"Am I the only one that feels a distinct sense of foreboding from my own house?" Shirou muttered, staring at the Emiya Estate beside Gray and Artoria as they flanked him on either side.
He wasn't sure if them being bodyguards or dragging him to the gallows would fit his current situation more; knowing them, a unique mixture of both.
"Yes. You are." Artoria said flatly, placing a hand on his shoulder and beginning to exert force forward.
"I get it Saber; you don't need to push." Shirou muttered.
"Apologies. You just have yet to actually move." Artoria hummed, her hand still on his shoulder as Gray just gave Shirou a silent look and nudged her head in the direction of the house.
In response to the two women urging him towards the house, with differing degrees of force, Shirou merely hung his head for a moment and sighed before finally taking a step forward as he raised his head once again.
"Well. To make a blade some heat is always required…" He muttered under his breath, his eyes rolling in their sockets to make direct eye contact with the small army of familiars that now inhabited the grounds of the Emiya Estate.
'Sakura must have shown Rin and Luvia the trick to handling so many familiars at once. Guess the decrepit worm had his uses after all.' The young blacksmith thought to himself as he walked up to the front door.
Opening the door was easy, it was unlocked, and a rather peaceful affair. That should have been his first and only hint needed to realize that something was planned for when he opened the door. Unfortunately, in his haze of battle plans and generally odd nature, this realization hit him about one second too late.
At about the exact same time as the Gandr struck him between the eyes.
The volatile projectile of cursed prana struck his face and exploded, a shockwave of energy blasting out of the impact and cracking the doorframe of the Emiya Estate as if it were made of glass and not ridiculously expensive wood.
From beside the still glaring form of Rin, who had her arm braced and a finger gun pointed at the smoking head of her boyfriend, Waver Velvet stared at the smoking head of Shirou and the aftermath in veiled and muted horror. The kind of destructive power in that singular Gandr was something that modern humans simply shouldn't be able to output with so little preparation.
Sure, there were always the monsters of the supernatural world that were able to pull such a feat off, but the fact of the matter is that knowing they exist and seeing their potential were two, drastically, different experiences.
"Yeah." Shirou sighed, the smoke dissipating to show him pretty much entirely unharmed as he rolled his neck to direct his face right back toward his girlfriend. "I deserved that."
"You deserve more than that! You said you were coming here and then the next thing I know you met the entire enemy force!" Rin snapped, another Gandr charging up at the edge of her fingertip.
"While Master deserves all the punishment for chasing after the Servant that led them towards their main contingent, he was at least on his way to this estate before we were attacked." Artoria informed Rin, still annoyed at Shirou but at least willing to be fair in what he should and shouldn't be blamed for.
"SHEROU!" Like a blonde rocket, whipping straight past Rin and Waver, Luvia struck Shirou in a loud crash that sent the both of them rolling back out the doorway and along the path before they came to an abrupt halt.
"Mmmgggh" Shirou tried to speak, but it was a little hard when his face was buried in Luvia's chest as she hugged his head tightly.
"I'm so happy you're ok. I'm as annoyed as Rin so don't think you're getting out of this but I'm just glad you're safe!" Luvia exclaimed, only tightening her hold on his head.
If he happened to pass out from lack of air then that would be part of his punishment, if not then it was back to plan A.
"Sorry Rin, she managed to slip past me." Sakura muttered, giving an incredibly shallow bow to the Tohsaka Head, getting an annoyed huff of air from the young woman as she let her Gandr disperse.
"She's more of a physical powerhouse than you, Sakura. It was bound to happen."
"I suppose that's true; did we really have to choose that as a punishment?" Sakura asked, tilting her head to the side a little, getting confused looks from Gray, Olga, and Artoria.
"It will be rough on all of us, but anything less and it wouldn't stick, would it?"
"I suppose that's true…"
Shirou managed to free his head by grabbing Luvia and physically making her lean back a little, a small gasp leaving his lips before he looked between his three girlfriends. An intimidating sight if he had ever seen one, only made worse as Sakura and Rin both walked up to look down at him.
"Shirou. This was really, really bad this time. Things could have gone terribly wrong. So, we can't brush this aside. The fighting is meant to happen in a week, right?" Rin spoke, getting a nod from the teen as he tried to think over what the three of them had planned.
With a small 'hyup', Luvia hopped off of his lap to stand beside Rin and Sakura, making a veritable wall of pissed-off girlfriends.
"Until the fight with the Yggdmillennia and their servants…there will be absolutely zero sex."
You could have heard a pin drop in the front yard of the Emiya Estate it was that silent. Glares of annoyance and disappointment were mixed with looks of astonishment and embarrassment.
"You….Huh?" Shirou himself was firmly in the camp of astonishment as he stared at his girlfriends.
"You heard me. None of it." Rin spoke, arms crossed and glaring down at him.
"We thought about banning you from your forge but…" Luvia trailed off, an image appearing in her mind.
Shirou laughed hysterically as fires burned around him and blood pooled at his feet, a clump of melting scrap metal in his left hand as the shaft of a hammer exploded into shards of wood in his other hand, his eyes glowing ominously as screams and sirens rang out around him.
"…We decided that your misdemeanor was serious but with Gray with you and since you summoned Saber to your side it wasn't quite to that level." She finished, pointedly ignoring the flat look that her boyfriend gave her.
"Hey. What did you just picture in your head."
"Nothing, Sherou~" She hummed innocently, only getting a sigh from the young blacksmith as he stood to his feet.
"That sucks but it's better than the alternative I suppose. Is that all?"
"Of course not. That's just the main punishment. You'll have to make it up to all three of us individually." Rin informed him.
"Ah, there it is." Shirou muttered, holding up his hands at the darkened glare of his three girlfriends. "Alright alright, stop glaring. I'm not arguing the punishment, it's only fair."
"Good." Rin huffed, closing her eyes and nodding her head firmly.
"Now if that's all, let's head inside so that I can inform everyone of the plan for our offense." Shirou said, waiting for a few seconds just to see if his girlfriends had anything else to say before he walked back into the Emiya Estate.
"My King. Are you well?" Percival asked, materializing at Artoria's side as she stumbled a little mid-step, her eyes the slightest bit glazed over.
"Fine, Percival. Just….tired." Artoria muttered, getting a wide-eyed look from her knight as she walked into the house with the rest.
She didn't care about the fact that none of his girlfriends having sex with Shirou meant that none of the Servants could either, not at all.
