"Alright, follow the laser with both of your eyes open, Sherou."
"I'm ready whenever you are."
"Excellent." A green point appeared on the wall and mismatched eyes trained in on it, following the point as it moved sporadically along the flat surface of the wall.
As they did, a pair of green eyes were trained on the figures own, watching them with a hawk's gaze. Almost unnervingly focused with no blinks that Shirou himself could notice while following the laser.
"Alright we're done. Gray?"
"His right eye has caught up a little bit more, Luvia." Gray responded, finally blinking and standing up from where she had been kneeling on the balls of her feet.
"Remarkable. Your right eye really is beginning to catch up to your left." Luvia muttered, staring at Shirou's mismatched eyes with a pensive expression, getting a deadpan look from the male.
"Is it just his body acclimating?" Gray questioned stoically, getting a small huff from Luvia.
"No, of course not. The body can acclimate but not to this extent. My guess is that whatever item created his Mystic Eye in the first place is beginning to slowly warp the Magic Circuit in his right eye to match that of his left."
"So, his body is acclimating?"
"I- Yes. Yes, in a way it is, Gray." Luvia gave a stony look to Gray who just gave the slightest smile in return that Luvia just knew was caused by some mental joke that the girl had told herself.
She tended to do that, Luvia had found, and it drove her insane at times trying to guess what that comment might be.
"I have noticed it's been getting faster, and my vision is a bit clearer in my right eye. How long do you reckon it will take?" Shirou questioned Luvia, basically his walking Thaumaturgy encyclopedia within the Clock Tower.
(Rin fulfilled the same role in Fuyuki)
"Well, Sherou. By my best guess, half a decade seems like a safe bet, if nothing speeds it up at least." Shirou just nodded, rolling his shoulders and feeling it pop from not moving it for so long.
Standing in a currently empty Thaumaturgy test room, the group of three fifteen-year old's definitely cut an impressive sight to anyone who happened to see them together.
In the last three years puberty had hit all three of them like hyper-enhanced Berserkers and majority of the students within the Clock Tower thanked it for that.
Luvia, known to others as Luviagelita Edelfelt, had begun to fill out and gain a slow but sure maturity about her features that had boys, and some girls, swooning whenever she walked nearby. However, with this newfound mature aura and body came a frightening explosion in her Thaumaturgical might, intellect and ruthlessness that fit her family's reputation quite well. Most of the students within a few years' level knew that if you needed something that you were willing to sell your soul to get, you went to Luviagelita. And if you wanted something and hated yourself you went to her sister.
Similarly, to Luvia, Gray had begun to fill out much more as well, her body actually taking a much more slim and acrobatic appearance than what Shirou had known King Arthur to have. And with this grown and more athletic body had come many fans that enjoyed her, quite literally, royal appearance. Even if the girl herself dressed in loose, flowing clothing and had nothing other than her appearance to point towards royalty. Whereas Luvia was an evil devil that could get you what you wanted for a price, Gray was seen much as a Princess of Death itself, caused by her general stoic demeanor when dealing with other's and her gravekeeper aesthetic.
As much as Gray didn't enjoy the attention and often tried to dissuade the rumors surrounding her, by the time she had tried to do anything it was too late. Something which Shirou found a bit amusing considering he'd been used as essentially a human lightning-bolt by Gray the entire time he'd been in London when the rumors had first started.
As for Shirou himself, the teen had begun to bulk up slightly from all of his combat, training and smithing that he did. His clothing staying its traditional Japanese style as an homage to his blood family but occasionally changing colours and styles. Usually including a haori of some kind whenever he went to London since he did so over the Winter holidays. Additionally, a new sword was at his hip whenever any of the Magi at the Clock Tower saw him each year.
His left eye, which originally had a deep, fresh scar had begun to fade with a rather supernatural speed and efficiency. The contrasting and soft pink skin gaining more colour and beginning to fade into his skin more than most scars did in decades. It was to the point that his family was fairly certain that by the time he was seventeen, the scar would basically be invisible to the naked eye.
Additionally, just as both of the girls had begun to become rather famous, or infamous depending on who you were, amongst the Clock Tower, Shirou himself had begun to develop his own fame. Coming directly from his smithing ability, he was well known for not only the scarily high quality of everything that he made for his commissions but also his insane definition of 'good'.
To a lot of the Mystic Code creators within the Clock Tower, anything Shirou made (particularly weapons) was considered a very high-quality work even if not always powerful. Yet to Shirou most of his works were 'alright' or 'good enough' which not only brought about a fear of what he would consider 'amazing' but also, people that thought that they could cheat Shirou due to his own thoughts on his creations.
They had very quickly learnt that Shirou, nor his benefactors and allies, would allow anyone to cut out or try to cheat them out of any money.
However, we now find Shirou, Luvia and Gray within one of the seldom used spell-testing chambers for their impromptu test of Shirou's optical reflexes. Brought about by an innocent comment from Waver about his ocular perception.
"Unless you somehow get in a fight with a Beast again." Gray commented dryly, getting a sigh from Shirou as he felt Luvia begin to glare at him in reminder of how he got his Mystic Eye.
"I survived that, doesn't that get any respect?" Shirou muttered to himself as he idly looked around the room to avoid looking at either of his friends.
After a few moments both girls dropped their glares, knowing at this stage that everything that could be said about the Primate Murder incident had been said.
"So, Shirou, how is that new commission you took?" Gray asked, a small tinge of curiosity in her voice.
"I've already completed it and the commissioner picked it up." Shirou answered, clearly taking pride in his work, receiving a fond smile from Gray and a slightly greedy one from Luvia.
"How much did the commission cost?" The blonde-haired girl questioned 'innocently'.
"Hmmmm. 10,000 pounds or so." Shirou responded, getting respectable hums from both of the girls.
"So that means….more food?" Gray questioned with a carefully neutral expression, though Shirou could see the glimmer of hope in her eyes.
