This chapter is chapter two of two for a special Christmas present double update.
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Gibson Desert, Australia (7 Months before 5th HGW)
"A-Alright alright! Here! N-Now you'll let me go, right?" The small fairy, looking like what most humans would consider to be a pixie, squeaked as his magic sigil faded once its effect took hold.
"Of course. You make it sound like I'm some kind of monster." Altrouge Brunestud, once again looking like a 14-year-old, grinned darkly at the fairy held aloft by her fingers.
The fairy, smartly, didn't deign that with a response other than a fearful whimper, yelping as he was let go and barely managing to catch himself from hitting the ground with a buzz of his wings. The moment he had control over his altitude he was making his way away from the cruelly grinning girl whose eyes lit up briefly with fairy letters.
"Now. Lets s- Huh." The girl started, her arrogant tone drying up as he turned around, expecting to see only her trusted companion, Cath Palug, and instead saw a man sitting behind him.
The man in question was sitting on a rock-outcrop as if it was as comfortable as the best chair that money could buy. His skin was dark, and the shin of his left leg resting perpendicular across his right knee. The clothes adorning his form were both minimalist and extremely traditional, at least based on what little knowledge Altrouge had of Australia and its history.
Around his waist was the pelt of a creature she couldn't quite decipher painted in vibrant red with green's, blues and yellow's stretching across and around the waist covering in geometric patterns and shapes. Wrapped around his shoulders and stretching to what she assumed to be his ankles if he stood was a cloak made of undoubtedly kangaroo pelt, with both sides pinned together over his clavicle by a bone fragment with something almost resembling leather tied around it and attached to the cloak itself.
The most striking thing about the man though, was his almost refractory hair colour, his rugged and windswept hair seeming to cycle through every colour of the rainbow and more that even her mind struggled to grasp as the moonlight hit it at different angles.
And then a single one of his eyes opened, and his presence appeared.
Staggering for only a single step, Altrouge gulped minutely right before she managed to collect herself, standing back at her full height.
"Rainbow Serpent, correct?"
"That is I." The man rumbled, his kaleidoscopic, reptilian slitted, eye watching her seemingly without a care in the world.
"How nice of you to come meet me." She purred, placing a hand on her chest and smiling politely.
"You went traipsing throughout the bush looking for all manner of Phantasmal Beast, I caught wind of you rather quickly." The girl jumped and turned around, seeing a second copy of the same man walking lackadaisically with his hands behind his back.
A quick look confirmed that yes, he was still sitting on the rock, yet he was also walking behind her. Her mouth opened to speak, yet the Rainbow Serpent beat her to it.
"No, it's not a clone. You've learnt of me, you should know." He spoke, as assured in his knowledge of her as a regular man would be in the knowledge that the sky was blue.
"..Yes, I'm aware of your nature as an everywhen entity." She spoke, her gaze narrowed for only a moment before sliding back into its pleasantly teasing softness.
And it was only after speaking did, she realize how the Rainbow Serpent had been aware of what she knew. She'd just confirmed it after all.
"You wish to make a deal with me, do you not?" The Rainbow Serpent rumbled, reclining his head to stare up at the moon, the version of him pacing with his hands behind his back fading into mist.
"I feel rather at a disadvantage here, you know so much about me and yet getting so much as a read on you is so difficult, Mr. Serpent." Altrouge spoke taking a few playful steps towards him.
"Then live with that feeling." He spoke callously, seemingly unaware yet also entirely cognizant of the way that her expression fell flat and her eye twitched.
"Right." She spoke slowly, taking a calming breath before her smile came back to her features. "The deal I wish to make is simple. You aid me in supercharging the Greater Grail within Fuyuki Japan. And in return-"
"You won't attack me and raze these lands?" He spoke, as if bored by this entire situation.
"..I won't attack you and raze these lands." She confirmed, her grin sliding into a more sinister one as she held her hand out.
"Hm. Well what could I possibly do against Altrouge Brunestud and her faction?" He spoke with a roll of his serpentine eyes, grabbing her hand and shaking it.
"..So makes this contract binding and cemented. As long as I hold the title Brunestud this contract shall have effect until both ends fulfill their sides." She spoke on reflex, her eyes narrowing suspiciously at the sheer uncaring nature of the entity in front of her.
"What game are you playing at, Serpent?" Her voice dropped; her eyes shadowed over even as the glow of the newly cemented contract died away.
"It's rather boring, in this day and age. You could say I'm looking for entertainment." He spoke, waving his hand around.
The hand that no longer had their contract on it, not in terms of physical appearance or through her magical senses.
"What did you do?" She snarled, her Prana flaring around her at the thought of being somehow duped out of her contract.
"Hm? Oh. It's rather simple. The contract has ended." He flexed his fingers and looked over his hand as if admiring a piece of jewelry.
"Ended you say? Well, at least now I don't need to keep pretenses up any longer." She growled, snapping her fingers while glaring daggers at the man in front of her.
