Chapter 13: Field work
I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:
o. o. o.
Norway:
Waver sat in his apartment room lying on his bed and staring at his cell phone irritably.
It had been a couple of days since he had managed to get the 100 man army ready to take down Louvre and move everyone to the nearest city to where the vampire's supposed castle was. The air was cold. The food was mediocre at best, the board was small so many of those under his command had to share rooms which obviously didn't settle well for some of the "old bloods", and like the fool that he was, he let his guard down and assumed that things were going well for once…
And then he checked his cell for messages.
"… I knew things weren't going to be easy…" He muttered. "… But there should have been a limit to how bad this all can progress in such a short amount of time…" He sighed. "I doubt even Kiritsugu had to deal with targets on opposite ends of the planet at once before…" A knock at the door broke him out of his musings. None of the bounded fields he set up in the area were triggered so it was probably the person he sent for. "It's open." He spoke loud enough for the person on the other side to hear.
The door opened to let in Bazett who looked at him curiously. "You wanted to see me Lord El-Melloi?"
"Forget the formal crap Baz." The lord sighed. "I'm not in the mood to deal with formalities right now…"
The Fraga frowned and pouted. She had been getting over Sirius' kidnapping for a while, but she still didn't fare well with additional stress at the moment. "Fine then Waver, what do you want? I hope you aren't going to try and flirt with me the few days before we storm the castle because it won't work."
The man snorted. "You'd break me in half anyways…" He sighed, knowing that he was likely going to get punched across town if he didn't deliver his news right. "… Besides… you're not joining us in raiding Louvre's castle…"
The room was dead quiet for several seconds. "Care to say that again my lord?" The enforcer asked in a dangerously calm tone.
Waver sat up and looked at the girl apologetically. "I've just made the call. You're getting on a flight at 8 tomorrow morning heading to Japan. Once there you're to take the valet that's waiting for you and go to your main assignment."
"And what… dare I ask, is in Japan that is related to our current objective?" The purple haired woman continued to speak in a borderline murderous tone.
The lord shook his head and took out his cell phone, pressed the button that would make it go on speaker, and then played the message so that the girl could hear.
"Waver-nii. It's Shirou. I think we might have a lead to who took the old man. Problem is that I think they're after me too and I just pissed them off with one of my arrows. I don't know how much longer it will take for them to come after me for real again. Get back to me as soon as you can. I don't know how far my luck can take me the next time. Hope to talk to you soon…"
"You see our problem now?" Waver asked with a dark tone.
Bazett grit her teeth. "You can't… I mean… why not someone…"
"Else?" The elder finished her sentence. "Come on. You know why I can't trust anyone else to help him out. Not after they learn who his father is…"
"But that's no reason for you to just dump me on him when we're so close to the castle!" She argued. "I'm one of the strongest fighters here! I know we both like him, but we can't sacrifice our odds just for some kid!"
"I have 99 other men to pick up the slack." Waver countered as he sat up and leaned towards her darkly. "Unfortunately Shirou isn't just some boy, and there is another reason why I am sending you." He looked at her dead in the eyes. "How do you think the magus killer managed to take out so many of his targets so efficiently? Surely you don't think he could have dealt with all of those magi relying on just guns, explosives, poison and experience do you? Other than his mind, he must have had something else… something special…"
Bazett frowned for several seconds before the answer formed in her mind. "… A mystic code…" She whispered in realization.
Waver nodded. "And one of the most dangerous ones that Sirius has ever made. The only people who know how it works and its true potential are the boy, me and Sirius, bus should Louvre manage to get inside the old man's head he'll find out about it and go straight for it. Shirou knows where it is but he will never use it. It's not his kind of weapon… however if Louvre were to ever find out about its existence the consequences would be catastrophic." Waver looked down with a tired expression on his face. "In addition to that particular tool, there is another weapon in the Emiya home that must be kept away from Louvre at all times as well that you need to be responsible for."
Bazett stood still as she repeatedly went over the information she had learned in her head. The code of the magus killer… if such a weapon existed and was as dangerous as Waver claimed… then it was no wonder he was trusting her with this job. And yet… there was another weapon that needed to be guarded with equal scrutiny as well? "… Go on." She said in a calm and controlled tone.
The lord sighed. "Kiritsugu designed a set of weapons when he died for Shirou to have which the old man made. Sirius and I gave them to him along with some other things in a box that wasn't to open for another year thanks to a spell of my design, however with the current situation I don't think we will have that time." He looked at the woman with cold eyes. "Should you arrive and see that the situation has regressed to a point where it is getting unlikely that you will be able to manage yourselves, I want you to get Shirou to show you where he hid the box and open it. Once Shirou has managed to show that he can trace all of them perfectly, destroy them such that not even the dust can be used."
The enforcer blinked in surprise. "Are they that dangerous? I mean if we can just hide them…"
"We can't risk it." Waver interrupted. "Absolutely out of the question. I'd rather fight the white princess herself by myself than leave those tools somewhere where an idiot can grab hold of them."
Bazett swallowed heavily as she began to understand how truly severe the situation really was. "What… what does Shirou need them for? I mean… he's just the kid of a guy you knew isn't he? He's a bit different and special, but…"
The lord remained quiet for a while. "That… is on a need to know basis." He replied with a hint of fear. "But rest assured when I say it is not against the interests of the association in the slightest." He put his head in his hands. "I need you to trust me on this Baz. You're the only one I can trust with this. You and your noble phantasm…"
The young woman looked down on her friend and boss with a stern expression. "… If this is all for nothing… I'm not going to let you live this down… you know this right?"
Waver chuckled dryly. "If he isn't in either location, the Queen will kill me… so unfortunately you're just going to have to settle for my corpse if I'm wrong." He shook his head. "Ah… such is the life of a magus. Death at every turn…" It really was a pathetic excuse for his current actions, however nothing else seemed to fit his current situation more perfectly at the moment. Reaching into his dark red coat, he took out a piece of paper and handed it to the girl. "Written here are the addresses for where you need to go, where you will be staying, and above all else, the verbal password to unlock the box. Don't forget any of them."
Bazett nodded and took the paper before turning to leave the room. "You owe me for this one Waver." She honestly didn't know what to think of the situation. On the one hand she was being left out of a dead apostle ancestor hunt, which would have done wonders for her resume for future battles. On the other hand, if Waver's intuition was right, then not only was she going to fight the vampire anyways, but she would be doing so with only Shirou at her back against the monster with the assumption that whatever Sirius made for him would be enough to hopefully turn the tables.
Groaning to herself the woman walked to her room to pack her things, ignoring the other enforcers that she passed on the way there and began to memorize the paper. "Huh? What kind of password is this?"
o. o. o.
Japan:
"I really don't see why I can't cook…" Shirou muttered as he sat in his living room sulking and glancing at the opening to the kitchen every few seconds.
"Your body is still recovering from the attack Sempai." Sakura apologized as she looked at the boy covered in random patches and bandages.
When Shirou made the "soothing" breakfast for himself the morning after the vampire fight, he had accidentally overstrained his previously pushed to the limit muscles despite the brief healing he had given himself minutes prior. This resulted in a cramp that possessed his entire person when he sat down to eat. It was apparently so bad he couldn't even finish a third of his meal before admitting that he needed help.
Because of that, Sakura and Rin had been alternating cooking duties. Both had initially attempted to claim monopoly over all the meals in the home while they were there, but Shirou and Taiga managed to get them to settle for alternating meals. Much to the surprise of Shirou, Taiga, and Sakura… Rin happened to be a very good chef.
"Lunch will be out soon!" Rin called from the kitchen in a happy tone.
"Can I at least clean the dishes this time?" Shirou asked while sulking like a child. Cleaning and cooking a meal were very soothing for him… and with the current situation he was in he really needed something to calm his mind down before he'd lose it.
"No means no Sempai." Sakura frowned, crossing her arms and scolding him despite the fact that she was younger than he was. "We don't want you to hurt yourself again."
The male looked at his friend surprised before chuckling in defeat. "Heh. Fine. You win." He winced as his ribs moved, still not fully healed. "At least you're back to normal…"
The girl tilted her head to the side confused. "Back to normal? What do you mean Sempai?"
Shirou leaned back and let out a breath of air slowly in response to his aching muscles. "I mean you seemed a bit jitterish lately… I mean with the vampires and everything. And I kinda did force you to sleep over here… then when Tohsaka suddenly stayed over…" He laughed dryly. "I'd be just as jumpy as you I guess if I didn't feel so tired…"
Sakura looked away momentarily before responding. "Yeah… I really don't know how to handle knowing that vampires are around now… plus my abilities are pretty much useless for combat… unlike you and Tohsaka-sempai…"
Something in her voice hinted that she was really thinking about something else, but Shirou didn't push things. Things were tense enough that he didn't want to make things worse right now. "Hey don't worry yourself." He smiled gently. "I focused most of my training in combat based magic, and Tohsaka…" He paused. "Well…"
"Lunch is ready!" Rin announced happily as she came out of the kitchen with various dishes that she produced from the boy's stock. As expected, it all looked and smelled delicious.
