Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

Transposition

Chapter 12

Rain fell from a leaden sky, pouring heavily down on burning ruins. Steam hissed as the rain fell, water evaporating as it struck searing-hot stone and metal, flames spluttering as the water soaked into their fuel and drowned them into inactivity.

Smoke rose in grey columns as the fires died down, and then subsided themselves as smoldering fuel was doused and cooled by the rain. A boy stumbled through the ruins, his clothes singed and blackened, burns dotting patches of exposed skin, his eyes and face alike blank from his experiences.

Coming to a halt, the boy stared blankly ahead of him for a moment, and with a weak whimper collapsed, crumpling backward to fall with a muddy splash on the ground. He lay silent, breathing weakly as he stared up at the leaden sky, uncaring of the rainfall on and around him, and splashing into the blackened ground.

Slowly, the boy closed his eyes, his breathing growing weaker, finally allowing himself to give way to the temptation to just let it go. He felt the rain continuing to fall on and around him, the cooling air and the muddy ground stealing the warmth from his body, but it didn't matter anymore. All that was left was to wait for death to come for him in his turn.

For a long time, there was only the sound of the falling rain and the growing coldness, but then there came a new sound. Slow, heavy footsteps, splashing softly on the muddy ground, coming closer and closer with every step. Despite having decided to accept his fate, the boy weakly opened his eyes as the footsteps came to a halt beside him, and beheld the empty-eyed visage of a man with dark eyes and hair staring down at him.

Mud splashed as the man fell to his knees, tears and rainwater mixing on his face, twisted with a desperate smile. It was the smile of someone who'd found what he was looking for, the smile of someone who'd suffered so much and was finally being saved from his torment.

Slowly, the boy closed his eyes again. He barely registered the man's movements, the warmth spreading slowly through his body, the pain and the weakness draining away, and the man pulling him into a crushing embrace.

As darkness fell across his sight, something glimmered in the dark, a long and vaguely-defined form that shone as though of light flashing off polished metal, with shades of silver, gold, and blue…

…what was it?

Slowly, surely, the form began to grow clear, but then suddenly it blurred, the light fading into the darkness as a voice intruded into his consciousness.

"…sempai…sempai…please wake up, sempai…"

Slowly, but surely, Shirou blinked awake, noting his head lying in something soft yet firm, warm and comfortable, and turned to lie on his back as he felt a hand on his arm lift away. As he did so, Sakura's smiling face came into view above. "Welcome back." She said.

With a yelp, Shirou sprang away, realizing that his head had been lying on Sakura's lap, and more than that, he'd fallen asleep in it. And then he remembered falling on her breasts during his initial bout of dizziness, causing Shirou's cheeks to turn pink.

"Sorry!" he said, bowing formally with head pressed to the ground, and to a stunned Sakura's complete mortification. "Really, really sorry! That was very inappropriate, falling asleep in your lap, especially since we're not in a relationship or anything of that sort…not that it would be appropriate even if we were…though I'm not saying you're…no, I…that is…"

"S-stop it already…" Sakura stammered out, her cheeks even redder than Shirou's. "I didn't really mind, and there was nothing malicious to it so…um…"

"No, more than that…" Shirou said, still bowed. "Earlier I accidentally…touched your chest so…"

"Yes well…" Sakura said, now rather red-faced. "Just like sleeping in my lap, it wasn't malicious or anything, you just um…fell on me after you got dizzy, and I should have warned you earlier about the effects of opening your circuits for the first time, so…"

Sakura trailed off, and then looking away gave a cough as her face began to lighten. "Anyway," she said. "Can we just move on? We could do better with the time we spend over this so…please get up, sempai…"

Shirou looked up, and after seeing Sakura's embarrassed and uncomfortable expression got up into a sitting position, though he still couldn't quite look at her just yet. "Um…" he began hesitantly, scratching at his head. "So, what now?"

"My familiars have found Caster going for an residential building downtown, so I think we should get ready, don't you?"

The thought of Caster attacking more innocent people certainly caught Shirou's attention, drawing it from his earlier…inappropriate, actions, as did the idea of being able to do something about it. "Of course," he said with a nod, finally looking at her though keeping his eyes away. "If we can do something to help those people in any way we can, we should do it. And who knows? We might find a clue to where Caster is hiding, and if we can find them, then we can put an end to all these attacks."