The reason for which became clear barely a fraction of a second later when in an explosion of dust and boulders, Cath transformed, launched himself forward and struck the humanoid Rainbow Serpent too fast for Altrouge to react to; save raising her arms to block dust from getting in her eyes.
"Well, now if only I could have expected this somehow." Altrouge's arms dropped as she gave the dust cloud a confused look, a sudden swirl of rain compacted the dust to the ground, allowing her to see something she genuinely never thought she ever would.
Growling and howling with a bloodlust that made even Altrouge shiver, Cath Palug was held in the air by its neck, its razor-sharp claws lashing out and sending sparks into the air as it struck his skin and failed to so much as scratch it. Kicking out with its hind legs it tried to stab him in the legs with those claws, only creating more sparks, and failing that, tried to kick him in the stomach to apply some blunt force trauma.
Only for the shockwave of the strike to shatter the ground beneath their feet even further, and the Rainbow Serpent to not so much as twitch in retaliation. His grip on the Beast of Humanities neck tightened further and made the creature flail and lash out with even more failed attacks.
"Am I to treat this as an attack by you, Altrouge Brunestud?" He turned to Altrouge to pose his question, a claw scraping off his naked eyeball and only creating more sparks.
"Yes. And it won't be the last." She growled, trying to hide her fear at the seeming power of this creature behind her abundant Mystery and her anger.
The only response she got was an upturn of the Rainbow Serpent's lips before red lines began to spread from her fingers and up her arm, making her eyes widen briefly in a unique mix of horror and pure fury.
And with only the briefest surge of Mana as a warning, a fiery red beam of pure energy exploded out of her, swallowing the entire area around her and stopping just short of the Rainbow Serpent and Primate Murder.
"Hm. So this is what a broken contract looks like." The Rainbow Serpent spoke to itself, watching as the beam went from all-encompassing to nothing in an instant, disappearing as suddenly as it appeared and letting Altrouge drop to her knees with a face screwed up in pain.
"Y-You-" She scowled, her injuries already healing but with speed closer to a Nightmare than an Ancestor such as her.
"Yes, I." He nodded his head, as if speaking to a child. "You seem to be having trouble understanding. That's fine, many do. I am everywhen. I am not the same as those two Magicians all the way over in Europe. I do not travel through time, nor through timelines. I am there. I am here. I exist at every time from the birth of the universe to the end."
Primate Murder's claws tried futilely to rend his flesh and muscles from his bones, yet failed to so much as create a mark, let alone an injury.
"And that is why you cannot damage me either, Beast of Gaia." The Rainbow Serpent turned his gaze to the creature caught in his unrelenting grasp. "You have Authority of the murder of primates. So much as taking the form of a Primate puts a being under your Authority. Yet you fail to realize that the form of myself you see, and the form you strike, are not the same." With a casual swing of his arm, the Rainbow Serpent flung Primate murder into his own Master, sending the both of them sprawling backwards across the outback in a tumble of fur, cloth and blood from the spikes adorning the creature that tore into and through Altrouge.
"Not the same? Do you ever make….sense….?" Altrouge's gaze slowly listed upwards as she got to her feet, nearly falling over from how high she craned her head, the meaning of his words dawning on her just a moment too late.
Because the form of the man was no longer there, as if he never had been, instead was the Rainbow Serpent in all it's glory. It's head alone as big as Altrouge's castle as it blotted out the moon above her, its kaleidoscopic eyes bathing the ground under and around the Ancestor and Beast in a constantly shifting glow of every colour imaginable.
"I do not take threats on I, or my land, lightly, Vampire." The snake hissed, the words leaving its gigantic mouth in gusts of wind that threatened to fling the girl clean off her feet with each one. "However, despite your contract having broken, I will still uphold my end. Because, as stated before, I grew bored."
And then suddenly something was being pressed into the palm of her hand, the girl jolting and spinning around with a buzzing saw of her own blood floating around her opposite hand as she once again saw the human form of the Rainbow Serpent standing before her.
"That is one of my scales." The Rainbow Serpent spoke in its human form, the outback still bathed in rainbow. "Simply drop it into the cup, it will take the power I've imbued in it."
"How about a guarantee that it'll do what I want?" She held a hand out to the human form of the Rainbow Serpent once more, getting a flat look in return.
"I held my tongue before because you had not yet done anything. But you do not have jurisdiction over this land, nor over I. Threaten either of us again, or worse take action, and even Gaia will be unable to save the both of you."
When had the rainbows on the ground disappeared? The snake form was gone too? God just spending time around this creature made her feel like her head was splitting apart.
"I will make no more deals with you. I will accept no more snide remarks. You have nothing but my word that, that scale will do as I say it does, and it will stay that way. As it is you're lucky I've only done what I have."
The image of the man wavered in and out of reality, only giving Altrouge a worse headache as she tried to keep sight of him. But it was proving to get more and more difficult, like standing in a room of mirrors with more and more bright lights and glitter appearing every second she stood there.
