Aoka had been having an interesting few days. When she had initially heard from a reliable source that the grail war was starting up again she didn't know what to think. She had lost family as a direct result of the previous war. For what else could the Fuyuki fire be but the work of dangerous magecraft that was undertaken by all magi for the purpose of finding the Root? So she had dithered for a while before she firmly decided to attend the Holy Grail War and blast that cursed cup that had taken her parents and her little brother away. The vampiric presence had been a surprise but not too bad of one.
After all she was the magician of the fifth Aoko Aozaki, the magic gunner, the woman who achieved the highest honour in the mage association despite the terrible name. A couple of minor dead were never going to be a threat to her. Especially with the addition of her new partner in crime, Kiyohime the dragon priestess. The two of them had waded through the legions of the dead as if they were nothing.
She had been utterly prepared for anything except the thing that had actually happened and thus her meeting with her apparently alive baby brother had gone down in the absolutely worst way possible. Upon seeing the face of a supposed imposter also calling himself Shirou Aoko had snapped and she found herself attacking the person who had the nerve to impersonate her dead brother. Except the fight did not go down in the way she expected. It had been a while since Aoko had fought an opponent that strong. Her brother had fought her to a standstill before she finally accepted that he was the real thing.
"Blue," she whispered to herself. She had honestly hated that name. Not only did it sound too similar to both the name of her brand of magic and her title in the mages association but it was the name that Shirou had used so long ago. A child's inability to convey the proper words caused him to shorten her name to Ao when they were both younger and that name stuck. Him addressing her that way was the final nail in the coffin that caused her to accept that her brother was standing in front of her and… well she said things that she honestly wished she hadn't.
Honestly the war had been so hectic that she had not got the chance to properly talk to him yet. At the beginning of the night he had spoken to his servant and announced that he was going to watch over the battle with Sumire. The reasons that he had given were valid but it still annoyed Aoko that the two of them hadn't got a chance to talk and clear the air. But the fact remained that this was still a war for the survival of mankind and they both had their parts to play. Shaking her head to clear the depressing thoughts the fifth magician focused on her surroundings.
Her little brother's servant had gone off on her own saying that she had a score to settle. Since Shirou hadn't phrased an objection it was likely that he believed she was strong enough to survive and thrive on her own. From there on the last True Ancestor and… her servant left on their own crusade.
That had been another knife in her heart. To be told by the White Princess that Shiki, the boy who she had helped so long ago had died. And while saying this she was watched over by another version of Shiki that hadn't. Honestly by the time that revelation had hit her it had been a long week and she just numbly accepted the further pain.
In the end the remaining two master/servant combinations had been her and Rin Tohsaka who, despite being a proficient magus, lacked a lot of combat capability, at least compared to the other masters on their team. Therefore she had decided to team up with the younger girl and sweep the city for any Dead Apostle Ancestors while killing all the regular Dead Apostles they met on the way there. So far the strategy had found a lot of small catches but no truly massive ones. Unfortunately between the two of them they possessed no large scale sensory abilities on the level of Shirou or the True Ancestor therefore all of the Dead Apostle Ancestors had until now evaded them.
This situation suddenly changed as the pair felt a surge of prana from a place a few blocks away. Aoko turned towards the young jewel magus giving her a nod of acknowledgement before she took off down the street with her servant following directly behind her.
xxx
Bazett Fraga McRemitz backed off dodging the grasping hands of the various dead. Swivelling on the balls of her feet she drove her fist forward into the throat of the Dead Apostle crushing the throat of the creature. When she had been instructed to travel to Japan to participate in a ritual competition she had been surprised at the arbitrariness of the request. When she had been told that she would be working with Lorelei Barthomeloi she had been nearly speechless. For once it seemed like her work for the mage association had finally payed off and she was given the recognition that she deserved. However when she had arrived at the site of the Holy Grail War she had been told the brutal truth.
