I want to thank dawnwatch for being the beta of for this chapter. If you have the time, please take a look at his ficcs.
Chapter begin.
In the Emiya mansion, there was a lot of activity even though it was already late at night, particularly in the garden on the central section of the mansion. It being the main location the Emiya children had begun to use for teleportation magic. So, getting ready for them arrive, we see how Irisviel, Aoi, Sella, Leysritt and surprisingly Semiramis on guard overlooking the area.
It was in that moment that the center of the garden that they saw a spark of light began to appear showing that one of their kids was going to arrive.
To their surprise it was the group of the girls with Tatsuya and Kiritsugu, with Shirou still missing. Something was wrong because when the teleportation spell ended and they could see that Tatsuya was unconscious, Kiritsugu was hurt, and the girls were all showing signs of a hard battle.
"Tatsuya! What happened" asked Iris with worry seeing him unconscious. Relaxing only a little when Sakura told her he would be fine.
"Are you ok?" turned and asked Aoi the others.
"The servant was as powerful as we feared" answerd Illya with her shoulders falling and exhaustion in her voice.
"We did not have time to rest. Shirou is still out there facing a servant alone." said Sakura as her hands fretted over her equipment so she could go assist him.
"Sakura is right we need to go and support him before…" whatever Rin was about to said ended in that point when they could feel how someone was using their teleportation spell to enter the garden and they knew who it was. They were proven right when they recognized Shirou and his arrival with the main family of the Saegusa clan.
"Shirou!" said Iris happy to see his son in good state.
Shirou for his part has happy to see that the others were already there.
"I am so happy to see you here; I was so worried that I would arrive too late to help you"
"That would be the case but we went with dad's idea after we arrived and that is how we managed to escape" said Illya.
"I see." Said Shirou as he turned to look at Kiritsugu, "Dad are you ok?"
"I am fine. I guess that I am a little rusty after all this time being out of the battle fields" said Kiritsugu but when he tried to take a step his knees give out and he almost fell to the ground, had it not been for Maya catching and supporting him.
"Are you really all right?" asked Maya concern filling her voice.
"I will be fine in a little while; I juts used to much magic in my fight." said Kiritsugu.
"Them maybe you should rest first." Added Miya. Getting closer to her sister.
"That is what I would like to do, but unfortunately we don't have that luxury." Turning to Rin, he asked that if she could cure his injuries. Rin nodded as she retracted her helmet, something that the others soon followed.
"You are the heroes, the one that safe Okinawa and the magic games!" said a couple of voices causing everyone to turn and see saw how Izumi and Kasumi were looking at them with stars in their eyes.
"Yes, they are but now we have important things to discuss, so please be quiet." said Mayumi. As she moved closer to where Tatsuya lied unconscious.
"Will he be ok?"
"Don't worry, he is very strong and as soon as I am done helping my father in law, I will help him, after that I recommend that have a talk in the living room" said Rin.
After Rin finished working on Kiritsugu she proceeded to help Tatsuya, after he woke up all of them walked towards the living room.
On the way there something interesting at least for one person was Iris saw how Maya was helping Kiritsugu to walk towards the inside of their home, never removing his arm from her shoulders as she supported him as they walk.
"Something tells me that things will get interesting in more than one way" Iris whispered though Aoi still managed to hear her though she could only imagine what she was thinking and couldn't help but be curious and concerned at the same time
After they all made it to the living room, they go comfortable while they waited for an explanation of the nights events.
"So, the Yotsuba were also attacked by those servants?" asked Kouichi, attempting to break the silence, the continuing silence of the Yotsuba twins was all the answer that he needed. A sense of resignation seemed to fall him when he spoke again "I guess that it went as good as what happened on my home."
"Those creatures are monsters. Part of me didn't want to believe what you told us about how powerful they are, but now I fear the idea that there are six more of those creatures out there." said Miya.
"But why they did choose to attack us now of all times?" Asked Maya.
"It could be because I killed Matou Zouken" said Sakura with a shadow over her eyes. The idea that her actions may have caused this attack where innocent people died was something that she didn't like.
"Sakura please stop, you can't be responsible for the acts of other people, in specifically the evil ones. You did what it has to be done."