"And it seems your time is up on the spell." The Rainbow Snake spoke, as if discussing the weather. "Farewell. I expect you to leave my lands quickly and peacefully."
And then he was gone, his presence disappearing entirely from every single one of Altrouge's senses as a cold gust of wind swirled through the desert, the spell that the fairy had cast on her disappearing into tiny motes of golden light.
"Let's go Cath." Altrouge muttered, picking up the suddenly small and cute variant of her beloved pet, the rainbow scale in her hand catching her eye. "We have what we came here for."
And despite that entire situation, likely the only one in her entire life where she'd felt so genuinely oppressed, she couldn't help the smile that stretched her lips as she rubbed her thumb over the surprisingly smooth scale.
'Well, King of Heroes. Let's see what that beloved Grail of yours pulls out with so much power at its disposal~'
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Einzbern Castle, Germany (4 Months before 5th HGW)
"We've done it, Lord Jubstacheit!" An Einzbern Homunculus crowed victoriously, gesturing towards the restrained Servant as if showing off a newly won trophy.
"The restraints are weak, yet it hasn't broken them." The old man noted immediately, after barely a moment to look over the measures put in place to keep the Servant from rampaging.
"Ah, no. They seem rather…stoic, Lord Jubstacheit." The Homunculus responded, unsure how to respond to the Einzbern head's words.
"I wanted a Berserker strong enough to win the war in a single night. When word of not only the Grail's increased energy capacity, but also the artifact unearthed by your men, I'd assumed that was what I was getting."
The warning was clear in his words, and also needn't be spoken aloud as the Homunculus held their hands up in a gesture halfway between surrender and placating.
"I-I assure you Lord Jubstacheit that this is the Servant promised!" The old man hummed, his gaze returning to the Servant for barely a moment before letting out a slow, decisive breath.
"Very well. Start the performance tests tomorrow morning, tonight I want its restraints increased. If its obedience comes under question, we'll tweak it until Walter is able to take command of it as it's Master."
"Understood, Lord Jubstacheit." The Homuculus saluted, getting a grunt from the man as he turned on the heel of his foot and begun to stalk out of the room.
There was no point in him staying further unless something went horrifically wrong. Besides, he had to make sure that the castle in Fuyuki was cleaned and prepared for the upcoming war.
This time, this time for sure. And nothing would stop them.
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Clock Tower, London (3 Months before 5th HGW)
"I'm sorry, I don't think I quite heard that right." Gray muttered, blinking rapidly before her gaze focused back on the blonde-haired girl sitting across from her. "You want my assistance in what?"
"I understand that the item in question is a rather…delicate subject." Luvia spoke, words careful. "But both Kristiina and I have been chosen for the upcoming Holy Grail War in Fuyuki-"
Gray's eye twitched.
"-and we believe that the particular figure tied to the item would be…a good Servant."
"Meaning she wanted a Servant that was too unwieldy for both of you to manage and you've decided to come to me for aid in getting an artifact for Morgan Le Fay because you believe she'd be a better choice?" Gray saw clean through her due to the Reapers knowledge of the Edelfelt heiress. The blonde-haired girl hid her face behind an unfolding metal fan adorned with jewels in response, the same fan that Shirou had made her for her birthday last year.
"That may be the case but who am I to say whether or not my sister's choice in Servants was objectively worse." Luvia spoke, now averting even her eyes from the grey-haired girl.
"You wouldn't suggest any Servant without significant research into them. If you're willing to put up with Morgan Le Fay than whoever she's chosen is weak in powers, personality or both."
"I haven't heard a bite like this out of you since that poor Sembren boy mocked Lord El Melloi II in front of you." Luvia spoke, almost approvingly, though it quickly died down when Gray narrowed her eyes.
"Luvia, who does Kristiina want to summon?" Gray cut to the point of the meeting without any more beating around the bush, getting a tired sigh from the Edelfelt girl as she snapped her fan closed.
"The antihero, Kullervo."
"…The one that turned on his own village and murdered them all in a fit of madness and rage?" The Reaper Princess asked with raised eyebrow's.
"An oversimplification but yes."
"Wasn't he also a slave that ran from his masters?" Gray raised an eyebrow, getting an even more exhausted sigh from the Edelfelt heiress.
"Yes. That part seems to have skipped over Kristiina's head in lieu of a potential Berserker with the possibility of spellcasting."
"…Ok. I don't like it. I don't." She stressed when she saw the way Luvia straightened out in excitement for a moment. "But even Morgan Le Fay would be a better Servant than them…depending on the way you look at it." Gray sighed, standing up.
And then proceeded to yelp loudly as Luvia launched herself forward and hugged the girl tightly.
"Oh, thank you so much, Gray!"
"I know, I know." She muttered in embarrassment, patting Luvia's arm and straightening her clothes out once the heiress let her go.
"Now." Gray spoke, the seriousness in her voice catching Luvia's undivided attention once more. "We'll need to get Master to help us so follow me. And in the meantime…there's a few things about the Holy Grail War you should be aware of, going into it."
