The Matou's residence was quite a long walk away, I wasn't particularly happy when Tohsaka had told me about it. But I was intrigued when he next told me that the head of the Matou - Zouken - almost pulled out of the war since they have no suitable participants. It wasn't until Matou Kariya, who had turned his back on the magecraft world returned did they join the fray once again.
I wondered about that, but Tohsaka didn't. He marked it as irrelevant, but I didn't. To him, Matou Kariya was just another obstacle.
The sun had set when I was at the black gates of the Matou's estate. The mansion's windows were lit in orange lights, and far above on a window screen, a small shadow passed by. As I made to touch the gate, a scraping sound of shoe on concrete drew my attention to the right.
And so there I saw a man stood with his hoodie pulled down, hiding his face. His right hand was clutching his left; on the back of it were the red strokes of Command Seals. He moved forward with limping steps and dragging of his destroyed left leg, then he stopped and took the hood off, and I saw his face. His skin was pale; the left half of his face was dried and dead, with his left eye was a fading grey like that of a blind old man.
"What do you want?" He asked, his voice came out surprisingly normal.
"I'm just here to talk," I said.
"What's there to talk about? I know who you are and where you came from. Tokiomi's errand boy I presume?"
"Your rodents were there?"
"You don't know?" He was all condescending-like. "Everyone sends their familiars to spy on each other."
"I knew that well enough. Well, Matou Kariya, right? I'm Yuki Makoto, let's talk inside why don't we?"
"You're unwelcomed."
"I'm not hostile the least that I want is to talk to you."
"Even if I'm fine with you, the old man wouldn't let you in, and I'm not fine with you."
"Right, well... Let's get directly into it then. What's your wish for the Holy Grail?"
"Pardon me?"
"You heard it right the first time."
Kariya was taken aback, he corrected his slouch posture he didn't know he was in. "What is this?" He said.
"Just tell me, neither of us wants to be here in the cold all night."
Kariya made to say something, changed his mind, gather his thoughts and swallowed his saliva heavily. "I have no wish," he finally said, and I was a little perplexed.
"Then why prolong all of this?"
"I have no wish for it, but that old man does."
"Zouken," I said in realization.
"So you know of him. Well... did that Tohsaka tell you of their arrangement?"
"He didn't."
"Of course," he said then took a deep breath to hold his anger back. "Of course he didn't, if you knew you'd be- no, you're a magus, if he did say you wouldn't even care."
"Don't make assumptions of me. What's this dirt on Tohsaka?"
"Dirt… It's nothing so miniscule, you hear? This is about the happiness of two sisters and their mother, and the bastard that ruined it! Tohsaka Tokiomi and Tohsaka Aoi have two little daughters, but now only one of them is a Tohsaka, the other - Sakura - is now a Matou."
"Why would he put his daughter to be adopted into the Matou?"
"I don't know, it's all wrong is what I know. If you can feel the things she must endure because of that bastard's training..."
"What training?"
"I didn't always look like this you know? But what he does to her," Kariya paused to swallow a lump on his throat and shakily continues, "is worse." He then clutched his left arm tighter and tighter, pulling in heavy breath to fan the fire of his wrathful protectiveness. "He put her in the bottom of the basement, then surrounds her with Crest Worms and let them..." he gestured at his own features, "and call it that."
"So you want the Grail because Zouken wants the Grail. And if Zouken gets the Grail then Tohsaka Sakura will be free?"
He gave me look and didn't say anything.
"You have a Servant, so why not free her that way?"
Kariya shook his head and smiled, as if he had heard the idea before. "His Crest Worms are inside her, her veins, her bones... The same is true for me too. So if I were to rebel against him, she will be devoured inside out."
"I see," I said and looked towards the courtyard. "What kind of defense mechanisms are in there?"
"No defense, just detection. Why?"
"I just have this funny little idea of breaking in there and busting her out and maybe you can help me with this."
"Hadn't you heard what I said? Any attempts to free her will result in her death. If you want to help, here's an idea: Tohsaka is friendly with you right now, so you go back to him with some thought-up pretense and eliminate him from the War, how's that?"
"And what do I do about his Servant?"
"Never mind his Servant after you had taken care of Tokiomi I'll do the rest."
"No, I don't want to kill a man like him so I'll pass. Besides, if you were watching his place, then he's definitely watching us now, so it'd be hard for me come up with a pretense that'd fool him. But about your problem here," I looked at the mansion, at the orange lights and the dark courtyard, "I sympathize and I will help. Just not in the way you want."
"How will you help me then?" Kariya said in doubt.