Sakura nodded, and then paused. "Sempai?" she asked, and when Shirou still couldn't look her in the eyes reached out and hesitantly took his hand. Surprised, Shirou finally met her eyes causing Sakura to pull back her hand. "Um…I didn't really mind and you didn't really mean anything by it so…"

Sakura trailed off, looking as though she was struggling to find the right words, and then with a breath smiled at Shirou. "Can we go back to just like earlier?" she finally asked.

For a few moments Shirou silently considered the question, wondering whether they really could after he'd done something so…forward, one could put it, but looking at Sakura's smile, he sighed and nodded himself before returning the smile. "Start over, huh?" he asked. "Yeah, I think we can."

Sakura beamed. "Alright then," she said, getting up and helping Shirou up as well. "So…we should get ready to move out, and while I don't know about you I need to change so…"

"OH! Right, I see." Shirou exclaimed, coughing and rubbing the back of his head while smiling awkwardly. "Well, in that case, I'll leave you be."

Sakura nodded, and Shirou made to leave. But as he opened the door and took a step out, Sakura spoke up again. "Sempai," she began, and he looked back at her. "Don't let it get to you, alright?"

Shirou looked taken aback at that, but after a moment of fumbling again gave way at Sakura's smile and nodded. "I'll try." He said with a small smile, and she beamed at him. Shirou nodded again, and stepping out closed the doors behind him.

For a few moments he just stood there, and then with a sigh headed for his room. "That was so embarrassing." He thought. "And so inappropriate. True, I had an excuse or two for it all, but still…I shouldn't have done that. Thankfully, Sakura's a forgiving girl, despite being a magus and all."

Shirou smiled at the thought, and at the knowledge that she'd saved his life recently and was taking action and had shown….concern, at Caster's activities. "She's a good person, no doubt about it." He thought. "I'm sure she's got a few flaws I haven't seen yet, and probably more than a few secrets I might not completely agree with, but she's not bad."

Nodding to himself, Shirou picked up the pace to his room, and was about to enter when he sensed a presence behind him. Turning, he saw Archer standing in the Moonlight out in the yard, smiling in a strange, unsettling way at Shirou. He narrowed his eyes.

"Can I help you?" Shirou asked.

Archer snorted at that. "I really doubt that." He observed with a mocking tone, causing Shirou to narrow his eyes and turn to belligerently face the Servant.

"Relax," Archer said. "I didn't come here to pick a fight."

"Really?"

"Yes," Archer said with a smile. "If I wanted to fight, then you'd be dead already."

Shirou grit his teeth at that, something more than just the Servant's thinly-veiled insults just pissing him off. "What do you want, Archer?" Shirou demanded.

"Just to give an observation, and some advice."

"Oh?"

"You've managed to open your magic circuits, I see." Archer said, still smiling in that unsettling, no, almost mocking, way, at Shirou. "How'd it go?"

"I don't see how it's any of your business."

Archer gave a bark of laughter at that. "Normally it isn't," he admitted. "But as Sakura seems to be interested in you, it is."

"Then go and ask her about it."

Archer laughed again. "Sakura doesn't understand, you see." he said. "Normal methods just won't work with you. For her sake, I'll only say this once so pay attention. In battle, you are absolutely useless. Nothing you can do can hope to stand up against a proper magus like Sakura, much less Servants like Berserker. The only thing you can do is imagine something that will let you not just stand against enemies like those, but also let you defeat them. And seeing that's the only thing you can do, I suggest you do more than make the best of it, and outright perfect it."

Archer smiled with amusement at the outright hostility Shirou could only respond with at the Servant's words. "What that girl sees in you, I have no idea." He said. "Still, if that's what she wants…"

Archer trailed off, and then with a shrug, vanished into astral form. Shirou continued to stand there for a few more moments, and then with a snort of his own, walked into his room, closing the door behind him.

He had to get ready to head out.

"So this is the place?" Shirou asked.

"Yup, Residential Complex 321b." Sakura replied. The girl had changed into something you wouldn't normally associate as something most magi would wear, not that Shirou could say he was part of the norm, with his blue and white short-sleeved shirt and blue jeans. In that light, Shirou wasn't too different from his partner with her pink-striped white, short-sleeved shirt and dark-coloured vest and jeans.

