Chapter 31: Rider's Orders
In the world below was a deadlock between two pitiful figures. Berserker and Saber. A bare chiseled body bore down on the other encased in forged steel, but they never locked blades.
In the midst of all that was a boy who held so many affections in the palm of Berserker's hand. Saber could not press forward. She could only be pushed back.
In Saber's shoulder was Archer's arrow, but that did not seem to slow down her movements at all, but my small companion would not allow such a sight before her to remain as it was. Riding towards what should have been certain death we dive from the sky. Between my arms and the reins of my mount, the small black haired girl with a gaze of a hawk brandishes…..
"Gae Bolg."
The talon carved from a sea monster's skull pierces Berserker's bronze hide with our full combined weight and speed behind it. The air screamed, but our victim did not as his flesh was pierced. It was the fate of monsters to be slain by heroes...Akin to a washed up fish on the shore, the red spear should have consigned him to an inevitable fate but his body proved to be an immovable wall. Striking his giant body was like striking the ground itself. The fingers of my ward were visibly numbed…
The monstrous hero's body remains this world as an ill omen as the day has yet to be won.
Turning my head and with my unsealed gaze, I pin the small white haired girl who had served as the giant's anchor, but it was then a certain someone had slipped out of my fingers. My trance was broken for a moment. The small black haired girl I was ordered to protect above all else certainly had just one thing reflected in her eyes. The brother she had come to save who was no longer in Berserker's grasp…...
"Berserker!" was the cry of a desperate little girl and the story continues as a hero rises once more as an ominous light re-enters his piercing crimson eye that was trained on me.
The famed killer of monsters escapes death and in turn grasps it in his hands without mercy. The giant pounces without heed of the cursed wound on his heart as if the pain itself was propelling him. He will bring me death. He will bring us death. For the sake of one girl who was as scared as she was misguided. A girl who tried to hurt another for the same reason Hera had hurt him.
A true hero did not need special weapons or petty tricks to slay monsters like me. The crude slab of rough stone in his hands was all he needed to part my head from my body like it parted air….
"Strike Air," is the command that blows death and its wielder away.
Obeying the knight's order, the unnatural wind overpowers the muscle propelled slab of stone buying me precious seconds so I could fulfill my own.
Protect Miyu.
I reach out my hand towards the small girl I was ordered to protect above all us, but her brother whom we came to save does not take the same initiative. Someone else may have mistaken it for nausea or confusion, but I knew better.
In that short moment, those seconds Saber had bought for me were spent. From then on, everything went along as my Master had wished. Before his sister could turn back to look at him, I grip her arm and hoist her up onto my stead as he prepares to give chase.
"Zelle," was the sound that accompanied avian threads fast approaching behind him.
"Rho Aias."
Reacting in time, the shield he calls upon sprouts as a pink luminescent flower covering our escape. The birds crash into it as they unravel into bindings, circling the boy from behind. Before he could call upon swords to cut them, Berserker had landed on his feet as I flick my reins. Wasting no time, the ballista of pure muscle launches his stone tipped bolt. The slab of stone slams into the boy's last second defense and knocks him off his feet as we take the sky.
The whistling sound of an arrow…
"Ah."
...….and the boy could no longer run.
"Onii-chan!" my companion yells. She tried to break free from my grip, but before she could reach for the cards in her holster, I tightened my hug. There was no escape for even the weakest of Servants. By Sakura's command, I could not let go.
The biggest danger to those Sakura cherishes had always been themselves. Strangers from an era of myth could do little to influence the world of the living, but futility was an ever present companion in the legends from which we came. In front of the Holy Grail there were no heroes or monsters, only Servants to be shed.
I tighten the grip on my reins and we flee into the vastness of the sky. We abandon those on the ground to their fate. My role in the small girl's original plan was merely to act as a means of escape once her brother was found. To provide a "get-away" ride and hopefully to Saber's eyes, I was faithfully serving that purpose and nothing more.
Tohsaka's Archer was a ruthless hunter. He would show no mercy to an enemy that showed their backs, yet no arrows came. I had no doubts he had the means to pierce my defenses in his endless quiver. He was letting us go on purpose just as he let us in. His prior attack on me before was a mere formality to maintain the graces of the ignorant girl he served.
