Chapter 21: Turning Gears
I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:
o. o. o.
At the Association:
Sirius grunted as he walked up to the podium in front of the lecture hall, dressed up in a fairly formal suit and tie, something that he always hated to be dressed in from the bottom of his heart. Not for the first time he complained to himself about how uncomfortable, inefficient, and plainly stupid looking formal attire was. While the suit he was wearing was nice, many would note how off it looked on the frame of the normally casual and fairly unkempt giant old man.
The lecture hall itself was nothing unusual, many college campuses around the world, magical or not had a similar setup. A large area in front with several moveable blackboards occupied one wide end of the room, complete with a couple of tables and pieces of equipment, took up a fourth of the room. The rest of it was taken up with row after row of seats for spectators and students to sit down and observe the people who commanded the first section of the room with authority.
In front of the Mystic Code Crafter, sitting with notebooks and recording devices, magi of all ages there to learn and scrutinize his work as he taught his subject. A quick structural analysis told the aged man that there were about seven hundred and fifty four people in the room.
It was a good number for a class, to be sure, almost half what the place could hold in total, but he was fairly certain that that was because his presentation today was the first of a new branch of magic that he had spent the last few years ironing out. It was usually like this when a new class or practice was being taught as a legit class given the cutthroat nature of the Clocktower's noble populace.
Sighing to himself again and cracking a few joints in his neck to relive some of the pressure he was feeling, the McGinty decided to get things started and dropped his papers and books down on the table next to him, using a small parlor trick spell to make the landing of his load sound like a gong upon contact and shutting up his audience to gain there attention.
"All right lad's an lasses. Ah have only a few rules before ah get started. They're all pretty simple so ah expect ya to follow tem." Sirius spoke loudly to his audience. "Don't make fun of ta way ah speak. Keep quiet unless ah give ya permission ta speak or ask ya a question. An fer fuck's sake, if ya didn't understand what ah said, say it and ah'll either say it again or write it down on ta board for ya! Ah know ah sound funny when ah talk! Don't try ta pretend otherwise!" A combination of minor chuckles and grumbles of disapproval echoed throughout the room
Smirking as he turned around, knowing he had his audiences attention, the man began writing on the blackboard. "Tis here is ta first class of Material Tansmutatin' 784, Denial of Concept Imposition." He turned to his audience again. "So can anyone tell me what ta hell ya tink yer gonna be learnin in tis class?" He saw some hands go up before nodding to a young teenaged girl near the front with long black hair. "You. Lass."
The girl stood up. "We are going to learn the study of nullifying conceptual functions in objects."
Sirius nodded. "Close lass, but not quite there. What yer goin ta be learnin is not ta nullification of concepts, but ta complete removal of tem, an their implications on ta objects ya use them on and how they affect other objects. In essence, yer all gonna learn how ta take an object tat is in definition by Gaia as complete, remove a fundamental rule embedded inta tha object, and turn it inta a similar object that is still technically complete by Gaia's perspective. Ta reason fer doin this is because by doin tha adjustment this way, instead of performin some bounded field or adjustin spell ta make similar effects, tis spell permanently changes ta object, meanin tat it's permanent an afta ya do ta spell ta object won't need anymore prana in order ta retain its effects."
He nodded to a table next to him, holding an iron rod, a wooden rod, a tank of water, a pile of wood, and a gas burner. Walking to the pile of wood, the man picked a piece up. "Allow me ta give you a quick example." He lit the wood on fire with a quick spell, showing it to everyone, and then put it out again. "As ya'll can see, tis here is a normal piece of dirt cheap wood. It burns easily. It's not special in ta slightest." He twirled it in his hands before tossing it back on the pile lazily. "Now ah'm gonna now remove ta concept of "fire" from tis pile of wood."
The man frowned and began quickly chanting something in a horrifically muddled language, holding his hands over the wood for about half a minute before breathing out slowly and relaxing his arms. "As ya can see, tere's no real difference to ta wood… but watch what happens when ah try ta light it in multiple ways."
The audience watched in mild interest as the old man used various spells to attempt to set the wood on fire, ranging from mundane methods as simple fire spells, to using some lighter fluid, to even minor explosives. Nothing was changed save for some splintered pieces of wood.
"So ten!" Sirius grinned, slightly covered in soot as he stood back up from hiding behind another table. "Can anyone please explain ta me why my attempts did jack?"
This time a middle aged man in the back was chosen. "It was fairly obvious." The noble snorted. "Because the concept of fire was removed from the wood, the sticks could not recognize the flames when they were exposed to them and thus could not engage in the act of combustion."
"A bit prude in ta execution but correct ta a degree." Sirius nodded, ignoring the man's scowl. "While ta sticks could not recognize ta fire itself, ah did not remove ta concept of heat conversion from tem, so while tey could not light on fire, tey could still get bloody hot." He tossed one of the unblemished pieces of wood to a surprised student in the front row, who began to toss the object from hand to hand to deal with the temperature. "It's because of small details like tis tat tis seemingly basic range of spells has surprising depth and complexity tat ah will teach ya ova ta next few months."
"Professer McGinty! A question! How did you come across this particular branch of thaumaturgy?" Another student asked, this time from the middle of the audience.
The elderly man nodded. "Believe it or not, ah first got ta idea from ta current Emiya head when ah first started ta teach him. Actually, he helped out in a good part of ta research of ta subject. Ah doubt it would be even close ta where it is today if it weren't fer him. In fact, he is ta only other magus ah know of other than mahself tat can perform tis spell without issue."
As expected, there was much muttering and whispering in the room after the statement. The term "Magus Killer" was heard more often than not before the man cleared out his throat again.
"If yer all done gossipin like middle school kids, we can continue." He spoke out loudly. "Now before you all try ta start removing crap from more crap, ah have ta warn ya, tis is no simple family of spells. At least high level ability in structural graspin is a must here, even if what yer removin has no immediate effects on ta object's physical state. In addition ta tat, and ah can't say tis enough, unless ya have blue blood or a bloody huge number of circuits, never EVER try ta remove a concept tat ya don't have a special medium to. By tis, ah mean if its outside ta basic range of yer element, origin, family crest, or some otha special relic tat ya can channel prana through, it is out of yer ability ta remove. If ya do ah swear ah will laugh at your funeral fer bein a soddin idiot."
The elderly man walked over to his example table again and grabbed the iron rod and momentarily casted a spell on it. "Now. Ah am lucky enough ta be an average one, so ah have spent much time experimentin with removing all ta basic elements from all kinds o objects ta see what would happen. Fer example. If ya remove ta concept of wata from an object, it can do many tings. It will obviously not get wet." He dunked it in the water and then took it out. Not a single drop of water remained on the metal. "Howeva tat is only ta basics. Fer example if ya remove ta concept in a slightly tweaked way…" He opened his hand to drop the metal into the water…
o. o. o.
Somewhere in a doomed town in northern Europe:
The hunter clicked his teeth in irritation as he stood on top of a moderately sized building overlooking the bay. From what he could tell it had once been a casino of some sorts which explained why it towered over the rest of the mundane structures around him, but that had been before everything went to hell here. He had been too late and a good majority of the fishing village's populace of around a thousand people had already been turned into undead or been feasted upon.
The Apostle he had been sent to exterminate, while still possessing the weakness of being unable to personally cross major bodies of water by himself, had the ability to create various powerful vampiric themed familiars out of the bodies of animals, basically a twisted puppet master that cut apart other creatures to make familiars. His target had once been a human, but had believed that a way to access the Akashic Records lay in the minute line that lay between species, or rather the single theoretical unachievable genetic location that no creature, chimera, altered, manufactured, monstrous, phantasmal, or even divine, would ever be able to reach. As such the Vampire had a wide range of unnatural creatures that followed his every command despite the surreal numbers they possessed.
This included those of the aquatic monstrous beast variety, as the hunter spied the rather large red whale like creature momentarily surface, look around with its horrifically bloodshot and massive eye that had no eyelids, open its mouth, and shoot its tongue out at the nearby coast to snatch some of the few human stragglers that had sought refuge on their small boats. The poor unfortunate men and women there didn't even qualify as a single bite for that thing. As soon as it had taken its snack, the beast twice the size of the largest normal sized hunchback whale sunk back below the water, but clearly staying in the shallows in order to gain another easy meal.
The young man with his head wrapped in a red shroud growled in anger and frustration as he materialized his bow and kept an eye on the shadow of the beast that was hiding under the water. Normally his arrows would be useless here as the water would take the impact of whatever he would shoot into it, however that was why he had this weapon made…
"Trace. On." The magus muttered as a slightly blue tinted and tightly contorted sword appeared in his hand before notching it onto his customized bow. Pulling back hard and breathing out slowly, he took aim at the dark shadow almost half a mile away.
Taking the local winds into account. Calculating water refraction displacing the image of the beast from where it really is. Estimating how strong the natural defenses of the beast were…
"Triple Accel…" The concealed crest on the teen's chest began to warm up in the darkness of the cold night, even though it was summer…
"Break limit reached…" The customized arrow began to splinter along the edges and glow slightly from the super saturation of Prana it had received.
And like that the projectile was released, travelling at horrifically fast speeds.
The current world record for the fastest arrow shot by human hands was held by Kevin Strother and traveled at around four hundred miles an hour at its peak, roughly half the speed of the standard fired bullet. The poor man would be crying in depression if he ever saw what the teen had just accomplished as the arrow greatly surpassed the latter's speed with gusto, shattering the sound barrier in the process.
A normal human would only see perhaps a brief flash of something silver pass by as it penetrated the water's surface with the smallest of splashes…
Moments later the surface of the bay erupted as the whale like creature thrashed to the surface, a good portion of its torso had been blasted out of its body.
A few seconds after that, the fleshy remains that had been blasted off of the creature would return to the ground within a two mile radius of its position…
o. o. o.
CLANG!
The iron rod dropped by Sirius fell through the water as if it was air and hit the bottom of the tank without any issue.
"Ten tere would be no physical resistance met wit ta rod." The elderly man casually stated before taking out the iron rod again, dry as a bone and placing it down on the table again. "Conceptual removal can not only apply to the interactions between one object and another, but also the manner in how said objects can interact as well. It is quite possible ta make an object water proof via this method, yet still allow it ta experience water resistance when moving in a body of it. Likewise it is also possible ta influence tings such as conversion of forms, fluidity, an cycles through tis method ta get additional results."
"Now fer wind, ya got from previous examples ta removal of natural air resistance, where ta objects could handle just about anythin to da point tat ya could stick ta damn thing in a hurricane and it wouldn't bend in ta slightest…"
o. o. o.
Faint streaks of silver littered the sky as the inhuman beasts that were assaulting the town's populace were felled one after another with discrimination. Their course and speed unchanged by the gasses that made up the atmosphere as they dove towards their targets, constantly gaining speed with seemingly no terminal velocity to hold them back, speeding up as gravity enhanced their overall velocity and making their impacts even more devastating than they normally would have been.
Every flying distorted creature, every twisted four legged beast, every undead animal or human that was in the view of the tallest building on the coast was sniped without mercy or hesitation.
And yet the bowman had yet to lay eyes on his real target…
o. o. o.
