Chapter 23: Assembly
I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:
o. o. o.
He hurt.
No, that was an understatement of what he was experiencing. Shirou breathed heavily and slowly made way for his home, limping down the street while using whatever he could to support his body. Every dozen or so meters he had to stop and cough out some blood from his lungs, proof of how badly he was wounded.
He hurt, therefore he was alive.
Despite the logic that said that no modern magus save for an extremely select few could escape the wrath of Heracles summoned as Berserker, Shirou had somehow managed to done so. He had managed to avoid getting killed by the strongest human legend in history, one that was only further strengthened by magic and insanity. He had little doubt that the black giant had most likely been the strongest Servant ever summoned in the history of Heaven's Feel based on pure raw power alone.
Five Petals. The monster had broken through five petals of Rho Aias in less than half a minute through sheer physical force alone. Each of those petals had the defensive power equivalent to an entire fortress wall. Breaking through just one was akin to attempting to plow through a small mountain of stone. Breaking five petals so quickly, the sheer idea of what just happened had been incomprehensible to Shirou until then.
The most Rho Aias had ever been broken was the two or three petals that went during his fight against Louvre and the one time when he tested his limits with Merem. While the backlash back then had been bad those previous experiences, they had been nowhere near this damaging or painful. Had he not been used to being pummeled into the ground by Bazett, Sirius, and Waver, and had he not been so adept at reinforcement magic he would have most likely been forced to crawl back home.
At the moment, however, he did not care that he had lived, that he had not died, or that he had fought a legend brought back to life,
Because he had still lost.
Illya would not listen to him. That much was obvious. He had vastly underestimated just how badly the propaganda the Einzberns had fed his sister regarding Kiritsugu and himself, and his words in the Clocktower had only fed fuel to the fire. And considering that said fire had a massive black giant of death, destruction, and madness on a leash, it could only mean more troubling times lay in store for him.
He needed Saber if he wanted to see anything get done from this point onward, otherwise he would most likely be killed by the end of the night. He had read enough of his father's past jobs to know that right now he would be a prime target to anyone who was trained in the art of killing, though he would admit that this sort of situation did remind him of some cartoons he used to watch as well. (Waver had been adamant on making sure that he had also spent some time to relax and read some comics whenever he wasn't training so he wouldn't completely lose his childhood. Super hero based, of course.)
Because of this, Shirou was almost certain that his bout with Berserker had been watched by at least one outside party. Did not every hero who ever pulled out a trump card in a battle end up being watched by at least one observer in every story? It was so cliché and overused, but relevant to his current situation that he was convinced that it was more likely to happen than not. Besides, it wasn't as if Berserker was trying to be stealthy when he was trying to kill him.
So forward he walked back up the hills of the area to his home, under the moon in the sky. It was roughly a week or so till the next full moon, so it was mostly full, a "waxing gibbous" in lunar terms.
He had taken off his shroud and put it in his coat pocket when he first landed after Illya left. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed the boost from his tainted side in order to get back home and conduct the ritual and it helped. If Avalon doubled his natural healing abilities as it was without feeding it more prana, than exposing himself to the moon without the Shroud of Martin there to block the influence the moon his healing had doubled again at the very least. It would have quadrupled if it was a full moon, but he was not that fortunate at the moment. Of course, even if a person healed four times as fast as normal it would still take a significant amount of time to recover from torn muscle tissue and bone fractures, but it help make his half-assed healing spells work a bit easier on his legs.
As for getting the strength to get back home in the first place, well, he was at the very most a half step behind Sirius when it came to reinforcement. A mile walk wasn't beyond his abilities in this condition, even if he was trailing blood with every step.
The state of the body was never a factor when it came to the summoning, only the amount of prana he could conduct and the catalyst were needed on his end, and he had both all ready and set up. The circle was already in place in his shed and he had spent the last few weeks memorizing and reciting the aria needed to conduct the ritual. If he needed any extra juice he could always just tap in a bit into the jewels in his belt. Granted he would most likely pass out from exhaustion after summoning anything of that level in his current state, but it was of little consequence at this point.
Everything would be better after Saber was summoned. Avalon would be activated in his body, all but ensuring his complete recovery by morning according to his research and his father's letters, and he would have something to keep the other servants and masters from killing him on sight like Illya did…
Actually, now that he thought about it, maybe he should think about how to approach Saber about the whole "corrupted grail" situation. If he dumped the bomb on her without any explanation or proper preparation, then things might turn out as badly as it did with Illya. Rin always did tell him that he had issues with tact…
His body lurched and his lungs ejected another glob of blood. Judging how long it took for him to cough it up, he assumed that his body was already dealing with much of his internal injuries to a significant degree. That was good. It would put less of a strain on Saber when he used Avalon to heal.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, the teen focused on the road again and ignored the wounds from his one minute battle with Berserker. He could worry about them later after he summoned later. The pain of his exhausted body was irrelevant to his goals.
Just...gotta get home, one slow, agonizing step at a time.
o. o. o.
Edelfelt Manor:
Something was not right.
Luvia could feel it. Something was happening behind the scenes of the war and she had absolutely no idea what it was.
"I will tell you the truth! I will tell you the reason why dad threw away the grail!"
If there was ever a reason to be wary of the war itself, that was it. Ten years ago was the last Grail War. Ten years ago Kiritsugu Emiya had apparently taken part of it and won. And yet… he threw it away…
"Master?" Caster appeared behind her summoner as she went over her notes on the infamous Magus Killer. "Are you well? I am aware of how shocking it is that Berserker is Heracles but…"
"Heracles is indeed a problem Caster, however I believe that we may have a bigger issue at hand." The Edelfelt interrupted in a direct tone as she continued to look at her notes on Kiritsugu, primarily the ones that related to ten years ago to the present.
The Princess blinked in confusion before looking at the papers curiously. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you are referring to Master. What else was there in the event that we just witnessed to take note of?"
Luvia didn't hesitate. "The boy we are supposed to kill, the one that was just attacked, is named Shirou Emiya. His father's name is Kiritsugu Emiya, otherwise known as the Magus Killer. He was, when active, an assassin on a level of which the current magus world has yet to ever see the equivalent of. Unorthodox. Precise. Cruel. Prideless. A true killer. In essence you could consider him the modern day version of Hassan-I-Sabbah for the magus world."
"The parent of those two masters…" Caster nodded stiffly before realizing something. "Wait, the boy mentioned that he threw away the grail…"
"What few people didn't know about Kiritsugu Emiya however..." Luvia continued. "…Was that he absolutely despised killing. The very act of it made him sick, and in his eyes, most heroic spirits and legends were counterproductive to their cause. Their very existence promoted and inspired others to perform violent acts onto others to prove and excuse their cause without truly lamenting about them afterwards. The reason why he killed was simply to save as many lives as he could. He killed those that would be directly responsible for the deaths of tens, or hundreds, or thousands of others. Magus or not."
Caster remained quiet for several seconds. "He sounds like a man with many pains in his heart. However, I still have yet to see where this conversation is going."
"Caster." The blonde frowned. "He dreamed of a peaceful world where people wouldn't kill others en masse for such reasons. He dreamed of never having to witness or be exposed to genocide again. He wished for no one to experience the pain he had suffered as a child… so why did such a man, when given the opportunity to have his greatest wish granted right then and there, not take it?"
The Princess of Colchis briefly made a gesture to answer before pausing and thought harder on the subject. "… I see your concern. This is indeed troubling, and before you ask I do not have any advanced knowledge on the Grail's system. That was beyond the information given to Servants when we were summoned, and my magic is not entirely appropriate to gather such information. My counterpart on the other hand…"
"It is best that we do not inform her of this." Luvia interrupted. "As much as I would like to trust my sister, I am afraid that she would not consider or realize how grave the situation could be and ignore our warnings. As for your counterpart, to be blunt I do not trust her alone with such a task."
"I unfortunately agree with your decision." Caster nodded. "Something may have been withheld from us regarding the grail, or at the very least something unexpected happened to the system. To progress with the war without learning anymore could be disastrous."
"I agree." The master sighed as she looked some more at her notes. "While going directly to Shirou to talk about the subject would cause more problems than it would solve, I do believe that we have another objective to inspect that can give us hints."
"That park he mentioned." The Servant concluded with a nod. "I must admit, I am curious as to why that location would be significant…"
"You've never been there." The blonde shivered, recalling that dead area of land. "Supposedly the entire area was engulfed in flames during the end of the previous war. By what means I don't know, but even approaching it gives me an uneasy feeling so I tend to avoid it when possible. It wouldn't be far to assume that the place is cursed to some degree…" She paused before looking down at her notes again and widening her eyes in realization. "Cursed… It couldn't be…" She muttered as she ruffled through the pages of interview material she had from Shirou.
"Is something the matter?" The Princess asked curiously.
"Kiritsugu Emiya died roughly five years ago, publicly due to an unknown cause from the last job he ever took." Luvia explained as she went through her notes. "The truth though, was that he was slowly killed off by a curse, and a bad one." She licked her dry lips nervously. "I remember Shirou saying that this job took place, time wise, ten years ago… the same time as the previous war…"
"There are far too many coincidences to simply ignore, even if the man was not as pure hearted as the boy made him out to be. Though we are heroic spirits, I cannot think of any that are capable of cursing an area as large as you described. Not without aid." Caster stated sternly. "What it means I do not know, but I doubt it is pleasant."
"My thoughts exactly." The Master nodded as she filtered through some more papers. "Though it may be risky, I suggest that you follow me to school. Tohsaka already suspects I'm a master anyways, but it's an unspoken agreement that no one fights during the daytime. Afterwards we'll go to the park and see what we can get from the curse there. If it has truly contaminated that area for ten years without recovering, then we must be on guard for whatever it is that made such a thing in the first place…"
o. o. o.
On a rooftop somewhere:
"So now that the threat is gone, can you please tell me why we aren't helping my student?" Bazett crossed her arms in irritation as she stared down the twentieth Apostle Ancestor. "Better yet, why on earth are you even here Crown?"
"I was bored." Merem shrugged casually. "And to answer your first question, there is simply no need to. Shirou is perfectly capable of returning to his home without aid and will no doubt summon his servant when he does so. Giving him any more protection at this point would be superfluous."
"Mhm." Lancer raised an eyebrow skeptically as he watched the shorter male lean side to side while casually inching his way towards him. "And the reason why you keep on fidgeting whenever you're near me is because?"
"Ah…" The vampire laughed sheepishly. "That's a bit more embarrassing really."
"By all means tell us." Bazett stated in a dead even tone. "You made it clear that we have the time to talk now."
"Yes well." The young looking vampire shifted nervously. "I'm afraid it is because Sir Lancer here is of divine decent and… well, I have yet to partake in any blood with such quality in nearly a millennia."
"Wait, are you saying that because I'm part god my blood acts like an aphrodisiac to you?" The blue man stepped away nervously.
"No. More like an extremely tasty and rare meal that is literally impossible to obtain in this day and age that has nothing that can possibly match it. It is rather addicting to those who are fortunate enough to have ever tasted such an unrivaled blessing on the organ that we call tongues. Not to mention the rush we get from drinking blood of such quality is indescribable to those who do not share our physiology." Merem corrected. "Blood of your particular quality is unheard of in this day and age. I have no doubt that Van-Fem would be willing to pay a small fortune for just a single well preserved bottle of yours."
"Well it's good to know that Apostles have good taste in people, but I'm afraid that my neck is not…" Lancer paused as he noticed the way Bazett was staring at him. "Oi, Master? What exactly are you thinking?"
"A small fortune…" The enforcer that is always in a bit of a monetary crisis muttered to herself. While normally conducting business with other apostles is forbidden and looked down upon since vampires normally don't back up their part of the bargain, Van-Fem, the fourteenth Apostle Ancestor preferred to earn his horrifically vast wealth through human methods alone and was a well known businessman. If he made a deal with anyone, you could expect him to keep his end of the bargain so long as you did yours and didn't try to screw him over.
"Ok. Hold up. Both of you." Lancer raised both his hands in surrender, while backing up juuust a bit, and attempted to not get drained dry of his bodily fluids. He didn't care if his Battle Continuation might make him survive the experience, he was not going to serve himself to the undead elite for any price. "Can we get back on track please? For example that half dead kid who nearly got killed by one of the strongest legends out there on magical steroids is still out there."
"Ah. Right. How selfish of me to ignore my friend's current situation." Merem shamefully looked away.
"Friend?" Bazett blinked in confusion. "I didn't know that you and Shirou were on such good terms."
"That is because I told him not to tell anyone since it would no doubt cause the both of us problems that we would rather not deal with." Merem smiled happily.
"So your idea of helping the kid out was to leave him to the wolves?" Lancer raised an eyebrow skeptically. Not that it was unheard of to Cu Chulainn, he had seen and experienced that logic first hand back in his own time. Still, it was rather cold considering the kid had just managed to hold of Heracles of all people.
"Yes, but that is due to my utmost confidence in his abilities." The vampire confirmed. "On the few occasions he and I have sparred, he has shown a most tenacious will to survive despite the overwhelming force I present to him."
"Wait… you actually fought Shirou? And he lived?" Bazett blinked in disbelief. Merem was among the more powerful members of the Ancestors, so much so that it was rumored that he could handle fighting three of the weaker ones at once without much issue.