"Yes Gray, more food."
"YE- ahem. Great." She smiled brightly with her hands behind her back, bouncing on the balls of her feet while shaking her hips from side to side and leaning forward to counterbalance.
It was one of many subconscious actions Shirou had noted within Gray ever since he'd returned from his fight with Cath Palug three years ago. Over time, the weird, uncharacteristic changes in body language had lessened as Gray continued her training with Add, primarily in his Scythe form. In the place of those uncharacteristic actions, however, had come a much girlier set of actions that Shirou noted was far more in-line with Gray's general demeanor.
He also assumed it had to do with her comfort around him and Luvia and potentially her getting more comfortable with her mental image of herself, but he had no way of knowing and he'd been told it was rude to ask about a woman's image, so he didn't.
"Your gluttony is unbecoming of your title, Princess." Luvia teased Gray, smiling more as the girl yelped and covered her face in her hood.
"Luviaaaaaa!" Shirou just snickered, missing the betrayed look that Gray sent him because it was underneath her hood.
"I only speak the truth, Gray."
"You speak lies and slander!" Gray hissed back, moving behind Shirou as if to use him as a physical shield against Luvia's teasing.
"At this stage I believe you should be paying Sherou as a personal chef."
"Well so should you." Gray responded with a deadpan look, though her grip on his shoulders only got tighter.
"I'm his benefactor, that's how I pay him."
"That's not the same, nor is it fair."
"Neither of you need to-" Shirou tried to interject, only to stop speaking as Gray spoke up.
"Wait. Shirou. If I pay you, could you get better ingredients?"
"Uh, yeah I guess I could but you don't need to pay me-"
"I'll offer you 300 pounds per meal." Gray was completely serious; Shirou couldn't believe this.
However, with 300 Pounds specifically for food it would give him incentive to try out some more exotic or high-end ingredients.
"Where did you come across the kind of money to pay for that?" Luvia questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"I work as a tutor for some of master's lessons." Luvia supposed that made sense, Gray was always the one that paid the most attention to Lord El Melloi II whenever he taught and if someone where to know his syllabus well enough to tutor others in it, it would be his personal apprentice.
"How much do you charge?"
"50 Quid an hour."
"There's no way that's legal."
"Well done Gray."
The responses from Shirou and Luvia respectively couldn't have been anymore conflicting but Gray, in a quiet, self-assured sort of way, appeared quite proud of herself for her tutoring prices.
"I wanted a price that reflected my proximity to Master but weren't overly expensive. 50 pounds an hour seemed like the perfect price for the apprentice of Lord El Melloi II." Gray closed her eyes and bobbed her head quite seriously from over the shoulder of Shirou.
"It looks like my lessons on economics weren't wasted after all." Luvia responded quite smugly, getting a confused look from Shirou as he looked between them both.
"Actually, I learnt about this part of economics from Shirou's friend, Rin." The gravekeeper responded in a monotonously soft tone.
Luvia's reaction was a bit less soft, a dramatic sound of eldritch horror to match a husky left her mouth as she clutched her head and fell to her knees. The noble daughter leaned forward so that her face was towards the ground, and she ground her teeth together in annoyance. Spiteful and jealous mumbles leaving her mouth at losing to Rin and how she'd never allow this to happen ever again.
"Congratulations Gray. You broke her."
"She'll recover. It's far from the worst thing happening to someone now." Gray responded somewhat callously, getting a tired sigh from the Muramasa head.
XXXxxxXXX
Current time, Chad Africa
"Hey now! Try to keep up. I haven't even had to pull out my sword yet!" A sleek, polished to a shine barrel pointed in the direction of the man's enemy.
The gun itself was a modified shotgun with a sawn-off bore and a rather simple but striking ivory grip in the hand of a man with pure silver hair and rather striking physical features, looking to be around his mid-20's going off of physical appearance alone. However, what quickly became odd was the appearance of the hand holding the gun's grip. A sickening rot creeping up and subsequently disappearing along the entirety of his hand originating from wherever the gun physically touched his skin.
Pulling the trigger of the shotgun, the man's arm jolted slightly as pure white bullets sprayed out in a wide area in front of him. The bullets tore up dirt and rock and ate through grass and shrubbery like it never existed in the first place, but even despite this destructive power it was still unable to pierce some of the thicker rocks in the region. Like the one that his enemy hid behind while a bead of sweat rolled down his temple.
Things weren't meant to go like this. It was meant to be a routine Dead Apostle extermination since The Dead within the borders of one of the Ancestors had begun pushing their boundaries. Instead, he found a fucking Dead Apostle Ancestor in the undead flesh, and not even the one who's minion's he was slaughtering!
He wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry that it was number 18 that he'd come across, sure Enhance was known for his odd dislike of his own species, but he was also one of the Ancestors that still killed humans, and one of the most erratic at that.
"Come on little Enforcer! I saw you wielding a blade earlier, bring it out huh. Promise to shelve my gun if you do. Proper sword on sword action, how's about that?" Lowering his gun from its firing position for a moment, the cockiness flowed out of his lips like Niagara Falls as he half-opened his arms in an inviting gesture.
"I don't have a death wish!" The Enforcer shouted back, gritting his teeth while nearly snarling as he tried to think of a way out of this situation.
"No? Really? Thought that was a prerequisite for being a Magus or something? Some bogus about walking the line of death?" Enhance snorted, tilting his head back in derision and beginning to spin his shotgun on a constantly rotting finger.
"I don't have to explain myself to you!" The Enforcer yelled from behind his 'cover', preparing to move if necessary.
"No, no I suppose you don't." Enhance chuckled, spinning his shotgun one final time and holstering it.
Slowly he began to strut towards the rock the Enforcer was behind, chuckling beneath his breath the whole time.
"However, I'd appreciate it if you did, after all…" He kicked the boulder, shattering it into hundreds of tiny pieces from the sheer force of the blow, but by the time that the chunks were blowing away from Enhance's boot, the Enforcer was already moving.
