Fate Stay Night Umbra Bello
Runelt99- … yes.
Actually, to be honest, it's a combination of "yes" and "no" on both accounts.
VolcanicFlare- I can say I prefer my OC's, and Self Inserts to have to struggle a bit. Personally, I feel the whole "Omniscient SI" schtick is a bit overdone. Writers that do that almost seem to keep the world reacting to the SI, rather than the SI reacting to the world, and as a result they often seem more disconnected from the story than they ought to be. Then again, that's just my feelings on the matter. Seeing Zouken, Kirei, and Lev Lamer get crushed so easily by metaknowledge has gotten boring fairly quickly.
… also Orso is from America. Not sure where you got Canada from.
Chapter XIX: Devil in the Details...
Date: 02/05/2004
Time: 6:35 pm
Location: Outside Emiya Household
ThemeSong- ENGLISH "Brave Shine" Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (Akane Sasu Sora)
Consciousness returned to me slowly.
My body objected to this profusely. Begging me to sleep longer. Promising pain upon further non-compliance.
But the combination of numb pain, and my constant motion refused to allow sleep to fully take me.
Coherent thought was still difficult however. So it took a minute for me to realize the position I was it.
"Wh-What?" I asked, noticing that I was A: moving fast, and B: being carried.
"Welcome back Master." I heard Assassin welcoming me back to the waking world.
"O-...Okita?" I take in the shifting environment.
"Try not to move. Tohsaka healed some of the damage, but I wouldn't want to count your odds if I drop you."
"Tohsaka…? What did I miss..?" I ask before I noticed something odd, but didn't voice, "and why did my lips taste odd for a second?"
"What's the last thing you remember?" Assassin asked in turn.
"... I… was chasing something… some creature. It took- Illya?!" I noticed the Tiny Murder Machine was being carried over my Servant's other shoulder.
"So you don't recall anything… strange happening to you?" Okita asked something unspecific.
"Strange how?"
"Our connection… it sort of went weird for a minute. It felt like someone took the Command Seals. Someone… in the back of my mind I saw as not human." she describes.
I try to recall an event like she described but…
"Everything seemed to go dark for me after… after that thing stabbed me." I explained, my memories jumbled. "I… think I beat them? Whoever they were?"
"(... stranger, and stranger…)" Okita whispered before announcing "We're here."
Sure enough, we had arrived just outside Shirou's home. The owner stumbling out of the house while being supported by his Servant.
"Rob! What happened!?" he asked, panicked, but relieved when he saw we brought his sister back.
"Bitches… got… stitches…" I tried walking in on my own when I nearly collapsed again.
"Easy, you shouldn't even be alive at this point, let alone awake." Okita supported me.
"What. Happened." Saber sounded annoyed. "Shirou's been too delirious to explain."
"Something tried kidnapping Illya… I… couldn't stop them…" Shirou grumbled.
"Something?" Saber questioned further.
"Some kind of plant based golem creature. No idea where it came from, but it meant business. It had some… toxin, or poison that shut our bodies down. Strong enough to take down a first rate Magus like her." I gestured to Illya.
The girl stirred in her sleep.
"Oh yeah. Then there's that issue. Emiya. Care to explain what the hell you were thinking?" I try, and fail to extract the venom from my voice.
"L-Look, I know she tried to kill us, but I don't think it's because she's bad! My dad… basically abandoned her for me, or, at least that's what she thinks… I wanted to see her- to talk things out! I owe her that much…" he already sounded defeated.
"I'm not angry you went to see her Shirou." I try to explain.
"...oh. you're not?" he sounded surprised.
"I should be. It was stupid, reckless, and dangerous. As well intentioned as it was, you stayed out late defenseless during a war. Keep this up, and you're going to get yourself killed for nothing. And I'm the one that's gonna have to lie to Sakura and Taiga about the reason you wouldn't be coming home!"
Shirou actually flinched at the last part.
"But that's not what makes me angry. What makes me disappointed is you both lied to your Servant, and your Allies about what you were doing, and you did so knowing you were putting yourself in danger. Leaving us with the job of looking all over this damned city, putting our asses on the line to find you, and pull both your asses out of the fire. If you had just talked about what you were planning we could have worked something out that would ensure that we knew what you were doing, and a Servant could be watching your back. Instead you lied to us, snuck out of your own house knowing we'd tell you all this was reckless, and stayed out late enough for the war to continue. So when I went looking for you, I got ambushed by Rin Tohsaka, and had to jump off a twelve story building to escape becoming an amputee, and later had to fight off that damned golem while I was bleeding out. I'm disappointed, but I won't be angry, so long as you promise me you'll learn from this."
