Fate/first order derivative
Part II.10
⇒ continue: iteration 28, day 6, late night
"Ow," I mumble, trying not to whimper. It's tough to talk around the mass of gauze in my mouth, not to mention while holding an ice pack to my lower jaw to tamp down on the swelling. No helping it, though. I look up at the person across the table. "There's nothing, uh, special you could do about this, right? Like... make me grow a new one or something?"
"Believe it or not, magical dentistry really isn't something I've spent much time on." Rin pushes back her hair and stares at my cell phone screen.
We're down in her dad's workshop in the basement of her house. Archer brought me here after he picked me up out of the alleyway. Seems that Rin sent him out to keep an eye on me tonight, albeit from a distance to avoid Gilgamesh picking up on his presence. He stands over by the door, arms folded, doing his whole Cool Detached Badass shtick. My tooth sits in a red-stained glass of milk on the table next to Rin's first aid kit, amid the scattered piles of books and notes.
"This is him?" She taps on Gilgamesh's face in the midst of the grainy photo.
"Yep." The bandage over the big scrape on my cheek comes loose again. I press down on it with my pinky.
"I've seen him before." Rin closes my phone and slides it back to me. "Twice."
I raise my eyebrows. "Seriously?"
She nods. "The first time was last week. I ran across him and Sakura talking down the road from her house."
"About what?"
"I couldn't get close enough to hear them. She obviously wasn't happy to see him, though. I could tell that much." Rin furrows her brow. "Then today, I saw him hanging around outside the Matous' house. Like he was waiting for someone, I guess? But no one came out. Eventually, he just wandered off."
Seems like ol' Gil's in pretty thick with the Matous, then. The occasional murder and/or literal stolen heart aside.
Rin runs her hands through her hair. "Do you think he has something to do with... whatever happens to her next week?"
I shrug. "Maybe. Right now, your guess is as good as mine." I glance at one of the book piles. "Any luck finding out what a karagoze is?"
She shakes her head. "Nothing. It's probably either a von Einzbern secret or just something really specialized. Mages aren't the greatest at sharing information, you know?"
Sounds like I'll need to make time to ask Illya about it at some point, then. Which is probably what I should've done in the first place, if I'd been thinking about it.
⇒ lot going on right now
"So, wait..." I blink. "What were you doing outside the Matous today?"
"G-gathering information, of course!" Rin juts out her chin and looks away, her face reddening. "Don't go reading into things! It's not like I'm worried about her or anything!"
"Uh... huh." I spend a second or two processing that reaction. "Hold on. Real talk: is this a magic thing? Does that contract geas you're under keep you from even acting like you care about Sakura?"
"Wait, you know about that? Well... no, not exactly, but..." She deflates and looks away. "I guess pretending like I don't care just makes the rest of it easier to handle. And it makes explaining things a lot easier, too. What else am I supposed to tell normies? 'I have to keep my distance from that person, or this spell I'm under gives me migraines?'"
"It does?" I raise my eyebrows. "You've never mentioned that before."
She shrugs and waves at the shelves and piles of books around her. "My inheritance as a Tohsaka, you know? It may not be much fun... but it's all I have."
⇒ skip forward
She has Archer show me out. I pause on the way out of the door. "So... um, thanks, you know? For getting me out of there and everything." It occurs to me for the first time that - despite having frigging died in his vicinity a bunch of times now - I really don't know much about him. Even Saber's less of a mystery by comparison at this point.
He narrows his eyes. "You do realize I was watching the whole time they were beating the shit out of you, don't you?"
"Well, yeah, but..." Actually, I hadn't thought of that. "... it's not like I don't get it, though. If you had tried something, he probably just would've straight-out killed me. So still... thanks."
Archer rolls his eyes. "Whatever. I was just following orders. Don't go thinking I'd be bailing you out of anything if it was up to me." I snort. "What?"
"'It's not like I care or anything, baka!'" I do my best Asuka Soryu - or maybe Shana? - impression. "You and Rin really do suit each other, don't you?"
He glares at me. "Are you actively trying to lose more teeth tonight? Because I can make that happen."
I shrug. "Hey, maybe. Don't be kink-shaming, bro."
"Remember that leaving thing you were doing?" A blade materializes in his hand.
"Okay, okay." I raise my hands and walk outside. "See you around, Not Actually Tsunde -"
He slams the door shut behind me. Okay, then. Still, good to know he's got at least one button I know how to press.
⇒ living dangerously here huh
Oh, what's he gonna do? Kill me again? And you're one to talk. I practically learned how to troll from you.
⇒ eh
⇒ touche
Gotta find our lulz where we can, right?
⇒ skip forward
I stop by Emiya's on the way back. He's asleep, but his Servant is still up. "Unbelievable," Saber growls as she stares at the cell phone picture. "It really is him."
"Told you," I said. "Also, please don't break my cell phone." The way her hand's curled around it, I wouldn't be shocked to find a crack or two.
She hands me back the phone and turns away. "... I will need to think on this."
"Sure, okay." I scratch the back of my head. "Just remember to tell Shirou in the morning, okay?"
"Mmh." She nods distractedly.
I turn to leave, then hesitate. Okay... it would probably be a mistake to bring this up. She's obviously upset about this Gilgamesh thing, and talking about the last war back on Friday seemed pretty difficult for her. So I shouldn't say anything at all, right?
⇒ if you have to ask yourself that question
⇒ the answer is yes
⇒ always
... eh, screw it. I'm curious. "Hey, one more thing," I say. "... you're not Bradamante, right?"
