Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.
Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi
Chapter 8: Il Mondo (Part VIII)
Something was wrong.
Even before the bounded fields flashed to active mode, multiple concentric cylinders of red with hexagonal, beehive patterns of gold surrounding the Matou property while others formed barriers over the ground, Sakura was rushing out of the command tent. Magic circuits glowed across her skin, forming blue patterns over her body as she simultaneously reinforced her body and reached into Imaginary Numbers Space.
Sparks erupted across the ground as great masses of worms erupted out of the ground in several places, long and fat with grotesquely-penile profiles, fanged mouths leering from their bulbous heads. There was no refinement to their assault, simply seeking to burst through the bounded fields with their mass and sheer numbers, and leading to their destruction in great fountains of glowing ash that plumed through the bounded fields before scattering into the night.
Sakura ignored them.
The bounded fields could handle the swarm, at least outside of the pit.
Inside it, though…
…already, Sakura could hear the screams, and could see men scattering and running away from the pit, abandoning their posts.
"RETURN TO YOUR POSTS!" she shouted, prana laced into her words forcing her men to overcome their terror and so stand and fight. "CONTINUE WITH THE PLAN! POUR THE MOLTEN LEAD INTO THE PIT! FINISH IT!"
"Well, aren't you rude?" a gravelly voice asked from just inside the lip of the pit, and Sakura snarled as she came to a halt and saw it.
It was a writhing mass of hundreds of worms, like the ones from before, squealing obscenely as they wriggled against each other to get at their meal. Blood and viscera squirted out of the mass every once in a while, mixing with the slime grossly coating the worms' bodies, a limp arm extending out of the mass slowly pulled back inside and twitching as it was eaten away.
But it wasn't just a pile of worms. Rising above the mass, indeed, formed by the worms merging into one, was the upper torso and head of a wrinkled old man with opaque black eyes.
"If it isn't the lost Tohsaka heiress?" Makiri Zolgen croaked with a grin. "Coming in the wake of those blind fools from the Clock Tower, and desecrating an elder's workshop...didn't anyone teach you…?"
Sakura didn't bother to waste words on the abomination before her. Pulling out a flintlock pistol from Imaginary Numbers Space, she took aim with the speed and precision of long practice, and fired. Black powder ignited with a burst of sparks and thick smoke, a silver ball speeding down the rifled barrel and out with exceptional precision for a weapon of its generation.
It blew a hole clean through the vampire's torso, several inches across in fact, courtesy of the mysteries woven into the silver. "You think this is…!" Makiri began, only to be cut off as Sakura threw aside the spent pistol, and pulling out another, fired.
It blew Makiri's right shoulder apart, its right arm falling to the ground and melting back into a mass of worms that quickly rejoined the rest of the swarm. "This won't…!" Makiri began again as it struggled to reform its body, but Sakura was already pulling out a third pistol.
Black powder again erupted in a burst of sparks and thick smoke, silver blowing out corrupt flesh and black ichor from Makiri's back, through where its heart should be. A fourth pistol reopened the monster's torso, while a fifth pistol blew its left arm off, the worms that dissolved from the limbs squealing as they fell into the molten lead slowly but steadily filling up the pit below.
A sixth pistol further widened the hole in Makiri's chest, its regeneration slowing down as the mysteries woven into the silver bullets crushed its own mysteries to an increasing degree. Then Sakura discarded her sixth pistol…
…and instead pulled out a shotgun from Imaginary Numbers Space, one she only usually used when going on hunting trips to the countryside.
Humans are animals too. And animals are prey to hyenas. Just like monsters are prey as well.
Custom 12-gauge rounds spat out silver buckshot, blowing Makiri's body apart and spraying worms, ichor, and viscera down the steps and into the molten lead below. "This is not…over…" Makiri rasped, its head lying on its side against a step, separated from the rest of its body with only the bloody stump of its neck still attached to the head. "…I will…"
"Just die." Sakura interrupted, and letting her shotgun fall to one hand, tossed a piece of jade towards Makiri. "Karkottaa!"
The spell caused the jewel to explode outward with a blast of blue light, altering the mass of Makiri's remains and dropping them to near zero, making it ridiculously easy for the force of the explosion to blow them into the pool of molten lead. Vapor hissed as worms, ichor, and viscera sank into the molten lead, bubbling as it struggled to escape from the depths, reality reasserting itself and causing Makiri's remains to sink deeper into the molten lead.