The Enforcer swung his blade, a typical European longsword with a one and a half-handed grip and a blade that ended at about 92cm from hilt to tip, towards Enhance's head. The perfectly honed edge slipped past as the Dead Apostle Ancestor merely leant back, noting the Thaumaturgical symbols pain-stakingly carved into the flat of the blade as he did so. Tilting his body in the opposite direction he avoided another swipe towards him and merely rocked his weight backwards for a moment to dodge the third strike in the Enforcer's combo.
There was almost a sort of amused air around the Ancestor as he dodged the man's strikes, seeming to treat it more like a game than an actual fight, to the point that Enhance didn't even pull his own blade out. Finally jumping straight up to avoid a slash at his midsection, he carefully controlled his speed and descent to land on the Enforcer's shoulders in a featherlight motion.
Grinning down at the clearly confused man in the fraction of a second that Enhance stood still, he tilted his upper body backwards to throw both of their balance's off and pushed with both legs. The results of said push being the Enforcer getting thrown across the hard rock and yellow grass of the African landscape while Enhance merely used the slight momentum from his push to backflip perfectly onto his feet.
Hearing the groan of pain from the Enforcer that he'd thrown several dozen meters away (in style as well), he just grinned and did a small fist-pump to himself as he approached.
"Hoooh! Always wanted to do that! Man, oh man are you a great guy to have come across today!" He laughed as he walked over and stood on the spine of the Enforcer, getting a cry of pain from him.
"You know… I thought today was going to be a pretty damn boring day. Piss off an Ancestor, blame it on someone else, see what powder kegs I could shake up, if not set off." The Enforcer was trying to regulate his breathing, he could tell, but it wouldn't be possible with the placement of his foot, the man was just too physically weak.
"And then I came across you. Not only acting as the perfect test subject for my new move but showing me this great blade of yours! I gotta say, you Clock Tower guys have had some half-decent stuff for quite a few years but the quality of this is downright exceptional!" The Ancestor pried the blade out of the man's hand despite the white-knuckled grip that he had on the handle.
Holding it in one hand he took a couple experimental swings with the blade and noted the perfect balance on it. The blade being lifted to his eye level as he closed one eye and placed the other as level with the blade as he could, looking for any sort of warps or malformations of any kind. He found none, unlike every other blade that he'd seen wielded by Magi or Enforcer's from the Clock Tower. That may just come down to not finding the right people, he was sure of it, but even so the difference in quality between their normal stuff and this blade was night and day.
"So, you guys got a new smith, huh? Mind introducing me? I wanna shake the hand of the guy, or gal I don't discriminate, who made this bad boy."
"I-I'd rather die." A rather boring but not unexpected response in Enhance's opinion, most Clock Tower Enforcer's, unlike their Magi, wouldn't rat out their allies even if it meant death.
That was probably the difference between actual warriors and nerds that could realize minor mysteries he supposed.
"Oh really? Hmmm. Well, that's just a shame, now, isn't it?" He teased the Enforcer, his Prana beginning to leak out of him and making the Magus pinned to the ground squirm uncomfortably.
"Because I know it's not one that you book-worms have had under your employ for a while, the style of the metallurgy is different to anything your other colleagues have had. And the smith's signature is entirely foreign to me as well."
"G-GGgghrrr." The Enforcer was having trouble breathing, and his skin began to sting and burn where Enhance was standing on him.
"No? Nothing at all? Not willing to engage me in educational debate? Man, party pooper." Flaring his prana, the Enforcer screamed in pain and thrashed this way and that, the very prana of the Ancestor stitching a curse into his skin and muscle.
Finally, the man could do nothing but pass out, eyes rolled up and frothing at the mouth, and only a few seconds after that did Enhance step off him. There was a chance that the Enforcer was still alive, though the Ancestor wasn't sure. He certainly didn't appear like a veteran Enforcer, didn't fight like one, and it was almost criminally easy for him to take the man out. Even so, his vendetta was with the Dead Apostle Ancestors, not humanity, so he had no need nor want to slaughter the man.
Twirling his newly acquired blade in his hand, Enhance looked over the metal-work once more, whistling beneath his breath at just how easily it cut through the air.
Placing his other hand on the flat of the blade, the man breathed in deeply, searching for that part of him, that deep, ancient part of him that gave him his Principle.
"Show me your history now, you wouldn't keep a secret from me would you?" He whispered to the blade, a joking grin on his lips.
Suddenly visions assaulted his mind, but ones that he was so used to receiving by now that it didn't outwardly affect him in the slightest. Almost as if the action was as simple to him as blinking. He saw the Enforcer and how he used it, how new he was to the blade, he saw the transaction of the blade and finally he found-
Y̴̢͈̬͂̐̇o̴̩͓̹͌ǘ̷͖̬͔͐ ̸̧̱̯̓s̶̫͉̓̇ṯ̷̖̩̳̀̌á̸̦̙͚̬̉r̸͇̟͑̕ḛ̷̔͋͘̚ ̴̩͙̌͝i̵̼̟̖͊̽̐̓ń̵̢̩̇̔ͅͅt̵̺̤͇͓̚ǒ̶̪̤̟̣͛̒ ̵̢͑͝ẗ̴͉͈̟̫́̎̀h̴̰̩̒͘e̷̟̣͖̓̓ ̸̢͙̮̓́̿b̵̮̬̩͊͋́l̸͙̞̈̓͋͠ͅa̶̪͐͛̽ͅd̸̨͐ḙ̸̋.̶̭̫̖͛͊̆ ̴̫̫͐͠U̵͕͚̭͊t̷̤̫͎̄͗̓o̵͖̲͉̽̈́p̴̢͇͆̏̐i̴̪̟̓̉ą̴̭̮̑͋̎͒ ̴̯̜͎̓s̵͇̥̩̽̐͜t̵̖̖͎̏ả̸̢͔͊́ͅr̶̢̭̝̓ȩ̸̙̹͖̾ŝ̴̫̦̒ ̴̳̖̠̠͒b̷̰̰̲̅̎͜ä̶͓̙́̀̎̅ć̸͍̞̖͍͌̎̃k̴̤̜͉̲̒̑̀.̴̮̮͕̏͠ͅ
The image at the forefront of Enhance's mind began to glitch and crumble, as if something had hijacked his own mind and scrambled it around. Not deleting anything but rather re-arranging it in a way that he couldn't wrap his head around even with his inherent Dead Apostle mind. Everything began to warp around Enhance as he tried to stare at the smith, to figure out who had made this blade and what he had done to it.
