So you think to find solace in the midst of your ire?
Think it not meet to face your actions with a solemn mind and a grim end?
Hero of Justice, are you?
Or do you toy with another's work, seeking that which you could not obtain…?
What redemption could you possibly gain?
If the innocence you claimed you tainted with your name?
Einzbern might have cheated;
Tohsaka might have beaten;
Matou might have taken;
But you…
You, Kiritsugu Emiya, know only how to destroy-
Friends?
Family?
Love?
Everything you touched you killed-or was killed for you…
You destroyed your own future-to save the world.
I would know-I saw it happen.
Mongrel.
I suspect we will meet again-though I don't know what to feel about that.
-Gilgamesh, King of all Heroes.
Chapter 26
He had gotten a five second head start.
Sebastian ran through the corridors, dodging curses and prana attacks that would only just knock him out if they hit him. He honestly wasn't surprised that they started almost immediately-Irisviel could be scary when she wanted to be, or so he was told.
He activated a few Magic Circles that shot Prana waves at them; which while it would do little besides push them around, it would serve to keep him ahead of the projectiles that came his way.
How this would help him realize he needed to work as a team was something he would never understand-and maybe that was just a little bit of his father showing up in him. Edward Elric trusted only one person to have his back and Alphonse was still in Amestris. Well, one person outside of his wife, of course.
It's not as if Sebastian was opposed to teamwork, but trying to discuss that with his mother-after a mana hungry water spirit almost drowned him-was like trying to talk to a tree about the injustices of not paying attention and smacking into one. Such was the life of an adolescent boy.
Speaking of which-
"Swords too?" he complained as Kuro's attacks almost touched him a few times "Your not supposed to kill me, Kuro!"
"Quit your whining" she replied briskly "They're only rubber"
"And that's supposed to make me feel better" he replied as he knocked into Rin.
"Nice one, dunce" Luvia said to her "Gandr" she pointed a finger at Sebastian and fired.
"Illya! Now!" Kuro yelled, and little Illya appeared with wings.
"Scatter Shot!" she exclaimed, and Sebastian barely dodged the resulting attack.
"C'mon guys, this is hardly fair!" he complained, as a Gandr hit his arm.
"I don't really like this either' Rin said "But consider this payback, for whipping our butts a few weeks ago"
Sebastian fired pure mana at the ceiling, missing them entirely (he didn't want anyone getting hurt by falling debris) but creating a distraction long enough to disappear through the obstacle course Auguste set up. When he thought he was safe, he rubbed the arm that was hit with the curse.
"First my dad and his stupid 'meditation' and now my mom sent the whole brigade against me" Sebastian huffed "They haven't done stuff this crazy in years"
Time was short, of course.
Sebastian needed to think this logically.
"Rin and Luvia like to use gems and petty curses" he said "A simple barrier should be adequate defense against them. Illya and Miyu have those Mystic codes-and the class cards, but I don't think they'd use them. Separating those wands from their owners would be my objective there" Sebastian knew who would give him the greatest problem.
"Kuro has the Archer card permanently inside her" he said "I would either take her out first or take a class card from the other two" He grinned "I may actually do this"
Sebastian snuck out of his…cubicle? At least he thought it was an upside-down cubicle, and proceeded to track down either Ruby and Sapphire or Kuro herself.
Sebastian snuck over half of the floor before he ran into anyone.
"I figured I would find you first" Miyu said; already having installed the Saber Card.
"I thought Illya had that card?" he asked her.
She picked up Excalibur, and swung it once.
"We share them" she said simply "I hold onto two and Illya and Kuro have the other one. Today I have the Saber Class card"
'Maybe tracking down Sapphire wasn't such a good idea' he thought.
"So much for teamwork" he muttered and traced a sword in response.
"You misunderstand" Miyu said, and Sebastian sensed her approach before he felt her.
He was thrown five feet sideways, and saw Luvia's trademark curls dashing towards him.
She threw a few gems at him, which caused instant paralysis.
"Aww ha ha ha ha" she laughed "I actually didn't think you'd fall for that. The class cards are dangerous, Sebastian. You really think we'd actually fight you with them?"
"Should of known she was a decoy" he grimaced as Luvia laughed again.
"So he was caught that easily, then?" Kuro landed next to Luvia "Hmmph, I wonder why we even bothered"
"That was a pretty standard trap" Rin walked up to Miyu.
"Says the woman who tied a girl up over a banquet of food" he managed.
"Well I'd say this was more embarrassing" Annoying code laughed.
"Rub it in why don't you" Sebastian said sarcastically, though the paralysis was really starting to affect his speech.
"Sorry, Sebastian" little Illya said, shamefaced.
