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The following is a fan-based
FICTION
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Chapter 24: The Hurting Plight
I don't like this situation. I really don't.
A Servant on the loose, and it was directed towards the place where Caren lived. A bit of a precise aim for a random Servant that had some ties to Tamamo- just enough for Goetia to mistake this one for someone that could mix well with Tamamo's Saint Graph. Speaking of Tamamo, she looked incredibly... frustrated. It was quite early, this spirit was somewhat correlated to her legend (which meant that they were potentially evil due to how few friends Tamamo had in her life), and was a Caster.
A quick thought on it left me clueless since I couldn't think of any known Servant which were tied to that sort of clues, not even those that qualified and had never been shown in any of the Fateverse media. Nothing came to mind, but then Tamamo's tension took a different tone as she looked more certain of her hatred than before.
"I recognize it, Master," The fox-eared Servant confessed. "And if she's here, then this will be dangerous."
Not much of a telling sign, but I could actually correlate this comment to a few things I knew about Tamamo. She hardly hated someone to the point of being so venomous without them having been behind an attempt to steal her Hakunon away. No, this one deserved this sort of hatred from much before her time as a Servant- it was someone that had damned her reputation even more by passing to be her before she was 'alive'.
Before Tamamo, there was another nine-tailed fox which left behind a dreadful stain on any ensuing manifestation which possessed these traits. Daji was a concubine to a Chinese Emperor of the Shang Dynasty. Cruel, malicious, and driven by a sense of bloodlust and need to torture anything and anyone that was within her reach- of course she would go look for Caren as a potential Master, sensing a potential compatibility to cause chaos and deadly mischief.
I was dreading that combo, and, to a degree, I was correct. Daji had sought Caren, but what happened to her plan was quite... amusing. It would be wrong to assume that either Kirei and Caren would be disgusted by Daji's maliciousness, but what drove them to trick her in a most limiting position was the fact Kirei knew who Daji was, and the kind of manipulator she was. And if there is one thing that I knew about Kirei which was matched by Caren was that neither would accept being subordinated by someone that would easily throw their lives away. When Caren accepted, this decision turned against Daji.
Contained without a ritual seal, the fox-girl that looked quite similar to Tamamo but bore nothing more from her beyond appearance-wise writhed in pain as purifying energy suppressed her power and made her unable to properly stand up. Now, one would normally rule this out as Kirei and Caren wanting to just hurt someone and doing it, but I quickly noticed how Kirei was just taking a greater pleasure from that activity, as if the torture was justified by something else. So, I left Tamamo to watch over the scene, the girl giddily offering a few seals of her own to expand the pain-input while I walked to check on Caren.
Kirei mentioned that she would appreciate it and that he wanted me to check on her. I noticed the unusual protective inclination in his tone and decided to go ahead. I had this feeling it wasn't a trap and, in a way, it wasn't. When I knocked at the door, Caren muttered a distracted 'come in', but was clearly surprised when I was the one stepping in her room. And she was wearing nothing more but a pink pajama shirt. That would have been enough to get me to leave, but my gaze lingered on a few details that had me staying behind. She had a few bandages applied on her body, and most of those had recently been getting bloodier.
Masochistic Spiritualist Constitution- a condition which causes individuals affected by it to develop physical damages on their body if an entity, a spirit, or a daemon are possessing someone nearby. Daji's presence definitely triggered a reaction, and her body had felt the brunt of it until Kirei put Daji under that seal.
Right now Caren was trying to patch herself up, using whatever she could use from her medic bag to fix her wounds. The issue? She wasn't being delicate about it, and the injuries were getting cleaned at a slow pace.
She was surprised, then annoyed when I just sat down and took the alcohol-damp cloth off her hand to continue on her stead. I could see it in her gaze- she didn't like being treated as a child, and yet said nothing as she slowly realized how I was being quite cautious and extremely meticulous with the job. She didn't make any scene despite how 'close' some wounds were to her modesty, and I showed no interest in staring.
I was there to help her up, and, a few minutes later, she blinked at the now clean bandages. She was resting on the bed, while I sat beside her. I was just resting for a moment, having had literally no time to rest after that early morning mess, and Caren used this opportunity to start a conversation.
"John?"
I sighed. "Yes, Caren?"
"Ti piacerebbe uscire un'altra volta con me?(1)"
I sighed. "No, sono fidanzato e felice.(2)"
She frowned hard at that.
"You and Taiga... are really serious about it?" The girl inquired and I nodded. "And what if she is open for-"
"Don't."
She paused, and then narrowed her eyes at me. "You know, I... I have been improving on myself-"
"And that's good on you. Because the point is to be happier-"
"How can I be happier if I can't... I can't be with someone I like?"
"By overcoming the heartbreak and going forward?" I pressed back, causing her to scoff.
"I am bruised, not broken. My heart is not going to surrender to insignificant details."
"I just told you 'no'-"
"Did you?" She hummed, her head tilting. "John, do you want me to stop because you don't like me, or because you are afraid of me?"
