YamiheKazehito's Fate/Night Sky Snippets (Duties, The Dark Time, Alliance)

Duties originally posted January 27th, 2012

The Dark Time originally posted on February 2nd, 2012

Alliance originally posted February 8th, 2012


Duties


She slowly walked inside of the church, doors closing behind her. It was not a pleasant place, this much she knew. And the man she came here to meet wasn't pleasant either, especially with their relationship. But something was missing from the picture, even with what she had learned from Archer. And what better person to ask about something related to the Grail War than its supervisor.

- "Kirei, are you there?" - She asked in a loud voice, her question directed at the empty chamber before her, in hopes that he would hear her. And she did succeed, for soon after she heard the slow steps of the crooked priest.

- "My, I haven't expected you of all people here, Rin."
- He stopped for a moment. - "Had losing your Servant made you decide to ask for the church's protection?"

- "As if I would."
- She replied. They just started talking and he already had way too much fun with it. - "I'm asking you as the supervisor of Fuyuki, Kotomine. What do you know about Saber's Master, Emiya Shirou?"

- "Saber's Master? I'm afraid not much more than you, Rin."
- He let his words sink in before continuing. - "He is the first one to summon his Servant, and one of the five remaining Masters in this war. Adopted son of Emiya Kiritsugu, and one responsible for eliminating Rider's Master."

- "Anything else?"
- She replied in a voice full of resignation. - "I can't exactly do anything with this kind of info, you know."

- "There were not any specific words about him from the higher-ups, Rin. At the very least, he is not known to the association."

- "What about Emiya Kiritsugu, then?"

- She asked curiously. - "What kind of Master was he?"

- "Just like Emiya Shirou, Emiya Kiritsugu was Saber's Master. The one summoned as their Servant was also the same. And he was the one who won the 4th Holy Grail War."

- "Wait, wasn't the 4th Holy Grail War supposed to be without a winner? The Holy Grail used in it got destroyed, did it not?"

- "That is correct, Rin. The vessel used in the last Holy Grail War was destroyed by Emiya Kiritsugu. Instead of using it to fulfil his wishes, he decided to destroy it." - Kirei paused his speech for a short moment. - "From the broken vessel came the fire that destroyed part of the town 10 years ago."

- "Not something I wanted to hear. And Emiya Kiritsugu's magic, then?"


- "Emiya Kiritsugu fought using a self-made Mystic Code. A gun with special bullets."
- Kirei stopped, as if waiting for Rin to ask anything else. She sighed deeply before answering.

- "That's enough. I'm going back home."
- Rin turned back and walked to the doors, sounds of her steps echoing inside of the massive chamber. As she reached the doorway, she faced him once again. - "Just one more thing, Kirei. There are only 7 Servants in this Holy Grail War, aren't there?" - Silence crept over the room, creating an ominous atmosphere. Time flew, she wasn't sure how much of it, but finally Kirei answered.

- "Only seven Masters summoned their Servants for the 5th Holy Grail War. And each of them only summoned one Servant."


- "In the end, I haven't got anything from Kirei." - Rin said in a low voice, as if she was talking to herself. After a moment of silence the air near her started distorting, and soon, where there was nothing before, stood man in a blue suit. They walked together for a while, with nothing but silence to accompany their thoughts.

She didn't have much to work with. Not only as one of the Masters in this Holy Grail War, but also as a supervisor of Fuyuki. And a lot of weird things were happening. Someone was syphoning prana from people in the city, and almost every day someone died because of that. There were also weird Servant-like beings that fought each other but seemed to ignore other Servants and Masters. Once she had encountered a bounded field that eliminated the presence of everyone that was neither a Master nor a Servant, nor that Servant-like something; fortunately it didn't seem like someone had died because of that. There was also the happening at her school.

And there didn't seem to be many clues to anything. Kirei mentioned that there were only 5 Masters left, and that meant her, Shirou, Band the Masters of Berserker, Caster, and Assassin. But even that might not be accurate seeing as he thought that Archer had already been eliminated. Master of Lancer was already dead, and Rider's Master probably died too, at the hands of Shirou. Out of all of them, only Shirou, Berserker's Master, Caster's Master and Assassin's Master could be involved in all this, maybe Caster too. But Ilyasviel wasn't the sort of person to need doing anything like that, and Assassin would have tried something if he was the one to get all this prana. So that only left three suspects, or two groups. Shirou, or Caster and her Master. And she knew what was happening couldn't be related to just one person.

That meant there was no way for Emiya Shirou to be unrelated. And if he really wanted to win the Holy Grail War at any cost, then that meant she would have to put him down.

- "_ _ _ _ _, _?"

And there was also Archer's story. He only told her the outline, saying that sharing any of the more detailed information about the whole war could change its course needlessly, but she still learned much from him, in a way. He was a hero from the future, a version of Emiya Shirou that managed, or would manage, to make it to the throne of heroes. And compared to his version of the 5th Holy Grail War, this one is very different. Because this Shirou is not the same Shirou Archer was. Archer hadn't been living with four other people as his family. He did not have the cross pendant Shirou is carrying around. He did not use this weird magic that Shirou is using. And he had her father's pendant, the one she used to summon him and the one that, according to him, became the catalyst that linked them together. He was an amateur magus who only got involved in the Holy Grail War by accident, and cooperated with her. The draining attacks had also happened in his Holy Grail War, but now that the whole thing got off the roads, it wasn't like she could rely on this particular issue to be exactly the same as in his memories.

