Author's note:
Jesus Christ! I didn't expect this update to take so long. Months... this is inexcusable. Gotta buck up on my work.
In any case! Here's Chapter 6. Unfortunately, all my replies to past reviews seem to have been lost in the sands of time. In any case, there's a lot of of plotholes in the past few chapters (believe me, I'm aware) and I'll be filling them up one by one as time passes.
Thank you, Eldest Tempest! Your faithful and dedicated support is the only reason this Chapter has arrived here, today! Enjoy the story ahead!
Lucy's glazed eyes pored over the pile of old tomes, her eyes flitting leisurely from plot to intriguing plot. Thanks to the crazy old Duke of Everlue, her tiny library had grown that much wider, and after that crazy incident at Oshibana town, she finally had the time to read all of it.
"Honestly, Lucy, how do you even read these things?"
Lucy's eyebrow twitched, her ears painfully registering each step, as Natsu trudged into the library. The pinkette mage flitted lazily from page to page, only to find each plot more soporific than the last. Before long, he lost interest altogether and tossed the offending book over his shoulder. Beside his feet, Happy grumbled something inaudible about books and fish, and promptly followed his example.
"Hey! Don't treat books like this! These are valuable, you know?" Clumsily, Lucy's hands caught the first book, then the other. "Who knows what amazing stories are written in here!"
Her eyes lit up as she caught sight of the second title. "See? This one's about King Arthur. It's as rare as they come!"
"B-o-ring…" came the lazy reply. A violently shove later, Natsu was on his feet and the boring books, on the floor. "Happy, these stories are lousy. Why don't we find us a job!" He strode out, and with an enthusiastic "Aye, Sir!", Happy flitted out with him. Only an open-jawed Lucy remained, glancing in absolute disbelief from her team to her beloved books.
King Arthur and the Holy Grail, Boring!?
Lucy's eyebrows scrunched, and scrunched some more, and by the time Natsu stepped out, they were a giant dead knot. "Serves him right, anyway," she huffed, opening the rare storybook in frustration. "It's not my fault if he doesn't know about Guinevere and Lancelot…"
Suffice to say, Lucy had heard many good things about the book. She looked forward to reading all of it. Without interruption from a certain annoying kid and his equally annoying cat, preferably. And right now...
… Lucy glanced at the doorway. No sign of pink hair, nor any tufts of blue. Almost delightfully, she threw herself back onto the chair. The book cover was flung open, and before long, the blonde found her azure eyes flitting attentively from page to page.
The story didn't disappoint at all. From the moment Uther Pendragon foresaw his death, to the enigmatic wizard Merlin's arcane prophecy and the young squires' crazy exploits under Sir Ector, Lucy found herself utterly invested in the young Arthur's story. Even in the short snippets she'd seen, Arthur looked like an honest, honourable man.
Just like a prince! A King to be! Such stalwart principles, such unshakeable ideals? Oh, how she wished he were alive, ready to ride up to her one day, and scoop her up in his hands!
So, it was with great consternation that Lucy realized how much trouble Arthur was in, when Kay suddenly realized that Arthur had forgotten his sword. She gnawed anxiously at her nails as the young, honest Arthur ran from blacksmith to blacksmith, hoping for a sword that Sir Kay could use, only to find that the blacksmiths were all hired for the tournament. Too honorable to borrow one from another participating knight, and too honest to steal, the young man caught a rumour about a sword buried in an anvil before the church, that nobody had been able to pull out.
Her hands almost shook with suspense as she turned the page, watched Arthur approach the sword and wrap his hands around it. Could he pull it out?
"Hey, Lucy!"
And there he goes again!
"What is it this time?"
With an explosive sigh, Lucy rose from her exciting tale and turned to the grinning pinkette. "You're uncommonly cheerful," she snorted, throwing a lazy glance at her partner. "Did you beat Gray up, or worse yet, destroy Erza's cake?"
"No, something even better!" Natsu replied belatedly. "Listen, Lucy, this trumps pranking Gray and Erza any time of the day!" The fire mage released a bout of fire to prove his point. Black soot trickled down her hair, and Lucy had to restrain her eyebrow from its uncontrollable twitching.
"Happy, show her," Natsu added belatedly, shoving Lucy's increasingly annoyed frown aside. The flying blue cat dived in and revealed in its paws… a blank piece of paper?
"This isn't some kind of joke, is it?" Lucy deadpanned, scanning the paper suspiciously. "You didn't break me off from The Legend of King Arthur to give me a… random… … job… …. …"
No, this wasn't possible. There had to be some kind of mistake, Lucy had seen enough job posters to know that. Sure, people were generally generous with Fairy Tail, but they couldn't be that generous, could they?
They were offering SEVEN MILLION JEWELS for something as run-of-the-mill as breaking a curse! With that money, no, with even a quarter of that prize, she wouldn't even need to worry about rent for the next hundred-odd months! Surely nobody could be that free with their money, right?
Wrong, because right beneath the poster was a stamp that made even Lucy's jaw drop.
"You didn't!"
"Happy did," Natsu lied smoothly. "That idiot Laxus taunted us about S-class jobs and payouts. Whoever let him be S-class, anyway?" he huffed. "We can do a job just as well as he can!"
Lucy's eyebrow twitched even more violently. What was Natsu thinking, trying for an S-class Quest? Aside from the very obvious fact that neither Natsu nor Lucy herself (sadly) were S-class mages, and, hence, allowed to take on such a quest, S-class quests were on a level of difficulty that beggared her tongue to describe. The privileged few who could take them on, S-Class mages, were the elite of the elite, mages so capable with their magic that some could wipe an entire Dark Guild out on their own.
Even for these… Titans… among mages, S-class quests were arduous, life-threatening. In the form of legendary monsters, ancient magic constructs and dark guilds, danger awaited every ambitious S-class Mage at every corner. At the thought of meeting a monster strong enough to confront Erza, even Lucy felt the shudder in her knees.
And now Natsu was suggesting that they, just him, Lucy, and Happy, take on this job? Did that guy have a death wish?
"No, I won't be going." Lucy crossed her arms and turned back to her book. "I'm too young to die."
"Then I guess I'll be selling the Celestial Key," Natsu decided, strutting off before the stupefied Lucy.
Wait, there was a Celestial Key?
"Please do!" Happy urged him. "I bet I can buy a lot of fish with that money!"
"FINE! I'LL COME!"
The duo turned in mock surprise at the red-faced blonde. Lucy could feel her temple throbbing, now. They were planning this all along, weren't they!
"Why didn't you mention the Celestial Keys earlier? I'll come," Lucy insisted, hurriedly throwing together her travel kit of one sleeping bag and a spare set of clothes. As she turned to follow Natsu out, Lucy scooped the book into her hands. It seemed only right to finish such a wonderful story.
She looked at the book and froze. On the open page, Arthur reached for the sword in the stone, but could he really succeed in pulling out the sword where so many others had failed?
No, wait. Something was wrong. She had seen that sword before. That blue pommel, the golden hilt, the sapphire encrusted blade, she had all seen those before. That sword…
… it belonged to Shirou, did it not?
*The Fairy Who Could*
The ritual was ongoing when it happened.
Lyon watched with increasing disbelief and frustration as the falling curtain of purple raindrops ground to a slow stop, widened his eyes at the heads and bodies, turning away from the ritual and toward something behind him. The Moon Drip ritual was almost complete, Deliora almost ready for him to take down in Ur's stead. It was something he- no, something they had looked forward to for three long years! So why-
"Reitei-sama!"
Mellow, affectionate, and utterly inappropriate given their relationship, the honorific dragged Lyon out of his growing shock. Beside him, another mage in shockingly pink hair and twin tails turned, her affectionate professions forgotten. Gradually, with the white cloak billowing majestically behind him, the bewildered ice mage turned toward the spectacle, the ongoing ritual behind him entirely forgotten.
