Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.
Snow White and Her Children
Chapter 1
"Welcome home, my ladies." A brown-haired maid in a green dress with a starched white apron and cap said with a bow. "And welcome back, Mister Emiya."
"Oh…good evening, Satomi-san." Shirou said with a bow to the head maid of the Tohsaka household. For their part, the twins just nodded.
"We'll be fine with something light, Satomi-san." Rin said.
"But, that can wait for later." Sakura added. "We have to talk about important stuff with Shirou right now."
"Understood, my ladies." Satomi said with another bow. "I'll have a tea set prepared and sent to the library then."
"Thanks, Satomi-san!" the twins chorused, and with a final bow the maid walked off. The twins then turned to Shirou. "We're going to go get changed now. Why don't you wait in the library? Feel free to get comfortable while you wait, and to do some light reading. You know the way, right?"
Shirou nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I do."
"Great!" Rin said.
"We'll be going then." Sakura said, and then the twins were hurrying off. Shirou waited until they were out of sight, and then proceeded to the library. Turning on the lights as he entered, he looked around for a couple of moments, and then heading for the couch, sank down with a sigh. Letting his head fall back, Shirou looked up at the ceiling and at the crystal chandelier hanging from it. He stared for a few moments, and then taking a deep breath, closed his eyes and allowed himself to fully relax, dozing off in a few more moments…
…then his eyes sprang open, unsure of how long he'd tottered on the brink of sleep. "Long day?" the manservant of the Tohsaka household asked as he crossed the library, and placed the tea set on the coffee table.
"Not really…just…your typical school day, I guess." Shirou said with a sigh.
Arnold just gave a smile at that. "It can be exhausting." The towering – just a couple of inches short of seven feet – manservant said with a surprisingly soft voice. "Schools in Austria or indeed, Europe in general, aren't much different from schools here in Japan. I'm no magus with your eidetic memories, but I remember enough."
"Hmm…I'll take your word for it." Shirou said with a nod. "But it's not all bad. I mean…it's a good kind of exhaustion, I'd say. It's from meaningful work, or rather study, after all."
Arnold smiled just a bit wider. "A very good attitude to have," he said. "But unsurprising, coming from you."
Shirou laughed. "Thanks," he said. "But you think too highly of me."
Arnold just hummed, and giving a bow, turned smartly and left. Shirou leaned forward, doing neck exercises for a few minutes to stave off sleep, and then turned his head as he heard footsteps approaching. A couple of moments later and the twins stepped into the library, dressed as usual in their blue, long-sleeved tops over dark knee skirts and matching leggings.
"Sorry to keep you waiting!" they chorused as they walked over, and sat down next to Shirou, one on either side. "Shall we have some tea first, before getting down to business?"
"Sounds good." Shirou said, already making to pour tea…
…only to be preempted by the twins. "Hey, hey, hey," Rin began. "You're our guest. You shouldn't be the one pouring tea."
"Hmm-hmm," Sakura hummed in agreement. "Let us do that for you."
Shirou gave a soft sigh, and then leaned back into the couch. The twins poured tea for the three of them, plain for Shirou, and with a touch of honey for them both. "Enjoy!" they chorused as they handed Shirou his teacup on a saucer.
Shirou nodded his thanks, and took a sip. He savored the hot liquid for a moment, and then took a longer drink, the caffeine in the tea helping keep him awake, to say nothing of its heat warming him up from the inside.
Beside him, the twins also drank their tea, and then placing their teacups and saucers on the coffee table, turned to Shirou. "So," Rin began. "Shall we get down to business?"
"Okay." Shirou said with a shrug, and another drink of his tea.
"Great!" Sakura said. "Now then…ever heard of Heaven's Feel?"
"No…should I have?" Shirou answered.
"Hmm…probably not…" Rin said. "It's a very technical term, used to refer to either of two things, more commonly for one than the other."
"And those are?" Shirou prompted.
"The first is the proper term for the lost Third True Magic." Rin answered. "Materialization of the soul, said to be the only mystery capable of granting true immortality, only it's been lost for over a thousand years. The Einzbern family of Germany were students of the last Third Magician, and retained fragments of Heaven's Feel until about a century or so ago. Even before then though, they focused everything they had on recovering the lost Third True Magic."
"Yeah…that's…not surprising…" Shirou said with a sigh. He wasn't a very good magus, but his father had taught him enough of the basics, and Aunt Valkolumi (and the twins) had helped fill in plenty of the blanks in the years since. Among those was the way magi thought and reasoned, as well as their goals among other things.