"Beside we do not have time for self petty" said Honami. "Two of the main families in the master's clans have been attacked and almost destroyed by just two servants. How do we know that the others aren't facing the same right now, and more importantly is what are we going to do with this situation"
"I do not believe that the others clans are under attack, based on the information that we received from Semiramis about the personalities of the servants. That and the most important part of that information is that they needed more time to get the Grail ritual ready, and that they are just playing that obedient part for now to have the GAA on their side.." Kiritsugu explained attracting the attention of everyone present.
"If I were their commander I would see the events of the magic games were they were exposed, and the death of Matou Zouken, who was responsible for their information and logistics a failure. I can say that I would have serious doubts about continuing with this operation, or at less made some big changes that may get in the way of what those servants want, so they needed a victory to show to the top ranks, after all they just learned that the place for the ritual won't be ready for another year and waiting here will increase the chance of them being discovered so they need something to show to their commanders, to convince them to keep with the plan. The destruction of two of the major master clans could be that victory. And even if they fail to capture the head of the clans, the damage that they did will count as that victory." The years of Kiritsugu in the military were evident with this analysis.
"Are you saying that we were just their consolation prize?! We lost good people in those attacks!" said Kouichi.
"And that was their main point of their attack" was Illya's answer supporting her father's opinion.
"What are we going to do now then?" asked Miya.
"We learn from this experience and prepare for the next battle." said Shirou.
"And how we do that, those creatures were so powerful that they even managed to stop my meteor stream as it was nothing" said Maya.
"Really? We had information about your spell and how powerful it is and you said that he stopped it? Did he use his spar or any other technique?" asked Rin.
"He just created a barrier in front of him" said Maya.
"I believe that he called that barrier Troy something" said Miyuki.
"Troy?! He is Hector of Troy and that means that that barrier must be a noble phantasm, this information is really important, can you remember anything else?" asked Illya.
"Hold on, let us start from the beginning of the first attack and work are way through it. We will only get confused if we keep jumping around."
"That makes sense" said Rin.
"But are you sure that you wanted to do it right now? All of you should rest first" said Aoi.
"We need to do it now while the events are still fresh in our memory." Kiritsugu responded then looking around he began. "I believe that I will go first. After we appeared inside the Yotsuba complex we saw everything on fire with the building in ruins, it was in that moment that we feel that immense magic power deep in the forest. After that…"
Flash Back
"Are we too late?" asked Illya.
"No, I can feel a great power coming from that direction, hurry up" said Rin.
"Stop!" they could hear a voice behind them in the distance. They turned to see a group of soldiers as they tried to surround them.
"Are they joking?" asked Illya when he saw that the soldiers had the strange idea that they will just do what they were tol or even that they have a single chance to stop them.
"I will handle them, you go ahead, but remember our goal is not to win this battle but to rescue Miyuki and her family, once you manage to secure them, all you teleport in that moment" said Kiritsugu.
"Ok, but please take care dad" said Illya, with that the girls and Tatsuya actived their magic circuits using the fly spell they headed to where they felt the great magic power, the power of a servants.
Some of the soldiers began to raise their rifles and to aim at them but then.
BAM!
BAM!
The sound of two shots were heard and two GGA's soldiers blew up, as if they were in decompression chamber.
"I hope that you haven't forget about me." said Kiritsugu.
The rest of the soldiers began to aim at him when he actived his best spell.
"Accel" Kiritsugu said, accel is a spell that allow him to control the flow of time in a determinate area, unlike the acceleration spell used by the modern magicians that use the basic elements of the theory of relativity, that said that the faster an object moves, the slower the rest of the world will see it to move. Many would believe that this is a great spell but, it has its limitations. For example it can only be used on places with enough space for the user to move and accelerate and by moving so fast the user lose a degree of precision in his moves.
But Kiritsugu's accel is different, its creates a boundary field that change the time flow inside it at the users will, with this the limitation of the space and precision are fixed, but this magic also has a limitation, the bigger of the boundary field or the more that the time flow is altered, the more energy required from the user.
But thanks to the help of Illya and Shirou, his magic crest allows him a better control over that spell than the one that he used when he rescued Iris. He always wondered how his children knew about his special magic, after all he always kept it a secret, but with his family he had learned that everything is possible.
And now that those soldiers were trapped in his magic where he made the flow of time be slower for them, he began to walk towards them, yet to those soldiers they saw himas if he was moving as fast as an arrow.
Taking his Calico M950, he finished them off with small bursts aimed to their heads.
He was about to follow his kids when she saw how some soldiers were taking some prisoner into trucks, knowing that he can't allow them to take them he headed towards them. This time he created a small boundary field big enough for just him and after the time flow to be faster, he headed to the rescue.
