Chapter 2: Almost Parallel
Friday, 2/1 – Evening
Zouken
He normally preferred subtler methods, long-term strategies composed of gentle nudging and sharp corrections here and there. Time was the ultimate expression of entropy, after all, and he preferred to savor the process, to wait until the subject was at that critical point where their will was weak enough to be pliable, yet strong enough to believe that the changes made had been of their own volition.
Now, though, time was short. His normal methods would be counterproductive for this particular case, so he opted for a more direct approach.
A flash of light. Once again, the Servant who appeared was not the one he intended to summon – though it was the one he had intended to summon originally. Curious.
"I am the Servant Rider. Which of you is my master?"
Hm? Ah, the boy. He was still there, hunched over on the ground and clutching his broken wrist. When he felt Zouken's gaze on him, he faced the old magus briefly before averting his eyes.
Zouken read a lot into that glimpse. Fear, hatred, self-doubt, shame, helplessness. But for the briefest of moments, there had been hope.
It seemed the boy still wanted to fight.
Zouken considered his options. Shinji's animosity towards Caster might prove to be beneficial, allowing him to earn the trust of both sides by playing them off each other. The effort required to create another Book would be relatively insignificant compared the possible benefit of having two Servants under his control.
But then again, Shinji would be Shinji, a spineless coward who only ever produced results in situations where victory was already assured. He was rash and unpredictable when driven to anger, which could end very poorly for him. Caster's beating had made that all too clear.
No. The boy was too unreliable, too irrational. This war could end in a victory for the Matou, but Shinji was not the one to lead them there.
He turned back to the Servant standing before him, savored the hope that was once again creeping into the boy's eyes, and announced:
"I am."
Saturday, 2/2 – Midnight
BOOM
Elsewhere, a certain young magus managed to complete a considerably less successful summoning of her own.
Sakura
Initially, it wasn't as bad as the other times. The broken wrist certainly slowed him down, though the blows he did connect with were more forceful than they usually were. The rest went as it normally did.
Then Grandfather came. Her last conscious thought was that she might not be able to get up on time tomorrow before pain became her world.
Caster
Maybe, if she retreated deep enough into her mind, she would stop feeling so damn guilty.
[1A: Adjusting concealment parameters: matching prana emissions with ambient mana levels. Setting baseline mana absorption rates… ]
[1B: It had to be done. Given the circumstances, it was a relatively good outcome. At least it isn't anything she hasn't been through before.]
[Twoa: Come on, cheer up. We're finally here, and we'll have the chance to see so many familiar, not-yet-hostile faces again! Rider, for starters.]
[Twob: Sucking od from schoolkids? I don't like this at all. If you're going to pick a fight, just do it mano a womano and get it over with.]
[III A: 1A, we should probably desync the emission level slightly from the environment. It's supposed to be a lure, remember?]
[iii b: after all you've done, this is what you hate yourself for? please.]
Nope. Didn't work.
"Rider. I'm done here."
These particular concealment/modification circles weren't her best work, but she had neither the time nor the motivation to make something more elegant. Besides, doing so would be counterproductive.
This was a trap, designed to catch a very specific kind of fool: the noble kind.
"… impressive. I wasn't aware that such alterations could be made to Noble Phantasms."
Rider. Under that cold mask were a pair of Mystic Eyes and a staunchly loyal heart, betrayed by a jealous goddess and driven to madness and despair. Though Caster was overjoyed to see her again, Zouken's actions had made sure that Caster couldn't consider her any less than an enemy.
"Well, it's still magecraft in the end, which just so happens to be what I'm good at. Besides, in my day I developed a reputation for messing with things that probably should have been left alone, so I'm used to this sort of work."
"… I see."
Rider fell silent again. It would be difficult to gain her confidence, considering how distrustful she was of anyone and anything. While Caster was sure Rider wouldn't get along well with Zouken, at the moment she had no real reason to betray him. Caster desperately hoped that she could come up with some way to make her an ally before it was too late.
[iii a: i guess you're the jealous one this time.]
Ride astralized as Caster cloaked, and both started their return journey to the manor, Caster reviewed the events prior to this excursion in her head, to find some moral justification for what she had done, however indirectly.
Finished with her business, she walked towards Sakura's room. Before she could make it, however, Zouken appeared, followed closely by… Rider?
Zouken is with Rider. This was not what was supposed to happen.
"Caster, this is Rider. You two will be working together from this point forwards."
