A/N: (December 1st)
Man, it's already the last month of the year?
2022 went by fast. Good— there's some things that happened this year for me that I want to stay buried.
On the bright side, this story is not one of them!
Freaking Shinji, man. It's a bit refreshing to write just an absolutely unforgivable asshole, but at the same time, I just hate the guy, lol. Glad to see you all are fine with the story adjustments I made for him.
Before we jump into it, just want to make a quick answer to a question I've gotten two or three times: yes, Shirou Emiya will get stronger in this story. He tends to get stronger in every route in Fate/stay night anyway (Fate route being the least, but hey— the dude had Avalon, that's kinda broken), so it'll be the same here. How he gets stronger will remain to be seen for now.
I also got a question on if other Level 5s will be included, aside from Accelerator and Misaka. Again: keep reading, it remains to be seen!
There isn't much else to say, really. The story's picking up, so I want it to speak for itself.
I'll see you all below.
Chapter 7: A Certain Hello
P.O.V.: A Certain Crimson Magus
Rin Tohsaka twitches weakly as her senses start to blur and fade.
From what she can tell, she's lying down in something wet and sticky, on top of a cold tile floor. The full moonlight shone through the window, just barely lighting up her fading vision.
'Where am…
…Where am I?'
She tries pulling up her head, but can't find the strength to move.
It's as if something in her body is paralyzing her, destroying her nerves one by one.
"…, this is your responsibility."
'…Eh?'
A voice that is her own, but didn't come out of her mouth.
"Lancer pierced him with his spear…there's no way to…"
The voice begins cutting in and out, sentences getting blurry as her hearing weakens further and further. "I'm sorry…I'll…until the time comes."
She feels her body get pulled by an outside force, rolled from her crumpled side and onto her back.
"…No…wait…!"
'…No. Wait…!'
Her thoughts were simultaneous with the speech of the person leaning over her. And yet…she didn't say it herself. She didn't have the strength to.
With her glassy vision, she spots the silhouette of long, dark hair and aqua-colored eyes, wide with horror.
'…Isn't that…'
"Don't do this to me…how am I…going to look at her tomorrow…?
No…I have a way…"
Rin's senses fade in and out of existence, sometimes unable to hear the voice that sounded so strangely similar to her own.
Faintly, she detects the metallic jiggle of chains, and spots a large, ruby red gemstone above her eyes.
Despite not being able to move, she reaches out for it as its light overtakes the room.
XXXXX
"Gah-!"
Rin stumbles forward, the weight of her momentum throwing her off-balance. The evening sun beams through the tall glass windows. She looks forward- the hallways are devoid of people, and the classrooms are empty.
She glances down, and sees she's wearing a white button-up blouse, skirt, and socks. '…What I used to wear in grade-school…in fact…'
Tohsaka glances around, and examines the environment closer. Even looking outside the windows, she can spot the gentle rolling hills overlooking the stout skyline of her hometown, before its new developments were being built.
'…This is Fuyuki's primary school. But…why?'
She walks up to the glass and presses her hand against it. Indeed, she can see the faint reflection of herself; it was her from seven or eight years ago.
'Why am I here…?'
Just then, she spots a blur moving in the distance. Swiveling her head, she just catches a person jumping backwards up into the air, over a pole and onto a safety mat.
However, his body fails to evade the pole and grazes by it enough to knock it off its stands. The boy seems to be in her grade, and had short, wild red hair.
She watches the child rub the back of his head for a second, before setting the pole back up and trying again.
He steps backwards several meters, then sprints at it with full force. Just as he makes it near the pole, he jumps as high as he can, twisting in mid-air to curve his body backwards and vault over it.
Unfortunately, he strikes the barrier again, knocking it off once more and sending dust flying as it hits the ground and he strikes the mat.
But again, the boy stands.
Rin hadn't spoken a word as she watched him fail, and yet… 'He's still going.'
Dozens of times. Even when he chooses to rest for a moment, he wipes the sweat off his brow and jumps again.
The sun slowly sinking through the treeline breaks Tohsaka out of her stupor. 'Wait, why am I watching this guy jump over a—?!'
XXXXX
"Listen, don't you dare turn around. If you see my face, I'm going to get mad."
Once again, a voice identical to her's speaks out. However, she senses it coming from her mouth…even though she herself wasn't thinking of saying anything.
'…This is some sort of weird dream.
It…it has to be.'
She finds herself staring at some grass under the moonlight, in what appears to be the top of a hill, or in a park. Her body was curled up onto a boulder, her knees up to her chest and arms folded over them defeatedly. However, she can't control her own body to move, unlike last time.
'…From seeming like I'm dying…to watching some kid fail high-jumps…and now…?'
Her own voice continues.
"Archer was right. I should have defeated Caster when I had the chance, no matter what it took."
'…Caster? Wasn't he killed by—?'
"…I always mess up the most important thing. I can't blame him…I can't blame him for going over to her side."
'Her? Caster was a man, though…'
At this point, Rin throws away the possibility of this being some sort of magical "look into the future", and simply deduces it down to a weird dream.
Of course, she knew that Masters and Servants had a connection; not just physically, but spiritually and mentally. This means that their energies, and thoughts, are somewhat mixed.
That could mean that she could have dreams that look into her Servants' mind. But…
'…No. I'm in them.
There's no way that Archer…no, he's a Hero from the Past. I should be seeing, like…ancient clothes, or something!'
It didn't make sense to her.
"…After all this…I feel cornered…Hey, I think this is supposed to be where you say 'By what'?"
"Oh. Then, cornered by what?"
A voice that Rin doesn't recognize speaks back to her. However, she feels a strange warmness to it. The sound of the male's voice alone is soothing to her.
"You haven't done anything to beat yourself up over, Tohsaka."
"Why not? We're in this mess because my strategy was wrong. So wrong…"
"You failed at one thing, Tohsaka. It doesn't mean you're wrong."
'…What have I failed at, exactly?'
Even though she had concluded this conversation was just made up in her head, she suddenly became interested in their words.
"To be honest, you look blindingly brilliant to me. I don't regret things, either. I think what I did was right…we'll pay them back twice over next time, Tohsaka."
A moment of brief silence overtakes the two voices as they face away from each other. Rin can tell that the male who is speaking to 'her' is facing away from her, at her back.
"By the way…why did you save me?" Her voice asks. After hearing the jingling of chains, her body turns around.
She involuntarily looks down, and sees a masculine hand holding a ruby red pendant. 'Wait, that's—!
That's my pendant…it's supposed to be one of a kind…who is this guy, and why does he have it?!'
Her vision moves up to face him, and she gets a closer look at him. Red hair, and a white and black jacket. All things considered, an ordinary-looking teenager. They looked identical to the boy that did high-jumps; in fact, Rin deduced that it might actually be him.
'…Why…'
Rin's mind spins its wheels faster as she tries to figure out why. Just why…
'…Why does this ordinary person…interest me so much? Why am I getting…dreams of him?'
She had been thinking so much that she forgot to listen in on their conversation.
"I've always looked up to this girl named Rin Tohsaka," the boy says, "Then, inconvenient as it was…"
For some reason, she feels her face flush.
"…When I finally got around to talking to her, I fell for her even more. Before I knew it, I had already jumped down there without thinking."
'Wh-Wh-What?! What is this guy saying…? What is even…I don't even know him-!'
"Put frankly…I like you, Tohsaka."
'Th-This jerk! This enormous, sentimental, bona fide-!'
