-Page 50 B) Punch Shinji-
I cannot accept his terms. Shinji may offer good reasons, but at heart he is not someone I agree with. This is someone who shirks responsibility and most importantly hits his sister. These are some things I have a hard time forgiving.
I walk to him, but swat his stretched out hand out of my way before uppercutting Shinji below the chin. He flies a few feet in the air, but I have no intention to let him drop quietly. I twist my body so my other fist comes up above his head. Using the power and momentum of the twist I punch Shinji face first into the ground, the ground cracking beneath his face.
"This is to repay you for all the times you punched Sakura, Shinji!" I normally don't become angered, but for Shinji I'll make a single exception. I guess that our relationship is now very, very constrained.
Shinji's body twitches a bit, but he becomes still very quickly. I calm myself down, trying to regain focus. "Sorry, Shinji, but I just don't like your type."
I feel slight bloodlust coming from next to Shinji, and see an expressionless Rider look at me. Simply seeing her face tells me that if I take any action against her or try to flee she will hunt me down.
She kneels down beside her master, turning him on his back. Shinji looks a bit shaken from my assault, his only visible external injury being his broken nose. His face is bruised and blue, a complete reversal of his normal handsome exterior. I don't know what internal injuries he has, but if I had to guess I would say a broken jaw and mild concussion.
"He's not in any life-threatening danger." Rider remarks stoically. She finishes observing him and turns to me. She's not reacting on a servant's instinct. She's looking at me with analytical precision, ready to eliminate me if I perform an abnormality.
I simply stand there, meeting her gaze. For a time that seems like eternity we stand like this, but suddenly the tension drops.
"Go."
What I hear surprises me greatly. "Go?" Does she mean that. Is this not a trick?
"Go. His punishment has been dealt, and you hold no more hostile intent against him for the moment." I refocus myself, and notice that my entire body has been busy with escaping from Rider alive. My entire body relaxes at once, turning into a state of non-action, pure nothingness. But my mind is still on alert, in case Rider might lie to me. So do I trust her or not. I spend thinking for a few seconds before choosing:
"Then…" I make the difficult choice. I decide to trust Rider. I turn my back to her, and thank her for this opportunity.
"No…" I hear her speaking, emotion for the first time intertwined with her words. Slight tones of happiness are hearable in between syllables, a faint image that she is really happy about something. "…I need to thank you." I do not know what I've done to garner any thanks, but pleasure fills my soul. Even if it is an illogical thanks from a half-dead being, her slight happiness and thanks make me feel as if I just saved a city.
"Leave before Shinji wakes up." I listen to her advice, her hints of happiness gone. "Next time we meet, it is as enemies." Those last words break my new-gained joy, snapping me out of my own satisfaction. I nod once and move outside, of the chemistry lab. Quickly exiting school grounds I return to the meeting point with Cirno.
The place we meet is Fuyuki Central Park. Originally the Fuyuki Civic Center, it was completely destroyed during the Fuyuki fire of ten years ago, along with the surrounding area. Because it was cheaper to relocate the building rather than rebuilding it, the area where it once stood has been reformed to a park. Even though it lies in the center of the right half of the city and has been organized well, it's background leaves it completely empty with almost no visitors.
I don't like coming here. The grudges of those who died ten years ago still exist, even a third-rate magi like me feels somewhat pressured by the strong negative emotions. A first-rate magus would probably be paralyzed from the evil leftovers, and even spirits like the servants will probably receive a rank down in this place. The only protection that spirits can have is mental armor, something that my servant luckily possesses.
There's probably not a single master or servant interested in making this location their base. Not even one in a hundred master-servant combinations will be able to use this place to their advantage, and we are one of the exceptions. Cirno is right, this is a great meeting spot. I have to give credit to my servant, she managed to successfully turn a skill like Mental Disorder to her advantage.