"First, can we talk where your old man couldn't spy on us?"
"He's already spying on us. He's made of Crest Worms, every single one. So the creatures that are... torturing Sakura right now are him. And the creatures that reduced me into this state are him."
"And so he listens, and so he sees."
"Right," Kariya nodded unpleasantly. "So there's no point in going against him. He will kill her and then me."
I looked back at the mansion. Michael, I thought, what do you see?
I see a faint emission in the mansion and the courtyard. If I get closer, I can pinpoint his location.
The worm pit, you sense it?
No, it must be way down there. If I get closer then I could definitely find it.
Then that is what you'll do. Gabriel.
Yes? Her voice came forward.
Get ready.
"What if I constantly heal you and her?" I said to Kariya. "The worms will continuously hurt you, sure. But if I can get you to the church, then father Risei might be able to help you."
"Don't joke with me. That's not possible with just you."
"You're right."
I drew my Hi-power, flicked the safety down and checked its chamber. Kariya was taken aback by this, and took a cautious stance. With the chamber confirmed empty, I pressed the muzzle against my ear, which confused Kariya for a second. And then I squeezed the trigger.
Click! The glass shattered and Gabriel gently manifested into this world. Her skin was green and so were the back of her feathered wings while their front was white, and the hair on her head was blue, long and wavy. Her breast plate was gold and so were her pauldrons, while the fabric covering her waist down was a white robe. In her left hand she held a white thorny flower, and in her right hand she held a longsword.
Not even a fraction of a second passed, and she had already jumped and launched herself forward towards the mansion.
I thumbed the hammer and dry-fired once again. Michael manifested and picked Kariya up before following Gabriel.
"What is this!?" Kariya had yelled moments before Michael took flight and I yelled my answer:
"He'll keep you and her alive, help him find her!"
As Gabriel broke down the front door and began her hunt for Matou Zouken, Michael got in not a little after her and started for the basement.
I ran in last, following Gabriel. Michael can handle things himself easy enough, his current objective is to get Sakura and take both her and Kariya to Kotomine Risei, so that with both of them safe and sound, I can focus on getting rid of Matou Zouken.
There he is! Gabriel exclaimed and broke through the ceiling to get to the second floor while I must head for the stairs. When I got to the second floor hallway, I saw that Gabriel was in the middle of it and was hovering above the gap she had created in the hallway. And I saw the 'old corpse' through her eyes that he was held at the tip of her sword.
Matou Zouken was small and in plain robe, his head was bald and his face was sharp and wrinkled. His eyes were dark as if they had retreated into their sockets, while his back is bent and he must hold a cane in his right hand to support himself. His features were ugly, unnatural and crooked, so it seemed that the monsters in this world wore their heart on their sleeves.
With a curious tilt of the head and a sneering smile, Zouken said:
"Interesting, this thing seems to have the power capacity at the level of those Servants, but there had already been seven summoned, so that is impossible. What are these two creatures, if you don't mind my asking?"
"My familiars," I said.
"And you modeled them after angels. Are you of the Holy Church?"
"No."
"No? Well, with skills to create familiars like these, the Mage's Association would've already sniffed your scent, but I've never heard of you before, so you're not part of them either I assume?"
"You assume correct."
The sneer in his smile had gone, he had become genuinely amused and I felt my skin crawl.
Prepare a Hama, I thought, and on my order, up it to Hamaon then execute it.
Gabriel pinpointed the location of the spell beneath Zouken and supplied enough energy towards it for it to be easily executed but not noticeable.
"Interesting, interesting," Zouken said to himself. "This Holy Grail War seems to be the most different one yet. First that Caster and now you, I wonder what else is amiss?"
"What do you mean?"
"Caster is not a Heroic spirit is he? And that Kariya's Berserker is not one also. They're Vengeful spirits, no deserving to be called a Hero. But they are summoned nonetheless. I wonder why? Don't you feel that there is something wrong with the Holy Grail for it to summon Servants so diabolical?"
"No, for all I care the Grail is diabolical already. Why are you telling me all of this?"
"Why not, don't you desire the Grail in some way?"
"Not for its wishes."
"Oh? Well, it doesn't matter. I can guess as to what your frivolous desires are. Hmm?" He perked up. "It seems that it's done."
"I can tell."
"And they're still alive as well."
"But you're still with them."
Zouken burst out a laugh, he had thought of something comedic. "Indeed I am," he said, "so you're intending to take them to the Fuyuki church?" Then he scoffed, "That priest wouldn't be able to do anything against my Crest Worms. They're imbedded deep inside Kariya and Sakura. You must tear them apart from their meat meat to their organs, then to their bones, then to their nerves. Only then will you pry the worms from them. But that would kill them wouldn't it?" His laugh then came out as sharp.