The shaking air was in tandem with the shaking earth. Even now, the battle still continues. Saber continues to faithfully cover our escape. In my arms, the small girl continues to futilely shake me off, but my grip only grows tighter. The resounding air continues to beat.
It couldn't be helped. A Servant follows orders.
Would Saber be able to hold her own against two Servants? None of that really matters…but...
"A hero won't die so easily…...she'll most definitely return."
Small hands dig into my arms. The struggle stops.
Whether she took my baseless words as a promise or had given up hope didn't matter. All that mattered was that she was not content with the result. To be unable to protect your family while abandoning a friend….….
The sounds of sirens assault my ears. The cry of the crimson behemoths paralyzes the lesser mechanical steads in the world below. They rumble violently towards the forest we were escaped from. In the busy streets, there was nothing but panic, hysteria and whispers for which I had no context for.
As the Emiya estate entered my senses, in the center of the garden, there was one person who was smiling. Under the boundless blue sky, I had at least managed to protect the promise I had made with Sakura.
The Emiya estate was a sanctuary. A sanctuary with clean tiles and free of vermin as opposed to the place where my Master lay her head, yet I could sense through our connection that she was unwell even here.
At the knee high dining table was Saber in one piece. She had returned to my Master's thinly veiled disappointment and Miyu's bittersweet elation. In either case, it was no cause for celebration…..because there was something else for her to add to her little Diary.
"Sensei…..you only bought meat?" was Sakura's exasperation as she looked over the groceries the live in school teacher had bought.
"That's…," was the adult woman's own exasperation.
The hungry tiger stares at the gluttonous lion who was completely ignorant to the air's tension. The absence of a single member of the household had much farther reaching implications than emotional. The missing boy was truly a troublesome person.
"I'll go," Miyu announces as all gazes are drawn towards her. The house tiger was especially angry.
"No, you won't. Despite what you think of me, without Kiritsugu, I'm the only adult in this house and there's a bomber walking the streets…..that your brother is probably hunting...," as her voice dies down as a sudden revelation hits her as her teeth dig into her lips.
"Me and gramps will get to the bottom of this so get to sleep early like a good child," is the tiger's command before giving Sakura a glance.
Only nods were exchanged, but that was all that was required.
Despite not being official residents of the Emiya estate, they were equals under the same roof with the same goal. They would both protect their family with what they had however messy their methods.
Donning her helmet, the house tiger leaves the den on the back of her mechanical mount.
As her figure recedes into the distance, my Master slams her hands together producing an audible clap.
"Well that settles that then. I guess me and Saber will go grocery shopping today," she declares without skipping a beat.
Unlike the other unofficial members of the Emiya household, Sakura knew the truth behind what was happening in Fuyuki better than anyone else within this house. It was a fact Saber wouldn't let go so easily, so I made my presence known.
Sprouting from a spirit's haze I draw her gaze.
"I have been ordered to protect your Master, so I am unable to protect my own. You must understand my Master's reasoning for you to accompany her."
"We may be low on vegetables, but we are not low on provisions…..as Servants, we do not require food," was Saber's rationale and admittance.
"Servant's don't need food, Saber?" was the question Saber wanted to avoid with her Master.
"Food can be a supplement, but it is superfluous with your capacity as a Master," I explain.
Saber shrinks back from her Master's gaze. A smile forms on my Master's lips.
"Rather than grocery shopping, we can call it scouting if that sounds better to you," was Sakura's suggestion.
Simply waiting while the world continues to turn was a path to certain ruin. Gods and knights have come and gone, but humanity has remained. The world has changed without us and it will continue to do so. It was a fact that every Servant must have understood when they set eyes on the current world with buildings that pierced the very heavens out of necessity in place of hubris.
Saber contemplates the suggestion. My Master had yet to reveal all the cards in her hand and that was the fact that must have been at the forefront of the knight's mind. She would not overlook any gaps in Sakura's alibi, yet her Master was the only defense Saber had against mine.
"We'll all go together," was Saber's answer that puts a crack in Sakura's smile.
Through the gold tinted lens Sakura had given me, I was treated to a surreal world.
The crowded hustle and bustle of an indoor marketplace with air as turbulent as an outdoor one. My Master and my ward scoured through the pyramids of vegetables of every color while ever vigilant of foreign hands. Hands trained on the same earth derived bounties. Bounties of foreign lands procured by ship, so it was no surprise that some distance away was the familiar smell of the sea.