I walk to the center of the park, where I find my servant next to a half-frozen lake. Next to her are a few clumps of ice, and Cirno seems to be making more of them. "Cirno, what are you doing?" Intrigued by my servant I let the question slip out of my mouth, disrupting my servant's concentration.
With a loud snap the ice clump Cirno is working on grows extremely fast before snapping apart, with a red liquid coloring the shards. Sighing she turns to me, explaining what she does: "I'm busy freezing the minions of my rival, the evil frog goddess!"
"Frog Goddess?" A new mention of my servant's history, telling of someone important in her life. I can only repeat the title of this rival, but Cirno seems in the mood to tell me more about it.
"Yes, the frog goddess, my fated rival! Goddess of earth and mountains, wielder of the finest steel, protector of the frogs, lord of subordinate curse gods; truly a person meant to be the rival of the strongest!" There is no hint of lying nor fear. This is a person who fearlessly fights Gods. A person who after being summoned as a servant will have a massive rank in bravery. Someone who can face anything without fear. "She even managed to pull a few narrow victories against me, even though I am the strongest."
Cirno admitting she lost? I'm starting to fear that the world might end today. Please tell me I'm wrong. "But don't worry, Shirou. She only won because she has more control over her powers, that's all. There's still nothing that can compare to me in pure strength!" Thank you, Cirno.
"So is this some sort of revenge?" If it is, then it is incredibly petty, even for her.
"Of course not! This is training!" Training? What kind of power can she gain from freezing normal frogs? "I lost because of my lesser control over my powers. Therefore I need to control my powers to miniscule levels. I train this by freezing a frog while keeping it alive, using only a minimum of my awesome power!"
"In other words, you use your own prana to influence the animal without trying to overload it?"
She thinks about it for a bit, taking quite long to answer the question. "Uhm… yes… I guess?" she answers hesitantly. But no matter. I think I have a new training method.
I sit down next to my servant and pick a frog from the lakeside. I place my hand on it as I start my magecraft:
"haa…" I stretch out, adjusting my breathing and emptying my mind, only paying attention on what is inside me. "Trace, on." Hypnotizing myself, I murmur the spellwords that I've long accustomed to. My father didn't leave me his magic crest, and I have no magic circuits I know of. To let the magical energy pass through this body I'm inserting a burning steel body in my backbone. Through this magical circuit I prepared the magical energy in my body will flow and succeed the magecraft.
Magecraft works by releasing the magical energy I filtered from the world through my makeshift magic circuit. "Haa…haa…" I need to control my breathing. If I lose control here the magical rod will eat away my body. Focus on breathing, and let the steel rod sink into my backbone.
Almost one hour. It takes me that long to produce one artificial magic circuit. The frog in my hand has long given up escaping, and now sleeps in my hand. "Basic structure, analyze." I can only perform one type of magic: strengthening objects beyond their normal abilities. First I analyze the structure, in this case the frog. Form, temperature, inside organs, magical energy; A complete blueprint of this animal forms into my mind. Now to alter that organism:
"Basic structure, alter." Channeling energy into the frog, reinforcing its body to levels beyond common sense. This would usually be like giving poison to this frog. Just like the blood of myself and the blood of this frog are different so are our magical energies. The frog will normally reject this kind of energy, which will only lead to its downfall. To prevent this from happening I need to exactly know the structure of this frog and channel the energy into the small open spaces.
"Composition, reinforce." This skill, which is child's play for an official magus, is as hard for me as shooting a target hundreds of meters away. While I have no problem hitting my targets at normal range, this is still four times more difficult then what I'm used to.
Slowly I administer the energy to the frog. Control the flow, don't let it overflow. Stay in command of it, keep analyzing it until the frog is filled.
Fifty percent… seventy-five percent… ninety percent… As I reach the limit that this frog allows I continue decelerating the speed of the flow, slowly bringing it to zero. Ninety-five… ninety-eight… ninety-nine…
Almost there!
"Composition, finalize." The last units of prana are inserted. The limit is almost reached.