The Aylesbury ritual was being enacted at this location. There were seven Dead Apostles Ancestors participating and they had each summoned seven servants that were likely as powerful as them. Already the Vice-Directors servant had been killed by the Beast of Gaia. The other six Masters that held opposing servants were Magi that were not part of Clocktower and the city was filling up with the Dead every day.
This was basically a suicide mission, but Bazett did not begrudge the leadership of the Clocktower for sending her in. This was an end of the world situation and even as she was being overwhelmed by the legions of the Dead, she kept it in mind that her employer was in the room all alone facing the enemy Dead Apostle Ancestor and the servant that she possessed.
No the enforcer knew she was no match for that pair of fighters. When they had first laid eyes on the Dead Apostle Ancestor the Barthomeloi head had gone straight for the Ancestor cutting through the assortment of powerful Dead Apostles like they were wheat before the scythe. Her elite group also proved their mettle by following their leaders wake and attacking the collective Dead Apostles that clustered around the Ancestor. She had been unused to working with the group and had deliberately hung back to observe the method of attacking and that was the only thing that saved her from their fate. In less than a second a single arrow tore through the group wiping out almost all of the Chelon Canticle Brigade and leaving the remaining survivors injured and easy pickings for the Dead Apostles. The vampires had then turned their focus upon her and for the last few minutes the enforcer had found herself trying to hold off the waves of Dead Apostles fortified by the power of the full moon. Even Fragarach couldn't help as Dead Apostles possessed the ability to render Noble Phantasms held by human's hands to worthlessness.
Redirecting a crushing blow she stepped backwards when her foot hit a slippery spot in the road that was wet with the blood of the dead and the Dead. Falling she stabilised her position but it was too late as claws ripped through her shoulder disabling one of her arms. A powerful kick from one of the other Dead Apostles was enough to cause her ribcage to buckle and her to collapse to the floor. Keeping a cool head she managed to partially dodge the follow-up blow but it still took a chunk out of her shoulder. Swivelling away from the collective Apostles she turned and ran. It was no longer a fight she could win. Activating the runes on her shoes she surpassed human speed and headed away from the impossible battle.
However Dead Apostles habitually surpassed human speed and the vampiric horde was constantly on her tail as she ran through the Fuyuki streets. Suddenly a whirring noise passed by her ear and she felt a great amount of heat at her back. Not stopping she continued running until she found herself forcibly yet gently gripped by strong hands. She prepared to struggle but a polite masculine voice stopped her. Looking forward at her captor she noticed it was a young blonde man wearing a suit of armour. The magical energy that he was radiating was incredible and Bazett swiftly realized that the man in front of her was a servant.
"Relax," the servant said. "You are going to be okay."
Bazett opened her mouth to inform him about the Dead Apostles when she realised that they should have reached her by now. Turning her head back she saw an instantly realisable person as well as a street full of decaying Dead Apostles slowly turning to ash. The unique red hair combined with Japanese features as well as the utterly wrecked status of the street led the enforcer to the conclusion that she had just come into contact with the legendary Fifth Magician. A trickle of sweat ran down her forehead at the thought of being so close to the volatile Magician.
"Are there any others," another voice popped up from beside her and she became aware of a young Japanese girl with black twintails and blue eyes and wearing red shirt. "Did any more of you survive?"
"The Queen," Bazett said her voice unsteady but becoming clearer. "She was fighting the Ancestor. All the others didn't survive."
The young girl winced but firmly nodded her head. "Saber follow Aoko and Berserker and assist the queen. I'll heal her and then join you."
Saber, who must have been the man that was holding Bazett nodded and gently set the Irishwoman down before dashing out of her field of view. The younger girl immediately set to treating her wounds, pulling out a gem and forcing magical energy into her injured arms. The magic was effective as only a few moments later Bazett began to feel the pain in her arms begin to fade. Blinking at the highly effective healing done by the young woman Bazett flexed her muscles feeling that the damage had vastly decreased.
"I'm going," the young girl said. "Your muscles are mostly healed. Are you going to follow me?"
