It was a dishevelled and injured group that entered Shirou's living room. Of the five that had set out to battle only Rin had remained unharmed. Shirou sat down at the head of the table placing his chin upon his still metallic right hand and watched as the rest of them followed him in sitting down wearily at the table.
Arcueid sat down next to him and slung one of her handless arms over his shoulder. EA was a tool that disrupted the natural flow of the world and thus beings that relied on the world's power to heal themselves such as True Ancestors and Dead Apostles would find themselves out of luck. Arcueid however was a certified monster who could recreate her body from nothingness and therefore it was only time that stood in the way of her becoming in one piece again.
The two servants looked worse for wear as well. Gawain's armour had a massive dent in the middle to the extent that Shirou believed if he wasn't a servant he would have also suffered from suffocation.
Shiki despite being run through his chest by the sword was relatively okay with no obvious injuries to show for the excursion. By his side he held the Sword of Rupture that remained content to sleep within his grasp. Shirou's injury at the hands of EA had caused a minor commotion among the remainder of the group with many people clamouring to not be the one to carry it. Eventually Arcueid had gotten tired of the other three playing a game of not it and proceeded to pick it up in her mouth. Shirou had never been more tempted to shoot the reckless ancestor but Arcueid's foolhardy actions confirmed his hypothesis that the device held a deep hatred for him and him alone. In the end Shiki was forced to take it home due to Gawain being too consipicous, Rin being too fragile, Arcueid being too handless and it really not liking Shirou.
"Can we use it to defeat Primate Murder?" Arcueid asked with a trace of hope in her voice. That bit of hope unfortunately just made Shirou's next words much harsher.
"No," he said reluctantly but with no trace of doubt. "While it certainly has the power to do so, nobody here has the qualifications necessary to use it, namely being Gilgamesh. I could probably get around that restriction," he lied about the reason. "But it apparently it does not like me which impedes me from working on it."
"Is it any wonder it wouldn't like you," the voice of his servant announced her presence as she boldly strode into the room followed closely behind Satsuki who walked behind her.
"What do you mean?" Rin asked sharply pondering the implications that Shirou's servant knew more about the weapon than he himself did.
"EA is not a Noble Phantasm," Ishtar stated denying the possibility outright. "No," she continued striding towards the sword and running her wide eyes over its frame. "This, this is an authority."
The room went quiet at that as the grand sounding pronouncement failed to make sense to the vast majority of the room.
"Ishtar enough," Shirou said his voice tired.
"Inke," Ishtar said putting entire books worth of unsaid words in his name. "I had a talk with Nine while you were away with your Gilgamesh business. He informed me about the demise of Sherlock Holmes as well as the fact that the seventh master is possibly not human."
"Okay," Shirou said nodding his head. "And this changes things how?"
"It changes thinks because I've only ever seen Rose-coloured eyes in one place before," his servant said placing emphasis on her words.
"You know who it is," Shirou exclaimed with a voice full of intrigue. "And the colour is fuchsia."
"Len showed me," Ishtar said taking a deep breath and choosing not to debate the precise shade. "Inke the colour of her eyes; I've only ever seen that colour on the Mother of Dragons."
A crash and half the table physically recoiled as Shirou's fist was driven through the wooden surface. He opened his mouth to reply immediately and then closed it in deep thought. Then he made as if to speak again before returning to his silence. It was unlike Shirou to lose control over his actions or act in haste and the rest of the table watched in dumbstruck silence at his uncharacteristic behaviour.
"It is possible," he admitted with extreme reluctance. "It would require a very specific set of irreplicable circumstances but all gods damn it its possible."
"What are you talking about?" Satsuki interrupted as she took a seat at the now shattered table. "I've stood next to a stressed out Rider for the past half an hour and I'd really like to know why."
Shirou opened his mouth to speak and then hesitated. He needed to tell them, he knew this. However the revelation would change how they saw him and Shirou honestly didn't want that. He was happy with the relationships he had and yet there was only one choice, one way to proceed.