The whole thing was getting needlessly complicated. Especially with Shirou being one of the stronger Masters in the Holy Grail War now, second only to Ilyasviel. And with Shirou having some sort of Servant-like familiar, it was entirely possible that he was working together with the Einzbern magus. If that was the case here, then clearly there was no Master in this war capable of breaking their alliance.

- "_ _, _ _ _?"

But then again, she also had two Servants now, so even if they were working together, there was still a chance of eliminating both Saber and Berserker if she attacked them one at a time. It took a burden on her and she had to give up on her father's pendant to be able to provide Archer with enough prana, but for as long as they did not have to use their Noble Phantasms at the same time, she should be fine. Lancer's Gae Bolg was very cost-efficient, and Archer's projection didn't waste that much prana either. It was true that Lancer couldn't harm Berserker anymore, so if they faced against him she would have to give Archer enough prana to operate freely, but she would do something about that when it came to that.

And there was also a chance that Shirou wasn't allied with Berserker's Master, in which case it might be possible to convince him to help her defeat the rest of them. But even then, what if he was behind the attacks? She would then have to fight him at the end, when there would be nobody else to help her, and after all that fighting defeating Saber would require her Servants to use their Noble Phantasms, so the chance that it would go well was very small.

- "_ _ _ _ _ _ _, _."

In the end, it had come to this. Even if she could leave Shirou in the Holy Grail War, for as long as he was not guaranteed to help her, Saber would have to be taken away from him. And that mean either eliminating her, which would make it impossible to establish a contract, or release her, which she could only do by killing Shirou. And…
She stumbled and nearly fell, only avoiding acquainting herself with the road because of Lancer's quick reaction.

- "That's why I told you to look ahead, Rin."
- Ah yes, Lancer's obligatory teasing. - "Or had talking with Kotomine made you that worried?"

- "It's nothing, Lancer. But Kirei doesn't know anything about Shirou, so we only have the old plan. And honestly, I wouldn't call it a plan."

- "So I am to fight Saber, and possibly one of her Master's familiars. Without getting close to him at all. And I can do whatever I want unless it drains you. While Archer is waiting to attack her from afar. And we get away as soon as those guys show up."

- Rin nodded at his words. - "I don't get why don't you just invite him for a feast and ask your questions then. But for as long as I get to fight strong opponents, I won't complain."


Having prepared themselves for the execution of this plan, Rin went out to confront Shirou. She chose an evening when he would be alone with Saber, as she was their primary target and there would not be any point in attacking him when Saber was not with him. Lancer moved independently, to give an illusion of acting without any help and thus have a chance of pulling Saber away from Shirou. And Archer tailed them from distance, waiting for his chance.

When she got close to Shirou she started moving on the rooftops. She waited until the moment she had to do that because it used more prana to move that way, but she couldn't get close enough while moving on the ground level. Looking from the height, she noticed Lancer engage Saber in combat and use his speed to pull her away from him. That meant it was her turn to act.

Dropping from the roof to the ground, her fall supported by a gravity-modifying spell, Rin landed near Shirou with a thud. She took a few steps forward and prepared herself, preparing to cast Gandr with one of her hands and taking one of her jewels in the other one. A costly tool of negotiation, but she had to be prepared in case he attacked her.
Now she only had to stop her emotions from interfering - Fuyuki's supervisor could not allow her emotions to stop her from finding the truth.

- "Do anything funny and I'll curse you. You've seen what my magic can do."
- She began, hoping to get his attention with these words. And she succeeded, as he turned to face her. - "Now I ask once again, Emiya. Who are you?" - He opened his mouth to talk, but she continued, interrupting him. - "And I don't want your story about being a mere amateur magician. You were the first one to call a Servant, and you definitely used magic an amateur wouldn't be able to. What is your purpose in this war?"

- "It's not really like I have a purpose."
- He replied, his voice carrying a hint of surprise.- "I just want to make sure that nobody gets hurt in the war, that's all. There isn't anything I want from the Holy Grail, Tohsaka."

- "Then what about your magic? You can't tell me it's something you got from Kiritsugu, Emiya. I asked the supervisor. That's not the kind of magic he used."
- That was obviously a bluff. She only knew Kiritsugu made his own Mystic Code, and if Shirou's magic came from a Mystic Code too, then he would quickly call that bluff. But he couldn't know what Kirei told her, so there was still a chance she'll get something.

- "That's…"
- He started before stopping and lowering his head. He was thinking what to say, most probably. - "This magic is what I have left of my family." - Crap. Did he see through her bluff and reply like that to lead her astray? Or was his magic really something he got from his Kiritsugu? Or maybe from his original family, before Kiritsugu adopted him. But even then, she didn't know about Emiya Kiritsugu being a magus, so even if his family was a family of magi, she didn't know anything about them. Or maybe it's something he got from Einzberns as a payment for his cooperation, along with his familiars, or whatever they were. Or from Matous, or both of them.

- "Fine, then."
- She threw these words at him, irritated at her own inability to see through his answer. - "But it still doesn't explain what happened at school." - But then again, even if she got an answer, it would probably be the same. He would either deny it or say that it came from his family's magic. And if he really got it from one of the other families, it's likely that he would call it his family as well. And that meant she got nothing here. Giving up on trying to decipher his words, she let out a sigh. - "No, scratch that. Nothing about you makes sense at all. I only need to know one thing now, Emiya. Were you the one behind the attacks?"