"Both-"
"Liar," She said, pushing herself onto me and causing me to fall onto the ground.
"Caren-"
"I can see it- how you look at me as if I am going to attack you in a flash. As if I want to hurt you all the time when that's not true."
She tightly hugged me. "I just... I just don't want this to be over."
"Polygamy is considered a sin," I shot back and she snorted.
"Does that mean I am a product of sin because my father married despite being a priest?"
That was a fair point, but one thing could be justified by saying that the church is accepting of that if it was convenient. How would polygamy be seen the same by the members of the holy see? Still, Caren pressed onto it, and I had to leave.
"Think about it," She muttered. "Please."
This was not going to end well. I left with Tamamo, the girl mentioning how Kirei was considering some collar to keep the 'sinful beast' under check. Caster was more than happy to provide assistance if needed. I didn't offer any input, wanting to go home, and finish the preparations I was meant to have done by the time I had to meet with Kirei.
At least that was going to be a more calm event compared to the rest.
"Kariya-san, I wish to start this meeting by apologizing for the abrupt news-"
"I-It's alright," The photographer muttered nervously, accepting the handshake offer I gave him. "I doubt you could have done much more than you did about it."
Matou Kariya was indeed a healthier person in this universe as he hadn't been tainted by any worms and didn't have to deal with the upkeep of a Berserker Servant. He looked like he had gotten better ever since he got away from Aoi, and he genuinely looked fatherly towards Sakura. The two shared a quick hug when he finally arrived, and the girl whispered to him what happened with Scathach and their little antics tied to Kamen Rider.
Still, it wasn't a lengthy exchange, not when there was much for him to ask me, and for me to explain without the girl around as the topics were... intense. We sat down by the living room, with Sakura checking if her room was properly fixed and, if it lacked something, to ask the support from anyone on the rest of the group visiting to help her move stuff.
The first words spent on the matter were quite quick-paced. Kariya wanted to know the extent of the damage, how it was fixed, how I got a Kaleidostick and eventually how I ended up being hired by Zelretch for this sort of stuff.
"So, this 'Powered Servants' situation is driven by... one of the strongest magicians' creations, Goetia?"
"It seems to be the case. The Servants I managed to free had a few glimpses of the culprit, and the latest one managed to trick him into believing he had corrupted her."
"And she saw him fully."
I nodded, causing the man to sigh tiredly.
"I swear, there's always some big plot happening in the background. I mean, there's this case I have been following that really left me creeped out," Kariya remarked dryly. "There's this cult- they are believers that pleasure is the source of Nirvana or something like that. The reason I was interested in that was that their head's daughter was sick for some unknown reason."
I blinked, thinking about what I just heard and remembering that something important was tied to that event. It was seemingly unimportant, but the whole pleasure cult idea reminded me of a single individual.
"Say, does this leader have a name like Sesshouin or Sessyoin?"
Kariya blinked, leaning a bit back as he thought over it. "I think... Yeah, I think I heard something like that. Are you actually familiar with it?"
"Barely, but yes."
"That's actually surprising. Why would a teacher that works also as a hero want to know that?"
I sighed, and gave him the most serious look possible. "The girl that is currently bedridden- she could potentially become a Beast-Class threat."
The response left him frowning.
"A Beast-Class threat? I am sorry if I am unfamiliar with that classification. Are you referring to a Servant or-"
"Beast-Class is used to define those entities which have the capacity to cause calamities, or are calamities themselves. Goetia himself is a Beast-Class entity himself, and his capacity to wander around and cause damage to this extent is just a fraction of what he can accomplish. The girl you saw will eventually try to become the Anti-Buddha. A world where everyone would be bound and elevated by pleasure alone."
"That's... absurd."
"And yet it happened somewhere. Or it could happen," I sighed. "Realities can and will be tedious to understand."
"I mean, I am trying to grasp some of the stuff you have mentioned but... it's surreal," He hummed. "So, is there one where the Fourth Holy Grail War happened? And how did it go?"
"Very poorly on you... Aoi, and Tokiomi too."
He paused, then looked intrigued. "How?"
"Zouken convinced you to use the worms to summon a Servant," I described, starting to explain to him why this current timeline was perhaps the best he could ask for, and why he should not sleep at night while thinking of those what ifs.
Still, as the conversation shifted into metaphysical topics, I still had this nagging feeling I had to do something about Kiara. I now knew she was around, and that she was still bed-ridden. If I did something now and I took her away from her 'family', I should be able to do something to give her a good childhood and let her grow up properly.
Luckily for me, Kariya gave me the address of where this cult resided and... I guess I will have to clean things up before we get a dangerous and lustful woman to become a most deadly demon born from pleasure.
AN
Daji is outmatched by Kirei, Caren is pushing her claim and instilling doubt in the monogamous nature of John's relationship with Taiga, and Kariya is here for a while. The Kiara situation... Oh boy, things are bound to get interesting.
Translation:
1) Wanna go out with me again?
2) No, I have a girlfriend and I am quite happy about it.
P.S. I now have a discord server! Discord .gg/ceBMM2Zz6c