And then with a sudden snapping of space and an ear-shattering bang, Enhance stared into nothing but light. The warmest, gentlest, most oppressively royal golden light he had ever, and would ever, witness in his life.
Steel eyes blinked, his reflection in the flat of the blade blinked back. The wind rustled around him, and the Enforcer lay twitching on the ground nearby. For a moment a laugh bubbled up from his throat, one of mirth, confusion and anger all at once and he had no idea which he actually felt.
A challenger! He, Enhance, had a challenger! A human was actually a challenger for the Ancestor with the Principle of "Sword"! Though if they could challenge even an Ancestor's Principle, were they even human to begin with?
Right as that inquiry lodged itself into his mind, the drip of something wet onto his hand made him pause and look up, humming in confusion at the lack of rain. Bringing a hand up to his chin he went to begin muttering to himself, only to pause at the feeling of something wet on his cheeks as well. A strange and somewhat terrifying thought, to the Ancestor, tearing itself from the recesses of his mind like Type-Mercury itself.
'Am….I crying?'
XXXxxxXXX
Meanwhile, Emiya Residence
"Please do not ruin anymore sweets. I may cry." Liz called out, her voice as monotone and emotionless as ever, though Sella had no doubt that her 'sister' would follow through with her statement.
For having less emotions than even Shirou and Sakura at their youngest and worst, Liz could mimic emotions with an actually terrifying degree of competency, and at the flick of a switch as well. Spontaneous tears seemed to be a favourite of hers.
"Oh! We shall do our best Liz-san!" Sakura called out, smiling happily as she turned back to the sweets that Sella was teaching her how to make.
"Hm, very good. The consistency is uniform throughout, and an overabundance of sugar wasn't added."
"Blasphemy."
"Quiet Liz!" Sella snapped, turning around to yell her comment into the lounge room before turning back to Sakura "It is good to see that Shirou has someone at his side as competent as you. Liz, despite my best efforts, still fails to fulfill her maidly duties for him."
"Oh! Thank you so much Sella-san. I just….wish to do my best for Senpai." She smiled with the slightest hints of a blush on her face.
As Sella continued her cooking lesson with Sakura, she couldn't help but note the changes that the purple haired girl had undergone in the last three years. Much like any girl her age she had begun to grow rapidly in more ways than just height, yet the most notable growth would undeniably be her emotional growth. Oh, of course Sakura was still different to the average person in how she felt and expressed her emotions, majority of the time, and Sella knew that that would never change. She was much like Liz and Shirou in that aspect, they saw and reacted to the world in their own unique ways and that wouldn't change, no matter how good they become at faking being 'normal'.
"Sella-san?" The Einzbern homunculi looked over at a suddenly much more pensive and subdued young girl.
"Yes, Sakura?"
"…Do you believe that Senpai would appreciate sweets? I have never seen him eating them before." While the pause before her sentence was odd, Sella was more than used to the oddities of Shirou and his companions by now.
"I believe he will, even in moderation." She answered confidently, knowing that while he didn't have much of a sweet tooth, he was still likely to enjoy the occasional sweet, even if she'd never seen him eat one either.
Sakura's only response was a small but absolutely beatific smile. One that seemed to light up the kitchen and fill it with positive emotions that were infectious.
XXXxxxXXX
Half an hour later
"Thank you for the lesson, Sella-san." Sakura bowed to Sella while standing out the front door.
"You're very much welcome Sakura. Lady Irisviel and Sir Kiritsugu enjoy having you over and Lady Illyasviel appreciates your visits, it would be remiss of me not to be of service." Sakura seemed to be nodding along as if Sella was lecturing her rather than just informing Sakura of what informed her decisions, but she didn't let it bother her.
"Now if you excuse me Sakura, I need to make sure that Liz doesn't try to lick the mixture off the bowl like she did the last time we baked together. Have a good night."
"And you as well, Sella-san." Sakura nodded and turned around to leave the Emiya residence as she heard the door lock behind her.
She didn't bother trying to hear anything inside, knowing that much like her own family's manor and the Tohsaka's, there were a variety of privacy-based Bounded-Fields around the property. To the point where not even her grandfather was able to get any 'spies' onto the property. At the thought of her grandfather, she felt the worms residing within her stir ever so slightly but the Prana cost of maintaining them spiked for a moment, seeming to drain her emotions away as they did so.
Right, how could she forget? She wasn't free of her grandfather and brother just yet, perhaps not for another few years. But so long as she kept up her side of the deal with Gilgamesh, she knew that she would get what she had been dreaming of for years now. No matter how dark, tainted and twisted her soul may be, she would get her picture-perfect ending with Senpai.
Most people would have been worried about making the kind of deal with Gilgamesh as she had, but she wasn't. Mainly due to three things:
One. Sakura had a little bit of an inside scoop on how Gilgamesh acted through her talks with Shirou.
Two. Gilgamesh's pride would stop the man from ever lowering himself to such a level as to break his word once it was given.
And finally, Three. Sakura had carefully crafted and built herself up from scratch after she had become a Matou. She had a habit of 'people watching' as it had often been called, and thus had noticed many different things about them and how they acted. And through that she knew one thing above all else about Gilgamesh. And that was that he-
"Tainted." Sakura's thoughts were cut out by the exact object they circulated around.