Well, the vest had enough pocket room for gemstones and like, he supposed.

"Not a particularly homely name, is it, sempai?" Sakura asked.

"No, that it isn't, Sakura." Shirou agreed. "It is mass housing, after all. With that said, it shouldn't have to reflect on the people who live here."

"Agreed," Sakura said before taking the lead into the complex. "Shall we?"

"Wait," Shirou began with a note of caution, moving to follow Sakura's lead. "Is it really alright to just go…!"

Shirou abruptly broke off as he stepped over the complex's threshold, his chest seeming to squeeze tight and the atmosphere around him thicken and grow cloying, almost like caramel really, and very hard to breathe in. At the same time, a familiar heat ignited in his body as his magic circuits came to life, struggling to fend off the supernatural assault on his body.

"You alright?" Sakura asked, quickly coming over.

"I'm fine." Shirou said, waving her off, belatedly realizing he was tense and sweating, and all in just a moment too. The strange sensation was wearing off now, but the heat of his circuits was still there. "A bounded field?"

Sakura nodded. "I'm not too sure how it works," she said. "But I can tell it's connected to how Caster gets energy from her victims. And, though I'm not too sure of this, it probably also keeps most people away while it's active."

"I see."

Sakura glanced at Shirou and smiled weakly. "Rather sensitive to it, aren't you?" she asked teasingly.

"Well sorry for that."

Sakura giggled, and despite himself Shirou smiled weakly at her attempt to keep spirits up in the current situation. The smiles and laughter ended soon though, as they all sensed the coming of hostiles. Eyes turned across the open space between the outer wall of the complex and the main building itself, and focused on strange, skeletal things holding sword-like weapons in their hands.

They walked slowly if steadily, making strange noises as they approached, Saber and the Masters tensing at the sight. "So many…" Shirou said.

"Familiars, probably," Sakura said. "They shouldn't be too tough then, but with Caster you never know. And of course, there are a lot of them."

Abruptly the advancing familiars stopped, and the Masters stared in surprise. And then with strange, hollow-sounding howls, the familiars charged, swords held high.

Saber was the first to attack, the blonde girl charging in as a blur of gold and blue. Swinging her sword in great arcs almost like a farmer harvesting wheat, she took down multiple familiars in one swing, which coupled with her speed allowed her to decimate the attacking familiars in but a few moments, leaving piles of broken, bone-like material behind her.

But there were so many of them, enough that while most rushed at Saber to tie her down, enough were left to plug the gap behind Saber and between her and the Masters, and to rush the latter. Sakura was the first to respond, her family's crest glowing visibly on her arm as she raised it, index finger pointing out, Finn shots lashing out at high speed to blow familiars apart.

Shirou looked around as Sakura opened fire, stemming the tide but as more enemy familiars arrived he could see it wouldn't be enough. "I need a weapon, something I can use!" he thought, and cursing that he'd left home without one.

Even if we didn't see this coming, I knew we were in for a fight. I should have brought something!

After looking around a few times, Shirou spotted a long broom standing next to the wall a good distance away. "That'll do!" Shirou thought as he ran for it.

"Sempai!" Sakura shouted after him but couldn't follow without letting up her weight of fire. But even then, they were steadily getting closer with every passing moment.

Shirou for his part just ran, and reaching the broom grabbed it. Breaking the head off with a kick, he closed his eyes, his magic circuits fortunately already open thanks to his passing through the bounded field earlier. Still, it was different from what he was used to, making it equally feeling awkward as easier to perform magic.

"Trace, on." He murmured, not seeing with his eyes closed as the stick he held in his hand turned into solid steel.

Opening his eyes, he briefly smiled down at the steel rod he was now holding, but the sounds of familiars close behind him quickly had him turning. He'd scarcely done so, when an explosion erupted nearby, buffeting him and blowing Caster's familiars to dust.

Sakura, seeing the familiars closing in on Shirou while he was casting a spell, growled, and despite knowing it would let up the volume of fire, pulled a red garnet from one of her vest pockets, and threw it flashing like a strobe at the familiars closing on Shirou's back.

Other familiars now tried to rush her, but Sakura just tossed more gems at them. A trio of red garnets, and a zircon had explosions pluming orange fire and broken familiars into the night, but more familiars leaped through and at Sakura, swords swinging.

