Chapter 19: Out of your Depth II - Troublesome Tides

Bazett Fraga McRemitz's eyes widened. "W-What?! There's no such thing as a Sixth Magic! There are only the Five!"

"And why do you believe that?" Caren raised an amused eyebrow. "Just as scientists do not claim to know everything about their science, magi also should not claim to know everything about magecraft. And when you take something like True Magic into consideration..."

Bazett grimaced. Unfortunately, the apparent True Magician made a good point. If there had always been six True Magics instead of five... "No matter, then. I'm not scholarly enough as a magus to care. What is important is your intention with me, Exorcist."

"Ah, I've been found out." Caren cast a look at her wrapped Shroud before smirking back. "Relax. I have no evil intentions against you."

Bazett strained against her cuffs again. "My restraints beg to differ."

Moving towards a nearby console, Caren tapped a button that released Bazett. "Listen, miss Enforcer. You should know that the Church is not a unified existence with a single goal. People will always have different viewpoints and agendas."

"Is there a reason why you're speaking to me of the obvious?" Bazett tensed warily.

"Of course, there is." Caren pulled open a cupboard and tossed Bazett her Mystic Code, her topaz eyes starting to glimmer. "I just need that information be at the forefront of your mind while you prepare to be sent for battle."

Bazett stilled and tried to move but it was already too late, the True Magic easily engulfing her mind in an overwhelming wave of amber, her panic quickly disappearing under numb blankness. "Why... are you...?"

"'Why am I doing this?' What a boorish question, miss Enforcer." Care crossed her arms as a mere twitch compelled Bazett to stand at attention, the amber a cloying mix of sedative and stimulant. "There is only one reason for an Exorcist to take action here of all places: There is a threat to Humanity being needlessly provoked... and I'll be needing the 'vessel' if I stand a chance of saving the world from it."

Waking from sleep, Shirou Emiya groaned as he sat up from the hard floor, his bones popping as he stretched while realizing his surroundings. Miyu, Taiga and Sakura were asleep on a couch together, with the table littered with assortments from the previous night. 'Oh, that's right. We all dozed off.'

Dropping a blanket upon the girls, Shirou noted Shinji and Ayaka's absence with a yawn. 'Did those two make it to their beds? Well, I guess I should get started on breakfast-'

"Hehe..."

Shirou turned at the sound of Shinji's voice, seeing the bluenette standing before the corridor with a lidded gaze before suddenly launched forward with a delirious cheer, prompting Shirou to immediately dodge and let his friend smack facefirst against the wall. "Shinji, what are you doing?!"

"Damn it..." Shinji grunted as he turned around from where he'd knelt, his gaze wavering and weakening before he fainted. "I can't fight this well... Mental interference..."

"H-Hey, Shinji!" Shirou called out in worry, only to be distracted by the sound of a terrified shudder. Looking towards the sound, Shirou was unsettled at the sight of Ayaka whimpering as she hugged her knees at the staircase.

Hearing him approach, Ayaka shuffled back. "No! Shirou-san, don't come any closer..."

"Ayaka, there's no way that I can do that." Shirou at least stopped moving forward. "If there's anything-"

"Just leave me alone!" Ayaka cried in mortification and desperation, a pair of thinly scaled wings bursting from her back to flap uselessly as she fled up the stairs and into a room, immediately locking it with a... laugh?

"Senpai..."

"Sakura? Great, I think something's wrong..." Shirou trailed off at the sight of Sakura bearing the same lidded look Shinji had spotted. "Sakura, are you okay?"

"...I don't think so." Sakura slowly stalked forward until she was pressed flush against Shirou, her hands wrapping around his waist. "I am scared."

Shirou frowned before gently hugging her back. "What's wrong?"

"I had a terrible dream." Sakura's shoulders shook, her face buried in his chest. "I thought this had all been a fantasy and I... woke up to Grandfather's worms in my body once more."

"Zouken's dead, I killed him." Shirou did a quick pulse of Avalon's light to check her body just in case, only for Sakura to suddenly shake in place and look up at him in confusion. "Sakura?"