Including how magi treasured their mysteries ever so much. The older and more profound the mystery was, they treasured it so much more, even to the point that they would value it more than they would their own lives.
And True Magic…the ability to simply do the impossible…a power from beyond the World and existing outside of its laws…they were the greatest of all mysteries.
Small wonder that Einzbern would put everything they had to recovering their ancestors' teacher's legacy.
"No, it isn't." Sakura agreed with a nod. "But Heaven's Feel refers to more than one thing. And the second thing is what directly concerns us. You see, Heaven's Feel also refers to a Grand Ritual that takes place here in Fuyuki City every fifty years, called the Holy Grail War."
Shirou's eyes went wide. "Holy Grail War?" he echoed.
"Yes," Sakura said with a nod. "Long story short, it's a Grand Ritual wherein seven magi called 'Masters' summon seven Heroic Spirits as 'Servants'. They then fight it out to determine the rightful holder of the eponymous Holy Grail."
"It's not the actual Holy Grail, of course." Rin cut in before Shirou could ask. "As if the Holy Church would allow magi to hold it if it were the real deal, much less let magi actually put it up as a prize for a blood sport. We…well, we don't really know why the founders called it that."
"Well," Sakura chimed in. "Holy Grail is a synonym for anything that is greatly sought after, so that could be it."
"Possible…" Rin conceded.
"Wait, wait," Shirou said. "I don't understand. What's the point in getting the Holy Grail in the first place? To the point the participants would – in your own words – throw themselves into a blood sport to get their hands on it? What does it even do?"
"Three different questions for the same answer." Rin said with a sigh. "Well, it's a wish machine."
"What?"
"Exactly what Rin said." Sakura said with a nod. "It's a wish machine. It grants wishes."
Shirou stared at Sakura, who just stared back. And then Rin coughed. "Well," she said. "As Servants are killed, their bodies are dissolved into prana which is stored in the Grail. Once six Servants have fallen, enough prana is available for the granting of two wishes, one each for the Master and Servant both. So long as the wish does not trespass into the domains of True Magic, the Grail is capable of granting them."
Now Shirou stared at Rin. "Seriously?" he asked.
"Seriously!" the twins chorused, and Shirou rubbed at his eyes.
"…how are you even able to summon Heroic Spirits in the first place?" he asked.
The twins looked at each other, and then Sakura tilted her head. "Well," she said. "This is common knowledge for everyone who's heard of the Grail Wars."
"True," Rin said with a nod before turning back to Shirou. "We mentioned the Third True Magic and the Einzbern family earlier, yes? Well, that's how. They used their last fragments of the Third True Magic to allow participants in the ritual to be able to reach out to the Throne of Heroes, and summon Heroic Spirits therein to reality."
"Up to a point, of course." Sakura added. "Heroic Spirits are incredibly-powerful and profound existences. They can't be summoned as they are completely. So we have the Class System of Servants, based around seven concepts: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Berserker, Caster, and Assassin."
"The Class System limits a Heroic Spirit's power to how it fits into the class they are summoned into." Rin explained. "This simplifies the summoning process…up to a point."
"It still takes the Grail fifty years or so to gather enough prana from the ley-lines of Fuyuki City to summon the seven Servants." Sakura said. "Even simplified with the Class System, virtually no magus is capable of powering the summoning ritual. The Grail does that, backing them up with the magus behind the summoning simply triggering and managing the ritual."
"And of course," Rin said. "A Heroic Spirit can reject the summons if they so wish."
"Or if it succeeds," Sakura said. "There's still the fact that Servants aren't truly alive, and that the True Magic used behind their summoning is incomplete. So they're essentially high-functioning spiritual familiars. And the Master must provide them with a steady supply of prana to keep them in the World. That prana requirement would only increase should they – the Servant – use their Noble Phantasms."
"Noble…Phantasms…?" Shirou echoed.
"Basically the crystallization of the legend behind a Servant or rather the Heroic Spirit." Rin said. "It manifests in various ways, usually as a weapon, but it can also take the form of a special ability or whatnot. Using one costs prana though…as Sakura said."
"And if a Servant ever runs out of prana…" Sakura concluded with a smile and sing-song voice. "SUDDEN DEATH!"
"…okay." Shirou said with a sigh and running a hand over his face. Taking his teacup, he took a deep and bracing drink. "That explains the how and what of summoning a Servant. Even the why…partly. A wish, huh? Hmm…well, no one ever said heroes were perfect. A chance to fix an old mistake, to get or do something they couldn't in life, or something else like that…"
Shirou trailed off with a series of nods and another drink of tea. "So how does this involve your family?" he asked.