"She's just good at things." The boy concluded reluctantly.
Rin's smile was tinged with a small blush as she put everything down. "I think I know why you like to cook for others so much Emiya-kun. It's nice to be appreciated for doing things well…" A small scowl donned her face. "The only other person I've ever cooked for is that damned priest, and I don't want anything to do with what goes in or out of his mouth…"
"I figured…" Shirou winced as he attempted to serve himself. The pain was so great that appeared to slow down dramatically at some point…
"Sempai, let me help you with that…" Sakura stepped forward to help out the boy and took the plate from his hands and began to fill his plate with moderate amounts of the dish, pretending to ignore the slightly irritated look Rin was giving her with her puffed out cheeks and narrowed eyes… until she noticed Shirou was still partially stretched over the table and moving slowly. "Sempai? Are you ok?"
Rin noticed what Sakura was concerned about and looked about the boy curiously… and then analytically as she saw his movements. He was slowly retracting his body, but his face was scrunched up in concentration. "Emiya-kun?" She spoke up and leaned forward. "Is something the matter?"
"Something's wrong…" Sakura put down the plate and grabbed his shoulders to inspect his person. "His body is tensed up and there's something slowing down his body from the inside… an innate bounded field? No one's in here but us…"
Rin watched Shirou with scrutiny as he slowly made a face that a person normally made when they were caught doing something and began to swear slowly. "Apparently this isn't the first time this has happened…" She sighed and leaned back looking at the boy analytically. "The best thing we can do right now is wait for it to wear off…" She began to serve herself some of the food and began to eat slowly as she stared at him with sharp eyes. "… If I were to take an educated guess, I think it has to do with our fight with the vampire…"
Sakura's eyes widened. "Did she do something to Sempai?"
Rin shook her head. "No. He has a tiny crest on his chest from his dad. He mentioned that it has something to do with time manipulation… he showed as much when he pushed back the bitch. I guess he must have done too much and is suffering from some kind of aftereffect…" She took a few more bites before continuing. "The weird thing was that he was applying it to his projections, so if there were any aftereffects, then they should have only been on his weapons not on himself." She put her hand to her mouth, a habit she did when she was thinking or contemplating something. "I think it's something we'd have to look more into when all this is over… but if it doesn't go away before we're attacked again it may prove to be a lethal handicap." She looked at Sakura. "Do you happen to know anything about this?"
The youngest there looked away guilty. "I… only know he's good at projection and reinforcement, and that's only from watching him take down those undead. Sempai and I knew that the other was a magus, but we pretended that wasn't the case since we didn't want to change the way things were between us…" She paused for a moment before her eyes widened. "W-wait… he has a crest from his father? But he's…"
"Adopted. I know." Rin grunted tiredly. "Don't remind me about how many things could have and should have gone wrong with that. Somehow it worked with him. Don't ask me how."
He's like me… The purple haired girl thought as she looked at Shirou, who was slowly alternating between the two as they talked, obviously looking like he was following the conversation. "Sempai. Can you understand what we're saying?"
Shirou looked at Sakura curiously before tilting his head to the side confused, pretty much answering the question.
"Well that makes things easier for us." Rin mused as she ate another bite of food without much manners, elbows on the table and a bored look in her eyes. "Hey Shirou, Sakura likes you."
The younger girl's face blushed deep red before looking at the redheaded boy nervously. "W-What?" She shouted in a high pitched tone. "Why would you do something like…"
"He can't understand us." Rin grinned mischievously. "It's actually kinda fun." She turned to Shirou again. "Hey 2nd rate, I forgot to clean your dishes the last meal I cleaned before putting them away."
Sakura gasped, acting as if what Rin just said was just as bad as her revelation of her feelings for the Emiya. "Y-you didn't! Did you?"
"Does it matter?" Rin raised an eyebrow. "Go on. Try it."
"Em…" Sakura mumbled, not sure what to say. "I… Sometimes I take some of the good ingredients from your fridge when you're not looking to make dinner…"
The Tohsaka rolled her eyes. "Come on Sakura, that was lame. Hey Shirou, I accidentally came across that pathetic excuse for a porn collection of yours when I was scouting your home for any mystical artifacts. Your taste stinks." She looked at Sakura who was gaping at her. "What? You look like you never knew that boys had those things at our age before."
"I… that is…" She looked around frantically before dropping her head. "Well… I've seen them too…"
Rin blinked before snickering. "Really? Honestly he has some weird tastes right? I mean those things were old and…"
"They were my brother's…" She mumbled ashamed, causing Rin to laugh even harder. "He forced them onto sempai a year ago as a joke and bragged about it to me…" She looked at the boy there with a resolute expression. If Rin was going to humiliate her, she would just return the favor. "… I saw Tohsaka-sempai staring at you like you were a piece of meat when you were changing yesterday…"
Rin coughed as her mirth turned to shock. "Wh-what?" She stammered with a faint blush on her face. "Th-that's not true! Where were… how did… it's a lie!"
"It was when he was meditating and came back from the dojo." Sakura stared at her sister with seemingly all knowing eyes. "He took off his top when he was going to his room and I saw you practically undressing the rest of him with your eyes Sempai…"
"I… that is…" Rin faltered before blushing and turning away. "Well what do you expect? I mean he's an idiot but he is good looking…" She paused. "Wait, how would you know that I was looking unless…" A small grin made its way on her face. "You were watching too…"
"So what if I was?" Sakura crossed her arms, surprising Rin with her blunt response. "I've seen Sempai without his shirt occasionally since he sleeps in sometimes and I have to wake him up. I already knew what he looked like. I've never practically undressed him with my eyes like you did though."
The elder female flinched. "Tch… damn…" She muttered, assuming that she could steer the conversation away from herself. In frustration she threw her hands into the air. "Ok! I admit it! He's kinda cute! Sometimes I consider asking… or forcing him out with me… but then he says something stupid and then I get pissed off! Happy?" She breathed heavily before looking at Sakura and realizing what she just claimed. "… Oh… right…" She groaned. Sakura liked him too… and so once more the two girls were stuck in a situation where only one would be happy while the other would be left alone…
"It's ok…" Sakura mumbled as she looked down and to the side. "I'm used to it…"
A massive lance of guilt pierced through Rin's chest and for good reason. Sakura… her sister in blood… was practically sold off to the Matou family when they were kids. She never knew what exactly Zouken did to her for her "training"… but she knew enough to occasionally thank and curse the root that she was the elder of the two and thus not chosen instead. However Rin would not let it show… much anyways. She was a Tohsaka and she would carry herself as one. "Humph… well that's no fun. I expected you to actually put up a fight for once since you have a better chance to win than I do…"
"That's not true." The younger argued. "My body is tainted and impure! If he ever found out…"
"He already does." Rin interrupted before the girl could continue and glanced at the still slowed down Emiya. "He's a hack when it comes to most spells, but his structural grasping ability is on a level that books can only theorize if they've even gotten that far. Even if it was by accident, he already knows that your grandfather's familiars are inside your body… although he doesn't know exactly what they are yet. Structural grasping the undead we've been fighting makes him sick… but he claims looking at Zouken makes him want to throw up unconditionally… not that I blame him when I remember the conversations I've had with that old demon." She sighed and began to eat again as if nothing was wrong. "Still despite that, he wants to spend time with you and keep you away from the Matou household. It's stupid and bound to cause problems eventually for everyone, but he's still doing it… I'm almost jealous."
"N… Sempai…" Sakura stumbled over her words as she stared at Rin disbelievingly… but then was distracted as a gasp for air distracted the two girls instantly so they could focus on Shirou again. "Sempai!" She squeaked in surprise as Shirou almost collapsed onto the table breathing heavily.
"About time you got back to normal." Rin snorted, pretending as if the past 10 minutes didn't happen. "Care to explain what happened? It had something to do with your crest didn't it?"
Shriou didn't respond immediately as his gasps for air continued for a few more seconds. "When I overuse it or push too far…" He breathed out. "… My perception of time occasionally speeds up or slows down for a while. It goes on for a few days after I use the magic." He cringed as his body's physical pains compounded on itself as his mind caught up to its current condition. "My body doesn't change though… so it's like I'm trapped in it without being able to control what it does completely…"
Rin looked at him analytically for a few seconds before sighing and walking to the other side of the table so that she was next to him and forced him to sit up straight, causing him to yell in pain.
