Quick author's notes here at the top. This story is born out of me finding some notes for some really old snippets, and a good long session of bitching about Nanoha and FSN. It made me a bit nostalgic, so I pulled out the notes, blew the dust off them, and started writing this. It was a surprising amount of fun.
Warning, this fic assumes you are somewhat knowledgeable about FSN (Particularly Fate route). And Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.
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Emiya Shirou wondered exactly what runaway magecraft had been involved in creating the giant wasp. For that matter, how was it staying aloft? The thing had to have the mass of a horse at the very least. It had grown an enormous pair of razor-sharp pincers, but the stinger was the thing to worry about. It had stabbed a tree trunk earlier in their fight, and the venom had dissolved the tree in seconds.
That wouldn't have worried him all that much if the tree hadn't been so wide that he couldn't wrap his arms around it.
As the wasp chittered in annoyance after he dodged its latest attempt to kill him. He wondered why whoever had made it had not made it more intelligent. That surely would have been easier than making a horse-sized wasp fly, right? He'd need to ask Tohaska about that the next time he was at the Clock Tower.
Still, no matter how difficult it had been to create. An out of control familiar so close to a city was too dangerous to be left alone. As the wasp once more rushed him, he pulled back on the firing hammer in his head.
"Trace, on." with three pulls of that imaginary trigger, he activated his twenty seven circuits. Two swords appeared in his hands; one white as snow, the other black as a moonless night. The two met and came away again. The wasp chittered in pain and anger, one of its mandibles and two of its legs fell to the dirt with wet splats.
Shirou turned to keep the giant insect in his sight. His swords and clothes were stained by its clear, milky blood, but it still had fight in it. His eyes widened when he saw the wasp glow a bright blue, the mandible and legs regrew in a few seconds, and the creature was once more charging at him.
'Well that's annoying' he thought as he dodged the creature's simple attacks. For all its strength and speed, it was too simple minded to pose a real threat, but its healing would prove an issue. With a grunt, he threw Kansho and Bakuya in an arch through the air, and pictured a long yellow spear in his mind's eye.
The two swords swerved, coming together after they'd been flung apart. Kansho cut through one of the wasp's wings, Bakuya smacked into it handle-first. The wasp still fell to the ground with a deafening crash and an eruption of dirt and clumps of grass. It screeched as it thrashed, the glow surrounding it once more.
As its wing reformed, the long blade of that yellow spear sept by and cut off its uninjured wing at the base, severing the regenerating wing on its return swing. The wasp thrashed, but Shirou's body jerked him roughly out of the way. The glow remained and intensified, but the wings did not heal.
Twice more Shirou darted in, each time delivering a single powerful swing, using the spear to cut instead of stab. And each time one of the wasps' massive mandibles tumbled to the ground.
The wasp began to panic. It began to thrash and run about in an attempt to trample him. But all it managed in its rage and fear was to lose three of its legs, sending it to the ground. Shirou cut off the other three as an afterthought.
Gáe Buidhe, the Golden Rose of Mortality. Any wound inflicted by it would never heal, for that wounded state was forever more the new 'healthy' state. The curse could only be lifted by the death of its owner, or the destruction of the weapon.
Which of course meant that it would last only so long as the traced weapon, but that would be far more than enough. Its neck was too thick to cut in a single swipe, still, he raised the weapon high to put the animal out of its misery. Then the spear jerked him back, a yellow bolt of energy missing him by a hand's breadth and slamming into the ground with a crackle of electricity. The memories within Gáe Buidhe allowed him to dodge the next four attacks, and he settled into a defensive stance.
A young girl was aiming a weapon at him, one glance was all it took for him to know that weapon better than he knew himself, every detail of it etching itself into his mind.
'Bardiche huh?' he thought, 'and it's a very advanced mystic code…and that's one fancy familiar.'
Standing next to the girl was a large, shaggy, bright red wolf. Baring its teeth at him in a silent snarl.
"Move away from it," said the girl softly.
The giant wasp chittered and wiggled, its clear blood leaking into the ground.
"Is this your familiar!?" he demanded loudly. "If so, you need to be more careful! This thing attacked me on sight! It could have caused a great injury to someone, let alone broken the masquerade!"
"He doesn't know?" the girl muttered, tilting her head, the twin tails on her head shifting and settling.
"Don't know what!? And who is your guardian? Why would they send someone as young as you to confront me!?" he pressed.
The familiar began to growl, a low bass rumble. The girl's lips tightened, her hands gripping her mystic code more tightly.
He spotted large shadows moving behind the girl, he reinforced his eyes, and the very next instant he was in front of the girl and her familiar, having seemingly not bothered with the intervening space. He dropped Gáe Buidhe unceremoniously to the ground so his hands could dart out and seize the girl by the scruff of the neck with one hand, and her familiar's shaggy pelt with the other. Out of the two, the familiar reacted faster, its teeth sinking into his forearm with a growl.
Shirou grit his teeth and hauled, moving them behind him with such force that their teeth rattled. The very next moment, the stingers of seven dog-sized wasps sank into his chest, agony began to burn in him an instant later, turning his bones into fire and his muscles into jelly.
He fell, girl and wolf becoming pinned by his weight. He raised his left hand and, using what little strength remained in him, traced Hrunting. He swung once with it, once was all it took. With that one swing Hrunting killed all seven wasps, one half of their bifurcated bodies tumbling off of his chest to the ground. As an afterthought, he looked at the still struggling Queen Wasp. And tossed Hrunting at it in a slow, lazy parabola.
The sword landed point-first and stabbed into its head to the hilt. The wasp stopped moving instantly.
And then it was all he could do to stay conscious. Breathing was also becoming more difficult, it vexed him that he couldn't turn his body enough to see if the girl was alright.
He felt two somethings wriggle out from beneath him, even that slight movement bringing him great agony. A slight grunt escaped him.
She was alright, unharmed except by a scrape and some dirt. She was looking at his chest, her eyes wide.
"Why?" she whispered, staring at the enormous stingers that yet pumped venom into his body.
With a monumental effort, he gently cupped her cheek in his palm. She flinched, but did not pull away. And turned to meet his eyes. Her eyes were red as rubies, red like…
"I'm glad you're alright," he said with a warm smile. He'd managed to save her in the end, that's all that mattered. Her eyes became wide as saucers, and the darkness at the edge of his vision rushed in.
His hand fell.
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Fate Testarossa stared at the man. The one that she thought was there to interfere. Her thoughts a blur.
Why had he saved her? If he could move that quickly, why had he protected her and Arf instead of seizing an advantage? Why sacrifice himself for someone he'd never met, someone who attacked him?
Her cheek was warm where he'd cupped it.
But most of all…that smile. That warm, happy, kind, relieved smile.
Almost as if it had not been him who saved her. But she who had saved him.
"Arf, we're taking him with us." she said dully as she stood and walked to the corpse of the giant wasp. Noting the wounds the man had inflicted, and the palpable malevolence of the devices he'd used and tossed so carelessly.
What would Mother think about this?