Fate/first order derivative
Part I.4

⇒ continue: iteration 14, day 1, late night

"Good evening." The little girl curtsies. "Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Illyasviel von Einzbern. And this is my Servant, Berserker." She really has the whole creepy-horror-movie-child thing down pat. Give her a twin, and we'd be halfway to a Shining remake.

Saber immediately puts herself between us and them. I quickly retreat behind Shirou and Rin.

"I see two Masters and a Servant before me," the girl continues. "But who is the fourth?"

I glance around. No sign of Not Actually Satan. "Oh, who, me?" I hold up my hands. "Oh, I'm - I'm nobody. I'm not really part of this. Like, at all. I'm just a - a..."

Rin sighs. "He's a non-combatant retainer."

I roll with it. "Yes. I'm that. That thing she just said."

"Oh. Well." The little girl smiles. "Unfortunately, so long as you're with the Master you serve... you're still fair game."

"Are you sure?" I ask desperately. "You guys don't have - like - medics? Or ambulance drivers? Or - I dunno... magic accountants or something?"

"Bored now." She snaps her fingers. "Berserker. Kill them."

McHugeLarge springs way high into the air. A bunch of glowy arrows hit him and explode, and he crashes to the ground - but then jumps at Shirou and Saber blocks him, with enough force that it feels like an artillery shell just went off in front of us -

⇒ cue awesome battle sequence

It is awesome! But it's like a typhoon or a tsunami! Great and spectacular and all - at a distance. Not something I want to be right in the middle of!

Running would be awesome right now, but then I might be making myself a target. So I just stay back and cringe and try to make myself look as small and non-threatening as possible.

Eventually, Saber lures Berserker deeper into the graveyard. The von Einzbern girl walks away. "I'm going after her!" Rin roars at us. "You two - go home!" She rushes away.

Shirou looks at me. "I'm going too. You can stay here if you want."

I give him two thumbs up. "Yep! Fine! Works for me! Good luck, dude!"

He runs off after Rin. I'm pretty sure I can hear him humming the theme tune for something under his breath as he goes. I glance around cautiously. No sign of anyone, but I'm still a little too close to where I saw that one really big explosion happen. I should probably fix that.


⇒ skip to: iteration 14, day 2, early morning

So the battle ends in a draw. Shirou gets wounded somehow - guess he ended up inside the blast radius or something. Saber convinces Rin to assist her with first aid, and I help them get back to his house.

"So I have to ask," I say to Saber once they've got Shirou patched up and put to bed. "What exactly happened in the courtyard a few hours ago? I really need you to tell me everything."

"There isn't much to tell," Saber replies. "Shirou managed to summon me just as he was being attacked by another Servant."

Rin grunts. "Lancer, right? Better known as Cu Chulainn."

"You guessed his identity too, I see," Saber says.

"Kinda obvious, don't you think?"

I try and keep things on track. "So nothing you'd consider weird happened. At all."

Saber thinks for a second. "Well... come to think of it... there was one thing that seemed odd..."

Oh, thank God. "Yeah?"

"During the fight... Lancer used his ultimate attack on me. His Noble Phantasm, Gae Bolg."

"The spear that never misses," Rin mutters.

"Not quite." Saber tilts her head. "The true nature of the attack is that it rewrites time to ensure it cannot miss its mark. So that it is destined to strike its target, as inevitable as tomorrow follows today. In other words, the attack reverses cause and effect in such a way that the weapon hits before it is even thrown."

"Wow..." I blink. "And you survived that?"

She shrugs. "I was lucky."

Lucky against an attack that rewrites casuality? "So what happened then?"

"Nothing. Lancer's master ordered him to retreat. Then I sensed Archer's presence nearby and went to confront him."

"Huh." That burst of energy I saw right before the loop started... could that have been from Lancer? Whatever the case, that at least gives me something to go on. "Thanks. I think that helps."

She nods. "I wish you luck escaping your curse, Mr. Tomonaga. I would assist you further if I could, but my focus must be on my Master and the Grail."

"Wait..." Rin turns and eyes me. "Your name's Tomonaga?"

I can't help but blush when she says my name. Stupid hormones. "Uh... yeah? Why?"

