Biwa's Battle

With Rin in his arms, Archer ran and leaped. Awakened at the first sign of the morning sun, the Servant of the Bow moved rapidly, dodging the trees that sprang up in his path and climbing the hills with truly superhuman endurance.

In fact, if EMIYA was regularly taking breaks, it was not to rest but to allow Rin to loosen her legs and make her motion sickness better.

By the end of the day, they had reached an area of wild hills on the edge of the New Empire. Technically, they were still in the territories controlled by Kihei Tennō.

In practice, few were to be the patrols to risk in these regions where the Onis met frequently.
After a night's rest, under the protection of his Servant, Tohsaka Rin woke up in good shape. The night had passed without incident. Archer had kept away the wild animals and demons that roamed these desolate lands.

Leaving Rin at the camp, he went in search of their breakfast and came back... with a sort of gigantic deer (1,97 m at the withers!) He had killed the beast with an arrow and brought it back to the bivouac with almost no effort to drag the carcass behind him.

Seeing Rin, he shook his head:

"I had no choice, he attacked me immediately. Prehistorians of our time would probably be surprised to learn that they were so aggressive..."

Rin frowned:

"Since you seem to have recognized this animal, what is it?"

Archer had an ironic smirk:

"Proof that Rifts Earth really doesn't care about chronology and geography." Then, as Rin rolled her eyes, apparently not amused by his reply, he showed his empty hands in an apology gesture:

"This is an Irish Deer, also known as Giant Deer. Or to give it its scientific name: Megaloceros Giganteus. A male like him has antlers of more than 3 meters wide. Except that this animal existed in Western Europe between 1.2 million years and 10,000 years BC... an Irish Deer has nothing to do in twenty-fifth century Japan."

"Can we eat it?"

"Even a giant stag is a just a stag," replied Archer with a shrug.

Archer had Traced some pieces of kitchen equipment, including a brooch and a chip licker. A piece of the game, a thigh, was dripping on the fire. The Servant had surrounded the thigh with strips of bacon while cooking a mixture of wild vegetables and seeds collected in the vicinity. Fortunately, EMIYA always traveled with condiments (salt, pepper) oil, and some cooking herbs, which allowed him to season his food preparation, the juice of elk being more than enough to give taste. This did not prevent him from shaking his head and sighing in disappointment:

"It would have taken 24 hours to marinate the piece of meat. I'm afraid the meat is hard... especially since I don't have cranberries to enhance the flavor of the meat or white wine to deglaze, the result will probably be a little flat."

Rin barely listened, her stomach groaning. The smell of the meat cooking awakened prehistoric instincts... man was really not made to be vegetarian (1).

Cutting a piece of juicy meat, EMIYA placed it on a plate with a full ladle of the vegetable mixture watered by the meat juice and served it all to Rin with a slightly worried expression.

Rin literally devoured what was served and asked for more:

"You missed your calling, you should have been a cook in a great restaurant."

Archer had a small arrogant smile:

"You should complain to Makiri Zouken... but I don't think there's any after-sales service for the Holy Grail War. When Zouken created the Servants Class, if he had thought of adding 'Chief', I would have won the Grail War for you. My strategy would have been simple...first of all, Saber. She can't resist the prospect of a good meal. Once she tasted my food, I would have threatened to wean her brutally if she didn't fight for you. No doubt she would have tried to resist, but in vain... she would have finally rallied to you. With her and my cooking skills, the other Servants would not have resisted for long."
Rin raised a surprised eyebrow. Archer seemed perfectly serious. He had to start giggling and shaking his head to make her understand that EMIYA was gently mocking her.

The Red Magus sighed and laughed politely.

Still, there was an idea... Archer and she had missed an opportunity to circumvent Saber...

A hundred and fifty kilometers away, Artoria Pendragon sneezed, sniffed with a surprised look and sneezed again before frowning.

At her side, Emiya Shirou looked at her, also surprised. A Heroic Spirit could not catch a cold, could he? He leaned towards her:

"Are you all right?"

Saber replied in an equally low voice:

"I think Rin talking about me..."

They had just spent the night in the village they had liberated. Improvised festivities had taken place the day before and Shirou had woken up in the morning with the impression that his hair was growing inside his head... that and the impression of having exchanged his tongue with an old sole.