"Playin around wit stored energy an kinetic energy in tis way is pretty tricky though since nullifyin kinetic energy makes it a complete bitch ta move ta damn thing and nullifying ta stored gets rid of ta ting's mass, inertia, and electrical charge. If ya want ta play around wit them afta a few of ma classes, come ta me so ah can give ya some notes on what ta look out for." Sirius concluded his brief covering of the wind element.
"Now objects wit earth removed is fairly hard ta work with if ya don't know what ta hell yer doin. First of all, if ya try ta remove a concept from an object that relies on said concept ta keep its form, ta entire ting will just fall apart. With earth, this can range from dirt ta rocks ta crystals ta metal. In otha words, it's only usable on tings like wood, plastic, ice, ya get ta idea."
He picked up the wooden rod and twirled it in his fingers. "Now like I said before, ta effects of tis magic vary dependin on how ya do it. Unlike wit water and wind, ya can't simply just make an object pass through whateva rock or metal ya want. There are different kinds o metal and rock and whateva, of course, and each kind has enough presence in Gaia ta be a separate category in their own right. So, a wooden stick could be modified ta pass through say aluminum, but still be halted by steel. Then there are alloys and layers of different materials and blah blah blah. You get ta idea."
The old man yawned lazily and scratched his backside with the stick he was holding, much to the disgust of many there. "Howeva, you do get interestin results in tha case of alloys when yer tools are only designed ta interact wit only one of the components…"
o. o. o.
He finally saw the vampire trying to escape now from his perch.
The blood drinking magus had finally realized that, including the members of the magus association that had arrived to clean up his mess that were having minor issues with his beasts, there was a major threat there as well. One that was absolutely destroying his small army of familiars with little issue and had taken out his prized monsterous whale from over half a mile away with a single spell. Such feats were normally attributed only to a small group of magi, none of which the vampire felt comfortable encountering at the moment.
Unfortunately for the vampire, the town he had decided to attack was unfortunately surrounded on three sides by large hills that only had a sparse number of trees to hide his retreat. His main mode of transportation, his whale, had been regrettably disemboweled and partially blown up, and was now bleeding out belly up in the middle of the water.
That being the case, the rogue magus decided to escape via land inside another one of his customized monstrous beasts turned puppet familiar. It was a fairly large eight legged tortoise looking creature the size of two trucks side by side with a thick metallic armored shell. Obviously the puppet was designed as a secured method of transportation, but the design was left something to be desired…
It only took a brief glance for the archer on the building to see what was happening… however seeing what was inside took a few more moments of concentration to determine. The creature was moving at almost forty miles an hour and weighted about twelve tons. Despite the creature it resembled, the shell encompassed the entirety of its body, though there was a fairly sizeable gap inside for its master and a few more puppets to travel in with room to spare. The outer layers of the shell were moderately protected by impact and spell resistant runes and enchantments, designed no doubt for miracles that directly affected the internal workings of the creature, however the bulk of its defenses were made up by the four inch reinforced steel plating shell that made the frame of the shell.
Good. For a moment there the archer had worried that the beast's defenses were actually something that would take some creativity to get around…
The next contorted dark grey sword he projected was made of a plastic compound. Granted if it had been disfigured in any normal way the thing would have been next to impossible to repair, however since his arrows were all disposable it didn't really matter much. After notching the bow and repeating the process of overcharging the projectile and enhancing the speed, the archer took careful aim…
Looking behind his ride, the vampire grunted out in frustration. A vast majority of his work had been destroyed by those damn enforcers. The whale alone had been one of the last of its kind and would be nearly impossible to replace, let alone the research that it's body had contained.
Looking at the tallest building of the small village nearly a mile away, the man growled as he saw the despicable Magus Killer point his bow at him. Oh he knew who the teen was. Very few Dead Apostles had yet to hear of the Queen's Silver Dog ever since he showed up last year and began hunting down whatever unfortunate Apostle that she had set him on.
A bow and sword wielding teen whose appearance was clouded by a red holy shroud. Honestly if any of his kind had heard of the bastard's description before his reputation had gotten out they would have scoffed and thought that the poor fool pretending to be a medieval robin hood would die soon. Unfortunately he didn't die, and if the rumors were true he was strong and resourceful enough to kill even the Ancestors. A very sobering thought…
Sobering or not, whatever was going to go through the vampire's head was replaced with pain as a plastic arrow violently punched through his puppet's defenses and exploded on the inside, shredding everything there and causing the transport itself to cease functioning due to too many of its organs being torn apart…
While the beast's defenses were indeed impressive and resistant to many forms of assault, they unfortunately offered little resistance to the arrow shot at it due to the simple fact that its shell was made of steel.
Most construction projects and objects containing metal in this day and age rely on iron in their framework. Strong, cheap, and lighter than other metals that would be considered for transportation, iron is often considered the best choice for most projects that require frames with heavy loads.
Steel is, despite being significantly more durable, reliable, and stronger than standard iron, is merely an alloy that is mostly made out of iron.
In most cases, at least over ninety eight percent iron.
The steel shell barely provided any resistance to the arrow that by definition could not recognize, affect, nor be affected by the element as the weapon shredded apart the traces of carbon inside the shield, creating a distorted ring of carbon around a core of iron just before the arrow detonated and horrifically crippled what was left of the retreating force…
And the archer finally felt it was safe to take some time off to rest his eyes and deal with his current skull pounding headache…
o. o. o.
"An tat was just a brief overview of what can be done wit partial alloy immunity influence." The elderly red head grunted as he stretched his arms and legs. "Fer fire, which we already quickly went ova pretty quickly, we got thermal immunity, combustion immunity, and crap like tat."
He took out his metal rod again. "As fer ether, ta results are actually pretty short an simple. When ya remove ta concept of ether, you basically get yerself an object tat can't be influenced by thaumaturgy. A magic fire can still melt it sure, but castin spells on it will get ya jack shit so long as yer method of spellcraft focuses on ta altered object itself. Spiritual bodies will have as much luck tryin ta possess it as they would tryin ta sneak inta ta Vatican without gettin caught, an ta only way you'll be able ta get ta ting ta change shape is wit yer own two hands."
He quickly casted the concept removing spell on the rod he was holding and then casually tossed it to someone that was paying attention to what he was doing. "Go ahead. Try ta do sometin ta tha rod. Ya won't be able to, but it will be good practice ta see what it feels like."
"Fer any of you tat are still wonderin why ta hell am I actually teachin tis useful skill ta others instead of hoardin all ta research for meself like any other bloody magus in tis place, ta anser is obvious. No single person is capable of being able ta exploit ta full potential of tis craft. Tere are an infinite number of concepts supported by Gaia, an as such there are an infinite number of ways ta use tis craft ta gain new results. By takin away an objects ability ta react ta one thing, we may be able ta find how it can react to another component of the same object tat we have never seen before. Wood tat melts under heat. Perfectly preserved samples of artifacts. Ah really do believe tat tis craft is ta link to a whole new way ta approach experimentin and thaumaturgy."
"So!" Sirius grinned, clapping his hands together and looking at his audience expectantly. "Any questions!?"
o. o. o.
With Waver:
Lord El Melloi II was in his happy place.
His work for the day was done. He was smoking a Cuban cigar and was reading an interesting manga. He had managed to complete several of his experiments recently and had made some good discoveries. His paperwork was all in order. None of the students under his care had nearly killed themselves or done something stupid…
And he was left in peace and quiet with his feet on his desk as he read a manga to pass the time.
"What are you doing?" The stern and in control Lorelei Barthomelloi asked from his doorway in a tone that had just the barest hints of bewilderment in it.
Happy place gone now.
"Enjoying some time off after a productive day." Waver replied without any hesitation or bothering to move from his spot. His reasoning for this was two-fold. The first was simply because he really was in a comfortable position reading his comic right now. The second was if he allowed himself to get caught up in Lorelei's tempo he would never be able to get out of his current situation unharmed.
"I did not think you were so uncouth as to relax with a child's comic book." The woman frowned.
"Japanese comics are fairly interesting to read…well the ones that are not written by immature fools that are perverts or pedophiles at heart at least." Waver replied casually without looking up. "Some of them are quite creative and innovative about how their fantasy magical system works." He tapped the back of the comic. "This story for example, Flame of Recca, while a bit vague in the execution of explaining how they work, has multiple mystic code like devices that would be fairly interesting to manufacture if possible."
"And you claim to gain inspiration for your work from these childish devices of yours?" The Queen of the Clocktower asked disbelievingly.
"The individuals who created that crude weapon, the atomic bomb, realized the solution to their research while they were changing a tire my lady. The ability to discharge that much stored energy at once is to this day still quite a miraculous feat, especially through non thaumaturgical means." The man explained casually. "Inspiration comes to people through all kinds of ways."
It was a good thing that Waver wasn't looking at his boss at that moment, because if he did he would have seen her eyebrow twitch. Just once. If he had seen it, there would have been no doubt in anyone's minds that he would not have lived past the next five seconds.
Before the woman could speak her mind though, the door leading to Waver's labs opened to reveal a maid made of pure mercury walk in with several books in hand. The metallic woman paused and looked at Lorelei, bowed politely, and then moved to a nearby bookshelf to put the books away, and then moved back to the labs.
"... I see you have been playing with your predecessor's mystic code…" Lorelei stated in a stiff tone. "What was that comment you made before about perverts at heart?"
"In my defense, I unfortunately made the last of my adjustments to her while with McGinty… and we were both intoxicated at the time." Waver answered Lorelei without any shame at all, smoke still rising from behind his comic book.
"I see. And what about the rumors I have heard about a metal woman occasionally breaking equipment and claiming to be a… what was it? Killer robot from the future?"
"I edit my previous statement. We were horrifically intoxicated and watching a rather crass American movie at the time." The lord corrected himself and shrunk his head behind his comic. "I had forgotten that McGinty has a habit of reinforcing any alcohol that he touches out of habit at the time."
To his knowledge, the only things that he knew for sure would set off another Terminator episode with his code was to mention someone with the last name Connor within hearing distance, show it a shotgun, bring it anywhere near melted steel, or actually talk to it about being a killer robot from the future. Thankfully, so long as he kept the damn thing in the magical world, the odds of two of those things happening was minimal, and the other two wouldn't happen so long as he warned people not to do it before it was too late.
"Reinforcing…" The Queen of the repeated in disbelief before closing her eyes and breathed almost audibly. She made a mental note to talk to McGinty about this habit of reinforcing alcohol later, if only to get her hands on some for when she developed another headache due to the man's antics. "You mean to tell me that you successfully tampered with a highly complex and powerful mystic code and improved it while inebriated?"
"I hardly believed it myself when I came to." Waver answered. "The physical model initially used was a bit basic, but I was more surprised by the distribution and management of the internal flow of the model that I completed in that state. Those kinds of calculations aren't things that I would like to attempt to do while sober, but they worked surprisingly well. Of course I had to do some editing to the spiritual comprehension of the code's thought processes, in addition to making the model's appearance a bit more presentable."
Thank all that was holy he managed to fix that before anyone else managed to see the metal woman's original appearance. If word had gotten out on how his code turned servant looked originally, he either would have ended up getting killed by a number of nobles in the tower, lost his lordship and all of his sponsors… Or he would have been permanently labeled as a masochistic pervert for the rest of his life.
