Shirou wasted no time in rushing to the Ruler class servant. He immediately started to examine his wounds but the servant shook him off. A burst of prana and Shirou saw a command seal on his exposed skin disappear and he seemed to get better momentarily. He made to speak but no words came out.
"Len," Shirou called out and a few seconds later his feline companion was at his side. "Can you enter his mind?" The cat didn't say anything but as the ruler servant collapsed to his knees Shirou's familiar went very still as she fought to access the conscious mind drawing extra prana from her master as she did so. One final spark of prana burst out and the servant lifted the briefcase before giving Shirou one last look in the eyes as he shimmered out leaving the dead body of an entirely different person behind.
Shirou breathed in deeply at the sight in front of him. "A pseudo servant," he remarked with wonder despite the horror of the situation. "I didn't think that it was possible." Shirou's surprise was well merited. He had long wondered if it would be possible for a heroic spirit to possess a human but he had long ago discarded the idea as impracticable due to the relative fragility of modern era humans. Now that he saw that unlikely sight in front of him a portion of his mind was wondering how it had been pulled off.
"Nine," Shirou said and a moment later his servant appeared before him. "Do you recognize this man?"
Nine studied the dead body before nodding his head once. "He was a local police officer who went missing about a week ago," Nine said. "His family was quite distraught."
Shirou swallowed hard. That was not what he wanted to hear. "Find some way of delivering the body to them. Also provide them with enough money for them to live comfortably."
His servant nodded and her picked up the body and carried it inside and off their lawn. A moment later Shirou felt a bunch of taps against his legs and he looked down to see Len knocking her paws against his shins. Lowering himself to scratch her head he silently asked whether she had acquired the memories. His response was a smug tilt of the head from his independent familiar which meant that she did and that she would be expecting fish tonight.
Shirou chuckled and then knelt on the grass moving so that he could stare into the eyes of his familiar. As their foreheads almost touched Shirou conceded his waking mind to her and allowed her to inject various illusions into the image centres of his brain.
A brief moment of time passed before the entire series of events played through his head leaving the magician blinking in surprise. Then after a brief moment of disorientation a chuckle slipped through his lips. He tried to contain it but couldn't as his shoulders shook with mirth. Then like a dam bursting open Shirou clutched his stomach and howled his laughter to the heavens. After a few second his laughter toned down to a chuckle and he took deep breaths of air. He straightened up and took a look at the briefcase that lay in front of him… and collapsed into a storm of snickers that had him on the ground battling to breathe.
In a few minutes Shirou was able to get a hold of himself and he stood up wiping off grass from his father's trenchcoat.
"Are you okay Shirou," the voice of his favourite True Ancestor announced her presence behind him and he turned to look and gave out a grin while shaking off the spasms of humour that inflicted themselves upon his body.
"Yeah Arc I'm fine," he said. "I just got some new information. Not all of it was good but it was deeply satisfying."
"Okay," the White Princess said with the implied question in her voice.
"Mr. Holmes ran into the seventh master on our side," Shirou said. "He determined quite rightly that she should be considered hostile and decided to attack. Unfortunately the Master and Servant combination were too strong a combination and Mr. Holmes escaped with fatal injuries but not before robbing the opposing servant of one of his greatest weapons. "
Shirou lifted the briefcase on the lawn and with a deft hand movement he summoned a trickle of water inserting it into the lock and causing the briefcase to pop open. Arcueid craned her head forward to see what the briefcase contained and was slightly disappointed to see that it contained nothing more than a black and gold bodysuit with annoyingly large pauldrons and what looked to be a red feather boa attached.
"Looking unimpressed Arcueid," Shirou said picking up on her mood. "It does look a bit gaudy but I assure you that it's power more than makes up for its looks." Shirou removed the article from the briefcase and held it aloft. "Behold Kavacha and Kundala, the second strongest conceptual defence I've ever seen."
"What's the strongest," Arcueid asked eying the suit of armour.
"I fought Heracles last night," Shirou said resolving to give her a recap of the situation when he had time. "His conceptual defence was the strongest."
"Was it stronger than Achilles?" Arcueid queried.
"Yes," Shirou responded immediately folding the armour into the briefcase. "Nine," he said to his servant who immediately reappeared next to him. "Triple that money."
"Who was that dead body anyway," Arcueid said. "And how did he even get in here."
"That was the body that was being possessed by servant Ruler," Shirou said sealing the briefcase again.
"Is that even possible… Wait Ruler's dead," Arcueid said. "Who killed him?"
"The seventh master on our side," Shirou said turning around to head back inside with his vampiric friend following him. "He managed to swindle the armour from her servant by disguising himself as a Brahman priest. It is an act that I am genuinely impressed with," Shirou said with a lot of regard in his voice. "Unfortunately he was unable to deal with her two servants. Let's just say there was a Jack in the box that he wasn't expecting to come out."