"Not really fought as much as it was… test." The shortest of the three admitted nonchalantly. "I'm afraid that his overall potential will not significantly increase until he becomes more involved in the war."
"Overall potential?" Lancer echoed confused. "Why would this war make him stronger in anyway? Is he one of those types that for some stupid reason gets stronger every time you wail on him, because I really hate those masochists. All they have to do is live and they get a power boost. They don't do any real work to get stronger in the slightest. It's really unfair when you compare that to what we real heroes gotta do in order to get as good as we are."
"I would be the best one to tell him." Merem told Bazett, ignoring the blue man's ranting. "He is a master after all."
The purple haired woman grunted and rubbed her temple wearily. "I was hoping he wasn't one." She muttered before continuing. "Shirou has the ability to memorize and create projections of any weapons he sees, powers and all. This includes, believe it or not, Noble Phantasms."
The Irishman blinked in disbelief. "Projecting actual working Noble Phantasms? Seriously? That worthless spell actually has that kind of use?"
"You saw it yourself." Merem pointed out. "While not many people would be able to tell, the Shield of Ajax, Rho Aias is indeed a conceptual weapon based Noble Phantasm. Even Louvre, its previous owner, did not recognize its higher quality of existence. In addition to that, both Ms. Bazett and I have seen him make a near identical copy of the Mace of Odo, power and all right in front of us in an instant."
Lancer clicked his teeth in irritation. So this was what that old drunk Sirius was warning him about when he told him that keeping the kid alive was one of their best shots at beating Gilgamesh. He had been wondering how the hell some kid would be useful in fighting the god damned King of Heroes, and here was apparently his answer. Still, for some reason the ability of copying Noble Phantasms sounded suspiciously familiar to him. "The Mace of Odo huh? Isn't that supposed to be the godfather of all maces? So I guess that means that I can't show Gae Bolg in front of the kid or else he'll be using its power against me?"
"Not very likely." The Vampire argued. "Shirou is incredibly loyal to those he considers his friends. So long is he knew that you were Bazett's servant, he would most likely try to get away from you and try to understand why you were attacking him in the first place. Fighting back probably wouldn't even cross his mind." He shifted on his feet lazily. "As for why I said that it would be best not to aid him… well… I believe that something is amiss in this war. Call it a feeling I occasionally get due to being a Planet Terminal. I can feel when the boundaries of reality become unstable or heavily manipulated, and while that is to be expected here, there is something… unpleasant, underlying the standard contortions of the ritual. I do not know what or why that is, however I am certain that is the case and I wish to find out what it is. I believe that the best way to do this is to not reveal myself as of yet to the others."
"A Planet Terminal eh?" Lancer muttered under his breath, clearly interested in the boy. "Never thought I'd ever get to see one of those. Even the old bat Scatach's never met one in person."
Much like how the term "pyromancer" is used to identify magi who use fire thaumaturgy, or more realistically used to describe magi with "fire" as their elements, a "Planet Terminal" was used to describe a person who had great potential as a magus and the extremely rare "sixth imaginary element". It was frequently what was used to actualize wishes and summon creatures from imaginary planes. "Average Ones", like Rin and Sirius, which were considered miracles in themselves, were significantly more common than "Planet Terminals", turning those that fell into the latter category into an extremely highly valued commodity in the Clocktower.
The odds of encountering a Planet Terminal were just as likely as the odds of encountering an Incarnation. Not damn likely.
What they were truly capable of was unknown, however among their suspected abilities was the increased sensitivity to the fabric of reality and the ability to anticipate where future major disruptions may occur. Apparently that was what dragged the little blood sucker to the grail war.
"If that is the real reason why you are here, why did you come to us? Why not Shirou if he is your friend? Better yet, why not tell Kotomine?" Bazett frowned, ignoring her servant's mumblings.
"The answer to that is simple Ms. Fraga." Merem smiled. "Shirou is simply too honest for this task and Kotomine is untrustworthy. Likewise I do not trust any of the other masters for one reason or another. You are the only one I can trust with this as you are experienced enough to act in an appropriate manner."
"Wait. The other masters?" The woman asked surprised. "You know who they are?"
"For the most part, and where they are stationed though there are a couple that I have yet to witness. I suspect that not all the servants have been summoned yet which is why I have only found most of them, however it is the servants I am more concerned about for a variety of reasons." The shortest one there nodded. "Even I am not comfortable about my odds fighting against one of your kind recklessly. What I would like to do is stay hidden in the background and gather information to figure out what is going on, only intervening slightly when needed."
"Yeah, that's nice and all, but the thing is I wanted to get summoned to actually fight for once. I don't care about the damn grail or wish or whatever's being given out to the winner." The Hound of Ireland grunted. "If you try to stick me on spying missions, you'll have to convince my lance to go with it, and it likes blood as much as your kind does."
Merem raised his hands in forfeit. While Apostle Ancestors were indeed capable of fighting toe to toe against Servants, the odds were on average slightly in the Servant's favor. Of course that was excluding individual Servants and Ancestor's abilities. "No. By all means stay with what you were doing. I was actually going to undertake the spying tasks myself since my abilities are more suitable for it. All I was going to suggest was that you hold off on being as proactive when it came to fighting for a while so that we could get more information."
Bazett looked down on Merem skeptically. On one hand, if he really was a friend of Shirou's then he might be telling the truth and something really might be off about the war itself. As far as Ancestors go, the teenaged looking immortal was rather straightforward and he did work for the church after all. On the other hand he could be lying and setting her up for some kind of twisted trap. Apostles weren't exactly known for their benevolence after all. "Lancer. What's your say on this?"
Cu Chulainn grumbled irritably as he looked back and forth between the human and the vampire. "Damn it. I just wanted to get in a few good fights for once." He shook his head. "I'll play along with mini blood jr's plan for now since he's not telling me to sit out when a fight presents itself, but if you start giving me orders that I don't like and you don't have a damn good reason for them, I'll kill you myself. Got it?"
"Of course!" The young looking vampire nodded happily. "Now I believe that it is human tradition to drink to a deal being made…"
"For the last time, you're not drinking my blood!"
As the three debated about bodily fluids and drinking habits, countless tiny four legged creatures began moving in the shadows, heeding the call of their king.
o. o. o.
Emiya Residence:
Shirou sighed as he looked at the booklet his father left him regarding the details of the war and the servants that should be showing up on it. If he ever needed any proof that his father's visions were correct, his experience with Berserker had proven it. All the giant's stats he had learned from his first encounter were all written down exactly in the book, special skills and Noble Phantasm included. Heck, the moment he had gone over the God Hand in the book, it had shown up inside his mental status of the monster as well, so that only proved Kiritsugu's validity even more…
A massive throb of pain echoed through his body, reminding him that now was not the time to marvel at his father's visions of the future.
"Trace. On." He muttered as he slowly pulled out the most valuable and complete object within his Reality Marble out into the real world and in the center of the summoning circle. He figured if he passed out and Saber was attacked by Gilgamesh, as little as those odds were, Saber could use the EX ranked Noble Phantasm to defend against him.
He would have taken out the original Avalon itself but his throbbing body made it hard to focus on doing so safely. It was easier and safer to make a projection. If the copy broke after one use, he'd just give Saber the original later after he woke up.
Despite the fact that theoretically projecting any object made in Unlimited Blade Works should all cost the same (give or take) seeing as the act of "projecting" the objects was merely moving them from one reality to the next, Avalon always seemed to cost significantly more to do so. While he had talked about the subject with Sirius hypothetically, seeing as he never told the old man that the legendary scabbard was in his body, he had only come up with a few hypothesis as to why that was.
The most logical one he had come across was simply the fact that he did not truly understand Avalon like he could his other weapons. To put things into context, in Sirius' words, there were two major factors that determined how well a solid blacksmith could make anything. The first was the blueprints that they followed. Lengths. Measurements. Spells. Etc. Basically what anyone would need in order to make something even remotely complicated without issue. This could be attributed to enforcing its "physical stability".
The second factor though was a bit more in depth. It was how well the blacksmith could understand what they were making. How it was going to be used. Its machinations. Its very life functions and purposes. Hell, even the nature of the ones that used the thing were put into account. This was something that normally took years for anyone to gain when working on a lone object, and only the best blacksmiths could achieve this kind of awareness when it came to new objects that they have never made before. This was used to enforce a projection's "conceptual stability".
When it came to comparing his normal projections and Avalon, Shirou's issue could be simply explained using these. Due to his reality marble, he had the second best blueprints and understanding of almost everything stored there. Since they were made on Gaia and thus understandable by its native's minds, they were easy and simple to put together and thus put from his world into the real world. In short, second best conceptual and physical stability were incorporated here.
Avalon on the other hand was a different matter. On one hand he had the best possible blueprints of the scabbard and its magic possible seeing as the real thing is inside his body. His very blood and soul knew the thing's structure and making better than possibly even the Fae themselves.
On the other hand, Avalon was created by the Fae and followed rules beyond human understanding and logic. Granted it was designed to be used by a human in the first place so there were some spots in its purpose and magic that he could get without issue, but for the most part true comprehension of Avalon's inner workings were beyond the teen. He just knew how to make that particular setup. Thus, the significantly smaller conceptual stability and the higher prana cost.
In essence, making Avalon to him was like making a mechanical box that could do all sorts of wondrous things. He could make it and the parts, but he had absolutely no idea what the heck most of the individual parts were, what they did, or how they interacted with one another. That lack of familiarity was the cause of the higher prana cost in order to truly make them, similar to the alchemy of the Einzbern.
That wasn't to say that he wasn't doing something about it. Over the past year and a half or so, he had been researching fairy magic whenever he had the time and compared what was in the books to Avalon. If Shirou had to put the experience into words, he would say that human thaumaturgy was akin to writing on a piece of paper, in two dimensions, while Fae magic was like somehow writing in three with blocks and swirls going wherever they pleased yet still somehow fitting together. It had rules and patterns, of that he had no doubt, but the sheer complexity of it in general was beyond staggering.
His studies regarding Fae magic could be compared in the following. Shirou had the rough equivalent of one of Shakespeare's plays in both Fae language and its direct human translation inside of him. He knew that they equaled one another, but he didn't know how the translation process worked. In actuality, no human truly did. Fairy magic was considered on the level of True Magic, completely beyond human reach or influence by most standards save for small bits of knowledge gathered over the centuries by lucky researchers. So he used all the ancient tomes he gathered from the Makiri library and tried to piece together whatever he could to make sense of it all.
As an end result of all of his time spent reading old moldy books when his reserves of energy were all but exhausted or when he was traveling for Association purposes, Shirou was fairly certain that he now had enough knowledge of the Fairy language to qualify as one of their kindergarteners, if they had such a grading system.
Whether he was one of the smart ones or the dumb ones he had still yet to determine.
On a side note, he was fairly convinced that no human would ever be able to pass the fourth grade mark with this sort of magic since he noted that every once in a while some of the deeper rules he found in Avalon seemed to change randomly and he had yet to see any sort of pattern to it, or if there even was one in the first place.
While that did not seem like much, the teen was confident that through his research he had discovered at least twenty to thirty new undiscovered rules and patterns to the magic of the Fae that matched up with Avalon. Not only that, but as his understanding slowly grew, the cost of creating the legendary scabbard inversely began to drop. It was still very expensive to make, but Shirou didn't feel like he had just ran a marathon every time he made a copy now.
So in short the rule he discovered was simple. The more he truly comprehended his tools, the more complete they were. The more complete they were, the less flaws they had and the more natural they appeared from Gaia's point of view when he brought them out, in turn making the reality transfer process smoother. As such they would end up costing less to bring out and take longer to be erased by Gaia. It just so happened that truly comprehending Fairy magic had merely not been done before by humans.
It made sense when he compared his theory to the blades his father left him. Natalia, Maiya and Kiritsugu all cost far less to produce than most of the other weapons in his Reality Marble. If he attributed his connection, understanding of his father's wishes, and intentions into the mix, it all supported his estimations perfectly.
Shirou had to hold back a laugh as he recalled his success in his research while putting the copy down into the circle. Once more he had done something that would without a doubt either earn him a Sealing Designation, cause Rin to get incredibly annoyed with him, cause Sakura to give her equivalent of a scolding, or any combination of the three.
Breathing out slowly and ensuring that the circle was perfect and that the time was just about midnight, Shirou allowed himself to collapse to the ground. He needed every remaining unit of prana in his body to conduct the ritual so the energy he had been using to ensure that he could stand needed to be diverted to more important purposes. Standing and pride be damned, he needed to fight in a war, not look good.
As a last second thought, he allowed the letter Kiritsugu left for Saber in the arm he wasn't holding out. It would give his partner something to do in case he passed out and she needed something to do until he woke up.
"Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg.
The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.
Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill).
Repeat every five times."
He could feel all of his circuits bursting with prana, trying to keep up with the ritual's high demand for energy. Even the small crest on his chest was occupied with feeding the hungry summoning, causing his heart to burn for the second time that night. Still his focus didn't waver in the slightest. He had felt worse in the flames ten years ago. The memory of that experience pushed him forward, pushing him to prevent such a thing from happening again, pushing him to save Illya, Sakura, Rin, Luvia, and everyone in Fuyuki from a fate that they had no idea was coming if he didn't act soon.
He would for the only time in his life, live up to be the hero his father dreamed of becoming.