Damn you McGinty. Damn you and the blackmail pictures you took to hell.
"At the very least you have proven to be capable when impaired." The Queen of the Clocktower stated, though in a more strained tone than it originally was.
"Why thank you." The smoking man accepted the very vague compliment without issue, before lowering his book and looking at Lorelei in the eyes for the first time in the conversation. "However I am curious, why are you here my lady? I doubt you are here to converse with me about my mystic code or how I spend my leisure time."
"I should hope so." Lorelei replied, regaining her composure in doing so. "I came to discuss Emiya."
That had Waver's attention as he put his book down and took his feet off his desk. "Did something happen on his latest hunt?"
"No. Emiya has once again proved my decision to take him under my command to be the correct one. Within the next twelve hours he should be on a plane back to Japan with Fraga as an escort." The Queen stated, all but saying that Shirou had killed yet another Dead Apostle, bringing his kill count to six Apostles and who knows how many undead and other random familiars since he began working for the woman almost a year prior. A very impressive feat for someone that isn't even seventeen years old. "What I wish to speak to you about is of several other matters."
The lower ranked lord held back a groan and settled for breathing out some more smoke from his lungs to the side. Matters. Plural. Just what he needed, multiple favors from the Queen just as he had finished a heavy workload.
He had no idea how bad it really was. And technically, neither did Lorelei.
o. o. o.
Japan:
"Not bad." Rin nodded in approval as she supervised her sister's form as the younger girl slowly went through another set of basic martial arts stances. "You're still a rookie, however, your basics are solid. You won't be winning any tournaments soon, but at the very least you'll be able to deck an idiot hard enough to either knock him out or get away now."
"Please don't say such violent things Rin-sempai." Sakura sighed as she lost herself in the steps. Ever since the Louvre incident, she had had Rin teach her basic martial arts and thaumaturgy during their spare time. Right now they were once again in the overly elaborate Tohsaka estate's back yard in the middle of a fairly warm summer's night. Since Fuyuki City was on the southern part of Japan, the winters there were only somewhat cold while the summers ranged from blistering hot to monsoon season.
Of course Rin had agreed to do this under the feeble but logical reasoning that she and Shirou couldn't afford to always be there to rescue her again in case there was another vampire attack, but the younger female and Shirou both knew better than to take her excuse at face value.
The extra work though seemed to be paying off for Sakura in more ways than one. The physical training had helped give her more stamina during the day and gave color to her rather pale skin. Plus with the additional control over her body, it took more to get the worms in her body to get agitated and make her falter. The studies on the other hand had aided her in controlling her magic. Despite how the Matou family study of miracle making normally worked, mainly by instinct and activation through the body, it did not mean that there were other ways to apply it or make it work.
Sakura's execution of her magic in Rin's words was in short, crude, blunt, and sloppy. That wasn't to say that the younger sibling was bad or that she couldn't do much. Quite the opposite. The girl was quite capable of efficiently absorbing quite a large amount of prana from targets in a single spell, but her execution and her will to perform any form of her craft was destabilized by her timid will, making her attempts at self defense quite easy to either dodge or dispel when encountered by any reasonably trained magus.
This of course was something that Rin was determined to change.
Within the past year, the former Tohsaka had been studying extensively in a select few subjects that would compliment what she already knew and enable her to not be a hindrance to the others again, primarily in bounded fields and spiritual evocation, with a little bit of structural grasping and reinforcement on the side for obvious reasons. Sakura tended to focus more on spells for defensive purposes, she was still far from a threat if truly pushed, and for now that was enough to satisfy Rin.
In addition to combat capability though, the training had provided another benefit that aided the purple haired girl significantly. By combining her adoptive family's craft with bounded fields in just the right way, Sakura could effectively drain the prana in a small area and route it into herself to feed the crest worms in her body and prevent them from gluttonously feeding on her own reserves. In essence it was like creating a massive magic circuit for herself, only it was located outside her body and was used to fuel something inside herself instead of a spell.
Of course Sakura never told Rin this. Partially because if she did she would guilt her sister by telling her what had become of her body, and more importantly because it would end with her revealing that she had sex with Shirou fairly regularly. Technically she could last a good two and a half months now with the way she had things set up, but "just to be safe" she told him that it would be best if they did the nasty every couple of weeks.
It wasn't like anyone was getting hurt by the little lie.
"Someone has to." The elder female shrugged as she looked at her sister's form skeptically before turning her head back to the book she was reading. "Shirou would just try to solve everything by himself and end up getting hurt, and you're too shy overall to speak up."
"I'll have you know that I have been getting better." Sakura pouted childishly. "Just last week I had to berate Fuji-sensei for acting childishly and eating too much."
"Woo hoo. You talked down to an adult that has the mind of an eight year old. You must be so proud." Rin sarcastically cheered in a monotone voice as she turned the page and continued to read her book. "Huh. So that's how it's done…"
"Sempai…" The younger grumbled before taking in a deep breath and calming herself down again and repeating her forms. Rin was always like this outside of the public eye, so there was no point in getting irritated with her. Besides, performing her stances was a great way for her to relax, much like archery practice.
Just flow through the forms slowly. Relax. Close your eyes and listen to the quiet around you. Let the cool summer night air brushing against your limbs while you memorize your heartbeat. The distant chirping of the insects nearby…
"Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you. Shirou got back a couple of hours ago." Rin interrupted her sister's self meditation, causing the girl to trip in midstep and fall to the ground clumsily.
"RIN!" Sakura shouted irritably, forgetting any and all form of formality this time.
"What?" The elder grinned in a way that clearly said that she knew exactly what she was doing.
Not giving her elder sister the stuttering reaction that would indicate that she had won, Sakura picked herself up. "Could you at least wait until I was done before telling me this?"
"Excuse me for not telling you sooner then." The Tohsaka smirked before turning back to her book. "I wouldn't bother going to him right now though. From what I've gathered he seems a bit tired from his trip. That Fraga woman came with him, so she'll probably force him to shower or rest first before doing anything else."
The Matou looked at her host skeptically for a moment. "Rin-sempai. You've been with me all day. How could you have known how Shirou looked like when he got back? He made you promise to stop setting up detection bounded fields around his home anymore."
"True." The elder admitted shamelessly. "However he forgot to make me swear to not set up familiars outside of his home to inform me of the same thing."
"That's a very underhanded Sempai." Sakura frowned in disapproval. "I expected more out of you."
"Do you want to bug Shirou later or not?" Rin asked with a deadpanned expression, clearly not buying her sister's chastising for a moment. The truce was still on, but it was still anyone's race to get the moron to notice the feelings of the two of them.
"I'm only going because I want to see how he's doing." Sakura defended unconvincingly. "You said he wasn't doing well. He might need help."
"Mhm. Now whose the one that's being untruthful?" The elder yawned.
"Don't pretend you aren't worried too. I can tell you are giving him time to rest before you drill him for details." The younger observed, getting a twitch from her host. "You have been getting fairly lazy since Shirou began making those jewels for you."
"Hey! My little side business has been helping me get back all the property that idiot Kotomine lost me when he took me in!" Rin snapped.
Ever since the fourth grail war ended and Rin, and subsequently all the Tohsaka properties, were put under the priest's care, the man had been haphazardly losing possession of piece after piece of land until in essence all that was legally left under the Tohsaka name was the girl's home. This meant that most of the income that came from owning all the plots of land had disappeared as well and left Rin fairly limited when it came to practicing her jewelcraft magic until Shirou came along.
Now a year after the girl had begun selling Shirou's spiritually infused crystals, Rin had managed to purchase some of the land back, and with it a portion of her family's original income, utilizing her magic to hypnotize the original owners to believe that she was older of course, but the deals themselves were still legit… to a degree.
"Besides. You make it sound like I haven't given him anything in return for his work." The girl continued. "I've been teaching him basic jewelcraft the entire time he's been working… I mean helping me. I mean, sure, he stinks at it. Even if the crystals were in the shape of a sword, his prana insertion efficiency is at best thirty percent compared to my ninety eight point seven percent efficiency, but still he claims it helps him out on occasion, and who am I to prove him otherwise?"
Sakura didn't say anything, and didn't need to say anything, as she continued to stare at her sister accusingly.
Rin fidgeted in place. "Would it help if I said that I was planning on remodeling his kitchen while he was gone to give it the equipment and quality of a five star variety the next time he left on vacation?"
The younger magus fidgeted, no doubt torn between standing up for Shirou and thinking about all she could do with such a kitchen. "… Perhaps."
"Glad we came to an understanding then. Now finish up your stances and…"
Rin was cut off as her doorbell rang. In actuality it was really a cheap piece of magic that did the exact same thing as a doorbell. To be blunt the Tohsaka had made it as a small project when she was younger after the original mechanism broke, but since her spell was doing so well she felt there was no need to correct it and get a real doorbell.
"That's odd." Sakura tilted her head to the side curiously. "Who would want to talk to you so late at night?"
"Most likely no one with pleasant thoughts in mind." Rin frowned as she quickly looked through the eyes of a familiar she had posted near the front of her home. "Three foreigners. All of them magi. They look like nobles."
"From the Association?" The younger girl shifted uncomfortably. She had enough trouble dealing with her grandfather and her limited experience with the magical world. Getting involved with elements from the other side of the planet understandably didn't appeal to her much.
Rin gave her sister a comforting smile. "Don't worry. If they've come here, obviously it's for business. Just stay out of sight and let me do all the talking." Her smile became more sincere. "Besides, if things get too rough, I can just tell them that the Magus Killer is currently in town and that I'm good friends with him."
"Sempai. I don't think that Shirou would like having his reputation being used for something like this…" Sakura frowned disapprovingly.
The Tohsaka merely waved her hand lazily to brush aside her sister's comment and got up. "Oh please. You make it sound like it's something that I wasn't planning on exploiting at some point in my life."
"True, but I was expecting you to at least be a bit more creative and resourceful before pulling out that card Sempai." Sakura countered. "It would be fairly cheap and shallow to rely on such a card so early in negotiations wouldn't it?"
Rin faltered in mid step before catching herself and continuing onward with a confident step. "Humph." She snorted, flipping one of her pigtails in the process. "Who do you think I am? Of course I know that. I was merely stating what I would rely on should things turn sour. The odds of requiring Shirou's help for something like this is minimum at best…"
o. o. o.
Emiya Household:
Shirou groaned as he picked himself up from his bathtub. He was exhausted. He was tired. He was hungry. But most of all he just wanted to forget.
Save for a dozen or so survivors that he had managed to convince Bazett-nee and the other enforcers to spare and just wipe the memory of, everyone in the village he had been sent to had been killed or turned into undead, which were subsequently killed. He may have finished off the vampire that caused the entire debacle, but unfortunately at the cost of far too many lives… no, even if it was at the cost of one life he would have felt the price would have been too high…
But this wasn't the first time he had encountered this kind of situation. In fact, this was the third time he had been sent out to kill an Apostle while on vacation. One of those hunts happened to unfortunately involve sibling vampires, something the not-quite-human desperately never wanted to encounter again after his initial encounter with Louvre's family.
This latest hunt, however, his first time dealing with a city that he had reached too late. He had always mulled over what his father had told him about Apostle hunts, about how much death was truly left over in their wake but… to actually walk through one was beyond sobering. The streets had been littered with the bodies of demonic beasts, undead humans, and unfortunate carcasses. Looking over the slaughter of men, women, and children reminded Shirou of a painful fact his father had told him once when he was training. Death was indiscriminate.