And for a brief moment, he felt a second wave of surprise claim him.
He would forever remember it as a second sunrise, a stunning burst of light that flooded the both the temple and the devastated villagers within with rays of liquid gold- no, like the sun's yolk dragged across the atmosphere, an entire pillar of blinding white stretching from horizon to zenith. Even then, he felt the words were inadequate, dwarfed by the actual scene as he was by the purple Moon above him.
"Reitei-sama," Sherry gushed, "such brilliance! Is it not unlike the magnificence of my love for you?" Those words passed through the masked mage unheeded. The holy luminescence seized his attention for one second, two, and then an entire minute, before he finally realized what it would mean.
Firstly, something-or someone- very powerful had entered Fiore.
The brilliance gave it away. Those rays covered half the horizon, stretching so far they licked upon his temple. Anything that incredible, that powerful, could match, no, it could easily surpass his power. It might even compete with his powerful teacher, Ur, herself!
And secondly, that he, Lyon Vastily, had to get his hands on it. What better target to prove his incredible prowess against?
"Toby!" He yelled, eyes still glued to the gleaming spire of light in the horizon. "Fetch me Zalty at once!" He wasn't the only one to spot it, and he would definitely not be the only person to pursue it. He had to get the artefact, and to do so, he had to get there first. No one was more worthy of it than him. He would ask his best subordinate to fetch it for him-
"Lord Reitei, the old man just left!"
The dog's annoying accent hit him like a bucket of cold water. Why did his best subordinate have to leave right now? Damn, he'd have to get over there himself!
"Woah! What is that bright light in the distance, my lord?"
The dog-headed mage barely shut his mouth before a giant ball of ice encased him. The servant was as annoying as he was stupid, and for once, Lyon had had enough of his henchman's idiocy.
*The Fairy Who Could*
Across the bridge from the Shinto district, hidden beneath the silhouettes of neighbouring townhouses, the Emiya Residence awaited. In the past two years, the sprawling Japanese Mansion had become home to many guests, among them heroes, kings and magi of every stripe and crest, its leaf-strewn entrance host to True Magicians.
Now, no light passed through the front. No shoes accompanied the front door. The mansion before Rin's eyes looked dilapidated, abandoned, almost as if is once lively halls had been emptied of its illustrious guests.
No, not emptied, she corrected herself. Abandoned, but not emptied.
Rin shook her head, her flowing twin tails falling neatly across her shoulders. When she'd entered the clock tower, Rin had left her hairstyle and her less mature habits at the gate. It wouldn't do to appear incompetent to her fellow mages, not before the watchful eyes of the haughty scions that dominated that vulture's nest, not when she was the next student of the Kaleidoscope. Certainly not before that Finnish cow Luviagelita.
But now, here she was, donning that childhood hairdo for a childhood friend.
Shirou Emiya. Servant. Hero. Idiot. High School Crush. Also KIA.
Zelretch, Master of the Second Magic, mighty vampire, an old man so venerable and strict... even Rin couldn't spot the nefarious pranks behind his stern eyes. But for once, he had no jokes for her, only a simple letter in an equally simple envelope.
Rin had torn up the letter on the spot.
She had cried over him, cried so hard, Zelretch confined her to antoher dimension. And then she had realized that, grief aside, that idiot had left her a duty and that time was running out.
It had taken a liberal amount of hypnotism, and even more of her vaunted jewellery collection, to get herself from London to Tokyo with the fastest means available to man. All on the hope that she would arrive before the letter could. And now, here she was, standing before Shirou Emiya's former home with every indication that she had been too late.
"Tohsaka."
A few minutes earlier, that voice would have surprised Rin. Shocked her, even, that the lavender-haired Matou was actually functioning normally, was not breaking down in the Matou Residence with a heart more shattered than her own. Her former sister, Sakura, had had the biggest crush ever on the orange-haired idiot. Rin wasn't sure that she'd even survive the news. Especially not with the way the entire Matou household treated her like a third wheel, a torture subject, a means to an end. The fact that Sakura was standing here, calmly brushing aside the tears in her eyes, was a consolation for five seconds.
Five seconds, Rin thought to herself. Five seconds of utter idiocy. Sakura Matou didn't get through this by herself. She would not be smiling so calmly at the door had she not met someone else, first.
Sakura nodded urgently, once. She was right, Rin knew. Sooner or later, Rin would have to break the news. In fact, sooner would be better, because even a master as well-equipped as Rin couldn't keep Saber from disappearing. Her hands reached the door-
-and removed itself almost immediately, as the front door to Shirou's house flew wide open. Rin suppressed an unwomanly yelp and confronted the situation with all the Tohsaka calmness she could muster.
"Good day, Altria Emiya."
The accomplished magus could see a amber tint behind those turquoise eyes, ugly black burns across her usually neat short skirt, ruffles and folds upon her immaculate white blouse. The little figure raised her head, turning her unsettled eyes onto the Tohsaka sisters with a madness that made even Rin flinch.
"Rin! You're Rin, aren't you?" A hint of recognition flashed across those glassy eyes, and the decrepit figure jumped forward, grasping her hands with bone-crunching strength. For a moment, Rin had to remind herself that she wasn't dealing with a normal human, but a heroic spirit. "Sakura doesn't understand, but you- you know magecraft! You have to!"
Gods.
Rin exchanged a worried glance with Sakura. Sure, she knew that Altria would be out of sorts, but she didn't know that it would be this bad. If there was one person hit harder than Sakura Matou, it was his Servant, Saber. Right now, with her arms trembling uncontrollably and her gaze flickering with lunacy, Rin could hardly believe that this woman was the King of Knights.
"Saber-san, it's okay. We're here-" Sakura touched the Servant, but Altria only flinched away from her touch and tightened her grip on Rin.
"It's okay, Sakura. Let's hear what she has to say."
With a gentle pat on her sister's shoulder, the mage let the heroic spirit drag her into the house.
The interior of the house was neat and tidy, a far cry from the dust and cobwebs that Rin had expected. Even in her crazed state, Saber had clearly taken great pains to keep the house clean. Sakura, by far the most familiar, flipped on the lights and entered the kitchen with Saber right behind, while Rin took a seat at the table.
"Have some tea, Rin." The blonde appeared at the doorway, tea set shaking in her hands. Rin raised an eyebrow, but she made no comment as Saber set it down. "I'm sorry that Shirou isn't here at the moment- really, Merlin knows what he's up to, after fighting a monster like that- but I'll make sure he's here next time."
"Shirou is dead, you know."
Saber's flinch would have been funny under other circumstances. Rin, though, loved the orange-haired idiot too much to bring herself to laugh at Saber.
"So, this is how King Arthur acts in grief?"
"Nee-san, that's too much!"
"Rin, you misunderstand!"
"Really."
Rin glanced coldly across the table. Saber's hands still trembled a little on her lap, but she had clearly calmed down and was now looking away from Rin's gaze, embarrassment clear in her eyes.
"Saber, I know you don't want to hear this, but Shirou is gone." She looked coldly at Saber's maddened eyes. "We all tried to stop him, you know. Told him that he was going up against an inhuman monster, that even he was going to die. That idiot did it anyway and now he's gone." She huffed once at Saber's listless silence.
One night of counseling wouldn't cure any form of madness, but she had to try her best, even if she was going to be brutal. Either Saber took her chance at recovering and lived on, or she died, withering away slowly and painfully in her madness, and Rin wasn't about to let her just disappear.
Not after what she promised him.
"He was a good person, you know. A hero with a really dense head, but a hero nonetheless. I can't count the number of people he's already saved by putting his life on the line. But he's dead, Saber." With a calm sip of tea, Rin continued, "he's gone. He's not coming back. Shirou Emiya is deceased, Saber, and you should move on."
