Akiha

Akiha was delicately sipping her tea as she sat facing the boy opposite her. The boy, who looked no older then thirteen was calmly smiling back at her. He had quite calmly knocked on her door at about six in the morning and after introducing himself as Shirou Inke had requested to meet with Kouma Kishima. When Kohaku had stated that there was no Kouma Kishima living here he had requested his current location. This led to the current problem she was facing.

"Say that again will you," Shirou said. "I don't think my ears heard you correctly the first time."

"I'm afraid to say ." Akiha repeated her voice patient, "but I have no idea of the whereabouts of ."

"You're a mixed blood," Shirou said with his usual lack of tact. Upon seeing Akiha's look he quickly corrected himself. "I'm not insulting you or criticizing you just laying the facts bare. I can sense the girl," at this he gestured to Kohaku standing besides Akiha, "is something interesting as well. You know at first I mistook this gathering for a family of Magi but looking closely it's just too different." He shook his head his smile growing wider, "I've seen so many interesting people in this town and I've only been here for one day, truly I was right to skip school for this."

Looking back at Akiha's impassive face he sighed. "So I guess my point is this man Kouma Kishima, who was a member of a branch family to yours, who has been described to me as a demon in human form by a person who I know could singlehandedly crush this town if she ever got serious, left for some reason and you as the head of the family responsible in some part for his actions didn't even get a damn forwarding address."

Akiha felt her neck grow warm while outwardly she still maintained the look of an impassive head of the family. During the speech she had grown more and more embarrassed to be lectured by an outsider to the family and on top of that one that was even younger than her. While her pride wouldn't let her concede the point she took a note to in future think take a more critical stance on her actions.

"That's correct," she said.

"Okay," Shirou said standing up abruptly, "but before I go I must-," Shirou stopped the reason being that Akiha's brother had just entered the room followed closely by Hisui.

As Akiha turned towards Shiki she was surprised to see her brother look at Shirou with recognition.

"Shiki," Shirou said, the fact that he knew her brother startling Akiha slightly, "my word is it a small world, fancy seeing you here."

"Shirou," Shiki said, and his voice was enough to raise Akiha's spirits and sooth her worries that he was not okay after yesterday. "What are you doing here? Did you come to meet with me?

Akiha started shooting Shirou a look trying to convey not to tell her brother about the fact that they were mixed-bloods. If she had paid more attention to Shiki at that moment she would have noticed him shooting Shirou similar looks. "How do you know my brother?" Akiha asked of Shirou. "You said that you had only been in Misaki for one day."

"He helped me yesterday," Shiki supplied. "He was the one to take me to recover in the hotel bed."

Shirou's smiled widened as he took in Akiha's glare. "And how are you Shiki you're looking a lot better then you were doing yesterday." He chuckled, "If I knew you were a Tohno I would have stayed to meet the person picking you up." He shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well, opportunity lost, opportunity gained. The reason I came here today was to meet a man called Kouma Kishima. Unfortunately he moved out not long ago and left no forwarding address."

Shiki looked guilty for a moment and rubbed his head. "Thank you for what you did last night I felt much better this morning."

"You're talking about me healing you, you don't have to beat around the bush to hide the fact that I'm a magus," Shirou said. Akiha gave him a sharp look to prevent him from dropping any hints. "Who's going to believe you anyway?" Shirou stood up. "I must head out now I have things to do but first a warning," at this he fashioned the entire room with a stern look. "Stay inside at night, there's a vampire roaming the streets and you could become its next victim." He turned towards Shiki. "In fact a young girl your age was attacked last night."

"What!" Shiki exclaimed.

"Yeah," Shirou said dismissively. "It was a girl named Satsuki. Don't worry," he said ignoring Shiki's look of shock. "She'll be fine, I can heal it will just take a lot longer than the injuries that you accrued."

Shirou turned towards Kohaku. "Thank you for the tea, it was delicious."

"You're welcome," Kohaku replied. "But it was my sister that made it."

"I must get the recipe sometime," Shirou directed to Hisui, "but I must really get going."

"Wait," Akiha said. As Shirou turned towards her she said, "Thank you for saving my brother." The young magus merely nodded and strode out of the room.