"Aware of?" Luvia questioned, quickly matching Gray's pace as the girl walked out of Luvia's dorm room.
"The Holy Grail War isn't what it used to be, obviously not all the facts are known. But the most important thing to keep in mind is that you cannot trust the Einzbern's reports." Gray spoke seriously, and despite her differing body type after so many years, despite the growth she's been able to enjoy that Artoria Pendragon could not, the girl had never looked- never felt- more like King Arthur of legend.
"Tell me more." Luviagelita Edelfelt narrowed her eyes.
She was an Edelfelt, they didn't go into things half-cocked, and if that meant worsening the already rocky relationship between her and her sister than that's something she'd give up in a heartbeat.
But damn did she not expect the severity of what she heard from Gray.
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Fuyuki Church, Fuyuki (3 Weeks before 5th HGW)
'I still can't believe I got you instead of Cu Chulainn!' Bazette Fraga McRemitz cried mentally across the link to the servant she'd summoned.
'Who do you think gifted him that earring?' The amused, female, voice of her Servant spoke through their connection.
'I guess that's true. I just wanted to summon him is all.' The Enforcer sighed both internally and externally as she walked up the path to the Church.
'Oh, I'm sure my student would be astounded to hear such a thing from a pretty girl like you. Though I don't imagine you would have enjoyed his more…lecherous, nature'
'Surely the legends were exaggerated on that front..right?'
'Based on what I know? They're understated if anything.'
'Oh…So! How was I even able to summon the immortal teacher of Cu Chulainn?' Bazett asked, eager to change the topic of conversation away from the more perverse one it had been steering into.
'That's something I wish to know as well. Best as I can gleam, there was a power surge in the Grail that allowed it to nudge the rules on summoning ever so slightly. Think of it like changing the emphasis between two words in a sentence. The words themselves are the same but the meaning behind them has entirely changed now.'
'Ever the teacher…But how does that mean it can summon an immortal?' The Enforcer asked, seeing the Church beginning to poke over the treetops ahead.
'I'm a unique case. Usually, the measure of if a person is dead or alive depends on two things. One, the location of the soul. Two, Gaia's own records of the soul. If even one of these two measures aren't to a satisfactory level, a person is still considered 'alive' for all intents and purposes by the Throne of Heroes. I was within the Land of Shadow's, otherwise known as one of the many resting places a soul can go to, postmortem. In that regard, my soul was located very far from Gaia, but records of my continuing to live continued to be made, so I could not be considered dead. However, the connection between Gaia and the Land of Shadows is tenuous on the best of days. And the recent surge in power allowed the Grail to make the argument 'Her soul is well outside of Gaia's influence and there's no record of her being alive on this day, therefore she is dead and can be summoned.' And thus, here I am. The Lancer class servant at last, Scáthach.'
'..That was incredibly lengthy.'
'Would you like me to- Someone's coming.'
The sudden warning snapped Bazett out of her small daze over the improptou lesson, realizing how close she was to reaching the Church and making a guess on who would be coming.
A few moments later, the appearance of a well-built man with a pleasant smile and priests robes proved her guess to be right.
"Ahhh, Bazett Fraga McRemitz. Colour me surprised." Kirei Kotomine greeted with a grin that almost passed for genuine eagerness to meet his old battle-buddy once more.
However, unnoticed by Bazett in her actual excitement to meet the man she called an ally once again, Scathach was far more receptive of the overwhelming feeling of malice wafting off the man. The woman suddenly glad that she'd been summoned instead of her greatest student, since she knew just how he would have reacted to this man.
Of course, she wasn't going to go attacking the man without cause or just because of a simple suspicion, she was far better trained and far more refined than that. But she'd be keeping a careful eye on him.
"I trust that your flight was a pleasant one?"
"As pleasant as economy can be." Bazett cracked her neck and shrugged.
"Ah, I see. Yes, it can be rather stifling. Come here, I'll get you officially added to the roster for this grand Holy Grail War." Kirei smiled, holding a hand out.
And as Bazett grabbed it, her body jerked forward, her eyes widening in fear as the sight of Kirei aiming his opposite fist towards her chest stopped the action she might have taken with another person.
Yet thankfully for her, her Servant hadn't been fooled by the Priests fake demeanour and had both materialized and struck before the man's fist had even travelled half the distance towards its intended location.
His hand slipped out of Bazett's own, fingers weak and twitching as he raised it to the hole in his upper left abdomen, the spear that the Queen of the Land of Shadows had thrown buried in the ground behind him. His left arm itself was drooped far too low to the ground and unable to move without either bones or nerve endings to keep it in place and movable.
"K-Kirei? What- I don't-" Bazett muttered, pale and having broken out into a cold sweat over the near death experience she had nearly suffered.
And it was a near-death experience. None of her Thaumaturgical defenses were active and she knew from missions with the man before that his strikes easily had enough force to rupture organs.