XXXXX
"-JERK!"
Her body suddenly jerks forward, and the red magus yelps as her head hits the back of the head of the car seat.
"Had a bad dream back there, Tohsaka?" Kamijou asks from the seat in front of her. "Surprised me a bit, there."
She feels the shuffle of something soft to her left. "Rin, are you okay?" The light, feminine voice of Index causes her nerves to settle down; The young nun had apparently sat herself close to her to calm her down.
"Just for context, who were you callin' a jerk, exactly?" Tsuchimikado looks at her from the rear-view mirror as he's apparently at the wheel.
"Ah-! No one! Just a weird dream, is all…sorry." Tohsaka looks out the side window, out to the stunning night lights of Academy City. "…Just a dream."
Tsuchimikado's glasses luster in the moonlight as she barely sees his pupils stare at her through the mirror. "Uh-huh…well, start to look alive, guys. We're nearly to District 22. They blocked off the vehicle entrance, so we'll have to sneak in there on foot."
Rin's brows furrow as she attempts her best at getting her head back into reality.
'Those dreams…
…they were way too real to be overlooked. But…they still don't make sense to me.'
She shakes her head and pats her cheeks. 'Ah, dammit, Rin! Just focus up!'
Tsuchimikado pulls off the highway and into a side road. They were minutes away. '…I can worry about it later. Hopefully.'
P.O.V.: A Certain Scientific Railgun
A Few Days Ago.
Two Tokiwadai students warp in and out of reality, traveling through Academy City in record-breaking time thanks to one of their Teleportation abilities. One of them, a pigtailed girl with auburn hair, gives her partner a concerned look as she shows the green band around her arm sleeve. "Onee-sama, like I keep trying to tell you, I'm Judgment and you're-!"
They blink away, and appear seven dozen meters ahead, just above a rooftop. Gently, their feet touch the ground as the Judgment Officer named Kuroko Shirai finishes her sentence. "-just a civilian! You really shouldn't be helping me out, here…"
Mikoto Misaka flicks her friend on the forehead. "And I'm telling you that I want to help out. You're acting like my Level 5 powers don't exist, or something."
Kuroko rolls her eyes, and seems to relent. She had already dragged Mikoto out here, so the Level 5 had a feeling that she secretly didn't mind having her around, and that she was only refusing her help out of professional etiquette. "Fine, but don't go overboard. And I make the arrests."
"Obviously."
They continue their traversal through the City, with onlookers pointing at the two with amazement.
It didn't take too long to get to the location where they- er, Kuroko- was assigned. There had been reports of some sort of strange lights coming from the cemetery of Academy City; the only cemetery in the whole city. Witnesses had also said they saw a man of strange attire enter the cemetery that evening.
Since Kuroko was one of the only high-level teleport Espers in the City, Judgment and Anti-Skill had assigned her to scout out the area thanks to her ability to make quick retreats.
Of course, Misaka also desired to come along. 'More firepower is always a good thing, right?' She reasons in her mind, although a part of her knows Kuroko might not have parallel thoughts.
In any case, in less than a minute or two of teleporting, they find themselves right at the entrance to the cemetery, and they push open the black iron gates. They loudly creak open, revealing a large, hilly field of gravestones and trees.
The sun had already set, and its residual light was starting to fade into the night sky. Their Headmaster permitted them to stay outside an extra two hours due to their special circumstances, but their punishment would still be all the same if they didn't make it back in the allotted time. They both nod at each other, and grab each other's hands.
Mikoto blinks to find herself overlooking the massive gravesite, with stone specks and blotches of woods going on for several hundred meters or so. Due to Academy City's good healthcare and its relative youngness in terms of a sovereign country, not many people have actually died within their borders. The Incident in 1994 did result in many deceased, but most families chose to bury them in their respective hometowns, outside of Academy City.
"There." Kuroko points out a strange red circle around the middle of the cemetery just as gravity begins to pull them down, and they quickly whiz toward that location.
Mikoto yelps as she nearly drops onto a tombstone, but twists herself in mid-air and falls directly next to it.
"I've been warping you around for months at this point, and you're still not quite used to it, huh? You're hopeless, Onee-sama."
Misaka raises a brow at her partner, who coolly flips her pigtail and continues to walk to the location. 'Well…I can get used to this side of her, at least.'
Whenever they were off-duty, Kuroko's tendencies to her were…less than savory. But in Judgment duty, she seems to throw those bad habits aside for the sake of each other's safety and the mission.
The two of them traverse up the hill where Shirai had spotted that weird red circle. The grass around this area hadn't been cut in a good couple weeks, now growing very much past their ankles and up to their shins. The weather was still warm enough that most trees kept their leaves; but the faint shades of autumn were approaching, with the green starting to wilt into browner colors.
Finally, they make it to the zenith of the hill, and find what they were looking for, and what was probably reported.
"…Eh?" The two girls blink as they find no people in sight. On the ground is a red, circular diagram of some kind drawn in red chalk, with lines interconnecting with one another, and strange symbols that Misaka cannot read. 'Kuroko probably can't either.'
In the center of the circle was a black rod of some kind, similar-looking to a knife handle. Mikoto steps forward to approach it, but Kuroko's arm stops her as the pigtailed officer moves instead. "Nope. Contraband is Judgment duty."
Misaka rolls her eyes and holds her hand on her hip as Kuroko walks onto the circle, being careful to avoid the red lines so it could be preserved for further investigation. She squats down by the knife, pulls her arm further into her sleeve so her fingerprints wouldn't get on evidence, and tenderly picks it up with the cloth of her button-up.
She presses a button at the bottom of the hilt, and inverts the handle upside-down. A silver, double-edged blade pops out from the end and locks in with a gentle click. "Huh, there's a name carved into the side…Nanatsu-Yoru…'Seven Nights'?"
The Level 5 shrugs at Kuroko's comment, "Interesting name for a knife, I guess." She muses. "If this is all, then I guess all we gotta do is take pictures, report to Anti-Skill, and go, right?"
Kuroko clears her throat, "Correction: I'll be doing all that while you sit there and watch, Onee-sama. You were only here in case we got into a fight. But since there's no one around, you're just a plus one."
The Electromaster's eye twitches as Kuroko pulls out her phone and takes some flash photography of the occult-looking circle, as well as the knife she's holding. "Still…I wonder why people were reporting flashing lights…" Kuroko muses, "And that guy that had strange clothes…eh, it could be unrelated."
She sheathes the knife back inside and pockets it carefully, "Alright, I guess that's everything. Let's go, Onee-sa—"
"Hey guys!"
"Wha-?!" The Level 4 and 5 swivel their heads down the pathway and spot a long, dark-haired girl in pedestrian clothes run up to them. With the flower clipped onto the side of her head, identifying her even under the faint moonlight is obvious.
Ruiko Saten smiles at them, waving a paper above her head. "I have something that…you guys mind find helpful…!"
She stops at the top of the hill, putting her hands on her knees to catch her breath.
"What're you doing here, Saten?" Kuroko raises a brow, and crosses her arms like a disappointed parent, "It's way past curfew."
"For strict Tokiwadai girls at least." Saten shoots back, putting a thumbs-up. "My school's curfew isn't for another hour."
Misaka and Shirai both look at each other and sigh, "Well regardless," Misaka says, "It's still dangerous. We all know how sketchy Academy City can get past daylight hours."
The Level 0 girl's face starts to get flushed from embarrassment and protest, "W-Well, I'm here anyway. Just because I don't have an ability doesn't mean I should be protected like a child, you know."