Bazett contemplated this for a moment. The two opponents were out of her league but she may still be able to provide support for the combatants. With two servants and the fifth Magician on their side they should hold the advantage. She nodded to the younger girl and took off after her as she ran through the damaged streets passing her fairly quickly despite her wounds. They heard the battle before they saw it as beams of light flashed through the darkened streets and gouts of flames flickered through the night sky. Rushing to the sight of the battle she turned a corner and came to a dead stop.
The first thing that she noticed was the Apostle Ancestor who stood engaging in battle against the Fifth Magician. The ancestor had white hair and took the appearance of a forty year old powerfully built man. He wore elegant and old-fashioned clothes that were ripped and torn into shreds and sweat coated his brow. Occasionally a bolt of light from the Aozaki head would impact his body tearing into it before he would swiftly regenerate. On the other end the Fifth Magician was keeping her distance from the Ancestor moving backwards, her arms were covered in runes while countless Magical bullets fired from her hands.
On the other side Bazett felt her jaw drop as she saw the form of a giant serpent like creature. Facing the creature was a large heavily-muscled and bronze-skinned man, draped with the dusky pelt of some creature that was holding an equally gigantic bow. Countless arrows rained down on the creature from his bow and the creature dodged and swerved to avoid the arrows. Of those few that impacted on the scales of the dragon only a few managed to pierce them and the constant gouts of flame launched at the man from the jaws of the dragon forced him to retreat from the dragon's range. Idly Bazett noticed that the Saber class servant had moved to help with the bronze-skinned man but her immediate attention was taken up by something else.
Lying with a hole through her chest lay the broken body of Lorelei Barthomeloi. Her swordcane was snapped in two and her right arm was severed from the elbow down. Her eyes stared blankly into the night sky and glittered with no sparks of life. At this point it went without saying that the Queen was dead.
xxx
Aoko was having a hard time dealing with her opponent. From the start she had identified him as Trhvmn Ortenrosse, the White Wing Lord. Aoko had heard rumours of him before. Associates had stated that despite leading a huge number of Dead Apostles he himself used no magecraft or special techniques. That was probably why his rank in the Ancestors was so low despite his age and the reverence shown to him by the other Dead Apostle Ancestors. Aoko finally understood where that reverence had come from.
She initially had tried to engage him at melee range by launching a crushing blow into his ribs. That had made him stumble a bit but the retaliating blow had nearly caused her spine to crack. Since then she had tried to keep her distance from the powerfully built Ancestor sending vast amounts of magic bullets to drill through his skin and damage his internal organs and force him to use his curse of restoration to heal. She was not always successful and multiple times she was forced to cloak herself in other copies of herself to mitigate the damage from every overwhelming blow. She hadn't even had time to help out her servant. She had instructed her at the beginning to hold nothing back and come out alive and she was unsurprised to see her transform into the shape of a Japanese dragon that spat fire at the bronze-skinned man.
Aoko focused on her own fight and sent punches forwards through time to strike the White Wing Lord breaking his own concentration. As a follow-up she summoned numerous future and past selves for under a second to unleash blasts of huge destructive energy at the unbalanced Ancestor. The dust cloud cleared revealing a pair of expensive yet old fashioned shoes. As the Fifth Magician watched time reversed and a spotless version of the Trhvmn Ortenrosse stood there with not even a smudge upon his suit. Aoko braced herself for a follow-up attack but to her surprise the Dead Apostle Ancestor stood there and clapped his hands.
"Impressive," the White Wing Lord said. "It is always a pleasure behold a new magician in action." He shook his head sadly. "If only you were a bit older and more experienced I would most likely lose this fight."
"You're very confident for somebody who is losing this fight," Aoko said keeping her eyes trained upon him.