"H-hah." The man wheezed, his gaze sliding off of Bazett easily and moving towards the threateningly stalking Lancer Servant moving closer to him. "S-So you…hhaaaaah-"
The man's voice briefly turned into a high-pitched wheeze as his left lung gave up all fight and deflated entirely.
"S-Saw through-"
"I did." Scáthach spoke coldly, walking behind him and grabbing her thrown spear. "I'm going to assume you wished to kill my Master and claim me as your own Servant?"
The man didn't have to say anything, she could see the answer in his eyes even as her Master let out a shocked sounding cry from behind her.
"Very well. You were lacking in it, but I'll acknowledge your courage to try something so brazen." She spoke, her voice chilling and her gaze practically a death sentence in and of itself, right before her spear ended the man's life.
"Sc-Scáthach. He tried- he actually tried-"
"I know. For now, let's head into the Church. It's good shelter." Scáthach spoke, walking the thin tightrope between the voice of comfort and protector of her clearly vulnerable Master.
"I- Right. Yes. Let's..do that." Bazett tried to draw herself up, yet the shock was still too fresh.
Given some quiet moments to reflect and come to terms, both Scáthach and Bazett knew that she'd recover. But that had yet to happen.
'Now I know why Muramasa always looked so uncomfortable when I mentioned him.' The thought probably wasn't meant to be one that the woman shared with her Servant, but nonetheless she did and it caught the Lancer's attention with a seemingly iron grip.
'An ally?...Something to look into at a later time.'
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Matou Estate, Fuyuki (3 Weeks before 5th HGW)
"Well? What are you waiting for? Summon it." Zouken Matou, an increasingly rotting corpse of a man, snapped at his granddaughter as she kneeled on the edge of the summoning circle located in the basement of the residence.
With the ease of someone who had been just as casually treated and berated for the last ten years of her life, the purple haired girl began her chant, pouring prana into the summoning circle. The entire time she kept a close mental eye on the activity of the Crest Worms implanted within her.
She knew from the experience that Kiritsugu had spoken of that summoning a Servant was an intensive, but not overly draining experience. Despite knowing she wouldn't be wasting too much Od, she'd rather know exactly how bad the aftereffects were going to be.
Yet, and this a very big surprise to the Matou heiress, they barely even budged as the summoning seemed to almost perform itself. Only the barest drain on her Od felt despite the growing feeling of power in front of her.
And finally, appearing in a deep red flash of light was a tall, pink haired woman with thigh high leather boots, a rather revealing dress that showed both a perfect amount of thigh and a fair amount of cleavage as well. Though probably the most striking thing about her appearance was the almost snake-skin blindfold covering her eyes.
Though the blindfold made sense, given exactly who Sakura knew she had summoned.
"Servant Rider-" The woman spoke, pausing when she took note of Zouken standing behind the blank faced Sakura.
'Keep going, I'll explain once he's gone.' Sakura spoke mentally to her Servant, abusing the knowledge of the Master/Servant bond she had thanks to Kiritsugu and Irisviel.
'Understood.'
"-Medusa, I look forward to working with you, Master."
"Pah. Working with." Zouken scoffed, his thoughts on the matter clear to see for both teenager and Servant. "Sakura. Find out your servant's abilities. I expect to win this time." He ordered coldly.
"Of course, grandfather. It will be destructive; may I leave the estate grounds?" Sakura asked, her voice and face as blank as a doll despite what Rider could feel from her Master.
And for a moment nothing happened, Zouken just continued to walk towards the door. That pit of something Sakura knew to be inside her pulsing throughout her body and hitting all of the Crest Worms inside her as it did. Specifically, the Worm around her heart.
"Grandfather?" Sakura spoke once more, recognizing what was happening given its more frequent occurrences since Enhances attack.
"Hm? Girl? We were talking?" Zouken spoke, as if he didn't remember any of the past twenty or so minutes.
"Yes grandfather." She responded dutifully.
Medusa nearly stumbled on the spot from the sheer disgust that flowed out of the girl through their connection as she did so.
"I was merely asking if you needed anything else before I left to stay at the Emiya Estate?" Sakura spoke, as if her staying at the Emiya Estate had been the topic of conversation this entire time instead of something she'd just brought up out of the blue.
"Anything- no. Leave my sight and return with something good." He grumbled, leaving the basement, and the two women, along with it.
"Master…?"
"Rider, I'll show you around." Sakura spoke blankly, though her inner dialogue was a bit different.
'We can't speak freely here; Grandfather has familiars in every inch of the house. Once we get outside the Estate Grounds.'
"Very well." Medusa spoke, responding to both of the girl's dialogue at the same time while nodding minutely.
She barely knew anything about this girl, Sakura Matou, that she now called Master. But the one thing she did know is that this kind of life was far too familiar for the woman, and she wasn't about to leave the girl on her lonesome after that terrific showing of familial bonds.
'Oh gods. I'm already attached…'
And the moment that they left the dark and dreary Estate, stepping into the bright, early morning sun of Fuyuki, Japan. It was like her Master's entire personality changed, going from blank doll to cheerful and excited teenager.
