Breaking apart

Shirou sat in his room gazing out at the moon. As he did, he wondered about the coming civil war on the blessed isle. He wanted to minimise the loss of life but he didn't know how. Could Rin or Sakura perhaps talk the opponents into surrender? On that note would they even join in? Might they just attempt to sneak into the great store of magic knowledge while the isle is busy at war. That wasn't actually too bad of a plan but it meant that they would do nothing to speed the war along.

While Shirou eventually slept he thought more about the wars and ramifications of them up until he drifted off.

Rin would likely have looked at the moon but her room had no window that faced it. On her mind was Sakura as she was sure there was something wrong with her and she wasn't talking about it. Rubinrot had claimed she possessed a mind like a demon, that could mean many things but as Sakura wasn't talking she couldn't be sure which. She was an Exalted; that was a fact so it limited the options.

Option 1; She was literally possessed by something. Rin didn't know if the Exalted could be possessed in that way but it had to be said in this case. Demons were spiritual beings in their native form and her Lunar teacher had said something once while teaching about demons. Rin had been told that there were certain types of demons who were experts at possessing people, only mortals had been mentioned but it still left the question of if they worked on the Exalted.

Option 2: While those cultists she had mentioned had her captive they had twisted her mind into something demonic. This could explain the demonic personality that Rubinrot claimed she saw but Rin had been taught that most mental afflictions left you upon the moment of Exaltation. Either this 'Demonic will' was strong enough to endure or Sakura had still been captured after she had exalted. Either was bad news.

Rin wondered if there was a sorcery she could learn to get the truth out of Sakura. She clearly knew what was wrong but it seemed that it was a secret she even wanted to keep from Shirou. Last time she had tried that she had ended up possessed by Angra Mainyu and that...

Was that it? Was Angra Mainyu still in there somehow and causing problems for her? She still could control shadows after all, had he left something in her?

Rin resolved to continue thinking and it took a few hours for her to find sleep.

Sakura wasn't in her room.

She was skulking out of sight, she would personally claim to simply be stealthily making her way back to her room but it was definitely skulking. She had just left a man to die after all.

Sakura stopped for a minute and sat on a rooftop. While another man was now dead at her hands she didn't feel anything for him at all. For each of her past villainous killings it left her feeling a grim satisfaction or a sadness like morning depending on the reason she had chosen them to be a target.

It was her Coadjutor that explained quietly "All the previous killings normally had a second motive. You were either killing an enemy or you were killing someone who would endanger yourself, Shirou or the bond between. This time you killed simply to prevent torment."

Sakura remained quiet for a moment before asking "That can't be it, I have killed to prevent torment before and I felt that mournful melancholy. What then?"

"It is a diffrent intention, in the past you have seen it as a necessary evil to stay by Shirou's side and protect him. But now..."

Sakura's anger flared momentarily "What are you saying, that I don't care about Shirou any more. I am! I won't ever let him die."

"Then perhaps, you are simply used to killing?"

The question struck hard. Sakura looked toward the moon for a moment before getting up and continuing to skulk back to the Manse.

Trin lay on his bed. The teachings of the Immaculate order washed through his mind along with his experiences in the south so far.

He tried to draw the two together and all that resulted were errors. So then which was wrong? The Immaculate order or himself.

If the order was right he had been brainwashed by the vile Anathema and he should be doing more to resist them.

If he was right then then these Anathema, those connected to Shirou were diffrent than the standard fare. 'The Anathema destroyed the world in the past', such is taught by the order. If Shirou was going to destroy the world, it wouldn't be by his own choice, he was sure.

Sakura was pure evil of course and nothing could save her at this point. The sooner the Wyld hunt could learn of her the better they all were.

The other one Rin? He hadn't had much opportunity to speak with her. She consorts with demons and that could very easily damn her. Only the Exalted princes of the earth were alowed to do that for a reason. Those lacking willpower and strenght will simply be killed by their demons and allow them to wander free.

There being an believer in the Anthema being Exalted in Paragon was important news though, that was something that should get back to the isle.

The Perfect wrote down all that he had seen from the eyes of the beggar. He had been sitting nearby and had hidden himself when the girl had dropped from the roof.

He had seen her kill a fellow law breaker and then leave. If she was mad enough to kill random people in a town she is staying in with his direct permission then that left two options.

She cared so much about the rules that she kills law breakers. This was the option that showed her in a better light but it was likely false. Either way he would request that she be branded, if she was truely such a chaotic element it was required.

The darker option is that she simply wanted to kill something. Would that be true then she would certainly need to receive the symbol. He would see that she is properly punished for her law breaking.

Either way, the upside is he gets a new Exalted bound by the eye.

The Perfect smiled as he continued to write the document listing her crime.

End of chapter

This is pure filler, I will admit that.

I was simply tired when I wrote this and thought that you deserved something in the new year.

next chapter I'll promise is more interesting.