"Ah, but that is where you wrong Miss. Blue," he said ignoring the Aozaki head's sudden frown. "The full moon is high in the sky and you have nowhere near the power of any of the other Magicians I have ever met. Why even the Kaleidoscope as diminished as he is these days is strong enough that only the first and fifth of our number would stand a chance against him. I'm sorry my dear," he said. "But this fight isn't remotely in your favour." He stretched out his limbs. "Your martial arts are certainly refreshing and unexpected for one who has been trained as a magus but it is still a weak and immature style. He unbuttoned his expensive black coat and let the material drop to the floor. Taking a stance that left his knees slightly braced and his arms held in front of his torso he gestured for the Aoko to attack him.
Aoko didn't take the bait instead choosing to continue her current strategy of bombarding him from range. This strategy rapidly lost effectiveness as in the next second she felt knuckles dig into her stomach. Gasping for breath Aoko kicked towards the White Wing Lord but the Dead Apostle Ancestor caught her blow with one hand and threw her across the street. Aoko blinked out of the time axis appearing three seconds after the blow that would have torn her in two and launched a kick against Trhvmn that he rolled with and then struck her from her blind spot causing her to go crashing into the street below. Aoko cloaked herself in other versions of herself from different times and she felt hundreds of them die beneath the punch that the Dead Apostle Ancestor levelled at her. She unleashed a blast hail of magic bullets at point blank range that would have obliterated a city block but the seventeenth Dead Apostle Ancestor caught them in his hands and crushed each of them.
Suddenly he stumbled and a second later a kick to the head from the wounded mage that she had met earlier caused him to take a step back. Aoko jumped to her feet in time to see black globes of energy be taken apart by the White Wing Lord. The next instant he caught a gem that exploded into an almighty conflagration in his hand.
Aoko circled the inferno and stood next to Rin and the other magus watching as the flames died down to reveal the pristine form of Trhvmn Ortenrosse.
"That was a decent kick," the Dead Apostle Ancestor said. "Perfectly timed at the moment I was distracted, but it lacked any sort of follow-up and that is not the kind of performance that you can get away with at this level." Shaking his head he adopted a stance again before he grimaced and glanced to the side.
Keeping one eye on him Aoko turned to see the triumphant form of her servant as the bronze-Skinned man was burnt to ash. The Kiyohime dragon immediately turned towards Trhvmn Ortenrosse and started to slither towards the battle but she was stopped by an explosion of prana. From the flames the muscular man emerged and despite having been burned to ashes his skin looked pristine.
"One down," Ortenrosse said dispassionately. "That's a bit impressive. You should finish her now."
The dragon snorted and turned towards the man unleashing another jet of flame, but this time the man weathered the flames and a single bolt pierced the roof of Kiyohime's mouth. The dragon screamed in agony and Aoko watched in horror as she began to thrash around in pain.
For the first time they heard the Archer speak. "Nine-lives: Shooting the hundred heads," he said and from his bow nine bolts of light fired completely obliterating the suffering dragon. The next instant countless bullets of energy streamed from the hands of Aoko Aozaki but they were shrugged off by the opposing servant.
"She fought well," the man said. "There are many other servants that she would have beaten."
"It is a bit of a shame," Ortenrosse remarked. "I have not seen or fought a dragon in millennia. I almost wish she didn't have to die."
"You bastards," Aoko said her voice full of visible rage. A blue tornado started to swirl around her and the look of calm dropped from Trhvmn's face immediately.
"Stop her she is using magic," he said to his servant and in the next second three arrows were launched at the magician. She managed to dodge two of them but one sliced into her shoulder. Immediately the tornado disappeared and Aoko fell on the floor convulsing the massive pain in her shoulder causing her to fall into painful blackness.
xxx
Rin despite being calm on the outside was panicking internally. While she could still feel Gawain the link with her servant informed her that he was in pain and currently dematerialised. Within the span of just a few seconds the enemy Archer had managed to take down both the Fifth Magician leaving just her and the executor to face the combined force of the pair of monsters. Cursing the war again and readying her supply of jewels Rin steeled herself and prepared to do as much damage as possible before the end.
Suddenly Aoko went still flopping back limply onto the road. Rin glanced towards her but in the dark of night she couldn't make out her breathing.