Then the surface erupted in violent splashes, agonized screaming echoing into the night as Makiri flailed back and forth, trying to get the molten lead off itself, to reform its body, and to escape this agonizing death it had been consigned to. Sakura watched from above without a hint of mercy or sympathy, looking on as Makiri's form melted and flowed of its own volition, its mysteries struggling to find any way to let it survive this nightmarish fate.
But there was no escape.
Eventually the flailing stopped, Makiri's form melting into a writhing mass of worms squealing and jumping and even eating each other, each and every one of the wretched things trying to stay above the surface of the molten lead, to get away from the boiling heat and poisonous fumes, but even they did not last long, the swarm sinking deeper and deeper, worm by worm, into the molten lead.
But then just as Sakura was thinking it was over, the ever-decreasing number of worms melted into each other, forming an anguished yet hateful face staring up at her. Then it spoke a single sentence in strangely-accented Russian, before falling apart and vanishing into the molten lead.
Смерть - это только начало.
Death is only the beginning.
Sakura snorted before bringing up her shotgun, and returned it to Imaginary Numbers Space. "I can see why the Barthomeloi hate your kind." She said in contemptuous disgust, before spitting to one side. Then she gathered up her pistols, one by one, and also returned them to Imaginary Numbers Space.
"Who was the man the vampire ate?" she asked the men operating the channel that led from the foundry to the pit, through which molten lead flowed in a steady stream.
"O-Oskar Drake, ma'am." One of the men answered.
Sakura pinched the bridge of her nose, and taking a deep breath, let out a sigh. "Thank you." She said. "Carry on with your duties, I'll take care of informing his family, and arranging the postmortem benefits."
"We…yes, ma'am."
Sakura nodded, and then sighing again, headed back towards the command tent.
"…no offense, but you seem rather out of things today." Shirou remarked come the following day. "Did something happen?"
Sakura gave him a look out of the corner of her eyes, and then gave a sigh. "One of my men got killed last night." She replied.
"Wait, what?" Shirou exclaimed in surprise. Whatever answer he had expected, that wasn't it. "How? Why?"
"You heard me." Sakura replied. "Makiri Zolgen ate him to jumpstart its resurrection."
"Makiri…you mean Zouken Matou?" Shirou asked. "That's impossible! Rin and I killed him during the war! He can't be alive!"
Sakura gave Shirou a look. "It's a vampire." She said. "They're like bad weeds, cockroaches, even, they just don't know when to just roll over and die."
"…did you?" Shirou asked after a moment. "Is he really dead now?"
"…I don't know." Sakura admitted after a long moment. "I'd say we have to hope for the best, but also prepare for the worst."
The two magi sat in silence for a long while, eating their lunch in a somber mood. It wasn't until they were both finished with their meals and just soaking in the warm, spring sunshine, that Shirou started up the conversation again.
"What really happened last night?" he asked.
"I was containing the nexus of Matou taint in the city." Sakura said. "I'd already burned and razed the Matou mansion, so the next step was to fill in the pit in that was the monster's lair and workshop in one."
"I'm guessing Zouken wasn't about to let that happen." Shirou said.
"No, it didn't." Sakura agreed. "Especially since I was using molten lead to fill the pit in."
"Wait…seriously?" Shirou asked incredulously. "Molten lead? Why? And while I've never seen the pit myself, from what Rin said it's very deep and wide. Where'd you get that much molten lead? How'd you even move it across the whole city?"
Sakura smiled at Shirou's questions. "I chose lead because it's poisonous to living things, so nothing can survive in the pit's corners once I finish filling it up with lead." She said. "That, and lead is magically-inert, needing especially profound mysteries to work the element instead of it just absorbing and locking away any prana you put into it without any way to get it back. As in Philosopher's Stone-grade mysteries. Makiri Zolgen might have been an old and powerful vampire, but I doubt it could have the mysteries needed to get past all that lead."
Well, that wasn't completely true, but Shirou didn't need to know the whole truth.
Still, the fact that Makiri Zolgen might have a slim chance of salvaging something from his workshop despite all the lead filling it up wasn't something Sakura completely discounted.
That was what the silver was for, aside from making shot like those which she'd used against the vampire during the previous night's confrontation.
"As for where I got that much molten lead, and how I managed to move it across the city in bulk to the Matou property," Sakura continued. "I didn't need to."
"Huh?"
"You can't buy molten lead in any quantity." Sakura explained. "You can buy lead ingots in industrial quantities, though. It's also easier to move around foundries and other necessary equipment than actual molten lead."
