Sakura's anxiety lasted for all of five minutes after Taiga went home.

It was bad enough she was in the presence of no less than three Servants (there was no way in HELL Midori wasn't anything but a Servant, and she was not a complete idiot) but add into the fact that Rin was here...well, her poor nerves would have been shot. It didn't help that Rider had returned and was currently waiting for her, since the Command Seals had reverted back to her earlier.

The only reason Rider hadn't followed her was because she was still recovering, and Sakura had assured her that Shirou would never allow her to come to harm in his home.

And now she was in the middle of three Masters and their Servants, all of whom had either found out or guessed she was Rider's actual Master, since Shinji couldn't have sustained her as long as he had.

"Before we begin, I would like to offer you a chance to rid yourself of Zouken and those worms once and for all. Whether or not you continue learning with Rin and Shirou is entirely up to you," said Elric. His gold eyes seemed to peer into her very soul.

"What sort of chance?"

"I'm going to teach you enough about alchemy...the real kind...that you can successfully create a transmutation circle and if you're lucky and careful, can remove Zouken in a single move. He barely qualifies as human, but at the very least it would do some serious, possibly irreparable damage to him."

Sakura stilled, before an odd expression came upon her face.

"What's in it for you?"

"Truth hates Magi, at least most of them. So the idea of converting a Magus-born into an alchemist would definitely amuse it. There's also the fact that it really, really hates it when humans try to pervert the natural order, so it might be a bit more lenient if you offer up Zouken in exchange for it removing all the worms. Good alchemists tend to follow a cardinal rule, unless they're really stupid. All is one, One is All."

"What is that supposed to mean?" said Rin baffled.

Emiya blushed.

"It's supposed to reference the cycle of life. Namely the give and take of predators and prey, and how all are equal once they're dead and in the ground," said Shirou embarrassed. That had been one of the lessons Elric had made damn sure to hammer in to his head.

"Anyway I was thinking I could teach you (he pointed his chopsticks at Sakura) enough that you could activate the fail safe and get in touch with Truth to make a deal. It might dislike Magi, but it would definitely hate Zouken's method of sticking around far more than making a simple deal to remove certain...insects... as opposed to limbs or organs to be rid of him. And you could come out of it with something to support Emiya later, like knowledge of how to heal people without taking classes. I can say from personal experience that the brain gets an overload of information and it's only how much you can safely retain that sticks with you," said Elric.

"Why are you helping me?" asked Sakura. That was the main reason she was having trouble believing this was happening.

"To quote a certain series, I have a 'saving people thing' that was tempered with far too much experience and loss. And you are one person who needs saving more than anyone else, next to Illyasviel."

Sakura blinked. For a moment there, Elric almost sounded like Emiya-sempai. In fact the more she was around him, the more it was like there were two of her favorite Sempai instead of one, except one was rather naive, and the other was world-weary and content to be a complete troll.

Though from the way Rin was looking at Elric, it seemed any competition she might have had in the way of Emiya's love had been diverted to a new target.

If that was the case, then Sakura had absolutely no qualms at all at insuring Rin stayed firmly interest in Shirou Elric as opposed to Shirou Emiya.

Good sisters share and all that rot, but thanks to their father Tokiomi, they weren't even considered sisters anymore.

If she ever found out who killed that bastard, she would either shake their hand and thank them, or send Rider after them for ruining any chance at payback for what he did to her when he handed her over to the Matou family.

Because hell hath no fury like a woman with a damn good reason to hold a grudge.

"What do I have to do?"

"First we're going to up your skill level, then we'll figure out a way to insure Zouken ends up in the circle when it activates. Does he know Rider was sent back to you, or does he assume she was lost as well?" asked Elric.

"If we time it right and transfer her to another Master temporarily, we can make it seem like she's lost. The only one who would know the difference would be Illya, and we're not actively trying to kill her," said Archer. "Yet" seemed to be implied when he mentioned that.

"Either way he has to die. I already have a way of dealing with Kotomine if this works. He wants to meet 'God' and get an answer, and there's no reason why I shouldn't introduce them. Either way he won't bother anyone ever again," said Elric.

"Wait, what?!" said Rin, whipping her head towards him.

Elric blinked, then realized he forgotten about that minor tidbit.

"How to explain this..." muttered Elric. He hadn't really understood the full thing when he was thrown into the Gate, but he was able to gist.

"We're waiting," said Rin ominously.

"Fine. I only know the bare bones of it, and really didn't care about the tiny details. In the beginning Gaia was created to represent the spirit of Earth. Then humanity started evolving. Once intelligence firmly set in, at least enough that people were able to acknowledge concepts like gods and nature beyond primitive ignorance, Truth came into being. Essentially it holds the genetic memories of everything humanity has or will do. Once humanity became self-sustaining and mastered basic tools, they developed a 'gift' of sorts. That gift was alchemy, the ability to mold the world around them using the original formalcraft and runes."

