December 1st, 2002 AD – Tohsaka residence

Rin Tohsaka was not happy.

This was not uncommon for her, especially when it was Sunday morning and she had been awoken from her sleep a mere three hours after she had emerged from her Workshop, gotten into her pajamas and crashed into her bed, her latest set of experiments finally complete. She had spent over twenty hours working on her jewels, and had been looking forward to spending the entire day in bed before going back to school on Monday.

Instead, she had woken up when that damned rotary phone she had inherited from her father (who had been surprisingly modern by magi standards) had rung – and kept ringing, despite her attempts to silence it by burrowing her head in cushions and stubbornly refusing to move. Eventually, she had dragged herself out of bed and down the stairs, the journey barely enough for some of her fatigue to be replaced by a cold, seething rage at whoever had disturbed her rest.

"What," she snarled as she picked up the phone, barely refraining herself from crushing it to pieces.

"Good morning, Rin," replied the voice on the line, utterly unfazed by the hatred in her tone.

"Kirei," she all but growled. "Why are you calling me this early on a Sunday ?"

"It is nearly eleven AM," answered the priest, not even bothering to hide his amusement. "As your guardian, I feel I should be worried about the hours my charge keeps on off-school days."

"If you called me just to wake me up, so help me God -"

"Of course not," he interrupted her, his tone suddenly all business. "Amusing as that would be, even I would not be so crass. I have called you not as my ward, but as Fuyuki's Second Owner."

The words felt like cold water thrown in Rin's face. Since she had completed her tutelage under Kirei, taken the reins of the Tohsaka family – along with its much-diminished finances – and assumed the position that had belonged to her forebears for generations, the fake priest had never contacted her in that aspect of their relationship.

She could think of many reasons why Kirei was calling her right now – few of them good.

She swallowed, and asked : "What has happened ?"

"Zouken and Shinji Matou died on Friday night, and the Matou residence burned to the ground."

For several seconds, Rin remained silent, the last traces of her sleepiness banished and replaced by shock. Eventually, her mind managed to reboot, and she asked :

"Are you sure the old monster is dead ? I was under the impression he was using some kind of Magecraft to keep himself alive, and that sort of thing isn't easy to overcome."

Kirei chuckled. "Believe me, I know more about the means by which Zouken preserved his loathsome existence than you did. I made sure to check, using some of the methods at my disposal as an Exorcist. Yes, Rin, I am sure. Zouken is dead."

Rin forced herself not to let any emotion show in her voice as she continued : "And what of the Matou heir ? Did she … die too ?" She didn't think so, or Kirei would have mentioned it – but she wouldn't put it beyond the fake priest to hold that information just so that she would have to ask.

"It does not seem so. The police thinks that she is alive. Apparently, she was spending the night at a friend's home and was thus spared from the destruction."

A friend ? As far as Rin knew, Sakura didn't have any friend at school, except – Emiya. Of course. She knew Sakura visited him in his house – they came to school together more often than not. And Sakura's crush on the red-haired boy couldn't have been more obvious. Not that Rin couldn't understand – Emiya was the only one who showed any kindness to the girl, and he wasn't bad-looking besides – but it still surprised her that Shinji would let his sister spend the night out, given how he always reacted when Sakura and Emiya came to school together.

"She was at Emiya's, wasn't she ?"

There was a pause, and when Kirei spoke up again, there was the faintest hint of surprise in his voice :

"… Yes, she was in the home of one Shirou Emiya, according to the latest police report. My contacts also told me that the paperwork is being filed for her to live there from now on, and that there is a certain amount of push to make it go through quickly and without fanfare. The same kind of pressure is also being applied on the investigation of the Matou residence's destruction, to make sure it is classified as an accident."

"Where is that pressure coming from ?" She would have expected Kirei to be the one to do that; there was no telling what the police could find investigating the ruins of the Matou residence that would threaten the secrecy of Magecraft. But if it wasn't him and Zouken (the only other Magus in Fuyuki with that kind of pull with the police force after her father's death) was dead, then who ?

"I don't know," admitted the fake priest, and Rin almost smiled as she heard how much he disliked saying it out loud. "Which in itself is a clue, since it means that whoever is behind this has enough influence to counter mine."

That … was worrying. Left unsaid was the implication that whoever had managed to kill Zouken in the heart of his power – she barely gave a second thought to Shinji's demise, as even a particularly dim child could have figured out a way to kill the preening teenager – was the most likely suspect. Which meant that they had managed to infiltrate the city rather thoroughly before striking, if they could wield that kind of influence over the police.

"Fine. I admit that you had a pretty good reason to wake me up," Rin grumbled. "I will go visit Sa-the Matou heir, and get the story from her. Give me the address."

She knew Kirei had caught her last-second word swap, but wonder of wonder, the fake priest didn't mention it. He told her the address, before going silent. Just when Rin was about to hang up on him, he spoke up once more :

"Rin, there is something you should know. The boy, Emiya … he is most likely a magus."

She frowned. "I have met him many times at school, Kirei. He never struck me as a practitioner."

"That just means that he's good at keeping his true nature hidden, which is a trait shared by every Magus worth the name," the fake priest chided her. "It was the name 'Emiya' that drew my curiosity when I saw it in the report. When I dug deeper, I found that he was the adoptive son of Kiritsugu Emiya, known to both the Association and the Church as the Magus Killer – a freelancer of dreadful reputation among both your peers and mine. I wasn't aware of the boy's presence in the city until today, nor that you were close to him in any fashion, or I would have warned you before now. Rin, if he is anything like his father, then he will be far more dangerous than you can handle. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me overmuch if he were the one who put Zouken down."

"That's ridiculous," she snapped. "Emiya, a threat ? He doesn't even react when Shinji insults him to his face !"

"Rin … Kiritsugu Emiya was one of the last Grail War's Masters. He fought in the name of the Einzbern, and was the Master with the higher kill counter. Official Church records mark him as having died around that time, but there were many who suspected he had merely faked his death. Yet for all his enemies who sought him out – and believe me, he had many enemies – none of them could find him. If he stayed in Japan after the War, that explains it : the Association has little influence on this continent, as you well know."

Of course she knew. As far as the Mage Association was concerned, Japan – and the entirety of Asia, if she were honest – was a backwater, populated only by amateur magi and a handful of inhuman bloodlines whose sole interest was as test subjects for the experiments of their "betters". And for all that Fuyuki stood at the confluence of several ley lines, it was devoid of any such bloodlines, making its sole interest to Western magi the Grail War that took place there every fifty years. If this "Magus Killer" really had such a dreadful reputation as Kirei seemed to imply, then hiding in Fuyuki had actually been quite clever : the Association only concerned itself with the city when a Grail War was coming, and he would have known exactly how distant that was.

"Even I believed him dead," continued Kirei, "which I admit was quite the blunder considering he apparently spent years in this city before finally passing away."

"And he didn't even bother to change his name," Rin pointed out, taking some pleasure in forcing Kirei to confront the scale of his failure. "Are you sure he was that good, and you aren't inflating the threat he posed to justify your own mistakes ?"

