Rule Breakers

(Sasaku's room)

(Kojirou)

"Can you find Kuro and bring her over to my room?" was all she had sent, though it raised many questions. A few, like aren't magi supposed to be really protective of their Workshops? were answered once the door opened to show the house's other two resident Servants within. Because there was really nothing out of the ordinary, or really anything at all, inside.

Rider was sitting on the door, while Sasaku was on the bed. Even so, the small Caster still had to look upwards somewhat while talking to Medusa.

"Right then," Sasaku began as Kuro quickly sat down next to her. Kojirou remained standing near the door like a guard until Sasaku waved him over to a chair. When he deliberately ignored the invitation, the piece of furniture lifted up and moved itself over, forming a triangle with Medusa and the bed. "Sit down," she said, sounding amused rather than upset.

Sasaku waited for him to take up the invitation before continuing. "Based on some information from Medusa here, the Grail's general information about magic, and an insightful question from my student, I've concluded a few things about this War which should enable our continued cooperation."

Kuro was the only one somewhat surprised by this. Medusa had been discussing it just before they came in, and of course Sasaku had shared some of her earlier thoughts with Kojirou.

"Why don't you just take it from the top for us?" he asked. Better to move past any parceling out of secrets. Though, surprisingly enough, it seemed this was her entire plan in calling everyone together. Still, he noticed the Masters were all absent. Which could mean any number of things.

"Major points. The Grail system traps the souls of Servants who die in the War, using them to generate magical energy via the method of the Third Magic. This output is exponentially greater than what is drawn from the leylines and used to summon the Servants."

"So what's it for?" Kuro asked, unexpectedly enough.

"The talk about one winner getting a wish, the complicated multi-stage ritual and repeated attempts despite massive failures suggests they think realizing the Holy Grail and charging it with all that energy will allow, ironically enough, holy grail of magecraft. Reaching the Root."

Kojirou immediately realized that something was off. "But two people, one Master and one Servant get wishes, and those could be anything."

"Not necessarily so," Medusa replied in a surprisingly charming voice given her rather frightening appearance. "You would want as much energy as possible to ensure reaching the Root. Most likely, the 'winning' Servant would find themselves pressed into adding that additional push to the process."

"But that's a good point," Sasaku took up, "If it is possible to grant two wishes, and different ones, why not any number of wishes? Especially if they're carefully made to keep within an energy budget. But more importantly, in those cases, it may not be necessary to utilize the Servant 'booster phase'."

"You're intending to rebel against the rules of the Grail War?" Kojirou muttered in a whisper, as though anyone outside the four might otherwise overhear.

Sasaku raised an eyebrow as though that accusation itself was preposterous. "Hmph, the Grail is one thing, but the system they made to realize and power it is another. Besides, I'm sure they had intended to summon Servants and immediately order them to commit suicide, but since even that much power might only -perhaps- allow one magus to reach the Root..."

"The first War began because someone decided to kill everyone else to ensure they got the chance!" Kuro exclaimed. "Or rather, they all had the same idea at once, so it turned into a free-for-all and everyone died."

"Even assuming what you say is true, wouldn't there be safeguards to at least prevent the Servants from working together to hijack the process?" Kojirou frowned, remembering Rin's earlier outburst upon hearing about Gilgamesh. "And the Overseer, Kotomine, would have access to any such measures."

"Based on how he handled the situation at the school, it is likely that their greatest countermeasure is getting the Servants to do it for them," Kuro shrugged, remembering how that had worked out for her. "And he's also cheating, which means either way he will be an enemy."

This conclusion was accepted by everyone.

"Let's just put all our cards on the table," Sasaku said, moving the conversation along after a silent vote had been taken, and passed unanimously, to attempt to subvert the War. "To avoid degenerating into the situation Kuro described earlier."

She addressed Medusa first. "You want to ensure Sakura's well-being. Praiseworthy, but also much easier than what everyone else wants. We can discuss this later, but Zouken as one of the inventors of the Grail War will definitely be a high-value target, so rest easy."

"The two of you are in a situation where after the War ends, you have no record in the Throne to return to and will thus otherwise simply cease to exist. This can be overcome - just being here means that you essentially already have something like a Saint Graph, but in the Grail's random access memory, rather than the Throne's read only memory."

"What about yourself?" Kojirou asked, genuinely curious. Primarily because he didn't quite understand her story as presented in brief to him earlier. "You're in the same boat."

"I intend to get a copy of myself sent back. I'll be honest that it's probably the hardest wish to grant. If things go wrong I have no expectation that anyone will make it on my behalf though."

So that's it, he thought. If multiple 'small' wishes are possible, then cooperation becomes like an insurance plan. As long as one of us survives we can all 'win' in a sense. Provided they don't change their mind at the last moment...

"Why should going back to be so hard?" Medusa asked. "Even moving across time is not necessarily an issue for the Grail. The Throne also spans all time and space."

Sasaku dropped her bombshell. "The Root? Unless I missed my guess, 'I' passed it on my way here."

"You're saying that the majority of the prana budget would be used on that one wish? No one would agree to that," Kojirou said immediately.

"I haven't laid my card on the table," Sasaku said calmly, as though the outburst was expected. "If we manage to take over the System, there's no issue granting all our wishes and more."

"Yeah, but if you die," Kuro interrupted, "then it all goes down in flames. None of us has a hope of doing that."

"Yes," Sasaku agreed cheerfully. "This is the proposal I wish to make. If we eliminate all the other Servants and I am able to take over the System, I will bring you all back and we can get everything we want. Everything."

"Otherwise?" Kojirou did not bother to hide his skepticism.