Akiha sighed under her breath relieved; if the conversation continued like that she would have to reveal things to Shiki she really didn't want to. She lifted her cup and froze. Underneath the cup lay a piece of paper with her name on. The ink looked wet as if it had just been applied and the writing was a bit messy as if the author of the note had little prior experience writing.

She picked up the note ignoring the curious gaze of her brother and started to read the note her face going white as she read the few lines contained in. It simply read.

"Your bloodlust is slipping. Control it. I don't really want to have to take down a demon in addition to the vampire.

The note fell from her nerveless fingers and for the first time in a long while Akiha felt very very scared.

Shirou

Shirou walked out of the Tohno manor not bothering to be shown out by the maids. He didn't enjoy doing that to the poor girl but even he could detect the slipping control that she displayed. This would lead to the deadly drift towards inversion impulse that would leave them a mindless being of destruction.

He manipulated the ink from the fountain pen in the pocket of his pants to imprint the words directly on the note and slipped it under her cup when she was distracted by her brother entering the room. Shirou could easily tell that Shiki wasn't her brother in blood but who was he to judge by that source of reasoning. He was adopted and he chose his name from a third source. More than once he considered how the being would react to his taking of the name.

He jerked his thoughts back on track. Really if he hadn't taken charge over Satsuki he would have probably offered his services to Akiha in curing her of the influence of her demon blood. He didn't even dare to use Avalon on her as it might not work on something so inherent to her being and an out of control demon with Avalon is not something he wanted to bother with. Unfortunately his time was limited and he would have enough on his hands in future dealing with the vampire. He took a sip from the water bottle by his side infusing prana into the water and watching it travel down his throat and into the cells in his body.

Shirou's eyes widened. "The vampire," he thought. "I forgot to warn Shiki the vampire he killed was still alive." Shirou felt like shit. "Damn I really don't want to go back there it will ruin my cool exit. Plus I really need to meet up with Satsuki and start hunting down the other vampire."

Shirou took a deep breath. "I really need to get a familiar," he thought. "Something that can keep track of all this crap while I do my research." He once again put his hand on his necklace while focusing his prana into it and casting [Poseidon's Eye]. The largest source of power was quite far away and still seemed to be surrounded by buildings. The source that he identified as the exorcist last night appeared to be in the local municipal high school. He identified the Tohno residence behind him as the source of a few signatures. There were only three of those signatures there at the present time however.

He looked for the weakened signature and his eyes widened in shock. "Fuck every single deity," he took off as the signal indicated that it was moving around in daylight.

He ducked past the crowds of students heading for school and headed down the street moving at the peak human condition. Ignoring the strange looks of those who he passed by he quickly found himself in more empty streets and he cast [Poseidon's Eye] again he noticed the source was in a nearby alleyway as well as…Shiki. "What had that kid gotten into himself now?"

Walking slowly towards the mouth of the alleyway careful not to make a sound he heard a conversation going on.

"Asking if you're sorry for killing me, I'm thinking of forgiving you if you are you see, besides I get the feeling that you're a pretty poor liar for a human," a female voice rang out.

Shirou's eyebrows rose significantly. That, that was not what he was expecting to hear. The lady whoever she was seemed very reasonable for a dead apostle ancestor. Shirou entertained the thought that she might be a powerful human magus. His musing was cut off by a surprised question and the woman clarifying that she would be fine with an apology.

Definitely not an ancestor then. Sumire had told him that the two other female ancestors were Rita-Rozay a friend of hers, who was normally quite a bitch occasionally and Altrouge Brunestud who never went anywhere without her white dog, a being that Shirou was most certain he would have sensed.

"Hey you have to give an answer when people ask you seriously, you know. Come on hurry up and answer." Once again Shirou was struck by how childish she sounded.

When Shiki stated that he was sorry for killing her and the lady replied that he wasn't a bad person. Shirou couldn't help it any longer he let out a low chuckle.

"Who's there," sounded out the female voice from the alley. "Show yourself."