"Y-Yeah… I got it." he nodded. "I promise, I won't do it again."
"Good. And remember, an alliance works both ways. If you need help, ask. You're not wrong for wanting to fix things with your sister, but putting yourself in danger like that isn't doing anyone any favors." I try offering an olive branch.
"Right… thanks. I guess I'm used to being the helper, rather than the helped." he admitted. "... wait, what happened with Rin!?"
"We can debrief later. Let's just get indoors and out of this cold. (I'm freezing my ass off.)" I suggest, as it was getting below twenty.
"Ah… right." he seemed to agree, and went to open the door
creeee
The house was uncharacteristically quiet.
"Taiga got bored and went home, and I believe Sakura is asleep." Saber explained upon seeing my expression.
"(It's barely six-thirty though…)" I mutter.
"She's still kinda sick." Shirou cut her some slack, to which I just shrugged.
POV Shift- Shirou
A few minutes later, Illya was still out cold, and sleeping in one of the guest rooms.
Assassin was helping her Master stitch his wounds together in his guest room. They'd both be back out soon, so he focused himself on making tea.
"Assassin seems Japanese… but her Master and Saber are foreign, so black tea would probably be best." he thought to himself, trying to think of something normal for a minute.
Saber waited patiently at the dining table, but looked at him worried.
"... hey. Tiger Mom's still proud of you." she let him know.
He sighed as the topic came back.
"Thanks Saber… but… Robert wasn't exactly wrong back there, was he?" he asked, half rhetorically.
"... no. I suppose not. In fairness, I had similar words for you, but he got to say them first. To be honest, I couldn't have said them better myself. The purpose of the Servant is to guard, and protect their Master… and you haven't made that easy. Please. Let me do my job and help you." she asked him earnestly.
It was… harder to accept this than he'd like to admit. But today was an eye opener.
Not trusting in his Servant, and Allies nearly resulted in losing everything.
His sister.
His allies
His life, and by extension Saber's.
The last thing Emiya Shirou wanted was anyone getting hurt over him.
"...fine… I guess I'll… check in with you next time…" he begrudgingly accepted her offer.
"...Shirou?" Saber started again.
"Yeah?"
"You know I'm just trying to look out for you, right?"
"... yeah. Thanks Tiger Mom."
POV Shift- Orso
"Ow!" I sounded out when Okita touched a bad spot.
"Sorry…" she said, but didn't sound.
"Prou…" Fou staring judgmentally at me all the while from the windowsill.
The process of stitching me up was slow, and painful, but it was necessary, so we were careful not to skip anything.
A healing rune helped, but wasn't a panacea, as the dojo's open first aid kit could attest. Mostly being spent on the cracked rib Rin's donkey kick gave me. That, and the Gandr wound. The glass cuts, and stab wounds were a whole other issue.
"... I'm… I'm sorry for earlier." I told her.
"Hm? What are you sorry for?" she sounded confused.
"... back in the park. Instead of keeping my cool, I just kinda... yelled at you. I… wasn't-"
"It's fine. If I'm honest, I'm more upset at just now when you were parenting Emiya."
"Parenting?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Ya got a better word for it?"
"Fou!" Squirrel creature #1 backed her up.
"I'd argue it was more "chewing out", but back to the original topic, what's wrong?"
"Don't you think it's a little rich coming from you? Telling him to tell us everything?" she asked, rhetorically.
…
...
"... yyyyyup, it is kinda hypocritical." I sigh. "I'd say that I'd tell him if he bothered to ask-"
"But that would be semantical." Okita finished my sentence for me.
"... yyyyyup."
"Because you'd have to be a crazy person to ask those sort of questions." she continued.
"... yyyyyup-OW! That one was on purpose!"
"yyyyyup." she admits. "Now stay still, or it'll get worse."
"Can't be much worse than last time you stitched me up." I laughed with mirth, referring to a situation a couple weeks ago.
"Pffft, you still on about that? Not my fault you can't dodge." she laughed with me.
"Hey, I've gotten better! ...thanks to you, and the stitches you gave me…ow."
"Shush. I'm working." She gave an embarrassed smile.
