Chapter 120.5
Fuyuki Winter
"Mooouuuuu, are you going to pass Christmas all by yourself this year Shirou?"
Taiga stretched lazily in the kotatsu as she sighed, wondering how her cute little brother still didn't have anyone to spend Christmas with.
"It's not like I don't have anyone. I'm inviting Issei over dinner, and Sakura will be there too, so it's not that bad."
For a moment, Taiga conjured the image of Issei and Emiya holding hands, while Sakura looked on, the shadows darkening in her eyes. A shiver went up her spine, and she quickly turned to look at Shirou with accusing eyes.
"Shirouuu, Christmas is supposed to be celebrated with your s-i-g-n-i-f-i-c-a-n-t other you know? Although Issei is your best friend, don't you have anyone else you can celebrate with, hmmm?"
She raised her eyebrows for extra effect.
"Fuji-nee, you're spending Christmas with us though."
It was a fatal blow. She crumpled onto the kotatsu table, her face dead and lifeless. Her lips stammered, her brain desperately trying to find an excuse.
"I-It's not like I want to spend Christmas with you guys o-ok? I definitely have other people who want to spend it with me, including those of the opposite gender, i-it's just that I can't rest easy unless I supervise you guys and your Christmas dinner! Yes, who knows what you'll get up to if I'm not here, after all you're in that age already!"
A bit of color returned to her face as she managed to spout out something that wasn't complete bull.
"Then I'll stow away the sake tonight so you can act like a proper guardian supervising us then."
"NOOOOOOO, anything but the sake! I swear, I'll stop pestering you, just please let me drink! Otherwise I won't have anything else to drown the sorrow!"
It had basically become a Emiya family tradition at that point for Taiga to drink away her sorrows at not having a boyfriend/being dumped, leaving her alone to spend Christmas, with only Shirou as company. Sakura had been surprised the first year she had spent Christmas with them, but the next year after prolonged contact with Taiga, she had basically become used to it.
"Just don't get too crazy tonight."
He remembered fighting for his life once during Christmas when Taiga had her custom shinai nearby after getting drunk. It was a very memorable experience, to say the least.
"Ah, by the way for the KFC order, I'll head out to pick it up later in the evening, so you can focus on prepping the other dishes."
"Thank you very much Fuji-nee. I appreciate your help, the KFC restaurant is pretty far away."
"Hehe, just rely on this reliable onee-san for anything!"
The Christmas morning passed by peaceful in the Emiya household, blissfully unaware of the tribulations the next year would bring.
*Pssshhhhhhhh*
The water slid through her purple hair, long streams of water snaking on her pale skin onto the white tiles.
The scent of lavender shampoo and body soap hung heavily in the air, the steam trapping the fragrance with the humidity, magnifying in the small shower room, yet her nose could still smell the gross putrefaction of the pit.
Running her hands through her hair, she closed her eyes, conjuring up the image of what she was going to see tonight.
The red hair gently reflects the yellow ceiling lights, the crispy, enticing odour of fried chicken, a loud sobbing and yelling from the woman hugging the sake bottle.
Her lips tugged upwards slightly, the wretched smell in her nose receding a little as her spirits lifted.
*crrk*
The bathroom door creaked open, and even without turning around she knew who it was, and what he had come for. Closing her eyes, she numbed body and mind, surrendering all physical sensation to the whims of the hands that started caressing her hungrily.
"Alright, perfect! With this, I'll be able to get through Christmas with peace of mind!"
After staying up all night finishing her personal project, she had finally managed to streamline the spells loaded into the gems, and had worked out how to maximize the efficiency of their output. Collapsing onto her bed, she rolled on the sheets several times, before finally settling in place.
I just want to sleep…
Her eyes drifted close as the luxurious bed beckoned her into the land of slumber, her breathing steadying out as the rise and fall of her chest became steady.