"S-Senpai?" Sakura looked around curiously, pulling away from him. "Did I... What just happened?"

"What are you two up to so early?" Taiga's voice came out of nowhere, the woman approaching with lidded eyes that were becoming unsettling familiar. "Flirting again?"

"F-Fuji-nee?" Shirou stepped forward. "Listen, I don't think you're in the right state of mind-"

"Why do you keep throwing this in my face?" Taiga's face settled into a deep frown before suddenly tackling Shirou down and laying him flat as she straddled him. "You know, I tried my best... You're just supposed to be my little brother... Why did this have to happen? Why'd you have to be so... so... you...?! How are you more romantically and sexually interesting than every one of my male agemates?! When I caught you staring at my ass, how was it that I was glad instead of-"

Taiga flinched as Sakura's fingers flashed with prana while tapping her head before falling forward bonelessly onto Shirou's chest, leaving him and Sakura to exchange awkward looks.

"Senpai, we will be talking about this later."

"...that's fair."

Sakura looked around warily. "It looks like someone cast a wide area effect spell on our minds. Luckily, it's weak enough that a simple flush of prana can deal with it."

"I already guessed that much." Shirou gently laid Taiga aside. "I was able to free you just earlier, and Shinji accidentally knocked himself out when his face hit the wall."

"I see..." Sakura looked around with a frown. "Where's Ayaka?"

"She ran upstairs." Shirou set down Taiga on one of the free couches. "That's what I wanted to talk about earlier. She'd-"

"Onii-chan." Miyu pressed herself into Shirou from behind, cutting him off. "You know, Onii-chan, actually I also-"

"Nope." Shirou patted her head with a heavy dose of Avalon light, catching her before she fell. "How did everybody get like this?"

A chuckle caught their attention, causing Shirou and Sakura to look towards the staircase.

Ayaka had come back down, but unlike before, it seemed that her whole demeanor and appearance had changed along with her present wings. Brown hair had turned golden. Deep blue eyes had bloodied into slit-eyed crimson. Stoic timidity had become callous cheerfulness.

"Aw... How boring." 'Ayaka' commented with a huff, tapping her cheek with a finely scaled finger. "I even made it so everyone could say or do anything they were restraining themselves from doing. Why can't I control you, Onii-san? Just what are you?"

'Due to Morgan's alterations, I appear as human to all, my blood is basically cursed fire at this point, and my magic circuits are more akin to that of a fae's now.' Shirou kept his thoughts inwards as he tried to figure out 'Ayaka' herself.

"Caren said that I'd even be able to control Leviathan." 'Ayaka' suddenly revealed.

"Caren?!" Shirou's eyes widened. 'She means a different Caren, right?!'

Sakura frowned. "Leviathan?"

"You're... not Ayaka." Shirou realized. "Who are you?!"

"I'm Ayaka, too." 'Ayaka' shrugged. "But it seems that she likes to call me 'Manaka'."

Shirou and Sakura startled at that declaration, the name having supposed to have belonged to the separate person that was Ayaka's elder sister.

"Does she have dissociative identity disorder?" Sakura wondered.

"You're talking about multiple personalities?" Manaka chuckled. "So you believe that Ayaka created me as another personality to cope with some mental trauma? Close, but no right."

"Mental trauma?" Shirou questioned.

"Well, Ayaka has always been bullied by the kids in her school and even her father."

"Why?"

"Seriously? Isn't it obvious?" Manaka gestured to her abnormal features in view of Shirou's discerning gaze. "Ayaka's has siren blood in her, after all."

At Shirou and Sakura's surprised expressions, Manaka continued. "They're a breed of Phantasmal beings that specialize in mental afflictions and water manipulation. They're especially famous for stoking up perverse desires. Could you imagine a more degenerate girl in middle school? How embarrassing!"

Sakura nodded in sad empathy. "I can somewhat relate to that..."

"Ayaka couldn't accept that part of herself, so she walled off her siren instincts and inadvertently created me." Manaka finished. "Don't you feel disgusted now, Onii-san? At how your sisters reacted because of Ayaka?"

