7th Day – part 4 – Understanding
The mad cackling echoed through the underground, this was quite unsettling to Zouken, as he was accustomed to hear any such sounds coming from himself. It didn't help matters that he was unable to move and had many strange wires connected to his entire body. Still, he tried his best to cope with it: By being snarky.
"Hehe, as long as I've lived and as rotten as I am, I don't think I've ever seen anyone that quite compared to me like you do, Caster. You're quite nasty." If only he could achieve some sort of dominance, at least in a psychological manner.
The cackling ceased, but the Servant did not turn from his work. "That's so interesting! You and your granddaughter have exactly what I needed. Good thing your grandson gave me the hint, or I might not have had enough time to finish my research." So it was Shinji's fault that he was in this state, somehow that did not disturb Zouken. After he got out of this situation he would have to thoroughly discipline that boy.
"Is that so? I am happy that this old man can be useful even as his life fades." He felt like he needed to distract caster somehow, as if failing to do so meant the end of him. "Hey! Are you listening to me?"
Caster wasn't. He was manipulating a magic circle the likes of which Zouken had never seen. Under it was Sakura. Why was she there, what exactly was this all about? Panic started to take over Zouken. "Just a little bit more… There! It should be severed any time now." If he wasn't bound, Zouken would have convulsed.
He felt… drained. It was as if he has just been emptied. "What… what have you done?" He felt as if his body had vanished, like he was a ghost floating in the air.
The Servant still refused to directly answer him. "Wow, you Magi keep baffling me. It's incredible how good all of you are at coming up with and proving the most incredible theories, yet you're all just so bad at efficiently applying them. It's appalling, really." Was he looking up, or down? Zouken couldn't tell, as everything seemed to be fading away. "Encoding your soul is truly ingenious, but to use it only to extend your life? How boring…" Zouken had lost something, something that he absolutely needed. Or else he would die. Die? He couldn't die. Not now. Not when he was so close… He… With all the pieces of his soul completely severed from each other, Matou Zouken could no longer exist, and so he faded away.
-a-
Matou Shinji watched eagerly as his grandfather dissolved into a puddle of gross goo. Was it over then? He looked at caster and opened his mouth. "It is done. Matou Sakura is now no more than a regular talented Magus. Matou Zouken is dead and the knowledge of centuries of life is now mine, in addition to a little something else." Caster showed a small smile at that.
Shinji suppressed his bad feeling, if it was done; it was done and should be a good thing. Whatever else that might come after this, this was for the best. "I see, I will take my sister home now, if you don't mind." He half expected Caster to voice an objection.
He didn't. "Go ahead, I have gotten all that I needed from her. I just hope you don't mind an empty husk." By his tone, he might as well have been talking about a malfunctioning gadget.
For a moment Shinji felt as if his heart had stopped. "What?" It was all he managed. He felt a lump in his stomach.
Assassin materialized in a moment, pistol in hand. "That's not what we had agreed on, am I wrong?" His look almost made the gun seem redundant.
"Is that so?" Caster seemed genuinely surprised, as if he was sure there wasn't anything wrong. Then it seemed as if something was lit inside his mind. "Oh, I see! I'm sorry, I just exaggerated." He gestured them towards the table where Sakura was resting. "I'm no medic, but I don't think the girl will wake up anytime soon. If you think extracting a soul and some other things from inside a person can be done in a non-invasive manner, then I don't know what to tell you." He smiled a fake smile.
Some of Shinji's anxiety vanished, but not all. "Whatever, don't freak me out like that. We will just take her and leave. Assassin, if you would." In a minute they were a step away from the door that would lead outside the heart of Caster's workshop. Shinji stopped and hesitated for a moment.
Should they just leave like that? Whatever it was that Caster was planning, it was certain to bring some sort of disaster. They still had the trump card that Archer had given them, they could definitely defeat Caster. Should he? But wouldn't that be traitorous? But their common goal had come to an end. He could save so many people by putting everything to an end right now. Then he realized that he wouldn't and let out a chuckle. "Haha, I truly am a Matou, trash, through and through." If he and Assassin defeated Caster right then, nobody would thank him; he'd just be a backstabber. Besides, since when did he owe something to a world that mostly brought him misery? "I don't give a crap."
"Is there something else you need?" Caster was looking at him, oblivious to any possible threat. He was probably thinking of the next step in his research.
Shinji Smiled. "Nothing, good luck with your project." He opened the exit door.
"I never had any, so I don't intend on relying on it." What an unpleasant fellow. Shinji exited the room.
-a-
"Berserker! Why are you taking so long? Just kill him already!" Any hint of calmness in Ilya's voice was gone. Why wouldn't it be? For quite a while she has been telling Berserker to kill that annoying Lancer, but despite many supposedly killing blows, the enemy Servant just wouldn't die. "Why won't you die?"