"That venom works fast," Ortenrosse remarked. "What an unsightly end for a magician." Suddenly he stilled and focused his eyes on the blood dripping from the wound. "What is that?" he said curiously and in the next second he got his answer as greenish black blood spiked into the air flying towards him at blinding speeds. Even unprepared he managed to dodge it. But he was unprepared for the fluid to reverse and pierce his back. Instantly he fell to one knee, his face contorting in silent agony.
"This doesn't look good," a familiar masculine voice sounded out in the night although the voice was more strained than usual.
"Poor Kiyohime," a familiar female voice responded. "At least you saved Aoko," Satsuki said her voice increasing in volume as she suddenly teleported in front of the two magi.
"Hopefully," Shirou said as he also appeared in front of Rin and the executor. "I got it out but that is an incredibly nasty substance." He shook his head. "Executor, take my sister away to this address," he said tossing a piece of paper to the magneta-haired magus.
"Your timing was quite good," the voice of Dead Apostle Ancestor no.17 rang out and to Rin's horror he had stood up from his kneeling position. While there was a tremor of pain in his voice he showed none of it in his posture.
"This guy does look quite tough," Satsuki said. "Can I take him on Shirou," she said addressing the magician.
"Probably," Shirou replied. "He looked quite tough but if you stick to your training you should do fine. Use your soup to control the battlefield."
Satsuki nodded and headed towards the White Wing Lord. Launching herself forward she drove a punch into his side which he blocked with his arm and then kicked towards one of his legs staggering him. Satsuki moved forward and traded punches with the elderly apostle. An arrow approached Satsuki's back but it was blocked by a wall of ice. When the arrow collided with the wall an explosion tore apart half of the street but the ice remained intact. Shirou turned towards the muscled man.
"Heracles," he said to the other servant causing the muscled man to raise an eyebrow. "How about a wager?"
At this the servant laughed. "You are proposing a wager in the middle of a fight. Go on boy, continued amusing me."
"The terms of my wager are simple," Shirou said. "They're also in your favour. We both know that Hydra venom is no joke and my colleague is easily on the level of a servant. If you fight me here then I will draw out the fight and my colleague will kill your master. On the other hand if I fight too long I might make a mistake as I'm pretty exhausted and end up dead. I don't really want to go to the Underworld, Heracles," Shirou said smiling. "What I propose is simple we both perform our strongest attacks and the person who survives gets to go on with their life. The person who doesn't survive gets to get on with their afterlife. How is that for a deal?"
"It is a rather intriguing compromise," Heracles concluded. "How should this test of be initiated? Should we attack at the same cue or take turns."
"How about?" Shirou put his hand to his mouth. "One person starts and if he doesn't pass then the next would go. If we both go at the same time there could be accusations of cheating or the results could be inconclusive or our attacks could interfere with each other."
"This entire time you have been trying to manipulate me in order to get in a free hit," the large servant said.
"Well can you blame me," Shirou said smiling. "You are Heracles, the greatest of the Greek heroes."
The servant looked to be reluctantly contemplating the situation before he nodded his head once. "That is true," he said. "I will agree to your contest. But how will I know that you will honour your part of the deal."
"I swear upon the life of my mother that I will follow the rules agreed upon in this contest," Shirou said with determination in his eyes.
The servant nodded satisfied, "Then come take your best shot at me," he said raising his arms in the air.
"Shirou you can't do this," Rin said. "He's…" she started to say but she was stopped by Shirou putting his finger to her lips. "Relax Rin," he said and whispered a few words into her ear.
"Very well," Shirou said. "Here I come, Heracles." Shirou took off running water swirling chaotically around his fist. Just looking at it Rin could tell by the amount of prana that the attack was B-rank at least. Heracles just stood there with his arms open wide as the attack came closer and closer. Rin watched in anticipation for the attack to hit and then at the very last moment, right before the attack landed against the Greek Demigod, Shirou stopped it and placed his hand on Heracles' chest.