The silence in the room was almost tangible. Even Sakura's vegetable chopping in the background had stopped, and the lavenderette was staring at her diced greens with an incomprehensible frown. Rin watched candidly as Saber's face scrunched up, as her fingers tightened around her teacup, as her shaking body trembled even more violently.
Looks like it's still too early. I'll check back in an hour.
Rin made to stand up.
"No, he's not gone."
Saber's shoulders shook violently, spilling more than a few drops from her cup. Her face was red, but red with an emotion that stretched deeper than fury and broader than fear. Her voice was calm, composed, or as calm and composed as a madwoman's voice could get. She was mad, Rin's senses screamed at her, madder than a March Hare, madder even than all of the Mad Hatter's Hat Mats.
"You didn't feel it, Rin," Saber mumbled under her breath. "You didn't have a bond with him, so you wouldn't understand." Her hands danced to the invisible blade by her side, stroking it ever so slightly. "He used it, you know. He used my Noble Phantasm. He used my Noble Phantasm. He can't use my Noble Phantasm if he's dead. He's alive."
She's really gone off the deep end. An hour isn't enough. Maybe a day or two.
"I don't know where you picked up that twisted sense of humour, Saber," Rin interrupted savagely, "but that's your Noble Phantasm you're touching. Caliburn is broken, Shirou can't use Excalibur, and Invisible Air is clearly right under your fingertips! It's not like you have any other Noble Phantasms in your legend..."
Wait.
No. in found herself floundering, her flustered eyes looking for answers on Sakura's clueless face, in Saber's unsettled eyes. It couldn't be. It had been lost a long time ago, lost and never found, gone so deep into the ages that hundreds of thousands of Altrian scholars and Mages never managed to dig it up until the Fourth Holy Grail War, and it had vanished into the Einzberns' possession. Rin had barely remembered it then, among the many stories that Kirei belted out about the War to allay her suspicions. But in that case, it would be with the Einzbern's master, Emiya Kiritsugu...
… foster father of Emiya Shirou. The person who gave him those accursed ideals. Those stupid ideals had sent him to his grave, forgotten by all save her and a few others.
Also the man responsible for saving Shirou from the Great Fuyuki Fire, ten years ago. The fire had hurt him so much, he had thrown aside his emotions, his thoughts, his very identity, just to keep himself alive -and nearly died any way.
He should have died, Rin realized. Shirou Emiya's father was in no condition to save him, as terrible in magic as the guy was, but Shirou Emiya had survived anyway. Survived, and made a full recovery.
So long as she has the sheath, King Arthur will not bleed in battle.
Gae Bolg. Berserker's axe-sword. Shirou had indeed survived many injuries, injuries that should have killed him in minutes. He shouldn't have recovered from any of them, but recover he did, his injuries healing a year's worth in a day.
"But you can't be sure," Rin continued defiantly, her voice shaking almost as bad as Saber's now. "How do you know? How can you be so sure that Shirou Emiya has Avalon, and not something else? How can you be sure that he still has it, even now?"
"I saw Avalon in him," Saber murmured, half to herself. "I healed him once, when Kirei got Lancer to run him through. It was a gamble," she admitted. "I didn't know for sure that my sheath was in him, but he recovered when I fed him my prana. Not even Gae Bolg's curse could stop his wound from closing. If there is one artefact that can do that, it can only be Avalon."
"And how did you know he still has it... That idiot! He activated it, didn't he!?" Rin didn't know just how far Command Seals could stretch, but it was an easy guess that their ability to sense the activation of noble phantasms could work in both directions. Still, what the heck was Shirou thinking, using Avalon on his own? Didn't he know how powerful it was, or how much prana he needed to kickstart it? Did he have a death wish?
"Sakura," Rin ordered, "pack your things. As for you, Saber…" her eyes narrowed. "Come with me," she decided eventually. "Bring Excalibur with you, too. Zelretch will need some convincing."
Not that Excalibur would do anything to that damned Apostle Ancestor, of course, but Rin wasn't going to let him get away with this!
*The Fairy Who Could*
"I woke up late again, didn't I?"
Shirou's eyes flickered open, catching the first rays of the sun as they spilled through faraway ridges into his eyes. From the hard ground beneath his aching back, and the strained numbness spread all over his body, he'd clearly fallen asleep in the shed again. It was definitely way past six, and a familiar armoured silhouette sat silently next to his prone body. Damn, Saber was up already. He'd better get to making breakfast before she let her inner lion loose on him... wait, when did Saber dye her hair?
"Shirou Emiya, you're awake."
Right. He wasn't in Fuyuki City anymore.
"Good morning, Erza Scarlet."
The Japanese mansion he had become so used to was a world away from this crumbling bandit camp. Erza seemed to like wearing plate armour, but aside from that, Erza and Altria Pendragon were two separate persons.
And he still mixed them up. Shirou really needed his head examined.
"I've already brought the villagers back."
"That's good to hear."
The two shared more similarity than their choices of battle fashion. Briefly, Shirou wondered, if Erza liked to eat just as much as Shirou did.
"Is something the matter, Shirou?" Erza wondered, cold eyes locked on him.
"Nothing much," Shirou replied hastily, "I was just wondering what you wanted for breakfast."
"I can do without it. Besides," the armor-clad redhead sniffed, "I do not expect to find anything worth eating in this abandoned fort." For a brief moment, a pout flashed before her face, disappearing just as quickly as it came. "I didn't know that you could cook, Shirou. Do you just do regular meal entrees, or is baking within your expertise?"
If Shirou noticed her expression, he gave no sign. "I do bake sometimes, I guess. I used to help out at a café back in Fuyuki city, and they taught me how to make dessert cakes," he furnished, walking into the bandits' storage room. The thought brought Neko-san and Happy to mind, and Shirou had to suppress a laugh. It wasn't the first time he'd run into a talking cat, after all.
"Hmm," the redhead continued disinterestedly with an inscrutable expression. "Your repertoire wouldn't happen to include strawberry cakes, would it?"
"Actually, strawberry cakes were one of the more popular sweets," Shirou recalled. Those sweets were a hot favourite with Cafe Ahnenerbe's girl-based clientele. He could remember that one time when Rin stuffed her face with one slice of cake after another and tried to convince Shirou (unsuccessfully) that her baking was better... wait a minute.
"Do you like cakes, Erza?"
"Not that much more than anything else. Well then," Erza replied after a brief silence, "In that case, I suppose I wouldn't mind if we had a good meal in the morning." The redhead's lips curled upward. Shirou pretended not to notice, preferring to dig further into the bandits' food crates. Breakfast was the most important meal in the morning, doubly so when he had to serve Saber as well. Hell had no fury like a hungry knight.
Which reminded him, once again: Saber was still at home.
Breakfast was simple, a makeshift meal crumble and some crushed strawberries he'd found in an underground store. Shirou bit into his portion, balking almost immediately at the lacking taste. He threw a worried glance at Erza, who was poking suspiciously around her own pie with a spoon she'd fished out from somewhere.
"What is this, Shirou?" She asked absentmindedly.
Having finally convinced herself that her breakfast was, indeed, some variation of a strawberry confection, the redhead finally rate a spoon of the crumble. For a brief moment, she said nothing, munching quietly on her little portion of what passed for sighed despite himself. It was too much to hope his cooking skills could mask the lack of sugar, after all.
"Shirou."
Shirou winced. "Yes, Erza?"
"Hmm. Yes. I suppose you'll do," Erza decided, looking Shirou in the eye. "I don't usually take along team members for my quests, but I'll make an exception for you." With great fanfare, the S-class mage set her food down, got to her feet, and offered him a handshake. "I look forward to having more of your hand-made meals."
"WHAT!?"