"Is that why you've been talking so much?"
"Why act when victory is certain? I never had much faith for Kariya when he came back and asked for my training. I just wanted to taste his suffering. And with you providing a small hope for him, yet he couldn't reach it, it makes his suffering so more delectable."
He laughed once more and it echoed across the hallway.
Do it.
A white square lights up beneath Zouken, and a giant card materialized from it, phasing through him.
"Eh?"
Zouken made to dodge, but he was inefficient. His body had partially transformed into flying black beetles but the exploding white light had caught up to him. The Hamaon spell evaporated the majority of his lower body, leaving him only chest, arms, neck and head. He dropped down on the floor, aghast and furious.
"You, what was-?" He cut himself off and attempted to transform once more, but the Hamaon spell had already caught up to him, and the light had consumed what was left of him.
At least, this part of Zouken was gone. Although Michael had dealt with the ones in the basement and Gabriel had dealt with the ones formed Zouken's body, he lives still within Kariya and Sakura. We needed to take them to father Risei.
Michael had begun making his way out of the basement, leaving the worm pit to be no more than a pit of char. With the two Matou in hand, paralyzed by pain, he flew out of the estate and set sight for the Fuyuki church. Gabriel and I followed.
We landed in the courtyard; Gabriel set me down and disappeared back into the Sea of Souls while Michael roughly opened the church's doors in haste, making his way in with the two Matou in his arm.
In the church, father Risei was standing at the altar as if he was expecting us. He saw Michael first and muttered something I didn't catch. Then he turned to me and said:
"What must I do?"
"Are you a good surgeon?"
"What's the operation?"
"Removal of foreign entities - Crest Worms - from the both of them."
"I see, but Crest Worms will be difficult. If we can partially remove them, let the patient rest, repeat, then the worms will be removed fully with the patient still alive. But if the worms are actively harming them as I see here, then it must be a total removal, no rest, no stopping. It could kill them."
"I know. I'm hoping that Michael can help you with stabilizing their conditions."
"Michael..." father Risei said to himself, "I see, and then we must prepare the beds and the tools. With God as my witness, I will save them."
And so the surgery goes. Michael followed father Risei to the room to the left of the altar, keeping watch, administering healing spells when necessary and pinpointing the worms' location for him. I stood out of it; I didn't want to see the process. Although Michael was doing it for me I told him to keep it to himself. I saw enough cut up children for the past two days.
Hours passed and although the air was calm and quiet, I wasn't harmonizing with the mood. I felt myself heat up, started dizzying, sweat and shook. The sweat stick to my shirt and its damp coolness kept bothering my back during the operation. Eventually, the door opened and father Risei stepped out then took a seat. Michael disappeared back into my psyche and I took the seat next to father Risei.
"You look rather unwell," he said.
"I could say the same to you," I said, he had come out of the room sweating more than I did. "So how did it go?" I asked, even though I knew the answer.
"They're alive," he let out a breath of relief and sank himself into the wooden bench somehow. "I had never felt this amount of stress for a long time ago."
Father Risei reached into his pocket, took out a glass vial containing a flimsy white worm and said:
"Here's Zouken, hiding in little Sakura's heart. Can you believe it? That this wraith retreated himself into a little girl."
He ended it with a soft anger in his voice, and handed me the vial. "What do you want to do with it?"
The white spring worm moved about, making noises like what a scared old man would make.
"We'll see if he knows a thing or two, then I'll squish him."
"All right," father Risei nodded, "do what you must. Just make sure that he dies. You might want to go check on them."
"Of course," I pocketed the vial. "But about Tohsaka, you were rather eager to point me towards him didn't you?"
"I did, and I suppose you already knew why."
"You're working with him."
"I am," he nodded. "I guess you were right to say that I lack subtlety," he smiled. "What do you think of it?"
"I don't really care for the rules and fair play in a death match such as this. You should call Tohsaka to come here he might want to see his daughter again."
"Of course, I'll contact him," and he entered the room to the right of the altar, while I entered the room to the left.
In the surgery room, Matou Kariya was sleeping on a futon, while Tohsaka Sakura was on the bed next to him. At the foot of the bed was a small wooden table with father Risei's surgery kit, and to the left of the bed was an opened window, letting the night's gentle breeze into the room.
I walked up to Kariya, leaned my back against the wall and slid myself down to a sitting position next to him.