'My King…is showing her emotions now?' Percival thought to himself, walking inside and closing the door behind him after a few seconds of confused tugging at the structure.
When he reached the living quarters of the Emiya family, he could see a rather odd assortment of people already sitting at the table, with Gray sitting to Shirou's left and Sakura sitting to his right. Directly opposite Shirou, Olga sat, smiling pleasantly at a young white-haired girl who was giving her a very unimpressed look.
"I can't believe you Shirou!" Irisviel scolded her son, hands on her hips even though she was sitting down, and her eyebrows furrowed as she frowned at him.
Shirou just silently took the disapproval of his mother, having expected this and far more the moment he had taken a Gandr to the face.
Though, to his and everyone else's surprise, Irisviel's irate lecture was cut off by a hand on the shoulder from Kiritsugu. A confused sound left Iri's mouth as her head snapped back to stare at her husband in surprise.
Kiritsugu Emiya was a man who had been through many things and came out the other side unscathed. A mercenary, a killer, a spellcaster, and a father, he had done all of these stressful positions and come out looking remarkably youthful for his current age of 39. Yet it was only now, in the wake of what had nearly been a full-blown mystical war in the center of a highly populated city, did Shirou truly see the signs of age and stress that the man so well hid.
The small stress lines, the thin streaks of grey in his otherwise spiky black hair. They were both things that went a disturbingly long way to show the stress that the relatively young middle-aged man had been through in his life.
"Yell at Shirou after, Iri. For now, I want to know what this plan you have is."
"As do I, Master. The better option in that scenario was clearly defense and you allowed them to have it." Saber spoke, having collected herself from the disappointment mood swing that she had suffered from outside.
"Hmmm. First, can everyone get their Servants to materialize, please? This will require everyone and I'd rather everyone else be able to see who I'm looking at and when."
Waver was startled at the casual admittance that he could see Servants even while dematerialized and wondered how much the teen could actually see with those eyes of his. Whether the Servant in their entirety could be seen as if he was standing in their place or if it was vague blobs of dispersed energy that simply held a 'signature' that the teen could recognize.
The fact that he couldn't come right out and ask was killing him. But there was a time and a place, and this certainly wasn't it.
"Require everyone?" Jeanne asked, sitting a few seats down from Shirou, leaning over the table so that she could look at his face as she spoke.
"Precisely. But most importantly it will require the two of you." Shirou spoke, leaning back and pointing his index and middle finger at the materialized Semiramis and Medusa respectively.
"Oh? It's about time I got the recognition I deserve." Semiramis puffed herself up, placing a hand elegantly over her chest as she took the time to inflate her ego.
"Me? I don't know what use my eyes could be to combat an entire faction." Medusa hummed, tilting her head to the side.
"Your eyes are useful, but they won't be the crux of the plan here. No, the two of you, alongside myself, will be the three-pointed centerpiece of this plan." Shirou announced, turning his two extended fingers into three as he tilted his head back down to look at the rest of his friends, family, and allies.
"Now, the plan is-"
XXXxxxXXX
148 hours until Battle of Kings, Yggdmillennia Forces
"Well well, a Witch of the North has come to visit. Should I feel honored, or should I fetch a mirror to ward your gaze?" Ozymandias asked in amusement, sitting atop a throne of gold with one leg resting perpendicular over the other with his cheek resting on his gauntleted fist.
"I expected better than an apotropaic object joke from a King as old and powerful as yourself, Ramesses II of Egypt." Morgan le Fay hummed, almost entirely uncaring of the slumbering sphinxes by the doorway that she had just strode through.
"And I thought a schemer such as yourself wiser than to use such a name in my presence." The King hummed, his voice light and jovial even as the heat in the throne room began to ramp up dramatically, only getting a raised eyebrow and sly grin from the witch.
He may have been keeping up a jovial air, but she knew better than to trust something as flimsy and fake as a poker face of all things. The prana in the air told her all that it needed to, he had and continued to be ready to smite her at even the slightest sign of aggression.
But that was fine, she had been making her preparations the moment that she had sensed such build-ups of prana. She didn't need to weather a full assault from the King of Kings, just long enough to move that pesky contract from the fractured thing playing as human to herself.
"Merely a test is all. Surely the great King of Kings would never strike with so little provocation. Or would he?" She hummed, placing a finger on her lips demurely and leaning to the side a little.
"Perhaps against a failed Queen, I might. Chosen by your own land and still overshadowed. You're a stain on the title of royalty." Ozymandias spoke, his voice going flat and cold as Morgan's eyes narrowed and her teeth bared on pure instinct.
"Well then, I never would have expected such ill-manners from-"
"Enough, Witch." Ozymandias droned, his eyes seeming to glow a little as he stared down at her. "Any other day, any other time, I would surely enjoy this verbal jousting with you, your tongue is good at more than just infidelity it seems. But currently, I am in the middle of preparations, and a conflict with you would only delay such preparations."
"And you think that you can somehow escape a conflict with me? Escaping conflicts isn't exactly your forte, if I recall." Morgan scoffed, placing a hand on her hip and giving him an unimpressed glare.
"Escape? No, of course not. Such a notion is ridiculous. Instead, I'm going to unbalance the scales."
"Egyptians and their scales. Can you do nothing without clinging to them like children?"
"Considering your attitude, I'm sure you'd know what being a child is like. I can't imagine a grown woman, the archenemy of a King no less, to throw a tantrum like you do." He smirked vindictively, only to be met with one of her own.
"Oh, I'm very well aware of what children are like, after all at least mine made it to adulthood." Morgan fired back, seeming to take a sick glee in the stone-faced expression she got in return.
For a moment the both of them were silent, Morgan preparing to shield herself and counterattack the moment that the mana around her built up into an attack of some kind. Only to freeze up for a moment in pure shock as Ozymandias sat up straight on his throne and grinned victoriously down at her, a fire of pure revenge and brimstone burning in his golden eyes.
"I, Ozymandias, King of Kings, hereby declare Morgan le Fay, Servant Caster, a member of my forces."
Morgan tensed up as the realization of what had just happened fully settled in her mind, fury bubbling up out of her cool exterior like an underwater volcano spewing lava. Ozymandias had completely declawed her simply by allying himself with her, making her unable to do anything even remotely offensive or risk the combined might of both the Fuyuki and Yggdmillennia forces crashing down on her like an unstoppable tide.
