Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

Aozaki and Tohsaka – The Serpent's Feathers

Chapter 7

"…you know we don't really need to hide what mysteries we can use. Or to be more specific, what mysteries you can use, Touko."

Eyes turned to Benedek, who was looking intently at Touko. The Grand Magus returned his look evenly. "What do you mean by that, Benedek?" she asked.

Benedek rolled his eyes. "Let's be real, Touko." He said. "There isn't any magus of note who hasn't heard of you, or at least some of what you're capable of. Or for that matter, why you were forced to leave the Clock Tower in the first place. And more to the point, if the worry is our rivals learning what we're capable of and developing counters to them, well…that's no worry at all when it comes to you."

"He's got a point there, master." Sakura agreed with a slow nod. "Your sealing designation is because the Clock Tower can't figure out your masterpiece without your explicit input at every point. In fact, no matter how many Enforcers or freelancers they send against you, all they keep getting back are corpses, with what tidbits and observations their familiars and whatnot send back still not nearly enough to figure out your masterpiece, or counter them for that matter."

"There's also an opportunity there." Benedek said with nods of his own. "A demonstration of how you're so easily able to slaughter the College of Law's best and brightest and with it full justification for your…infamous, reputation…might just serve to…restrain, our rivals. Make them second-guess themselves, and their chances, as it were."

"…I don't know what favors either or both of you are fishing for," Touko dryly said after a few moments. "But flattery will get you nowhere."

Benedek rolled his eyes. "It's not flattery if it's true." He countered, and Sakura nodded.

"Yeah, what he said." She agreed.

Touko rolled her eyes in her turn. "Maybe…" she conceded. "Though I do see some of your points…"

"…does that mean you're going to be helping us out, boss lady?" Alba asked, having spent the past several moments listening to the magi convincing their leader to use her magic to help them out.

"…up to a point." Touko said with her arms crossed over her chest. "I'd rather not use too much of my prana reserves just in case something needs to be dealt with – our rivals aside – at our destination. One or the other…and in my experience, there will likely be something that needs dealing with…"

The Grand Magus trailed off, before narrowing her eyes at the map Sakura had sketched out on paper with pencil and a charcoal stick. Information on the area had been fed to her by her bound spirits, and that information had been used to draw up the map.

Reaching forwards, Touko tapped the location of the bandits' mortar battery with her fingers. "This is the problem, right?" she asked.

Alba nodded. "Yup." he said. "I don't know where those bandits got those mortars from, but they picked a good spot for them…"

"…someone might have pointed them in the right direction…" Benedek muttered at that, but Alba continued without reacting.

"…no way we can reach them on foot without getting torn apart by the bandits around that position," he said. "Or getting cut off and shot from behind. And with the ground being in the state that it is, no way we can run the gauntlet with our vehicles. Hell, even if the ground could let us run it, we'd still have bombs raining down on us all the while. We'd take a lot of losses."

"But if we don't silence that battery," Touko said. "Then either the bandits bomb us to hell, or shoot us up from both sides."

"Or both, even." Alba said with a nod.

Touko stroked her chin. "The shooters closing in from the sides can be dealt with using mental interference…" she murmured. "…even without having to use my eyes…but that still leaves the battery…"

"…if you're thinking of having mind-controlled shooters take out the battery for us," Benedek said. "It's not going to work. The battery and its defenders would just mow them down."

"They'd shoot their own?" Sakura asked in shock.

"They might not." Benedek admitted. "But if they're working for or are under the influence of our rivals, they just might. Also, we'll have to take that into consideration: if they're already under the influence of another magus or magi, we might not be able to take control or mentally-neutralize them without using your eyes."

"Also…I'm not too sure how many other people are in the know about your eyes, master," Sakura chimed in. "But if our rivals are among those, they might have something planned in case you use them."

Touko snorted, and then adjusted her glasses. "Even if they do," she said. "They assume much if they think my eyes are just your typical, A-rank Mystic Eyes of Enchantment."