"I don't get it," Arcueid replied immediately and Shirou spent a few moments trying to rephrase it without spoiling the joke when he saw Arcueid's smile and realised the True Ancestor was just screwing with him.
"Anyway," Shirou said. "The master didn't engage him but Holmes was very wary of her. Worse was for a brief moment I saw her eyes flash red."
"Seems we're getting a lot of that colour recently," Arcueid said eying his own pair. "Red eyes are the sign of phantasmal species. Demons, dragons, vampires, Gods," she finished eying up Shirou. "Red is not a human colour and that means that our seventh master is not human also. But that isn't the only thing that's bothering you."
"Hmm, you've gotten better at reading human emotions Arc," Shirou said deliberately deflecting the question.
"Nope, just yours," she responded. "Now spill."
"It's nothing," Shirou said downplaying his nervousness. "It's just her eyes weren't totally red. It leant towards a fuscia colour."
"You mean pink," Arc said.
"Yes, fuscia is a type of pink," Shirou replied patiently. "And for some reason that shade just," he snapped his fingers in irritation. "I have a feeling I've seen that exact shade before and I don't know where. It's driving me crazy."
"Hmm," Arcueid said as she walked by her side. "Anyway what are you going to do with armour?"
"Nothing. There is absolutely nothing that I can do with it before tonight," Shirou admitted. "Honestly being able to adapt a noble phantasm that is an integrated into a hero's legend and turning it into a 'normal' suit of armour would earn me a sealing designation, the fact that I'm even contemplating right now how I can do it is because it is a conceptual defence and thus falls directly under the capacity of my magic." Shirou halted at the door. "Besides I already have a lot to do today. Are you coming with me Arc?"
"Sure," Arcueid said. "Didn't you invite Rin as well? I haven't spoken to her yet and I always like meeting new people."
Shirou inclined his head. "Yes I did, didn't I? I only had a few things to do before I left." Shirou frowned. "I've left Satsuki alone in my workshop yet somehow I don't feel any compulsion to go back and check one her. That is quite unusual for me."
"Do you know what is wrong," Arcueid asked with a slight note of concern.
"Probably it would be inconvenient for a story if I were to enter too soon," Shirou surmised. "I could overcome it, but I don't think that it would be the most advantageous thing to do. So far Andersons plot has led to a favourable outcome for Satsuki and I don't want to do anything that could endanger her life."
Arcueid nodded sharing his thoughts. Satsuki, while strong was the weakest member of the three of them and both acknowledged that they would go out of their way to protect her.
The two of them stepped into the dining room to see Rin staring wide-eyed at the body lying on the table. Shirou just turned and gave Nine a deadpan look to which his servant responded with a smile. "I'll explain on the way," he said to Rin cutting off the magus before she could even get a word in as he turned around and left the room.
xxx
Five minutes later Rin was nodding her head as Shirou concluded the story of Sherlock's confrontation with the seventh Master. For once Shirou had deliberately chosen not to withhold any information and he had instead shared the entire story. Rin had remained silent throughout the entire retelling but there were noticeable signs of stress by the end of it.
"Fine," she said. "It looks like we're going to be fighting six more dead apostles and their servants as well as this mysterious seventh master. Well we've officially hit rock bottom. The only way is up."
"That's the spirit Rin," Arcueid said. "Starting from tonight we're going to crush the competition. Isn't that right Shiki?"
"That's right Arcueid," her servant said materialising next to her. "I'll be sure to kill at least one tonight."
"Shiki," Rin said ruminating on that name to herself. "Should you be saying that out loud?"
"There is literally no way that a servant or master could sneak up on Shirou and I," Arcueid said. "And besides Shiki's in a different kaleidoscope."
"Gods damn it Arc," Shirou said raising his hand to his face. "I told you that's not how you say it."
"Wait you mean he's from a different parallel earth," Rin spluttered out.
Shirou turned to regard her with a scrutinizing look. "Yeah I met the local version a few years ago," he said. "I must say I didn't expect you to know much about the operation of parallel worlds Rin. I find myself presently surprised."
"Well my ancestor was apprenticed to him," Rin said. "He picked up some things and they've been passed down the family. But I seriously didn't think that the grail could do that."
"Well it was made by the old vampire," Shirou said. "I wouldn't be surprised to even meet my alternate future self."
"Isn't it a bit arrogant to assume that you would make it to the throne of heroes," Rin said eying up the magician next to her.
Shirou shrugged and Rin took the opportunity to ask another question that bothered her. "Do you know the identity of my servant?" she said referring to his ambiguous words to Gawain earlier.
"Some Arthurian knight," Shirou replied half-heartedly. "Honestly his armour and his sword gave that away. "I could probably discern his identity with my magic or make a better educated guess if I cared more."
"You don't care about the identity," Rin said with some surprise at him not attempting to get a leg up.