- "Attacks…?"
- He once again gave her an answer with surprise clearly felt in his voice. Was he really that dense, or was he trying to play a fool to throw her off the track? - "You mean the one in the news? That's impossible, Tohsaka, I don't have that kind of skill." - Was he really telling the truth? He had already done something that she didn't think was possible for a normal magus, so it's not like his magic couldn't be responsible for the draining of humans in the area. And it's possible that he drained them to be able to use his magic, too. But overthinking it won't give her anything now…

- "Let's say I believe you then, Emiya. But if I ever find out that you did it, it will be the end of you."
- With these words, she started running past him and towards the duelling Servants. She had made it clear to Lancer that he can't do anything that would end her discussion with Shirou prematurely, but now that it had ended, he could allow himself to indulge in combat. He jumped back and prepared his Noble Phantasm.


Having retreated to safety, both of her Servants also unharmed, Rin observed the battle that unfolded in front of her. Archer's attack on Saber had succeeded, but unfortunately the enemy Servant survived both Archer's strike and the weird magic that hit her after that. And then something weird had happened.

After they got hit with the pink energy, every one of Shirou's familiars disappeared. Shirou also vanished, and in his place appeared a female figure with strange black wings. That figure soon started battling the other "magi" who were there, and it was currently somehow winning against them even though they held a numerical advantage. Two of them were already down, and even though their attacks were ones comparable with those of Servants, she was clearly overpowering them. For all Rin knew, they were only able to still fight because they had experience fighting against such monsters.

But still, the existence of such an entity was strange beyond all belief. She would think it was Caster, but Lancer confirmed that it's not her. That meant she was either another Servant, which would make her Rider, or somebody else entirely. But was it possible that Shirou had two Servants as well? He had eliminated Rider's Master, after all, and someone like him could probably allow himself to take a second Servant. But defeating someone whose Servant was this strong? Was it even possible?
And if it wasn't another Servant, then what exactly was it? Another one of Shirou's familiar, maybe? That would explain why he had to recall the rest of them, as summoning something like that clearly required a lot of prana. And if he was able to summon something like this, then how strong was he exactly? Even stronger than Berserker's Master, perhaps.

For the first time since the whole thing had started, she felt thankful for the unknown magi for their strange barrier. It only phased normal humans out of the area, and did nothing more than that, but if such a battle took place in Fuyuki without it, there would be a lot of victims and collateral damage. The Clock Tower would force her to step down as the supervisor of Fuyuki then, and she would have to take responsibility for allowing such a thing to happen. Which meant she would have to run away from Enforcers for the rest of her life, which would undoubtedly be short.

She thought of something. And quickly berated herself internally for not thinking about it sooner. She had only asked Lancer about the mysterious figure's identity, but she also had Archer. And that guy was tailing Shirou for most of his time, so maybe he knew something about it. Retreating a little further with Lancer's help, she got to the location she felt Archer to be in. As soon as she got close, he felt her presence too.

- "What is it, Rin?"


- "I want to ask something, Archer. When you were tailing Shirou, did you notice anything about this familiar of his?"
- His expression turned into one of concentration, as if he was waging his thoughts against each other. Did he know something he didn't want to tell her this time, either? She would have to use a command sigil, then. But then again, wasting one on such a question when she only had two of them left and two Servants was stupid. After a short while his expression turned into a calm, but slightly worried one, and he begun speaking.

- "This isn't a familiar, Rin. I don't know if the other ones were, but this one, somehow, is Emiya Shirou.


The Dark Time


Right after he teleported in, Chrono set up a few spells in the area surrounding the captured enemy. Unless they had been deceived, the one held in the bind was the strongest of their foes, and thus it was certain that attempts to free her would be made. Setting capture spells on every surrounding building took quite some of his mana and meant none of them could land anywhere but on the ground now, but that was a part of their plan. They had to act quick and defeat all of the knights at once when their master was present, or they'll lose another chance to talk with him. And with the Book of Darkness reaching completion, it might be their last chance to talk to him. If they could not do that and convince him to work with them, then the only solution that was left was to use Durandal and freeze him alongside the cursed Tome.

As he set all the spells, Chrono waited patiently. It soon paid off, as he saw a female figure approaching the incapacitated knight. And that was when his trap sprung up.

- "Stinger Ray: Assault Shift"

With his words, energy needles he created in the vicinity awakened. One by one, each of them shot towards the target, like a machine-gun fire. She flew up, taking sharp turns in the air and increasing her speed by bouncing from the walls, and each of his energy needles hit a spot just behind her. When she rose high into the air, , he stopped the assault and let the remaining mana dissipate. Now the only thing to do was wait for her to decide to rest.

And she soon did, landing on one of the roofs on which he prepared the delayed binding spell. He landed behind her a few seconds later and activated one of his other spells.

- "Stinger Blade"

About a dozen of energy blades appeared in the vicinity, all of them targeting the newly-incapacitated enemy. They struck the knight simultaneously, making her lose consciousness and fall over. Now the only thing to do was to wait for Nanoha's spell.


As soon as she could after they moved there, Fate moved into the sky. From there, she quickly found her opponent - the smallest of their foes. Even if small, she was still pretty strong, and thus someone like Fate, skilled at dodging, was the best to take someone like that down. In theory, at least; if everything went well, then at least one of the other combatants would get caught in Yuuno's bind and thus Hayate will be able to support her with long-range magic.

