Brewing Storm

(Morning)

(Abbi von Einzbern)

"Alright." Caster stood up, being careful not to disturb the newly-inscribed section on her growing magic circle. Taking a stance, she held out her hands. "Try pushing me now."

The homunculus approached and, grasping her hands, pushed as hard as she could. However, just like with her previous attempt, the Servant didn't move at all. Though that didn't mean much by itself.

Sasaku nodded briefly, marking and end to the experiment. "That was at least measurable compared to with Rider. Without a specific Skill, this is infeasibly inefficient absent a better scale factor on Realm strength."

"It'll be fine," Rider said soothingly as the three of them exited the room. She had, understandably enough, high initial hopes, though her likely disappointment at the conclusion of Caster's tests didn't show. "We can hold our own well enough. Don't you think we've done well enough together so far?"

"Not saying we lack in other uses for the energy," the other Servant agreed. "Simply feels like a bad sign."

"You're just being paranoid," Illya jumped in to the conversation after noticing her Servant was outside of her room. "Try to relax a bit before the fight begins, or you'll tire out even before Kuro shoots the opening arrow."

The morning news was reporting on an approaching stormfront that had the local authorities looking at their disaster shelter preparations. Illya took the opportunity to switch topic. "Hmm. The timing of this seems beyond convenient, isn't it?"

Abbi glanced at the crawler text on the screen. "Expected landfall around the afternoon?"

"Ruler probably picked her timing to correspond with that." Sasaku shrugged. "At least, that's more likely than her being able to whip up something like it given the Grail System seems to be running out its magical energy supply. I'm going to make some sort of treat, since I guess lunch has already been planned for by Abbi's colleagues. Any requests?"

"Butter cake," Medusa immediately replied.

"That's not too complicated, let's raid Shirou's pantry and see what's in stock."

l

(Illya)

Caster made a fairly large cake, but had to leave it undecorated due to lacking what she wanted to use for frosting. After lunch, those who wanted some cut slices with no further ceremony since, in the first place, it wasn't made for any particular occasion. Illya had a few things in mind, and found a chance to pull Sasaku away for a bit. "It feels rather anti-climatic, thinking that we're really close to the largest battle in a Grail War ever. Eight Servants in one place? Emiya was right that his house might easily not be here, this time tomorrow."

"War's are like that though," Sasaku frowned. "Though of course while the Grail War system -seems- like a battle royale setup, there are still group-oriented skills like (Tactics), (Charisma) or the like."

Illya nodded as they sat down on the edge of the courtyard to watch the wind throw leaves around. "It's easy to see how things could have turned out even worse from the last War, if not for Lancer's (Journey of Flowers)."

"The scaling on (Realm Creation) is just terrible though, it would need to be supported by, hmm... a town-sized population for general use. At least I can do quite a lot to inanimate things; this house can stand up to a lot more than a hurricane. Though that might be simply due to (Item Reinforcement)" Caster looked up into a light gray sky, as branches blew overhead.

"That second sounds worse than the standard (Item Construction), though I don't know how to make the obvious comparison with (Territory Creation)." Illya lowered her voice, though everyone else was sensibly inside, rather than eating their cake out in the elements. Though conveniently enough, any gusts that did approach the pair simply decided to thoughtfully circle around them. "I was wondering what exactly Gilgamesh wanted from you. He liked to mess around with Artoria, but he annoyed Kotomine by going out to sky on you."

"Not like he'd be detected, with that concealment Noble Phantasm of his. Though he also did just walk up to us once." Sasaku let the first question hang for a moment. "Like me, he wants to use the potential scaling of (Realm Creation) to allow, how did he put it, 'separation'."

"That sounds like what Father's predecessor did," Illya frowned. "Create an enclosed bubble that separates in some way from standard reality. But a Reality Marble would be even more powerful and it's a fairly common development among Dead Apostles."

"True, but they're hard to deal with, I imagine. The Realm is much more flexible, and more importantly, building his Security Organization in it would actually strengthen both."

"Something of the necessarily size would exceed the Grail system though," her Master muttered. "Not that I'm doubting the possibility, since a homunculus was capable of that. But it seems like he's demanding a lot of you."

"Heh." Sasaku chuckled. "The catch is that I don't, properly speaking, have control. Before we met, he was probably trying to find out how the skill functioned with his own analysis Noble Phantasm. Like you'd expect, the higher you scale the Realm, the stronger the restrictions become, like a sort of conceptual gravity well. For example, people entering the Organization might strengthen the Realm, but if for some reason they started worshiping me, I'd take a power hit, not get stronger like most gods of this World, or most thaumaturgies."

"By the way, I looked it up and the Chaldeans were a people who seem to exist much later than the city of Uruk ruled by Gilgamesh. Do you know what's up with that?"

"His Uruk seems to have suffered some sort of crippling catastrophe. Gilgamesh wasn't clear on what since that occurred after events not part of his personal history. Remember, he has the (Gate of Babylon) and that civilization is even later still. But what he suggested to your father's Servant is likely; build his own country in the separated Realm."

"Why though? And why there?"

Caster smiled slightly. "Wherever he happens to go outside the Throne, he's still in a single branch, under the principle of the World. The threat they spotted to Human History suggests it is possible to escape from this. Unlike them, he wants to build... because he can? Because he considers himself to be the greatest ruler ever? For the fun of it?"

