Ch21: Zouken's Bide

Emiya's heir is standing behind me in the flesh. How time flies. It was only a little while ago since I ordered Sakura to watch over him, but I must admit my perception of time is skewed. How old was this child supposed to be? He's supposed to be Shinji's age, but how stark the difference is. Based on the look of his eyes alone, I might have mistaken him for the Magus Killer himself, but then again, I'm senile. I have been for centuries. I gesture for him to come inside.

"Sorry for the intrusion, but I'll be in your care...grandfather," is what the boy says. At the very least, he has some manners. That's more that can be said about his predecessor or my grandson. The air behind me heats and the stench of flaring circuits was impossible to miss.

"There's no need for violence here, but what else could be expected from the heir of Emiya?"

Was he threatening me or did the Magus Killer raise a dullard? Well, that's how children are. They'll always turn out to be disappointments. They'll have their own petty dreams that they'll never accomplish anyways because they lacked the resolve. If Kariya really wanted to marry that Aoi girl, he should have regardless of what he needed to do. Children of mine if I could call them that would reject my ambitions, yet won't even fulfill their own. The children of today lack conviction. They had that youth by their side, youth I did not have, yet they simply squandered it along with their lives, but it's only natural for the old to hold contempt for the young.

"Do you have something against my father?" is what that boy says to me.

"Wasn't the result of the last Holy Grail War seared into your flesh? A failure so close to completion despite all the preparation and human resources spent. A shattered Holy Grail at the end. Such a thing would rile anyone up if they had any sense, but I must admit, I do owe your father. It wasn't a total loss for me."

"Human resources….shattered Holy Grail…...speaking of the dead like that...," was the nonsense he mumbled to himself.

"It was the Magus Killer who shot his own wife. What are you trying to lecture me about boy? You Emiya's have no moral high ground over me."

The boy tenses when I reveal that little tidbit. How foolish the Magus Killer was. If you expected someone to inherit your work, you should have told him everything, but I can't say I'm any different. We make it to the living room and at the dining table, there was nothing prepared.

"If I was younger, I would be preparing some tea, but alas, I'm just an old man, but you didn't come here to sit down with me. Though, what exactly do you want to discuss with my granddaughter anyways? Just so you know, elopement is off the table as long as I'm around."

The boy takes a seat in another mage's territory as if this place was his own house. Didn't the Magus Killer teach him caution or did our family's reputation plummet even further? Arrogant brat.

"Sakura never talked about herself much, but I always had my suspicions. That's why I admit, I owe you. I'm grateful for having met Sakura," were his laughable words. Well, it was an obvious fact that I had her watch him, so the boy in front of me wasn't a complete dullard.

"No, I should be thanking you. If you were your father at his prime, my granddaughter would be dead, but by no means am I speaking ill of him."

Eliminate all unnecessary factors. If one life threatens two or more, the Magus Killer would end that one life himself, which was why I didn't send Sakura until he had died. People unfortunately change with the passage of time. The Magus Killer in his final years must have gone mad. It was unavoidable and something I wanted to prevent for myself at any cost. Doused in that mud, covered in those curses, it would be strange for him not to have gone mad. From personal experience, genius and insanity are simply two sides of the same coin.

"They called him a heretic in life, yet he was truer to his ambitions than those who pride themselves as proper magi."

Young upstarts that flaunted the accomplishment of their dead ancestors are repugnant, but that just meant those who have died had less sense than me. Still the dead are dead….

Magi safely guard their secrets, so what magi knew of the craft of other magi was only surface deep and to pry was an act of aggression, but I was certain the Emiya family originally studied some form of time manipulation. Something that sounded preposterous as he passed on so early. The Magus Killer was never much of a magus, though better than Kariya who turned his back completely to the craft, but the existence of those "cards" did pique my interest.

"Is your sister in good health?" was simply an innocent question, yet he glares at me.

The blackened Servants which I had dismissed as the lingering embers of the shattered Grail were anything but. Save for Saber, each of those blackened Servants were different from the ones that had perished in the Holy Grail War, which meant they came from a different source. It was only a small curiosity. I had my worms watching them and played a hand in veiling their existence from the greater world. I was fortunate that the interim Second Owner was as broken as me. The mess, as entertaining as it was needed to be cleaned up eventually and it was then that I first bore witness to the red headed boy in front of me. The Fake Janitor the kids call him?

"If you have to ask that, I get the feeling you aren't very liked by your granddaughter," is the perfectly sound observation the Emiya boy makes.

