Disclaimer: I own nothing in this fanfiction.
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The living room of the Tohsaka mansion did not hold this many visitors since before the fourth Holy Grail War.
On one side was an exhausted Shiki, passed out on a white couch, a cup of steaming tea was sitting on the table in front of him. Bazett and Illya were sitting on the other side of the table, on another couch.
"So you're saying that this Shirou guy is able to replicate Noble Phantasms?" Bazett addressed Illya, clearly not believing that such a thing is possible. "That's absurd!"
"It's true." A different voice interrupted, coming from the corner of the room, Archer was leaning on the wall, barely visible. "That idiot has the ability to replicate actual Noble Phantasms, using a more refined and much more advanced version of Graduation Air."
"It is exactly how he explained it." Followed Illya. She knew it all too well, he was practicing it ever since Kiritsugu left the second time.
Bazett raised a hand to her chin. Was it worth it? She lost Lancer, her command seals were strangely still there, although faded, but she couldn't pinpoint Lancer's location or use the command seals to bring her back. She considered simply forfeiting and leaving. After all; if this is the fifth Holy Grail War, there will definitely be a sixth. But it felt wrong, what if Lancer was still out there? There was still a chance for her to win. That and the thought of having revenge against a certain priest reinforced her resolve.
She will stick with her allies, for now.
"This is certainly problematic… A foe such as this one is sure to cause us trouble, especially without—" she clenched her fist, not finishing her sentence, catching Illya's attention. But before she could inquire about it…
"It may just be a bit more than that." Archer scratched the back of his head, considering the possibilities, he had a scary idea haunting him.
The two girls stared at him with question marks on top of their heads.
"What do you mean?" Asked Illya.
Something about this Archer made her feel uneasy.
"You said the Matou mansion was burned down by Shirou himself, right?" He said. "Yet Shirou is unable to actually use any magecraft of that scale, and Projection will only grant him a weapon; he should not be able to completely delete the mansion, especially if it contained a mage's workshop. I mean, mages do tend to have barriers and bounded fields to protect their base from interference. If it was Saber who destroyed the mansion then it would've been in the realm of possibility since she's a servant. But Shirou? He shouldn't have this much firepower." Archer calmly explained. Making sure his point got across without drawing too much suspicion to himself.
Illya and Bazett caught on, contemplating Archer's words carefully. He continued: "It may be a long shot, but I think he has the ability to call on the Noble Phantasm's True Name."
There was a moment of complete silence before both Illya and Bazett jumped out of their seats with a loud "EEEEEEH?!"
Shiki was alerted by the noise and spiked up in one swift motion. "Woa! What… What's going on?" He screamed, freaked out.
"Calm down big boy, I was just explaining to our friends here how Shirou is possibly able to replicate an actual Noble Phantasm's True Name activation." Archer explained as he walked slowly towards the couch Shiki was sitting on.
Again, after a moment's worth of silence, Shiki had a reaction, although a bit different than the other two.
"Uh… What does that mean?" He said, feeling like he was the dumbest in the room. "I mean I know he can copy swords and stuff just like Archer but that's all…"
Archer resisted the urge to slap him, he knew that even if he did, his hand would just go right through him as he was unable to fully materialize his body.
"Hold on, Archer can copy Noble Phantasms too?" Illya asked as she raised a pointing finger towards Archer.
Shiki felt the sharp gaze of Archer penetrate the back of his head and realized his mistake.
"I wonder about that~ Hehehe…" Shiki laughed it away awkwardly, hoping that she'd simply forget about it. "What was the reasoning behind your theory, Archer?"
"It's simple really. The damage caused to the Matou mansion can easily be attributed to the True Name release of the Noble Phantasm I used to attack their mansion. Aestus Estus." Archer said, clearly worried that after all these statements discussing how similar his skillset was to Shirou, they'd put two and two together and discover his real identity.
"So you're suggesting that he copied that blade, and used its True Name release to attack the mansion. It's not impossible per say but it's also really hard to believe…" Replied Bazett, relaxing her arms.
"No. That's exactly something Shirou would do." Illya chimed in. "He was different before Kiritsugu left, now he has changed but he's still Shirou, and he would be excited at having a Noble Phantasm at his disposal, that he would use it at the first convenient situation…" She then gathered her hands together, forming a fist with her left arm then using it to hit the palm of her right, her face lit up as if she had remembered something. "That's right! When he came back yesterday, he was unconscious! Saber carried him all the way back! And then…" Illya stopped… Thinking about it a bit, who was that Servant right outside their house?
Bazett stood up frustrated: "That confirms it… He had to use so much magical energy in such a short amount of time that his Magic Circuits had overloaded and he passed out."
"Listen everyone…" Illya said, with a different tone than before, grabbing everyone's attention. "There are a few more things that happened yesterday that I cannot explain… Saber informed me that Zouken Matou, the grandfather of Shinji and Sakura Matou, may or may not be Zolgen Makiri… And somehow, I KNOW it to be true without a shadow of doubt. Maybe it has something to do with my body being an Einzbern Homunculus…"
"Wait… Wait… Too many words I did not understand… Zolgen Makiri? Einzbern Homunculus?" Shiki said in reply, clutching his forehead.
"Zolgen Makiri is the representative of the Makiri family, one of the three founding families which later changed its name to Matou after settling-in in Fuyuki. He was one of the people who created the system of the Grail back in 1810." Answered Illya mechanically. "It does not make sense, but I know that he IS Zouken Matou, and that he's still alive until this day."