Her prana flared out of her, cracking the majestic tiles of the floor beneath her feet and her teeth ground against themselves as she glared at the mercilessly gleeful King of Kings. Had she simply struck a moment sooner none of this would have occurred- No, that was her anger getting the better of her. Even her best estimations put the Command Seal transference at a minute and a half of combat, an instant transference was out of the question, as nice as it would be.
'Calm yourself, Morgan. Clear your thoughts, pivot, adapt. This situation is far from unsalvageable.' She thought to herself, reigning her prana back in and taking a visible effort to relax her body from the tense, ready to pounce, state it had been in.
"Well played, Ramesses. I suppose you'll be seeing me on the day of battle."
"Yes. I suppose I will." Ozymandias hummed, the muscles in his propped-up arm bulging a little from the sheer strength when he clenched his fist.
"If only you had shown such forethought in your lone friendship."
And with that final jab, Morgan teleported away, turning around from her position on an island nearby to the Yggdmillennia's location to see a bright light emanating from their stronghold.
She may have lost overall, as much as it burned to acknowledge it, but getting such a reaction was its own kind of victory. One that she would have to savor for as long as she physically could.
XXXxxxXXX
135 hours until Battle of Kings, Muramasa Estate
"Why did you call me over Sherou? I hope you're not expecting to get out of your punishment?" Luvia hummed, leaning against the wall of Shirou's loungeroom as Shirou himself paced around a small coffee table.
"No, I thought I should warn you that I'm about to call Lorelei and tell her that I'm splitting off from the Clock Tower."
"Wha- Splitting- Sherou why would you ever do that?" Luvia asked, eyes bugging out and jaw-dropping at the sudden announcement of her boyfriend.
"After everything that happened with the Yggdmillennia's appearance, I don't trust the rest of the Holy Grail War to stay a secret."
"That's…a fair assessment." Luvia hummed, thinking to herself.
Covering up something like the Yggdmillennia's appearance was already a monumental task, and compared to the plan that Shirou had drafted up for the final conflict the damage that had been inflicted on Fuyuki was honestly miniscule. If they were having this much trouble with this, then there was no way that they, with their current personnel, could keep Magecraft a secret once the Battle of Kings began.
"If you want to publicly pull away from me within the Clock Tower, now's the time." Shirou said, knowing that while Luvia herself wouldn't leave his side, her family also had interests outside of Shirou.
"While a sweet gesture, Sherou, with both I and Kristiina here our family would be dragged through the mud regardless. It's better to have allies in exile than be alone."
"Yeah, suppose so." Shirou hummed, flipping open his phone and beginning to dial a number.
"You're calling her now?"
"Sure am. I have things to prepare and punishments to undergo, no point dragging this out." He said with a shrug, pressing the call button and holding his phone to his ear.
XXXxxxXXX
Meanwhile, Clock Tower
Lorelei Barthomeloi's fingers twitched as she reached for her glass of water, the ringtone of her flip phone jingling throughout her office.
There were very few people who knew that she owned a mobile phone, let alone had the number to it, so already she had a rough idea of who it could be.
If it was Zelretch or Aoko again, she was going to hunt them down, Magus Association rules be damned.
"This is Lorelei Barthomeloi, speak."
"So cold Lorelei. Did I annoy you last time we spoke?" Ah, Shirou Muramasa was the answer to her question it seemed, an odd surprise.
"Muramasa, how odd of you to contact me first for once. Have you finally made a decision?"
"I have." Lorelei's already perfect posture perked up slightly as she finally got confirmation on the teen's answer to her proposal so many years ago.
Trying to guess which way he would flip was an exercise in futility, of that Lorelei already knew. Instead, she merely began to prepare for if he chose to ally himself with her family, and thus her faction.
"And your choice is?"
"Due to circumstances that have arisen in the Holy Grail War, I'm pulling out of the Clock Tower in its entirety. So, I'll have to deny your offer."
"Hold. What circumstances? Pulling out of the Clock Tower in its entirety is a drastic step that can't be made because you now have a Servant's power."
"There has been a change in the situation. That mana surge you spoke of last time, I think it was the Greater Grail. A failsafe has been set off and I can't guarantee the upcoming fight will be able to be hidden from the general public."
"And you come to me with this now?" Already she was putting together a barebones mental list of who and what would be needed for a mass-scale cover-up.
"That's why I'm telling you now, Lorelei." Lorelei couldn't help the glare that sharpened her features at the way that Shirou was speaking to her, it was unusual even for Shirou. "There's about five and a half days until everything goes down. I'll be cutting myself off from the Clock Tower in its entirety in that time to deal with the fallout of this personally. Act as the Vice Director, not the head of the Aristocratic Faction."
"And who are you to order me around?"
"A third party dealing with the Einzbern's mess, that's what." Shirou shot back as if he had been expecting her response.
Lorelei took a silent moment to compose herself and think through everything that had just been dropped on her. Evidently whatever was happening in Fuyuki was big, bigger than anyone in the Clock Tower had any idea of. It was a rather unsurprising conclusion to come to, given the circumstances.
The Holy Grail War was a powerful ritual, but far from the worst that the supernatural world had to deal with; a unique interest in the grand scheme of the Magus Association and nothing more. Not to mention that it's placement in the East, Japan no less, made it a less than interesting location for other Magi to look into or otherwise investigate.
It stood to reason that, given these circumstances, whatever the situation was with the Grail it had a lot of time to compound on itself and grow beyond any conventional measures of containment in basically complete secrecy.
It was unlikely that any of the founding families would admit that their precious ritual had grown beyond something they could control, after all.
So, whatever was happening with the Grail was putting the secrecy of Magecraft in jeopardy and thus, Shirou Muramasa and his allies were distancing themselves from all known organizations to deal with the situation on their own.
Had it been anyone else, Lorelei would have commended the forward thinking and ordered her Chelon Canticle Brigade to immediately take out the offending party the moment that the situation was over and handle cleanup themselves. However, Shirou Muramasa was a uniquely aggravating component to work around for three main reasons.
One: Shirou Muramasa was too chaotic and too dangerous of an individual to allow to run free completely unsupervised.
Two: Shirou Muramasa was too valuable an individual to eliminate or otherwise get rid of.
Three: Shirou Muramasa was too lethal of an individual for any of the usual candidates to successfully take out.