In three seconds… two, one… finish!
The burning pillar in my backbone disappears, and my lungs stretch, demanding air. Rapidly inhaling air I fall back, recovering from my magecraft. I look at the frog, whose awake body now escapes from its kidnapper. Instead of hopping away like a normal frog it jumps several meters in the air, its legs aided by my magecraft.
It's a success. My magecraft… it's a success!
Then Cirno freezes the frog, which causes the still unstable concentration of prana in the frog to explode. And there goes my success…
"Finally finished?" I realize that I made Cirno wait for more than an hour while I was performing my magic. I apologize for this, but looking at the ice castle behind her I would say she'd been busy with her things.
Leaving the training behind us we move on to the reason for gathering: a strategy meeting. Cirno turns into her scholar form, the red-rimmed glasses appearing on her face. She looks to suffer a bit, her stats receiving a degradation of her stats. Even so she continues, her statistical power not really mattering. Scholar's weapon, her mind, is not affected by this place. She pulls out a map she took with her when she left our residence and folds it open, showing a map of the city.
"Let's first review what we know." Cirno asks for a marker, which I take from my school bag and give it to her. She draws circles on the map, one in the north-left of the map, giving it the name S9. From its location I determine that it's our home. "Shirou, do you know where the Tohsaka live?"
She asks for the other pair we already determined before today, and although I have never been there I did hear her address once: "3-13-3, Kitano-cho." We look up the location of said house on the map, and after finding it Cirno encircles it, giving it the name T3.
Cirno then asks me about what I discovered today. I tell her all about Shinji and Rider, about how he approached me, our exchange of information, his offer, and my reaction to said offer. She asks me where Shinji resides, and I point to its location on the map…
…which is less than a minute walking away from the Tohsaka mansion. It's funny that I never noticed that before.
"So these two will probably vie for control of southern Miyama. Any ideas who will win?" I go over the rather limited knowledge I have of the two servants.
"Shinji will lose that fight." I've known Shinji for a long time, having spent a long time with his conceit and vain personality. He lacks the power to back up his claims, constantly overestimating himself. Even if Shinji's servant is better than Tohsaka's, she has the absolute advantage in wisdom, strategy and probably also magic circuits, if Shinji's downfall is to be believed. Sakura… I believe she can safely stay at the Matou manor. From my interactions with Rin she is the type of person who will not hurt needlessly, and the Heroic Spirit… I'll assume that it lives up to its name as a hero.
"Okay, but let's just assume that if they're going to fight only one will survive, meaning that there's one powerhouse to the south." She then circles two other places on the map, places that I know as the Ryuudou temple and the Fuyuki church. "There are also servants around these places. It makes sense, these ae two of the four areas in the city where the cities leylines cross."
"Leylines?" My knowledge of theoretical magecraft is close to nil, but this is a good chance to learn more.
"Basically the magic circuits of the earth, and quite often used by magi to draw mana from the earth." Cirno takes my bag and pulls a different colored marker out, and starts drawing four slightly winding lines. These places cross at four different places: Ryuudou temple, Fuyuki Church, Tohsaka's house and the park where we're currently standing. Then these must be the places where the ley lines cross, and also where servants are most likely to make their stronghold.
But those four places are not the only interesting ones on the map. One of the lines runs straight through my house, and another goes through the Matou manor. "Does this mean that all masters have their hideout on one of the lines?"
"It's not wrong to assume that the bases of the masters hiding in Fuyuki are somewhere on this line. It's a pretty advantageous position." She points to the two points she discovered, claiming that there's something special about both of them. "First of all, the church is deemed neutral ground for this war, and a place to go to for masters who lost their servant in the war and forfeit their right of participating. I don't know why that servant is camping out near the church, but that doesn't matter. Don't go near that place alone, Shirou." I never intended to.