From the tanks and beds of ice that bore all forms of aquatic life. Some without spines, some that would not part with their shells and some with comically large eyes. The vastness of the sea was indeed a constant regardless of era…..
….and so was strife.
In the edge of my senses was an unknown Servant. We were tracked for some time, but there was safety in numbers. Saber was with me, observing our Masters from afar. A cap hid her hair and a sports jacket adorned her shoulders, yet even with these modern articles of clothing, she stood out.
The sound of a "shutter". Several in succession.
"Hey, it's rude to take pictures without permission!" says a small blonde girl with her own camera phone in hand with twin buns in her hair. Either way the crowd was dispersed. Whoever the small girl was, she seemed to be quite infamous. She could be an enemy.
The strange girl looks up at me like a piece of meat. With her hands on her chin, she was contemplating something. Her eyes traced my legs which were a tad too long especially when compared to Saber's. She was at the ready to cut the little girl's phone in twain.
"Can I help you?"
Was the sweater Sakura had given me that peculiar or were her eyes trained on something else? It wasn't strange for women in this era to be wearing pants…. even if they were too short to cover my calves let alone my ankles.
"Well depending on how long you're staying here, my family can hook you up with a part time job at our family's…..," were words that felt like a scam that she wasn't able to finish before my Master had laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Festival Stall? That run down dojo? Well either way, you would have to take that up with me," Sakura says with a smile.
The girl does not move. The girl does not turn to meet my Master's smile. Petrified. With the barriers I wore over my eyes, such a thing shouldn't have been possible, yet it seems my Master had her own petrifying gaze.
"….That hair color and that bust…of course they would be related…aha….just forget I said anything.," the girl comes to a terrifying realization before backing away and bolting off in tears?
My Master wasn't very popular among children, except for one.
The one child amongst the crowd who was carefully comparing green peppers in the distance was completely ignorant to what had transpired. Maybe for the best.
The unknown Servant was no longer within my senses and Saber's stiff movements had relaxed just a bit, even though logically she should still have been on guard against me.
After gathering everything the school teacher did not purchase; eggs, greens, an array of root vegetables and peppers of all sorts of colors we proceed to the line. Most carts in front of us had several packs of paper roll bundles. Paper too soft to be used for writing. Something Servants didn't need even if they consumed food. The exchange of clinking coins and ruffling of paper contracts were familiar, but the modern world had its own miracles.
Miyu draws a card. Sakura turns her attention to Saber whose thoughts had drifted.
Imbued within the card was a different sort of power compared to the mystery in a "Class Card". With the wave of the "Credit Card", the primoridal ritual of exchange is complete without the exchange of matter.
We exit the market and walk down the busy streets while the sun has yet to set. We certainly weren't prepared for scouting with the provisions we had to carry. At the very least we probably didn't need to worry about a head on attack with our numbers, but even if we weren't anxious, the crowds around us were.
The knight girl that escorted us was someone Sakura had planned to get rid of, but not in front of her little contractor. We walked in the same direction for now, but that was all. At the very least, we had an extra set of hands.
Today's allies and tomorrow's enemies.
Five Servants remained. Caster and Assassin have passed, while Berserker's situation made him ill-suited to be a scout. Lancer was the only Servant remaining that was unaffiliated with the family squabble that has defined the Holy Grail War. The unknown Servant I sensed earlier could only have been him, Archer or….
A pungent spicy aroma. Fumes that could peel paint off of marble were coming from that underworld den.
The odd "Chinese" restaurant from yesterday was not without its loyal customers. The smell of that "Mapo Tofu" wasn't something that could be cleansed from my senses and now it assaults my senses once again with phantom pain. My nose follows the pain to its source.
The child of our group takes the first step with Saber behind her. I turned to my Master who wore a fractured smile. She traces Saber's steps, while I trace hers. There were no Servants in that building, but Sakura's unease was mine as well.
The Overseer of the Holy Grail War.
He was certainly different from ordinary humans, but that was a given considering his profession as a priest. The influence of gods in this era had supposedly waned, yet the "man" sitting at that table held a hefty position in our ritual and was all too eager to brandish that fact. It was certain he came by to this restaurant with purpose other than pleasure or maybe that was his only purpose.