With an equally inelegant yelp, Shirou dropped his breakfast and Erza snatched it from the floor. Before Shirou's disbelieving eyes, the red-haired woman cleaned up the remains of his breakfast.
"Mmm! Your cooking is not just excellent, it's consistent, too! Strawberry cakes, every breakfast, lunch, and supper... I can't wait!"
"I'm glad you like my cooking so much," Shirou managed, "I'm not sure I'm ready to think of us as a permanent team."
Just as he finished his sentence, Erza's claymore found its place in the ground: so close, he could see his shocked eyes in its gleaming blade.
"Surrender to my graces, Shirou," Erza deadpanned. "I'll be the best teammate you ever have."
"Don't you dare, Scary Woman!" Before Shirou could utter another word, a second pair of hands wrapped themselves around his waist. Up climbed a second person, a child barely ten years old, her golden hair spilling liberally over Shirou's left shoulder. With a furious huff, the girl stared Erza down and huffed. "Shirou saved me, so he is my hero! You get that, Scary Woman? He's mine!"
"My, my. What a lively breakfast this is."
Shirou turned at the ragged voice. Beneath his ragged fringe, the black-clad mage known as Ethan Blackmore glanced amusedly between Sera, Shirou and Erza. "Well, I've heard stories back home, but I never imagined that the crush of the Tohsaka Heiress was such a womanizer." Sera flinched immediately, disappearing behind Shirou's back, and Erza glared at him with hostile eyes.
Shirou himself looked up warily, searching the old man's face for any trickery. Magi were a treacherous lot. Without Rin as a go-between, Shirou would never dare to take the Clock Tower's jobs, and she wasn't here to help him at the moment.
"I don't suppose you have a problem with the terms of my self-Geas," Shirou said, his voice dangerously low. Ethan merely ignored him, his eyes hooked to the pot of unfinished crumble instead.
"Ah, I see you've made breakfast." The Ethan helped himself to a portion and sat down, casually, right next to Shirou. Sera bristled immediately and stuffed herself between them, but the old man hardly noticed and continued to chomp away at Shirou's strawberry pie. "I've already accepted the terms," the old mage managed between munches. "Necromancy was never my main style of magic, anyway. I picked it up to save my foster daughter. Speaking of which, you never told me how you came by something as powerful as Avalon."
"You never told me how you came to Fiore," was Shirou's reply. "Or how you even knew my name, or, for that matter, how you came by Morgana."
Ethan suppressed a laugh. "Shirou, are you really that dense? Everyone in the Clock Tower has heard of you at one point or another." The old mage grabbed a drink from his canteen. "You don't subdue three rogue mages under Sealing Designations without becoming famous in that college, no. Those people were downright dangerous even among Mages, and you took all of them down single-handedly."
"Shirou," Erza asked warily, "what's a Sealing Designation?"
Now, it was Shirou's turn to bristle. "Sera," he urged, his eyes not leaving Ethan's. "Why don't you take a look at Aunty Morgana, see how she's doing." The young blonde raised her head curiously. "Don't worry, these scary people won't attack you. My Geas should take care of that."
Sera nodded, slightly confused, and walked back into the caves.
"Right." Shirou turned back to the man, but he'd already gone on with his introductions.
"Erza... Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail, is it? The all-famous Queen of Fairies, still so naïve." The old geezer suppressed a laugh. "Don't let the beautiful veneer of Fiore fool you, Erza. Mages can be very insistent when it comes to research. If moral values stand between a mage and a possible breakthrough, you can be sure that those morals will be thrown into the wind." Ignoring Erza's glare, the old man continued, "I used to be like them, you know. Unscrupulous, until I met one Designee myself."
"Oh, it was nothing, really," Ethan said with a dismissive wave, as Shirou raised an eyebrow. "You see, Sealing Designations are just a fancy way of saying that the Clock Tower has claimed you as its test subject. All you need to do is to break the formal rules of Magecraft and do something that physical phenomena are incapable of, and voila, you're sealed."
"The Sealing Designation doesn't sound so bad when you put it like that," Erza prompted with a serious face.
"It's not as simple as he says it is, Erza," Shirou replied through clenched teeth. "Being slapped with a Sealing Designation is like a death sentence. If you're caught, you're no longer treated as a human being. You'll be cut up into pieces of meat, to be preserved and studied until the mages at the Clock Tower figure out just how you managed something that generations of magi couldn't figure out."
"… that is cruel and unacceptable. Thankfully, guilds in Fiore won't do that," Erza managed, setting her crumble down. Shirou's cooking was great, but the conversation had robbed her all of her appetite. "But Shirou, you said you captured three of those people?"
Shirou nodded in agreement. "… I had no choice, then. My targets were desperate. They were killing, killing for the sake of their stupid experiments, killing to stop the Enforcers chasing them, killing to reach their goal before their death sentence arrived. I had to stop them. I tried to get them placed under kinder mages, but in the end, I could not save them."
"Anyway, as I was saying, I visited a guy with a Sealing Designation. He used to be one of my friends, then, and the moment he'd been brought in I went to visit him." Ethan's face darkened. "I found him chained up, buckled with reinforced steel more tightly than a straitjacket restrains a madman. There were so many runes, so much prana poured into his restraints that I couldn't see his own prana signature at all, and through it all he was pleading, begging for his life to be spared. I couldn't even get a single word through to him before he was sent to the slaughterhouse."
A coldness descended on the picnic, one that even the building light of dawn could not lift, and Erza was once more reminded that these two mages came from a world more cruel than her own.
"Was... Morgana... one of them?" She asked quietly.
"Morgana? By the Root, no!" Blackburn cursed, but her concern clearly lifted his mood. "She's from Fiore. Back to the story. So there I was, down in the dumps after seeing my friend sent to his death, and up walks this old man in a black suit and a cane." Ethan smiled lopsidedly at Shirou's alarm. "Yup, you guessed right: the Kaleidoscope, Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, right in front of my very eyes."
Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. Apostle Ancestor. Master of the Second Magic, the Kaleidoscope. Effectively the master of the multiverse, with the ability to teleport to, or summon objects from, other dimensions. Also the oldest troublemaker in the Clock Tower. For a moment, Shirou wondered if his ending up in Fiore was indeed Zelretch's fault too.
Perhaps Shirou was in Fiore because Rin, being the intelligent vixen she was, had somehow got Zelretch to prank him. Unlikely at best, though. Zelretch would've sent her back to the Fifth Holy Grail War as his Servant, and grabbed popcorn on the way.
"So that's how you ended up in Fiore," Shirou mumbled.
"Of course, I knew him. Actually, rather, I knew of him. Everyone knows a person who riles up the entire Clock Tower just by walking into it. I just didn't know that that guy was standing there and I didn't recognize him. Being the hot-blooded teenager then, I brushed right past that guy, making sure that my push was felt." Ethan laughed. "I didn't even manage to touch his shoulder before he noticed. The old troll mumbled something about me needing to 'learn my manners' and the very next thing I knew, here I was."
"You WHAT?" Shirou gaped. "And you were a teenager then? How long ago was this?"
"Eighty years."
The ancient mage carried on with his stoic, aged freckles. Either he didn't notice their shock, or he was enjoying it privately under his bushy moustache.
Since then I've roamed this world as a bandit, a rogue mage, a necromancer. A person who saved an orphaned girl from eternal persecution and experimentation. A foster father." Ethan poked thoughtfully at his unfinished crumble. "So many years have passed, and I have completed my pursuit... only to find nothing at the road's end."
"Not nothing," Shirou argued. "You saved your daughter, didn't you?"
"Hah! A humble one, aren't you?" Ethan chuckled. "No, you did the job with... say, it has been a long time since I saw something like that. Avalon, was it?"
Erza stirred, and the memories came rushing back.