"Wait, wait, wait. You're telling me this 'Truth' is actually what we know as God," said Rin, looking at him in disbelief.

"It's the closest thing to what we know as God, and it really doesn't care what we think of it. It's all knowing, all powerful, and sees everything we say or do. Every thought, every action, every written word. It's pretty much the equal of Gaia, except for humans."

"I thought that was Alaya?" asked Archer.

"Alaya is the spirit of Humanity, and the one who keeps them in check. I think Gaia created it when Truth did something to piss it off," corrected Elric.

"I'm confused."

"Look, all you have to know is that Truth is the closest thing to 'God' that humanity created with. It watches us, records everything, and if you're stupid enough to break the Taboo using the gift it imparted, then you get a first hand talk with it. Anyway, after Truth imparted alchemy to humanity, there was a general rise in attacks from Primate Murder and the counter guardians. They were mostly targeted towards areas were alchemists were getting a little too good for Alaya and Gaia to accept, even if the only ones that got onto Truth's shit list were those that used alchemy to try and bring back the dead."

"So what did Truth do? I mean I've never even heard of alchemy like the way you used it before now," said Rin. It was clear she was taking this with a grain of salt.

"It took all the best alchemists, or those that had potential to be good alchemists, and took them to a pocket dimension. I only have limited knowledge of what's on the other side, but I know more than most."

"You intend to tell Kotomine how to break the Taboo so that he ends up meeting God directly. And what? God just lets him walk on through?" said Rin incredulous.

"Truth doesn't care about humanity. It doesn't care about pity or mercy. It doesn't hear excuses. All that is, is simply truth. Unvarnished, unedited truth. What is made of it is up to whomever enters that domain, and the greeter changes shape to cater to whomever enters it."

For him it had been Saber. For the original soul Edward, it had been a figure that sounded vaguely male.

Who knew what Sakura or Kotomine would find at the other end?

Most of those in the room shivered at the implications. Humanity hid itself behind a veil of lies because they could never handle actual truth. And those that did were often ostracized by others because the world at large preferred lies.

So being confronted by an embodiment of Truth, without anything to shield the mind from it...it was little wonder it could only hold a fraction of what was inside the Gate.

Shirou Elric had retained more than even the original had, simply because by the point he had entered the Gate he had almost zero illusions about himself. He had become disillusioned about being a hero, but he had held no lies about his own abilities. He had learned to carefully calculate his prana and fighting ability in order to survive. He had learned them through sheer stubbornness and an inability to put himself before others. In a way, it had helped that he had known something was going to make a move on him that day.

He hadn't bothered to brace himself for anything, and as a result he was a better fighter than ever, never mind the upgrade his circuits got after the fact.

Truth might dislike magecraft, but that didn't mean it would tweak things just to piss off Gaia.

It had taken him five long months to realize that Truth had placed a Crest on his new body, but unlike others it only light up in the presence of high level alchemy.

From what he knew of Truth, it fully planned to dump him in that other world to clean things up before the Homunculi ruined everything. It was bad enough that there were fake Philosopher's stones running around...having the real thing was infinitely worse, because it made more work.

"So Sakura, how would you feel being rid of Zouken and his familiars once and for all? What would you do with your life?"

"I'd move in with Sempai and help out," said Sakura honestly. Anything that came up after was not really worthy of caring about. As long as she had Shirou Emiya, she could care less whether she became a mass murderer or a saint. He was her rock in a world that had broken her so thoroughly it would take a miracle for her to become even remotely normal.

"Looks like Emiya has a girlfriend no one knew about!" grinned Elric.

Sakura didn't bother to blush, and Emiya just looked confused.

Elric suddenly face-palmed.

"I forgot he was just that oblivious to the opposite gender, let alone enjoying that sort of thing."

Archer nodded in sympathy.

"Want me to tell her or...?" he offered.

"You explain it in painful detail. You're closer than I am," said Elric cryptically.

Which was how Sakura ended up in another room being given a far too detailed explanation on how if she wanted to end up with Shirou, she would have to make the first move. Otherwise his first time would be with Saber at the very least.

That had been all she needed to agree to the idea. Which was why Shirou was going to be in for a rather...interesting...night while Rin kept Saber busy and Archer did the guarding.


"Come on! Why is this so hard?" said Rin in frustration.

"You're overthinking it. Besides, you're still trying to force prana into it, and I've told you how real alchemy doesn't use that. How about we go back to the other thing I was trying to teach you about..." said Elric diplomatically.

It was ironic, but he was closer to Rin as an alchemist than he had ever gotten as a Magus. In any OTHER situation she would be the one patiently explaining it to him, sighing and shaking her head when he had trouble understanding anything but swords.