Shinji is supposed to be Rider's Master. Shinji is not here. Zouken is. Therefore, Zouken is Rider's master?
This was not what was supposed to happen.
"Do not be impolite, Rider. Say hello."
"… hello."
Caster's neutral façade slipped for the briefest of moments, and Zouken grinned. He must have thought it was because she was afraid of Rider, of the limitations she represented to Caster's freedom. In a way, he was right and wrong: she wasn't scared, but it did narrow her options.
Dammit. The old man was supposed to give Rider to Shinji, after which she could dispose of the boy at her leisure, take control of Rider, and –
Wait. Shinji is not here. Shinji is not here.
She increased her audio sensitivity and heard a bed creaking in a room up ahead. This was not what was supposed to happen.
No. No no no no no no no nononononononononononono -
…
Because the core partition was in shock and no longer responding, it fell to Spek to process the rest of the conversation.
"As a… team-building exercise, you and Rider will lay bait for some of the more quixotic masters at the Fuyuki high school. With your skill at subterfuge and Rider's unique abilities, it should prove to be quite effective at concentrating these idealists for quick elimination."
Spek felt the core keep repeating the word "no" over and over. Due to the core's constant thought acceleration, that amounted to a lot of nos.
"Do an adequate job, and your Master may even be fit enough to attend school tomorrow."
Spektrum took over Caster's body processes, headed out with Rider, and hoped that she could forgive herself later.
As usual, she couldn't.
Saturday, 2/2 – Early Morning
Shirou
"SHIIIIROOOOOOUUUUUU! GOOD MOOOOOOORNIIII – eh? Where's Sakura-chan?"
It was a question Shirou had asked himself, but the only person who could answer it was, of course, not present.
"I don't know, Fuji-nee. She didn't say anything earlier, so maybe something came up?"
Unconvinced, Taiga started poking her nose under various pieces of furniture, as if Sakura was playing a particularly elaborate game of hide-and-seek where the other players had no idea that there was a game and they were playing. Finding no trace of her under the dining table or tatami mats, Taiga sighed as she accepted a bowl of rice from Shirou.
"Gaaaaaahhhhhh. This just isn't like her, you know? So sweet and responsible and punctual, she's the just a teacher's dream!"
Taiga paused to take a bite out of breakfast. Well, maybe "bite" was the wrong word. A closer synonym would be "inhale".
"Though you know, Sakura isn't just a teacher's dream. There's a lot of competition for her in the seedy underbelly of the school. Games of intrigue and romance and betrayal!... Not that you would ever be interested in such a thing, Shirou."
There was a savage glint in her eyes. "Nor should you ever be."
Shirou gulped. "O-of course not, Fujimara-sensei."
The moment of danger had passed, and Taiga returned to her normal, bubbly self. "Yep! That's my Shirou-kun!"
She tore back into her breakfast, and Shirou felt that it was finally safe to start eating himself. Thus, Taiga's next question caught him completely off-balance.
"So, are you going to be the man to take her away from all that?"
Shirou nearly choked. "Wha – "
"Sorry I'm late, senpai!"
A familiar voice called out from the doorway. Though he was trying to remember how to breathe, Shirou noticed that Sakura sounded different today. Strained, almost.
"Ah, Sakura-chan! Shirou-kun was just talking about you!"
"Huh? H-he was?"
She came into the dining room, with a blush on her face. She glanced briefly at him, blushed even deeper, and focused her attention squarely on Taiga.
It was, in a word, cute.
"W-what did he say?"
"You knowwwww. We were just talking about how– "
No. He couldn't let this continue.
"How you would be hungry if you missed breakfast today since you weren't here earlier so I might bring something to you when you had morning practice but now you're here so eat as much as you want!"
Way too close.
He glared at Fuji-nee, but she was too busy enjoying her third helping to notice. The Tiger of Fuyuki was a formidable opponent indeed.
Sakura was smiling sheepishly at him. "Oh… thanks, but since I woke up late today I already ate a little something at home. I just came over to help with the dishes."
Awkward.
Shirou ate the rest of his breakfast, Fuji-nee finished her forth portion, and Sakura ate a little something as well, though Shirou suspected it was more out of politeness than anything. True to her word, Sakura helped clean up as Taiga lounged around a bit, the spitting image of the slightly-irresponsible adult. Afterwards, Shirou escorted Sakura to the front door to see her off as she left for archery practice.
The whole time, he tried not think of Taiga's question.