Did she mind his title for her? Not particularly, she agreed with it after all.
"Gilgamesh." She stopped in her walking home and bowed deeply at the waist to him, but not as deeply as she could have.
"You seem to have an awful amount of fun gallivanting around the family and subjects of my Smith despite your ever-growing corruption." Gilgamesh stepped in front of her, making her straighten out and stare at him with dead-blank eyes.
"I am working on it, your Highness."
"Do not drivel title's if you can not put your heart behind them. Your disintegrating maggot-pile of an elder may not be able to see through your acts but do not believe me to be of the same standing." His voice cut through her like one of his greatest weapons and his eyes stared down at her coldly, his presence wrapped around him like a cloak of royalty.
Yet to Sakura it all seemed to mean nothing, her expression as blank as ever and her body not even so much as twitching despite the seeming danger he presented.
"Of course not, Gilgamesh. I just wished to show my respect. I meant no disrespect behind my words." She bowed her head in a clearly practiced action before looking him back in the eye again.
"Push your luck and you won't make it to see my Smith's return from London." Gilgamesh growled, taking a deep sort of satisfaction in the flash of genuine panic that crossed her eyes before she bowed once more.
"I apologise Gilgamesh. I truly meant no disrespect." There was something brittle and oh-so raw in her voice, but Gilgamesh did not have the emotional range to understand such a thing, and so he ignored it.
"See to it that you remember your place in the future." He scoffed, stuffing his hands in his pockets dismissively. "It has been three years and your corruption has only grown deeper seated. My tolerance has reached it's peak. I care not for what plans you already have in place, remove the cause of your continuing corruption or our deal will be torn."
"I- Y-Yes Gilgamesh. I'll do it right away, as soon as I return home." She answered quickly, in a full-blown panic now that the threat of their deal being broken was on the table.
"Very well. Have it done." And with those final words, Gilgamesh left her in the street, thoughts swirling and breathing deepening.
She should have seen this coming in all honesty. Sure, she didn't need to worry about the deal being faked or having some secret smaller font clause somewhere on it. But by that same token, it was the third reason she didn't have to worry about that, that she'd wager was fueling his current desire. And she couldn't blame him, not in the slightest.
However, she couldn't be thinking about any of this, she had to get home and she had to get home fast.
XXXxxxXXX
Matou Residence
"Granddaughter. Why come to me? You do not have training for another two days." Zouken grumbled, looking up at his blank-faced heiress.
"I understand that Grandfather, I am not here to inquire about my training. Rather I am here to respectfully ask about your choice of my mana-transfer partner." She spoke, choosing her words carefully and subtly steering the conversation in a direction that she wanted, unknown to her grandfather.
Manipulating Zouken and Shinji was a practice she was long used to though, the key was to use their sense of superiority and power over her to her advantage. Along with some additional tips she had learnt from people watching and Senpai's friends and family.
"You believe I've made the wrong choice, granddaughter?" She could feel the worms within her beginning to act up and feigned slight pain and discomfort at the feeling.
It was easier to give Zouken a sense of control if he believed that she was too scared to lie to him due to the pain his worms could inflict. And playing down her pain tolerance to the same level it had been a few years prior was child's play.
"No Grandfather. Rather I believe that a better candidate is available." Sakura spoke, mentally swallowing her disgust and continuing. "Shirou Emiya is a powerful Magus in terms of his Prana capacity. If he were to replace brother for the mana transferal, the effects would be many times more effective. And I will be able to gain more information on what the Emiya family are researching as a side-effect of being so close to him."
"Hm. I see." Zouken hummed, his wrinkled, near on dehydrated-looking face scrunching up even further in thought.
Sakura waited, unnaturally still as her grandfather thought it over. She couldn't give away any sort of emotion or eagerness, less her request be denied simply by virtue of her wanting it to succeed. It was already a risk coming out like this, especially when Zouken knew that she spent so much time around Shirou and his family. But she was banking on Zouken's need to always be in control. To always need to know what was happening around him at all times.
"Very well. Shirou Emiya will become your new battery." Oh, how she hated that terminology, how she hated to hear her beloved Senpai's name out of her grandfather's rotten lips.
But she'd bare it. She'd bare it and anything else that was thrown at her if it meant being with her Senpai and completing her deal with Gilgamesh.
"You will inform Shinji of the news. He is not giving power to you from now on." Zouken said, uncaring of what Sakura knew Shinji's reaction would likely be.
"Very well, Grandfather." She bowed, her movements robotically smooth and her every action carefully void of emotion.
She'd bare anything to free herself from Zouken and Shinji to be with her Senpai.
Even Shinji's anger and lack of physical self-restraint.
XXXxxxXXX
Irisviel hummed to herself as she quietly attempted to knit something while seated at the dining room table. Her husband seated across from her, reading something on a piece of paper while sipping what was probably a lethal amount of caffeine from a white porcelain cup adorned with ruby red embroidery, a Father's Day gift from Illya the previous year.
It was nights like this that Irisviel had come to enjoy the most since her disownment from the Einzbern family. Where her and Kiri could just spend time with each other in peaceful silence. Illya was in her room doing whatever she wanted, and Liz and Sella were in the Muramasa estate, keeping it clean and dust-free.
Or Sella was keeping it clean and dust-free while Liz raided Shirou's kitchen, to be more accurate.
The quiet atmosphere was broken by two, evenly timed and surprisingly polite knocks on the front door. Feeling her husband's eyes on her, she tilted her head to the side and focused, allowing the sounds of the Prana around her to filter into her mind.
"Oh, it's Sakura. Did she forget something here?" She mumbled aloud, getting a small exhale from Kiritsugu.
"I'll answer the door." He replied, standing up and striding through the house silently to answer the door.