Saten crosses her arms. "Besides, I told you guys, I might have something that could help you. I did some research after I overheard Konori-san briefing you on the situation, and found some information about what those symbols mean."
She points at the cult-like circle. "The websites I've read say that it's some sort of summoning circle, made to bring back people from the past!"
Kuroko looks at her, her expression reading one-hundred percent disbelief. Misaka decides to step back- she can sense an argument starting to boil over between the two. '…I'll sit this one out and let them hash it out…I'll step in if it gets too intense.'
"Saten, you do realize that all of those websites are just weird, occult nonsense right?" The teleporter Esper crosses her arms. "It's all fake. Whoever drew this is probably just some crazy 'believer' or something. Especially if they drew it in a gravesite…"
"Hey, I'll have you know that a lot of my hunches and research ended up having some merit, you know!" Saten retorted, "Remember the money card incident? That ended up actually being true!"
Mikoto felt her hands tighten a little— Saten was right, the money cards had been distributed by someone, purposefully, for a reason.
That reason being something that neither of them know about, and she's kept secret this whole time.
'…They still can't know about that.'
"Well yeah, but some crazy guy or girl leaving free money everywhere is a lot more believable than summoning ghosts or demons or something." Kuroko sighs, "Honestly, it's like you forget what City we're in. Magic, Occult-y stuff doesn't exist. Now come on Saten- I'm escorting you home."
Kuroko tries grabbing her hand, but Saten shoos it away. "I can walk home just fine, thanks. I got here by myself well enough, so I can go back just fine."
Shirai shakes her head. "Nope, as a member of Judgment, I can't let young students walk around at night unattended!"
"You're as old as I am, Shirai!" Saten raises her voice maybe a degree higher than she should have. Misaka can see her eyes grow apologetic for a second, before hardening back into a grimace, "You just wanna escort me because I'm powerless, don't you?"
'…Ooooh boy.' Mikoto can practically feel the buttons being pressed through the tension. "Saten…just listen to Kuroko, okay? We just want you to be safe."
"Oh, now you're on her side now, too?" Ruiko exclaims.
Mikoto blinks, now feeling the heat coming onto her. "That's not-"
"Listen," Saten stands up straight, and takes a deep breath to regain her composure, "…I know that. I'm just tired of being treated special 'cause I'm the only one in our group who doesn't have an Ability. Heck, even Uiharu has one."
She squats down, her arms wrapping around her legs in dejection. To empathize with her, Misaka and Shirai squat down with her. "I just wish…
…I just wish I had some sort of power, you know?"
Misaka glances down to see the red chalk on the ground starting to luster a little, but just writes it up as the moonlight reflecting off the chalk and continues to listen.
"And I know, last time I had one, I went into a coma and played into some crazy scientist's plan or something, but I just wish I had something to call my own. I got my trusty baseball bat, but I'd certainly like to be able to fly, or move crazy fast, or shoot lasers, or teleport like Shirai, or- why is the ground glowing?"
Misaka glances down again, and sees the red chalk isn't simply lit in the moonlight, but is actually illuminating, a scarlet-white shine glowing across the circle, throughout the lines and even the strange symbols. "What the-?!"
The three of them jump to their feet and back up off the circle, and watch as its light continues to overtake the cemetery park. "Saten, what is going on?!" Misaka shouts, then immediately notices something starting to appear on the back of her friend's hand.
Some sort of red mark, geometrically shaped, burns into Ruiko Saten's hand.
The white light bursts into its brightest zenith, blowing a gust of wind that causes the nearby trees to lose their leaves and the grass to flatten. Even Mikoto found herself almost being thrown backwards.
The wooosh of wind and the dazzling light show lasts for a few more seconds, before gradually degrading in intensity. Behind her closed eyes, Misaka senses that it had all faded.
"I…I don't know what just happened, but…" She hears Saten's voice begin first, "I think…I think that…"
Mikoto Misaka opens her eyes, and awes as a pair of dazzling, luminescent irises gazes back at them.
"…you were right, Saten." Kuroko finishes for her.
"Yo, young ladies." The woman in front of them spoke first, wearing a pristine white kimono and dark blue sash. Her hair is short, just reaching to the back of her neck, and dark brown in color. Her eyes fade into a more natural onyx brown, and she extends her arm out to Saten in particular. "The name's Assassin. I'm your Servant, Master."
Ruiko Saten blinks. "I'm a…what…? And you're a…what?"
"A Servant." The girl called Assassin blinks innocently. Now that Misaka's shock is starting to fade a little, she realizes that the woman was only a few years older than they were; barely out of high-school, most likely. "A Heroic Spirit that fights for you in the Holy Grail War. Do you three not know about that?"
They all shake their heads.
'What the hell is a…Holy Grail War?' Misaka thought.
'And how come…' She tilts her head and examines Assassin's glowing blue eyes. '…Those eyes remind me of one of the Level 5s…'
"Well…I'll explain it on the way back to your home. Hey, you." Assassin points to Kuroko, "I see a knife handle sticking out of your pocket. Mind if you give it to me? Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you three, or anything. We're on the same side."
In her stupor, Shirai does as she's asked and tosses the switchblade over to the new young woman. The Servant catches it with one hand, and unsheathes the blade.
To everyone's surprise, Assassin opens her other palm, and a blue fog materializes from nothing. A heartbeat later, another blade appears; this one looking more like a hunting knife. "…Weird. They're not the same…what catalyst did you three use?"
"Catalyst?" Misaka asks.
Assassin blinks, as if trying to recalculate something in her head, then shakes off Mikoto's concern. "Nevermind. Might have been a random summoning, then…"
She sheathes the switch knife and gives it back to Kuroko. "In any case, I'll explain to you three everything you need to know…can't believe I have to babysit kids again in this next life…"
XXXXX
Needless to say, if anything, Mikoto Misaka knew very much of what a Holy Grail War is supposed to be now.
It's nothing pretty. What the Priest said down in the Underground Church was very much the truth. It is a brutal, horrible conflict between superhuman Servants and their Masters wanting to win something that could grant them everything.
'It's…it's why Saten was chosen.' Misaka had unconsciously come to that conclusion a little while back, but finally admits it to herself in her mind as she swings herself and Shirou Emiya through Academy City's streets. 'She wanted to have power…feel important. This gave her her wish…and it could possibly give her an Ability if she wins. But…'
She glances back at Shirou, who's holding onto the iron rod she tossed him as hard as he can as they whip through the streets at over a hundred kilometers per hour. They had to; Saber and Assassin were moving as fast as cars ahead of them, if not faster.
The Level 5 recalls back to last night, and the horrible, nearly life-ending wound he had sustained. 'If that happens to any of them, too…
…No, it won't. I'll make sure of it.'
Gritting her teeth, the Electromaster kicks up her speed as they rush toward the border of District 7, to the smallest District in the City: District 22, home to the Underground City.
XXXXX
Getting into the District had been easier than expected, thanks to Misaka's Electromaster abilities hacking the security systems, allowing them to easily pass through undetected. In hopes of potentially throwing the chasing Assassins off-guard, Mikoto also reactivated the security bots in hopes they'd serve as a temporary distraction.
District 22 had many layers, up to ten that reached hundreds of meters below sea level. The top surface layer was chock full of high-end generators to both power and pump fresh air from the surface into the Underground District. On layer three is where the living spaces were designated: a massive, dome-like structure stretching a little more than a kilometer or so in diameter, made of fiberglass that doubles as a projection screen, simulating a night sky.