Shirou got himself under control and the stepped into the alley noting that Shiki was lying against the wall and that the woman who stood between them had blond hair and red eyes. "So she must be a vampire then. I've confirmed she also has advanced senses. Rita's hair is red according to Sumire, so my best guess is…"

"Altrouge Brunestud," Shirou said inquiring as to whether his guess on the identity of the being before him was correct.

"Ehhhh," she replied. "No I'm Arcueid," at this she looked stern. "Don't mix me up with her."

At this Shirou blanked. "Arcueid Brunestud," he repeated. "This boy randomly attacked Arcueid Brunestud." Shirou began to snicker, then chuckle then it evolved into full-blown laughter.

"Don't laugh at me," the vampire said, and Shirou was instantly on guard again. "It really hurt," she stomped her foot.

"I wasn't really laughing at you," Shirou defended himself. "It's kind of like if some random muggers attacked Zelretch. I was laughing at Shiki's incredibly poor luck."

At this the now identified true ancestor grew contemplative. "I suppose that would be kind of funny," she said. "But it's not funny when it hurts," she said using childish logic. "He cut me into seventeen pieces. I had to spend the whole night recreating my body, the pain was huge and I lost so much energy."

"So how were you planning to get recompense," Shirou questioned. "It's not normally in the nature of vampires dead apostle or true to be merciful.

"I'm going to use him as my shield," Arcueid replied mentioning something horrible in her chipper voice. "That way I can recover my energy and hunt down the vampires in the town."

Shirou looked at Shiki again. Even though he was older than him the guy looked overwhelmed. As he thought about it he realised that he didn't want that to happen. Whatever power the kid displayed, and he would get an answer soon enough the boy's feelings be damned, his body revealed that he had the physical power of a normal human. No mystic eyes in the world will help you if your opponent can kill you faster than you can look at him. He would most likely die if he had to face the vampire. In addition his death might be the catalyst to tip his sister over the edge. Shirou shivered, he hadn't scanned Akiha but he had a feeling that her inversion would be particularly brutal.

In addition the opportunity to observe the power of the White Princess was too great to simply be passed over. Shirou sighed dramatically.

"Shiki go to school." Shirou said. "Arcueid I'll help you with recover and protect you while that's going on."

Arcueid opened her mouth as if to argue but Shirou cut her off. "He's not a part of the moonlight world," he started. "While he does have some neat eyes," Shirou continued ignoring Shiki's shock, "that won't protect him against whatever the hell you're hunting."

Shirou placed his hands in his pockets. "I possess an artefact that should be able to heal you and my skills as a magus would be enough to protect against the dead and see off most dead apostles." At seeing Arcueid's belligerent look Shirou said. "Look the only options are either I defend you from whichever forces you are trying to hunt down that may decide to jump on you in a moment of weakness or you face me down and lose everything."

Arcueids eyes flashed gold and Shirou sighed, "Really mystic eyes of enchantment, those are like the toy that comes with the cereal box that is being a true ancestor. Nobody even moderately powerful would ever have a problem with those."

Arcueid immaturely crossed her arms. "No I want him to make it up to me for stabbing me. If you do it then it ruins the whole point."

"So ask him to take you to a movie later, right now I don't want him anywhere near a vampire and quite frankly I don't see why you would want to be protected by somebody who almost killed you," Shirou said rapidly losing his temper.

He suddenly paused as Shiki turned to look at something behind his back. A black bird sat across the street examining the feuding pair.

"Oh no," Arcueid said her demeanour changing to become something incomparable to the childish cheerful vampire that was arguing with Shirou just a moment ago. "He found us."

"Not a friend of yours I'm guessing," Shirou replied, "does this bird's master have a name."

"Nrvnqsr Chaos," Arcueid replied, "the tenth Dead Apostle Ancestor."

"Fuck," Shirou replied, "correct me if I'm wrong that's the one that wanders around destroying shit with his familiars." He raised his hand and a beam of water shot out of his palm lightning fast destroying the black crow. He noted that the remnants of the crow appeared to dissolve and flow away.

A black dog appeared in the alleyway and in an instant a sharp lance of water pierced his head causing instant death. Again Shirou noted that the remains appeared to drift off. He quickly stepped forward and grabbed a handful of the stuff. Taking the water bottle strapped to his belt and emptying it out he ignored the attempts of the black goo to escape and instead scooped it into the bottle.