"For the temple… I can feel multiple servants there, of which one is without a doubt Caster. There's no doubt that the strongest can beat them even together, but I don't want to recklessly charge in. There's also the problem that there's a powerful anti-servant barrier around the place, preventing me from entering through any way except the front door, which doesn't have those enchantments."
It's breaking into a fortress. The only options are enough firepower to destroy the fortress, enough wisdom to plan a way through it or enough luck to win the total battle. As we are now, we cannot win from them.
"But I can bypass the fortress' defenses if I use my Caster form. However, it's restriction is rather annoying." I listen with opened ears, wanting to know more about my servant. "It has the ability to mess with her border, but I have to spend nine hours in base form. However, breaking Caster's barrier will be totally worth it."
"So when do you plan to fight, Cirno?"
"Tomorrow, very early in the morning, we'll strike them, then and there."
No. That's not possible. "There are monks living at that temple. They'll probably wake up quite early for some sort of morning ritual-"
"Shirou." Cirno turns ice cold, her reply being short, precise and clear: "Those monks have probably already been turned into pawns for Caster's schemes. A strong magus like her will probably use others like those monks as half-dead prana batteries."
"No…" Even more people that I cannot save. Why am I so powerless… "In that case…" There's only one option. I will free those monks. If Caster really made them her slaves then I will free them. "Let's commence the attack tonight. That's our strategy for today."
Cirno nods to my proposal, but does ask the question of what we're going to do with the rest of the time.
"For now, let's just do some things you want. I guess that there's something out there that will interest you."
"In other words, a date?"
"N-No!" What are you talking about, Cirno? "It's just me showing you around Fuyuki. Besides, I'm not a lolicon."
"Tsk, picked the wrong route…" Cirno mutters under her breath. She still has those moments that I don't understand what she is talking about. Is this what they call transcended intelligence?
But no matter, whatever Cirno is or becomes, she stays a friend of mine. We stand up, with me preparing to show her around town.
When we arrive at Fuyuki Central station I look at the clock and see that it's already past six… which means that within an hour Sakura will have dinner ready at home, leaving little time for me and Cirno to explore the city. So I decide to show her the shopping district where I usually go to buy the ingredients for my cooking. We walk through the city, over the big bridge connecting the two parts of the city, over the road separating the western and eastern-styled houses, and over the hill that contains all the shops.
Cirno walks through the district like a child set loose in a candy store. She goes though almost every store, looking at the wares displayed, and sometimes getting free stuff from the owners. It's one of the advantages of being a cute kid, it usually leads to free stuff from gentle people.
I try to stay somewhat close to her, trying not to get her out of my sight. The people in the district quickly make the connection between us, realizing that we are together. Some of the store clerks with whom I am somewhat close ask me about her, to which I reply that she is a relative of my late old man. The people accept it as the truth, asking me to take good care of that girl. A few ask me what those wings on her back are, but only the younger generations do. The older ones accept it as some sort of modern fancy-pancy accessory that kids these days wear way too much. It's as good as any excuse so I tell the same things to the younger people who ask more questions than needed.
The main advantage of shopping with a young girl is that people tend to give me small extras for her sake, which I gratefully accept. Less money spend on food means more money for magecraft materials.
I look somewhat in the distance, and I feel the same vibe from over there as that we have. Is someone else performing the same strategy as us?
"Huh?" The other person who is employing this cuteness strategy is now visible before my eyes. A young girl with silver-white hair and red eyes, who looks at me as if she stands above me. Without realizing I hold my breath, and my body tenses. Cirno notices her too, and suddenly stands in front of me.
"So you finally summoned one too, Onii-chan." She says as she walks past me, the last two words spoken like a mockery. She turns around, looking at me in a playful manner. "But she looks kind of weak. Although that's only natural, there's nobody who can be called strong compared to the strongest serva-"
An icicle spear meant to harm shoots out from Cirno and tries to impale this girl, who only barely dodges it. "You'll regret boasting like that when you get cryo-freezed by the real strongest, little girl." Her voice contains pure malice, I don't even dare to disrupt her and point out that she's a little girl too.
