Hello and welcome back to Fate/Last Snow. I know it has been a ridiculously long time since I've posted a chapter but I am still writing this thing and have no intentions of discontinuing this story. Without further ado, this is part 2 of No More Parades starting directly after Richard and Himiko parted ways. Also, the night after Aila and Saber encountered Avenger.
Feb 2nd 11:00 pm.
Himiko.
As she walked away, Himiko looked back at where Richard had been standing only moments ago. He was gone. She chuckled to herself softly this was going to happen sooner or later. She was sort of mad at herself for getting her hopes up, she knew better; or at least thought she did.
Himiko noticed that she was shivering a little bit. She could easily warm herself up with a bit of magic, but the shivering felt appropriate, for her it was almost comfortable to be cold. Her home had always been cold and miserable, but –after a very long time—being miserable starts to feel normal, and normal feels comfortable.
Himiko saw a shimmer out of the corner of her eye, as she looked at it Privateer had appeared and was walking beside her. Privateer had a serious look on their face and walked without saying a word. Himiko decided to start the conversation, "why are you so glum all of a sudden?"
Privateer didn't even bother looking at Himiko, "There are several servants out tonight, none are close, but they are undoubtedly there."
"so what? Who the fuck cares." Himiko took a deep breath in—if her grandmother had taught her anything it was how to calm down; didn't change the fact that the old hag was a bitch though—and continued talking, "Listen, we'll deal with that if we bump into one of them. Honestly, I just want to get home; I have a lot on my mind."
"Does it have to do with Richard?"
"Sort of, it would be nice to have someone in this war that we can count on. He strikes me as the sort of person who is looking for an ally as much as I am." Himiko wanted to say more, but she didn't feel like she should.
"That makes sense, but I don't know what I think about him. Most of the men that I interacted with were quite different."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Most of them were assholes. Almost every single man that I had met in my life wanted to further themselves by any means necessary. There was lots of infighting, drinking, and over masculinity."
"And what does Richard strike you as?"
"Richard is not the sort of person that I would have spoken to in my life. He seems like the kind of person who takes their problems too seriously and decided that brooding is the best way to solve his problems."
"wow. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that."
"You really don't need my opinion on him though; it seems like you made up your mind on him a while ago."
Himiko didn't ask what she meant by that.
The two walked in silence for a while watching the snow hit the ground. The wind had died down, so the streets of Litchhurst were now dark and silent. It was hard to think that a few hours ago the city was loud and full of life. Now there was only the dead silence of the night to fill the frigid air.
Aila.
Aila looked up at the clock and cursed. It was already so late, and she felt like she had wasted the entire day. After her fight with Avenger, she had gotten home at about 2:30 am, and she was exhausted. She promised herself she would only sleep for a few hours, but she accidentally slept in until almost 10:00 am. After that, she had a tough time finding the motivation to do anything.
Despite how much she hated herself for wasting so much time she was still too exhausted to do much of anything. She hadn't slept since she arrived in Litchhurst yesterday morning, so it made sense that she was crashing.
Still, she wanted to do something productive, so she spent a lot of the day practicing her magic and talking with Saber about his plan for dealing with Avenger. It didn't take them long to decide that they wanted to deal with him before he could become a problem, so they decided that they would head back to the dock house tonight.
To her frustration, Aila couldn't do anything except waste the day away. She sat down in a little office chair and spun around a few times. Saber was more composed; he sat patiently. After looking closer Aila noticed the expression on his face, he was excited. Finally, 11:00 pm rolled around, and Aila stood up and grabbed a backpack that she packed earlier that day. The small bag had three little vials of mercury, two one-foot copper rods and some iron scraps that she could use for some miscellaneous alchemy.
Saber stood up with her and equipped his armor with a flash of light, "Let us go" said as he walked towards the door. Aila would have preferred for him to stay in spirit for but she knows that it was better not to argue with him. And besides, during this time of year Litchhurst was empty this late into the night.
Richard.
While Richard walked back home, his thoughts ran wild in his head. Usually walking helped him clear his head but it had the opposite effect right now. The longer he went, the more distracted he got and the worse his mood became. After sighing, he decided he needed to talk to someone, so he called out, "Archer."
The air shimmered in front of Richard and Archer appeared in his casual black jacket and slacks with a white undershirt. "Do you need something?" Archer said in a monotone voice.
"What do you think about working with Himiko?" Richard asked while trying to keep his voice emotionless.
" To give a simple answer, I do like the idea of having someone in this war that doesn't want to kill us, yet. Plus, she seems to be intelligent and willing to fight bravely. The only thing that makes me unsure about her is how rash she is, and how quickly she changes her mind. She could potentially be helpful. On the other hand, I have a tough time trusting her. But I suspect that my opinion doesn't matter to you."
"What does that mean?" Richard snapped.
"Nothing that matters."
