Chapter 14: The Worms Consume
Natsumi opened the door to the dark, hellish basement. Her footsteps echoed as she walked down the twisting, winding shadow. A rank, disgusting smell filled her lungs but she did not mind, after all she had been smelling it for the past few weeks. At first, the stench was bothersome, and she could barely stand it. Now, it was soothing in an odd way. As she neared the bottom of the stairs, there to greet her was the cloaked Assassin, his arm bleeding slightly from an earlier wound. His large body towered over her, and from afar he seemed like a giant in comparison.
"Thank you," he said, "If you and your Servant had not arrived, it would have been the end." The tall, cloaked killer bowed to her in a respectful manner.
"Do not mistaken my rescue for an act of kindness," said Natsumi coldly.
"Yes," replied the cloaked man, "Of course. My Master awaits you inside." In an instant he disappeared into the dark.
Natsumi continued into the room, brushing her auburn hair aside and checking her wound. The gems she used were working excellently, it was closing well and barely noticeable at all. It worried her at first, the depth being considerable. However her father was holding back. She could see it in his eyes. Did he know it was her? No, he couldn't have.
She did not walk very far until she was confronted by the old man. Standing amidst his sea of decaying, disgusting worms. He looked up at her from the bottom of the basement and did not so much as even twitch a muscle on his wrinkled face.
"Ah, Natsumi," he said with a warm voice, "Welcome home." The old man walked out of the tide of worms, as if it were not disgusting in the least, and climbed up a set of stairs to meet her. "I apologize for putting a damper on our plans. Your father is quite the annoyance."
"Do not speak about him in such a way!" snapped Natsumi, "My father is a great man!"
The old man smiled slyly, "Whatever you say child." He paced in front of her, his hand on his chin. "We will be moving in a weeks time at best. We cannot call this place safe as long as that traitor is out there."
"A week? Should we not be moving sooner? We cannot underestimate our foe."
"Do not worry my child. I have Assassin and our...other Servant, out there as we speak. He cannot hide for long. Besides, we have yet to find the ideal sanctuary."
"Very well. What would you have me do in the meantime?"
"For now, I want you to stay here. No use in parading our trump card around. Best to bide our time. If tonight has showed us anything it's that we are fighting this war on three separate fronts."
The old man was right. Their resources were spread thin. The traitor, her father and her brother. Three separate people they had to keep their eyes on. Three very real threats.
Her father wasn't just excellent in the use of projection, he quite literally turned it into a devastating art. The fact that he also has Saber alongside him makes him the biggest threat in the war so far. Not only is he capable of fighting with excellent form but his Servant is one of, if not the, strongest Servant in the war. Her brother was a poor mage, but Archer's presence made him all the more threatening, especially with the performance she gave out in her multiple battles.
The traitor's whereabouts are unknown. And that is what scared Natsumi the most. She knew almost nothing about this person and thus she could not accurately gauge the power he possessed. Her thoughts were interrupted with Zouken's raspy voice.
"Speaking of them. Assassin has told me something very peculiar about your brother."
"What about that fool is so worthy of our time? As far as I'm concerned the only one we need to worry about is Archer."
"True, that is what I initially thought as well. But what Assassin has told me is troubling news. You told me that he was incapable of using magecraft, correct?"
"His circuits are unstable. Frayed, for lack of a better term. He cannot cast magic without his body literally imploding on itself. He's useless in that regard. My parent's always coddled him"
"Not anymore."
"What?" A hint of surprise spread across Natsumi's normally blank face. What could the old man possibly be talking about?
"From Assassin's given description, he funnels prana into the circuits of a certain body part. In this case it was his arm. The backlash causes a powerful explosion of prana to erupt from the arm and also engulf whatever he is touching at the time."
"It is basically like a directed weapon of mass destruction. A suicide bomb."
"Correct. It seems we have far more to fear from your brother than just Archer. Thankfully he is wounded at the moment, and we won't be seeing him or Archer in the near future."
"Why don't we just hunt him down and kill him now? You could send me and Mordred. The task would be a simple one!"
"So eager to shed blood," remarked the old man with a snicker, "No. Scouring the city for those two would be a waste of time. Chasing that Archer would be like trying to find a specific shadow in a cave of darkness."
"Very well," replied Natsumi, disappointed. She turned to leave, but stopped in her tracks.
"Yes? Something on your mind?" Asked the old man, curious.
"My father," said Natsumi, "When I was fighting him. I was no match. I could barely keep up with him. My powers are too weak."
"So you desire more?" The old man smiled after asking, "I can provide you such an increase in power. Although..." He pointed to the pit of wriggling worms, "It will be very painful."