She accelerated towards the enemy, switching Bardiche to its scythe form in the meantime. When she got into melee range, she begun with a wide sweeping strike, which was obviously dodged. But the next hit could not be dodged, and her opponent had to block it with her weapon. From there, the onslaught continued, the small foe of hers parrying her strikes and trying to hit Fate with those of her own.

It only lasted for a few seconds, however, and soon her opponent flew back, trying to distance herself. It was either a trap to force her into getting back to melee range, or preparation for a ranged attack. She decided to attack regardless, using her speed to overcome her if it was a trap.

- 'I'm ready to support you, Fate. Just lock her in combat.' - She heard Hayate's voice in her head. Sending a telepathic confirmation, she steadied herself instead of attacking.
The knight in front of her created a few metal spheres and struck them all with one swing of her device.

- "Schwalbefliegen!" - The spheres started flying towards her. Their speed was impressive, but nothing more than that, what meant there was more to the attack than it appeared. So they were probably homing, and she would have to dodge them to get into melee range once again. It was better to break through. She dodged them one by one, slashing two in the process, and indeed the ones that she did not destroy started turning back.

- "Arc Saber." - She swung Bardiche to the side, and the energy blade attached to it disconnected and started flying towards the small knight in a wide arc while spinning rapidly. It cut through the remaining two metal spheres and got close to hitting her foe, only to be stopped in its tracks.

- "Panzerhindernis!" - The blade she sent towards her opponent struggled against the shield it encountered. It would take some time for it to pierce through, if it even did, but that was not important since this attack left her foe vulnerable to attacks from behind.

And soon, Hayate used the chance Fate gave her. Hit by Hayate's shooting spell from behind, the knight could not keep the shield up and thus got hit by the attack she used as a distraction, too. She started falling and Fate prepared the binding spell, only for her enemy to quickly start moving towards Hayate's location. That moment of concentration Fate spent on preparing the bind was enough for Fate not to get there on time.

- 'Look out Hayate, she's flying towards you.' - She sent a telepathic warning to Hayate and accelerated. When she caught up to them, she saw Hayate's shield break and Hayate get thrown into a building. The enemy started flying towards her hit friend, only to be stopped when Fate activated her Lightning Bind.


Hayate laid down in the place she hit when the enemy sent her flying. Her barrier jacket missed a few parts, but fortunately it was because she detonated it on her own to decrease the damage, instead of it being destroyed by the power of the attack. These guys were tough, and it was one of the few moments when she genuinely wished she had just as much mana as Nanoha and Fate had.

But a fight wasn't a proper situation for this kind of thing. She discarded the thought, sent the telepathic message to the others to confirm that she wasn't injured and raised up, supporting herself with her staff. It was only a storage device, just like Chrono's, but she didn't really have time nor funds to get an intelligent device of her own. It was really amazing how Nanoha and Fate both had theirs.

She looked out of the building, where Nanoha's Starlight Breaker was cut through with a golden beam fired from the ground. Fortunately said beam cut through it at angle, but there was no doubt that if the enemy had better aim, Nanoha would be in trouble right now. From the point where the two attacks collided, Starlight Breaker's energy ricocheted in every direction, smashing against everything in its path. She could literally feel the building she was in shake. There was no doubt that if not for their barrier, this incident would become a massive problem, with very high casualties.

The struggle only lasted for a short time, however, as soon the other spell stopped and Starlight Breaker engulfed everything in light and every one of their opponents disappeared into thin air. Well, every one but the one with the blade that was on the ground. And nobody even knew what she was, as the data they got indicated that she was not a part of the Book of Darkness. And weirdly, even though she could use a bombardment spell as strong as Nanoha's Starlight Breaker, she seemed to be incapable of flight.

Hayate moved into the air. With only one of their opponents remaining, it being the one without the movement magic, they now had to begin their search for the Book's master. They had to find him and convince him that it was better to work with them to stop the Book of Darkness from destroying everything. Of course they could always rely on Nanoha to "befriend him", as Arisa and Suzuka called it, but it was always better to get someone willing to cooperate.

Hayate's thoughts were interrupted, however, as a pulse of dark energy hit them. It was nothing that would damage them, but it could only mean one thing.

- 'We're too late, the Book of Darkness seems to be activating.' - She heard Chrono's message. At that moment, another pulse of energy, the same as the previous one, hit their surroundings. That was when a figure rose up into the air. She had a nice face and ample chest, with her hair being silvver, all of it accentuated by her dark blue outfit with silver and golden linings. There were some weird marks on her face, and on her arms and legs too, as well as some leather straps which didn't really look bad. One of her hands she rose into the air, and a small sphere of dark energy quickly gathered over it.

- "Diabolic Emission."


Hearing the Book of Darkness declare its attack, Yuuno raised his shields as quickly as he could. A moment after he did that, darkness engulfed everything. Massive energy hit all of the shields he deployed repeatedly, battering them in the process just as quickly as he could repair them.

But he survived through the attack, and so did his barriers, which meant that now they could counter-attack the hostile program before it took them down. All of them that could do it immediately started their offensive, charging their respective shooting spells. Soon, they started shooting, and projectiles in various colours filled the sky in front of them. But their enemy blocked most of them, and those it could not, it reflected with shots of its own. Even when Arf flew towards the Book of Darkness and attempted to hit it in close combat, none of their attacks hit.

Remembering about their last remaining opponent, he looked down. There, he saw her, struggling on the ground as if she was in pain, her armour changed into a black one.