Multi-story buildings, parks, highways and other complexes make up the tight area. Although thanks to the explosion last night, the entire District had been evacuated, with its residents taking temporary refuge in the hotels in District 3.
Speaking of the explosion, Misaka and the others run along an empty highway, overlooking the District. Not too far away they spot the center of the District: the wooded park, which half of it is now just a giant crater of dirt and bedrock, slowly trickling with water from the neighboring river..
"There's an alternate path to the Underground Church nearby here." Saber says, still managing to carry both Fukiyose and Saten simultaneously. Considering both were taller and probably heavier than her, Mikoto found it quite impressive. "It's a long pathway, but the Church itself is a part of a complex. You won't be in the same Church you had seen before."
Misaka raises a brow at Saber's oddly intricate knowledge of the City; even more than she knew, and she's had her fair share of run-ins with the dark side herself. She turns and gives the now-running Shirou a look, and he shrugs as if to say 'I dunno, either.'
It had been brought up in earlier conversation back at Shirou's place by Saber that she knew a bit about the modern world thanks to the Holy Grail, but what she knew seemed to be oddly specific.
In any case, they follow Saber's lead: Assassin and the injured Kuroko just behind her, and just behind them are Shirou and Misaka herself bringing up the rear. As they continue through the streets, Saber apparently finds it safer to slow down, and eventually they find themselves walking at a brisk pace.
Now that they could catch their breath for a moment, a thought comes into Mikoto's head. "Shirou, I've been meaning to ask you."
The redhead catches up to her and replies, "What is it?"
Misaka recalls back to the alleyway, to when he had been staring down that creepy as hell Shinji guy. "…Why did you call him that? The uh…yeah. I knew that the guy was a sex offender, the fact that he had assaulted someone was all over the news, but they never talked about any details."
The news only disclosed Shinji Matou's full name, and kept any details out of the public eye for the sake of the victim's privacy.
"Oh…right." Shirou's face darkens a little as he seems to remember something he didn't want to. "I don't really like to talk about it, so I'll just say…Shinji is Sakura's brother."
Mikoto easily put two-and-two together in her mind. "Oh…Holy crap."
"…And I saw it."
"…"
Something like that definitely would sit in the back of anyone's mind. 'Now I understand why Sakura spends so much time with him, and away from the house.'
Mikoto puts her hand on his shoulder. "…How long ago was it? And…how are you guys dealing with it?"
Emiya closes his eyes. "…Over a year back, and…we don't talk about it. It's not worth dwelling on it, since it'll just make Sakura worse, but…"
He stares at his right hand, balled into a fist. "…When I saw Shinji…all of the pain from the day just came back to me like it never left. If Sakura saw him…or God forbid, she already knows he came back…I don't wanna know how she's feeling."
Quite frankly, Misaka didn't know how to comfort the young man. Not only is he older, but he had been through a situation she hadn't before.
Of course, she wasn't ignorant to traumatic experiences…she had seen people die before her eyes.
'…But seeing that…' Mikoto ponders, '…I can't say it's worse or better. But it's different…a whole different demon to fight.'
In the end, she chooses to pat him on the back. "Head up. We just have to keep moving forward, right?"
"…Yeah." Emiya lifts his head and gives a weak smile. "Thanks, Mikoto."
"And besides," Mikoto says, "…now that I know who Shinji did that to…I'm really not going to give him any mercy next time I see him."
As they traverse the urban jungle, the Railgun takes in the surrounding environment and is taken aback by the eerily silent atmosphere. She had only been in the Underground School District a few times in her life; however, it had always been bustling with students and scientists alike. Now, however, despite still active lights in the streets and buildings, there isn't a single soul at all throughout the whole area.
It did prove helpful, however; since it meant that they could listen in closer to any suspicious sounds that a chasing Servant could make. The half-dozen Assassins that tailed them had vanished; and while it didn't guarantee they were gone, it did cause Misaka to feel at least a little relieved.
That is, until Saber lifts her arm up, signaling for them to stop.
Unlike before, there isn't any sort of four-meter giant or scary small child, or any black shadows of an Assassin.
A completely blank, empty street, at least from what Mikoto can see. "Saber," She hears Shirou speak from behind her, "What's going on?"
Saber sets Saten down. "Get behind Mikoto, young Saten."
"R-Right." Saten turns and runs behind her Servant and Mikoto herself. "Do you know what's going on, Misaka?"
The Railgun shakes her head. "I…don't know."
Saber turns to Assassin. "Do you see it?"
While Misaka couldn't directly make it out, she did see the kimono-wearer's head begin to illuminate from the brightness of her eyes. "Yeah. There's a lot."
The knight tells Assassin to hold Fukiyose as she hefts up her blade of wind once more. "Strike Air!"
Thrusting her sword with that attack again, the Servant unleashes a torrential blast of wind that shakes the windows of the buildings and bends the street trees at their roots.
But more importantly—
Mikoto's face fills with disgust as hundreds of…something appear from nowhere. Not even hundreds- potentially thousands of little black and forest green…insects.
Slimy, shiny, and either scuttling like cockroaches, buzzing like flies or squirming like worms, they're all picked up by the wind and hurled a great distance by Saber's attack. Some crash into each other, exploding in a sick green liquid that permanently stains the ground in a stench so foul that Misaka instantly has an urge to vomit as the wafts of the smells approach her nose. 'What the…?'
Assassin hops next to her. "Misaka, I'm leaving these two in your care. Protect them."
She sets down Fukiyose and Kuroko, who were both weak, still unconscious and somewhat pale in the face, but breathing stably. "…Okay." She nods, and the brunette Servant unsheathes her knife as she walks up next to Saber.
The scuttling bugs begin to coalesce to one location like moths to a light; and literally melting and fusing together into…
"Hello there, Masters of Saber and Assassin."
A sick, raspy old man's voice resounds from that location. Misaka's eyes lock in on wrinkly, grey skin, sunken black eyes, and dark Japanese robes with a wooden cane.
"You're…!" Shirou walks past her with his hands clenched into fists. Mikoto could tell from body language alone that rage is boiling over his body. "You're…Sakura's grandfather…!"
The old man laughs, his chuckles crooked and croaky. "Indeed I am, Shirou Emiya. From your surname…you must be that Magus Killer's son, are you not?"
"…" Shirou hesitates to speak.
'…Magus Killer?' Misaka stews on those words. '…His father…right, Kotomine Kirei had spoken about him…'
"Well well…as you probably saw, Emiya, your father is not the only one who left their progeny to clean up their mess."
Emiya steps forward aggressively. "You…you sent Shinji. You set him free…!"
The old man laughs once again. "His conviction to defeat you didn't go unnoticed by me…made his otherwise worthless body at least somewhat viable…so I gave him a test: to lead you all here."
The wrinkled man lifts, and then taps his cane loudly on the ground.
As if on command, a black fog of shadows shows itself upon the rooftops, falling toward the city streets. Once it lands, the fog splits up into multiple humanoid forms.
Dozens of black-wearing, grey-skinned, masked figures, varying in size, shape, and gender, standing around the old man like a withered army.
'Wait, but I thought…!' Misaka sizes up the enemies, which look nearly identical to the Assassins that Shinji was controlling earlier. 'Isn't Shinji the actual Master of those Assassins…? Wait, but he was also controlling a Lancer…I'm so confused…'
"Surprised?" The old man croaks, lifting up into the air independently. His robes flutter like moth wings as something horrid buzzes just underneath the green and black cloth. With a creepy, wide smile, he says, "I merely loaned out a few Assassins to Shinji…I am the true Master of the Assassins."
