Fate/Far Side: Origami Blades

Chapter 9

Red Azalea

I couldn't see her power, but she couldn't see an end to mine.

Impasse.

It was not something I would normally do, or even consider doing against a true enemy. If I played defensive, there would be no end to how much I could protect myself.

Against Gilgamesh and his constantly-firing Phantasm, I had to put him on the back foot to ever have stood a chance. I had to fire blades at him, faster than he could, before he could. On foot, he possessed swords; I had to let the swords possess me. To win had meant to press the attack.

But to Akiha…

I swirled the blades around my body, a maelstrom with myself at the center. I held them in the air vertically, points down, one set circling clockwise, another set counterclockwise, each row overlapping the last. It was stupid, but if Akiha's Origami was like dangerous hair, then the first thing I thought of was a razor to trim it down.

Though I couldn't see it directly, I could feel the approach, like smelling an imminent rainstorm in the air. The heat would attempt to weave through the blades, only to be scissor between them, cutting the power off. Blades in turn would seize up and ignite, turn to ash, and I would have to pull another from the ground, weave it into the mix. No matter how far her attacks could make it, they would inevitably run up against a sword in turn, consuming the weapon or being driven back by the occasional anti-demonic weapon.

And while it was true what I had said, that she could no longer harm me, there was of course the opposing truth: I would not harm her.

How did you win a battle where defeat was not even the goal?

"If you won't go away, I'll make you go away!" Akiha screamed at me.

The heat in the air increased to the point that I started to sweat and the number of blades igniting jumped from two or three at a time to at least a dozen. I had to start a third and forth wall of moving blades to keep pace, moved myself around Akiha in a circle to try and keep the attacks coming from one direction.

Still, I wasn't buying it.

If she wanted me dead, truly wanted me dead, I had to imagine there would be more. My control over Unlimited Blade Works was still not perfect, and this whole idea of a shield of tornado-spinning blades was new and untested.

And, having run up against beings significantly more powerful than I am and feeling their desire to have my head…maybe I was just too experienced. This didn't fill me with the same sort of dread Berserker or Assassin or Gilgamesh brought to the table.

With each blade that ignited, I started counting and timing the strikes. There was an intuitive rhythm to it that reminded me a lot of breathing exercises magi tended to favor early on when practicing with their circuit. It came in waves, barely perceptible, though with each strike there seemed to be a temporary withdraw before pressing in again, like the surf coming in at high tide.

I only hoped I wasn't about to get caught in the undertow.

I picked up two swords, held them ready, and with the next withdraw of energy opened a gap in my protection. I threw one blade end-over-end, quickly slamming the "door" shut again when Origami ought to be coming my way—

The blade flew for her face, but she neither flinched nor struck it, as if accepting her fate. But just before it would slice into her body, it veered off sharply like a boomerang and started a long arc back toward me, the Bakuya in my hands drawing the Kanshou back to its twin.

That was wrong.

Her eyes hadn't widened, her body hadn't seized up or fled in any fashion. I think…

I had told Kohaku that I would bet my life on this.

After the next set of blades had been plundered, I swept one arm through the air, picked up Excalibur with the other. The razor wall flew aside, embedded the blades all back into the earth. Akiha stared at me, her eyes narrowing, unsure of what I had planned.

"I'm onto you," I said, leveling the blade at my side. "And I know what this is going to come to."

"You're delusional," she said.

My toes curling in my shoes, I took a deep breath, then charged down the centerline toward her.

I felt the heat swirl around me, ready to strike, but with each footstep it hesitated for a moment, lashing out a fraction of a second too late, flying past my ears or into the space I had just been. I felt it singe the tips of my hair and the fringes of my shirt, felt it try to warp Excalibur but only get singed in turn—

Her eyes closed the moment I got into striking range.

I took two more steps, and dropped the blade in hand before crashing headlong into her.

Unlike before, she gave a knee-jerk reaction, her eyes flying back open and her arms flailing about in a panic. Once more, I felt that stinging heat move around me, but once more it absolutely refused to go for a killing blow—

But her eyes fell to where warmth was between us, hanging from my neck.

And she plundered the only other heat source she could find.

This was not like plundering anything else.

It was like she was naked in the middle of the Antarctic and plunged her hands into the heat of a molten furnace. It tore right into her, so fast and blindingly intense that there was no ability to scream, no sensation to the damage. The fire simply destroyed every nerve in her body, every muscle, every sense of sense in an instant—

She wasn't even sure if it was real. But she felt suddenly dreamlike, distant, not quite attached to her own body.