He started shaping a binding spell that could be used to bind the Book of Darkness whole, and not only its movement. After all, the only way for them to make sure that Durandal would be effective was to take the ability to cast spells and move from this enemy, which meant either incapacitating it or binding it completely. The first option was obviously favoured, as the amount of energy one would need to binds something like that was truly massive, but that was the only thing he could do now, other than creating barriers. Still, even with his ability creating something powerful enough to stop this was going to take some time.

Fate stopped firing and shot forward, towards the Book of Darkness, using the time she had to reach their foe to change Bardiche into an energy blade. She swung at the hostile program and hit a hastily-created shield, only to repeat the swing a few times, each time causing the Book's defence to shake its current form. But every time the shield broke, another one took its place so quickly that one could think that was still the same defensive spell.

That was when Nanoha also stopped shooting. And he knew what that meant.


- 'As soon as I finish charging it, fall back.' - Nanoha's voice resounded in their heads. - 'We have to stop it as soon as possible, so I'll use Starlight Breaker for that.'

Nanoha flew back to give herself enough space to prepare the attack. To cause any damage to the Book of Darkness, it had to be as strong as possible, but with the level of energy she operated with for that, it would be impossible not to break their barrier if she missed. Therefore, this attack had to hit. When she reached a position from which she would be able attack unhindered, Raising Heart switched its form and Nanoha started gathering mana for her signature spell.

Runic circle appeared under Nanoha's feet and mana started gathering in front of her. Raising Heart started counting down as the sphere of energy that would be used for the spell started growing steadily.

The rest of them continued to assault the foe in front of them with their shooting magic. Short-ranged attacks would probably be more effective against an enemy of this calibre, but they had to be ready to fall back in a few seconds. And they could not simply stop their actions; that would give the Book of Darkness time for a preemptive strike against Nanoha.

- "Ten"

Blocking their shots with one-handed magical shield, their foe rose the second hand to the level of her chest. Above it materialised a floating metal sphere, which immediately connected to the hand through a rapidly increasing number of lightning arcs.

- "Nine"

The amount of lightning arcs increased, until the whole sphere was covered in it, and a blade of energy formed in front of it. The newly-created blade glowed strongly for a moment and shot forward, past them and towards Nanoha.

- "Eight"

Every one of them watched in shock as a beam of lightning-imbued energy pierced through Nanoha's body. Her Barrier Jacket took most of the power behind that attack, but there was no doubt that she was hurt after that, as the countdown stopped and Nanoha's flight spell started dissipating. When it disappeared completely and Nanoha started falling, the only thing they could hear was Hayate's scream.

- "Nanoha!"


Hayate dived towards Nanoha as the struck mage kept falling in what appeared to all of them to be slow motion. She caught her falling friend halfway to the ground, and lowered herself to the street, laying unconscious Nanoha there.

Standing up, she took the staff Nanoha still held out of her hand and send the telepathic message to the bridge. It only took them a few seconds and Nanoha was no longer there, having been teleported into the ship to get medical help.

- "We'll avenge your master, Raising Heart." - Hayate said in a sad voice. Not getting any reply, she started flying up to the still-existing sphere of energy Nanoha's attempt left. When she get there, she concentrated and mana started gathering once again, albeit at a slower rate.

- 'It will take me a while, but I'll finish Nanoha's attack.'


Chrono considered their situation. Right now he was keeping the Book of Darkness under barrage of shots and Fate along with Arf kept her busy in close range, while Yuuno prepared a binding spell that would hopefully be strong enough to hold her in place, and Hayate tried to gather enough mana to use Starlight Breaker.

If anything, using Durandal was becoming more and more inevitable. And they would have to sacrifice someone just to get rid of the cursed Lost Logia. But he didn't really want to test if it was possible to capture it with Durandal when it was still capable of defending itself.

Another pulse of energy struck them, stronger than the first two they experienced, but not strong enough to get through their barrier jackets at this range. But Arf and Fate both got flung away from the enemy, and it raised its hand, pointing it at Hayate.

- "Absorption!"

Hayate slowly vanished, Raising Heart absorbed with her. The sphere of mana gathered in the air started dissipating slowly. It was bad. The could not allow any of them to become unable to fight now.

Distracted with her own attack, the Book of Darkness could not create a shield to block the attack Arf threw at her, and the force of the strike threw it to the ground. Arf and Fate flew there to follow her, while Chrono re-aimed his spell to stop it from retreating further. But it started fighting back, throwing attacks that were even stronger than Arf's, and soon she got hit with enough of them not to be able to continue fighting. Fate was also held at the distance, unable to come close without endangering herself.
That was when the mana above him flew towards the Book of Darkness, and he heard it declare these words.

- "Unbegentzte Klinge Werkung"

Another barrier employed itself inside of the one they had prepared in advance. Black flames burning on its borders and dark soot everywhere inside it, it created an atmosphere that could easily be called suffocating. Countless dark blades started emerging in the air, every one only hovering for a moment before launching itself at either one of them. Those that were targeting Fate he had to ignore, but those directed at either him or Chrono he had to deflect with his own shooting spells.


Protected by Chrono's spells, Yuuno finished working on the bind to stop the Book of Darkness. Now the only problem was trying to coordinate their actions so that Chrono could use Durandal as soon as their opponent was unable to act.

- 'The binding spell is ready. Just take away from the Book of Darkness after I stop it, or you'll get frozen with it.' - As he informed Chrono and Fate, he concentrated again and a magic circle appeared under his feet.

- "Restriction Bind."

