Ishtar walked inside the front door of Shirou's residence supporting its owner with one hand holding his arm and the other on his back. He walked slowly and unsteadily as if he was in a waking dream and his eyes were glazed over indicating a total lack of cognizance of his surroundings. She had barely entered the door when she was waylaid by the worried True Ancestor who approached Shirou and started to worry over him.
"Arcueid," she said gritting her teeth and trying to remain polite towards a person she enjoyed under most circumstances. "Unless you know any magic that can heal him. Can you go get the other one in the house? The one with some ability in magecraft."
Arcueid nodded and left so fast that she left the imprints of foot marks on the wooden floor. Ishtar sighed and continued to drag Shirou to his room when he was interrupted by the materialisation of Arcueid's servant. He was fixing her Master with bright blue eyes, his usual bandages having disappeared from his face.
"He's not dying," he said. "I think. His lines of death are fluctuating. Sometimes they multiply to fill the whole body. Sometimes they fade away until none are left. They are continually writhing and moving." The servant shrugged. "I'm afraid I've never seen something like this before so I cannot be sure what the outcome will be."
Ishtar nodded thoughts flitting through her head. "That's… interesting," she said after a brief pause. If what the servant said was true then she had an idea of what had happened.
The silence lengthened into uncomfortability before it was broken with the help of the White Princess who appeared in the room carrying Satsuki bridal style. Placing the bewildered girl down she gestured towards Shirou who was still standing there being held aloft by his servant.
"What happened to him?" Satsuki said after a few moments of chanting some words under her breath. She raised her hand above Shirou's body hovering it over specific spots as if she was using a handheld x-ray.
"He was sucked into the body of a sphinx he was fighting," Ishtar said. "It was only for a moment but when he got out he was practically comatose."
Satsuki paused briefly at the mention of the sphinx, but then dutifully continued her examination. After a few seconds more she put down her hand. "His brain activity is spiking at a higher level than humans should be able to use. I'm genuinely surprised that he hasn't had a seizure yet." She turned towards an empty spot in the room. "Anderson," she said her servant materialising as she spoke. "Please analyse him for me."
"The Master of this household. A Magician who…"
"Don't tell me what I already know," Rider interrupted the Caster's speech her voice cold and imperial. "Tell me why is he in such a state.
"His mind and body are akin to a burst water-skin that has taken too much into itself. He is being slowly stitched together again, but whether the container is identical after being mended is beyond the knowledge of a humble author like myself," the writer said his voice harsh.
"Like I expected," the Babylonian goddess said softly to herself. "He will be okay," she stated to those around her. "I'm just going to put him to bed and help him recover." She turned towards Arcueid and Satsuki. "If you happen to run up against a pharaoh, I would suggest you retreat. Not only is he quite strong he is also already marked for death by me. There is no need to waste your effort on somebody whose days are already numbered."
Both Arcueid and Satsuki nodded to that. Rider usually had an element of mockery around her but now she looked uncharacteristically furious. Even as she gently helped Shirou up the stairs her eyes danced with hidden rage.
"Shouldn't you check on her," Satsuki whispered to the True Ancestor standing next to her. "Aren't you worried that she might do things to Shirou?"
"Not really," the True Ancestor replied. "Shirou doesn't look like up for those kinds of things at the moment."
Satsuki took a moment to digest the words and then her face flushed red. "Not those kinds of things," she spluttered. "I mean get free from Shirou or harm him or something."
"No," Arcueid said smiling. "She wouldn't want to do that. Haven't you noticed her reactions towards him?"
"Shirou said that she was always trying to seduce him," Satsuki said. "And if she's not then she's mocking him about something."
"That's true," Arcueid said nodding to herself. "She's toned it down slightly from when she first was summoned but her behaviour has been fairly consistent." Arcueid stopped speaking for a bit and assumed the face that she always wore when thinking things over. "But she has not been malicious. Every time she teases him it always seems playful and she has never struck me as actively harmful."
"So what you're saying is," Satsuki tried to draw out her conclusion.
"She's in love with him," Arcueid said her eyes almost sparkling. "It's just like in the movies, she fell head over heels and now she can't live without him. Did you see how she carried him all the way back here after he was hurt?" Arcueid was getting excited and her voice rose and her speech grew faster with each sentence. "I absolutely ship the two of them. They're perfect together."
"Ummm," Satsuki paused contemplating her next words. "What about your own relationship with Shirou, wouldn't their 'love' get in the way of that."
"Don't worry Satsuki," Arcueid said. She then proceeded to pick up a dojinshi from a nearby table. "You see I've read about it in this. When there are two girls…"
"Hey didn't Shirou forbid you from those after the May 21 incident," Satsuki interrupted.
