Chapter 10: Discovery and Adaptation
I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:
o. o. o.
Shirou had been expecting and dreading many things as he cautiously exited his workshop, ready to fight at a moment's notice. In addition to sparring, Bazett and Sirius had run him through several ambush scenarios that could and most likely would happen to him at some point the moment his relationship to his father reached the ears of the masses of magi in the world. Elements, curses, familiars, he had been assaulted by all of the standard methods at one point or another and had learned of the standard ways to deal with all of them…
However not even a dragon could instill the fear the boy had expected when he saw Rin glaring at him extremely coldly from the other side of the door.
"Long time Emiya-Kun." The girl spoke calmly while not changing her expression in the slightest.
"Rin… why are you here?" Shirou swallowed heavily. After the girl's sudden and completely spontaneous (From his point of view) tantrum several years prior, she had become nearly inaccessible to anyone in the school body. Sure she had maintained her perfect student appearance and occasionally socialized with others, but for the most part she had kept to herself completely whenever the weekend or vacation came by. This went doubly so with Shirou, pretending he didn't even exist even on the rare occasion that they were within feet of one another and in the same group conversation. "… And why did you set off my bounded field? You know what triggers it…"
The girl flipped her hair haughtily and looked down on him. "Humph. If you can't figure that out Emiya, then I can only assume that your training hasn't progressed much since I left. I'm not surprised…" She glared at him. "I'm here to ask you some questions, and if I don't like what I hear, I'm simply going to live up to my role as supervisor over this land and kill you."
The boy gaped. "W-what? Please tell me this is some kind of sick joke! We haven't talked to each other in years, because YOU decided to ignore me for some reason I clearly don't know of I might add, and THIS is the first thing you do the moment you decide to break the ice again? I thought you were supposed to be the logical one!"
Rin's eyebrow twitched, clearly not amused by either the boy's clear obliviousness on what he said to her that day, and because of the insult to her intelligence. "If it doesn't make sense to you then too bad. I'm not going to bother explaining something so basic to someone like you when I have more important things to find out from you…"
If it's so basic, then why did it make you give me the cold shoulder for over 3 years? The boy mentally wondered, but didn't say out loud. He could tell that the girl was irritated enough as it is. If what he remembered of her temper was accurate, pushing her even farther wouldn't be very good for his health.
"Emiya…" She spoke up again, this time without any of emotion that she had in her voice before. "That's the name of the Magus Killer, isn't it?"
Shirou tensed up. No… please… he thought he could at least handle his first attempt on his life by now… but if it was one of the first people he actually had a decent relationship with at one point.
"Judging from your reaction, I'm guessing Kiritsugu Emiya really was the man who adopted you." The girl's eyes narrowed. "You probably already know this, but your old man didn't have much of a clean reputation when he was working as an assassin…"
Breathe… calm down… Shirou instructed his body forcefully as he attempted to bring himself under control. A wrong move now will get you killed. You still haven't done what dad's told you to do. You haven't lived a good life for those that couldn't have them yet. Breathe… Filling his lungs slowly with the cool night air, the boy stabilized his mind and heart with some brief meditation techniques he had learned in his spare time… gaining a calmer stance and look in his eyes before looking at Rin not with fear, but with focus. "Get on with it Tohsaka." He stated with a small amount of bite. "Are you here to kill me for something that dad did, or did someone else ask you to do it?"
The girl's fingers twitched, indicating that she clearly not expecting Shirou to react or speak the way he did. She quickly crossed her arms to cover her surprise in response. "Humph. Straight to the point? At least you managed to grow up a little since the last time we talked. Fine by me. Tell me, did Kiritsugu ever tell you about the ceremony that's held here? The holy grail war?"
Shirou instantly began to become on edge. "The Heaven's Feel ritual? I knew of it, but I didn't know it was held here."
The girl's eyes flashed. "Did you know your father was a participant in the war?"
The boy nodded. "Yeah. He was the representative for the Einzberns and was the master of Saber…"
"And my father was a master in that war as well." Rin concluded in an icy tone, causing the boy to go rigid. "Tell me, did the magus Killer ever tell you if he killed a man named Tokiomi Tohsaka?"
Shirou didn't know what to say. The situation right now was so alien to him that he was more scared about the potential damage between the two more than the fact that Rin might actually try to kill him depending on his answer. "I… I don't know…" He swallowed heavily, but feeling no liquid in his mouth. "Dad never mentioned the names of the other masters… but I do know the master of Rider personally…"
The prodigy blinked in surprise before maintaining her glare. "Fine then, you can tell me about him later. First, did you father ever say if he killed the master of the servant Archer?"
"Archer?" The faker blinked as he attempted to recall everything his father told him of the war. "N-no. He didn't. He was responsible for Berserker, Lancer, and Caster, but Archer…" He paused and remembered the story with that particular servant's master. "He was going to kill him… on the last day of the war." He started off slowly. "Dad even broke into his… I guess your family's, property and bounded fields to do it… but…"
Rin grit her teeth. She had known that someone had shattered her estate's extremely well built magical defenses during the war, but she had assumed that one of the other servants had did it, not a single magus. "Get on with it already!" She barked.
"He was already dead." Shirou concluded with finality, causing Rin to blink in surprise before glaring at him even more, not expecting this new set of information.
"Explain." She ordered.
"When he got inside, he didn't find anyone, but he came across evidence that he was killed in the study. There was a lethal amount of blood spilled there." Shirou said calmly. "He never explained any more than that."
"… Well at least that was a clue, even if it was a minor one." The girl muttered under her breath as she tried to put the pieces of the puzzle that was the 4th war together in her mind, only to quickly come up short. Deciding to put the small fact away for now, she pressed for more information. "Kiritsugu was the one who destroyed the grail at the end of the war. Did he ever say why?"
Shirou shook his head. "The only thing he mentioned was that the grail's price was too high for what it did."
"And you expect me to be satisfied with that?" The girl snapped incredulously.