"Sempai? What are you doing?" Sakura yelped in surprise and worry as she held Shirou's body to prevent him from being moved suddenly again.
Rin responded by picking up some food with her chopsticks and holding it up in front of the boy's surprised face. "You're in such crappy shape right now that you obviously can't feed yourself." She puffed out her cheeks. "Like it or not, you're the strongest one here. If you're in bad shape, all of us are in trouble and I don't want to call on the priest for help. Don't get the wrong idea or anything Emiya-kun…"
"Now wait a momuphmupha" Shirou opened his mouth to protest but was interrupted as Rin took the initiative and stuffed the dumpling into his mouth.
"Stop complaining. If we left eating to you the meal would be rotting by the time you finished." The brunette stated in a matter of fact tone. "You wasted enough time with that stupid feedback of yours… no pun intended. If you want me to actually get to healing your wounds today let me… feed you…" She looked away with a slight blush before beginning to feed herself on instinct, seemingly unaware that she was using the same chopsticks that she had used to feed Shirou much to the other two's shock.
"D-did she just…?" Shirou blinked in disbelief.
"I… she…" Sakura was at a greater loss of words than Shirou was.
"Huh?" Rin blinked as she noticed the two staring at her bewildered. "What? What did I do?"
"The… chopsticks…" Sakura pointed out slowly. "You fed Sempai… and then…"
"And then…" Rin looked down at the cheap sticks in her hand, then at Shirou… then back to her hand… then at her food… and then apparently managed to put 2 and 2 together as her face rather quickly turned beet red and turned back to the two staring at her. Eating from the same pair of chopsticks or drinking from the same cup or can of soda was a very intimate thing to do between 2 people, especially in Eastern cultures. It was a bit less meaningful in the western cultures, but even there it still held some significance. "I… that… I didn't mean to…" She spoke in half sentences as her brain was overloaded by embarrassment before pointing at Shirou accusingly. "I didn't do it on purpose you idiots! You two should know better than that by now!"
"Ok! Ok! I get it!" Shirou retreated from the girl sitting next to him and back into Sakura. "It was an accident! No need to kill me!"
"… I think it's better if I feed you Sempai…" Sakura spoke up with a not so subtle blush on her cheeks. "I mean… Tohsaka-sempai is too rough when it comes to this kind of thing. She might accidentally choke you or embarrass herself again and take it out on you…"
"What do you mean by again?" Rin shouted in defiance, her state of embarrassment still not gone. "I am not clumsy!"
"Um… You kind of are." Shirou pointed out. "More than half the times I was injured were because you forgot to do something at the last moment when you were testing something out." He looked up and began to search his memories for such examples. "Let's see… there was the time you began to make mechanical familiars… and then there was the time you attempted to mimic tracing… and there were the few weeks you were trying to fine tune your element manifestation control and tried to show off… I still have some nice marks from when…"
"That's unfair!" Rin pointed at the boy, all self control lost as she panicked like a small child. "You make it sound like I was responsible for everything bad in your life! I didn't… I didn't..." She frantically tried to think of an example that didn't put her in a bad light before looking at the boy's left arm. "I… didn't cut off your arm! Hah!" She claimed in success.
"So it was cut off!" Sakura stated accusingly as she glared at Shirou.
"What did you expect me to say?" Shirou exclaimed. "Fuji-nee was around at the time and we didn't want to admit that the other was a magus!"
"Let me guess." Rin smirked, glad that the attention had shifted from her to Shirou. "You were sword fighting some other idiot and he cut off your arm."
The boy frowned and puffed out his chest. "For your information I was making a new spell and it acted in a way that I didn't expect, and so my arm was cut off."
"Cutting your own arm off isn't something to be proud of Sempai…" Sakura mumbled somewhat embarrassed and causing Shirou to deflate instantly.
Rin blinked. "You were actually making a new spell? That's new. Normally you just focus on reinforcement, projection, and alteration."
"It's a variation of my projection and alteration." The boy relented. "Unfortunately I didn't take some things into account when I first tried it and I ended up losing my arm." He lifted it up and moved around slowly. "It got healed since I was supervised at the time, but I'm not going to try it again until I've done more research…" Slowly he reached for his cup and drank some of the water in it. "Unless either one of you know how to keep an object fixated in terms of the G.E.O. coordinate system regardless of planetary motion in the universe such that until removed it will remain as a physical constant in said system, I'm going to ask you two to not to not ask what it is…"
"Keeping an object isolated in terms of G.E.O.… you mean longitude, latitude and altitude, right?" Rin blinked. "Why the heck do you need to…" She was interrupted as a loud gurgling sound distracted everyone, causing them to look at Sakura's stomach.
"I… had a small lunch…" She mumbled, embarrassed.
The room was quiet for a few moments before Rin sighed and began to eat again. "Screw it. We can talk about magic and mess with the other's heads after we eat while healing Shirou."
"I think that's a good idea…" Sakura agreed as she picked up Shirou's food with his chopsticks and carefully put it near his mouth. "Eat up Sempai. You know how much healing magic exhausts the person getting healed…"
"Uh…" Shirou nervously looked between Sakura, the food she was holding, and the seemingly indifferent Rin multiple times before letting his own hunger get the better of him. "R-right… thanks Sakura…" He smiled sheepishly before leaning forward and eating the food in front of him. He wouldn't admit it, but he doubted he would be able to eat a full meal in his current condition without stopping because of how much moving hurt his upper body at the moment.
The meal was quiet and peaceful, however Shirou couldn't help but feel an underlying tension during the entire thing… especially when Sakura fed him for some reason…
o. o. o.
Several hours later Shirou was sitting on his porch with a cup of tea while Rin and Sakura stood in his back yard looking at him curiously. Rin had managed to heal his body to the point where he would be almost completely normal by the following evening, but at the moment he was fairly tired and still wouldn't be of much help in a fight.
"So since we're finally done, can you please finally explain some things for me?" Rin crossed her arms. "I know your projection ability is miles ahead of anyone else's but what you did last night was putting things to a whole new level."
Sakura looked at Rin curiously. "What did sempai do that was so special? It's just projection…"
Rin's eyes narrowed. "He recreated a sword that was a mystic code, one that was made to amplify the ether element. He shot it off like an arrow while simultaneously pumping full of mana and blasted the vampire away as if it was nothing. Neither his origin nor his element are ether, so there's no way he should have made such a powerful mystery so easily…"
Shirou sighed. "It's not that hard to understand Tohsaka. Because of my origin I can not only project weapons physically with unnatural accuracy, but their abilities too. I just never bothered to tell you… for example…" He closed his mind and delved deep into his library of weapons to search for the best example he could think of. To his minor disappointment, it would be of significantly lower quality than he expected due to the fact that it didn't have any aspect that could be considered "sword", but it would serve its purpose. "Trace… on…" He mumbled before a large thick whip materialized on his lap… one that Rin recognized instantly.
"That… that's…" She gaped as she saw the weapon that nearly killed her 2 nights prior.
"It's the weapon the vampire was using against us. Yes." Shirou nodded as he grabbed the handle with his free hand and allowed the memories of the tool to enter him. Once more the quality of the download was not up to his standard, but it would suffice as he casually flicked out his arm while channeling some prana into the tool, making it crack at the ground to his side and making a small crater in his yard much to Sakura's surprise. "Power and all… though not quite on the same level as the original…"
"Amazing…" Sakura said to herself in awe. "Sempai is so talented…"
"It's the only thing I can do well to be honest…" The boy shrugged. "I'm at best average at most standard thaumaturgy."
"So does this mean that in theory you could copy something like a noble phantasm?" Rin asked Shirou with a sharp eye.
The faker looked back at her casually and yawned. "Who knows? I've never had a chance to copy a weapon on that level before. It's not like they display those things in museums." Oh how he was glad he practiced twisting words around with Waver in England. It was one of the most annoying and beautiful things about speaking in English. There were just so many ways to say the same thing in that language while circumventing facts. He used his experience in the other language to help twist his native one. Avalon was not a weapon, but a shield and a holster for a weapon… as such he had technically spoken the truth.
"Come on!" Rin yelled out frustrated, clearly not happy with the boy's statement. "There has to be some kind of special weapon that you have in that dense skull of yours! You have those basic element swords, but are you really saying that you don't have anything stronger? Something that you can practice with to push yourself?"
Shirou glared at the girl. "And if I did? Why would I show it to you? I do want to keep some secrets to myself you know." He shook his head. "Regardless… I don't have anything monumental or significant to use against that ancestor. In terms of pure firepower you still have me beat. The best I can do is catch her off guard from a distance and hit her with my bow."
