As usual, Ayako arrived at the dojo early to set up, though today she was a little distracted. The last couple of days had been… weird. She needed to focus on the routine, to make her life normal again. She had her schoolwork, she had her archery, and she had her special project, though she needed a new plan to get Shirou to pay attention to Sakura. Not that her heart was in it any more, but she needed some sort of stability, some sort of order to her life.
But fortunately, the 'special project' was the hardest of the three to pull off – Sakura had been ditching Archery lately, so she almost never saw the younger girl. Shirou on the other hand would be here momentarily. She tugged down on Gi so that it didn't bunch up and ran her fingers through her hair. 'Maybe I should grow it out?' As she stepped inside, she was surprised to hear voices from the back of the building. After taking her shoes off, she walked over, curious. There was Shirou - he was chatting with Rin as they stood in front of.. something. If she squinted, she could see that something was off about the wall.
"Oh, hey Mitsuzuri," Shirou greeted her cheerfully. Rin just nodded.
Ayako froze. She wasn't certain how to respond. Rin was her best friend. Rin had been keeping secrets from her. Rin was here, in HER place, talking to Shirou (and she wasn't certain why that was wrong, but it was). She had given him Rin's number last night without really thinking about it - she wasn't some jealous drama-girl that needed to blow everything out of proportion (and besides, the chances of Rin actually picking up were slim). But she had, for Shirou. And here he was… with Rin. It felt like she was being pushed aside.
"Oh, I'll leave you two to whatever you're working on," She gave a fake smile and turned to head for the dojo office. Ayako tried to focus on what was important 'Sakura will be here with Shirou for practice.' But that wasn't a satisfactory thought either. She sat down on the lone chair and put her head down on the desk as she tried to pull herself together.
Rin glanced as her estranged friend walked by and bit her lip. She didn't have time to deal with this right now. She would have to fix things afterwards. 'I will put aside some time and really talk things out with her. Take her out for coffee and explain everything,' She sighed. Life had gotten so complicated. "Good work. Without that resonance sigil, the drain spell should be locked to low power. Anyways, I'll see you around, Emiya." Rin grabbed her bag and headed out the door. That would give her time to find out whoever had cast it and kill them. But she didn't say that part to Shirou – she still had her school idol persona to maintain.
Shirou nodded before walking over to knock on the office door. "What's the game plan for today, captain?"
Ayako sighed, "So you're done with Rin?"
Shirou glanced nervously towards the front door, but the dojo was still empty. "Yeah. This had to do with the attacks yesterday. A magus is causing some uh, problems, and we're trying to fix them." Shirou looked down at his hands as he prevaricated. He hated not telling the truth (At least with Ayako), but until he figured out where he stood with Shinji and Rin, he didn't want to discuss Shinji's role in all this too openly.
"Oh. That's ok." Ayako heart felt lighter. Just working together was ok.
"So, can you tell me a little about Tohsaka?"
Ayako's heart crashed back down into her stomach. "Well, I've known Rin since first year," Ayako began regaling Shirou with amusing tales. Ayako always strove to be a good friend, though at this point she wasn't certain if acting as a good friend to Rin would undermine her being a good friend to Sakura. Or if she even WANTED to be a good friend to Rin, given everything. And she definitely wasn't doing such a good job with Sakura.
"Mitsuzuri, are you ok? You just stopped mid sentence." Shirou snapped Ayako out of her internal conflict. "And I just want to know if Rin is the sort of person that is responsible. I mean if she was in a position of authority, would she abuse her power?"
"Oh.." Ayako paused. That was a new one. Most guys who asked her about Rin wanted to know what she liked to do for fun. "She's not stodgy like Issei, but I guess she's pretty responsible. Mostly." Ayako thought some more, "Not like she would ever cheat or do anything illegal or anything like that, but she will bend the rules a little, if nobody was watching."
Shirou sighed. That didn't exactly reassure him, "Well, let's go set up for practice, Captain" He held the door open for Ayako. When she continued to sit, staring at him as she tried to comprehend the thick-headed enigma in front of her, Shirou added self consciously, "Uhm, are you feeling ok? Do you want me to walk you to the infirmary?"
No Hero
As classes started that day, Shirou still was not certain what to do. 'Who do I support, Shinji or Tohsaka? Which of them do I trust to do the right thing with unlimited power?' He needed to learn more about them both (because, he was embarrassed to say, that he had spent so little time with Shinji these past two years that he no longer really knew him).