Even after he had been satisfied with the fact that all the monsters inside the town were killed, there had been much unpleasant work that needed to be done. The few survivors remaining had been accounted for, hypnotized, and taken out of the village. They would never know what happened, but the images would still haunt their nightmares for years to come. The bodies of the dead and the monsters were piled in the middle of the small village by those that remained, primarily the other enforcers there that had come with him and Bazett to manage the situation. Much to his displeasure, they had decided set the place ablaze in order to destroy any and all evidence of thaumaturgy that had taken place there. While it was standard procedure, the entire situation and the way it was treated left a bad taste in his mouth.
There was more than enough death and fire there to give him quite a few flashbacks from the Fuyuki Fire... mostly when he slept now.
Getting a towel and covering his nether regions, the teen hunched over his sink and looked at himself in the mirror. His body had become more toned as of late. His muscles were more defined, though still retaining a good portion of its young and slim appearance. His arms were more refined than his body, no doubt due to the additional physical work and fighting he had been performing recently. His skin had darkened by another shade, so now it looked like he had a constant and notable tan, though few would still peg him as anything other than Japanese. His head didn't really have the round shape that most Filipino's seemed to possess. Save for a few minor scratches on his body left behind from his recent apostle hunts, his skin was smooth thanks to Avalon's influence and, if he were to admit it, his partial transformed state.
However his hair on the other hand was clearly his most defining trait. It was now half silvery white now. Combined with his original red hair, his head appeared to be something akin to white hot embers, only instead of coals it was hair.
He brushed a few wet strands out of his eyes. He would need to get a trim soon. He didn't have much time to take care of it as of late and it was starting to get annoying. An inch or two should do the trick…
He paused as he looked at himself and frowned. His normally light brown eyes glanced at their reflection for several moments, taking in their haunted and weathered appearance and the small bags underneath them-
…Before momentarily turning pure silver and observing everything around them in an instant and turning back with a wince.
"I see you are still not completely accustomed to the new state of your eyes Lord Emiya." A smooth male voice from above stated calmly, though it did not cause the young man to react in surprise in the slightest.
"I should have expected you and Merem-san to come around now." The Magus Killer sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Couldn't you have at least done this when I wasn't half naked?"
The King of Rats chuckled humbly from inside the vents of the room. "I'm afraid not. Your enforcer companion would detect me should I have appeared anywhere else in your home."
"I see." Shirou grunted and sat on a small stool in the room. "My thanks then for allowing me to rest a bit before revealing yourself."
"I like to consider myself, if anything, a considerate divine beast." The pure white rat nodded in thanks. "So how have you progressed with your eyes? You know you did give us quite a scare when you first activated them. You were quite lucky that we were around when you did, otherwise who knows what could have happened."
The Emiya nodded in bitter acknowledgment, remembering the incident from six months ago…
He had been doing some minor training with managing his vampiric impulses with Merem while performing some of his thaumaturgy when it had happened.
Pure Eyes.
A weaker form of genetic thaumaturgy than Mystic Eyes that describes eyeballs with magic circuits, Pure Eyes are used to describe ocular powers that enable the user to see things that cannot normally be seen. This is opposed to Mystic Eyes, which are used to enact specified magic upon the outside world.
A simple example would be that Pure Eyes enable someone to see the future, while Mystic Eyes enable someone to set things on fire by looking at them.
The acquiring of them happens when there is some kind of mutation in the magic circuits located in the area of a person's eyes, either from birth or through some other means. They can also be artificially made through a process similar to making a Thaumaturgical crest, though only a very small range of powers can be acquired through this method.
Apparently, Shirou had managed to gain Pure Eyes due to the unlikely yet convenient blend of his body's natural familiarity with structural grasping and his physical semi vampirized state. It was not that unexpected of an event since many Dead Apostles eventually developed Mystic Eyes of their own should they live long enough, most of the time ending up with the Enchantment variety, though many were not that strong to begin with. In Shirou's case, the end result of the mutations was eyes that could be best described as the Pure Eyes of Structural Grasping…
And they were a complete hindrance to Shirou.
Originally, when Shirou wanted to gain information on an object that wasn't immediately stored into his Reality Marble, all he would have to do is focus a tiny amount of prana to his eyes, look at his target, and delve into it a bit. If he wanted more information, he would have to push a bit more into the object's structure, but otherwise it wasn't that bad. No extra information would go through his head, and he got what he wanted.
Now though? Now he had to approach things in a completely different way. When his eyes activated, he didn't simply grasp the insides of the object he wanted. Oh no. If he wasn't careful, he would take in the structural information of absolutely everything in his line of sight at once without exception.
Taking in such a direct massive influx of information at once was far beyond what the human mind could handle, save for maybe a select few individuals from Atlas, and it showed. When Shirou first accidentally activated his eyes during his training and burst no less than five major blood vessels in his brain at once, followed by bleeding from the eyes, ears, and nose, screaming incomprehensible words of pain, and then finally blacking out. This was of course, not including the horrific amount of pain he went through during the episode.
Merem had claimed later he had a hell of a time keeping Shirou's disappearance a secret while simultaneously trying to fix the teen's damages and figure out what had happened. Honestly, so long as Merem had kept him away from Kirei despite his wounds, Shirou would have been just as happy.
Though, he would admit that he was wary of what would happen if the Queen found out about his eyes.
It had taken an unnaturally large amount of time, effort, and luck for the teen to regain the use of his most basic and useful magical ability while keeping his crippling status hidden from everyone else he knew, and even now his current skill with it was significantly less than it had been before his eyes evolved.
What took him at most a second to scan or identify under normal circumstances now took at least five in order to prevent his brain from exploding. Ten or more if he had to reinforce his eyes in order to see the object from a fair distance away. Switching between objects took even longer to do. Then there was the fact that he was prone to getting headaches every time he used them carelessly…
Thankfully though this did not in any way affect his ability to instantly record, analyze, and trace anything that could be stored within his reality marble with a mere glance, prana not required. Also he could still structurally grasp an object normally if he was in physical contact with it, however he knew in many cases such an approach would not be practical or safe to do.
That wasn't to say that the eyes came with no benefits... though if Shirou was asked, he would still have gotten rid of them in exchange for his old eyes back. In addition to the standard influx of data stemming from the tracing process, he also could obtain basic Physic based information on them as well including coordinates with respect to himself, velocities, accelerations, etc.
Additionally, he had significantly less trouble gaining information from structures with internal sources of energy, aka people, familiars, mystical objects, vampires and so on. Normally this would be fairly hard for him to do since internal reserves of prana caused disruptions in spells casted upon them directly. However, Shirou's new eyes seemed to have little trouble getting around this. He still couldn't determine a person's element like Sirius could, but knowing how their bodies were built and if they had any existing wounds were just as good.
Shirou theorized that with enough practice, if he ever got used to the damn things without killing himself, he could eventually evolve his eyes enough to see instantaneous concepts in objects such as 'trajectories' and 'intended paths and targets'. But like most everything else involving his magic, he had to get used to using them without blowing up his brain first before he could ever try something like that. At the rate he was going, he was fairly certain that it would take him years if not decades in order to achieve such a proficiency.
"They're still more trouble than they're worth." The Emiya sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose to relieve some of his stress.
The divine beast laughed. "Perhaps. It certainly wouldn't be the first time I have heard of mystic or pure eyes driving the wielder insane from their use… though of course my Master and myself are rather humbled by their potential. True they are not Mystic eyes, but the ability to obtain such grand amounts of information from the world so quickly is a rather valuable asset to claim. Given the choice both of us would rather have your eyes than the Mystic Eyes of Enchantment that most Apostles possess…"
The rat chuckled again. "Indeed. It is quite ironic that your altered status has enabled you to possess another ability that would qualify as Silver under the noble color scheme…"
"Why are you here?" Shirou frowned, wanting to change the subject. "Even if Merem-san had been waiting for me, he normally lets me have a day of rest from travel before having you come in contact with me. Is something the matter?"
"Master was going to visit, however he has recently discovered a moderate increase in magus activity in this city within the past few hours." The rat admitted. "It does not look like anything will get violent soon, however due to this unexpected turn of events, he felt it would be appropriate to at least send his greetings and apologies for not being able to spend time with you during your break." The rodent shook his head in depression. "A shame too, we are quite fond of your cooking."
The Magus Killer let out a brief grin of amusement, while pride in his cooking swelled in his chest. "There's no need for either of you to apologize. It was merely inconvenient timing that ruined your plans. I'll try to make it up to both of you the next time we get together. I'll make some of that four cheese pizza you like and that eastern European soup that Merem-san seems to be pretty fond of."
"F-four cheese? H-Homemade? F-For me?! You spoil me Lord Emiya!" The King of Rats declared.
Shirou laughed more now, the rat's reaction amusing him enough to cause some of the exhaustion in his body to seem lighter. "It's no trouble my friend. You and Merem-san have helped me out so much. Cooking you your favorite dishes every once in a while is the least I can do to say thanks."
"It is I that should be thanking you!" The rat bowed politely. "I am rarely treated so well once people know of my true nature save for my master. You truly are an outstanding individual."
"I am honored to be held in such high regard by a king." The Faker smiled happily before calming down. "Before you leave, can you possibly answer a few questions of mine?"
"Oh? It is rare for you to actually ask me for information. If it is my ability to do so, then by all means ask." The familiar replied.
"It's about this new tenth ancestor, the Ash of Miracles." Shirou started aimlessly, not noticing his animal friend's stiffening of posture. "There have been many rumors of him going around recently, but save for those, no one seems to know anything about him. Even the members of the Association with Dead Apostle contacts are completely oblivious to who this guy is." He sighed and began to stretch his weary limbs, letting the warm humid air gently massage his tired muscles. "To be honest, it's starting to get on Lady Barthomelloi's nerves, and she has made it fairly obvious that she doesn't like not knowing anything about this guy."
Fairly obvious was an understatement. He had unfortunately been in the same room as her and an informant when she was having a bad day and witnessed her quite clearly express her displeasure with the man for his inability to come up with anything. At this point, Shirou just wanted to get something to sate the woman's hunger for information before she made things even more unpleasant for the people around her.
"I hate to put you in a position, but would it be possible for you to tell me something about him?"
The King of Rats shifted unevenly as he tried to think of how to best deal with this awkward situation. He had no doubt that his master would be more than amused about this when he reported back later tonight. "Unfortunately, I am obligated to reveal next to nothing about the new tenth. His identity is being kept secret for a multitude of reasons, even from himself."
"That's somewhat concerning." Shirou frowned. "Normally apostles are quite vocal about their status, much like nobles in the Association. For him to not want to be known could mean many things."
"Indeed." The familiar laughed nervously. "I can say however that his position is unsteady. The title of the Tenth at this point could easily be given to another Apostle should they kill him and meet the qualifications of the rank before he acquires the appropriate power." The rat hesitated. "He could also lose the position if you…"
"No." The teen interrupted firmly, but still kindly. "I know where you are going, and my answer is the same. I will not become the Tenth."