"We're allies Rin," Shirou said. "Besides knowing everything takes all the fun out of it. But I'll give it a go." Shirou paused for a moment and turned to regard the spot where the servant stood intangibly. "Hmm, not Mordred. Lancelot," Shirou said snapping his fingers and Rin felt a slight tremor of disgust from her servant. "Oh," the magician said somehow picking up on the servant's emotions. "Hello Gawain."
"You really have that whole Sherlock Holmes thing going on," Rin said before wincing at her poorly chosen words.
"Yeah," Shirou replied absentmindedly.
"Which one is Gawain," Arcueid said speaking up and breaking the mood.
"He's not in Monty Python, and Arc I swear to all the gods if you start quoting again I will shoot you," Shirou said causing the last remaining True Ancestor to close her mouth and pout.
"What is Monty Python?" Rin asked.
"Ask me after the war," Shirou replied. "We're here."
His announcement caused the others to abandon the conversation at the sight of the ruined and destroyed church.
"That is not good," Arcueid stated the obvious. "Wonder what happened here."
"Fairly certain the church is not going to stay neutral after this," to the others surprise Shiki spoke up. "Not that they were ever going to let the Ancestors run unchecked but after this they will certainly be bringing out their major players."
"I hope they've survived," Rin said. "What do you think Shirou? Shirou," she repeated looking towards the magician. But he wasn't paying Rin any attention. Instead his hands were clutched into fists and he was gritting his teeth as he stared at the church. "Are you okay Shirou," she said with some concern as she stared at him.
"Just peachy," he replied. "I just sensed somebody who I didn't want to meet."
"That's quite an impolite way to greet your reinforcements," a black haired woman appeared before them. She fixed them with one green and one pitch black eye.
"Fuck you Narbareck," Shirou said startling Rin. "Who did you kill that put you in such a good mood?"
"Didn't manage to finish anybody I'm afraid," the woman said letting out a haughty laugh. "I nearly managed to dismantle a robotic version of Dead Apostle number sixteen."
"Gransurg huh," Shirou contemplated. "How did he escape you?"
"The dawn arrived," Narbareck admitted. "He was strong; his metallic body was both fast durable and could recover just as fast as his original body. In addition his servant was an incredibly powerful mage. I had to go all out in order to fight them both with the help of Merem."
"Where is Merem anyway," Arcueid asked curiously.
"Recovering from his injuries," Narbareck answered. "He will be functional by tonight. We will collaborate with you in winning the war for your side.
"Have you got any way to neutralize the Beast of Gaia," Shirou asked hopefully.
"Can't you just Magic it out of existence," Narbareck said sarcastically. "Unfortunately there is no weapon that the church possesses that can kill that monster."
"You would need a weapon that could damage the very planet to destroy that creature," Shirou said. "Come Arc, Rin we've tarried enough. Narbareck I don't like you but we may need you to win this thing. Take care of yourself."
"If it's any consolation then I've always hated you also," the head of the burial squad said before her eye flash white and she disappeared from their sight.
"Where are we going now," Arcueid said.
"We're going to the swimming pool," Shirou said. "There's a regicide that I have to commit and a device I have to retrieve."
"Have you got any plans on how to beat Gilgamesh," Rin said. "You're not going to insist on fighting him one on one, are you?"
"No," Shirou said as he took off walking. "I don't think that even Arc could beat him solo. I don't have the necessary time to instil proper team tactics in you so Arc and I will take point, Shiki will look for the openings, you stick to range and Saber can flank him." Shirou stopped in his walk and turned to look at them very seriously. "If he takes out a red cylindrical weapon with a gold handle, turn around and run. That includes you Arcueid," Shirou said to the White Princess cutting off her response. "If you approach that weapon you will die."
The seriousness of his tone forestalled conversation for a while and the remaining walk to the indoor pool passed in silence. Despite the time of day the streets were clear of most signs of human life and there was an eerie feel in the air.
"Can you feel it," Arcueid questioned to her compatriots.
"Humans are living in fear," Shirou replied. "They can instinctively sense the danger on the streets and they think by staying inside they will be safe. This is not a nice sight."
Shirou lifted the collar of his trench coat to keep the chill of the air out and when he looked forward again they were standing in front of Exciting Splash. Nostalgia surged through his veins as he remembered the good times that he had there. There had been some days that he had almost lived there. It was also going to be both the first and the last place he saw Gilgamesh. His smile fell at the thought. Maybe he would acquire ownership after the war. If they managed to survive.
With no fragment of his humour remaining Shirou opened the door and stepped into the battlefield.
Author Note: This chapter took me a long time. Work and a general lack of inspiration lead me to create a chapter that in my opinion lacks luster.
In addition I have an idea for a oneshot that I feel like I need to put down before I can write the next chapter. Sorry for that.
LuckyKittens: Yes to all your questions.
SentinalSlice: He does know. The reason is due to the fact that Alaya knows.
Kindly read and review.