Short of a small squadron of her Brigade, purely due to his limited knowledge of their Magecraft needed to make them personalized weaponry, the only plausible candidates to take him out without extreme financial or personnel losses were the best of the Enforcers and those like herself.
Zelretch and Aoko were immediately disqualified as choices simply because they dealt with things far beyond the level of Shirou Muramasa and getting them to actually do something that she wanted was an exercise in futility.
Touko Aozaki was immediately disqualified because Shirou's body would undoubtedly 'be destroyed' in the fight with her and then show up who knows when as a masterpiece puppet of the woman, Lorelei just knew it.
And the very thought of bringing Director Brishisan into something like this was something that she absolutely couldn't allow. Not that the man would see any reason for him to personally interfere, he'd stayed within the Clock Tower during other magical crises after all.
Not to mention, the idea of sending Enforcers in to deal with Shirou and the problem, alike, was an unsavory one. Bazett Fraga McRemitz was already on location and had either been taken out, or sided with Shirou which meant that either she couldn't take out Shirou, she wouldn't take out Shirou, or both.
No matter what way she looked at this situation, she realized that her usual pattern of dealing with such issues, as rare as they were, would not suffice and thus a new option had to be found.
She, as a Barthomeloi, had been raised to as close to perfection as she could reach. To some people, uneducated and quick to jump to conclusions, that would mean that she would find the 'perfect' solution to a problem and never deviate no matter the situation. That was hardly perfection, that was arrogance.
No, true perfection, at least in the sense of being the leader of an organization, was to look at an issue and tailor a solution to get the best outcome.
"I see. Well, I cannot allow you to leave the Clock Tower, Muramasa. Instead, I will posit an agreement."
"Wha- Were you not listening to-"
"I was listening, Muramasa. Do not think me complacent." Lorelei said coolly into her phone, her displeasure evident. "However, given the situation, leaving the Clock Tower is hardly ideal. Thus, I will offer you this agreement. You will stay within the Clock Tower, in a figurative sense, as an official ally of the Barthomeloi bloodline. Bringing you into the Aristocratic faction cannot happen given the circumstances with the Holy Grail but you will have both connections to, and the backing of, my bloodline in return for proper reports on what's happening in Fuyuki and priority on commissions for myself, my bloodline and my brigade."
"No can do. Reports like that will get in the way of dealing with the issue."
'Is that an allusion to someone or something in Fuyuki being deserving of a Sealing Designation? An annoying issue but easily overlooked should it be under control.'
"If there's anything within the reports that should be…problematic. So long as you have a firm control over them or it, the reports shall stay as reports." She said coolly, her mind running at a thousand miles a minute.
"That's unusually kind of you….There's something you need from me." So, he'd figured that out, had he? His ability to look between the lines had gotten better since she had first met him, that's for certain.
"Have Lord El Melloi II inform you of his latest mission, you'll understand once he does. Do you accept my proposal or not?"
"Sure, I'll accept. So long as there's no going back on the deal afterward."
"You believe me to be one to go against their word?"
"I believe you to be someone who could lie without blinking if it meant achieving the most ideal outcome, Lorelei." And with that final comment, the call cut off with a small sound, leaving Lorelei to bring her phone down from her ear and stare at it emotionlessly for a few moments.
"Now, to see exactly what kind of fallout the Association will have to clean up…"
XXXxxxXXX
112 hours until Battle of Kings, Fuyuki Streets
Rin hummed happily as she sat at the table of a café alongside her boyfriend for some coffee and breakfast.
While his punishment from her was still ongoing, he had to unearth, cut, and polish a quite frankly ridiculous number of gemstones for her to use. Her anger had cooled down enough that now she was just happy to be out and spending some time with him.
She'd timed this perfectly too, Luvia would still be asleep at 8 AM and today Sakura was having to play mediator between Saber, Gray, and Morgan alongside Jeanne. Which meant that there was no one to get between her and Shi-
"Excuse me, may we take a moment of your time?"
The first part of Rin to turn towards the soft, feminine, voice was her eyes, followed shortly by her head in a rather disturbing display.
"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting this." Shirou snorted in amusement, resting an arm over the back of his seat lackadaisically.
The cup in Rin's hand shattered, only the handle remaining in her fingers as she realized who, or more exactly what stood before the two of them.
A Master of the Yggdmillennia household, and their Servant.
"Apologies for the surprise, I just wanted this meeting to stay off the radar, so to speak." The Master, a rather cute young girl in a wheelchair, apologized, pressing the tips of all five of her fingers together.
"Didn't want Ozymandias to find out, Fiore?" Shirou hummed a small smirk on his face as the girl jolted in her wheelchair and Xuanzang did a couple of rapid blinks in shock.
"That's…right. I wasn't expecting you to be able to figure out my identity so quickly." Fiore smiled gently, rolling with the punches like a true champion as Xuanzang politely rolled her up to the table.
Much to the silent chagrin of Rin.
"I don't imagine that the Yggdmillennia would send out one of their Masters, wheelchair-bound no less, to spy on us. Not to mention you're hiding this from Ozymandias. I imagine that you're here to cut a deal of some sort?" Rin questioned, resting her chin on the heel of her palm, evidently unimpressed.
"Precisely!" Fiore chirped happily clapping her hands together.
If Rin wasn't so annoyed, she might have felt guilty about how she had spoken to such an upbeat girl; unfortunately for Fiore though, she was.
"And that would be?" Shirou asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Shirou- um, Lord Shirou?" Fiore began, getting a small snicker from Rin at the absolutely done expression that painted Shirou's features.
"Just call me Shirou."
"Right! Shirou, between you and the rest of your faction, is there anyone skilled at medicine?"
"You're sick?"
"Not…quite. The Magic Circuits in my legs are…well….non-functioning. Which means that I either can cast Magecraft but in a limited capacity and my legs don't function or…"
"Or you fix your legs and lose your Magecraft forever, right?" Rin hummed, beginning to understand what was happening.
"That's right." Fiore nodded.
"I think we might have one or two Servants capable of fixing that…" Shirou muttered, wondering if Morgan or Scathach would be up to the task at all.
"Really? You truly think so!?" She said excitedly, leaning forward in her wheelchair.
"Not 100% certain, but honestly it wouldn't surprise me if they could." Shirou hummed, shrugging.
"Oh, Oh that's wonderful to hear!"