Avalon. Sacred sheath. The dream of an Everdistant Utopia. The place where all heroes go in their afterlives. An artifact that, like Saber, stood by him at every moment, saving him from the likes of Berserker, Rider, and Kotomine Kirei's tained Holy Grail. The symbol of his relationship with Saber, now Altria Emiya, glowing with the light of the very ideals he pursued.
And he'd been away from Saber for so long that he had forgotten. His body had forgotten what it was like to be in Saber's presence, and when it had finally basked in Avalon's radiance once again, it had forgotten too that it was no longer in Fuyuki anymore.
"Yes, it's been a long time," Shirou mused.
"And where in the whole of Fuyuki city would one find an artifact as rare as that..." Ethan mused. "One does not simply pick Avalon up from the streets, Zelretch would say. Damn him and his pop culture memes.
"I met King Arthur."
"WHAT?"
"Wait, Shirou. I'm not ready for this." Ethan sat up in an instant, incredulity filling his once-disinterested eyes. "I must be getting old. I'm pretty sure I didn't just hear you say that you met King Arthur. For that matter," he added, "I'm pretty sure that you didn't just meet a person from nearly a millennium ago."
"I did," A smile came over Shirou's face. "Most certainly. She was the warmest person I ever met." For a brief moment, he felt the warmth of Avalon wash over him, the warmth of Saber's ideals and her love.
I'll never see her again, not in this world. Not until I pursue my ideal to its end.
"… you were part of the Holy Grail War," Ethan grumbled. "There's no other explanation. Well, at least I can see where you got your stupid ideas from." He took another swig of his canteen, and a few moments passed in relative silence before he finally noticed what Shirou had said and did a perfect spit-take.
" Wait, WHAT!?"
Well, not perfect. Nobody could do those quite like Rin. Shirou noticed the growing half-smile dancing at his lips and cursed himself. Archer was a bad influence on him. A really bad influence, even when dead.
Probably also having a good laugh at his expense.
"King Arthur is a WOMAN!?"
"Yes, she is," Shirou facepalmed. "She's also my girlfriend."
"She is Saber, is she not," Erza asked with a comically straight face.
"Yes, she is."
"HAH! HAHA! HAHAHAHAHA! You are shaping out to be quite the interesting person, Shirou!" Ethan's guffaws echoed through the valley. "You actually got King Arthur to be your girlfriend? In the middle of a Grail War? That's-that's priceless!" The old man continued to chuckle, unaware of Erza and Shirou's dirty glares at him."And I thought your heroic quest was funny!"
"What's so funny about that?" Shirou demanded.
"Shirou." To his credit, the old man managed to keep his laughter down. "You can't seriously believe that you can save everyone, can you?"
And to that, Shirou had already given his answer. His stern, silent expression said as much, silencing Ethan in mid-laughter.
"Ah... haha... look, Shirou, you're chasing an impossible dream," Ethan retorted. "There's nothing more hypocritical in this world than trying to save everyone. Let me finish, Shirou, Erza," he instructed. "Humans are like that. They want, they seek. For their wants, they will do anything, even kill. They're not going to stop even if you want them to."
"When they do that, what are you going to do? Save one side from the other? Save both sides? But the moment you let go of them, they will rush to each other's throats before you know it." Ethan shook his head, pointedly ignoring Shirou's wordless glare. "Where there are humans, there will be war, and wars can only ever be stopped if you kill one side or the other. Sometimes not even then. Now, young man ," Ethan asked, "who will you save? Who will you kill? Or will you try to save everyone, knowing all too well that they would tear away each others' throats once you're gone?"
Shirou didn't answer. For all the resolve he had for his ideal, Ethan's words had still hit home.
An apt hypocrisy for a Faker like you. Sure, he may not have heard those words before, but Shirou knew that it was something Gilgamesh would have said of him. It didn't matter just how much resolve he had. He was bearing an infinitely heavy burden with little thought on how he could possibly support it. He had chosen to continue carrying it, even after seeing what it had done to his other self, Archer, but there was nothing stopping that weight from crushing him like it did Archer.
"Ethan, you're wrong."
To his surprise, it was Erza who spoke up for him.
"Humans are not as weak as you think they are," The redhead asserted." They all have their own reasons to continue doing evil, even if they know that what they've done, what they're doing is wrong. But that doesn't mean that they can't change, because while their actions are evil, the people themselves have their own conscience. As mages, as problem solvers, we must show them another way." she argued, planting her sword firmly down. "Of course, this job isn't easy. Salvation never is. That's why we're both in Fairy Tail. Even if one of us cannot shoulder the burden, we can do it together!"
"And that's 19-year-old logic for you," Ethan retorted with a sardonic laugh. "In combat, you may be the S-class Titania, the Queen of Faeries, but out of battle you're still an overgrown kid. Before you get too excited, Erza, remember that I have seen mages send themselves to their deaths for sixty more years than you have. As for you," Ethan turned to Shirou with a dark look. "I'm glad you saved Morgana. I can see, even, why Avalon worked for you, even though it was only supposed to protect King Arthur. So I'll say this only once."
"You're best off forgetting your love for King Arthur. Your ideals will send you to an early grave."
Let your ideals drag you to your death!
A freezing chill rolled through his body.
Archer's words. Those were definitely Archer's words. And yet, Shirou had never heard those words before. Archer had never said that to him. So why could he recall it? And just what was he so afraid of?
"Tell me," Shirou asked, voice trembling. "What do you-"
He never got to finish his question. At that very moment, a piercing scream shot forth from the mines.
"Morgana!"
"Sera!"
*The Fairy Who Could*
"Don't- you think- you've got me!"
Through the eerie, mostly unlit cavern, the deadly white comet that was Morgana shot up. Just as she did, the space she left was immediately violated by two pearly orbs, whizzing up with an angle and speed that should have been impossible for any flying object.
It's not a fight between mages until impossibilities arise.
First, there was her magic. Her strange magic. She didn't know exactly what happened, only something happened. Only the cold, black mark upon her heart, there for as long as she could remember, now gone. It was only too easy to test. She tried to draw its power, tried to call its shadows to her bidding...
But where she asked for shadow, only light came.
Not to say that it wasn't useful, of course, Morgana noted, breaking the second orb with a beam of light. Much easier to get. Still, she was only feeling out the ropes. Battle wasn't the nicest place to learn her magic all over again.
Thumb pressed against fingertips, cold sweat dripping from her brow, Morgana glared at her opponent.
"My turn."
At a snap of her fingers, light rays shot forth from all corners of the room and shattered the gleaming orbs with sheer, brute force.
"Not bad."
Morgana's pitch-black opals twitched at the stunted figure before her. The geezer was stunted, his bent back so weathered that he made even Ethan look like a teenager. In the eerie turquoise that filled the cavern,his trailing bushfire hair, tribal colours and demonic mask only made him look all the more dangerous.
"It's a pity, really," the old man noted remorselessly. "You would have been such a great help, had you been in my hands. Well, now that I've gotten what I've come for, I suppose it's time for you to die." With an equal snap of his fingers, another eight crystal balls appeared behind him and whizzed toward Morgana.
Just as quickly, a web of light rays shot forth, shattering each crystal into a thousand tiny pieces. In the midst of raining crystal dust, Morgana permitted her opponent one arrogant sulk.
"Repeating an attack, are we?"
The old man ignored her haughty glance and kept his gaze on the glittering dust.
"Restore."
"For a moment there, I thought we were getting seriou-ARGH!"
What just happened?
As she hurtled out of the air, Morgana's eyes snapped to her destroyed shoulder. There, nocked deep into her bruised body, was a gleaming crystal ball. But by all accounts, even to her senses, Morgana knew that the crystal ball there should have been destroyed two seconds ago.
"… How..."