The sharp ringing of the phone pierced her drowsy mind, her eyelids popping open again. Grumbling wordlessly, she dragged herself out of the bed and plodded to the vibrating antique phone, still using a rotary dial to input the numbers. Doing her best to push down the rising headache from her lack of sleep and the sharp ringing, she picked up the receiver.
"Hello? This is Tohsaka Rin."
"TOHSAKA! Where have you been, we're all waiting for you here at the mall!"
Kaede's voice roared through the tinny speaker into Rin's unprepared ears, straight up dropping the honorific with which she usually called Rin in her impatience. Rin almost dropped the phone, her mind now wide-awake from the sudden wake-up call.
"What do yo-"
Like a flash of lightning, she suddenly recalled the appointment she had made with Kaede, her band of friends and Ayako. They were supposed to meet up in the mall for lunch and walk around there for Christmas, but wasn't it still early in the morning?
Looking at the clock, her mouth opened, her jaw dropping to the ground.
It was already one past twelve, a whole hour after their supposed meeting.
She had slept from eight in the morning til now, instead of just catching a short nap like she had thought earlier.
u-UAHHH!
"I'll be there soon, just walk around without me first!"
She smacked the phone back onto the receiver and rushed into her bedroom, throwing on clothes and taking her essentials before rushing out of the house to meet up with them.
"Are you ready Illya?"
Berserker stood on the far side of the snowy field, yet her voice carried clear and loud all the way to Illya.
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
Both of them wore serious expressions, their faces grim and unyielding. Standing on either side of Illya, Sella and Leysritt clutched large guns with heavy backpacks, runes shining on the sides as frost drifted from the barrel.
"To a fair match!"
Sella and Leysritt yelled at the same time, their voices surging out on the empty field.
"One!"
Sella yelled first, her voice signalling the countdown for the battle to start. Illya clutched her hands tightly, making sure her gloves were snug and tight.
"Two."
This time it was Leysritt, her bland voice still easily reaching Berserker on the opposite side. Patting her sides, Berserker checked her weapons, looking around to make certain of their positions one last time.
"Three!"
The two both shouted at the same time, their voices harmonizing with each other and echoing out, the air tense and heavy.
"START!"
Instantly, the bullets start flying.
Armed with heavy guns, the snowballs spat out of their wide barrels at a frightening rate, easily slicing through the air like real bullets to reach Berserker in less than a minute, crossing the vast field without losing any of its velocity.
But Berserker was no longer in her original position.
Leaping high into the air, carrying to massive snowballs the size of pigs, she spun in the air and hurled them from high up, two meteors blazing down on Illya and the maids while trailing flecks of snow, a white line forming behind them.
Illya was carried out of harm's way by Leysritt as she wrapped one arm around her mistress and dashed out of the way, Sella doing so in the opposite direction, as the snowballs exploded on impact with the ground, scattering snow in every direction.
Landing on the ground, Berserker lifted the other balls with her telekinesis, chucking them from various angles and directions at her opponents. Despite being much weaker than if she had thrown them herself physically, they still packed plenty of punch and speed.
Yet the two maids lived up to the name of Einzbern peak homunculi engineering. Utilizing inhuman strength and speed, they easily dodged and weaved between the bombardment, zig-zagging across the field until they got closer and closer to Berserker's position. When they got close, they started opening fire on her, white snowballs shooting out of the guns, small in comparison to Berserkers, but still plenty painful if hit by one.
"Secret Frost style: Raging Blizzard!"
On command, the snowballs she'd placed on the ground drifted up, laid out at regular intervals in lines such that it looked like a spiral from above. The snowballs spun, with various pieces of loose snow ripped from the ground to join them, and for a moment the vision of both maids and Illya was blinded.
It would only last for a few seconds, but it would be enough. Ignoring the headache pounding from her usage of such a large-scale telekinesis, Berserker closed in on Sella, getting right up in her face with little notice.