Ten minutes later…
Stitched back together, we stepped back out into the living room to find Saber and Shirou sitting at the dinner table with tea set out.
"Okay… let's talk about what happened out there." I started after sitting down. I took a drawn out sip of the moderately caffeinated good stuff before starting- "You wanna go first, or should I?"
"No, I will. Yesterday afternoon I ran into Illya at the park on the way home. Long story short, we agreed to come to the same place today and talk. I felt like you'd try to stop me, get worried, or say it was stupid or something, so I just… sorta left. We talked, and then that "golem" attacked. I fought back with a stick, but it was… springy. It dodged every swing I sent at it like some weird belly dancer, and when it got close it wrestled with me, cutting me with its thorns. Illya tried to help, but she couldn't hurt it without hurting me. In the end I just… got in the way." he sounded disappointed in himself until Saber placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Shirou, you did everything you could." she assured him.
"And then what happened?" Okita carried us along.
"I told her to attack anyway. She eventually did, and it died. But... when we let our guard down more showed up. At least five. Three went after her, and the others attacked me, and beat me up while Illya was going to town. By then I started feeling off."
"Poison from the thorns." I surmised.
"I didn't see what happened on her end, but I think they eventually ganged up on her, and got her with the same thing."
"And since she's a lot smaller, it got to her harder, and faster." Okita realized.
"Next I waited for an opening, and was able to give one of them a good whack. It didn't die, but it did look hurt. The other guy ended up stabbing me though. It backed off then, and ran off. By then, the others were carrying Illya off somewhere. I chased them down, and tried fighting them again but… well you saw how that turned out. After you showed up, we talked, then I guess I passed out, and I woke up to Saber trying to bandage me up. And now here we are." he finished.
"Completely okay with you coming home knocked out and bleeding all over my clothes by the way. Totally didn't make me a nervous wreck at all!" Saber exclaimed, to which we all sweatdropped.
"Seltzer water and lemon gets blood out pretty easy I'm told." I give her some advice on that.
"Anyway, what happened to you? You said Rin showed up or something?" Shirou asked.
"Right. Well, while you were dying of the plague this morning, I went to Ryuudou to see if we missed anything." I began.
"Did you learn anything?" Saber asked.
"Well, besides the fact that Caster was apparently a massive stalker…(which is apparently… just a Servant thing…), the police got to the place before Kirei because someone is trying to keep the overseer busy. Presumably whoever attacked Ryuudou. And more than that, someone stole the bodies. So… that's a thing. Oh! And Kirei said whoever kills Zouken gets a Command Seal."
"Ah… an eventful morning." Shirou commented.
"Then I went to my base to practice magecraft for a while since Sakura and Taiga were here. After that I came back here, and received a… warm welcome from Saber and Sakura. They said you'd disappeared without a word, and left behind only an odd note as explanation. I went looking for you as it was getting kinda late. That took longer than expected. Then we got attacked by the Archer Servant. Tohsaka's Servant. Assassin and Archer fought while I went for cover, but Rin ambushed me. We fought, and ended up on the roof of a department store. Since she'd kick my ass if I fought her head on, I was left with no choice but to jump for it. Luckily Assassin was there to catch me. Unluckily, I ended up causing some minor property damage."
"Well that's… okay." Shirou probably figured it was better property than physical.
"After that I figured we lost them, and went back to looking for you. We went to the park, and tracked the damage to you. Not aware of what was going on, when you said to go find Beserkers Master I figured we had to do something. Since you were injured, and on the verge of death, I made Assassin carry you back home for medical attention while I distracted whatever had Illyasviel. A rash decision, I've realized in hindsight. I gave chase, and engaged the one carrying her out of the park. I dealt with it about as well as you did… I think."
"...you think?"
"I'm not entirely sure what happened… my memory's a bit… hazy. I would assume blood loss, poison, and adrenaline were taking their toll." I assumed that explained my memory gap. "When things cleared up, it was dead. I don't know how."
"You can't remember fighting it?" Shirou found it as odd as I did.
"(A stress reaction perhaps?)" Saber offered.
"Like I said, things were hazy. After that, more showed up. I was out of Mana, and couldn't fight them off. Then for… some reason Tohsaka showed up again and dealt with them. Claiming I was "her kill", or something along those lines. After that, I blacked out." I finished.
"That's where I came in." Assassin carried on. "After Saber tried to kill me for bringing Shirou home-"
"Wait-"
"Saber!" Shirou objected to her behavior.