"Don't blame me for something a dead man told me in passing several years ago Tohsaka." The boy coldly replied. "You trespassed upon my property when you could have just knocked and asked me about my father, not to mention you are on the verge of attempting to kill me for some minor reason after not talking to me suddenly for no good reason whatsoever. I know I've been technically been trespassing on your family grounds, but you've known about me for so long that it doesn't factor into the equation at this point."
Her clothes can channel a fair amount of prana and have a slight resistance to physical and magic based attacks… He mentally summarized as he continued on his rant, hoping he wouldn't have to put this information to use. She has 3 jewels on her right now… and her body is built for technique… she probably still practiced those martial arts that I remember her doing from last time… but because she triggered my field she isn't a real threat unless she knows what it does…
Rin in response to the boy's attack on her simply smirked. "Oh? It seems you've grown a bit of backbone Emiya. Don't tell me you actually think that you stand a chance against me now if we fought…" Her grin slightly faltered when Shirou's demeanor only became more solid.
"It seems you've forgotten that you're also dealing with a magus Tohsaka. Do you really think that I haven't tweaked out my bounded fields here since the last time you visited?" The boy stated coldly, causing Rin to for once lose her calm as she felt his prana activate in his body almost instantly.
"What?" The girl realized her stupid mistake just before several dozen swords impaled themselves into the ground behind her and to her sides in a wide arc, no doubt to restrict her movement. He projected them so far away from his body and without an aria… he's gotten better in what he can do at least… She mentally grunted as she channeled her own prana into the massive crest that was engraved on her arm, causing a whirlwind of energy to circle it before unleashing the wind based spell at the swords, expecting them to break away and allow her to escape. Had she paid more attention, she would have noticed her spell fluxuating significantly even as it was being formed and nearly fell apart on itself as it was unleashed. She didn't bother to look though as she turned around and pointed her index finger at her opponent and channeled some more prana into it, creating a black orb in front and shooting it off like a bullet…
Only to not only get blown back by the orb as it exploded in her face, but to slam hard into the flats of the blades that had clearly not been blown from behind her like she had expected to. "The hell?" She coughed as she glanced to see that the swords were still there before rushing to call up another spell to defend herself with… only to pause as she saw Shirou holding a notched black bow with a nasty looking twisted metal arrow pointed at her. "Even if these swords were strong… they should have been destroyed or blown away by my spell…" She grunted and calmed down, signaling that she was at his mercy.
"It probably would have… if you didn't trigger my bounded field." The boy stated coldly. It had only been 6 months ago that he had finally managed to perfect his new workshop defense. It normally remained dormant and undetectable, but if his father's original trespassing field was triggered, or if he himself used his personalized aria instead, this field would activate. The theory and mechanics behind the field were rather complicated and involved applying amplification based thaumaturgy in just the wrong way, but the end result gave Shirou a massive advantage in battle. In layman's terms, the additional field disrupted and weakened any energy based thaumaturgy activated within its vicinity. Prana, fire, wind, curse, or any other non physical manifestation and discharge based magic (with the sole exception of healing based magic) was either considerably weakened or self destructed in the caster's face within the field, enabling him to in most cases have an extreme advantage over most magi in a fight… though of course Sirius and Bazett proved themselves to be exceptions. "You haven't changed a bit Rin. You still let your temper get the best of you when you should be paying attention the most."
"Damn…" Rin grunted, knowing that the boy had pretty much won. Still, if she was going to die, she would do so elegantly and as such put on her confident air. "You're right Emiya-kun." She sighed. "Despite being a genius, I guess I got a bit overconfident and let you get the upper hand. I guess I should have expected more from the son of the Magus Killer…"
"His name was Kiritsugu Emiya, and he didn't want this for me." Shirou stated calmly. "What do you want from Tohsaka? I'd rather not my first kill be someone I'm friends with."
The girl raised an eyebrow. "You? Kill me with that? I know you're good with a bow Emiya, but you do know that I'm fairly competent at reinforcement and other magic as well. As strong as that arrow might be, I doubt that you could hit me with that…" She knew that odds were likely that he was capable of hitting her even without magic, but she couldn't help but wonder why he had brought a bow to a magic fight… then again he did use swords in magic fights as his main tactic so this alteration wasn't that much of a stretch…
"And if I happen to know Gradation Parallel?" The boy asked in an even tone, causing the girl to falter as she slowly pieced together in her mind what he was hinting at. Obviously the resulting picture was vaguely similar to what he insinuated, and thus extremely unappealing to her.
"… Tch… of course only you would make another worthless spell like that into something ridiculous…" She grimaced.
"I'm flattered." Shirou snorted. "Back to the main topic. Did you really just come to kill me because my adoptive father may have killed yours in a free for all battle where the participants were supposed to kill one another in the first place? I thought you were smarter than that."
"Well apparently not." She sighed casually, pretending as if she wasn't a millisecond away from being pierced through with a nasty looking arrow. "I'm 0 for 2 Emiya-kun. This really isn't my day…" She put on a thoughtful pose. "As for your question… I guess I just let my excitement get the better of me. I only recently found out about the relationship of our parents and completed my training under that fake priest. Congratulations, you've just defeated a fully fledged magus Emiya-kun. If you don't kill me, I might just get you a gift as a reward…" She smiled cunningly…
"Don't even try it Tohsaka." Shirou relaxed his facial expression. He still had the bow up, but the air between the two was less tense. "My combat teacher Bazett-nee already covered seduction mind games with me during our sparring lessons, and she has a lot more to flaunt around than you do…"
Granted, the enforcer was actually FORCED to give Shirou those lessons by Sirius (Waver claimed he didn't want any part of it, but still watched from the sidelines when said lessons took place). Still, after fighting a very developed woman dressed in nothing but rather skintight clothing that left little to the imagination flirting with him every few seconds, (albeit her smiles were more murderous than seductive for a good portion of the time), Shirou could proudly claim that he was significantly less distracted by the female gender and body as a whole during combat situations for the rest of his life. Granted, all of the lessons they had were closer to "awkward" then they were "sexually stimulating" and were all done while he was attempting to not get beaten to death, but progress was somehow made none the less.