The first target was Shinji - they were in the same math class, but Shinji spent most of that period scribbling furious notes – it was calculus, and it did not come easily to Shinji (or to Shirou, but the teacher liked him, so he could ask for a copy of the lecture notes after class). Shirou tried talking to him as class let out, but Shinji didn't have time. He seemed anxious, like somebody was goading him onwards. He didn't even stop to flirt with the girls.
Shirou didn't have any classes with Rin (he wasn't taking anything Honors, and she was taking nothing else), but he ate lunch outside instead of in the Student Council room like usual so he could watch as she sat with several other girls by the track field. He carefully reinforced his ears to catch any conversation. Reinforcing body parts was dangerous, even for somebody as careless of personal risk as Shirou, so he only did it a little. And a good thing – usually he had to struggle to convert a nerve into a magic circuit before he could do that, but this time the mana just came. Ever since that battle where he rescued Ayako, using mana had been much easier, like a flood gate had snapped open. He wasn't certain why, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Unfortunately, most of the conversation was just typical school chatter. And Rin barely spoke – she mostly smiled and added just a word or two. Maybe a small nod here and there. It was more like she was holding court than a real conversation.
No Hero
When the school bell rang, Shirou was ready for the day to be done - it had been exhausting trying to chase after snippets of information. As he was packing up his books at the end of classes, Shinji came up to Shirou's locker. "So, have you decided to help me? I was going to go reconnoiter. I could use another pair of eyes." He made no mention of the fact that another of his sigils had failed.
Shirou replied, "The draining field is still active."
"But its a lot weaker. Don't worry, it will run out of power on its own. Probably tomorrow." Shinji smiled insouciantly.
"That's what you said yesterday." Shirou replied coldly.
"I told you, I'm not a magus. I don't know how all this works. I am just following my grandfather's instructions." Shinji shrugged, "But its gotta run out of power sooner or later, right?" Actually, it was a draining spell. It ran on the power from those inside the school. As long as school was in session, it would never run out. Shirou would have to be an idiot not to understand that. Shinji smiled. Fortunately, Shirou hadn't changed any since middle school – he had been an idiot then, and he was an idiot now.
"Fine, I will help you," Shirou sighed before adding with a glare, "But you need to take the field down, or our deal is off." He really couldn't tell whether Rin or Shinji was somebody he would rather have win, but Shinji had something he wanted removed - the draining field. And as his economics teacher had said, having something that the other desires is the basis of all partnerships. "What do you want me to do, once the field is down?"
Shinji smiled, "Good. Get Tohsaka to come with you to your house. I'll ambush her Servant there."
"What about Tohsaka? You're not going to hurt her?"
"Of course not. Once her Servant is eliminated, she is no threat to me." Which was a total lie. Tohsaka was terrifying whether she had a Servant or not. 'I'll wait for the Tohsaka and the idiot to enter his house and then I will have Rider Bellerophon it.' He felt a little bit bad about killing Shirou, but what was the alternative? He knew he was no match of Tohsaka in a fair fight. And if he didn't win, Grandfather would feed him to the worms.
"Ok. So, tomorrow." Shirou stuck out his hand to shake. Shinji did so, smiling wanly.
No Hero
[[interlude]]
The Kotomine church was supposed to be neutral ground, which was why Lancer felt relaxed enough to make himself a peanut butter sandwich. He hated his new Master. He was a conniving worm that manipulated others. He had murdered his original master, whom he had approved of. He abused the sanctuary rules to hide out in the church, pretending to be neutral. And most of all, Lancer hated how he didn't let him fight. Which is why Lancer felt he deserved a peanut butter sandwich. It was one of the few things about this new time that didn't suck dog balls.
He was just putting the jar back when he felt the presence of another servant. Lancer leaped backwards, dropping the jar as he materialized Gae Bolg. A man with swords for arms had teleport into the room, stabbing at his chest. If he had been a moment slower he would have been dead, as it was the sword left a shallow gash in his side.
The 'Sanctuary' only applied to Masters, not their Servants.
Lancer parried the next few blows in silence, getting the measure of his opponent. "You're a curious one – you move like an Assassin, but fight like a Berserker." Lancer finally quipped. His opponent did not reply - he fought with a grim intensity, as if nothing mattered except killing his opponent.
