Disclaimer: I do not own the Fate franchise it belongs to Kinoko Nasu and Type-Moon.

Fairies and a Haunting

Chapter 1

Ayame gave a grateful nod at the waitress as she finished dropping off their drinks, and then picking up the beer mug, took a deep drink of the foaming bitter liquid. "Ah!" she gasped. "Nothing like a pint of cold beer after a hard day's work!"

Canned beer was good, but draft beer was the best. Of course, if you asked the snobs and fops that infested the Clock Tower, the best drink to go with steak or prime rib or any other kind of premium red meat was red wine, but Ayame couldn't care less about their opinions. To each their own, as the Americans would say.

"Anyway," Ayame continued. "What's the problem over back in Japan?"

Sella responded by putting down her wine glass, the last of the Einzbern having white wine with her order of salmon filet. "The Tohsaka Estate." she simply said, causing Ayame's good mood to completely evaporate.

"Six years…" she said with a sigh. "...we spent six years trying to find a buyer for that place, in which time the real estate taxes were all but literally burning a hole through my bank account…and now you're telling me there's an issue with the place…"

"Yes."

"What is it this time?" Ayame grouched, sparing a nod for the waitress as she delivered a basket of cornbread, still steaming hot fresh from the oven. Having an affinity for Fire, though, that wasn't an issue for Ayame, who casually picked up one of the loaves, just as casually dispersing the heat into their surroundings while tearing off chunks with her fingers and stuffing them into her mouth. "Is it the usual superstition about how the house may be cursed considering the Tohsaka family practically got wiped out in less than two generations?"

"It seems that way," Sella delicately began, her tone of voice causing Ayame to raise an eyebrow. "The buyer claims that the estate is…ah, haunted."

"...really?"

Sella nodded. "According to the buyer," she began. "Ever since he and his family moved in, there have been strange occurrences in the estate. Whispering voices even when there's no one around, ghostly apparitions wandering lonely corridors, and even things moving on their own."

"...and what do you think?" Ayame asked, gesturing with a finger to set up a bounded field around them to keep people from overhearing.

"The Association stripped the estate of anything supernatural…" Sella began.

"...along with all the furniture and most of the decor…"Ayame muttered.

"...but it's not impossible that something was accidentally overlooked and was left behind in the estate." Sella continued. "Considering the sympathetic nature of magecraft between supernatural artifacts and significant locations, I suspect that anything left behind is reacting poorly to non-Tohsaka moving into the estate and making themselves at home."

Ayame hummed at that, tapping her fingers against the table in thought, before picking up her beer mug and taking another drink. "Another possibility we need to consider is if the property itself is acting up to non-Tohsaka having moved in." she softly said. "Granted, I never seemed to have any issues the few times I've wandered and even rummaged in the place over the years, but then again…"

The Black and White Magician paused and gave an unhappy sigh. "...I am a Tohsaka by blood." she reluctantly admitted before glancing at Sella. "What do you think?"

"Plausible," Sella conceded. "But it would greatly complicate efforts to resolve this issue. If an artifact was simply left behind, then the solution would be to find the artifact and either remove it from the property, or, if that should prove impossible or impractical, to destroy it. But if the property itself is supernaturally active…"

"...even burning the place down isn't going to fix things, would it?" Ayame asked.

"No, I suspect that would only worsen the issue." Sella said with a shake of her head. "An exorcism would be required, and multiple times at that, if not regularly going forward."

"Fuck me sideways…" Ayame cursed while taking another drink of her beer. "...alright! Suppose we just decided to ignore this, and either told the buyer it's just a figment of their imagination, or used mental interference to make them forget about past hauntings while making it impossible for them to register future hauntings…"

"...it could work," Sella said after a few moments' thought, but both her tone and expression showed it was a long shot at best. "But only if the hauntings truly are just the result of overactive imaginations, coupled with subconscious worries over the poor reputation born of the Tohsaka family's ignominious demise. Otherwise…best case scenario, we may end up facing charges of fraud at court."

"Fraud?" Ayame echoed.

"Well, if the house was clearly haunted and we never mentioned it to the buyer during the course of sales negotiations," Sella explained. "Then yes, we could be liable for fraud. But it's unlikely any court would seriously consider such allegations…"

"And…?" Ayame prompted.