Something which looked far more natural on the young woman's features, in Medusa's own opinion.
"Come on Rider, I'll explain everything on the way to Senpai's house." Sakura smiled, beginning to walk with Rider quick to follow behind her.
"Senpai…?" The woman repeated the phrase experimentally for a moment.
"Oh, I'm sure you'll love him, and his family is very colourful too!" The purple haired girl clapped her hands together. "And I believe Rin stayed over last night so you'll get to meet her too!"
"I…see. I would like that explanation, please."
"Of course!"
XXXxxxXXX
Emiya Estate, Fuyuki (3 Weeks before 5th HGW)
Rin slowly rolled her way out of bed, using a level of flexibility and muscle control that Olympic gymnasts would be jealous of to practically be a ghost out of the bed she had woken up in.
Lying flat on the floor she reached out and slowly, carefully, put all of her missing clothes back on. Her hearing practically strained to its limits as she got herself fully dressed, wondering how she'd get her shoes from the front door before deciding she'd just leave them for now and circle back later.
Pushing herself slowly to her feet she stood perfectly still, waiting. After a moment of no sounds out of the usual she grabbed an empty scabbard lying against Shirou's wall and tiptoe'd back over to his bed. Waging an internal war for a moment she bent over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek while he was still sleeping; though the kiss seemed to have been the needed push to start him waking up.
With her duties to her boyfriend completed, never mind the internal thoughts of last nights duties that set her cheeks to their highest redness setting, she reached up with the empty scabbard and slowly pushed one of the tiles in Shirou's roof aside just enough, placing the scabbard down on his bed and leaping daintily into the ceiling of her boyfriend's house without a shred of Od use.
Peering back into his room for a moment she gave a sheepish smile as he cracked an eye open and gave her a confused look, giving a small wave to him before near-silently placing the ceiling tile back into place and making her way through the roof of the Emiya Estate with her senses still on high alert.
Say what you will about Kiritsugu, and the Emiya family as a whole, but you couldn't deny that they weren't prepared when you took into account the fact that the Tohsaka heiress had found at least eight separate secret entrances/exits into the Estate across the years she had been coming over. Were there more that she didn't know about? She'd bet her entire family's fortune on it.
Finally making her way across the reinforced beam she was balancing on, the girl opened the hatch with slow and precise movements, waiting for a moment after cracking it open for any sounds and silently sighing in relief when none were heard.
Finally opening the hatch in the roof of the Emiya Estate she crawled out and onto the well-maintained tile rooftop, closing the hatch properly behind her and grinning proudly. Crouching down to prepare to leap off the roof.
It was only a five-meter fall, she wouldn't even have to use Magecraft.
"Rin Tohsaka, Victory number on-"
"Oh no you don't." The girl yelped –a high-pitched, loud, incredibly girlish yelp– as the back of her shirt was grabbed about a third of a second after her feet had left the tiling of the roof.
"M-M-Mister Emiya!?" She yelped in horror, having thought that she'd finally managed to escape this time.
"You were very silent this time, it was a solid attempt. But the roof was the most obvious answer." The Mercenary spoke, his voice somewhere in between amused, lecturing, and deadpan.
"B-But there's three rooftop exits!" The poor girl was blushing bright red by now as the man, still holding her off her feet by the back of her shirt, hopped off the roof himself and landed so silently the girl thought her hearing might have just cut out from her embarrassment for a moment.
"Yes. There is. But that one is the one pointed in the closest direction to your house." He replied, opening the front door with his free hand and carrying the girl into the living room where breakfast was being served onto the table.
"Hehe. Couldn't escape this time either, Rin-chan?" Ilya, now looking thirteen thanks to the wonders of Touko Aozaki and a couple favours, grinned cheekily as the Tohsaka heiress was plopped onto her honorary seat while practically steaming out of the ears.
"Rooftop?" Irisviel asked her husband idly, just getting a small nod from the man as he walked past her to his own seat.
The sound of footsteps caught everyone's attention as Shirou walked into the room, stretching his arms above his head.
"Morning everyone."
"Morning Shirou!"
"Morning."
"Morning Onii-chan!"
"Mmmgghh." Liz groaned, face down on the table since she wasn't able to eat yet.
"Good morning, Shirou. Your girlfriend tried to sneak out again." Sella informed him dutifully, getting a small laugh from the teen as he sat down next to said girlfriend, who looked halfway like she wanted to leap away from him to avoid more teasing, and halfway like she wanted to hide behind him.
"Now. Shall we go over the proper ways to choose an escape exit now or after breakfast?" Kiritsugu raised an eyebrow at Rin, making her finally pick an option.
Said option was the secret Option C as she whined and rested her face on the table much like Liz.
"Kiri! Be nice!" Irisviel admonished, but it was clear to see that her heart wasn't in it, based on the very clearly amused look she was giving Rin and Shirou both.
Ding-Dong!