"Woah woah, hold it. Do you think that we would just help you out of the goodness of our hearts? Need I remind you that you're our enemy?" Rin huffed, crossing her arms and getting an apologetic and anxious smile from the Yggdmillennia heiress.
"No no! Of course not… I just got excited is all. My apologies. I…Don't really agree with what my family is doing, and honestly, Lord Darnic is worrying me. Ever since Lord Ozymandias took over, Lord Darnic has become increasingly more erratic."
"You wish to change sides?" Shirou asked, resting an arm on the café table.
"I do. I think that allowing the fighting to go on for too long is too dangerous for everyone involved, including the regular people around us."
"I see…" The blacksmith hummed, looking her up and down scrutinizingly.
"Please? As a fellow follower of the Buddha's teachings, I humbly ask that you accept Master's request. She truly means what she is saying." Xuanzang pleaded to Shirou, bowing towards him.
'So, she knows that I've done some training in the Buddhist ways? Well, I suppose if anyone would, it would be her…' Shirou thought to himself, a bit caught out by such a sincere plea and the following bow.
"…If you're willing to enter into a Geas with me, then I'll agree." Shirou said to the silent thankfulness of Rin.
'Oh, thank God! He's finally learned!' Rin almost felt like crying, finally having some proof that they had been getting through to him.
"Oh, of course! That's perfectly fine." Fiore nodded her head quickly, smiling as if Shirou had just given her the sun itself.
"Master, may I?"
"Huh? Oh! Of course, Caster." Fiore confirmed, getting a confused look that Shirou and Rin both shared before she was up in Shirou's face, small stars in her eyes as she bounced on the balls of her feet.
"Hi. I'm Xuanzang Sanzang, but you probably already know that. It's just rude not to introduce myself. It's so nice to meet a fellow practitioner of Buddha in this day and age." Xuanzang exclaimed happily, soon standing back upright and holding a hand out to the only male in the vicinity at the moment.
"Oh, right. Hi. Shirou Muramasa. I wouldn't call myself a proper practitioner though. That would be my friend Issei." He responded, shaking her hand with a solid grip that she met almost without thinking.
"I'd love to meet him, and you shouldn't disparage yourself. A follower of the Buddha is a follower of the Buddha." Xuanzang smiled, getting a small smile from Shirou.
'Alright Rin. Just let them have a small conversation and then you can politely get them to leave. It's fine, just five or ten minutes-'
"Ah, Muramasa. Would you mind if I took a seat?" Rin froze, slowly looking over to see a blonde-haired girl with twin tails and brilliant blue eyes.
Behind her, almost perfectly matching the description that both Shirou and Jeanne had given them, was a dark-skinned girl with white hair and sterling silver eyes.
"I see you're a fairly in-demand man, Shirou." Fiore giggled, getting flat looks from both Angelica and Rin and a small sigh from Shirou.
"You mentioned you wanted to 'negotiate' the last time we met. I assume you want to do that now?"
"That's right." Angelica nodded, grabbing a seat from a nearby table and sitting opposite Fiore.
"Alright, next question. Do we have to do this now?"
"Yes."
Shirou let out a small sigh, making a small hand gesture for Angelica to go ahead.
Meanwhile, Rin just got up to order herself and Shirou some drinks. Negotiations and Servants and the Supernatural be damned, she was going to have a nice morning with her boyfriend.
"Well you see, my brother has a wish that I don't believe he's thought through-"
XXXxxxXXX
Meanwhile, Muramasa Estate
Sakura and Jeanne both looked between Gray, Artoria, and Morgan. The purple-haired Master was as cool and calm as could be while the Ruler-class Servant was looking between the three silent look-a-likes with a somewhat stoney yet anxious expression, able to feel the tension in the air.
"First. Morgan, I want you to sever my tie to King Arthur." Gray finally spoke, after far too long sitting in silence.
"What did you do to her, Morgan?" Artoria asked with a dark glare, getting a small sigh from the eldest Pendragon.
"I did nothing. My other half, on the other hand…"
"As informative as this conversation is, now please." Gray said monotonously, the exuberance she had shown earlier around Shirou and Luvia nowhere to be seen now.
Honestly, if either of the Servants hadn't been royalty in their lives, who had also spent an alarming amount of time around people considered 'strange', they might have been alarmed at such a change.
"Morgan, what did The Witch do?" Artoria asked, a twitch forming in Gray's eyebrow.
"In your death, there were those that wished to…bring you back. So Le Fay gifted them Erosion and other gifts to make your revival possible, but as hard as possible."
"She what!? Why would she do that!?"
"I do not know, Artoria." Morgan responded slowly, her teeth gritted as the famous King glared at her with all the hatred in her body.
Gray's fists began to slowly clench.
"How about we calm down? This is getting far too hostile." Jeanne tried to calm everyone down, raising her hands in a placating gesture while looking between the two sisters.
"You may not be her but you're the foundation that she was born of."
"Are you blaming Gray's situation on me?"
Both sister's glares increased in intensity, their Od beginning to subtly leak out of them.
"Is this all you two are?"
The words of Gray, cold yet immeasurably scathing, froze both women in their tracks. Even managing to get wide-eyed, slow-blinking looks of surprise from the two mediators.
"Arguably the most famous witch and king in history, and when faced with a simple request all you can do is throw insults and accusations at each other?"
"Gray I get that you're angry but this is an injustice against-"
"Me. Precisely." The grave keeper cut off Artoria, making her shut her mouth as the young woman spoke. "I don't care who started what, or who's to blame. I want this connection to end. I don't want to be King Arthur, I want to be me. And faced with a bid at freedom you jump in the way, blocking the progress forward to preach about injustice?"
Gray knew she was being unreasonable, deep inside her, but when faced with the King Arthur and the likeness of Morgan le Fay, personality aside, she couldn't help herself. Seventeen years of repressed anger and twelve years of self-loathing, thought left behind when she met Shirou, bubbled to the surface in an instant. She didn't want to make sense right now. She didn't want to be mature right now. She didn't want to change any more than she already had.
Emotions were a powerful, volatile, and nonsensical phenomenon. And right now, no one in that room understood that more than Gray herself.
"And you, the wise Queen, lowers herself to the point of arguing the moment your future self is brought up. You said it yourself; she isn't you. You aren't her. Why does it matter if you can understand why she did something or not? The fact of the matter is that she did, and no one here can change the past."
"Gray…" Sakura muttered lowly, placing a hand on her shoulder.
