Live Wire (I)
Kotomine Kirei was annoyed.
Initially, he had no intention of taking part in the Holy Grail War. That is to say that he didn't want to win for himself. He would have been content to manipulate the events, letting someone with good intentions take the victory so that he could watch the corrupted Grail twist their wish in the worst way possible. Rin would have been perfect for that.
He really should have known that nothing could have been that easy. To begin with, the Einzbern mucked things up with their early summoning. Then Emiya Shirou, of all people, made a contract with Caster and set out to destroy the Grail. To make things worse, he successfully got into an alliance with Rin and Saber. Then, as the icing on the cake, he stole Rider from the Matou Master. Somehow, they made all the other contenders agree to a cease-fire, causing the Grail to activate its secret emergency functions.
The only silver lining was that the last part had screwed up their plans just as bad.
In any event, he knew he couldn't just sit back and watch from the sidelines. He had to intervene directly. Not only because he wouldn't allow the destruction of the Grail before it could bear its fruit, but because the current response from the Grail threatened to attract the attention of the Church and the Clock Tower. If they stepped in, they would ruin everything.
So he stole Lancer for himself. Killing Bazett was almost trivially easy. She trusted him and made the fatal mistake of turning her back to him. Of course, one Servant wouldn't be enough to match an alliance of three others. He had zero chance of taking Berserker, so he opted to find the last Servant.
However, the nature of this Heroic Spirit was genuinely mysterious. As the supervisor of the War, he had a unique insight into the state of the ritual. For instance, except for the last one, he knew which Class of Servant got summoned and when.
Every time he looked into it, he immediately forgot what Class it was. It wasn't strictly his problem, though. In fact, it appeared that his status as overseer, or perhaps his other unique condition, protected him from the brunt of it. Lancer couldn't even recall fighting against this enemy.
Needless to say, Kirei interest's was piqued, so he started looking for them. As the supervisor, he should have been able to approach them relatively safely.
Again, things had the habit of not going according to plan. Using the experience matured at the burial agency, he found the likely place where the last Master was hiding. But when he got there, he found Dojima Ryutaro searching the house. He knew that this man was working for Emiya, so he figured he could use him.
However, he wasn't expecting the detective to open fire on him on sight. Clearly, Emiya had listed Kirei as an enemy and had let all of his collaborators know. He wasn't a young man
any longer, and even at his peak, dodging bullets wasn't something he could do, and the policeman had a surprisingly good aim. He shot straight at his heart.
If Kirei's coat hadn't been reinforced by Magecraft beforehand, he might have died. Being killed by a regular human after the Grail had given him a new lease on life would have been outrageous.
He decided that the detective was more trouble than he was worth. Kirei didn't exactly need him alive to string Emiya and friends along. But just when he was about to kill the man, he was immobilized by the Shroud of Magdalene. At that moment, he realized two things.
First, he was in trouble. Second, the last Master was Caren Ortensia.
Whether this was punishment or reward for his numerous sins, he didn't know, but if someone told him it was both, Kirei would have believed it. After all, pitching a man against their progeny was something he would do. For such a thing to happen to him during the Grail War was the height of irony.
For a moment, he was genuinely stunned. He didn't think anything could cause his black heart to beat with trepidation.
"I'm not familiar with the customs of this land," she said, "but I'm quite certain that killing in another person's home is at least somewhat rude."
She approached them with the flickering flame of a lighter parting the shadows, and when her eyes fell on him, he knew. It wasn't just a look of surprise that crossed her face, but something more profound. He knew then that she was aware of their connection.
To this day, he still regretted letting her mother taking her own life instead of killing her himself. And now, here was the product of their union. The same person he sent as far away as he possibly could for no other reason than to protect her from him.
Finally, some things inside his mind clicked in place. Around the time the final Servant had been summoned, the Church had put out a bounty of her capture. At the time, Kirei didn't understand why they would look for her in Fuyuki. His brain couldn't link the existence of the Servant to its Master. Only now, when he understood that Caren Ortensia is a Master, independently of the identity of her Servant, could he connect the dots.