Natsumi looked at the worms. The squirming tsunami of filth in the pit below her. A normal girl would feel fear. A normal girl would feel disgust. Natsumi felt none of those things. She only felt one thing. Desire. The desire for power. She had to show her parents what she was capable of. Nothing else mattered. She would be worthy of the Emiya name. She would the greatest magus in the world, no matter the cost.
"I'll do it," she said without hesitation, "How do we go about this process?"
"It is simple really. You stay within the pit, and the worms will do their work."
"How long do I need to stay for me to gain the power I need?"
The old man rubbed his chin, "A few days or so."
"Very well."
"Let us begin then," said the old man with a disgusting smile, "You will be a fine breeding ground for them, my girl."
Rin got up with a start, her eyes gazing rapidly at her surroundings. She was in her house, lying in an expansive bed. Her bed to be exact. What had happened? The last thing she remembered was running into Servant Caster. How was she still alive? She was sure that Cerberus had her. Rin shook her head and got up from the bed, her right sleeve stained with dry blood and filled with holes from the wound.
Who did this? Was all she could think of. Who had the skill and ability to heal a wound as severe as that?
"So you're up," said a familiar voice.
Rin immediately turned to it's direction and saw someone she would never have expected, "You?"
"Yep, didn't expect me now did you?" There before Rin stood a man she never would have thought to be in the new war. A man she had once hated with every fiber of her being.
Shinji Matou. The boy who had almost killed her and Shirou in the last grail war. The one who had made a pact with their enemy and had almost done the unspeakable to Rin. For all intents and purposes Rin should hate him, although he had promised to better his life, what he had done could never be taken back.
His wavy blue hair was exactly the way it was all those years ago, but his garb and method of dress were entirely different. Possibly because Rin had only ever seen him wear his school uniform. He wore a dark violet beret on his head, the color of his hair contrasting fairly well to it's color. His body was also dressed in a uniform of matching violet with a orange tie around his neck. His dress pants were of a pristine white and a white glove with a peculiar symbol was on his right hand.
"Ten years," said Shinji, "It's been a long time. Too long."
"What are you doing here?" demanded Rin, "Get out of my house!"
"Calm down Tohsaka," replied Shinji with an insulted expression. "Is that really how you treat your savior?"
Rin could not believe what she was hearing. Him save her? Preposterous. Shinji was a coward and would always be a coward. He was incapable of magecraft and his deeds in the last grail war were hardly worth mentioning.
"You expect me to believe that?" mocked Rin, "And how could you, a nonmagus, have saved me?" She began to chuckle under her breath.
"A lot can happen in ten years Tohsaka," said Shinji, his eyebrows furrowed in an attempt to hide away his annoyance. "It wasn't just me y'know, I had some help."
"And who would that be? I'm surprised that you even got help at all, being the filth that you are."
From seemingly nowhere appeared a tall, gorgeous plum haired woman. Her hair was unbelievably long, and it nearly touched the ground with it's tips. She wore a pitch black, skin tight garb around her elegant body and her eyes were hidden away by a purple blindfold. Rin recognized her as the Rider from the last war. A servant whom Shinji had controlled, but died before Rin could even see what she was capable of. She stood in the corner of her room, stalwart and emotionless.
"Her? How is that possible? A second Rider?" Rin was astonished at what she was witnessing. How was it possible that a second Rider could exist in the war? She had seen the current one not too many days ago. It was true that Assassin told her that he had been slain, but that did not mean another Servant of the same class could be summoned so easily.
"I have a lot to tell you Rin," said Shinji with a somber expression, "This war is far more than you think."
"What are you talking about? More than I think? I do believe a second rate Master like yourself is in no position to be giving me a lesson of any kind!"
"Will you shut up and listen!" yelled Shinji, his normally flamboyant voice, booming and intimidating. In an instant Rin quieted down, crossing her arms in annoyance.
"Fine," she agreed reluctantly, "What is it?"
"My grandfather, Matou Zouken is behind this war. I don't know how, but he managed to rebuild the grail system of Fuyuki. I don't fully understand the process but he managed to recreate it by finding a small hint of the original grail's corruption."
"Even if I were to believe you," said Rin, an unbelieving scowl on her face, "How would he have recreated the grail from so little? Even if your grandfather was some magical genius he would need far more than those components to recreate something as expansive as the Grail."
"Exactly," he said, "That's where the stolen documents of it's dismantling comes in. I don't know how he got them, but he used them to help in his attempts. From what I've seen so far, he succeeded. This grail is also far more powerful than the one ten years ago. It is strong enough to maintain far more Servants than normally possible. It's like this Grail has no limitations and no rules."
"I see," said Rin, "That would explain why two Riders are present in this war."
"Correct. My grandfather managed to resurrect her using an odd form of magic I could not understand. She has been in our house watching over my sister for the past ten years."