"Shiki forget school," Shirou said. "Go home and tell Akiha that an ancestor is in town." He turned towards the True Ancestor. "Arcueid we are going to go to my hotel room and get you healed up. Then we're going to come up with a plan to fight this guy who's clearly gunning for you. What are you waiting for move," Shirou yelled.

At this he took off moving towards his hotel room at high speed. Arcueid hesitated for a moment before taking off after him easily matching his speed.

"Okay Arcueid," Shirou begun. "I have a fledgling Dead Apostle in my hotel room that managed to skip the dead and ghoul stage and became a full-fledged vampire after only one day."

"Wow," said Arcueid, "she must have very high magic potential," she narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "but what are you doing with her."

"Trying to turn her back to human," Shirou admitted. "I figure all the other magus are all trying to turn people into vampires, so I might as well try the other way around," he joked.

Arcueid just stare at him for a few seconds.

"Anyway," Shirou continued, "I was hoping you would just ignore her presence." He rubbed his head. "I haven't had time to begin my experiment so right now she is restrained by only a small bounded field around her."

"That's pretty impressive magecraft for one so young." Arcueid scrutinized the magician. "Who exactly are you."

"I'm Shirou Inke," Shirou replied, "and I would be glad to answer your questions once we are inside the damn hotel."

They entered the lobby and quickly took the elevator to the fourth floor where Shirou's room resided. Entering both took in the sight of the young vampire Satsuki watching what appeared to be a magical girls show while relaxing on the bed unaware of their entrance. Shirou took note that the bounded field that he had placed to restrain Satsuki had been drained.

"Hello again Satsuki," Shirou said.

"Eep," said Satsuki and she nearly fell off the bed. "I wasn't, I mean the restraints faded, I didn't mean to." She once again looked panic and Shirou sighed for what felt like the tenth time today. He regretted being so firm with Satsuki initially but often when he got into serious situations he got hyperfocused and he was told he could be quite scary.

"It doesn't matter Satsuki," he smiled which did little to dissipate the poor girl's nervous energy. "This is Arcueid. She's healing up here and then we're going to take on an evil vampire."

Shirou suddenly hit his fist into the palm of his hand. "Now that I think about it this is no place for you." I'm sorry but I'm going to have to wait a little longer before I get started on a cure. I have already hypnotized your parents. They believe you have fallen sick and been transferred to Tokyo to undergo treatment. They also believe there is a very good chance of your survival and so do I. For the time being I cannot have you here and thus I have to have you take refuge with a friend of mine."

Shirou suddenly looked thoughtful. "Arcueid what's your opinion on the ancestors."

Arcueid looked confused for a moment, "Shirou it's my job to hunt and kill dead apostles. I don't have a very good relationship with them."

"Not even your biggest fan Merem Solomon," Shirou replied.

"How do you know about that?" Arcueid asked her eyes once again narrowed. "That's not exactly something that is broadcasted around the world."

"I have a friend who's a Dead Apostle Ancestor," Shirou replied to Arcueid's question. "She's the only person who I know at the moment who can take in Satsuki and prevent her from rampaging."

Ignoring Satsuki's denials that she would ever rampage, Arcueid adopted a thinking pose.

"Rita Rozay-en," Arcueid said, "that's who it is."

"No, it's Sumire," Shirou shut her down instantly. "In fact can you do me a favour, just stand over there and look scary."

At this Shirou pulled out a phone and had a mumbled conversation into it. "Okay," he said when he had finished. "She should be here in a few seconds."

At that very moment the aforementioned Sumire appeared in the room wearing her bikini and promptly saw Arcueid who was acting intimidating with a glare that honestly made Shirou feel a bit uncomfortable. She promptly tripped over her own two feet, fell backwards and dropped her liquor.

Shirou's subsequently burst out laughing and a moment later when Sumire realized she had been pranked she joined him in laughing up a storm.

After they calmed down Shirou then asked a serious question. "Sumire can you tell me everything you know about Nrvnqsr Chaos?"