How did Fuji-nee get so much sake every night and wake up every morning like a jack-in-the-box? He would never understand... That said, the Fuyuki Tiger often acted in a way that defied comprehension.
Saber and he had been taken to the village shrine by a delegation of elders. Although Shirou began by rejecting the idea of receiving a reward, he finally gave in to the determination of the village elders. If he had continued to refuse, they would have lost face.

In some cases, the reward was not only due but was also part of the hero's duty. For to refuse the reward was to let the people he had saved face a debt they could never repay. On the contrary, accepting a reward gave value to the lives that had been saved, which was a way to make the locals proud.
The village sanctuary was a simple wooden altar resembling a small house with a pagoda roof. It was surrounded by two stone lanterns and flowers in pots.

The village chief prostrated himself before opening the door of the small house.
Respectfully, he designated the statuette representing a six-tailed fox inside the altar:

"This is Hanako, the protector Kami of this village."

After praying to the protective spirit, the Elder took a red silk headband adorned with a black three-spoke wheel that was kept in a reliquary inside the altar:

"This is the tenugi of Shinmen, the legendary hero of the New Empire. He was originally from this village and - for three centuries - we have kept his band religiously. The country is in a very sad time and as you told us yesterday, the Tennō himself is now a victim of the evil Iriku Ō's treachery. Nevertheless, I note that virtue has not yet died in Japan because a hero came to our aid."

The old man bowed deeply, stretching the headband of Shinmen flat on his hands:

"Accept this gift as a token of our gratitude."

Shirou smiled awkwardly, fighting against the feeling of malaise that pervaded him:

"Uh... Saber has done a lot more to protect your village and..."

The old man rose up and answered with a sharp voice:

"She is a woman and a Gaijin, Lord!"

Artoria had an involuntary smile. Although a dragon in human form, daughter of Maglocunnus, she was always judged on her appearance. She had been used to it for a long time... even though something in her made her want to bite every time she heard an answer like that.

Saber laid his hand on the arm of her first Master:

"Shirou, I am your sword. I intervened because you asked for it. It is therefore up to you to receive the reward offered by the villagers."

Holding a sigh, Shirou leaned over, letting the old man tie the headband on his forehead.

Saber and Shirou were about to leave when a chorus of hateful cries resounded. Surprised, they turned to the battlefield. Since the day before, the samurai's bodies had rested on the ground, abandoned to the scavengers. This morning, the villagers had left their homes with shovels, preparing to bury the dead. What had not been their surprise when they saw one of the 'corpses' rising.
The samurai was not a walking man, even if he moved with difficulty, holding his head. His helmet (Koseizan-Hoshi no kabuto) was cracked and blood flowed from the shattered mask. It was one of the archers that Shirou had eliminated the day before. Luckily for him, the prana arrow had penetrated the helmet but had only knocked it out. He had remained unconscious all night and the freshness of the morning had finally awakened him.

In spite of his lamentable state, he drew his two swords, making reels to repel the peasants who sought to finish him.

The village chief approached Shirou:

"Hero-sama, please get rid of this vile criminal!"

Life was full of irony.

It was like a roller coaster. One day you were up, another was down, and the speed of movement from one to the other turned your stomach.

The earliest memory of Shirou was Fuyuki in flame, ravaged by the fire caused by the Grail in response to Kotomine Kirei's wish.

Shirou was dead that night.

Shirou was born that night.

More precisely, the normal child was dead... at the same time as these parents.

The Shirou, adopted by Emiya Kiritsugu, was an amnesiac with a huge void inside the soul... a void that looked like the hollow imprint of a monstrous chalice filled with black mud... His life began with the memory of that night and his flight, the memory of the people who called him for help and him who ran to save his life.

This had shaped Emiya Shirou, making him what he was... a being who felt he had an immense debt to repay, a debt that the only survivor had to pay to all the dead he had left behind to save his life.
And the child Shirou had found only one way to pay this debt, to become a hero who would save everyone.
The Fifth Grail War had given him the opportunity to become this hero... with the results we know.
Rider had failed to kill the students and teachers of the Homurahara Academy.

He lost Saber to Caster.

Illya was killed by Gilgamesh.

Shinji suffered serious injuries.

And most of all, during his battle with Archer, Shirou had discovered a sad reality. Not only could he not save everyone, but by trying he would turn his life into perpetual hell without changing anything to the end result.

It was childish to want to save everyone.

But it was also an incredibly beautiful purpose.

It was above all an ideal that Shirou could not deny... especially after touching the Thompson Container's bullets, fragments of Kiritsugu's soul preserved by a powerful Magecraft.