"[Conceptual Nullification]," he said his voice thrumming with energy. There was a backlash that sent Rin's teeth rattling and the entire world seemed to screech to a halt for a moment before the Greek Demigod physically recoiled.
"What did you do?" Heracles said his deep voice resounding with anger, uncertainty and a bit of worry.
"I destroyed that special set of armour you had. I'm afraid conceptual weapons are quite weak against me," Shirou said and his smile took on a wicked tint. "You thought you could put one over me, I just turned the tables on you."
"Are you going to honour your word," the Greek demigod said.
"Nope," Shirou said immediately.
"Even after swearing on your mother's life," Heracles pressed.
"She is dead, dipshit," Shirou said his voice full of scorn. "And you just shot my sister," he spat teleporting away as Heracles drew his bow upon him. Heracles turned towards the spot on the grass where Shirou now sat nocking his bow in one immediate action… and was immediately engulfed in a humongous blast of magical energy. Rin drew more and more of her A-rank gems out blasting the demigod to pieces.
After the seventh one was empty she stopped and stared at the crater where the enemy Archer once stood. Taking deep breaths she noticed that neither the executor nor Aoko were there. She surmised that she had probably followed the directions Shirou gave when she wasn't paying attention. She also noticed that Shirou really did not look good. Minor shakes wracked his body and there was a dazed look in his eyes that didn't speak of anything good.
"Are you okay," she said concerned.
"Yeah," Shirou said. "It's been a long, long, long, long, long… night for me." He tried to get up but he stumbled a bit and fell back down. "I need to call a taxi, can't drink and drive."
Rin sighed and walked over to Shirou picking him up and holding him so that most of his weight fell on her. Suddenly the ice wall that separated Satsuki and Trhvmn's fight from the rest of them splintered and cracked and both of their heads whipped towards the icy structure. Well Rin's did, Shirou tried to but pain and general disorientation prevented him from rotating his head.
Satsuki stepped out of the icy structure and Rin was relieved to see that the streets were empty of anybody else.
"Did you kill him," Rin asked hopefully.
"Yeah," Satsuki said but she sounded unsatisfied. "That Hydra Venom really screwed him up. It's actually aggravating me quite badly. He was so strong and his moves were amazing. I regularly fight with people who have amazing skills and he made them look like amateurs. I don't even know what Martial Art he used. I don't think there is a modern day equivalent." Satsuki sighed. "Sorry Shirou but in a way I'm glad that you don't know how to use Hydra Venom. It would make plenty of fights unsatisfying."
"The venom's faded away now anyway," Shirou said lucidly still not looking at Satsuki. "When Heracles died all of his tools faded with him I'm afraid. Not to mention it's a phant, a phantasmal beast's body part I'm not sure how to do the thing," Shirou said his voice becoming noticeably more slurred.
"And that is us for the evening," Satsuki said. She walked up to the other side of Shirou and held him. "Our Magician is effectively gone loopy and our magus has just spent about a million yen of jewels," she said causing Rin to go white as a sheet as she contemplated the monetary cost of her excursion tonight."
"I have got two beautiful women on my shoulder and I'm not going to sleep with any of them," Shirou said causing Rin's colour to change from ghost to bright red and Satsuki to raise an eyebrow. "Ishtar and Arcueid keep me so tired," he said in a voice that sounded like plaintive whining. "You have no idea what it's like Arcueid is enthusiastic but Ishtar," Shirou winced. "Ishtar is methodical."
"It is going to be a long walk back," Rin thought in the confines of her head.
Author Note: I found that I really, really like silly or fun characters that can become serious when necessary. I've done this with Shirou, Sumire and even Arcueid.
Poor Kiyohime. A lot of Heracles tasks were actually completed by him being smart or tricking his enemy. In this case Shirou did it to him. Sorry Herc but God Hand is possibly the most brokenly powerful CONCEPTUAL defense in all of Fate Stay Night. Rin actually took one life from Heracles in canon just like she did in this chapter.
snowyassass1n: Hmm it is actually quite possible
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