"The seventh master is somehow being possessed by Tiamat," he said startling the collective room and earning an appreciative look from his servant. "She was an immensely powerful primordial Mesopotamian deity and one of the two oldest of the gods. She is utterly hostile to all the creatures of the earth and will stop at nothing to see their destruction."
"How do you know this," Satsuki interrupted eying up Shirou as he spoke. While the majority of them seemed stunned by his statement she seemed to accept it easily enough which Shirou took as a sign of her new maturity and capability.
"I know because over six thousand years ago I killed her husband," Shirou said dramatically.
Shirou waited for stunned responses but apparently the collective group had enough of shocking revelations for the night. Shirou strode up to the apparatus that he had received upon slaying Gilgamesh and raised his hand stopping just short of touching it. "This used to be part of me before I separated it and turned it into a weapon that I offered to Gilgamesh." He whipped his head around eying up the table. "Allow me to reintroduce myself correctly this time. I am Shirou Inke formerly known as Enki the lord of the Abzu, god of water, magic and knowledge, although I sometimes go by Ea."
The bombshell dropped at the table causing a veritable range of reactions. Satsuki's eyes widened and she focused her full attention on Shirou inspecting every inch of his body as if she'd never seen him before. Ishtar merely nodded in approval and took a seat. Arcueid merely tilted her head and regarded her friend. Shiki whipped his head towards the revealed god, and drew down half of his blindfold so as to eye him up before relaxing. Gawain tensed and shifted his hand incrementally towards his sword before dropping it and visibly relaxing. The loudest reaction came from Rin who almost fell off her chair.
"That's not possible," she exclaimed pointing at him.
"Why?" Shirou or Enki or Ea said very calmly cutting off her sentence. "Tell me why it isn't possible."
"Um," Rin said feeling very self-conscious as she felt the eyes of the room on her. "Because the gods have not existed for thousands of years," she said defensively. "If they were still around we would have heard of them."
"Good observation Rin," came the immediate reply from the magician. "Gods cannot exist as the world doesn't support them and human science and observation actively disproves them," he explained. "The birth of Alaya caused all of the gods and many of the phantasmal beasts to be trapped on the reverse side of the world. But there is a way to get past that restriction. A caveat if you will." Shirou raised a finger for emphasis. "If a god or creature is born human, they will be able to exist in that state until the destruction of their body, but they are also heavily restricted by that body and by the state of the world. What I am saying is that in order for Tiamat to fully manifest she would have to recreate the age of the gods. If that happens humanity loses."
Shirou remained very silent for a few moments to allow the group to gather their thoughts. "And the worst thing is that it isn't even the most immediate problem. I finally worked out how the Aylesbury Valesti works and it's practically another end of the world scenario."
"Just stop pausing for dramatic effect and tell me what it does," Satsuki said impatiently.
"It will create at least one new Type-Moon," Shirou said. "When Crimson Moon created the True Ancestors the process was meant to create Lunarians, his original species. But it was flawed and instead created True Ancestors which were for the most part weaker than Lunarians with a few noticeable exceptions," Shirou said gesturing to Arcueid. "The same thing happened when the True Ancestors created the Dead Apostles, which were weaker and flawed copies. The same thing happens today when a dead apostle creates a member of the dead. What the ritual should in theory do is to sublimate the original ancestor blood in the veins of all the members of Crimson moon's extended family leading to a vast upgrade in their strength and as a likely consequence increase the subsequent rate of spread."
"So it will cause a Zombie apocalypse," Shirou's favourite True Ancestor said innocently.
"No… yes," Shirou admitted unenthusiastically. "Any questions?"
"I have one Shirou," Arc said again. "Does this mean you were actually the one robbing the cradle?"
A loud bang was the reply and Arcueid's head jerked back slightly. She raised a hand to her head and picked up a flattened bullet that had just been fired out of the pistol aimed at her.
"You've used up your strikes Arcueid," Shirou said causing the White Princess to pout half-heartedly. "Any questions for intelligent people," Shirou amended regarding the other table.
"Shouldn't the counterforce step in?" Satsuki said as she ruminated on her words. "There are two possibly apocalyptic threats. Shouldn't Alaya do its job and help to eliminate the opposition?"