I step back a step before I know it, and it seems that most other shoppers seem to follow my example and move away from the cuttable tension in the air.
"Calm down, Berserker." The girl says as the bloodlust around her completely disappears. It's incredible. With her servant simply standing by there is absolutely no hostile intent from this girl. She does not even consider us threats. "While I would like to play with you, Onii-chan, I'm afraid that it's a bit too crowded here. Perhaps I'll make a visit in the next few days." She twirls around, as if Cirno doesn't existand is not threatening her at all. "Or if you want, you can come to my place. It's the big castle in the forest outside town, it's pretty hard to miss." She walks away, still completely ignoring Cirno. "See you later, Onii-chan. Try not to die with your weak servant before then!" I blink once, and she's gone. I look at my servant, who is quite pissed.
"That bitch…" She is angered, the air around us quickly dropping to level of perfect freezing. Even though it becomes unreasonably cold, I don't feel it as much around me as that the solid air around me seems to be. Cirno lets out a dissatisfied grunt, and the solid air becomes normal once more. "Stupid girl." She turns to me, a smirk on her face that doesn't fit her angry eyes. "Don't worry, Shirou. A weakling like her has to resort to psychological warfare or tiny advantages like home base. There's no need to fear that girl and her weakling Berserker, even if they act like they are stronger. Believe in the you that believes in me, and it will be all right."
I guess she's right. I do not know the servant of this girl. It's strength may be low, or it may be enormous. But I have seen Cirno in action, and I know that she's amazing. So I will trust her. I trust that she will be able to win; that she will be able to help me become a hero of justice; that we will fulfill our dreams. I put my trust in my servant, so I have nothing to fear. The only weakness I have to overcome is myself.
"So Shirou, want to make a visit to the forest, or should we wait until she attacks us? I don't care, the outcome will be the same: zero for that girl, and nine for me. Perfect Fatality!"
I take the map out of the schoolbag and draw the last location on it, along with the information we already know: in the outskirts of Fuyuki, the forest area to be precise, lies a castle where a little girl and her Berserker made their residence. "No, we'll stick with the plan we made. I doubt she'll attack tonight, most likely she'll attack in a day or two. It will be nice if we at least rescue the temple's inhabitants before then."
"If you say so, Shirou." We've spend enough time in the shopping district, and Sakura probably has dinner ready. We go home, where we spend an uneventful evening. After Sakura leaves home I take a quick nap, sleeping for a few hours until it is time for our confrontation with Caster.
We leave home in the dead of night. Due to gas leaks and explosions, which I start to guess are actually cover-ups for servants doing evil things, nobody is out at night. This means that Cirno and I can do what we want to do without being noticed.
We arrive at the bottom of the stairs leading to Ryuudouji temple. However, that is not the entrance we want to take. We want to dispel the barrier surrounding this place, so we must enter from the back. Instead of taking the higher path we take the path around the mountain, making sure we're not seen.
After fifteen minutes we reach a good destination. Covered yet open enough that enemy attacks can be seen coming from a distance.
"Hey Shirou, how long has it been since we talked in the park?" I check my watch, and see that a little less than ten hours have passed since then. Cirno smirks, claiming that it is time for another facet of the strongest to prove her awesomeness.
And thus she transforms, to a form even I did not imagine. Gone is the cute kid, an adult woman now standing in her place.
Her aqua-colored hair has grown, reaching to beyond her waist. She reaches almost to my height, only a few centimeters being the difference between us. And even though her face still looks cute her body, and I cannot believe I'm saying this, beats Rider in the curves department.
Her clothes have also changed: She still wears a blue dress, albeit the decoration pattern on the bottom has changed to a combination of black and white. Instead of wearing a white blouse underneath the dress she wears a blue sleeveless top above it, with a silver necklace falling from her shoulders onto her ample bosom.