Sakura jumped back, flipping once with her hands before landing in a bajiquan stance, magic circuits flashing as she reinforced her body. A raised arm caught a familiar's arm before a punch broke it apart, her elbow jabbing sideways to break another familiar to pieces.

And then simultaneously ducking down and sliding a step back, two elbow jabs backward simultaneously destroyed two familiars. Leaping forward a short distance, she punched another familiar to pieces followed by two sideways elbows jabs, a backward jab, and another punch with a sweeping low kick and two sweeps of her arms to open up the space around her.

The familiars quickly filled it up, but a pair of rock crystals threw them back in pieces with a powerful blast of wind. Shirou meanwhile was using what kendo skills he had to fight his way towards Sakura, literally chopping down a path in front of him with either powerful overhead blows or wide sweeps.

Sakura's blast of wind cleared up his way, and he quickly ran up to her. "Is there no end to this?" he asked.

A feminine shout of rage drew their attention, and then broken familiars rained down as Saber also cut a path back to the Masters. "My apologies," she said as she took a protective stance in front of them. "I underestimated the enemy's numbers, and as a result my charge only left you to fend for yourselves. It won't happen again."

"Its fine, we're still here so…" Sakura said, only to trail off. Around them the familiars stared emptily at them, before slowly beginning to advance again. "At this rate…"

"We can't give up!" Shirou snarled. "There are people in there!"

"I know!" Sakura said, looking very grim herself. "Well, there's something I could try…"

"Now would be a really good time to try then."

Sakura smiled tightly at that. "To be effective," she began. "I'm going to have to be on top of the building."

"No way," Shirou breathed while looking up. "Damn it, we have no choice. We'll have to get through these things first, but we have to…"

"No need to get through these things," Archer said, suddenly appearing. "I might not be able to fight, but I can get you there. Thing is, how long will it take to cast your spell?"

"It's a five-count, and I've never tried it outside of laboratory conditions before."

"Great…"

"But it might work?" Shirou asked, looking at Sakura intensely. The girl blinked.

"It might." She said, and Shirou nodded.

"Then let's give it a go." He said, prompting Sakura and Archer to stare at each other. After a moment the former nodded, and the latter sighed in response.

"Alright," Archer said. "Saber, can you open up a path?"

The blonde nodded. "Please step back." She said, and they did so. A powerful breeze then kicked up, and nearly invisible to the eye Saber charged forward, her sword swinging wide. A blast of wind with the intensity of a gale erupted from the swing, reducing nearly the entirety of the familiars to dust in an instant, even as Saber came to a halt near the building entrance.

"Shirou, go!" Sakura said as she grabbed Archer's offered arm. "Get to Saber!"

Shirou nodded, and ran down the path towards Saber, the remaining familiars closing from either side, Saber in the distance easily dealing with those coming from the building, bottlenecked as they were by the doors. In contrast, Archer and Sakura reached the middle of the path in one leap, and then with another they were on the building itself, a dull red star streaking up its side.

"Good luck, Sakura." Shirou thought as he bashed a few familiars that tried to get in his way to pieces, before finally joining Saber at the doors. "I'll believe in you to end this battle so we can finally start helping the people inside."

Archer and Sakura disengaged from each other as they landed on the rooftop, Archer immediately grabbing a nearby bench and using it to barricade the door. Placing a hand against the wood, it took only a moment to reinforce both the door and the bench alike.

"So," he began. "What does this does spell of yours do anyway?"

"It rots enemy mysteries apart."

"…what?"

"You heard me." Sakura said, pulling gems from her pockets and stuffing them into her mouth swallowed them one after another. A ruby and a pair of diamonds, followed by a jasper and an emerald: that had Archer raising an eyebrow.

I know it's a five-count, but does it really need that much prana? Rin could pull off spells with the effect of a ten-count or greater with a single gem. Then again…

…I'm still not sure how you're able to use elemental magecraft in the first place. Did your father or Kirei have you altered? Or perhaps, you are the Average One in this timeline, and Rin has the Imaginary Numbers?

But if so, then…

Archer's musings came to a halt, as Sakura's shadow swirled and then morphed into a magic circle beneath her feet. "So you still have Imaginary Numbers, I see." Archer thought. "I guess it's safe to assume Rin is the Average One. But it still doesn't answer how you're able to use elemental magecraft."