"...if so," Sella continued. "The buyer might instead turn to other sources of potential remuneration if not vindication, such as the yakuza."

"On one hand, Fuji-nee's in charge of the local yakuza, so they probably won't get violent." Ayame said with another sigh. "On the other hand, that only means Fuji-nee would nag me endlessly to do something about it…making trouble for other people even when they're all dead and gone…fucking Tohsakas…anyway, that's not the worst-case scenario, is it?"

"No," Sella said with a shake of her head. "I would reserve that for if we simply use mental interference to make the buyer ignore the issue, but the hauntings are genuine. I will admit there is a chance that simply ignoring the issue would effectively counter its symptoms, but there's also an ever greater chance that the backlash builds until it…well, worsens."

"...potentially ending up with piles of corpses…" Ayame muttered before shaking her head. "...the buyer has children, doesn't he?"

"A daughter in elementary school, and another one barely past toddler age, yes." Sella said.

"Damn it…" Ayame cursed again. "...looks like we've got no choice but to deal with this up-front. We don't currently have a hunt ongoing, not after we turned le Coq and his immediate family into dust on the wind, so there shouldn't be any conflicts of interest. The buyer has temporarily moved out?"

"Right after he claimed his elder daughter went into hysterics over, and I quote," Sella replied. "A ghostly child making all her toys fly and dance around them both."

"Right, right," Ayame said with a sigh. "We'll keep tabs on them, and wipe their memories once this is done. Assuming again, this is really happening. If it isn't, no need to mess with their heads. But if there is…we'll check the place, see if it's really haunted, find out what's causing it, and either rip it out or smash it on the spot."

"Yes, my lady."

Ayame nodded, then dispelled the bounded field just as the waitress arrived with their meals. "Salmon filet in light sauce with buttered vegetables on the side," she began, then served Sella her meal at a gesture from the German homunculus. "And rib eye cooked medium with extra gravy and mashed potatoes on the side. Order is complete…"

"Ah, I'd like a beer refill, please." Ayame said, taking a deep drink before holding up her near-empty beer mug.

"Right away, ma'am." the waitress said with a nod, and taking Ayame's beer mug. Ayame nodded back, and smiling at Sella, picked up her utensils.

"Before anything else, though," she said. "Dinner."

"Yes, my lady."

Thankfully, Sella had been able to arrange for seats on a flight from Buenos Aires to Kumamoto on short notice. Originally, she had been looking for business class seats, but JAL had offered discounted prices for first class seats on an earlier flight than those for flights with available business class seats. After consulting with Ayame, Sella had taken the offer, meaning the two women were leaving Buenos Aires in only a few hours.

Of course, it still took them about two days to get to Japan, as the flight had two stops on the way, first at Houston in Texas, and again at San Francisco in California, both in the USA. Ayame even visited the duty free stores at both cities to buy souvenirs, before their flight resumed and the long journey across the Pacific finally concluded at Kumamoto Airport in the prefecture of the same name.

"You go on ahead and check the security perimeter as well as gather any mystic codes and materials we might need." Ayame said while she and Sella rode a taxi from Kumamoto City to Fuyuki City. "In the meantime, I'll go and check in with Fuji-nee. We'll meet at my place before heading to Tohsaka."

"Yes, my lady." Sella said with a nod.

Ayame nodded herself. "Then we'll go and see…whatever this is," she continued. "And deal with it."

Pausing, Ayame looked out the window at the sky above. "...I'd prefer to do this in the daytime," she softly said. "But I suppose I can handle working at night if it comes to that."

There was a long moment of silence, and then Sella's lips twitched minutely, as though in a teasing smile. "Superstitious, my lady?" she asked.

Ayame laughed. "Maybe…I'm still Japanese, after all…" she admitted. "...still, it's not all bad. Superstitions may not necessarily be true in their entirety, but you never know with these things."

"This is true." Sella agreed. "Older superstitions in particular may have been passed down over the generations and only became superstition when the passing of time blurred the details of actual events and happenings, turning them into allegory and metaphor."

"And even newer ones might still have a grain of truth to them," Ayame softly added. "Considering they stayed stuck in people's heads no matter what reason or rationality might say."