For a moment all five of them were silent, Gray's face hidden under the hood that she tugged to cover her entire head and both of the Pendragon sisters staring mutely at the young woman.
"Those are…harsh words for the woman you asked for help."
Gray only stayed silent in the face of Morgan's response, her lips pressed tightly together, and her tongue trapped between her teeth to stop herself from saying more than she already had.
"I apologize, Gray. You are correct. Regardless of the moral failing that this entire situation is, I should not have hindered its end. That was…petty of me." Artoria admitted, placing both of her hands in her lap like a child scolded by her parent.
In her heart of hearts, Artoria couldn't find it in herself to regret the words that she had said. Given another chance she would have said them again without hesitation, but Gray was right in that her timing for such words was beyond poor.
"I won't apologize for what I said. But you're right, the haste that I jumped to defend myself at the cost of all else was…childish."
Gray was just silent, her shoulders beginning to shake a little and her fingers tightening their grip on her hood.
"Gray…?" Artoria muttered, reaching a hand out to the girl slowly, only to recoil as a small hiccup left the girl and her shoulders shook violently once more.
"Please. Please release me." Gray choked out, her voice cracking and another hiccup leaving her as drops began to fall out of her hood and onto her skirt. "I just want this to end. I tried so hard; I made good friends that helped me believe. I began to make this body really mine and I can feel it being undone. My Magic Circuits are already gone."
A sob left the girl, and Artoria clutched her once outstretched hand to her chest, a wide-eyed look of sorrow and horror adorning her features as Morgan's face morphed more and more into one of loathing.
'Placing someone in this position. The monster that I eventually become….'
"I just- I-I want to be free. I-I don't want to go back t-to that-" Gray's voice cracked again and her tears began to rain out of the shadows of her hood even faster. "T-That l-little girl that looked in a m-mirror and h-hated the face that looked back. I-I'll do whatever you want. G-Get whatever you need. J-Just…"
Gray let out one last shuddering sob and finally lowered her hood, looking up at the two of them. Her lips were quivering, and her eyes not only shone wetly with tears but were beginning to get slightly red and puffy as twin waterfalls toppled down her cheeks.
"Please!"
Morgan dove across the table in an instant, pulling Gray into a deep hug on what seemed to be pure instinct. Artoria leaned forward a second later to place a soothing hand on Gray's back and begin to slowly, and somewhat awkwardly, rub it in a circle to try and soothe the girl who looked on the verge of breaking down entirely.
"I'll help you Gray, I promise."
And with those six words from Morgan, Gray broke down completely, hugging her with all the strength in her superhuman arms and bawling into her dress.
"Also, for what little it's worth, I apologize Morgan. I shouldn't have attacked you like that…" Artoria muttered amidst Gray's muffled crying, a look of pure guilt on her face.
"I apologize for escalating it too, Artoria."
"I'm glad that, that's ended well." Sakura smiled, getting a thankful, heavy, sigh from Jeanne at the confirmation. "But would everyone mind if I asked a question to try and lift the mood?"
"No, go ahead." Artoria said gratefully, making a small hand gesture for Sakura to continue.
"Why do you all look the same?"
"…Eh?"
XXXxxxXXX
79 hours until Battle of Kings, Ainsworth Hideout
"A battle of Kings, was it? Foolish." Julian scoffed, sitting opposite the cool, calm, and collected form of Morgan le Fay.
"Call it what you may, Wraith of the Ainsworth, but it's what's happening." Julian scowled at the name that the powerful Servant had given him.
He knew what she was alluding to in calling him a wraith, but that only made it all the more offensive. Sure, the Null Orb was nothing when compared to the sheer craftsmanship and power of Pandora's Box, but that option had been ruined centuries ago and the Null Orb worked as, as good of a replacement as was possible to get.
"Careful Witch. You're an apparition and nothing more." He grunted, narrowing his eyes at the amused smile that stretched her lips before she giggled, an unending wave of bloodlust emanating off of her.
Had he been a younger existence he might have been worried, but he was older than even she was. He'd even met existences as dangerous as her and survived….hadn't he? He could have sworn he had….Nigeria? India? Peru perhaps? No. Surely it had to be one of them, right?
"Oh yes yes. An apparition. Don't mind me then I suppose." Morgan laughed, waving a dismissive hand towards the 'teen', clearly not taking him seriously in the slightest.
"Why are you here?" The confusingly hard memory to recall left Julian's mind entirely as he glared at the Caster, getting a soft hum that only seemed to make her look haughtier as she crossed one leg elegantly over the other.
"Well, it's quite simple, I know of something that will, if you time it right, allow you to make a wish on the Grail, regardless of all the Servants still running around."
Julian was hooked in an instant, his earlier suspicion and hesitance gone as if it had never existed.
"Tell me how."
"Oh, of course, Wraith. After all, beings as old as us should stick together after all." Morgan smiled demurely, holding a hand out towards him.
It was insultingly easy to win over such a fragmented soul, it almost made her metaphorical loss at Ozymandias' hand cease its burning in her heart. Almost.
XXXxxxXXX
68 hours until Battle of Kings, Kabuki Theater Fuyuki
"I didn't take you for the kind to enjoy something like Kabuki, Luvia." Shirou muttered as he sat next to her, just the two of them out by themselves.
"Well, I've always been interested in seeing the kind of culture native to your homeland, Sherou." Luvia answered, the both of them knelt in a private balcony booth in full yukata wear and an unfolding fan in her hand. "Besides, both Miss Gorilla and Sakura have used your punishment as chances for their own enjoyment. It's only fair I do the same."
"So, you're…making me go to a bunch of traditional things with you?"
"Yes! Don't give me that look, Miss Gorilla is making you procure gemstones for her, and Sakura turned you into a dress-up doll for a day."
"Yeah…suppose that's true." Shirou muttered, averting his gaze from his girlfriend as she narrowed her eyes and leaned in closer to him.
"Sherou…are you nervous about the fight to come?"
"Hm, Yeah, I guess so. Not about the fight itself, but something about that day just….makes my instincts flare up. I don't know how to explain it."
"Could it be what that Ainsworth girl told you the other day?"
"About her brother's wish? Maybe. I don't know, I can't put my finger on it, but I just have a bad feeling about that day and it's only getting worse."
"Well, that's certainly not good. Is there anything else we can do to prepare?"