"I assumed as much. You are still quite unused to your condition after all. Best to give you a decade or so to adapt." The King sighed. "Regardless, the only other thing I believe I can get away with informing you is that he is remarkably humane. He does not drink blood unless it's an absolute necessity, and even then avoids attacking others whenever possible. Other than that, he has almost no contact with the rest of the Apostles and mostly keeps to himself."
"Sounds like an introvert." Shirou muttered, ignoring the snort from above, assuming that his guess was amusing in some odd vampire related way. "Wonder how he was risen to the level of the Tenth then. Still I can't argue with that kind of approach. Lady Barthomelloi would still try to hunt him as soon as possible, but until we actually find the guy that's probably not going to happen."
"Which is good for him." The rat nodded knowingly before turning to the dark vents. "Now by your leave Lord Shirou, I have to report back to Master. As always it has been pleasant to speak to you. We shall speak again soon…"
Shirou sighed as he felt the minor distortion in reality that always was present whenever the King of Rats was around slowly go away, indicating that he truly did just leave, before getting up and finishing up his cleaning.
"You certainly took your time." Bazett pouted as she stood waiting outside the bathroom door with her cleaning supplies and some extra clothes. "If you hogged all the hot water, make no mistake I will beat you senseless for your selfishness. I haven't had a decent bath in over a week. We only had those cheap European showers to work with and those aren't relaxing in the slightest."
The Emiya laughed sheepishly in his towel and the Shroud of Martin once again reshaped as an undershirt on his body. Normally he would be more prudish about being so under clothed in front of others, but considering all that he and his other sister figure had gone through, it didn't bother him much if it was just her. She was mature enough to not let such a thing bother or affect her. Taiga on the other hand… no. Not a chance in hell if he could help it. "Eheheh. Sorry Nee-san. I guess I just got a bit too relaxed in there."
The Enforcer crossed her arms and sighed, looking at him pityingly before sighing. "There's no need to apologize Shirou. This is your place, and in all honesty you deserve a break. This hunt was rough for you since we didn't get to the apostle in time to stop him. I know it must have been hard for you to deal with the realization that we didn't get there on time…"
The images of several dead bodies flashed through the teen's mind. None of them were put down in a clean manner. "I hate to admit it, but I'm beginning to truly understand why dad's methods were so violent and desperate when he took out a target." He stated dryly. "Even if they involved more casualties than anyone would have preferred, they took out the targets easily and prevented things from getting to… THAT degree…"
The elder nodded solemnly before patting the teen on the shoulder. "Get some rest. Knowing you, you probably haven't had any since the night before the village."
"And for good reason." Shirou grumbled as he walked to his room. "I'm going to cook something quick before going to sleep though. It'll take my mind off of things…"
"If you're taking requests, can you please see if you have any hamburger? You always add the best spices to them unlike the cheap stuff you get from restaurants." The purple haired Irishwoman asked hopefully as she closed the door.
It was a sad fact that regardless of her skill, employment, and relation to Shirou, Bazett still had horrific luck when it came to monetary affairs, either with losing her wallet or getting her accounts hacked, or any other number of unfortunate circumstances. This led to her employing a less than idealistic history and lifestyle that included cheap food and occasional embarrassing side jobs.
In fact Sirius had a collage somewhere of pictures of her in a number of embarrassing work uniforms that she had worn before becoming an Enforcer. The evil bastard of an old man had also thought ahead when he made the thing as that photo collection was horrifically durable to the point of somehow being nearly indestructible. Bazett could attest to that personally.
"If we have it, consider it done." The Emiya smiled, pleased that he could once again be useful without having to hurt anyone again doing one of the things he enjoyed to do the most.
It had taken him less than a few minutes to get some light clothing on. He decided to just wear the shroud on his upper body since he wasn't going anywhere, and a pair of sweatpants so he didn't have to get changed later to go to sleep.
Happily thinking to himself of what to make as he walked to his kitchen, he was interrupted when he heard the doorbell ring.
The teen checked the time curiously and saw that it was close to nine thirty. Not horrifically late, but not a time that anyone really got guests either.
Another ring from the door prompted him to make haste to the entrance, and slowly feel more tired with each step he took. He could think of several people that would come visit him at this point in time, and to be perfectly honest each and every one of them would cause him to stay up longer than he really wanted to right now. But he was if anything else, an accommodating host.
He was beginning to worry about the possibility of having to cook for additional guests and if he had enough food in stock. He had just come back from a month long trip, and while he was certain that he had some meats in his freezer and other supplies in the kitchen, he wasn't sure if he had enough to accommodate much more than maybe two or three people if that was the case. Meat was expensive and if his guests preferred to eat eastern cuisine…
The third bell rang just as he was in front of the door, snapping Shirou out of his thoughts. Had he paid more attention, he would have notices that there were multiple distinct scents of prana coming from the other side. "Yes. I'm coming!" He stated. As he opened the door…
And saw Rin, Sakura, Luvia, Marjatta, and the Edelfelt butler Sebastian standing in front of him, all waiting expectantly.
He must have been more tired than he thought. He was beginning to hallucinate horrifically terrifying images…
o. o. o.
Twenty minutes later:
"You five better have a good reason for interrupting my bath." Bazett grunted irritably with wet hair and in casual clothing consisting of khaki pants and a loose t-shirt as she sat at the head of the living room table with the five guests sitting around it, looking at her with varying levels of fear. "I was just about to reach nirvana when you showed up."
"Shouldn't we wait for Shirou-kun to finish cooking for us before we explain?" Sakura asked hesitantly, looking at the kitchen where said owner of the home was frantically trying to prepare enough food for everyone there. While his initial reaction to seeing them was rather amusing at first, it was clearly apparent that the sudden visit didn't do the teen any favors as he began rather sloppily to attempt to be a good host to everyone. His act had cleaned up, but everyone could tell that the male was considerably tired from how much noise he was making in the kitchen.
"Don't care. Interrupted relaxing bath time. It's your fault you didn't bother to wait till tomorrow for this, so you're going to explain it twice." The Enforcer growled dangerously.
"And who are you to tell us what to do?" Marjatta Edelfelt snorted while crossing her arms. "As far as I can tell, you are just another commoner that has no idea who you are addressing…"
"Bazett Fraga McRemitz." Luvia's eyes narrowed knowingly and interrupting her sister before she dug herself into a deeper hole. "Enforcer of the Association. It is an honor to meet someone of your skill."
"You've done your homework Edelfelt, and thank you for the compliment. Most nobles tend to spit on those in my profession." Bazett briefly nodded her head without breaking eye contact. "How do you know of me?"
The blonde teen flipped her hair haughtily in a reflexive manner. "It was a small thing really. There had been word of an Enforcer training and traveling with the Magus Killer during his missions for a while now. All I had to do was a little research into your background to find out what you looked like and who you were."
"A Fraga?" Marjatta raised an eyebrow, recognizing the well known name of the rather isolated but very old family of magi.
"Yes, but I would appreciate it if you didn't talk about my family. I haven't spoken to them in years." The identified woman frowned. "Now, once again. Why. Are. You. Here?"
"That would be my fault I'm afraid." Rin sighed aridly, waving a hand lazily. "You see I've been using dear Shirou's rather unique skills to help me make a fair number of spiritually infused jewels and then selling them to the European magus community. While it has made me a rather sizeable profit which I have been putting to restoring my family's fortune, it has also gained me the attention of Edelfelt-san's family. They were quite curious as to how I was able to produce such a vast quantity of quality gems for experimentation and, well, here we are."
"And the reason why you decided to come so late at night instead of bothering to wait?" Bazett questioned tiredly.
The Tohsaka shrugged casually. "Well that was a mistake on my part. I merely knew that he had recently arrived, not the exact condition he was in when he did so. Also, it happens that Shirou was acquaintances with Edelfelt-san here, so when we realized that we both knew him, we decided to kill several birds with one stone. We would reacquaint ourselves with our friend while finishing up our business."
Sakura tried very hard not to give her sister a cold look. In reality it had only taken around ten minutes for Luvia and Rin to exchange not so subtle death threats during their negotiations of a new jewel exchange deal. Neither teen was giving the other an inch in terms of negotiations before Rin let Shirou's name slip out of her mouth. Then a whole new can of worms was opened as she and Rin realized that Luvia was somehow an acquaintance of Shirou's… and the Magus Killer.
Rin, somehow managing to prevent herself from even showing that she found the whole double identity thing absolutely hilarious, then suggested that it considering the circumstances it would be unfair to continue having this sort of business discussion without Shirou there to act as a neutral party. In all honesty, Sakura had a feeling that Rin arranged this whole meeting just to amuse herself while subtly strong arming Shirou into giving her a favorable deal.
Sakura had to hand it to the Tohsaka though. She didn't know how, but the dark haired girl had made it so far without so much as a giggle of amusement, however she was fairly certain her sister did crack an evil smirk several times on the way to the Emiya household.
"Just curious Bazett-nee-san, what are you doing here?" Sakura asked curiously. "We haven't seen you for years."
The Enforcer closed her eyes before stretching tiredly, inadvertently causing her impressive bust to stick out a bit more than intended for everyone to see. "To be honest I just finished up an Apostle hunt up in northern Sweden. It was a pain in the ass and it didn't end well. Long story short we got the bastard, but he got the town we caught him in, forcing us to torch it. So, I decided to go on a quick break and crash at Shirou's for a couple of days to unwind a bit before getting back on the job. It was by pure coincidence that we met up in England and he was going back home, so I kinda invited myself over."
Sebasian frowned. "From the looks of the boy, one would think that he was the one that had fought the Apostle."
The woman didn't blink as she looked at the only man sitting in the room before shrugging. "The kid doesn't take traveling well. It's a long trip from England to Japan you know. Some of us can't afford to travel first class to every place we want to go." She turned to Rin. "So what exactly is this deal you were talking about earlier?"
The Tohsaka heir yawned. "Oh it's what you would expect. Mass production of spiritually infused jewels for the Edelfelt family at reduced prices in exchange for a constant customer and benefits. What the benefits are and what the prices are are yet to be determined though."
"I would have believed that my original offer would have been sufficient to appeal to one in her position, however it seems as if Miss Tohsaka here enjoys overstepping her bounds." Luvia smiled in a strained manner.
"Funny. I expected as much from a rich and spoiled individual such as yourself." Rin growled sweetly.
"Hey!" Shirou shouted from the kitchen. "Don't think I can't hear you two pretend to be nice to one another! Don't make me set off my bounded fields to make sure my house doesn't blow up!"
Marjatta raised an eyebrow. "Humph. Who does he think he is? He is merely a third rate magus. What kind of weak bounded fields does he have set up that make him think that it would affect our magic?" Rin had to suppress a wince at that, recalling the one time she had barged in his home and 'attempted' to kill him. Having one's magic rendered explosive in their face was not a pleasant experience.
"Um." Sakura pointed out. "Actually to my knowledge he's good enough to have a fully paid scholarship to the Clocktower."
The younger blonde frowned. "Him? How? He's just a third rate nobody."
"Can we not talk about positions in Magus society in my home with other nobles please!?" Shirou shouted from the kitchen. "I'd like to make sure that the house stays in one piece when everyone leaves tonight!"