"It looked like she was holding you hostage or something!" she defended herself.
"Wow. Can we please get some benefit of the doubt here!?" Assassin demanded of Saber. "If my Master wanted him dead, we would have killed Shirou a hundred times over by now! All we would need to do is leave you to Beserker, Lancer, or Archer and he'd get himself killed! My Master has put himself in harms way all week to keep his sorry ass alive when we'd get a stronger ally in any other Master! The only reason we're allies is because my Master believed yours was the only other decent person! Stop antagonizing us!"
"You think what I've done is antagonizing!? I'll show you-!?" she nearly got up when-
SLAM
"SABER, STOP!" Shirou nearly broke the table.
His shout echoed throughout the house while everyone paused.
"From day one, you've treated them both like enemies-"
"But they-!"
Her objection was halted by a gesture.
"Assassin's right. If they wanted to hurt me, they'd have done it days ago. I don't know what your problem is with them, but being all aggressive about it is causing more problems than it could possibly be solving."
"You would have me accept having an Assassin under your roof!? She could-"
"And here we go with the classism…" Okita sighed.
"I. Don't. Care. Get along." Shirou put his foot down.
"Not with him!" She pointed the finger at me "Not after last time!"
"Wha- me!? The fuck did I-!"
"Because I'd rather kill you now before I have to kill another...!" she stopped yelling upon realizing she was about to say something she shouldn't "... I'm sorry…excuse me."
She got up and left for the dojo while the room sat in silence.
…
…
"... okay… not sure what just happened…" I felt… oddly slapped by Saber's words.
"I'm… I'm sorry. I should have left it be…" Assassin felt responsible. "I think I snapped a little at her disrespectful behavior when you-"
"I'm not entirely sure what that was all about, so it's fine for me…" I admit, confused.
"I'll… talk to her-" Shirou offered when-
SLAM
A loud whacking sound came from the Dojo.
"Later. Talk to her later." I advised him. "I'd try clearing this up myself… but she kinda just delivered a death threat…"
"Good call…" he sweated at this.
"A-Anyway, it's getting late… tensions are a bit… high. Let's pick this back up tomorrow, yeah?" I offered.
"Yeah, sounds good… although we should talk things out with- oh shit." Shirou suddenly turned pale.
"What's wrong-?"
SLAM!
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
The house itself shook at the battering ram like knocks at the front door.
"Argh, what fresh hell is this!?" I demand to know as I stand up again. "Assassin, back me up. Odds are Rin's back for round 2 now."
"Roger." she responds, ready for an attack as I go for the door.
"W-Wait! That's-" Shirou tried to stop me, but he was too late as I got to, and opened the door.
"So, how can we… help… you… tonight..." my opening fell short as my eyes registered what had knocked on Emiya's door.
My body stiffened, and remained perfectly still for nearly a full minute as we stared at each other.
"(... Nobody. Move. A. Muscle. Its vision. Is based. On movement.)" I whisper out as it seemed to be trying to kill me with a look.
Shirou and Okita freezed up as well as I did. Hoping my reference was actually true.
But, Berserker was not a T-rex.
"Shirou, I heard something loud, are we… under… attack?" Saber paused when she ran into the room.
"▃▃████████████!"
10 minutes later…
"And you all were fine with that?" I asked the monster before I took another sip of tea.
"▃▃█▃▃██▃▃▃▃!" Herakles explained, sitting Japanese style across the table from me.
"One would think someone would have said something. I mean… it wasn't like you were all just regular people. The Argonauts were a crew of heroes, right? Hard to see all of you going along with it just because a god did it."
"▃███▃██▃▃▃▃▃███!" the Berserker objected before explaining further. "█▃▃▃▃▃█▃▃▃██▃██▃▃!"
"I'd disagree based on the idea that some things are just plain immoral, no matter the era you're in. And don't even get me started on the double standard she got when he dumped her." I grumbled.
"██▃▃▃▃▃█▃." the Servant corrected me, saying he believed much like I did, he was just saying how things were, rather than how they should've been.
"Fair enough. More tea?" I offered the giant.
"▃▃█!"
"So… does anybody know if he actually speaks Berserker, or is he just messing with us?" Emiya asked around.
"... all things considered, it could be either way with him." Saber grumbled.
"I'm more concerned he might just be going insane. …which, all things considered, might actually be why they can apparently communicate." Assassin offered as explanation. "Though personally, I think we should all just be happy Berserker's not murdering us all on a warpath to get his Master. Let's not look this gift horse in the mouth."