Illya casually brushed some crumbs off her skirt onto the ground. "Do you still think you can use the Servant summoning system to grant immortality?"

"Given how Kuro aka you-from-another-branch, as well as whoever the human was who is our current Saber, both managed it, its demonstrably possible. Actually controlling it usefully... just on the summoning side to start, there's some odd inherent randomness. Like how does Avalon give you the Princess Knight, or the skin of a snake he never met summon a young Gilgamesh?"

"Catalysts just aren't very reliable. Well Lu Bu's halberd did summon him, but then again getting his horse Red Hare, or his strategist who made it, Chen Gong, would be possible. However neither of them should qualify as berserkers."

Sasaku frowned, uncomfortable after having realized the intent behind the question. "Unfortunately, though the World seems to allow both you and Kuro to exist, provided you don't get too close, I suspect it might not be happy with another Servant version of you. Though it depends. Kuro was summoned after me, so perhaps branches exist with another Archer being summoned, I set up such a system, and Servant-you is later summoned. But..."

"Not this one, right? I doubt you'd be able to figure it out in two years time anyway. Kuro managed it by becoming a magical girl, so I guess that means I lost out on my best chance long ago." Neither of them wanted to add that in the event of Kuro's return to the Throne... well enough of such dark thoughts.

l

(Shirou)

What was that line Kuro used? "Trace on."

It was hard to say if his magical circuits had activated or not, partially because he had gotten used to Avalon's rather low-level draw after all this time. Similarly, Caster and now Saber were both fairly stable in terms of baseline demand, with the former being careful to buffer on her end to handle her rather erratic use. On the other hand, there seemed to be hardly any complication when he had to 'energy transfer' to Sakura, which was supposed to be complicated, or at least dangerous. Which it was, come to think of it.

The girl sitting on the other end of the bed facing him waited for a while before suggesting, "Maybe putting off today's practice would be a good idea?"

"Yeah, I know," Shirou muttered, wondering if perhaps the on-off or control knob, so to speak, was simply controlled by act of will. His eyes refocused on Sakura as something flicked her hair ribbon to the side. Blinking as she noticed it, Sakura coughed into her hand in a vain attempt to hide a sudden blush. The two were silent for a while.

"That was just a slip of the mind," he said at last, only causing her color to deepen slightly. "Guess I'm not very good at control yet."

Sakura glanced downward at Shirou's arms, which had no visible marks from the events of the last evening in evidence. "That makes two of us..." She trailed off as he, moving forward, embraced her without hesitation.

"You know that's not what I meant." Though Sakura nodded readily enough, he could tell that wasn't everything.

"A slip's a slip, but I worry that, perhaps, there is a me who is darker and hungrier, and that wouldn't be just an accident."

"Enough of that." Shirou pressed a finger to her lips for emphasis. "All the more reason to not become her. In a way, if you stop worrying about that, then I will worry."

She simply smiled softly as they looked at one another.

l

(Kuro)

As evening approached, so did heavy winds, bringing a substantial amount of rain with them. Well-warned, the townspeople remained in the safety of their homes, leaving the roads empty. Landfall was a bit later than the meteorologists had expected, but for everyone present, exactly on time.

"Still up to making that shot from here?" Rin asked, as the two of them watched the tree in the estate's courtyard bend, creaking in protest against the invisible air pushing on it.

Kuro made a show of stretching before taking out her bow. "It's a whole building." With a quick jump, she made her way onto the roof.

Hmm... Pulling out a single black arrow, she collected her thoughts while focusing on the direction and location of Fuyuki's church. Using (Mind's Eye) for ranged work still felt rather counter-intuitive, though as long as it works, it works. Keeping her target in mind, Kuro nocked, drew, and aimed in a direction that 'felt' about right, before loosing her arrow into the dark night. Even without being able to track the missile, she knew it would reach in due time, winds or not.

Taking out another arrow more from habit than immediate need, she put it to string, and waited. The usual evening ambiance of the surrounding residential area were muted by that of the storm. Also because everyone would be staying indoors, away from windows. A perfect cover for a battle between Servants.

"A complication," Rin sent over their link abruptly. "They're coming, but more than four Servants left the church."

"Got a number?"

There was a brief pause, likely as the question was relayed to Caster. "Twelve, though she says only two of them seem to be 'proper' Servant strength."

That doesn't quite add up. She thought about several possibilities. "Two, a third with (Presence Concealment) and the fourth split themselves ten ways?"

"Possible. The two strong ones seem to be headed most directly towards us though. The rest are fanning out."

Nodding to herself, the Archer continued waiting until she 'felt' someone moving in the distance. She grinned to herself, raising her bow. Rather lazily for attackers, or at least carelessly, they were taking a now empty road which, while while it did not reach to the doorstep of the Emiya estate, made for an easy slightly arced shot. Well, they chose to leave themselves open. Kuro disposed of her arrow, deciding to switch to a Caladbolg.

"I see the two you mentioned," she informed Rin while preparing the sword for were coming in fast and she could make out some details. "One swordwoman in pink, another much taller with a crazy hat and cape. I'm taking a shot."

Go, Caladbolg!

The modified sword shot out towards the approaching duo, twinkling like a star in the night from the relatively small amount of explosive, er magical energy in its tip. No need to risk bystanders with an overkill shot.