"Senpai… thanks for thinking about me. It… it means a lot to me. Really."
She looked at him, and Shirou felt himself flush in spite of himself. It was useless: Taiga's question just wouldn't leave him alone.
"You're welcome. You're like a part of the family now, after all. Even if it's a minor thing like that, I'd be willing to help you out. That's what family does, right?"
Sakura smiled at him, but Shirou thought he saw the faintest trace of pain. It must have been his imagination, as her demeanor turned playful soon after.
"Be careful. I might just hold you to that."
She put on her shoes and skipped out the front door. Having some confusing feelings to sort through, he started to go back inside when he heard Sakura's voice again.
"Senpai?"
"Yeah?"
"Um… bring a sweater. It might be cold today."
Saturday, 2/2 – Morning
Rin
"A-choo!"
As Rin entered the school building, someone sneezed. "Brr. It's cold in here!"
And it was. Winters were usually mild in Fuyuki City, but the school was still heated to ward off the cold. Today, though, it felt like someone had amped up the air conditioning and dumped a truckload of dry ice into the hallways. It certainly wasn't this cold on the way to school.
She heard Archer's voice at her side. "Rin. Something isn't right."
"You mean besides this unnatural, prickly chill?"
She had detected a distorted prana signature when she entered the gate, but it vanished as soon as it appeared. She had dismissed it as a fluke. Now, she wasn't so sure.
"That's just it. I can feel it too."
… what? Archer was in his spirit form, meaning that mundane things like temperature and the laws of physics shouldn't affect him in his current state (proper decorum didn't affect him, either, though that applied regardless of the form he took).
If Archer could feel it, then…
"… then it's not a building-wide heater failure, is it?" She was looking forward to grilling Issei about it, too.
"Unlikely, considering that they're going full blast."
Rin checked a thermometer, and saw that while the air temperature was slightly cooler than regulation, it was still too warm for how cold she was feeling. Curiously, no one else bothered to check the instrument. Rin shifted gears mentally as her suspicions increased.
As she walked into the hall, someone's stomach growled rather loudly.
"So if it's not the body that feels cold…"
"… then it must be something else. I came to the same conclusion."
Rin frowned and consulted her memory.
There are two kinds of prana available for those who have the capacity to use it: mana, which is the ambient prana present in the world at large, and od, which is the prana generated by all animals that allow them to function – in other words, life force. Using mana to power the mysteries of thaumaturgy is standard practice amongst mages, as there is normally so much of it that a single spell usually wouldn't make much of a dent in local mana levels.
Because it takes time and effort to convert mana into a form humans can use, and because people are lazy, most mages resort to using a little bit of their od to get a spell going in the first place, Think of a spell as an internal combustion engine: the spark plug (od) provides the energy to start the combustion (spell), while the gasoline (mana) provides the energy to allow the reaction to continue.
Why is this important? If a person was drained of almost all their od at once, then they would suffer a number of severe problems, including physical incapacitation, permanently altered mental status, horrendous scarring of the body and mind, and death. If the drain was rapid, then they would do only slightly better, having to suffer such ills as physical exhaustion, temporary amnesia, heavy nausea, and hunger.
However, if the od drain was very, very slow, then all anyone would feel is a persistent chill before more advanced symptoms began to appear.
As she entered her classroom, a student yawned, slumped on his desk, and started to snore. Loudly.
"Archer. I have reason to believe that someone has placed a very subtle plundering field on the school. You are to sweep the grounds and notify me when you have found the source of the field."
She felt a flash of surprise, followed by intense focus as Archer began his search. At least he could be serious when the situation required it.
Souichirou-sensei stepped in to begin homeroom, but he was missing something.
"Ah. I appear to have forgotten my briefcase in the men's washroom. Please excuse me for a moment."
Rin sighed. It was going to be a long day.
Saturday, 2/2 – Afternoon
Shirou
Shirou put on his sweater as he entered the archery dojo. Shinji was supposed to be in charge of cleanup today, but since he broke his wrist, Shirou was "volunteered" to clean up the range instead. By himself.
He didn't really mind, though. It felt good to be helping a friend in need, and he was glad to have a little time alone. Issei had pestered him all day about fixing the school's heaters, while Shirou tried to convince him that they weren't actually broken. Given that the school remained unusually cold, his efforts were largely unsuccessful, and only a timely stomachache saved him from further exasperation. Shirou valued Issei as a friend, but occasionally he could be a little too much.
Besides, it gave him time to think about… other things.