"You've got nothing to be sorry for" his mother walked up, triumphantly "This is Sebastian's punishment, after all"
He moaned, annoyed.
"Now the day is still young" she declared "You've got until lunch time, Sebastian. Try again, won't you?"
An antidote was administered, and he had five minutes to recooperate.
He did so in half the time.
Sebastian used everything he had at his disposal; his knowledge of Magecraft, the surrounding obstacles, and even what he knew about the others.
"Obviously the first plan was a failure" he said to himself "I need to remember that all of them have been fighting together for a while now, and they're obviously capable of switching up the groups"
He knew they were employing the first tactic they used against him again.
"Miyu was adopted into the Edelfelt family, so she'd obviously work well with Luvia-though I would have thought the little ones would all group together" he thought out loud "Why fix what isn't broken, they could use the same plan again with minimal damage on their part"
Sebastian opted to ignore Kuro as a prime target and instead set up small traps for them to tangle themselves into. He'd barricade himself in a corner, and attack guerrilla warfare style when they activated his traps.
Sebastian set his traps up and waited in his corner for one of them to be tripped. Using bits of his hair, he was able to place bugs that would notify him which trap was sprung and who tangled it.
Not five minutes after he was done setting up, and Sebastian had his first victim…it was Illya.
"Sorry, Illya, but I need a Class Card" he said and relieved her of the Lancer card before he was hit by a mana blast from Ruby…and Rin.
"Caught again, Sebastian" she bragged "That was the easiest trap I set. We knew those things were there, and used your own to lure you out" she smiled arrogantly "You'll have to do better than that"
He groaned.
"You know, I'm actually starting to feel sorry for you" Kuro said from behind him "You had a plan going there for a bit"
"Um, Rin" Illya pouted "You didn't tell me this was here, that's not fair, not fair at all"
"Shame on you, Rin" Ruby intoned "That wasn't proper"
"Whatever" she tossed the wand back at Illya "You've got five minutes, Sebastian"
His healing magic once again allowed him to leave in half the time.
"I'm thinking this all wrong" he said "All of them obviously can work together however they want to, and planning for every contingency would do wonders for my aching back" The problem was, they were all capable Magi; and while he wasn't inept at the art, he was only one person. They were a five man (or woman) team. This was his mother's whole point, after all.
"If I see anyone, then I'll attack on sight and run the other way" he reasoned "They've trapped me twice now, and with all of them out in the open, that aspect of fighting gets cut in half or greater"
Sebastian was so focused on looking for them, that he didn't see the explosive arrow from Kuro until she was on top of his back.
"I didn't need help specifically" she said "And this win makes three to zero. You're not very good at this, are you?"
"Apparently not" he responded "You see, I'm not facing the average everyday malicious villain. The faces are familiar to me-you know, like the 'hey, how are you doing' type, instead of the traditional 'I'm a badguy who wants money and power, fear me!' kind"
That had her bursting with laughter.
"My, that was funny" she helped him up "You ready to fight like a champ yet?"
"Wait, are you saying you want to help me?" Sebastian was surprised.
She looked at him.
"Uh, yeah, that's kind of the whole point of not knocking you out" she patted him on the back "Besides, if I have to hear Rin and Luvia's bragging anymore, I will definitely freak"
"What about mom?" he asked her.
"What about her?" she looked at him, with a smile on her face "There's nothing in the rules that says she can't help you out, right?"
She handed him the Lancer card.
"Probably better that you didn't skewer anyone with that, but it'll give you increased speed" Kuro then traced a couple of rubber swords "Now, let's hunt the hunters"
"Where did you get this?" he already knew the answer.
"Borrowed it off of Illya" she told him "The girl can be a little ditsy sometimes, especially when she's worried about something"
Shaking off the feeling that she probably stole it, Sebastian installed the card, and ran with Kuro through the obstacles on the floor.
"You gotta plan there?" she asked him.
"We'll take out Illya and Miyu before we fight Rin and Luvia" Sebastian told her "If they're together or halved in groups, then take out the aggressor first"
"Right" she said "No one knows I jumped ship, so that'll be a synch"
"We attack together" Sebastian echoed his mother's words in his head.
"Coming up on your left!" she yelled, swords projected.
Sebastian pushed Miyu to the ground and used the momentum to punch Rin in the stomach.
He turned and smiled a little at Kuro, who was waving Sapphire triumphantly in the air. She made to pick up Miyu, and teleported; almost caught in the blast.
"Kuro, you traitor!" Illya yelled, to which the darker half snickered and waved Sapphire around a bit more.
"All about teamwork" she said, smiling.
Luvia came up behind Sebastian at that moment, to which he only dodged her because he jabbed her with the bunt of his spear.