Rin rolled her eyes. "Right. Your bow. Let me guess, you can pick her off from a mile away with a flaming sword."
The more experienced of the two frowned. "No. At best I could hit her from 3/4ths of a mile away with a flaming sword, but even then I'd chose to use a wind element one for precision and piercing power so that she wouldn't see it as easily."
Both girls stared at him for a moment before looking at one another owlishly. "… You know what? I'm just going to assume you have all long ranged stuff covered." The elder of the 2 shook her head frustrated. "Since she hasn't attacked us yet, it means she's still recovering. If she's still recovering, she probably isn't that strong. If she isn't that strong, then a pierced chest or blown off head can most likely kill her unlike some of the stronger apostles out there."
"We still have to worry about the undead." Shirou pointed out. "They're normally what apostles use to gather energy for themselves. If she's badly wounded, odds are she's going to go on a feeding spree in order to recover…"
Rin smirked. "Oh I wouldn't worry about that. If she wanted to do that, she'd have to do that in the city for the most efficiency, and that's the priest's territory. He may be an ass, but he'll at least do his job and keep their numbers down and stall her recovery." She crossed her arms. "In the mean time, I think it's best if we prepare for a worst case scenario."
"Which is?" Sakura asked, unsure if she wanted to hear of what could happen.
Rin held out her fingers and began to tick off her cases one by one. "The bitch gets backup from her boss. She recovers faster than expected. She has a weapon that is more dangerous than what she had used on us before. And worst of all she goes on a blood sucking rampage and risks exposing our world to the rest of the world."
"It would be good if none of those happened…" Shirou admitted as he drank more tea. "But odds aren't likely. Best we can do for tonight is set up precautions for the undead familiars… that would at least delay 2 of those things from happening."
"Easier said than done." Rin sighed. "Setting something up that targets familiars only without harming normal people without their notice isn't exactly easy you know…"
"Um…" Sakura spoke up. "I think I can help with that… sort of…"
Shirou looked at the girl curiously. "You can?" He repeated curiously. "How?"
The girl looked away, as if ashamed of the way she would participate. "The Matou magic… is the binding of others onto oneself, similar to the concept of absorption. It's rather effective against magical constructs and objects that are fueled by mana."
"Of course… why didn't I think of that before?" Rin verbally berated herself. "If we can set up bounded fields around town that use your magic to drain the zombies as traps…"
"We can effectively kill off the vampire's forces without getting our hands dirty or wasting energy over a wider area." Shirou nodded in approval. "The zombies would just drop dead in the middle of the street." He looked at the youngest one there and smiled. "That's a really interesting and convenient power you have Sakura. I'm really impressed."
"I'll need help though…" Sakura nervously stated. "I'm not very good at making bounded fields and producing long lasting thaumaturgy… in the end by the time we finish thinking of a solid field it might be too late."
"I'll be the final judge on that." The Tohsaka declared as she walked forward and grabbed Sakura's wrist. "If I can teach swords for brains over there how to fine tune his magic, I can teach you how to adapt your magic to fit a bounded field. Besides, Shirou's useless right now…"
"I'm right here you know." The Faker sulked.
"… So you'll have to work with me regardless." Rin continued as if Shirou wasn't there as she dragged the confused girl away. "Come on. We'll start off in the middle of the area and hit the ground running. Establishing a conceptual effect on someone else's field is pretty easy if the field maker is working with you. Also we have to determine where the energy taken will go. Odds are we'll just route the energies into one of the nearby leylines in the area which will…"
Shirou watched somewhat amused as the 2 girls disappeared around his home, no doubt to experiment on the roads. He was a bit relieved to see them getting along with one another finally. When the 2 girls were near one another he always felt some underlying tension between them for some reason. He assumed that it was because they were both magi… but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else to it.
Shaking his head in resignation, he decided to put away that thought for now. There wasn't any benefit to mulling over it at the moment anyways. Reaching to scratch an itch on his chest, he realized that he was still holding the projected whip.
Analyzing the weapon again, the boy realized just how valuable and lethal the weapon in his possession was. Even downgraded it was still of extremely high quality, much higher than most of the objects he had stored in his memory. The fibers were constructed out of the hairs of a powerful subterranean phantasmal beast, which explains why there was a strong earth based mass manipulation spell engraved in it. It was seemingly simple in concept, but very complicated in execution due to the nature of how a whip was used, ensuring that it was strong yet unnaturally flexible at the same time… in fact… the spell was so simple in execution that it resembled the earth element enhanced sword he normally used as arrows… but stronger… In fact…
Without even looking, Shirou lifted his free hand and projected the dull brown weapon into his hands. "Trace, on. Hypothesizing and theorizing manufacturing processes. Comparing… Contrasting… Confirming similar traits and making. Editing blueprints to increase efficiency… Refining concepts…"
o. o. o.
Matou Residence:
"Damn it!" Shinji yelled as he stomped around the house bored, irritated, and hungry. "Where the hell is Sakura? I'm starving! That lazy good for nothing idiot is never around when you need her!"
"I believe you let the world know several times already Shinji." The raspy voice of Zouken stated in a tired tone from a hallway behind the boy, making him jump in surprise. "Unless you are trying to do something with all that yelling though, I would have to ask you to stop. Those uncouth loud noises are not making my ears any sharper."
"G-grandfather!" Shinji squeaked in shock and fear. The boy may not have been a magus and fully aware of how dangerous the man may be, but he knew enough to watch his tongue around him regardless. Everyone in the family feared Zouken Matou and the smart ones didn't never went out of their way to out why. "I-I was just wondering where Sakura was. That's all. She hasn't been here in a couple of days and we're running out of food…"
"So get some yourself you foolish boy." Zouken sighed and shook his head. "Sakura has been at one of her classmate's home for a few days, and she'll be a few more before she returns." He turned to walk down to his basement again. "Honestly. Has the Matou fallen so far as to become incapable of even feeding themselves without someone to hold their hand? It is a miracle I got my hands on the girl when I did…"
Shinji stood there in silent shock and rage as he listened to the old man's silent footsteps echo down the stairs. How? How was it that he, the old man's descendent by blood, was looked over for some weak minded slut? Sister? Hah! Don't make him laugh! He knew the truth! She was merely thrown away and his family was generous enough to pick her up like the trash she was! So what if he didn't have any magic circuits and she did? He was a Matou while she was just some tool to ensure that the family still had power!
"You withered old geezer…" Shinji hissed under his breath as he went to grab his coat. "Can't feed myself? Honestly. Who the hell does he think he is?" He walked to the front door and opened it. He had completely forgotten, or rather completely ignored the fact that there were many disappearances occurring around the city lately. He had brushed off the fact that it was currently close to dark…
And he had absolutely missed the small smirk his grandfather had on his face as he turned away to walk down the stairs before he left…
o. o. o.
Norway:
Waver panted heavily as he ran from the castle as quickly as he could. The sun was setting over the mountains giving the sky a dull red appearance… a fitting scene for his current situation. Despite the fact that he was not a magi that focused on the application of magic like enforcers, he still managed to keep up with the remnants of his forces as they bolted past the trees in the forest at inhuman rates. Still… if their opponent was truly after them it would not take long to reduce their already miniscule number even further…
Impossible. Out of a force of 100 magi including himself, only a fraction remained alive and a fraction of that managed to escape without getting captured. From what he saw, only around a dozen or so fighters were running with him…
And to think that Louvre was supposed to be the weakest of the current dead apostle ancestors…
"What the hell was that thing?" Shouted one of the enforcers as they passed by Waver. "I've never seen or heard of a code like that in my life!"
"It wasn't a code!" Waver shouted, repeating the same thing he screamed at the top of his lungs before sounding a retreat. "That was a root be damned noble phantasm!"
"A noble phantasm?" The man shouted in disbelief. Waver got a good look at him. His right arm looked like it had been shattered in multiple places and he was holding his right side in a way that indicated several broken ribs as well… yet there was not a scratch or a drop of blood on him. "No one mentioned that he had something like that!"
"I noticed!" Waver snapped. "He must have gotten it recently! That's the only reason why I wouldn't have read it in the files I got before starting the damned operation." His mind flashed back to not even an hour ago when he watched his forces get butchered by a single vampire wielding that terrifying mace.
"What was that thing doing to us my lord?" Asked a woman armed with a broken code that looked like a gun but with no mechanical parts. "It destroyed everything it hit without discrimination without harming the outside! Not even our magic could slow it down!"