It only took him a few seconds to cast the bind he formed in his mind. It was stable, and it would hold. But it was not something he would want to use under normal circumstances. When the spell was cast, a vicious crackling could be heard from the direction of Book of Darkness as binds formed on its legs, arms and neck and green-coloured lightning connected every bind. Chrono switched from S2U and started preparing Durandal for its intended duty. That was when Book of Darkness started glowing with white light.

And then Hayate appeared. Sitting on the ground with Raising Heart help on her knees, she looked lethargic and did not even move. But her status was now not important. As much as she was his friend, taking care of the Book of Darkness was now his priority. And any help to her would have to wait until the crisis was averted.

- "Permafrost, construct a frozen coffin and deliver eternal sleep unto this beast. Eternal Coffin."

Ice covered the Book of Darkness, only to fall off immediately after that happened. A pulse of bright light hit him in the eyes, and when he could see again, their opponent wasn't there anymore, and the dark field with flames had also disappeared. The one knight that was left before wasn't there, either.

- 'What was that, Chrono?'

- 'I don't know, but that wasn't us. Somehow, the Book of Darkness got away.'


Fate flew towards Hayate's prone figure. The girl was sitting there, clenching Nanoha's device with her hand, and staring forward, tears marking her cheeks. She tried interacting with her, but to no avail. It was as if something had traumatized her badly.

- 'Bridge, can you teleport me and Hayate back there?' - After her message, Hayate disappeared, and she got a returning message.

- 'One more thing, enforcer Harlaown. There's a reading of another human in the area covered by our field, can you check on it?'


Alliances


'This isn't a familiar, Rin. I don't know if the other ones were, but this one, somehow, is Emiya Shirou.'

As the battle in front of her was getting to the end, Rin thought about Archer's words with frustration. From the very beginning, nothing made sense. The incident at school. Shirou being a magus living in Fuyuki for years without her knowledge, and getting the same Servant as his adoptive father. And being completely different from how he was supposed to be, using magic he should not be capable of using, and having his own familiars. Heroes from the future being summoned into the Holy Grail War. Kirei not killing Lancer's Master before the Holy Grail War begun. Weird Servant-like magi appearing out of nowhere and fighting Shirou's familiars, or whatever they were. And now Shirou being this weird thing that was closer to being a Caster-class Servant than a human. And Saber turning black during their battle for no apparent reason and running away.

Trying to think about all this made her head hurt. Or rather, her head started to hurt when Archer explained all that to her, and probably never stopped hurting since that time. Kirei getting himself a Servant she could understand, even if he was this War's supervisor, as he was one of the Masters in the previous War. But that meant he would have to be close to Lancer's Master to do that, and as far as she knew, he didn't really have time for that. With Rin being a very common visitor of his after Shirou's familiars started appearing, she would've noticed if he was preparing for something like that. Probably, but he still didn't do it, and it's not like her visits would stop Kirei from doing something if he set his mind to it.

Heroes from the future being summoned also wasn't impossible. For the Holy Grail, time itself did not matter, so one could summon anyone with the right catalyst, as Archer told her. It was unheard of, but most probably because it was almost impossible to become a hero nowadays, and getting a catalyst linked to a person from the future was a gamble. When Archer told her how her father's pendant became a catalyst linked to him, she had to restrain herself not to start laughing. That truly was something she could expect from Shirou, was it not?

The more difficult ones were all connected to Shirou, strangely. The incident at school, with so many students and teachers having had to be sent to the hospital. The unknown familiars that she tried to catch for a long time, who spent most of the time before the Holy Grail War not doing anything other than simply living. Unknown magi, who protected the civilians from finding out about magic, with their sole purpose seemingly being defeating Shirou, and with power that could rival Servants. Shirou sometimes using magic that she knew wasn't possible, or at least not reachable for one that should be a mere amateur. The fact that Shirou even could use magic, other than simple projection and reinforcement, which according to Archer was everything he ought to be capable of. And now, him becoming this sort of thing.

- 'Why do you have to be involved in this, Shirou?'

If that Servant-like familiar they were fighting really was Shirou, then it was quite easy to see just what would they want - they tried to prevent him from changing into this… thing. Just by looking at it one could tell that it was something that shouldn't appear. But why would he change into it? Why would *he* change into it? Did that mean he lied to her when she asked him about the drains and he really was the one behind them? Did that mean what happened at school was deliberate as well?

- 'I want to believe you wouldn't do that, Shirou. I want to believe that you are just someone who wants to help others and has a problem of his own, but now, I don't know what should I believe in.'


Having told her Servants to switch to spirit form to conserve prana, Rin was still battling her thoughts against each other when a figure landed in front of her and disrupted her internal debate by producing a clanking sound. Surprised at the appearance of another person on the roof she was on, she raised her head and saw who the guest was.

It was one of the magi that fought Shirou's familiars in that battle, one with the energy scythe. She appeared to be Rin's age, but in her black outfit with metal gauntlets and shoes, she could only be described as the bad guy. Fair complexion and light blonde hair only added to the image, which would be complete if the magi was holding the weapon she fought with.

- "I'm sorry to bother you, I'm enforcer Fate Harlaown from the Time-Space Administration Bureau." - And the image she had formed fell apart quicker than it appeared, her voice not really one of a villain. Wait, what the heck was "Time-Space Administration Bureau" supposed to be? She would guess that it is one of the departments in the Magic Association, but she highly doubted that anyone there would use a name like this. - "Seeing as you are capable of using magic, and involved in what happens in this place now, we would like to ask you to come with us and answer a few questions."