Saten, somehow, had found the courage to step forward and shout back, "N-No!" She protests, "That can't be true…I'm the Master of Assassin!"
The Assassin in question twirls her knife, raising her blade to the old man who claims to be a Master. "Right. Like I'm going to sit here and pretend that you're an actual Master."
Assassin glances over to Saber, who seems to have a hesitant expression on her face. "Saber…you know something we don't, don't you?"
The blonde knight raises her invisible blade of wind, "…Don't fret, young Saten. The Servant you have is indeed the correct Assassin. The ones you see before us…
…They're carryovers from the last War. Are they not, Zouken Matou?"
'So that's his name.' Misaka thought.
"Heh…haha…hahahahaha!" Zouken cackles as a dark aura begins to permeate throughout his Assassin armada, "Correct you are, King of Knights. And may I say…you're one to talk, calling them a carryover."
"Saber?" Shirou looks over to his Servant in shock, "What does he mean by—?"
Saber's grip on her sword tightens. "Silence. You have no right to refer to me by that name, Zouken."
"Mm…I guess the time to talk is over, then…" Zouken's body starts decaying away, transforming back into hundreds of flying and squirming bugs that take into the air and behind the protection of the Assassins.
The Matou's voice rings out throughout the battlefield. "Assassins…feed their bodies to the Grail."
Mikoto's eyes widen as the Assassins all take up their arms, and begin to charge. She activates her Ability in a heartbeat, her electric blue aura firing outwards toward the horde of Servants.
She had analyzed a while ago that there are only three of among their group that could realistically fight. Against a horde this large, they couldn't protect the injured and unable.
Misaka's perception accelerates- to the level that allows her to keep track of where she's firing her bolts of lightning. Her heightened senses allows her to even perceive bullets as moving as slow as snails.
Even with those Abilities, however, she still watches as Assassin swivels around in a blur and rushes to Shirou and Saten, grabbing them and moving them away from the oncoming battlefield.
Saber's sword whirls with power, illuminating with a silver light as her wind attack points directly at the horde.
Misaka's lightning sparks, but her reflexes were still below the level of a Servant's. Even with her ability to react, Servants still move like inhumanly fast blurs, beyond that of Olympic athletes.
The Assassins charge her first, and Misaka grits her teeth as she fires a bolt of lightning to one of their bodies.
The impact point sears their body and travels all throughout their limbs, paralyzing him as they fly harmlessly right by her. But another Assassin comes— apparently using its own ally as a meat shield to protect himself and charge at her again. Misaka grimaces, and fires another bolt.
Another Assassin falls, only for another to take its place. Out of the corner of her eyes, she can see Saber start to slowly be overtaken by over a dozen black bodies.
'This isn't good…!'
If she can't hold the line, and they get to Shirou and Saten…
Her arm reaches into her pocket, producing a silver colored arcade token. She shoots another bolt of lightning, felling an Assassin that had gotten within arm's reach of her.
She lifts her arm, the coin wedged between her fingers and thumb.
But she never had to fire.
"Trace, on."
She hears a deep, masculine voice speak from up and behind her, and before her very eyes, a rain of swords came falling from the heavens.
Dozens of blades fire down from the skies, splitting the battlefield in two and forcing the attacking Assassins to retreat. Those that couldn't react in time are brutally skewered and stabbed through their limbs, pinning them to the floor in a pool of their own blood.
The swords plant into the concrete, creating a barrier between the assaulting Assassins and their own group.
'What just…?'
She feels a rush of air at her side, and gazes up at a crimson-clothed beauty.
P.O.V.: A Certain Hero of Justice
"Trace, on."
A deep, masculine voice speaks words identical to Shirou Emiya's own when he activates his Magecraft. A millisecond later, Emiya's vision becomes saturated with a rain of grey and silver blades as they crash into the battlefield and pierce into the Assassins.
Shirou wanted to help in some way, but Assassin had insisted he stay back and at least guard the still-unconscious bodies. With nothing he could do, he could only watch as the waves of Assassins attack; but seconds later, immediately be overwhelmed by a rain of blades.
And just over his head, he sees the back of a girl in red, her legs glowing with viridescent lines.
She tosses a dozen gleaming crystalline gemstones from her hands, letting them fall onto the downed and dazed Assassins.
"Acht!"
And with a single word, the crystals burst, and explode in a multi-colored show of light, unleashing a shockwave of mana-infused energy.
The trapped Assassins grunt and gargle as their bodies are struck, and start to turn to wisps.
"We got here just in time, Archer."
A tall, white-haired and red-clothed man appears at her side, both of them facing away from their group, who were still trying to gather their bearings. "Half of the Assassins still got away. They appear to be running into the forest."
"We'll chase them down." The red mage runs her fingers through her hair before tossing it over her shoulder, the light from the fires of her gemstone explosions illuminating the outline of her body, showing her black hair had a tinge of brown to its hue. "But for now…"
She begins to swivel her body, "Are you all o…kay…?"
The girl makes eye contact with Shirou, her eyes slowly widening.
Emiya himself finds himself staring for far longer than he intended. She has dark brunette hair, tied into twin tails similar to Shirai, though most of her hair she left to fall loosely. Piercing blue eyes contrasts her red coat, which she wears over a tan-colored vest and white button up. A knee-length skirt and black socks complete the look as she continues to lock eyes with Shirou and not look away.
The man beside her, also donning a red coat and tight, black clothes, makes eye contact with him as well. Instead of seeming dumbfounded, his expression is more neutral. Though for some reason his eyes are furrowed, as if calculating something in his head.
"…Um…Hello." Shirou Emiya speaks first, getting to his feet and standing straight up. "Thank you for…saving…"
He trails off as the girl starts walking toward him. "…Why do you…no…but…"
He hears her mutter semi-incoherent words under her breath. Once she walks over to him, Shirou finds her to be roughly Mikoto's height, if not a hair shorter. "…What's your name?"
"Shirou…Emiya?"
"I see." The girl reaches into her pocket, and pulls out a chain-link pendant with a ruby gemstone, shaped similar to a heart. "…Does this look familiar to you, Emiya-kun?"
Shirou blinks at the object, puzzled. "…I'm sorry, it doesn't."
Without a word, the girl spins around and pockets the item. "…Nevermind, then. My name's Rin Tohsaka. Nice to meet you."
She turns her attention to the others in the area. Shirou shakes off the rather awkward greetings of Tohsaka and looks around as well.
Saber makes his way over to him, mostly unharmed aside from a few scratches. "Are you well, Master?"
Shirou nods his head.
"Alright. Seems as if Archer and his Master jumped in to save us at the last moment…" She swivels her head to the Archer in question, who seemed to be looking at her for a moment too long. "Something to say, Archer?"
The white-haired Servant looks away and closes his eyes. "Nothing, my apologies. You're the Saber Servant, correct?"
"I am." Saber replies, "And you're the Archer…and you summon swords?"
Archer shrugs. "I wouldn't be the first Archer to do something like that."
"In any case, thank you for jumping in there." The feminine voice of Assassin interjects, forming a triangle between the three Servants. "We have injured, and would like to get them to the Underground Church."
She gestures to Fukiyose and Kuroko, both of which Mikoto is standing near and checking on, although the Level 5 did seem a little interested in listening into the conversation.