"We're the Second Owners of this land." Rin said. "And long before that, we were feudal lords ruling over it."
"Wait…you mentioned the ley-lines earlier…" Shirou said in realization. "Does that mean?"
"Yeah," Sakura said with a nod. "Our ancestor and the first magus of the Tohsaka family, Nagato Tohsaka, helped set up Heaven's Feel. The other two founders were the Russian magus Makiri Zolgen, ancestor of the Matou family…"
"Wait, Matou…?" Shirou interrupted in surprise.
"Yeah, they're magi." Rin said with a nod. "Or at least they used to be. Nowadays though they've withered away. Mostly…they still have one magus left, but he's an old man…"
"Old Man Zouken from the PTA…?" Shirou asked dully.
"…yeah, that's him." The twins chorused.
"Okay…" Shirou said while rubbing his eyes. "You were saying?"
"The last founder was the German magus Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern." Sakura continued. "They also participated in the First Holy Grail War about a hundred and sixty years ago or so."
"Yeah…that's the part that bothers me." Shirou said. "If the Holy Grail is so…powerful, and can do so much, why should it be fought for in the first place? I mean…shouldn't it be used for everybody's sake?"
"Admirable," Rin said. "But unworkable: remember, there'd only be enough prana at the end to grant two wishes. And while it's possible – if incredibly improbable – to get seven magi to agree to a single wish, seven Heroic Spirits…"
Rin trailed off, but Shirou understood. "Yeah, I get what you mean." He said sourly.
"Past Holy Grail Wars were brutal." Sakura grimly said. "The Masters let themselves be consumed by greed and killed indiscriminately to try and get the Grail. The Third Holy Grail War especially, fought during WWII. Two of the Masters in particular each brought in either Waffen-SS or Imperial Japanese Army troops, both hoping to use the Grail as a weapon during the war."
"It was after that war that the Holy Church sent an Overseer to ensure future Grail Wars would be more…low-key." Rin said with narrowed eyes.
"…it's about to happen again, isn't it?" Shirou asked.
The twins looked at each other for a few moments, and then nodded. "Yes," Rin said. "The Fifth Holy Grail War is set to begin in a few months' time."
"…wait…fifth…but if the third war was during WWII…"
"Shirou," Sakura said with a smile. "There we finally get to business."
"Not once has the Holy Grail ever been completed." Rin continued. "Four times it's been reiterated, and four times it's ended in failure."
"The fourth war, for example." Sakura said, picking up the figurative baton from her sister. "It was supposed to be a low-key event, what with a Church Overseer present."
"Instead," Rin carried on. "The Grail malfunctioned at the very end, and exploded, turning a large chunk of our city to ash."
Shirou's eyes went wide, and he swallowed dryly, echoes of pleading and desperate voices, of crying and screaming amidst the crackling of flames and the crumbling of masonry, going through his head. There was phantom pain too, as though of fire licking at his flesh, of smolder burning slowly into his skin, of ash and smoke cooking his throat from the inside out, and the very air itself roasting him alive…
The twins failed to notice as Shirou struggled to reign his recollections in, and continued. "…the Fifth Holy Grail War is forty or so years ahead of schedule." Sakura was saying. "What does that tell you?"
"…something's gone very wrong?" Shirou weakly offered.
"Precisely." Rin said with a nod. "Grand Rituals are very delicate things. They have to be, considering just how profound their mysteries are, and the extent they are able to distort and even remake reality. Not to mention the sheer amount of prana involved."
"And as they are delicate things," Sakura continued. "With so many mysteries, concepts, principles, and the like functioning in tandem with each other, they can only deviate so much from a narrow and specific set of variable conditions for the Grand Ritual to work properly."
"Most important of all," Rin carried on. "Heaven's Feel really looks as though it's gone completely off the rails. Our guess is, the system was never meant to be used so many times, and ending in failure each and every time."
"It's already malfunctioned once." Sakura said. "And to a catastrophic result at that. Now it's starting early…so mother thinks it's time to draw the line. And I agree."
"As do I." Rin said with a nod.
"A line?" Shirou asked.
The twins looked at each other before answering. "It's time for Heaven's Feel to end, once and for all." They chorused.
Shirou, if you really want to be a magus, then I guess it can't be helped. But listen, Shirou. Magecraft is a tool, but it's a tool that shouldn't exist. Keep that in mind, and with it keep your tool as harmless as it can be.