His father had cynically determined that the only way to save the world was to kill the people who put it in danger.

And Angra Mainyu had shown Kiritsugu the logical result of this process. If he wanted to bring world peace, Kiritsugu had to use the Grail to kill all those who disagreed with him.

In the end, the "world" would be Kiritsugu, his wife, and daughter...

Of course, we could not save everyone, but eliminating all the "bad guys" to save the "good guys" was just as childish, just as self-destructive.

So what was the right answer?

There was a moment of silence and tension.

The villagers.

The wounded samurai.

Even Saber.

All were waiting for Shirou's answer.

The latter smiles, finally quite happy that they offer him a concrete choice rather than a fog of theories on good and evil...

"No."
He shook his head:

"He attacked you. You fought back. I killed the other samurais to protect you. But now the situation is different. He is no longer a danger. Killing him would be murder, it would bring me down to his level."
Shirou turned to Saber, plunging his eyes into the sparkling emeralds of her gaze. And he spoke for her alone:

'I can't save everyone. But I can at least save the people in front of me. After... it's their life, no one can really save them if they don't save themselves."

Saber trembled as if Shirou's response resonated deep inside.

She had a sad smile...

Artoria had the impression of hearing the crackling of a fire, of feeling the heat of the flames and feeling her sword hitting Arondight... by the thought she had come back to the last night of the fourth Holy Grail War, to this fight against Berserker... against Lancelot, in an underground parking lot.

"I agreed... This is how we change the world, little by little, by changing ourselves and by changing others around us, by example. No one can take it upon themselves to save the world... or even a single kingdom. This is a task we must share."

Iskandar was right... a king is not alone. She had chosen to carry the weight of her kingdom and ended up crushed... Lancelot... Mordred... she had betrayed them... the truth was she betrayed them by refusing to understand that she could not protect them in spite of themselves. Camelot was a collective reality. By refusing to let them carry their share of this burden she had deprived their life of meaning.
A wise man once said that one must have two lives: one to learn to live and another to live.

Luckily, the Grail had at least performed a miracle, he had given her a second life.

Her smile became more pronounced, luminous, as she concluded:

"And that's why we're here, to help others save themselves!"

There was a moment of silence, and then the village's chief took a step forward:

"Yet he must pay for the crimes he has committed! We demand revenge!"

Shirou simply shook his head without answering, but Saber smiled softly:

"Killing him will not bring the dead back to life. He too had relatives and friends who are waiting for him. Do you want to make them suffer? Revenge calls for revenge in an endless cycle."
The young samurai sheathed his wakizashi and prostrated himself before Shirou, placing his katana before him as a sign of submission:

"Thank you, my lord. I stayed in my heart a faithful of Kihei Tennō."

Standing up, he took off his broken helmet. He was a very young man, probably younger than Shirou. His skull was shaved from the forehead to the neck and the remaining hair was gathered in a ponytail, a typical hairstyle of the samurais of medieval Japan.

"Since the beginning of the Daimyo Buntokapi revolt, my heart was in turmoil: my loyalty to my lord was in conflict with my loyalty to the Tennō. But thanks to you, I can finally see. Buntokapi's actions are bad. I renounce to serve him! Take me as your servant."

Shirou scratched the back of his head, smiling with an awkwardly:

"I am not a samurai, I am not even an inhabitant of the New Empire. I cannot take you as my servant even if I wanted to. If you're looking for someone who can tell you what to do, you should go to Kyoto instead."

Saber and Shirou went back on their way, crossing hills before reaching a narrow plain separating two hilly regions. Closing one of the valleys was an elegant castle. It was a succession of forts built on a pedestal of irregularly arranged rocks that supported white walls often projecting. Each tower was crowned with complex roofs covered with bluish slate and supported by eaves resembling a stone lace.
At each tower, a standard was slammed with the Mon of the Daimyo Buntokapi.

But what impressed Shirou most was the army gathered in the plain.

The last regiments came out of the castle to join the flow of men who were walking towards the south. There were samurais on foot or on horseback, archers, and arquebusiers but also monsters.
A good half of the army was made up of Shikomes, ape-men wearing coarse armor and bad qualities' copies of the samurai weapons.

At the head of the Shikomes was a man riding a giant frog. He was dressed like a samurai but there was an aura around him that claimed he wasn't human...