"Simply, shatter once filled.
I announce.
Your self is under me, my fate(doom) is in your sword.
In accordance with the resort of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.
Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.
You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"
The circle in front of him glowed a deep blue, channeling so much power that sporadic discharges of electricity shot out along the circle's design. Had his nose not been so preoccupied with dealing with the air being supersaturated with prana, he might have been able to smell the traces of ozone lingering about.
And so slowly she appeared with sharp green eyes and blonde hair regally tied into an elaborate bun, the infamous King of Britain and wielder of the holy sword Excalibur appeared. Her battle armor was unique in design, being suitable for battle with the heavy metal encompassing her arms, chest lower torso, while at the same time regal with the blue fabric that made up the flexible parts of her armor and the wide dress like bottom that hid her legs from view.
"By your summons I answer. I ask of you, are you my master?" The young looking girl asked sternly down at Shirou who couldn't help but laugh despite the pain it caused him.
"That I am Saber." He chuckled as his vision started to fade. His injuries from fighting Berserker along with the strain of getting back to his workshop and summoning Saber finally managed to overwhelm him, even as he felt Avalon work its magic inside his body.
"Welcome back, King of Knights."
o. o. o.
Saber's temporary moment of surprise was not long enough to prevent her from catching her master's collapsing frame as it fell the short distance to the hard concrete floor of the workshop. She had been summoned only a couple of times beforehand, but she could confidently say that this was the most unique introduction to a war she has had yet. Her master had not only not been surprised by her gender being different from her legends, but he seemed to have been expecting it and… relieved, for lack of a better term.
Keeping her senses up in an attempt to detect any enemy servants or masters, the deceivingly small king inspected her apparently wounded master. Oddly enough, while he did show signs of injuries, he did not seem to have any marks of what could have been used to cause them in the first place. The only lingering traces of prana on him were his and some small traces of hers. No signs of a curse or lingering spell. She suspected that he may have gotten lucky with an encounter with Assassin, however she shouldn't make any conclusions until he woke up and told her what happened. Fortunately though, he seemed to be in possession of some sort of strong healing magic as his body was already rapidly recovering from his injuries…
She stood back up and inspected her surroundings. Even though she was clearly in a magus' workshop, she was on guard and would not pass up a chance to see what she could use to her advantage in the future.
A few seconds later Arturia's initial impression had already been made. Her master was different compared to normal magi, much like her previous one who shall remain unnamed for the time being. Swords floated above her in different patterns and sequences for reasons she could not determine. Papers, mechanical parts, tools, and jewels strewn over benches in barely organized sequences. Random machines whose purposes were alien to her were lying in out of the way places, their cases open in a way that indicated that the owner of the place had spent at least a fair amount of time inspecting their insides. On the whole the workshop was kept in some form of order, however it was nowhere near the standards of what she expected magi of noble decent.
Then there was the oddly large object in front of the large doors of the building, covered by a large drape of some time. For some reason she felt as if she should recognize the shape from somewhere, but she could not remember why…
And yet despite these signs of a magus that was not of nobility, she could feel that she was receiving a very healthy amount of prana from her master. The wounds indicated that he was capable of some form of self defense, which was reassuring, and his healing meant that even if he was caught in a poor position he would not be a liability for long. Truly she was in an unorthodox situation. Not unfavorable, but different…
A flash of gold made her freeze, making her turn back to her summoning circle and gaze upon something that she thought she would never see again. "Avalon?" She whispered in disbelief as she approached the golden scabbard as if it was a lifelong friend that she had not seen in years, which in some ways it had. Reaching down to touch the tool slowly, she had all but forgotten how magnificent her most prized gift from the Fae had been. Every detail was there. The magic was there. The markings of the Fae was there. The connection to her very soul was there…
But somewhere in the back of her mind, Saber could tell that something was amiss. "This is not your Avalon." It told her. "It is indeed a perfect twin, right down to its very concept, magic, essence, and making, but your legendary scabbard it is not."
She ignored the warnings as she picked up the scabbard and held it close to her chest to experience the familiar euphoria of its magic course through her body once more, like a gentle yet comforting hug from a beloved grandparent that one had thought dead for many years. A copy it might be, but there was no mistaking the magic for anything else that existed in the world. Slowly she absorbed it into her body after a brief inspection to make sure that there was no hidden curse or alterations done to harm the user. Even if it was not truly Avalon, it acted so much like it that she didn't really care at this point. Just thinking it was back with her gave her more comfort than she had in a very long time.
She turned back to her master curiously and inspected him further. A young boy, not even a man, with moderately tan skin and red going white hair. An odd appearance, however she was not one to comment. She was after all at least in her mid thirties and still appearing to be even younger than her master.
His cloak seemed to be of fine make though she could not identify the materials it consisted of, and his hands indicated that he was no stranger to wielding a sword… and bow. Another uncommon combination. The calluses on his hands showed significant practice with both, with the swords being of the one handed variety and appearing on both hands, indicating ambidexterity, maybe even proficiency in dual wielding. Further inspection of his body indicated no lopsided muscles, proving her dual wielding theory was more accurate than she had anticipated.
How peculiar. It was extremely rare for a normal human to be able to dual wield and fight with a bow efficiently. The various strength requirements for one almost ensured the impossibility of being proficient in the other. Trained archers in general tended to develop lopsided muscles in order to use their bows. But a magus? True, thaumaturgy and the miracle arts may aid a person in being able to perform both without instigating issues in the user's body, but compared to learning more about manipulating the elements and the world around them, such a task's results would seem meager. For what reason would a researcher of the arcane arts spend so much time on such basic (from their perspective) skills?
Her further inspection of the boy was interrupted as she saw a letter grasped in his hand by his side labeled "Saber".
"What's this?" The servant frowned as she picked the envelope up and began to open it. It couldn't be a dying message. Her master was, while still wounded, in relatively fine shape and getting better by the second. She saw no signs of disease or sickness. Come to think of it, the parchment looks like it has aged somewhat since its sealing, so its purpose must have been far older than that. But who on earth would want to…
Her musings were cut short however as she read the first few lines.
Arturia Pendragon,
By the time you read this letter, I, Kiritsugu Emiya will have been dead for at least five years.
Kiritsugu? Why? Why of all people would she be receiving a letter from her traitor of an ex master? Why would memories of that man not leave her alone even after he caused her to forfeit the grail just as it was in front of her?
Her inner rage was instantly stopped as she read the next two words.
I'm sorry.
He knew. The man knew. How she did not know, but he somehow figured out her situation. He determined that she was not some spiritual copy of the legendary King Arthur, but the original King of Knights himself. There would have been no need for him to apologize to her in the slightest had he thought she was another copy like other servants were to their originals.
Almost as bizarrely was the fact that he had apologized. Her master barely even talked to her, let alone apologized. In fact, he never even apologized for all the people he killed. Lamented yes. Grieved yes. Regretted yes, but never apologized…
Something was off. Something was terribly not right with the situation. Swallowing heavily, she continued reading.
Due to the circumstances of the war and the grail, and how little time there was, I was unable to explain to you why I did what I did, though given our relationship, I am somewhat certain that even had you lasted past destroying the grail, I would not have explained my reasons to you up front. For the purposes of this letter and what you need to do in the future however, I will be blunt.
The Fuyuki Grail is corrupted.
Stained black in the third war by the remnants of a servant called Angra Mainyu, a living incarnation of all the evils in the world. Due to his unfiltered taint that has lingered in the greater grail since his defeat, any wish made on such a grail would take form in only one shape. Complete genocide and absolute destruction. The proof I have is this curse running through my veins that as I write is slowly killing me… and Fuyuki park, the location of where the war ended for us. The land there is permanently tainted to a degree that even those not attuned with magic instinctively stay away from its grounds.
Saber's stomach dropped and her face went pale. No. No that couldn't be right. It was impossible. The Grail was supposed to grant her wish. It was her only hope to restore Britain to its true glory and correct the mistakes made under her rule. If what Kiritsugu said was true then… then why had she been fighting all this time? What was the point of fighting in the war? With all that she had sacrificed…?
Her stomach lurched again as her mind went back to Kiritsugu. Irisviel had been sacrificed to conduct the ritual for the grail. He had in the end sacrificed his wife personally for nothing. Iri had sacrificed herself for her husband for a lie she wasn't even aware of.
When I encountered the spirit of the Grail and rejected it after seeing it for its true nature, I was inflicted with the curse. Even now I can feel its power slowly causing my body to seize up. It hurts to move now, my vision is barely passable, and I have long since lost my ability to use magic. It is a fitting end for someone like me who has done nothing but killed people all his life.
Arturia felt ashamed. Not even a few minutes ago she had been all but cursing the man's existence, when in reality he had probably saved not only her, but her entire country's existence and countless lives, and not asked for a single thing in return. She still could not say much about his personality, methods, and character, however he was at the very least a man who stayed true to the path he chose for himself.
Do not forgive me. I do not deserve it. I do not want it. I do not need it.
What I do need is your help correcting my mistakes and for you to ensure that the grail war you are in is the last one. I had originally set off some explosives in a fashion that would naturally destroy the leylines of Fuyuki in a few more decades, however I did not put into account the way I forced you to destroy the grail and as a result of that it has started far earlier than anyone had anticipated.
Likewise, I did not anticipate the backlash of abruptly destroying the complete grail while it was still full of corrupted energy. The destruction I saw, the corpses that lied there… they will haunt me for the rest of my short life.
A couple of years ago I began to have dreams of the fifth war, starting fifty years in advance. Since they have started, I have witnessed various routes that it could have took, both good and bad. I have learned much of the grail's system, the servants that are to be summoned, the masters involved, and other issues that are if anything as concerning as the corruption of the grail.
If everything has started as I have seen, you are reading this letter ten years after our war. The boy that has summoned you is named Shirou Emiya. He is my adopted son and the only person I managed to save from the backlash of forcing you to destroy the grail. After everything that has happened… I can unfortunately say without hesitation that he is my sole remaining anchor to sanity. Had it not been for him I am certain I would have killed myself years ago.
A small shiver ran through Saber's spine. She had always known that Kiritsugu had been overly stressed with the war and what was on the line, but this was her first glimpse of how dangerously close to the edge his lifestyle had truly pushed him.
I have given Shirou all the information I have gathered from my dreams and devised appropriate ways to deal with each of the issues I have identified, however seeing as I have no doubt created a new timeline by doing this, I doubt that many of my solutions will be applicable when the time comes.
I have informed him of all possible threats he should expect from this war and how he should address them.
All but one, which I will tell only you in confidence.
The Servant frowned, not liking where this was going. After all that she had learned from this letter, even if what she read was even half true, Saber felt that whatever she would learn next would not be comforting.
Shirou is fundamentally broken due to being dead center of the destruction of our war's conclusion. I found him in the dying flames barely clinging to life, and used Avalon to keep him alive. It was from the way that I found him that convinced him to be a hero of justice. My happiness of finding and saving just one person from that hell was so overwhelming to me, that it made the hollow child I saved envious of both me and what I did. He is absolutely unable to prioritize his needs above other's, whether it be minor plans, homework, major projects, or even with their very own lives, he would give up his own for others in a heartbeat without even thinking about it. If a person didn't know him better, they could easily pass off his behavior as suicidal at times. Had I not known how badly that would have turned out, had I not known what that would result in, had I not dreamed of the outcome of my actions, I would have unknowingly supported that ideal of his without much issue… unaware of the fact that doing so would have cursed him with a fate worse than what has befallen either one of us.
He would have gone throughout his life with his limited magic saving others, unable to live with the idea that somewhere in the world there were people crying in misery. Going into wars to end them. Going into unstable areas to save the innocent. And if at some point he found himself in a position where he couldn't save all the people he could see in front of him, he would give himself to Alaya in an instant to save them.
The blonde was stuck in her spot. Berserker, Lancer, Rider, heck, all of the other servants could have barged in on her right that moment and she wouldn't have noticed them.
He would have broken even further than he already is now Saber. He would have had to fight and fight and kill and kill without looking away after he died, being blamed for a war he had fought to stop by people he had saved in the first place. In the end he would have been betrayed by the dreams that pushed him forward all of his life. The boy, who wanted nothing more than to stop people from crying in misery, would be forced to watch humanity cry for all eternity.
And if my fears are correct, he would have been summoned as Archer for this war due to his status as a Counter Guardian, desperate to kill his younger self in order to possibly remove himself from the throne of heroes and escape his personal hell, effectively "saving" his younger self from the hell that he could not escape.
I pointed the only person I had ever truly saved down a gold and crimson path to hell knowing what would happen to him, yet even I underestimated how truly cruel it was to those who traveled to its farthest reaches.
Even if my plans for this war do come to fruition, even if everyone innocent in this war is saved, I have already failed where it has mattered. I focused too much on what was in front of me to notice or address what would happen after I had died.
She didn't know why she was still reading the letter. It was almost like a fictional play at this point, a sad mockery of a bard's work, but she knew. Deep down she knew that it was true, and that in a way Kiritsugu was warning her about her own decisions of completing her deal with Alaya. Warning her of what would happen to her should she become a Counter Guardian…
She had not believed that her resolve would have been so clearly shaken the next time she had been summoned so early on. She had not believed that she would be summoned for another purpose other than for the Holy Grail. She could not understand why someone who had in essence despised even the sight of her and what she stood for would trust her enough to protect what was precious to them.