"Of course not." Shirou immediately answered, surprising Manaka. "I'm something of a mixed breed myself, not even naturally born like you."

"And I'm also not quite normal either." Sakura quietly supplied. "Even with the Grail shards within me now gone, my own perverted desires haven't quite tapered off. It's adorable if you think you can surpass me in being lustful."

'"Oh? What nice people you are. I don't really like that." Manaka's tone became low as she crossed her arms, her playful mood disappearing. "How irritating. I guess I'll do as Caren suggested."

That was their only warning before Manaka leaped forward, her unfurling wings allowing her to soar above Shirou and Sakura, clearing the table and couches before opening the glass doors to escape the beach house.

Shirou was quick to rush after her, only to swiftly dodge to the side as the sharpened edge of a familiar Shroud sliced into his arm a bit.

"Senpai!" Sakura called as she reached his side, looking away from his already healing wound to regard the attacker. Upon laying her eyes on Caren Hortensia-

"Forget me until we meet again."

-Sakura stilled as the woman waved slightly at them. 'The woman from the aquarium?!'

"You came to pick me up, Caren!" Manaka had landed before Caren, easily dashing Shirou's hopes to dust.

"What's the meaning of this, Caren?!" Shirou roared, restraining his weapons and combat attire from manifesting on instinct. "What are you doing here and what's your relation with Ayaka?!"

"I'm on a mission, of course." Caren replied. "Although, I don't intend to fight you at all. ...not directly, anyway."

[BLOCK!]

Heading his Alter's panicked tone, Shirou moved swiftly to catch the fist that nearly slammed into him, feeling his bones groan as the resultant shockwave shook the area. "Bazett?! What are you doing?!"

Showing no reaction while dressed in a a pale lilac bikini for whatever reason, Bazett pushed back and shot forward with a series of clipping punches that Shirou had to deal with.

"Let's go, Manaka." Caren placed a guiding hand on Manaka's shoulder. "Chairman Kazuzaki is waiting for you."

"Sure." Manaka cheerily replied and made for the car that Caren had arrived in.

Sliding back from one of Bazett's haymakers, Shirou grimaced at the sight of Caren and Manaka departing. "Sakura, can I leave Ayaka to you? Bazett seems to have a worse version of mind control if she hasn't broken through it at this rate."

"I understand." Sakura gave Bazett a worried look before relenting. "Please be careful, Senpai."

Rushing after the car just as it began to drive off, Sakura missed Bazett's eyes narrowing at her before fixing themselves back on Shirou.

"So you were only ordered to deal with me, huh?" Shirou realized with some relief as Bazett had basically ignored Sakura, Yukito becoming a welcome weight in his hand.

Bazett gave no vocal reply, her gloved fists instead lighting up before she charged forward quick enough to violently displace the air.

Dodging the hit that would pulverized his skull, Shirou cut against Bazett's side, the sword's freezing ability hindering her for a bit. Swinging forward again, Shirou's sword clashed against Bazett's fist hard enough that his bones shook again.

'Hard... These fists of hers are way too hard...!' Shirou grunted as Bazett kept countering all of his slashes with her punches, never having let any of his icy attacks land on her body again. 'Is this the prowess of a Clock Tower Enforcer?!'

Letting one more punch knock Yukito out of his hands, Shirou slammed a fist into her stomach as she overextended, launching her into the nearby pool. "Sorry about this!"

Immediately diving after her after transforming into his Argonaut suit, Shirou caught Bazett as she was trying to swim up and held her down in the water. Bazett screamed as she desperately rammed a fist into Shirou's gut, causing him to cough into the protective mask allowing him to breath underwater.

Bazett had no such luck when he retaliated just as viciously as he got, her strained lungs eventually failing her as her movements slowed. Satisfied enough, Shirou immediately returned the both of them to the surface so that she wouldn't fully drown.

Caren hummed at the sight of the destroyed bridge before eyeing Sakura who had been waiting for them. 'Smart. I almost thought she'd have chased down our car instead.'