It was not like going to a different place, being transported to another world. It was not like how Shirou had dismissed the real world for his own, replaced the landscape with something else entirely. The dusty earth still remained, the blades still lay about, the sky was still a reddish hue.

Akiha knew little about magic, other than it worked on a principle of manipulating reality. She knew that this spell, whatever it was, was in absolute defiance of what should be, that the moment he passed out it should no longer continue to thrive. Without a magician's gaze it would die, like a film without a director's instincts or a cinematographer's awareness—a viewer would see through the falsehoods and their disbelief would no longer be suspended.

But the world did not fade; neither the terrible ground nor the beautiful horizon disappeared. As the fires within her quelled and quieted, the air continued to tingle with heat, though Akiha felt as if this were in reverse: like she was no longer plundering the air about her, but sufficing it with her presence.

She no longer felt so cold, nor the sudden heat when he had grabbed her. Instead, she felt the warmth like standing before an open stove, pleasant and comforting.

Cradling Shirou's head in her lap, she desperately wanted him to wake, but knew somehow that he would not until she fully understood this. Like a lucid dream, knowing she was asleep but unable to wake until the dream was completed.

She wasn't sure whether this was the dream, or the nightmare, though.

She knew, intuitively, what had just happened, or at least she thought she did. She just had no idea what was supposed to happen now, though—

Now that she had taken a life.

"What did he lose to save me?"

She asked the world around her—his world, the world of his reality. His everything was here, even if it was an illusion, a fakery…

The answer seemed to come from within, from a spot deep in her chest, past everything physical, yet still with discernible direction. It was warm, warm like an iron stove, but without the stinging heat like she felt in the air with her power. "Nothing, Akiha Tohno. Nothing at all. Because, so long as you remember, he will always have it with him. You heard him say it, right? He is unaware of loss, of gain."

She had taken a life, and it now resided within her, like another beating heart to the two already there.

She had taken the one he had relied upon to live.

It had not escaped her that it could be the other way around.

If someone had taken Shiki's life, it would have stolen what she relied on to get through the day.

Had her life been taken, even if he wasn't here, she knew it would have killed something inside of him too.

"That can't be true," she whispered, desperate for Shirou's feelings to be false as well.

The voice within was warm, warm like those days playing with her brothers and Hisui, warm like something she could never know anymore, buried with the flow of time. It was warm, and it was that warmth that she understood to be the stove that kept her warm now, kept her content.

"His dream…is an impossible one. Unattainable. Unreachable." The sense of a smile, like feeding the fire within the stove, pushing even more heat out into the air. "So he will need you. He will need you if he is to pursue it. If he is going to continue to thrive."

Akiha wrapped her arms about herself, her body shaking as if cold despite the warmth of this place. She wanted—

Wanted…

Wanted that.

He will need you.

"Need…me," she whispered. "Me."

"Yes." a feeling like laughter came over her, deep in her chest, like one might feel from a memory, far away and nostalgic, of siblings taking hands and basking in the sunlight, lazing about without a care in the world. "He wants to save others. He feels he has never done so before this, even if I could tell him otherwise. So, I would make one request of you: be saved. Accept that you have been. He needs that more than anything now."

Her hands touched either sides of his face, her fingertips brushing along his chin. She looked at him, both saddened and elated, and she wasn't sure what she was supposed to say.

"Then, as you once did for someone else, I now do for you. Fear the beast within no longer, Akiha Tohno. Together, we are greater than it is." Another feeling like laughter came, though this time, it was more like it came truly from within Akiha, from her own thoughts and desires. "And then, perhaps, you can face the beasts outside as well."

Her tears woke me.

The sound of sobbing was not something my mind could handle; it fought for consciousness instinctively. Pain and anguish from others was something that would always haunt me, and worked better than smelling salts to make sure I paid attention.

She had me cradled in her lap, her head bent over me, her hair literally caging me now, though I could no longer feel the heated sensation emanating from her. In fact, it now felt like the opposite: my own body felt overloaded and burnt out, and when I reached inward to flick my circuit closed—

I was nearly out of prana.

It had been two years since the last time I felt like that.

And I couldn't reach that ever-burning feeling of Saber's presence any longer.