"Not more than we already are, I don't think so." Shirou shook his head, not seeing the way that Luvia just admired the way that his spikes waved with the movement of his head.
"Alright, if you say so. The show's starting." The Finnish girl said excitedly, getting a small chuckle from Shirou as he focused his attention on the show, trying to push his growing unease out of his mind for the moment.
XXXxxxXXX
50 hours until Battle of Kings, Fuyuki Airport
"Alright, we've arrived at Fuyuki without issues. Now we just need to set up base as Lady Barthomeloi instructed and-" One of the three Brigade members sent by Lorelei began to instruct, turning to look at their companions only to freeze at the look of pure horror on their faces.
"Say-" An arm looped around the shoulders of the member that had just spoken, getting a full body tense-up in return as the voice of Shirou Muramasa filtered into their ears. "When you were going to inform the Second Owner that you'd arrived in this plan of yours, hm?"
"Ah! Muramasa! Sir. Sir Muramasa!" The poor woman from the Caesarmund family spoke quickly, making him look over at her with a small hum. "We were going to inform the Tohsaka head of our arrival once we drove to our destination, we assure you."
"Hm…" The teen looked her up and down for a few moments before just nodding and taking his arm off the shoulders of the man he had given the fright of a lifetime. "I'll let her know in the meantime. I know you're here to help Caren with cover-up but be prepared for combat."
"But we won't be anywhere near the fighting?" The Caesarmund woman questioned with a somewhat nervous but no less inquisitive gaze.
"Yeah, I know. I just have a bad feeling about this fight…"
"We'll be prepared, Muramasa. We wouldn't be a part of Lady Barthomeloi's Brigade if we weren't."
"Yeah, sounds about right." Shirou muttered, looking each of them over before beginning to look away, suppressing the twitching in his left hand as he looked down at it.
'This…isn't natural.'
XXXxxxXXX
28 hours until Battle of Kings, Yggdmillennia forces
"That was another familiar of the Fuyuki Forces. They've been checking on our location on an almost twenty-minute interval over the last day." Arjuna hummed, standing beside the throne of Ozymandias as he stared into a crystal ball he was using to currently scry on the exterior of their veritable fortress.
"I cannot blame them! Surely, they've felt the heightened tension in the air as of late." Ozymandias hummed; his gaze locked on the crystal ball.
"My fingers have begun to twitch constantly lately; it feels like my body is wired for a fight that is still days away." The archer hummed, looking down at his hand right as two of his fingers twitched quite drastically.
"You aren't the only one, Arjuna. My sphinxes have been growing more restless by the hour and even my own body has begun to tense up randomly. I don't believe this is merely excitement for the battle to come."
"Not just us, Caster has been stuck in meditations that last longer every day and Avenger nearly took a chunk out of one of your patrolling Sphinxes yesterday."
"Peculiar. Whatever the cause of this phenomenon is, however, will have to wait until this Battle of Kings ends before we can identify and rectify it!" The King of Kings announced dramatically, banging his fist on his throne.
"Whatever you say, Ozymandias." Arjuna hummed, turning around and walking out of the golden throne room, leaving Ozymandias all on his lonesome.
'Despite my words. This feeling is troublesome. Something big is brewing, even the world itself is taking notice…What is going to occur?'
XXXxxxXXX
0 hours until Battle of Kings, Fuyuki Forces
"Your timing for the start of this conflict couldn't be any more you, Shirou." Rin huffed in amusement, crossing her arms and giving her boyfriend an amused smirk.
"Something wrong with my timing?"
"No. Just pointing it out."
"Gee, thanks." Shirou snorted, rolling his eyes.
"You're welcome!" Rin chirped, clapping her hands together and getting a bark of amusement from the teen.
The hands of Shirou, Rin, and Luvia twitched. The nervous pacing of Illya, Olga, and Gray stuttered. The perfectly still forms of both Bazett and Sakura buckled for a single second.
"Sherou…what's going to happen today?"
"I don't know. But whatever it is, it can't be good."
"Shirou. Gray." The teen looked over at Medusa as she walked up to the congregation of Masters. "It's time."
"Alright. Time to go."
"Be safe." Sakura quickly added in, before her boyfriend left the circular throne room with his best friend.
"I'll be as safe as possible."
"I suppose that's the best we're getting." Rin rolled her eyes, sharing an equally exasperated look with Luvia.
"Hey, everything in moderation." Shirou hummed as he walked away, missing the looks of sheer 'are you shitting me' that he left behind him.
XXXxxxXXX
0 hours until Battle of Kings, Ramesseum Tentyris
The Ramesseum Tentyris, located atop the relatively small landmass of Ra Island, south-southwest of Hiroshima, shone with a resplendent golden that seemed to even vaguely illuminate the darkness of night. A sprawling complex of pyramids and temple wings that fit together into a structure that had no right to exist yet did anyway.
And inside, all brought together at precisely 11:59 PM, were the Yggdmillennia and their forces.
"So, I know that the fight will happen sometime today, but how will we know when?" Xuanzang asked, looking between her fellow Servants.
"There's no way to know for certain." Arjuna answered plainly, staring at the crystal ball showing the outside of the Pyramid complex.
You could have cut the tension in the room with a knife, especially given the bloodthirsty, aggravated, and anxious expressions of the various masters standing at the fringes of the room.
"Hm. We may not have set an exact time on the conflict, but the King of Blades was just as prepared as I thought he'd be." Ozymandias hummed, a devious grin lighting up his features.
Time [00:00:01] February 27th, 2004
In a sudden shockwave of mana that made all the Masters in the room stumble on the spot, the crystal ball showed the origin of said shockwave as a gigantic ball of pure heat that began to coalesce atop the very tip of the pyramid.
Silent lightning flashed over the top of the Ramesseum Tentyris, an unnatural occurrence for even clouds as thick as tonight. Only for a portion of said clouds, a mere three hundred meters horizontally from the pyramid complex itself, to part around the descending mass of metal, plants, and artistry that was the Hanging Garden of Babylon.
"Arjuna, go out and cover the north side of the island."
A beam of pure Mana fired from the Hanging Gardens crashed into the Dendera Electric Bulb hundreds of meters above the island's surface.
The shockwave of the titanic clash of mana cracked the coast and churned the seas, beginning to shift the winds and reshape the thick clouds that coated the sky. A dazzling display of lights shone in front of the Hanging Gardens as another seven blasts rained from the heavens, met with an equal number of blasts from the Ramesseum Tentyris.