"We can do that," Tohsaka says, "I have a couple friends of mine that should be arriving right about now…Archer and I jumped ahead of them."
"Heeeyy!"
Shirou catches a strangely familiar voice down the street.
"Oh, speaking of," Tohsaka blinks, "there they are now."
Shirou turns his head, only to be met with another bombshell today running right at him; multiple bombshells, actually.
The first one that stands out to him is a girl in a nun habit, with silvery-white hair. Running alongside her are two teenage boys; both of which he was far-too familiar with. 'What the…?'
At the same time, the black-haired boy notices him as well, and skids to a stop a few meters from him. "…Emiya…?"
"Kamijou?" He looks at the blonde one as well, "And…Tsuchimikado?"
"You?!" Emiya nearly jumps out of his socks as a light-haired brunette suddenly stands up and exclaims, pointing at Kamijou in particular, "What the hell…you're involved in this mess, too?!"
"Kamijou-kun," Tohsaka says from behind him, "You know Emiya-kun? And…that girl?" She points to Mikoto.
"Oh hey, it's Short Hair!" The white-haired nun next to Kamijou exclaims.
"I have a name, you know." Misaka crosses her arms, "It's Mikoto Misaka. And you know him too, huh?" She points to Kamijou.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly say know, know…" Rin responds.
"Okay, okay!" Tsuchimikado breaks the tension and walks in-between everyone. "…Let's just all calm down for a minute and get everything straight. For right now, we should get those two girls to the Church to heal."
Kamijou recognizes the two bodies on the ground, and immediately runs up to them. "No way…Fukiyose…Shirai…?"
He places his hands near their mouths, "They're breathing at least…that's good, then."
Everyone reluctantly agrees to ignore the elephants in the room for a moment, and Assassin picks up the limp bodies of Fukiyose and Kuroko. "Saber told me where the entrance is located…I'll be back in a minute."
"Assassin," Mikoto says, "Please…keep them safe."
The kimono-wearing Servant nods in reassurance and hops away, leaving everyone to- again, awkwardly stare at each other. Archer and Saber make eye contact, and only shrug and sigh as everyone around Shirou tries to break the tension.
"Okay, so…" Saten, surprisingly, found the will to speak first, "…who knows who, exactly?"
XXXXX
Saten, Mikoto and the absent Kuroko made up their own trio, with their fourth member Uiharu somewhere safe and away from the Grail War. Saten is the Master of Assassin. That much, at least, Shirou knew. He himself became a part of their group a little while ago, along with his Servant, Saber.
Tohsaka, Kamijou, Tsuchimikado and Index are the other group. Kamijou and Index are roommates; to which Shirou finally figured out who the mysterious bite-prone girl that Kamijou lives with was. Tsuchimikado is their neighbor, and Tohsaka is a third party that came from outside of Academy City, in a city called Fuyuki. She is also the Master of Archer, who for some unknown reason to Shirou, kept giving him weird looks.
Shirou knew Kamijou and Tsuchimikado due to being classmates. Mikoto knew Kamijou, apparently, from running into him on a regular basis and from other contexts that he never knew about.
"This is one big headache…" Kamijou mutters, "so just to confirm: we're all involved in this whole Grail War thing?"
Shirou nods, and so does everyone else around him, "…Damn, well…curse our luck." The spiky-haired boy sighs in acceptance of the ridiculousness of the situation. Emiya had to agree; the situation just got a whole lot more complicated with this many people he knew involved.
"What made you guys come down here in the first place?" Tsuchimikado asks Shirou's group, "District 22 is off-limits from the explosion last night."
"We normally would have avoided this place," Saber explains, "but our encounter with those…Assassins forced us to try and lose them down here and find an alternate path to the Underground Church to get Kuroko and Fukiyose healed. The results were…mixed, as you saw."
Tohsaka nods, "Those Assassins have been a pain in our butts, too. Somehow, they had killed Tsuchimikado-kun's Servant, Caster. That's why we came down here, to investigate how they were able to kill him."
'So one Servant's already out of the War, then?' Shirou thought.
"Speaking of investigating," Tsuchimikado fixes his sunglasses, even though they all are not only indoors, but it is also way past dark, "there's quite a bit of us, now. I'd say we all go on a little collaborative trip."
Shirou relents, "Alright. We're better together than separate, after all."
"You alright with that, Archer?" Tohsaka asks her Servant, "You've been mostly quiet, this whole time."
The red Servant's arms are crossed, and his general demeanor is silent and non-responsive. However, he replies, "Yeah, I'm fine with that. Just…trying to take something in."
"And what is that, exactly?"
"Nothing important." Archer exhales, then gives a subtle side-eye to Shirou before turning his back toward the heart of the Underground District: the woods, which were now half-destroyed.
As they all begin to move, Shirou glares at the back of Archer's head. 'What the hell is this guy's problem with me?'
In fact, he was going to find out exactly why. Briskly catching up to the red-wearing mage, he asks, "Um…Tohsaka, right?"
The girl seems to notice him out of the corner of her eyes, but turns her head so he couldn't catch her face. "Y-Yes?"
He peers over to Archer, who seems to be heading the group along with Saber. Their Servants didn't seem to be speaking much to each other, if at all either. "Do you…" he mutters, "Do you know why your Servant keeps looking at me, like that?"
Her eyes seem to widen, but she crosses her arms and keeps walking ahead of him. "…I don't know. Sorry."
'…Huh. Is she annoyed with me, or something?' Emiya thinks as he watches her go on ahead next to her Servant. Just then, he feels a tap on his shoulder.
"Yo. You alright, Emiya?" The voice of Kamijou causes him to breathe in relief a little.
"…Yeah, kind of. I don't know why, but I think your friend is mad at me, or something."
Kamijou clicks his tongue in response, "Ah, you have that problem too, huh?"
"What problem?"
"Hey, you!" Kamijou winces as a certain Railgun comes up from behind him and pinches his arm, "What the hell are you doing wrapped up in all of this, anyway? I swear, for some reason, we seem to run into each other's issues, like, all the time."
"Ow…" Kamijou rubs his pinched arm, "…Glad to see you too, Biri-biri."
"And would it kill you to stop calling me that? I have a name!"
Shirou looks in-between the two of them, and then decides he has no place in their conversation and walks further ahead.
'Oh,' the redhead thought, 'That kind of problem.'
XXXXX
Saten had been directed to the Underground Church's entrance as well, since her lack of powers made her a target, along with Index. While the young nun didn't seem like she wanted to go either, she also seemed oddly intrigued about the prospect of a Church within the science-based Academy City, and went to not only be a bodyguard, but to check it out.
The rest: Shirou, Mikoto, Kamijou, Tohsaka, and Tsuchimikado, as well as the Servants Archer and Saber, make their way to the artificial forest. It didn't take long for Assassin to catch up to them, either.
As they step through the woods, Shirou observes several scarred trees, either from slash marks or burns that sprinkle the forest. 'There was definitely some kind of battle here.'
From what he could tell, everyone else could make out the same. Trees lost quite a few of their leaves and the ground had been torn up in areas; indicators of some sort of battle between superhuman enemies.
"Caster also specialized in Flame-type Magecraft," Tsuchimikado mentions, "And there's a lot of signs of a fire around here."
"You think he was here, then?" Kamijou asks.
The Hawaiian-shirted teen nods, "I'm almost positive. Eyes and ears sharp too, guys; Assassins could pop out from anywhere."
The forest begins to clear, and expand into what Emiya could only describe as looking like a massive meteorite crash site.