Sakura and Benedek looked questioningly at Touko, but the Grand Magus did not elaborate. "Still," she said. "I see your point. Also, I'd like to keep my eyes in reserve…hmm…"

Touko stroked her chin again, and then nodded while tapping at the village's representation on the map. "Captain," she began. "If we can keep those mortars from affecting the battle, can your men deal with the bandits on the ground?"

Alba looked taken aback. "Boss lady," he began. "You've got your money's worth."

"…and yet you can't deal with those mortars on your own…" Touko dryly shot back.

Alba fidgeted. "…we could…" he said. "…if we'd been expecting to run into enemies with artillery on this job. We were expecting a gunfight, more than one in fact, maybe even needing to use – or face – rockets up close, but never artillery. If we did, we'd have brought our own."

"…are you trying to get me to pay you extra?" Touko incredulously asked.

"No, I'm just saying it's unfair to point out we're not equipped to deal with those mortars quickly." Alba crossly said. "We could deal with them without your magic, it's just that it'll take time, time you and yours say we don't have. Not unless you want to risk your rivals reaching your prize first, that is."

"…fair enough." Touko conceded. "But back to my question: you and your men can take the bandits on the ground easily so long as the mortars aren't in play, one way or the other?"

Alba gave Touko a look. "Of course we can." He said.

"Good," Touko said with a nod. "Then leave the mortars to me…and Sakura."

"Wait, what?" Sakura asked, looking and sounding surprised.

Touko smiled at her. "Considering how rare your Sorcery Trait is," she said. "Even if the enemy is watching, I doubt they could counter it. Well, maybe if it was me, but then again, what are the chances of that?"

"Sorcery Trait, eh?" Benedek asked, looking at Sakura appraisingly.

Sakura looked at him unhappily, before glaring at her master. "Now, now," Touko said, again focused on the map. "Listen up, because this is what we're going to do…"


Less than an hour later, and the Devil Dogs' convoy was rolling into the village, half-congealed mud giving way under their tracks. Making their way into the simple square at its heart, the convoy came to a halt, Devil Dogs jumping out of their trucks and moving up protectively on all sides.

Despite common tactical sense dictating they should immediately take up positions in the empty buildings all around, the magi had argued against it.

Let the bandits make the first move.

Let them think we know nothing about their ambush.

In other words, let us spring their trap, and then punch them in the face as they pounce.

It was a riskier way of springing a trap than what Alba would have preferred, but he obeyed his orders. As he heard the distant rumble of mortars firing, the captain glanced at the puppet sitting on top of the jeep's roof, essentially a Human skull with a metal mask bolted to its front, and with a nest of long, writhing, metallic tentacles sprouting from beneath.

"Let's hope this…thing, is as useful as boss lady says it is." Alba thought to himself.

Words and other sounds of alarm drew the captain's attention away, to his men to the front, and then up at the sky. Dark specks could be seen against the sky, arcing up and then down towards them, slowly growing in size as they fell. Devil Dogs murmured in alarm, backing away and looking uncertainly at each other.

"Come on…come on…" Alba thought, gritting his teeth as he glanced at the puppet. "…why isn't it doing anything?"

As though triggered by the thought, the puppet's eyes flashed with red light, which quickly faded into the darkness of its empty eye sockets. And then rising into the air, it pointed several tentacles up at the sky, aiming with millimeter-precision, and then fired.

Glowing blue beams lanced up into the sky, explosions erupting across the skyline as most of the incoming mortar bombs were shot down. Those that weren't plowed through the clouds of smoke and shrapnel, and then exploded moments later, more smoke and shrapnel shrouding what lay below.

Then they blew away, on the breeze that blew above the canopy of the surrounding jungle, exposing a shimmering dome around the convoy. Devil Dogs cheered at the artillery barrage being foiled, and Alba slumped slightly in relief before glancing at the puppet, its eyes glowing blue from the effort of generating a barrier around them.

Boss lady pulled through, after all.

Right…now it's our turn to show what we've got.

"What the hell are you doing?" Alba shouted. "Intercept positions, now!"

The Devil Dogs immediately broke into two, left and right. Safeties came off and rounds were chambered as the Devil Dogs readied to bring their G3 Battle Rifles to bear, while machine-gunners hurried into suitable buildings, setting up their MG 3s to provide supporting fire.