Arcueid paused guiltily her hand stopping midway through flipping through the pages. "Don't tell him," she implored of Satsuki. "It wasn't my fault that the dining room wall couldn't handle it."
"Especially since you were in your own room the whole time, right," Satsuki stated with no small amount of sarcasm.
"Please show me these dojinshi," Anderson said to the ditzy vampire. "I have not had the opportunity to investigate modern eastern writing. The owner of this house tends to only stack western materials."
Satsuki just sat down with her hands on her head trying to tune out the innate madness of Hans Christian Anderson being shown a dojin by the last remaining True Ancestor
xxx
She couldn't breathe. The air was like fire and yet her veins were like ice. Her vision had become blurry and her legs had become too weak for her to remain standing. The ceiling of the temple was miles away even as she gazed up at it and all the noise had faded to a buzzing in her ears. The last image that she remembered was of the concerned face of her servant as he looked down at her.
Rin Tohsaka woke up in bed panting her body ached, every muscle felt as if was hollowed out and had molten lead poured down it. She tried to sit up and found herself unable to. Neither her legs nor arms were responding to her commands.
"Easy, easy," the voice of male in English called out. Turning her head to the side she winced as a hot poker was inserted through her neck and down her spine. She couldn't even writhe in agony due the lack of feeling in her legs. Her magic circuits felt miles away and she couldn't focus her thoughts. Suddenly she felt hands on her shoulders and a cooling sensation swept through her body.
She still couldn't see her limbs but now she could think and see without the pain coursing through her body she could take in the face of the man in the room. He was tall with dirty stringy blonde hair and an awkward look. His face was hidden by sunglasses and he was bust scrutinizing her body. Under most circumstances Rin would have blushed or grown angry but now she just was too tired to care.
"What's going on," she said slowly finding herself lacking the energy to even speak long sentences.
"Ahh," the man said rubbing his head. "You were afflicted by a curse from the age of the gods. Fascinating, haven't seen anything of that potency before. It was weakening but it still would have killed you. I temporarily boosted your resistance to magic. Right now all your circuits are focused on rejecting the foreign curse. The paralysis of your limbs was to prevent you from thrashing around. It's not actually as bad as it seems. At this rate you will be curse-free within a week."
"A week," Rin exclaimed. "I don't have a week. I need to be out there tonight."
"Not happening," the man said. "Unless you know somebody that could remove a divine level curse, then you will remain incapacitated. If you attempted to go out in this condition you will die. Do you even have any idea what's going on right now?"
At Rin's blank look the man scowled, once again running his fingers through his hair. Let me get my boss. Just wait here and try not to do anything. The man left the room leaving Rin alone with her thoughts. While normally the thought of having an enemy Magus in her house would be rage-inducing, Rin was a bit beyond caring at this point. She was alive, he hadn't killed her. As long as he stays out of the workshop she will be fine. Still she had to confirm something. "Saber," she said out loud.
"Master," the reply came however Saber did not materialize to speak. "I'm glad to see you're okay. Forgive me for not appearing but I wish to conserve my prana."
"It's okay Saber," Rin said. "What happened at the end of the fight, I can't remember."
"Your friend Inke, tore a hole through the temple and we landed on the street," Gawain began. "Then I tried to take you home but you were still suffering. Luckily I ran into a lady that helped me."
"So is woman the boss my doctor was talking about," Rin mused.
"Indeed I am," a sudden voice came from the door and Rin jerked her head up to see a scarily familiar sight.
With brown hair styled into a ponytail, wearing an immaculate white waistcoat, over brown pants and boots and with a rapier in her hand stood the Vice Director of the Mage Association. Rin's throat went dry. Nobody really wanted to talk to the Queen of the Clock Tower. While she spent a lot of time with Zelretch and he was admittedly stronger than her, he also had far less control over the association and he all but admitted that he really did not want to annoy her. Looking at the woman Rin could understand his point. The head of the Barthomeloi family was about Rin's height and yet her very presence filled the room. By just standing there Rin felt more on edge than she had felt during her entire apprenticeship with Zelretch.
"I had heard that you had been afflicted with a divine curse," the Vice Director opened up the conversation immediately. "Do you have any means of recovering from that?"
"Rin contemplated her vast quantities of jewels and mistake codes and came up empty." Tentatively she shook her head leaving the Barthomelot visibly disappointed. "Have you been briefed on the situation." At Rin's negative answer she began to explain what had been recovered over the past few days leaving Rin's head whirling from the influx of information.
"I will be honest," the woman finished off. "Right now you are useless despite being an apprentice of Kaleidoscope and the master of Saber." Rin more felt than saw her servant's grip tighten on his sword protectively. "The man who helped stabilize you was originally from the Wandering Sea where they still perform experiments on magecraft from the age of the gods and thus possesses far more knowledge on the subject than any person else in the group. I will attempt to meet with the group led by Shirou Inke to find out if they have any way of removing a curse of this magnitude."