Lancer tried to push Saber back - once the combat had started he had the edge in speed - but the enclosed terrain of the kitchen favored Saber' shorter weapons. A slash of Lancer's spear cut through the stove, sending a gout of flame shooting up.
Using the blast as cover, Lancer leaped backwards, retreating into the nave. But as he did, Saber used his noble phantasm to teleport in, scoring another hit on Lancer. "Is that how you want to play it?" Lancer leaped backwards again, this time yelling "Gae Bolg!" As Saber teleported towards him yet again, Lancer's own noble phantasm activated, stabbing Saber through the heart.
But Saber didn't care – he ran up the spear to ram both swords up through Lancer's stomach into his chest before collapsing himself.
No Hero
It was an hour later that a young looking blond man dressed in a suit pants and dress shirt, with a track suit jacket draped on top, strolled up the road to the church. "Tsk," he sneered. The building was on fire. That would explain why his mana sources had all gone dry – the children in the basement had died.
Gilgamesh shrugged and strolled off.
[[End interlude]]
No Hero
The following day was a good one for Shinji. He had a solid plan for how to dispose of Tohsaka, Shirou was finally treating him with the respect that he was due, and he had a good chance of getting into a first year's pants.
"Shinji, can you wait up a minute?" Ayako called out as he walked past the kyudo dojo.
And there went his good mood. Dealing with this harpy always soured him – that was why he had ditched Archery today.
"What do you want, Mitsuzuri" He gave a long suffering sigh.
"Sakura hasn't been to Archery the last couple of days. Is everything ok?" Ayako walked up to Shinji, still dressed in her archery Gi.
"Why don't you ask Emiya? The two of them are practically fuck buddies."
Ayako blanched. Both at the vulgarity, and at the idea that Sakura would do something like that. But this was Shinji, and everything that came out of his mouth was filled with his own perverted fantasies, "No, I am asking you, since you are her brother, and you should know if your sister is ok!" Ayako couldn't believe how callous Shinji was. This was his own sister, and not only that, one of the nicest, kindest people there was, and he clearly didn't care about her at all.
Which is when Shinji slapped her. "Don't yell at me, bitch.. OW!" Shinji collapsed to the ground.
"Don't slap me. Better yet, don't touch me again!" Ayako was vibrating with rage.
"You punched me!" Shinji whined, clutching his stomach as he sat on the dirt, trying not to vomit. He was used to Sakura accepting his abuse impassively. But this was not Sakura. From his angle on the ground, Ayako looked 9 feet tall, and scarier than Rin.
"Damn right. And if you so much as looked at me (or any other girl) in a way that I don't like, I'm going to have you expelled as well!"
Ayako watched in satisfaction as Shinji skittered away like the cockroach that he was.
No Hero
Shirou was just getting up to head to the Student Council room – where he typically ate lunch with Issei, the Student council president (who ate there so he could pretend to work through lunch) – when the smell of the draining spell intensified from 'hot metal' to the odor of spilled blood. A moment later, Shirou felt a tug on his core. At the same time the teacher collapsed, spilling her papers across the classroom and several students gasped as if punched in the gut.
Shirou threw himself out of his seat. It was the end of math class, and Shinji had excused himself to go to the bathroom just moments before. Shirou ran out into the hall, pouring prana through his body to suppress the effects of the draining spell.
As he raced down the hall, he saw all the other classrooms filled with confused students ministering to their collapsed classmates. But no Shinji.
He was just coming out from searching the the men's room when he saw Ayako running up the stairs.
"What happened?"
"It's the draining spell - Shinji activated it!"
"Shinji!" Ayako snarled. 'I knew I should have clocked him harder!'
"We need to find him and make him stop!"
Ayako nodded, which sent her staggering.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah. It's just a little dizziness. The spell isn't affecting me much. We should try going to the library – it's the middle of the school." There was no way Ayako was going to show weakness, especially not in front of Shirou. She was an athlete - she could push through a little discomfort.
Shirou nodded. That was good a plan as any. The alternative was pulling people out of the school, but he didn't think that they had enough time for that.
"Wait," Ayako paused long enough to pull a fire alarm. "Maybe that will get the students out of the building."
Shirou nodded, at that moment proud to have Ayako as a friend. 'She's good at this!'
They were just rounding the corner when three black stands of energy came streak towards them. Shirou threw himself into a classroom while Ayako dodged back around the corner.