Walking to the front door he took one final second to make sure that he looked somewhat presentable before sliding the front door open.
"Sakura why- hm. Come inside." His initial, ever so slightly lukewarm, greeting turned stone cold in an instant, catching Irisviel's attention and making her look towards the hallway leading to the front door.
Whatever she had been expecting upon hearing her husband's tone, it wasn't for the purple haired girl to half-stumble into the room covered in injuries that, while far from life threatening, looked incredibly serious.
"Oh my god!" With her horrified cry she dropped her knitting needles and dove out of her chair towards Sakura, checking over the girl head to toe.
"Hello Irisviel-san." Sakura muttered softly, barely moving when Iri's head snapped up and her hands softly but quickly clutched her cheeks.
"Who did this to you Sakura?" She questioned, her voice cracking ever so slightly from raw emotion but her eyes as hard as diamond and burning as hot as magma.
In another world, Sakura would have never come to the Emiya estate after an outburst like this from Shinji. In a world where Irisviel never survived, Kiritsugu was afflicted and succumbed to the curse of the Greater Grail, Sakura was never properly trained as a Magus and didn't have any meaningful conversations with Rin until the fifth Holy Grail War. In a world like that, she would have never even left the Matou estate after Shinji let his anger out on her, and if she had and someone had seen her like this? She certainly wouldn't have given the truth.
"My brother, Shinji. I….made him quite mad." She explained, knowing just how quickly things could spiral out of her control if she dropped everything at the wrong times.
But this wasn't that world. This was the world where Sakura's self-worth and confidence wasn't torn to ground and stomped into it for good measure. This was a world where Sakura was not only a practicing Magus but a practicing Magus that practiced with the love of her life and her biological sister. This was a world where Sakura had a support system that was strong, based on more than one person (though skewed very heavily), and had better choices than Shinji and Zouken.
"Your brother did this too you!?" Irisviel snarled, though all of their attention was quickly dragged away when they heard the pitter-patter of feet and saw Illya, quite literally, slide into the room.
Socks on a well-polished and maintained wooden floor, the joys of sliding will never cease.
"What's wrong? What's happening!? I heard a bang and- Sakura!" She dove forward towards Sakura in a way very reminiscent of her mother, a comparison which got a small smile from the injured purple haired girl.
"Hello Illya-san. I'm…feeling a little purple at the moment." Sakura joked weakly, more due to her less than stellar sense of comedy more than her injuries.
"I'm going to kill him." Iri snarled once more, dragging the mood back down.
Just in time for the cocking of a handgun to reverberate through the hallway as well. A blank faced Kiritsugu holding the gun pointing towards the ceiling and looking over Sakura with a gaze that almost seemed to break her down.
"There's more to the story can..can you all please stay just so I can explain it?" Some emotion creeped into Sakura's voice.
Emotion that she may have had to force to begin with, just off the heels of leaving the Matou estate, but that came rather naturally after that initial startup. Something which Sakura didn't experience often and made sure to note exactly what it felt like.
Emotions didn't come naturally to her, and usually she had to give herself some time after leaving the Matou estate to feel…..anything really. So, the fact that just a small amount of forcing could bring them back so soon after she had left the premises? Well that made her curious. But that was for another time.
Kiritsugu, Illya and Irisviel all shared a look, and with one look back at Sakura from the mother of the household, it was somewhat easy for them to acquiesce to her plea. Slowly the three shuffled back into the dining room with Sakura in tow, Irisviel choosing to sit besides the purple haired girl and cast a healing spell to begin working on the injuries all over her.
"Explain." Kiritsugu's start to the conversation was short, simple and stern, though it only made Sakura inwardly smile.
She could see where her Senpai got it from. Of course, Kiritsugu was far from the only factor in Shirou's speech patterns and cadence but she could definitely see his influence.
"When I returned to my home, I had a conversation with grandfather. I had an idea which would….Well it would make my life a lot nicer." She muttered, thinking over her words and actions so as to not drop everything on the Emiya's all at once. "But in doing so I would deprive brother of something that he enjoyed, so grandfather told me that I had to inform brother of this."
Kiritsugu nodded, his pointer finger tapping the side of his gun. Meanwhile Illya gave Sakura a look. One that Sakura wasn't sure of the cause of but could ever so vaguely decipher. It was a look of confused inquisitiveness. Evidently something she had said had struck something inside the white-haired girl.
"When I informed him, he was…less than pleased. He hit me a lot and after shoving me down the stairs, he pushed me out the front doors of the mansion and told me to only come back when I was 'ready to accept your place you slutty toy'." Sakura quoted for the family of three, Shinji's words making them all recoil.
Even though Kiritsugu's recoil seemed less like he was being struck, like his wife and daughter, but more as if the rocking action was meant to lead into another action right after. If Sakura had to guess, it would be to rise to his feet.
"Slutty?" Irisviel muttered, furrowing her brows and balling her right hand into a fist.
"Toy?" Illya asked, confused and angry and hurt sympathetically for the purple haired girl.
"Your brother was raping you." Kiritsugu's response wasn't a question but a statement, and her nod was almost unnecessary, though she did it regardless.
"That little-" Irisviel whispered, her jaw clenching and the faintest, lightest hint of yellow crept into her iris.
Sakura felt something hot and cold and full of spikes bubble in her gut. The voice in her head she always attributed to 'Sakura Tohsaka', the version of her that had been hurt and betrayed and was allowed to be angry at the world, got louder as she noticed the yellow in Irisviel's eyes. A rather confusing reaction but one she didn't bother with. If she was angry then she couldn't convince the Emiya's to work with her plan, and if she couldn't do that then she couldn't be with Senpai. So, she would accept her anger, but she would not let it cloud her judgement, not now.
'You cannot suppress me girl. I am more than you can possibly imagine!'
'I am not trying to suppress you. There is a time and a place for letting anger control my actions, now is simply just not one of them.' The feeling in her gut stopped entirely, as if it was surprised.