"Here they come!" the warning came through the encoded line, even as more mortar bombs exploded against the barrier. In the distance, to the left and right of the village, mean-looking men in ragged clothing were pouring out of the jungles, spreading and moving quickly from cover to cover.

Their features marked them as locals, but they had not the look or movements of inexperienced men. The Devil Dogs didn't bother to waste their time on figuring that out, at least, not right now.

As a massive explosion erupted in the distance, the magi making their move, the barrier went down. Explosions went up along the front lines as the bandits used grenades to clear the way, and then moved forward.

"Weapons free." Alba snapped into the encoded line, and the Devil Dogs opened fire.


"Bombs! We need more bombs so we can…break, whatever that shell of theirs is!" the bandits manning the mortars shouted in Spanish at their fellows. "Hurry and get them over here!"

One of the other bandits cursed angrily as he rushed to the ammo dump, and pulling off the torn and matted camo netting, pulled out a battered, metal-framed case. Prying it open, he inspected the mortar bombs inside, and then rushed back to the battery.

In his haste though, he didn't notice how the nearby shadows darkened behind him, or how silhouetted figures appeared in the shadows, looking out over the battery and the emplaced machine guns protecting it. Then one of the figures crouched down, and reaching out from the shadows with a hand, placed it against the ground.

Muddy soil hissed as it dried unnaturally quick, clumping together before cracking as all the moisture was broken down at the molecular level. A faintly-sickening smell filled the area, while all the bandits suddenly felt dizzy, both a side-effect of the surrounding air being saturated with hydrogen and oxygen respectively.

Unnoticed, the hand withdrew into the shadows, and then there was a snapping sound, like someone snapping their fingers, a spark flying out of the shadows into the open…

…the resulting explosion visibly displaced the surrounding air and shook the earth, the fireball itself leveling several meters of ground. Trees and other plants were reduced to charred mulch, Human beings to bloody, half-cooked chunks of meat, and their weapons and other equipment reduced to bits and pieces.

Debris rained down for a couple of minutes, but as they slackened, a trio of magi emerged from the shadows. "Well, that went well." Touko cheerfully said. Then her expression darkened, and struggled to scrape the greasy remains of a bandit off the bottom of her boot.

"Yes, it did." Benedek agreed, before smiling with an impressed air. "Even more so, as it was all done with just the basics."

"Basics kill." Touko absent-mindedly said, still scraping her boot against a rock. Benedek's smile widened, and then he turned to where Sakura was walking to a raised point, and reinforcing her eyes, looked down at the battlefield below.

"How's it looking, Sakura?" Benedek asked.

"The Devil Dogs are kicking ass." Sakura said. "From what I can see, they're pinning the bandits down from the front, and then cutting them down from the sides."

"Oh?"

Sounding and looking curious, Benedek walked up to the younger woman, and similarly reinforcing his eyes, looked down on the battlefield. After a moment, he nodded in agreement. "Yes…the Devil Dogs really are kicking ass, as you put it." He said, before giving a short laugh. "Care for a history lesson, child?"

"Not a child…" Sakura said with a scowl. "…but okay."

Benedek smiled at Sakura briefly before returning his gaze to the battlefield below. "See what they're doing?" he asked, while pointing down. "Each squad breaks into teams of four. One team stays back, around a machine gun, and pins the enemy down from the front. Meanwhile, the other two teams go around, and hit the enemy from the left and right."

"Yes, I can see." Sakura said with a nod. "What's historical about that?"

"That's the classic fire and movement infantry tactic." Benedek said. "Essentially a modern application of the time-tested double-envelopment tactic, and scaled down to the level of squads and individual soldiers. It was first used in the second world war by the German army, and it was so effective the rest of their enemies quickly adopted the tactic themselves."

"And used it against the Germans." Sakura said. "Talk about shooting yourself in the foot."

"Maybe," Benedek conceded with a shrug. "But you know the old saying about flattery and compliments."

"…maybe…" Sakura conceded in turn.