"... the hell is this?" a new voice joined the conversation.
Everyone turned to the white haired child that just joined us from the guest rooms.
"Good. You're finally awake." I nod in satisfaction as I sit back down. "This is probably a stupid question, but how are you feeling?"
"... like Potsdam after Oktoberfest. -Brother, explanation please." she sounded grumpy.
"Err… long version or short version?" he asked before getting a glare as an answer and then continuing, "Plant monsters happened."
"No, I remember that part, I mean after that."
"After that he showed up and saved you, then brought you back here." he pointed to me.
"Yes, hello~." I wave.
"Then Berserker came looking for you… but apparently he can speak Berserker. They… talked, and decided Berserker would wait here until you woke up. The rest of us were too terrified to object." he finished.
"... okay, what's the long version?" she sounded confused.
"That was the long version. Short version is- ya got wiped out dawg." Saber gave the short version.
"(... so you're still doing that?)" Illya wondered aloud at Sabers choice in vernacular.
"She did it in the fourth war too?" I overheard.
"Believe it or not it was even worse." Illya responded, "You'd think she was the King of Rap."
The idea amused me enough to grow a smirk at Saber's expense.
"C-Can we move on!? Please!?" the Servant in question grew ever so slightly red.
"█▃▃▃███▃▃▃▃▃▃!" Herc scolded.
"Fine, fine, fair enough. Let's get back to the topic at hand." I back off.
"Yeah, what were those things, and why were they after Illya?" Shirou asked the big questions.
"They could have simply been trying to capture Berserkers Master, and force a suicide Command Seal…" Okita stated the most obvious answer.
I, on the other hand, began to think they could've been securing the core of the Grail, but… no, it was a bit early for that. Only one Servant was confirmed dead.
"Then why wouldn't they try the same with Shirou? If they wanted to force a Master to kill their Servant, why stop with Berserker?" Saber asked a good question.
I gave it some more thought.
"█▃▃█▃▃▃▃██████!" Berserker chimed in.
He brought up a good point. Why bother with a kidnapping at all when they could've simply removed those seals themselves and gained Berserker as a Servant?
This only made the Grail Core theory more likely… but there were too many risks involved for this unknown opponent.
"I can only think of one reason why anyone might resort to this… but it's far too early in the war for that. Only one Servant has been eliminated." I theorize.
"Wait, what?" Illya heard something surprising.
"Well, you should know better than any of us how the Grail is forme-"
"No, the other part. You said a Servant has been eliminated?" she sought to confirm.
"Yeah. Saber offed Rider the other night. Why?" I answered for her.
"... I see… so there is something wrong…" the girl thought aloud, as if we weren't here.
"Illya?" Shirou tried to get her to share, but to no avail. Before he could ask any further, she began walking to the door.
"Oh, don't worry. I just learned I need to take care of some… technical difficulties." she said, vaguely.
"Have you tried working the shaft?" I blurt out before I can stop myself.
thump!
"-dah!" I hold my side as it registers my Servant giving me a relatively light punch to the ribs.
"Behave." she tells me.
Illya looks at me for a moment before giggling.
"Hehe, you're a comedian! Letting you live might not be such a bad idea after all~!" she found some amusement in this.
"... thank you?"
"... hm, no. I suppose I should be thanking you for earlier." she seems to realize.
"Tell me why you were concerned about Rider's death, and I'll call it Even Stevens." I pry for intel.
"Oh please, you're clever. You can figure that one out for yourself. Come up with a better question so I can consider my debt repaid." she asked of me.
I considered this for a moment…
"What's wrong with the Grail?"
The question hung in the room for thirty seconds in total.
"... now, how do you know about that?" she sounded surprised.
"What are you talking about?" Saber asked after blinking.
"Come on. Between the summoning of not only anti-heroes, but true villains, along with the end result of the war ten years ago, it's obvious it isn't functioning completely as intended. If it was, my own Servant wouldn't be here. -er, no offense!" I raise my hands in defense.
"No, it's cool. I wouldn't really define myself as a hero anyway." Okita backs me up.