An almost perfectly circular crater, nearly a hundred meters in diameter and deep enough to contain a multi-story building. The first quarter or so of the crater's depth is brown with dirt, while the rest leading to the bottom is a mix of grey and black from the earth's bedrock. If the crater had been significantly deeper, maybe twice the size it had been now, it may have been large enough to poke a hole through the Underground District's third layer, and peek into the fourth. The bottom of the bowl had a small pool of water; likely a few meters deep, trickling from the river that just barely survived the explosion.
"Ah…returning for more, are we?"
But all of that isn't what Shirou is focusing on. Hovering above the center of the crater, high enough to make eye-contact with them, is a floating grey-skinned old man.
"Zouken…Matou…" Shirou mutters.
"Hey!" Kamijou yells, "Tell me: are you the one that's been sending those Assassins around and hurting everyone?"
The Grandfather of the Matou chuckles, "Ah…Touma Kamijou."
Kamijou lowers his fist, taken aback. "So you know who I am, huh?"
"Of course," Matou muses, "I'm well aware of your and your exploits in the Magecraft side, giving those fools in the Holy Church a proper lesson in etiquette…but you, boy, have a lot to learn."
Zouken Matou snaps his fingers. On his command, the Assassins appear from the Shadows: a good two-dozen of them, give or take, encircling the crater and ensuring none can escape.
Shirou looks around at the group, and realizes none of them look too worried. As long as they execute what happened last time, they can defeat the Assassins again without casualties. And with Kuroko and Fukiyose in safe hands, they didn't have to hold back, either.
"This is the Holy Grail War, my fellow Masters," Zouken grins, "Innocents being hurt is simply collateral damage in our quest to obtain the Grail."
Kamijou clenches his fist, ready to retort, but Tohsaka puts her hand on his shoulder and walks forward.
She glares up at Zouken, a gleam in her eyes. "So you're Zouken Matou, huh?" She places her hand on her hip, "Judging by your appearance…it seems like the rumors that the Matou family is failing as a bloodline is true. Your body is falling apart at the seams."
"Hm?" Zouken raises a brow at the twintailed girl below. "Oh, you must be Tokiomi's firstborn."
"I am." Tohsaka announces, "And I have a question for you."
"Tohsaka-san…" Kamijou mutters, "This isn't the right time to be having a conversation right now-"
Tohsaka raises her arm to keep everyone quiet. What she wants to ask is apparently urgent. "…The child, that my father gave over to you…"
Matou's eyes widen in understanding.
"…How are they?"
'…Eh?' Shirou thinks, 'What is she talking about?
And…how does she know this guy? What child?'
A dozen thoughts were racing through Shirou Emiya's mind, but Zouken cut through his train of thought quite fast with a hearty chuckle; as hearty as one Zouken's age could give, anyway.
"Hm…" The old man smirks, "They are being taken care of, I can assure you."
Tohsaka's eyes narrow. "…Alright.
Archer."
On cue, a red light beams over Shirou's head. He hadn't even noticed that Tohsaka's Servant had vanished from view a long time ago.
In the space of a blink, the light crashes into Zouken, piercing through his head. For any human, irregardless of supernatural powers, they would be instantly killed by a strike of that caliber.
Except…
"Heh…hahaha…"
Zouken's head is split in two, but blood does not spurt out. Instead, the shape of his face splits like paper, his eyes and mouth still wide with amusement as he continues to laugh.
His body disintegrates into flying insects. As they disperse, his voice remains.
"Become a feast for the Grail, Masters and Servants. Assassins…attack at will. Make sure none come out of this alive."
"Hmph." Saber picks up her blade, unperturbed by Zouken's cryptic warning. "Very well. Assassin, Mikoto, take the front lines along with me."
None of them seem to be bothered. Which is why…
'…There's something horribly wrong about all this.' Shirou thinks as the nearby Assassins twist their heads toward them, and attack.
Even as a small horde of Assassins make contact with them, and are quickly dispatched by the three Servants and the powerful Esper they have, a dreadful feeling sinks into the bottom of Shirou's throat.
He looks down, and notices the pool of water at the bottom of the crater begin to foam and vibrate. Not from the battle; but from something emerging from underneath it.
A violet light beams from underneath, and he spots a head of hair emerge from below.
"Shirou…!" Saber shouts out to him, parrying an Assassin's slash, "what's…going on down there…?"
He looks to Kamijou and the others, who also seem to notice the emerging entity from the water.
It only took a moment later to realize it was a person; or something…horribly resembling one.
Their head is misshapen and disproportionate, and their cobalt colored hair is long, wild, and matted, as if dragged through mud and dirt. One eye is bulged while the other is bloodshot; their teeth long like a wolf's. Their tanned skin is overly muscular in uneven areas around their body; one arm vastly larger than the other, and pulsing like a heart. Veins bulge from every corner of their body, visibly pumping through their skin.
Their top is in tatters, and their bottom robes are stretched to their limits. Hints of dark blue could be seen decorating the clothes, but they are easily covered up by the dark aura that permeates their body and stains their skin. The eyes glow scarlet, and spittle drips down their chin as their arms larger than a human grabs onto a three-meter long, crimson spear.
Shirou's eyes widen in abject horror; and so does everyone else's.
"What…the actual hell is that?" Kamijou shouts, a deep fear settled in his voice.
"…I think I know." Tsuchimikado says. "That…that is Caster."
"What?" Tohsaka turns to him, "That can't be true…but now that you say that…it does resemble him, at least a little…"
"Everyone who can't fight, get the hell back!" A deep voice appears from nowhere and lands in front of all of them, getting between Shirou and the others while Saber, Mikoto and Assassin hold off the cloaked, fake Assassins from either side.
Archer grits his teeth as a dual pair of short swords appear in either of his hands: each is somewhat Chinese in design, with one being white and the other black. "The Child of Light…there is a tale about him going berserk, somewhat like this. When he gets like this, almost nothing can stop him, and he doesn't listen to reason. He's basically become a Berserker."
Tsuchimikado grabs Kamijou's arm. "Kamijou, we're heading back up the hill!"
"Wha- let go of me!" The spiky-haired teen protests, "I can fight too!"
"Not against that thing, you're not." Tsuchimikado resolves, "Keep your distance; you can find an opportunity when it presents itself, but right now you're screwed if you stay here. Hey!"
The blonde teen shouts out to Shirou, "I suggest you run, too!"
Shirou looks between Tsuchimikado and the now berserk Caster.
'The pressure coming off of him…it's…' Emiya grits his teeth, 'It's as strong as the Berserker from the other night…if not, even more so…!'
He sees the 'Caster' start to creak its head upwards, facing the group standing atop the crater.
A red lightning coils around its lopsided body as it hefts its spear, and growls like a hound.
It makes eye contact with someone in the group, and exhales. Steam billows from between its teeth as the monster takes its first step.
Shirou runs to the right, and realizes that the Caster's eyes hadn't been focusing on him; its attention is straight forward, looking at—
'Tohsaka!'
Without thinking, he runs over to her. He could tell her face is still somewhat paralyzed in fear, just as the monster takes its second step.
Then, it turns into a blur, and vanishes from sight.
"TOHSAKA!"
He grabs onto her body and forces his own between her and the monster.
A clash of metals lashes out from behind his body, creating an intense shockwave that forces both of them to the ground.
Shirou twists himself in mid-air so he's the one that hits the ground instead. A dull pain shoots through his whole body as his head slams into dirt quite roughly.