Shinji stood in the middle of the corridor cackling, a large iron-bound book in his hands, "I knew that you would end up siding with that bitch. Girls like her always have ways of tying you around their fingers."
"We had a deal." Shirou called out. "You said the spell was shut off."
"Well, I lied. You and your little girlfriends are so full of yourselves, so holier than thou, that I couldn't stand it anymore. I'm going to drain you all until you turn to plasma!" Shinji gave a deranged laugh.
Shirou's blood ran cold 'He's completely snapped!' Shirou had always wanted to be a Hero. But being a hero was predicated on the existence of a villain. On some level, he had always assumed that his wish would go unfulfilled, because villains, real evil villains, didn't exist in this world of grays, where sometimes good people did bad things and vice versa.
But this was evil.
Shirou grabbed a table and reinforced it before bursting out into the hallway to charge Shinji.
Shinji raised the book and made a throwing motion and three more black streaks raced towards Shirou, who used the table to block them.
The table shattered, leaving just one metal leg in Shirou's hand as he lunged, swinging it at Shinji.
His former friend threw himself backwards, only to stumble and fall out the window.
Shirou raced forward to see the purple haired woman – Rider – catch Shinji and put him safely on the ground.
"It's clear, Mitsuzuri." Shirou called out to Ayako. "We're near the back of the school here - if you want to help, go to the dojo and get a bow." In Shirou's mind, there were two types of people – those that needed help, and those that helped. For whatever reason – maybe because she was Archery co-captain, or maybe because she had the presence of mind to pull the fire alarm, Ayako was now one of the few people (besides himself) in the second category.
Ayako nodded. She had no real idea of what was going on, and was terrified out of her mind, but the only way out was to go forwards. "Call me Ayako if we get out of this alive."
Shirou gave her a rare smile. "You're doing great, Ayako."
Involuntarily, a smile spread across Ayako's face as she turned to run for the dojo.
Meanwhile, Shirou turned and jumped out the second story window, reinforcing his legs to land safely, so he could give chase.
But even laden with Shinji, Rider was far faster than he was, and the two of them would have made a clean get away, except when Shinji saw Shirou, he demanded, "Rider, let go of me and kill him!"
Rider decided to take the order literally, dropping Shinji face first into the mud and turning to attack the human by herself. Her hair whipped in the wind wind as she moved. The boy was fast, but he was still only human, so it shouldn't take long. Rider was not the most powerful Servant in close combat, but she was a Servant, and no normal human was a match for her.
Yet as she summoned and cast her spiked chains, her target also summoned a pair of boken, one in each hand, 'Oho, he is a magus. That will make this (slightly) more challenging'.
Somehow, the redhead managed to block her attacks with his boken. But he was forced backward, towards the school building. When one of her chains missed his head and smashed through a window, he used the opportunity to throw himself back inside.
Rider frowned. Fighting inside the building would constrain her even more. But her fake master had instructed her to kill the boy. And honestly, she discovered that she was enjoying the battle. The end was a foregone conclusion, but in the meantime she got the opportunity to practice her attacks and stretch her muscles in a way she hadn't in a very long time.
She dove into the building, after her prey.
No Hero
"Shinji, drop that book!"
Shinji had been watching the battle between 'his' Servant and Shirou as best he could. His eyes were locked onto the school building, where he saw flashes of motion through the windows. It had been going for much longer than he had thought it would, and he was expecting the end to come at any moment. The anticipation was almost sexual.
But at the yell, he turned to find Ayako pointing a bow at him. She was swaying on her feet from the draining field, but her bow was steady. "You again!" He raised the book over his head to cast his attack spell.
"Yaaah!"
Only to drop it immediately, letting it tumble to the ground, as an arrow pierced his shoulder.
And Ayako's second arrow went right through the center of the book.
No Hero
Rider finally had the human pinned in a cul-de-sac. The space was so small that the fight had moved from her throwing spikes at him to swinging her chains and stabbing with her spikes, but finally now there was no where for the little human to retreat to anymore. She smiled.
Suddenly, one of her command seals vanished. Just for a moment, she paused, attempting to process the command. But there was no command associated with it. That fractional delay, that tiny moment of confusion, was long enough for Shinji to swing an over-reinforced boken past her guard into the side of her neck. The boken broke, exploding into a fist sized ball of energy. Shirou followed it up by ramming his other boken clear through her torso, the wood reinforced to the sharpness of metal.
