnt his lesson or was being benign? Either way, Matou's are all about the drama! The chapter was quite long so I split it into two, and the next should be up soon-ish.
Peace out.
-WT