"…even if the Germans shot themselves in the foot by pioneering the same tactics to be used against them by their enemies," Touko began while walking up to also look down the battlefield below. "At least it wasn't deliberate…or as stupid as the Japanese at the time were."

"Master?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Whether it was banzai charging right into the teeth of enemy machine guns," Touko contemptuously said. "Or picking a fight with the United States…the Empire of Japan got what it deserved."

Sakura shrugged. "Well, if you put it that way…" she said before trailing off. They might be Japanese themselves, but that didn't really disprove anything her master had said.

"The Germans might have shot themselves in the foot…but the Japanese shot themselves in the head." Benedek quipped, and Touko nodded.

"That we did." She agreed, before narrowing her eyes. The battle below was drawing to a close, the bandits breaking and running back into the jungles, leaving the village's outskirts littered with corpses, spent casings, and pools of blood. "Enough with the history lessons, come on, let's get back."

Benedek and Sakura grunted their acknowledgement, and reopening the passageway through Imaginary Numbers Space, the latter led the way back to the convoy.


The village bustled with life, the villagers having come out of hiding and welcomed the Devil Dogs and the magi for driving the bandits away. Those of the Devil Dogs on kitchen duty now worked with the villagers to prepare a late lunch, supplementing rations with local corn and meats, while other Devil Dogs worked to burn the corpses of the dead bandits in great pyres.

Others cleaned and replaced off-road tracks, or helped the villagers repair what damage was done to the village during the battle. They might be leaving soon after lunch, but they might as well help out in what little ways they could until then.

"How are you holding up there, kid?" Touko asked as she walked by her apprentice.

"I'm doing just fine, master." Sakura said. The younger woman was sitting on a rough stool, a first aid kit sitting open next to her. In front of her was a boy from the village, holding out an arm with a bloody and dirty scrape.

Sakura had used hydrogen peroxide to clean it first, then disinfected it with iodine tincture. By the time her master had walked up, she was already wrapping gauze around the boy's arm, nor was he her first patient.

"Good, good," Touko said with a nod. "I just checked in with the weather bureau over satellite, there should be clear skies tonight and tomorrow. If we're lucky and make good time, we might just arrive at our destination tomorrow."

"The Mirror of the Sun, huh?" Sakura said as she used medical tape to fasten the gauze in place. Then smiling at the boy, she patted him on the head and sent him off. "Wonder how welcoming these people would be if they found out why we're here in the first place."

"What they don't know won't hurt them." Touko said with a shrug.

"Hmm…"

Touko glanced at her wristwatch, and was about to speak up, before shouts could be heard from where lunch had been prepared. "Come on, Sakura." She said. "Let's have some lunch…though, you might want to wash your hands first."

"Will do, master." Sakura said, already packing up her first aid kit.

Touko hummed, and with a wave of a hand, went on ahead.


"…the weather might be clear tonight, and tomorrow morning," Benedek argued over the lunch table. "But I don't think we should give up the advantage of the high ground tonight. Or for that matter, be any less wary come tomorrow. On the contrary, we should be even more cautious."

"You really think our rivals could be that much of a threat, huh?" Touko asked, before holding up a hand with a smile. "Don't answer, that was a rhetorical question. They're magi, of course they're a serious threat."

"It's not just them," Benedek continued. "There's also those bandits. Whether it's the survivors, or more gangs of those lowlifes prowling these jungles, they might go after us for revenge. And who knows whether or not the Mirror of the Sun doesn't have some secret guardians we might need to be on guard against."

"Not too sure about the latter," Touko said with a frown. "But I see your point about the former. Alright, we'll keep our guard up tonight…though about being cautious…"

"Cautious, but active…" Benedek said. "Sorry for not making that clear. We should send familiars to scout out ahead of us, and to guard our flanks. And watch our backs too, of course."

"Prudent…" Touko remarked with a nod. "Alright, we'll do as you say."

Benedek nodded his thanks at being listened to, while Touko turned to her apprentice. "Were you listening, Sakura?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Good," Touko said with a nod. "Then you know what you have to do tomorrow."