Unsure what to say, Rin nodded slightly. She wasn't looking forward to being abducted by magi from hell-if-she-knew where, but that might be her only chance to learn what exactly was happening in Fuyuki. So as the town's supervisor, she had to take it.

The magus in front of her smiled, and soon Rin found herself transported into some sort of room. Or perhaps "teleported" would be a better word. She wasn't sure, but with these people it didn't really matter. A moment after she arrived, a voice greeted her.

- "Welcome aboard this TSAB patrol ship. I am the ship's commander, Chrono Harlaown."


- "So what you are saying is, Shirou has a Mystic Code sealed inside him, which is why he was capable of summoning these familiars of his and why he changed into that thing. Said Mystic Code is called 'Book of Darkness', and it handicaps its owner seriously before killing them, unless he somehow fills all 666 of its pages by draining prana, at which point it kills both that person and everything around it and appears somewhere else. Even though it is supposed to be a library of spells." - Rin stopped talking for a moment. - "And what you were trying to do was getting Shirou to stop gathering pages, so that you'll be able to stop the book for good. And now that it's not longer possible, the only solution is to freeze him forever?"

- "Not exactly, Miss Rin. I don't know what 'Mystic Codes' are, but the Book of Darkness is a Lost Logia. A leftover artifact from Ancient Belka, also known as Al-Hazard." - So, in other words, an ancient Mystic Code. Or perhaps it was a Noble Phantasm. She didn't really want to think it could be the latter. Or maybe a kind of Magic Crest? One that moved to a new host after the old one died. No, that made no sense, there would be far too many problems with incompatibilities for it to work like that. - "And it was a magic library, known as Book of the Night Sky. At an unknown point of time between its creation and the present, it became corrupted and changed into the Book of Darkness. It is supposed to fulfill the wish of its master when all 666 pages are gathered, but until now every time it tried to do so through destruction."

- 'Wait, doesn't that mean it's like another Holy Grail, but one that is broken?' - Rin's sudden thought caused her to speak up and interrupt Chrono. - "But if the Book of Darkness you are speaking about kills its masters even if they fill it, why does any one of them bother to do it in the first place? It's not like they all desire the world to be destroyed, is it? And if they have to fill it by draining other humans, then they couldn't do it unknowingly." - And if Shirou was filling that thing consciously to destroy the city? But what if he doesn't know and he thinks it's something good, doesn't that mean that he is just stupidly sacrificing himself and isn't bad here?

- "Those are good questions, Miss Rin. Yuuno, can you explain that in-depth to her?"

- "Ah, yes. Based on the data we managed to find in the Infinite Library, the Book of Darkness' choice of master relies on two parameters. Latent magical power, and emotions. The first one is pretty simple, Book of Darkness cannot be bound to one that has no magical power or very little of it, and any unique abilities of the host make it more likely for the connection to occur. The second one is more complicated. What Book of Darkness seeks in its potential hosts are strong dark emotions. Not just momentary emotions, like being angry at someone after an argument or sad because it's raining. But long-lasting ones, like grief after losing the whole family, feeling of guilt after failing to save someone, or hopelessness one feels when he knows he'll die soon and won't be able to achieve anything he desired to. It wouldn't be incorrect to say that Book of Darkness is drawn to misfortune." - He paused for a moment, before continuing his explanation. - "An all it means is that this Lost Logia binds itself to mages whose existences weren't happy before it appeared. But through history its known masters were different. It can bind itself to a researcher who wishes to find cure for some incurable illness, or to a soldier who wishes to avenge his fallen comrades. To someone unaware of his potential who wishes for magic to be real to be able to help people, or to a power-hungry mercenary wishing to destroy his world. Or to an orphaned child that had not yet learned about its magic potential and merely wishes to have a family." - He stopped once again, this time for a little longer. As if he wanted her to think. And the question was obvious - "Which one of these is Shirou?". - "But even then, it seems that none of them gets the full explanation of its abilities, as if the Wolkenritter tried to deceive their master to activate it. And in the end, all that remains constant is that they are left with an unusable artefact that cripples them, with speed of the process varying from person to person. Sometimes it takes a few weeks, and sometimes as much as about a year, but symptoms always show. Progressing permanent paralysis, loss of ability to use their own magic, sometimes also other symptoms."

- "Then that means Shirou only got it recently. But why would this thing bind itself to him? I observed him for the last few years and he wasn't really unhappy. And he lives in a normal family, or at least as normal as a family of familiars can be." - Chrono raised an eyebrow upon hearing these words, but said nothing. She didn't really say anything strange now, did she? Oh, wait, she totally did.

- "Actually, those you know as his family are the Wolkenritter, guardian programs of the Book of Darkness. I came into contact with them a few years ago on another world. And the Wolkenritter can only exist when the Book of Darkness is bound to someone, meaning that he was its master for at least a few years." - Yuuno replied to her question.

- "But wait, doesn't that mean he should be a cripple by now?" - Rin tried to remember when was the last time she saw Shirou without his "family", but to no avail. Even when she just started looking at him, they were already there. Did the Book of Darkness really bind itself to him when he was a child, and because he wanted a family? - "If he had this thing for at least a few years, then why is his body still acting normally?"