"…you set up a foundry in the Matou property itself, didn't you?" Shirou asked.
"Bingo!" Sakura said with a smile and a round of applause. "Yes, that's exactly what I did. I then had my men melt lead ingots on the spot, and then poured the molten lead into the pit."
"And that must have provoked Zouken into moving." Shirou said.
Sakura nodded, her smile vanishing. "Yes, I think so too." She said. "You and my sister failed to kill it, but did enough damage that it had to retreat. It went back into hiding, to wait for a chance to rise again, and stayed in hiding even as the College of Law pillaged its residence."
"Only to be forced to move when you began filling in its workshop." Shirou said.
Sakura nodded again. In truth, she wondered why Makiri Zolgen hadn't taken action sooner, but in hindsight, it probably didn't see the burning down and razing of its mansion as a real threat. At least, threats not worth exposing itself against, especially with the bounded fields the College of Law had set up around the Matou property. Even the prospect of its workshop and lair getting filled in was probably of no concern, so long as it assumed only earth or even concrete would fill the pit.
Then Sakura had set up her foundry, and begun melting lead to fill the pit in, and the vampire's hand was forced. And even then, the bounded fields of the College of Law meant it had to wait, until someone accidentally stepped into the pit and was left vulnerable to the monster.
"So," Shirou began. "How'd you beat it?"
Sakura smiled and shrugged. "Now," she said with a wink and a finger to her lips. "That's a secret."
"Hey, no fair." Shirou protested. "I'm sure you know about how me and Rin beat Zouken during the Fifth Holy Grail War."
"Hmm…well, not really." Sakura said. "Rin's official statement is that she alone faced and defeated Makiri Zolgen. No, I don't think it's to monopolize credit. I think she's deliberately trying to keep you anonymous, and to shield you from any blowback that could result if her case failed, and your role was officially known."
"Oh…" Shirou said, suddenly looking torn and thoughtful in equal measure. He fell silent for a couple of minutes, and then turned back to Sakura. "And what do you think?"
Sakura laughed. "Keep your secrets." She said with another wink. "I have mine too, don't I?"
Shirou laughed as well. "Fair enough." He admitted. "So it's over then? For now, at least?"
"Hmm…for now, sure." Sakura said. "But there's a few more things to do, just in case. No point in doing something unless you do it right, right?"
"Yeah, no argument there." Shirou agreed with a smile.
"Great!" Sakura said with a grin. "Speaking of fair, though: how about coming to my place for dinner?"
"Huh?" Shirou asked in surprise. "Um…this isn't a no, but why the sudden invite?"
"Hmm…well, despite being an ally of and apparently a good friend to my sister," Sakura began. "Unlike your fellows Ryuudo and Mitsuzuri, you've been quite friendly to me over the past month. So I'd like to return the favor, in the most welcoming way I can think of."
"I don't want to impose…"
"Hardly," Sakura interrupted with a dismissive gesture softened by a smile. "I insist, Magus Emiya."
Shirou pursed his lips while staring at Sakura, who evenly returned his gaze. Eventually, Shirou sighed and nodded. "Alright," he said. "If that's the way it is, I accept. On one condition, though."
"Oh?"
Shirou smiled. "How about addressing me by first name?" he asked. "If we're going to be friends, then you might as well."
Sakura smiled as well. "Then," she said. "You should do the same for me."
"Then I look forward to dinner, Sakura."
"Good to hear it, Shirou. Now, is there anything you're allergic to?"
"Come, come!" Sakura cheered, as they arrived at her house hours later, after school was done for the day. "Welcome to my humble home!"
Shirou just smiled indulgently at the sheer understatement of Sakura's words, the mansion in the middle of the property at least as big as those of the Tohsaka and the Matou. The surrounding grounds were also just as big, but more elaborate than either, landscaped and arranged in an artistic fashion of some kind.
Still, he was here as a guest, and for all his flaws, Shirou had been properly-raised by his elders. So he just kept his mouth shut, and followed Sakura into the mansion.
The interior was ornately-decorated, but with a much brighter and more optimistic tone than either Tohsaka or Matou. Both favored darker atmospheres, the inside of the Tohsaka mansion having an air of…seriousness, and stoicism to it, for all its own elaboration and luxury. In contrast, Matou had a brooding, even forbidding air to its interior, something that should not have come as a surprise in hindsight.
Edelfelt, though…
…the mansion had a lively air to it, of living a good life and enjoying the pleasures it offered in relaxed opulence.