"It's not like he would be losing much." Marjatta snorted as she looked around, eyeing the traditional Japanese home with disdain before grimacing at the wide screen tv in one of the corners. "There is nothing of value here, and it is clear he isn't of nobility. Look at how much he squanders on primitive commoner appliances."
"It is rude to insult a person's home while he is treating you to a meal." Sakura frowned disapprovingly at the teen her age.
"Humph. He should be honored that he is given the chance to host my sister and I in his… home." The girl stuck her nose up in the air defiantly.
Luvia sighed, noting the looks of irritation that Bazett, Rin and Sakura were giving her sister. "Please forgive my sibling. As you can see, she is not very adaptable to environments outside the standard of our noble raising."
"Kid. Let me just give you some advice as a person that's been on the road a lot and seen many things." Bazett stated calmly before leaning back and seemingly relaxing. "Don't piss off the people that make your food. Trust me on this. You don't want to know what they could do to your food without you ever knowing."
Rin and Sakura looked at one another knowingly. On the one hand, the woman was indeed correct in that rule of thumb. On the other hand… this was Shirou she was talking about. The boy was more likely to cut off a finger than willingly sabotage one of his dishes, let alone feed a person some sort of horrifying or disgusting concoction for his own personal satisfaction.
Marjatta on the other hand didn't seem to get the hint. "As if I would fall for such a simple and lowborn trick."
Bazett sighed and shrugged aridly. "Fine, don't believe me. Just don't say I didn't warn you the next time you find a hair in one of the meals your servants made you… or if you were in a restaurant and annoyed the waiter too much…"
A faint twitch in the girl's eyebrow was all it took to show everyone there that Bazett's "warning" had indeed taken root. It might not get anything out of the girl soon, but it would fester and grow with time until… and the final results would be beautiful. Just a shame none of them would probably get to see the end.
Sebastian suppressed a brief chuckle by clearing his throat and making himself known again. "Ehem. I do not mean to be rude, but could we by chance go back to the subject at hand?"
"Right. To make a long story short, you two don't get along and are trying to set up a deal. In order to try and get things done, you involve Shirou to act as a mediating third party." Bazett yawned. God she wanted to go back to her bath now.
"Pretty much." Sakura nodded.
"I still don't see why she is here with us." Marjatta frowned. "She doesn't have anything to do with the deal.
"She is here of my support." Rin crossed her arms. "If Edelfelt-san here, who is clearly the heir to her family name, is allowed to have her assistants accompany her, then I am entitled to do the same…"
"We are both heirs to the Edelfelt name!" The younger blonde snapped. If there was anything she hated, it was when people assumed that her sister was the only one that inherited her family crest and she was left to dry. No matter who it was, Luvia was the one that everyone assumed was the one in charge.
"Tohsaka, if you do not mind, please do not goad my sister." Luvia's eyes narrowed while hiding the fact that she didn't want to have to deal with this situation again. "If you are as well informed as you claim, then you are well aware of Ore Scales."
"Ore Scales?" Sakura blinked in confusion.
"Sisters." Rin smiled sweetly, though the thought of the subject clearly left a bitter taste in the speaker's mouth. "It's a sorcery trait that the Edelfelt family has that enables them to have two successors for each individual line of magi, meaning that siblings can have identical copies of their parent's crests, and so on."
She didn't bother to notice the twitch in Sakura's face, realizing how invaluable such a thing could have been, for them in particular. "It's a very convenient thing to have."
"Indeed." Luvia nodded confidently. "Both my sister and I already have our copies of our family's diverse and ancient crest, so I would appreciate it if you treated her with the same respect you would treat me, as a head of the Edelfelt family."
The Tohsaka looked at the younger one skeptically. "As she has yet to actually do anything productive during our negotiations, I'm afraid I can't abide by that request." She stated aridly, ignoring the girl's look of outrage. "Now if she did contribute something of value while we were here, then maybe I would treat her with some respect…"
"You want a reason to respect me you backwater excuse for a magus?" Marjatta growled as she stood up and began to activate her circuits…
… And was stopped as she found one of Bazett's hands on her neck. "As far as the nobility standard goes, you still have a long way to go before you even qualify as short tempered." The Enforcer stated calmly while keeping pressure on the girl's neck. "There will be no fighting in this house if I have anything to say about it."
Fast… Marjatta and Luvia noted to varying degrees of nervousness as neither one of them saw Bazett move before she was behind her target. On the other side of the table though, Rin and Sakura were for the most part unsurprised by the recent turn of events, nor the woman's physical prowess.
Looks like she's been learning a bit of Shirou's reinforcement magic. Rin noted casually as she eyed the woman's clothes. None of the pieces of cloth possessed the physical enhancing runes that are all over her gloves and business suits. I only saw her fight once but now I can see for certain why Shirou puts her abilities on such a high pedestal…
"It may be a bit late, but please excuse my ladies for their rudeness." Sebastian bowed, gaining everyone's attention. "We had only recently arrived in your country and like yourself Ms. Fraga, we are rather weary from travel."
Luvia's eyed everyone in the room before letting out a sigh of weariness and fanning herself. "Hm. Yes. I am loath to admit it, but we are not truly accustomed to traveling significantly long distances and remaining clear of mind." She looked at her sister momentarily. "Marjatta, we will discuss your behavior when we get back to our hotel. Until then it would be best if you did not speak unless addressed." She turned to Bazett. "If you would please…"
The enforcer let go of the teen roughly before walking back to her seat and sat down tiredly.
Sakura couldn't help but smile briefly in victory over the other girl her age, even though she didn't really do anything. Deep down Sakura was indeed jealous of Marjatta, but she would not admit it, not even to herself. In the Matou's mind, the girl in front of her was a spoiled brat who was lucky that she was born into a family that didn't have to sacrifice her like she was…
Before anyone could continue on with their conversation though, Shirou came out with several plates of food. "I did the best that I could seeing that we were somewhat limited on food, but I managed to scrape together enough for seven people. Since everyone was tired from traveling I went with something simple. Fried rice with beef, chicken in teriyaki sauce, and a few other small side dishes to curb everyone's appetite… and I think I have some soda in the fridge if anyone wants some." He placed the dishes down before looking around. "So did I miss anything import…"
SLAM!
The front door to the building slammed open, grabbing everyone's attention instantly.
Oh dear god not her now. Rin, Sakura, Shirou, and Bazett all thought at once.
"Shirou!" Taiga's childish voice echoed from the main hallway. "You're back! I missed you and your cooking sooo much while you were gone visiting your friends and!" The teacher stopped in mid sentence as she skidded to a halt in front of everyone there, who was in turn staring at her with varying degrees of shock, annoyance, and embarrassment.
"Oh this is not going to end well." Rin groaned as she put her head in her hands.
"Um… Fuji-sensei… there's an explanation for this…" Sakura laughed nervously.
"Great. Just what we needed. A jester." Marjatta muttered under her breath.
"Shirou." The teacher turned to her neighbor with an unnervingly calm voice and face.
"Y-yes nee-san?" Shirou replied nervously, once again finding a new reason to be afraid of his original sister figure.
"Can you please explain why there are so many girls… and an old man here?" She asked point blank.
"Well… you see…" The teen began to sweat and retreat slowly.
"Didn't I tell you that if you began starting a harem there would be consequences?!" The woman began raising her voice in hysterics, completely ignoring Luvia, Marjatta, and Sebastian all staring at her or coughing heavily in disbelief.
"Nee-san! You know that's not what's happening here!" Shirou countered irritably. "You're letting your imagination go wild again!"
The teacher crossed her arms. "What? So it DOESN'T look like some sort of dangerous and shady deal is being made in your living room?!" The other magi there momentarily blinked in surprise as they didn't expect the woman to hit the nail on the head without hesitation. "The old man is a Yakuza remember? I've been in enough of these things to know when one is going down."
"Uh… well… this was kinda a surprise on me too and…" Shirou began grasping at straws at this point, and sloppily at that.
Rin groaned even louder. "Shirou you idiot. Stop talking before you make things worse."
"I will talk to you later about how messed up it is to do underworld dealings at your age Tohsaka." Taiga lectured like a teacher before turning to Shirou and began to cry. "Shirou! Where did I go wrong with you?! Not only did you go down the wrong path despite me trying to keep Kiritsugu's promise, but you won't even trust me with negotiations! Waaaaaa!" Great streams of tears flowed down her face as she cried.
"Kiritsugu?" Marjatta raised an eyebrow curiously while Luvia simply rolled her eyes.
"Nee-san please! Now isn't exactly the best time to do this." Shirou winced, hoping to calm things down while he had the chance. He turned to Bazett. "Bazett-nee. A little help?"
"What am I supposed to do?" The woman looked at him incredulously. "You're the one that knows her best."
Taiga wasn't finished as she continued to weep. "And here I was going to tell you that the old man and I got you a good gift for all your hard work… and you're doing deals behind everyone's back! This cannot go unpunished!" She paused for a moment before looking around. "Erm… hold on for a minute. I'll be right back."
Before anyone could say anything, the eccentric woman had disappeared again with the rapid thumping of her feet echoing behind her.
"… What just happened?" Marjatta blinked in confusion. "Who was that insane woman?"
"Legally she's my guardian." Shirou sighed. "In reality, she's my loving neighbor that enjoys mooching meals off of me and causes chaos in her wake."
"She's also our highschool teacher." Sakura laughed nervously.
"How on earth did that woman manage to get a license to teach children?" Sebastian wondered out loud.
"Her father's a yakuza boss so she probably had a string or two pulled." Shirou sighed. "Plus she's a hard worker. Unlike in America or other western countries, teachers here are given slightly more legroom when it comes to their behavior. She isn't one of us though, so I'd appreciate it if we didn't give her a reason to kill her or wipe her memories."
"As interesting as this conversation is, dare I ask what she may be doing that would serve as punishment?" Luvia asked curiously.
"Who knows?" Rin shrugged. "I try to ignore her when I can. Do you know Shi…" She turned to her friend to see that his face was paling drastically. "… rou? Ok, what going on?"
Before the Faker could say anything, the rampant footsteps of Taiga returned inside the house. "Shirou Emiya! Prepare for your divine punishment!" Taiga shouted as she skidded into the room…
Her cursed kendo stick in hand, radiating bloodlust like no one's business and completely stunning everyone else there save for Shirou himself.
"When the hell… I thought you lost that cursed thing!" Rin shouted in surprise and fear.
"I found it a year ago!" The teacher shouted gleefully as she approached her prey covered in a dark aura.
"It's the legendary Torashinai." Sakura shivered in as much fear as her sister was experiencing. "There are stories about its thirst for blood but…"
"Someone knock her out now!" The Emiya shouted frantically as he attempted to escape the woman's wrath…
And was somewhat let down as Bazett appeared behind the raging Tiger and knocked her out with a hit to the back of the head.
"… Well that was… anticlimactic." Sebastian blinked as he eyed the weapon. "Still, it was unexpected for that woman to actually possess a genuine cursed weapon without any side effects."
"I can't believe it…" Marjatta frowned, causing Shirou, Rin, Sakura, and Bazett to tense up instantly. "That weak looking chef is the Magus Killer?!"
"Please, it took you that long to figure it out?" Luvia rolled her eyes. "I realized that he was the Magus Killer months ago. The only time that 'Emiya' ever showed up was when the chef 'Shirou' did."