"I'll be taking Ayaka back." Sakura called out to the two, the shadow beneath her darkening in warning.

"I don't understand, though." Caren let her Shroud unfurl while stepping before Manaka. "Why are you trying so hard to take Manaka? I understand Shirou since he's a hero, but what is your motive, magus? Was a single night of her company enough to awaken protective instincts in you?"

"True, I don't have enough kindness in me to want to save others like Senpai has." Sakura answered. "But assuming that everything Manaka said about her life was true, I don't want to leave Ayaka-chan alone. Add in the fact that you're somehow making one of Senpai's friends fight him, and that's reason enough to make you my enemy."

"Nobata Kazuzaki is the legal guardian of Ayaka Sajyou." Caren answered. "And she's trying to return to him of her own free will. Whatever reason you have will not give you the right to stop her, unless you would resort to force like Shirou Emiya would."

"I came here prepared for that!" Sakura's shadow completely blackened before firing sharpened tendrils of darkness at Caren, who countered with the Holy Shroud of Andrew's {Hammer Weave}, creating a magical shockwave that startled Manaka back into Ayaka, albeit with her phantasmal features still present.

"Well, that's troublesome." Looking away from Ayaka, Caren let her gaze return to Sakura. "Did you plan for this to happen?"

"The way we've figured out how to release others from Manaka's mind control was to allow a powerful pulse of prana to run through their bodies." Sakura answered. "I was planning on doing that directly, but this works just as fine."

"S-Sakura-san?!" Ayaka called out in worry. "You can't beat her! Please run away!"

"Unfortunately for you, Ayaka's completely right." Caren stomped her foot, her topaz eyes briefly turning shimmering amber. "We're almost out of time."

'Out of time?' Sakura queried-

*throoooom!*

-only to shake in place when the magical pulse that had shaken the aquarium made a return, being a lot stronger this time.

However, that became the least of her worries when she found herself lifted up from the ground, Sakura's limbs flailing uselessly.

"Now, then, let's get around to it." Caren calmly spoke as her Shroud held the girl aloft. "I hope you're durable enough for this like Shirou is."

Then with a shake of her hand, Caren nemakinetically flung Sakura off the bridge.

"NOOO!" Ayaka flew after Sakura, swiftly catching her in her surprisingly strong arms before then landing back on the bridge. "Please stop it, Caren-san and Sakura-san. It's alright now."

Ayaka gave Sakura an apologetic smile. "I'll put an end to everything."

Before Sakura could protest or even grab her hand, Ayaka flew off towards her predetermined destination, leaving Sakura to feel horribly helpless.

"Why, Ayaka?" Sakura muttered. 'If Senpai were the one here, he'd...'

Bazett coughed up small globs of water as she woke up, swiftly sitting up in confusion at her changed surroundings. "This is getting annoying..."

"Thank goodness." Shirou spoke up from nearby, causing Bazett to realize his presence on a lounge chair next to hers. "Looks like the mind control's gone."

"Emiya..." Seeing him again for the first time in months, Bazett idly noted that Shirou's ragged appearance did little to hide his increased musculature. "I-It's been a while."

"I could say the same to you." Shirou replied. "How did you know that I was on the island?"

"I'd like to know that as well." Bazett and Shirou looked up to see the purple-haired friend of his approaching them. "Along with the truth of your relationship together, Senpai."

"Let's just add it to the future talk we'll be having after all this." Shirou replied. "So, Sakura, were you able to get Ayaka back?"

Sakura wilted, displeasure filling her demeanor. "No, Senpai. While she did snap back to normal, she still flew away towards where Caren-san had been taking her. I'm sorry..."

"I know that you would've tried your best, Sakura." Shirou placed a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. "What's important is to figure out how to continue from here. For one thing, we still know too little about where you'd saved Ayaka from, Bazett. If you know anything about this, especially if it involves Kazuzaki, please tell us."

"Kazuzaki intends for her to become a sacrificial beacon." Bazett revealed.

Sakura's brows narrowed in confusion. "Sacrificial beacon?"