"I am aware that I have erred in this, Rin, but I still need you to listen to me. Only a Magus could have destroyed Zouken, and you and I would have noticed it if one had come from outside Fuyuki. As a rule, magi are not the most subtle people, and while one could possibly have slipped by the two of us, it is much more unlikely they would have been able to build up the influence required to clean up after them like this. I supposed a Dead Apostle could also be responsible, but there haven't been any report of disappearances, and such a creature wouldn't have left a survivor behind. This is why I believe it likely that Shirou Emiya was the one to kill Zouken and his grandson, and to engineer the ongoing cover-up of the attack."

Rin forced herself to put aside her emotions and consider what Kirei was saying objectively. Was it possible ? Could Emiya have fooled her all this time, keeping his abilities a secret from her – the Second Owner of this city ?

"I strongly advise you to not go to the residence of such an individual alone," Kirei pressed. "Strong as you may be, you are nowhere near -"

Rin slammed the phone down, fuming. Who did Kirei think he was, telling her what to do or not to do ?! She wasn't afraid of Emiya, even if he was apparently the adopted son of some boogeyman of the Moonlit World. She was the Tohsaka Head, heiress to a thaumaturgical legacy that went back hundreds of years. She was the Second Owner of Fuyuki, and it burned her pride that she had to learn what had happened to the Matou from Kirei instead of figuring out herself.

She was honest with herself enough to know that she hadn't been a good sister to Sakura. When the two of them had been separated, she had followed her father's instructions and treated her as a stranger. Forget that you had a sister, Tokiomi had said, and when she thought back on it she fancied that there had been a shade of regret in the magus' voice as he told her this, though perhaps that was just wishful thinking.

Then her father had died, her mother had slowly faded away, and she had been left with Kirei Kotomine of all people as a mentor and guardian. He had not treated her badly – her training had been harsh, but no more than should be expected from an Exorcist teaching the heir to an old Magus bloodline. And yet, there had always been something … wrong about the man. Something that made her despise him from the bottom of her heart, without being able to say why.

She had wanted to get closer to Sakura, as a friend if not as a sister. Their families were supposed to be allies, after all. But by the time she had been freed of Kirei's tutelage and had taken her independence in the Moonlit World, she had not dared to try. What was she supposed to say to the sister her family had abandoned ? After spending years learning the mysteries that were the heritage from which Sakura had been deprived, how could she try to reconnect with her ?

She couldn't do it. She was bitterly aware that it was her cowardice that had kept her from reaching out to her younger sister. All she had done was watch as Shinji continued to insult her, and try to draw some of the fool's attention to herself by making her rejections of his pitiful attempts at wooing her as humiliating as possible. Even then, she knew she had done a lot less for Sakura than Emiya – in the last year, the two of them had become almost inseparable, with Sakura becoming a lot more lively as soon as the red-haired boy approached. She could not bring her sister's happiness.

But this ? This she could do. She would go to Emiya's house, she would extract the truth from him at gempoint if necessary, and if he had hurt Sakura in any way, if Rin's darkest fears proved true – if Emiya's friendship with Sakura had only been the manipulations of a cold-hearted magus seeking to use her to steal the secrets of the Matou family – then he would face the fullness of her wrath as Second Owner. According to Kirei, Emiya was an undeclared magus operating in her territory. She had grounds to kill him even without the recent events.

First, though, she was going to down an entire pot of coffee. She had a feeling she would need it.

An hour later, after cleaning herself up and taking her prana-charged jewels with her, Rin stood before the gates of the Emiya residence. It had apparently started to snow some time before she went to bed, and Fuyuki was covered in a thick layer of snow, with the streets having thankfully already been cleaned. She had passed by the Matou household on the way there, checking for herself that there wasn't any magical activity emanating from the ruins. The area was still closed off, with a couple of policemen checking nobody came too close – openly so that no one would get hurt if there was a collapse in the rubble.

Like Rin, Emiya lived in Miyama Town, though his home was located in the Eastern-style quarter rather than the Western district. Judging by the wooden wall surrounding it, the property was larger than her own – what was left of it anyway, after years of Kirei's mismanagement of her family's finances.

After checking there wasn't anyone else in the street, she closed her eyes and focused inward. She constructed the image of her heart, held it in her mind, then pierced it with an imaginary dagger, triggering her Magic Circuits. Prana flowed through her, leaving her feeling more alive than she had all morning.

She whispered "Strukturanalyse" under her breath, activating the spell stored in her Magic Crest. Her perceptions expended, and she felt the Bounded Field surrounding the property. Unlike the multi-layered wards that covered her home, she could only detect one Field – a weak one, seemingly aimed at privacy rather than defense … ah. There was a component to detect the use of prana. She wasn't sure if her jewels would be enough to trigger it – she had all but emptied her stock before coming, taking even her heirloom ruby pendant. That particular item was charged with enough prana that the slightest draw on its reserves would undoubtedly trigger the ward – but then again, she had brought it as a last measure only.

She took a deep breath, and raised a hand to press the doorbell …

"Oh ? What are you doing here, Tohsaka-san ?"

Sakura Matou was happy.

The sensation still felt alien to her, though she no longer expected to wake up in the worm pit. Yesterday's talk with Senpai, combined with their passionate night together, had put that particular fear to rest. At least for now, she could tell herself that even in her wildest dreams, she had never imagined her current situation, nor the details of the last night.

For the first time, she understood why people said "making love" when speaking of sex. To her, sex had always been a brutal and debased affair, either at the hands of her brother or in the worm pit. But last night had been different. Without the worms to force her to feel pleasure against her will, the sensations had paradoxically run deeper, felt more real than when they had been imposed upon her. Without the guilt, the disgust and the self-hatred, she had been able to let herself experience the feelings the night had brought in full. Senpai hadn't had any experience, but he had still been a more attentive partner than Shinji had ever been, and the sheer joy of being with him had brought her to ecstasy time and time again, until she had collapsed in his arms, exhausted and content. Waking up with his arms around her had been another joy.

She was hungry. Neither her nor Senpai had eaten breakfast, since by the time they had woken up they had needed to hurry up and get dressed before starting to cook lunch. Senpai had been sure Fujimura-sensei would come to eat with them, so he had started to cook up a feast – half to distract his guardian and make sure she didn't notice what they had done last night, and half in celebration of the same. The two of them agreed that it was too soon to tell Fujimura-sensei about the change in their relationship's nature, especially since it hadn't even taken them twenty-four hours to do what she had told them they were both too young to do.

Sakura wasn't certain Fujimura-sensei would disapprove – she had seen the wink the teacher had sent her before leaving yesterday. But she went along with Senpai anyway, since it was a bit quick for them to become lovers so quickly – and merely thinking the word sent a new rush of heat up her cheeks.

So Sakura was hungry, but that wasn't enough to put a damper on her happiness. After all, she was cooking alongside Senpai, and since he had saved her, food tasted so much better.

"SHIROU ! SAKURA ! COME SEE WHAT I HAVE BROUGHT !"

"Can you go take care of that ?" asked Senpai with a smile, not frazzled by the sudden shout whatsoever. "I am finishing things up here."

"Of course, Senpai."

Leaving her Senpai in the kitchen, where the last elements of lunch were being prepared, Sakura went to the house's entrance, checking her clothes one last time to make sure there was no sign of last night's activities on her.

"Hello, Fujimura-sensei, and … Tohsaka-san ?"

She froze. Next to Fujimura-sensei was her estranged sister. She was wearing a red cloak and a black skirt, with long black leggings underneath. There were dark rings under her eyes, which were wide and staring at her.