Waver bit his lip and frowned. He could only partially answer this question at the moment due to the fact that he had studied Shirou's structural grasping technique a fair amount when he first learned of it. His studious habits enabled him to become far more adapt at the skill than a vast majority of magi in the association, but it was still nowhere near the level that Sirius and Shirou could naturally reach. As such he had managed to grasp only a few key aspects of the tool before he ran like hell. "Its damage is dealt similar to a conceptual weapons', focusing on internal damage and bypassing outer machinations completely… though what truly is frightening is not the power each blow has… it's that it deals internal damage to all things… magic included…"
The enforcers listening to him shivered as they slowly realized what their leader was saying. "Conceptual damage to the internal workings of anything… that means…"
"Yes." Waver nodded. "It can destroy the structure and foundation of any magic it physically comes across once activated. In short there is nothing that can be used to defend against it short of a massive steel wall…"
"And a weapon like that is in the hands of a dead apostle ancestor…" Another male enforcer lamented. "This doesn't bode well for anyone. Combining his inhuman speed and strength with such a power… he is near unstoppable…"
"Not exactly." Waver commented, gaining the attention of his followers. "There are conditions that need to be met to use that noble phantasm's power…" He grit his teeth. "Unfortunately I'm not capable enough in that branch of structural grasping to determine what they were… only the fact that there were 2 of them…"
"Structural grasping? Could something as useless as that truly give you that information?" The female enforcer from before asked curiously.
Waver nodded. "Yes… however it is a very unique variation that requires a magus naturally in tune with magic that focuses in that branch of thaumaturgy in the first place. To my knowledge… only 2 magi are proficient enough in it to get all of the secrets out of that weapon… and one of them is McGinty…"
"Shit!" Swore one of the enforcers behind Waver, pretty much voicing what everyone else was thinking. "Who's the other guy?"
The lord swore under his breath in irritation, knowing he had to give some sort of response. Perhaps it was the frustration that made him utter his next few words, perhaps it was something he truly believed… but regardless the following 4 words that came out of his mouth would be echoed for years to come...
o. o. o.
Japan
Shirou sneezed.
"Are you ok Sempai?" Sakura asked curiously. "You've been doing that a lot lately. Are you sure you aren't sick?"
"That's a surprise." Rin chuckled. "I thought fools couldn't catch colds."
"Very funny." Shirou grunted as he wiped his nose. "It's true that I've never gotten sick before, but not because of something stupid like that…" He sniffed before looking around at the intersection in front of him. It was 2 days after Rin and Sakura had begun experimenting with their new bounded fields and he would be the first to admit that the 2 girls worked fast. Lying on the streets in front of him were roughly a dozen corpses completely drained of mana and as threatening as a blade of grass. He could tell that the invisible field covered the entirety of the intersection… hell he could practically outline it from where the bodies dropped on the edge. On one hand, he was extremely pleased that the field worked so well, on the other…
"You noticed it too…" Rin stated in a grim tone as she noticed Shirou's calm face.
"Noticed what?" Sakura asked curiously. "What's wrong? The field is working perfectly."
"Yeah it is…" Shirou nodded. "But look at how many undead we have here after only half a night. This is a major intersection but we have almost 25 undead here…"
"The vampire is getting reckless, sending so many of its familiars through such a populated area without care of trying to hide them." Rin continued through grit teeth. "If this keeps up we're all going to be in deep crap if not with the undead than with the association. What the hell is that stupid priest doing?"
"Beats me. I'm not his babysitter." The redhead shrugged. "Are there any other fields nearby that you guys set up?"
Sakura nodded. "Yeah. We set up another one by the park near the river. It seemed like a good place to put it."
"Let's go check it out." Rin grunted, clearly not in the best of moods at the moment. "Hopefully there'll be more of those bastards drained at that field. Then we know at least that we can limit her recovery and intake of mana… damn it… the one time I wished that this place WASN'T one of the most naturally rich places of mana on the planet…"
"Yeah…" Shirou nodded. "I know what you mean. Even if the vampire didn't have any familiars, she'd still recover from most wounds pretty quickly here…"
"Should we be out then?" Sakura looked around nervously. "If she's recovered, I might be holding you back…"
Rin smirked and flipped her hair. "Don't worry. I have several jewels with me this time and the bitch lost her favorite weapon. After what we've seen before, I'm fairly confident that Shirou and I can take her on without much issue."
"Why do I have a feeling you just signed my death warrant?" The boy asked while experiencing a massive shiver down his spine.
"Oh stop being such a coward." The Tohsaka brushed away his concern for his health like it didn't matter and walked down the street to the park. "Come on already and keep your senses up. I don't need to tell you that we're screwed if the bitch gets the jump on us."
"Yes mistress." Shirou sighed sarcastically as he followed the girl reluctantly with his hands in his pockets.
Sakura remained quiet for a few moments before turning to Shirou. "Um sempai… I have a question…" She spoke quietly.
The boy looked at his friend confused before shrugging. "Go ahead and ask me anything Sakura. What do you want to know?"
The girl looked down a bit before glancing at her sister a bit of a ways ahead of them. "What… what do you think of Tohsaka-sempai?"
"Huh?" Shirou blinked. "What do I think of Tohsaka? Why do you want to know that?"
"I… I'm just curious." She feebly explained. "I haven't talked to her much but it looks like all she does is boss you around. Why do you spend so much time with her if she's so mean?"
Other than the fact that she's blackmailing me with my life? The boy sarcastically thought, but didn't say on the chance that said blackmailer was secretly listening in on their conversation. "Well…" He started slowly. "She's not ALL bad… I mean she fakes her outer personality during school when she's really an impatient slacker that screws things up a lot when the time counts. She's egotistical, rude, and has no reservations at making comments that really shouldn't be said…" He was so busy listing off Rin's bad points that he didn't notice her hands balled up into fists and shaking not too subtly. "… And she is responsible for more of my injuries than my teachers combined… I think…" He concluded.
"Then… why do you still spend time with her?" Sakura asked, though she had a small smile on her face as her crush listed off all of the bad points her supposed genius sister had that she never knew about.
The boy shrugged. "Well… I can tell deep down she isn't a bad person. If something is wrong is in front of her eyes she isn't able to just leave it alone, kind of like how I can't leave a broken electronic be without trying to fix it." He crossed his arms and looked up to the sky in thought. "And even though she tries to deny it, she has helped me out with my magic in the past without me asking for it. If you ask her about it she'll just claim that she didn't want the magus under her to be so pathetic, but I think she really does care about my progress and well being…" He smiled lightly. "Or at least that's what Sirius-jiji and Waver-nii are telling me. Plus it's nice to have someone my age to talk about magic with every now and then."
"I see…" Sakura smiled weakly and she turned away. "Since you had Tohsaka-sempai around, you didn't need to talk to me about thaumaturgy at all I guess…"
The boy blinked and looked at the girl. "Tohsaka had nothing to do with me not talking to you about thaumaturgy Sakura. It's just things were so calm, happy, and simple the way they were that I didn't want to bring something like that into our lives. Since you didn't bring it up either, I just assumed you agreed with me and wanted to keep things nice and easy. If you wanted to talk about magic, I wouldn't have minded at all really…" His mind flashed to seeing those living things inside Zouken and how there were traces of those same THINGS inside Sakura. "If you need to talk to me about anything, just ask Sakura. My doors are always open for you…"
The girl blushed and looked away shyly. "Thanks Sempai… I feel a lot better knowing that." She smiled happily. "Sometimes it's almost like you're a superhero, especially now when I know you can use swords…"
Shirou flinched. Despite his efforts to follow Kiritsugu's advice, deep down he still wanted to be a champion of justice. Smiling sadly he looked up at the sky. "… I can't be a superhero Sakura… dad showed me that the world isn't that simple… and that I'm too distorted to be one anyways…"
"Distorted?" The girl blinked in confusion. "How are you…" Her question was cut short as Shirou's arm suddenly shot up in front of her causing her to stop. "Sempai?"
"Tohsaka…" Shirou grunted in a serious tone.
"She's back?" Rin asked briefly as her eyes darted around and she tried to feel out where their opponent was.
"I can't tell." The male frowned. He could tell where the vampire was, but something was different this time. "She's definitely waiting for us in the park… but for some reason her signature is stronger than the last time…"
"Goodie." Rin grumbled without turning around. "Sakura. Go back to Shirou's place. You'll be safer there. Root knows what Zouken would do to Shirou if you died under his watch."
"But…" The girl stammered, now scared at how things were changing so quickly.
"Go Sakura…" Shirou stated in an unnaturally even tone. "Please… I don't think I can protect you from her…"
Sakura shivered. She had seen many sides of Shirou before, angry, sad, happy, excited… but he was never calm like this before. The way he carried himself now was akin to when he was on the archery range, his entire being on the verge of setting off yet unnaturally at ease at the same time. "R-right. Please be careful Sempai…" She reluctantly agreed before turning around and running back to Shirou's place.