"Something of a generalization," Sella opined. "But it would be prudent not to dismiss them out of hand, yes."

Ayame nodded. "Well," she concluded. "Whether it's wise or not to deal with our little problem at night is something we'll find out shortly. Besides, after everything that's happened over the past six years, what's a little haunting, right?"

"As you say, my lady."

It was already late in the afternoon when Ayame finally managed to track Taiga Fujimura down, and in one of the seedier parts of town. Thuggish-looking men and older boys looked appraisingly at her as she walked down the street, looking rather out of place in a blue jacket worn over a white shirt and dark jeans. Then turning, she entered a battered building, the men at the front returning her greetings with familiarity causing the people on the street to look away.

Whoever she was, and whatever it was in the bags she was carrying, wasn't worth causing trouble with the Fujimura-gumi over.

Not if they didn't want to go swimming in the Mion River with concrete weights chained to their limbs, or buried up to their necks along a railway track, that is.

Meanwhile, inside the building, some of the newer staff looked censoriously at Ayame, only to back down and get back to work as the older staff glared at them in turn. "You're back early." a man in a crisp business ensemble said where he was sitting at a desk next to an elevator. A polished gold pin with the Fujimura crest gleamed on his left lapel.

"Good to see you too, Kuga-san." Ayame replied. "Yeah, I didn't plan to be back for at least another year, but there's trouble over at the old Tohsaka property."

Kuga Marihito winced in sympathy. "You've been trying to get rid of that place for years now," he said. "Only now that you finally managed that, things get troublesome again. Figures."

"Yeah, life's like that." Ayame said with a shrug, and prompting a laugh from the older man.

"That's a good outlook." he said while hitting the up button on the elevator controls. "You'll get nowhere in life if you keep getting riled up by every wrong turn it takes. But…! I'm taking up too much of your time. Taiga-sama is upstairs, and while she should be busy, I'm sure she wouldn't mind giving you a few minutes."

"Then I'll try not to take up too much of her time." Ayame said, as the elevator pinged and the doors opened.

Kuga nodded and Ayame walked past into the elevator. Less than a minute later, and she was stepping onto a busy floor. Two more Fujimura men greeted her with nods, and directed her to where an irate-looking Taiga was quietly arguing with an older man over a pile of balance sheets on the latter's desk.

"Who's this?" the man snapped at the sight of Ayame. "We're busy! Come back another time!"

Taiga Fujimura took one look at Ayame, though, before glaring at the man. "Talk like that to one of my students again," she growled. "And see what happens."

The man turned his head towards her sharply, only to quail at a sinister…something, in the depths of her eyes. "Get out." Taiga snapped. "We'll finish this later, I'm sure Emiya won't take too much of our time."

Cowed, the man rose and bowed deeply before quietly leaving, and at a nod from Taiga, the other Fujimura men also left. "Bad time?" Ayame asked. "I can come again at another time…"

"No, no," Taiga quickly said with a wave of a hand. "It's no trouble at all. Besides, I wasn't bluffing when I said you won't take too much of our time. If you had to come rushing back to Japan, you must have something important to deal with here."

Taiga paused, and then taking a deep breath, smiled weakly at Ayame. "Sorry if I seem…out of sorts," she said. "But it's been a long day."

"No, it's alright, I understand." Ayame said with a smile of her own. "Things used to be so much simpler…do you still teach these days?"

"Not at Homurahara, no." Taiga said. "But I do teach at a cram school twice a week. Even if my grandfather's advancing age means I need to pick up more responsibilities at the family business, I still find the time to do what I really want."

"Fuji-nee…"

Taiga waved Ayame's concern off. "None of that now," she said. "You know as well as I do that life's like what it is, so don't get too hung up over it. I do appreciate you coming over, though, before you deal with whatever brought you back so soon."

Ayame smiled and nodded. "That was the idea." she said, before pulling up her bags and putting them on a nearby desk, one uncluttered by papers. "Anyway, I bought some souvenirs, both for you and Raiga-san. Well, these ones are for you, chocolates and leather from America…"

"Wait, really?" Taiga said, quickly walking over and examining the bag's contents. "Wow…American chocolate…and this is real cow leather?"

"From Texas, yes."