"Hi, Sakura-chan !" greeted Taiga, her voice filled with cheer. "I came to check how the two of you are doing. Tohsaka-san here heard about what happened, and came to see if you were well ! Isn't that nice of her ?"

"Hello, Sakura," said Rin in a weary tone. "I am glad you seem to be okay."

Sakura blinked as she looked between the over-energetic teacher and the exhausted-looking magus, unsure what to think or do. Finally, she fell back on what she knew : acting politely and welcoming the guests in Senpai's home.

"Hello, Fujimura-sensei, Tohsaka-san. Please come in. Sempai is finishing cooking lunch. Will the two of you join us ?"

"I wouldn't want to impose ..." muttered Rin, her eyes still fixed on Sakura, looking her up and down.

"Don't worry, Tohsaka-san," laughed Taiga. "Shirou always cooks a lot when he knows I am coming. I will … ugh … I will give up taking the leftovers back home so that you can join us."

If the adult realized how childish she sounded as she said the last sentence as if she were making a terrible sacrifice, she showed no sign of it.

"Really, you would miss out by not joining us. Shirou is a great cook, and Sakura-chan is almost as good. By the way, here, Sakura-chan," said Taiga, handing a bag to her. "I went by the school this morning and got you a replacement uniform."

Sakura glanced inside the paper bag, seeing the folded clothes inside, and bowed in thanks.

"Of course, you won't need it immediately, but I thought it was best to get that out of the way as soon as possible. Now ! What is it that I smell ?"

Rin wasn't sure what was going on. Whatever she had expected to happen when going to the house of another Magus who had slain Zouken and Shinji, destroyed the Matou estate, taken her sister captive and swept it all under the rug in the eyes of the mundane authorities, this wasn't it.

From the moment that weird teacher – she had seen Fujimura-san accompanying Sakura and Emiya often enough to know that she worked at the high school section of Homurahara Academy – had called out to her, nothing had gone like she had thought it would. She had come half-expecting a fight to rescue her long-lost sister, and instead had been ushered in by that same sister and invited to lunch. And how had that woman snuck up on her, by the way ?! She had been sure there hadn't been anyone else in the street !

"Welcome, Tohsaka," greeted Shirou as he put down another set of cutlery. "Please, have a seat. We have cooked more than enough for an additional person."

It would be stupid to accept. She was in the territory of a Magus of unknown talents and skills, but one powerful enough to take down Zouken in his own home.

Growl.

Except that she had only eaten a cup of soup before going to bed a few hours ago, hadn't eaten any breakfast beyond her coffee, and there was only so much Magus discipline could do against the delicious smells emanating from the meal. Her stomach betrayed her and, defeated and red-faced, Rin Tohsaka sat at the table.

She started to eat, and froze for a moment as her mouth exploded with flavours. With her financial situation always being tense and neither she nor Kirei being great cooks – or rather, in the fake priest's case, not being great at cooking stuff that normal people would recognize as food – Rin wasn't used to eating delicious meals.

She sat, stunned, until she saw Fujimura and the others devour their own portions and take seconds. Then she started eating again, afraid that there would be nothing left by the time she had finished her current serving.

In what seemed the blink of an eye, the food on the table was gone. There had been plenty of it, but everyone had eaten a lot – and while Rin knew why she had been hungry, she wondered what the reasons were for the three others.

"That was delicious," she complimented Shirou and Sakura, still stunned at the display of culinary prowess. The boy accepted the praise with only a slight smile, while the younger girl blushed and looked down as she placed cups of fragrant tea on the table.

"It sure was !" guffawed Taiga. "You put all the stops today, Shirou. Is there something you want to tell me ?"

"Nothing in particular, Fuji-nee. Sakura and me just started working on lunch early."

"Hmm, reaaallly ? That's suspicious ..." The teacher was interrupted by a truly massive yawn.

"You got up early to get Sakura's uniform, didn't you Sensei ?" said Rin. "Aren't you going to be tired tomorrow ?"

"Maaaybe," the adult groaned. "But I didn't want Sakura-chan to worry about it …"

"That's very nice of you, but perhaps you should take a nap then," suggested Rin, looking straight at Taiga as she spoke. The older woman blinked once, twice, before nodding.

"You are right, Rin-chan …" Shirou removed her plate just in time for her arms to hit the table, quickly followed by her head between them as she fell asleep, snoring slightly.

"What did you do ?" asked Shirou in a flat voice. Both he and Sakura had stopped moving and were staring at her warily.

"A minor hypnotism," replied Rin, fixing the boy. "She won't wake up until a couple of hours or any magus disrupts the spell. We need to talk, Emiya-kun, Sakura."

Shirou sighed. "You are right. Please don't cast magecraft on my guardian in the future, though."

"S-senpai …" Sakura whispered, drawing close to Shirou.

She was afraid, Rin realized, and not of Emiya, though that would be bad enough. She was afraid of her. The realization hit Rin like a hammer, and she felt sick.

"Emiya-kun," she began, "I am here as the Second Owner of Fuyuki City. I trust you at least know what that is ?"

Shirou nodded. "Yes. Dad taught me about the Association and its rules."

"Then why was this morning the first time I heard about your presence in my territory ?"

The red-haired teen shrugged. "I didn't know for sure you were the Second Owner until yesterday when Sakura confirmed it for me, but it was mainly on dad's instructions. He had enemies who he knew wouldn't be above taking their anger out on his son, even an adopted one. It was safer if no one in the Association even knew I existed."

That matched what Kirei had told her, Rin had to admit, even if it didn't diminish the insult to her position in the slightest. Still …

"As a magus in my territory, you fall under my responsibility, Emiya-kun. Anything you did that broke the laws of the Association would be my fault."

"I am not a magus, Tohsaka."

She raised an eyebrow. "Do you think I am an idiot ? There is a Bounded Field around this house, weak as it may be. And I know you practice Magecraft."

"Oh, I do," he confirmed, taking her off-guard. "But I am not a magus. I don't seek the Root, nor have I inherited my father's Magic Crest. I am a magic user, not a magus. My magecraft is just a tool to an end to me, not an end in itself."

"… Fine," she conceded the point, "but that would still put you under my responsibility. And anyway," she got to the reason she had come in the first place, "if you were supposed to stay under the radar, then why do you have the last surviving Matou in your home ?"

There was a moment of pause.

"You want to know what happened on Friday night."

No shit, Rin thought, keeping the profanity to her thoughts and letting only the smallest twitch of her eyebrow convey her irritation.

Shirou sighed. "Fine," he said. "You are right : as Second Owner, you are entitled to knowing the full truth. More importantly ..." His gaze sharpened, and Rin tensed. "... as Sakura's sister, you absolutely should know."

"Ah," Rin winced. "You know ?"

He nodded. "Sakura told me yesterday. She told me how your parents handed her off to Zouken and never contacted her again."

There was no heat in his tone, which somehow made it worse.

"But we aren't speaking about that yet," he continued, to Rin's relief. "As you know, Tohsaka, I missed school on Friday. This was due to a thaumaturgical experiment I performed on Thursday evening. I underestimated the backlash from the spell I was practicing, causing me to be unable to attend school."

Rin hid a frown. It was the first lesson every practitioner of Magecraft learned : to be a Magus was to walk with death, and anytime they used their Mysteries, they risked their lives. This was especially true when testing unfamiliar spells.