The greater part of her arms are covered in wide-falling black cloth with white edges, held together by a blue ribbon that gradates into yellow. Around her neck is a white muffler, wrapped twice around her with the edges falling down the back of her body. The only things she kept the same from her old form are the six ice wings on her back and the blue ribbon in her hair. This is how Cirno's Caster form looks like.
"Master, are you all right?" Cirno waves her hand in front of my face, snapping me out of staring at her new form.
"Y-yeah. I'm all right, Cirno. And even if your form changes you can still call me Shirou." She nods, before focusing on the barrier. She raises her hands and places them on the invisible barrier, magical energy flowing between the two. "And how are you planning to bypass this barrier, Cirno?"
"An enemy of mine used to say that 'magic is all about power, ze!'" Ze? "So I'll simply overload this barrier into oblivion." More magical energy flows from her body, and the barrier turns to ice, quickly spreading all over the temple. "Haaah!" With a final scream the entire barrier shatters into pieces, letting us proceed to attack the enemy. We start walking upwards, towards the temple at the top of the mountain.
We run, we run, we run. We look out for any persons who might try to start a fight, keeping caution while moving quickly. Eventually we reach the temple ground, where we meet a lone person stannhu dslf fj fsjfjh fjhadf jasdofj fafo diosdj aslkdfj sl dfjhj adjfh sadoi a lfj qwc qfx pknf sldjfh oqlvm jf pqox.
What's going on? T sdf qwer kvfj mdkc okemc je pbjd klpq cnedo qqw qw qwkd dvnef dfkn socd k. My memories of this event are completely scrambled. Jofc pwo v fn goks dfln dpogjdfjk dof slfkp nxe jkeodj dm rm eodfjsc okdm slm mckeo nso! I know I entered the temple grounds… but after that…
Jsk qwpoi lmnf pifjc wplj k djd kwdp kxjkjo mkp vjher jwk bnj gtui pq?! Try to remember. There was this person… and then after that… djof wj kd girjo dn po dpicjnkdsj don jwdpokpo wdoije ron kjpq qiwdj oigj vncp piojef jkeh orij dbji pok gywuiq ,zlcvjodgj fl.
Something is dreadfully wrong with this lapse of knowledge. I should ask Cirno later. Dfogh pkdj po shnjq pdfk ejkljsee Cirno standing there in the middle of the grounds, her breathing ragged and her body covered in quite the amount of wounds. I too, feel horrible. My throat burns, and my eyes sting painfully, I can barely open my eyes.
The battlefield around us is ruined: Ice covers a great part of the temple, covering buildings with a layer of it, or just some shards of ice stuck in random parts of the building. A thin layer of mist is left hanging around this place, but it dissolves quickly after noticing it. There is even a massive ice sword splitting one of the sheds in half. Of the opponent there is no trace left.
In front of us stands Caster, a grimace on her face as she both trash-talks and compliments Cirno: "You've performed well. I still cannot grasp how you managed to survive Assassin's insta-kill move, Sabe-, no, I cannot call you Saber. You were an obvious Saber, but in this battle you fought like a Caster. What exactly are you, servant?"
"Well…" Cirno says strained but much more polite then she was in any previous form, "I used to call myself the strongest, so you can call me that if you want. Another title I gained when I was shooting some bullets is Unnatural Chill, but I don't really associate with that."
"Hah." Caster lets out a small cackle. "Well then, lady of the unnatural chills, I must comment you on your fighting style. For a magus who only uses ice, you've managed to hold quite well against someone with natural advantages against you."
"I'm sorry, but who did I fight against?" Cirno asks to Caster, which shocks me. Not even Cirno remembers who she fought?
Caster simply smiles, claiming that "Assassin has a nifty ability that makes remembering it very hard." She isn't even giving away the gender of this servant, that's how much of a secret Assassin is. "While it isn't the servant I wanted to summon, it is still quite capable of defending this place."
Cirno and I simply look at Caster, who gives Assassin the order to stand back and only act against hostile actions.