Even though he was being civil, I knew how dangerous he was. With an armory of Noble Phantasms at his beck and call, a child had hunted the shadows that lurked within the city. Even if they were mere shadows compared to the Servants of a proper Holy Grail War, they were still Heroic Spirits. With mechanical efficiency, the boy ended each myth one by one without fail and without a trace. They weren't battles, for there was no pride, no honor or even contempt for his enemies even as his body was wounded; only the certainty of his victory. Wrath without anger. Swords without pride. Not a warrior, but a hunter. Not a person, but a machine. Too young to be an enforcer, yet could put many of them to shame and right now he was glaring at me.

"I get the feeling you don't like me very much and that's why you're lucky I am a gracious host."

"If you're this lively, you could have prepared some tea or had a familiar do it," were the boy's cutting words. It seems it's time for us to stop with the pleasantries.

"From my granddaughter, I believed you to be a gentle person or does my granddaughter simply have rotten eyes?"

"The fact she's so happy with me says a lot about her life here," was the Emiya boy being smart with me. To the uninitiated, the Emiya boy was simply the Fake Janitor. Good hearted if a bit slow, but from the look of his eyes, it was clear he was always watchful. Always vigilant, especially in regards to his family. To anyone who was even a bit perceptive, there was a deep seated wrongness to the boy even by the standards of magi.

"I'm honestly wondering what your little sister thinks of you, Emiya," were the words of mine that finally struck a nerve.

He doesn't speak. Even something like him had a heart. A brittle one at that.

"My family has had a long relationship with the Einzbern family, so there isn't much I don't know of the white haired one, but the black haired one, my granddaughter doesn't tell me much."

"So what can you tell me about Illya?" the boy asks without hesitation. He did not know?

"Well then, what can you tell me about Miyu, was it? This old man's memory isn't what it used to be."

There is only silence as he meets my eyes with his glare. How cute.

"The Magus Killer never taught you how to reciprocate did he? Though, he himself wasn't much of a people person either. If I am to tell you anything, it only makes sense for you to tell me something. That's how it works for everybody, magi or not."

"You seem to know a lot about my old man, even his nickname, while I don't even know yours," is the boy continuing to be difficult.

"I'm just a shriveled up old man that everyone forgot, but my name is Zolgen, or Zouken if that's easier to pronounce for you."

"Living for as long as you have must have required consecrated effort," the boy remarks while never breaking his gaze as my body continues to rot.

"Thank you. Normally, people insult me for my efforts, but I simply outlived them," I admit with a grin as I say my next words, "Your sister is studying to be a doctor correct? I could divulge a few things about my longevity to her if….,." but he doesn't give me a chance to finish as I "smell" the heating of circuits. Was he as simple as my own blood?

"I'm thankful for having met Sakura. I really am, but I know she isn't your only pair of eyes," are Emiya's words that come off as a threat.

"She's the only pair you haven't thrown a sword at yet," is my little remark.

I tried to keep tabs on the Emiya family, but that boy was ever watchful. He did not overlook any of my familiars. He probably wasn't too happy when I desecrated his father's grave. For that reason, I only had a few bits and pieces, but mostly conjecture.

The 8th card that I had Sakura retrieve those years ago housed a copy of that "King of Heroes", the same one that was left over from the last Holy Grail War who loiters around that poor excuse of a Church. That alone confirmed my suspicions of what these "Class Cards" were. A mock Holy Grail War. That's why I wasn't surprised that the set of Servants summoned these past few days for the 5th Holy Grail War corresponded to the set of cards the Emiya boy had fought all those years ago hero by hero. Though the Assassin summoned by Caster is an exception. Either the Magus Killer stacked the deck for the 5th Holy Grail war in advance somehow or the grail mud awakened him to some form of clairvoyance buried deep within the Emiya crest. Did the Grail aid him somehow? Still, the "how" wasn't important. I've really gone senile.

What was of note was the fact that the shadows that spawned from those cards did not originate from the Greater Grail that slept under this city. It was quite a mystery until I set my sights on the Emiya girl. I kept losing familiars whenever I tried watching the Emiya boy so I turned my attention to the younger sibling he always walked home from school with.

From the eyes of the elementary classroom rabbit, it was clear the small girl was peculiar by the standards of humans. Taking everything seriously, soaking in every piece of information that was in front of her. More innocent than a human child should be, yet more knowledgeable than most adults. She confounded her teachers with knowledge well beyond her years while being genuinely confounded by their reactions. Unnaturally healthy, she never got sick and ran circles around her classmates without tiring. It was then on a certain day with a biology textbook at her desk during self-study that she approached the classroom rabbit without any reservations and placed her palm upon it. "Trace On" she had uttered beneath her breath and had discovered my hiding place, but in that instant, just as she was analyzing me, I had analyzed her. For all that she was, she was not a magus, but a cluster of magic circuits in such quantity and quality that it would be difficult to think of her as a natural product. A designer baby incorporated with Einzbern secrets perhaps? A spare Holy Grail Vessel? The core of that little Class Card system? In that instant before I could make out any specifics, she closed off her circuits from me and performed a hasty surgery to remove the worm I had planted in the class pet to the horror of everyone around her. Maybe it was partially my fault she had trouble finding friends her own age. The Emiya boy didn't react well to that little incident either and in the end the girl decided to skip a few grades. How many winters was that ago?