Once more, the King of Knights' mind had faded back to words spoken of and to her in different times and by different noble people. "The King does not understand Human Feelings."
"You saved them, but you never led them. You never showed them what a King should be. You abandoned your men when they lost their way. Then alone and untroubled, you followed your own petty little ideals."
The parallels between her and her old master were staggering. Both had strived for a better world, though going on different, yet equally bloody paths to do so. The first, a lonely flawless king of an island nation. The other, an emotionless assassin cursed by the memories of killing loved ones for the better good. Both had sacrificed their humanity for others. Both had sealed away their emotions to save as many lives as possible. Both loosing just about everything they held dear in the cruelest way possible…
And both had placed their last hopes on a tainted Holy Grail.
Perhaps, in some sick way, there was another reason why he had managed to summon her during the previous war…
I have tried my hardest to at least alter my son's mentality in order to prevent this outcome from occurring, however I believe the best I could do was focus his entire being into solving the issues that can be addressed in the war. That being said, I must warn you that it is most likely that Shirou will throw himself in harm's way in order to save those precious to him to the point of acting like a complete fool. I do not know how bad it will be by the time you are summoned, however you must keep this possibility in your mind if you desire any chance of avoiding Armageddon.
Never the less, you must be wary of Archer should he be dressed in a red shroud and black armor, with tan skin and white hair. His weapons of choice are Kanchou and Bakuya, black and white Chinese Falchions, however he also uses a black bow that is strong enough to fire Noble Phantasms. Talk to Shirou about how his magic works for details and what to expect. Due to who summons him and the way things could play out, he could pose as your greatest ally, or your greatest enemy.
Kanshou and Bakuya… Saber frowned in frustration. For not the first time since she had been summoned as a servant, she had cursed the fact that she was not like a true heroic spirit and did not have her original self inside the throne of heroes. If she did, she would have at least been able to access the unlimited, albeit randomized pools of information there and gained more intel on the weapons and other hero's legends. As it was, she could only remember the identities and legends of only the most frequent and common heroic spirits of the current timeline and her own time.
I have one last request to add onto what I have tasked you Saber. Shirou will no doubt tell you, but I wish to let you know myself as well. My daughter Illya is the container for this war's grail. Try as much as I could, I could not rescue her from the Einzberns, and because of that I was helpless to stop them from experimenting on her even more than they already have.
When I last saw her, my eight year old girl weighed less than my sniper rifle. By the time you read this letter, she should appear to be just reaching puberty despite being nearly an adult by now. Should she survive the war, she would not last a year without aid.
Saber noted that there were faint drop like stains on the paper near this section. She had little doubt of what they were, and proved once again that her old master was far more human than she had ever given him credit of being.
It was ironic. She had fought alongside him in deadly situations in an entire war, yet she had learned the most of him and his heart through this simple piece of paper. Normally many would argue that the opposite would have been more logical.
Still, she remembered that tiny girl that could make her depressing master happy. In fact it was only with her that the servant had remembered Kiritsugu smile. To know that she was to be sacrificed for a false cause without knowing, just like her mother. Saber had no idea how much grief that information caused the man… only that it must be akin to what she was feeling right now knowing that the grail here was a lost cause…
Save them Saber. Please save my children. I have bet everything on you and Shirou to make things right where I have failed, where I have gambled everything on a lie and gained nothing but destruction. Every other attempt I have had at trying to make someone close to me happy and live has ended only in death, violence, and sending them on the path of ruin.
Please.
Please give me a reason to believe that there is worth in heroes one last time.
o. o. o.
Matou Manor:
"He's late." Zouken stated casually as he sat in the living room with Sakura. It sounded more like a whimsical observation to most, but to the girl that had lived under his "care" for over a decade he was underlying some sort of consequence.
"There must be a good reason why he is taking so long grandfather." Sakura replied in a soft but firm tone. "He would not abandon the agreement unless something was amiss. He is not the sort of person that would turn away from his promises."
"Indeed he is not." The worm user nodded. "Indeed the very thought of that boy suddenly going back on our arrangements is preposterous. He showed far too much vigor and steel in his eyes to think otherwise… he really should learn to not wear his emotions on his sleeve. It makes him far too easy to read at times."
"Some people find that to be an endearing quality grandfather." Sakura stated, not going any further than that.
"Indeed. There are many foolish people in the world and even more who are attracted to such fools." The man chuckled from his wet throat before standing up and turning to the hidden staircase that led to the crypts below the building. "Come. Regardless of the reason why the boy is late, you still need a Servant to protect you during the war. We had postponed your participation in the war long enough due to my curiosity, but if our ally has been attacked before he could summon a servant then there is a chance the same could happen to you."
Sakura's heart fell through her stomach at the realization that Shirou could have been killed before summoning his servant, but soon enough she quickly recovered herself. "While that may be a possibility grandfather, I have faith in Shirou-kun's ability to survive long enough to summon his servant. There is a reason why you asked for his assistance after all."
Zouken grinned, feeling the girl's spirit shift just slightly from his comments. Truly neither the girl nor the boy knew of how bad one had made things for the other. "Hahah. Do not worry Sakura. I was merely joking. I have faith that the boy is alive and well. In fact, I believe that he has already summoned his servant."
The girl's eyes widened surprised. "He has summoned his servant?"
The old man nodded. "Yes. I have my ways of keeping tabs on the system much like the Church does, but to keep things short, Saber was summoned a little more than an hour ago. Given how the peculiar the boy's magic is, there is little guess as to who summoned it."
"Shirou-kun summoned Saber…" Sakura breathed out relieved. Out of all the servants, Saber was the most sought after class. Giving Shirou of all people Saber almost ensured him the grail war…
But then, why had he not arrived yet?
"I am ashamed Sakura." The sadistic man shook his head disappointingly. "The boy is strong and loyal. You should believe in him more. Like you have said, he must have a perfectly reasonable excuse as to why he has not come." Another small rippled echoed through the girl's soul. "Now come. It would be in poor form to put off on summoning your servant simply because your ally hasn't come yet. What would he think if you appeared and looked like you were not willing to defend yourself?"
He didn't bother to wait for her reply as he walked down the stairs. The contortions in her soul were enough of a reply.
o. o. o.
Tohsaka Manor:
For the first time in a while, Counter Guardian EMIYA was without a doubt confused as to what the hell was going on.
This wasn't his first time going through the fifth Grail War and odds were likely that it wouldn't be his last… but this was to his knowledge, the first time that his identity had been pegged less than a second after being summoned without him letting something slip. The facts that he was summoned correctly and had all his memories were merely a convenient add-on as far as he was concerned.
Or, at least this is what he would like to say.
In an infinite multiverse with infinite possibilities, the likelihood of something happening only once was small to the point of actually being impossible. The only problem was that he couldn't seem to recall any memories from the Throne of Heroes that matched what he had already experienced right off the bat. This was both frustrating and relieving in the fact that all he had to do was read the first few metaphorical lines of each of his summoned self's experiences to see it if corresponded to his situation. If it mentioned him losing his memories or Rin not identifying who he was within the first "page" or so, he could just toss the memory away and go for the next one.
On more than one occasion he breathed a sigh of relief that he was summoned with his memories. Managing his movements and preventing bad outcomes in the future seemed to be much easier now that he knew where to look.
Plus with access to Rin's kitchen, he could cook all those meals that he had forgotten in those other summonings. How he managed to live with himself every time he was summoned without such important information and activities was beyond him. Most of the time when he came out into the world it was straight to work killing people by the hundreds if not thousands without an opportunity to stop or do some non violent good.
However, he could already tell this world was not the one he had come from. In order to kill off his existence to create the paradox, he needed to kill his original self from his original dimension, not an alternate self from an alternate world. From the memories of his time as a master, he remembered that Rin always seemed to be annoyed and confused with both him and her servant.
If this Rin Tohsaka was anything like the one he had grown up with (and by all means, the evil grin she put on her face whenever she reminded herself that Shirou Emiya was her Servant indicated that she sure as hell was), then there was no way she would have passed up an opportunity to mock the both of them if she knew the two were one in the same. Hell, so far he had yet to go a few hours without having the Tohsaka make fun of something personal of his, although a few comments seemed to go over his head and leave the girl dejected or confused when he didn't apparently react the way she expected. Things like "you owe me for the kitchen" and "I wonder who you picked in the end".
So, in order to prevent the girl from being even more confused and raising some questions that would cause some issues, he simply remained quiet and gave her a few roundabout answers while maintaining his aloof and more mature personality up, just like when he was summoned without his memories.
For example, when she first asked him questions on the future, he merely replied that it was pointless if he answered such questions, since if he told her then things would turn out differently. And even then his answer would only be correct if he was summoned in the exact universe that he originally came from. Going over how the Throne of Heroes worked and how vast the multiverse truly was seemed to settle his argument and keep the girl from going overboard with her interrogation.
It helped that he had during his lifetime studied a little bit of the Kaleidoscope's lectures and basic summaries of his magic. At the time he was really doing it to get a better idea on how servants could be summoned from the throne into different timelines, but random bits of knowledge does have its uses in unexpected places.
When it came to the masters and servants of the war, he replied honestly that he didn't know the true identity of some of the masters since some had been using proxies and others had been killed before he even entered the war… which wasn't much of a slip since Rin already knew his other self was a master. His existence proved that he didn't die in the war, which also seemed to be good news to the girl. He further claimed, honestly, that he did not know of all the identities of the other servants in the war since they died before he could figure them out.
So while his master digested some of the sparse information that he had given her, he had done the same with the situation he was in. He was in an alternate version of the fifth grail war. He was still summoned by Rin, and his alternate self was still raised by Kiritsugu. Said alternate self was far closer to Rin than he had been at the time, and from what he could tell was also a semi competent magus.
… One that still had borderline suicidal tendencies at times for the sake of saving others. The fact left a bad taste in his mouth. If his alternate self was making the same mistakes he did, then he would be obligated to end him before his dreams to become a hero betrayed the teen like it did him…
A piece of cloth slapped him on the face and hung over his head, snapping him out of his musings as he reminded himself of what he was doing now. He looked down at his master as she rummaged through some of her father's old clothes and belongings. "Remind me again why we are doing this instead of continuing our search for the enemy servants?"
"Because we should have done this before. You're too easy to identify. At least half of the masters here already know at least half of what you can do and how you do it. We need something to return everyone to even ground again." The Tohsaka answered sternly without looking around. "If you are identified by a master other than Sakura or me, MY version of you would be locked up and experimented on the instant word got back to the Clocktower."
Ah yes. He had forgotten that in this world his other self had somehow been practicing tracing at an early age to the point that his hair was already going grey and his skin was tanning. No doubt that meant that the teen's circuits had not atrophied and crippled like his did. How convenient.
Still he was somewhat confused as to how on earth more than just the magi in Fuyuki would know about his abilities. He hated being the center of attention and always tried to keep his relations to the Church and the Association to a minimum when he was alive, save for his contacts. What could have happened in this world to make his alternate self so well known?
"My mistake." He shrugged as he picked up the dull grey cloth and inspected it with minimal interest. "I believe that at some point the grail may have played with my memories in order to not remember all events regarding the war." He paused for a moment before tossing the cloth behind him and altered the red cloth that was draped around his arms and back and wrapped it around his head so only his eyes showed. "Would this work?" He asked honestly.
Rin turned around and looked at him curiously for a grand total of half a second before she looked at him as if he was an idiot and went back to going through her father's stuff. "You're right." She grumbled under her breath. "The Grail did screw with your head…"
Judging from her expression, Archer knew that he had missed something that otherwise would have been obvious, something akin to a bad joke, but he honestly didn't know what it was. Returning his shroud back into its original form, the man silently sighed and waited patiently for his master to find something that would solve their current problem.
"Ugh!" Rin threw up her hands in frustration and standing back up. "I give up. There's nothing useful in here for you. We'll just have to resort to plan B."
"Plan B?" The heroic spirit asked skeptically, suddenly developing a sinking feeling in his stomach...
"Yep!" The girl smiled in an all too familiar way. "We obviously can't do anything about your skin, so we'll have to mess with something else. That hair is way too easy to identify, so we're going to have to get rid of it, and since you can make any sharp object you have ever seen without issue…"
Even without getting into any fights yet, Archer had already decided that he hated this new world.
o. o. o.
He dreamed of a grand kingdom.
Noble men donned in great iron armor and bearing sigils and crests of all designs fought beside ordinary men in leather and chainmail below beneath tattered banners waving in the breeze. On horseback. On the ground. With spear. With sword and shield. With mace, morning star, axe, and all manner of varied forms of weapons designed for hand to hand combat…
And they were all proud. They were proud of their strong country. They were proud of their strong homes, keeps, castles and people. Of their land, their proud heritage, their mighty warriors…
And most of all, they were proud of their King. The "Once and Future King" they called him. A man who had been blessed by the Fae and Gods such that once chosen for the throne he had yet to age a single day. A "Holy Youth" they had initially called him when he began his reign. A King that elevated their broken and damaged kingdom into a golden age that would surely last a thousand years. Chosen by destiny, tested by Stone and battle, ruled with fairness and justice, and spoke of greater days yet to come, surely he was the greatest king that ever lived...