As such, Shirou would probably not have a stable relationship with anyone until his early 20's as he would associate any female trying to flirt with him a female trying to punch his face in.
On a side note, it should be known that after all of these sparse lessons, Bazett would always take a long shower in order to "wash away the shame". None of the males in the group dared to talk any further about the subject.
Rin's eyebrow twitched. "Did you… just insinuate that I'm flat Emiya-kun?" She asked politely while smiling sweetly at him.
Shirou paled. At that moment, the fact that most of her offensive magic was rendered ineffective or that he was a twitch of a finger away from killing her didn't matter at all to either of them. "R-Rin… focus…" He stammered. "I still have an arrow focused on you. Don't do anything stupid now…"
"Please answer my question." The girl smiled. Neither had little doubt who was in control of the situation now.
"I-I meant that you haven't f-fully gone through puberty yet…" The boy frantically tried to save his ass. "Bazett-nee is 21. She's fully grown and everything."
"Is that so?" The girl brushed her hair to the side as if thinking. "So I guess that means that you are attracted to mature women then? Like this Bazett-nee?"
The boy calmed down… momentarily considered the thought… and then shivered. "Bazett-nee is more of a sister to me, like Fuji-nee… going after her would be too weird, but to be honest I don't really have a preference. I've never really thought about that much…"
"So does that mean I could be your type?" She asked with a deeper voice, clearly trying to get under his skin.
Shirou on the other hand merely stared at her calmly but clearly looking past her indicating he was thinking about what she said. "Maybe…. Tsundere are pretty difficult to get used to though." He mused, clearly not thinking before he spoke out loud.
The air between the two was quiet save for the chirping of insects nearby.
"… You do realize that the moment I see an opening, I am going to kill you… don't you Emiya-kun?" Said identified tsundere questioned in a perky tone.
"At least it's for a reason that's actually my fault that makes sense this time." The boy muttered under his breath before looking at the situation again. The initial killing intent between the two was all but gone, leaving only the same feeling the two normally had when Rin had come over years beforehand. Realizing that nothing was really going to happen that night the boy shook his head, dispelling all of his projected weapons and the bow in his hand, surprising the girl somewhat. "I've had enough of this. There's no real reason to fight anymore and we both don't have any intent to do so now either." He looked at the girl's still stunned face. "What? You didn't really think I'd actually kill you did you?" Shirou raised an eyebrow as he began to walk back to his home, past the girl and exposing his back to her and opened the front door. "I thought you knew me better than that Tohsaka. I don't act like other magi and I personally don't care for most of their rules and crap like that." He glanced back at her. "While I am rather annoyed that you thought you could just walk into my home and expect me to just roll over and play dead, I'm not so egotistical as to claim some stupid vow of revenge on something like that. You already know what my magic is based off of so there's no point in worrying about you stealing it."
The girl glared at him cautiously, and for good reason. Magi in general weren't known for being rather forgiving. Actually, more often than not it was quite the opposite. "So you're just letting me go then? I could just come back another day and kill you for real…"
"Then have a decent reason to do so next time." The boy yawned tired. "You're a genius. Come up with something that doesn't make you look like a fool in the face of the clocktower or something that actually looks impressive on your resume…"
Rin glared at the boy before sighing. "That's harder than you'd think Emiya-kun. Putting down the fact that I beat a third rate magus and claiming it as a noteworthy feat isn't something people do everyday…"
"Correction. I'm a second rate magus." The boy proudly spoke up as he walked inside. "Just got promoted to it last month actually…"
The Tohsaka blinked before snorting. "My mistake. Not that it makes me feel any better about losing to you… worse comes to worse I could always just tell them that you're an incarnation whose relationship with your elements makes you really dangerous."
"So long as I'm already dead when you write that letter, you can do whatever you want." Shirou laughed. It was scary to the boy how morbid his sense of humor could be at times, but he just assumed it was from being exposed so much to the magic world these past few years and listening in on some very dark stories going around. "Just let me know when you're planning to come over next time so I can at least prepare a decent "last supper". I've learned a few dishes while I was in England and I wanted to see how they fared outside of the usual crowd."
Rin laughed. "Sure why not? I'll just bring over some of my own dishes as well so that you can feel pathetic when you realize I'm better than you…" She paused for a moment. "… Although if you actually know some people in the association that could get me a scholarship, like a lord if you actually are lucky enough to know one and not somehow get experimented on… I may just decide to not kill you for the time being…"
Shirou paused with a thoughtful look on his face before giving the girl a look that all but screamed "oh yes I do know someone that fits that criteria". "Maybe. Come back to me after you have that temper problem of yours fixed… and before you kill me… then we'll talk."
"You're loving making this hard for me, aren't you Emiya?" Shirou heard Rin growl as he closed the door behind him… allowing the boy to sink to the floor and finally let his mental exhaustion catch up to him. His breathing both quickened and deepened, and his body began to shake uncontrollably.
Of all the people to give him a firsthand experience with fighting at inopportune times in the magic world, it had to be Rin. The girl who literally owned the city, had access to all 5 basic elements, was a certified genius, had access to an entire library of thaumaturgy and theory, and no doubt was already capable of magecraft that he would only be able to wish he could perform. There had been so many points where things could have gone wrong just now that left him dead it wasn't even funny. She could have actually knocked on his front door. She could have managed to dispel his bounded field. She could have attacked him when his back was turned. She could have been truly an irredeemable bitch. Thankfully none of those had come to pass as his initial statement of her being a tsundere, while a bit rude, had proved itself to be fact and as such she had somewhere deep down admitted that she either was a good person… or in a worst case scenario it wasn't the right time to kill him yet.
He prayed it was the former.