"So, what do we do now, Ci-my Servant?" Caster does not want to give away any clues, So neither do I. Even so, the battle seems to have ended, which means that I need a new plan of action. I can retreat, but I still want to save the inhabitants of the temple.
"Well, I'm offering a special deal for you two." Instead of Cirno it is Caster who answers my question. "I really like people like you, boy. Your actions and words during the fight were interesting me. How you are trying to save others, and even taking blows for your much more durable servant. I like people as straightforward as you. And as for your servant… at least her Saber form is cute, so I'll tolerate her."
I take the compliment, but stay on guard. "So?" I still haven't heard her deal, which is the thing that worries me the most. "Cut to the chase."
"Straightforward as always, huh. Then let me tell it directly: Join forces with me. I have a way to end this war."
Oh? She interests me with this proposal. Ending this war and its pointless bloodshed is what I want the most, however: "How can I trust people like you who turn people into mindless puppets?"
"Hnn?" Caster looks at me, not knowing what I am talking about. "Mindless puppets? What are you talking about?" The words she speaks do not feel as lies, but I want to be sure. Sure that she is not responsible for all the deaths that have been appearing on TV during the last week.
"All those death on TV, and the monks at the temple that you keep under your control." I speak, hatred for the person who did that deed.
"The servant most likely to do that is Caster, considering how the prana was extracted from their body." Cirno adds to my reasoning, strengthening my argument.
Caster thinks about it before laughing it off. "It's true that I am a likely suspect, but I have no intention of needlessly harming others until they intend to harm me. Why don't you go and take a look: The monks here should still be peacefully sleeping, the worst that happened to them is a little mind alteration to accept me in here. When you look at them, try not to make too much noise, or you'll wake them up.
I ask Cirno to check on the inhabitants of the temple. She does as told, leaving me and Caster alone. I have time to ask a deciding question, one that will determine whether or not I will join Caster: "This plan of yours, to end the war. How will you accomplish my goal."
"Oh?" Caster asks with light sarcasm, "suddenly interested in my goal? That's unexpected."
"Don't cut the crap, Caster." I speak with tranquil fury, willing to fight her if the temple monks have been made into puppets. "If you're really good at heart, I don't mind joining you. However, I won't work together with random killers. So tell me your plan, Caster. If I like it and my servant brings back positive news, I will join you. So tell me your plan, Caster!"
With a chuckle she tells me of her plan: "Listen well, boy. What I'm telling you is something none of the other servants and not even the moderator knows." I stand alerted, knowing that the following information is key information: "Under this mountain is the greater grail located. It's what will eventually manifest the wish onto this world after gathering enough energy, and I did a bit of research on it. It turns out that it has been corrupted by all the evils in the world, Angra Mainyu."
"What?!" My world breaks apart as I learn that the thing I fought for will become a destructive force even in the hands of good. So if I stop the enemy and win the war, I lose, and if another person wins the Grail I also lose. Is there no solution for this dilemma?
"It's true. Manifesting the grail will probably destroy Fuyuki city, if not more. Of course, this only happens if it manifests. Although I do not care for its manifestation, the destruction of this city that will follow it goes against my wishes."
"Wishes?" I ask, wondering what a witch of ages before modern technology can want, although there is one more thing that doesn't settle with me: "And what do you mean with 'I don't care if the Grail manifests?"
"My wish is to spend time with my lovable master like a normal happy couple. If this city is destroyed then my master might die within the fire, and even if he survives he doesn't have the Greater Grail left to prepare the majority of the prana needed for my continuous materialization. Therefore, I need the Grail to keep existing without forming itself into reality." It is still unbelievable, the true form of the Grail. However, she still didn't answer why she didn't care about evil forming into the world, which I point out to her. She realizes this, and quickly gives her answer: "As for that, I blame the fact that my master summoned me with a Neutral Evil alignment. Our reactions to evil plans that do not hinder us are treated with an indifferent meh." Go figure, I thought that heroic spirits tend to be of at least neutral alignment.