Lancer was bloodied from head to toe, his shield and lance cracked. He threw them both away and the disappeared like mist, a brand new pair appeared in his hands. "Resurrection is such a difficult thing to deal with, isn't it?" He was maintaining a healthy distance from the huge Servant in front of him. "But I suppose I shouldn't complain when you have killed me so many more times than I have killed you, huh." At least he wasn't against a dragon anymore. That seemed to have gone away when Lancer sacrificed his life what seemed to have been two dozen times just to get a lance through Berserker's heart. As a man, Berserker just wasn't as strong, but despite the remaining madness, his fighting was more refined. He might have boasted before, but he wasn't completely sure if he could kill his opponent even one more time before running out of lives.
The little girl seemed on the verge of throwing a tantrum. "Weren't you some mighty warrior? Stop dragging this out and get crushed by Berserker already." It really wasn't a good idea to ask the little girl if she wanted to test her Servant's luck so soon after the talk. No, it wasn't that. It cut Lancer deep to admit it, but Berserker was simply superior to him. He used that exact same weapons Lancer did, and beat him with them. Lance and shield, just the lance, even a short sword out of desperation, he had tried to beat the human Berserker with anything that he was proficient at. There was only one thing left…
"How about that?" He let go of his weapons again, this time nothing took their place. "There is no weapon in the armory of Sparta with which I can defeat you. That is quite impressive, foe of mine! So there is one last challenge between us: Barehanded fight!" His last chance would be to beat Berserker in a wrestling match. His own blood, which at that point was covering most of his body, might even help with that. He charged as the huge enemy Servant threw his own weapons away with a grunt. "Come on!"
-a-
Really, what are they doing? Archer was pretty sure that Lancer had talked about accepting challenges the next day, yet here he was, fighting Berserker to the death the very same night. Archer almost felt dirty watching them through the scope of his sniper.
"Oh well, here is our chance to get rid of a problematic opponent, shall we take it?"
He looked to his side and remembered that his master was somewhere else; stirring some more trouble for somebody else.
"What a confusing Master you are, but I don't dislike that. Chaos suits me very well, I think."
He turned his attention again to the fight that was happening so far away, yet seemed so close through his scope.
"Might as well draw first blood, I guess. Goodbye Berserker, it was most definitely not nice at all knowing you."
As Berserker and Lancer wrestled, they made quite the easy and immobile target. Archer carefully aimed above them to compensate the distance. His finger touched the trigger.
"Aaaaand, bang, you're gone."
As he finished the phrase, Berserker's head exploded.
"Not even with a whimper, from my point of view. I'm sure you're burning with anger somewhere in hell right now, great warrior, and it makes me smile. Oh boy, Lancer looks pissed, I better leave right now."
He jumped down the house's roof and started running.
-a-
Shirou was almost accustomed to not understanding what was going on, but that didn't decrease the discomfort. Rider was angry, no, she was beyond angry at that point.
"I just don't get it, can't you tell me what's going on?"
They had finally reached his home, he was right in the middle of his living room, so why was it that he didn't feel safe at all?
"You don't get it? Of course you don't, you have been not getting it since the start. You and me, we have a problem, and Archer's Master was kind enough to tell us of a possible solution."
Oh, so it was about that, on their way home, that woman did whisper something on Rider's ear, but was she really going to take it at face value? Was it really that desperate of a situation? Was that about her getting trounced by Lancer?
"Oh, come on, are you really going to believe something that another Master told you?"
He was retreating a few steps as he said that.
"Oh, so we shouldn't have cooperated with Saber's Master then, am I sensing a kind of double-standard here?"
Rider smiled coyly as she said that.
"Let's be fair here, Tohsaka is a much less suspicious person."
He felt a sliding door to his back, which he slowly opened.
"I don't care, you constantly tell me not to kill anyone, yet you want me to be suspicious of everyone, aren't you being unreasonable?"
Before he realized it she was holding a knife in her hand.
"Uh, Rider-san, what are doing with this in your hand? Whatever it is that you want to test I'm sure we could do without, or ask Tohsaka about it…"
"Shut up, it's not something to be talked about with others."
Shirou ran, she was crazy, was he going to die. Before he could go back to thinking calmly he found himself in his room. Wait. There was no way he would die, since she needed him to keep existing right?
He closed the door behind him and turned towards it.
"I'm sure we can talk about this…"
He fell to the floor on his back as Rider kicked the door open. Then, she quickly sat on top of him.
"There will be no discussion. Know this: What I am about to do is an act of desperation that takes away my dignity, but winning this war is the most important thing, right, Master?"
"I just don't get it, what it is that you want to do?"
"Oh, nothing that will be all that unpleasant to you, I'm quite sure. You see, horses aren't the only thing I'm good at riding."
"Eh…?"
By the time the sun was rising, Shirou felt completely violated.