"I'll grab it!" Ilya announced quickly, launching herself out of her seat to go open the door before Sella could even get the first words out of her mouth.
Something that she clearly wasn't pleased with, based on the way she placed her hands on her hips and pouted in the direction of the doorway.
"It's Sakura and a guest!"
The reference to Sakura actually bringing someone, got everyone's attention. Six pairs of eyes all moving towards the hallway leading towards the front entrance with inquisitive gazes.
The first to walk through was Ilya, who raced back to her seat like a bat out of a hell, and much more sedately, but no less excited, was the form of Sakura who smiled and greeted everyone warmly with a wave.
"Good morning, everyone. Morning Senpai!" She greeted him specifically, getting a different snicker from Ilya before it was cut off by Kiritsugu giving her a small elbow to her side that made her whine like a husky being given a bath.
"Morning Sakura! You missed Rin getting caught again!" Irisviel informed, looking like the picture of motherly instincts and innocence as Rin turned to face her with a betrayed look.
"Oh, that's a shame. But as Ilya said, I brought a guest. Senpai and family, meet…Rider!" The girl made a presenting motion to the hallway as the tall, very clearly confused and slightly uncomfortable, form of Rider stepped out, giving a half wave.
"Oh. A Servant." Liz commented idly, as if it was a common occurrence for one to appear.
"Huh. Medusa." The blindfolded woman looked about ready to collapse to the ground in a puddle of limbs at how easily her identity was figured out by the red-haired teen, her Master's 'senpai', despite no hints other than maybe her blindfold.
Unknown to her at this time, the blindfold was exactly what gave her away. But not in the way that she'd thought it had.
"Oh! Now that Servants are being summoned, I can get mine, right Tou-san?"
"You make them sound like toys!" Rin admonished, getting a sheepish laugh out of the white-haired girl.
"I know, I'm sorry! You know I didn't mean it like that!"
"Sakura and Rider, come sit down, breakfast is ready. Rin, better luck next time. Ilya…..after breakfast." Irisviel spoke, making some extra room for the long pink-haired woman at the table.
"I don't need to eat as a Servant ma'am."
"Nonsense! We have more than enough. Eat as much as you want. Sella made it all this morning." Irisviel said happily, her aura turning slightly dark as Medusa opened her mouth to refute before quickly snapping it shut, the poor Servant cowed under a mixture of Irisviel's motherly instincts and her sheer confusion.
"Which means it's about half as good as it could be." Shirou commented idly, tilting his head to the side and avoiding the chopstick projectile that had threatened to carve a hole in his skull.
"Say that again." Sella growled, arming herself with another chopstick as Shirou opened his mouth again without hesitation.
Only for it to quickly be stuffed with rice and egg by both Rin and Sakura at the same time, with an oddly identical speed and technique to avoid hurting the boy, since they knew how this song and dance would go if it wasn't shut down quickly.
The fact that metal wires glinted around Sella's hand went unspoken by those around the table, both Shirou and Sella winding down squinted eyes at each other.
'Is this….what families are like in this day and age?..' Medusa thought to herself, sweatdropping a little as she hesitantly reached out for the chopsticks that had been placed in front of her.
XXXxxxXXX
Emiya Estate, Later that day
"Are you sure you don't want to summon Saber today as well?" Irisviel asked her son, everyone standing at the edge of the Emiya Dojo as Ilyasviel finished the summoning circle that both her and Shirou would eventually use.
If nothing happened to it at least.
"I'm fine." Shirou denied easily, resting against the wall and just watched his sister grab the artifact that was at least three times her size and carry it onto the summoning circle.
"Still not thrilled about being apart of all this, huh?" Rin asked, getting a small grunt from Shirou.
"If you want something done, why not find a way to do it yourself? I've never gotten the appeal of wish granting." He sighed, getting a small round of quiet laughs from the various Magi in the Dojo.
"That's because Senpai is special!" Sakura smiled, getting a small smile back from him.
"Everyone she's starting!" Irisviel quickly announced, all conversation dying out as the girl went through her summoning, more and more mana gathering into a ball of light so bright half the watchers had to turn away.
And finally, in a burst of air and Mana the sound of something large and heavy hitting the Dojo floor was heard, followed immediately by a magical presence that pressed down on everyone like gravity had increased twice over.
Standing in the center of the summoning circle was a giant of a man, clearing two and a half meters with change to spare and a body that looked more like it was chiseled from stone than actual flesh and blood. In the pressure released from his body, and the wind it created in doing so, his shoulder-blade length hair waved and writhed in the air.
In his left hand was a long, immaculately made bow that Shirou wasted no time scanning with a brief look over it and on his right hip was a quiver of arrows that he highly doubted would ever actually run out.
"So, you are my Master." The tall man spoke looking down at Illya, his voice deep but soft. "I am Servant Archer. Why is there another Servant here?" His gaze turned on Rider, eyes that conveyed a thousand separate emotions at once.
"She's an ally." Illya responded simply, smiling up at the behemoth of a man. "Everyone here is, it's fine for you to state your name."