"Nnngh" she grabbed her stomach quickly and ordered Illya to retreat.
"They only ran away because they didn't have a strategy for me" Kuro held her smile, and picked up Miyu "You alright there?"
"Yes" she said, gesturing for Sapphire "It wasn't unplanned necessarily, just unexpected"
"That hurt, you know" Rin complained "Why is it always my stomach with you?"
"Safest place to hit you" Sebastian said at once "You can't accuse me of perverted actions if I get you there"
"You actually think about that stuff?" Kuro asked, eyebrows raised.
"Of course" he said "I remember what you all did to Shirou, and that wasn't even his fault, Kuro"
She stuck her tongue out, and smiled smugly.
"Well, whatever" Rin said "You know we still have like three minutes left, right"
"Then we're back in it" Miyu nodded "It's your only chance, Sebastian"
Kuro's face became serious really quickly.
"That gives us about half that time to beat them" she remarked.
"Right" Sebastian agreed.
They went after the retreating Illya and Luvia, on double the speeds those two were probably going.
"Keep Illya busy" Sebastian said "Luvia's mine"
"If that's what you want" Kuro replied, closing in on Illya.
Sebastian activated a Magic circle which Luvia dodged; choosing to throw a few gems at his feet to try to trip him up.
"Not falling for that again" Sebastian used a barrier, launching him up in the air, to which he jumped her, grabbing the gems she took out of her dress.
"Big mistake" she activated them, causing the paralysis to activate, but he had dropped them at the same moment. Luvia finally got caught in her own trap.
Illya was much harder to stop because of all the lucky dodges on her part and misses on Kuro's.
Sebastian tried to catch her as well, but ended up in Kuro's way more often than not.
"Gandr!" Rin came out of no where and started firing on Kuro while Miyu attacked Sebastian fully decked as Saber.
"I didn't think it'd come to this" he said, in response to her use of Excalibur "These being dangerous cards, and all"
"Kuro is more than capable of limiting herself, and so am I" she remarked, deadlocked with him, sword to spear.
"I hope I don't go overboard then" he pushed her back and attacked with the bunt of his weapon, to which she somersaulted and threw a wave of energy at him.
Rin screamed, and Sebastian was momentarily surprised to find her pinned to the wall by decidedly not rubber swords. He was bonked on the head by the cross guard of the holy blade.
"Ow" he rubbed his head, and was almost hit with a burst of mana.
Illya began attacking him, with Miyu, while Kuro was held up a bit by a recovered Luvia.
"This is hardly fair" he actually began enjoying the fight "It's two against one"
"As if you are intimidated by a couple of grade schoolers" annoying code chimed.
"Ready, Illya?" Miyu's sword activated, ready for the Noble Phantasm.
"Ready" she replied confidently, wand raised and charged.
"Gáe Bulg!" he yelled at the same time she screamed "Excalibur!"
Illya fired her mana ball at the point when they activated their noble phantasms.
The floor was leveled; in fact, the only reason the stories above remained intact is because of the outer beams in the skyscraper.
Sebastian picked himself up like it was nothing, and Miyu knocked over a few bits of rubble.
"We…made…it…in…time…Ruby!" Illya huffed "That…was…quick…thinking"
"I missed" she remarked, and activated her sword again.
"Same here" he agreed, and was about to execute when a sword stopped him in his tracks.
"Are you guys crazy?!" Kuro yelled angrily "You almost took out the entire building!"
Miyu suddenly realized what she was doing, and dropped her sword in surprise, to which Sebastian wasn't too far off.
He had even forgotten it was his punishment.
"That's enough now!" his mother yelled in the intercom "Stop fighting at once!"
"We're in trouble, aren't we?" he asked them.
"Probably" Illya sighed, defeated.
"What was that, guys?" Rin asked, amazed and dazed.
"Could that have possibly been…?"Luvia began, but shook her head.
"It was the Heroic Spirits" Miyu said "In the cards…I mean. We practically become them when we use our bodies as catalysts for the install"
"I don't think we've ever used them like that" Miyu continued "Except my battle with Kuro, I think"
"We don't know enough about the cards to be sure" Sapphire intoned "But it is possible to have lost yourselves in the haze of battle; considering you take on their personalities as well as their abilities. At least I am getting this from observation, of course"
"My mom said something along those lines" Sebastian nodded "And I do have some second hand experience, as I was given the opportunity to study the make up of the cards, without actually using them" he scratched his head sheepishly "So I think you're right, guys"
"Whatever the case" Kuro was annoyed "You'll have to find something to tell our mothers; because I don't think that's going to cut it"
And then Irisviel and Illya walked through the door; faces set in anger.