Not wanting to take any more chances, the boy focused his magic sensing and focused on Rin's "scent". So long as the girl's power didn't flux and she actually left the area, he had nothing to worry about, but in the case that she didn't do either he didn't want to find himself being caught off guard again.
He was so focused on the girl's departure that he didn't realize he had a new message from Waver until the following day.
o. o. o.
England:
Waver clicked his teeth as he closed his phone, irritated that he couldn't get a hold of Shirou, and irritated at himself that the boy might be sleeping since it was past midnight in Japan. "Why is it that I have a feeling that things are going to get far worse before we even have an idea of what the hell is happening?" He muttered to himself as he looked at the massive amount of paperwork in front of him pertaining to Sirius' disappearance.
"Because that's the way things tend to turn out whenever someone of stature disappears." Bazett ominously responded from the doorway of his office with her arms crossed and her face down casted. "I take it Shirou didn't pick up."
"It's late night on a school night for him there." The lord muttered as he took out a report done by a forensic specialist who used familiars as his main focus of magic. "Even I would be asleep at that point, and I'm a bookworm."
"Yeah…" The woman sighed as she looked away. "I guess you're right…"
Initial readings were heavily impaired due to large amounts of alcohol in the air, masking and diluting the subject's and assailant's scents… Waver read the report. The writer used familiars that tended to use their magically enhanced senses to degrees that they could determine many facts about what happened at the scene of events months before other procedures could gain results. "It wasn't your fault Bazett. The old man was drunk and caught off guard in an area that you weren't even close to. You couldn't have known." The Lord tried to assure the woman. "We already know that even though there was a rather big fight at the scene, there was almost no blood spilt. That means that there's a good chance he was only kidnapped. Only a few days has gone by since the incident. We still have time to find him. Sirius is a hard person to kill, you know that more than anyone."
The enforcer gave the man a weak smile. "Don't I know it… but even he can be broken down by the right monsters in this world…"
"Then we just have to hope that he isn't in the hands of one of them." Waver replied. The moment Bazett had called him to tell him that Sirius was gone and there had clearly been some sort of inhuman fight on the outskirts of town, complete with gouged out earth and small craters, he had gotten to work and pulled as many strings as he could to become a ranking individual in the case. Thankfully since Sirius was a fairly prominent member of the Clocktower despite not being a lord, there was a fairly decent response to his disappearance and an adequate forensic team was dispatched to research the area.
After adapting to the situation, it was determined that the subject had initially been approached by a single undead female target. Initial analysis of the bout indicate that the assailant possessed high level motor functions and comprehension skills, little combat based thaumaturgy ability, and was also unable to overwhelm the subject until a second assailant had arrived. Secondary suspect, male, appears to be related to the initial while is also undead. After appearance both assailants attacked subject, yet the initial's tracks and scent indicate that her power and prowess increased significantly after her relative's arrival. It is due to this that it is suspected that both assailants are dead apostles due to the interlinking blood resonance phenomenon. For more information on this ability, refer to chapter 9.1.7b of the True Ancestor and Dead Apostle research and analysis manuscript. Soon afterwards, subject was overwhelmed, rendered unconscious, and accosted by assailants. Scents and trail become impossible to follow after .29 miles away from ground zero. Recommend…
"So what does it say?" Bazett asked curiously as she saw Waver's frown deepen.
"Dead apostles." The lord grit his teeth, knowing that things just got worse.
"Vampires?" The girl blinked in shock. "A blood sucker beat the old man? That can't be right! Even if he was getting on in years and piss drunk, there's no way a single random apostle could have taken him down and still had the energy left to drag him away without leaving a trail!"
"It wasn't a single one." Waver waved the paper. "It was 2 of them at once, and judging from the reports they were related…"
"Shit… the blood resonance effect…" Bazett clicked her teeth, knowing well that fighting blood related vampires when they were near one another was one of the fastest ways to screw yourself over in the field. It was one of the very first things they taught future enforcers when they covered dead apostles. "That explains one thing at least…" She paused as the thought of related vampires and Sirius rang a very vague bell in her mind. "Hey… did the report say how they were related?"
Waver shook his head as he scanned the paper again for good measure. "No. It just says that it was a male and a female that had similar scents and showed signs of the resonance. Why?"
The woman hesitated as she tried to think hard about what seemed so familiar to her. "I don't know… but I remember the old man telling me once or twice about having some dead apostle trouble a few years back, and I think he mentioned the vampire had kids or something. Maybe that has something to do with it?"
The lord raised an eyebrow. "McGinty had dead apostle trouble? Wouldn't the enforcers have done something about it then?"
Bazett shook her head. "It was a different kind of trouble and it happened a while ago. I forgot the entire story, but it had to do with the codes he made. It got so bad that the association had put him under house arrest in London and restricted who he could make codes for for a while. He didn't like that."
"I can only imagine." Waver grimaced, imagining how Sirius would have and most likely did react to that kind of news. The man was a workaholic at times, but he also hated staying in one place for long. "Thanks for the advice though. I think we can work with that." He bent over to his desk and took out a cigar, then lit up the end with some prana. "I have a feeling I'm going to go through a load of these before this entire thing is over with…" He muttered before looking at Bazett sympathetically. The young woman had clearly let the event get to her if her drooping posture and darkened skin under her eyes indicated anything. "Go get some sleep. There's nothing you can do right now and to be honest you'd probably just be in the way right now without some. I'll let you know if I find anything good. Worst comes to worst, we need you to be at full capability."
The fighter nodded before slowly walking out of the doorway, giving the smoker one last look before she left.
Waver sighed as he channeled some prana into a small device on his desk that looked like a giant old record player. "Michael. Jacob." He called to his 2 assistants. "I need you two to pull up any documents relating the Mystic Code Crafter Sirius McGinty to any Dead Apostle activity sans the Kaleidoscope in the past 80 years. Should any apostle in particular appear rather frequently I want as much information on them as well. I expect a list of said documents on my desk in order of relevance in the next 6 hours. Do I make myself clear?"