"When Sakura visited in the morning, the after-effects of the spell allowed me to realize that she was a Magus – as well as what had been done to her. I, for lack of a better term, saw it."

"You 'saw' inside her ?" asked Rin, making no attempt to hide her scepticism. What he was describing … it was the kind of Mystery magi would – and had – kill for.

Shirou remained silent for a few seconds, then his eyes started to glow gold, and he looked her up and down before the glow faded.

"Your Magical Crest is located on your left arm," he began. "It is composed of 30 Magic Circuits. You are also carrying seventeen prana-charged jewels on your person, with the one on your necklace being charged with the greatest amount. In addition ..."

"Okay," Rin cut him off hurriedly, her face pale. "You have made your point. I believe you."

Part of her wanted to lash out at him for daring to use a spell on her without her permission – especially one as intrusive as this one had clearly been – but now wasn't the time.

"Tell me," he continued. "What do you know of the Matou magecraft ?"

Rin blinked, caught off-guard by the sudden question. She dug in her mind, remembering the journals of her ancestors she had read that had mentioned their close ties with the Matou family.

"The Matou magecraft specializes in binding others unto oneself," she replied, "absorbing their energy and traits. As a consequence of that, their mastery of familiars is with few peers, and their knowledge was integral in some of the greatest projects our families worked on together."

"I know about the Grail, Tohsaka," sighed Shirou, and Rin almost jerked. "Dad fought in the last War. He told me everything about it. But that's not what we are discussing right now. The reason I asked you about the Matou magecraft was to see if you knew what your father condemned Sakura to when he abandoned her. She told me she didn't believe he knew, but I wanted to make certain."

"Emiya-kun," Rin all but growled. "I can see that you are building up to something. Stop delaying. What did you see had happened to Sakura ?"

Shirou didn't answer right away. He turned to look at Sakura, as if asking permission to continue. Rin's sister was quiet, and clearly looked uncomfortable. She gave a single, small nod.

"Zouken put worms inside her, Tohsaka. That monster implanted his familiars into her flesh, both to act as makeshift Magic Circuits and to drain her prana in order to sustain his own abominable existence."

Rin's breath caught in her throat.

"That's what I saw when I looked at her on Friday morning," Shirou continued mercilessly. "I saw them burrowed in her flesh, feeding off her like the grotesque parasites they were."

"They were all over her body," he went on, "with the biggest one wrapped around her heart, but the bulk of them was in her sexual organs. They had been altered to feed off her bodily fluids, and sustained themselves by stimulating her."

Rin felt nauseous. She felt the floor under her legs sway. Worms. Fucking worms inside her sister. There was no way her father had known about this. She refused to believe that Tokiomi Tohsaka would have knowingly let something like that happen to his own flesh and blood.

She glanced at Sakura. Despite the subject of the discussion, the younger girl was being very quiet, keeping her eyes downcast and taking slow, deep breaths.

"Sakura told me that this had gone for years," said Shirou. "Apparently, Zouken called these things Crest Worms, after the Magic Crest used by Magus families to carry their legacy from one generation to the next. After the Matou bloodline started to birth less and less powerful magi, Zouken developed the Crest Worms as an alternative for Magic Circuits."

Another sin with which to damn Zouken's blackened soul. Magic Crests were sacred. They were the symbol of a family's legacy, equalled only by the family's accumulated research. A Magic Crest was a record of the family's spells, embedded within the very Magic Circuits each wearer had added to it. It was the pinnacle of a bloodline's achievement, every generation making it stronger and adding new spells to its arsenal. And Zouken had made the Matou one into … worms. If the Association had heard of it, the entire family would have been wiped out as Heretics and their research put to the torch, lest any other Magus get ideas of going down the same path.

"The first worms were implanted in Sakura only a few months after she became a Matou," said Shirou, "once the first set of invasive procedures that changed her eye and hair color were done."

"Okay," Rin said hoarsely. "I get the picture, Emiya-kun. What happened next ?"

"Now that I knew Sakura's situation, I couldn't let it continue. I spent the day recovering, and once I was ready, I went to the Matou residence. I tricked Shinji into opening the gate for me before forcing him to tell me where Sakura was."

"The Matou residence is-was covered in Bounded Fields," Rin pointed out incredulously. "You shouldn't have been able to so much as step foot in it with hostile intentions without being turned to ash or worse."

"Very much worse," Shirou confirmed. "But ... let's say that I had a way around those and move on for now."

Well, Rin thought, that wasn't ominous at all. It wasn't as if the wards around her home were about the same quality as those that had protected the Matou estate, and which the son of a freelancer so feared the Association had bestowed upon him the name of "Magus Killer" had apparently breezed through without any problem. Not at all.

"I went into the basement, fighting a bunch of skeleton familiars along the way. From what I can tell, those were the remains of everyone Zouken had killed to prolong his life before."

"Hold on a minute," Rin interrupted him. "What do you mean, 'killed to prolong his life' ? I knew Zouken was using some Magecraft to extend his lifespan – that was pretty obvious, considering my family had records of him going over a century. But, what, was Zouken some sort of Dead Apostle ?"

"No, though I suppose it's possible he took some inspiration from them. Zouken ... Zouken wasn't human anymore, not by any definition. All that was left of him was a decaying soul in a body made of worms and stolen skin, clinging to life long after its time had come."

"After fighting my way through the skeletons, I reached the basement and found Zouken and Sakura." Again, he looked at Sakura – and again, she nodded, though not before taking Shirou's hand in her own.

"The basement was Zouken's Workshop," he began. "There, Sakura was in a pit full of worm familiars in the process of feeding on her by raping her repeatedly."

There was the sound of something breaking, and it took Rin a moment to realize that it was the cup of tea she had been holding. It had slipped from her fingers and smashed on the table.

Shirou leaned over the table, picking up his towel, and began to clean while Rin calmed herself. It took a while – both because Rin's control had been shattered, but also because Shirou had to do it carefully, since Sakura was still clinging to his right arm like it was a lifeline, face down, her eyes hidden behind her purple hair.

"Zouken and I exchanged words," he continued when he was done, the shards of the tea cup pushed to the side for now. Somehow, Rin doubted that conversation had been particularly polite. "And when I made it clear to him that I would not leave without Sakura, he tried to kill me with his insect familiars. Shinji had followed me, and died during the confrontation."

"How did he die ?" Rin asked softly. She may have despised the arrogant teenager, but she hadn't wanted him to die.

"Zouken had some huge mosquito familiars in his Workshop, with stingers the size of daggers. When one of them lunged for me while Shinji was right behind me, I chose to dodge, knowing it would stab Shinji instead."

She blinked. Was he ... "You realize that's not your fault, right ?"

"I have already been made aware of that," he replied with the faint trace of a smile. That faded quickly as he went on : "Shinji's death caused Zouken to pause his attacks, though. It turned out the old monster had his descendant rape Sakura for years, in order to 'stabilize' her."

There went her moment of regret over the asshole's demise.

"That ... That bastard tried to ask me out," she choked out. "And all that time he was ... he was ..."