The people at the Church didn't have this link to the Grail. Therefore while they knew the status of Caren as a Master, they couldn't conceptualize the existence of her Servant. Perhaps their mind couldn't even retain the first part, leaving them with a massive gap in their consciousness with Caren at its center. Unable to explain this oddity, she had no other choice but to flee.
But either way, he was in no position to act upon it. The Shroud of Magdalene sealed all of his movements.
"So, which one of you is going to explain what's going here?" she asked.
The shroud, fortunately, wasn't sealing his mouth.
"I was searching for you, sister Ortensia," Kirei explained. "When this man opened fire on me without reason."
"Bullshit! Don't listen to this guy. He's a fraud," Dojima protested. "You, nun. You are a Master, right?"
"... How do you know that?"
"Shirou told me. He asked me to look for you. He said you saved his life, but you took off before he could thank you."
Caren frowned, and Kirei was perplexed as well. Where were his previous conclusions wrong? He might have missed something. However, his speculations were brought short by the way the conversation went.
"So, you know about the War. Why did you shoot the supervisors, then?" "Supervisor, my ass. He killed Lancer's Master and took her Servant."
"What?"
Caren was momentarily surprised, and Kirei knew that he couldn't wait around. "Lancer. Come here and hit me!"
He had to use a Command Seal to summon him from where he had left him.
The Servant materialized at his side and kicked him across the room. Kirei's arm shattered into a dozen pieces where Lancer hit him, but the Shroud of Magdalene released him.
"Shit, you didn't have to use a Command Seal for that," the Heroic Spirit laughed. "You only had to ask."
Kirei expected that from Lancer. They weren't exactly on good terms. But even knowing that he could barely hold his tongue when his arm shattered in a dozen places.
"You get out of here!" Caren told the policeman. She pulled out the blade from his shoulder, and he immediately ran out without looking back. The mysterious Servant manifested itself in front of her Master with strange twisted weapons in his hands.
As he got up, Kirei looked at the dark, human-shaped mass standing in front of him. It was like staring at a black hole. He could tell it was there not because he could see it but because it existed in stark contrast to everything around it.
"What are your intentions, father?" Caren asked. Whether she was referring to his title as a priest was unclear.
Now it was time for Kirei to spin his web of lies, by speaking nothing more than the truth.
"There has been a problem with the Grail. It hasn't been acting as expected, as I'm sure you have noticed. I believe that the meddling from the Einzbern lies at the core of this problem. But it got worse due to the alliance among the Masters of the other Servants. I confronted Lancer's Master directly about this. She and I were old acquaintances. I thought she would assist me, but things haven't gone quite that way. I managed to take her down, after which I decided that I needed a Servant of my own if I wanted a chance to solve the problem."
Caren nodded.
"So, how do you intend to do about it?" she asked. "I'm not sure even the three founding families together could fix the situation at this point."
"Servant Caster could," he objected. "She appears to be a Mage from the Age of Gods. She should have the ability to solve the problem. However, I don't believe she might be inclined to help. In fact, I suspect that most of the situation is her fault. I will have to force her into helping me. I was hoping to recruit the last Master to assist me. I didn't know it was you."
"So I see. And that man?" she asked, referring to the police officer.
"As I said, he shot me on sight. I only defended myself. I don't know what lies about me Emiya has put in his head. Now, would you please help me? The situation is dire and if we don't fix it soon, the entire city might be in peril. Perhaps even the entire world."
"I understand. But I don't believe we can work together. The nature of my Servant is problematic."
"Because it's impossible to retain memories about him? Yes, I already knew that. Being the overseer grants me a degree of immunity from this ability. That's how I know there was a Master to search for in the first place."
Caren nodded and let out a sigh.
Clearly, being unable to share her plight had been taking a toll on her. Finally, finding someone who could take a load off her shoulders was a relief. Kirei could exploit that to his advantage.
"Will you assist me, then?" he asked.
"Of course I will," she agreed. "I'll be glad to."
"Thank you," he nodded. This was even better than he had hoped. Manipulating another Master to work for him was better than trying to manage two Servants himself.