End of the flash back
"After I killed the soldiers, I release the prisoners and told them to take the trucks and escape" said Kiritsugu as he paused to take a little drink of tea that Sella had brought him. "At first they wanted to follow me and come to your rescue and I didn't like it. When I told them that they would just get in the way Hayama, I believe was his name, agreed after I give him my word that we would rescue you." A brief gesture to the women that was still at his side. "He told me that he would take the survivors to one of your secondary locations and that later he would come here to see if I have honored my word."
He saw how Maya and Miya looks relieved to learn that their old time friend survived this experience.
He then proceeded to into his fight with Lu Ganghu.
"You mean that Lu Ganghu is dead! You manage to kill that monster?" asked a surprised Kouichi. As he still remembered the day that he failed to protect Maya, to know that Lu Ganghu was not only the man that was responsible for what happened to Maya, but that he had come for her again only to be defeated by Kiritsugu. That left him with a bad taste in his mouth. "I couldn't do nothing to stop him that time" he though in silence.
"That means that the GAA lost one of their best operatives" said Mayumi.
"But they will have more in reserve." added Suzune.
After that it was the twins turn to tell what just happened to them before the others had.
"The great walls of Troy, it seen that we need to made a lot of research about that" said Rin.
"Can you tell us what happened after you took to your battle to another part?" asked Shirou.
"About that" began Illya.
Flash Back
"You bastard!" said Rin as she tried to shoot him, but Lancer used his spear to deflect the attacks.
"Not bad, but you will need to do better if you want to make this fight interesting" said Lancer as he got closer to attack Rin. A wall of earth appeared between him and Rin. More walls began to appeararound lancer leaving him trapped in a box.
"NOW!" screamed Sakura after she saw how her wall had trapped him for the moment.
"EAT THIS!" sail Illya as from the top of a tree where she was standing as she launched her attack, as countless beams of light descended to the place where Lancer was.
"BOOM!"
There was a big explosion in the inside of the earth box.
"Did we get him?" asked Illya.
"No, you didn't" said Lancer from behind her as he kicked her in her back, but before she could hit the ground a strong wind reduces her speed allowing her to regain control over her fall and turn around to land on her feeds.
"Thanks Sakura."
"You are doing it better than I expect and I can have said that you are good magus, even by this era standard. But I know one thing, that you are not warriors. That is easy to see because you don't move like you are one, and while I am sure that you can deal with these weak human; I can say that you had never had to fight an enemy that is stronger than you and while you may have a good combination, that is more because of your good relationship with each other than experience and opponents like you will never defeat me, but you can entertainment"
End of the flash back
"After that he just kept attacking us, but he never used his full power, the bastard was toying with us." said Rin angrily.
"At one point it looked like he got tired of playing and was about to get serious but, in that moment we heard father signal and as we had planed we grabbed everyone that was left and escaped."
The rest of the room remained silent after hearing this.
"He wants to prove his supremacy." said Shirou. When all those present turned to look at him before he continued.
"He didn't have to show his noble phantom against Maya when he could have avoided that attack and he could have finished the fight at any moment if he wanted, that tells me that he wanted to send a message, that he is the strongest. In fact, I believe that this could be an obsession for him, maybe even something that we can use in the future"
"What about your fight? Did you manage to learn something from him?" asked Rin
"About that" Shirou began.
Another flash back.
Shirou arrows rain had just finished the soldiers that were about to get into the Saegusa mansion, unfortunately Raider managed to avoid the ones meant for him. Not that he was expecting to take him down with just that, but he was hoping that he could get him away from the mansion and attract his attention, something it did.
"It seems that I get the big prize, I can't wait to see Saber and Lancer faces when I take your sorry face tied to my belt as my trophy" said Genghis Khan from his horse as he pointed his sword at Shirou.
"We will see about that." said Shirou as he traced his twin swords and charged at him, his idea was simple, attack the horse first, hoping that if he could kill the animal its rider would be at disadvantage on the ground after all he is a rider class.
But it was easier to say than done, as Shirou target the horse legs but with great speed and agility the rider keeps avoiding his attacks at the last second and then the rider attacks him from the top.
Shirou had to jump back to avoid the attack.
"Damn!" Shirou knew from his experience seeing the battle between his Saber and their Rider Medusa that the rider class has the advantage in speed and range on their side and this one is proving it. Throwing his blades against him, he saw how he moved with his horse out of the range and began to charge against him forcing him to avoid the attack once again.