"Chairman Kazuzaki plans to use Ayaka's Bloodline Niche." Sighting their confused faces, Bazett clarified. "Unlike Magic Crests which are manually passed down with only a singular host at the time, Bloodline Niches operate by automatically thinning out amongst the descendants. In exchange for assuring that the Niche is never lost and will assuredly resurface once in a compatible descendant, the tradeoff is that all of the accumulated spells within get evenly spread out."

"That sounds pretty useful, especially if you don't want blood feuds between multiple heirs." Shirou marveled. "Why isn't that more popular?"

Bazett's reply was blunt and dry. "There's nothing as greedy and selfish as a magus."

""...ah."" The teenagers realized in unison, before Sakura spoke up. "So what's special about Ayaka's own Bloodline Niche? Does it have anything to do with her siren blood?"

"Indeed." Bazett confirmed. "Ayaka is special specifically because she's descended from the most famous siren of all discovered and named by Paracelsus the Alchemist. Undine, also known as the Elemental of Water. And possessing the blood of a Phantasmal Creature that old in her, Kazuzaki will be able to control another ancient Phantasmal Creature of the depths."

"He wants the power of an ancient Phantasmal Creature... to control another one?" Shirou said in disbelief. "What's the other creature?"

"This creature is so famous that everybody sufficiently educated in literature would know about it." Bazett smiled wryly. "The creature is a sea monster that was referenced even in the bible, having existed from an era when deities would've walked the Earth amongst Humanity. 'Monster of the Deep', 'Serpent of Envy', 'Ship Devourer', 'Moby Dick', these are all names that have been tacked upon the existence known as Leviathan."

Shirou and Sakura stiffened in shock.

"So that is Manaka?" Kazuzaki stared as Ayaka was loaded into his personal customized submarine, the siren girl unconscious within a large transparent cannister filled with liquid. "She's smaller than I thought she'd be."

"Don't worry, she won't actually be hurt by any of this." The woman beside him spoke up, being garbed in a nun's outfit. Well, something resembling it, as Kazuzaki was relatively sure that nuns did not actually cut a slit in their robe that ran up all the way to the top of their thigh. "She'll just be having a nice dream."

"Chairman, we've located the serpent." Sister Hortensia approached them on the catwalk where he and her fellow nun stood. "It's roughly 50 miles to the south of Sea Blossom at a depth of about 600 meters."

"Just as expected, right?" The other nun commented.

"I'm thankful for the help the Church has provided through you, Sisters Hortensia and Sessyoin." Kazuzaki stated with a satisfied smile. "If I'm able to successfully control Leviathan, I will be sure to repay your kindness."

At his words, Kiara Sessyoin merely smiled wider.

"Jeez! Wake up in the morning and be gifted with the first sight of the day being a wrecked backyard, then meet some strange Bazett woman that Shirou knows, then be told that Ayaka-chan got kidnapped, then be asked to search the ocean for a mythological snake with a laptop you used to somehow hack into Sea Blossom's satellites!" Taiga Fujimura paused in her rapid searching of her laptop for unnatural masses in the nearby seawater to maniacally glare at Shirou. "Is there anything I'm missing?!"

"I promise to make it up to you, Fuji-nee." Shirou begged with his hands pressed together. "We need to at least get a reading on Leviathan's location and you're the best at handling this kind of stuff."

"Of course, I am." Taiga huffed as she continued. "You learnt most of it from me, after all- There! This is probably it. Leviathan."

All of the magi around and behind Taiga leaned forward to look at the laptop screen depicting a huge rise of a blue landscape, the raised part being colored in 'warmer' colors the higher it got.

Bazett frowned in confusion. "What is this?"

"It's giving an image specifically searching for heat sources, and I guess a massive snake moving through the cold seawater would stick out pretty well." Taiga noted the shown numbers and pressed her fingers to the screen, trying to comprehend how large it would seem in real life. "Over 400 meters, huh?"

"That's massive!" Shirou exclaimed. "As expected of the Leviathan, huh..."