"Still, at least you have the sense to dispose of my familiars outside the view of normal people."

"So, for what reason have you been watching us all these years?" is the question with an obvious answer.

"It's the responsibility of all magi to conceal the existence of the mystics from common folk and it seemed like your family needed help in that regard. You kids should know not to cause problems for your elders, but that can't be helped considering the untimely death of your father. Besides, am I really more untrustworthy than that priest?"

"You're part of the 3 families that started this Holy Grail War in the first place, so I assume you're after the Holy Grail and that's enough not to trust you," is the obvious the boy states that needed correction.

"Just so you know, I'm not interested in Holy Grails specifically, but rather what they can grant me. It's just a small wish, so small I don't think a Grail is even needed, so we don't have to be hostile with each other. In fact, my granddaughter is in possession of the very thing I seek among other treasures, so I was hoping you could negotiate with her once she gets back. It's unfortunate I wasn't able to raise that girl correctly," were words from the bottom of my heart.

Really now, I have given that granddaughter of mine too many things. She was supposed to be an empty puppet, but I should have been wary of the things I stuffed her with. The 8th card proved useful in order to test her capabilities as a Holy Grail, but I had miscalculated and the household hierarchy had become rather unstable. Sometimes she would be meek and obedient, other times she would…..but ever since the Holy Grail War started, she has been mostly terrifying.

"What is it that you want?" is the question he finally asks.

"What every living being wants. To live forever," was the obvious truth, but it somehow perplexes the boy.

"Thats..," is all the brute could utter.

"To that end, the Potion of Youth may prove useful to me, but I don't have my hopes up."

The Potion of Youth that the "King of Heroes" had in his treasury, but would never share with me. He'd kill me if I stood before him. For Sakura to be able to manifest his treasury, I had been somewhat elated, but every time she does, she's no different from that king.

"Aren't you the head of the household? Why would Sakura be in possession of something like that?" is the question I wonder myself.

"I have given that girl many things and the Potion of Youth was just part of what I had bequeathed to her by accident," which wasn't a lie. I simply lacked the capability to house a heroic spirit within myself. My rotting body isn't even my own in the first place. I may need a new body soon. The stronger existence simply overtakes the weaker one, that's the general rule. That's why I was curious about how the boy in front of me stayed mostly himself after all these years. A weak blood connection with a Holy Grail perhaps?

"There's more to being a guardian than simply giving. It says a lot about your character if a kind girl like Sakura dislikes you," is the point the arrogant outsider makes.

"My grandson likes to say that nice girls are a lie. Every girl he had been with was only after our money, so he isn't very good with them. He wasn't born with magic circuits, so despite being the oldest son, he's not our successor. Being born into a magus family, but not being a magus, he's someone who doesn't belong anywhere. With what he knows he can't have normal friends, yet he can't befriend magi for what he lacks. Complaining constantly about how everything that was his was taken from him. As you can imagine, he and Sakura don't get along. When the parents die too soon, household dynamics get complicated, or is your household life as ideal as my granddaughter makes it out to be?"

"Our household isn't exactly normal, but for an older brother to hurt his younger sister, what kind of grandfather are you to let that stand?" is the hypocrisy that escapes his mouth. It hurts.

"Sakura is a strong girl. The strong endure. She like me understands the best way to handle Shinji is to ignore him as if he doesn't exist, then get the jump when he's whimpering. He's a weakling that doesn't have the guts to do anything too heinous, but you've known for a long time, so why are you bringing it up now with this poor old man? Suffering is a natural part of human life," I say, though what constitutes as "heinous" depends on the person. Sakura values many things, but none of those things are her own body, so she did indeed learn something from me. The body is just another tool and the body I myself had was just a collection of rotting worms in constant pain. It's natural for humans to suffer, that's why I need….. to go beyond the limits of the body to reach the infinity of the soul.

"Because it's natural, you'll just let it happen in front of you?" was a question of his that made me writhe. It must have been something I forgot.

"What? You're no better than me. I'm tired of talking with you. Go wait upstairs. She'll be back any minute. I'm not allowed into her room, but you'll find that girl isn't gentle at all."

That boy is simply insufferable, but suffering is that natural state of humans. That's why I don't need to do anything. He'll have to face Sakura alone ...better him than me. I lead him out. He ascends the stairs and opens that door I was forbidden to open. Now, what will you do?