"80 years sir?" The young voice of Jacob, a freshman at the academy asked warily. "Isn't that a bit much? I mean I've heard that the man is old but…"
"I didn't ask for your opinion. Have the list for me in 5 hours." Waver growled, shutting the boy up and no doubted causing his other assistant to get angry at his partner before turning off the device. In all honesty the two boys were rather good at research and information gathering, which is why he sponsored them and had them serve as his assistants in the first place, but since they were both still young and didn't know how much of a pain it really was to be a new lord, Waver had to more often than not kick their asses into gear. Shaking his head again the man looked at the paperwork in front of him and felt a headache growing. This was going to be a long day.
o. o. o.
Japan:
Shirou sighed as he finished his duties at the small pub in the commercial part of Fuyuki that he worked at part time. He didn't bartend seeing as he was clearly under aged, however he was tasked with moving large boxes of various kinds of alcohol all over the place. The pay was slightly subpar and the boss left much to be desired, but it was a form of exercise for him and kept him moving and not thinking about magecraft much. Plus thanks to his ability to work late nights and still be fairly rested for the next day, he could earn a fair amount despite the poor hourly wage.
At the moment though he was considering dropping this job for a similar one nearby at a booze shop run by some nicer and more legit looking people… he was fairly sure that it was called Copenhagen…
"Here's your pay kid… don't blow it like most brats your age do…" Grunted the owner of the shop, a rather unkempt middle aged man who appeared to partake in his shop as much as his regulars.
"I'll try not to." The boy laughed lightly and bowed politely. The man may have been rude, but at least he paid when he was supposed to and didn't try to stiff the boy more than he already did at his current salary.
"… Be sharp kid." The owner grumbled as he closed up the building. "There've been word that some freak's been attacking people at night for the past week or so. It's not safe to walk anywhere alone after dark. It would suck to have to replace a decent hand like you."
"I'll try to be careful." The faker accepted the man's very loosely given warning with a smile. "I'd be more worried about you though boss. You've been grunting about your back lately…"
"Watch it brat." The man grunted as he swung out one of his rather large arms. "I may not be fast like you, but I can still deck out any idiot that tries to take me on with one blow."
"Yeah. Don't I know it." The boy laughed, having already seen the boss do just that to a few unruly customers a week prior…
It had been roughly half a month since the boy had returned home and Rin nearly killed him. Surprisingly nothing else interesting had happened since then other than the notification of Sirius' disappearance. Shirou would have been more worried especially since he wasn't told much about the situation, but since Waver had told him that he had undertaken the issue personally and the fact that Sirius was not a person that would just roll over and die quietly, he just assumed that things would work out in the end.
After saying his goodbyes to his boss, the boy made his way back home on the other side of the river to the residential part of Fuyuki, casually taking in the early spring night air and cool breeze that gently brushed and relaxed his tired limbs. It was fairly late at night in the city, but there were still a few people out either getting drunk, going home after getting drunk, or thinking they were going home while drunk but heading in the wrong direction and possibly getting into a fight.
"Eh? The hell do you want ya bastard?" One such example of the latter made itself known from an alleyway that Shirou was passing. "Bumpin into me like that and not even saying sorry? I think I'm gonna have to get you to pay for damages!"
Normally Shirou was all for sticking up for the underdog and it wasn't like he wasn't incapable of doing so, but when it came to Yakuza dealing he tended to shy away from things. It wasn't that he was afraid of them, it was just if he made a mistake or caused a scene, he might accidentally get on the wrong side of things and cause problems for Fujimura's family. Turf wars were fairly easy to start and near impossible to end without bloodshed. However just as he was about to leave, an odd and rather repulsive "scent" caught his attention from the direction of the conversation…
"Get your hands off of… the fuck? Hey guys! Something's messed up here! He's stronger than he looks and ghaaaa!"
Shirou froze as the bloodcurdling scream instantly put him on guard and made him give the alleyway a better look, channeling prana to his eyes to give him not only night vision but a better view of any and everything within possible view. The sickening scent he had detected earlier had increased in strength and his ears were starting to detect more men shouting various things that he couldn't make over the commotion. Unfortunately whatever was happening was around a corner so he couldn't see anything happening, however very quickly his nose was able to pick up a real scent in addition to the decayed magical one his magical senses had already recognized…
The iron filled scent of blood.
Wasting little time, the boy rushed down the alleyway and projected himself a tan cloak to hide his features. His hypnotizing ability was fairly solid, but in the case he couldn't get everyone he saved, it would be best to at least cover up as many of his features as possible. Skidding to a halt at the end of the path, the boy quickly scanned everything in front of him and prepared for anything he could have imagined.
He should have prepared more.
He had seen some videos and pictures of what magical creatures, or phantasmal beasts, have done to humans in the past, he had seen even more of what humans did to one another and to other creatures in general, but coming face to face with the real thing truly put things into perspective. At least 3 bodies, all rather large looking men from what he could barely tell, laid strewn and bloody over the ground, torn open, ripped apart, and bleeding heavily out of multiple holes their bodies. It reminded him of when he accidentally cut off his arm, only instead of one quick cut that severed his limb, the injuries these men had were the complete opposite, looking as if a savage animal had torn into their flesh and ripped chunks off of them. Even without structural grasping he could tell that all 3 of them were dead… Off to the side he could see one last man cowering against one of the buildings that made the alleyway, sitting in what looked and smelled to be his own urine, not that Shirou could really blame him as the teen tried to keep in his own meal… however what truly made him pause was the assailant who was hunched over one of the dead bodies…
He was dead.