And yet, as time went on the wonder in the King slowly began to give way to distrust. The King was flawless in his judgment, never making a mistake. The King was unsurpassed on the battlefield, always leading the charge into the enemy and always killing the most out of all his men. The King was fair with his people, never killing more than was needed and always taking everything into account whether it be politics or war…
The King was perfect, flawless… and as such not truly human to his people…A being impossible to understand, to sympathize, and to ever truly love as one of their own.
Always undertaking the weight of his kingdom onto his shoulders, he stood apart from his people. What little time he did have to relax, he spent on more work instead of mingling with his subjects and fellow knights of whom he claimed and believed to see as equal. When someone left his service, he trusted their judgment instead of questioning them, trying to know their reasons and perhaps aid them in what led them to their decision in the first place…
The King was truly the reason why the kingdom had been so great and so stable. Spoken of in legends and times millennia after his demise… However, despite the majesty of his rule, all things must eventually come to an end. And with the fall of the pillar that supported the most weight, the Kingdom had crushed what was left that had attempted to carry on without its magnificent but seemingly inhuman ruler, for there was no one who wanted to or could ever take the place of him…
o. o. o.
"Mrgh." Shirou grunted as he regained consciousness, feeling every ache and knot in his body as he realized that he was laid out on the hard floor of his workshop. A further inspection of his situation told him that his head was lying on some cleaned rags that he used for mechanic work and his body was lying on his coat like a makeshift mattress.
"I see you are up master." An unfamiliar and young, but cold and calm voice stated evenly from his side, jump starting his mind as he tried to comprehend what had happened to him last night.
It took him a few seconds to recall his encounter with Illya and Berserker, and his subsequent summoning of Saber.
"Somehow." The Emiya sighed as he sat himself up and cleared his eyes to look around. As expected, not all of his paperwork and equipment had stayed put for the summoning. Notes and small object littered the floor randomly, but as far as he could tell nothing was broken. At best it would only take him an hour or so to clean the mess up. Looking at a clock which thankfully had not been moved or broken, he saw that it was five thirty, the standard time he normally woke up if he had not been doing experiments all night long and completely exhausted himself. While he did indeed do the latter that night, falling asleep at midnight was a rarity for him, so the extra rest did him good.
Turning to the source of the voice, Shirou prepared himself to look at his servant with a pleasant smile. Now that he wasn't on the verge of exhaustion, he could take in all the details of her appearance without issue, and he was not disappointed. Her posture and image were as expected of a King. Proud. Flawless. Regal…
Yet he could tell that something was disturbing his Servant. The woman's eyes showed hints of uncertainty. Of what he didn't know, but it was enough to snap him out of being in awe of the woman in front of him.
"Thanks for setting me up on the floor." He started lamely, trying to get a conversation started. "I know I probably didn't give you the best first impression as a master but…"
"On the contrary." Saber interrupted, her young voice did nothing to hide the commanding authority that it held. "Even though you were unconscious shortly after my summoning, my initial impressions are quite positive. Not only did you manage to properly summon me in such a state and are providing me a suitable supply of prana, but you seem to be quite experienced in combat as well. Given what time I have been summoned in, I did not expect my master to be an experienced bowman and wielder of the sword in addition to being a magus. It is comforting to me in a way that you practice in arts that I am familiar with." It was also comforting to Shirou for some reason to hear her praise him.
"Glad to hear it." The Emiya smiled sincerely before looking around and noting that his produced copy of Avalon was gone, no doubt taken into possession by his Servant. Another thing he noticed was that the letter that he had meant to give to her was not on his person either. "Um, did you happen to see a letter on me when…"
"If you mean the message that my previous master had written for me, then I have read it, and afterwards destroyed it to prevent such information from getting into the wrong hands." The King of Knights interrupted tersely. Shirou saw the girl's muscles stiffen and her eyes shift to the side at this statement. No doubt it contained information that she had not been rather comfortable on discovering.
"I see." The Master nodded in understanding as he slowly picked himself up. "No doubt you have a bunch of questions you want to ask me. Dad left a small notebook on everything he could before he died." He took out the small leatherbound book from one of the pockets of his coat he had grabbed before starting the summoning ritual and held it out in front of his servant. "I've been studying it for several years now, so I know most of the material already. You can read it if you want."
Saber blinked surprised at the offering. Could this boy really have been raised by the Magus Killer? Not only has he said more to her already than his father did throughout the entire war, but his very demeanor is the opposite as well. "Perhaps later." The King of Knights declined. "I would prefer to learn what is different now than what Kiritsugu has described in his visions, in addition to learning why you were in such a state when I was summoned."
The red going white head nodded understandingly as he pocketed his book and stretched his limbs. "Sounds reasonable. Just let me do my morning exercises first and then we can talk about everything over… breakfast..." He froze as remembered that he was supposed to have met with Sakura and Zouken last night after summoning Saber, the former of the list often helping him make said meal in the first place.
"Is something the matter Master?" Saber asked curiously, noting the teen's sudden look of shame and horror.
"About those unplanned changes that Dad never saw coming…"
o. o. o.
"There is a servant here." Rider stated with a hint of worry as Sakura walked to Shirou's home, the sun just up enough to not be considered dawn anymore. "A strong one."
"I am not surprised Rider." The young girl replied calmly to her servant. "Grandfather told me last night that Saber was summoned last night. Given how Shirou-kun's magic works, I would be more surprised if he summoned a different class save for Archer."
"And if the servant should attack us?" The servant in spiritual form asked warily, much like a dog waiting for a reason to be on guard and bare her teeth.
"Shirou-kun will not attack us." Sakura corrected her familiar with sincerity as she walked up to the front door of the Emiya residence, rang the doorbell, and then let herself in with the key that Shirou had given her years ago. Still unconvinced about the situation, Rider prepared to leap forward at a hint of a threat and deliver her nail like weapons point first at the enemy...
… Only to encounter the smells of breakfast already cooking in the kitchen, and a small blonde girl in blue and steel armor, standing in the main hallway expectantly and on guard.
"Sakura Matou and her Servant I presume?" The noble looking servant asked formally, but clearly on guard for any possible signs of a fight. There was also a hint of something else bothering her, but it appeared to be unrelated to the new guests.
While none of the visitors were aware of this, Saber was slightly uncomfortable in her current position. It had been years since she had been pushed into the position of a mere welcomer. Not since the days of her youth in Sir Ector's keep as a Squire had she done something like this. Normally she would have argued against being in such a situation, however the moment Shirou had begun cooking and the smells of breakfast reached her nose, her will to go against his suggestion seemed to wane greatly.
"I am." The human nodded with a smile. "I take it you are Shirou-kun's servant? It's a pleasure to meet you." She bowed as she spoke.
"And you." The blonde bowed politely in return before turning around and walking to the dining room. "Come, we can discuss matters over food. I have my own questions to ask my Master that need to be answered."
"Saber! Is it Sakura?" Shirou's voice shouted from his kitchen curiously.
"Yes Master." The blonde replied as she sat down in the living room. "She has brought her Servant as well."
"It's a good thing I made extra food then. And I told you to call me Shirou Saber! Master is too formal and makes me feel uncomfortable!" Shirou called out casually.
"There is no need for him to bother with us Servants." Rider stated, still in spiritual form. "We feed primarily on prana. We do not need food."
"Rider's being a bit shy Shirou-kun. I don't think she wants to show herself." Sakura translated her partner's statement much to her amusement.
"That's not what I said Master." The Servant grumbled.
"We're going to be fighting alongside one another soon enough anyways. She might as well reveal herself to us so we can understand one another better and get used with each other's company." The Emiya said calmly as he began taking food out of the kitchen and laying it in the middle of the dining room table where four sets of dishes had been placed. "Speaking of company…" He muttered to himself before walking to one of the walls of his home, muttered something under his breath, and channeled some prana into it.
"What did you just do Ma… Shirou?" Saber asked curiously as the teen went back to the kitchen to bring out more food, though Sakura and Rider both noted that the blonde was having trouble taking her eyes off of the dishes that had already been placed in front of her.
"It's just a bounded field that Shirou-kun has on his property that makes it so that people without training in Thaumaturgy will enter his home." Sakura casually stated as she began to serve herself. "Occasionally Fujimura-sensei comes over for breakfast unannounced, so the field makes her and any normal person approaching his main doors remember something important they have to do and motivates them to address it. Since we have much to talk about this morning, it would be best to not have her around to cause distractions." She turned to her side where her servant was still floating without a body. "Rider, please don't be rude. Shirou-kun worked hard to make us breakfast."
"Indeed." Saber nodded as she began to give herself rather generous portions of rice. "It was said in my homeland that only fools insult the chefs of the dwellings they stay at."
"Wow, even back then people said that? I thought it was only a joke made in the past couple of centuries." Shirou blinked surprised as he came out with the rest of the meal before sitting himself next to his servant.
Rider, knowing she was not going to win against her master given the look she was getting, briefly sighed in defeat before materializing next to the girl in her seat in the kneeling position.
Had Shirou not known what the woman looked like beforehand from his father's notes, he would have most likely have done something foolish like stared, choked on his food, or dropped something valuable. While Saber was indeed a beauty with her blonde hair, sharp eyes, small frame, and noble bearing, Rider reflected the darker side of appeal towards the opposite sex.
Dressed in black and dark purple, the woman's attire left little to the imagination. Her toga like dress displayed a generous amount of her impressive cleavage and hugged her body tightly, ending in a skirt so short that he briefly wondered if she and Rin had at one point talked fashion. Her arms were covered in sleeves disconnected from her toga that began at her biceps with bands keeping them in place and ended in handcuffs around her wrists. Her legs were donned similarly with black leggings that went up to her thighs and black boots underneath, further increasing his suspicions that the woman had similar dress code standards to Rin.
Her eyes were covered by a purple bondage like headband that matched colors to the choker she wore, and even without focusing hard he could tell that the odd choice in attire was a Noble Phantasm of some sort. Completing her physical appearance were her absurdly long magenta hair that traveled on the floor for a good distance, and the red marking on her forehead. Had she been standing straight up, he was willing to bet that at least a few strands of her hair would still be brushing against the floor.
All in all, the woman's very existence screamed the darker side of sex appeal. Where Saber was purity of female nobility and goodness and what all good men wish for in heart in the long run (given she physically aged a few more years so she wouldn't be mistaken for jailbait), Rider could be considered the epitome of their darker desires with taboo's included, embodying what all straight men wish for in body if they let their minds wander the gutter for the better part of a second.
Regardless of what sort of women they may be though, Shirou had little doubt that either one of them could kill him as easily as breathing if they truly wanted to. The power radiating off of either one of them was enough to confirm that suspicion.
It was only after all this had passed through his mind that he remembered that sitting in front of him was the Legendary Gorgon Medusa.
"Glad you could join us." The Emiya smiled truthfully. "It makes me feel good when I can feed people that visit and make them feel more welcome."
"I am only joining you because it is what my master wishes." Rider replied stiffly before serving herself food. How she managed to do that with her eyes being blindfolded Shirou had no idea, and he wasn't going to be rude and ask.
"You…" Saber growled annoyed. How dare this servant insult her master after he served her food.
"Now now." Shirou sheepishly calmed down the King. "She is quite right. There's no need for anyone to fight. We're supposed to be on the same side, remember?"
"Only until there is no one else left." Rider added calmly, getting looks from the other females in the room.
"Oi. Can we at least eat something first before arguing?" The host grumbled as he sat down and began to serve himself. "I haven't had anything since lunch yesterday."
"Really? You didn't eat last night?" Sakura blinked in surprise as she began to eat, giving the Servants the signal to start themselves. "Why's that?"
Shirou pretended to not notice both of the heroic spirits pause in surprise after their first bite before continuing their meal at an increased pace. Clearly they both approved of his cooking. Thankfully his father had warned him of Saber's stomach in his notes, otherwise he wouldn't have had enough food in the house to last a day with her in it, let alone an entire war. "I spent a good portion of last night working at Copenhagen since it might be the last time I might have the chance to do so."
"You're still working there?" Sakura asked curiously, not taking note of Rider's or Saber's sudden increase in appetite. "The people that own it are nice, but I thought that the Association pays you quite well for your work hunting Apostles."
Apostles? Saber took note of the comment as she downed her rice at a fast pace. While the meal was in essence simple, consisting of large portions of fish, rice, vegetables, and seasonings, it was made to much higher qualities than what she was used to when she was alive. The blend of seasonings and unique textures danced upon her tongue extravagantly while the rice she ate seemed to soak it up and fill her to satisfaction.
She had not fought with him yet, but Shirou had already earned himself a solid position on the list of people that have summoned her. If the comment on the Apostles was anything to go by, he would no doubt be a solid partner to be back to back with in addition to being an excellent chef.
"I do, but I honestly don't want to touch that money unless I'm working on something big." The only male there shrugged casually. "You know, personal projects, experiments, maybe college if I manage to get enough free time from the Association."
"I don't know about that. From what you've told me, the Vice Director seems pretty adamant on having you full time under her control once you finish high school." Sakura replied dejectedly, knowing that once that happened she might as well say goodbye to him forever.
"We'll see." The Emiya mumbled as he began feeding himself. "I still have a little over a year to come up with something, and it's not like I don't have some negotiating room with her. Not much, but definitely a place to start. It's not like I enjoy going on the hunts in the first place, but someone's gotta do it."