"Quite," agreed Shirou. "Still, I am not sure how much choice he had in the matter. Zouken was a master manipulator, and he would have had Shinji under his influence for his entire life. Regardless, with Shinji dead, Zouken offered me to take his place as Sakura's 'partner'. I refused, obviously. Thinking back on it now, I am almost certain that he only offered because his soul had decayed to the point where he genuinely believed I would accept so long as he framed it as being the only choice that let both Sakura and I survive – no matter how disgusting the very idea."

"So you said no," Rin summed up. "And then ?"

"He took Sakura hostage to force me to comply to his wishes. In return, I destroyed him and purged Sakura of any trace of his Magecraft."

"... I am not sure which of the two is the most impressive. Are you secretly a Sorcerer, Emiya-kun ?"

God, she hoped he wasn't. If the Mage's Association learned that she had somehow missed the rise of a True Magic's user in her territory, the Tohsaka name would be ridiculed until the death of the sun.

"I am most definitely not," replied Shirou, making Rin both relieved and curious. "There were special circumstances at play, but these aren't relevant to our discussion. We can talk about this later."

"… Fine."

"After destroying Zouken, I set fire to his Workshop and carried Sakura out, with the fire somehow spreading to the entire estate. Once back home, I put Sakura to bed, applied some healing Mysteries I know, and ... well, I fell asleep. By that point, I was completely exhausted, physically, mentally and magically. But at least I had succeeded."

"Your father would be proud," idly noted Rin. "You are well on your way to succeeding him as the Magus Killer."

Shirou frowned. "The Magus Killer didn't raise me. I am the son of Kiritsugu Emiya, and he never intended for me to succeed him. Tohsaka … where did you hear that name ?"

"My guardian," she admitted. "Kirei Kotomine, the priest at Fuyuki. He is an Exorcist from the Church, dispatched here to oversee the Grail War after the previous overseer died in the last one. It was him who told me about what happened on Friday night."

"Was it ? … I would appreciate if you could keep what you tell him to a minimum. I don't want word of what happened to reach the Clocktower."

"We will see. Continue your story, Emiya-kun."

"… Fine. The next day, I called on my contacts among the local Yakuza -"

"Wait," cut off Rin. "Wait wait wait. You, Emiya-kun, have contacts with the Yakuza ?!"

"Uh … Yeah. Fuji-nee is the granddaughter of the local Oyabun."

Rin blinked and looked to her left, where the woman in question was still snoring quietly, her sleep completely undisturbed by Rin's repeated outbursts.

"This woman," said Rin in a deadpan tone, "is the grandchild of a Yakuza boss ?"

"Yep," replied Shirou with a smile that told Rin he understood her doubts. She closed her eyes and counted silently to ten, before vowing to herself she wouldn't be surprised by anything else that she was told today. She doubted that vow would hold for long, but she could hope.

"Fine. Fine. So you called your Yakuza contacts … let me guess, that's how you got the investigation in the Matou residence's burning down swept under the rug and made sure Sakura could live with you ?"

"Got it in one. Of course, after that I had to convince Fuji-nee to allow it, but … it worked out."

"It 'worked out', he says," muttered Rin. "It's not as if you destroyed an entire Magus family's legacy and stole their last surviving member to take her under your wing, before pulling strings in the mundane world to conceal your tracks. All of that while breaking through an ancient family's wards, destroying an elder Magus that even Kirei didn't believe he could kill, and undoing the physical effects of years of … magical experiments upon another. Did I miss anything ?"

"Hmm … No, I don't think so."

That was a rhetorical question, you moron, Rin thought, her eyebrows twitching in irritation. She took a deep breath before saying out loud : "What did you do to Sakura exactly ?"

"I removed the worms and some of the other modifications Zouken had done on her body," explained Shirou, "before healing the accumulated damage. But as you can see, her eye and hair color remained the same. I am not sure whether that's because the cells responsible are already formed or because the alterations she underwent to make her compatible with the Matou Magecraft weren't erased. I guess we will know if they start reverting in the future ... though we could do a DNA test to check if you and her still register as sisters."

"She is my sister," protested Rin, "whatever such a test might say."

Shirou raised an eyebrow. "Really ? Then why did you learn everything I just told you for the first time today ?"

She winced. So they were doing this now. She supposed there had been no avoiding it.

There was no way this discussion was going to go well.

"Did Sakura tell you why she was adopted by the Matou ?" she asked.

"She did. And I personally find the concept of giving your own child away to simplify the question of inheritance revolting. Nevermind the fact that he never checked up on her afterwards."

"The Tohsaka and Matou families were allies for generations," Rin protested, though her heart wasn't in it. How could it be, after what she had been told Sakura had endured ? "My father had no reason to think Sakura would be treated badly !"

"Your father was wrong," said Shirou, his voice as gentle as it was unyielding. "Horribly so."

"I know that now," she admitted. "But magi are secretive, even with their allies. My father truly believed that a clean separation between Sakura and us would be in the best interests for everyone involved. He thought it would be cruel to all of us if we remained in contact, at least until Sakura had integrated to the Matou family and we could meet as friends rather than sisters." She knew her voice was growing desperate as she continued : "If he had known what was happening, he would never have stood for it. He would have ripped the Matou mansion apart to punish Zouken !"

There was a moment of tense silence, then Shirou sighed, and the tension in the room relaxed - slightly.

"Regardless of what your father would have done, it is a fact that the root of Sakura's torment lies in what he did. And that right there, Tohsaka, is why I refuse to consider myself a magus. The moment you put your family' honor and legacy over your own children, you have already gone too far."

Rin didn't say anything. What could she say ? She agreed with Shirou, even if it went against a Magus' thinking. Her father's decision to send Sakura to the Matou hadn't just cost her her sister : when Tokiomi had died, the combined grief of his death and the loss of her youngest daughter had ended up costing her her mother too. Following the path decreed by a Magus' path had destroyed their family, and for what ? It wasn't as if they had gotten any closer to the Root in exchange.

But if she couldn't justify her father's actions, she could at least explain her own.

"After Father died and Mom ... faded away," Rin said slowly, "I was Kirei's ward, because he had been my father's apprentice. He was the one to finish my training in Magecraft. By the time I completed my training and became independent in the eyes of the Moonlit World, I ..." S

he forced herself to swallow her saliva before continuing :

"I thought Sakura was better off without me," she whispered.

She laughed, the sound bitter and hollow even to her own ears. "Emiya-kun is right, Sakura. My - our family put its honor and its Magecraft over its own daughter. How messed up is that ? The Matou had lost their ability to perform Magecraft over the generations, but at least they never threw aside one of their own."

"I am a prodigy," she said without arrogance – it was true, after all. "An Average One, capable of wielding all five basic elements. I have forty innate Magic Circuits of high quality, and according to Kirei I can wield the additional thirty of the Tohsaka Crest better than anyone before me."

"All of that," she continued dejectedly, "and it didn't bring me a single moment of happiness. I … I didn't want to bring you into that, Sakura. I knew your life with the Matou wasn't perfect – everyone could see that Shinji was a jerk to you even more than to everyone else. But at least when you were with Emiya-kun, you looked genuinely happy. I didn't want to risk ruining that."

"Nee-san …"

For a long time, Shirou stared at Rin, his expression unreadable. Then, he nodded to himself, and Rin felt as if she had passed some sort of test she hadn't been aware of.

"I told Sakura that I wouldn't stop the two of you from trying to reconnect with each other," he said. "I understand that you were just a child when you were separated, and I don't blame you for that, Tohsaka."