Kiritsugu Emiya's words echoed in his (adopted) son's head, and made it easier to accept the surprising revelation that his friends and the Second Owners of the city he lived in were prepared to discard their family's legacy. Well, maybe not so surprising.
Well, like we said, Heaven's Feel can only grant wishes that don't trespass into the domains of True Magic. Since the whole point behind magecraft is reaching the Root, in that light Heaven's Feel doesn't really contribute anything to us being magi.
And, while Heaven's Feel is part of our family's legacy, by this point it's becoming deadweight. Almost like cancer even, if the Grand Ritual is getting unstable and turning into a ticking bomb. So you could say that what we're planning is no different from cutting out a tumor.
Or chopping off an infected limb.
That too…and put like that, ending Heaven's Feel before it damns us all honors the family legacy more than continuing it simply because would.
Now then…would you like to have dinner with us?
Shirou smiled at the recent memory, before settling into his seat. He'd had dinner with the twins, and then they'd offered to let him use their family's car to drive him home. Shirou had tried to refuse, but the twins insisted, and so here he was, in the back of a Rolls-Royce being driven across town.
"…guess I can't argue with the twins' reasoning." Shirou thought to himself. "Or for that matter, Aunt Valkolumi's. That said…I wonder if everyone else with a stake in this will agree."
Shirou sighed at the thought, turning his head to look at the vibrant and glittering nightlife of Fuyuki going past as the Rolls-Royce went on its way. "Then again," he thought. "That's why Aunt Valkolumi went to visit the Clock Tower. To gather friends and allies, maybe even relatives, to back her and the twins up in case someone makes trouble over their plan."
Then Shirou's expression hardened, his thoughts halting at what Rin had told him earlier.
The Grail malfunctioned at the very end, and exploded, turning a large chunk of our city to ash.
Shirou's hands curled into fists, the young man clenching them as hard as he could. To think that that disaster which had killed so many people and injured so much more was the result of a magical ritual gone wrong.
No…more than that…
…that had been the fourth time the ritual had been held, and while it had been the most destructive of all attempts to complete it, the previous rituals hadn't been spared their fair share of blood. Sakura had told him that much.
The Masters let themselves be consumed by greed and killed indiscriminately to try and get the Grail.
"I shouldn't blame the twins." Shirou told himself while closing his eyes, pacing his breathing to regain his calm. It had been over an hour since the twins had told him all this, but it was only now that it really began to sink in. What they'd told him, and what it meant. And a part of Shirou wanted to blame the twins, to hold them responsible for their ancestors' irresponsibility in coming up with the Grail Wars, and place fault on them for everyone killed and hurt during those wars.
Rain fell from a leaden sky, pouring heavily down on burning ruins. Steam hissed as the rain fell, water evaporating as it struck searing-hot stone and metal, flames spluttering as the water soaked into their fuel and drowned them into inactivity.
Smoke rose in grey columns as the fires died down, and then subsided themselves as smoldering fuel was doused and cooled by the rain. A boy stumbled through the ruins, his clothes singed and blackened, burns dotting patches of exposed skin, his eyes and face alike blank from his experiences. Then as though the falling rain had doused him out as much it did the flames, the boy gave a whimper before falling backwards onto the muddy ground with a splash.
For a long time the boy lay silent, breathing weakly as he stared up at the leaden sky, uncaring of the rain falling on and around him, and splashing into the muddy ground. And then slowly, the boy closed his eyes, his breathing growing weaker, seemingly allowing himself to give way to the temptation to just let go. The rain continued to fall on and around him, the cooling air and the muddy ground stealing the warmth from his body, but it didn't matter anymore. All that was left was to wait for death to come for him.
Then his eyes flickered open as mud splashed next to him, mixed with a man's pained and panicked breathing. The boy looked on as tears and rainwater mixed together on the face of the man looming over him, twisted with a desperate smile. It was the smile of someone who'd found what he was looking for, the smile of someone who'd suffered so much and was finally being saved from his torment.
The boy looked blankly at the man for a long moment, and then closed his eyes again as his strength failed him once more.
Shirou took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. As he relaxed, his fingers unclenched themselves. "No…I won't blame the twins." He thought again. "It's not their fault. They didn't build the Grail. They didn't fight in any of the Grail Wars. And what share their family has in the blame for the lives lost and hurt in the war will be taken responsibility for by ending it once and for all. Yes…that should be enough. Let it end there, and move on. That's the right thing to do, right dad?"