"Something was wrong with it in the last war. The curses that spilled out of the Grail upon its destruction alone should have been the canary in the coal mine. But between the three founding families, the Tohsaka head was both a child, and out of the city at the time, and the Matou head doesn't seem to be the type to care about the Grail being corrupted. This leaves the Einzberns as the only ones in any position to have investigated what happened after the war. And, given that they're the ones responsible for constructing its vessel, they should know better than any of the others when something has gone wrong. So, I'll ask again, "What's wrong with the Grail?"."
Wow. Just coming out and asking that question, huh?
Well, I needed answers as to 'what' is going on in order to figure out the 'how' to fix it.
Going directly to one of the people responsible for putting this thing together just seemed… logical.
And, unlike Tohsaka, (as stated above) the Einzbern girl might actually know what's going on.
"Long story short? Technically Satan." Illya eventually answered.
"..."
"... what?" she asked, concerned about the look I gave her.
"... nevermind, look, what do you mean "Technically Satan"?"
"Like I said, it's a long, embarrassing story that my grandfather told me not to talk about." she seemed to sound like she wanted the conversation to end with that, but then- "Okay, so you know how no one has won a Grail War ever, right?"
"Right." I simply nod.
"Right, well… just before the third war, the head of the Einzberns got sick of that. As a result… well…"
"They decided to cheat?" I finished for her.
"Well… not really "cheat". No one ever made a rule about not summoning the devil as a Servant, so…"
"Excuse me, sorry to interrupt, but- YOU DID WHAT!?" Saber's voice shook the room.
"Yeah, I'm… kinda lost here, what's going on?" Shirou tried to wrap his head around what's going on.
"Err… the Einzberns summoned Satan and… the Einzberns summoned Satan." I answered both questions. "... care to elaborate Illyasviel? I was under the impression that deity level beings couldn't be summoned?" I tried to steer the conversation back on track.
"... Okay, technically, that is true, but, as with most things, the devil's in the details… and now the Grail… apparently."
"... why?" Saber asked, sounding both fascinated, and frustrated
"It… was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time?" Illya offers, not really believing it herself.
"Who!? Who thought summoning Technically Satan was in any way a good idea!?" Saber demanded to know.
""Technically Satan." … the "technically" part is very important." Illya objected. "And besides, wasn't a potential antichrist one of your top advisors?"
"Potential. Yes." Saber responds dangerously. "But I'd known my advisor my entire life, he wasn't "evil". You summoned the prince of darkness to win a battle of heroes!?"
"Look, we're getting off track here…" I try to get this back on track. "Ignoring the "how's", the "who's", and the "why's" for now, let's talk about how we fix this very serious problem before it blows up in our faces."
Saber looked like she wanted to press the issue before she took a breath and gestured for this to continue.
"Right, well, I don't suppose that in the time since the last war, the Einzberns decided to work on a way to deal with the devil?" I asked carefully.
"No, I'm afraid we didn't have a chance to." she answered, simply.
"... I hate to do it, but you're going to make me ask "why" immediately after I said I'd ignore it."
"Look, we tried, but we've been stonewalled at every turn. The only way to shut down the war itself would be to go to its center of control, but since the land is run through the Tohsaka we'd have to consult their head, and inform them as to why we were disabling the Grail. That has been… problematic…"
"How so?"
"Remember how you said Rin Tohsaka was a child at the time?" she asked, rhetorically. "Well, as a child, she had a guardian at the time that her mail would have to go through. A guardian who happened to be a priest?"
"And the whole problem is that your family summoned Satan…" Shirou puts it together that the church would not be happy about that.
"If the Holy Church heard what three major Magus families had wrought… well… calling it a "diplomatic incident" would be putting it mildly. Relations being what they are, it could potentially spiral out of control into a war between the Magus Association and the Church."
"So, essentially, politics are to blame?" I sigh, "This is all a little too ironic for my taste…"
"So, we decided to wait until the Tohsaka heiress was old enough to handle her own affairs to contact her. And in order to avoid any chance of our correspondence being intercepted, we decided to use some more… modern methods. However, we've never gotten any calls back. Apparently she never clears her voice mailbox."
"That… sounds about right…" Shirou adds.
"Great. So, now that you're here regardless, you still don't have a plan?" I carry on.
"Besides secure the Grail and bring it home? Not really. Our every attempt at using brain in the last 4 wars has resulted in utter failure, so we're kinda going on a brawn binge." she explained.
"... I can see that." from one look at the Servant she summoned.
"Anyway, I gotta get back. Sella's gotta be having a panic attack, and I've got to go check on that dead Servant thing you mentioned. I can elaborate further if you wish, but of course we'll have to call for a ceasefire until-"
"Done."