Shirou winced at that. "Not always," he said bitterly. "Sometimes a series of events will cause a dimension to branch to far from the focal more homogenous timelines. These alternate worlds are called dead ends and will almost unanimously result in the Earth being doomed." Shirou continued speaking even as more shocked silence descended upon the room. "In this case events will conspire to result in the destruction of the alternate world so more power can be saved for worlds closer to the ideal reality."
"What does that mean," Rin asked with audible tiredness.
"Basically it means we're playing on hard mode with no respawns," Shirou said summing it up perfectly to three of the members of the table and confusing the rest. "No help and the odds are stacked against us. Tiamat and her host need the full ritual to be completed whereas the vampires only need a majority of servants dead and grails smashed."
"I have a question," Ishtar said raising one elegant hand above her head. "How did you actually manage to incarnate? I'm still stumped at that part."
"Reborn as a human and met the other version of myself in Akasha," Shirou said boiling down an immensely complex explanation. "I started naming myself Inke automatically shifting myself more towards the concept of the original me that I met in Akasha and eventually I regained my memories from the dream cycle."
"So you saw the end," Ishtar said her voice unusually demure.
"Yeah," Shirou said with his mouth dry. He coughed into his hand distracting himself from the painful memories. Standing up from his chair he surveyed the room containing some of the most powerful beings in the world and Rin. "Tonight we're going to have to survive an onslaught of the strongest beings in the world and protect the three remaining lesser grails. If we lose the ritual will be able to be performed and the entire world could be at risk of… zombies," Shirou said with audible distaste on the last word. "Relax or warm-up, mentally prepare yourself or just tell your family that you love them," Shirou said as he repaired the table with a snap of his fingers. "Come the night you must be ready to kill and kill and kill until there is nobody alive who can possibly enact the ritual. No more holding back. Good luck."
At this Shirou teleported to his room to allow them to digest the information that he had suddenly dropped on them. Sitting idly in his room he waited for an unavoidable conversation. He tapped his knees with his hands as he contemplated the many ways that the conversation could turn out. Unfortunately when dealing with matters such as these his even his wisdom fell short. He examined his room from top to bottom looking at the many mystic codes that decorated his walls silently wondering if he should bring any of them tonight. No was the answer he swiftly arrived at. It was an unfortunate side-effect that most of the effects that his mystic codes produced he could replicate with virtually no drawbacks. The only two mystic codes that he used consistently were his gun, his boots and his sword because it usually took a not inconsiderable amount of time to replicate the effects in battle. In fact he still had to recreate the mystic codes that Arcueid used as her battle armour. Not that Shirou ever minded fixing Arcueid's battle armour. The magician could remember multiple times that the True Ancestor had walked into his room, stripped herself nude and presented him with her broken mystic code. Any irritation that he could have possibly felt at the situation was always washed away by Arcueid's eagerly waiting stark-naked form and she was always willing to show her appreciation once he had finished with the fix…
"Hey," the voice of Ishtar announced her presence behind him.
"Shit," Shirou said as he was unwittingly jolted from the happy fantasies he had been trying to bury himself in to avoid this very conversation. "Hey Ishtar," he said cursing his current lack of omniscience. Turning around he saw the form of his servant and friend.
The two of them stared awkwardly at each other for a few moments trying their best to figure out how to address the monumental issue between them.
"I'm sorry," they both blurted out simultaneously and like a mirror both stepped back in shock.
They both stood speechless for a moment before Ishtar took the initiative. "I was only concerned about myself. I didn't see how many of my actions were hurting you. You gave me so many chances and I threw them in your face. Please forgive me," she said a hint of wetness in her eyes.
"I was too weak," Shirou said his voice barely above a whisper. "I put all your failings on you when I deserved far more blame. I raised you and yet I stood to the side and let you fail. All my wisdom and I couldn't even see a way to save you."
Ishtar shook her head. "I was so blinded by my pride that I nearly destroyed multiple times. I disregarded all your teachings. They were wasted on someone like me and in the end I threw away what was most important to me. I deserved it."