"Master." Saber spoke up, having finished her first rather large bowl of rice and plate of fish and vegetables. "Can we please speak on topic again? I am rather curious as to why I found you injured as you were when you summoned me."
"Injured?" Sakura stopped eating at once and focused her attention on her fellow human, who was currently pouting and glaring at Saber childishly. "What did you do this time?"
"This time?" Saber raised an eyebrow and glanced at her Master, recalling Kiritsugu's warning that Shirou had a tendency to do reckless things for others.
Rider pretended not to notice and continued to eat her meal without anyone paying attention to her.
"I uh… I may have inconveniently come across one of the other masters when I was walking back home from work. And this master MAY have some past grudges against Dad and me… and then sicked her servant on me." The Emiya answered sheepishly while trying to play off the entire thing by eating again.
"You fought a SERVANT?!" Sakura gaped at Shirou, voicing out what Rider and Saber had been thinking quite clearly. Saber's hand gripped her chopsticks to the point of breaking. Apparently, Kiritsugu wasn't understating the situation about Shirou's personality if he was so nonchalant about nearly dying last night. She was going to have to do something about that soon.
"I am more impressed that he lived through the experience." Rider stated in her usual calm tone, though she had stopped eating at Shirou's declaration. "Who was it? Caster? Since you are still alive, it must have been one of the weaker classes…"
Shirou remained quiet as he focused completely on eating, pretending to ignore the temperature in the room drop for every second that he did so.
"Shi. Rou. Kun." Sakura smiled in a way that reminded him far too much of Rin. When exactly she started acting like Tohsaka, he had no idea, but he would bet money it came about from them spending more time with one another since the Louvre incident. "Which Servant did you fight?"
"…ker…" The sole male there whimpered with his mouth full of food, clearly trying to ignore the very intent stares of all three women at the table. Honestly he had hoped that he would have been able to deliver the news in a darker and more serious environment with him in control. Right now he was clearly outnumbered, out gunned, and terrified out of his mind. What was it with him always gaining the attention of angry and or powerful females? Every instinct in his body screamed at him to run or find some sort of miracle to get his ass out of this situation.
"You seem to be having trouble talking Master." Saber looked at him in a skeptical and suspicious way, returning to her initial name for him in order to voice her irritation. "Perhaps you are choking? I know of several means that can dislodge food from your lungs… though I must admit they are not among the most pleasant to experience…" Her smile looked so innocent, yet so deadly at the same time, like a snow storm about to bury him six feet under... or Illya.
Shirou shrunk even further under the pressure and swallowed heavily. "Berserker." He attempted to laugh to lighten up the mood but failed miserably, coming out more like a whimper. The chilly air in the room suddenly dropped to below freezing temperatures for drastically different reasons.
"Berserker?" Rider faltered, clearly not expecting a human to survive an encounter with the unstable yet powerful class. Regardless of how the teen had managed such a feat, he had without a doubt been raised several notches on the heroic spirit's threat meter.
"How on earth did you manage such a thing?" Saber asked bewildered, recalling when she had encountered Lancelot in the previous war. Even without his mind, the Mad Knight had been one of the most unstable and dangerous contenders, definitely not something a normal human would be able to escape let alone fight.
Sakura on the other hand sat back down and looked at the boy carefully. "Shirou-kun… how many petals did Berserker break?"
The Emiya faintly smiled before starting to eat again. "Before I managed to throw him off me, he managed to break through five of them in less than a minute." He didn't bother to mention that Berserker had somehow broken the laws of reality and shattered blades that literally could not be physically broken after he had used Rho Aias. No one knew about his other major defense's mechanics other than Sirius and Waver and he wanted to keep it that way for now.
"Petals?" Rider asked curiously, noting the paling look on her Master's face.
"Shirou-kun has the ability to replicate weapons and shields right down to their magic." Sakura explained. "His greatest defense is the Shield of Ajax. Rho Aias. It is powerful, but its physical state is reflected upon its user, so the more damage it takes, the more the user does as well. It possesses seven bounded fields, and the most I have ever seen it damaged was three broken petals."
"Rho Aias?" Rider stiffened in surprise, no doubt due to her familiarity to the shield since it came from the same part of the world as she did. Granted she had no part in that particular artifact's legend, however she was aware of how powerful of a defense it posed.
"I see." Saber's eyes narrowed. "That makes sense. When I first found him, his body possessed no external wounds, yet many of his bones, tendons, and muscles were heavily wounded in one way or another. Thankfully your healing ability addressed them all by the tie you woke up this morning." She stared at her Master warily. "On the matter of the enemy master and servant, did you manage to find out their identities?"
Shirou looked around at the females before sighing and decided to tell the truth. He was a horrible liar and even on his good days Sakura could peg him on a fib without even trying. Who knows what she'd do if he even tried to lie. Who knows what Rider and Saber would do? "It was Heracles."
"The Hero of Greece?" Saber whispered with her eyes wide in shock. While her knowledge of all heroic spirits was a bit limited, there was no way she would be able to overlook THAT name. "Are you sure?"
Shirou sighed before mentally pulling out a copy of Berserker's massive stone sword from his Reality Marble and projecting it behind him, surprising everyone else there. "To put things into perspective, he uses the thing behind me with one hand, and it is, in fact, proportionate to his body." Another second passed before he canceled out the spell and the slab of stone behind him shattered like glass with no remains.
"This does not bode well." Rider grit her teeth in frustration. She was confident in her abilities yes, but even she was wary of the prized half breed son of Zeus, whose strength was said to rival the gods when he was sane. She was somewhat hesitant to face the giant even with Saber, who she could feel was extremely powerful in her own right.
"What do you think we should do?" Sakura asked nervously. "If Berserker's master wants to kill you…"
"It should be fine for now." Shirou waved his hand lazily. "I barely managed to get away with my life and I could tell right off the bat that I couldn't scratch him, but some words were said between me and his master which makes me believe that they won't make any real moves against me for at least another few days." Or at least he hoped so. Illya's mental state was questionable to say the least. "Of course if they do show up again, my best recommendation is to run away and get backup. He is definitely not a servant that we can handle one on one."
"Who is Berserker's master Shirou-kun?" Sakura asked warily.
The male didn't flinch at the question as he began eating again. "Illyasviel Von Einzbern." He stated calmly, getting a flinch from Saber.
"Einzbern. That's one of the founding family's names." Rider noted as she put on a thoughtful pose. Apparently in addition to knowledge about the rules of the war and of the standards of the modern world, the Servants were given a brief history lesson on who made the war possible in the first place. No doubt there was a bit of Magus hubris fueling that decision.
"Grandfather said that with Rider and Saber summoned, six of the seven servants are now out." Sakura stated. "The only one left is Assassin."
"Humph. A coward's Servant coming last. How fitting." Saber snorted as she finished giving herself seconds and began to eat.
"Don't be like that. Considering I'm possibly the most dangerous Master in the war, Assassin might be the most dangerous Servant for us to deal with." Shirou stated calmly. "If other masters knew that I was one and had summoned Saber, they might try to team up just to get rid of me alone."
"You sound quite confident in your abilities boy." Rider commented. "Why is that?"
Sakura shifted in place. "Shirou-kun's known in the Magus community as the Magus Killer, and the Queen's Silver Dog. Even though he's not really violent, he get's sent out on jobs hunting very dangerous Dead Apostles, Sealing Designates, and he even killed a Dead Apostle Ancestor once. He's feared and hated by a good number of people."
"Magus Killer?" Saber raised an eyebrow at her Master, recalling the title that had once belonged to his father.
"It was an unfortunate chain of events that led to that happening, something that no one could have predicted." Shirou stated calmly after swallowing another bite of food, getting the idea across to Saber without telling Sakura or Rider what he really meant. "Personally I don't like fighting or killing anyone, but I was left without a choice in that particular case. Thankfully, most of the things I kill are undead or the bastards that made them in the first place. The few designates that I'm sent after though… well I try my hardest to make sure that they're alive when I clash with them."
"Such a reputation would indeed garner unwanted attention." Rider nodded, somehow grabbing seconds and already in the process of eating it when no one was looking. "So what is the current plan of action? I only know that the Masters here arranged for some sort of deal to be made before the war."
"We'll finish up preparations after school today. There's not enough time right now to do it." Shirou replied, pretending not to notice Sakura's discomfort with the subject. "Saber has an unfortunate condition that prevents her from going into spiritual form, so she will stay here and protect my home while Sakura and I go to school with Rider defending us. After that we'll come back here before going to the Church to get properly registered for the war and then go to Sakura's home to finish with our arrangements."
"That is, under the assumption that none of the other Masters attempt to attack us." Rider frowned.
"There's an unspoken agreement that no one fights during the daytime to avoid unwanted spectators." Sakura pointed out. "By the time we join up with Saber again and go to the Church, we should still have some daylight left."
Rider's silence was interpreted as acceptance to their explanation.
"Shirou, I must protest you leaving me here." Saber spoke up with a frown. "I am supposed to protect you at all times. Should an enemy servant appear…"
"Then I will have Sakura and Rider to help me out." The Master smiled sincerely. "It's only during the school day Saber, and if I am able to hold back Berserker to defend myself, then I am certain that I am able to hold off the others until help arrives. I have no doubt in my mind that I don't hold a candle to the other servants, but that doesn't mean I'm unable to defend myself to a degree. If things get truly bad I can always just use a command seal to teleport you to me."
"I would prefer it if you didn't have to risk using the seal at all for something that could have easily been prevented in the first place." The swordswoman grunted, only to get distracted by Sakura laughing. "I fail to see what is so amusing."
"It's nothing important." The girl smiled innocently. "It's just that things like this happen quite often with Shirou-kun. Even though you just met him, you're acting like one of us whenever he gets something in his head. It's like you've been here for a while already."
"Sakura." Shirou pouted. "It's not dangerous. I've taken everything into account. It's not like that time with Louvre. I know what I'm doing. I promise I really am taking my well being into account here."
The servants noticed Sakura's posture stiffen momentarily at the mention of the incident. Clearly something unfavorable had happened at the time. Neither had missed the underlying comment about his safety either, though both had different reactions.
Saber stared at her master angrily with her emerald green eyes for several seconds before relenting. Seeing as this wasn't the first time something like this has happened, there was little chance she would be able to convince her master to go with her plan. Granted, his logic was not unfounded, and from what she could tell, Shirou was at least aware of his suicidal behavior to occasionally put them into account, but she still did not like putting her master under the protection of another servant.
Rider on the other hand was taking in everything she could about her potential future opponents. Saber was indeed a major threat. Medusa had little doubt that the small blonde was at the very least one of the strongest servants in the war, if not the strongest… but it was her master that truly made her the most curious and nervous. The boy seemed to truly trust her with his life for some odd reason.
It was not a case of overconfidence. Perseus was overconfident. Granted he DID kill her in the end, but the fool could not have done such a thing without at least a dozen different blessings and gifts from the gods themselves in order to pull it off. She knew what overconfident idiots looked like, and the boy in front of her was without a doubt not one. It was more simply the fact that he did not suspect her of intending to harm him, thus he had no reason to be afraid.
She was curious at this. Why did this child, who apparently was one of the most notable human warriors of this era, trust her so completely without even saying a handful of words to her? Such senseless gestures could and would easily get a person killed or worse, yet he does so without hesitation. It wasn't even the fact that she was her Master's servant, though that may help the situation. No. She could tell that the boy trusted the both of them to the point that he was not at all worried for his well being.
As an individual that had been scorned by the humane and the divine alike for centuries on end to the point of actually turning into a monster that killed her siblings, Medusa was not exactly used to such treatment. She wasn't happy per say, though such trust from strangers was a pleasant rarity for her. In fact she would prefer it if she didn't develop any sort of attachment to the boy. They were in a war. Sooner or later they would be fighting on opposite sides to the death. Emotions that could get in the way of such a situation were better to be abandoned before they could take hold.
Curious. Yes. That was a good way to describe what she felt for the child in front of her. It was an emotion that was neither positive, negative, and could easily be thrown away if needed while still posing as a meager link to him. That would suffice for now.
"Sakura." The blindfolded woman spoke up, getting everyone's attention. "Is it your wish for me to protect him during school in addition to you? I cannot ensure his safety if you are both attacked. You will have to use a command seal if you wish for me to put his life above yours if that happens." There. She made it perfectly clear that she was willing to help him out to some degree while stating that her loyalties were still strictly to Sakura. No one could hold it against her if things did go wrong now.
"Yes." The girl nodded without being bothered by what the woman said. "I understand you perfectly Rider."
"I would be more concerned if that wasn't the case." Shirou shrugged as he ate some more. "Servants were summoned to protect their masters after all, not other masters. To hear that you are still willing to help me out even a little bit makes me relieved."
"I'm not defenseless anymore Shirou-kun." Sakura pouted. "Rin-sempai has been training me, remember? I managed to even beat you that one time. I mean I did get lucky and you didn't know what I had been doing at the time but…"
"Luck is a part of battle too you know." Shirou pointed out, not at all dejected by his loss. "In the end, if you won, even if was to luck, you still won."
"Agreed." Saber nodded in a sage like manner as she finished her second serving and began to give herself another portion. "When it comes to battle, a victory is a victory. Factors change all the time. Those who use luck or other things as an excuse when they either win or lose should not have the right to enter the battlefield in the first place. A good warrior knows when to adapt to such adverse conditions and never blames such things that were out of both their and their opponent's control."