Sumire sucked in air through her teeth, "Dammit Shirou I didn't want you to fight him. Nrvnqsr's a monster. Only the fact that he operates on a relatively small scale and his goals are incredibly long term puts him at number ten."

Sumire gritted her teeth looking frustrated. "Okay, I'll tell you what I know. He's a composite being. His body is made out of a huge number of familiars. There is a reason why the church calls him triple six you know. He's almost invulnerable, I don't know how you could beat him; if I was fighting him underwater I would drag him down to the depths and bury him there. Water and sunlight will serve to weaken him. But his body appears to be some kind of reality marble like Einnashe. You may have to absolutely destroy him to keep him from coming back. The only other weakness I can think of is that he would require a large amount of energy to sustain his existence."

Sumire shrugged her shoulders, "besides that I've got nothing. Was there anything else you wanted me to do before you embark on this foolish quest which I will not waste breath in dissuading you from."

"Yes actually," Shirou replied actually wincing from her words, which contained a truth that he couldn't deny. "Meet Satsuki she is a one day old vampire. I was going to try to turn her human again but then this shit dropped into my lap. I would be very appreciative if you could take her off my hands for the moment."

"Hello," Satsuki said nervously unknowingly triggering Sumire's big sister tendencies.

"Oh she's so cute," said Sumire rushing forward grasping her hands as usual ignoring the boundaries of proprietary. "From now on you're going to call me nee-san," she said. "I'll gladly take her off your hands for now. But Shirou," Sastsuki said while looking at him with utter seriousness. "You need to come and take her back. Put this upstart in the ground and then retrieve her. I don't want to lose a little brother." She grabbed hold of Satsuki and in an instant they were gone.

"She's quite lively," Arcueid said. "I don't think I would ever have to hunt her down. She doesn't hunt humans does she?"

"Nope," Shirou replied idly pondering Sumire's words. "She's on a strict seafood diet."

"I wonder if I should start a seafood diet," Arcueid said. "But Shirou do you have a plan to take him down, I don't think that at my full power I would be able to win and I'm weaker now."

"Oh I forgot," Shirou said smacking his forehead. He reached down to his chest and started to pull out something. Arcueid's eyes went wide as she beheld the object in front of her. It appeared to be a scabbard but nobody could ever confuse it with an ordinary scabbard. It glowed golden and produced an aura of safety, defence and tranquillity. Shirou pulled the scabbard and pushed it forward into Arcueid's chest.

"What?" Arcueid began and ended the sentence no more needed being said.

"The scabbard of King Arthur and now mine. Complete healing and limited immortality for whoever holds it. Rest now and let it go to work I have to go make preparations.

"You're not an ordinary magus are you," Arcueid called out to him as he reached the door.

"No, I'm not, and to answer your earlier question. Yes I do have a plan to destroy him. If all goes well tomorrow will be the last day he has upon this earth." Shirou exited the room grabbing a bottle as he went out.

Author Note. Wow a lot of fics I like updated today. Must be Christmas. Next chapter is the big showdown with Nrvnqsr Chaos and there are no mystic eyes of death perception to help out. Shirou punted Shiki to the far side of the moon where absolutely nothing bad will happen and everything will go fine. This chapter wasn't my favorite as it came close to canon a bit but I suppose this much is unavoidable.

Darkjaden This got me I generally wasn't sure. But after much rereading of the wiki and discussion forums I came to this conclusion. Drawing Caliburn stops growth. The possession of Avalon stops aging. Shirou will continue to grow at normal rate so far.

The Rupture A fan of From Fake Dreams I see. I don't believe that Altrouge was ever mentioned as the person who gave out the rose prophecy only that it was a female. For all we know maybe Sumire was just to lazy to issue it as usual :). Joking aside Shirou is still hidden. This has caused the rose prophecy to not trigger. None of the ancestors yet know Svelten's dead.

TJG New magicians according to the wiki are often killed by a red shadow. To become a magician in my interpretation three things are needed. A way to Akasha, a way back and a way to hide. Shirou is hidden as a gift by the being that he met in Akasha. It is wearing off.

Sorry but I cannot confirm or deny that is the way the story is going.

Rangle He will likely not advertise it.