There was no other way for Shirou to describe the state of his body after structurally analyzing it. The killer looked like average man in a suit… if he didn't have bloodstains over his clothes and unnaturally pale skin… however to Shirou his body was already decomposed on the inside. Organs, bone, everything was no longer functional in terms of what living beings could use… yet the body still moved due to what he could barely tell was cursed blood and tainted prana…
This poor dead fool was a vampire's servant. He couldn't tell if it was a "living dead", a "ghoul" or simply a "dead", not that there was much difference other than physical strength and the bare hint of individuality, but Shirou knew for a fact that whatever it was, it could only mean that there was an actual vampire in Fuyuki, and that terrified him…
He's dead… Shirou's mind confirmed his soul and body what they already knew. They're dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead… because of you. You didn't move fast enough. You should have been able to detect the person in front of you is dead and because of that more are dead dead dead dead dead just like the fire dead dead dead dead all around you again again again. When will this end? All the blood everywhere, red like that one time. Just like that time all over again when you ignored them all and again only you will live only you will live only you will live only…
The remaining thug's whimpering along with the zombie's shift in attention snapped the boy out of his stupor as he realized that his arrival gained him the attention of the abomination. Shirou watched as the monstrosity turned its swollen eyes on him with its mouth open and filled with the blood and flesh of its victims, not even bothering to close the hole as it inspected its newest potential target.
"Not again…" The teen muttered to himself shakily as the monster began to stumble to him with its hands stretched out to grab him sloppily. After all his effort in training… all the hell he had to get through in order to be strong enough to prevent these situations… he still failed when it counted most, not even a dozen meters from his person… and he ignored it until it was too late. "Not AGAIN!" He roared in rage as his magic circuits flared in response to his emotions and produced a very large amount of swords around his person which in the next instant flew at the zombie like opponent with relentless speed and power.
It wasn't even a contest. The blades rapidly tore out chunks from the dead individual's body with unparalleled ease, each contact making a sickeningly soft sound that no human body should be able to make even against such a force. In less than 5 seconds nothing was left but decomposed red chunks of human sprayed across half the alleyway and Shirou stood in front of the entire thing panting with a pale face under his cape.
It was only due to luck that the already dead men were out of the way of the onslaught and as such could have their bodies returned to their loved ones in one piece.
"Wh-what the fuck?" The remaining Yakuza stammered as he tried to edge away from Shirou. "I gotta get the hell out of here!" the man began to run when several large swords impaled themselves across the alleyway in front of him to bar his escape.
"Sorry… about not coming in time to help your friends…" Shirou muttered in a raspy voice as he turned to the now literally scared shitless man. "But I still have to deal with you. I don't feel like messing 2 things up completely in a row today…"
o. o. o.
It was well past midnight when he got back home. After hypnotizing the remaining survivor of the attack to forget everything he had seen, he had attempted to inform Rin about the situation, but unfortunately she wasn't home and didn't seem to be reacting to the boy trying to trigger every single alarm based bounded field she had… well, the alarm based fields that didn't react to cause bodily harm to him at least. It was the weekend so it was understandable for people to be away he guessed. It wasn't as if he had anything better to do… actually informing the person in charge of the area that there was a damned good chance that a vampire was here was pretty high on any list of priorities. He heard that there was a member of the church in the city as well… but his dad warned him that he should stay away from the man as often as humanely possible. The teen never met said dangerous individual, but anyone that could put his father on edge like that must be as lethal as they come.
He didn't know long it took him to get back home, but he reasoned that it didn't take long since staying out alone when a vampire was out wasn't a smart idea and he naturally knew to stay somewhere safe as much as possible.
"I'm home…" He said rather drowsily to no one in particular as he entered the front doorway. He really didn't feel like eating right now after what he had been through, but apparently his stomach had different plans. It was late so Sakura and Fuji-nee wouldn't be here. He guessed he could scratch something small and simple up from the fridge. Preparing and cleaning it up would at least calm his mind down a bit.
To save someone means another must be sacrificed.
The process of thinking that Kiritsugu Emiya implanted into his son's mind echoed in the boy's head once more. Its key purpose was to derive Shirou from trying to be a superhero. The words themselves nor their meaning were what convinced him from parting from that path, but they stuck with him none the less as a way to solidify and reinforce his decision and belief that not everyone can be saved… yet the urge to help people in their time of need still was deeply engraved in his soul none the less.
He had failed.
Once more it had been possible to save people from dying in horrifically violent and painful deaths… and once more he had ignored them, only this time he was fully capable of doing so. He was no longer that terrified and exhausted 8 year old child. He was a magus... a manipulator of the natural laws, and specialized in combat… yet he still did nothing despite all he could do. What was he waiting for? Even before everything went to hell he could tell that something wrong was going to happen from his senses but…
… Why did he smell food when he didn't even reach the kitchen yet?
"About time you got back." A far too comfortable Rin Tohsaka yawned as she lounged in his living room and watched tv. "I hope you don't mind, but you weren't home and I thought you might get hungry after it got a bit late. Oh, and you'll be pleased to know that I used the front door this time."
"… Huh?" Shirou intelligently blinked as he attempted to mentally shift gears from self philosophy to dealing with unexpected female in his home and failed miserably.
"I honestly don't know why you have so many things hooked up to your television." Rin sighed as she nodded to his setup. In addition to a large flatscreen LCD Television, the boy also had one of those new PS3s (not that he used it much other than for playing dvds), and a surround sound system hooked up to it as well. Obviously so much technology would cause most magi to look away in disgust in order to hide the fact that they had no idea how to work the damned things, but Sirius and Shirou were techies for both magical and non magical appliances, so it was no wonder that the man gave the boy this setup for the previous Christmas. "It took me forever to get it to turn to the right channel." She held up a remote that looked fine, however the small residue of prana in it made the boy think that she had lost her temper with it at one point or another and used magic to fix it. "How the hell do you know what button to press with these things?"
"Um… reading the manual helps…" He answered dumbly. "My version of structural grasping also…" He shook his head, snapping himself out of his stupor. "Never mind that! What the heck are you doing in my home without me knowing? Again!"