Rin and Shirou remained quiet until the youngest member of their group disappeared from sight. "… You seem to have a pretty big fan Emiya." Rin commented almost casually, though there was an underlying tinge of jealously as well.
"She's just worried about me." The boy sighed. "She's a nice person. She cares about everyone like that. It's who she is… I don't see how I'm special to her."
The Tohsaka looked at her partner skeptically before shaking her head. She was beginning to think that there really was something wrong with her friend, but she put it away for later. They had a vampire to deal with. "Whatever. Come on." She spoke plainly before turning around and ran with the aid of reinforcement to where Shirou said the vampire was…
Less than a minute later the 2 stopped in the park by the edge of the river, a little over a dozen meters away from their opponent from several days prior. At first glance she seemed to be exactly the same as she was before, both in attire and in confidence, however both Shirou and Rin could feel that she was somewhat stronger than she was before for some reason…
"Well well…" The woman purred as if talking to 2 old friends. "That certainly was fast. You 2 certainly are pretty quick on the uptake. I thought that it would take a few more days before you found me…" She crossed her arms and looked around at the park. "I must admit though, I'm impressed with this field. I've never heard of an effect that can drain familiars of their mana before…" Her red eyes zoomed in on Rin hungrily. "I'm impressed at your work girl…"
Rin took things in stride and flipped her hair confidently. "Humph. You must not be that experienced if something as basic as THAT impressed you."
"Confident. I like that. The confident ones always have a good zest to their blood." The predator licked her lips hungrily before turning to Shirou. "But unfortunately my business isn't with you girl… it's with the apprentice of the code crafter…"
"So you are the ones that kidnapped the old man." Shirou frowned. "How did you do it?"
The woman blinked before looking at him confused. "Whatever do you mean boy? I simply knocked him out in a fight. Simple as that."
"Don't lie!" He snapped, getting raised eyebrows from the females. "There's no way someone on your level could have beaten him alone without some sort of trick. You're nowhere near as strong as he is."
The vampiress frowned. The boy had hit the nail on the head. By herself, even when armed with her favorite weapon she had stood no chance even against a heavily intoxicated Sirius McGinty. The large man's reinforcement abilities were so ridiculous she wouldn't be surprised if he was capable of performing "absolute" reinforcement, the supposed highest limit that spell could be taken to. She was halfway beaten to death before her brother had stepped in and they managed to take the old man down, but even then they had some issue dealing with him…
The problem was… she had a feeling that had he been sober, things would have turned out far more differently…
"Does it matter?" She grunted irritably. "The fact remains that the old drunk is my father's prisoner, and we need YOU in order to keep him in line."
"Funny…" Rin snorted. "It seems like you're having enough trouble keeping this idiot in line by himself. Is he really worth all that trouble?"
"Tohsaka! Don't make things worse!" Shirou hissed.
The woman inspected her elegant hand and nails lazily. "Personally…" Her blood red eyes shot to them with pure bloodlust and her hand mutated into a sadistic claw. "I would prefer to gut you 2 right now and bathe in your organs… then I'd kill the old perverted drunk when I get back home." Her voice was low and guttural and her face malevolent. "However I've been ordered to take you back home alive and not turned…" A sadistic grin slowly etched on her mouth. "However he said nothing about what to do with that girl though…"
Shirou's and Rin's eyes widened in realization as to what the demonic female had just stated before the enemy bolted at inhuman speeds towards Rin with her claws ready to gut her.
"Shit!" Shirou yelled as he instantly jumped in front of Rin who in turn jumped back to retreat, swords already in hands, od flooding his body, and his arms already swinging to counter the woman's strike.
Clang! Smash! Crunch!
Shirou's weapons collided with the woman's unnaturally strong hands constantly in order to prevent them from tearing his body apart as easily as they were scratching his tools. 1. 2. 3. Bang! 1. 2. 3. Bang! Shirou's mind was preoccupied with the counting of how many times his tools could take a hit from the woman's claws before they broke, and then firing off the gun in his mind in order to project another tool to replace the one lost without hesitation…
In a way he counted himself lucky right now… most of his hands on experience in fighting was with bazett, who fought primarily with her fists. Because of that, even though he could tell that his current opponent was clearly faster and stronger than he was, she was vastly less refined in pure close combat than his teacher. As such he had little trouble reading his attacker's telegraphed swipes before they got anywhere near him and could both counter and draw her into his projected openings which she unconsciously aimed for like a wild animal. Despite the fact that his opponent was seemingly stronger than she was before, she was nowhere near as well armed as well, giving him and advantage as he managed to score some very glancing slashes on the progressively angry vampiress.
"Damn it…" Rin grunted as she watched Shirou go toe to toe with the vampire once more without hesitation or thought about his well being. She was getting tired of him always trying to protect her as if she was some fragile doll. Running to the side, the girl stuck her finger out at the woman and focused her od to form her favorite offensive spell, the finnish curse Gandr. "Stop looking down on me you bastards…"
Black orbs shot out of her finger like it was a machinegun muzzle at the woman, forcing the 2 melee combatants to separate lest they get hit with the attack. Unfortunately, the vampire was the first to get her bearings and instantly bolted to Rin, merely slowing down to avoid getting hit by the attacks.
"Shit!" Shirou swore as he instinctively knew what was going to happen if he didn't act soon and instantly came up with an answer. Dispelling the swords in his hands and projecting his black bow, the boy drew back the string and went through his library at a record pace. A steel blue sword appeared notched in his hands before it contorted on itself into a drill. "Concept, identified. Target. Confirmed. Function. Installed." He quickly muttered as he put in the finishing touches on his missile just as the vampire was just about to close in on the girl. "JUMP!" The boy bellowed as his sword began to glow intensely.
Rin didn't know what the hell Shirou was up to, but she sure as hell didn't have a lot of options to go by and gladly followed Shirou's command, pouring more of her energy into her legs and retreating as far back as she could. In contrast her opponent whipped around to turn at the source of the command and paled as she saw the boy holding something that she was very familiar with and not at all eager to see again.
"Shit!" She swore and ran in an attempt to get away from what she assumed was another massive blast of energy.
"Dodge this." The boy muttered as he took final aim. "Shatter, helix blade!"
The second he unleashed the weapon, the magic of gradient parallel he instilled in the weapon actualized, causing not one but at least 50 replicas of his arrow to fire off at once. Not stopping there, the blue lights flew not in a straight path, but in spiral uneven, but non intersecting paths all aimed at the shocked blood drinker who moved even faster to get out of the way of the far faster projectiles, and for a few moments she had done just that...
That was when she discovered the 2nd trait of this particular arrow that Shirou had used… they homed in on their target.
"What the fuck?" The woman shouted in surprise as the remaining lights corrected their paths in the air between Shirou and herself and began to land multiple glancing blows before each one plowed deeply into the ground as easily as they would have their original target.
A water element blade this time... Rin mused as she watched the remaining blades gradually deal deeper and deeper wounds on their opponent, though none enough to claim the fight. He used the flow and cycle characteristics of water to create untraceable paths for all of the copies of the sword made from Gradient Parallel and then caused them to converge at the woman… there's no way that this is all simply reproduction of weapons to the highest degree, the level of control needed to perform the manipulation of a mystery like this is beyond mere physical and mystery based copying… it's like he can naturally use any weapon he makes naturally as if it's his own, functions and all… What are you Shirou Emiya? Her musings however were interrupted as a burst of red and gold nearly blinded her.
"Rho Aias!" The woman shouted while pulling back the sleeve on her right arm to uncover an oddly shaped armband and was subsequently shielded by a 7 pedaled wall that blocked the remaining arrows without any problems whatsoever, stunning both teens.
"Fuck…" He muttered, pretty much summing up his thoughts quite nicely as his eyes rested on the beautiful 7 sectioned bounded field as his mind was flooded with information. A conceptual weapon made for defense. 7 layers… each with the defensive capability of a fortress wall. If its damaged it will reflect the condition of the user… but I don't think even Rin's jewels are strong enough to break one of those things… and the strongest thing I can do is… is… actually…
"Why yes… you are." The non human smirked confidently. "Do you like my new toy from daddy? I figured it would be quite useful against those annoying attacks of yours, and it's almost as beautiful as I am…" She stared at the bounded fields dreamily before cutting off her magic to make the shield go away. "Now where were we?" She grinned as she sauntered in Shirou's direction again before pausing as he drew back his bow again and aimed straight at her. "Humph…" She frowned as she stopped dead in her tracks and deployed her shield again. "It seems that you can't take a hint boy… this barrier of mine is too strong for the likes of you. You can't break through something like this."