"I see…" He muttered, his gaze flicking from person to person and back down to Ilya, his bow and arrows disappearing from reality as he kneeled down to be closer to her height.
"Allow me to restart. I am Servant Archer, Heracles of Greece-" Off to the side, Rider leaned back slightly, having not expected to meet a descendant of the man to slay her as an ally.
"-And I shall serve you faithfully should you not attempt to try and make me do any acts I deem too immoral."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Heracles of Greece, my name is Ilyasviel Muramasa-Emiya-"
"Since when!?"
"-despite Onii-chan's protest." She grinned cheekily, winking at the giant of a man and sticking her tongue out at the brief exhale and smile that touched his lips.
"And I look forward to being your Master for this sham of a war."
"Sham?" Heracles gave her a confused look, turning to look at all the viewers and seeing an array of facial expressions in return, the look on Rider's face letting him know that she knew what was going to be discussed and that it wasn't pretty.
"The Grail is corrupted." Illya started bluntly, getting a slow blink from the mighty Hero.
"I see…"
"Any wish made using it would be twisted by the entity that corrupted to Grail to damage or destroy as much of humanity as possible."
"Yes, I can see the issue now." He nodded, holding his chin between his forefinger and thumb as he stood to his full height once more.
"We're summoning Servants so that no one else can. Though not enough of us were chosen so there will have to be some fighting, unless we get lucky enough to convince them of the truth."
"Unlikely." Heracles shot down quickly, his quick wit shining through as he took full stock of the situation at hand. "A wish is a grand thing to chase after. I can tell you're speaking the truth through our bond, and I'm sure the Servant over there experienced the same thing."
"Yes. Master informed me of the situation shortly after my summoning as well." Rider spoke up, rather surprised at how….gentle such an imposing figure was sizing up to be.
Not to say that she thought he was weak because of that. Not in her damn life.
"Are you certain of this fact?" Heracles asked Ilya just to make sure, getting a resolute nod from her.
"My mother's side of the family was one of the three families that created it and she was in the last Holy Grail War. Also, almost all of us, not myself, have seen a fraction of the destruction it can cause through its corrupted mud and fire."
"I see….Very well. I can agree with what you are trying to do. Something so dangerous cannot be allowed to achieve its wish. You, my Master: Ilyasviel Muramasa-Emiya, have my full support."
"Yeah! Now summon Saber Onii-chan!"
"Not yet. Maybe let's take things slow with the Servant Summoning?" Shirou suggested with an amused grin, getting an eyeroll and groan from Illya before she tilted back and hit the floor of the dojo back first.
"Are you ok Master?" Heracles asked, leaning over her slightly with wide eyes and blinking innocently at his Master's rather…unique behaviour.
"Onii-chan sucks!"
XXXxxxXXX
Omake: A Christmas Treat
Shirou groaned as he woke up, feeling two weights on his bed that definitely weren't usually there…
Cracking his eyes open, they very snapped all the way open as his mind caught onto the sight in front of him.
Kneeling on his bed, on either side of his legs, were Sakura Matou and Rin Tohsaka, both wearing rather risque christmas costumes that did rather strange things to his blood pressure and flow.
"Good morning, Senpai." Sakura greeted warmly, a small smile on her face as she closed her eyes.
"G-Good…I-I mean M-Merry Christmas…S-Shirou…" Rin stuttered, looking like she was about to go catatonic with how bright she was blushing.
"Morning.." He muttered, his gaze sliding over each of them.
"T-This is so embarrassing!" Rin whined, hiding her face in her hands. "Why did I let you talk me into this!?"
"Because you want to serve Senpai with me." Sakura answered easily, seemingly not caring about the sound of a dying animal leaving the Tohsaka heiress' lips.
"I-I don't want to serve him!" She cried out in mortification, and also seemingly on reflex.
"Oh well." Sakura shrugged. "More for me then."
"Don't you dare!"
XXXxxxXXX
Hi there.
So now, 21,000+ words later the Christmas updates have finally finished. You may be wondering "Well Plasma, why the double update? Chapter 21 was already 13.7K. Was that not enough?" And you'd be correct! However i have a perfect, foolproof argument for why i decided to do a double update instead of just the singular mega-chap.
I wanted to post Chapter 23 in January of 2023
That's all. That's it. Nothing else. Isn't it the perfect argument? x3
Anyways i hope you guys all enjoyed these two chapters and feel free to leave reviews on either chapter or both. I'll be replying to Chap 21 and 22 reviews in chapter 23 instead of just chap 22 so you don't need to fear!
Also i'm currently at my parents house for christmas and trying to do all this on my laptop (its not great) and its much, much different to usual. Let me tell you that.
Regardless i hope i can't wait to see all the reviews you all have and i hope that you all have a good christmas, new years, and/or other holidays you may or may not celebrate!
discord: ctMzhq3
Farewell and remember that as an Australian I have an inherent advantage with Jeanne D'arc because we have a Summer Christmas. Suck on that!