He nodded at Lancer, who looked back disdainfully, but eventually dematerialized. Caren's Servant did the same.
"May I have the Shroud back now?" she asked, holding out her hand. "Of course," he replied, stepping closer to give it to her.
He noticed the glint in her eyes the moment her hand touched the sacred cloth. He was lucky that a Servant couldn't materialize in an instant because if they could, his head would have been separated neatly from his shoulders. Instead, he managed to jump back in time to have only a thin cut over his throat.
Lancer arrived a heartbeat later, his cursed spear engaging the strange blades held by the enemy Servant.
"I was hoping you would do that!" he exclaimed as their weapons locked together. "Why?" Kirei asked, holding a hand over his throat.
"Emiya Shirou is a person who would sooner die than kill someone. If he tells anyone to shoot you on sight, you must have given him a very good reason."
He cursed inwardly. He didn't know that Caren was close with Emiya to the point of trusting his character implicitly. Kirei experienced an inexplicable urge to demand an explanation from the boy.
"I was hoping I wouldn't have to fight you," he told her.
"Then don't," she replied. "Abandon your wicked ways and repent. The Lord forgives all."
Kirei's mouth twisted upward in an insincere smile.
"You don't know the Lord as well as you think. I guess this is the day I'll find out the answer to a very old question."
He flicked his wrist, and three Black Keys appeared between his fingers. "Avenger, take care of Lancer," she said.
"Yes, please. Take care of me!" Lancer cackled as his spear flashed. The clang of metal against metal filled the room. With their respective Masters in such proximity, neither one of them could go full out. Rather than duking it out with raw power, the two of them engaged in a contest of skills.
Caren kept the Servants between herself and Kirei. They both knew she couldn't last a second if she gave him a line of sight. Similarly, Kirei couldn't act brazenly. The Shroud of Magdalene could still bind him. He had a way to counter it, but he had a narrow window of
opportunity. If he missed it, he would find himself nicely wrapped again. He couldn't have that.
Fortunately, the situation worked to his advantage. Even if he was wounded and no longer in his prime, he was still agile enough to use the tight spaces to his advantage. Unfortunately, Caren knew that as well, and she decided to even out the playing field.
She dropped her lighter, the only source of light, to the ground.
The consequences were immediate. The fire hungrily clawed its way across the carpeted floor and on the old furniture. The Servants weren't bothered by it, but Kirei had his range of movement reduced even further. And as the fire grew in intensity, the time to bring this confrontation to a close was shortened.
He saw his opportunity a moment later.
He threw a single Black Key at her. He knew it wouldn't hit; he just needed her to take her eyes off him for a moment. When she looked back, he was no longer that that spot. Instead, he was on the ceiling, with his arm already poised to throw another blade.
"No li..."
But it was too late. Even if Caren finished that chant, the Shroud wouldn't trap him before his swords reached her.
"KOTOMINE!!"
He stopped, instinctively looking toward the voice that called him. It was the detective.
Kirei realized he hadn't left at all, but instead, he had been hiding in the next room waiting for his chance. He had another gun in his hand, and it was the sight of it that truly gave him pause. It was no random firearm. It was a very familiar Thompson Contender, and it was shining with the telltale aura of Magecraft.
Scarcely in the past ten years, Kotomine had felt such a bone-chilling cold go down his spine and the need to move as fast as he possibly could.
BLAM!
Kirei did the only thing he could and pulled the same trick he did last time someone trained that weapon on him. He immediately shut off his Circuits, and he used his ruined arm as a shield.
The bullet went through it like so much butter, and because he was currently defying gravity, the force of the impact threw him off, sending him crashing against a wall and making him drop his weapons.
To his credit, he didn't just lay there. He immediately got back on his feet. Now bleeding profusely and unable to use the full extent of his Magecraft because of that weapon. With the place on fire, he decided that the risks weren't worth the potential benefits.
"Lancer, we are leaving," he said.
"What, are you kidding me? We didn't even get started here."
Kirei didn't wait; he threw himself at a barricaded window shattering both glass and wood, landing outside and taking off into the night.