It had taken several months for him to finally catch on to why his element and origin had been the same thing, and why magecraft would more or less be out of his grasp save for the one thing he was uniquely good at.

It could be summed up with a simple sentence.

The original's title among alchemists was Full Metal Alchemist.

Named because of his two automail limbs, Edward Elric was a devastating force of nature even before he turned his own automail into a weapon, primarily a simple blade with just a clap of his hands. Never mind the proficiency he had with a spear, among other things.

The use of said blade in conjunction with his fist was so ingrained that it had left Truth rather stumped on how it could slip the fragment onto "Earth" long enough for Gaia to almost miss it.

And so an epiphany hit it. In a manner of speaking.

If Edward Elric was that good using his blade arm, then perhaps the fragment could learn to adapt to other bladed weapons. And so it made the origin of one "Shirou Emiya" something metal based. It had been Kiritsugu's adoption of the boy that settled the fragment on the path of a sword. It had been magecraft trying to adapt to the missing automail weapons that turned his element identical to the origin in an effort to cope, thus ruining Shirou's chances to be anything more than a joke of a magus.

It had been the lack of alchemy (thus the connection to Truth) that caused Shirou to lose a part of himself, thus rendering him incapable of acknowledging his own health and safety as unimportant.

And so Shirou Emiya was thrown straight onto a self-destructing road that only lead to paradox after paradox, along with unending heartbreak.

It had taken the last, desperate will of one version to say "no" to the one thing that lead him becoming a hero for Truth to find him at long last. After countless repetitions of pain and sorrow.

So now here he was, teaching a bossy tsundere how to perform alchemy knowing once she found the trick of it, she would relentlessly study it until she mastered as much as she could.

Bringing back an unknown ability to mold the world to your will was an easy-entry into Clock Tower, or Atlas if she were inclined. The fact he was willingly giving her as much ammunition as she needed in order to make Zelretch's life a living hell on earth once she mastered his own magic and used it against him was a massive bonus.

And so Elric went about teaching Rin everything he knew about the basics from a book he had damn near memorized while he was part of the original, and wished that he could have convinced Truth to loan him the book for even a week. And that was just to translate the damn thing.

A sudden thought occurred to him. It wasn't like it was actually impossible... Truth had recorded that scarred man using alchemy that way...and it would make things so much simpler...not to mention cheaper.

"Let's take a break for an hour while I try to abuse my own alchemy to make things so much easier long term..." said Elric. He just hoped it worked, because abusing it would make things so much more amusing.


Two hours later...

"What's with all the paper and hard cardboard?" said Saber.

"Why does he have barrels of black and colored ink?" said Shirou (Emiya) equally baffled.

Everyone watched baffled as Shirou Elric created a transmutation circle purely on the fly using his ever familiar chalk. It had never been attempted, but he saw now reason why it shouldn't work provided that all the ingredients were present. And Truth knows he had analyzed enough books to know what they were made of, especially magecraft books.

Once he had all the ingredients, a horrified Emiya watched as Elric made a sort of strange nest of papers before pouring some ink into the center, along with the cardboard and some twine.

"If this fails, you're cleaning it up," said Emiya flatly.

"Duly noted," said Elric distractedly.

That done, he firmly pressed his hands down and concentrated on what he wanted made. He felt the crest on his back flair up as it connected directly to Truth, before a plume of smoke appeared. Fortunately Archer was able to open the door and turned on the overhead fan.

When it cleared, everyone stared at what Elric had created out of ingredients that had been completely harmless on their own.

It was a book. A perfectly inane book that calmly sit there as if it had always been.

Elric cautiously opened it, and when he did he began to laugh and laugh.

"I can't believe that actually worked."

"What worked?" said Rin, furious that he hadn't explained what he was attempting to do.

Elric looked rather smug with himself, before showing her what the book was. And suddenly Rin's annoyance turned into a sugar-sweet smile that made Archer shiver in fear.

What Elric had made for Rin (and found that Truth was willing to bend the rules a little) was one of the most basic of basic books on how alchemy worked. The very book that set Edward Elric and his younger brother on the path that had made them into the men they would become.

An Introduction to Alchemy. A book so basic that practically every alchemist had read it at the start of their careers at some point.

On the plus side, Rin finally figured out what she was doing wrong with her attempts at alchemy. On the down side, Elric found he had a new hobby that was almost certainly going to piss off a lot of important families (namely the Einzberns).

You see after so many repeats and having to relearn how to make his Reality Marble come out, he had developed a near perfect memory of all the things he had read. And with his mind pretty much on the same wavelength as Archer, a lot of it was bleeding through to the point he could use Archer as a focus, or show him how to do it.

In short, he was recreating a lot of handwritten books from scratch...and if Clock Tower ever got their hands on that information they would hunt him down without hesitation.