As the Servant dissolved into sparkles, the Blood Fort spell faded away. 'Thank gods. I don't think I could have lasted any longer.' Shirou stumbled back the way he had come. He reached the broken window just in time to see Ayako collapse, blood dribbling from her mouth.
No Hero
[[Epilogue]]
Archer was perched, his bow drawn, on a building a half mile from the Matou mansion as Rin stood by his side. "And there he goes, returning to his master." He had been like this for the past ten minutes. Any normal bow would have been destroyed by this sort of tension. Any normal man would not have been able to hold the bow drawn for so long. But Archer's aim was rock steady.
They were watching, waiting for Assassin to return to his master.
"Fire." Rin did not need to say it, as Archer had already released the arrow, doing to Assassin what Assassin had done to countless others. The arrow, formed from the sword that had killed Inejirō Asanuma, took the scuttling form from the back with complete surprise - it was a minor Noble Phantasm, but one that had a history of stealth and assassination. But just in case, Archer had Broken it.
Since the sword was not an especially powerful sword, the resulting explosion was not an especially powerful one, but it sufficed to scatter bits of Hassan-i-Sabbah across the yard.
"And that is that. According to my familiars, that just leaves Rider," Rin was just turning to go when a black shadow exploded out of the trees bordering the Matou mansion and enveloped the pieces of Assassin before they could complete fade. The Shadow than reared up and enveloped the mansion itself before disappearing inside, soaking into the building through the stonework, taking all the moss and other living matter with it. Not even a worm remained.
"What was that?" Archer started, as at the same time Rin called out. "Sakura is inside! We need to go check it out!"
Archer reluctantly nodded, picking up Rin and leaping towards the mansion. They landed on a second floor balcony. It was considered the grossest of violations to enter another magus' territory uninvited (and extremely dangerous), but whatever that Shadow was, it was a threat to the inhabitants, so they would forgive the intrusion.
Or so Rin thought, moments before the black shadow leaped from the ceiling to attack Archer.
As Archer tried to fend off the magical construct, Rin ran into the neighboring room. "Sakura!" Once she got her out, they could retreat.
"Yes , dear sister?" Rin was surprised to be confronted with a poised Sakura standing in her night gown, her cheeks stained with tears
"That thing.." She began.
"It will destroy everything," Sakura smiled. Her brother had stolen her Servant. The last word that her Servant had sent was that she was going to kill Shirou. And then shortly afterwards her command seals had faded. So not only had she lost her dearest Sempai, but also her Servant, one of the few people in the world that understood her, understood her pain. It wasn't worth living anymore. It should all end in fire.
"Rin, run!" Archer yelled, as he desperately tried to slow the Shadow. He knew that coming in here, into the Matou's place of power, was a bad idea, but he too had been concerned for Sakura (though he could never admit it). But he had no way to fight this Shadow. And while he could flee, he couldn't leave Rin behind.
Rin was was torn. She turned to Sakura, "Is that yours?"
Sakura gave a sad smile.
"Rin!" Archer yelled as the Shadow enveloped his legs.
Rin turned, finally snapping out of her distraction and ran to his aid, throwing a magic gem into the Shadow.
The explosion threw Archer backwards into her and splattered Shadow stuff all over the room.
As Archer regained his footing, the Shadow was sucked into Sakura and a tentacle of it immediately leaped back out to spear Archer through the chest and to partially envelop Rin.
As Archer dissolved into the Shadow, Rin struggled to free herself. The Shadow felt like some sort of mud, sticking and drawing her under. It held her right hand and it slowly ran up her arm, enveloping her, like she was sinking sideways into quicksand. Rin looked up in horror as her sister watched her die.
Desperately, Rin used her free arm to throw her last gem at Sakura in the hope of driving her off. Sakura did not flee. Instead she just watched the gem and smiled. At the last moment the Shadow lunged up end enveloped the gem to protect Sakura. But the gem was more powerful than the Shadow expected. The detonation released the energy of the two par (which made him drink more).tially digested Servants inside, setting off a huge secondary explosion that leveled most of the Matou mansion, throwing fire high into the sky and onto neighboring roofs.
The old buildings quickly caught fire as well, and the conflagration raced through the neighborhood, destroying everything in its path like a malevolent deity.