"This makes no sense though." Taiga turned to Shirou. "Didn't you say that unicorns and all the other magical animals went to the Anti-Realm of the World?"

"Reverse Side of the World." Shirou gently corrected as he and Sakura turned to Bazett. "And she's still right. Why's Leviathan not in the Reverse Side of the World?"

"That is because Leviathan never left this Side." Bazett answered. "As you could probably guess through out human history, Leviathan has shown sporadic and infrequent appearances, having whatever reason to remain instead of moving on. It's because of that that Kazuzaki was even able to discover it, after all. Normally, there isn't any magecraft in existence that could possibly affect a Phantasmal Creature that old and legendary, but Manaka exists as an exception with her blood connection to Undine."

"But there's still the matter of the Church." Sakura pointed out. "Why was that Caren woman aiding in this? Is it a personal agenda or..."

"No." Bazett shook her head. "This is definitely a Church mission in progress. I was even sent here to spy and report on their activities. It's really just a series of coincidences that I sighted you here in the island and even found out about Ayaka."

"Well, that explains why Ayaka got directed to me." Shirou crossed his arms with a suspicious frown. "But why was the magical equivalent of a SWAT agent sent on a covert mission?"

"I am in current need of the money." Bazett answered bluntly.

"...I see." Shirou awkwardly looked to the side.

"So now that we know of Bazett-san's reasons." Sakura spoke up. "Why is Kazuzaki even doing something like this?"

"I can make a pretty good guess about that." Taiga sighed with some pity as she fiddled with the laptop to bring up a separate image showing an old newspaper.

Two JSDF Pilots lost in Mysterious Accident!

"Ten years ago, during that your holy cup war, an incident occurred at Fuyuki River." Taiga had turned around to explain. "One of the... Servants? Yeah, somebody called up an eldritch monster that either ate or killed the pilots of two Mitsubishi F-2s. When Kazuzaki tried to launch an investigation for his lost subordinates, he kept being stonewalled. From what I can guess, he most likely launched a private investigation, somehow found about the eldritch monster and decided that he ought to get one of his own to go avenge the fallen pilots."

"W-Well that's a lot more relatable than I'd expected, but shouldn't he be aware that the creature's long gone?" Sakura asked. "And that's just assuming if he succeeds in capturing Leviathan!"

"So in the end, our priority to safely retrieve Ayaka hasn't changed in the slightest." Shirou ascertained. "Now how do we get to them?"

"So you want to take on ex-military now..." Taiga fiddled with the laptop a bit more as she fished for more information. "'MANACLE'? A control program for Leviathan and Propulsive Sea Vessel: Suijin? Oh, some kind of special submarine."

"P-Program?" Bazett asked in confusion.

"Wait, so we're working with Thaumatronics, now?" Shirou sighed. Upon seeing both Sakura and Bazett's bewildered expressions, Shirou knew it was his own turn to enlighten them. "Thaumatronics are a term I've been using to reference the combination of Thaumaturgy with technology. Basically computerized magecraft."

"That's impossible." Bazett immediately refuted. "While technology can be used as an addition, actually fusing the conflicting existence would cause immediate breakdown."

(KingVessel: The Sci-Fi/Magic future that is Fate/EXTRA had to start from somewhere, right?)

"I already know about. The breakdown only occurs if the technology and the thaumaturgy in question are already 'completed', but if the two are built up together to the point that the programmed coding and inscribed runes can't fulfill their intended function without the other, Thaumatronics can be created and utilized. I know that because I built my..." Shirou trailed off as he remembered that he was talking to a Sealing Designation Enforcer.

Bazett's eyes narrowed before looking away. "I think I've heard enough before you say something that I can't ignore."

Shirou shamelessly took the out. "Agreed."

"Got it!" Thankfully, Taiga chose that moment to speak up again. "Shirou, Ayaka-chan is already en route to Leviathan with Kazuzaki! But if we manage to take control of the system called 'MANACLE' that's in their laboratory, I think that I can block their plans."

"'MANACLE'?" Shirou questioned.