"You're…a goddamn idiot…"
Shirou opens his eyes, to meet the gaze of a face of concern, anger, and fear all mixed into one. "Why didn't you run?! You could die here, you know!" Tohsaka shouts.
Just then a roar of an inhuman behemoth catches both of their attentions. They turn their heads, and a monstrous beast hovers over them, its spear only a meter or so away from slashing both of their bodies open.
The only reason why it couldn't, is a red bowman keeping its spear away with twin blades, gritting his teeth tightly as he puts all of his strength into keeping the monster from falling atop all of them.
"Go…you two…!" Archer grimaces. "Just…run…!"
Tohsaka clamors to her feet and grabs Shirou's arm, pulling them up and out of harm's way. Shirou, his back still turned, spots a blue and gold knight rush into action, planting her sword perpendicular to Caster's lance.
Saber's eyes close, and a reddish aura permeates around her, growing intensely in energy. "On three, Archer. One…"
"Two…!" Archer screams out.
"THREE!"
A burst of Mana fires out from Saber's body, focusing into her arms as she and Archer simultaneously blow the berserk Servant backwards, with enough force to send him into the air.
The monster spins in mid-air as its body hurls several meters diagonally. Archer switches his swords out for a black longbow, nearly his own height, and summons a blade between his fingers.
He was going to snipe the Caster down from mid-air.
"Wait, no…!"
The monster of Culann roars, and twists its body upright and hefts its spear in its hands, pulling it backwards as if preparing to throw.
"He can still use Noble Phantasms…?" Saber mutters.
Archer steps forward, gesturing for Saber to get behind her as he raises one arm. Blue light swirls around his body as he closes his eyes and announces.
"I am the bone of my Sword."
Even as Tohsaka is dragging him away, Shirou Emiya's eyes are locked onto the red Archer, whose crimson cape flutters with the wind picking up around them.
A purplish-pink, translucent barrier appears in his palm, growing in size extremely quickly and opening up like petals of a flower.
"Rho…Aias!"
The Caster sneers, and releases his weapon.
"GAE BOLG."
A deathly, hollow and broken voice announces from the Berserker as his spear turns into a missile of unstoppable light.
In response, the flower barrier of Archer's creation forms several circular energy walls in front of it, layering on top of itself and bolstering its defenses as the lance comes falling.
A massive shockwave bursts out from the clash of an unstoppable force and immovable object. The combative Assassins are forced to retreat as the winds from the colliding forces tear apart trees, flatten the ground, and expand the already gigantic crater from a battle once past.
Archer falters a degree, his body seeming to near its limits as the spear's tip cracks the first layer. A moment later, a shatter akin to glass rings out, the layer destroyed. The spear slams into the next; and breaks it with little effort as well.
Shirou watches as Archer closes his eyes, and takes in a deep breath. A swirling white aura coats his body as his body language shifts.
'What…' Shirou mutters, 'What is he doing—?!'
"I am the Bone of my Sword.
Steel is my body, and fire is my blood."
Shirou Emiya blinks, and finds himself in another world entirely.
A dusk sky, with massive cogwheels above the horizon, turning slowly. The land is of barren, rolling hills, with swords peppered throughout, stuck upside-down like gravestones.
He blinks again, and he's taken back into reality, watching as Archer struggles to maintain two spells at once. 'What just-?'
The behemoth he is fighting growls with the savagery of a thousand hounds, and grabs onto his own spear and plunges it forward with his own strength.
The layers break ever faster, shattering easily as the spear cuts through it like knives through butter.
But the Archer does not give in.
"I have created over a thousand blades.
Unknown to Death,
Nor known to Life."
His vision blurs, and when he refocuses, Shirou finds himself in the same place.
He turns his head upwards, realizing he is standing at the foot of a hill.
At the top, he sees a figure standing alone, amongst a barrow of blades.
Shaking his head, he watches as Caster pierces through yet another layer- and is at the final barrier between him and Archer.
For some reason, Shirou feels his heart beat through his chest as Archer stumbles. He breaks free of Tohsaka's grip, and runs toward the Servant as fast as he can.
"Emiya-kun, where are you—?!"
"Shirou, where are you going?!" He hears the shouts of Saber and Tohsaka calling out to him, but he places their voices in the back of his mind. Glancing right, he spots Saber re-occupied with a few Assassins, who slipped through the cracks of Archer and Caster's clash and snuck up behind her.
His running accelerates. 'He's not going to make it…!'
"I have withstood pain to create many weapons.
Yet, those hands will never hold anything."
Shirou's vision changes once again, as he finds himself at the top of that hill, standing just behind that figure he saw standing.
The man stands up to his feet. His hair is white, like Archer's, but instead of slicked back, is messily fallen around his head.
The man turns, his eyes cold and jaded by life, yet when Shirou looks closer, he can see an inherent warmness wanting to climb out.
The pain of a thousand years of agony looks back at him.
Yet in the center, the wish of a certain someone burns gently, wanting to continue despite their endless fate.
'…Is he…?'
Shirou reaches out his hand. The man doesn't return the favor, and instead announces: "So, as I pray-"
His vision back to normal, the hero of justice shoves Archer to the side as the barrier shatters entirely, and a sharp pain stabs itself into his gut.
Gritting his teeth in pain, time seems to slow down as he sees Archer, who thanks to him is uninjured, glance at him and close his eyes.
Shirou Emiya gasps— his vision is consumed by light, and the World itself is replaced as Archer's chant finishes.
"Unlimited Blade Works."
C'mon, I had to include the Reality Marble in this story somewhere, right? XD It's too badass NOT to be used.
Some clarification on some things that happened in this chapter, that being:
1.) Rin Tohsaka having a "dream" of the UBW route, where she and Shirou talked under the stars after fighting Caster. It is true that Masters can have dreams of their Servants' life (which is how Rin learned who Archer is in the first place, in UBW), but Archer had a different life and experienced a different 5th HGW than the Shirou from the UBW route.
My logic is: remember in UBW, when Archer and Shirou were fighting, and Archer commented that the Counter Force was registering them as the same person, and as such, Shirou was getting stronger and catching up with Archer?
I took that to the logical extreme, and had it so the Counter Force literally "fused" their lives together. Which is why Rin can see into UBW Shirou's past and history— because he and Archer "fused" together in that route by fighting each other. Not literally, but more in a spiritual or metaphorical sense.
It's about as fanfiction-y I've gone in the story so far, so I hope you'll forgive that. My main reasoning for making that scene was that it was thematically really strong for my story, and I'd rather make something strong for my plot and characters, even if it fudges with lore rules a little. "Rule of cool" as I call it.
It's not the most uncanon-y, weird thing that's happened in fanfictions, anyway.
2.) Cu Chulainn. This one isn't as un-canony as the Shirou/EMIYA debacle, but it's more that the series never actually shows us its interpretation of Warp Spasm Cu.
Because indeed, I am using the Riastrad, Warp Spam Cu Chulainn, AKA the true "Berserker" Cu, that even Cu Alter from FGO mentions is a terrifying monster.
The Fate/series never shows what this version of Cu looks like, so I took some creative liberties in his creation. Basically, a hulk'd out Cu. With a deadly spear.
Have fun, protags. lol.
In any case, with this chapter, the A and B plots have now merged, and the climax is afoot!
Hope you guys enjoy the last few chapters of Act I. I'll see you all next week.
Next Chapter Release: "A Certain Barrow of Blades" (December 7th)