She stares at me. "Who?"
I shrug. "Yeah, okay, didn't think so. Never mind."
I head for the door. Before I can open it, she slams her hand on the frame, preventing me from sliding it open. "Wait. Why do you ask? Who is Bradamante?"
⇒ oh my god
⇒ you dumbass
I try to sound casual. "Oh... y'know... no reason."
"That's a lie."
I shift my eyes away. "Well... it's just that she's the one female knight I was able to find. I mean, I figured it was a long shot. She's more associated with Charlemagne and Orlando and those guys, you're obviously tied in more to the Arthurian stuff..."
She twitches. The part of the door frame beneath her thumb splinters a little. "... what makes you say that?"
I squirm. "Well... you've got Excalibur, don't you? And you mentioned Morgan le Fay that one time -"
She grabs me by the neck and throws me against the wall. I barely manage to keep my tooth cup from spilling. Okay, yeah, mistake. This was definitely a mistake.
⇒ oh ya think
"How," Saber growls, "do you know about my sword?"
"Saber, I'm... really not comfortable with this...," I wheeze.
Her hand tightens. "Answer me. Now."
Crap. I swallow. "You shout out its name whenever you make your big attack, that's all. It's kind of a giveaway, you know?"
She stares into my eyes. Her hair's all puffed out. Kind of looks like a lion's mane from this angle... which I guess makes me the zebra or the antelope or whatever? Okay, you know what, forget it, I really don't like where this metaphor is going.
I switch into terrified babbling mode. "So at first I was thinking Guinevere, or maybe the Lady in the Lake. 'Cause she's the one who wound up with the sword in the end, right? But that didn't fit, because you've obviously got the chivalric code going most of the time, and the stories don't talk about them doing any knightly stuff. So then I started looking into whether or not Arthur had any daughters - but that doesn't work either, because if he had any legitimate heirs other than Mordred, the whole story falls apart..."
Saber closes her eyes and breaths out. Slowly, she relaxes, her hair falling back into place. She lets go of my throat and turns away. "I... apologize," she says stiffly. "That was unworthy of me. I was simply... surprised, that's all."
I rub my throat. Feels like I have a new bruise or two there. Great. You know, I still need to think about how I'm going to explain this to the parents in the morning. "Yeah, well... if that's your take on surprise, I'd hate to see you angry."
She sighs. "I would... appreciate you keeping what you have learned to yourself. I have reasons I would prefer my past remains buried, Thomas. Both for my sake and the sake of others. If Shirou were to find out the full truth..."
I blink. "You get that he's ridiculously non-judgmental, don't you? You'd have to have done something, like, slaughtering-babies-level bad to even phase him."
She shrugs. "All the same..."
I stare at her for a second. I wonder... she couldn't be Morgan, right? Maybe gone repentant after Arthur's death? ... nah. I don't buy it. Aside from it being a huge shift in her established character, I don't think you can live a whole lifetime as a sorcerer only to respec as a fighter at the last second. Big Dungeon Master in the sky can't be that nice.
"Thank you for bringing me this information," Saber says quietly. "If you wouldn't mind... I find myself quite tired now."
"Oh. Uh... sure." I turn and make my exit. Welp. guess I'm two for two on pissing off Servants tonight, huh?
⇒ make that three for three
Oh, right, Gilgamesh. Can't forget about the King of Dicks, can we...
⇒ skip to: iteration 28, day 7, evening
So I wind up spending the next day almost entirely at the dentist. My parents freak out about the whole thing, of course, even if they buy my story about getting mugged while I was out in town. My "mandibular first premolar" - that's what they call the tooth I lost - is toast for sure. I know I'll have it back as soon as I loop, but it still feels weird. I just can't seem to stop poking at the gap in my teeth with my tongue. On top of that, they think there might be bone fragments left in the gum, so I might have to go in for a root canal next week. Joy. Wonder if I could convince them to Novocaine me up through the apocalypse?
I'm home at last, lying in bed, hopped up on enough Tylenol to poison a giraffe, when my cell phone goes off. "Get into the city. Now," Rin says. "Meet us at that Hidden Treasure place."
I snort. "You're kidding me, right? I told you what McTracksuit said he'd do if I showed up again, didn't I?"
"I know, I know, but listen." Rin takes a deep breath. "Saber showed up at my place after school, all right? Without Shirou. On a freaking motorcycle. I already called him - he doesn't know anything about this, or where she got the bike from."
Okay, weird. But I'm still not seeing the crisis here. "So what?"
"She asked if she could borrow another outfit from me. For clubbing."
... oh, goddammit it. Saber's going after Gilgamesh alone, isn't she.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Re: RandomGuy review on Chapter 2/Part I.2 - I'm guessing you haven't watched the anime or the abridged series, huh? That particular explosion looks like it was rotoscoped straight off of Castle Bravo or Crossroads Baker footage. Also, not to put too fine a point on it, but I imagine that someone seeing something like that happen right in front of them wouldn't necessarily be in the most rational state of mind afterwards.
Brandamante is yet another mythological character/major badass I'm kind of surprised Type MOON hasn't added to the FGO Servant lineup. As Tom mentions, she's associated with Orlando, Roland, and the other knights of Charlemagne, who would have lived around four hundred years after Camelot. She's a major character in Handel's fantasy opera Alcina. A version of her under the name Britomart appears alongside Arthur in Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queen, but as that was a late Renaissance-era allegory, I'm guessing that wouldn't have come up in Tom's search.