"You're welcome for cooking you food and not trying to kill you this time." The girl muttered to the side before brushing aside her hair. "I came to apologize to you about before, but seeing as you weren't home I decided to compound that with a meal." She sighed aridly. "If I knew how long you were going to be though, I would have held off on cooking so soon though… I mean everyone knows you work part time, but I didn't think you'd be this late… you should be greatful…"
Rin's words called up the real reason why Shirou was so delayed on returning and the memories hit him like a sledgehammer, causing the teen to lose any confusion. "Rin…" She spoke calmly, looking away as the memories drenched in red flooded his mind. "We have to talk."
The girl looked at him skeptically. "What's with the attitude Emiya? Weren't you the one who wanted things to be peaceful between us last time? If this is about me using the kitchen…"
"There's a vampire in Fuyuki." He said calmly, silencing her in an instant. "I killed one of its familiars when I was coming back from work, but not before it killed and was in the middle of eating 3 men." His hands clenched and he grit his teeth, knowing that he could have saved them if he had acted sooner.
Rin on the other hand stared at him with wide eyes for a few seconds before they steeled quickly and focused on him. "Tell me everything." She stated in a tone that left no room for negotiation.
It took a little less than an hour for Shirou to explain the entire situation to Rin (and eat and clean up the dinner she made, which he reluctantly admitted was extremely good despite being a bit cold), but by the time he was finished he had regained some of the composure that he had lost since the beginning of the ordeal. Rin on the other hand was clearly not pleased by the information she had just been given and had put a hand to her chin, something she did whenever she was seriously thinking about something. "Damn… it could have been anything but… to have a vampire that actually preys on humans here…"
Rin's comment resonated with Shirou as he agreed with her comment. Despite the fact that vampires need blood and sometimes flesh to maintain their bodies, most of the modern ones actually tend to stray away from feasting on humans and go for animal blood instead. It was more efficient that way and it allowed them to hide easier from both the magus association.
"At least you made sure to hypnotize the survivor to forget everything." Rin mused. "No doubt the police are going to have a field day trying to figure out how to manage 3 dead bitten up corpses and another one that was torn to shreds with sword impact marks in the ground… I really would have had to kill you if you let him go without dealing with him."
"Give me some credit Tohsaka." Shirou muttered. "I'm better than that. It's not like I'm some half assed magus that can't do anything right. And just to let you know, I repaired the holes I made too after I erased the guy's memories."
"But you couldn't take the bodies with you or at least destroy them?" She asked skeptically.
Shirou frowned. "I already tore the dead to shreds and I wasn't going to desecrate the bodies of guys who were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. Plus, what the hell would I have carried 3 bodies and a pile of meat across town in a way in that wouldn't have made me look suspicious?"
"Jeez. Someone's touchy." The girl muttered.
"It comes with stumbling across 3 bodies and a zombie and coming to the conclusion that your home town is now the residential area of a vampire." Shirou stated bluntly.
"At least you aren't the one who's going to have to manage this mess." Rin retorted just as irritably before sighing. "I have no choice. I have to tell the priest about this. I thought those murders and disappearances lately were just coincidence, but at least this means we caught onto things early before it really gets out of control." She looked at Shirou. "Come on. You're going to come with me and tell him what you told me."
The boy instantly shook his head in denial. "No. You can tell him yourself Rin. You know that I am not going anywhere near the church."
The girl rolled her eyes in frustration. "Oh quit being such a baby. Just because your dad said…"
"That's exactly why I don't go." The boy's eyes narrowed. "My father, the Magus Killer of all people, said that the priest in the city here is extremely dangerous and is someone that I should avoid as much as possible. Sirius-jiji and Waver-nii both agreed with what dad said completely, and it isn't because the man is an executor. They know something about him that I don't, and if they say that I should stay away from him, then I'm doing just that."
Rin's eyes scanned her fellow magus carefully before relenting. "Fine. It's not like I don't blame you. Kotomine is someone that would grate on anyone's nerves and he did say that he didn't get along with your dad." She sighed and shook her head. "I'll pretend I was the one who found the dead and talk to the priest about things. In payment though, you're going on patrol with me to help out with the situation."
"What?" Shirou shouted in surprise. "Why would I do that?"
A sadistic grin made its way onto the girl's face. "Because I own you, or have you forgotten that slave?"
The sword element groaned and instantly knew that he wasn't going to win this argument. Rin never changed her mind or listened to him when she started speaking to him as if she was his master. He could only hope that things would get better for him as time went on. Technically he wasn't against them working together, in fact he was going to suggest it himself… only with them as equals, not sadistic magic powered tsundere and unfortunate sword wielding man slave…
o. o. o.
Elsewhere in Fuyuki:
A woman watched from a fair distance away as police blocked off the alleyway from the small crowd of curious locals tried to see what happened. Rumors and guesses were being tossed left and right. Some reasonable, some actually accurate, and others were simply foolish.
Deciding to actually do something productive, the individual calmly walked to the opening where everyone was gathered before altering her path and headed towards one of the police cars that was parked to the side, one where there was an individual man in blue waiting on the side lines, no doubt to keep an eye on things from another perspective.
"Excuse me officer." She spoke up, causing the man to turn and gain a full view of who was talking to him. She was clearly foreign as her eyes and height could tell anyone. Standing roughly a head taller than the average male in Japan, the long black haired woman was a knockout. She had a model's figure with curves in the right places and was dressed like a model in a fashionable but simple black corset fused with a short sleeved dress that didn't reveal too much but just enough that any man could sneak a peek and not be disappointed. Her dark skirt went just past her knees where her shiny black boots stopped going up. "I just got here and am confused." She spoke with only a hint of a European accent, fluttering her eyes in front of him almost hypnotizing. "Can you tell me what happened?"
Had the man have any resistance to magic, he would have been able to resist her charm and stick to protocol when talking to civilians, but despite being born and raised in Fuyuki city, which was one of the most magically rich places in Japan, he did not. "Erm… Yeah…" He mumbled as the subtle mind control magic took hold. "There was a murder here. 4 bodies… 3 yakuza and 1 unidentifiable."
"Can you tell me about them?" She asked in a deep and seductive tone as she walked up to him.