Shirou smirked as he took aim and a dark iron colored sword appeared in his notch before it spiraled to become more aerodynamic. "Funny thing about your shield. It's strong yeah… but it has that interesting side affect of reflecting the health of its user…" The pale woman's confident stance faltered and she stared at him in disbelief. "Since that's the case… I wonder what would happen if I manage to break through even one of those barriers…"
"… How the hell do you…?" The non human looked at him as if seeing someone who was truly a threat for the first time.
This sword should be strong enough now to break through and resist Gaia's interference long enough to work… hopefully… The boy mentally prayed as his chest began to glow.
"Drive puncturing blade… triple accel!"
He actualized his mystery and released his projectile, which collided with the red and gold barrier before the aria he used even reached the ears of the females, appearing as a dark streak in the air that seemed to rend the night sky itself by means of pure speed before it met with the first thing that stood in its way.
The loud collision between a relentlessly strong and fast projectile and the equally absurdly sturdy shield echoed through the area as if a bomb had just been set off, and as such there was a strong enough shockwave that a large cloud of dust prevented both Shirou and Rin from seeing the results.
Shirou however took no chances however and instantly retraced his standard swords back into his hands and dashed to where Rin was still staring at where the 2 powerful mysteries collided. "Rin! Focus! There's no way that that was enough to beat her!"
The boy's demanding command seemed to snap Rin out of her delirium just in time as the enraged form of their opponent shot out of the cloud of dust right at her, claws ready to swipe her head off. Screaming in surprise the girl jumped back just before she was decapitated, and once more glad for Shirou's aid as the boy once more interrupted the woman from coming after her, engaging the bestial individual in melee combat yet again.
"How?" She roared as their weapons collided and causing sparks to fly. Unlike before though, Shriou noticed that it took a few more hits for his weapons to break under the relentless assault. "How could some nameless child like you break through 2 of my fields? How did you know about Rho Aias' mystery so quickly? What are you?"
Despite his opponent's relentless questions, Shirou not once responded as he fought her with unwavering eyes and deep breaths. If he had time to talk, he was better off using his energy to keep up with this bitch. Why answer questions that would only make things harder for himself if he did? He was not an egotistical magus from the association or some priest from the church. He was a sword, and even the ones that were possessed or were enchanted to have minds of their own weren't dumb enough to talk in the middle of a fight. He dealt with this situation like a professional, not a scientist. This was what Bazett trained him for. This was what Waver and Sirius trained him for…
This was what his Kiritsugu Emiya… no… the Magus Killer trained him for…
This woman attempted to harm the people he cared about to get to him, and as such he would react in the most appropriate manner he knew… by tearing the bitch apart.
Crash. Clang. Splurt. Crunch. Snap. Thud. Splash.
The sound of metal tearing through flesh was slowly meshing with the standard sound of metal breaking and warping that had been standard in the bout so far as Shirou's style and experience surpassed his opponent's speed, strength, and stamina despite the fact that his limbs and body were beginning to feel as heavy as the weapons he was constantly projecting. Blood that was not his own fell to the ground in small bursts as the woman's clothes were slowly cut and dyed red to mix with the fashionable black and white gothic look she was dressed in.
This brat! The daughter of Louvre hissed as she realized that despite her power up she was still being overwhelmed. He isn't like a normal magus! He's too good! Desperately trying to deflect another one of the boy's counters that she somehow perfectly fell for, she noticed that the girl that had been with him in the fight was a bit closer than either one of the two realized.
Moving on instinct, the blood drinker thrusted her palm straight forward at Shirou's chest, deviating from her standard hack and slash strategy, surprising him enough to sloppily defend in response and launch him back several dozen feet.
"Emiya-Kun!" Rin shouted in alarm at the sudden turn of events as she made the mistake of watching the boy instead of the vampire. While the Tohsaka may have been trained in martial arts and magic, she was still woefully inexperienced in real world brawls, and she just made one of the biggest mistakes: never take your eyes off of the target. Before Rin could even turn her attention back to the woman, the distance between the 2 had been crossed and a clawed hand had slashed diagonally across her chest.
The world froze for Shirou as he saw the stunned look on Rin's face as she looked down at her torn clothes quickly dye themselves red with her blood and her legs give out from the shock. "Tohsaka!" Shirou roared with desperate rage as he quickly attempted to get back up and get to her… only to be woefully slow as the assaulter hoisted the near unconscious girl up from behind with a claw at her neck.
"Now now little boy. I think you've done enough fooling around for one day don't you think?" the woman spoke with a mix between a purr and a growl, irritated that she had to resort to such methods to take care of a single boy. "You wouldn't want to do something stupid and make things worse now would you?"
"Shi… rou… run…" Rin gasped out through shallow breaths. No doubt the pain she was going through was among the worst she had ever experienced in her life.
Shirou grit his teeth so hard that he wouldn't be surprised if he began to bleed soon. "Let her go…" He growled menacingly, swords still in hand. "You came here for me."
"Do I look like a fool boy?" The woman glared at him menacingly with murderous blood red eyes.
"To be honest… you do do stupid things on occasion dear sister…" A deep male voice chuckled from the streets, grabbing everyone's attention. "And to be honest you look the part as well. How could you have so much trouble with 2 children and even get injured even after father gave you that lovely new toy?"
The woman growled as Shirou attempted to find the newcomer to no avail. "This boy is more troublesome than you know brother. He was aware of Rho Aias' mysteries just from looking at it and used it against me with some spell that broke through 2 petals to weaken me. He is not your standard weak minded magus…"
An amused laugh was heard as the owner walked out from a couple of buildings, revealing a man who appeared to be the same age as his supposed sister, in a zipped up fashionable leather jacket, blue jeans, black boots and blood red eyes. He was well over 6 feet tall and rather handsome with long black hair, but the sadistic look in his face was all that Shirou needed to tell that he wasn't going to help him any time soon. "Is that so? Well then it's no wonder why that old drunk was interested in the boy then is it?" He looked at the halfway conscious Tohsaka in his sister's clutches. "Ah it looks like my efforts were in vain after all… a shame… and after I went through all that effort to secure some reassurance too…"
"Reassurance?" Shirou echoed feeling his stomach drop and his mouth dry, clearly not liking what the man was insinuating.
The man nodded and snapped his fingers almost lazily. The world froze for the Faker as slowly 2 undead dragged the shivering and heavily sobbing Sakura Matou from the same alleyway their master had dragged them out of. "I would bring her closer, but that rather interesting and annoying field in the park would make things rather bothersome, now wouldn't it?" The man grinned. "Plus I am too much of a gentleman to handle women so uncouthly…"
Shirou didn't say anything as he looked at Sakura with wide and disbelieving eyes. It was bad enough that both girls were taken hostage and that one of them would bleed to death if something wasn't done soon but… but this… this was just so outlandish and cruel that it had to be a bad dream. There was just no way… it couldn't be possible... his eyes had to have been playing tricks on him…
No. Despite everything he wished… the image wouldn't change… because holding Sakura in place on her right side…
… Was the undead, lifeless but still moving carcass of Shinji Matou staring at him with a gaping mouth and droll running down his jaw.
"You…" Shirou's fists shook uncontrollably. "I'll… kill you… both of you… over and over…"
"That's nice… but even if you do manage to do that boy, it would most likely be after my dear sister guts your cute friend and I feed your other one to my ghouls here." The man smirked sadistically, showing his sharp teeth. "In fact… I think we should have a little fun for all the trouble you caused my dear sister and I." He stepped forward. "You have to choose which one of us dear siblings you have to surrender to, and subsequently which one of our pretty little hostages will go free. The other will… well I'm fairly certain you can piece together the rest."
"Ooh! How delightfully sadistic of you brother." The sister happily chuckled as she saw Shirou's face pale even more than it already did moments before. "Yes boy! Choose, but do it quickly! This girl here isn't going to last long if you wait!"
"Shi… rou…" Rin gasped, her consciousness fading. "Forget… me…"
Sakura on the other hand couldn't say anything as she was still in a mild state of shock from being exposed to Shinji's current state.
The brother laughed as he saw the boy begin to panic. "Now sister, don't rush the boy! He's going to come with us to father no matter what he does. Let things play their course so we can enjoy ourselves." He paused as the boy's eyes slowly developed a light to them. "Oh? You've come to a decision already? That was rather fast. I thought you would take more time to…" He paused and frowned as one of the boy's swords dispelled from his hands and he grabbed the other with both… pointing the edge to his neck. "… Ah…" He frowned. "So it's like that…"
"Let them go… or I'll take my head off." The boy stated in a no nonsense tone. "Now."