Other monsters were noticed in the mass of Shikomes, first a bronze statue high as four men. His eyes were empty orbits where palpitated balls of golden fire and it had a heavy step, making the ground tremble around. There was also a praying mantis the size of a construction crane.

"They're heading for Kyoto," Saber whispered.

Shirou had but a moment's hesitation:

"We can't let them. We have to warn the Tennō."

He was about to plead that it would be absurd to recover the treasures of the coronation if the capital had fallen and the Emperor had been killed. But Artoria raised a hand:

"No need to talk, Shirou. I understand your reasoning very well. But if we want to help defend Kyoto, we have to leave immediately. We have no time to waste."

Somewhat surprised, Shirou nodded and was even more troubled when Saber asked him to put his arms around her neck. The next minute, she lifted him up and dashed holding him like a noble knight carrying his princess.

As he protested, Saber answered in a calm voice:

"Close your mouth if you don't want to bite your tongue."

This was awkward...

He hoped no one would see them like this. Especially not Rin... otherwise, she would laugh at him until he had white hair and needed a cane to walk.

In fact, they did not have to go all the way to Kyoto.

Upon their arrival in the great plains west of Lake Biwa, they were greeted by the vision of an army at the bivouac. The camp was surrounded by a barrier of canvases and banners adorned with the New Empire Mon, a golden chrysanthemum flower.

Saber dropped Shirou to the ground.

While they were discussing what to do (go to the leader of this army or continue towards Kyoto) an explosion of white smoke startled them. A strange character had just appeared.
It was a man wearing a Muromashi (2) orange silk kimono decorated with red flowers and a high black hat called eboshi. The man folded his fan with a dry gesture of his hand, and then used it to pat his lips while looking at them with wrinkled eyes:

Saber and Shirou exchanged a surprised look. The Servant stood ready to invoke her sword and spoke:
"I ask thou: who thou are? Friend or foe? Let not thou tongue remain as dead in thou mouth."

The man opened wide eyes and bowed with a confused look:

"Please excuse my improper conduct, my name is Anbo Natzuke, a magician in the service of the Light of Heaven Kihei Tennō. I've come to take you to General Hashitaka Kurumein, the commander of the army you were just observing."

These few words were enough to remind Shirou of his self-imposed mission:

"I am Emiya Shirou, a student of Tohsaka Rin Second Owner of the Spiritual Land of Fuyuki. This is Saber, one of the two Heroic Spirits controlled by Tohsaka. We are here to warn the Tennō of a threat. Daimyo Buntokapi has allied with the Onis and is marching on Kyoto."

"The traitor army includes twelve thousand human soldiers and nine thousand Onis," said Saber.

Although the magician listened politely, he showed no sign of surprise. He bowed once again:
"The honorable Hashitaka Kurumein already knows this, Emiya-dono. The army you see was gathered here to fight in Buntokapi. It has twenty-six thousand men and twice as many cannons as the traitor army. Would you please follow me?"

General Hashitaka's Jinjo (fortified camp) was still under construction. Soldiers had erected an earth wall on top of a hill and were now busy planting a palisade reinforced with wooden towers. Below, soldiers formed terraces on the side of the hill. The tents of the soldiers, surrounded by their own palisades, would soon be installed there.

Nevertheless, a wood pavilion was already at the top, guarded by samurai armed with spears (yari). That's where Anbo Natzuke drove Saber and Shirou.

Sitting on a stool, his war fan in hand, General Hashitaka received Saber and Shirou, surrounded by his officers.

After a satisfying exchange of courtesy, General Hashitaka got to the heart of the matter:
"You are offering your help to fight Buntokapi. The magicians have already informed me that you have protected a New Empire's village. You are both true warriors and you have proven to be friends. I gladly accept that you join us. Nevertheless, you will only see the superiority of the Tennō army. So, just watch the battle without intervening. There is no point in risking your life when I have a clear firepower advantage over the enemy."

The two armies were facing each other in the plain bordering Lake Biwa. Their tactical positioning was a classical one. The New Empire army was concentrated in the center. On the front line were four batteries of four Nanban bombers surrounded by curtains of reeds and mantlets. On the wings were gathered the cavalry of samurai armed with spears or katanas.

Behind the bombers, Saber saw samurais on foot armed with no-dashi or yaris, but also Nagiganata warrior monks, Seigen sword-masters armed with two-handed no-dashi, and levies of Ashigaru poorly armed, using lacquered or bamboo armor.