I blinked past the fuzzy feeling in my head, tried to remember to even breathe. The air felt cool with every inhale, and every exhale felt like I was breathing fire. I wanted to ask whether Akiha was okay, but my throat felt dry and full of cotton.

"You idiot," she said.

Yeah, I get that a lot. I swallowed a couple of times, tried to clear my throat. "You okay?" I managed, though my voice sounded like I had swallowed gravel.

"Idiot, idiot, idiot," she continued on like I hadn't even said anything. "Why couldn't you have just killed me like any normal person would've done?"

So it really was a suicide-by-cop idea that was in her head. And I was the idiot here? "Wanting to die is stupid," I said, my voice slowly starting to clear.

"Then you're stupid."

"I don't want to die. I just don't really think about it. More crazy than stupid."

The look on her face melted away, and even though tears continued to fall, the small smile she gave was wonderful, a fiery seraph staring down at me. "Just…what were you planning, anyway?"

"Nothing, really," I said. The fact was that I didn't think she actually had fully lost control yet, no matter what anyone said. I'd seen too much to think otherwise. "I just…wanted you to see that you could control it."

"But I couldn't," she said, leaning over me until her forehead was to my collar. "I…didn't. You were wrong."

"Then…" I shrugged, "I'm an idiot." I reached up, touched my hand to her cheek, brushing my finger along the edges of an ear, brushing back pulsing red hair. "You're okay now, though, it seems."

"Only because…of her," she whispered.

I sighed. "That idiot, getting ahead of me. She's already saved people, she needs to learn she's way past retirement age."

Akiha shuddered, though whether from laughter or tears I really couldn't tell.

I pulled myself up into a sitting position, looked around. "Well." Unlimited Blade Works still played out before my eyes, and I shook my head. "I guess that'll teach me to use Saber's prana like this." But now, trying to reach down in where the connection we had was, I found that there was not enough to push or pull any longer—I could feel where the contract had been, but it was like an imprint left on a bed or a footprint left in the ground. The signs were there, but nothing else. "Can you dismiss it?"

Akiha stared at me, a flush coming to her face. "Um…no. I don't know how."

I really felt like laughing. Guess nothing ever went completely right when it came to my magic. "That does at least confirm that she's still technically 'alive' if her presence is still feeding the Reality Marble." I went to pull myself up to my feet—

Akiha grabbed my wrist, pulled me back down. "Just…leave it, okay?"

"Er…we really should try and get this sorted out," I said.

"Then sort it out," she replied, pulling me closer. "Isn't the easiest way to fix this is for you to dismiss it?"

"Well, yeah…" I was almost leaning over her now, and the way that she stared up at me made me reconsider earlier, how maybe intrusive I had been to her private space. "But I can't with how things are now."

Red intensified on Akiha's cheeks. "It feels like she's telling me that you need to reestablish the connection."

"Oh?"

"Don't…um, d-don't magi have rituals to do that?"

I nodded. "The Grail one wouldn't work, though, I don't thi—oh."

She stared at me, and I stared back.

"I…uh…I'm sure Saber's magical energy will run out eventually," I said.

Akiha blushed, looking away. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"Not that—! I mean, it isn't like I don't…oh dammit," I groaned. Reaching up, I tilted her head back toward me and kissed her, carefully, just touching my lips to hers, pulling faintly at her lower lip as I withdrew. "I…didn't want to be forceful," I said, even as I inwardly kicked myself. Yes, forceful, idiot. I might've just given her first kiss right now, moron.

But still, I knew that look a little better, knew that she wanted me to want her—once upon a time, it had been like that with Tohsaka, too. "Maybe we're past that now," she said, looking around. It was kind of an inane thing to think about, having just, you know, been flinging magic and swords around.

"You sure?" I asked, though even as I did, I couldn't help but bring my hand down from her cheek, brushing along her neck to the buttons of her blouse. She looked, well, the way she was spread out on the ground like this just kind of screamed ready to be ravaged and my nerves were already just too hyped up by the fight to think otherwise.

"Only…only if you are," she said, though she had brought her hands up to my waist too, tugging impatiently at the waistband of my jeans.

God this was stupid. I was just about to take a girl—a girl I assumed was a virgin—not amidst a comfortable bed in her home, but on a dirt hill with swords looking all-too phallic now all around us. No matter what, I think I earned a failing grade on romance here.