"Couldn't have said it better myself." The sole male there smiled before noticing that most of the food he had put down on the table was gone. He was certain that he had put down enough for Saber's and Sakura's rather large appetites, and he on average ate a good amount for himself as well, but he had only had one portion, which meant that the miscalculation was made when it came to…
"Is something wrong?" Rider asked in an even but slightly curious tone as she served herself another bowl of rice and the last of the fish there.
"N-no." Shirou squeaked and laughed nervously, waving his hands in defense. If he had learned anything while growing up with multiple females with varying personalities, powers, and ages, it was to NEVER make a comment on their eating habits lest you wish to die a horrific and painful death. "Nothing's wrong! Nothing at all! Well would you look at the time! We have to clean up quickly if we want to get to school! We have to start cleaning up now." He quickly began to reach for the dishes, only to be stopped by Saber as she reached to give herself another serving.
"I wasn't finished yet Master." The smallest female in the room stated in a factual tone that allowed for no arguments.
Sakura laughed lightly before realizing that Saber was once again serving herself. "Now that I notice it, you do eat quite a lot Saber." She stated, not seeing the chef's body suddenly shiver in fear. "I'm kinda jealous. Where to you put it all?"
Shirou's hopes for surviving that morning dropped significantly as the conversation steered towards the subject he had been trying to avoid in the first place.
"When I was alive there were many wars that I took part in." Saber stated factually. "I worked frequently to keep in shape, so my body rarely took on weight. Though to be truthful there are other factors that are in place that explain my rather young appearance."
"Lucky…" Sakura mumbled as she looked down at her rather large breasts. "I always have to be careful when I eat these days or else I start to explode. The problem is when I do I always seem to be hungry." She turned to her Servant and her rather generous assets. "What about you Rider?"
Said black and purple servant, who seemed to be the only female there who noticed Shirou's presence and his awareness that this conversation was not something that he should be present for, remained quiet for a moment before speaking. "I have never had much of an issue with my eating habits. I find that my body's proportions are rather balanced, though I must admit they did alter a bit when my appetite became a bit more demanding. From what I recall, many males find this sort of body type appealing."
At once the three women turned to the token male, whose mind was frantically attempting to think of any possible excuse to get away from them at the moment. He put the minor thought that Rider may have something against him to the side, as the remains of his self preservation instincts kicked into overdrive.
"You know, I do believe I didn't triple check everything inside my workshop after I summoned Saber to make sure nothing was broken or altered." He lamely apologized before standing up and quickly walking to the door. Cleaning be damned, he would be killed if this was a conversation between three normal women, but between Medusa, Arturia, and Sakura? He merely put other's well being before himself! If no one else was in even a remote amount of danger, he would do what any other normal human being would do and get the hell out of dodge. Despite what Rin would claim at times, he wasn't that stupid. "I'll be just a moment…"
Several seconds after Shirou left, Sakura turned to Rider. "You did that on purpose didn't you?"
Rider shrugged as she began to eat again. "Even if I knew what you were talking about, I did not see you do anything to stop it master."
Saber remained quiet as she too finished up her meal. She wasn't exactly sure how this particular joining of forces had started, but she was certain that she would learn more of it later. Regardless, from what she had seen so far, she was convinced that there shouldn't be that much of a problem leaving her Master under the protection of Rider if it was only for just that day.
o. o. o.
Tohsaka Residence:
Rin gasped as she woke up with a start an sat up in her bed, sweating profusely.
She had dreamed of fire that night. More fire than she had ever though she could ever encounter in a single location, and she had gazed into the heart of the inferno no less…
It was the fire that had ruined and created Shirou ten years ago, melting down whoever he was before the event and giving birth to Shirou Emiya afterwards.
"You seem to be pretty energetic in the morning for once." Archer chuckled amusingly as he approached the girl with her morning coffee. Despite only being with her for a few days, the pair had already gotten into a morning routine where the Servant would prepare a light breakfast and coffee to energize the Master just before she would wake up at around six thirty in the morning. Apparently, while Archer's memories were frequently put into question by his master, he had unfortunately remembered that the girl was more like an undead than a magus when she normally woke up in the morning.
Rin blinked as she returned to the real world and looked at the white haired man in front of her. Shirou had indeed told her of what the fire was like once or twice, of how he passed by countless other dead and dying people around him while just barely managing to keep himself alive in the process. She had known that it was a terrifying event. She knew that many people had died in it. Heck, she had seen some somewhat similar situations herself when she occasionally went traveling with Kirei to explore the world and hunt down a few minor heretics for the Church…
But what she saw was not controlled in any sense of the word. It was without a doubt an absolute hell that reigned indiscriminately upon those unfortunate enough to be caught in its wake. Men, women, children, elderly, infirm, strong, weak, all were consumed in that nightmare. To assume that even a single person managed to survive from being caught in the dead center of such an event could be considered a miracle in itself.
It was little wonder to her now as to how Shirou managed to break as badly as he did… no, it was only during the dream that she began to realize the true degree that Shirou did break. To possess a reality marble one required to run on significantly different logic than the rest of the world. Rin just never knew how different until then. It was the only way he could have managed to hold on as long as he did before Kiritsugu found him.
He had to have broken, if not already be broken to have even the slightest chance of survival. No normal human could keep walking with a body as ruined as that. No one could have even thought of him as human from those injuries, those devastating wounds that he held across his entire body. Any other human would have fallen to the ground, screaming, wailing, whimpering, or fall into silence before being consumed by the flames. Instead, he had kept walking. Past the bodies. Past the screams and wails. Past the quivering bodies and the thrashing limbs Past the ruins that had been the homes of people he no longer remembered or would ever see again, moving ever forward through that seemingly never ending nightmare that kept shattering at his mind again and again with every step he took.
And just when even that inhuman resilience finally gave in and he collapsed, he was found by that man. At the brink of his life, he was saved, miraculously pulled from that nightmare to gaze upon that smile. To think that the Magus Killer of all people would have such an expression just from the thought of being able to save a dying child in that hell… to be THAT happy upon saving a single person… That smile, that beautiful, shining beacon in the middle of hell...the girl would never question Shirou's idolization of the man ever again. Not after that.
The girl silently made a promise to herself to let up on her comments of Shirou's personality. Before she had deep down assumed that the teen's mind frame could be corrected or at least improved with some common sense lessons, assuming that she could restore a human mentality back to him. Now, she knew that was pointless. Without a doubt, she knew that Shirou was and would forever be broken. He was who he was, and there was nothing she or anyone else could ever truly do to fix the damage he endured. The best she could do is try to make up for his deficiencies, and tolerate his mistakes to some degree.
"Master?" Archer raised an eyebrow, bringing the girl back to reality. "Is something on your mind?"
"N-no. It's nothing." Rin shook her head to clear her thoughts. Now wasn't the time to elaborate on how messed up her romantic interest was. Breathing deeply and regaining her Tohsaka stature, the girl calmed down and took the coffee that her servant brought her. With the first sip of black caffeine going through her system and waking up her mind, the brunette looked at the clock to see that it was fairly early. "I see I got up earlier than normal…" She glanced at her servant. "So did you see or remember anything while I was asleep?"
The man from the future shrugged casually. "I didn't remember anything, however I did briefly go out to check that odd signature we sensed on the way back. There appeared to be a brief fight that took place there, and at least one of the participants was a servant. The few marks on the ground were clear evidence of that, and whoever it was possessed a great deal of strength and mana. He made no efforts to hold back the power he held."
"So I assume that the victim was killed?" Rin questioned coldly. She expected there to be a new police report about a murder now if it really was a Servant targeting a normal human. She wasn't disgusted with the fact that so many murders and events were happening as it was happening on her property. She was technically responsible for managing the coverup and making sure that there wasn't attention turned to their direction. Sure Kirei may technically be the one that is in charge of doing it for the war, but in the end, it was her name on the dotted line.
"That was the surprising bit." The tan man mused, catching the girl's attention. "There was a victim, however he seemed to have survived given the blood trail he left behind. Unfortunately, going off on my own when my cute little master was sleeping defenseless did not leave me with good feelings, so I could only see what general direction it was going, which was deeper into the residential part of town."
"He lived?" The girl blinked in surprise, ignoring Archer's comment on her being cute for the time being. She had long noted that this future version of Shirou was far more sarcastic than his younger self, and that wasn't including the childish jabs he threw into conversation from time to time. She just assumed that it was a result of him spending far more time with her in the future.
Onto more important matters though, if masters and servants were becoming more arrogant in their approaches then things were starting to heat up. She had, much to Archer's surprise, been going to school without her servant under the assumption that no one would be dumb enough to start a fight in broad daylight. Since Shirou was a master as well, she didn't want to raise tensions between them so soon with the addition of his darker future self. The fact that Kirei had offhandedly told her that Assassin had yet to be summoned was also somewhat supported this idea since she wouldn't have to worry about being backstabbed without protection…
Now though, now she would have to admit that things were too dangerous to go anywhere without protection. Granted she still wouldn't start anything in the middle of a giant crowd, much less the school, but if something did happen, it would be better safe than dead. Besides, it wasn't like servants and masters could see other servants in spiritual form save for the ones they were bound to. They could only sense them.
"Lived, but injured. The trail indicated limping and leaning against walls for support." Archer shrugged. "Still, whoever it was was lucky that he survived in the first place."
"But how did he survive? Wasn't he attacked if the master was aiming to strengthen his servant? They would have their soul consumed if that was the case…" Rin frowned.
"Who knows?" The red knight mused, though there was a tinge of something in his voice that she couldn't identify. The fact that he didn't really seem that concerned about the wounded individual was also something that slightly worried the girl, but she put the thought away for later.
Finishing her coffee and getting out of bed, the girl yawned and walked towards her bathroom. "We'll talk about this later Archer. Since I'm already up, I might as well take a shower and get clean."
"Then I shall make sure that the breakfast is still nice and warm for when you finally get to it, otherwise you will no doubt be crass with me." The man smirked. "My pity goes out to anyone on the wrong side of Rin Tohsaka's ire."
"Keep talking Archer. I have three command seals and I know how to use them." The girl grunted as she moved towards her bathroom. "At least I know that you aren't dumb enough to follow me into the shower and peek at me naked like some kind of anime idiot."
The man rolled his eyes. "Please. Even if I have seen you naked before in my lifetime, our current ages are too far apart. I am not a pedophile."
Rin froze in midstep before turning to him and smiling in an all too familiar manner. "… Could you care to repeat that Servant?"
Archer paused for a moment before realizing what he had just said and edged away from the teen fearfully. "N-now Rin. Be reasonable. I'm from the future remember? Considering our relationship, is isn't hard to believe that such a thing may or may not have happened at some point that I happen to only vaguely remember- and what are you doing with that jewel?"
Had anyone been able to get past the privacy bounded fields that surrounded Tohsaka Manor, they would have been able to see flashes shine through a good number of the windows on the upper floors that morning in addition to hearing the sounds of a certain man yell in surprise and fear.
o. o. o.
Outside Fuyuki Highschool:
"Master, there are several servants at the school…" Caster warned Luvia as she walked onto the school compound from her limo, which was driven by Sebastian and had Marjatta in the back seat.
"I am not surprised." Luvia replied quietly. "It was only a matter of time before Tohsaka and Matou managed to summon their servants…"
"But what about the boy?" Caster asked. "Why didn't you count his servant among the fold?"
"He is too injured to come." The blonde answered, approaching the main building. "He knows better than to go to class in such a state. His healing abilities are subpar at best, and even with a good medic it would more than a night to recover from what he had obtained…"
Despite the fact that going into an area where there was more than one enemy servant with just a fragmented Caster class servant was akin to suicide in most situations, Luvia was not worried. Rin was smart enough to not start anything big in the middle of school, and the Matou girl in general preferred to stay out of everyone's line of sight save for Rin's and Shirou's.
Her conversation with Caster however was brought to a halt as Luvia opened the door to the school and saw Rin standing by the nearby stairs and staring intently at the entrance. The moment the two met eyes, they instantly came to an understanding. Both had brought their servants, both would not do anything about it… for now.
The tense energy between the two was enough that any and all students nearby instantly developed unpleasant feelings and moved away from the females as quickly as possible.
"Edelfelt." The brunette stated calmly.
"Tohsaka." The blonde replied in kind.
While Caster remained quiet throughout the entire ordeal, she couldn't help but notice that the enemy servant hovering over the master in front of her was fidgeting nervously. It was almost as if he saw something that not only caught him off guard, but made him extremely uncomfortable, but she couldn't guess why. Maybe he was a pacifist heroic spirit, or one with an advisement to harming females. Regardless of the situation however, it was clear that he was not eager to start a fight, which was comforting.
"I see you've finally decided to take things seriously." Rin started off this latest war of words in a casual and calm tone, almost as if she was friends with the girl.
"Funny, I was about to say the same." The blonde shot back in an equally sickeningly sweet tone. "Considering the position you are in, I was surprised why you didn't do this earlier. Those in your situation normally need as much help as they can get, correct?"
Archer shifted around even more, but was only noticed by Caster as his master was too busy dealing with Luvia.
The Tohsaka took the insult in stride and put on a confident smirk. "Oh I may have started late Edelfelt, but believe me it was worth it. With what I have, this entire thing is in the bag."