"You're bluffing." The sister snorted, ignoring the shocked looks the sisters were giving the boy. "You wouldn't dare kill yourself…" She stalled as Shirou pushed the weapon to his neck, drawing blood.
"Maybe a normal person wouldn't…" The boy smirked. "But unfortunately for you… my personality is a bit broken when compared to the norm. You see I'm the kind of guy that would sacrifice himself to make sure the people he's close to are ok without hesitation or even needing to think about it… or to be more accurate it's more like I'm almost unable to as a base function… and since you clearly need me alive for your old man, I'd say you'd be in pretty trouble if something happened, wouldn't it?"
The area was dead quiet as the three glared at one another temptingly… before Shirou decided to make another push with his blade and cause more of his blood to flow down his neck…
"Fine." The brother barked, clearly not amused anymore. "We will let the humans go so long as you come with us and do not resist. You have my and my sister's word as the children of Louvre that no more harm will come to them. We will even drop them off at the local hospital to make sure you behave." He glared at his sister as if to tell her not to argue with his decision before looking at the boy again. "Now lower your blade boy."
"Swear on a Gaes." Shirou growled, shocking the siblings as he lifted one hand and began to trace several runes into the air, a makeshift contract that Sirius had taught him when Shirou had learned of some of the methods his father had used as a mercenary. It wasn't as strong or potent as a normal written contract, but the backlash was still something that all magic users would attempt to avoid if possible. "I, Shirou Emiya, swear to not attempt to escape the children of Louvre in return for Rin Tohsaka's and Sakura Matou's save delivery, alive and not crippled physically or mentally, to medical aid in Fuyuki and all blood that bear the title of Louvre refrain from attacking any and all uninvolved individuals within the grounds of Fuyuki." He swiped some of his blood off of his neck and wrote his name in the air, sealing his end of the contract.
Rin's and Sakura's eyes widened in surprise as they slowly realized what the boy had just done and attempted to feebly try to stop the contract from finishing.
The siblings looked at one another warily before the sister brushed a finger against one of her wounds and repeated the signature process, followed by her brother who bit one of his fingers to draw his blood. "There." The brother frowned as he felt the magic take place in his circuits. "It's done. We'll take the girls to the hospital and you'll be coming with us to our father without any resistance."
The boy nodded as he finally took the sword away from his neck and dispelled it, glaring at the woman holding Rin. "It's not good to hold the injured like that. If she dies… you're going to suffer too…"
The sister clicked her teeth as she dropped Rin roughly onto the ground, causing her to cry out in pain as she landed. "Tch. Fine brat. I'll stop hurting the girl…" She started off slowly before once more grinning sadistically at him. "But there are no rules about hurting you!" Faster than Shirou could react, the woman shot forward and clawed him across his chest. The wounds were nowhere near as severe as Rin's but that did not stop them from hurting or bleeding. Then the scratches were followed up with more as the woman tore into the teen without hesitation. "This is for breaking my Mountain Lion! This is for shooting me with that accursed bow! This is for making me look like a fool in front of father! And this is for just pissing me off!" She roared as the boy was injured over and over again.
Pain. It was indescribable and blinding that blocked out all coherent thoughts that could have belonged to Shirou. His chest was on fire from the outside and he felt his blood leak out, making him feel like he was being drained on the inside. No amount of training could prepare him for this magnitude of discomfort as he felt his consciousness wane…
But he didn't black out. He still knew far greater pain than this, where his entire body burned from both outside and within, torturing a weak and frail shell of a boy with no magic, no hope, no energy. What he was experiencing now was a far weaker in comparison to now, with his stronger body and will keeping him alive and an opponent that would eventually stop, unlike that relentless fire that only knew of destruction.
As his body fell to the ground, he saw Rin and Sakura looking at him both with tears in their eyes. At least those two would be alive and safe. The vampires were only here for him. After they took him away the city and the girls wouldn't be threatened by the vampires anymore. At least he could ensure that much…
Shirou Emiya apologized to his father and his teachers. On multiple occasions they had berated him for his selfless tendencies nearly killing him, whether it was in training or when he did something by accident… but he simply couldn't fix that part of himself. It was simply a main aspect of who Shirou Emiya was… Oh well… at least he had managed to turn one of his greatest issues into something useful for once. Maybe Rin and Sakura would one day forgive him for this reckless action… but if he could save their lives by giving his up, he would gladly do it. For a while he would hesitate if he was asked if he would give his life for another person's, but for some reason he felt he could do that for Rin and Sakura. For some reason he felt as if those two truly mattered more than his life did. For some reason for those two…
He would move from his spot on that hill of blades… he could be drawn…
His semi delusional thoughts were interrupted as he felt his body being picked up again by the woman who had until moments before been kicking and maiming it, holding him by the neck.
"Hmm…" He heard her muse hungrily. "Now that I have a good look at you boy… you aren't that bad of a specimen…" She licked her lips hungrily. "I might as well have a taste of the little shit that's been causing so much trouble… you can't be any worse than those other fools in this town… don't worry though, I'm not going to turn you… just make sure you don't cause any trouble on the way back…"
The boy didn't know what came over him or why the words came to mind… but at that point in time… he felt that if he was going to be captured, he might as well make them realize what they had with them. "My… body… is…" He grunted in pain as the woman's mouth approached his bleeding neck.
"Is mine now boy…" She grinned as her mouth closed in on Shirou's neck and began to drink…
The brother on the other hand frowned as he felt something unnatural happening with Shirou. "Sister! Stop!"
"… Made… of blades…" The boy finished the mantra that he knew described his entire being without any question with a raspy voice that caught everyone's attention.
The woman's eyes widened as images flooded her mind in rapid succession. A barren hill littered with weapons. A grey blue sky laced with clouds. A golden scabbard that possessed unmatched holy qualities. A burning field with a black sun. A man in his 30's that looked like he could kill anything and everything without batting an eyelash. The girl she had just moments before held hostage. The girl her brother held hostage. Swords. Swords. …
A shriek of pain and anguish pierced the air as the woman threw Shirou away so hard that he was knocked unconscious upon landing while the assaulter herself began to cough relentlessly from her bleeding and torn mouth with her hands around her throat, spewing out blood from her mouth as she gasped for air… blood and shards of blood red metal as sharp as razors.
'Sister!" The brother yelled as he ran to his sibling worriedly before stopping and seeing the shards of metal that were coming out of her. Something was wrong. Something was extremely dangerous about the boy and his sibling had just apparently been assaulted by the full brunt of it. "What in the world?"
"Impossible!" The woman hacked and wheezed. "He's human… but… but…"
"But what?" The brother yelled frantically. "What happened?"
"He… has… Reality… Marble!" She yelled in rage, causing all that could hear her to freeze in shock and disbelief. Before anyone could ask the woman anymore about what she had discovered, she had bolted to the unconscious boy with her hands drawn. "I'll kill him! This little shit has embarrassed me and father for the last time! I will not allow a mere human have something that even father has yet to achieve!"
Time ran still for everyone conscious and watching. The brother attempted to stop his sibling from going against father's orders. Rin and Sakura shouted Shirou's name in a vain attempt to wake the boy and get him to move.
But none of the 3 could do anything in time as the enraged woman struck down on Shirou with everything she had in order to end him…
"… Fragarach."
o. o. o.
A/N:
…Yep. I did just leave it there. And YES, I did kill off Shinji before the war… but that will have a very strong effect on how things turn out later.
Ok. For those of you who are irritated by my interpretation of Rin, let me just say this: I am NOT good at writing sappy, moe, dere, or otherwise progressively emotionally stories. It's simply not my strong point. If you notice in YAWALEH, any relationship in it develops or progresses either off screen or in a random psychotic way that is akin to the rest of the story. If Rin seems like a bit of a bitch to you guys… well that's simply because if you ignore her being a Tsundere and look at her character and personality at times… SHE IS ONE. I'm not Knocking any fan's of her's or saying that she's a bad person through and through, but face it guys… she doesn't exactly rank high when it comes to morality points when Shirou or Sakura aren't involved.
So anyways. This chapter is dedicated to my neighbor Fred who passed away suddenly in front of his house last week. He was THE definition of a bat shit insane old man neighbor that looked like Elton John's twin on welfare, but damn it, he was mine, and he was one of the nicest guys you would ever meet period. I'll miss you Fred.
… I think I'll start up on YAWALEH again next seeing as I doubt that I'll see much more of Han's powers… though I think I can make some good things up considering that he's pretty much a god damned steam punk… honestly how the hell could I have missed that…
So regardless guys… REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! RESPECT YOU CRAZY OLD NEIGHBORS! AND REVIEW AGAIN!