[br]
"That fucking jackass," Lancer sighed, watching his Master fleeing. "Looks like this is it. I would say that I'll be looking forward to meeting you again, but I ain't going to recall any of this, am I?"
"Afraid not, Lancer," Avenger replied.
"Man, this such bullshit," he lamented. "Whatever, I'll kill you next time anyway."
He jumped out through the hole made by Kirei and dematerialized before touching the ground again, leaving Caren and Avenger alone in the rundown building.
"So, what are we going to do next, Master?"
"I think we should have a chat with Emiya Shirou after all."
"Are you sure that's wise? His reaction will be similar to your colleagues at the Church."
"Perhaps... but something tells me that might not be the case. Come on, let's go." "As you wish," he agreed.
They finally turned to the detective, who was leaning against the wall.
"You need to get out of here, detective," Caren told him. "Let me help you."
She put his arm around her shoulders and helped him walk out of the burning building before the fire could trap them. She spared one last glance at the window through which her father had fled.
She wasn't sure what she had been expecting from him. He had left her on the step of a small church in a remote town as a babe. He condemned her to the life of an outcast with no explanation. But even so, she had hope that maybe...
No, that was her mistake. Some things were better left where they were buried.
[br]
"Found anything?" Shirou asked once Caster returned.
Caster shook her head. There was still no trace of Tohsaka and Saber.
"I can't figure out what could have happened to them," she said. "Even the Grail doesn't seem to be outputting any energy to support Saber, but I'm positive she didn't die. They seemed to have dropped off from the face of Earth."
"Could they have?" asked Rider. "Dropped off from the face of Earth, I mean."
"You mean... something like spatial Magecraft? But I didn't find any residue of any spell of the sort. They leave a pretty distinct signature. I refuse to believe that any Mage from this age can hide it from me."
Shirou frowned then a lightbulb seemed to go off in his head.
"What if it wasn't Magecraft but Magic?" he asked. "The Wizard Marshal took part in the construction of the Grail. And if I'm not mistaken, one of Tohsaka's ancestors was a student of his. If something went wrong with a fragment of Second Magic, couldn't they be stranded somewhere?"
"That's possible, and it would explain everything, but I don't think it's probable," Caster said. "And even if it were true, I would have no way of undoing it. True Magic is beyond even my grasp. I don't feel it's a theory we should entertain. It's a dead-end road in any case. In any event, tomorrow you and Illya are going into the mountain. Accessing the Greater Grail might give us a better insight."
"Let's hope so. We should probably get a good rest tonight then."
"I'll crank up the Boundary Field, just in case. Nothing is going to pass through." Shirou nodded, and that's when his phone rang. He looked at the ID of the caller. "It's Dojima," he said before answering. "Hello, Dojima-san? What can I do for you?" "I..." Dojima said from the other side. "Shirou?"
He sounded confused and hurt. Shirou immediately noticed and became worried. "Yes, it's me. What's wrong, Ryutaro?"
"I'm wounded, I... ran into Kotomine. And..."
"WHAT? Are you alright?"
"My arm is bleeding, but I... I don't know why I'm out here."
"What's your exact position? We'll be right here."
There was a moment of pause, like he was looking at his surroundings.
"I'm... just outside the harbor area, to the south."
"Alright, we are coming to get you. Hold tight. Caster, Rider, let's go!"
The two Servants got up immediately, and they teleported to the area where Dojima said he was, ready for a potential trap.
They found him in his car, bleeding from the arm. It wasn't an overly severe wound. But more importantly, his eyes looked like he was drugged.
"Ryutaro, can you hear me?" Shirou asked as he approached.
"Yes, I... something's wrong with me. I forgot something, but I don't know what."
"Let's go back to my place first. Caster will take care of you."
And with that, they teleported right back, leaving Dojima's car behind.
[br]
A few minutes later, they were all sitting on Shirou's porch. Caster healed Dojima's wound, and he looked a bit calmer as he checked out his arm.
"Caster, can you see what's wrong with his memories too?" Shirou asked. She didn't answer immediately and appeared to be strangely pensive.