As she crashed to the ground, Ethan's teachings clicked in. Anxiously, painfully, Morgana's eyes flickered across the crystal's surface, looking desperately for any clues to her opponent's magicks. When put back together, any crystal would bear the fractures and cracks of its untimely demise, so all she had to do was to study them for any signs of the opponent's magic-
-no, wait. It was impossible. One couldn't just break an egg like that and put it back together, pretending that nothing happened. And yet, the projectile lodged in her shoulder looked unmarred, flawless, as if Morgana's light ray had never struck it down.
The crystal ball had not been put back together. It had never been shattered in the first place.
As if someone had reversed time back beyond the point where it had been broken.
"No, it can't be..." Morgana mumbled. In her reverie, she almost didn't notice the other eight crystals flying toward her. The orbs smashed down on her prone, destroyed body, only to for their target to vanish into motes of light. The black-haired woman appeared beside the old man, light blazing from both hands.
"How... How did you!?" She demanded.
"Surprised, are we?" The old man chuckled. "It's a trade secret of yours truly. You won't need to know, and if you do, you'd still be too dead to use the knowledge. Now," he continued, "if you're done with the nitty gritty details, can we get back to the part where I beat you down and kill you?"
"You think you can beat me so easily?" Morgana yelled. Her blazing fist shot toward the old man, only to be painfully deflected by a second orb. As she leapt back, a third and fourth crystal crashed into the ground beneath her feet, missing her shins by inches. They lifted themselves easily out of the ground and followed the black-haired mage, but four more light rays burst forth, striking each orb down at her command.
"It's futile, you know," the old man taunted behind his barrage of crystal balls. "You can't even beat Erza Scarlet." The old man barely closed his mouth before three light rays shot down to smite him, only to be blocked by another three orbs hovering over his head, and she found herself dodging the punching machines that were orbs six, seven and eight.
One light ray after another shot forth, shattering each crystal orb as it entered her vision. Just as quickly, the orbs reformed, barreling at Morgana once again. One whizzed past her jaw as she shattered it with her good arm; even as she moved, another nailed her across the cheek, drawing a cry from her lips.
"You're really smug about your abilities, aren't you," Morgana mocked, clutching her bruised face. Beam after lightbeam shot forth, skewering all the crystal balls in sight. The beams widened, turning crystal flakes into crumbs, crumbs into dust, dust into vapour. "Let's see how you do without your annoying pets!"
"You never learn your lessons, do you, Morgana?"
With light blazing from both hands, light raining forth from the paradoxically dark ceiling, and light filling the cavern with sheer brilliance alone, Morgana leapt toward her enemy. To her surprise, the old man didn't move, but stared her down with a knowing smirk.
"Checkmate."
She never saw it coming.
One second, she was hurtling toward her attacker, all her light beams burning furiously in midair. The very next, the cavern had gone pitch black. Not even the turquoise background hue of Blackburn's ruins remained in the darkness, only the lingering laugh of an annoying old man.
Or perhaps it was just her face, planted deep in the dirt as one, two, twenty crystal balls nailed her.
One on her skull. Three across her back. Five spread across her elbows, neck and knees, and then all over her body as they buried her under their sheer numbers. A shriek escaped her lips, only to be shut out by the balls that buried her under them.
"Morgana!"
"Sera!"
"Tch. It seems I'm out of time."
The old man's voice seemed to come from a great distance. Far away beyond her sight. Far from the reach of her struggling arm.
"I'll come back for you some other time. For now... I'll deal with your comrades..."
Master Ethan was in danger.
The thought surfaced in her cloudy, fading mind. The old man was coming after Master Ethan. Master Ethan was in danger. She had to help him. She couldn't let Master Ethan come to harm. She had to get up, now, to protect him, even if Morgana could not defeat the old man. So why was her body not listening? Why was it lying on the ground, refusing to get up?
What was this strange darkness coming over her?
*The Fairy Who Could*
The Time was noon, the place, Port Hargeon. A bustling town and a major port in Fiore, deeply engaged in entrepot trade, fishing, and transport via waterways. Erza's eyes scanned the town over, searching for any sign of her quarry.
"I lost him. Damn!"
It was futile. Hargeon was a big town, bigger than her eyes could cover in an instant.
Zalty was crafty. Any half-decent fugitive would've hired a boat and left the town by now. Still, with the wonky outfit he wore, that old man would stand out like a sore thumb even among the strangely dressed mages that traversed its streets. That she had seen no sign of him whatsoever only showed that the old man had found somewhere to hide, or left the town entirely.
And if Zalty had headed for Hargeon, rather than any other town on the map, then there was something important for him here. Hargeon had little to provide for a practitioner of a Lost Magic, which left only one other option: travel by sea.
So she decided to blockade the port.
The pirates didn't take much convincing. When they finally figured out that all the weaponry and magic on their ship had nothing on the Queen of Fairies, they had surrendered immediately and, very kindly, agreed to help Erza man the cannons and sail the ship. So far, they had been very helpful, even pulling a loudspeaker out of nowhere for her to make her statement.
The captain, an old and haggard little man with the stereotypical pirate hat and iron hook, stood beside Erza with an eye in his seeing-glass. He was short, but that didn't stop his telescope from stretching over the railing and surveying the port for any moving boats. Every so often, he would steal a glance at her red hair and look away with a slight pink coloration on his face.
The port didn't take to her plans as well, though, hiding their ships in the docks and pleading for the safety of their port. All the better. Erza didn't want him to leave so soon.
"So, who's this person you're looking for, lass?"
Erza didn't care much. The man was good at his job.
The blockade was going well. Sure, she could've just asked the ferrymen at the port, but it was easier to catch the passenger in the act. Now every boat that tried to move out had to meekly go to the side of her pirate ship and endure her questioning before they could head off. Some of the pirates looked a little miffed at not receiving a passage fee, but they were too smitten by her strength to care much anyway.
"An old man with a mask and green hair," she replied thoughtfully, waving off yet another fishing boat.
The pirate hummed thoughtfully. "Now, I'd say that that would be impossible, but this here ship that's coming over has just such a boat." He frowned. "He's ignoring the cannons, though. Like he doesn't believe that we can sink him."
Sure enough, there was a boat headed toward them. It was large for a boat, a pinnace with two cannons, but one broadside and it would be sitting at the bottom of the port. Erza thought at first that perhaps the ship was out of sight, or that it didn't notice her cannons, but that thought was quickly dismissed when it stubbornly stayed in her field of fire, closing by the second.
Almost as if it was daring the pirates to fire on them.
"Your call, Captain. Should we sink them?"
"No."
Erza watched silently as the boat drifted closer and closer, until she could see that familiar unkempt green hair and the horned red mask. The old man looked up, too, his eyes resting on her red hair, and for the briefest of moments Erza thought she could spot a sly smirk.
"Uh, captain? They're escaping."
"Don't fire."
"Huh?"
Now it was Erza's turn to smile.
Zalty was strong, definitely, but she was the Fairy Queen, Titania. If Zalty thought Erza Scarlet could be manipulated, He was in for a fright. This was the best time to drum it into him.
One did not lure Titania into their plans. Those who did, invariably, tasted her fist. Gauntlet first.
"Set sail," Erza ordered. "We're following them."
*The Fairy Who Could*
"Galuna Island? You've got to be kidding me!"
"Galuna Island? No one even dares to go near that cursed place, not even without this stupid blockade!"
"We don't even mention the name on these docks! It's a bad omen."
"This is really, bad." Lucy shook her head disappointedly. "I still don't know the full extent of how haunted Galuna island is, but not a single person here wants to bring us there."
"We could always swim."
"You don't even know how far out the island is and you want to swim there?" Lucy shook her head. "I've already told you that it's impossible."
To be sure, she could perhaps ask a favour from Aquarius in a pinch, but Lucy somehow doubted that the mermaid Celestial Spirit would bring them closer to the island in any way. That mermaid's idea of "help" involved blasting her away with a tidal wave.