"It is like the horse and he were one, like a Centaur"
"Is this the best that you can do? I have to say that I am disappointed"
"I have no time to lose to you!" Tracing his bow, he got ready with a menacing black sword that he altered into an arrow. "I will end this!"
But unfortunately his enemy saw what he was planning to do and took action to counter him as he stood right in front of the Saegusa Mansion, knowing that he would now release that attack with the occupants of that mansion still there.
"Do you really believe that I will allow you to use your strong points against me? Deny your enemy to use his strengths in a battle is normal in war"
Having no other choice, he dispersed his weapons only to trace his favorite twin swords to try to force him away from the front of the mansion, but his enemy knew that while he remained in that position he could prevent that attack from his enemy.
Over time some soldiers that managed to survive Shirou's initial attack because they were attacking the mansion from others positions tried to take Shirou down with their guns while he was distracted.
"Look out!" Mayumi screamed attracting the attention of the soldiers in her attempt to warn Shirou. Shirou already knew about the soldiers but still took advantage when they raised their rifles to shoot at the mansion window where Mayumi had given her warning, but they never got the chance to fire a single shot as a rain of sword fell over them killing to the last ones. Never once taking his eyes from the enemy before him.
End of the flash back.
We remained like that for a while until he just said that it was fun and then retreated, I was trying to end him as fast as I can buy he remain in a position where I could use my strongest attacks without the risk of killing Mayumi-san and her family. In the other hand, he did not use any of his attack and manage to prolong the fight using only his tactics and skills, and that is something that worry me.
"Why is that?" asked Iris.
"Because that means that we are facing a tactician, add that to his powers now that we know that he is Genghis Khan that means that he also has the power to back up his stand."
"This is looking worse by the minute" said Aoi.
"But there is some good news, from this experience we can learn and make plans for when we face them again" said Rin.
"We can talk all night but now that we have the information we need to rest; we can begin to make plans tomorrow but for now we must rest" said Kiritsugu.
"But what about the security of this place?" asked Miya.
"We create a special bounded field as well as a few surprises, they may not be able to stop a servant but it can give us an alarm system with the time to react in case that they chose to come here but as dad said, that is improbable" Said Illya.
In that moment all the present were about to leave to go to their rooms, while Sella and Leysritt showed the new guest their rooms, but in that moment they saw how Tatsuya stood up and quickly left the room.
"Tatsuya?" asked Rin
"Let him be, he needs time right now" said Shirou.
When all those present looked at him, he continued.
"Losing is never easy even when it is a game, but this time it was a real life and death situation, the experience must be hitting him hard."
"Shouldn't we go after him to talk about this." asked Miya worried about him.
"If we go right now it will only make him feel worse, he needs time to process what just happened, after that we can support him if he needs it, but he is strong so I am sure that he will be fine." said Kiritsugu as he began to stand up to leave the room, for a moment Maya seemed like she was about to offer to support him as he walked towards his room, but stopped when she saw how Iris and Aoi moved to do it, so she and her sister Miya were taken to their guest rooms. But when they left the room, Iris looked at them with a small smile on her face.
"What are you planning dear?" asked Kiritsugu.
"Nothing, what made you think that?"
"Because I know you."
"It is just your imagination dear, you must be tired" said Iris with a happy smile.
"Why don't I believe you"
"Don't be silly dear. Now you have to rest, you have a lot of work to do tomorrow"
"Yes dear" said Kiritsugu knowing that he will not get nothing from Iris and the only thing that he could do is wait and hope that any idea that Iris had was not too crazy.
In his room Tatsuya looked at his reflection in the window in disappointment. "Why, even after all this time, why I am not strong enough!?" said Tatsuya as the events of the fight slowly replayed in his head, and how he couldn't do anything.
"DAMN!"
"Tatsuya-onii-sama?" said voice from behind his door.
"Yes Miyuki?" said Tatsuya as calmly as he could to not worry her.
"Can we talk for a moment?"
"I was about go to sleep" Tatsuya lied.
"We know better than that. You are going to be awake until late grumbling about what just happened." Said a new voice from outside the door.
"Mayumi?"
"And she is not the only one"
"Suzune." admitted Tatsuya and he knew that if he did not open the door they would find a way to make him regret that choice. Making his way towards the door he took a deep breath the calming feeling of the air leaving his lips taking over as he opened the door.