"Otherwise, I only ask that you do not attempt to get me a permanent record. I can't be given another body due to the terms of my summoning - only the original me can agree to more copies. But most likely if we do this, the World will never allow me to be active again. In that case, a permanent record would only be abused, so it is better to force the Grail to wipe what it has. Which is to say, do nothing, since it will eventually."

"You're burning some serious bridges," Medusa said with a hint of sympathy.

"Hold on," Kuro added. "But you've exactly asked for nothing."

"I was getting to that. In that case, I want something like Medusa. Shirou's well-being."

"I can agree to that!" Kuro said immediately.

"Simple enough," Kojirou nodded in agreement. The significance of what had just happened was not lost on him, however. For a moment there, it seemed like Sasaku's main priority was planning for her own death. He didn't buy for an instant that she had from the start wanted Shirou to be taken care of.

(Sasaku)

After the meeting ended, Kuro and Medusa left. Rider to check up on Sakura, Archer to sound out Rin, most likely. Kojirou remained seated as the two stepped out through the ward, closing the door behind them.

"Are you serious?" were his first words when they were alone.

"If you have any objections, you should have voiced them earlier." She was in a bit of a down mood, even though arguably everything had gone perfectly. The main thing preying on her mind was, of course, Gilgamesh. She didn't know his intentions, but they couldn't risk getting in a fight with him, given the unknown safeguards in the Grail System. Unfortunately, it didn't seem she would be able to avoid him.

"You remind me of some of the samurai women," he said eventually. "Especially when your and Shirou's first request was to defend this 'castle', I could have been convinced your True Name was Tomoe Gozen."

Unsure how to take his words, she simply shrugged, but no further explanation was forthcoming.

l

(Sakura)

Sakura woke up lightly, feeling more rested than she had for a long time. She wasn't alone, of course, but quite happily so this time. Normally, given the thick blanket being shared by the two of them would have made thing uncomfortably warm, but Sakura hardly minded given the cause.

Stretching languorously against the still-sleeping Shirou at her back, she thought about how -quiet- it was. There was no one badgering her to get up and do something for them, no other voices sharing her head, and even the worms were apparently content, at least for the moment.

Sakura glanced at the clock, some distance away on the table. It's already pretty late. Rather defiantly, she tucked the blanket in around the two of them. The trapped body heat was actually quite comforting, to be honest.

"Are you up?" Rider asked quietly. Well, there was at least one person who could talk in her head. "Just. What happened?" It felt somewhat decadent to be holding a conversation while lazing in bed.

"You guessed right that Caster wouldn't simply follow the rules. She convinced all the Servants to join her wild plan to take over the Grail System." Sakura was hardly surprised, since it wasn't a hard guess to make. It was also obvious that Rider counted herself as being in support. "You think she knows enough to pull this off?"

"If so, she's certainly playing those cards rather close to her chest for someone who just shared quite a lot about the System. Given her attitude towards the Founding Family magi though, I suspect she intends to reverse engineer it."

"Hmm," come to think of it, she had been sleeping right in the middle of Sasaku's Workshop, according to Shirou. But there was nothing of note in his room. "Well, let me know if anything else happens."

Rider agreed before leaving Sakura alone with her thoughts.

And Shirou who was just waking up.

"Good morning," he said softly, putting his arm around her. "How are you feeling now?" Neither took any notice of their naked bodies which this action brought together. Or rather they did, but it just felt natural by this point.

"Very good, thanks," she replied. "to you..." she added before pressing her reddening face against his chest. Shirou didn't say anything, but only ran a hand through her hair.

"Huh, you look different," he muttered while casting his eyes about. Before she could ask what, the two of them spotted Sakura's hair ribbon sitting near the bed's head at about the same time. For some reason, it looked rather suggestive.

Shirou was the one to reach out and pick it up, before handing it over to her. "Better put it on, huh?" he said lightly.

She blushed in response while doing so - the only bit of clothing either of them had on at the moment. Truth be told, when he asked her to take it off earlier that evening, she had felt really naked without it. Which made no sense given I had already removed everything else by that point, but anyway...

About then, Sakura realized that her partner was distracted by something, which given her own earlier conversation, was probably Caster getting to business now that he was awake.

"Anything important?" she asked after he seemed to have wrapped up the discussion. Sakura thought that her ribbon was on crooked, but couldn't tell from Shirou's bed as there was no mirror handy.

For some reason, he started as though caught by surprise. "Ah, Sasaku was saying we should expect a battle tonight. Oh also, she offered to teach you magecraft, if you want. There'll be a lesson sometime before evening falls."

"Huh, does that mean she intends to go on the attack... who?" Given what Rider had told her, Sakura could guess but decided to keep that to herself.

"Kotomine, at the church." Shirou paused before adding his own thoughts on the target, "I suppose she decided to go for the gold." It didn't seem unexpected though.

"I see," was all she said, while getting out of bed and picking up the gold-framed mirror. It seemed Kirei had murdered Tohsaka's well mine as well father. Though as Rider had said, war was what it was, and having a good reason to kill is all for the better, if you have decided to do it.

As she looked at her reflected image though, she realized two things. "Shirou, why do you have such a mirror?" The more important one only after she started speaking.

"Er, that's Sasaku's," he said after a moment. It seemed that he had been distracted by... watching me? Sakura laughed. "Right. Can you call her over? I need to get this done before someone gets frightened." She pointed to her eyes.

"Of course," Shirou replied immediately. "Once you've put some clothes on."

"More importantly: you," she replied, about to laugh again as she put the mirror down. "She is a girl after all."

Notes:
Sasaku is wrong, of course, about the Grail War being invented by the Founding Families (+Zelretch).

Yep, Medusa immediately told Sakura about the meeting, but you will have to guess what Kuro did or didn't share for her part.

The sun has risen, so for the record this is now the beginning of day 5.