"It's the first thing I did," she eventually replied. "There's nothing wrong with his brain. No trace of alteration of any kind. Not even some kind of trauma."
"What do you mean?" Dojima asked. "My memories are missing. I know they are." "Well, what is that you remember?" she asked.
He narrowed his eyes as if trying to see through the blank spots in his recollection.
"I was looking for someone," he turned to Shirou. "You asked me to search for a person. I recall our entire conversation, but I have no idea who it was that you wanted me to find. Not Tohsaka or Saber, I'm sure. Somebody else."
Caster and Rider were looking at Shirou too now.
"You must have tracked this person to that place, right?" he said. "And you found Kotomine there."
Dojima nodded.
"Shirou," Caster interrupted. "He's talking about the Master from last night, right?"
"Caster, I need you to do something extremely important," he said calmly but extremely firm. Caster was slightly taken aback by how serious he was.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Stop asking about it. Don't look into it. Whatever it is that's going on, it messes with people's minds, and it's not something you can identify. It might be the effect of a Noble Phantasm. I don't know why it's not affecting me like it does Dojima. Perhaps I accidentally cleared some conditions, but I don't know what those are, and until I do, I won't risk exposing either of you to it."
"I understand, Shirou," Rider agreed.
Caster was silent as he stared intensely at him.
"I see. If you are right, then it makes sense. I wouldn't be able to rest if I thought something messed with my mind. However, that means that you will be dealing with whatever this is on your own. I won't be able to assist you in any way."
"I know that," he confirmed.
"Alright. If you think this is best, I'll trust you," Caster conceded. "But I don't like it."
"Noted. Dojima-san, I'm sorry for involving you in this mess. I think it's time you left the city. If Kotomine got his eyes on you, Fuyuki isn't safe for you anymore. Get out for a few weeks. I'll let you know when everything is over."
"No way in hell, kiddo," he replied. "I'm in for the long run. You can't shake me off that easily." "Please, Ryutaro. I need you to see reason," Shirou implored.
"Nah, fuck that, kid. You of all people, don't get to tell me that."
Caster snorted.
"He's got a point, Shirou. You can't ask others to do things you aren't willing to do yourself. if you want people to listen to you, you've got to lead by example."
"We are flying by the seat of our pants here. I can't promise you'll make it out of it alive."
"If I were overly worried about making it out of it alive, I would have gone into a different line of business. And so would you. Besides, I'm not completely defenseless. This baby sent him running for the hills."
He patted the Contender, which was resting at his side.
"I'm glad I gave it to you, but of all the Magi around, Kirei knows how to deal with it best. I'm certain he fled because he was surprised, not because he was scared. You hit him, didn't you."
"Yeah. Got him in the arm and everything."
"If it had worked properly, that would have crippled or killed him. He managed to counter it just like he did against my father."
"You sure that was something on his part and not mine? I admit I freaked out when the gun started glowing."
"No, that was Caster's Magecraft activating my father's Origin. Without that, they would just be regular bullets. Big-ass bullets, but not something that would affect Magecraft. That guy is just a bad match for this weapon. If you want to stick around, you need to go into hiding, at least. You can't stay at your place or the police station. You are too easy a target there."
"Where do you suggest I go then?"
"My secret hideout under the city. Caster will take you there."
"About time you showed me your bat-cave. Before that, though, I need to get at least some stuff from my place and the office."
"I'm not a taxi service," Caster grumbled.
"Please do this for me," Shirou implored, and Caster pouted.
"Fine, but I'll have you return the favor when I'm back. Get ready, scruffy."
She grabbed him by the shoulder, and they vanished in a cloud of black smoke.
After they left, Shirou shook his head in dismay. There were too many loose threads. Too many factors out of his control. The corrupted Grail. Kotomine and Lancer. Tohsaka and Saber. Caren and her Servant. He feared that some of these threads would touch each other, and like live wires they would cause a spark. A reaction that would wind up like the fire ten years before.
He had to shut down the Grail, and he had to make it quick. The more time passed, the more the situation would unravel.
The next day of the War would have to be the last.
[XXX]