"How? Who is this Zouken? How could he have the power to perform such a thing?"
"I have no idea. However, I did manage to convince Rider to leave with me and betray my grandfather's regime."
"Why did you even need to? Weren't you Rider's original Master anyway?"
"No, I was far from Rider's original Master. In fact, I'm not even her Master currently."
"What are you talking about?"
"Sakura was her original Master. I...I tried freeing her from my grandfather's torturous hold. It was the least I could do for her." Shnji's fists clenched, "After all of the suffering he has put her through...all of the suffering I had put her through. She deserves better."
Rin's heart had almost given out upon hearing Shinji's story. Sakura, once her sister, was forced to live a life of pain. Whoever this Zouken was, Rin knew he was nothing more than a twisted mass of evil. The very thought that her younger sister, one who she had watched for so long, was forced to live through such torment, forced tears to her eyes. Rin herself felt she was at fault. She had watched her sister for so long, and then just abandons her for ten years. How could she call herself a sister, or a person even?
"Did you succeed?" asked Rin, trying to hide her tears.
"Sadly, no. After coming to an agreement with Sakura, Rider became my Servant. Together we managed to escape the house. We've been on the run, hiding in the city ever since. We've ran into Assassin multiple times and have almost managed to elude him."
"I'm surprised Rider has managed to stay in this world as long as she has. I don't recall you having any sort of magical ability."
"I don't," replied Shinji, "But you do."
"What?"
"The entire reason I obtained the Command Spells was so I could give them to you. With your mana supplying Rider, allowing her to fight at full potential would be fairly easy for you to accomplish."
"How would we even go about exchanging the Command Spells. I was under the impression that only those chosen to be Master's would be able to take another Master's Spells."
"True, but as I said before this Grail's rules are a lot more flexible. Wouldn't hurt to try. Besides even if we fail, it'll be me who ends up crippled not you."
Rin paused for a moment and after a few minutes nodded in agreement. "Alright, let's begin."
With one swift movement, Shinji held out his left arm. On it, there was a bright red symbol, the Command Spells. Mimicking his movements, Rin held out her right hand, it's fingers almost touching Shinji's. In a flash, a bright light shot forth between the two of them and Shinji grunted in pain. Rin knew what he was feeling, having the Command Spells removed from ones body was a painful experience, it would be akin to having your armed ripped off.
After a few minutes the bright light subsided and there on Rin's right hand was a Command Spell. She looked over at Shinji, who was now grasping his left arm, it was probably throbbing with unbelievable agony. Rider herself seemed to express discomfort at Shinji's pain, but she refused to even move an inch from where she was. Just by looking at her, Rin could feel their connection, and Rider's power was far more than Rin ever realized. She must have been holding back in the previous war due to Shinji's lack of circuits, but now the power within her was vast and incredible to behold.
"Did it work?" asked Shinji, gritting his teeth, "Please tell me it worked."
"It did," responded Rin.
"Good."
"Why me Shinji?" asked Rin. She was curious as to why Shinji picked her of all people. She could swear that he would have picked Shirou or someone else for the job. Even though she was an excellent magus, Rin and Shinji weren't exactly on speaking terms after what happened all those years ago.
"It wasn't me who picked you Tohsaka. It was Sakura."
"Sakura? But why? Why would she pick me? I failed her. I left her there for ten years even when I promised that I would save her."
"She wants you to fulfill that promise. Don't let her down."
"I won't," exclaimed Rin, a fiery determination in her blue eyes. She wasn't going to let anything happen to Sakura anymore. With Rider and Shinji's help, she would defeat Zouken and free her from his clutches.
"Alright, lets get a move on. The war is going on as we speak."
"What are you talking about? You're no magus, what can you possibly do during this battle?"
"I'm no slouch Tohsaka," said Shinji with a confident smile, "I'm not the prissy coward I was ten years ago. I've learned a lot from my ten years in Atlas."
Rin's eyes widened in astonishment, "Atlas? The Giant's Pit? The greatest branch of alchemical knowledge in the Mages Association?"
"That's right. I'm an alchemist of Atlas."
"How did you go about doing that? Even if most alchemists there have no circuits I sincerely doubt they let someone of your caliber into their ranks so easily."
"Perhaps later. It's a long story. For now, let's focus on getting Sakura back."
"Very well, you can keep your secrets," said Rin with a huff, "What do I care?"
"Still the same after all these years."
The two's conversation was interrupted by an abrupt thud coming from the front door. In an instant Rin pulled out a set of gems only to be greeted with a sight that turned her a pale white. There before her was Archer, holding her blood drenched son. His left arm was nothing more than a stump, and the sheer amount of gore covering the two was a terrible sight to behold.
"Please," said Archer, "Help him."