"No," Shirou rejected her words. "I was blinded by my own hubris. I merely assumed that you would follow my teachings because I'm meant to be wise and when you weren't perfect, when you failed, I discarded you," Shirou said with a voice full of self-hatred.
Suddenly he felt arms encircle him and he in turn grasped onto his once protégé, now servant. The two of them didn't speak and clung to each other in comfort. It was a long while before they both drew back. Ishtar wiped her eyes and gave an unsteady smile.
"We're good now," she said with naked hope in her voice.
"Yeah, we're good," Shirou said. Tears flowed freely from his eyes but there was a beautiful smile upon his face. "Ishtar whatever may come in future; know that it's truly good to see you again."
"Of course it's good to see me," Ishtar said coyly. "Do you know of any man who wouldn't want to gaze upon my beauty?"
"I think I just killed one," Shirou replied with the smile still on his lips.
"Yeah," Ishtar said her smile fading a bit. "Do you know that there was a weird solar eclipse of Fuyuki for about three minutes during the day? Experts from around the world are trying to come up with scientific reasons for this unexplained phenomena. Do you have any idea what it may be?"
"That's not good," Shirou said thoughtfully. "If this Grail War gets any worse the church will not have a hope in hell of covering it up. And yet the unprecedented reveal of magic which would shift the world's viewpoint, uprooting beliefs and causing countless changes to society does not even reach the fifth worst outcome of this whole mess. Man if I could go back in time I'd give the people who created that fucking cup a punch."
Shirou stopped for a moment as a thought unexpectedly struck him. "I need to talk to somebody," he said excusing himself and moving towards the door. "It's not really important for the war but I feel it needs to be done."
"Alright," Ishtar said. "Good luck with whatever you're doing. I'm going to go scouting and I'm going to be taking Nine with me."
"Inanna," Shirou said turning around just before he walked out of the door. "Let's team up tonight.
"I'd like that Enki," she said smiling in return before becoming intangible and falling through the floor.
Shirou smiled and left the room with an extra spring in his step. He felt a lot lighter and while there was still guilt, the fact that she didn't hate him created a warm feeling within his chest. Walking down the hallway that lead to one of the many spare rooms that dotted his house he knocked politely on the door twice before opening the door.
Rin was in the room sitting on the bed and she gave him an annoyed look when he entered. "I really wish you wouldn't do that," she growled. "I could have been changing."
"At this time of day, Rin?" Shirou asked amused. "I certainly wouldn't object to the sight."
"Are you feeling quite alright," Rin asked with a raised eyebrow. "You seem unusually perverted."
"Comes with me suddenly remembering that I am a multi-millennial god of sex," Shirou said grimacing slightly.
"You uhh, didn't mention that domain when you were introducing yourself," Rin said blushing slightly.
"I didn't want to offend any virgin ears," Shirou said. "Their maiden hearts might not be hardy enough."
"There is nothing wrong with being a virgin," Rin shouted and then cut herself off looking visibly horrified.
"Oh are you a virgin Rin," Shirou said looking very interested in the conversation now. "I was actually talking about Satsuki. So you've never had the joys of experiencing sex before." A sly smile showed himself upon his face. "Would you like me to rectify that situation?"
Five minutes passed until Shirou had finished deflecting all her Gandr shots. Leaning against the wall Shirou silently admired her prowess with magecraft. There existed top-tier magi that Shirou had run across, and occasionally killed, that couldn't even manage half of her output. He nodded his head as he evaluated her. Rin Tohsaka was a truly magnificent glass cannon and under most non-world ending circumstances he would devote a significant amount of effort to get into her pants.
"Do you know that I can actually believe you were a god," Rin said when she was calm again. "There's always been something different about you, something larger than life. Besides this way I can say that the only person who does better than me in school is a literal god of wisdom."
"What does wisdom have to do with the Japanese education system Rin?" Shirou asked eliciting a small chuckle from the magus. "How are you holding up?" Shirou asked.
"I'm fine, I think," Rin said. "It just doesn't feel real. If we fail the world will be destroyed. I just can't wrap my head around it."