Kariya's face was healed, but the skin on the left of his face was heavily dried.
I moved his shoulder a little, and it was enough to wake him up. When his eyes were opened by a little, he immediately shot up and yelled "Sakura!" and reaching a hand out to grasp at something. Seeing that he was grasping for nothing, he retracted his hand. He looked to the left and was mesmerized by the moonlight shining brilliantly into the room, like a protective aura around the little Sakura on the bed next to him.
"Hey," I said, breaking his trance and he looked at me all surprised. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah," he breathed out, "yeah I am." Then he touched his own face, stopped in disbelief and touched it again for confirmation, "How?"
"Familiars," I said.
"Don't lie. Those two angel-looking beings were not mere familiars; they have powers that rival Servants."
"Then what are they?"
"They're-" he stopped to think, came up with nothing, and said, "They're not mere familiars. Their powers are too much for them to be just that."
"Sure, whatever you say. Why don't we get to the main topic? What are you going to after this?"
"What do you mean?"
"What else do I mean? She's saved isn't she? She's free of that wraith. Want proof? Here he is," I presented him the vial with the white worm. He reached for it and I retracted it away.
"Let me see," he said.
I shook the vial and Zouken could only make panic noises.
"Does that voice sound familiar?"
Kariya leaned back against the wall, smiled. "I can't believe it. All these years, I thought he was unbeatable. So why haven't you killed him yet?"
"I have things to ask him. So what are you going to after this?"
"I don't know. With those worms out of my body I- wait, are they out of body?"
"Of course, we wouldn't let you die."
"Right, well... I have magic circuits, but they're underdeveloped, and with those worms out of my body I won't be an effective magus anymore. I don't think I can keep supplying Berserker with enough energy to fight, so I guess I'm out."
He was all melancholic about it, which struck me as rather odd. "Why do you sound like you want to keep fighting? Is it Tokiomi?"
"No shit. He's the one who got her in there."
"I'll talk to him about it, and then perhaps you two can talk to each other about it. So I guess Berserker is effectively dead now isn't he?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"Okay," I patted his shoulder, and then stood up. "Take it easy now, you need it."
"Thanks, is Tokiomi going to be here?"
"Maybe, he's her father, right?"
"I don't like it. I don't think he has the right to come and see her after what he had done."
"He's still her father and she might want to see him."
"See him? He allowed her to-"
"He's her father, end of story. At least let him explain himself. And if she doesn't forgive him, then let him live with it."
"He wouldn't care about that. He's a devoted magus, he cares little for-"
"All right, I get it," I said, "he only cares about progressing towards the Holy Grail to reach the Root and have little care for his daughter. But he's still her father, and he deserves to at least see his daughter. If she forgives him, let her, if she doesn't, let her. Don't get in between them," and then left the room.
Father Risei was waiting outside near the altar.
"Did you call him?" I said.
"I did," father Risei nodded. "It seems Matou Kariya objected to it."
"It doesn't' matter what his opinion regarding this is. Sakura's fine, that's all that matters."
"This would actually complicate things for Tokiomi."
"Let me guess, two kids and a wife - three potential hostages."
Father Risei nodded.
"Tell him if such things were to occur, then I'll help him so he has no need to worry about anyone harming his family."
Father Risei smiled, "I'll tell him."
"Okay. Can you check the spirit board for me regarding Berserker?"
"I've already checked it. Berserker is eliminated. I had my doubt against you. But now, I no longer have any doubts."
"I'm glad you believe in me then."
"You know, Yuki. Why didn't you ally yourself with Tokiomi? You're good at what you do, and with your assistance, a better tomorrow would definitely be achieved."
"Sorry, father. But utopias are utopias. I won't ally myself with him, but I'll help him with things that I can."
Father Risei sighed, nodded and gave up.
I patted his shoulder and said, "Do you want talk to Zouken? He seems to know a few oddities regarding this Grail War."
That lifted his spirit and he said, "Oddities?"
"Yeah, he said it was rather odd that in this Grail War two Vengeful spirits had been summoned. What do you think?"
Father Risei struck an old man thinking pose and hummed. "I think we should hear what he has to say."
I popped the vial open and clamped my index-finger and thumb on Zouken's head, extracting the spring worm out and held him in the air. I moved my fingers back from his head a little so he could move his upper and lower jaw to speak.
"Hey," I said, "tell us about what's so odd about this Grail War."
"What?" Zouken squirmed about, "Aren't you the oddity here? You go and answer your own damn question!"
I clamped down hard on his skull, let go and said, "Do you know how easy this is for me?"
"I don't care you'll kill me either way!"