Richard didn't reply to that. He stood and listened to the wind blowing. He knew that Archer was right, he does have a bias when it comes to Himiko. Richard wasn't 100% sure what that bias was, but he knows that she wasn't just another master competing for the grail, she was Himiko.
Richard let out a huge sigh and continued to walk home; he knew that he wasn't in any mood to be productive, he just wanted to go to bed and take tomorrow as it comes.
Aila.
Aila and saber were standing in front of the gate to the dock house, The gate itself was slightly open, and there were no visible lights from the building. After telling Aila to take cover behind a concrete parking barrier, Saber walked towards the building cautiously.
Aila watched as Saber walked right up to the front door of the building itself and opened it without any sign of Avenger. Saber disappeared inside the building and after about a minute called for Aila
She walked into the building and saw Saber leaning against a large shipping container. He turned to her and said, "it would appear the no one is here. If I were to guess I'd say that Avenger and his master either decided to change locations or are out wandering the streets of Litchhurst as we speak."
"Well, if another master discovered where I lived the first thing I would do, would be to move somewhere else. That being said, I don't know anything about Avenger's master, so I can't say for sure."
Saber nodded his head, "There is no point wasting the night, we still haven't searched most of the city, and there is still a chance that Avenger stayed close to home."
Aila checked her phone to see the time; it was a little after midnight, she still had time.
Richard.
Richard's apartment finally came into view after a long and silent walk home. He had a terrible feeling in the bottom of his stomach that he couldn't shake. Archer had taken spirit form a little while ago, but Richard could still feel his gaze.
Richard knew that Archer had a point, he needed to take time and think objectively about working with Himiko because at the end of the day she was a master with a wish that she wanted the grail to grant, so was he, but what if she had an actual wish? All he wanted was for some selfish sense of satisfaction but what if Himiko had a wish that was actually important to grant?
Richard groaned audibly as he reached the door to his house. Richard found himself staring at the handle. Why was this bothering him? Before now Richard had thought that he had gotten over childish thoughts, but now he felt something that he hadn't for a very long time, lonely. Richard had been alone for most of his life, but that's not the same thing as feeling lonely, now Richard didn't just feel alone he wanted to be with someone else.
While staring at the door, Richard caught himself smiling. He turned the hell around walked back into the city quickly. "Archer, can you find Himiko?" Richard continued walking without waiting for his reply. For the first time in his life, Richard had the opportunity to choose if he was going to be alone or not and he wasn't going to throw away that chance.
Himiko
Himiko had been walking around aimlessly for almost two hours, and nothing had happened. She wasn't looking for anything; she just needed to walk. The whole time she was going over imaginary conversations with herself, but she wasn't making any progress. Eventually, she stopped and groaned in frustration. She looked around and realized that she was standing on the shore of the Lake. She could see a massive area of newly frozen ice from where Privateer had fought Archer.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a flash of light and Privateer appearing beside her. Himiko didn't even look over when she said, "Well, what do you want" she couldn't hide how tired she was when she said that.
"I be checking on ye. Floating around like a ghost never be a good sign." Privateer answered.
Himiko looked at her and gave half a smile before looking back towards the lake.
"It be clear to me that something be bothering ye. And I thinks I know what it is."
Himiko sighed, "You don't need to say it, you're probably right."
"But do ye want to say it?"
Himiko thought about that for a while. She didn't have to dig very deep to know what was bothering her; she just didn't know what to do about it. She knows that the right thing to do was to move on, this is a grail war after all, and she has a responsibility as a master of the Tsurugaoka clan. On the other hand, if she didn't take this chance, then she knew that she'd regret it for possible her entire life
Himiko Stood up straight and smiled at Privateer, "I know what I have to do."
Privateer smiled back, "In me youth, I had the same look in me eye."
Himiko turned back towards the city of Litchurst and saw a figure standing and staring at her. After looking for a second, she realized that she didn't recognize the short frail-looking man. He was deathly pale and wearing an oversized grey hoodie with blue jeans. In the distance, Himiko felt the presence of a servant.
She straightened up and put on a practiced warm smile, "Hello there, can I help you?"
He spoke with a cold, uninterested voice, "No need for formalities. We won't know each other long enough for any of that to matter.
Just then Himiko saw the flash of a servant appearing and a projectile flying towards her. Privateer intervened and knocked it out of the way with ease. When it hit the ground, Himiko saw that it was a harpoon.
Himiko didn't even try to contain how pissed off she was; she was not in the mood for this, not tonight, "Okay asshole, I tried to be civil, but no. You don't care about enough to humor me for even a second. Didn't anyone teach you some manners? I don't have the time for this so get out of my damn way!"
The other master stood still; it was evident that he wasn't going to let her leave without a fight.
Okay, finally part two is done. Once again sorry for the wait but I will get the next chapter out be March 11th (I think not setting due dates has been part of my problem.) That chapter will serve as the start to the "plot" of Fate/Last Snow, meaning that the introduction is finally finished.