"Well, in that case," Natsu pouted, "there's only that one guy left. We still haven't asked him."
Lucy examined the sailor, a young, well-built man in a bandanna and white cloak. He sat on a boat little more than a raft, clearly meant for fishing and short ferry journeys. It was unlikely that he'd run any ferry trips to an island in open sea, but it was pretty much his boat or a tsunami, and Lucy didn't like her chances onboard a tidal wave.
"Galuna island? Look, I don't know why you want to go there," he replied with a strange look, "but no ship will take you there. Even the pirates are avoiding it."
"It's settled, then," Natsu crowed. "We're swimming!" Happy joined him with an equally happy face.
"Aye!"
"I said," Lucy reminded them savagely, "It's impossible!"
Natsu turned to reply, but whatever he was about to say was suddenly drowned out by the eerie voice behind them.
"I've found you~"
Natsu and Lucy nearly jumped out of their skin.
He wasn't supposed to be there, but there he was, dressed casually in a sling bag and an indigo shirt. The coolness with which that man approached them could only belong to one wizard: Gray Fullbuster!
"Gray!?"
"What the hell are you doing here?" Natsu demanded, more shocked than angry.
Gray flashed the pinkette a condescending look. "I'm here on the Guild Master's orders," he deadpanned, clearly expecting Natsu to have known already. "I'm to bring you back to the guild as soon as possible."
To Lucy's surprise, Natsu jumped away in astonishment. "That old man found out already!?" Part of her wondered how he could be so airheaded: if he'd planned to pull off this S-class Quest under Fairy Tail's noses, shouldn't said plan account for the possibility of being discovered?
Then she remembered: the plan was to embark on the journey to Galuna Island before being discovered.
Gray smirked, clearly enjoying Natsu's discomfort. "If you guys come with me now, perhaps the Guildmaster might choose not to expel you. Let's go back."
"Expelled?"
If Gray's words had sucked all the blood from Lucy's face, his next sentence impaled her heart with fear.
"As if I'm coming back!" To her surprise, Natsu replied with equal determination. "I'm doing an S-class Quest!"
"You're not nearly strong enough to do it! And look," Gray continued piteously, "imagine what would happen to all of you if Erza finds out..."
"Nothing will happen," Natsu shot back, "because Erza's on a quest, stupid! She won't be coming back!"
Just the thought of them fighting was enough to make Lucy faint, but she didn't get to. At that very moment, a second familiar voice appeared behind all of them.
"Wait a moment. Why are you here?"
"You took off without looking, b-baka!"
Wait... it couldn't be.
Lucy didn't recognize the second voice, but the first hit her as clear as day. She had heard this voice from Hargeon before, from someone who had helped her out not once, but twice. And that voice didn't belong to Natsu, no, this was someone else...
"I did go charging after Erza Onee-san, yes, and I did ignore her instructions. But you weren't supposed to be on my shoulders in the first place! Besides, your dad is waiting for you in Bougainvillea Village. It's been three years since you guys last met! Should you really be blowing him off like that?"
"I do miss my dad," the unfamiliar voice replied thoughtfully, before continuing happily with, "still, Oni-chan, I'm your apprentice. I'm here to learn how to become a hero, and I think my dad is okay with that. If he knows that I'm learning to save people like you, he'll be so glad! I know, I'll write him a letter too! I'll tell him how awesome my Hero is!"
The familiar voice walked into view in his trademark jeans and white shirt. His shirt was torn and burnt, and there was a blonde-haired girl sitting on his shoulders, but Lucy would recognize him even if he were drenched in pitch-black muck.
"Shirou!?"
"Shirou!?"
"Shirou! You ditched our team!"
There, standing on the Hargeon Docks with a surprised look on his face and a blonde girl on his shoulders, was Emiya Shirou.
*The Fairy Who Could*
"Shirou!?"
Shirou felt his jaw drop. There his guildmates were, frozen on the docks in mid-bicker, staring at him as if he had fallen out of the sky. Gray and Natsu, as usual, were butting heads already when they comically turned their attention to him, and Lucy looked utterly shell-shocked at Shirou's appearance. Then again, her eyes were flickering between the blonde-haired kid on his shoulders and him, so it was probably Sera's appearance that stunned her instead. But what were they doing, all the way out here at Hargeon?
"Hello, guys! What are you doing here?"
Even as he asked them, Shirou's mind was already spinning fast, fervently working out every possibility. As far as Shirou knew, Natsu, Lucy and Gray were definitely not on the same team. Why were they together? His mind raced through the possibilities: Erza had asked him to go straight back to Fairy Tail; had Makarov received the message already? Were they here to bring him back? From the maps he'd studied, Magnolia Town was on the way from Bougainvillea to Hargeon, so it was possible, but Erza couldn't have possibly anticipated his attempt to follow her, could she?
"Shirou! I thought you were on a job!" Lucy gaped, knees going soft.
Was Shirou here to nab them too? Erza and Expulsion was scary, but from what she'd heard, Shirou had taken down Zeref's demon Lullaby by himself! Besides, Mirajane had said before that Shirou went out with Erza, so did that mean that Erza was here in Hargeon, too!?
"Shirou! You're just in time!" Gray urged. "These guys took an S-class quest without our Guildmaster's permission. Help me bring them back!"
"Shirou! How dare you ditch our team!" Natsu raged, his fight with Gray clearly forgotten. "I'll kick your butt for that!"
"Technically, our Guildmaster pulled him out," Lucy reminded him, only to be ignored in the dregs of Natsu's fury. "Shirou, why are you here?"
"Thanks, Lucy. Yeah, about ditching your team, I'm very sorry. Old man Makarov had a message for me," Shirou replied sheepishly, setting a reluctant Sera down beside him. "When I woke up after that fight, I heard that you guys were at the Duke of Evaroo's library, so I decided if I could help anybody out with a quest while I was recovering. It- it's a long story. Anyways, what's this about an S-class quest?"
Lucy facepalmed. "Look, Shirou," she explained, "Quests don't all come in the same shape and size. Some are notably more dangerous than others. To prevent mages from doing quests well beyond their ability, Guilds separate quests into several levels of difficulty, ranging from the normal quests you see in the first floor of the Fiore Guild Hall, to S-class Quests on the second floor, to 100-year quests that only the best of mages can handle. The rules of every guild states that any team taking an S-class quest has to have an S-class mage with them."
"I see," Shirou nodded. "And none of you are S-class mages, so you are not permitted to go on the quest you've taken. That's simple, Gray." His eyes narrowed, and he nodded firmly, once. "Hey, sailor! how much does a trip to Galuna island cost?" At his beckoning, a magnificent sword appeared in his hands, seven jewels glittering along the pommel. "This should be enough, shouldn't it?"
"Galuna Island? But I told them, I'm not..." The sailor paled as a sword materialized in Shirou's hands, and he shook a little as he received it: a beautifully bejewelled blade with a blue handle, a golden hilt and runes inscribed across the blade. "You're a mage, aren't you? You're all mages! Come aboard, quickly!"
"Right! Natsu, you're coming back!" Gray cheered... only to see Shirou marching to the boat. "Wait, Shirou, what are you doing? Aren't you worried about what Erza would do? Don't you know how dangerous an S-class quest is? Do you really want to send Natsu, Lucy, and Happy to their deaths?"
Right, Erza. The lone protector of Fairy Tail. Knowing that Shirou was no match for the enemies that stood before him, Erza Scarlet battled in his place, once, twice. Now, she was pursuing his Avalon, his dream, in his stead. Her power, which far surpassed those of her peers in Fairy Tail, became the source of her isolation.
He was always alone, forging swords on a distant hill.