His lips were red and he was sweating profusely, yet his inflamed lips only accentuated his smiling face. Miyu and Saber were on guard when it came to that joyful looking man, but the only emotion Sakura felt while looking at that man was envy. I was envious too.
"I'll need 4 more servings for these lost lambs," he announces with his hand raised.
"4 orders of Mapo at the ready aru!" the waitress responds immediately before moving back to the kitchen to help.
They were prepared for us, but maybe not for Saber. Still, Servants didn't need food.
Setting aside our groceries, we take our seats. Looking around, it was clear we were the only "customers". I stare at the priest for the first time. The role of a priest was one of an intermediary between mortals and gods. Some committed themselves to their position while others took advantage of it. My intuition told me the intermediary for the Holy Grail War was the latter. With hair as wild as his, what manner of deity did he truly serve?
Saber does not look at the food. Her eyes were trained on her former enemy. Unlike her Master, there was no doubt in her throat.
"It seems you expected this outcome, Kotomine."
The man continues smiling or rather the muscles in his face had been tempered by the liquid fire he had drunk. Casually wiping his lips with a napkin, he reaches over and tosses the front page of a complimentary newspaper onto the center of the table.
[The Combustible Wintry Tree]
"It's a fact that property values in this city are rather volatile, but Rin is too stubborn to accept that, though that simply means there is an audience for my sermons," he says in two breaths.
Sakura beams her own smile to clash with his.
"And?" was the sound of her gentle voice.
My eyes focus on the man who underestimated my Master, but befitting of a seasoned veteran, he held no fear of monsters. He simply runs his mouth with each word as a calculated weapon.
"The respect I have for my father deepens each day is all," in his most casual tone.
The man deserved to be hit, but he was not an enemy. She rests her palm on Miyu's little head for support. Her greatest weakness….
"I for one wanted to be someone better than my parents," was the resolution at the bottom of Sakura's heart.
"Then you must understand how we've fallen short and the magnitude of the mess I'll have to clean up on your part," were his branding words.
"Then we both must have a very different definition of success than they did Mr. Priest," was my Master's acceptance of that brand with pride. They were both smiling.
Wrapped around my Master's wrist was Saber's hand as her own Master prepares to speak.
"...It was my fault. Sakura had nothing to do with what had happened," was what Miyu believed to be the truth that the priest immediately cast aside.
"One can only truly repent if they comprehend the sin they have committed," he says without looking at the small girl, but Sakura never stops looking at him. "Spenta Mainyu..," was his doubting whisper.
"And what is that sin, priest? She was only trying to save the only family she has left," were my Master's words I agreed. Whether it was sarcasm on her part was another matter entirely.
"It seems you've grown up into a mediocre gardener and an even worse guardian, Matou Sakura," were his words which grasped at my Master's weakness.
My Master never wanted to meet him. She stands here right now because she had to protect her greatest weakness, but that risked revealing a side of herself that children should be spared from seeing.
"The Overseer is impartial so he won't tell you anything I don't already know so let's go home for dinner, Miyu. It isn't good for your stomach to eat here two days in a row," was Sakura's excuse for us to leave, but neither Saber or Miyu budge.
Those without control growing up become obsessed with it. Irrationally so. I take everyone around the table into my senses. Every one of us has lived in a narrow world, however all rivers connect to the vast sea. I wish my end to nobody.
"Passing around blame isn't the reason why we're here," was the stream of words that flowed from my mouth that provided an opening.
Without a concern, he casually sips his liquid fire as Sakura steps on my toes.
"Only one of you decided to come here while all the others followed suit because they were concerned with what I might say. For you to still be in the war is nothing short of a miracle," were the words he spits out as his eyes were fixed on my Master who continued to step harder.
People did not live long with baseless confidence. A small girl gathers her resolve with the opening I provided.
"You are the one who manages the properties the Tohsaka own?" was Miyu's question straight to the point.
"The Tohsaka heiress is not yet an adult legally speaking, so it's an extra responsibility I have being her late father's student. I'll give you the listings if that is what you wish," the priest confesses, being anything but "impartial".
"Being the Tohsaka guardian, can that information be trusted?" was what Saber asks of him and he spares no time to answer.
"I'm an impartial observer, but my duties as the Overseer put public peace as a higher priority. I am not ignorant of the Emiya family's relation to the Fujimura group. I won't withhold information I know you'll easily be able to dig up yourself. If I can minimize the size of the hole, then I would have done my duty, so I ask all of you to show the same courtesy."