"That's true. Maybe I should take off bits and bits of you with my fingers first."
I grabbed his tail, pinched then clipped it off between my finger nails. Zouken gasped for air and let out a pained cry with each gasp.
"Enough, enough," he wailed, "I'll talk, I'll talk!"
I looked to father Risei and he was surprised. "I thought he would resist more. I guess pain makes for a good motivator."
"Do you have any questions to ask him, father?"
"Of course I do. Zouken," he regarded the worm. "What do you know about the oddities of this Holy Grail War?"
While he was still squirming and gasping between my fingers, he said:
"The Servants: Caster and Berserker are Vengeful spirits, not Heroic spirits. This is perhaps the sign that something is wrong with this war, and the cause of it is... well, it's just my speculation now but..."
"Out with it," father Risei said.
Zouken winced, anticipating an attack that never comes. "I-I think that the cause of this is the Servant that the Einzberns summoned for the last war: Avenger, Angra Mainyu. I think that, when Avenger was killed and returned to the Grail, he had tainted it. But... that's just my speculations."
"Is that all?"
"Yes, that is all," Zouken said, defeated. "Please don't kill me. All I wanted is to live longer, you'd understand wouldn't you, the fear of withering away and losing all of what makes you who you are? I don't want it to happen to me."
"Sorry, Zouken," father Risei said. "But you had lost who you are. You had forgotten of why you three families had constructed the Holy Grail originally and you had forgotten your morality. To leave you unpunished would be a sin."
"I-" Zouken whimpered, "I understand. Kill me."
I crushed his head between fingers, his cracked skull leaked fluids and I put him back into the vial and pressed the cap back on.
Father Risei let out a heavy breath and solemnly looked down. "If what he speculated is true," he said, "then what should we make of the Holy Grail now? If the Grail is tainted, then what will happen?"
"Maybe we'll know when the last Servant fell."
"So should we wait that long?"
"I don't know. You should talk about this to Tohsaka. Here," I handed the vial back to him.
"You're not going to keep it?"
"No, the boys back home would look at me weird if I had a vial of a strange looking worm on me."
"All right, I'll burn him somewhere."
I nodded. "I'll get going now."
"You don't want to wait here to talk to Tokiomi at least?"
"No, it's late, I'm sleepy, and I'm feeling like a disgusting slime ball. My captain let me roam free for today but I have works to do tomorrow."
Father Risei smiled and he said, curiously, "What does a yakuza do for work?"
"House cleaning, grocery buying. Cooking dinner, sometimes we extort money from small business owners. Beat up or chase around members from other yakuza groups and stand guard at a game as it goes on in one of our gambling places."
With a smile, father Risei shook his head disapprovingly. "I do not know why you'd associate yourself with such people."
"They're good people, most of them. They're not too bad I guess, but that could be my bias talking. I'm planning to leave them one day anyway."
"When will that be?"
"I'm not sure. When I'm dead maybe," I smiled.
Author's note: Before I get into this chapter, I would like to answer two questions asked by Mr. Haziq. On chapter one, he asked whether Makoto was working for the Fujimura yakuza group, and the answer is no he is not. But I think you all guessed that already when chapter two was posted and there's no mention of the Fujimura yakuza group.
On chapter two he asked whether I had meant it to be "the devil on his left shoulder" instead of "the angel on his left shoulder", and the answer is no. It was deliberately written that way. Why? I forgot the reason myself, but it was probably stupid and I'm not changing it.
I'm not sure if answering questions this way is efficient, but I reckon that public questions deserve public answers. Maybe I should just PM the answer to whatever question you might have.
Anyway, about the chapter, this one is beyond four thousand words so I hope it's not a slog to go through it all. It was very dialogue heavy and the action was rather lackluster. That whole confrontation with Zouken was anti-climactic to me and I couldn't think of a better way to write it, writing a big battle with Zouken to me is stupid because to write a big battle against Zouken would be writing Makoto holding back when he could end the whole thing by freezing the guy in ice then evaporating him in light. So I'm stuck on that, and I just gave up and decided to have Zouken only partially destroyed by the light spell so he can at least have some reaction to what happened instead of just evaporated like I originally wrote it.
And to nitpick myself, I had twice described the two angels' process of taking flight using the word "launched" and it makes me mad. But I can't I think of a better way to describe how I thought an angel would take flight in such a scenario, which is jumping and then Mach 3 their way to destination or something similar. I can't think of a word that sounds as strong as "launched" so I'll settle with "launched" for now.
The next chapter will hopefully be a shorter and a quicker read than this one.