Everyone stared at her blankly, processing the information that was just relayed to them.
Shiki stood up, shaking his head: "Hold on, wait, if he was Zolgen Makiri then that would make him over 300 years old! There's no way he's still—" He stopped talking, remembering something all of a sudden. "Illya!" He walked up to her and leaned down on one knee. "Is Sakura Matou by any chance a Pink haired high school student?"
Illya's eyelids widened in response: "It's as if you described her from a photograph. How'd you know?"
"Shit… So that was what caused that reaction." Shiki said to himself. "When I first arrived in the city with my teacher, she passed by me and -Don't ask me how or why because then we'll be here all day- I felt some sort of demonic or undead presence emanating from her."
Illya's facial expression changed instantly into one of despair: "That almost confirms that too… Zouken is active in this Holy Grail War and he must be planning something. Saber did mention him doing something to Sakura which prompted Shirou of all people to 'save' her. That must be why you felt that presence."
Archer instantly raised an eyebrow, did she just say Shirou saved someone?
"Illya, did you say Shirou saved Sakura?" He asked. "Why would he do such a thing?"
Illya raised a hand to her chin and closed her eyes as if trying to remember. Then she snapped her fingers: "He said he was going to return the favor to Shinji if he was still alive, and then Saber mentioned that they were forming an appliance with Sakura and Rider, whatever that means."
Everyone in the room went quiet. Before Shiki interrupted the silence once again: "Illya… I think they meant that they were forming an alliance… Not an appliance…"
Illya's expression changed quickly again into one of surprise and then shame. As Shiki started laughing his heart out, Bazett let out a heavy sigh and Archer shook his head then raised an arm.
"But doesn't that mean that Sakura is the Master of Rider? We know Shinji is dead and Zouken… Well… He's also an option…" He said.
Illya looked at him with a different expression once more then asked: "Shinji's dead? Did you find his body?"
Shiki sat back down on the couch.
"It's a long story, but… Basically, He was used as some sort of host to Servant Assassin. He attacked us earlier this morning and we ended up having a wild goose chase all the way to Mount Enzou, luckily La—" He paused, stealing a glance at Bazett who clenched her fist. "Err, we managed to catch him and eliminate him before he got away. Though some weird insects came out of his body afterwards and attacked us."
"It's Zouken's work. No one would have enough knowledge or the ability to fuse a Heroic Spirit into a human body except him, he was the one of the people who designed the Grail system after all. Also the insects are a dead giveaway as he specializes in familiar magecraft."
Everyone went silent again…
Shiki clapped and stood up, then he closed his eyes and opened them, sending a telepathic message to Caster. She appeared next to Archer shortly after, greeting everyone and introducing herself to Illya formally: "Good morning everyone, Illya-san, I am Shiki-san's Servant, Caster." She said, before turning to Illya and bowing elegantly. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."
"Right. Now have a recollection of what exactly happened from everyone's perspective. It will help us formulate a plan and measure our chances better." Said Shiki to everyone. "Let's start with you, Archer."
Illya was so infatuated with Caster's princess-like appearance that she only snapped out of it when Archer started talking.
"I was summoned by Rin three days ago, we patrolled during the night but we had no run-ins with any other Masters at the time so I assume I was one of the first Servants to be summoned. But two days later, Berserker was already loose in the city as one of his familiars attacked Rin and Shirou, which in return exposed Shirou as a Magus…" He said, calmly explaining. Illya nodded remembering the small encounter they had. "We were monitoring one night when we noticed you and a strange Red headed woman enter a hotel, I assume that was your teacher?"
Shiki nodded affirmatively. Before he took over and spoke: "We entered the hotel room and came out after an hour or so; then my teacher left and I came across you and Tohsaka."
Bazett crossed her arms and stood up circling around the table to the corner of the room, then she leaned on the wall and continued the narrative. "It was around this time I summoned Lancer, that scumbag Kotomine Kirei attacked me and attempted to steal my Command Seals but Lancer managed to drive him away." She said, tightening her grip on her forearm. "Then we started sweeping the city at night without meeting any Masters."
"It was around this time I was summoned too…" Caster chimed in, looking a bit embarrassed and sad. "My first Master summoned me by mistake, he did not want a Caster servant, and when I objected to some of his… Unhuman methods, he started maltreating me and…" She started caressing her straw doll and smiled bitterly. "Viy did not like that."
Illya sneezed all of a sudden, causing everyone to look at her.
"What? I think I may be allergic to hay…" She said, "A—Anyway, it was at this time Shirou summoned Saber and Shinji brought Rider to attack us."
"What rotten luck that guy had, may he rest in peace." Commented Shiki. "Yeah, we felt that attack all the way from here and we rushed to investigate."
Bazett joined in the conversation again: "We felt it too, but decided against checking it out as it was clearly a trap to lure Masters in."
"A bit of struggle later, we retreated after Shirou used a Command Seal to empower Saber. We had another encounter with Berserker's familiars on the way but we handled them with ease." Spoke Archer. "The next morning, I went with Rin to church as Kotomine called the conference to stop Berserker."
"When they were in the conference, I found Caster outside and we formed a contract after they came back." Said Shiki, Caster nodding as they stole glances at each other. "And that night I killed Cha— Berserker, with the help of Bazett and Rin..."
To be continued…
Author's Note: During this chapter I realized that I revealed some info irresponsibly in an earlier chapter which caused a few issues with the plot progression. I had to modify an earlier chapter but thankfully now it's fixed. Have fun and please leave a review.