She shrugs and looks away. "Eh... no reason. Forget it."


⇒ skip forward

I pass on clubs that day and go to the library to read up on Cu Chulainn and Irish mythology. I don't turn up anything that's really helpful. Oh, there's tons of prophecies, vanishing islands, Rip-Van-Winkle-style visits to the fae world where time runs at a different rate - but no time loops. I spend the night poking around online and trying to break Shin's encryption... until I finally give up in frustration and switch to stress-playing Civ2.

⇒ isn't that like two versions behind at this point

It's video game comfort food, okay? Now hush. I need to nuke India before Gandhi flips out.


⇒ skip to: iteration 14, day 3, afternoon

I have to return my library books after school on Sunday. After that, I look up Rin's address in the school directory and walk over. It's getting close to sunset when I knock on her door.

She answers it in a huff. "You did hear me when I said I'm breaking the law just by talking to you, right?"

"I know, sorry. But I've only got a day left before I hit the reset point here, so -"

She rolls her eyes. "Guh. Fine. Just get in here already."

Her house is absolutely massive. She leads me to this incredibly fancy living room. (Or maybe it counts as a parlor? Not one hundred percent certain what a parlor is, honestly.) I walk in and stop short. Shirou, sitting on a reclining couch with his shirt off, looks up in surprise. "Oh. Hey."

"Hey." I blink. "Sorry. Um. Not interrupting anything, am I?" I feel a twinge of jealousy. Lucky bastard. Well, sort of - his chest and arm are almost completely wrapped in bandages. From the looks of the stains, he's got a massive gash still bleeding between his right wrist and elbow. Bloody hell. What's he even made of?

"No," Rin says firmly. "I'm just patching up this moron after he did something reckless. Again."

I eye his arm. "What happened?"

Shirou starts, "We ran into this -"

"It's Grail business." Rin cuts him off. "Anyway, I looked up some stuff, Tomonaga. But there's not much I can tell you. Time manipulation magic is considered extremely dangerous. Only a few mage families have ever attempted to master it, and most of them have died out."

"Wow." I can't help myself. "Even the Weasleys and the Malfoys?"

"This isn't like Harry Potter!" Rin snaps. She takes a deep breath and crosses her arms. "Anyway, the only active family still associated with it are the Animuspheres in England. And most people think they're a bunch of crazed weirdos anyway."

"I'm fine with weird," I say. "Is there any way to get in touch with them?"

"Not within a day. Even three probably isn't enough to get a letter to the Clock Tower and back." Rin shrugs. "In terms of time loops, there's been a few in recorded history. But they always were the result of deliberate experimentation involving huge amounts of mana. And they affected entire areas, not just a single person. Nothing like what you're describing."

"And that's it?"

"Afraid so." Rin takes out a piece of paper out and offers it to me stiffly. "This is the only contact address for the Aminuspheres I could find. You can try and send them a letter if you want. Just remember, you didn't get this from me."

I take it. "Got it. Thanks."

"You're welcome." She turns away. "Now, if you excuse me, I have to finish stitching up this idiot."

"Oi," Shirou says irritably. "I kept you from getting hurt, didn't I?"

"Yeah, by blocking a knife with your arm. Who asked you to do that?" Rin shakes her head and glances over at me. "You know the way out, right?"


⇒ here i go again on my own

(buddah bow wow)

It's a pretty depressing walk back home. After everything's said and done, I'm at a dead end again. I guess if I can see if these Aminusphere people have an email address somewhere, but otherwise... what am I gonna do with just a day?

Also... damn. Emiya blocks knives with his own arm? I can't do stuff like that, and I've got what amounts to a respawn point. What's that say about me?

"Tomonaga, right?"

"Huh?" I turn around towards the unfamiliar voice. Then I look up.

Standing on the power lines over my head - like a frigging bird - is a man in blue armor. Over his shoulders, he carries a long red spear with a point that looks to be roughly around the size of my head.

Oh, crap. "Lancer?"

"And that settles it." He leaps down to the road, spear in hand. "Sorry, kid. But mage law is mage law."

I hold up my hands. "No no waitwaitwait! Just let me -"

In the space it takes me to blink, the end of his spear is through my chest and out my back.