"This is already insane!" Xuanzang exclaimed, staring at the chaos outside the pyramid with wide eyes.
Meanwhile, outside the Pyramid, Arjuna hopped atop a single raised tower with his bow out and an arrow ready. His eyes unfocused on the horizon of the north, ready to catch even the slightest hint of move- lightning?
'No. That's too slow.'
A fired arrow proved his doubts true. The streak of lightning heading towards the ocean's surface curving around the supersonic projectile on its way towards the sea.
Another three arrows left his bow before he even had a chance to focus his attention more squarely on sighting his target. The constantly firing beams behind him deafened him to a staggering degree but it all meant nothing to him in the face of what his trained, demi-god, eyes managed to see.
"A Pegasus…"
The arrows began to leave his bow like a gatling gun of missiles, creating great gouts of seawater high in the air as the mounted Pegasus hit just above the ocean level and took an immediate ninety-degree angle. Putting it barely a meter above the churning sea as it made a charge straight for the Ramesseum Tentyris.
A small army of Sphinxes began to launch themselves into the air, charging towards the Hanging Gardens and bodily blocking the fired beams, even at the cost of their own lives. The charging balls of mana atop the complex rolled in midair to change their rotation, now pointed directly upwards.
"Why are you-"
Darnic's accusation, as clueless as it truly was, was cut off by the titanic objects that burst out of the pitch-black clouds, making him fall to his knees in an instant in abject horror.
'This isn't a Holy Grail War anymore. This….This isn't something that should have ever been allowed to exist.'
Eight identical copies of Ig-Alima rained from the heavens, vapor cones hundreds of meters long encircling their forms. Shirou and Gray both standing on opposing sides of the hilt, atop the handguard, of a singular copy as Dendera Electric Bulbs fired into the sky, striking and exploding against the godly weapons. The previously aligned weapons began to flip and tumble against themselves as if in slow motion, all still heading towards the Ramesseum Tentyris but no longer tip first, save the eighth, and last, blade.
True lightning flashed overhead as the Sphinxes charged the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Arjuna waged a one-man artillery war against the charging Pegasus and Rider, and the seven copies of Ig-Alima flipped and tumbled over themselves amidst their act as anti-fortress meteors. All while Shirou's ice-cold, almost ethereal, stare weighed down on the resplendent golden fortress.
Time [00:00:24] February 27th, 2004
XXXxxxXXX
Omake: What Ozymandias should have done
Eight identical copies of Ig-Alima rained from the darkened clouds above the Ramesseum Tentyris, vapor cones swirling around their forms as they fell form the sky ramrod straight.
Ozymandias hummed as he stood up from his throne, staring at the ceiling of his throne room and beginning to laugh. A slow built up laugh that soon echoed off the perfectly polished walls of the room.
"YOU FOOL!"
He took a mighty step forward and held a medallion to the sky, a victorious grin on his face.
"I HAVE THE POWER OF RA AND MAGECRAFT ON MY SIDE!"
'Oh my god we're going to die.'
XXXxxxXXX
Hello one, hello all.
Tis I, after two months a new chapter has finally been released and here we are, the Battle of Kings has finally arrived!
Also in other words, one of my discord admins is a prick.
But how did you guys enjoy the chapter? It honestly felt a little weird getting back into HttB but I think I got my groove back by the end of the chapter, let me know what you think. Also, this chapter had easily the most caustic argument I've ever written, thanks to Ozy and Morgan.
By the way for those of you who want to see what I can do with a totally original world and characters, check out my story on Royal Road, titled "Young Swordmaster's Journey"!
Shilling time:
Discord code: ctMzhq3 OR plasmaassassin
REVIEW REPLY TIME!
581: I'm just gonna cover both at once xP Heracles might learn about them…if I feel like I'm in a silly mood. And Ishtar might be somewhere. She might not. She might even already know about Shirou. Who knows.
Silverhawk88: Oh yeah, last chapter was fucking huge in more than one sense. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Peace456: Everything to do with his Reality Marble will be shown in time, as for what they can learn from their servants? Oh there's soooo much I can do with that.
Darkanaklusmos70: Saber, yes. Gray, no.
StayBlessed: Eyyyy! Glad to hear it!
BKKPanda: Mysticccc~
TheSlySage: Oof. Its gonna be even worse with this chapter then XD
Tyracus: Big review! Alright! Yeah quite a bit happened and I very much enjoyed writing Ozy's scene, it was great. Also yes, poor Waver. But at the same time, its really funny to write his freak outs. Sorry I'd like to write more in response to your review but I'm a little strapped on time at the moment. Just know that I loved reading it.
AnimeFan13579: Putting Artoria through sexually frustrated hell is probably my most sadistic pastime in this story.
Maxxus Herald: OH MY FUCKING GOD! You want to know what this was? Because I fucking looked this up to make sure that I got the ages right and still managed to do this shit. I used real-life sources from what I can remember. But then going back to look at them after reading this review none of them matched up with what I read. So the internet fucked me with this one, I believe.
Adro-Sama: It was certainly a facial expression of all time.
Kamori I'm The Infinity: Essence indeed, my good fellow!
AidenJacksonSmithDSBB: Maybe, who knows?
TalonScythe: I'm glad you enjoyed last chapter and as you can see in this chapter, the confrontation with Gray was short but highly emotional!
Zukafew119: I was indeed laughing when I realized you hit the word limit. I never once thought that someone would do that XD But as for your review. Illya is called a demi-homunculus because that's a term for a homunculus hybrid. Also yeah, I surprised quite a few people with Olga being a Master XD Also as for Gray and Olga being able to leave. Gray is a superhuman and Olga has Percival to assist her, also you'll notice that the car nearly tipped over both times when they left. Which was a super subtle hint that their kick-offs were rocking the car during the turns but its understandable you missed that, I don't think anyone caught it actually. Also I'm only bringing this up again because of your misconception, but the thing with the mummies isn't actual mummies with decaying flesh and whatnot. Its just having someone tied up in bandages, usually pretty poorly for erotic variants XD I look forward to seeing you again this month!
Tkorn1001: No he hasn't and you'll actually notice that I've been subtly writing his other eye to be closer and close to his Fairy Eye over the last couple chapters.
AND WITH THAT REVIEW REPLIES ARE OVER!
I'll see you all next month and remember that palworld is addictive as hell, watch yourselves!