Sakura was no longer stepping on my toes, but I was certain she was stepping on someone else's.
"You're selling her out that easily?" my Master asks the priest.
"I'm only being rational like the one who taught me," the priest notes.
Taking a napkin, the priest scribes onto it the addresses of the estates the Tohsaka family owns. There didn't seem to be a lot. When handed the information, Miyu was in doubt.
"...Is that all of them?" she asks of the priest. The priest was all too eager to answer.
"Do not compare the Einzbern to the Tohsaka. However it is good to be wary," and she took those words to heart.
"...You've heard my wish, but what is yours?"
"If I had a wish, it was granted 10 years ago," he answers without any doubt even with Saber's gaze trained on him and as Miyu's eyes widen.
"Were you the Master of that King of Heroes 10 years ago, Kotomine?" Saber asks of him.
"I failed to obtain it, but I guarantee that the Holy Grail contains all truths, including the truth of those who seek it. Did it not answer your questions 10 years ago, King of Knights?"
"Truths are not solutions," Saber sternly states and the priest smiles back with his arms spread out in welcome.
"To be expected of a king. You won't be sated with mere truths just like this meal before you," as he gestures to the bowls of cubed bean proteins submerged in edible magma.
Saber examines the bowls we did not touch. It would be rude not to eat what a host has prepared. One by one gulps down the contents. The last bowl is slammed onto the table with an audible sound. There were no more distractions.
"Yet that tyrant turned down your invitation for dinner," were her words that took away the priest's smile.
Saber takes the priest's silence as confirmation before continuing the interrogation.
"You remain in this world just as he does, the final Servant that remained. Tell me, what other Master survived in the Holy Grail War that Kiritsugu took part in except you?" as she corners him.
"Despite being a Servant, you remembered those days? How curious. Well, with the mess you made with the grail 10 years ago, it's hard to say. Considering who Emiya was, I'm sure he kept records of every single Master he would have to face. Did he not share them with you?" was the question he bounces back to the knight.
"He singled you out from the start as the greatest enemy and the fact you're alive means his judgement was correct," were distortions in the air under Saber's dominion.
It was only the touch of a small girl's hand upon her own that the air became still once more, but it could never return to how it was. The flavor in the air was gone, but the priest was unperturbed.
"It's as you say, truths are no solutions. Knowing truths does not solve anything on its own. Truths do not exempt you from the laws of this land and as a knight let alone a king, I trust you take them quite seriously. Though that is something I'm starting to doubt considering how readily you are to swing that shovel of yours. Dig a big enough hole, then the executors and enforcers will undoubtedly come to stamp this town out. I find little joy in filling up holes, so as I said before, if I can minimize the size of the hole, then I would have done my duty, so I ask all of you once again to show the same courtesy."
Whether the priest was an enemy or not, he was the Overseer. There will be hefty consequences if he suddenly dies while the Holy Grail War rages on. He wasn't someone who could be touched so easily, especially in a public restaurant. Our misery was the currency for his information.
Miyu tugs on Saber's sleeves, signalling her to leave and Saber complies, but her eyes never leave the table as we leave. Neither does Sakura's.
The streets had quieted down in the afternoon. My hands were preoccupied with groceries as Miyu's eyes were preoccupied with what the priest had given her. Sakura makes a motion towards that napkin, but she stops herself as Saber turns her gaze towards her.
"There's no reason to trust what's written there. He is practically Tohsaka's father after all," was the doubt my Master tries to seed, but it falls on deaf ears.
I carried what Miyu originally carried and Saber shifts her burden onto me. We were walking in the opposite direction of where "home" was supposed to be.
"Where do you think you're going, Miyu?" Sakura asks of her in a tone that no longer holds any gentleness. My Master's patience had finally run thin.
"Looking for Fuji-nee. I fear what she'll get herself into with her own investigation," was the small girl's answer that was just as cold. Saber doesn't turn back to look at my Master.
I do nothing to stop them as they break away from us.
"Did I not order you to protect Miyu? Are you not my Servant, Rider?" Sakura asks of me.
"You have seen the life I had led, so you must know what we both treasure is the same. You saw how that life ended. I am your ally, that's why I'll protect her, even from you."