"On top of sending out spirits to find the exact – more or less – location of the Mirror of the Sun," Sakura said while slicing into a serving of pork on her plate. "I'll need to send out spirits to keep an eye on all sides. Got it, master."

"…no, I'll take care of looking for the Mirror of the Sun." Touko said after a moment's thought. "Your bound spirits, or ordinary familiars from any of us, might not work well if they do stumble on the Mirror of the Sun or its surroundings. My puppets would be better suited for that role by comparison."

Sakura briefly thought it over, and then nodded in agreement. "Point taken, master." She said. "Your puppets' better build would be better in case there's some kind of defense around the Mirror of the Sun or wherever it is."

"Hmm…there just might be…it is probably a divine artifact, after all."

"Then we'd best be careful…though, you already mentioned that before."

Touko smiled and nodded. "Yes, I did." She said. "Good to see you were listening, Sakura."

Sakura just looked smug at that.


Engines rumbled to life as the convoy prepared to move out, Devil Dogs securing portable field equipment and crates of supplies inside their trucks. Recovered weapons and ammunition from dead bandits were also loaded aboard, rather than being left behind to lie around.

The villagers came out to see the Devil Dogs and the magi off, Sakura waving a goodbye to the children she'd patched up earlier, before getting aboard the command jeep. "Rather popular with the children, aren't you little lady?" Alba quipped.

Sakura shrugged. "You make it sound like it's a bad thing." She said.

"Hmm…guess it doesn't have to be…" the captain said with a shrug of his own.

Sakura sat back in silence, while the captain checked in on over the radio with his subordinates. Benedek and Touko were silent themselves, and in the silence, Sakura let herself sink into her memories, from years ago in distant Osaka.

"Give us food please." Sakura said, pain as though every inch of her was on fire filling her body with every word.

The clerk's eyes went blank, and he swayed unsteadily on his feet behind the counter. "S-sure…" he tonelessly stammered out. "…j-just…get w-w-whatever you w-w-want…"

The four children, not a single one of them even ten-years-old, ran into the convenience store. It was almost midnight, so it was empty but for the clerk on duty. Rushing past the shelves, the children grabbed anything and everything they could fit into their pockets, such as biscuits, bread, sandwiches, rice balls, chocolates and candy. Then grabbing bottles of water from a refrigerator, they ran back out, the clerk collapsing as they left, blood pouring from the unconscious man's nose.

The children ignored him, if they even noticed. They just ran, across the empty parking lot, and into an alley, vanishing into the comforting shadows of the city's back-alleys and side-streets. Once safely hidden in an out-of-the-way corner, the children sat down, and emptying their pockets, began stuffing themselves.

Then Sakura coughed, and spat out blood. More blood ran out of her nose, and wiping it away, she pinched it until it stopped bleeding.

"Sorry, Sakura." The eldest and thus the leader of the children said. "I know it hurts you to use magic, but they cleaned out the dumpsters so…"

"It's okay." Sakura said, washing down her bloody mouth with some water. "We're all hungry, and we can't get food any other way so…"

The girl shrugged, and then grabbing a rice ball, tore away the wrapping before biting down. The other children looked at each other, and then shrugging, continued to eat.

Sakura blinked as the jeep began to move, the jostling of the vehicle as it rolled along the uneven surface of the dirt road jolting her out of her memories. And then remembering what she had lost herself in, smiled and shrugged to herself.

"Whatever happened to that guy, I wonder?" she asked herself, thinking of the clerk she'd hypnotized to rob that store with her friends all those years ago.

"What's with the smile?" Alba asked curiously.

"Hmm…? Oh…nothing…just thinking…that's all…" Sakura replied while closing her eyes.

"About what?"

Sakura opened her eyes, and smiled wider at him. "Well," she said. "Thinking on it by just a bit…I've always had a way to get along with other kids, that's all."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh."

"…uh…okay…I guess…?"

Sakura snorted, and then shrugged.

Well…it was more misery loves company, but he – or anyone else – doesn't need to know that.


A/N

Now then, I dare to ask: would you judge a homeless girl and her friends abusing magic to rob a convenience store for food?