Either by her words or the fact that she acknowledged them, even Sakura didn't know.
"Yes, and Grandfather was no longer allowing him to."
"Allowing!?" Now Illya looked pissed, but her eyes did not show any signs of changing colour, how odd.
"It was necessary, in a way. And it is why I plead that you all allow me to speak and explain." Sakura begged them, taking their momentary silences as agreement.
"The Matou family doesn't have a typical Family Crest, not anymore. The Crest itself is now spread amongst many of Grandfathers worm familiars. To utilize the Crest, Grandfather implants his worms into members of the family. I myself, due to my Thaumaturgical potential, have 23 Crest Worms implanted within my body. Theoretically they should allow me to utilize the Matou Magecraft to an even higher level, but due to their quantity, the Prana drain on my system is too high for me to ever do so. If I had not started to practice Magecraft alongside Senpai, I do not think I would be proficient enough to cast even the most basic of Magecraft without them draining all of my Od. As is, all they do is act as a failsafe for Grandfather, a way to control me, and spies for him as well."
In an instant Sakura was staring down the barrel of Kiritsugu's gun, unsurprised by the cold eyes behind the owner of the gun and the shouts of surprise from his family. But even so she couldn't help the surge of panic that flowed through her.
"No no! Kiritsugu-san it's ok! Within the Emiya and Muramasa estate Grandfather can't use them to spy!" She waved her hands in front of her quickly with wide eyes.
For a moment he did nothing, simply squinting ever so slightly as he scrutinized her down to the tiniest detail before slowly nodding, placing his firearm back down and letting her relax ever so slightly.
"Kiri, sweetie. Sakura's not like that."
"Not through her own will, you heard her." The Emiya family head didn't try to hide his words, and Sakura held nothing against him for that.
"It's fine Kiritsugu-san. By control my actions, I meant that he could use the Crest Worms to threaten my life." The flippant way she revealed that information nearly made Irisviel and Illya ill.
"I see."
"Whenever they activate, either through intense Prana use, Grandfather's will or….carnal emotions. They begin to siphon my Od at an increased speed than they do passively and increase my carnal wants as they do so. Brother eventually caught onto this and thought to use the information to his advantage, Grandfather allowed it."
"How….How long has this been going on?" Illya whispered, ruby red eyes aghast and mouth ever so slightly parted.
"I do not think you'd be comfortable knowing, I'm sorry Illya-chan." She smiled kindly with her eyes closed and a small head tilt, though there was an almost heart-breaking sad tilt to the quirk of her lips.
"Finally, today. I suggested to Grandfather that..." She took a deep breath; it was now or never to drop the bomb on them. "I suggested to Grandfather that Senpai would be a better candidate than brother." Please every god that did and has ever existed, please don't let them immediately throw her ou-
"Yes!"
Eh?
Sakura blinked, stupefied, for a few moments at Irisviel's loud shout. Slowly turning her head back and forth to see a blank faced Kiritsugu and Illyasviel's expression that seemed to be half teasing and half worried.
"Sakura-chan! If you do that with Shirou then we can get you away from that horrid family of yours and we'll treat you so well it'll be like you were never with them in the first place!" Irisviel rambled excitedly, finishing off with a megawatt smile and clapping her hands together.
"I think getting away from the Matou's is why she suggested it in the first place Iri. And you're getting a bit ahead of yourself." Kiritsugu replied, a softness in his features as he talked to her that Sakura took note of.
Along with the fact that the yellow had receded from Irisviel's eyes completely, and so had the broiling feeling in her gut.
"Not that you wanting to share a bed with Onii-chan isn't….amusing." Illya began, and the way her eyes darted to her parents made it obvious to Sakura that she obviously wanted to say something else "But why did your grandfather agree?"
The question brought the mood back down, and made a sardonic smile spread across Sakura's lips.
"I think if I had just asked outright, he would have denied me. I had to refer to Senpai as…an asset," The family of, currently, three could see just how much it hurt the girl to say that, making Irisviel's heart break at just how much Sakura cared for her son. "That was more useful for Mana transferal than Brother. With an added incentive of me being able to tell him about what Thaumaturgical research you were all doing since his Worms can't spy on any of you within the premises."
"You want to be a double mole!" Illya cried out while she slapped her hands on the table, reaching the conclusion before even Kiritsugu did.
Should he be proud of that? He didn't think he should be proud of that…..But he totally was.
A small giggle bubbled out of Sakura at Illya's impassioned cry. Though the mirth quickly gave way to something far rawer and more vulnerable.
"I do. I don't wish to be shackled to Grandfather and Brother anymore and…and Senpai is my only hope. Please, help me." A soft, alabaster hand rested itself on top of Sakura's, belonging to Irisviel who only smiled warmly at her.
"Of course, we'll help you Sakura-chan. And if we play our cards right. We can get rid of them for good." She grinned and winked at Sakura, who could only feel the surge of relief that flowed through her.
"Thank you." She uttered sincerely, bowing her head as her shoulders shook. "Thank you, thank you, thank you thankyouthankyou."
"Sakura." The purple haired girl looked over and up at Kiritsugu, showing some of the tears that were just beginning to bubble out of her eyes.
"Y-yes Kiritsugu-san?"
"Can you not just ingest the blood of Iri or Illya instead of….the other method, with Shirou?" He questioned, pointedly ignoring the death glare his wife shot him while Illya hid a giggle behind a mountain of self-control and the pain of pinching herself.
"U-unfortunately not Kiritsugu-san." Not matter what she tried; her tears wouldn't stop. "B-Blood from Irisviel-san or Illya-chan w-would be effective but….s-still not as good as the other method."
"There there Sakura. You can let it all out now, no more questions, ok? We'll help you until Shirou gets home." Irisviel murmured comfortingly to Sakura, rubbing her back and shooting a vindictive look at Kiritsugu that he could only return with the deadpan to end all deadpans.