Archer narrowed his eyes. "Were you altered?" he thought. "Or did you find another way to get around the limitation? Either way, it would explain how inefficient your mysteries seem to be, as going around would require more effort and prana than normal."

"How do you plan to do that?" he asked.

"Not talking about the 'how' where anyone can see." Sakura replied, holding out her arms straight in opposite directions.

"Fair enough," Archer conceded, watching as shadows streaked out in four directions from where Sakura was standing in the middle of the roof. Hurrying over to the edge, he looked down and saw the shadows flickering down the four corners of the building, across the grounds, and outlining the edges of the complex in flickering walls of darkness. Archer smiled in realization.

So that's why you need a lot of prana. Certainly, without being connected to the Grail, having Angra Mainyu's curse, and Matou absorption magecraft, you can't affect the physical with your shadows. But you don't need to, do you?

All you need here is to define the area of effect, and shadows can do that just fine. After all, spells aren't really physical, even if their effects are, are they?

The sounds of beating at the door had Archer rushing over to brace the barricade, but a glance at Sakura showed her holding four gems in each hand, one between each finger. A duo of opals, an emerald, and a moonstone in one hand, and what looked like rock crystals of various colours in the other.

Water and air? Those are the elements you need to 'rot' a spell?

"Asche zu Asche," Sakura cast, shadows seeming to drip in thin strands between her gems to the circle below, the former flashing like strobes between her fingers. "Staub zu Staub, aus Staub den wir machen, zu Staub wir zurückkehren, so ist der Kuß der Sterblichkeit."

The gems between Sakura's fingers flashed bright, and then they shattered, her shadows flaring in response. Unseen either by her or Archer, across the grounds below or in the building inside, Dragon Tooth Warriors – Caster's familiars – literally fell apart as their mysteries were undone, and Shirou below felt the air grow lighter as the bounded field collapsed.

"Well, what do you know?" Sakura asked with a grin, blood flowing from her nose. "It actually worked."

And then coughing up blood, she collapsed on the ground, Archer rushing to her with a shout of alarm.

"Sakura!"

In her hiding place, Caster observed the people who'd interfered in one of her prana collection operations across the city, watching their actions through a glowing sphere of magic. It was the only real source of light in the room she was in, and even then it left her and her Master still partly obscured by the darkness.

"Interesting magic, isn't it?" Caster asked.

"I wouldn't know." Her Master replied. "I'm not a magus, as you well know, so I cannot really tell. But, just from seeing the toll that girl's spell cost her body, it's not nearly as impressive as it seems."

"Certainly," Caster said. "That is so. It would have suited her better to use a ten-count aria to invoke the mystery, which could have used the refinement. As it is right now, the spell while having an impressive effect, is rather inefficient."

"I see."

"However," Caster continued with an amused smile. "This girl is rather resourceful. I have my suspicions as to why she's transmuting elements, but still, even if it is rather crude and childish at present, the mystery is well made for her level."

"Will it pose a problem?"

"Not really, no." Caster replied. "It is simply worth commenting on, at an academic level."

"If you say so," Her Master said. "More importantly however, what do you plan to do regarding this and future interference by Archer and Saber's Masters in our plans?"

"Nothing," Caster said. "Let the children play if they want to play. A few disrupted operations per night is of little real meaning in the grand scheme of things, and we'd be better served keeping a wary eye on that little doll and her pet Berserker, as well as that treacherous priest and his Lancer."

"I see."

"Still," Caster continued with a smile. "If the children do poke their noses where they don't belong, we should discipline them appropriately. And we have the means to do so, do we not, Souichirou-sama?"

"Certainly, that is so."

Caster just kept on smiling, even as she watched Archer fuss over his Master as she healed herself.

A/N

Translation for Sakura's spell: Ash to ash, dust to dust, from dust we are made, to dust we shall return, such is mortality's kiss.

Now before you say I'm wanking Sakura by having Caster be impressed by her, do note that Caster was canonically impressed – for a given value of impressed given she is Medea after all – by the power of Rin's gems. And as Caster herself mentioned, it's purely academic and implicitly, akin to a true master watching a young novice performing better than expected but still a novice for all that.