"Aww, Ayame, you shouldn't have."

Ayame shrugged. "If you don't want them," she teasingly said. "Give them back."

Taiga mock-glared while pulling the stacked boxes of chocolate, bags, belts, and shoes closer to herself, causing Ayame to grin. "You're welcome, Fuji-nee." she said with a small bow. "Oh, I brought American alcohol and South American coffee for both you and Raiga-san, but I'll bring those over to your house instead."

"Then we'll be sure to invite you to dinner in the near future." Taiga said with a nod. "Preferably when my grandfather isn't so busy, but knowing the old man, once he hears you're back, he'll insist on having you over for dinner ASAP."

"Well, it's not like any of us can say no to an invitation from him." Ayame pointed out.

"Too true." Taiga said with a sage nod. "So, what brings you back so soon? No, no, let me guess, it's involved in all that stuff you got from Kiritsugu, the same stuff that got you that weird German…well, I don't think maid is the right word for Sella, but you get what I mean, right?"

"Yeah, there's trouble over at the Tohsaka estate." Ayame said. "The buyer says it's haunted, so I have to go and check it out. It's probably nothing, but still. Be responsible, right?"

Taiga gave a wry laugh. "That's what I made sure to raise you to be, yes." she said, and Ayame laughed in her turn.

"I'm guessing there's a problem?" Ayame asked as Sella greeted her at the foyer of the Emiya property.

"Not as such." Sella said. "The security perimeter worked as intended, trapping a pair of intruders…"

The security perimeter: something Ayame and Sella had put together five years ago, after one Francois Prelati had slipped into the city and caused widespread havoc. It had forced Ayame to pull out all the stops on her fey magic just to force the elder magus to retreat, but not before the latter had desecrated the memorial on top of Mount Enzo.

After the Mages Association brushed her off about the incident, an enraged Ayame had prevailed on Sella to 'acquire' various materials from the Einzbern territory in Europe. Together, they used a combination of Einzbern rituals, fey magic, and the vast amounts of mana the local ley lines could provide on demand to build the security perimeter.

Now, any magus who stayed for more than three days inside the perimeter without permission from Ayame, or used five-count or higher-ranked spells within that grace period (also without permission from Ayame) would be pulled into and trapped inside a nth-dimensional space until such time Ayame or Sella saw fit to release them. Unfortunately, while it was High Thaumaturgy, it wasn't True Magic, so while time passed much slower inside than on the outside, it still passed, so anyone trapped inside for too long would end up either starving or thirsting to death.

"...one of them was trapped there three years ago," Sella was saying. "And has unfortunately been reduced to little more than a mummified corpse. As for the other, they've been trapped for just over a year, so they're still alive, if only barely."

"I see…" Ayame said while scratching her head and making her way to the living room. "...they're magi, yes?"

"Yes, they are - or were - magi."

"Then no big loss." Ayame said with a shrug. "I mean, officially, magi trespass on the territory of their peers at their own risk. I can hardly be blamed if some morons decided to assume that just because I wasn't in the city at the time I left it unprotected from scum like them, especially after that whole business with Prelati."

"As you say, my lady."

"We'll deal with this after we finish our business at Tohsaka." Ayame said. "No problems with the mystic codes and other materials?"

"None, my lady." Sella replied.

"Good," Ayame said with a nod. "I'll go get changed. Then we'll get straight to business."

"Yes, my lady."

A/N

Remember, it's only been six years since the Fifth Holy Grail War. Ayame might be able to call on the fey, but she's still only really starting to fill the shoes of the Black and White Magician. It'll take her a few more years (optimistically) if not a whole decade (realistically) before she can do what Touko did and outright butcher Prelati instead of simply driving them off.

And by drive them off, I mean that in the sense that Prelati wasn't so much as threatened as much as they couldn't get anything done before a cosplaying teenager showed up raining down laser beams and fireballs with surprisingly heavy conceptual weight (without the fairies Ayame would have been toast against Prelati). So they fucked off until said cosplayer left, unfortunately, said cosplayer teamed up with one of Jubstacheit's rejects and set up a really powerful bounded field jacked up to the local ley lines to keep Prelati out.

Up next, we get to the real meat of the story: the (apparently haunted) Tohsaka mansion.