Rin blinked. She had expected the Queen to suggest that she give up the command seals to her and sit out of the war. To that end she wasn't sure whether she would have complied with her request or not. While it was a family duty to fight in the grail war, she found herself honestly wishing that the Tohsaka's had never participated in the war. It would probably have left them better off.
At seeing her surprised face the Queen merely quirked an eyebrow at the younger magus. "Trying to take advantage of a sick opponent to replace my servant would shame my family name," she said. "Rest now and try recover so that you can be of some use in the war.
With that last statement the woman turned and left the room leaving Rin alone.
xxx
"Oh no, you're hurt," the young-looking girl that appeared no older than fourteen ran up to her pet dog and embraced him. "You say those mean people damaged your eye," Don't worry," she said hugging the dog and receiving a lick in return. "We'll pay them back. I can't stand people who hurt animals."
The woman and the dog embraced further before they were interrupted by the sound of a cough. "What do you want now, old man," the vampire hissed and her canine companion barked.
"I just thought I should remind you that we were meeting with the rest of the members at the hotel in ten minutes," the white-haired man said. "If we leave now we can make it."
The girl turned and looked directly at the clock. "Damn," she said. "I got distracted by his cuteness again." She picked up a pet sling and draped it over her. "Come on boy," she said. "Get in, we have to go."
The white beast eyed the sling sceptically, but then it suddenly shrunk down it's muscles contracting until eventually it was the size of a puppy and hopped in.
The girl left the rendezvous building and hailed a cab, using her mystic eyes to get out of paying. Finally she made it with a minute to spare and entered the hotel signing her name in the guest register and heading to the penthouse.
Entering the penthouse she was immediately confronted by the sight of multiple Dead Apostle Ancestors. There was her bodyguard Rizo flanked by his servant who he told her was Achilles, whose inability to die didn't translate into an inability to kill people. There was Gransburg who reclined on the couch attended to by his servants, all of them a disgusting mix of human and bird. There was the host Van Fem talking with, ugh Trhvmn, both of them keeping their servants dematerialised. While she personally didn't have anything against Van Fem, the Dark Lord of the Business World hated her for something that Fina had done. Apparently he had stolen a massive golem. It did sound like something that Fina would do. She missed him quite a bit and had spent millions trying to track him down when he went missing but it seemed like he had disappeared off the face of the earth. She didn't want to dwell on unhappy memories.
Although thinking on it Trhvmn was all unhappy memories. She therefore refused to think about him any longer. Still that was only five including her. The last two were friends somewhat; maybe they were going to come together.
The door slammed open and the second to last member entered the room. She instinctively took a step back, facing her warily and she heard her dog let out a low rumble of hatred from the pits of his stomach. Standing there, with a large smile on her face wearing her usual outfit was the one person in the world she hated most. Flanking her was a tall white haired man that wielded an iron rod one-handed.
"The Queen of the Oceans and the King of the Monkeys are in the house," Sumire said a smile upon her face. "RR will be late," she said undermining her entrance. "She said we can start without her."
Author Note: No fight's in this chapter. Does not make it easy to write. In fact this chapter took me a lot longer than I thought it would and I'm still not 100% satisfied.
AnimeA55Kicker Do not wish to spoil
Guest Anderson is not unaffected by her but he can easily see through all her manipulations. Satsuki is under the effect of his Noble Phanstasm that turns her life into a story he writes. He would not allow a cheap trick like that to influence her mind. Nope no yandere. List at end.
Archleone The term Divine Constructs is slightly misleading as both Excalibur and Arondlight qualify despite not being made by any god as far as I know. Divine Constructs are items made from things that are beyond human comprehension such as the dreams of Mankind or the authority of a god.
YuukiAsuna-Chan Honestly if somebody just spams their best move over and over at the beginning of a fight it would get boring. I could shorten the fights, but then again I could shorten the exposition or the fluff or I could just write out the epilogue right now. The fights in this chapter were actually over quickly enough except the cosmo sphinx and the cosmos sphinx was as a result of me saying. Okay the previous sphinx =3xservants. Now what can trump that.
Servants are static and unable to lose their sense of self. It's kind of the same reason they can take in souls without losing who they are.
DPSS That is a good question. You would have to specify though?
Altrouge- Emiya
Trhvmn-?
Van Fem-?
Gransburg-?
Sumire- Monkey King?
Rita Rozay-en-?
Rizo-Waal Strout- Achilles
Rin-Gawain
Shirou-Ishtar
Satsuki-Hans Christian Anderson
Arcueid-Shiki
Lorelei-Romulus (Deceased)
Aoko-Kiyohime