"The 3 were chewed up… like it was an animal attack…" The officer began to slur. "The 4th… I've been told was shredded as if he was sliced and torn to pieces. I haven't seen the bodies yet…"
"Any witnesses? Any damage to the crime scene?" She purred, appearing to anyone else as if she was flirting with him.
"One. A Yakuza with amnesia… in the precinct." The possessed man replied. "Why would there be damage to the alleyway?"
"I see." She mused, already disinterested with the man as she turned away. "That will be all then…" She didn't even disappear when another police officer shouted at the unfortunate individual.
"Oi rookie! The hell are you doing! Pay attention!" An older and clearly more short tempered man barked, snapping unwary subject out of his stupor. He had completely forgotten what or who he had just been talking to.
A short distance away, the seductive woman frowned as she walked in the opposite direction of the crime scene. She had only been in the area for a week and her familiars had already been discovered. Not only that, but since she had not established a strong connection with any of them in order to increase her intake of prana in the area, she could not detect or see who had made the discovery and how they had disposed of her toy. From what she could tell though, a magus had been the one to discover her presence if the existence of a survivor was any indication. A sloppy one at that considering he left the bodies there… but strong enough to trash a body to pieces if what the officer said was true.
The daughter of the 10th dead apostle ancestor sighed as she strutted down the city streets a bit and began to look for more possible meals. If she had been detected already, then the odds of that priest coming after her soon were pretty high. Since that was the case, she might as well build her forces while she can…
After that, she can start to really look for this brat that her father wants her to get a hold of. Shirou Emiya.
o. o. o.
Somewhere in the middle of Europe:
The man grunted to himself irritably as he walked around in the unnamed ruins of a castle in eastern Europe, careful not to miss any sign of suspicious activity or objects that could be of use. In his hands he had a device designed for searching for objects laced or forged by magic, though from the way he moved it around it could have just as easily been a metal detector or a geigercounter.
This had been the 4th site he had explored since helping his sister drag in that crazy drunk human to their father, and he still had no luck finding the artifact. He hoped that he would find it soon within the next few sites. He knew for a fact the object was in this general area, but unfortunately there were more than a few marked and unmarked possible ruins and tombs it could be in. Even more unfortunately was the fact that after the next few "safe" sites were locations under the ownership of either the association or the Church. He had some weapons from his father's collection to help him through one or two of the lower protected sites, but after that word of his presence would surely have spread to the others, making things extremely difficult from there.
He shook his head and breathed the dusty air of the castle he was in. The place would have been a decent location for an apostle's castle if it weren't for the fact that the area in general saw too much activity in general to make it practical.
Checking the time, the vampire noted that it was getting close to sunrise. He would have to go back to his hotel soon and wait for night again. He had managed to pretty much comb the entire ruins by now anyways and nothing struck him or his sensor as a magical weapon or hiding spot. Ah well. Its not like he expected it to be easy.
It's not every day a vampire manages to get their hands on a noble phantasm after all…
o. o. o.
Omake: Sirius' torture session, take 1:
"Gah! Fer ta love of all tat's filled wit decency in ta world just let me out of tis chair already!" The large man roared in pain and suffering, shifting his mighty body left and right in a desperate attempt to free himself. "Ah can't take it!"
"You do realize that all you have to do is agree to my demands and I'll release you." Louvre sighed as he walked into the room to see Sirius squirming like a small child.
"Bite me!" The bigger man hissed before trying to hop himself forward to his goal despite the fact that the chair was magically connected to the floor.
In front of the two men lay a good portion of Louvre's collection of mystic codes, conceptual weapons, and other artifacts, all perfectly organized and mounted for all to see… and Sirius had been forced to "see" for the past 6 hours, being given the ultimate museum treatment.
The vampire had to give him credit. His prisoner may be a bit dense and childish at times, but the man certainly had the stamina to match his skill and size. At first the display had actually been rather entertaining, but to see it continue after this amount of time had depressed him considerably. It was a shame that the man he was depending on to make him the ultimate weapon was such an infant at heart.
"If you have need for something important and within reason, one of my servants will attend to your needs." Louvre sighed as he walked out of the room. "Once more, once you have agreed to my demands and restrictions, you can experiment with my collection as much as you want…
Unfortunately for the noble vampire, what he heard as he exited was not exactly something he would have preferred to hear.
"Don't worry mah babies! Ah'll save ya from ta mean man. Papa will take good care o ya as soon as he gets out!"
o. o. o.
A/N:
I don't really feel confident about this chapter, but then again, I'm pulling an entire arc from my rear so meh.
Some people are going to assume that I'm OPing Shirou and that he'll be way too strong by the time the war comes along. Other than the fact that so far all he has is spamming basic sword rain and shooting sword arrows, all I have to say about that is… I thought about it, and I came up with a solution that will truly balance the board when the war gains steam… if the board doesn't shatter into tiny little shrapnel piece of pure awesome first. Honestly, I am truly scared at how the war will turn out now as things move along. It's such a simple change to the original FSN plot, but at the same time it would shatter the power base completely in how things could have been executed in the standard universe…
To put things into perspective, I am now not hesitant at all about giving Shirou the new "toys" that I'm going to give to him in this arc because of this latest decision… and I assure you people, these "Toys" I'm giving him will put him on a very, VERY high level of GAR.
As for the artifact that Louvre's son is looking for, yes, it is the Mace that was talked about as the object that he got to prepare for Barthemeloi, and even though it is never spoken about in detail, I have managed to create a believable set of powers and history for it. And it will be almost useless for Shirou in most fights for reasons the story will explain when it finally is revealed.
So that is all I have for now. Hopefully with the story picking up again I can get into the pace of things and make things a bit smoother.
Oh yeah. FATE ZERO IS FSKING AMAZING AND CARNIVAL PHANTASM IS PICKING UP AGAIN AND IS HILARIOUS! WATCH NOWWWW!
So Review! Worship the Log! Watch Berserker turn Lancer into a Noble phantasm! And Review again!