There was no answer to the question, but Shirou smiled softly to himself, as though hearing an answer despite himself.
Everything was burning. The city was burning. People were burning. He kept walking. He walked past the fires and through the ruins, ignoring the cries for help from all around him. He wasn't the only one there. But he kept walking. He walked past them.
He wasn't in a daze either, driven purely by primal instincts of survival. It hurt. Exposed skin reddened and cloth turned black from the heat of the flames around him. His chest hurt as smoke and soot entered his lungs with every breath. But he could think. The boy was perfectly aware of everything that was happening around him. Even so, he ignored the pleas for help and just kept on walking.
He didn't know who he was. He didn't know where he came from. He didn't know why he was there. He couldn't find the answers. He couldn't remember them either, if he even knew.
All he knew was that he had to survive. He would survive, and live to see another day, while everyone else died. He would escape the pain and the suffering where others would not. He was a sinner, and he would know it later on.
He would never forget.
He kept on walking.
Shirou's face hardened in resolve at the memory of that terrible night, of all the sins he'd committed just to live on where so many had died. He wouldn't let it happen again, no matter what. Even if he had to die stop it, to throw himself into hell…
…he'd stop it if no one else did. He owed that much to everyone who had died where he had lived.
And…
When I was young, I dreamed of becoming a Hero of Justice…saving someone means not saving someone else.
Is that so? But, you're an adult, and adults usually give up on their dreams. That's why, for your sake, I'll make your dream come true, and become a Hero of Justice in your place.
I see. I'm glad to hear that.
"Let them try." Shirou thought darkly as shadows danced over his face from the Rolls-Royce's movements. "Let them get in the way if putting things right. I'll do my part, and making dad's dream come true, become a Hero of Justice."
Meanwhile, in Osaka to the north
"Why's this kid so important anyway?" one freelancer – Jun – asked.
"Beats me." The leader of the group of five freelancers answered with a shrug. "You know better than to ask that kind of questions in our line of work."
"…fair enough." Jun replied.
The leader nodded, then gestured at the unconscious young man lying on the floor of the incomplete apartment they were in. He'd tried to lose them inside, not necessarily a bad idea, but unfortunately for him, the freelancers had had some tricks up their sleeve.
"Tie him up and cover his mouth." He said. "Not too tightly, mind. The client might have said it's fine if the kid gets roughed up a bit, but he's no good to us dead, and dead he'll be if he can't breathe."
"Got it, boss." Takumi – another freelancer – said before pulling some rope from the satchel hanging across his torso.
"Satoshi," the leader said. "Look him over. Jun and Hiro hit him on the head to knock him out. See if he's fine."
"Got it." Satoshi said, pulling out a pair of red-tinted glasses and putting them on. "Hmm…I don't see any sign of concussion or brain damage of any kind. He'll have a fair-sized lump in a hour or so, though."
"That's no problem." The leader said.
Jun glanced in Satoshi's direction. "See anything else about this kid?" he asked.
"Not much," Satoshi replied while taking his glasses off. "Though he's got some circuits on him. Not sure about the quality, or anything else that might be special about him, but he doesn't look or feel trained though."
"No, he definitely doesn't." Jun agreed.
The freelancers fell silent, looking on as Takumi and Hiro tied up their target. First his wrists and ankles each together, then his arms around his body. Finally, they used a simple handkerchief twisted up to gag the young man.
"Good," the leader said with a nod. "Get him in the van and let's get moving. It's a long trip south from here, and even longer if we're to avoid getting noticed. And that's the easy part."
"The easy part, boss?" Jun asked.
"Didn't you listen to my briefing on this job last week?" the leader answered irritably. "We cannot get noticed by the Second Owner, no matter what. They're not too friendly, according to our client. Now I'm good, but not that good."
"Sorry, boss." Jun said.
"Never mind that." The leader said with a dismissive wave. "Just get him in the van already. Move!"
The other freelancers hurried off, Takumi and Hiro carrying their target between them. The leader was the last to leave, looking around making sure they'd left nothing behind that could lead back to them – the target's parents would be reporting their son missing soon and then the police would get involved – before finally dispelling the simple bounded field he'd set up around the apartment.
Then hurrying after his men, the leader rejoined them just as they were loading their target into a plain white van. Getting inside themselves, the leader sitting in the front seat next to the driver, they finally drove off to finish their job.
A/N
A bit more serious this time, though still with some bits and pieces of comedy here and there. This isn't Carnival Phantasm, after all, though it isn't Heaven's Feel either.