- "That is what we are wondering, too. But even searching the Infinite Library brought us nothing on it. It appears to be simply a special ability of his, one that supplies the Book of Darkness with energy for him, or one that protects him from the draining effect. But for all we know, there are no such abilities, and the only ways to slow down the draining effect are either having extraordinarily high magical power, or acquiring another Lost Logia." - Yuuno answered. Rin tried to match his words to what Archer told her. Shirou's magical potential certainly wasn't that high, and his special abilities had nothing to do with that. Maybe that pendant he carried around, then. It wasn't a book, so it would make sense if this was something he got to keep the Book of Darkness at bay.

- "And that is the reason for the alliance, Miss Rin." - Chrono got back into the discussion. - "Normally we would simply bind the Wolkenritter and retrieve their master, but this time it's different. Even if we can overpower them in combat with the use of surprise tactics, this 'Saber' person with him appears to be completely impervious to our magic, and without neutralising her we couldn't get close enough to him. And our records of this place indicate that there are a few more beings like that. The ones we found out about are 'Lancer', 'Berserker', 'Rider' and 'Caster'. Other than the last one, every one of them was involved in combat against one of the other ones, or against this 'Saber'. Other than one fight, which is recorded as 'the red barrier incident', every one of those battles is fought is the area where the risk of other people seeing it is low, but using powers that appear to be magic, as if it was a secret tournament for magic users. Either way, after temporary loss of two of our mages, we can't afford to run into the activated Book of Darkness on a random chance." - He paused for a moment, sighed, and continued talking. - "And with you being both one of the confirmed participants, and if that one is true, the supervisor of this city, we think it to be in your best interest to work with us. Shirou Emiya, now being inherently dangerous to his surroundings, is both a participant and someone we want to capture, so we can help each other fulfil our respective duties. For us, help is required to stop this 'Saber' from interfering with our plans. And you will benefit from our intelligence on other ones, and from us creating isolating barriers whenever the fights occur."

- "And after you capture Shirou, what will you do then? You said something about freezing him, right? But shouldn't there be anything else you could do about it?"

- "We can try to do that, Miss Rin, but you need to know that it's not an easy task. Separating the Book of Darkness from its master can result in it awakening without control. The last time that happened, my father died because of it, and every member of his crew with him. And destroying the Lost Logia itself would only result in it regenerating somewhere else, possibly somewhere that we wouldn't be able to reach in time to stop it. Either way, we already tried freezing once, and for reasons we know not it failed to work properly. Unless we can find the cause of that and neutralize it, freezing Shirou Emiya might also be impossible."

- "I see. And those two mages you lost?"

- "Hayate is suffering from heavy mental trauma, so we don't know how long will it take her to recover. We hope she'll be ready to act the next time we need her, but we cannot be certain. And Nanoha, her injuries were physical and rather serious, so she's not in the medical bay with the one we recovered from the red barrier incident." - Wait, wasn't that "incident" what happened at school? Why would they keep anyone here instead of letting normal doctors deal with it? - "She'll probably be recuperating for some time, even if she'll say differently once she wakes up."

- "And why would you keep anyone from Fuyuki here instead of letting doctors fix it?" - Rin asked, narrowing her eyes.

- "The answer is quite simple, Miss Rin. But I think it will be better if you see it personally. Yuuno, can you lead her to the medical bay now?" - After a while, Chrono continued. - "You can give me the answer when you get back, Miss Rin. For now, please think about what you want out of it."


Led by the blonde man named Yuuno, Rin quickly got to the medical bay. When getting there, she also paid attention to anything around her, and what she made it clear that these men possessed access to technology she didn't really understand.

When she entered, she noticed that only two beds were used right now. In one of them laid a red-headed girl connected to machinery. She was the first one to be hit, with what Archer described as a blade moving at very high velocity. And the machinery either helped her in recovery, or kept her alive. In the second bed there was someone whom she knew very well. That face, that hair colour, that figure.

- 'Ally with me, Tohsaka, and together we can stop Emiya. I have a few countermeasures set up at school, he won't be able to win against us there even if he's the strongest Master. And when we win the Holy Grail War, our lives will change for the better.' - Those were his own words, ones that he used before the whole thing happened. The one who was the Master of Servant Rider.

- "Shinji." - So he was alive. But still, he looked pretty worn out. His body barely moved as he breathed slowly through an apparatus, and on the left side of his face and neck there was a massive scar that was either a result of bad burn, or contact with acid. Looking at its shape, it was possible that a bigger part of his body was scarred.

- "So you know him?" - Yuuno asked from behind her.

- "His name is Matou Shinji. He's a student of the academy where that incident took place. And he's involved in the same tournament I am." - As she said that, Rin turned to face Yuuno. - "So what's wrong with him?"

- "We don't know what exactly happened, but he was drained by the Book of Darkness while inside the red barrier, to the point of temporarily becoming paralysed. After that, the red barrier started melting his body, just like what happened to the other victims. But since he was near the epicentre and very near the Book of Darkness when it happened, it was much faster than in other cases. He was the only one whose body became so scarred, and it's only here that we are able to take care of him before he regains the ability to move, without alerting other people. After that we'll probably hear his testimony and release him. Fate and Chrono argue about that, but there's no concrete evidence." - Wait, evidence for what? If they were arguing about what to do with Shinji, then one of them has to think that he is an important witness, or that he is the one who activated the barrier. And if they were working on that, then it's possible that they knew about all the other things, and she would know for sure if Shirou was involved in all that.

- "I think I know enough." - Rin walked to the doors of the medical bay, and looked back to Yuuno, who stood there thinking about something. - "Take me back to Chrono, Yuuno. I agree to your offer."