"T-thank you, Emiya-kun. And … and you, Sakura ? I … I understand if you hate me …"

"I don't," replied Sakura immediately in soft voice. "I … I did, sometimes, but … not anymore."

"… Okay," Rin breathed out. "Okay."

There was another moment of silence. Shirou deftly filled in the empty cup he had laid for Fujimura-sensei before she had fallen asleep and pushed it in front of Rin. She gratefully picked it up, breathing in the scent before drinking it slowly, letting it relax her. Only once she had drained the cup did she feel confident to speak up again :

"There is still the matter of you living in my territory without my permission, Emiya-kun. Even if I was willing to give you a pass on account of your father's history – and I am – I know you are here now, and that gives both you and I certain obligations. And yes, those obligations exist even if you aren't affiliated with the Association. Your actions to help Sakura are noble, but there are still rules, and we would all be in trouble if we do not follow them."

"I know. I prepared for that when Sakura confirmed to me that you were the Second Owner. I was relieved – I knew you were a reasonable person. If it had been another Magus, I may have had to … escalate matters. Give me a minute, I need to go and get something."

He stood up, and with a last glance at Sakura, turned and left the room, leaving the two sisters sat alone with the sleeping teachers in awkward silence.

"Sakura," Rin asked tentatively, "are you okay with Emiya-kun's plan ?"

She didn't dare to voice the other option – that Sakura could live with her instead. It would have been … wrong of her to suggest that.

"I love Senpai," the younger girl replied. "He saved me, Nee-san. I … I want to live with him."

"I understand," Rin whispered back. "That's fine."

They remained silent until Shirou returned less than two minutes later, carrying a leather suitcase. He put it down on the table and turned it toward Rin before clicking it open and revealing its contents, while Sakura leant over the table curiously.

Rin choked, while Sakura's eyes widened. The suitcase was full of neatly-stacked 5000 Yen bank notes, the faces on the bills unblinkingly staring back at her.

"How ... how much is that ?" she managed to ask.

"A hundred million yens," replied Shirou mildly. Rin swayed where she sat. That was … that was a lot of money. Not nearly enough to turn around her family's fortunes – the Tohsaka had been rich before Kirei had bled their finances almost dry with his incompetence – but years of carefully managing her budget to be able to practice her family's craft meant that she understood the value of money far better than most magi from a bloodline as well established as her own would.

"Alright," replied Rin, shaking her head to clear her mind. "Alright. This is ... this is enough to cover the rent you owe me, plus interest. As for future rent, I ... I need to think on it and consult some references. I will call you when I have reached a decision."

"S-senpai," asked Sakura, looking about as surprised as Rin at the amount of money her crush had so casually handed over. "Where did you get that much money from ?"

"Dad left a few suitcases like this one to me," answered Shirou nonchalantly, "for emergency situations. The rest are scattered in secure locations across the country, just in case."

"So it it's blood money you inherited from the Magus Killer," sighed Rin. "Just … perfect. No matter, I can still use it. It's not as if the Association is keeping a close eye on my finances : I can always pretend it's something my father left me and I just found out about if Kirei starts asking questions. That takes care of one issue. But we are going to have a problem once Sakura goes back to school, though."

"Hmm ? Why ?"

"The story we are going with is that she lost her brother and grandfather in a tragic accident," Rin pointed out, before gesturing at Sakura. "But she doesn't exactly look heartbroken, does she ? People are going to notice when she comes back with a beaming smile, especially considering ... well ... considering she didn't smile much before."

Shirou blinked. "I ... didn't even think about that. Thanks, Tohsaka. Do you have any idea how to solve that issue ?"

"We can put up a Bounded Field around the school," Rin thought out loud. "Something minor, just enough that no one thinks Sakura's behavior is strange."

"I don't like manipulating the minds of our classmates," Shirou frowned, "but in that case I suppose it's for the best. Thank you, Tohsaka. How can I help you set it up ?"

"Huh ? Oh, don't worry about that. Sakura, you've got a week off for grief leave, right ?" When the purple-haired girl nodded, Rin continued : "I will have the materials ready by the end of next week. You," she turned to Shirou, "can come help me set them up in the week-end."

"Alright," Shirou nodded. For the first time since Fujimura-sensei had been put to sleep, his face split in a warm, honest smile that caused butterflies in Rin's stomach. "Thank you, Tohsaka."

"Senpai," Sakura pouted - pouted ! Rin had never seen her do that - "please don't seduce my sister."

"W-w-w-w-w-what are you talking about, Sakura ?! S-s-s-seduce me ?! That oaf ?!"

Sakura blinked at Rin's outburst. Her pout vanished, replaced by a thoughtful expression, and then by a small, sly smile that made Rin very, very nervous. Then, right before Rin's eyes, Sakura pulled Shirou in a passionate, steaming kiss. Her jaw fell, and she watched.

And kept watching.

And kept watching ...

After half a minute had passed, Sakura finally parted her lips from Shirou's, turning to face Rin with a grin on her face. Through her shock, Rin still noticed that her sister was very, very red – apparently she was still embarrassed by what she had done.

"There," Sakura said. "I feel this makes some things clear, doesn't it Nee-san ?"

"Uhm, Sakura. Are you and Emiya-kun ... uuh ..."

"I am Senpai's lover," confirmed Sakura, still leaning against Shirou's chest. She was still smiling as she looked at Rin, looking like the cat who caught the canary after the canary had bathed naked in cream - and Rin thought she had lost her metaphor somewhere, but it didn't matter, because WHAT ?

… And there went her vow not to be surprised by anything else she learned here today.

"S-since when ?!"

"Since last night," said Shirou, who at least had the good grace of looking embarrassed as well. "Sakura and I talked about some things, and, well ..."

"I can imagine," Rin quickly interrupted, before he could go into details. "I knew Sakura had a crush on you, but still ..."

"You did ?" blinked Shirou.

Rin stared at him. "Of course I did," she deadpanned. "Everyone who looked at the two of you did."

"They did ?"

… That moron had had no idea Sakura was in love with him until yesterday, didn't he ? That … that actually explained a lot. If he hadn't noticed Sakura's affection when it had been painfully obvious the younger girl was crushing on him, then of course he wouldn't have noticed -

"Tohsaka. Tohsaka. RIN !"

"Huh ?!"

Shirou sighed. "Good, you are back with us. There is one last thing I need to talk to you about."

"A-alright," she coughed. "What is it about ?"

"When I confronted Zouken, he mentioned something about an 'Einzbern girl'. He seemed to think I would recognize the name for some reason, and that it would be important enough to me that I would be willing to let Sakura's torture continue."

Rin blinked. "Einzbern ? Let's see … The Einzbern are one of the three families that created the system behind the Grail Wars. Kirei told me that your father was their representative in the last War. Apart from that … they specialize in creating homunculi – artificial humans grown specifically to perform certain tasks for the family. I think they have a castle somewhere in Germany, but they are said to be very reclusive, even by magi standards – and obscenely wealthy."

"I see," mused Shirou. "Do you think you could investigate what Zouken could have meant ? Specifically, if Dad had any special relationship with a member of their family ?"

"Sure," agreed Rin, "I can ask some questions, but it will likely take some bribes to loosen tongues."