The aria of the wielders of Kanshou and Byakuya, of the Counter Guardian known as Heroic Spirit EMIYA. Pursuing his ideal without abandon, his companions became unable to catch up with him, and he gradually became alone in the field of blades. It was the harsh reality of his world, where people had to pursue their dreams on their own.
But he wasn't on Earth anymore. Shirou was on Fiore. He was with Erza, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy. The ideals that he shouldered, the burden of saving everyone that he bore, he didn't have to bear it alone anymore. Where they themselves couldn't fulfill their dreams alone, their peers, the mages by their shoulders, stepped up for them.
And if he sought his dream tirelessly, he did not do it alone, for he brought with him over a thousand blades.
"Look, Gray, I understand that it's not right for mages to pick quests that send them to their deaths, but a mage who's constantly sheltered from difficult missions cannot surpass himself," Shirou persuaded. "Natsu, you're in this because you want to become an S-class mage, right?"
"Eh? Yup, who wouldn't?"
"Gray. Natsu has set his eyes on the S-class seat. He's not going to let mere rules stop him. Are you," Shirou demanded, "going to deny him the chance to be an S-class mage, just because it's supposed to be to difficult? Or do you simply seek to stop him from becoming what he really wants to be?"
"Heh! If he wants to be an S-class mage, he's not the only one on the list! But what about his safety, Shirou Emiya?" Gray shot back, glaring at Shirou. "What will you do if an S-class danger, one capable of killing all of you, shows up?"
Shirou returned the gaze with equal tenacity.
"I'll assure you, Gray, I'm an Ally of Justice. I will save everyone from that," he clenched his fist, "even if it means my death."
Their eyes met. For the first time, Gray looked carefully into Shirou, searching for sincerity in his eyes. But what he found there surprised even him, gave him a feeling he couldn't describe. His eyes were steely cold, not with disdain, but with the keen edge of a freshly forged sword. The message was clear: Shirou meant every word he said.
"… Alright, Shirou," Gray grumbled. "I understand where you're coming from. But if anything happens to Natsu, Lucy, or Happy, it's on your head."
"I understand," Shirou replied firmly. Saving people was serious business, and he would have to bear responsibility for each decision he made.
"Then I'm coming. Natsu, stop cheering. You're annoying."
Natsu whooped anyway, following a silent Gray and a thoughtful Lucy onboard the little boat. And now for Sera...
Shirou's orange irises met Sera's turquoise eyes and hesitated.
In many ways, Sera was just like him: a kid who was saved from incredible tragedy, and who, upon witnessing his act of salvation, wanted to save people just like he did. But to follow his ideals simply because she admired him, was to chase a path not her own. When the harsh realities of salvation crashed down on her, she would be betrayed, just as Archer was, by her own ideals.
A harsh fate that he would not wish on anyone save himself. It was the path he had chosen. But if he chose it, then, too, he could not deny the choice to Sera. To make that decision in Sera's place, when he was not Sera, would be to become a bigger hypocrite. It was only right for Sera to decide for herself, if the hero's path was the right one for her.
Sorry, Saber. I'll retrieve your sheath later.
"Sera," Shirou asked. "Are you coming with us?"
The blonde girl hopped in without a second word.
"Alright. Nice to have you on board, Sera. Lucy, could you brief us on the quest details?"
*The Fairy Who Could*
"So that's the job," Lucy finished.
They were in the middle of an open sea, the tiny fishing boat bobbing against the choppy seas. Natsu, his eyes glazed over and drool seeping from his mouth, looked hardly better than the sea kelp that battered their boat, and Sera lay prone between him and Shirou with an equally defeated look on her exhausted face. As Shirou tended to them, he mulled the job details over in his mind.
"A curse, huh. And we're supposed to lift it?"
"Yeah."
It was not a simple job, doubly for Shirou. Sure, he could already think of a few Noble Phantasms that could possibly help, but it was a curse, and from what he knew of curses in general they were designed to be hard to lift. Of course, Rule Breaker could do the job in an instant, but to use it on an entire village would burn his mana reserves away ten times over. More, if he didn't know what exactly he was supposed to lift.
And then there was the issue of the island itself. Galuna Island and its inhabitants had clearly been around for some time, given the age of the job request. However, a rural island like that was unlikely to receive many visitors, especially those who were unfamiliar with its location and its quirks. In short, anybody who would lay such a widespread curse over the island was already intimately familiar with it, likely already an inhabitant for a long time, but who would shoot themselves in the foot like that?
Something else was going on, definitely, but just what?
"So, Shirou... What do you think?"
"There's something we're missing," Shirou thought aloud. "Something very important, that concerns the curse, and we don't know what it is."
"Perhaps I can help."
The sailor, who had been silent all this while, spoke up. "My name is Bobo," he said, with a dark look over his shoulder. "I used to be an inhabitant on that island a long time ago."
"But I fled that island."
"When you get onto that island, Misfortune will befall you. You may already know the island is cursed, but can you really lift its curse?"
He swept his cloak aside, and Lucy gasped. Barbed. Gnarled. Twisted in black. If Bobo's arm had belonged to a human before, its appearance now showed no sign.
"The curse of demonic transformation." Shirou spoke up, not taking his eyes off of the sailor. "I knew there was something off about you when we first met. You had a sweet, tangy scent, one that could only belong to a demon. You were definitely waiting for us there, weren't you? Back in Hargeon."
"Indeed I was," the sailor replied. If he was surprised in any way, it did not show on his face.
"Then let me ask you, Bobo," Shirou continued, narrowing his eyes. "Is there something you're not telling us about the island? About the curse?"
S-class quest regulations were one thing, but he'd be damned if he was going to lead them blindly to their deaths. Lucy, Gray, Natsu and Happy were his guildmates, Sera was his new companion, and it was his job to protect all of them.
"I do have my own thoughts, but I myself can't confirmed them," Bobo replied, giving nothing away. Before Shirou could respond, he added, "The island's coming up. You should take a good look at-huh?"
Bobo fell silent. Shirou followed his gaze to the growing speck on the horizon, and...
Oh.
The island was burning.
Galuna island was burning. Even from such a distance, Shirou could see the flames that engulfed the island, the giant pillar of smoke rising from its once-lush forests. Somehow or other, a bushfire had consumed the island, and the island blazed like a giant pyre ship.
"What... what happened? What happened while I was gone?"
"Look out!" Sera yelled. Somehow, in the few seconds that they'd spend staring an island, a tidal wave had risen behind them. Gray had a split second to grab Sera before the wave swept over them, driving Shirou, Lucy, Natsu, and the rest of the boat toward Davy Jones' Locker.
*"They're awake, madam."*
*"Leave them to me, Captain. You've done well."*
"Aye aye, lass!"
The unfamiliar voices swept over Shirou's waterlogged ears. He climbed groggily, shook his head, and looked around him. Gray's unconscious form lay, Sera securely wrapped in his grasp. Lucy, Natsu and Bobo weren't much better, sprawled all over the deck in their own patches of seawater.
Wait. There were tall wooden masts around them, men in stained shirts moving about, adjusting the sails. They were on a ship, and judging from the unfurling black sails and the pirate flag high above him, it was a pirate ship.
This was bad. He had to get all of them off, before they were all sold as slaves or pressed into service...
"So, Shirou, you're finally awake."
Shirou couldn't believe his eyes.
This person could not be here. Not now. Not on this ship. Not while he was backing an S-class quest illegally. Not while he had pursued Avalon against orders. Every one of his senses screamed at him to run, to jump off the ship and dive into the unforgiving depths of the ocean, because nothing could possibly be worse than the furious armoured woman crossing her arms before him, and yet, every one of those instincts warned him that escape was impossible. The woman would stop him before he even got close to the edge.
"I gave you an order, Shirou. So. Why. Are. You. Out. Here?"
Because the woman in front of him was Erza Scarlet.