Memories of what she had witnessed the previous night flashed through Luvia's mind, the unstoppable black giant and the lone human teen that managed to out maneuver it despite the impossibility of it all. "Had you truly known what the others are like, you would think otherwise Tohsaka."
The smile on Rin's face dropped for a moment, clearly understanding that something related to the war had gotten underneath Luvia's skin recently, but before she could say anything more, her and Luvia's servants alerted them to the presence of a third Servant approaching.
"Oi. Could you two at least wait until lunch before starting this?" Shirou sighed as he walked towards the pair with Sakura and the girl's servant hovering above them. Unlike Caster and Archer, Rider was stiff and ready to fight at the first sign of trouble, never taking her attention away from the other two resurrected beings like an attack dog just waiting to be set loose. "In the main entrance to the building too. You two do realize that doing your thing here would just cause all sorts of trouble for people right?"
"Even I have to admit, this is pushing it." Sakura added disappointedly as she walked with him, no doubt indicating that they both had come from archery club.
"Shirou-kun…" Rin froze as the memories of the fire flared in her mind again, reminding her of the teen's broken origins.
"E-Emiya?" Luvia's reaction was more distinct as she gaped and stared at the teen in bewilderment. She had seen him get trashed by Berserker not even twelve hours ago, yet here he was standing and talking to them without a single scratch, cast, or bruise. Sensing the fact that the new servant was hovering over Matou protectively made it clear that it was the girl's… so that meant that the foolish idiot was standing literally in the middle of three forces of nature summoned with the purpose to kill one another…
"Honestly, could you guys have picked a worse time and place to start this? No, it's my fault for not keeping an eye out in case it got this far…" He sighed and looked at Sakura who was nervously shifting her gaze between her elder female schoolmates. Then he turned to look at the students who were lingering a fair distance away but still watching curiously as to what the school idol and the foreign beauty would do to one another this time.
Rin was the first to snap out of her stupor first and quickly donned an irritable expression. "Stop jumping to conclusions Shirou-kun. Edelfelt and I were just having a personal conversation. Whatever assumptions you made were clearly blown out of proportion." She paused to look at Sakura warily before putting on a wry grin. "Speaking of overblown conclusions though, one has to wonder why you two are coming in together?"
"Archery club." The pair replied in perfect synchrony without any hesitation, causing them to get a few odd looks from the others.
"Really?" The Tohsaka put on a sickeningly sweet grin on her face that fooled no one there. Since her perfect cover had been blown, Rin had made it a habit to occasionally let loose her evil side on occasion. Of course she did so in a calm, and upright manner worthy of her family name. "Of course you two were. There is obviously no way that someone as noble as Shirou-kun and as innocent as Sakura would ever consider doing things behind everyone's backs together. Why the very thought of it is simply fictional. Don't you agree Edelfelt?"
Luvia, having managed to snap out of her delirium moments earlier, decided to play along for the hell of it. The nervous looks of the two in front of her were just too good to pass up. "But of course Tohsaka. Everyone knows how poor of a liar Emiya is, and young Matou is just too soft spoken an upright to do such a thing. If they had teamed up for something scandalous, we would have learned of it oh so long ago." She put on a wry grin. "Or at least I would have. I'm not too sure about you Tohsaka. You do seem to be a bit absent at times when it counts…"
Rin glared at the European with cold eyes while still maintaining her noble posture, ignoring the nervous and unsettled states that Shirou and Sakura were in from the teasing. "Funny, I seem to recall that a certain foreigner is at least several ranks below me on the grade's listings… the smallest dogs do bark the loudest…"
Lightning sparked between the two female's eyes. "You know well that is only because I am unfamiliar with this country's history Tohsaka, otherwise it would have been clear that I am easily at the top of the class here. Obviously such a fact was beyond your notice."
"Hm yes, a fine excuse. It's perfectly suitable for someone in your position." The dark haired girl smiled confidently with the hint of a predator.
Despite the childish antics that the masters were engaging in, Caster couldn't help but notice that the dark haired girl's servant was still now. In fact the spirit had stopped moving around the time that the third party came. While she couldn't make out its features, she could tell that her future opponent's attention was claimed entirely by the boy for some reason. Why? She did not know, however judging from how tense the spirit was now compared to before, there was little doubt that there was something about the child that bothered the spirit so greatly that it didn't even notice its real enemies right in front of it. How odd… Had he watched the battle with Berserker with the fabled eyes of the Archer Class? Admittedly, the boy had displayed a great deal of skill, but to focus this much on the boy when there were two other servants nearly an arm's reach away?
"Oi. Guys. Can you two at least do this somewhere else? Or at least wait until lunch? It's too early for this." Shirou asked, somewhat relieved that neither Rin nor Luvia had realized that Rin was onto something when she was teasing him and Sakura. In all honesty he was getting a pretty bad headache from all of this happening so early in the morning. It was almost as if he couldn't even sort out his thoughts as easily as he normally could.
Rin and Luvia looked at one another warily before turning away from one another at the same time and pretending the other didn't exist. It was the standard behavior the two displayed when Shirou normally managed to reason them to stop fighting. Normally the pair would finish things off by letting off some last minute jabs, however…
"…at late late Late Late Late LATE LATE I'M LATE!" Roared a familiar tiger like female as she burst through the school doors, barreled past the group nearly knocking them down in the process, and bolted up the stairs without noticing anyone she passed.
"Ugh… I forgot that she did that…" Luvia grunted as she picked herself up.
"Why do you think I warned you not do start arguing here?" Shirou grumbled from the floor.
"How on earth can anyone be so energetic in the morning?" Rin asked out loud as she leaned against the wall. "It's not human."
"Your guess is as good as mine Sempai." Sakura laughed nervously from the sidelines, being the only one that managed to get out of the way on time.
As they watched their masters recover from their near death experience, all three servants silently agreed that that it was most likely that they would not be doing any fighting anytime soon…
o. o. o.
Emiya Residence:
Saber frowned as she read the short list of notes that Shirou left her on what was different about this timeline from what Kiritsugu witnessed. While she was proud that her master was so capable under pressure, she was not happy with the fact that a boy had to be thrust into the world of politics and facing Apostle Ancestors at such a young age. Given the comments he left on the side, it was clear that his increasing infamy had made it significantly more difficult to convince his sister that he was trying to help her…
At the very least the information he seemed to have left Shirou was accurate to some degree. Kiritsugu's description of Rider was exact, making the revelation of her identity and her powers even more surprising to the once and future king. The lingering doubt she had about the man's messages were progressively decreasing as she continued to read more of what her old master left behind.
She was currently dressed in her public clothing that the boy had obtained prior to the war. Apparently Kiritsugu had managed to keep an extra of the suit she had worn in the previous war and got the measurements from that to give the teen a reference of what to get when he was taking care of her. Seeing as her colors were blue and white, the teen had gone with that when he chose her current ensemble.
Relaxing in the boy's workshop, the King of Knights wore loose blue jeans that didn't restrict her movements in case she needed to move, combined with a white collar shirt over it, she looked fairly modern. The outfit wasn't supremely sophisticated like her previous getup, but it wasn't a cheap and sloppy ensemble either. Had she truly wanted to look more proper, she could have just put on the suit left over from the previous war, which was hanging in the closet that Shirou had prepared for her when she arrived…
While her Master did mention that she would look good in a dress, he said that she would need pants in order to use the thing in the workshop properly for the war…
Speaking of which…
Saber's eyes lifted from the list to see the covered object in front of the garage doors of the workshop skeptically. While her master did say the object was a surprise for later, he never did tell her that she couldn't have a look at it, and to be fully prepared for the war it was best to be as familiar with all factors under your control as possible. The constant nagging at the back of her head telling her to see what the mystery object in front of her was didn't factor into the equation one bit.
It only took several hours for the former King's curiosity to get the better of her. From what she could tell, her master was a kind and understanding individual, surely a peek wouldn't do anyone any harm…
o. o. o.
(A/N: All Servant stats will be revealed from Shirou's perspective.)
Servant Stats:
Saber
ID: Arturia Pendragon
Alias: The King of Knights
Master: Shirou Emiya
Alignment: Lawful Good
Strength: B
Agility: A
Mana: A+ (Avalon's presence increases her capacity, otherwise A)
Luck: B
Endurance: A
Noble Phantasm: A++
Class Skills:
Magic Resistance: A
Riding: B
Personal Skills:
Charisma: B
Instinct: A
Prana Burst: A
Noble Phantasms:
Invisible Air: C
Excalibur: A++
Avalon: EX
o. o. o.
Berserker
ID: Heracles
Alias: The Hero of Greece
Master: Illyasviel Von Einzbern
Alignement: Chaotic Mad
Strength: A+
Agility: A
Mana: A
Luck: B
Endurance: A
Noble Phantasm: B
Class Skills:
Mad Enhancement: B
Personal Skills:
Battle Continuation: A
Bravery: A+
Divinity: A
Eye of the Mind (Fake): B
Noble Phantasms:
God Hand: B
o. o. o.
Rider
ID: Medusa
Alias: The Gorgon Queen
Master: Sakura Matou
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Strength: B
Agility: A
Mana: B
Luck: E
Endurance: D
Noble Phantasm: A+
Class Skills:
Magic Resistance: B
Riding: A+
Independent Action: C
Personal Skills:
Divinity: E-
Monstrous Strength: B
Mystic Eyes: A+
Noble Phantasms:
Bellerophon: A+
Blood Fort Andromeda: B
Breaker Gorgon: C-
o. o. o.
A/N:
Once more, Thanks Maximorph1 for betaing.
This would have gotten out at least a week ago, but my friend lent me the first Borderlands and I have a habit of trying to do all the side quests that meet my gaze whenever I play a game.
On a side note, I've had the same electrical board either burst into smoke or flames or both at least twice in front of my face within the past week and it wasn't my fault. Gotta love a job that keeps you on your toes.
Twitch. Twitch. Over. 250 reviews. In. One. Chapter. Dear. God. That is by far, a personal best. Ever. Of all time.
I don't even know WHY people responded so well to Shirou Vs. Berserker. It was just Shirou barely living and getting his magic pummeled. Was it the black boxes that made up Berserker's roar? Was that it? Seriously, can someone explain why people loved that chapter so much? I'm honestly terrified of what the reaction will be when… no, never mind. No spoilers.
…
Fuck it. Lets break the 2k mark by this chapter folks! Come on!
So! Notes!
Sorry that this chapter was full of exposition and no action, but I honestly had to do it in order to get some of the multiple back plots moving. While some of the things I mentioned do seem irrelevant, I assure everyone that they actually do serve a purpose in the long run. Just please be patient.
I'm probably going to get flack for my explanation of what a Planet Terminal is since there obviously is no real explanation that exists, HOWEVER! Please bear with me on this! After reading Merem's profile and then reading up on the Sixth Imaginary Element, the same stuff that makes Medusa's eyes, I found that the two have SO much in common that there is no possible way that Merem's powers could work without utilizing this element. I am probably wrong in the exact definition on what a Planet Terminal is, but I will bet money on it being related to the sixth element.
Shirou learning bits and pieces of Fairy Magic and making Avalon cheaper, yeah. I went there. I always did wonder why in the end of Fate all of Shirou's circuits lit up just to make that single construct when producing virtually anything in UBW should cost roughly the same. This is my explanation for it. It's not perfect. People are not going to like it. And it's probably wrong in one point or another, but it makes sense and it explains many things such as why Kanchou and Bakuya cost a third of the cost to make compared to Archer's other projections, in addition to Avalon's high creation cost. Just for the record, no Shirou is never going to magically be able to understand or cast any form of fairy magic he sees. At best he would be able to understand what they are supposed to do with a few extra bits and pieces, but not how it works exactly. The best he can do is produce fairy made weapons to the same degree as most of the other weapons in UBW, and even then they will be a bit inferior to the others.
One of the things that bugged me in the Visual Novel was the fact that so many of Rider's abilities were skimmed over in all three routes. I am going to try and address all of them (for better or worse) throughout FFD to truly exploit her character for all she's worth. Muahahaha.
(Begins to dance and sing horribly) Who's gonna fuck up Canon? I am! I am! Who's gonna screw Shirou over? I am! I am! Who's gonna want to kill me? Everyone! Everyone! Yaaaaaaay!
(Returns to being semi sane). Not much on the bad guy's side of things here, but I will without a doubt be making up for it in the next chapter or two… or five.
I know that some people are going to be bugged that I changed Saber's appearance, but I found it was needed for the plot so she could do some things… so… yeah. Shitty excuse but that what I'm sticking with. All in all it's not a big change, just imagine her standard casual clothes in fate, only instead of a blue dress its blue pants, and her shirt is like a modern white buttonup that's sharper and crisper than that poofy one she wears. I really, REALLY don't like that shirt for some reason. It just doesn't seem to fit her character design for me.
As for why Saber's mana ranking is so high with Avalon, it's a reference to the VN. It says at one point that with Avalon, she could fire off Excaliblast four times before she would need a recharge as opposed to the single blast limit she normally had with cannon Shirou as a master. I'm just taking that into account.
So that's about it folks! Believe me when I say that things are going to get horrifically chaotic and pure awesome real soon! Thanks for bearing with me!
So Review! Worship the Log! Always be wary of being distracted by the main enterance of a local high school! And Review Again!