"Yes!"
Me and Shirou turn to each other's echo.
At least you don't have to worry about any more surprise visits from Berserker in the near future…
"... anyway, to be clear, is this ceasefire until "Technically Satan" is dealt with, or explained?" I attempt to make this clear.
"Explained. This is not, nor do I need an alliance. That, and I think you'll find this issue is not so easily "dealt with."." Illya clarified. "Goodbye brother, see you tomorrow at the same spot?"
I interrupted Emiya before he could answer.
"If you go alone this time, I will leave you for dead." I warned him.
"Y-Yeah, around two-ish sound good?" he answered, sweating.
"Sounds great~! See you then. Oh, and… Orso, was it?"
"That's the name."
"Have you ever fought Saber before?" she asked.
I blinked at the seemingly out of the blue question, and think back.
That was a mistake.
"..."
Meanwhile…
Three Days ago...
PAIN!
I felt pain.
WHAM!
PAIN!
"((Quiet sounds of excruciating pain))'' There was a sense of great delirium for what felt like ages.
"s-she kicked me in the dick..? why..? why would she kick me in the dick…?"
"No. No I have not." I answer mechanically after cringing for fifteen seconds. "Why?"
"Oh, nothing. I was wondering if that might've jogged your- nevermind, forget I said anything." she silenced herself.
"Jogged my-?"
"An ideal blade for an i*e*l Ki**."
The being created to destroy humanity had grown fond of their stories.
But enough about me, let's talk about yo-
"So… this is the path I chose."
But you already know that.
Don't you?
"... you know something." a statement, not a question.
"I've said enough. Consider me saying anything at all to be payback for keeping my brother alive for me to kill him later. Though to be honest, I'm surprised you haven't put it together yourself yet, given what you've been able to infer from the Grail mud." she gave a vague reply.
"Master?" Okita wondered what we were talking about.
"I'll… explain later." I offered her before returning the conversation to Illya. "Opening up about it myself, I only really started noticing the signs that something's up rather recently. Been a little too focused on this whole Grail War business to pay attention to the red flag that is the dream cycle being… off."
"Hm, yes, I suppose that would do it…" the Einzbern seemed to theorize.
"What's going on?" Emiya interjected.
"Regardless, good luck Master of Assassin. Good luck chasing that shadow." she, once again, responded vaguely before leaving.
creeee
SLAM
We all nearly jumped at the door nearly being blown off its hinges by Beserker closing it behind him as he picked the tiny murder machine up onto his shoulder with his other arm.
…
…
...
"... so… good night everybody." I got up to leave. "
"Wait-! What about-" Saber started.
"Nnnnnooooope! Not dealing with this shit for at least eight hours!" I cut her off, "What a fuckin day…"
I got a handful of stares as I moved back into my room.
…
…
Aaaaand then collapsed, passed out from my earlier blood loss on the floor.
Thud
Third Person…
The group continued to stare at the passed out Master for another thirty seconds as Fou repeatedly tapped the body for signs of life.
…
…
"Your Master is the second most foolish genius I've ever met." Saber informed Assassin.
"... yeah, but… he's my foolish genius." Assassin grew a small smile before getting up to deal with him.
ENGLISH "This Illusion" Fate/Stay Night (Akane Sasu Sora)
Dun-Dun!
Dun-Dun!
TAIGA DOJO!
"ZZzzzzzz wake me when the filler is over zzzzzzzZZZZ" the world's greatest English Teacher commanded as she dozed off.
Come on, an occasional filler chapter isn't that bad!
Besides, it at least sped up a few plot points.
Angry Mango for instance.
"Yeah, but you kinda only alluded to it… and didn't really accomplish much of anything this chapter." Student #1 complained.
I hear you. I personally don't like not doing anything action-wise this time, but I like to think this is happening around the same time as Lancer's ordeal, so it's not that glaring.
"ZZZZzzzzzz excuses zzzzzZZZ" Taiga scolded.
Yeah… Yeah… sorry. Next chapter though! I'm sure something interesting will happen!
In fact, reading ahead in the story outline we got… oh.
"What?" the Albino asked as I showed her theblueprints of the next chapter, "... oh."
"..." Taiga reacted poorly upon suddenly getting up to read the outline. She then sighed and placed a consoling hand on my shoulder. "... it was a nice story while it lasted."
...yes. Yes it was.