"… M-Months?" Shirou whimpered dejectedly. He had put so much effort into preventing people from identifying who he was before the Grail War started, and yet he was pegged so easily. Even though he wouldn't admit it, he was actually having some fun with the double identity thing while in the Association. It made him feel like a real superhero. To have his "secret identity" found out so quickly after going on the job was like getting stabbed in his self confidence. Multiple times.
"And you didn't tell me?!" Marjatta shot at her sister accusingly.
The elder shrugged, taking her sister's anger in stride. "I was fairly certain that it was the case, but I had no concrete proof. It would be highly irresponsible if I had begun to throw accusations everywhere without evidence and wound up endangering someone that was innocent." She didn't want to point out that Luvia had no intention of ever telling her little hotheaded sister if the suspicions were correct. As much as she loved her, Marjatta was currently mentally unsuited for managing situations such as this.
A not so polite cough from Rin drew attention to her. "Aside from the fact that I really should have assumed that you wouldn't have been able to hide yourself for long Shirou, may I ask why Taiga-sensei has her cursed sword again? A cursed sword that I specifically had the fake priest dismantle shortly after we had initially met?"
Shirou laughed nervously. "I-It was an experiment?"
The Tohsaka frowned, with a rapid twitch of her eyebrow, before looking at the discarded weapon and performed her own version of Tracing on it. While she was nowhere near as good as Shirou, she could home in on one particular step at a time on an object with little issue. What she found though was somewhat surprising.
"It really is a year old… but it hasn't degenerated at all." She muttered in disbelief before turning to him again. "Shirou… we are going to have a long conversation about what you just did when we have some time to ourselves."
"I take it you know how his magic works to some degree then." Luvia mused curiously.
"Oh you have no idea." Rin grunted irritably without taking her eyes off of the Emiya.
"By any chance… did you happen to meet his father before he died?" The Edelfelt asked curiously. "After I met Shirou here, I developed an interest in his father's exploits, but other than him I haven't really met anyone that has traded a significant amount of words with the original Magus Killer."
Rin looked at her future business partner skeptically. "No I haven't. He was dead by the time I met Shirou."
"I talked to him once." Sakura offered helpfully. "When I first met Shirou, I saw Kiritsugu-san." She paused hesitantly as she called up the memory. "He was… very scary at the time though. Not cold but… empty."
Luvia raised an eyebrow. "Empty?"
Sebastian nodded as he fell back into his memories. "Hmm. That is a good way to describe him. When I encountered him as a mercenary, he seemed to act as a function. There was no true drive behind him, no emotion, no anger or anything like that. Just a purpose in the shape of a human…" He closed his eyes. "A "cold" man would constantly put others down. Only see the mistakes in others and attempt to remove all comforting feeling from others. Emiya on the other hand seemed to not care about such things and merely used mistakes and other events to plan for his next steps. He would not dissuade or insult people simply because he did not care about them in the slightest. Unless he could use them, they simply served no purpose to him. Yes… empty would be the correct term to describe him…"
"He wasn't empty." Shriou spoke up defiantly, before massaging his temple. "Look. Can we just get back onto topic please? Why is everyone in my home?"
Rin crossed her arms. "Long story short. Luvia's family buys a lot of the jewels we make and they want to make a deal. We were having trouble with the negotiations, and you came up in conversation, so we decided you'd be the final vote."
The Emiya looked at his friend skeptically. "… You do realize that even though I expected you to do so, you have not once told me that you were selling the gems we made."
"Minor details that we will discuss later." The dark haired girl waved her hand dismissively.
"Humph. I don't know what's worse. The fact that I was the last one here to know that he was the Magus Killer, or the fact that so far he appears to be the most incompetent person in the room." Marjatta rolled her eyes.
"At least he isn't obnoxious enough to insult a person who is feeding them in their own home." Sakura muttered just loud enough to be heard by everyone.
"What was that commoner?" The Edelfelt's eyes flashed angrily.
"Put your sister on a leash Luvia." Rin sighed aridly. "She seems to be detrimental for negotiations."
"Like you are one to talk." The elder blonde countered, though giving her sibling a mildly irritated look.
Sparks began to fly between the eyes of the teenaged females there as more insults were thrown back and forth to the point that Sebastian, Bazett (who had dumped the unconscious Fujimura in a guest room), and Shirou had been completely forgotten.
"Nee-san… I'm afraid." The Emiya whimpered to the Enforcer. "I want my home in one piece, but I don't know what will happen if I try to stop them. Plus I still don't like fighting girls that I know."
"Ignoring the fact that you have no problem fighting me, I understand your position." The Enforcer nodded. "Here's what we'll do. You take down the local girls. I got the Edelfelts. If we're fast enough, we'll be able to have dinner without anything breaking."
"Right." Shirou nodded as he got his feet under him.
"On three." The woman muttered, noting that the other girls there were starting to channel prana now. "Two…" She began, not even bothering to waste time with "one".
Just before everything in the room combusted, the doorbell rang, causing everyone to falter almost instantly.
"Saved by the bell." Sebastian breathed out in relief.
"Oh for the love of… who the hell is it this time?! An Apostle Ancestor?! I just wanted a break for once!" Bazett threw her arms in the air in frustration.
Merem. I have never thought ill of you before. Please do not give me a reason to start now. Shirou mentally prayed as he slowly got up and made his way to the door. "Please don't break anything." He pleaded. "If you have to fight, can you please wait until after dinner?"
The teens there looked at one another warily before glancing down at the rather appetizing food placed in front of them before looking at one another and sitting down again reluctantly.
"Temporary truce?" Rin asked skeptically as she began to serve herself.
"Agreed." Luvia nodded before turning to her sister. "Marjatta, if you would please abide by this decision for now. Also, can you pass the rice?"
"Oi old man." Bazett spoke up as she poured herself some soda. "If these brats start to act up again, do you mind actually helping to calm the down?"
"I will see what I can do to contribute." The elderly man nodded. "I do have to put my master's well being ahead of everything else after all."
Gritting her teeth irritably, Marjatta helped her sister with the meal, ignoring the glare that Sakura gave her as she did so. How dare that foolish backwater girl insult and belittle her? It was unforgivable! She was one of the heads of the Edelfelt family! Her linage demanded respect from all but the eldest magical families in the world!
On that thought, why was this girl even here? The Edelfelt had business with the Tohsaka, not this Matou or whatever brat. Her very existence here was in itself an insult to her pride and any kind of standard Marjatta had for these kinds of meetings. Then when things were heating up, she had the nerve to stand up to one of such a higher pedigree? It was just insulting!
"Sakura. I do not believe I need to say this, but I trust you to be able to handle yourself should we begin to argue once more." Rin sighed tiredly as if she wasn't about to destroy the room around her.
"Don't worry Rin-sempai. I am confident I can at least hold one of them off long enough for you or Shirou to save me." The Matou smiled cheerfully, causing Marjatta to become even more irritated with her.
"Huh." Bazett raised an eyebrow as two pairs of footsteps were heard coming from the main door. "Looks like we got more company."
"Uh guys?" Shirou walked in tiredly followed by a very tired Waver Velvet much to everyone's surprise. "Could some of you move over to make some room for one more?"
o. o. o.
An hour later…
Despite the fact that there was clearly a massive number of conversational topics to be made and much tension between sides throughout dinner, everyone was fed without incident. Due to Waver's position as a Lord, he managed to maintain the peace through sheer authority, intimidation, and purposefully triggering Shirou's bounded fields so that neither the Edelfelts nor Rin could fire off any ill timed curses at one another.
Shirou in particular wasn't too happy with the fact that Waver could play around with his defenses at will, but he let it slide since he enjoyed having said home in one piece.
Conveniently enough, Waver had during the meal also managed to get Luvia and Rin to agree with a deal that they could both, albeit reluctantly, be satisfied with in the long term once the situation had been explained to him in detail. The man may be a Lord, but he was also the best damn teacher in the Association and knew how to deal with teenaged nobles like no one's business.
"Ok. I think I can speak for all of us when I ask… why the hell are you here Waver?" Bazett asked bluntly in front of everyone save Shirou and Sakura who were cleaning the dishes in the kitchen.
No one that knew Shriou doubted that he desperately needed to clean right now if he wanted to make it through the night.
The Lord closed his eyes and breathed out slowly before taking out a cigar and lighting it. "I have business with both Shirou, and the Edelfelt siblings. Both topics are independent, but both are of high priority as of now. The fact that you two happened to be in the same area simply made things easier for me."
"Convenient." Rin frowned, not liking Waver's answer in the slightest. "So is there any intention of letting those not involved know what these things are?"
"It depends on the people I am to deal with." Waver casually shrugged before pausing and looking around warily. "Speaking of people, I am surprised that there are so many here and yet…"
"If you're talking about that immature nut Taiga, I knocked her out earlier and ditched her in one of the guest rooms." Bazett yawned. "I also put a rune on her to keep her unconscious so she doesn't wake up and make things random again."
"Should have made it two." The lord grumbled under his breath. "I swear that girl has twice the Od of a practiced magus and she puts it all to being energetic."
"Hmm. Shirou wouldn't bother to check that, but I'll make a mental note to do it myself." Rin nodded in agreement before remembering something. "By the way Lord El Melloi, how up to date are you with Shirou's experiments?"
Waver looked at the girl skeptically. "I admit I haven't talked to him much about them lately. He mostly relies on Sirius for them these days. Why?"
The Tohsaka took out the traced Torashinai that had been left unnoticed for a while and showed it to the man. "Shirou made this a year ago."
"A cursed kendo stick?" The lord raised an eyebrow as he inspected it casually before realizing something was off. "Wait, you said that he made this a year ago?"
"You can use the eight steps too. See for yourself." Rin stated calmly. It didn't take her long before the Lord confirmed what the girl had said.
"Fascinating." Waver muttered as he looked at the weapon from multiple angles. "The degeneration rate has been reduced to the point that it is nearly nonexistent. It is almost as if…" He blinked in realization before nodding frantically and scanning it again. "Of course. So that's how he did it. Clever. Very clever... and useful. Magnificently useful. Yes. I can see Sirius being extremely happy about the ways this can be applied to his research… as will virtually everyone in the Departments of Universal Research and Mineralogy… this can help us out significantly in understanding some very old questions…"
"What's going to help who now?" Shirou asked confused as he walked into the dining room with Sakura, having finally finished up the dishes and looking significantly more calm and collected than he did earlier.
"Let's just say that I see you making several large deliveries to the Association in the near future Shirou." Waver nodded in approval before putting down the bloodthirsty weapon. "Also I expect to see your reports on how you managed to pull this little trick off very soon."
The Emiya shifted uncomfortably as he realized that Waver had already determined what was so special about the modified Torashinai he had made for his neighbor. "I'll see what I can do Nii-san. I'll have to try and find my notes on it before I make anything to your standards." He sat down on one of his couches. "So I heard you say that you were here for me and Luvia-san and Marjatta-san."
The Lord's mood became less mirthful as he removed the cigar from his mouth and breathed out slowly. "Shirou, while I do have other things to talk to you about in private, I also have something to inform you of. Something I still am quite confused about and will hope you can explain to me if you want to."
Shirou blinked in confusion, ignorant of the expectant looks he was getting from everyone else in the room. "Sorry, but I honestly have no idea what you are talking about."