"I will reimburse any costs you face," Shirou waved away her barely-concealed attempt at moneying her services while Sakura sent a look in Rin's direction that told her she had caught on to what she was trying to do. What ? Gemcraft was expensive !

They spent some more time discussing the details of the story Rin would give to Kirei, before the conversation turned to Sakura's Magecraft training. The younger girl had been given some training in the Matou craft, but with the destruction of the family's library, all their secrets were lost. And while none of them had any intent of replicating Zouken's abominations, the Matou had been genuine practitioners before Zouken, in his madness, had despoiled their legacy. Rin left the Emiya household relieved, and a lot happier than she had been before.

There was still a rift between her and Sakura, but that was to be expected. Years of neglect could not be so easily erased, no matter the reasons behind them.

Now all she had to do was convince Kirei not to do anything stupid …

"I see. If you think this is for the best, then I will trust in your decision. Goodbye, Rin."

Kirei Kotomine put the phone down, pensive. He walked out of the room where he had taken the call and into the church's nave, looking up at the altar without really seeing it.

He felt his pulse would have quickened, had he still possessed a heart. But the dark miracle that kept him alive did not extend that far.

'The death of Zouken and Shinji Matou was the result of a disagreement between the former and Shirou Emiya that escalated into open conflict,' the teenage girl had told him. 'Though Emiya killed a magus on my territory, considering the circumstances, I have decided not to punish him for that. In addition, I have recognized Shirou Emiya, sixth head of the House of Emiya, as an independent practitioner of Magecraft and reached an accord with him to continue to grant him permission to live in my territory. Sakura Matou is now his apprentice : the House of Matou is formally extinct.'

It had been clever of her, he had to admit. By acknowledging the Emiya boy that way, he now fell, however indirectly, under the purview of the accords binding the Church to the Clocktower. While the protection this offered was slight, it did mean Kirei couldn't simply kill him without due cause.

And to declare the House of Matou extinct … If word got out, it would cause waves within the magi community. The Matou were an old name, one of the few existing this far east. There were still those in the West who remembered them – back when they had been the Makiri, before their journey to Japan. Old families tended to frown on one of their own disappearing.

And with the Emiya name being involved … Kirei was tempted to discretely arrange for the information to reach certain ears at the Clocktower, if only to watch the fallout as the son of the Magus Killer emerged from obscurity to kill the head of an ancient family and claim their sole remaining heir as his apprentice. The first assassin would be on his way before the end of the week.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself, Kirei."

The priest turned to where a young man was seated amidst the church's pews. Golden hair fell on a handsome face in which were set two sharp eyes red like rubies. His knowing smile revealed pearly white teeth, and despite the cold outside he was wearing an open vest under which laid a deceptively-simple looking white shirt. In actuality, every piece of cloth the young man wore was worth more than the average monthly salary of a Japanese office worker. Kirei knew this, because he had been the one to purchase them when the golden-haired man had grudgingly accepted he couldn't walk the streets of Fuyuki clad in his usual garments – but he had insisted on wearing the finest clothes of this era, even if he had still complained that they were far beneath his standards.

Considering that those standards were those of the King of Heroes, whose reign had presided over the decline of the Age of Gods in ancient Babylonia, it was only to be expected, really. It had taken some very creative book-keeping to hide the expense to Kirei's superiors in the Church. But it was a small enough price to pay to keep himself in the Servant's good books, and it wasn't as if it were his money he had spent. After all, Archer had been summoned by the Tohsaka Head, so didn't it make sense that it would be that family's finances that would support him ?

"I suppose I am," the priest admitted. "After the end of the War, we both believed we would have to endure the boredom until the Grail was ready once more. I am … pleased that circumstances allow me to amuse myself early."

It had been ludicrously easy to goad Rin into visiting the Emiya boy. The girl was smart, of that there was no doubt, but she was also very direct, lacking in the subtlety necessary to see through his blatant manipulation. Between her pride in her skills and her love for her sister – and oh, how he had enjoyed that particular tragedy when he had uncovered it – there had been no doubt that she would go to Emiya guns blazing, ready to strike down anyone who threatened the sibling she had abandoned for so long.

Though the two teenagers had come to an accord, Kirei didn't doubt Rin had left out a lot out of her terse report to him.

"It is surprising that things ended peacefully, I admit" he said, "and a bit disappointing. But the rapprochement between Rin and the Emiya boy and her sister offers new opportunities."

"Oh ?" Gilgamesh of Uruk smiled, inviting him to go on.

"Zouken's destruction is a boon to our aims," continued the priest. "His knowledge of the Grail was greater than any safe those of the Einzbern, and he was much closer to it than they. I have no doubt that he had a plan to claim the Grail for himself in the next War, and though I do not doubt you could have destroyed him easily, his interference may still have ruined everything we desire."

"The worm was an obstacle," the King of Heroes conceded. "Not an unsurmountable one, of course."

"Of course," Kirei agreed, knowing better than to suggest otherwise.

"There are less than two years left before the beginning of the next Grail War," he mused aloud. "And already the pieces are starting to move. It is almost guaranteed that all three of them will be selected as Masters when the time come."

"If the boy is anything like his father – and given that he killed Zouken and took in the girl, he likely is – then he will stand against us in the future." Gilgamesh didn't sound worried at the possibility. He was only mentioning it to see what Kirei thought of it.

"Shirou Emiya survived the flames of the last War," Kirei pointed out. "That alone, if nothing else, would be enough to make him of interest in our plans. Only four of those who were caught in the immediate surroundings of the Grail survived the Fuyuki Fire, King of Heroes. You, me, Kiritsugu Emiya, and that boy. I do not believe it to be a coincidence that he lived where so many others did not. It was by the will of the Grail that the two of us survived and were granted new life. And it was the curse of the Grail that kept Kiritsugu Emiya from perishing so that he may witness the ruin of all he fought for, before dying slowly and painfully."

The memory of his nemesis' doom brought another smile to Kirei's lips. He had never hated a man as much as he had hated the Magus Killer, who had been granted communion with the Grail and had turned his back on it. It had been a joy to watch him wander amidst the ruins in the aftermath, broken and hollow-eyed. Maybe he should have kept a closer eye on him afterwards : then the events of the last few days wouldn't have taken him so much by surprise. But it had been difficult to think of the ruined husk that Kiritsugu Emiya had become after the Fourth Grail War as any kind of threat, and there had been much he had needed to do to ensure that the next Grail War succeeded. It had been all he could do to ensure that Kiritsugu Emiya was thought dead by both Church and Association, to ensure that none could interfere with the punishment the Grail had bestowed upon the Magus Killer.

"But the boy did not have any of these connections to the Grail," he continued, returning to the matter at hand, "and yet he survived long enough for the Magus Killer to find him and, according to his old medical records, heal him using that regeneration trick he showed me during the War."

Getting access to the medical records hadn't been difficult, but Kirei had needed to be discreet. He didn't want to draw the attention of those responsible for greasing the wheels of bureaucracy in the boy's favor. The child's miraculous recovery was only partially documented, however, with a note attached mentioning that the initial diagnosis must have been erroneous due to the hospital being overwhelmed with patients. It was a believable excuse : while only the aforementioned four had survived direct exposure to the Grail's flames, the destruction had spread much further, and there had been plenty who had been indirectly wounded.