And finally, Sakura released the mental rope she didn't even realize she was holding, and her sobs tumbled out of her like an avalanche of tears and overflowing emotions.
XXXxxxXXX
Einzbern Estate
"Lord Jubstacheit, the excavation in Greece is going according to plan. Within the next three months, artifacts that will be useable will be surfaced if everything continues at the same rate." A pale, red eyed, white-haired man spoke, kneeling before the old head of the Einzbern family.
"As they should be. I hired them for their proficiency after all." He grumbled, uncaring of the nervous stiffening of the Homunculi's posture.
"Yes, of course sir. And they're meeting your expectations?"
"Has young Illyasviel responded to our latest missive?"
"No, sir. It seems that this one, too, was not deemed with a response by Lady Illyasviel."
"A shame. But no matter. In time she will grow bored of the Emiya's and their lack of knowledge and resources. Continue to keep her accommodations spotless." His last sentence was directed towards a maid who nodded and quickly fled the vicinity of Jubstacheit.
"Is there…anything else you wish of me, Lord Jubstacheit?"
"Yes. I've heard whispers of other families beginning to realize the proximity of the next Holy Grail War. Increase the number of Homunculi guard on the excavation project. I do not wish for anyone, enemy nor ally nor neither, to discover who we shall bring."
"As you wish, Lord Jubstacheit."
XXXxxxXXX
Omake: Ea-Nasir
"Stop staring at me as if i have lit myself on fire. This is the height of fashion, smith." Gilgamesh snapped, wearing his kingly attire from his original life with a prideful aura that was quickly growing agitated.
"It looks weird." Shirou deadpanned at Gilgamesh, his expression unflinching at his furiously glaring companion.
"You wouldn't know-" Suddenly Gilgamesh stopped, his head craning so far without his body moving that his neck actually cracked.
"Gilgamesh? What are-"
"He is here. I can sense it."
"Who is here? Why are you staring at my wall?"
"Stay here smith. I have a rage 4000 years burning to release." Shirou just gave a confused wave, going back to his work as if nothing had happened.
XXXxxxXXX
A minute later, Fuyuki Market Street
"No no! It looks like a scam but I assure you it's not. These are real Copper Ingots. The purest copper ingots you'll find this side of the globe!" The lady made an appraising hum, much like the small crowd that had formed around the market stall.
The man, darkly tanned with greased back sandy blonde hair, smiled charmingly at the women, standing before what looked to be a home-made wooden cart stacked with ingots of shining copper. His smile faltering for the briefest of moments as he felt his blood run cold but quickly shook it off, he couldn't ruin a sale now could he?
"Yes! See here that I've curated only the greatest reviews from my customers! Never a bad review in my life, nor has my supplier, a mighty fine man with not a single bad comment to his name!" He pulled out and unrolled a piece of paper, grinning quite proudly as he showed the woman.
That sense of danger again? Where was it coming from? Why wasn't it going away?
…
Eh, someone probably just realized the true grade of his copper. Sucks to be them he supposed, he already had their money.
"EA-NASIR YOU UTTER MONGREL SCUM! I KNEW KUR COULDN'T CONTAIN YOUR SWINDLING SOUL!" Fuck.
Code Red, Code Red. Code-fucking-red to end all code reds. He needed to get out of here. Defuse the situation. Whatever the fuck was necessary to keep living.
"K-K-King Gilgamesh!? C-Can't we talk this out!? I have some wonderful Copper Ingots!" Ea-Nasir stammered, terrified, while scrambling backwards; away from King Gilgamesh.
The sight of the King's blade dropping into his palm only made the sense of 'DANGER' increase a hundred-fold.
This wasn't good.
"ENUMA! ELI-"
XXXxxxXXX
Hola!
Tis I, the dumbass to end all dumbasses. With far too much work on my plate between Uni and…..work. Speaking of; holy fuck is June a busy month for me. I have 5 Uni assignments and 2 exams in the month of June and out of those seven, 5 are due within the first half of the month.
FML DX
So I'm going to do my best considering I'm already about halfway done with chapter 15 but if I don't post at the end of June then just know that Uni has defeated me and I've drowned under assignments, stress and failures.
Regardless, how'd you guys like this chapter? The start of the fifteen-year-old arc! And now that it's out I can finally reveal the proper name for the arc!
Fifteen-year-old arc = Blade Origin Arc.
I'm very excited for this arc and I can't wait for everyone else to see how it goes as well. I've got some idea's and they're very fun. Which includes widening the scope of the world and story through other characters and factions, like the Einzbern's and the Dead Apostles.
Also how was the omake? This was inspired by a series of tumblr memes that was sent on the discord and discussed in the channel for this fanfic. So if you want to join in feel free to come on in!
Discord Code: ctMzhq3
REVIEW REPLIES:
Itzyendor: Indeeeeeeed!
Strikerstriker315: The HGW is definitely going to be interesting, I can tell you that much.
Jayasimha: They live at the Emiya estate but rebuilt the Muramasa estate which is where Shirou does his smithing.
Torukeru: I'd love to answer those questions but unfortunately they're still far to spoiler-full for me to do so! I'm glad you're enjoying the story!
PanzerJ: It's great. It just pops into my mind as I write their interactions and I'm like yes.
Zelenin-02: Yeah, the stuff with Avalon had to be worked on through a Beta's suggestion. So, it was even worse before. And yes indeed, Gilgamesh's deal with Sakura will be revealed fully in time. And yeah, Gilgamesh is getting attached to Shirou, Isn't it adorableeeee?~
SentinelSlice: Yeah he absolutely could. But his friends and family would lose their collective shit if he did so. And he's not willing to risk that.
AngelicWisdom: Who needs weapons, NP's and Magecraft when you have super-strength/healing and good old-fashioned fists?
AnimeFan13579: These are some really cool idea's and I like them. They might appear in the story, they might not, you'll have to see xP