Sella wasn't a combat maid for nothing though. Instantly, she pulled the trigger, unloading on Berserker as snowball after snowball pelted her bodysuit. At such a range, it was impossible for Sella to miss, but Berserker powered through, ignoring the freezing core of ice that made even her, a Servant who was supposed to be impervious to extreme temperatures, shiver. Reaching out, she encased her fist in a large ball of snow, forming a snowball that hid her fist inside it.
The rules were simply to attack with only snow until one side was completely knocked out, and if she encased her fist in snow, it was legal. Right?
In any case, her fist flicked from the bottom of Sella's vision, a mass of pure white flying from underneath as it socked her jaw, though the kinetic force was blunted by the snow that fell apart with one hit, shedding energy and momentum.
Being hit by a Servant, even when they were holding back and having snow to coat their fists, wasn't something that could be casually taken by Sella. While her body didn't go flying, her spine went from leaning slightly forward to bending backwards in an instant, her head snapping back from the blow. Her mind was awash with pain as her chin throbbed, though it wasn't to the extent of being knocked out instantly like a human would be.
Without looking at Berserker while still in that position, she lifted the barrel of her gun, the entire gun and backpack just slightly less heavier than a small car, and flicked another switch with her thumb while holding down the trigger.
A devastating beam of snow poured out of it, frigid air mixed with heavily condensed snow swirling into a tight beam of white destruction as it slammed into Berserker, her arms in a cross in front of her to ward off the damage. Her arms quickly started trembling as the combined might of the kinetic energy and chill wore her down, her school uniform miraculously not getting destroyed instantly as it slowly wore down, bits of fabric peeling off from the continuous blast.
Then a second blast froze Berserker back, landing square on the small of her back as Leysritt steadily fired at her, her bland face betraying none of her emotions as she simply stood there while holding down the trigger, the barrel never wavering once even with its weight and the forces travelling through and out of the barrel.
It was far from over though…
This much wasn't enough to severely cripple Berserker. While she couldn't deny that it hurt, she could still easily break out from such a deadlock. Her glasses fogged up as she exhaled a large breath, enduring the beams keeping her down as she focused, sinking to one knee to make them think she was getting exhausted as frost spread across her arms and back from the icy blasts.
Slowly, two hastily shaped snowballs lifted up from the ground, just behind the two maids, and stealthily glided to the edges of their vision right next to them. With an unvoiced command, they hurtled towards Sella and Leysritt's eyes, intent on blinding them for a moment. With how close they were after she had slowly and stealthily snuck them into range, it was pretty much unavoidable, despite the slow speed they struck with.
Until they were struck to pieces by two swords of glowing thread, shattering the snowballs easily.
Standing on the sides, Illya smirked, her familiars morphing back into bird form as they hovered around Sella and Leysritt, ready to defend them against further attacks.
Berserker blinked, before closing her eyes, this time focusing her energy into her legs, creating lightning on her arms and back to revitalize her frozen muscles as she spun, the beams not adjusting fast enough as she used the force from the beams hitting her to spin like a top, her blade materializing and spitting out to block the snow, allowing her to escape, though not unscathed.
Jumping back, she lifted another humongous snowball, her left hand poised to block any more ice beams or snowballs that might come her way. This was going to be a long snowball fight.
'Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him."
The sonorous, deep voice rang across the modest chapel, the few occupants of the wooden pews listening intently to the priest as he intoned with great pomp, speaking the words as if they held great power. Recounting the circumstances of Jesus's birth, he laid out the verses one by one, telling the Scripture as they were written in the Bible.
The clock soon struck, and his task ended, the special Christmas service he held over as he watched the few people who had attended filter out the door, himself still standing at the pulpit in front of the cross.
The birth of a saviour who would save the world and humanity, yet who had come to be in such a modest way in an unknown town, far from being heralded in such a manner that all would know, like the birth of royalty. While many proclaimed his arrival, few heard, and fewer still sought him out. Of them, only the three magi, or wise men, and the shepherds found him.