"That's natural," Shirou said nodding. "The human brain isn't equipped to deal with stakes of that immensity. I bet you barely know fifty people and less than ten with any particular intimacy. You don't see the faceless masses and thus you cannot comprehend what they stand to lose."
"That makes me sound like a terrible person," Rin said frowning in contemplation.
"I can confidently say that I only know of a few magi more morally upright than you Rin," Shirou said with complete honesty. "Trust me as a former god of wisdom to say that for all your many flaws you are in no way a bad person."
"Thanks for the backhanded compliment," Rin said but with no heat behind her words.
Shirou merely smiled and threw something at Rin.
"What is this?" Rin asked catching the object.
"It's a cellphone Rin," Shirou said shaking his head. "More specifically it is my cellphone. Are you really so technologically inept that you cannot even recognize it."
"I know what it is," Rin defended herself hotly. "I don't know why you're throwing it at me."
"When the Grail War started I asked both my sister and yours to leave the city," Shirou replied calmly ignoring the slight gasp that came from Rin. "This was due to my suspicion that the war could have adverse effects on them due to the fact that both of them had at one time been prepared as lesser grails…"
"What?" Rin interrupted grabbing Shirou's shoulders. "Why? What happened?"
"Calm down," Shirou said and Rin felt her body immediately lock up. Gawain materialised behind him with his sword along the magicians' throat.
"Release her," he commanded and was subsequently ignored by Shirou who focused on his master.
"Let it be Sakura's story to tell if she ever feels comfortable," Shirou said sternly and Rin felt herself flop down onto the bed. "Her number is on the phone," he said. "I would advise you call her."
"Is now really the right time," Rin said. "We are fighting a war. She might not even be happy to see me. We haven't spoken in years," the young magus said letting some of her insecurities slip.
"I thought much the same," Shirou said and look where it got me.
Rin scowled as she thought about Shirou's situation. "Sakura will be fine," she protested.
"Will you be?" Shirou asked flatly. "Trust me Rin, dying with regrets is second in pain only to living with regrets." He moved the knight's sword away from his throat with the tip of his finger and stood up from the bed. "Keep the phone," Shirou commanded. "I have a spare and it will help you keep in contact with me tonight. You know what the correct choice is Rin."
Those were his last words as he teleported out of the room and into another. Unlike Rin's room that had the magus to lend a bit of colour and motion to this room this one was quiet and still. In the middle of the room lay Shirou's sister upon the solitary bed. She looked peaceful and Shirou watched as she took slow breaths in and out for a minute. He opened his mouth to speak. To try and dredge up some appropriate piece of encouragement that he knew couldn't reach her. In the end he merely took a seat on the floor of the room watching her sleeping form.
"I wish things could have been different," Shirou said vocalising his regret. "But then if they were would I have ever met Kiritsugu, Sumire, Arcueid, Satsuki, Illya, Sakura, Nine…" his voice trailed off as he contemplated the way his life went. If he was not constrained by a mortal brain he could have possibly used some form of magic that scoured parallel worlds to show him the result but unfortunately it was beyond all but one at this time. In the end he should count himself fortunate that he even managed to get a second life. Many thoughts of death and mortality flew through his mind buoyed on by the death toll of the past few days as well as his sister's fragile form.
He sat there watching Aoko in silent contemplation for hours until Arcueid dragged him away to fix her armour.
Author Note: This chapter took me a long time to write due to work and TI8 (the one sporting event I actually do watch) but I'm honestly not certain if I gave the appropriate impact to both the characters and the situation.
Archleone: I've kinda missed your commentary. I've always thought that the support should get the kill. They kinda do need the experience the most. Is my analogy breaking down? Anyway none of them are going to walk around with a shirt saying 'I've killed the King of Heroes' so there was really no benefit. Rin did the least in the fight and Shirou probably did the most. Ultimately despite the backup it came down to Shirou v Gilgamesh. Everything else was the magician stacking the deck.
DPSS Iinelomviing YuukiAsuna-Chan Honestly the sword just really despises him. Archer and Shirou get on infinitely better than EA and Enki.
snowyassass1n You're looking for Campione. Fate authorities don't work that way. Thank the gods, or the world would be dead.
Please Read and Review.