I simply look Caster in the eye, annoyed by her words but not angered by them. She may be Neutral Evil. But she is still salvageable. She can still be saved! If only Cirno brings back good news. "Then Caster, how will you solve this problem?"
"To make a wish on the Grail at least five servant's energy needs to be returned to the Grail. To prevent the Grail from manifesting three or more servants need to be alive. There's me, there's Assassin, and there's your servant. If we combine our strengths and do not kill each other, then we can live peaceful and happy lives here in Fuyuki. Evil will not manifest upon the world, I get to spend fun days with my master, and even Assassin can get its wish fulfilled. How does that sound, boy? Is that not the perfect solution for this war?"
She has a point. She is without a doubt right. But that doesn't automatically mean she's correct. It's merely a superficial truth, one that can easily change into an illusion. If she is correct I'll gladly form an agreement with her. I do not know if I can trust her, but I'll find out soon enough, as Cirno returns from scouting the temple grounds.
"And, how is the situation?" I ask to my servant, eagerly waiting for an answer. Her answer strengthens the truth in Caster's words, making me believe her more and more.
"Fine then. I'll trust you for now, Caster. However, if you plot evil actions against the people of this city, I'll strike you down." I step forward, and reach out my hand to her. "But if you will work for good, then I'll join you."
Caster turns down her hood, revealing the face of a beautiful young woman with hair slightly darker than CIrno's and ears shaped like those of elves. She too stretches her hand out, firmly grabbing onto mine. Even though she has such a slender build her grip strength is far beyond that of an average human, easily capable of breaking my hand if she wants to.
But she doesn't. She has made terms that make me want to work together with her: Stop the manifestation of the Grail. Do not commit evil acts against the people of this city. Get both mine and her wishes fulfilled. Our views, even though they differ, overlap enough for a well-bonded corporation.
"Then on a good alliance, boy."
"Likewise, Caster."
Status Screen Improved!
-Page 61 end-
If you've gotten here, congratulations! This mean that Shirou has successfully managed to live through the first two days. For those of you wondering why this is important… well, these two days are what decided which route you take. There are twelfe routes in total, now let's see which amazing route you lot have chosen:
Please imagine a drum roll, because I cannot make one…
Tadaa! You've landed on Route K: New Argonian Covenant!
Of course, your role isn't over. If you continue this route then the next 7-9 days will be spend trying to make Shirou survive and get one of the route's endings. While there are fifty possible good endings, you can only access five from this route. It would be unwise to give you all the possible routes, because spoilers. However, I if I give you no information about the possible endings you will lack the knowledge to wisely decide which route you want to follow. Therefore I will give two of the endings on every route, so you have a general idea of what to expect. For this route these are the following finishes:
-Caster Ending
-Assassin Ending
-?1?
-?2?
-?3?
Now about the route's structure: it is slightly different from the prologue. Of course, there's still you avoiding bad ends, but the story is much more narrowed down. However, this is the place where you gather love points for the endings. Certain choices in the story will give you love points for a character, and other choices require a level of love points to make the option available. Other important choices for an ending might not show up if you pick the wrong choices, so make sure to choose wisely!
Of course, you will miss quite a lot if you focus on this route. Certain epic scenes will not unfold on this route. Because we don't want to be too spoilery, I'm not that much of an ass, here are exactly two events which will not unfold on this route:
-Cirno, Shirou, Rin and Archer vs Berserker and Illya
-Shirou, Kiritsugu's heritage and a lot of C4 vs Rin and the Tohsaka estate
So, what will you choose? Will you continue this route? Does it interest you? Or are you more interested in more exploration of different routes? In that case, please select a non-chosen route from the current available options and put it in the review. And don't forget that the same rules apply about who gets to choose the route!
A) Continue route K: New Argonian Covenant - Go to page K01.
B) Select a new route – Go to page 1.