Pulling a hood over his head to fight off the chill, he knelt down and got to work.
Saturday, 2/2 – Evening
Rin
"Here's one of them. I swear the damn things were toying with me. The signatures kept jumping to the opposite ends of the school before I could get close to one."
A magic circle was on the ground, its erratically shifting form perforated by a number of strange-looking arrows.
"I may have… damaged it slightly."
It was… how should she put it? It was haphazard, an amalgamation of different symbols, languages, lines, and curves, with sections of the circle not pierced by arrows shifting at regular intervals. It was messy, a bastardization of a variety of different magical theories, as if someone had copied diagrams ad nauseum and lumped them together in a random fashion. It was needlessly complicated, where intricate workarounds were devised to fill in for much simpler ideas, as if the circle's creator simply didn't understand the concept that would allow for greater parsimony in the design.
But most amazing thing was this: it worked. Very well, if Archer's annoyance was any indication.
It was, quite simply, the most hideous and most incredible thing Rin had ever seen.
"Archer. What do you make of this?"
Archer performed the spiritual equivalent of a shrug.
"I have no idea. It looks like someone ate a grimoire and regurgitated it."
Considering that someone had thrown up in class earlier in the day, she really didn't need that mental image right now.
"And yet, this conceptual vomitus was able to elude you for the better part of the day."
Archer bristled. "I still found it, didn't I?"
"After you shot it full of arrows. 16, if my count is correct."
"… point."
She knelt down to get a closer look. Some of the components were too damaged to examine, and she didn't understand the purpose of most of them, but Rin was able to make out a couple things here and there. Specifically, the part that plundered odic energy (which seemed to be able to lower its intake when a target's odic levels fell below a certain level), a rather ingenious method of detecting background mana levels without using any prana, and a slight error in the prana emission concealer which could only have been intentional, given the odd sophistication of the rest of the circle.
But more importantly, she found its power source.
Tracing the prana lines back to a specific point, she dug into the ground a bit, felt something smooth, and pulled out…
A jewel?
Huh?
Before her mind could start working again, however, the regular oscillations of the designs started to waver as the circle, deprived of its power source, began to collapse. The spasms grew slower and slower, until they eventually stopped. Shortly afterwards, the circle disappeared entirely.
What took its place was another circle of a completely different nature.
They were like night and day: while first circle was subtle and enigmatic, this circle was overt and incredibly potent. Painted with something disturbingly like blood, all Rin could feel from this second circle was a corrosive consumption, almost as if she were in something's stomach. It had only one purpose: to suck dry everything within its boundaries, leaving its victims little more than husks, barely alive and desperately wishing that they weren't.
Master or not, whoever had drawn these circles was very clearly an enemy.
"Archer?"
"Yes?"
"How many of these circles did you detect?"
"Around 7. Probably more."
Her expression hardened. "Shoot them. All of them."
He smiled.
"Master, it would be my genuine pleasure."
Caster
Well, that was fast.
Someone had already dismantled all of the concealment circles, and was most likely attempting to mess with the considerably more sinister ones underneath.
Spek. Projection mode. Combat configuration: long-range interdiction.
:: 6.4 seconds until ready.
Caster fully split her mind again. If it was going to be a fight against other Servants, she would need access to all her thought capacities.
[1A: Reviewing known characteristics of possible opponents. Servants: Archer, Archer, Assassin, Berserker, Lancer, Saber. Masters: von Einzbern, Ilyasviel. *skip*. Tohsaka, Rin…]
[1B: Fights are always chaotic. It's entirely possible that you'll be able to create a situation to undermine Zouken's control over Sakura.]
[Twoa: I want to study the meninges this time! Please?]
[Twob: Hell yeah. Let's do this. Preparing battle patterns. Primary: Long-Range. Secondary: Close-Quarters.]
[III A: Here we go… let me know if you need me to start the incantation.]
[iii b: body functioning at 83% capacity. current rate of decay is roughly 2% per hour.]
:: Ready. Opening storage dimension now.
She grabbed her bow and prepared to kill this wonderful, misguided fool.
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Shadow
It would wait. It had always waited, from the beginning of time.
Waited for someone who wished for it.
Waited for someone who longed for it.
Waited for someone who desired it.
The wait would be over soon. Already, someone had been located, their subconscious contacted. A harbinger, to bear all the evils of the world and realize the ultimate wish of humanity.
Soon, but not now. It had waited for such a long time.
It could wait a little longer.