"It's an AI that was created to function as a direct remote control over Ayaka-chan's siren abilities." Taiga explained. "From what I can see... and believe, they implanted a part of Ayaka-chan's personality into a computer, rendering it into a computerized alter ego along with something from some... golden weapons?"

Bazett placed two fingers against the bridge of her nose. "One minute in and Thaumatronics already sounds like such a headache..."

"MANACLE... 'Manaka'... Ah, English wordplay." Shirou realized. "Fuji-nee, would you be able to bring it down?"

"This laptop doesn't have nearly enough processing power, but I'll be able to manage it with time." Taiga answered.

"We'll leave that to you, then." Shirou immediately transformed into his Argonaut attire, displacing the air a bit. "We'll deal with physically retrieving Ayaka. Bazett, can we count on you for this?"

"The whole reason that I saved Ayaka was to leave her with you, anyways." Bazett sighed with that reveal. "If any of my superiors found out about her, she wouldn't live long. Plus, interfering with the Church is still technically within my parameters and a personal boon, so it should be no problem."

'So she always intended to send Ayaka to me, huh...' Shirou noted. "Then we'll be needing something that can overtake a submarine. I can do that just fine on my own, but we'd need it to carry Ayaka back in."

"I think Kazuzaki should have a spare ship, right?" Sakura chimed in.

"I think that there was a speedboat..." Bazett confirmed. "But I'm not sure that we'd still be able to catch up."

"All the more reason for us to get going immediately."

"What?!" Shirou immediately turned to Sakura. "You're coming along?!"

"Of course, I am." Sakura replied. "Do you think I'd let you go alone when you don't have to, Senpai?"

"It's just that..." Shirou cast a wary look at Bazett before moving forward to whisper into Sakura's ears. "Your combat experience is very low compared to us. If- No, when it devolves into a fight, will you be okay?"

"...I understand that I'm likely to be a liability." Sakura clenched her fists in self-derision. "But I feel responsible for not bringing Ayaka-chan back, especially..."

"...as she reminds you of your younger self, being a lonely girl that was solely being used for her ancestry." Shirou surmised as Sakura all but nodded in agreement. "Fine, then. I'll be counting on you. Also, after this, you will be joining Miyu in her training."

Sakura smiled in acceptance. "Well, it's not like you'll be a bad teacher if Miyu is any indication."

"Holy crap!" The three below looked up at the balcony to see Shinji staring in shock at the still wrecked backyard. "What the hell happened while I was out cold?!"

"Perfect timing, Shinji!" Shirou called up to him. "Stay here and guard Miyu and Fuji-nee!"

"Hah?!" Shinji shouted back. "What the hell do you mean by that- Wait, where are you three going?! Who's the chick in the bikini?!"

Bazett looked down at her swimsuit before pointing at a nearby spot. "Meet me at the garage over there in ten minutes. I need to change clothing."

"Sorry, Nii-san." Sakura clapped her hands apologetically, before following after Shirou. "We don't have time to explain, so please ask Sensei for details."

Meanwhile within the Suijin while traveling the depths, Kazuzaki led the expedition towards Leviathan with a few of his subordinates.

"It won't be long now." Kazuzaki cast a look at the unconscious girl behind him within the cannister that had been built and implemented with the magically powerful swords and spears they'd found in Fuyuki River. Even now, the golden weapons had still yet to lose their ethereal glow as it shone over the siren's form. "Just a little more... As soon as we acquire Leviathan, the Multi-Eyed Monster that took Ougi and Kobayashi will be dealt with...!"

"I've seen it, Ayaka. The most ideal future. A future that you will definitely be happy with."

"Manaka-nee... That's..."

"Ah... I also foresaw your confusion and hesitation. How unfortunate for all of you thinking that I am Undine reborn."

"Manaka-nee... What are you doing...?"

"It's alright, Ayaka. All you need to do... is to stay at my side and play along. Do you understand what I am saying... you adorable little Mongrel?"

KingVessel: Even when discarded from {Gate of Babylon}, the Gil-titude isn't going to fade away so easily for whatever reason in those golden weapons. Please leave a review!