"I really was about to go to sleep."
"And we already said that we do not believe you." answered Mayumi as the three girls slipped into the room.
"And what did you want to talk about?"
"I believe that you already know that answer, Onii-sama"
"There is nothing to talk about, I lost"
"And that is the problem, is it not?" said Suzume.
"What about it" asked Tatsuya
"Everything is about it, specifically the way that you are dealing with it" said Mayumi.
"You don't understand"
"What? To be afraid of the presence of someone that is powerful beyond imagination, to feel hopeless as he moved to kill you and your family, because that is what happened to me and Miyuki just a few hours ago." Said Mayumi.
"Also I saw how Iris-sama and Aoi-sama were worried waiting for all of you, praying that their husband and children would come back alive, even if they pretended to be strong I could see that they were really worried about all of you" said Suzune.
"We know that you are concerned about what happened today, but you can't blame yourself, there was nothing that you could do or any way to prepare for this. So you don't have to feel bad about what happened" said Mayumi.
"But I did have the chance to prepare myself for this"
"What do you mean Oni-sama?"
"Ever since I lost my grandpa I swore that I would never be a victim again, that I would be strong enough to be able to protect myself and the people close to me. It wasn't enough, everything that I did was useless and I am still too weak"
"But there was nothing that you could do" said Suzume.
"Shirou and the others could"
"But they didn't win either, besides what they have is experience from those dreams that they talked about, you may do not have those dreams like they do, but now you have experience fighting them, you will do better next time." Said Mayumi.
"But I couldn't do anything from the start"
"I had wanted to ask you since we get back, what happened? Onii-sama, one moment you were fine and the next one you screamed and fell unconscious." asked Miyuki.
"I try to use mist dispersion to end the fight as soon as I could but then something happened and all that I remember was lot of pain."
"Mist dispersion?" asked Suzune.
Tatsuya proceed to explain to Miyuki and Suzune what he told to Mayumi when he saved her life and restored her hand after that they had meet.
"An overload" said Suzune.
"What?" asked Mayumi.
"From what you told us you can read the information of a person or object from the Eidos and use it to restore it or disintegrate it, but what if the person or object that you are trying to analyze has more information then you can process?"
"Are you saying that this is what happened to Tatsuya-kun?"
"We were told about the Holy Grail and the servants and I can't even begin to understand the concepts behind all this magic, maybe for Tatsuya the experience was too great for him to handle it for the first time."
"So what all this means?" asked Mayumi.
"It means that we will be ready for the next time" said Mayumi as she points her finger towards Tatsuya. "This time we will not be spectators praying for a good result in the battles, we will be there fighting to make our own results, we will decide those battles by ourselves"
"That is crazy, do you not know..." try to said Tatsuya but he was interrupted.
"How powerful they are? Yes, I know and fully understand that when I was afraid holding my little sisters hoping for a miracle to survive, thankfully that miracle happened when Shirou-sensei arrived, but what about the next time? For that reason, I will become strong to be able to answer my own prayers"
"You are not the only one that is scared Onii-sama, I too was very afraid tonight, but I chose to fight in order to overcome all this situation"
"And I will stand next to them, so the question is what are you going to do now, Tatsuya?" asked Suzune.
Tatsuya saw how the three of them where standing together right in front of him, looking at his eyes.
"You girls are too much do you know that?"
"We do." said the girls at unison while they smiled at how Tatsuya put at small smile on his face when he said these words.
In another part of the mansion we see how Maya Yotsuba, the queen of the night and her sister Miya in a very unlike manner to them were looking at the person right in front of them, with their mouths opens with a surprised look on their faces.
The reason of this is because a few moments earlier, when they were talking about themselves about what has just happened after they give some instructions to the rest of the clan using their phones, them hear how someone call to their feeling hostile intentions from the other side, they opened the door only to find Iris standing right there with her usual expression.
"Sorry to interrupt you, but I have a very important question that I would like ask you as soon as possible"
"There is no worry, this is your house after all and we are thankful for all your help, so tell me what is this question that you have for us" asked Maya.
"Would you like to have sex with my husband?" said Iris with a happy face that you would never believe what she had just ask the Yotsuba twins.
Maya and Miya for their part could only thing in their head "WTF!"
This was the chapter 25.
For the people that has send me PM, to ask me about what will happen to the Mohouka characters and when they will show their powers. I will just said that the chapter 27 will answer many of your questions.
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