Something reinforced by the twin files of maids bowing them into the foyer, and which had Shirou feeling quite self-conscious about. So he just stayed quiet, following Sakura's lead as she first spoke to a butler, and leading him to a living room of some kind, gestured for him to sit.
Shirou complied, looking around him in wonder at the frescoed walls, up to the similarly-frescoed ceiling, an idyllic, Arcadian landscape basking in the light of a crystal chandelier. The paintings on the walls were more of the same, showing hunting scenes and other such examples of a peaceful, yet lively pastoral lifestyle. There were also a few nudes among the paintings as well, and while Shirou had seen naked women before, he still struggled not to blush at such…
…artistic liberty on display.
"Dinner is being prepared as we speak." Sakura said. "Would you like some refreshments while we wait?"
"No, I think I'm good." Shirou said with a nod. "It's better to save space for dinner, after all. Thanks, though."
Sakura nodded. "If you're sure…" she said.
"I am." Shirou said with another nod.
"Alright, then." Sakura said. "Well then, in the meantime I'll just go and get changed. Feel free to check any of the books on the shelves. Most of them are in Finnish or other foreign languages, but there should be a few Japanese titles among them. And if you ever change your mind about refreshment…"
Sakura paused and gestured at a silver bell on the coffee table. "Just ring the bell," she said. "And a maid will come to assist you in any way you need."
Shirou nodded again. "I'll keep that in mind." He said.
"Well then, I won't be long."
"Oh there's no need to rush for my sake." Shirou reassured Sakura. "Take your time."
Sakura just smiled, and giving a curt nod, left Shirou alone in the room.
"So, what's for dinner?" Shirou asked, after Sakura had returned and was now leading him to the dining room. Or more likely, a dining room; he wouldn't put it past her to have more than one dining room, depending on how many guests she'd have to host.
Sakura – having changed to something more casual, specifically a white blouse with long sleeves under an embroidered wool sweater, worn over dark leggings and an ankle-length skirt of blue (and which unknown to her, reminded Shirou painfully of his former Servant) – shrugged before throwing him a smile over a shoulder. "You'll see." She said.
Shirou just hummed wordlessly, even as they arrived in the dining room and were shown to their seats by a pair of maids. "I hope you don't mind western food," Sakura began. "Though I imagine it's too late to ask that now."
"Oh, I don't mind." Shirou said with a nod. "A different kind of meal every once in a while is a good thing, too."
Sakura nodded, even as the maids placed a basket of black bread on the table, still steaming hot from the oven. They also placed butter and cheese, for the two diners' convenience to pick from, along with a pitcher of cold water.
"What else would you like to drink?" Sakura asked, even as she took a loaf of black bread and opened it with a puff of steam. She immediately sliced off a square of butter and put it inside, letting the loaf's heat melt the butter.
"Hmm…what do you recommend?" Shirou asked instead.
"Riita," Sakura responded by addressing one of her maids in Finnish. "Bring us two beers."
"Yes, my lady." The maid answered with a bow, and then turned to leave.
"You drink, right?" Sakura asked curiously.
"Occasionally," Shirou said cautiously, now also helping himself to some black bread and cheese.
"So you don't mind beer?"
"I don't mind beer."
"Good."
A minutes later and Riita was back, with a pair of beer bottles and chilled glasses. She opened the bottles on the table, and poured both their glasses. Then with a bow, she stepped back, Sakura and Shirou nodding at her in thanks.
"Here's to us." Sakura said, taking her glass and raising it in a toast.
Shirou raised an eyebrow at the toast, but raised his glass to return it regardless. Then they both took a long drink, and resumed eating their loaves, even as the rest of their dinner arrived: a whole roast duck, meatballs cooked with vegetables in a rich sauce, and a salad.
"Any part of the duck you'd especially like to have, Shirou?" Sakura asked, as she prepared to carve up the bird.
"I'll have a drumstick, thanks." Shirou replied, and Sakura beamed.
"Alright then."
"So," Sakura asked as they returned to the living room from earlier, once dinner was finished and done. "Did you enjoy dinner?"
"Very much," Shirou said with a nod while sitting down in an armchair. "I've never had duck before too. It was…different, but delicious, with a rich flavor delicately seasoned with several kinds of spices. I'd love to know about the recipe, though I guess that's too much to ask."
Sakura laughed. "Well, you'll have to talk to my cook for that." She said, before turning her head as a maid arrived with coffee and slices of pecan pie, one each for them. "Dinner's not complete without dessert, though, so I hope you don't mind coffee and pie."