She succeeded in undoing my pants, blushing as she pushed everything she could get a hold of out of the way, blushing more when I had her shirt unbuttoned and pushed her bra up out of the way. I couldn't help but taste her body, kissing along her collar and swirling my tongue around the tips of her nipples, earning a gasp and a whimper from her in the process.

I hastily reached down, pushed her skirt up and out of the way, my hands gliding over smooth skin, up over the barrier around her hips. Something in me wanted to just eat her up, my teeth briefly biting her and my legs moving up between hers, torn between moving against her now even with clothing still between us or taking one whole second to pull it free of her legs. I couldn't help it and went with the former, my body attempting to push into her even though that important part of her body was still covered.

Akiha moved her hips against the touch, her butt leaving the ground to push up against me. I kept my mouth locked on her chest, though, unable to tear myself away, my tongue continuing to flick against the pinkish tips of her body.

"Fuck it," she groaned, and for a moment she pushed me back with her legs, reaching up herself to pull her panties off; my arms wrapped around her thighs the moment they cleared her body, holding her in place as my cock moved up to where she was wet. I tried to tease her a little, knowing what was probably ahead, though I found myself biting my lip in the agony of holding out from just driving right into her.

She wiggled in place, her toes curling, and I shifted her legs to either side of my body, my hands wrapping around to cup her ass. Her legs locked around me, tightly, as if to pull me in. "Don't think that…um…" I tried to keep my head cool as much as possible, even with this radiant being beneath me, "uh, that I'm doing this just because of the prana connection thing, or like I somehow want to be even with the fact, uh…well, you know, that I—"

Her hand shot up, grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, and hauled me down into a kiss, sudden enough that our teeth briefly clicked together before our lips found the right touch. "Just," she muttered into the kiss, her hands pressing into my shoulders to hold me steady, "shut up and do me or I will kill you this time."

With her legs pulling me in closer, I plunged into her, my lips going to hers when she made to cry out. Holding her to me as tightly as possible, I eased back, then forward again, nipping at her neck with each shudder her body gave.

"Make me feel good," she whimpered into my ear.

I lifted myself back onto my knees, pulling her hips in closer as I moved, one hand circling back around. I forced myself to slow down—as excruciating as that was—my fingers moving just above where we were joined, swirling in circles until Akiha's hips twitched and almost pulled us apart. She sat up with her elbows and I twisted one of her legs around to the same side as the other, making us both groan at the sensation.

Akiha stared down at where our hips met, at my body as it moved into hers, her face starting to match her hair. "Don't stop," she muttered, looking ready to cry, the pain and pleasure overloading her already frazzled nerves. "D-Don't stop!"

I couldn't if I tried, the tight feeling surrounding me too much—if she plundered heat from me in this way, I would just die happy. Each time I pulled away, her body pulled me in, coaxing everything from me, and each time I would thrust in harder, driving myself in as far as possible. She swayed her body side to side as my fingers moved around her, and with one particular flick against her she clamped down on me until I repeated the same motion.

"Shirou…" she whispered.

My eyes flew up to hers, and the look on her face, her mouth open, the heat from her body almost visible in her breath was just too much. I pulsed my body as fast as possible, my free arm encircling her top leg to throttle into her as deeply as I could manage, and the way her body opened up to my fingers let brought a long shudder that started from her head down, her eyes rolling up into the back of her head.

The slick warmth inside of her tightened around me, refused to let go, and I pushed in, as deep as possible, my back going straight as a rod, and I came.

Somehow, I remembered to check and make sure I could in fact dismiss the Reality Marble when I came to, my body spooned against Akiha. The connection indeed was there, like feeling a separate pulse in my body, and I wondered briefly if transplanting a Magical Crest felt like this.

I decided it really couldn't feel this good.

My lips found the back of Akiha's neck after I brushed her hair aside. "That was amazing," I said, remembering that she had been concerned earlier.

Her words were not what I was expecting in response. "If I get pregnant from this, you'd better take responsibility."

I sat up real fast, stared at the devilish expression on her face. Maybe she mistook her ability to mean "caging heir."

Origami Blades: Red Azalea, End

Yeah, so, if I think Akiha has the cutest design in Tsukihime, my favorite CG is actually end-of-route Ciel looking down at Shiki and crying. So, put them together, and what do you get? Fiery seraph. Or something. Also, it kind of mirrors Kiritsugu I think. Maybe.

You have no idea how hard it was not to make a carpet-matching-curtains joke.