His own saviour...no, perhaps it would be better to call it the saviour of mankind as well, since it was born from it's wishes, the collective aggregation of all it's desires. It wasn't just his saviour alone, though it had indeed saved him. If it was born, it would be unknown to most people as well. No one would know of it, nor would anyone visit it until it visited them.
In fact, he might be the only person to visit it, besides the golden king. When it was born, he would surely be by its side, looking on at it's actions.
Raising his head, he gazed at the figure nailed to the cross on the walls.
Until then, he could only wait.
In a small study somewhere in London, Waver slumped over on the sofa, grumbling to himself.
"Reines, that brat...forcing me to take these "favours"...repaying my debt doesn't mean…"
Gray listened to his complaints through the door, wondering what to do with the cake in her hands. Maybe she should just-
"BIG BEN LONDON STAR MERRY CHRISTMASSSS!"
Wave instinctively chucked the cigarette in his hands at Flat, who had somehow managed to climb through the window, while Gray burst through the door, one hand clutching Add while the other balanced the cake, the cake just teetering as it leaned to one side.
"What the fuck! Flat, didn't I tell you to stop coming through the window? And how did you penetrate the wards anyway?"
Waver practically roared at his student, his heart still beating wildly from the sudden fright. Flat for his part, was completely unruffled, happily smiling as he presented a wrapped package to his teacher.
"I thought I'd give a present to the greatest teacher in the world on Christmas, so I personally made one with all my skill! Here, take a look!"
Waver was about to ask Gray what she was doing there, but seeing Flat so insistent, he had no choice but to take the package and open it after it was all but pushed into his chest, the wrapping tape already half falling apart before he even received it.
The cake slipped from Gray's hands when she became unable to suppress her laughter, the words "MASTER V", "PROFESSOR CHARISMA", "London Star" and several more woven into the scarf, the black letters contrasting boldly on the yellow background, golden borders lining the edges of the scarf.
"Hup!"
Easily catching it, Svin lifted it into Gray's hands, placing it into her unresisting hands.
"Take care not to drop it again, Miss Gray."
Saying so, he took a deep sniff of the scent wafting off her, his face becoming content as the muscle relaxed, while Gray backed away slowly.
"Stop sniffing her you dog!"
Smacking Svin on the head, Yvette managed to shake him out of his sudden strangeness, annoyance finding its way onto his face as he glared at his fellow student.
"We're here to celebrate Christmas with my darling anyways, so let's do that of bothering Gray!"
Saying so, she threw herself at Waver, who expertly dodged it and allowed her to land on the couch.
Behind the two students, other members of El-Melloi's class waited outside in the hallway, wearing a variety of expressions as they entered the study. Though not all of them looked happy, it was certain that in their hearts, they wanted to show some appreciation to the teacher who had looked out for them and taught them so much during his time in the classroom as their mentor.
Kuzuki sat on the temple steps, looking up at the night sky. Despite the chill in the winter air, he didn't feel cold in the slightest, his well-trained body able to handle the temperature quite easily.
"Feeling lonely?"
The man sat down next to him, holding a tokkuri and two ochoko in his hands, a traditional Japanese sake drinking cup and flask. The sake gently sloshed in the ceramic container, the bottle clinking on the stone surface as he placed the cups next to them on the stairs.
"It's not a night to be spending by yourself you know. Here, have a cup."
The clear liquid flowed from the flask into the cup, the man offering Kuzuki a cup of warm sake that the man accepted, lifting it to his lips as he took a sip of the sweet alcohol, the fresh aroma of the drink wafting into his nose as he downed some more. Almost immediately, he began to feel waves of warmth emanating from deep in his body, the muscles loosening slightly.
The two men sat in companionable silence, each thinking their own thoughts as they gazed up at the sky, drinking sake side by side on the cold stone of the stairs, snow piling on either side of them.