"Shirou." Waver frowned. "I was told by Lady Barthomelloi that the person you wished to get in contact with has been found."
o. o. o.
Shirou stood inside his workshop and looked around quietly. From the looks of things it seemed as if nothing had changed from the last time he had been inside. Multiple random objects, fixed and not, were strewn all over the place in a seemingly pointless fashion. Books and papers were lying open and unmoving upon the multiple benches that were placed along the walls…
And about a dozen swords were floating in the air of the workshop, not including the ones that were situated on top of his doorframe and on the supports of the building, which were preprogrammed to shoot out at anyone that attempted to barge into his workshop without his permission. For added effect, some of them would be set off in conjunction with gradient parallel to cover a wider range. Shirou initially didn't want to have defenses like this set up in his home, but over time he realized that should anyone he didn't trust barge in and read about his Reality Marble, all his efforts up until that point to save Illya would have been for nothing.
Each floating sword save one was moving in some fashion that the others were not performing. Three were rotating constantly, each on one of the basic physical XYZ axis. Another was rotating on a bizarre diagonal axis that incorporated all three of the previous basic ones. Two more were floating up and down several meters. Another two were moving back and forth parallel to the ground spanning the entire shop. One was doing circles in the air, and a tenth was doing figure eights.
The eleventh sword in the room was special in that it randomly switched functions, always moving in one manner in the air, either up and down, or in circles, before switching to another preinstalled function without any hint that it was going to do so…
But the twelfth sword that remained floating above one of the research benches merely floated there unmoving and unchanging. Unlike the other traced weapons, which had had been left alone for over a month and were beginning to show the signs of being rejected by Gaia, evident by the lack of sheen and some chips present in some of the edges, this one was still in pristine condition.
It was this last blade that Shirou had the greatest pride in as a magus, in fact it was one of his few achievements of thaumaturgy that he was actually proud of accomplishing instead of simply brushing aside his mastery of it as just another skill to use…
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, the owner of the lab walked up the stairs to the loft on the side of his workshop to pick up the first of two packages that he has premade almost a year ago. He would need it when it came to negotiating with his contact.
Turning around to the exit, the Emiya determined that nothing more could be done in the shack for now, save for one thing. Taking off his belt and placing it on another bench near the entrance, this one covered in jewelcraft related tools, Shirou began to pull off the outer layer of the simple leather frame to reveal a chain of dagger shaped gems in varying colors.
For almost a year now he had been pouring his spare prana into these jewels he had made with Rin after she had taught him how to do so. His progress in the art was horrendously slow, at best being able to store only around a third of the energy he put into them, however once he had done so the power was there to stay. Because he had an abnormal element, he would never be able to perform jewelcraft thaumaturgy with any significant skill.
Preprogrammed spells, refraction integration, reactionary lattice characteristics. His element simply would not allow him to access such phenomena unless they were already present in a sword of some kind that he had seen with his two eyes…
And honestly, how many crystal swords of notable use were there in the world?
Cutting the index fingers on both hands, Shirou went through the process of pouring his energy into the linked crystals. Rin had mentioned at one point that it was best to limit oneself when it came to this. After all, it would be pretty bad if you were caught low on energy right after storing your power away… but the teen felt that it was safer and more important for him to put as much energy as he could into these things whenever he wasn't working for Lorelei.
He felt his circuits in his body and on his chest warm up considerably as he let the magical power flow through them and into his makeshift batteries. Unconsciously his eyes turned silver as he focused completely on the task of putting his power into the gems, taking in their history, their information, the levels of energy they already possessed and watching as their charges increased painfully slowly.
"I doubt it needs saying, but it really does look like jewelcraft isn't a subject that you'll be able to excel in at any point during your lifetime." Waver observed from his workshop's doorway, completely unfazed by the blades above pointing at him. He was the one that had helped Shirou set up that particular defense after all, so he knew how to disable or avoid triggering the mechanism in the first place. He continued to watch Shirou pour more of his power into the gems and sighed. "I really shouldn't be surprised that you're overdoing this. How much power do you have in those things now?"
The Emiya remained quiet for several seconds before answering. "If I set it off now in the right place… and engineer the release correctly, I think I might be able to blow up my workshop."
Waver nodded in understanding. The boy had stored up a fairly impressive amount of energy in just a year despite his inability to use jewelcraft well. In all honesty the amount the teen had stored was nothing to brag about by itself. He was certain that the Edelfelts and the Tohsaka girl had jewels with vastly higher amounts of power stored in them, but for a kid who only started this field around a year ago, it wasn't bad.
Besides, he had a fairly good idea what Shirou was eventually going to be using the gems for anyway, and none of it involved advanced knowledge on the craft.
"Not bad." The Lord admitted out loud as he walked to the boy and eyed the gems in front of him. He had to hold back a snort as he noticed the shape the makeshift batteries were in. Swords. Of course. He should have known better. "So do you have any intention of letting anyone know who it is you're getting in contact with?"
"Not in the slightest." The teen frowned, sweat beginning to form on his forehead. "If I did, one of you might go out to try and find him and possibly ruin the deal I'm trying to set up."
"Understandable. You wouldn't have put so much effort into finding this mysterious person if it wasn't worth the effort." Waver relented. "Even I don't know the identity of this contact of yours."
"Why are you here Nii-san?" Shirou asked in a strained tone. "I thought you had to talk to the Edelfelts…"
"Bazett is keeping everyone in the house in line. Even I can tell that leaving those girls alone for any period of time is just asking for trouble." The man shrugged as he looked around casually. "… I have some bad news."
The Faker paused for a moment before cutting off his connection to his circuits and turning around warily. "What happened?"
The Lord sighed. "I'm afraid that due to some unfortunate circumstances regarding my relationship with the Archibald family, as well as a deal I had to set up with them recently, I am no longer permitted to come into direct contact with you after today."
"What?!" The teen shouted in mixed anger and surprise. "How can they… why would you agree to this?!"
"You make it sound like I had a choice in the matter." The man chuckled bitterly. "Due to my multiple failures during the Louvre incident and not informing them about your existence, I had to do something to maintain the status quo with them. They are the ones that gave me my Lord title after all. Said quo came in the form of one absolute command that I cannot go against. Granted I received some leniency due to the fact that Lady Barthomelloi is rather… content with the both of us and our services, however after I leave today I won't be able to talk to you for a period that extends past the Grail War… purposefully at least."
Shirou grit his teeth hard to the point that he wouldn't be surprised if he was bleeding. He always understood that the noble families in the Association were at best negotiable at times, but he had unfortunately forgotten how bad it could get recently. Since he was exclusively Barthomelloi's property, virtually no one could touch him save for Barthomelloi herself… which was a good or bad thing depending on who you asked. Because of this, Shirou had had little issue dealing with the other noble families there.
He was the Queen's Silver Dog. If the dog didn't force you back or kill you, the even scarier owner would without question.
"What about Sirius?" Shirou questioned in a strained tone.
"I'm allowed to talk to him to some degree, but my time with him is severely limited as well." The lord breathed out some smoke casually. "Luckily only a handful of people in the Tower know that he uses the internet, or actually knows what it does. I can use him to send some emails to you, but don't expect a quick reply."
Shirou's internal stress dropped a few marks as he was given the somewhat relieving news. "… So what now?"
"Not much has changed Shirou." Waver shrugged, his expensive coat and scarf echoing his servant's colors moving with his shoulders. "You will simply have to prepare as best you can without me. From what I can tell, the Edelfelts do not seem to be the kind of people that would spread out your identity to the rest of the Tower, so there is some good news there."
The Emiya blinked as he remembered that his identity HAD been compromised. To be honest he had completely disregarded that fact as there were more important things to worry about at the time, but now that he thought about it, having more people know who he was was definitely not a good thing.
The Lord smirked. "This might not be my place to say it but… you were discovered already? You have the ideal down, but in execution, you'd make a terrible Super Sentai."
Shirou glared at his grinning brother figure. "Hahaha. Very funny Nii-san. If you are taking our current situation so lightly, why don't you just go talk to the Edelfelts now? I'm certain that what you need to talk to them about is more important than comparing me to a children's show character."
The man's grin relaxed but remained on his face as he raised his hands in protest. "Relax Shirou. I can talk to the girls anytime I want. I'm a Lord remember? I outrank them. There's still something I have to get to you before I go anyways and in here is the perfect spot since no one can interrupt us."
The teen raised an eyebrow as Waver approached him and sat on a nearby stool. "Interrupt us? How long is this going to take?"
The Lord hesitated for a moment before taking the cigar butt out of his mouth and tossing it into the trash bin nearby, killing the embers mid flight with a minor spell. "Truthfully it should not take more than about half an hour… but." He looked around for the right words to say. "Well, you may need some time to get used to it after it's done."
He bowed his head. "Shirou, my final gifts to you in your upcoming battle are two memories of mine from the previous war. Armed with their contents, I believe you will be ready for what is to come… and at the very least I believe they will be the key to your survival."
"Memories from the war?" The boy whispered in surprise before realizing how valuable of a gift he was receiving. Should they be of fighting, he could get a good idea of what to expect from enemy servants and their physical abilities, and more importantly, how to rout them so that less people can get hurt.
The man reached forward and placed his palm on the boy's head. "Let me show you… however should you need to break out of the memories, do not hesitate to let me know."
The Emiya frowned, not liking how that sounded. "What do you mean by that?"
The Lord smiled bitterly as he responded cryptically. "You will soon find out."
o. o. o.
Six months until the war starts.
o. o. o.
A/N:
Thanks Maximorph1 for betaing.
Ok. I REALLLY wanted things to move faster, but I realized that if I did that, I'd be cutting out a lot of good plot material… or I'd be making this chapter way bigger than it needed to be. I had already cut out a few scenes here that could have been used for a small bit of plot, but decided against them upon rereading this thing for the umpteenth time.
The next chapter should be the last filler before things go straight to hell and where I FINALLY get to reveal some of the GOOD stuff I've planned for this story.
Now before I talk about anything else, let me get to the thing that's probably going to bug everyone the most here: Shirou's Pure Eyes. I knew from the start that people were going to have trouble the moment I brought these up, but in all honesty they fit in perfectly to Shirou's current circumstances. Other people will claim that I am boosting up Shirou too much from this, even though I pointed out that for all intents and purposes, the eyes do exactly the same thing he was doing before, albeit slightly better, only now they risk blowing up his brain if he isn't careful. This is NOT something that he is going to magically (no pun intended) get used to by the war. It will take him at least a decade to get used to them to reach the point that he could use them as well as his old eyes and probably another decade after that to use them to actually predict minor (motion based) aspects of the future in a manner similar to Sion could in Melty Blood. But once again, this is decades away. For now the eyes are holding him back.
So my life is chaos again. 6 day work week + writing for a videogame (no joke) + grad school classes online + girlfriend + me betaing stories + my actual stories = me crying at night. Fun.
… And that's it for now. I got nothing else to say off the top of my head. I'll try to make the next chapter come out faster but… yeah.
So REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! NEVER GET INTO A TRADE DEAL BETWEEN TWO TEENAGED EGOTISTICAL MONEY HUNGRY MAGICAL GIRLS! AND REVIEW AGAIN!