Behind them were archers and infantry arquebusiers, but also yuni samurais, a cavalry unit trained to aim and fire a bow on horseback.

The right-wing counter-wing of the Buntokapi army adopted a similar device and its troops were hardly difficult even if it had Date Dragon Cavalry (mounted samurais carrying techno-wizardry matchlocks allowing them to fire a deadly volley and then gallop away) rather than mounted archers and Aojo thunder bomber (TW Chinese's matchlock, looking more like mortars than guns).

Nevertheless, the left counter-wing was formed almost exclusively of Shikomes. They had neither artillery nor cavalry and can only use throwing weapons of limited range.

The fight began with an exchange of cannon fire. Then, the mounted shooters launched attacks against the infantry.

The superiority of the firepower of the New Empire Army was immediately evident. The guns made a massacre in the ranks of Buntokapi's army and the response, half as dense, could not compensate the losses...

On the other side of the battlefield, the gongs were barely heard. The heavy cavalry charged and General Hashitaka raised his war fan, launching a guttural order.

In response, the heavy infantry moved forward to stop the cavalry charge. The impact was violent. Samurai armed with no-dashi and monks armed with naginata mowed the horses' paws, knocking down horses and horsemen before finishing them on the ground. The cavalry charge was blocked and the assault turned into a static melee.

General Hashitaka raised his fan again and the cavalry charged the enemy horsemen by flanking them Buntokapi's samurai cavalry, already engaged in an unfavorable battle, were quickly driven down and lost many people. The rout seemed close...

Saber nodded.

General Hashitaka's tactic was clear. His artillery crushed the enemy infantry, his infantry and heavy cavalry took over the enemy cavalry while the mounted archers kept the Shikomes occupied on the left-wing. Even though he had more people, he made sure to occupy more enemies with as few people as possible, focusing only on the annihilation of the enemy cavalry. If the movement was successful, this would give him the advantage in terms of maneuverability in addition to firepower.

But the Servant jolted when she saw a shower of golden fireballs falling on the mounted riders.
Emerging from the smoke, a bronze statue walked in direction of the New Empire infantry. Its eyes sparkled and threw a new stream of fireballs... behind him advanced the Shikomes. They charged the infantry.
General Hashitaka detached some of his reserve cavalry to counter-attack.

They charged to the Shikomes, seeking to flank them. Alas, in an explosion of green smoke appeared... a man dressed as a samurai and riding a giant frog. The being twisted his hands while uttering words in a terrible voice. As his mount projected forward a wet tongue as long and supple as a tentacle, wrapping a man and his horse to gobble them greedily, the chief of the Oni army opened his hands projecting a black cloud that enveloped the samurais. Many collapsed their boiling and steaming armor as the acid cloud burned them to the bones!

The Yuni cavalry (samurai archers) after being repelled by the intervention of the bronze giant returned to attack. Their arrows fell on the Shikomes, killing many and wounding even more. The New Empire infantry regained its momentum and counterattacked. The Shikomes began to retreat and the violence of the battle intensified.

Nevertheless, a new danger materialized in the form of a gigantic praying mantis. The monstrous insect ran with the rapidity of an antelope making strides of five meters long and waving its chitin saber to cut into two mounted archers. After a brief and one-sided massacre, the Yuni cavalry was in disarray.
As a new shower of golden fireballs stopped the assault of the New Empire infantry, the strange horseman mounted on a giant frog continued to cast spells on the samurais of the heavy cavalry, managing to keep them in check by himself.

Saber turned to Shirou:

"Shirou, we must intervene. Otherwise, the battle is lost."

Shirou swallowed and nodded vigorously. The bronze giant, the rider on the giant frog, and the giant pray mantis seemed as dangerous as Servants, their mere presence was enough to reverse the tide of a battle that seemed to be fish in the barrel.

"I'm counting on you, Saber."

(1) Exactly, man is omnivorous, his 'natural' diet is 60% fruit and vegetables, 40% meat products. What is abnormal in modern man's food consumption is not the presence of meat (only 20% of modern food is meat). What is abnormal is that we consume fast sugars, milk products, and cereals... which cause cardiovascular disorders, hypertension, and diabetes, diseases that did not affect hunter-gatherer populations.

(2) In modern Japan, Muromashi style kimono are the clothes of Sumo referee, they are very formal clothes for some religious functions and was used by judges before the Meiji era.