"Oh, I don't mind." Shirou said, taking his coffee and inhaling the rich aroma with a satisfied air. Then replacing it back on the coffee table, he added milk and sugar, and giving it a stir, took a sip.
Sakura similarly mixed her own coffee, and relaxing on a chaise, savored the hot drink while letting the heat of her slice of pecan pie melt the cream on top.
"How are you, really?" Shirou suddenly asked.
Sakura blinked in confusion. "What?" she asked.
"How are you?" Shirou asked. "I mean…not how are you doing as a Second Owner, or are you handling what you have to do very well, just…well, how are you?"
Sakura stared at Shirou, who didn't meet her eyes, instead busying himself with his slice of pecan pie. Sakura waited until Shirou had taken a mouthful, and then briefly closing her eyes, leaned back to slouch against the chaise.
"It's not bad." She said. "For all that Ryuudo and Mitsuzuri are consumed by paranoia, I find the day-to-day of life here in Japan – Fuyuki – welcome enough. Well, school life, that is: it's the closest to normality, to just…well, living, that I've experienced here so far."
"And?" Shirou prompted with a smile.
Sakura snorted and shrugged. "People of our age will be people of our age." She said. "The only things that are different are the way they look and the language they speak. In all honesty, it's proof that the bias against Orientals…against Asians over at London is complete horseshit."
"Hmm…well, let's not go too far down that way of thinking," Shirou said. "And just focus on the here and now. So…made any friends so far?"
"The closest one I have here in Japan is the one I'm talking to right now."
"…oh, um…I guess…thanks, I guess?" Shirou ventured, caught completely by surprise at that.
Sakura just laughed in response. "No," she said. "Thank you."
Shirou nodded. "But, really," he said, looking ever so concerned. "Don't you have any other friends?"
"There's Makidera from the Track and Field Club." Sakura said. "I've actually got a trip out to town lined up this weekend with her and two other friends of hers, Yukika Saegusa, and Kane Himuro, I think their names were."
"Well, that's no surprise." Shirou said, and tilting his head at Sakura's expression of curiosity. "If you haven't heard, they've got a reputation as the Track Girl Trio, though it's an unofficial group. Still, where one of them goes, the rest will follow soon enough, and if you befriend one, expect to have the other two swarming you before long."
"Personal experience?" Sakura asked.
"Yes."
"Ah…" Sakura nodded and took a drink of her coffee, before starting on her pie. "Apart from those three – and you – I don't have anyone I'm really close to, though I'm on good terms with most of my classmates, as well as juniors and schoolmates that I rub shoulders with regularly outside of class, usually in the Track and Field Club."
"Hmm…I wouldn't exactly call them friends…" Shirou ventured. "…more like an unofficial fan club."
Sakura raised an eyebrow, and then smirked, before taking one of the locks of shock-whitened hair that sprouted from the front of her scalp, and twirled it with her fingers. "Well," she said. "I do think I at least rank towards the high end of average when it comes to objective beauty, and I get bonus points for the natural white of my hair. Well, part of it, at any rate."
"Modest…but I won't disagree." Shirou said with a laugh. Then he coughed, and looked away with a slight blush. "That said, just so you know, quite a few of the other boys are probably more interested in…well…uh…"
"Hmm?" Sakura hummed in curiosity.
Shirou fumbled uncomfortably, and then gave a sigh. "Let's just say that you've drawn a lot of looks from boys if only because you've got bigger breasts than most Japanese girls of our age." He said quickly. "Then again, I suppose that's just your Finnish heritage, isn't it?"
Sakura blinked, and then burst out laughing. "Oh, you mean these?" she said with a vague gesture to her breasts. "Well, no surprise there, men or rather boys will be boys, though yes, it's my Finnish heritage shining through. Breasts of the size I have are fairly common among women in Finland, actually. Nothing particularly unique, when all is said and done."
Shirou coughed and stuffed himself with pie in an effort to escape this awkward topic. Unfortunately for him, Sakura noticed, and couldn't resist the urge to be a tease. "What about you, though?" she asked, replacing her coffee on the coffee table, before hugging her arms to herself just below her breasts, emphasizing their size even through her sweater. "What do you think?"
Shirou could only choke trying to reply through a mouth full of pie, and Sakura couldn't help but laugh at his predicament.
A/N
Is Zouken really dead now? Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. Like Sakura said, he's a bad weed that just doesn't know when to just roll over and die.