But Kirei was no fool, and he could see that this was just Kiritsugu Emiya covering his own tracks and preserving the secrecy of Magecraft. In the wake of the Fourth War's disastrous ending, the Association and the Church had both had their eyes on the city. The miraculous healing of a child who had been so close to the calamity would have drawn their attention, even with Kirei working tirelessly to keep the truth under wraps.

Kirei returned his gaze to the altar, and the icon above it. It had been a long time since he had actually held any faith in the precepts of the Church, even if he continued to dutifully deliver Mass every week. He had done so just this morning – that was part of the reason why he had called Rin so late, despite learning all he had told her the previous day. When he had called her on Saturday evening, she hadn't answered, doubtlessly locked away in that heavily-warded Workshop of hers.

"And now, that child who was spared from the flames took care of one of the few remaining threats to our ultimate goal," said the priest – for despite Rin's insults, he was still a priest at heart : only the focus of that faith had changed. "Do you not see the hand of providence in that, oh King ?"

"We are the chosen of the Grail, Kirei," said Gilgamesh, a slight frown the only sign of his rising temper. "We witnessed its glory, and were spared its wrath. We are the ones who will bring about the new Age. That boy may be a tool of the Grail, and there might be some irony in one Emiya helping undo the sin of another, but I refuse to have him stand alongside us."

Ah, thought Kirei. Of course. While the priest despised Kiritsugu Emiya, that hatred paled in comparison to the contempt in which the King of Heroes held the Magus Killer.

"I won't go forth and destroy the boy," Gilgamesh waved off, and Kirei allowed himself a quiet sigh of relief. "When the Grail War begins anew, if he is chosen as Master, then he will have the opportunity to show his mettle and his allegiance. But in the end, once our goal is achieved, if I find him wanting, I shall destroy him and purge the last trace of the Emiya name from this world."

"As you wish, oh King," replied Kirei, turning to bow to the Archer Servant of the Fourth Grail War. On his arm, the Command Seals he had plundered from his father's corpse tingled slightly – a reminder of the connection between him and the Servant with which he had bounded after the death of Tokiomi Tohsaka. That bond was the only thing keeping him alive since the War, forcing his body to persist even after Kiritsugu Emiya had destroyed his heart.

After all, a Servant required a Master to exist, even if the dynamic between them was reversed. Without Kirei to serve as his anchor, Gilgamesh would vanish eventually, either by running out of prana to maintain his body or by catching the attention of Gaia and being erased as an anomaly. Even an Archer-class Servant with the skill Independent Action wouldn't be able to last long – a few days, perhaps, but not nearly enough to wait for the beginning of the next Grail War.

And so the Grail, after bathing the King of Heroes in its dark waters and judging him worthy, had dragged Kirei back from the dead. While the priest was nowhere near powerful enough a magus to sustain a Servant on his own, the Grail's destruction had ensured that its reserves of magical energy were still mostly untouched, and through Kirei's Command Seals the Greater Grail could fuel Gilgamesh's needs. So long as the King of Heroes refrained from using his most prana-consuming abilities, the drain on these reserves would stay minor, and the next Grail War wouldn't be delayed.

Kirei wasn't quite sure what the mechanics of this resurrection were : he hadn't aged a day in ten years, but he still needed food, water and rest. It wasn't like he could ask a Magus to examine his body for answers, let alone one of the Church's scholars. His colleagues would have him purged the moment they realized what had happened to him.

And Kirei could not afford to die, or to lose his position as the Church's representative in Fuyuki and future Overseer of the Grail War. How was he supposed to help the Grail reach completion and bring about the reign of Chaos upon this world otherwise ?

And he also had to make sure Archer didn't wander off and draw the attention of one of the Moonlit World's powers. For all his immense strength, Gilgamesh was not invincible, though Kirei was very careful never to say that in the King's presence. If the Church or the Mage's Association learned of his ongoing existence, they would stop at nothing to destroy him and dismantle the Grail System. Fortunately, the connection between Kirei and Gilgamesh meant that the later was more or less forced to remain within Fuyuki so long as the priest did the same.

All in all, it was an exhausting but necessary task. It wasn't as if he could summon Gilgamesh again if the King of Heroes faded away. After all, even had Tokiomi's catalyst not been lost, the fossilised snake skin destroyed during Kirei's former master's summoning ritual ...

... it was difficult to summon a Servant whose Spirit Origin had been torn from the Throne of Heroes.

AN : DUN DUN DUUUUN !

Hello, everyone ! This story had a lot more success than I anticipated (thanks you all for your support) so I started working on this chapter almost as soon as the first ones were up. It still took a while, mostly because of unrelated IRL issues that have taken up a lot of my time in the last few weeks. Also, writing dialogue between teenagers is still a challenge. I am somewhat concerned that writing the exchange between Kirei and Gilgamesh at the end was much, much easier for me. Hopefully that aspect of my writing gets better as this story progresses.

Speaking of that last scene, as you have likely noticed, three things are different from F/SN canon. First, Gilgamesh isn't incarnated as a flesh-and-blood human. That's for story reasons : I need him to still be a Servant, and so he is one. Secondly, Kirei is a cultist of Chaos. I trust that I don't need to explain that one - just look at how he behaves in canon. For all intents of purpose, he already was a servant of the Primordial Annihilator, he just didn't call it that.

And thirdly, that reveal at the end. I am sure a lot of fans of the Fate franchise will want to point out that this last reveal is a blatant contradiction of some piece of established lore. Again, this is an AU. The mechanics of the universe may look like those of the Fate franchise, but what lies underneath has been altered as required by the needs of both crossover and story.

Also, in this chapter, the narration from Rin's POV saying "Shirou" while she says "Emiya-kun" out loud isn't a mistake. It is very much deliberate. Yes, I know, it isn't exactly subtle storytelling to point that out, but I am new to that kind of story.

What else ... Oh, here are some of the questions I had to search answers to while writing this chapter :

How many bills can fit in a suitcase ? (Believe it or not, there is an equation for that on the corresponding TV Tropes page)

What denominations of bills were in use in Japan, 2002 ? (Wikipedia held all the answers, as is often the case)

When did genetic testing become able to tell if two individuals were siblings ? (By 2002, paternity tests were possible, so I am assuming sibling-testing should also be possible)

So yeah, Google's all-seeing algorithm must be pretty confused right now.

There were some questions about the vision from the beginning of the last chapter. Someone asked if this was my attempt to bring up the possibility of female Space Marines, so I think I should point you in the correct direction. Search for the name of the child on the Web and you will find the path to the answers you seek.

More details about Shirou's mysterious nature will be revealed in the next chapters. This chapter was the last one where I knew what would be inside from the moment I actually started writing this fic - after that, I have only a few fixed points to guide me to the start of the Grail War. That is already much more detailed in my notes, but as another author of Warhammer fiction once said : "such a tale requires context".

As always, I look forward to your feedback. Writing this story is a lot of fun, especially after I watched the entire Fate/Zero series for reference purposes. Gods, but the canon Fate universe is a cruel and sinister place. That parade of tragedies certainly reinforced my motivation to create at least one timeline where our heroes can be happy.

On the romance side of things : I couldn't find a way to add Rin to Shirou's harem this soon (I mean, come on, the two of them have only just actually met one another as the people they really are). But I do have a plan to get that done before the start of the Grail War, two years from now story-time. The details still need ironing out, however.

Zahariel out.